Emeryville Residents Warned of Mass Exodus of Business

Businesses: "Unless We Get Everything We Want We're Taking Our Marbles and Leaving"

City Hall: "We Have to Do What Business Says or All Will Be Lost"

Opinion/News Analysis
The record is stuck.  Can somebody move the needle forward?  It keeps repeating itself.
What we refer to is the oft repeated mantra heard year in and year out at City Hall; the call and response followed by the familiar hijacking of public policy for private gain.  It's the old stand-by warning from developers and businesses that they'll....wait for it....pack up and leave unless they get everything they want on whatever relevant proposal is being discussed at City Hall.  The conciliatory reaction always comes from Councilwoman Nora Davis with a second from Councilman Kurt Brinkman; we have to do what developer X says is their response.  Emeryville is in no position to ask for anything good they remind us.  With Councilwoman Ruth Atkin as their third vote, it's been a highly effective formula for delivering the goods to developers and business in Emeryville.  This reputation of ours is earned.

Emeryville: Charter City
The old formula is going to repeat itself this summer.  As concerned Emeryville citizens begin their signature drive to put the proposal before voters that Emeryville become a Charter City on November's ballot, a new paradigm that will permit us to tax businesses like other Bay Area cities do, the Chamber of Commerce will once again join forces with the deep pockets in the corporate community to try to defeat it.  No new parks for us and sidewalk repair must wait, you understand.

We can hear it now, loudly proclaimed, nay screamed this summer and fall: all will be lost if Emeryville becomes a Charter City.  It's going to be in our mailboxes in torrents of professionally designed glossy color flyers.  It's going to be on our answering machines after we come home from work, warning us of the coming apocalypse.  Our dinners will be interrupted this fall; poorly paid young men and women from places other than Emeryville will be warning us in 7:00 PM phone calls.  You may be able to ignore the phone calls but your door will be incessantly knocked on as well.  Behind the door will be an Oakland resident or a Hayward resident telling you how bad it'll be if the Charter City Initiative passes and Emeryville taxes business like other cities do.  They won't tell you they're not from Emeryville and they won't tell you they're being paid to knock on your door and make phone calls but they will assure you they only have your interests at heart.

These well funded scare campaigns rise up every time business is asked to pay their fair share in Emeryville.

We remember the card room plebiscite of 1997, a tax increase for Emeryville gambling parlors where in the Oaks Club, the only such parlor, would be "driven to bankruptcy" we were told if they were required to pay the Bay Area card room average tax rate.  It passed of course, and the Oaks Club is doing just fine....but now paying Emeryville what other card rooms in the Bay Area pay.

Then there was the recent attempt to remove Emeryville's infamous business tax cap, a mechanism that allows Pixar and other large businesses to pay much less taxes than other smaller businesses in town pay.  That voter drive was sabotaged before it even got to the ballot box thanks to Council members Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman.  It would be the end of Emeryville they assured us after Pixar threatened to leave town if Emeryville voters were allowed to decide about the tax cap.

Of course there was also Measures T & U, a 2004 campaign to get a Community Benefits Agreement in trade for a planned Pixar campus expansion. A YES vote would negate the CBA, give Pixar millions in Emeryville subsidies in cash and property transfers and negate our General Plan and zoning regulations.  Again Pixar was going to leave Emeryville the Chamber of Commerce assured us (right after they spent tens of millions of dollars on their Phase One campus build out).  The NO on T&U simply asked for a Community Benefits Agreement to be entered into, a standard procedure for City Halls outside Emeryville.  But Pixar told us it was an existential threat.  It was a scare tactic that worked; Emeryville rolled over with prompting from Nora Davis, Kurt Brinkman and the Chamber of Commerce, netting Pixar millions of dollars in City Hall subsidies.
It should be noted Pixar, the multi-billion dollar corporation is now paying us $8000 per year in taxes (thanks to the tax cap) the Tattler found out.

We also fondly remember the anti-Measure C campaign of 2005.  It was a lavishly funded campaign to stop Measure C, Emeryville's 'Living Wage for Hotel Workers' ballot initiative.  The campaign, run by Councilwoman Nora Davis and the Chamber of Commerce, assured us all would be lost if Emeryville hotels were forced to pay their workers a couple of dollars more per hour; a living wage. Nora joined with the hotels and scores of other businesses in town to warn us of the dire consequences in store for us.  The Chamber of Commerce even fired up their Political Action Committee (EmPAC) with it's massive war chest of donations from out-of-town businesses to take the fight to the hotel workers.  Hotels would fold up their tents en masse and leave Emeryville we were told.
In the end, Emeryville voters DID pass the living wage for hotel workers, regardless of all the hyperbolic screaming from Nora Davis, the Chamber and their corporate paymasters.
One hotel, Woodfin Suites on Shellmound Street actually did leave town in protest after they lost a bruising court battle to not pay their workers their back wages.  Woodfin was subsequently bought by Hyatt.
The mass exodus of hotels never materialized curiously.  In fact, Emeryville is about to get a brand new hotel, Hyatt Place at Bay Street.  And they're going to pay their workers a living wage.  Tellingly, Nora Davis, her sycophants and the Chamber of Commerce never admitted they were wrong about the consequences of Measure C.
Instead they've begun preparing themselves for the next apocalypse looming this fall for Emeryville.  The Charter City Initiative is coming.  Emeryville voters will be allowed to decide for themselves.  All will be lost people, all will be lost.

A Tale of Two Cities: Mayor Brinkman's Emeryville vs Mayor Asher's Emeryville

Two Different Mayors

Two Different Visions

One Placates Business, One Placates Residents

Opinion/ News Analysis
The last two Emeryville 'State of the City' annual addresses were quite different:
In 2013, when he was mayor, Kurt Brinkman said the solution to the town's woes was to keep business taxes low to help out the corporate sector....to attract and retain them.  If we help the businesses out, they'll help us out.  All boats will be lifted by a rising tide....a classic 'supply-side' trickle down argument.
This year Jac Asher is mayor and she says Emeryville is a town of ultra low business tax and we need to tax more, almost as much as our neighboring towns do so we can help out the residents like other towns do...we should build more parks, fix sidewalks and other amenities to attract and retain residents; even the vulnerable among us like families, the elderly and the poor.

