From: nancy sidebotham <nannystu@pacbell.net>
Date: January 13, 2005 1:15:41 AM PST
To: "Sweiss, Fuad" <fssweiss@oaklandnet.com>
Cc: "Russo, John" <JRusso@oaklandcityattorney.org>, Nancy Nadel <nadel@oaklandnet.com>, Chiye Azuma <cazuma@ci.fremont.ca.us>, Chiye Azuma <chiye@cazuma.com>, Mark Brest van Kempen <mbvk@sbcglobal.net>, Friendsof2Creeks Moderator <friendsof2creeks-owner@yahoogroups.com>, Julie Gantenbein <gantenbein@n-h-i.org>, "Nathan G. Alley" <nalley@n-h-i.org>, "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>, "Amirzehni, Gus" <gamirzehni@oaklandnet.com>, "Neary, Mike" <mjneary@oaklandnet.com>, "Godinez II, Raul" <rgodinez@oaklandnet.com>, "De Luca, Niccolo" <NDeLuca@oaklandnet.com>, "Lau, David W" <dwlau@oaklandnet.com>, "Law, Allen" <atlaw@oaklandnet.com>, "Cappio, Claudia" <CCappio@oaklandnet.com>, "Fierro, Rocio"<RFierro@oaklandcityattorney.org>, Henry Chang <cityochang@aol.com>, Henry Chang <chang@oaklandnet.com>, Jean Quan <jquan@oaklandnet.com>

Subject: RE: Chimes Creek

Mr. Sweiss,

Thank you for responding to my email. I received the letter today
1/12, at 11:55AM. The letter was dated 1/7, postmarked 1/11. I left a
message for Allen Law and spoke directly with Gus Amirzehne. I also
emailed Ms. Nadel and left her a phone message regarding the timeliness
of the meeting.

I however have a number of issues regarding your reasoning for this
"timely" called meeting.

1) You have known about the sewer problems along Chimes Creek for quite
a while, 16 years or there abouts to be exact.

2) Calling a meeting the Friday before the Public Works Comm. meeting
leads me to believe you are covering you rear ends to make yourselves
look good for your "bosses".

3) As to this being a tight schedule, I find it amusing that we have
been calling and complaining about erosion, sewage problems, sewer line
breaks, over flowing banks, for years and your department, under the
leadership of Mike Neary, never seemed to be concerned as to the
urgency, or the blatant contamination of the creek and the bay and
possible infection or deceases that might impact the children who play
near the creek if not in it at times.

This meeting needs to be rescheduled to accommodate the homeowners who
work for a living, pay the taxes, that pay your salaries.

I have talked to a couple of neighbors and they are upset about the
time and timing of the meeting. Why do we have to come downtown, pay
for parking and take time off work?

This meeting should be inclusive and not set up to pit neighbors
against each other because your department interprets and the
homeowners do not have a clue as to the history and ideas being
discussed.

The last time I looked we are a democratic society with rights. We
vote, we pay taxes, and we own the property you want to fool around
with.

The last time I looked at the EIR nowhere did it state that the sewer
lines along Chimes Creek were to be impacted by the DeSilva
development. Nor did it state that we where going to have to do your
jobs in monitoring and working to protect the properties that we have
invested in while you the city staff play politics with our lives and
our homes.

Those of us who have been involved, watched the political process and
know through many experiences the games of "we are on a deadline and we
have to get this passed now" game, we will not be part of this last
minute theatrics that you all seem to think we are naive to.

You owe us respect and due consideration. Getting the word out as you
put it, which is your job not mine, is easy. The difficult part is
making sure we are all on the same page and hear everything at the same
time. This of course, if you do not understand this premise, is so we
have a stake in the decision making and can actually agree with you
when you go to the PW committee and Council with your report and not be
there as adversaries.

Though the Council members may think that you have the knowledge and
look to you for guidance, we out here in the daily life of Chimes
Creek, the sewage problems, and the incompetency and speed of the
DeSilva project, are as knowledgeable and more aware of the impacts
that neglect and favoritism play in politics.

I would recommend that you find a time and location convenient to those
of us who have already lost a lot and have a real stake in how this is
played out while you and the DeSilva's pack up and go home at the end
of the day. Your report, based on the meeting you have called on the
21st, will not be real. The council member's not knowing the game being
played will look at us, the same old ordinary stakeholder
homeowners, who show up at the meeting as nuts and complainers because
"our staff would not lie to us", when we tell the council members, with
our 1 or 2 minute allotment, as you, staff, have 10 or 20 minutes of
made up rhetoric, turning to DeSilva for support, that you did not meet
with everyone and yes we can individually call etc. etc. etc......

Your deadline of attempting to get everything done by the end of 2005
is not being done for us but for DeSilva. There are serious issues
here and restoration of Chimes Creek is for us the main issue along
with fixing the broken sewer lines and overflowing man holes that
impact our back yards. We did not agree to have tons of water flowing
on to our private properties as Mike Neary so loves to state. You
revamped the run-off from Ridgemont to the Quarry, not us. You have
allowed por design and development over the last 20 years to erode down
stream properties, not us. Now you want us to allow you to dump 400+
home's sewage into our back yards and like it. As Marcel Uzegbu stated
"we may have to give up land to carry the extra flow water so that the
creek can be widened", and then claim he never said that, which was
done in front of four witnesses, last August.

Somehow the priorities for this whole process are backwards and to be
honest, I don't think you have a clue as to how to fix it. I would
wager that, like Mike Neary, most of you are old school refusing to
come into the 21st century and implement the new ideas and technology
being promoted when it comes to creeks and the real impacts they have
on the environment.

I again would recommend that you reschedule this to allow everyone to
participate.

Nancy Sidebotham, President
Millsmont Homeowners Association