Letter To The Tattler: Council Member Kurt Brinkman

Council Member Brinkman Defends His Position On City Attorney Ballot Initiative

The following is verbatim from Council Member Kurt Brinkman submitted for posting here:

To the Citizens of Emeryville,
I feel that it is important to share my perspective of the voter initiative to eliminate the office of City Attorney. This voter initiative further proposes that we replace this position with outside legal services. My objection to this specific voter initiative is in the spirit of promoting a sense of fairness in the upcoming election cycle, where you, the voters, will be asked to elect three city council members. The voter initiative process has given one of our long term city councilmembers a two month head start on his campaign. A sense of fairness would dictate that, if a council member wants to bring forward a voter initiative, that this action should take place in the off term city election cycle for that councilmember’s term. Councilmembers are elected to represent and carry out the wishes of the residents of Emeryville. If our council members do not carry out these wishes, then the election process is the time to replace our elected officials. I believe that a majority of the Emeryville City Council has supported our long standing approach to ensure that our City’s legal needs are met in a competent and cost effective manner. Further, I believe that the residents of Emeryville have been well served by our city attorney and his legal staff. So I ask you, the Citizens of Emeryville, to continue to allow City Council of Emeryville to do what we were elected to do. If change is necessary in the office of city attorney, let’s collectively make these changes without being restricted and dictated by this specific voter initiative. Change should come from the election process of who serves on the City Council and not that of this voter initiative.


Kurt Brinkman

Recieved 4:31 PM

Davis & Brinkman: No Friends Of Democracy They

The queen and her consort

Nora Davis & Kurt Brinkman vs The People Of Emeryville

Opinion

In the end, the last defiant holdouts against democracy in Emeryville were the vainglorious duo of Mayor Nora Davis and her sidekick councilman Kurt Brinkman.  What started as a four vote council majority against council member Ken Bukowski's City Attorney ballot measure and the people's right to vote, ended after mounting citizen outrage, with only this duo: the most anti-democratic two council members.

Nora Davis:
(20 year old photo)
The people cannot
be trusted to make the
right decision

Over the months since Mr Bukowski's April petition to replace City Attorney Mike Biddle began, the other four council members declared their solid support of the City Attorney, some using the council dais to ridicule the citizen petition drive.  Council members Jennifer West and Ruth Atkin however correctly surmised any personal dislike of Mr Bukowski or support of the City Attorney pales against their moral duty to not stand in the way of the will of the people.  That these two could put aside petty and personal politics speaks highly of their fortitude and their love of democracy.  The other two however have shown no such fortitude.

Tax Cap Recalcitrance

Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman's lonely last stand in the City Attorney case with it's anti-democratic priggishness is mirrored in the other controversial issue of the day in Emeryville; the infamous business tax cap. The tax cap, ushered in years ago by council member Davis, ensures the largest corporations in town pay much less than the smaller businesses and Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman are also the same two that recently killed the citizen's right to vote on removing the regressive tax cap.  In that case, the the council first voted unanimously to grant Emeryville citizens the right to vote on the issue but Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman ultimately reversed themselves after private meetings with Pixar and other large corporations.  The two delivered the death blow to the citizens right to vote on the business tax cap removal with a shameful city council procedural motion from Mr Brinkman and a second by Ms Davis.

Kurt Brinkman:
Emeryville citizens voting is scary

The anti-democratic demeanor, with it's whiff of didactic and paternal imperiousness from these two is reminiscent of an earlier era of corrupt machine politics that earned Emeryville the moniker "the rottenest little city on the west coast".  This is helped along by the 24 year tenure of council member Davis and the culture of fear that she has cultivated in this town.

We call out Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman and admonish them both for the shameful blocking of the people's right to vote.  We ask that they change course and stop this lowly behavior; the people did not elect them to take away thier right to vote.

City Attorney Election: Council Wall Of Opposition Collapses

Davis & Brinkman holdout to the end:

Atkin Relents, Election Will Go Forward

Barraged with calls and e-mails from constituents, councilwoman Ruth Atkin finally relented today and agreed to permit a November ballot initiative about removing the Emeryville City Attorney to move forward.  Ms Atkin's change of heart marked the culmination of a week of high drama in the City Attorney election fight that started with a solid wall of opposition among her colleagues but ultimately withered, leaving Ms Atkin as the swing vote and exposed to the resident's wrath.
The initiative began last April as a petition to replace the City Attorney with subcontracted legal work for the city, mostly as a cost cutting measure, by council member Ken Bukowski.  Mr Bukowski submitted the signatures to the County Registrar of Voters for certification and it was announced on Friday that the election could move forward if the city council OK'ed the County certification in time.  Problems arose when the rest of the council demurred on a required August 2nd certification meeting, citing long held vacation plans, regardless of council protocol permitting voting by telephone.  Failure to meet on August 2nd would sink the whole thing, owing to a State mandated time schedule.