It's easy to see how some residents can compare what's going on in Washington DC with our own Emeryville City Hall.  The same left wing/right wing dynamic is at play in both places.  One remarkable difference; while the two opposing sides in Washington deliver nothing but gridlock, here in Emeryville, it's the right wing that controls public policy.  That doesn't mean the left wing side has rolled over however.  They occasionally make their voices heard, sometimes to the consternation of the majority.  This year's State of the City address is one such moment.

The last two State of the City mayoral annual addresses, the 2013 speech by mayor Kurt Brinkman and the 2014 speech by mayor Jac Asher, serves to reveal the stark political divide in Emeryville.  And as in Washington, the cultural and political divide in Emeryville makes sense when one sees who the paymasters are; as in who's interests the decision makers are working.

The differences could hardly be more clear as the two competing visions are revealed in these back-to-back speeches (see the videos below).

Mayor Brinkman, despite his avuncular and personable style, uses his speech to proudly note how Emeryville has changed from a industrial city to what it is today; a mecca for corporations and a boon for developers.  He laments the end of the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency and says that because of its demise, the City Council's charge is to placate business even more than it historically has.  Mayor Brinkman makes several shout outs to CEO's and business executives in the audience at the private by invitation Chamber of Commerce fundraising luncheon venue.  He notes that Emeryville is better than Oakland or Berkeley because "We make business happen here".  To make it happen more he says we need to strengthen City Hall's relationship with the Chamber of Commerce.  He says this will help close the gap in funding left over after the Redevelopment Agency but he doesn't show precisely how.

Mayor Asher, in contrast to Mayor Brinkman's exclusive venue gives her State of the City address at the people's hall; City Hall, free and open to all.  She notes that economic health should be linked to services for residents.  Mayor Asher acknowledges the loss of the Redevelopment Agency has meant a sharp drop off in revenue for the City and she shows how the problem isn't going to be fixed without a new revenue source. She makes a dramatic showing of how property taxes only make 6% of the revenues at City Hall and about how it's not really possible to bring in enough money from new business to even fund basic infrastructure properly.  She shows how changing the governing structure in Emeryville like other cities in the Bay Area have done,  by becoming a 'charter city',  will deliver the funds we need (see the Tattler story on this HERE).  She notes how City Hall should work for the residents and comport governance with a social justice perspective, "We talk quite a bit about attracting business in town but we also need to attract and retain people that live here.  In particular we need to work to keep those that are vulnerable close to resources: elderly, families with children and people living below the poverty line.  In short I want us to be a just city."

Videos courtesy of the Emeryville Property Owners Association:

New City Manager: Will Secret Dealings Continue?

No More Back Room Deals at City Hall

With New Manager

Lobbyists Should be Barred From Secret Access

Opinion
Emeryville turns a page with the retirement of City Manager Pat O'Keeffe on Tuesday, and as the City Council hires a replacement, the people of Emeryville should interject themselves at this critical juncture and demand a new regime of transparency at City Hall.  We should use the opportunity of a change in leadership to upset the culture of benevolence historically shown by the Emeryville City Manager to grant secret private privilege at the people's house.

Pat O'Keeffe
We won't see this face
around City Hall anymore.
But will we still feel his
presence after he's gone?

The Emeryville Property Owners Association (EPOA) is leading the charge for transparency at City Hall with a recent opinion piece from their blog.  The article slams Mr O'Keeffe for conducting private meetings with the Chamber of Commerce, a private organization and John Gooding, a private Emeryville political power broker.  
From EPOA:
"The City Manager should not attend closed door meetings on a monthly basis with any organized group.  We believe it violates the City Manager Code of Ethics.  We also criticize on-going weekly meetings between City Manager Pat O'Keeffe and John Gooding, the person who provides money for city council candidates in every election.  He is known to make 'back room deals'.  The subject of their weekly conversations is never disclosed.  The Code of Ethics says this is an action which undermines public confidence."
 Indeed, Tenet 7 from the International City Management Association Code of Ethics says city managers must refrain from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators.  And to that we'd like to highlight Tenet 4 which mandates the function of local government at all times is to serve the best interests of all people.

Pat O'Keeffe came to Emeryville after serving as President of the Board of Directors of the California Redevelopment Association, an organization dedicated to the centralized application of city planning power, a world view antithetical to grassroots democratic participation (loud proclamations to the contrary notwithstanding).

Co-Owner of The Quadric Group, 
a political consulting firm.
He meets with our City Manager
 behind closed doors every week.
What do they talk about?

We say we've had enough of this.   After two consecutive terms of city managers in Emeryville conducting the people's business in darkness like this without the knowledge of or oversight by the people, we join with the Emeryville Property Owners Association's insistence that we indeed turn the page in Emeryville.  We need to make sure our new city manager is not made like our previous city managers.  We want a manager who'll include us at the table for a change.
The City Council, itself not a body taken to inclusion of the rabble in City Hall business, must recognize there's a new day in Emeryville.  We say we're finished with Emeryville city managers with an economic development background and all the anti-democratic baggage contained within.  As the Council makes their decision on our new employee, they need to know we expect a city manager with a city management background to take the reins at our City Hall.

Special Favors For Chamber Of Commerce

Six Point Indictment Against New Chamber Of Commerce/City Hall Deal

Emeryville Chamber of Commerce
CEO & Martinez CA resident Bob Canter.
He's managed to make a living
off City Hall for years.

