County Grand Jury Condemns City’s Attempt at $6 Million Loan Discount for Developer

Expert Told Grand Jury That City’s Method of Calculating Repayment Utterly Unheard Of

The Alameda County Civil Grand Jury investigating Emeryville’s attempt to discount a loan given to the developer of the Bay Street Mall said the city “did not perform adequate due diligence, did not retain experts … and lacked the expertise”  to approve such a deal. The deal, originally proposed by developer Madison Marquette and based on prepayment of the loan in full, would have let the developer repay only $12 million of an $18 million loan.

“It is troubling to the Grand Jury that the city would commit to such a significant financial decision based upon insufficient research into best practices and accepted industry standards. In determining their options, decision-makers were seemingly blinded by the opportunity to generate immediate cash,” the Grand Jury said in its final report, released today.

The Jury heard testimony from an expert on valuing such transactions. When asked if he had ever seen a loan prepayment calculated in such a way, “the expert responded emphatically, ‘Never,'” the Jury report said.

Helen Bean, Emeryville’s former Director of Economic Development and Housing. The City Council majority voted to support the loan discount based on information she provided.

Helen Bean, Emeryville’s former Director of Economic Development and Housing. The City Council majority voted to support the loan discount based on information she provided.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily, according to the Grand Jury, Emeryville’s Oversight Board refused to approve the loan. The county-level Board is charged with monitoring the city’s transition after the elimination of state redevelopment money. The law required its OK in order for the loan deal to go through.

The Grand Jury launched its investigation in response to a citizen’s complaint.

“I’m glad some citizen called them on this,” said Oversight Board Member Greg Harper, who is also president of the AC Transit Board. “For too long, an inattentive legal department has enabled city staff to work off of documents generated by favored developers rather than doing due diligence. Thankfully, between the demise of the Redevelopment Agency, and the new City Manager, that has begun to change.”

The Jury said that despite City Attorney Mike Biddle’s recommendation to support the prepayment plan, the Oversight Board relied on the advice of its own outside legal counsel, Paula Crow. In a memo to the Board last July, Crow said not only was the loan prepayment plan not advisable, but, in fact, illegal. The Board decided at its July 9 meeting not to approve the loan. Coverage of that Oversight Board meeting is here. (Biddle initially failed to include Ms. Crow’s memo in the Oversight Board’s July 9 meeting packet. He did so only after Crow reviewed the packet and complained that her memo was not included.)

Emeryville City Attorney Mike Biddle (left), who advised the City Council to support the discounted loan, and former City Manager Patrick O'Keeffe, who was well-known for making decisions and recommendations favorable to developers, often at the expense of the city and its residents.

Emeryville City Attorney Mike Biddle (left), who advised the City Council to support the discounted loan, and former City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe, who was well-known for making decisions and recommendations favorable to developers, often at the expense of the city and its residents.

The City Council had voted 3-2 to allow Washington DC-based Madison Marquette to repay just $12 million on a promissory note owed to the city’s former Redevelopment Agency for $18.3 million. The City Council majority (Ruth Atkin, Nora Davis, and Kurt Brinkman) supported the loan discount, while Council members Jac Asher and Jennifer West voted against it.

“This Madison Marquette loan forgiveness seemed like a boondoggle,” said Emeryville City Council Member and former Mayor Jennifer West, who added that she has not yet read the Grand Jury report. “Thanks to Paula Crow. I felt very much validated after her memo and the refusal by the Oversight Board to approve the deal.”

The City Council thought it could forgive $6.5 million of the loan based on information provided by Helen Bean, Emeryville’s Director of Economic Development and Housing, who has since retired. In an April 2013 memo to the Council, Bean argued that the value of the $18 million balance, at a 7 percent capitalization rate, equals the payoff amount of just $12 million.

