 Hello everybody and welcome to the Davis Vanguard Civ Energy candidates forum Cosponsored by Davis media access and thank you very much to Davis media access for doing the video For this evening that will be rebroadcast both on the web and on your cable channel what? 14 15 My name is David Greenwald. I am the executive director of the Davis vanguard, and I will be moderating This forum. I am going to briefly lay out How this is all going to? Play out so each candidate Starting with Lucas will have a two-minute introduction, and then we will go down the line Each each candidate will Has submitted three questions. They get to pick one of those questions to ask their colleagues and the the first person to the left is the Person that will answer the question first and then it goes down the line and the person who asked the question gets to answer their own question at the end and then Just to make it more fun each candidate will have two one-minute challenges and a thirty-second challenge so if somebody says something that you want to dispute or have additional Commentary on you get one minute twice to do that and a thirty-second quick one so Keeping the time will be my lovely wife and daughter Who are sitting in the front, and they have little? Cards they will hold up so when it you have one minute to go Cecilia will hold up the one minute and when it's thirty seconds she'll hold up the thirty seconds So please be mindful that we have two hours to do this I've calculated it out. We're really tight on time. So please stop when your time is up If you continue talking I will start talking over you until you stop talking So not trying to be rude, but in order to get all of this in So there will be five questions from the candidates Total to each other and then the vanguard has two additional questions at the end Unfortunately, the audience will not get to answer questions But we wanted to make sure that everybody or ask questions Wanted to make sure that the candidates had a full two minutes to respond and with five candidates You can see how quickly that time adds up So at this point without any further ado we will start with Lucas Thanks very much David. Thanks everyone for being here today. My name is Lucas Farahx I'm an incumbent on the Davis City Council have served for the past four years Thanks to The vanguard as well as some energy and then of course Davis media access for being here to help tape this and share it with the wider community So 2016 is a milestone year for Stacy and I it marks 20 years of us being here in the community I moved to Davis 1996 for my senior year of high school Finished up my senior year and then decided to stay in this community and have been really quite involved for the most part ever since Since 2012 I've been on the City Council for the past four years now and we've been a council I think that's been pretty focused on getting work done getting things done in the past four years There have been quite a few things that have been accomplished, but yet frankly, there is a lot more to do And so that's why I've decided to seek reelection to the City Council In the past four years, I think one of our top goals has been to get the city's fiscal house in order We governed the city while it strength its employee workforce by 103 employees Or positions we've restructured city employee contracts cut programs and adjusted our budgets accordingly Our actions assured that the city remained financially solvent But of course there is a lot more work to do in this regard in the next couple of years We've had some major accomplishments over the past four years We've approved and built the 225 million dollar surface water project with Woodland and UC Davis Which is be complete by this summer 90 million dollar total upgrade of the city's 45 year old wastewater treatment plant We were investing millions of dollars into the roads infrastructure that is sorely needed and we have a lot more to do And then we've also been working on fostering high quality economic development particularly with regard to the DMG Mori factory as well as the Davis Roots incubator The serving on the city council is a big job. I really enjoy it I've been hard at work I think over these past four years and want to continue that work in the years ahead I think we need to continue our investments in infrastructure, of course roads bike paths, etc. And then also you're welcome. Thanks Appreciate your support Hi, I'm Brett Lee. I'm currently on the city council with Lucas and I think I would echo some of the things that Lucas just said I think we've accomplished some pretty significant things so far, but we definitely have a ways to go. I Currently work as a project engineer my daytime job and it feels as if we're just sort of in the middle of a project. I mean The current council has started some things and we definitely would like to see them through so we're working on a renter's ordinance We're working on a variety of other things One of the things that I've noticed when I talked to people and it actually shouldn't be surprising because you know Why would you follow at the city council like following like baseball players or something? But a lot of people don't really know my background because I haven't been involved in city politics that much until relatively recently My grandparents moved to Davis in the 1940s and my mom went to Davis High and she was a UC Davis grad And so I have a long connection with the community and when I was a kid the boundaries of Davis on the north were coval and on the right on the east pole line and on the west 113 and I've watched sort of over time as the boundaries have expanded and there've been some good things about that and there've been some Not so good things about that and I think that's one of the things I bring to the council that you know from the 1960s forward watching how our town has changed and I think it's important to understand that we can't put the city in sort of a ball of amber and Just keep everything the same because we are sort of in an evolving area in terms of population in terms of Changes in technology and changes at the university But I think we can go about growth or change in a smart respectful way that keeps the important things of our community intact We've seen some and I'll probably elaborate this on a little bit later when I have a little more time perhaps But we've seen some developments that I think have really gone in the opposite direction that haven't sort of kept Thank you quality of life in Davis Will Thank You David. Thank you to the vanguard And sieve energy for putting this on of course. Thank you to DMA for all the work that you do including today My name is will Arnold. I am a Davis resident since birth was born in Woodland Memorial Hospital and came home to a house on Marina Circle Have have been involved in the community since I was a kid At Davis High School went to North Davis where my seven-year-old now goes Then Emerson junior high and the high school I was student body president of those latter two fine institutions, and I do see some fellow blue devils here in the audience as well as teachers mr. Livingston and And have been recently very involved in local Both politics as well as governance my day job I work for our state senator Lois Wolk in her district office Which is very different from the work that most people think of when you work for the legislature My office is in Vacaville not at the Capitol and most of my work is Constituent services folks calling up our office Typically because they've tried and tried to get their issue Resolved to no avail and where their last best hope to try and to try to help them out and I've been doing things like that my entire life Constituent service community service, and I see this opportunity to serve on the city council as as a step Towards serving the community in an even better fashion. I love this town. We're multi-generational In this town my family moved here in the 50s to open a Pontiac dealership. My dad Was a blue devil a business owner in town my mom taught in the district school district for 40 years So I'm just hoping to live up to their legacy of service to our community Thanks Paul First of all before I begin I'd like to confess that I'm afraid I Am I'm afraid I may have overdressed Well, that's okay. It just shows that I'm new to the process. I tried to take off the coat I did the tie a little bit. I look relaxed. I look capable I'm not going to give you a lot of background right now because if you want to find out anything about me All you have to do is put my name into the internet and you will find thousands and thousands of hits I'd like to warn you in advance though that most of what you read on the internet is a lie Okay, take with a grain of truth, but you can find out everything you want to know You can go to the Civ energy website and you can find my entire profile That even shows you a picture of the building where I was born and raised in Chicago So you can find out everything you want to know about me But in the few minutes we've got right now before we begin. I want you to know I'm an attorney. I Represent government agencies. I represent people that want documents and information from government agencies So I'm all about information the freedom of information because if you don't have information you can't make a decision You have to decide amongst us here Who's most capable of getting the business of Davis done now incumbents say they can do it, of course I believe I come with certain skills that even add to what the incumbents might have Okay, Matt. Who is Matt? I'm passionate about both Davis's present and its future My campaign is not about political office as a retiree I can devote my undivided attention to the most pressing issues our community faces. I Will be a full-time public servant in support of the citizens and residents of Davis. I Have been and will continue to be an independent voice for all Davis citizens My volunteer service and experience is both rich and deep I've served the community in finance and budget water senior citizens the Davis Art Center the health council and The general plan advisory committee for Yolo County People describe me as independent and a listener Open-minded inclusive and fair Analytical thorough diligent and knowledgeable. I Will not kick the can down the road I will roll up my sleeves and will work full-time Collaborating with my fellow council members and citizens to preserve the high quality of life that Davis treasures. I Look forward to earning your vote and serving you well Thank You Matt. Okay, so we will begin our round of Questions and Lucas will ask the first question and Brett will answer it and then it'll go down the line So Lucas the questions that you submitted apologies for that we I guess the format of the of the debate was not necessarily fully Communicated to us. Okay, let's see and at least I didn't understand the direction So so I'm asked to ask my first question Yeah, pick whichever one you want to ask you only you're only gonna have time to ask one question So just so the audience understand so it doesn't sort of We were asked to submit three