Interim Housing Ordinance to be extended to the next fiscal year, when a new ordinance will be drafted

On Nov. 27, city staff brought up two pressing issues during the weekly city council meeting. The council wanted to “extend the current interim ordinance for a limited period, to allow additional commission/community review of the draft replacement requirement, and provide preliminary direction on each of the four key issues identified in their latest report.”

The council voted unanimously 5-0 in favor of extending the Interim Ordinance to the next fiscal year. Mayor Brett Lee spoke on behalf of the council.

“Everyone on the council has a commitment to providing affordable housing for people with lower incomes,” Lee said. “What we did today is we renewed our existing interim ordinance, which requires 15 percent of apartment complex units to be affordable, and we currently have an exemption of mixed-use development.”

Michael Webb, the city manager for the City of Davis, was pleased with the outcome.

“It’s to maximize how much affordable housing we can provide to the community, at certain income levels with each new development project that happens,” Webb said. “But not getting so far as to eliminate the feasibility of the project happening. The recommendation here was to continue with the proposition we have here for multifamily housing.”

The commission addressed various issues regarding the alteration of the Affordable Housing Ordinance. It recommended removing the vertical mix and stacked flats exemptions to the ordinance.

“Currently, there is no city requirement for the provision of affordable housing units when a project like that is built, and tonight the full council gave full direction for staff to come back and actually provide us with an ordinance that provides us 5 percent requirement for projects like that,” Lee said. “The downtown area would be viewed as a special area that may not be required to have that 5 percent. It would be on a project by project basis but [with] the understanding that there would be some contribution to affordable housing.”

Following the 2009 Palmer Decision, Davis looked to update and change its affordable housing policy to comply with the decision. In 2017, however, former Governor Jerry Brown signed various new housing bills. Of these bills, the most important was AB 1505, which “additionally authorize[d] the legislative body of any county or city to adopt ordinances to require, as a condition of development of residential rental units, that the development include a certain percentage of residential rental units affordable to, and occupied by, moderate-income, lower income, very low income, or extremely low income households or by persons and families of low or moderate income.” This essentially overturned the Palmer Decision, and now the city once again seeks to change its housing laws.

A study conducted by Plesia & Company reported on housing in Davis. The report was edited by BAE Urban Economics. In this report, Plescia & Co. highlighted the city’s return on investment for each of the four residential and mixed-use development prototypes and presented preliminary information on the effects of affordable housing on the net project value of those four development prototypes. This was heavily cited during the city council meeting, as it is expected to influence the legislation in years to come.

On Nov. 5, the City of Davis released the Affordable Housing Ordinance. This was set to be reviewed by the planning commission on Nov. 14 and then reviewed by the Social Services Commision on Nov. 19. The conclusion reached by the commission was that the interim ordinance would be extended until 2019 or 2020, when more information would be available and a decision could be made. This was confirmed on Nov. 27, when the ordinance was brought to a vote. Residents such as Larry Guenther, a local contractor, and council members alike were pleased with the decision.

“That gives us time to flesh out all the ideas,” Guenther said. “A lot of people were talking about a lot of different ideas. The planning commision has weighed in with a lot of ideas, the social services commission has a lot of ideas. Other community members have a lot of ideas, and so that gives some time for the community city staff and City Council to come up with a much better Affordable Housing Ordinance.”

The vote simply extended the Interim Ordinance, and by the end of the fiscal year in June, a new ordinance will have to be drafted.

“It’s probably unlikely to change in June,” Lee said. “It will probably just be a renewal. The ordinance we renewed keeps in place what has been the case in terms of apartment complexes. This hasn’t been an obstacle for people building apartment complexes.”

Community members, however, were skeptical. Many want greater changes when the Affordable Housing Ordinance is once again brought to the table in June.

“We’re all problem solvers,” Guenther said. “People are problem solvers, developers are problem solvers. If you give them an avenue to get around the system, they’ll take it. It’s very difficult to get one ordinance that absolutely guarantees the perfect situation. But it won’t happen without discussion with all community members. We’ve got a lot of smart people and we need to hear from them. We need to hear from students. Our biggest employer is the university. About half of the city’s renters are students. We need that voice. That voice has to be part of our answer.”

Written by: John Regidor — city@theaggie.org

Yolo County Association of Realtors donates $10,000 to Yolo Crisis Nursery

The Yolo County Association of Realtors plans to donate $10,000 to the Yolo Crisis Nursery. The Yolo Crisis Nursery offers relief to families with small children, and the Yolo County Association of Realtors hopes to help the community in any way that it can.

Becky Heard, the vice president of the Yolo Crisis Nursery Board of Directors, noted that the nursery appreciates assistance from the community, as there are many families in need.

