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Segment 1

All right.
Hello, everyone.
Good evening.
Thank you for your patience.
We are going to call this meeting to order.
Today is Tuesday, April 29th, 2025, and I would like us to start with the roll, please.
Okay.
Council member Kesarwani is currently absent.
Council member Wengraf.
Here.
Council member Kesarwani.
Here.
Council member Wengraf.
Here.
Council member Taplin.
Present.
Bartlett.
Here.
Tregub.
Present.
O'Keefe.
Here.
Blackabee.
Here.
Lunaparra.
Here.
Humbert.
Here.
And Mayor Ishii.
Here.
Okay.
And for Council member Taplin, we just have to read through our script here.
Council member Taplin is participating in the meeting remotely pursuant to the Brown Act as amended by AB 2449 under the Just Cause Exemption.
A quorum of the Council is participating in person at a single physical location that is noticed on the agenda open to the public and within the boundaries of the agency.
This satisfies the requirements of the Brown Act.
Council member Taplin, please provide a general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely.
For another night, I have to care for my mother who is ill because some of us have responsibilities such as that.
Thank you.
Okay.
And Council member, please disclose whether there are any individuals 18 years of age or older present with you from where you are participating.
And if so, what is their general relationship to you? In this room, I am joined by my spouse.
And Council member Taplin will participate through both audio and visual technology.
We can proceed.
Okay.
All right.
Well, the first thing on our list today, we have a few ceremonial matters.
I have four adjournments in memory, including one proclamation.
And I would like to start with the adjournment in memory for Mary Wainwright.
I know her family is in the audience today.
Thank you so much for joining us.
And I believe that Council member Taplin, did you have some comments you wanted to share? Thank you, Madam Mayor.
I do have some remarks, and I am very honored to be able to read these, having been very inspired by the legacy of former Council member Wainwright.
Can you all hear me? Yes.
Yes.
Tonight, we are adjourning in memory of Berkeley Council member Mary Wainwright, who passed away in her kinsman home on April 2nd.
Council member Wainwright was born on June 19th, 1930 in Marvell, Arkansas, and moved to Berkeley with her late husband, Frank Wainwright, and served her home on Bonar Street in 1958.
A trustee of Starr Bethel Mentoring Baptist Church, a lifetime member of the NAACP, and president of the Channing Bonar Neighborhood Association, Council member Wainwright represented District 2 on the City Council from 1988-1996, and championed the causes of civic engagement, environmental stewardship and social justice, neighborhood safety infrastructure, leading efforts to underground PG&E electrical lines, and helped secure city sponsorship for the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival.
Council member Wainwright also served on the boards of Berkeley's Alternative, Berkeley Juneteenth, Friends of the Centre for Independent Living, and was active in League of Women Voters, Berkeley Democratic Club, and a supporter of Rebuilding Together.
May her leadership be a beacon for all of us, and her memory be a blessing for our entire community.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for reading that, Council member Taplin, and I also have a proclamation that I'd like to present to her family.
If you'd like to come join us up here at the podium, I can read this, and if you have some remarks, I'd also allow you to say those as well.
So, honoring the life and legacy of Mary Wainwright.
Whereas Mary Wainwright, born on June 19th, 1930, dedicated her life to community service, education and equity, making a lasting impact on the City of Berkeley and its residents, and whereas as a devoted mother, Mary began her community involvement as an active PTA member, Cub Scout Den Mother, and Blue Bird Troop Leader before pursuing her education and earning bachelor's and master's degrees in education and child development, ultimately becoming a dedicated educator, and whereas her leadership extended as president of the Channing Bonar Neighborhood Association, where she improved neighborhood safety by leading efforts to underground electrical lines and enhance local infrastructure, creating lasting benefits for the community, and whereas Mary was elected to the Berkeley City Council, serving two terms from 1988 to 1996, during which she championed initiatives to address environmental hazards, such as those at the Corporation Yard, and fostered civic engagement, environmental stewardship, social justice, and helped get city sponsorship for the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, and whereas Mary contributed as an early member of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators and the National Council of Negro Women, while supporting efforts to honor civil rights leaders, including renaming the South Berkeley Branch Library after Truria Hall Pittman, and whereas she served on the boards of Berkeley Youth Alternatives, the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, and the Friends of the Center for Independent Living, while also actively participating in organizations such as Rebuilding Together, the Berkeley Democratic Club, and the League of Women Voters, and whereas her dedication to public advocacy, education, and community building embodied her life in making life better for children, families, and future generations.
Now therefore be it resolved that I, Adina Ishii, Mayor of the City of Berkeley, hereby honors the life and legacy of former Councilmember Mary Wainwright, recognizing her invaluable contributions to our city, and celebrating the remarkable impact of her leadership, compassion, and vision.
Thank you.
Would you like to share any remarks? I would like to thank the Council for that proclamation.
Mary embodied everything that is Berkeley.
And I think her legacy lives on, and we still see it with BYA, Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, which is ongoing, the longest-running Juneteenth Festival, I believe it's west of the Mississippi.
And I just want to just thank you again for just recognizing her and her contribution to the city and citizens of Berkeley.
As her oldest daughter, I just wanted to let you know, my mother truly cared about the city and the community, and she was an advocate for the people in the community and her district.
So for all of them, and she really wanted to make sure that whatever she did, it would improve the city or the people in the city to make sure that they really benefited from some of the programs and stuff that were available that maybe they didn't know about at the time.
So, as we sit here and go through the proclamation, just wanted to let you know we cherish it, and we'll always have her in our heart.
Thank you.
I just want to say thank you.
I'm going to take a picture.
Thanks so much.
The two of us.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
Okay, I'll see you.
However you'd like.
Okay.
Oh.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Just want to say thank you for coming.
And you know, your mother, I remember as a child and my father is very close with her as well.
And thank you for all you've done.
You've been inspiration to choose inspiration to people like myself, and others, and we live in a shadow and our memories are golden.
Thank you.
And just last thing, I just want to thank Vice Mayor Ben Bartlett for all the help and support that he's given his family through our time of yeah, so thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you all so much for being here.
Let's actually move to the third adjournment if that's okay.
Since Council Member Traikup is online, I feel like that'll be easier.
Might as well keep going that way.
The next one is adjournment in memory of David Chicken Nesmith.
And I'll let Council Member Traikup take it away from here.
Thank you so much, Madam Mayor.
Yeah, we, I want to make sure we remember David Chicken Nesmith, who, as the Berkleyside obituary dated April 9th by Kristen Kinnaman said, who kept water flowing down the American and McCallum Rivers for outdoor recreation.
He was the director of the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter, the founder of the Environmental Water Caucus, and a giant of light water rafting.
And he played a key role in stopping East Bay Mud from diverting or damming the two rivers.
After, well, in high school and college, he followed in his father's footsteps against nuclear arms and for civil rights.
In 1965, he joined his father in registering voters in Mississippi, experiencing harrowing encounters with the Ku Klux Klan.
He studied animal science with a concentration in poultry management.
His mission was to provide food for the world, one bird at a time.
And when he was drafted in his senior year of college, he became the first in Santa Barbara County to attain conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War.
He trained in the Peace Corps to raise chickens and ended up serving with the International Voluntary Services of USAID.
That USAID ended up sending him to Vietnam, where he provided chickens and taught poultry care in the midst of the Vietnam War, which is what earned him the nickname of Chicken.
He then returned home with a new wife, and after their second child was born, and after living in a commune in Brooklyn, New York, in 1972, the commune purchased a home in Oakland, where he continued to live for 30 years.
He served as conservation director of the Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, where he fought to protect the health of the bay, particularly its wetlands, which were then threatened by development.
And then he later served as director of Save the Bay and helped found the Environmental Water Caucus, a coalition of 30 groups advocating for California water policies that led to sustainable water use and ecosystem restoration.
He also served on the board of Restore the Delta.
In the 70s, he discovered whitewater rafting with a friend and delighted in introducing people to the joys of wilderness travel and river running.
He was a fixture in the Friends of the River whitewater training program and also led ocean kayak trips for people challenging cancer with healing adventures.
He was a rafting guide and mentor for urban youth through a Sierra Club program that's still going, now called Inspiring Connections Outdoors.
And together in all of these programs, he served as an instructor and mentor for hundreds of river guides.
He housed and maintained a coop of river gear, the Queen Mary Coop, named after an ancient raft with a number of friends operating it like a landing library.
His motto was to return gear in better shape than he found it.
On the river, he was serious about safety, also about having fun and letting loose.
The Sierra Club Bay Chapter Director, Sarah Rainey, had a few more comments or remarks that I would like to read tonight.
She says, from his time on staff leading the San Francisco Bay Chapter, to his fights to protect the health of the bay and our water and wetlands, to his work mentoring and guiding youth on and off the raft, David's contributions are legion and represent the best of environmental activism.
As a long-time volunteer told her a couple of weeks ago, it's very clear Chicken lived the life he advocated for.
I'm so grateful that we are able to adjourn tonight's meeting in memory and honor of David Chicken.
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Council Member.
And one more before I read the one that I've got as well, adjournment in memory of Betty and Jimmy Pugh, P-U-G-H, I apologize if I'm saying that incorrectly.
Council Member Taplin.
Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.
We are also adjourning in memory of two of my constituents, Betty and Jimmy Pugh, who passed away in November of last year and this past March, respectively, and who were the heart and soul of our neighborhood.
Jimmy moved to Berkeley from Alabama in the mid-60s, joined soon thereafter by Betty and their daughter.
They eventually bought their home on Channing Way, using earnings won from the racetrack where they raised their family.
Jimmy worked two custodial jobs for decades while Betty ran a daycare and wore many hats.
Neighbors remember Jimmy, especially for being out on the stoop often, greeting everyone with a wave and a smile, making newcomers feel welcome, and being the person everyone could count on.
He is remembered fondly as the mayor of the White Way.
Their presence left a lasting mark on the community, and it will be dearly missed.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member.
I have one more adjournment in memory that I'd like to share, and I am going to read some remarks.
So we will also be adjourning in memory of Bill Chapman, who was a very long-time League of Women Voters member, so wonderful that we have two League members this evening that we're honoring.
Bill lived in Berkeley, in District 1 Council Member Keserwani's district, since 1984.
So he was here while his wife Barbara is here in the audience, as well as some of our League members.
Bill was a long-time League member who served as a treasurer.
He took photos for our events and helped the League become more technologically savvy.
He was a teacher, an author, and also a dear friend and mentor of mine.
I really wanted to honor Bill this evening because I think it's so important that we are supporting the next generation of leaders.
He championed the League's work at Berkeley City College and is really the reason I got connected to the League.
We got to know each other at weekly Berkeley City College Civic Engagement Club meetings.
He attended to connect the club to League opportunities, and he also shared advice on our events.
I think it's so rare to have that kind of dedication where someone comes weekly to attend a meeting at Berkeley City College just to provide support.
I think it really says a lot about Bill.
Bill nominated me for the Spirit of the League Award and supported my run for the League of Women Voters president.
At the time, I was our youngest president, first person of color, and Bill was one of the few people who really said that he thought I could do it and that he supported me in doing that run.
He was also one of the people who encouraged me when I was considering running for mayor.
He's someone that I will miss dearly.
I think it's so important to honor individuals who make a difference in our communities.
You can see this evening people who really make a difference on the lives of individuals.
I just want to say thank you so much to Barbara for being here this evening to hear us read this.
I was briefly going to share this photo of Bill and myself from back in the day, so I wanted to share that with you all from the Spirit of the League event.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate you all listening.
Okay, thanks.
We are going to move on.
City Manager, did you have any comments? I do not, Madam Mayor.
And then our City Auditor has some comments for us as well.