In its report, the Grand Jury raised disturbing questions about the judgement and conduct of City Attorney Biddle and Helen Bean:

“The Grand Jury learned that city staff involved in the transaction did not have a background in finance and were unfamiliar with the methods for calculating a prepayment. Similarly, the Grand Jury heard testimony that city staff had not previously used a cap rate to calculate a prepayment. Further, the city did not retain its own expert, but relied instead on an unpaid advisor who confirmed that 6% was indeed the current cap rate for shopping centers. In the memos to the city council, the director of the Economic and Housing Department and the city attorney concluded that the contingent interest portion of the note … had no value over the remaining 11-year term (of the promissory note) based on their conclusion that the shopping center had not performed as originally projected. However, the Grand Jury learned that the city only took into account the previous operating history of the shopping center (which included the worst real estate devaluation in decades) and … did not sufficiently take into account the likelihood that the economy would improve and the shopping center’s net operating income would grow over the remaining term of the note.”

“In addition, it is unclear whether city staff ever reviewed the developer’s financial statements to establish the previous years’ poor performance, or merely relied on unsubstantiated figures provided by the developer,” the Grand Jury said.

_____________________________________________________

The Grand Jury’s Report on the attempted loan discount is copied verbatim here:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Grand Jury received a complaint from a resident of Emeryville regarding a decision of the Emeryville City Council to allow a private shopping center developer to prepay in full the then $18.3 million outstanding principal balance of a 25-year promissory note. The note had a fixed interest rate (i.e., the interest rate does not change, or “float,” over the term of the loan) payable to the city of Emeryville for $12 million, an approximately 30% discount from what was owed. The developer suggested (and the city council agreed to) an unorthodox method for calculating the prepayment amount. According to accepted financial practices, the prepayment of a loan with a fixed interest rate is calculated so that if the prepayment is invested by the lender at current interest rates for the remaining term of the note, the full outstanding balance of the note will have been repaid by the original maturity date. The developer’s suggested approach would not have resulted in the total principal balance being repaid. The city council agreed to the prepayment as proposed by the developer. However, the law required prior approval by the city of Emeryville oversight board. Notwithstanding the recommendation of the city attorney supporting the prepayment, the oversight board relied on a memo from its outside legal counsel and did not approve the prepayment.

The Grand Jury heard testimony and concluded that the city did not perform adequate due diligence, did not retain experts for assistance and admittedly lacked the expertise to determine if the developer’s proposal was fair to the city. However, the oversight board, in performing its legislated duty to review the decisions of the city council, did not approve the proposed prepayment.

BACKGROUND

On September 23, 1999, the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency entered into a purchase and sale agreement to sell to a developer certain real property owned by the agency on which a shopping center was to be developed. Subsequently, on June 11, 2001, pursuant to the purchase and sale agreement, the developer acquired the subject property for $25.5 million, of which $1.8 million was paid in cash and the remaining $23.7 million balance was to be repaid pursuant to a promissory note payable to the city over 25 years. In addition to fixed interest payments, the promissory note contained a contingent interest component pursuant to which the city would also be paid an agreed percentage of the shopping center’s net operating income in excess of a certain annual dollar benchmark.

Effective January 1, 2012, Assembly Bill 26 required the dissolution of all redevelopment agencies in California, and the transfer of their respective assets to a “successor agency” selected by the city council of each municipality. To comply with the new law, the Emeryville City Council on January 17, 2012, selected the city of Emeryville (i.e., itself) to serve as the successor agency for the recently abolished Emeryville Redevelopment Agency. In addition, the new law established an oversight board for each municipality to review the winding down of each redevelopment agency by the successor agency.

In the first half of April 2013, the developer submitted to the Emeryville city manager a proposed Letter of Intent to prepay the $18.3 million then- outstanding principal balance of the promissory note for a total of $11 million. On April 16, 2013, the city council adopted a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign the Letter of Intent pursuant to which the promissory note would be prepaid for $1 million more than offered by the developer (for a total of $12 million). A revised Letter of Intent dated April 16, 2013 was signed by the city manager and the developer to prepay the promissory note for $12 million.

On May 21, 2013, the city’s Economic and Housing Department wrote a memo to the city attorney recommending that, in accordance with the Letter of Intent, the city enter into a Note Prepayment Agreement with the developer to prepay the promissory note for $12 million (which was approximately $6 million less than the outstanding principal balance). On the same date, the city attorney wrote a similar memo to the interim city manager making the same recommendation. The Economic and Housing Department also wrote a memo dated July 2, 2013, that was substantively identical to its May 21 memo to the city attorney. On the same date, the Emeryville City Council adopted a resolution authorizing the Note Prepayment Agreement. One week later, the Grand Jury received the citizen complaint.

