Only one more year... are you ready to join the council?

In December, I announced that I will finish my city council term in the Fall of 2014, and that I will not be seeking re-election. I have announced my intention this early because I would like to encourage anyone who is concerned about good policy decisions in Emeryville to run. I would love to find two great candidates to support!

When I ran in 2009, I expected a four year term. With our change of elections to even years (to align with County, State and Federal elections and greater voter turn-out), I ended up with a 5 year term (as did all other sitting council members and school board members). I will spend my fifth year working hard on furthering my initiatives, but will leave the council at the end of 2014. If you are a person who is interested in local issues, from small details to larger policy, please consider talking with me about the city council race and the position!

Some of the things I have learned:

1. This work is very gratifying, and an individual with community support can make a real difference in our urban village.
2. It is hard to balance family commitments and a demanding job with this important work. The pay is not worthy of the position, but there are good health benefits provided.
3. I know that the changes we are seeing in Emeryville for the better (more attention paid to bike/ped facilities, more family friendly units in projects) are not because of me, but may be a result of increased public participation and a shift in priorities. This is about a group effort, not one individual.

I would also like to let you know about Scott Donahue, who is one of my trusted advisors for all things Emeryville. He has lived in town for over 30 years, in the artists' co-op, and he has announced that he is running for city council in 2014. I think that he will do a fantastic job, with thoughtful consideration of issues and a strong sense of where Emeryville is going. Please support me by helping elect Scott. I would like to find one more candidate to run with Scott as well.

Thank you to all of you who have shared opinions with me, served on committees, met with me, supported or challenged my ideas! I truly enjoy making sense of our opportunities, and correcting wrongs. Here is to big accomplishments in 2014!

If you are interested in running, please be in touch with me directly at emeryvillewest@gmail.com. In April or May, I will participate in a forum to discuss what serving on the council means in our town, with Jac Asher, sponsored by Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE). Details will follow.

Democracy in Emeryville

I serve Emeryville on the city council with the goal of increasing people's involvement with decisons that impact them. You may have heard that our city council elections typically have low voter turnout (in 2011 it was 26%). By having our elections on odd-years (2011, 2013), there often is not a lot of other things to vote for, and statistically fewer people vote (than in even years: 2010, 2012). In 2010, for example, the turnout and vote for local measures (in Oakland), even down at the bottom of the ballot was about 60%.

When I won my council seat in 2009, I won with a 13% margin over the next person, more than 100 votes over him, but alas, I won with only 855 votes! We had about 5,400 registered voters in town, but only 855 votes got me elected. That means 16% of people who could have voted, voted for me. With 10,000 residents now a mere 8.5% of people who lived in Emeryville voted for me.

I believe that it is time for Emeryville to move our elections to even years, when more voters vote. Yes, we will be competing for attention with all those other candidates, propositions and measures, but it is when more people actually pay attention and participate by casting their votes. I proposed this to the city council last month, and they unanimously agreed to consider it formally. We will have an item to discuss this again and get your input on sometime in early 2013 (not on Tuesday, December 18 at our council meeting, which begins at 7:15pm, City Hall, 1333 Park Ave). Bottom line is, Emeryville will save money by consolidating our elections with the rest of Alameda County.

How to make a transition to even years is another consideration on which I would like to hear your input. To me, the simplest and cheapest way to make the change would be to extend all terms of current council members for a 5th year. That would mean the next elections would be changed to one year later: from 2013 (for me and Kurt Brinkman) to 2014. The other three council members (Ruth Atkin, Jac Asher and Nora Davis) would be done with their current terms in 2016 instead of 2015. Others think that making the next term a 3 year term would be better. In other words, whoever is elected in 2013 is up for re-election in 2016.

There are many views on this. Some say it will cost more for candidates, some say it will favor incumbents, some say it will favor new-comers, some say people will not have the patience or attention span to vote all the way down the ballot. Some say it is better to have only those who care about city issues voting in the smaller elections on odd-years. I think it is worth making the change in the interest of greater potential participation and democracy (with a small "d").

This could impact our School Board elections, which are also held in odd-years, as we have shared the extra cost of the odd-year elections with Emery Unified School District.

Further information (if you are still reading): the only other two cities in our County with odd-year elections were Livermore and Newark. Livermore voters just voted to change their elections to even-year. I hear that Newark is also considering a change.