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Segment 1

Hello, good evening everyone.
I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Berkeley City Council on January 21st.
Welcome back everyone after a winter break.
Can we have the roll please? Yes.
Council member Kesarwani? Here.
Taplin? Present.
Bartlett is absent.
Tregub? Present.
O'Keefe? Present.
Kesarwani? Here.
Tregub? Present.
O'Keefe? Present.
Blackabay? Here.
Lunaparra? Here.
Humbert? Present.
And Mayor Ishii? Here.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
I want to make an announcement in case anyone is here for the ZAB appeal which is item number 25.
The appeal has been withdrawn by the appellants so you're still welcome to stay for public comments but I just wanted to let folks know in case you were here for that item.
So for the first meeting of every month we have a land acknowledgement and we decided we're going to be taking turns reading the acknowledgement and last month was Council member Kesarwani, District 1.
Thank you for doing that.
And this month is Council member Taplin, our District 2 Council member.
Good evening, everyone.
The City of Berkeley recognizes that the community we live in was built on the territory of Huchun, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people, the ancestors and descendants of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County.
This land was and continues to be of great importance to all the Ohlone tribes and descendants of the Verona Band.
As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of Berkeley, the documented 5,000 year history of a vibrant community, the West Berkeley Shell Mound, and the Ohlone people who continue to reside in East Bay.
We recognize that Berkeley's residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupation of this unceded stolen land since the City of Berkeley's incorporation in 1878.
As stewards of the laws regulating the City of Berkeley, it is not only vital that we recognize the history of this land, but also recognize that the Ohlone people are present members of Berkeley and other East Bay communities today.
The City of Berkeley will continue to build relationships with the Lijian tribe and to continue meaningful actions that uphold the intention of this land acknowledgement.
Thank you so much, Council Member.
We have no ceremonial matters this evening, so I'm going to move us on to City Manager comments.
No comments tonight, Madam Mayor.
Thank you.
I'd now like to move on to our City Auditor comments.
Is our City Auditor here? Thank you so much.
Wonderful.
Can you hear me? All right.
Okay.
I wanted to tonight share our 2024 audit recommendation follow-up report that my office released in December.
I'll share why we follow up on audit recommendations as well as some of the highlights from our recent report.
So why we follow up.
Every report that we issue includes recommendations for departments to support them to meet their mission goals and address the identified risks.
After the release of the audit, departments are responsible for providing updates on the status of their recommendations on their implementation of these recommendations.
This helps you as the City Council, it helps the public, and it helps our office track the progress departments are making and where they need more support.
Last month, six departments shared updates with City Council as information items on the City Council agenda.
Our annual report provides a comprehensive overview of where the city stands in implementing these recommendations and what risks still exist.
The report covers the period from May to November of 2024 of the audits and the audit recommendations issued in the past five years.
In order to streamline the reporting, we are moving to an annual follow-up process for most audits, including releasing annual reports like this one.
This new process will make it easier for stakeholders to know when to expect updates and reduce the burden on understaffed departments.
Plus, we still have our online dashboard where Council and the public can get regular updates.
Moving on to the findings of the report, the city is making progress.
Since May, the library and departments across the city have implemented nine recommendations.
For example, in order to improve reporting and transparency, the Fire Department has developed a dashboard to track defensible space inspections and is sharing progress and outcomes with the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission from the Measure FF audit.
In response to our recommendation regarding strengthening the city's debt management, the Finance Department updated its debt management policy with the City Council approval and lowered the general obligation bond threshold from 15 to 6% of assessed value.
In total, departments have implemented 37% or 42 of the 113 audit recommendations released since 2019.
This will provide a baseline going forward in tracking recommendations.
Departments made additional progress on other recommendations, starting or partially implementing them.
For example, the Environmental Health Division started or partially implemented 8 out of 9 recommendations proposed in the restaurant inspections audit released in July.
However, 58 audit recommendations across 5 departments and the library and the mayor and city council remain unimplemented.
Additionally, we dropped 10 recommendations for the Fire Department.
We dropped recommendations after 5 years.
However, the Fire Department is continuing to work on several of these recommendations, including adjusting BMC language and staffing response to increase construction.
Per Council Member Blackabee's request, at the December 10th meeting, the Fire Department will share a memo with updates to Council in 6 months.
You can learn more about our audit recommendations across the 7 departments on our dashboard.
I just want to conclude by thanking all of the departments and the city manager for their work on their cooperation in implementing these recommendations, submitting updates, and working with us to improve operations and services for the Berkeley community.
I also want to thank the city council for your commitment to accountability and providing this forum to track the city's progress on implementing audit recommendations.
And I want to thank my team of dedicated public servants for doing this important work.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate your comments in the report as well.
We will now be taking public comment on non-agenda matters.
Do we have any? Might there be an opportunity to ask questions of the city auditors? Yes, go ahead.
I'm sorry.
I'll have you come back up if you don't mind.
Thank you.
No worries.
Thank you so much, Auditor, to you and your team for your hard work.
I was curious if you could let us know which are the recommendations that the mayor and council are responsible for, one of which it appears has started and one of which it appears has yet to start.
We can go back and look at that.
I know one of the recommendations is pertaining to the staff retention report with identifying a way of gathering regular information from staff, but we can look up the other recommendation and get that information to you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Other questions? Okay, great.
I would like to move to public comment now.
Yes, we just have three cards for in-person non-agenda comments, and the three names are Lisa Teague, Mary Ann Uribe, and Carol Morozovic.
So you can come up in any order up to the podium there.
You can go ahead and begin your comment.
Hi, good evening.
My name is Lisa Teague.
I'm here this evening to ask about the ongoing early morning construction starts at the People's Park project.
The construction, well this morning there were lights on and a truck being noisily unloaded.
I live across the street, as do many other people, including students who live in Martinez on the other side.
At 4.15 a.m.
there was noisy unloading of a vehicle along with brrrr, bing, bing, bing, bing, et cetera, et cetera.
Now, according to the Berkeley Municipal Code and the standards for construction, they're not supposed to start construction noises until 7 a.m.
There are some, you know, caveats about the amount of noise, but really it's pretty clear that they're not supposed to start from 7 a.m.
I don't know if the university is required to abide by Berkeley noise ordinances, although they do encourage students to abide by Berkeley quiet hours after 10 p.m.
So that is something that they have noticed.
And it's very worrying, honestly, to not have very much of a break from the constant noise.
I understand 7 to 5, that's cool, but beyond that, it's really excessive.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
My staff is going to follow up with you.
Appreciate your comment.
Thank you.
Next speaker.
And does the third speaker want to come up as well, just so you're nearby? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
I come before you today to speak for people who do not feel that they have a voice in this city.
Those are the people who were wiped out during Black Friday.
When a storm came in, we were at the encampment, the Humboldt's encampment in front of the city.
And a storm came in and wiped us all out.
I nearly died.
My neighbor had to take me out of my tent and try to save my life.
Now, what also happened is the city came through and did a sweep and took all of our personal property.
I have lost my laptop, my phone.
I've talked to Mr.
Bruton Hagan about establishing a fund so that we can get that property back.
The city did not have a right to take us out.
And the only reason they did and did not even want to get our property back to us is because they assumed we were homeless and therefore worthless.
So I ask you today to establish that fund where we can be reimbursed by the city for their theft and embezzlement of our property.
Also, I want to urge all of you to look at the people that live in these encampments.
I am now over at Civic Center Park.
I'm sorry, if you could finish your sentence.
Okay, number 8 on your agenda is acceptance of a grant for national diamond.
I'm sorry, this is actually on non-agenda matters.
Okay.
But I did hear your comment about taking a look at folks who are in encampments, and I appreciate your comment.
So thank you so much for speaking, but your time is up.
We want a website.
We want a website.
We want a website.
There are so many people that are in those encampments that are talented.
They are great artists.
I absolutely agree with you, but your time is up.
So I'm going to ask if you can speak with my staffer who's in the audience.
He's going to come up and chat with you as well.
And we need you, your compassion.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I know your point is well taken, and I definitely understand the value of people who are living on the street.
For 50 years.
So come on.
Thank you so much.
I want to give time for the next speaker, but I appreciate your comments, and thank you.
I want to set up an appointment with you.
Okay.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
No, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So I'm going to ask for a brief introduction.
In terms of the restroom, portable restroom, that's being established at the University in San Pablo.
To provide some history of this restroom and the other restroom at Adeline and Alcatraz, which has had no complaints, and the telegraph has had no complaints from the community.
They're actually welcoming these portable restrooms.
For restrooms and watch stations throughout the city because of the need.
And it was also around the time of the outbreak in San Diego of hepatitis.
The city council was on board with it and did it and contracted with the consultants.
The city contracted with consultants who have done an excellent job on the city restroom study.
It is 1 of the most thorough reports I've ever seen done.
They did extensive groups, including with community members.
I was at 3 of the 4 groups where they met with homeowners and business owners.
And I was at the 1 in West Berkeley, and I distinctly remember that group recommending that location.
University in San Pablo, as well as James Kenny Park.
If you look at the citywide restroom study, you will see that they contacted ride share drivers.
They contacted AC transit, anybody who might need a 24, 7 restroom.
This is an absolute need.
It's in the permit process about ready to go to bid and the protest about it.
Essentially, it's again, the fear of the homeless and that they will be using it.
I was actually at the district 4 forum, and they're they're asking for something like that because they're complaining about public defecation and urination.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate your comment.
Do we have yes, we have speakers on zoom so I will take the 1st.
7 speakers on zoom since we only had 3 in person and 1st up is kit.
Kit, you should be able to unmute.
Thank you very much for taking my comment.
Um, I'm Kit Sagan are, and I am the chair of the fair campaign practices and the open government commissions.
Uh, and I'm wanted to let, you know, that unfortunately, we now have 4 vacancies.
We, we had a problem with not having enough commissioners last year and thanks to you, you pointed folks and then we had 8, but unfortunately, 2 people have moved out of town.
