Berkeley spent nearly $1 million in overtime in 2017 to staff 911 center

Berkeley’s 911 Communications Center spent nearly $1 million in overtime in 2017 to make up for continuing vacancies and under-budgeted positions according to a new report from the Berkeley City Auditor. Without sufficient staff, it is also taking longer for Berkeley dispatchers to answer 911 calls. The faster a police officer, firefighter, or paramedic can get to the scene, the better the chances of a good outcome.

“As Berkeley continues to grow as a city, more people will need access to city services,” said Berkeley City Auditor Jenny Wong. “The 911 center is the first line of responders for emergencies in Berkeley. With predicted population growth, Berkeley will soon need even more resources to ensure all emergency calls are answered and dispatched in a timely manner.” Understaffing and subsequent excessive overtime needed to maintain dispatch services has taken a toll on the morale of dispatchers. All dispatchers who were interviewed or surveyed during the audit felt that morale in the workplace was low, and a significant cause is related to under staffing. 

Studies have shown that in law enforcement and across other industries, working excessively long shifts, particularly those that are 12 hours or more, can lead to fatigue and safety-related incidents, and decrease quality of service, communication, and cognitive performance. The audit recommends that the Police Department conduct a thorough staffing analysis and create a new recruitment and training plan. A staffing analysis will allow the Police Department to determine appropriate staffing levels and provide information to inform future budgeting decisions. Having appropriate staffing levels will decrease the reliance on overtime and relieve the burden placed on overworked dispatchers. 

The audit also recommends that the Police Department implement programs to increase morale and communication, including establishing a comprehensive stress management program. “Our dispatchers are highly training professionals who take great pride in what they do for our community,” said Auditor Jenny Wong. 

The Police Department has agreed with the recommendations. The Department plans to conduct a staffing analysis, improve recruitment and retention efforts, and create a comprehensive stress management program for dispatchers. To read the full report and Police Department response, please visit: http://bit.ly/2DvbCpv 

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The Berkeley City Auditor works to promote transparency and accountability in Berkeley government through independent evaluations of City programs and activities. For more information visit www.cityofberkeley.info/auditor and sign up to receive email updates https://conta.cc/2OL2CAW.

University of California at Berkeley is hosting a #BirddayParty Thursday after Annie and Grinnell, the peregrine falcons that have set up household atop the campus' iconic Campanile bell tower, welcomed three new chicks to their nest this week. 

The due date for the hatchings was Thursday but Mother Nature intervened a day early for two of the chicks. The third chick then began working its way out of its egg Thursday morning. 

The hatchings were captured live on the Campanile's nest cam, available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaJuC-rxVAQ, and are being live-streamed until 6 p.m. on the massive outdoor screen at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at Addison and Oxford streets in downtown Berkeley. 

For the free viewing event, naturalists will be stationed at a booth throughout the day to provide expert commentary and answer questions about how the peregrine chicks "pip" - raptor-biology-specialist speak for "break through the shell." 

Arguably the most prominent members of the East Bay's raptor community, Annie and Grinnell have made the Campanile their home since 2017, hatching two chicks that year and three in 2018. They now have a fan base across and beyond the Cal community. 

They even have their own social media handles and have been posting periodic updates about their expectant family via Facebook, Twitter (@CalFalconCam) and Instagram (@cal_falcons). Followers are encouraged to send their warm wishes to the happy couple using the hashtag #CalFalcons. 

Peregrine falcons, the world's fastest birds, have recovered spectacularly in North America thanks to the Endangered Species Act. While only two peregrine pairs were known to nest in California in 1970 -- the population low -- more than 400 pairs are estimated to flourish in the state today. To bring this event to the Berkeley community, BAMPFA has partnered with the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the East Bay Regional Park District, the Institute for Wildlife Studies, and the Institute for Bird Populations.

An intense human drama is playing out in Washington at this very moment but the US media is paying scant attention. Undeterred by the embarrassing failure of its recent attempt to topple Venezuela's elected government, the Trump administration continues to plot "regime change" for the "illegitimate" government in Caracas. Only now, it's preparing to take action closer to home. 

In the latest anti-Maduro twist, the White House is quietly working to seize Venezuelan "assets" inside the US and hand the trophies over to self-declared "president" and opposition leader, Juan Guaido. These assets include Venezuela's Consulate Office in the nation's capital. 

Rumors are swirling that Guaido's local forces (backed by the real Troika of Tyranny: Trump-Pence-Bolton) are planning to attack and seize the Embassy Building "on or after April 25." 

On March 18, the Guaido Faction seized Venezuela's military attaché building, with the generous assistance of the US Secret Service and the local DC police. A similar operation on the same day seized control of the Venezuelan Consulate in New York City. 

In response, a group of US activists has boldly moved into the Embassy to stand up as a nonviolent defensive force. The activists—from well-known anti-war groups like Popular Resistance and CODEPINK (led by former Bay Area resident Medea Benjamin)—have dubbed themselves "The Embassy Protection Collective" (Colectivos Por La Paz). 

Camped out in the building 24-7, they are prepared to confront any attempt by the "illegitimate opposition to try take the embassy with the help of the Trump administration." 

Meanwhile, all of this growing drama remains invisible to the corporate media. 

 

Countering the frequent claim that Nicolas Maduro's election was "fraudulent," defenders of the embattled government cite former US president and international election watchdog Jimmy Carter, who has declared: "Of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." 

"We are staying in the Venezuelan embassy with the permission of the legitimate Venezuelan government under President Nicolas Maduro," the collective explained in a recently issued Declaration. "We seek to provide a nonviolent barrier to the threatened opposition takeover of their embassy in Washington, DC by being a presence at the embassy every day of the week for 24 hours a day." While they wait, the vigilers are hosting political forums, concerts, and anti-war art displays—and they are asking individuals and organizations to sign on to the Declaration by clicking here: http://bit.ly/EPCDeclaration.  

Molly, Naomi and AOC Paint a Vision of Hope 

On April 17 2019, The Intercept gave our troubled world a glimpse of a better future. It came in the form of a seven-minute film written and narrated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Beautifully illustrated with Molly Crabapple's live-action brush strokes, “A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” paints a picture of a future world where the Green New Deal has brought universal healthcare, clean energy, and human-based job options to all Americans. At the same time, our future world is fated to suffer from extreme weather and other threats of climate change. (The film forcefully condemns the powerful oil interests who knew as early as the 1970s that carbon pollution was disrupting the climate.) 

