Page One

A number of citizens urged the Berkeley City Council Tuesday not to approve the second reading of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which will make landmarking older structures and sites more difficult. 

The law was approved 6-to-2, with Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Betty Olds voting in opposition and Councilmember Dona Spring absent for that vote. 

In other business, the council voted to continue the Solano Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) and approved the city attorney’s interpretation of the city-university lawsuit settlement.  

Several citizens addressed the council on the landmarks law issue. Peace and Justice Commissioner Elliot Cohen reminded the council that any decision the landmarks commission makes can be appealed to the City Council: “You’ll always have the last say,” he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington read from a letter written by attorney Stuart Flashman, which, Worthington said, pointed out that, in approving an ordinance that was revised by the city attorney several times over the weekend of Dec. 2-3, the first reading of the measure was “adopted in violation of the City Council’s own rules.”  

The council rule Flashman referred to says: “Matters listed on the printed agenda but for which support materials are not received by the City Council on the fourth day prior to said meeting as part of the agenda Packet, shall not be discussed or acted upon.” (The council can vote by 2/3 to waive this rule, but did not hold the vote on the first reading of the ordinance.) 

Without success, Worthington called on the council to delete “surprise” language in the last revision that would likely prevent a referendum on part of the law—an easier way to get support for a referendum—rather than on the entire ordinance. 

Solano BID 

The controversy around the Solano Avenue BID renewal is a “messy, complex situation,” Economic Development Director Michael Caplan told the Berkeley City Council Tuesday. 

Over the last several weeks, 83 Solano Avenue business owners signed formal protests calling for an end to the assessment district. However, the council voted 8-0, with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli recusing himself, to continue the BID with a 20 percent reduction in assessment fees for each business in the district, a promise from the city manager to review BID expenditures over the three years of its existence, and an agreement that the board of directors would write a new work plan. 

The businesses protesting the BID pay collectively an assessment totaling 41.73 percent of the district’s $34,000 total assessment. 

“That’s a fairly substantial percentage of opponents,” Caplan told the council. 

But it was not enough to shut down the BID. Had there been protests by business owners collectively paying more than 50 percent of the total assessment, the BID, which is governed by state law, would have been automatically disbanded. 

But Caplan said he met with leaders of the protest and came to the compromise agreement. 

Many protesters object to the BID being run by the Solano Avenue Association, which is made up of Albany business owners who join voluntarily. The BID is obligatory for those whose business is located within the district. It is run by a board of directors selected by councilmembers.  

The BID executive director, who recently quit, had been paid $60,000 annually, with half the salary funded by the BID and half by the Solano Avenue Association. 

After the question of possible conflict of interest was raised by some of the protesting business owners, and on the advice of the city attorney, Capitelli recused himself from the vote. He is a partner in Red Oak Realty, which has an office on Solano Avenue. One of Red Oak’s realtors is a member of the BID board.  

Jan Snidow, president of the BID and former president of the Solano Avenue Association, asked the council to renew the BID at its current assessment level—$65 to $500—and listed the accomplishments of the organization, including distribution of Solano Avenue merchant directories, street beautification and production of events such as the Chocolate and Chalk Art Festival and the Solano Stroll.  

A number of Solano Ave. merchants have expressed dislike for the Stroll, but Snidow argued, when addressing the council, that if you take the BID and the Stroll away “you take Mickey Mouse away from Disneyland.” 

Protesting merchant Susan Boat, owner of Scissors and Comb, called for cutting ties with the Solano Avenue Association. “Thirty thousand dollars of our $34,000 went to the salary of the executive director,” she said, adding, moreover, “I don’t want to pay for the Stroll.” 

Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniak, whose appointments to the BID board are vacant, called on protesting merchants to apply so that they can bring their ideas to the organization. 

City-university agreement  

The city attorney squared off at Tuesday’s council meeting with some citizens and councilmembers, when she supported a resolution she had written intended to counter those who have said the city has lost its sovereignty by signing the May 2005 agreement that settled a city lawsuit against the university’s Long Range Development Plan. 

“…it has been suggested that the settlement agreement improperly delegates the city’s home rule authority to the university,” Manuela Albuquerque wrote. 

The council majority agreed with the city attorney, voting 6-3, with councilmembers Dona Spring, Betty Olds and Kriss Worthington voting in opposition. 

But several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city disagreed.  

“There is no release of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) without concurrence of both parties,” Anne Wagley (Daily Planet calendar editor), one of the plaintiffs, told the council, referring to the contention that no projects can be built downtown without the signature of the city and the university on the environmental document. 

“It must be acceptable to UC Berkeley,” Wagley said. “There’s no ambiguity, no confusion.” 

But Councilmember Gordon Wozniak countered: “If for some reason, we don’t like [the downtown plan] we can pull out.” 

The council did not discuss two agenda items: 

• Councilmember Dona Spring held over until January her resolution to have the city end its membership in organizations that endorse local electoral measures and candidates 

• Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds’ resolution on term limits for commissioners was put off, due to the length of the council meeting, which ended just before 1 a.m. Wednesday.