Pixar's Broken Promises Affect Schools, Affordable Housing

 Pixar Said it Would Fund Our Schools...

Where is the Money?

Tattler Protest Causes Pixar, Schools, City to 

Unite in Resistance 

City Hall, Schools Don't Seem to Want the Promised Money

Emeryville’s schools and affordable housing problems are worse today because two decades of broken promises by a local successful and beloved company that’s become one of the biggest corporations in the world.  In a deal made two decades ago for a corporate campus expansion that failed to deliver for local residents, Pixar, now a division of Disney Corporation told Emeryville voters they would fund Emeryville’s schools and give $700,000 yearly to help pay for affordable housing, neither of which has materialized. 

An election, held on November 2nd 2004, concerned whether Pixar, who wanted a major campus expansion, should be subject to a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that would bring improvements to the Emeryville community.  Pixar, who didn't want to be beholden to a CBA said its promises to fund the schools and provide money for affordable housing were enough.  To help assure victory, Pixar told the City and residents, they would pack up and leave Emeryville if the two ballot measures allowing for the expansion didn't pass.  

The promises were not a part of the development agreement but Pixar spent more than $200,000 and went around the City of Emeryville, making their promises directly to the Emeryville voters in their 'Yes on T&U' campaign mailers sent to every household.  The majority of voters said yes, handing Pixar a victory and as a consequence, there was no CBA but the promises to fund the schools and to fund affordable housing are still in effect.    

The Tattler will continue the protest against Pixar's 
broken promises over the next few months despite the 
threats from the City of Emeryville.

The campus expansion agreement gave Pixar a very large parcel of land that was previously earmarked in the General Plan for housing and also an entire public street, the former Emery Street between Park Avenue and 45th Street.  The land consolidation made in the agreement created Emeryville’s largest ‘super block’, stretching all the way from Hollis Street to nearly San Pablo Avenue.  Super blocks are antithetical to pedestrian activity and other goals of mixed use zoning.   They are generally seen in planning circles as a hallmark of broken public policy. 

Since 2004, Pixar has failed to fund the school district at all and it has failed to pay the City for affordable housing at a rate any higher than it did before the campus expansion.  The promises were made in campaign literature mailed to every voter by the ‘Yes on T&U’ campaign committee registered with the State of California.

As the 20 year anniversary of Measures T&U approaches, the Tattler has stepped up the pressure on Pixar with a 12 foot protest banner placed at the main gate on Park Avenue.  The protest will continue on occasionally and unannounced through the summer and into November.

Pixar spent $200,000 to convince Emeryville voters, threatening
to leave if they didn't get everything they wanted.

Noteworthy in the protest, nobody from the City of Emeryville or the School District has shown any interest in getting Pixar to honor their promises.  Odd because those two agencies stand to benefit from Pixar paying the money they said they would.  In fact, the City has ‘sided’ with Pixar in the imbroglio.  In a January 19th letter obtained in a public records request, City Manager Paul Buddenhagen told Pixar Facilities Manager Patty Bonfilio, the impending protest banner would be considered a “threat to property” and he added, “we will be on alert to him”, referring to the Tattler editor.

We reached out to the School Board and the Superintendent of the District for this story but our letters and calls were not answered.  Also, Paul Buddenhagen was contacted but he did not return calls or emails.  Rounding out blanket refusals to comment was Pixar’s Director of Public Relations, Eric Zerton.  

We tried to hand out literature explaining about the broken promises to employees driving in
in the morning but none would take a flyer.  One employee expressed fear of reprisals from Pixar,
"There are cameras out here", they said.
One interesting thing we learned: Virtually EVERY Pixar employee
 drives to work.  We saw zero bikes and only one pedestrian in the hour and a half we were there.

Emeryville’s then City Manager John Flores sells the Pixar expansion to the Planning Commission (above).  

He said the suburban style development “will better meet the City’s vision for providing a more dense, vibrant urban city”.   In fact Pixar has not provided community vibrancy at all, locked away as they are in their sealed campus, with no community interaction whatsoever.  But he saved the biggest canard for last; “Pixar has been and will continue to be a major benefactor to the community, supporting the schools”, he told the decision makers.  No City Manager since then has explained the broken promise and what should be done about it.

Pixar Reins In Emeryville Schools Funding

Pixar Cuts School Funding

Pixar has severely curtailed its corporate support for Emeryville schools over the last two years according to officials at the Emery Education Fund.  The Fund, a local non-profit tasked with shepherding donations to the schools, said  Pixar had for several years held pre-release screenings of its new movies as a fundraiser for the Emery Unified School District. Pixar, now a subsidiary of Disney Inc., discontinued these screenings two years ago, yet it now pre-screens films as charitable benefits for other school districts and non-profits outside of Emeryville.

Brave New World?
Nothing for Emeryville's schools
again this year.

Phillip Powell, Emery Ed Fund's Interim Executive Director told the Tattler the pre-screenings have historically been a large part of the Emery Ed Fund, netting over $100,000 for Emeryville schools in 2010, the last time Pixar cooperated.  "Normally Pixar pre-releases happen in May" Mr Powell said after he acknowledged it appears Emery has been skipped again.  For its part, this year Pixar has offered a charity pre-screening of its new film, Brave for the educational non-profit corporation College Track.  Emery's School Superintendent, Debbra Lindo, sits on the Board of Directors of College Track.

In addition to ending its charitable giving to Emeryville Schools, Pixar is seeking a reduction in how much it owes in property taxes---a large portion of which normally flows into our classrooms.  Reducing the company's tax liability is a goal being sought on various fronts by the company's corporate leaders in Burbank and their brigade of tax attorneys.  City council members have noted that Pixar managed to sharply trim its business taxes that also accrue to Emeryville. Disney/Pixar reported $1.46 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year. Granted, Pixar is now just one division a conglomerate. Disney, which paid about $7 billion for Pixar, was billed a total of $8000 in business taxes on its Emeryville campus and all Pixar operations.  A low tax take for City Hall is courtesy of a cap on business taxes, established thanks to the effective lobbying efforts of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce. The cap is a massive annual gift to Emeryville's largest companies from City Hall making any profits above the cap tax free.  Its a scheme that enables Pixar to pay Emeryville at a far lower rate than other businesses here, essentially forcing small businesses to subsidize Disney's tax cut

Sadly, Disney/Pixar isn't alone in dialing back its commitment to the community that welcomed them with open arms. Another large firm, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis set up an annual $5000 scholarship to help cover college tuition for science majors graduating from Emery High School.  Novartis donated $100,000 for the scholarship fund in 2006.

Emery was shut out of last year's Pixar film pre-screening, Cars 2.  The Park Avenue corporation instead offered the film as a philanthropic fund raising device elsewhere.

The Walt Disney Corporation bought Pixar in 2006 in an all stock transaction worth $7.4 billion and is said to be worth in excess of $75 billion.