Emeryville Has A Strange Way Of Showing Gratitude

The Only Thing Citizens Who Volunteer Hear Is Crickets Chirping

Opinion
The City of Emeryville has been on a tear of late, trying to fill vacancies on various civic committees.  They've notified residents of the importance of civic engagement and how we can all craft a better city together.  All this requires ordinary citizens to step up and offer to help by giving of their time and join the committees that help run our town.
Council member Jennifer West has been especially vocal about this, imploring residents to become involved on her web blog and at various forums.

With all these appeals from the city for residents to listen to their better angels you would think that the city itself could summon its own sense of civic engagement and at least thank those residents who were not selected to committee positions for which they volunteered.  They don't even bother to notify those who weren't selected.

A simple notice, such as: "Thank you for showing an interest in our town when you applied for the xxxxx committee.  We're sorry but you were not selected at this time but we hope you will try again in the future" doesn't seem like such a hard thing for the city to do but apparently it is.  More than a year has passed since this simple request was made for City Hall to at least notify the people who weren't selected, but apparently the city feels this issue is unimportant.  Instead, all the city offers those who are not selected for committees is stony silence.

We feel that this is not the way to build citizen involvement and moreover, it's just plain rude.  Citizens should be thanked for volunteering of their time to help improve our town, not given the cold shoulder.

Alta Report Released: What Now For Horton Street?

Council Spent $200 K On New Bike Study, Will Results Be Honored?

The Emeryville city council authorized spending $200,000 last summer for a now completed study to aid in the preparation of a new bicycle/pedestrian plan for the city but previous votes against the Horton Street bike boulevard by council members have cause some Bike Committee members to question the council's commitment to biking there.
The study, which calls for limiting auto traffic on bike boulevards including Horton Street was finished this week and will be deliberated by the Bike/Pedestrian Committee on Monday.  The Committee is expected to vote to adopt study findings into a new bike/pedestrian plan for the whole city, replacing the previous plan from 1998.

If the Bike/Pedestrian Committee votes as they have before, it will be the third time in five years they have voted to limit auto traffic on Horton Street for safety but twice before the council has overridden the committee's votes.

Horton Street has turned out to be a very contentious thoroughfare.  Bike committee members have expressed frustration that the council, in addition to Nora Davis and Ken Bukowski on the Traffic Committee and to whom the bike committee is subordinate, keeps torpedoing their goals to increase safety for Horton Street, the last quiet north/south running route available for bikes.
In fact, the council, under pressure from developers on the street such as Wareham Development, has voted to widen Horton Street and add even more cars there to the detriment of safe biking.

The public is invited to attend the first public viewing of the long anticipated Alta study at the Bike/Pedestrian committee meeting in the basement "garden" room at City Hall on Monday April 4th at 5:30 pm.

Fee Schedule Reflects Values

New Building In Emeryville Nets Fees

The final part of 2010 and the first part of 2011 Emeryville Building Department fees collected tally has been released by City Hall and as is the case with fees the city charges, an cursory examination can reveal much about what the city values.  For the period between July 2010 through February 2011, here are the totals of some of the fees collected:

• Art In Public Places Fees             $251,246
• Building Permit Fees                  $208,577
• Technology Fees                          $39,563
• Schools Fees                                  $8,650
• Microfische Fees                            $4,654
• Traffic Impact Fees                       $2,105

These fees reflect the city's take from 197 building permits issued.  The total amount of all fees collected was $1.7 million.  The valuation assessed for the permitted work during the time period totals $62.6 million with about $46.5 million of that categorized as commercial construction.

Emeryville Earth Day

The City of Emeryville has requested this notice be posted in the Tattler:

CAMP Representatives At Bargaining Table Against SEIU

City Hall's Cynical Management Manipulations

Opinion

Politics in Emeryville can sometimes seem as if it were a microcosm, analogous of the nation where unions are being squeezed and even crushed.  Such is the case with the plight of labor at City Hall.

