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Former Pleasanton councilman Matt Sullivan checked in by email in answer to the question I posed about when Costco will come to the city.
He wrote, “The Pleasanton Weekly cut off comments on your column about Costco. But I thought I would provide an answer to you anyway. The answer is NEVER.”
His response sums up his respect for the will of 63% of the people who voted to bring the warehouse store and gas station here in 2016.
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern, who has held the office since Charlie Plummer retired in 2006, is facing two challengers in his re-election race this year. He is being challenged by department Commander Yesenia Sanchez and veteran San Francisco Police Department Officer JoAnn Walker.
Ahern has picked up endorsements from the supervisors representing the Livermore Valley, Nate Miley and David Haubert. Haubert just finished his first year on the board after serving as Dublin’s mayor, while Miley is a long-time board member and has represented Pleasanton for the last 10 years.
Ahern also received the endorsement from former governor Jerry Brown, who presumably he got to know while Brown was serving as Oakland mayor. The sheriff’s department is headquartered in the county building in downtown Oakland.
Congrats to Livermore native Brandon Cardwell who will lead the city’s innovation and economic development activities. Cardwelll had been working for Livermore since 2006 and moved into economic development in 2011. One of his key roles has been directing the i-Gate Innovation Hub that’s jointly funded by the city, the two national labs as well as Dublin, Danville and Pleasanton. In that role, he headed the development of the Daybreak Labs incubator for start-ups and the Startup Tri-Valley ecosystem.
In the press release announcing Cardwell’s appointment, City Manager Marc Roberts noted he’d also been involved in significant land planning in the city. Cardwell went to Livermore schools, graduating from Granada High. He brings that home-grown perspective to his job and wants to see more local job opportunities for residents so they can volunteer in the community instead of fighting long commutes on the freeway.
It’s nice to see Roberta Gonzalez back on the Bay Area television. For more than 20 years, Gonzalez provided weather forecasts for KPIX before leaving in 2016 to form her own production company. I have seen Gonzalez filling in on the KTVU weather desk in recent weeks. From her comments about the I-580 and the Dublin grade on Monday, I suspect she still lives locally. While working at Channel 5, she raised her family in Pleasanton.
Tim,
What I have respect for is integrity in government. The city lied to the public about $20 million in taxpayers subsidies to Costco during the election. If people had known the truth the outcome may have been very different.
There is much more to democracy than voting.[removed]
When you vote for something and it gets approved it should happen now if Matt knew this prior why didn’t he speak up? This is another example of backdoor politics that people hate and despise. I don’t know about the 20Million subsidies but if Matt or anyone else knew of this especially calling it a lie…..why not let it be known? Then…Here we are now….most folks voted for Costco…..now this? Good god another small example of why America is headed in the wrong direction. We have an inept one foot in the grave so called President who is a nightmare and now the local politicians with their own tales! Build the Costco it will generate good money for the city then the mayor and city council can get their corrupt hands on it and waste it all away. Bring in Costco
We did make it public at the time. I guess you weren’t paying attention. We obtained documentation from the city from a Public Records Request that proved the city was in negotiations with Costco for the $20 million subsidies, but when we asked them about it they denied it. We provided the documentation to both the Pleasanton Weekly and East Bay Times and they both ignored it. We posted the information on our Facebook page, posted it on this blog, wrote several letters to the editor and OP-Ed pieces which were printed in the Weekly. We even had a point-counterpoint Op-Ed with me and the city manager, who denied the existence of subsidies even though we provided the documentation. I was vigorously attacked on this blog for trying to bring out the truth, as I’m sure the usual suspects will soon weigh in with more attacks. We won’t even get into the CEQA issues, which is why it’s still hung up in court.
This is definitely backdoor politics but it is not by me or the other opponents of Costco. You should ask the City Council and city management about it.
It’s not a secret.
https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/2017/08/22/city-announces-tentative-plan-for-financing-road-improvements-near-proposed-costco
https://pleasantonweekly.com/news/2018/02/28/city-council-confirms-roadwork-financing-deal-with-costco
https://pleasantonweekly.com/news/2021/05/05/pleasanton-council-confirms-new-fees-for-johnson-drive-economic-development-zone
Matt is angry because no credible news organization took his bait of, for example, naming an email he (or his benefactor paying for the multiple lawsuits) obtained in the records request “Let’s meet privately,” when there was absolutely no mention of that in the email chain. Nor did we leave disinformation he was trying to push unchallenged.
Gina or Jeremy (whoever just posted). I don’t know what you alluding to with your last paragraph so perhaps you can provide whatever it is. And your damn right I’m angry that your paper didn’t take this issue seriously during an election. Isn’t the press supposed to be a bulwark to democracy?
Crickets from the Mayor.
Matt Sullivan seems to feel that his “feelings” matter more than “votes.” No one needs or wants bargain basket authoritarians that (baselessly) insist they are smarter than everyone else. The less this man has to do with Government the better for Pleasanton.
“NEVER”
Images of Vladimir Putin and Napoleon Boneparte come to mind.
Matt Sullivan is Pleasanton’s public bully. He lacks empathy, blames others for his short comings.
Bill Wheeler of Black tie with hand full of local business entities rally behind this discourse.
Fortunately, democracy will prevail.
Is there any way the majority of Pleasanton residents can sue Matt Sullivan to stop this ongoing madness? I’m pretty darned sure the majority still wants the Costco. And whether it’s ignorance of details or satisfaction with them, if this is what the voters want then let’s get on with it! We have to stop with the denying election results thing and accept valid outcomes whether Matt likes them or not.
I don’t intend any disrespect when I say this.
Pleasanton voters did not vote to have a Costco in town, they voted to allow for the zoning to change to allow a large retail Costco sized business on this proerty.
I do acknowledge that Costco was the preferred retailer of choice for many, and we knew that Costco was already in the process of planning for a store at this location.
At this point, I don’t really care what gets built on the site. We need to move forward on that property.
And to those who swear up and down that Costco does not go in there I ask, what do you suppose will end up getting built at this location? What would you like to see.
Dave