Democratic Citizen Accountability Program Suspended at City Hall: No Explanation Given

Once Popular 'Coffee With the City Manager' Program Suspended 

Emeryville Citizens Used to Be Able to Speak Directly With Their City Manager Under the Program

No Longer

Emeryville’s new City Manager, La Tanya Bellow announced she would not be re-starting the former citizen engaging ‘Coffee With the City Manager’ program after having pondering over it during the first 100 days of her job as city manager.  The democratically minded program was discontinued in 2020 because of Covid but before that, the popular program enabled normal citizens to engage face to face with the most powerful government official at their City Hall.  Ms Bellow told the Tattler that while she has shuttered the Coffee Program indefinitely, she is not necessarily averse to someday re-starting it.  She did not say why she would not meet with citizens through the program.

Emeryville City Manager
La Tanya Bellow
Not a fan of transparency or 
citizen engagement. 

The government in Emeryville has long made proclamations regarding the inclusionary and democratic existential nature of City Hall and they proved it in 2014 when the popular program was initiated under former City Manager Sabrina Landreth.  Under the program, citizens could just drop by without making an appointment and speak freely with the city manager in the city manager’s office during the three hour period once a month.  

Despite ending the once a month citizen engagement, Ms Bellow, who makes $315,0000 per year, has made statements touting her approachability for regular people.  Before her hiring in January, she told the City Council she was a “committed public servant” who could be counted on to lead Emeryville’s government “with transparency, with integrity and with collaboration…with the members of this community”.  That may have been what she was thinking at the time but after settling in at her Park Avenue corner office, apparently she seems to have had a re-think.




Lack of accountability has a long tradition at Emeryville City Hall.  Before the democratically minded City Manager Landreth, Emeryville’s City Manager John Flores, for years, regularly scheduled closed-to-the-public meetings in the city manager's office with the Chamber of Commerce board president, every Monday morning at 9:00 to discuss anything that the Chamber, a private corporation, wanted to discuss.  The Chamber of Commerce, who received large amounts of money and favors from City Hall, likely discussed that and more at these regularly scheduled private meetings in the City Manager’s office.   

Former City Manager 
Sabrina Landreth
She had a democratic view
of government.  She liked to 
hear from regular citizens.

Uncomfortable with the lack of accountability and transparency, the Tattler suggested that perhaps regular people should also have a regularly scheduled time to interface one-on-one with their government.  The idea was forwarded that every month, regular citizens could freely express their ideas, suggestions or complaints directly to the city manager at their seat of government.

Although the secretive John Flores was not fond of that idea and he refused it, the democratically inclined Sabrina Landreth agreed with the Tattler and she began the program that ultimately became very popular with Emeryville citizens.  Notably, the Emeryville Police Department initiated its own "Coffee With a Cop' program patterned after the success of the city manager program, building it into their 'community policing' policy.  EPD still continues on the popular program.


The Coffee With the City Manager Program continued until Covid and the manager at the time, the former Paul Buddenhagen, did not restart it after Covid had passed, regardless of citizen requests.  Ms Bellow continues on with the refusal, despite all her highfalutin citizen engagement rhetoric.  

After she was hired, the Tattler inquired about Coffee With the City Manager and Ms Bellow indicated she would decide and make an announcement about it in the “first 100 days” of her administration. Announcing her refusal to re-start the program, she assured the Tattler she is “focused on meeting the community where they are to foster a more inclusive and responsive dialogue” after noting that her contact with the Tattler was a violation of the City Attorney’s order that no government officials may communicate with the Tattler in any way.  “I am making this one time exception” she said. 

South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge Grand Opening Celebration Slated for December 3rd.

Long Wait For Bike/Ped Bridge Finally Over

Completed Bridge Set to Open December 3rd

More than 25 years after it was first seriously proposed, Emeryville’s second bike/pedestrian bridge over the much cursed and city-bisecting Union Pacific railroad tracks, will finally be opened to the public December 3rd in a gala grand opening public ceremony planned for 6:00 PM.  

Former City Council member and Bridge Committee chair John Fricke, who as an outspoken critic of an early design of the bridge that didn't include bicycles, was outwardly sanguine but more likely sardonic about the December 3rd opening when he told the Tattler dryly, "Good things come to those who wait".

Not just a basic and prosaic over-crossing
Our new $21 million bridge is not without its charms,
even flirting with a sense of the dramatic.

The long awaited opening will finally silence a growing chorus from apprehensive residents about a boondoggle 'impossible bridge' and 'never bridge' and other such epithets.  

As with any large infrastructure project, this bridge, formally known as the South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge but called the Bay Street Mall Bridge by some, had its share of setbacks and colliding egos associated with its implementation.  Arguably more than its share.  