After a couple days consideration, councilwoman Jennifer West told the City Manager she would be willing to participate in the required August 2nd and follow-up meeting.  She challenged the other council members and invoked a moral duty to democracy, stating, "The council must show that we hear all 567 people who signed the initiative and we should place this item on the ballot in November".

Ruth Atkin's change of heart today joined with her colleagues Ms West and Mr Bukowski and crumbled the city council's wall of opposition.  Left standing and resisting the November election, and the people they serve, are council members Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman.

Council member West's explanation of her position on this matter can be read in The Secret News

The Government Accountability Project

The Emeryville Government Accountability Project

Citizen Access

As part of the on-going effort to strengthen democratic institutions and citizen involvement in Emeryville, the Tattler will publish the telephone numbers of elected officials as they become known.  For decades here politicians made their phone numbers public and would take calls from constituents.  Sadly, this tradition has been waning, and citizen access has eroded.  Meanwhile, developers routinely meet with politicians and city staff in closed door sessions. We are dismayed to see this weakening of citizen access to the levers of power even while corporate access has never been stronger.  Accordingly, we now add the unpublished telephone number of city council member Kurt Brinkman to the list of published numbers of Emeryville's elected officials.

Future would be politicians should take warning:  If you win office and try to keep your telephone number confidential, the Tattler will publish it if we can find it.

Here then is the newest contact-

Kurt Brinkman, City Council Member:

(510) 774-1551

Here is the list so far:

City Council

Nora Davis -  (510) 652-2199

Ken Bukowski -  (510) 305-0000

Jennifer West - (510) 420-5795

Ruth Atkin - (510) 915-0167* 

School Board

Josh Simon -  (510) 601-1480

Cheryl Webb - (510) 654-6012*

Melodi Dice - Unlisted

Pat Hooper - (510) 384-7882*

Miguel Dwin - (510) 381-2023* 

*unlisted but obtained by the Tattler

Down Goes Emeryville's Assessed Property Valuation

Emeryville Assessed Valuation Plummets

 The sour economy continues to hit Emeryville hard, now driving the assessed property valuation down more than 6% from last year, the largest drop in Alameda County.  The dire numbers threaten last year's Measure J school bond financing which requires a 4% positive growth to keep the taxpayers payback interest rate out of the stratosphere.  See the October 17th 2010 Tattler story Here.

Emeryville's bad assessed valuation continues to draw in its largest corporate landowners such as Pixar and Wareham Development, demanding their taxes be lowered.  See the Tattler Feburary 27th 2011 story Here

Karan Reid, Emeryville's chief financial officer puts a positive spin on the news and obeys the first rule of government propaganda; exclaim how the bad number is actually better than you expected.

Re-printed from the Oakland Tribune:

Alameda County assessed property values dip as a whole

By Angela Woodall
Oakland Tribune

Posted: 07/25/2011 06:50:08 PM PDT

Updated: 07/25/2011 08:41:52 PM PDT

Assessed values of residential and commercial properties in Alameda County continue to fall, according to newly released figures from the county assessor's office.

Although many of the 492,000 taxable residential and commercial properties evaluated by the assessor's office saw their values rise or at least stay the same, 22 percent had reduced assessments, bringing the county's total taxable dollar value to $192.0 billion from $192.1 billion.

The assessed value of a property determines how much property tax the county will receive to fund safety net services for residents. The dip marks only the third year in at least five decades that the county assessment roll has fallen. The average annual growth in past years was 8 percent.

Not even the growth in Berkeley, Piedmont and Dublin -- the highest in the county -- tipped the scales enough to close the gap.

The slight decrease countywide was not enough to hurt the county's budget, though the outcome was still disappointing. The county was expecting a 1 percent increase. And 90 percent of the county's limited discretionary revenue depends on property tax dollars.

Revenue might have been higher overall in a better market, Alameda County Chief Deputy Assessor Brian Hitomi said. But banks are still being tight with credit and new construction is on hold.

The numbers, Hitomi said, are an indicator of "how thing are going" in the overall economy.

Judging by the conservative budgeting by cities, the overall economy still is precarious.

"We didn't want to anticipate growth and get burned by it," said David McPherson, revenue and tax administrator for the city of Oakland, which saw a 1.67 percent rise.

