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There was Election 2000 fall out Berkeley style at the Thursday night Zoning Adjustments Board meeting, when a new ZAB commissioner tried to claim his seat. 

Councilmembers are able to make new appointments when elected or re-elected, and that is what Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek wanted to do. 

As some will recall, James Peterson, who was appointed to the ZAB by Shirek, ran against the vice mayor in the District 3 November elections, garnering about 19 percent of the vote. Peterson’s role on the ZAB was highly publicized during the campaign, when he accepted a campaign donation from an applicant with a project before the ZAB. He later returned the donation. 

Shirek won with 73 percent of the vote. 

Peterson describes the Thursday night scenario like this: “We had assembled. The meeting had not yet begun. I was reading over the materials, when someone said, ‘I’m here to replace you.’” It was Mike Berkowitz, long-time aide and friend to Shirek. 

“‘I’m not moving,’” Peterson said he answered, and insisted that a planning staffer call the city attorney to rule on whether he had to step down. “He said he’d been sworn in,” Peterson said, adding, however, that there was no paper work – he needed a confirmation. Peterson vacated his seat after being directed to do so by the city attorney, through a city planner. 

Berkowitz’s move was a deliberate attempt to put him in an “embarrassing situation,” Peterson argued. 

“It’s a classic case of dirty politics,” he said, contending that Berkowitz wanted to get on the commission to “kill Beth El,” the synagogue whose Final Environmental Impact Report was on the ZAB agenda. 

But that’s not the story Berkowitz tells. He said he’d tried to call Peterson earlier that afternoon to explain the situation to him, but had not got a return call.  

Berkowitz said that when he approached Peterson at the meeting, “He started swearing. He refused to leave.” 

He said he had no intention of embarrassing Peterson. “We tried to do it gracefully,” Berkowitz said, arguing that Peterson brought attention to himself. 

In any case, Berkowitz, who had been sworn in by the city clerk at about 5 p.m., had not studied the cases before the ZAB and so was not formally seated at the meeting. 

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In other city planning news, Liz Epstein, planning director on parental leave, has tendered her resignation. Wendy Cosin continues to act as interim planning director.