John Bauters' Future Is Guided By His Conspicuous Association With Plutocrats

Is John Bauters a Snake?

Well Sure, But Emeryville Residents Don't Need a National Reality TV Show to See It.

News Analysis

The regional Bay Area press corps over the last year has spilled a lot of ink on the public foibles and discernible antics of former Emeryville mayor John Bauters; from his whiplashing but losing bid for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to his dramatic appearance on a nationally syndicated reality TV show where he shocked many when he quipped about himself as a politician who’s good at lying and manipulating people.  Many of these Bauters’ watchers have settled on the TV show as an ‘aha’ moment that reveals his real nefarious motives in the world of politics.  But for all his impolitic and outlandish statements on the TV show, the real revelations about John’s political proclivities come from the job he took as executive director of a billionaire funded right wing political action committee before the TV show even went to air. 

He told Alameda County voters he was a progressive:
and it's true he's gay and he rides a bike.
Plutocrats and Emeryville residents however knew
otherwise.   Others found out about John from the TV show.

 

Regardless of the lavishly funded campaign highlighting his progressive bonafides for the Supervisor’s race last fall, an effort that attempted to conceal his corporate connections and his true heart’s desire, Bauters’ move to bail from politics and accept a job as executive director at the billionaire funded astroturf organization Revitalize East Bay (and Abundant Oakland ©) immediately after he lost his bid for Supervisor, is what informs, not the TV show.  That post election move, directly into the billionaires’ warm embrace, was a shock to many of his political supporters outside of Emeryville that had seen John as a true blue progressive.  For Emeryville residents who know him however, John’s ‘transformation’ from grassroots to astroturf was no transformation at all, it was always just astroturf.

Settling in at Revitalize East Bay, Bauters went to work right away for the investor owned utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, a major contributor.  Progressive Oakland City Council member Carroll Fife had brought California Senate Bill 332, the Investor-Owned Utilities Accountability Act to a council approval resolution and through the graces of Revitalize East Bay, PG&E used Bauters’ political skills to try to talk Fife down.  He told the Councilwoman PG&E being held accountable as per AB 332s provisions, would drive the utility to pull charitable contributions to Oakland non-profit groups and it would send an anti-business message to Oakland businesses and start ups looking to locate in Oakland.  Bauters told Oaklandside he spoke with Fife to convince her to meet with PG&E and take out of the bill anything offensive to them.  Council member Fife refused and Bauters helped the Oakland resolution go down to defeat per PG&E’s wishes.  Interestingly, the Emeryville City Council voted on a resolution to support AB 332 earlier when the political climate in tiny, inconsequential Emeryville was able to fly under the PG&E radar.  Mr Bauters was still on the Emeryville Council and receiving Revitalize East Bay campaign funding but not directly working for them as he is now.  

What Mr Bauters and his employer finds objectionable about SB 332 is that it would immediately curb PG&E’s corporate abuses that have impaired service reliability, inflated customer rates (now the second highest in the nation), and criminally endangered public safety.  But more importantly, SB 332 lays the groundwork for democratically replacing PG&E and other Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) with a “not-for-profit” public utility, historically a hair-on-fire no go for the utility giant (as we saw in the 2010 Prop 16 fight).

While many are now opining about John Bauters’ future and the surprise so many East Bay progressives have displayed following the reality TV show, it is unclear what actually lies in the future.  Many of these prognosticators were  Bauters voters in the Alameda County Supervisors race, followers who now likely feel hoodwinked after what he said to the national TV audience.  Some are predicting he will return to politics and like the defeated 1960 presidential hopeful Richard Nixon’s appearance on the Jack Par show in 1961 was transformational to a come back, Bauters will be able to leverage his TV fame and return to rise like a phoenix.  But the trouble for Bauters is his right wing connections that have been made clear through his Revitalize East Bay hiring.  His association with this plutocratic PAC will not be possible to conceal to Bay Area voters.  Revitalize East Bay reveals his true allegiances and it is likely any Bay Area political run is now out of reach for him for the foreseeable future.  What has been revealed is the only reason Mr Bauters was able to get within striking distance of political power in left wing Alameda County last November was his deftness at concealing his right wing nature (despite the tiny Tattler’s reporting before the election).

All this doesn’t preclude a Bauters run at electoral politics in a conservative district outside the left wing Bay Area of course.

The Tattler reached out to John Bauters for this story but inquiries were not returned.

Councilman Solomon Proposes National Bike Safety Organization Expunged From Emeryville's Bike Plan

 Nation's Premier Bike Safety Organization No Longer Good Enough for Emeryville, Says Solomon

Nationally Recognized Expert Policy Best Practices Should Be Cut in Favor of Emeryville City Hall Staff Opinions 

City Council member Matthew Solomon recently announced a surprising new proposal that would elevate the Emeryville city staff’s opinions as the highest authority on bike safety for our town, overturning the City’s decades long existing deference to the experts at NACTO, the nation-wide transportation authority and their use of rationally based industry best practices.  The radical policy shift proposal would represent a retrenchment on bike safety according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), the organization the City currently uses to set bike and pedestrian safety protocols.  

