Emery School District Pays $1.1 Million Dollars for $481,000 of Services

Strange Math at Emery Unified 
School District:

1,100,000 Equals 481,000

Opinion
Look out taxpayers.  The Emery Unified School District is not past being sneaky as they play fast and loose with the purse strings in their quest to service consultants and other vendors associated with the Center of 'Community' Life.
What else could you call it when they elect to task an outside contractor with completing a job, at more than twice the price that would have been paid to two former employees that by all rights should be doing the work?   One thing you could call it is a boon.  A boon to the contractor Swinerton Builders, selected by the School Board, who's going to get $1.1 million for a $481,000 job.

The story surfaced last week when the School District asked the City Council to sign on with them,  the hiring of Swinerton Builders to oversee the work of Turner Construction, the builders of the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) on San Pablo Avenue.  After the District last January lost its architect and ECCL Project Manager, Roy Miller, the School Board realized they needed to hire someone with construction knowledge to watch Turner Construction to represent the public's interests.  That someone turned out to be Swinerton Builders, a San Francisco based construction firm.  The problem is Swinerton is going to be paid $1.1 million for a two year contract and Roy Miller, combined with his assistant would have cost the School District $481,652 to do the very same work.  Suddenly, the District is paying an extra $618,348 that's gone unexplained.

We were perplexed last fall when the District told everyone the sudden "retiring" of Roy Miller was not going to be a problem.  How could the District justify the loss of the main guy paid to shepherd the ECCL and look out after the public's interests, just as the construction of the thing was ready to begin we wondered.  School Board member John Affeldt went one further, calling the time of Mr Miller's leaving "opportune", raising the absurd notion that the best time for a project manager to quit is just as the project gets started.
Nevertheless, the School District told us a replacement would be hired, someone to oversee the construction.  They just failed to mention it would cost us more than twice the price.

To those wondering whether Swinerton perhaps will do a more complete job overseeing Turner than Mr Miller would have done and the extra costs are therefore justified, City Manager Sabrina Landreth made the District's position clear that for proper oversight, they only require the effort as would be performed by Roy Miller and the former ECCL Project Assistant Wendy Chew.  Ms Landreth put any such notions to rest, "The contract is $1.1 million and is funded from a combination of salary savings from both the District architect and the project assistant that was already budgeted in the project budget" she told the City Council, speaking on behalf of the District.

Here's the breakdown:
Roy Miller salary: $137,000
Total cost to District: $185,266

Wendy Chew salary: $37,000
Total cost to District: $55,560

Roy total cost x two years = $370,532
Wendy total cost x two years = $111,120
Together = $481,652  vs $1,100,000 Swinerton contract
Difference = $618,348

Clearly, there IS a problem when the Project Manager leaves his post just as the project is ready to get started.  And now we know how much of a problem it is: $618, 348 (and counting).

Council Raises Red Flags: Unexpected $1.1 Million Contract for Center of 'Community' Life

Center of 'Community' Life Project Oversight Contract "Awful Expensive" 

Doubts Raised About Whole Project

The Emeryville City Council balked at a recent request for recommending the Emery School District sign a two year contract with a building firm for $1.1 million to oversee the Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) construction project, a request that drew the ire of the Council members in general and venom from Councilman Kurt Brinkman.  The School District is partnering with the City on the controversial San Pablo Avenue school/community center project and the request at the April 22nd meeting was meant to provide backing for the selection of San Francisco based Swinerton Builders to serve as "owner's representative" for two years overseeing the work performed by chief ECCL builder Turner Construction.  With the January resignation of former District architect and ECCL project director Roy Miller, there is no one left to manage the multi million dollar project, necessitating the hiring of a construction oversight firm to represent the public's interests according to the School District.

The School District request seemed to confuse the Council at first, "We have not received enough information" Nora Davis said upon hearing the request as presented by City Manager Sabrina Landreth but after the $1.1 million price tag was revealed Councilman Brinkman was angered.  He noted he is in the construction trade in his personal life and the request was tantamount to "buying the accessories of a car without knowing what the car is going to cost".  Mr Brinkman was incredulous, "I thought Turner was going to carry the costs of oversight of this [ECCL] project" and "there's not enough teeth to make sure the taxpayers get what they want out of this project".  He added, "At a million dollars, [the Swinerton contract] seems awful expensive to me."

In May, the City of Emeryville is poised to throw in $21 million for its share of the ECCL project, but the $1.1 million Swinerton contract caused the formally supportive Councilman Brinkman to express doubts about the entire ECCL project, "I'm concerned and I don't fully understand what we're getting for our $21 million" he said.

The Council ultimately refused to resolve recommending the Swinerton contract.

