The City of Emeryville and Emery Unified School District are going to the voters for a pair of taxpayer funded ballot measures in March that would raise almost $4 million annually between them. The City is seeking passage of Measure F, a quarter cent sales tax that would raise approximately $2 million per year and Emery Unified is seeking passage of a new parcel tax, Measure K, that would raise about $1.8 million per year.
Both measures purport to fund a laundry list of items mixed with a crowd pleasing teaser; teacher pay increases advertised by the school district's Measure K and increased funding for the Emery Child Development Center from the City's Measure F ballot language. Neither measure however, guarantees funding for these specific issues, even though they figure prominently in the ballot language of the measures.
Measure F will fund personnel additions for the police department, the fire department as well as for code enforcement while Measure K is more nebulous, funding academic core programs as well as after school programs, sports, music and art programs.
Both Measures will require 66.7% of the electorate for passage.
The election will be on March 3rd.
Showing posts with label Measure F. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Measure F. Show all posts
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Former Emeryville City Attorney Now Works for City's Adversaries
Rotating Door at City Attorney's Office
Emeryville's former city attorney Mike Biddle is now employed by the private law firm Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP, the same firm hired by countless Emeryville developers and businesses over the years to push Emeryville projects that Mr Biddle ostensibly battled in the people's interest while he was employed at City Hall the Tattler has learned. Mr Biddle was forced out of his city attorney job last April and he still collects severance pay from Emeryville's taxpayers in addition to his pension from the City. The switch by the former City Attorney to the firm he previously fought against illustrates the sometimes chummy nature of would be adversarial attorneys interacting in the private sector and public sector. Mr Biddle's switching sides upon retirement is analogous to the infamous congressional rotating door that sends retiring former Congress members into the same lobbying firms they ostensibly did battle against while doing the people's work.
Chummy perhaps but while Mr Biddle still worked for the City, Burke, Williams & Sorensen was hired to fight the City by Pixar, the East Bay Bridge project, Bay Street Mall developer Madison Marquette and others and his new partnership position at the shop of his former would be nemesis have caused some in town to question Mr Biddle's loyalty to the people's business says former City Councilman Ken Bukowski. Mr Bukowski headed up an unsuccessful ballot initiative, Measure F in 2011 to fire Mr Biddle for among other things, a reported lack of fealty to the City.
Mr Biddle's fealty had been questioned before as he had much interaction with Burke Williams & Sorensen while he still worked for the City of Emeryville, most infamously when he hired them (at taxpayer expense) to help him fight the City Council in May 2014 as they attempted to get him to write language for a charter city ballot initiative, a job he had refused to do. Mr Biddle also hired BW&S in 2011 (again at taxpayers expense) to help him fight off the Measure F initiative meant
to fire him.
Mr Biddle is still working for City Hall even after his retirement and independent of BW&S as a paid contractor and he has been retained by the City for work on the contentious Public Market project.
Mr Biddle could not be reached for comment on his new employment situation.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Measure F: Is There A Take-A-Way?
Will The New Council Take Anything From Measure F?
Opinion
On Tuesday Emeryville voters soundly defeated Measure F, the measure that would have replaced the in-house City Attorney's office with outside legal counsel, ostensibly, a less expensive option.
The city council majority opposition attacked the measure that had been backed by their former colleague, ousted council member Ken Bukowski, as more costly and ultimately not even legal since the law only grants the city council the power to make such a personnel change at City Hall they said.
The fiscal arguments presented by the opposition never made sense and the invalidating legal technicality presented by the council majority wouldn't normally be something the electorate would invest itself in, leaving one to question why voters rejected Measure F so soundly.
The voter's utter rejection of Mr Bukowski Tuesday and Measure F's close association with Mr Bukowski seems a likely cause for the defeat of the measure, we think.
We hope the new city council will recognize the failure of Measure F may have been at least partially due to this ill-fated association with Mr Bukowski and see greater value in the aspirations of the measure as they go about their city council duties in the months to come. Measure F ultimately asked for greater transparency and accountability in city government and that's not something that should be pushed aside along with its dejected council member champion.
Measures C & D Win Electorate Approval
Re-Printed from the Oakland Tribune:
EMERYVILLE -- Voters in Tuesday's election decided to change the way the city levies business license fees in an attempt to increase municipal revenues.
That means Pixar Studios will have to start paying the fees, which the company ceased to do after Disney acquired the studio in 2006. Measure C, approved by 81 percent of voters, also increases the tax rate from 0.08 percent of gross receipts to 0.10 percent.
A little more than 79 percent of voters who turned out Tuesday or mailed in ballots voted yes on Measure D. The measure is expected to affect Pixar, Novartis and LeapFrog by raising the cap on the tax from the current $117,000 to $300,000 a year.
Voters defeated Measure F, an initiative to force the Emeryville City Council to contract outside legal services. Outgoing Councilmember Ken Bukowski, who lost his re-election bid Tuesday, spearheaded the measure that would have forced the city to contract out for legal services. The measure would have had no legal effect because Emeryville already contracts for its city attorney services, City Clerk Karen Hemphill said. The measure was defeated by a vote of 65 percent to 35 percent.
