{"id":2452,"date":"2012-10-01T14:34:24","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T14:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2012-10-04T15:43:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T15:43:30","slug":"city-staff-deliberately-misled-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=2452","title":{"rendered":"Emeryville City Staff Deliberately Misled City Council on Arborist Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-2452 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-02-07.39.45.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-02-07.39.45-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-02-07.40.01.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-02-07.40.01-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2468\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2468'>\n\t\t\t\tWhen the city failed to post notices on the trees to be cut down, resident Adrian McGilly took it upon himself to do so. While such notice is required under the city&#8217;s Urban Forestry Ordinance, the city is exempt. (Click on photos to enlarge.)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-02-07.40.35.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/2012-10-02-07.40.35-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Open letter to City Council says staff instructed &#8220;Parkside&#8221; developer to delete portions of arborist&#8217;s report<\/h3>\n<p>City Council Members:<\/p>\n<p>Attached is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Emeryville-Staff-Report.pdf\">Staff Report<\/a> you all received prior to voting to authorize the removal of 33 mature trees along Stanford. \u00a0It includes the arborist report commissioned by Archstone and produced by Hortscience Inc., which recommends the destruction of those trees. As you know, I find it sad and misguided that mature trees will be destroyed on a site that is being turned into a public park. I find this decision so repulsive that I have spent a lot of time trying to understand how it happened. I want to share with you some of my findings.<\/p>\n<p>As Mayor Jennifer West recently pointed out in her blog, before sending that arborist report to you,\u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the city staff directed Archstone to remove two important sections from the arborist report<\/span><\/strong>. Those sections were entitled:<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Guidelines for tree preservation during the design, construction and maintenance phases of development&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>and<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The appraised value of the trees.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em>I find it very disturbing that the city&#8217;s planning department would instruct a\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">private developer<\/span> to change their report in a way that draws attention\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">away from<\/span> tree preservation measures before sending that report to City Council. I find it disturbing for these reasons:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It shows a blatant disregard for transparency.<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It shows a complete disregard for the City Council&#8217;s right to make final decisions based on\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">complete information<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Given that working around the trees is surely more expensive for Archstone than cutting them all down, it raises disturbing questions as to why the city staff would do such a thing.<\/p>\n<p>The same questions arise out of the city&#8217;s decision\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">not to post signs on the trees<\/span> alerting citizens to the proposed tree removal. Last year, the city\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">did post signs<\/span> on a handful of city trees just outside city hall prior to their removal, even though the city wasn&#8217;t required to do so under the Urban Forestry Ordinance. So why didn&#8217;t it do that for these 33 trees?<\/p>\n<p>You were deliberately misled by city staff, and citizens were deliberately deprived of a standard notification process for no good reason. All of this helped spare a private developer the expense and inconvenience of working around mature trees in the construction of a public park. There is something very fishy about all of this. \u00a0I request that you look into the matter and please get back to me. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Adrian McGilly<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you wish to share your opinion on this (or any other) matter with the City Council, email the Council at City_Council@ci.emeryville.ca.us\u00a0and\/or\u00a0\u00a0call\u00a0\u00a0(510) 596-4376\u00a0and leave a message. Also, you can submit your comment below. If you write a letter to the Council and would like it published in The Secret News, please email tschroth@yahoo.com. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>(The author is the husband of Emeryville Mayor Jennifer West. They live at Doyle Street co-housing.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(If you want to comment on this story, or read the comments of others, please click on the headline to go to the story page, then scroll to the bottom.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesecretnewsonline.com%2F%3Fp%3D2452\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Open letter to City Council says staff instructed &#8220;Parkside&#8221; developer to delete portions of arborist&#8217;s report City Council Members: Attached is the Staff Report you all received prior to voting to authorize the removal of 33 mature &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=2452\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":2469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5,6,4],"tags":[55,53,66,67,54,51,68,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions\/2458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}