Council Member Bauters Deceived Dems on Police Funding

 Democratic Party Endorsement Hopeful John Bauters Hides $2500 from Police PAC

"I Have Not Taken Any Money" He Falsely Asserts

Emeryville City Council member John Bauters has upped the ante in his push to win a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors by deceiving the Alameda County Democratic Party about his campaign’s funding sources the Tattler has learned.  Mr Bauters and his rival for the 5th District Board of Supervisor’s seat, Oakland City Council member Nikki Fortunato Bas, both attended the County Democratic Party’s September 14th endorsement meeting and both responded to the same question about police funding the same way.  They both said NO, they had not received any such funding.  Using Councilman Bauters’ own FPPC Form 497, the Tattler learned his answer can only be described as deceitful. 

The meeting featured many prospective candidates vying for a coveted Dem endorsement in the heavily Democratic Alameda County and ultimately, neither Ms Bas nor Mr Bauters received an endorsement.  Perhaps Ms Bas might have gotten an endorsement had the selection committee known at the time the candidate from Emeryville had not told them the truth.  The committee has been informed about this matter in the interim we learned but they have issued no statement about it we know of. 

The straight question from the Democratic Party of Alameda County put to both candidates at the September 14th meeting was, “Are you endorsed by or taken any money from law enforcement?”  Ms Bas stated she had not and Mr Bauters said unequivocally, “The answer is NO, I have not taken any money.”  What Bauters failed to report was the $2500 taken from the Oakland Police Officer’s Association PAC on August 13th, payable to the FPPC registered committee, ’Bauters for a Safer East Bay’.

The Tattler reached out to the Councilman for comment but he did not return our multiple requests.   

The meeting can be viewed here:

https://www.facebook.com/acdemocrats/videos/494147616764347

Please go to 26:00 to 26:35 to hear candidate Bauters' incriminating claim. 

From candidate Bauters' Form 497 file, registered with the State of California:

Lack of Interest By City & Schools Puts Children's Safety at Risk

What Will It Take to Lock The School Security Gate at ECCL? 

A Bad Guy With a Gun?

Opinion

Rebecca Sermeno
Community Services Director

Emery School District begins the new year with an old reoccurring problem: a security gate off the San Pablo Avenue public sidewalk is constantly wide open during school hours, inviting anybody to stroll right in and access any classroom filled with children.  The Tattler has documented this for years now but so far there has been no fix for this easy to solve and potentially calamitous problem.

The school campus is part of a community center known as the Emeryville Center for Community Life (ECCL) and is a joint City/ School District facility.  As such, both the City of Emeryville and Emery Unified are responsible for keeping the children safe there.  The gate that they can’t seem to ever secure is just off the public lobby for both the Community Services Department and the School District. 

Quiauna Scott
Superintendent of the Schools

Rebecca Sermeno, the head of community services for the City and Dr Quiauna Scott, the superintendent of the schools are the two managers responsible for this ongoing problem and they have repeatedly told the Tattler they will fix it but virtually every time we pass by on San Pablo Avenue, we glance over and see the open gate. When we have time to stop and interact, each time the explanation is the same: “We thank you for bringing this to our attention, we take this seriously and we’re going to fix it.”  Then the next time, sometimes the very next day, it’s, “We thank you for bringing this to our attention, we take this seriously and we’re going to fix it”.

After a couple of years of this, it’s obvious they don’t take the children’s safety seriously.  Is it going to take some kind of violent security breach for the responsible employees, the one’s paid to provide safety, to fix this? We don’t think it’s too much to ask that the government keep our children in their care, safe.  Locking a security gate should be the simplest thing to do to provide a basic minimum of security for the children.  It’s sad the Tattler has to report on this.

 Here is a small sampling over the last few months:

Tattler Forced to 'Lawyer Up' To Get Public Documents

 New Culture of Secrecy Descends on City Hall

Citizens Wanting Accountability Must Lawyer Up

Public Records Illegally Denied

Emeryville Illegally Disregards California Public Records Act

News Analysis

Over the last eight months, the Tattler has been attempting to get three Emeryville police body worn camera documents due in accordance with the California Public Records Act but the City of Emeryville has been actively fighting the law that requires they hand over the public documents.  After the City said NO, they will not release the video documents, the Tattler obtained the services of a lawyer, prompting the City to announce after eight months, they are finally going to stop fighting and cough up the documents.  In this and other recent fights for public documents illustrates the extent of a growing culture of secrecy at City Hall versus the public’s right to know the doings of their government.  

City Attorney John Kennedy
Not a fan of accountability, he's been a
good fit with the City Council majority.

