At late hour, city does not know whether Keimach will show up tonight (UPDATE)

Whether or not an unusual Alameda City Council special open session Tuesday night intended to allow embattled Alameda City Manager Jill Keimach a chance to publicly air her own job performance review is still up in the air hours before the regular meeting  is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

A revised agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting posted last week included the special open session slated to begin at 6:59 p.m.–just prior to the regular meeting. The subject: Keimach employee evaluation, which has been postponed for more than a year.

Alameda City Clerk Lara Weisinger said the special open session item on the agenda serves as a placeholder in case Keimach makes an appearance.

As of 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, the city has not received word from Keimach whether she will attend tonight’s meeting. An email to Keimach’s attorney last week was not returned.

Update: Prior to the council entering closed session early Tuesday evening, Alameda Mayor Trish Herrera Spencer read a statement from Keimach in which she waived her right to a public hearing.

But in a statement from Keimach’s attorney Therese Cannata following release of the independent investigator’s report on May 2, she suggested favoring the public airing of her client’s job evaluation.

“No more closed sessions,” Cannata wrote.  “The people who are opposed to transparent government (who support the backroom politics) should come out of the shadows and let the citizens of Alameda hear them — if they have a credible justification for what they are trying to do to Ms. Keimach, say it out loud for all to hear.”

Keimach was placed on paid administrative leave last March after, during the course of an independent investigation of previous allegations against certain members of the council, it was learned she improperly recorded a private meeting with Councilmembers Jim Oddie and Malia Vella.

Keimach made a surprise appearance at a council meeting last month, in effect, asking for her job back. She remains on paid leave.

The subsequent report, released earlier this month, found nearly all of Keimach’s allegations were unfounded, although it cited Oddie for violating the City Charter after he sent her a letter of recommendation on city letterhead in favor of a potential candidate for fire chief.

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