A gay man is vying for a second time to be elected to Emeryville's City Council while longtime lesbian City Councilwoman Ruth Atkin has decided not to seek re-election this year.
Instead, she has pledged to help elect John Bauters to one of three open seats on the five-person council this November. Bauters, who bought a home in the East Bay city in March with his longtime partner, Aaron Feeney, unsuccessfully ran for a council seat in 2014 two years after first moving to town from Chicago.
He is expected to be the only out LGBT person among six likely candidates in the race once the filing deadline closes in August. Along with Atkin, City Councilwomen Jac Asher and Nora Davis also have opted not to seek re-election.
Since his first campaign Bauters, 36, has raised his public profile in the city. For the last year he has served on the Emeryville Planning Commission and he chairs the oversight committee for the city's school district parcel tax.
"For me, I am just really active in the community," said Bauters, the policy director at Californians for Safety and Justice.
He is well known in gay sports circles, having worked part-time as an umpire in the San Francisco Gay Softball League the last four years. He took time off from campaigning over the Fourth of July weekend to umpire the Emerald City Softball Classic in Seattle. In August he is headed to Austin to umpire his eighth consecutive Gay Softball World Series.
His signature look of sporting a bow tie has taken on a key role in his campaign, with Bauters asking supporters to include the hashtag #ThatBowTieGuy when talking about his council bid on social media.
He began wearing them back in Chicago where he worked as a legal aid lawyer. One day he told the social worker for a client he had yet to meet, an elderly woman fighting her eviction from public housing after she put her rent money to pay for the burial of a grandchild who had been shot and murdered, to look for the guy adorned in a green checkered bowtie, which he had bought for a St. Patrick's Day party.
He won the case, and soon more calls came in from social workers with clients in need of courtroom counsel. Each was told to look for the bow-tied attorney at the courthouse, and soon Bauters bought a second, purple one to wear.
His collection is now up to 50 different bowties, including a dozen silk ones from Block's Department Store that his maternal grandfather wore in the 1950s working as a tractor salesman in the Midwest. His grandmother sent them to him following his grandfather's death.
Many of the others are handmade by his mother.
"I pick out the fabric and mail it to my mom. She has it down and custom sized to my neck," he said.
Unlike his last campaign, when he jumped into the race shortly before the filing deadline, Bauters began laying the groundwork for his 2016 campaign last fall. He lined up endorsements from all five of the sitting council members and the local firefighters union was among his first donors.
His main concern and reason for running is housing issues, from the cost of housing to what types of housing gets built in Emeryville. The city boasts a workforce of 36,000 people but its residents only number 11,000, which Bauters said is due to many city employees and workers at the various retail outlets unable to afford to live there.
"The number one issue is housing, housing, housing," said Bauters.
Even with the city having one of the highest minimum wages in the country �" it is currently at $14.83 per hour though it is $13 for businesses with fewer than 55 employees �" Bauters said many people are priced out of Emeryville.
"All these people crowd our freeways and drive here because so many of them have low and minimum wage jobs," he said. "Even with the minimum wage increase, it doesn't close the gap on how people access housing. Housing is extremely expensive in Emeryville."
Atkin told the Bay Area Reporter that Bauters has a credible chance of winning the race this year. Not only does it help there are no incumbents running, she said he has built up his name recognition with voters since landing third out of four candidates running for two council seats in 2014.
"I would hope he will be successful. I think he is the most solid candidate," said Atkin, 58, who has served on the council since 1999 and currently works for Contra Costa County.
Married to her longtime partner, Janet Tobacman , Atkin said she is ready to devote her time to other pursuits. While she wouldn't divulge what she plans to do once she steps down either in November or early December, depending on when the new council members are sworn in, she did say she has no plans to run for higher office.
"I have been on the council 17 years. It is time for me to put my mind on other things," she said, adding she plans to continue to work and is not retiring from her day job. "I have got some irons in the fire. We will see."
Among her proudest achievements while in office was pushing through the city's minimum wage increase last year and fostering stronger ties between the city council and local school board. The relationship has resulted in the Emeryville Center of Community Life program, which aims to integrate the city's school sites into the lives of all citizens.
"If you look around at any other city, usually the relationships between the school board and city council are strained at best. We truly are unique," Atkin said.