Emeryville, in contrast, came in 6.62 percent below last year, a decrease of about $277.6 million. The drop seemed like a reversal of fortunes for the city studded with big-box stores such as Home Depot, Ikea and Barnes & Noble. Emeryville had escaped declines in previous years while some of its neighbors scrambled to compensate.

The city's chief financial officer, Karan Reid, attributed this year's decline to several one-time but significant events for which Emeryville had braced itself. The dramatic write-down of the Watergate Towers office complex topped the list.

The city also suffered after the county cleared a backlog of applications from businesses requesting their property assessments be lowered.

Emeryville will be able to contain the impact of the decline. In fact, Reid said she had expected a much larger drop. Unlike many cities, property tax makes up a small portion of general fund revenue in Emeryville. Capital projects, business subsidies and low-income subsidies will feel a pinch because they are funded through property taxes.

Fremont also had braced itself for the inevitable blow from last year's closure of the NUMMI auto plant and sale of the land to Tesla Motors and Union Pacific. The city was told to expect a 40 percent plunge in the parcel's value.

The news that Pleasanton values declined by $204.7 million did not come as a shock to finance director Emily Wagner. She had budgeted for the foreclosure of the five-building Stoneridge Corporate Plaza next to Stoneridge Mall, as well as the Britannia Business Center II complex.

Both sold for less than their original value. Residential homes, however, saw a slight uptick. Pleasanton's forecasts were "pretty close," Wagner said. "We anticipated zero growth."

alameda county property assessments

City 2010-11 2011-12 Percent change

Alameda: $9,325,893,920 $9,452,764,771 1.36 percent

Albany: $1,923,568,649 $1,949,825,015 1.36 percent

Berkeley: $13,503,553,510 $13,898,473,845 2.92 percent

Dublin: $8,305,389,045 $8,482,846,995 2.14 percent

Emeryville: $4,190,790,315 $3,913,230,353 -6.62 percent

Fremont: $34,644,104,304 $34,122,490,940 -1.51 percent

Hayward: $15,052,324,745 $15,144,404,001 0.61 percent

Livermore: $13,242,040,030 $13,299,228,698 0.43 percent

Newark: $5,537,466,631 $5,572,210,275   0.63 percent

Oakland: $41,234,044,680 $41,920,715,595 1.67 percent

Piedmont: $3,027,278,586 $3,094,488,819 2.22 percent

Pleasanton: $17,326,290,380 $17,121,532,736 -1.18 percent

San Leandro: $9,654,888,215 $9,641,979,107 -0.13 percent

Union City: $7,849,794,994 $7,858,218,879 0.11 percent

*Unincorporated: $14,127,904,708 $14,239,266,288 0.79 percent

*Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, Hillcrest Knolls, San Lorenzo

Source: Alameda County Office of Assessor

Scheme Nixes Election With Stroke Of Pen

Undemocratic tricks to disenfranchise public:

Council Uses Last Ditch Parliamentary Move to Avoid Mere Formality, Citizen Vote Blocked   

Short-circuiting a referendum aimed at firing controversial City Attorney Michael Biddle, Emeryville's City Council resorted Friday to drastic, and some would say undemocratic, action to prevent it from appearing on the ballot. All at taxpayer expense.

The city-wide ballot measure, chiefly pushed by City Councilman Ken Bukowski, would outsource the city's legal services to private firms, and eliminate the office of city attorney. As Mr Biddle already hires outside firms to conduct virtually all of the city's legal affairs, the councilman argues a cost savings would emerge by cutting out Mr Biddle, whom he regards as little more than a million-dollar-a-year middleman. Others say the measure is only the latest salvo in an ongoing personal feud between the two.

Mr Bukowski began circulating petitions on April 26th with six other citizen volunteers. On July 15th he turned in 724 signatures, of which 567 were certified by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, 16 more than the required 551 needed to place the referendum before Emeryville voters in November.

The final step, the formality of certification by the city council, would occur at the council's regularly scheduled meeting August 2nd, in time to meet the County's deadline. On Friday however, the city clerk announced that the council had last December canceled that meeting and they were so far unwilling to reinstate it, sending the referendum into electoral limbo. A meeting scheduled for August 16^th would be too late, say county officials.

By the next election, in the spring of 2012, the signatures would be voided and new petitions would have to be circulated.

Mr Bukowski said his four colleagues on the council are allied with Mr. Biddle and accused them of using parliamentary procedures to thwart his efforts and avoid going before voters. "At our last meeting, the council voted to 'study' the measure. That is a stalling tactic so they did not have to put it on the November ballot,” councilman Bukowski said.  City Manager Pat O'Keeffe seemed to concur with Mr Bukowski, telling the council at the meeting, "You've already studied it".

