Emeryville's Assessed Valuation Percentage Dropping

New School Bond Possibly In Jeopardy:

Emeryille Corporations All Say They're Not Worth Much

Emeryville businesses spend a lot of effort to tell people how valuable they are and about how they contribute to our town especially when they want something from the taxpayers but recently they've begun playing a different tune; now they're busy devaluing their businesses, saying they're not really worth all that much after all.  When it comes time to pony up the taxes, suddenly it seems Emeryville's much touted mighty business force is sort of anaemic and sickly.

Seen better days: now they're worth

$90 million less.

The Alameda County Appeals Board has been receiving many requests from Emeryville businesses for significant reductions in the assessed value of their properties according to a report from City Hall.  The report is alarming in the depth of the devaluation being claimed.   Councilwoman Jennifer West noted with some concern, "Every year there are appeals to the County for reductions, but this year the percentage has definitely gone up".  Emeryville, it should be noted must continue to show at least a 4% growth in assessed valuation city-wide or the newly issued Measure J school bonds are in grave danger.

The average appeal rate this year is 25% according to Ms West but some businesses are claiming a much greater loss of value.  Hardage Hotels, owners of the Woodfin claims a 41% reduction on property the county says is worth $42 million making approximately a $20 million contested discrepancy.  Hilton Hotel claims a 54% reduction in value.  Even Disney Pixar with its string of Oscar rated films including tonight's 'Toy Story 3' is claiming a sizable loss in value.

The problem it would seem is that there's no downside for corporations to claim a loss in value; something Ms West noted, "There's no incentive to not appeal these taxes" as she puts it.

Wareham's proposed 'Transit Center':  Even with the approval

to build, they claim their value has dropped $124 million.

It remains to be seen how much reduced value Alameda County will grant these businesses but it should be noted that Emeryville will receive significantly less tax on these properties in future years if these appeals succeed.  Further, the payback of the $95 million Measure J school bond passed by voters last November would dramatically increase if Emeryville's aggregate assessed valuation dips below 4%.  In that case, taxpayers will be on the hook for much more money spread over more time.  If the assessed value stays above 4%, the best case scenario,  then the payback amount for the $95 million bond would be nearly $400 million over 50 years.

Novartis campus: almost worthless.
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Pixar has requested an assessed valuation reduction of $94 million while the report assumes a $30 million reduction based on their stated 2011-2012 revenue.  Novartis requests a $211 million reduction with a $58 million assumption from revenue and Wareham Development requests $124 million with a $41 million assumption from revenue.

The February 15 letter accompanying the report from Emeryville's Chief Financial Officer, Karan Reid noted that as a result of the businesses assessments downward adjustments anticipated, the amount of tax allocation bonds the city could issue has "decreased dramatically".

Emeryville Hilton:  chicken feed...
decidedly down market.

  The report can be viewed here:

http://emeryville.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=39

Mayor Balks At Funding County Assistance Program

Mayor Nora Davis is quoted in this Oakland Tribune re-print:

