Is Planning Commissioner Sam Gould the Seneca Scott of Emeryville?

 Sam Gould / Seneca Scott: Pugilists for Conservative Causes

Both Attack Progressives in Their Respective Communities, 

Both Win Free Speech Law Suits Over Their Respective Tormentors

News Analysis

Emeryville Planning Commissioner, Sam Gould, has won a court decision from litigation initiated by Councilman Kalimah Priforce for ‘targeted harassment, intimidation, and racially charged retaliation’ against the council member.  The judge’s decision, delivered following the civil harassment hearing in Alameda County Superior Court, found that Mr Gould’s assailing actions and speech directed against Mr Priforce that prompted the litigation did not rise to a level that would justify a nullification of the citizen Planning Commissioner’s free speech rights.

Emeryville's Progressive Black Councilman
Kalimah Priforce
The object of scorn from Planning Commissioner
Sam Gould.

Mr Gould, appointed to the Planning Commission by a City Council majority vote in March, has long directed a steady stream of social media invective against Mr Priforce, the lone progressive on the city council for his minority views.  A long time former member of Emeryville’s Bike Committee, Mr Gould’s vituperative attacks on Mr Priforce over the years violated Emeryville’s Code of Ethics for employees and committee members but neither the City Manager nor the City Council acted to enforce the code in support of Council member Priforce.  Since Mr Gould has been elevated to the position of Planning Commission, the public abuse from Mr Gould seems to have stopped Mr Priforce said.  “He [Gould] stopped on the day before he got on the Planning Commission”, Priforce told the Tattler.  Perhaps Mr Gould thought such partisan attacks against a sitting Council member by a sitting Planning Commissioner would appear unseemly enough that the Council majority would be forced invoke the punishments prescribed in Emeryville's Code of Ethics.
   

Commissioner Gould has not revealed why he seems to have stopped the public haranguing of the Council member however by March, the damage had already been done, prompting the Councilman to bypass the feckless and politicized Code of Ethics to make a case against Gould in Alameda County Superior Court.

Emeryville Planning Commissioner Sam Gould (on right)
Not a fan of Black progressives in Emeryville.
He ran for City Council (and lost). 
Pictured also is Council member Sukhdeep Kaur
and establishment Dem Igor Tregub, Chair of the
Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.

The charged public spectacle of the bellicose Sam Gould’s near constant haranguing of the Councilman has drawn comparisons with the infamous and truculent Oakland conservative activist Seneca Scott who for years has engaged in a scorched earth campaign against all progressive comers across Alameda County, especially former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.   Mr Scott, has served as a ‘hit man’ for conservative pols who have sought to appear above the fray.  Mr Gould has taken on that same role, essentially offering his services to the conservative majority on the Council who have desired to attack their colleague Priforce but who have thus far not been entirely comfortable appearing unseemly or partisan.

Interestingly,  Mr Scott also just beat an attempt to restrain him by use of the Alameda County court exactly like Mr Gould (they both had the same judge).  Mr Scott, a central organizer behind the recall of former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao drew the ire of Brandon Harami, a former Thao aide who sought the restraining order in April, accusing Mr Scott of harassing him online.  The judge in that case also ruled in favor of ‘free speech’ rights, for private citizens over elected officials.  Mr Scott, the darling of the East Bay corporate elite, has amassed a war chest to defend himself against many legal actions taken against him by many pols and private citizens who have come under his assailing taunts.

Both Sam Gould and Seneca Scott lost elections, Gould for Emeryville City Council and Scott for Oakland City Council and both then turned to attacking former opponents—Scott on a citywide activist stage, Gould locally targeting Mia Esperanza Brown and Calvin Dillahunty, two progressive Black council candidates associated with Mr Priforce.  Both Gould and Scott focus criticism on local (Black) progressive leadership: Scott broadly but mostly laser-focused on Oakland Council member Carol Fifie; Gould specifically on the progressive Council member Kalimah Priforce.  Scott and Gould endorsed and participated in and continue to participate in the astroturf network of establishment, centrist Democrats and right wingers.

Hired Gun Right Wing Oakland Community Activist
Seneca Scott
He ran for City Council and lost.  Now he works 
for deep pocket right wing pols in Oakland.

One of the main points of attack by Mr Gould against Council member Priforce has been his complaints he filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) alleging a failure to disclose funds donated to Priforce by businesses along 40th Street who feel the planned Emeryville 40th Street Multi-model Project will drive away customers.  Mr Priforce says changes he has championed for the 40th Street plan reflect community input and concerns over eminent domain takings by the City.  Mr Gould sees only corruption and he has been using social media to charge Mr Priforce, action the judge sees as an example of a citizen’s free speech right.  

