Mayor Martinez: Lying & Science Denialism Rates a D-

 Mayor Dianne Martinez

Continuing our tradition of looking back on each year-long mayorship of the rotating Emeryville City Council members/cum mayors, with Dianne Martinez now moving aside to make way for John Bauters, we take this opportunity to look back on Mayor Martinez’s tenure as Emeryville's highest elected official.  The Tattler continues with the tradition of these mayoral wrap-ups; the assignment of letter grades for each mayor—and to that end, we report Dianne Martinez has received a D- for her efforts as our mayor.

Opinion

Emeryville Mayor in 2021
Dianne Martinez

A glaring piece of bad politics came last June 15th when the Council majority voted to cut down the people’s street trees at the Sherwin Williams development site at the request of Lennar Development Corporation, Mayor Martinez leading the charge.  Before her June 15th vote, she also had voted to kill the same trees in a losing bid in 2019.  Ms Martinez, hoping people had forgotten, appallingly attempted to rewrite history when she announced at the June meeting she had been in favor of saving the trees in 2019.  “I was on the side of doing everything we could [to save the trees] but now, I’m on the side of (having the healthiest and most vibrant trees on Horton Street), she said, parroting the developer’s talking points.  Ms Martinez’s colleague, the former Councilman Christian Patz, at the same June 15th meeting told the assembled crowd that the developer had presented no new information from the 2019 Council vote (when the trees were saved).  The Mayor, undaunted, then voted to kill the trees again after happily announcing that the developer had gone behind the back of the Council and gotten permission from the staff regardless and so any vote to save the trees would just be a wasted protest vote.  This was the politics of the public be damned at its most cynical.

In addition to her terrible vote in June, before the voting and before hearing her colleagues openly deliberate on the matter, Mayor Martinez stated that she had already made up her mind to kill the trees, attempting to unfairly coerce her colleagues into voting with her.  She announced, “Let me indicate for you how I’m going to vote tonight”  (see video at 33:40) without letting the other Council members have their say in a fair and open manner.  In so doing, Mayor Martinez worked to close down open and meaningful Council debate.  All City Council members are supposed to listen to what the others say before deciding.  They should come to meetings with an open mind.  They are actually paid to have an open mind in matters of public policy.

Lying Mixed With Science Denialism

Shockingly, Mayor Martinez later denied she ever made the “Let me indicate for you…” announcement.  It’s not as if these meetings are not recorded and on the City’s website for all to see.  So we're not sure what she thinks she's doing with this.

The dreadful behavior exhibited around the June 15th Council decision is added to Ms Martinez’s blanket rejection of scientifically collected housing data by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) of which Emeryville is a dues paying member.  Mayor Martinez continued to vote to give developers a free pass, increasing their negotiating strength with her constantly stated position that Emeryville needs more (market rate) housing.  Her housing claims exactly mirror developers' and are in direct contradiction to ABAG who reports that our town is far ahead of our housing mandate every measuring period.  The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on this, to Ms Martinez's dismay.

The lone Emeryville City Council member who utterly rejects ABAG’s housing data, “I think the ABAG recommendations are too low”  she told the Tattler in 2018, Ms Martinez refuses to tell the people how she knows that or how much housing Emeryville should have.  This position of hers means she is not working to leverage Emeryville’s value when developers come knocking with their housing project proposals.  If we are always desperate for more housing, we'll let developers have their way with us, leading to less livability for existing residents in the negotiations.  

And that leads us into another area of bad policy from Mayor Martinez: Emeryville’s lack of action on delivering more parks to our worst-city-in-the-Bay-Area park acreage to resident ratio.  Emeryville added zero new park acreage during her term (and only one acre during her entire City Council term of seven years despite the City adding more than 2000 new residents during that time).

For all these reasons (especially lying to the people) plus a lack of action for bike transportation and no action on getting a public library like she promised (see question #10) , Mayor Martinez gets a D- .  Not a fail, but almost.

Vice Mayor Donahue Skipped Over for Mayor

 Council Colleagues Deny Vice Mayor the Mayoralty

Loss of Confidence in his Abilities Cited

Not To Be Mayor Scott Donahue
His colleagues expressed a
loss of confidence in him.

Mayor Dianne Martinez announced at the December 7th City Council meeting “It is with a heavy heart and for the health of the City...” she would join with three of her colleagues in stopping Vice Mayor Scott Donahue from becoming mayor as he was set to do Tuesday night.  Losing Ms Martinez's support spelled doom for the Vice Mayor’s mayoral prospects who fully expected to be voted in as mayor as is the customary tradition in Emeryville.  Instead it was Council member John Bauters who got the nod Tuesday evening when his colleagues voted for him to become the next mayor.

In what was likely an example of cultural groupthink 'go along to get along', newly elected Courtney Welch, who had been sworn in as a Council member only moments before, joined in with the vote to elevate Councilman Bauters and to stop the Vice Mayor, having had no relationship with Mr Donahue at all.    

The vote represented a rare but not unheard of skipping of a Council member in line successionally to be elevated as mayor.  After initially expressing interest in and lobbying for the mayor position, Vice Mayor Donahue ultimately joined with his colleagues in what turned out to be a unanimous 5-0 vote for Mr Bauters.  Councilwoman Ally Medina was selected as the new vice mayor, also in a unanimous 5-0 vote.  

Normally, each Council member gets a turn as mayor for a year after serving for a year as vice mayor.  Only a few times has the line of mayoral succession been upset before.

Emeryville's New Mayor
John Bauters

Tuesday night, looming budgetary problems seemed to be on the Council’s mind and that was cited as the primary reason for the vote for Mr Bauters.  Councilwoman Medina, who expressed a lack of confidence in Mr Donahue’s abilities, nominated Mr Bauters after she said next year will be very difficult to balance the budget, invoking an impending structural budget crisis.  “We’ll likely need a revenue generating ballot measure during the mid term year” she said, adding “Our city will be best served stewarded by a member of Council who has spent years diving into these [budgetary] details”.  She praised Mr Bauters’ fiscal expertise as she forwarded his name, skipping Mr Donahue.  

Skipping fellow Council members’ their due to serve as mayor is not unprecedented but it has been rare in Emeryville over the decades.  It has historically happened when a Council member angered or embarrassed their colleagues.  In the 1990’s Council member Greg Harper, the lone progressive on a very conservative council at the time, was denied his turn as mayor as was former council member Ken Bukowski later, who fell out of favor among his colleagues after a damning New York Times article about his illicit drug use.  Forming an alliance, once, a Council member was skipped in order to help a different and vulnerable colleague who needed the perceived gravitas the mayoralty provides to assist him for the following November election.

