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.

Update on the ECCL (Center of Community Life)

Last night at the City/Schools Committee meeting (first Thursday of every month at 5:30 at ESS), we had a presentation and accepted the final conceptual design plan for the Center for Community Life (ECCL). After the School Board officially recommends this conceptual design (which will come at the March 13th meeting I expect), the architects will move on to the schematic design, which are the details on how the buildings will look and from which the construction documents will be drawn. The last public workshop on the conceptual plan will be this Saturday, March 3, from 2-5 at Emery Secondary School. Childcare and refreshments provided. All welcome! Demolition is planned for this summer (2012) for the Secondary School to prepare the site for the new facility.

We also heard last night from the 6 student ECCL Fellows whose job it is to engage the community and spread the word to keep the community informed. They presented information about their activities and answered questions about the program. They expressed a desire to have more students involved. There are also 4 adults who are part of the Fellows project.

Here is a link to the website that contains information on ECCL and also the presentation that the City/Schools Committee heard last night. With the bonds that have been sold by the district ($48 million) and the commitment of former redevelopment funds ($25 million), the project has $73 million available for it at this time.

We also heard from a few people who serve on the Citizens Oversight Committee (COC) which collects information on the Measure J Bonds and how they are being spent. Putting in place the tools that the COC needs and figuring out their role with 17 members has made for a challenging year. Brian Carver, who has served as the chair, gave his monthly report which included some changes to the structure of the committee. After his report, he also expressed personal frustration with the process, the amount of time and effort that this work demands, and some of the resistance or attitudes he has met from staff when procedures or assumptions are questioned. He is concerned that the School Board is not looking long term at the management and use of all 3 of their properties, spending most of their attention on the one ESS site. He thinks that the argument for K-12 co-location has not been made adequately. He is considering leaving the committee, he said. I am very sorry to hear that level of frustration from any volunteer who has dedicated so much. I urge all elected officials, staff and residents to respect people who share ideas that are different from their own, truly listen, and maintain a constructive dialogue. That is how public projects are improved and how individuals contribute.