To the detriment of the taxpayers in town, management at City Hall has been very crafty (and persuasive) in their efforts to protect their pay and benefits, while simultaneously striping the lowly SEIU workers of their already low pay and benefits.  The Tattler reported (December 3rd) how, after failing to secure pay enough raises and pension contributions from the city council in the face of the recent budget cutting, management formed their own phony union (known as CAMP) to assure any compensation raises earned by the legitimate unions would also automatically be showered upon the management.  This turns the traditional paradigm of workers bargaining with management on its head.

Effectively, the management has ensured they have hitched a ride with any pay increases fought and won by the lowest paid workers and all the while they are fighting to cut the pay of their union "brothers".  They're saying the SEIU workers need to sacrifice, not CAMP.  It's cynicism to the nth degree and it's being done at the taxpayers expense.

Stephen Cutty, the field representative for the SEIU workers has called the bizarre spectacle of one union fighting to cut the pay and benefits of another union unethical and we agree.  Certainly to have representatives from the phony management union sitting at the bargaining table with the city one day and then switching hats and representing the city the next day is unseemly at best.

We have to ask who needs to have pay raises and who needs to have pay cuts at City Hall. SEIU workers, already the lowest paid workers in the city can't afford another round of pay cuts and still live in Alameda County.  The average SEIU worker makes $4,462.50 per month with pension contributions of $1,338.70 for a total compensation of $69,614.40 per year.  The cost of living in Alameda County is listed at $68,375 per year for a difference of $103 per month for SEIU workers and their families.  Management wants to squeeze these workers for an additional 7%, pushing them below what it takes to live in Alameda County.  Meanwhile, the average management compensation at City Hall is $138,465.00 per year, including pension contributions, leaving an extra $5,840.00 per month for management employees.

The management at City Hall is exposed as Machiavellian manipulators.  The wrong people are being forced to make the concessions and this sort of disingenuous politics doesn't represent the values of the people of Emeryville.  Management is pushing down compensation for the poorest workers while they keep theirs up and it's all being done in our name.  We call on the management to honor labor and go the bargaining table in good faith and remember the people of Emeryville are the true inheritors of labor relations policy and practice at City Hall.  We're watching.

School District To Host Forum

Requested post from the Emery Unified School District:

Emery Unified School District

Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP)

PARENTS & CAREGIVERS FORUM

Wednesday, March 30, 2011   5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Shop B - Emery Secondary School

ABOUT THE FORUM… Numerous studies have shown that improving student health positively impacts academic performance. Emery USD needs input from parents and caregivers to finalize goals for its student health program. Our program is based on the Coordinated School Health Program model which links various school operations in a more cohesive and effective manner to improve outcomes for students. 

Presentations:

Family & Community Involvement

Caring About Children, Parents, Caregivers and Each Other

An Update on the Emery USD Family Resource & Parent Training Center

Psychological, Counseling and Social Services

A “Big Vision” for Serving the System so it Better Serves Students

Dr. Ken Wyatt, Director of Special Education and Student Services, Emery USD

Safe, Healthy & Green Schools

Kids and Place: Sustaining a Positive School Culture and Environment

Max-Monroy Miller, Dean of Students, Emery Secondary School

Ken Wright, Director of Security, Emery USD

Please come, learn about CSHP and help us improve student health!

For additional information on CSHP/School Wellness: Juliette Dunn, Director of Wellness & Food Service, Emery USD, juliette.dunn@emeryusd.org, 510-601-4910

For additional information on the Parent & Caregivers Forum: Lynn Ballard, Planning Consultant, lynnconnects@gmail.com, 510-301-3881

Council Takes Baby Step Toward Family Housing

New Day In Emeryville?

Is The City Council Ready To Deliver Family Housing?

News Analysis

At first the Housing Committee was a solid block; unsupportive of family housing, but now there's a little crack in that block.  A single outspoken promoter of family friendly housing was appointed Tuesday to the key city body responsible for housing policy. The outlier joins a dozen other members on Emeryville's Housing Committee.  The council's surprising and unanimous appointment of Emeryville resident Sarah Harper to the committee may indicate the start of a far reaching shift in Emeryville's housing policy.