questions to David earlier in the week And so I can understand why there might be some confusion as opposed to We were asked to submit them to David. So we're asked to submit them to David Then why are we having to come up with them now? Sorry about that. Sorry so The first question then that I would ask is based on the information you have today at today Let's see based on the information you have on hand today Do you support or oppose the mace ranch innovation center proposal and what justification would you would you make? Would you use to make this decision? two minutes So based on the information I have today, I would be building no on the mace innovation center I can say that I felt the similar way about the Nishi proposal up until Probably about two weeks or so before the council was going to vote on the proposal and that was because the developer did something which Surprised me Basically, he committed to not having anyone occupy the Nishi site until the Caltrans Richard interchange project was complete and also the university had completed the alternate the secondary access point to the Nishi parcel So that's locked into the measure J R language So that Changed my thinking because I was very concerned about the Richards all of the traffic impacts As far as mace as it as it stands now It's sort of this generalized 200 acre proposal, which is a little bit murky the details are not there The estimate of the revenue to the city is about two million dollars a year Which is rather small when you compare the fact that a two acre hotel can generate about $500,000 of revenue to the city per year. So we're talking about two acres versus 200 acres We're talking about a proposal that has a 10 to 20 year build out And if you think about 10 to 20 years, that's a very long time frame And the thing about this proposal is there are a lot of variables and there's a lot of uncertainty So at this point until I see some details nailed down I have very serious concerns about the traffic impacts and actually Whether it's really a high-tech business park or whether it's just a plain old industrial park So if the vote were today, I would be voting no, but we still have yet to see a very specific proposal before us Thank you Will so Brett alluded to it. There's still a lot of information That we're going to gain about this proposal. So we don't have complete information now, but but Lucas was Mindful that when you ask the question, which is based on the information that you have now would you support it? And I would have to say that I'm very Intrigued borderline excited about this proposal. We need to diversify our Our economic ecosystem If our if an ecosystem lacks diversity, it fails to thrive and right now our Revenue Ecosystem is completely not diverse where it comes in town and that's not necessarily a good thing if you ask folks in Detroit or West Virginia How having one single entity? Essentially control the economy of your of your area your town how that works out for you. So, you know, we have I think Certainly, there's still a lot to learn but the potential here for 10 million and in one time revenue to the city and up to six million per year For the city in revenue and this is the type of revenue We're not getting right now and this is allowing us not to have to go back to the taxpayers every time We need something for our community and if in my opinion This doesn't pass We're gonna have to turn around to our community and ask for a partial tax With three zeros at the end of it. So that's part of the choice. We have to make when we're looking at Whether to support this project Thank you all I Have to begin by saying that I can't answer this question. Let me explain why Any public official has to answer four questions We've been making a decision at all that affects the public benefit or spends the public money The first is are you involved are you affected by it? The answer is yes, they have to accuse themselves It's a conflict of interest. I define conflict and interest very broadly if anyone gives me money on something like that I believe there's a conflict and I would have to excuse myself. I'm not sure at this point I have taken no donations. I have solicited none or endorsements. I'm not going to Secondly, who's gonna help? Who was the proposal going to help third? Who's gonna hurt and last how much does it cost? And frankly right now. I agree with Fred. We don't know enough at this point There simply isn't enough in the process right now and all in fairness I can't tell you but more importantly as a public official you'll learn more and that's what I'm hoping to be able to do Thanks, Matt Most of today's problems are yesterday's solutions If we made a decision about base range innovation center before the reasons that Brett and Paul have said We would be potentially solving something immediately, but creating problems down the road We do not know enough member of the finance and budget commission the finance and budget mission has received no Information about number four of all costs. We don't know we can project We can talk about it in pros, but there need to be hard numbers in order to make a judgment in the absence of Full information you can't I can't say yes, so to answer Lucas's question. I Would say no I would vote against mace ranch innovation center. I believe that community is served by repeatable Reliable open transparent processes and we need to continue the mace ranch Consideration with those kinds of processes the open space and habitat Commission said that they Absolutely oppose Mace ranch that's part of our community. It was an open and transparent process We need the rest of the community to weigh in. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. No Lucas you answer your own question so to answer the question that I posed to everyone else Regarding the mace ranch innovation center proposal I think there's some at least been some similar types of comments with regard to the need for revenue diversification in the city, right? We have consistently gone to the well with the citizens of regarding additional in a parcel tax after parcel tax for various Needs and I think that that is something that We can't just rely upon the citizens of Davis to continue to just automatically support So that trying to diversify our revenue from economic development is one one way to get there I think the and we need to be pursuing that and we've been pursuing it We I think least several of us believe in terms of Nishi and then also from some of the other types of economic development with more a shaky and in Davis roots and others that we're working on I Have some serious sustain issues of concern regarding sustainability features of that proposal currently You know right now the proposal is for 8,000 parking spaces. That's a lot You know, I mean I think in the build out of course is not for up to 30 years But some significant issues I think would be associated with it there There's also this proposed two-to-one ag mitigation of course, which is a city feature and The developers are currently proposing to buy the how it ranch property that the 800 acres of the city Already owns to the east of the mace ranch innovation center site Why would we be buying something we already own and then you know when it's already ag mitigation land currently? I certainly very much value the commission's input All across all the commissions and I there's still additional work to be done, but at this point I Well, I think there's a lot of work to be done and could could get there to be supportive I think they're still for me with far more questions that remain about the viability of the mace ranch innovation center Proposal so at this point. I'm not Would not be supportive at the moment Thank you, and I did want to apologize to the candidates. I can see that my Instructions that I sent out weren't as clear as they were in my mind. So Apologize for the awkward moment there. David. How do I take advantage of my opportunity to do a rebuttal or whatever you can Go ahead So I do one I'll do I'll do a minute. Why not? I'll save the 32nd one in case I have a one word So I just want to clarify that that there's a lot of work to be done about this or any Potential project and so the question in my mind was based on the information now Well, no, we have complete information and I don't want to make a decision based on incomplete information So anything that's before we go through with this public process I would say I wouldn't support it But that wasn't how the question was in my mind the question was you know Once we get to a point where we have the complete information based on what you Expect that information will be I suppose where are you on this issue? So I just wanted to clarify that that no we haven't gone through the full process and that needs to happen Thank you Okay. Oh, we got another one 32nd go ahead. I am skeptical of the justification that we need the money If we need the money and we have to develop because of it you have to ask yourself Why do we need the money? We have a lot of money. There's a lot of taxes going into our Coffers where they being if we need the money so badly that it justifies development like this We have to think about our practices and what we're doing Okay, thank you and just to let you guys it's hard for me to see down the line You want to pipe up just audibly say it Matt? Did you want to go? Oh, okay? Okay, so second question bread asks and now will is the first to answer So there have been a fair number of proposals for large apartment developments in our town recently I'd be curious to hear your thoughts specifically on the trackside proposal and the sterling development proposal And for those of you not following trackside proposal is the proposal near the railroad tracks on 3rd Street across the street from the SPCA and Sterling is the proposal adjacent to the post office at the old family's first site Maybe I learned my lesson from the last question that look we don't have enough information about these things, right? In fact, the the trackside one they're going back to the drawing board. That's my understanding that this Thursday or next Thursday, they're they're doing a community meeting that they're gonna have all kinds of different options out on the Table and so we don't know anything about what that's gonna look like I think we know a little bit more about what's being proposed Down on down on Russell at the at the old family's first spot And there's some real concerns from neighbors that that that I've heard and traffic concerns in all the and all the things That that happened with these big developments. So there's there's a lot of Information that's yet to come out about both of these proposals, especially The new iteration of trackside before any of us can make a decision That said We do have a real I really don't like using the word crisis. It's not I don't like using the word crisis I don't like using the word renaissance and so we have a real we have a real Issue here with rental housing our vacancy rate is essentially zero and that has a lot of negative consequences both for the renters themselves as well as for the neighbors