Election '24: Elsie Joyce Lee Represents a Change for Emery Unified School District

Change Needed at Emeryville's Schools:

Elsie Joyce Lee For Emery School Board

Vetted by the People, Not the School Board

Opinion

By Tattler Editor Brian Donahue

The Tattler has long reported on the dysfunction at our little school district and this year it’s no different. Because we should not let dysfunctional government continue and because Emeryville’s schools are highly dysfunctional, we should vote for a new face with new ideas to break up the ossified insularity here.  We should vote for Elsie Joyce Lee for Emery Board of Trustees (School Board) because she represents the change that’s needed.

Emery School Board Candidate
Elsie Joyce Lee
A new voice for EUSD, vetted by
the people, not the School Board.

There are two Board seats in contention.  The incumbent running for re-election and the husband of the existing Board member Regina Chagolla, who’s also running, represent the status quo, the ‘no change team’.  Challenging them is Ms Lee, the change agent. 

My name, Brian Donahue, also appears on the ballot but I don’t want to be on the School Board.  I don’t want to win.  I only ran to force an election and give voters a chance to have a say in how their schools are governed.  Because I don’t want to be on the School Board this year, I’m directing anyone that would vote for me to vote instead for Elsie Joyce Lee and only Elsie Joyce Lee, a classic ‘bullet vote’ strategy.  This 'one vote only' strategy provides pro-change voters the best chance to get Ms Lee elected.  

Because I entered the race and forced an election, my job is here is finished.  Now it’s the job of the electorate to put a new face with new ideas on our School Board.

Emery Unified School District is academically the second worst school district in Alameda County (when controlled for the percentage of student English learners) and Emery gets the most funding, by far, over any other school district in the county.  Emery is funded at almost $28,000 per student per year.  The second highest funded district in Alameda County is Piedmont Unified at about $18,000 per student.  

Low scores and high funding: that’s a unique level of dysfunction that highlights Emery's unique level of mismanagement.  

Shockingly, the existing School Board members are defending the dysfunction, stating inexplicably, that we need to “keep Emery on track” .  They excitedly point to the fact that two years ago, Emery was the school district with the worst academic results of all 15 districts in Alameda County but now we’ve moved up to second worst, and that’s somehow worth rewarding them with your vote.  What they're not saying is at this rate of improvement, Emery will finally be a good school district in half a century hence. 

We Emeryville residents are very generous to the schools.  Our school parcel tax rate is legendary among districts around the Bay Area.  Other districts are jealous of the money Emeryville property owners lavish on their schools.  But while it's imperative for voters to adequately fund public schools in the community as we have done, we can't then just walk away.   We can't just continue to throw money at the school district and expect our job to be done.  We also need to hire good stewards for all the money we're investing.  The existing Board is remiss in their duty to the taxpayers, yes.  But more importantly, they are failing the students at Emery.  We need a change here in this locus of dysfunction.  Candidate Elsie Lee provides a chance for such a change. 

Ms Lee was not informed about this opinion piece before posting. 

Please see Ms Lee's impressive performance at the League of Woman Voters Candidate's Forum: School Board Forum HERE

https://youtu.be/Zs7RTtnwhFA?si=CcEKXHqj--czjX34

Emery's test score results are the second worst among Alameda County school districts
(when controlled for percentage of English learners).

Source: California Department of Education

Low test scores and high funding means
Emery is poorly managed.  The children suffer
when the schools are so terribly managed. 
Even though Emery is by far the highest funded
school district in the county, they spend the smallest
percentage on instruction (19% of budget).  Most of the
money goes to corporate educational consultants.

Source: California Department of Education

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

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

A Bad Guy With a Gun?

Opinion

Rebecca Sermeno
Community Services Director

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

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

Quiauna Scott
Superintendent of the Schools

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

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

 Here is a small sampling over the last few months:

Labor Day Lies From Bauters and Welch

 Bauters' Audacious Labor Day Message

Mayor Welch Joins the Prevaricating & Pontificating Prose

Opinion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy REAL Labor Day, Emeryville.  

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

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

a lie.

Imagine Democracy in Emeryville

 Emeryville Residents: 

Step Up and Run For Elected Office

Opinion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

City Hall to Shut Down Public Phone-in Comments in Reaction to Nazis

 At City Hall, It's Nazis, 1, the Council, 0

Opinion

Emeryville City Manager
Paul Buddenhagen
Democracy must suffer in order to
go after Nazis or men with cameras.

The Nazis are back!  The same group of five Florida based residents are once again phoning in their special brand of hate to our Council Chambers.  Tuesday night, hoping to make a bigger impact, they kept rotating between themselves, using different names and trying to disguise their voices so they could turn the five of them into 15 commenters.  Mayor Courtney Welch kept playing 'wack-a-mole', cutting their mics at the first whiff of disruptive hate speech but a new one would simply take his place albeit with a new improvised voice pattern.  This childishness flummoxed the Mayor who kept allowing the “new” ones to speak, even though it was obvious it was the same five, taking turns over and over. 

After the theatrics finally died down, the City Manager Paul Buddenhagen made a hair-on-fire announcement: all citizen phone-in comments are to be curtailed at council, planning commission and committee meetings “for the foreseeable future” he said.  Take that, Nazis!

