The Secret News

City Council is Unanimous in Ruling that Woodfin Owes Workers $200,000 in Back Wages

by Tracy Schroth

Current and former Woodfin hotel workers are now one step closer to victory in their three-year fight for more than $200,000 in back wages. The Emeryville City Council voted last week to formally adopt written findings of fact in the case, essentially ratifying its Jan. 15 voice vote that Woodfin must pay back wages to dozens of immigrant workers. The final vote follows a marathon five days of hearings over two months. The Council rejected Woodfin’s appeal of the city manager’s finding in 2006, ordering the hotel to pay the additional wages to comply with the city’s “living wage” ordinance.

The Council ultimately rejected Woodfin’s argument that it is in compliance with Measure C, a 2004 initiative that established a “living wage” for workers at Emeryville hotels, and also set guidelines for working conditions.

City Attorney Mike Biddle has sent a letter to Woodfin General Manager Hugh MacIntosh stating that the Woodfin has until March 31 to pay the back wages, along with its annual permit fee. The letter asks that MacIntosh supply the required declarations confirming the payments were made, to whom, and for how much, no later than April 15. If the Woodfin fails to meet the payment deadline, it will be denied a renewal of its permit to operate.

Sam Hardage, owner of the Woodfin, at 5800 Shellmound Street, has spent well over $200,000 in legal fees trying to fight the order to pay the back wages, arguing that room cleaners received help with their work from supervisors and therefore the wages owed are considerably less. When asked to elaborate, Woodfin attorneys said that supervisors helped clean the rooms “with their eyes and their heads” (whatever that means).

Woodfin Suites Hotels, a privately held company, was founded by CEO Hardage, who earned the rank of “pioneer” in the 2004 George Bush re-election campaign by raising more than $100,000 in contributions. In 2008, Hardage raised about the same amount for Arizona Sen. John McCain‘s presidential bid. Hardage also was a major contributor to the re-election campaign of former California Congressman Randy “Duke” Cuningham, now serving time in federal prison for accepting kick-backs from military contractors.

Square One Yoga Collective, a new studio offering low-cost yoga classes and community events, is opening March 1 in the Triangle Neighborhood of Emeryville.

Katy Cryer, a neighborhood resident, is teaming up with 11 other Bay Area yoga teachers to make the transformative art of yoga available to everyone, regardless of income. At the heart of Cryer’s vision is the belief that yoga has become too expensive for many of the people who need it most.

“Yoga changed my life,” she said, “It helped me become calmer, more centered, more self-assured, and more compassionate toward others. It even helped me break a 15-year tobacco addiction. Everybody should have this.”

Cryer plans to offer classes for $10 — two-thirds to one-half what most other Bay Area studios charge. Neighborhood residents for whom even $10 is prohibitively expensive will be given the opportunity to apply for scholarships.

San Francisco architect Pablo Ortiz Pena is designing the interior of the studio, while Leigh Okies of Leigh Okies and the Office of Fine Print, also in San Francisco, is meeting all of Square One’s graphic design needs. Both Pena and Okies are working pro bono, sharing Cryer’s belief that yoga is a conduit for social and personal change.

“Many, many hours of their hard work is making Square One not only the most affordable of Bay Area studios, but also perhaps the most beautiful,” Cryer said.

All events and classes on opening day (March 1) will be free and open to the public. Classes will begin at 9:30 am, 11:30 am and 4 pm. There will be a reception following the final class of the day. Sein Feit, an Oakland musician, will hold a kirtan (call and response chanting in the Hindu tradition) at 7:30 pm.

For more information, please contact Katy Cryer at 510-547-9700 or 415-652-8229, katy@squareoneyoga.com, visit website at www.squareoneyoga.com, or drop by the studio — Square One Yoga Collective, 4336A San Pablo Ave., Emeryville, CA 94608.

