City Bails Out School District: $700,000

Bill For The Soon-To-Be-Abandoned Elementary School Remodel Comes Due

The Emeryville city council voted last meeting to a $700,000 fiscal bailout for the Emery Unified School District by forgiving a loan to the District made several years ago to remodel the Anna Yates Elementary School.  The School District has been paying interest on the original $2.94 million loan made from the defunct Emeryville Redevelopment Agency but now the principle is due and District officials told City Hall, they would have to pull the City's portion of the loan, the $700,000, from the School District's General Fund, money they need to cover operating expenses.

The 2008 loan paid for this wing of the school and
a new science center.

The loan to improve the elementary school was made in 2008, part of a $9 million remodel, just as the real estate market crashed and Emeryville's assessed valuation plunged, sinking the District's prospects at easily paying back the loan.

 Leftover money the state granted the former Redevelopment Agency is divvied up among the different taxing agencies such as AC Transit and Alameda County, so the City's portion of the $2.94 million loan is $700,000.

A small portion of the original loan also went to some minor work at the Secondary School, also known as the High School.  That school is now being demolished to make way for the new Center of Community Life on San Pablo Avenue.

Critics have cried foul since the money to remodel the elementary school is now to be wasted if the District is successful in its goal to abandon Anna Yates and move the children over to the high school site.

If the city council didn't forgive the loan, the School District said they would be faced with making payments out of its General Fund for a building they no longer use as a district school, the same net effect as a homeowner with an upside down mortgage.

"This is $700,000 out of 

the city's General fund"  

-Councilwoman Jac Asher

Council member Jac Asher, the sole NO vote to forgive the loan on the council told the Tattler, "This is $700,000 out of our [the city's] General fund.  Our job, among other things, is to provide for the Recreation Center's programs.  $700,000 would have gone a long way in terms of youth programming in our city."  Ms Asher, it should be noted is the only council member with children of her own actively enrolled in the District, the only such council member in at least the last 30 years.

The School District has noted its General Fund is not sufficient to cover all the operating expenses at the new proposed Kindergarten through 12th grade school at the Center of Community Life, a combined school and community rec center.  District officials have expressed the need for Emeryville voters to again pass Measure A, the school parcel tax approved twice in the last few years.  The proceeds from Measure A are now necessary to pay to run the school part of the Center of Community Life.  Measure A will again appear on the ballot for Emeryville voters in 2013.

The Anna Yates Elementary School remodel in 2008 cost some $9 million.  The District wants to use the school for some other so far unspecified use after the Center of Community Life is finished and the elementary school is abandoned in 2015.  A cadre of parents and residents have demanded the Anna Yates school not be abandoned, but they have been rebuffed by the District.

Emeryville Police Dog Sniffs Down Dangerous Suspect

From the Oakland Tribune:

West Oakland school locked down briefly during search for suspect By Harry Harris Oakland Tribune Posted:   10/26/2012 12:35:20 PM PDT OAKLAND -- McClymonds High School in West Oakland was briefly on lockdown Friday while police  searched nearby yards for a possibly armed man. The 22-year-old suspect was tracked down by an Emeryville police dog and taken into custody at  12:24 p.m. after an hourlong search, police said. Police initially got a report about 11:30 a.m. of a man with a gun in the 2500 block of Market Street.  When officers tried to detain the man, he took off running, throwing a gun into a market before heading  into a yard on the 900 block of 26th Street -- across the street from the school. More than a dozen police flooded the area, searching yards and vacant houses. The police dog, a  German shepherd named "Ingo" found the suspect in the rear of a house on the 2500 block of Myrtle Street. It wasn't immediately known if the man had a second weapon. Check back for updates.