The Emeryville Property Owners Association has issued a six point indictment of an agreement hammered out between the politically connected Chamber of Commerce and City Hall that favors the Chamber but gives the public short shrift.
City Hall is to give the Chamber $25,000 as part of the agreement, the same amount as from a previous agreement between the two entities.  The agreement is meant to support all Emeryville business interests but critics have noted the Chamber only yielded a 5% response from businesses last time, a point the property owner's group highlight.

The new agreement is but the latest chapter in an on-going attempt to prop up the Chamber, a private membership business, with public funds directed by City Hall.
The Tattler has long reported the cozy relationship between certain city council members and the Chamber of Commerce, a mutually beneficial relationship that involves City money and Chamber endorsements at election time.  Since the onset of the economic downturn, Chamber CEO Bob Canter has noted the dire fiscal straights his organization is in as he has appealed for cash from City Hall.  The city council has obliged Mr Canter's requests.

The Emeryville Property Owners Association casts itself as a more legitimate Emeryville business interest group as it represents all property owning businesses in Emeryville instead of simply those who have paid a membership fee as the Chamber of Commerce requires.  Small business interests are equally represented by the property owner's group unlike the primarily big business serving Chamber, a long time complaint leveled at the Chamber by the smaller businesses in Emeryville.

The EPOA website presents six points illustrating the latest corruption that the special relationship between the private business and public entity embodies.

Among the points the EPOA finds objectionable:

• Public money for the Chamber should not be used to hold closed door business meetings with city staff
• The Agreement prohibits the Chamber from publicly disclosing information about the city
• The Agreement requires no performance requirements, unusual for public monies
• The largest businesses in town, who don't need government assistance, are the primary beneficiaries of the work performed with money from City Hall

For the rest of the story, please click HERE.

Defunct Chamber Newsletter Gets School District Nod

A Weird Way To Look For A New 
School Board Member

Opinion / News Analysis
After the May 10th resignation of Emery School Board president Cheryl Webb, the School District went to work distributing notice of the vacancy in area newspapers including the defunct Chamber of Commerce newsletter the Emeryville Connection the Tattler has learned.   The public notice of a school board vacancy and search for replacement is mandated by the State Board of Education for any school board that would appoint a replacement of a resigned board member; it's part of the requirement to "widely circulate" the search for a viable candidate.  The Tattler received a document that shows Emery School District sent request to advertise in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune and the Chamber of Commerce defunct news blog.

A review of the Emeryville Connection shows that the newsletter stopped publication in April 2009 but it briefly started back up in March 2011 after the Chamber of Commerce received $25,000 from City Hall in early 2011 to advertise the city's Economic Development Program in the news letter blog.  The Emeryville Connection has not published any material since March 2011.  The newsletter has a circulation of zero.

If the School District's goal is to widely circulate the search for a new School Board appointment, as the law requires, we wonder why they selected an organization with a defunct news blog with no circulation.  We wonder why, if the School District is not just playing politics, wouldn't they advertise the search request with the news blog with the largest circulation in the city?  Is it because the news blog with the largest circulation is also the one that has been critical of School District policies?  Is it because the proper news blog to sent notice of the search is the Emeryville Tattler, and the School District is ready to subvert its mandate to properly conduct the search instead of heaven forbid, acknowledge the existence of the Tatter?  We think that's the case here.

The Chamber of Commerce, a private company, has received money from the city for many years including $40,000 per year to produce The Emeryville Connection and ten years of free rent for their office.  In May, the city council gave the Chamber another $15,000.  They've obviously earned the respect of this council...enough to engage in a little mutual pay to play.

It's illuminating that of the two Emeryville organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and the Emeryville Tattler, the one that carries water for the city council majority, the one that gives re-election money to the council majority through its political action committee, versus the one that's critical and offers a dissenting view; it's the one that's a sycophant for the council majority that's routinely offered cash from the public coffers by this council.  That political patronage model may be an efficient way to maintain power for the council majority but it's not a proper way to conduct a widely circulated search for a school board appointee.

Emery-Go-Round Falsifies Funding Sources

"Funded Exclusively By Emeryville's Businesses" Is A Phony Canard

Opinion
The Emeryville Chamber Of Commerce wants everyone to know this: The city's free bus service, the Emery Go Round, is funded solely by Emeryville's business.
It's a popular sentiment repeated all over town, it's even painted on the buses themselves.  The problem is it's a lie.

A recent budget report from the city of Emeryville tells a different tale entirely.  The real story is that the taxpayers of Emeryville helped fund the Emery Go Round to the tune of more than $80,000 last year.  From the report:

• City of Emeryville paid $43,389.36
• Emery School District  paid $28,199.74
• City Redevelopment Agency  paid $9,033.88

In addition the report says AC Transit and the US Post Office are also assessed.

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce, a partner with the popular bus service, is spreading the falsehood far and wide:  The "B Line", Berkeley's Municipal Transit System claims on their website "Emery Go Round receives 100% of its funding from businesses".
Emery Go Round's own website flatly states "Funded solely by commercial property owners in the citywide transportation business improvement district", cutting out the people of Emeryville's contributions entirely.

It seems to be all part the on going attempt to falsely stoke the bogus canard about the infallibility of market forces and the attendant ubiquitous claims generally discrediting government.  We say if Emery Go Round can't seem to give credit where it's due, perhaps the people of Emeryville should save their contributions for more appreciative recipients.

Paid for by the people of Emeryville

Odd Year Elections: They Cost More Money, But...

Emeryville's Odd Year Elections: They Cost More Money But They Drive Down Voter Participation

Opinion
Emeryville just finished another election and once again, the taxpayers paid a lot more for the election than they could have, at least $10,000 more according to the City Clerk.  But hey, it's all for the good because only 26% of registered voters cast a ballot and that's less than half the Bay Area average.

That talk sounds kind of kooky, doesn't it?  But it's not kooky; it's calculated, in fact the low turnout worked out exactly as intended.

