City and School District Impose Gag Order on Task Force

Black List Revealed 

Members of the newly formed City Schools Master Plan Task Force, a group set up under the auspices of a paid School District consultant, received notice of an astounding "ground rule" at their first meeting on April 29th: a gag order forbidding contact with the media, including blogs and other local electronic media.

In February the Tattler brought you the story of the School District's decision to pay $170,000 to consultants, MIG and MKThink, to facilitate a Task Force that would determine the fate in a post-Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) world of six public properties that currently provide community services. Only three of those sites, Anna Yates Elementary School , the former Ralph Hawley Middle School, and the San Pablo Avenue dump site that is the future home of the ECCL (aka the former High School) are actually under the control of the School District. The other three sites, the 43rd Street Recreation Center, the Senior Center, and the Emeryville Child Development Center, are operated by the City. The future of only two sites is really in doubt, that of the Anna Yates Elementary site, and the Recreation Center.

$7700 Per Meeting

Not a Big Fan
of  Transparency:
He also had a black list and
a "plumbers unit" meant to
plug media leaks.

The Task Force was eventually created by both the City and the School District at a recent City Schools Committee meeting.  While the Task Force members and the public will be invited to six Task Force meetings, the consultants will conduct more than twice as many private closed door meetings as well.  Emeryville residents needn't fret that the consultants will be over-worked.  If they conduct the originally-planned 22 meetings, then that works out to just over $7,700 per meeting, generously provided by Emeryville taxpayers.  For that price, one might expect that these will be the most well-publicized city-wide meetings in Emeryville history. Not so.

The first of the Task Force's six public meetings was held on April 29th, although one will search in vain for any mention of it on any School District website.  This lack of notice constitutes a violation of Sacramento's Brown Act, which sets the actual "ground rules" for public meetings, Emery proclamations notwithstanding.
The Tattler has obtained the Task Force meeting minutes which speak for themselves (page 1 Section III):

"One Task Force member asked for clarification on the ground rule asking members not to speak with the media, wondering whether this applied to blogs and other local electronic media. Yes, it is intended to cover all media; having Task Force members refrain from speaking to the media ensures that no group member is pushing a specific agenda by exerting media pressure on other members, and helps to build a culture of trust within the group."

The Tattler confirmed that these minutes accurately reflected the discussion at the meeting through a non-member that was present.

As a public service for Task Force members, the Tattler provides the following Black List of those that Task Force Members should be sure not to speak with:

City and School District's Black List:

(partial list)

• Brian Donahue, Emeryville resident and blogger on the Emeryville Tattler
• Rob Arias, Emeryville resident and blogger on the E'ville Eye
• Calvin Rouse III, food critic for the E'ville Eye 
• Tracy Schroth, Emeryville resident and editor of The Secret News
• Shirley Enomoto, Emeryville resident and researcher for The Secret News
• Stefanie Pruegel, contributor to The Secret News
• Richard Ambro, Emeryville resident and columnist for The Secret News 
• Greg Harper, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News
• Ruth Major, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News
• Bill Reuter, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News 
• Jim Thornton, contributor to The Secret News
• Judy Timmel, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News
• Berkeley Fuller, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News
• Scott Donahue, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News
• Adrian McGilly, Emeryville resident and contributor to The Secret News 
• Jennifer West, Emeryville City Council member and blogger 
• Michael Webber, Emeryville resident and former? blogger at Condition: Emeryville
• Ken Bukowski, (provisional) Task Force member and EPOA blogger 
• Daniel Borenstein, Oakland Tribune writer and long-time member of School District "enemies list" after his editorial exposing the Measure J school bond
• The First Amendment, United States Constitution

The Task Force, which meets to decide the fate of properties in the Triangle neighborhood, meets across town at Ralph Hawley on May 20th at 6:30 p.m.

School Board to Vote on 'Surplus' Facilities Including City Owned Property

Fate of Public Properties/Community Services to be Mostly Determined Behind Closed Doors

Another $170,000 For Consultants

The Emery School Board conducted an early morning meeting last week to determine the fate of "surplus" school properties and included City of Emeryville owned properties. The decision made at the meeting would forward payment of some $170,000 for consultants to coordinate plans for a "Six-Site Master Plan" that will be decided mostly behind closed doors the Tattler has learned.

The Master Plan will be formulated by a Task Force led by the consultants in series of meetings to be concluded in June 2013.  San Francisco based consulting firm MKThink, one of the two firms coordinating the Master Plan, announced public representatives in the Task Force will be permitted at less than half of the 22 meetings planned.

The Six-Site Task Force will be led by consultant John Flores, formerly Emeryville's City Manager and will determine the fate of:

1. Anna Yates Elementary School
2. Ralph Hawley Middle School
3. Emery Secondary School
4. The Recreation Center
5. The Senior Center 
6. The Child Development Center

The Recreation Center, the Senior Center and the Child Development Center are owned by the City of Emeryville.

The other consulting firm paid to coordinate the Master Plan, Berkeley based MIG will jointly control with MKThink, the non public meetings and will present to the School Board final determinative fate of all community services in Emeryville in June.  The actual community is not invited to the majority of the slated meetings.

The non-televised School Board Facilities Committee early morning weekday meeting last week constituted a legally required public '1st reading' of the proposed sweeping policy change enabling placement of the issue on the Consent Calender for the Board's normally scheduled Wednesday meeting.  The Consent Calender decree would constitute the legally required 2nd and final reading of the Six-Site Master Plan.   Consent Calender items are commonly grouped together and considered accepted by "consent", meaning there is no actual specific vote.