What exactly is 'family friendly housing' in an urban context?   The Berkeley city planning firm MIG and Associates, hired by Emeryville to advise the decision makers, tells us among other things it's homes, apartments and condos with real bedrooms for privacy, not wall-free open floor plans. It's affordable housing with two and three-bedrooms, rather than a single bedroom. It's housing with access to a small safe outdoor play area for unsupervised play so parents can take care of domestic chores.  It's housing on quiet pedestrian activated streets without car dominance.
Why is it important? Besides the virtues of a diversified populace, it's because city officials recently convinced voters to spend nearly half a billion dollars in principal and interest on new facilities for all 765 students enrolled in district schools. Factor out the 306 Oakland and Richmond children who attend school in Emeryville, and the $400 million school campus works out to $871,460 per Emeryville pupil. If the council, school board and residents want this massive investment to make sense, they must raise enrollment. Despite an explosion of new housing construction in Emeryville over the past 15 years, the number of local children attending our schools has been declining. Why? Because despite building several thousand new units, barely a handful are suitable for families.

Suburban model of middle class
family friendly housing.

Of the 13 committee members, only Ms Harper (nominated by Councilwoman Jennifer West) mentioned family housing as a worthwhile goal on their applications for joining the committee.

This newly added singular voice on the Housing Committee might represent the first inklings of a new culture at City Hall. On some future day, a loft developer might be told, "Thanks but no thanks, we're trying to build housing for families in order to support our schools".

Up until now, the Housing Committee has been a poor champion of family housing.  In June 2010, the committee finished an exhaustive 172 page update to the general plan entitled 'Emeryville Housing Element 2009-2014.' Providing family housing didn't even make the list of seven housing goals.  

Urban model of middle class
family friendly housing.

The city council is mainly responsible for the committee's general disinterest. Until now, the problem hasn't been antipathy to family housing on the council, but a philosophy that government shouldn't interfere with developers driven by the free market.  The problem is that it's simply more profitable to build lofts. Or for that matter to build five, one-bedroom condos instead of two three bedroom ones in the same space.  This 'hands-off-developers' council approach has created our current situation; awash in a certain childless younger demographic while actually losing families.  

The council's abdication of governance in deference to the profit motive of private developers has resulted in a critical lack of family housing that has created an urgent problem for the new school.  If the problem is to be fixed before the school's completion, a massive program of home building must begin immediately.  Whether it's too late or not, it seems this new appointment to the Housing Committee might indicate the beginning of a shift in governing philosophy by the city council. It could show that the Emeryville city council is ready to put the public back into public policy and begin governing.

Emeryville Is Named In EPA Lawsuit

Emeryville Receives Stipulated Order From EPA: 'Clean Up Your Act'

Amid the over heated talk emanating from City Hall about how green Emeryville is, comes this gem: Emeryville is responsible for raw sewage flowing into the San Francisco Bay.  The following is a re-print from Stormwater, the surface water journal for professional engineers (the photos are added by the Tattler):

March 15, 2011

Bay Area Municipalities Ordered to Protect San Francisco Bay from Sewage Discharges

SAN FRANCISCO– The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Justice Department, California Water Boards and San Francisco Baykeeper today lodged a stipulated order that will settle a Clean Water Act enforcement action against seven municipalities in the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). The settlement is part of a broader enforcement strategy to address sewage overflows to the San Francisco Bay, especially during rain events.

During this most recent rainy season, which began in October 2010, nearly 125 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage from EBMUD’s wet weather facilities overflowed into the San Francisco Bay during wet weather.

Among other things, the seven municipalities listed as defendants in the order have cooperatively agreed to update aging infrastructure and collection systems that have been major contributors to the overflows.

“This is great news for San Francisco Bay,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Sewer overflows are an egregious problem, and the changes these cities are making will help protect our waters. EPA's goal is to have zero discharge of raw or improperly treated sewage into the Bay."