Elections cost cities money and here in Emeryville, we routinely pay a lot more money for a much lower voter turnout than our neighbors in Oakland, Berkeley and elsewhere around the Bay Area.  Why is this and who's responsible you might ask?  It's cynical public policy, foisted upon the people of Emeryville by council member Nora Davis and the Chamber of Commerce; policy designed to benefit their pro-business agenda at our expense.

Many newcomers to Emeryville express surprise at the strange off year elections here.  They often ask, why not hold the city council and school board elections on even years, at the same time as presidential, senate and congressional elections?
It's a good question, especially since doing so could save so much money.  On top of that, holding elections when everyone else does would have the added benefit of driving up voter participation, most likely doubling it.
The problem is Ms Davis and the Chamber of Commerce and conservatives in general benefit from a low voter turn out.  It has to do with the fact that conservative voters have greater resources and can be counted on to show up at the polls even if disincentives to voting are thrown up.
Odd year elections around the nation have been shown to be much more likely to elect conservatives and conservative causes than even year elections.  It's one of the well documented tools in the Republican Party's vote suppression toolbox.

Here in Emeryville, Ms Davis has jealously guarded the odd year vote, acknowledging the value of the low turnouts to her political agenda and resisting all efforts to change, regardless of the cost savings.  It's not for lack of trying it should be pointed out, councilwoman Davis has fought off numerous citizen lead attempts at election reform over the decades.

As House Majority leader John Boehner says however, elections have consequences and so with the November 8th election of Jac Asher and her new brand of resident friendly politics, we may now finally have enough non-ideological votes on the Emeryville city council to override Nora Davis and the Chamber of Commerce.

We say it's time to say NO to Republican style vote suppression tactics.  It's time to move now to increase the franchise in Emeryville and cast aside the cynical Machiavellian election maneuvering by Emeryville's right wing.  We should move our elections to even years just like the rest of the Bay Area.

City Calls For More Storefront Retail

Plethora of Pre-Existing Empty Storefronts Doesn't Faze City

City Hall: "We Need More Empty Storefront Retail"

Opinion/Essay

Emeryville's Department of Economic Development has been very busy recently working in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce and are now calling for among other things, a City Hall facilitated plan of action to deliver more empty storefronts in "neighborhood centers" around town.  This plan, called the 'Economic Development Strategy', is to become policy at City Hall.  It would spend an unknown amount of taxpayer money to "expand retail" and other business promotion.

The plan makes no reference to the vast amount of existing empty and boarded up retail throughout the city nor does it offer any policy change by way of attracting retail tenants to the new storefronts.

The strategy plan as an aside, also calls for putting more cars on our streets and encouraging auto use by improving vehicular traffic efficiency, presumably something good for business.

This is what high rent brings.

It should not be necessary here to chronicle all the cascading negative effects of boarded up storefronts in a town.  Suffice it to say the perception of this kind of blight tends to affirm and multiply it.

Emeryville, it should be noted, has long had an excess of empty storefronts, pre-dating the current recession due to our particular brand of land use public policy. City Hall has by myopic and rigid thinking, pursued a land use philosophy that just about guarantees we will see block after block of empty stores.

"Blight" Irony

The Redevelopment Agency in Emeryville is tasked with what it calls its mandate to eliminate blight.  It is the city council, through the Redevelopment Agency and their narrow, some would say surreptitious agenda that has gotten us to the place where we now find ourselves: awash in empty storefronts.  Perhaps they're incapable of seeing the irony of a government agency, dogged in its fight against blight, instead being the chief agent of blight proliferation.

General Plan Ignored

San Pablo Ave in Berkeley: This is
what cheap rent will get you.

Our $2 million General Plan calls for a policy that would help avoid empty storefronts.  The current general plan and the previous general plan both call for rehabilitating existing buildings, especially historic or architecturally significant buildings but unfortunately in Emeryville, the General Plan always takes a back seat to the whims of developers who are looking to maximize their profits.

Saving old buildings is more than just recognizing the value of the vernacular architecture of the past; leaving some existing buildings as the General Plan dictates, would keep retail rents low since new construction costs usually are added to the financing.  

What retail that CAN afford the high rents tend to be national franchise fast food and mattress stores and the like, something we the people have collectively said is not desirable.

  

Berkeley Model Superior

One only needs to look as far as San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley and its retail renaissance to see the benefits of keeping older, cheaper buildings around.  Berkeley, it seems has figured this out and they've left Emeryville in the dust.  

It should be said that Berkeley's much higher business tax has not served as an impediment to this flowering of resident and pedestrian friendly development.  On top of this, Berkeley is seeing this revitalization of San Pablo Avenue at the height of the recession; further evidence of the wrong-headed thinking in Emeryville.

Since Emeryville seems incapable of saving old commercial buildings regardless of the mandate from the General Plan, a fait accompli really, some other model must be introduced to stop empty storefronts from proliferating as they have been.  Other than simply not building anymore retail, a choice not embraced by the people and made clear in many public General Plan scoping meetings, a new idea needs to rise up.

A New Idea

A different approach would need to see a culture change at City Hall.  This can likely only be accomplished by  changing the ossified old guard city council.  A different council could see how Emeryville has been selling itself short to developers for many years.  A necessary change would involve the council being proactive in pursuing development and they would have to learn how to occasionally be able to say NO to a developer.

Future developers could be welcomed to make proposals for our town but when it comes to providing the street level retail that commonly accompanies the development, the developers must be told we expect the storefronts to be rented, and rented to an approved list of retail types as the General Plan dictates.  Rent could be controlled to make sure our goals are achieved; retail rent would slide down over time as the storefronts remain empty until a tenant steps up.  This rent sliding regime could be initiated in a number of ways to achieve our goals.  Skittish developers can be shown the door.

We need a culture at City Hall where this kind of dissent is not summarily attacked or ignored.  A debate should be allowed, even encouraged.

