Loan Scandal Elevates Mayor's, Councilwoman's Star

Profiles in Courage

Jac Asher & Jennifer West Emerge from Scandal as Heros

Opinion
What kind of town is it where politicians need to be thanked simply for doing their job?   It's Emeryville; sadly, our kind of town.

So let's get to it.
We thank Mayor Jac Asher and Councilwoman Jennifer West for disregarding the advise of the staff and their colleagues on the Council when the two voted NO to giving a gift of $6 million in public funds to Mall developer Madison Marquette last year, a story of City Hall ineptitude that's recently been highlighted as egregious in a report by the independent Alameda County Grand Jury.
The courageous two councilwomen come out smelling like a rose in the report.  Their colleagues, the other three?  Not so much.  To be less obtuse, they came out smelling like something, just not roses.

"Vote for me and I'll look
 out for your interests"
So we did.  
And so she did.

Why was the vote courageous? Because the two council members risked scorn and repudiation for their vote.
We've seen it before, especially from Council members Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman: 'Ms Asher and West are filled with hubris, acting as if they are more enlightened and knowledgeable then our professional staff.'  Stuff like that.  But guess what?  They ARE more enlightened and knowledgeable, and their vote against this deal, a deal the Grand Jury called a "failure" of the decision makers to "fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to the citizenry",  proves it so.
This Grand Jury report, read by people and institutions all over the East Bay is an embarrassment for the City of Emeryville.  It's a civic embarrassment Ms Asher and West heroically sought to avoid with their vote.  They should be thanked...but not by us; instead it should come from those now with egg on their faces at City Hall.  Something tells us it's not going to work out that way however.

A fan of democracy,
transparency and
effective government
she.

There's been a twenty five year pro-developer juggernaut at Emeryville City Hall.  Notice how we say "developer" and not "development".  Because that's the ideological modus operandi that drives the council majority.  It's not that they simply want to facilitate development, it's more critically that they want to help developers...certain favored developers.  In this case Madison Marquette, the same developer they bent over backwards for to help secure free exclusive rights to the fallow land north of the Bay Street mall for almost ten years, a case wherein Emeryville residents ultimately lost everything after Madison got off the pot after not having shat.
In a rare moment of forthright brevity by a staff member, the E'Ville Eye blog recorded former City Manager Pat O'Keeffe admitting this specific general affection for developers he (and the Council majority) has; "pro developer" he called it.

Aside from a few such rare moments of cats being let out of bags at City Hall, the Grand Jury's dispassionate and apolitical take on this rotten deal, happily accommodated by the pro-developer 'council three', should serve as an irrefutable spotlight to those who still doubt the real nature of the culture here in Emeryville.  Plenty have long harped on this issue, including the Tattler, and it's validating and empowering to see such a venerable and respected outside group such as the Alameda Grand Jury agree with us.

The question now is what is to be done with this?  Having found malfeasance but no evidence of overt criminal activity in the case of the Madison Marquette Council vote, it's something the residents themselves will have to decide, possibly in the voting booth or before.

But in the meantime, again, thanks be to Jac Asher and Jennifer West.  They told us they would look out after our interests if we elected them to the City Council, and that's what they've done.  It may be a sad commentary on the state of Emeryville politics to have to say it but thanks for doing your job, you two.

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.

Pat O'Keeffe, Former Emeryville City Manager Moves to Albany

From the Contra Costa Times:

Albany makes interim city manager choice

By Damin Esper

Correspondent

Posted:   06/26/2013 01:35:30 PM PDT

Updated:   06/26/2013 01:35:30 PM PDT

ALBANY -- The city has decided to enter talks with recently retired Emeryville City Manager Patrick O'Keeffe to serve in the same capacity here on an interim basis. Albany's position will open in August when Beth Pollard is scheduled to retire.

The council voted to enter negotiations with O'Keeffe in closed session at its June 17 meeting.

O'Keeffe, 60, retired from Emeryville in April after serving as city manager for seven years. He also served as that city's Economic Development and Housing Director for 11 years. Before coming to Emeryville he led the redevelopment program in El Cerrito.

O'Keeffe could not be reached before deadline. In an interview with the website evilleeye.com when he stepped down, he said he planned on doing consulting for local government.