Mr Bauters will serve as mayor for one year followed by Ms Medina....unless there's more ruffled feathers and another kerfuffle in the Council chambers next December. 

Sherwin Williams Project: Violation of Public Trust on Labor Rights

 City of Emeryville Screws Construction Workers at Sherwin Williams Site

Dirty Double Deal as Workers Paid Substandard Wages in Our Name

News Analysis/Opinion

Conspicuous on Horton Street at the Sherwin Williams construction site recently is a large three dimensional representation of veiled black death and a huge thumbs down sign among other signs decrying unfair labor practices.  It's an embarrassment for our town as workers very visibly demonstrate a labor dispute with two sub-contracting firms building the Sherwin Williams project, something the City of Emeryville promised would not happen when this project was approved.  The two  firms, Steelwave Development and Lusardi Construction, have been cited by the demonstrating union workers at the project site over the last few weeks as reneging on the promise that the project be constructed with prevailing union wages that the City of Emeryville had guaranteed. 

The fact that the Sherwin Williams project, the largest construction project in years in Emeryville, is being built in violation of the agreement and so hurting workers in the community is bad for labor of course but the breach of trust violates the City's word as far as the local citizens are concerned too.  The people of Emeryville were promised this project would not be built by oppressing the workers building it.  Had we been told substandard wages would be paid by the subcontractors, we might well have protested this project.  But the City of Emeryville wanted this project to be built and so to get us on board, they assured us this would not happen.  They bought community peace with the assurance the workers would be paid prevailing union wages.  

Now we come to find out it was all a sham by the City of Emeryville.  This Sherwin Williams project is being constructed at the expense of local workers and its being done in our name.  

We admonish the two firms, Steelwave LLC and Lusardi Construction for screwing their workers in our city of course.  But these are profit driven corporations who can be counted on to always do what they think they can get away with as they seek to maximize their profits.  Corporations lie, cheat and steal as far as the law allows; that's to be expected.  So as far as their honor goes, we appeal to them to do the right thing.   But we're not holding our breath they're going to anything but continue to screw their workers as long as they feel they can get away with it.  And they know they can get away with it in a push over pro-development city like Emeryville.

All the parties concerned; Steelwave LLC, Lusardi Construction, the general contractor Lennar Development and Mayor Dianne Martinez as well as the City of Emeryville refused to comment on this.  We expect silence from the contractors but the City of Emeryville has to behave in a transparent manner.   This is public policy.  We want to know what City Hall is going to do about this.

We're calling out the City of Emeryville for this dirty double deal, screwing workers in our name.  We say the City has to make this right.  They made their promise to us, the resident citizens of this town, and now they have to step in and fix this.   

A city that loves developers is willing to screw workers. 
Emeryville promised us this wouldn't happen as long as we supported this project.

Guest Column: John Fricke on Emeryville's New Bike/Ped Bridge

The Long and Winding Road to the Bay Street Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge

by John Fricke

Guest Columnist

The pedestrian/bicycle bridge to Bay Street shopping mall will open December 3rd, this Friday evening.  It's been a long time coming.  Formally proposed in Emeryville’s 1993 General Plan, the bridge idea languished until 2002 when the City paid an engineering firm to produce a rough design, which began for me a yearlong effort to torpedo the flawed design, and promote a more functional design.  

By 2003, I had become very familiar with Emeryville’s streets and sidewalks while behind the wheel of a double stroller occupied by my twin daughters.  

Nina Criswell & Lane Fricke
in the Emeryville City
Council chambers

Then (as now), Emeryville city government prioritized the car over pedestrian and bicycle access.  On a typical walk from my house with Lane and Nina in the stroller, we would risk life and limb crossing San Pablo Avenue (or wait an interminable period of time at a traffic signal).  Various routes north (between the railroad tracks and San Pablo) were pleasant enough.  But I heard rumors that there was a place not far to the west with a gorgeous mile-long path along the water.  One need only traverse railroad tracks, and then a ten-lane freeway.  But how to get there on foot?  

The 40th Street bridge, with its four lanes of speeding vehicle traffic, was not the best environment for facilitating a nap.  In 1997, the Emeryville city government had produced at the train station a pedestrian bridge with elevator and stairs, but no ramp. 

 

Prison watch towers in Emeryville?

Setting aside for the moment the neo-prison-watch-tower design and the placing of the elevator doors out of view from the street, the functionality for someone with a stroller (or wheelchair) depended on the whim of the elevator vandals, and the swiftness of the City to repair the broken elevator.  (Suffice it to say that Emeryville city government appears unfamiliar with the US postal service motto.)  Quite a number of times, Nina, Lane, and I would hold our noses going up the elevator on one side, only to be left waiting at the altar for the down elevator to arrive at the other end of the bridge.

Apparently, the folks in Berkeley responsible for designing the I-80 ped-bike bridge took note of the folly of the elevator/stairs design in Emeryville.  Their bridge design was all ramp, no moving parts.  In 2002, five years after Emeryville cut the ribbon at the prison watch tower, the Berkeley bridge over I-80 opened to critical acclaim.  

Berkeley I-80 ped/bike bridge

So what did we, pedestrians and stroller passengers in Emeryville, receive a year later from the high-priced engineers that the City hired to design a second bridge across the RR tracks?  Gentle reader, you can see where this is going.  Incredibly, the city manager was so pleased with the engineers’ elevator-stairs bridge design that he asked the firm to produce a large 3-D physical model of the bridge.  

In Hans Christian Andersen’s folktale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, one small child’s revelation is quickly embraced by the crowd, but the emperor will not acknowledge his error.  He walks more proudly than ever.  So, too, in Emeryville.  At the first City Council meeting on the elevator-stairs bridge design, I stated the obvious flaws in its design, and suggested that the design should model Berkeley’s bridge of gradual, open ramps.  Could we learn from Berkeley’s success?  ‘No’, came the answer from city government.  At the next City Council meeting, the city manager presented an alternate design which eliminated the elevators, but added narrow, steep, stacked ramps with sharp turns, and blind spots.  

2003 City commissioned design by Mark Thomas & Co

I realized that to kill this bad idea would take more than stating the obvious.  I looked up the federal regulations regarding spanning railroad tracks and then went to the Bay Street mall with my 100-foot tape measure.  Lo and behold, it would be possible to replicate the Berkeley Bridge ramps’ five-percent slope with a there-and-back ramp configuration (between mall parking garage and RR tracks), while still providing a generous open-ramp width of ten feet.  On the east side, there was plenty of room for a straight-shot ramp to the bridge span.  I produced very rough sketches of an open, gradual, wide ramp design.