Matthew Solomon Emeryville City Councilman
Ironically, he ran for Council on a pro-bike platform.

Every neighboring city as well as most of the rest of the nation uses NACTO protocols and guidelines in designing their bike and pedestrian infrastructure. 

Solomon's proposal, if enacted, would turn Emeryville away from NACTO safety guideline expertise in favor of opinions from city staff non-experts and would likely result in compromised bike safety.  It would also place Emeryville in higher litigation jeopardy should a bicyclist get injured in Emeryville it should be noted. 

In a telephone interview with Matthew Solomon, the Councilman specifically said he would not vote for and he would encourage his colleagues to not support NACTO protocols for counting the number of vehicles using Emeryville’s bike boulevards, a practice the City conducted every two years for a decade before 2019.  Further, he said does not agree with NACTO's delineated traffic volume allowable for bike boulevards (maximum number of vehicle trips per day).  NACTO (and the City of Emeryville) recognizes that bike boulevards are streets that vehicles and bikes share and that the number of vehicles using the street must therefore be limited for bike safety.  The way any city knows it is following the NACTO rules is by occasionally counting the vehicle traffic and then working to limit the number of vehicles as per their guidelines, keeping it below the upper safety limit.  

The City of Emeryville used to conduct bi-annual traffic counts as NACTO dictates until business representatives complained in 2019 when the practice was abandoned.  At the time, all five bike boulevards in town had more traffic than NACTO and Emeryville's General Plan allows.  The amount of vehicle traffic in Emeryville has risen substantially since 2019, putting more vehicles on the bike boulevards and bikers in even graver danger, a fact Council member Solomon was unimpressed with in our telephone interview.

After telling the Tattler NACTO’s influence should be removed from Emeryville’s bike plan (known as the Active Transportation Plan (ATP), the Councilman said he would be amenable to amending the ATP at the Council level to achieve that goal.  Currently, the ATP defers to NACTO best practices for bike boulevards and other bike corridors in town as well as pedestrian infrastructure.

Lifted directly from Emeryville's 
Active Transportation Plan (page 39): the law
of the land in bike policy.

Councilman Solomon told the Tattler Emeryville’s city staff knows how to design, plan and build bike boulevards and that they are the ones the City Council should listen to, not a nation-wide member organization committed to bike and pedestrian safety best practices promotion.

The City Council has always had the right to amend the ATP by fiat and if Mr Solomon is successful in convincing a majority on the Council to remove NACTO and the bike boulevard vehicle traffic limits from the ATP, it would be legal but unprecedented.  It would represent the first time in Emeryville history the Council voted to amend the bike plan instead of ignoring it (as they done on our bike boulevards up to now).

Before 2019, the City conducted bi-annual traffic counts on the bike boulevards but then, despite the requirement to do so as spelled out in the General Plan, the counting stopped at former Mayor John Bauters’ insistence.  The City never achieved the bike boulevard traffic volume goals stated by the City’s Bike Plan (and NACTO) it should be noted.  

Several business owners in town, including Wareham Development’s CEO Rich Robbins, have long complained about how bikes hamper tenants getting to and from their buildings.  Businesses have quietly lobbied sympathetic Council members to remove or at least ignore the boulevards, pleas Mr Bauters seem to have listened to as he hamstrung Horton Street bikers by quitting the vehicle counts and ignoring the duty to reduce vehicle traffic.  Mr Robbins publicly supported a plan to remove the Horton Street Bike Boulevard and instead route bikers alongside the railroad tracks behind his buildings.  In the intervening years, the City extended the Emeryville Greenway ped/bike path behind the buildings as Mr Robbins insisted they do but the bike boulevard still remains on Horton Street (albeit with too much vehicle traffic).

Mr Solomon is self described as a pro-bike Council member, having served on the Bike Committee for years.  Supporters claim he is the biggest advocate for bicycling on the Council however Council member Kalimah Priforce, also a bike advocate who uses his bike or public transportation exclusively, doesn’t own a car and he has never even had a driver’s license.  Mr Priforce, for the record, has stated he is in favor of limiting the number of vehicles on the bike boulevards as the ATP (and NACTO) says.  

The Tattler invites Councilman Solomon to explain, in his own words, the dichotomy between his incongruent statements made to the Tattler and his claims of bike advocacy by use of the Tattler’s unedited ‘My Turn’ feature.

2024 (a million years ago):
On the campaign trail, candidate for Council Solomon was
unabashed in his support for bikes and the ATP.  He was
not past going a little puerile and high-handed in his zeal.

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

'Revitalize East Bay' PAC Selects John Bauters as their Executive Director

Former Emeryville Politician Now Working for the Private Sector; Bauters Will Serve Billionaires' Interests, Helping Bend Public Policy to Their Liking

Long Time Local Politician John Bauters
He's made the move to the private sector for
an undisclosed salary.