"A combination of filling in as an interim manager where needed, economic development, and affordable housing," O'Keeffe said. "So a continuation of my career with less time spent in night meetings, more freedom to schedule my day, a bit more time to work on my tennis game."

O'Keeffe also said, "Pro-business and pro-developer is a reputation I am glad to wear. Seventy percent of the cost of the services the residents enjoy are paid for by business. Tax revenues from new development are the reason why we are in good financial condition.

He is quoted as saying Emeryville could not have built parks, the child development and senior centers, the civic center, fire station, and rehabilitated the police station "without the revenues that resulted from new development."

O'Keeffe told the website his proudest accomplishments in Emeryville included improvements on Bay Street, the Emeryville Center of Community Life project, and helping the city emerge from the recession with a balanced budget and an "A" credit rating.

The Albany council also voted to enter into a $30,000 contract with Berkeley Food and Housing Project (BFHP) for outreach and engagement with homeless people in the city, specifically on the Albany Bulb.

The council, as part of plans to turn over the waterfront property to the East Bay Regional Park District, had previously voted to enforce the city's overnight camping ban beginning in October after completing an outreach project.

A city staff report said BHFP set out several goals for the contract, including developing short-term interim housing solutions and working with individual homeless people to develop a housing stabilization plan for each person seeking to be permanently housed. The BHFP will work closely with Solano Community Church.

The council also reviewed a draft of the budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year. The budget will be voted on at the July 1 meeting. The budget anticipates a 6.2 percent increase in revenues to $14.3 million. Expenditures will increase 4.3 percent to $18 million.

The difference is covered by operating transfers.

City's Latest Sweetheart Deal for Giant Developer

Oh, To Be Madison Marquette!

$6.8 Million Giveaway

With the end of Redevelopment Agencies throughout California, Emeryville residents might have assumed that the days of giant giveaways and massive subsidies to developers by our City Council had come to an end.  Not so!  Our resourceful City Council has found a new way to give millions of dollars to one of its favorite recipients of public funds: Madison Marquette Corporation, owner/developer of Emeryville’s Bay Street Mall.

On the agenda this coming Tuesday, May 21st, the City Council will consider allowing the Washington DC based Madison Marquette to pay back just $11.5 million on a promissory note owed to the former Redevelopment Agency where the principal amount, as of May 1, 2013, was $18.345 million, a giveaway to the billion-dollar company of $6,845,000.

This write-down is justified in an April 16th memo prepared by Emeryville’s Director of Economic Development and Housing, Helen Bean, in which Ms. Bean states that the present value of the principal balance at a 7% capitalization rate equals the proposed payoff amount.

Madison Marquette's Bay Street Mall:
Initially they received a $47 million Redevelopment
Agency subsidy.  Now they're getting $6.8 million.
But we're getting a mall Emeryville residents
don't use and an expensive drain on our police services.

The City would not see the entirety of the $11.5 million payoff. Like any debt owed to the former Redevelopment Agency, the money would be sent to the County Auditor to be distributed to the relevant taxing entities, with the City receiving 22% of the payoff, or just over $2.5 million.  The Oversight Board and the state Department of Finance would also have to sign off on the deal.

This promissory note is complex and full of legalese, but when our former City Manager, Patrick O’Keeffe, goes out of his way to sign a non-binding letter of intent to enter into this deal on his very last day of work, something smells funny to the Tattler.  Furthermore, while a payoff amount that eliminated the interest owed could make sense, it boggles the mind to imagine the response from Wells Fargo if you called them up to offer to pay off your home mortgage by paying just 62% of the principal owed on your home.  That kind of thing doesn’t happen for the 99%.  Those kinds of sweetheart deals are only doled out by Congress to their Wall Street cronies or our own City Council to its 1% developer friends.

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.

The City Manager Doesn't Read The Secret News (or the Tattler)

"I Normally Don't Read..."

Opinion
The Secret News, a news blog City Manager Pat O'Keeffe does not read he informs us, recently reported on rumors that he, Mr O'Keeffe has met behind closed doors with potential developers for building out the Sherwin Williams site, the last large piece of fallow land in Emeryville.  The story wasn't intended to highlight that but rather to explain the need for citizen diligence with the selection of a replacement, owing to his looming retirement.  The closed door meetings at City Hall were only mentioned in the story to illustrate the need for a change in the culture as we seek a new city manager.
In fact, it's hardly newsworthy that Mr O'Keeffe would meet with developers for the Sherwin Williams site behind closed doors, the public not invited, to plot out the development.  That's the way it's been done for years here.

