Emeryville Arts Center

Reprint from today's San Fransisco Chronicle:

Architecture competition for Emeryville arts center

John King, Chronicle Urban Design Critic

Thursday, December 9, 2010

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Courtesy ECA

Aidlin Darling Design's concept for the Emeryville Center for the Arts includes an option for outdoor movies.

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JOHN KING

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Architectural competitions aren't simply a way for clients and designers to pair off. The best ones open windows of potential, signaling how the future might look and who the architects are that might bring it to life.
That's what is so instructive about the unusual - and unusually public - competition to select an architect for the new Emeryville Center for the Arts.
The six entries now on display at Emeryville City Hall are vibrant provocations, pushing us to rethink how a cultural building can define and engage a community that still is taking shape. But they're also classic examples of information overload. The architects are so eager to make an impression, they don't know when to stop.
The proposed arts center at 40th and Hollis streets would sit next to City Hall in one of the few Bay Area cities that isn't afraid of growth; Emeryville is home to Pixar's gated campus and hundreds of freshly minted townhouses, as well as the faux urbanism of Bay Street along Interstate 80.
This easy-rolling persona creates the sort of atmosphere where the young arts organization - which will occupy a site purchased by the city in 2006 - can take a chance on adventurous design. It restricted the competition to six emerging local firms that haven't yet been able to work at the scale of a complex that would include a 250-seat theater as well as galleries, classrooms, a cafe and space for the city's historical society.
The architects received the competition guidelines in September and presented their designs last week to a competition jury that includes the former city manager and an executive from Pixar. The winner will be announced next week.

Old shell, new moves

The site already contains a building, a one-story brick structure from 1942 that last housed a machine-parts fabricator, and five of the six teams use it as their starting point.
My favorite concept is from Aidlin Darling Design, which contains the theater space within an addition that lifts from the shell accordion-like, edged by a diagonal path to a landscaped roof where outdoor movies could be shown. The overlapped spaces would be inviting, with an architectural form distinctive enough to hold its own amid the visual clutter of nearby blocks.
Functionally, the most intriguing approach belongs to Jensen Architects. The firm bisects the shell with an open terrace running east to west, framed by a theater along one side with a ground-floor glass wall that could part to create an indoor-outdoor performance space within the masonry.
The other four proposals radiate the same sense of ambitious experimentation. They range from the faithful restoration of the original structure by Schwartz and Architecture that would pepper the roof with art installations, to the move by Edmonds + Lee Architects to replace the existing structure with a three-story cube wrapped in metal mesh along 40th Street, making room for a new plaza between the arts center and City Hall.
The common thread in all this? The architects grasp that arts can play a dynamic role as a young city like Emeryville carves out an identity. These aren't static containers for culture; they're meant to send off sparks.

Muddled insights

What's frustrating is the disconnect between the clarity of the design concepts and the overpackaged clutter on display at City Hall.
This is the public face of the competition, a chance for each team to distill its concept on three poster boards. But to varying degrees, each firm responded as though it were trying to dazzle trend-savvy architectural insiders. The boards are jammed with data and diagrams, along with eye-glazing examples of what critic Robert Campbell once called "ArchiSpeak," such as Envelope A+D's explanation that "program clusters create a mutable space in between fostering interconnections and exchange."
I'll take their word for it.
The problem isn't arrogance so much as overenthusiasm. Today's computer technology makes it easy to add one more image to a board, or squeeze in another paragraph by shrinking the point size of the text.
Design students would decode the conceptual barrage in a flash. The rest of us either muddle through or grumble that the images look weird.
But even if you come out more confused than captivated, this competition deserves attention from anyone in the Bay Area who cares about architecture's larger role in society.
Buildings aren't simply vessels to be filled. They can be catalysts for culture and community - and we're lucky to have architects exploring fresh ways for this to happen.