However Mr Gould’s inconsistency, his laser‑focus on one official while ignoring others who benefited from the same project—raises questions about motives and selective concern.  He did not raise equal scrutiny toward Vice Mayor Sukdeep Kaur, who accepted monetary contributions from business leaders who are negatively affected by street closures associated with the project.  Mr Priforce voluntarily recused himself on all 40th Street Council decisions as the law mandates while Ms Kaur continued to vote on the project despite her campaign donations from the business owners.  Ms Kaur’s transgressions are known by Mr Gould Priforce says and the selective outrage by Mr Gould gives away a partisan bias rather than a concern over proper procedural policy making.
  

Mr Priforce is a progressive, the lone progressive on the Emeryville City Council and that’s at the center of the attacks by Planning Commissioner Gould who is a conservative.   The same conservative-calling-out-a-progressive motives apply to Seneca Scott, the East Bay conservative attack dog.

We reached out to both Commissioner Gould and Council member Priforce who supplied quotes for this story that are posted verbatim here:

Commissioner Gould recounted the court hearing: "While it was frustrating to have to go to court to defend myself over unfounded claims, I did not end up having to say more than a sentence or two.  The judge mostly focused the forty-five minute discussion on the fact Mr. Priforce brought this complaint forward with no real evidence supporting it.  While he may make up whatever he wants about me online, in a courtroom you must support your claims with evidence and he was unable to do so.” 

Council member Priforce said: “The judge acknowledged that a civil harassment order wasn’t the appropriate legal remedy - not because the harm didn’t happen, but because pursuing a civil suit would better address my needs - which remains on the table.  In the meantime, I’ve established a legal defense fund to fight back against the escalating attacks and politically motivated FPPC complaints - many of them anonymous, but all of them familiar...which he [Gould] admitted to.  During the hearing, Sam Gould made it plain: he wants my city council seat.  What he fails to understand is that I was elected to serve the people of Emeryville, not to satisfy the ambitions of astroturfing bullies.  This is the people’s seat - not his, not mine - and the people are prepared to defend it.”

Planning Commissioner Sam Gould Served Court Order for Harassment of Council Member

Age of Trump in Emeryville:

Planning Commissioner Gould Draws Civil Harassment Court Order From Council Member Priforce

Emeryville City Hall Continues Breakdown of Collegiality and Decorum Amid Continuing Attacks

Vanquished Culture of Collegiality Lands Commissioner in Alameda County Superior Court

Emeryville Planning Commissioner Sam Gould was served this week with an Alameda County Superior Court notice to appear for a civil harassment court order brought by City Council member Kalimah Priforce.  The action is being taken against Mr Gould for “targeted harassment, intimidation, and racially charged retaliation” among other charges, according to Mr Priforce.  Mr Gould began a campaign of publicly made charges, including smears against Mr Priforce from the beginning of Priforce’s 2022 City Council electoral victory, a free speech right for a private citizen, but he (Mr Gould) has been making the attacks as a member of an official City committee including also after he was appointed by the City Council to the Planning Commission, a violation of the Emeryville Code of Ethics, according to the Emeryville City Attorney.  Mr Priforce is requesting a restraining order against Mr Gould at the hearing in civil court, Department 105, scheduled for July 23rd.

Emeryville Planning Commissioner
Sam Gould

As part of a conspicuous anti-Priforce campaign, Commissioner Gould has made several official complaints (including a sworn complaint) to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for alleged rules violations by the Council member.  Of the three complaints received by the FPPC by Commissioner Gould against Kalimah Priforce, Calvin Dillahunty, and Mia Esperanza Brown (Two Afro-Latine - All Black), one was dismissed, one resolved and one, a duplicate from an “anonymous” complaint, is still being investigated.

For his part, Council member Priforce is positing that Commissioner Gould has been disproportionately targeting Black individuals in Emeryville civic life.  “This pattern is not isolated” Priforce told the Tattler, “It reveals a broader issue of racialized political hostility masked as procedural concern”, he said. 


The spectacle of Council members publicly attacking colleagues and now Planning Commissioners joining in the fray, is a new cultural affect for Emeryville, one that the hidebound City Council has been loath to acknowledge, much less address.  Concurrent with the New York City mayor election, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani taking hits from the Democratic elite for being too progressive, the culture of public attacks against progressive Council colleagues in Emeryville pre-dates the NYC state of affairs.  But the culture of anti-collegiality at the Council arguably began when voters overwhelmingly elected the progressive candidate for Council, Kalimah Priforce in 2022.  Emeryville has almost always had one or two progressives on its city council that were disliked by the pro-business majority but the culture of wholesale attacks and publicly ‘airing of dirty laundry’ by the council majority only began when Mr Priforce took office. 

