 Good evening. This is what's going on. I'm John Lee our guest this evening is now Williams Who's a candidate for the Davis City Council? Matt? I want to thank you for being on our show. Thank you for having me John It's a pleasure to be here good good so There are four people running for three seats on the Davis City Council the other three people are are Will Arnold Lucas Frey Ricks and Brett Lee so Brett and Lucas are incumbents Will Arnold and Matt Williams have not been elected, but they bring a lot of experiences. We're gonna find out So let's start out by talking about Matt's past and then we'll get into the city of Davis And we'll get into some Davis politics, and then we'll talk about the future so How before we talk about Davis let's talk about where you were before then so where'd you go to high school? back in Philadelphia, I was born in Bryn Mawr Hospital and There's a great story that I can't we don't have time to do but I have two last names because my grandmother's name was Matthews I have an S on the end of my first name and When they sent off to to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for birth certificate It came back and said mr. And mrs. Williams. We know that you really like the name George Matthews Williams But you've named two of your kids the same name and They thought about it and thought about it and they dropped the George from dad's name and he became Matthews Williams And I became Matthews Williams jr. In 1947 Grew up in Philadelphia In eighth grade there were 83 kids in my class 80 of them were for Richard Nixon and there were three of us who were for who went out and actually campaigned for John Kennedy as much as you can in eighth grade and I mean made me a lifelong Democrat. I think of myself as Socially liberal and as I get older and older and these gray hairs come up I've become more and more fiscally realistic even fiscally conservative Went to Cornell University for an undergraduate degree which I got in ancient Roman history and Got went to work after finishing Cornell in the health care industry in health care technology I'm not a care deliverer. I'm I've been in information technology finance and administration in health care in 1979 I became a single parent of a then nine-year-old boy We became best friends. It was a 24 7365 single parenthood and It was probably the best thing that I've ever done in my life. He's still my best friend He lives in Baltimore Kept on working for 25 years in health care information technology the company I worked for was shared medical systems and they're now owned by Siemens, but they move we moved from Malvern to Dallas to Nashville and in 1998 my ex-wife and I came here to Davis because she wanted to get her third master's degree growing grapes We had Matt at Wharton when I was getting my MBA in the executive program and she was getting her MBA there Oh 1998 I arrived here in in Davis and I Didn't even get out of my car the moving van was in front of our our house and We pulled up to and the neighbor was next to me a fabulous woman named dare Roush and dare came up and said We're so glad you're in the neighborhood. There's this really important political issue that I need to brief you on I mean, she'd do that with anybody. She'd do that with I Mean the good news is our husband's a physician. So she has time. I mean she didn't war What a productive woman absolutely and I I'd never been involved in politics And if you weren't if you knew dare you weren't involved in politics she was involved in politics and you were there as part of her support system and also part of this Constituents that she listened to and she taught me a really good lesson is that these two body parts are the most important body parts for a politician and most important body parts for a problem-solver and I ended up Working on the Elmiss arrow homeowners Association Board I went out of the room one time and they were deciding who would be president So naturally I got made into the president You know how that works the the person who's out of the room is given the job that nobody wants and It got me involved in more and more neighborhood things. I got involved in putting in the new water meters in Elmiss arrow I was involved in the issues of the Transmission lines that were supposed to be coming down and going along the side and I became very active FEMA came along and and Remapped of a hundred and fifteen houses in Elmiss arrow into the flood zone I knew because of Katrina and working with the city of Davis and Yolo County Emergency preparedness people that we shouldn't be in the flood plain So a hallmark of the way I do things came out in in the way we dealt with FEMA instead of going and banging on the table as often happens in City Hall council chambers in in City Hall Council meetings I went and said tell me about your process. I mean, I don't think these houses should be in the flood zone but Let's not do this Confrontationally let's solve the problem collaboratively and They said well, we use secondary data and I said where did you get your setting secondary data? And it was 1957 data Elmiss arrow hadn't even been built then a lot most of Davis hadn't been built in 1957 a Lot of it had not yeah, it was less than half what it is now certain So they said, you know, we would love to have primary data But we don't have enough government money to do it and we said well if we Follow your procedures and hire a surveyor and give you primary data will that work and they said absolutely and in the end every one of the houses was taken out of the The flood zone and my first contribution to the community was that a quarter of a million dollars of flood insurance premiums didn't have to be paid by the the community every year so Those were things that that got me involved When the water issues started to come up Dovey Fleming and Elaine Roberts Musser said we're having these meetings with the with the water Staff and you know, would