Good evening.
First, I just wanted to share that we are currently soliciting input for our fiscal year audit plan.
To City staff, City leadership, City Council, and to the public, please feel free to get in touch with me and provide any input on our upcoming audit plan.
These can be audits, which are deep dives into City programs and services, or they can be information reports that can be helpful for decision-making regarding City services and operations.
Second, I am excited to share with you the information item that our office has submitted.
Our office has been honored with a National Award for our Restaurant Inspections audit.
Each year, local government audit organizations across North America submit their outstanding audit reports for the Knighton Award with the Association of Local Government Auditors.
This year, our office won one of the 2024 Distinguished Awards, tying for second place in our division with the City of Oakland.
So please congratulate the Oakland City Auditor's Office as well.
The judges praised our audit as well-written, easy to follow, and digs all the way down to root causes.
This is Berkeley's fourth Knighton Award since I became City Auditor in 2018.
I want to thank Caitlin Palmer, Performance Audit Manager, and Pauline Miller, Auditor 2, for their incredible work on the Restaurant Inspections audit, and the whole Performance Audit team for their ongoing excellence.
I can't do this job without my incredible team, so they really are the ones that deserve a lot of congratulations.
I also want to thank City staff, who are very cooperative with our audits.
I want to thank the City Manager, who's been very supportive of our audits.
I want to thank Council, and I want to thank the public for their support of overall accountability and transparency through our work.
You can also see the division's progress towards implementing these recommendations, because ultimately it's about not just about the audit information, but how and what the City does to implement these recommendations that really is helpful to improving City services.
So I just wanted to point you to the dashboard, where you can find updates on our recommendations, and the division will also be reporting out on this audit to Council in the near future.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Auditor.
Yay! Congratulations to you and your team.
So awesome.
All right, so we will now take public comment on non-agenda matters.
Do we..
I have one card for in-person.
That's Carol Morozovic.
All right, Carol, come on up.
Next week you'll have an item on your agenda on SB 1343.
Now that has..
The Agenda Committee has recommended that this go to the consent calendar, as the City Manager has stated it's the State and not the City that can enforce this law.
I authored this item, and at the time I authored the item, when I was then Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, I had spoken to Lily Harvey, who is the Director of Outreach and an attorney with OCR, and she said it was up to the individual jurisdictions to educate and enforce on this law.
I understand our incredible budget crisis.
I understand our staff is strapped.
I ask, and if I could author this again, it would be to focus on education, because nobody in this community or hardly anybody knows of this law except the largest employers, and it wouldn't take that much to just have OED reach out to the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, in closing, Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, the bids, the Business Improvement District, et cetera, for education.
Thanks Carol.
Thank you for your public comment.
I think we have a few folks online.
Yes, first online we have Madeline.
Hi, Roberts Rich.
I'm calling about your decision, unanimous decision, the ZAB approval of the demolition of the United Artists Theater and the construction of apartments at 2274 Shattuck Avenue.
This decision was based on a very illegal basis under CEQA.
This project should never have been eligible for a categorical exemption.
I believe you know that full well, because it's been extensively documented.
I was not informed until last week that you had been involved with planning in their CEQA determination.
It's important that the public know how complicit you guys were in this.
The demolition of the last remaining commercial cinema in downtown Berkeley is going to be absolutely devastating for downtown Berkeley.
And so I just want you to be reminded of your decision last week, which I contend is very illegitimate and will be very consequential to downtown Berkeley.
A cinema operator will return, building a brand new cinema.
The economics will never return.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your time is up.
Okay.
Next is R.T.
Good evening, Mayor and Council people.
I'm speaking about the proposed bathroom at Adeline and Alcatraz.
I've just recently been informed, hold on a second, hello? We're here.
You've got 30 seconds left.
There was an echo.
Okay.
Anyway, I've gone around and a number of businesses are opposed to it.
These are legacy businesses, Lamont, the restaurant on Adeline, the glass shop.
I could go on and on.
This is the area that's had three shootings in the last year.
It's the only area anywhere in Berkeley that's had such a thing as this, and safety should be the council's first priority for an installation of a public bathroom that would probably are negative and alluring.
And the project was introduced back when there was an encampment here.
That's over seven years ago.
Thank you for your comment.
The situation's changed.
Thank you.
Thanks.
And next is Cheryl Davila, former council member.
Can you hear us? Maybe we can come back.
Okay.
Yeah, we'll come back.
Next we have T.D.
T.D.
You should..
T.D.'s iPhone.
There you go.
Can you hear me? Okay.
Sorry about that.
I appreciate you guys having this.
I don't know if it's a monthly meeting or whatever, but I appreciate you guys listening to talk about the bathroom that was..
And I don't know what's the best way to do it.
You know, it was mentioned to us that we should get signatures, which we are getting signatures.
There's a very small group, and anybody else is welcome to help us in that area.
Should we be opening it to residents as well as the people? What are you looking for? A number of signatures.
That's pretty much what I'm calling about, is more guidance from you all on the council as well as the mayor with what we should do moving forward.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll go back to Cheryl Davila, former council member.
Should be able to unmute.
Let's try this other instance of Cheryl.
Cheryl Davila.
Yeah.
Looks like you've unmuted.
You know, you're playing a game because you did not send me the link to unmute the first time, and that's kind of annoying, as you know, and I want my time back because I wanted to say that.
Please.
So last night, the mayor gave a Zionist time to speak when he had ceded his time to a Holocaust survivor when she spoke.
You capped off the meeting at five and a half hours, and that was not fair.
Richmond City Council gives two minutes to each commenter and passed their ceasefire resolution in October 24 with no meeting time constraints.
We did not acknowledge the mayor of Richmond or the former mayor of Richmond, Mayor Eduardo Martinez, or mayor and former council member Gail McLaughlin, mayor that's like inconsiderate, and the council members were not in the meeting or that were not in the meeting did not appear on screen all night.
They just kept popping in and out.
We should be able to know that they are participating.
Transparency please.
Delays last night due to sound on Zoom.
Your time is up.
Thank you for your comment.
And next is Kelly Hammergren.
We just had two comments, anxiety about public restrooms, and I would invite people to go up to the public restroom that was installed on Channing near the intersection of Telegraph.
It seems to be well used.
It's clean.
It's not terrible problems up there, and it was very well done by our public works department, so I would just encourage people to go up there and take a look and talk to the businesses.
I did, and no one was having any problems.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Kelly.
And that is it for non-agenda public comment.
Okay.
Thank you all so much for your comments.
We are now moving on to the one hand pop up, sorry, but no, it's gone now.
Okay.
All right.
We are now moving on to the consent calendar.
So, folks, I know some of you, many of you are here to speak on consent, so we have to do one thing first, but then we will do the rest of the consent calendar.
So Council Member Blackabay is recusing himself from item number seven.
Yeah.
Should I do this first and then the urgent item? Oh, Mark.
Does it matter? Why don't we add the urgent item first? Urgent item first.
Okay.
So, thanks, Madam Mayor.
Just bringing to colleagues' attention, in the supplemental two, we had an urgent item to the, that we'd like to add to the consent calendar.
It's a resolution in support of AB 389, which is a personal income tax credit for home hardening.
Very timely.
That's being considered in the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation at a hearing on May 5th.
So, given our kind of work around EMBER and wildfire preparedness, this is a bill that we learned of subsequent to the submittal deadline for this meeting.
Very timely and relevant to work that the Council is doing.
We definitely would like the resolution to be submitted ahead of that hearing and also potentially be able to avail the services of the City's lobbyists to help, again, lend additional support.
So, it's timely in advance of that May 5th meeting.
Would appreciate support in adding it to the agenda.
Thank you, Council Member.
Council Member O'Keefe, did you have your? No.
No.
Okay.
All right.
We have a motion.
So, I'd move we add that.
Can I? I'd move we add it to the consent calendar.
Second.
Okay.
Okay.
So, to add the item to the….

Segment 2

Agenda.
Council member Kesarwani? Yes.
Taplin? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Tregub? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Lackabay? Yes.
Lunaparra? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
And then on the recusal? Yes.
So item 7 on the consent agenda is dealing with stipends on a go forward as well as a look-back basis for the Police Accountability Board.
It covers part of my time when I served on the Police Accountability Board and so I want to recuse myself during the consideration of that item.
Okay, thank you.
So yes, we're gonna do it now, yes, so if you don't mind stepping out of the room.
Yes, so what what's gonna happen is he will leave the room, we will take public comment only on item number 7 and then Council will deliberate, we'll take a vote, and then we'll bring him back.
Sound good? Okay, is there public comment on item number 7? Item 7 is an adjustment to Police Accountability Board stipend cap.
Okay, anyone online? So online public commenters, this is only public comment on item number 7 related to the Police Accountability Board stipend cap.
Oh, we have one in person.
Oh sorry, one in person.
You want to start first? Go ahead, Thank You, Mayor and Council.
I appreciate the quick minute.
I want to support the Police Accountability Board, which the public of Berkeley, as you all know, unanimously almost passed it, and it's an improvement on the Police Review Commission, which formerly had little to no power.
So to be a truly, truly safe community, we have to have a well-regulated Police Department and there are some things that are on the calendar that I will speak to another consent item related to that.
But thank you for increasing their stipend as that work is very important.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, and on item 7, Cheryl Davila, former council member.
It's interesting that you would have a deficit and want to increase the stipend.
Can you take that money from the Police Department's budget? And also, when you're on at home or wherever your locations are, how come all these people, whatever, Rashi's not visible and Taplin didn't, or as I call him, aka the marionette, did not give the address where he's listed on the agenda, which is the comments to this consent item, please.
We're just talking about consent item number 7.
You know, you're not in control of my mouth, so just chill for a second.
I can say things if I want.
You're taking up my time and that's rude and disrespectful.
And it should be listed on the agenda, all the addresses of people that aren't.
And we have a commenter phone number ending in 538.
This is on item 7 on consent regarding stipends.
Okay, I just want to make my strong point that Burkle Police have always one of the best police department in the whole country, really, and in memory of my beautiful chief of police, the late Josh Butler.
Very quickly, we are watching one of the darkest age in American history, the worst history.
These people are destroying the country, the government, everything.
You can't just fire tens of thousands of federal employees.
This is unbelievable.
I am, I wish I was dead not to watch the horrible scene that Donald Trump had caused this country.
Thank you and all of us pray, all of us pray.
Again, the word semantic belongs to languages, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
Please learn anti-Semitism brought that misunderstanding of the word semantic brought Donald Trump in this country.
He destroyed the country.
He's a trojan horse for Russia, for Putin.
I am very sick of the whole thing.
I can't watch this.
Tens of thousands of employees getting fired every day.
Thank you and have a good day.
Thank you.
Okay, that's it for public comments on item 7.
Okay, Council Member Toplin, you have your hand raised.
Did you have a comment? Yeah, I just have a couple of questions.
I recognize that this is a charter office, however, we are facing a significant budget deficit and I'm wondering whether the city manager or the finance director could clarify how budget, like mid-year budget update asks are being handled this cycle.
It's been my understanding that each department presents its needs as part of the mid-year budget update and it's important to me personally that all the citywide budgetary needs and asks are considered through the same process as we are heading into the adoption of the fiscal year 27 budget, if someone can answer that.
Yes, I'm happy to.
Thank you, Council Member Toplin.
What you outlined is right, that the budget requests for moving forward into fiscal year 26 will be part of the approval of that budget, so between now and the end of June, all those requests, whether they came from council referrals or staff or whatever the charter officer is, will be outlined and considered by the council through that process.
Thank you very much.
That's really illuminating.