of Mini dorms that pop up in our neighborhoods So it's a problem and and saying that the university is not doing enough while that's true They're not even living up to their own obligations That doesn't help our citizens who are trying to rent who want affordable rent. So It's an open question. What are we gonna do about it? And if we say we can't we're not we're not gonna build any of it then that just kicks the can down the road Thank you. I Don't know that much about tracks. I had to be honest with you I know more about the Sterling Fifth Street development and there's parts and aspects about it that are troubling to me When I went to law school 30 years ago here in Davis a lot of my classmates lived in Rancho Yolo That's the only place they could afford and frankly It's one of the best places in Davis to go to if you're a student, etc. That kind of thing I'm very concerned about the Fifth Street development because I am worried about the ultimate impact on Rancho Yolo I'm worried that ultimately there may be an opportunity or a desire to get rid of it and build new housing there I can understand it because that might be considered a better use of the property, but I don't see it that way I would also be very concerned about traffic impacts that I haven't been satisfied on I use Fifth Street every day And it's busy and it's dangerous for bikes and bicyclists What's gonna happen if you put a whole bunch of apartments there, but lastly and most importantly is the word affordability Even as somebody who didn't pay attention a lot to politics and was just fat and happy in Davis I did notice that oftentimes they'd say they'd be affordable and suddenly we find out it's $2,000 a month and Nobody but but wealthy foreign students can afford to stay there. That doesn't say well well with me I like foreign students very much, but if you're gonna say they're gonna be affordable make them affordable both trackside and Sterling Fifth Street suffer from the same problem And it's actually a problem of our own making here in Davis We are doing all of our planning by general plan exception Both of the projects are have proposed outside the boundaries of the general plan Raise your hand if you knew that they were asking for a zoning exception That's half of the room not bad But the reality is is that I don't think you can find anywhere out in writing declared to the cat to the citizens That we are looking they are looking to Work outside the general plan Trackside is pretty simple. They in 2005 the zoning was changed to mixed-use. It has very specific Three stories that with the possibility of four and no more than 2.0 flora rate area ratio Which means that you can only have as much space in the building as is on the land times, too they've proposed six stories and Almost a four for it's outside the boundaries. So as it's proposed You say no we need to have repeatable Reliable open and transparent processes and Hopefully Thursday Will be we'll get that to that point The same thing is true with Sterling. They are proposing something that is outside the zoning It needs to be open transparent I believe that the mitigated negative declaration is just as much of a mistake in this case as it was with the Hotel Conference Center We need to commit ourselves to processes and all rely on Expect set expectations deliver on the expectations Provide value Thank you back to Lucas So let's see firstly ice I'm very supportive of infill development in Davis Many of you have been to my home on B Street just a few blocks from here Which is I think I'm personally proud of it as a good example of infill development And if any of you are interested in coming who have not been to my house or our shepherds close infill development Please come on over love to show you around So for trackside Specifically so Stacy and I were had previously been investors in the trackside proposal and we had invested $50,000 into it not that much per se But we're two individuals with no children and so we were interested in in building a you know We felt would be a good infill project But we recently along with several of other investors the original investor pool including actually Reverend Bill Habect who's Pastor here and his wife. We all we took our shares. We withdrew our shares from the trackside proposal I Think that and there's a variety of reasons for that certainly in particularly because I am not allowed to If I were an investor in that property and it was redeveloped or developed it would basically Limit me from being involved in decision-making with and in other parts. It's surrounding in the downtown area I think infill can be done, right? But it really has to be done very well It's it's all about for me design appropriate inappropriate density for the neighborhoods I think there is also And that's so that's true for whether it's for trackside or also for the Sterling project I think both of the proposals as was mentioned trackside sort of seems to be going back to the drawing board Sterling is not ready for prime time at this point. There are multiple iterations Yet for both before they would be ready for approval Including multiple processes of commissions up through the planning commission through the city council And then the last thing I would say is that I think it is actually especially having been on the city's general plan housing Elements during committee. It's time for a general plan update wholesale. Thank you Okay, Brett you get to answer your own question So yeah, I'll be be brief two minutes goes by a little quicker than I had imagined So with Sterling, I've met with the neighbors there. I think the Size and scale is inappropriate for that parcel. It's a privately owned parcel Something is going to happen there. What I've told the people, you know, I'm not I Don't pander to people so they want me to they want to hear that nothing will be built there I'm supportive of apartments being built there, but definitely not the size and scale as proposed It's it's far far out of proportion My my guidance is what the zoning is right now it's zoned for medical office types of uses And so given the basic level of zoning I'd like to see what the traffic impact would be if it were built as zoned and Then from that I would get a general sense of how big an apartment Complex would sort of match that level of impact. So that would be my guidance from what I've looked at It's completely inappropriate in terms of size and scale As far as trackside again, it goes back to the zoning I think trackside as proposed is much too tall it's zoned for three stories The developers purchased the land quite recently So this is not a new surprise to them in terms of what the zoning is you can understand if somebody owned a parcel And they've had it, you know for 50 years and they just decide to invest in you know, oh my gosh Who knew that the zoning was this but this was purchased in the past couple of years And so I think they need to respect the zoning and if they do wish to have a variance to the zoning there has to be some overriding community benefit, but as Possibility change the zoning essentially everywhere. So imagine if you lived in your home many of you have living one story homes or two story homes The parcel next to your home to six stories That's not it's fair not a pleasant thought. So the people here are not nimbies. They're not being unreasonable I mean we're actually, you know, what's being asked is okay. Thank you, Brett essentially destroy their neighborhood. Okay Lucas has requested a 32nd go ahead The I just wanted to add a little bit in on regarding the sterling Apartment proposal, you know, one of the things so I Similarly feel that there will probably be some sort of change in that in that site, right? It's really sad that EMQ, you know ran families first into the ground And then now we have this beautiful campus there and it is you know We've tried we've worked on talking with the community or the county Excuse me and a bunch of the different nonprofits to see if there could be some sort of social services type campus there It's not there's not a lot of money out there for to actually put that together We've been working diligently on that effort But I think the other thing I would add is that you're three Okay, I Forgot to Anyone else, okay Will you are asking? Okay, which one to choose so We spend a lot of time talking about our community's challenges But what assets and opportunities does our community have which we are not yet leveraging to our full potential Well, I can answer that very quickly Does anyone here know what the makers space is? Okay That's great because I expected far fewer hands the reason why I expected far fewer hands is because most people and Davis don't know It's there The makers are people who are inventors There are people who are engineers who want to share their experience with the community with children with schools They exist in many communities around the world and we have one here right in Davis. It's very fine it's tucked away in an alley and It's a resource we could use and we need to actually encourage it if we can build huge What are essentially gated communities in Davis? Then we can put a little bit of resource behind something that is so beneficial that if it just sparks one child's imagination Then it's worthwhile If we can just one kid who might be out there and see something they think is cool and it makes them want to invent We've done our job As a city as a society as a community Okay, Matt Davis is more than decisions about pieces of real estate It's more than Decisions about real estate opportunity when you look to leverage existing strengths and characteristics and core competencies There needs to be a balance We need to look at the social as well as the economic we look at need in the look at the environmental impacts of Leveraging process and come up with a solution that is balanced for the community We also need to think to the future We need to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of our future generations to meet their own needs so I really think that the process that got started in 2011 where we had the Innovation task force predecessor and then on through has wrestled with not the nuts and bolts and bricks and mortar of the community, but has tried to think about those core assets when you start and Actually end with what is the core competency of? Davis as a community it starts with the university so Forging a much stronger Better more interactive win-win partnership with the university is the one asset that I don't think we're leveraging enough Okay, back to Lucas. Yeah, I actually agree with Matt in regards to the university Sort of asset that we are not leveraging to the extent that we could be I think though. It's for me. It's More a little bit more specific than that and it deals with the issues of transportation I think so one of the things that I've some of the things I've been involved with inside but on the city council some of these intergovernmental bodies that I serve on our Yolo bus and the capital corridor And say cog and such And all of those deal with transportation and I think that we we have some of the