Police Station Fire Escape Fiasco Expands: Local Press Picks Up Story

City Hall Recalcitrance Draws Fire From 
East Bay Times

The East Bay Times, who's beat includes Emeryville, reports on the story of the City's continuing failure to provide a public fire escape at the police station after a $3.7 million remodel dating from 2012 broken by the Tattler in 2016.  A June 21st follow up story revealed a recalcitrant City Council had done nothing to alleviate the illegal condition.  After a July 3rd Tattler story that highlighted a police building plan document obtained by a Public Records Request that was completely redacted by Emeryville's overly secretive Police Chief, now the East Bay Times has joined in, picking up the still emerging story of City Hall incompetence and possible malfeasance.
From today's East Bay Times:

Emeryville police building may get new stairs after safety oversight

By ALI TADAYON | atadayon@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group

EMERYVILLE — The Emeryville Police Department is tasked with keeping residents safe, but if a fire were to break out at its building, people in the lobby would have no safe way out unless an employee unlocked the doors to the stairs.

To remedy the situation and ensure that people can get out of the building quickly, the city proposes building an exterior staircase from the second-floor lobby to the ground that the public could use, Chief Building Official Victor Gonzales said.

The second-floor lobby is where people go to talk to police officials and take care of other business.

Brian Donahue, who runs the The Emeryville Tattler blog and works as a contractor, said he believes the new staircase could cost the city around $300,000. Gonzales did not provide an estimate as to how much....

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Emeryville Police Arrest Oakland Cop

Emeryville's Finest Arrest Oakland's (What?)

Emeryville police arrested an off duty Oakland cop, Matthew Joseph Santos, February 17th after he drew a gun on a house painter at the 40th Street Emeryville apartment complex where Mr Santos lives an Emeryville Police Department official told the Tattler.  The Oakland cop, a rookie on probation, was terminated by the Oakland Police Department and he has been charged with felony kidnapping and false imprisonment by the Alameda County District Attorney. Mr Santos is scheduled to enter a plea on May 23.
The house painter was part of a crew working at the Bridgecourt Apartments 1331 40th Street, waterproofing the buildings, the second time in six years, after residents complained of black mold due to persistent leaks.  Mr Santos forced the painter to leave the scene at gunpoint after he returned home and saw his front door being painted.  A private security guard was witness to the event.

The Bay Area News Group has the story HERE.

Secrecy Reigns at Emeryville's Dysfunctional School Board/District

We Can Trust School Board President Affeldt to Conduct Secret Meetings Ethically 

(Says President Affeldt)

Never Mind What the Law Says, 

It's Better if the Public is Left Out He Says 

Opinion

Hi, I'm John.
Trust me.

Last night, the Emery School Board voted John Affeldt as President for another term (3-1 Patz dissenting, Affeldt voting for himself).  That's believable for this district; between the guy that conducts illegal secret meetings and the one that thinks the law should be obeyed and the public included, Emeryville gets the school board president that conducts illegal secret meetings.  That's our school district in all its glory, its 'bless your heart' flag flying high.

Which brings us again to the antics of Emery School Board President John Affeldt (and Superintendent of the Schools John Rubio) and the still unfolding secret meeting Brown Act scandal and its attendant coverup.  The Board's lack of contrition after the guilty players (they themselves) were exposed by their colleague, whistleblower Christian Patz, has been a deafening silence.

Why All The Secrecy?
A month into the scandal, after the tepid admissions of guilt from these two (a technical violation of the Brown Act and 'mistakes were made' you understand), we're left facing the 800 pound gorilla in the room: why does this school district feel the need to operate in secrecy to begin with?  Why is it these 'superintendent committees', the same ones the editorial board of the Bay Area News Group calls illegal, why is it that the District is compelled to leave the public out of these meetings?  What are they discussing in these meetings behind closed door that they need to keep hidden from us?

Superintendent Rubio
Secret meetings are wonderful!
It's rare that we do them
but when we do,
they're done professionally,
 & for the children.