1 person who had served a long time has now stepped down and we're back to only 5 commissioners.
We are actually 2 commissions of the open government commission is the same people that is the fair campaign practices commission with the ex officio were appointed to both commissions and both.
Each commission has a full set of work.
The fair campaign practices commission is responsible with enforcing the open the, um, Berkeley election reform act and open government is the open government ordinance.
So we have quite a bit of work and ordinarily we do a lot of that work with 3 person subcommittees, but sorry to interrupt you, but your time is actually up and I have noted that there are 4 vacancies that need to be filled.
Thank you.
Can we have our next speaker? Yes, next is Rose Ellis.
Can you hear me? Yes, yes.
Okay, thank you.
Good evening city council and mayor.
My name is Rose Ellis.
I'm the founder and leader of the group, save the United artists in Berkeley.
You may not know that our group is hired an attorney and we filed an appeal to the zoning boards granting Patrick Kennedy, a full exemption from sequel.
We ask that you follow the law.
The United artists meets all the criteria to have a historical sequel.
It is landmark and on the state register.
At the last hearing, the heads of Zab hid their own city peer review reports that were done by the Rinkin consulting group, which stated in no uncertain terms this building qualifies for sequel.
They were not given to the members, and they didn't even know about it until I handed them out.
Lastly, mayor, our group has repeatedly tried to arrange a meeting with you, but no one seems to answer your phone and no one answers your emails.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for us for letting us know about that.
I will check in with my staff.
Next speaker.
Okay.
Next is Amy Baldwin.
Amy, you should be allowed to speak on you.
Hello.
Hi, I think you're on mute.
Hello.
Hi, I think I had another caller who was willing to see their time to me if I need an extra if there's a Merrill sequel on the comment list.
Yes, so Merrill is seating.
Let's see.
12345678 actually Merrill is not one of the 10 speakers, so she would not be able to yield.
Okay.
That's all right.
I am with a group called beautiful San Pablo, and we endorse the implementation of the modern standards of crime prevention through environmental design, called accepted to create safety in public spaces through building architecture.
streetscape and neighborhood design.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sorry, you're actually cutting out.
We can't hear you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Amy, you have a bag.
We could come back to you though.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Avoiding.
Is there someone talking? Yeah.
Oh, go ahead.
I was just complete your comments.
Thank you.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Next is.
Anna Marta.
Hi, thank you for taking me.
So I actually live in the building that's by the Wells Fargo at San Pablo, the corner of San Pablo and university, the Northwest building.
And I've been here for many years.
It's a co-op.
I had to apply to get into I'm an artist and a social worker.
And something new has been happening here.
We have in the empty Wells Fargo parking lot.
We have a homeless encampment.
Developing and there's been fires along our building.
And quite a few of them, we've had to call the police and.
And they, they came with fire fire truck and police officers really nice and helped us with that.
And our managers also had to put 2 out himself.
And we have 1 of our people, we have a 26 unit complex.
And 1 of the women who lives in the unit has Lyme's disease and, you know, big issues and she.
They're lighting fires, she said that are going a foot high close to where she is that please conclude your comments.
We, we, we need some help from the city.
We, we need it's a private property.
We need the, we need the people put into shelters and not living in a parking lot.
And we also don't want a public restroom outside our door.
To bring I have a lot of pride in where I live.
Okay.
Next speaker is a speaker with a phone number ending in.
2, 1, 1, press star 6 to unmute.
There you go.
Hi, good evening.
My assistant, our store manager tonight serve you with some paper.
Our business, our great business, 51 year old business is suing the city of Berkeley for 1,000,080 thousand dollars.
And you deserve it.
You really acted very bad.
A corrupted employee of yours would have foot in all of your mouth.
And just again, who end up with the worst mayor in the history of Berkeley as many of the city council as well.
How many of you are ashamed to our city? I've been in Berkeley for 62 years.
I never seen it in such a bad shape.
The new mayor is welcome.
She could do something, but the losses you did to us, not only us, not only us, our clients, millions of clients in the Bay Area for our business.
They have nowhere else to go.
You have totally shamed our city, our beautiful city.
I'm a graduate from Berkeley.
I have spent 14 years in nuclear engineering taught at Berkeley.
Again, you shame UC Berkeley as a fellow graduate from Berkeley.
You have done horrible things, not only to me, look at the city, terrible trees, homelessness, poverty, all because of your action.
OK, the final speaker is Cheryl Davila, former council member.
Thank you.
Happy New Year.
Although it's starting out to be an incredible year with the fires in Los Angeles and a black community out to Dina burn to the ground.
It's really sad.
All the trauma that we have to go through because people don't pay attention to the climate.
But I just wanted to talk about a couple of things.
One, there was a driver's license checkpoint the other day on Ashby below San Pablo.
What kind of crap is that? That was like very interesting.
I don't understand why that's needed.
Seem like that would be an opportunity for, you know, not bad actions by BPD.
And I don't understand why you need to do that.
Also, it makes me wonder if you're going to cooperate with ice, even though you're not supposed to, because we're a sanctuary city.
And you should be ashamed that even though it wasn't all of you, but still, you're the city council now.
And I haven't heard Jack about the ceasefire.
Yeah, we have one sad to see that Luna is not wearing her anymore because there's still a lot of support needed for.
Okay, that concludes non agenda public comments.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Everyone for your comments.
Next is public comment by employee unions, which happens at the 1st, regular meeting of the month.
Are there any unions here that like to speak? Yes, I see someone coming to the front.
Thank you and any others if you want to come up to the front so you can be ready to speak as well.
Thank you.
Hi.
Hi, everyone nice to see you.
My name is Sarah and I am the vice president of 1 of our city unions.
And I'm here on behalf of our chapter officer team to express our support of item 27 reaffirming Berkeley as a sanctuary city.
This item refers the city attorney to explore legal support and defense of sensitive sites creates a task force to help protect against threats to immigrant communities and requests department heads inform all staff of our sanctuary status.
As the 10 to 1 has historically supported the effort to establish sanctuary cities and in 2018, a group of 10 to 1 members were a part of a success successful lawsuit, which ultimately determined Trump's threat to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities was unconstitutional.
The fight for workers rights is inextricably tied to the fight for immigrants rights and vice versa.
And it will require loud and firm solidarity to fight what is ahead, which our team is probably committed to.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for speaking on behalf of your union for being here this evening.
Are there other comments from unions? Okay, we are now moving on to the consent calendar.
I just want to note that on item 22, I wanted to let folks know that we've added council member as our representative to with council member as the.
Say again, thank you alternate.
And at this time, if there are any council members who have comments on consent, go ahead and please press your buttons for me.
I'm going to start with council member.
Thanks, mayor.
Just a few comments on a couple of items.
First of all, item 10, which is the FEMA public assistance item for fire department.
Just a comment that again, in the wake of what we've seen in Los Angeles with the wildfires, we've been getting a lot of constituent inquiries rightfully.
So I just want folks to know that this is a priority for all of us public safety priority for all of us on the council priority for the fire department.
And there's a lot of work that has been done and much work that is coming and you'll be seeing the results of that terms with the fire departments pulling together in the next few weeks.
I want folks to know that emergency response and wildfire preparedness is probably the top priority certainly for me and district 6 and I can speak for several of my other colleagues.
And so anyway, just want folks to know that is coming.
We take it seriously.
I appreciate all the hard work that's already been done, but we know there's much more to do and we are ready and you'll see much more of that soon item 16.
Just wanted to thank this is on the benchmark analytics for the early intervention system.
This is an item.
Actually, I saw when I was serving on the Berkeley police accountability board, it came out of the city's fair and impartial policing work, which is giving the police department more tools to identify problems and issues in the ranks before they become problems.
And I just appreciate the work that the department with the PAB and the BPA have done together.
It's a really good example of collaborating to address an important topic and find a solution together.
That's going to make a difference.
And I think it's a very reasonable investment to improve the quality of policing the professionalism of our department, which is already very high.
So again, thank you for bringing that forward.
And the last is on item 27, which is a sanctuary city item.
I'd like to move that to the consent calendar.
We have a lot of community members here who are eager to speak on that want to make sure they have the opportunity earlier in the meeting.
Again, I'm glad that we are considering it at today's meeting.
It's the 1st day after the Trump administration.

Segment 2

I want to start by saying that the Trump administration took office.
They have made, as we know, mass deportation threats and threats to come after our immigrant communities, and I think it was really important for us as a council to come together and reaffirm that here in Berkeley, we're planting the flag very firmly, that we reject that, and that we stand up for all of our neighbors here in Berkeley, and we wanted to make sure that on day one of our calendar in 2021, or 2025, which happens to be the first day after the Trump administration took office, that we are putting our flag firmly in the ground for sanctuary.
And I wanted to, thank you.
Folks can see the item.
Folks can see the item.
It does reaffirm our sanctuary policy, which was previously in place, but also we did want to expand beyond what had been done before to pledge very tangible support for our community-based organizations and sensitive sites since the Trump administration has newly targeted them for action.
And we're working with the city attorney to help us figure out what is practical and what kind of support can be provided either directly or through other community organizations to support those very important institutions.
So it's about what we do as a city, and it's also about how we're showing support for our community members.
So thank you, the mayor, for being a co-sponsor to Councilmember Lunapara, to Councilmember Taplin for being supporters.
Thank you to the city attorney.
Thank you to the city manager for being fully with us and supportive of the effort.
To Lisa Hoffman of East Bay Sanctuary, and many of you who are here tonight to speak on it.
This is incredibly important as a community that we speak with one voice, and we're glad to broad forward.
So I just ask we move it to consent to allow people to make comment.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there any opposition to moving item 27 to consent? Okay, seeing none, we will move it to consent.
Thank you so much, Councilmember.
Next is Councilmember Lunapara.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And thank you so much, Councilmember Blackbee, for writing this item for our sanctuary city.
I would like to see if there is any opposition to also sending items number 26 and 28 to the consent calendar as well.
26 and 28.
Okay.
Great.
No objection.
Okay.