Secret News Request Prompts Blanket Ban on “Outside Publications,” including Chamber Newsletter, Restaurant Flyers

By Brian Donahue, Marc Albert, and Tracy Schroth

A request by The Secret News to place printed copies of the Emeryville city news blog in City Hall – alongside the Chamber of Commerce newsletter, The Emeryville Connection — has triggered an all-out news ban by City Manager Patrick O’Keefe. As a result of The Secret News’ request, O’Keefe has declared all “outside publications” prohibited, including restaurant and other business flyers formerly posted in the employee break room, and the Connection, copies of which were neatly stacked at the front counter for the past two + years.

The ban was issued last Thursday, at the advice of City Attorney Mike Biddle, just two hours after The Secret News made its request to place printed copies at City Hall.

In an e-mail to City officials, Chamber President Bob Canter vowed compliance with the new ban (see below), and that he supports the arrest of individuals caught distributing any publications at City Hall.

It’s the second time in recent years that the City has been challenged over its support of the Chamber’s newsletter, which serves primarily as a pro- government PR sheet. The first challenge came when it was discovered the City was actually using taxpayer money to bankroll the Connection, at a cost of $43,000 a year. This is despite the Chamber’s status as a private, independent membership organization with no formal city affiliation. The Chamber lost its taxpayer subsidy, and soon switched from glossy 4-color to newsprint.

Email to City officials from Chamber President Bob Canter:

Bay Street mall design “really abysmal” says urban planner Daniel Iacofano of MIG, Inc.

Below is an excerpt of an interview with Daniel Iacofano by The Inclusive City, a website that promotes the concept of “inclusive design”and Iacofano’s book about it, which he co-authored with Susan M. Goltsman. Iacofano and Goltsman co-founded the premier urban planning and design firm MIG, Inc. in Berkeley. Inclusive design refers to an approach to planning that promotes social and economic equity and community development, with full interaction and accessibility for all residents. Click here to read the entire interview.

Are there any specific examples of design under so-called New Urbanism that may look good from the outside, but don’t achieve the principles of social inclusion you espouse?

Daniel Iacofano: The Bay Street project in Emeryville, California, fails on many different levels. It purports to be a Main Street, with cars driving through, but it’s really a mall without a roof, with housing integrated into it. There are no neighborhood-serving stores where the people who live there can shop; you don’t go into a Gap every day—that store is a regional draw. And people who work there can’t afford to live there. There are no free gathering spaces and no parks. It’s not an authentic neighborhood and socially it just doesn’t work.

From the point of view of design, it’s really abysmal. Again, they’re trying to mimic a street, with sidewalks, streets and gutters. But it would have been better from an accessibility perspective—for people with disabilities—to eliminate the curbs and use a different technique of delineating the pedestrian right-of-way from the auto right-of-way. That’s where urban design is moving, by the way—towards a shared right-of-way.

So they totally missed it in Emeryville because they were lured into old ideas of what a city looks like. They had the opportunity to control the environment and make it universal design; instead they erected their own barriers. It was an uncritical re-adaptation of a Main Street icon and fails in what it’s trying to do. They began with a packaged idea and made no attempt to create an authentic environment.

Letter to the Emeryville City Council
(Reprint of letter sent to the City Council prior to its vote on Jan. 20 to demolish the historic brick building at 39th and Adeline Streets – designated as “architecturally significant” under the City’s own preservation ordinance. It is the third “architecturally significant” building the City Council has voted to demolish in the past year. )

Esteemed City Council Members,

I write to express my concern about the brick building currently
standing at 39th and Adeline. This building is an important part of
our landscape. Please don’t give a developer a free pass to demolish
it.

I am not anti-development. I enjoy living in Emeryville, and I love
seeing it thrive and grow. But “smart growth” is different than
“growth at any cost.” We can bring in new businesses and new
residents without violating our own policies for preservation of
historic structures.