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EMERYVILLE -- Voters in Tuesday's election decided to change the way the city levies business license fees in an attempt to increase municipal revenues.
That means Pixar Studios will have to start paying the fees, which the company ceased to do after Disney acquired the studio in 2006. Measure C, approved by 81 percent of voters, also increases the tax rate from 0.08 percent of gross receipts to 0.10 percent.
A little more than 79 percent of voters who turned out Tuesday or mailed in ballots voted yes on Measure D. The measure is expected to affect Pixar, Novartis and LeapFrog by raising the cap on the tax from the current $117,000 to $300,000 a year.
Voters defeated Measure F, an initiative to force the Emeryville City Council to contract outside legal services. Outgoing Councilmember Ken Bukowski, who lost his re-election bid Tuesday, spearheaded the measure that would have forced the city to contract out for legal services. The measure would have had no legal effect because Emeryville already contracts for its city attorney services, City Clerk Karen Hemphill said. The measure was defeated by a vote of 65 percent to 35 percent.
Monday, November 7, 2011
YES On F
YES On Measure F
OpinionMeasure F asks voters if they want to eliminate the City Attorney position here in Emeryville and instead sub-contract out our legal services to outside law firms. It is common for a city the size of Emeryville to do this in the Bay Area.
Council member opponents of Measure F seem to be basing their objections on the fact that the Measure was authored by their colleague, council member Ken Bukowski and they say he has a personal beef with our City Attorney, Mike Biddle. It's just retribution against Mr Biddle by a vindictive Ken Bukowski, they say. Another argument seems just as likely; the city bureaucracy is trying to protect one of its own with their fight against Measure F.
The problem with the opponent's argument is Mr Bukowski's motives for bringing the Measure are really not material to voter's interests. Voters want effective and frugal government and they don't really care about the infighting among the council members. Charges of Mr Bukowski's impure motives don't answer to the fact that Emeryville pays way too much for our legal service and Mr Biddle's work here has been sub-par on occasion. Voters should remember Mr Biddle's role in the wrongful termination lawsuit brought by former city employee Leslie Pollard. Mike Biddle was the man in charge when the city lost that $4.6 million lawsuit. Further, voters would be well advised to consider Mr Bukowski's well documented accounting that Mr Biddle has been a self-appointed and unelected change agent at City Hall, engaging in lawmaking that circumscribes the auspices of the elected city council.
But Mr Bukowski, his colleagues, their childish infighting, or even Mr Biddle himself really isn't what Measure J is about. It's about Emeryville residents getting the most effective and responsive government for their money, all the hoopla aside. Voters headed to the polls Tuesday should keep in mind the absudity of what the Measure F opponents are alleging: They're saying that if we were to eliminate the City Attorney position, it would not save money but actually end up costing Emeryville MORE money, 71% more they've figured. We've got to ask them how does this comport with the recent survey of California cities, reported in the Emeryville Voters Guide, that incontrovertibly found cities, large and small, that outsource their legal services enjoyed substantial savings over those that maintained in-house legal council? How is it that only Emeryville, of all those cities, would lose money? They've not answered this question.
The city council opponents of Measure F are fond of telling us that they're the ones who should decide about Mr Biddle's employment contract, not the rabble. But we've got to ask them, what are they waiting for? We think this is simply a case of bureaucratic inertia and its well documented self survival mechanism at play here. Perhaps the esteemed council members need a nudge from the electorate.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Oakland Tribune: Pixar Will Pay Their Taxes
Oakland Tribune Says Emeryville's Measure C Will Force Pixar To Pay Their Taxes
Opinion
The editorial staff at the Oakland Tribune thinks if Emeryville voters simply pass Measure C on November 8th, Pixar/Disney Corporation will be brought to its knees. Pass the measure and Pixar will have no choice they say; they'll be flummoxed and confounded. It'll be a shock and awe of justice rendered by Emeryville voters against the biggest animation studio in the world.
Give us a break.
As for Measure F, the Tribune thinks that only Emeryville can't save money with an outsourced legal department. Of all the cities in the Bay Area that have outsourced their legal departments, all have saved money. In Emeryville though, strangely, it'll cost us 71% more... if you believe City Hall and its entrenched bureaucracies, which apparently the editorial staff at the Tribune does.
And Measure D: The Tribune says the city council wisely placed the business tax cap raise on the ballot by rejecting calls to eliminate the cap...obviously the Tribune editorial staff has not been paying attention to Emeryville. The call to eliminate the tax cap came from THE CITY COUNCIL ITSELF, before they reversed themselves and did Pixar's bidding.
And Measure D: The Tribune says the city council wisely placed the business tax cap raise on the ballot by rejecting calls to eliminate the cap...obviously the Tribune editorial staff has not been paying attention to Emeryville. The call to eliminate the tax cap came from THE CITY COUNCIL ITSELF, before they reversed themselves and did Pixar's bidding.
The Oakland Tribune, with its crack Emeryville news division (not) renders its decisions.
It looks like someone in Emeryville has gotten to the editorial staff at the Oakland Tribune (again).
Re-printed from the Oakland Tribune:
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