It wasn’t supposed to work out this way.  The popular phone-in option at City meetings started in 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic and was continued on afterward, constituting what came to be known as “hybrid” meetings, meaning in-person comments and phone-in comments are both available to the public.   After City Hall noted a substantial uptick in citizen participation, the hybrid meeting format became settled and permanent Emeryville policy by Council fiat.  The idea was that a much greater number of people would attend meetings if they were made more convenient.  And it worked. 

But then the Nazis came to town.

The Emeryville City Council is right to disallow disruptive hate speech and they should cut the mic of anyone doing it.  Racist hate or any speech targeting people for who they are is not public meeting free speech but profanity IS Constitutionally guaranteed free speech.  But City Hall is now taking that out too.  Perhaps seeing the Nazi ‘crisis’ as an opportunity, the delicate Emeryville City government is now also stoping the use of profanity for citizens, so perturbed they are over these four letter word using Nazis.  This is another panic driven over-reaction and we will challenge this.

To react like the City Council is doing is to put the Nazis in the driver’s seat.  With the harsh anti-democratic prohibitions in place, it can fairly be said these Nazis are now driving public policy in Emeryville.  This kind of over the top reactionary response from City Hall is just what the haters want.  The Council needs to calm the fuck down.  The use of profanity is a Constitutional right.  Racists and fascists are everywhere in America now.  We’re not going to let Nazis destroy our city and we’re not going to let the City Council destroy our city (in order to save it).  We’re going to continue on with democratic governance here, just as we always have.  

So City Council, reel in your City Manager and let the Nazis phone-in and speak.  And let the democracy loving people phone-in and speak and let them all use Constitutionally supported free speech.  When the Trump crowd spews their meeting disrupting hate filled venom, cut their mics.  Don’t make Emeryville residents suffer a major loss of access in order to try to strike a blow against Nazis. Nazism should not be on par with our Emeryville government.  We’re supposed to be better than them.    

Undemocratically Minded School Board Member Seeks Position in Local Democratic Party

Emery School Board Member Chagolla Running For Delegate to Democratic Party Committee

Accountability and Transparency Should be First & Foremost

Chagolla Doesn't Deliver on Either

Opinion

By March 5th, Democratic Party members in Emeryville, Oakland and Alameda have a chance to weigh in on Emeryville resident / Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla's bid to be an assembly district 18 voting member of the local Democratic party known as the Democratic Central Committee.   One of a slate of eight candidates for the Central Committee, Ms Chagolla has been endorsed by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta and Emeryville Mayor Courtney Welch.  

But despite the high level endorsements, believers in good government would be wise to not vote for Ms Chagolla. 

Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla
Anti-Democratic
Not accountable to parents with
children enrolled at Emery, she has
a patrician's view of democracy.

The Democratic Central Committee delegates represent their specific district serving the people and their State Assembly member.  As such, the Central Committee (DCC) delegates help promote the Democratic Party agenda, endorse candidates for statewide, legislative and congressional office, and vote to endorse resolutions and ballot measures among other things.  The last election in 2023, saw Council member Kalimah Priforce elected to the District 18 DCC delegation over objections from Assemblywoman Bonta who had selected a slate of candidates that included Ms Welch.  

Ms Bonta, recognized by many East Bay progressives as a 'corporate Democrat' owing to her campaign donor list of gazillionaires and mega-corporations, had the misfortune of having her entire slate, save one, defeated by the voters last time.  Now Ms Chagolla has joined a new slate of DCC Bonta candidates for another bite at the apple.  

Looking at Regina Chagolla’s impressive resume, one might be tempted to vote for her, regardless of her being part of the corporatist United Voices For Democracy slate as they call themselves.  Besides sitting on the Emery School Board, Ms Chagolla has been a 3rd grade teacher at Berkeley Unified School District for the last six years and she’s lived in Emeryville for 10 years.  But Democratic voters should be advised, Ms Chagolla’s tenure on the Emery School Board has been marked by a wholesale failure to govern from even the most basic of democratic norms.

Ms Chagolla is not available to the public.  Following in the footsteps of Council member John Bauters, School Board member Chagolla has adopted a hyper-partisan philosophy on governing to such an extent, certain members of the Emeryville public, the press and even parents with children enrolled at Emery, are not afforded the courtesy of having a single question answered.  Ms Chagolla will not entertain constituent’s questions at School Board meetings nor will she set up times for answering questions off campus, not in person, via email, text or not via the phone.  This is an extremely undemocratic vision of governance from a public servant who calls herself a Democrat.  

While running for re-election to the Emery School Board in 2022, Board member Chagolla joined with her two colleagues also seeking re-election, telling voters about what a great job they had done for the children at Emery.  "Keep Emery on track” is what they said, presumably because they were doing such a fantastic job.  What Ms Chagolla and her slate mates didn’t tell voters is that, academically, Emery slid to last place among all school districts in Alameda County on her watch.  This kind of incompetence and lack of transparency should not be rewarded with a Democrat’s vote.