Perhaps the most damning claims born of the Gould allegations comes from Council member Priforce, who has admonished the City for failing to act to check a “hostile environment for Black progressive leaders and residents”.  The attacks amount to what Priforce has called a “vendetta”, amid the barrage of unethical Gould missives.  Despite being a sitting Council member, Mr Priforce has received no protection from the City he says.  Notably, City officials, including new City Manager LaTanya Bellow and HR have failed to intervene—even after multiple complaints from the Councilman.  Meanwhile, Mr Gould—an appointed Planning Commissioner—has faced no accountability.

Mr Gould was hand selected and forwarded for a Planning Commission position by the influential former City Council member John Bauters, a primary Priforce antagonist, it should be known.

Mr Priforce notes that Sam Gould is acting in a manner that would tend to allow him to escape some level of accountability from the City.  For instance, Sam set up a publicly accessible blog to innumerate his charges against Councilman Priforce on the day before he took his oath as a Planning Commissioner, presumably done to escape the Emeryville Code of Ethics' prohibitions against a Commissioner making such attacks.  However, it would seem Mr Gould didn’t realize his status as a member of Emeryville’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, of which he was previously a member, also precludes such attacks, according to City Attorney John Kennedy.

Commissioner Gould was contacted by the Tattler for this story but he did not answer several offers to respond.  As an appointed government official, Mr Gould is also extended the courtesy to submit a ‘My Turn’ story for publication in the Tattler, unedited and in his own words for the people of Emeryville if he wishes.

Planning Commissioner Sam Gould gets served 

in the Planning Commission chamber

FPPC Reports: Emeryville Mayor Guilty of FPPC Violations

 Mayor Mourra is Guilty of Violating FPPC Regulations

Double Standard on Council FPPC Rules Called Into Question

After investigation as a result of a Tattler inquiry, Emeryville’s mayor has been found guilty of violating California Fair Political Practices Commission regulations, the FPPC recently announced.  The investigation found Emeryville mayor David Mourra guilty of “violations”  but they found the violations were “de minimus” and because the mayor had since corrected his violations, they would not take action against him.  Earlier, the FPPC had also found Emeryville City Council member Kalimah Priforce guilty of violations that he (Priforce) had also corrected.  Like Mayor Mourra, the FPPC dropped their investigation against Mr Priforce because he had also since corrected his violations. 

Emeryville Mayor David Mourra
Guilty of violating FPPC regulations. 

Regardless of the guilty verdicts from the FPPC against Mr Mourra and Mr Priforce, the finding against Mr Priforce was cited as a reason to conduct an investigation of him by the City Council and ultimately to censure and sanction him for violations of Emeryville's  Code of Ethics.  The City Council was notably aware at the time of the censure and sanction against Councilman Priforce he had corrected his FPPC violations.

The letter about Mayor Mourra from the FPPC to the Tattler by James M Lindsay, the Chief Enforcement Officer for the State sanctioned agency, was unequivocal: Emeryville’s mayor is guilty of rules violations but because Mr Mourra had corrected his violations after the agency received a Tattler complaint that sparked their investigation, the FPPC would “not pursue an enforcement action in this matter”.   Mayor Mourra for his part, diminished the FPPC letter the Tattler received and to which he was cc’ed, when he was asked to comment for the public’s benefit.  He has made no statement on the matter since.

After Mayor Mourra failed to complete all his FPPC required filings, the Tattler filed a complaint with the agency resulting in a February story where it was reported he had an ongoing FPPC investigation against him.  Council member Priforce's late filings on the other hand, were made public by Mr Priforce himself, it should be noted.

No City Council member has yet initiated an inquiry into Mayor Mourra’s FPPC violations, drawing questions about the propriety of the Council’s Priforce investigation and action.  Because FPPC violations were used as the primary reason for the Priforce Council investigation and punishment, notably the same violations that the Mayor is guilty of, citizens would have a natural reason to inquire about the seeming double standard but the Tattler could not get a responce from any Council member, the City Manager or the City Attorney for this story.  

Because a double standard with regard to FPPC violations by Council members would be unethical and possibly illegal , the Tattler will continue to investigate this story.

New Partisanship Means Council Members May Not Vote Their Conscience Safely

 Partisan Politics at Council Means Members May No Longer Dissent Without Fear of Censure and Sanction

Priforce Punished for His Vote

News Analysis

The City Council majority broke precedent when they censured and sanctioned their colleague Council member Kalimah Priforce on December 3rd for how he voted; a thing that’s never happened in modern Emeryville history.   The sanctioning punishment, for his vote on the new Code of Ethics, is a Council action that will negatively effect governance in Emeryville far into the future.

At issue is Councilman Priforce’s refusal to promise to obey (by refusing to sign) the new ethics law after he stated the law as written is not meant to hold all Council members to account equally.  While true, Mr Priforce’s refusal to sign his name in support of the new law was a legitimate protest against it.  The refusal to sign was not illegal, nor was it unethical or immoral.  The refusal was a vote to abstain on the matter of the Code of Ethics law, a law that would constrain all Council members equally were it not for the fact that the Council majority refused to agree to an independent ethics commission overseer, a fact described by Mr Priforce at the onset as a deal breaker.  