 

Note: AOC's video is accompanied by a fine article by Naomi Klein. 

Ax the Tax: Needed—Cuts for the Needy Not the Greedy 

Back in September 2017, Donald Trump announced plans to radically transform the annual agony of income-tax filling creating a tax return that would be "simple enough to file via a postcard." 

Another promise made. Another promise not kept. 

The proposal had popular (and populist) appeal. After all, if it's so bloody important for Washington to collect taxes, you'd think they might want to make the process quick, simple, and understandable. 

Instead, Trump's mini-1040 forms and ponderously long schedules looked like something cooked up by teams of demonic tax consultants and swarms of online tax-filing software firms all trying to sow confusion and increase business. 

Trump's latest Infernal Revenue Statement came with a new innovation—half-sized 1040 forms with accompanying instructions in type so small as to be unreadable by the unaided human eye. Adding to the eyestrain, some of the forms even came contained frickin' footnotes! Here's one example: "From Sch. C, line 7; Sch. C-EZ, line 1; Sch. K-1 (Form 1065), box 14, code C; and Sch. K-1 (Form 1065-B), box 9, code J2." Thanks for the help. 

It's time for Congress to pass a law agreeing to either (1) simplify tax filing or (2) start paying taxpayers for their time and trouble! 

Barbara Lee Shares Our Pain 

Our local political hero, Barbara Lee, is in a position to help reform the tax monster. As she recently wrote: 

"The GOP promised to give breaks to everyday families. But here’s the truth: their tax scam gave massive cuts to corporations and the top 1%, while leaving everyone else in the dust. 

"Just take a look at the numbers — Republicans handed millionaires and billionaires $17 billion in savings and gave huge corporations a 14% tax cut, ultimately adding $1.9 trillion to the national debt. 

"To make up for the debt, Trump wants to slash programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from people who desperately need them. It’s appalling." 

The Climate's Changed: Weather We Like It or Not 

Planetary Emergency, indeed. If you need any more proof that the global weather is out of whack, just take a look at the daily weather maps in the San Francisco Chronicle. Before the climate began to crack, jet streams would traditionally appear traveling serenely across the US from West to East in predictable "stream-like" flows. Now the tracks of the jet stream over the US have become other-worldly—instead of west-to-east they have doubled back, moved from north to south, separated into twin streams, halted in mid-stream, and—on some recent days—vanished entirely.  

 

The power of the stream has been weakened by rising temperatures and, as the force of the stream weakens, it is less able to push its way around the world along the most efficient path. Instead, the steam is slowing down and beginning to meander erratically. 

This "ox-bowing" of the jet stream has brought Arctic cold from the North Pole down to North Carolina, created massive slow-moving rainstorms that pounded the same states for days, and unleashed freakish "bomb cyclones" that caused both white-outs and black-outs. 

More Dire News from Our Suffering Planet  

While the jet stream has begun to amble unpredictably across the northern and southern hemispheres, other troubling changes are afoot closer to the North Pole. In another troubling development, the North Pole is on the move. Over the past ten years, the movement of Earth's magnetic pole has increased radically, requiring elaborate corrections on the part of global military forces, airlines, and communications satellites. 

Between 1900 and 1990, the magnetic North has migrated about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). But in February, scientists who update the World Magnetic Model reported that the magnetic north has covered 1,000 km within the past 19 years. The motion, which has been called "unprecedented," has also been accompanied by an increase in geomagnetic pulses. 

What's causing this sudden aimless migration? Here is my theory: the loss of the massive weight of polar ice (caused by Arctic temperatures that are rising higher and faster than any other place on Earth) is causing the buried landmasses to rise (picture a 200-pound teen jumping off a trampoline). This relatively sudden upward release creates room for the planet's hidden iron-rich and electrically conductive magma to expand and move. This increased motion could account for the accelerated migration of magnetic North. The melting of the poles would also allow the massive uplift of landmasses connected to tectonic plates, which would be expected to trigger increased seismic activity around the planet's earthquake-prone Ring of Fire. 

William Brown, a geomagnetic specialist with the British Geological Survey, attempted to reassure the public—but failed. "Don't panic," Brown stated, "It's not something that we understand how it works, but we're aware that it happens." 

Trump's Boot Heels Land in Colombia 

 

Minga march for indigenous land rights in Colombia. 

Writing emails to the White House never prompts a reply, so I was surprised when I received an email response from the President of Colombia. I had signed a petition calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict that has oppressed Colombia's indigenous Minga peoples in their long struggle for land rights. 

The message (from Alfy Rosas Sanchez, writing on behalf of President Ivan Duque) was reassuring: "We appreciate your critical and constructive attitude," the note began. "Mr. President of the Republica has developed several efforts aimed at solving the problems" (i.e., land grabs and armed violence targeting Minga protesters). Rosas Sanchez noted that 25 days of negotiations would soon be capped by a presidential visit to the department of Cauca to secure a just agrrement. 

It didn't happen. When Duque arrived in Cauca on April 9 to sign an accord to end the violence, he stopped 200 yards short of the negotiating table. He then turned his back and returned to Bogota. 

What accounted for Duque's unexpected turnabout? 

Well, two days before Duque's visit, his mentor—former president Alvaro Uribe, aka "Father of Colombia's Death Squads"—had fired off a disparaging tweet to the effect that if the authorities were involved "in a massacre it is because there is violence and terror from the other side." 

The US-based Alliance for Global Justice (now on-the-ground in Colombia, monitoring the situation) noted another cause for Duque's sudden about-face: "He is not just responding to pressure from his patron, Alvaro Uribe. He's also taking his lead from Washington, DC. The Trump administration is waging its own assault on Colombia's peace process and funding the very armed forces that have been attacking the Minga." 

There is a new message now being directed at Duque. It reads: "If Colombia is not safe for the Minga, how can it be safe for tourists?" To sign on, click here. 

UCB seeks 500% increase in student enrollment over 2020 plan

What’s in a name? Quite a bit sometimes, as readers of the University of California’s latest environmental document have learned. Fortunately for citizens and taxpayers in Berkeley, those careful readers have included City staff and elected officials.

In February the University issued a “Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report [SEIR]” for a project named “Upper Hearst Development for the Goldman School of Public Policy and Minor Amendments to the 2020 Long Range Development Plan [LRDP].”

