¶ How I'm Running for Mayor: Vote Mia and Cal for Change 2024 (Emery Rising)
¶ I love you, Emeryville. This message is for you.
I want to thank Igor Tregub of the Alameda County Democratic Party for issuing his statement on Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 9:16AM about the Emery Rising voter guide delivered to Emeryville voters.
As misleading as it was, it has brought much needed attention of who should elect or select our mayors in Emeryville.
Many of the reasons why corruption in Emeryville city hall has become a mainstay culture in our municipal politics is because, unlike our neighboring cities, what happens in Emeryville goes un-noticed or is ignored.
For those that attempt to report, record, and archive our history - they are attacked, vilified, silenced, and under-funded.
Currently, there are no voting members on the Alameda County Democratic Party that live in Emeryville. As Emeryville residents and workers, we have little to no voice on a body that Igor should have consulted with before issuing his statement.
To my knowledge, his actions were unilateral at a time when the party is fighting two recalls - under his watch.
As the only elected party delegate representing Emeryville and Alameda County's Assembly District 18 for the California Democratic Party, it would have been courteous, albeit professional, for him to consult with me and get the facts before making his statement.
In addition to being a councilmember, I have also been made Bay Area Vice-Chair, proudly representing Emeryville, for the California Democratic Party's Progressive Caucus.
This November 5th election is important, not only because we are at the dawn of ushering in our first Black, Asian woman to be President of the United States,
and the Emeryville electorate can finally end years of chaotic, drama-filled politics and democratically put to rest the question of who our next mayor should be by voting Mia and Calvin for city council.
¶ Emeryville voters do not elect their mayor.
The mayorship is currently selected by a majority of members of the city council.
But I'm still running for mayor and have been endorsed by Our Revolution East Bay.
What does it mean to “run” for mayor for a position that is selected and not elected?
Supporting candidates who have the vision and character to restore what was broken and return us to our rotational mayorship model but codified to give everyone a fair chance to be mayor, including myself - the lone dissenting and progressive voice on this council.
Has it always been this way? No. We'll get to that.
There is reason, not confusion, for why Calvin and Mia's candidacy signatures were gathered in less than twenty-four hours. The Emeryville electorate is fired up for change.
Unfortunately, the confusion that Honorable Tregub describes in his statement was sown three years ago when then Vice-Mayor Scott Donahue was skipped as mayor by his council colleagues to promote John Bauters as mayor.
As you can see, the drama did not start with me, I'm just the only councilmember to stand up to them.
To learn the history of what brought us to this moment, please read on.
¶ Mayorship Confusion: Can you vote for mayor of Emeryville?
The voter guide that the Emery Rising slate of candidates mailed to registered Emeryville voters did not make any mention of a “vote for the office of Mayor."
The voter guide suggests who to vote for: Mia Esperanza Brown and Calvin Dillahunty for Emeryville City Council and a vote YES for ballot propositions 35, 2, 3, 6, 32, and 33; NO on ballot propositions 36 and 34; and UNDECIDED on ballot proposition 5.
¶ How to Become Mayor in Emeryville: When Did Things Change?
¶ How to Become Mayor in Emeryville - Step 1: Change The Rotational Mayorship Model
Like many general law (non-chartered) cities of similar size, Emeryville used a rotational mayorship model.
Chartered cities are required by our (California) state constitution to have an independent ethics commission to prevent corruption, inappropriate behaviors by government leaders with each other and with the public, shady dealings with conflicts of interest, and election fraud.
Emeryville is a general law city and is not required to have an independent ethics commission. Without independent oversight, each (of the five) councilmembers have an opportunity to become a one-year term mayor within their four-year tenure.
However, unlike surrounding cities like Pinole or Albany, the rotational mayorship isn't codified or set-in-stone. Emeryville's rotational mayorship was tradition-based and therefore a custom that was rarely deviated from.
Why wasn't our rotational mayorship model codified? I don't know. My guess is that it allowed for corruption as rotational mayorship models are used to ensure that one councilmember's vision did not override the community’s collective work and kept individuals or special interest groups from becoming entrenched via board and commission appointments.
The rotation of mayorship was traditionally honored for years until three years ago when Scott Donahue was skipped as mayor.
For step 1 to be successful, collusion that may be considered Brown Act violations is used orchestrate this undertaking.
Also, any attempt by members of the public to create an ethics system that allows for the public to determine appropriate and inappropriate behaviors must be suppressed using discrimination and intimidation tactics that seek to delegitimize and bully dissidents.
¶ A video of the proceeding can be found here.
¶ How to Become Mayor in Emeryville - Step 2: Become Mayor Twice in a Row
Since December 2021, the mayorship in Emeryville has been selected by a council majority led by John Bauters. Consecutively, he became mayor twice on December 12, 2022, but not without an uproar.
