Emeryville Resident Demands Answers from City Council on Developer Subsidies and Staff Salaries

An open letter to the Emeryville City Council and all interested Emeryville residents.

I recently attended a Town Hall meeting that did not address the following issues:

• Subsidies for developer Madison Marquette – I want to know, and so should all citizens, the amount of the subsidy the council is planning to give. I want to know how much money the city will receive from the proposed project over a 2-year, 5-year and 10-year time period. I want to know why the council has renewed the ENA (exclusive negotiating agreement) several times and plans to do so again. I want to know why the council will not open bidding to other developers.
• Proposed assessment of property owners – the above info will provide numbers on revenue intake and thus possibly make a proposed property assessment unnecessary or minimal. I am opposed, and so should you be, to any assessment without knowing the amount of money the city will receive from any proposed subsidy. I want to know how much money the city wants to subsidize the developer with. If there is an assessment at some point, I want all persons owning property to pay the same amount – that will eliminate political bickering over who uses more services.
• Belt tightening action by the city – it is my understanding that the city is considering cuts to salary and benefits and that same is suggested by the city manager to be considered within a year. It is reasonable to assume that City Manager Patrick O’Keefe and City Attorney Mike Biddle are the highest-paid employees, with the city attorney being paid a probable six-figure income. The city attorney wrote/writes his own contract and has had it renewed over many years, perhaps now through 2011. How does the sitting city attorney get to write his own contract? The city manager, I think, also gets a six-figure salary and I think has also had his contract renewed through 2011. I think the city council should make clear why they have permitted Biddle to write his own contract many times; and, if applicable, why they have permitted O’Keefe to also write his own employment description. I think their exact salaries and benefits is public information and I want that information to be made known to all citizens of Emeryville. Insofar as I am aware, neither the city attorney nor city manager have offered to take less money when, in fact, any cuts should start with them – the highest paid persons, and then proceed to those who are paid less. I believe that the city attorney and city manager discuss cuts to the city’s employees’ salaries, but why have they not included themselves? I think this is Orwellian – in his novel, Animal Farm, Orwell said, “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” I don’t think that should be an acceptable stance by either Biddle, O’Keefe, or the city council. I believe that the two highest-paid employees should not be able to pass the problem of decreasing city revenues to those they gaze down upon from lofty heights of salary and benefits. I also ask the council why these two positions have always been renewed with the same persons occupying them and whether there been efforts to actively consider other individuals? After all, the current fiscal problems of the city have occurred on their watch. If these concerns are not addressed, and if the information requested is not provided, I think Emeryville citizens should either consider a recall of the council or, in the alternative, should vote the council out. Given that they have protected Vice Mayor Ken Bukowski, their self interest is more than clear.
  

Walt Watman
Emeryville resident