 Welcome to the League of Voters Davis City Council District 5 Candidates Forum. Thanks to all the candidates for participating in our forum. This forum is co-sponsored by the Davis Media Access. Davis Media Access is a nonprofit community media center serving Yolo County. DMA's mission is to enrich and strengthen the community by providing alternatives to commercial media for local voices, opinions, and creative endeavors. My name is Mary Jo Bryant and I'm the current president of the League of Voters of Davis. As many of you know, the City of Davis and the Davis Joint Unified School Districts have moved from at-large elections where we all vote for city council and school board trustees to district elections where we vote for a candidate who lives in the district where we live. The City of Davis map on the screen shows City Council District 5. The district for the most part is South Davis, but includes some of Olive Drive and, of course, does not include El Mocero, which is not in the city limits. Our moderator tonight for today's forum is Bob Fung. Bob is one of our four board members and chair of the Voters Service Committee, which is responsible for putting on our candidates forum, including this one. Thank you. Thanks, Mary Jo. My name is Bob Fung and I will serve as moderator for this afternoon's forum. Here's the forum format. Each candidate will give a two-minute opening statement. After opening statements, candidates will respond to up to six moderated questions. Three of these questions were sent to the candidates a week before the forum. Each candidate has 90 seconds for their first response to each question. Candidates will be advised of their time with a 15-second and a five-second warning from our forum timekeeper and a bell when their time has ended. Candidates will be muted when they exceed the time limit. Candidates, please mute your audio when you are not speaking. We have determined the order of candidates by random number drawing prior to this afternoon and the candidates have been advised of their order of speaking. After the primary question responses are completed by all candidates, I will ask if any candidate wants to add a secondary response. Candidates will each have five opportunities during the forum for secondary responses of 40 seconds each. If there are no additional candidate responses, I will go to the next question. Candidates should indicate that they would like to make a secondary response by using the Zoom Hands Up Facility. After all candidates have had a chance to add a secondary response, I will ask if any candidate would like to add an additional response and then move on to the next question when no candidate wishes to respond further. At the conclusion of the moderated questions and responses, each candidate will have one minute for a closing statement. We will disable chat at the beginning of the main part of the forum and enable it when the main forum is concluded to minimize disruptions to the candidates. Audience may submit questions for consideration by sending questions to ask.LWVDAatgmail.com. Questions will be accepted until 6 o'clock or when we finish the six questions when the candidates give their closing statements, whichever is earlier. Questions should be aimed at all the candidates. Questions aimed at a single candidate will not be accepted. Audience questions will be asked in the final 30 minutes of our forum or if we finish the six questions earlier, somewhat earlier than that, which has happened in the last forum. There will be a short break between the end of the main forum and the audience Q&A to give the forum question manager an opportunity to collate the questions. Mary Jo, Brian, our president will provide League of Women Voters information during this break. We will close with audience questions where candidate responses will be limited to one minute and a secondary response of 30 seconds will be allowed for each candidate for each question. So just to repeat the email, if you want to ask audience question, it's ask.LWVDAatgmail.com. Each candidate will now give their opening statement of up to two minutes by random drawing. We begin with Kelsey Fortune, followed by Josh Chapman, Connor Gorman and Rochelle Swanson. Go ahead, Kelsey, when you're ready. Thank you, Bob. It's hard being a young candidate. You get dismissed repeatedly. I'd like to remind you that these young candidates represent an important portion of our population and that we do have ideas of how things can be better. As a young woman, I have been talked over and dismissed and told to smile more times than I can count. I'm really glad that we have this forum where we can actually talk about the important things that I have made myself available almost every day to talk with voters about. I want to listen to all of you and lead Davis to a better, brighter future. Thank you. Thank you. Josh, you're next. Thank you, Bob. My name is Josh Chapman. For the past 10 years, I've lived in South Davis with my wife, Athena, and my two boys, Owen and Quinton, who both attend Margaret Montgomery Elementary School in South Davis. I'm also the owner of Armandillo Music in downtown. For the past four years, I was the president of the Davis Downtown Business Association, board of directors, and then in the beginning of this year, wrapped up two years on the downtown plan advisory committee as a voting member through the DVBA. I also have a background in master's degree in education with focus on equity and social justice. Why I'm running, I'm running for this, my dad. When I was growing up, my dad ran for school board. He was a bus driver in the town where I grew up, and I remember as a kid, carrying signs around and helping him campaign and listening to people call the house and leave messages on the voicemail and all those types of things. And there was just something about it that there was an impact about trying to make the community better that resonated with me. And that same sense of civic responsibility carried me to Washington, DC after I graduated college. I joined AmeriCorps and spent time teaching in Southeast DC and then stayed on, was hired and worked in a Metropolitan Police Boys and Girls Club there. That also led me to get my master's degree in education with a focus on equity and social justice. And I taught in San Francisco at SF General, working with students with severe mental health issues who were incarcerated. And I was a teacher in that school. So when I moved back to Davis 10 years ago to run Armadillo and raise my family, that same sense of responsibility led me to teach. I taught suicide prevention here for suicide prevention in Yellow County. So I taught suicide prevention and mental health awareness to 7th and 9th graders. And then also I spent time as a volunteer, as a youth coach and at my son's school. So I look forward to this debate. I look forward to answering questions. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Connor. So I also want to emphasize the importance of younger people, as well as students and renters in our community. I do think that it's important for us to account for all of the different communities in Davis and the different needs of different communities. And I do think that students and renters are a very important part of Davis and a group that has not been that strongly represented in city politics, including on the council in the past decade or so. So I think that it is important for us to get that representation. And as a student and a renter myself, I believe that I can bring such representation to the council. And simultaneously, I have also been involved in both UC Davis and Davis City politics for several years now. So when I first came to Davis about seven years ago, I fairly quickly became involved in labor organizing and worker and student needs. But a few years ago, I also started becoming more involved in city council politics and city decisions. And that started with me working with indigenous community members, trying to get the city to move its banking services away from Wells Fargo in opposition to the code access pipeline. And it sort of evolved from there. So I believe that I have a good balance of a knowledge of city politics, as well as perspectives from marginalized communities in Davis. And I believe that I can bring that balance to the council. Thank you, Connor. Rochelle. I mute wasn't working very quickly, hopefully that's better. Thank you all for hosting this forum. And it was said earlier, it's great for us all to be in the same format. I think it makes for a much more lively way for us to be able to talk about the issues. I first moved to Davis in 93, having visited the year before to check out UC Davis. And so I've known South Davis as a poor college student as a renter, driving through big mustard fields to today where pre COVID, we had waste traffic backed up in very long waits, even to get a grocery store. So it's been quite amazing to see the changes in Davis over the nearly 30 years that I've been here, most of which have been in South Davis. My three boys have been raised all the way here. My youngest just graduated this past June at the famous drive-through cap and gown pickup and have been very active. I started on the general plan in the very early 90s. Shortly after I moved here, working on the general plan update, I've been a grandeur for the Yolo County. I led the effort with the Blue and White Foundation to build the largest classroom at Davis High, which is the outside stadium. And did