League of Women Voters Forum

City Council Candidates are Questioned.

This is the fourth forum that I’ve covered for The Davis Voice.  This forum took place on May 8th. I would have liked to post it earlier, but as you can tell by reading the Sierra Club information, we are providing you with a lot of information. The format for this event was three questions to all of the candidates and some questions from the audience.

Also, by now you can see the forum on our local Davis Media Access station on Cable 15.  The election is on Tuesday, June 3rd.  Be sure to vote!

After the jump, find all of the details from this Candidates’ Forum.

League of Women Voters Forum

I actually got here early; this is the first forum that I was able to do that. Just in time for the Davis Democratic Club and the Chamber of Commerce and barely making it on time to set up for the Sierra Club. This event is only for the City Council candidates. Bob Dunning has suggested recently that Vergis and Roy will benefit by getting third votes that they may not otherwise get, because of "unofficial" slates and that appears to be true. Many of the Sue and Cecelia Escamilla Greenwald votes will go to Roy and many of the Souza and Saylor third votes will go to Vergis. In fact, the Davis Firefighters Local has set up an independent expenditure committee to support Saylor, Souza and Vergis.

One of the three prepared questions from the League of Women Voters deals with the Cannery Park development and Ken Topper is here with a presentation set up in the hallway entrance to the Community Chambers. Jean Canary, a longtime member of the Davis League of Women Voters is the moderator. The prepared questions were given to the candidates before the forum.

Opening

In Ms. Canary's opening, she mentioned that all candidates were going to be nice to one another, as she seemed to fear an uncivil breakout. In fact, one of the questions deals with civility. Canary offered a quote by James Madison in her introduction extolling the fact that our country was based on vigorous debate, but we need to have these discussions and decisions in a manner that allows us to conduct the business of governing in unison.

The Forum began with the intros of the candidates after they drew straws to determine the order. The intros were similar to the ones the candidates have given at the other forums.

Introductions

Don Saylor went first, commenting that 20 years ago, his wife and he were looking for a place for their children to grow up and their realtor, Marilyn Grow, "did not sell the house, but sold them on the community." He has 30 years of public service in his personal and professional life. He was President of the PTA and has been a volunteer on a number of community and school committees, even today, he continues to work on ways to improve the Davis schools, after having served eight years on the Davis School Board. He cited the Measure X vote as the first test of Measure J and how he is reconstructing the effort for future uses of Measure J. Downtown never more vibrant, wants to bring economic vitality with environmental responsibility and looks forward to working on that goal.

Sydney Vergis has a degree from UC Davis in Environmental Planning. She works for Sutter County using the skills she has leaned about planning and land use. Once again, she cited as the most important responsibility of the next Council, the update of the General Plan. She is a member of the Economic Development and Business Commission of the City. She concluded with a statement about her personal passion for sustainability.

Cecelia Escamilla-Greenwald cited her 18-year residence in Davis. When she left Chico for college, she chose Davis over Berkeley. Once she returned recently to Chico, she saw the periphery of the town surrounded by big box retailers and does not want to see the same thing happen to Davis. She is strong believe in citizen involvement in the General Plan and wants to maintain a walkable downtown as well as proper upkeep of the downtown.

Stephen Souza came to Davis in 1979 with the idea of becoming a Doctor. He was moved by what he saw was going on in the country and the city in 1980 through 1983 to become an activist. He become involved in environmental causes and joined Amnesty International to help fight injustice. He has served on so many committees that it would take up his whole time to list them all. He states that the City budget has been balanced all four years of his Council term and with a 15 percent reserve. His campaign theme is "Green, Safe and Smart." More police, better emergency response and develop green technology throughout the city.