Part of the storm of condemnation from the guilty Board raining down on the non-guilty whistleblower member Patz is the outrage expressed by President Affeldt as he self righteously denies doing anything untoward at the November 18 secret meeting with an illegal quorum of Board members.  Seeking to assure Emeryville residents, Mr Affeldt has strenuously and didactically asserted nothing substantial was discussed or voted on at that now infamous illegal meeting or indeed any of the closed door superintendent committee meetings where no records are kept and the public may not go.  But of course, this begs the question: how do we know that, John? 

Are we just to take your word for it?  Your word?  The man who is so narcissistic that he can't bring himself to apologize to the public for his wrong doing on their behalf?  Is it to be: everything will be OK if we just let you conduct School District policy in secret?  And stop criticizing you or looking into your culture of secrecy you've promulgated at Emery Unified School District?

Back Bencher Christian Patz
'Public meetings should be public'.
Yeah, right.

Without throwing out a few tawdry "for the children" platitudes this Board and school district so often uses when their wrongheaded policies are exposed to the light of day (or when their backs are against the wall, their culpability in illegal activity is exposed), let's just say, NO, we're not going to just trust you.  You have to stop conducting the people's business behind closed doors; we're paying for it and we have a right to know. 

Emery School Board President, Superintendent Called to Account by Local Press

From the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune:

Daniel Borenstein: Six decades after Brown Act passage, elected leaders still hold 

illegal meetings

By Daniel Borenstein dborenstein@bayareanewsgroup.com © 2015 Bay Area News Group

Emery Unified School District board member Donn Merriman; John Affeldt, president; John Rubio, superintendent; and Melodi Dice, vice president, clockwise from upper left, are photographed during a board meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, in Emeryville, Calif. The board members and superintendent participated in a Nov. 18 that was in violation of California's open meeting law. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

The principle underlying California's local government open-meeting law is simple: The public's business must be conducted in public. Yet 62 years after the passage of the Brown Act, some elected leaders still don't get it.

The most recent example comes from Emeryville, where a majority of school district trustees met privately with the superintendent and construction manager before a board meeting last month. They say they reviewed costs for a joint city-school district project for which the board later that night approved issuance of another $4.5 million of bonds.

It's amazing that elected officials hold such closed-door gatherings more than six decades after Gov. Earl Warren signed legislation outlawing them. Indeed, these are the very sorts of meetings that led to the Brown Act.

For the rest of the story please click HERE.

Scathing Editorial From Contra Costa Times Excoriates Emery School Board: Brown Act Violation

The local press picks up the Tattler story.  From the Bay Area News Group:

Contra Costa Times editorial: Emeryville school board responded childishly when caught in illegal meeting

Contra Costa Times editorial © 2015 Bay Area News Group

POSTED:   11/30/2015 12:35:00 PM PST0 COMMENTS| UPDATED:   35 MIN. AGO

Emery school district board President John Affeldt, who happens to be a public-advocacy attorney, should know better than to hold a closed-door meeting with a majority of trustees. Photo courtesy of The Emeryville Tattler

It's bad enough that Emeryville school board members blatantly violated the state open-meeting law. But the self-righteous indignation after they were caught was embarrassingly childish.

What's more, their ignorance of the law is nothing short of appalling.

To be sure, parts of California's open-meeting law for local government, known as the Brown Act, are complicated. That's why elected officials should read it before attending closed-door gatherings.

But the private meeting of an Emery Unified School District board majority with Superintendent John Rubio and the district's construction manager was not a close call. It was illegal.

Please read the rest of the editorial HERE

Emery School District: 'We're Going to Cut Our Way to Excellence'

Between Cutting Programs or

Increasing Revenue,

Cutting Rises as Preferred Way

At Emery Unified

Emery Schools Superintendent John Rubio
We're going to cut our way to excellence.

The Emery Unified School District's budget troubles, brought on by shrinking student enrollment, is being picked up by the local main stream media, promising to increase the drama at the beleaguered district.  The Bay Area News Group is reporting the story first reported by the Tattler last week that massive deficits loom for Emery.  The District plans on closing the existing elementary school and going with only 850 students at the yet to be build Center of 'Community' Life.  The problem is the San Pablo Avenue site is not large enough to increase the student enrollment beyond that low number and thus revenue cannot increase, forcing Emery to massively cut programs. 