Breaking News

Former long time Emeryville City Council member John Bauters has accepted a job managing a crypto billionaire backed political action committee that seeks to recall insufficiently conservative politicians and pull down local regulation in order to assist real estate developers and corporate landlords.  ‘Revitalize the East Bay’ PAC recently hired the former councilman as their executive director despite Bauters’ loss in his November election for district five Alameda County Supervisor, a race the shadowy group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on but failed to win.

Revitalize East Bay, flush with dark money from tech billionaires and Real Estate Investment Trusts, is seeking to “professionalize” their conservative agenda in anticipation of the 2026 elections and the Bauters hire indicates a high level of  confidence in the former council member’s political acumen. 

 

What Happened To Bauters?

Many in Emeryville and the surrounding community have wondered what happened to John Bauters who went quiet after his ignominious loss in the election he was believed to have a lock on, especially among his most conservative backers.  Mr Bauters had the backing of the corporate sector who went all in with him, including Revitalize the East Bay.  His Emeryville Council colleagues (save the lone progressive Council member Priforce) as well as several former anti-labor Council members also backed the seemingly unstoppable Bauters campaign, leaving some surprised and puzzled, especially at the post election silence.    

During the Supervisor campaign, Mr Bauters ran as a loud and proud ‘progressive’, keeping his conservative, pro-developer views largely hidden from the electorate.  It was a strategy Revitalize East Bay saw as a potentially effective path to power for the secretive right wing PAC in the famously left wing northern Alameda County.  Mr Bauters probably was hoping his talk of his progressive values could win the day in the November election but he lost his race to his labor backed opponent, Nikki Fortunato Bas, who revealed Bauters' anti-labor record in Emeryville to Alameda County voters, quoting Tattler stories in a controversial mailer and website.

Hedge Fund Manager 
Capitalist Philip Dreyfuss
One of the primary backers of
Revitalize East Bay and John Bauters.

Revitalize East Bay has faced criticism for not properly disclosing its donors, raising concerns about the potential influence of hidden money on local elections. The group has not shied away from using subterfuge in their efforts;  creating a new committee with a similar name, which allowed them to delay disclosing their donors.  

Donors include Philip Dreyfuss: a Piedmont-based hedge fund executive, who contributed significantly as well as YIMBY California backed real estate developers and corporate landlords as well as the energy utility giant PG&E that’s headquartered in Oakland.

Leading up to the November election, Bauters received more than $1.29 million from tech venture capitalists, real estate billionaires including Mr Dreyfuss as well as other corporate special interest groups according to the Phoenix Project, a local collective of citizen activists who shine a light on dark money flooding Bay Area elections forwarding conservative interests.  The Phoenix Project produced its near legendary and viral 'Astroturf Network Map' that chronicled the 2024 effect of dark special interest money in the East Bay election.  The influential map shone a light where the dark money was and did not spare the Bauters campaign.

Three time mayor Mr Bauters was an extremely influential Emeryville Council member during his years in power here having served as the chair of the powerful Budget and Governance Committee for all eight years, during which time he quietly shepherded a $11.8 million budget deficit, the worst in the little city’s history.  Mr Bauters audaciously blamed the Planning Commission for the red ink, a fact that likely impressed Revitalized East Bay and factored in as they moved the former City Council member into his new pricey digs as executive director for a PAC with budget of millions of hedge fund dollars and an appreciation of subterfuge looking after private interests operating in the public realm.

We reached out to John Bauters for this story but he did not respond.

 

The Phoenix Project's Astroturf  Network Map famously laid Revitalize East Bay bare.

Emeryville's John Bauters Featured in Viral 'Astroturf Map' of Conservative Dark Money Groups

 John Bauters' Election Campaign Received $1.29 Million From Conservative Corporate/Special Interest Groups

His Fall Campaign Revealed to be Astroturf

Former Emeryville mayor John Bauters received $1.29 million from tech venture capitalists, real estate billionaires and other corporate special interest groups for his November Alameda County Board of Supervisors race according to the Phoenix Project, a local collective of citizen activists who shine a light on dark money flooding Bay Area elections forwarding conservative interests.  Mr Bauters, who during the campaign season denied connection with these interest groups, has been revealed to having had the single largest number of dark money connections chronicled by the Phoenix Project.  He also gathered more money than any other candidate running for office the map shows.  The money, from all manner of conservative donors, represent interests counter to his loudly proclaimed community values he made on the campaign trail. 

Despite Mr Bauters near constant campaign homilies invoking equity and shared community interests, a perusal of the tangled web map of dark money flowing from right wing interest groups shows him to be deeply entangled.  Cryptocurrency tech bros, hedge fund managers, tech investors, Big Real Estate, the Alameda County Sheriffs Association and various big business special interest groups all took a keen interest in Emeryville’s City Councilman.  

During the Supervisor’s race, Mr Bauters tried to distance himself from his record on the City Council, specifically his infamous attempt to roll back Emeryville’s minimum wage ordinance.  On the campaign trail, Bauters took to actively denying he had led a drive to roll back the poorest worker’s wages, thinking that could hurt his chances with Alameda County voters. Right wing power brokers and local billionaires were impressed however.