According to council member Bukowski, the council has spent some $10,000 in taxpayer funds for legal advice from a private law firm in how to torpedo the measure. The council turned to former longtime Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque now of Los Angeles-based Burke,Williams & Sorensen.  Mr Bukowski described the use of public funds as a “blatant conflict-of-interest.”

Mr Bukowski said that unless the council schedules a meeting for August 2nd, its normal time slot for a regular meeting and votes to certify the measure for the voters consideration, he would pursue a Writ of Mandate and notify the County Grand Jury.

City Attorney Ballot Measure Signature Drive Certified

City Attorney Ballot Initiative Clears County

Alameda County announced yesterday that the petition to replace Emeryville's City Attorney has received the proper number of signatures and is legal to appear before the voters in November according to council member Ken Bukowski.  The last hurdle for the initiative is that it be certified by the city council, he told the Tattler.

Council Moves Sharply Against Emeryville Residents

July 19, 2011: Democracy Dies At City Hall

City Council: Emeryville Citizens Are Too Stupid To Decide For Themselves

We Are The Law, Says Council
Tonight, the Emeryville city council revealed the months of City Hall backroom dealing with Pixar and other large businesses has paid off handsomely for the business community.  In a shocking and brazenly undemocratic vote,  tonight the city council moved to protect Pixar's interests and voted to disallow the citizens a ballot initiative in November whether the infamous business licence tax cap should be eliminated as they previously said they would.  Pixar, which would have seen a tax hike up to normal Bay Area rates with a tax cap removal had publicly threatened the city with "rancor" if they did not get their way.  It's unknown what they told decision makers in the closed room meetings at City Hall.

In another startling anti-democratic move, the council tonight also voted to disallow the citizens to decide for themselves whether the City Attorney should be replaced.  Council member Ken Bukowski warned his colleagues that the petition to place the decision on the November ballot was in the process of being certified by the County Registrar of Voters but the rest of the council moved forward anyway to head off a citizen vote in November.

The Tattler will be covering this remarkable anti-democratic turn of events in coming days as we uncover more facts.

City Attorney Ballot Measure Signature Drive Finishes

City Attorney Petition Drive Crosses 551 Signature Threshold, 

Dirty Tricks Alleged

Council member Ken Bukowski reports to the Tattler that the petition to abolish the city attorney as a paid staff member, circulating around the city for the last several weeks, has surpassed 551 signatures; enough to place the measure before Emeryville voters in November despite allegations of signature suppressing dirty tricks .  If the petition is certified by the County Registrar of Voters, citizens will be able to decide for themselves if the city of Emeryville should subcontract out its legal services as most cities our size do or to continue to retain the paid city attorney position and its staff.

Mr Bukowski told the Tattler that the petition drive, a grassroots effort conducted by many concerned Emeryville residents, has netted 773 signatures total and of that amount 202 are probably invalid due to errors he detected, leaving 571 valid and acceptable signatures for the County.  The County has indicated that a minimum of 551 valid signatures need to be verified to place the measure before voters in November.

  

Dirty Tricks

Mr Bukowski told the Tattler that two Emeryville resident signature solicitors, who might have had a change of heart about the petition drive midway through their signature gathering efforts, failed to submit all their collected signatures, a prosecutable crime he says.  Many signatures may have been discarded by the two he says.
Mr Bukowski said he will be talking to the District Attorney's office about this breach of public trust by the two unnamed citizens, with the intent of filing a complaint.

Petitions for ballot initiatives must have the proper number of signatures and the signers must accurately and legibly provide their printed names as it appears on their voter registration card on file.  In addition, the proper address as it appears on the voter registration card must also be entered.  Any mistake invalidates a signature.

Although the city attorney ballot initiative has been taken up by many Emeryville citizens, it's been associated most strongly with council member Bukowski as he was the progenitor and its most vocal supporter.   

Pre-Fab Home Bucks Living Wage Goal

Downward Pressure on Local Construction Wages:

Emeryville Embraces 

Pre-Fab Home Idea

Opinion
The Planning Department was out in force on Beaudry Street, in support of and witnessing the erection of Emeryville's first prefabricated single family residence last Saturday. A small crowd gathered to watch the spectacle: a crane lowering pre-constructed rooms onto the rapidly growing house.  With this scene in the background, Charlie Bryant, head of the Planning Department, told cameras that Emeryville is supportive of this style of home construction.  Left unsaid by Mr Bryant though is how this style of building is a subversion of living wage policy: This comes at the expense of local Bay Area builders in the custom home building trade.