Parents, teachers and citizens have pleaded with the School Board to retain the popular Anna Yates Elementary School, but the Board, save member Christian Patz, has indicated they have already made up their minds to close Anna Yates. 

Here's the Bay Area News Group story:

Emeryville schools chief sharpens budget-cutting knife

By Doug Oakley doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

POSTED:   05/04/2015 12:44:32 PM PDT0 COMMENTS| UPDATED:   ABOUT 4 HOURS AGO

EMERYVILLE -- This tiny school district is teetering on the edge of serious financial problems and will have to cut staff and increase enrollment to balance its books.

Superintendent John Rubio will present a package of cuts at the May 13 school board meeting to bring the $10 million budget back in line.

"I'm reviewing our budget and all of our expenses, like our staffing and copy machines and utilities," Rubio said. "My goal is to keep any funding changes away from the students and classrooms as much as possible."

He said the district has only about 40 teachers.

School District Business Office Director Dora Siu told school board members at an April meeting that if spending continues unabated, the district will be in the hole by almost $1 million in the 2016-17 school year.

"And if we keep spending the way we are, we are not going to make our goal of having a 4 percent budget reserve," Siu said.

The financial problems are due to declining enrollment, which is tied to state funding, and "poor budget decisions," said school district board member Christian Patz.

In 2000, enrollment was 962 students; this year, it's at about 700.

The district received a "qualified" budget certification from the Alameda County Office of Education in March, which means it may not be able to meet its financial obligations. The district will have to submit a revised budget to the county in June.

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In 2001, the school district ran into financial troubles and had to take a loan from the state and be overseen by the Department of Education after a former superintendent ran up personal charges on his credit card, leaving the district $2 million in debt. State control of the school district ended in 2011.

Its current problems are happening at the same time the district and the city are spending $90 million on a new all-in-one school project on San Pablo Avenue that will house Emeryville students from kindergarten through high school. The new Emeryville Center of Community Life will include a swimming pool, health clinic, city library, recreation center and teen and senior centers.

Rubio said the cost of that project, in which the city is paying $20 million, is not related to the school district's budget problems because the money comes from a capital improvement budget and not an operating budget.

Patz said the district can increase its funding by granting more transfers of students from other cities, called inter-district transfers. He said about 60 percent of high school students already come from other districts. In kindergarten through eighth grade, about 40 percent of students come from outside the school district, he said.

The district's new school, which is set is set to open in January for high school students and May 2016 for all others and has a capacity of 850, could be a big draw for more students, Rubio said.

"This would allow us to add up to another 150 students to our district," Rubio said. "I think many parents and students will be attracted to the new facility that has the latest technology in classrooms for teachers and for student learning."

Patz said fixing the school district's problems comes down to some simple decisions.

"We don't have any extra money, and we have to cut," Patz said. "The only way to balance the budget will be to increase enrollment or reduce staff."

Contact Doug Oakley at 925-234-1699. Follow him at Twitter.com/douglasoakley.

Former Emery School Superintendant Tony Smith: Teachers Unions Must Be Destroyed

The Long Shadow Cast By Tony Smith

"We're Doing What's Best for the Children"

Opinion

Remember, I only want what's
best for the children.
(Repeat often)

Recently there's been a national debate begun about public education and while charter schools, most operating at the expense of public schools have proliferated and teachers unions have come under attack on many fronts, public education supporters have begun to push back against this concerted push to privatize the nation's public schools.  At Emery Unified School District however, the course was set years ago and Emery has played its own small role in this conservative attempt to cripple public education, especially where that attempt seeks to destroy teachers unions.  To see this one only needs to look to the legacies of former superintendents of its schools Tony Smith and the recently deposed Debbra Lindo.

Even though they had the same goals in mind, of the two former superintendents, the great mentor and architect-in-chief of Emery's slide into it's current anti-teacher state of affairs is inarguably Tony Smith.  His shadow is long and even though he left Emery years ago to command Oakland Unified and has since left there amid a witness tampering scandal, Tony Smith and his school privatization philosophy continues unabashedly to serve as guiding principles for Emery.  The School Board here is quite clear about their tutelage by Tony Smith, proud even.

Ditto.

