City Manager Will Not Re-Start Regularly Scheduled Meetings With Citizens

Formerly Popular 'Coffee With the City Manger' Program Cancelled Indefinitely

Emeryville’s City Manager, Paul Buddenhagen, has decided to not re-start the popular ‘Coffee With the City Manager’ public events conducted once a month at City Hall before the pandemic, at least for the time being.  The one hour, open-to-the-public sessions were conducted monthly in the City Manager’s office until 2020, allowing citizens to freely interact with and ask questions at the seat of government power in Emeryville.   The program was started in 2014 and continued on for about six years, initiated by then City Manager Sabrina Landreth in response to a Tattler challenge.  Mr Buddenhagen has refused to say if he will bring the program back someday.

Emeryville City Manager Paul Buddenhagen
Democracy can be messy and uncomfortable.
He has not said if he will ever re-start the 
once popular coffee events.

Before Ms Landreth, Emeryville’s City Manager John Flores, for years, regularly scheduled meetings with Emeryville private citizen, the power broker and Chamber of Commerce Board member, John Gooding every Monday morning at 9:00 for one hour to discuss anything on Mr Gooding’s mind.  The content of those years of meetings were off record and kept strictly private.  Uncomfortable with the lack of transparency of that, the Tattler suggested that perhaps regular people, ALL people should also have a time to interface one-on-one with their government.  The secretive Mr Flores was not fond of that idea and he refused it but the democratically inclined Sabrina Landreth agreed and she began the program that ultimately became very popular with Emeryville citizens.  

Every City Manager from Sabrina Landreth up until the pandemic either liked the idea of the Coffee With the City Manager or they felt it would be too costly politically to stop the popular program.  The pandemic appears to have provided the perfect, if quiet reset to secrecy at City Hall for Mr Buddenhagen.   

Mr Buddenhagen has shown himself to be prone to secrecy in his job.  He closed off most of City Hall to the people following a moral panic because of a man with a camera in 2023.  He has refused to say if the people's hall will ever be open to the people again.

The Police Department re-started their ‘Coffee With a Cop’ program after also ending it during the pandemic.  The police coffee program was also started up in 2014, inspired by the ‘Coffee With the City Manager’. 

Ms Landreth, arguably the most progressive City Manager in Emeryville history, famously exalted “A transparent government is an accountable government” as she welcomed people into her office at the opening of her first meeting with the citizens.   

EmPAC Folds Up Tent: Last Vestige of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce Collapses

The Once Mighty EmPAC Quietly Folds

News Analysis
The Political Action Committee known as EmPAC, used for more than a decade by Emeryville's right wing to consolidate and expand its political power, has quietly folded last week, ending the last vestige of the recently closed Emeryville Chamber of Commerce and bringing to a close an era of runaway development for the town. The termination of EmPAC ends speculation about whether the once powerful and widely recognized election game changer would continue on without its Chamber of Commerce progenitor and partner.  After the death of the Chamber of Commerce in August and with the rolling up of EmPAC, the business community in Emeryville is now left without any official local lobbying capacity and without a way to effectively and clandestinely influence City Council elections.

The Chamber of Commerce invented EmPAC many years ago as a way for businesses and especially developers to secretly donate to City Council candidates of their choice.  Before EmPAC, out-of-town developers with development proposals impending would have to give directly to the candidates of their choice at election time but rival candidates could and did make use of the donations by publicly 'outing' the contributors to draw votes away from the Chamber's candidate.  In response, the Chamber introduced EmPAC.
EmPAC made large corporate political campaign contributions in Emeryville much harder to trace in a direct way.  As a consequence, EmPAC was used in every election to funnel lots of money to their candidates and in so doing, the outcomes of many elections were presumably changed.
The left wing side in Emeryville has never made use of a Political Action Committee it should be noted, probably because their candidates generally receive small donations from Emeryville residents exclusively and as a consequence, there's no need for attempting to hide anything.

It has been widely reported the rise of the resident activist group RULE brought great difficulties for the powerful and secretive Chamber of Commerce and EmPAC and grassroots democratic electioneering helped spell its end.  With election season starting in a few months in Emeryville and given EmPAC's rousing past success however, the termination of EmPAC does not preclude a new right wing PAC from rising up to replace it if developers and the business community so deem it.

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters received the 410 form officially disbanding EmPAC on September 3rd and Chamber members Jason Crouch and John Gooding were listed as assistant treasurer and principal officer respectively.  Both those men have been heavily involved in Chamber and EmPAC business over the years including an unsuccessful attempt in 2005 to defeat Measure C, Emeryville's 'living wage for hotel workers' ordinance, an election that cost the group some $140,000.

The Ignominious End of the Once Mighty EmPAC
Will its demise bring a rise of transparency?
Will developers and businesses now donate to City Council
candidates directly and openly like everybody else?

The Emeryville Chamber of Commerce, Dead at 29

The Chamber of Commerce 1986-2015

Private Power Hegemon Lorded Public Policy
For 29 Years in Emeryville

News Analysis
Last month, the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce, a private company, finally packed it in and closed up shop for good after a storied and controversial 29 year run representing business interests at City Hall out of their publicly funded Harlan Street storefront headquarters.  The end for the business lobbying group has been a long time coming and last month's closure of the organization's website was really just a formality, a final turning off of the lights and the shutting of the door for the once powerful and hegemonic private controller of City Hall.
Although it has been out of power for some time and it hasn't been in the news of late, back in the day, the Chamber ruled this city; its vision for Emeryville carried out to a 'T' by a compliant City Council majority it hand selected and funded via its own political action committee, EmPAC.  So complete was the Chamber's power in its hay day, virtually the entire cityscape as one sees it now is attributable in one way or another to this private organization, it's political power and its non-democratically elected Board of Directors directing the decision makers at City Hall to make the town as they saw fit.  The story of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce, its rise and its fall from power over the last thirty years is synonymous with the story of Emeryville over the last thirty years.  For better or for worse, the Chamber's history is our history.

