The City of Emeryville is Anti-Bike

The City Staff Thinks Bikes Are OK*
*as long as they don't inconvenience vehicles

 Mayor, Vice Mayor 

Have a Staff Infection

Emeryville Mayor Martinez
Agrees with the staff:
Now is not the time
to implement the Bike Plan.
She's been infected.

Opinion
The people of Emeryville want a bike boulevard on Horton Street.  How do we know that?  Well, for one, because it's specified in our city's General Plan and our GP is the most democratically vetted GP of any in the Bay Area.  Our GP even won an award for the record high levels of support from the residents.  Further and more compellingly we know the people of Emeryville want a bike boulevard on Horton Street because that's what they directly voted for in November of 2014 when they cast their votes for Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue both of whom were definitive at the time: a vote for them is a vote for the Horton Street Bike Boulevard they assured us.

The people like the idea of the Horton Street Bike Boulevard but the staff at City Hall sure doesn't.  In fact they've worked for years trying to make sure the traffic calming provisions spelled out in our Bike Plan don't come to pass on Horton (or any other street in Emeryville designated as a bike boulevard).

Vice Mayor Donahue
Agrees with the Mayor.
He's also infected.

The citizens voted for Dianne and Scott, finally getting a City Council majority that appeared to support the resident's desires for a bike boulevard on Horton Street....that's good.  But we were saddened when the two voted down the Bike Plan provision for traffic calming at the now infamous April 5th City Council meeting vote covered by the Tattler.  What's up with that?  They were very clear before the election they would vote for Level Four traffic calming as the Bike Plan delineates and then they reversed themselves and supported the staff who says NO to Level Four calming claimed to be something too restrictive against car traffic.

Staff Infection
The Mayor Dianne Martinez and the Vice Mayor Scott Donahue have been infected by virulent anti-bike sentiment festering at City Hall; they have a staff infection.  After listening to the residents before the election, now they're listening to the staff.  Whereas before they thought there should be a process and we should follow the General Plan's remedy for too much car traffic on bike boulevards, now they think like how the staff thinks; the General Plan is too radical, especially as it pertains to bike boulevards.  Dianne and Scott have joined a long procession of City Council colleagues who have been similarly infected: OK applying stencils to the streets or putting up purple bike boulevard signs but once drivers begin to become inconvenienced, well that's "too extreme" as the City Manager likes to put it.

The lengths the staff is willing to go to stop the Bike Plan's traffic calming is pretty exceptional.
To wit:

• August 2015   The Director of Public Works attempted to stop a required bi-annual traffic count on the 45th Street Bike Boulevard by falsely claiming the General Plan says such counts should only be conducted when there has been residential construction on or near a bike boulevard in question. The intended effect was to deny Bike Plan required data that would support the implementation of traffic calming.
• July 2015   The Director provided false testimony about traffic count documents when he reported to the City Manager that the 45th Street Bike Boulevard was below the threshold for Bike Plan mandated traffic calming.  A traffic count from the spring of 2015 (unmentioned by the Director) provided by the developers of the Sherwin Williams project that showed a gross excess of traffic on 45th Street according to the Bike Plan. 
• February 5th, 2016    The City Manager told the Tattler that Level Four traffic calming as described by the Bike Plan is "too extreme".  Earlier, the Public Works Director said any traffic calming beyond level three causes traffic to move inefficiently, something he says he's duty bound to stop.

The Staff
Their effect is corrosive and infectious on the
body politic if the Council doesn't inoculate
themselves with the disinfectant of 
independence and allegiance to the people.

What's also exceptional is the fact that our two newest Council members are so unexceptional; so far no Council members have shown a willingness to go against the staff on bike boulevards.  But what sets the Mayor and Vice Mayor apart is the iron clad promise they made to voters they would implement Level Four traffic calming on Horton Street if elected.  Other Council members have made vague references over the years to their support of the Bike Plan and about how much they like bicycling and other innocuous stuff.  Dianne and Scott bumped it up a notch with a specific promise.

We're still not sure why this overt bait and switch has happened (other than another outbreak of staff infection).  Vice Mayor Donahue has so far refused to comment.  Mayor Martinez has told the Tattler that while she agrees the staff has a jones against bike boulevard traffic calming that she doesn't share, she's too weak to stop them (presumably) and that Level Three traffic calming is the best we can do, "a bird in the hand..." and so on she said.

After a year and a half with these two progressives on our City Council, we've been worried that the same old pattern would repeat itself.  The fact that there's been no shake up at City Hall has proved to be a harbinger of the status quo being unperturbed by the new condition of a progressive Council majority.  One would expect a radical new direction selected by the voters to be reflected in a new culture at City Hall but these two decided to keep the same crew on.  The same department heads selected by the long ensconced pro-developer Nora Davis council majority have been left be in their corner offices, their power undiminished.  The resultant push back against Level Four traffic calming for Horton Street is what one would expect in such a scenario.

At least two more bike boulevards, 45th Street and 53rd Street, are now over their traffic thresholds and are over due for traffic calming as mandated by the Bike Plan.  After the progressives on the council joined their conservative colleagues in opposing the implementation of Horton Street traffic calming, we expect they'll do likewise for the other bike boulevards.  Barring some major change, we can't see the Bike Plan mandated traffic calming (over level three) being implemented for any street.

Emeryville; the more things change the more they stay the same.  Where's our Jonas Salk?  We're pretty discouraged here.

CAMP Representatives At Bargaining Table Against SEIU

City Hall's Cynical Management Manipulations

Opinion

Politics in Emeryville can sometimes seem as if it were a microcosm, analogous of the nation where unions are being squeezed and even crushed.  Such is the case with the plight of labor at City Hall.

