Councilman Priforce Attempts Rent Control Debate at Council, Bauters Disallows It

 Rent Control Fight in Council Chambers

Priforce Says New Ideas Should Be Looked At For Emeryville

Bauters Says NO

Citing constituent concerns about the lack of tenants' rights against rapacious landlords in Emeryville, Council member Kalimah Priforce Tuesday night attempted but failed to get his colleagues on the Council to agree to a future discussion about what the Councilman says are new laws some cities are bringing forward to help their citizens with rent stabilization.  Ultimately, the Council majority let the issue of rent control/stabilization die for lack of a second Tuesday but they did vote to drive it over to a future Budget and Governance Committee meeting (4-1, Bauters dissenting).  Historically, the Budget and Governance Committee has been a place the Council puts things they don’t want to deal with but nonetheless, Council member John Bauters told the Council rent control is not in the scope of the Committee and he said he preferred to let the whole rent control/stabilization topic just die.

Council Member John Bauters
He says NO, the Council will not even discuss
rent control or rent stabilization.  It was
looked into in 2017 and he won't hear
any more about it.

Over the last decade plus, Emeryville has been transformed from a city of owners into a city of renters, regardless that the City’s own General Plan says that is not permissible.  Compounding the normal civic dysfunction deriving from landlords with too much power, is a new wrinkle in the landlord/tenant equation; namely, the large number of corporate Real Estate Investment Trusts that have become the new landlords in Emeryville.  In the past, landlords in Emeryville were commonly somebody living nearby, many on property.  Thus the established arguments in favor of home ownership as presented by the General Plan are further bolstered by the injection of nameless/faceless corporations, now with undue control over our communities.

Council member Bauters was adamant Tuesday night that nothing can be done to protect Emeryville renters, citing the 1995 California Costa-Hawkins Housing Act which is meant to place limits on municipal rent control ordinances.  But Mr Priforce was equally conclusive that he was aware of and ready to report to the Council how some [California] cities have been establishing new and effective rent stabilization laws of late, despite Costa-Hawkins.   

Council member Bauters’s election campaign recently received $5000 from the California YIMBY Victory Fund, a developer sponsored lobbying entity based in Sacramento, it should be noted.  YIMBY works to overthrow municipalities autonomous planning departments in favor of a one-size-fits-all, laissez-faire, pro-developer polity.  Some cities could be chastised for not building enough market rate housing but Emeryville is not one.  Our city has built market rate apartments at a prodigious rate, shattering the numbers recommended by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), a regional planning agency and local government service provider that works to deliver a region wide housing jobs balance.  Emeryville builds more market rate housing than any Bay Area city and does not need to add more, ABAG has shown.  At this point, the increasing housing density in Emeryville is causing more problems than it is solving according to ABAG.

The Emeryville City Council in Their Element
Kalimah Priforce asked, "What can we do to help keep
renters in their homes?"
(Priforce is standing on left, reciting the
Pledge of Allegiance, Bauters, next to him,
his hand moving to his head) 

Mr Bauters bristled at the idea that the City Council would discuss ways to help Emeryville renters stay in their homes, swatting down Mr Priforce’s ‘new laws’ presentation, “I’m not aware of what the new laws are” he said, adding, “In 2017 we did an exhaustive study about this.  You’ve just asked for a bunch of things we’ve already done”.  Council member Priforce offered a retort, “2017?  A lot has happened since then.”  

The video may be viewed by clicking the link below.  The action begins at 38:26 and extends to 44:28:

https://emeryville.granicus.com/player/clip/2443

Alameda County Supe Candidate John Bauters Presents a 'Tough on Crime' Platform

"Appropriate Punishments" Are Needed to Discourage Criminals Says Bauters

Bauters Broadens His Base in Supervisor Race

By Appealing to the Right Wing 

Flush with cash from corporate donors to his election campaign, candidate for Alameda County Supervisor district 5 and Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters says he wants to increase penalties for criminals as part of his plan to reduce crime in the county.  Mr Bauters said crime is up in general but an area of particular concern for him is the so called 'smash and grab' crime and getting tough on crime is part of his solution, he recently told the League of Woman Voters.

The corporate sector likes the kind of politics that generates tough-on-crime public policy so much they have given generously to Mr Bauters' campaign (a future Tattler story will reveal who is giving how much).  The resulting mutual benefit, rich donors giving to politicians who get them elected to deliver policy the donors want, is revealed by the expensive and now ubiquitous Bauters campaign ads on the internet, especially on YouTube.  People with local IP addresses need only to start watching a YouTube video and there will be a short wait to see a diaphanous and schmaltzy Bauters pop up video.  Stay online longer and it becomes an assault.  Low on content while proliferating in mawkish election campaign clichés, these Bauters video ads join with the mailers everyone's been getting to help spread the message that Mr Bauters wants us to understand: he doesn't like crime. 

But his performance at the League of Woman Voters election forum on February 8th proved more revealing than what can be had on YouTube.  There, Mr Bauters' let slip an informative nugget perhaps meant to be buried from progressives amongst all the progressive verbiage.  Careful listeners however, will note the newsworthy point within a long winded monologue.  Mr Bauters told the viewers at the forum, "We need to assure the legal system has appropriate punishments in place to discourage people from engaging in future criminal behavior."  The set up is that he says there is too much crime in Alameda County and then he gives us the solution: appropriate punishment, more commonly referred to as more jail time for criminals.  This is quite unusual politics for a self described progressive candidate in Alameda County it should be noted. 

