Bob Dunning: We’re much closer to workable plan

DANDY DAN TO THE RESCUE … just as it appeared his council colleagues might go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and actually institute a water rate plan where people were billed, without warning, based on the water they used last summer, Councilman Dan Wolk turned on his microphone and said it was time to head in a different direction … acknowledging the unfairness of blindsiding Davis citizens with a rate system they never agreed to, Wolk steered the conversation back into familiar waters and won the day …

Scrapped, at least for now, was the onerous requirement of the so-called “CBFR” (consumption-based fixed rate model) that water rates for 2013 would be based on summer usage from 2012 or even 2011, before anyone knew this was coming … Wolk suggested that the whole issue be sent back to the Water Advisory Commission with a request that the WAC study several other proposals that come much, much closer to treating all ratepayers in this town equally …

We don’t have a final verdict yet, but compared to what was on the table at the start of Tuesday’s meeting, we’re 10 steps closer to a workable solution … I still say Dan is wasting his talents at the City Council level … shoulda run for Congress right out of the chute … watching him come up with the right solution at the right time is a bit like watching Mickey Mantle playing Triple-A baseball … clearly, the kid belongs in the Big Leagues …

END OF AN ERA … this is worse than Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch rolled into one, the news that Candy Cane Court will be no more … after 10 years of entertaining millions of folks from near and far, the best Christmas display in the world will disappear into the night air, just like Santa’s sleigh, never to be seen again …

Those of us who have marveled at this sight every year and argued over the proper pronunciation of “Henri” Court, have wondered how many man-hours, not to mention woman-hours, go into this overwhelming display … we also wonder if PG&E knocks the whole neighborhood into Tier 4 for its electrical excesses … if you’ve never been to Candy Cane Court, now’s the time … it’s worth a ride on a foggy, foggy night …

SPEAKING OF FOGGY NIGHTS … Tuesday we were told it was one of those “Don’t Light Tonight” days, which is fine … but by dusk on Tuesday, a substantial south wind had kicked up and there was no sign of an inversion layer … a perfect “burn” night, to be sure … shows the difficulty in this part of the world with issuing a morning edict that becomes meaningless by nightfall …

GO TO LAW SCHOOL, GET RICH … the “Help Wanted” ad in this very newspaper said “Yolo Superior Court Legal Research Assistant,” with “exp. in probate law strongly preferred. JD and CA Bar membership req’d.” … wow, nice to see there are still jobs available for our local law school grads … “$20.00 per hour.” … I am not making this up …

NEWS FROM THE NORTH … after all these years, I finally couldn’t resist the annual city of Woodland Christmas Parade that marched proudly down Main Street last Saturday morning … with real floats, real marching bands and an incredible amount of civic pride, it was a throwback to all the good things about small-town America …

Let’s just say the organizers of the steadily declining Picnic Day Parade could learn a thing or two by taking a short trip to Woodland the second Saturday in December … I could have done without the two apostrophes on the “Toy’s for Tot’s” float, but hey, it’s Woodland …

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net