To the detriment of the taxpayers in town, management at City Hall has been very crafty (and persuasive) in their efforts to protect their pay and benefits, while simultaneously striping the lowly SEIU workers of their already low pay and benefits.  The Tattler reported (December 3rd) how, after failing to secure pay enough raises and pension contributions from the city council in the face of the recent budget cutting, management formed their own phony union (known as CAMP) to assure any compensation raises earned by the legitimate unions would also automatically be showered upon the management.  This turns the traditional paradigm of workers bargaining with management on its head.

Effectively, the management has ensured they have hitched a ride with any pay increases fought and won by the lowest paid workers and all the while they are fighting to cut the pay of their union "brothers".  They're saying the SEIU workers need to sacrifice, not CAMP.  It's cynicism to the nth degree and it's being done at the taxpayers expense.

Stephen Cutty, the field representative for the SEIU workers has called the bizarre spectacle of one union fighting to cut the pay and benefits of another union unethical and we agree.  Certainly to have representatives from the phony management union sitting at the bargaining table with the city one day and then switching hats and representing the city the next day is unseemly at best.

We have to ask who needs to have pay raises and who needs to have pay cuts at City Hall. SEIU workers, already the lowest paid workers in the city can't afford another round of pay cuts and still live in Alameda County.  The average SEIU worker makes $4,462.50 per month with pension contributions of $1,338.70 for a total compensation of $69,614.40 per year.  The cost of living in Alameda County is listed at $68,375 per year for a difference of $103 per month for SEIU workers and their families.  Management wants to squeeze these workers for an additional 7%, pushing them below what it takes to live in Alameda County.  Meanwhile, the average management compensation at City Hall is $138,465.00 per year, including pension contributions, leaving an extra $5,840.00 per month for management employees.

The management at City Hall is exposed as Machiavellian manipulators.  The wrong people are being forced to make the concessions and this sort of disingenuous politics doesn't represent the values of the people of Emeryville.  Management is pushing down compensation for the poorest workers while they keep theirs up and it's all being done in our name.  We call on the management to honor labor and go the bargaining table in good faith and remember the people of Emeryville are the true inheritors of labor relations policy and practice at City Hall.  We're watching.

New Manager's Union At City Hall

Manager's 'CAMP' At City Hall

Emeryville: Where Managers Need A Union Too!

News Analysis
Budget crisis? What budget crisis?

If you thought the City's attack on Emeryville Child Development Center earlier this year was based on anti-union sentiment among the City's managers, the story just got a bit more complicated. 

The City Council is poised to vote Tuesday on a resolution put before them from the managers on the city staff to make a whole new unionized workforce at City Hall.  They're  calling for the creation of a new union, just for managers called the Confidential, Administrative, Managerial and Professional employees (CAMP).  


It seems the City's managers have decided that what's good for the rest of the City's employees is good for them too and they have organized the union that includes everyone except the City Manager Patrick O'Keeffe, City Attorney Michael Biddle, Assistant City Manager Delores Turner, and the Human Resources Director. 


The manger's union will include the Fire Chief, Police Chief, Community Services Director, Child Development Center Manager, Senior Center Manager, and apparently all other previously unrepresented City employees; unrepresented because they are managers, not workers.

What motivated this revolt? There was some belt-tightening required to pass the most recent budget, and City management had to give up their Administrative Leave cash out, which in prior years had been used as a means to reap a nice year-end bonus for those managers eligible. When the City Manager and City Attorney recently modified their contracts with the City, they both retained a right to cash out Administrative Leave. So perhaps the hypocrisy of the City's leadership finally pushed these other managers to stand up for their posh benefits.

The revolt might also be in response to the new budget's call for the management to start contributing something towards the employee-portion of their retirements. Previously the City paid both its share and the employees' share, but the new budget called for employees to start chipping in. This was something the managers first tried to avoid last July with the proposal of a "me-too" clause that would give them the benefit of whatever deal another group, such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-represented employees, might be able to negotiate (see Tattler story "Budget Crisis" July 18). The Council reacted harshly to this proposal and made it clear that their direction to implement employee contributions towards retirement was unequivocal and should have already been implemented. Months later, it remains unclear whether it has, and now, it looks like the process for modifying the pay and benefits of the City's managers will require bargaining with their new union.

Here's a list of the new unionized positions: Job Classifications and/or Titles of Employees Represented by CAMP:

• ACCOUNTING MANAGER 
• ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR
• ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY 
• ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF 
• ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER/CITY CLERK 
• CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL
• CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER 
• CITY CLERK 
• EXECUTIVE SECRETARY/CITY CLERK 
• TECHNICIAN CIVILIAN COMMANDER 
• COMMUNITY PRESERVATION OFFICER 
• COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR 
• DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY 
• DEPUTY CITY CLERK 
• CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER MANAGER 
• DIRECTOR/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING DIRECTOR/PLANNING AND BUILDING DIRECTOR/PUBLIC WORKS/CITY ENGINEER 
• FINANCE DIRECTOR 
• FIRE CHIEF 
• HUMAN RESOURCES ASSISTANT 
• HUMAN RESOURCES TECHNICIAN 
• INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST I INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST 1/ 
• INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER
• MANAGEMENT ANALYST OFFICE ASSISTANT 1/ - 
• CONFIDENTIAL PARALEGAL 
• POLICE CAPTAIN 
• POLICE CHIEF 
• POLICE SERVICES MANAGER 
• PUBLIC WORKS SUPERINTENDENT 
• RECREATING MANAGER 
• RECREATION SUPERVISOR 
• SENIOR CENTER MANAGER