Madison Marquette, the Washington DC based developer of the Bay Street Mall, was an early promoter of a bridge at this location.  Seeing better connection for East Emeryville shoppers as a booster to its corporate bottom line, Madison Marquette pushed the City to build the bridge straight into their mall.  The City of Emeryville was listening and its Redevelopment Agency approved $8.4 million in 2003 to construct a pedestrian only bridge with elevators.   Mr Fricke cried foul to that concept, rallying instead for a multi-modal design with stairs for pedestrians and ramps for bikes (and wheelchairs).  Former City Council member Nora Davis and City Manager John Flores however fought against bikes on the bridge, insisting at first ramps not be provided.  Mr Flores, reiterating Ms Davis' concerns about unruly bicyclists, famously stated they represent a "ruffian element".   So Mr Fricke took his bike friendly design idea directly to the people.  The City responded with a ramp design that would have bicyclists dismount at switchback corners that would be too sharp and in conflict with wheelchairs, pedestrians and other bikers. 

The City, buckling to public pressure for a real bike/pedestrian bridge in response to a rising John Fricke who had subsequently been elected in a landslide victory to the City Council, finally appointed him as Chair of a newly commissioned South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge Committee in 2008.  Meanwhile, the cost had risen to $12 million and then $13.9 million owing mostly to delays associated with the redesign to accommodate bikes.  Councilwoman Davis and City Manager Flores finally gave up on their insistence on a pedestrian only bridge after they started receiving a lot of public support for Councilman Fricke's pro-bike design.  

The dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency, legal concerns with Union Pacific Railroad and City Council priority drift caused the bridge project to languish for years after Council member Fricke stepped down.   Finally in 2018, then mayor John Bauters, attempting to follow through on a campaign promise to voters, pushed the issue and convinced his colleagues to make the Fricke designed bridge a City priority issue.  By then the price tag had risen substantially and the Council finally signed a construction contract at $21.4 million (not including the eastern 'Horton Landing' approach from Horton Street).

The ballooning cost will likely soon be forgotten however when pedestrians and bikers begin using the long awaited infrastructure.  With this much needed bike/ped connection from East Emeryville to the Bay Street Mall, our town is on the cusp of being able to state with earnestness the oft repeated but heretofore glaringly unrealized proclamation of being a 'connected place'. 

The City will host a parade from City Hall to the bridge starting at 5:30 culminating in a ribbon cutting ceremony at 6:00 (ish) at the bridge followed by a party open to the public at the Bay Street Mall. 

South Bayfront Ped/Bike Bridge Spans Railroad Tracks

Some 37 years after it was first proposed, a bridge for pedestrians (and bicycles) has finally spanned the railroad tracks between Powell and 40th streets in Emeryville.  At 11:15 Saturday night, a crane lifted the red steel pre-built arch over the tracks while workers busily fastened it down on both the east and west anchorages.  The next several months will bring completion of the ancillary approaches and other finishes.  Pedestrians and bicyclists will be able cross the completed span in summer of 2021.

The elevator at the pedestrian bridge
at the Amtrak Station was out of 
service again Saturday.

The new bridge, called the South Bayfront Ped/Bike Bridge will connect the Bay Street Mall with east Emeryville and get the City just a little bit closer to realizing its long standing General Plan shibboleth of Emeryville being ‘a connected place’.

As if by design to serve as a counterpoint, the elevator at the Amtrak Station pedestrian bridge that also spans the railroad tracks was out again on Saturday, a perennial frustration that has helped spur the new bridge. 

 The South Bayfront bridge has gone through a very tortured path over the years to finally get to this point.  Its first iteration, proposed by then City Manager Joe Tanner was a modest crossing only for pedestrians with stairs and elevators at either end.  Later, in 2005, a bicycle contingent led by soon-to-be-elected City Councilman John Fricke said any bridge built there must include bicycles.  Pushback against Mr Fricke’s bike friendly bridge idea came from the next City Manager, John Flores, who said bicyclists represented a “ruffian element” and that the bridge design should preclude bikes because bicyclists could use it as an escape route from crimes.  Luckily, Mr Flores’ argument didn’t win the day and after a selection process, the new design allowing for bike riders became the final plan.   As late as 2011, it appeared the bridge would never be completed after the State attempted to seize money set aside by the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency.  

After the City passed on an ambitious plan by the Emeryville based visionary architect/designer Eugene Tssui, the final design of the pedestrian/bike bridge has been called ‘pedestrian in use and design' in the sense that it lacks excitement or innovation.  It may not be too beautiful but it's certainly a long overdue stitching together of railroad divided east and west Emeryville.

A train roared past minutes before the crane began lifting the span into place.

It was all finished up by 12:30 AM.

Emeryville History 2004-2014: City Hall in the Tank for Pixar

OOOPS!  Ten years later, the hyperbole is revealed to be.....hyperbole.

Here's City Manager John Flores, in 2004 in the tank for Pixar as that company sought voter approval for a major campus expansion.  The Tattler has shown how the pitch from Pixar (and City Hall) for Measures T & U were vastly overstated including how Pixar was going to benefit the schools and the community. But what we got for our permission to vastly increase their campus instead is a giant corporate tax cheat and no money for the schools coming forth from the fenced off and secretive private Pixar compound.

