April 6, 2023 by The California Aggie

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VOLUME 146, ISSUE 21 | THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2023

City council candidates Francesca Wright and Donna Neville share platforms at candidate forum The Davis Area League of Women Voters hosted a forum with the candidates to discuss the upcoming election BY CHRIS PONCE

city@theaggie.org On March 29, The Davis Area League of Women Voters (LWV), in partnership with Davis Media Access, hosted an online forum featuring District 3 city council candidates Donna Neville and Francesca Wright. With the special election on May 2 less than a month away, candidates discussed issues relevant to the city such as housing, fiscal challenges and downtown plans. The candidates were asked about the most important actions they would take to improve financial growth in Davis. Neville said that she has previous experience in this area, explaining that she drafted criteria used by the California state auditor’s Local Government High Risk Program to assess the fiscal health of California cities. “First we need more revenue,” Neville said. “This requires a robust economic development plan that sets out our priorities for attracting and retaining businesses in our downtown and other commercial hubs. We can’t flourish if we have empty retail spaces. Second, we need to find ways for the innovative businesses that want to locate and stay in Davis to stay here.

Finally, I’ll promote more transparency and community involvement in our budgeting process. We should hold public budget workshops where each city department presents its budget and the community has the ability to weigh in on spending priorities.” Wright then answered the same question. She said that the city needs to set aside more funds for long-term maintenance of roads. “We need strategies to maximize revenue — and that includes property taxes, sales taxes [and] hotel taxes — while preserving the character of our town,” Wright said. “This will require restoring vibrant retail, attracting tourism and facilitating ease of [permitting] upgrades. For example, we could increase property tax revenue by accelerating [the] permitting of real property upgrades. [...] We could use smarter application screening tools that require less staff time, and we could add fees for expedited services that could pay for the additional staffing.” An audience member asked the candidates about the issue of affordable housing and rising prices of rent in Davis. Wright mentioned the improvements that have already been made with the Davis Housing Trust Fund and what work still needs to be done to help combat the housing crisis. “By having staff in place, we can go after federal and state housing resources and make them more accessible,” Wright said. “The renting issue is beyond just

the affordability. It’s also having climateresilient spaces and I would like to address that as well.” Neville said that she believes the city can and should acquire the federal and state resources to address the issue. “The state now has enacted a number of pieces of significant legislation that are very top-down in terms of directing housing at the local level,” Neville said. “But they haven’t given us the tools or the money to be able to really incentivize the building of the affordable and the low- to moderate-income housing we need. So I would love to see Davis work together with the League of California Cities to advocate for money in the state budget for that purpose.” Both candidates were also asked about the Downtown Davis Plan, which aims to create a long-term guide for development and infrastructure through 2040. Wright answered first, focusing on the impact of the plan and how it can be improved. “This new model promises to accelerate the permitting process,” Wright said. “It has opened an opportunity for increased building height up to seven stories in the core [of downtown] and densification along G Street and is projected to provide 1,000 more units of housing. As a city council member, my priority for the Downtown Plan will be to address two key missing areas, which are: one, planning for the trees and two, envisioning streetscapes and transportation options.” Neville said that while the Downtown

Davis City Offices. (Aggie File) Plan will have a lasting positive impact on Davis, more must be done to address the city’s economy and housing crisis. “The Downtown Plan alone won’t revitalize our downtown economically nor will it ensure that the housing we desperately need gets built,” Neville said. “I have two key priorities. In terms of housing, we need to put additional tools in place such as a revenue stream for Housing Trust Fund and possibly housing impact fees or commercial linkage fees that will truly serve as incentives to building the housing we need in the downtown

area. The Downtown Plan needs to be accompanied by a robust economic development plan that sets out a proactive approach for attracting and retaining businesses to downtown.” The last day to register to vote in the special election is April 17. Ballots will be mailed to voters in District 3, and a list of ballot drop boxes, as well as additional voter information, can be found on the Yolo County Elections Office website.

‘I don’t do Washington the way other ASUCD spring elections people do:’ Congressperson Katie encourage students to Porter holds campaign event on campus vote and run for office Following her announcement to run for Senate, Representative Porter discusses corporate PACs, abortion access and other issues facing California BY CHRIS PONCE

city@theaggie.org On March 15, Democratic Congressperson Katie Porter, who represents California’s 47th District (CA-47), held a campaign event at the UCD Alumni Center. The event was hosted by the Davis College Democrats (DCD). Rep. Porter is one of three declared Democratic Representatives campaigning to replace long-time Sen. Dianne Feinstein following her decision to retire in 2024. DCD President Frances Haydock introduced Rep. Porter to those in attendance, welcoming her to Davis. Porter, who was a law professor at UC Irvine, talked about her experiences with Davis. “This is my second trip to UC Davis,” Porter said. “And I’m going to tell you what I thought after my first trip, which I’m reminded of. Davis is like a little slice of heaven. It’s just a little slice of heaven, so it is really wonderful to be back here and be with you all. And I won’t comment on the Anteaters vs. Davis.” Rep. Porter began by introducing herself, touching on her title from the San Francisco Chronicle as “Congress’s single mom and watchdog.” Porter spoke about how her background impacts her candidacy and ability to fight against issues that are affecting Californians. “It is not good enough that we have to worry that we are not going to be able to stay in California and raise our families in California because we can