You know a politician is pulling a scam when they transform themselves from lovers of democracy and accountability before they’re elected into haters as soon as they are elected.  Such is the case with Regina Chagolla.  Before she was elected to the Emery School Board, she told the community she loved the Emeryville Tattler.  In 2015, then an Emery teacher, she even wrote a letter to the editor praising how informative and democratic the Tattler is.  In her letter, Ms Chagolla thanked the Tattler, “for informing the public about the big discussions that are being made in this small city” and for informing her specifically as a teacher about what is going on at the school district.  She said the Tattler inspired her enough to start her attending School Board meetings. 

Assemblywoman Mia Bonta's Delegate Slate
The 'United Voices for Democracy' Slate
The corporate business community and their
sycophants wants you to vote for these people.

That was then.  Now as an elected official in power and under the critical eye of the Emeryville Tattler, now Board member Chagolla wants nothing to do whatsoever with the Tattler, the same news site that inspired her as a mere teacher.  Now the disdain for accountability from Board member Chagolla is so pervasive, she steadfastly refuses to answer our questions and she even joined with her Board colleagues running for re-election to freeze out the the public from accountability by refusing the Tattler’s election questionnaire (given to all Emeryville candidates for public office).  As elected officials in Emeryville, Ms Chagolla and her Board colleagues boycotted public accountability for the first time in the Tattler’s 14 year history.  Her reason?  She does not believe the public has a right to know about her governing philosophy.  She still wants their votes however.  

For these reasons, Democrats, even the corporate ones, should not use their votes to reward a person who cavalierly subverts the Party’s values with such aplomb.  We don’t know what kinds of political calculations Assembly member Mia Bonta has made endorsing Regina Chagolla as delegate for the Democratic Central Committee but we don’t think it’s in the interest of the people of the 18th District.

Military Culture Permeates Emeryville Police Department

 Emeryville's Militarized Police Force:

A Modest Proposal

Opinion

by Brian Donahue

Grand Poobah / Il Duce

For a hot minute, after officers from the Minneapolis Police Department murdered George Floyd, the nation cried enough is enough and police reform seemed to be on everyone’s lips.  Even here in Emeryville, the City Council passed a proclamation supporting State legislation proscribing police militarization.  All the heated talk ended quickly however and the police went back to being the police.  Here at the Tattler, we didn’t see police reform as a bandwagon to hop on and hop off.  We still think reform is the goal.  For instance, we see no cogent reason why our police should routinely carry military weapons of war on Emeryville's streets as they do.  The police here are adamant: they need more firepower, they need to always be armed with assault rifles with enough power to blast through three house walls and still kill a civilian.

Against that backdrop, we introduced a new, largely symbolic effort to bring our police back into our community, to reflect community values.  We suggested the Emeryville Police Department throw off their military personnel ranking system they use and replace it with a civilian ranking model.  In this way, the Chief would become EPD#1, the Captains would become EPD#2, the Lieutenants EPD#3 and so on.  Current Lieutenant Fred Dauer for instance, would become EPD#3 Fred Dauer or just #3 Dauer.

Field Marshal Dauer

Alas, the police took to this proposal like a cat takes to water: they responded with a full throated NO.  They will keep their military modus operandi including all the trappings, they insisted.  But the United States military, as everyone knows, are liars.  They always lie to get us into wars.  And then they lie again when we inquire as to how well they are prosecuting the war.  The Emeryville Police Department is in the thrall of and wants to be associated with this government agency that can be counted on to lie to the people; right down to their military ranking.   Our police love governmental lying.
 

So after years trying to get a less militaristic, more community friendly police department, we’re ready to throw in the towel.  Let’s give them what they want.  Let’s hyper-militarize the Emeryville Police Department.  If EPD Captain Oliver Collins is feared by the people with the military epithet 'captain', imagine how much better it would be if he were known as Generalissimo Oliver Collins.  Lieutenant Fred Dauer too will be even more fearsome as Field Marshall Fred Dauer.  That a militarized police department is cast as a good thing, why then equivocate Emeryville?  Let's start thanking them for their service, why not?  Let's wallow in military grandeur and idolatry.

Here’s our modest proposal:

Mayor Bauters To Step Down, Give Reins to Vice Mayor: Two Years of Subterfuge Revealed

 Our Mayor is Loudly a Progressive

A Closer Look Reveals a More Complicated Politics

Opinion

As our consecutive back-to-back termed mayor, John Bauters, prepares to step down to allow our vice mayor Courtney Welch assume the Emeryville mayoralty, now seems a good time to take stock of the politics of this loquacious, globe trotting, camera smitten leader of ours.  The two year mayor of Emeryville as it turns out, is well known outside our little town.  Notably, not since the fall of the corrupt chief of police John LaCoste back in the 1980s, has Emeryville had a political leader so well known around the nation until the rise of Council member cum mayor John Bauters.  The vehicle for this has been Mr Bauters’ energetic penchant for self promotion.

Emeryville Mayor John Bauters
He recently told a throng of striking Oakland 
workers he supports labor over corporations. 
Conveniently, he didn't tell them
his actual record on that.

A perfunctory gaze at the politics of the quixotic mayoralty of Mr Bauters, could lead one to believe he would be placed solidly on the left wing side of the political spectrum.  Indeed, he has often directly stated as much.  He is starring in more than 20 YouTube videos proudly wearing his progressivism on his sleeve.  But a more critical look reveals a more complicated reality.  

