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Concerns Raised About the Budget Process
Elaine Roberts Musser on Tuesday addressed the Davis City Council during public comment of their budget discussion and raised a number of key points in advance of the council’s eventual adoption of the...
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Analysis: Is It Time to Start Evaluating the City Manager?
City Manager Dirk Brazil delivered his first city budget report. It is perhaps easy to forget the world of 2008. It was just seven years ago that two incumbents won reelection, arguing in essence we...
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Council Will Approve the 2015-16 City Budget
There has been a lot of discussion on the longer range budget issues such as how the city will handle roads and other infrastructure needs, how the city will handle the upcoming MOUs, the sunsetting of...
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Monday Morning Thoughts: A Start on Roads But When Do We Get Serious About...
On Tuesday the Davis City Council will have before them a very important consent agenda item – they will be asked to approve the plans, specifications and estimate for the 2015 Pavement Rehabilitation...
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Analysis: Gloves Come Off in Debate Over City Manager
City Manager Dirk Brazil delivered his first city budget report. Last week, we noted and analyzed Rich Rifkin’s column, “Davis City Manager Fails to Lead” (6/24) where he wrote, “Next week, Dirk Brazil...
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Council to Consider Potential Tax Measure for Unfunded Needs
While the council has in the past talked about a parcel tax, they are now looking at consideration of a General Utility User Tax that could address unfunded needs such as road maintenance, bicycle...
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My View: Is this a Budget to Celebrate?
This week, the Davis City Council approved the city’s 2015-16 budget. Let us be clear about one thing – the budget picture is definitely improved over where it was a year ago when we were facing $5...
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My View: Does Utility Tax Give Us Enough Assurance?
A Sports Complex is one of the potential projects listed by the city It has been more than a year since voters, by a margin of 58-42 percent, passed the city’s half-cent sales tax increase. That...
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Sports Complex on Toxic Former City Landfill Site Is a Bad Idea
A Sports Complex is one of the potential projects listed by the city By Eileen Samitz Last Sunday on June 28th, two articles appeared in our local newspaper regarding the proposal of a sports complex...
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Sunday Commentary: The General Use Tax and Tales of 2004
The risk of a general use tax is that the voters have no say over how that money might be spent. As we presented yesterday in the case of the Utility User Tax, that risk is two-fold. First, while...
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Monday Morning Thoughts: It Is Easy to Under-Estimate Impacts of...
On Sunday the Vanguard showed how the 2004 sales tax, that was supposed to go for shoring up city services, instead ended up going to increased compensation – particularly for the firefighters. That...
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Monday Morning Thoughts II: Wrong Time to Discuss Sports Complex, 50-Meter Pool
A sports complex is one of the potential projects listed by the city On Sunday, Eileen Samitz in her guest column wrote that a “Sports Complex on Toxic Former City Landfill Site Is a Bad Idea.” While...
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Commentary: Did Council Go Far Enough By Separating Sports Parks from Tax...
Map shows the reach of millions in roads funds for this summer The Davis City Council made the move they had to make on Tuesday night – which was to separate the current tax issue from the issue of...
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Monday Morning Thoughts: Should Council Have Simply Killed the Sports Park?
A sports complex is one of the potential projects listed by the city It is easy to understand why the Davis City Council took the action that they did last week by pushing the issue of a Sports Park to...
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Additional State Aid to Fix Davis Roads Looking More Likely
By Dan Carson For the first time in decades, there is a growing bipartisan consensus in the California Legislature to significantly bolster funding for state and local transportation needs. Depending...
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Analysis: Should Davis Count on Help for Roads?
Last week, Dan Carson reported in the Vanguard, “For the first time in decades, there is a growing bipartisan consensus in the California Legislature to significantly bolster funding for state and...
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Sunday Commentary: The Vanguard’s View of the Council Accomplishments of 2014-15
Davis Mayor Dan Wolk at the council meeting in July This week the mayor published his monthly Mayor’s Corner and called the past year “a year to remember.” He writes, “This month marks the end of this...
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Shared Fire Management with UCD To Continue Through 2016
Quietly, earlier this month with no fanfare or controversy, a critical date passed in the city. The shared management agreement between Davis and UC Davis Fire Department was automatically extended,...
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City Finally Launches Road Repairs After Years of Deterioration
Map shows the reach of $10 million in roads funds for this summer For the first time in years, the city has launched a major road repair effort, the city announced on Wednesday. This comes after the...
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Sunday Commentary: Exposing the Dark Underbelly
As we celebrate the Vanguard’s ninth anniversary of its founding, few of our current readers probably are aware that when we launched the Vanguard on its blogspot site back in 2006, it carried the...
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