Local Activist Uncovers Gross Negligence on the Part of Emery Unified School District

"Slipshod Protocol" on School Parcel Tax

The Emery Unified School District has had a long history of failure to notify Emeryville's fixed income senior citizens of their rights regarding special school property taxes and trying to get them to do right by our elder citizens has been a near full time job for Emeryville senior citizen activist Shirley Enomoto.   Ms Enomoto's main complaint is that the School District has been derelict in it's duty to properly inform seniors when they are able to opt out of paying property taxes for a series of parcel taxes meant to augment the District's operating budget as voted on by residents over the years.   In a recent E-mail to District Superintendent John Rubio, Ms Enomoto now brings fresh charges against the District of "gross errors" in what she says is "another example of lacking and slipshod protocol for the senior exemption."

 The parcel taxes designated to help Emeryville's schools, passed by Emeryville residents were former Measure A in 2003, an extension of the Measure A from an election a couple of years ago and Measure K in 2014.  They all allow for property taxes to be levied for a list of school improvements.  There is a sentence in last November's Measure K language stating, "Senior Exemption- Any one application for a qualified applicant will provide an exemption for the remaining term of the parcel tax so long as such applicant continues to use the parcel for his or her principle residence."  Ms Enomoto checked the language from the previous Measure A parcel tax and found the exact same sentence.  The problem is that the District, for those years when Measure A was in effect, repeatedly told all Emeryville seniors they had to re-apply every year (or two) for the exemption, in direct contradiction to the actual law.  Ms Enomoto at the time believed the District's false claim about the need for seniors to re-apply annually or bi-anually but ironically engaged in a battle with them for notification requirements for seniors' right to seek an exemption every year, a burden that proved too onerous for the District.

Measure K's language is nearly identical to Measure A insofar as it addresses property owners but Ms Enomoto also notes Superintendent Rubio removed language in Measure K, extant in Measure A, that would have protected seniors that are renters.  The sentence voters approved in Measure A  but taken out of Measure K is, "in addition, should state law ever permit, there should be an exemption for property exclusively rented or leased to those 65 years and older."
The District has not said why they have retracted this privilege to seniors that rent.

Ms Enomoto told the Tattler the School District charged the taxpayers to retain legal advice for the implementation of Measure A and for the District to falsely tell seniors they must re-apply for the exemption constitutes a breach of trust, "conniving" she called it.  She indicated she will be closely watching the District moving forward with Measure K.

Measure K has an expiration date of July 1, 2037.

Letter to the Tattler: Shirley Enomoto

Received from Shirley Enomoto:

Open Letter to Emeryville Senior Property Owners:

Some of you may know I have been battling Emery Unified School District and its consultants, NBS in Temecula CA since 2009 overt the non-existence of protocol for the senior tax exemption guaranteed when voters passed Measure A, the previous school parcel tax.  Measure K, voted on last Tuesday in Emeryville, is a 20 year extension of this property parcel tax.

A couple of weeks ago I received my property tax statement for 2014-2015 and the tax has mysteriously re-appeared.  I called the tax assessor's office and they confirmed that the "Emery school tax" was for Measure A.  I then called NBS and they also confirmed it was for Measure A.

The representative with whom I spoke politely advised me that this exemption must be renewed every year.  I not so politely told her I had been waging this battle since 2009 and made my battle public with the Emeryville Tattler and Emery School District officials, not to mention the many letters and e-mails  I wrote back and forth.    She said she would have to turn my inquiry over to "administration" and would have a response for me soon.

I urge all seniors to carefully examine their tax statements and if an exemption has been filed, to demand that your tax statement be corrected.  The tax reads "Emeryville School Tax" in the box entitled fixed charges in the upper right hand corner.   

The tax in the left hand box entitled tax rate breakdown reading "School Unified" is for Measure J, the building of the Center of Community Life.  With all these bond measures and school taxes, they should be separated and identified such as Measure A, Measure J,  and Measure K, now that it has passed.

I do not know what consulting fees NBS is receiving but they surely do not deserve one cent of it.