The more jail time argument would generally not be a winning argument to make to voters and usually only abashedly Republican candidates present that as a solution to crime.  Knowing that and because the Tattler is not interested in 'gottcha' journalism, we thought perhaps Mr Bauters might have misspoken so we gave him a chance to correct himself but he has waived off all our attempts to correct the record.   So all voters have to go on with this subject are the words from candidate Bauters himself.

It's hard to imagine candidate Bauters wants to run on a 'tough on crime, build more jails' platform but here we are.  We will assume he has made some kind of political calculation that he thinks will work to get him elected.  

The election is on March 5th and out of the nine candidates for district 5 County Supervisor, Mr Bauters pits himself against two other candidates who have also presented tough on crime campaigns - Chris Moore from Piedmont and Trump supporter Gerald Pechenuk.

Below is the entire candidate forum hosted by the League of Woman Voters for the Alameda County Board of Supervisor district 5 race.  Mr Bauters' section on crime is found between 22:30 - 24:04.

Undemocratically Minded School Board Member Seeks Position in Local Democratic Party

Emery School Board Member Chagolla Running For Delegate to Democratic Party Committee

Accountability and Transparency Should be First & Foremost

Chagolla Doesn't Deliver on Either

Opinion

By March 5th, Democratic Party members in Emeryville, Oakland and Alameda have a chance to weigh in on Emeryville resident / Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla's bid to be an assembly district 18 voting member of the local Democratic party known as the Democratic Central Committee.   One of a slate of eight candidates for the Central Committee, Ms Chagolla has been endorsed by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta and Emeryville Mayor Courtney Welch.  

But despite the high level endorsements, believers in good government would be wise to not vote for Ms Chagolla. 

Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla
Anti-Democratic
Not accountable to parents with
children enrolled at Emery, she has
a patrician's view of democracy.

The Democratic Central Committee delegates represent their specific district serving the people and their State Assembly member.  As such, the Central Committee (DCC) delegates help promote the Democratic Party agenda, endorse candidates for statewide, legislative and congressional office, and vote to endorse resolutions and ballot measures among other things.  The last election in 2023, saw Council member Kalimah Priforce elected to the District 18 DCC delegation over objections from Assemblywoman Bonta who had selected a slate of candidates that included Ms Welch.  

Ms Bonta, recognized by many East Bay progressives as a 'corporate Democrat' owing to her campaign donor list of gazillionaires and mega-corporations, had the misfortune of having her entire slate, save one, defeated by the voters last time.  Now Ms Chagolla has joined a new slate of DCC Bonta candidates for another bite at the apple.  

Looking at Regina Chagolla’s impressive resume, one might be tempted to vote for her, regardless of her being part of the corporatist United Voices For Democracy slate as they call themselves.  Besides sitting on the Emery School Board, Ms Chagolla has been a 3rd grade teacher at Berkeley Unified School District for the last six years and she’s lived in Emeryville for 10 years.  But Democratic voters should be advised, Ms Chagolla’s tenure on the Emery School Board has been marked by a wholesale failure to govern from even the most basic of democratic norms.

Ms Chagolla is not available to the public.  Following in the footsteps of Council member John Bauters, School Board member Chagolla has adopted a hyper-partisan philosophy on governing to such an extent, certain members of the Emeryville public, the press and even parents with children enrolled at Emery, are not afforded the courtesy of having a single question answered.  Ms Chagolla will not entertain constituent’s questions at School Board meetings nor will she set up times for answering questions off campus, not in person, via email, text or not via the phone.  This is an extremely undemocratic vision of governance from a public servant who calls herself a Democrat.  

While running for re-election to the Emery School Board in 2022, Board member Chagolla joined with her two colleagues also seeking re-election, telling voters about what a great job they had done for the children at Emery.  "Keep Emery on track” is what they said, presumably because they were doing such a fantastic job.  What Ms Chagolla and her slate mates didn’t tell voters is that, academically, Emery slid to last place among all school districts in Alameda County on her watch.  This kind of incompetence and lack of transparency should not be rewarded with a Democrat’s vote.

You know a politician is pulling a scam when they transform themselves from lovers of democracy and accountability before they’re elected into haters as soon as they are elected.  Such is the case with Regina Chagolla.  Before she was elected to the Emery School Board, she told the community she loved the Emeryville Tattler.  In 2015, then an Emery teacher, she even wrote a letter to the editor praising how informative and democratic the Tattler is.  In her letter, Ms Chagolla thanked the Tattler, “for informing the public about the big discussions that are being made in this small city” and for informing her specifically as a teacher about what is going on at the school district.  She said the Tattler inspired her enough to start her attending School Board meetings. 

Assemblywoman Mia Bonta's Delegate Slate
The 'United Voices for Democracy' Slate
The corporate business community and their
sycophants wants you to vote for these people.

That was then.  Now as an elected official in power and under the critical eye of the Emeryville Tattler, now Board member Chagolla wants nothing to do whatsoever with the Tattler, the same news site that inspired her as a mere teacher.  Now the disdain for accountability from Board member Chagolla is so pervasive, she steadfastly refuses to answer our questions and she even joined with her Board colleagues running for re-election to freeze out the the public from accountability by refusing the Tattler’s election questionnaire (given to all Emeryville candidates for public office).  As elected officials in Emeryville, Ms Chagolla and her Board colleagues boycotted public accountability for the first time in the Tattler’s 14 year history.  Her reason?  She does not believe the public has a right to know about her governing philosophy.  She still wants their votes however.  

For these reasons, Democrats, even the corporate ones, should not use their votes to reward a person who cavalierly subverts the Party’s values with such aplomb.  We don’t know what kinds of political calculations Assembly member Mia Bonta has made endorsing Regina Chagolla as delegate for the Democratic Central Committee but we don’t think it’s in the interest of the people of the 18th District.