you come in and just listen you're a good listener and We see there's problems there and One of the things that that I expect when I pass on into the the great beyond is is that the the Tombstone on the top of my at the head of my grave will say he never met a problem. He didn't like so there was there was this opportunity and In the end that became the the initiative by Mike Harrington and Mayor walk and and others Joe Gravoza saying let's create the Water Advisory Committee and both Rochelle Swanson and Steve Sousa asked me to be in all alternate on the Water Advisory Committee and There I was suddenly immersed in something. I've never been involved with before you know political issues But I always approach these things from I'd much rather see Evidence-based decisions as opposed to political calculations. So I got down into the numbers We ended up with a plant that it was Half the size because that matched the the the data that of what our need was and and we ended up with something That saved the community Probably close to a quarter of a billion dollars Not me alone Working together with a whole bunch of people Listening being collaborative Making the most of things. I know John you you've provided me with information about what's involved in the show I with a charter city and one of the things that really resonates for me as I read that is just how much Collaboration there is involved in in that method so a little over a year ago After the the Rob Davis campaign, which I was very actively involved with my wife and I came to a mutual agreement that We would end our 14-year marriage and That put me in a position where I was no longer living in the unincorporated county. That's what they refer to El Miserro as And I consider it part of the Davis community but I ended up with establishing a residence here in Davis and you know, it it it just made being a member of the community not a Reality, but it became a formality as well and Back in May 5th almost exactly a year ago the the city council approved the cannery CFD which I saw as a Straight eight million dollar giveaway which cost the city an additional two million dollars and in the in the scale of life There was this ten million dollars of cost to us and we were getting absolutely nothing In value back and I said, you know if I'm going to be willing to complain I've got to be willing to contribute and Talk to a few people and said It's time to stop being a part-time volunteer and and actually Go through the process of possibly being elected to being a full-time contributor from behind the Dias on the council So that's the capsule of what I've done You want me to dig a little bit more into some of the more recent activities. I I You know, I'm a lot more interested in the future than I am in the past so Although I'm a junkie about the past so anyway the I can go back the last 50 years and do okay The I'll I'll just say the big thing and then we can we can get into it the When John Meyer left as the city manager and became the vice chancellor for administration planning and resource management for UC Davis in 2000 That week that last meeting he had of the Davis City Council was was a riot in terms of what happened with the police department because they had a major power fight and The room was full of cops and people that were upset about the police department But the main topic was a survey where they said we can't believe how much the citizens of Davis like How well the government is doing its job? The city council paid to have the survey done and the results were incredible 15 16 years ago the city government worked so well that people were saying 80 percent approval 90 percent approval Now we couldn't get 50 percent approval on a lot of things about the city government And the reality is in the last 15 years. We've had eight or nine city managers We've had a lot of turmoil. We've had a lot of turnover We've had a lot of people that are doing a different job than what they were hired for than what they were expected to do And I think there's a lot of difference between what the city council thinks The city is doing and what the city is actually doing So that's my summary political statement and the rest of the time is yours. So we'll debate but well What you have said is that the vision I have which is to maintain and continue a High quality of life here is at jeopardy. It's in serious jeopardy I have found that to be the case. That's why I'm on the finance and budget commission The water advisory committee was was how do we how do we move forward? How do we stabilize our future finance and budget has been a Very different experience We we we don't we were doing better now the last nine months have been in infinitely better But we didn't know just how bad off things were the old expression you what you don't know can hurt you really was Absolutely where Davis was The finance and budget commission said we need to know what these cracks in the streets that we're seeing What's the full extent of them and to staff's credit? The the people came forward the staff came forward with a really good assessment of what the conditions of our roads are At that the bottom good report, but a bad condition bad condition, but you know when you Metaphorically when you get your your credit card statement, and you pay the minimum payment and All the rest of the balance is still there and you and you put the put that statement in the bottom drawer And you never look at it again Which is more important, you know, it's it if we're gonna fix it at some point in time You've got to pay off some of the more than just the minimum payment We didn't even know how much we owed So it was a good report because at least what we were doing was being honest with ourselves and and putting the problem The magnitude of the problem on the table Ten million dollars a year for twenty years two hundred million dollars. Yes, you're right It's it's it's a daunting report, but