Author Archives: eselqueso

SURPRISE – Russo Finally Hired

April 28th, 2011 – 6:16 PM

John Russo is actually finally set to become Alameda’s new City Manager, after months of breathless anticipation. Despite how absurdly scripted and unethical it may look,  City Council is set to announce his hiring at their meeting on May 3, 2011. According to the terms of his contract, he will start sometime in June. Mr. Russo, soon to be the ex-elected City Attorney of Oakland, has no experience as a City Manager, nor does he bring any financial management experience to the job, despite Alameda’s impending budget crisis.

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Regarding Alameda’s Union Leaders

April 11th, 2011 – 3:27 PM

Mr. Henneberry, I am writing in response to your editorial on The Island and in the Alameda Journal.

Unions are more often than not a wonderful institution that serve their members well.

Right now, it would do union leaders like yourself some good to look out for the community they serve, even more than their membership for several reasons:

  1. If the city goes bankrupt, there will be nothing left for anyone- companies, unions, citizens, customers. A bankruptcy judge will decide. Insisting that your needs are more important than any others in the city does not engender sympathy to your cause.
  2. The average citizen does not enjoy a job perk that pays them a large percentage of their wages annually after retirement. The average citizen has to arrange for their own retirement costs. This does not engender sympathy to your cause.
  3. Your people are not being attacked. Your benefit policies are being questioned. By personalizing this and comparing our elected officials to the situation in Wisconsin, you’re inflaming rhetoric, and not working towards a solution. This does not engender sympathy to your cause.
  4. You seem to forget that the report was generated by City Staff- Fred Marsh and Lisa Goldman, at the direction of Marie Gilmore. The numbers were very plain and easy to understand, as are the causes of the projected deficits. Kevin Kennedy and Kevin Kearney were both invited to speak, also by Marie Gilmore, and they offered their professional interpretation of the data. To call their interpretation of the obvious “a Tea Party coming-out party” does not engender sympathy to your cause.

In short, Mr. Henneberry, you have your hand out, with many demands and strong reasoning in your mind, but in the bigger picture, are you just looking out for yourself and your unions to the detriment of Alameda? Or are you part of the solution to the City’s looming budget crisis and here to help every citizen of Alameda?

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And the Winner Is…

March 29th, 2011 – 1:38 PM

Well, whaddya know? Alameda has a new City manager, and it’s someone with no experience managing a city, much less managing a California city. Never mind that the other two finalists were City Managers. Never mind that one of the finalists even had experience managing Alameda.

What does John Russo have to offer?  A lengthy political career. Contributions to the majority voting bloc of Alameda City Council. Friends in high places. A history of helping SunCal, despite the hazards to the public.

He’s being hired by a Mayor, Vice-Mayor and Councilmember who claim to “…remain committed to rebuilding trust in Alameda. That requires open dialogue, mutual respect and a total commitment to an open process between citizens and their government.”

But this comes after open disrespect of the community by adhering to the agenda put forth during the political campaign last November by SunCal, a blatant violation of the City Charter in terminating the ICM, and now culminates in the installation of an unqualified Perata associate as City Manager after the most artificial and accelerated beauty pageant in this City’s history.

Who, exactly, thinks they’re being clever here?

Update: speaking of clever, community interviewer Kate Quick, appointed by embattled Lena Tam, has substantiated the reports of Russo’s hiring even though it has yet to be officially announced or confirmed by the City:

Kate Quick comment at Blogging Bayport

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To the Editor

February 1st, 2011 – 9:05 PM

I have grave concerns about the chain of possession of the letter from Acting City Attorney Donna Mooney addressed to me and other Alameda citizens, dated 1/25/11. Between the time it was signed by ACA Mooney and delivered to my home, it was intercepted by City of Alameda Democratic Club official and SF Gate blogger, John White, and posted online without my consent. I am sure it was my copy of the letter, because each was hand-signed, and each signature varies slightly; mine matches the copy posted online exactly.

I verified with both the City Clerk’s and the City Attorney’s office that John made no request for the document from either office. Nor have I at any time granted him permission to access my copy of the letter. This leads me to wonder not only how John learned of the existence of the letter before the recipients did, but who provided him with the document to scan and post online. This reminds me all too well of behavior he has been accused of within the past year.

In the interest of transparency, the average citizen has to put in requests for public documents at City Hall, but apparently John White does not.

(Update 2/2/11, 4:15 PM, added video from 2/1/11 City Council meeting)


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The City of Alameda Has ESP

January 19th, 2011 – 1:55 PM

The most interesting tidbit of last night’s City Council meeting (other than the LBL site being located next to the Seaplane Lagoon) was hearing CADC Co-President Jim Oddie, speaking as a private citizen, of course, informing the assembled public that the law firm of Meyers Nave had been retained by the City in Mid-December, 2010. As he read into the record the achievements and bona fides in the field of employment litigation of attorney Edward Kreisberg, Oddie asked everyone “Whose advice should we believe?”

In mid-December, there were no pending or pressing employment issues with the City. Marie Gilmore was not yet Mayor. Theresa Highsmith had not yet accepted employment in Barstow. Nobody had any idea that Ann Marie Gallant was under review. The only connection Meyers Nave had to the City at that time was that one of their lawyers was a generous contributor to both the campaigns of Rob Bonta and Lena Tam.

Councilmember deHaan, quoted in the Island today, stated:

“I think we’ve got to be open and honest about what’s transpired. This didn’t happen overnight,” deHaan said.

DeHaan said some members of the council got legal advice in October on a similar matter that was different from what the outside attorney the city hired to investigate whether the decision to put Gallant on leave was handled properly.

The press release issued by the city on January 13, 2011 states, if I may paraphrase, “The attorney we hired says we did nothing wrong. Trust us.” However, there are no actual citations of law or fact to support Attorney Kreisberg’s opinion, nor any definitive explanation of how the Brown Act or City Charter were not violated. Rob Bonta, acting as Mayor in only his second open City Council meeting (because New Mayor Marie Gilmore was off at a Mayors Conference) made sure to read this press release into the record, as if it were fact.

Then, Eugenie Thompson spoke up with this presentation:

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So here’s the problem: Gilmore, Tam and Bonta knew this problem was coming in advance, they hired outside counsel to advise them through it, they handled it badly in process, and then issued a weak press release afterward that explained nothing. How does that jibe with “a total commitment to stability, transparency and resolving conflicts in good faith?”

So whose advice should we believe?

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