Video courtesy of the Emeryville Property Owners Association

Parents/Teachers Left in the Dark About Dismissal of School Superintendent Lindo

School Board Met Four Times in Closed Meetings to Discuss Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release 

The Emery Unified School District refused to disclose the reason for the sudden dismissal of Superintendent Debbra Lindo at last night's School Board meeting stating only Ms Lindo is "on leave".  Attending teachers and parents attempted to get the Board to make some comment regarding Ms Lindo whom had recently promised to remain on as Superintendent until the close of the school year in June but the Board balked.  Board President Melodi Dice would only say the Board had "Nothing to share at this time".

John Quinn, the former State of California Department of Education Trustee and State mandated chief of Emeryville schools after the District went bankrupt in 2000 was at the Wednesday meeting and the Board voted to take him on as a temporary replacement for Ms Lindo.  Mr Quinn will serve as an "administrative advisor" until a permanent new superintendent can be found.

Records show the School Board met at least four times in late December and early January, with some Board members conferencing by phone from far flung vacation sites to discuss "public employee discipline, dismissal and release" in closed special executive sessions.

The loss of Superintendent Lindo comes on the heels of the loss of the Center of 'Community' Life project manager Roy Miller, also in January.  The Center of 'Community' Life, the schools rebuild project on San Pablo Avenue is just breaking ground for a two and a half year building project and the School District is now left with no staff institutional memory of the now ten year and more than one hundred million dollar project and none guiding it.

Mr Quinn told the Tattler the School District is not in financial duress as some had speculated after the sudden dismissal of Superintendent Lindo.

School Board Offers Residents Rosy Vision

What Should the District Do in Light of Resignations?

If They Won't Act, What Should Residents Do?

Opinion
In recent weeks the Emery Unified School District has been rocked by the resignations of the two key District staff managing the embattled Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) project.  First came the announcement that Superintendent Debbra Lindo would be retiring at the end of this school year.  Next came the announcement that ECCL Project Manager and District Architect for the last 11 1/2 years, Roy Miller, was retiring within weeks.  These retirements will leave the District with no senior staff with significant knowledge of or involvement in the District's ECCL plans.  How can the District continue this project with no one on staff steering the ship?

One might expect that this would be a moment for the School Board of Trustees to pause and reflect on this situation.  They might stop to wonder:

• Why is every staff member involved with this project running for the exits? 
• Have staff realized the ECCL is destined for failure and want to disassociate themselves from it before they have to wear the blame? 
• Have staff (finally) looked at the financials and realized that there is neither enough money to build the Board's K-12 vision, nor to operate this Taj Majal complex within the realities of our available bond funds and general fund dollars? 

These are not questions raised by the School Board at their recent meeting in which Roy Miller announced his resignation, nor at the recent Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee meeting.  Instead, the School Board has offered the people of Emeryville the same rose-colored glasses that colors their perception of this entire fiasco.  The District proposes to hire even more consultants, spending even more money we do not have.  They suggest hiring an interim project manager, a construction management firm, and a director of full-service Community Schools.  They will, of course, also hire a new Superintendent.  So we will hire three new people and a firm to carry on the work previously done by two people.  This is yet another example of the District's idea of "economies of scale", "efficiency", and "cost savings" that the ECCL was always promised to deliver.

We have heard parents are increasingly looking to move their children to other schools before this K-12 ECCL is completed.  Teachers have become more vocal at recent School Board meetings that their concerns are not being addressed.  Indeed, it now seems that even key District Staff are pushing away the rose-colored glasses offered by our School Board, leaving just these five School Board Trustees in town who see no problems on the horizon for the ECCL.  Unfortunately it is largely these five individuals who can still ruin our City's schools and its finances in a dogged pursuit of their misguided vision.

There are only two plausible ways forward that would enable our City to avert this problem.  First, three members of the City Council could refuse to give the District the $21 million dollars they need to fully pay for the proposed ECCL.  Without these funds, even the School Board would finally be forced to rethink their plans. Unfortunately, so far the City Council also seems unshaken by recent developments.  Readers could write the Council Members and plead with them not to give this Board $21 million to squander  (don't get your hopes up). 

Second, the people of Emeryville could do what they have successfully done before; instigate a recall of the entire School Board.  This is actually more pressing now than ever before.  Regardless of teachers being empowered by the recent resignation announcement of the Superintendent and a would be chastened School Board, if left to their own devices, this Board will hire a replacement Superintendent who has bought into this ECCL debacle and that, like them, will ignore the concerns of parents and teachers.  Only a new Board could shift the direction of this project and hire a new Superintendent that would focus on the needs of the District's students and the teachers that teach them every day.

There is one other alternative: more resignations.  If at least three School Board members would join the Superintendent and ECCL Project Manager as they head for the exits, and if they would commit to appointing new Trustees with different ideas about our District's future, then our City could still avert disaster.  But for this to happen the School Board would have to take off their rose-colored glasses for a moment and recognize the stark reality of where we are in this ECCL process.  They've shown no indication that they are willing to do that and so, practically speaking, this leaves the people of Emeryville with no real alternative: it's time to gather signatures for a recall election.