The City Council majority 
decided to spend $7570 to send a
letter of their anti-Priforce resolution
to every Emeryville household. 
The Council majority spent the money in
spite of the recently revealed $12 million
budget deficit, the largest in
Emeryville history.

The Council’s didactic and fractious sanctioning action was unethical because it took away Mr Priforce’s right to vote his conscious, something that every voter, Council member or otherwise, always retains the right to do in a democracy.  In addition, the sanctions have had the unintended consequence of lowering public safety because Council member Priforce has been stripped of his committee liaison positions, one being the Public Safety Committee.  That committee, formerly met on a monthly basis with Council member Priforce as liaison will now meet bi-monthly without Priforce, a lessening of safety services offered to the people of Emeryville. 

It was not only Council member Priforce that warned us that a Code of Ethics without an independent ethics commission overseeing body would be weaponized against dissenting Council members (himself being the sole example), the City Attorney, John Kennedy and none other than former Council member John Bauters likewise warned the Council majority against it.

In the Council’s estimation, by his refusal to sign his name to a law he didn’t like, Mr Priforce did an unethical act as called out in their resolution.  The Council included a ‘whereas’ that states he is censured and sanctioned because, “Despite his many public statements calling for a Code of Ethics, Council member Priforce is the only Member who has not signed the attestation that he will abide by the Code of Ethics, despite voting in favor or the Code’s adoption.”  

For his part, Council member Priforce says he decided not to sign the Code of Ethics legal document put before him a month after the Council voted unanimously in favor of implementing it because his colleagues had refused to implement an accompanying independent ethics commission, something he says is necessary and what they had said they would do at the December 3rd Council meeting a month earlier.  Council member Priforce stated a Code of Ethics would be weaponized against unpopular Council members by the majority without an ethics commission stopping them.  Recent events have shown Mr Priforce’s prediction on a weaponized law has come to pass.

By refusing to implement a independent ethics commission, the Council majority placed Council member Priforce in a position where his conscience dictated he refuse to sign his name to the new law and then they used that to punish him: a ‘bait and switch’ example of unethical behavior by these Council members.  Council member Priforce, who won his 2022 election over Mayor David Mourra, is paid to vote his conscience.  That means his every vote can be a YES, NO or ABSTAIN, legally and ethically.  Ironically, irrational behavior based on the City Council members’ base emotions, in this case the hatred of a colleague, is untoward and unethical. 

The Council vote to condemn a member over their vote is done: that's a bell that cannot be unrung.  That is our history now. 

The City Council majority has gotten so partisan, the vote against Mr Priforce for voting against the Code of Ethics was not enough.  They they also chose to spend $7570.96 of the taxpayer’s money to send a US Mail letter to every Emeryville home to gloat about it.  This, during the current $12 million City Hall budget deficit, the largest in Emeryville history.  The sanctimonious letter to every Emeryville resident has a cover letter from Council member Courtney Welch, a political foe of Mr Priforce, stating the vote to sanction was not taken lightly but rather through great deliberation as if the Council, in so doing, was interested in doing the people's business instead of personal partisan recrimination. 

Politics has skewed Emeryville City Council so severely in the current age, they see scoring points against their enemy on Council as more important than doing the people’s business guarding against making worse the worst budget crisis in modern Emeryville history.  

Because dissent is necessary and even a barometer in a democratic deliberative body, from this day forward the people will know their interests are being looked after by the Emeryville City Council to the extent there are accompanying votes of censure/sanction.   If they're not censuring and sanctioning, they're not likely doing our business. In other towns the majority gets their way and then they move on.  In Emeryville, the majority gets their way and then they censure and sanction those in the minority who vote differently....and then they spend $7570 to gloat about it and then they move on.

Council Member Ends Hunger Strike: Petition Goal for Ethics Commission Met

 Ending Hunger Strike after 1000 Signatures From Community Members,

Priforce Forces Council Majority's Hand

Community Weighs In, 

Ball Now in Council Colleague's Court

Council member Kalimah Priforce ended his ten day hunger strike yesterday after an online petition in support of an Emeryville ethics commission showed more than 1000 signatures, the number he said he would need to end the strike.  The change.org petition, 1049 signatures strong at the time of this story's posting, is meant for Emeryville residents and surrounding neighbors to show their displeasure at the Emeryville City Council for refusing an independent ethics commission to be implemented to compliment the existing Code of Ethics.  