2000's: A Poor Decision and Hubris Buried Emery School District

Recent Emeryville History
The Emery Unified School District hired a new school superintendent, J.L. Handy years back after a long executive search.  Mr Handy had such a poor a record of fiscal mismanagement, he was fired from Compton Unified School District before a state takeover of that district.  Regardless of his record, officials at Emery thought he would work out fine here and so Mr Handy was hired with great fanfare.  
All those responsible in Emeryville for the 'Handy debacle' have since been ousted save one: Council member Nora Davis was the chairwoman of the search committee that recommended Emery Unified hire Mr Handy.
As Emery Unified proceeds with its plan to rebuild the schools, including closing the newly remodeled Anna Yates Elementary School and moving it over to the High School site, a move which will cost Emeryville taxpayers $107 million paid over 40 years, it can be instructive to see where we came from as a school district...our recent history.
Below is a snapshot of a cocksure but deluded school district and the fallout of one poor decision; the hiring of J.L. Handy as superintendent. Headlines and snippets of stories are from the Los Angeles Times.
For your edification: 

COMPTON : School Board Votes to Oust Superintendent

December 9, 1992

The Compton Unified School District's Board of Education fired Supt. J. L. Handy on Tuesday and named Area Supt. Harold Cebrun as his interim replacement. The 4-3 vote to dismiss Handy was announced after a two-hour closed session. The board then voted 5 to 2 to name Cebrun, who is in charge of Dominguez High School and its feeder schools, as acting superintendent. Handy, who was placed on probation last month, has been criticized for mismanagement.

Another District Probes Conduct of School Chief Compton Fired in '92

September 20, 2000 | JOHN M. GLIONNA, TIMES STAFF WRITER

J.L. Handy, fired in 1992 as superintendent of Compton schools amid allegations of fiscal mismanagement just before an unprecedented state takeover, is under investigation for what officials describe as a similar pattern of conduct in the Bay Area community of Emeryville, where he is school superintendent now.

State Taking Over School District of Ex-Compton Chief

December 24, 2000 | JOHN M. GLIONNA, TIMES STAFF WRITER

In an extremely rare move, state education officials say they will soon take control of a tiny, financially troubled East Bay school district as a criminal investigation continues into the spending practices of its former superintendent. State Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda) says he will ask the Legislature next month to provide $3 million for an emergency financial bailout of the bankrupt Emery Unified School District, which is more than $1.4 million in debt and unable to pay its bills.

Bay Area School Official Charged

June 20, 2001 | JOHN M. GLIONNA, TIMES STAFF WRITER

The former superintendent of an embattled East Bay school district has been accused of criminally misusing a work-issued credit card and illegally guiding lucrative school district contracts to a girlfriend in Orange County, authorities say. J.L. Handy, who was fired nine years ago as superintendent of Compton's schools amid allegations of financial mismanagement, recently surrendered to police and is free on $15,000 bail.

District's Woes Blamed on Lax Oversight of Official

July 24, 2001 | JOHN JOHNSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Embattled former Bay Area schools chief J.L. Handy may have run the little Emeryville school district into the ground, but he didn't do it alone, the Alameda County Grand Jury declared Monday. The grand jury report says the onetime Compton school official, now facing criminal charges over his spending practices in Northern California, was abetted by a lax educational establishment that failed to supervise Handy and protect the finances of the 900-student East Bay district.

Fired Schools Chief Quits New Job Amid Fresh Allegations

October 4, 2001 | JOHN M. GLIONNA, TIMES STAFF WRITER

J.L. Handy, the superintendent of a small, financially troubled East Bay school district, has resigned in the face of a mounting investigation into his financial practices. The 60-year-old Handy, who was fired as superintendent of Compton schools in 1992 amid allegations of financial mismanagement just before an unprecedented state takeover, has been the subject of a recent probe into his activities as head of the 900-student Emery School District.

Funding Woes Force District to Close School

January 25, 2003 | From Times Wire Reports

The Emeryville Unified School District plans to close its middle school and launch a parcel-tax campaign to bolster a shaky budget. During the past two years, the district received a $2.3-million state bailout; residents ousted school board members; and former Supt. J.L. Handy was sentenced to five years' probation for using school funds for personal business.

Parkside Trees: Whatever Is Most Cost Effective?