most amazing assets here Especially vis-a-vis the university. So one of the in the Institute for transportation sites is doing nationally renowned changing sort of research and On on how to change mode chairs how to look at transportation systems in a whole new way And I really feel that aside from those issues I think the real aspect the other part of transportation dynamic that I feel like we really need to Truly frankly double down or triple down on in this community is biking And it's not and it goes but it also goes into the parking issues as well I think we need to have a real comprehensive conversation about our transportation system in this community And how to get people to be using unit trans more and and how to make sure that the schedules are effective So people are actually you wanting to use unit trans more and things of that nature unit trans is looking right now It had going fearless free free bus rides not pay anything at all and so those are the types of things that I think that we really need to spend time on very You know, it's a very holistic way taking into account all the different transportation sectors But you know if we are going to meet that some of the major challenges of not only this community But also frankly, you know nationally and globally in the next within the century We have to really reimagine our transportation system So I think that that's something that we should be really focusing our efforts on Okay, thank you Brett Can I have the question repeated? Does that eat into my time or yeah, I can repeat the question So I said we talk a lot about the challenges that we have as a community, but what assets and opportunities Do you believe our community has that we aren't? Leveraging or utilizing to their full potential. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, so thanks for the indulgence there So I apologize if you've heard the story before but I think it's relevant so a member of the Rotary Club and Typically in Davis, you know, we have people come in and tell us about all these majoring projects. They're doing overseas digging a well in Thailand somewhere for some village or reading glasses for senior citizens in Africa. I Had the good fortune to go to Rotary Club meeting in Oakland And they were talking about their own community and then they were talking about gangs are talking about, you know Teen pregnancy drug use all these sorts of things and It was you know as I was driving home. I was thinking man They've got a lot of challenges and I'm kind of a big fan of Jerry Brown and you know He was mayor there for a while and he struggled and they've been really working hard on trying to address their issues But these are multi-generational sort of problems and multi-generational solutions In comparison Davis's problems are very straightforward. I won't say they're necessarily easy, but they're straightforward When you talk about this need for economic development Basically, we're in our city budget. We're about four to five million dollars short of taking care of our infrastructure needs That's a seventy five dollar parcel tax You everybody pay an extra seventy five dollars problem solved Now I'm not saying that's what the answer is But it tells you like one possible solution. That's pretty straightforward So you add in a hotel you add in some other smaller sort of development. Maybe that parcel tax is forty dollars Maybe we're a little more cost-conscious when we deal with you know spending ideas But Davis's problems are really strictly straightforward because we have had the good fortune of people investing our community in the bike paths and Having relatively a safe community various, you know good schools things of that nature our problems are not dramatic and incomprehensible or unsolvable they are straightforward, but you got to have practical sort of you know reasonable people to address them Thank you. Okay. We'll answer your own question. So When I announced my candidacy, I gave a speech And there was a metaphor in the speech that was just reach out your hand and if you want to know what the metaphors about I Suggest you look it up. It was on the vanguard a few weeks ago But the point was that Davis and I'll Paraphrase the speech Davis is a great place and people want to be here They want to study here. They want to work here. They want to invest here They want to walk here run here bike here occasionally drive and park here They want to plant roots raise a family and be part of a community here and that's a very good thing Typically talk about people They cause traffic they cause noise pollution litter all kinds of things but People and there are communities greatest asset and When we talk about things coming up like We have such a low vacancy rate that causes problems. Those are challenges, but it's because People want to learn at this university people want to live in town. We talk about the mace ranch innovation center We talk about it as Potential challenges for our community, but the only reason it's being discussed is because a local guy named Tyler shilling a blue devil wants to expand his technology firm and He can't do it in town. So we're trying to find a spot for him to do it People want to invest in this community and I think that gets lost in the conversation And it if nothing else comes from my candidacy, it's to create Aspirational awareness that that with our challenges also come opportunities Okay, thank you any challenges. Yeah, Matt. I'd like to use a minute. Okay When we look at the general plan and the fact that we're doing planning by exception The thing that causes us to do that is that the general plan says we have 64,000 people as our maximum population. We all passed that a long time ago but but it points out the fact that Impacts to our quality of life are not by person Compare Rob Davis and me Rob Davis's footprint on the planet is so much lighter the impacts on The community are so much lighter from Rob than they are from me What we need to be thinking of is how to incent better decisions Sterling would be a much better much lighter Footprint on the planet if they had zero percent automobile share and 100% bike share Same thing would be true of Nishi if we made vehicle miles traveled the reward as The top in our general plan for how big we can get then as we work smarter We were Carter we were more efficiently we leveraged the resources that we have we could actually have a better Community without the quality of life being reduced Thank you Yeah, Paul. No idea how much time I've got You got either a minute or Well, you have one minute for challenge uses little of it as I can Some things that you've been hearing over and over again Well, we've been sitting here is that we need new revenue We talk about a parcel tax But a couple words you've also heard are important is that a lot of people want to live in Davis Davis is a destination People want to come here. They want to have a good time. They want to live here in Davis That gives us another word you heard earlier. I wrote it down leverage We have leverage lots of it here I'm a negotiator my job is to get the best value for my clients and I sense here We've got a lot of leverage We're not using a lot of value we're not using when it comes to development deals when it comes to our Arrangements with our public employees. There's a lot of value. We have we're under Negotiating against or negotiating against our strength. We should realize that people want to come here and there's value in that Okay, any others okay next question Paul you ask This is the issue that brought me to here here today This is the issue that convinced me to throw my hat in the ring and get off of my couch and stop watching cartoons my Question for this panel here is is it are you in favor of or against a soda tax and if so why Okay, Matt, that wasn't the question. I expected him to ask It didn't have enough flame to it I'm of two minds with regard to the soda tax one of the reasons that I can be absolutely 100% for it is that it is a 100% avoidable tax So you put the soda tax on people can modify their behavior and they don't have to pay the tax and In the process they become healthier wealthier Maybe wiser You know It it makes an immense amount of sense My problem with the soda tax is is that it sprung like Athena fully armed from the head of Zeus Matt into the mic please it hasn't It hasn't had the community dialogue so that we can build consensus around it I think that the public health issues as I said I was on the Yolo County health council I worked for 30 years in health care. There is no question that Sugary beverages are deleterious to our health I think that it would be nice if we could voluntarily Modify our behavior to not consume these things that are bad for us, but we're human beings So a tax that's fully avoidable That makes our health better Makes our community better is one that I think can be done and the complaints that I have heard that it's going to be difficult to administer Computers solve most of that and the only problem is that so you get handed a cup and you walk over to a machine And they have no idea whether or not you're pushing a sugar Drink or a non-sugar drink. That's a solvable problem Okay, just a reminder everybody should be about two to four inches away from the mic in order for the To pick up. Okay, Lucas So a few weeks ago the city council was faced with this exact Conversation and I voted to not put a sugary beverage Tax on the ballot for the June 2016 election The reasoning at the time is the same as the reasoning today, which is that I feel like We did not there was not really any kind of real community discussion over this issue I think that there needs to be one. I mean on a much more broad-based scale than what I Appreciate very much the public health advocates that came to the city council In Early December and then and then nothing but then again as I mentioned in the at the council meeting and our deliberations on this We then had a goal setting session the city council the current city council had a goal setting session in mid December to sort of check in on all of our city council goals and it was never raised It was never brought up as an issue one as a top priority by any of the council members at the time so I was not Willing to vote to put it on the ballot. I do think that there are merit to these sort of sin taxes But I also at this point felt like, you know, we had more pressing more pressing issues as the council to be dealing with then Then putting the soda tax on the ballot. I do think that You know, I certainly think that is in part our responsibility to Be mindful and and looking out for the best interest of all in our community, of course But I felt like that the process was flawed and I did not feel like it was something that I could be supportive of At the time, I do think and I said, you know, if we move forward We could potentially we could sirs consider putting one on the future ballot But and then the other flip side of it is that the state, you know, they're very Very well, maybe and there have been multiple attempts at the state level to enact a statewide Sugary beverage tax