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The Nation journal touts Emeryville’s $15 “Experiment”, Governor Brown warns of job loss, $4B Cost

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Progressive publication “The Nation” recently spotlighted Emeryville’s six-month old, highest in the nation Minimum Wage Ordinance in an article titled “This Is What $15 an Hour Looks Like”. The Piece tells the perspectives of three Emeryville low-wage earners working for big corporations within the city and how their lives were positively impacted. The article also identifies Emeryville as a “testing ground of sorts” and notes the $15 model as “an experiment that is still playing out.” An experiment predicated on which businesses will remain viable and the overall net impact on jobs when the MWO reaches $16 in 2019.

Meanwhile, Governor Brown shed some reality on what he referred to as “a noble goal” at a recent budget press conference but urged caution and noted the expense to the state. “Raise the minimum wage too much and you put a lot of poor people out of work. There won’t be a lot of jobs. It’s a matter of balance,” supporting what most economists and Business leaders attest that there is in fact a trade-off.

“It’s not a free good. It does cost funds.” noting that when the state recently moved to $10, it came at a cost of $250 million annually. Brown noted that a $15 wage would come at a 4 Billion cost to the General Fund. “It has to take into account what other programs can be cut to finance it”. Some programs that rely on government assistance have been made vulnerable by a combination of cuts and rapid wage increases including programs for the disabled. This KQED story cites sudden labor increases like Emeryville’s responsible for the temporary closure of The Arc which offer programs and services for people with developmental disabilities.

The City of Emeryville pursued the highest, fastest, most quickly escalated and least researched minimum wage increase this country has ever seen. Emeryville is effectively serving as a guinea pig for other municipalities that want to pursue a $15 minimum wage and have attracted the interest of national publications including CNN and The LA Times among others.


Did Brown put a stake through the heart of a $15 minimum wage?

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By Allen Young

Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday made his most pointed arguments to date against raising California’s minimum wage beyond the hourly $10 floor that took effect this month.
“Raise the minimum wage too much and you put a lot of poor people out of work. There won’t be a lot of jobs. It’s a matter of balance,” the governor told reporters while unveiling his proposed 2016-17 spending plan.
Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday that he’s opposed to lifting the state’s minimum wage to $15: “Raise the minimum wage too much and you put a lot of poor people out of work.”

The governor also noted that the most recent $10 minimum wage increase cost the state $250 million due to higher operating costs for businesses and higher wages for certain state workers. A $15 minimum wage would cost the state general fund an additional $4 billion annually by 2021, the administration wrote in a state budget summary released Thursday

The comments arrive as two divisions of the Service Employees International Union prepare for two separate initiatives placing a $15 minimum wage on the November ballot.

Read More on Sacramento Business Journal →


This Is What $15 an Hour Looks Like

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ADVERTISEMENT
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In July, Emeryville, California, passed the highest city-wide minimum wage in the country. Here’s how workers’ lives changed—and didn’t.

By Gabriel Thompson/Illustration: Sho Watanabe

As the gears of federal government have ground to a halt, a new energy has been rocking the foundations of our urban centers. From Atlanta to Seattle and points in between, cities have begun seizing the initiative, transforming themselves into laboratories for progressive innovation. Income inequality, affordable housing, climate change, sustainable development, public health, participatory government—cities are tackling them all, bringing new urgency to some of the most vital questions of the day. Welcome to the age of big city progressivism! Cities Rising is The Nation’s contribution to the conversation.

On a crisp November morning in Oakland, 50 people dressed in red T-shirts burst into a McDonald’s, bringing breakfast orders to a halt. From behind the counter, several cashiers gaped at the scene, where an orderly line of customers had been replaced by a rowdy crew that bounced and shouted, calling for the restaurant to raise its wages to $15 an hour. A supervisor whipped out her cell phone and began filming. The chant, directed at the workers, grew louder: “Come on out—we’ve got your back!” After giving it some thought, three female employees walked past their supervisor, clocked out, and joined the protesters. The crowd erupted in cheers.