two years, two terms on city council from 2010 to 2018. Similarly to 2010 is why I'm back seeking a seat in 2020. At that time, there was a lot of dissension on the dais. We were in a recession and there was a lot of concern about what was happening. Our budget was unbalanced and there was a lot of fear of where things were moving. We were seeing families that were being furloughed, often two-income households from the university that were taking sizable cuts and noticing the need to have to have a cut in services. And so I had been asked then if I would please step up because I developed a reputation for bringing disparate groups together in a way to work together. And just like now, I was asked by community members starting in early spring and it has just grown more important to see that there's experience and continuity from the last time you've had many challenges. Thank you, Rochelle. Now we'll move to the first question of the forum. And the first question is, although the City Council will continue to govern all of Davis, you were being elected by voters of a specific district. What are the top needs of your district and how do you propose to address them? And let's see, Josh Chapman will be the first to answer the question. Thank you. Yeah, so I think there are a few immediate needs. One is, you know, the one is to have representation on the Council and have somebody who is representing South Davis and looking out for the way money is allocated and the way that money is being spent and making sure that South Davis is getting a fair share of that. So just having that voice there is extremely important. The second piece that we have to figure out that's more immediate that I hear about almost every single day or whatever person I talk to is figuring out and dealing with a solution to Mace Boulevard and how we address that and tackle it. The third piece that we need to look at that I've been talking about since day one is getting the South Davis Library built, working with county leaders to actually see that through and use the voter-funded money that is there to get that library built in South Davis. The next piece I think we look at is the open space tax that was passed. There is, again, voter-approved money. That we look at the South Fork of Buda Creek right up against South Davis, just on the other side of Mace, and look at using that money to create a more open space in South Davis. We can connect the piece that the city already owns. There's a vacant lot in the middle, and then there's a third piece that's owned by the county and working closely to purchase that piece of land to have almost a four-mile loop of space for residents of South Davis to use. Thanks. Thanks, Josh. Connor Gorman, you're next. So I think there are a lot of different communities in South Davis, and sometimes they have different needs, and we really need to think about what different communities need and try to address the needs of different communities, but sometimes those needs overlap. And I do think that the A South Davis Library is a good example of needs overlapping, because I believe A South Davis Library is something that a lot of South Davis residents have wanted, and in addition to benefiting the community as a whole, it would in particular benefit the school district, and it would also benefit some of the most marginalized, especially economically communities, because, for instance, these days you need good internet in order to do a lot of things, including just applying to jobs, and having a library as a place for people to go during, say, extreme weather events or when it's really hot outside is often a useful thing as well. So I think A South Davis Library would address a lot of these needs, but we also do need to look at other needs as well, and I believe that another major need that would benefit the community as a whole, as well as the most marginalized, is trying to restructure public safety and really look at a housing first approach to homelessness. Thanks, Connor, for your response. Rochelle, you're next. You need to unmute yourself. Thank you. Well, there's definitely a myriad of issues. I think the underpinning of all of them is making sure the sustainability whatever programs are changed we want to see. When we do have different communities within South Davis, whether it's Olive Drive or around Putta Creek, or out on Childs Road and even up around Iggy Lane, I think some of the pressing issues, especially right now in the middle of fire season, is that we have one of the largest green belt systems that goes along the south part of District 5, and that right now the staff is in the middle of thinning that, and I think that needs to be a priority to make sure that we are aware and responsible, I think equitable access to the other side of town is important, whether it's MACE or Pullline Overcrossing or Richards, and thankfully those funds are coming forward. I think another thing for equitable transportation is also considering more bus stops in the way that Unitrans is able to pick up more people that need to be able to get into other parts of town. Even though COVID has gotten traffic down, I think it's something that as we see people coming back to work, we need to be smart about traffic calming measures to disrupt the algorithms with ways so that we aren't further impacted even before the problems with MACE Boulevard. That was a significant issue in South Davis because of the exits that we go through. And I do, I am hopeful that with some of the funding at the state and federal level around Broadband that we can bring the library conversation back. The city's brought money and property to the table and it will be great to see some programming with the school district and with the county, I think bringing those extra funds on. Thank you. Kelsey, you're next. Yes, so there were a lot of things that the other candidates have mentioned. You've got the MACE mess that needs to be addressed, as well as the fact that we've been sitting on for a long time a pile of money to build that South Davis library and there just hasn't been anyone pushing that forward. You also need to think about the bike infrastructure, which is something that I struggle with in South Davis. I've lived in other parts of Davis as well, and I can tell you that now that I'm in South Davis, I definitely bike on the roads rather than the bike paths because of the poor upkeep. There are also things like Pacifico and homelessness that has kind of been pushed out of the downtown area into our neighborhoods that are very important issues for the South Davis residents. And I agree with Connor that we need to look at a housing first model for dealing with populations that are unhoused for whatever reason and rethink public safety in general. Thank you, Kelsey. Would anybody like to submit a second error response to that question? Josh, I see Josh's hand. Is that right, Josh? Do you have your hand up? Or maybe not. Okay. Thank you. Yes? No, I'm good. Okay, good. Thanks. All right, and Connor wasn't on my screen, so. No, I'm good. Thank you. Connor, did you want to have a secondary response? No? Okay, so let me tell the candidates, if you need me to repeat the question, if say you're a third or fourth in line, and you just let me know, okay? So we'll go on to the second question. What is your position on reallocating public safety slash police funding in Davis? Please include specific examples. Connor, you're first to respond. I thought Josh was first to respond. I can respond, but. No, I think your. It rotated. It was next, was last time, was first to respond last time. Okay. Kelsey was first, then Josh, and then now you. Okay, so what was the question again? Yeah. What is your position on reallocating public safety slash police funding in Davis? Please include specific examples. Okay, so I am very in favor of reallocating police funding to real public safety. And this is actually tying into what I was kind of getting at toward the end of my previous response. So I believe that we need a separate department of public safety that is independent of the Davis police department. And I think that this department should hold things like mental health crisis response and substance use crisis response and homelessness outreach and those types of services as well as shelters and respite centers that I believe Davis needs more of as well. So I think that this would be very helpful for certainly the populations that are directly served, but also the community as a whole because really creating real public safety in our overall community benefits everyone. And we know that policing does not create public safety. We know that policing does not actually address the issues that we are having in our society. And there are ways to redirect that funding in a much more effective manner. Thanks, Connor. Rochelle, you're next. Thank you. Well, I think words matter. And so I think reassessing is a very good turn around this around public safety as well as reimagining. And we're learning that public safety and public service is a much bigger net that we need to catch right now. Often many things fall into law enforcement's hands for which they're not trained, a lot of it around mental health, drug use, homelessness. And so I believe that we need to be more part of that. We only have now one officer we're looking at on part of a grant we're putting in $60,000 for a clinician that specializes in crisis innovation and training. I think that we should have more than that