Is Planning Commissioner Sam Gould the Seneca Scott of Emeryville?

 Sam Gould / Seneca Scott: Pugilists for Conservative Causes

Both Attack Progressives in Their Respective Communities, 

Both Win Free Speech Law Suits Over Their Respective Tormentors

News Analysis

Emeryville Planning Commissioner, Sam Gould, has won a court decision from litigation initiated by Councilman Kalimah Priforce for ‘targeted harassment, intimidation, and racially charged retaliation’ against the council member.  The judge’s decision, delivered following the civil harassment hearing in Alameda County Superior Court, found that Mr Gould’s assailing actions and speech directed against Mr Priforce that prompted the litigation did not rise to a level that would justify a nullification of the citizen Planning Commissioner’s free speech rights.

Emeryville's Progressive Black Councilman
Kalimah Priforce
The object of scorn from Planning Commissioner
Sam Gould.

Mr Gould, appointed to the Planning Commission by a City Council majority vote in March, has long directed a steady stream of social media invective against Mr Priforce, the lone progressive on the city council for his minority views.  A long time former member of Emeryville’s Bike Committee, Mr Gould’s vituperative attacks on Mr Priforce over the years violated Emeryville’s Code of Ethics for employees and committee members but neither the City Manager nor the City Council acted to enforce the code in support of Council member Priforce.  Since Mr Gould has been elevated to the position of Planning Commission, the public abuse from Mr Gould seems to have stopped Mr Priforce said.  “He [Gould] stopped on the day before he got on the Planning Commission”, Priforce told the Tattler.  Perhaps Mr Gould thought such partisan attacks against a sitting Council member by a sitting Planning Commissioner would appear unseemly enough that the Council majority would be forced invoke the punishments prescribed in Emeryville's Code of Ethics.
   

Commissioner Gould has not revealed why he seems to have stopped the public haranguing of the Council member however by March, the damage had already been done, prompting the Councilman to bypass the feckless and politicized Code of Ethics to make a case against Gould in Alameda County Superior Court.

Emeryville Planning Commissioner Sam Gould (on right)
Not a fan of Black progressives in Emeryville.
He ran for City Council (and lost). 
Pictured also is Council member Sukhdeep Kaur
and establishment Dem Igor Tregub, Chair of the
Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.

The charged public spectacle of the bellicose Sam Gould’s near constant haranguing of the Councilman has drawn comparisons with the infamous and truculent Oakland conservative activist Seneca Scott who for years has engaged in a scorched earth campaign against all progressive comers across Alameda County, especially former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.   Mr Scott, has served as a ‘hit man’ for conservative pols who have sought to appear above the fray.  Mr Gould has taken on that same role, essentially offering his services to the conservative majority on the Council who have desired to attack their colleague Priforce but who have thus far not been entirely comfortable appearing unseemly or partisan.

Interestingly,  Mr Scott also just beat an attempt to restrain him by use of the Alameda County court exactly like Mr Gould (they both had the same judge).  Mr Scott, a central organizer behind the recall of former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao drew the ire of Brandon Harami, a former Thao aide who sought the restraining order in April, accusing Mr Scott of harassing him online.  The judge in that case also ruled in favor of ‘free speech’ rights, for private citizens over elected officials.  Mr Scott, the darling of the East Bay corporate elite, has amassed a war chest to defend himself against many legal actions taken against him by many pols and private citizens who have come under his assailing taunts.

Both Sam Gould and Seneca Scott lost elections, Gould for Emeryville City Council and Scott for Oakland City Council and both then turned to attacking former opponents—Scott on a citywide activist stage, Gould locally targeting Mia Esperanza Brown and Calvin Dillahunty, two progressive Black council candidates associated with Mr Priforce.  Both Gould and Scott focus criticism on local (Black) progressive leadership: Scott broadly but mostly laser-focused on Oakland Council member Carol Fifie; Gould specifically on the progressive Council member Kalimah Priforce.  Scott and Gould endorsed and participated in and continue to participate in the astroturf network of establishment, centrist Democrats and right wingers.