Center of 'Community' Life Project Director Calls it Quits

Roy Miller, Head Honcho for Massive Project,
Suddenly Leaves Emery

Roy Miller, Project Director for the contentious Center of 'Community' Life announced he will quit his position at the Emery School District, leaving the quarter billion dollar City/Schools project without a construction supervisor before ground is even broken at the San Pablo Avenue site. Mr Miller told School Board members, "This is the most awkward I've felt approaching the Board" as he announced he would leave in early January.
The District must now quickly search for an alternate director as construction is set to begin in December.  Board President Melodi Dice told attendees at the November 13th meeting the task will be difficult, "We'll be hard pressed to find a replacement" she said as the District now faces a massive project, ready to start, with no institutional construction project memory.  Mr Miller leaves behind reams of drawings and plans for the project, slated for delivery in the fall of 2015.

School Superintendent Debbra Lindo asked the Board to accept Mr Miller's "retirement", something Board member Josh Simon said he would do, "with great sadness."

Roy Miller
Project Director, Center of 'Community' Life
and Emery School District Chief Architect

Since the announcement on Wednesday evening, the School Board has already begun talking about how to best absorb the sudden loss of the Project Director for the Center of 'Community' Life.  Under consideration is the hiring of an interim project director, a construction management firm, a person in charge of providing a "full service vision" as well as several consultants.  The City of Emeryville, a partner in the project, may also be on the hook for some expenses as a result of Mr Miller's vacating his position the Board indicated.

Roy Miller has been the face of the Center of 'Community' Life, shepherding it since its inception; through four School Superintendents and 11 years.  He has served as the point man for the School District at countless boisterous City Council and community meetings; often taking heat, sometimes generating heat for miscalculations large and small through the years.  He told the School Board members Wednesday his long tenure at Emery has comprised more than a third of his career.

Mr Miller leaves his position as Project Director as Turner Construction is ready to start demolition of the existing buildings on the site, work that is more than a year late according to his announcements in 2011 and 2012.

The Tattler will follow this explosive news as stories develop.

 Correction:  This story originally reported Mr Miller will leave his post in mid December.  We have since learned the actual time is early January.  The story has been corrected as of 3:28 on Saturday 11/16/13.

Video courtesy of the Emeryville Property Association:

School Board Does End Run Around Community Comments at Special Meeting Monday @ 6pm

Last Minute Cynical Ploy By School District

Opinion/Announcement
The Emery School Board has called a special meeting for Monday to adopt the contested 'Mitigated Negative Declaration' document in their final push to move the Center of "Community" Life project past the objections of Emeryville citizens.  The plan is to "discuss" comments about neighborhood and environmental impacts they recently received from 27 concerned citizens and then vote to approve the project in one short meeting.

The School Board has announced they will discuss the 18 pages of comments, some highly technical, for one hour and then they'll vote up or down, to disregard the citizens and approve the whole project, impacts or not.

School Board President
Melodi Dice
Called for the meeting allowing
one hour to consider 18 pages
of community comments before
she even saw the comments.    

School District architect and project manager for the Center of "Community" Life, Roy Miller told the City/Schools Committee Thursday that the project is running up against "hard deadlines" and there can be no delays at this point, it should be noted.

Citizens should attend the meeting and join with the 27 neighbors written comments about this high impact project for Emeryville and the surrounding community.  The California Environmental Quality Act law provides that oral testimony must also be considered and Monday's meeting appears to be the last chance.

Unlike the regularly-scheduled Wednesday evening School Board meetings, the School District has historically not video-taped or broadcast special meetings, such as this Monday's, opting instead to provide the lowest amount of transparency legally permitted. Accordingly, it can be conjectured Emery likely has no  plans on recording this meeting, thereby adding another layer of secrecy to this project.

What's especially disturbing about all this is the fact that the School District received the 18 pages of comments from the citizens at around 4:30 PM on Thursday and by the next morning, Friday, they had already released the agenda for the special meeting.  The District had already decided to schedule an adoption of the Mitigated Neg Dec before they could even read what Emeryville residents had to say about the project.  This is what passes for "transparent" and "citizen engagement" of a "community" project by Emery Unified School District.  This is how they show their respect for people who will pay for this ill-conceived project.

It's obvious this School Board has made up their minds without even looking at the community's comments and even though the School District has stacked the deck against the concerns of ordinary citizens, people should not be dissuaded from acting as an agent for change for their community. Ordinary citizens can show their courage by confronting this highly cynical School District and giving testimony and providing witness to the real community.

Special Meeting

Monday, July 15

6:00 pm

Ralph Hawley School

1275 61st Street  Emeryville 

School District: Won't Build Bike/Pedestrian Path, "Too Late"

Pool Deck & Rapists Are Out, 

Now it's the Running Track
and the Cost

Bike/Ped Path Can't Be Built Because......