Once the city signed the Note Prepayment Agreement, the city attorney wrote a memo to the oversight board recommending approval. However, in a memo dated the same day, outside legal counsel for the oversight board recommended disapproval. Notwithstanding the recommendation of the city attorney to approve the Note Purchase Agreement, the Grand Jury heard testimony that the oversight board agreed with its outside legal counsel and did not approve it.

INVESTIGATION

The Grand Jury’s investigation was comprised of the following:

– Two witnesses were interviewed, one from the Economic and Housing Department and one associated with the oversight board;

– The Grand Jury viewed videos (available on the city’s website) of city council and oversight board meetings in which the prepayment was discussed;

– The Grand Jury reviewed publicly available memos from the director of Economic and Housing Department, the city attorney, and the outside legal counsel of the oversight board;

– The Grand Jury reviewed the various letters of intent that were submitted by the developer;

– The Grand Jury reviewed the Note Prepayment Agreement; and – The Grand Jury conducted its own research to determine the proper

methodology for calculating an appropriate prepayment amount.

The Grand Jury heard expert testimony that prepayments are typically calculated so that, if the prepayment sum is invested at current interest rates until the original maturity date, the lender would receive the entire principal balance due (i.e., the prepayment sum plus interest earned at the then-current rate over the remaining term of the note will equal the total owed to the lender). However, as discussed below, the method used by the developer would not have made the city whole.

Specifically, the developer proposed calculating the prepayment sum by discounting the outstanding balance of the note by 6%, which was the “capitalization rate” used to value shopping centers for investment or purchase. The capitalization rate is the net operating income of a property divided by its purchase price. The resulting percentage is then compared to the capitalization rate for other similar properties. The developer supported its position by providing an opinion from a real estate advisory firm who confirmed that most shopping centers were being sold at the time at a 6% “cap” rate. However, the developer only asked the real estate advisory firm for the shopping center cap rate, not for the usually accepted method for calculating a prepayment.

The Grand Jury learned that city staff involved in the transaction did not have a background in finance and were unfamiliar with the methods for calculating a prepayment. Similarly, the Grand Jury heard testimony that city staff had not previously used a cap rate to calculate a prepayment. Further, the city did not retain its own expert, but relied instead on an unpaid advisor who confirmed that 6% was indeed the current cap rate for shopping centers. Additionally, in the memos to the city council, the director of the Economic and Housing Department and the city attorney concluded that the contingent interest portion of the note (pursuant to which the city would also be paid an agreed percentage of the shopping center’s net operating income in excess of a certain annual dollar benchmark) had no value over the remaining 11-year term based on their conclusion that the shopping center had not performed as originally projected. However, the Grand Jury learned that the city only took into account the previous operating history of the shopping center (which included the worst real estate devaluation in decades) and it appears the city did not sufficiently take into account the likelihood that the economy would improve and the shopping center’s net operating income would grow over the remaining term of the note.

In addition, it is unclear whether city staff ever reviewed the developer’s financial statements to establish the previous years’ poor performance, or merely relied on unsubstantiated figures provided by the developer.

The Grand Jury learned from an expert witness and the outside legal counsel’s memo to the oversight board that using a cap rate was not the customary approach for such calculation. The Grand Jury heard testimony from an expert in the area of valuing such transactions. When asked if the expert had ever seen a prepayment calculated using a cap rate, the expert responded emphatically, “Never.”

CONCLUSION

The Grand Jury concludes that the city of Emeryville failed to conduct appropriate due diligence to determine if the method suggested by the developer for calculating the prepayment of a fixed interest rate loan was the proper method. Furthermore, the Grand Jury also concludes that city staff lacked the expertise to make such a recommendation on their own. Fortunately, the oversight board chose not to approve the Note Prepayment Agreement for the reasons outlined in this report. Although the review of the city’s actions by the oversight board clearly worked in this case, it is troubling to the Grand Jury that the city would commit to such a significant financial decision based upon insufficient research into best practices and accepted industry standards. In determining their options, decision-makers were seemingly blinded by the opportunity to generate immediate cash.

