Sierra Club Candidates’ Forum: Part One

We’ve been posting thorough coverage of all of the City Council Candidate Forums thus far and today we bring you the 1st installment on the Yolano Sierra Club/Davis Neighborhood Coalition/Davis Bike Club Forum.

The Sierra Club just announced  a grade (NOT an endorsement) for all of the candidates.  Two candidates, Escamilla-Greenwald and Greenwald received an “A” while Saylor, Souza, Vergis, and Roy received a “B”.  It seems that this grading was a very contentious project that exposed a stark divide in the leadership of the club.  Also, some have argued that the candidates were not judged on their answers to these questions, but mainly by the personal preference of each voting Sierra Club leader. (-Ed. Note)

It has been over two weeks since I have posted on the election, but that does not mean we have not been following it.

I continue to maintain that this year it appears that The Enterprise has decided to lessen its coverage of local politics. This was affirmed by Claire St. John when she told a number of people that The Enterprise has decided not to cover any of the forums this year. I do not understand that. In a town as politically active and concerned with civic affairs as ours, to not cover at least some, if not all of the forums, simply does not make sense.

Since I last wrote on the elections, five forums for city council candidates have been held. On April 30^th at the Community Chambers, the Yolano Sierra Club/Davis Neighborhood Coalition/Davis Bike Club was held. On May 8th, the Davis League of Women Voters Forum was held and at 8 am! in the morning on May 13, the Downtown Business Association held a forum at the Varsity Theater.  Also, Tree Davis held a meet and greet and the ASUCD held a straw poll.

After the jump, find all of the details to help you pick your candidates for City Council on June 3rd.

This was the first forum that will be televised (over and over again in the final weeks of the campaign) on our local cable station. Two speakers welcomed us, Holly Bishop from the Yolano Sierra Club and the Neighborhood Coalition and a woman whose name I did not catch. The moderator was local civic activist Matt Williams, who did a good job, though in the beginning as a speaker’s time ended, rather than saying your time is up, he would just blurt out the name of the speaker. It
was efficient, but was somewhat curt but after the break, he went to the approach of saying, a particular speaker’s time was wrapping up.

The questions were given to the candidates before the forum and they had a chance to prepare their answers. I must say I was impressed with all six of the candidates, although expressing different views that offered different conclusions on the questions, all candidates’ answers were well thought out and seemed to be thoughtfully prepared. And during the second half
of the evening, when the candidates answered audience questions, they were just as impressive. However, it struck me as odd, that some of the questions were longer than the answers!

So, I am going to try and paraphrase the questions here, so you are not lulled to sleep by an even longer than usual post.

There were ten questions submitted and the candidates had two minutes each to answer them. Matt Williams did not sit at the podium, but out at the city staff table. I had not seen that before at a forum in Davis.

The candidates had time for an opening and closing statement and it has become apparent through the forums, the openings are pretty similar for each candidate with a bit of tailoring for the audience of that particular forum.

Cecelia Escamilla Greenwald opened with how she choose Davis over Berkeley, that she grew up in Chico and is concerned about the peripheral “Big Box” Retail Stores she sees there and does not want the same thing to happen in Davis. She also mentioned fiscal concerns of the city. She mentioned she has worked at two different non-profit organizations before her work as a labor representative and that two major concerns of hers are
keeping the cities green reputation and collaboration with other
council members and government agencies.

Don Saylor talked about how his wife and he wanted to find a perfect place to raise their children and after visiting Davis, they knew the city was it. He listed his long time service both as
a city planner and as an analyst for the state. He mentioned his
service as a PTA parent and on a number of volunteer organizations throughout his time in Davis. He has served on the Davis School Board and is seeking this second term to the Council so he can continue on working to make Davis a great place to live. Mr. Saylor also mentioned that he had written
response for the ten prepared questions and those written responses are available on his website.

Rob Roy moved here to go to school. He grew up in Sacramento and always thought of Davis as weird until he came to town. He now understands the appeal of the town. He works as a Manager of the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Shop downtown. He has served as an ASUCD Senator and was an underwriter for KDVS. He wants to keep Davis as is, on the cutting edge of city planning and environmentally conscious. “I want Davis to do the things that cities do to save the world.”

Mayor Greenwald was elected eight years ago and is seeking a third term because she has very specific things she wants to accomplish. She wants to see the town be true to its slow growth roots, she is concerned that Davis has grown over 50 percent in the last 15 years. She wants to continue working on revitalizing downtown as she did when she helped to bring an independent theater downtown. Her specific goal is to see a multi-income / use green housing development on the 27 acres of infill at
the PGE site.

Councilmember Souza thanked us all for being at the event and commented that Davis is a world class city on the forefront of the environmental movement. He stated that he wants to see Davis continue to be “safe, thrive and prosper.” He cited his long list of activism, especially in the environmental milieu throughout the years he has lived in Davis. He listed some of his accomplishments, initiating the Davis Greenbelt, 2-1 environmental mitigation…..and then the moderator cut
him off.

