It is with great sadness that I announce my resignation from the Piedmont City Council effective Tuesday September 5, 2017.

I will provide the City Administrator with a formal letter of resignation, which I will ask him to read at that meeting.

Throughout my service on Council, I strived to do what was best for Piedmont, and tried to be fair and open to everybody’s opinions. I challenge people to find a single instance where my personal opinions affected any vote or action I’ve taken Piedmont.

 In closing, I want to say I’m proud of the contributions I’ve made to Piedmont.  I helped reform Piedmont’s parcel taxes to provide funding for our high quality municipal services and to help retain the skilled people who provide them.  As a Chair of the Municipal Tax Review Committee, I successfully fought for a Charter amendment that allowed Piedmont to maintain an adequate General Fund reserve, and also helped structured a sewer tax that has allowed Piedmont to lead the East Bay cities in upgrading our infrastructure to reduce pollution in San Francisco Bay.  I’ve contributed on at least seven civic committees, and spent nearly 12 years on the City Council, missing sessions only when hospitalized.

I’ve written my “Piedmontage” column in the Piedmont Post for 14 years, with the aim of providing a clear, easily read, discussion of significant issues facing Piedmont.  Nobody has ever accused me of inserting personal political biases into any of my hundreds of columns about Piedmont’s civic issues.

In closing, I want to say that I have a deep love for our beautiful city, and think it has been an honor to work with so many fine civic volunteers.  I especially want to say how much I appreciate our city employees.  It has been my privilege to spend time with our police, firefighters, and public works employees.  Our employees and our skilled management team make Piedmont the superb city it is.

The City Council and staff have important issues to deal with, from cell towers to labor negotiations to garbage service.  It would be unfair to the City and a personal betrayal of my principles and past efforts if I allowed this circus to continue distracting residents, the Council, and City Staff.  I also don’t need any more obscene hate mail or veiled threats of violence.

I apologize for helping create this situation.  Continuing to fight the situation might make me feel better, but will not help our community.

Therefore, I am tendering my resignation from the City Council, effective as of Tuesday September 5, 2017.  My best wishes to you and to my former colleagues on the Council.  I am grateful to the friends, former colleagues and everyday citizens who have reached out with their support and understanding.

Jeffrey Wieler, Former Mayor and Councilmember

August 30, 2017

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City Press Release:  August 30, 2017

Jeffrey Wieler Resigns from Piedmont City Council

On Wednesday, August 30th, Jeffrey Wieler resigned from the Piedmont City Council effective Tuesday, September 5, 2017.

Mr. Wieler was elected to the City Council in 2010 and 2014. He previously served on the City Council from 2002 to 2006. The text of Mr. Wieler’s resignation is available on the City’s web site at http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us *

Contact: Paul Benoit, City Administrator   420-3040

Jeff Wieler’s indiscreet statements about an intimate female part are online and on television.  

Wieler has resigned his position as mayor of Piedmont while continuing to serve on the Piedmont City Council.  Yet, numerous individuals are calling for him to resign from the City Council.  

Not good enough. He needs to personally apologize to each and every person in this town whom he has directly and needlessly insulted during his years on the Council. And then he should resign from the Council.

Mike Rancer

Tim Rood’s Facebook page addressing Jeff Wieler:

Following Jeff Wieler’s resignation as mayor, but not from City Council, the drumbeat of emails from outraged citizens continues as new outrageous posts continue to emerge. Mr. Wieler’s boorish and offensive online posts and the widespread publicity about them have caused him to utterly forfeit the respect of broad segments of the Piedmont community, as well as that of his colleagues, and have sullied Piedmont’s reputation – not to mention opening many more eyes to the obvious journalistic shortcomings of the Piedmont Post as a source of unbiased information about local events.

This self-imposed mess isn’t in the slightest an issue of partisan politics, and it’s also not an issue of free speech – it’s really just a matter of treating elected office as the privilege that it is and treating constituents (and others) with due respect.

A citizen-led recall campaign would take months and could cripple the Council and staff’s ability to advance the City’s business.

Jeff, I thank you for your service, but I think you know in your heart of hearts that for the good of the community, it’s appropriate for you to step down from the Council.