Read more on TheNation.com →


Minimum wage boost hangs over California budget negotiations

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By Jeremy B. White
They haven’t yet acquired enough signatures to go before voters, but ballot initiatives to bump California’s minimum wage to $15 figured into early discussions of the state budget proposal unveiled Thursday.

Organized labor groups across the country have focused their energy on the push for a $15 wage, and union outfits in California are gathering signatures to place different initiatives on the 2016 ballot.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal predicted the $15 level would cost the state more than $4 billion by 2021 and open deficits, mainly to cover increases to in-home health care workers and those who work with developmentally disabled people. He called raising the wage “a noble goal” but said any increase must happen incrementally and contain “off-ramps in case the economy is experiencing a recession.” A bill Brown signed bumping the wage to its current $10 level has already cost California more than $250 million annually, his budget plan said.

“I think raising the minimum wage can be good, but it has to be done very carefully, and it has to be done over time,” Brown said at a press conference. “It has to take into account recessions. It has to take into account what other programs can be cut to finance it, or what taxes are going to be generated to pay for it, so it’s not a free good. It does cost funds.”

Read more on SacBee.com →


Developmentally Disabled People Face Losing Access to Services as Closures Hit

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By Melissa Hellmann

Surrounded by stacks of packages in a brightly lit room, Michael Palone gingerly folded a box and taped it shut. His eyes averted, he shuffled to the front of the warehouse to retrieve scissors, skirting by people and tables in his path.

Palone, 26, has mild autism, originally diagnosed as Asperger’s syndrome. The condition makes it nearly impossible for him to socialize with others and adjust to the constant changes of a full time job. Instead, he assembles packages with about 40 others at a Union City work center run by The Arc of Alameda County.

‘If he doesn’t keep going to this program, all of the progress that he’s made over the past two years will just be gone in two weeks.’
Rosemary Palone, mother of 26-year-old son with autism
The Arc is a national nonprofit with local chapters across the country, including 21 in California, that offer programs and services for people with developmental disabilities. “It means a lot to me,” Palone says. “It gets me out of the house, and it helps me interact with people.”

Read more on KQED.org →

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Rob Arias

is a third generation Californian and East Bay native who lived in Emeryville from 2003 to 2021. Rob founded The E'ville Eye in 2011 after being robbed at gunpoint and lamenting the lack of local news coverage. Rob's "day job" is as a creative professional.

48 Comments

    • Why don’t you address the point of the article which is that our Democratic Governor opposes the $15 Minimum Wage and that it will “put a lot of poor people out of work”. Is Jerry Brown a “Right-Winger” as you label anyone who disagrees with you? Your own progressive publication calls this an “experiment” which means the outcome is very much unknown.
      My prediction? You’ won’t answer this question directly and use one of your deflection techniques to try to turn the argument around somehow. That’s just how you operate.

    • So Jerry Brown is disreputable and a skeptic or he didn’t in fact say this despite it being on video of him saying it. Thanks.

  1. At least The Nation fairly identifies the removal of the career ladder where new hires, employees of less skilled positions and experienced employees are all making the same amount leading to dissent and mutiny. They probably should have talked to at least one small business person because nobody from that side would call what the five council people arrived at a “compromise”. Hopefully Gov. Brown will be the one to bring some common sense to Jennifer Lin’s “Virtually Unstoppable” catch phrase. So Annoying.

    • FYI, the Emeryville City Council talked to many businesses before they enacted the minimum wage ordinance. Guess what the businesses told them? They told them they don’t like the idea. No surprises there. They’re what’s called an “interested party”. I suppose you say that should have been the end of it then, right? Can’t do it because the business community says NO.

      • Jerry Brown must be an uninformed right-wing nut case. He’s making the same stupid arguments that the Emeryville small business community has been making. He says we’ll end up hurting the poor, costing entry level workers their jobs, put small businesses out of jobs, and cost the state billions.

