Discord Returns to School District: Emery School Board President Calls It Quits

Emery Board "Not Invested in Much Needed Change" Says Departing President

Citing an intractable culture resistant to change, Barbara Inch, formerly of the Emery School Board,  announced Friday in a letter to the Superintendent of the Schools, she has resigned from her position as Board Trustee, effective immediately.  The resignation comes after a difficult three year tenure for Ms Inch who has served as President of the Board over the last seven months.
The dramatic departure represents the culmination of a progressive drive for transformation at the beleaguered little school district and heralds a return to Emery politics as usual before Ms Inch led a would be progressive majority in a Board takeover in 2018.

Former School Board member Inch, who was elected in a 2016 landslide election having garnered more votes than any elected official in Emeryville history, later helped shepherd the progressive majority into office with the subsequent election of Susan Donaldson, Sarah Nguyen and Brynnda Collins to the Board in 2018.  Ms Inch soon ran into trouble however after Brynnda Collins and Sarah Nguyen dropped out of the coalition, showing by their accumulated votes they are not the progressives they claimed to be.  As such, those defections seem to have been the death knell for the progressive agenda at Emery Unified, the ensuing resignation of Ms Inch only serving to solidify that prognosis. 

Former Emery School Board President Barbara Inch
She was elected by more voters than
any elected official in Emeryville history.
But seeking the change for Emery she promised voters,
she couldn't get cooperation from her colleagues.

Notably, the Friday resignation letter sent to the Superintendent came on the heels of a Wednesday night Board rejection of an issue forwarded by Ms Inch; the naming of Emery’s gymnasium.  Ms Inch and community supporters called for naming the gym after former Emery PE coach Steve Dain who was fired in 1977 for transitioning from a woman to a man.  By attempting to name the gym in honor of Mr Dain, who was once voted Emery Teacher of the Year and is now deceased, Ms Inch had been using the bully pulpit as Board President to correct Emery’s 1970’s error and help serve as an inspirational signal that the District has changed and is a tolerant place welcoming to everyone.  The conservative Board majority rallied in reaction however and immediately began searching for a different person to name the gym after, eventually settling on a different past coach who was not a Transgender person and consequently not fired for being a Transgender person.
The Steve Dain issue seems to have served as a final straw for Ms Inch, “After Wednesday, it became clear to me that the majority of the Board was not invested in the much needed change this district so desperately needs.” the former Board member told the Tattler.

The four remaining Board members will appoint a replacement of their choice to take Barbara Inch’s seat until the next election in 2020.

John Bauters Wags the Dog (Literally)

John Bauters 

is cutting the minimum wage and he 

Saved a Puppy

To 'wag the dog' means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance.  By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.  The expression comes from the saying that 'a dog is smarter than its tail', but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would 'wag the dog'.

Opinion
Poor Emeryville City Council member John Bauters.  He touched the third rail in Bay Area politics.  After kicking over a hornets nest, a couple of weeks of very public self inflicted wounds with his plan to cut Emeryville's minimum wage, he's now facing an accountability moment.  He's not taking all the resultant insults lying down however.  Councilman Bauters brought a cute puppy to the fight.

It all started when, taking a leadership role among his colleagues, he tried to cut the Emeryville minimum wage by Council fiat without warning and done so quickly that the Bay Area labor community would be caught unawares.  The issue has instead blown up in his face.  The labor community rapidly formed a coalition with residents to push back against the plan, starting with a city-wide mailer sent to every voting Emeryville household warning them about the planned wage roll back.  Now, Mr Bauters is facing another PR nightmare; his minimum wage cutting scheme has been petitioned for recall by over 850 Emeryville residents.  The successful petition drive means he's going to have to make a new decision; to give up on his plan to roll back the minimum wage or give the decision to Emeryville voters, probably next March.

Most politicians, facing such an onslaught of push back from a constituency he publicly claims allegiance with would attempt to get out in front of the mounting controversy.  Mr Bauters instead is telling us all he recently saved a puppy.