Opinion
First the Emery Unified School District told us that they can't construct a required bike/pedestrian path adjacent to the school at the incipient Center of Community Life because the path would constrict an existing pool deck to such an extent as to render the pool useless and besides the path would be crawling with pedophiles and drug dealers waiting to prey on the children they told us.  Now they're telling us there's no room for the path because it would constrict a proposed running track at the school.  Oh and they forgot to mention earlier, they say they can't afford to build the path anyway.

Emeryville City Councilwoman
Jennifer West:
Now we know the pool 
deck argument was a 
School District ruse

The flip flop by the School District was revealed Tuesday when Emeryville's Bicycle Pedestrian Committee held a special field trip meeting at the site of the required path.
The School District had repeatedly told the people of Emeryville the pool deck was too small to shave away even a little to make room for the bike path (called the ECCL Path) but as the committee members Tuesday saw for themselves how truly large the existing pool deck really is, suddenly the School District Staff members and School Board members attending the meeting switched tactics and told the Committee members now it's the running track that 's going to be too cramped to accommodate the bike/ped path.
Council member Jennifer West, noting the reversal took the opportunity to look on the bright side, "The good news is at least now we don't have to worry about the pool deck any longer" she told the attendees.

The pool deck issue settled, the assembled School District staff and School Board members are now turned their focus on the yet to be built running track at the future school; there's simply no room for the bike/ped path they took pains to reveal at the Tuesday meeting.  The ECCL Path will take away two lanes rendering the track useless they said but left unmentioned was the fact that the School District selected the San Pablo Avenue site for the Center of Community Life years ago and they designed the whole site including the track with afore knowledge that the ECCL Path would have to be located there.  After the site was selected, it should be noted, the District went into attack mode against any naysayers who claimed the site was too small.
At this late date, with the design set in stone, the ECCL Path cannot be built, it's too late and the site cannot be redesigned said Mark Seiberlich, chief architect for the Center of Community Life,  "The [bike/ped] path takes up too much space and we must remove two track lanes" he added.

School District architect
Mark Seiberlich:
It's too late to redesign...
"The bike/ped path takes up
too much space" 

After disparaging comments from the School Superintendent Debbra Lindo, excoriating the Bike/Ped Committee for their recalcitrance on this path,  one Committee member, exasperated by such talk told the assembled throng because of a lack of planning on the part of the District, "we're now being made to feel guilty for throwing the children under the bicycles wheels".  The idea was floated that the running track would be built whole now but two lanes of it would be removed later with the possible inclusion of the bike/ped path when the District builds out phase 2 of the project, but the idea was summarily rejected by Committee members as not credible.

Amid a plethora of challenging questions from disbelieving Bike/Ped Committee members, School Board member Josh Simon moved the conversation away from the intractable running track issue.  After suggesting there might be a yet to be revealed way to fit a bike/ped path in,  he lamented the high cost of the ECCL Path.  Mr Simon told the meeting attendees that the School District was not going to build the ECCL path during 'phase 1' construction of the Center of Community Life but perhaps a path could be build during phase 2, someday in the future.
But it's the high cost of building the required path that's got the School Board vexed he told the Committee members, "The reason we pushed the ECCL Path into phase 2 is the cost" Board member Simon said.  Emeryville residents will remember this School Board said the amount of money the District can raise through selling bonds is enough to build the whole Center of Community Life, an "exceptional" community facility they assured us.

This required bike/ped path really has the Emery School District grasping at straws.  After pleading with the Planning Commission and the City Council to reject the path by telling lies about the size of the pool deck and raising the specter of looming rapists and drug dealers, now they're pivoting and delivering this running track poppycock.  Their performance drew the ire of former School Board President Cheryl Webb who attended the meeting, "disingenuous" she said of the staff and Board members.

Former  School Board
President (resigned)
Cheryl Webb:
The District is
"disingenuous"

After showing us they have no compunction about lying to the people of Emeryville, this School District is now preparing to build a school and community center at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.  It's not inspiring a lot of confidence. Emeryville taxpayers would be right to be concerned.
But the School District doesn't have a choice about this path; they are required to build it.  It's the expressed will of the people of Emeryville as revealed by our award winning General Plan and as specifically codified by the City Council's ruling after hearing the School District's lamentable case against the path.
It should also be noted the General Plan says the Center of Community Life is a "pedestrian priority zone".  And so now is the time to build it, when the Center of Community Life is being built, now, not perhaps if Josh Simon can figure a way to do it at some unspecified later date.

We grow tired of all the chicanery and outright lies from this District about this issue.  It's been a litany; the bogus claim of the too small pool deck from District architect Roy Miller, the rapists and drug dealers, the cost and now this absurd claim the running track will be negatively impacted.  This School District, we now know, purposely designed this Center of Community Life behind closed doors over the years without the required bike/ped path.  Any talk now about it being too late is insulting to the people of Emeryville.  We remind the School District that they need to build this school and community center for ALL the stakeholders in the community, including the bicyclists and the pedestrians.  Once again, absurdly, this District and this School Board shows us they don't know the meaning of community as they build the Center of Community Life.