In the future, the Grand Jury would hope that decision-makers would recognize when more data and expert advice is required to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the citizenry. Although the Grand Jury is critical of Emeryville’s failure to conduct the proper due diligence, it is apparent that the statutory framework requiring review by the oversight board functioned as intended.

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City Council’s Discounted Loan to Developer Called Illegal

Oversight Attorney Paula Crow

Oversight Board Attorney Paula Crow

It is illegal for the City Council to allow Bay Street Mall developer Madison Marquette to pay back just $12 million on an $18 million dollar loan, according to the attorney for Emeryville’s Oversight Board. The county-level board is charged with monitoring the city’s transition after the elimination of state redevelopment funds.

The City Council last week voted 3-2 to allow Washington DC-based Madison Marquette to repay just $12 million on a promissory note owed to the city’s former Redevelopment Agency for $18.345 million. The City Council majority (Ruth Atkin, Nora Davis, and Kurt Brinkman) supported the loan discount, while Council members Jac Asher and Jennifer West voted against it.

“Payoff of the promissory note for the discounted amount of $12 million is prohibited … The former redevelopment agency has no authority to modify any existing agreements with any entity, including forgiving all or part of any balance owed on a loan, or changing any term of a loan,” wrote Oversight Board Attorney Paula Crow, in a memo included in the Board agenda packet for its Tuesday, July 9, meeting.

City Attorney Mike Biddle (L) with former City Manager Patrick O'Keeffe

City Attorney Mike Biddle (L) with former City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe

The City Council thought it could forgive Madision Marquette $6.5 million of the loan based on information provided by Helen Bean, Emeryville’s Director of Economic Development and Housing. In an April 16 memo to the Council, Bean argued that the present value of the $18 million balance, at a 7 percent capitalization rate, equals the payoff amount of just $12 million. And City Attorney Mike Biddle advised the Council that this action was legal. (Biddle initially failed to include Ms. Crow’s latest memo in the Oversight Board packet for tomorrow’s (Tuesday) meeting and did not do so until she reviewed the the packet and complained that her memo was not included.) This is the second major screw-up by Biddle involving city redevelopment money. The first, brought to light by attorney Crow in May 2012,  was when he tried to execute a contract with the state for $21 million in redevelopment funds two days after state redevelopment was eliminated. The money was to be used for the planned Center of Community Life, a joint city-school district project creating a central campus for the city’s elementary and high school as well as a community center with playgrounds, “paths and plazas,” and space for social service providers.

“I’m amazed that the cockamamie rationale presented for this gift to Madison Marquette could make it through the City Council,” said Oversight Board Member Greg Harper, who is also president of the AC Transit Board. “The $18 million loan is rock-solid, secured by a lien on the property, which is probably bothersome to Madison Marquette for a sale or re-financing of Bay Street Mall. But that’s the deal the developer made and is no reason for the taxpayers to take a $6 million loss. My congratulations to Ms. Crow for calling this out.”

The Oversight Board meets 5:30 pm Tuesday, July 9 in City Council Chambers, Emeryville City Hall.

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Letter (& photos) to the Editor: The Degreening of Temescal Creek Park

Dear Editor:

Makes me heartsick to see it.  All that open, green space gone for a smattering of ugly toys on top of pavement and rubber. I find it hard to believe that people with children require the destruction of a beautiful mixed use park for this unimaginative and narrow development.

Trisha Ristango
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Photo taken from outside the park (opposite view) since the new construction, which is ongoing. Submitted by Trisha Ristango.

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The (Emeryville) Ship’s Afloat

I’ve been studying the city of Emeryville’s Comprehensive Annual Report covering the year ending June 30, 2012.  Not an easy read at 206 pages, but it gives a useful picture of how we are doing as a financial entity.  My general impression is that the ship is afloat and riding fairly high in the water, at least for now.  Quarterly reports since that June, 2012 date confirm that impression.  Here are some things that caught my eye:

Sales tax revenues are up 2.5% from June, 2011 and transient occupancy taxes are up 18%.  Other revenue sources remain stable.  These are not bad signs given the lingering effects of the Great Recession.  Property tax revenues jumped 81% as a result of the dissolution of the city’s Redevelopment Agency, a one-time phenomenon.  This surge tells us little about the future.

