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The Town of Danville’s newest advisory body currently has two open seats, following the removal of two members of the Bicycle Advisory Commission earlier this month.
The Danville Town Council voted 3-1 at their Jan. 14 meeting to remove prominent commissioners and longtime bicycle advocates Al Kalin and Bruce Bilodeau following more than an hour of discussion and public comments, with supporters of the decision citing personality differences as the cause of their removal, while the two commissioners and their own supporters classified the move as the end result of a pattern of bullying and intimidation.
The move stemmed from the council’s Dec. 10 study session, during which a majority of the council directed staff to place a resolution for Kalin’s and Bilodeau’s removal on an upcoming meeting agenda. But the road towards the Jan. 14 vote had been a lengthy and contentious one – one thing all parties involved agreed on.
A primary point of conflict was why the two well-known bicycle safety advocates were being removed from their commission seats that evening, with the issue boiling down to “personality issues” according to councilmember Newell Arnerich, while Kalin and his numerous supporters characterized it as something more nefarious at worst and bad form at best.
However, the town’s municipal code notes that the council does not need to provide a reason for removing members of its commissions, just a majority vote, with commissioners serving at “the pleasure of the city council” according to state law.
This point was emphasized following initial questions on the topic from councilmember Karen Stepper who suggested that the council reconsider this practice at a future meeting – and who would go on to cast that evening’s sole dissenting vote –before a reminder from Arnerich to stick with questions only at that point in the meeting.
“At least one member of the Town Council has vilified my efforts, maligned my character, falsely accused me of unlawful behavior including workplace harassment, and worked behind the scenes and actively attacked me at Town Council meetings to have me removed from the bike commission,” Kalin said at that night’s meeting.
Kalin added that he met with Arnerich for coffee last March and that “what transpired during that brief meeting was shocking and deeply troubling.”
“When Mr. Arnerich arrived, he was visibly angry,” Kalin continued. “Standing over me, while I was seated at a table, with his finger pointed directly at my face, he loudly declared I’m here because I want your resignation Monday at 5 p.m.”
According to Kalin, this was after Arnerich and Councilmember Robert Storer “aired a narrative at several town council meetings that I and one other commissioner harassed and intimidated Town Staff and other Commissioners.”
Kalin alleged that Arnerich had cited him and Bilodeau as responsible for two other commissioners declining to renew their terms – something Arnerich had alluded to and noted was a rare occurrence for the town’s commissioners earlier in the evening – and the departure of former Transportation Manager Andy Dillard, who according to town staff earlier in the evening made a “difficult decision” to depart the post for a senior engineer role at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, where Arnerich currently serves as commission chair.
“In my opinion, Mr. Arnerich’s behavior crossed an ethical line for a town councilmember,” Kalin said. “First by threatening a citizen and volunteer: To be threatened in such an aggressive and hostile manner by an elected official is not only inappropriate but completely unacceptable. It is especially troubling when the individual being threatened is a volunteer who has dedicated their time and effort to bettering the community.”
Kalin contended that he was not responsible for Dillard’s departure and denied that he and Bilodeau had harassed and threatened town staff. He went on to allege that the incident was part of a wider pattern of “bullying” by Arnerich, citing anecdotes from anonymous councilmembers and commissioners.
“This pattern of behavior by the Town’s leadership is not just unacceptable—it is damaging to the Town’s reputation, the functioning of the Town government, and to the trust residents place in their elected officials,” Kalin said. “I refuse to accept that the Town of Danville will simply continue to ignore this kind of behavior by its leadership.”
At that night’s meeting and in a subsequent interview with DanvilleSanRamon, Arnerich denied Kalin’s characterization of their coffee meeting and the events leading up to it, saying that while there had been some conflict between bicycle enthusiasts and the town staff and council, at the heart of it was “personality issues” – something he said had happened before, but that was typically dealt with in a more congenial manner.
During questions at the Jan. 14 meeting, Arnerich noted that one such past instance of “personality issues” had been on the town’s Arts Advisory Commission – with those issues being easily subsided by quietly disbanding the commission and moving its function to the current Parks Recreation and Arts Commission..
This was different, Arnerich emphasized, than getting rid of the commission altogether – and it was an option the council had considered as an alternative to a resolution to remove Kalin and Bilodeau — leading to fears that the bicycle commission, established in 2022 would be dissolved in the first years of existence.
Kalin’s remarks were followed by dozens of public comments supporting him and Bilodeau and calling on the council to vote against the resolution to remove the pair, some of whom were cyclists from throughout the region but many of whom were Danville residents and longtime cyclists, including survivors of bicycle collisions on Mount Diablo that Kalin has staunchly advocated for solutions to.
.”He’s respected by so many, but not only by fellow cyclists, but law enforcement, state representatives and Senators,” said Gary Spinella, a longtime Danville bicyclist who sustained injuries during a collision while biking on Mount Diablo. “I have personally witnessed this on many occasions – that’s why Al gets things done. He seeks the facts and uses the data to find a suitable solution that’s not based on emotions. Let’s just say he’s the cyclist’s guardian angel.”
Spinella noted that voters had put their trust in the council during last year’s election – in which Arnerich and Mayor Renee Morgan won reelection and first-term Councilmember Mark Belotz won election in a four-candidate race for three seats.
“Keep these two very capable men in their current position so they can make certain your words remain true,” Spinella said. “God forbid if that happens – that we have a fatality here in Danville – I don’t know how you’re going to address all of us including the media.”
Rick Edmonson, another survivor of a head-on collision while bicycling on Mount Diablo, echoed Spinella’s point that “Al gets things done.”