While at Oakland, Tony's divisive anti-democratic program of cutting, shutting and chartering schools while taking on the teachers caused a massive grassroots citizen's push back.  He is revered nonetheless by the Emery School Board and they have even picked up some of his affectations: think the oft publicly repeated and ever popular "we're doing what's best for the children" as a way of shutting down those who would disagree, as in; what YOU'RE advocating then must therefore be by definition NOT what's best for the children.

After Tony left Emery, the School Board looked to find a permanent replacement and they ultimately found a near carbon copy in Debbra Lindo (except she lacks Tony's easy going and chipper personality).  Tony's influence was evident as Debbra Lindo and her Board surrogates began their siege against Emery teachers following the release of the Teachers Resolution in 2012.

Mega ditttos.

The Emeryville duo Tony 'n Debbra have now very publicly entered the national debate with their support in the Los Angeles Superior Court's infamous Vergara case.  They tell us that everything will be great if we just tie teacher's pay to high stakes 'bubble' test outcomes, kill due process for teacher's employment and make their jobs teeter on the whims of unelected superintendents.  We'll get the best and the brightest apparently if we de-professionalize teaching: sever their job security, cut pay and make their fates dependent on things beyond their control.


Below is a recent letter to the Oakland Tribune from Tony Smith (filled with right wing memes and dog whistles) that might seem sincere to the uninitiated. To those following the Emery School Board (Tony's begats)  however, it's just part of the continuing attack on and privatize of public education.  Here is Tony Smith, the Great Man to Emery Unified continuing to release his toxic brand of divisive politics even as he has decamped to Chicago, some 2000 miles distant:

Guest commentary:  

Let's start protecting all of our students

By Tony Smith, guest commentary © 2014 Bay Area News Group
POSTED:   03/30/2014 04:00:00 PM
California's education laws are currently designed to almost unconditionally protect a group of adults -- teachers -- at the expense of our children.
And students living in poverty -- those most in need of every opportunity our public schools can offer -- are being disproportionately punished by these laws. The system tells them: sorry, teachers' jobs are more important than your education and your future.
Is that right?
No, it isn't, say the nine students who brought the Vergara v. California case, currently awaiting a ruling in Los Angeles Superior Court. The students are suing the state because five state laws are denying them -- and the other 6.2 million California public school students like them -- their constitutional right to a quality education.
If the court agrees, then the dysfunctional statutes controlling teacher tenure, dismissal and layoffs will be struck down, creating a transformational opportunity to design a new system that puts students' needs first, ensures a high-quality teacher in every classroom and helps all Californians see a better future.
Supporting our teachers really matters. Effective teachers are essential for a well-educated California. Under current laws, though, the system fails to make effective teaching a priority, creating an environment that's bad for both hardworking teachers and students.
The tenure law forces administrators to grant lifetime employment to new teachers after less than 16 months in the classroom. I am aware of no other profession where someone is granted protected status in such a short time and without any real evidentiary basis for the decision.
Once permanent employment is granted, it is nearly impossible to dismiss ineffective teachers for any reason other than criminal activity. The dismissal process is so cumbersome and costly that in the past 10 years, only 19 teachers out of California's 1,052 school districts have been successfully terminated through the dismissal process for reasons including unsatisfactory performance.
When funding reductions instigate layoffs, administrators are not allowed to base staffing decisions on the quality of a teacher's service to children. The primary factor that may be considered is how long he or she has been employed by the district, so every year a district has layoffs, children lose passionate, hardworking, effective teachers -- just because they lack seniority.
As superintendent of Oakland Unified School District, I had to explain why excellent teachers were being let go, while parents pleaded and begged, saying, "Please, please keep this teacher. You don't understand what this year has been like for my child. This is one of the most extraordinary educators I've ever seen in my life."
But under the law, there is nothing we can do to keep that extraordinary educator.
Is the system I just described a system focused on what's best for children?
Not to me.
A system that prioritizes meeting the needs of California's students -- as the state constitution demands -- would focus on enhancing educational quality before protecting seniority.
A system that truly puts students' learning first would evaluate how well our students are doing and how much growth they are making.
We would discuss how to help teachers develop their practice, using growth in student learning as the primary data guiding our efforts.
When teachers demonstrate effective work in service of students, we would do everything in our power to enhance that work and reward those teachers. And when a few adults are consistently failing our children in the classroom, we would hold them accountable.
In a district like the Oakland Unified School District, where I served as superintendent for four years, 70 percent of students come from low-income households. Our students face serious challenges outside of school. For many students, the road leads either to graduation or incarceration. Having caring, attentive, effective teachers along the road makes all the difference.
Let's not lose sight of the goal of our public schools: to ensure that every child in the state has access to a good education, so every child can participate and thrive in our society.
I hope the Vergara student-plaintiffs are victorious in court. I hope the Vergara case marks a turning point in the trajectory of public education in California. Let's make a true commitment to current and future students: educational excellence, starting with an effective teacher in every classroom.