Mayor Bauters came out publicly against building more parks for Emeryville but many might be surprised to learn that our liberal mayor has quietly foreclosed on the idea of establishing an ethics commission for City Hall.  Amid a growing culture of nastiness on the Council and under increasing pressure from the public, Mr Bauters relented recently and joined his Council colleagues in a vote to allow a ceremonial albeit toothless ‘code of ethics’ for City Council members and City Staff.  But he vigorously opposed a more constraining citizen’s ethics commission as other neighboring cities have done.  

Mayor Bauters seems to be saying the government can be trusted to investigate itself and the citizens should simply trust them.  When the Tattler recently inquired about the establishment of an ethics commission, Mayor Bauters was unequivocal: “No” he said tersely.  This is an authoritarian, illiberal view of governance.

On the housing front, Mayor Bauters (and Vice Mayor Welch) has led the Council majority in fierce support of a corporate vision of 100% rental units for Emeryville, in direct defiance of our General Plan.  Emeryville has for more than a decade, exceeded the market rate housing recommendations of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), making cries about not enough market rate housing from the housing developer lobbying group YIMBY, ring hollow.  Nonetheless, the Mayor and Vice Mayor have both followed the straight and narrow pro-corporate developer YIMBY path although Mr Bauters HAS pushed for more affordable housing.  Notably, he led a drive to pass Measure C, a voter backed, taxpayer funded $50 million affordable housing bond in 2018 without objection from developers.

Bike boulevards in Emeryville were never
supposed to have more than 3000 vehicle
trips per day, until Mayor Bauters said 
a resounding NO to that.  

Mayor Bauters spins a yarn about his progressive worldview but what’s telling is on two conspicuous issues, biking and labor issues, he is the polar opposite of what he tells the world.  That has a Trumpian ethos about it. On bicycling, Mr Bauters has used his entire term on the City Council subverting our bike boulevard system, putting bikers in harm's way.  Bike boulevards are supposed to be corridors where cars are allowed but bikes are preferred.  Emeryville pledged to do that in 2012 (before Mr Bauters got on our Council), by limiting the number of vehicles sharing the boulvards with bicyclists to less than 3000 per day.  The City of Emeryville officially does not recommend more than 3000 vehicle trips per day because it is too dangerous for bikers and this has been in our Bike Plan. But the business community pushes back against limiting the number of cars and that’s who Mayor Bauters has been listening to.  Because Mr Bauters has been so effective in lobbying in favor of the business community, Emeryville has not limited the number of cars to less than 3000.  In fact, the City has tremendously INCREASED the number of cars using our bike boulvards since Bauters moved to overturn our Bike Plan.

Being narcissistic, Mayor Bauters doesn’t take a principled stance on just about anything, the evanescent and shifting opinions of the fickle public being his conspicuous go to place.  Recently, as public opinion about labor unions has shifted to a more pro-union stance, Mr Bauters has been all over that.  So whereas before, he was vehemently anti-labor, now Mayor Bauters has used a bullhorn to support labor….literally he’s taken up a bullhorn.  Back in 2015 when Emeryville businesses cried over our new Minimum Wage Ordinance, a law written before he got on the Council, John Bauters led a 2018 drive to roll back wages delineated by the ordinance, leaving the working poor the working poor.  A labor petition drive of Emeryville voters ultimately stopped Mr Bauters' anti-worker move.  

But that was then, now he says he LOVES labor.  Last week our Mayor, during a workers' strike at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, gave a full throated, bullhorn assisted trashing of corporate greed and pledged his fealty to labor.  That’s just the way he rolls he told the crowd of striking workers, always in support of the little guy.  Later, he proudly told his 38,000 Twitter followers (X) all about it on his ‘Mayor John’ site.  He told them, “It is wholly unacceptable for a greedy corporation like Kaiser to rely on frontline healthcare workers to lead us through a pandemic and then turn its back on fair wages and basic dignity”.  He failed to mention he did the same thing as Kaiser did to workers when he tried to overturn Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance.  Did it slip his mind?  Maybe.  It’s hard to know the mind of a narcissist.

So now Mayor Bauters will become just regular old Councilman Bauters (unless he goes for a third term as mayor....warning Emeryville citizens, it could happen).   Next up, the corporate Democrat Courtney Welch and her illiberal, anti-democratic drama train.  Her constituents that disagree with her or try to hold her to account, all “fuck boys” in her estimation, likely will have some fireworks to look forward to.  Maybe the new Code of Ethics will constrain the pugilistic Mayor Welch.  Don’t bet on it.

Should School Board Members Run For Re-Election? They Should Resign in Shame

 The Worst Academic Record in the East Bay: 

The Emery School Board Members Should Not Be Running For Re-Election

Instead, They Should Do What Failed Leaders Do In Japan: 

恥ずかしながら辞職 

Opinion

Perennial Emery School Board member Brynnda Collins spoke for the whole board at the recent League of Woman Voters candidate’s forum when, on camera, she told the attendees that Emery school district must "stay on track".  That’s a cliché line commonly used when a politician wants to run on their record.  But Ms Collins and her slate mates, Susan Donaldson and Regina Chagolla, the three Emery school board members who are running for re-election, really don't want to run on their records – so Ms Collins’ line was only meant to obscure.  In truth, they don’t want us to know their record.  Because the more Emeryville voters find out about the record of the existing school board, the more they want Emery to get off that track.