Emeryville is strong, and it does not need to destroy its heritage
just to put up another cookie-cutter, vision-less new building. Many
Emeryville residents — long-time residents like me — love living in a
city that is different, quirky, and built on a legacy of industrial
and bricks-and-mortar growth. We love the way it looks. Yes, we must
grow – but not at any cost.

To me, this is part of a larger issue about the City’s vision for
growth, and its priorities. Do we pass resolutions that reflect our values, only to abandon them at the first request of a developer?

Tuesday is my anniversary, and I will be unable to appear personally
at the council meeting. But I write to let you know that this issue
is very important to me, and I vote. Every time.

Thanks to Brian Donahue, John Fricke, and the Secret News for shining
a light on this important issue.

K.H.
6363 Christie Ave. (PPP)
…E’ville since ’05 – and loving it!

Bukowski Brings “Disrepute” to City,
Says Council Member Ruth Atkin

by Marc Albert and Tracy Schroth

A resolution aimed at censuring embattled Vice Mayor Ken Bukowski ended up going nowhere when Council Member Ruth Atkin withdrew the resolution she had introduced at the City Council’s Jan. 20 meeting. The strongly worded resolution criticized Bukowski for bringing “disrepute” on the city in general and the City Council in particular. The censure sought to publicly condemn Bukowski’s actions and invite “the reaffirmation of his oath of office and commitment to govern his activities as an elected official … in full compliance with … all laws of the State of California and the City of Emeryville.”

Atkin’s resolution offered up a laundry list of recent offenses by Bukowski, including:

• Failure to pay business license tax on his Doyle Street rental property.
• Disclosure to the public of confidential closed-session items discussed by the City Council. There is speculation that the disclosure had to do with the firing of a city staffer who alleged that the firing was racially motivated. Bukowski sided with the employee, publicly criticizing the handling of the case by then City Manager John Flores and City Attorney Mike Biddle. The city ultimately settled the case for $3.6 million.
• Failure to file the necessary campaign finance reports between October 2003 and 2006, “despite repeated reminders and requests from the City Clerk’s Office and referral to the Fair Political Practices Commission.” Bukowski has since been fined by the Fair Political Practices Commission, according to the resolution.
• Soliciting and obtaining personal loans from individuals that exceed limits and terms set by the Political Reform Act and not repaying at least one of those loans. It was disclosed at a public meeting several months ago that Bukowski received a loan from Emeryville developer Francis Collins.
  
• Entering into a consulting contract with Paxio, Inc., an Internet service provider that also has a contract with the city to supply services, and failing to disclose that consulting agreement to his fellow City Council members.
  
• Participating in and influencing decisions of the City Council regarding Paxio while on Paxio’s payroll.

Bukowski has “flouted and violated the law governing his activities as a local business owner and as a member of the office of the City Council on several occasions,” the resolution said, noting that “these violations are not limited to an isolated incident and have brought disrepute to the City of Emeryville” and the City Council. The resolution went on to say that the Council has “grown weary of Council Member Bukowski’s pattern of violating the law, followed by promises of reform once violations have been publicly exposed, and thereafter followed by further violations after some period of relatively ‘good behavior’ … “

But after about 20 minutes of discussion at the Council’s Jan. 20 meeting — during which Council Member Nora Davis accused Atkin of introducing a “self-serving” resolution — Atkin withdrew the resolution, preventing a vote.

Bukowski declined to comment for this story.

As readers of The Secret News know, Bukowski is no stranger to controversy. In addition to the offenses listed above, he recently fell behind on his property taxes for one of the two structures on his Doyle Street property to the tune of $1,719.56. In addition, despite repeated notices from the city for health code violations at that same property, Bukowski failed to clean it up, ultimately requiring the city to do so (at taxpayer’s expense).

Finally, the Vice-Mayor is being sued by the widow of Michael Smela, a Novartis security guard and former San Francisco police officer, who was struck and killed by Bukowski’s vehicle minutes after Bukowski drove away from a community meeting at the Novartis complex on Hollis Street alittle more than a year ago. That suit is pending.

