Q&A
When you look back on the relationship between the City of Davis and Yolo County over the past year,
- What did you like about that relationship?
- What would you rather not see repeated?
- What would you see as the ideal City/County relationship going forward?
- What specific steps would you take to achieve that ideal relationship?
[Don's response:] The City of Davis and Yolo County share the common purpose of providing the best possible local services to our residents. Both jurisdictions are subject to the fluctuations of the state budget process and California's local government financing framework. The County, in particular, is required to deliver a wide range of mandated services that are often not supported by revenues. In short, there is much potential for competing interests to emerge in the interactions between cities and counties.
Over the past four years, the City/County working relationships and shared service to residents of Davis has been mostly positive and collaborative. Together, we have retained the planning principle that development should occur within the city limits. The 2x2 between two members of the County Board of Supervisors and two members of the Davis City Council has provided a good forum for open discussion and briefings on emergency preparedness, planning for the library measure, consideration of annexation and service options for the UCD West Village, and other issues. In addition, the County Administrative Officer meets regularly with the City Managers of Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento and Winters; together that group has addressed several projects, including updated County impact fees, park planning, and programming for the homeless. We have active collaborations in the areas of transportation, water issues, habitat planning, and air quality. In addition, I am very pleased that Davis voters passed a County library tax with the active support of Davis officials.
A backdrop for City/County relations over the past four years has been the County's work to update the Yolo County General Plan and the ongoing struggles the County has faced with mandated services and diminishing revenues. In the course of this update, several sites were considered throughout the County for residential, commercial or industrial development. Four of those sites were located within the Davis Planning Area and were identified as "joint study areas". This situation presents the clearest example of competing underlying interests over the past four years; the County's interests in revenue generation and reconsideration of some land use planning policies came into conflict with the City's interest in controlling our own future within the planning area.
After considerable public input and deliberations, these four sites were removed from active consideration. However, it is clear that similar issues of this sort will continue to emerge. It is essential that we strengthen the ongoing communication between the City and County on these and other critical matters.
The underpinnings of an ideal City/County relationship are already in place in our 2x2s, various interjurisdictional bodies and staff level communications.
The ideal City/County relationship is one where both parties respect the interests and authorities of the other and strive for the best services to residents. In this instance, it is imperative that the City of Davis plan its own land use destiny. In doing so we must take into consideration the legitimate needs of the County and be open to listening and financial realities. I think it would be very useful for ongoing City/County efforts to pursue the following:
- Continuation of 2x2 process with an annual calendar and work plan.
- Conduct an annual joint meeting of the Board of Supervisors and City Council to review shared goals.
- Charge the 2x2 and staff with drafting a statement of shared interests and common purposes that would be adopted by both bodies. Examples of such interest might include commitments to agricultural preservation and smart growth planning. Another might be a statement of commitment to engage each other in share planning at the earliest stages of any process.
- Pursue a joint project to construct an off-road bicycle path between Davis and Woodland.
- Coordinate work on climate change: including 1)agreeing on definitions for planning purposes and environmental documents; identifying areas of possible partnership; 2) examining the potential of joint purchasing to bring down the cost of items like hybrid vehicles; 3) participating in a joint effort with the County and other cities in the County to determine community energy use and greenhouse gas production and for the purpose of establishing policies to meet reduction targets based on that inventory.
- Jointly plan for the public transportation needs of the County and cities, especially those of seniors and disabled persons travelling between cities.
