They Said It: Nora Davis

Nora Davis Said It-

"These People Need To Be Recalled, Their Incompetency Is Unacceptable"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

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Back in the late 1990's, Emeryville mayor Nora Davis headed up a search committee formed to find a new school superintendent and after a nation-wide search, they recommended that the Emery School Board hire former Compton School District superintendent, JL Handy.  Even though he had overseen the bankruptcy of the district in Compton, the committee felt Mr Handy would work out well here.

'People who are guilty
of what I've done
should be recalled'

The School Board dutifully accepted the advice from the search committee and hired Mr Handy.  After he was hired, Mr Handy also bankrupted Emery Unified School District and he engaged in improper personal use of district funds and other crimes.   Superintendent Handy fled Emeryville in 2000, leaving the School District in ruins, ultimately to be taken over by the State.

Following this fiasco, a new search began; this time it was the search for the guilty.  A very vocal effort to recall the School Board was initiated since they had hired Mr Handy.  The  successful recall was headed up by non other than council member Nora Davis.  Ms Davis was vociferous in her indignation: "These people need to be recalled, their incompetency is unacceptable" she said at a council meeting. Ms Davis lent her name to the recall literature.  But nowhere was it mentioned by Nora Davis, not in the recall literature nor by her at any public event, that she had been the chair of the superintendent search committee and that she herself was guilty of what she said was an unpardonable offense by the School Board.  Ms Davis kept quiet and hoped no one would remember that she was responsible for the School Board recommendation to hire Mr Handy.

They Said It: Nora Davis

Nora Davis Said It-

"These People Need To Be Recalled, Their Incompetency Is Unacceptable"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

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Back in the late 1990's, a committee formed in Emeryville to search for a new school superintendent and after a nation-wide search, they recommended that the Emery School Board hire former Compton School District superintendent, JL Handy.  Even though he had overseen the bankruptcy of the district in Compton, the committee felt Mr Handy would work out well here.
The School Board dutifully accepted the advice from the search committee and hired Mr Handy.  After he was hired, Mr Handy also bankrupted Emery Unified School District and he engaged in improper personal use of district funds and other crimes.   Superintendent Handy fled Emeryville in 2000, leaving the School District in ruins, ultimately to be taken over by the State.
Following this fiasco, a new search began; this time it was the search for the guilty.  A very vocal effort to recall the School Board was initiated since they had hired Mr Handy.  The  successful recall was headed up by non other than council member Nora Davis.  Ms Davis was vociferous in her indignation: "These people need to be recalled, their incompetency is unacceptable" she said at a council meeting. Ms Davis lent her name to the recall literature.  But nowhere was it mentioned by Nora Davis, not in the recall literature nor by her at any public event, that she had been the chair of the superintendent search committee and that she herself was guilty of what she said was an unpardonable offense by the School Board.  Ms Davis kept quiet and hoped no one would remember that she was responsible for the School Board recommendation to hire Mr Handy.

They Said It

Dick Kassis Said It-

"If We Raise Taxes On The Oaks Club, They'll Go Out Of Business"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.


Former city councilman Dick Kassis predicted the Oaks Club card room would go out of business. In light of the recent FBI raid Wednesday, perhaps they will.  However Mr Kassis' predictive skills aren't as impressive as they seem: his pronouncement of the Oaks Club's demise was 14 years ago.

Dick

The year 1997 was an election year in Emeryville. Aside from Kassis' candidacy for a fifth, four-year term was an initiative asking voters to lift the tax rate on card room profits from what they were: the lowest in the Bay Area, to parity with the regional average.
Mr. Kassis strongly urged voters to reject the tax hike on gambling, claiming "If we raise taxes on the Oaks Club, they'll go out of business".  What Mr. Kassis neglected to inform voters was that at the same time he was once again receiving the maximum campaign donations from the Oaks Club allowable under law.


Emeryville voters ended up re-electing Mr. Kassis but rejecting his advice about card room tax rates. Voters correctly gambled that Kassis' warnings of bankruptcy and the Oaks' closure was just hot air.  Some 14 years later it appears that Emeryville voters were right and Mr. Kassis was simply a paid agent for an allegedly crooked den of loan sharks and extortionists that didn't want to pay their fair share.  


No apology has subsequently been offered by Mr. Kassis for spreading disinformation to the public during an election campaign while ostensibly on the Oaks Club's payroll via generous campaign contributions. But it seems, if you've been in office since Disco was king, there's no need to explain; perhaps he has been waiting these subsequent 14 years to be proved prescient about the Oaks Club going under. 