In talking up the alternate design with neighbors, it soon became obvious that my hard-to-read sketches weren’t telling a thousand words.  I needed help.

        .                                  .                                 .  

Look! Up in the sky!  Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  No, it’s Philip Rostonovitch!  

From: Philip Rostonovich Sent: Wednesday, Jun 4, 2003 10:41 AM PDT To: John Fricke Subject: question about Pedestrian bridge designs

Hello John,

My name is Philip.  I'm on the Triangle Neighborhood mailing list.  

You've probably seen me around the neighborhood - big guy, long hair, beard, backpack.

Anyway, long intro short: I'm aware of the recent proceedings about the 

proposed pedestrian bridge, but I'm unsure of its current status.  My reason 

for asking is that I have some new free time (recently laid off), and I 

might be able to contribute some 3D computer graphic renderings.

Perhaps my skills can be applied in some helpful way to this or future endeavours.

Thanks for your time, John.  Let me know if I can still be of help.

Sincerely,

Philip Rostonovich

Philip and I went to the site to take photos, and then Philip worked his magic:

These renderings of Philip's told a thousand words.  I met with various groups in Emeryville who endorsed this alternative.  I kept adding neighbors to my email distribution list.  

At the next City Council meeting, several neighbors and I spoke up in favor of the gradual ramp design.  But the emperor kept parading around in his new clothes.  Years later, I was told by someone in the room where it happened that the city manager instructed his city staff members to see to it that my design be undermined.  I was invited to a meeting at city hall with the city engineer, the chief building inspector, and the city’s building code compliance consultant.  Each in turn raised technical objections to my proposed ramp configuration.  I was not good at sketching, but my law degree came in handy in researching the building code, fire code, and RR regulations.  I refuted each of their objections.  

At several City Council meetings throughout 2003, more neighbors advocated for the open, gradual ramp design.  By December’s meeting, the City Council cried uncle.  The bad design was shelved, for lack of funding.  The emperor took his ball and went home.  

Two years later, I was sworn in as a member of the City Council, having included in my campaign platform a promise to fund livability projects like the bridge, the public park at Doyle and 61st streets (now called the Doyle/Hollis Park) and the bike lanes plus traffic calming measures on Adeline Street.  One year later, the Council voted to fund these projects.  I chaired the design committee that selected the engineering firm and the architect, sponsored community meetings, and eventually approved a detailed design that was finally constructed.  

Despite the design-by-committee aphorism, the bridge survived the design process.  My fellow committee members were a pleasure to work with -- they deserve credit:  Ken Bukowksi, Charles Debbas, Brian Donahue, Joseph Mudd (Novartis representative), Tim Doran (Novartis representative who replaced Joseph on the committee), John Scheuerman, Ann Weber, and Cedric Young (Bay Street mall representative).  The city staff member assigned to the committee, Ignacio Dayrit, was excellent.  Lastly, the chief engineer, Mahvash Harms, and the architect, Rick Phillips, were outstanding.  They produced a great bridge.

When I was elected to the City Council on a campaign platform of improving access for pedestrians, bicycles, and public transit riders, I proposed a number of other public works projects to make it easier for future parents with strollers to safely and comfortably walk to the Emeryville Marina from any Emeryville neighborhood.  These proposals included two bridge spans across I-80:  one at Temescal Creek, and another just south of Ashby Avenue.  The Temescal Creek bridge would complement the Bay Street bridge.  (Without a Temescal creek bridge across I-80, pedestrians heading west are still relegated to negotiating the Powell Street freeway interchange to get to the marina.)  For the proposed bridge near Ashby, an additional design committee was formed and held meetings.  When the City Council chose not to fund further design work (over my dissenting vote), the committee was disbanded.  

My daughters are now seniors in college.  I look forward to crossing the new span with them and their brother, Dean, and not having to hold our noses in an elevator.  Maybe someday, we will make it all the way to the Emeryville marina on foot without stepping into the Powell Street vehicle vortex.  

John Fricke is a longtime Emeryville resident, father of three, husband, lawyer, former Chairman of the South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge Committee as well as a former member of the Emeryville City Council.

South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge Grand Opening Celebration Slated for December 3rd.

Long Wait For Bike/Ped Bridge Finally Over

Completed Bridge Set to Open December 3rd

More than 25 years after it was first seriously proposed, Emeryville’s second bike/pedestrian bridge over the much cursed and city-bisecting Union Pacific railroad tracks, will finally be opened to the public December 3rd in a gala grand opening public ceremony planned for 6:00 PM.  

Former City Council member and Bridge Committee chair John Fricke, who as an outspoken critic of an early design of the bridge that didn't include bicycles, was outwardly sanguine but more likely sardonic about the December 3rd opening when he told the Tattler dryly, "Good things come to those who wait".

Not just a basic and prosaic over-crossing
Our new $21 million bridge is not without its charms,
even flirting with a sense of the dramatic.

The long awaited opening will finally silence a growing chorus from apprehensive residents about a boondoggle 'impossible bridge' and 'never bridge' and other such epithets.  

As with any large infrastructure project, this bridge, formally known as the South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge but called the Bay Street Mall Bridge by some, had its share of setbacks and colliding egos associated with its implementation.  Arguably more than its share.  

Madison Marquette, the Washington DC based developer of the Bay Street Mall, was an early promoter of a bridge at this location.  Seeing better connection for East Emeryville shoppers as a booster to its corporate bottom line, Madison Marquette pushed the City to build the bridge straight into their mall.  The City of Emeryville was listening and its Redevelopment Agency approved $8.4 million in 2003 to construct a pedestrian only bridge with elevators.   Mr Fricke cried foul to that concept, rallying instead for a multi-modal design with stairs for pedestrians and ramps for bikes (and wheelchairs).  Former City Council member Nora Davis and City Manager John Flores however fought against bikes on the bridge, insisting at first ramps not be provided.  Mr Flores, reiterating Ms Davis' concerns about unruly bicyclists, famously stated they represent a "ruffian element".   So Mr Fricke took his bike friendly design idea directly to the people.  The City responded with a ramp design that would have bicyclists dismount at switchback corners that would be too sharp and in conflict with wheelchairs, pedestrians and other bikers. 

The City, buckling to public pressure for a real bike/pedestrian bridge in response to a rising John Fricke who had subsequently been elected in a landslide victory to the City Council, finally appointed him as Chair of a newly commissioned South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge Committee in 2008.  Meanwhile, the cost had risen to $12 million and then $13.9 million owing mostly to delays associated with the redesign to accommodate bikes.  Councilwoman Davis and City Manager Flores finally gave up on their insistence on a pedestrian only bridge after they started receiving a lot of public support for Councilman Fricke's pro-bike design.  

The dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency, legal concerns with Union Pacific Railroad and City Council priority drift caused the bridge project to languish for years after Council member Fricke stepped down.   Finally in 2018, then mayor John Bauters, attempting to follow through on a campaign promise to voters, pushed the issue and convinced his colleagues to make the Fricke designed bridge a City priority issue.  By then the price tag had risen substantially and the Council finally signed a construction contract at $21.4 million (not including the eastern 'Horton Landing' approach from Horton Street).

The ballooning cost will likely soon be forgotten however when pedestrians and bikers begin using the long awaited infrastructure.  With this much needed bike/ped connection from East Emeryville to the Bay Street Mall, our town is on the cusp of being able to state with earnestness the oft repeated but heretofore glaringly unrealized proclamation of being a 'connected place'. 

The City will host a parade from City Hall to the bridge starting at 5:30 culminating in a ribbon cutting ceremony at 6:00 (ish) at the bridge followed by a party open to the public at the Bay Street Mall. 

Emeryville's Newest Council Member-Elect Involved in Scandal Before Taking Seat

 Emeryville's Newest City Council Member in Hot Water Over Residence Discrepancies 

Was Election Law or Affordable Housing Law Violated?

Newly elected City Council member Courtney Welch is entangled in a scandal over her Emeryville residence, having likely defrauded Emeryville’s affordable housing program or California election law, the Tattler has learned.  Specifically, Council-elect Welch either shared her government subsidized low income apartment with two unauthorized people without permission from and in violation of Emeryville’s Below Market Rate (BMR) housing program or she has helped the two people, her parents, when they signed their names on their voter registration forms falsely claiming they live in her apartment.  

The two bedroom apartment rented by Ms Welch can only accommodate up to four people according to her lease and since her two minor children live with her, two additional people would represent a violation of the City’s BMR stipulations.  Three bedroom units are available at her apartment complex and that would have allowed her parents to move in with her but Ms Welch did not rent one of those.  

Candidate Welch told her campaign Twitter
readers she was having trouble meeting the 
City's BMR income mandates.  If her parents 
lived in her unit and showed any income
at all, that would have to be reported.

Moving to Emeryville from Oakland, Ms Welch registered to vote on June 1st according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters with her parents also registering June 1st at her Emeryville address.  Ms Welch informed the landlord her two children would be living with her but she did not acknowledge anything at the time about her parents moving in.  In addition to renting a three bedroom unit, she would have also been required to submit income documents for her two (parent) housemates according to Emeryville’s BMR program dictates.  If two uncleared people moved into her apartment, that would be a violation of Emeryville’s BMR housing law.

If income from her parents pushed her 
over the disqualifying line, the subsidized 
apartment would have to be given up
to a needy family.

The need to clear people by checking their income is necessary to protect and ensure Emeryville's affordable housing stock is available for needy people.  Uncleared persons can move in on a temporary basis but only for up to one month according to the lease agreement at Ms Welch's apartment complex, a regulation backed up by the City of Emeryville's BMR housing program.

California election law makes it a crime for citizens to knowingly falsify registration documents by registering to vote at a location other than their legal domicile.  Voting in a falsified different election district also constitutes a crime.  In a tweet, Ms Welch’s father claimed to have voted for Courtney on October 14th. 

Many Council election watchers noted how the Council candidate was able to get a hard to come by BMR unit so quickly.  Moving here in June, Ms Welch had already announced her candidacy for the open Council seat  left by Christian Patz in July.   Mr Patz announced his resignation from the Council in May.

In September, the Alameda County Democratic Party announced it would endorse the new Emeryville resident/City Council contender causing some in town to question if that party set her up for the newly opened Emeryville seat.  A young but rising political star in Oakland, Ms Welch may have jumped at the opportunity of an auspicious Emeryville beginning to a political career, open Oakland City Council seats being such a rarified thing.  

From Courtney Welch's Campaign
Twitter Account
To vote in an Emeryville election
you have to live in Emeryville.

With seeming lightning speed, Ms Welch also was accepted on Emeryville’s Housing Committee by our City Council before the election, a fact Courtney conspicuously placed in her campaign literature.  Interestingly, at their June 15th meeting, the Council overlooked the fact that although she missed the deadline for the Housing Committee application, they appointed her anyway even though, in a snub to the Council, she didn’t attend that meeting to answer customary applicant questions.  Housing Committee members subsequently reported Ms Welch only ever attended one committee meeting.

Having won a low turnout November 2nd special election 1033 votes to her contender's 705, Courtney Welch will take her oath of office and become Emeryville’s newest City Council member in December.

Ms Welch was contacted multiple times for comment on this story but she did not respond. 

Courtney Welch Wins Council Seat

 Breaking

8:55 PM

Courtney Welch has won the special City Council election today with both precincts reporting.  Council elect Welch replaces Christian Patz who announced last May he would resign his seat.  Ms Welch who is a housing policy director, took 641 votes or 55.35% of the votes over challenger Charlotte Danielsson-Chang who got 517 votes according to the Alameda County registrar of voters.

City Council Candidates Forum Announced

The League of Woman Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville announces they are hosting an online candidates forum for the two candidates running for the open seat on the Emeryville City Council at 6:30 pm, Tuesday, October 26, 2021.  It will be a virtual meeting, and the Zoom link will be sent to attendees before the forum.  To register for the free event, visit Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/emeryville-city-council-candidate-forum-tickets-195554959147

City Council Special Election 2021: Courtney Welch

  City Council Special Election Questionnaire: 
Courtney Welch

November 2nd, Emeryville voters will decide a replacement for Christian Patz who vacated his City Council seat in June.  This special election asks voters to chose between two candidates, Courtney Welch and Charlotte Danielsson-Chang.  We thank these two democratically minded candidates for running for our City Council.  As you review their candidacies, we think you'll agree both are very qualified to serve.  Be sure to also read Charlotte Danielsson-Chang's responses to these questions HERE.

Charlotte's campaign website is HERE

Courtney's campaign website is HERE

Courtney Welch

According to her campaign website, Courtney is Director of Policy and Communications with the Bay Area Community Land Trust, (BACLT) where she and her team help create permanently affordable housing through cooperatively-run land stewardship projects.

1. Briefly explain what your vision for Emeryville is and how you propose to take us there. 

I envision Emeryville as a place for families and community members to live and thrive.  As a parent, I am very aware of issues that are facing working families, as they are issues that I am facing myself.   Affordable housing and homelessness is one of the most important issues facing all of our communities and an issue that I am prioritizing as part of my campaign.  In addition to housing, I am prioritizing working with fellow council members to make fiscally responsible budget decisions as we navigate the pandemic deficit, equitable public transit accessibility, addressing public safety concerns, and working with Emeryville’s small business community to not just bring businesses here but keep them in the city.   My initial action plan includes:  -Increase the city of Emeryville’s participation in the Alameda County Continuum of Care collaborative to work with neighboring cities and community based organizations to craft comprehensive plans to prevent homelessness, quickly re-house individuals already experiencing homelessness, and address homelessness from multiple angles on both a regional and local level.  

-Develop an effective governance relationship with AC Transit directors and staff to advocate for the appropriate level of transit service Emeryville needs which would include consistent transit assessments to allow for timely adjustments to area service.  -Work alongside business owners, community members, and other council members to implement a rebranding campaign for Emeryville to re-establish ourselves as not just a shopping, tourist, and entertainment destination, but also a desirable and successful location for businesses and explore opportunities to diversify the tax base.  This includes researching barriers business owners face when attempting to open businesses in Emeryville and removing those challenges when possible.  -Facilitate a public safety coalition between the police department and residents to develop official neighborhood crime prevention councils and work with law enforcement to increase on-foot beat patrols in known “crime hot spots” in the city. 

2. Do you support Emeryville’s Measure C, the affordable housing bond passed by voters in 2018? 

I absolutely support this measure.  I applaud the voters of Emeryville for passing this measure to build more affordable housing in our city.  I encourage continued community oversight of the $50 million dollars of affordable housing financing that this bond provides our city. 

3. Do you support Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance? 

I support minimum and prevailing wages for workers. However, I feel it is essential that any conversation about increasing the minimum wage must include a plan on how to address the rising cost of living, especially with regards to housing.  I will always support increases to minimum wages, as our workers deserve to earn a living wage.  In addition, small business owners should be part of the conversation of minimum wages and be given as much support as possible. 

4. Name two areas in which you think Emeryville has done a good job recently. 

Emeryville has done a fantastic job at COVID 19 response, which includes working with eviction moratorium and support for the business community.  We are lucky in Emeryville to have a council that works very well together, which is beneficial to the entire city.  I also think that our council members have also done well at keeping our city financially solvent.  The responsible fiscal decisions made previously have allowed for our city to avoid some of the major financial pitfalls experienced by surrounding communities. 

5. Name two areas in which you think Emeryville has done a bad job recently. 

I believe there should be a more organized effort to engage residents on the west side of Emeryville.  Many west side residents, especially tenants and residents of color feel disconnected and neglected by the city, especially surrounding concerns about public safety and addressing encampments.  As a west side renter and a woman of color, I feel my election can provide us the representation we deserve.  Additionally, Emeryville tends to get left out of the regional and county policy conversations.  Many of the initiatives and funding Emeryville can benefit from, we miss out on simply because we are not at the table.  As someone who is currently representing Emeryville through two county commissions and has worked as the county’s Continuum of Care Specialist for homelessness services, I have both the connections and relationship building skills to facilitate that process, and will be able to easily incorporate Emeryville in those spaces.

Guest Column: Former City Councilman John Fricke on the Privatization of Emeryville

The Privatization of Emeryville

By John Fricke

Guest Columnist

Back in high school, I learned about the concept, the tragedy of the commons, which holds that unregulated access to public land will inevitably lead to its degradation.  I’m happy to report that we in Emeryville are not at risk of suffering the tragedy of the commons because our public spaces are being safeguarded for private users, to the exclusion of members of the public.

Dean and John on the smaller
play structure in 2019, now
off-limits to the public.

As a parent of a three-year-old, I am again a frequent visitor to Emeryville’s parks and playgrounds.  My son, Dean, my wife, Andrea, and I often visit the public schoolyard next to our house that is owned by Emeryville’s school district.  The schoolyard includes a large play structure for big kids, and a smaller one for kids closer to Dean’s age.  (When my daughters were Dean’s age, we used to enjoy having access to the schoolyard on the weekends.)  But this site is no longer used by the school district as a public elementary school, and the weekend public access is being curtailed by a private school that occupies the site.  

In 2017, the public elementary school was relocated to the high school site, and the school district struck a deal to lease the original elementary school site to a private school that conducts classes in German.  Rest assured, the school district said, public access to the schoolyard would continue.  Indeed, this promise was memorialized in the lease agreement.  

But ever since the German school occupied the site, the public access has been spotty at best.  Most recently, the German school installed a gate and padlock, preventing public access to the smaller playground, sandlot, and community garden.  

Contrary to the lease, access to the public
is denied.

When I brought this to the attention of the school district’s superintendent, Quiauna Scott, Ed.D., a week went by with no response.  After following up with email and voicemail messages, Dr. Scott responded that she would forward my email message the school district’s facilities person, Jody Clarke; and, to the head of the German school, Rufus Pichler.  This latter action struck me as odd given that my message to Dr. Scott included my many unanswered email messages to Mr. Pichler complaining about the German school’s weekly leaf blower noise on Saturdays.  

Apparently, Mr. Pichler felt no need to respond to repeated messages from a member of the public until the superintendent directed him to do so.  His response?  Threaten a lawsuit.  

“It is unlawful to interfere with our contractual relations in this manner. We hereby give you notice and ask that you cease your unlawful interference.”  -- Rufus Pichler.

As it happens, not only does the lease with the German school require that weekend public access be maintained, it also requires the German school not to engage in annoying behavior, such as hours-long leaf blower noise on Saturdays (often coinciding with Dean’s naptime and his parents’ only quiet time during the day).  

Let me pause here to state the obvious:  there is no need to use a leaf blower at all.  The state of the schoolyard grounds before the leaf-blowing is generally fine, except for small areas that can be taken care of with a broom.  Just because there is a tool that can remove every speck of dust from the ground doesn’t mean that it must be used.  Schools somehow managed to operate quite well before the advent of the leaf-blower.  

Why does the school create this noise pollution on Saturdays?  In an unattributed message I received the German school stated that “this work can only be done on weekends when the school is not in session.”  In other words, the noise pollution is not acceptable when the private school is in session, but it is fine to create noise pollution on the weekends when the public has access to the schoolyard.  Mr. Pichler would have us believe that this creates no deterrent to the neighbors’ use of the schoolyard.  By sheer coincidence, whenever the private school parents and students gather for a weekend activity in the schoolyard, the leaf blower noise does not occur.  

What can we expect from Superintendent Scott?  Will she exercise her authority over the private German school, a tenant of the school district?  

The lease revenue from the private German school (close to half a million dollars for this school year) represents a significant portion of the school district’s budget.  Any school district would jealously guard this revenue stream since it comes with few reporting requirements (unlike the money from the state).  

Dr. Scott’s most recent email message reported that she met with Mr. Pichler.  Dr. Scott provided assurances that the small play structure and garden area will remain accessible to the public on the weekends, subject to the area being assessed.  As for the weekend noise pollution, Dr. Scott assured me that the German school “will make a concerted effort with the landscaper to reduce the amount of time the leafblower is used as practicable.”  (Read:  the German school can continue its leaf-blower noise pollution on the weekends when the public is present, so that noise pollution can be avoided when the private school is in session.)  Did Dr. Scott ask Mr. Pichler the obvious question:  why is the leaf blower necessary?  Inquiring minds want to know.  

Any email message assurances from Mr. Pichler directly?  No.  Will my “unlawful interference” on behalf of the public lead to a lawsuit against me or the school district?  Stay tuned to this bat channel.  

Until public access is restored, I will tell Dean that he can only play on the schoolyard’s play structure designed for older children.  As for the leaf blower noise on the weekends, let’s all bring our ear plugs to the schoolyard.  The tragedy of the commons in Emeryville is not overuse, but denial of public access in favor of private use.  

John Fricke is a longtime Emeryville resident, father of three, husband, lawyer, and former member of the Emeryville City Council.

City Council Special Election 2021: Charlotte Danielsson-Chang

 City Council Special Election Questionnaire: Charlotte Danielsson-Chang

November 2nd, Emeryville voters will decide a replacement for Christian Patz who vacated his City Council seat in June.  This special election asks voters to chose between two candidates, Charlotte Danielsson-Chang and Courtney Welch.  We thank these two democratically minded candidates for running for our City Council.  As you review their candidacies, we think you'll agree both are very qualified to serve.   Be sure to read Courtney Welch's responses to these questions  HERE.

Charlotte's campaign website is HERE

Courtney's campaign website is HERE

Charlotte Danielsson-Chang

According to her campaign website, Charlotte is a small business owner practicing business and immigration law for technology companies in the Bay Area since 1998.  She currently serves as a Commissioner for the Alameda County Human Relations Commission, and is Chair of the National Voter Education Forum for the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association.

 

1. Briefly explain what your vision for Emeryville is and how you propose to 

take us there.

Emeryville is the city of “arts and innovation” and my vision is to foster an environment where the ingenuity of our citizens can flourish and where both people and businesses feel genuinely invested in our community. We need to focus more on the livability of our city; we need more spaces for people to connect---more parks, green space, bike/walking trails, public gathering spaces, and small businesses---and we need to deal with environmental and climate change issues more proactively. Our smaller size is an asset and means we can be more creative, nimble, adaptable, and make sure all people within our community are treated with respect and dignity. Diverse input results in more innovative and effective solutions so I would prioritize not only respecting diverse voices but actively reaching out to parts of our community that have historically not been very involved with our city government. I would work with companies within our city to concentrate their social impact and sustainability initiatives in Emeryville to make the companies and their employees feel more invested in the city. I’ve spent decades working with entrepreneurs and building tech ecosystems and will use those contacts and that knowledge to foster more entrepreneurship in Emeryville. More info at www.charlotteforemeryville.com

2. Do you support Emeryville’s Measure C, the affordable housing bond passed by voters in 2018?

Yes absolutely. We need to make sure people at all income levels can afford to live in Emeryville. We need to make sure that the seniors on fixed incomes, many of whom have lived here for decades and hold the historical knowledge of Emeryville that gives us our roots, can afford to stay here. We need to make sure we don’t lose the artists who play such an essential role in providing inspiration for our city. We need our teachers, nurses, fire fighters and police officers to be able to live in the community they serve. We need to take care of our families who are struggling to survive and our homeless because that’s the heart of who we are as a progressive city. 

3. Do you support Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance?

Yes, Emeryville has a high cost of living so wages should reflect that and reflect our beliefs as a city that workers matter. The Minimum Wage Ordinance often gets blamed for the empty and boarded up retail spaces in Emeryville but that’s inaccurate because this trend predates the Minimum Wage Ordinance. It started off with new developments creating retail spaces that were too expensive for small business owners and now there is the devastating impact of Covid on top of that which is also accelerating the disruption of the retail industry brought on by technological changes and the rise of ecommerce. I’ve been a small business owner for 23 years and my parents were small business owners throughout my childhood so I know personally that being a small business owner is a 24/7 all-in endeavor that consumes all aspects of your life and being able to feed your family is tied to how well your business does. Our city needs to keep our small businesses in mind whenever development decisions are made both in terms of making sure we have viable spaces for them and that we are ensuring that they have the foot traffic and visibility needed to thrive. Our city also has a role to play in helping small businesses build forward-focused resiliency in terms of providing information and resources to adapt to economic and technological shifts more easily.

4.   Name two areas in which you think Emeryville has done a good job recently.

One, Emeryville is a leader in the region for affordable housing.

Two, giving BioMed Realty development approval to expand its Emeryville Center of Innovation. The project involves building 4 new lab buildings which expands our life science core, will bring more high paying jobs to the region, and expand our reputation as a city of innovation.  The project is being done in a way that it contributes to the livability of the community as a whole by including 300 acres of public space including parks, café, etc. 

5.   Name two areas in which you think Emeryville has done a bad job recently.

We haven’t done enough regarding climate change or public safety. Here’s an example that encompasses both: my husband, an avid cyclist who rides 20-30 miles multiple times per week, would say the bike trails are great here and I know many cyclists would probably agree.  Biking, however, is not currently a truly viable alternative means of transportation that would make our city more livable and decrease our negative impact on the environment.  You know you’ve attained the goal of cycling as an alternative form of transportation when you see seniors with groceries, parents with kids, and people in their regular clothes (not special biking clothes) using our bike lanes and there are safe places for them to store their bikes when they get to their locations.  Emeryville has an extremely high property crime rate, a lot of which could be reduced by better urban planning, smarter infrastructure, and more community engagement. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here and waste taxpayer dollars trying to figure out what would make this transition work…we only need to talk to cities in Europe who have successfully transformed their infrastructure as I have been doing for over a decade in my nonprofit work…to successfully do this in the cheapest manner possible.  

Bike Lanes on Horton Street Put Bikers in Danger

 Photos Reveal Public Policy Failure

There Are Not Supposed to Be Bike Lanes on Horton Street

So Why Are Lanes on the Street?

News Analysis

There's a warehouse on Horton Street with a shallow loading dock that delivery trucks back into, leaving the street partially blocked while workers unload it.  Note the photos taken today (below).  Actually there are several such loading docks on Horton Street.  They are relics from Emeryville's industrial past.  Fair enough.  But why is there a bike lane in front of a loading dock?  The bike lane gets completely blocked every time a delivery truck arrives.  Blocked bike lanes are a safety hazard to bicyclists who have to swerve out into the traffic lane to avoid the obstacle.   This erratic movement has been identified as extremely dangerous for bicyclists in numerous bike safety studies.

So why would Emeryville place bike lanes in such a place?  

Horton Street is designated as a bike boulevard.  That's a street where vehicles are allowed but bikes are preferred.  Bike boulevards are not supposed to have bike lanes.  They're instead supposed to have low vehicle volume.  In the case of Horton Street, there's supposed to be no more than 3000 vehicle trips per day.  To make sure that number is not exceeded and bicyclists are safe, the City is supposed to place traffic calming devises to divert vehicle traffic to other streets.  Businesses in Emeryville have told the City they don't want traffic calming on streets where they do business.  So the City put bike lanes on the bike boulevard rendering the designation meaningless but in so doing, they also created a public safety problem.  

The photos below are not special.  These loading docks are used every day on Horton Street.  Delivery trucks wouldn't be a problem for bicyclists if there was a real bike boulevard here (no bike lanes).   The businesses could still use their loading docks if there was a bike boulevard, but the truck drivers might have to drive a block farther to get around a diverter.  The City of Emeryville doesn't want to inconvenience these businesses even a little, even if it means putting bicyclists in danger.

When City Hall works for the business community instead of OUR community, this is the result.  Bike safety is a secondary concern over business profits in Emeryville.  These (unremarkable) photos prove it.

   

If there was very little traffic on the street, bikes
wouldn't need bike lanes and they wouldn't
have to swerve out into high volume traffic 
to avoid truck loading.  That's how it's supposed 
to work on a bike boulevard.

School District Made Up of Abnormal People

 Why Can't Emery School District Attract 

Normal People to its Administration?

Stark Differences Between the School District and the Community

Community Wants to Help the Poor & Downtrodden Among Us, the District Doesn't

News Analysis

The people that run the Emery Unified School District are bizarre.  By ‘bizarre’  we mean not normal.  What else are we to believe when we have a local government agency in a democracy that demonstrably represents the polar opposite of the values of the community in which they exist?  Not to put too fine a point on it but the opposite of normal is expressly, not normal.

Here in Emeryville, we have a community that wants to help the working poor among us.  They want to help build a more equitable community that empowers all in the community.  We know this by the results of many votes taken over the years.  Yet our school district is here working to highjack these values, despite all their propaganda to the contrary. 

Consider what it is that Emeryville residents want: we want to increase the wages of the poorest among us.  We know this from votes taken in 2015 and 2019 and the election of each of the pro-minimum wage ordinance City Council members.  Our School District however, wants to keep wages low.  We know this from their actions and their statements.  Also, we want to hold ourselves accountable for past bigotry.  Our School District however wants to change the subject, run away from accountability.  We want to help our teachers thrive in our community.  Our School District wants to fire teachers.  On matters of existential importance like this, the community and the School District are opposites.  It’s all very curious. 

 

Emeryville’s record on raising the hourly wage of the working poor is impressive; we easily passed 2005’s Measure C, the ‘living wage for hotel workers’ when 54% of voters said hotel workers should make at least $9 per hour.  The school district on the other hand, was 100% against it.  Unsolicited, every single school board member signed a letter urging Emeryville voters to say NO to the wage increase.   In 2015, the City Council voted to increase the minimum wage in town to $14.03 with cost of living increases baked in.  Later when three Council members voted for a wage roll back at the behest of business owners, the residents of Emeryville fought to keep the progressive minimum wage by petition with the threat of an election.  The Council backed down because they could see the writing on the wall: Emeryville people support living wages. 

Increasing the wages of the poorest workers in our community is very popular with the whole community (except at the Emery Unified School District).  Current school board member and former City Council wannabe John Van Geffin pledged to voters in 2016 he would try to kill the Minimum Wage Ordinance at every single City Council meeting if voters would only elect him to that body.  Voters resolutely said NO to Mr Van Geffin for City Council.  So off he went to where he is more welcome: the Emery School Board.

In addition to keeping worker’s pay low, Emery Unified has sought to stop affordable housing for families in town.  In 2018, only two school board members were willing to endorse Measure C, Emeryville's affordable family housing bond then on the ballot for Emeryville voters to decide (the same Measure C name but distinct from the 2005 hotel workers measure).  A majority of board members said NO to the Measure and as a result, the District failed to endorse it.  A full 72% of Emeryville voters passed the Measure C affordable housing bonds.  Again, very compelling and illuminating numbers; almost three quarters of residents supported the housing bond but the school board couldn't even get a majority to support it.

72% of Emeryville voters were in favor of the
Measure C  affordable family housing bond.

In the 1970s, our school district fired a teacher for being a transgender person.  By 2020, a groundswell of citizens in the community sought to make amends for the District’s role in that anti-transgender bigotry.  The grass roots action was seen by our school district as something to put down.  And so they moved in and disallowed naming the school gymnasium after the teacher they had fired so many years ago.  The bigotry continues at Emery Unified.  The community is now trying to name the athletic field at the school site after the fired transgender teacher but again, our School District is actively pushing down this new community effort against bigotry and for accountability (see upcoming Tattler story on this).

In 2014, the board hired a new superintendent of the schools, John Rubio.  Mr Rubio used his office in a multi year radical effort to wholesale fire veteran teachers putatively to drive up test scores at Emery.  The effort placed Emery in the unenviable position as the worst school district in the entire Bay Area for teacher retention, a well known benchmark for assessing a school district’s success.  After a couple of years at it, Superintendent Rubio was firing new teachers he himself had hired.  Emery’s test scores fell every year Mr Rubio was at Emery, a point lost on the school board who continued to support him as he drove Emery down to the bottom, becoming the worst school district in the East Bay.  More important than raising test scores was the board's bizarre need to fire teachers.

60% of School Board members were against
the Measure C  affordable family housing bond.

In a scathing rebuke, nine teachers testified against Superintendent Rubio at a now legendary school board meeting.  The board, working for Mr Rubio,  gave individual fired teachers only three minutes to speak their piece on their way out the door.  Some of these teachers had worked for the District for over a decade.  Afterward, the school board, in a whitewashing response, refused to faithfully record the event in the official minutes as they are required to do.