With the November elections looming, a change-up along these lines could be forthcoming, dependent upon who is elected of course.  Candidates for office should be told in no uncertain terms that new thinking is needed to stop the downward spiral of boarded up storefronts in our town.  Clearly what City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce is offering with the new Economic Development Strategy, is not rational and will only exacerbate this problem that only Emeryville seems to be flummoxed by.  Our neighbors have figured out how to deal with this, why can't we?

Business License Tax: Fortnight of Back Room Deals

Residents Must Wait Two Weeks For A Decision

Will The Council Let The Citizens Decide On Taxes?  

Last night the Emeryville city council voted to postpone for two weeks, a decision over the idea of a business license tax ballot initiative so Pixar/Disney and other large corporations can have time to negotiate more advantageous back room deals with the city staff.  At Pixar's request, the 4-1 (Nora Davis dissenting) council vote gives Emeryville's largest corporations two weeks longer, after more than a year of wrangling about the issue, to lobby the staff regarding the tax raising plan.

At issue is whether the residents should be allowed to vote in November on the infamous business license tax cap; whether it should be done away with and whether the tax rate should be raised.  The tax as it is now puts a cap on taxes owed for any gross income over $146 million and is unique in the entire Bay Area.  Formerly, the city had estimated a revenue enhancement of millions of dollars annually if the cap were to be raised.
The cap now effects only three businesses in town , including Pixar.  The highly regressive tax cap has the net effect of making the small businesses in town pay much more in taxes than the largest businesses.  The existing tax rate, above and beyond the cap, is .08%; also lower than what the neighboring cities charge.

Pixar Threatens City

Should Emeryville's taxes be similar to
other Bay Area cities?
Should the people decide?

Pixar's attorney last night warned the council to "slow down" and urged them not to make a decision yet, raising concerns that the whole tax increase ballot initiative is rash and needs to be more though out, regardless of the previous year of debate about the issue in the council chambers.  Further, the specter of litigation was raised by Pixar when council members were warned that they should take a step back "before this thing becomes divisive".

'Oops, We Made A Mistake!'
Eyebrows were raised when Karan Reid, the city's chief financial officer revised the previous estimations for the city's take from a license cap lifting from millions of dollars annually to now only $152,000 per year.  This is a result of the largest businesses revisions in their reports to the city.  Apparently, now Pixar has found many exemptions and deductions to their gross income, lowering dramatically the amount they would owe in the event that the residents vote to lift the cap.  Pixar, being one of three businesses effected by the tax cap lift would presumably only owe some $50,000 according to the newly revised numbers.  One resident noted last night however if the amount Pixar would owe is now so small, why are they fighting lifting the cap so vigorously?

The Chamber of Commerce announced they are not supportive of allowing the residents to vote on the issue.  Chamber president Bob Canter told the council not to let the rabble put Emeryville at risk.  Emeryville needs to keep everything just as it is to keep and attract business to Emeryville, he said.

The issue is now to be voted on May 17th by the council so Pixar has time to push their interests in the back rooms at City Hall.

Jesus Christ Loses Woodfin Backwages Fight

Woodfin CEO & Christian Evangelical Laments:

In Emeryville It's 

Woodfin Workers: 1, Jesus: 0

Loser

Woodfin Hotels CEO Sam Hardage tries to do the Lord's work.  A self-professed Christian evangelical, he's a member of the Council for National Policy,  a right-wing group pushing what it terms Christian precepts on policy-makers.  It's also why Mr. Hardage fought so hard against Emeryville's 'Living Wage ordinance for Hotel Workers' and then refused to disburse unpaid wages, even after ordered to do so by a 'secular' court.  As a good Christian, Mr. Hardage was presumably following Christ's example. After all Jesus would certainly never have paid His workers what they earned if He had owned a hotel chain back in the day in the Bethlehem/Nazareth metropolitan region.  Mr. Hardage put up a good fight but in the end the Woodfin workers proved more than a match for Sam or Jesus.

Sam Hardage: Works

for Jesus and against

his employees.

The non-profit organization East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), recently announced that Woodfin workers finally received their back pay, some $125,000 in a negotiated agreement divided among 54 workers.  Woodfin for its part, hired a phalanx of attorneys and fought the workers and the City of Emeryville for four years in an effort to impose upon the employees the moral philosophy of Jesus Christ: that the wealthy dwell upon a mountain of riches and dispatch the less fortunate to penury and pestilence. Mr. Hardage and Woodfin spent an undisclosed sum on their losing cause, a figure likely exceeding what was owed to the hotel maids.  After their bruising loss, they have indicated they now intend on obeying Emeryville's laws.

Nora Davis:

Not too fond of

working families.

Measure C, the ordinance that mandates a living wage for hotel workers in Emeryville was passed by voters and implemented five years ago in December.  During that time, Measure C has delivered a cumulative 1.2 million increase in employee wages. The ordinance increased the pay-rates by up to $5 per hour (most received less), putting up to $5,000 a year into the wallets of working families, helping them make ends meet without relying on public assistance.

Ken Bukowski: He's poor so

why should workers make money?

The Measure was passed by Emeryville voters on November 8, 2005 and was endorsed by the Alameda Labor Council, UNITE HERE Local 2850, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Assemblywoman Loni Hancock.  54% of Emeryville voters approved Measure C despite $115,000 spent by the Chamber of Commerce and the hotels to defeat it.  Local politicians who worked to defeat the living wage in Emeryville include Council members Nora Davis, Ken Bukowski and Dick Kassis.  Political operative and Chamber of Commerce political action committee (EMPAC) chairman John Gooding also joined in the fight against the living wage.  See Tattler story (May 18).

Another loser: John Gooding,
strangely he works for Barbara Lee
and against living wages.

Mr. Hardage, in addition to spreading Jesus' word, has sat on many conservative councils and public policy think-tanks including the Council for National Policy, an umbrella organization for social conservative activists described by the New York Times as a "little known group of the most powerful conservatives in the country".  Mr. Hardages' colleagues on the CNP board included Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.   Mr. Hardage also sits on the board at the Adam Smith Institute, an anti-government libertarian think tank that is among the most effective groups advocating for privatization of government functions in the United States.  Rounding out the list of powerful appointments is the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger  appointed State Commission on Judicial Performance.

Mr. Hardage was the Republican nominee for Governor of Kansas in 1982 and was twice an elite 'Bush Pioneer,' the highest echelon of campaign donors that each bundled contributions of more than $100,000 for former President George W. Bush campaigns.

The impressive political work of Mr. Hardage was joined by our own Emeryville City Council members and Jesus in their fight against living wages for Emeryville workers.  

City's 'No Bid' Contract Abuse

Chamber Enjoys Council's Gravy Train 

Cronyism In Emeryville: 

Chamber Nets 'No Bid' Contract

Opinion
Consider the fortune of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce: they produce a newspaper that calls on voters to support certain city council members for re-election and those same council members then direct the City to hire the Chamber to provide a service contract without any competition in the form of a 'no bid' contract.  Its a pretty sweet deal for the Chamber of Commerce but its also a classic example of political cronyism.

The Tattler has reported much recently about how a clause in this service contract directs the Chamber to re-start its defunct partisan newspaper but unreported until now is the fact that the entire contract is 'no bid'; granted without bidding by any service providers other than the Chamber of Commerce.

The work enumerated in the contract includes:

1. Assist with Emeryville's 'Enterprise Zone' implementation (use the Chamber's newsletter) 
2. Support the implementation of the City's Climate Action Plan
3. Assist Emeryville in business attraction, retention & workforce development 

For this work, the City is to pay the Chamber of Commerce $100 per hour, up to $25,000.

There are a host of business consultancy firms that could effectively complete this work, perhaps better than the Chamber for less money but we'll never know because the city council gave their friends at the Chamber of Commerce a no-bid contract.

Martinez resident &
Chamber President
"No Bid" Bob Canter

Chamber president Bob Canter has not hidden the fact that business is off and that the company has experienced financial stress recently.   He said he is "delighted" to receive this contract from what he calls his "friends" on the council: Nora Davis, Ken Bukowski and Kurt Brinkman.  Mr Canter expressed that council member Ruth Atkin would have voted also to grant the contract but she was absent from the December 21st council meeting. For the record, Ms Atkin also received a re-election endorsement from the Chamber of Commerce.


There are no doubt other examples of no-bid contracts extended to private companies by City Hall; perhaps some also nefarious in their scope, some probably are perfectly harmless, but its doubtful any display the appearance of abject largess as this contract granted to the Chamber of Commerce.
This is what cronyism looks like.
It's likely, if pressed, there will be strenuous denials of corruption from these council members but as in Washington with its corporate lobbing efforts netting favorable legislation, there's really no way to definitively prove any quid pro quo.

So what is reasonable for Emeryville residents to expect?
It's reasonable that the city council reverse this contract and put it out to bid to other providers, if for no other reason than to give the appearance that the game is not rigged.  When it comes to the public's money, there needs to be an extra level of expectancy addressed reasonably.  These council members ain't doing it.

In Print, 'Emeryville Connection' Dead & Gone Says Chamber

Chamber Claims It's OK To Receive Public Money: 

'Emeryville Connection' Print Version Gone, To Restart In Digital Form

In the topsy-turvy world of Emeryville politics, apparently it's A-OK for public money to be doled out to a private company for the production of an on-line newsletter nakedly assisting favored council members but a print version could be problematic.  The Emeryville Chamber of Commerce says public monies given to the organization for its newsletter to help promote certain City business does not constitute a "restart" of its formerly printed newspaper the 'Emeryville Connection'.

In response to inquiries from Councilwoman Jennifer West, The Chamber's president Bob Canter insists that the defunct Emeryville Connection, published on newsprint and "mailed monthly to every address in Emeryville", will not be restarted but instead a new on-line newsletter will be produced, maybe with a different name.  For purposes of receiving public money, that, apparently is a critical difference.

The response letter sent to Councilwoman West and forwarded to the Tattler appears to attempt to put to rest concerns that the Chamber will receive taxpayer money to further its partisan politicking displayed by the Emeryville Connection because it will not be printed in "hard copy format", Mr Canter noted.  He said that the Chamber intends on enhancing their digital communications and he stressed, "The fact is that the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce does not have, and never HAS had, any plans whatsoever to restart the Emeryville Connection in any form other than digitally".

A $25,000 contract between the Chamber of Commerce and the City stipulates that the Chamber help forward the business promotion scheme the City has started called an 'Enterprise Zone'.  The contract mandates the Chamber must, "assist with the Enterprise Zone implementation" and to  "Disseminate information about the Enterprise Zone to the business community through Chamber newsletter".

Mr Canter insists the Chamber "does not require any sort of up-front capital investment from any source" to produce the digital newsletter, however the City will, in fact pay the Chamber to do exactly that.  The arrangement provides that the Enterprise Zone promotion earmarked for the newsletter over a one year time span, combined with organizing a seminar, represents 30% of the paid contract work to be performed by the Chamber.

Apparently, president Bob Canter isn't the only one who thinks that the new digital format for the Chamber newsletter is somehow salient to the question of public money supporting a private organization's partisan politicking and influence peddling.  A city staff member who wished to remain anonymous stepped into the fray, "The contract does not include paying for the Connection", the staffer told Ms West in a letter to the councilwoman .  Mr Canter was more definitive, "NO restart of our old newspaper, period".

The Emeryville Tattler first reported the story of the public money going to finance the Chamber's newspaper in a December 27th edition.

The Emeryville Connection: Bringing Anyone Together? Not!

Who's REALLY Trying To Buy Emeryville?

Opinion
Since last week's city council vote to fund the Chamber of Commerce and their newspaper the 'Emeryville Connection' with public money, it's instructive to see just what we're going to be buying.  How far is the Chamber of Commerce willing to go with our money to make sure their candidates for city council are elected?

Below is a story from October 2007 when the Chamber endorsed Ken Bukowski, Nora Davis and Ruth Atkin for the council.  Reading the story, it is readily apparent the Chamber doesn't limit itself only to endorsing candidates, negative attack pieces are part of the agenda as well and they have not shied away from using lies in furtherance of their political goals.

The story below illustrates the Chamber of Commerce's outrage that out-of-town labor interests are behind the election of challenger Shilen Patel.  An interesting comment coming from the president of the Chamber, Bob Canter, himself an out-of-towner from Martinez. What the Chamber isn't telling Emeryville voters is that their candidates are funded almost entirely by out-of-town corporate developer interests.

The Chamber discredits the Emeryville resident grassroots campaign that Mr Patel garnered, not letting on that their candidates truly had virtually no grassroots support.

The Chamber claims Mr Patel is not qualified to be on the council since he had not sat on any committees in town.  They retell this same old concoction from Mayor Davis, heard every election cycle that only "experienced" candidates are permissible.  What they don't say, conveniently, is that only by getting in the good graces of Mayor Davis are residents allowed to sit on any committees.  It's a perfect system for getting only their preferred candidates elected.

Bob Canter thinks
Emeryville is so nice,
he lives in Martinez

Interestingly, while the Chamber of Commerce is telling readers that labor support disqualifies candidates for the city council, they fail to mention that two of their own; Ruth Atkin and Kurt Brinkman both received labor support.  Had they done so, it might have tended to discredit their oft repeated claim that those supported by labor won't work in Emeryville's interests.  At least working people live and work in Emeryville unlike the corporate CEOs the Chamber seems to love so, another fact they don't mention.

We have no problem with the Chamber of Commerce supporting the candidates they want and even denigrating those they don't (as long as they're not engaging in deception).   The problem is they should do it on their own dime.  It is dead wrong for the city council to force the taxpayers to support this naked politicking, regardless whether they think they will be helped in their re-elections by the Chamber.

The Chamber of Commerce asks the readers of the story below to investigate for themselves and then decide, knowing that without a newspaper in town virtually none will.  So we repeat; read the story below for yourself and then decide, is this really where we want our taxpayer money spent?    

Reprint from the Emeryville Connection:

WHO’S TRYING TO BUY EMERYVILLE?

October 2007

It’s no secret that it takes money – often lots of it
to run for political office, so it was no surprise
to see that most of the candidates running
for Emeryville City Council this year are busy
raising funds.

But more than the amounts raised, those who 
care about the future of our City need to 
pay close attention to the sources of the 
monetary, and in-kind help, being funneled 
to the various candidates.

Apart from our inability to endorse Shilen Patel 
for the Emeryville City Council based on his 
lack of experience, lack of community 
involvement and lack of demonstrated 
knowledge of the local community and issues 
facing it, we note something else disturbing 
about his candidacy.

Based on the latest campaign filings, as 
of September 27th, the vast amount of Mr. 
Patel’s funding comes from outside of 
Emeryville. In addition, Mr. Patel has 
received the endorsement of the Alameda 
County Central Labor Council (CLC), and 
should he be elected we believe his actions 
will be directed by outside organizations that 
do not have Emeryville’s best interests at 
heart. To quote from a letter dated September 
26, 2007 and sent to voters in Emeryville, 
the CLC is backing Mr. Patel because he 
will: “…solicit our input, listen to our ideas, 
and promote our values.” We need an 
independent-minded councilmember who will 
vote to keep Emeryville on the healthy and 
prosperous track; NOT one beholden to 
outside organizations which do not have the 
best interests of THIS community at heart. 
Accepting a huge amount of support from 
outside organizations which are looking to 
drive a stake through the economic heart of 
Emeryville is not acceptable. Other than 
incumbent Councilmember John Fricke – who 
has formally endorsed Mr. Patel and is listed 
as an in-kind contributor on Mr. Patel’s most 
recent campaign filing, we can discern no true, 
meaningful grassroots support for Shilen 
Patel from within Emeryville.

Emeryville can take care of itself. We do not 
need outside forces foisting unqualified candidates 
on the electorate. You may have already received 
a letter, phone call, or visit on behalf of Mr. Patel 
for City Council. But beware: The “Friends of 
Shilen Patel” are not friends at all – perhaps friends 
of the Central Labor Council, but not friends of 
Emeryville. Trace the money, letters and phone 
calls, decide for yourself, then decide to whom 
Mr. Patel will owe his allegiance: the Emeryville 
electorate, or his out-of-town supporters.

Post Published: 01 October 2007
Author: editor
Found in section: ViewPoint

Patronage Politics At Play: Opinion

Bukowski, Davis & Brinkman Play Politics With Public Money

Opinion

An anonymous Tattler commenter got it right: The recent vote by council members Ken Bukowski, Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman to extend public money to restart the Chamber of Commerce's newspaper sounds like mutual backscratching.

The newspaper produced by the Chamber, The Emeryville Connection, can't make it on its own.  The last issue came out in October of 2009 just before the last Emeryville election where they strongly endorsed Chamber member Kurt Brinkman and Planning Commissioner Frank Flores.  They called subsequently elected council hopeful Jennifer West, "inexperienced" and "against growth" and urged voters to reject her.

Just that offensive and those endorsements alone should automatically disqualify the Chamber of Commerce and their Emeryville Connection from receiving any public money.  But the Emeryville Connection also strongly endorsed the re-election of Ken Bukowski and Nora Davis in the previous election while they ran a campaign of disinformation and smears against challenger Shilen Patel.

In addition, Mr Bukowski, Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman all took election campaign money from the Chamber of Commerce's political action committee before they voted to grant the Chamber free rent at their headquarters at 3980 Harlan Street, a property leased by the City. The fact that the Chamber of Commerce even has a political action committee should bar the organization from taking public money.