Sue Greenwald said that it has been a "pleasant campaign, everybody has been collegial, pleasant and civil in that regard. She stated she has no other political aspirations; she does not want to use the Council as a platform to run for State Assembly. She ran for the Council because she loves city planning and loves to achieve things. She is running for a third term because she wants to achieve certain goals in the next four years. Her husband was an Associate Professor at Harvard and they have lived in Berkeley and Boston, she is happiest when she lives in a community that has a sense of place and does not want to see Davis lose that appeal. Some of the specific goals she mentioned were jobs closer to housing and housing closer to jobs, more infill development, specifically residential development on the PG&E site, Hi-Tech at the Hunt and Wesson site and to stop the sense of Davis of becoming a "1950 bedroom, suburb community."

Rob Roy grew up in Sacramento and mother worked in the Elk Grove School District. Six years, he moved to Davis and became involved in Student government. Repeated his claim that he does not want to see Davis become "Anywhere, USA." As a Student Senator, supported a resolution supporting the No on X position. Student Coordinator for Measure K. Supports open choice voting. He wants to increase the amount of bike riders back up to the level it was in the 1990's and maintain Davis as an intellectual community.

1st League Question - Budgeting Experience

The first League question dealt with the experience the candidate has in dealing with budgets and how they would use that experience to help with the rising prices we are seeing in the city and the amount of revenue lessen in the city coffers.

Sydney Vergis has developed a passion for dealing with budgetary issues and finding a way to increase revenue for the city and alleviate the concern of rising prices by serving on the Business and Economic Development Commission "BEDC", she especially cited working with fellow BEDC Commissioner Dick Dorf. Cities count on Sales Tax as their major revenue and we must find a way to create sales tax diversity, encouraging small businesses to come to Davis can best do this. She would seek the BEDC to advice the Council on bonds and seeing the city budget balanced. She mentioned ways to implement ways for funding for early-unfunded retirement employee benefits. She closed by stating the City needs to find ways to fund long-term needs.

Cecelia Escamilla-Greenwald is a representative of state workers for over 53 agencies and as a labor representative even she has concerns about the salaries and generous benefit packages for high-level city employees. Davis faces tax increases because of these benefit packages, a possible sales tax and another parcel tax, along with a parcel tax from the school district. She mentioned if was finance the two water projects, there will be even another tax. The city cannot rely on the generosity of taxpayers.

Stephen Souza served on the Business and Finance Commission. He repeated that during his term, the city budget has been balanced all four years and with larger reserves.  Davis has a strong fiscal budget, but does have "unmet needs" which the City began addressing a year ago. The City also has the need for more revenues like all cities and counties, but they should be provided by economic development and not by raising taxes. "One of the ways we can do that is by getting green technology plant producing jobs to come to Davis." We may need to pursue a quarter cent sales tax dedicated to roadways and bikeways.

Sue Greenwald started her answer with the statement the question should not be about experience and she stated the Orange County Treasurer had multiple years of experience but bankrupted the county. She feels the budget is not balanced and that the City is in bad shape. The budget, according to Greenwald, has an all time high of being 15 million dollars in deficit and there is no capital replacement, which she calls a "time bomb" for city finances. She was the only council member to vote against lowering the retirement age for firefighters to 55, even though she lost that vote a year ago. She saved the City $400,000 when she opposed the demand of the Fire Chief for an upgrade. She does not see the need for new firefighters in Davis and is concerned about the effect of overtime for high-level firefighters on the cities budget.

Rob Roy cites his experience on working with the ASCUD budget as a Student Senator and as a manager of the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream parlor simultaneously. He wants a living wage for the person that mows the lawn, but is also concerned about the firefighters contract. His argument is that those that work in the public sector know that it is a sacrifice to work in the public sector as he mentions teachers and soldiers in Iraq. He wants to work on reckless fiscal management and mentions the selling of the City's electric vehicles as a part of the mismanagement. Some of the things he would explore are meter people using bicycles, employees walking and emergency responders being more selective in what they respond too. Use the Republican canard that the best way to fix a budget deficit is to spend less.