She also was the first, and so far, only known openly LGBT mayor of an East Bay city. She first served in the role, which rotates among the council members, in 2002 and served a fourth time as mayor last year.
"I broke some ground," she said.
Trans women headed to Dem convention
In what appears to be a first for California's delegation, two transgender women are expected to take part in the Democratic National Convention later this month in Philadelphia as at-large delegates for presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.
During a meeting last month in Long Beach to select the delegates, both San Leandro resident Tiffany Woods and San Diego resident April Spilker were selected by Clinton's team as part of her 58 at-large delegates. The state divvied up its 105 such delegates between Clinton and her opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), based on the June primary results.
Both women had lost their bids to be delegates in their respective congressional districts when Democrats voted in May to select 317 district-level delegates. They will help the state party meet its pledge that 12 percent of its total delegate contingent will be LGBT.
Back in 2012 Democrats in San Francisco had elected a trans person as a district-level delegate who had just started to transition their gender identity. But Marilyn Murillo, who was selected under their previous name, was unable to attend the convention that year.
According to Woods, there are at least 16, possibly 20, transgender delegates headed to the DNC this year out of the more than 340 national LGBT delegates expected to attend. They have begun meeting via Facebook groups ahead of the convention.
"I think the significance is trans people are getting out there. We can't afford to sit back and let others speak for us," said Woods, the transgender programs manager at Tri-City Health Center based in Fremont. "I think we are just literally saying we are getting involved and get over it. When I was running as a district delegate, to my knowledge I was the first trans person to run in Congresswoman Barbara Lee 's district. Nobody made an issue of it."
According to transgender activists, the first trans DNC delegate was Minnesotan Jane Fee in 2000. Four years later there were six, and the number had more than doubled to 14 in 2012.
This year's delegates are pushing to see one or both of the two transgender women seeking congressional seats in November �" Utah Senate candidate Misty Snow and Misty Plowright, who is running for a House seat in Colorado �" be the first trans people given primetime speaking slots at the convention.
And some have expressed disappointment with the draft version of the party's platform as not being forceful enough in terms of addressing bathroom access for transgender individuals or in opposing bills that allow discrimination based on religious beliefs. Woods said they are seeking amendments to the document ahead of its ratification at the convention.
"We are at a point now where trans leadership in politics needs to step up and be part of leadership and say, 'Where is our seat at the table?'" said Woods, who is raising three kids with her wife.
Yeager marks 10 years on Santa Clara board
Ten years ago on the June primary ballot, Ken Yeager became the first openly gay person elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. This month, supporters of the San Jose resident are hosting a fundraiser to mark his historic victory.
"As the first openly LGBTQ elected official in the county, I have been proud to lead our region on issues of equality and visibility for over three decades," wrote Yeager, who in 1992 was first elected to a local community college board and later to a seat on the San Jose City Council. "I have been honored by your past support, and I am hoping I can count on you again."
Yeager, 63, having won re-election in 2014, is now serving in his third and final four-year term on the county board. He has yet to announce if he plans to run for another political office come 2018, though he has long been eyed for state legislative office, having abandoned in 2011 a bid for state Assembly.
"I am keeping all options open," Yeager told the B.A.R. last week when asked about his future plans.
He said the July 14 fundraiser is to help offset "the ancillary expenses" he accrues as a county supervisor.
"I can't believe how fast the time has gone as well," he said of his serving in the elected post. "I am going to hate to see it end. It is a remarkable job."
To date, there doesn't appear to be another LGBT person primed to replace him on the county board. San Jose has been without an LGBT city council member since Yeager left, and there are few out elected officials in the county ready to mount a supervisorial bid.
"I very much worry about not having LGBT representation at San Jose City Hall and the county building. It makes a big difference having an LGBT person in the room," said Yeager, who last month secured a record $1 million in county funding for LGBT programs and HIV services. (See story, page 1.) "There is no one in the pipeline to run. I worry the $1 million in funding we found in this upcoming budget may not happen again if there is not an LGBT person making sure these programs are funded."
The fundraiser for Yeager will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 17 at the San Jose home of Bryan Rodriguez and Jean-Marie White, 450 South 16th Street. Donations beginning at $25 are requested of those who attend.
Donations can be made online at http://www.kenyeager.com/contribute.php.
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