Editorial: Clarify the issue in Dixon
“It’s unclear if Dixon’s City Council deliberately or inadvertently cut itself off from transportation and planning funds that other Solano County cities have access to, but either way, that’s the result of Tuesday night’s vote.
Waving the red flag of “eminent domain,” Dixon Councilman Thom Bogue rallied the fearful, who swarmed the council chamber and railed against an otherwise innocuous agreement that would have given Dixon the chance to parlay a $9,717 investment into a $75,000 grant from the Solano Transpor-tation Authority and the option to seek even more funding down the road.
But neither assurances from STA officials and city staff that a clause in the contract was not intended to strip the power of eminent domain from Dixon’s City Council and give it to other agencies nor an offer to rewrite the offending paragraphs to make that abundantly clear would satisfy detractors.
The entire contract was voted down on a 3-1 vote, with Mayor Jack Batchelor opposing and Councilman Dane Besneatte — whose legal expertise might have been helpful — absent.”
The Reporter 9 January 2014.