The “Upper Hearst Development” as described in the SEIR, consists of the partial or complete demolition of the parking structure at the corner of Hearst and La Loma at the northeast corner of the campus and the construction of a new academic building and an apartment building. University staff and faculty concerned about already scarce workday parking have objected to the demolition of the parking structure. Neighbors have objected strenuously to the overbearing scale of the apartment house next to a quiet neighborhood of historic homes and the failure of the SEIR to analyze the impacts or even to acknowledge them.

However, it was left to the sharp-eyed readers in city hall to examine the rest of the SEIR title “…and Minor Amendments to the 2020 Long Range Development Plan.” In a 456-page comment letter City staff and consultants have essentially accused the University of attempting an end-run around previous environmental studies about University enrollments. The City notes that while the SEIR tries to say that “ the ‘Project’ is nothing more than the expansion of the Goldman School of Public Policy, which involves the demolition of two parking areas and the construction of an academic building and one housing structure…” it is clear the “University is also purporting to analyze the environmental impacts of dramatically increased enrollment—nearly five times the increase anticipated in the 2020 LRDP.” If you are going to do this, the City says, then you must consider these two distinct projects in separate documents and you must do a complete analysis of both. 

In its comments the City notes that the University has tried to gloss over the enrollment increases by calling them a new “baseline.” Not so fast, says the City. The figures hidden in the SEIR represent an increase of 8,000 students over the 2020 LRDP with a projected increase to 11,000 more students by 2023. This means an increase to city population of about 9% with impacts on city services such as police, fire and social services. This will reduce response times for emergency services and possibly require building new facilities. Since the enrollment is a 500% increase over the enrollments in the 2020 LRDP and since the University does not house most of its students, it will also exacerbate the city’s problems with housing and homelessness. 

As the City further explains in its comment letter, the University has attempted an illegal strategy to use the Upper Hearst SEIR as a way to justify its enormous increase in enrollment, by claiming to “tier” the SEIR on the earlier EIR prepared for the 2020 LRDP. Tiering is a concept allowed under the California Environmental Quality Act for conducting environmental reviews in sequence, from the general (the 2020 Long Range Development Plan) to the specific (the Goldman School buildings). The idea of tiering is to avoid duplicating efforts and make the subsequent environmental documents specific to the impacts of the specific project. The problem, as the City notes, is that the enrollment increases described in the Upper Hearst SEIR represent a fundamental change from the enrollments envisioned in the EIR for the 2020 LRDP. The 8,000 students figure in the SEIR is “patently inconsistent” with the previous figure of 1,650 students. Tiering would only make sense if the University were still adhering to its 2020 LRDP. It isn’t. 

The City’s comments don’t ignore the specific impacts of the project. For example, they describe as incomplete and insufficient the discussion of truck traffic generated during construction; they echo citizen’s comments about the impact on historic neighborhoods. But the City’s comments focus on the broader impacts caused by the enormous increases in University enrollment and the University’s attempt to somehow sweep these impacts under the rug of an SEIR for one project at one corner of the campus. 

The City’s motivations are not hard to discern. The first attachment to the basic comment letter analyzes City costs attributable to the University. Even after taking into account increased revenues from sales taxes, vehicle registration fees, and gas taxes, the annual cost to the City has gone from $11 million in 2003 to $21 million in 2018. Police costs attributable to the University have gone up 126%; fire and emergency services costs have gone up 73%. Costs for City staff and outside consultants to generate 456 pages of comments cannot have been insignificant. Clearly someone at city hall has serious concerns. 

For those who want the details, all 456 pages are online at https://drive.google.com/open?id=15u9BmMIpoEltAg6JfumcH5kR6EeP-SVC 

 

 

The Bay Area Book Festival—one of the world’s premier literary celebrations—will bring nearly 500 speakers and exhibitors to Downtown Berkeley for its fifth anniversary event, May 4 and 5, 2019, from 10 a.m. to 9:00 p.m each day. Using indoor theaters throughout downtown plus Martin Luther King, Jr. park, the Festival includes interviews, panels, performances, exhibits and a free Outdoor Fair.

Since 2015, the Festival has been widely recognized for the quality of its authors, its international scope and its commitment to social justice. “The festival presents a diverse array of authors, many of whom are exploring some of today’s most urgent, complex issues, including economic inequality, race, immigration, and climate change,” said founder and director Cherilyn Parsons. 

“But we also include fun conversations such as ‘Nordic Noir’ featuring bestselling authors who have flown to us from Scandinavia. The musician Moby also makes an appearance this year—as does the creator of the comic strip ‘Cathy’!” 

Headliners 

Saturday night’s keynote features former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Anand Giridharadas, author of “Winners Take All.” For the Sunday night keynote, Albert Woodfox, who was wrongfully held in solitary confinement for four decades, will be interviewed by Shane Bauer. The closing event presents the Bay Area premier of “Above the Fold,” a documentary on journalist Robert Scheer, with Scheer in person. 

Other authors will come from every corner of the literary world—from Young Adult and memoir to nonfiction and cooking. Featured authors include Pulitzer Prize winners Carlos Lozada and David Blight, the entire Kellerman family of bestselling crime writers, Facebook insider and vocal critic Roger McNamee, queer Native poet Tommy Pico and undocumented activist and Pulitzer recipient Jose Antonio Vargas. 

Additional headliners appear in the festival’s new Writer to Writer conversation series, which includes novelists Esi Edugyan (“Washington Black”) with Tayari Jones (“An American Marriage”); Joyce Carol Oates with André Alexis, author of “Days of Moonlight”; Ishmael Reed with young poet Morgan Parker; Carmen Maria Machado (“Her Body and Other Parties”) with Lacy Johnson (“The Reckonings”) and “Unquiet” author Linn Ullmann with her editor and fellow novelist Geir Gulliksen. 

Other special sessions include a tribute to Lawrence Ferlinghetti on his 100th birthday, a celebration of The Paris Review with its new editor, a screening of “The Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin,” and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performing original compositions inspired by the work of Bay Area poets. 

Free Outdoor Fair and Children’s Programs 

During the weekend a free Outdoor Fair takes over Martin Luther King Jr. Park, with live literary presentations on four stages as well as independent booksellers and book artists, literary organizations and writing associations, educational institutions, libraries, publishers and scores of authors from a range of genres. 

Half Price Books will return to the Outdoor Fair with their book giveaway. New this year are the Wunderbar Together Pavilion, an exhibition celebrating German-American Friendship, and a new food court in association with La Cocina, the acclaimed San Francisco-based food industry incubator supporting primarily women of color and women from immigrant communities. 