and that may still actually occur in this in this eat of this within this legislative session. So Thank you, Brett So I'm a supporter of the soda tax You know on some things when things come before the city council We should not just sort of rubber stamp them and move them on to the ballot I think on the soda tax I would think that our voters would be able to make an informed decision as to what they think is best They think soda tax is good then let them decide if they think it's bad the community It's inherently relatively subjective The reason I was willing to put it on the ballot is I think it's a two-fer If you remember what I answered before about us being short about six million dollars soda tax brings in a couple million dollars a Year it makes finding the additional money for the roads and bike paths a little bit easier There is this idea like oh, we're going to be encouraging people to drink soda So we get more tax money and then the flip side is over sort of the nanny state We're taxing you so that you're not going to be able to buy soda You know when you go to restaurant you pay two dollars for a soda The fact that it's going to cost two dollars and fifteen cents. It's not a big deal right and anybody tells you It's a big deal is misrepresenting what was proposed the only exception to that would be when you go to ampm There's 7-eleven and buy like a gigantic 64 ounce thing of soda for 99 cents there The price is discernible everywhere else not a big deal So really for me on a subjective thing like this I'm quite happy to let the people of Davis decide and you know I don't feel like we would have spent a lot of time Detracting from other important city issues by placing it on the ballot You know, I'm quite happy to let the community decide on something like this So I'm disappointed that it wasn't placed on the ballot for this June Okay, well, so like Brett I was inclined to let the the community have to say in this This is one of those issues where there's real Heat on both sides and very little Light there was a lot of passion on both sides and I found it very hard to get Passionate about this issue. Was it going to end childhood obesity in Davis? No Was it going to put our restaurants out of business? I don't think so. In fact the arguments against it I kind of called them Schrodinger's tax because it would both not be enough to To make any discernible change, but it was so much that it was going to cripple our economy Obviously, it's not both of those things It is the type of tax that would be a Free million or couple million dollars on everything on something that we entirely don't need in our lives I didn't like argument that was made by Our good friend Bob Dunning where he compared the sugar in the soda to the sugar in a dessert the difference is most of us don't consume a big dessert with every meal whereas So to me it didn't seem like a stretch to want to throw a dime Our city coffers every time I wanted to have a coke that didn't seem like a big deal to me, but But there's a lot of passion issue. So I Supposing conclusion. I was happy to have the voters decide on that. It was one of those issues that Still had some details worked out about how it be implemented how the money would be spent. It's So obviously hesitant to come down in favor of that I've learned my lesson but But yeah, I was I was happy to have the voters decide Thanks and Paul Before I begin I'd like to say that reasons. I love to live in Davis. I love being here and why I settled here is because Just in something like this, you'll hear somebody mentioned shortingers can't That's wonderful, frankly. I haven't heard that term used publicly ever and This man has my vote I'm just letting you know that that shows a level of intelligence Education is the kind of thing I want in a leader and frankly something I hope I can bring to you folks too now the four questions on this one very important Am I involved? No, I don't even drink sugary sodas. I have a risk of diabetes and drink. I'm not involved no conflict at all Secondly, who's it gonna hurt? Nobody nobody Secondly, who's it gonna help everybody? What's it gonna cost nothing it brings revenue in therefore no brainer now the idea that it shouldn't have gone into the Lucas I'm not trying to be competitive because there wasn't enough dialogue is ridiculous put it on the diet put on the ballot Oh, they'll be dialogue about this The sugary beverage industry will make sure there's a dialogue it will be there I'm all for putting these things on the ballot for the people that decide more of that is good less of it is bad Thank you any challenges on this one Okay, Matt you are asking Lucas the question Into the mic please two inches In the last hundred twenty days city staff has presented to council a combined projection of greater than 655 million dollars in unfunded liabilities for the city over the next 20 years Are you alarmed to find Davis has that level of unfunded liability and Given that we have a fifty million dollar annual general fund budget What are the important steps and decisions that council and staff need to make in order to address this thirty million dollar a year funding shortfall? So this is a this is a number that has been you know, and actually it's not unique to To just the city of Davis. I mean it that specific figure may be unique to Davis But it's a it's an issue that every level of government is facing From cities such as Davis, but all the way up through the to the state and county state and federal government There is an absolute need for us and as was mentioned when I my opening comments about Certainly fiscal responsibility and you know we have been We need to do a much better job of Ensuring that the city has adequate revenues to meet our obligations both on the labor side of things certainly But also in terms of the issues such as the the roads infrastructure the bike paths I think that there is a real ability for us to And we've been starting this already this process, but going in And particularly during this coming budget cycle and in future budget cycles for us to have a real Frank dialogue not just with Each other of course, but also with the community about how we actually go about prioritizing Then and funding some of these unmet needs We have we're at a situation right now where we have Not at all adequately funded for these priorities And I think you know that we are going to have a few choices ahead of us One certainly is this issue of are we going to continue to go to the city citizens for parcel taxes? Which is probably not a real ultimate positive solution, but then there's also going to be situations where we are looking for Certainly, I think additional cuts are going to need to be made in terms of some of the and but and some of the City programs that we offer and we've done a lot of that already over the past several years But I think we're going to continue. There's no real good answers. I mean in terms of that where we find that amount of money Okay, right So when you hear a figure like 600 million, it's rather daunting, but the way that's calculated that's bringing everything forward in terms of You know the current today unfunded liability That's amortized over time and So I'm not trying to minimize it but put it in perspective. It's like buying a home, right? You don't when you buy home and you know, let's just say you buy a $500,000 house $500,000 a lot of money, but it's broken out over 30 years And so you pay a little bit at a time and eventually you get there The city did something pretty important on the council that Lucas and I were on we actually impose terms on a couple labor groups because we felt that their demands were not acceptable and so we've been slowly turning the ship and we have over the past few years been paying more and more and more into a Fund set aside fund for retiree pensions. So we anticipated that the CalPERS our rate of return was Optimistic and we had our own act independent actuary come in and tell us what percent contribution we should be making on behalf of each employee to make sure that we are able to catch up and We are essentially current in terms of what we need to be paying to make sure that we head off sort of this Day of reckoning where this huge lump sum is due and so it's it's a slight bending of the curve But we're definitely headed in the right direction. I'm not here to say everything is rosy and wonderful Absolutely, not we like Lucas mentioned were the same as pretty much every municipality in the state of California and actually the state itself, but we we've turned the ship and The independent actuary has had us sending aside a greater and greater proportions of our budget Towards this so I'm confident that if we stay the course we will be okay, but having said that It is a challenge and so we are not on easy street by any means But it is a manageable situation because of some of the decisions we've made So question one was does that alarm you I would suggest that you would have to say that Yeah, that's a big number and it's alarming but I think recent Is councils are to be commended for the work that they've done that Brett described to move us toward Staying above water with regard to these long-term unfunded liabilities I Think there's no there certainly is it's not just my opinion There is no silver bullet that is going to to put us over the top here It's going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach and that Includes revenue measures taxes that includes in my opinion diversifying our revenue portfolio And of course that includes the city Being a fair but tough negotiator with our with our employee groups You know the let's just take the parks tax for example It was passed by 90% or something in in 2012 measure D and It expires in a few years It it's 50 black $49 a year But it only gets us a quarter of the way to to spending our or to paying for our parks and I feel like Folks have an expectation in town that there's going to be certain levels of service and amenities But we have to have a recognition that they're going to be paid for somehow and I'll leave with one anecdote that was shared with me, which was I'm hearing this third hand, but a member of the tree Commission said look we have so much trouble Taking care of our existing stock of trees. They have the mistletoe and other problems And yet we keep planting more trees That's a metaphor for for how we've done business for a long time that create these new things when we're trying to maintain what we have Okay, Paul Matt said he wanted to get some fire out of me. You're about to hear some probably The only way to solve a problem is to understand how the problem happened in the first place And what I've heard right now and I hear from governments everywhere in different agencies Whether it's a fire district or a school district is Usually a reluctance to look deep enough into the process to find out what went wrong Because if you don't know what wrong you can't fix it You can't fix it through a parcel tax if the reason you're going for the parcel tax is Perpetuating the problems that caused the shortfall in the first place Be alarmed by this shortfall