Total expenses for governmental activities were $47.9 million in fiscal 2011-2012, a decrease of $25.5 million from the previous year.  Dissolution of the  Redevelopment Agency was responsible for most of the drop. The city’s departments, in the main, have been coming in under budget for the work they do.  In keeping with our budget philosophy, one-term windfalls are not being used for long-term projects, the General Fund reserve is at 25% of operating costs, and the Economic Uncertainty Fund stands at 19% of the General Fund.  The city is running a tight ship, and that’s wise policy in uncertain times.

The unemployment rate in Emeryville was 6.1% in June, 2012, compared to 7.9% the previous year.  To put that in wider perspective, Alameda County had an unemployment rate of 8.6% last June.  Here again we have good signs.  Let’s hope the real recovery from the recession, that is, people getting back to work at decent jobs continues.

The Annual Report offers useful information on city debt, most of which was generated by activity of our now-defunct Redevelopment Agency.  Long term liabilities as of July, 2011, stood at $175,417,781.  The cost of financing that debt annually is $8,700,290.  I didn’t find a combined figure for both principle and interest in the report, but assume it must be about $250,000,000, the amount the City Treasurer gave me a year or so ago.  Debt per capita for our small town is $16,690.  That sounds like a lot, but cheer up: the figure peaked back in 2005 at $24,401 a person.  Another way to get perspective on debt is to look at state law governing the ratio of debt to total assessed property value in a city.  The state sets a maximum of 15% debt to assessed value.  We stand at 4.26%.

No one can predict the over-all play out of shutting down the city’s Redevelopment Agency.  Will we be owed or will we owe?  Will law suits be required?  The Annual Report offers no answers to these questions. If it’s any consolation, cities across the state face the same uncertainty.  Our financial future hinges, then, on two big uncertainties: the final results of the RDA shutdown and, of course, the fate of the global economy.  So far so good.

Bill Reuter, Resident Member and Chair, City of Emeryville Finance Advisory Committee

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Hundreds of Cyclists Made Magic Last Night

 

Photo: Fun Cheap SF

Last night after 10 PM, while I was fading out via Netflix, unusual sounds from outdoors raised my awareness beyond the flickering screen. I heard many people and music, whooping and joy yelling. I thought I detected Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyries.” Off of the couch, slipped on my shoes and out onto 45th Street looking towards Horton Street. I saw a continuous flow of bicyclists with fabulous lights on their wheels, on their bodies, and multiple overlapping soundtracks emanating from sound systems mounted on racks. The music now had a beat and people were yelling “bike party!” In my 34 years in Emeryville  I have never seen or heard anything quite like this. People on bicycles just kept coming, hundreds upon hundreds of them.

New Civility
During the procession a car came down 45th St. and at the stop sign the parade of cyclists prevented this car from turning left. After about a dozen bicyclists blew through the stop sign as if they were a stampeding herd, a young woman chose to stop, a few more cyclists flew by her and then another cyclist stopped, then another. The entire following procession came to a halt and the car turned left! This was not The Critical Mass that I have seen and experienced in San Francisco but rather a new attitude of civility towards drivers.

Who Were These People ?
They were adults, youngish mostly, hardly any spandex and appeared of mixed ethnicity. The flow of people continued for at least 10 minutes and there seemed to be some cultural clustering around certain types of music: some BMX cyclists jumped on and off the sidewalk with their athletic tiny bicycles within the audio ambience of Oaklandesque rap music with a good beat. Bringing up the end of the procession were  gray-haired stragglers with cool flashing lights and lots of color riding big tired bikes.

Why?
I fantasized that these people were celebrating the just-removed yellow zone that has blocked the bike lane on Horton Street for a decade. But in fact it was the third annual  East Bay Bike Party Ride. The start this year was the Richmond BART station and the official ending was Lake Merritt Oakland. These rides will happen every Friday night this month.

