[Editor’s Note: We believe that “if in doubt about how to vote, ask Margot”. She’s the best candidate for Berkeley’s Assemblymember. As such, she’s been to all the candidate forums, so she’s gotten a really good look at all the other candidates. Besides that, she’s been around a long time. Here's what she recommends:] 

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Here is my usual list, How Margot is Voting.
Abbreviations are endorsers, listed below. 

The Democratic Party Ballot, in ballot order: 

Presidential Preference; Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Members, County Central Committee, 14th Assembly District:
Vote for Seven in AD 14: 

 

 

1. Paola Laverde, People Powered Progressive
2. Michael Cheng, People Powered Progressive
3. Carol Cayote Cook, People Powered Progressive
4. John “Chip” Moore, People Powered Progress
5. Igor Tregeb, Climate Labor Progressives
6. Michael Barnett, Climate Labor Progressives
7. Wendy Bloom, Climate Labor Progressives

Vote for 10 in AD 18: People Powered Progressive Slate 

 

 

1. Austin Tam
2. Chaney Turner
3. Yoana Tchauklava
4. Desmond Jeffries
5. Andrea Luna Bocanegra
6. Howard Egerman
7. Pamela Price
8. Kalimah Priforce
9. Royl Roberts
10. Iris Merriouns

United States Senator, Full Term:
Barbara Lee—WDRC, JGDC, EBSDC, Green 

 

United States Senator, Partial Term:
Barbara Lee—WDRC, JGDC, EBSDC, Green 

12th Congressional District:
Lateefah Simon—WDRC, JGDC, BDC, EBSDC, 

7th State Senate District
Kathryn Lybarger—WDRC 

14th Assembly District
Margot Smith—OREB, BCA, Green, BTU 

Superior Court Judge, Office #5
Terry Wiley—No opposition
Superior Court Judge, Office #12
Mark Fickes—JGDC, EBSDC, Green 

Supervisor, 5th District
Nikki Fortunato Bas—WDRC, Green 

Supervisor, 4th District
Jennifer Esteen—WDRC, EBSDC, Green 

State Bond 1: Mental Health
NO, takes money away from existing county programs.
We need more mental health money, not less.
County A: Notification for Employee Jobs—WDRC. Green
YES, conforms Alameda County to other counties.
County B: Changes Recall Procedures—WDRC. Green
YES, conforms Alameda County to state regulations.
School H: Money for Berkeley Schools—WDRC, BDC, Green
YES, continues special BUSD tax existing since 1986. 

WDRC: Wellstone Club
Green: Green Party
BDC: Berkeley Democratic Club
JGDC: John George Democratic Club
EBSDC: East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club
OREB: Our Revolution East Bay
BTU: Berkeley Tenants Union
BCA: Berkeley Community Action

Here are some reasons why you should consider voting for Kathryn Lybarger for State Senate.

Her Union Background

Kathryn worked as a gardener at UC Berkeley. She went on to head the union representing UC’s lowest paid workers, many of them earning poverty wages when she started out. As head of the union she took on UC and won, winning large wage increases for lower paid workers and improving their lives despite strong resistance from UC administrators. Right now our reps in the Assembly and Senate seem to see their job as supporting whatever the UC administration wants; they have supported legislation to overturn court decisions that have gone against UC. Kathryn has shown that she won’t be in UC’s pocket. From heading her union representing UC workers, she went on to head the California Labor Federation made up of 1200 affiliated unions throughout the state. Legislative action is a major area of work for the federation. Kathryn has plenty of experience with legislation, which is good preparation for someone running for State Senate.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who is also running for State Senate started out as a progressive, but has morphed into a neo-liberal (aka YIMBY), especially in his second term as he positioned himself to run for higher office. He has accepted campaign contributions from the California Apartment Association PAC, funded by big landlords and developers of rental housing statewide, and by the California Building Industry PAC. His campaign has also received a contribution from the PG&E Corporation Major Donor Account. PG&E along with other investor owned utilities in the state has lobbied successfully to get the California Public Utilities Commission to undermine the rooftop solar industry. 

Target of Hit Piece

Many of you have probably gotten the hit piece aimed at Kathryn put out by the California Association of Realtors, California Building Industry Association, and the California Apartment Association. They know that Kathryn supports rent control and tenant protections and will fight for housing that is affordable to the workers she represents and the majority of Californians. 

Recommended by 350 Bay Area Action

The idea that Kathryn is “in the pocket of big oil”, as the real estate interests’ crude hit piece against her suggests, is ludicrous. Her home in South Berkeley gets energy from solar panels. She is the co-founder of California Labor for Climate Jobs. She is one of three candidates running in Senate District 7 recommended by 350 Bay Area Action, which works to address climate change by electing local climate champions and passing climate legislation in California. (The other two are Jovanka Beckles and Dan Kalb.) 

Meanwhile Jesse Arreguin has taken no action to support an ordinance in Berkeley to protect rooftop solar panels from shadowing by nearby new taller building development. As the city changes zoning to allow for denser development and taller and taller buildings, there are more and more cases of proposed development casting shadows on solar panels. 

What about Jovanka Beckles?

Some people may prefer Jovanka Beckles. But Jovanka showed that she was not an effective candidate when she ran for Assembly in 2018. She lost to Buffy Wicks, a candidate who had no connection to or track record in the East Bay, but who was well funded, largely by donors from outside the Assembly district. She lost by a 54% to 46% margin. 

The unfortunate reality is that it takes a lot of money to win a state senate seat. California state senate districts are way too large, with close to a million people per district. (Contrast that with Vermont, where state senators represent closer to 20,000 people). A useful reform would be to triple or quadruple the number of State Senate and Assembly seats to allow for greater reliance on grassroots campaigning and talking to voters and less reliance on special interests providing money for mailers, social media and political consultants. 

Here is how much money the candidates had reported to the Secretary of State’s office as of the end of January: 

Arreguin: $668,987.38 

Lybarger: $514,903.64 

Kalb: $319,981.08 

Swanson: $215,735.00 (two committees reported for 2024) 

Beckles: $120,013.26 

Solnordal: $. 2,645.79 (a Republican candidate) 

Kathryn has the backing of all the more progressive unions, such as the California Nurses Association. Part of the money she has raised comes from union political action committees. Her campaign has the resources to get her message to voters; Jovanka Beckles’ campaign will not be able to do as much. In a November runoff between Jovanka and Jesse, I believe Jesse would win easily. Jesse has the backing of the more conservative building trades unions, which, with big developers, are part of the state’s growth coalition pushing luxury highrise market rate housing development. His candidacy will continue to be well-funded by special interest contributions and spending. 

Independent Expenditure Committees

In addition, Kathryn is benefiting from independent expenditure committees with union affiliation that are putting out mailers in support of her candidacy independent of her campaign. Jesse Arreguin is also benefiting from independent expenditure committees. Berkeleyside has reported that Uber has spent more than $800,000 to oppose Lybarger, while spending an additional $250,000 in support of Arreguin. The California Apartment Association and California Association of Realtors are not only funding hit pieces attacking Kathryn, but are spending money to support Arreguin. These special interest groups apparently think that they would benefit from Arreguin’s election and see Lybarger and her progressive politics as a threat. 

Kathryn Lybarger’s Website: https://www.kathrynlybargerforstatesenate2024.com/ 

To get info on campaign contributions: https://powersearch.sos.ca.gov/quick-search.php

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín has changed the slogan of his campaign for State Senate. For months, the home page of his campaign website featured this:

A State Senator as Bold as the East Bay.

But as of January 16, it said this instead:

Proven, Progressive. Problem-Solver

The change is regrettable. The old slogan invited parody, viz:

A State Senator as Sold as the East Bay.

In 2016, when he was still a councilmember, Arreguín could legitimately claim to be bold. Back then he had the integrity and the courage to challenge the growth machine. That year he ran for mayor and won as the anti-Establishment candidate. He soon had a political conversion experience and switched to the pro-growth side. All along he’s called himself a progressive.

In 2010 Arreguín’s predecessor in the Berkeley mayor’s office, Tom Bates, told the Daily Californian: “Nobody knows what the heck it means to be progressive anymore.” I commented: “Bates might have been exaggerating, but he certainly wasn’t complaining: his four-term mayoralty owes a great deal to the murkiness of the progressive tag, which, his demurral notwithstanding, routinely embellishes his campaign literature.” Now Arreguín is following Bates’ suit. Unsurprisingly, Bates has endorsed Arreguín’s Senate bid. 

Appropriating Mario Savio’s legacy

But what really galls me is Arreguín’s invocation of Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement. In an op-ed posted by Berkeleyside on January 12 under the headline “Defending democracy in the face of incivility,” Arreguín first deplored the behavior of “a small group of individuals [who] have resorted to an intense campaign of harassment and abuse to the point where they bullied an elected official out of office, silencing the voices of the majority that voted for him.” He was referring to now-former Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who, citing “various forms of harrassment, stalking, and threats from members of our community,” on January 9 resigned from the council and ended his mayoral campaign. The harassment reportedly included death threats. 

Arreguín compared the intimidation of Robinson to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol “by those who refused to accept the democratic will of the people.” Observing that “democracy can be messy,” and that “diverse” communities “are inevitably going to have differing views on how to handle the various issues we face,” he opined: 

“It is up to elected officials to navigate through these differing views and work with all stakeholders to create a path forward....Unfortunately, we are witnessing a rise in those who threaten to shut down the people’s business in an attempt to overrule democratic decisions....We must embrace civil discourse, even if we fundamentally disagree. But a line must be drawn when violent tactics and attempts to silence others are used.” 

To underscore the last point, the Berkeley mayor cited Savio’s “famous speech on Sproul Plaza, in which the Free Speech Movement leader said: “disobedience ‘doesn’t mean that you have to break anything,’ rightfully fearing that violence would undermine this movement.’” 

Yes, Savio disavowed violence. But unlike Arreguín, Savio didn’t equate civility with decorum. 

Notably, Arreguín did not cite the most famous passage from Savio’s speech: 

“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus—and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it—that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!” 

The machine that Savio and his comrades wanted to shut down in 1964 was the University of California, Berkeley. What triggered the FSM was UC’s suppression of free speech on campus. 

Now as then, the University was also the most powerful institution in the city of Berkeley. For decades, the school’s ceaseless expansion has threatened the town’s livability. Today, that threat has metastasized, thanks to the support of elected officials such as Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (see AB 1307), Senator Scott Wiener, and, yes, Mayor Jesse Arreguín. 

Far from throwing himself on the gears of the UC growth machine, Arreguín has oiled its wheels. And he’s done so by practicing the quiet form of incivility that operates behind closed doors. 

Greasing UC’s gears

In 2019, the city sued UC over its latest Long Range Development Plan. As David Wilson and Dean Metzger wrote (hereand here) in the Berkeley Daily Planet: “The big issue has been the expansion of the Berkeley campus from an estimated 31,800 students in 2005 to 40,955 in 2018, and with a further projected increase to 50,000.” 

UC is exempt from city and county property taxes, but not from other taxes and fees. The school uses the city’s fire services, police services, and sewage and storm water transport and treatment services. “In 2019,” Wilson and Metzger reported, “an independent analysis funded by the City estimated that in 2018, goods and services provided by the City to UC cost local taxpayers a total of $21,415,000.” 

In July 2021, the city secretly settled the lawsuit. Studying the settlement agreement (which is apparently no longer on the city’s website) and extrapolating from the 2018 figures, the only ones that have been made public, Wilson and Metzger estimated that Berkeley taxpayers’ subsidy to the UC will amount to $349,108,399 over the sixteen-year life of the agreement. 

That’s not the only problem. The settlement agreement states that the city will “avoid litigation over certain pending and future University projects.” In other words, the city will not contest UC’s further expansion. 

Consistent with its capitulation to UC over the Long-Range Development Plan, since the school was sued over its plans to house 1,100 students on the People’s Park site, the Arreguin council has submitted two amicus briefs in defense of UC (reported here and here). Neither brief had a public hearing. Both were written and submitted in secret. This is a peculiar form of taking “public decisions.” 

Jesse Arreguín is no Mario Savio. The Berkeley mayor descends from a different political lineage, one that includes, among many others, Tammany Hall's George W. Plunkitt. If Arreguín changes his campaign slogan again, he might use Plunkitt’s best-known line for his theme: “I seen my opportunities, and I took ‘em.” 

After attending a few candidate forums, so you don’t have to, I offer you these a-la-carte suggestions for voting your primary ballot. Please mix and match, do your own research, and decide for yourself.

Anywhere I say “we,” I mean I or the consensus of the Cinque family, not any publication hosting this. I address mostly races that are realistically contested, and/or controversial, in our precincts.

U.S. Senator, full term and partial term: Katie Porter. With Adam Schiff in a comfortable lead, this race is really about keeping Republican Steve Garvey out of the November top two. Porter has by far the best shot at this. A progressive populist, she strikes the tone that most Democrats would be wise to imitate. Between her Mom-in-a-minivan persona, and her recovered-law-prof-with-whiteboard persona, she has strong crossover appeal. She flipped a GOP-leaning Orange County seat to get to the House, and we see her pushing either slot on a future Dem presidential ticket to victory. We share Berkeleyans’ respect for hometown hero Barbara Lee’s peace and justice advocacy. But at age 77, we think her 11 years in Congress (without getting a single bill passed) represent her peak. In candidates’ debates, she’s seemed somewhere between sideshow and lost.

12th Congressional District: Tony Daysog is the only qualified candidate for this seat. A longtime progressive Alameda City Councilmember, he has deep experience in the most important thing individual Reps can offer: strong constituent services. His responses to candidate questionnaires have been personal, humble, and well-researched – with citations and links. As for endorsement magnet Lateefah Simon, she was unqualified to serve on the BART Board in 2016, when BART unions recruited her to knock off a director who cared about the budget. And she’s spectacularly unqualified for Congress now. In between, Simon has served with the opposite of distinction – opposing safety improvements, and even illegally living outside the district she represented. In candidate forums, she’s offered plenty of preaching but near-zero policy. 

Alameda County Supervisor, 5th District: Nikki Fortunato Bas is well-qualified and well-intentioned. A former progressive organizer and activist, she’s part of the new blood that’s made Oakland’s slumbering City Council more functional. She’s wisely seeking to move up after serving six years there, and she’s ready. (Note: Although we’ve just endorsed two candidates with Pinoy/Pinay heritage, this was strictly on their merits, and unrelated to the Cinque family’s background.) 

14th Assembly District: Dr. Margot Smith is a retired public health researcher, and longtime distinguished activist with groups like the Gray Panthers. She’s ready to provide this district with the responsive representation we’ve sorely lacked. Incumbent Buffy Wicks has been a study in arrogance since before her election. A D.C.-based political operative with no elective experience, she moved to Oakland in 2018 – with a high-donor Rolodex – specifically to outspend and nab this seat from candidates who had local roots and records. In her first term, she was seen only once in Berkeley: in a ticketed event that allowed no open audience questions. She evidently listens only to developers and their lobbyists. Send a message about the democracy part of democracy. 

7th State Senate District: You have two good options here, but only one vote. Kathryn Lybarger is the pragmatic choice. A UC Berkeley employee who’s risen to statewide labor leadership, she’s consolidated union support to make the November top two against leading fundraiser Jesse Arreguin. Arreguin has built a sorry record as Berkeley mayor – he designed the region’s only failed affordable housing bond in 2022, and he’s presided over a City Council so acrimonious that most Councilmembers have run for the exits. But his developer-friendly stance has raked in independent expenditures from development and realty interests, a few trade unions, and anti-union forces. Like the notorious Uber – which doesn’t want its drivers to be unionized, or even employees. Uber has so far spent at least $1 million to promote Arreguin, and to slam Lybarger with repulsively false hit pieces. If big money weren’t the reality here, we’d favor Sandré Swanson, an honorable candidate who presents this race’s most accomplished elective and administrative experience. Had Swanson not been outspent when he first sought this seat in 2016, we would have had much better representation over the last eight years. 

Superior Court Judge: Mark Fickes, with reservations. In 2020, we supported Fickes as the most thoughtful, compassionate, and well-qualified candidate for a different judgeship. But he got steamrollered by a better-funded opponent. This time, he’s clearly the progressive alternative to Michael Johnson, a proud longtime corporate attorney for AT&T and WarnerMedia. But we have some qualms. Fickes apparently violated judicial ethics by publicly stating whom he’d voted for in a past election. (As a sitting traffic Commissioner – basically a junior judge – he should have known better.) His candidate’s statement in your Voter Guide misspells his campaign site’s URL. In electing a judge, you want empathy. But you also want someone who can follow rules as they make rulings, and get details right. Flawed judgements won’t stand, let alone set precedents. 

Statewide Propositions 

Prop. 1, Mental Health Treatment Facilities: No, with regrets. Intuitively common-sense but controversial, Prop. 1 would redirect voter-approved mental-health funds toward affordable and supportive housing, to get troubled people off the street. It would also authorize a $6.4 billion bond to build the housing. The controversies include: Shifting funds and control from counties to Sacramento; reducing local flexibility and funding for valuable programs; involuntary commitment; the bond’s cost, whether too high or too low; research suggesting that mental illness is as often a consequence as a cause of homelessness; and enabling more showboating by Prop. 1’s main sponsor, Gavin Newsom, who’s made a career out of talking about homelessness while accomplishing little. We could swallow all that, if not for the poison pill that supporter (and longtime Sacramento pol) Darrell Steinberg proudly points out: Prop. 1 states that the new treatment facilities shall be sited “by right,” with basically no local say. State preemption of local housing policy began with the disastrous Costa-Hawkins law, a major cause of current homelessness – and it needs to stop here. The benefits aren’t worth the impacts: In your Voter Guide, the state Legislative Analyst concludes: “The number of housing units built by the bond would reduce statewide homelessness by only a small amount.” For comparison, Bay Area counties are preparing a November affordable-housing bond measure three times as high ($20 billion) for our region alone. We’ll hold out for responsible measures that meaningfully address homelessness, while respecting home rule and without starving local programs. 

Alameda County Measures 

Measure A, Civil Service Examinations: OK. This shortens the required notification period before County hires. There are some concerns about accentuating inside-track hiring. But this item is widely supported, including by County employees, as a way to accelerate hiring into vacant jobs. 

Measure B, Recall Procedures: No. Hadn’t the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ office already disgraced itself enough by declaring and certifying the wrong candidate in a ranked-choice 2022 school board race? Well, no. Now they’ve set up this disgraceful mess, claiming that a County recall law neglected for 98 years suddenly needs to be rewritten amid active recall campaigns. However the recall efforts proceed, they’ll be ensnared in litigation – that’s the mess. But we’re strongly opposing this measure on principle, because retroactivity is repulsive. Shame on everyone involved – very much including the three sitting County Supervisors who voted to put this on the ballot (and signed the “For” argument in your Voter Guide). 

Berkeley Measures 

Measure H, Yes. For the children! This simply renews an existing bond that’s sustained high-quality academic and arts/music instruction in Berkeley’s public schools. 

Democratic County Committee 

You can vote for seven or fewer candidates. Our choices – based on their records, endorsements, and coherent candidate statements: James Chang, Igor Tregub, John “Chip” Moore, Dyana Delfin Polk, Andy Kelley, Wendy Bloom, Michael Cheng. 

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To anyone who knows what Berkeley in the 1960s meant to the history of progressive politics in the U.S., the significance of People’s Park is clear. That very clarity is the reason that UC, needing to play down their pro-war, racist, corporate ideology, now provides Chancellor Christ millions of dollars to destroy our park.

To believe that Housing Project #2 (HP2) at People’s Park is essentially anything but a means to erase UC’s imperialist, racist, pro-war history and to defeat the park’s living spirit of dissent requires one to ignore 54 years of UC’s attacks on People’s Park and the decisions of the administration that have resulted in HP2 being delayed two years and cost overruns of tens of millions. One can only conclude that the park’s destruction was always UC’s priority. From the bulldozing of the homes and apartments on the block that became People’s Park in hope of disrupting student activism, up until today’s border wall of cargo containers, UC’s role in the crushing of the Student Protest Movement of the 1960’s was too incriminating for them to bear.

One of the first indications that HP2 at People’s Park held some extraordinary significance, can be seen in the September 29, 2021 Capital Strategies Committee of the UC Regents (Item F3). The budget for HP2 detailed in that document contained a $23 M contingency for the cost of unexpected legal fees and “the cost of clearing the site,” read cops and lawyers. $23M is a considerable amount for an institution like UCB that is drowning in debt (see Memorial Stadium’s total cost of $1Billion). Yet the Regents didn’t think that such a huge sum for police and lawyers was sufficient reason to even consider building somewhere else. Such was the Regents commitment to insuring the final days of People’s Park. 

What the events of recent years now reveal is that UC’s HP2 at People’s Park is nothing more than a cynical way to use housing and homelessness as cover for a history of grand moral duplicity. The years wasted while the chancellor indulged her fixation on the destruction of People’s Park have meant that needed student beds were delayed for years, 10% of UCB students have no stable housing, fentanyl deaths in the park have 

occurred with frightening regularity, and the supportive housing component of HP2 faces a nearly impossible chance of being realized. 

Dr. Christ’s, knowing the various risks involved in building over People’s Park offered any developer a master contract on all nine UC owned properties available for housing projects if they developed People’s Park first. Seeing how the risks outweighed the profits . . . none took the offer. 

Bob Lelanne, former Vice Chancellor for Real Estate at UCB has informed us that up until 2016 when planning for new student dorms People’s Park was always excluded as a feasible site. In 2017 Carol Christ becomes Chancellor and building on People’s Park rose to prominence on her agenda. 

A former Berkeley Mayor remembers Christ as insisting on discussing the development of the People’s Park at meetings where People’s Park was not yet on any agenda. And rumor, for what it is, has it that Christ’s “job description” as chancellor included developing People’s Park.  

With Carol Christ financial and legal manipulations combine with a callous use of the homeless as pawns, all with the assistance of the UC Board of Regents. There is hardly a mention of HP2 wherein UCB does not proclaim itself the protector and provider for the homeless in People’s Park. The actual treatment of those homeless makes the hollow hypocrisy of Ms. Christ and her speech writer Mr. Mogulof painfully clear. The homeless, the afflicted, and the addicted were only a part of UCB’s plan to take and destroy People’s Park when they served to aggravate the community, scare students, or to suggest institutional morality. Yes, as hopes for construction on the park came closer, clearing the park of its dwellers meant they were offered motel rooms and other services, but those offers took 50 years to materialize, and as they were touted to the public new harms were inflicted by the university. 

Water, first for gardening, then also for drinking, was shut off at People’s Park. There was hardly ever electricity unless it was jacked from a light pole. The bathrooms, which were never maintained at any standard of decency, were welded shut. Methamphetamine and fentanyl are tolerated by the park’s property owners (UC) to the degree that when BPD or UCPD respond to drug crimes or incidents they often leave a calling card or arrest a user, but never the dealer. 

On August3, 2022 when UC cut down the trees on the site proposed for supportive housing as part of HP2 the building of housing for the formerly homeless was severely jeopardized. Funding for that housing depended on funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD), and because People’s Park is on the National Register of Historic Places an National Historic Preservation Act environmental review had to be completed before HUD funds would be released. Resources for Community Development (RCD) asked UC to give them needed time to complete that review. UC refused and RCD had to relinquish the funds. 

 

 

We know from in person meetings with RCD that their Supportive Housing project at People’s Park caused them some discomfort due to their respect for the park. Their decision to build that housing was based on getting a free ground lease which allowed them to build twice the number of units (120) they otherwise could have otherwise afforded (60). Being thrown under the bus by UC was a betrayal of both RCD and the homeless. Building supportive housing customarily requires federal assistance. After UC’s refusal to cooperate with RCD it will be hard to find another non-profit developer who’ll step up to create supportive housing at People’s Park. Had UC been true to their claimed commitment to the homeless and had cooperated with RCD it is more likely that supportive housing would someday be built. 

 

The August 3, 2022 attempts to seize People’s Park failed, costing UC 3-5 million dollars. Then, in the first days of 2024, hoping to finally take control of the land and the meaning of People’s Park, another 6-8 million dollars is made available for the final destruction of People’s Park. On January 4, 2024, to insure that Carol Christ can retire, victorious, 1,400 police clear and secure the park, then crews erect a 17 foot high, border-like wall of sea cargo containers surrounding the park, and finally flesh tearing razor wire is stretched atop the container wall; all of which moves Dr. Christ to tell Berkeley that destroying People’s Park is one of the most important things she’s done as chancellor. Grandiose moral hypocrisy at the point of a gun!b 

I'm writing to express my deep concern regarding the recent article published in The New York Times about the Modi government's alleged attempts to stifle voices at a liberal university in New Delhi. The article shed light on troubling incidents that raise important questions about the state of free speech and academic freedom in India. 

According to the report, there have been instances where the government has purportedly interfered with the functioning of the university, attempting to suppress dissenting voices and curtail the open exchange of ideas. These actions, if accurate, are alarming and go against the principles of a democratic society that values diversity of thought and expression.  

Freedom of speech and academic autonomy are fundamental pillars of a thriving democracy, and any attempts to undermine these principles should be a cause for concern for citizens and observers alike. In order to maintain a healthy intellectual environment, it is crucial that universities remain spaces where diverse perspectives can be freely expressed and debated  

It is essential for the government to address these allegations transparently and ensure that the rights of students and faculty are protected. A robust and vibrant democracy requires the active participation of citizens, and an environment that fosters open dialogue and critical thinking is crucial for the development of a well-informed and engaged society. 

As readers and concerned individuals, we urge the relevant authorities to investigate these allegations thoroughly, uphold the principles of free speech, and safeguard the autonomy of educational institutions. It is only through a commitment to these values thhhhhat India can continue to thrive as a democratic and pluralistic society.

Comic Strip Strips Away Political Trickery
Stephan Pastis, a scrappy California-based lawyer-turned-cartoonist, is the cranky commentator behind the comic strip, "Pearls Before Swine." The daily panels (which appear in the Chronicle) feature a small band of animal anti-heroes including a rat, a pig, and a goat (with an occasional appearance by a bearded mountain-dwelling donkey known as the "Wise Ass on the Hill").

In his February 11 Sunday strip, Pastis dared to call out Washington's excessive military spending (and other political faults). In the first of eight frames, the character known as "Rat" struts out in a royal cap and crown before a tiny crowd of disgruntled citizens to address growing anger about: "why I spend all your taxes on wars and very little on your cities. How I have one standard of justice for street-level drugs and another for pharmaceutical drug dealers. And how I take cash and gifts from large donors, many of whom get favorable treatment… Rest assured these are all valid concerns."

With the crowd starting to grow restive, Rat suddenly points over their heads and yells: "Holy @#@#! What's that crazy thing happening over there?" With the crowd suddenly all looking over their shoulders, Rat pulls out a large wrecking ball and drops it on the mob, killing everyone.

In the final frame of the Sunday panel, Rat turns to Pig (who has been watching nearby) and imparts the following wisdom: "Distraction is the key to good governance." 

Fashion Plates
Personalized license plates spotted about town.
KITTIE
VIZIO 

CAMERO
BG BETY
MOJANS
CFFELVR (Coffee Lover)
GO BEERS (parked on the UC campus) 

Bumper Snickers
Cake or Death
OMG: This Must Be the Place
"Bumperstickers Are to Philosophy What Television Is to News"—Richard Nixon 

Hightower Bellows at the Billionaires 

Have you ever paused to count up how many billionaires call the US home? Former Texas Ag Commissioner and populist heck-raiser Jim Hightower has and he's happy to share that number with the rest of us: America's superrich billionaires currently total a mere 735. You could fit them all into the Castro Theater and that would still leave half the seats empty. 

Hightower goes on to instruct these privileged souls that they "need to find a moral compass. They're so self-absorbed they keep wasting their money and 'genius' on phantasmagoric plutocratic schemes to separate their fortunes from the well-being of the rest of us. Then they wonder why they are not beloved." 

Corporate Profits Up: Workers Up in Arms 

Earlier this month, Walmart reported bagging a hefty $611.3 billion in 2023 profits. Apple pulled in $383 billion. ExxonMobil reported profits amounting to $36 billion. JP Morgan (with $3.9 trillion in assets and $328 billion in stockholders’ equity) claimed a record $49.6 billion. Amazon netted $30 billion. Tesla finished a troublesome year with an embarrassingly low $25.5 billion. 

A compilation from #TaxTheRich claims that Starbucks sucked up $24.56 billion in 2023 earnings and that would mean (according to #TaxTheRich), Starbucks "could give each of its 400,000 employees an $11,000 raise and would still have $20 billion in profit." Instead, Starbucks' workers "rely on tips." 

Can You Libel the Bible?
"I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ," Frederick Douglass once wrote. But the tireless freedom fighter went on to add: "I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels." 

And then consider Deuteronomy 7, verse 16, which sounds like the marching orders for Gazacide: "You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you." 

As one reader of Deuteronomy concluded: "The Old Testament God is a god of conquest." 

Six Antiwar Billboards Rise in the East Bay
Six billboards went up for a month on January 22—five in Oakland and one in Berkeley, California, near the intersection of University and Sacramento. 

The billboards, part of World BEYOND War's billboards project—featured a stunning message in bold black text on a yellow background: “3% of US Military Spending Could End Starvation on Earth.” The signs included links explaining the statistic: worldbeyondwar.org/explained. 

The billboards were raised by the global anti-war and pro-peace organization World BEYOND War—with major financial support from Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. 

More than 100 activists showed up for a January 28 event planned in partnership with CODEPINK and other organizations. A demonstration began with a colorful ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the First Congregational Church of Oakland —which is located at an intersection directly across from one of the billboards. David Swanson, WBW's executive director, addressed the gathering in this video. 

 

A reception inside the church followed with more than 20 speakers, music, and food, including home-baked pies. Here is a video of some of the highlights. 

 

Among those taking part:

David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War
Keith McHenry, Founder of Food Not Bombs
Francisco Hererra, musician
John Lindsay-Poland, American Friends Service Committee
Paul Cox, Veterans For Peace
Cynthia Papermaster, CODEPINK S.F. Bay Area
Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation
Jim Haber, War Tax Resistance
David Hartsough, Co-Founder of World BEYOND War
Nell Myhand, Poor Peoples Campaign
Dennis Bernstein, KPFA “Flashpoints”
Joel Eis, former organizer of National Draft Resistance, member of El Teatro Campesino
Hassan Fouda, NorCal Sabeel
Hali Hammer
Occupella
David Vine, author of The United States of War
Michelle Vong, Oakland Youth Poet Vice Laureate
Ann Fagan Ginger, Founder, Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Avotcja, radio host
Joanna Macy, author, ecophilosopher, buddhist scholar and anti-nuclear activist
Kathleen Sullivan, PhD, disarmament educator, activist and producer
Dolores Perez Heilbron, SF Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee 

(Full disclosure: I'm on WBW's board of directors.) 

Hey, Kids! Let's Play "Destroy the World" 

On the other end of the entertainment spectrum, there's a computer game called "Conflict of Nations" that invites teens to invest hours of screentime practicing how to trigger World War Three at the tap of a keypad. And you even have the option of nuclear weapons (with a bonus consequence of nuclear winter). 

 

AI "Deep Fakes" in the Service of Planetary Survival 

 

Baggage Blues: That's a Wrap!
Herewith, the dénouement to our encounter with United Airlines over a damage-claim for a piece of luggage. We called UA on January 16 to report we had received a replacement suitcase for the bag number included on the UA claim form. That should have been the end of the experience, On February 5, an apologetic email from UA arrived. 

"Unfortunately," the UA rep. wrote, "I was unable to retrieve a delayed baggage report in your name with the details available." 

I replied: "We are sorry to hear that United was unable to find the claim we filed [using UA's own online claims form] for our damaged [not delayed] luggage. Interesting to learn that UA also loses claim forms as well as luggage. "Fortunately, a helpful attendant at UA's baggage-claim counter at SFO was able to find a nearly identical substitute from the airline's collection of replacement luggage." No further word from United. 

I am closing in on the mark of sixty, and I expect I will make it into old age. Additionally, I have retained my faculties, and I don't have dementia. This description is contrary to the prognosis I was given forty years ago at Kaiser Martinez, when I was first sick. It was believed that my prospects were limited. The doctor in his own mind believed he was being cautiously optimistic. But he vastly underestimated me, and he wasn't doing me a favor. 

Given adequate income, I can do very well at living independently. Yet, the fact of having made it this far and having my wits about me seems to draw suspicion as opposed to admiration. Another source of suspicion is that my writing is always getting published. My work has appeared in multiple publications and in indie books I've created on my own. People can't accept that. The expectation if you have a mental illness is that you are supposed to lack mental ability, and this would rule out becoming a writer. 

The unspoken rule is where a mentally ill man is not to be respected or taken at his word, he is to be viewed clinically or dealt with as you would a child. When a mentally ill man does something entailing brainpower, it does not compute. The question arises, "is he faking something?" 

I'm disabled and I'm not faking it. I get very paranoid and very uncomfortable in most job environments. Because of my psychotic illness, I can't adjust to most work environments. The medication plays a role in it also. Antipsychotics are disabling. We have to take them if we suffer from these illnesses, but they block many kinds of work. In a competitive work environment, someone who takes antipsychotics will not usually be able to keep pace. 

It is only in modern times where work-from-home positions have expanded that I could have an opportunity to have good earnings--so I hope. And I hope to accomplish this soon, and to do so in a substantial way. In addition to the small amount I get from writing, I hope to do some other remote work. I won't know until I try it whether this will meet with success. 

When we outlive our parents, there are several directions we can go. We lack the support of the living parent, and this may be a huge blow. I have one out of two parents living, and I'm so glad she is still around and helps me. She is a heroine in her determination to continue helping her three sons. My mom makes me feel protected. And proud. 

When we outlive our parents, we are thrust in a situation of caring for ourselves or being cared for by mental health agencies. If neither of those is working, we could be in for grave danger. Many parents set up living trusts to help their disabled offspring to survive following the time they pass away. 

I'm in a long-term state of constant crisis because of my current set of life circumstances. I'm in a hole and I need to dig my way out. Family helps with this. But they cannot do everything. My living situation is a chunk of my problem. It is highly stressful. And there are many reasons that I believe this is so. 

If I could get into a lower stress living situation, it would be a huge relief for my body and my mind. If I can do that, I can focus on other areas of life that need work. It is too hard to think of health right now or other things because I'm too preoccupied in bettering my circumstances. 

To get into better housing, I need to raise my income. Not easily done. Thus, the reader can see I have a lot to deal with. And a lot of it is the result of still being competent, because I was the fool who decided to move here. I'm not under conservatorship or any other legal restriction. I'm free to make my own dumb mistakes. And I can tell you that I sorely miss the previous living situation. 

Yet it seemed to me, there were people and things that spelled out I had to leave. I wasn't reading tea leaves; I was looking at the details. And I had to liberate myself. But it is an uphill climb. And in the not-too-distant future, it will be more of a climb. Can I do this? Maybe I can. We shall see. And I will keep you posted. 

---

 

Jack Bragen is a fiction and essay writer in Martinez, California.  

In 1965, a Time magazine cover asked an unsuspecting America, in lurid pink letters on a black background, 'Is God Dead'? hiWhile the country stewed over this, the Middle East--from whence He first showed--was fairly calm, by today's low standards even placid. God may have approved; who'd know?

Today, Israel and Hamas--if the latter is seen as an explicit agent of a sovereign power (Iran)--may provide the ultimate examples of the separation of Church and State originally guaranteed in our Constitution. [The Separation Clause refers to an established national church, not freedom of worship.]

Both states are historically and culturally undergirded by religion, with strong adherence to triumphant faiths which embrace codes of earthly moral conduct. Such conduct, however, is strikingly absent in the current conflict between the two being played out in Gaza. A slaughter of innocents is ongoing by both camps, which also deny them sanctuary anywhere. They just happen to be in the way. Both sides claim the right to exist as the basis for willful atrocities, an understandable end for which the means are morally void. 

Would their sources--or the Source--approve, if they chose to speak once again? Perhaps He has, albeit through a remote voice always dependable for calls for peace: the Pope in Rome. Even so, unheard are appeals by the warring sides to those desert-god sources for guidance--even for victory. There are no scriptural evocations of the rightness of the cause announced from any podium. Even as an afterthought. 

Meanwhile, the citizens of that forlorn strip may as well be inmates of an open-air prison where two hostile factions of armed guards have decided to go at it, begun when some of one faction crossed 'over the wall' to harry the neighboring countryside. 

What is it about the Middle East, the former Eden? Both states lay within this region, contested by military savagery since Akkad subdued the city-states of Mesopotamia over 4,000 years ago, the victors often citing some god's will rather than say treasure or water rights. To this basin of deep spiritual development, descendant outsiders like the Crusaders have shown up only to leave any moral pretense at the shore and incite new massacres of just-folks. 

State aims which toss aside humane preconditions, beginning with common decency, may win temporary victories at the cost of their national 'souls'. In pressing state policy, Israel and Iran have clearly abandoned their spiritually-originated moral values over a small piece of land .. not just Gaza, or partner West Bank, but the Holy Land itself.  

At the outset, emphasis must be made that criticizing Israeli policies against the Palestinian people must not be linked to antisemitism. My family in Iraq had very good relations with the Jewish community. As a member of the Interfaith Council of Contra Cost County, California, I have been cooperating with the members of the Jewish community and visited synagogues. The Jewish Voice for Peace informed me that I was considered as an honorary member of the group.

The war in Gaza was begun by Hamas, however as the United Nations Secretary General stated, the events of October 7, 2023 could not be separated from the developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for many years. The western powers used their veto power to prevent the United Nations Security Council from dealing justly and effectively with the Arab Israeli conflict. Despite the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland, the Western powers did nothing to implement United Nations resolutions calling for their return. Yes, the United States was opposed to the British, French and Israeli war of 1956 against Egypt,h but did nothing to resolve the question of Palestinian refugees. After the Six-Days War, which began on 5 June 1967, the United Nations Security Council was able to adopt resolution 242 on 22 November 1967, (almost five months after the war,) and on the insistence of the United Kingdom and the United States, vague language was used such as the withdrawal of Israel from territories not the territories occupied in 1967, which allowed Israel to annex the Palestinian and Syrian territories. 

I have been engaged in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 1948, when my father(despite the family’s good relations with the royal family) informed me that the Arab governments betrayed the Palestinians because the former were weak and could not oppose the Western powers. After the war, I met in my hometown Palestinian refugees who fled their homes because of the attacks of the Israeli organizations, which were the first to utilize terrorist tactics in Palestine. I led the first demonstration in Fallujah, Iraq, in 1956 to protest the Anglo-French-Israeli war against Egypt 

I was a staff member of the Iraqi embassy in Washington D.C. in 1966, loved this country, and decided to return back. I participated in a seminar by the State Department for newly assigned foreign diplomats. I raised the question of the plight of Palestinian refugees, without consulting my ambassador, and was surprised that the organizer stated that Palestinian refugees should return to their homes. In 1967, Israel waged the Six-Day war, and was able to occupy the territories of Egypt and Syria as well as the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza.) I was shocked and realized that there were major deficiencies in the Arab political system. The Palestinian question was no longer a question of refugees because Israel had the upper hand and began the settlement policies, which aim at usurping the land of the Palestinian people. Although the United States and other Western powers repeatedly stated that the Israeli settlements were contrary to international law, they have not taken any action to prevent the usurpation of Palestinian territories.  

In 1973 I began working as a delegate for the United Nations and was dealing with decolonization and other African issues. I continued to follow the Palestinian question, and saw similarities between the struggles of the peoples of South Africa and Palestine. As Israel is trying to deny the existence of the Palestinian people, South Africa apartheid regime including the Dutch Reformed Church stated that the indigenous African people did not belong to South Africa. Then I joined the United Nations Secretariat in the Center against Apartheid, responsible for sanctions against South Africa. Later I was Secretary of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid and was honored to represent the Center in congratulating Nelson Mandela in 1994. I wish to thank the government and people of South Africa for requesting the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider Israeli genocide policies against the Palestinian people. I expect that a decision of ICJ will definitely help in bringing the needed action by the international community to end the sufferings, and threats to the lives of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. 

Even though there are Palestinian citizens of Israel members of the Israeli Parliament, they are suffering from discrimination under Israeli policies. Israel does not consider the Palestinians as equal partners because Israel is aware of the fact it is immune of any questioning due to the veto power of the United Sates and Britain. 

During my work for the liberation of Africa, I was impressed with the following statement “The struggle continues, and victory is certain.” I believe that Palestinian struggle will continue no matter how many victims of Israeli attacks with United States bombs, ( more than twenty five thousand Palestinians were killed so far in the Gaza war.) Despite the deaths and destruction, I strongly believe that peace is possible, once Israel recognizes that the Palestinians are equal partners. I hope that the current war will be the last, and the Biden Administration succeeds in bringing the conflict to the United Nations Security Council to enforce the Administration suggestion of two-state solution. In the meantime, I voted for President Joe Biden, however, I was surprised by his statement that he is Zionist, and wish to remind him that Zionism as practiced by the Israeli government aims at the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homeland. Israelis are realizing that they could not eliminate the Palestinian people from the Holy Land. There is a saying in the Arab world: “ No matter how many Palestinians are killed by the Israeli army and settlers, Palestinian mothers will gave birth to a new generation of Palestinians, who will continue the struggle to establish the Palestinian state in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967, with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.. For the information of the readers, hthe West Bank and Gaza constitute twenty two percent of the historical land of Palestine, while Israel will have seventy eight percent. Martin Luther King said "I have a dream," and I have a dream. In my prayers every day, I supplicate to Allah to provide me with the chance to pray in Masjid Al-Aqusa, when Arab East Jerusalem will be the capital of the Palestinian state and peace and justice will prevail in the Holy Land. 

---

Amer Araim is an academic in the United States and a member of the Interfaith Council in California. He was a diplomat and secretary of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid.  

 

Buckle up

After multiple stops and starts, I hope to finally get this off my desk. It has taken nearly three weeks from my first day of COVID episode two (the first was Delta in 2021) to feel normal again.

I am still making up my mind on a few candidates, but I know who I am definitely not voting for.

If the Peace and Justice Commission had been on ZOOM Monday evening, I definitely would have attended, but I tuned into the League of Women Voters forum on District State Senate Candidates instead and then gave up on more meetings for the evening. In my biased view, the City of Berkeley is more interested in killing the commissions than in making it easier to attend.

At the Agenda and Rules meeting on January 29, 2024, I was actually shocked by the tone of the Director of Health, Housing and Community Services Lisa Warhuus’ comments on the merging of the Peace and Justice Commission and the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission.

The dissolution of the two commissions, each of which has fifteen members , and the creation of the new Berkeley Community Action Commission was on the agenda as a consent item for the February 13, 2024 city council meeting. Items coming from the city manager and department heads arrive with the header, a brief description and none of the documents, which means that none of commissioners attending the Agenda Committee to give public comment had any idea of how many commissioners would be on the new commission and the content of the new commission’s responsibilities. 

Warhuus’s response: “I just want to share that it’s a lot of work [merging the Peace and Justice Commission and the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission]. And so, the department should not be left in a position of having to negotiate with different commissions. Ultimately, we’re going to bring things back to council direction and that is up to council to determine whether or not they want to go forward, but the staff can’t be left in a situation where they’re negotiating on behalf of council.” 

That might sound fine to some readers, however dismissing commissioners as an impediment with nothing meaningful to contribute,instead of engaging with and hearing from commissioners in how a merged commission could work, best exemplifies the attitude of city councilmembers, the mayor, the city manager and city department heads and staff. The Berkeley residents who volunteer their time in trying to make this a better city are dismissed as a pesky interference. 

What burns me in attending city council meetings is that councilmembers will fall all over themselves to thank city staff for reports whether those reports are thorough or sloppy, work for which they are paid to do, and council has thus far been unable to bring themselves to thank the Berkeley residents who answered the call to give [unpaid] their expertise and evenings and days month after month for the benefit of this city. The members of the Police Accountability Board and the representatives of the poor do receive a stipend. 

I put Councilmember Hahn at the top of that “not thanking” list. Hahn took over former Councilmember Lori Droste’s proposal to merge and eliminate commissions. 

I expect after this hits the press, there will be some comment about caring so much about the work of commissioners, but past action is what we might want to consider when those ballots are in our hands in March and November. 

The dissolution of the two commissions and the creation of the new Berkeley Community Action Commission was moved to action. The documents published with the final agenda define a commission of nine members, three representatives of the poor, three members appointed by council majority and three members representing officials of business, industry, labor religious, welfare, education or major groups and interests in the community. 

When Mayor Arreguin and Williams-Ridley first proposed the creation of City Council Committees, I saw that as the beginning of the end of commissions. 

The council cancelled their committee meetings until May 1 at their January 22 special morning meeting, with the reason that ncity staff have too much work with the special election to replace former Councilmember Robinson who resigned from District 7. 

Some see committee meeting cancellations as a loss. 

I have characterized the council committees as a detour in the path to getting things done. The only committee that functioned as it should in my view was Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability (FITES) chaired by Kate Harrison. Now with Harrison’s resignation, I doubt we will get the kind of thoroughness that I saw under her leadership. 

The Council Land Use Committee at one time held multiple meetings on TOPA (Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act) which would have given tenants the first right to purchase the building when it goes up for sale. Arreguin did multiple rewrites of his TOPA proposal, but tenant voices lost under the weight of the investor class. TOPA disappeared from sight until Harrison tried to revive it. The Agenda Committee with Arreguin, Hahn and Wengraf quickly sent the proposal to revive TOPA off to a council committee to die. 

There was one useful suggestion from Droste that should have been pursued and fell flat. That was to decrease the size of the council from nine to seven. Palo Alto did this in 2018. It is a shame that Berkeley did not follow that example. With Robinson and Harrison both resigning and Wengraf getting ready to retire, this would have been the perfect time to reduce overhead both in the present and in long term pension costs. Council might even be more functional. Alameda County, Concord, Contra Costa County, Fremont, Hayward, Palo Alto, Richmond, San Mateo County and Santa Clara County Boards and Councils all number five to seven. Oakland City Council has nine members, San Jose has eleven members and San Francisco has eleven supervisors plus the mayor. Those three entities are significantly larger than Berkeley in both square miles and population. 

The Peace and Justice Commission agenda included an update on the Gaza Peace Roundtable subgroup and an update on the November 2023 roundtable regarding the Fukushima Waste Water. The Fukushima Waste Water roundtable was really excellent, so much better than I ever expected with an impressive panel of experts. In the Q&A that followed the presentations, one attendee stood up and asked, “Who do we believe?” 

Isn’t that always the question, “Who do we believe?” Who do we trust? 

The League of Women Voters Berkeley Albany Emeryville Candidate Forum for California State Senate District 7 forum included Jesse Arreguin, Jovanka Beckles, Dan Kalb, Kathryn Lybarger, and Sandre R. Swanson. Jeanne Solnordal was invited and a no show. 

The recording is up. You can find it with the list of the other forums for the March 5 Primary at: https://www.lwvbae.org/league-news/candidate-forums-for-the-2024-primary-2/ 

I’ve been swinging back and forth between Kalb and Lybarger. I think either one of them would do a terrific job despite complaints with no specifics from friends in Oakland regarding Kalb. Office follow-up seems to be the problem rather than action on city issues in Oakland. Other friends in Oakland are strong supporters. 

Kathryn Lybarger was totally impressive the afternoon she spent with East Bay Community for Action answering questions though it was really more like a conversation. We even covered disappointments in candidates that say one thing and then once in office put ambition above everything. There was nothing canned about her responses. 

I particularly appreciated that Lybarger stated she did not believe in trickle down housing, which is if we just keep building market rate (overpriced) housing it will trickle down with lower costs. At another forum Dan Kalb raised his hand when asked if he was a YIMBY (Lybarger and Swanson did not). My questions on nature, ecosystems and habitat were best answered by Lybarger. Kalb with the bulk of his career dedicated to climate legislation relegated nature to parks. Beckles was so clueless to my questions that I interrupted her and informed her that none of the answers she was giving had anything to do with nature, ecosystems or habitat. 

Climate, nature, habitat and ecosystems are what I care deeply about besides ending the war in the middle east. I have written previously about the biodiversity crisis. It hasn’t gone away. 

I just finished John Vaillant’s book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World on the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire that started on May 1, 2016 and was not declared extinguished until August 2, 2017. There is so much packed into the 395 pages, I couldn’t put the book down. The speed at which the fire devoured houses was so fast that the fire fighters clocked the “beast” as vaporizing houses and everything in them in just five minutes per house. There is more in the book, the people, the changing nature of fire in a heating planet and the serious message of climate science. 

Everyone needs to read and hear the climate message. The planet crossed the 1.5°C of temperature rise in 2023, another hottest year recorded. The jet stream is so off kilter it looks like a loopy string sliding off the top of the planet. This is bad news. It is what David Wallace-Wells warned of in his 2019 book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. 

It is raining not snowing today in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis finished off January with temperatures up to 53° and no snow on the ground. We are in deep trouble. 

The LWV moderator did not ask where the candidates stood on a ceasefire resolution. Both Kalb and Lybarger support a ceasefire in the Israel Hamas War. Kalb voted with the Oakland Council to support their resolution (his amendments lost) and Lybarger spoke to leading the union through discussion that evolved into support for ceasefire. 

The U.S. bombing in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq is turning the Israel Hamas war into a middle east war when what is needed is heavy diplomacy not heavy bombing. With every mention of Iran, I think about the 2019 film Coup 53 the British documentary on the 1953 CIA & M16 staged coup to overthrow the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh. The coup was, of course, over the control oil. 

How different would this world be if the U.S. wasn’t constantly involved in coups? 

I’m reading about Israel’s military involvement in Mexico and Central America in Inter / Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine by Steven Salita. 

Arreguin, Hahn and Wengraf published their opposition to a ceasefire resolution weeks ago and there is nothing to indicate they will change their minds though the public continues to try. City Council meetings continue to be disrupted with the clamor for a ceasefire resolution. The number of speakers calling for a ceasefire far outnumber the few asking the council not to take a stand which is reflective of the country. 

I plan to attend the film Israelism at the Roxie. I watched the trailer. “[I]sraelism uniquely explores how Jewish attitudes towards Israel are changing dramatically, with massive consequences for the region and for Judaism itself.” https://roxie.com/film/israelism/ 

On Sunday, January 28, 2024 just two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide, (Genocide is defined as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”) 

the Nachala settlement activist group held a conference in Jerusalem attended by thousands with the message to take advantage of the war to transfer Palestinians out of Gaza and build Jewish settlements in Gaza. Eleven Israeli government ministers and fifteen coalition lawmakers attended including the Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. https://www.timesofisrael.com/12-ministers-call-to-resettle-gaza-encourage-gazans-to-leave-at-jubilant-conference/ 

Chris Hayes said on the Thursday evening before the U.S. started dropping bombs, “this can’t go on, it is politically wrong, strategically wrong, and morally wrong.” I agree. Besides the heartbreaking suffering of the Palestinians, massive bombing, maimed children and civilian deaths, the war is adding to the destruction of the planet. 

After listening to the February 7, 2024 interview of Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now (a news source I trust) I read Scahill’s article “Netanyahu’s War on Truth Israel’s Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians”. You can catch both at: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/7/israel_propaganda_gaza 

Scahill’s article is long and lays question to the portrayal of Palestinians as savages. https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/ 

There is so much wrapped up in this small plot of land, religious identity and beliefs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Jewish Zionism, Christian Zionism, the rapture, the expulsion of the indigenous Palestinians who have occupied this land for centuries and those who remained. 

Of the five books I’ve finished so far on Israel and Palestine The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: History of Settler Colonialsm and Resistance, 1917 – 2017 by Rashid Khalidi is the most thorough in covering the failures in negotiations and the U.S. greenlighting wars. 

Councilmember Kate Harrison resigned over what she called a broken system. 

While the mayor and council as a whole were supportive of Robinson, Councilmember Taplin was quick to accuse Harrison of racist microaggression. Councilmember Hahn turned Harrison’s resignation into a promotional piece for her run for mayor. 

The council agenda item under discussion when Harrison read her resignation was the $7,000,000 fixed surveillance cameras. Harrison went through a lengthy list of actions that could be taken with $7,000,000 that would reduce crime and the threat of crime. 

Fixed cameras that aren’t monitored and are checked only after an event as is the plan by Berkeley Police for the $7 million investment fall more into the placebo category. That didn’t stop Councilmember Humbert as the author and Ben Bartlett as the co-sponsor. Nor did it stop Humbert, Bartlett, Kesarwani, Taplin and Arreguin for voting for the measure. Hahn abstained, Wengraf was absent and Harrison had left. 

In the string of candidates running for Alameda County Supervisor, I was quite stunned to hear Ben Bartlett claim in his list of accomplishments as being instrumental in establishing the Special Care Unit (SCU). At the Wellstone forum, I was even more surprised by the clapping response. That left me wondering what meetings those supporters attended and I missed. One person has been most involved in pushing for the SCU through commissions, presentations and tracking progress. At my request, they checked all their sources and were unable to come up with Bartlett’s involvement. 

When I think of Bartlett’s proposals to council the one I can’t forget was to use blockchain for public financing. Cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology. Berkeley did not bite on the blockchain proposal. 

Most of us have probably heard by now of Sam Bankman-Fried the collapse of the cryptocurrency he founded FTX and the guilty verdict. 

The last meeting I attended before COVID was the Ohlone Greenway Safety Improvements Project presentation at the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission on January 18. 

When former mayor Shirley Dean called on behalf of the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council (BNC), to request a presentation on the Ohlone Greenway Safety Improvements Project, she was told by the Project Manager he wasn’t giving any more presentations to anyone. Then he followed up by submitting a request to have Dean’s phone blocked. On January 25, Dean received a call from someone identifying himself as Reynaldo who told her that her phone was being blocked which resulted in being unable to contact any city services, councilmembers, the mayor and the city manager. 

By Monday, January 29 the city manager was involved and lifted the block. 

I’m not sure what to make of a city employee blocking the phone number of a person representing a Berkeley organization asking for a presentation on a city project that impacts city residents. I wonder if the city manager would have bothered to get involved or for that matter councilmembers Hahn and Harrison who Dean also contacted if it had been anyone other than the former mayor Shirley Dean who was shut off from being able to contact the city. 

As for the project, the main concerns are electric bikes on shared paths with pedestrians, how the neighborhood will be impacted and how many trees will be removed. 

Renée Fleming is a woman of many talents, a great opera soprano, a thoughtful individual who cares about health, mental health and the environment, a graceful host during Met Opera broadcasts and telecasts, and a passionately intelligent advocate for the preservation of wilderness flora and fauna, including in our oceans. At Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on Friday, February 9, Renée Fleming brought all these multi-faceted sides of her personality to the forefront in a remarkable concert, the first half of which presented a multi-media hymn to nature that Ms Fleming made in collaboration with the National Geographic Society. This work was entitled Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene., which was also the title of her Grammy Award-winning recording with conductor Yannick Nézet Séguin for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for 2023, 

The multi-media version offered in Berkeley presented amazing National Geograhic video footage of many different aspects of wilderness and nature, including footage shot from low-flying aircraft, time-lapse photography, underwater videography, and much more. Musically, this work offered a mixed bag that included an aria by Handel, a lovely Bailero from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, and songs by such diverse composers as Jackson Browne, Hazel Dickens, Nico Muhly, Maria Schneider, Bjork, Howard Shore, Kevin Puts, Curtis Green, and Burt Bacharach. Renée Fleming’s soprano voice deftly navigated all this diverse musical material, brilliantly accompanied by American pianist Howard Watkins. Meanwhile the visuals never failed to grip our attention. Although I have never been a fan of adding visual material to classical music, especially not as it was frequently done by Michael Tilson Thomas during his long reign as Music Director at San Francisco Symphony, I must applaud the splendid achievement by Renée Fleming in putting together this remarkable multi-media hymn to nature. I may question the musical quality of certain of Ms Fleming’s choices in this work, but on the whole this combination of visuals and music was extremely successful. 

At intermission, Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen made a purposely vague announcement that due to a police incident in Lower Sproul Plaza, we were asked to remain in our seats until further notice. When a bit later we were allowed to go into the lobby during intermission, we were required not to go out into the sealed off Sproul Plaza, where, as I later learned, a man with a weapon had fired shots into the air during an argument with others. According to KPFA, no one was injured in this incident. None of this was experienced by our audience, and we were kept in the dark about what had happened. Nonetheless, the concert resumed after a slightly longer intermission than usual. 

The second half of the program featured Renée Fleming singing airs by Gabriel Fauré — Au bord de l’eau, a celebration of love, and Les berceuses, a wistful evocation of women’s loss when men seek adventure on far horizons, plus songs by Edward Grieg — the effervescent Lauf der Welt and the solemn Zur Rosenzeit. Next came Giacomo Puccini’s ever popular O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicci. which aria evoked the evening’s longest and most ardent applause. To close out the program, Renée Fleming sang Jerome Kern’s All the things you are followed by Andrew Lippa’s flashy The Diva. Together with her pianistic accompanist Howard Watkins, Renée Fleming performed one encore in which she invited the audience to sing along with the repeated chorus of hallelujah. All in all, this concert offered a welcome glimpse into the multi-faceted personality of Renée Fleming, one of our greatest contemporary musical artists,

Worth Noting:

The week starts with Lincoln’s Birthday Holiday on Monday February 12 and Valentine’s Day on Wednesday. Look for meetings to be moved around from usual days, times and locations. The week ends with the 3-day Presidents’ Day Holiday weekend.

• Tuesday:
  • At 10 am the Solano BID meets in person.
  • At 2:30 pm the Agenda Committee meets in the hybrid format.
  • At 6 pm City Council meets in the hybrid format with item 12 on increasing safety for vulnerable residents and dissolution of the Peace and Justice Commission and Human Welfare and Community Action Commissions to create new Community Action Commission.
  • At 6 pm the Rent Board Eviction / Section 8 / Foreclosure committee meets at 6 pm.
  • At 6:30 pm the Youth Commission meets in person
• Wednesday:
  • At 5 pm the Commission on pdisability meets in person.
  • At 7 pm the Homeless Services Panel of Experts meets in person.
• Thursday:
  • At 1 pm the City / UC / Student Relations Committee meets in the hybrid format with People’s Park Update on the agenda.
  • At 5:30 pm the Parks Commission meets in person.
  • At 5:30 pm the Zero Waste Commission meets in person.
  • At 6:15 pm the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission meets in person with Woolsey-Fulton Bike BLVD and Shattuck–MLK bus stops on the agenda.
  • At 6:30 pm the Design Review Committee meets in person.
  • At 7 pm the Rent Board meets in the hybrid format with the vacancy tax on the agenda.
  • At 7:30 pm BNC holds a forum for the Alameda County Supervisors Candidates. If you miss it this forum will be recorded and posted on the BNC website.
• Saturday: From 9 – 11 am is the shoreline cleanup.

Directions with links to ZOOM support for activating Closed Captioning and Save Transcript are at the bottom of this calendar.

Check the City website for late announcements and meetings posted on short notice at: https://berkeleyca.gov/

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BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS  

 

Sunday, February 11, 2024 – SUPER BOWL SUNDAY  

Monday, February 12, 2024 – LINCOLN’S BIRTHDAY HOLIDAY 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 

AGENDA AND RULES COMMITTEE Meeting at 2:30 pm 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor – Redwood Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1615349220 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (Toll Free)  

Meeting ID: 161 534 9220 

AGENDA: Public Comment on non-agenda and items 1 – 7. 1. Minutes, 2. Review and Approve 2/27/2024 -- draft agenda – (Review/Consider) Request from Bay Area Housing Finance Authority for presentation on the ceremonial calendar, use link or read full draft agenda below at the end of the list of city meetings, 3. Berkeley Considers, 4. Adjournment in Memory, 5. Council Worksessions, 6. Referrals for scheduling, 7. Land Use Calendar REFERRED ITEMS FOR REVIEW: 8. Discussion and Possible Action on City Council Rules of Decorum Procedural Rules, and Remote Public Comments, 9. Harrison, co-sponsor Bartlett – Amend BMC 3.78 To Expand Eligibility Requirements for Representatives of The Poor to Serve on The Human Welfare and Community Action Commission or any successor commission, to consider the current geographic information of poverty in Berkeley, 10. City Council Legislative Systems Redesign, UNSCHEDULED ITEMS: 11. Modifications or Improvements to City Council Meeting Procedures, 12. Strengthening and Supporting City Commission: Guidance on Development of Legislative Proposals, 13. Discussion and Recommendations on the Continued Use of the Berkeley Considers Online Engagement Portal. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

CITY COUNCIL AGENDA for Regular 6 pm Meeting on February 13, 2024 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison St. in the School District Board Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1617862221 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (toll free)  

Meeting ID: 161 786 

AGENDA: Use the link and choose the html option or see the agenda listed at the end of the calendar. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

RENT BOARD EVICTION / SECTION 8 / FORECLOSURE COMMITTEE at 6 pm 

A Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison St. in the School District Board Room 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87977214326?pwd=ycWBQBZHRpUN9mbHcuJsPPAy1AbMYL.1 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 

Meeting ID: 879 7721 4326 Passcode: 102354 

AGENDA: 6. Presentation from the Berkeley Housing Authority on the Section 8 Program in Berkeley, 7. Board data on recent eviction activity, 8. Discussion and possible action regarding Measure AA Owner Move-in Eviction Report. 

https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/elected-rent-board/rent-board-committees/evictionsection-8foreclosure-committee 

SOLANO BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT at 10 am 

In-Person: 1801 Solano 

AGENDA: 5. 2024 Workplan. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/solano-avenue-business-improvement-district-advisory-board 

YOUTH COMMISSION at 6:30 pm 

In-Person: 1730 Oregon 

AGENDA: 9. Review of roles and responsibilities of elected leadership, 10. Elections, 11. Reviewing Results of Berkeley High bathroom survey, 12. Action plan for letter of recommendation using the survey. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/youth-commission 

Wednesday, February 14, 2024 

COMMISSION on DISABILITY at 5 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center 

AGENDA: 8. Log of Access Complaints, 9. Email and voicemail sent to Commission, 10. Updates to City of Berkeley ADA Grievance Form, 11. Election, 12. Workplan, 13. Accessibility of speakers’ lectern at City Council & BUSD meetings 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/commission-disability 

HOMELESS SERVICES PANEL of EXPERTS at 7 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Juniper Room 

AGENDA: Discussion of the FY 2025 – 2028 Community Agency funding Process 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/homeless-services-panel-experts 

Thursday, February 15, 2024 

CITY / UC / STUDENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE at 1 pm 

A Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2465 Bancroft Way, Eshleman Hall, ASUC Senate Chambers 5th floor 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87643207842 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 

Meeting ID: 876 4320 7842 

AGENDA: 4. Presentation on master plan for the Berkeley Innovation Zone (the University Hall site) on Oxford, 5. Update on Street Lighting Master Plan, 6. People’s Park development project. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/cityucstudent-relations-committee 

PARKS, RECREATION AND WATERFRONT COMMISSION at 5:30 pm 

In-Person: 1326 Allston, City Corporation Yard, Green Room 

AGENDA: 9. Director’s Report, 10. Update on Capital Projects at the Waterfront, 11. Upcoming Waterfront Parking Study, 12. Update on Bay Area Air Quality Management District and Methane System at Cesar Chavez Park. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/parks-recreation-and-waterfront-commission 

DESIGN REVIEW COMMITTEE at 6:30 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Gooseberry Room 

AGENDA: 2018 Blake - Continued Final Design Review – for east west elevations on a 6-story multi-family residential building 

2136 San Pablo – Preliminary Design Review – demolish an existing 2-story non-residential structure and construct a 6-story mixed-use building with 125 units (5 residential stories above a podium, 3-livework units at ground level and 50 off-street parking spaces in a mechanical lift system. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/design-review-committee 

TRANSPORTATION and INFRASTRUCTURE COMMISSION at 6:15 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, 

AGENDA Discussion/Action: 2. Woolsey-Fulton Bicycle Boulevard and Shattuck-MLK Bus Stops Projects, 3. Draft workplan. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/transportation-and-infrastructure-commission 

ZERO WASTE COMMISSION at 5:30 pm 

In-Person: 1326 Allston, City Corporation Yard, Ratcliff Building, Willow Room 

AGENDA: 6. (6 pm) Staff Updates progress on SB-1383 Implementation, SUDs Ordinance Enforcement, Tours of the Transfer Station for Commissioners, Zero Waste Campaign Messaging Updates, Discussion and Action Items: 2. (6:30 pm) Report out from the Special Events Subcommittee and Green Building Subcommittee, 3. (6:50 pm) Discuss Reusable Takeout-ware Programs and Supporting Partnerships between businesses with dishwashers, 4. (7:10 pm) Discuss Legislative Updates. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/zero-waste-commission 

RENT STABILIZATION BOARD MEETING at 7 pm 

A Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison St. in the School District Board Room 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86351823870?pwd=6u9aivTslet7SqNRO_IBL3QRcsH57w.WN9X-NdkqPRvYdDc 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 

Meeting ID: 863 5182 3870 Passcode: 662299 

AGENDA: 2. Closed Session evaluation Executive Director, 6. Special Presentation Tenant Power Tool Kit, 7. Special Presentation Empty Homes Tax Ordinance, 

https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/elected-rent-board/rent-board-meetings 

BNC BOARD of SUPERVISORS FORUM from 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89484790929 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 

Meeting ID: 894 8479 0929 

AGENDA: Candidates are Ben Bartlett, Nikki Fortunato Bass, Ken Berrick, Gregory Hodge, Chris Moore, Gerald Pechenuk, Lorrel Pliimier – if you can’t attend, the forum will be recorded and posted on the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council website. 

https://berkeleyneighborhoodscouncil.com/ 

Friday, February 16, 2024 – no city meetings or events found 

Saturday, February 17 2024 

3rd SATURDAY SHORELINE CLEANUP from 9 am – 11 am 

In-Person “start” Location: 160 University, Shorebird Park Nature Center 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/3rd-saturday-shoreline-cleanup-0 

Sunday, February 18, 2024 – PRESIDENTS’ DAY HOLIDAY WEEKEND 

 

++++++++++++++++++ 

AGENDA AND RULES COMMITTEE Meeting at 2:30 pm on February 12, 2024 

DRAFT Agenda for February 27, 2024 City Council meeting 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 6th Floor – Redwood Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1615349220 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (Toll Free)  

Meeting ID: 161 534 9220 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

AGENDA on CONSENT: 

 