Tim Rood, Piedmont City Councilmember

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I think compassion is too high a bar for the councilman -basic civility would be a start. There seems to be a thread through his statement that his comments on NATIONAL affairs were offensive to the liberal sensitivities of Piedmont, completely ignoring the invective and hateful content of his speech.

What is needed now from the councilman is not compassion but contrition and that could best be shown by his stepping down from council. There is a post on Quora (is that Latin for sexist?) attributed to the councilman that makes his Facebook posts pale in comparison. It’s not a national issue, not a conservative opinion but a denigration of women. If true, The councilman needs to resign.

Former Councilmember Garrett Keating

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Councilmember Wieler’s degrading labeling and name calling of those who espouse a liberal point of view has rendered him impotent as a City Council leader and as an elected representative of Piedmont in meetings with Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley and beyond.
He cannot continue to claim service to Piedmont and express contempt for Piedmont residents.

 Conna McCarthy

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Acting Mayor Bob McBain pressed Wieler to resign from the City Council. http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/08/30/piedmonts-new-acting-mayor-presses-wieler-to-leave-city-council/

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View Channel 5 CBS report on latest concerns regarding Wieler’s public statements on a national website >HERE

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While making offensive remarks, Wieler utilized his elected Piedmont positions – Piedmont Councilmember and Mayor.

Former Mayor Jeff Wieler’s resignation as mayor has sparked interest and concern far beyond Piedmont’s borders. Readers can google his name online and observe the reach of his comments and actions reflecting on Piedmont. The national Quora website features more than 100 Wieler opinions on a range of issues, some of which have been found to lack basic civility.

We need to immediately remove Jeff Wieler from the Piedmont City Council.  His comments on social media are disgusting and should not be tolerated in an elected official.

He and his love of vaginas should be home alone with no role in deciding our city’s public policies.  

Kristina McLaughlin

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[“Having a vagina is not a vision that inspires. And before some feminist harpy objects to the last sentence, I want to say that I dearly love vaginas.” Jeffrey Wieler, July 19, 2017 ] Read the entire statement by clicking below.

  Answered Jul 19 

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A “small sampling” of Mayor Wieler’s online views:

“The left burns buildings and deprives people of free speech and physically attacks conservatives. There’s a b***** named Falatco who led a gang that attacked a Trump rally in Berkeley.”

“Black lives matter encourages cop killing.”

“The Left is dangerous and un-American.”

“Transgenders are mentally ill”

‘The left is Intellectually bankrupt”

“Democrats are the plantation slave masters of today” (article)

“Fight the leftie barbarians”

“The tinfoil hat crowd of the left should be pitied because insanity is a terrible fate”

“Some people hate Trump, but more people hate liberals”

“The loonies of the resistance are worth a laugh, but not much more than that.”

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Councilmembers will decide who Piedmont’s next mayor will be.

Councilmembers are elected to serve 4 year terms, unless they assume an unexpired seat on the Council. In Piedmont, there is a Council election every 2 years; one election chooses two individuals and the alternate election chooses three individuals. Piedmont’s next General Election will be in November 2018.

The Piedmont City Council elects the mayor from one of its members.  The mayoral selection usually follows a general election, unless there is an intervening vacancy as currently exists.  To become the Mayor of Piedmont requires the affirmative vote of three Council members.

The Mayor serves at the pleasure of the Council for a two year term, that is unless the Mayor position is vacated, as with the resignation of Jeff Wieler.

In recent decades, the mayoral selection has traditionally been based on the number of years served in relation to the top vote-getter for that election cycle. Typically, there is harmony in the selection process; however, this has not always been the case.

There have been mayor and vice mayor selections that were not unanimous.  In other instances, a Councilmember has been jumped over to choose a less tenured Councilmember, or one who did not receive the most votes in a cycle.

The Mayor is one of the Councilmembers and has only the powers provided by City Charter or by those given by the Council. 

It seems all Council members want to be the Mayor, even though the position is not administrative, the mayor acts in approving agendas, running Council meeting as any chair would, representing the City in various situations, and being an ambassador for Piedmont.  There are a few exceptions to these responsibilities.