To Mayor Dick Kassis and members of the City Council:

I heard that Mayor Kassis recently warned the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce about “outside forces.” Exactly who are these “forces”? I presume he means the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, and those of us who live in Emeryville and criticize the decisions of the City Council.

We have not had any local, in-depth news coverage for the 11 years I have lived here. The only “newspaper” has been the The Emeryville Connection, put out by the Chamber of Commerce. Finally, several residents have started The Secret News, which informs residents of city developments, and our mayor has the nerve to call us “outside forces”?

Some council members have been in office far too long. They have become accustomed to calling the shots and paying only lip service to those who dare speak out against them. One member of the City Council does not pay his business license tax, is in arrears on his property tax, and fails to clean up his own property, thus forcing the city (the taxpayers) to foot the bill for the cleanup. That same council member was on the payroll of a company doing business with the city, yet sees no conflict of interest. He says he is broke. My suggestion to him is that he should, like the rest of us, look for a job. Yet his irresponsible behavior is supported by the City Council majority. Why? I suppose so they can hold on to that majority.

Residents are cordially invited to attend meetings (myself excluded. I often don’t receive notices about meetings on crucial issues concerning the north Emeryville area, where I live. I am either omitted from the mailing list altogether, or told that the city had the wrong address for me), yet when they do, their suggestions and concerns are not heeded. No wonder many residents, myself included, have stopped attending meetings.

I am presently trying to raise money from family, friends, and neighbors to obtain bookcases on wheels for the Anna Yates School library, where I have volunteered for the past four years. In my plea for money, I explain that if the City of Emeryville provided more money for the schools (we only have two), instead of giving Starbucks $60,000 to cover move-in costs, an undisclosed amount of money to Pac N’ Save so they can “upgrade” to a Safeway, and tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to developers, I would not have to beg my friends for money. Why should Emeryville taxpayers subsidize publicly traded corporations? The City Council sees that the city will get revenue from development, but none from the schools. But what they fail to see is that the children who attend these schools are the future of Emeryville, if they can actually afford to live here when they grow up.

It’s time for change in Emeryville.

Shirley Enomoto
Emeryville resident

by Brian Donahue

Current and former Woodfin Suites Hotel workers, cheated out of $200,000 in wages by the company, won a major victory Thursday when the Emeryville City Council ordered the hotel to make good on its debt. The Council rejected Woodfin’s appeal of the city manager’s finding in 2006, ordering the hotel to pay the additional wages to comply with city ordinance. Failure to comply would result in the Woodfin being denied a renewal of its permit to operate.

In a 2-2 vote, the Council rejected Woodfin’s argument that it is in compliance with Measure C, a 2004 initiative that established a “living wage” for workers at Emeryville hotels, and also set guidelines for working conditions. The hotel needed a majority to win its appeal.

The Thursday council vote capped a marathon five-day hearing — yet another skirmish in the war of attrition between supervisors and hotel room cleaners that has dragged on since activists began gathering signatures for Measure C four years ago.

“Its bad business,” Council Member John Fricke said after the meeting. “They’ve already spent more on fighting this than what the workers are asking for.”

Fricke and Council Member Ruth Atkin voted in favor of the workers. Mayor Dick Kassis and Council Member Nora Davis voted against the workers, and in favor of the Woodfin and its owner, Sam Hardage, former chairman of the San Diego County Republican Party and major Republican fundraiser.

Drama reached a crescendo when Woodfin attorneys accused Fricke and Vice Mayor Ken Bukowski of a pro-worker bias and asked them to recuse themselves. Bukowski agreed, but Fricke refused, stating that he harbored no such bias and could vote objectively.

The Woodfin has consistently argued that room cleaners are not owed the $200,000 in pay because they received help with their work from supervisors. When asked to elaborate, Woodfin attorneys said that supervisors helped clean the rooms “with their eyes and their heads,” and therefore the wages owed to rank-and-file employees are considerably lower.