The fear, publicly expressed by the City Manager and the City Attorney when the Code of Ethics was certified in September 2023, is that without an ethics commission working to enforce the Code of Ethics, the City Council would be the enforcement arm for the ordinance and they would be tempted to politicize or weaponize it.  That fear has been well founded with the recent censure and sanction of Council member Priforce by the four other Council members even while they have refused to hold Council member Courtney Welch to account using the same Code of Ethics.  For an elected political body majority to use a law as a cudgel against a political enemy while holding themselves free from constraint by the same law is a classic polarization or weaponization that an ethics commission would not allow. 

Council Member Priforce
Last night he ate food for the 
first time in ten days.

 

The petition is designed to force the City Council’s hand, owing to the fact that the Council majority has thus far steadfastly refused to allow an independent ethics commission.   New Mayor David Mourra, when voting to certify the Code of Ethics in 2023, hinted he would be amenable to the formation of a commission at a later date, “The Code of Ethics is a good first step” he said as the Council prepared to vote on the new law. Offering a motion for a Council vote, Mr Mourra left an independent ethics commission out, at least at the outset,  “Lets take this first step and adopt this and see how things go”, he told his colleagues. Since then however, Mr Mourra has hardened his position against the idea of an ethics commission as have Council members Welch and Kaur, against a damning documented violation of the Code by Courtney Welch in September.  

The signatures collected in support of an independent ethics commission will be either taken up by the City Council as an impetuous to establish a commission by fiat or the incipient citizen activist neighborhood group Emery Rising will move forward with a ballot initiative for Emeryville voters to decide, says Council member Priforce.  

Mr Priforce told the Tattler, "As a Black man in America, I was born censured and sanctioned. The solipsistic behaviors of my council colleagues have proven the unchecked power distance that exists between City Hall and the people of Emeryville. This petitioned victory was about Emery Rising bringing the fight back to the people and letting them decide if Emeryville should remain stuck in the shadows of being the rottenest city or if an independent public ethics commission should be part of a future that unites us with a hope that moves us forward."  Conjuring a Star Wars meme, Priforce called the signature petition and looming ballot initiative,  "A New Hope".

Coming off the hunger strike, Council member Priforce reports that he is in good spirits but weak and only eating very sparingly for the time being upon the advice of his doctor.

This is what the petition website looked like at 9:00 last night.

Council Member Priforce Faces 'Political Lynch Mob' at Tuesday's Special Council Meeting

 Councilman Priforce Faces Six Counts Tuesday

Condemnation Brought By Teflon Mayor

Emeryville's most dependable progressive voice on the City Council may be purged from every city committee and formally censured for ethics violations Tuesday as an aggrieved City Council majority closes ranks.  But the Council majority’s accusations against their colleague Kalimah Priforce and the process under which they were brought, raise their own questions - questions concerning the weaponization and politicization of Emeryville’s Code of Ethics ordinance.

Emeryville City Council Member 
Kalimah Priforce
The progressive conscience of Emeryville's
City Council.

The lone progressive among his more conservative colleagues, Councilman Priforce has clashed with the majority over tenant's rights and rent control, as well as local control of housing policy since his election to the Council, earning him the enmity that could now silence his voice.  The silencing will be the topic at a Council Special Meeting on Tuesday at 6:00 pm.

An inspection of six charges against Mr Priforce brought by Mayor Courtney Welch present a scattershot of violations seemingly designed less for accountability and more with retribution in mind.  Of the six, four are shown to be demonstrably false and two a politicized use of the law based on selective enforcement.  Ms Welch is also demanding an apology from Mr Priforce.

Tuesday’s censure/sanction vote comes amid a charge delineated by the city attorney and brought by the Tattler editor against Mayor Welch for also violating the Code of Ethics, however the Council majority has disregarded the charge against the Mayor.  The two disparate outcomes - Priforce and Welch, stemming from the same violation of the same ordinance at the same time, brings the specter of cronyism and corruption on the Council majority and a powerful argument for those seeking the formation of an independent ethics commission.

Because the City Council refused to allow an ethics commission to adjudicate ethics violations as other neighboring cities do, the enforcement of the Code of Ethics in Emeryville is in the hands of the City Council itself.  Findings aren't required to be factual and they don’t carry the force of law, so punishments meted out by the Council majority may be based on nothing more than their feelings.


The Charges 

Councilman Priforce faces the following six charges:

1)  Disclosure of confidential information

2)  Violations of the Fair Political Practices Commission 

3)   Failure to impress upon two candidates for Council he supported, the need to file their FPPC forms accurately 

4)   Speaking in harsh terms publicly against members of the public and specifically a City committee member

5)   Failure to sign the Code of Ethics certification

6)   Falsely claiming to be running for mayor in the November election


The Charges Examined 

1)   During Nov. 19 2023 Council meeting, Mr. Priforce, reporting on the happenings of a just concluded closed session meeting, entered into the record that Mayor Courtney Welch grew so passionate and heated in her criticisms of Mr. Priforce, that her voice could be heard by the public outside the chamber along with on the sidewalk outside the building. See video link below (go to 15:38 - 19:16) 
In addition, under California’s Brown Act, Title 5 states: "A local agency may not take any action against a person, nor shall it be deemed a violation, for doing the following: expressing an opinion concerning the propriety or legality of actions taken by a legislative body of a local agency in closed session, including disclosure of the nature and extent of the illegal or potentially illegal action."  This charge by the City Council majority against Mr Priforce is thus false.