it's not a bad report. It's a good report We at least are aware of how much we've promised to ourselves The problem was is that we didn't have a similar kind of report for buildings We didn't have a similar kind of report for parks We don't have a similar kind of report for for pools The state has changed the rules with regard to storm sewers and we're going to be facing some significant dollars that we got to spend there and To staff's credit what staff has done is they have brought forward the information About the buildings they've worked with consultants and we've got pretty darn good numbers as to what we owe ourselves We have pretty good numbers with regard to parks. We because of changes in the state accounting systems We now know how much we have as unfunded liabilities in pensions and we know what well have as unfunded liabilities in retiree benefits It all adds up to 655 million dollars over the next 20 years 32 million dollars a year and given that our general fund budget is 50 million dollars a year That means that if we're going to Do business as usual we have to take a 50 million dollar budget and go to 80 million dollars and what that means to all of the the citizens of Davis is $2,000 a year parcel tax for the next 20 years and that's not going to make anything better That's just going to hold us in place So that's so unrealistic that it's bizarre. I Mean, I'm not complaining about what you just said. I'm complaining about what it means To add $2,000 a year for each parcel to maintain the current level of service is Unaffordable To take a 50 million dollar budget and make it an 80 million dollar budget isn't going to happen Now it may be that we can go from 80 million down to 60 million in a way That if we actually were competent about what we're doing with our current service level We could provide a or maintain a current level of service, but I'm not optimistic about that Well, one of the things that you can be optimistic about is that there There are really good things that have happened in the council. I mean, yes, you're you're right the trajectory of satisfaction on the on the part of the The citizens has come down but there really are very good people who work for the city and What we have done is we have really looked into these things and been able to identify Places where we can't be more efficient right now We have a hundred and twenty two million dollars of cash in in the bank because of various reserve funds and the like and we Invested with essentially most of it with Wells Fargo in CDs So we make about one percent a year and that canary CFD which gave away ten million dollars They went out and borrowed money for six at six percent So we're getting one percent and we're borrowing at six percent If we just lent to ourselves, we could we could free up five million dollars four million dollars a year In interest costs that could go a long way toward repairing the roads that Canary CFD is a million dollars a year that the residents of Canary are going to be paying in tax That if they weren't paying that tax They could be spending that in the local businesses and making the economy stronger, right? So there are good things that are there. It's why What you gave me to as homework and I'll be honest with you John I didn't know the details of Of a charter city thing and so I'm reading through this and I'm saying this is this is what we are talking about In finance and budget we've asked for and Robert Davis who is going to be a great mayor Has asked for a full staffing analysis So the things you pointed out where we have people doing jobs that they really aren't trained for We should be rationalizing our our staffing But we shouldn't just stop there finance and budget has said we should be doing a business process Reengineering to be able to say not how do we change this? Government that has been doing it the same old way, but how do how what are the best practices? How could we be delivering service in a way that really resonates with the With the citizens, how can we have the citizens look at the way we're governing and say? I'm putting in value in my taxes, and I'm getting out value in the services that we go some of some of the candidates for city council have talked a lot about a new general plan and So is Rob Davis, so I think that the next city council will talk about that What I'm talking about is having the the discussion expanded beyond what the general plan talks about the general plan only talks about housing and land use and Transportation it talks a little bit about safety and noise and a few other elements. Those are called the mandated elements When we did the general plan 25 years ago, I tried to get information. We had committees on Health care and computers and youth and seniors and art And economic development those were all eliminated from the general plan discussion Because they aren't part of housing and land use and part of the mandated element to me those are economic development You don't talk about economic development by building a new building. Nishi is not going to create economic development Nishi is going to create a construction project that gets some jobs But for there to be long-term employment there there need to be actual businesses that are successful Those don't happen overnight. Those don't happen with big money. They happen with work and support We need to have an economic development program in the city of Davis in 1990 to We had an economic development task force that I was on That's the only time I know of where we actually focus on economic development the most recent version is the innovation task force and it's basically looking at large Plots of land. We had a business in economic development Commission that I was on for about five years and and it was successful in Getting cost-plus and getting the target I mean there were some things that happened as a result of not having the planning commission be the primary