"Unhealthy" Trees Must Be Cut Says Staff: 'Trust Us' They Say

Council Members Medina and Martinez, the Staff is Lying to You,

What More Evidence Do You Need?

Do You Value Our Street Trees or the Staff?

An Open Letter to Council Members Medina and Martinez

Opinion
As a City Council member, how would you know if your support staff, those paid to provide objective analysis to assist you in your public policy decisions, were subverting you?  Would you get a clue for instance if they told you street trees a developer wants to cut down are "unhealthy" if you can see with your own eyes said trees are bigger, fuller and leafier than trees across the street the staff says are healthy?   How about if you didn't want to trust your own lying eyes?  What if the City's own paid arborist confirmed the trees in question are in fact healthy?  Would you then begin to suspect the information the staff is providing isn't reliable?
Would you start to think perhaps the staff has a hidden agenda if, at a City Council meeting where they were urging you on behalf of the developer to vote to cut down the trees, they told you it's urgent and you had to decide about the trees that evening but then later after discussion when it became clear  to them the Council majority was going to vote to save the trees, then the staff changed their minds and said there's suddenly plenty of time and to postpone the issue for a later meeting?  Would that tend to make you think the staff aren't exactly straight shooters?
How about if you knew that every time a developer requested approval to cut down our street trees, every single time since 2003, some 81 trees in all, the staff recommended YES regardless of the Urban Forestry Ordinance?

Emeryville's City staff says these trees are "unhealthy"
Good only for a chainsaw.
The City's own arborist on the other hand
calls them "healthy".

Would any of that help you to realize these employees of yours, handpicked by a former Council majority that infamously worked primarily in the interest of developers, are hiding information from you that would tend to make you vote to save our trees?
At least two of your colleagues, Scott Donahue and Christian Patz appear to have gotten the message about the staff at the Planning Department (Mayor John Bauters is conflicted out and can't vote on this issue because he lives closer than 500 feet from the project).  We're wondering why you two haven't gotten it.  What more do you need?  The people of Emeryville are waiting for their interests to be taken up by you.

So who is it specifically, that can't ever see the value in our Urban Forestry Ordinance?  It's Emeryville's Planning Director Charlie Bryant, the left over from the days when Councilwoman Nora Davis helped usher in every proposed development project including all the suburban style low slung auto dependent shopping malls we're now saddled with.  He's the same guy that recommended approval of every developer requested demolition of all those single family homes in our General Plan identified Zones of Stability over the years.  You'll recall Mr Bryant wanted to tear them all down on behalf of all the developers but also he didn't want you to know the homes in question were even in the Zones of Stability and therefore to be saved (barring extenuating circumstances).  Charlie didn't want you to know, so he kept that information hidden from you for years as you voted to let developers bulldoze all those historic single family homes.  He only started informing you these homes are in the Zones of Stability after the Tattler exposed him, by the way.

All those years, he chose not to divulge that critical information that would tend to make you, the City Council, vote to save the homes.  Just like how he's now kept from you the arborist's report, commissioned to inform you on the health status of these Horton Street trees the developer of the Sherwin Williams project wants to cut down.  He thinks it's better if you're not informed and to just take him at his word these trees are unhealthy and should be cut down.

Also unmentioned at the April meeting was the fate of the Sherwin Street trees. a different set of trees abutting the Sherwin Williams project.  Those trees were voted to be cut by the Planning Commission on the recommendation of the staff.  The reasons offered by the staff on these trees have nothing to do with underground utilities like the Horton Street trees.  No, the Sherwin Street trees must be cut down because they don't fit the staff's vision of a "unified street scape", an aesthetic vision not supported by the Urban Forestry Ordinance it should be noted.  Breezily, the Planning Commission dutifully voted to kill those trees the arborist also deemed "healthy".  Incidentally, the City Council never got a chance to weigh in on the Sherwin Street trees.
But back at Horton Street, 'underground utilities' should by now be seen as a ruse.  The real staff plan is to do the developer's bidding and cut the Sherwin Williams trees down using any argument that seems plausible.  Underground wires, unseen and scary seem just the ticket.

These "unhealthy" trees seem to be
doing the job we expect trees to do.

The last time you, the City Council talked about these trees was April 17th at your Council meeting.  You'll recall the staff said you must decide right then and there and you should vote to cut the trees because there will be utilities under the street and sidewalk from the project that will most likely kill the trees anyway.  There is no time to waste the staff told you...the situation is urgent: the schedule won't permit you any time to reconsider this at a later meeting.  "Is there two weeks?" asked Councilwoman Ally Medina.  You all were told NO.  But then Councilman Christian Patz, feeling gratuitously pressured asked the staff, "Why didn't we foresee this as a problem when we did the Conditions of Approval?" at an earlier meeting, months before.  Clearly irritated at being given what he called a Hobson's choice and feeling unnecessarily backed into a corner, Councilman Patz wanted to know why the staff didn't do it's job and give the decision makers ample time to decide.  We want to know that as well.  We also want to know why you, Councilwomen Martinez and Medina, aren't also concerned enough about this.  Mr Patz's question incidentally, went unanswered at the April meeting.

It's now June 10th, 54 days after the staff initially and breathlessly told you there's no time left to decide about cutting down the Sherwin Williams trees.  After your colleagues on the Council made it clear to the staff they would vote NO at the meeting, after the staff then quickly reconnoitered and said they'll bring the issue back with more information about the trees (maybe they can be saved?), now it's 54 days later and the staff still hasn't brought the issue back to you.  What are they waiting for?  What before was cast as burning now has turned into lackadaisical.  They seem totally unperturbed.  It looks like it wasn't so urgent after all.  The staff was yet again found to be working in the interests of a developer, sowing a frantic and hasty City Council vote.  This shouldn't surprise anyone paying attention over the years.

They'll come back at you presumably with some new reason to cut down the Sherwin Williams trees at a future City Council meeting.  At this point the staff should have zero credibility.  Nothing they tell you moving forward should be trusted.  Regarding these trees, you should seek outside counsel.

With such a terrible record of your staff hiding information from you, why do you, Ms Martinez and Ms Medina so willingly assume they're on the up and up every time?  We want to save our mature street trees here in Emeryville.  How can you know that?  Because of our democratically vetted Urban Forestry Ordinance.  We don't care about developers and their Emeryville City staff minions.  We want you to see the forest for the trees.  We care about our public commons including our trees and we want you to as well.
This City Council is progressive like the people of Emeryville are.  The staff sure isn't.  Why can't we seem to get past this anachronistic pro-developer staff and usher in a new staff that reflects the desires of the people of Emeryville?  We're not paying you to be nice and to go along to get along...we're paying you to work on our behalf.