During this council meeting I voiced my response from members of the public that shared their outrage and disgust, including Yolanda Harris who shared her views on a process she deemed as problematic. In spite of my forewarnings, they completed the process and for another year, John Bauters governed as mayor.
Ally Medina resigned just after this meeting which allowed the council member majority to appoint Sukhdeep Kaur as councilmember. She would eventually move on to vote with Mayor John Bauters almost entirely.
For step 2 to be successful, city staff must be afraid of losing their jobs or being punished should they challenge or question this process.
Also, place supporters on committees just as Ned Resnick of California YIMBY was placed on the housing committee to fund Bauters' campaign for county supervisor, and Dianne Martinez was placed on the planning commission to eventually form an independent expenditure..
¶ A video of the proceeding can be found here.
¶ How to Become Mayor in Emeryville - Step 3: Supersede Voter Majority with Allies
On Tuesday, December 5, 2023, Vice Mayor Welch was selected as mayor. If the rotational mayorship had gone into effect, I would have become Vice-Mayor. Here's why:
Courtney Welch was elected in a special election on November 2, 2021 after (Councilmember Patz vacated his seat) with 1,033 votes. As of December 5, 2023, with the exception of John Bauters who was preparing for a run for county supervisor which would have required he vacate his seat, she would have been the most senior of councilmembers that included David Mourra, Sukhdeep Kaur, and I.
Typically for rotational mayorships, seniority is given preference and is why I did not challenge the motion with a substitute motion (friendly amendment). For the vice-mayorship, given that all three remaining councilmembers had around the same level of seniority, if we retained the rotational mayorship, the role of vice-mayor would have gone to the councilmember with the most election votes on November 8, 2022.
That did not happen. David Mourra was selected as Vice-Mayor according to The E'ville Eye as a staunch ally of John Bauters while I was skipped. Although the rotating mayorship tradition hasn't been upheld since 2021, the tradition of vice-mayors becoming mayors has.
¶ A video of the proceeding can be found here.
For Step 3 to be successful, the council has to be filled with those who will not resist the status quo and defend this process as, “democracy is flexible.”
¶ A video of their statement can be found here.
¶ Mayorship in Emeryville is a selection, not an election.
Voters were not informed that our tradition of rotating membership would end and never return. Voters were not given the choice to totally abandon one system for another.
Mayorship is determined by councilmember majority where three of more must agree on who the mayor and vice-mayor will be, and those selected may have back-to-back mayoral terms.
This is a system ripe for corruption. Is it what we want?
As Laguna Beach (CA) was deciding on its rotational mayor model, a resident commented:
“I’m about to shock you. I think Peter Blake should have been mayor,” resident Michele Monda told council members during public comment.
“To exclude him is exactly what I’m against. This was undemocratic. Did I like him? Oh, you bet not. Did I think he would have self-destructed, and would he have been the worst mayor we ever had? You bet. But people elected him. He had every right to be mayor in his time.”
Redlands (CA) recently changed from a selection mayorship model to rotation mayorship model to promote "transparency, good governance, equity, and fair representation."
Choosing to be an independent voice on Emeryville's city council should have ended my chances of becoming based on this history, but the power is in the people's hands to change that.
¶ The Hacker That Could be Mayor by placing the mayorship back into the people's hands
As much as I respect Scott Donahue, I am not him.
I'm the hacktivist from Brooklyn.
The city council race isn't about who becomes mayor. There is something wrong with our democracy in Emeryville.
And like a hacker, when we encounter systems that discriminate, subjugate, or operates in ways that unfairly disadvantages one (user) over another - we do something about it.
I've made it an issue because it's critical that our democratic process be determined by the people, not the whims of a council majority.
Without faith in our democratic process, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, it becomes a violation of civil rights to change a process without approval from the people we took an oath to serve.
To that end, I invited Calvin Dillahunty and Mia Esperanza Brown to run in this race after vetting nearly thirty candidates since January 2024 who are registered to vote in Emeryville.
I found Mia and Calvin to be the best candidates, even with no prior political background or history, I based my decision on their intelligence, character, and progressive values.
There is no confusion of the Emeryville electorate that I am running for an unelected mayorship that would fall under my tenure as a city council member and therefore exercising my freedom of speech to endorse two candidates in the hopes that they can fix our broken democratic process.
Although I don't agree with entirely all of the articles posted to the East Bay Insider, I consider Steven Tavares' description of our Emery Rising Voter Guide as a “Priforce of Nature," to be accurate.
Emery Rising is a force of nature that is people-powered and will represent voices in Emeryville who want change in our city policies and our city politics.