way That we talked about economic development But in most cities the economic development commission is the planning commission and is the city council And that's what makes Davis different than the law the law in California assumes that and in Davis For somebody to have an economic development idea They have to go through what we call the Davis spanking machine Not none of which happens in Sacramento in Sacramento the staff are critical And they have to do the ecological analysis in Davis You have to do it deal with the economic ecological issues and I agree with that But we put people through a very disastrous process to become an opportunity in the business in Davis Well, let me let me take that and actually I mean when you've set the stage for one of the key things that I think good Is it is an issue here in Davis? We do need a new general plan, but I think that actually the problem-solver in me says is that it's a two-stage process There are some immediate General law reasons why the general plan cannot act as a general plan It says and Lucas talked about this when you you interviewed him a couple of weeks ago It says in it that the maximum possible Population in Davis is 64,000 people so any time that there's anything that comes in as a land use decision It is it has to be handled as a general plan exception. What then happens is instead of the kind of inclusive Community dialogue about where do we want Davis to be? How does this contribute to the fabric and value of the community? It it becomes just an application It just becomes and staff isn't the planning staff who are well trained to be planners Don't plan. They are simply application processors and in the sequel world You end up in a where you're ticking off boxes and you're just living this bureaucratic Let's call it what it is a nightmare Let's now translate that into the real-life situation that we have on Fifth Street where Sterling has has made an application to put in apartments for students and we certainly have a student housing crisis So there's a lot of value to the community that could come from Sterling, but across the street is Rancho Yolo a huge proportion of the affordable housing in Davis is right there on on Rancho Yolo and the people in Rancho Yolo are Feeling excluded from the process because in this a general plan exception Staff and the and the applicant go into this if you will in a silo talking to one another Interacting in it in positive ways to get the the application through and then they spring The completed thing out like Athena going from the head of Zeus The staff report happens on a Friday the Commission is is on a Monday and There's expectations because everything needs to be so fast in this world and we'll talk a little bit about that in in in your Charter plan Charter city thing You There's just no time for a Reasonable dialogue. There's no inclusion so those parts of the general plan that you talked about that didn't that they got Excluded to only having the general plan be land use or are not being served in the way We communicate one of the things I would do almost immediately as I would make a motion that the staff Report has to be out and available publicly for any public meeting ten days Not Friday for Tuesday, but a whole additional week to give give not only the council But the people a sense of being involved because if you feel like you're being excluded What's your immediate reaction your immediate reaction is distrust and to go to know and some people have said this Community is it is a community that is tied up in knots and they don't say mean KNO TS They mean N OTS. We are not going to do it The real issue for the retro. Yoa people isn't protected by sequel The real issue is is that they could conceivably end up being acquired even if everything is complied with and They get thrown out of their houses their their homes as has happened down in Santa Monica a year or so ago and We need to be able as a community to make the rules that protect the fabric of our community So what you've showed me here in charter City really resonates Yeah, we can we can say we can protect our community. We aren't complying with state laws that Just trickle down certain rules to us So I'm going to take a couple of minutes to talk about charter The state constitution Includes a provision called home rule and and you kind of alluded to it just then the idea as the Supreme Court of State of California and appeal court appellate courts have have ruled that Local jurisdictions can do a better job of representing their citizens than the state legislature can That's the law. That's the state constitution. So in 1889 the US the California Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional and So now we have almost 500 cities in California and 120 of them are charter cities Now a charter city is to be compared with a general law city. So a general law city And there are 380 general law cities like Davis Woodland Chico, no, I'm sorry Chico said charter city Charter city examples are Sacramento Marysville Chico Napa Those are local ones all the nine UC city campus campus cities are charter cities Davis is the only one that's not The difference is that in a general law city the legislature writes a rule and then City has to comply with it with the charter city The city council can actually say a little more. Well, you like that idea. Yes. Okay. Well, then let's talk about it No, well, then let's not do that or how little do we have to do? So the city has a fair amount of latitude as a charter city that does not have as a general law city So I make the metaphor This is a general law city kind of like a mitten and this is a charter city You kind of like a glove now you can do everything With a glove that you can do with a mitten, but there are lots of things you can't do with a mitten One of the things that as I read through your materials that I see as challenging from Getting from here where we are