I would like to respond to a recent letter by Ann Evans, the wife of DACHA developer David Thompson and a former mayor like myself. Evans makes a number of claims that are incorrect or misleading, but I want to correct the record on the fundamental premise.

Evans claims that: “There’s a pattern of abuse by (city) staff and blindness to that abuse by the council that is deeply disturbing, and it’s not limited to housing.” She feels that her husband has been punished for “whistleblowing.”

I am the only current council member who was on the council when DACHA was approved. Thompson’s “whistleblowing” consisted of expressing concern about the lack of equity caps on some for-sale affordable houses in Wildhorse, and the resultant large profits that were made. The entire council and staff shared his concern. I did not detect any anger at Thompson for “whistleblowing,” i.e. speaking out against the lack of equity caps. Everyone agreed.

Thompson was not punished for whistleblowing. To the contrary. When Thompson and Luke Watkins proposed the DACHA project, I had expressed my concern to staff that the DACHA business model was problematic. I was concerned because, in addition to a large membership fee and a relatively high carrying cost, Watkins had told me that any equity would go into co-op expansion rather than toward paying off the co-op mortage. I feared that the expansion-based model could collapse, because a low- to moderate-income person might be better off renting under these circumstances.

City staff told me that they understood my concerns about the business model, but that they were going to recommend approval of the project because they wanted to support innovative projects and new developers.

This certainly doesn’t sound like a staff that was out to punish Thompson.

Evans calls on the council to “solve DACHA immediately.” And that is exactly what we are trying to do. I hope that we all keep in mind the fact that a lot of low-/moderate-income tenants have been hurt because of the DACHA failure.

Sue Greenwald
Council member and former mayor, Davis

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