City Charter states:

SECTION 2.08 MAYOR Following each general municipal election, the City Council shall elect from among its member officers of the City who shall have the titles of Mayor and Vice-Mayor, each of whom shall serve at the pleasure of the Council. The Mayor shall preside at meetings of the Council, shall be recognized as head of the City government for all ceremonial purposes and by the Governor for the purposes of military law, but shall have no administrative duties. The Vice-Mayor shall act as mayor during the absence or disability of the Mayor. In case of the temporary absence or disability of both the Mayor and Vice-Mayor, the Council shall select one of its members to serve as Mayor Pro Tempore.

The selection of the mayor is a political process amongst the Councilmembers, who must adhere to the Brown Act during the consideration process, meaning a majority of the Council members can not meet outside of the public process to discuss their selection.

A vacancy currently exists in the position of Mayor.

Since the City Charter calls for a Mayor and a Vice Mayor, there is only an “acting mayor” when the Council elected mayor is “absent or disabled.”  The mayor is not now absent or disabled; the position is vacant. A vacancy is also described in the Charter, as when someone resigns, the current instance of Jeff Wieler’s resignation.

The Piedmont City Charter states:

(A) VACANCIES. The office of a Councilmember shall become vacant upon his/her death, resignation, removal from office in any manner authorized by law, or forfeiture of office.

No firm date has been set for Council consideration of a new mayor.

Councilmember Tim Rood has announced his request that the election of a mayor be scheduled on the September 5 Council meeting agenda.

Currently, Vice Mayor Bob McBain, the most tenured Councilmember other than Wieler, has assumed the responsibilities of the mayor.  The Council must make a decision on either choosing McBain or another Councilmember to become the next Mayor of Piedmont. If McBain is chosen as mayor, then another Councilmember will need to be chosen as Vice Mayor to replace McBain.

Councilmember contact information:

Jeff, your point is well taken that people on both sides of the political aisle can and should do a better job of listening to each other and that this would be a better way to achieve goals that accomplish results reflective of shared values.
But a key ingredient of good listening is compassion and a true desire to understand the needs of the other human beings in the conversation.

While you have explained your facebook postings as simply being re-posts from other sites, the fact is that those re-posts show a total lack of compassion; in fact they venture far into the territory of classic bullying behavior.  Name calling, labeling, colorful insults and grouping of individuals into categories are all behaviors that are so destructive of effective communication and community participation that we begin teaching even our youngest children not to engage in them.

Your two plus decades of community service are commendable.  However, I can’t help but feel that the missing element at this point in time is care and concern for the individuals who make up the full spectrum of your constituency.

National politics, talk radio, internet & facebook groups are quite abstract. Getting to know the fellow human beings of Piedmont (PADC [Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee] is a great place to start) and building some friendships outside the realm of politics is a much more ‘real’ and useful approach for local leadership.  While there is no doubt that the national political arena creates absorbing, outrageous and even terrifying ideas to consider – our local community must put all that aside in our day to day lives. Local leadership is at its best when the focus is on the needs, cares and concerns of the individuals who make up our shared community, and through compassionate consideration of these concerns arrive at agreeable solutions to the problems at hand.

I hope you will find a way forward, possibly by remembering why you were drawn to public service in the first place, and hopefully by leaving toxic national politics out of the equation when it comes to local concerns.

Respectfully submitted,
Katie Korotzer

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Read the statement by Mayor Jeff Wieler on his resignation by clicking below.

Wieler Statement 

Piedmont is no place for a RACIST and anti-LGBTQ mayor. Jeff Wieler’s political outbursts on social media show that he clearly has no regard for his diverse group of constituents. It sounds like Wieler needs to move to coal country where his anti-liberal hateful rhetoric will resonate amongst the uneducated.

UPDATE: The Special Council meeting of August 28, 2017  has been cancelled based on the August 27, 2017 resignation of Jeff Wieler as Mayor of Piedmont.  Wieler intends to remain on the Council as one of the 5 Piedmont City Councilmembers. Updated 8/28/2017

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On Monday, August 28, 2017, at 7:00 p.m., a Special Meeting of the Piedmont City Council will be held to consider the removal of Mayor Jeffrey Wieler from the Office of Mayor by Rescinding Resolution 105-16.