Alameda County cities balk at giving troubled countywide program funding Program also likely to layoff employees By Chris Metinko Oakland Tribune Posted: 02/24/2011 03:42:44 PM PST Updated: 02/25/2011 09:08:48 AM PST HAYWARD -- The future of a beleaguered countywide assistance program seemed to grow a little murkier this week, as some public officials overseeing the organization were wary of their cities offering any money to keep it afloat. During the governing board meeting of the Alameda County Associated Community Action Program -- commonly called ACAP -- on Wednesday, representatives from Albany, Emeryville and Union City voiced concerns about providing city funds to help keep the unstable organization alive. "I think we have to seriously discuss the city's future with ACAP," said Jim Navarro, Union City's vice mayor and that city's representative on the ACAP board. The program is facing serious financial issues after terminating its executive director this month and discovering it had more than $400,000 in unpaid bills. The group could not meet payroll Feb. 18, and was bailed out Tuesday by the county board of supervisors, which increased the amount of money in a trust it started for the group by $75,000 so the program could pay its 28 employees. To help the group meet its operational needs in 2009, the county had established a $250,000 trust, which has not been paid back. The county supervisors approved loaning the group enough to meet payroll despite having grave concerns about its future. The supervisors also asked program board members to go back to their respective city councils and discuss splitting program costs evenly between the county and the 12 cities that make up the joint powers group -- every city in the county except Oakland and Berkeley. ACAP -- which offers myriad youth, employment and re-entry services to low-income residents with its $3.5 million budget -- operates with the assistance of a variety of public and private funding, primarily through the Federal Community Services Block Grant. The program's board agreed to go back to the respective councils; however, some members said they do not feel the organization does enough in their community to warrant emergency funds. "We have received almost no services form ACAP," said Nora Davis, Emeryville's mayor and representative on the ACAP board. "When it comes to what appears to be some serious deficiencies in ACAP management, you can't look at these cities to lay out funds to make up for that mismanagement." County Supervisor Nate Miley, the county's representative on the board and the supervisor who pushed the county's action on the emergency loan Tuesday, acknowledged his colleagues' concerns. "I can understand where they're coming from," said Miley, whose daughter works for the program. "I can see them having concerns. I have empathy." Miley added, however, that the program must first be put on stable ground -- then a decision about its future can be made. Attorneys from the county and cities represented in ACAP were expected to meet this week to discuss the group's troubling issues. The board also directed Sam Tuttelman -- the group's acting interim executive director and employment services director for the county's social services agency -- to explore downsizing the program in an effort to bring costs in line with revenue. Tuttelman confirmed that an investigation by a third party has begun to look into allegations made by current and former employees concerning the group's former director, Nanette Dillard. The allegations concern financial mismanagement and operational mismanagement of the group. The investigation will be paid for by the Alameda County's Risk Management fund. The program's board also agreed to enter into a contract with the Oakland-based law firm Wendell, Rosen, Black and Dean for outside counsel. The firm is experienced in representing government agencies. Zachary Wasserman said attorney fees should cost between $250 and $450 an hour. The board capped its usage of outside counsel at $20,000. Contact Chris Metinko at 510-293-2479.

Council Member Bukowski's Letter: City Attorney's Office

Any Emeryville elected official that makes a submittal request to the Tattler for publication, we will oblige.  Here then is Council Member Ken Bukowski's unedited  letter to the Tattler, received today:

Memo from Emeryville Council Member Ken Bukowski

       (510)  305-0000

To all:

I am requesting your support to urge the other members of the city council to have the Department of the City Attorney be required to keep hourly records of time spent by his office as well as other attorney's working in his department for every activity the city has to pay for.

As taxpayers in this community it makes sense to impose this requirement as we seek to identify wasteful spending in all city government.  This request is a common practice in the field of law, and the City Attorney & his staff, should be required to be accountable.

I remain disappointed the City Council refuses to consider the option of using outside counsel to perform the functions of the City Attorney's Office.  There is no good reason why the city council should not explore the option of using outside counsel. 

We're paying the City Attorney about $24,000 per month with nine months severance pay...  He earns more than the Oakland City Attorney. We pay the same amount of money as the City of Pittsburg pays for it's contract with an outside law firm of Myers-Nova who handles all their legal work. Their redevelopment agency is TEN TIMES the size of the City of Emeryville's redevelopment project.

When the State took money from redevelopment agencies last year, by a percentage of economic activity, the City of Pittsburg was required to return $128 million dollars to the State, compared to the $2.1 million the city of Emeryville had to pay, to give you some comparison.

The fact the city attorney works directly for the city council is a problem. The City Attorney must satisfy at least three members of the city council to keep his job. This creates a direct personal relationship between the city council members and the person holding the position.  The use of an outside firm prevents the possibility of such relationships.

Employee performance of the city attorney with an outside law firm would be determined by whether the client is satisfied. Such evaluations could occur annually, The question of client satisfaction would definitely include the opinion of the city manager, in an atmosphere where such criticism would be welcome, and not seen as an attack upon another employee of equal status with the city council. The City Manager does not participate in the evaluation of the City Attorney...?  A major flaw in the evaluation process.