'Architecture Out Loud'

The design concepts for the Emeryville Center for the Arts, will be on display weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Dec. 17 at Emeryville City Hall, 1333 Park Ave.
-- Information is at www.emeryvillecenterforthearts.org

E-mail John King at jking@sfchronicle.com.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/08/BAMS1GMJH7.DTL#ixzz17faO5Xds

Bukowski Shocker Still Reverberating

Every Election It's The Same Story:

Chamber, Council Members Back 
Ken Bukowski

Opinion
Revelations published by The New York Times, exposing the dark side of longtime city councilman Ken Bukowski have generated a heavy wake, amusing and shaming residents while lashing an insular political elite that has stood by Mr. Bukowski through thick and thin.
Mr. Bukowski's admission to using methamphetamine during his tenure as both city councilman and mayor is a shock to many. It's less astonishing to those who have witnessed Mr. Bukowski nodding off during council and committee meetings, or to recipients of one of dozens of rambling typo filled e-mails featuring a predawn time-stamp.

Ken likes to inject his meth rather than smoke it
 according to his niece's public testimony

They Can't Say They Didn't Know
The real surprise is focused on Mr. Bukowski's council colleagues and financial backers at the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce. Both groups have willfully ignored, if not enabled Mr. Bukowski's downward spiral as long as it suits their purposes. After all, there's more comfort in applauding and rewarding a vulnerable man's unyielding political fealty than to help him regain control of his life and integrity. As what seemed to outsiders as an occasional bump escalated to what may have been routine dependence over the years, endorsements from the Chamber of Commerce and councilwomen Nora Davis and Ruth Atkin grew stronger and more effusive. The Chamber has even upped it's commitment to Mr. Bukowski's various re-election campaigns through its political action committee, EMPAC.

The Chamber loves Ken

All this generosity every four years occurred concurrently with Mr. Bukowski's unwavering support for developers whim's---regardless of the sense or value of a project. Second to Ms. Davis, Mr. Bukowski is the most consistently pro-developer voice on the council, a fact not lost on the Chamber.
Which begs the central question here: Are Mr. Bukowski's votes ideologically driven, or have certain powerful forces aware of his personal and financial misfortunes able to influence Mr. Bukowski's votes by threatening to release certain information?
An examination of Mr. Bukowski's lengthy voting record shows that only over the last seven or eight years has he become a reliable Chamber lap dog.

During recent campaigns, the Chamber has spared no adjective praising Mr. Bukowski in mailers and its newsletter---perhaps rewards for being a dependable vote.

So did
Nora Davis

Ruth Atkin
endorsed Ken

While Bukowski's drug use was something of an open secret, Ms. Atkin, Ms. Davis and the Chamber all continued to look the other way. It seems the Chamber of Commerce has made its Faustian bargain. A reliable ally was nurtured who delivered votes, but at the cost of sullying forever the Chamber's white robes. To those paying attention, this has been clear for years.  In the wake of the New York Times article, it's clear now to everyone.

Residents should be forgiven for wondering aloud what other elements of our elected official's private lives aren't exactly secret from powerful forces that could be leveraging that information into favorable public policy.

Emeryville Police Gets A Pair

"Mr Testicles" Solicits Help From Pixar

This morning the Emeryville police responded to an unusual call:  "There's someone dressed up as a man's private parts in front of the Pixar entrance."  Police checked out the lone costumed picketer and left the scene to attend to the seminal work of crime fighting.

The individual seeking to gain Pixar's attention distributed business cards reading:

Pixar can you help?
We are a small innovative charity
hoping to inspire your support.
Can you help us?www.malecancer.org

The charity's website reveals that this is "Mr. Testicles" which is part
of the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign, which seeks to challenge the
"prevailing ‘culture of embarrassment’, that discourages men from
discussing and resolving problems related to intimate parts of their
body." The charity argues that "too many men die of prostate, bowel andtesticular cancer because they do not know how to detect the symptoms in
the early stages, when treatment would be more effective."

Perhaps the funniest call that the EPD will receive today might also be
their most important. Have you or the men in your life been screened?
The American Cancer Society provides guidelines on who should be
screened (and when) on their website:Prostrate Cancer:http://www.cancer.org/Healthy/FindCancerEarly/CancerScreeningGuidelines/american-cancer-society-guidelines-for-the-early-detection-of-cancer

Testicular Cancer:http://www.cancer.org/cancer/testicularcancer/detailedguide/testicular-cancer-detection

New Union 'CAMPed' At City Hall

New Union For Managers At City Hall

The city council, acting as board members of Management of Emeryville Services Authority (MESA) voted unanimously Tuesday night to recognize a new labor union called the Confidential, Administrative, Managerial and Professional employees (CAMP); made up of formerly unrepresented managers.  
All employees at City Hall are now represented by unions except the City Manager, the City Attorney, the Assistant City Manager and the Human Resources Director.  