On their watch, Emery Unified School District hasn’t budged from last place academically among Alameda County school districts.  The current culture of failure began six years ago when Emery slid to the bottom.  And there it has remained ever since.  But it’s not for a lack of spending.  Emeryville taxpayers fund their school district at the highest rate of any school district in the entire East Bay.  We pay more than $27,000 per student per year for them to run our school district.  The next highest spending comes from Berkeley Unified where they spend about $18,000 per student (California average is about $14,000).  But Berkeley gets excellent academic results for the money they pay.  We spend the most and get the worst results.  Our students score 23% proficiency in math and 37% in English, the worst scores in Alameda County.  And so these three incumbent school board members are out talking to voters about anything other than their record.

Where does all the money go at Emery?  How could they spend so much and get such bad results?  The answer is administrators and consultants.  Emery has the highest ratio of administrators to students in Alameda County.  But more distressing is the squandering of public funds going to educational consultants over the last six years on the school board's watch. 

Emery spends millions of dollars on educational consultants. The numbers tell the tale: whereas California school districts spend on average 52% of their budget on instruction, Emery spends only 19%.  Other school districts spend on average 12% of their budget on 'other spending' which includes educational consultants where Emery spends 67%.  That’s an awfully high percentage of the budget to be spent on something that's clearly not helping.

Meanwhile, teachers at Emery are paid so poorly they can’t afford to live here.  Paying teachers more could help Emery attract the best and the brightest to our little district.  If we stopped spending so much on consultants (and administration) we could pay the teachers more.  Teachers know how to educate children in the real world, educational consultants don't.  Teachers are the ones in the trenches, doing the real work. To empower teachers is to upset the dysfunctional 'top down' culture at Emery.

Now these three incumbents at Emery school board want us to vote for their re-election.  They're asking us to vote for dysfunction.  They're asking us to vote to keep Emeryville schools on the bottom, the worst in Alameda County.

The Japanese have an expression commonly used by CEOs of large corporations when they fail to manage the corporation and bring shame upon themselves, it’s called Hazukashinagara jishoku or 恥ずかしながら辞職 , meaning to shamefully resign.  That’s what should be happening at Emery instead of them running for re-election.  

Alas, this is part of the current trend in America; failed leaders doubling down and gaslighting the public.  In Japan, a place where public shame still exists, failed leaders announce for the good of the organization they will 恥ずかしながら辞職 as they step down in humility.  Here, they tell us to keep them on track.

A valuable site to verify how Emery is failing the children may be viewed HERE.  Make sure to scroll all the way down to 'Academic Summary' and 'District Finances'.

This is how they do it in Japan
Executives at a Dentsu Corporation press conference resign in shame
over a worker 'karoshi' scandal or death from over work.
In America, failed leaders double down.

Mayor Martinez: Lying & Science Denialism Rates a D-

 Mayor Dianne Martinez

Continuing our tradition of looking back on each year-long mayorship of the rotating Emeryville City Council members/cum mayors, with Dianne Martinez now moving aside to make way for John Bauters, we take this opportunity to look back on Mayor Martinez’s tenure as Emeryville's highest elected official.  The Tattler continues with the tradition of these mayoral wrap-ups; the assignment of letter grades for each mayor—and to that end, we report Dianne Martinez has received a D- for her efforts as our mayor.

Opinion

Emeryville Mayor in 2021
Dianne Martinez

A glaring piece of bad politics came last June 15th when the Council majority voted to cut down the people’s street trees at the Sherwin Williams development site at the request of Lennar Development Corporation, Mayor Martinez leading the charge.  Before her June 15th vote, she also had voted to kill the same trees in a losing bid in 2019.  Ms Martinez, hoping people had forgotten, appallingly attempted to rewrite history when she announced at the June meeting she had been in favor of saving the trees in 2019.  “I was on the side of doing everything we could [to save the trees] but now, I’m on the side of (having the healthiest and most vibrant trees on Horton Street), she said, parroting the developer’s talking points.  Ms Martinez’s colleague, the former Councilman Christian Patz, at the same June 15th meeting told the assembled crowd that the developer had presented no new information from the 2019 Council vote (when the trees were saved).  The Mayor, undaunted, then voted to kill the trees again after happily announcing that the developer had gone behind the back of the Council and gotten permission from the staff regardless and so any vote to save the trees would just be a wasted protest vote.  This was the politics of the public be damned at its most cynical.

In addition to her terrible vote in June, before the voting and before hearing her colleagues openly deliberate on the matter, Mayor Martinez stated that she had already made up her mind to kill the trees, attempting to unfairly coerce her colleagues into voting with her.  She announced, “Let me indicate for you how I’m going to vote tonight”  (see video at 33:40) without letting the other Council members have their say in a fair and open manner.  In so doing, Mayor Martinez worked to close down open and meaningful Council debate.  All City Council members are supposed to listen to what the others say before deciding.  They should come to meetings with an open mind.  They are actually paid to have an open mind in matters of public policy.

