City Council Questionnaire 2026: The Incumbents

The Tattler presents the Emeryville city council candidates’ questionnaire for 2026.  Because of the rather lengthy answers, we have broken up them up into two groups:  the challengers and the incumbents.  Second up are the incumbents.

The challenger’s answers can be viewed HERE.

  

David Mourra’s website can be viewed HERE.

Kalimah Priforce’s website can be viewed HERE.

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David Mourra

1-  Should the community get benefits for the Sutter Hospital proposal?  If so, name the three top things the people of Emeryville should get in exchange for approving the Sutter Hospital project (presuming the project is approved).

The Sutter Health project is currently undergoing an environmental impact report and study to assess potential problems with the project related to traffic, bike and pedestrian safety, noise, etc. During this process the project may undergo significant changes to address these concerns. At this point we don’t know what the final project will look like. However, as it is currently proposed, there are well-founded concerns around vehicle traffic, bike routing, pedestrian safety and unfunded impacts on city services including police and fire response. 

I expect we will know more as these issues are quantified and evaluated during the EIR process.  It is common for a large project to have a development agreement in which community benefits are included. The EIR process is essential for determining the most important aspects of a potential development agreement. I would expect such a development agreement to contribute to mitigating concerns involving transportation, bike/ pedestrian infrastructure, and unfunded impacts on city services including police and fire response. Apart from these, investments in parks, schools and other community elements can be considered. 

2-  Should Sutter and the local community enter into a Community Benefits Agreement?

As mentioned above, I would expect any potential development agreement to include benefits for the community.

3-  Does Emeryville have enough renter protection law right now?

No, current renter protections are not sufficient. This is why our City Council just had a study session in which I supported exploring over 30 new tenant protections that aim to balance tenant rights against unfair evictions while ensuring landlords still have the ability to take action in the situations described. For example, somebody was served an eviction notice for an outstanding rental amount as low as $5. This is an outrageous justification for somebody to lose their home. We will fix this. Also, in the case of unjust evictions, it was previously not possible to recover lawyer fees. By changing this, landlords will understand that any action to evict somebody must be grounded in the law or that person will be better able to find legal representation if they have a strong case. Our city should have reasonable and fair tenant protections and we will soon have them. 

4-  Do you support Emeryville’s bike boulevard network as stipulated by the existing Alternative Transportation Plan?  If not, should the ATP be amended and how so?

As a high level framework, I think the ATP is excellent. However, for any given intersection or street, our overriding concern should be on bike and pedestrian safety. There are different ways to achieve this and I want us to focus on achieving the outcome of bike and pedestrian safety. There are a number of factors affecting bike safety on a bike boulevard beyond the number of vehicles. All it takes is one vehicle driving badly. Vehicle counts, vehicle speed, buffer distance between bikes and cars are all factors. A safe outcome for bikes might mean separated or elevated bike lanes in some instances. In other instances, it might mean a traffic diverter to discourage overall vehicle traffic. The ATP calls for making safety a key design element for our city’s streets. As best practices evolve on how to do this, I would expect the ATP to be updated accordingly.

5-  Does Emeryville need to build more market rate housing now?

Yes, we need to build more housing at all levels of affordability, including market rate.

6-  Do you support the State taking away Emeryville’s control over its housing policy?

I’m not aware of any state proposal to take away Emeryville’s control over its housing policy. On the contrary, the state awarded Emeryville one of its first Prohousing designations to recognize our forward-thinking housing policies.

7-  To what extent should City Council members be accountable to the citizens? Town hall meetings? Email? Telephone? 

I think it is very important for city council members to know if the city is falling short in meeting its commitments to the people who live here. I’ve found that email and phone calls are the most effective ways to shed light on a problem and get it resolved. Any phone messages get transcribed and sent to me. This kind of written documentation is key to ensuring I get all the facts and I can identify the city function responsible for addressing a problem.

8-  Do you support an independent ethics commission to reinforce and compliment Emeryville’s existing Code of Ethics?

Violations of the Code of Ethics should be clear and well documented. If these requirements are met, then they can be presented to the council for consideration and can lead to the censure of a council member who is found in violation of the code of ethics. Any substantive consequences for a violation of the code of ethics will end up being the responsibility of the city council, so I don’t see a need for creating additional city commissions at this time.

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Kalimah Priforce

1-  Should the community get benefits for the Sutter Hospital proposal?  If so, name the three top things the people of Emeryville should get in exchange for approving the Sutter Hospital project (presuming the project is approved).


I can not comment on an ongoing project and its process with third party agencies. It would be illegal and lead to a possible recusal of the people of Emeryville. More than ever, I need an advocate to steward the relationship between community groups and Sutter.


2-  Should Sutter and the local community enter into a Community Benefits Agreement?

