Published: February 11, 2011
Alameda Newspaper Caves to Political Pressure
Alameda's "Measure A" would increase taxes 65% for average homeowner, and lower taxes 16% for big business.
The Alameda Journal has caved to pressure from the "Yes on A" campaign and pulled a reader-submitted editorial piece from its February 11th edition.
In the piece, Leland Traiman of Alameda asserted that the Alameda Unified School District's (AUSD) "Plan B" school consolidation plan was a political construction crafted by Erwin & Muir, Oakland-based political consultants that AUSD issued a $64,000 "open" purchase order to in July of 2009, just one month after the principals of Erwin & Muir were named to AUSD Superintendent Kirsten Vital's "Master Plan Advisory Group" which ultimately produced a plan that provided two alternatives - one that kept schools open if a parcel tax passed, and another, a "doomsday" plan that called for massive school closures in the event the tax measure failed.
Invoices from Erwin & Muir to AUSD show that the consultants billed AUSD at the rate of $300/hour, and worked on the final output of the group, a plan that included the school closure doomsday plan called "Plan B." Campaign filings show that the "Yes on A" campaign has spent over $16,000 with Erwin & Muir so far in this election season. Erwin and Muir has worked on every AUSD school parcel tax brought to the ballot since 2008.
Alameda Journal Editor Connie Rux pulled Traiman's editorial piece from the February 11th edition of the paper under stated threats of a defamation lawsuit from Erwin & Muir.
AUSD is now citing the threat of school closures under "Plan B" as a reason for Alameda residents to vote for Measure A, a school parcel tax that would tax businesses and homeowners at the rate of $0.32/sq ft of building improvements on their property, while capping the tax paid by big corporations doing business in Alameda.
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