Letter To The Tattler: City Attorney Initiative

The ballot initiative petition to change the way the city handles its legal affairs is being distributed around town for residents to sign.  Signers must live in Emeryville and be registered to vote here.  Many citizens are helping to solicit signatures for the possible November ballot.  These petition carriers have indicated that helping to circulate the petitions is open to all residents and Council Member Ken Bukowski can be contacted for those wishing to sign the petition or to help circulate one.  Mr Bukowski's contact number is in the letter (below) that was received today for posting in the Tattler:  

To the Tattler:

The ballot initiative concerning the legal department at City Hall is important for the city's financial health.  Many cities our size and larger don't have City Attorney departments but instead contract out their legal work with specialized law firms, depending on the case.  Emeryville has also contracted out many legal firms for various legal issues in the past and continues to do so.  The Redevelopment Agency has finished the bulk of its work and is likely to shrink in size and as a consequence it is not warranted at this time to carry the kind of overhead we have with our legal department. This ballot initiative would put the issue before Emeryville voters and will permit both pro and con arguments to respond and these will be printed on the ballot.

It's important to resolve this issue.  Signers of the petition for the ballot initiative will remain anonymous to all but the Alameda county registrar.  Please sign this ballot initiative petition. Contact me at (510) 435-1861 or Joan Strasser at (510) 653-3174 and we will make the petition available for you.  Council member Ken Bukowski also can be contacted at 305-0000 and he will bring the petition to you.

-Scott Donahue

 Emeryville resident