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After historically low voter turnout in fall elections, ASUCD and student organizations emphasize the importance of voter participation, competitive elections to increase representation BY LILY FREEMAN campus@theaggie.org

Katie Porter, a California Senate candidate, speaks at the UC Davis Alumni Center. (Shanna Punzalan / Aggie) not afford the cost of housing,” Porter said. “It is not good enough that when we go to a church or to a school or to a movie theater we have to worry about the threat of gun violence. [...] There are real challenges that we are facing in California and those battles and those solutions are going to be fought in the U.S. Senate.” During the 2022 election cycle, Porter’s campaign received the largest sum of donations for a Democrat candidate running for the House of Representatives that year — and her campaign did this without accepting donations from Corporate PACs. Porter discussed her grassroots campaign strategy and talked about how it separates her from other candidates in the Senate race. “I ran [for the House] in 2017 and got elected for the first time in 2018,” Porter said. “I’ve never taken a dime of corporate PAC money and I am the only candidate in the race who can say that and I am very, very proud of it. I am one of 11 members of the 435 people in the House of Representatives who do not take contributions from federal lobbyists. You cannot have your hand out for a contribution check at six o’clock at a reception and turn around and help the American people — expect the American people to believe you’re voting in their best interest — the next morning.” Following her speech, Porter opened the rest of the meet-and-greet to take questions from students and those in attendance. The Porter campaign event came one day after Turning Point USA (TPUSA) held an event on campus, and Porter was asked about it. One person in attendance asked Porter, “A lot of people that were [at

the TPUSA event] are people that we’re going to be in class with, our peers. Some people that we might have considered friends, how do we come to terms with those people being around us?” “This is a question you have to think about when the elevator opens and the person you’re going to have to ride with is Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Porter said. “We have to value and we have to respect free speech, but we also have to be willing to call out and fight against and hold people to account for hate speech. That is a line we have to be willing to draw. And we have to make sure that our institutions, including our educational institutions, are not hiding behind free speech to facilitate hate speech. We have to try to reach across the aisle when we can, but you don’t compromise your values to do it.” Another attendee asked Porter about the push to codify Roe v. Wade and the Equal Rights Amendment: “that was my mother’s fight, and now our fight, and now my daughter’s.” “Make no mistake, Republicans will enact a nationwide abortion ban so we need to codify Roe v. Wade,” Porter said. “We’re stuck, the number of Democratic women in the Senate has actually gone down. The only reason the number of women hasn’t gone down is because Republicans [have been] elected. We are not making forward progress. California’s tradition of elected female leaders is amazing, and I’m proud to walk in those footsteps. That is a trail they have made for people to follow. I’m really proud to be following in it and I commit to all of you to widen that trail for others whose voices need to be heard and are often ignored in Washington.”

The ASUCD 2023 spring elections are near; students will be able to cast their votes on the ASUCD elections website from the morning of April 24 to the evening of April 28. Undergraduate students will vote for various candidates running for ASUCD leadership positions, including the roles of senator, president and vice president, external affairs vice president, student advocate and international student representative. Students will also vote on proposed measures. Senator Stephen Fujimoto explained some of the measures that will appear on the ballot. “An amendment I authored will be on the ballot, CA #79 or the ‘DRIP II Amendment,’” Fujimoto said. “The Senate will also be voting on whether to put The Green Initiative Fund [TGIF] fee referendum on the ballot.” According to Fujimoto, the DRIP II Amendment would allow the student body to vote on a recall and a replacement candidate for an ASUCD senator, external affairs vice president, student advocate, transfer student representative or an international student representative at the same time. If the Senate decides to put TGIF on the ballot, it will mark the third election in a row that it has been voted on by students, after failing during the past two elections due to a lack of voter turnout. A 20% voter turnout is required for any measure on student fees to pass. Cassie Eng, a fourth-year managerial economics and environmental policy analysis and planning double major and a TGIF committee member, described why she believes the TGIF referendum is important. “TGIF supports the UC Davis reputation as a global leader in sustainability and climate change

research,” Eng said. “Given historically low voter turnout, we are really pushing for the student body to make the spring elections count.” Kelly Abey, a third-year environmental policy analysis and planning and sustainable environmental design double major and a TGIF committee member, explained what is at stake if TGIF does not pass during this election. “TGIF is operating on the last of our reserves,” Abey said. “If we fail for a third time, the program will no longer exist on the UC Davis campus. We are planning on doing all that we can to increase the undergraduate voter turnout to meet the 20% voter threshold.” In March, the Editorial Board met with Chancellor Gary May and other UC Davis administrators. At the meeting, we asked whether the administration would financially support the continuation of TGIF and its related operations, should it fail to pass in the ASUCD elections. May said that “there are funds available [...] that could address this issue” but that nothing has been done at this point. Fujimoto said that all proposed measures will be finalized and published on the elections website in the upcoming weeks so that students can learn about them before voting. Voting will take place digitally through the ASUCD elections website, but the ASUCD Elections Committee is also working on setting up in-person voting booths with volunteers who will assist in teaching students how to vote, according to Fujimoto. ASUCD will announce where students can find these booths once the locations are finalized.

The Memorial Union at UC Davis. (Aggie File)

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