Tony Smith is a former superintendent of Oakland Unified School District.

Emeryville Man Charged in Hit & Run Murder

From the Bay Area News Group:

Fremont: Murder charge for Emeryville man in crash that killed Marine

By Natalie Neysa Alund

Bay Area News Group

POSTED:   03/27/2014 02:59:16 PM PDT

Debris is spread across the intersection of Decoto Road and Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, Calif., after an early morning fatal accident between a car and a motorcycle on March 25, 2014. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

Alexander Yohn, 23, of Emeryville, was charged with murder, vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run.

FREMONT -- Prosecutors on Thursday charged an Emeryville man with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run in connection with a fatal motorcycle crash that claimed the life of a U.S. Marine.

Alexander Yohn, 23, was initially arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and resisting arrest after the Tuesday morning accident.

He was scheduled to appear Thursday afternoon at the Fremont Hall of Justice to be arraigned on the new charges, said Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques. Additional charges could be filed pending the results of his toxicology report, police said.

Online jail records list Yohn's occupation as an EMT.

Police say Yohn slammed a Mini Cooper into a motorcycle driven by Lance Cpl. Andrew Silva, 23, a Union City resident who had just returned from duty overseas. Silva was married with a2-year-old son, according to a family friend.

About 1:10 a.m. Tuesday, an employee at a Taco Bell on Fremont Boulevard called police to report a drive-thru customer who appeared to be belligerent and under the influence, Bosques said. A description of the customer's vehicle -- a light blue Mini Cooper -- was sent to police.

One officer driving south on Fremont Boulevard saw the car driving at a high speed in the opposite direction, Bosques said.

The officer made a U-turn and initiated a traffic stop, but the driver failed to yield and continued traveling north on Fremont Boulevard, she said.

The Mini Cooper then struck a motorcycle on the road, slammed into a utility pole and fence and burst into flames at Fremont Boulevard and Decoto Road, police said.

Officers said Silva was thrown from the bike, which ended up in the parking lot of the Fremont Bank. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

South San Francisco resident Luis Masis, a longtime friend of the Silva family, said his son served in the Marine Corps with Silva and that he'd just returned from Afghanistan in February.

Yohn attempted to run to a nearby field, but he was caught by officers, Bosques said. After his arrest, police said, Yohn admitted to being a heroin addict and an alcoholic.

Yohn remained in jail Thursday on $150,000 bond.

Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund.

Powell Street Plaza Mall Site of Alleged Attempted Kidnapping

From the Bay Area News Group:

Emeryville: Suspect arrested in attempted kidnapping of 7-year-old girl

Bay Area News Group

POSTED:   02/04/2014 10:18:57 AM PST

UPDATED:   02/04/2014 10:39:58 AM PST

Gabriel Weathersbee. (Photo by Emeryville Police Department)

EMERYVILLE -- Police arrested 20-year-old Emeryville man suspected of trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl Monday night at the Powell Street Plaza.

The girl and her mother had left Starbucks Coffee just before 5 p.m. when Gabriel Weathersbee, 20, allegedly walked up behind the child, picked her up and carried her away into the parking lot, according to Emeryville police.

The mother started yelling and Weathersbee reported dropped the child about 30 feet away, police said.

Police were alerted and a nearby security guard followed Weathersbee, pointing him out to officers when they arrived.