Raw sewage contains pathogens that threaten public health, leading to beach closures and public advisories against fishing and swimming. This problem particularly affects older urban areas, where minority and low-income communities are often concentrated. Keeping raw sewage and contaminated stormwater out of the waters of the United States is one of EPA’s National Enforcement Initiatives for 2011 to 2013.

Today’s settlement is the latest in a series of Clean Water Act settlements that will reduce the discharge of raw sewage and contaminated stormwater into United States’ bays, rivers, streams and lakes. Other U.S. cities that have made similar improvements following a federal order include: Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu, Cincinnati, Washington D.C., and more than 40 more. The initiative will focus on reducing discharges from sewer overflows by obtaining cities’ commitments to implement timely, affordable solutions to these problems, including the increased use of green infrastructure and other innovative approaches.

As part of the order, Oakland, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley, Alameda, Albany, and the Stege Sanitary District (which serves Kensington, El Cerrito and the Richmond Annex section of Richmond) will make substantial improvements to their wastewater collection systems to reduce sewage spills to the Bay. These defendants are collectively referred to as ‘satellite communities’ in the stipulated order.

After filing an initial administrative order, EPA referred this action to the Justice Department in December 2009. Following this referral, the United States filed suit against the satellite communities. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Water Resources Control Board are also participating in the litigation and the settlement.

"The San Francisco Bay is a national treasure which will be protected through the implementation of the commitments made in this agreement," said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. "The settlement will also result in a healthier environment for the communities that surround the Bay by improving the infrastructure and operation of the municipal sewage systems."

As part of the settlement, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board will help to oversee the satellite communities’ compliance with the stipulated order. "This settlement is a significant step in ensuring coordinated and proper investments by the east bay communities in their sewer infrastructure,” said Bruce Wolfe, Executive Officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. “This will result in healthier creeks and a cleaner Bay."

San Francisco Baykeeper intervened as a plaintiff in this action, and is a party to this stipulated order. "The plans we have agreed to here will set in motion significant projects that will create green jobs and result in a cleaner Bay,” said Jason Flanders of San Francisco Baykeeper. “We look forward to working with EPA and the Waterboards to ensure that these infrastructure improvements occur expeditiously."

The Justice Department, California Water Boards, Baykeeper, and the Satellite Communities collaborated in settlement negotiations aimed at developing initial measures that would complement the work required by a 2009 EBMUD Stipulated Order. As with the EBMUD Stipulated Order, the Satellite Communities stipulated order will provide initial relief needed to reduce the ongoing violations and assist in developing a final remedy.

Source: US EPA In addition, each of the Satellites have specific requirements based on an inspection of each collection system previously conducted by EPA and input from Baykeeper. As in all federal Clean Water Act enforcement actions, the defendants in this case could face penalties as part of the future settlement.

Union Bashing At City Hall

Shades Of Wisconsin

City Hall's Madison Moment

Tuesday night, Emeryville's lowest paid public union members descended on the council chambers, agitated after receiving notice from City Hall that they will have their pay cut, again.  The workers have  partaken in 19 good faith bargaining sessions with the city that have not produced a contract.  Some 42 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) city workers, laboring without a contract since June, let the city council know they're tired of being treated like a doormat Tuesday night.

Many city workers already do not make enough money to live on but the city is asking them to take another pay cut.  The city for its part asserts that Emeryville is facing "long and short term economic uncertainty" and the SEIU workers should bear the shared sacrifice and accept their pay cuts. The union contends that talk of shared sacrifice is unconnected to reality since it is only the SEIU workers that are really being forced to sacrifice.

Pay Day at Emeryville City Hall for SEIU workers.

Stephen Cutty, the field representative for SEIU noted the lack of symmetry in regards to the cost of living adjustments for three of Emeryville's public unions, "From 2006 to 2012 with a one year extension, the firefighters got a 26% adjustment and the police got 18% while SEIU only got 1.7%"  Mr Cutty told the Tattler that SEIU employees are already the lowest paid in the city, "The lowest paid SEIU employees get only $1800 a month while the lowest paid fire fighters and cops get $7,400" he said.  "Average SEIU salary is only about $4000 per month", he added.