This is on the consent calendar, so I don't know if we have the time or capacity to really do a deep dive into the resolution text total, so I would like to make a motion that we refer this to the Budget and Finance Committee for consideration.
Council Member, I'm not seeing a second here.
Okay, well I will be voting no then, thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Other comments from council? Okay, let's take a vote on this item then.
So we need a motion on this specific item.
Second.
First and a second.
All right, thank you.
Okay, so this is to approve item seven, Police Accountability Board stipends.
Council Member Kastorwani.
Yes.
Taplin.
No.
Bartlett.
Yes.
Tragob.
Aye.
O'Keefe.
Yes.
Blackabay is recused.
Lunapara.
Yes.
Humbert.
Abstain.
And Mayor Ishii.
Yes.
Okay, motion carries.
Okay, thank you very much.
We can now bring Council Member Blackabay back and while we're doing that I think we should probably ask that folks come up for public comment on consent calendar.
Well, council discussion first.
Oh.
If anything gets moved on.
Thank you, yes.
Are there other, thank you for reminding me, are there other things that folks, other comments about moving items on consent? Oh, Council Member Taplin.
Hi, thank you very much.
On item, one second, item 15, this is the budget referral to expand after-school care.
I am adding Council Member Tragob to the item.
This is a strong need that was expressed to the 2-by-2 committee as well as by many community members, community members throughout the city.
On item 16, this is the budget referral to do repairs to the marina docks F and G.
I'm adding Council Member Humbert.
On these two in particular, I would like to say that these are critical city needs.
The docks are revenue generating and for those of you who don't know, the marina fund is an in-price fund and the solvency of the marina fund is tied both to marina waterfront office staffing positions as well as our state obligations to keep this fund solvent.
And that concludes my remarks.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member Tragob.
Oh, my numbering system is off here, just FYI, but Council Member Tragob.
Thank you so much, Madam Mayor.
I, first of all, wish to contribute $500 from my discretionary account to item 17, that is Berkeley Juneteenth Festival.
Through a prudent use of funds and thus we were under budget, I would like to amend my contribution on item 18, which is the relinquishment of Council Office Budget Funds to the Bay Area Robotics Education Sustainability Alliance for the 2025 Berkeley High Robotics Team East Bay Regional Robotics Competition.
So I would like to contribute $500 from my discretionary account and invite, oh, I am looking at this item and it says, so I would also like to amend the recommendation to approve the expenditure of an amount not to exceed $500 per member of the City Council rather than $250 and would invite any of my colleagues to join me in contributing up to $500 in that amount.
I would like to note that the team did really, really well and I think members of the team are here to speak to their accomplishments.
I believe that concludes my comments.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member.
Council Member O'Keefe.
It says four, so I didn't think I was next.
Sorry, but I'm happy to go.
Yeah, I know my numbering system's wrong, but okay.
Why don't you go and then I'll have Council Member Humphrey go.
Great, thank you.
Let's see, I had a couple things.
Caught me off guard.
I'll go in numerical order.
I just have a couple quick comments on things.
The Juneteenth, number 17, I would love to contribute $200 to that.
Worthy cause indeed.
I just want to give a shout out to the robotics team.
They're here and I want credit that I'm wearing my robotics t-shirt that I actually swore I would never wear.
So there you go.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys.
We're proud of the successful nerdiness of Berkeley High.
Gotta represent.
I would like to number, let's see, oh I skipped number 15.
I just want to thank Council Member Taplin for allowing me to co-sponsor the budget referral for the after-school program expansion.
That was actually a campaign promise of mine to try to get more funding to expand after-school programs and Council Member Taplin made it very easy.
So thank you very much.
It's an honor to be part of that.
And lastly, my item number 20, the letter in support of SB456, which is basically a letter in support of a proposed law fixing a very bad law saying that muralists have to have contractors licenses in the state of California because they are painting and that is very dumb.
So somebody in the assembly is trying to fix that and it's a letter of support and I would like to add Council Member Bartlett as a co-sponsor.
Where'd he go? Anyway, he asked me earlier, I promise.
Those are my comments.
Thank you.
Okay, Council Member Humbert.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
Let me look quickly through my agenda here.
I want to thank Council Member Taplin for adding me as a co-sponsor on the budget item for fixing the F&G dock down at the marina.
They are in great need of repair and we're hearing a lot of demand for that they be finished and made available for the public.
So I'm happy to be involved with that.
I'd like to contribute $500 on item number 17th to the Juneteenth Festival from my discretionary account.
It's a really, really exciting and fun event.
I went last year and the year before and I just had a huge amount of fun and it's such an important commemoration.
With respect to the robotics team and the spectacular nerdy accomplishments of that team, I'd like to commit $250 from my discretionary account.
Let's see, what else do I have here? And I think that's it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Humbert.
Council Member Blackaby.
Thank you.
A few quick comments and then one item that I request to move to action, which I'll do at the end.
Comment on item 12, which is the contract for paving.
I'll just note that as part of this contract, we'll be repaving part of Wildcat Canyon, Woodmont, Keeler, and Euclid in District 6, which are all street segments in great need of repair.
So very excited to see the funding for this and see this on the project plan for folks in my district.
I'd like to add on item 17, relinquish $250 towards the Juneteenth Festival and on item 18, relinquish $250 for the robotics team and look forward to hearing them tonight.
Proud to have authored and have the support of colleagues on item 21, which is a budget referral to provide legal defense and education funds for our immigrant community at risk of deportation.
I think it's really important, again, to as much as possible be able to provide real support in a tangible way for people who are being targeted by the Trump administration's illegal actions.
On item 23, just draw my colleagues' attention and again thank colleagues for supporting.
It's a resolution to the legislature about automated speed cameras.
There's currently a pilot.
You have to be a member of the pilot to be able to use speed cameras and given some of the challenges we've been facing about traffic safety and limits on enforcement, still felt like a good way to try and improve enforcement in a more automated way without the need for additional staff.
So we've asked to be added to that pilot as part of this resolution.
Item 25, if Council Member Lunapara will have me, I'd like to add myself as a co-sponsor to the Bay Area Public Transit resolution.
We have one more spot.
Oh great, thank you.
And as regarding the urgent item we did add to the agenda, it's been added to the consent calendar.
So just to comment on it briefly, the author of this bill would basically make state income tax credits available to homeowners who do home hardening in the amount of $400 per taxable year up to a total of $2,000.
So as long as again you're doing home hardening, you get reimbursed for that work as part of state income tax.
A big part of the discussion on EMBR has been how do we finance and provide support.
This is one of the mechanisms that we are hoping, again it's pending the legislature's actions, but if we could lend our support to it, I think it's important and would be an important component of the financing that we're looking at.
So would appreciate support on that item.
The last thing then, my request on item 22, which is the ADA expertise for safe streets, only for the purpose of making a brief amendment to clarify the language, I'm asking support from a couple colleagues to move that to action.
It should be a quick item, but we just had a couple of wording changes that we needed to make subsequent to submitting the item.
So I'd like to move that to the action calendar for amendment.
Council Member Tragobart, is this to the Council Member Blackabay's item? It is.
Sorry, was that a second? I think we need three, right? So Igor and Mark.
It'll be fast.
I'm sorry, and that was item number 22? 22, the ADA.
Okay, okay.
That's it.
Thank you.
All right, thank you.
I'm so sorry folks, I did not realize that we had so many comments this evening.
So if you feel that you need to sit, please feel free.
I'm sure someone would hold your spot.
Okay, we're going to move on to Council Member Lunapara.
Thank you.
I'm going to move on to add, I'd like to give $250 to the Juneteenth Festival, item 17, and $250 to the robotics competition as well, item 18.
I'd also like to add Council Members Tragob and Humber as well as Blackabay to item 25, which is a resolution supporting funding for Bay Area public transit.
And then finally for the Street Spirit budget referral, I'd like to add Council Member Tragob as a co-sponsor as well and make a quick comment about it.
Street Spirit has served our community for 30 years with the creative approach to supporting our unhoused neighbors.
And in 2023, Street Spirit lost its funding.
I want to share a quote from Street Spirit that I believe represents why this organization is crucial to fund.
Street newspapers are a quiet catalyst for connection in our hectic ever-changing cityscapes, and the vendors, the core of the street news operation, each bring different lived experiences to the task of engaging with strangers, making conversation, and forging lasting relationships that begging begging on the streets and sidewalks.
Thank you.
If you'll notice, we've set ourselves at five minutes for our comments, so just so folks know.
Mayor, may I jump in really fast? Yes.
May I request to be, Council Member Lunapara, may I be a co-sponsor of the Street Spirit one? Yeah, thank you so much.
I love the Street Spirit.
I buy it and I read it.
I mean, I think some people buy it just to be nice, but you should read it.
There's good stuff in there.
So yeah, good item.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member Casarwani.
Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.
I'd like to be recorded as donating a hundred dollars to the Juneteenth Festival and a hundred dollars to the Bay Area Robotics Education Sustainability Alliance for their 2025 event.
And Council Member Lunapara, I don't know if you had any more space on the item supporting the public transit.
It's full, unfortunately.
Oh, okay.
Well, I just want to express my desire to co-sponsor that item if there were, if there had been space.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Council Member Bartlett.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
I'd like to thank everyone for contributing to Item 17, the Juneteenth Festival.
We've got a big one this year.
It's going to be a big one.
Last year was the biggest so far, and as you heard earlier, this festival is the longest running Juneteenth Freedom Festival on this side of Mississippi in America.
And it's a federal holiday now, so it's a big deal.
If you believe in freedom, come on down.
Because we're, O'Keefe, I want to thank you so much for letting me join your item number 20, very important.
We believe in murals and their amazing work.
They don't need to be contractors to paint a wall.
Yep, let's cut through some red tape.
And to the robotics team, you're here, right? I want to make sure you know that I'm giving you $250 from my office account for you and the program.
Very proud of you.
You know, we African-Americans are early adopters of technology.
We were the first to use remote controls, Twitter, pagers, cell phones, everything.
And that's because it was the cotton gin that got us off the fields.
So we love technology, and so I look forward to your work as you get deeper in this field to free all of us from the sin of toil.
Thank you.
Okay, Council Member Toplin, did you have another comment? Yes, thank you.
I was going to ask Council Member Bartlett if I may join item 17 as a co-sponsor.
I'd be honored, sir.
Thank you very much, and I would like to be recorded as contributing $250 for my D13.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
I'd also like to be added as a co-sponsor, if that's okay.
I'd be honored, Madam Mayor.
Thank you.
I have been a resident of D3 for 14-ish years and live very close to the Juneteenth, so I'm there pretty much every year.
I'd also like to contribute $500 to the Juneteenth item from our budget, as well as increase our budget to the robotics item to $500.
Thank you, Council Member Trago for including us in that item, and then also to ask if I can add myself to, I don't know if there's space anymore, 20, 22, and the urgent item.
Let me look on the urgent item, because it's an urgent item.
We've got four.
Okay, so no, thank you.
Yeah, 20.
Council Member O'Keefe, do you have room still? On your mural item? Oh, who wants to? Depends who.
On your mural, can I? Yes, okay, you're allowed.
Yes, I'd be honored.
Okay, thank you, and also, Council Member Black, it'd be the ADA.
ADA, absolutely, would be honored to have you.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you all so much.
Okay, and then the other thing I want to make sure that we do is just to kind of set expectations there are budget requests items 15, 16, 21, and 24, and all very worthy causes.
It's a lot of money that we're requesting this evening, so just want to set expectations for folks since we are in a deficit, but just, you know, I am very supportive of all these things that we're trying to support here and do here, and so, yeah, if we can find the funding, absolutely.
I'm very supportive.
So, I think now, has everyone spoken? Okay, I'm going to close Council Comments, then open public comment, and invite our first speaker here to come up to the podium.