Middle Class Wealth Transfer
Some have previously argued that this style of building will help keep housing affordable but at $275 per square foot, there's no cost saving, at least not for the owner of the new house.  The contractor on site says the Beaudry Street house will be cheaper than a custom home but the price of $275 per square foot is the same as a comparable custom built house in the Bay Area (regardless of his claims to the contrary).  This style of building is a way to cut out more expensive Bay Area construction laborers since low cost factory workers actually build the houses, the parts being shipped in by truck.  This is just a shift in profit from workers to corporate fat cats and is another point of downward pressure on local tradesman's wages.

Emeryville needs more family friendly housing to be sure but not at the expense of fostering a climate where blue collar people could afford to live here.  This whole idea is counter to oft made claims emanating from City Hall about livability for all.  Our public policy shouldn't be encouraging this sort of wealth transfer especially since Emeryville is already losing working class people.  We should be making a REAL town.

Below is a San Francisco Chronicle article about the new home:

Prefabricated homes go upscale Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, July 16, 2011 IMAGES Paul Chinn / The Chronicle A module of Simpatico Homes' prefabricated house is lowered into position at the construction site in Emeryville.  View All Images (8) EMERYVILLE -- Prefab houses aren't just for trailer parks anymore. Two Bay Area startups are crafting factory-built homes and rooms for the high-end market, the kind of people who want an architect-designed custom house with all the latest green features. Simpatico Homes in Emeryville and hybridCore Homes in Santa Rosa both have partnered with architects. Each has a proof-of-concept model home and both are now on the verge of building for clients. They say their approaches cut costs and reduce construction time while incorporating high-quality finishes and designs. "Within the past few years, we've seen a number of very talented architects become interested in the possibilities of prefabrication to bring architect-level design to people who don't have time or resources to develop a unique design for a custom home," said S. Claire Conroy, editorial director of Residential Architect magazine in Washington. The two companies take different approaches. Simpatico builds the entire home in a factory as several giant modules that are assembled at the home site. HybridCore factory-builds the house's most complex portion - kitchen, bathrooms and laundry room - then places them on the site and "stick builds" the rest of the home around them. Market void "I really love quality architecture and saw a real void in the market for people who want it" but have more limited budgets, said Simpatico founder Seth Krubiner, who grew up in an Eichler home. Early last Saturday a convoy of flatbed trucks carried five modules from a factory in San Jose to a pre-built home foundation in Emeryville, where Simpatico is erecting its first structure. It will serve as a model house for potential clients and builders to tour, as well as a residence for Krubiner. A crew of 25 worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. as about a hundred curious neighbors watched giant cranes lift the modules into place as if they were building blocks. By evening, a 2,400-square-foot modern dwelling was in place, the modules bolted to the foundation. It will take another six weeks to "button up" the home, finishing such tasks as tying in the utilities and seaming the modules together with a "marriage line." All told, construction should take about 18 weeks - 12 in the factory and six on the site. (The foundation was built concurrently with the factory prefabrication.) Green features The house incorporates such sustainable features as a solar array to provide all its power, hydronic radiant floor heating, a living green roof and a rainwater catchment system. "My partners (Swatt Miers Architects) are very established, high-end modern architects who build multimillion-dollar designs," Krubiner said. "We want to take that level and quality of architecture and put it into a system for people who have more modest means. Through prefabrication, we can standardize and make it faster and more affordable." Chrissy Schwinn and her husband, David Cherry, both self-described fans of prefabrication and of modern architecture, have hired Simpatico to build a four-bedroom house for them and their two young children in Orinda starting this fall. "It fit our aesthetic and level of customization and our budget," she said. "The house will have a lot of green features, which we wanted. We don't have the final cost, but our hope is that it's about 20 percent less than a custom-built house." The shorter construction time is another plus, both in having fewer carrying costs on their current house and having less impact on their new neighbors. For Simpatico's first house in Emeryville, construction costs, excluding land and permits, pencil out at $275 per square foot, Krubiner said, versus about $375 per square foot for a comparable house built from the ground up. That's still not cheap. But Krubiner said the company can get costs as low as $225 per square foot. "It takes a lot of scale - multiples of prefab houses - to deliver the economies that are promised by manufacturing houses instead of site-building them," Conroy said. Economies of scale Santa Rosa's hybridCore Homes hopes to achieve those economies of scale by working with giant home builder Champion Home Builders of Troy, Mich., which has 27 factories nationwide and will both build and market the modular cores. He said the cost savings over complete ground-up construction are about 20 to 30 percent. The company offers 100 floor plans with nine variations and styles of each, such as Mediterranean or Craftsman. It built a 1,600-square-foot demonstration home in Santa Rosa last fall, with construction costs of $147,000, or $92 per square foot, he said. The home is open for visits by interested clients and developers. Faber's architecture firm, Farrell Faber, was approached about designing a manufactured home a couple of years ago. "Typically our firm does high-end stuff, so we weren't interested," he said. "But then we two partners, along with two developers, started playing with the idea, and after numerous studies developed this concept of manufacturing the core of the home." Now hybridCore is gearing up to build proof-of-concept homes in North Dakota and Maryland that are being considered for large developments. A 213-home project in Santa Rosa is on tap for next spring. Harold Robinson, who develops homes in Los Altos in the $1 million to $2 million range, hopes to use hybridCore's modules. "There is a lot of design flexibility, and the final product will look just like a traditional, high-quality custom home," he said. "At the same time you end up getting higher-quality construction and it's a really green way to do construction; there's a lot less waste by building offsite in factories that are controlled environments. Being able to build faster is a big benefit in high-end neighborhoods because the whole construction process has a lower impact." E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/15/BUUK1KA3RS.DTL&ao=2#ixzz1SJINkdBf