Council Member Asher:

'Let's Do Whatever Is Most Cost Effective'

Council Members Davis & Brinkman:

'Let's Not'

Opinion
The Emeryville city council finally resolved the contentious Parkside tree issue last Tuesday night and their vote serves as a stand-in for all that ails our town; another reminder, as if you needed it, of who gets served by our City Hall and who gets left wanting.
Readers will remember the developer of the Parkside condominium project wants to cut down all the street trees surrounding the project site but residents rallied and convinced the council to change their earlier vote and save nine large mature trees along Stanford Street in what will be a future small park.  The council vote Tuesday was to save the nine trees but they specifically rejected saving them in the most cost effective manner.  Instead of saving the trees by just leaving them as they are, they opted instead to dig them up, place them in boxes and store them off site for a year or so until the park site is ready for replanting them.

Hope you like it-
it's going to cost you
a bundle.

The developer, Archstone Development Group expressed interest in cutting down all the trees as a way to save money...something or other about their profit.  But Council members Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman suggested the developer's and the resident's desires both could be met by their plan to dig up and box the trees, a "good compromise" as Ms Davis called it.  The fact that Emeryville residents, not the developer would pay for digging up, boxing, storing and re-planting nine very large trees was left unmentioned Tuesday by the two council members.  It must have slippped their minds.

Council member Jac Asher had a better idea in mind; she motioned that Charlie Bryant, the Planning Director should determine which idea is the most cost effective; the save the trees where they are plan or the dig up and box the trees plan.  Mr Bryant would then oversee the more cost effective of the two.  Council member Ruth Atkin liked Ms Asher's motion and offered a second.  With mayor Jennifer West absent, the motion advanced where it died as a result of a NO vote from Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman, the Broken Record Twins.

So now the city must pay to dig up the trees, store them and re-plant them because....well... Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman wouldn't say.  We think it has something to do with Archstone's desire for a greater profit.  It wouldn't be the first time for these two for this kind of vote and it won't likely be the last.

This harebrained tree idea of theirs is not a win-win...it's not a "good compromise"...it's just bad governance.  And once again the Broken Record Twins show us where their allegiance lays.

"Save the taxpayers
some money?"

"Not gunna do it!"

"No!"

Marijuana Dispensary Task Force To Be Empaneled

The Emeryville city council voted last Tuesday to study the pros and cons of allowing a medical marijuana dispensary in town.  The vote will establish a medical marijuana task force to be comprised of appointed Emeryville citizens and business leaders.  The job of the task force will be to determine if much needed revenue for the city offsets possible problems brought on by a dispensary.
If the task force recommends approving a dispensary for Emeryville, the council would have to rescind an existing ordinance specifically forbidding medical marijuana dispensaries before it could vote to move forward if it were so inclined.  The council heard a presentation made last January to consider setting up the task force.

Brinkman Says NO: Citizens May Not Yield Time For Public Comments

Mr Brinkman Gags Free Speech

Opinion

Kurt Brinkman:
I'll not be having the likes of councilwoman
Asher telling me what to do.

Council meeting attendees Tuesday night witnessed an unseemly spectacle: council member Kurt Brinkman, acting as mayor in mayor Jennifer West's absence, moved to silence a citizen called on to speak by another council member and then forbid a different citizen from yielding her speaking time.  The silenced citizen, Mayor West's husband, Adrian McGilly was making a PowerPoint presentation about a contentious issue in which he was offering criticisms of the city staff when Mr Brinkman cut off the presentation, citing a three minute public speaking limit.  Mr Brinkman curtailed the presentation despite the fact that his colleague, council member Jac Asher had personally requested more time to see Mr McGilly's power point presentation.  After Mr McGilly returned to his seat, another citizen announced she wished to yield her speaking time to Mr McGilly but councilman Brinkman said he would not allow it.

And so council member Kurt Brinkman, upon hearing criticisms of the city staff from the citizenry, in one fell swoop moved to disavow two important and longstanding Emeryville free speech precedents; the championing of a citizen's idea by a fellow council member and the yielding of speaking time from one citizen to another.

Too much of this kind of thing is dangerous.

