“Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.” Mark Twain
On Monday, December 11 at 6ish p.m. in City Hall and broadcast live, the Piedmont Planning Commission will consider an application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application for The Piedmont Post to relocate their offices to the City owned property at 801 Magnolia Avenue.
According to the application, the hours of operation of the office in the residential neighborhood will extend to midnight on several nights weekly and the workday will last as long as 12 hours, adding a considerable amount of activity on already busy Magnolia Avenue considering the coming and going of Middle School, high schools, Piedmont Adult School, the Recreation Center, the Aquatic Center as well as the many special events.
An independent free press should not be a creature of the government it is meant to cover, that would make it a government public relations entity. If subsidized office space is offered to one commercial news business, it should be available to all news organizations as is the dedicated White House shared press workspace.
If the Post wanted to rent office space on Grand Avenue in Piedmont or in the Wells Fargo Building, there would be no conflict of interest and no citizen objections. The Post has never operated in commercial space in Piedmont, although its business address is a home in Piedmont on Oakland Avenue.
The City provides the building at 801 Magnolia Avenue on a subsidized basis at $1/year lease for the public benefit as an Arts Center.
The Council has the ultimate responsibility to determine what is appropriate for the use of public, taxpayer-supported property. The Piedmont Center for the Arts was approved by the Council and pays $1 per year for their space at 801 Magnolia Avenue across from Piedmont High School.
According to information pertaining to the development of a space for The Piedmont Post, it appears there was no public advertisement of the space availability in the Piedmont Center and no other media entity was offered the subsidized office space.
The Piedmont Post started in the building at 801 Magnolia Avenue approximately 20 years ago when the building was owned and operated as the First Church of Christ Scientist. A newspaper business in the church was not legally allowed by the City and the Post was forced to move out of the building.
Subsequently, the Church dissolved and the City of Piedmont purchased the 801 Magnolia property for just under $700,000. The building was seldom used for years except for city storage. A plan for an aquatics facility at the site delayed changes to the building.
Founders of the Art Center, Gray Cathrall (Editor, Publisher, and Owner of The Piedmont Post), Nancy Lehrkind (Current Vice President for the Piedmont Center for the Arts), and others saw potential in using the property as the location of cultural activities and the arts. Beginning in 2011 the City of Piedmont granted a lease of part of the building, now the Piedmont Center for the Arts, for $1 per year for 10 years on the basis it would be exclusively used for non-profit purposes and the building would be improved – painting, heating, roofing, etc. The City, however, has maintained the grounds and landscaping.
In the six plus years of the 10 year lease, the Arts Center has become a shining star of culture, music, drama, and graphic arts. Interest and participation in the Arts Center has spread far beyond Piedmont borders.
In the summer of 2016, the Arts Center applied for and was granted by the City Council a change in the terms of their lease allowing the Center to engage in uses allowed in it’s zone, the Public Zone. This lease change was evidently unnoticed by most Piedmonters.
Then in 2016, the Council approved significant changes to the zoning laws of Piedmont including allowing for-profit businesses on City property under a conditional use permit process. The change of use without voter approval as prescribed in the City Charter, again drew little public notice and the Council changed the zoning without voter approval.
The justification for the zoning change from nonprofit to for-profit uses in the public zone was focused on allowing the Aquatic Facility to sell goggles, food, or beverages. However, that would not have violated the zoning as it stood as long as the sales were by the Facility for the financial benefit of the Facility. Now, the actual result allows a commercial business to profit financially with the taxpayer subsidy.
The Conditional Use Permit is on the Monday, December 11 Planning Commission agenda. The Commission will make a recommendation to the City Council.
It was long rumored that the goal of the Post was to move back into the 801 Magnolia building. Although the Post owner, Cathrall has been announced as termed out from the Arts Center Board, his newspaper, The Post, continues to foster and advertise the activities at the Center. Nancy Lehrkind, also a founder and Vice President of the Center Board, continues on the Board and has signed the CUP application documents.
Conflicts of interest are inherent in the leasing of public space to a single, local media outlet.
Having an office in the center of Piedmont in a public building leased for $1 a year would be beneficial to all media outlets.
There are a number of news media outlets covering Piedmont: The Piedmonter, The Piedmont Post, The Piedmont Civic Association, Piedmont Patch, East Bay News, Piedmont Portal, and others.
Piedmont residents, as with any group of people, have differing points of view on numerous subjects. Coverage by the various media outlets often reveals these differences.
The Piedmont Post has long been viewed as the Piedmont City Administration news outlet.
If the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application for The Piedmont Post to relocate their offices in the City owned property at 801 Magnolia Avenue (Piedmont Center for the Arts) is approved, the relationship between City Hall and The Post will become even closer and raise new questions. The Post and the City will have a financial relationship based on a lease and a Conditional Use Permit to use City property for a newspaper business.
Residents have raised issues in the past regarding City buildings not being appropriate for political activities nor for allowing businesses with potential conflicts of interests.
The Piedmont Post is an independently owned private newspaper supported by donors, advertisers, official City notices, and subscribers. The for-profit business entity is currently located in Oakland on Boulevard Way. The Post, contrary to City laws, uses a Piedmont residential address on Oakland Avenue as the business address.
There is no information available as to a business license in Oakland, Piedmont, or a Piedmont Home Occupation Permit as a business location on Oakland Avenue. There are no published documents available indicating the financial status of the newspaper. The application states a gross income of $380,000 per year.
The application indicates a need for more Art Center income to support the activities of the Center, however no documentation or audit has been publicly released to show the financial status of the Art Center.
The Commission meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 11 starting at 5 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers. The Planning Commission’s Conditional Use Permit consideration will follow a number of other applications on the agenda and will likely be considered after the Commission breaks for a half hour dinner around 6:30 p.m.
Those interested can attempt to attend or observe the meeting on Monday, December 11, at 5:oo p.m. The meeting will be broadcast live on Channel 27 and from the City website under videos.
Comments may be made to the Planning Commission:
Staff Liaison: Planning Director Kevin Jackson – kjackson@ci.piedmont.ca.us – (W) 420-3050 | |
Council Liaison: Jennifer Cavenaugh – (510) 428-1442 | |
Commissioner Eric Behrens | |
Commissioner Aradhana Jajodia | |
Commissioner Jonathan Levine | |
Commissioner Susan Ode | |
Commissioner Tom Ramsey | |
Commissioner Clark Thiel (Alternate) |