"I normally don't read The Secret News 
or the Emeryville Tattler"
Ooops, your pants
are on fire!

Pat took umbrage to the Secret News story however, and he fired off a February 1st e-mail to the city council denying he had conducted any such closed door meetings.  He also took the opportunity to tell the council that "I normally don't read" The Secret News (or the Tattler for that matter).  He did note that his underlings had conducted closed door meetings with would be Sherwin Williams developers but not him...only his subordinates...and there is nothing improper going on... and he doesn't read The Secret News.

The e-mail failed to mention The Secret News by actual  name, readers might like to know, rather Pat called it "One of the two blogs that like to poke at City Hall".  This was done in furtherance of Pat's refusal to utter the words "The Secret News" or "the Tattler" in any public setting.  This longstanding policy, also adapted by councilwoman Nora Davis it should be noted, is emplaced because of the severe negative health effects Pat and Nora would experience as a result of their heads exploding upon those words passing their lips.

Pat wants the council to know that although he doesn't read The Secret News (or the Tattler), he can report on their "lack editorial discipline", not like the discipline that City Hall demonstrates as they pursue their ideologically driven pro-developer 'public' policy you see.  The reporting by The Secret News and the Tattler, critical as they are of the doings at City Hall, don't meet with Pat's approval he says (although he doesn't read them) for they are "designed to misinform."  Got that?  Emeryville City Manager Pat O'Keeffe is complaining about misinforming the public, people.

"The Secret News"...Kabloom!

It's not like the old days before The Secret News and the Tattler when there was no reporting on the business being conducted in the council chambers and back rooms at City Hall whatsoever.  A little light is anathema to the traditional way of doing things at City Hall.

The back room culture at City Hall has been well documented and has been standard operating procedure since the days of the previous City Manager, John Flores.  In fact, Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE) was initiated to counter this back room dealing with developers.
Both John Flores and Pat O'Keeffe came from an economic development background and both were extremely tenacious and single minded in their quest to attract development to our town.
Emeryville's city manager's backroom style it should be noted is not like Berkeley where there's a very active citizenry and democratic action is the norm.  Contributing to this is Berkeley's robust local media, keeping city hall honest.  All told, it's pretty messy and not a very good way to quickly and massively develop a town however.

In Emeryville now, we seem to be leaving our adolescence.  Toes are getting stepped on. The Secret News, the Tattler, RULE; it seems an awakened citizenry is something Pat is uncomfortable with.
We hereby invite Pat to start reading The Secret News and the Tattler (we'll have to e-mail this to him).  He may find it's even worse than he thinks it is (presuming he doesn't read them).

Pat O'Keeffe To Step Down As Emeryville City Manager

Congratulations To Emeryville's New 
City Manager, Helen Bean

Opinion
At tonight's council meeting, Emeryville City Manager, Pat O'Keeffe announced he plans on retiring in March, surprising meeting attendees and forcing a "search" for a replacement to be conducted by the city council, probably in January.  We'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Helen Bean, currently Emeryville's Director of Economic Development and Housing, on being selected as Emeryville's new City Manager.

As Emeryville's current second in command at City Hall, Ms Bean will be selected by the council after a nation-wide executive "search", paid for by Emeryville taxpayers, probably in February.

Welcome Aboard!
Emeryville's current Economic Director and
future City Manager, Helen Bean

The "search" will be contracted out to an executive head hunter firm and will likely cost some $30,000, the same amount charged to "find" Mr O'Keeffe in 2007.
After an exhaustive nation-wide "search", the city council selected Pat, bringing him up from his former position as Emeryville's Economic Director.
The council, later on selected another city employee, Maurice Kaufman, to be Emeryville's Director of Public Works after another nation-wide executive "search", this one costing some $7000.  Mr Kaufman had previously been second in command at the Public Works Department before the taxpayer funded "search".