School District Moves Against Bicycling at Center of Community Life Site

"Pimps and Drug Dealers" Will Prey On 
Our Children

No Intent to Build Required Path

The Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee ruled Monday against a plethora of high level authorities that had assembled at the City Hall meeting asking to approve a plan for bike parking at Emeryville's proposed new school and to remove a bike path adjoining the school.  After the Committee voted unanimously to require the path be built and the City Council concurred in April, the Committee was descended upon Monday by a dozen City and School District staff members and department heads.  Included in the fray was the Superintendent of the Schools, the Chief of Police, the head of the Recreation Department and the President of the School Board all pleading for the Committee reverse its earlier vote to compel the District to install the required bicycle/pedestrian path adjoining the incipient Center of Community Life.  The Committee refused Monday to reverse the earlier vote. The assembled group uniformly expressed concern that the proposed bike pedestrian path, called the ECCL Path, would attract a criminal element and that the children at the adjacent school would be imperiled.

Monday's appeal to the Bike/Ped Committee seems to represent a desire on the School District's part to get as much support as possible for not building the ECCL Path but the District indicated it has no intention of building the path in the foreseeable future regardless of the Bike/Ped Committee and the City Council vote forcing them to.  

"I'm Sorry, I Don't Have That Information" Part 2
The throng also asked the Committee members to accept a bike parking component of the Center of Community Life plan but the Committee rebuffed the proposal citing insufficient parking spaces. The plan called for 44 total bike parking spots (22 secure) for the entire Center of Community Life which will include 800 students plus teachers and staff plus the Recreation Department faculty and staff plus members of the public.

Emery schools architect Roy Miller
Again, he doesn't have the information.

The Committee attempted to determine how much bike parking would be appropriate based on how many people would be using the site on a given day, the standard metric the Committee uses as it recommends bike parking for commercial projects in town.  The School District architect, Roy Miller told stunned Committee members he had no idea how many people could be expected to be on the site leaving them unable to make an informed decision, "I'm sorry, I don't have that information" he said, in a moment of deja vu.  Mr Miller had uttered the same remark to the planning Commission and then the City Council in April about size of the existing school pool deck, as those decision making bodies attempted to determine whether to shrink the deck to make way for the ECCL Path.
After Mr Miller punted on the number of people expected at the Center of Community Life on a daily basis, the Bike/Ped Committee members determined on their own it must be more than 1000 and they called for at least 10% bike parking spots or 100 for the cramped site, a number that seemed to stun the school officials.

"Classist"

Schools Superintendent Debra Lindo
Bike/Ped paths are bad..."drastic" even 
So why are WE being picked on? It's not fair!

The meeting was punctuated with plenty of hyperbole and overblown bombast as the authorities attempted to throw their weight around and intimidate the Committee members.  Two school security personnel testified that the bike/ped path would be crawling with criminals preying on the school children, upping the ante of the previous "gang rape" rhetoric from Council member Nora Davis.  The chief of school security, Ken Wright noted thugs and criminals would use the path as an access point; "pimps and drug dealers" would be "cutting holes in the fence" to get at the children he said.  In an emotional plea, he hinted children could be "taken" and he said no one would want that on their conscience.
Schools Superintendent Debra Lindo said the bike/ped path is "drastic" and she complained that it is unfair that the neighboring private school, Escuela Bilingue Internacional (EBI) was released from a proposed path alongside that facility while the Center of Community Life is being forced to accepted its path, a double standard.  She called the April decision by the City Council allowing removal the EBI Path "classist",  owing to the advantaged private school and disadvantaged public school dynamic.

Ms Lindo and the anti-ECCL Path crew plans on taking its show on the road after the drubbing it suffered at the Bike/Ped Committee Monday.  They plan on giving the Committee a tour of the site in the near future in hopes of peeling off a majority of Committee members before appealing to the City Council at a later date.

School District and City Withhold Public Documents from Tattler & the Public

Public Better Off Being Ignorant Says City Attorney & School District

Opinion
Emeryville's City Attorney has ruled that documents in the possession of the City and the School District outlining meetings of public officials that took place behind closed doors will not be made public according to a letter recently received by the Tattler.  The City Attorney, Michael Biddle, ruled that the release of the documents would harm the public now and that the public would be further harmed later because government officials would not be able to engage in "robust" behind closed door discussions necessary for good public policy formulation.

One of the documents, a major traffic study regarding the new Emeryville Center for Community Life (ECCL), was requested by the Tattler in April from both the School District and the City.  Both refused to provide the document in response to a California Public Records Act request and as a result Emeryville residents can now only guess what public officials know about the traffic impact that will be caused by the ECCL that officials are unwilling to share with the public.