Those will also move to consent then.
Thank you so much.
For I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but, you know, you've had an opportunity to speak already.
I apologize, but.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
And I apologize for interrupting you, but we are taking Councilmember comments right now.
Absolutely.
Your comments is well taken.
Thank you very much for sharing.
And I want to make sure that we give opportunities to our council members to give their comments, but thank you very much.
I appreciate you being here this evening.
Councilmember Lunapara, did you have other comments you wanted to make? Thank you.
Yeah, really briefly.
I on item 21, I'd like to extend my congratulations and excitement for Lisa Teague's appointment to the mental health commission.
There are fierce advocate in the South side and lead with compassion and integrity, and I know that they'll continue to do that as we move and move forward with the mental health commission's new role.
And for item 28, I want to also thank public works director Davis for and his team for their support and in constructing this budget referral.
With grace and effectiveness, thank you so much.
Thank you.
See, next is Councilmember.
Thank you so much.
I was going to make.
Some recommendations that already were made, and I would just very briefly like to voice my strong support for item 27, reaffirming Berkeley as a sanctuary city.
I was just talking to former senator and former mayor, Ronnie Hancock, and I was reminded that we really are standing on the shoulders of giants here.
Over 50 years of history, it was under her leadership on the council that Berkeley became the 1st century city in the nation.
Yeah, this is.
I never thought that we would have to be at a time when we have to reaffirm this again.
This is very personal to me as an immigrant whose family is here, but for the ability for asylum to be granted for some of them.
And I shudder to think that there are attacks on others by.
The highest elected official in the nation right now, through words and threats of actions.
It reminds me of the quote, and it's very relevant today that.
A threat and injustice to 1 is an injury to all and so on behalf of our district for office.
Uh, that is comprised entirely of immigrants and 1st generation folks as an immigrant myself, um, I see you.
And I am ready to lock arms and stand shoulder to shoulder to defend ensuring that Berkeley remains a beacon of light hope inclusion and acceptance.
No, 1 should feel unsafe here and I am.
I don't know if excited is the word given the times that we are in, but I am very much looking forward to joining this council and working together to ensure that we remain a sanctuary community for all.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council member Humbert.
Thank you very much.
Madam mayor.
Now that we've moved virtually everything to the consent calendar.
I'll, I'll make the comments that I was going to make on the action calendar.
Now, 1st of all, I want to bring a little attention to item number.
7 on the consent calendar, which is the commission of Julie Chang.
Um, to do some wonderful work in the form of a mosaic inside the new soon to be, um, this summer, um, opened, uh.
Willard clubhouse I want to thank the staff, the civic arts commission and the members of the selection panel for their work on this.
And, of course, thank the artist, Julie Chang for all the work she's done and will do on this mural.
It's really a wonderful piece of art.
I've seen representations of it.
And I'm really excited for the clubhouse to be complete.
And to include this, uh, new work of art in our, um, sort of.
In our collection, our city collection of wonderful pieces of.
Of public art, you'll bear with me.
I'll go through my notes here.
Into the action calendar.
What was the action calendar and of course, number 27 reaffirming.
Berkeley as a sanctuary city.
I want to thank council member black.
I want to thank mayor.
Council member Luna para and council member chaplain for bringing forward this recommendation.
Uh, for a recommitment to our sanctuary city status.
I also want to think I'm just listening to.
Council member tree gov for his heartfelt comments and they really, um.
They were really inspiring and poignant.
It was for me to sit here and listen to those.
The comments it's worth remembering that the United States only exists in its current form because a caravan of undocumented migrants.
Got on a boat in England and came over here to make a new life.
And our country has benefited from immigration ever since.
Maybe it's glib, but it's that's an historic fact.
That highlights the hypocrisy and bigotry at the heart of our current immigration policies and at the heart of the policies that are going to be and are being enacted by our current administration in Washington.
Enforcing federal immigration law is not and should not be the jurisdiction of local police.
This item reaffirms that basic principle.
The incoming administration has made clear that they intend to run roughshod over basic human rights.
And constitutional protections as they attempt to deport undocumented immigrants.
But all of us council members, city staff and our police officers have a solemn duty to uphold the Constitution and to protect the rights enshrined in that Constitution.
It is critical that we continue to fulfill those duties.
So I am going to, I don't get to vote yes on this particular item, but I will vote yes on the consent calendar that contains the item.
And I'm going to move on to item number 3 with respect to item number 28, which is curb marking and preventative infrastructure upgrades and allocation hopefully from the June budget and to provide the city with adequate funding to really get started and get a sort of get really underway as quickly as possible with this critical safety work.
I want to thank council member Luna para for bringing this item and for also bringing me on as a cosponsor, it'll help fund our constitute our obligation under California state law to expand red curbing around our intersections and crosswalks.
This single and simple improvement works to dramatically enhance pedestrian safety.
It's been proven in the very dense cities of Hoboken and Jersey City, both in New Jersey and elsewhere across the country.
It's really true.
Vision 0 in those cities.
There have been no deaths or serious injuries for the past 5 years at the last time.
I looked at the stats.
Pedestrians can see cars coming with red curbing before they step off the curb and drivers can see pets with more time to prepare to stop.
Daylighting is really critical for public safety.
And the latest news I read was that the cities, the large cities of Oslo and Helsinki are dramatic examples of how this policy has has worked.
Both these cities managed to get traffic deaths per annum down from 20 to 30 per year.
In 1 case to 0, and the other case to near 0.
so really excited that we're taking this step to to enhance safety.
And I'm grateful for council member Luna par's work on this and to staff who will help implement it.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you so much.
We are now moving on to council member.
Thank you very much.
I wish to thank my colleagues for their leadership on items 26, 27 and 28 and I would like to discuss item 22 and wish to move it to action.
Are there 2 other council members? Yes, I would like to do that as well.
And council member Blackaby.
Okay, that item will move to action.
All right, other other comments.
Oh, no, that's all.
Thank you.
Thank you council member.
Thank you very much.
Madam mayor.
Happy New Year to everybody.
I want to thank council member Blackaby for your leadership on reiterating our commitment to be a city of refuge and sanctuary.
I want to acknowledge the fear and pain that many are feeling right now and.
I know council member is an immigrant.
I'm the daughter of immigrants.
We are a nation of immigrants and I, you know, this, this resolution.
I hope reiterates our commitment to our immigrant community here in Berkeley.
I want to thank council member for her budget referral to implement the state's new daylighting law.
And on my item, I want to clarify that we are moving the supplemental 2 to consent.
The supplemental 2 just clarifies the purpose of the referral and also makes clear that the direction that council has provided on the middle housing ordinance has paused any consideration for the hillside overlay zone until we receive the results of our evacuation study.
So, what we are moving forward on is a plan for areas of our city outside of that hillside zone that is prone to fire risk.
So, thank you to my co sponsors on that item.
Council members, Humber Bartlett and Luna Pata and that's all I have.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for your comments and I had seen council member piece light up.
I just want to make sure you did.
You want to speak still? I did.
Okay.
Yeah, it went away.
So just want to make sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, I, I would really want to especially thank council member and co-sponsors for bringing the incredibly important sanctuary city reaffirmation item to us tonight.
I feel very strongly about it and I'm delighted for the opportunity to vote in support of it as part of the consent calendar.
So, I'm going to go ahead and move on to item number 2, which is the public trust policy.
Even though it doesn't represent a change in our policy, I think.
Publicly react from reaffirming this policy is a really essential action to take during this very fraught week.
And I think that's why I think it's so important to actually reaffirm it publicly today because the public trust policy actually lies not just having the policy, but in the public awareness of it and public trust in our policy.
And that's why I think it's so important to actually reaffirm it publicly today.
So, I really want to take this opportunity to speak directly to our neighbors who lack documents and their loved ones.
If you have children, please send them to school.
Please continue to participate in civic life as you have had before you are our neighbors.
You are part of us.
Please.
We welcome you and we will protect you.
I really want that known and heard clearly.
Please, please just believe us when we say that we're here to serve you.
I, I think we should reaffirm this policy at every meeting.
Honestly, we maybe we can add it to our to our land acknowledgement or something.
I really just please spread the word.
Please everybody should know.
We welcome you.
You're part of us.
So thank you very much.
And thanks again for bringing this item.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Council member, did you have another comment? Real quick and councilor brought up, but just to highlight it because again, I know it's an issue that came across a lot of our desk, but on item 26 on the homeownership proposal, just confirming again, this doesn't change any of the, you know, I know the planning directors going back and reworking the proposal, but in terms of new middle housing in the high fire zone.
This doesn't change that exclusion and just wanted to confirm that and make that very clear to folks that that's that's in consideration.
That's part of this right? Council member.
Yes, if that's a question.
Yes.
Yeah, any change to the council direction, which was very clear on a pause for the hillside overlay zone, which is where we have our fire zones 2 and 3.
Yes.
Great.
So, because with that, I'm happy to support it, but that exclusion obviously is important for for us.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, I do think it's so important that we make sure it's clear to the public what it is that we're doing.
I know it can be very confusing and our agendas are very long.
So, thank you all.
I want to make some comments myself about the sanctuary city item again.
Thank you so much to council member black.
Could be and council members and a para and taplin for co sponsoring.
I've joined them as a co sponsor as well.
And I just want to say, as mayor, I think it's really important for me to say that we, as Berkeley reaffirm its status, our status as a sanctuary city, given the new presidential administration and the current political climate.
There are some cities out there that are actively assisting ice and we are taking the stance to reaffirm that we will not be doing that.
And I think that's so important to be able to say.
And I feel very lucky to be in a city where this is not a controversial issue.
I was thank you.
I mentioned outside earlier that I've just been at the US conference of mayors in DC, and I spoke with other cities who aren't able to do this.
So, I feel very grateful to my colleagues that we are all united here in this, we must say vigilant to new and ongoing threats to our community members.
This is a scary time for many folks and as a Japanese American, my family was wrongly incarcerated during World War 2 just because of their identity and I understand that sometimes our community members are not aware of the fact that we are not able to do this.