We wish Ms Bean all the best in her new position and we give a nod to the city council for their unswerving tenacity in making sure nothing is left to chance as they soldier on with their program of reliability and predictability in public policy.  The way the council selects managers here helps contribute to our reputation for being extremely business friendly.  We should acknowledge this reputation is earned, cemented really by Emeryville's reliable and predictable environment creating an ongoing laser-like focus on keeping businesses happy.

Transit Center: Zombie Redevelopment Rises In Emeryville

Undead Redevelopment Agency Roaming Emeryville

Wareham Continues To Feed At Public Trough Even After The Demise Of The Redevelopment Agency

Opinion

When it comes to Wareham Development in
Emeryville, its funding source, the
Redevelopment Agency, just won't
stay dead.

Call it the government agency that can't be killed.  How else to explain how favored Emeryville developer Rich Robbins, CEO of Wareham Development, recently dealt with his corporate welfare funding problem?  That being; how can he continue to receive taxpayer money for his development proposals after his favorite milk cow, the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency was killed by Sacramento?  Answer:  If Redevelopment is dead, no matter... City Hall can be directly summonsed to fund his projects...use the Emeryville General Fund via tax increment financing, just like the long gone Redevelopment Agency.

Unprecedented
Wareham has been moving forward with its Transit Center project, a contentious office and bio tech tower on Horton Street until the Redevelopment Agency died and so now, Mr Robbins has convinced three council members, a majority, to fund the project with tax increment financing out of Emeryville's General Fund (council members Jennifer West and Jac Asher voted NO).
The way it's going to work is that the General Fund will be tapped for 12 years, for the project's tax increments, to help fund the project.  Wareham puts the money up front but no taxes will be paid by Wareham for the Transit Center for the 12 year term; all those funds that normally would be paid to the city as every other business does will be shuttled back instead to Wareham.  This is an unprecedented move by City Hall that begs the question; why should Wareham receive this public gift?  And why not any other host of businesses in town?

Since Redevelopment Agencies have been shut down by the State, for exactly this sort of abuse, now the city council majority is getting creative in how it gives this favored developer public money.
The council obviously was listening recently when Wareham surrogate and Chamber of Commerce CEO Bob Cantor recently encouraged them, "[Now that the Redevelopment Agency is gone] you have to get a little bold" in giving away public money to Wareham.
Wareham it should be noted, has been on the receiving end of many such agreements with City Hall, having received more than $4 million in taxpayer assistance over the years.  Additionally, Wareham received the entire amount of Federal grant money garnered by Emeryville for toxic waste clean-up, some $1 million, leaving other developers with toxic soils out of the loop.

"Toxic Soup Bubbling Up"

"Toxic Soup Bubbling Up"
Toxins are migrating at the
site according to Wareham...
State officials say BS
to that charge.

The council members were warned by Wareham at the November 6th council meeting that they must move quickly on this project because toxins in the soil under the proposed project are on the move.  "It's a toxic soup, bubbling up" said Geoff Sears, Wareham's point man for squeezing the council over the years. This alarmist claim goes against direct statements from the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC), the agency who designed the entombment of the toxins leftover from the years when it was a Westinghouse manufacturing site.  Toxins were left but a containment system including 40 foot subterranean slurry walls and an "engineered cap" were built some years ago to permanently entomb the toxins and stop their movement.  DTSC officials have said the site is safe as long as it is not opened up.
Now Wareham says the containment system is no good and Emeryville must move to approve work on the site because toxins are bubbling up.  We'd like to see Wareham defend this fatuous claim and we challenge the council to question Wareham on this.  We think this was meant to cause alarm by rube council members to wring out a better deal from them.

Irony: Wareham Won't Clean-Up The Site
After all the hand wringing from the city council about how we need to clean-up the site, Wareham now informs us they won't even do that as part of the Transit Center project.  Previously when the Redevelopment Agency was alive, Wareham intended to remove all the toxic soil but now, as part of a redesign to save money, only the top 10 feet of soil will be removed leaving the rest to be entombed under the building. A new engineered cap with slurry walls will be installed to leave the problem to another generation.

This iteration of the Transit Center with it's City Hall give-a-way is but the newest version of Emeryville taxpayers paying a well connected developer for a project of dubious public benefit.  We've already given Wareham over $4 million dollars for other projects around town and for this project we've already changed our General Plan especially to accommodate this building by ignoring our building height mandates.  As the Tattler has noted, the 'transit" part of the Transit Center is a joke; it's really just an office building with four bus bays in the lower parking area.