Sydney Vergis mentioned she was really looking forward to this particular forum and these issues are the things that concern her in her profession and are the issues she feels most passionate about. She came here to go to school eight years ago and received degrees in Environmental Planning and Land Use and, I believe Economic Policy. “I have the energy and intelligence to serve you.” She feels the General Plan Update is the most important issue facing Davis today and that issue falls into her professional expertise. She is hoping the community will allow her to use that expertise in shaping Davis.

Hey, I just realized, if you want, you all can watch this on television! I may condense the review of the answers for here on out and offer some observations at the end.

The first question was about Transportation and Parking. It seems there is more use of automobiles than there have been in past years, causing longer and heavier use of downtown streets as well as compromising street safety.  A major accident on 5th Street that evening  dominated much of the transportation discussions.

Don Saylor’s major focus was on 5^th Street and seeing an alternative design there because of the major accidents we continue to see between A an I on 5^th Street. Don Saylor often does not state definitively what he would like to see and
he said he would like to see a discussion about a multi-use parking structure as well as possibly changing  5th Street to two lanes and opening the other two lanes on the street to only bicycles.

Rob Roy said difficult to answer because it is such a multi-faceted question. He suggested that with the football field of UC Davis moving west, parking may open up a bit now. He also mentioned the University research on flying cars. He supports parking meters in the E Street Plaza, but not anywhere else.

Stephen Souza – Signage should always improve efforts to connect new transportation options. He went on to mention work he is doing on the U-Dash, a possible shuttle service between the downtown and the University. The City has approved a study by the University on alternative transportations and what options are available. He suggested looking at closing a street or streets downtown to cars citing the Santa Monica 3^rd Street Promenade as an example and was continuing enthusiastically with his ideas….until Matt Williams cut him off again.

Sue Greenwald, in answer to Don Saylor, mentioned she voted for restriping and that he did not. Don Saylor was adamant that he did. That took up much of the Sue Greenwald’s time. She is concerned about a multi-use parking structure downtown, not sure about people wanting to live in a parking structure. She believes that the increasing car use downtown is because there are very little housing options downtown and building at PGE and at the Toomey Field site would allow people to live downtown in walking distance of their needs. Her ideal would be a car-free downtown.

Sydney Vergis called  5th Street an embarrassment and supported Don Saylor’s idea for restriping and bike lanes. Her concern is how do we more efficiently use what we already have. She wants to explore simple cheap alternative transportation. One way to do this is additional Bike Kiosks.

Cecelia Escamilla Greenwald also mentioned the accident on  5th Street and called for double striping of bike lanes. She suggested e-lots, where electric cars would have a break on parking. She too, mentioned exploring alternative transportation as well as traffic calming measures as “lives are at stake.” She also plugged her idea of building a multi-layered parking structure near the Design House and have entrances on one side of the underpass, with only walking exits leading into the downtown.

The second question dealt with historical preservation. Candidates were asked to developing an ordinance and include incentives to avoid demolition because of neglect.

Stephen Souza read a prepared statement that stated that issuing a blanket code for the preservation of structures that may not be historically relevant nor adhere to the spirit of environmental progressivism would be a mistake. He did state that there is place for minimum maintenance by voluntary neighborhood associations, deed restrictions and the Historical Commission designating structures and rental units as historic. He seemed to be saying a one size fits all approach does not work in terms
of determining what is historical and what is not historical and the determination needs to lie with the Historical Commission.  He also mentioned the existing Nuisance Abatement Code which currently requires minimum maintenance on all homes.

Rob Roy said that property owners must maintain their homes. He states that it would be important to him to see Davis maintain its charm via its architectural culture. He does not want to see Davis become “Anywhere USA.” He mentioned the loss of the Terminal Hotel as a severe blow to that architectural culture.

Sue Greenwald talked to Rich Rifkin, The Davis Enterprise columnist, about this issue. She not seen evidence of demolition by neglect with the exception of the Tank House, which she said was not built to the same standards as other structures. She believes the cottages throughout the core area that are
in neglect can be rehabilitated. Her preference would be to see an ordinance forbidding the demolition of specific older structures and not a general ordinance.

Sydney Vergis interest is how the local jurisdiction, the City of Davis, in particular can provide incentives for individuals or property owners to move in positive directions. She would look at an alternative to an ordinance that strengthens the City’s existing policies on historic properties. The Mills Act, legislation that allows cities the power to enter into agreements with property owners of historic buildings. The Act (Mills) encourages preservation, maintenance and restoration of designated historical properties through property tax
savings. An agreement has a minimum term of ten years and specifies what preservation, maintenance and restoration efforts will be made by the property owner and the County Assessor then determines what the tax relief will be.

Cecelia Escamilla Greenwald wants a strong ordinance and cited Anderson Bank Building Preservation debate as an example. She said renovation would have destroyed its historic integrity. She was its deterioration as a reason for the owner to justify renovations. She views this as “akin to awarding property owners for allowing their property to degrade. It would be one of her top priorities to develop an ordinance that prioritizes historical resources in Davis.

Don Saylor mentioned that the questions were kind of like taking a final exam, but that he prepared only for a midterm. He would focus on the advice of the Historical Resources Commission. He looked at other cities and felt that the current ordinance goes farther than most in terms of balancing historical repair with community needs. It needs to be understood that just because a building is 50 years old does not mean it needs to be historically significant.

END PART ONE…….TO BE CONTINUED………