Without a strong relationship and an agreement about what each party is responsible for, our city could experience unnecessary conflict. Sutter and the community need to work that out together, and our neighbors need to know that what we agree to will actually happen.


But I want to have a conversation with the people of Emeryville about why this goes beyond Sutter.


Watching Emeryville Neighbors United and the different tenant unions popping up across our city is beautiful. It’s beautiful because we are beginning to recognize our own power. We are seeing that we can organize, that we can challenge how we’re being treated, that we can change City Hall.


And whether or not I’m reelected, I believe one of the biggest impacts I’ve had on Emeryville is bringing a fighting spirit into this city. I’ve kept speaking up, kept organizing, kept challenging what we were being told we just had to accept. And people are beginning to rise up themselves.


That means something to me. Because the power was always ours. Sometimes we need to see somebody stand up and keep standing before we recognize that we can do it, too.


And this includes homeowners who have been here for decades. We’re looking at the corporate influence and dysfunction in Emeryville and recognizing that something needs to change. We’re putting our tax money, our time, our energy into this city. We want an Emeryville that sees us and hears us.


I understand that because it’s why I started organizing here.


I was a tenant union leader who already had a career. I had already done incredible work in the world. I had received recognition from the White House. So it’s difficult to entice me with the idea of moving up in politics, because I already had a life I was proud of. At some point, how many awards, how many titles do you need? What are you trying to satisfy?


I wanted neighbors I could grow old with.


People who knew me, and I knew them. People who could call and say, “I’m out of town, can you pick up my packages?” And I could call them and ask the same. That’s the kind of life I wanted to build here. My neighbors mean that much to me.


When I became a councilmember, I took that same mindset into the work. The entire city became my neighbors. And I’ve spent these four years reminding us that the seat I occupy is the people’s seat. Those council chambers belong to us. We shouldn’t have to convince somebody on that dais that we deserve to be heard.


Some of my colleagues have challenged that premise, right there in front of all of you. I’ve kept pressing on.


And what the Sutter and 40th Street projects revealed to me is that we need a Public Ethics Commission. We need civilian oversight of Flock and greater oversight of the projects we approve. We need an ombudsman whose job is to make sure that when City Hall makes an agreement, somebody is following up on what we promised our neighbors.


Because the people who voted for a project may be gone in a few years. The politics will change. Somebody else will be sitting in my seat. But our neighbors will still be here, living with those decisions. So who do we call when something we were promised hasn’t happened? Who is responsible for getting us an answer?


We need somebody whose job it is to stay on top of that. Somebody who can say, “This is what the city agreed to. This is what the developer agreed to. What happened?” Our neighbors shouldn’t have to organize another campaign just to get somebody to follow through on an agreement we already made.


That’s why I want our tenant unions and HOAs working with each other. We don’t have to agree on every project to recognize that we want neighbors we can grow old with, a city we can afford to stay in, and a City Hall that answers when we call.


And yes, that means reclaiming our city. From Sacramento, from the YIMBYs, from the NIMBYs, from corporate interests that look at Emeryville and see another mine to tap. We live here. We’re putting our lives into this place. Our city cannot keep being another rung on somebody’s ladder to power.


So with Sutter, yes, we need an agreement between the different parties. We need a relationship where our neighbors are heard and somebody's responsible for making sure those agreements are kept.


And watching us organize, watching us rise up and recognize what we can do together, gives me hope. Whether or not I’m reelected, I want that fighting spirit to stay with Emeryville.


3-  Does Emeryville have enough renter protection law right now?


No.  And the October 6 staff report makes it very difficult to argue that what we have is enough.  
Let’s look at what the city found. Between January 2022 and July 2025, Emeryville received 2,108 termination notices.  Nearly two-thirds contained errors or missing information. Of the notices for unpaid rent or utilities, 635 were for amounts below $1,000.  The lowest amount was $20.  Twenty dollars, and somebody receives a notice threatening their tenancy.
  These are notices, not 2,108 completed evictions.   That distinction matters.   But the report also acknowledges that we don’t know how many people paid, worked something out, or simply left because they were afraid of what would happen next.  We weren’t requiring landlords to report those outcomes.  

So we can count the notices, but we can’t fully account for what happened to our neighbors afterward.
  And among the tenants who answered the city’s survey, 26% reported experiencing landlord harassment.  More than 85% hadn’t accessed tenant counseling, know-your-rights training, or legal aid in the previous three years.  Those are survey findings, but they tell us something we need to take seriously: having protections written down doesn’t mean people can actually use them when their home is on the line.
    

 Then the California Apartment Association sent us a letter opposing additional renter protections.  Their argument was that state law already provides protections, that we should educate renters about those laws, and that we should focus on building more housing and reducing development barriers.  They also opposed a rental registry.
  I read that and thought, whose experience are we being asked to accept here?  Because our own staff report is documenting the gaps.
  

