Imagine Democracy in Emeryville

 Emeryville Residents: 

Step Up and Run For Elected Office

Opinion

Time is running out and people are not registering to run in our November elections in Emeryville, threatening the election process itself.  Every election cycle it has tended to get worse as far as active citizen participation goes and this year might be the worst yet.  

Emeryville is not known for its engaged citizenry.  In fact our town usually ranks last in the East Bay in terms of voter participation at election time.  That’s most likely attributable to the lack of families in our town, revealed by our super low 1.8 persons per housing unit demographic and even more, to the fact we have become a ‘renter’ city revealed by the highest renter to homeowner ratio of any city in the East Bay.  It wasn’t always this way but like it or not, these numbers reflect our current demographics.  These numbers may help us to understand our lack of civic mindedness at the moment, and they are disturbing, but they do not necessarily reflect our destiny.

While we are not so oblivious as to think a little opinion piece in the Tattler would deliver an insurgency for the upcoming November election, we do have a duty to point out the urgent need for candidates to rise up and challenge the status quo.  Because as of right now, there won’t be elections for Emeryville elected office this fall; not for School Board and not for City Council.  It’s August and nobody is stepping up to do their civic duty to run for elected office.  We want you to consider helping your community.

The School Board has two seats that can be challenged and the City Council has three this year.  If no candidates for the School Board throw their hat in the ring, the two incumbents will simply be coronated and there will not even be an election.  If no challengers rise up for the City Council seats, the two incumbents Courtney Welch and Sukdeep Kaur will stroll right in for another four years.  The other Council seat, now taken by John Bauters, is up for contention because Mr Bauters is running for Alameda County Supervisor and the law forbids him from also running for his Council seat.  That leaves a vacancy, and so far, only one candidate has registered to run.  So if no one else rises up to challenge this, effectively, there will be three coronations and no City Council election in November as well.

It is common there are no elections for School Board in Emeryville because of the stultifying effect of the incumbent advantage.  What happens is School Board members commonly resign and new members are appointed by the other School Board members.  The appointees are friends of one or more of the existing Board members and then the appointee gets to run in the next election as an incumbent.  The result is a calcified polity, an unchanging status quo that’s reflected in the school district’s perpetually abysmal academic ranking.

But this election is looking to be different with the School Board AND the City Council both falling into indifference and apathy because no one will challenge the status quo. 

Given Emeryville’s demographic shift over the years, it is understandable democracy would suffer.  Understandable, but unacceptable.  To have a democracy, you must at least have elections.  We cannot expect our government to work for us if we don’t challenge it. Our nonchalance at election time both in terms of voting and running for office, will be rewarded with a polity that does not serve us.  It becomes a vicious circle at some point, an exigency we must push back against or we suffer the consequences.  What looms is corruption.

To Emeryville residents: please consider running for the School Board or the City Council.  Less than two weeks remain before registration is cut off for these five positions in these two offices.  Register to run, let us hear your ideas on governing and if we like them, we’ll vote for you.  That’s how it’s supposed to work.  Let’s show the statisticians that our demographic is not our destiny. Let's imagine democracy in Emeryville.