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A BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S DIARY,week ending May 7

Kelly Hammargren
Tuesday May 16, 2023 - 08:36:00 PM

So much is happening, late again.

As I mentioned in a previous Diary, I receive the donation asks from Mayor Arreguin. That does not mean there is any money going from my wallet to the campaign, I am just on the mass email mailing list like so many of you. My support will be for whoever shines as the real environmentalist.

The article that keeps coming to mind on the biodiversity crisis and looking toward the future is “Addressing Climate Change Will Not ‘Save the Planet’” by Christopher Ketcham. https://theintercept.com/2022/12/03/climate-biodiversity-green-energy/

I’ve been listening to Ketcham’s book, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West published in 2019. It is not a happy book, telling the story of how our public lands are exploited, ecosystems destroyed and governmental misconduct in failing to rein it in.

All the State Senate candidates have records in elected office. I am not going to fall for empty rhetoric this time around. The candidate with the long history of environmental work is Dan Kalb with the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists. I am especially interested in checking his votes and work as a member of the Oakland City Council.

We are in an environmental crisis. Just adding density to cities and stopping urban sprawl will not solve the biodiversity crisis, nor will a singular focus on transportation. We need an environmentalist in that California Senate seat. I wish I could see that in either Arreguin or Beckles. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Choosing the Chief Isn't
Berkeley Voters' Only Gripe

Becky O'Malley
Monday May 15, 2023 - 04:49:00 PM

Even though I watched the Berkeley City Council’s last meeting on Zoom , I appreciate Councilmember Kate Harrison’s post-session explanatory letter to her constituents and supporters, which she has given the Planet permission to reprint here. It was about an issue I hadn’t really been following very well, and as I watched I found it truly hard to believe what I was seeing.

In her letter, Councilmember Harrison graciously proffers some possible explanations for the City Manager’s proposal that the acting chief, Jennifer Louis, be summarily promoted, less than two months before the conclusion of an outside investigation into charges of police misconduct by Louis and others. The manager's request had been endorsed by a council majority, but Harrison declined to vote for it, and explained why.

Let’s get this straight: I have had approximately no opinion on Acting Chief Louis herself. Her statements on her own behalf on Tuesday were overloaded with bureaucratese, but otherwise her qualifications seemed appropriate on paper.

However, last fall there was a series of expose-type articles in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere regarding a couple of questionable incidents in her record. One, a sexual harassment charge against her from another woman on the Berkeley police force, was internally investigated and has been dismissed.

The other involved Louis only tangentially: misbehavior by a group of officers in a special bicycle unit: racist texting, use of impermissible quotas and other offenses. Louis’s defenders point out that she was not chief at that time and had no interaction with the accused officers.

The first time the City Manager tried to get council approval for promoting Louis to the regular chief appointment, the resulting uproar caused her to walk back that recommendation. In November she told the council she would not ask the council again to approve Louis’s appointment before getting an outside consultant to investigate the charges. But she didn’t do what she promised.

Instead, she persuaded the council’s agenda committee to add confirmation of Jennifer Louis to last Tuesday’s consent calendar. This is the part of the agenda is where councilmembers are asked to unanimously approve non-controversial items without debate.

What? There is no way that a decision which is opposed by the League of Women Voters, the ACLU and the NAACP belongs on the consent calendar. Even worse, a decision about the Berkeley Police Department which is questioned by the city’s newly chosen Police Accountability Board should never be brought to the council before the PAB completes its duties, as explained in this issue by Councilmember Harrison. At last Tuesday’s meeting Councilmember Ben Bartlett did an excellent job of explaining why as a Black man he must insist that charges like those brought against the bicycle unit be treated with the utmost seriousness, so the investigations by the outside consultants and the PAB should be completed before a chief is confirmed.

While I appreciate the analyses articulated at the meeting by the two councilmembers who refused to vote to confirm Louis, I think they didn’t really get to the root of the problem. What I see is a deeper-seated management question. Unless I’ve missed something, I think that City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley really dropped the ball on this one in a number of ways.

She (and the councilmembers who voted to endorse her motion to confirm Louis) did not deal in good faith with the impressive array of community members who relied on her November statement that she’d wait until the investigations were complete before bringing the appointment back to the council. After this, how can any of us (and I include myself here) rely on her promises on other matters?

