Live from City Hall… it’s Tuesday Night!

Ever since our newest City Councilmembers were seated, I’ve been ensconced in Community Chambers two Tuesday nights per month to cover the proceedings of the Davis City Council blow-by-blow, substitute motions and all!  I was there for the beginnings of ZipCar, reported on the local banking debacle and also witnessed firsthand Round One of the East Area Water Tank Art vs. Billboard Smackdown (Round Two tonight!).

These liveblogs have been so successful that I’m going to continue sacrificing my Tuesday nights for your enjoyment.  But, you know what makes it even more fun?  Your comments!  Ask questions, post some commentary, provide some links… feel free to drop a little funny too!  But remember, we have a Code of Conduct on The Davis Voice… basically, Be Nice and Play Fair.

As soon as I’m done singing my heart out at rehearsal for The University Chorus (buy your tickets now for Dec. 3rd!), I’ll bike over to City Hall and get started.  Look for a first update about 6:30pm, then keep your little fingers poised to “refresh” all night long.

Here, find all of the documents you could possible need to keep a watchful eye on our elected officials. Click here for the agenda (pdf). Click here to find all of the Consent Calendar items.  Following are the more action-oriented items (not minutes, proclamations or appointments)

Consent Calendar

• 04A Negotiation Consultant Contract.pdf
• 04B Energy Efficient Block Grant Program Support.pdf
• 04C Senior Center Use Agreements Co-Sponsored Groups.pdf
• 04D Quality Enhancement Program Contract 2010-11.pdf
• 04E Toy Lending Library MOU 2010-11.pdf
• 04F SCADA System Upgrade-Wireless Guys Contract.pdf
• 04G Groundwater Monitoring-West Yost Contract Amend.pdf
• 04H Technology Grant Program.pdf
• 04I Sr Softball Agreement-2011 Western National Championships.pdf
• 04J Open Space Acquisition-Mace Curve.pdf
• 04K CDBG Revised Allocations.pdf
• 04L Police Motorcycle Purchase.pdf

Regular Calendar

• 05 Business Park Land Strategy.pdf
• 06 Cannery Park Proposal.pdf
• 07 Pacifico Project Forclosure and Proposals.pdf
• 08 City Manager Recruitment.pdf
• 09 East Area Water Tank Reconsideration.pdf

6:38 pm - The Mayor has just brought the meeting to order. There is, as always, a large crowd here in the Chambers.  I see a lot of disgruntled artists (see item 09) and also lots of folks concerned about land use and business development (see items 05 & 06).  Now, the agenda has been approved, Councilmember Greenwald has lodged a complaint about too many items on the agenda and now it’s Proclamation Time!  Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and it’s also the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations!

6:45 pm – The DSHS Advanced Treble Choir is now going to sing!  Yeah choir!!  Brava Ladies!  Brava!!  And now… kids in costumes collecting coins for UNICEF!  Gotta love a small town.

6:54 pm – Public Hearing is the time for those who would like to comment on items not on the agenda OR can’t stay for the agenda item that they’re concerned.  Rick Gonzales is speaking on behalf of YIIN for a documentary showing this Saturday at 7pm at the Davis Community Center.  Samantha McCarthy is now speaking on Item 09, she’s concerned about the RFP process being a burden on artists.

Dorothy Rosenberg, a local architect/artist (and my friend), is now speaking with another artist, Sara, about Item 09.  They believe that the RFP process for pubic art is flawed… not just on the East Area Water Tank, but also for the public art project at the new DSHS Stadium. “Davis needs a fair, professional and transparent public arts process.”

Donna Billick with her recent Bee scultpure for the Haagen-Daaz Garden on the campus of UC Davis.

Donna Billick, another local artist, has similar thoughts about how we need to do a better job of honoring the time of artists who submit to the RFP process… the disconnect between Council, staff, and the artists is discouraging and unprofessional.  The dialog needs to be opened up.

Now, another artist (whose name I didn’t catch) is echoing the thoughts above… and that as a highly educated city, we should do a better job of embracing public art.  Now a small child dressed as Dr. Seus’s “Thing 2″ has  a comment, “Art is not commercial.”  And lastly, a client of the artists involved with Item 09 speak on their behalf.

7:12 pm – Public Comment was about to be over, but the Mayor reminded the public that it would probably be a couple of hours before Item 09 comes before the Council for action… two ladies are now speaking to support the art project.  That’s 9-0 in favor of public art… with lots of constructive thoughts on how to improve the RFP process.  Would this be the right time to remind all of you that Don Saylor was the only Councilmember last meeting to vote in favor of the art project as approved by the Civic Arts Commission?

7:15 pm – OK, public comment is now over.  Items A, F, J & Q have been removed from the Consent Calendar.  A & F will be addressed at the end of the agenda.  We’re now discussing Item Q, an informational item from the Metropolitan Transportation Plan Update from SACOG’s Blueprint process… I wrote about this just a few days ago.  Mayor Pro Tem Krovoza is asking about some of the Regional Housing Allocation and the provenance of the modeling numbers and now City Staff person Bob Wolcott is talking about the process of how the final numbers will be adopted by late 2011.  Councilmember Greenwald thinks that we need to be paying more attention to this item… and is concerned about how much SACOG expects Davis to grow in the future… and wants to ensure that our reps keep an eye of these expectations.