Don Saylor started his answer mentioning his Graduate Degree in Public Policy from the Lyndon Johnson School of Public Policy in Austin, Texas. He worked for 20 years as an administrator for the State of California and a number of years as a fiscal analyst for the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office in the California State Legislature. The City has a 300 million dollar budget and he has applied the skills he has acquired to have balanced budgets 13 times as a school board and then city council member. The Government Finance Review has guided his work on the city budget for the last five years, he agreed that there are things the City is not spending money on, but that when he took office there was a 2.2 million dollar deficit and there is not one today. We need to find revenue from new economic development. He concluded with the fact that cities this year are constrained by a bad state budget. There is too much state control over city revenues and we need to find a way to replace those state revenues, one possibility is a Park Tax. Finally, he noted that Davis is actually in the bottom third in the statewide sales tax per capita, so the statement that we are overtaxed may be somewhat overwrought.

2nd League Question - potential Cannery Park development.

Stephen Souza -- Cannery Park is now going through the process with an independent analysis of whether Hi-Tech light industrial is feasible at the site. Twenty ideas for technology and research came out of UC Davis last year and all 20 became start-up businesses that were started in other cities. Souza said that sustainable technologies are locating in areas where they have housing nearby so employees will not have to commute. He pointed out to the display outside the Chambers set up by Ken Topper and mentioned the proposed project is now half open space. Souza also mentioned the fact that there is a tremendous imbalance in the job to housing rate in the City. He concluded with statements that the City needs to look at smaller housing and higher density so that seniors and renters have the ability to purchase homes in this community.

Sue Greenwald said the plan has a lot of nice features, but that it is critical the City keep the land zoned for Hi-Tech industrial. She stated she was the force in getting Hunt-Wesson zoned Hi-Tech light industrial and there is nothing in the market that is close to the freeway, she has seen extensive research and outreach in Hi-Tech community because of her husband's job and that Hi-Tech needs to locate where housing is and that compared to other places where Hi-Tech has either located, or is locating, we are in fairly good shape in terms of housing supply. Her contention is that if we zone Hunt Wesson for Hi-Tech and some housing, with using the housing around the area, we can be the Hi-Tech center of the region. Davis has one shot at Hunt Wesson and if done correctly, it will have a wonderful effect on the surrounding communities.

Rob Roy is against Cannery Park. He feels that the defeat of Measure X put fear into Lewis Homes and they have come back with a smaller proposed project, but that their real intention is to see 10,000 houses in the area eventually. He also states that $640,000 is still not affordable housing and 100 acres continues to be a large amount of acreage for development. He does think the City could something with the property, maybe find some sort of Hi-Tech and modify the area as a Hi-Tech campus. He stated that housing should be community driven and not developer driven and that is why he supports Measure J. He would like to see more talk about group housing.

Don Saylor began with the general ideas he uses when first considers a project. What are the benefits the project brings to the City; what is the Agricultural Mitigation proposed for the project. Does the project fit into the city limits and adhere to a compact urban form? He wants to see how the project fits into the recommendations of the Housing Element Steering Committee. He wonders about the feasibility of a 100-acre business sites and stated the Housing Element Committee has suggested other sites for business development. We need to focus on land compatibility and quality of life when we consider proposed projects and continues to insist the schools are the most important thing in a community, including to those that want to come in with new projects. He regrets that Genentech has been lost to Dixon, especially because of the variety of housing available there. He said the project is very appealing, but did say it is not a done deal.

Sydney Vergis started with the fact that the property cannot be sustained with having a fair there twice a year (about the recent Fair Fundraiser for Emerson High School and the School District Budget), a bit of a feeble attempt at humor. She then said the "Plan looks promising." She mentioned the Enwani(sp?) Principal developed by the Local Government Commission. There needs to be a focus on pedestrian oriented development (PODS). She is concerned the proposed project has only one egress opportunity for traffic, on Covell Blvd. She would like to know the actual building design of the Hi-Tech buildings and the houses, will there be a neighborhood concept? She agrees with the idea of the live in Davis, work in Davis model that would capitalize on the closeness of housing to the Hi-Tech campus. She took the opportunity to mention she would like to see more of a range of housing opportunities in Davis, that would allow a single senior or young parents to live affordably in the community. She would like to see a citywide master plan to increase bike pathways. It must be mentioned this was a more general answer to the question than the other candidates provided and did not focus on the specific Cannery Park development project.