Thank you all so much, and thanks for your patience.
Oh, so you will have one minute to speak for everyone, and okay, unless someone cedes a minute to you, oh, two, three, okay, and you can have up to four minutes total.
So, you have four minutes.
Thank you so much.
She's not ceding her, Moni's going to hold on to her minute.
You still have, you still have four.
Okay.
Greetings, Honorable Mayor Dean Ishii, Vice Mayor Ben Bartlett, Council Members, and citizens of Berkeley.
Thank you all for supporting the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival over the years, financially and with community resources, starting back in the day when Council Member Mary Wainwright and Madeleine Sharique helped us obtain city sponsorship of the festival.
My name is Dolores Nochi Cooper, and I am the Executive Manager of the non-profit Berkeley Juneteenth Association, Inc., an almost 40-year-old organization whose primary goal is celebrating freedom and the African-American experience.
Beloved Berkeley community, we are the sons and daughters of the great migration.
They came to Berkeley in the 40s and 50s, escaping the harshness of the Jim Crow South, seeking a better future for their families and jobs.
But they were not welcomed by Berkeley with open arms.
Property covenants were in place in the 50s that restricted ownership by people of color in certain geographical areas, that line being any property east of Martin Luther King.
Black folks inherited South Berkeley housing after the Japanese community was sent to concentration camps during WWII.
They thrived and survived and built a strong community that swelled to more than 29 percent in the 60s and 70s.
Then in the 80s, the crack epidemic came, devastating businesses and property owners from which they never really recovered.
In that climate of drug devastation, Juneteenth in Berkeley was born to promote community pride and bring South Berkeley businesses and residents together in the celebration of a major African-American cultural event, culminating in the first annual in 1987.
While our population in Berkeley has dwindled, the Berkeley Juneteenth celebration in the South Berkeley business community has survived.
The Juneteenth Festival on Father's Day in Berkeley is a Berkeley tradition, a family reunion for present and displaced Berkeley Black families, a time to celebrate the African-American experience and the contributions we have made to the fabric of this community, and simply a time to celebrate freedom.
Okay, I gotta skip to the bottom.
On Friday, May 9th until Monday, June the 23rd, the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival flags, red, black, and green, will be installed extending the entire festival corridor from Alcatraz and Adeline north to Essex Street, symbolizing freedom and commemorating the hard-fought battle in America for equal rights.
When you drive down Adeline, see those flags.
Allow them to become a visual visual reminder of the precious gift of freedom.
Lest we forget, be reminded what freedoms we do enjoy is because of those who came before us, who paved the way.
There's so much our history has yet to be made.
Be reminded by those flags that the quest for freedom goes on.
The fight for freedom and equality is continuance.
See you on June 15th, 2025 from 11 to 7 p.m.
on Sunday.
Location, Adeline at Alcatraz.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, good timing.
That was great.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you all so much.
Yeah, you can pass it there.
Thank you.
I was told to show off my t-shirt.
Oh yes, I noticed that when you were there.
Juneteenth.
Very good.
And my hat.
So in support of Juneteenth, yes, I definitely second all the comments made by Ms.
Dolores and that I was born in Alabama in 1960 in a segregated maternity ward.
My family was denied every opportunity, every constitutional right when we traveled from California to the South where we moved when I was young.
So I definitely appreciate the continued operation of Juneteenth despite what certain leaders in certain parts of this country find somehow abhorrent and unacceptable such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I also want to support number 19, which I understand by matter of policy perhaps.
As a former council member Kate Harrison who proposed a resolution opposing police brutality and the use of force on non-violent protesters, I would think that would be a no-brainer.
But the recommendation to adopt a resolution reaffirming the city of Berkeley's opposition condemning police brutality is being given a negative recommendation.
Sorry, your time is up.
I was hit by brutal weapons.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Segment 3

I'm Marjorie Alvord.
I'm part of 350 Bay Area, the Berkeley Hub, and I take transit.
I'm here in support of item 25, the resolution supporting state and regional funding for Bay Area public transportation.
Thank you to Councilmember Lunaparra, along with Councilmembers Humbert, Tregub, and Blackaby for bringing this forward.
And thanks to all of you for your support of the resolution.
You know, we're in a climate crisis.
Transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
We can't meet our climate goals without funds to maintain and improve transit services.
We can't meet our Vision Zero goals without funds to improve and maintain transit services and so forth.
So please do support item number 25.
Thank you very much.
And thank you for your service to Berkeley.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Henry.
Good evening, Councilmembers.
Henry Simons from BART's Government and Community Relations Department.
I'm here tonight to thank Councilmember Lunaparra and so many of you for Council consent item 25 to support Senator Arreguin's budget request for $2 billion to support public transit operations.
Work from home has hit transit agencies in the Bay Area and Southern California hard.
Our revenue is less than half of what it was projected to be before the pandemic, due to an outdated funding model that relied on riders to pay for the majority of our operations.
We're doing what we can to control costs.
We have one of the lowest costs per passenger mile, but we still face a $379 million deficit in fiscal year 27.
And bridge funding is essential to keep transit moving as we look to long term solutions.
We're doing everything we can to run great service.
Just a couple of highlights.
We've installed new fare gates at 29 stations, including downtown Berkeley.
We've reduced crime by 17% from 23 to 24, and we're running all new trains and can't wait to see you on BART soon.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, Mary, she's city council members.
I mean, I said about this executive director of the multicultural Institute, and I'm here in support of budget referral item number 21 at a time when federal immigration policies continue to leave many of our community members vulnerable and without access to basic protections local support becomes not only necessary, but life changing legal service providers are stretched thin and our communities needs are only growing every day.
Their exposure to ice misinformation and to unjust proceedings do not stop just because wait lists are long.
I want to thank council member black could be council member Luna para council member trigger and mayor for supporting and co sponsoring this budget referral request your acknowledgement of the urgent times we're living in and of the work we all provide for our immigrant community is deeply appreciated if this passes and I urge you all to please let it pass the next phase of budget referral.
I urge the entire city council to please support this and keep in mind the need for these services.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And you're reminding me that I meant to make a quick comment on I'm twenty one, which was that I'm going to give a hundred thousand dollars from our budget to go to this item specifically my my budget.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Yeah, a hundred thousand to go towards it, because I know that we're in a budget crisis.
So that was something I meant to say earlier.
And thank you.
Thank you.
Like we say in Spanish.
And similarly, again, recognizing that the city is facing a budget crunch.
We also have some funds in our office budget, and we're going to add twenty five thousand from our office as well, just to make sure that we can even as it goes through the referral process.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah.
And certainly we welcome any of our colleagues who want to give a future time or whatever, just in recognition of our budget crisis.
So thank you.
Please.
Thank you.
Oh, all right.
You've got three.
Hey, everyone, thank you so much for having us.
I just want to thank council member Lunapara for sponsoring this item and council member O'Keeffe.
I agree.
There's a lot of good stuff in there.
Everyone should read spirit and council member for co-signing as well.
Thank you all very much.
I'm Alastair Boone.
I'm the director of street spirit, the grassroots newspaper that many of you, I'm sure has seen.
It's sold on the streets of Berkeley by unhoused people who are looking for a flexible way to earn money and build healthy social relationships.
And I'm here to speak in support of consent item number twenty four street spirit turned thirty last month.
That is thirty years of supporting unhoused people of residents of the East Bay who are looking for a soft place to land and get back on their feet after being knocked down by the relentless challenges of homelessness.
But we almost didn't meet this milestone because as council member Lunapara said in the summer of the summer of twenty, twenty three, our former publisher had to pull all funding from the paper overnight.
I was working as the editor at the time and decided to try my hand at fundraising to keep the paper alive.
And thank you to the generous philanthropy and our community, because I was able to do this in just six months and have been able to continue fundraising to keep the paper alive since.
But I stand here today, two years later, asking for funds from the city of Berkeley, the city that has been our home for decades and in which we provide the greatest amount of assistance to unhoused people.
The funding we were we are requesting will go strictly to supporting our vendors and our drop in center and not to the newspaper itself or to any of our editorial operations.
Over the last two years, our drop in space in South Berkeley has become a critical hub for unhoused folks.
We provide resources like water, snacks, clothing, hygiene, supplies and more to anyone who needs it each week from Monday to Thursday.
This is also where a street spirit vendors come to attend trainings, workshops, eat hot meals, use the bathroom and simply sit down and relax in a calm and healthy environment.
Street spirit has a number of amazing donors and we have also received a handful of grants, but funding for service providers for organizations that provide direct material aid to those in need seems to come largely from cities and other government agencies.
This one time gift from the city of Berkeley would allow us to continue providing essential services to unhoused people while allowing to us the time to strengthen our base of philanthropic support.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Council members, I want to say thank you for your support in consent item number 24.
So, hi, my name is Bradley.
I am the editor in chief of street spirit.
I have been a resident of district 1 for 16 years, but my relationship to street spirit actually happened a year before that in 2008 when I arrived in Southside.
Berkeley is a transient youth.
I came here as a homeless individual.
By day, I played my guitar and sold papers for spare change outside of Intermezzo and then would unroll my bedroll just above the Clark campus every night.
And as some of you know, like my former colleagues, Mayor Ishii and Council Member Taplin, who I worked with at Berkeley City College in the writing lab about a decade ago, I was lucky enough to secure housing within a year of my arrival and begin a decade long pursuit of higher education, specifically in English and writing.
I received an MFA in poetry before following a path into civic discourse, and I feel both honored and privileged to be carrying the torch of street spirit's legacy with those learned sensibilities, compassion, and curiosity that guided my development as a young student writer.
Alistair and I have dedicated the past two years to the preservation and expansion of this legacy, which has been no easy feat, especially now that we're totally independent.
Our office, as Alistair said on MLK, has been an anchor point throughout this journey, supporting vendors in the broader community with material resources, workforce development opportunities, and sometimes simply just a shoulder to lean on is so important.
And we take great pride in our work.
My role as street spirit has totally been full circle from wayward youth editor-in-chief.
And I think back to the drop-in centers in District 7 that supported me when I was a young person on the streets of Berkeley, you know, access to food and clothing and care made my story possible.
Street spirit's vendor program kept the much needed change that I needed in my pocket as I worked towards finding housing in District 1, which I still live in to this day.
And we hope to continue providing the same opportunities to Berkeley's unhoused community for years to come.
So we appreciate your consideration for this item.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your story, too.
Good evening.
My name's Amanda Lassick, and I'm here to support, for strong support, for item number 21, the Deportation Defense Legal Fund.
So, first of all, thank you, Mayor Ishii and Council Member Blackbee for your support.
I just want to, I came because I'm really concerned about my neighbors and my community and the fear that I'm feeling in the air from the Trump administration.
And I wanted to say East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and their partners are doing tremendous work that is really needed right now.
The know your rights trainings, the defense services or legal defense services are so incredibly important.
So just wanted to say how important that is and thank you for your consideration.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Tom Yamaguchi, resident of District 2, and my pronouns are he and him.
I actually came to speak on both 22 and 25, since 22 has been moved to the action calendar.
I'll come back then.
So I just wanted to speak to item 25, which I'm strongly supporting.
It's been mentioned earlier.
We are in a climate crisis.
Our public transit agencies are in desperate need of funding.
I find my Cedric Lippert card got really a very life saving situation because of the rising costs of food and transport and utilities.
People who rely on our taxi script got this letter earlier this month of severe cuts to that service.
So they're even going to be more dependent on our regular schedule of public transit, affordable transportation to get them the medical appointments as well.
So thank you for supporting that.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Okay, robotics team, welcome.
Um, I'm assuming they all want to see their time.