        How could that be? The IRLE and Robert Reich told us that if we just pay more and more, that we all get rich. You know, more money in the economy. Multiplier effect. Stimulus. Everyone “Rises up Together”.

        Someone needs to introduce Jerry Brown to Jennifer Lin. She was all the answers we needed to implement the Emeryville MWO. $15 used to be unthinkable, now it’s unstoppable.

        As long as she and Preston Shum and the SEIU got what they wanted, the City Council has done its job.

        Those of us who live and work here will “Get Creative”. We’ve got it covered.

        The main thing is that Ruth Atkin delivered on her promise to the SEIU that Emeryville would have the highest minimum wage in the nation. Better still, we were fast. Thirty days to get from $9 to $14.44. It’s like sex, the sooner that legislation is done, the better it is.

        Like every actual guinea pig out there, we’re proud to have given our lives and our jobs in the service of the cause. Social justice and inequality have been solved in Emeryville. Maybe the rest of the state can just move here. I heard we a few extra units of low-income housing, so shouldn’t be an issue.

    • I guess the only way to get that kook to STFU is by out-sarcasm-ing him. I guess he can’t harass “anonymous” and give you a bad Yelp review.

      • The problem is that the kook is only the tip of the RULE iceberg. We have three people who think just like him running the city. We do an economic impact study and spend a year in meetings when we put in a bike boulevard, but we raise the minimum wage 60% overnight with nary a thought.

        If there was ever an argument for why small cities shouldn’t be allowed to override the minimum wage or any other state law for that matter, the current Emeryville City Council is it. Total disaster.

      • Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me. You and the businesses in town had your chance to have your say (after having run the town to the detriment of the residents for decades) but you didn’t make a good case. In fact it was pathetic. If you want some good advice BTW, keep the suspenders kook out of the public meetings. And what about the Denny’s manager and his ridiculous bull shit about a crime wave because of the MWO? (the Tattler’s going to do a story on that one). And the barely concealed connection to the California Restaurant Association? Totally rookie campaign you guys ran. The fact that NO big businesses testified really gave away your bullshit tactics. It was so obvious those guys were hiding behind the small businesses (but running the show). All in all a very amateurish spectacle. And it was evident to all. You guys have no respect for the average resident and it shows.

      • I agree. The small businesses ran an amateur campaign. They couldn’t compete with the nationally funded SEIU Fight for $15 campaign. So far that campaign has spent nearly $80 million to unionize the nation’s fast food workers, and they made a nice investment in Emeryville. It helped them advance things in LA, and they continue using Emeryville today (see The Nation article cited above). It was a perfect coup.

        All the local small businesses could do was get hundreds of people writing angry e-mails to the City, provide dozens upon dozens of personal speeches from local businesses about the financial damage the City was doing and the number of workers who would be hurt, and get a 100 person petition together requesting an economic impact study be done, all of which was ignored. The local businesses and residents didn’t have the resources like the SEIU did to go out and harass anyone who presented a contrary opinion.

        The local community was blindsided by the City Council. Ruth Atkin proposed something outrageous. Jac Asher rushed the decision through to make sure the residents and local businesses never had a chance to get organized. The whole lot including Scott Donahue, Dianne Martinez, Jac Asher, and Ruth Atkin attended an SEIU Fight for $15 rally during the run-up to a vote to make it clear that compromise wasn’t an option from the outset.

        No one in Emeryville saw this coming. No one had time to react. Jennifer Lin and Shum Preston did a fantastic job getting labor activists from out of town to every critical meeting, Ruth Atkin did a fantastic job delivering what EBASE and the SEIU demanded ensuring the law applied to all businesses while getting an exclusion for union shops, and Jac Asher nipped any reasonable compromise in the bud.

        To the extent that we’re all proud that an outside labor union blew through Emeryville and left a fantastic mess in its wake, well done to the City Council.

    • Says the semi-employed contractor who’s never operated a business with employees. Brian, when you hire day-laborers at Home Depot, do you pay them a living wage?