to there being a charter city is is that We have to engage all of the the members of the of the community a community Or a certainly enough of them so that we really feel that we've got community buy-in that City council meeting that you described from the number of years ago when when your city is at 90% satisfaction with life It's really easy for people to say don't bother me. I you know my life is pretty good What we are dealing with now is the fact that We are Whether we're at 50% or wherever we are there is a whole lot more dissatisfaction and there's a whole lot more evidence that the the Underpinnings that are around us that make the life really good are are in fact The quality the asphalt I ride a bicycle. I don't drive a car The quality of the asphalt on the roads of Davis in 1986 when Anne Evans ran for reelection. She said show me a pothole Show me a pothole. Okay. We aren't in that world anymore We don't get federal or state money to support our roads. Those are still our tax dollars, but we don't get those They're gonna come out of the local budget so We need to engage the community there the reality is is of it if we're gonna update the general plan We have to engage the community But we that's the longer range Updating of the general plan one of the things that we could do immediately if I were elected It may even be a motion. I make in the very first Council meeting that I'm part of is to change the maximum population in the general plan from 64,000 to some number that's higher than what our existing Population is what that means is is that an application like the veterinary lab company? That's grown up here in Davis is a perfect example of Davis innovation That has bought a small bungalow on B Street and wants to tear the bungalow down Rebuild a three-story building with housing on the first floor just like the bungalow has now and their offices and labs on the Second and third floor. It's it's a no-brainer decision. It's the in in government terms It's a ministerial application It's clearly going to improve the life of the community and yet because of that 64,000 number It has to be dealt with as a general plan exception and by state law No city can have more than more jurisdiction can have more than four general plan exceptions in a year so their staff juggling these things and much mushing them together and Working schedules through doesn't make any sense if we change that number then what we're we're not going to be in the make-work Situation we're going to that we are now by having to handle everything as a general plan exception in that That non-inclusive silo what we're going to do is go back to planning and including the community in So fix that short-term issue with the general plan and then engage the community in the much larger long-term Perspective that you're talking about well the the entertaining thing about your idea is That that becomes the nexus point for the whole debate yes that that there are many people Perhaps a more majority in Davis that would feel just fine if it didn't grow beyond 64,000 And and that's you know the property values are that it's in your interest To not have new development because that will raise the property values So that's that's a competing continuing to begin with what I'm arguing for in terms of the charter process is that the citywide Analysis is not something most people can relate to so I'm arguing that we divide the city into Communities of five to ten thousand so there would be about twelve communities in Davis so for example South Davis is really divided between the people that shop at Safeway and the people with shop at Nugget the people in West South Davis shop at Safeway and the people in East South Davis shop at Nugget Similarly the people around the Nugget and and the other shopping centers There was a certain correlation between where you shop and where your sense of community is and I'm trying to tie that Together but also looking at people living in in their own village in their neighborhood and then that's within a community So I'm I'm looking at the general plan actually engaging people more in the process of what governance is so that So we can do something about cleaning up the streets, but we can clean up some neighborhoods Well, there's actually a jumpstart toward what you're doing which is Nextdoor the electronic Community creator and what they have done is a for logical Afford of what you mean next door is a is an application that the city Worked with the company that provides next door. It's a it's an internet internet software Network network so that it's I actually know a little about where you're talking about But I want to I want to be able to have people figure out go ahead So a perfect example and what they've done is broken Davis down into discreet neighborhoods, right When I lived in El Miserro, I was in that El Miserro part of next door And you can you can set your profile up to say I just want to hear from my neighbors Or do I want to and this is one of the things that's interesting about your Your model is that you can define community the way that you want to you make it more inclusive Well when I move from El Miserro to Davis Manor, I was no longer I wasn't close enough to El Miserro in next door to be able to get the messages from them But it gave me a way to get to know the people who were in my community because they were posting things like lost cat We're having and we're having the the every every other Friday. We have a happy hour, right? There's a there's a discussion about doing a mural in the middle of the street and and it Really creates not only community and that neighborhood happens to have the end street co-housing So there's actually if you will a neighborhood Community center to me, but it was amazing how quickly I was able to integrate in To the community and also when you look at your model of saying how can a general plan Happen well if we're trying to incorporate