The Salad Days
And what a history it's been; at its peak the Chamber got its agenda taken up at private closed door regularly scheduled weekly meetings with our City Manager.  The content of these meetings at the people's hall were never made public and the pubic was decidedly not allowed in.  The Chamber enjoyed a great deal of public largess showered upon it from the City Council including perpetual free rent in the City owned storefront on Harlan Street, and a $40,000 yearly stipend paid by the taxpayers to produce the the Chamber's glossy newsletter and pay office staff.  In addition to pushing the Chamber's agenda, the newsletter, sent to every Emeryville household, was used to elect the Chamber's Council members and push back against the odd Council member not toting the Chamber's line.  The Chamber years were the go-go years for developers in our town and the Chamber's philosophy of putting the developers in the driver's seat by directing the City Council to never say NO to any proposed development, brought us the built city we have today.

But now Emeryville moves forward, without a central organizing business advocate at the helm.  A different city with different values and a different built environment is likely to be the result.

With the demise of the Chamber of Commerce, the business community in Emeryville is not left unrepresented by lobbyists it should be noted.  As the Chamber's star began to fall, local businesses swapped out the Chamber for a host of other business lobbying firms around the region; notably the California Association of Realtors, the California Restaurant Association, the Bay Area Council and others.  Those who may worry that business won't get a fair hearing can rest at ease however because business lobbying continues, unabated in City Hall, with or without the Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber Is Born
The Emeryville Chamber of Commerce started when a local businessman, Ken Bukowski, found himself aced out of the sole business lobbying group in Emeryville at the time, the Emeryville Industries Association.  "The Industries Association was an old boys network for big business" Mr Bukowski told the Tattler.  "If they didn't like you, you were out, also I ran a small business, not something they were very interested in" added Mr Bukowski, who later went on to become a long time Emeryville City Councilman.  The powerful Industries Association was allied with then Police Chief John LaCoste, a corrupt patronage machine boss who ran Emeryville like Tammany Hall and the Association was not adverse to using their might to run over opposition Council candidates. Bukowski said he thought a business advocacy group shouldn't be so exclusive and shouldn't operate in such an overtly political manner and after the Industries Association ran a major hit piece against such an opposing Council member, Stuart Flashman in special election, Ken decided to start his own business advocacy group.  "They called Stuart a Berkeley radical leftist and they helped tip the scales for a LaCoste candidate Tom Fox, who ended up beating Flashman by 13 votes" Mr Bukowski said.

Ken's group, the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce, let anyone join, the mirror opposite of the exclusive Emeryville Industries Association, "I imagined it to be for businesses large and small and also for Emeryville residents.  I saw it as an opportunity to bring the business community and the residents together" he said of the fledgling Chamber.  Ken himself won a City Council seat in 1987, after which he resigned from the Chamber Board.   In what must have been a moment of schadenfreude for Councilman Bukowski, the rise of the new and popular Chamber of Commerce meant the demise of the old Industries Association; they folded and were never heard from again.

Meet The New Boss
Local political consultant and power broker John Gooding took over at the Chamber with Councilman Bukowski's resignation and took action to change the group to something more resembling the Industries Association,  "The first thing Gooding did was re-write the Chamber's Mission Statement getting rid of the residents" Mr Bukowski said.  "He got the City to start supporting the Chamber and they lost all independence."  The City was running the powerful Redevelopment Agency and the Chamber was plugged into that, Mr Bukowski noted.  "They [the Chamber] pretty much stopped representing small businesses after that.  They started charging much higher fees at Chamber mixers, acing out Emeryville's small businesses" he said.

After the Chamber hitched its wagon to the City, the end was only a matter of time as it turned out.  First the Redevelopment Agency was taken down by a mandate from Governor Jerry Brown who said these RDA's across the State had moved beyond their initial useful role and had become huge boondoggles who's real purpose was to funnel money to connected developers.  The ending of the Emeryville RDA was a major blow to the Chamber.

Enter the Emeryville Tattler
The Chamber newsletter promoting candidates and Measures while tearing down others all on the public dime (rather $40,000) was a bridge too far for the Tattler.  We did several stories and editorials on this unethical corruption of the public interest.  The stories resonated with the public and the Council came under pressure to delete the newsletter funding which they finally did.  The City started its own electronic newsletter except they have omitted the overt politicking of the Chamber newsletter.  Chamber insiders have noted the demise of the newsletter quickened the demise of the Chamber.

After the loss of the Emeryville RDA and the funding of its newsletter, what followed was devastating for the Chamber; the election of a new progressive City Council majority and the rise of the citizen's activist group Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE).  Shortly after the November 2014 election, the new Council majority took action to end the Chamber's free money gravy train from City Hall.  The private business would have to sink or swim on its own.  Shortly after, Chamber CEO and president Bob Canter, a Martinez resident, folded his tent and decamped to Florida.