      • I wouldn’t know how to answer that Rob, I’ve never hired day laborers at Home Depot or anywhere else for that matter. And regarding my employees, I don’t think they would appreciate you saying they didn’t have a job.
        But don’t let me correcting you in your personal attacks from hampering your right wing agenda…please go on…it’s most interesting. Just try to mix in some content into the personal attacks…people are going to start getting bored. It’s fine to use this as a forum to attack me but just also try to make some actual points how about?.

    • “businesses will simply pay everyone more”

      That was pretty much City Council and the SEIU’s position also. It shows a complete lack of understanding of real world business.

      No, businesses will not simply pay everyone more. Sadly, they have to get the money from somewhere.

      Here are some of the options where they can get it:
      a) reduce perks and benefits
      b) raise prices (allowing what was formerly paid by the rich to be paid for by the poor and middle)
      c) layoff low skill and entry level workers
      d) eliminate youth hiring
      e) eliminate job training
      f) reduce hours
      g) shift salary from the hard workers who earned raises to those who didn’t
      h) cut product quality and lose business allowing staff reductions
      i) outsource jobs to the third world (particularly good for manufacturing)
      j) outsource jobs to other cities that aren’t Emeryville
      k) automate away the positions completely
      l) go out of business
      m) and if you’re a large, highly profitable businesses, wait for the small, lower margin competitors to go out of business because of the increased costs, then do all of the above and take higher profits

      Is it possible to make small increases to the minimum wage over time to reach historical norms without incurring massive collateral damage? Yes. When you make it possible for businesses to avoid draconian measures, they do.

      Can you make huge changes far beyond historical norms overnight on the ridiculous pretense that no one gets hurt and “businesses will simply pay everyone more”? Only in Emeryville.

      • Again, you guys are just a bunch of pikers. I have no respect for you. You got out foxed at every turn and you admit it…that makes you a double loser. I got the world’s smallest violin for you. Give us one good reason why we should listen to anything you right wing losers say?

      • Predictably, when Brian can’t logically defend or bully himself out of an argument, he reverts the name-calling child that he is. What did his parents do to him?

  2. No, he’s right. Sad to say the local Emeryville businesses and residents are, in this case, losers and pikers that got whipped by the SEIU. We all lost together.

    • Yes Rob, the businesses in Emeryville lost this fight. You, their advocate also lost this fight. They and you were desirous of maintaining Emeryville as a locus of human suffering but the people (the residents) said no more. And now we’re not that kind of town anymore.
      You’re free of course, to try to drag us back to the business-centric town that we were when businesses paid their workers $9 per hour with no sick days off by repealing the MWO or whatever it is you’re advocating for.
      In the meanwhile it seems you’re still trying to fight the battle you lost. You’re free to do that as well. You’re also free to call the police to report crimes you say I’ve committed as part of continuing the fight you lost.

      • So if Rob advocated for a regional model and he’s “Right-Wing”, what does that make Jerry Brown? I guess him and Trump must be in cahoots! Well Brian, your nuttiness does help make this a colorful town. Thanks for this.

      • Brian, I’m nobody. Never even been to a city council meeting. But I have to say, you are entertaining in the same way Trump is. You just say whatever you want to say regardless of whether it’s rooted in any kind of fact. Keep it up buddy! This city needs a bit of Berzerkeley in it.

      • Similiar Bravado, but Trump has superior hair. Brian might actually be considered right wing by Berkeley standards.

      • I’m glad you guys are finally coming around to the truth about REAL AMERICANS BRIAN DONAHUE AND DONALD TRUMP!

  3. To “Vote Brian 2016” (Rob)-
    So you’re seeing somewhere where the Tattler has printed something factually incorrect. That’s an easy thing to charge…a little tougher to substantiate. But luckily for you, the Tattler will post retractions if something can be shown to be factually incorrect. So go ahead Rob, instead of dropping unsubstantiated charges, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is. Where is a factual error in the Tattler? Go ahead and make your charge…it’s in your interest…after all you’ll get a retraction and an apology if you’re correct and then you’ll have gloating rights.