City Attorney and interim City Manager
Michael Biddle (on left) with recently retired
City Manager Pat O'Keeffe 

The Emeryville Center for Community Life, still years from being completed, has recently disappointed residents that hoped it would live up to the environmental promises made by both School District and City officials.  First, this February we saw the School District request special permission to be exempted from the City’s LEED environmental standards for Emeryville public buildings. In a 3-2 vote, the City Council allowed this environmental promise to be broken.

More recently, in April, we saw the School District back before the City Council requesting that it be exempted from another environmentally-friendly requirement that it found bothersome, the General Plan’s requirement that there be a bicycle and pedestrian path along the western property border of the proposed ECCL site. While this 3-2 vote of the City Council preserved the path in the City’s General Plan, none of the most recent ECCL designs show any intention by the District of actually building the required path.

With the School District’s record clear, the Tattler has decided to watch carefully the District’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as it proceeds with the ECCL design and construction.  On April 11th the Tattler wrote ECCL project director, Roy Miller, requesting all Environmental Impact Reports related to the planned ECCL, all CEQA notices, and to be placed on a list of “interested parties” to receive all future CEQA notices.  Mr. Miller replied that such documents were not currently available and would be available at the District office once “they have been prepared for public release”,  presumably after having been scrubbed clean.

However, we were surprised a few days later with the release of the monthly Progress Reports, dated March 1 and April 1, prepared by the City’s Building & Planning Director, Charlie Bryant, which each describe the School District providing the City with a copy of a traffic study for the ECCL project, and the City’s Building and Planning department responding to the District with comments.  The Progress Reports reveal no details of the traffic study.

If the earlier request for CEQA-related documents was not clear enough, the Tattler again wrote to the School District’s Roy Miller to request a copy of this ECCL traffic study.  For good measure, the City also received a request for the same ECCL traffic study document.

After several days, lawyers for both the City and the School District flatly refused the Tattler’s request for Public Documents.  City Attorney Biddle responded on behalf of the City that the traffic study was a “draft” not subject to the Public Records Act.  Mr. Biddle’s letter claims that “the public interest in withholding those records clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure,” citing a California Supreme Court decision called Citizens for a Better Environment v. Department of Food and Agriculture. 

Phony Case Law
Readers might find it as amusing as we did to read the court opinion cited by Mr. Biddle (in the link above), because what the Court actually decides in that case is that the documents at issue have to be disclosed to the extent the document contains factual material and that only the expressions of opinion have to be redacted.  So, clearly this top secret ECCL traffic study is either entirely a work of opinion, and therefore not subject to disclosure, or a work containing factual material that the City and School District are improperly withholding from the public.  This leaves one to wonder what value a traffic study would have to a CEQA process if it were made up entirely of opinion and contained no facts on which to base those opinions.   Leave it to our School District to break exciting new ground in purely fictional traffic studies!  Bravo!  The Tattler expected nothing less.

Mr. Biddle also argued that the documents requested were “deliberative materials necessary for robust agency discussion” and therefore subject to an exception to the Public Records Act intended to foster “robust policy discussions.” This is what the Tattler has always found to be true of both our City and School District. They never shy away from a “robust” policy debate… just so long as the public isn’t included.  If we're allowed to listen in, presumably the talk becomes wimpy and feeble.

This City and this School District, fearful as they are of transparency should come clean with regard to this withholding of documents.  We ask again, are these environmental documents for the Center of Community Life factual in nature?  If so, the City Attorney's own citation requires their release to the public, by his own reckoning he must make them available.  And in that case, Mr Biddle and the School District is wrong, for they are harming the public more by withholding these documents than by releasing them to the rightful owners, the public.

Emery's Roy Miller Obfuscates

"I'm Sorry, I Don't Have That Information"

Opinion
The Emery Unified School District lost a rare battle April 2nd when it failed to convince the City Council to amend the General Plan to delete a planned bike/pedestrian path near the future school site at the Center of Community Life (ECCL), causing School District watchers to conjecture about how the District is going to regroup to try to force the closure of this path.  The fact that even chief Emeryville City Planner Charlie Bryant openly speculated at that meeting that the District would not abide by the Council's decision to keep the path, gives Emeryville citizens an idea about the level of arrogance and the obstinacy of this School District.

The Emery Unified School District really does not like the idea of a bike/pedestrian path running alongside the proposed Center of Community Life.  They never elucidated precisely why they hate the path but the lengths the District went to force closure of this path are really quite extraordinary.  Point man Roy Miller, the District's architect (how many school districts do you know that retains an architect as a permanent employee?) purposefully denied City Hall decision makers the information they need to make an informed decision about it.