RIP
During its day the Chamber operated much like the earlier Emeryville Industries Association; they used their publicly funded newsletter to try to take down Council members they didn't like (Greg Harper, John Fricke, Shilen Patel among them) and support Council members they liked (Nora Davis, Kurt Brinkman, Dick Kassis and Ruth Atkin among them).  They leveraged their City Council majority for support of favored developers and projects, they fought against City projects like Councilman Fricke's Adeline Street bike facilities (changing the street from four vehicle lanes to two lanes with bike lanes on the sides), they fought against Measure C (the Emeryville Living Wage for Hotel Workers).   They also fought against removing Emeryville's notorious business tax cap, a regressive taxation that provides for Emeryville's largest businesses to pay taxes at a much lower rate than small businesses.  They even used the taxpayer funded newsletter to urge passage of various California propositions, notably Proposition 16, a PG&E backed initiative that would have made it all but impossible for municipalities to fund their own power companies like neighboring Alameda Power and Light.

The Emeryville Chamber of Commerce may rise again someday, having sown the seeds of a rebirth.   Virtually none of the new housing the Chamber fought for over the years is for families, a demographic arguably not amenable to the Chamber's vision of Emeryville, rather much of the new housing that has been built is generally for a more libertarian set; tech workers, a demographic much more naturally allied with the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce.

Emeryville Becomes a National Model for Social Justice

Los Angeles Looks to Emeryville

for Inspiration

News Analysis
Ten years ago, two opposing forces in Emeryville began gearing up for an epic battle that would culminate in a November election, testing the voter's will for social justice.  That election battle, Measure C, also known as the 'living wage for Emeryville hotel workers', resulted in the first industry specific minimum wage law in California history.  And it's been hugely influential as municipalities across the West Coast and the Nation start looking to Emeryville's lead.
After two unsuccessful lawsuits were brought challenging the new law, Measure C has moved on, as it was designed to, providing Emeryville hotel housekeepers with significant wage increases and other benefits while also serving as impetuous for similar such laws protecting hotel workers in other cities such as Long Beach in 2012 and Los Angeles in 2014.  Seattle and nearby Sea Tac Washington used the Long Beach and Los Angeles law as a model for their respective city-wide minimum wage laws recently passed.

EBASE's
Jennifer Lin
"Emeryville has
been very
influential."

Measure C comports Emeryville's values but it also has shown the Nation as a whole how cities can serve as loci for their community's values.
"Other cities are looking at what happened in Emeryville, with increased worker wages that ripple to the rest of the economy" said Jennifer Lin, Deputy Director at East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), a local community organization working for economic justice issues for working families, "Emeryville's been very influential" she added.  EBASE's efforts and the efforts of UNITE HERE-Local 2850 in 2005 were essential to getting Measure C before Emeryville voters.
Ms Lin noted that Emeryville, despite its small size, shines as an inspiration to other, larger cities, "Living wages for hotel workers caught on with other cities...they took the Emeryville model and scaled it up" she said.

This is What Democracy Looks Like
Post Measure C Victory: Woodfin fight 
The battle at the ballot box was only the first; one
law breaking hotel sought to subvert Emeryville
voter's will.  Near daily protests were conducted
 at the Woodfin Suites Hotel.

An easy win at the ballot box for Measure C belied the opposition's tenacity and apocalyptic rhetoric.  The fight for the Measure was fierce and battle lines were drawn, with nine out of ten elected officials in Emeryville warning of a massive economic calamity if the Measure were to pass.  Residents weren't impressed with that argument and Measure C won with 54% of the vote despite a mountain of cash thrown at it from the NO side to see it defeated.  Living wages are very popular with Emeryville residents we've found out.

The NO on Measure C side called itself the "Committee to Keep Tax Dollars in Emeryville" (as in; hotels will flee Emeryville if this passes) raised and spent $115,000, a huge amount for an Emeryville election ($110 for each NO vote as it turned out).  The funding came almost entirely from the hotels and the Chamber of Commerce, who put up everything they had against the ordinance.  Residents were told the sky would fall if Measure C passed; the Emeryville hospitality industry would be wiped out, sending the town's finances into a tailspin they said.  'It's not for a lack of caring, everyone wants higher pay for the working poor but we have to be realistic', the voters were told.
In fact the opposite has occurred over the proceeding ten years; all the hotels from 2005 (except Woodfin was bought out by Hyatt) are still here and a new hotel has even been approved.  The number of Emeryville hotels has gone from four to five since Measure C passed.

John Gooding
He consolidated the
Power Elite in town.
Hotels will leave
Emeryville en masse
if Measure C is passed,
all will be lost!

As the people voted YES on the living wage ordinance, virtually the entire Emeryville Power Elite rallied against it.
Emeryville political power broker and business lobbyist John Gooding took a leadership role in attempting to defeat Measure C.  Mr Gooding joined with the Chamber of Commerce and convinced the entire Emeryville City Council (save Ruth Atkin) to sign their names to the NO side as well as the entire Planning Commission and the entire School Board.

2005 was also a City Council election year and candidates Dick Kassis (incumbent) and his slate mate, Ed Treuting  both conspicuously ran on an anti-Measure C platform while challenger John Fricke endorsed Measure C as part of his platform.  Some election watchers claim that support for a living wage is what gave Mr Fricke the edge he needed to decisively win his election bid as he did.
The debate was heated and Councilwoman Nora Davis went as far as calling Emeryville residents that spoke out in favor of Measure C "dupes for EBASE", a charge she may have wished to take back after the 54% of Emeryville residents said YES to living wages for our town.

Emeryville's Influence:
Less this...

Measure C delivered the goods: In the first five years there were $1.168 million in wage increases for the workers according to a study conducted by EBASE.  Many workers were able to survive on their own and support their families without government assistance after the Measure C passage while the hotels were found to have their costs increase less than 2%.  Many workers got pay increases of up to $5 per hour, translating into an extra $5000 per year to help families make ends meet. Over 100 workers were helped in the new law's first year alone.