Did you know that?  You could barely miss it.  He's been telling everyone all about it on his most recent blog entry made after the labor/community pushback kicked into high gear.  He rescued the pup from a hot car.  He's got pictures of the dog wagging its tail after it was saved.  Or is it instead the tail wagging the dog?
In the midst of a boatload of self inflicted embarrassing news, his hand now forced by a legally binding petition drive of outraged residents, Mr Bauters is silent on all that.  He's using his City Council blog instead to make everybody know what a hero he is because he saved a puppy.

John Bauters is a really smart guy.  But his response to the blowback, what anybody could have guessed would come as a result of such a public blunder, leaves us baffled.   It's so overt, you have to wonder if he's totally guileless and he screwed up or is he totally calculating and shameless and this is all part of some grand scheme.  What's really wagging here?

Awwww!
Minimum wage cut?  What minimum wage cut?
Look at this instead!

John Bauters' & Dianne Martinez's High Campaign Contributions Raise Questions

Nexus Between Votes to Cut Minimum Wage/Votes Against Family Housing & Campaign Coffers?

Bauters, Martinez May Be Looking to Expand 
Political Careers Beyond Emeryville

News Analysis
Beginning earlier this spring, Council members John Bauters and Dianne Martinez have been on a tear, working collaboratively to roll back the progressive agenda in Emeryville.  First the two moved to roll back Emeryville's General Plan provisions designed to make housing more family friendly, then they moved to roll back Emeryville’s progressive Minimum Wage Ordinance designed to help the working poor among us.  These two Council members’ attempts at taking down these two central pillars of Emeryville’s progressive framework, represent a curious and abrupt turn around for these self styled progressives. The duel action by these Council members against the progressive Emeryville body politic has drawn ire and concern from citizens and labor groups, some of whom are pointing to evidence the two may be looking to start up respective campaigns for higher political office outside of Emeryville, a charge neither has publicly confirmed or denied.  This shifting to the right could represent the first inklings by these two Emeryville politicians of the classic 'pivot to the center' political tactic well trodden by progressive politicians.

Mr Bauters, elected in 2016, who arrived on the Council after the landmark Minimum Wage Ordinance (MWO) took effect as well as the family housing unit mix regulations (both enacted in 2015) has shown us that he considers Emeryville too progressive, at least on these two fronts.  Ms Martinez, now in her second term, is also is showing us she considers Emeryville as too progressive but her advocacy in rolling back the progressive agenda, reveals a change of heart.  The Councilwoman, first voted into office in 2014, personally voted for both the MWO and the family housing unit mix during her first term.
Both these legislative votes at the Council were unanimous, it should be noted.

Emeryville City Council Members'
Political Contributions and Cash on Hand (in dollars)
From most recent Form 460s

The three on the left voted to cut minimum wage workers' pay.
The two on the right voted to save Emeryville's
Minimum Wage Ordinance and protect working poor families.
Is Mr Bauters headed next to the State Senate race? 
Perhaps Ms Martinez too or someplace comparable?

Both these 2015 Council led directives are being vigorously pushed back against by the business community.  The developer of the proposed 700’ Onni apartment tower on Christie Avenue has indicated he is unwilling to provide the family housing Emeryville’s law dictates for his project and he is now seeking relief by Council fiat.  The restaurant owners in town are nearly united against the Minimum Wage Ordinance and they too are seeking relief by City Council intervention.

Rumors have been swirling that these two Council members, who’s voting records have taken a turn towards helping the business community could be setting themselves up for their respective futures in politics.  A check of their Form 460 political campaign records of monetary contributions and cash on hand hints there may be something to the rumors.  John Bauters, the most vocal of the two in mounting anti-progressive policy and rhetoric shows a campaign war chest of $25,399.46 cash on hand as of January and Dianne Martinez shows a total of $12,723 in monetary contributions.  By contrast and taking up the rear, Vice Mayor Christian Patz, who has most vigorously defended family housing and the wages of the working poor against the attacks by Mr Bauters and Ms Martinez, shows $753.17 in his campaign coffers while Mayor Medina, who also voted NO to rolling back the MWO, has just $79 available.  Mr Patz, on a side note, won election to the City Council after raising only about $8300, the lowest by any Council member seeking election in recent history.