One example: landlords are already required to file termination notices with the city, but the report says failing to do so does not invalidate the notice.  Staff recommended making that failure a defense against eviction.  That’s a pretty basic question of fairness.  

If we expect a tenant to follow the rules when their housing is at stake, why wouldn’t we expect the landlord to follow them, too?
  The recommendations address several of these problems: protecting our right to organize tenant associations, requiring landlords to meet with those associations in good faith, expanding protections against harassment, providing assistance when repairs temporarily displaced us, strengthening relocation payments and remedies for violations, and creating a rental registry so the city can actually monitor what is happening.  These are proposals we need to turn into law.
  

For me, getting comprehensive tenant protections passed would be one of the culminations of my first term.  And the history is right there in the report. In February 2024, I brought forward revisiting rent control.  In June 2024, I brought forward a tenant’s right to organize and a tenant’s right to counsel.  Those requests helped move this work into the committee process.
  

I came into this work as a tenant union leader.  I know what it means to sit with a neighbor who has received a notice and doesn’t know whether they’re going to lose their home.  I know how much courage it takes to challenge a landlord when that landlord controls whether you get to stay.  


So watching tenant unions rise up across Emeryville, while we finally have a comprehensive set of recommendations before us, means something to me.  We are organizing.  We are making ourselves heard.  And the concerns we’ve been bringing to City Hall are now documented in the city’s own research.
  Staff anticipated bringing an ordinance back for a first reading before the end of 2026.  

We still have work to do to get these protections passed.
  That’s what I want to help finish. I wanted neighbors I could grow old with.  We have to give each other a fighting chance to stay here long enough to do that.


4-  Do you support Emeryville’s bike boulevard network as stipulated by the existing Alternative Transportation Plan?  If not, should the ATP be amended and how so?


I do, but the city doesn’t.


5-  Does Emeryville need to build more market rate housing now?


Absolutely not.


6-  Do you support the State taking away Emeryville’s control over its housing policy?


I do not.


7-  To what extent should City Council members be accountable to the citizens? Town hall meetings? Email? Telephone? 



An anonymous individual with apparent ties to my opponent Corry Frydlewicz’s DeFlock [camera] campaign came into the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America chat and began attacking me.  They invoked Trayvon Martin and George Floyd in a discussion about Flock cameras and my re-election campaign.
 

The people of Emeryville deserve a real conversation about public safety, not the lynchings of Black men used to spread misinformation or score political points against Emeryville’s first socialist in office and California’s first Haitian American elected official.
  

While the matter is being investigated, it’s important to me that we don’t lose sight of my responsibility as a council member to be held accountable to the people.  That’s why I will be having town halls about Flock, the concerns around it, and other policies and projects our neighbors want me to focus on, including Sutter.
  

I am publicly accessible.  My name is attached to my words, my votes, and my decisions.  I am not an establishment Democrat.  Those corporate forces didn’t endorse and I didn’t ask for them either. challenge me, pick up the phone.  Call me.  Come meet with me.  Let’s have the conversation.
  I love the Democratic Socialists of America.  I am a socialist in office.  And I also have to balance my own ideas and views with what matters most to the people of Emeryville.  I have to listen, work through disagreements, and help solve the problem in front of us while considering what consequences our decisions could have years from now.  Talking points won’t do that work for us.
  And when we’re discussing low-income residents, we need to recognize that we are working class.  We can speak for ourselves, including about public safety.  Come talk to us about what happens in our buildings, what makes us feel safe, and what we need from our city.
  So yes, town halls, email, telephone, conversations in our neighborhoods.  All of it. 

Somebody working two jobs shouldn’t have to spend their evening at a council meeting just to get our attention.  And somebody who disagrees with me should still be able to reach me and get a serious response.
  We cannot just tell people what they want to hear to get into the office and then disappear when they need us.  We have to explain our decisions, follow through, and admit when we get something wrong.
  And I am concerned that if I’m not re-elected, rents in Emeryville will climb even further while the protections I’ve fought for remain unfinished. 

I know how much work it has taken to get us this far, and we need people who will keep pushing when corporate landlords push back.
  My work here has been about protecting Emeryville residents inside and outside the home.  Being able to stay in our apartments.  Being able to move through our neighborhoods safely.  Being able to call City Hall and know somebody will take us seriously.
  

If the people of Emeryville decide I’m worth getting up and turning in that mail ballot, or standing in line to cast that vote, I will continue to be their voice.  I will continue to take this job seriously and stand up for our neighbors.
  The people are who I answer to.  You put me in that seat.  I work for you.


8-  Do you support an independent ethics commission to reinforce and complement Emeryville’s existing Code of Ethics?


Yes I do.