The evaluation would also provide for the city council members to be objective where there is no personal relationship with individual city council members. Proper review of legal performance should occur outside of any political consideration. 

Specifically, as long as this city attorney knows that pleasing Nora Davis means he must do things against Ken Bukowski, and others, the system is broken.  Davis' strong level of influence over the City Attorney is a problem which must be recognized. Instead of each council member thinking about issues I raise during evaluation..  They have to decide what happens if anyone decides to support what I'm saying.

Davis will be very displeased........,  Does anyone want to bear the wrath of Nora Davis..?  This is reality.  That is what we have had for a long time. I'm tired of it, and I have to tell people about it.

At this point I'm simply asking for your support for the requirement for the city attorney to keep hourly accounting of all legal services performed. The council will be continuing the evaluation of his performance at the next city council meeting on March 1st.  Now is the time to communicate your support for this idea.

best:

Ken Bukowski

New Bike/Ped Bridge On Ohlone Indian Burial Site

Ohlone Indian Bones Found At Emeryville Bridge Site

Depiction of what's now Emeryville
before the arrival of the Spanish in
the late eighteenth century.

The Emeryville Redevelopment Agency will vote on a resolution March 1 to retain an archaeological service company after test borings for the proposed bike/pedestrian bridge connecting Bay Street and Horton Street encountered human skeletons last month.  An initial report to the city council claims the human remains are "thousands of years old" and are of native American origin.
The Alameda County Coroner was contacted and after confirming the bones were human, the bridge contractor notified the Native American Heritage Commission according to the report.  The remains were carted off the site for safe keeping and a team of "most likely decedents" will help re-inter the remains upon completion of the bridge.  The Coroner says the remains are from two individual humans.

The eastern landing of the proposed bridge is where the remains were found and a future small park there called Horton Street Landing will be the final resting place for the two individuals.  The council report says the decedents team will decide the actual final burial site within the park and it will not be publicly disclosed.

Early Emeryville residents.

A February 11 letter to the City Engineer from the archeology firm states the added work is not covered in the nearly $14 million bridge project known as the South Bayfront Bike/Pedestrian Bridge and is asking for an additional $41,567 for the excavation and re-burial work.

Important Community Meeting On Saturday

New Paradigm Sought:

Emeryville Residents Gather To Change How City Hall Works

Big changes are looming for Emeryville as Sacramento seeks to rescind the entrenched Redevelopment Agency era; opening the door for resident activism and a new era of transparency.  With this in mind, the citizen organization known as Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), is calling on residents to help usher in a new Emeryville, better suited to increasing livability for the residents.

RULE is hosting a community meeting this Saturday February 26 in the Bay Street mall Community Room (two floors below the AMC movie theater) from 3:30-5:30. All residents are encouraged to attend and help make a positive change for our town.

Lack Of Family Housing Brings New Study

Impending New School Exacerbates Housing Shortage

City/School District Solicits Family Housing Study

Mindful of a looming family housing crisis brought on by the passage of last November's Measure J school bond, the city and the school district has commissioned a housing study by the University of California Goldman School for Public Policy to address the extreme lack of family housing in Emeryville.  The study, a first of its kind for Emeryville, will focus on how the city's housing policy effects student academic performance and will expand the city council's options in addressing the dire shortage of family friendly housing.
A policy memorandum will be produced as a result of the study and will be completed by May.

Emeryville schools have been plagued by high 'mobility' rates among the out-of-district transfer students.  Mobility refers to transience of parents moving their residences and repeatedly enrolling their children in different school districts.  Students that live within Emeryville are thought to have a lower rate of mobility than their classmates from outside the district.  The district has an unusually high ratio of students from out of the district.
Classically, high mobility rates negatively effect student academic performance.

If the study makes these findings, the city's lack of decent family housing will be shown to be a contributing factor to the low academic achievement of the district as a whole and will tend to bolster the arguments of those who have been calling for more family housing.

The Goldman School for Public Policy is an internationally recognized graduate program that endeavours to empower decision makers with better policy tools and to encourage more transparency in public policy formulation.  The $7,500 commissioned study is part of a Memorandum Of Understanding between the city and the school district.

A look inside Pixar

Emeryville residents seldom get a look inside the Pixar compound, especially with the company's Soviet-style border fence that any local home owner is forbidden from constructing. Anyway, if you've ever wondered what goes on inside, here's a six minute video distributed by the New York Times Company made in cooperation with and approval of Pixar's PR department....(both links go to the same video)

http://www.wimp.com/pixarstudios/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/movies/awardsseason/10bagger.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=AR-SM-E-VM-SM-VID-IPS-021011-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

City Manager Recommends Employment Package For City Manager

City Manager Tells Council To Give Perks To..... 

City Manager
Pat O'Keeffe

A "staff" report, written by Emeryville City Manager Pat O'Keeffe and released to the city council for approval Tuesday night recommends increasing employment benefits to, wait for it......City Manager Pat O'Keeffe.

The pre-dated January 15th memo recommends changing the current employment contract with the city to allow the City Manager 100% of accrued unused vacation and administrative leaves to be received in cash upon 'voluntary seperation' or retirement and is an increase over the current contract.  Mr O'Keeffe further recommends allowing him to take 60% sick leave balance in cash and the city pays the remaining amount into his retirement account upon voluntary separation and any cost of living pay increases given to other managers also be given to him.

The City Manager currently receives some $215,000 per year plus benefits.

Mr O'Keeffe has had a rough go the last year, battling residents on a number of losing fronts.  In the spring, he recommended privatizing the Child Development Center and called the assembled concerned parents "too emotional" and chided them that they needed to be "realistic".  The council ultimately rejected Mr O'Keeffe's advice and the Child Center has been saved from the privatization scheme.
In the summer, Mr O'Keeffe supported the 'Lighting and Landscaping' tax ballot initiative, rejected by residents by more than 90% in the voting booth.  Mr O'Keeffe told council members to go ahead and spend taxpayer money on setting up the election since the measure would pass "easily".
The City Manager also recommended the council allow an ill fated Ikea warehouse expansion on 53rd Street, a proposal that galvanized the neighborhood in opposition.
These and other policy failures culminated in the City Manager losing the confidence of the rest of the management at City Hall, forcing them to unionize in December.

The new two-year contract is meant to replace the current contract between the city and Mr O'Keeffe that expires on March 4th.  The city council will decide on the City Manager's contract on Tuesday.

The Tattler reported on the previous iteration of the City Manager's employment contract in an October 18th edition.

The memo written by Mr O'Keeffe may be viewed here:
http://emeryville.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=29&meta_id=22743

Novartis Set To Expand

Re-Printed from the San Francisco Business Times:

As Novartis hires, construction could follow

San Francisco Business Times - by Ron Leuty

• Ron Leuty
• Reporter
• Email: rleuty@bizjournals.com

Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics is smaller than the old Chiron Corp., but it is set to grow.

Whether that growth leads to action construction at the Swiss company’s Emeryville diagnostics hub is a good question, but there are encouraging signs.

Novartis has added 200 jobs in Emeryville over the past two years. It is set, I note in a story in this week’s print edition, to build off the blood-screening franchise Novartis bought five years ago in its $5.4 billion acquisition of Chiron.

What’s more, an infectious diseae group under the banner of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research will have about 150 people — new hires and transfers from its current home of Cambridge, Mass. — when it gets all settled in at Emeryville by the end of 2012.

There are reasons to believe this growth under Peter Maag, president of Novartis Diagnostics and Emeryville site head, could translate into physical expansion.

For one, Oakland’s enterprise zone, which gives companies credits for hiring and on sales and use taxes and increased expense deduction for certain depreciable property, includes the Novartis campus.

Plus, Novartis last month filed an application with the City of Emeryville to demolish an aging, five-story lab and office building at the corner of Chiron Way and 53rd Street, said Charles S. Bryant, Emeryville’s director of planning and building.

Right now, Bryant said, the plan is to replace the building with a small surface parking lot and a whole lot of greenspace. But as Novartis continues to grow, construction instead of demolition crews may call the campus home.

Enlarge Image

SFBT photo by Spencer Brown.

Novartis Diagnostics President Peter Maag, flanked by Eric Whitters (left), global head of research, and Daniel Parera, global head of development.

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Email Ron Leuty: rleuty@bizjournals.com / Twitter: rleuty_biotech

Read more: As Novartis hires, construction could follow | San Francisco Business Times 

Scary Plan On Redevelopment? Perhaps Not.

Perhaps Not As Scary As City Manager Says

Governor Brown's Redevelopment Plan 

Fear of Governor Jerry Brown's plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies across the State to help balance the budget has resulted in a letter sent to the Governor from our city council and the issuance of a  city-wide rebuke of the Governor's plan from City Manager Pat O'Keeffe.  Emeryville, they remind us is unique in that virtually the entire city is in a redevelopment zone and any changes to redevelopment law brought from Sacramento will have profound effect on the city.  While this is undoubtedly true, perhaps the change might not occur as City Hall says it will.
The City Manager has attempted to incite fear with his missive but Emeryville residents could benefit from a cogent appraisal of the Governor's plan with a different perspective.  San Francisco Chronicle reporter Doug Kaplan offers a thoughtful alternative to the Emeryville City Hall wall of condemnation of  Jerry Brown's plan.  Here for your consideration, from Friday's Chronicle is Mr Kaplan's take on the Governor's  redevelopment plan.

Re-Printed from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Why redevelopment subsidies must end

Doug Kaplan

Friday, February 11, 2011

---

---

One of the most important elements of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal - restructuring the state's $5.7 billion-a-year redevelopment program - is complicated in its details, but very simple in concept.
Imagine a wide valley covered by some 400 farms. Each of these farms draws its water from the same aquifer that was once abundant but now is about to run dry. The authorities have three choices: shut down the farms; regulate the amount of free water they draw; or start charging farmers for the water they use, under the assumption that farmers will waste less water if they have to pay for it.
The farms in this analogy are California's 390 local redevelopment agencies. The once-abundant, now depleted, aquifer is the state's general fund from which redevelopment agencies ultimately draw their "free water."
The first choice - shutting down the state's redevelopment program altogether - is a nonstarter. Even though redevelopment agencies have squandered billions of dollars over the decades subsidizing Walmarts, Home Depots, shopping centers and similar projects throughout California, many agencies have spent money on a number of worthwhile projects, such as building low-cost housing and rebuilding public infrastructure. Closure is not an option.
The second choice - regulating the amount of money redevelopment agencies take - makes sense, and has been done in recent years, but unfortunately is no longer possible following the passage of Proposition 22 last November.
That leaves option No. 3 - making redevelopment agencies "pay for the water they use" - which is what Gov. Brown has proposed. Under the governor's plan, local agencies could continue to do everything that redevelopment agencies have done in the past, but with their own money.
And if they wanted to borrow more than the $20 billion that redevelopment agencies currently owe, they could, but, like school districts that want to pass bonds to build schools, they'd first have to ask voters for approval.
The governor's proposal to make redevelopment agencies self-funding would reduce the state's projected budget deficit by about $1.7 billion, and because of the way state funding formulas work, schools would also receive a multibillion-dollar benefit over time.
Everybody wins, except, of course, the developers who receive redevelopment subsidies to build shopping centers, investment bankers who earn fees for issuing more than $1 billion of redevelopment bonds every year, land-use attorneys who help orchestrate the seizure of homes and businesses that stand in the way of redevelopment projects, and others who profit from the status quo. These interests are wealthy and well-connected, and they are fighting hard to keep their free water flowing.
The governor's proposal is sustainable; the status quo is not. It's that simple.

Doug Kaplan, a real estate developer and former school board trustee, lives in Aptos (Santa Cruz County).

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/10/EDGQ1HLI51.DTL#ixzz1Dhi644Jb

The Tattler Is One Year Old

Nefarious, Base, Odious, Heinous, Criminal, Abominable, Debauched, 

Shameful, Dreadful, Flagrant,

 Unfortunate, Outrageous, 

& Corrupt 

There's been much to report on in Emeryville in one year.