Readers are invited to use the Tattler's search engine by typing in "Wareham" to peruse all the stories highlighting the give-a-ways this developer has been receiving from the City of Emeryville. We say NO to opening up and putting at risk our General Fund to help Wareham once again, regardless of the interpersonal relationships that have blossomed between Wareham's Rich Robbins and City Councilwoman Nora Davis and City Manager Pat O'Keeffe.  It's a terrible precedent and Wareham has already benefited more than enough at our expense.

California has killed the Redevelopment Agency.  Let's not bring it back to life just to continue to help this politically connected developer.  Let's turn the page and move on past this kind of moribund public policy and develop our town in a more bottom up fashion.

How They Voted

On election day 2012, we thought it would be nice to select a story from our 'How They Voted' archives.  Americans will likely split their vote for president today and here we highlight a split vote from the Emeryville city council:

Spend $30,000 To "Search" For

Pat O'Keeffe?

At the Tattler, we've noticed the city council and other deliberative bodies in Emeryville make controversial votes that get forgotten by the residents over time. In deference to the general edification of public policy and to strengthen Emeryville's democratic institutions, we will publish occasional short reminders on how the Power Elite in town have voted on these controversial issues.

In February, 2007, the issue before the City Council was:

Pat O'Keeffe:
Strangly, the most
qualified person in the
whole country to run
Emeryville was here
all along...so says
Nora Davis & Ruth Atkin

Should the City hire Pat O'Keeffe as City Manager after paying $30,000 for a nation-wide executive search that Council member Dick Kassis called a waste of time and money?

Nora Davis - YES

Ruth Atkin - YES

Dick Kassis - YES

John Fricke - NO

Ken Bukowski - NO

Pat O'Keeffe was working for the City for 11 years as the head of the Redevelopment Agency at the time and Mr Kassis said they should just vote to have Mr O'Keeffe move up to City Manager and not waste time and money on a phony executive search. He said everyone knew they would hire Mr O'Keeffe in the end anyway. He subsequently went ahead and voted for the search along with his colleagues and later they voted to hire Mr O'Keeffe (by the 3-2 vote). Council member Fricke revealed after Mr O'Keeffe was confirmed, of the several applicants that were considered, Mr O'Keeffe was not the most qualified applicant for the job.

City To The Poor: You People Are "Not A Good Fit"

City: "We've "Invested Millions Of Dollars On The Improvement Of The San Pablo Area", We Don't Want Poor People Mucking It Up

Opinion
The City Council agrees with the staff: poor people are not a good fit at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and 38th Street in Emeryville...especially since they've spent a lot of money fixing up the area.

A Christian outreach organization to the poor called Ohana Community Outreach, expressed interest in expanding the former Emeryville Community Action Program (ECAP) emergency support for the poor by purchasing a building at 3800 San Pablo Avenue (sometimes called the MAZ building) to be used as the outreach central location.  ECAP and now Ohana have been dispensing help for the poor in a cramped building a couple of blocks south of the Maz site but they want to expand.  And that's where the trouble arises.
In an April 3rd memo from Emeryville City Manger Pat O'Keeffe to the city council, the council is reminded about the sizable investment the city has made to that part of San Pablo Avenue, specifically that intersection, called the Star Intersection.
Summing up the recalcitrance for having poor people congregate in the new proposed building use, Mr O'Keeffe reminded the council the Community Development Commission (formerly called the Redevelopment Agency and comprised of the city council members) had set a development path for the area and it's incompatible with poor people.
The memo asserts, "With respect to [Ohana's] use of the space at 3800 San Pablo Avenue, the city council concurred with staff that this location is not a good fit with the Commission's plans for the Star Intersection.  The City and the Commission have invested millions of dollars of redevelopment funds on the improvement of this area."

Ohana for its part has pledged to not use any public funds to engage in any religious proselytizing or other such activities, instead using those funds for emergency help for the poor only.