An outdoor stage will host two performances of the internationally acclaimed Literary Death Match, a thrilling, humor-centric competition between established and emerging authors—the first ever for young adults and for middle-graders. 

Kids can enjoy a dedicated outdoor stage and a storytelling circle, as well as an interactive Family Fun Zone. Top children’s authors such as Mac Barnett, Innosanto Nagara (“A Is for Activist”), and Annie Barrows (“Ivy and Bean” series) regale kids. Two-time Grammy-nominee Alphabet Rockers will host a program of hip-hop, craft-making and community action. 

 

How to Attend

The schedule of ticketed events is available at www.baybookfest.org. 

 

Literary sessions take place in a dozen venues downtown and on outdoor stages. Shows in outdoor venues are free, and a $15 General Admission Wristband grants access to all indoor sessions all weekend on a space-available basis. Guaranteed seating in indoor programs can be accessed through Priority Tickets at $10/session. Youth under 18 attend for free. Wristbands and tickets can be purchased easily online or at four Box Offices at the event. 

The Festival’s Friends program is an ideal way for attendees to receive wristbands and Priority Tickets while also supporting the nonprofit festival. 

The 2019 Bay Area Book Festival is made possible through support from the City of Berkeley and scores of sponsors, foundations, consulates, and individual donors. The Festival’s three major media sponsors are the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and Berkeleyside. Support also comes from KPFA, KALW, BART, Mother Jones, BOOKFORUM and other outlets. 

Manufacturing consent: It’s a great concept, so intuitively powerful that it figured in Walter Lippman’s seminal 1922 book Public Opinion and was recycled in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, and then was the title of a 1992 film about Chomsky. I might have read the Chomsky book, but if so I can’t remember it, but what’s stuck in my imagination is the title, which is easily capable of quick application in the never-ending quest for how to make government work for the people instead of for the powerful.

This week’s lesson offers a stellar example of how it’s done these days in the Berkeley context.

Exhibit A was proposed in early March by Berkeley councilmembers Droste, Bartlett, Robinson, and Kesarwani, starting with this agenda item: 

“Refer to the City Manager to prepare a report to the Council of examining methods, including potential revisions to the zoning code, that may foster a broader range housing types across Berkeley, particularly missing middle housing types (duplexes, triplexes/fourplexes, courtyard apartments, bungalow courts, townhouses, etc.), in areas with access to essential components of livability like parks, schools, employment, transit, and other services. Given the range of requests included in this referral, it is expected that responding to the referral will require a combination of field research, consultation with design professionals and other cities and agencies, and community outreach and engagement. Council requests that staff initiate this work as soon as possible. Financial Implications: See report.” 

This proposal first appeared on the agenda for a March council meeting that also included a very controversial RV ban, so it was postponed until next week’s meeting. It’s on Tuesday's agenda, now with numerous incorporated and proposed revisions from other councilmembers. 

“Manufacturing consent” being attempted here is the city of Berkeley’s contractual use of a commercial application called “Berkeley Considers”. Here’s the pitch for the product, found by Google on the City Manager’s website: 

“Berkeley Considers is an online forum for civic engagement. Read what others are saying about important Berkeley topics, then post your own statement. Comments will be submitted to City officials as part of their decision process. 

“Berkeley Considers is run by OpenGov, a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden civic engagement and build public trust in government. “ 

What’s not to like about that? But then it gets a bit gnarly: 

“When you post your first statement, you will be asked for your name and home address. This confidential information is used only by OpenGov to identify statements from residents in and near Berkeley - so that users know which statements are from local residents. They will keep your information confidential, they do not accept advertising, and they will not share contact information, as noted in the company's Privacy Policy. The City of Berkeley does not currently require participants to show their name in order to participate. All Berkeley residents, regardless of immigration status, are welcome to provide feedback.” 

So you don’t have to show your name to the public, but you do have to give your name to the city officials and presumably also to their corporate supplier. Just mentioning immigration status is enough to scare off some would-be responders. 

Figuring out how to get to the next step from this screen in order to register my opinion was not at all easy, even though I’ve been using computers since 1968 and have an in-house computer scientist to advise me. The interface to the whole process was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. 

Next, there’s this information: 

“This topic has 503 visitors and 279 responses. That's 14.0 hours of public comment @ 3 minutes per response. It is now closed to participation.” 

And here we have the first misleading statement: public comment @ 3 minutes per response? 

In what parallel universe would we find this? Not here in Berkeley, where comments at City Council meetings are now limited to 1 minute, and councilmembers often leave the dais while citizens are addressing them. 

So now the whole process is closed to public participation? When was it closed, and who closed it, considering that the Missing Middle scheme’s details were open for amendment proposals right up until yesterday? 

There are two glaring faults with using this proprietary program as a guide to public opinion. 

First, it’s junk science. 

The city of Berkeley occasionally pays for genuine professional surveys with samples selected by accepted techniques, but this kind of pseudo-scientific polling is worthless, and worse than worthless, easily manipulated. 

If any hypothetical advocacy group—YIMBYs, e.g.—wanted to dominate the votes with fabricated voters, it would be dead easy, trust me. How about just posting some local address and using a made-up name? 

I won’t reveal my methodology, but let’s just say that despite my longtime computer use I’m no pro, but it took me less than four minutes to use a faux identity to join the surveyed cohort when the topic first appeared despite this claim: 

“When you post your first statement, you will be asked for your name and home address. This confidential information is used only by OpenGov to identify statements from residents in and near Berkeley - so that users know which statements are from local residents.” 

. Local residents, indeed. In your dreams. 

And anyway: 279 responses? In a city with 100,000+ residents? Even if all 279 are real people, that’s nowhere near enough data on which to base important decisions. This method also biases the results in favor of well-off computer-savvy respondents with functional equipment. 

Spending public money to collect this tiny bit of worthless information is just foolish. 

The second problem is that we’re being asked to donate our data to a company which is, yes, “non-partisan”, but is certainly not non-profit or even non-commercial. It is, however, non-regulated, and do you know what they’re doing with your data? Or who they are? 

Most honest citizens will supply their genuine personal data to OpenGov. How can they be sure that it’s not used for other purposes? 

From the corporation’s website: 

“The company is backed by notable names including … a venture-capital firm started by Joshua Kushner, brother of White House adviser Jared Kushner.” Does that give you confidence? 