Fifteen years of Tattler public records request attempts have made it clear that transparency and accountability at Emeryville City Hall have never been as rigorous as they claim they are but a growing ‘next level’ of records denying puts City Hall and its Police Department now squarely into the realm of law breaking.  The new culture of secrecy at City Hall dovetails with a culture of unaccountability among some members of the City Council led by the nabob John Bauters, raising questions about who’s leading whom in Emeryville's governance.

The Records Act is how the Tattler and many other news sites obtain public records to inform stories for public consumption and to the extant municipalities violate the Act, the public will be less informed as a consequence.  The new City Hall obstinacy raises the specter of citizens and the press ‘lawyering up’ if they want transparency and accountability from Emeryville.

On March 3rd 2024, the Tattler first requested the police body worn camera documents of a trespassing event via a Public Records Act Request.  The City has ten days to respond to such requests according to law but Emeryville commonly misses the deadline or ignores the first request altogether.  This has been happening with greater frequency over the last few years and the City did begin by ignoring our March 3rd request.  After nudging, finally, the City responded on March 18th, five days late. However, in their responce, the City Attorney, John Kennedy, invoked a clause granted by the State that municipalities may cite to avoid disclosing requested public documents under the auspices of Times Mirror Co. v. Superior Court (1991), case law that posits greater public harm will come by the government disclosing the public documents than is caused by the government not releasing the documents.

The Tattler asked Mr Kennedy to elaborate on his refusal to disclose the documents because the Times Mirror case invocation was improper and we threatened to sue the City in court if we did not get a responce.  Days after that, EPD responded that upon “re-consideration”, they will release the requested documents after all, but the Tattler would have to pay the City of Emeryville $656 for the Police Department to redact sensitive personal information from the videos.  The State of California requires municipalities redact people’s personal information such a social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses and the like.

However, the City of Emeryville is expressly NOT allowed to charge the public for redaction of documents obtained by public records requests as delineated by California Supreme Court case law National Lawyers Guild v. City of Hayward (2020).  The Tattler notified Emeryville of the 2020 case in a September 13th letter to Mr Kennedy and again threatened to sue if the City didn’t cough up the public documents.  The City finally responded they will hand over the police videos without overzealous redacting (that would also be against the law) and without charging illegal fees on October 3rd, eight months after the first request that ultimately required multiple letters from the Tattler and the retention of an attorney.

Public documents ensconced at City Hall or the police station belong to everyone in the community, they are NOT the sole possession of the government.  The government serves as the custodians of our documents and they MUST surrender them upon request according to California law.  Insofar as this Tattler records request debacle may be emblematic of the new obstinacy at City Hall and among undemocratically minded City Council members, the City has effectively put the citizens on notice that if we want our documents, we’re going to have to ‘lawyer up’ to get them.

The Tattler will report if the City improperly redacts the videos when/if we receive them in October.

Cryptocurrency Executive's Major Campaign Donations to Bauters & Congressional Republicans

 Connection Between Wealthy Bauters Donor and Republicans Exposed

Emeryville City Council member John Bauters and conservative Republicans in Congress.  What do they have in common?  Besides not being fans of a living minimum wage for workers, they both attract lot’s of cash from cryptocurrency executives. 

Councilman Bauters’ campaign for Alameda County Supervisor is packed with cryptocurrency cash heading into the final stretch of the 2024 election, with $40,000, the maximum legal amount, supplied by tech bro Jesse Pollak, of Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange that also is a major donor to some of the most hard right Republicans in Congress.  Mr Bauters has been unabashed in courting the right wing in the county in his run for the Supervisor position and it has paid off with lots of money to fend off his rival in the race, Nikki Fortunato Bas.  Ms Bas, a progressive who honors labor, has gotten donations from many East Bay labor unions and ordinary citizens in her race for Supervisor.

Trying to be everything for everybody, Council member Bauters has recently been attempting to soften his anti-labor reputation in the county, trying to siphon donations from progressives that would go to Ms Bas but he is alone in the race in attracting conservative donors.  To the extent he has been successful casting himself as a pro-labor progressive across the county, it is attributable to the fact that Mr Bauters’ work as a politician has been in tiny Emeryville, outside the glare of the Oakland/Berkeley political spotlight.  In this way, many progressives in the county are unaware of Bauters' anti-labor record, specifically when he led a drive to cut the wages of the poorest working poor people in Emeryville in 2019.   The flood of cash from the right side of the spectrum to Mr Bauters’ campaign coffers, especially from tech bros, demonstrates the extent they have been paying attention however.  

Attempting to expose the Bauters' anti-labor record, staffers at the Nikki Bas campaign have produced a website, ‘The Truth About Bauters’ to reveal the things he doesn’t want us to know about him.  Things like the time when he attempted to roll back Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance and the people that appreciate that.  People like the cryptocurrency whiz Jesse Pollak of Coinbase who took some time off donating to Republicans in Congress to give the maximum legal amount to Emeryville’s John Bauters.  

