Secretive New Chamber of Commerce Emerges

 Emeryville Businesses Represented by Secretive & Exclusive New Lobbying Organization

Membership, Officers, Board: All Secret

'Emeryville Commerce Connection' Open to Select Businesses Only

The emergence of a new iteration of Emeryville’s defunct Chamber of Commerce is perhaps the biggest story of the summer that’s been flying under the radar.  The replacement organization, the Emeryville Commerce Connection, follows the old Chamber in its country club-like exclusivity despite announcing it would be “welcome to all” at its onset.  The organization has been on a tear trying to increase its business membership, even allowing tiny sole proprietorship businesses on a sliding scale, it was announced.  As such, the organization is hoping to match or even exceed that of the once powerful Emeryville Chamber of Commerce.  And, also like the Chamber which proceeded it, the Emeryville Commerce Connection (ECC) is bathed in secrecy. 

The ECC website does not list the names of the Officers, the Board of Directors or the membership and members must agree, upon threat of expulsion, to "Refrain from disparaging the organization and its associated membership on the Internet, social media platforms and in print" according to its 'Code of Conduct'. 

Oakland resident Mary Lou Thiercof  
  CEO of the new Emeryville Commerce Connection
and former Board Member of the defunct
Emeryville Chamber of Commerce.

Morphing out of the City of Emeryville’s Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC), ECC spun off, taking EDACs contacts from the business nexus (BizNexus) networking mixers the City hosted.  The ECC is however, a private corporation with its own Board of Directors, like the Chamber before it. 

The ECC began auspiciously; its CEO Mary Lou Thiercof announcing to the City Council last winter, the new organization would be open to all businesses, even small businesses, but soon after, open membership closed and only those chosen by undisclosed person or persons within the organization were allowed in.  It was subsequently announced on the ECC website it’s "an honor" to be nominated to join (screenshot below).  Later, the organization quietly took down the 'honor' page but membership remains closed to all but those selected.  

The ECC has a set of internal bylaws but it appears the rules have already been breached in the transformation from its democratic beginnings to the secret exclusive membership, as it is now.  According to two members who asked for anonymity, the vote to become exclusive was never taken as per its own bylaw dictates.  The sources say even the Board of Directors was never appraised of the move to exclusive membership.  Despite this bylaws policy breach, if there is any dissension in the ranks, it is not readily apparent.

The ECC regularly holds membership recruitment mixers at restaurants and bars in Emeryville but those wishing to join must fill out their request on the ECC website Ms Thiercoff told the Tattler.  If you are liked or if your business is liked by the correct but unstated person or persons in the organization, then you may be allowed to join.

Ms Thiercof, who lives in the Oakland hills, is CEO of ECC and was on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, which folded in July 2015. 

Before it declared bankruptcy, the Chamber of Commerce (1986-2015), a private business and the most dominant force outside of the government in Emeryville, became known for taking public money and being exclusive in its membership.  The CEO of that organization, Bob Canter, lived in Martinez Calif. and negotiated with the City Council to have Emeryville taxpayers pay the Chamber's rent and pay for publication of its newsletter, the Emeryville Connection.  The newsletter, which was mailed to every Emeryville registered voter, infamously used public money to tell residents how to vote in city and local elections.  At their high point, the Chamber of Commerce even had its own Emeryville Political Action Committee, EmPAC, to fund the city council campaigns of pro-developer candidates and take down challengers with negative advertising.  After several articles in the Tattler exposing them, the Chamber of Commerce and EmPAC quietly folded and Mr Canter pulled up stakes in Martinez and moved to Tallahassee Florida.  

We reached out to two current ECC Board members for comment for this story, former City Council member and Mayor of the City of Emeryville, Scott Donahue, who is Vice Chairman of the ECC Board and Nasser Azimi, President of Ohana Cannabis on Peladeau Street.  Neither replied to our requests for comment.  Mr Donahue, an artist, is currently a finalist in a pending City of Emeryville $400,000 art grant and Mr Azimi is a major donor to City Council member John Bauters, who is running for Alameda County Board of Supervisors.  Scott Donahue is the brother of the Tattler editor.

In the face of its exclusive membership policy and culture, the Emeryville Commerce Connection still declares it is democratic; open to “an inclusive and diverse business community”, according to the ECC website.

Tattler readers can rest assured we will watch this organization (from the sidelines because we doubt we will ever be honored to be nominated) and any move to form a PAC or attempt to take taxpayer money will be reported as it was before under the Chamber of Commerce.

It Is An Honor To Be Nominated
Screenshot page from the ECC website, now taken down but
the exclusive membership selection policy remains.

Emeryville Home Ownership Dropping, Rentals Rising

Council Member Priforce's Numbers Reveal YIMBY Obeisance: 

Home Ownership Falls, Rentals Rise

Public Policy Crisis: General Plan Overturned to Developer's Profit Seeking Goals

Emeryville is the worst city in the East Bay as far as home ownership is concerned.  Statistics show it's bad and it's getting worse.  While the City's long standing approach of letting developers do what they want has fueled the worsening condition, it stands to codify and put into law the 'hands off' approach by certifying the new Housing Element plan and its provision to officially seek to "remove government constraints" on developers.  While the future looks bleak, Council member Kalimah Priforce has been busy detailing for citizens how the condition has worsened over the last decade.

Mr Priforce has publicly released housing data that puts numbers to a multi-year project taken up by the Emeryville City Council that has been forwarding transformational but not fully accountable housing policy that favors the building of rental housing over home ownership.  The tranche of data delivered by the Councilman on his website objectively tracks what many residents have been sensing over the years and petitioning against: Emeryville has been fully turned into a city of renters, now comprising 72% of us, the highest percentage of any East Bay city.

The revelatory information is presented on Councilman Priforce’s informational website, votepriforce.com he has set up expressly for Emeryville residents since his election last November and is viewable HERE.

The rental housing numbers are likely as distressing for Emeryville residents as they are antithetical to the General Plan’s general provision to increase the percentage of ownership housing.  In 2011, shortly after the certification of the General Plan, 36% of residents were homeowners compared with 28% by 2021 (the last year presented), an eight point drop.  Compared with the neighboring cities of Oakland and Berkeley, Emeryville’s drop is seen as even more troubling.  Those cities dropped their homeownership percentages but only by one point; from 42% to 41% and 44% to 43% respectively.  In fact when cities across Alameda County are studied, there is shown to be a remarkable consistency; county-wide homeownership percentages dropped less than a point: from 55% to 54%.