I understand that sometimes our government makes these decisions and it's important for us on a local level to really stand up and say that that's not right.
I feel it's my responsibility to reassure our residents that they are safe here.
Our country needs to reform our immigration systems and a path to citizenship, not past policies that cause fear and uncertainty.
And until that time, I ask that all Berkeley schools, businesses, places of worship, all places stand united and join the council and affirming our commitment to protecting one another, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, immigration status, or any identity so that Berkeley can truly become a place where we can all live and thrive.
So, thank you all so much for being here today.
I know that many of you are here to speak in support of that and I do want to give you that time.
So, thank you.
Okay, so I would like to close council comments and open public comments on consent calendar and information items only, but although we've moved most things from action over.
Go ahead up whenever you're ready.
Thank you.
I'm conceding my minute.
I'm not sure if there's a.
I'm Lisa Hoffman with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and we strongly support the resolution reaffirming Berkeley as a sanctuary city.
This resolution aligns with EBSC's mission and values and we are proud to be part of this initiative to protect our community members from intimidation and attacks from federal authorities.
EBSC provides legal and social services, community organizing, and education to support low income immigrants and people fleeing violence and persecution.
We reach over 12,000 people every year and help them on their path to citizenship and integration.
As many of you know, the sanctuary movement and EBSC were founded in 1982 by faith congregations in response to the Reagan administration's cover up and support of war crimes and genocide in Central America.
Sanctuary supporters risked arrest and imprisonment by publicly declaring and acting on their commitment to provide sanctuary for the 60,000 Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees fleeing violence and persecution by their own governments.
EBSC has evolved over the past 42 years in direct response to the needs of the refugees and immigrants we serve.
We work directly with undocumented immigrants who come to the San Francisco district to seek safety and begin to rebuild their lives.
Many people we serve have experienced atrocious violence and deserve to be welcomed and supported, not demonized and forced into the shadows.
We want community members to feel safe going to school, the hospital, and places of worship without fear of ICE raids.
All Berkeley residents have the right to access these spaces and live without fear of deportation and family separation, despite the Trump administration's attempted reversal of DHS policy around sensitive sites.
We applaud the Berkeley City Council and Mayor for once again leading the way in supporting immigrant members of our community and working to keep families together rather than tear them apart.
We look forward to partnering with the Sanctuary Task Force to create an ordinance.
Now is not the time to be silent.
Trump's deportation agenda affects all of us and the council and the safety and prosperity of our communities.
Thank you for ensuring that community voices are heard.
Thank you so much for your comments.
I just want to warn you all, I am a stickler for time, so I apologize.
I'm going to be very consistent so that way everyone gets the same amount of time.
I'm really trying to be fair here.
So thank you all so much because I am looking forward to your comments.
So thank you.
Go ahead.
You have one minute to speak.
Oh, my goodness.
Okay.
Hello, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Do you want to move the mic a little closer? Just sorry.
I'm the chair of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission.
And I'm going to read a letter of support passed unanimously by our commission and sent to you.
We thank the author, council member Blackaby, and the co-sponsors, Mary Ishii, council member Luna Pata, and council member Kaplan for bringing this resolution to protect the rights of the individuals and their families.
We thank the author, council member Blackaby, and the co-sponsors, Mary Ishii, council member Luna Pata, and council member Kaplan for bringing this resolution to protect the rights of the over 21% of Berkeley residents who are immigrants in the city and the public safety of all residents.
I'm so sorry, Grace.
You can make sure we'll make sure that we receive your letter as well.
Okay, great.
You've got another minute.
I'll just kind of truncate the letter because there are three points we want to make.
Point one is that we urge the council to go one step further and begin the process of codifying this resolution and the past century act resolutions into a city ordinance.
Given the urgency of the situation, which I've all heard you talk about, our recommendation is that the task force take actions towards ordinance recommendations in the first 100 days of the new term administration.
We also urge this council to allocate funds to the support of community based organizations.
And finally, we ask the commission to amend the resolution to include a call for the repeal of the enemy aliens act of 1780, 1798, which President Trump vote in his promise to detain and deport millions of non-citizens.
Wow, thank you.
Thank you.
I appreciate it and our next speaker.
Thank you on item 10.
I recall these discussions during the pandemic, and I hope we're consulting with other jurisdictions to find out what the delays are in terms of the reimbursement to the city on item.
28 only districts, 1, 2, and 4, I believe, have had the community forms the council talked about moving to item 27.
So, we absolutely need to identify the CEOs and others in the community who have trusting relationships with undocumented immigrants.
The women's day can drop and center, for example, serves undocumented immigrants regularly want to make sure that they're in the loop.
And other ones are also involved in these decisions because we want this to be more than theoretical.
We want this to be pragmatic.
I'm glad to hear 1 of the legal organization speaking.
I believe we have 3 legal organizations in Berkeley that are nonprofits that we should be engaging.
It's going to be extremely important to have that legal support.
Thank you.
Next speaker come on up.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Michael Smith.
I'm with East Bay Sanctuary.
I started there in 1985.
I just want to bring up a couple interesting parallels between those times and this time.
The sanctuary movement got really active in 1982 because of the lies of the Reagan administration saying all these Central Americans were coming to the US for economic reasons.
While we were supporting genocide and massacres in Central America.
The current administration also tells many lies about immigrants, says they're rapists and murderers and criminals.
This coming from a president who is a convicted felon, has been convicted in a civil court of a sexual assault, and has 20 some odd other women accusing him of sexual assault.
So, it's important to see these parallels and declare sanctuary.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Rebecca Gurney.
I also work with East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and I've lived in Berkeley for about 10 years now.
I want to reiterate that this sanctuary resolution and hopefully the ongoing ordinances are a result of grassroots organizing from organizations like ourself as well as other organizations and are rooted in deep fears from our community and the clients that we serve.
As a Berkeley resident, I want my community to feel safe going to school and to the hospital and to places of worship without fear of ice raids.
I think all Berkeley residents should have the right to access these spaces and live without fear of deportation and family separation.
We are standing up for our friends, our family members, our neighbors and our colleagues and all residents should be able to trust in local law enforcement and feel confident they won't be turned over to ice or deported if they send their kids to school or have to go to the doctor.
Now is not the time to be silent.
Trump's deportation agenda affects all of us and the safety and prosperity of our communities.
We are happy to see Berkeley rising to the occasion and standing up to protect the right to sanctuary.
Thank you all for your work on this.
Thank you.
Thank you for your concise comments.
Hello, Madam Mayor Ishii and council members.
It's been a little while since I spoke here.
Usually I speak on other matters, mostly related to housing.
But this time, you know, it's very positive.
And I'm so glad, as Mayor Ishii just said, that we live in Berkeley.
I thought there was actually going to be an argument about this.
You know, I was prepared.
I have materials here that I was going to pass out, but I'm not going to do that.
I'm just going to thank the council and Mayor Ishii for, you know, reinforcing the idea that this is a sanctuary city, that immigrants matter, that we're all immigrants.
And I was just going to say that there are others here who have curated an exhibit at the Berkeley Historical Society about what happened when things go wrong.
In 1942, over a thousand Japanese Americans were removed from the city of Berkeley.
We have them all on a map.
We're gathering their stories.
It was horrible.
But thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Hello.
I'm Sabrina Torres.
I'm a current UC Berkeley student.
I wanted to convey how strongly I support the resolution to reaffirm Berkeley as a sanctuary city.
And I have a little speech to go with it.
More now than ever are protections in sanctuary necessary for immigrants and their families.
When immigrants are being persecuted, understand that it's not only an attack against them, but it's an attack against all of us.
For one, immigrants are the backbone, blood, and soul of this nation, let alone our city.
They are our neighbors.
They are our farmers.
They are our frontline workers.
They are our cooks.
They are our caretakers, our cleaners, our students, our academics, our teachers, et cetera.
In many ways, they do so much more of the heavy lifting than most native-born Americans wouldn't think of doing.
Their persecution would result in disastrous effects for the U.S.
socially, economically, politically, et cetera.

Segment 3

The Berkeley City Council is a coalition of citizens who stand on immigrants much more than we think.
The doors which are in the process of opening, which threaten our citizenship and residency here, threaten all of us.
The political climate at the moment, led by President Donald Trump, threatens to reverse birthright citizenship, not just for immigrants of the past, but for also Americans of tomorrow.
This isn't obviously an unconstitutional initiative.
It reveals a much more sinister reality.
For an attack on all of us, what matters most right now is that we protect those being unjustly persecuted, especially during this unconstitutional nightmare.
We need to protect, we need protection in sensitive areas like schools, hospitals, religious institutions, and public transportation.
We need SB 48 and we need sanctuary.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Good evening City Council.
I'm here to speak in favor of 2 items, 26 and 28.
26 because I own a property with 2 units on it, and if this gets all sorted out, that is the kind of thing that would give somebody an opportunity to own in the future that they wouldn't have otherwise.
And for 28, there's a, for curb daylighting, there's a large van that parks at the end of my block routinely, and it makes it very dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists going by on California Street.
So, we can't get this done soon enough, and I would much rather have curbs painted red than to rely on enforcement from the police department.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next speaker.
I'm going to hold it up.
Hello.
My name is Nancy.
I was born in Berkeley at Alta Bates and I went to the Berkeley public schools.
I'm the daughter of immigrants who lived on 6th Street and University.
My grandfather had a cut flower nursery and he'd be really surprised at 4th Street right now.
I'm here to speaking on behalf of my family who were taken to Tanforan racetrack and the Topaz Utah concentration camp, and I'm also speaking on behalf of Suiting for Solidarity, which is a national immigrant rights, Japanese American social justice organization.
Suzanne and I are members of that today.
I brought a poster and it says Berkeley was not a sanctuary city for my mom in 1942, Berkeley high and Cal grad never again is now when my mother was in 1942, my mother was in LA.
She was an art school, and she decided to take a train up to Berkeley.
So the family would not get separated into different camps.