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/15/BUUK1KA3RS.DTL#ixzz1SJHuCzwf

Emeryville Summer Music Performance Series

City of Emeryville FREE Summer Concert Series The City of Emeryville is pleased to present the 2011  Summer Performance Series.  Come celebrate some  of the area's diverse local talent at Christie Avenue Park  this summer.  This summer’s line-up includes funk, R&B,  Neo-Soul, and 60’s British Rock.    JULY 14  SUMAC'S SOUL HEAVEN BAND (Soul, Blues, R&B)  JULY 21  PULSE (Neo-Soul, R&B, Rock)  JULY 28  THE RAVE UPS/THE RAVING ANIMALS (Yardbirds & The Animals 60's British Rock Tribute) All performances will be held from 6:00-8:00 pm. at  Christie Avenue Park (6200 Christie Avenue), located  right behind Emeryville’s Public Market and are FREE.   The market offers over 20 unique international food  retailers representing the diversity of San Francisco  Bay Area.  So, buy a delicious take out dinner, bring  your blanket or lawn chair and join your friends and  neighbors for an entertaining dinner and show!!! The City of Emeryville would like to give a special thanks  to Intrepid Electronic Systems, Inc. for helping to sponsor  the City’s Summer Performance Series. If you or your  company is interested in future sponsorship opportunities  or for more information on the Summer Performance Series  or any other Community Special Event, please contact Kevin  Laven, Community Special Events Coordinator  at klaven@emeryville.org.

The Secret News Launches 'E-VILLE LEAKS'

The Secret News Announces 

'E-VILLE LEAKS'

Tracy Schroth, long time Emeryville resident and editor of The Secret News announced the launch of 'E-VILLE LEAKS' a new ongoing feature that will highlight public documents that Emeryville City Hall might not be so keen on the public scrutinizing .

Ms Schroth told the Tattler she sees a need for these documents to be circulating in the public realm, "A big part of what The Secret News is trying to do is get at the truth- a truth that the people in power often don't want exposed.  So, even though much of what we print is public, it's not publicized.  And because we print verbatim documents, we're letting the people evaluate more directly what the city is and isn't doing".   She intoned, "We're not acting as the middleman (or woman) or interpreter, and thus be accused of distorting 'the facts'."

Asked about the obvious connection to the international whistle blowing website WikiLeaks, Ms Schroth said, "What ever its problems, WikiLeaks broke the most important stories in the past two years.  So, I see real value in what they are trying to do".  She added,  "And at the The Secret News, this is just one approach we're taking; we will also continue to report and interpret the news as we see it".

E-VILLE LEAKS will appear on an occasional basis at The Secret News.

The Secret News is here: www.thesecretnewsonline.com

School District Counsel Investigates Possible Misuse of Bond Money

Not On Voter Approved List:

"Fellows Program" May Be Violation Of School Bond Funds

The Emeryville school board may be preparing to violate Emeryville voters trust and possibly the law by spending school bond money on stipends as part of an unsanctioned program according to school bond Citizens Oversight Committee members who wish to remain anonymous. 

At a contentious June 15th meeting, the Measure J mandated committee discussed the possibility that the school board is overreaching and improperly dispersing part of the $95 million school bond on salaries, creating jobs for people who would serve as "ambassadors" to the Center of Community Life, the school/community center project made possible by Measure J. 