    • The Tattler is a highly regarded news source where the righteous go to help decipher a complex world. The blog is an honest, high integrity core publication that presents the complete gamut of real world perspectives with class and balance. The writer’s sense of duty to the truth is second only to his humility and depth of insight. Without the Tattler, Emeryville would be lost. I read it every day, recommend it to all of my friends, and shun all who question it, pikers and losers every one.

      I read the Eville Eye to keep watch on the nefarious activities of the Right Wing. Vigilance against the enemy of residents far and wide across this great land is the only defense. They’ve gotten to Jerry Brown, so who knows who could be next.

      Keep watch my friends, keep watch. And to the unanointed, read the Tattler, breathe the Tattler, be the Tattler. It is the only path from darkness to the one true light that is Brian Donahue.

      • So I guess we’re going to have to wait for you to point out the factual inaccuracies you say are rife in the Tattler. But why? You know there are such inaccuracies, you told us that, but for some reason you won’t show us. So we wait for that while we also wait for you to call the police to report the crimes you say I’ve committed.
        Those are some pretty strong allegations you’re making but you’re going to back them up, right? And when should we expect that from you? I mean you’re an honorable person, right? You wouldn’t make baseless allegations, right?
        It seems to me you would just go ahead and call the police when you see crimes I’ve committed and that you’d show us right away the factual inaccuracies in the Tattler as you find them but I assume you must have good reasons to wait.
        So we’ll all get on your side after you prove your points. But until then…what does all this waiting you’re making us do make you?

      • Nothing anyone says can break through your ignorance. You behave like an ass to draw attention to yourself and away from the issue. Jerry Brown, the liberal Democratic Governor of California has come out strongly and emphatically saying the EXACT SAME MESSAGE the local small business community has been saying:

        Having a minimum wage which is too high, implemented too fast hurts those in poverty. That matters.

        EBASE and the SEIU did something reprehensible to get the MWO passed. They used the poor and the marginalized to gloss over a union agenda which damns the weakest and the most at risk to poverty. Worse still, and hypocritical and cynical beyond belief, they made sure the law applied to everyone but them. The Emeryville MWO is an extreme and reckless experiment with people’s lives.

        There is a cost to the Emeryville MWO. And Jerry Brown laid it out there about as clear as it gets. The people who pay that cost are the poor, minorities, and those with the least skills. If you want to hurt those who live in poverty, make it impossible to employ them. If you want to make it impossible to employ them, get a union to force an impossibly high minimum wage through which takes effect too fast. If you want to hurt the poor and the marginalized, pass the Emeryville MWO.

        This is not a game. This is not a school yard spat. People here give a damn about those in poverty. People here give a damn that those with limited skills are hurt when they are locked out of the job market, when the job they had is taken away.

        Jobs matter. People who provide those jobs matter. People who give enough of a damn to find ways to hire the disadvantaged matter. Your bullshit does not matter.

        We don’t have time for your crap and your little, petty, stupid games. They are an insult to the poor, an insult to your neighbors, and an insult to the people that live and work in Emeryville who give a damn about social justice enough to stand up and tell City Council what it doesn’t want to hear.

        The city needs to start having the discussion that it avoided last spring. The city needs to start fixing the mistake that was made. The city needs to start putting the poor, the residents, and local business first ahead of union goals.

        None of this can happen when the town jester is dancing like a fool again in the public square. Grow the fuck up.

  4. Getting a bit sanctimonious, aren’t we Rob? Yes, I understand you don’t want us to use your name here and you don’t want to increase the minimum wage and that you hate trade unions and the middle class wages they provide. That’s been made very clear to everyone by you.
    Now tell us specifically where the Tattler has relayed factual inaccuracies that you claim it has and tell us when you’re going to call the police to report on the crimes you say I’ve committed. Still waiting. Still ‘fucking’ waiting.

    • Brian, no one is going to play your game here, so take your ball and go home. No one calls the police on a screaming child. Yes, disturbing the peace is a crime. But the adults are patient, try to correct the behavior, and try to help a misguided child grow into a respectable adult.