The first body to decide about the ECCL path was the Planning Commission at their meeting on February 28th.  At that meeting Mr Miller testified the existing high school swimming pool was going to be saved and the width required for the proposed bike/ped path would mean the pool deck would be compromised to such an extent as to render it useless.  The Planning Commission Chair, Venessa Kuemmerle asked Mr Miller how wide the existing pool deck is in order to get an idea of what he was talking about.  That's when Roy Miller, District architect in charge of the Center of Community Life told the Commission he wasn't sure, "I'm sorry, I don't have that information " he told the Commission.  He did say he knew it would destroy the pool's usefulness, an outright falsehood.  What he failed to tell the Commissioners is that the pool deck has plenty of extra room and it could easily be reduced a few feet to accommodate the path.
Onlookers might have been shocked to hear about a District architect that would not have this basic dimension information at hand especially since Mr Miller has been immersed in all aspects of this school campus build out for some 10 years.

Nevertheless, Roy Miller came unprepared for that Planning Commission meeting, if you believe his claim.  To those who feel inclined to believe Mr Miller, perhaps you should ask why, after he was chastised by Ms Kuemmerle, would he again fail to provide that same information a few weeks later, when asked by the City Council, at the Council meeting on April 2nd?  Once again, the Council needed to know how large the existing pool deck is so they could make an informed decision about the path, but again Mr Miller responded with, "I'm sorry I don't have that information." With schools Superintendent Debra Lindo looking on, he did volunteer that the deck is too small and the path would render the swimming pool useless.

Superintendent Lindo it should be noted, moved to protect her employee after the performance at City Hall.  She refused to comment after the meeting, on Mr Miller's tactics used against the City Council.

Roy Miller was called before the Planning Commission and the City Council to provide unbiased and objective information.  We like to think the three Council members who voted to keep our General Plan didn't believe Mr Miller when he claimed to not know how much space is available at the pool deck.  We're happy the School District's tactics didn't work on April 2nd.

So we have to ask, why is Roy Miller still in the School District's employ?  Is this how the District plans on operating all the way down the line with the Center of Community Life?  Will the District ignore the ruling by the City Council to save our General Plan and our ECCL bike/ped path?
With its history of shutting down dissenters on the Center of Community Life and these sort of arrogant tactics brazenly used, we say its time to reel in this District.  We expect the School District to honor the City Council's decision to save the ECCL bike/ped path.

Council Moves To Lower Standards For Center Of Community Life

Project Advertised To Exceed Gold Standard, Now Dropped To State Minimum

The city council voted tonight to reduce the energy efficiency and green building standards for the Center of Community Life to the minimum allowable by State law but lower than the city's own minimum requirements.  In a 3-2 vote (West and Asher dissenting) the council signed off on the proposed schools and community center known as the Center of Community Life, to drop a previously touted LEED gold standard. 
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a voluntary consensus-based market-driven program that provides third party verification of green buildings.  With the council vote, the Center of Community Life, a project the City proudly calls "State of the Art", will now flout the City's own official goal to make all new major development LEED certified.

The LEED chart:
The Center of Community Life will be off the chart.

Emery School District architect Roy Miller told the council members that keeping to the LEED gold standard would cost more money and school programs would suffer as a result.  
The School District has not released the total amount of money Emeryville taxpayers will spend on the Center of Community Life but more than $5 million has been spent so far on "community engagement" and consultants it should be noted.

Dissenting council member Jac Asher expressed concerns that the broken promise of green building standards for the Center of Community Life represents "another compromise" and she lamented that there has been an overall erosion in the project, a "chipping away" she said.  She expressed worry that the project ultimately will not meet its vision, a sentiment shared by councilwoman Jennifer West.

Council member West expressed concern
energy savings won't be realized over the
next 34 years of the project, the length
of the bond term.

Council members Ruth Atkin, Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman, the majority vote tonight, have been vocal in their support for LEED certified projects in Emeryville.
 City Hall has long touted its green bone fides.  A 'Green Business Program' has been initiated, giving certified green Emeryville businesses marketing support, helping them "communicate their dedication to the environment, their customers and the communities they serve" according to the city's website.

Emery's School Bond Gets In Just Under The Wire

Sacramento lawmakers are finally closing the noose around capital appreciation school bond (CAB) financing as usurious and abusive to taxpayers.  This type of bond financing is the same type Emery Unified School District voted last month to impose on Emeryville taxpayers.  The LA Times article below notes how school bond payback terms more than 25 years will be made illegal in California by the new law.  
Emery's latest bond now being prepared for the school rebuild project known as the Center of Community Life will entail a 34 year payback, illegal if it were passed after Sacramento passes the new law.  Emery will get in just under the wire as it turns out and taxpayers here will be on the hook repaying until 2047.  
Emery School District, well aware of the looming law, sought to move quickly in order to beat Sacramento.  Before State lawmakers recently released the information about the 25 year maximum being considered, Emery school architect Roy Miller erroneously assured the School Board that the new bond would be within the legal limits even after any new law passed by Sacramento.  With that (incorrect) information, the Emery School Board voted to sell the 34 year bond. 