Union representatives noted Emeryville's rainy day fund known as the 'Uncertainty Fund' is now more than 250% of what the Government Finance Officers Association's best practices recommends.  Workers contend these are the very uncertain times the fund is meant to ameliorate.  Further, they maintain Emeryville has a record of overestimating expenses and underestimating revenue to the tune of an average of $3.4 million per year.  The workers say if less than 10% of these excess funds were applied, it would be enough to cover all the cuts to the employees wages and mitigate the inevitable fractured services the city will experience with the cuts.

More than one worker Tuesday night noted the parallels between the language of Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker and the management at City Hall, raising the idea that perhaps it's not the interests and values of Emeryville's residents that's really being addressed by the management, but rather some other ideological agenda that's operative here.  Union representative Stephen Cutty said he thought Emeryville's recalcitrance to decently pay the SEIU workers can be traced to 1968 Memphis and the infamous garbage workers strike lead by Martin Luther King.  "The garbage workers there were also the lowest paid in the city", Mr Cutty said,  "It's sad that we're still fighting the same fight today". 

Japanese Earthquake Tsunami Wave hits Emeryville

Street Trees Illegally Cut On Park Ave

First Test Of Newly Strengthened Tree Ordinance

In a test of Emeryville's newly strengthened tree ordinance, a Park Avenue commercial property owner that in Janurary cut down three mature street trees without permission is being notified that he could be penalized $13,800, triple the value of the trees, according to a City Hall interdepartmental letter received by the Tattler.

The February 8th letter, written for City Manager Pat O'Keeffe by the Public Works Department, says the three trees in question were recently inventoried by the city's arborist as part of a city-wide tree count and that their value was determined to be $4,600 a piece.  The tree ordinance allows the City Manager to waive the fine but in that case the city council must hold a public hearing and the full fine can be reinstated and imposed at the council's pleasure.

Scene of the crime

Should the fines be successfully imposed as the ordinance calls for, it would be a first in Emeryville public policy; the business sector being held accountable, at least as far as the tree ordinance is concerned.

This case of the tree ordinance, first enacted in 2003 and strengthened by amendment in May 2010, will be the first test of the fortitude of the amendments.

The triple value fine and the requirement for a public hearing were among the amendments, added after several residents pleaded to the city council to better protect Emeryville's publicly owned street trees.  Before the amendments, the ordinance, known as the Urban Forestry Ordinance only fined illegal tree cutters the value of the tree removed and allowed the Director of Public Works to waive the fine at his discretion with no possibility of a public appeal in front of the city council.  Many residents at an August 2008 council meeting decried that the result of the lax penalties and low fines in the ordinance was that developers kept cutting the street trees.

Before the ordinance was amended, developer Pulte Homes 'Glasshous' project was involved in a particularly egregious violation.  In order to save money and to ease construction of the condos, the developer illegally cut every large mature street tree for one full block on 65th Street east of Hollis Street; some 20 trees in all.  The Public Works Director, Maurice Kaufman waived Pulte's fines with no explanation offered to the public.  Mr Kaufman also allowed the developer to replace the formerly spreading 30 foot tall trees with small six foot saplings.  If the newly amended tree ordinance were in effect at the time, such large fines would be levied against Pulte, it's unlikely they would have cut the trees, opting instead to work around them.

The trees illegally removed on Park Avenue were 25-30 feet tall locust trees, located on the south side of the street between Harlan Street and Haven Street just east of City Hall.  The owner of the commercial property adjoining the trees was identified as the responsible party according to the February 8th letter.

In addition to the $13,800 fine, the owner of the property could be charged for an arborist fee and also be responsible for replacing the three trees.  The ordinance also provides for criminal penalties as well as civic penalties but a city official said it's highly unlikely any criminal intent will be asserted by the city.   The City Attorney wrote a letter to the property owner notifying him of the violation and the right to appeal any fines imposed.