The Phoenix Project has been chronicling the flows of dark money in San Francisco much to the chagrin of corporate Democrats there and the release of the Oakland Astroturf Network Map represents their initial foray into East Bay politics.  The map has been kicking up quite a stir in the April Oakland mayor's race politicos report.

The Map can be downloaded and seen in its glorious detail HERE.

City of Emeryville is Failing to Reveal John Bauters' Election Campaign Documents

 City’s Website in Violation of California Campaign Law

Failure to Post All Bauters Campaign Documents

Election campaign forms for Emeryville City Council candidates are supposed to be kept on file for public viewing but campaign documents regarding former Council candidate John Bauters are entirely missing from the City’s website, a violation of state law.  The City is required to make all of these documents available to the public on its website but Emeryville is in violation because at least two are not viewable at all the Tattler has learned.

The FPPC Forms 460s, filed with the state of California as well as the City, detail how much money a candidate has received and from whom.  As it stands now, Mr Bauters’ campaign for re-election for City Council, abandoned by him last summer, is missing half of his required documents.  An attempt to download the missing documents at the City’s website is stopped and the site brings up a notice that the connection is not secure when an attempt is made.  Other documents are working, just not two of the Forms 460s.

From the City of Emeryville's website:
Half of Bauter's Forms 460 are not viewable on the site: a violation of state law.

The Tattler alerted the City of the problem via email but the City Clerk, April Richardson, said she never received the email.  A check of her email address revealed it was correct.  After giving up getting the documents from the City’s website or through email, ultimately, the Tattler conducted an official Public Records Request for the missing public documents, a request the state grants a municipality ten days for compliance.  

Hearing about the document disclosure problem in person, Ms Richardson volunteered that the Tattler should not try to get any information from the City of Emeryville via email in the future, an interesting if unusual request.  After 15 years of information gathering from City Hall, this is the first time a department head has told the Tattler to not use email.

Mr Bauters abandoned his run for Council in favor of a run for Alameda County D5 Supervisor, a race he lost last November.  Bauters is currently not in elective public office.

The City Council majority has stated that it is very important that the public be able to view every candidate for Council’s Forms 460s so it is assumed this problem will be fixed soon.

The Tattler will report on how this violation gets fixed.  Stay tuned.

A click on Mr Bauters' Forms 460 is disallowed and this warning comes up.

UPDATE: The City of Emeryville corrected this as of January 16.

John Bauters Era Ends: a Consequential Council Member Retires

 The End of the 'Bauters Era'

Housing Development Corporations Benefited Tremendously Under Bauters But

Residents Saw Little Benefit, Mostly Rising Problems

John Bauters stepped down from the Emeryville City Council December 10th as a necessary result of him choosing to run a campaign for Alameda County Supervisor.  That race ended in a November 5th loss and finished an eight year political career for the undisputed leader of Emeryville.  

Stripped of power and now just a private citizen, it's a good time to reflect on John Bauters’ tenure as our leader; the man who for better or worse, ran the ‘Bauters Era’ for our town.

First running a losing campaign for the City Council as a conservative in 2014, Bauters tried again as a progressive in 2016 and won after having received the endorsement of the popular center left residential activist group Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE).  After taking office, he quickly repositioned himself as a conservative in the mold of his mentor, the former leader of Emeryville, Nora Davis.  Both Ms Davis and Mr Bauters unabashedly led Emeryville by embracing a top down, pro-corporate, private sector deregulation governing philosophy.  For Council member Davis it was a pro-development-of-any-kind philosophy and for Council member Bauters it was a pro-housing developer philosophy.  Both leaders took a hands off approach to corporate developers seeking profit maximization in our town.  As a result, with Ms Davis in control, Emeryville delivered three major suburban style auto-centric shopping malls and the giant campus closed to the public Pixar while Mr Bauters delivered the ubiquitous seen-one-you've-seen-them-all rental apartment blocks.  Notably, John differed from Councilwoman Davis insofar as he likes to ride his bike.

Emeryville's Homelessness During the Bauters Era
Numbers of Individuals
79% drop since 2019 but 31% increase since 2016.
He only told  Alameda County voters about his 
2019-2024 numbers, failing to tell about 
his 2016-17 numbers.
Source: Alameda County '24 PIT count

Flowing from this pro-developer epistemological polity, many of the things people in Emeryville like have been delegated to second tier status; things like creating new parks, creating housing for families, locally serving storefront retail and creating a city of homeowners versus renters.  Because housing developers would have to pay for them, these are things developers don’t want and as a result, these are things not delivered on Mr Bauters’ watch.  For the record, Bauters himself says he’s a YIMBY Council member.  The San Fransisco Chronicle agreed, as revealed in their story where they called our Councilman “The most YIMBY mayor in the most YIMBY city in California”. 