When the data is broken down by race, Emeryville is shown to be failing people of color in our town, especially Black and Brown people.  Black homeownership dropped from 2011 to 2021 from 16% to 13%.  Latinos were shown to drop from 29% to 17% and Asians dropped from 37% to 35% .  

Emeryville stands alone in the East Bay area as the lone city looking out primarily after the interests of developers and the latest renter data proves it.  The lion’s share of damage to our homeowner percentage can be tagged to the 2014 election of Council members Scott Donahue and especially Dianne Martinez who showed animosity towards the scientifically generated jobs/housing balance proffered by ABAG (the Association of Bay Area Governments, of which Emeryville is a dues paying member) and their RHNA numbers (Regional Housing Needs Assessment).  These two council members along with the later elections of John Bauters and Courtney Welch have helped shepherd Emeryville’s housing policy on a YIMBY (the developer lobbying organization Yes In My Back Yard) track.  This obedience to YIMBY picked up speed in 2016 with the election of Ally Medina and John Bauters to the Council.   

Over the last eight years, Council members Donahue, Martinez and Medina all expressed deference to YIMBYs rental only housing ideas in practice with their unspoken 'hands off developers' policies.  More recently, Mayor Bauters and Vice Mayor Welch have followed the policy deference to the out-of-town lobbying group but also they have expanded YIMBY's reach into Emeryville's City Hall by accepting YIMBY cash to their campaign accounts.  

YIMBY primarily concerns itself with changing law in Sacramento and it has had great successes there and flush with tech entrepreneur money, the group has also spread into cities across California.  Developers can make more money building rental housing over ownership units and as a result, YIMBY has shown hostility towards municipalities encumbering developers in any way, including even any encouragement of the building of ownership housing.  Mr Priforce’s data shows how influential YIMBY has been at Emeryville's City Hall regardless of the General Plan's call to increase the ratio of ownership housing.  

Council member Priforce says he will hold a town hall style meeting for the citizens in the future about this disturbing trend.  The Tattler will report details of the meeting when they become available.

  Emeryville's homeownership numbers trend is down, especially since Council members Bauters, Welch, Medina, Donahue and Martinez took office.  Source: City of Emeryville & US Census.

Oakland home ownership has been inching up over the years.  Unlike in Emeryville, developers are not in the driver's seat in Oakland.

Berkeley too has very stable home ownership numbers.  YIMBY has had 
a much lesser effect than in Emeryville.

Home ownership numbers are remarkably non-changing in Alameda County.

Rare Open City Council Seat in November: Councilman Scott Donahue to Step Down

 Council Member Donahue Will Not Seek Re-Election in November 

The bi-annual Emeryville City Council election season begins with a surprise announcement of a rare open seat for this November’s election by Council member Scott Donahue.  Mr Donahue, in a terse statement to the public, announced he will not seek a 3rd four year term on the Council. 
 

City Councilman
Scott Donahue
2014-2022

Council watchers have had to speculate as to why, after he did not offer a reason publicly at the surprise City Council announcement.  However, he privately told the Tattler only that he wished to concentrate more fully on his life-long vocation as a sculptor, leaving aside open speculation about disrespect shown to him by his Council colleagues.  As reported by the Tattler in December 2021, then Vice Mayor Donahue was skipped over for mayor in favor of current Mayor John Bauters after his colleagues refused to nominate him.  Leading the drive to overturn a normally mundane mayor selection procedure, Council member Ally Medina urged the rest of the Council to vote to skip Donahue, citing his lack of experience with budgetary issues. 
 

Council member Donahue, who first became a Council member in 2014 after receiving an endorsement by the premier community activist group Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), did not offer any comment on the snubbing by his colleagues as a factor in his decision to not seek re-election.  Mr Donahue's running mate in the last two elections, Council member Dianne Martinez did not comment on the surprise announcement. 

Council member Donahue will step down in December as his replacement is sworn in at a regular City Council meeting

Vice Mayor Donahue Skipped Over for Mayor

 Council Colleagues Deny Vice Mayor the Mayoralty

Loss of Confidence in his Abilities Cited

Not To Be Mayor Scott Donahue
His colleagues expressed a
loss of confidence in him.

Mayor Dianne Martinez announced at the December 7th City Council meeting “It is with a heavy heart and for the health of the City...” she would join with three of her colleagues in stopping Vice Mayor Scott Donahue from becoming mayor as he was set to do Tuesday night.  Losing Ms Martinez's support spelled doom for the Vice Mayor’s mayoral prospects who fully expected to be voted in as mayor as is the customary tradition in Emeryville.  Instead it was Council member John Bauters who got the nod Tuesday evening when his colleagues voted for him to become the next mayor.

In what was likely an example of cultural groupthink 'go along to get along', newly elected Courtney Welch, who had been sworn in as a Council member only moments before, joined in with the vote to elevate Councilman Bauters and to stop the Vice Mayor, having had no relationship with Mr Donahue at all.    

The vote represented a rare but not unheard of skipping of a Council member in line successionally to be elevated as mayor.  After initially expressing interest in and lobbying for the mayor position, Vice Mayor Donahue ultimately joined with his colleagues in what turned out to be a unanimous 5-0 vote for Mr Bauters.  Councilwoman Ally Medina was selected as the new vice mayor, also in a unanimous 5-0 vote.  

Normally, each Council member gets a turn as mayor for a year after serving for a year as vice mayor.  Only a few times has the line of mayoral succession been upset before.

Emeryville's New Mayor
John Bauters

Tuesday night, looming budgetary problems seemed to be on the Council’s mind and that was cited as the primary reason for the vote for Mr Bauters.  Councilwoman Medina, who expressed a lack of confidence in Mr Donahue’s abilities, nominated Mr Bauters after she said next year will be very difficult to balance the budget, invoking an impending structural budget crisis.  “We’ll likely need a revenue generating ballot measure during the mid term year” she said, adding “Our city will be best served stewarded by a member of Council who has spent years diving into these [budgetary] details”.  She praised Mr Bauters’ fiscal expertise as she forwarded his name, skipping Mr Donahue.  