Listed as a member of OpenGov’s board of directors is Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist partner of Ben Horowitz, son of David Horowitz, the rabid ultra-conservative crony of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. 

In all fairness, we should note that Ben and his siblings, who went to Berkeley High with my daughters, don’t seem to share Dad’s screwy politics. But it should not be necessary to entrust your personal data to an entrepreneurial tech startup with dubious connections in order to make your voice heard in Berkeley. 

And those are only the names that I recognized on the OpenGov site without further research, but they’re enough to make me wonder. 

There’s no reason to believe that this company will protect your privacy any better than Facebook notoriously didn’t. They’re currently embroiled in legal controversy over confidentiality beefs with a similar government information start-up, by the way. 

Which brings us, now out of time and space, to considering the merits of the “Missing Middle” proposal. Let’s just say that if the City Manager or City Council bases any major rezoning project on sketchy information like what’s offered by “Berkeley Considers” mistakes will certainly be made. 

Doing a good job on a sweeping research project like the one the sponsoring councilmembers optimistically contemplate is way beyond the capacity and the budget of the city manager’s office. For starters, somebody should have told them that it breaches the rules of Berkeley’s existing General Plan. 

The discussion should instead start with the Berkeley Planning Commission, which traditionally has had an excess of smart, capable citizen commissioners offering excellent free advice. The process should allow for extensive genuine opportunity for open public comment, both oral and written, before making any big moves. Berkeley citizens should be given the first chance to contribute their ideas, though expert consultants are also welcome to present their theories. Meetings should be scheduled to maximize public participation--discussion should not have to be shut off because the clock runs out. 

Three minutes to speak, anyone? And also,could you write a letter to your councilmembers? Who knows, they might read it.

Recent City Council meetings have seen strong reactions from folks there. I know that the council would prefer that everyone behaves nicely, patiently waits his or her turn at the mike and does not speak out of turn. But I think the Mayor and the Council by their own actions have made this almost impossible.

The point of public comment is that the people who pay taxes and vote get a chance to try to influence council members before the council votes. What has happened in Berkeley is that public comment has become a joke. It started during the Bates administration and unfortunately has reappeared with the new “progressive” council majority. Time after time when a vote is taken on an important issue, what has been said in public comment plays no role in how the majority of the council votes – most of the time there is not even an acknowledgement that anyone said anything. This leads to anger and cynicism – and when people’s very lives are at stake – as in the case of the vote on the RV policy -- the public has no way to express its concern, anger, outrage except to become loud.

In the matter of the RV policy if the Mayor and the City Manager had spent a few days or even several hours meeting with and talking to the RV dwellers and those of us who consider ourselves to be homeless advocates and had shown some tiny amount of comprehension of our concerns, much of the stormy rhetoric at Council might have been avoided.

In the meeting itself the Mayor turned a deaf ear to what the people in the chamber wanted. What in the world was he thinking when he repeatedly insisted that Item 21 had to go after other things on the agenda? It made no sense.

Unfortunately it becomes clear day by day that the leadership of this city has little interest in dealing humanely with homelessnees and is focused rather on just making those who are unsheltered go away.

Orderly conversations start with those who have the most power, not the other way around.

23 Years of Compliance and of No Inpatient Care

April Fool's Day marked my twenty third anniversary of being admitted to "I" Ward at Merrithew Memorial Hospital for acute psychosis. The hospital has long since been demolished except for a few small buildings that have been kept for extra medical offices. The replacement County Hospital is called "Contra Costa Regional Medical Center." 

I became engaged to marry my wife on the same day that I was released. Ordinarily I would not have the nerve to do such a thing. The ensuing years have been in large part an uphill climb. Numerous challenging situations have occurred. I am fortunate that I've made it this far. My illness is not cured. 

I've managed the illness with medication, therapy, mindfulness, reality checking, deep contemplation (about things that worked and didn't work) and journaling my thoughts. Anyone reading the journals, something they should not have been doing, would not be able to properly interpret the material. In written journals, I've talked to myself about my personal internal experiences. 

In the past 18 years, I've been a published writer. Instead of "delusions of grandeur" I've had some amount of actual notoriety. Writing has been good for my mental health. When I've interacted with editors, it has been a chance to sync an area of my thoughts with persons who are highly in touch with reality. And when an area of thought is "calibrated" (which means it is accurate at measuring something) this accuracy helps to make other areas of thinking more accurate. 

The human mind doesn't do a very good job at discerning what is real and what isn't. Most people look to authorities to tell them what and how to think. Few people try to observe for themselves and draw their own conclusions. And, in my case, I would've probably been better off had I listened more to what people were telling me with their actions and speech. Thinking independently has numerous risks. 

The fact of medication compliance is enough to tip the balance, for now, so that I haven't had relapses in more than two decades. I don't agree with everything psychiatrists tell me. Yet, they come in handy if the brain isn't cooperating and you need some chemicals to help alleviate parts of the problem. I don't let psychiatrists dictate what I am allowed to think. Yet, I concede that they have an area of experience and education that allows them to prescribe medications that I need. I am on primarily antipsychotics. And it is no fun to take antipsychotics--a very necessary and very substantial sacrifice. 

About Taking Medicine and the Placebo Effect

Part of taking medication includes the Placebo Effect. For a person with mental illness, the effect of this is double. Firstly, you are acknowledging that you have a psychiatric illness, one that you cannot solve solely on your own. Secondly, you are in a mode of cooperating with authorities, and this includes but is not limited to psychiatrists (yes, doctors are a type of authority). Third, there is the basic placebo effect, something doctors do not completely understand. However, the Placebo Effect is widely if not universally acknowledged in modern medicine and has been for more than a century. 

The chemical content of medication includes the effect of the sedation and this can help someone who suffers from psychosis. A component of psychosis is that you are not calm. Being sedated is a type of calm that allows a patient to settle down and think about what might be wrong, as opposed to being agitated. The antipsychotic effect of antipsychotics is another help, by means of restoring the possibility of fewer delusions and fewer hallucinations. 

---

Books by Jack Bragen can be found on Amazon and through other vendors.

At this point, I am not sympathetic about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's arrest in London after being evicted from the Ecuadoran Embassy after six years in exile. Assange allegedly collaborated with Russians to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 

Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report is clear that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and sought to help Donald Trump win the White House. 

His schemes are not journalism; he is not a journalist. No journalist worthy of the name would partner with an authoritarian regime to disrupt a democracy or pour classified material into the public domain without trying to verify its accuracy or seek comment from the subjects of the disclosures or conspire to break into a computer system (the subject of the U.S. indictment against him). 

The indictment as it now stands is fairly narrow: accusing him of helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to try to crack a classified Defense Department password, which would be out of bounds in legitimate news gathering. 

If tried in the U.S., the case significantly reduces concerns about press freedoms because it is outside traditional investigative journalism to help sources try to break passcodes so they can illegally hack into government computers. 

In October 2016, Trump said, “I love Wikileaks.” However, on April 11, 2019, Trump said, “I know nothing about Wikileaks.” 

Will the British extradite Assange? If so, to where: Sweden or the U.S.? Sweden's prosecuting authority is considering whether to reopen an investigation into an allegation of rape against Assange that was closed in 2017. The rape allegations were made separately by two women in Sweden after a visit by Assange there in August 2010.The case was set aside because there was no practical way it could be continued while Assange remained in the Ecuadorian embassy.

With Australian conductor Simone Young making her local debut, San Francisco Symphony presented concerts April 18-20 featuring works by Maurice Ravel and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. I attended the Friday evening performance at Davies Symphony Hall, where we heard Ravel’s lovely Pavane pour une infante défunte and his Piano Concerto in G Major with Louis Lortie as soloist, plus Rimsky-Korsakov’s dynamic Scheherazade. This program offered us ample opportunity to appraise Simone Young’s conducting style.  

Let’s begin by saying there was much arm-waving by Simone Young in the program’s opening work, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte. Conducting without a baton in this work, Simone Young wind-milled her arms all over the place in a work so subtly orchestrated that it hardly seems to call for such histrionics. Was she over-conducting it? The interpretation was sound. It was just that the conductor’s arm-waving seemed, well, excessive. How else can I say it? 

For the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major. Simone Young led with a baton, at least in the first and third movements, which feature jazz-inspired riffs, trombone smears, and dramatic percussion thumps. In these outer movements, the piano offers jagged interventions, robustly performed by pianist Louis Lortie. In the second movement, a lovely Adagio, Simone Young hardly needed to conduct at all, much less with a baton. In this slow movement, much of the time there is only the piano spinning out an elongated melody with walking chords. This movement reminds me of the music of Ravel’s contemporary, Eric Satie. There is here the same seeming simplicity as in Satie, yet here there is also Ravel’s artful workmanship, with flute and woodwinds offering embroideries on the basic melody, followed by a lovely English horn solo.  

The third and final movement is a lively Presto, which brings back passages from the opening movement, here transformed by the piano. Trombone smears abound, and a bassoon offers a demanding solo. As a showcase for piano, this finale was admirably performed by Montreal-born Louis Lortie.  

In the concert’s second half, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade was featured. It was this work, utterly familiar yet always fresh, that gave us perhaps the best opportunity to assess the conducting style of Simone Young. The same tendency to over-conduct as was seen in Ravel’s Pavane was apparent here. Yet somehow Ms. Young brought it all together in this reading of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The opening was, as necessary, both foreboding and dramatic. The first music we hear evokes the brutality of the Sultan, while the second music heard is that of Scheherazade herself, and it is a much sweeter, more beguiling music that introduces us to the wily woman’s ability to spin out story after story that keeps the Sultan, and us, eagerly panting for more. In playing Scheherazade’s theme, Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik offered his usual superb musicianship even if his tone was sometimes a bit thin. 

In this piece there are many wonderful opportunities for brief instrumental solos. A bassoon solo in the second movement was beautifully played by Stephen Paulson, and the theme was admirably taken up by oboist Eugene Izotow. Then the clarinet, ably played by Carey Bell, performed a recitative over unmeasured strumming of plucked strings. There followed brass fanfares that announce drama at every turn. The third movement offers a more tender mood, with much lyricism. The finale returns us to the work’s opening contrast of Sultan’s dramatic, darker music and the softer, more melodic music of Scheherazade. Simone Young emphasized this contrast quite emphatically. When the trombones take up the Sultan’s theme, a certain high pitch of drama ensues. But it is Scheherazade who has the last word, offering her familiar theme in the low register, as played here by Alexander Barantschik, then swirling it ever and ever higher, until it almost disappears in a final moment of absolute peace and tranquility, the first such moment the much-stressed Scheherazade has known since she began her seemingly endless set of tales within-a-tale from The Arabian Nights. All told, Simone Young’s interpretive instincts seem quite sound, even if her arms, and not just her arms, for she often leaps about on the podium, tend to be a bit too busy.  

Worth Noting:

Monday the Zero Waste Commission will be discussing changes in accepted plastics for recycling. Since only actions are being listed in meeting minutes, this discussion information is only available by attending the meeting,

Tuesday April 23 is City Council. City Council agenda for April 30 is available for comment.

Wednesday the Energy Commission meets at 5:15 pm on building electrification and the Le Conte Neighborhood meeting has the first public discussion of Vision 2050.

Thursday the City Council policy committees on Budget and Finance and Land Use meet.



Last week City staff notified the homeless they will be clearing homeless encampments this week and allow tents only between 10 pm – 7 am. The City Council Presentation on homelessness – the 1000 Person Plan is scheduled for April 30 at 4:30 pm after the evictions.



General information including the Land Use Calendar, tentative schedule of City Council work sessions, boards and commissions delinquent in posting meeting minutes and links to BUSD and regional meetings are posted at the bottom after the summary of next week’s meetings.



Sunday, April 21, 2019 - Easter

No city meetings or events found

Monday, April 22, 2019

Children, Youth and Recreation Commission, 7 – 9 pm at 2800 Park St, Frances Albrier Community Center at San Pablo Park, Agenda: 8. PRW fee increase, 9. CDBG Grant Presentation

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Children_Youth_and_Recreation_Commission/

Civic Arts Commission – Grants Subcommittee, 5:30 pm at at 2180 Milvia, Cypress Room, Agenda: 5. Selection review panelists

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CivicArtsCommissionHomepage/

Mental Health Commission

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Mental_Health_Commission_Homepage.aspx

4 pm - Accountability Subcommittee, at 2180 Milvia, Ironwood Room, 2^nd Floor, Agenda: 2019 Workplan

7 pm - Site Visit Subcommittee, at 2939 Ellis, South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda: Discuss sites