because what I heard where somebody say is we're gonna have to cut services and programs Why should we have to do that? We have to ask ourselves why if you start cutting programs pretty soon We'll decide what's essential or not. We'll be playing triage with the way of life in Davis that we're all here to protect And that's why we're here. It could be parks next. Who knows I don't know what the solution is All I know is is that I am trained to look at those problems find out what went wrong and solve them That's my training for my entire professional career Ask one question rich Rifkin wrote in the enterprise that there's a firefighter who got over a hundred thousand dollars in overtime In overtime now why wasn't an employee hired to do that job at less? You save money something's gone wrong. We need to find out what it is We can correct it through positive taxes like a soda tax and by looking at how we're spending money and why? We don't necessarily have to cut anything Okay, Matt. I admire Paul's optimism. I think we will have to cut things six hundred fifty-five million two hundred million of that is for roads over 20 years 352 million is for buildings and parks and 114 million is for retiree pension and help and retiree health benefits Brad has said that we're doing better on pension and health benefit retiree health benefits And we are but that's only a hundred and fourteen million of the six hundred and fifty-five Will has said we are we have a parks tax and that parks tax after we have spent it through its life is leaving us with Three hundred and fifteen million dollars worth of capital infrastructure Maintenance that we have to do to the parks surfaces and buildings These reports came from staff They have come in the last hundred and twenty days We really do need to understand What we have promised to ourselves? I'm not into finger-pointing. We can't change the history. We need to move forward Rob Rob Davis from the dais. Oops. Let me get this talked about Cost containment is an element of fiscal resilience we need to undertake a full staffing analysis to determine a match between service delivery and This the staffing We may end up if we do that being able to do what Paul has said and preserve certain things we Commissioned John Meyer to do a staffing analysis. He did it He showed us where we were deficient and we've done nothing about it since we need to have the Commitment to go staying the course and that is Absolutely what we have to do thirty million dollars on a fifty million dollar budget is not going to be a little bit at a time Thank you. Okay. Lucas has a minute response and Yeah, I would just say a couple things that you know firstly So to Matt's most recent point about the staffing analysis that was done by John Meyer pro bono for free for us You know that is something that just was done a few months ago The reason we haven't acted upon it yet is because it was just completed. I mean within the past few months We have been very involved in Making sure that our commissions particularly most recently the finance and budget Commission has been taking a top-to-bottom look at Opening the books to and we have to everybody but they have been certainly making sure that We are on the right course in helping providing Additional sort of guidance and input to the city council as we move forward on some of these issues You know, I think the I agree about the issue With regard to that Paul mentioned, you know about, you know, why do we have an input? You know firefighter getting a hundred thousand dollars a year, you know Some of the numbers that you in terms of overtime some of the numbers that are reported our situation Yeah, there was a minute Will is next and then I'll go to you Thanks, Brent So I just wanted to say, you know for the record, I'm not sure if this question will come up But that I am in favor and was in favor hoping it would happen this June, but it didn't For revenue measures specific to transportation infrastructure. We have our needs the council is to be commended for putting some money aside to address those needs, but it's it's not enough and I would would support a revenue measure that is specific to Transportation infrastructure the two revenue measures that are on the ballot in June both of which I support the marijuana tax might get us zero if that does if the thing doesn't pass in November and then the the transit occupancy tax is not gonna be It's gonna be a drop in the bucket when it comes to paving our roads So that's something I support and I would support if I was elected. Okay, Brett Yeah, so this Four years ago I ran basically because I was just sort of a regular concerned community member being alarmed at Kind of the runaway expenses of the city government Both in terms of reducing the tire retirement age for public and safety employees from age 55 to 50 Which I don't view is sustainable for a small community like ours and some of the previous councils giving a extremely large rage It weighs it rage it wage it increases raises of like 36% to the firefighters I respect the firefighters and they do an important job for a community But that's not affordable and that's not sustainable. I can say that the current council I think has done a very good job in that respect So if you look at the record of what we've currently done, we've moved away We've changed direction of the council and I think we are headed in a sustainable direction And you've also heard about this idea that I keep mentioning about a four to five million dollar shortfall That's to address some of the things that Matt is talking about It's important and unfortunately in this extremely limited two minutes to answer these large questions Can I take my extra minute? Yeah, I guess so Yeah That was the challenge so he's gonna use another so here's the thing so We live in the state of California, which has retreated on its commit to commitment to public infrastructure They used to help pay for our roads So this is not laid solely at the door of the city of Davis sort of abdicating its responsibility The city has been caught up by the state Retreating and not funding the roads like they used to not funding many of the programs they used to So we're having to pick up a bigger and bigger share of these things and so while I think the city council and especially in previous years It has a lot of responsibility for where we are today It's also the state the state is doing this not only to the municipal government, but also the school systems And so I just want to point that out. It's not only about mismanagement at the council level Okay, we are now in the home stretch We have two vanguard questions and then we will wrap up with a conclusion So we are back to Lucas answering the question The first question is how do you see us solving the student housing crisis in Davis? Do I have two hours to answer this? Love a special segment I mean, this is one another one of these issues This is probably the one of the maybe even the biggest issue facing Davis right now I mean, there's certainly the the financial issues facing the city. There's no question That is that's chief among the issues facing the city but the issues regarding student housing and the you know sort of the appetite for growth that UC Davis has is Issue number one for us. So We certainly need to engage the university in a much more proactive way that has not been happening I think that there it needs to And now there's been some other Issues recently that have come up in the media and in the news that you know I think are probably taking the chancellor's time currently spending spending away from away from dealing with her relationship with the city of Davis, but I Think that we do have actually a pretty good relationship with the university currently And I think we could actually improve upon that quite a bit But we really need to insist that and frankly if it means this ultimately through legal means We need to insist that the city Take a more proactive stance with the university But particularly make sure that the university actually puts some of the housing if they're going to continue to grow Put some of that housing on campus that I have it's it's unbelievable that all of and we've seen this issue in the neighborhoods Especially a budding campus. They you know that I'm not I'm not at all opposed to students I think it's a I mean we one of the reasons why this is a very good town to live in is because of the quality quality life because It's a college town in the university town, but I think that we need to actually have a Major major not just one conversation, but ongoing in bolster the relationship with the university Regarding their approach to growth. We cannot just have them putting all that growth upon the city of Davis It's causing all these associated issues including the sterling, you know apartment issue and others The vacancy rates at close to zero percent. We and it's of impacting of the community quality of life in our community We absolutely need to be engaged with the university Thank you Brett So I would agree with what Lucas has said especially with working with the university They are a sovereign entity, but I think we can work with them so that they fulfill more of their commitment to Apartments for students. I think also we built some additional apartments in the city We have several proposals before us most of the problems I have with them are size and scale so they can be scaled down There haven't been any Large apartment complex is built in quite some time I think also in terms of our downtown we get kind of a two-fer on this by having some more mixed-use downtown So residential above retail or commercial. I think that helps support our local shops I mean I'm just throughout their alphabet moon, right? There's a disappointment that we lost that shop if we have more people living downtown They would tend to support those shops and hopefully independent shops You know, I don't want Davis to become sort of a cookie cutter downtown in terms of just sort of national chains And so I think it's important that we find a way to support the shops downtown and one of the ways is additional residential on second or third floors above the shops I Think that's probably, you know, that will help a bit and then we also need to have sort of a Realistic understanding that the students are moving into single-family residential neighborhoods And we need to allow for that and minimize the negative impacts the current council is working on a renter's ordinance and also working on the mini dorm ordinance and the goal here is to minimize the negative aspects of groups of students renting single-family residential and It's going to take off for the University catch-up with the current shortfall of units But I think we can do something so that the existing neighborhoods aren't as dramatically negatively impacted by what's going on currently So I would venture to guess that the most important decision that's ever been made by people That affected the City of Davis was when the UC regions decided to put the University Farm here and And for the most part in fact for the vast vastly most part it was a great