She had to be fingerprinted.
She's an American citizen, and she had to carry this alien enemy permit to travel.
It says here native of USA, because she wasn't an alien.
And when I think about the trauma of our community, 80 years later, down to me, a 3rd generation Berkeley, and we don't want that to happen again now.
But 80, 100 years from now, children who are separated from their families in camps demonized are feeling the pain of racism, loneliness and discrimination.
Thank you very much.
Council member block could be for offering this resolution and to council member Luna, Taplin and Mayor Ishii for sponsoring this now.
If we had a sanctuary city in 1942, it might have protected the more than 1100.
Berkeley Japanese Americans who were taken away and.
Now birthright citizenship is under attack.
That's all I'm going to say.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing your story.
Good evening.
My name is Karen.
And I'm addressing the chamber tonight in my capacity as a former president and current board member of the Berkeley chapter of the Japanese American citizens league, the oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization in the country.
And I don't think I could say anything more beautiful or moving than what my fellow Japanese American Brooklyn's have already said.
So I will just thank the council very much for this resolution as Japanese Americans and our incarceration history.
We do feel a special duty to stand up for disfavored groups.
And for me personally, and many of my friends both in and outside the Japanese American community, the idea of the rounding up of persons from our community to go to our works and our schools and our neighborhood and to see one day that some of us are people are gone is sickening and terrifying.
And I just thank you so much for being for being strong and for your work.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Hello.
My name is Becca.
I'm an immigration attorney at legal services, which is based just down the street here in Berkeley is a nonprofit legal organization for immigrant community members and we've represented over 1500 plus asylum seekers since our founding in 2017, our clients have fled to the United States after enduring horrific violence in their countries of origin because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV positive status.
Given the prior experiences of persecution, it takes substantial effort for asylum seekers to learn to trust our institutions to seek help medical attention justice or attend school.
Unfortunately, there are more and more places in the US that are not safe for LGBTQ plus immigrants places that seem proud to be unwelcoming even hostile.
Thank you to the city of Berkeley for taking a stand to support our community's rights, safety and human dignity and pushing forward on efforts for city ordinance.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is yellow.
I am a.
A homeowner in Berkeley, having been an alum of UC Berkeley back in the 70s, when it wouldn't have been considered controversial to propose a sanctuary ordinance, but I'm really glad that it isn't now either that Berkeley hasn't changed that much, at least in that regard.
So I would like to encourage the council to consider broadening the resolution a bit because of the kinds of things that our president has stated in recent days, particularly to reaffirm that there are constitutional.
Provisions that we believe in the constitutional provisions that all people born in this country are citizens that that all of them, whether citizen or not have legal rights, a constitutional rights and that Berkeley excuse me and to repeal the alien enemies act and also to just to reaffirm that Berkeley will not.
Will not fall to fear and intimidation of leadership.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening mayor and city council members.
My name is Nathan.
I said about this.
I'm the executive director of the multicultural Institute and with me is really our senior programs director.
Our organization has been was founded in Berkeley in 1991, and since then, 34 years ago, we have remained true to our mission and have served immigrant families and immigrant day labors and domestic workers intentionally and with humanity by providing advancement opportunities at a home away from home and we are not shying away from that.
Now, we will not allow a new administration, the fear of deportation and ice rates or cruel laws to get in the way of our work.
We will continue to fight for a safe and dignified life for all immigrants.
And I want to thank you.
Thank you all for setting up for immigrant community and for supporting our faith and community based organizations and for standing together for a safe and welcoming Berkeley.
I want to thank you again for renewing your commitment to doing the right thing.
And I look forward to working with each 1 of you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Hey, good evening.
Everyone my name is advocates.
Yes, I'm a social justice collaborative.
We're a nonprofit based in Berkeley.
We provide legal services to immigrants with low income who are facing deportation in 2024.
we served over 1400 families and in the last couple of months, we've had a sharp increase in the individual seeking services, resources, information, or anything that might help ease anxiety.
We support the reaffirming of Berkeley as a sanctuary city.
A sanctuary city is a step to help ensure that people can live without the constant fear of displacement.
It's a statement that our community will not contribute to fear separation and harm.
We must ensure Berkeley does not participate in deportation detention or the denial of basic human rights.
The connection between over policing racial and economic inequities and the deportation pipeline is clear.
We need every safeguard possible against systems designed to target and displace our immigrant neighbors.
Berkeley must refuse to be complicit.
And so I thank you for taking the step.
Thank you.
My name is Drew.
I am a pastor at 1st Presbyterian church at Berkeley.
I'd like to speak in favor of the sanctuary resolution.
I want to thank council members Blackby and Lunapara and Taplin and Mayor Ishii for seeking to renew the city sanctuary commitment in light of this current moment.
It is beautiful to see our council united on this issue.
I believe with my whole heart that this is not only the right thing to do, but it is our moral imperative.
This is more than a symbolic gesture.
It is an urgent life saving measure.
With every beloved child of God who is subjected to the violence of detention and deportation, a gaping hole is torn not only in the life of that individual, not only in their family, in their schools, workplaces, worshiping communities, but in the fabric of our city and society.
We intend to exercise our religious freedom and practice our faith by welcoming and protecting the stranger.
And we may not be able to stop all the harm or change everything, but together we can decide who we are going to be.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, my name's Marissa and I am a community organizer for the East Bay sanctuary.
I was going to seed my minute, but I did.
I can use it now to thank you all and to provide testimony that I am organizing know your rights workshops 2 weeks ago.
We had 150 people, 150 allies, friends of say, what can we do to help our neighbors? And last weekend I had I had to give hugs to some of the people that attended the workshop where we were telling them about the rights and several of them just pride because I saw that they needed a hug.
So that's the reality of what we're talking about.
I wish we had more testimonies like that, but I can tell you that's what we are facing from the.
So thank you so much for your example of unity, solidarity and you guys give hope to people.
So, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is George limit and vice chair of the peace and justice commission.
I'll be speaking only for myself.
I've been doing steeped in immigrant rights work for decades and have been in the commission for the last 20 years.
We've been following sanctuary and pushing it forward.
I have I gave consultation on this item and I'm proud of it and I'm happy with everything that's in it fully support it and I want to raise an issue that I don't want to take away from it.
But I just want to point out a question and a challenge to the council and to staff.
Are we really a sanctuary community? Are we really a sanctuary community? When we.
It's a question whether we believe that homeless people are people, or are they a problem? We have to rise above as as Abigail said, we have to challenge ourselves on this and we have to create sanctuary.
And we have to find a way to embrace all the members of our community.
Oh, we're not really actually doing sanctuary.
Thank you.
Let's talk about it.
Thank you.
It's Kim and I'm a resident of Berkeley.
I'm really glad to hear that to be here and find that this sanctuary proposal is so uncontroversial that it is able to move to consent.
Uh, I'm sorry to interrupt you.
I just want to I just noticed the clock is not.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, please continue.
Sorry.
However, it is my opinion that, quite frankly, if if nobody thinks the policy is going too far, then it's probably not going far enough.
And I would like to encourage the council to take this.
Unanimous support for the, for the policy as a signal to go further to continue drafting legislation that will.
Protect immigrants and fight against these things to really.
Write this stuff into law, rather than just affirming it.
And make sure that these, these sentiments are really put into action.
I just wanted to encourage that.
We really work hard on that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, welcome to our new council Kelly here.
Just a couple of things on item 26.
I continually worry in our pursuit of housing that we are ignoring the impacts of covering land with hardscape without thought to the impact on the environment, habitat, ecosystems, biodiversity, water runoff during storms.
These impacts receive no attention at the planning department meetings or in discussion.
And I would appreciate it if we put the environment back on top on the sanctuary city reaffirmation.
Thank you very much makes me proud to be in Berkeley and I'm just like to say the fascist fascist playbook never changes.
It's always about a group to hate and let's not forget our young transgenders who are being so attacked.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening, everybody I need to advise you that for.
I'm going to talk a little bit about what I've been doing for the past 30 years and what I've been doing for the past 30 years.
About 30 years I specialized in post conviction relief and what that meant is I vacated the convictions of immigrants.
And as a result of my work, those convictions were vacated in other words, they did not exist.
So, there besides being a sanctuary city, which is I think is absolutely wonderful.
There is legal remedies to this situation.
And I haven't been practicing laws is about 2006, but I can do it again.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comment.
Okay.
And I'm sorry, wait a minute.
I have been the president of 2 encampments.
I'm sorry.
I'm trying to be really, really strict.
So, everyone gets the same amount of time.
A homeless and cat, but thank you.
Thank you so much.
I know my staff is going to be reaching out to you.
Thank you.
We have another speaker in person.
Hi, my name is Olga.
I'm speaking in my personal capacity.
Thank you so much for introducing this legislation.
I'm an immigrant.
You probably hear my accent still after 25 years.
I came here in 99.
That is a 23 year old who was looking for a bright life in the United States.
It took me about 10 years to get my green card and the terror that people are sharing with you is real.
I didn't run from the country that I would face terrorists, but still I woke up many nights and a week during those 10 years horrified and with horrors.
And when I first was stopped by police officer, yes, I was speeding.
I admit I was pleading with him not to deport me and I'm an educated woman.
I'm very blessed.
So, and still I had to work 10 years as a technician cleaning and doing the job that very few Americans want to do.
So, thank you so much and please support this legislation.
Thank you.
We need to train our police because a lot of people who are coming from countries, they're really terrified.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Did we have online comments? Okay.
And sorry, just to be clear.
So I am moderating the in person, but we've decided that our city clerk will help to moderate the online.
So apologies for stepping on you earlier.
No problem.
No problem.
Right now we have 8 raised hands.
Okay.
So, before we start doing the sanctuary city item, please raise your hand and we'll start with the 1st speaker.
That's Liza.
Let's go.
You should be able to unmute Liza.
Let's go.
Okay, we'll, we'll come back.
Next is Cheryl Davila, former council member.
So, Sanctuary City, I hope it's for.