2)  Mr. Priforce appears to have missed one or more candidate deadlines for reporting donations and campaign spending to the state Fair Political Practices Commission.  While this is concerning, it is by no means out of the ordinary, even among Emeryville candidates to fall afoul of fairly Byzantine regulations.  At the end of the day, the FPPC handles its own enforcement. The council, by weighing in, appears to be attempting to  exaggerate a pedestrian oversight into some disqualifying scandal.  Mr Priforce has since brought all his FPPC filings up to date to April 2024.  This finding is selective enforcement and therefore is political in nature.

3)  Two candidates Mr. Priforce endorsed failed to comply with certain state Fair Political Practices Commission regulations. The Council's resolution would punish these candidates by proxy, by sanctioning Mr. Priforce for their oversights.  Punishment by proxy is wrong and so this finding is false.  

4)  On the receiving end of a campaign of disparaging character attacks on social media by an advisory committee member, Mr Priforce, at a July 2023 Bike Committee meeting, asked for better online decorum and criticized that member at a Council meeting for making little effort in their application to the committee.  Council member Priforce is being subject to censure for trivial actions that took place prior to the creation of the Code of Ethics.  It represents selective enforcement with no stated statute of limitations. Charging a person before the law exists makes this political in nature.

5)  The resolution would censure and sanction Mr. Priforce for failing to sign the city's Code of Ethics ordinance. 
Mr. Priforce, who says he was a proponent of the measure, claims his colleagues undermined the ethics code by refusing to establish an independent enforcement commission. Therefore, he says, he abstained from supporting it. 
It appears as though Mr. Priforce is being accused of voting with his conscience and against what he views as a measure that could be politicized, which it appears has come to pass. How one votes, a constitutional right, cannot be criminalized by a municipality.  A Council member’s vote cannot be turned into malfeasance.  Finding number 5 is thus false.

6)  Traditionally, Emeryville's Council has rotated the largely ceremonial office of mayor. In 2023, when custom held it was Mr. Priforce's turn at vice mayor position and then the follow up to mayor the next year, the majority skipped him and instead chose David Mourra.
 This year, while campaigning, Mr. Priforce, in endorsing two other candidates, told the public that if both of his preferred candidates were successful, that he could ascend to the mayor's office.  To accuse someone of claiming to run for mayor when local citizens don't elect the mayor and the mayor's office isn't on the ballot, is patently absurd. 
The statement Mr Priforce made about running for mayor is not unethical in any way and the charge against him is therefore false.

Precedent: Censure/Sanction Reserved For Crimes

The action Tuesday by the Council majority is only the second time in modern Emeryville history censure/sanction has been invoked.  Before the Code of Ethics was written, the Council majority voted to censure Council member Ken Bukowski for public corruption.  Mr Bukowski was alleged to have voted in the interest of a private corporation on the Council while working for and taking money from the same corporation; a crime in the state of California.  Mr Bukowski denied the charges and he was not arrested but he was ultimately censured by the City Council.  Mr Bukowski was not stripped of his city committees.  The sanction punishment came later, after further tawdry behavior was revealed and it involved him being removed from all regional committees. 

Mr Priforce on the other hand, is not charged with having committed a crime but the sanction punishment, his removal from all committees including all regional committees and removal of travel benefits, is worse than what the Council meted out to Mr Bukowski for his much more egregious criminal and ethics violation.  

The City Attorney and the City Manager expressly warned the City Council in 2023 against what they have now done: weaponize Emeryville's Code of Ethics.  An independent ethics commission would almost certainly not have brought these charges against Council member Priforce and the forces within Emeryville's citizenry that have called for a commission are now given a powerful rallying cry.  People wishing fair play, less drama and bombast from their City Council will be emboldened by Tuesday's action to join their ranks. 

Here is a petition concerning the formation of an Emeryville ethics commission:  https://www.change.org/p/establish-public-ethics-oversight-in-emeryville-california

The video that landed Mr Priforce in hot water with the Mayor of Emeryville is in the link below.  Go to 1:18:11 - 1:21:49 in the video to see the comments from Mr Priforce that so outraged the Mayor that she brought charge #1 (disclosure of confidential information) against him.  Watch the video and ask yourself: Is an ethics charge warranted?  Any normal (disinterested) person will say NO.  This video shows the level of depravity that now exists among the anti-Priforce zealots on the Emeryville City Council majority.  Council member Priforce said NOTHING that could even loosely be considered unethical yet he now faces charges for that.  Please judge for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/live/o7OntshGbR0?si=E8PF9H9jHiy1AHxc

Advertisement from Council member Priforce encouraging people to attend Tuesday night's event.