Feds Charge Oaks Club Official: Chronicle

As a service to our readers, here's a re-post of a story in the SF Chronicle----you can view the same text on their website by clicking here.


Emeryville casino director charged in money structuring

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

(03-09) 08:19 PST EMERYVILLE -- The Asian gaming director at an Emeryville casino that was raided by law enforcement officials has been charged in federal court with structuring monetary transactions to avoid detection, court records show.

Hoa The Nguyen, 47, of Alameda who oversaw Asian gaming at the Oaks Card Club, had nearly $3 million deposited in his personal bank accounts from 2006 to 2010, and of 380 deposits, only five were greater than $10,000, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Federal prosecutors said Nguyen structured more than $906,000 in transactions at three banks in Los Angeles and the East Bay so that each transaction totaled less than $10,000 a day at any given bank location. By depositing large amounts of money in this fashion, Nguyen avoided federal reporting requirements, authorities said.

Nguyen is under investigation in connection with a "criminal organization involved in drug trafficking and extortionate lending" at the Oaks Card Club and Artichoke Joe's, a casino in San Bruno, Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Bryan Wong wrote in an affidavit.

Last Wednesday, federal, state and local law enforcement officials searched Nguyen's home, raided both casinos and arrested 14 people, including casino employees. Loan sharks at the casinos threatened to harm borrowers who failed to repay loans with 10 percent interest per week, according to a 60-page indictment.

Some of the defendants dealt methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy and face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison if convicted, authorities said

A man described as a onetime leader of the operation, Trang Man Looc, 54, of Hayward, was arrested and charged last week in federal court with bank fraud for allegedly lying on mortgage-loan applications, court records show. Looc, who has convictions for attempted extortion and weapons possession, is an associate of gang members in San Francisco's Chinatown, according to the FBI.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

Controller: Redevelopment Rife With Fraud Statewide

The battle over liquidating redevelopment agencies across California received some additional ammunition today as State Controller John Chiang released a review of 18 redevelopment agencies, finding widespread accounting and reporting deficiencies, questionable payroll practices, substandard audits, faulty loans, and inappropriate use of affordable housing funds.

The Emeryville Redevelopment Agency was not among the agencies reviewed.

According to the report, no reliable means was found to measure job creation with redevelopment spending because Redevelopment agencies either don’t track job creation or methodologies lack uniformity and are often arbitrary. The review exposes the difficulty of holding RDAs accountable for their spending due to loose definitions that enable any area to be labeled “blighted,” and then subject to redevelopment.

Required payments to school districts were also frequently missed.

Chiang said that $5.5 billion dollars that would otherwise provide services are consumed instead by redevelopment agencies annually, with little accounting.

The report notes that there is no consistency in defining blight. In the Southern California city of Coronado, every privately-owned parcel in the city, including multi-million dollar beachfront homes, are considered blighted. Emeryville's redevelopment area includes the entire city, with the exception of the Watergate condo complex. In Palm Desert, redevelopment dollars are being used to renovate greens and bunkers at a 4.5 star golf resort.

In the City of Pittsburg, the redevelopment agency signed a service agreement with the city and transferred $3 million to the city’s general fund. But no documentation exists to show that the $3 million actually went to redevelopment services.

Many agencies also may have misused money that was supposed to pay for affordable housing.
• The City of Los Angeles charged 20 percent of its redevelopment administration costs, $833,000 to its affordable housing fund.
• The City of Calexico also charged for administrative costs, code enforcement and for performing audits of the agency to affordable housing funds.
• The City of Parlier inappropriately bought a daycare center with it.
• and The City of Hercules billed $9,600 it spent on lobbyists to its affordable housing funds.
“The lack of accountability and transparency is a breeding ground for waste, abuse, and impropriety,” said Controller Chiang. “In whatever form local redevelopment takes in the future, the level of oversight and openness must be consistent with the amount of public dollars entrusted to their care.”
Read the full report here.