Skipping fellow Council members’ their due to serve as mayor is not unprecedented but it has been rare in Emeryville over the decades.  It has historically happened when a Council member angered or embarrassed their colleagues.  In the 1990’s Council member Greg Harper, the lone progressive on a very conservative council at the time, was denied his turn as mayor as was former council member Ken Bukowski later, who fell out of favor among his colleagues after a damning New York Times article about his illicit drug use.  Forming an alliance, once, a Council member was skipped in order to help a different and vulnerable colleague who needed the perceived gravitas the mayoralty provides to assist him for the following November election.

Mr Bauters will serve as mayor for one year followed by Ms Medina....unless there's more ruffled feathers and another kerfuffle in the Council chambers next December. 

Tree Stumps on Horton Street Tell Us How Politics Works In Emeryville

 

The Stumps Are Telling Us How Broken City Hall Is

Emeryville Needs Tree Ordinance Reform 

The Ordinance is Too Weak to Save Trees

News Analysis

Tuesday June 15th 2021 has to go down in history as one of the low points in Emeryville politics.  That’s the date the City Council finally agreed to let the developer Lennar Corporation, kill every public street tree abutting their Sherwin Williams Horton Street project.  But this isn’t just a matter of a developer cutting our trees down.  That’s so common in Emeryville, it’s not even newsworthy.  Why the loss these particular trees is so notable is how revealing of the sycophantic culture at City Hall was the two year circuitous path that led to the stumps along Horton Street.  These stumps show us the how the government works at 1333 Park Avenue — how it works for developers, not for us.

Council members Dianne Martinez and Ally Medina
They're featured on one of the stumps their votes produced.
They steadfastly voted to cut all the Horton Street trees
over the years regardless of the wildly changing reasons
the staff has presented to them.

The final City Council vote to allow the developer to cut all the trees was 3-1 (Donahue dissenting).  The swing vote was delivered by the recently resigned Council member Christian Patz who changed his vote, his last vote as a City Council member incidentally, to allow Lennar to cut the trees.  Mr Patz told the Tattler he changed his vote after Mayor Dianne Martinez publicly announced right before the final vote that Lennar had before the Tuesday meeting, gone to the City staff to obtain a special ‘nuisance’ status for the trees that guaranteed the developer the right to cut the trees with or without the City Council.  Mr Patz said he felt at that point the trees were doomed and that the elected officials should take the heat for killing the trees, not the City staff.

Losing these street trees means a loss for the streetscape friendliness, the shade and cooling they provided and all the other benefits that can be said urban trees provide of course.  But it’s not that collectively we didn’t get anything in trade for agreeing to cut them.  What these stumps on Horton Street have bought us is the realization that our values in Emeryville, as codified by our ordinances, are only as strong as we live them.  As simple as it sounds, our ordinance meant to save our trees, the Urban Forestry Ordinance, can only actually save our trees if we vigilantly guard against developers who would cut them by living the life of the tree appreciators the UFO represents.   

That’s what’s missing at City Hall: tree appreciation.

Regrettable Backdrop

In 2018, Lennar went to City Hall seeking permission from the Planning Commission to kill all the street trees abutting their project.   The staff recommended the Commission permit the killing of all the trees along Sherwin Street claiming the existing trees didn’t match the developer’s desire for a different species and that Lennar had a right to a “unified streetscape” near their project (never mind this is not in the UFO).  After Planning Commission buy-in, the Council let that through and the Sherwin Street trees were all cut. 

Then there was the matter of the Horton Street trees, much grander and more visible than the Sherwin Street trees.  For those trees, the staff told the Planning Commission the Horton Street trees were all “unhealthy” and they must therefore all be cut.  But the Tattler pushed back and proved the City’s own arborist said the majority of the Horton trees were “fair” to “healthy”.  

Former City Councilman
Christian Patz
Frustrated by the vote, he said
'If there's a rule, Emeryville
will get around it'.

Undaunted, the staff, representing Lennar, still in 2018, told the City Council at the April 17th  meeting the Horton trees must all be cut because they would be in the way of underground utilities associated with the project.  Again, the Tattler led the drive to prove this was also false.  But not before the staff told the Council they must vote that night on the fate of the trees.  Council member Patz told the staff he resented the Hobson’s choice being offered that night and said he would therefore vote to save the trees. 

The vote that night was 2-2 with Council member Ally Medina joining Mayor Dianne Martinez in approving the cutting of the trees.  Council members Scott Donahue and Christian Patz voted against the cutting (Council member John Bauters is not allowed to vote on this because he lives too close to the project and state law forbids it).  The tie vote meant Lennar could not cut the trees. 

Backpedaling and still representing the interests of Lennar, the staff then reported the vote COULD be delayed and called for another vote at a later date.  

And delayed it was.  At the September 17th 2019 meeting, the matter of the Horton Street trees was back before the Council.  This time, the staff admitted the trees were not in the way of the underground utilities (save for one) and they had been wrong about that.  An “embarrassed” Council member Ally Medina publicly apologized for her earlier vote to cut the trees.  She said she had believed the staff when they said the trees were in the way of the underground utilities.

Undaunted, the staff, still working for Lennar in 2021, accepted the developer’s claim the Horton trees were “nuisances” before the final Council meeting on the 15th.  The nuisance designation meant that the trees would actually have to be cut by order from the City of Emeryville as an abatement against Lennar (never mind it was Lennar’s idea).  The nuisance designation also meant Lennar would not have to plant equal replacement trees as the UFO mandates.  The final deal was all the trees would be cut and a two inch sapling would be planted for each tree as well as five other small saplings planted elsewhere.

None of this stopped the two Councilwomen from claiming victory for the people of Emeryville.  Council member Ally Medina said the five saplings would make for a “greener and more beautiful city” while Mayor Martinez, told her colleagues she would not listen to their deliberations in the matter of the Horton trees, she said she had already made up her mind to kill the trees before the debate, “Let me indicate for you tonight, how I’m going to vote” she said.  Later, before the 3-1 vote, Mayor Martinez told everyone that despite her 2018 vote to kill the trees and despite her earlier in the meeting admitting she had already made up her mind, she told a shocked crowd, “Before, 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 we can”. 

The staff, working in the interest of Lennar Tuesday said the roots of the trees were close to the surface and that’s why they lifted the sidewalks there and that’s why they should be killed (the nuisance abatement notwithstanding).  The two Councilwomen seized that argument and ran with it but Christian Patz was incensed.  He admonished his two colleagues for their votes to kill the trees because there were no new facts presented Tuesday night he said, “The arborist said [back in 2018] these are known facts” he told his colleagues.  