Woodfin Suites Hotels, a privately held company, was founded by CEO Hardage, who earned the rank of “pioneer” in the 2004 George Bush re-election campaign by raising more than $100,000 in contributions. In 2008, Hardage raised about the same amount for Arizona Sen. John McCain‘s presidential bid. Hardage also was a major contributor to the re-election campaign of Randy “Duke” Cuningham, now serving time in federal prison for accepting kick-backs from military contractors.

A Christian evangelical, Hardage may wish to re-read the biblical story of David and Goliath and discern its meaning.

Edited version of email to residents from Council Member John Fricke (sent Jan. 13 2008)

On Tuesday, Jan. 20th, Barack Obama will begin restoring Lincoln’s promise of government for the people. But in Emeryville, Tuesday will mark yet another day when the City Council grants developers whatever they ask, with little concrete benefit to the residents.

The City Council majority is poised to grant another demolition permit so that a developer can tear down an old brick commercial building on Adeline Street at 39th Street:
http://www.johnfricke.com/39th-Adeline1.jpg

Last November, the Council granted a demolition permit to tear down an old brick commercial building at Doyle and Powell streets:
http://www.johnfricke.com/Doyle-Powell1.jpg

Two years ago, the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the demolition of a significant structure absent Council approval. Both the buildings cited above both meet the criteria of a significant structure. One would think that passing such an ordinance would result in significant structures being preserved.

Please attend this Tuesday’s meeting and urge the Council to save the building at 39th and Adelines streets. Please contact your neighbors and urge them to join you at the meeting:

Tuesday, January 20th, 7:15 p.m.
1333 Park Avenue (@ Hollis Street

If you are interested in helping contact neighbors, please email jfricke@johnfricke.com

We had a chance last year to significantly change the composition of the City Council, when 3 of the members were up for re-election. Why Emeryville residents did not do so is a mystery to me. I support any effort to make our council more accountable to the people who live here – not just the people who build here.

K.H.
_______________________________

Open Letter to the Emeryville City Council

I would like to voice my protest of the apparently inevitable issuance of a demolition permit that would allow the destruction of the historic buildings at the corner of 39th and Adeline as well Powell and Doyle.

Emeryville has a wonderful stock of older buildings that could be parleyed into a successful marketing approach to attract potential residents, tourists, and businesses. The apparent over-willingness of the city government to destroy the unique cultural resources which separate Emeryville from surrounding communities only serves to diminish the future potential for economic growth in the city. The potential for growth in Emeryville, as elsewhere, will lie in differentiating itself from other communities, as shoppers, businesses, and families decide where they want to spend their time and money.

Emeryville needs only to package their heritage resources properly to take advantage of the enormous opportunity it possesses to tap into the niche-appeal of unique communities. I encourage you to peruse the National Trust’s Main Street Program website at http://www.mainstreet.org/ to see what so many other communities have accomplished by using the “Main Street Approach.” This is a program begun by the National Trust over 30 years ago. It has been incredibly successful, benefiting cities both small and large across the country by showing them approaches to set themselves apart from other cities by highlighting their cultural and architectural uniqueness and desirability, and combining it all into a marketable package. This can lead to enormous economic opportunities using many resources that the city already has, along with opening up state and federal grants to rehabilitate and rejuvenate historic neighborhoods, as well as individual buildings. Emeryville has used a similar approach in the past by taking advantage of Brownfields grants to bring many contaminated parts of the city back to useful operation. Emeryville can do the same thing with the Main Street Program to improve its other residential and commercial districts. This is especially important during these trying economic times.

I would direct you to Pleasanton, Berkeley, and Livermore as some examples that illustrate the success of this program. All of these cities are participants in this program and have benefited greatly. The Book, “Main Street Success Stories” has more details on how many cities around the country have very successfully utilized this approach in both good and bad economic times: https://www.mainstreet.org/content.aspx?page=4327.

Thank you.

Douglas Bright
Environmental Planner (Architectural History)