From the website 'The Truth About Bauters' produced by the campaign for 
his rival in the Alameda County Supervisor race, Nikki Fortunato Bas.

Campaign '24 Fact Check: It's Not Possible to Re-Elect Sukhdeep Kaur

Campaign '24 Fact Check:

How Can She Be "Re-Elected" when Sukhdeep Kaur Was Not Elected In The First Place?

It's all over her campaign website.  Council member Sukhdeep Kaur wants Emeryville voters to "re-elect" her.  But how can we re-elect her when she never won an election in the first place?  Council member Kaur just made that up.  Perhaps it makes her seem more than what she is.  Maybe that's why she is telling us this fib.  

We'll never know why she is spreading this disinformation because Council member Kaur doesn't believe in answering questions from her constituents.  She likes the perks of being an elected official but she doesn't like the accountability part.  That's a thing now in Emeryville.  Starting with John Bauters and now Courtney Welch and Sukhdeep too.  They're not accountable to the people.  Council member Kaur likes to imagine that she was elected by the people of Emeryville but she doesn't want to be accountable to the people of Emeryville.

Sukhdeep Kaur is running for election to the City Council, not re-election.  For the record, the actual fact is Ms Kaur was appointed to the Emeryville City Council in February 2023 by then Mayor Bauters.  She replaced Ally Medina who quit her position in December 2022 before her term was finished.  Sukhdeep Kaur did run for election to the City Council in November 2022 and SHE LOST.  Ms Kaur came in fourth out of five candidates running for two seats.

Council member Kaur: Stop misinforming the people of Emeryville.
You were never elected to the Emeryville City Council, got it?

The Tattler gives this a
'Pants on Fire'

Labor Day Lies From Bauters and Welch

 Bauters' Audacious Labor Day Message

Mayor Welch Joins the Prevaricating & Pontificating Prose

Opinion

Happy Labor Day, Emeryville community!  It’s a nice thought that people can wish happiness for the community on this day we honor labor but like nearly everything else in post Trump America, even this has been co-opted and wrapped up in a lie by politicians seeking personal gain at the expense of the community.  Even here in Emeryville.  

Take the audaciousness of Council member John Bauters in his social media blitz today as he campaigns for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors race.  It’s shocking but not surprising that Council member Bauters is going around telling potential voters in the county, he supports labor.  It’s a deceitful re-write of his record.

People who have lived in Emeryville for more than a few years remember how Council member Bauters led a drive to drive down the wages of the poorest working people in Emeryville when as mayor, he rolled back Emeryville’s landmark and progressive Minimum Wage Ordinance.  Actual low paid workers struggling to make it on minimum wage were going to have their wages cut if Bauters had been successful.  Luckily, the Alameda Labor Coalition fought back and by a massive last minute resident signature drive, forced Bauters to back down.

It’s true that Mr Bauters has gotten the endorsement of police and fire fighter’s associations (some call them “unions”).  But those associations are not real unions.  You can tell because police officers and fire fighters NEVER walk fellow union members’ union picket lines like all union members are supposed to do.  Remember, the word is UNION.  The Carpenter’s Union did endorse Bauters but that’s because his public policy works for large development corporations.  The Carpenters' are making a bad calculation that by breaking with their union brothers and sisters, they will get rewards from all the new development Bauters says he will bring.  Splitting unions like this is part of the anti-union corporate playbook it should be noted.

John Bauters and his protege, the corporatist Democrat Courtney Welch (who is now Mayor and who said she “supports Bauters 100%”) are using Labor Day to convince voters Bauters’ record on labor is not his record.  It’s Trumpian in its shamelessness and dark, calculating disposition.

 We know you and we remember, John.  You are lying when you tell voters who don’t know you that you will “fight to protect workers’ rights, fair wages and safe working conditions”.  We hate this kind of cynical politicizing and hoodwinking.  The truth will be told about your record and Alameda County voters will know you don’t value labor if we have anything to say about it.  You can say what you will about other things you have fought for, like LGBTQ+ rights.  We won’t take that away from you, John.  But we will intervene when you lie about your record on labor rights.  

Happy REAL Labor Day, Emeryville.  

Say what you will about Councilman Bauters, but 'willing to fight for
fair wages' is an outright lie. Many politicians lie, of course.  We're not so 
deluded to think otherwise but when we see a brazen lie like this, especially
by an elected official, we report it here at the Tattler.

This is not a politician trying to put a positive spin on something they are exposed on.  This is just 

a lie.