Mayor Wieler has come under considerable criticism based on his interaction with the general public and Piedmont citizens at meetings and on his Facebook site.  Wieler has been apologetic for his actions and remarks.

In Piedmont, the City Council elects the Mayor and Vice Mayor from the council members.  The Council can also remove the Mayor and Vice Mayor from these positions for they serve at the pleasure of the Council. It takes three Council members to elect or remove the Mayor or Vice Mayor.

The voter enacted Piedmont City Charter states:

SECTION 2.08 MAYOR

Following each general municipal election, the City Council shall elect from among its members officers of the City who shall have the titles of Mayor and Vice-Mayor, each of whom shall serve at the pleasure of the Council. The Mayor shall preside at meetings of the Council, shall be recognized as head of the City government for all ceremonial purposes and by the Governor for the purposes of military law, but shall have no administrative duties. The Vice-Mayor shall act as mayor during the absence or disability of the Mayor. In case of the temporary absence or disability of both the Mayor and Vice-Mayor, the Council shall select one of its members to serve as Mayor Pro Tempore. Emphasis added.

The Special Meeting is being called by at least 3 council members or by the Mayor per the City Charter, as follows:

SECTION 2.07 COUNCIL MEETINGS (A) MEETINGS. The City Council shall meet regularly at least twice in every month at such times and places as the Council may prescribe by ordinance or resolution. Special meetings may be held on the call of the Mayor or of three (3) or more members and, whenever practicable, upon no less than twenty-four (24) hours notice to each member. All meetings shall be public except as otherwise provided by law. Emphasis added.

As a Special Meeting only the item listed on the agenda can be considered during the meeting.  The agenda states:

 Consideration of the Removal of Jeffrey Wieler from the Office of Mayor by Rescinding Resolution 105-16 

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Resolution 105-16 RESOLVED, that the City Council elects Jeffrey Wieler to serve as Mayor of the City of Piedmont.

Moved by King, Seconded by Rood

Ayes: Cavenaugh, King, McBain, Rood, Wieler Noes: None         Absent: None

Under the rules, should Mayor Wieler be removed, Vice Mayor Bob McBain would assume the responsibilities of the Mayor. The City Charter states:

Vice-Mayor shall act as mayor during the absence or disability of the Mayor.

If the Council decides to remove and cause Mayor Wieler to vacate his position as Mayor, there is no place on this agenda to elect another Council member to the position of Mayor.

Recently, there was a vacancy, not an absence or disability, in the Mayor position when Mayor Margaret Fujioka resigned and vacated the City Council.  The Council did not follow the City Charter to elect a replacement, thereby allowing Jeff Wieler, the Vice Mayor, to be the Acting Mayor for months. There is no position in the City Charter known as the “Acting Mayor” for a vacated position. 

The Monday, August 28, 2017, Special Meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the  City Council Chambers, 120 Vista Avenue, Piedmont.  The public can speak to the agenda item.

There is no indication from the City if the meeting will be broadcast on Channel 27 or via the City website.

For further information, contact the City Clerk at 420-3040.

The Piedmonter and East Bay Times:

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/08/22/piedmont-mayor-criticized-by-residents-for-his-facebook-comments-views/

sfist.com:

http://sfist.com/2017/08/24/piedmonts_mayor_in_trouble_over_rac.php

CBS TV Channel 5 coverage:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/08/23/piedmont-mayor-jeff-wieler-political-social-media-rants/

The Piedmont Post: 

On August 23, 2017, a headline in The Piedmont Post reads “Mayor Wieler issues statement condemning racism, violence.” The paragraph at the end of the article states, “A large number of people attended the Monday’s council meeting and some spoke about personal facebook posts Wieler made several days earlier.”

Mayor Wieler has been a long time columnist with Piedmont’s local newspaper, The Piedmont Post.

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Video of August 21, 2017 Piedmont Council Meeting  comments – 

To view the video of all comments made at the August 21, 2017 Piedmont City Council meeting, go to the City website at: http://piedmont.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=1649

(Comments were made at the Council meeting in opening remarks and during the Public Forum, which followed the Consent Calendar.)

Piedmont Council member contact information:

http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/citycouncil/