The recent cutting of the trees on Park Street from Santa Clara to Clinton has provoked a lot of outcry from residents and business owners alike. I thought it might be a good idea to record the messages left behind on the stumps of the trees as a reminder that everyone but the City Administration knows what Alameda really means.
Mark Your Calendar!
For: A Community Meeting With City Treasurer, Kevin Kennedy and City Auditor, Kevin Kearney
Purpose: De-Mystifying the Budget: An Explanation of the Alameda City Budget – Where We Are Now and What We Need To Do To Gain and Protect Financial Sustainability
When: Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Alameda Hospital Community Meeting Room
The economic issues facing Alameda affect everyone who lives or works in Alameda. Our City Treasurer, Kevin Kennedy and Alameda City Auditor, Kevin Kearney will be explaining the budget and discussing their recommendations for what we need to do to gain financial sustainability and protect against bankruptcy. This meeting is sponsored by the Alameda Citizen’s Task Force (ACT), a non-partisan group of Alamedans that advocate for open government and community participation.
All Alamedans are invited to attend. There will be an opportunity for Questions and Discussion from the audience. Refreshments will be served.
Please Forward This Announcement to Your Neighbors and Friends. We can solve Alameda’s economic issues if we all understand the problems and work together.
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.
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:
School closure threats manufactured by political consultants paid $300/hour by AUSD
Alameda, Calif. – Proponents of a fair and progressive parcel tax to support Alameda schools released today documents and a timeline showing how Oakland-based political consultants Erwin & Muir, who have worked on every AUSD parcel tax ballot measure since 2008, and who AUSD paid $300/hour, sat on the Alameda Unified School District’s Master Plan Advisory Group, and performed public relations work for the District designed to scare voters into support parcel taxes, under threat of massive school closures through a doomsday plan known as “Plan B.”
Despite the threats crafted for AUSD by Erwin & Muir, and the failure of a parcel tax ballot measure last year, no schools have closed.
This year, the Alameda Unified School District is again threatening school closures unless their latest parcel tax measure, Measure A, on the ballot March 8th, passes. The District is again citing threats of school closures under “Plan B” and the Master Plan that Erwin & Muir helped craft.
“The Draconian plan of school closures the Alameda Unified School District says it will have to implement if Measure A fails is a fraud. This plan, known as ‘Plan B,’ was not written by educators or even the school district’s accountants but crafted by political consultants whose only interest was to give the district a political tool to scare people into voting for Measure A,” said Leland Traiman, Secretary for the Committee Against Measure A in Alameda.
Below is a timeline of Erwin & Muir’s handiwork in crafting the fraudulent school closure plan:
The Committee Against Measure A in Alameda has published supporting documentation, and a selection of the many invoices sent to AUSD by Erwin & Muir since 2008 here: http://www.alameda-no-on-a.com/erwin-and-muir-master-plan-b.pdf
About the Committee Against Measure A in Alameda: The Committee Against Measure A in Alameda is a group advocating for a fair and progressive parcel tax for Alameda schools, combined with honest restructuring in line with the calls for school restructuring from President Obama and California Governor Jerry Brown.