Emeryville Police had previous contact with Weathersbee in November, when he was sent to John George for a psychiatric hold, police said.

Emery-Go-Round Implosion Ripples Felt Region Wide

From the Bay Area News Group:

Emeryville's favorite perk, a free shuttle, has uncertain future

By Matt O'Brien
mattobrien@bayareanewsgroup.com

POSTED:   01/18/2014 04:00:00 PM PST | UPDATED:   ABOUT 9 HOURS AGO

EMERYVILLE -- It's been a beloved perk for people who live, work or shop in Emeryville: a free shuttle that stops nearly everywhere in the compact city, from the Pixar animation studio to the IKEA store.

Now, one businessman's revolt is threatening to halt the fleet of distinctive purple-and-yellow buses that carry commuters around the city. Businesses have bankrolled the Emery Go-Round for two decades, but a few are looking at its 2016 legal expiration date as a chance to cut loose.

"I'm not so much against the bus system, I just don't want to pay $60,000 because I don't use the thing at all," said Francis Collins, a developer fighting to dismantle the corporate-funded bus authority. "I don't use the dumb thing, much less care about it."

The 71-year-old commercial property owner has infuriated Emeryville residents, civic leaders and a large segment of the business community by calling into question the future of a cherished transit service in the traffic-clogged city.

"I cannot imagine Emeryville without the shuttle," said Trudy Presser, executive director of the partnership that governs the bus system. "I just can't even imagine. The infrastructure cannot support it, if this was converted to cars."

Seventeen shuttle buses ferry about 5,600 riders each day on two main loops and a third rush hour express line, all of which connect the city to the MacArthur BART station in Oakland. That 1-mile drive from BART to the Emeryville border is a critical link for a city whose daytime workforce of nearly 30,000 dwarfs its resident population of about 10,000.

But the shuttle's popularity, and cost, grows annually with each new biotech complex and condominium development crowding the Emeryville skyline. The Emery Go-Round estimates it had 1.6 million boardings last year.

Collins wants city leaders to ask voters for a sales tax hike or find another way to subsidize the bus system or make riders pay. If not, he has threatened to sue, believing the funding mechanism is "illegal and unconstitutional." City leaders oppose the sales tax, which would require the support of two-thirds of voters, but they have launched a task force to investigate other alternatives.

"My position is quite clear: I'm paying a tax I don't think I should be paying and it's not fair to me," Collins said. "Most people think it's a public bus system, like someone's entitled to it. They have no idea where it's coming from. Now they're realizing the people who pay for it might not want to pay for it."

Founded in 1996 when a few big businesses collaborated with the city on a way to get employees to work, the no-fare shuttle system was fortified in 2001 when commercial property owners voted to tax themselves through a business improvement district. Other business districts, from San Leandro to Mountain View and around the country, have since adopted the model.

Property owners pay a fee for every square foot of commercial real estate they occupy. Residential property owners pay nothing, except for those who agreed to contribute as a condition of being able to build in the city. The seven biggest funders -- a group that includes drug company Novartis, Pixar, IKEA, the Bay Street mall and several high-rise office developers -- hold the majority of seats on the governing board of the Emeryville Transportation Management Association.

The biggest payer, Wareham Development, contributed nearly $338,000 to running the shuttle last year.

"We're in the business of building places where people work," said Wareham's Geoffrey Sears, who also presides over the shuttle board. "If the city is convenient to get to, our buildings sitting in it are convenient to get to. That's attractive."

Collins upset the status quo and sought more transparency when he won a seat on the board last year to represent all the other payers, a group that together contributes 60 percent of the $2.8 million assessment. Collins, who lives in rural Sonoma County, says he pays about $46,000.

The shuttle district sunsets in 2016 unless a majority of paying members vote to reauthorize it. Collins said he is determined to make the system more equitable or shut it down.

He has allied with a former mayor, Ken Bukowski, who two years ago formed the Emeryville Property Owners Association. The organization claims to represent small and midsize property owners, such as Collins, whose older brick buildings and converted warehouses -- leftovers from Emeryville's industrial past -- are concentrated in the northwest section of the 1.8-square-mile city. Unlike the stores and offices near the congested waterfront, most of those inland properties have few employees and visitors, so the owners have little use for the Emery Go-Round.