Happy birthday to us!  We'll wait for laudatory cards

 and letters from City Hall and the business elite. 

RULE Calls Community Forum: New Focus

Residents United for a Livable Emeryville

RULE To Expand Resident Benefits Campaign At Forum

The grassroots resident organization known as RULE (Residents for a Livable Emeryville) has announced they intend on broadening their scope of interest and they are soliciting feed back from all Emeryville residents in an upcoming community meeting.  Previously the community organizing group mostly centered their concern with the Bay Street mall expansion known as Site B and how it should better address residents needs but Madison Marquette, the mall developer has recently put off plans for the expansion for at least two years.

Founding RULE member Judy Timmel said of the upcoming meeting, "With Bay Street now on the back burner, there still are many resident concerns that we the Emeryville residents need to push.  We realize there are different and disparate grassroots community groups that have formed around specific neighborhood objectives and it would be mutually beneficial to channel this energy for resident interests city-wide".  Ms Timmel added, "A lot can be accomplished when we work in concert together".

RULE plans to continue its community activist work by engaging the city council and also to help change the make-up of the council at the voting booth.  They announced they will begin election work for the November city council election when three seats will be contested: those now occupied by Ken Bukowski, Nora Davis and Ruth Atkin.

All Emeryville residents are invited to the community forum.  Bay Street mall community room (two floors below the AMC movie theater) Saturday February 26th, 3:30-5:00 PM.  Below is the RULE flyer for the forum:

School District Fails 'Productivity' Test

New Report Blasts Emery Unified

School District Among Most Unproductive In State

A damning report that illuminates the nexus between academic results and spending per pupil was released in January that shows Emery Unified School District among the worst in the State.   The nation wide report, a culmination of a year long comprehensive project conducted by the Center for American Progress, shows how a school district's 'productivity' is crucial in raising academic performance and how Emery Unified, a very unproductive district, ranked 38 on the State Achievement Index for $8563 spent per pupil against a state wide average 59 achievement for $6,900 spent per pupil.

The productivity of a school, the report shows, throws cold water on the old adage that student achievement rises with money spent and implicates the district, not the children in the poor academic performance.

Emery Unified School District is shown to be an outlier in terms of productivity; rating some of the worst scores on the 'return on investment' index, combining the lowest achievement with some of the highest costs, a sobering statistic in light of the nearly $400 million the district is poised to spend on new facilities passed by voters in November.  In the report entitled "Doing What Works", the Center for American Progress concludes, "The bottom line is additional dollars make a difference only if the funds are well spent".

Perhaps too early to raise arms in celebration:

 Council member Ruth Atkin, on right, joins hands 

with School Board member Melodi Dice

The district-by-district evaluation decouples the normal impediments to academic achievement based on parental income from administrative inefficiencies, making it harder to solely blame poor kids for low test scores.  In the case of the Emery school district, the report shows the district itself is failing the kids.

Productivity can be seen as efficiency and the report measures the academic achievement a district produces relative to its educational spending, while controlling for cost of living and students living in poverty.  The report also shows how unproductive districts like Emery spend  more on administration but  that an increase in productivity alone could raise academic achievement by up to 25% regardless of low parental income.

Emery Unified with its 38 ranking on the State achievement index and with $8563 per pupil stands out among its neighbors as a low productivity district even when compared to Oakland with a 39 State achievement but only $5782 spending per pupil.  Emery has a 80% low income rating versus Oakland's 72%.  Farmersville Unified School District in the central valley rates the same as Emery on the achievement index and surpasses it with 84% low income but spends only $6472 per pupil.  Also Pittsburg Unified School District in the Bay Area shares the same achievement ranking with Emery but spends only $4992 with 72% low income.

These numbers are in stark contrast with Albany Unified School District which rates 77 on the State achievement and only $6,187 per pupil and 22% low income rating and Alameda Unified at 66 on the achievement index at only $5,299 per pupil and 32% low income.  Berkeley has a 58 achievement for $8,034 at 40% low income.

The Center for American Progress is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization based in Washington DC. 

The entire project with attendant reports can be accessed here:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/educational_productivity/