Budget minded residents have expressed concern the managers will use their new found bargaining clout to reel back recent voluntary "belt tightening" concessions made by management in light of the city's budget crisis.  
CAMP will now join the traditional Service Employee International Union (SEIU) public employees union at City Hall, in a relationship of brothers and sisters workers morphed from the former intrinsically adversarial relationship of workers and managers.

Council Grants Madison Marquette Exclusive Development Rights

Madison Marquette's Special Favors To Continue

Council Does Mall Developer's Bidding Two More Years

Tonight the Emeryville city council granted Bay Street Mall developer Madison Marquette another two years exclusive development rights to the empty land north of the mall at a contentious council meeting.  Added to the six years already granted, the developer will enjoy eight years of exclusive rights. The council voted 4-1 with Jennifer West dissenting.  More than 20 residents spoke urging the council to open up the valuable land for all developers to make proposals.

The council refused to consider requiring a fee to hold the land for the developer to partially offset the loss in revenue the city has experienced by the fallow land.

The majority of the contention centered on how a better project could be had were competition to be allowed but Council member Ruth Atkin dismissed any such talk, "competition happened in 2004" Ms Atkin sniffed, referring to the first year the council selected Madison Marquette for exclusive development rights.   Council member West spoke in favor of opening up the process to "new possibilities, new thinking" but was rebuffed by her colleagues.

Council member Ken Bukowski dared residents to vote him out of office if they didn't like his support for extending the exclusive rights to Madison Marquette, "You can vote us [the council] out" he taunted.

But the most fire came from Mayor Nora Davis.  The mayor took umbrage with the residents that spoke out against the ongoing special favors the city keeps granting Madison Marquette, and she said such talk "undermines people's confidence in the representative elected officials" raising the specter of wholesale people power for Emeryville.  She reprimanded residents that the "original concept" of the Bay Street mall was to have "one large mall" extending all the way to Powell Street.  "We have to get serious" she said as a warning to those who would ask for a better use of the land, possibly by a different developer.

The residents made much reference to establishing a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) with the developer of the site.  A CBA is a legal agreement between residents and a developer and it is set up to assure a project enhances a community.  Mayor Davis expressed a surprising ignorance of the idea of a CBA stating it isn't needed since the Bay Street mall already benefits the community by "strengthening the tax base".  This is the same recycled rejoinder that has been offered by city officials each year the council extends Madison Marquette's exclusive developing rights.  "It's the same argument every year; what disrespect"  said one dejected resident shuffling out of City Hall after the 4-1 vote.

Madison Marquette: Poop Or Get Off The Pot

Tuesday night is the showdown

Enough Is Enough

Opinion

We keep waiting...year after year for mall developer Madison Marquette to make a development proposal for the empty land north of the Bay Street mall and they won't make a move.

But from their perspective, why should they?  After all, this is a freebie for them.  They get to enjoy exclusive negotiating rights to this extremely valuable piece of land along Shellmound Street for as long as they want.  They get to keep this bestowal in their vest pocket for some later date that suits their particular intrinsic corporate stratagem.  So from Madison Marquette's vantage point, if the city council is so smitten with  them and willing to keep re-upping this free ride, why wouldn't they take it?

Enough Is Enough
After almost six years of sitting on this land that could be earning us much needed revenue, now Madison Marquette wants to add another two years while they dilly dally.  The council is doing Madison Marquette's bidding and will not allow any other developers to even make proposals for this important land.  Bearing all this in mind and the fact that that other developers over the years have proposed development there and conceded to meeting with residents to craft a better project, something Madison Marquette refuses to do, we now say enough is enough.

First Choice

The city council has to start working in our interests, not Madison Marquette's.  This valuable piece of undeveloped land needs to be put to work for us now and Madison Marquette doesn't seem up to the challenge.  We call on the City of Emeryville to end the years of special favors for Madison Marquette and open up this land to competition from many developers so we can select the best option for us, the residents.

Second Choice

If this city council cannot change it's stripes and stop the iniquitous give-a-ways to Madison Marquette due to some unseen force acting on them, then at least they should charge Madison Marquette a fee to continue to hold the land for them.  This is the absolute minimum that needs to be required at this point.  It is not in the resident's interests to give this away for nothing when our budget is in crisis.