Emery's nimble moves may make it notorious however; it may be the last school district in the state to saddle its taxpayers with the soon-to-be-illegal CAB financing.

Here's the Los Angeles Times story:

State legislators seek crackdown on expensive form of school finance

January 25, 2013 

Two state lawmakers moved on Friday to crack down on a costly method of finance that hundreds of school districts have been relying on to pay for new construction.

Assembly members Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) and Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo) introduced legislation that seeks to check the use of long-term capital appreciation bonds, which can carry debt payments many times the amount borrowed to build schools, classrooms and sports facilities.

Fiscal watchdogs, including county treasurers and California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, have warned repeatedly that the bonds are risky and reminiscent of the lending and Wall Street excesses that contributed to the Great Recession.

“We have been very careful to draft the bill in a way that will solve the problem,” Hueso said. “All the points we put together should address any potential abuse in financing strategies.”

The legislation would reduce the maximum maturity of capital appreciation bonds from 40 years to 25 years and limit a school district’s repayment ratio to no more than $4 in interest and principal for every $1 borrowed.

Districts would be given an option to refinance capital appreciation bonds with maturities greater than 10 years if better terms become available. Schools also would be required to provide their boards with public reports that detail planned borrowings that involve capital appreciation notes.

The analysis would include the cost of the bond issue, a comparison to conventional forms of financing, the reason for using capital appreciation notes and disclosures by brokerages hired as underwriters.

So-called CABs with maturities of 25 to 40 years have become a highly controversial way to fund school construction because they result in debt payments that can be eight, 10, even 20 times greater than the principal.

According to a Times analysis, at least 200 school and community college districts in California have borrowed billions of dollars using the long-term notes since 2007. The bonds have saddled them with staggering debts that will eventually have to be paid off by district property owners who are assessed a tax per bond issue.

Nearly 70% of the money borrowed involves extended 30- to 40-year notes, which will cost taxpayers $13.1 billion, or about 6.6 times the amount borrowed on average and far more than conventional bonds.

The bill is expected to be heavily scrutinized by members of the state public finance industry, school district officials and various education-related interest groups.

Though the capital appreciation bonds are more costly than conventional notes, local educators have said such bonds have been an effective way to finance capital improvement projects during the tough economy while still complying with statutory limits on property taxes that can be imposed per bond measure.

Officials for the Coalition for Adequate School Housing and the California Assn. of School Business Officials have said the Legislature should not take a cookie-cutter approach to school finance or restrict the flexibility of districts to pay for new construction.

Planning Commission Joins Sacramento: 'New School Is Too Small'

Emery School District Fights Back:

We Don't Care About California Standards
"These Are OUR Standards"

Emeryville's Planning Commission deliberated Monday night about the Center of Community Life on San Pablo Avenue and the new school to be built there.  Their findings were unanimous: the site is too small to fit everything the School District wants to cram in there.
Although the findings were part of a study session and not legally binding, the Planning Commission now joins with the State of California in its admonition about the $64 million new Emeryville school, that it doesn't meet minimum standards for size in both outdoor area and built out space.
School District officials attending the meeting acknowledged the new school will not meet State minimum standards for space but they bristled at the idea that the Emery Unified School District has no standards for the children.  The District has its own standards they insisted, "This [school] is what WE are doing, these are OUR standards" said District Architect Roy Miller.  He went on to claim the State lacks the authority to stop Emery from building the school the way it sees fit, regardless of any space standards ensconced in Sacramento.

Schools Superintendent
Debbra Lindo told the
Commissioners, regarding 
the school project, "There has 
been a tremendous amount 
of community input."

The Planning Commissioners each took their turns commenting about the site but Commissioner Buzz Cardoza seemed to sum it up the best for his colleagues, "There's no getting around it, we're squeezing too much on one piece of land" he said.  Commissioner John Scheuerman agreed about the cramped space and added, "Emeryville deserves better".  In the end, every single commissioner made the lack of space their primary stated concern about the proposed school and community center.

After the commissioners read a letter from a parent about the mistake of closing Anna Yates Elementary School and moving it over to the Center of Community Life site,  Commissioner Cardoza commented, "A 6 through 12 grade school would fit [the site]" but not a Kindergarten through 12th grade facility as is planned.

Roy Miller rose to inform the commissioners that urban schools with their tight confinements commonly don't meet the State minimum standards for space.  He attempted to mollify the commissioner's concerns by downplaying the space issue for the $64 million new Emeryville school; space mandates are "regularly modified" he said.  No commissioner made a claim of satisfaction in response to Mr Miller's appeasing words.
Commission Chair, Vanessa Kuemmerle, asked for a comparison with other neighboring schools but Mr Miller said he didn't have that information at hand.

The School District officials packed up their gear at the end of the meeting, vowing to return at a later date when the Planning Commission is scheduled to make its binding vote on the project.