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Double tower troubles will top the 77-item agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting. 

One is the 170-foot structure dubbed variously the “eyesore” tower and the “oil rig” by the neighbors of the new Public Safety Building. The other is several light towers planned for Memorial Stadium on the UC Berkeley campus. 

At last week’s council meeting dozens of people signed up to tell the council how ugly they thought the Public Safety Building tower is and how afraid they are of the possible health dangers from its radiation. 

Some offered suggestions. They said the city could spread the antennas around town, so the burden wouldn’t be on one neighborhood alone. Then the tall tower could be replaced by a 120-foot pole, where the remaining antennas would be located. 

At tonight’s meeting Councilmember Dona Spring will ask the council to allocate $10,000 for a consultant to help the neighbors formulate alternatives to the tower. 

The other towers that will be discussed tonight are in the hills at Memorial Stadium. Their purpose is to hold lights so that evening games at the stadium can be televised. 

But Memorial neighbors say the permanent light towers will block their views. Preservationists contend that the university has failed to study how the lights will affect nearby historic properties. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong is asking the council to approve a letter to the chancellor asking the university to do a full study of the environmental impacts of the lights and their assemblies. 

Bidders on the College Avenue street-paving project will have a chance to explain their bids to the City Council in a public hearing reserved to them. 

A problem arose when the low bidder for the project – Gallagher and Burk of Oakland – won the right to do the project. 

All bidders are required to submit proof that they are a “disadvantage business enterprise” – one belonging to a woman or minority person – or that their subcontractors are DBEs. Gallagher and Burk, however, did not submit the required documents certifying that their subcontractors were DBEs until the day after the bids were to be submitted, said Glenn Carloss, project engineer. 

The public hearing will air concerns that the project was awarded unfairly. After the hearing, the council may go into closed session to talk about possible litigation in the case. 

In the postcard wars, Spring is demanding equal time. Councilmember Betty Olds got council approval to send out 6,000 cards to advertise a meeting on the proposed fire station in her district and Spring wants equal treatment – 6,000 cards sent to let people in her district know about an upcoming meeting in Ohlone Park. 

Other items on the council agenda include: 

• A proposal for a runoff by mail ballot for the Dec. 5 runoff election. 

• Execution of a contract for the I-80 bike/wheelchair/foot overpass with C.C. Meyers, Inc, for $5.3 million. 

• Support for a Walkathon for the Children of Iraq sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, June 4 in Tilden Park. 

• Exploration of installing robotic parking at the Center Street Garage “to move cars around, robotic parking uses lifts, pallets, hydraulics, and other mechanical means, controlled by computers and with built-in safety backups and redundancies,” according to a report signed by the mayor. 

• Adoption of a small business support program that would include development of work-force business skills, city purchasing programs favoring Berkeley, increasing ownership of one’s business site. 

• Identification of the wells in Berkeley and determination of possible municipal use to reduce dependence on the East Bay Municipal Utility District for irrigation and for emergencies. 

• The council will continue to address possible ballot measures: making the council chambers comply with the American Disabilities Act, a special fire services tax, parks tax, streetlight tax, affordable housing tax, and a health services tax. 

• Forwarding City Council opinions on the Underhill Environmental Impact Report to the university as part of the public comment period. 

Amidst all of the above, the council will hold a work session on the 2000-2001 budget. 

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be held in Council Chambers in Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The meeting will be broadcast on B-TV, Cable Channel 25, and 89.3-FM, KPFB.