The money for salaries plan may be illegal, the committee members said.

Last fall Emeryville voters overwhelmingly approved Measure J, a school construction bond. Voters may recall that the ballot measure provided that a Citizens' Oversight Committee would be formed "to ensure that bond proceeds are expended only on the school facilities projects" that were listed in the bond project list. 

Measure J also provided that annual performance and financial audits will be conducted to ensure that the bond proceeds are expended only on the school facilities projects listed on the bond project list.

On Wednesday June 15th the Measure J Citizens Oversight Committee held its fourth monthly meeting and already a concern was raised by a member of the Oversight Committee that the School Board was planning to misuse Measure J bond funds for projects that are not school facilities projects and are not listed on the bond project list.

voters were told no fewer than seven times

on the Measure J ballot that bond funds would 

only be spent on the project list.

The project that raised this issue is an Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) 'Fellows Program' that would train students and perhaps other community members to be ambassadors for the ECCL project and provide these fellows with a stipend. The project's annual cost would be $72,000, for a six-year total cost of $372,000.

Superintendent Sugiyama said that clearly the voters were told that community engagement will be an integral part of this Measure J project and as a result they feel it is appropriate to use Measure J funds for   any efforts or strategies involving community engagement.

So, this issue goes well beyond the appropriateness of this particular Fellows project, but instead raises a more general question of whether bond funds may be used for any "community engagement efforts" or whether these funds must be strictly used for the school facilities items listed on the bond project list.

The School Board took up this issue at its meeting on June 27th. The staff presentation took a new tack and emphasized that the Fellows Program would allow staff to address not only community engagement, but also partnerships, equity, wellness, and sustainability policies adopted by the City/School Committee earlier this year.

The only public comment was a suggestion that these items, while important, were not on the bond project list and hence were an improper use of Measure J funds and so the speaker suggested that this (and similar) programs should be funded either through the City's $25 million contribution to the ECCL projector through the regular District budget.

Former schools chief 
John Sugiyama:
It doesn't matter 
what the ballot said

The School Board's discussion of this item echoed Dr. Sugiyama's earlier argument, namely that it does not matter that the ballot language of Measure J repeatedly said funds would only be spent on items on the bond project list, because the ballot language also mentions that, if the bond measure passed, the District would adopt a plan for soliciting community input and participation which would include holding meetings,and sending out mailings and notices. 

The Board's view appears to be that this addendum trumps the earlier promises to spend strictly on the items on the bond project list.

The School Board decided in a 4-1 vote to conditionally approve the Fellows Program, on the condition that its legal counsel look specifically at this program and conclude that it was a permissible use of bond funds.

Not discussed by the school board so far is the appropriateness of 'community engagement' being solicited by"ambassadors"; essentially an admission that the real agenda will be propaganda dissemination.    It could be reasonably argued that the voters last November had no intention of approving bond money for a propaganda program, claims of "community engagement" notwithstanding.

The Tattler will continue to watch this issue and will report again when the School District staff announce the conclusion of legal counsel. While we wait, here's Measure J's bond project list for readers to reach  their own conclusions on whether a community ambassador program fits into one of these categories:

a) Construct, furnish and equip leased and owned facilities, including but not limited to classrooms, science labs, and schools.

b) Replace, demolish or renovate District properties to meet current seismic safety standards;

c) Replace outdated portable buildings with permanent classrooms;

d) Construct school-site support including libraries, physical education facilities, multipurpose rooms, food service facilities, health and recreation facilities and play fields for joint school and community use;

e) Upgrade and replace classroom technology infrastructure and improve access to computer systems;

f) Acquire available real property as needed to construct facilities;

g) Provide appropriate and sufficient parking facilities including but not limited to pick-up and drop-off access for students;

h) Provide for costs associated with interim housing as needed during the period of construction;

i) Make additional repairs and upgrades as needed to educational facilities;

j) Perform necessary site preparation/restoration in connection with new construction, renovation, demolition, or deferred maintenance of educational facilities including off-site facilities as required;

k) Address unforeseen conditions revealed by construction or emergency repairs (e.g. plumbing or gas line breaks, seismic, structural, asbestos and other hazardous materials);

l) With written consent from neighbors, mitigate items identified by the Environmental impact Review as appropriate;

m) install energy efficient systems including but not limited to solar electrical systems and related infrastructures.