It was after that, the Mayor, feeling the vote could be another 2-2 affair like the 2018 vote announced, “If we deadlock tonight,  the developer has the opportunity to go straight to our city administration and ask for waivers.  I just want to put that out there.”  And then Christian Patz changed his vote to a YES to allow Lennar to cut all our trees, his last vote as an Emeryville City Council member.  

Casting his last vote, Council member Patz, clearly pained, announced "I'm frustrated by the nature of Emeryville, which is, there's a rule, but we'll get around it".  And those were the final parting words to the people of Emeryville from the former Councilman.

The Former Sherwin Williams Horton Street Trees (on left)
The staff, working in the interests of the developer, falsely told the Council the trees
were unhealthy and in the way of underground utilities.  Those arguments weren't enough 
to convince the Council majority.  Only after the staff said the trees were designated as
"nuisances" and legally required to be cut, did Councilman Patz join his two women
 colleagues and vote to kill the trees.

Forget the Minimum Wage; It's Time to Rollback Our City Council Healthcare Costs

If Rollbacks Are Fair Game, How About 

This One, City Council?

Opinion
We all watched with amazement last May as the Emeryville City Council majority, a self proclaimed ‘progressive’ lot, voted to roll back our Minimum Wage Ordinance and punch down against the working poor, the traditional victims in contemporary America.  In so doing, they conspicuously switched victims and chose instead to pour their empathy on the small business restaurant community and their Emeryville patrons who want cheap eats.  The rollback, supported by Council members John Bauters, Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue was ultimately pushed back by the combined forces of the labor community and the people of Emeryville, who have shown they have more empathy (and numbers) for the working poor than those seeking a bargain at the local ramen eatery.

But the whole spectacle got us to thinking.  This City Council majority, who clearly feels the pain of the business community shouldering the costs of paying a living wage to their employees, must surely also feel the taxpayer’s pain who are shouldering the costs of the Council members' individual health care premiums.

Emeryville taxpayers are forced to pay almost $6000 every month for the five of them; a cost we don't have to be burdened with.  And $6000 is just for this month, next month might be more....the rates keep going up. It's a lot to bear for the constantly tapped Emeryville taxpayer. 
Councilwoman Dianne Martinez said it best when she voted last May to roll back Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance; we need to protect Emeryville’s small business community against these high labor costs in order to “keep them viable” she said.  Now it’s time for Ms Martinez who’s currently personally profiteering off the taxpayers to the tune of almost $2000 a month, it's time for her to protect us, the taxpayers…to keep us viable.
If Councilwoman Martinez and the rest of them want health care, let them buy it themselves.  Because there's a perfect analogy between the struggling business community and the struggling taxpaying residents.  Why is it OK that the Council use its power to provide monetary relief for the business community and not the residents?  In whose interests are the City Council looking after? Where's OUR rollback Mr Bauters, Mr Donahue and Ms Martinez? 

Twice Burned 'Maz' Project Developer Burned by Council: Noise Ordinance Waiver Denied

Historic Vote:

City Council Majority Says 'NO' to Developer's Noise Ordinance Waiver Request

'Maz' Developer Used Past Fires as Excuse to Work Weekends
-------------
Neighbors Told to Give Up Their Quiet Weekends 
Because Developer Wants to Save Money on Security

The Emeryville City Council made history Tuesday night when they voted to deny a noise ordinance waiver request, only the fifth such denial in more than 15 years, after the developer applicant offered an unorthodox argument that his noisy construction project needs to be completed quickly to make for a smaller window of opportunity for arsonists to set fires there.  The peculiar offering failed to convince the Council majority (3-2 Medina, Martinez dissenting) to ask residential neighbors around the apartment project at 3800 San Pablo Avenue, to give up their peace and quiet weekends from now until April 2020, the duration of the request.

Developers commonly ask for waivers to Emeryville’s noise ordinance based on the weather or other ‘unforeseen' complications but the fire vulnerability angle was the first such waiver request made by any applicant.  Since every construction project is vulnerable to fire until suppressive water sprinkler systems can be installed, a waiver granted by the Council on Tuesday would have set a sweeping precedent, potentially nullifying the whole ordinance.

Council Members Dianne Martinez & Ally Medina
Together they feel the public has no expectancy of
weekend peace and quiet in Emeryville...
not if a developer says he wants to
save money on security.

The City staff, continuing their near perfect record of recommending waivers, told the Council it is prudent for them to make the residents suffer through seven day per week construction noise until the project’s completion.  Planning Director Charlie Bryant said the Council should grant the waiver to the developer carte blanche, calling it “reasonable” because, “…the site was burned twice” in 2016 and 2017.

At least four City Council members seemed to agree, at least initially.  Council member John Bauters, who ultimately voted NO, indicated he thought the request was tough to turn down, “This is a hard one for me” he said.

Councilman Scott Donahue indicated he thought the fire vulnerability excuse was a good one but the modular construction technique the developer is using means wood framing members will arrive at the site with fire retardant already applied and consequently, neighbors should be able to expect weekend peace and quiet he said.  Councilwoman Dianne Martinez was less circumspect, “I don’t love weekend work but I’m inclined to grant the waiver” she said after she told the developer she felt his pain; the fires at the project were “very bad” she added. 
Mayor Ally Medina, acknowledging that it wasn’t up to the City of Emeryville to ask that the developer provide better security in the future, tried to strike a compromise.  She moved that the construction noise be limited to Saturdays.  Mr Bauters however said that condition was “not specific enough of a request for me to grant approval at this time” as he joined Mr Donahue and Vice Mayor Christian Patz in their historic noise ordinance waiver NO vote.

Council Member John Bauters
He struggled with the decision:
should developers be asked to spend
more money on security to help
neighbors have quiet weekends?
"This is a hard one for me" he said.

The developer’s representatives Tuesday night happily took up their narrative that adding security at their site isn’t a thing for them and Emeryville residents should instead take up the slack and do them a kindness by allowing seven day a week work.
Regardless of their 3-2 vote, notably, no Council members or the staff suggested the developer spend more money on security to protect against possible future arsonists, instead letting the developer’s narrative stand.