Breaking: Mayor Welch Releases Charges Against Council Member Priforce

Breaking News

Mayor Courtney Welch has finally released the charges she has been leveling at her colleague Council member Kalimah Priforce, for breaches of Emeryville’s Code of Ethics and Conduct to be voted on at a December 3rd City Council ‘special meeting’ at 6:30 pm.  Ms Welch, part of what’s being called the ‘Gang of Four’ Council members, is hoping Mr Priforce will be censured and even sanctioned for the charges.  For his part, Council member Priforce denies the charges.

Mayor Welch violated the Code of Ethics and Conduct herself when she went on a name calling rampage on her social media accounts against the editor of the Tattler, but the Gang of Four have steadfastly refused to bring the charges up for a vote.  Name calling on social media by Council members is expressly forbidden according to the City Attorney John Kennedy as it constitutes a violation of the Code.  The Code of Ethics and Conduct was written by Mr Kennedy and certified by a vote of the Council in September. 

The Gang of Four City Council members are Courtney Welch, David Mourra, John Bauters and Sukhdeep Kaur.  They are refusing to be held to account for their own violations of the Code of Ethics as they press charges of violations of the Code against Council member Priforce.

The Tattler will report the whole spectacle as it unfolds.

The City Council Resolution against Mr Priforce can be seen HERE.

https://www.scribd.com/document/795685615/The-Political-Lynching-of-Emeryville-Councilmember-Kalimah-Priforce-Dec-3-2024

Council Hypocrisy: Mayor Welch's Ethics Violation Ignored

Refusing Welch Charge, City Council Majority Politicizes Code of Ethics

Weaponizing the Code Against Political Enemies, Council Majority Uses New Law to Make Themselves Unaccountable

Welch Guilty But Cannot Be Touched

Meanwhile

Priforce To Be Brought Down

In September, after the City Council received a citizen complaint against the Mayor for violations of Emeryville's Code of Ethics described by the City Attorney, the Council majority chose to ignore it and instead they have taken up a complaint of their own against their colleague, Kalimah Priforce, for what the Mayor says are violations of the same Code.  This City Council politicizing of our Code of Ethics was predicted and warned against in 2023 by the City Manager, the City Attorney and ironically, Council member John Bauters who joined in at the time, cautioning the rest of the Council about “weaponizing” the Code as the Council prepared to certify it.  Council member Bauters is one of the gang of four Council members now weaponizing Emeryville's Code of Ethics.  Mayor Welch violated the Code by engaging in name calling against a citizen from her social media account, a specified prohibited act according to the City Attorney.
  

Mayor Courtney Welch
She is not constrained by the Code of Ethics
but her political enemy on the Council is.
It's an enviable amount of power she's
 been granted by her friends on the Council.

Emeryville citizens are now privy to antics at City Hall around this new law - they are going to see minority Council member Priforce censured by the Council for violating the Code of Ethics, but not the majoritarian Mayor Welch for doing the same thing; the very definition of politicizing.

The violations committed by Mayor Courtney Welch are direct and clearly identified by the City Attorney John Kennedy, author of the Code, but the charges against Council member Priforce have not yet been named by the Mayor, who brought the charges at the November 5th Council meeting to be followed through at the December 3rd Council meeting.  The City Council voted 4-1 (Priforce dissenting) to forward the Mayor's charges to censure Mr Priforce.  The charges against Mayor Welch on the other hand were brought by the editor of the Tattler and ignored by the Council majority, the favor of even an acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint, was not received. 

Council Majority Weaponizes New Law 

In September 2023 when the Council was voting to adopt the new law, then mayor John Bauters joined with the City Attorney and the City Manager, apprising his colleagues against the temptation to “weaponize” the new Code of Ethics in order to damage political opponents.  Mr Bauters told his colleagues, “The Code of Ethics is not intended to create winners and losers.”

The double standard exhibited by this behavior of the Council majority can be described as hypocritical and cynical but also it reveals a willingness to subvert and politicize the Code.  Council member Bauters is now himself complicit in the  politicized polarization of this law meant to rein in misconduct by the Council and other City officials.  Also complicit is Vice Mayor David Mourra,  Council member Sukhdeep Kaur and of course Mayor Courtney Welch.

This Council majority have succumbed to the allure of using the Code to hold a political adversary to account while at the same time refusing to be held to the same standard themselves; a clear politicization and weaponization of the new law. Without a check or a balance that could be gotten from an independent ethics commission as other cities have, Emeryville’s Code of Ethics has been revealed to be flawed law, flawed to the point that it is stoking discord, something the City Attorney specifically warned the Council against.