Scott Donahue, 1420 45th St., studio 49, Emeryville

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Emeryville Wins Fight for Bike/Ped Bridge

An early rendering of the bike pedestrian bridge

Text reprinted from Council Member Jennifer West’s blog:

Yesterday (Thursday, May 9), the City of Emeryville had a real victory! We won our litigation against the State of California, which had denied our use of Redevelopment funds to pay for the South Bayfront Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge and Horton Landing Park, after the dissolution of Redevelopment.

It is a long and complicated story, but the short version for now is that the Department of Finance, which  insisted on us turning over funds set aside for the Bike Ped bridge connecting Stanford and 53rd St. (east of the railroad tracks) with Bay St. (west of the tracks), lost, and the City of Emeryville, the residents of Emeryville, have won!

This is a wonderful decision that came on a day of celebrating bikes and connectivity with Bike to Work Day, May 9, 2013.

The Bridge had been planned over the past 10 years or so, and was ready to go to bid for construction 2 years ago when redevelopment was ended by the state. I hope that with this decision the city can move quickly on getting the project over the train tracks moving again. Having a better connection with Bay St. will be a huge asset for the retail area, the residents, employees, and for the region. With improvements coming soon for the Bay Trail through town, and with the bike and pedestrian access to the new east span of the Bay Bridge being worked on right now, this sorely needed bike link will be important for our town.

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Letter(s) to the Editor: The Degreening of Temescal Creek Park

 

(RE Oct. 16, 2012 Letter to the Editor from Eric Gascoyne: Cut Spending, Save the Trees at Temescal Creek Park)

To the Editor:

Thanks (to Eric Gascoyne) for writing his letter. I went to the City Council meeting and spoke on behalf of the trees and the hawks. I’m glad we have saved them for now. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the park project has made a park with lots of potential into an ugly “inner city”-looking park. They paved over the entire grassy area, giving ample room for vandals to break glass, urinate, and tag on the abundant hard surfaces. If you urinate on grass or on a tree, nature will deal with it, this is not the case for man-made materials. Will Emeryville parents really want their kids riding trikes through busted glass and human urine, passing by swear words tagged all over the play structures? Do you remember who actually hung out on the former play structures? Usually they were not children. This combined with Emeryville taking over the Oakland school on Adeline and 53rd Street, sending waves of high schoolers up 53rd – littering, loitering, selling drugs and even trying to steal my cell phone, has made my neighborhood seem much worse. Now, instead of a park, I live next to an inner-city playground and a dog run. Remember when groups of people got together to host events, concerts and picnics in the park? Do you remember people doing Tai Chi, Karate, Parcor, training dogs, and strumming guitars, all integrated as a community in one common area? Now the space has been deintegrated and degreened. Not a very progressive project and obviously designed by people who do not understand or care about the area.

Francis, Emeryville resident

____________________________________________________

To the Editor:

A lovely, vibrant mixed-use park has been destroyed to create a paved over, padded romper room that leaves only a narrow patch of open green space. After all the local communities’ issues with their plan, Emeryville did some trimming of trees that they initially intended to completely remove (out of safety concerns for all the children they expect to come to the park). But they did not change or modify plans to move or reduce the amount of paved play structure area. I fully expect that once the first branch falls, they’ll swoop back in and remove the trees anyway. This is how Emeryville rolls. Thanking the community profusely for taking an interest, then doing exactly what they intended to do in the first place. Removing those trees will remove wildlife habitat. The hawks living and breeding there for years will be a casualty. But there will be a play area that no one but vandals and high school kids will use.

Emeryville’s idea of city planning has a decidedly suburban feel and is typically undertaken with HUGE spending in the initial phases. It’s as if they’ve discovered a very efficient formula – spend a ton of money before it’s even approved, and then everyone on the Planning Committee and City Council feels somehow obligated to make whatever non-essential pet project happen to justify the expense. Amateur and provincial – not the urban leaders they aspire to be. Temescal Creek Park and a planned Skate Park between the shopping center and Pixar are just two examples. Who puts a skate park in a parking lot? And WHY? Aren’t there other things that money should be spent on? Ridiculous.

What they’ve done on the Oakland edge is out of step with the neighborhood and wrong-minded. I used to think Emervyille progressive. I no longer do.