Emeryville's noise ordinance, enacted in 2003, has been seen as an irritation for developers who are rarely required to abide by it but usually have been required to provide a reason why they shouldn't have to follow it.  Many developers have shown their displeasure in having to appear before the City Council to go through the sometimes humiliating spectacle of presenting a plausible explanation for why they shouldn't be constrained.
While most developers settle on using rain delays as a reason to ask for a waiver, more brazen reasons have been stated such as "complicated nature of the work" or that the public, expecting quiet weekends will get them sooner if the developer can "finish faster".  Remarkably, that developer, City Center Partners at the Public Market, got caught when they couldn't even abide by their waiver, taunting the Council by starting their granted Saturday work before the agreed to time.  After twice being warned, the Council finally revoked the waiver in an unprecedented sanction in 2017.
In an even more audacious request, the developer of the Transit Center, Wareham Development, successfully trotted out the most unabashed reason we've heard a couple of years ago; "because we really want it".  No other developer has used the 'we really want it' excuse for a waiver request since.
The City Council itself got into the act last April one upping Wareham when they granted a developer's waiver request inexplicably by waiving the waiver request, saving the developer and the citizens the bother of conducting a public hearing at all.

The Maz project, also known as "The Intersection" with its unit mix heavily skewed towards studio and one bedroom apartments together with zero affordability, has been controversial since it was approved by a divided Council in 2013.  In a 2013 opinion piece, the Tattler’s editor Brian Donahue famously called the project a “men’s dorm” owing to its anti-family unit mix attractive to techies, drawing an accusation of felony arson in the two fires by Rob Arias, the editor of Emeryville’s business friendly blog, the E’Ville Eye.

Sherwin Williams Tree Fight Over, Trees Saved

Two Year Fight: Sherwin Williams Trees Saved

Staff Reverses Finding that Required Removal

"Embarrassed" Mayor Medina Apologizes for Earlier Vote to Cut All the Trees 

An entire block of street trees at the Sherwin Williams development project on Horton Street have been saved from the developer's chainsaw by a unanimous City Council vote on Tuesday September 17th following a standing recommendation from the city staff to cut the trees dating back from April 2018. Up until the latest vote, it’s been a divided Council with two wanting to save the trees and two wanting to cut them.
A year and a half after Emeryville City Hall and the developer of the Sherwin Williams project together determined that every street tree alongside that nascent development project would have to be cut down because of ‘undergrounding’ of utilities necessary under the sidewalk, at the newest Council meeting, the City staff suddenly reversed their finding.

At the 2018 Council meeting, without giving evidence, the staff told the Council they really had no choice on the trees.   Planning Department Chief Charlie Bryant and Sherwin Williams developer Kevin Ma, said the 11 existing street trees fronting the project, the entire block, would have to be removed because the underground pipes would have to be placed under the sidewalk owing to the fact that space under the street is “too crowded” with other utilities.
Inexplicably, the staff added that if the Council voted to save the trees alongside the project (on the west side of the street), the undergrounding of the utilities in the street could result in a cutting of trees on BOTH sides of the street.  The Council never asked for a clarification of that logic and the whole Sherwin Williams tree issue was continued.

By September of 2019, Planning Director Bryant’s views had changed.  His staff rechecked and they found out there IS space enough under the street for the cables after all and the trees can be saved he told the Council.  And with that, the City Council voted to place the utility wires under Horton Street and save all but one tree they say that has to be cut to accommodate a specific utility box in the sidewalk.

And so it would appear a very contentious and ongoing issue has finally been put to rest for the Council who had been fiercely divided on the cutting of the Sherwin trees.

"Embarrassed"
Mayor Ally Medina
Misled by the staff.
Initially she voted to cut all the trees.
At the September 17th Council meeting
 she apologized for that vote. 

The tree issue before the Tuesday September 17th meeting has been somewhat of a Rorschach test for the City Council, half the Council eagerly believing the developer and the staff and the other not believing them.
Staff and developer claims that the trees must be cut brought skepticism from Council members Scott Donahue and Christian Patz whereas members Dianne Martinez and Ally Medina simply accepted the staff's findings at face value.  The normally perspicacious Ally Medina indicated she was so eager to cut the trees down, she didn’t even want to accept a continuance of the April 2018 meeting that was ultimately dangled in front of the Councilors by the staff.  No, she said, the trees must be cut down, so let’s get on with it, she said.  The two to two split at that 2018 meeting forced the staff to bring the issue back before the Council a year and a half later (after they initially told the Council a continuance was impossible and the vote had to happen that night).

Councilmember John Bauters lives within 500 feet of the Sherwin Williams project and is by law, not allowed to vote on it.

Mr Patz and Mr Donahue had reason for their disbelieving of the staff.  At the initial April 2018 meeting, the staff publically misrepresented the health of the trees.  Attempting to coerce the Councilors, the staff said the City arborist had determined the trees to be “unhealthy”- a direct contradiction of the actual arborist’s report which indicated the trees were “healthy”.  Planning Director Bryant later apologized for the false statement following a Tattler exposé on the issue.
Additionally, the staff recommended cutting the mature existing trees along Sherwin Street (also abutting the project) offering visual aesthetics as a what for; that the species would clash with the proposed new trees to be planted along Sherwin Street they said.  The actual reason for the removal of the mature trees along Sherwin Street was specified as “hindering the creation of a unified streetscape”, a finding not supported by the City’s Unified Urban Forestry Ordinance (UFO).  The staff’s recommendation thus was improper but helped show their disdain for saving trees….as has been the  79 to 2 record of killing trees over saving them as recommended by the staff since the inception of the UFO.

The Horton Street trees are now saved but staff, leaving the door cracked just a smidge, got the last word.  Once the contractor digs the street up, there's always a possibility they could be wrong in their latest assessment they said and there may not be enough room under the street.  There's a chance the trees may still have to be cut down yet, they cautioned.

The Trees in Question
Saved From the Chainsaw
Developers have to spend money saving street trees.
It's cheaper to just cut them all down and plant lollipops.
The staff has been trying everything they can to get
these leafy profit reducing nuisances removed.  

