{"id":162,"date":"2009-11-24T17:16:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T17:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terragrafix.com\/blog\/?p=162"},"modified":"2009-11-24T17:16:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-24T17:16:00","slug":"open-letter-to-the-emeryville-city-council-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to the Emeryville City Council"},"content":{"rendered":"


New Council Members Should Address Staff Salaries and Hiring Practices, Ken Bukowski Debacle(s) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

by Walt Watman<\/p>\n

While everyone has the right to speak up about what is most important to them, it seems to me that issues like the ones below, which I have raised before and which continue to be ignored by the City Council, continue to be of great import.<\/p>\n

I ask that the newly elected City Council members<\/span> consider what I am about to say and take a stand on these matters,<\/p>\n

1) Insisting that the City Council publish the salaries of City Attorney Mike Biddle and City Manager Patrick O’Keefe, and also insist that they, as the city’s highest-paid employees, take a salary cut. The reduction in their salaries might prevent layoffs of other city employees earning far less, or at least allow the city to retain those employees part-time. Cuts should start at the top, not the bottom.<\/p>\n

2) Insisting that the City Council explain, and then remedy, the fact that it has never permitted City Attorney Biddle’s position to be posted, thus allowing a fair and competitive hiring process. After all, Biddle “negotiated ” a $1.25 million settlement cost to the city in the wrongful death suit filed by the widow of Michael Smela, who was struck and killed by Bukowski as he drove away from a community meeting. This is an instance of what I consider questionable performance in these troubled financial times. And there are other such instances, yet Biddle’s contract is renewed without any competition from other candidates.<\/p>\n

3) Insisting that the City Council explain why they slap the citizens of Emeryville in the face by making no statement about and taking no action to remove Council Member Ken Bukowski even though he has been fined for political practice violations, and continues to blame the sun, the stars, and everyone else for his actions, taking no responsiblity for any of them.<\/p>\n

4) Insisting that the City Council disclose the amounts of subsidies to developers, and the revenue the city will get in return from giving those subsidies to their fair-haired developers. Not to mention why they have not allowed us to know the details of various developers’ proposals.<\/p>\n

If this kind of naked abuse of power, disregard of citizens’ right to know, contemptuous defiance of what is right in favor of self-serving politics — not to mention the spending of taxpayer money for salaries and projects that are not made known to them and are not fairly determined — were addressed by the new Council members, then such matters as pedestrian rights, bicycle lanes, and the like would not require so much attention because the Council would be acting in good faith.<\/p>\n

This is a matter of the rights of all citizens to open government, to explanations of spending, to fair employment practices, to getting the best city attorney and city manager rather than the ones most willing to shake hands with the Council who hired them. This is a matter of priorities, not whose ox is being gored.<\/p>\n

Walt Watman <\/span>has lived in Emeryville for eight years. While national issues such as health care and the wars in I<\/span>raq<\/span> and Afghanistan have most of his attention, he finds it difficult to be silent on Emeryville matters when the people’s business is conducted in ways that are unprincipled and bad for the city. Walt believes the city deserves better.
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