Councilman Brinkman's rebuke of councilwoman Jac Asher's wish to hear the rest of the citizen presentation Tuesday night marks a low point in Emeryville city council collegiality but more egregious was the denial of a citizen yielding her time.  This is a practice allowed in Emeryville by other council members in the past and furthermore, our neighboring cities have provisions to allow it.  To see Mr Brinkman now arbitrarily move to censor this type of citizen stakeholder engagement reeks of executive hubris.

We say this issue of citizens being free to yield their speaking time is not finished with Mr Brinkman's dictatorial edict Tuesday night.  The fact that time yielding has been allowed in the past here means that individual council members are now taking the initiative to silence citizen speech they may not like and the Brown Act is clear about this kind of stifling of unpopular speech: council members don't enjoy that level of freedom.  We will challenge this.  Stay tuned.

A video of the event can be viewed on the Emeryville Property Owners Association website HERE.

Council Votes: Nine Parkside Trees Saved

Parkside Trees To Be Dug Up And Temporarily Stored Elsewhere

The Emeryville city council voted Tuesday night to save nine of the 33 most contentious trees slated to be killed to make way for the Parkside condominium project.  The housing development project raised the ire of Emeryville residents when the city staff and the developer conspired to kill every existing street tree to ease construction of the project.

The Parkside Condominiums will look like
other housing projects in Emeryville
completed in the last 15 years.

Residents were especially dismayed by the prospects of cutting down 33 mature trees along Stanford Street in what is to be a small park adjacent and associated with the project, as widely reported by The Secret News.  The city council responded to residents complaints by scheduling Tuesday's reconsideration of an earlier green light to start cutting by the council.

The new plan now as approved by the council is to dig up and temporarily pot the nine trees in large boxes and store them off site.  The trees would later be re-planted in roughly the same spot at the new park upon completion of the project.  The arborist associated with the project has determined the nine mature trees to be saved as "good", the highest rating.

All of the other street trees on the city block circumscribed by Powell, Doyle, Stanford and Hollis streets either have already been killed or will be to make construction of the project easier.  The nation-wide condominium developer, Archstone, has done other housing projects in the Bay Area including the Archstone Apartments on Shellmound Street in Emeryville.

They Said It: Nora Davis

Nora Davis Said It-

"These People Need To Be Recalled, Their Incompetency Is Unacceptable"

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.

.                 .                 .                 .

Back in the late 1990's, Emeryville mayor Nora Davis headed up a search committee formed to find a new school superintendent and after a nation-wide search, they recommended that the Emery School Board hire former Compton School District superintendent, JL Handy.  Even though he had overseen the bankruptcy of the district in Compton, the committee felt Mr Handy would work out well here.

'People who are guilty
of what I've done
should be recalled'

The School Board dutifully accepted the advice from the search committee and hired Mr Handy.  After he was hired, Mr Handy also bankrupted Emery Unified School District and he engaged in improper personal use of district funds and other crimes.   Superintendent Handy fled Emeryville in 2000, leaving the School District in ruins, ultimately to be taken over by the State.

Following this fiasco, a new search began; this time it was the search for the guilty.  A very vocal effort to recall the School Board was initiated since they had hired Mr Handy.  The  successful recall was headed up by non other than council member Nora Davis.  Ms Davis was vociferous in her indignation: "These people need to be recalled, their incompetency is unacceptable" she said at a council meeting. Ms Davis lent her name to the recall literature.  But nowhere was it mentioned by Nora Davis, not in the recall literature nor by her at any public event, that she had been the chair of the superintendent search committee and that she herself was guilty of what she said was an unpardonable offense by the School Board.  Ms Davis kept quiet and hoped no one would remember that she was responsible for the School Board recommendation to hire Mr Handy.

Trees: Business Interests Trump Residents Interests

In its ongoing investigation about what went wrong with the street trees at the Parkside Project on Powell Street, The Secret News along with Emeryville resident Adrian McGilly uncover a subterfuge program meant to further business interests at the expense of residents interests, including prevarication by the city staff.  In a February 7, 2012 memo to the City Manager and the city council, Planning Director Charlie Bryant said flatly the reason the trees would need to be cut down was to "accommodate the park and the [final, not temporary] parking lot".  As the still unfolding story reveals, that was a fabrication by Mr Bryant.
Here's the latest Secret News story on these trees:

City Willing to Trade 20-Year-Old Trees for Temporary Parking

October 15, 2012

By Adrian McGilly

Council Member Jac Asher has put on the agenda for the next City Council meeting (Oct. 16th) a discussion of whether the city should change the design of the Parkside park to include some or all of the existing trees. Council Member Asher’s willingness to do this shows her commitment to transparent government. It shows that she wants the freedom to cast her votes on the basis of complete information, not partial information cherry-picked by city staff. It shows that she values the right of Emeryville’s residents to receive proper notification (i.e. signs posted on the trees) when the city is contemplating the removal of its trees.
Her actions have already yielded results. In response, Charles Bryant, Planning Director for the City of Emeryville, has issued a Staff Report which finally reveals the real motivation behind the removal of these trees....

Read the rest of the story by clicking HERE.

Best Hope For Emeryville Schools: Proposition 30

Yes On Proposition 30

Opinion
Everybody knows California public schools, once vaunted and esteemed as the best in the nation have been severely degraded by decades of indifference by Sacramento and the anti-tax, anti-government culture of an ascendant political right wing across the state.  This shameful legacy has brought us where we now find ourselves;  a broken education system, starved for resources and in need of emergency money to stop the drive over the cliff for our schools.  Later, a more sustained reinvestment in the schools needs to be taken up to fulfill our commitment to the progressive idea of public education.  This emergency cash infusion is where Proposition 30 comes in; it will fill in for school busting poison pill 'trigger cuts' recently implemented by politicians in Sacramento.

Emeryville schools are especially at risk now: the Emery School District is pursuing a feckless fiscal plan to fund the new proposed school rebuild project, the Center of Community Life, that once voters get hip to, will likely turn them off to giving the School District any more money.  However, the new school will need money from a new parcel tax for its day to day operational budget or else Emery will see more teacher lay-offs.

After Emery has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, including $107 million to close down the existing elementary school, Proposition 30 can help, in the likely event that Emeryville taxpayers' generosity has reached its limit for education in our town.

Proposition 30 gets some money from a 1/4 cent sales tax increase but the lion's share comes from a tax hike on those who make in excess of $250,000.
Voters should beware of Proposition 38, also an education funding measure on this November's ballot but it's funded by an across the board tax increase, including poor people making just $7400 per year.   Proposition 38 however limits the tax increase to 2.2% for those making more than $2.5 million per year.  Proponents are calling for a shared sacrifice for Proposition 38 but we say the working class and the middle class have already sacrificed enough in the new America (and California) we have built.
Funding for Proposition 30 on the other hand is premised on the progressive "ability to pay" notion, the idea, once commonplace but now foreign in today's Republican ascendant America,  that holds those with the greater ability to pay should pay the greater amount.

Even if Emeryville voters do pass a new parcel tax to help the schools operational budget next year, Proposition 30 will directly help fund these desperately needed expenses for Emery.  It's the best chance we have to stave off another round of teacher layoffs or worse.  Let's get the rest of the State to help us avert a operational budget disaster for Emery Unified School District...consider the let down that will come after we pay so much money for a new school only to be too broke to run it properly.
 
Please consider a yes vote for Proposition 30; it will help make sure we don't throw good money after bad in our quest to build an excellent school system here at Emery.

RULE Meeting

R  U   L   E  
Residents United For A Livable Emeryville

Next meeting:  Saturday, November 17
10:00 - 12:00
5514 Doyle St., Community Room, 1st floor

Bring breakfast snacks
Coffee and tea provided

Our agenda: 
 

            1.     How to support EPOA Public Accountability initiative

            2.     Historic Building Preservation

            3.     Tree Ordinance

            4.     RULE support for City Council candidates:

                                    Timing, potential candidates, RULE procedures.

            5.     School Board/ECCL report by School Board member Josh Simon

            6.     New business and committee reports

In addition to the above, what are our other priorities? Some ideas include the remaining land to be developed in town, including the Sherwin Williams site and the plot next to Bay Street.