There were some positive things Council member Bauters brought.  He is a very effective speaker and able to effectively galvanize people when he needs to.  Early in his first term, Bauters staged community building citizen appreciation events at the Council meetings where individual citizens would be called up to the podium and awarded plaques of appreciation from the City of Emeryville for their public good works.  He pushed through a taxpayer funded $50 million affordable housing bond to try to ameliorate the gentrifying effects of all the market rate luxury apartments developers like to build.  But conspicuously, it has just been all-rental apartments, all the time.

A good way to recount the adverse effects of the Bauters Era on those living here is to simply tally the most egregious negativity he delivered:

1)   He rolled back the wages of the poorest working poor among us when he rolled back our minimum wage.

2)  He said NO to any new parks until there is enough rental housing built (but he has refused to tell us how much housing we need).  

3)  Going against our General Plan, he transformed Emeryville from a city of homeowners into a city of renters.

4)  Siding with the corporate Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) developer lobbying group YIMBY, he has moved against local control of our housing policy in order to hand it over to corporations.

5)  After turning us into a city of renters, he has stopped all attempts to empower renters seeking rent stabilization or rent control (because developers are against it).

6)  After agreeing to allow a code of ethics law for Emeryville, he has said NO to allowing an independent ethics commission to ensure the new law is not politicized and applied fairly and equitably.

7)  As chair of the Budget and Governance Committee for eight consecutive years, he failed due diligence and brought the worst budget deficit in Emeryville history.

8)  In order to facilitate a proposed all-rental housing project, the ill fated 700’ tall ‘Onni Tower’, he proposed a roll back two of Emeryville’s new ordinances meant to ameliorate the ill effects of developer greed: the tower separation ordinance and the unit mix ordinance. 

9)  After pushing through a Council resolution to support Ukraine from Russian aggression, he said NO to a call for a Gaza ceasefire resolution.

10)  He intervened and stopped our democratic mayoral rotation in order to take a second term for himself, stating he is needed because of his budget expertise (and then he blow up the deficit).

Homelessness in Emeryville
as candidate John Bauters reported
it to the voters. 
He did a great job he said.
But something critical is missing
from this narrative.

After suffering through all this corporatist anti-resident Bauters Era politics, Emeryville residents watched as candidate Bauters in November told Alameda County residents he had reduced homelessness in Emeryville by 79%.  The un-cherry picked facts reveal he INCREASED homelessness in Emeryville by 31% over the course of his tenure on our Council.  Bauters only told about homelessness dropping since 2019, skipping over the previous four years of homelessness increasing while he was in command.  The rest of Alameda County also followed the same trend: homelessness went down recently after having increased previously.  In this way, homelessness in Emeryville is not unique in the Bay Area.  But that was not something Mr Bauters wanted to tell.  Further, homelessness in Emeryville is much lower than neighboring Oakland because the police here roust them out before they get a chance to set up an encampment, a policy highlighted by the Tattler in a series of articles in 2022, an inconvenient fact for candidate Bauters.

Perhaps the most disturbing development at the Council in the Bauters Era is the new zero accountability, zero transparency culture.  Like Council members Courtney Welch and Sukhdeep Kaur after him, Bauters refused to answer questions from his constituents (if the questions are tough).  He refused to answer emails, texts or calls.  Adding to this, he refused to hold press conferences, and as a result, the people never got any accountability from him.  Mr Bauters, seeking bigger political office after Emeryville, protected his brand and his narrative at all costs, eschewing any negativity that could rub off on him were he to have engaged with his constituents or the press.  So far Courtney Welch is following this same path. Notably, Nora Davis did not see her role as a public servant like Bauters and Welch do: Council member Davis took questions and comments from all comers; a tradition of public accountability that sadly has died with Bauters.

Emeryville has the unfortunate distinction that it regularly falls victim to a ‘strongman’ culture at City Hall.  After the fall of the criminally corrupt John LaCoste era of the 70’s, Emeryville has had three multi-year leaders.  Two of the three have been pro-corporate, pro-developer conservatives.  The three have been Nora Davis, conservative, 25 years in power (four in the wilderness), Jac Asher, progressive, 5 years in power followed by Bauters, conservative, eight years in power.  Council member Bauters has groomed the conservative, pro-developer Courtney Welch to be our new leader but it is not clear during this interregnum period if that will become our continuing illiberal future.  

Over the last 38 years, other than the few short years with a progressive in power, conservative politics here have resulted in a corporate retail chain store and traffic clogged city with the fewest acres of parks per resident of any town in the Bay Area.  Emeryville is the largest town without a library in the Bay Area, it has the lowest percentage of families of any town in the East Bay, and the highest rate of renters over homeowners in the East Bay.  Emeryville’s renter residents live alone and cut off from a community due to the auto centric nature of our town.  At 1.8 people per housing unit, Emeryville has the lowest number of people per housing unit in the East Bay.  In a town like this, without an engaged citizenry, it’s not surprising Emeryville has the second worse school district in the East Bay.  This is the legacy of the Bauters Era.