...more this.

It's ironic that the politicians at Emeryville City Hall and at the Emery Unified School District, the same bodies that railed against Measure C in 2005 have long boasted about how Emeryville is becoming a national model.  It is clear they are correct, but not in the way they think.  Emeryville's influence is not being felt in terms of schools as community centers as a result of the construction of the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life as these people would have you believe but rather in labor relations, social justice and the rise of minimum wage law.

As the 10 year anniversary approaches, Emeryville residents would be excused if they felt a little civic pride in the prescience of our very influential landmark minimum wage ordinance: Measure C.
We rock (editorial).

Living Wages for Hotel Workers Started in Emeryville

Now it's Taking Off Everywhere

Here's a source of real Emeryville civic pride: After retaliatory firing of workers, 

the workers successfully forced the Woodfin Suites Hotel to pay their back wages as 

mandated by Measure C.  After the Emeryville Power Elite including the City Council, 

lost their battle against Measure C at the ballot box, City Hall implemented the 

new law, forcing the Woodfin fight.
Wage increases for the working poor among us is the will of the people of Emeryville.

The People Are Welcomed Into the People's Hall

Ordinary Emeryville Citizens Walk Where Only the Rich and Powerful and Connected Once Tread

News Analysis / Opinion
This city is going above and beyond the legal minimum in terms of public access.  And that means extraordinary things are about to happen.
Never before in modern Emeryville history has the public been granted the same status, the same access as the rich and powerful.   But starting Thursday at noon, the last will be first and the first will be last at Emeryville City Hall.  The City Manager's office, the historic locus of true power in our town, the seat of business and development legerdemain is being transformed; the shades are to be flung open, the window sashes hoisted, the smoke cleared out, the stately doors chocked open and ordinary Emeryville citizens will be in there, amidst the dark wood paneling expressing their opinions, their desires, their musings on all things Emery to the Emeryville City Manager.  Just another Thursday in Emeryville...not!

Emeryville's previous city manager Pat O'Keeffe
called himself "pro developer".  He used his
office to negotiate directly with developers
and businessmen (public not invited). 

It's being called "Lunch with the City Manager".

We like to imagine the spectacle of dozens of dastardly developers scurrying like roaches once the shaft of noonday sunlight penetrates that office Thursday as Emeryville citizens, once seen as the rabble,  stroll in.   And sadly, that cartoonish image might not be far off the mark.  For as long as we can remember and quite possibly for the entirety of Emeryville history, the City Manager would work out development deals from his office...dickering with developers seeking project approvals.  By the time the public was allowed to weigh in at Planning Commission or Council meetings, it was too late; the all but the most innocuous details of the proposed development had long been decided...behind closed doors.
The new city manager, Sabrina Landreth is different.  For one, she's a woman; probably the first in Emeryville history.  When we first met her at her first City Council meeting, she seemed cut from a different cloth.  Now, there's no denying it: business as usual in Emeryville is gone.

The City Manager's office has gone from this...

to this.

Ms Landreth is inviting the public into her office...on a regular basis, a democratic counter point to the previous two city managers that held weekly meetings with Emeryville business lobbyist and political power broker John Gooding every Monday at 9:00 AM for an extended closed door session.  Topic of discussion?  Whatever John Gooding wanted to talk about.  The meetings may have helped Mr Gooding's bottom line but was the public's interest being addressed?  We'll never know because the weekly meetings were closed to the public.  Business interests and developers would routinely meet with the City Manager...in his office...behind closed doors.  If you asked, you would be told the public's interests was the only concern of the City Manager in these closed door meetings.  We had to take them at their word.  No records of the meetings were ever kept.

Now Ms Landreth has turned all that on its ear. Starting Thursday at noon, the public is invited in to talk about whatever is on their minds.  And Ms Landreth intends to make it every 3rd Thursday (exact times after this coming Thursday may change depending on how accessible it is for people).  For the time being, she's calling it "Lunch with the City Manager", or possibly (jokingly?) "Beer with the City Manager" if a later time period is settled on.  Watch this space for developments (pun not intended).

We called on Ms Landreth to do this some months ago.  We thank her for this public access she has provided to the people's hall.

John Gooding: A Serious Person Presents a Serious Idea for the Emery School District

What Ideas Get Taken Seriously at 

Emery School District? 

Busting the Teacher's Union

Closing Schools

Quashing Citizen Dissent

And Now, 

Preparing Students to be Good Worker Bees

Opinion
The School District here in Emeryville has to play the role of editor.  With all the various sundry and disparate ideas floating around for how best to teach our children, their job is to edit out the ideas not worthy of consideration and implement the good ones.  This is Step One in public education policy.  Unfortunately they've never publicly explained what they think constitutes a good idea but they've shown they know good ideas come from 'serious people' (with apologies to the economist Paul Krugman)....  people like Emery Education Fund president John Gooding, a man they've put their stock in over the years.  The School Board listens to John Gooding.

John Gooding: Serious Person (on left).
Serious people do things like present awards
to those who help disseminate serious ideas.

The Board again showed this dynamic when they invited Mr Gooding to impart his wisdom about the proper role of a school district in public education at their April retreat.  The Board and District officials sat enraptured nodding their heads up and down in agreement and back and forth in awe as Mr Gooding alerted them to an education crisis at Emery; the District is dropping the ball, falling short of their charge to produce competent worker bees for the private sector he told them.  Corporations need "workers that can add up a column of figures"  Mr Gooding repeatedly said, warning the assembled Emery power players that graduating seniors are not making the cut.  He went on and on reminding the Board their job is to transform students into workers for the corporate hegemony (to drive down wages).  He spiced up his presentation with a few always popular "for the children" cliches for dramatic effect, a perennial favorite of serious people.