Outraged over proposed city cuts to funding for the poor through ECAP/Ohana, former councilman Ken Bukowski has been taking it to City Hall: The city needs to continue it's modest support for the poorest among us by continuing to fund emergency food and clothing aid instead of cutting it he says.  It's a basic question of priorities; after all City Hall gives lavishly to favored developers, millions in subsidies for development projects, some with questionable returns.  He has been calling on the city to continue the funding at the approximately same rate the city has historically paid ECAP: $50,000 per year.  We agree with Mr Bukowski. 

But the city's attempt to thwart Ohana's legitimate purchase of the Maz building is a bridge too far.  This April 3rd memo, while we admire its naked transparency in revealing City Hall's behind-the-scenes anti-poor organizing principles, is outrageous.  We call on City Hall to reveal their real intentions regarding our collective responsibilities towards the poor in our midst's.

Job Opening In City Of Atherton: Emeryville City Manager Encouraged To Apply

Opinion
The City of Atherton California, located on the peninsula halfway between San Francisco and San Jose and home to "some of the most beautiful estates in the country"  has announced it is seeking a new city manager.
Atherton, primarily a bedroom community is notable with 96% of its homes valued at a million dollars or higher.  The city boasts a high percentage of Republicans and includes eBay CEO Meg Whitman among its notable denizens.
The expectations of the populace in Atherton and the culture at the city hall there would likely dovetail nicely with the policy preferences of Emeryville's own city manager Pat O'Keeffe and the Tattler would like to extend to Mr O'Keeffe this invitation to apply for the prestigious Atherton city manager position.
Pat, we think you'd do very well in this position and the pay scale would probably be an improvement over  Emeryville; we think you should check it out.  We'll give you a glowing recommendation if it will help you get the job.   Good luck.

Irony: Teacher Lay-Offs While Building New School

We're Building A New School While We Lay Off Teachers

Opinion

Parents and Emeryville citizens have begun to stir; the recent spate of Emery School District teacher lay-offs is causing a whisper campaign about how the lay-offs and the building of the new school and recreation center known as the Emeryville Center of Community Life are conflated.  City Hall and the School District officials for their part, are showing signs they're worried about this kind of thinking taking hold.  They're trying to take the offensive on this issue, forwarding a new meme.

The way they're spinning it, the building of the new school /rec center is totally unrelated to the laying off of teachers.  A March 22nd e-mail to concerned parents from Emeryville City Manager Pat O'Keeffe put it bluntly, "The Center of Community Life is not causing teacher lay offs" he categorically states.

Mr O'Keeffe and the School District are together in this meme.

They note that the Measure J bonds voters passed in 2010 explicitly forbids spending the money on school operational expenses, including paying teachers.  It only authorizes the building of the facilities that will comprise the Center of Community Life.  They are also explaining how $25 million in city money the council voted to give to the project is also earmarked exclusively for the building of facilities.  This is due to the arcane esoterica of Redevelopment Agency funding mandated by the State.

Even though they'd like to pay teachers more and stop the lay offs, their hands are tied they tell us.

False Narrative

All this is just a bunch of hooey.  It's a false narrative meant to divert attention from an uncomfortable truth.  What Mr O'Keeffe and the School District is not acknowledging is that in fact the building of the Center of Community Life is directly responsible for the teacher lay offs.

The only way the School District can increase the operating budget for the schools, including teacher pay, is if the voters of Emeryville vote themselves another tax increase in the form of a parcel tax.  And there's the rub.  The passage of the $95 million Measure J bonding for the Center of Community Life has almost certainly tapped out the voters good will towards the schools.

"The Center of Community 

Life is responsible for 

teacher lay offs."

The last few years has seen the passage of two parcel taxes for the schools in Emeryville in addition to the Center of Community Life.  The voters here have shown great generosity towards the schools; the Center of Community Life alone will cost taxpayers some $400 million by the time the interest on the bonds has been paid (and that's only possible if the city starts to grow its assessed valuation like we did before the recession).
The voters have thus far been generous but their generosity is not infinite.  The fact that we've come up hard against the market realities of Emeryville's plunging Assessed Valuation and its attendant reel back of Emeryville's bonding capacity will help sink any nascent drive to push another parcel tax.

The Center of Community Life is going to be it as far as any extra school spending from more taxes is concerned we're afraid to say.  Perhaps voters will be in a more giving mood after the economy picks up and the middle class in America is restored and the Measure J bonds are paid off.....  In other words, it's going to be a while.

