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Flash: Whole Lotta Shakin' at a special City Council Meeting tonight?

Becky O'Malley
Thursday August 11, 2016 - 10:14:00 AM

Something big is going to happen tonight at City Hall at 6 p.m., but what exactly depends on who you ask. It's billed as a "compromise" version of the Berkeley minimum wage initiatives now on the November ballot, with several parties trying to take the credit for devising it.

In the public interest, since I've been away from my desk this week, I'm just going to start by posting ALL the competing press releases, and readers can judge for themselves what's going on.

There's another item on the agenda that seems to be revising the revenue estimates from the initiative that proposes taxing landlord revenues, down by more than a third, or more than a million dollars. This would seem to reduce the chances of its passing in November. The online commentariat as cc'd to me seems outraged.

Also, several emails I've gotten are asking why the special meeting agenda pointedly excludes other topics left dangling as the Mayor and Vice-Mayor decamped for their summer Grand Tours. This would be proposed strengthening of the outdated weak-as-water Police Review Commission and comment on Jerry Brown's imminent attempt to impose by-right development on cities like Berkeley. Why not a special meeting to take up these important topics?

As alway, Public Comment welcome if you can shed any light on any of this. Write to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com, signing your own real name and including a phone number so I can call the author if needed. 



Meanwhile, Emilie Raguso over at berkeleyside.com is making a sincere effort to figure it all out:

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2016/08/10/breaking-special-berkeley-council-meeting-announced-to-vote-on-compromise-minimum-wage/ 


More to come as possible....