thing for our community Davis wouldn't be Davis without UCD our schools wouldn't be what they are without UCD. We wouldn't have the cultural and educational opportunities that we have Of a town our size without UCD But like any college town and I don't think it's unique to Davis these Relationships get strained. I think they probably deal with this in Ann Arbor. They probably deal with this in Chapel Hill They certainly dealt with it in Eugene, Oregon where I went to school But when it said that UCD isn't fulfilling its obligations for housing that's not just somebody's opinion These are agreements that UC Davis made they agreed with in an MOU with the city that they would house 25% of their students on campus. They're close to that they're in the low 20s, but they're not where they agreed to be and In in there, I believe it was called housing or something for the 21st century For the whole University of California system They wanted 38% of their housing to be on campus and of course they're not even in that ballpark So it's not just that we're pulling out a concept or some numbers out of thin air when we say the University isn't doing its part to house Students it's their own obligations that they've made that they're not fulfilling Okay, first of all This is enormously complex as we know and I don't know a lot about it part of the reason I'm running for city council is because as I said in the beginning. I'm an information nut I love information and I happen to know because of my work getting information from public agencies That when you are a part of a governing council or board who have access to information the public does not And I want to be able to get the information to look at this problem But I approach this as I would any problem within my profession This is a negotiating problem is what it is and the first question it comes to my mind as a trained and experienced negotiator is Why does the university not build more housing? Why are they going out against and going against an interest or an agreement that we have? That doesn't make a lot of sense at first But what comes to mind immediately to me is because they believe that they don't have to They know we will and if no one has to do something they won't So I would want to look at this problem and ask myself What could we do to be able to persuade them that they really ought to build these houses? Once we understand what that is Then that problem will be solved generally in the short term But right now it hasn't happened and my big question is why? The only way to find out is to sit there and find out with the city staff giving you the information That can only be given to and received by a city council member Concur with Paul what we don't know can hurt us and The one place where I might differ slightly is that if we try and negotiate them with Alleyoops Club Beating them over the head the chances are we're not going to get anywhere We somehow have to be able to find and define the win-win Playing field right now. They don't see I agree with Paul. They don't see any win at all in building housing on the campus What we need to do is to somehow reach out to them I met on Wednesday with Romana Hernandez the head of student housing And suggested that it would be really really good for them to be able to see where's the zip code origin of all? 36,000 of their students and be able to know that X percent of them are now coming from West Sack and Sacramento and getting off at Richards and trying to go through the tunnel and Parking in the B Street Neighborhood for free and walking into the campus the impacts on the quality of life of Davis UCD only sees it anecdotally. We need to build an information base They actually have incredible amounts of information. They know where every student is by zip code So they'd be able to see what the evolution is of the 5,600 additional students They've added in the four in the past four years They can look at the distribution of where they live from four years ago and where it is now and understand what the impact is on the the city once you understand the What you're doing to your partner and this clearly is as will said when they Located UCD here. They formed a partnership We need to be able to engage the university in a more productive way in order to forge a more positive partnership So I just want to add that it's important that we recognize that the students are not the problem Right. I mean you go away to college. You want to live in your college town? I had the good fortune of being able to walk from where I live to campus and You know, it's nice for students and faculty be able to have that so the students are You know the goal here is to have a nice safe secure convenient location for students that they can walk or bike to school And really enjoy that campus life So, you know, let's not in sort of our concern about mini dorms and apartment complex proposals Really kind of throw the students under the bus as Lucas and everyone have said, you know, we need to work with the campus and I Okay, thank you I'll use my 30 seconds good Houses are converted into mini dorms because the owner of the house sees an economic benefit to making that conversion gets six Julia has Two single-family homes on either side where there were families for years now She has weeds sprouting up in the in the front yards left and right and seven students to the left and six students to the right The landlords the owners of those houses are making money from those rentals. Thank you Okay, any others, okay So here is the oh, sorry Paul You have one minute a One minute left Okay, there's just one more question. Okay Okay, the last question and Brett's gonna go first on this one Do you support or oppose extending the joint management of the Davis and UC Davis fire departments? Yeah, yes, absolutely. I would be I'd be happy to debate anybody on the merits of A town our size having two fire chiefs that just on the surface of it doesn't make sense The joint management was done to improve efficiency and improve response times And I think the data has shown that that is true having said that the university is a separate Organization and the city of Davis fire department is also a separate organization and they're sort of joined at the top in terms of a shared management system We definitely need to work out some kinks if any of you have you know worked in a For a company where there's been a merger And this isn't a true merger at the employee level, but at the management level, you know There are differences and their cultural differences and there are things like that corporate culture issues that need to be worked out And right now the morale could be improved and I think some basic simple steps can be done to improve the morale of both Entities, but absolutely. I support the shared management of our fire service in town a town. Wow. I've got a minute left But to me this is straightforward one. We're small town University is contiguous to the city right next door It seems silly that we would think that we need two fire chiefs and two separate fire services for a locality this small Yeah, I'm with with Brett on this one that I think there's no reason that we we should ever Take steps back and decouple these two that it just doesn't make sense from a public safety perspective If if if only that and that's the most important thing here there are You just drive them as kinks to be worked out or or corporate culture or whatever and for those reasons I am Open to but maybe even beyond that would would like to see a full merger Be discussed be analyzed and and see how we can get there I'd frankly like to see the fire chief be right down the street here in downtown Davis So so any citizen or city council member who wants to go see the fire chief doesn't have to spend nine bucks for parking and be on be outside of town but But no, I Want to work toward a full merger. I understand the challenges that that presents to us But but the alternative to that in my opinion is is not going to be Decoupling the two that just doesn't make sense from a public safety perspective. I agree with Bretton will One of the great things about the vanguard is is it shares information that isn't otherwise it shared for a number of months maybe six months after the the joint management was agreed to the chief Nathan Trarnick shared with us Statistics that showed that it we were more efficient more effective They spent less money. There was less over time. There were fewer situations where there was an uncovered Station where one one like the East Davis fire truck had gone to cover downtown. They didn't need to do that anymore Safety was improved. I Agree with Brett and will and Paul I'm very persuasive I'm in agreement with everyone as well, so So I voted for the boundary drop a few years ago when it came for the council to you know There were previously been an artificial boundary between the two, you know, what you know, right there at a street is an example and Then Russell it's silly. There were contiguous. We work together. We need to be continuing to have collaborative Work with the university and it's just another way to to ensure that it's happening I did vote against the shared management structure though I was worried about having you know having the chief be a UC Davis employee. Actually, that still worries me I mean their core competency is they teach people there. They teach students, you know, and they it's a university They don't run fire departments. I mean most of the universities in this state do not have their own fire department That is a role of the municipal government. I believe firmly in that I think that even UC Santa Cruz, which was the only other UC that had its own fire department They merged their on-campus UC Santa Cruz fire department with the city of Santa Cruz fire department a few years ago They went sort of the opposite direction. So I think we need to have there have been kinks in this process as any sort of new endeavor is going to entail I think that We are gonna be continue to have discussions this spring at the council level about the city budgeting City budget and sort of our priorities and then a couple of other areas quickly You know one some of these kinks on the weekly management team meetings that the city manager has with all the department heads including the police chief and others The the fire chief doesn't attend those meetings because he's on campus usually and so, you know That's one area where you know, who is who's really in charge, right? The city manager is in charge of all the different department heads, but yet not necessarily in charge of the fire chief So and where that that role falls to the university So and then also that other customer service issue will sort of alluded to is that if you're an average Davis citizen You want to go to you need a customer service issue You used to be able to go right here to the downtown fire station or any one of the city fire stations Now you're required to go on campus to that fire station is the first place to go So I'm but I do support the the shared management as it's just we need some adjustments to it Yeah, I have a