And that leaves us facing teacher lay offs and other cut backs at our schools.

It could actually get worse.  Schools are funded by student enrollment and our enrollment at Emery Unified is dropping.  The more it drops, the more funding dries up and the more cut backs and teacher lay offs we face causing more enrollment drop.  It's a spiraling negative feedback loop and we're already in the loop so to speak.

Perhaps we can call back some of the $95 million dollar Center of Community Life bonds, build a more modest facility by saving Anna Yates Elementary School and find some way to appeal to the voters that a new parcel tax could be swapped for the scaling back of the school building project.  It could be couched in terms of being revenue neutral...perhaps voters could see the wisdom in this and vote themselves another parcel tax.

What's needed is a new path for our schools, a different approach, and it should start with real transparency coming from the School District and City Hall.  We can't just obliviously build the whole Center of Community Life and hope for the best for its operating budget. Let's start by first spelling out where we really are and not just throwing up our hands as Mr O'Keeffe and the School District is doing.

Redevelopment Agency Dissolves But Staff and Salaries Go On

Shouldn't A Reduced Workload Mean A Reduced Workforce?

Opinion

Oakland's and Emeryville's Redevelopment Agencies are both being dissolved on February 1st, the largest contraction of government commission in a generation. Both cities are facing a surplus of labor owing to the sudden elimination of a major source of government work, administering the agencies. In response, Oakland will be laying off 105 full time employees on February 3rd and Emeryville will...wait for it...stay exactly the same.

City Manager, Pat O'Keeffe reports that there will be no staff reduction as a result of the closing of the Redevelopment Agency until at least July 1st, the start of the new fiscal year for the city.   Mr O'Keeffe says the staff positions that were formerly wholly or partially charged with redevelopment work will be retained and tasked with "other work" at City Hall.  Their salaries, previously paid with Redevelopment Agency funds will now be paid out of Emeryville's General Fund.

Won't die:
Is this to be the fate of the
Redevelopment Agency?

Assistant City Manager, Delores Turner tells the Tattler that Emeryville is different than Oakland and to make gross comparisons about how the two cities wind down their respective redevelopment agencies is unwarranted, "We have obligations that are still enforceable, even after February 1st" she said adding,  "We won't know anything as it relates to the enforceable obligations until the entire oversight process has been completed.  The list of obligations must be validated."  Ms Turner addressed the eventuality of lowering the staff to match the reduced work load at City Hall without a redevelopment agency, "Regarding staffing, we will not know how the dissolution [of the Redevelopment Agency]  will impact staffing until we've gone through our entire budget process in July."

Both Mr O'Keeffe and Ms Turner cautioned Emeryville residents should not expect a large reduction in staffing at City Hall after July 1st owing to the started but not yet completed redevelopment projects that will go forward even after the February dissolution.  Also they tell us to wind down the Agency will require significant labor over two years.

We don't know if these explanations are reasonable but we find it dubious that a massive government agency that has undertaken the function of 95% of our town, much larger than in Oakland we should add, that there shouldn't be at least a small reduction in staff as a consequence of its sudden demise, all the provisional explanatory reasons notwithstanding.  It seems to us that simple bureaucratic inertia, the well documented self protective impulse of bureaucratic regimes and their tenacious resistance to shrink on their own accord is likely at play here.

Further, we find it implausible that the number of staffers needed to wind down the Redevelopment Agency is precisely the same number as it took to conduct its multi-year business of building our town.

Emeryville residents should only have the size of government that they need and common sense tells us that the end of the Redevelopment Agency with all its historic workload should mean a reduced workforce at City Hall.  We realize that Emeryville and Oakland are not the same but the difference between the two cities as they wind down their redevelopment agencies is stark.  Citizens would be well advised to keep a close eye on the bureaucrats at City Hall as the era of redevelopment comes to a close in Emeryville.

How Great Is The Redevelopment Agency? 7-11!

Taxpayers Pick Up The Tab:

Redevelopment Agency Provides Junk Food, Mattress Stores

Gotta love it: 37 different types of chips.
Oh thank heaven! 

