Policy of appeasement

I have a lot of video clips waiting in the hopper to share, but this one — which I initially clipped to point out Frank Matarrese throwing a bit of shade at Jim Oddie over his concern for all the time Trish Spencer (and I guess all of them) spend navigating the complaints from constituents that get thrown their way.  It’s still funny, but when I clipped out Jim Oddie’s comments to provide context to the Frank Matarrese comment another thing hit me.

Jim Oddie doesn’t understand what a policy decision is.

Hear me out.

I realize that he’s a lawyer and I’m not.  But I am also not someone with a huge chip on my shoulder who is looking to point to all the things that a City Manager has done wrong.  I’m also not someone who is looking to obviously curry favor with a possible ally. So perhaps it is those two things that have clouded Jim Oddie’s ability to recognize policy making from implementation of policy.

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Retaining parcel wall

You know what makes the Trish Spencer Council Referral even worse than its existence at all?  That Trish Spencer actually knows the answers to every vague assertion in that referral.   Apparently the City Council already had a document prepared for it by one of the city attorneys and then a fact sheet was put together to share to the community which Trish Spencer could have easily forwarded to her “constituents.”

In case you don’t want to click through here are some of the answers to some of the real bad information that has been circulating from folks like the Friends of Crab Cove who, evidently, don’t really care if they’re putting out bad information:

Didn’t Measure WW Require EBRPD to Acquire the Project Site?

No. Bond Measure WW was a 2008 ballot measure that authorized the East Bay Regional Park District to issue and sell up to $500,000,000 in bonds to complete the East Bay Regional Park District Master Plan for parklands and open space. Measure WW identified funds for the acquisition and development of surplus federal property adjacent to Crab Cove to expand and improve Crown Beach.

Kicking the can down McKay

Do you ever read something and then you get this really sick feeling in your stomach?  It’s the feeling you get when you realize that “Everyone Belongs Here” has a huge asterisk attached to it and that some people will literally do everything in their power to not support the most vulnerable members in our community.

Yeah, that’s how I felt when I read this Council Referral by Trish Spencer.  It feels like this is an attempt to stall out the process for APC’s Medical Respite and Wellness Center in order to allow the newly filed ballot initiative to wind its way through first.  In fact, she essentially says it right there in the text:

I would like Council to give direction to staff to obtain copies of all documents pertaining to the Settlement Agreement, and to the possible splitting or dividing of the parcel.  Staff should fully research the history of the parcel(s) in question, including a timeline of the events pertaining to the parcel purchased by EBRPD as well as the parcel to be conveyed to APC and representations by EBRPD to the public regarding which parcel(s) would be improved with Measure WW bond funds and which parcel(s) EBRPD intended to acquire from the federal government, to the extent staff is able to obtain such information.  I would like staff to provide this information to Council before it considers APC’s application for removal of the Government Overlay and amendment of the General Plan.  It is critical that Council, staff, and the community have clarity of the facts before any further decisions are made.

Why me?

So we all knew the the tiny redacted box was “Kern” as in City Attorney Janet Kern, right?

Seriously these sorts of letter which may or may not require redactions because of public release should really use a monospaced font so it’s a bit harder to discern what those redactions may be given the proportional font sizing.

The set of screen caps below is — yet another — reflection of how poorly some on this Council work together and how poorly they work with City Staff as well.   Rather than be properly chastened after all the other previous shit that happened, City Councilmember Jim Oddie wanted to throw down with the City Attorney.  It appears that Jim Oddie was bothered by the timing of the Janet Kern email because there had been other instances previously that could be perceived as interfering with the City Manager’s job but that no reminder email had gone out from the City Attorney.

Now, then, or later; isn’t it always a good time to periodically remind the City Council of their duties without someone being super thin-skinned about it?

Meddling kids

Quick break from THE REPORT to point out this bit of good news from the school district:

Superior Court Judge Iona Petrou has approved a stipulated judgment agreed to by the parties in a lawsuit that challenged the Alameda Unified School District’s (AUSD) Measure B1 parcel tax. The stipulated judgment preserves all of the approximately $12,000,000 in revenue that Measure B1 projects to generate for the district.

At w…

A failure to collaborate

You know, for a long time I felt as though the job of the City Council was a pretty difficult one that required a lot of time and attention from people, particularly those who may have full-time jobs and aren’t retired or similar.   But after reading the report from the independent investigator it seems like the City Council actually has too much time on its hands and aren’t pre-occupied enough with full-time jobs, families, and hobbies.

Like, would we really be in this mess of a mess if the majority of the City Council didn’t feel the need to micromanage every single bit of City business?  While I totally agree that the City Council should be entitled to an opinion about who gets hired, do we really need to have THAT many meetings and back and forth garbage about one tiny piece of running City business?  This is a Council that has struggled to get through a full agenda in the allotted time, do they really need to be interfering in what is day-to-day business of City staff?

Bring in the noise

Here are the two main conclusions (oh and the fact that all of this has exposed the City of Alameda to three separate possible lawsuits)

We can only absorb a few things at a time so I’ll do more screen caps tomorrow.

Open post for report day

Today is the day.

It’s report day.

This is an open thread for comments whenever the report is actually released and people start reading it.  I’ll post a link as soon as it’s available.

It’s HERE people!

Share and share alike

A few interesting things from the City Council’s agenda tonight.  There’s a lot of items including Jill Keimach’s contract up for discussion so check it out.  That, by the way, is in the closes session portion so if you have thoughts, you’ll need to get to the meeting early to voice them before the Council goes in to closed session.

First, LimeBike has given a report on usage of the bikes and it’s pretty amazing:

A curse on both your houses

Because of course holding out until May 2 to get a copy of the full report was not going to be the end of the whole story.  From the East Bay Times:

The leader of the Alameda firefighters union wants at least $200,000 from the city in damages over what he describes as “false” and “malicious” accusations against him as a result of the city manager’s allegations she was put under political pressure to pick a union-backed candidate as fire chief.

Jeff DelBono cites Vice Mayor Malia Vella and City Councilman Jim Oddie as witnesses …

Vella and Oddie allegedly acted on behalf of DelBono, the president of Local 689 of the International Association of Firefighters.