"People don't like it, they don't like the way it's run, they don't like anything about it," Collins said.

But the campaign to scuttle the shuttle is unpopular in the broader Emeryville business community, whose biggest players are all enthusiastic backers of a system that pleases their employees and customers. Many businesses also fear a sales tax could hurt Emeryville's draw as a regional shopping hub.

"Francis is a longtime property owner, he has every right to his opinion, but it's clearly a minority opinion," said Bob Canter, president of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce.

On a recent afternoon, most Go-Round riders said they were unaware of the behind-the-scenes battle over how to sustain the shuttle in the coming years.

Civic leaders, however, got a taste of what a loss of the Emery Go-Round could mean when the bus service abruptly stopped picking up riders in front of the vast but isolated Watergate condominium complex near the Emeryville Marina last year. The shuttle authority blamed the city for a road reconfiguration that made bus turns unsafe.

A mass of outraged residents, some of them carless elders, crowded City Hall and service was restored, but it fueled a debate over whether Watergate's 2,500 residents deserve their own stop since they do not pay for the bus. For many Emeryville residents, losing the shuttle is unthinkable. Some say they wouldn't have moved here without it.

"I know a lot of people, we all love Emery Go-Round," said Watergate resident Grace Zhang, 23, as she waited for the bus Wednesday. "Don't stop it."

Who funds the Emery Go-Round?
The tax: Emeryville's free shuttle is funded through a tax on the city's commercial property owners. Owners are assessed based on how much square footage they occupy. Residential property owners do not pay into the system, with the exception of some newer developments whose owners agreed to contribute as a condition of being able to build in the city.
Who governs: The seven companies that pay the most to run the Emery Go-Round also hold seats on the board that governs the shuttle system. An eighth seat is held by a representative for all the other businesses. A ninth public seat is held by the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce.
Top seven corporate funders in 2013:
Wareham Development (real estate): $337,568
Novartis (pharmaceutical): $234,791
LBA Realty (real estate): $211,243
Bay Street (retail mall): $109,210
Pixar (animation): $92,867
Hines (real estate): $88,275
IKEA (furniture store): $67,880
Breakdown:
Top seven corporate members: $1,141,834 (40 percent)
All other payers: $1,698,380 (60 percent)
Total billed assessments: $2,840,214 

School District Fails to Respond to Child Abuse Survey Request

Lack of Transparency Challenges the Emery Unified “National Model”

Opinion

The past year has brought to light at least three stories of disturbing child abuse cases in Bay Area schools. The Bay Area News Group is now reporting a common theme in these cases: failure by school staff to report their suspicions of abuse to authorities, as required by California’s Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.  Under the law, any school employee who becomes suspicious of abuse or neglect is required to alert police or child protective services. 

Late last year the Bay Area News Group began a survey of 94 local school districts and found that the majority of districts were not regularly providing all their employees with training designed to assist staff in recognizing signs of sexual or other physical abuse, or providing clear reminders of the legal requirement to report to authorities even the suspicion of mistreatment.

How did Emery Unified School District fare in this survey?  Emery Unified was one of 16 districts that failed to respond to the survey at all “despite repeated requests”, the News Group says.  

In 2004 Emery Unified did adopt a Board Policy that requires the Superintendent to provide training regarding the reporting duties of mandated reporters.  But is our current Superintendent in compliance with this Board Policy?  We don’t know and the District isn’t saying.

Emery School Board Member John Affeldt recently rebuffed  concerns that the District is overly focused on building the Center of Community Life which he says could become "a national model” but when the District cannot find time to respond to repeated requests concerning the welfare of our children, if it's even lack of time that's the problem here, one has to wonder whether those concerns might be well-founded after all. 

Emeryville Exceeds at Childhood Asthma

Emeryville Makes the Top Ten!

All those cars add up to topping a very disreputable state-wide list.  Here's another unintended consequence of being the business friendly East Bay city.  More evidence as the city council continues to deliver drive-in-drive-out condominiums, fast food restaurants and auto-centric malls, perhaps they should consider something other than helping out the developer's bottom lines.

From the Bay Area News Group: