Extra

The Berkeley City Council takes up—once more—the complicated issue of modification of its condominium conversion law, raising the salary of the city manager and the progress of a city sunshine ordinance on Tuesday, 7 p.m., at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Among other things, the council will consider staff-recommended ordinance modifications that would change the fees charged with a building is converted to condominiums.  

The council set those fee amounts in 2005, but has seen little if any revenue from conversions since then, and has been hearing complaints from both owners and tenants that the ordinance needs adjustment.  

When the council first brought up proposed changes last September, there was general agreement among the council, city staff, owners, organizational representatives, and residents speaking at the meeting that the current conversion fee is probably too high and that the city approval procedures are too complicated, but little agreement on how much to charge or what parts of the procedure to streamline or change.  

City manager salary 

The council is also scheduled to vote on a proposal to raise the salary of City Manager Phil Kamalrz by 8 percent, from $17,900 to $19,300 per month. The item is on the consent calendar. 

Sunshine Ordinance 

The council will also vote on whether to hand over the citizens’ draft of the sunshine ordinance—crafted as an alternative to the Berkeley city attorney’s version—to city manager’s office for review. The item is on the consent calendar.  

View the sunshine ordinance draft at www.berkeleysunshine.org.