Lying Mixed With Science Denialism

Shockingly, Mayor Martinez later denied she ever made the “Let me indicate for you…” announcement.  It’s not as if these meetings are not recorded and on the City’s website for all to see.  So we're not sure what she thinks she's doing with this.

The dreadful behavior exhibited around the June 15th Council decision is added to Ms Martinez’s blanket rejection of scientifically collected housing data by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) of which Emeryville is a dues paying member.  Mayor Martinez continued to vote to give developers a free pass, increasing their negotiating strength with her constantly stated position that Emeryville needs more (market rate) housing.  Her housing claims exactly mirror developers' and are in direct contradiction to ABAG who reports that our town is far ahead of our housing mandate every measuring period.  The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on this, to Ms Martinez's dismay.

The lone Emeryville City Council member who utterly rejects ABAG’s housing data, “I think the ABAG recommendations are too low”  she told the Tattler in 2018, Ms Martinez refuses to tell the people how she knows that or how much housing Emeryville should have.  This position of hers means she is not working to leverage Emeryville’s value when developers come knocking with their housing project proposals.  If we are always desperate for more housing, we'll let developers have their way with us, leading to less livability for existing residents in the negotiations.  

And that leads us into another area of bad policy from Mayor Martinez: Emeryville’s lack of action on delivering more parks to our worst-city-in-the-Bay-Area park acreage to resident ratio.  Emeryville added zero new park acreage during her term (and only one acre during her entire City Council term of seven years despite the City adding more than 2000 new residents during that time).

For all these reasons (especially lying to the people) plus a lack of action for bike transportation and no action on getting a public library like she promised (see question #10) , Mayor Martinez gets a D- .  Not a fail, but almost.

Nora Davis Revisionism Runs Rampant

It's Set to Be Nora Davis This and Nora Davis That in Emeryville in 2021

Never Mind She Didn't Approve of Any of This Stuff

They're Now Crediting Her With

After her passing in 2020, revisionists look to redefine the former 
Councilwoman as something she was not.

Opinion

Following former City Councilwoman Nora Davis’ passing in August 2020, there’s a movement among some in town to name a host of Emeryville public works after the long time Council veteran.  At least three such public works and one private building are being considered for recognition of the former Councilwoman: Nora Davis Station (the Emeryville Amtrak station), Nora Davis Park (Doyle Hollis Park), Nora Davis Senior Center (the Emeryville Senior Center) and Nora Davis Bridge (the South Bayfront Bridge).  This is a terrible idea for Emeryville moving forward and we urge the City Council to reject these name changings that would, in effect, re-write history as they attempt to recognize the Councilwoman’s 29 year long tenure on the Council.

Nora Davis or Fred Koramatsu Bike/Ped Bridge 
One fought against bikes on this bridge
the other fought against racism and for human dignity.

We understand conservatives in our town are lamenting the loss of paradigmatic power they had at City Hall when Councilwoman Davis ran the show but it would be a mistake to use the commons to now pay homage to this person who’s values are decidedly not representative of the Emeryville community today (if they ever were).  Further,  Ms Davis actually worked AGAINST two of the works now being considered to be named after her; Doyle Hollis Park and the South Bayfront Pedestrian/Bike Bridge. 

Consider how Emeryville values are subverted by Councilwoman Nora Davis’ 29 year record (partial list):

-  As Mayor, she lobbied to build a parking structure on the site of the Doyle Hollis Park, working actively against the park idea.

-  While accepting a South Bayfront pedestrian bridge be constructed, Council member Davis advocated against designing it for bicycle use.

-  She voted against implementation of Emeryville’s democratically vetted Pedestrian/Bicycle Plan.

 -  Councilwoman Davis worked against the Minimum Wage Ordinance and even against an earlier plan to increase hotel workers’ wages to $9 per hour claiming it would destroy Emeryville’s hospitality industry.

-  She lobbied against bike/ped paths, claiming without evidence, one proposed at the Center of Community Life would bring “gang rapes” and another mid-block path proposal in the Triangle neighborhood, opining “Triangle neighbors need more exercise”.

-  Ms Davis voted to close down the Emeryville Child Development Center and to privatize it, claiming “We can’t afford it”.

-  She voted in favor of every developer proposal put before her that called for demolishing historically/architecturally significant buildings, leaving the town bereft of these buildings our General Plan had sought to preserve.

-  Ms Davis worked on behalf of the business community, directing public monies to the furtherance of private enterprise as a routine manner, proudly claiming many times, 'Emeryville’s interests are business interests' from the dais.

-  Council member Davis' voting record was a perfect 100% in favor of developer’s initial proposals for housing projects, against negotiating for more family friendly and affordable housing units.

The City of Emeryville will have nothing to say about the renaming of the Amtrak Station after Nora Davis because that building is owned by Wareham Development Corporation.  We understand Wareham CEO Rich Robbins received lots of public largess over the years, monies directed his way by his friend on the City Council, Nora Davis.  We understand the soft spot Ms Davis occupies in Mr Robbins’ heart.  So we recognize Nora Davis Station is likely a done deal for that property owned by Mr Robbins but City owned properties are another matter entirely. It is unseemly at best for the Council to move forward on any of these re-naming proposals.