“Our nursery relies on the generosity of our community to keep our doors open,” Heard said, according to The Davis Enterprise. “Thank you for helping to make Yolo County a better place today and nurturing our future by supporting the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community. Last year we cared for 321 families, almost a new family every day. This gift will have a huge impact on the children and families we serve at the Nursery.”

Moreover, the Yolo Crisis Nursery aims to serve families at all times of the day.

“Parenting is hard,” according to Yolo Crisis Nursery’s press release. “Since 2001, The Yolo Crisis Nursery has been there to help. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Nursery offers respite childcare for families in crisis with children ages birth through 5 years old.”

Nicholas Marin-Kumko, the executive director for Yolo County Association of Realtors, elaborated on the organization.

“Yolo County Association of Realtors is in charge of providing professional development training and education for the real estate community and industry in Yolo County,” Marin-Kumko said. “We also host other sorts of events like mixers, volunteer community events for our members so that they can get more involved in the community and network with each other as well.”

The Yolo Crisis Nursery can implement the funds in many areas to help families because they offer free services.

“In fact, 97% of our clients do not get referred to or go through Child Protective Services,” the press release states. “Our services are voluntary and free of charge. Without the generosity of groups like the Yolo County Association of Realtors and others in our community, the nursery would not exist.”

The Yolo County Association of Realtors ended up choosing the Yolo Crisis Nursery because they thought that the nonprofit fit its criteria.

“It’s not done randomly,” Marin-Kumko said. “Our board of directors at the beginning of each year goes out into the community and looks for different organizations and nonprofits in Yolo County that are underfunded or they need additional assistance. The nonprofit that gets chosen needs to either house, clothe or feed the community. It has to fall under one of those three categories.”

This nursery aims to provide a safer environment for families with children, so it falls under the categories listed for which the Yolo County Association of Realtors was looking.

The press release emphasized that “The Nursery offers wrap-around services to keep families together, help them navigate crises, and prevent child abuse and neglect. Our wrap-around services help parents resolve the problems that brought them to our door.”

Marin-Kumko further stated that the association provides funding to different organizations; however, they attained the funds differently this year for the nursery.

“In the past, we usually take money from our net profits from our charity golf tournament in October,” Marin-Kumko said. “This year, we decided to not only use the money at the golf tournament this October, but we also have another event called the poker run. It’s a smaller event that we do in the springtime. It’s not a huge money maker, but it’s an event that gets the real estate community together and network a little bit.”

Furthermore, a benefactor contributed.

“This was added to the total cost of the golf tournament as well as a third party of our members [who] also donated money that he collected,” Marin-Kumko said. “He was building an office, and he sold off the furniture — instead of keeping the money, he donated. These three different situations added to the whole pot.”

Overall, Marin-Kumko believed that the association made a good decision to help out the community.

“We reached out to them, and they do such good work in the community” Marin-Kumko said. “We heard that they are in the process of trying to expand as well. We thought that this was a perfect opportunity to contribute, so that they can expand their work and help the community and underfunded families and children. We saw the opportunity, and we thought it would be a great idea — that was what attracted us.”

Written by: Stella Tran — city@theaggie.org

City Council approves agreement with Davis City Employees Association

On Nov. 13, the Davis City Council approved a four-year labor agreement with the Davis City Employees Association. The decision concluded 10 years of negotiations, a time period during which workers operated with no agreed-upon contract and no new raises. This new contract offers city employees salary adjustments as well as introduces a cost-sharing retirement plan.

The DCEA consists of nearly a quarter of the city workforce, primarily employees who work in the field, such as electricians, maintenance workers and collection system staff.

The last contract that was agreed upon between the city and the DCEA ended in 2009. The two groups then reached an impasse when the DCEA rejected a proposal for a new contract in 2013. The Public Employment Relations Board stepped in, and after two fact-finding processes, the board allowed an imposed contract to go into effect that same year. This contract imposed two of the city’s concessions: changing the cash-out system and having employees pay their own California Public Employees’ Retirement System contributions, met with no offers for raises.

In light of those concessions being put into place, DCEA President Dave Owen said one reason why the DCEA now agreed to the 2018 contract was to avoid being imposed upon again.

“It’s better than where we were at,” Owen said. “Are we happy with it? No, but [it was] the best that we could do that we can see at this point.”

City Manager Michael Webb said he believes negotiations have become more productive in the past two years and that shifts in human resources management and in city council philosophy during that time — as well as the help of a new negotiator, Patrick Clark — contributed to the approval of the current contract.

“Under the last city council and then under our current city council is where I think a more robust conversation really started to take place — about compensation and compensation models — and trying to bring some greater alignment with our other bargaining units,” Webb said. “We also really took an approach of looking at total compensation and not just looking at salary.”

Owen disagreed with Webb with regard to both the claim that negotiations are becoming much more positive and that the conversation is changing to one of total compensation.