Opinion
Need a shot of fat and salt?  The Emeryville Redevelopment Agency's got your back!  Or maybe 'had your back' is more fitting.  As developers line up their forces to combat the Governor's recent rescinding of redevelopment agencies state-wide, we should pause to acknowledge all the good works the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency has done for us, the residents.
The opening this week of the new Seven Eleven on the corner of 40th Street and San Pablo Avenue provides just such an opportunity.  Emeryville residents who crave cigarettes and processed garbage food will have yet another outlet to satisfy their cravings.   And it's all thanks to the enlightened vision of the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency and it's chief apologist and huckster, City Manager Pat O'Keeffe.

Wanna wash that
down with a 3
liter Slurpee?

Consider all the sublime, neighborhood enhansing retail brought to us over the years: in addition to the shiny new Seven Eleven, think Mattress Discounters, Little Caesar's Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sleep Train and the like.  It's all done to bring maximum livability to Emeryville according to Mr O'Keeffe and the city council.  In addition to the swelling sense of pride Emeryville residents must feel at the opening of the new Seven Eleven, Mr O'Keeffe and the council have given us the opportunity to pig out on junk food and then sleep it off on a new mattress; all with millions in taxpayer subsidies handed out to the developers.

It's all been done with us in mind, mind you.  Emeryille's Redevelopment Agency said all the big box malls and fast food and franchise chain retail is an essential ingredient to a livable town and they pursued it with great alacrity; we've been the lucky beneficiaries of that forward thinking vision.

Failed municipality: Not one
Seven Eleven in Piedmont.

But we're left feeling just a touch of pity for the City of Piedmont California, the hometown of Emeryville City Manger Pat O'Keeffe.  It's remarkable that Piedmont has been left high and dry; they've received none of these vital ingredients to livability.  It seems Mr O'Keeffe has selflessly worked for Emeryville's benefit, leaving his own town without so much as a single mattress store.  Even as we bask in the glow of the civic pride engendered by the new Seven Eleven, we wish our neighbors well and we hope Piedmont will be able to leverage it's clout and bring to it's impoverished citizenry a new Seven Eleven and all the social benefits that flow from the 37 different types of chips on offer.

Pat O'Keeffe Endorses Nora Davis?

More Election Shenanigans From Nora Davis:

Nora Davis Claims Pat O'Keefe As An Endorser

Opinion
City employees are barred from endorsing any specific candidates for city council.  It's clearly inappropriate since the employees serve at the pleasure of the city council itself.  This is especially true of City Manager Patrick O'Keeffe, the man that's accountable for the entire workings of City Hall.
If however Pat O'Keeffe were to endorse a candidate for council, with his high profile and high respectability, just imagine the positive effect it could have on that candidate's chances for election.  But alas, it can't happen because it would be unethical.

And yet Mayor Nora Davis' latest re-election campaign mailer lists Patrick O'Keefe as an endorser of her re-election.  What's going on here?

Is this the guy?

The majority of voters will no doubt simply think the City Manager must support the re-election of Nora Davis.  Most probably think that gives Nora's candidacy an extra level of gravitas, an extra reason to vote for Nora Davis.  This is what Mayor Davis wants voters to think obviously.

What our mayor is not telling us though is that in this case Pat O'Keefe is not the City Manager but instead an Emeryville resident, coincidentally, with the same name as the City Manager.  Sharp eyed readers might note the one 'f' in the resident Pat O'Keefe.
Ms Davis could have easily noted in her mailer that the Pat O'Keefe listed as an endorser is not the same Pat O'Keeffe that works as our City Manager, but the Mayor didn't.

This is not the first time Nora Davis has pulled this.  Last election, four years ago, she listed the same Patrick O'Keefe as an endorser of her re-election.  After the City Manager received complaints, Ms Davis was notified that she should make sure voters understand the City Manager is not an endorser.
So now Nora Davis does it again four years later.  Perhaps it slipped her mind.  Maybe it was a "senior moment" for the Mayor.  If Nora Davis is re-elected, are there to be ever increasing senior moments like this?

This is the second endorser list slip-up, if it is that, for Nora Davis this campaign cycle.  Ms Davis also erroneously listed former Emeryville mayor Greg Harper as an endorser.  We call on Nora Davis to stop this amateurish campaigning and play fair.