We need to start the revenue stream from this land NOW.  Eight years is too long to wait with nothing to show for it.  Tuesday night, the council is going to have to move outside of their comfort zone and place our interests before Madison Marquette's interest.

Please show up at City Hall and weigh in on this important topic.  The council has shown they will listen to the residents if enough show up and speak out.  Tuesday night December 7 at 7:15 PM at City Hall.

Will Madison Marquette Continue To Get Special Treatment?

Council Ready To Extend Taxpayer Benevolence

Tuesday Showdown At City Hall

After months of cancellations, the council is finally ready Tuesday night to vote Bay Street mall developer Madison Marquette exclusive development rights to one of the most valuable pieces of real estate left in Emeryville.  The Washington DC based developer Madison Marquette wants more time to consider whether to develop a piece of empty land, cleared by the city north of the existing Bay Street mall along Shellmound Street.  The vote would grant the developer another two years of exclusive rights added to the five years previously granted by the city, shutting out any other developers from making proposals for the parcel of fallow land.

Possible Increased Funding Of Schools Rebuffed
Other developers have expressed interest in the site and at least one, Federal Development LLC has indicated it would enter into negotiations directly with residents to provide community benefits such as increased funding for the schools and providing funds for building family friendly housing and local hiring agreements.  Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE) has called on the city to negotiate better funding for the schools with developers but the 2001 deal struck between the city and Madison Marquette for the existing Bay Street mall is minimal in terms of community benefit, including school funding, RULE members say.  So far the council has rebuffed all overtures from other developers regardless of commitments of more funding for the schools than Madison Marquette has been willing to provide.

The seven years continuing exclusive rights to this one developer represents a taxpayer subsidy by denying the city receipts from a developed property.  This subsidy is added to the $50 million the city already extended to Madison Marquette for the existing mall.

For its part, Madison Marquette has said it needs more time to figure out if or how it wants to develop the land because of the recession.  Residents have complained that this seems a convenient argument since the economy was in much better shape before the recession and Madison Marquette still was granted exclusive rights and still wouldn't decide.  Madison Marquette it seems is content with keeping this valuable property in their vest pocket as long as the people of Emeryville will allow them.

If granted, Tuesday's exclusive negotiating agreement hand-out would be the longest exclusive rights deal given to any developer in Emeryville history.

New Manager's Union At City Hall

Manager's 'CAMP' At City Hall

Emeryville: Where Managers Need A Union Too!

News Analysis
Budget crisis? What budget crisis?

If you thought the City's attack on Emeryville Child Development Center earlier this year was based on anti-union sentiment among the City's managers, the story just got a bit more complicated. 

The City Council is poised to vote Tuesday on a resolution put before them from the managers on the city staff to make a whole new unionized workforce at City Hall.  They're  calling for the creation of a new union, just for managers called the Confidential, Administrative, Managerial and Professional employees (CAMP).  


It seems the City's managers have decided that what's good for the rest of the City's employees is good for them too and they have organized the union that includes everyone except the City Manager Patrick O'Keeffe, City Attorney Michael Biddle, Assistant City Manager Delores Turner, and the Human Resources Director. 


The manger's union will include the Fire Chief, Police Chief, Community Services Director, Child Development Center Manager, Senior Center Manager, and apparently all other previously unrepresented City employees; unrepresented because they are managers, not workers.

What motivated this revolt? There was some belt-tightening required to pass the most recent budget, and City management had to give up their Administrative Leave cash out, which in prior years had been used as a means to reap a nice year-end bonus for those managers eligible. When the City Manager and City Attorney recently modified their contracts with the City, they both retained a right to cash out Administrative Leave. So perhaps the hypocrisy of the City's leadership finally pushed these other managers to stand up for their posh benefits.

The revolt might also be in response to the new budget's call for the management to start contributing something towards the employee-portion of their retirements. Previously the City paid both its share and the employees' share, but the new budget called for employees to start chipping in. This was something the managers first tried to avoid last July with the proposal of a "me-too" clause that would give them the benefit of whatever deal another group, such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-represented employees, might be able to negotiate (see Tattler story "Budget Crisis" July 18). The Council reacted harshly to this proposal and made it clear that their direction to implement employee contributions towards retirement was unequivocal and should have already been implemented. Months later, it remains unclear whether it has, and now, it looks like the process for modifying the pay and benefits of the City's managers will require bargaining with their new union.