They Said It

Dick Kassis Said It-

"If We Raise Taxes On The Oaks Club, They'll Go Out Of Business"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.


Former city councilman Dick Kassis predicted the Oaks Club card room would go out of business. In light of the recent FBI raid Wednesday, perhaps they will.  However Mr Kassis' predictive skills aren't as impressive as they seem: his pronouncement of the Oaks Club's demise was 14 years ago.

Dick

The year 1997 was an election year in Emeryville. Aside from Kassis' candidacy for a fifth, four-year term was an initiative asking voters to lift the tax rate on card room profits from what they were: the lowest in the Bay Area, to parity with the regional average.
Mr. Kassis strongly urged voters to reject the tax hike on gambling, claiming "If we raise taxes on the Oaks Club, they'll go out of business".  What Mr. Kassis neglected to inform voters was that at the same time he was once again receiving the maximum campaign donations from the Oaks Club allowable under law.


Emeryville voters ended up re-electing Mr. Kassis but rejecting his advice about card room tax rates. Voters correctly gambled that Kassis' warnings of bankruptcy and the Oaks' closure was just hot air.  Some 14 years later it appears that Emeryville voters were right and Mr. Kassis was simply a paid agent for an allegedly crooked den of loan sharks and extortionists that didn't want to pay their fair share.  


No apology has subsequently been offered by Mr. Kassis for spreading disinformation to the public during an election campaign while ostensibly on the Oaks Club's payroll via generous campaign contributions. But it seems, if you've been in office since Disco was king, there's no need to explain; perhaps he has been waiting these subsequent 14 years to be proved prescient about the Oaks Club going under. 

New Bike/Ped Bridge At Risk: $3 Million Already Spent

City Dilly Dallied, State Moves To Seize Funds:

South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge May Never Get Built

The people of Emeryville have been waiting for the South Bayfront bike/pedestrian bridge for more than a decade and now they may never see it at all.
City officials acknowledge the $13.5 million bridge, which is to cross the railroad tracks and connect the Bay Street mall to Horton Street near 53rd Street, is imperilled because of the Governor's plan to abolish redevelopment agencies state-wide.  City Hall it should be noted, is not so keen to acknowledge the bridge has been put in danger because of its own slow pace building it.

An early iteration of the bridge design:
$3.5 million may be lost forever

The State will consider next week, the fate of redevelopment agencies and should it be decided to abolish them, the South Bayfront bridge might not be possible to be built according to Helen Bean, the city's Economic Director.  She noted there could be a lawsuit to stop the Governor's plan from the California Redevelopment Association, a non profit legislative advocacy group forwarding the interests of redevelopment agencies.  At that point, according to Ms Bean, it would be "unclear what Emeryville's Redevelopment Agency could do" in terms of building the bridge.

Building the bridge has been a city priority for some 15 years but has been recently picking up speed.  The design aspect has been completed to the tune of $3.5 million and that money is not recoverable if the State stops Redevelopment Agency obligations for the remaining $10 construction contract.  In the best case scenario, the contract for construction could go out in June according to Ms Bean.

For the first seven years or so, the city moved slowly on building the bridge, fighting bike advocates as former City Manager John Flores together with the council majority pushed to keep bikes off the bridge preferring a pedestrian only span.  An engineering firm consequently was hired to design a pedestrian only bridge.  Former council member John Fricke built his campaign for election on building the bridge and making sure bikes would be able to use it as well.  Mr Fricke succeeded and the South Bayfront Bike/Pedestrian Bridge Committee was ultimately formed.  If the construction contract for the bridge is allowed, city officials say it should take 18 months to two years to complete the work.

The city's new general plan and the bike/ped advisory committee has explicitly stated the bridge is necessary for a livable town.  Ms Bean agreed and she weighed in on the consequences of a State revocation of redevelopment agencies, "If the [Emeryville] Redevelopment Agency is not able to build the bridge because of the Governor's proposal to dissolve redevelopment agencies, that would be a tragic loss for the city".