Nora Davis or Sylvia McLaughlin Park 
At least Sylvia liked parks.

We understand the proclivity for elected officials to recognize when a departed fellow public official had remained on the job for a long time.  But using that metric, why wouldn’t the City Council name these public works after those who stayed in public employ even longer than Ms Davis?  Why wouldn’t the City name these public works after for instance the LaCoste family, who’s members, Al and John served on the City Council, as Mayor and Chief of Police for more than 50 years?  Does it matter these public officials were known corrupt public personages? If this City Council feels that public corruption should serve as a barrier against the honoring by so naming public works, why shouldn’t disloyalty to professed Emeryville values also then serve as a barrier?

If this City Council feels an urge to re-name the South Bayfront Bridge or Doyle Hollis Park or the Emeryville Senior Center, we recommend they honor a previous grand civic tradition for naming public works after great civil rights leaders or environmental leaders.  How about let’s name these public properties after people who actually reflect our values?  May we suggest Fannie Lou Hamer Bridge, Judi Bari Park and the Maggie Kuhn Senior Center?  Or we can keep it more local: the Fred Korematsu Bridge, Sylvia McLaughlin Park and the Bullet Marasigan Senior Center.  Against these luminaries, those who actually worked to increase justice and promote the public commons, Nora Davis just sort of fades.  Maybe it’s because Nora Davis actively disliked some of the things her boosters now want to name after her.  Perhaps the City Council, under pressure from these boosters, will have real empathy towards the former Councilwoman and leave her out of this.  After all, posthumously would you want to be named after something you hated while you were alive?

Nora Davis or Bullet Marasigan Senior Center
One worked for the business community
the other worked for the dispossessed elderly.

Mayor Christian Patz, Lacking Leadership and Drive Gets a D+

Mayor Christian Patz

Continuing our tradition of looking back on each year-long mayorship of the rotating Emeryville City Council members/cum mayors, with Christian Patz now moving aside to make way for Dianne Martinez, we take this opportunity to look back on Mayor Patz’s shambolic tenure as Emeryville's highest elected official.  This year, the Tattler adds a new feature to these mayoral wrap-ups; the assignment of letter grades for each mayor—and to that end, we report Christian Patz has received a disappointing D+ for his efforts as our mayor.

Opinion

The most noteworthy aspect of Emeryville's mayor Christian Patz was his lack of energy and lack of follow through.  

Emeryville 2020 Mayor
Christian Patz 

Each mayor tends to assign for themselves some scope of work that can fairly be described as their signature issue.  Usually, it's introduced and brought to fruition during their year long term.  For Mr Patz, the defining issue of his term as mayor was the renaming of 47th Street after Steve Dain, a former teacher-of-the-year who was subsequently fired in 1977 by Emery Unified School District for being a transgender person.  But after introducing early in his term, the idea to rename the street to honor the teacher specifically and inclusivity in general, Mr Patz seemed to lose interest in the issue and he failed to follow through.  It was a noble thing Mr Patz proposed, but after Transgender Awareness Week and then the Transgender Day of Remembrance quietly passed in the weeks before his term as mayor ended, it became clear Mayor Patz had no intention to follow through with his own good idea. 

An item Mayor Patz had a hand in that actually got done was last March’s Measure F, a quarter cent sales tax passed by Emeryville voters that will help fund the Emeryville police department's quest to hire more officers as well as pay to hire a new staff member at City Hall to operate code enforcement.  Mr Patz, who was a strong supporter of the tax increase, cast himself as the leader in the push for the measure.  To the mayor's chagrin, this election victory came right before the very public murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department in May, making for terrible public policy optics if not demonstrable furtherance of the police culture dystopia. 

Beyond these two issues, one squandered and the other feckless, Mayor Patz's record was one of mostly ignoring problems.  Below is the roster of shame:

-Mayor Patz didn’t deliver a public library or even start to explore the building an Emeryville library after he officially placed this task as one of the top ten 2020 priorities for the City Council at the beginning of his term.  

-He refused to implement traffic calming for the 45th & 53rd street bike boulevards as required by the City’s Bike Plan.  He even refused on his watch, to conduct a traffic count for all bike boulevards as the City is supposed to do, once every two years so we can know how bad it is for bicyclists.  

-He refused to call out Lennar Development before the Council to explain their misdeeds after a high level Department of Toxic Substance Control whistleblower revealed a regime of cheating the cleanup at the Sherwin Williams toxic soil clean up site on Horton Street.

-Mr Patz failed to act on Emeryville’s deplorable lack of public parks, the worst of any East Bay city.  Regardless that the General Plan calls for three acres of park for every 1000 new residents, Mayor Patz couldn’t be bothered to do anything about this emerging quality of life concern for Emeryville residents.  Incidentally, the plan, if followed, would move Emeryville from the worst to the second worse East Bay city for parks in ten years.  

 -Not big on accountability and sloppy with records, the Mayor missed his FPPC campaign filing deadlines, making it impossible for citizens to see who funded his political campaigns.

-More recently, the Mayor has sat by idly and unconcernedly as City Hall has implemented a policy shift, weakening it’s duty to enforce COVID-19 mask wearing regulations.  The staff has relaxed the enforcement protocols for developers and their construction workers who are supposed to be wearing masks.  But Mayor Patz has not joined with citizens asking why the City would lower the safety guidelines even as the virus has been exploding in the community.