Besides the question of the Manager’s credibility, there’s an important practical matter. As a hypothetical, consider that if further research turns up anything questionable in the two situations under study, there could be reasons that the city would want to terminate the chief’s employment.

It’s a lot more difficult and expensive to fire a confirmed employee than it is to decline to promote an acting one. As it should be. Just saying.

Anyone who’s been in a management position with HR responsibilities knows that. In such situations, there’s usually a termination payment sum agreed on, and this promotion would inevitably result in increased cost to the city if that happens.

Also, if said employee is the best that can be found after a real national search, there’s a good chance that the search was never necessary or that it was inadequate. It’s puzzling that the L.A. Times was able to turn up these old charges, though of course it seems that Williams-Ridley knew about them all along but chose not to mention them to the electeds.

The fact that Jennifer Louis has been enthusiastically endorsed by the police officers’ union is not necessarily a plus.

According to the L.A. Times,

“The Berkeley Police Department was in turmoil … following the leak of text messages that allegedly show the president of the police officers’ union making racially charged remarks and calling for arrest quotas.

“The growing scandal resulted in the union president, Sgt. Darren Kacalek, being placed on administrative leave … city officials confirmed. He also stepped down from his position as union head..”

Berkeley’s city councilmembers should take a look at Antioch, where the police union is deep inside a scandal over racist texting. They should also take a hard look at the City Manager’s role in this debacle.

Seven out of nine of them voted to approve the Louis promotion. Five of the seven gushed over her. Two (Arreguin and Hahn) expressed reservations, but voted yes after counting the house. Probably the most noteworthy number in this whole analysis is the number of councilmembers reportedly angling for higher office: Arreguin for state senate, and for Berkeley mayor Hahn and Robinson.

Perhaps all these councilmembers think that backing Jennifer Louis will garner votes from what used to be called Berkeley’s “moderate” faction if they appear to be pro-police and anti-crime, but I doubt if they’re right. For other reasons, Wiliams-Ridley and Arreguin just don’t have a lot of fans in the Hills, and most Hills-dwellers have never heard of Robinson, who needed only a few hundred votes in the last election to win unopposed in his phony gerrymandered “student” district, where most of the eligibles don’t bother to vote in local races.

Hill folk, and also many of the rest of us, do have a number of major beefs with Berkeley’s city management, both elected and employed, however.

Current number one is the catastrophic Hopkins Street rerouting scheme in North Berkeley, now probably sunk, hopefully without trace. Whose idea was that? -more-


Public Comment

Open Letter on Berkeley's Police Chief Choice and Accountability

Kate Harrison, Berkeley City Council, District 4
Saturday May 13, 2023 - 03:08:00 PM

Dear Friends:

Thank you all for your robust and passionate public comment at this week’s Council meeting on police accountability and, in particular, the role of the Police Accountability Board (PAB). Our PAB, whose independence from the City Manager is enshrined in our Charter, asked in November, 2022 and again this April that we delay the appointment of a Chief until the investigation into text messages between members of the Downtown Bike Team is finished.

The team members’ texts, sent during work, used racist and derogatory language against members of the public and alleged that the department had arrest quotas in exchange for which team members would receive overtime. The City Manager in November withdrew the appointment of the Chief and promised to delay it until an investigation was complete. Investigations were launched by an independent law firm with a parallel investigation of departmental policies and practices by our PAB.

I am disappointed that the City Manager brought forward the appointment now even though the investigations are not finished and asked that it be placed on consent despite the extensive public interest in discussing it.

We have been assured by the City Attorney that the independent legal investigation will be completed within a month and a half and I expect the PAB to complete its work in that time. I and two colleagues voted to move the item to the action calendar and I made a motion to delay the appointment to our July meeting so we could move forward quickly but with full information. That motion failed and the Chief was appointed (Vice Mayor Bartlett and I abstained from the final vote). -more-


ECLECTIC RANT:The Transitional Nature of College Athletics

Ralph E. Stone
Monday May 15, 2023 - 05:58:00 PM

Major League Baseball has an elaborate minor league system, while the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) do not. The NFL, NBA and WNBA draw their talent from colleges and university programs who in turn draw players from high schools. If a student-athlete aspires to be a professional player, he or she must hone their skills and showcase them while in college. If student-athletes feels they are not getting enough playing time or are on an unsuccessful team or are dissatisfied with the coaching staff or college itself, they will seek to transfer to another institution. -more-


ON MENTAL WELLNESS: Intolerance Toward Disabled People Signals Absence of Development

Jack Bragen
Saturday May 13, 2023 - 04:16:00 PM

Picking on a person for having a disability is infantile, crude, and obnoxious. Yet it is all too common for those blessed with wealth and easy conditions to find amusement in mocking disabled people and showing us the door. Or putting a broom in our hands and keeping us around for amusement.

This behavior of those blessed with privilege shows that many people have a long way to go before they measure up to the term, "human beings." I have lived among people with disabilities for forty years. I have lived among the down and out. I have lived among people who are literally falling apart. And I have lived among people with physical and/or mental disabilities who were and are going strong. People with disabilities deserve to be treated with the same level of dignity and respect that I'm sure all of the readers, not just the so-called "disabled" readers, want. -more-


Budget Committee Mimics Ruddy Turnstone Behavior to Close Measure T-1 Funding Gap

Isabelle Gaston
Tuesday May 16, 2023 - 09:30:00 PM

If you enjoy the weekly Chavez Park Conservancy newsletter, you may have read about a remarkable bird called a Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) that recently visited our shoreline. It forages for food by turning over stones with its curved bill. You can watch a slow motion video of this unique foraging behavior and learn more about these fascinating birds on the Chavez Park Conservancy website. -more-


About the Boost for Abodes at BART

Gar Smith
Monday May 15, 2023 - 05:42:00 PM

Recently, the entities behind plans to transform the North Berkeley BART station into a high-rise mixed-use village of apartment owners, staged an open presentation at the North Berkeley Senior Center. It was a friendly two-hour event with play-space for children, tasty dinner-time snacks for all, and more than 20 easels holding large explanatory panels with info on the site's history, it's current status, and some of the possibilities the property (and neighborhood homes) might face if the location were developed to gentrify a crucial transit hub. -more-


Deafening Silence from the White House

Jagjit Singh
Monday May 15, 2023 - 06:10:00 PM

One year ago, on May 11, 2022, an Israeli soldier fatally shot the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the head as she was reporting on an Israeli military raid just outside the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. She was shot while wearing a blue helmet and blue flak jacket clearly emblazoned with the word “press.” Abu Akleh was one of the most prominent TV journalists in the Arab world and had worked for Al Jazeera for a quarter of a century. She was also a U.S. citizen. But a year after her death, no one has been held accountable despite detailed testimony from eyewitnesses to the shooting. The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh won a George Polk Award by orrespondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. “There’s still no justice in her case, no accountability whatsoever. while the White House has been very vocal about the case of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is detained in Russia, the response to Abu Akleh’s killing has been muted. “Shireen was an American citizen, and her family deserves the same calls for justice, the same push for accountability from the White House. -more-


SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces: SmitherCritiques&Kvetches

Gar Smith
Monday May 15, 2023 - 05:45:00 PM

The Debt Ceiling: Sealing the Deal
I'm all for cutting the Federal budget and putting an end to the country's endless, growing debt. Since the days of Richard Nixon, the US dollar is no longer backed by gold or anything else of physical value. Dollars are generated like newspapers and bubble-gum wrappers—on a printing press. They have no intrinsic value except as debt—debt that is "serviced" by loans from banks, investment houses, and other countries. -more-


New: A BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S DIARY, week ending April 30

Kelly Hammargren
Monday May 08, 2023 - 01:34:00 PM

It was another full week and there is plenty to report on what I did attend even though I missed the Cedar Rose Park Renovation, the Solano Business District meeting, the Zero Waste Commission, the Civic Arts Commission, the Environment and Climate Commission, the Police Accountability Board, the Homeless Services Panel of Experts and the Community Health Commission. -more-


ON MENTAL WELLNESS: Confessions of a Nicotine Addict

Jack Bragen
Monday May 08, 2023 - 01:10:00 PM

I began smoking cigarettes before this act became socially unacceptable, and I think the year was 1990. I was in my twenties, and medical repercussions seemed very distant. I was off medication, I was relapsing, and I smoked and "decompensated" listening to my brother's Jethro Tull album, and I used up all my brother's cigarettes.