Former Emeryville City Council member
John Bauters
2016-2024
Back in 2026?

Biggest Deficit in Emeryville History: Bauters Blames Planning Commission

 Eight Years as Chair of the Budget Committee, John Bauters Owns Emeryville's $11.8 Million Deficit

But

Planning Commission is Blamed

Mayor Welch Too Serves On the Budget Committee, Lies to Voters

The City of Emeryville has gone public with the fact it has an $11.8 million budget deficit, the worst in Emeryville history, as reported by paid consultant Brian Moura in a recent address to the City Council.  It was such an embarrassing announcement for outgoing City Council member John Bauters, the eight year Chair of the Budget and Governance Committee, that seeking a scapegoat, he blamed the Planning Commission at the November 19th City Council meeting.

Mr Moura who is unrelated to Emeryville’s vice mayor David Mourra, told the Council “In terms of this fiscal year, 2024-’25, we’re projecting an $11.8 million shortfall with a decline of revenues of $5.5 million and an increase in expenses of $6.3 million”.  An outsider expert looking in, Mr Moura said reduced development fees from what was expected drove the shortfall because  “a major component of your [Emeryville’s] revenue picture” come from such fees.  Specifically, many life science/biotech firms that had expressed interest in building lab space in Emeryville failed to materialize and with the fall out came a loss in expected revenue that would have been generated from all the fees associated with the biotech building boom.

Scooter King Emeryville City Council Member
John Bauters
He offered a boatload of taxpayer money to host
an electric scooter race in Emeryville in 2023.

Immediately upon the finish of the report delivered by the consultant, eyes turned to John Bauters, who has been the Chair of the Budget and Governance Committee for eight consecutive years.  Mr Bauters wasted no time in shifting blame, he acknowledged that all the bio-tech development fees had been put in Emeryville’s fiscal health basket but he said he wasn’t responsible.  Rather, Bauters said it is the Planning Commission that is to blame.  He said they never should have approved all the bio-tech projects developers had been proposing over the last few years, supply outpacing demand.  “Developers respond to the market and they bring [their proposals] to the Planning Commission where it gets reviewed”, Bauters said.  He went on to falsely claim the City Council (with him as mayor) doesn’t have the final say for such projects. “Rarely does it [development decisions] touch the City Council. The Council doesn't go around telling property owners ‘you should build life sciences or apartment buildings” he said, despite the fact that’s exactly what happens.  After Council member Kalimah Priforce told the assembled crowd City Council leadership is responsible for the budget fiasco and that the City should not be spending money it doesn’t have hoping against hope for big fat developer fees to balance the budget.  Mr Bauters was hearing none of that fiscally prudent talk from Mr Priforce and he doubled down on his shifting the blame to the Planning Commission, “Leadership should only take responsibility for how it budgets the City [not how the City is developed]”, he said, reversing eight years of his activism developing the city, specifically with bio-tech projects (and apartment towers).

Courtney Welch Lied to the Voters About the Budget
Photo of one of Mayor Welch's re-election flyers
She's on our Budget Committee so she knows this is false.

Council member Priforce pushed back against the excuses being proffered by the many term mayor Bauters, stating, “The leadership has to own this”.  Mr Priforce noted how the Berkeley City Council and the Oakland City Council have both listened to the developers selling bio-tech and that it is revisionist and false history for the person most responsible for this to claim he wasn’t listening as well.  All three cities built out their bio-tech sectors vigorously over the last several years, contributing to the glut in the market.  

For her part, Mayor Welch, who is the other council member on the Budget and Governance Committee, said Priforce was wrong to be blaming anyone for the historic $11.8 million deficit hole.  Ms Welch it should be noted, during her November re-election fight, told voters she should be returned to the Council because she was so assiduously watching the budget, she’s maintaining a “financial solvency city” she said on one of her campaign flyers, a claim she knew to be false when she said it.

Adding insult to injury, Councilman Bauters threw in an extra $10,000 for the taxpayers to pay, at a last minute parting grudge shot at Mr Priforce when he added the provision to print and mail to every Emeryville household, a bogus censuring and sanctioning of Mr Priforce done at his last Council meeting.  Mr Bauters didn’t say how the $10,000 in public money would be raised to help him in his personal vendetta against Council member Priforce and none of the other three Council members that voted to spend the money provided an answer to that.  Presumably it will just be added to the $11.8 million City Hall deficit, already pegged at more than $140 for every resident.  The addition of the $10,000 mailer personal vendetta against Mr Priforce as it turned out, was John Bauters last act as an Emeryville City Council member as he retires on Tuesday.

Mayor Bauters two years ago, pushed forward a city wide City of Emeryville scooter race that would have cost about $1.5 million, some coming from public coffers, with vague promises of garnering some revenue but also "raising Emeryville's visibility" he said at the time.  The sponsor of the race event pulled out before Emeryville could write the check.

