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.
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| 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.
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| If income from her parents pushed her over the disqualifying line, the subsidized apartment would have to be given up to a needy family. |
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.
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| 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.
So why didn't you do this story BEFORE the election when it could have mattered? Why do it now when it will make NO DIFFERENCE?
ReplyDeletefran quittel said...
ReplyDeleteI think these important claims are best resolved through proper public documentation of the issues raised. I'm sorry anonymous remains unidentified and I would like to see whether these claims are accurate or inaccurate. fran quittel
November 14, 2021 at 11:30 PM
So you know Fran, my sources are the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, the City of Emeryville and the property management firm for the new Council member's apartment complex (unnamed to respect her privacy). The only conjecture in this story is about the Alameda County Democratic Party assisting Ms Welch. For that, I have only one source who wishes anonymity as well as two people guessing so that might not be factual- hence it's conjectural status in the story.
DeleteStop harassing black women.
ReplyDeleteWill is right. Black women don't have to follow the rules so stop harassing them.
DeleteBrian!! You're back!! Good to have your sources and guessing back to battle this new Emeryville enemy. But, you realize how this could've been avoided, right? If you ran (and won) we would've had a long time Emeryville resident with the integrity not to do something shady. Now, we're stuck with another Council member that you'll be getting mad at instead of having you on the board and helping make decisions for Emeryville. If she could win, so can you!!
ReplyDeleteThere’s no guessing going on here. The reporting on the actions of our new City Council member is all factual. As I said, my sources are the City of Emeryville, the Twitter campaign account of Ms Welch, the posted policy of the apartment complex where she lives and the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. And incidentally, Ms Welch is not an enemy because she has not yet explained the discrepancies reported on here. She has indicated she will be forthcoming and accountable once she takes her oath of office but until then she maintains she is just a private citizen. This a strange but acceptable tact on her part and we are willing to wait for her explanation on this in December when she is sworn in. We hope we are not ‘stuck’ with another unaccountable and ethically challenged City Council member. Let’s wait until she takes office to demand accountability.
DeleteWhat's happening with this? Will she explain herself? Don't just drop this story.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly is this a violation of the housing program?
ReplyDeleteCourtney Welch rents a two bedroom BMR subsidized unit. If five people are living in a two bedroom BMR unit, that's a violation. But more importantly, if five are living there, as she says they are, then she didn't tell the housing authorities that and that means two of the adults living there were not income verified by the City. It is illegal for people with too much income or wealth to live in a government subsidized housing unit. These homes need to be made available to truly needy families.
DeleteIt appears Ms Welch may not read well or if she does could not
ReplyDeleteunderstand the meaning of that reading. As such those violations
are not intentional. She may need help or supervision in dealing
with laws and regulations. But facts speak for them self neglect of financial transaction to cheat.
She fails to convince me she is honest enough to meet the standard
expected from elected officials. Now we have to live with her
hoping she does not have that mentality of misrepresentation