Hired Gun Right Wing Oakland Community Activist
Seneca Scott
He ran for City Council and lost.  Now he works 
for deep pocket right wing pols in Oakland.

One of the main points of attack by Mr Gould against Council member Priforce has been his complaints he filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) alleging a failure to disclose funds donated to Priforce by businesses along 40th Street who feel the planned Emeryville 40th Street Multi-model Project will drive away customers.  Mr Priforce says changes he has championed for the 40th Street plan reflect community input and concerns over eminent domain takings by the City.  Mr Gould sees only corruption and he has been using social media to charge Mr Priforce, action the judge sees as an example of a citizen’s free speech right.  

However Mr Gould’s inconsistency, his laser‑focus on one official while ignoring others who benefited from the same project—raises questions about motives and selective concern.  He did not raise equal scrutiny toward Vice Mayor Sukdeep Kaur, who accepted monetary contributions from business leaders who are negatively affected by street closures associated with the project.  Mr Priforce voluntarily recused himself on all 40th Street Council decisions as the law mandates while Ms Kaur continued to vote on the project despite her campaign donations from the business owners.  Ms Kaur’s transgressions are known by Mr Gould Priforce says and the selective outrage by Mr Gould gives away a partisan bias rather than a concern over proper procedural policy making.
  

Mr Priforce is a progressive, the lone progressive on the Emeryville City Council and that’s at the center of the attacks by Planning Commissioner Gould who is a conservative.   The same conservative-calling-out-a-progressive motives apply to Seneca Scott, the East Bay conservative attack dog.

We reached out to both Commissioner Gould and Council member Priforce who supplied quotes for this story that are posted verbatim here:

Commissioner Gould recounted the court hearing: "While it was frustrating to have to go to court to defend myself over unfounded claims, I did not end up having to say more than a sentence or two.  The judge mostly focused the forty-five minute discussion on the fact Mr. Priforce brought this complaint forward with no real evidence supporting it.  While he may make up whatever he wants about me online, in a courtroom you must support your claims with evidence and he was unable to do so.” 

Council member Priforce said: “The judge acknowledged that a civil harassment order wasn’t the appropriate legal remedy - not because the harm didn’t happen, but because pursuing a civil suit would better address my needs - which remains on the table.  In the meantime, I’ve established a legal defense fund to fight back against the escalating attacks and politically motivated FPPC complaints - many of them anonymous, but all of them familiar...which he [Gould] admitted to.  During the hearing, Sam Gould made it plain: he wants my city council seat.  What he fails to understand is that I was elected to serve the people of Emeryville, not to satisfy the ambitions of astroturfing bullies.  This is the people’s seat - not his, not mine - and the people are prepared to defend it.”

Planning Commissioner Sam Gould Served Court Order for Harassment of Council Member

Age of Trump in Emeryville:

Planning Commissioner Gould Draws Civil Harassment Court Order From Council Member Priforce

Emeryville City Hall Continues Breakdown of Collegiality and Decorum Amid Continuing Attacks

Vanquished Culture of Collegiality Lands Commissioner in Alameda County Superior Court

Emeryville Planning Commissioner Sam Gould was served this week with an Alameda County Superior Court notice to appear for a civil harassment court order brought by City Council member Kalimah Priforce.  The action is being taken against Mr Gould for “targeted harassment, intimidation, and racially charged retaliation” among other charges, according to Mr Priforce.  Mr Gould began a campaign of publicly made charges, including smears against Mr Priforce from the beginning of Priforce’s 2022 City Council electoral victory, a free speech right for a private citizen, but he (Mr Gould) has been making the attacks as a member of an official City committee including also after he was appointed by the City Council to the Planning Commission, a violation of the Emeryville Code of Ethics, according to the Emeryville City Attorney.  Mr Priforce is requesting a restraining order against Mr Gould at the hearing in civil court, Department 105, scheduled for July 23rd.