Okay, you've got four minutes then.
Thank you.
So, uh, greeting city council.
And so today we're here to speak about item 18.
And as you might know, we're representatives of a robotics team.
So I'm Jules Joes.
I'm the business lead.
And here are three of our students.
And we also have one of our mentors here, Sarah Ho.
And so we really wanted to come here today to thank all of our amazing city leaders, particularly Mayor Ishii and council members, Tregub and O'Keefe, who attended the second ever East Bay Regional First Robotics Competition, which to offer a little context is the largest robotics competition um for high schools in all of California.
And it's hosted right here at Berkeley High School.
And so we had over 50 teams participate with some even coming from Australia, Turkey and Hawaii.
And so we were very proud overall of hosting this event.
And so in addition to those previously stated, we also wanted to thank council member Kaplan for co-sponsoring this resolution.
And his support of our team.
And we wanted to thank all of our city council members for donating some of their money from their discretionary funds to our robotics team.
So thank you so much.
And so just to clarify, the money will go towards funding our initiatives to provide STEM opportunities to the hundreds of children throughout all levels of Berkeley Unified, including all middle schools and Berkeley High School.
And we were going to have an anecdote from one of our seniors, but he had to leave a little early.
And so that's about it.
So once again, we want to thank you all for donating to our team with the use of your discretionary funds.
And I'd like to cede my time to the chair or to the council.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'll always receive an extra two minutes back.
So thank you very much.
I think council member O'Keefe is briefly going to come take a picture.
But I will take the next public comment on consent items.
I think you're still on now.
Good evening, council members.
My name is Zoe Polk.
I'm at the East Bay Community Law Center.
I've proudly served as executive director.
I'm very grateful to be before this council in support of item 21, which is a very important allocation for deportation defense.
UBCLC has been in this community in the city of Berkeley for 35 plus years.
We're very grateful for the leadership this council has shown, particularly the mayor.
And thank you, Council Member Blackview, for supporting deportation defense.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you the amount of fear that clients who are undocumented feel, people who are family members of undocumented people feel right now.
It's so important to have legal support and people who know how to navigate systems in our very own city.
An institution like ours, which has 35 plus years of credibility, really needs continued support of the city of Berkeley.
And we're really grateful to you for considering this item and hope that you will strongly consider putting the full support for the council by this line item.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
On item 17, we need these type of events such as Juneteenth more than ever, given our current federal situation.
On item 26, thank you for recognizing the importance of health among lower incomes persons.
And on item 21, also extremely critical because we need to always go beyond ideology.
It's easy to say that we're a sanctuary city.
It's easy to say that we're against the current Trump administration's tactics.
But it's important to follow that with pragmatism.
And we need to do everything pragmatically.
This is extremely important item.
Pleased to see the council members making contributions for their accounts.
And we also do need to look towards the state and the county and any other funding that we can use for this purpose, given our current budget deficit.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Come on up.
Hi, everyone.
Can you hear me all right? Yes.
There's quite a lot to discuss tonight.
I'll try to keep brief on each thing.
Item 17, Juneteenth, obviously in support of that.
And I'm looking forward to, you know, enjoying the celebration.
Item 19, in a similar spirit, opposition to police brutality.
I'm glad we're taking that up and, you know, taking a stand against non-violent or what, is that how they're referred to non-violent forms of protest suppression? Oh, I need to go quicker.
Item 20, muralist exemption.
Glad to see that up there.
That a person who's doing a mural shouldn't have to go for four years to school in order in order to be able to do the art they want to do.
Item 21, real quick.
21, 24, in support.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Moving to online speakers.
Currently, so now is the time if you're on the Zoom and you wish to give public comment on a item that is on consent.
And just noting that item 22 regarding the Safe Street Citizen Oversight Committee that is no longer on consent, that is on action.
So this is public comment on consent calendar items.
So first speaker on Zoom is Cheryl Davila, former council member.
So Juneteenth, I understand was moved not going to be at Alcatraz and Adeline.
I hope that's not true because it seemed a little disrespectful, discriminatory.
But Dolores didn't say that.
But I did get an email stating that the city was going to move the site to only the concrete part without trees, which is totally wrong.
And good that you're supporting street spirit.
And let's see.
It's interesting that you have $25,000 and $100,000 out of your accounts.
And when I was on council, there was no such money like that.
So I don't know where that comes from.
Interesting.
I would like a little bit more transparency on that.
And actually the address of where all y'all are sitting that aren't on.
Your time is up.
Thank you.
And just to clarify, it's not a D13 item.
So I'm giving up one of my staff positions to do that.
So just so folks know.
And we invite folks to join us, but I don't want to put you on the spot.
And then also we are not moving Juneteenth.
So just to clarify that as well.
Go ahead.
Next is Ryan Lau.
Good evening, mayor and council.
My name is Ryan Lau, external affairs representative at AC Transit here to speak about item 25, supporting state and regional funding for Bay Area public transit.
First, I'd like to thank the council for support.
The council member for authoring this item, as well as the co-sponsors Tregub, Humbert, and Blackabee, and Keserwani for the attempt.
As you're probably aware, public transit in the Bay Area is facing a significant financial challenge in the next coming years.
AC Transit, in particular, is projecting a deficit of an average of $60 million per year in its 4-year look ahead.
In the coming fiscal years, we are expected to deplete our reserves if there's no additional funding, even though we've already taken some additional significant steps toward reducing costs and growing revenues where possible.
So we're really in a pivotal point for Bay Area transit agencies, and we really appreciate the municipal partners' support.
Thanks.
Thanks for your comment.
Next is Kit Saganor.
Thank you very much.
I have an additional minute from Kelly Hammergren.
You can put that on the clock for me.
Thank you so much.
I don't see it yet.
I'm going to wait until you've got that minute up.
Kelly, are you there? Yes, Kit.
Can you hear me? I can hear you, Kit, but..
Yes, I'm here, and I'm giving her my minute.
Okay.
Thanks, Kelly.
I will note that a prior speaker thought that the item 19 was on consent because you were approving it and does not understand that it's on consent because you are not approving it.
I really don't understand why you were not approving it.
It's very odd that City Council is not opposed to police brutality or use of force against nonviolent protesters.
The Berkeley Police Department has been doing an amazing job at the protests and demonstrations that have happened.
This is wonderful.
I'm really disappointed that you are not supporting them in their policies of really protecting the opportunity for people to assemble peaceably in public.
There are some other options.
I understand that the Council member has left, but somebody else, my understanding is, another Council member could take over authorship in order to get this passed, could change some of the wording, since I think you're not quite happy with the wording.
And, of course, this was put forward more than a year ago, and things have changed.
And one of the things that has changed is there now are lots and lots of protests happening, and there will be, and the pace and the anxiety level and the stress at these protests will be going up.
Pretty much, I expect any day now we'll be seeing ICE coming into Berkeley with police on their jackets, but they're not really Berkeley police, but they go around calling themselves police, and who knows how they're going to interact with people.
So it's very weird, honestly, that Berkeley is not taking a stand opposed to police brutality and force against nonviolent protesters.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kit.
I see that Council member Taplin and Traigub have their hands raised.
Is this about something right now? No, this is for after.
Okay.
And same with you, Council member Traigub.
Thanks for me.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
Just trying to keep track of the hands.
All right, who's next? Next is Abby Turiansky.
Hi, everyone.
Thank you for letting me speak.
I'm speaking in favor of item 15, funding for aftercare programs.
I'm speaking as one of many, many, many families in Berkeley who've been struggling to find reliable aftercare for our kids.
Year after year, programs are full.
They're inequitably distributed across the city.
And I think it's the city's job to try and fill the gap that's left by this district run program that is just not able to meet the need.
So as I'm sure you know, the lack of child care just makes it impossible for parents to work, which we need to do to afford to live in this expensive city.
The uncertainty is really hard on our kids.
And of course, this issue is disproportionately affecting women.
And so I also just want to say, I think this budget addition is a really great start, but it's also just not enough.
A hundred extra spots is nowhere close to what's needed.
And so I also want you to consider other ways that we could add more spaces.
And one way, and I'm speaking against my own self-interest as a current city program participant would be, you could increase the cost.
It's so cheap.
And we love that.
However, a little, you could raise the cost a little bit and open more spots.
I think a lot of parents would really appreciate that.
Your time is up.
Thank you for your public comment.
Next is Namita.
Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.
Okay, wonderful.
Hi, thank you for having me tonight.
I'm actually following Abby in support of exactly the same item.
I am also a parent with a child in BUSD, and we were new to BUSD this year.
And I had heard that it was difficult to get into aftercare, but I was woefully unprepared for exactly how impossible it was.
I got on every program wait list at every BUSD school, every city program, a number of private programs, and I did not get in.
Exactly as Abby stated, I love that you're considering funding for more spots, but we need more than that.
It is not nearly adequate for the amount of kids who need aftercare.
And, you know, aftercare is needed, particularly in dual parent households.
And so to her point, if additional funding, particularly at the top end of the sliding scale fee structure would help open up spots.
I'm another case in point.
I know many other families at the higher end of the earning spectrum who would be happy to pay more in order to get an aftercare spot.
Your time is up.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Just curious, Mark, can they see the boardroom? Because I can only see the two council members.
The boardroom camera is on.
Not sure why it doesn't show.
I just want to make sure because it makes it harder for folks to see when the clock is counting down.
It was showing.
Yeah.
We'll check on that.
Thank you.
I can use my app.
And then I know we've got a few folks next.
Do you mind if we do what we did the other night and list three people or so just to give people a heads up? Yes.
So the next three speakers are Jerry's iPad, Marissa Almore, and phone number ending in 538.
So first up is Jerry's iPad.
Good evening.
My name is Jesse Sheehan.
I'd like to ask a question about it's a it is about a referral for 150,000 from Mr.
Humbert designating a median as a park.
And it says it was going to study other medians in the area that may become parks as well.
I was wondering if the Dwight Triangle that Chuck Eric Peace and Freedom Park would be one of those options.
District seven's in real need of a park immediately in our neighborhood seems to agree that we would like a park maybe that 150,000 could be moves directly to that project this year.
I just ask you to consider it.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And Marissa.
Hi, yes.
Thank you so much for allowing me to speak today.
I'm here to give my comment in support of item number 21.
My name is Marissa Almore, and I'm a community organizer with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.
Each year we serve over 12,000 immigrants with vital legal and social services.
And we see firsthand how our immigrant community makes Berkeley the culturally diverse and beautiful city that it is.
So for years, the demand for legal services has outpaced available resources.
The return of the Trump administration has brought renewed and serious threats to immigrant communities as well as increased fear, confusion, and uncertainty.
The model that has seen the most success across the nation is three pronged.
One, we like to educate community members with know your rights information.
We also prepare families with emergency preparedness plans.
And we defend immigrants with emergency legal consultations and removal defense representation.
Thank you so much for your comment.
Okay, next is caller ending in 538.
And just so folks know, we've got about seven online hands left.
Hello? Yes, go ahead.
Yeah, let's talk about consent item 21.
You know, immigrants of this country, let's not forget that.
During his administration, 1.5 million Americans died from COVID-19 because of Trump.
I'm sorry, I'm not sure you speak.
Yeah, one second, very quickly.
A consent item? Okay.
Yeah, 21, 21 immigrants.
Yeah.
So what what both people at the CEO of created the vaccine, one was Greek American, and one was Lebanese American, Pfizer, and Moderna.
Second thing, what you're watching right now is a total fascism.
And we have to do our best to end it.
You know, this is very, very dark ages.
Also, immigrants in this country are not going to function.
And maybe this is the whole aim.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sorry for interrupting your call.
Next three speakers are Hansel Aguilar, Rebecca Mirvish, and phone number ending in 946.