Then, I was an inpatient at a locked ward at Herrick, and one of the staff members kept loaning me his cigarettes. (And an additional note about Herrick in the nineteen-nineties: I spoke to a woman there who was terrified, she said, of "going upstairs." She might have been getting shock treatments.)

But that was the start of my smoking. I was unwary. I assumed I would be strong-willed enough so that I would always be able to quit smoking. Could someone like me be hooked and unable to quit? Certainly not me! I was age, I think, about twenty-five. -more-


Budget Committee Mimics Ruddy Turnstone Behavior to Close Measure T-1 Funding Gap

Isabelle Gaston
Tuesday May 09, 2023 - 11:34:00 AM

If you enjoy the weekly Chavez Park Conservancy newsletter, you may have read about a remarkable bird called a Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) that recently visited our shoreline. It forages for food by turning over stones with its curved bill. You can watch a slow motion video of this unique foraging behavior and learn more about these fascinating birds on the Chavez Park Conservancy website.

I couldn’t help but visualize the Ruddy Turnstone in the video last Thursday while listening to an intense 3-hour Budget and Finance committee meeting on how to solve Measure T-1's $9.06 million deficit.

Given this financial predicament, it seemed inevitable that there would be drastic cuts or deferments to the long list of promised Phase 2 projects, including the much-needed restrooms at Chavez Park. But I was badly mistaken. -more-


Building Peace in People's Park

Carol Denney
Monday May 08, 2023 - 01:22:00 PM
Clark Kerr Campus

In May 8th of 1978 the University of California's Associate Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs J. H. (Ted) Chenoweth signed a Letter of Agreement with People's Park's neighbors, gardeners, project participants and users affirming the use of the park as "primarily reserved for educational, research and recreational purposes." It included a suggested mechanism for disputes resolution, maintenance, and additional issues. It was the first of three agreements over 1978 to 1979. In his outgoing letter to Vice Chancellor Kerley, Chenoweth stated "I expect to remain active as a member of the People's Park Council" to assist with "communication and coordination." He is not the only original signer who lives nearby, ready to assist with a framework for the park's future.

All parties wanted peace. In the late 1980's, after the 1984 declaration of People's Park as a city landmark in for its historical and cultural significance, the university and the city coordinated to create a special committee populated with park and university representatives to assist with decisions about the park. But since then neither the City of Berkeley nor the University of California has shown much interest in assisting the gardeners, project coordinators, neighbors, park users and neighbors who meet regularly to address the issues which arise in a park which feeds the hungry, maintains a community garden, and puts on events and concerts under a 1987 legal court decree by famed Judge Henry Ramsey affirming the park as a quintessential public forum and legally binding the university and the city to respect it as such. -more-


Supreme Court Blithely Disdains Ethics

Jagjit Singh
Monday May 08, 2023 - 01:19:00 PM

I am writing to express my concern about the gross ethical violations and rabid corruption within the US Supreme Court. Recent examples, such as the rushed confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett and the blocking of Merrick Garland's nomination, indicate a clear politicization of the Court. Mitch McConnell has even gone on record saying that stacking the Court with conservatives is his greatest legacy, but the collapse of respect for the Court is actually his legacy. -more-


Open Letter to East Bay Regional Parks: E-Bikes & 30x30

Mike Vandeman
Tuesday May 09, 2023 - 11:32:00 AM

"Based on current available research, there is no data to support claims that the use of e-bikes on trails is inherently less safe than conventional bikes or that e-bikes are more impactful to wildlife or habitats than conventional bikes except for potential noise impacts to some species":

1. Lack of research is not lack of impact!

2. This statement is obviously false! E-bikes give bikers a much greater range, thereby significantly increasing their impact on wildlife. It doesn't take any "research" to know what is so obvious. For the same reason, mountain bikes greatly increase people's range and therefore impact on the wildlife. It was a huge mistake to permit mountain biking. That decision needs to be reversed ASAP. -more-


Arts & Events

THE BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S CALENDAR: May 14 - May 21

Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition
Monday May 15, 2023 - 05:18:00 PM

Worth Noting:

Another busy week – our attendance is important. The May 23, City Council Agenda is now available for public comment. Check the City website for late announcements and meetings posted on short notice at: https://berkeleyca.gov/