For Shame: Emeryville's Minimum Wage Roll Back Debacle

Dust Has Settled From City Council's Use of Minimum Wage Rollback Bludgeon

Citizens Want to Know Why

They Took Us There

News Analysis/Opinion
Three months ago Emeryville City Hall launched a divisive attack on the working poor in our town; a paroxysm of pro-business ideology in action forwarded by three members on the City Council.  At their May 21st meeting, the Council majority three, working at the behest of certain restaurant owners in town and without consulting any affected workers, voted to rollback Emeryville's hard fought four year old progressive Minimum Wage Ordinance (MWO).  The injudicious action was subsequently beaten back by the people of Emeryville by way of a voter ballot initiative petition brought by a coalition of labor and community groups forcing the Council's hand who voted to retract the wage rollback on July 23rd.
So now that the dust has settled and the minimum wage has been successfully defended, we're right back where we were before this whole thing got started.  The people's befuddlement and acrimony however is lingering over the whole sordid and unnecessary affair. 
Citizens would be right to ask why did all that just happen.

It's been a roller coaster of drama in the people's hall, the actors all playing their parts: posturing, feigning, kibitzing, doubling down, pivoting and then closing with a July 23rd “heartsick” capitulation, to quote Councilman John Bauters, the initiator of the whole spectacle.  Dramatic to be sure, but it was drama the people of Emeryville never asked for.

The May 21st City Council minimum wage incursion, led by Mr Bauters and joined by his colleagues Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue, formed the spare three member majority needed to roll back wages for small restaurant workers in town.  The insurgent majority set up an ambitious timeline for themselves; by July 1st, they would have to finish the required second reading necessary to amend the existing ordinance (effectively creating a new ordinance), in order to make sure the restaurant workers didn’t get their MWO mandated Consumer Price Index pegged raise set to take effect on that date.  A lot of finagling of schedules was necessary owing to California’s Brown Act ‘sunshine law’ notifications and individual Council members’ personal calendars, to make the hard July 1st date.  The 'Council three' made use of a controversial but technically legal provision performed by a family event obliged Councilman Donahue phoning in live from the East Coast to cast the deciding vote.
All their hard work paid off and in the eleventh hour, the City Council three was able to stop the Emeryville restaurant workers from getting their raise, just in time.

Or so they thought.

The problem is they didn't sufficiently calculate the passions of an aroused and aggrieved Bay Area labor contingent.  Because  of the audacity of the Council’s action, the coalition of labor groups and community activists known as East Bay Working Families entered the fray with a bevy of hot off the presses voter petitions.  Weeks of door knocking and 871 Emeryville registered voter signatures later, the Council majority’s whole ambitious anti-worker plot came to its inglorious end.

Emeryville's Restaurant Sector 2013-2018
The Minimum Wage Ordinance took effect in 2015.  
Restaurant owners are claiming the high minimum wage  
costs are driving them out of business or forcing them to flee.  
Notice what happened beginning in 2015 with new start-ups.

That’s the history of the last three months in a nutshell.  Those seeking more detail may want to make use of the Tattler search bar; “minimum wage ordinance".  But still unanswered is why?  Why did this gang of three suddenly make this incongruous turn?
Surprisingly, in retrospect, the three Council members were all endorsed by the progressive citizen activist group Residents for a Livable Emeryville (RULE).  Cutting the wages of the poorest among us is not something one would expect progressives to do.  The official explanation didn’t shed any light. That argument posited that the restaurant owners had assured the three they were all pushed to the edge, business failures and bankruptcies looming if their workers were paid more as relayed and repeated by the Council majority.  But the City Council never checked to see if the bankruptcy claims were true.  They just took the business owners at their word.  And they failed to listen to workers or labor groups at all.  Again- not how one would expect progressives to act.

Trust But Verify
Emeryville, being a small town, has certain advantages when it comes to making decisions such as the Council made based on the word of the restaurant owners.  In this case, the Council could have easily directed the staff to check the veracity of the owner’s claims of looming bankruptcy.  With only as few as 22 restaurants affected by the minimum wage roll back in question, a manageable number, the City could have easily opened the books of these businesses.  A city like Oakland, with hundreds of restaurants, could not enjoy Emeryville’s capacity to actually check before they leaped into such consequential policy change.
Our City Council majority, instead of finding out before they tore asunder the lives of the working poor in our town, instead forged ahead based simply on the assurances of those business owners with a material interest in lying. 

Unlike the City Council, the people of Emeryville, historically, have shown they don't trust the business community to tell the truth when profits are on the line.  In 1997, the City Council looking to increase revenue, began discussions about whether to raise the taxes on the Oaks Club card room up to the Bay Area card room average.  At the time, the Oaks enjoyed an Emeryville tax rate at about 25% of the Bay Area average.  The Council majority believed the owner of the Oaks Club when he said the increase would drive his business into bankruptcy and they dropped the issue.  The people picked it up with a ballot initiative petition and ultimately Emeryville voters approved the tax increase on the Oaks.  Sharp eyed readers will note the Oaks club is still operating at their San Pablo Avenue address - the owner, John Tibbetts having been revealed to have lied about going bankrupt. 
Again in 2005, the people brought a ballot initiative concerning raising wages for hotel workers in Emeryville up to the Bay Area average after the City Council majority believed the hype coming from the hospitality industry warning about wholesale business failures with hotels fleeing Emeryville or being driven into bankruptcy.   An alarmed Council majority alerted the voters not to be "dupes" to organized labor and to vote NO to the 'Hotel Workers Living Wage Ordinance' proposal.  Emeryville voters didn't listen to the City Council who was listening to the warnings of the Hotel owners and they passed the 2005 Measure C easily.  Again, the hotel owners were lying about the effect increased costs would have on their businesses and the only people duped were the Emeryville City Council majority.  Emeryville at the time had four hotels, now we have five, making it hard to make the case for "wholesale business failures".

By 2014 however, the City Council finally learned that businesses will lie to protect their profits.  That year, a new more progressive Council majority didn't believe the dire warnings about wholesale business failure and bankruptcies from the California Association of Realtors and the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce if Emeryville were to raise real estate transfer taxes up to the Bay Area average.  Again, the voters approved Measures U&V that allowed for the increase in taxes and again, the business failure boogyman turned out to be nothing more than the business community not wanting to pay more money to conduct business in our town.

Moving ahead to 2019, it would appear it's back to the future for us.  The City Council majority seems to have unlearned what they knew in 2014 and it's back to the old familiar saw about wholesale business failures if the business community is forced to pay more money.  We'll have to wait and see if this time the warnings were prescient but something tells us it's gunna be more of the same.

So why did these three Council members take us down this path again?  Especially when their own staff told them the 2018 Emeryville Mills College Business Study that reported that restaurant business stress, while extant, was not sufficient to propose public policy changes, "A piece of trash that we never should have paid for" Mayor Ally Medina said of the Mills document.  The staff conducted their own research that showed little or no stress for Emeryville's restaurant sector from added labor costs.  High rent costs were shown to be the primary source of business stress according to the staff report that accompanied a May 7th Council meeting on the MWO and the commissioned Mills Study.

The question of why this Council majority listened to the business community instead of the people of Emeryville or the low wage workers who toil here will likely remain unanswered for the time being.  Following the political careers of John Bauters and Dianne Martinez however might help Emeryville citizens find the answer.

http://emeryville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=1686&meta_id=165991

Portrait of a Growing Emeryville Restaurant Sector
From the May 7th staff report to the Council.
Sales are beating the Consumer Price Index.  The Council had this info before 
they voted to rollback wages of restaurant workers despite the claims of looming 
bankruptcies from restaurant owners.
A 3.56% per year rise in restaurant sales average from the first year of the MWO
to 2017.  California CPI 2015 .01%, 2016 1.3% 2017 2.1% source: FRB 9th District

Breaking News: City Council Fully Rescinds Minimum Wage Roll Back

CITY HALL   ---- Breaking
Tonight the City Council voted (5-0) to rescind their earlier vote to roll back wages of small restaurant workers in town, a vote Councilman Scott Donahue characterized as  doing "the least harm".  The vote represents the end of the drive initiated by Council members John Bauters, Dianne Martinez and Mr Donahue beginning May 7th to make a carve out in Emeryville's Minimum Wage Ordinance.  The bid to carve out a lower pay scale for an identified restaurant worker class was stopped after a coalition of labor and community groups known as East Bay Working Families gathered 871 signatures in a petition drive of Emeryville voters.  The Council could have pushed the issue into 2020 after the drubbing the three Council members suffered as a result of the petition drive,  by putting it to a vote of the people but they chose instead to end it here tonight.
 
A buoyant contingent of East Bay Working Families was on hand to witness the final putting to rest the whole affair.  Afterward, Liz Ortega of the East Bay Working Families told the Tattler the victory belongs with those struggling in the lowest paid jobs, "Workers in Emeryville won tonight" she said, smiling.
And with that, the issue of lowering Emeryville's MWO is ended two and a half months after it started.  Every minimum wage worker in Emeryville will now be paid the same amount.  Issue over.

Minimum Wage Petition Drive is Successful: Council Cannot Lower Wage by Fiat

Council Majority Loses Bid to Lower Minimum Wage

Bauters, Martinez, Donahue Constrained 

by Labor/Community Group's Petition Drive

After a dramatic push by the Emeryville City Council to lower the City's minimum wage by decree last month, a coalition of labor and community members has successfully beaten back the edict following a city-wide petition drive, the City Clerk announced today.  The petition, signed by 871 Emeryville voters will now force the Council's hand who on Tuesday must decide whether to reverse their decree or allow the people of Emeryville to decide about the issue in the form of a ballot initiative, probably in November of 2020.

The City Council majority, made up of John Bauters, Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue voted May 29th to amend Emeryville's Minimum Wage Ordinance to lower the wage for restaurant workers.  That action brought a coalition of labor and community members called the East Bay Working Families (EBWF) to begin a petition drive to fight off the Council led attack on the lowest paid Emeryville workers.  Before the State mandated 30 day cut off period, the group had collected the signatures of 871 Emeryville voters, far more than the minimum required 666 (10% of the registered voters in town).  The Alameda County Registrar of Voters certified the count saying earlier today,  “The petition is found to be sufficient to require the City Council of the City of Emeryville to take the appropriate action specified in the California Elections Code.”

The City Council meets Tuesday to decide whether to give up on their bid to cut the minimum wage or let the people of Emeryville decide at a later date.  However, the petition drive is a victory for Emeryville minimum wage workers who would have seen their pay cut starting July 1st.  They will instead now receive their full pay until the people of Emeryville decide to cut their pay in a future election unless the City Council decides to restore the Minimum Wage Ordinance on Tuesday.

The Emeryville City Council Appearing United for the Photo 
The Mayor and the Vice Mayor stand up for the minimum wage.
Their three colleagues now face the wrath of Emeryville voters.

Labor Group Identifies Councilman Bauters as "Leader" in Minimum Wage Roll Back Scheme

The labor/community coalition known as East Bay Working Families is really turning up the heat on the City Council majority that recently voted to roll back Emeryville's Minimum Wage Ordinance.  The labor coalition is working to restore the ordinance and they have focused their ire against Council members Dianne Martinez, Scott Donahue and especially John Bauters, whom the group sees as the leader in the scheme to cut the wages of the lowest paid workers in Emeryville.  To that end, 8 1/2 x 11" glossy full color fliers on heavy card stock are being sent to Emeryville voters' homes (see below) in addition to the earlier reported city-wide ballot initiative petition the group has begun.  It would appear Mr Bauters and his two colleagues have poked a hornet's nest by this action against the working poor in our community.

Labor Group Starts Petition Drive to Defend Emeryville's Minimum Wage Ordinance

Bauters, Martinez & Donahue Face Petition Defending Minimum Wage

Labor Across County United Against Three Council Members

A coalition of labor and community groups known as East Bay Working Families has begun a ballot initiative petition drive in response to a recent City Council move to roll back Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance.  The coalition partners refer to the targeted minimum wage ruling made at the May 29th Council meeting as a “corporate minimum wage loophole” that cuts the wages of restaurant workers in town.  The newly amended legislation, forwarded by Council members John Bauters and Dianne Martinez, provides a carve-out in the existing law meant to protect all workers’ wages, specifically cutting the wages of workers in restaurants with up to 55 employees in Emeryville, including chains with up to 20 locations globally.  The vote to roll back the wages of restaurant workers happened when holdout Council member Donahue joined the two progenitors to the action, leaving Mayor Ally Medina and Vice Mayor Christian Patz in the minority.

From the East Bay Working Families
anti anti-minimum wage campaign
Emeryville's three Council wage cutters are identified by name.
Sent out to 135,000 union members.
 

The petition now circulating around town, needs to show 661 legitimate signatures of Emeryville registered voters in order for the ballot initiative to be successful, a number a spokesperson for East Bay Working Families predicts will be relatively easy.  “We’re on track and we hope to get 1000” Liz Ortega, Executive Secretary of the Alameda County Labor Council told the Tattler, “we feel comfortable we’ll get it” she added.  The group claims they had obtained more than 200 signatures only two days after they began their drive, an indication that Emeryville’s minimum wage is popular with Emeryville citizens.

