ACTION ALAMEDA News

Note: at the time of this writing, Alameda City Council had not yet voted whether or not to certify the initiative for the February 2, 2010 ballot.

On October 14th, Alan Yee, attorney for the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and the Asian Health Services regarding the 2004 Settlement Agreement with the City of Alameda over planned development at Alameda Point, sent a letter to the City of Alameda threatening to sue if the City doesn’t complete a project-level EIR in accordance with CEQA and the settlement agreement before moving the SunCal initiative forward.

In his letter, Mr. Yee asserts that the initiative is “at least in part” a city-sponsored initiative due to SunCal’s contract with the City of Alameda under their Exclusive Negotiating Agreement. Although not mentioned in his letter, Mr. Yee’s claim may be bolstered by the fact that the “citizen” who signed the initiative, West Alameda Business Association (WABA) Executive Director Kathy Moehring, was, at the time she signed it, effectively a City of Alameda employee by virtue of the roughly $100,000 in unrestricted – unrestricted until recently – taxpayer grants the City gives to WABA each year. In his letter, Mr. Yee also noted his intent to challenge Alameda City Council’s decision to “certify” the initiative for the ballot should that come to pass.

Further, Mr. Yee demanded that the City of Alameda and parties to the agreement meet to resolve the dispute over whether or not the project-level EIR is required “before taking any steps to further the SunCal project as proposed in the initiative.” On September 28th, the City of Alameda Planning department approved a recommendation to complete a project-level EIR. But according to Mr. Yee’s letter, an October 7, 2009 letter from Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Alameda Donna Mooney, indicates that the EIR would not be complete until after Alameda residents vote on the initiative. Action Alameda News has made a public records request for a copy of that October 7th letter, but has not yet received it.

On October 21, the City of Oakland, another party to the same 2004 Settlement Agreement, sent a letter to the City of Alameda also invoking the agreements dispute resolution clause.

In that letter, the City of Oakland wrote that “Specifically, by letter dated October 7, 2009, Assistant City Attorney Donna Mooney declared that CEQA review [the EIR] is not required before any vote of the electorate on SunCal’s initiative. The sole basis cited in the October 7th letter is the unsupported assertion that the initiative is not a public agency sponsored initiative.”

The City of Oakland, like Yee, asserts that the initiative is indeed sponsored, at least in part, by the City of Alameda, and therefore “Alameda City Council is obligated not to allow a vote of the electorate until CEQA review [the EIR] has been completed.” And further “Alameda has taken an active and constructive role in shaping and advancing this initiative, and the approval of any discretionary entitlement (whether by Alameda’s officials or electorate) prior to completion of CEQA review would violate the 2004 Settlement Agreement and CEQA.”