rebuttal to that a joint management is a great idea and there's a lot of reasons why I've represented a number of fire districts as general counsel As a matter of fact if you look on the internet You'll find that I filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Elk Grove Community Services District a number of years ago It's a good idea to be able to unify not just for purposes of when it comes to saving money But also it's important because it prevents a fire district like ours from taking over management Essentially co-opting it completely and if you've read the enterprise to the vanguard You know that happened at one point here in Davis where there's a report that was put out critical of the fire department that the Davis City Council actually voted to suppress from themselves and The public and the vanguard had to sue as well as the woodland record to get a copy of it And they successfully did and it showed to cozy a relationship if you have one manager One management structure believe it or not spread out over the area that we've got it will avoid that happening And that's very important when it comes to bargaining with our employees and making fair business decisions and employment decisions It's a great idea. We should do it So point of information. This is the last chance to Have my rebuttal and I can't carry it over to the next forum. Can I okay? I'm not so I'll do my I'll do my 30 seconds This is not specific to shared management, but it is about fire There are two other infrastructure issues that I believe are important number one this This downtown station according to chief Trower neck and others is in desperate need of Rehabilitation and I happen to live in north Davis north of covelle boulevard where the response times are outside of Where our city needs them to be and so I would be Clearly it's gonna cost money so we have to figure out how we're gonna pay for it But I would be in favor of addressing that potentially with a station in north Davis like on covelle If you got it whenever we're making decisions about the quality of life in the community and and will has brought up That response times in the far north Davis don't meet our standards Ultimately It does well down the money so the question brings me full circle to The fire station downtown is part of that 655 million dollars, but I knew fire station is not What's the difference between nice to haves and need to have and part of our job in Understanding what we need to spend money on going forward is to be able to separate out the need to haves from the nice to haves I see that the 24 million dollar or I heard it's up to 31 million dollar sports park as a nice to have I Think we need to focus on the need to have Okay, so the last part of this each Candidate will get two minutes starting with will to Offer their kind of closing remarks and then we'll be done So I want to thank David and the and the vanguard I see a lot of past and present members of their editorial board here I also want to think of course Bob and Civ energy and DMA again for your work So we talked about a lot of issues here Probably I don't know a dozen issues. Maybe when you're elected to the city council You're probably gonna make a thousand decisions a year maybe more and And some of those decisions that anyone who gets elected in June We're not gonna know it. We're not gonna see it coming and so I think that's What I want to leave you with is is the idea of of of what's being elected or who's being elected I Love this town in a pretty ridiculous way. I have a Have a tattoo on my ankle of the town logo that I got about 10 years ago in a particular moment of swelling of town pride I was born here. I have a plot at the cemetery. I'm in this for the long haul We have three kids two are under two years old and they're gonna be graduating from Davis High in 2032 and 2034 respectively Which sounds like science fiction, but it's coming and that's my minimum time horizon For the the decisions that we'll be facing is how's it going to affect our community? Decades from now, so thank you for this opportunity and and hopefully along the way I can earn your support My wife tells me that I've made some terrible mistakes One of them is is that I'm not going to be soliciting for funds Any contributions and I'm not going to be asking for endorsements and the reason why I'm doing that is not because I'm trying to commit political suicide But because I really believe in my heart that the major problem with politics in America everywhere including here is That people are elected and they owe people things They just do they owe the people who give them contributions whether it's the firefighters the developers It doesn't make a lot of difference when the time comes to make decisions Even though they say that they're being Unbiased and they probably are not being biased There's still that little bit of quid pro quo And I want to come into this completely clean because the decisions that Davis has to make have to be free of Special interests we have to make it for what's best for our people within our town to maintain our standard of living And it's not going to be easy I look at the problems that are happening in Davis right now And I just get the feeling that we haven't been looking toward the long picture the big picture And we're making decisions to try to solve problems from the past without remitting the problems themselves. I Want to be able to be in a position where I can help solve those problems to be able to look at the information to gather it To be able to analyze it and to provide something so that my kids Can have as good a life as I've had here And I see there's a chance they may not be true when I hear that programs need to be cut We've talked about it a lot of issues today And as important as those issues are I believe nothing is more important than the abundant and pervasive level of distrust That exists within our community Or said another way the general lack of trust that colors so many of our community decisions My term on the council if elected will be 100% committed to earning and increasing your trust Davis is more than people politics is more than decisions about pieces of residential real estate is more than Decisions about pieces of commercial real estate Davis is a precious special fragile place We don't need evidence any further than driving down the streets to see the cracks in the road That's a crack. Those are cracks in our special place We've seen the breakdowns in public safety We've seen ever-increasing levels of taxes Some people are very concerned about the threat of sprawl development and we certainly have massive parking problems downtown We need to engage these problems. I will Be totally committed to full-time Engagement on that. I look forward to being a public servant. I look forward to earning your vote Thanks again for David and Vanguard and DMA and Siv energy for hosting today and thanks everyone for being here It's pretty amazing to see about a hundred people here in the audience on a fairly rainy Saturday afternoon So serving on the city council is a big job It's and it's frankly one that I take quite seriously though Working for the citizens of Davis is extremely rewarding Which is why I ask you Respectfully for your support to allow me to continue working on behalf of our community We have been thankfully been able to restore some of the lost city programs and positions And while we also help prepare our city for the next rainy day So that will be prepared for when and not if Davis faces similar circumstances in the future I've been proud of the work We've been doing over the past four years of the surface water project some of the other infrastructure projects like our waste water Primate plant those things may not be that sexy to folks, but it's helping to set up the community for generations to come Some of my priorities for Davis in the coming few years are additional critical investments in infrastructure including roads bike baths Broadband parks and city facilities. I want to continue our sustainability efforts including starting a community choice energy program Which I think has a potential for greener and cheaper energy here locally Reforming the late-night downtown party scene while enhancing our already vibrant downtown through additional arts and cultural opportunities And I also want to increase opportunities for affordable housing around town Additionally my leadership on regional bodies including Yolo bus the capital corridor Sacramento area council of governments and the Yolo Habitat Conservancy Have a well-prepared me to serve again on our city council. I'd be honored to have your support for reelection to the Davis City Council So I'll echo the the thank you for attending this on a Saturday afternoon and thank you David in DMA and Civ energy for hosting this I don't have too much to say, but I guess in two minutes it two minutes goes very quickly I would just say that as well says you don't really know what are going to be the big issues So when I ran for a council election a few years ago Who knew that the downtown bar scene was going to be one of the big issues and this is an important issue It's important that we get it right that it's well thought out that we don't inadvertently you know Create hardship for some of the businesses that we want to keep and have them prosper down town It's important that we get a right so that it's safe safe for people to go down and have you know for college students to go and have an Enjoyable evening and also citizens to go and have something to eat So these are the types of things that come up and I think my track record has shown has shown that I'm Independent so the issue about special interest unduly influencing decisions I think my track record has shown that I am not unduly influenced by special interest I think in my track record has shown that fairly reasonable and Responsible and fairly thoughtful. I do my homework on the issues and I'm willing to reach out And I'm also open to input from the community I think those are important things and I think something also very important That has been shown in my track record is that I'm willing to work with my colleagues so in the past we've had some pretty pretty contentious city councils and That can be okay But I can't tell you just as a little aside. So we talked about the soda tax So Lucas and I came down on different sides on that. I was a supporter of it Lucas said wasn't a supporter Within the next week Lucas and I are meeting on a Monday evening at 6 o'clock spending three hours together interviewing potential commission members to the various city commissions and So as you look sometimes there are these big issues and you kind of want somebody out You know slugging it out, but the ability to work well with others is also important for all these medium-sized issues Okay, that is it right you went well. Yeah, okay good Making sure Thank you everybody for coming out and I want to again. Thank Davis media access for videoing this And Jeff Shaw spending time And thank you to all the candidates and members of the public. Have a good evening Thank my daughter. Thank you