So first up is Hansel Aguilar, Director of Police Accountability.
Good evening, Mayor and Council Members.
My name is Hansel Aguilar, Director of Police Accountability.
I want to thank Council by keeping item seven on the consent agenda and for your continued support of our work.
I like to clarify the discussion around it.
It has already gone through the budget process, and it was approved by City Council as part of the AO process in November 19, 2024, as we noted in the staff report.
So this was just a procedural next step to utilize already encumbered funds, which were not new funds, but rather salary savings.
And I also just want to highlight the dedication of our board members.
There's a subcommittee meeting going taking place tonight.
There's two other subcommittee meetings, so there's a lot of work being done here.
We have seven out of nine members.
One is on three-month leave.

Segment 4

And we have requested a temporary appointment, so we are also mindful of the city's financial situation and remain committed to being fiscally responsible.
Appreciate your support.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Rebecca Mirvish.
Hi, I just want to thank Councilmember Lunaparra and all the co-sponsors for item number 25.
Public transit is the lifeblood of the Bay Area, and so we need to keep it moving.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And a caller with a phone number ending in 946.
Press star 6 to unmute.
There you go.
Hi, my name is Leah Bushman.
I am a resident in Berkeley, and I'm about to enter the BUSD school district with my son going to TK-1000 Oaks, and I just wanted to echo the two other callers who called in about referendum item number 15 regarding access to afterschool care in the city of Berkeley.
It is incredibly concerning as a household with two working parents to not be able to have access to aftercare and have your son get out of school at 115 and not have anywhere for him to go is just not feasible.
I have heard from an unreasonable number of people who have had problems having to pick up their child in the middle of the day and take them to some other place for aftercare as kind of a side alternative that is really not something that most parents can do with their work situation, and so being able to have more slots available would be incredibly beneficial, and I would also agree with the other two parents that if raising the cost a small amount in order to increase access would help, then I would also be willing to do that.
Thank you.
Next we have two speakers remaining, Abigail and Brian.
First is Abigail Esquivias.
Hi, good evening everyone.
My name is Abigail Esquivias.
I am with Social Justice Collaborative.
We provide immigration, legal, and social services to low-income immigrants.
I'm speaking in support of item 21, recent cuts to federal funding combined with the fear, anxiety, legal threats this administration has fueled mean that organization like ours and the partners that are here today and have spoken before me are facing a level of need that we can't meet without additional support.
This funding matters not just because it fills critical gaps but also because it tells our neighbors that the city sees what's happening and will provide support.
Thank you so much to those of you who have already committed funding to this item.
It matters to the folks doing this work and it matters to the people we serve.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, last speaker is Brian Rawson.
Thank you very much.
My name is Brian Rawson and I'm here to speak on item 21, legal and education funds for the rights of our of our immigrant neighbors.
So while I am with an organization that works on global issues called Action Corps, I'm really just speaking as a member of the Berkeley community.
My family moved here in the 1950s and I feel incredibly strongly that our immigrant neighbors and the rights of all people in Berkeley need to be supported in the face of federal attacks.
So I thank you for the funding that's already been pledged today and I want to just underscore just how important it is to provide those legal defenses.
I've started to attend workshops as a resident to help train and support, know your rights trainings and whatnot.
I feel we all need to do everything that we can to support our neighbors.
Thank you.
That's it.
Okay.
I would like to add myself also I just realized there's another spot still to item oh gosh sorry the street spirit item if that's okay with you.
Council Member Lunapara.
Thank you.
Yes, thank you.
Okay and then Council Member Taplin.
Yes, thank you Madam Mayor.
Thank you to each of the speakers.
I would like to move it off from the consent calendar as amended.
And Council Member Trachov, did you have a second? Yes, I will second that motion.
I will however request to be recorded as abstaining on item 19.
Thank you.
Okay.
Council Member Lunapara.
Thank you.
I would also like to abstain on item 19.
Okay.
All right.
Yes.
Council Member.
Yeah can we just clarify regarding item 19 are we are voting to take no action? What is the there's a recommendation but what is the if this is passed what what's the outcome? Yes, that's right.
No action.
Is that right? Correct.
Yes.
Thank you.
Okay.
Okay.
So to adopt the consent.
My apologies.
I would just like to thank the Public Safety Policy Committee for their careful deliberation and their recommendation on this item.
Thank you.
Or item 19 rather.
Thank you.
Okay.
On to approve the consent calendar.
Council Member Kisarwani.
Yes.
Taplin.
Yes.
Bartlett.
Yes.
Trigub.
Aye.
O'Keefe.
Yes.
Blackaby.
Yes.
Lunapara.
Yes.
Humbert.
Yes.
And Mayor Ishii.
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you all.
Okay.
Thanks everyone who spoke on consent and for folks who came here in person.
I think we should now take a break.
So let's give we're going to take a 15-minute break and then when we come back we have two action items.
Both are sorry.
Three.
Well technically three.
Yes.
Yes.
And they are public hearings so we will return.
And item 22 was moved to action.
Thank you.
And I thank you.
Thanks Mark.
What would I do without you? All right.
So there are four items on the action calendar and we will return to those after this 15-minute break.
Thanks everyone.
Recording stopped.
Being technically correct is the best kind of thing.
I thought everyone agrees but I thought you might agree.
Yes.
Especially when it could mean that it means more than just being correct.
Yes Scott.
I don't know.
So sorry we're waiting on.
Actually Council Member Taplin are you there? Because that will allow us to have quorum I think.
Sure.
Sure.
Understandable.
Oh thank you Council Member Taplin.
Council Member Trakov are you here? Okay hopefully Council Member Trakov will join us soon.
Some of our colleagues are recording in progress.
Are we unmuted? I just want to make sure also that the captioner can hear.
I reassigned.
The captioner is captioning what you're saying.
Okay perfect.
Sounds good.
Okay so we are going to the action calendar and we are going to start with item 28.
So that oh actually before that I'm going to go to the City Manager.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
For item 30 the zoning ordinance and general plan amendments for middle housing that item has been removed.
I'm requesting that it be removed.
We have sent notices out to the public that we will be rescheduling that item but I just want to formally remove it from this agenda.
Thank you City Manager.
All right so that moves us down to three.
Okay so we're gonna start with item number 28 please and we have a presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you Mayor Ishii and members of City Council.
My name is Scott Gilman.
I'm the Director of Health, Housing and Community Services.
Tonight our staff are here to present the five-year consolidated plan report that is submitted to the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development better known as HUD for the city's annual allocation of community development block grant funds, emergency solutions grant, and home investment partnership program funds.
I have the pleasure of introducing Margo Ernst who's our Division Manager.
We have also with us tonight to her left is Kat Leroux and also Rhianna Babcock all from the Housing and Community Services Division.
They're going to provide you with a very brief presentation and then we'll be available for questions.
We're getting the presentation shared on the Zoom but thank you Scott for that introduction.
Good evening Mayor Ishii and City Council.
I am Kat Leroux and in my role at HCS I oversee and monitor compliance.
Can I ask that you move the mic a bit closer? Thank you.
This better? Great.
So yes my name is Kat Leroux and I oversee and monitor compliance for the Housing and Community Services Division with the support from Rhianna and we are here tonight as Scott said to present the consolidated plan for the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD funds.
This presentation will include a background of HUD requirements, the consolidated plan process including public participation, and provides a brief overview of the main goals for the next five years.
The full draft of the consolidated plan is in your agenda packet tonight as well as on the City of Berkeley website.
The City of Berkeley is an entitlement jurisdiction meaning that the City receives a formula allocation of Community Development Block Grant, CDBG, Emergency Solutions, ESG, and Home Investment Partnership or HOME funds from HUD each year.
As a requirement of receiving the funds the City must submit several reports and include public participation throughout every process.
Every five years we develop and submit a consolidated plan laying out the projects, activities, and outcome goals for the funds.
Each year of those five years we also submit what's called an annual action plan on how we intend to meet those goals within a one-year period of that five years.
The consolidated plan covers fiscal year 2026 to 2030 and includes the first year's annual action plan for FY26.
The plan was presented to the Housing Advisory Commission or the HAC twice earlier this year and provided their comments and feedback and the HAC voted to recommend that Council approve the plan during their February meeting.
The official public comment period opened on March 14th and will close tonight at 11 59 p.m.
The final report is due to HUD on or around mid-May after the allocation information is released.
The consolidated plan has three main parts and six key sections.
The first section includes an introduction to the plan and highlights key points as well as summarizes the public participation process and comments that are received.
The next two sections provide critical data points to help inform the baseline for the community, excuse me, the next two sections provide critical data points that help form the baseline for the community needs and determine which programs would best address those.
The majority of the data is provided by HUD through the Census Bureau American Community Survey and Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy and the data represents 2016 through 2020.
The last two sections include the strategic plan and the annual plan which both identify and describe the priorities, strategies, and goals on a five-year and one-year scale.
This section also includes the estimated amount of funds available.
For the upcoming year, fiscal year, it is estimated that the City of Berkeley will receive approximately 3.3 million across the three funding streams with CDBG making up the largest amount around two and a half million dollars.
Extrapolated across the five-year period, it is estimated that the City would receive around 16.7 million in total.
City staff estimate these amounts based on previous year's funding with planned minor reductions for CDBG.
However, final allocations could be more decreased from prior years as we have not received the annual allocations yet and those are anticipated to be released mid-May.
The funds received from HUD are generally allocated in three main ways.
The first to community agencies through a request for proposal process that is conducted every four years.
Awards were adopted by Council in FY24 and the current funding cycle began at the start of FY25 and runs through FY28.
The RFP process also includes state, local, and general fund dollars and makes up the largest ongoing investment by the City to meet strategic goals and best serve Berkeley's most vulnerable populations.
The public and several commissions are involved in that process to review proposals and recommend awards to Council, including the Housing Advisory Commission, the Human Welfare Community Action Commission, Youth Equity Panel, Labor on Commission, and Homeless Services Panel of Experts.
Secondly, funds are expended through program delivery costs such as staff, community agencies, developers, or consultants processing loans, conducting environmental reviews, inspections, and or other program-related activities.
And finally, for administration, which is largely made up of personnel time.
Including public participation for the consolidated plan is very important and a key requirement for HUD.
Staff have engaged in several ways with the Berkeley community through community meetings, public hearings, surveys, and Council meetings across three main phases to inform the overall plan.
The first three meetings highlighted on the timeline include community commissions and Council reviewing and approving the community agency funding allocations.
The next phase is a public meeting regarding fair housing as it relates to the analysis of impediments report.
And lastly, from December 2024 through tonight has all focused on specifically gathering feedback and input on the consolidated plan priorities and draft.
At each opportunity the public commissioners and or Council have been invited to share feedback, comment on the plan, and or associated funding for the community agencies.
Next slide.
Highlighting a specific example of community participation is in December of 2024 staff released a survey via the community the city community message platform to request response to the identified priorities for the HUD funding.
77 percent of the 590 respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the identified priority areas as you see on the screen.
Affordable housing emerged as the primary concern and there is significant interest in ensuring access to affordable housing for specific populations including seniors, people with disabilities, families with minor children, low-income workers, teachers, and artists.
Additional details and quotes from the respondents can be found as an attachment to this plan.
The needs assessment analyzes the data which forms the basis for the programs and projects to be administered within the plan.
This section focuses on the most common housing problems, need for housing assistance, and risk of becoming unsheltered among others and compares the disproportionately greater need across the Berkeley community.
Next slide.
Data points, tables, and charts are pre-populated with HUD data that represents 2016 through 2020 and provides just a snapshot of the Berkeley community Berkeley community that showcases the needs.