Mayor Welch Violates the Code

City Attorney Kennedy and City Manager Paul Buddenhagen produced an instructional video (see below) for the Council (and other City officials) to assist them in how to not violate the Code.  Mr Buddenhagen was explicit, “We don’t want this [Code of Ethics] to be weaponized.  We don’t want this to be a thing that initiates discord.”   

Mr Kennedy went on to describe exact prohibitions in the law violated by Courtney Welch against members of the public, “When they are acting in social media, they [the Council] are acting in their roll as a city official”, Mr Kennedy said in the training video.  He continued, “The Code of [Ethics and] Conduct is intended to show there is a certain threshold you have to follow here.  One is that you need to practice civility and decorum in discussion and debate.  So name calling, personal attacks, all of those things could potentially violate the Code.” (italics added)

The Code of Ethics is explicit and implicit in its description of unacceptable behavior like what the Mayor frequently exhibits.  From the Code: "Members shall refrain from abusive conduct, personal charges or verbal attacks upon the character or motives of other Members, the public and staff.  This requirement is applicable to Members at all times."

 

After the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct was certified by the Council, Mayor Courtney Welch went on a rampage of name calling from her Twitter/X account, (cw4emeryville) calling the Editor of the Tattler a “misogynist” and a “liar” added to the earlier epithets “fuck boy” and “racist” (the latter two names were issued before the Council certified the new law and so she can’t be held accountable under the law for those two).

An independent ethics commission, like Emeryville’s neighboring cities have, would not likely have let the Mayor off the hook for so blatantly violating the Code in this case and fittingly, it was Council member Priforce that did try for a commission to be set up simultaneously with the Code of Ethics.  But the Council majority refused Mr Priforce’s request at their September 2023 meeting.  Vice Mayor David Mourra said he was not against the idea of an independent commission but he thought the Code should be certified first, “As a first step, it makes a lot of sense” he said.  However, the Council has not moved on setting up a commission and in fact, Mr Bauters subsequently said NO to the prospect.

Mayor Welch was contacted for comment on this story but she did not reply.  

The 'Code of Ethics and Conduct for Elected and Appointed City Officials' (Resolution 23-125) strangely, cannot be accessed at the City of Emeryville's website but the citizen activist group Emery Rising has provided a URL to it HERE.  

The meeting where the Mayor will bring charges against Council member Priforce for violations of the Code of Ethics and Conduct is Tuesday December 3rd at a 'Special Meeting' in the Council Chambers at 6:30 pm.  Anyone can attend.

Instructional Video for the City Council on how not to violate 

the Code of Ethics.

5:00: A City staff member asks about social media accounts

5:55: The City Attorney explains they have to act with decorum, even on their social media accounts.

They cannot call people names on their social media he says emphatically.

Mayor Welch heard this but she violated it anyway.

Breaking: City Council Majority Votes to Agendize Censure of Council Member Priforce

Breaking News:

Tonight at a special Emeryville City Council meeting, Mayor Courtney Welch moved to censure her colleague Kalimah Priforce for “numerous violations” of Emeryville’s new Code of Ethics to be voted on at a future City Council meeting.  The vote was 4-1 to agendize the item (Priforce dissenting).  

This is the first use of the Code of Ethics since it was certified by the City Council last year.

The Mayor did not describe what ethics violations she thinks Mr Priforce violated but even without any general description, her three colleagues voted to place the item on a future agenda.  None of the three Council members who voted with Ms Welch to agendize a censure, not David Mourra, John Bauters or Sukhdeep Kaur, publicly asked the Mayor what violations they were being asked to vote on, raising the specter of a possible private pre-discussion by Council members.  If such a discussion happened behind closed doors, that could constitute a Brown Act violation.  

The City Attorney, John Kennedy, gave a presentation to the City Council some months ago wherein he described that Council members or even City committee members are proscribed by the Code of Ethics; among the violations he listed is “calling people names” on social media.  Because the Mayor Courtney Welch (and Planning Commissioner Dianne Martinez) both violated this mandate, the Tattler submitted a complaint to the Council in October but they refused to hear it.  This fact plus tonight’s opaque misadventure shows how the new Code of Ethics has already been politicized by this Council majority.  The Tattler will report on how the Code of Ethics is being abused by the City Council in a future story.

Council member Priforce responded to the Council's action tonight, telling the Tattler, "None of this is a surprise to me or should be a surprise to anyone who has been following the hostility of this council towards me since before I took office with their collegiality pledge, the attacks I received on the evening I took office, and on multiple occasions they've attempted to silence or trivialize my presence on the council. They are afraid of my voice. They are afraid of the people's voice. It's not about me, it's about what I represent. So rather than laugh at their theatrics, I focused on the task at hand, support Calvin and Mia in their campaign to be our future council members and return city hall back into the hands of the people."