Emeryville Planning Commissioner
Sam Gould

As part of a conspicuous anti-Priforce campaign, Commissioner Gould has made several official complaints (including a sworn complaint) to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for alleged rules violations by the Council member.  Of the three complaints received by the FPPC by Commissioner Gould against Kalimah Priforce, Calvin Dillahunty, and Mia Esperanza Brown (Two Afro-Latine - All Black), one was dismissed, one resolved and one, a duplicate from an “anonymous” complaint, is still being investigated.

For his part, Council member Priforce is positing that Commissioner Gould has been disproportionately targeting Black individuals in Emeryville civic life.  “This pattern is not isolated” Priforce told the Tattler, “It reveals a broader issue of racialized political hostility masked as procedural concern”, he said. 


The spectacle of Council members publicly attacking colleagues and now Planning Commissioners joining in the fray, is a new cultural affect for Emeryville, one that the hidebound City Council has been loath to acknowledge, much less address.  Concurrent with the New York City mayor election, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani taking hits from the Democratic elite for being too progressive, the culture of public attacks against progressive Council colleagues in Emeryville pre-dates the NYC state of affairs.  But the culture of anti-collegiality at the Council arguably began when voters overwhelmingly elected the progressive candidate for Council, Kalimah Priforce in 2022.  Emeryville has almost always had one or two progressives on its city council that were disliked by the pro-business majority but the culture of wholesale attacks and publicly ‘airing of dirty laundry’ by the council majority only began when Mr Priforce took office. 

Perhaps the most damning claims born of the Gould allegations comes from Council member Priforce, who has admonished the City for failing to act to check a “hostile environment for Black progressive leaders and residents”.  The attacks amount to what Priforce has called a “vendetta”, amid the barrage of unethical Gould missives.  Despite being a sitting Council member, Mr Priforce has received no protection from the City he says.  Notably, City officials, including new City Manager LaTanya Bellow and HR have failed to intervene—even after multiple complaints from the Councilman.  Meanwhile, Mr Gould—an appointed Planning Commissioner—has faced no accountability.

Mr Gould was hand selected and forwarded for a Planning Commission position by the influential former City Council member John Bauters, a primary Priforce antagonist, it should be known.

Mr Priforce notes that Sam Gould is acting in a manner that would tend to allow him to escape some level of accountability from the City.  For instance, Sam set up a publicly accessible blog to innumerate his charges against Councilman Priforce on the day before he took his oath as a Planning Commissioner, presumably done to escape the Emeryville Code of Ethics' prohibitions against a Commissioner making such attacks.  However, it would seem Mr Gould didn’t realize his status as a member of Emeryville’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, of which he was previously a member, also precludes such attacks, according to City Attorney John Kennedy.

Commissioner Gould was contacted by the Tattler for this story but he did not answer several offers to respond.  As an appointed government official, Mr Gould is also extended the courtesy to submit a ‘My Turn’ story for publication in the Tattler, unedited and in his own words for the people of Emeryville if he wishes.

Planning Commissioner Sam Gould gets served 

in the Planning Commission chamber

Pro-Israel Lobby Take Over of Local Democratic Party Delegate Group Despite Emeryville Councilman Priforce ADEM Victory

'Progressive Populist' Priforce Manages to Beat Back Conservative Tide in Local ADEM Election

Northern Alameda County Democrats have selected Emeryville City Councilman Kalimah Priforce to serve as a delegate for the state party in Assembly District 18, the lone progressive among a field of 13 other winners backed by Washington DC based Israel lobbying concerns.  Mr Priforce was the only candidate to win from the ‘People’s Slate’, a group of 11 progressive candidates in the 18th District ‘ADEM’ race.  The other group of candidates, called the ‘Housing and Climate Progressive Democratic Slate’, was backed by the pro-Israel lobby.  A much more conservative slate than the People’s Slate, the ‘Housing’ group won every delegate seat except Mr Priforce, a marked difference in the race run two years ago when the Housing and Climate Progressive Democratic Slate won only one delegate to the People’s Slate's 13, a near total victory for progressives.  In 2022, Assembly member Mia Banta, an elected official characterized as a 'corporate Democrat' by some, endorsed the losing conservative slate. 

