The Jan. 9 city council meeting was comprised of updates to the General Plan alongside new leadership being appointed
By RORY CONLON — city@theaggie.org
The Davis City Council approved a contract with Raimi + Associates for consultant work on the city’s General Plan and appointed Bapu Vaitla as mayor and Donna Neville as vice mayor on Jan. 9.
Sherri Metzker, the community development director for the city of Davis, introduced Matt Raimi, the head of the urban design and planning firm Raimi + Associates. Metzker said she was seeking approval from the city council to execute a contract with Raimi.
“Matt is the principal of Raimi + Associates, the company that we have recommended to you to act as our consulting firm on the preparation of the General Plan itself,” Metzker said. “Between him and I, we hope to answer whatever questions you might still have in regard to the General Plan.”
The current version of the city’s General Plan was adopted in 2001, and the city of Davis officially began the process of updating its General Plan in February 2024. Metzker listed the eight elements the city of Davis needs to prepare.
“There are now eight required elements: land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise, safety and the environmental justice element,” Metzker said. “Davis isn’t technically required to do an environmental justice element, but we have elected to do so, and it is included in the scope of work for Raimi + Associates to prepare.”
Metzker said each of the required elements, with the exception of noise and safety, would be assigned to a different city commission. The commissions would work in collaboration with Raimi + Associates to provide a local perspective.
While the current version of the city’s General Plan took seven years to create, Metzker and Davis City Manager Michael Webb have established a rough timeline of two to three years for the update. The plan is set to go through multiple iterations according to public feedback.
Councilmember Donna Neville raised a concern about how community engagement will be handled by Raimi + Associates.
“I can give a lot of examples, but I’ve participated in these events where folks are brought into a room and asked to [talk about] how [they’d] like to see bicycle paths work,” Neville said. “None of us have any idea how they should be engineered, so we’re offering up suggestions that, in some cases, are not useful. How do you counter that?”
Raimi said he would rephrase the questions to make them more accessible to community members.
“We would ask the questions: ‘How do you want to use this space? How do you get around the community? What does safety mean to you?’” Raimi said. “You know how you engage in your environment, in your community. It’s our job to take that information and give you options to achieve what you say you want to achieve.”
The city council approved the contract with Raimi + Associates, kicking off work on the General Plan.
Webb also asked the city council to self-appoint a new mayor and vice mayor for 2025 according to a list of principles.
“Factors to be considered include seniority, consensus building skills, experience presiding over legislative bodies and any other factors that may just be taken into account to promote good governance,” Webb said.
The decision was opened up for public comment. Davis resident Connor Gorman said mayor and vice mayor positions should be assigned using a rotational model, which is based on the numbers of the councilmembers’ districts, rather than through the self-appointment process.
“I do generally continue to favor the rotation model, meaning these positions are rotated unless there’s a reason to do otherwise,” Gorman said. “There is not a reason to do otherwise in this case. So I would support continuing to rotate these positions here, which would lend itself to Bapu [Vaitla] as mayor and Donna [Neville] as vice mayor.”
Councilmember Linda Deos said she was open to a different way of deciding mayor and vice mayor.
“Connor [Gorman] brought up the rotational thing,” Deos said. “In the past, we had done whoever got the most votes, but we couldn’t do that in districts in the same way. I would like to know if there’s still the will of the body to keep it as these factors being important or if it’s worth looking at a rotational system or other ways of doing it.”
The process of self-appointing a mayor and vice mayor started last year, when Davis transitioned to a district election process. Former Mayor Lucas Frerichs and Vice Mayor Will Arnold were chosen for their seniority in city council.
Mayor Josh Chapman said that the council should appoint a mayor and vice mayor for 2025, but he would direct city staff to provide feedback on other options in time for 2026.
“I think [self-appointment] creates confusion and unnecessary conflict between colleagues around who is next up and who is not next up,” Chapman said. “Everyone sitting up here is qualified to sit in this seat, and everyone wants to be fair around it. […] I really want to make sure that we dive into what we can do differently in the next cycle.”
The conversation then turned to who should be chosen for 2025. Vaitla nominated himself for the position of mayor.
“The duties of helping set the agenda, of speaking in public and trying to deliver a consistent message across the year, trying to figure out what colleagues want to see get done that year and trying to figure out how to make it all happen — that stuff is exciting to me,” Vaitla said. “For that reason, I would like to be in this role.”
Councilmember Gloria Partida made a motion to appoint Vaitla as mayor and Neville as vice mayor. Linda Deos seconded that motion, and it passed.
In his last statement, Chapman said he appreciated his colleagues’ respect for one another and reaffirmed their commitment to the community.
“In order for us to get things done and move things forward, we have to work together,” Chapman said. “We have to work together with not just the five of us, but with our staff. Setting the tone of unanimity when we elect mayor and vice mayor is an important message to the community.”
Written By: Rory Conlon — city@theaggie.org