“Go up to Mount Diablo, look at the bike turnouts, look at the double lines – it has made a huge difference,” Edmonson said. “Cycling – a lot of people hate us. A lot of drivers hate us. I’m a driver too. But we’re out there just like anyone else. We have a right to be on the road. It is a healthy thing physically and mentally to do a bike ride. I’m 80-years-old and I don’t think I’d be alive today if it wasn’t for cycling.”
Also among Kalin and Bilodeau’s supporters during the public comment portion of that evening’s meeting was Alicia Stroud, who spent eight years on the Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission and two years on the citizens’ advisory council for CCTA – the former of which, she said, was also terminated due to “bullying” by Arnerich prior to her appointment for an additional term.
“After a very cheerful conversation with city council members during my interview and many thanks for my exceptional contributions, I was then blindsided and verbally attacked by Newell Arnerich,” Stroud said. “It was incredibly inappropriate and traumatizing for me, and his aggressive tone was a complete blindside.”
Stroud said she had come to believe that the incident was retaliation for her presence at SRVUSD board meetings in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic calling for schools to reopen in the spring of 2021.
“He said that I had attacked allies of the Town Council – I have never attacked anyone,” Stroud said. “I have always spoken from the heart in a respectful manner, and I have always opened my ears to listen to others and consider their perspective. Newell behaved like a bully towards me, but I think all humans have a capacity to change upon reflection.”
During that time period in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, three SRVUSD trustees – Susanna Ordway, Rachel Hurd, and Ken Mintz – were facing a recall effort following their decision to reverse a previous plan to reopen schools in January 2021. The effort ultimately failed to garner enough signatures to be placed on a ballot by the deadline that summer.
At the conclusion of the public comment period, Storer made a motion to approve the resolution to remove Kalin and Bilodeau, which was seconded by Arnerich. Stepper responded with comments at that point.
“I hardly know where to start – our last interviews for this commission, the only question Newell Arnerich asked in the room was ‘do you know Al Kalin’ and if your answer if you ever had met him was no, you don’t qualify for this commission,” Stepper said.
“Let’s not do personal stuff,” Arnerich interjected. “Everybody has their perspective. That’s not a true statement. If you want to go down there, then that means we’re going to have to come back with things that we’ve heard to do that. So I would ask, make your comments, let’s try to not make them personal. That’s what we were trying to avoid.”
“We will start avoiding things when we start having transparent meetings for our study sessions,” Stepper replied. “Some of those study sessions are essentially the interviews for our commissioners, and they are open meetings, and our annual workshop is open meetings, but as you as an individual don’t know that – you come up to the door, the door is shut, you don’t come in. So nobody comes to those.”
Stepper added that she was concerned with not just the council’s study sessions, but all commission meetings, not being publicized in the same way as regular meetings or recorded – adding that the community should start looking for those recordings soon and that they should be publicly available.
She went on to point to a recent bicycle collision involving an 11-year-old near downtown on Dec. 30 and the ongoing need for bicycle safety improvements in that neighborhood – as well as pointing to Kalin as a key figure to advise the council on those improvements.
“We have people on this commission who really care about you and care about Danville, and that is headed by Al,” Stepper said.
Stepper emphasized the important role of the commission and its experienced members particularly in the implementation of the town’s Bicycle Master Plan – which she said was largely the work of Kalin and Bilodeau – and the potential to include bicycle safety measures as part of the Downtown Master Plan currently under construction.
“I’m disappointed that we’re here, that we would do this in public,” Stepper said.
Stepper concluded by noting that her daughter had also experienced Kalin as a “guardian angel of cyclists” when she was hit by a car while bicycling.
“My daughter has metal in her shoulder and was saved by Al Kalin in 2016 when she collided with a car coming the opposite direction,” Stepper said. “You need people who know how to do this and have the passion and compassion to do it.”
Belotz, who ultimately voted to remove the two commissioners, said that there was no question that Kalin and Bilodeau are “the epitome of advocates,” and that their experience and passion for their roles was not the issue at hand.
“These two people really care about bicycle riders and making the roads safer for them,” Belotz said. “This isn’t about that. Things have not been as smooth on the Danville Bicycle Advisory Commission. Members of the town staff in addition to the town staff liaison have had to be at all the commission meetings to make sure they were run smoothly, taking up valuable staff time that could be used elsewhere.”
Belotz said that commission meetings had been veering off course due to “distractions and drama.”
“I think we have a lack of trust in collaboration between the town staff and these commissioners that has been going on for way too long, and unfortunately I don’t think we can solve it,” Belotz said.
He added that if Kalin’s characterization of his meeting with Arnerich last March was accurate, he would encourage a more diplomatic tone on the council in the future, but said that the situation with the bicycle commission as it stood called for a “fresh start.”
Following a 3-1 vote, Kalin and Bilodeau were removed from the commission with more than a year left in their terms, which they were appointed to as original members when the commission was launched in 2022.
At the Bicycle Advisory Commission’s next meeting on Jan. 20 – which was recorded – the process for filling those vacant seats was at the top of the agenda, with town staff providing an update on the recruitment process for Kalin and Bilodeau’s replacements and the goal of filling those seats before the next quarterly commission meeting, and ensuring sitting commissioners that their existing plans would continue to be executed.
Applications for those seats are now open through Feb. 26. Commissioners are required to have “experience, training, occupation, or education” illustrating their interest in and knowledge of bicycling, and should represent “an inclusive cross-section of interests in bicycling” including recreational cyclists, families, seniors, youth, and businesses.
More information and applications are available here.
