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Letter to the Editor: Eliminate Emeryville’s Redevelopment Agency and Eliminate the Abuse

June 22, 2011
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Letter to the Editor: Eliminate Emeryville’s Redevelopment Agency and Eliminate the Abuse

The Redevelopment Agency in Emeryville is a fiasco: money for developers, bankers/brokers, attorneys, and consultants.  Emeryville runs a tight little agency with many city staffers working on mostly redevelopment agendas.  Where do the property taxes go?  They go back into the agency, thereby negating monies meant for cities, counties, and school districts that would normally receive them.  Who pays the bills on the loan interest?  I look to the general fund to see.  Help me understand a city that continues to subsidize big business, while at the same time failing to support the one early education facility in town, and also failing to support family friendly housing — a purported goal of a redevelopment agency. The redevelopment agency — comprised of the city’s 5 council members — has made these deals with corporations in good faith, expecting to get a return for the city.  What are these corporations doing?  Disney Pixar, Novartis, etc., etc.  They are going to the county and demanding that their property taxes be lowered.  So much for your good faith contracts with the big boys in town.  And as for housing, it has been severely compromised, with little or no family housing being built.  Land set aside for family housing was given away

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Letter to the Editor: City Council Should Address High Cost, Job Performance of City Manager & City Attorney

May 24, 2011
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Letter to the Editor: City Council Should Address High Cost, Job Performance of City Manager & City Attorney

Letter to the Editor re: Should Big Business Pay Their Fair Share? (May 16, 2011) Once again, it is broken record time. While it’s true that great sums of money are involved when we talk about big business paying more of its share in taxes commensurate with profits  – and that’s a good idea – I do not want to lose sight of another important issue involving money: the City Council continues to ignore the excessive salary and benefits given to City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe and City Attorney Mike Biddle, and the question of whether their positions should be open to other candidates. The fact is that the city’s budget deficit is the responsibility, ultimately, of O’Keeffe, and yet he steadfastly refuses to take on that responsibility. His poor performance is continually ignored by the City Council. Neither Biddle’s nor O’Keeffe’s performance evaluations have been made public. Why hasn’t the Council allowed both positions to be posted so other, perhaps more qualified, candidates can apply? Has there been an analysis done of the salary, benefits, and cost reductions possible if the city allowed open competition for both positions? These glaring budget-related issues continue to go unaddressed and citizens continue to pay

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