1. Minutes for approval
2. Fong, IT - Amend Contract No. 31900184 with Alcor Solutions, Inc. to expand services for intranet services
3. Fong, IT – Amend Contract No.105921-1 add $250,000 total $1,297,200 with TruePoint Solutions, LLC for professional services and extend to one year 6/1/2015 – 6/30/2025
4. Ferris, Parks – Accept donation $3,400 for memorial bench at Cesar Chavez Park in memory of Charlie Pollack
5. Ferris, Parks – Contract $1,500,000 over 3 years with West Coast Arborists, Inc. for Tree Removal and Pruning Services with option to renew for 2 additional years at $500,000 per year total $2,500,000
6. Klein, Planning - Contract $634,000 over 3 years with Rincon Consultants for Environmental Justice Element, Safety Element Update and Equitable Climate and Resilience Metrics
7. Klein, Planning – Amend Contract No. 32300057add $43,556 to new total $126,890 with Association for Energy Affordability for Pilot Climate Equity Fund and extend to 6/30/2025
8. Murray, Public Works – Accept Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program Equipment Voucher $174,290 2/13/2024 – 2/13/2026
9. Murray, Public Works – Contract (Specification No. 24-11529-C) $4,246,955 with JJR Construction Inc. for FY 2024 sidewalk repair project
10. Murray, Public Works – Contract (Specification No. 24-11621-C) $4,828,002 includes 10% contingency $438,909 with Bay Pacific Pipeline, In for Virginia, Russell, et al. Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project
11. Murray, Public Works – Contract (Specification No. 24-11645-C) $465,187 includes 10% contingency $42,289 with Kolos Engineering, Inc. for Urgent Sewer Repair Project
12. Murray, Public Works – Reject Bids – FY 2023 Retaining Wall and Storm Drain gggImprovement Project Specification Nos. 23-11616-C & 11614-C
13. Open Government Commission – Referral to Council – Proposed Changes to Public Comment (common sense recommendations)

AGENDA on CONSENT: 

 

 

14. ZAB Appeal - 2924 Russell Administrative Use Permit #ZP2023-0081to install an unenclosed hot tub in the rear yard
15. Klein, Planning – Zoning Amendments BMC Title 23 to streamline and clarify permitting process for small businesses in commercial districts, select manufacturing districts, residential BART mixed use (R-BMU) and residential Southside mixed use (R-SMU)
16. Murray, Public Works – Revised fees for public use of city-owned electric vehicle charging ports
17. Goel, HHCS – Receive State of Public Health in Berkeley Summary Report
18. Klein, Planning – Proposed Amendments to the Building Emissions Saving Ordinance (BESO)
19. Arreguin – Allocate $300,000 from General Fund to plan for future health care access for Berkeley residents (to study/identify/evaluate healthcare and hospital access over planned closure Alta Bates) 104 page documentation/report with agenda item
20. Bartlett – Referral to City Manager: Eminent Domain feasibility analysis for 2902 and 2908 Adeline and abandoned house on 1946 Russell

INFORMATION REPORTS: 

 

 

21. Oyekanmi, Finance – FY 2024 first quarter investment report ended 9/30/2023
22. LPO NOD: 2113-2115 Kittredge #LMSAP2022-0011

+++++++++++++++++++ 

 

 

CITY COUNCIL AGENDA for Regular 6 pm Meeting on February 13, 2024 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison St. in the School District Board Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1617862221 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (toll free)  

Meeting ID: 161 786 2221 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

PRESENTATION:  

Bay area Housing Finance Authority 

URGENCY ITEM:  

Harrison – Resolution granting the Berkeley Repertory theater $15,393.29 to Offset the City’s Business License Tax on Large Non-profits 

AGENDA on CONSENT: 

 

1. Kouyoumdjian, HR – 2nd reading amending CalPERS Contract
2. Kouyoumdjian, HR – 2nd reading at Will Designations: Employee Relations Manager and Assistant to City Attorney
3. Murry, Public Works – 2nd reading lease agreement with We Wield The Hammer at 2440 Durant in Telegraph-Channing Mall and Garage
4. Friedrichsen, Budget Manager – 2024 State and federal Legislative Platform
5. Numainville, City Clerk – Amendments to Alternative Commissioner Regulations
6. Numainville, City Clerk – Reschedule April 16 regular council meeting to April 2
7. Hollander, Economic Development (OED) – Grant Application for $150,000 to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
8. Hollander, OED – Contract $69,000 with Masako Miki Public Art Commission for Aquatic Park ceramic tile mural for Park Pathway Wall
9. Oyekanmi, Finance – Formal Bid Solicitations and RFP - $90,000, printing and mail services
10. Warhuss, HHCS – Contract $1,379,400 with Traditions Behavioral Health for psychiatry services through 6/30/2027
11. Fong, IT - $300,000 with Compu Systems for Professional Services through 12/31/2024
12. Commission on the Status of Women – Recommendation on Public Safety/Crime Prevention for Women especially older vulnerable women (references recent muggings on BART pathways) suggestions 1 – Ashby/North Berkeley BART escorts, 2. Explore DBA & Telegraph BID Ambassadors as escorts, 3. Explore expanding Go-Go Grandparent, 4. Develop Community-wide forum on safety and crime prevention, 5. Consult with BPD on identifying locations and times of highest safety risk

Council Consent Items: 

 

 

13. Arreguin – RFP for Development of West Berkeley Service Center
14. Bartlett, co-sponsors Taplin, Hahn – Designate the Adeline Corridor as the Black Arts and Culture District

AGENDA on ACTION: 

 

 

15. Klein, Planning – Appeal 1960 San Antonio/645 Arlington Ave – Spring Estate Structural Alteration Permit #LMSAP22022-005
16. Warhuus, HHCS – Dissolution of the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission and the Peace and Justice Commission and establishment of the Berkeley Community Action Commission

INFORMATION REPORTS: 

 

 

17. Small Sites Program Update
18. Bay Area Housing Finance Authority and 2024 Regional Affordable Housing Bond

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

 

LAND USE CALENDAR PUBLIC HEARINGS: 

 

• 1960 San Antonio 645 Arlington Avenue 2/13/2024
• 2924 Russell 2/27/2024 (unenclosed hot tub)
• 3000 Shattuck Avenue (Construct 10-story mixed-use building) – TBD
• 2113-15 Kittredge (California Theater)

WORK SESSIONS & SPECIAL MEETINGS: 

 

 

• February 27 at 4:30 pm - Berkeley Economic Dashboards (OED)
• March 12 at 4 pm - BPD Annual Report

UNSCHEDULED WORK SESSIONS & SPECIAL MEETINGS 

 

 

• Ashby BART Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Berkeley – El Cerrito Corridor Access Plan Presentation
• Inclusionary Housing In-Lieu Fee Feasibility Study
• Draft Waterfront Specific Plan (October/November)
• Dispatch Needs Assessment Presentation
• Presentation on Homelessness/Re-Housing/Thousand-Person Plan (TBD regular agenda)

PREVIOUSLY LISTED WORKSESSIONS and SPECIAL MEETINGS REMOVED FROM LIST 

 

 

• Fire Department Standards of Coverage & Community Risk Assessment

PAST MEETINGS with reports worth reading: 

 

 

• May 16 - Fire Facilities Study Report, Wildfire Prevention Plan https://berkeleyca.gov/city-council-special-meeting-eagenda-may-16-2023-6-pm
• June 20 (WS) - Climate Action Plan & Resilience Update, Berkeley Economic Dashboards Update reports available https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas/city-council-2023-06-20

. 

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Kelly Hammargren’s summary on what happened the preceding week is posted on the What Happened page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/what-happened.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/ 

 

The Activist’s Calendar of meetings is posted on the What’s Ahead page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html 

 

If you would like to receive the Activist’s Calendar as soon as it is completed send an email to: kellyhammargren@gmail.com.If you want to receive the Activist’s Diary send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly calendar of city meetings please forward the email you received to- kellyhammargren@gmail.com -with the request to be removed from the email list. 

______________ 

For Online Public Meetings 

CLOSED CAPTIONING, SAVE TRANSCRIPT OVERVIEW, DIRECTIONS and ZOOM SUPPORT LINKS:
.
ZOOM has as part of the program -(for no extra cost)- Closed Captioning (CC). It turns computer voice recognition into a text transcript. Closed Captioning and show full transcript and the save option are only available when the person setting up the ZOOM meeting has activated these options. If you don’t see CC ask for it. If it can’t be activated for the current meeting ask for it for future meetings. 

The accuracy of the Closed Captioning is affected by background noise and other factors, The CC and transcript will not be perfect, but most of the time reading through it the few odd words, can be deciphered--for example "Shattuck" was transcribed as Shadow in one recent transcript. 

For the online attendee, the full transcript is only available from the time the attendee activates Show Full Transcript. But if you sit through a meeting and then remember 10 minutes before it is over to click on Show Full Transcript you will only get the last 10 minutes, not the full transcript – So click often on both Save Transcript and on Save to Folder during the meeting for best results. 

 

When you click on Show Full Transcript it will allow you to scroll up and down, so if want to go back and see what was said earlier you can do that during the meeting while the transcript is running. 

 

At the bottom of the transcript when we as attendees are allowed to save there will be a button for, "Save Transcript," you can click on the button repeatedly throughout the meeting and it will just overwrite and update the full transcript. Clicking on the Save Transcript repeatedly as the meeting is coming to an end is important because once the host ends the meeting, the transcript is gone if you didn't save it. 

 

Near the end of the meeting, after you click on "Save Transcript," click on "Save to Folder." The meeting transcript will show up (as a download to your desktop) in a separate box as a text file. (These text files are not large.) After you have done your last Save Transcript and Save to Folder (after the meeting is over) you can rename the new transcript folder on your computer, and save it (re-read or send or share it). 

 

Remember, allowing us attendees to save the meeting transcript does not require the public meeting host to save the transcript (for public record.) 

 

Here is the link to ZOOM Support for how to set up Closed Captioning for a meeting or webinar:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/8158738379917#h_01GHWATNVPW5FR304S2SVGXN2X 

 

Here is the link to ZOOM Support for attendees in how to save Closed Captions: 

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360060958752-Using-save-captions#h_01F5XW3BGWJAKJFWCHPPZGBD70 

How to convert a YouTube video into a transcript 

Copy the YouTube url into the box with “enter a youtube url” and click on go https://youtubetranscript.com/ 

The transcript (not perfect, but very close) will appear instantaneously