3rd League Question – Civility

The last question dealt with civility at Council meeting and the ability of the City Council to get along and conduct business with each other and to give the community the chance to their views, no matter what their opinion on the issues before the Council. Specifically mentioned in the question was the fact that some were spat upon during the Target debate and there was incredibly inappropriate behavior, including shoving and shouting during the discussion of the issue the City Council meeting. What can be done to bring the time when despite your opinion, people were collegial in the expression of their views?

Stephen Souza said that it has been a "very civil campaign and information is being shared in a very collegial way." He feels that much of the problem is in the long meetings, that after 11 p.m., impatience and frustration begins to take over. The problem is wedded to the debate on growth; some very vocal citizens believe that they alone have the truth on their side and if you disagree, then you are an evil person with nefarious purposes. It is not healthy that we are not able to disagree without being disagreeable. All of us love this town. It is unfortunate that coarseness has been the order of the day, but we can see it thriving in the websites that deal with today's issues. We must respect each other’s beliefs and determine the best way to get where we are going to move forward in a unified fashion. Indeed, Madison had it right.

Sue Greenwald said when the question was delivered to her, it stated that recent studies show civility is declining in our society. She has not been able to find those studies and the League of Women Voters was not able to provide them to her. She mentioned that up until the 1880's political disputes were often settled with duels and so things were much rougher in the past. She said that different political bodies have different cultures and mentioned the lack of civility in the House of Representatives. We need to avoid lecturing and the view that "my behavior is good and your behavior is bad."  It seems to me that on this question Mayor Greenwald seemed a bit defensive. She continued that each one of us should concentrate on our own behavior "and do the best we can." The Mayor stated that not one citizen has complained about being shoved since she has been Mayor. It is the nature of democracy to be adversarial and at times combative. People may watch vigorous debate on television about the issues, but she rarely sees it become personal. It is her job to question in a tough manner the city staff and privately, they say understand that. People just have to be able to separate the personal from the political.

Rob Roy said that the lack of civility is good for Davis Media Access; it means ratings. He pointed out that Madison, even though he made the quote, killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel (Author’s Note: ummmmmm, sorry, no---that was Aaron Burr). He understands vigorous debate because of his parents getting a divorce before he knew they were getting a divorce and he had to deal with both of them, especially with his father being a Democrat and his Mother a conservative, while he is a green, so he can see all sides. He wrote the ASUCD rules that make sure everyone was allowed to speak.

Don Saylor who has written editorials about the Council and the community needing more civility in our political and civil dialogue stated that this is an extremely important topic for us to talk about and has posted his answer on his website. He has been amazed at the feedback from his opinion editorial in the Enterprise. He has had 100 different comments as he goes around town on the issue as well as a number of emails that cite the problems of incivility in our discourse. People have sent him books on non-violent interactions, civil manners and the etiquettes of democracy. He then showed us two of the books that have been sent to him and mentioned the many good ideas he has gotten from them in dealing with working on a governing board. Shortly after joining the Council, he was amazed to find that there were people that were afraid to come to the Council and speak their mind. There was a subcommittee put together to deal with this issue and there was a 5-0 vote by the Council on goal setting and staff work plans. People like to have a place to bring their problems to in the City and Don Saylor was instrumental in helping revise the cities efforts in the regard via the subcommittee.

Sydney Vergis answer was short and to the point. Any combination of the three candidates may be on the next City Council. If you give respect, you get respect. There should be no ad hominem attacks and if there were, she would refuse to participate in them.

Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald believes we need to treat each other with respect. One time she brought her little nieces to a Council meeting that got a little heated and they told her "they need a time out, don't they?" She intends to have best of ethics approach to being on the Council and will use as her example Lamar Heystek, who she feels treats everyone with respect when on the Council dais, even if he disagrees with them. We need to talk about the issues and strive for common ground and then come together as a community. She closed with the statement, "I am here for you." Most people do not watch the meeting or contact the Council and she wants to represent those people as well.

