Planning Chair: Sutter Hospital Unacceptable -Too Many Cars and Destruction of Bike Boulevard

Planning Commission Chair Calls Sutter Proposal "Car Focused" and a "Broken Promise" to the People of Emeryville

New Citizen Activist Group 'Neighbors United' Forms to Push Back

Planning Commission Chairman Jordan Wax told representatives from Sutter Health Hospital last Wednesday their planned construction of a billion dollar hospital on 53rd Street that requires the destruction of Emeryville’s Horton Street Bike Boulevard would constitute “breaking a promise” to his constituents and people in the greater East Bay region.  Two other Commissioners joined with Chair Wax expressing dismay over the Sutter announcement of the destruction of the bike boulevard, a three vote majority that sends a strong message to the hospital giant they may have to negotiate to get their proposal approved by Emeryville’s planers. 

Nearly all Commissioners expressed some concerns over the proposed 330 foot tall hospital project but Mr Wax, who called the whole project flawed and “car focused”, leveled the hardest criticisms against Sutter.  Sutter will have to issue an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that would cite the destruction of the bike boulevard as an unmitigated and significant impact and get City Council approval to proceed. The Council can override a Planning Commission rejection based on the destruction of the bike boulevard but it would require a Statement of Overriding Concern that provides compelling reasons in the form of findings in the public interest, not just a disagreement.

Emeryville Planning Commission Chair Jordan Wax
The Sutter proposal is "car focused" and its required
destruction of the Horton Street Bike Boulevard is "breaking 
a promise" with the people of Emeryville.

 

Horton Street is required to be a quiet street according to Emeryville's Active Transportation Plan with no more than 3000 vehicle trips per day.  The last time the City of Emeryville measured the traffic volume on Horton Street was 2019 when 4127 vehicle trips per day were recorded.  The Sutter project will place far too many vehicles on Horton for bike boulevard compatibility and for this project to go forward as planned would require the ATP to be amended, removing the Horton Street Bike Boulevard from the City's bike boulevard network.  Horton Street is currently used by a great number of regional bicyclists and the only other planned north/south bike passage in town is Shellmound Street, a non contiguous corridor that doesn't connect with Emeryville's Greenway as Horton Street does.  As such, the loss of Horton Street for safe bike transportation would represent a region-wide loss for bicyclists. 

The public Planning Commission meeting netted many concerned comments from members of the public and also the announcement of a newly formed activist group, 'Neighbors United' born out of frustration with the Sutter project. Two Neighbors United members, both founding members of the former Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), a powerful citizen activist group, spoke out expressing concern for the demise of the bike boulevard and other problems associated with the development.  The formation of a new grassroots RULE type group could spell trouble for Sutter as they seek their City approvals.  

Sutter hosted an earlier public meeting where they hinted that the Horton Street Bike Boulevard diverter at 53rd Street might have to be destroyed and they notified the attendees Sutter would make themselves available to the community to answer questions from the community in the days and weeks ahead promising accountability, transparency and partnership with the Emeryville Community.  They expressed desires to be good [corporate] neighbors.  However, it should be known Sutter has reneged on that promise, refusing to answer repeated calls and emails from the Tattler.  

The proposed Sutter Health center will feature a 200 bed, 330 foot tall hospital with accompanying administration and parking structures totaling 1.3 million square feet and will present “traffic gridlock” as Neighbors United presented it, generating thousands of daily car trips as well as heliport noise and risks from all the low altitude helicopter flights to and from the proposed rooftop helipad.

The Horton Diverter at 53rd Street
After more than ten years of planning in response to too many cars on the bike boulevard
the street was closed to through traffic last year.  The diverter is required by the City's Active Transportation Plan.  
The reason cited for the diverter is bike safety.  The City of Emeryville concern for bike safety will be removed if the diverter is removed by Sutter.

Private Business Advocacy Organization to Receive Emeryville Taxpayer Public Money (Again)

 Corruption Journal:

Gift of Taxpayer Money Going to the Private Chamber of Commerce (Again)

If the Recent Past is a Guide, the $30,663 is Just the Camel's Nose Under the Tent

Former Mayor Assured Residents This Day Would Never Come

New Council Is Nonplused: 'What Could Go Wrong?'

At the May 19th city council meeting, the Emeryville council politicians unanimously agreed to issue a government check in the amount of $30,663 to the Emeryville Commerce Connection (ECC), a replacement organization to the former Chamber of Commerce, in order to promote dues paying restaurants in town; the money representing a public to private exchange former City Councilman John Bauters notably said was never going to happen again.   The controversial taxpayer payment to the private and exclusive ECC organization funds a ‘Restaurant Week’ event in Emeryville this October.  By way of transparency, the private organization says they will show the City how they spent taxpayer's money at a later date. 

The private ECC organization taking public money was debated in 2024 when the organization was newly forming amid assurances from then Councilman Bauters who offered that the group would never get any public money like the private Chamber of Commerce did before them.  Mr Bauters used his argument as a way to take away from Councilman Kalimah Priforce’s publicly made concerns about possible conflicts of interest if the group ever was in a position to take public money.  It is ironic that Mr Priforce, who has now two years later voted with his colleagues to give a tranche of public money to ECC, is receiving push back from his colleagues for again expressing worry about possible conflicts of interest he made before the vote.  In that vein, Mr Priforce expressed reservations about the private ECC receiving taxpayer money at both the 2024 meeting and also at the May 19th meeting, even though he ended up voting with his colleagues to fund the ECC in the end.  