Here's a list of the new unionized positions: Job Classifications and/or Titles of Employees Represented by CAMP:

• ACCOUNTING MANAGER 
• ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR
• ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY 
• ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF 
• ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER/CITY CLERK 
• CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL
• CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER 
• CITY CLERK 
• EXECUTIVE SECRETARY/CITY CLERK 
• TECHNICIAN CIVILIAN COMMANDER 
• COMMUNITY PRESERVATION OFFICER 
• COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR 
• DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY 
• DEPUTY CITY CLERK 
• CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER MANAGER 
• DIRECTOR/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING DIRECTOR/PLANNING AND BUILDING DIRECTOR/PUBLIC WORKS/CITY ENGINEER 
• FINANCE DIRECTOR 
• FIRE CHIEF 
• HUMAN RESOURCES ASSISTANT 
• HUMAN RESOURCES TECHNICIAN 
• INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST I INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST 1/ 
• INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER
• MANAGEMENT ANALYST OFFICE ASSISTANT 1/ - 
• CONFIDENTIAL PARALEGAL 
• POLICE CAPTAIN 
• POLICE CHIEF 
• POLICE SERVICES MANAGER 
• PUBLIC WORKS SUPERINTENDENT 
• RECREATING MANAGER 
• RECREATION SUPERVISOR 
• SENIOR CENTER MANAGER

Council Member Bukowski Admits Drug Use; May Not Seek Re-Election

Council Member Bukowski Admits To Meth Use

May Not Seek New Term

Reprinted from the Bay Citizen / New York Times:

THE BAY CITIZEN

A Power in Emeryville Slides Quickly, Politically and Personally

Andy Isaacson for The New York Times

The California Zephyr passes through Emeryville, but the view belies the city’s prosperity.

By ZUSHA ELINSON

Published: December 2, 2010

Four years ago, Ken Bukowski, the five-time mayor of Emeryville, refinanced his house to buy new teeth.

Enlarge This Image

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Within a couple of decades, Emeryville has been transformed from depressed into a retail hot spot.

The transaction hastened his downfall.

Mr. Bukowski has served on the City Council since 1987, helping to spur a development boom that turned his tiny East Bay city into a center for retail giants like Ikea and Best Buy, and the home to innovative companies like Novartis and Pixar.

But Mr. Bukowski, who admitted in an interview this week that he was once a methamphetamine user, fell behind on his mortgage after refinancing. He borrowed money from developers, some of whom did business with the city. This year, he lost the house to an Emeryville businessman who had lent him $50,000.

Broke and embittered, Mr. Bukowski, 59, now says his penury is driving him out of politics.

“What am I getting out of this?” he said this week at his former home, where he continues to live, rent-free, in a compound strewn with broken doors, tubs and other debris. “I’m not a property owner anymore. I’m not getting anything out of this.”

If, as he suggests, Mr. Bukowski decides not to run for re-election next year, it will be the end of one of the Bay Area’s more colorful political sagas. A former nightclub impresario, Mr. Bukowski entered public office more than two decades ago to reform Emeryville’s government. He is widely described as a bright and dedicated public servant brought low by personal demons that left him destitute.

Mr. Bukowski’s legacy can be seen in the Emeryville skyline, composed of the hotels, restaurants and megastores in and around the sprawling Bay Street mall. The city has just 10,000 residents, but its commercial success and the tax revenue that comes with it have made Emeryville the envy of struggling municipalities throughout the Bay Area.

But Mr. Bukowski’s anticipated departure also symbolizes a political shift. The unrestrained development that he encouraged has brought a backlash from residents who say they want to make Emeryville more livable.

Tracy Schroth, a resident who is part of that movement, has written about Mr. Bukowski’s personal struggles in her blog, The Secret News. Like many other residents, she expressed sympathy over his conduct.

“Do I wish him ill? No,” Ms. Schroth said. “But do I want him running my city? No.”