I just questioned for who I hope it's for everyone.
It includes the unhoused community, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors that are living on the streets are in shelters part time.
And I hope it includes Palestinians and other people, black and brown indigenous communities, because it doesn't seem like he cared about them when it came to not supporting a ceasefire.
And I also don't think it's a great idea to give the clerk the time, the authority to decide who gets in on zoom because I know he's been discriminatory in the past and pretends to give people the mute and, you know, unmute yourself, blah, blah, blah, play games.
So, please don't allow him to do that and take that power back.
It's your, you're the mayor take the power be the mayor.
Thank you.
I just want to briefly speak in defense of our city clerk who I believe is very fair and works very hard to connect to people who are on zoom and sometimes technology is very complicated.
So, thank you so much to our city clerk who has a very difficult job.
So.
Sorry, please continue.
Thank you.
Okay.
Let's try Liza.
Let's go again.
Liza, you should be there.
You go able to unmute.
Yeah, hi here.
Can you hear me? Yes.
Okay, great.
Sorry.
I had some technical difficulties.
So, 1st, just wanted to speak for myself.
Thank you so much for your sanctuary city item.
I couldn't be more proud to hear all of the comments from folks and the unanimous support.
2nd, I'm here on behalf of walk by Berkeley to support.
What is now, I guess, consent item 28 and to just remind you all that day lighting is truly a life saving technology.
We need to make sure that cars are not parked on corners.
80% of our pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries happen at intersections in Berkeley.
This couldn't happen faster.
And we really need the red paint to help remind people because citations can only go so far.
And we really, really need preventive infrastructure, which actually will prevent people from parking in these spots.
It will add to civic life on the streets and it will slow cars down.
So, thank you for pushing this forward in June on your budget.
Thank you.
Okay.
Next is Ren Fitzgerald.
Ren, you should be allowed to, you should be able to unmute.
There you go.
Yeah.
Hi, good evening council.
Ren Fitzgerald, chair of the city's transportation and infrastructure commission that I'm speaking on my own behalf tonight.
I'm speaking tonight in support of council member Luna par is budget referral for day lighting implementation with over 80% of severe and fatal accidents in our city happening near crosswalk.
Daylighting is a paramount solution to Berkeley's traffic violence crisis.
Daylighting alone could result in up to a 30% reduction and pedestrian injuries.
The city manager is yet to give a clear direction on whether beginning April 1st violations, not at a red painted curb will be ticketed.
Luna par's measure is essential to ensuring not only that the city can actually enforce its own legislation, but keep Berkeley safe.
Please vote on this item to ensure that day lighting can do its job and save lives and on the sanctuary city item for reasons mentioned by other commenters.
Thank you.
Okay.
Next is Shirley.
Kirsten.
Can you hear me? Yes, thank you very much.
I'd like to also congratulate you for the sanctuary city resolution.
I'm for it, but I'm here to talk to you about the day lighting loss, which I approve of.
I've sent you all pictures of big rig trucks that are redundantly parking at the intersection.
It's a busy intersection of Hopkins McGee.
They're causing very deleterious blind spots for pedestrians.
They're also causing blind spots for cars, turning down McGee onto Hopkins.
And I've talked to some of the shop owners whose trucks they're contracted with for delivery.
And I'm trying as a private citizen to get the enforcement, but I don't think I can alone do that.
So I ask you to try to get the police and fire department and transportation to enforce the law.
And I really appreciate that you are supporting it.
Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you.
Next is Benjamin fry.
I thank you to counsel and thank you for continuing to allow zoom for joining the meetings for those of us who aren't able to make it down to city hall.
I also wanted to say thank you for supporting the sanctuary city item as well, but I'm calling in support as a resident of district five of the item 28 in support of the budget referral for daylighting support.
Like Shirley mentioned, I would, in addition to all of the red painting that will be going on I'd really like to encourage city council to continue to fund infrastructure improvements that will actually help ensure that drivers are unable to illegally use daylighting spaces, especially around marketplaces like the area that you mentioned at McGee and Hopkins streets.
Those areas also tend to have fewer bike parking spaces, and often get used up.
So putting in things like bike crowds would be a wonderful improvement, and also encourage more shopping in the area.
So thank you for your support, and I hope that the city council will continue to move forward on safer streets.
I, I.
Yeah.
Okay, next is Janice chain.
Thank you, Madam Mayor and city council.
I'm commenting on item 26 which I understand is now on consent.
I applaud the city council's intent to get more affordable housing built in our city.
But what I don't see in any of the proposals regarding middle housing is any guardrails being put in place to require certain income levels or certain housing everything is always being left to market rate.
And I just want to caution you about what you're agreeing to, to give up in return for a hope of more affordable housing, and I'd really like to see more safeguards being put into place, because I do worry about losing all of our open space and all of our family style housing in our city.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next is Virginia browning.
Okay, you can hear me.
Yes.
I'd like to speak on I am 26.
Also, I agree with Janice and with what Kelly hammer grenade said, the theory of this middle housing, and I know you're now calling it middle income here and it ignores the price of land in hedge funds and huge developers have driven up the price of land by this subdividing even when you had a city council person on here who he admitted that this was not going to make things more affordable.
The middle housing that in April of 2024, Lori capital, I admitted that it was not going to make it more affordable.
It was about increasing the number of units.
There'll be market rate expensive.
It's.
I don't know how many people are sincere or just caving in to the wealth mongers that are driving this, but I really wish that as Janice said that you would try and put guardrails on this.
Thank you.
Next is Wendy Alston should be able to unmute.
Yes, thank you very much.
Actually.
I'm sorry I need to rename myself, but my name is Marilyn Cleveland.
I'm a member of the Berkeley friends meeting and the clerk of our accompaniment team and I'm here to speak on item 26 on the sanctuary city motion.
And I want to thank the city council for considering this and strongly urge you to please approve it.
It is really important that we support every member of our community and as a group that has worked with a number of folks who are newly arrived in this area and are seeking a way to.
Make a life for themselves and to also be of service to what will hopefully be their new country.
I am hopeful that we can all join together in supporting every resident of the city, including those who are from other places.
So thank you very much.
Okay, thank you.
Just just a set expectations.
We have a few more comments on zoom and then I do want us to take a vote, but then I will I do want to give council a break because we have been sitting here for a couple of hours and want to model good health and wellness outcomes.
So.
Okay, yes, just have 3 more speakers on zoom next.
The last name is.
And I, a 1st, name as in.
You should be able to unmute.
Hi, my name is I am the executive director of the Northern California land trust.
I'm calling speaking and support of item 12, which includes funds to support the rehabilitation of 2201.
Hey, Street, I want to thank the city of Berkeley city council for your continued support for and for our project on history and for other community projects throughout the city.
I also want to speak in support of your resolution on the centric on century cities.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Next is Richard Ilgen should be able to unmute.
Thank you.
Look, I'm a housing person as council member trade group.
I've known for a long time knows I'm a, I'm a housing person.
I've run a nonprofit housing corporation in the past.
So, I support housing, but I'm surprised that 26 was moved to non consent.
I've seen a lot of the, the, the comments coming in from people written comments on this item.
I think it needs a lot more consideration before you move forward.
There has been no analysis of who benefits from this housing no analysis with this by the city staff of who is going to.
If there's going to be any low income housing created, or what what level of income are going to people are going to be eligible for this house.

Segment 4

Housing.
That's one.
Two is the fire risk.
All right, well, you've exempted the hills for now.
The 1991 fire caused evacuations all the way down to college.
And if that, if the winds had not changed, half of Berkeley would have burned.
That means evacuation plans are important for the rest of the city also.
And concern over density, and there is more density in the rest of the city is also a concern.
So I'd ask that you pay more attention to this when the item comes back.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Last speaker is a phone number ending in 816.
I just remind you that denial by Donald Trump about COVID-19 cost over 1.3 million Americans.
Most other countries had only $10,000 or $20,000.
The sad fact is this country is built by immigrants.
And right now, right now, we have this man coming back.
Nothing good is going to come from him at all.
Immigrants built this country.
In fact, while he did that for COVID, Moderna CEO was Lebanese.
The Pfizer CEO was Greek.
Both are immigrants.
It is pretty sad that state of the country, state of the city brought him back in power.
And our business hired people, hundreds of people over the last 50 years contributed millions of dollars to the federal government, to the state, to the city.
Wake up and do your job as good American should be.
Distance yourself from the ugly picture that Donald Trump bring to him.
This man is symptoms of illness, disease, and fascist.
Thank you and have a good night.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you all so much for your comments.
Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar with the changes that we've made? And actually, do you want to read back the changes we've made? That might be helpful.
Sure.
So yes, the consent calendar is as published.
Item 22 regarding the city council appointments has been moved to action.
And then item 26, expanding home ownership opportunities, item 27, reaffirming Berkeley as a sanctuary city, and item 28, the budget referral for curb marking.
Those 3 have been moved to consent.
Okay, and I think actually council member Kaplan has some comments.
Uh, thank you very much.
I just want to thank everyone who spoke to me and I want to thank Miss for her comments in support of trans youth.
And I also wanted to just say very quickly, and I'm 26, I appreciate the advocacy for open space, affordable housing and and fire safety.
It is not clear to me how increasing ownership opportunities for a wider range of families is a threat to any of those things.
Thank you.
And council member, motion to approve the consent calendar.
2nd, okay, unless there's any objections to many council members, we can all be recorded as I.
Okay, yes, great.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yeah, so.
Thank you.
Thank you all so much for being here and super proud of our council members.
We still have the action calendar.
There is 1 thing.
So, but we are going to take a 5, 10 minute break 10 minute.
Let's give it a 10 minute break because I think it's healthy to stand up and stretch.
It's been 2 hours.
So, thank you all for being here.
Recording stopped better that it's.
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And I have one here.
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I have a wound that hasn't healed.
Okay.
How did you get there? I took the bus.
You did? Yeah.
Okay.
Hi.
Hello.
My name.
Okay.
Yeah.
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Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I love you.
