Davis City Council discusses economic plans and transition process for new mayor

Meeting addressed possibility of vacancy fees and adjusted meeting time

By: COLE TAYLOR — city@theaggie.org 

On Oct. 6, the Davis City Council met to discuss items pertaining to the Economic Development Strategic Plan (EDSP) and transition options for administration next year. 

The EDSP was approved in March of this year to outline development goals and implementation strategies to grow businesses in Davis and to attract new ones in the process. Katie Yancey, the city’s economic development director, gave a presentation on the work done to address the plan.

The presentation included a focus on developing a marketing campaign to attract new businesses to Davis. The project has been divided into five phases, with the final phase being the implementation of economic outreach and marketing meant to interest businesses in Davis. Yancey discussed the phases of the plan that were still being developed.

“The research phase, which City Manager Dunston mentioned, is closing at the end of this month,” Yancey said. “[This] includes the conducting of surveys, reaching out to stakeholders to conduct interviews, and looking at impressions of the city of Davis in print and social media. The positioning phase is where we will determine, with the city council's advice and direction, where Davis has a credible opportunity to differentiate itself from the region.”

After Yancey’s presentation and update about the EDSP, council members asked questions and discussed multiple aspects of the strategy. During the discussion, Council member Josh Chapman asked about vacant storefronts in downtown Davis and ways a vacancy fee could compel landlords to beautify storefronts.

“I do think a vacancy tax is something that we should continue to chase down and look at,” Chapman said. “I understand that there are different hurdles involved with both, [...] but I do think that's something that we should look at in terms of, you know, using a stick and a carrot to get people to do something with some of these properties that are sitting vacant, whether it's a building or a parcel of land.”

Chapman and other City Council members have discussed vacancy fees in the past, but Davis has not developed a vacancy tax to address vacant storefronts. 

After discussion of the EDSP, the city council moved on to discuss plans about administrative transition for 2027. Davis does not have a general election for the mayoralship, but instead the mayor and vice mayor are selected among the city council members. City Manager Daryl Dunston suggested four different options the city council could take to decide the future mayor and vice mayor.

Dunston laid out four options for the council members, the first being the status quo, which was a criterion agreed upon in 2020, where council members would select a new candidate based on the skills held by certain members of the council. The second option is considered an equitable rotation between districts based on prior service, while the third option is a rotational system in sequential order. The last option was random selection where council members could remove themselves from the selection process.

Once the options were laid out, the council members deliberated on the choices. Council member Bapu Vaitla suggested a secret ballot to remove awkwardness between the five council members voting. 

“There's a hesitation in how this vote should be structured,” Vaitla said. “How vocal are we in expressing our preferences? [...] All of this stuff starts to get a little understandably sensitive. So one way to get around that is to just do a secret ballot, which I think is permissible.”

Council member Linda Deos voiced opposition to the secret ballot and expressed favor for a process with transparency and rotation.

“I'm intrigued by rank choice, but I just want it to be open and transparent,” Deos said. “I want to be hearing from folks. I want the community to hear how we are deliberating. Now I don't like the awkwardness. That's why I would like to move towards some type of a rotation.”

As the council members further deliberated, they were unable to find a common consensus on the proper order of a rotation-based system. Vice Mayor Gloria Partida put support behind a rotation based system and conveyed the want to move to a set order before the mayoralship process would be brought up again.

“I just think we're going to have this conversation every time we come to this juncture,” Partida said. “I think we really need to go numerically.”

After further deliberation, a motion was brought to the floor for the status quo to be upheld. The motion was passed four to one, with Vice Mayor Partida being the only dissenting vote.

The selection process for mayor will likely occur sometime in December, with Mayor Donna Neville selected on Dec. 16 last year. Among other motions passed at the meeting was one to start City Council meetings earlier, the new start time being 5:30 pm. The earlier start time is expected to go into effect at the start of 2027.

The next City Council meeting is planned to be on Oct. 20, more info can be found on the City of Davis website.

Written By: Cole Taylor — city@theaggie.org