just because those issues are not an eight hour a day thing 40 hours a week. I think we need to have more care. We've had a warm handoff project. So if somebody was been battling with mental illness or drug abuse and having a law enforcement call, they were able to go to communicate. Unfortunately, that's been cut. So I think we need to reassess what we actually need. And I think this is in every district is a little more unique than others. South Davis has two different freeway exits. So yes, we very much need to have, I think, crisis intervention training. I want to see more in the day to day because I think that's how you also get it a culture. But at the same time, we need to hear all citizens voices. We have a lot of citizens that are worried about their safety as well and are worried about just a cut or a complete change could actually leave them at risk. So I think it's important that. Thank you, Rochelle. Thanks for your response. Kelsey, you're next. Three years ago, I was raped. Two years ago, I went to the police. Nothing was done. If any other resident would like to tell me that the theft of their property and that they need an armed response for something that happened hours ago when they don't even know when is a bigger issue. Then what has happened to me, they can go ahead and we can have that conversation. We need to be thinking about what is an actual crime that we need to be dealing with and reallocate resources so that the actual things that are happening in our community are taken care of. I'm in a minority of victims who actually go to the police because victims know that nothing is going to happen. We are in a college town. This is happening. We need victim services. We need mental health services. We need homelessness services. We do not need more armed officers. They don't help victims. They don't help people in crisis. They don't help our community. Thank you, Kelsey. Josh, you're next. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I am down. I am definitely in support of looking at and identifying ways that we can be better with the way the police department can better support our community. This conversation has to be had. Any of these conversations that are had or happened, they happen at the city council, they also happen in our community. Anything that changes reallocation, it should be a city-driven process where we have multiple voices around the table, different views, different experiences to make that decision a well-informed decision. The vast majority of the calls the police department receives is not violent crime. Most of those calls that they get are dealing with somebody who is in a mental health crisis or is in need of some support of support services. I do support us looking at and coming up with more holistic approaches to how we look at policing. Somebody having a mental health crisis is not a criminal. And we need to look at how we respond to those situations as a community, as a police department, and better address the needs of the people who are looking for that support. Even when people are behaving violently, medical professionals, they are able to handle those situations. I've worked in hospitals dealing with kids who are having mental health crises and I'm not an armed professional. I was able to de-escalate and help through that process. That type of process can work. I think that we can use funds, the grants that the county is getting to implement, like I said, a more holistic approach to this and reform methods of de-escalation and rap services are completely consistent with. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Would anybody like to make a secondary response? I don't see any hands. I'll go to the next, as the third question. Oh, there's a hand. Kelsey, go ahead. I just wanted to say that I do have a plan for this. I'd like to see a Department of Public Safety that contains police, fire, EMS, your typical three, as well as a Department of Mental Health Services, a Department for Homeless Services and a Department for Victim Services. That way we can have professionals at every single level who are meant to deal with different situations. We hear a lot about these different response services where there's co-response, that type of thing, not actually working very well. And part of that is because when you're dealing with someone who's in crisis, bringing them in and then releasing them back onto the street is not actually serving them. We need to have background as well. Thank you, Kelsey. Connor, you're next. Thanks for putting your hand up. Yeah, so I just wanted to mention why I do believe that this should be a separate department. So I essentially think that it needs to be independent of the structure and culture and budgeting and decision processes of the Davis Police Department. But I also would be happy to look at a potential joint model. And I do think that that would be a possibility too. So at the moment, I'm in favor of a separate department. But I also think that there are merits to a joint one as well. Thank you, Connor. We go on to the third question, which is what more can the city do to curtail climate change? And Rochelle will speak first. Thank you. There are a number of things we can do, both big and small, to curtail climate change. We've actually done some great things by adopting the climate adaptation and action plan. We have wonderful groups within Davis, like Cool Davis, that's really worked with the community. I think we can definitely do more. They're, you know, look forward to the updated plan. There's been a great focus on new development that comes in about being very energy efficient from small single family homes to large projects like disk. And I've been saying this for a long time and I still continue to feel that we need to put more investment in our existing housing stock. That is actually where we have a lot of energy loss that's not, you know, already something that's built today in 2020 is going to be significantly energy efficient just from the materials and the windows and the better practices. But we have older homes that are here that are 30, 40 and 50 years old that could be significantly upgraded. I know I've done it in my own home and see a big impact. And we have, you know, I think, so that's one way to do it. And that includes affordable housing. Often there is a challenge to be able to get at that. I think being able to, like I mentioned earlier, more transportation routes, even with Unitrans and with other public transportation that makes it easier by improving our infrastructure. And then from a big picture is joining some of the regional consortiums that are looking at macro ways as well as micro ways to address climate change. And it puts us in the ability to share grant funding and expertise. And we already have an amazing brain trust here. And I think we would be very well-served to join that regional consortium on climate change. Thanks, Rochelle. Chelsea? Yeah. So I think that the first thing we need is an updated general plan. We need to be thinking about climate when it comes to every single decision that we make as a city. So whether we're talking about, you know, large development projects or whether we're talking about, you know, something as small as a specific intersection what we're looking at when we're talking about transportation or, you know, public health, literally everything. We should be including climate in that conversation. So one of the big things that I would like is a commission specifically dedicated to climate. Our commissions do fabulous work putting together their own expertise as well as reaching out and figuring out where everyone is, where the best information is. I also believe that we need dense infill. One of the biggest things in Davis is that people want to live here because they work here and they play here. And if we move people to where they work and play, they will drive less. And that is a huge part of our footprint right now is people commuting. So when it comes to projects like disk, which say that they're sustainable and clean, we need to look at the bigger picture and realize that disk will create 5,000 additional computers from the surrounding area. Thank you, Kelsey. Josh. Thank you. Yeah, I think that, you know, we can and should be doing everything we can to get to net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible. You know, on a larger scale, you know, we know that there's a huge portion of companies that are, you know, producing the vast majority of the emissions that we're talking about on the California side of pieces. We see, you know, the governor moving forward with the car piece of, you know, non gas burning cars. And those are commitments, you know, that we look at from the state level, but we can also be creative that way at the local level. And I think one thing that a couple of folks have touched on is that we need to, you know, we are the home to one of the top research universities in the world with a number of experts in climate change, and particularly ones that are associated with ag. So I think as a city, we have a chance to not just do our part, but we can think larger in scale. I think we need to partner with the county and university and make this region a global leader in fighting climate change. We can look at how we calculate that. You know, currently we don't base it on per capita, which is a piece that we need to look at. And as Kelsey mentioned, I think we can address that when we look at the redoing of the general plan itself. You know, and exporting the research and the technology in the world is going to need if we're going to turn back to Tide of what we're seeing. We're seeing it currently with all the extreme weather that we're facing. Locally, we're seeing some folks that are putting together, there's a group that's working right now, which is exciting on the phrase is Tormea, which is totally recycled materials. And they're starting to look at ways that we can work together as a community and create repair cafes here in town. And that's a group that's getting underway now. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Connor, you're next. So I agree with Kelsey that dense infill is a major part of addressing climate change. And really we need people to be able to live near the destinations that they typically visit. So work, school and businesses. So I think we do need more density in Davis and in particular, we need more density in and near the downtown and the campus. And I will add to that that I think that this density also needs to make sure to address other issues as well. And in particular, I think affordability is a big part of it. I think affordability is important on its own, but it also relates to trying to make it so that people drive less and are able to walk or bike to their job or to school. Because there are a lot of students as well as a lot of downtown workers who cannot currently afford to live in Davis and have to commute from elsewhere. So I think making sure that we have this dense affordable housing that allows those students and workers to truly live near where they go to school or work is an important aspect that goes well with the density aspect as well. Thank you, Connor. Anybody have a secondary response to this question about climate change? Okay, we'll go on to the next question. This is the fourth question out of six. The recently developed downtown plan will affect all residents of Davis and the new City Council will be responsible for its implementation. What is your understanding of the status of the downtown plan and what are your top priorities for implementing it? And let's see, there's my... I think I'm first this time, Bob. I'll just start for you. Appreciate it. So this is one that I will definitely be less familiar with than our other candidates who have served specifically on downtown business association and in this planning process. And I'm so glad that they have given their time to these important subjects and that this is something that was really meaningful for them. I'm extremely disappointed that in the last 10 years we've had an outdated general plan and I'm glad that the downtown community has decided to kind of take this on themselves as update a plan for that area. So I think thinking about the density of the downtown is something that I'm very passionate about and really thinking of ways where we can move people into that area to make it more of a destination rather than driving to a specific place and then leaving. Making it more pedestrian and bike friendly and really just increasing its ability to draw people for more than just a single place. Thank you, Kelsey. Josh. Thank you. Yeah, so I was on the downtown plan advisory committee. It was a plan that the city put together. They decided to do the downtown plan first before they tackled the general plan. So where it's at right now, the EIR is underway. We're looking at hopefully June 2021 that that can get wrapped up and be approved. And again, the big piece of this is that it allows projects that fall within this plan to be covered by the EIR, covered by CEQA. We know that there's six to eight documents roughly that people have to go through and we're looking at processing and streamlining how that process works. It makes it easier to navigate for people that are looking to develop here. Things that we addressed in that plan, missing middle housing, we know that was a big piece of it. As other folks have said, we need intense infill downtown and how we go about that has a number of benefits to it. Some of the main areas that we looked at focused in on the Hibbet Lumberlot is a huge space that we can look at and really do some really exciting things there and get people living, working, shopping, eating all that stuff in that area. Same thing with the Davis-Ace hardware lot that they have there. It also addresses leakage of people, the amount of people that are leaving town. We know that in this study in 2018, the market analysis with that 9,000 workers were coming into Davis and over 20,000 were leaving city limits to go to work. So we really do need to address that and look at what the effects are. Thanks, Josh. Thanks. Connor, you're next. So I really like the process for the downtown planning. So it's been going on for a few years now. And I really like the way that it incorporated community input. And as Josh said, it's still going and there's still even more opportunities for community input. So I really liked that aspect of it. I hope that something similar happens with the general plan update and I wish something similar would happen with the housing specific element. But it seems like that one is on a much tighter timeline, which I was a bit disappointed at how quickly the housing element needs to be completed and how late that process was started. But I really like the process for the downtown plan. And I think that is something that we need to emulate in other city decisions. And in terms of the downtown itself, I like the idea of form-based code. And I think that the downtown is a great place for additional density. I do think that we need to make sure we have certain requirements and standards that we make sure that developers adhere to, especially around affordability, but I am in favor of the current plan. Thanks, Connor. Rochelle, your last on this. Great, thank you. No, I was actually very happy to be part of the council that brought the downtown plan to fruition and put a lot of great people on it who put a lot of effort into that plan. Ideally, it would have been great to have a general plan first, having served on that very long and laborious old process that we had. I am eager to see what comes new. I know that there's a lot of work in the consult and then it's been hired for that. And no COVID has slowed many things down. This kind of a format, I think, helps us be able to accelerate and actually make that a reality in the near future. But as the downtown plan itself, the notice of preparation is expected to go out next week, which means that we'll have a draft EIR for the community to comment on. Typically that comment period can be 45 days. I would be in favor of making that a little longer, which we've done in the past for EIRs. And I think as part of that noticing process, I would like to see it put into our utility bill. So every single resident in the town gets a notice as well as having it up on the website and making sure people are aware of what's happening. A really important part about the downtown plan is for certainty. And so any kind of investment requires certainty. And that's why it went forward when it did. We'd seen some great work come out of the parking commission plan and knew that we could do an even bigger plan for the downtown and form-based codes was the right way to go. And so there's folks waiting, some of the parcels that have been mentioned to do investment and being able to have a process in hand reduces their risk. And so I think that should be good. I don't have a hand signal online, but I would like to raise my hand. Yeah, I don't. I don't have a hand signal. Everybody else has their hands raised. So we'll go with Kelsey first. She raised her hand first. Then Connor, then Josh, then Rochelle. Go ahead, Kelsey. Great. So yes, form-based code, fantastic. Love it. Also would like to note that when you're thinking about commuter data in Davis, it's very, very misleading because the university is outside of the city limits. And so what you're really talking about is including me as a commuter out of Davis because I am living in the city and working on the campus most of the time. So it's very misleading. And you do not want to use that to say that, oh, we don't have enough jobs in Davis, for instance. Really, there are lots of people commuting to the university from Woodland, West SAC, other places because they can't even find places to live in Davis. Thank you, Kelsey. Connor, you had your hand up next. Yeah, so like I said, I'm in favor of the form-based code, but I do want to again emphasize the need to make sure we have other things in place, especially around affordability. And I also have been thinking about the idea of commercial rank control and or a commercial vacancy tax as a way to really incentivize the landowners downtown to lower their rents and make things easier for the small businesses and for redevelopment. Thank you. Josh, you're next. Yeah, thank you. So one thing that I've talked about in the meetings that I'm in and that I go to is and that I would commit to if I'm elected and push for, like I did previously, was representation on that committee. We had 15 people, community members voted on that were appointed. There was one person of color on that committee, one woman of color. Everybody else was upper-aged white people and it did not represent our community as a whole. And if I am elected, I will make sure that when the general plan comes as a representative of District 5, that I will have different folks of all different backgrounds, all different socioeconomic status on that committee. Thank you. Thanks, Josh. Rochelle? Yes, thank you. So to finish my earlier thought, she was part of that was densification and more mixed use in the downtown. And I agree with some affordability as well. I think we can see the transformation for folks who have been around for a little while, of even what happened in Midtown Sacramento. And that was really one of the fuels behind moving it forward was we were seeing some deterioration in the downtown. And I do agree that as implementation comes forward, I think it'd be good to have a new committee. And it's one of the things why I was supportive of district elections, missing representation, not just from the districts, but more diversity that actually reflects the community. And part of that's going to mean even improved outreach where people feel like they can have a voice. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see. Our fifth question is, the city faced financial problems before COVID, how can it dig out of an even deeper hole now? And Josh, full start. Yeah, absolutely. The biggest key is to bring in more revenue. That's obviously what it is. Bring in more revenue. What does that look like? It looks like building more housing. We have to look at redevelopment of properties. We need to look at increasing our tax base. We need to look at infill. That's one of the things I'm so excited about with the downtown plan is to start doing and generating redevelopment dollars in our downtown, increasing our sales tax base. We also need to step back and look at our grant writing process and how we prioritize grants that we go after. We currently have a consultant who writes grants for the city. We're going to need to work hand in hand with them in order to make sure we're prioritizing dollars that we really need to get into our community. The other piece we look at again is providing space for businesses to grow. When you look at some of the projects that we've done, some of the projects have come up, we need incubators. We need space for these businesses to grow, create jobs, have housing, more people living within Davis to increase that tax base. Thank you. Connor, you're next. So I think that there are really two ways that the city council can try to address the city's fiscal issues. So first indirectly, I think the city should use its platform to push for larger changes on the state and federal level. In particular, universal healthcare would be helpful on its own and also likely reduce employment healthcare costs for cities. And we should also really be supporting Prop 15 in this cycle and similar things to Prop 15 in the future. But then on the more direct side, as I was saying in my previous response, I think that having downtown rent control and or vacancy tax would incentivize the landowners to allow more small businesses to move in. And that would be a good way to rejuvenate downtown, which would also be helpful on its own while simultaneously creating more revenue for the city. So I think I agree with Josh that revenue is important. And I think that this would be one way to generate more of it and simultaneously help jumpstart downtown. Thank you, Connor. Rochelle? The city has probably one of the largest roles to play in the economy. And it's both process. It's also spending and its revenue. Luckily, we have a better process. When I was elected in 2010, we did not have a solid process. We were structurally imbalanced and we had a 3% growth rate, even though we were in the height of a recession. And now we have quarterly check-ins, a two-year budget, as well as keeping control on the number of employees. That was very difficult to have to do cuts back then. And it's put us in a better place. But what's different now versus then, that was a housing bubble that really set things off. This is a global pandemic and we've had people out of work and businesses closed for months on end. And so I think it's going to be very important that we go and assess our budget in today's dollars. What do we have? What are we looking at? I know the current council looked at doing furloughs and I think that's good for the... That was working well with employees in the short term, but in the longer term, we need to think about what are the services? And again, that goes back to a community-wide conversation. These are conversations that should be happening at council now where it's on the forefront and people have an understanding of some of the trade-offs. That includes looking at what departments make sense. It also means having an environment that welcomes revenue-generating opportunities and how do we promote businesses? And my first term, we created a small business account and I would like to see looking at that if we can utilize some of that loan program to actually help keep businesses online now. And I'm raising my hand. Okay, let's see. I think... Go ahead then. You're the only hand that I see. Go ahead, Rochelle. Part of that, which is important is being able to find those businesses. I mean, we have some right now where they're having to pay their rent and they're at 25% of revenues and they've cut all they can. And I know the chamber did a good job of doing outreach, but I think it'd be good to see if the city had more creative programs like we did before. We've got to work with our federal and state partners. There's federal dollars and state dollars that are going to be there. I think David, even doing an assessment, there were some projects that were put on hold but potentially bringing them on if we know that we could get some support for funding so that we're really able to leverage everything we have. And I agree with Connor. I think there might be some reasons where we need to go and actually lobby for infrastructure and for other needs that we have at the local level. Thank you. Thank you. I haven't answered this question yet. Yes, I'm coming to you. Okay, great. I'm like, you'll see. So it's a bit disappointing that after the longest period of growth in recent history that the city is not able to balance its budget in normal times. I understand that the pandemic has thrown things off for pretty much everyone. And so that's very understandable. But I think that we need to think not only how are we going to cover this short-term gap where our expenditures are higher than our revenue but how are we going to actually prepare for this type of thing in the future? We know that natural disasters, other things are going to become more and more regular as climate change continues. And so we need to be prepared for emergency situations. We need to be prepared for situations where suddenly revenue drops for whatever reason. And so putting in place automatic saving mechanisms for the city so that we can have coffers to go to in this type of situation, I think is very important. I also think that focusing on relationships that we have with the state government and other governmental bodies and the funds that are available there, that's going to be increasingly important. And absolutely agree with Connor that Prop 15 and other similar measures will help not only the city but everyone so that we see less of these large businesses. Thanks. Kelsey, would you like to, would any, the three of you like to add a secondary response? If so, you have to unmute yourself. Kelsey has her hand up. Yeah, I'll just continue my sentence real quick. We see situations where businesses own the majority of the land in areas and that happens because once you own it you are paying such low taxes on it and that continues and you can just keep buying up more and more. And so having Prop 15 in place allows for more equity in who's actually paying for the services that the city provides. Okay, Josh, would you like to have a secondary response there? Yeah, sure. Since we're talking Prop 15 here as somebody who owns a business and pays bills based on a business downtown and went through the repurchasing and readjusting of rent due to all the John Grindley properties being sold I can tell you firsthand what the effect is on our downtown economy and locally owned businesses what it's going to be if Prop 15 passes. And this is a tough one, they're balancing it against education, right, and what that looks like. But we have seen what happens when an inform before we've gone over from the businesses that have gone out of business when John Grindley sold his property. That was a direct reflection of property taxes going up on businesses who are owners live here, their kids go to school here and their business up close. They didn't relocate, they didn't relocate for the most part a few did in Davis, the rest of them went out of business. Thank you, Josh. Kelsey had her hand up again for a second secondary response which is legal. Awesome. Yeah, so I'd just like to address Josh's last comment. The idea of Prop 15 is that that wouldn't be happening anymore. You wouldn't see these huge jumps when property does get sold. There is a process for transitioning into a more equitable system of assessing property taxes more regularly so that when property changes hands you don't see these huge shocks. Yes, I think it's going to be very, very difficult as it comes into implementation but once we're fully implemented with a more equitable property tax system we'll see a lot more regularity. Thank you. Connor, you have your hand up. Yeah, so I was going to say a lot of what Kelsey just said but essentially the idea is that