      No one is going to play the game of trying to list every factual error or misleading statement on your blog. No one has that much time.

      Let’s just take the fact that you can’t get through a simple discussion on a blog without lying your ass off. Start with the fact that you’re trying to convince people (and probably yourself) that everyone who comments anonymously is Rob. They aren’t. You obviously have no evidence to support, and it’s obviously not true.

      Or the story you told this week about getting thrown out of a business in Oakland when the owner called the cops. The story that contradicts the exact same story you wrote in a review on Yelp.

      Or your description above of “the barely concealed connection to the California Restaurant Association?” above. Also completely made up and ‘reported’ on your blog.

      It’s simple. The conversation here is about the fact that minimum wage laws are having and will have unintended consequences. The “left wing” governor just reiterated the position you’ve been saying is “right wing” for a year, making it clear that these ideas are not “right wing” but “reality”. The SEIU’s minimum wage plans will hurt those in poverty, just like they’re doing here. Talk about that or go away.

      You will not disappear if you are not the center of attention. If you need to validate yourself, go talk to RULE or the people on City Council you helped get elected. Don’t do it here.

  5. Mr. Donahue, I’m not going to moderate the discussion between you and Anonymous 1, 2 & 3 and others as long as it stays civil and “on topic” which it is threatening to derail (That applies to everyone in this thread). The topics here are Governor Brown’s opposition to a $15 minimum wage (Which you have shown no inclination to address or defend), The Nations profiling of those benefited by it and the unintended consequences this might be having on disabled people. It’s a multi-faceted conversation about how it applies to Emeryville but nowhere does it mention anything about you or your publication.

    If you wish to use the pages of your own blog to vindicate yourself of any alleged crimes or inaccuracies and wage personal and inaccurate attacks against me, I’m sure you won’t hesitate. You’ve already been warned several times about trolling us and consider this a second “strike”. I value your contributions to the dialogue of this city but please use your best efforts to restrain yourself.
    Thank You,
    Rob Arias
    Editor

      • Rob invited you to question his policy ideas. He also invited you to behave like an adult. Take him up on both offers.

      • Brian, If I was you (and thank GOD I am not) I would try to frame the argument around those that are benefiting by this as The Nation points out. That the idea of $15 is more important than the layoffs and business closures as this is a warfare of principle for you, Asher and Atkin. Lashing out like a stunted adult and trying to make yourself the victim in this conversation makes you look selfish, angry and irrational. Anyway, the first time you take advice from anyone and control your impulses will probably be the first.

    • That’s cute, Rob; you don’t even quantify what the Governor said…maybe he thinks the minimum wage should be raised over two years, less than the time Emeryville is raising it. But it doesn’t matter because I’m not him, am I?
      Rob is once again, going to censor me unless I address and provide succor to his strategically planted stalking horse, in this case Governor Brown. I guess you must think I’m pretty stupid, Rob. There are plenty of conservatives I could do likewise to you…to make you hold account for their not-sufficiently-rightwing-enough ideas. But I wouldn’t do that because it would reflect a lack of cognitive capabilities because it’s a really stupid arguing tactic. But having said that, it’s still kind of a neat (if transparent) trick to box me in, to make me explain and take responsibility for the actions of someone I have no connection with, something our entire jurisprudence system if not culture at large rejects as patently unfair.
      What Rob wants to do is as he has done in the past here on this blog: write stories on me and make comments about me and then not allow me to defend myself. There’s a word for people like that Rob.

      Another neat trick; to continue on claiming the existence of factual inaccuracies in the Tattler but not telling us what they are. That’s about the easiest thing in the world to do and again, totally transparent. You ‘don’t have time’ you’re telling us. What a crock of shit that is. Same for all the reports of my criminal activity you can’t seem to find the time to call the police over. Plenty of time to write about it, just not enough to do the follow through. How convenient.

      I suppose this comment makes strike three, doesn’t it? Have fun everyone, commenting on the Emeryville blog that doesn’t censor comments.