Youth Commission, 6:30 pm at 1730 Oregon St, Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Services Center, Agenda: 10. Gender Neutral Bathrooms, 12. BHS Green Bins, 15. & 16. Measure Y1 16 &17 year olds voting in School Board elections

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Youth_Commission_Homepage.aspx

Zero Waste Commission, 7 – 9 pm at 1326 Allston Way, Willow Room, City of Berkeley Corporation Yard, Agenda: 8. Deconstruction Subcommittee update, 9. Single Use Foodware and Litter, 10. Modification types of plastics accepted non-bottle #1-#7, 11. Mixed Waste processing

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Zero_Waste_Commission_Homepage.aspx

Tax the Rich Rally, with music by Occupella, 5 – 6 pm at the Top of Solano in front of the Closed Oaks Theater, Rain Cancels 

Tuesday, April 23, 2019 

Berkeley City Council, Tuesday, 1231 Addison Street, BUSD Board Room 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/Agenda_Committee__2019_Index.aspx 

4 pm - Public Hearing Special Meeting, Agenda: July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020, Annual Action Plan including allocations of Federal Funds to Community agencies, (estimates) $2,626,329 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency solutions Grant $219,480, Housing Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) $793,509 

6 pm – 11 pm - Regular Meeting, Agenda: Consent: 10. DNA Testing Services, 11. Paving/Grading contract, 13. Woosley St Project, 19. U1 Funds – 2001 Ashby, 20. Good Government Ombudsman, 21. Zero Emission Bills AB 40, AB 1418, 22. Ordinance Prohibit Contracting with Vendors/Servicers to ICE, 23. Support Public Bank, 25. Co-Sponsor film “Near Normal Man” 27. Support ACA-1, 29. Referral Reform Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee, Action: 31. ZAB appeal 1722 Walnut, 32. Missing Middle Housing Report Referral, 33. Volunteer initiative Adopt a Spot, 34. Standby Officer Policy, 35. Paid Family Leave, 36. Protected Milvia Bikeway Pilot Project University – Allston, Information: 37. Ethical Climate Audit Status Report. 

James Kenney Park Renovation Project, 6:30 - 8 pm, at 1720 8^th Street 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16104 

Wednesday, April 24, 2019 

Civic Arts Commission, 6 – 8 pm at 1901 Russell St, Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library, Agenda: 5. Reports b. Measure O, 6. a. 2556 Telegraph, b. Hertogenbosch installation, c. Public Arts Budget 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CivicArtsCommissionHomepage/ 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, 7 – 9 pm at 997 Cedar St, Fire Department Training Center, Agenda: 1. Report Measure GG, 3. /standards Rebuilt Fire Damage Structure, 4. Preparedness Outreach, 5. Safe Passages, 7. Cal Fire Fuel Reduction Priorities Report 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Disaster_and_Fire_Safety_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Energy Commission, 5:15 pm at 1947 Center St, Multipurpose Room, EBCE Workshop on Energy Reach Codes for Building Electrification https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Energy_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Police Review Commission, 7 – 10 pm, at 2939 Ellis, South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda: 9. Presentation on City Response to Mental Health Emergencies, 11. a. Next steps – evaluation BPD response to mental health emergencies, b. Lexipol Policies, 14. closed session #2450 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Police_Review_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Le Conte Neighborhood Association, 7:30 – 9 pm, at 2236 Parker, Life Adventist Church, Agenda: Vision 2050, First Time Home Buyer Program, Pro-Democracy Workshop, 2128 Ward St Duplex 

Commission on the Status of Women, 6:45 – 9 pm at 2180 Milvia, Cypress Room, no agenda posted, no meeting date listed on home page and no notice of cancellation 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Commission_on_the_Status_of_Women_Homepage.aspx 

 

Thursday, April 25, 2019 

City Council Budget & Finance Committee, 2 pm, at 2180 Milvia, 6^th Floor Redwood Room, Agenda: 2. Election Day as a City Holiday, 3. Funding Sources and allocation for Public Works, Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, Street Lighting, Tree Trimming, Traffic Circles, 4. Purchase Order with Carasoft Technology: Using Gerneral Services Administration (GSA) Schedule Data Center Infrastructure and Disaster Recovery 5. Fire Dept Budget Presentation 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Budget___Finance.aspx 

City Council Land Use, Housing & Economic Development Committee, 10:30 am, 2180 Milvia, 6^th Floor Redwood Room, Agenda: 2. Analysis of site capacity for Housing Development at West Berkeley Service Center, 3. North Berkeley BART Zoning and Future Development, 4. Measure O Affordable Housing Bond, 5. Open Doors Initiative First Time Homebuyers 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Land_Use,_Housing___Economic_Development.aspx 

Community Health Commission, 6:30 – 9 pm at 2939 Ellis St. South Berkeley Senior Center, Agenda not posted check before going https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Community_Health_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Mental Health Commission, 7 – 9 pm at 1947 Center St, Agenda: 3. Presentation Diversity training, 4. Restraint Devices, 5. 2018 Annual Report 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Mental_Health_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Zoning Adjustments Board, 7 – 11:30 pm at 1234 Addison, BUSD Board Room 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/zoningadjustmentsboard/ 

2100 San Pablo – modify approved permit – reduce parking to add 9265 sq ft floor area, 

1629 Stuart Unit C – 2^nd story addition on lot with 2 unit limit and 3 existing 

Free Smoking Cessation Clinic, 6 – 8 pm, no location given, To register or for more information contact Tino Ratliff: (510) 981-5330 or email QuitNow@cityofberkeley.info 

Friday, April 26, 2019 – Passover begins 

No City meetings or events found 

Saturday, April 27, 2019 

Skateboard Contest, 12-6 pm at Skatepark 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16058 

Strawberry Creek Park Renovation Projects – workshops, 10 am – 12 pm, at Corporation Yard 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=16125 

Sunday, April 28, 2019 

Peoples Park 50^th Anniversary, 1-5 pm 

___________ 

 

