The following letter appeared in today's Alameda Sun:
Dear Mayor and City Councilmembers:
The city council recently voted on an election date for the Revitalize Alameda Point initiative. The council followed the City Clerk's recommendation to hold a special election Feb. 2, 2010. After having worked for years and years to see a viable plan be developed for Alameda Point, I am thrilled to see a proposal for the Point come before the voters.
However, the public has just learned that there are issues of concern around the initiative. These issues have been the topic of negotiations between SunCal and the interim city manager for months now but have only recently been made public. SunCal detailed responses to these issues in its Oct. 19 letter to the Interim City Manager ("Comments to the Alameda Development Initiative Election Report") indicating that all of these issues are resolvable. The city council indicated at their meeting on Oct. 20 that they would continue good faith negotiations with SunCal and that the public has the right to know what these issues and their resolutions are.
Please, stay true to your word and give time for that to happen. Election codes do not require a special election for this initiative, which would occur at a significant cost to the city. A Feb. 2, 2010 election date requires ballot arguments due as early as Nov. 13, according to the county registrar. This timing would preclude fruitful negotiation and public disclosure.
It took 10 years from the time the base closed to select a viable master developer, SunCal, and two years after that for SunCal to conduct the in-depth analyses and gather the community and city input necessary to create this plan to finally revitalize the blighted and deteriorating former Naval property. After all this time, allowing another few months for negotiations to continue seems a small price to pay.
We should not have to rush into an election that jeopardizes all the time, energy and effort so many Alamedans have committed to the creation of this viable plan for Alameda Point.