-He is thin skinned and cannot countenance citizens criticizing his job performance as mayor.  He has acted in a childish and impetuous manner, lashing out at citizen critics asking for accountability.

Christian Patz has served as the source of levity on the Council, using his position to offer up rations of bad puns, funny asides and humorous anecdotes.  These make for more enjoyable meetings to be sure.  He seems good natured (except when he feels attacked) but the most salient thing about Mr Patz as our mayor overall was his simple laziness.  He didn’t really put in any effort to get anything done, the pro-cop Measure F notwithstanding.

We may be a bit harsh with regards to Mayor Patz and his inaction on parks in the bullet point list above.  While it is true he did not taken action to implement the General Plan's park dictates, in his defense, neither have any other City Council members.  But as we look back, we remember what citizen Patz gallingly said about bike boulevards in 2016 when he was asking for our votes.  He made this specific campaign promise: “What makes a Bike Boulevard is more than just Vehicle Trips per Day (VTD), it has more to do with optimizing bike traffic.  As VTD approach and surpass 3000, more separation between bikes and cars should occur.  Ideally, this would be done by reducing and diverting traffic, but can also be achieved by dedicated and protected lanes.”  Christian Patz ignored this subject utterly both as our City Council member over three years and as our Mayor over the last year.  And for that, plus the litany of failed policy highlighted, we give Mayor Patz a D+ (and we’re being generous).

Blocking Bike Lanes: Code Should Reflect Public Safety Hazzard

Q: What Happens When Public Safety Fines Are Too Low?

A: Public Safety Goes Down

Opinion

Emeryville has a big problem.  Delivery trucks keep blocking our bike lanes, putting bikers in harm’s way as they swerve out into the adjacent traffic lanes to avoid colliding with the trucks.  It’s not a problem restricted to Emeryville of course but it’s a problem that begs for a solution nonetheless owing to the extreme danger to bicyclists when vehicles collide with them.  We suggest a modest correction to a large and unacceptable problem: increase the fines for vehicles blocking bike lanes from the existing $58 to at least $303.

As it stands right now, the Emeryville vehicle code provides for the same $58 fine for vehicles blocking a bike lane as blocking a vehicle traffic lane.  Both infractions are seen as equally egregious by our vehicle code.  But both are not equal.  Numerous studies have shown a bike swerving from a bike lane into a traffic lane as an exceptionally dangerous move….for the bicyclist.  Even at normal city vehicle speeds, the human body cannot absorb the kinetic energy of a 3000 pound vehicle's impact.  The result is extreme injury or death.  Compare that with the possible consequences of the other infraction; a vehicle rear-ending a delivery truck blocking the traffic lane.  In that case, even at normal city speeds, the bodies involved are encased in cocoons of steel with seatbelts and airbags.  The result of such collisions is vehicle damage but more importantly, little or no harm to people.

Our vehicle code should reflect this extreme difference in harm to human health and safety.  Fines for the two should not be equal.

$58 in Emeryville
Cost of doing business.

If a vehicle in Emeryville blocks an intersection wheelchair crossing, the fine is $303.  It’s bad for someone in a wheelchair when a vehicle blocks them; they have to travel as much as an extra two blocks in that case.  We in Emeryville think it’s terrible for drivers to inconvenience our neighbors in wheelchairs like that.  As a result, it’s bad for the driver….$303 bad.  But shouldn’t the possible maiming or killing of a bicyclist be considered at least as bad as inconveniencing someone?

What would the net result be of increasing the fine for a vehicle blocking a bike lane but keeping the fine the same for blocking a traffic lane?  It would mean delivery trucks will start blocking our traffic lanes instead of the bike lanes.  It will mean there will be unhappy drivers.  But with the fine rates as they are right now, there are unhappy bicyclists.  There are always losers whenever something is regulated in the public commons, it's true, but we should always strive to provide the greatest protection against the greatest threats to public safety.  

FedEx and other carriers violate parking laws routinely.  In fact, they simply write any parking tickets into their cost of doing business.  That’s well documented.  But they won’t spend extra money when they don’t have to.  Emeryville City Hall made fatal errors in not forcing developers to provide enough parking for delivery vehicles over the years when the buildings were approved.  That’s also well understood by now.  The solution though should not be at the expense of bicyclist’s bodies.  The delivery vehicles need to park in the only safe place available to them; in the middle of the street, keeping the bike lanes open. 

If the City Council moves to increase the fine for blocking bike lanes to reflect the desires of the people to have a municipal code that is interested in public safety in the foremost, we’re going to have a lot of angry (but safe) drivers around here.  And you know what?  That’s better than the existing angry bicyclists who risk their lives as they move around Emeryville.  

We understand the Council is under a lot of pressure from the business community to not implement our ten year old Bike Plan regarding bike boulevards.  They've made that clear.  But are they so craven, so indebted to businesses that they can't increase the paltry $58 fine for blocking bike lanes?  We imagine this existing public safety imperiling fee schedule has been heretofore unknown by the Council.  They know of it now.  This is an easy fix.  The next move is yours, City Council.