City Council April 30 available for comment, Agenda: Consent 2. No cost spay, neuter to eligible pet owners, 3. Public Art Guidelines, 4. Berkeley Food and Housing Project, 5. – 8. Software maintenance/support contracts, 9. $1,101,000 contract for Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan (BMASP) w/Hargreaves Assoc 10. Charter Bus Services Echo Lake Camp, 11. Proposed Road Projects to utilize CA Transportation funding. 17. Arreguin as alternate to Budget Committee, 3x3, 18. $150,000 preplanning BUSD Employee Housing, 19. Max Levine Berkeley Housing Authority Board, 22. Referral to Planning Development of Policies to Prevent Displacement and Gentrification, 23. Good Food Purchasing resolution, 24. Referral Pedestrian Corridors – Street to Plaza, Action: 25. FlixBus – Long distance bus service to the public, 26. New Marina Fee So Cove Parking Lots, 27. Appeal ZAB 2700 Pardee Parking, 1050 Parker Medical Office Building, 28. Zoning Ordinance Inclusionary Housing Regulation to Contiguous Lots under Common Control or Ownership, 29. Feedback to Berkeley Police regarding stop data f/u Policing Equity Report Recommendations, 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/Agenda_Committee__2019_Index.aspx 

 

____________________ 

 

*Agenda Committee Unfinished business for scheduling – 1. a.&b. U1 Funds for Property Acquisition at 1001, 1007, 1011 University, 1925 Ninth Street, 2. Revisions to Ordinance 7,521 BMC. To increase compliance with short-term rental ordinance, 3. Disposition City-owned Former Redevelopment Agency Properties at 1631 & 1654 Fifth St, 4. Economic Dashboards, 5. Referral to City Manager and budget for creation of “vehicle dweller program” 

 

______________________ 

 

NORTH BERKELY BART DEVELOPMENT 

City Council Special Meeting, 6 pm, May 9, at Longfellow Middle School – watch calendar for updates 

 

_____________________ 

 

LAND USE 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

1722 Walnut – rescheduled – 4-23-2019 

1050 Parker – Parker – Medical Office Building - 4-30-2019 withdrawn 

2700 Tenth – Pardee Parking Lot - 4-30-2017 

1444 Fifth St – 4 single family dwellings - 5-14-2019 

Notice of Decision (NOD) With End of Appeal Period 

3212 Adeline (add service distilled spirits) – 4-17-2019 

2518 Durant (add service distilled spirits) – 4-17-2019 

2300 Shattuck (Structural Alteration) LPC 4-23-2019 

1414 Walnut (Structural Alteration) LPC 4-23-2019 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC With 90-Day Deadline 

1155-73 Hearst (develop 2 parcels) – ZAB 5-19-2019 

 

WORKSHOPS 

May 7 – Proposed FY 2020-FY 2021 Budget, Bond Disclosure Training 

June 18 –Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Arts and Culture Plan 

Sept 17 –UC Berkeley Student Housing Plan, Transfer station feasibility Study, Adeline Corridor Plan 

Oct 22 – Berkeley’s 2020 Vision Update, Census 2020 Update, Short term Rentals 

Nov 5 - Zero Waste Rate Review, Vision Zero Action Plan, 

Unscheduled – Cannabis Health Considerations 

 

Unscheduled PRESENTATIONS 

May 1 and 3 @ Budget Committee – Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront CIP Update, Public Works CIP Update 

May 28 – tentative EBMUD presentation 

________________________ 

 

To Check For Regional Meetings with Berkeley Council Appointees go to 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Committee_and_Regional_Body_Appointees.aspx 

 

To check for Berkeley Unified School District Board Meetings go to 

https://www.berkeleyschools.net/schoolboard/board-meeting-information/ 

 

_____________________ 

 

Boards and Commission Delinquent in Publishing Meeting Minutes within two weeks of meeting. (page 35 Commissioner’s Manual – Secretary Responsibility) 

 

Board of Library Trustees, meeting March 6, no minutes posted on March 22 

https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/board-library-trustees 

 

Children, Youth and Recreation Commission - no minutes posted for 2019 in table, minutes for prior meeting only available with agendas upcoming meeting.  

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Children_Youth_and_Recreation_Commission/ 

Commission on Disability, March 6 minutes not available to the public on March 29, note with agenda March minutes will not be available until May meeting packet 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Commission_on_Disability_Homepage.aspx 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission - meeting March 14 - no minutes March 29  

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Community_Environmental_Advisory_Commission/ 

Community Health Commission, meeting February 28, no minutes posted March 22, this commission is doing better with March 28 meeting minutes available when checked April 5. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Community_Health_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Parks and Waterfront Commission, meeting 3-13-2019, no minutes on March 29  

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Parks_and_Waterfront_Commission.aspx 

Peace and Justice Commission, meeting March 4, no minutes on March 29 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Peace_and_Justice_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Commission on Labor, meeting March 20, no minutes on April 5 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Commission_on_Labor_Homepage.aspx 

Commission on the Status of Women, meeting March 20, no minutes on April 5, 12 or 19 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Commission_on_the_Status_of_Women_Homepage.aspx 

Loan Administration Board, meeting March 18, no minutes on April 5 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Loan_Admin_Board.aspx 

Transportation Commission, meeting March 21, no minutes posted April 5 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Transportation_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Youth Commission, meeting listed as occurring March 11, however, no accessible agenda, no minutes, no cancellation notice 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Youth_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Civic Arts Commission - meeting March 27, no minutes April 12 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CivicArtsCommissionHomepage/ 

Energy Commission - meeting March 27, no minutes April 12 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Energy_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Joint Subcommittee for the Implementation of State Housing Laws - meeting March 27, no minutes April 12 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Joint_Subcommittee_for_the_Implementation_of_State_Housing_Laws_Homepage.aspx 

Landmarks Preservation Commission - meeting March 7 no meeting minutes posted April 12 or 19, No meeting April 4, no minutes posted for either meeting on April 19 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Planning_and_Development/Level_3_-_LPC/LPCAg_2019-04-04.pdf 

Solano Avenue Business Improvement District Advisory Board - meeting March 26, no minutes April 12 or 19 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Solano_BID_Board.aspx 

Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Product Panel of Experts - meeting March 21, no meeting minutes April 12 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Sugar-Sweetened_Beverage_Product_Panel_of_Experts.aspx 

 

 

City Council - joint meetings with no draft Minutes 

City/UC/Student relations Committee - meeting Feb 8, no minutes April 12 

4x4 Joint Task Force on Housing: Rent Board/City Council - meeting Mar 4, no minutes April 12 

3x3 Berkeley City Council and Berkeley Housing Authority - meeting March 6 no minutes April 12 

2x2 Committee City Council and Board of Education - meeting June 28, 2018 no minutes April 12 

 

 

 

This meeting list is also posted on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

http://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet under activist’s calendar http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com 

 

When notices of meetings are found that are posted after Friday 5:00 pm they are added to the website schedule https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html and preceded by LATE ENTRY