the whole of Davis in that's really hard to do Let's let's talk about pillars of strength within the community What are the things that make it strong? Well, those are in those smaller communities You use the number of ten thousand so breaking Davis apart into smaller communities And then having the dialogue about what do we want as a resilient Davis 2030 2040 2050 exactly That was can happen in a reasonable way And then then you start to bring those visions those neighborhood visions together into the larger community vision I I'm even pushing towards to re-decentralize enough that the city council doesn't have as much power Because it doesn't need it Because things that happen that are part of the city that are not all of the city get focused on by the Community that needs to deal with it now water is a great example of something that's city-wide in its focus We've we've had our 16 wells and this is something I know like 10% of what you know about and I know a lot I came here to study chemical engineering So there was a point in time where public works actually asked me as a test case to read a bunch of stuff about What it ended up being Matt's project? But there are ways that we need to think about the Decentralization of the mechanics of how to operate the city the school district divides the city according to catchment areas For the elementary schools and then the junior high school Similarly the police department sometimes and I think now is one of those times has divided up the city into zones And then people are responsible for that area you get to know people you get to become familiar with the problem people you get To deal with cases on a regular basis and hopefully make them go away There those are kinds of things that that Just because it's a city-wide problem doesn't mean that it needs to be dealt with on a city-wide base That's that's correct But let's we can go back and use the rancho yellow sterling situation as a as a case in point there is a Nimby aspect to it that can happen and The issues that are there the issues about student housing are truly universal all the way from the furthest west border of Davis to the furthest east and south and north and so we need to be able to have both the community at That that neighborhood level but also have the community in a larger sense so that the the kinds of issues that we can find The the win-win relationship We one of the ways that we can do a win-win at sterling is we can change our zoning for Already affordable places parcels that are here That in the city and says that if a developer is going to tear down what's there and put up something new they have to have The same proportion of affordable housing as already exists Well, Rancho yellow is a hundred percent affordable So a developer would who was looking at 40 acres and saying gosh I could make a quarter of a billion dollars if I redevelop that if they knew that Everything that they built had to be affordable and affordable by our local definition not just the federal or state definition It becomes a less fiscally robust project They're not going to be taking so much money back and and you end up in a situation where An important asset to our community like Rancho yellow continues to exist in exactly the same way that it is now and Yet they don't feel threatened by the fact that a student apartment is going across the the road and setting a precedent of How much money a developer of apartments could make on six acres? Thinking and then doing the multiplication to say with 40 the 40 acres of Rancho yellow. I can make You know eight times as much and you you do things to inherently build The the resilience into the community we protect the things that make this a community sure so I Wanted I want to do two things now one of the things I like to talk about is the viable system model And I'm not going to talk about it very much But the point is Rancho low yolo has an identity Sterling has an identity or a potential identity at this point those two are in conflict This the city is supposed to have a role where it's so big that those two subsystems get subsumed But there needs to be a larger subsystem that includes Rancho yolo and and the sterling That's immediate and also its long term. Yes, so that they do become Compatible communities as they evolve and mature and with a lot of student turnover You're gonna you're not going to have a lot of turnover with Rancho yolo No, there is some but there is not anything like the student body No, it's not and in Rancho yolo because of changes in the tax law Converted from a largely student population to seniors probably 10-15 years ago because it became there were certain tax advantages for seniors to to live there It's not going to be as attractive for students as a mobile home as a manufactured home Place Maybe some graduate married graduate students might but the reality is is that the only way it's going to become a Magnet for students is if all of the existing Rancho yolo residents get kicked out. Yeah, that's I Wanted going the other direction which is city-wide The I came here in 66, so that was 50 years ago when the the bicycle lanes were approved We had 24,000 people We didn't have a hook-and-ladder truck fire truck we still don't well now We use the universities, but the point is that that was why we had a three-story height limit was in terms of fire suppression and so We grew out instead of up Davis could now increase its density Without increasing its carbon footprint and actually lower its carbon footprint per capita significantly by densification and some of that is things like granny flats in the back of what was used to be called an r8 an 80 an 8,000 square foot lot as opposed to a 6400 square foot lot Which is the way it is and most of what is now central Davis, but the problem about the The problem isn't the sterling apartments The problem is the threat of the sterling apartments being something that that Rancho