Governor Pete Wilson:
Another Serious Person
Illegal children should
not receive benefit of 
a public education.

John Gooding is a businessman who knows business, he knows what businesses want.  He's a member of the Board of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce and he lobbies for corporations through his political consulting firm the Quadric Group.  Whether fighting against Measure C, the 2005 initiative providing for a living wage for Emeryville hotel workers or bundling donations for business friendly candidates for Emeryville City Council elections through EmPac, the Chamber of Commerce's political action committee, Mr Gooding has for years devoted himself to making sure Emeryville City Hall works for business.
As the president of Emery Education Fund (EEF), John serves as the intermediary between the schools and the business community, accepting donations and after skimming off some for EEF expenses, doling out the remainder to the schools.  He's thus has made himself invaluable to the schools in Emeryville.
John's created a nice little eco system with this formula (even as high level corporations have not been co-operating recently as they've scaled back their donations to the Ed Fund).

This serious man with his serious policy proscriptions for Emery is the same John Gooding who donated money to California Republican Governor Pete Wilson to help fight for Prop 187, the 1994 initiative that would have denied public education to the children of undocumented immigrants.  It's the same serious man who brought his lofty position of Emeryville power broker to bear against the workers at Emeryville hotels by attempting to keep wages low and workloads harsh.  He warned us at the time that if Measure C passed, if the hospitality corporations had to pay higher wages, Emeryville hotels would leave our town en masse, a prediction that has not come true...in fact a new hotel is opening in 2015.
Regardless of the Measure C loss (loss for the corporate forces, win for the workers), John Gooding has been a good lobbyist for his business clients.  He's continuing to represent their interests now as he uses his powers of persuasion on the Emery School Board.

Another serious person as seen by this School District is the former Superintendent Tony Smith.  Mr Smith, revered by the Board is a well known practitioner of an Oakland pogrom of "cut, shut and charter", a public school disempowerment vision popular at Emery.  Also seen as serious by this Board of course is former Superintendent Debbra Lindo, who believes school teachers are the problem with education and their union must be destroyed (a sentiment shared by Tony Smith).  Non-serious people here would include citizen dissenters and teachers.


John Gooding is serious but he's wrong.  The School Board is wrong.  We'll risk a lawsuit from Mr Gooding (he's threatened us before) to argue for the real reason why we educate our children.  Public school is meant not to produce compliant workers for corporations.  Rather the proper role of public school is to create good citizens; adults who can think critically and who value the joy of learning.  
These are ideas not associated with money, they're not forwarded by the corporate sector, they're not delivered by a serious man, rather they're embraced by what the Emery School District would characterize as the non-serious among us.  But these are ideas we'd like to see taken seriously at Emery Unified School District.

An Open Letter to Emeryville's New City Manager, Sabrina Landreth

Monday Mornings at 9:00

To Emeryville City Manager, Sabrina Landreth-

We congratulate you as you settle in as Emeryville's new City Manager.  We look forward to many years of service on your part, assuaging the desires of the people of Emeryville as we work together crafting the town we residents want to live in.  No doubt by now you have learned a lot about the culture at City Hall and how politics are played here in Emeryville.  And this is why we write to you now.

The city manager position in Emeryville is not simply an office running job.  This position historically has been used to bend the trajectory of development in the town, regardless of the official job description.  The city manager has not merely fulfilled the will of the City Council, scurrying about as a automaton-like servant.  No, the person in your seat has been the most powerful figure in Emeryville, forming power coalitions, working with a development agenda, for good or bad.

Over many years we have watched with dismay as your office, under your predecessors and behind closed doors, has been used by developers and other business concerns, to conduct business without transparency and without accountability to the people.  The way this has traditionally been done in Emeryville is that development deals are made within your four walls before the public is even informed.  Later, when a development proposal is moved into the public arena, overseen by the elected officials, all the decisions of consequence have already been settled.  The public has been effectively shut out of the process.  With business and developer friendly city managers at the helm up until now, this is how Emeryville has come to be known as the East Bay's business friendly city.

Our new City Manager, Sabrina Landreth

But even as you now assume your position and begin your duties as our new city manager and we turn a page in Emeryville history, we want to make sure we really do turn a page in Emeryville history.

A great place to start we think, is Monday mornings at 9:00 in your office.  Because that is the time and the place one private Emeryville citizen has had reserved for private closed door meetings for more than 10 years.  That citizen is of course John Gooding, the Chamber of Commerce political power broker and business consultant/lobbyist.

Mr Gooding would meet with former City Manager Pat O'Keeffe in Mr O'Keefe's office for a private closed door meeting, Mondays at 9:00.  We're told that time was permanently set aside by Mr O'Keeffe for Mr Gooding.  And before Mr O'Keeffe, it was former City Manager John Flores meeting with John Gooding.  Again, Monday mornings at 9:00, private one-on-one meeting with the man running City Hall.  What was discussed at those hundreds of meetings?  We'll never know. But what was notable was that no other private citizen or even group of citizens ever got equal treatment from the city manager.  The rest of us were locked out.

What we want from you Ms Landreth, is a similar time set aside.  We'd like Monday mornings at 9:00 to be set aside again....only this time we want the door to be open and we want Emeryville residents in your office.  Any of them...hopefully all of them (in one way or another) over the years.  We want you to meet with resident groups such as Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE).  We want you to hear OUR concerns, not just business/developer interests.  We want 9:00 Monday mornings in your office reserved for US.