at least in the long term it would not only directly generate revenue but also potentially even incentivize lower rents and maybe even incentivize selling property to actual business owners instead of these large corporations holding a lot of it and in the short term I do wonder if commercial rent control would be a way to help mitigate some of the potential negative impacts. Thank you. Rochelle, since your hand doesn't work would you like another response or I don't? Yes, and it is good that Prop 15 came up in this because honestly what happened with the Brindley property was a big motivator to get the downtown plan up and off the ground to be able to get investment but also to be very aware what can happen when property changes hands. I think that if it does pass it's going to be imperative that the city work together with the businesses immediately that are impacted by those changes and actually come up with a plan of what would that transition look like what do businesses need to stay and how do we keep the folks that are here without them assuming that they either need to shut down or move their businesses elsewhere but really give them an opportunity from something else. Thank you. Kelsey do you have your hand up again or did you just leave your hand up? Okay, thank you. Oh Kelsey go ahead. My bad. I'm done, thank you. All right, all right. So we're close to six o'clock so we're going to go to closing statements and just a message to the audience. This is your if you have a audience question please email it to ask.lwvda at gmail.com It's in the chat, it's in the chat and we've received some questions already so we're going to take closing statements and then we're going to have a little interlude by Mary Jo. She's going to talk a little bit about the legal women voters and then we'll start on the audience questions. So let's see Connor you are up first for your closing statement. So I have been involved in Davis politics for quite a while now and I have been involved in both city-related issues as well as grassroots movements and direct actions and I believe that I can bring both of those perspectives to the city council where I have some background in what the city council does and how it functions obviously not as much as someone who was on it previously but still a decent amount and simultaneously I have connections to community groups and community organizations especially with the most marginalized and I believe that I can bring those perspectives to the council and really address the needs of the community especially those who are most marginalized. Thank you. Rochelle you're next and closing statements are one minute. Great thank you. Yeah so circling back to the beginning of why I was asked to run this time I think it's important through these tumultuous times to have continuity, compassion and experience. We have a different none the current city council members was on council during the last recession neither was the city manager nor the finance director and that is why it was asked to step back in and I think that's clearly reflected of my track record getting us through the last recession and the recovery is reflected in all the endorsements that I have from leaders that are very aware at multiple levels both at the regional and state and beyond what we have TOT is one of those examples alone they're looking at that industry maybe not coming back for another four to six maybe even eight years so we're going to have to get really smart about what we're doing and with my known leadership and experience I want to offer myself to be able to again serve this community not just District 5 but the whole city thank you. Thanks Rochelle. Kelsey you're up next for your closing speech. I was having an interesting conversation it was very brief the other day I saw a little dog along second street out you know on the way you know right beside the railroad tracks on the way out to to target area and this little dog along to a man who had been living along that bike path and so I spoke with him and I asked him what he'd like to see in Davis because he's been living here actually longer than I have eight years along that bike path I think it's important to have people on your council who are actually reaching out to all of these people who don't generally have the connections we hear about endorsements yeah those are all well connected people who are you know have a voice on their own we need to be talking to the people who don't have a voice thank you thank you Kelsey Josh Josh you're up next thank you so as I mentioned in my opening statement the sense of responsibility to my community has what is what has led me to run for Davis City Council my background is a business owner and my background as an educator both of those I think uniquely positions me to help lead the city through this through these times we know our community is facing unprecedented challenges from the global pandemic to you know the issues which have led to social justice demonstrations that are sweeping our community our nation I think in the face of these challenges you know I want to lead Davis through the tough decisions that are coming our way and the way that we as a city handle these issues must reflect the community's values and I want to lead with the values of inclusivity diversity community and sustainability I look forward to earning a vote thank you Josh this concludes our closing statements now we have a message from our League President Mary Jo Brian while we collate audience questions thank you Bob thank you Bob thank you I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about the League because it's something that's near near and dear to my heart the League of Women Voters of Davis was born in 1957 under the leadership of a future Davis mayor Sandy Motley it grew out it grew into a vibrant non-partisan organization and thrived for many years after years of dedicated service to the Davis community the leadership faced the reality of diminishing active members and a lack of younger members to take over the leadership the League disbanded in 2014 however in May of 2019 four individuals Bob Fung myself Georgina Valencia and Matt Williams met over coffee to discuss how to recreate and reestablish the League in Davis that initial group of four researched the organization and the history of the Davis League and followed the steps established by the State League to renew the League the State League on August 4th 2019 announced the Davis chapter as an official status our current board members include myself Mary Jo Brian Bob Fung who is our Vice President and Voterservice Chair Judy Higerson who is the membership chair and voter registration chair and Como Hawk social media and marketing chair the health care committee chair is Michelle Famila along with the five of us we are grateful for all the members who are actively working to provide non-partisan community forums voter education material and get out the vote in the upcoming November 3rd election highlights during the first year include forums on the Davis general plan housing discrimination and affordable housing two health care forums and local candidates forum for the county supervisor city council school board and voter registration with League members and voter registration where League members helped 1300 UC Davis students register to vote for the 2020 primary election now we are partnering with the yellow county elections department regarding assisting with their get out the vote effort almost 3,000 how to register pamphlets flyers in English and Spanish have been distributed through the food bank meals on wheels and the library League has been asked again to assist at UC Davis to serve as doc docents to the ballot drop offs and to voter assistance currently we have close to 130 members including six men and 24 household members committed to providing non-partisan community education so I invite all men and women to consider membership in or donation to the League of voters Davis areas our education is a 501c3 and supports activities like the one that you are attending today we appreciate your participation and invite you to check out our website at www lwvdavisarea.org we are stronger together and together we make democracy work is that got the questions ready got the questions ready perfect timing thank you very much okay for the audience questions candidates will have one minute to answer the questions and then if they would like a 30 second secondary response for each question and the first question will go to Rochelle and the first question is about the claw do you believe the current schedule of the claw pickup is appropriate all things considered if yes explain what makes suspension of that pickup for several months appropriate if no explain what you would advocate to be done great question all right especially right now with all the leaves everywhere all things considered I like that who wrote it yeah it would be great to have more claw pickup all things considered absolutely one of the reasons why this schedule was taken down was also looking at the ability for people to be able to pay their their pickup bill be able to for water sewer and garbage and that was a way of smoothing it out and if there is a lot of equipment that needed to be replaced as well at the time and so it was a way of trying to balance it's the same thing with the cart sizes how do we balance to wear it's not over burdensome for people who are on limited incomes but it still is