Extra

A good friend of mine, the best political strategist I've ever met, years ago made a wry remark to me that one's effectiveness at city council meetings was inversely proportional to one's attendance. But Elisa Cooper, recently passed away, proved him wrong. 

His point was that if you show up at every council meeting and speak on everything on the agenda you court looking silly. People do this. They'll stand at the podium and scream angry questions about agenda items they haven't researched and don't understand in front of a city council constrained by the rules of public comment not to answer. It's a recipe for making everybody look dumb. It also soaks up time. As the evening lengthens, tempers fray and the odds of elegant policy-making get longer. 

But Elisa did her homework. She was consistently present for important community meetings, but she brought more than her own opinions with her so that her short observations were loaded with hard-edged information. If you're a council-watcher, she was among a small handful of activists whose public comments you knew would have nuggets of policy gold. 

These activists slowly, patiently bank information in not just the listening city councilmember's mind, but also Berkeley's active, voting public. There comes an arguably precarious point when if enough of the active, voting public can claw its way through the acronyms and bizarre planning department argot and achieve enough understanding about an issue to become immunized, public relations ploys stop fooling them. Robo-calls stop affecting their votes. Rock solid, first-source information begins to set the foundation for common sense policy. 

People with their ear to the ground of housing policy, like Elisa Cooper, are seeing some of this foundation. Right to Rest legislation moves a little farther each year. Abuses of owner-move-in evictions and assaults on habitability standards have at least a few writers and reporters offering excellent coverage for the interested public. At least some politicians in crucial seats have clarity about the financial and moral bankruptcy of chasing poor people with nowhere to go in circles. 

Elisa Cooper was the only voice who stood up at a Berkeley City Council meeting only a month ago and argued against the Downtown Berkeley Association's contract renewal, which was on the consent calendar, the area of the agenda reserved for non-controversial items. She pleaded with the council to discuss the DBA contract, and was ignored, which is hard. It is much easier to argue for a losing effort if you have a group working with you and can at least commiserate together. 

The DBA is a controversial group, arguably a radical group. It's board, dominated by wealthy property owners, presents even this new council with fresh, unvetted legislation which usually hits the council agenda without bothering to inconvenience relevant commissions. It spent years tearing down community posters, a first amendment violation, until finally challenged. It has no external complaint system for its "ambassador" team abuses, its CEO was sanctioned for violations in a campaign to criminalize the poor for sitting down, and if you're a property owner downtown you have no way to opt out of membership and obligatory fees. It has over a million dollars to play with, a consistently right-wing agenda, and at present the Berkeley City Council expresses no concern about its heavy hand on policy, including their staff in meetings none of the rest of us get to hear about. 

Elisa Cooper kept her eye on all of this. She checked meeting minutes to get voting records clear, she did first-source research so she could develop an elegant ear for phrases freighted with self-serving motives. She played a difficult role, an unsung role, in a relatively indifferent community. 

But Councilmember Ben Bartlett, representative in her district and still in his first electoral year on the council, sent a note of sadness about her loss after her death to his constituent list. The phone lines buzzed between bewildered activists who knew her as the person who could grasp the deepest detail and synthesize analyses into clear language. Elisa Cooper's is one voice at public comment, it is safe to say, that even a council often weary of public comment will deeply miss.