For information respond to this email or call Judy Timmel at 601-6521

Special note from Mayor West to RULE supporters:  Please note two dates for City Council items of interest...respond directly to Jennifer West

Some upcoming items to talk about at RULE:

Oct. 16 will have a few things of interest on the agenda: 

• Ken Bukowski's EPOA ballot initiative for a study session at 6:30 -7:15. 
• Another item is to talk about the committee structure at the city: 

1. council appointments to the committees (potentially changing from 2 council members to one -- there are too many meetings for us!)
2. committee make up, possibly including more residents/business reps on committees, and I have placed (as part of that discussion) an item about 
3. changing the way mayor is selected (top vote getter in election becomes mayor 2 years after election and for 2 years)
4. moving elections to even years (higher turn out). 

I would be very interested to see what RULE folks think about these issues. it would be easiest for me to talk with you about this, or you can wait until I write up my thoughts... but that is not likely to happen before Sat. I am sorry that I cannot attend as I am on a panel at UC Berkeley.

Note from Judy:  Jac Asher has informed us that at this meeting she will bring up a reconsideration of the approval of the Parkside development plan to remove 33 trees

Nov. 6 will have the next trees study session at 6:30-7:15.

Thanks!

Jennifer

'What's Best For The Children'

Is It 'What's Best For The Children'?

Or Is It Rather 'What's Best For The 

School Board'?

Opinion
Attend any contentious Emery School Board meeting and you'll likely hear from a board member they're  doing what's "best for the children."  This Pavlovian response can be heard virtually whenever a dissenting citizen has the audacity to express an alternative viewpoint to the solid unyielding policy wall usually presented by the Board.  The idea is that the Board is always working in the children's best interest, you understand.
Citizen followers of the Emery School District might find this sentiment fatuous, given the sorrowful history of District policy as chronicled by the Tattler and other media but contained within it is a more insidious, yet revealing meme.  This didactic claim; they're only doing whats' best for the children, is outwardly meant to show their virtuous dedication to their job but what it really does is subtlety remind everyone that what parent and citizen dissenters want then is expressly not what's best for the children.  The Board has a lock on what's best for the children; outliers are just that, outliers.
In a school district not as top-down as Emery, this parsing of would be innocuous language might seem overwrought but here it just serves to clarify: this School Board is in charge and challengers among the rabble will not be listened to.

One might think the School Board, having recently been the target of so much agitated citizen and teacher trepidation would be sensitive to the haughty and dismissive nature of this kind of 'we know what's best for the children' talk, but no.  Not here.  Here, they can't seem to help themselves, the culture of quashing dissent being so intrinsically ingrained.

To anyone so bold as to venture to a School Board meeting armed with a good intention and a good idea that might be a change from the staus quo, realize, it's the School Board that has the best ideas for what's good for the children.  Your idea is just disruptive.  But hey, "Thanks for coming!" as they never fail to say.

'Parkside' Trees: City Staff Conspires With Developer To Hide Information

Mr Adrian McGilly, husband of Mayor Jennifer West, levels an explosive accusation; the Planning Department staff at City Hall, deliberately misled the city council in a report about publicly owned street trees a developer wishes to cut down as part of the new 'Parkside' condominium project now being built at Hollis and Powell Streets.  The Secret News covers the story:

Emeryville City Staff Deliberately Misled City Council

October 1, 2012

By Adrian McGilly

When the city failed to post notices on the trees to be cut down, Adrian McGilly took it upon himself to do so. While such notice is required under the city’s Urban Forestry Ordinance, the city is exempt. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Open letter to City Council says staff instructed “Parkside” developer to delete portions of arborist’s report

City Council Members:
Attached is the Staff Report you all received prior to voting to authorize the removal of 33 mature trees along Stanford [Street].  It includes the arborist report commissioned by Archstone and produced by Hortscience Inc., which recommends the destruction of those [public] trees. As you know, I find it sad and misguided that mature trees will be destroyed on a site that is being turned into a public park. I find this decision so repulsive that I have spent a lot of time trying to understand how it happened. I want to share with you some of my findings...

Click HERE for the rest of the story.