The data indicates that 45 percent of Berkeley households are considered low income per HUD's definition of under 80 percent of the area median income and that over 50 percent of renters and owners are paying more than 50 percent of their income toward housing.
To further this analysis and utilizing the same main data sources the next section which is the market analysis helps to provide a clear picture of the environment specifically housing affordability, barriers to housing, and also non-housing community development assets.
A key challenge facing the Berkeley community continues to be affordability where the data from November of 24 found that the median home value was about 1.3 million dollars and the median rental price is was 2,600.
The statistics on this slide were pulled from various sections of the market analysis and are just some highlights from the report that represent a different factor impacting housing in Berkeley.
Each of these challenges require different solutions to address and support the community through but not limited to the development of more housing units, creating affordable housing options, and addressing the aging housing through rehabilitation.
Next slide.
The final sections of the consolidated plan outline the planned projects and activities for each funding source.
For community development block grant this includes rehabilitation of multi-family residences, single-family homes, and public facilities that support the preservation of affordable housing, improve the health and safety or ADA access, and or the energy efficiency of homes and public buildings, as well as provide support through public services that provide community agency grants to address housing navigation and fair housing services.
Next slide.
ESG will be used to provide financial assistance, housing relocation, and stabilization services to rapidly rehouse and support through emergency shelter, and home funds will be used in two main project areas, housing trust fund and affordable housing development, where city staff will support rehabilitation of multi-family housing and work through all the requirements of developing affordable housing in the city.
Concurrent to the consolidated plan, the analysis of impediments or AI to fair housing was also updated from the previous 2020 version.
Berkeley participated in a regional effort led by Alameda County, including all the jurisdictions and housing authorities to develop and compile this report.
The regional working group hired TDA Consulting to complete the AI, which provides an overview of the laws, regulations, conditions, and other possible obstacles that may affect an individual's household or access to housing.
Next slide.
TDA Consulting collected data through a variety of methods, including engaging with community members and stakeholders, and through their analysis, the plan identifies the impediments to fair housing and includes strategies and actions for addressing these impediments.
There is an abridged version of the AI in the agenda packet tonight, but the full plan can be found on the City of Berkeley website, as well as the Alameda County website.
Lastly, we would like to acknowledge that HUD recently proposed a new rule for the analysis of impediments and affirmatively furthering fair housing, or AFFH, and while the proposed rule will no longer require that grantees conduct or submit the AI along with the consolidated plan, HUD will instead require certification of compliance with the Fair Housing Act.
Details about that process are still pending, and however, the State of California requires that housing elements are conducted and that those elements are relatively similar to the AFFH included in the planning process and guiding documents for community development.
So, this AI plan will be available for those purposes, as well as local implementation, and if it is requested by HUD, will be submitted.
Next slide.
In closing, we ask that Council consider the following recommended action, which is, next slide, to adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute any resultant agreements and amendments for agencies receiving funding under the CDBG, ESG, or HOME program in accordance with the approved proposal, allocate the proposed funding plan described in the consolidated plan, and finalize and submit the PY25 to 2029 consolidated plan, including the 2025 annual action plan to HUD.
Thank you so much for your time, and we'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Thanks for your presentation.
We're going to do Council questions, public comment, close the hearing, then do Council comments slash deliberation, just so folks know.
So, are there any Council questions? Council Member Bartlett.
Thank you for a wonderful presentation.
I was quickly wondering, so this is all done before the administration, the current administration, took over this analysis, do we know? Yes, so the plan was compiled throughout the last year, community input started in January of 2024, and has been receiving feedback over the last several months from different commissions in public.
Okay, so I wonder, you know, like what's HUD going to be doing, the new HUD, right? Any indications that the CDBG program exists in a remotely similar form at all? We have not received additional guidance to that, so we are operating as though the programs will stand.
We have received word from our HUD representative that we will be receiving our award allocations within the first, the next few weeks, so we're anticipating that we will be getting an award.
If there are additional updates to the grant agreements, the regulations, then we'll take that as it comes.
That's good.
And, you know, we're thinking about our DEI program in the city and sanctuary city status, things like that.
What would be the impact? I'm just wondering, what would be the impact if these funds were denied us due to the new requirements? So these programs currently support several community agencies.
More than half of the funding goes to community agencies, either in direct format or through program delivery, and ultimately supports about 50 households or units and serves over a thousand individuals, so the impact would be pretty widespread across the community agencies and ultimately the community.
The funds also support city staff at a smaller rate.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member Blackaby.
Thanks, Madam Mayor.
Just one question, and it's really just a point of education for me, and by the way, I appreciate Council Member Bartlett asking the question about federal funding.
This is certainly one of the first questions that hit me as I was reviewing this.
The point of information is really on slide 15 and slide 17.
On the Community Development Block Grant, there's sort of a multi-family rehabilitation program, and on slide 17, the Housing Trust Fund, both those programs look like they do roughly the same work.
The description looks similar.
I'm just curious about how they're different.
How do they align? Do they overlap at all? And again, it's just really a point of information for me.
So the Community Development Block Grant multi-family rehabilitation funds, those really fund the staff that support the Housing Trust Fund under the HOME program.
So the CDBG and the HOME sort of have this reciprocity where you can use CDBG to support the HOME program.
Got it.
And so different sets of projects or similar projects, but just different fashions of the same project? The CDBG funds support the staff that support the HOME projects.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Any other Council questions? Okay.
We will move on to public comment then.
Public comment only on item number 28, please.
Based on the discussion at the Budget Committee about looking at different plans and seeing if identifying if agencies hadn't met certain goals that were in their proposal, or there could be staff vacancies, or if the right correct number of clients haven't been served that they proposed were going to be served.
I look at this and I'm just wondering, will there be room for that sort of flexibility? I'm presuming that there is after this is approved, because I would want to see that flexibility.
And I appreciated Council Member Bartlett's line of questioning, because I have that question not only about taking money away from agencies, but if there is going to be specified cuts from the federal government, is the City going to be able to allocate monies in different directions later again with the same level of flexibility? Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Kiro.
Thanks for your public comment.
Any other public comment in person? Okay.
Online.
Okay.
First is Cheryl Davila, former Council Member.
I think her hand's been up the whole time, so she may not have a comment, because I think this was the second Cheryl Davila on the call.
There's two.
You know what I mean.
All right.
Kelly Hammergren? I heard in the presentation community involvement, but I didn't hear anything about the commissions that are normally involved in the block grants.
And I know that we almost lost our block grant funding, because we were not in compliance.
And I'm looking at my older activist dog.

Segment 5

Board of Governors.
I'm going to start with a little bit of a diary related to this, and I have a quote in there, an ongoing inability to recruit and retrain board members, and this is for the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission constitutes noncompliance with federal law and disqualifies Berkeley as an eligible entity for the receipt and administration of the block grants.
I just find it disappointing that we have commissions on this and are not mentioned.
Thanks, Kelly.
Your time is up.
I do remember you mentioning the commissions actually, but perhaps you want to address that since I noticed you were looking through your notes.
Yes, I can address that.
We've went to the HAC on several occasions throughout this process, starting in January of 24, related to the community agency funding allocations, as well as to receive their feedback and approval or recommendation to approve the plan for council in early this year.
Also during the community agency funding cycle, we had commission presentations and review of applications at the Homeless Service Panel of Experts, Youth Equity Panel, Commission on Labor, and Human Welfare Community Action Commission.
We've engaged with several different commissions throughout this process.
Thank you.
I would also like to add that it sounds like the commenter was referring to the community services block grant funds, the CSBG, which is federal funds that pass through the state to the city.
And tonight we're talking about community development block grants, CDBG.
Thank you for clarifying that.
Yeah, many acronyms.
I'd like to close the hearing because I think we've got all of our public comment.
Council Member Traichkup, did you have your hand up? Second, and I reserve my right to speak after.
Okay, I think we can.
Mark, can't we just close this one? Yeah, there's no more.
Yeah, we can just close it.
So we have to vote.
We do.
Yeah.
Okay, well, there's a second.
Okay.
To close the public hearing, Council Member Kisarwani? Yes.
Kaplan? Yes.
Hartlett? Yes.
Traichkup? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabay? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Okay, great.
And Council Member Traichkup, you're first in line for council comments.
Thank you so much, Madam Mayor.
Thank you to staff for providing this detailed presentation.
I believe I was involved in the last go around of this effort when I was on the Housing Advisory Commission and just want to command staff on continued top notch quality of the work product.
I too share my concerns about the uncertainty of what might come in the next four years.
But I do know this, that as long as there is funding available from the federal government and the state for these programs, Berkeley, thanks to the hard work of its staff, is well positioned to implement it.
I did want to just, we received one public, well, we received one comment by email and I connected with staff earlier today and I just, this was a concern about, this was a concern about, well, to quote the comment, the council, the city is severely underfunded or has severely underfunded the needs of domestic violence survivors, particularly with respect to domestic violence survivors who are unstably housed.
And so I referred that question to staff and I just, for transparency, wanted to read into the record the staff response that the homeless, while it is true that city funds one program specifically for domestic violence, the homeless services programs mentioned in the report also support this population.
These are integrated services and not mutually exclusive.
Domestic violence survivors who become unhoused are eligible for homeless services programs and during the RFP for this program, one application was received specifically requesting funding for domestic violence programs.
And that application was funded by council at nearly the full requested amount.
So, with that, I feel very confident to move the staff recommendation.
Second.
Okay.
Any other comments? Okay.
Let's take a roll then, please.
To approve the staff recommendation, Council Member Keserwani.
Yes.
Second.
Council Member Hacklin.
Yes.
Bartlett.
Yes.
Traigub.
Aye.
O'Keefe.
Yes.
Lackabay? Yes.
Lunapara.
Yes.
Thank you.
Humber? Yes.
I would like to move on to item number 29, to implement the residential preferential parking program on the 1500 block of Virginia Street.
I think I'm going to go, if that's okay.
I need to get some rest.
This is a good time.
Goodbye, everyone.
Thank you.
We'll see you soon.
Council Member O'Keefe has been sticking it out despite not feeling her best, so thank you so much for being here tonight and also last night.
Appreciate your presence.
Okay.
Thanks so much, team.
Thanks for being here.
As we did before, we're going to start with the presentation.
All right, whenever you're ready.
All right.
Good evening, Mayor, Council, community, Terrence Davis, Director of Public Works.
With me, I have our Deputy Director, Waheed Amiri, and then also Elliot Schwimmer, who's our Senior Transportation Planner, who's going to lead this presentation tonight.
And so with that, I'll turn it over to Elliot.
Vice Mayor.
Sorry.
Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members.
I am Elliot Schwimmer, Senior Transportation Planner, happy to be with you discussing the residential preferential parking opt-in petition for the south side of the 1500 block of Virginia Street.
We have a brief presentation for you today for what is a fairly standard RPP opt-in process.
We received a complete opt-in petition from a resident on the 1500 block of Virginia Street in January of this year.
The resident collected signatures from five of the six residential addresses on this block, but differently, 83% of the residents on this block are in favor of opting into the program, and that exceeds the 51% threshold required for getting to the next step in the opt-in process.
We then went to the site during two times of the day, consistent with our standard procedures to do a parking occupancy study.
There were five out of six spaces occupied during the 3 p.m.
hour, which exceeds the threshold of 75% occupancy required to opt in to the RPP program.
And here's a map showing the parcels opting into the RPP program in the context of the whole RPP program in the city.
The parcels opting in are part of RPP Area N, which is enforced 8 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
Monday through Friday.
And the location is circled on the map.
You can see that this area is surrounded by parcels and areas that have already opted into the RPP program.