We think this would help serve as a powerful balm for much of what ails Emeryville.  It would help connect the heretofore alienated public with their City Hall.  We like the 9:00 time slot specifically.  It would serve as a beautiful, symmetrical and just counterpoint.  It would go far to show everyone that a page has indeed turned.

New City Manager: Will Secret Dealings Continue?

No More Back Room Deals at City Hall

With New Manager

Lobbyists Should be Barred From Secret Access

Opinion
Emeryville turns a page with the retirement of City Manager Pat O'Keeffe on Tuesday, and as the City Council hires a replacement, the people of Emeryville should interject themselves at this critical juncture and demand a new regime of transparency at City Hall.  We should use the opportunity of a change in leadership to upset the culture of benevolence historically shown by the Emeryville City Manager to grant secret private privilege at the people's house.

Pat O'Keeffe
We won't see this face
around City Hall anymore.
But will we still feel his
presence after he's gone?

The Emeryville Property Owners Association (EPOA) is leading the charge for transparency at City Hall with a recent opinion piece from their blog.  The article slams Mr O'Keeffe for conducting private meetings with the Chamber of Commerce, a private organization and John Gooding, a private Emeryville political power broker.  
From EPOA:
"The City Manager should not attend closed door meetings on a monthly basis with any organized group.  We believe it violates the City Manager Code of Ethics.  We also criticize on-going weekly meetings between City Manager Pat O'Keeffe and John Gooding, the person who provides money for city council candidates in every election.  He is known to make 'back room deals'.  The subject of their weekly conversations is never disclosed.  The Code of Ethics says this is an action which undermines public confidence."
 Indeed, Tenet 7 from the International City Management Association Code of Ethics says city managers must refrain from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators.  And to that we'd like to highlight Tenet 4 which mandates the function of local government at all times is to serve the best interests of all people.

Pat O'Keeffe came to Emeryville after serving as President of the Board of Directors of the California Redevelopment Association, an organization dedicated to the centralized application of city planning power, a world view antithetical to grassroots democratic participation (loud proclamations to the contrary notwithstanding).

Co-Owner of The Quadric Group, 
a political consulting firm.
He meets with our City Manager
 behind closed doors every week.
What do they talk about?

We say we've had enough of this.   After two consecutive terms of city managers in Emeryville conducting the people's business in darkness like this without the knowledge of or oversight by the people, we join with the Emeryville Property Owners Association's insistence that we indeed turn the page in Emeryville.  We need to make sure our new city manager is not made like our previous city managers.  We want a manager who'll include us at the table for a change.
The City Council, itself not a body taken to inclusion of the rabble in City Hall business, must recognize there's a new day in Emeryville.  We say we're finished with Emeryville city managers with an economic development background and all the anti-democratic baggage contained within.  As the Council makes their decision on our new employee, they need to know we expect a city manager with a city management background to take the reins at our City Hall.

Conflict Of Interest Cited In Move To Sell City Owned Property

The City of Emeryville is seeking to sell a piece of fallow land it owns near the Bay Street Mall on Christie Avenue to Madison Marquette, the owner of the mall, but the sale is improper due to a conflict of interest by a member of the State mandated Emeryville Oversight Board, according to the Emeryville Property Owners Association.  

The Property Owners website alleges Oversight Board member and Emeryville resident John Gooding has been or currently is on the payroll of Madison Marquette and the politically connected Wareham Development but Mr Gooding failed to disclose this information as he is required to do. 

Oversight Board member and
Emeryville resident John Gooding

The real estate, called "site B" is part of a previous acquisition by the former Emeryville Redevelopment Agency and the city council had expressed interest in shuttling the parcel to Washington DC based Madison Marquette to develop into an expansion of the Bay Street Mall after clearing the land of condemned businesses and removing toxic soil on the site.  
Residents attempted to block the sale citing a lack of benefit for Emeryville residents and a recalcitrance on the part of the developer to even meet with them.  After the dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency however, Madison Marquette dropped interest in developing the property and it has remained fallow.  To the consternation of residents, the city has kept open the option to develop the property reserved exclusively for Madison Marquette in the interim years, garnering no taxes for the city.  Even though other developers have shown interest in the land, the city has protected Madison Marquette's interests and no other developers have been allowed to make proposals for the property.

Wareham Development's Transit Center is also is being considered for public subsidy by the Oversight Board and if Mr Gooding has been paid by that developer, that too would constitute a conflict of interest and Mr Gooding would be required to disclose that information. 

The Emeryville Property Owners Association story:

City Staff Seeking to Sell Site B to Madison Marquette
Posted on August 25, 2012

CITY STAFF REQUESTS TWO SPECIAL MEETINGS TO SELL SITE B TO MADISON MARQUETTE

The Emeryville Successor Agency (former Redevelopment Agency) has agreed to a Special Meeting on September 19th at 5:30pm in the City Council Chambers to approve the sale of Site B to Madison Marquette. “Madison” If the Agency decides to sell the property, the sale must be approved by Emeryville Oversight Board.

On September 25, at 5:30pm, City Council Chambers, the Emeryville Oversight Board, will vote on whether to ratify the Successor Agency action, should they vote to sell the property to Madison..

Background: The State decision to dissolve redevelopment Agencies has forced the former Redevelopment Agency to liquidate its assets. Site B is one of those assets.