7:28 pm – Item 05 – Business Park Land Strategy (BPLS), the regular calendar is now happening.  Greenwald has a conflict of interest because of real property downtown that may conflict with “Pursue (re)development of Downtown and Nishi/Gateway as a dynamic mixed- use innovation district.”

Executive summary for the BPLS:

The Business Park Land Use Strategy report was prepared to provide information about the City’s long term commercial and industrial land supply; need for a “business park,” and what type of “business park” was best suited to Davis. This information was desired in part to inform policy decisions regarding applications to rezone the City’s largest industrial zoned site (ConAgra). As the study proceeded it evolved beyond that to also address the projected demand for business growth, measured by projected employment, and the economic value of growth in knowledge based industry sectors best suited to take advantage of the presence of the University’s research strengths; highly educated residents and workforce.

This item has been kicking around for a couple of years and has been the subject of extensive work with the Business & Economic Development Commission, Planning Commission, Finance & Budget Commission and the Government Relations Committee of the Chamber of Commerce.  The timing of ConAgra’s recent submission of an application for development fits nicely with this report, since the process began with the desire to study business park options for the Cannery site.

7:46 pm – Community Development & Sustainability Director Ken Hiatt is going into a fair amount of detail about the BPLS… and I’m hungry. Anyone want to bring me some Woodstock’s Pizza?  Anything but Hawaiian… do it, do it now.

8:13 pm – Public Comment about the BPLS.  Sorry I missed you folks, but I was eating junk food out of a machine in the lobby.  Ok, it’s time for a discussion and some action about this item.

Councilmember Greenwald thinks we should be talking about these items in a different order… Cannery is dependent on the BPLS.  Saylor disagrees and proceeds.

8:17 pm - LUCAS FRERICHS is the big winner of the night for bringing me food!!! Wow, looks like Panda Express, and apple and it even comes with a napkin from Woodstock’s.  You’re the man, Lucas.

8:20 pm – Ok, time to focus… Souza is making some serious comments about the need for more knowledge based jobs in town, there is a huge deficit now… and this is just one step in a process to convince the business community at large, and the University, that the City is serious about creating more jobs in town.  Greenwald thinks that the Council is “ramming through” a very large piece of public policy… she does support a business park at Nishii and ConAgra.

Krovoza compliments Staff on a thorough report.  He’s got some concerns about the Cannery site, however.  Swanson also thinks that the report is thorough, but is concerned about the focus on the Cannery site.  Saylor points out that this process began when Council was concerned about Lewis Home’s proposal for the Cannery site that did NOT include enough business park opportunities… The fundamental question was, “Should ConAgra be a business park?  And to answer that question in a vacuum, as an abstraction, would be ill considered.”

Saylor goes on to point out that of all of the sites discussed, there is no language in the strategy that says “move forward now”… all of the language is “consider, explore etc.”  With the University poised to launch an Innovation Hub, this is an interesting time for the City and the local business community.

8:48 pm – The Mayor, as chair of these proceedings, is ready for a motion.  Who is it gonna be?  As a regular here, I should note that a majority of substantive motions are usually made by Councilman Souza… his experience on the dais, and his conciliatory approach, serves him well when crafting motions that can garner a majority of support.

Ok, Swanson steps up to the plate.  A motion has been made, and seconded to accept Recommendation 2: “Maximize use of existing vacant business park/industrial land and buildings”.  Discussion: Greenwald is nervous that any vote here is going to give Staff too much leeway to make decisions without her, and the Mayor, Swanson and Staff assure her that is not the case.  Motion Passes 4-1 with Greenwald dissenting.

Saylor moves approval of Item 3A: 3. Maintain a steady supply of developable business park/industrial land. a. Pursue (re)development of Downtown and Nishi/Gateway as a dynamic mixed-use innovation district. Krovoza seconds.  Swanson makes a clarification that developers should interpret these actions as desirable alternatives for uses, not the highest priority.  Motion passes 4-1, with Greenwald dissenting.

9:02 pm – Krovoza moves approval of Item 3C: 3. Maintain a steady supply of developable business park/industrial land. c. Move forward to explore peripheral sites for future business park development to accommodate medium-scale (~150 employees) businesses. Appoint two City Councilmembers to form a Task Force with two representatives selected by the Planning Commission and the Business and Economic Development Commission to return to the Council with recommendations.  Seconded by Souza.  Greenwald comments that this would be giving away Council power; Souza points out that the key word is explore.  Saylor thinks that because of the huge amount of details involved, a Task Force seems like a good idea.  Swanson amends the motion to include a public workshop by the Task Force.  Substitute fails 1-4.  Main motion passes 3-2 with Greenwald & Swanson dissenting.

Next up is a motion, seconded, to move approval to 4. Direct staff to contact UC Davis regarding timing and details about issuance of its Request for Ideas and return to Council with recommended actions for response. Motion passes 4-1, with Greenwald dissenting.

Now, we’ve got a motion by Saylor to appoint Swanson & Krovoza to aforementioned Task Force about peripheral development sites.  Greenwald has a substitute motion to appoint herself and Krovoza to the Task Force that she just voted against!  hmmmm….   Substitute motion dies for a lack of a second, and the Main Motion passes 4-1 with Greenwald dissenting.

And, the last motion for this item is to approve the work plan as stated and to remove item 3.B.   Motion passes 4-0-1 with Greenwald abstaining.

9:13 pm – TEN MINUTE BREAK!

Moving over to a new thread now, CLICK HERE to follow me down the rabbit trail.