Also noteworthy, in 2022, Mayor Bauters claimed to be an expert at budgeting and finance and with fiscal expertise needed at the mayor level, he said he needed to be re-appointed mayor, skipping Council member Scott Donahue whose turn it was to be mayor.  Council member Donahue was said to not be as knowledgeable about how to keep the City in good fiscal health as Mr Bauters, an assertion that set against the departing of Bauters and his $11.8 million deficit he's leaving us, now seems like hubris.

November 19th City Council meeting is below:  Budget discussion starts at 1:44:24.  The first announcement of the $11.8 million deficit occurs at 1:46:32.

https://www.youtube.com/live/o7OntshGbR0?si=ZdNb3A7VeS5As7qO

Priforce Recall Invoked Amid Council Bombast and Theatrics

Retaliation on Display at the City Council Chambers

Bauters Directs Recall Friends to Emeryville

Right Wing Billionaire Forces Threaten Priforce Recall

Priforce Begins Hunger Strike:

Independent Ethics Commission Demanded

In an unprecedented action Tuesday night, the ‘Gang of Four’ City Council majority voted to censure and sanction their colleague Kalimah Priforce for alleged violations of Emeryville’s Code of Ethics after another ‘gang of four’ non-residents at the meeting announced their plans to initiate a recall campaign against the beleaguered Councilman.  The recall Priforce announcement was brought by the wealthy Piedmont resident Chris Moore, in attendance last night, as well as three of his associates, all who helped run the November recall campaigns against the Alameda County DA and the Mayor of Oakland.  Noteworthy too was the final curtain call from the retiring Council member John Bauters who made his last official act as an Emeryville City Council member to modify the vote for censure/sanction by adding a directive to the City Clerk to produce, print and mail to every Emeryville household, the text of the Priforce censure/sanction resolution.  The cost to the taxpayers for the non-required anti-Priforce mailers will be in excess of $10,000.

Council Member Kalimah Priforce
He got a check up before his hunger strike
for an independent ethics commission.

Councilman Priforce sees the event as a major distraction with unintended consequences for Emeryville, “To keep me from fulfilling my campaign promises to make our city safer, economically healthier, and help our residents, workers, and small businesses stay in Emeryville - they orchestrated this censure and sanction meeting in hopes that their political theater would make them look good. It did the opposite. It exposed them.”

Trying to refocus the community, Mr Priforce has announced he has begun a hunger strike against the refusal of his colleagues to set up an independent ethics commission.  The City Manager, the City Attorney and (ironically) even John Bauters warned against the weaponization of the Code of Ethics, an eventuality that’s now out of the barn. An ethics commission would be a moderating force against the kind of abuse that the Council is now engaging in but Mr Bauters and Mayor Welch have both said they will not allow any ethics commission.  Exasperated at the Council’s refusal, Mr Priforce announced his hunger strike last night: “After the meeting, I launched my hunger strike to bring a thousand signatures to our Emery Rising online petition for an independent public ethics commission: CHANGE.ORG/EMERYRISING.  Each day of this hunger strike will be a day that gets us closer to ending entrenched corruption in Emeryville.”

Piedmont resident Chris Moore
He directed the recall of DA Pamela Price
and helped with the Sheng Thao recall.

The nascent recall of Mr Priforce by these out of town conservatives would likely be controlled by Chris Moore, the man behind the splashy Alameda County November recalls.   Mr Moore, who used his copious fundraising skills to attract billionaires to chip in, served as the campaign manager for the recall of District Attorney Pamela Price and also he was on the team working to recall Mayor Sheng Thao.  Those campaigns were funded by a billionaire hedge fund manager, real estate lobbying groups like YIMBY, Cryptocurrency gazzilionaire Jesse Polack and other corporate groups.  Mr Moore’s associate, San Francisco resident Ed Escobar, warned Mr Priforce his recall is coming and it will be done by him and his colleagues that led the successful recalls earlier.  “As you know, we’re quite capable in that department.  We are the recallers and we get results”, he told Council member Priforce at Tuesday's meeting.  He told the Tattler money will not be an obstacle in recalling Priforce, hinting at a lopsided battle against voters in little Emeryville.  With Mr Priforce's term up in two years, any recall would need to start quickly because voters are  harder to win over for a recall the closer it is to an election.  On that score, Mr Priforce has not said whether he will seek re-election. 

Addressing the descent of wealthy right wing friends of John Bauters into Emeryville, come to bring Emeryville to heel, Council member Priforce was not amused.  He indicated the current trajectory of the Council majority is disturbing and will not be good for average citizens, “The politics of bigotry utilized by members of our Council has invited MAGA to our city’s front doorstep and that welcome mat will lead to an increase in gentrifying forces that will fundamentally change the nature of our city.” he said.

San Francisco resident Edward Escobar
"We're the recallers and we get results."