Trisha Ristagno

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Crimewatch: Robbery Near W. Oakland BART

This was recently posted on Nextdoor Emeryville, a local social networking site. The incident occurred about a week ago.

“K and I were riding our bikes along Mandela from WO BART a bit after 7:00
this evening, more or less side-by-side in the bike lane with me on
the traffic side. Just before 14th Ave. there were two young men on
the sidewalk a few yards away, and at about the time K noticed one
had a gun he lunged at her and knocked her to the ground. I saw the
gun pointed at me when I turned back, and handed him my phone and her
bag as he directed. All this as cars were passing! The gun guy
headed up 14th with our stuff, two OPD officers arrived, and half an
hour later when the reports were finished we found the bag, minus only
cash and phone, a block away. The business in front of which it
happened has a security camera, so perhaps we’ll even have pictures of
the guys — assuming a robbery where nobody was hurt rates any of a
detective’s time.

I bet most of the cyclists who passed thought we were being given a
ticket for something. 🙂

Anyway, the police said they’ve been patroling around the BART station
because, if I understood correctly, this has been happening a lot
lately. Be careful!”

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Children Matter: New Family Resource Center, and What’s New at Emeryville Child Development Center

New Family Resource and Wellness Center!

Several years ago, John Sugiyama, interim superintendent of Emery Unified School District, put together a small working group to look at services in Emeryville for children birth to 5 and their families.  There were many gaps in services and families looked to Berkeley and Oakland for support.  Using information prepared by the working group, Superintendent Sugiyama wrote a federal grant to bring resources to these families and fill the service gaps.  Emeryville USD received a federal grant of $250,000 to open a Family Resource Center and alleviate some of the difficulties families faced.

The grant’s main purpose is to provide a “rainbow of services” targeted at children and families of all ages.  This grant provides funding to set up the Family Resource Center and implement a unique city-wide, birth to 5 project—”The 5 Bold Initiatives”—that encompasses (1) search and serve, (2) promoting  school readiness, (3) building community capacity to access services, (4) a coordinated network of service providers, and (5) early screening, identification and referral.

The Family Resource and Wellness Center opened on March 26th at the city’s recreational building, 4300 San Pablo Ave.  The 5 Bold Initiatives Project has been incorporated into EUSD’s Coordinated School Health: A Framework for Wellness Program and is one of eight elements in this framework.  For more information on this project, contact Wanda Hundley, Family Resource Center Director, 510.596.4384; wanda.hundley@emeryusd.org.

What’s New at the Emeryville Child Development Center

The Emeryville Child Development Center (ECDC), (located at 1220 53rd St.), will be hiring new teachers.  As staff numbers increase the Center will be able to enroll more children to meet ECDC’s new licensing capacity.  In October, the Center lost its second Director in less than two years. The director, Mary Anne Doan, took a position at First 5, Alameda County.  The new director, Diana Garcia-Ortiz, originally hired as an Interim Family Subsidy Specialist in October, and Education Supervisor Antoinette Edwards, who was hired in November, are working together to realize the potential of the program.  It is not an easy task, and it needs the support of the teachers, advisory committee, city staff, city council and the community, including local businesses, both small and large.  New ECDC Advisory Committee Chair Mira Roseman has replaced Brian Carver, and Council Member Jac Asher has replaced Council Member Nora Davis as Advisory Committee member.  There are still opportunities to join the committee so please consider getting involved!

The Center no longer serves food from its kitchen, but now contracts with a food service program for the children’s meals.  Although there is a beautiful kitchen on site, it is difficult because of staffing issues to organize and cook daily meals.

The Value of Emeryville’s Child Development Center (ECDC)

What does it mean for the city of Emeryville to have a Center such as ECDC right here in our small town?  The possibilities are endless.  This is a chance for the city to think about what it means to support a relationship-based center that connects to the whole community.  A report on the center in March 2012, conducted by BANDTEC, an early education consultancy group, provided crucial information that enabled the city and Center to begin work toward excellent care and education. This report is available on the ECDC city website. It is worth reading.  It offers a comprehensive look at multiple aspects of the program and highlights both areas of strength and areas in which growth and support are required.  It is important to understand the impact of such a thorough analysis of the city’s program.  And, this transparency is an indication of the commitment of the council and staff to have a high-quality center in our city.  The center has been working since March toward achieving the report’s recommendations through a quality improvement plan (QIP).