Distressingly, the one year contract with the City voted on by the three council members will enable the Chamber and the Emeryville Connection to smear some candidates and endorse other candidates for council, all with public money in the November 2011 election,  a point undoubtedly not lost on the Chamber.

This all smacks of old fashioned patronage politicking, perhaps not illegal but it certainly lacks transparency.  We call on these three council members to call back this arrangement with the Chamber of Commerce.  We feel it is OK for the City to spend money to try to attract business to town but funding a partisan newspaper produced by an organization so heavily involved in Emeryville elections is beyond the pale.  We say this public money for the start-up of the defunct Emeryville Connection is dirty politics.  The people of Emeryville deserve a better kind of politics than this.

Council Grants Chamber Of Commerce $25,000

Public Money To Fund Sectarian Private Business:

City Gives $25,000 To Chamber Of Commerce, Newspaper To Restart

The same newspaper that has endorsed the elections of Ken Bukowski, Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman will now receive public money courtesy of Ken Bukowski, Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman.

The city council voted last Tuesday to grant the Chamber of Commerce, a private company, $25,000 for consulting services related to certain economic development programs and the city's Climate Action Plan. Included in the economic component of the agreement is funding to restart the defunct Chamber newspaper for one year to "disseminate information" about the city's 'enterprise zones', a business promotion scheme.  The vote was 3-1 with Jennifer West dissenting and Ruth Atkin was absent.

For years, the City paid outright to print the Chamber of Commerce's highly biased newspaper, the 'Emeryville Connection' but the controversial funding ultimately was discontinued after mounting public outcry ensued over the inappropriate use of public money for such a partisan purpose.   The Emeryville Connection sputtered along on its own for several months before it finally stopped production in 2009 do to lack of money. Now the shuttered newspaper is to have new life breathed into it once again; like before with Emeryville taxpayer's money.

The Chamber first approached the City with the funding idea, drawing an enthusiastic response from the city staff who exclaimed the Chamber's "excellent working relationship with the city" in the accompanying report to the council.  The approved agreement pays the Chamber of Commerce $100 per hour, its billing rate based on monthly invoices until the $25,000 is used up.  The Chamber would then be free to renegotiate another contract with the City.

The Emeryville Connection newspaper, with its logo "news that brings us together", endorsed many city council candidates over the years including Mr Bukowski, Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman but it also devoted pages against other candidates including council member Jennifer West and former councilman John Fricke. In addition, the newspaper  urged readers to vote for or against many local Measures including No on Measure C, the living wage ordinance for hotel workers.  Legions of critics of the Emeryville Connection say the newspaper was very hostile against workers and routinely favored business at the expense of the residents.

Council support for funding the newspaper last Tuesday night followed partisan lines with those members that have received favorable treatment by the Chamber over the years supporting it and the one member that received Chamber condemnation opposing it.

Council member West inveighed against the funding, citing the considerable largess already bestowed upon the Chamber of Commerce by the City including the rent free office space the Chamber enjoys at the City's expense.  The staff however said in their report that the Chamber should receive the money since the agreement between the Chamber and the City will "enhance the City's ability to achieve goals and objectives related to the Enterprise Zone, its Climate Action Plan and business attraction, retention and workforce development programs".

Bukowski Shocker Still Reverberating

Every Election It's The Same Story:

Chamber, Council Members Back 
Ken Bukowski

Opinion
Revelations published by The New York Times, exposing the dark side of longtime city councilman Ken Bukowski have generated a heavy wake, amusing and shaming residents while lashing an insular political elite that has stood by Mr. Bukowski through thick and thin.
Mr. Bukowski's admission to using methamphetamine during his tenure as both city councilman and mayor is a shock to many. It's less astonishing to those who have witnessed Mr. Bukowski nodding off during council and committee meetings, or to recipients of one of dozens of rambling typo filled e-mails featuring a predawn time-stamp.

Ken likes to inject his meth rather than smoke it
 according to his niece's public testimony

They Can't Say They Didn't Know
The real surprise is focused on Mr. Bukowski's council colleagues and financial backers at the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce. Both groups have willfully ignored, if not enabled Mr. Bukowski's downward spiral as long as it suits their purposes. After all, there's more comfort in applauding and rewarding a vulnerable man's unyielding political fealty than to help him regain control of his life and integrity. As what seemed to outsiders as an occasional bump escalated to what may have been routine dependence over the years, endorsements from the Chamber of Commerce and councilwomen Nora Davis and Ruth Atkin grew stronger and more effusive. The Chamber has even upped it's commitment to Mr. Bukowski's various re-election campaigns through its political action committee, EMPAC.

The Chamber loves Ken

All this generosity every four years occurred concurrently with Mr. Bukowski's unwavering support for developers whim's---regardless of the sense or value of a project. Second to Ms. Davis, Mr. Bukowski is the most consistently pro-developer voice on the council, a fact not lost on the Chamber.
Which begs the central question here: Are Mr. Bukowski's votes ideologically driven, or have certain powerful forces aware of his personal and financial misfortunes able to influence Mr. Bukowski's votes by threatening to release certain information?
An examination of Mr. Bukowski's lengthy voting record shows that only over the last seven or eight years has he become a reliable Chamber lap dog.

During recent campaigns, the Chamber has spared no adjective praising Mr. Bukowski in mailers and its newsletter---perhaps rewards for being a dependable vote.

So did
Nora Davis

Ruth Atkin
endorsed Ken

While Bukowski's drug use was something of an open secret, Ms. Atkin, Ms. Davis and the Chamber all continued to look the other way. It seems the Chamber of Commerce has made its Faustian bargain. A reliable ally was nurtured who delivered votes, but at the cost of sullying forever the Chamber's white robes. To those paying attention, this has been clear for years.  In the wake of the New York Times article, it's clear now to everyone.

Residents should be forgiven for wondering aloud what other elements of our elected official's private lives aren't exactly secret from powerful forces that could be leveraging that information into favorable public policy.