Another former Emery Superintendent testified in federal court against teacher unions.  Superintendent Debra Lindo, a very popular superintendent with the school board, used her time at Emery to try to take down the teacher’s union, netting a ‘teachers resolution’ countering Ms Lindo and signed by 93% of teachers.  Later, little Emery Unified was featured in the notorious 2014 Vergara v. California, a case with national implications.  Our superintendent supplied the billionaire tech titan plaintiff, David Welch, with a legal declaration in which she said teachers unions must be destroyed 'for the sake of the children'.  

What are the odds that in a fair world, the values of the democratic government would so nearly be completely at odds with the governed?  Take the minimum wage issue: how many people are in favor of increasing the minimum wage in Emeryville?  We know by the 2005 plebiscite that number is 54% (and that’s with a massive campaign spending imbalance in favor of the NO side).  One would expect at least half of a school board who presumably would want to help poor families in our town, to be on the same side as the majority of residents.  And yet 100% of our elected school board members, inextricably people culled from our community, were against it.

This long standing record of Emery employees shows us what this public agency stands for.  And what they stand for is what the people of Emeryville stand against.  The Emery Unified School District is an alien presence in our community.  These are not normal people.   But why should abnormal people be ensconced in a democratic agency?  Shouldn’t our values be reflected in an agency that’s answerable to the people?  One would think so but the fact this is not the case tells us political ideologues are in charge at Emery.  

This school district is and has been steadfastly and demonstrably against the working poor in our community.  They are anti-union.  They are anti-transgender.   There is a culture at Emery School District that works against the people they are paid to work for. 

We don’t know why this district attracts people so wholly against working poor families like this but such a paradigm should be inherently unstable in a community such as ours.   The only way it can endure is in darkness.  Emeryville residents should shine some light in there.  

School Board Member John Van Geffen
He's really not fond of the working poor.
As a City Council candidate in 2016, he said if elected 
 he would try to overturn Emeryville's Minimum Wage
Ordinance at every single Council meeting over
his entire four year term if needs be.

Arias Housing Investigation Expands to Include More Alleged Fraud in BMR Program

‘Mr Emeryville’ Surrenders Emeryville Loft Home

'Hyper-Local' Promoter , Rob Arias Ensnared in Affordable Housing Fraud Allegations

A family atop Emeryville’s long waiting list for an opportunity to buy an affordable loft home are about to feel that they won the lottery.  The winnings might be easier to come by for more people in coming months as fraud is uncovered in the City's BMR subsidized housing program..

Every unit within one of Emeryville’s main affordable housing programs is being investigated for fraud after authorities uncovered one unit being used as an office. Several other units are under suspicion. It is unclear how many units within the city’s Below Market-Rate (BMR) program are being illegally sublet, used as AirBnBs, or as a pied-à-terre.  There are 238 for-purchase and rental units in the program, in a city where 134 mostly market rate housing units were built in 2020.  There were about 2400 people on the City’s wait list for the last tranche of BMR affordable units that became available. 

Ironically, the incident sparking the investigation starts with one of Emeryville’s leading promoters, a man who made a second career building an on-line hub for positive, ‘hyper-local’ spin.  Rob Arias, editor of the E’ville Eye was asked to sell his loft home at 1500 Park Avenue back to the City this month, after admitting to city investigators he had purchased a Pleasant Hill home in 2019.  Tuesday night, after the lengthy City investigation, the City Council voted to place Mr Arias' Emeryville home on the market so that a needy family can take advantage of his unit, a coveted ownership BMR affordable home.

People using Emeryville’s BMR program must annually certify the unit is their primary residence.  The City investigated following repeated calls from The Tattler after neighbors said the unit was seldom occupied, and even more rarely after business hours.  Numerous photographs taken by Tattler staff showed the unit vacant every night for weeks. The evidence was later confirmed by City staff, presumptively at the behest of the Council. 

When drawn into direct communication with investigators, Mr Arias asked for elaboration on the definition of 'primary residence' even though he had annually signed a legal document certifying the loft had been his primary residence since 2003.

Arias purchased the Park Avenue unit in 2003 for $206,000.  The City paid $338,200 to buy it back this week.  Essentially, Mr Arias received free housing for eighteen years and left with $132,000 in walking around money. He can’t be faulted for that.  That’s how the BMR ownership program is supposed to work.  Give people in need a chance.  But if you strike it rich, or in this case find a way to finance a second home, continuing to own a government subsidized unit is wrong morally.  And legally, if you live primarily in your new market rate home.  It violates the legal annual certification and is a slap in the face to everyone on Emeryville’s lengthy affordable housing waiting list.  

Mr Arias needed an affordable home in 2003 and he was lucky existing BMR unit holders didn’t exhibit the same behavior he has been engaging in over the last two years, otherwise he might not have been able to get affordable housing through Emeryville's BMR program.   People’s financial situations can change.  And the financial lure of holding on to a bargain in Bay Area real estate must be great.  But officials are finally acknowledging in action that poorly supervised affordable housing is an ‘attractive nuisance’ encouraging misuse. 

The housing authority at City Hall is wrapping up its investigation of other abuses in the BMR affordable housing program.  The Tattler has public records requests pending and will continue to report on the un-needy but greedy people who take advantage of Emeryville's good will and non-wealthy people who would be helped with housing in our town. 

Tattler Investigation:
Eight successive nights between 8 PM and 9 PM last spring revealed 
lights out at Rob's Emeryville loft (red arrows).   Early to bed?

Tattler Investigation

Rob's Car is Almost Always Parked at His Pleasant Hill Home

Eight different days; mornings, afternoons and nights.  Only one time

on a Saturday at 11AM was Rob's car not in the driveway. 

A clear sign he likely lives at this address.  The City of Emeryville agreed.

Under Penalty of Perjury Rob Signed This Declaration
This was signed in July 2019 AFTER he and his spouse had
purchased their Pleasant Hill home.  

Rob Forgot What a Primary Residence Was Before His Required Interview by City Housing Investigators
A few days after he sent this email (January 21st) he was interviewed.  He wanted to know what
'primary residence' meant for purposes of the interview, even though he had signed an annual declaration that his Emeryville loft was his primary residence since 2003 without being bothered by this question.

According to Redfin, Rob's home in the suburbs is worth $833,881.  He and his spouse purchased it in May 2019 for $630,000.

Regardless of the government assistance meant for needy families, Mr Arias (and his spouse) own more than $1 million in California real estate, until the final sale of the Emeryville loft probably in about a week