With Sacramento bearing down, the city is now facing the possibility that the whole endeavour will be for naught, considering that precious time was lost early in the fight over who would get to use the bridge.

Drugs, Loan Sharking At Oaks Club

Re-printed from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Drugs, loan sharking alleged at raided casinos Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, March 3, 2011 (03-03) 16:34 PST EMERYVILLE -- Employees and associates dealt drugs and engaged in racketeering and loan-sharking at the two Bay Area casinos that were raided this week by law enforcement officials, authorities said today. Loan sharks at the Oaks Card Club in Emeryville and Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno threatened to harm borrowers who failed to repay loans with 10 percent interest per week, according to a 60-page indictment unsealed today. On Wednesday, federal, state and local law enforcement officials arrested 14 people and raided both casinos. One suspect remains at large. While serving 20 search warrants, agents seized several hundred thousand dollars in cash, thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips, jewelry, drugs and guns, investigators said. For at least the last two years, the defendants "commingled illegal profits from loan-sharking and drug dealing with the legitimate casino funds" found in cashier areas located in the Asian gaming sections of the casinos, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. "A loan obtained at one casino could be paid back at the other. The loan sharks used threats and their reputation for violence to ensure repayment of the loans," the indictment said. Some of the defendants dealt methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy and face mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison if convicted, authorities said. At the center of the alleged criminal enterprise at the Oaks Card Club is Lap The Chung, manager of the Asian gaming section, and Bob Yuen, who was not a casino employee but helped direct the criminal activity, prosecutors said. Chung and Yuen engaged in loan-sharking and drug dealing, while May Chung, a casino chip runner and Lap The Chung's sister, and Chea Bou, a card dealer, provided gambling chips for the illegal loans, the indictment said. Across the bay at Artichoke Joe's, Ding Lin and Hung Tieu engaged in loan-sharking, and Tieu's brother, Cuong Mach Binh Tieu, dealt drugs at both casinos, authorities said. E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/03/BABF1I3H3J.DTL#ixzz1FapOkvg6

Oaks Club Raid

Oaks Club Raid

Re-Printed from the Oakland Tribune:

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Bay Area raids target suspected gangs, gambling activity By Harry Harris Oakland Tribune Posted: 03/02/2011 07:15:54 AM PST Updated: 03/02/2011 10:22:15 AM PST Click photo to enlarge Different law enforcement agencies enter the Oaks Club in Emeryville, Calif. during a raid that... 1 2 3 4 » FBI agents assisted by other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies fanned out across the Bay Area on Wednesday morning in a series of raids involving organized gangs, gambling, loan sharking and money laundering. The FBI in conjunction with the U.S. attorney's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS and the state Justice Department's Bureau of Gambling Control was executing arrest and search warrants with the help of local law enforcement agencies. Authorities raided more than dozen locations throughout the Bay Area, including the Oaks Card Club in Emeryville and Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno. Authorities had arrest warrants for more than a dozen people. It is believed some arrests have been made. Authorities were looking for people, documents and other evidence related to illegal activities. The FBI and other agencies had been doing this investigation for about two years. One of those present at the Oaks Card Club when the raid happened was Don Ramos, 35, of South San Francisco, who said he came there with a friend who wanted to gamble and also to get the free breakfast. Ramos, who said it was his first time at the club, estimated there were about 200 people present when dozens of FBI agents and police officers, some carrying assault rifles, came in just after 6 a.m. "They were saying they had search warrants to search the place, but they did not say why," Ramos said. He said that all the people inside, employees and guests alike, were searched by authorities and that they there were not allowed to leave until their identities were confirmed and it was determined they had no outstanding warrants. Ramos said he did not see anyone arrested. Ramos said he never expected anything like this to happen on his first visit to the club. "It's a shocking experience. I won't forget March 2," he said, adding that he does not plan to return to the club. We will bring you updates as more information becomes available.