Former Mayor John Bauters
'The new chamber of commerce, the 
Emeryville Commerce Connection, is a private
organization that will never receive public money
like the old chamber of commerce did.' 
Until on May 19th they did.

In the intervening two years, the tax exempt A 501(c)(6) organization ECC has made something of a name for itself for its opacity, drawing out the line of questions from Mr Priforce who told Mary Lou Thiercof, the organization's CEO he was not comfortable giving public money to the secretive group.  As a condition of his support, Councilman Priforce asked the CEO if she could reveal who sits on the Board of Directors, noting that information is not on the ECC website.  In response, Ms Thiercof assured the Councilman she would email him the list of Board members privately.  Notably, the other City Council members expressed no concerns about a secret Board of Directors for the organization they were about to give public money to. 

Finally delivering his YES vote to the ECC (with reservations), Council member Priforce said he thought Restaurant Week delivered good value for the City's brand and he doubted the City's public Economic Development Advocacy Committee’s (EDAC) capacity to pull that off effectively.

Perhaps sensing this day would come and recognizing the checkered past of the former Chamber of Commerce and all their gifts of public money bestowed on them by the City Council, former Mayor John Bauters notably told his colleagues on March 19th, 2024 that the ECC would not ever get any public money from Emeryville.  Pushing back against a questioning Councilman Priforce, who even then was concerned about possible conflicts of interest from the newly formed ECC that might arise as a result of them taking public money, Mr Bauters issued a strong rebuke to Mr Priforce.  Mr Bauters assured everyone that the ECC is not getting any public money and they won’t in the future.  He lectured his colleague Priforce,  “Chambers [of commerce] aren’t supposed to be run by the City.  A group of business owners and residents came together [to form ECC] and there’s no City money in that….zero dollars.  So there’s no conflict.”  Bauters pointedly took issue with the Priforce concerns, “There’s nothing wrong with a group of private individuals or businesses choosing to associate and work together [as long as they don’t take public money]” said Mr Bauters (brackets added by the Tattler).  

The private recipient of Emeryville taxpayer's money
is not transparent. 
Membership in the secretive organization at first was
by invitation only.  Now membership can be taken away
based on 'team player' unquantified capriciousness.   
  

It is interesting that Councilman Priforce who was prescient in his concerns about possible conflict of interest by ECC in 2024, now two years later is still being reprimanded by his colleagues for raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest when it is no longer a possibility that ECC will get public money but now a reality. 

As the ECC announced its formation in 2024, CEO Thiercof assured the Council the organization, like the Chamber of Commerce before, would be “open to all Emeryville businesses”, a claim that has since been quietly retracted.  After at first allowing membership to businesses by invitation only, the ECC now says membership is not granted to all, businesses can be permanently excommunicated if they offer any public criticism of the ECC, Ms Thiercof told the Tattler, “a lifetime ban will result”.  Notably, businesses that are represented by the City of Emeryville’s own public Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC), namely every business in Emeryville, are free to criticize the workings of the committee or even the City Council in any way they see fit.  That illustrating a primary difference between the private sector and the public sector.

Council member Priforce noted the ECC grew out of the EDAC and that committee, still extant, is publicly accountable and transparent, its meetings open to the public.  The new private and secret ECC business support organization getting public money is a source of concern for Council member Priforce who stands alone in his concern.  The other four Council members did not question Ms Thiercof about receiving public money in 2024 or on May 19th.

Emeryville Commerce Connection CEO
 Mary Lou Thiercof 
She told the City Council
ECC is open to "all Emeryville businesses "
but later she quantified that, closing the organization
to some Emeryville small businesses.
 ECC is taking public money regardless. She warned 
noncompliant business members will face a 
"life time ban" if they criticize the ECC.

The $30,663 given to the private ECC has been taken out of the City’s Economic Development Fund that the EDAC uses and so this gift demonstrably comes at the expense of public accountability.

Gifts of public money to private organizations can sometimes turn bad, commonly morphing into ongoing support after starting with a well meaning one time gift.   Notably, the former Chamber of Commerce started as an independent self sustaining organization but after receiving public money for specific projects, morphed into unconditional and ongoing free rent of a large City rented office space and a monthly stipend of $45,000 per year for its periodical newsletter called the Emeryville Connection that was printed and sent to every Emeryville residence.  Infamously, the Chamber’s newsletter was highly partisan, to the point that they even told Emeryville voters who to vote for in Council races….audaciously all done with taxpayer money.  That violation of public trust was illegal and after the Tattler reported on it, the City Council stopped giving taxpayer money to the Chamber for the Emeryville Connection.  Eventually City Hall stopped the free rent too, ultimately causing the Chamber to file for bankruptcy.  

Before forwarding the money to ECC, City Council members David Mourra, Courtney Welch and Sukhdeep Kaur all praised the private membership organization, Mr Mourra stating, “I can’t think of a better organization to invest this [public] money into”.

 The Emeryville Commerce Connection posts that their goal is to “bring [certain favored] people together” on their website (Tattler added brackets).  They indicated they would let the Council know how they spent the public money at some later date.

The old Emeryville Chamber of Commerce and their corrupt receipt of public money is HERE,  HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.