In addition to giving credence to the absurd claim that Pixar would flee Emeryville unless it got everything it wanted (and write off its billion dollar initial investment), Mr Flores, supposedly representing our interests, tells us that Pixar would be a "major benefactor to the Emeryville community including the schools".
Pixar for its part, told voters in 2004 that they (Pixar) would tremendously benefit the Emeryville community but instead of putting that in writing as the T&U opposition wanted, they should simply be taken at their word.
And the rest is history as they say.

Video from the Emeryville Property Owners Association

An Open Letter to Emeryville's New City Manager, Sabrina Landreth

Monday Mornings at 9:00

To Emeryville City Manager, Sabrina Landreth-

We congratulate you as you settle in as Emeryville's new City Manager.  We look forward to many years of service on your part, assuaging the desires of the people of Emeryville as we work together crafting the town we residents want to live in.  No doubt by now you have learned a lot about the culture at City Hall and how politics are played here in Emeryville.  And this is why we write to you now.

The city manager position in Emeryville is not simply an office running job.  This position historically has been used to bend the trajectory of development in the town, regardless of the official job description.  The city manager has not merely fulfilled the will of the City Council, scurrying about as a automaton-like servant.  No, the person in your seat has been the most powerful figure in Emeryville, forming power coalitions, working with a development agenda, for good or bad.

Over many years we have watched with dismay as your office, under your predecessors and behind closed doors, has been used by developers and other business concerns, to conduct business without transparency and without accountability to the people.  The way this has traditionally been done in Emeryville is that development deals are made within your four walls before the public is even informed.  Later, when a development proposal is moved into the public arena, overseen by the elected officials, all the decisions of consequence have already been settled.  The public has been effectively shut out of the process.  With business and developer friendly city managers at the helm up until now, this is how Emeryville has come to be known as the East Bay's business friendly city.

Our new City Manager, Sabrina Landreth

But even as you now assume your position and begin your duties as our new city manager and we turn a page in Emeryville history, we want to make sure we really do turn a page in Emeryville history.

A great place to start we think, is Monday mornings at 9:00 in your office.  Because that is the time and the place one private Emeryville citizen has had reserved for private closed door meetings for more than 10 years.  That citizen is of course John Gooding, the Chamber of Commerce political power broker and business consultant/lobbyist.

Mr Gooding would meet with former City Manager Pat O'Keeffe in Mr O'Keefe's office for a private closed door meeting, Mondays at 9:00.  We're told that time was permanently set aside by Mr O'Keeffe for Mr Gooding.  And before Mr O'Keeffe, it was former City Manager John Flores meeting with John Gooding.  Again, Monday mornings at 9:00, private one-on-one meeting with the man running City Hall.  What was discussed at those hundreds of meetings?  We'll never know. But what was notable was that no other private citizen or even group of citizens ever got equal treatment from the city manager.  The rest of us were locked out.

What we want from you Ms Landreth, is a similar time set aside.  We'd like Monday mornings at 9:00 to be set aside again....only this time we want the door to be open and we want Emeryville residents in your office.  Any of them...hopefully all of them (in one way or another) over the years.  We want you to meet with resident groups such as Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE).  We want you to hear OUR concerns, not just business/developer interests.  We want 9:00 Monday mornings in your office reserved for US.

We think this would help serve as a powerful balm for much of what ails Emeryville.  It would help connect the heretofore alienated public with their City Hall.  We like the 9:00 time slot specifically.  It would serve as a beautiful, symmetrical and just counterpoint.  It would go far to show everyone that a page has indeed turned.

School Board to Vote on 'Surplus' Facilities Including City Owned Property

Fate of Public Properties/Community Services to be Mostly Determined Behind Closed Doors

Another $170,000 For Consultants

The Emery School Board conducted an early morning meeting last week to determine the fate of "surplus" school properties and included City of Emeryville owned properties. The decision made at the meeting would forward payment of some $170,000 for consultants to coordinate plans for a "Six-Site Master Plan" that will be decided mostly behind closed doors the Tattler has learned.

The Master Plan will be formulated by a Task Force led by the consultants in series of meetings to be concluded in June 2013.  San Francisco based consulting firm MKThink, one of the two firms coordinating the Master Plan, announced public representatives in the Task Force will be permitted at less than half of the 22 meetings planned.

The Six-Site Task Force will be led by consultant John Flores, formerly Emeryville's City Manager and will determine the fate of:

1. Anna Yates Elementary School
2. Ralph Hawley Middle School
3. Emery Secondary School
4. The Recreation Center
5. The Senior Center 
6. The Child Development Center

The Recreation Center, the Senior Center and the Child Development Center are owned by the City of Emeryville.

The other consulting firm paid to coordinate the Master Plan, Berkeley based MIG will jointly control with MKThink, the non public meetings and will present to the School Board final determinative fate of all community services in Emeryville in June.  The actual community is not invited to the majority of the slated meetings.

The non-televised School Board Facilities Committee early morning weekday meeting last week constituted a legally required public '1st reading' of the proposed sweeping policy change enabling placement of the issue on the Consent Calender for the Board's normally scheduled Wednesday meeting.  The Consent Calender decree would constitute the legally required 2nd and final reading of the Six-Site Master Plan.   Consent Calender items are commonly grouped together and considered accepted by "consent", meaning there is no actual specific vote.