      • Just to point out the obvious, this story is not about you, despite your best efforts. It’s about Jerry Brown, the Nation, and the loss of services for developmentally disabled people as a result of higher minimum wages.

      • *SPOILER ALERT* Since Crazy Tattler Dude is unable to click a link or watch the featured video, Gov. Brown doesn’t support raising the state minimum wage beyond $10. The Right-Wing Nut Job also proposes significant increases in spending on education, social programs and family tax-credits.

  6. In other words, Jerry Brown supports doing things that actually help the poor by avoiding the reduction of entry level jobs that the poor and low skill workers need to rise out of poverty. He favors putting the burden of supporting the poor on the wealthy (tax funded programs) rather than the poor themselves (higher prices goods). And he puts the needs of the poor ahead of the interests of the unions.

    In other words, Jerry Brown is a progressive.

  7. Brian, I hate to belabor the point and I don’t have the time to compile a complete list of your “inaccuracies” at this moment but I’ll be happy to spotlight one at your request.

    You posted a fake comment purported to be from IHOP on this article about your harassment spree of small businesses during the MWO discussion back in May 2015:
    https://evilleeye.com/news-commentary/commentary/councilmembers-brothertattler-editor-brian-donahue-goes-on-small-business-harrasment-spree/

    Here’s a screen grab of all the comments you posted including the fake ones (note the matching IP addresses).
    https://evilleeye.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ihop-tattler-lies.gif
    I still have the actual emails if you’re going to accuse me of altering these.

    To your credit, I took the bait and removed their logo before I was able to confirm this despite being given permission by their manager to add their name to a petition for a non-partisan study. The other logo in question was removed after you called harassing them and the manager told me “they didn’t need this shit”. Kudos to you for your harassment tactic being effective.

    You then proceeded to “report” this on your own blog as “Minimum Wage: Emeryville Businesses flee Former Hard Positions” in this piece:
    http://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2015/05/minimum-wage-emeryville-businesses-flee.html

    Sometimes you outright lie, sometimes you just somehow conveniently “neglect to present the truth”. Take your pick. I look forward to hearing how you spin this.

    • So Brian, when should I expect that retraction you promised? You said so in the following comment above. You are a man of your word, right?

      “So you’re seeing somewhere where the Tattler has printed something factually incorrect. That’s an easy thing to charge…a little tougher to substantiate. But luckily for you, the Tattler will post retractions if something can be shown to be factually incorrect. So go ahead Rob, instead of dropping unsubstantiated charges, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is. Where is a factual error in the Tattler? Go ahead and make your charge…it’s in your interest…after all you’ll get a retraction and an apology if you’re correct and then you’ll have gloating rights.”

    • Perhaps Rob will allow this comment go through and not censor it since he’s asking me a direct question? If that’s the case I assume this comment of mine is my “third strike” and he’ll censor all subsequent comments from me. It’s all up to Rob and his “I don’t censor comments” E’Ville Eye.

      OK Rob, I-Hop and the minimum wage. I stand by the following from the Tattler:
      “In anticipation of the epic May 5th [City Council study session] meeting, the E’Ville Eye started lining up the business community against the wage ordinance. The Editor put up a graphic portraying many logos of Emeryville businesses, highlighting their disdain for the minimum wage ordinance in an April 29th story. But even before the meeting, several businesses demanded Mr Arias take down their logos. Rotten City Pizza on Hollis Street was one, “We support the minimum wage ordinance” the owner told the Tattler. ‘We did not give Rob permission to use our logo’ he added. The Area Director of I-HOP, Gary Marquez also told the Tattler the E’Ville Eye used their logo without permission, ‘I don’t want our logo on anything we didn’t pre-approve’ he said. Mr Marquez also said he now likes the minimum wage ordinance the way it has been crafted, a ‘good compromise’ he said of it and he volunteered that he values all his employees, even the one’s earning the minimum wage, ‘Our employees are our number one asset’ he said.”