With so much change and lack of continuity in leadership in the past two years, there is more stress, and staff and children are vulnerable to it. Meanwhile, the state’s licensing agency is stretched thin, having suffered numerous cutbacks over the last few years. For this reason, the agency only attends to programs brought its attention. It would take a book to explain the challenges to quality, support, and training facing early education here in California and nationwide.  But there are many groups working with our own ECDC to improve its quality and to build a community for children and families.

The Center itself is a beautiful building and the environment offers great learning spaces for children and adults.  But one of the questions  remaining for me is will the city and staff open themselves up to multiple perspectives on how children learn and how best to support them and their families?  One of the areas that must be examined is curriculum.  This is such an important part of what makes a program successful.  It is so easy to get caught up in a particular ready-made curriculum that costs a fortune but provides minimal results.  I hope, with wider discussion, we can avoid such traps.  We have several excellent programs close by that could serve as sister schools to support the staff in moving toward excellence in both curriculum development and understanding children’s learning.

Stay connected to Emeryville’s early education center.  Support it any way you can.  Please consider donating to Friends of ECDC, a non-profit that supports the Center’s work. There is also a scholarship program being developed to help low-income families. Supporting young children and families is crucial for the good of the whole community.  As James Heckman, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, said: “Great gains are to be had by investing in early childhood development—from birth to age five.”

“Children Matter” columnist Ruth Major is an Early Education and Infant Family Mental Health Consultant. She is also Executive Director of the Read-Aloud Volunteer Program (RAVP) in Richmond, CA.

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An Emeryville Retrospective: Sneaking into an Oaks Game in 1949

I was thinking the other day about my first time in Emeryville, not driving past the city but putting feet on the ground in it.  The attraction was an Oakland Oaks ball game against the San Diego Padres in the summer of 1949, an encounter between two Pacific Coast League teams in the era before major league baseball came to the Bay Area.  Two friends and I, all teenagers with no money to speak of, heard from an acquaintance that you could sneak into an Oaks game through a loose board along the 45th Street wall of the stadium, the wall along the first-base foul line. Off we went in a borrowed car from our homes in Concord to mysterious Emeryville, found the loose board, and made it into the stadium. (I still feel guilty about our modest larceny.)

We had hoped to see Ralph “Pine Tar” Buxton pitch for the Oaks, famous (or infamous) for loading the ball with pine tar hidden in his mitt.  The illegal stuff gave Buxton, a right-handed pitcher, a wicked “screwball” that broke back over the plate from outside on right-handed batters or in over the plate to lefties.  To our disappointment, Buxton didn’t pitch on the day of our illegal entry.  But the general quality of play didn’t disappoint.  The Pacific Coast League was a classy minor league operation loaded with good ball players, many of whom would make it to the majors.  It was my first look at professional baseball, and I was dazzled.

Even more memorable, however, was the behavior of a cluster of Oaks fans who sat in the right field bleachers, just behind whoever played defense in right field.  They chose to torment the Padres’ right fielder when the Oaks batted, and the torment amazed me, a kid from small-town Concord who had never seen pros play or heard fans at a pro game indulge in verbal abuse.  They questioned the Padres player’s manhood, the size of certain key body parts, the alleged lack of virtue of his mother, the probable profession of any sisters he may have had, and added a stream of other demeaning queries.

The Padres right fielder took it all without showing any sign of dismay.  At the end of the game—the Padres won—he caught a fly ball for the final out, turned to the bleachers, tossed the ball under hand to his tormenters, and, still poker faced, trotted off the field.  Not quite an example of Hemmingway’s definition of courage—grace under pressure—perhaps, but a gesture showing real professional aplomb.  I was impressed, and it made a perfect end to a memorable afternoon.  I’ve had other memorable afternoons since then in Emeryville, but this one still has a special glow.

Bill Reuter, 34-year-resident of Emeryville, and counting …

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