Emeryville City Councilman Kalimah Priforce
Progressive Populist Winner in ADEM Election Again
The sole progressive and independent to win the
18th Assembly District ADEM election. 
The rest of the winners are endorsed 
and supported by the Israel lobby.

White Faces

Council member Priforce will sit on a much changed 18th Assembly District ADEM delegate board moving forward.  Notably, he will be the only man of color on the new 14 member delegate board representing northern Alameda County, a remarkable change over previous 18th District ADEM boards.  

The near total victory for the white conservative slate this election, compared with the near total victory for the progressive slate last time, calls into question the influence of the nation-wide Israel lobby inserted into local Alameda County politics. 

The remarkable two year shift to the right demonstrated by District 18 Democrats as characterized by the vote this year has been challenged by at least two voting Democrats; a rank and file member, Paola Laverde, as well as David Weintraub of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club Coordinating Committee, both of whom registered complaints with Democratic Party of Alameda County honchos highlighting campaign irregularities that would tend to benefit conservatives in the election.  Responses to election integrity complaints have not been widely distributed by party officials if they came at all. 

The ADEM boards control what the Democratic Party statewide will prioritize, and as such, they are considered very influential within the party that controls politics in California.  The ADEM delegates help select the Democratic Party platform, among other duties.  Here, they serve under the statewide Assembly member representative Mia Bonta, for District 18. 

Illegal Campaigning and 
Unattended Ballots 
The conservative slate placed campaign
flyers directly on the table where voting 
happened, a violation of the rules.  Also, ballots
are not filed and are out in the open. 
Progressives registered complaints about
the rules violations, after the fact.

The Tattler reached out to Emeryville resident Sam Gould, who ran with the Housing and Climate Progressive Democratic Slate and won, but he didn’t respond to our queries.  Mr Gould was selected as a new Planning Commissioner last Tuesday by the City Council in a 4-1 vote (Priforce dissenting).  Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla, who also ran in the “Housing” slate, also won an ADEM position.  Emeryville City Council member Courtney Welch ran with the conservative Bonta backed slate in 2022 and lost, as did Ms Chagolla.

Council member Priforce, having won the delegate race in the two lopsided elections, speaks to his ability to transcend partisan politics, at least outside of Emeryville.  Here in highly partisan Emeryville, Mr Priforce has been frozen out by his more conservative Council colleagues, even suffering a censure and a sanction for violating Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) rules, the same violation as the anti-Priforce Mayor, David Mourra, who also violated FPPC rules.  The fact that the anti-Priforce majority on the Council has not censured and sanctioned Mayor Mourra for the same violation, is particularly informative as to the partisan culture that has seized control of and degraded Emeryville politics.

The 18th Assembly District is comprised of Oakland, Alameda and Emeryville.  It is considered one of the most progressive assembly districts in the United States.   Emeryville, now having three ADEM board members, is represented far over its population in the District it should be noted.

The Democratic Party election just completed for ADEM representatives for the 18th District, is now represented by seven men, six of whom are white; the highest albedo level for an 18th Assembly District ADEM board in more than a generation.