Many Emeryville residents joined East Bay Working Families in decrying the May 29th roll back decision, noting that the City Council had only heard from business owners in town.  A business survey conducted nine months before the May 29th vote did not include any findings about or opinions from workers themselves, a fact that is driving criticism of the harried May 29th vote by the Council. Gary Jimenez, a regional vice president with SEIU 1021 noted City Hall’s fact finding asymmetry, “This poorly drafted legislation was written without input from the workers or the community and it shows” he said.  The lopsided ‘business only’ testimony brought denunciations against the two Council members, especially John Bauters whom Working Families has reserved special condemnation, “Is Emeryville turning into ‘Trumpville’? asked Ms Ortega.  She called out Mr Bauters specifically for his attack on the lowest paid workers in town, “Is it Trumpville when we have a councilman like John Bauters leading the charge to cut wages of the working poor?”  She called his action, “very disappointing”.

The new Emeryville legislation freezes wages for the restaurant workers now and allows for small increases over the next eight years when their wage will finally catch up to other minimum wage earners in town.  The workers will have a July 1st expected raise of $1.30 snatched away from them by the Council's action.

That the attack on Emeryville’s landmark Minimum Wage Ordinance came from its former City Council backers, John Bauters, Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue, came as a surprise to labor leaders, “Frankly, we expected something like this from the business community” a member of Working Families who wished anonymity told the Tattler, “…not from the [air quotes] progressive Emeryville City Council” he added.  Other labor leaders added their disapprovals; “Adding a flawed loophole to the minimum wage doesn’t reflect [Emeryville’s] values and is fundamentally unfair” said Kate O’Hara, Executive Director of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a group that helped write the Minimum Wage Ordinance in 2015.  Liz Ortega from the Alameda County Labor Council agreed adding, “One job should be enough to support a family and pay the bills.  The minimum wage in Emeryville is fair and we should not be giving exemptions to restaurant chains” she said.

Working Families, who represent 135,000 labor union members in Alameda County, will have 30 days to gather at least 661 signatures and if they are successful, the City Council must either repeal the restaurant rider to the ordinance or put it before voters, probably this November.

More information on EBWF's protect Emeryville's minimum wage campaign can be found HERE.

Breaking News: City Council Cuts Wages of Working Poor

City Council Action:

Minimum Wage Cut, Restaurant Chains Redefined Helping Corporations with 'Global' Footprint

Breaking News (Emeryville City Hall 8:13 pm)

Tonight the City Council passed a roll back of Emeryville’s landmark minimum wage ordinance with a second and final reading of an amendment that takes away a substantial raise for the poorest workers in town.  The vote broke the same way as the first reading with Vice Mayor Patz who called the amendment "A pay cut [for workers] plain and simple" joining Mayor Medina in voting NO to the roll back.  Council members John Bauters, Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue voted YES to cut the workers' wages.

The language of the wage roll back amendment rescinds a scheduled $1.30 raise for 'small independent' restaurant workers for eight years, making Emeryville one of many Bay Area cities with a $15 or nearly $15 minimum wage.  The wage roll back City Council insurgency, led by members John Bauters and Dianne Martinez was joined by Scott Donahue after Mr Bauters changed the deal, to allow a yearly pittance wage increase until 2027 for these workers (with no increase at all for 2019).  The amendment carve out also redefines the words 'small' and 'independent' restaurants to include corporate chains with up to "20 global locations".
The new law provides that in the year 2027, restaurant workers will finally catch up with other workers in Emeryville, barring another Council driven minimum wage roll back.

The about-face in labor policy converts Emeryville from leadership to near pariah status among the progressives in the Bay Area labor activist community, many decrying the region wide erosive nature of the roll back.  Spokespeople for East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), the East Bay’s premier labor advocacy group, warned the roll back action would embolden anti-labor forces throughout the Bay Area and beyond.  EBASE, instrumental in helping formulate Emeryville's Minimum Wage Ordinance to great fanfare in 2015 was notably snubbed by the Council in its current drive to reverse it.
Despite concern from labor, the roll back policy this time was derived with input solely from the business community and the latest 'Business Conditions Report' aka the 'business study' or MWO study' commissioned by the City and completed last summer.  Critics have complained the study only looked into the business side of the MWO, ignoring labor.  No efforts were made to check the veracity of dramatic claims of sliding business bottom lines or looming bankruptcy by either the study or the City Council in the lead up to the roll back it should be noted.  That, plus the subsequent ignoring of labor concerns by the City Council prompted a chastising response from EBASE Executive Director Kate O'Hara, "The study did not ask businesses to provide specific data from their own experience to back up the opinions they are providing" she said in a letter to the Council. 

Labor backers have noted City Hall’s new minimum wage policy, in addition to increasing suffering, will leave Emeryville now vulnerable to labor shortages with working poor families fleeing to communities paying the same wage but with a lower cost of living.  After the California statewide $15 minimum wage law takes effect in less than three years, this vulnerability could reach crisis proportions with working families decamping wholesale to lower cost cities elsewhere in the state.  This likely eventuality brings into question the City Council majority's exact intent with the roll back.  Tonight they made no effort to address this issue.

A simple check of apartment costs in California reveals Emeryville’s dramatic exposure to the loss of its already stressed low wage workforce.  It’s easy to find a nice one bedroom apartment in Vacaville for $1200 per month.  A comparable apartment in Emeryville would be about $3200…an extra $2000 per month.  Venturing farther afield…say Alturas California, a one bedroom place can easily be had for $500 per month.
Formerly a beacon for the working poor in the Bay Area, Emeryville, after the roll back with its lowest wage at $15, now the same as many other cities, loses its competitive advantage it had to draw higher quality workers.  The City of Emeryville with its putative progressive City Council has used its power to transform itself from a city that sought to solve regional problems into just one of multiple cities adding to the region's problems.

In the coming months, long after the City Council has washed its hands of this, the Emeryville Tattler will, in a planned series of worker interviews, continue to report the effect this historic wage roll back is having on the working poor and their families in our community.  Look to the Tattler to do what the Emeryville City Council refused to do when they passed this roll back of our Minimum Wage Ordinance: listen to those working at the bottom of the wage scale.