Yolo people are Paranoid about okay now fear is legitimate This is in the case of a hypothetical. It may be true There are developers that are more than happy to throw away a bunch of money for you know to get a billion dollars The realistic problems now have to do with the dynamics, but Davis needs to have more apartments We have a point two percent vacancy rate. Will Arnold did the numbers and that's if we have 8,000 apartments That means 16 or bacon That's that's absurd. Well, I would venture to say that Our vacancy rate is actually which is impossible negative because the university has added 5,300 students over the last four years and we haven't added a single apartment and that means that there's a whole lot of people Who aren't living in the apartments who are living in West Sack or Sack or woodland? And they're driving across the causeway getting off at Richards and jamming in the Richards tunnel Those who should be calculated in the vacancy rate the problem with being a UC campus city that because Berkeley and UCLA the office of the president defines a local resident as anyone who lives within 30 miles of the campus so anybody who lives in Roseville or Vacaville is considered a UC Davis resident Low loan Sacramento Elk Grove But one of the things that you say in talking with Lucas you you made the comment that 53% of the carbon footprint comes from transportation. I have been I have in my Non-counselmen role. I have been beating on Josh fast binder from from sterling to say you you should be having a trying to set up Sterling so that the students who live there none of them use anything other than public transportation or bicycles and the only parking spaces should be for Zipcars so they can get places in the weekend and and some spaces for visitors we can make it if we did that then they intrusion of all of those students living in sterling on the people who are living in Rancho yellow becomes much much lighter and we we have function as a community. I see I I think it's a false impact. I I mean I I don't I mean we're We're a two baseball throws from it right here So whenever I come to the studio, I see the area that we're talking about It's not a foreign territory to me and and to me The people in West Davis went crazy about West Village and not allowing access to Russell Boulevard And that was bizarre and I I considered the Rancho yellows concerns to be unrealistic But they're unrealistic in a sequel way, but but in terms of the threat to their way of life. It's very real So you don't that gets back to the land use that the separation of land use from the social We're gonna have sustainable. It needs to be a combination of fiscal economic and environmental You end up in a balance this gave my next paper But but those are things that we should be dialoguing about in this community. I agree, okay? So ecology economy equity, those are the three terms. So you you said social equity is the term that I'm gonna talk about in my next paper, which is cradle-to-cradle by McNaughton No, I'm getting his name on anyway the point is the book is cradle-to-cradle and it's really excellent about how to do ecologically responsible economics the The city of Davis is a wonderful place because we have all these public employees that work for the state or work for the University we don't have a very strong economy locally most people have discretionary income They leave the city and spend their money elsewhere. Well, the demographics also are that that because You and I with our gray hair are still staying here. We saw 4,200 Rise in ten years from 2000 to 2010 of the seniors We saw 3,500 person rise for this UC Davis students and we saw a depression of the retail engine The parents of the kids in school they went down 1,500 in the school kids went down 900 That's not a sustainable community. Well, we've been that way since I was a freshman. We most cities, okay? This is the graph so kids high school college parents Grandparents, okay, it's almost flat with Davis. We have less kids than most Average, they're more there twice as many kids going to school in woodland as there are in Davis Then we have this 18 to 22 population and then from 22 to 60 we're down and then at 60 we balloon back up So the American Association retired people made us number eight in the country now all ten of the top places to Go if you're going to be retired or college towns. That's because College students need a lot of support and so do older people go ahead Wrapping this up as to why the heck I'm running for counsel is is that These issues are We need to be dealing with facts. We need to be dealing with evidence We need to be making decisions based on what are the these drivers in the community we don't need to be thinking political calculation and Politics and political calculation should be part of the evidence They shouldn't be displacing the evidence and my feeling was that when they gave away the ten million dollars on the Canary CFD that cost the local businesses a million dollars a year for 30 years We went we went we swung the political calculation pendulum too far It didn't make the three council members who voted for it bad people It's just that as they looked at the data. They weren't seeing the whole picture I I laud Robin and Brett for fighting for let's let's do more analysis of this in the end Six million dollars of what we've paid for was already completed and had been paid for by new homes It was a straight dead giveaway and We can't afford that if we're going to have we're going to get back to that crazy Council meeting where the the satisfaction with the community is 90% we have to work much smarter We have to we have to use our money much wiser so that's why I'm running and if there's ever a time for the voters to vote their pocketbook It's right now and they should be voting for me. I Want to thank you for being on our show. Thank you. This is what's going on. Thanks for watching. Good evening