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Council Incumbents Gain Re-Election

Connection Staff
December 2007

Voters Endorse Atkin, Bukowski and Davis; Utility Measure Gains Approval

Emeryville voters sent a strong message of support for the City’s current direction on November 6th, by easily re-electing three veteran City Councilmembers for new four-year terms and rejecting bids by several challengers.

Incumbent council members Ruth Atkin, Ken Bukowski, and Nora Davis all won re-election to a new four-year term on the City Council. Bukowski and Davis were first elected in 1987; Atkin in 1999.

“Emeryville voters made it very clear that they are pleased with the direction the City has been going the last decade,” said Jason Crouch of All Emeryville Properties and Chairman of the Board of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce. “These election results demonstrate that the majority of the Emeryville electorate understood who the best qualified candidates for the City Council were, and they voted that way.”

“We’re delighted with these results,” Crouch continued. “Emeryville remains in good hands. When you look at the long track record of positive accomplishments by the three incumbents – a free citywide bus shuttle service; growing shopping and dining centers; improved schools; well-funded public services; a strengthened tax base and increased housing options, to mention only a few – it is not hard to figure out why a majority of the voters chose to stay with Ruth, Ken and Nora. The Chamber was proud to endorse them all.”

Measure A, the utility user tax measure, passed overwhelmingly, with almost 86% of the voters giving it the thumbs up. City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe expressed his appreciation for the role the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce played in helping secure passage of Measure A: “I appreciate the Chamber’s endorsement of Measure A,” O’Keeffe said. “The 86% positive response reflects in part your support of the measure, and the partnership between the Chamber and the City. I look forward to our continued good work together.”

Absentee ballots comprised a large percent of those who voted. With no national or statewide issues on the ballot, voter turnout was expected to be relatively low. The only other jurisdictions in Alameda County with elections on November 6th were Livermore and Newark. Emeryville’s Measure A was the only ballot measure anywhere in the County.

Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin, the top vote-getter among all the candidates, shared her reaction to the election results. “I love this small city of ours,” Atkin said. “I am honored and privileged to be able to continue to serve Emeryville for another four years. I appreciate people’s trust in my judgment as I have grown as a member of the Council over the years. I look forward to increasing our connectedness as a community in a myriad of ways in this next period of time as we finish our General Plan and move forward on the Center for Community Life. Thank you for your trust in my stewardship.”

Councilmembers will select a new Mayor at the Council meeting of Tuesday, December 4th. As a General Law city, the mayor of Emeryville is not directly elected by the voters. Instead, the councilmembers select the new mayor, for a one-year term, in either late November or early December. Nora Davis currently serves as Mayor and Ruth Atkin as Vice Mayor.

“The Emeryville community has proven that we can renew and revitalize an old industrial city. together we have created a new, sustainable and progressive city providing superior public services to our residents, businesses and visitors,” Davis said after her re-election. “I am proud to serve the people of Emeryville for another four years and look forward to working together to further improve our city.”

Shilen Patel, a newcomer running for the first time for public office in Emeryville, garnered 780 votes, finishing 100 votes short of winning a Council seat. The heavy majority of Patel’s monetary contributions came from outside labor unions, including $23,587 in labor PAC contributions made just one week before the election. Separately, a PAC affiliated with the hotel workers union spent close to $11,000 for last-minute mail pieces on behalf of Patel’s campaign.

Bukowski and Atkin also received a modest amount of financial support from labor, but their campaign contribution records reflect a much more balanced and broader base of financial support, including contributions from business and education groups.

The spirited campaign resulted in about 35% of Emeryville’s 4,000 registered voting, a good turnout for an off-year election and well above the overall Alameda County turnout of about 29%. This was also a relatively expensive election, by Emeryville standards, with all of the candidates raising and spending well above what has been traditionally spent for City Council seats in past years.

Incumbent Councilmembers Dick Kassis and John Fricke are up for re-election in November, 2009. Neither has yet officially announced if they will run for re-election.