Mr Bauters, who will be retiring from politics on December 10th, lashed out at his long time nemesis Councilman Priforce, adding the last minute flourish of the mailers that will cost more than $10,000 for Emeryville taxpayers.  Mr Bauters, who has been the chair of the Budget and Governance Committee for eight years, drove Emeryville into insolvency with an $11.8 million deficit this year, the largest deficit in Emeryville history.  With no way to finance the parting shot at Councilman Priforce, the $10,000 spent on the anti-Priforce mailers will be added to Emeryville’s $11.8 million hole.  The theatrics of the vacating Bauters drew condemnation from Mr Priforce, “John Bauters believes in fiscal austerity for the rest of us, but practices wasteful spending for himself. Having taxpayers expense his personal vendetta against the Black man that helped foil his county supervisor prospects isn’t fiscally conservative or pragmatic, it's petty and unethical.” he told the Tatter.

Recall van taken before the November 5th
election:  The same tech bro billionaires that 
supported the recalls supported Bauters' election.

Why do conservatives and corporate Democrats like 
John Bauters if he's the progressive he says he is?

Nikki Bas Declares Victory in the County Supervisor Race Over John Bauters

Breaking News

Tonight Oakland City Council member Nikki Bas has declared victory in the race for Alameda County Board of Supervisors district 5 against Emeryville City Council member John Bauters.  The pro-labor Bas made the announcement after the Alameda County Registrar of voters released the latest tranche of votes in the hotly contested race that placed her against the anti-labor Bauters.  The County has said there are a few straggling votes that still needs to be counted.  However it is extremely unlikely Mr Bauters will make up the 415 votes to overtake Ms Bas.  Mr Bauters has not conceded the vote as of 6:40 pm tonight. 

The tally after the 5 pm release is: 

Bas 50.15 % at 71,135 votes

Bauters 49.85% at 70,721votes

Ms Bas mounted an extraordinary comeback from election night when at 1:00AM the County released the “unofficial final results” of the race showing Bauters ahead 53.4% (26,005 votes) over Bas at 46.6% (22,676 votes).  Ms Bas performed well in the poorer areas of the district while Mr Bauters, appealing to conservatives, did well in the affluent hills and Emeryville. The race spells the end of John Bauters' political career, barring some future comeback as he bet it all on this race, giving up his City Council seat as a consequence.

Ms Bas released the following statement:

One year ago, I answered the call from community-based advocates and Labor leaders to advance a vision of an equitable, prosperous and healthy future for every Alameda County family. Today, it appears that District 5 voters have selected me as their next representative to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. I will bring an unflagging commitment and engage the community to serve every resident by expanding affordable housing and effective solutions to homelessness, accessible healthcare, good jobs, and safe communities. During this consequential moment, I am thrilled and humbled to join what will be our County’s first majority-female Board. Let’s get to work!

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.

Bauters losing ground in County Supervisor's Race, Now Trailing Bas

 Breaking News

The latest tranche of votes were just released by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters and they show Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters now trailing Nikki Fortunato Bas 68,630 to 68,736 votes in the Alameda County Board of Supervisor's race (district 5).  According to sources in the Bas campaign, a "few more hundreds' of votes still need to be counted.  The County Registrar has not said from what regions within the district the last few votes that remain to be counted are.  Today's tranche leaves Mr Bauters 106 votes short in the 49.96% to 50.04% race.  

Cal Dems Un-Endorse John Bauters

Cal Berkeley Dems Takes Back Its John Bauters Endorsement

It’s not often an official Democratic Party organization takes away a political endorsement, but Cal Dems, the Democratic club of the University of California at Berkeley, recently did just that to Emeryville pol John Bauters.  Mr Bauters, an Emeryville City Council member who’s running for Alameda County Board of Supervisors, initially impressed the Cal student group enough to get their endorsement in September but by this week, the Emeryville Councilman was nowhere to be found on their list of endorsements.  

A source close to the student run organization reports that the group had a change of heart after learning that Mr Bauters had broken a pledge he made to them that he had not and would not accept money from law enforcement or corporate PAC money.  Cal Dems apparently were not impressed that when Mr Bauters made his pledge, his 'independent expenditure' FPPC committee he had set up, had accepted money from the Oakland Police Officers Association Political Action Committee (PAC) and that technicality Bauters probably thought, would provide sufficient cover to be able to make his pledge to not personally take money from the police.  Mr Bauters had also engaged in deceit about his receiving corporate PAC money from PG&E, and that, plus the police money, was enough for the group to un-endorse him. 

The independent expenditure committee Mr Bauters set up, called Bauters for a Safer East Bay, is meant to help make donated money harder to trace and thereby let him off the hook for donations made to it.  It is supposed to provide him with plausible deniability for association with questionable groups and individuals.   By using his FPPC committee to field campaign donations, he is effectively making the argument that he should be able to cross his fingers behind his back when he tells organizations like Cal Dems that he has not accepted any money from law enforcement agencies or corporate PACs and that should be good enough.  But Cal Dems wasn't having any of that. 

Politics being politics, Cal Dems is playing their un-endorsement close to the vest.  They have made no official public announcement about it and the Tattler only learned of it through a perusal of their website.  Cal Dems officials have not responded to our requests for information on this unprecedented un-endorsement.