The Tattler will continue to follow the suspicious nexus between campaign funding and policy that benefits developer and business interests.  We expect to see these funding numbers change as these proposed policy changes grow more pressing.  Watch this space.

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.

Councilman's Impassioned Soliloquy Foretells Less Guarded Speech at Council Chambers

Mr Bauters Crosses the 'Shit' Rubicon

Opinion
It came during a fervent verbal presentation by Council member John Bauters at the Council chambers Tuesday night; two utterances of the word "shit", resolutely affirmed and meant to underscore how impassioned he was on the topic at hand.  And what 'it' is, foretells an augmented and freer banter at the people's hall, citizens and their elected representatives speaking in a more colloquial, less constrained manner.

It seems like a new day.  Not in 37 years have we heard such language from an Emeryville City Council member in the Council chambers, cameras running.  A major deviation from the heretofore unspoken agreement proscribing such colorful vernaculars, Mr Bauters crossed the 'shit' Rubicon Tuesday night, inviting Emeryville residents to join him on the other side.
It's a position we'll gladly take on.

Council Member John Bauters
Fucking brilliant!

We have always only reluctantly signed on to the tacit understanding that the people's hall should be an evanescent and lofty place where everyday parlance is not raised enough and that citizens need to throw over their natural exuberant language, a cloak of Victorian bourgeois sensibilities.  The public commons have always been a contested place who's defense practically begs for such rakish and spritely speech.   And the new day that now beckons in Emeryville means we will not have to be so guarded as we speak our minds freely in our own hall.

The new decorum makes room for a better and more satisfying kind of admonishment at City Hall as citizens will now ask their City Council, "What the fuck?" and "What kind of shit is THIS?"; a vast improvement over the former, "I wish you wouldn't engage in this public policy..." or some other kind of weak shit like that.
Punctuated expletives aside, naysayers to the new courser polity in the Council chambers can rest assured; the people's hall remains the people's hall, democratic inclusiveness is unchanged by Mr Bauters' invitation to free speech.  Perhaps it's even strengthened.
And we say that's not a shitshow, rather, it's fucking awesome!

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.

Bollards Will Protect Bike Lanes Says Emeryville City Council

Several months ago, the Emeryville City Council began an experimental program on the Horton Street Bike Boulevard when they installed protected bike lanes.  The idea was bollards would be installed instead of the preferred and standard treatment of bikes co-mingling with vehicles by slowing traffic and reducing traffic volume as is called for with Bike Boulevards in general and the General Plan specifically.
The Council is under a lot of pressure from developers and business owners to not reduce traffic volume on Horton Street so they came up with a plan that bikes could safely share the road with vehicles with the use of bollards.  The concept is that with bikes safely behind the bollards, the street could allow for a much higher carrying capacity for vehicles with higher vehicle speeds and high vehicle traffic volumes.
The photos taken today, illustrate what Emeryville police officers say is the "everyday occurrence" of vehicles disregarding the best laid plans of the Council and now blocking the sidewalks as well as the bike lanes on Horton Street.  Before the bollards were placed, everyday occurrences meant that only the bike lanes were being blocked.  Other cities reduce the vehicle traffic speed and volume on their bike boulevards in deference to the premise that bike boulevards should be streets that allow vehicles but are bicycle preferred.
 The Tattler presents a problem that appears to be too tough for Emeryville to solve:

Everyday Occurrence
The Americans with Disabilities Act says 48" clear must be maintained on sidewalks.
Emeryville might have to re-write the ADA codes for Horton Street.

Everyday Occurrence
At least the bikes can get through....

Council Insurgency Uses Unpresidented Tactics to Roll-Back Minimum Wage Ordinance

Councilman Bauters Pulls Off Upset in Minimum Wage Fight

After Failed First Try, He Pulls Out Secret Plan to Roll-Back Wages

............ 

Insurgency Gains Crucial Third Vote by Phone

Councilman John Bauters
Won't call the working poor people
in Emeryville to tell them he
took away their raise they're
expecting on July 1st.

