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.
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| 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.”
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.