accessible enough and then we also of course have the big cart for our composting to help with the week to week I think being able to schedule pickup times would be nice and be easier and I think it would be good to do a assessment and maybe see if there are even ways where folks have better access even if they just need maybe by street by street or by neighborhood thank you thank you let's see Kelsey you're next yeah so the claw was a very new thing for me when I moved to Davis that's not a thing other places most people have to transport their own waste to the proper facilities if they have a ton of waste like that and that's what I've always been used to so the fact that we have the claw at all is really a very very nice thing that the city it's a great service that the city provides I do think we need to rethink how often we need the claw with the implementation of compost throughout the city really we should be focusing on utilizing those compost bins before we're putting things on the street as someone who bikes everywhere large piles of debris in the bike paths is hinders a lot of us in our way our main way of getting around town so I really prefer we switch to primarily using the compost bins and utilize the claw only when necessary thank you Kelsey Josh thanks yeah I think what we've learned from this is that it's really hard to take something away that people are used to having it would say practice is a lot of patience when I can imagine when people are getting phone calls about this but I you know I think that we should find a way to make the claw be able to come back people aren't adhering to it in my neighborhood in South Davis there are always piles and piles and piles of dead debris what we're seeing now people doing is clearing stuff putting on the street and then once a week filling their car and then leaving all the rest of the stuff on the streets and it is still continuing to be a hazard from as Kelsey said a bicycling standpoint but also just in terms of they catch on fire or things like that or kids getting in and all that type of stuff but I also think that we can we can figure out a way to go like a block by block a neighborhood could schedule a pickup and that once a month that neighborhood can have a pickup so it's not every single week to try and mitigate some of the costs that comes in with that and it'd be more of a community organized event okay thanks Josh let's see Connor your your last yeah so like Kelsey and Josh I also think that we really need to emphasize the use of bins I know when the claw came up at city council a little while ago the the debris in bike paths was a major concern that a lot of people brought up around even having the claw as a concept to begin with so I do think that we should emphasize bins that are not in bike paths or the street as much as possible I do think that we should reconsider the schedule of the claw and that might even be a way to mitigate the effects of the hazards that are associated with debris piles but I think that would have to be a larger conversation that involves people in different neighborhoods especially because if people are like biking and there's piles in one neighborhood but not another it's thank you thank you anybody like to okay Rochelle has her hand up I just think it bears adding to this conversation because that is the compost bins they are great then that's also there's an issue for some people that are less able bodied than others especially we have a wide range in our community of different age groups and different abilities and I know that there are some folks that they express concern that they're unable to utilize their bins and sometimes we rely neighbor to neighbor I know I love using my big bin and sometimes we're able to share our piles but I think when we have that conversation again I think when it comes to not just timing and convenience and certainly we want to be safe but also just how it impacts people and how they're able to utilize it Connor would you like to have a secondary response 30 seconds yeah so that is a really good point around accessibility and that's something that has come up in Davis a lot in general around other issues too and I think that's something that we should incorporate into Davis decisions more broadly and I wonder if there are ways to implement certain things for people who need it while still having the larger policy applied to most people who do not have those accessibility needs Kelsey yeah I would just like to agree treating everyone as if we can't use a compost bin that's going to lead to suboptimal use and more piles on the street that are actually necessary and so if we want to talk about accessibility well then we need to be thinking specifically about people who have those needs and providing them services not providing services to the general public to deal with accessibility issues thanks Kelsey our next audience question is about the mace mess many Davis citizens have pointed to the mace mess as an example of a failure by the city in transparency public disclosure and public engagement as well as an example of how city processes are reactive rather than proactive what have you learned from the mace mess situation that causes you to agree or disagree with those assessments and we start with Kelsey yes I absolutely agree that the mace mess is a fantastic example of the city not engaging with the community with the community members who are going to be affected my understanding is that the idea was to make that area more bike and pedestrian friendly I can assure you that it is not bike or pedestrian friendly at this time having bicycle lane troughs is very very less than ideal for bikers it's very easy to end up hitting your pedals so while this solution may not have actually solved the problem it was aimed at it's also caused problems for the wider community and I think that what we need to we need to focus on is the fact that it's taken a lot of time and a lot of angry people to even get the city to start talking about this we need to be much more engaged and willing to admit thank you thank you Kelsey Josh you're next thank you one minute to answer this one's going to be one minute yeah holy moly yeah so there's definitely transparency issues I know that there were some community meetings and things that happened early on I think this is a great example of what this moving to district elections what it's going to provide this is going to provide somebody in our community in south davis with a voice it's going to provide this community with somebody who's going to pay attention to what's happening this was on this was voted on and approved from 2013 up and it's a responsibility to city council to see these projects through yes they go to different commissions yes these things happen ultimately the buck stops with the people that are sitting up at the council voting this project it was millions of dollars were spent they would not spend wisely we are now talking about spending over three million dollars to possibly try and fix this and redoing this this whole section that was that was done in a way where we did not have oversight or community engagement throughout the process and if I'm elected to council I can guarantee that I'll be in those meetings and leading those meetings and keeping our community engaged in that conversation thanks Josh Conard you it's your turn to respond yeah so I'm glad this came up because this is a very important issue to South Davis and one that I didn't have the time to respond to mention earlier but I do think that this process was very flawed in a lot of ways and that there were a lot of issues around the decision to make changes and I am I'm supportive of trying to create more bike infrastructure but the way that the city council went about it definitely had a lot of flaws thank you Conard Rochelle you're last on this question yeah thank you and it's an important question and I think what it highlights sometimes when we get grant dollars for capital improvement projects that drag on for many years the need to continually circle back there were open houses in the beginning there was a council subcommittee and it did go back multiple times to the Bicontransportation Commission and clearly there were not enough community outreach meetings where folks were able to be there and sometimes that's because there needs to be multiple meetings more than just one or two and that is the beauty of being able to see when there is a problem and you know how to fix it and make it better I was happy to see the Mace-Covale thing fixed because I remember myself as a parent dealing with that intersection for years and then even just as a resident going down Mace Boulevard and what turned out what was actually built is not what was envisioned I was actually coming off the council and it was going to construction and I myself felt I'm very frustrated of sitting there and seeing the problems and the other big issue on a long project like this is traffic and the changes from 2013 to 2017 2018 are significant waves being a very good example of that thank you I'm not exactly sure I think Kelsey was the first to put her hand up on her and just Rochelle would you want a secondary response as long as you're talking then you'll be the fourth one okay thank you Kelsey yeah I just wanted to finish the thought of the city council being willing to admit that this situation created an issue and that it was a mistake and that it needs to be fixed and fixing it quickly actually being willing to address when you have made a mistake I think it's really important it's taken a lot of community members a lot of time to get this back to forefront of the conversation I've spoken to quite a few people who you know have engaged with even the county because the city was just not willing to engage about this thank you thank you Kelsey Connor I think you're next yeah so I was just saying that I think it's important to increase the bike infrastructure here but the way that it was gone about definitely had issues and it really gives us some knowledge going forward about how to take into account community input and how that's very important and some of the best ways to do so this gives us knowledge of that thank you Connor Josh you're next thank you yeah so to be clear I mean it's not safer now than it was before and it is not just an issue about ways traffic the infrastructure of that road is extremely dangerous to kids riding bikes to people commuting to and from work and for emergency vehicles trying to get somewhere so I guess there's more traffic but the infrastructure itself was fumbled and the design was awful and again this was approved and looked after and then implemented yes traffic is an issue and some of the backup is because of waste but it's more of a safety issue on that street thank you thanks Josh Rochelle you're last yes thank you and and and I agree with the comment it's good when you can see mistakes are made and you make the process better and then with that in mind I think it's important on the fix since we only have the county looking at a 30% I think we should look and if measure B passes and just passes that we need to have a full look at at mace before we go spending more money on the southern portion and do a fully engaged community charrette for all the communities on both sides of mace boulevard that actually reflects the needs from a safety bike pet and car perspective thank you thanks okay we have time for one more question and the question is about disk what is your position on measure B and if measure B is approved how will it affect downtown and mace traffic and Josh you're first to go sorry as I said before I had issues from the beginning on how this project came up it did not go through the regular process when once it was pulled as mace ranch and innovation center and then it came back so that being said I have issues with this project from from that standpoint I am somebody who has advocated for and will still continue to advocate for development we need a place for businesses to grow we need a place for for businesses to have the incubation period when they when they start we need places for students to when they graduate to have a place to get a job and also we know the buildout on disk is a long time buildout we know that period is a 20 year buildout when we talk about fiscal you know infrastructure and what we're doing from the city standpoint we need revenue and this project is going to be able to provide that provide a huge chunk of revenue to our city okay thank you very much Conor so I support disk in that I think having it is better than not having it under the current system I do recognize that there are a lot of important concerns there and I think we need to address and acknowledge those concerns but I do think that the benefits outweigh the negatives under the current system and I don't think I need to repeat the benefits because I'm sure people have heard those already in terms of mitigating the negatives I think traffic is going to be a major aspect of that but I think that there are ways to mitigate that by really creating stronger infrastructure for pedestrians and biking as well as incentivizing the use of mass transit and really having bus lines that are more frequent and that go to a variety of places rather than being primarily centered around the university and those types of things thank you Conor Rochelle yes I believe the question was specifically the impacts on downtown and Mace Boulevard and yes let me just read the question again for you what is your position on Measure B and if Measure B is approved how will it affect downtown and Mace traffic as stated earlier I do support Measure B for a number of reasons but I wanted to be specific to this question I think the impacts on the downtown can actually be profound and positive there is within the agreement to be able to have transport between the downtown and the project and we need more people that utilize our downtown whether it's our retailers or whether it's our restaurants and in our art galleries and all the vibrancy that's down there I think by bringing in these jobs and bringing in families and graduate students who are staying here and moving their lives here will actually help us have a lot more vibrancy in the downtown on Mace Boulevard it will bring additional funds for infrastructure that can greatly improve both north and south Mace Boulevard and ideally be able to also leverage and maximize the changes that are happening to I-80 with Caltrans over the near future and so I think that it can be positive and being able to smartly plan those issues and those impacts can actually mitigate an offset the additional traffic that would take time to build out Thanks Rochelle Kelsey Yeah so if you'd like to know more about what we think specifically about disk the vanguard asked us about this specific project in I believe their week three question so you can take a look back at that if you want to know more about my view on disk as a whole as it relates specifically to downtown and Mace Boulevard I would have to say I think there's going to be a large negative impact on Mace we already see traffic backing up on Mace and with the addition of potentially around 6000 jobs in the disk area you're going to be talking about creating many many many more commuters housing is going to be very limited as we all know housing is very limited in Davis there's not a lot of vacancies so you're going to be creating thousands of new commuters this is going to be a huge burden on Mace Boulevard specifically around those morning and evening commuting times as for downtown I don't think that there will be a whole lot of effect to be honest there we go thank you Kelsey maybe you can finish your response in your secondary 30 seconds Connor you're up first yeah so I also think that housing is an important aspect of the question around traffic but I do think that we could mitigate for that by really thinking through building more and denser housing in Davis that's truly affordable for workers in different areas and then as I was saying I do think that there are ways to mitigate the traffic directly and that the funding from discs could be used to really help improve some of that bike infrastructure and mass transit and all of those types of things as well thank you Josh yeah thank you so I think one important piece to think about here when it relates to downtown is that just because disc is being built over in South Davis doesn't mean it's all of a sudden going to have a big impact on downtown it's not nishi it's not a place where you can walk from that location to downtown so what are we going to need we're going to need to have somebody who is having conversations between our downtown business organizations the chamber and downtown the dba to talk about how we can encourage and promote folks leaving discs to come downtown to shop eat play so that is something that I have done I've worked with the folks that run legacy to try and get people from there over to downtown to spend money it's going to take a lot of work to try and you know break that barrier thank you kelsey I see your hand Rochelle yes so continuing my previous thought on downtown well they do say that there's going to be some sort of shuttle type service I'd really like to see just funding of the z line which currently passes right by where disc will be and then goes to downtown it goes right past the train station so there's this already exists we just they should be required to fund it and have it run more frequently if we want it to benefit the downtown area overall thank you thank you kelsey Rochelle you were the last one to respond you have 30 seconds great I know and I'm already in talks with folks that are used to doing these kinds of projects especially as it relates to downtown and even in college towns and the beauty is is there are ways right up front some of the companies that are interested in very much understand our downtown and that we're a college town and that's actually one of their amenities that they are trying that they're going to want to sell to their own folks as to why they want to be able to see that and they want to be engaged sooner rather than later so I anticipate if there's a positive vote november 3rd that we're going to see a lot of activity of folks having these meetings with dda with the chamber and with the city council thank you very much this as you can see it's right at 630 and that this concludes our district 5 candidate forum thank you to the candidates for your participation and to the audience the forum has been recorded and will be available on our facebook page which is facebook.com slash l w v davis area by tomorrow and then it will be also available on dc tv we have a short survey for you when you leave the zoom forum you might be asked to fill out a full survey and if you have a few minutes we would appreciate your appreciate your feedback thanks very much bye bye thank you thank you