Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Follow the Money: Lobbyists Descend on Emeryville; Outsiders Tell Emeryville Citizens to be Cautious of Outsiders

Follow the Money; fourth in a series
The Tattler introduces a new feature for the 2014 election season: Follow the Money. 
This election cycle is shaping up to be very expensive and very far-flung with lots of money from out-of-town interests pouring into the city.  We plan on digging out and exposing this money from people and organizations we don’t know that are trying to change our town to their liking.  These unfamiliar individuals and interest groups may effect our November elections with all their spending in Emeryville but the Tattler is going to make sure that while they assert their influence, we’re going to expose who they are. 
Click on the 'Follow the Money' label at the bottom of this story or use the search bar to review the entire Follow the Money series.
Sacramento Lobbyists Must Think Emeryville Citizens are Pretty Stupid

Opinion
The truth is that Emeryville
citizens, REAL Emeryville
citizens are going to be
able to see right through
this con.
And so the barrage begins.  The California Association of Realtors, the largest special interest lobbying group in California has started spending their $85,000 earmarked to fight Emeryville Measures U&V on an ocean of sleazy mailers polluting our mail boxes.  With so much money to spend on so few voters in Emeryville, residents here should prepare themselves for a toxic onslaught of misinformation and outright lies.

Contrary to what the lobbyists say, Measures U&V will permit Emeryville citizens to run our own town as we see fit as a 'charter city', independent of Sacramento.  All our neighboring cities are charter cities, something these mailers don't want us to know.  In addition, passage of Measures U&V will enable Emeryville to impose a real estate transfer fee to pay for essential city services.  The fee is small, less than all our neighbors charge, probably a reason that every City Council member has endorsed Measures U&V.

The most recent heavy card stock over-sized mailer from these Sacramento lobbyists asks us 'What is the truth'? in its strange roaring 20's type font that we'll be totally sick of by election time.  These paid lobbyists audaciously want us to know in the newest mailer the truth is "outsiders" will put Emeryville at risk if Measures U&V is passed...whatever that means.
These people hope we don't read the State mandated small print on the mailer that sheepishly informs us the citizens that want to "preserve Emeryville" actually live on Tribute Road in Sacramento.  Isn't that nice?   Even though they don't live here, these (nameless) caring individuals are only interested in preserving Emeryville.  So nice of them to spend so much money to help us like this!
"Don't be fooled" they warn us.  OK, thanks for that California Association of Realtors, we won't be fooled.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 16, 2014 at 6:46 PM

    Poor, misguided Brian. Your are on the wrong side of this one.
    Emeryville is doing fine, just like it is. We already have parks and bike
    paths. Supporting the Schools is not part of the equation. We
    have enough money, too. Redevelopment was cut for good reason.
    Just look at the High School that was demolished, or the proposed Art
    Center Property that has been off of the Tax Rolls for several years,
    and what about the Bridge over the RR Tracks. If we give them the
    money, they will just waste it. You might even be on the receiving end.
    I say down with "U" and "V". We're OK like we are!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brian DonahueOctober 17, 2014 at 12:29 AM

      Emeryville has been built on the back of the Redevelopment Agency, an economic engine that comprised 97% of our town. Emeryville, more than any other town in the Bay Area, was built with help from its RDA. And now it's no more. Our budget has been halved. Anybody that says we're OK now that our budget is half gone also says its OK to be too poor to even maintain what we have (never mind build more). It's OK according to you, that once we use up the little we have left, we'll never be able to afford another park or bridge or anything else we want. We're OK on our glide-path to insolvency according to this kind of misguided thinking. Other cities can build resident amenities, just not Emeryville, right? We can't because a few individuals that want to extract maximum profits from our town are willing to spend whatever it takes on mailers to make it so. Sorry, I'm just not a cynical as you. We're not OK like we are. We're going to keep making Emeryville better. We're not going to fall behind because of some nonsensical and subterfuge campaign of lies meant to help with your private bank account. Emeryville is more than just you.

      Delete