Audience Question #1 -- What plans do you have for parking downtown?

Sue Greenwald is excited about the 3rd and B Street parking project.

Rob Roy feels that metered parking is good at the E Street Plaza, but would not support anywhere else downtown. He wants to see safety for biking on the streets/ He wants to see a reorganization of existing parking structures.

Don Saylor is a part of a subcommittee dealing with these issues. The most important project is the one between 3rd and 5th and E and F Streets, but that it requires negotiating with multiple private property owners. We need to see what happens and that it may be something in a few years. There is a possibility of using land the City owns for a multi-level mixed use parking structure and he mentioned the shuttle project that would take people from the University to the downtown and back.

Sydney Vergis said we have to consider the negative effect of building new structures on the environment and that we need to use already existing resources as much as possible. Dohl Research has shown the high cost of free parking. She would prefer to focus on promoting alternative transportation and aggressively pursue CalTrans funds for such projects.

Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald went into a history of the long term problem parking has been downtown and that the present parking laws are a detriment to downtown business. She is proposing a parking structure on Olive Drive near Design House Furniture store. Her proposal would have people drive into the structure on the Olive Drive side and then have a walk only exit on the downtown side.

Stephen Souza has been working with a committee to bring the "U-Dash", the University Shuttle into operation so it can bring people from the University to the downtown during the lunch hour. He would like to see a multi-use parking facility downtown that can be used for both living and parking downtown, with that approach people that live downtown have a place to park and do not have to park on downtown streets.

The next question was about the wastewater treatment plant and the delivery of river water to Davis and the question after was about enhancing bicycle riding in Davis. Both these issues were extensively covered in the Sierra Club Forum material. Please see those posts for the candidates’ views on those issues.

Audience Question #2 – Choice Voting

Don Saylor said that choice voting was very difficult to understand and that was evident in the ballot measure that asked the Council to consider changing to choice voting. He needs to feel comfortable in understanding how the ballots are counted before he can consider choice voting. There is a lot more work to do and he is not convinced it is a better model than the one we are using today.

Sydney Vergis is against choice voting because it means we would have to become a charter city and there is a lot of ambiguity once a city develops a charter.

Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald cited the complexity to choice voting, but that if it were the will of the people she would support it. She would like more study on it and see what effect it may have on any living wage ordinance if we become a charter city.

Souza says that ASUCD and many cities across the nation use choice voting and can be a model for the City. It simply means ranking the candidates in order of preference and preference voting has been used is many places successfully for many years. He is a supporter of choice voting and sees it as the next step in the democratic process for this planet.

Sue Greenwald prefers district elections with instant run-offs. She is skeptical about choice elections and cites this election, where there are two Greenwalds on the ballot. She believes district elections would be more democratic and significantly lower the cost of the city election process.

Rob Roy is agrees with Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who he says supports choice voting.

Audience Question #3 – How will you promote transit-orientated housing and how do you keep the stock?

Cecelia Escamilla-Greenwald has been walking neighborhoods for months now, talking to folks about preserving the character of Davis. They do not want to expand Davis, but they are concerned about housing. We need to look at the boundaries of Davis and where, within them, we can meet our housing needs. We need more on campus housing; the UC only provides 30 percent of the housing for its staff and students. When the University provides more housing, it will help free the housing stock in the community. We need to push developers and demand more from them in affordable housing.

Stephen Souza says the largest component of housing in Davis is the cost of the land. The price of living in Davis is because of the great schools, the quality of life and just being a great place to live. We can remove that cost by doing land trusts, lease the land over many, many years and over time it will reduce the cost of the land thus allowing for more affordable housing in the community. We already have the toughest and fairest affordable housing ordinance in the nation. When the Council updated the affordable housing ordinance, it added an equity cap that keeps the stock of housing affordable as long as we can keep it affordable.