      This is all factual and comes from interviews I conducted with several business owners (the interviews being the illegal “harassment” you say). Both these two business owners were quoted accurately.

      I’m not responsible for any comments in your blog purported to come from me and comments in your blog don’t represent inaccurate Tatter stories anyway. You still haven’t pointed out an inaccuracy there. Still waiting.
      If you’re going to now admit to your readers “anonymous” comments are not really anonymous and you might use comments against supposed commenters then that’s your business. Ethically, you should put a warning in your comment section however. This charge of yours would never work in a court of law, so I suppose that’s why your’e trying it here. So no, you’re incorrect Rob and now exposed as not being trustworthy of your readers who have commented…all are hereby now exposed. BTW, unlike the E’Ville Eye, comments in the Tattler actually ARE anonymous, people. Comment away free in the knowledge I won’t try to do a bogus and incorrect (or even correct) “exposing” of you at a later date.

      The irony you haven’t copped to Rob is YOU’RE the one who made shit up when you put the logos of Rotten City Pizza and I-Hop as examples of businesses who don’t support the Minimum Wage Ordinance. Did YOU harass them before you put the logos up or did you just make that up out of whole cloth?

      To E’Ville Eye readers- I may not be permitted to respond again because Rob has said he will censor my comments. He likes to write stories about me (says it bumps up his clicks) and then he doesn’t allow me to defend myself. He has censored me before, I presume he’s going to do it again since has indicated he will. The “third strike” language he’s now using has a finality sound about it and this time may be permanent. You can thank Rob for protecting you from comments from me that may be difficult for you. Rob doesn’t want you to have stress you understand. Expect Rob to lie about this BTW.

      • So I guess you’re denying you posted the fake comment despite the irrefutable evidence. Thanks for validating what everyone already knows about your level of integrity.

        While I wasn’t the only one personally involved in name-gathering for this petition/letter to council. Here’s the OK’s in question that we received through email:
        https://evilleeye.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/petition-names.gif

        Perhaps when you “Interviewed” them by asking them if they were “against raising the minimum wage” as you inaccurately frame it, their responses may be different. The Petition & letter to council asked that a non-partisan study be performed to honestly disclose the impacts:
        https://www.change.org/p/emeryville-city-council-conduct-a-community-impact-study-prior-to-implementing-proposed-minimum-wage-ordinance

        Something I hear they may actually get one year after the MWO’s implementation. Too late for some, but better late than never I suppose.

      • The problem you have Rob is that Brian is playing a game. He knows he’s lying, Tattler readers know he’s lying, you know he’s lying, we know he’s lying. But he doesn’t care about that.

        The game he is playing is to convince himself he’s a very clever guy whose genius allows him to skirt social norms. You see, he didn’t say he wasn’t lying when he posted a comment on your blog pretending to be IHOP. He never says that he doesn’t berate businesses until they say something he can use. Brian considers anyone who engages in these fights with him to be a fool, so he wins his game as long as he can get someone to play.

        He is the middle school bully. If you ignore him, he continues taunting. If you address him, he mocks you for being on the defensive. He goes home every night feeling superior and a small group of small people find this admirable.

        The comparison to Trump is spot on. The people who support Trump and the people who support Brian share everything except their politics.

        The unfortunate thing is that three members of City Council are allied with Brian instead of the community. They wouldn’t speak out against Brian when he was harassing businesses. Nora Davis spoke out against Brian. Ruth Atkin spoke out against Brian. Jac Asher, Dianne Martinez, and Scott Donahue remained silent. They are the RULE block, they are his friends, and RULE revolves around Brian Donahue’s crazy blog. If you want to know what extreme policy idea is coming next out of this City Council next, watch the RULE agendas and the Tattler.

        Brian is a fine sideshow for people who view themselves as being crusaders for justice because Brian is at war with the world, but social justice never looked so ugly, so self-interested, or so antagonistic to the society it imagines itself to be fighting for.

        It’s time for City Council to get serious and begin representing the Emeryville community.

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