Per the administrative regulations for public noticing, letters were sent to affected residents and notices were posted on the block informing the affected residents about the date, time, and purpose of the public meeting.
If this item is approved, Public Works will install two RPP signs on the block, and it will then be part of the RPP program.
That concludes this presentation.
Thank you for your time, and we are happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Any council questions? Fairly straightforward.
Oh, Council Member Trajkup, did you have a question? Thank you.
Staff, I just wanted to confirm, what is the relationship between this program and compliance with the data lighting law that will be enforced or starting to be enforced later this year? I guess there's not a direct relationship, except that parking enforcement enforces both the RPP parking restrictions and they would enforce the data lighting law in red-curbed areas, but they're not directly related.
Thank you.
So I guess specifically my question was to the extent that there may not be a red curb, but to the extent that part of the street is, well, basically that the parking that would be red-curbed or have the effect of being red-curbed for the data lighting law, that would not be included in the RPP zone.
Can you confirm that? That's correct.
Thank you.
Any other questions from Council? Okay.
All right.
Public comments? I don't see anybody.
Oh, there's someone on, oh, someone online.
Yes.
Michael R.
Yes.
Thank you.
I am a, Madam Mayor, Council Members, I've lived on the affected block for more than 20 years, and I am asking you to support the resolution for a couple of reasons.
First of all, we are a block from the BART station.
A lot of people who want to drive to BART but don't want to pay for BART parking park on our block phase.
As the map showed, we're the only block phase that isn't part of the program.
So we get all of them.
And if there isn't any parking, well, we have to go several blocks to park.
We do have the red curbs at the corners now that's further decreased the parking.
That with an increase of people who are parking there long-term has prompted us to do this because there's really often no parking.
So for those reasons, I am asking and all of my neighbors that you allow us to do what everyone else in the neighborhood does and have permanent parking.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I am going to ask that we close the hearing.
Second.
Okay.
To close the public hearing, Council Member Kastner-Wanning? Yes.
Kaplan? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Trageb? Aye.
Lateef is absent.
Blackabay? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor DeCiccio? Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Any other Council comments? Move approval of the item.
Second.
Any other comments? Okay.
All right then.
Okay.
To approve the RPP for the 1500 block of Virginia Street, Council Member Kastner-Wanning? Yes.
Kaplan? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Trageb? Aye.
Lateef is absent.
Blackabay? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Motion carries.
Thank you to our one public commenter.
All right.
So we have one final item.
Thank you also to staff.
I appreciate the presentation and of course you staying until this hour.
We have one more item left, which was the item from the consent calendar number 22, I believe.
Yes.
That moved down to our action calendar.
Great.
I'll be very brief and I apologize to colleagues that we had made this one additional change and wanted to bring it for you.
This item is to add ADA experience to the oversight body that's going to be reviewing Measure FF spending.
What I've got on the screen is the red line up top is the red line from the original item.
After further kind of community input and then in consultation with the city attorney, we've amended the language to what shows up below in the red line, which I think strengthens it and also just indicates that across the whole body, whether it's from appointments from the commissions or whether it's from the members of the public that apply for those positions, we do want to make sure that there's at least one member who has experience with ADA compliance or the accessible infrastructure challenges facing seniors.
So it's just a clarification of that in this item.
I can't see the whole.
Sorry.
Thank you.
There it is.
Sorry about that, Mark.
Maybe you can do a little control plus or something to enlarge it.
Okay.
Okay, great.
Any other initial clarifying questions folks have? Okay.
Let's go to public.
Oh, did you have some? Oh, no.
I was going to just wanted to thank Councillor Blackford for your foresight and looking out for the people here.
Really great work.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Yeah.
Public comment.
And thank you also for waiting.
Public commenter.
Yeah.
Yes, I'm Tom Yamaguchi.
I'm actually a commissioner on the commission on aging, but I'm here speaking just for myself.
Although what happened was the commission actually sent a letter.
I don't know if you've received it in time regarding this particular issue, this specifically the Council Member Blackbee's agenda item, but the idea that people with disabilities definitely need to have a voice as we make these decisions to refund our long neglected public infrastructure.
So I just want to just voice my support for Council Member Blackbee's item.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Council comments.
Yes.
Moving to Zoom comments.
Oh, sorry.
I didn't.
Oh, sorry.
Carol's here.
Sorry.
Thank you.
So this is an extremely important item, and I'm happy to see that Council Member Blackbee introduced it.
I think you actually need someone with a regulatory background as well as a person with disabilities.
The issue with persons with disabilities is you have a variety of disabilities.
All disabilities are not the same.
And so you may have an individual who's interested and has lived experience with one disability and they are unaware of other disabilities, addressing someone who has neurological disabilities or is visually impaired or hearing impaired, and may not have the same issues.
So I think you need both of that.
You also need someone extremely familiar with all the regulations, especially since they may be changing right now through the federal administration, unfortunately.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And apologies to my Zoom commenters.
I did not see you pop up.
Okay.
Next three speakers are Eric Narasboro, Kelly Hammergren, and Ben Gould.
So let's start with Eric.
Go ahead, Eric.
You can unmute.
Hello.
My name is Eric Narasboro.
I'm founder of Streets of Equality, a Berkeley project that oversees the sidewalk and street safety conditions, as well as looking at PROAG here in Berkeley.
I'm here to support Council Member Blackaby for this wonderful initiative and hope that the rest of the council members will also support him.
I'm also here as a member of BARO, Berkeley and its four accessible right-of-ways, that helped author the implementations of Measure FF, which we hope that are still being looked at.
In reference to this matter, I am really looking for support for Mr.
Blackaby on this item.
And I feel as a disabled person myself that we are very long in the just rubber stamp process.
We would love to have a seat of power and be able to have a seat at the processing point.
So thank you so much, council members.
And to yourself, Madam Mayor.
Appreciate your comment.
Thank you.
Next is Kelly Hammergren.
Thank you, Council Member Blackaby, for adding a disabled person.
And I think the disabled are underrepresented in our city for many issues that affect them.
And so I would like to see a larger representation of disabled persons across our commissions and in the community.
And hopefully that will happen.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kelly.
Next is Ben Gould.
Oh, wait a second.
That's the wrong one.
Okay.
Ben, go ahead.
Good evening, Mayor and Council.
I wanted to thank Council Member Blackaby for bringing forward this item and for the amended language, which I think really helps strengthen the process for council to ensure that disability representation is on this commission while still protecting the intent of the voters and ensuring rigorous oversight for the money.
So I just ask for your support.
I know it's late.
I'll leave it at that.
Thanks so much.
Thanks, Ben.
Next is a caller with a number ending in 358.
Hi there.
Good evening.
My name is Nancy Rader.
I also thank Council Member Blackaby for this item.
I also wanted to urge Council to encourage or I don't know if you can require staff to reopen the application process with this additional incredibly important criteria because many people didn't apply because they didn't meet the qualifications the first time around.
And so for this to be really meaningful, it's important that the application process be reopened for a week or two.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think we have one final commenter.
Yes.
Cheryl Davila, former Council Member.
Yeah.
It's interesting that the Council Member would put this forward and care about disability rights when he didn't care about the disabled children and people of Gaza and Palestine last night.
I'm trying to address individuals and to address this as a body, please.
Thank you for really interrupting me, please, and making me lose my train of thought.
Can I get my time back? But it's not fair, wise, humane.
You don't care about humanity if you only care about some individuals and not all individuals.
There are many thousands of disabled children and members of Palestine right now because of Israel's bombardment of four more than four atomic bombs.
And they've had to have amputees without any medication, no clean water, no food, nothing.
Your time is up.
Thank you for your comment.
Council Member Traigub.
Thank you.
I would like to also thank Council Member Blackaby for bringing forward this item.
Our office has met with members of the differently abled community, some of whom did submit their applications with the understanding that this will be considered.
And so those applications did come in by the deadline.
My understanding is we, well, we are under a little bit of pressure to get Measure FF Oversight Committee appointed as quickly as possible.
And I am just hoping that within the existing pool of applicants, we will find, and I'm confident that we will find a pool of applicants that are well positioned to represent the equities of that community.
I know this is just a small but very powerful step.
We are contemplating, our office is contemplating some additional efforts to ensure that Berkeley is as accessible as possible to all.
I can't speak to those items right now because that is not what's on the agenda.
But this is a really important step.
Thank you, Council Member Blackaby, for the opportunity to co-sponsor your item.
And I would be happy to second it with the assumption that you would be making the main motion.
Council Member Blackaby, would you like to take the motion? In reverse, I will move approval of this item.
Okay.
And it sounds like Council Member Trakob is seconding.
Yes.
Okay.
Any other comments from Council? Can I just say, I agree with the sentiment of trying to get folks now on the body.
I did review some of the applications.
I think some people did indicate in those applications their experience in this regard.
So I'm still hopeful that we'll be able to satisfy this goal with the current applications and do more next year.
Okay.
Any other Council comments? Yes.
Yeah.
I just wanted to say, I looked carefully through the sheaf of applications that we've received and there's some really, really good people reflected in there, people, you know, with perfect experience, including people with experience that relates directly to this item.
So thanks.
Yes.
This topic can't come up without one of us saying that Berkeley was the home of the disability rights movement.
And so it is so important that we're continuing to consider the community within these items.
So that's why I wanted to add myself and why I did.
And thank you so much, Council Member, for bringing this forward.
Anything else? Anyone else? Okay.
There is a second.
So I will ask the clerk to take roll, please.
Okay.
Council Member Kesarwani? Yes.
Taplin? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Traigub? Aye.
Absent.
Flacoby? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humber? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you all so much.
Is there any non-agenda public comment? I see Tony online.
Okay.
Tony, go ahead.
I want to thank the Council for listening to the long public commentary that was presented to you last night.
I listened to the entire meeting, and I think it's very important that voices from the community be heard on such an item, and I want to commend the Mayor for having the meeting and for Council Member Terri Chaplin, who represents the district I live in, for putting forward something that you could all agree on or most of you could agree on, and I do want to point out the person who spoke that I resonated with the most, and that was the surgeon who testified about his service in Gaza.
I was very moved by his testimony, and I hope you were too.
So thank you all for doing it and taking it on and for listening.
I think listening is very healing.
Thank you, Tony.
Thanks for your comment.
Go ahead.
Rebecca Mirvish.
Hi.
I'll send you all an email about this anyways, but just while you're all here, please save your calendar for Thursday, May 15th, for Bike to Wherever Day.
WalkBike Berkeley and Bike East Bay is organizing a City Council ride in the morning starting at Ashby Bar.
I'll send you more details about this, but I just wanted—most of you responded to me, so just while you're all here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rebecca.
I appreciate that reminder.
And Cheryl Davila, former Councilmember.
So last night, yeah, that doctor was very moving, but it didn't move you enough to pass the Peace and Justices Resolution, just the watered-down racist JCR marionette, which I don't even know because we didn't hear the vote, and it would be nice if you could be more transparent about that.
And also, the fact that you capped the meeting at a certain time constraint was really a problem.
You didn't acknowledge the mayor of Richmond or the former mayor.
And there were delays in the sound on the Zoom, but the Zoom on my phone was working and I could hear fine.
But there's been a problem with people getting in the Zoom, just logging on, and I know—it seems like it's a—I don't know what it is, but it seems like it's a problem with the City of Berkeley.
Zoomers.
Thank you.
That's all.
Okay.
All right.
Well, in that case, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved.
Second.
Moved from—okay.
And a second from Councilmember Lunapara.
Could you take the roll, please? Councilmember Kesarwani? Yes.
Kaplan? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Tregeb? Aye.
O'Keefe is absent.
Blackabay? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Thank you all.
Thank you, colleagues.
Thanks, everyone.