The City Council showed their hand last Tuesday night when a conservative insurgency made up of Council members John Bauters and Dianne Martinez, moved to roll back Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance with an attempt to strip away the ordinance’s provisions protecting worker’s scheduled raise by use of a subterfuge tactic planned in advance by Mr Bauters.  Councilman Bauters and his colleague Dianne Martinez were hoping to make a majority on the five member Council by trying for a third vote to straight away remove the scheduled raise for working poor families in Emeryville in a motion to amend the ordinance.  When that motion went down to a 2-3 defeat, Mr Bauters, undaunted, brought out his back up plan, made in secret with help from the City Hall staff, to allow for a very small raise for the poorest workers in town, hoping to peel off a third vote.  Mr Bauters and Ms Martinez got their third vote when Councilman Scott Donahue switched over and agreed to so amend the MWO, thereby satisfying a State required ‘first reading’ to change the ordinance.
The Council will vote to change the MWO in the final ‘second reading’ in a special meeting set up for Wednesday night May 29th.

The working poor in Emeryville will have to wait for eight years to get the raise currently owed to them in July if the second reading vote goes like the first.  If Mr Bauters’ now out in the open roll-back plan is successful, the poorest workers in our town will not see their wages rise to what the existing Minimum Wage Ordinance provides for until 2027 instead of July 1st of this year.

Councilwoman Dianne Martinez
Member of the MWO roll back insurgency.
Wanted to hear from business owners,
not workers before she voted.

Phone In Vote
The conservative insurgency is very determined to get under the wire and make the second reading happen before the end of the month when Brown Act provisions would prevent the lawmakers from stopping the July 1st  $1.30 raise the MWO mandates.  After Councilman Donahue told his colleagues he would be out of town on Wednesday the 29th making for a likely 2-2 tie vote that would not be binding, Mr Bauters, citing special legal provisions, revealed allowances for Mr Donahue to cast his vote from his out-of-state location live by telephone as the whole vote is taken.

The legal time constraints forcing the insurgents’ hand will make for a very unconventional event for City Council watchers.  As they proceed to take the final vote to roll-back Emeryville’s landmark Minimum Wage Ordinance on Wednesday at 7:15 pm, the City Council is taking this unprecedented provision allowing City Hall attendees to be witness to the spectacle of a vote taken live by phone. Councilman Donahue’s voice will be broadcast live on speakers in the Council chambers.
It cannot be said this City Council doesn’t think on its feet as they thus remind us of the truism that necessity can drive people to come up with creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

Neither Mr Bauters, nor his two insurgent colleagues it should be noted, have volunteered to place calls to the workers expecting their raises on July 1st, telling them they won’t be getting their raises after all.  It is expected the bosses will give the working poor in our town the news sometime after Wednesday but hopefully well before July 1st so those who need to will have time to secure PayDay loans to cover their daily living expenses.

Breaking News: Minimum Wage Ordinance to be Rolled Back

BREAKING: City Hall

Tonight the Emeryville City Council voted 3-2 to roll back the City's landmark minimum wage ordinance as had been proposed earlier in the month in response to a blitzkrieg from restaurant owners in town.  In a drive led by Council members Dianne Martinez and John Bauters and joined by Scott Donahue, the Council voted to stop the July 1st scheduled wage increase for Emeryville's lowest paid workers.  After negotiation with Councilman Donahue who held out for a small increase in wages, the ordinance is proposed to be changed to increase wages at a much slower rate than what is written in the existing law.  Council members Bauters and Martinez had wanted no increase at all and only agreed to the small change after Mr Donahue voted NO with the Mayor and Vice Mayor.

Mr Bauters expressed his concern that restaurants would go out of business en masse in Emeryville if the lowest paid workers get the full increase as it exists after hearing from the business owners.  In response to arguments from labor advocates, he reminded the crowd that Emeryville has done enough to help low paid workers and the July 1st increase of $1.30 is unwarranted.
Mayor Ally Medina stated the Minimum Wage Ordinance as it is reflects the values of Emeryville and that she had been elected specifically to support the ordinance as voiced by many voters when she was elected to the Council in 2016.  She and Vice Mayor Christian Patz voted NO to the roll back proposal.

The vote was the so called 'First Reading' of the ordinance change and the Council will vote again at their next meeting in the required second reading before the law is changed.