My daughter.
My daughter.
Okay.
Okay.
I'm calling back the council members.
Our break is over.
Thank you to those of you who are still with us.
Okay.
Okay.
Let me start the recording.
Recording in progress.
Okay.
Let me have a new.
Let me get the captioner going real quick.
Sure.
Thank you.
Can you give us some captioning text just to make sure it's coming through? Captioner, if you're there, please stand by.
She says, okay.
Caption test.
Caption test.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
And recording stopped.
There we go.
We're ready.
Nope.
Oh, that's not right.
Let's see.
In progress.
There we go.
Okay.
So I'd like to call this meeting back to session.
Thank you so much.
I'm glad we were able to take a little bit of break before we move on to the action calendar.
Okay.
So the first item on the action calendar is a public hearing.
And I'd like to pass it over to our city manager.
If you'd like to introduce the item.
23.
Sorry, we are.
Yeah.
On item 23.
California, California municipal finance authority bond financing for 2001.
Okay.
So this item is being led by our health housing community services department.
It's a.
A pretty straightforward item that either we are Alameda County could actually take the initiative on.
We don't have a presentation, but we do have.
Our HHS director Gilman here and our.
Housing community services manager.
Margo Ernst is also here.
If anybody has any questions.
They don't have a presentation, but they're happy to answer any questions.
Okay.
So I'm going to pass it over to the staff.
I would like to open public hearing the hope the public hearing and take public comments.
If there are any.
Seeing none.
I'd like to take counsel questions only any council questions.
Okay, I'd like to make a motion to close the public hearing then.
Is there a second second.
Okay.
All right.
I can just say, yeah.
All right.
So it's seeing as long as there are no.
Sorry objections.
Thank you.
If there are no objections, I will have us recorded all his eyes.
Yes.
Okay.
Great.
Then we also need to have council deliberations.
Any operations.
Council deliberation.
All right.
Second.
Okay.
Unless there are any objections, we can also be recorded as eyes here.
All right.
Thank you.
Moving on to item 24.
Which is the changes to select recreation facilities and camps program fees.
City manager.
Thank you, madam mayor.
This is a fee increase.
All right.
Thank you.
I'd like to open the public hearing.
Parks, recreation, waterfront director Ferris is on the line.
In case council has any questions about any of these.
We don't have a presentation.
To share with you tonight, though.
Thank you so much.
I'd like to open the public hearing and take any public comments.
Okay.
I see one here.
Hi, my name is Jerome Solberg and I'm a board member with actors program.
I've been working continuously in Berkeley since 1957.
And then John Hinkle park since 2013, usually about 2 shows a year, not counting COVID.
Last year we produced.
The imaginary invalid and much ado about nothing.
To rave reviews and about 3000 spectators free of charge.
This.
This measure.
Is similar to.
The previous law.
That.
But the previous law increased.
Fees by.
About double what they were in 2023 or 2024 to 2023.
And by my calculations, this will increase.
Even with the discount that's in it.
By about another 8%.
So.
I would just ask.
The council to well, at least approve this.
But consider some, I will send a note about some other.
Thank you.
Details.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
I see another comment.
So under the former.
I can't speak highly enough of the actors.
Company, they are so dedicated to this community.
They put on those John Hinkle productions, but they put out other protections too.
In 2022.
I was looking for any theater company.
To do a production of row so that would be timed around the.
The Dobbs decision and.
And I couldn't be done when I went out to try to do this, and I called blindly and I called the actors ensemble company, and I worked with them on producing.
We co-produced.
Well, within 3 months in Berkeley.
Free.
They provided a public service.
So.
They are still generously contributed to it.
Please look at this carefully and grant them a waiver.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Any other public comments on this item.
Any on zoom.
No hands raised on soon.
Okay.
Then I would like to take council questions only.
Thank you.
I just want to quickly, and I know this isn't a bit of the staff report.
But it'd be helpful just to summarize your process of setting fees, comparing the other jurisdictions, kind of determining what's appropriate, where it was appropriate to increase or leave the same.
Just wonder if you could speak to that process and how you went.
Through it.
I thought about it, especially since I think you guys did it without a consultant report.
You did it with your own kind of knowledge and comparison, but I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the cost comparison.
Definitely.
Can you hear me? Yep.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
Well, there were.
Two different.
Kind of areas of fee increases here.
You saw, we've seen the small increases to Berkeley day camp, Echo Lake camp and Berkeley.
And the cost comparisons are in the back of the study.
So we compared them to a variety of.
Funds.
And we also took into consideration that the, the camps fund.
Which is made up of all three camps plus Casadero and some of our fee classes.
Is a self-sustaining fund.
And needs to be in the black.
And so in order to do that, as you know, Cost raised for camp.
We have to raise fees associated with it because it's not general funding.
We have to raise fees associated with it.
And they're in the back of that report.
And for the most part, we're, you know, especially at Berkeley day camp.
We're way at the bottom of day camp costs.
To our residents.
And the same thing at Berkeley Echo Lake camp.
To all me, we're more in the middle.
In terms of resident camps for family camps of costs.
But keep in mind.
We have a lot of scholarship participants.
To our summer programs last year.
And a lot of them were at these three camps.
So we have a lot of a hundred percent scholarship participants.
The same thing with the fees for the picnic site rentals.
We're actually bringing on a bunch of new picnic sites.
We've had a.
Bunch of requests from residents that we make.
A lot more tables reservable.
So, and there's some changes from some of the fees.
Cedar Cedar rose area, one grow park area.
1 and strawberry Creek area 1, because we've added amenities to those.
Changes and then the discount.
To John Hinkle amphitheater.
That was.
Put in there and that really wasn't done with a whole lot of background, but we, when we did establish that fee several years ago.
So, yeah, I just wanted to make sure.
That we did do comparisons for amphitheaters across the Bay area.
So, thank you.
Yeah, thank you so much.
And I'm glad you touched on the scholarships as well.
Are there other questions from council? Okay, seeing none.
I would like to make a motion to close the public hearing.
Second.
And if there's no, if there are no objections, I'll mark us all his eyes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And again, unless there are any objections from council members, we can all be recorded as eyes.
Okay, great.
Thank you so much.
So for item number 25, I just want to make sure that folks know that the appeal was withdrawn.
And that the Zab decision therefore stands.
And also we're allowing still for public comment though.
So if anyone has any public comment on the Zab appeal, that's item 25.
All right.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
All right, so.
Moving on to our other action items.
There is only one item now in our action items, which is, which was moved from consent.
That's item number 22.
Which is the seating arrangement for the council vice mayor term revision mayoral appointment to city UC student relations committee and 2025 council appointments.
So.
I'd like to introduce.
This item.
First of all, by saying that there was a supplemental again, just as a reminder.
For a CTC appointment.
Which was council member Kessler Wani.
And also our.
In case she's no, not able to make it council member.
So.
Yeah, I think actually just starting this off.
I want to ask if there are any public comments.
About this item.
Did you have a comment on this item? I'm very sorry, but.
Yes, thank you.
So we're actually.
And I'm so sorry, but this is.
I'm so sorry.
This is totally understandable.
On 26.
I'm so sorry, but you know what? We were actually.
Income people, ma'am.
I'm so sorry.
It's not for.
Low income or non income.
Thank you very much.
And actually we heard.
What has to be addressed.
We've heard your comments previously, and I'm so sorry, ma'am.
But we're on.
Excuse me.
35,000.
And you want to go.
Excuse me, ma'am.
I'm so sorry.
But we're actually on item number 22 right now.
People.
What is wrong with you? Excuse me.
I'm so sorry.
Thank you very much for your comments earlier.
I appreciate you bringing this forward to the council.
But I think that of those people.
Who need it the most.
I'm sorry.
Can you remind me? Of this woman's name? They don't need your petty.
They don't need your neck.
Mark.
Can you please remind me of this woman's name? So I can address it by her name.
Marianne.
Just stay Marianne.
I'm so sorry.
I appreciate your comments.
Thank you very much.
Can't help them.
Then what the hell are you doing in office? Thank you very much for your comments.
I appreciate your comments, but.
We've.
We've already voted on that item.
We've, we've actually already voted on this item.
Talk about your conscience.
Your conscience.
On how you put these people.
And thank you so much.
I really appreciate your comment.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate your comments this evening and I thank you so much for being here this evening.
Thank you.
And the folks who are here to hear this next item.
Respectful.
Respectful of this.
I'm going to ask my staff to speak with you and you are welcome to finish giving your comments to them.
Thank you so much for being here this evening, but I want to make sure we have time to move through the rest of our meeting.
My staff member, Anthony is here and he'll speak with you.
And I know he's given you his card, but I, I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
You need to help these people.
Thank you so much for your comment.
Ma'am to judge them.
Marianne.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
If you don't do it.
I feel sorry for you.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments and thank you to Anthony for, for helping her.
Okay.
Are there any other public comments? No.
Okay.
Do we have any comments from council members? Yes.
Council member.
Thank you very much, madam mayor.
And thank you to my colleagues for your indulgence.
I have a point of clarity.
The step two is reflecting.
The council member.
And council member.
Okay.
Okay.
Is there any other questions or comments from the committee? I want to check that in my notes.
Thank you.
Great.
Yeah, so thank you so much.
I respect and appreciate the diversity of perspectives and a range of experiences represented by the proposed committee assignments.
Given the Hills vulnerability to wildfire risk, and the forthcoming evacuation study, I agree that council member.
I do believe agenda and rules would benefit from the experience of senior members who have gone through the legislative process.
Numerous times have seen the evolution of the rules and procedures, and we contribute further to the balance of perspectives, with respect to the assessment of potential council referrals.
Concerning the appointment of the ceremonial vice mayor previously has gone by order of seniority, and yet, for some reason, council member has never been vice mayor, despite serving for 6 years, which.

Segment 5

I'm very pleased to be joined by Council member Rashi Kesarwani and Council member Ben Bartlett, whose leadership on housing policy was always strange to me, to speak for my part.