Sue Greenwald said that Stephen Souza has a lot of good ideas in keeping housing affordable and that she agrees with many of them. She stated that the University is in the best position to provide housing for students and staff. In the pipeline are over 1,000 housing units and she does not see a housing shortage in Davis. She would like to bookend the downtown with infill housing developments, the one that she has proposed at the PG&E property and then another on the University property at Toomey Field which will add another 27 acres of mixed housing and development. This is a smart growth approach that would bring 200 houses into the pipeline. It would allow for mixed use, including senior housing in the PG&E area, an idea supported by the Davis Senior Commission. These projects would allow for all different incomes and lifestyles in the downtown area.

Rob Roy said there is no way to enforce the 2005 affordable housing ordinance on developments the size of 26 units or less. Only 20 percent of the UC Davis students live on campus, while over 40 percent of the students in Berkeley live on campus. He is a big fan of group housing; he has lived in such housing the entire time he has lived in Davis.

Don Saylor said two minutes is not enough to discuss this question. He did say that there is a policy framework for Agricultural Mitigation in place, but that if we do not build anything, none of it matters. He said that we must do some construction and that we are not making our state requirements for fair share of housing. He also stated there are a number of infill sites already developed and that a number of them sit vacant. "The devil is in the details of how we can make affordable housing work." The real exciting thin is that we can now have a conversation of what kind of community we want to live in. He mentioned the Gateway Project as something that we punted on. We need to have a reasonable conversation about how we are going to the housing needs of our community.

Sydney Vergis feels the history of development in Davis has been very piecemeal and the conversation about growth and the General Plan is not a 20-year conversation, but a 40-year conversation. She is against a no growth stance; it would limit the diversity of Davis. We are in a unique position for our zoning and we can look at underwriting limited equity on homes. She wants to see multiple generations of Davisites, grandparents, young families, etc. and we need to start talking about the ways we can do that.

Closing Statement.

Stephen Sousa closed by saying has been honored to have the trust of the citizens of Davis and would like to continue doing their work for four more years, so that he can see things completed in our community.  He wants to complete the bike pathway, reduce the carbon footprint, develop solar energy in municipal buildings, see new businesses and new technologies downtown and demand that all future housing be sustainable and have responsible environmental design.

Sue Greenwald said that it has been a tremendous joy serving on the Council the last eight years and that it has been very challenging and fun being "your" Mayor for the last two years. She has been fighting the battle over freeway malls, widening 5th and B streets, cutting down trees and auto centric communities for the last 15 years. Need to study any type of Gateway Project, because establishments like Burgers and Brew have their place. We should build over all the old cottages when we densify.

Rob Roy corrected himself on the issue of James Madison killing Alexander Hamilton "It was Aaron Burr that killed Alexander Hamilton, see admitting when you are wrong is a part of being civil." He wants to see traffic calming procedures installed on the City streets, wants to revitalize neighborhood shopping centers and supports community oriented development. As a substitute teacher, he asks his students about Davis and they do not want see a "corporate future" for the town.

Don Saylor wants to remember what is important about Davis. We have had a wonderful year, but we cannot rest on our laurels. An important project for the next year is the building of a nationally renowned Bicycle Museum. "Davis is more than what we can say no too, it is what we can say yes too." I say yes to senior housing, diversity of people and to keeping our community the best it can be.

Sydney Vergis concluded that Davis is not no-growth; it is long-term planning and smart growth. We need to be pro-planning and need to focus on the General Plan. She then asked for people to consider her for their third vote.

Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald reminded people that they can vote absentee and that she would be a fresh face on the City Council. Davis is family oriented and she will work to keep the quality of life we have come to expect. She will work to make Measure J permanent. She will fight keep open space and ag land. It will be important to her to have transparency in city affairs. She will work to maintain and expand the system of parks and greenbelts and to ensure public safety.

Conclusions

What stood out at this Forum was the much weaker performance by Rob Roy. His answers were not as clear nor as well though out as they have been in previous forums. He seemed more nervous and less prepared. Don Saylor has long answers to questions that were thoughtfully answered, but at times, did not state an actual position on the issue. Souza, Greenwald, Escamilla-Greenwald and Vergis were on par with what they have done at the other forums.