“We’ve been looking at total comp for years,” Owen said.

The outcomes of these compensation discussions have included integrating the cost of living adjustments as well as market adjustments for salaries of positions that have not kept up with the market. In a study, benchmarked positions were found to be below the market median when compared to similar agencies. The new contract brings all positions within 5.26 percent below the market median.

The DCEA had requested that the adjustments instead bring them all the way to market value, and Owen feels the city should have agreed with that request.

“They have built in for themselves more than a 5 percent discount,” Owen said. “It left a bad taste in your mouth that you were being discounted in this way, but the majority of our membership decided that this was better than nothing, so they took it.”

Webb acknowledged that the adjustments were limited but is confident in the decision.

“This agreement brings them into better alignment with the market,” Webb said. “I’m not saying it just brings them automatically up to market, but we ended up getting everyone within five and a quarter percent.”

As for other adjustments, all positions will receive at least a 2 percent yearly cost of living adjustment, unless pension costs change. This element provides for risk-sharing between the city and DCEA, a detail that Mayor Brett Lee considers an important part of the contract.

“In the past, whenever the pension costs either have gone up or down, the city is the one that has had to adjust,” Lee said. “In this agreement, both groups adjust.”

The cost of living adjustments could then potentially decrease — although to no lower than 1 percent — or increase to as high as 3 percent, depending on CalPERS, the city pension system.

Lee and Webb see the agreement as a success.

“[I am] very pleased with the outcomes because I think it strikes a nice balance between recognizing the value of our staff and making them the appropriate adjustments that are also in keeping with our need to make sure that we’re being fiscally prudent as an organization,” Webb said.

Owen, however, is frustrated with council’s presentation of the agreement as exclusively positive.

“We do have an agreement, but it isn’t the panacea that they would like you to believe this is,” Owen said. “[Councilmember] Lucas Frerichs can stand there and say that the city and the DCEA are pleased with this agreement, [but] he’s certainly not authorized to speak for us.”

In approximately two years, the city and the DCEA will begin negotiations again. Until then, the city at least anticipates that having a contract will bring a greater sense of stability to the organization.

Written by: Anne Fey — city@theaggie.org

Teach Your Children, Inc. closes amid turbulent relationship with Woodland Joint Unified School District

In February of 2017, Amazon brokered a deal with the public-sector buying cooperative U.S. Communities, which purchases supplies for schools. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance warned at the time that Amazon’s expansion into the public sector would harm cities, counties and school districts. During the 2017-18 school year, the Woodland Joint Unified School District made an allocative commitment to certain online vendors, including Amazon, which resulted in a sales hit to Davis educational supply store Teach Your Children, Inc.

Before it closed in November 2018, Teach Your Children, Inc. sold educational games and toys, as well as teaching supplies. Teach Your Children, Inc. owner Loren Skinner claimed that during the store’s 17 years of operation, parents and teachers supported Teach Your Children, while schools did not.

This was especially apparent to Skinner in 2017, when two Woodland teachers who had been patrons of the store informed Skinner that the district had given every Woodland teacher $1,000 to spend in their classroom exclusively through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ikea or Lakeshore Learning. The teachers explained that because of this, they were choosing not to shop at Teach Your Children, Inc.

According to Skinner, Teach Your Children, Inc. would have been dramatically affected if the district had included his store as a vendor in the deal.

“That would have made my whole life,” Skinner said. “But instead, a hundred dollars or so [that] the teachers were spending every year, they didn’t have to.”

Lori Williams, the educational services administrative assistant, confirmed that this allocative decision of which the teachers spoke did in fact happen; however, she stressed the fact that it was a one-time allocation during the 2017-18 school year.

“That was something that was offered to teachers to help them with classrooms, and that was just for that school year,” Williams said.

Elodia Ortega-Lampkin, the associative superintendent of educational services, provided a written statement regarding the situation.

“The funds were to be used for additional supplemental materials to support instruction in Math, English Language Arts, Science, Visual and Performing Arts, Interventions, and/or  enrichment of classroom environment,” Ortega-Lampkin said via email.

These materials are the same type offered by Teach Your Children, Inc.. Though the decision was only a one-time deal, Skinner saw the district’s action as an aid to Amazon in stamping out competitors.

“In one fell swoop, the Woodland District took all of my customers away and handed them on a silver platter to Amazon,” Skinner said. “They left me out in the cold, and that was the final blow.”

Skinner is still realistic about the challenges small independent businesses face.

“Would Amazon have gotten me anyway?” Skinner said. “Probably. But [the district] helped.”

Neither district official addressed why the district chose the particular vendors they did; however, Teach Your Children, Inc.’s exclusion may have gone back to previous negative experiences between the district and store, including one conflict over Skinner attempting to sell summer workbooks through the schools.