The Emeryville Oversight Board was established by the legislature to oversee the actions of the Successor agency. It has seven representatives.
[1] Emeryville Mayor Jennifer West (Board Chair)
[2] Aisha Brown, Alameda County Board of Supervisor Keith Carson, senior staff
[3] Greg Harper, AC Transit Board Member
[4] Joshua Simon, Emery Unified School Board Director (Board Vice Chair)
[5] Ronald Gerhard, Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration, Peralta Community College District
[6] John Gooding, Emeryville resident
[7] Helen Bean, City of Emeryville Economic Development & Housing Director.

The person on the Board representing the interests of Emeryville Residents is John Gooding. He was chosen by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. Many people in the community believe Gooding is working for both Madison Marquette and Wareham Development. He has recused himself from some of the decisions affecting Madison Marquette. but he seems to be voting in conflict of interest on matters which benefit Wareham. He may have a conflict voting on the ECCL Project? He has stated he will not vote on the sale of Site B.

Click HERE to read the rest of the story.

Anonymous Tattler Writer Sparks Furor

An anonymous written comment to a Tattler story about the School District last week has the town abuzz with speculation over the identity of the author but more pressingly, the allegations of corruption contained within it.  The writer seems to be an insider at the School District, with an extensive knowledge of the workings there.  In addition to stirring up much consternation around town, the written comment has drawn in at least one council member according to sources close to City Hall.  The unnamed council member is indicating the need to "firm up disclosure standards" at the School District in the event that the allegations made by the anonymous commenter are found to be true.  The writer of the comment piece is invited to contact the Tattler privately to help investigate these allegations, with the pledge that their anonymity will be respected if so desired.

The original Tattler story  dated February 15th, should be read first.  Here then is the anonymous comment piece dated February 16th:

     .             .             .             .

During the search for a new [schools] superintendent, Emery Unified School District (EUSD) staff asked the School Board for someone who would give the district a fresh start.  They were tired of the old ties and backroom politics. Instead, the School Board hired a superintendent who came in the door pushing through a $200,000 contract for the National Equity Project (NEP), formerly known as the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, i.e. BAYCES - the same group that was here just a few years ago doing school improvement work that failed.  Keyword: “FAILED.”  Who got blamed?  The same people who asked for a fresh start: EUSD staff. The School Board doesn’t care about their morale. 

So what do they care about? Reinforcing the same old ties, the stinking crap we’ve lived with for years.

[Former Emery school Superintendent] Tony Smith worked for NEP when he came to EUSD after the State of California took over [running the School District].  The Emeryville Center of Community Life is his legacy.  As a superintendent, he left behind a mess.  Three superintendents later and this small community is still struggling to make sense of that over-sized project.  According to NEP’s website, John Gooding, the architect of Smith’s appointment as superintendent, has been an NEP board member since 2004.  Anakarita Allen, Emery Secondary School Principal, has been on NEP’s board since 2006.  Current superintendent Debbra Lindo also served on NEP’s board up to the point when she was hired by EUSD.  Do you see the ties?  Obviously the School Board wasn’t interested in a fresh start or hiring a superintendent capable of leading change.  If they were, they would expect Lindo and Allen, the two highest paid “educators” in the district, to apply what they’ve learned from NEP instead of our having to pay “their” organization $200,000.

Let’s add up the cost of this scam game: $200,000 contract to pay NEP for school improvement; $170,000 (est) Superintendent Lindo’s salary and benefits; $140,000 (est) ESS Principal Allen’s salary and benefits; and $110,000 (est) AYES Principal Lathan’s salary and benefits.  That’s roughly $620,000 to pay administrators and consultants to improve school culture in a district that serves less than 750 students at two sites that sit three blocks apart.  Although Lathan doesn’t appear to be involved in this scam game, her salary matters in the overall scheme of things.

Here’s an alternative: spend $200,000 to hire a kick ass K-12 school leader who knows what they’re doing, who can build trust by giving the district the fresh start it deserves, and $120,000 to hire someone to assist them.  That’s an annual savings of $100K in administrator salaries alone.  Forget the $200,000 in consulting fees.  That money would be better spent on a community bonfire of the whole ECCL project.

Einstein said it best folks: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”  If bringing NEP back to EUSD isn’t doing the same thing all over again, what is?  It would be different if NEP was productive during their last stint at EUSD.  They weren’t!!!  How much did EUSD pay in consulting fees for NEP when Smith was here?  That’s why none of the officials, including Ruth Atkins, who authorized the new NEP contract, who’ve been shoving ECCL down our throats for years any way they can, can complain about anything.  It’s all one big pile of stinking crap and all of their hands are in it!  The only way we can get beyond this era of insanity is to elect people who will put education first, who are free of these old ties or at least willing to end them once and for all.  Until then, [what] we should expect is failure.

It’s time to revolt. Enough is enough!

Jesus Christ Loses Woodfin Backwages Fight

Woodfin CEO & Christian Evangelical Laments:

In Emeryville It's 

Woodfin Workers: 1, Jesus: 0

Loser

Woodfin Hotels CEO Sam Hardage tries to do the Lord's work.  A self-professed Christian evangelical, he's a member of the Council for National Policy,  a right-wing group pushing what it terms Christian precepts on policy-makers.  It's also why Mr. Hardage fought so hard against Emeryville's 'Living Wage ordinance for Hotel Workers' and then refused to disburse unpaid wages, even after ordered to do so by a 'secular' court.  As a good Christian, Mr. Hardage was presumably following Christ's example. After all Jesus would certainly never have paid His workers what they earned if He had owned a hotel chain back in the day in the Bethlehem/Nazareth metropolitan region.  Mr. Hardage put up a good fight but in the end the Woodfin workers proved more than a match for Sam or Jesus.