I believe such an order would be fair and objective.
In addition to appointing Council member Bartlett to land use, and Black to be the public safety, I propose that we appoint Council member Humbert to general rules and Council member Lunaparra to land use, whose leadership on housing policy would be an asset to that committee.
I move that Council member Lunaparra and Council member Kesarwani be appointed in order of election with members elected the same year appointed in order of highest vote getter.
Thank you.
Is that a motion? Council member Kaplan? Oh, yes, I move the affirmations.
Second.
Council member Lunaparra.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I apologize for disagreement, but I am appalled and saddened about what my colleagues are trying to do today.
I want to just put this in context.
This is the 2nd meeting of our new mayor, the 1st woman of color to be mayor and the 1st Asian American mayor.
I'm the 1st Latina to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council.
I represent District 7, the only student supermajority district and represent thousands of engaged, intelligent, passionate young people.
And I do so proudly and wholeheartedly.
And to do so, I sometimes must dissent and I have and will continue to dissent from my colleagues when I and my district disagree from Council consensus.
And when I do, I know that I'm not dissenting alone and I think there's a lot of power in that and it makes for good government and I feel so proud to represent and fight for a better future for us all.
And apparently, some of my colleagues for some of my colleagues that dissent is threatening, even when we share a similar view for a better future of Berkeley and especially after a united front in the support of our immigrant community and against growing fascism at the federal level.
I am so disheartened to see that folks that I have tried very hard to work with, despite and while celebrating our disagreements run with the Trumpist tactic of silencing dissent.
I also want to talk about what this signals to our young residents, especially our young residents of color of whom I only represent some of this is signaling to them that you think that their voices, which are necessary to change the world should be sat to the side.
I want to make it very clear that this is hard and how inaccessible politics is, especially local politics for young people and for dissenting voices is and has pushed out so many people from these spaces.
It has multiple times pushed me out of these spaces.
Unfortunately, and truthfully, my colleagues are playing a game that I don't want to play.
And I find this to be a matter of immaturity.
I know that we all feel a really big shift from the response to a new presidential administration this year versus how we did 8 years ago.
And part of that has to do with the frustration and exhaustion of so many young people, many of whom are and will feel the brunt of the constant marginalization handed down from the federal government.
It's also really ridiculous to know how much time this topic took up for so many of my colleagues.
It is frivolous on transparent and petty.
Our agenda and rules committee is not meant to serve as a small council, and if it does get to decide policy so drastically that it is not working as designed and should be reformed or built a new.
I want to be very clear about the message that this would be sending tonight.
I have been true to myself, true to my district, true to this work and true to a commitment to work with all of you with kindness and respect and collaboration and empathy.
And by trying so hard and so relentlessly to make sure that I am not on agenda and rules, I want you to know that you have bruised the relationships that I thought that we were building.
Thank you.
Honestly, I thought that we were better than this and I really, really hope that we are and regardless of what happens, I will not back down from doing what I know is right or for delivering for my constituents or for the city.
Thank you.
I'd like to create a substitute motion to keep the council member appointments.
I was just going to say, you know, I would not be able to agree on a motion to have a substitute motion between council member black be and council member Bartlett on land use and public safety.
So, that would just be a direct switch.
And of course, including my supplemental as well.
I know you have comments as well.
Council member Kaplan.
So I'll allow you to have those comments.
Of course.
I am a gay black man.
I was raised in section 8 housing.
I am the son of a single mother who has MS and diabetes.
I represent the neighborhood I grew up in West Berkeley.
I have seniors who had their homes foreclosed.
I have isolated elders who have nothing.
I'm not a Berkeley graduate.
But I represent my district, the choices I make.
Are in the interest of the city and my constituents.
I have nothing against any of my colleagues.
I strive to find things to work with all of you on and I revel in that.
I cherish that.
I cherish each of the relationships I've built with every last 1 of you, whether we agree, whether we vote the same, whether we disagree, whether we fight, we are 1 council.
And I do not wish to treat intersectional identity discourse as some kind of defensive joust.
But suffice to say that I consider it a service to set discourse if members with different identity expressions are prohibited from dispute.
Thank you.
Are there other comments? I have 1 more comment.
I want to say that it's unusual for committee assignments to be challenged in this way that typically the mayor has made appointments and the council approves them.
And I worked very hard to try to assign folks things that I thought would be appropriate, given your interests and also your areas of expertise.
And just that I'm disappointed that there's such opposition to council member being on agenda roles committee.
Our society has often has an order that's based on seniority and I really see this.
My election is a chance to shake things up and give others leadership opportunities.
So I'm disappointed that this is happening.
And let's be clear about what that means.
The agenda and rules committee can send an item back to committees for work, but it does not have the power to veto an item.
The general committee is not an executive committee or a mini council.
It's a group that was created to streamline our council meetings and determine if an item needs more work.
And also, I just want to say this is no reflection on my feelings for council member Humber.
I have so much respect for you and I'm sure that you would also do an excellent job.
This is about giving others an opportunity.
And I also want to speak to the comments that were made earlier, or the item, the part of the item that's about vice mayors and say that, of course, that that was not meant as an insult at all.
And I am very sorry, council member, if you're insulted by that, I want to say that this was my hope and my vision for Berkeley that we give others opportunities for leadership that we sort of went back and forth between a long time and a newer council member to allow for that to happen.
And, you know, I think that the question when coming back to council member than a part of being on agenda and rules are not the question that we should really be asking ourselves is if council member Luna par will prepare for these meetings and move the agenda forward without political delays.
Not if your policies align with her.
This is not a political appointment.
It's a process 1.
this is about process and moving things forward.
So I just want to level set there and share my my feelings on this matter.
And, you know, I just I also want to thank my colleagues for engaging on this in a simple manner.
I really appreciate all of you and the work that you do.
And regardless of what happens, we will all move forward together.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So there's a substitute motion on the floor.
I'd like the clerk to call role, please.
Okay, substitute motion to.
All in favor.
Opposed.
Motion and step 2 for the AC transit committee and to include.
Switching council members Bartlett and black could be on the public safety and the land use committee.
On the substitute motion council member Kessler wanting no.
Yes.
Yes, black would be no.
Yes.
And Mary she.
Yes, that motion.
Fails and we can go on the main motion.
All in favor.
Opposed.
And the land use.
Committee to switch council members Humber and Luna par.
And on the public safety committee and land use.
To switch council members Bartlett and black could be.
To include the.
Vice mayor order.
That the order or the sequence for vice mayor.
Would be by seniority.
Yes, that's correct and in the event.
Of a tie in seniority.
That tie would be broken by.
By.
The person who received more votes.
In their most recent election.
Yes, I guess we'll.
Figure that one out and amend the.
Resolution accordingly.
Okay, on the main motion.
All in favor.
Opposed.
Yes.
That's where Bartlett is absent.
I.
No lack of B.
Yes.
Can I make a comment in connection with my vote.
Is that protocol.
I want to say that I haven't lobbied for an appointment to agenda and rules.
I have not lobbied for an appointment to agenda.
I have not lobbied for an appointment to.
And I was moved by her.
Her comments.
But having heard.
That.
For other council members on the dais would like me to serve.
I would be willing to do so.
And hence, I'm going to vote.
Yes.
And Mary, is she.
No.
All right.
We are going to move on to public action items.
Our information items were already presented by our city auditor.
And.
We are, are there any public comments for items? Not on the agenda that we didn't hear earlier in this meeting? Someone from the audience is coming forward.
Hi mayor and city council.
Good evening.
I'm here to talk to you guys tonight as a parent of a 7th grader at Longfellow middle school.
Coming to you guys with concerns.
That other parents and myself have.
And the neighbors.
And.
Teachers and staff having house affordable housing.
The concern is with.
The traffic, which is going to occur on Virginia.
And Curtis when our school.
Entry and drop off switches in end of February, we're going to be able to make it safe for our students.
And.
Finish your sentence.
Yeah.
There's already been incidents where students and other people have been struck.
And just asking the city to work with the school district to make it safe for students.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate you bringing that forward to us and collaboration is important.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are there any other public comments.
On zoom.
There's one.
Non-agenda comment on zoom.
Okay.
That's Robert.
Hello.
Can you hear me? Yes.
Okay.
My concern is that I got a ticket on Dana.
Yeah.
I was going to put it on the right side of the meeting, but I misplaced the ticket.
I put it on the.
Right side.
Of the dashboard instead of the left side.
To try to make it easier for the meter made.
But apparently.
They took a picture.
And I went to dispute the ticket.
And they reviewed it and they said.
That, that it was not acceptable.
So I went to dispute it.
I went to fight it.
But it was Christmas.
I was out of money.
I'm on a fixed income on a senior citizen.
I only get social security.
I'm disabled.
And so what happened was that.
By the time I got the money, I wanted to dispute it, but time went by.
So by the time I got around to going.
Every time I went, it was closed because it's only open four days a week from 11 to two.
And so.
By the time I got my money to be able to pay the ticket, it was at $73.
And so what I feel that we should maybe follow a San Francisco system.
Where.
If you, if you take the money out of my account, you know, I paid.
And I, and I, and I wrote in my response.
When I wrote to appeal my ticket.
I paid, but.
I don't feel like the proof is that I paid the ticket.
So I think it's just kind of a game.
To, to not accept my response that I paid it, which you have the proof because you took the money out of my account.
So I feel like if I'm going to pay $73.
Then you should pay.
If I'm not going to be honored for paying the parking ticket, you should return the money.
That I paid for the parking meter, I should return the money that I paid for the parking meter.
That's fine.
Okay.
Sorry, Mark.
I know.
That's fine.
Okay.
So any other public comment? Okay.
I would like to make a motion at the request of council member.
To adjourn in memory of those who died, who perished in the fires in Southern California.
Is there a motion? Oh, I guess I'm making the motion.
So is there a second? Sorry.
All right.
If there are no other public comments, then I will have us Mark dollars.
I okay.
Okay.
We are adjourned.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, everyone.
Thanks for being here.