As for the 2017-18 decision, some schools did not experience a dramatic change in purchasing practices. Scott Clary, the principal of Woodland Prairie Elementary, said he did not receive a directive from the district regarding where to purchase supplies. Woodland Prairie Elementary frequently buys from Amazon through an online purchase order with the district, but Clary spoke of flexibility based on cost and convenience.

“We have public money, so we have a responsibility to get the best price,” Clary said. “Sometimes that’s Amazon, and sometimes that’s someplace local.”

According to one firm’s findings and due to dynamic pricing used in contracts, Amazon business in general can cost about 10 to 12 percent more than local retailers.

Currently, there is now no other local educational supply store — Teach Your Children, Inc. had been the only one in Yolo County.

“It’s tough,” Skinner said. “Everything’s kind of against you with a small business.”

Written by: Anne Fey — city@theaggie.org

The Davis Native Family Alliance formed to discuss, display problems faced by Native students

Members of the Davis Native Family Alliance voiced concerns over Native American representation during a board meeting of the Davis Joint Union School District on Nov. 15. DNFA is a group composed of Native families with children enrolled in DJUSD schools. According to Teri Digregorio, a member of DNFA and a parent of a student, the purpose of DNFA is to present a unified voice in articulating the needs of equity for Native American students.

“We are bound together by the fact that our children endure profound negative psychological impacts through the anti-native curriculums, attitudes and approaches that are embedded into the content and teaching practices at DJUSD,” Digregorio said to the board during the meeting.

The DNFA told the board that the Davis area is the “ancestral unseated home” of the Wintu nation of the Patwin people.

“These sovereign people have been the caretakers of this land since time immemorial,” Digregorio said. “Despite centuries of genocide and occupation, the Wintu people continue in existence in the Davis area.”

According to Melinda Adams, a member of DNFA and a parent of a student, the group is joined together by the negative experiences that Native American students face. The group began when Kate Snow, the climate coordinator for the district, suggested that Native American parents meet.

“[Snow] had identified a couple of us that sit on our individual school district climate committee and suggested that we meet together to at least try to share our experiences,” Adams said to the board. “And from there we’ve kind been more aware of some of the experiences that our children have been having.”

One of the issues DNFA discussed was how Native Americans were presented in school events. According to Lupita Torres, a member of DNFA, the emphasis on Columbus Day and Pioneer days may perpetuate harmful attitudes. Additionally, she expressed that there should be a greater recognition of Native American History Month and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

“The emphasis on Columbus Day perpetuates attitudes of genocide toward native people,” Torres said. “Classroom activities surrounding Thanksgiving may contribute to erroneous history, stereotypes and toxic stress on Native children and families. The lack of recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day adds to the erasure of our living people of the present day.”

Additionally, according to Adams, the group finds topics currently included in the history curriculum as lacking perspective. For example, some families found the pioneer teachings and field trips to forts, said to have been occupied by native peoples at one point, concerning.

“We’ve been more aware of some of the experiences that our children have been having,”
Adams said to the board. “Mainly the pioneer curriculum that the students will be facing the fourth grade, as well as harmful field trips to forts and otherwise occupied territories that Native peoples that at one time occupied. Pioneer days represents a direct assault on the psyche of our children, where they are required to dress up and celebrate the genocide of our own people.”

According to Jesus Valle, a professor at American River College, the suspension rate of Native American children across California is 7.4 percent, which was much higher than the overall statewide suspension rate of 3.6 percent.

“So when we pull the data we see that there is a problem within the system,” Valle said. “Why is it that our students are singled out? […] We need to dig deep, if Davis is going to be an inclusive place.”

Valle explained how the school district should work toward receiving a Title VI demonstration grant, in addition to “bringing Allyship, building connections and building voice.”

Digregorio explained that even though the district may have good intentions, the Native American community should have the opportunity to be heard and have a say in how they are represented in the curriculum.

“We understand that the administration, faculty and staff of DJUSD may have the best of intentions with regard to delivering culturally appropriate instruction,” Digregorio said. “However, without a direct partnership that includes and prioritizes direct native voices and input in the determination of curriculum, methods and best practices, the hostile atmosphere that our children endure will not be remedied.”

Although the DNFA presented many issues it felt were prevalent in the community, Torres stated that there are more complex issues.

“This list presents the largest issues, but we understand the level of microaggressions that occur in the classrooms and on the playgrounds — the toxic environment is much more complex,” Torres said. “We envision DJUSD putting resources towards a development of a culturally validated resource repository for teachers, opportunities for instructor development and a general shift in the climate with regards to Native Americans.”

After the general public comment ended, the education board welcomed the idea of having an indigenous blessing during the next board meeting.

Written by: Hannan Waliullah — city@theaggie.org