Tattler Draws Anonymous Criticism Against City Hall & Tattler

Why The Tattler Solicits Anonymous Comments

Since its inception, the Tattler has been taken to task for allowing anonymous comments at the end of each story.  Some have questioned the value of an anonymous comment.  Does it really have any value?  We debated this among ourselves at the onset and decided that it is better to allow this and reap more public comment than to force commentors to reveal their identity and garner fewer comments.  We feel this is appropriate because Emeryville City Hall is notorious in its culture of prohibition against dissenters, council member Nora Davis being the chief progenitor.  There is a palpable fear of Ms Davis among people who would participate in governance at the citizen committee, commission and task force level.  We feel these people and others who may also feel intimidated for any reason, should be given a chance to comment freely.
Readers may note that for all the anonymous comments posted against City Hall and its supporters, many anonymous comments are frequently leveled against the Tattler.  We take this as a vindication of the value of allowing anonymous comments.  That being said, we encourage commentors to identify themselves.  While an anonymous comment does have value, a comment made by a self identified author has that much more value.

New Report On Emeryville School Reveals Failure of Management

Points to "Lack of Efforts to Address Problems"

Independent Report: "Alarmingly High Percentages Of Students Are Failing" 

A May 11th independent audit of Emery High School performed by the National Center for Urban School Transformation  concludes that school management is failing on a number of critical fronts and they're failing to address the problems.

The Center identified a general "lack of standards-based instruction" at the school and students tasked with "busy work" with a "significant percentage of students [that] are being allowed to fail".  The audit, called the 'High-Performing Schools Audit Report', also concludes  that "trust levels among adults at the school are low" and reports the existence of "multiple cliques among the adults".

School board president

Miguel Dwin: Report 
merely shows "strengths 
and weaknesses"

School board
member 

Josh Simon: 
Report is 
"important"

School Board member Josh Simon, jarred by the audit, called for an implementation program to make sure the conclusions are properly addressed and not swept under the rug.  He told the Tattler that while the study compares Emery High with the best schools in the nation, a very high bar, certain intolerable inadequacies are highlighted that need to be corrected.  He called the study "important".  

School board president Miguel Dwin on the other hand seemed to take the whole audit with a grain of salt, "the report shows strengths and weaknesses at the school" he quipped.  He declined further comment.

50% Failure Rate

The auditors, Dr. Lynne Perez, Director of Research at NCUST and Dr. Joseph Johnson, the NCUST Executive Director visited the school and made observations as well as conducted interviews with teachers, students and parents.  

They found several classrooms where students were observed "sleeping, sitting with their backs to the teacher, or continuously engaging in off-task behavior"  Teachers were observed allowing this aberrant behavior "as long as the students did not interrupt them".

Dr. Joseph Johnson
Executive Director
NCUST

Teachers and administrators the report noted, expressed concern about "high course-failure rates that exceeded 50% at some grade levels".  This, the report concludes is a result of insufficient objectivity related to grading, leading to a "lack of clear, written, and enforced grading policy [that] is eroding parent trust".

Teachers also reported that often there is not a common understanding of critical course content resulting in a school that has no capacity, "no way" the report says, "to ensure that students are prepared to meet state learning expectations or to succeed in more advanced courses".

The report finds an "alarmingly high" percentage of students are failing classes, and concludes there is "no evidence of systematic efforts to address the problem".

Two Conflicting Studies

By coincidence another report recently made public is the "Self Study" of the High School; a periodic self examination of the school required for state accreditation.  This other report offers a detailed, if contradictory conclusion about the academic culture at the school.  The Self Study titled 'Focus On Learning', conducted by the school district as a self examination of academic achievement concludes the school is in much better shape than the independent audit surmises.  Noted in the Self Study is the finding that the school is an "orderly place that nurtures learning" and the existence of an "atmosphere of trust and respect in the school".

The Self Study finds "all course curriculums [sic] are standards-aligned", a direct contrary finding from the independent study.

School board president Miguel Dwin told the Tattler that the self study "shows strengths and weaknesses", the same as the independent study and was not impressed by the two inconsistent conclusions from the two studies.  He added, "No conclusions can be made, both reports are complimentary to each other, both show strengths and weaknesses at the school" noting no greater understanding flows from comparing the two studies.

The Self Study, 'Focus On Learning', was submitted to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges on April 11-13 for consideration to continue accreditation of the High School.

The independent audit report, called the 'High-Performing Schools Audit Report' was designed to identify how Emery High deviates from "high performing" urban schools in the nation, and was released to the public on June 27th.  The National Center for Urban School Transformation is a San Diego State University based public policy group.
The independent report is here:http://scr.bi/lG6bhe