Sam Hardage: Works

for Jesus and against

his employees.

The non-profit organization East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), recently announced that Woodfin workers finally received their back pay, some $125,000 in a negotiated agreement divided among 54 workers.  Woodfin for its part, hired a phalanx of attorneys and fought the workers and the City of Emeryville for four years in an effort to impose upon the employees the moral philosophy of Jesus Christ: that the wealthy dwell upon a mountain of riches and dispatch the less fortunate to penury and pestilence. Mr. Hardage and Woodfin spent an undisclosed sum on their losing cause, a figure likely exceeding what was owed to the hotel maids.  After their bruising loss, they have indicated they now intend on obeying Emeryville's laws.

Nora Davis:

Not too fond of

working families.

Measure C, the ordinance that mandates a living wage for hotel workers in Emeryville was passed by voters and implemented five years ago in December.  During that time, Measure C has delivered a cumulative 1.2 million increase in employee wages. The ordinance increased the pay-rates by up to $5 per hour (most received less), putting up to $5,000 a year into the wallets of working families, helping them make ends meet without relying on public assistance.

Ken Bukowski: He's poor so

why should workers make money?

The Measure was passed by Emeryville voters on November 8, 2005 and was endorsed by the Alameda Labor Council, UNITE HERE Local 2850, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Assemblywoman Loni Hancock.  54% of Emeryville voters approved Measure C despite $115,000 spent by the Chamber of Commerce and the hotels to defeat it.  Local politicians who worked to defeat the living wage in Emeryville include Council members Nora Davis, Ken Bukowski and Dick Kassis.  Political operative and Chamber of Commerce political action committee (EMPAC) chairman John Gooding also joined in the fight against the living wage.  See Tattler story (May 18).

Another loser: John Gooding,
strangely he works for Barbara Lee
and against living wages.

Mr. Hardage, in addition to spreading Jesus' word, has sat on many conservative councils and public policy think-tanks including the Council for National Policy, an umbrella organization for social conservative activists described by the New York Times as a "little known group of the most powerful conservatives in the country".  Mr. Hardages' colleagues on the CNP board included Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.   Mr. Hardage also sits on the board at the Adam Smith Institute, an anti-government libertarian think tank that is among the most effective groups advocating for privatization of government functions in the United States.  Rounding out the list of powerful appointments is the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger  appointed State Commission on Judicial Performance.

Mr. Hardage was the Republican nominee for Governor of Kansas in 1982 and was twice an elite 'Bush Pioneer,' the highest echelon of campaign donors that each bundled contributions of more than $100,000 for former President George W. Bush campaigns.

The impressive political work of Mr. Hardage was joined by our own Emeryville City Council members and Jesus in their fight against living wages for Emeryville workers.  

A Tale Of Two J's

Two Measures Eerily Similar

Measure J? It's Deja Vu 
All Over Again

News Analysis
Quick: what do 1991 and 2010 in Emeryville have in common?
Answer: they where both election years that featured a highly contentious Measure J.

Perhaps it may be surprising to some new Emeryville residents but the Measure J we just voted on in November has a twin, at least in name, dating back to 1991.

Both campaigns shared much more than the title Measure J; both vastly outspent the opposition and used deception in the campaign.  Both had a phony grassroots genesis and both were funded in a subterranean manner by corporate concerns interested in profit maximizing posing as a bottom up genuine citizen originated process.

Measure J in 1991 was forwarded by an election committee called "Citizens For An Emeryville Grocery Store" and was advocating for building the East Bay Bridge mall (aka the Home Depot mall).  The idea of the measure was to disallow Emeryville's Planning Commission to independently decide about whether to approve the mall and instead have the decision made by a new government entity set up expressly for this, the  so called 'Joint Planning Authority' (JPA); a mix between some of our Planning Commissioners and some of Oakland's Planning Commissioners.  This was justified since a little of the land for the mall was in Oakland.  The Emeryville Planning Commissioners selected for the JPA would be hand picked by Mayor Nora Davis, a stanch supporter of Measure J.  She gave herself the capacity to select only those commissioners who wanted to approve the proposed mall, filtering out the independent dissenters, which constituted the majority.

The whole Measure J election came about because the Emeryville Planning Commission majority had earlier voted against the mall and Ms Davis and the majority of her colleagues on the council needed a way to go around our Planning Commission's vote of no confidence in the proposed mall.

The NO on J committee was called 'Residents For An Independent Emeryville'.

The grocery store the YES on J side was clamoring for turned out to be the Pak 'N Save now located in the East Bay Bridge center at 40th Street and San Pablo Avenue.

Catellus, a Denver based development corporation morphed out of the Santa Fe Railway reality company, was the developer that owned the land and that wanted to build the mall.

Highlights of the Measure J campaign, 1991 style:

• Citizens For An Emeryville Grocery Store had donations totalling more than $140,000, 100% of which came from Catellus Development Corporation.
• A vast campaign of color brochures and phone banking was featured.  The phone banking featured 'push polling' and a last minute negative campaign that called the other side "racist" because they were trying to deny black people a grocery store.
• The No on J side, Residents for an Independent Emeryville raised about $7000, all from Emeryville residents and mostly in $10 to $20 donations.
• The YES on J side had paid staffers but the NO on J was all Emeryville resident volunteers.
• Emeryville power broker and Pete Wilson (R) for Governor donor, John Gooding worked for both YES on J committees ('91&'10).
• The final vote was 50.8% YES to 49.2% NO.