  • Sunday: 2 -5 pm a Mother’s Day Hats and High Tea at the Rose Garden.
  • Monday:
    • 10:30 am the Public Safety Committee meets in the hybrid format and receives a multi-department report on the January 16, 2023 mudslide. (audio recorded)
    • 3 pm City Council Closed Session includes the CA Restaurant Association v. CoB over the natural gas ban comment can be made in the hybrid format before the closed session.
    • 6 pm “What we can do now to prevent deadly bird-window collisions” Erin Diehm and Kelly Hammargren online at Speaking Up for Point Molate and hosted by the Sierra Club
  • Tuesday:
    • 9 am the Budget Committee meets in the hybrid format on the 2024 Budget and RV parking. (audio recorded)
    • 4 pm City Council meets in the hybrid format on FY 2024 Budget (recorded)
    • 6 pm Council meets in the hybrid format on the Community Fire Wildfire Protection Plan and the Fire Department Facilities. (recorded)
  • Wednesday:
    • 1:30 the Commission on Aging meets in person.
    • 6:30 pm the Human welfare and Community Action Commission.
    • 7 pm the Commission on the Status of Women meets in person.
    • 7 pm the Commission on Labor meets in person.
  • Thursday:
    • 6:30 pm the Fair Campaign Practices and Open Government Commissions meet in person.
    • 7 pm the DRC meets on two SB 330 projects and responds to the presentation on the Southside Zoning Modification Project.
    • 7 pm the Mental Health Commission meets in person on the SCU.
    • 7 pm the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission meets in person and receives presentations on goBerkeley SmartSpace (parking metering pilot in residential neighborhoods) and HAWK signals.
    • 7 pm the Rent Board is scheduled to meet, but no agenda is posted.
  • Saturday:
    • 10 am BNC meets online with City presentation on Small Business Support Package and Proposed Downtown Development. (recorded)
    • 10 am is the virtual Green Home Tour. (video recorded – whether closed captioning is offered is unknown)
All meetings noted as “recorded” are recorded by the host and recordings are posted for public access. If you attend one of the meetings noted as “recorded” those meetings also provide closed captioning and allow attendees to save the transcript. At City Council meetings, a real person is transcribing. At all other meetings the transcript is through computer voice recognition software.



Directions with links to ZOOM support for activating Closed Captioning and Save Transcript are at the bottom of this calendar. Whether the Green Home Tour offers closed captioning and saving the transcript is unknown. All of the other meetings that are noted as recorded also have closed captioning and allow attendees to save the transcript.

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BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS

Sunday, May 14, 2023 – Mother’s Day -more-


THE BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S CALENDAR: May 7-14

Kelly Hammargren
Monday May 08, 2023 - 12:50:00 PM

Worth Noting:

Another busy week. The funding gap for approved T1 projects ate up another Council Budget and Finance Committee on Thursday, meaning a special extra Budget meeting will be scheduled. Check the City website for late announcements and meetings posted on short notice at https://berkeleyca.gov/

  • Sunday: Bay Area Book Festival
  • Monday:
    • 10 am the Council Health Life, Enrichment Equity & Community meets in the hybrid format.
    • 1 pm the Community Health Commission Subcommittee meets online on long term care facilities
    • 2 pm (note time) the Agenda Committee meets in the hybrid format to plan the May 23 City Council Regular Meeting agenda. Use the link below or read the full draft agenda at the end of the list of city meetings.
    • 3 pm City council meets in closed session on labor negotiations,
    • 6:30 pm the Youth Commission meets in person.
  • Tuesday: City Council meets at 6 pm in the hybrid format. Confirmation of Police Chief Louis is item 5 on Consent.
  • Wednesday:
    • 6 – 8 pm is an in person open house on the North Berkeley BART Plan.
    • 6:30 pm the PAB meets in the hybrid format.
    • 7 pm the Homeless Services Panel of Experts meets in person on Measure P.
    • 7 pm the Parks Commission meets on the Waterfront Specific Plan.
  • Thursday: The Zoning Adjustment Board meets in the hybrid format with two State Density Bonus projects on the agenda, 1598 University and 3000 Shattuck.
  • Saturday: 10 am Berkeley Neighborhoods Council meets online. Two presentations by city staff are on the agenda, the Small Business Support Package and proposed downtown development.
  • Sunday: 2 -5 pm a Mother’s Day Hats and High Tea at the Rose Garden.
Directions with links to ZOOM support for activating Closed Captioning and Save Transcript are at the bottom of this calendar.

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BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS -more-