Cynical Gaming Of Government Services:
City Attorney Recommends City Set Up Sham Housing Authority
Emeryville's city attorney, Mike Biddle has recommended the city council set up a new governmental agency in Emeryville; a housing authority, who's sole purpose is not to administer housing but instead to enable certain managers at City Hall avoid paying 6.2% of their salaries to the Social Security Administration.
Mr Biddle, in a pre-dated May 3rd letter, reminded the city council that Governor Brown could terminate the Redevelopment Agency and that would trigger the end of the other half of a coupled Emeryville joint powers authority known as Management of Emeryville Services Authority (MESA).
Mesa as it turns out, is a major employer at City Hall; except for Police, Fire, and SEIU employees, everyone else (mostly managers) don't actually work for the city of Emeryville but for MESA.
Mesa as it turns out, is a major employer at City Hall; except for Police, Fire, and SEIU employees, everyone else (mostly managers) don't actually work for the city of Emeryville but for MESA.
MESA employment is different than city of Emeryville employment in that city workers must pay 6.2% of their income to Social Security (SSI) but as MESA employees, there is no deduction for SSI owing to an alternate retirement program.
MESA, being a joint powers authority, must exist with another government entity (as it now exists in conjunction with the Redevelopment Agency) so in the event of a Redevelopment Agency shut down, the only way for managers at City Hall to get their desired MESA retirement package is if another government agency can be brought forth for MESA to couple with.
Mr Biddle's solution is to create a sham entity to become part of MESA to fulfill the requirement of two distinct entities needed to keep MESA alive. Mr Biddle recommends forming a phony Housing Authority to accomplish this.
In his letter, Mr Biddle assures a skittish council the new housing agency won't have to actually transact any business; there would be "no requirement that the Authority provide for section 8 housing, nor is there any requirement that the Agency own and operate any housing as a landlord" or anything else that housing authorities do to create affordable housing. Instead, Mr Biddle says in the letter, the new Housing Authority could just sit there and serve its real purpose: bumping up the pay of city managers by 6.2%.
The city council will discuss the issue on Tuesday night.