Shirley Enomoto
Emeryville Senior

Shirley Enomoto has lived in Emeryville for 18+ years and has been a "trouble maker"she says, to City Hall for as many years.  A member of Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE) and a long time volunteer for the schools, Ms Enomoto has also long rallied for fair treatment for senior citizens.  She discovered some time ago the School District wasn't properly telling senior citizen property owners they could file for an exemption to pay their Measure A tax, a provision by law but widely unknown by Emeryville seniors.  

Emery School District Botches 'Measure K' Parcel Tax Rollout

School District Plays it Fast and Loose 
With Measure K 

Provisions Not Supported

Emeryville voters recently received in the mail a large glossy card from the Emery Unified School District with falsehoods and erroneous information about Measure K, the school parcel tax initiative on the ballot for the November 4th election.  Some of the information about the provisions describing how the parcel tax will help Emeryville schools are lifted verbatim from voter information flyers mailed before the passage of 2007's Measure A, a previous parcel tax that Measure K is meant to extend for 20 years.   Some of the Measure A provisions (which are operational until Measure K passes) failed to materialize and some of the Measure K claims to again fund these bogus provisions are dubious if not outright false.  The District is forging ahead with Measure K, undaunted by the clear misstatements in the new flyer.

The flyer, signed by Schools Superintendent John Rubio claims Measure K will provide supplemental taxpayer funding to support the following:

• "Strengthen and improve educational programs in music", the same language as Measure A even though the School District cancelled the music program at the elementary school years ago; a violation of the law.  The District is silent on the music program they killed but they are claiming if we vote to fund it a second time, presumably they'll finally take the will of the voters seriously.
• "Keep class sizes small", also the same language as Measure A even though some classes at the elementary school this year have more than 35 children, a number that no educator would call small.
• "Retain quality teachers", again the same language as Measure A even though the District has never quantified how they have spent money to retain teachers up till now and they still demur on this claim.

Further, the District again is claiming a State of California mandated citizen's Oversight Committee will be empaneled, meeting on a regular basis to advise the School Board about the proper expenditures of the proceeds, a mandate the School District failed to meet with regards to Measure A funds.

Like Measure A, Measure K has 'senior exemptions' meant to not unduly burden those on fixed incomes but on this count too, Measure A was found to be lacking in Emeryville.  In a low-water moment for the District, local resident Shirley Enomoto described in a Letter to the Tattler in April how she spent five years getting a reluctant Emery School District to honor the State required senior exemption as they promised.  No one from the District would comment on this but Ms Enomoto indicates [thanks to her efforts] they are now probably in compliance with the exemption at least.

Letter To The Tattler: Shirley Enomoto

The following letter has been received from Emeryville resident Shirley Enomoto:

After five years of squabbling with two superintendents of the Emery School District (John Sugiyama and Debbra Lindo),  going through two attorneys who found the issue with merit but later advised that there was a "conflict of interest," and retaining one attorney who finked out after he became attorney for Central Valley ranchers opposing the high speed rail, the Emery School District has agreed to the following:

-Every two years a mass mailing will be mailed to all Emeryville taxpayers regarding the senior exemption for Measure A, the school parcel tax approved by the voters in 2003 and extended to 2019.

-Those who file for the exemption will automatically receive each year a reminder with an application for the  exemption. (I received my notice April 12.)

-Notices will be posted in the Emeryville electronic newsletter, the Oakland Tribune (now the Bay Area News Group) and the [Emeryville] Senior Center newsletter, "The Link."

I was not successful in obtaining refunds for seniors who overpaid the parcel tax after turning 65 because of no knowledge of the exemption.
 

Shirley Enomoto has lived in Emeryville for 18 years and has been a "trouble maker"she says, to City Hall for as many years.  A member of Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE) and a long time volunteer for the schools, Ms Enomoto has also long rallied for fair treatment for senior citizens.  She discovered the School District wasn't properly telling senior citizen property owners they could file for an exemption to pay their Measure A tax, a provision by law but widely unknown by Emeryville seniors and until now the District has been uncooperative to a fix.  
Emeryville is lucky to have citizen activists such as Shirley Enomoto keeping vigil.