(Reprinted from the Emeryville Tattler) by Brian Donahue Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman holdout to the end Barraged with calls and e-mails from constituents, councilwoman Ruth Atkin finally relented today and agreed to permit a November ballot initiative to eliminate the position of Emeryville City Attorney to move forward. Ms. Atkin’s change of heart marked the
Special Meeting of City Council Required to Get the Issue on the November Ballot (Reprinted with permission from Jennifer West’s Blog). Enough residents have signed a petition (10% of registered voters) to have a ballot initiative placed on the November ballot. This ballot measure would allow the voters to decide if the city should
The Secret News introduces: E-VILLE LEAKS This section will feature verbatim reports, memos, and other city documents that we believe contain important and useful information. Please let us know if you have a document to share. If you wish to remain anonymous, that’s fine. Many of these are public documents, but are deliberately not
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
In the face of a major budget crisis, Oakland is considering closing 14 of its 18 libraries, including Golden Gate on the Emeryville border. Other locations to be closed are Asian, Brookfield, Cesar Chavez, Eastmont, Elmhurst, Lakeview, Martin Luther King, Melrose, Montclair, Piedmont, Temescal, West Oakland, AAMLO, and the Tool Lending Library. Monday, June 20, Save
The Emeryville City Council last night ignored Pixar’s pleas and instructed the city attorney to begin preparations for a November ballot initiative on whether business taxes should be raised. In a stunning 5-0 vote that featured two reversals, the council moved forward two issues for voters’ consideration: raising the tax rate on
For years, the City Council has given the city’s biggest businesses the biggest tax breaks. Residents and small business owners in town have begun to ask why. On Tuesday, the City Council will decide whether to put an initiative on the November ballot asking voters to decide whether the city’s multi-billion dollar businesses should pay what