Anti-Palestinian Connection Found in Emeryville Democratic Party Delegate Race

Specter of Anti-Palestinian Politics in Emeryville ADEM Race

Breaking News

The Tattler has found an anti-Palestinian, Gaza genocide denying funding and influence connection in the local ‘ADEM’ Democratic Party delegate race reported this week.  Four Emeryville residents are running in two posing slates as the Tattler reported.  One of the two slates, called the ‘Housing and Climate Progressive Democratic Slate’, is paid by ‘California Jobs and Justice’, a Sacramento lobbying entity that itself is funded by the ‘Democratic Majority for Israel’ a Washington based lobbying organization that is Gaza genocide denying and anti-Palestinian.  Emeryville residents Sam Gould and Regina Chagolla are both part of that slate.

The other slate in the ADEM race is the ‘People’s Slate’ and is the more progressive slate of the two, despite the word ‘progressive’ in the Housing and Climate Slate title.  Emeryville residents Kalimah Priforce and Sarah Perez are among the People’s Slate members.  Mr Priforce is an Emeryville City Council member and a current ADEM delegate for the 18th District.  Regina Chagolla is an Emeryville school board member.

The 18th Assembly District Democratic Party delegates are charged with setting the Alameda County Democratic Party agenda and so it has been considered a powerful position and one that reflects East Bay Democratic Party values.  The anti-Palestinian connection has not been reported openly by the Housing and Climate Slate, probably because that is not a popular position for East Bay Democrats.  

Democrats are urged to vote online by January 31st at ademelections.com   

Paid for by.....
That tells you what you need to know.

The top contributors are anti-Palestinian and Gaza genocide deniers.

Emeryville Democrats Urged to Vote for 18th District 'ADEM' Delegates

Four Emeryville Residents in Two Slates of Candidates Seek Local 'ADEM' Positions

Democratic Party members in Emeryville, which make up 59% of the voters, are being asked to vote for party delegates for the 18th Assembly District to help set the direction of the Democratic Party in the future, a race that includes four Emeryville residents.  The agenda delegates, referred to by the acronym ADEMs (Assembly District Election Meetings), are divided into two slates, a conservative and a progressive and the four Emeryville residents running are split into both slates.  

The progressive slate, called the ‘People’s Slate’, is comprised of 11 members including Emeryville residents Kalimah Priforce (a City Council member and existing 18th District Delegate) and Sarah Perez, while the conservative slate, called the ‘Housing and Climate Progressive Democratic Slate’ is comprised of 12 members including Emeryville residents Sam Gould (who recently lost a City Council bid) and Regina Chagolla (a School Board member).  

The conservative slate, despite its name with the word ‘progressive’ in it, is noted for its corporate backers, notably the Real Estate Investment Trust lobbying group YIMBY California.  They put stripping local housing policy to make way for more corporate landlords at the top of their to do list.  Also notable is the fact that zero men of color are represented; very unusual for an East Bay election slate.

The progressive slate lacks corporate underwriting and concerns itself with traditional Bay Area progressive ideas like anti-gentrification, tenant protections, climate justice and a labor-led clean energy economy.  

The Tattler reached out to the four Emeryville candidates for comment but only Kalimah Priforce and Sarah Perez responded.  

Mr Priforce said, “For far too long, 'we the people' have been confronted with a false choice - a vote between fascism on one side and corruption on the other.  The Democratic Party needs to change by winning back the people's trust.  As an elected delegate representing Emeryville to the California Democratic Party as part of Assembly District 18, I'm once again a member of the People's Slate because of our diversity and working class progressive values that place people over profit.”  

Ms Perez stated, “Unlike others whose work is based on self-interest, my commitment for social change is personal and therefore dedicated to people who need help.  I stand in solidarity with the People's Slate. Please vote for all of us because this fight is for you.”

Democrats are urged to vote online by January 31st at ademelections.com 

UPDATE: A mistake in this story regarding the acronym ADEMS has been corrected.  Thank you to the reader for catching our mistake.

The People's Slate
Featuring Emeryville residents Kalimah Priforce and Sarah Perez

The Housing and Climate Slate
Lot's of White men!
Featuring residents Sam Gould and Regina Chagolla