They Said It

Josh Simon Said It-

"The Housing Committee Is Taking Care Of Family Housing"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

Josh Simon
School Board Member
Housing Committee member

At the final meeting of the now disbanded 'Partners Committee' to usher in the Center of Community Life and the new school rebuild,  the topic of discussion was whether the new state mandated 'Measure J Oversight Committee' should include family friendly housing in its purview.  "No", School Board member Josh Simon said.  "It's inappropriate, the Housing Committee is taking care of family housing".  He added that the Housing Committee is doing a fine job of it.

The real story of the Housing Committee as it pertains to bringing family housing is something quite different.  It has been an abysmal failure:

• In 10 years less than 10 three bedroom housing units have been built in the entire town, according to councilwoman Ruth Atkin.  
• Households in Emeryville with at least one child dropped by 2% from 1990 - 2000 (the last year calculated in the City's housing study).
• The population of children in Emeryville dropped by 8% from 1990 - 2000 even while the total population increased by 20% during the same time.
• Bringing family housing is not even among the seven goals for the Housing Committee through 2014.  The committee literally does not care about family housing.

Bearing in mind that School Board member Josh Simon also sits on the Housing Committee, one has to ask what is he talking about with his quote, "The Housing Committee is taking care of family housing "?

They Said It

John Gooding Said it:

"Council Member Harper Has A Guru"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

Shortly after then Planning Commissioner Greg Harper said he expected Emeryville Marketplace developer Dave Martin of the Martin Group to help pay for Bay Street improvements in trade for OK'ing the incipient Marketplace development, Mr Harper won a council bid. Stung by this and other moves 'against' Mr Martin, John Gooding; Emeryville political power broker, friend of Mr Martin and tenant at the marketplace development, subsequently began an attempt to recall Council member Harper.

Mr Gooding's charges of Mr Harper's radical anti-developer bias fell on deaf ears in Emeryville despite a yellow 'newspaper' financed by Mr Martin, set up expressly to recall Mr Harper. No doubt irritated that the electorate didn't seem to have a taste for a recall, especially when Mr Harper was clearly working in the best interests of the residents, Mr Gooding printed an expose story in the free city-wide home delivered newspaper exposing that "Council member Harper has a guru", perhaps wishing to paint guru possession as flakey or somehow vaguely un-American.

The recall effort ultimately failed.

It should be noted that Councilman Harper at the time didn't have a 'guru', at least as far as the Tattler has been able to surmise, although his wife had/has interest in the hindu faith.

Mr Gooding has threatened to sue the Tattler if there are stories about him posted.

In a related story, colleagues on the council, save one, signed a letter of support for Mr Harper after the blistering attacks by Mr Gooding and Mr Martin. The lone holdout who would not sign was none other than current Council member Nora Davis. It is unknown whether Ms Davis still believes having a guru necessarily makes one unfit for the Emeryville city council.

They Said It

Ken Bukowski Said It-

"Let's just figure out what this developer needs and change the zoning law to accommodate him"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

Right after the city completed more than five years of paid and citizen volunteer work to produce a new General Plan last October, one developer, John Nady of Nady Systems wireless audio on Shellmound Street said he wanted to change the new plan to pre-approve unlimited building height (from 75 feet) on his specific parcel of land. He gave no reason for this request for a gift to him from the people of Emeryville other than his desire for more profits.

The council was eager to grant this give-a-way without providing any findings of merit or consideration except staff pointed out to them that if they change the General Plan to increase the allowable building height on his parcel to 'unlimited' then the zoning needs to be changed to reflect the new higher allowance. Specifically, the floor area ratio (FAR), an arcane planning modus, needed to be changed. The council members were bantering this around when Council member Bukowski told the staff to just increase the FAR to whatever it needed to be to make it work to help out this developer build an unlimited height building on his property.

"Let's just figure out what this developer needs and change the zoning law to accommodate him" With this one short and succinct sentence, Council Member Bukowski has managed to sum up the whole guiding philosophy of Emeryville City Hall.

They Said It

Nora Davis Said It-

"You People Are Dupes For EBASE!"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

Oakland based East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), an economic and social justice nonprofit organization concerned with working people and families, helped push for Measure C, a hotel workers living wage ordinance in Emeryville. In the run up to the 2005 Measure C election, many Emeryville residents publicly testified before the City Council that they didn't like to see hotel workers taken advantage of in their town and that they supported the incipient Measure C.

Council member Nora Davis, who worked against the passage of the living wage ordinance, publicly impugned the intelligence of all Emeryville residents that supported the hotel workers by calling them "dupes for EBASE" from the council chamber dais at an October 2005 council meeting.

Measure C was subsequently approved by Emeryville voters 54% to 48% on November 8, 2005.