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Citizens’ Draft Sunshine Law Heads to Council

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday November 13, 2008 - 09:34:00 AM

Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who for the last seven years has been advocating for a strong sunshine ordinance to give citizens access to government records and meetings, will put the Berkeley Sunshine Committee’s draft ordinance—crafted as an alternative to one written by the city attorney—on the agenda for the Dec. 8 City Council meeting. 

At that time, Worthington will request City Manager Phil Kamlarz to present the document to the public and city officials. The city manager’s office and the city attorney would then submit comments on the citizens’ draft within a month. 

Councilmembers could then hold a discussion on the draft, Worthington said, and could vote to approve the ordinance or parts of it. If they were to pass a “watered-down version,” the citizens’ group could take its draft to the voters as an initiative. 

Worthington made the announcement at a public meeting with the citizens’ committee at City Hall on Monday. Both Worthington and the citizens’ group working on the draft over the last few years stressed that enforcing the ordinance was their most important concern.  

“I think because the general public is served by having strong enforcement, politicians might not think it is in their best interest, because they might end up getting caught,” Worthington said. “But I am hopeful our City Council will approve a strong ordinance.” 

If the ordinance were to be put on the ballot as an initiative in the 2010 general election, the citizens’ group—which is composed of members of Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBOLD), the League of Women Voters, former Mayor Shirley Dean, lawyers and community activists—would need to collect thousands of signatures. 

“We want different groups to look at it now and not before the election,” Worthington said. “If we get a good ordinance—one that is well written and financially feasible—Berkeley voters will vote for it.” 

Both Oakland and San Francisco voters approved sunshine ordinances for those cities. 

Worthington told the committee to reach out to unions, ethnic groups, activists, racial justice groups, women’s groups and neighborhood organizations among others, adding that neighborhood groups especially would be really passionate about sunshine laws. 

“It will be a good thing for us to be as sunshiny as possible,” said Sherry Smith from the League of Women Voters, adding that more public meetings were needed to get the word out. 

“The good thing about consulting people is that it makes them feel like a part of it,” Worthington said. “We need to go to community groups and get their input, no matter what the City Council does.” 

Gene Bernardi of SuperBOLD suggested that a charter amendment might be more appropriate since it would give more power to the sunshine committee instead of the city manager. 

A charter amendment would also require more signatures. 

Worthington said it was vital that the group get an expert to provide statistics about how much it would cost to implement different sections of the ordinance, since those who opposed it could dismiss the ordinance as being too expensive. 

“For example, in this draft they have added a community engagement process,” he said. “It’s not clear how much this process, which doesn’t exist now, would cost and how many times it would kick in. So we need to know how it will be financed.” 

Metzger said a powerful ordinance would save citizens money since they would be able to get information from the city without having to sue, which often costs tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees. 

Worthington said that the city attorney’s analysis would prove valuable in terms of knowing which parts of the ordinance required more work. 

One of the sunshine committee’s primary goals is to avoid lawsuits by raising awareness, integrating sunshine into the public process and gradually changing the culture of government, which it plans on doing by creating a sunshine commission to monitor whether a municipal government was in violation of the ordinance. 

The citizens’ draft insists that the sunshine ordinance be enforceable in court, failing which it is meaningless. 

Metzger informed the audience that currently there wasn’t a single ordinance in California that had effective enforcement. 

“So again Berkeley can be the first,” he said smiling. 

Worthington said that although he hasn’t discussed the citizens’ draft with the other members on the council yet, he was confident that he would be able to get several of them to sponsor referring it. 

The public will be able to comment on the citizens’ draft on Dec. 8 

To view a copy of the citizens’ draft sunshine ordinance, see www.berkeleydailyplanet.com.  

To view the city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance, see www. ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=17770.