Mr. Bukowski, who grew up in Brooklyn, made a splashy entrance into Emeryville in his 20s. He opened Silk’s, a club that catered to blacks. On Saturday nights, 2,000 people would jam the club to hear acts like Rick James and MC Hammer.

Mr. Bukowski said he was making $2,000 a week. He owned a plane that ferried him to a second home in Las Vegas. In the mid-1980s, he helped found the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce. A Democrat, he ran for City Council on a reform ticket, determined to transform a polluted, declining industrial city.

“The idea was that it was time for Emeryville to graduate,” said Greg Harper, a lawyer who ran with Mr. Bukowski, “to get away from being a city that was based on dying heavy industry and legacy powers that didn’t deserve to be calling the shots.”

Mr. Bukowski helped shape Emeryville’s business-friendly attitude, marrying the city’s strategic location — 1.2 square miles tucked between Oakland and Berkeley near the Bay Bridge — to policies encouraging development. As Emeryville began to grow, however, colleagues began to notice that his physical appearance deteriorated.

“He was strange; he would go to meetings and smell like a bum,” said Francis Collins, one of the developers who lent Mr. Bukowski money. “He’s an odd character, but he’s honest and he loves Emeryville.”

In the past, Mr. Bukowski has denied using methamphetamine or said he had tried it only once. In the interview this week, he said, “I’ve used it, but I’m not strung out.” He denied that he currently used drugs. “When you don’t have the money...” he said, his voice trailing off.


Mr. Bukowski said he never conducted city business after using methamphetamine. But he said the drug had helped him come up with good ideas, including one to force insurance companies to pay for the cost of putting out fires. The idea has not been put into effect.

Enlarge This Image

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Councilman Ken Bukowski has been a leader in the change.

Enlarge This Image

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

“It’s an amplified euphoria,” Mr. Bukowski said. “Any drug depends on the individual; it depends on the way you think. My mind gets very creative.”

Before the 2007 election, friends urged Mr. Bukowski to fix his teeth. Mr. Bukowski said he refinanced his house in part to raise approximately $10,000 to have his teeth pulled and dentures made. The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission later fined him $15,500 for using campaign money to help pay down the mortgage in 2003 and 2004.

His finances worsening, Mr. Bukowski approached businesspeople, friends and residents for money. Ken Schmier, a lawyer, lent him $50,000, according to Mr. Schmier and public records. Mr. Collins, who is in negotiations to sell property to the city, lent him $35,000, according to Mr. Collins and public records.

Mr. Bukowski also took on a consulting contract with Paxio, a fiber-optic company that also had business with the city. Last year the City Council censured Mr. Bukowski for what it considered unethical conduct including not disclosing his contract with Paxio. Emeryville police also probed allegations that Mr. Bukowski took other loans and gifts that he didn’t report. The investigation found that other residents had loaned him money and bought him clothes, said police chief Ken James, but no charges were filed.

Mr. Bukowski — who properly recused himself from the property negotiations according to city officials — says he did nothing wrong and was motivated only by financial need.

But the loans and Mr. Bukowski’s precarious financial situation have made some residents uneasy.

Shirley Enomoto, who has lived in Emeryville for 14 years and is active in civic affairs, said she always liked Mr. Bukowski. “Ken is one of the few people on the Council who will respond to my e-mails and complaints and really try to do something about it,” she said.

But Ms. Enomoto added: “It’s a problem when he goes to constituents for loans and doesn’t pay them back. It’s a problem if he’s voting and panders to businesses and you wonder, ‘Is he getting paid for his votes?’ ”

Mr. Bukowski said he was surviving on his City Council salary — $1,100 a month, plus benefits. He has told people that if he can find another job, he will not run again, but he has also said that if people encourage him to run, he might.

Mr. Bukowski said he applied for a job with the Association of Bay Area Governments but was turned down. He sought work as a bus driver for the Emery Go Round, the city’s free shuttle, despite hitting and killing a security guard with his car in 2007 while driving from a meeting. The police said they did not have probable cause to test him for drugs or alcohol. The city settled a wrongful-death suit, but Mr. Bukowski was not charged.

Mr. Bukowski said he was confident that he would ultimately pay his debts.

“I will pay them. I think I will have the wherewithal,” he said. “Something’s going to happen, something positive. I just have so many good ideas.”

zelinson@baycitizen.org

baycitizen.org.