Page One

The major TV networks are likely to be disappointed when they bring their dishes to town tonight, show up at the City Council meeting, cameras on shoulders, ready for a heated discussion of Betty Olds’ proposal to ban cyclists from using cell phones as they ride the city’s rutted roads. 

They probably don’t know about the 81 other items on the council plate. With 791 pages of council reports to read and still counting, it’s likely the council will remove the bike-phone item from the consent calendar and address it some time in the future – perhaps way in the future. 

An item the council is more likely to take up is a loan to help Affordable Housing Associates purchase land for a special needs housing project proposed for the 1700 block of University Avenue. While a number of neighbors and businesses oppose the project, other nearby residents and businesses, including the Chamber of Commerce whose office is in the 1800 block of University Avenue, support it. 

A city manager’s recommendation to award Easy Does It a two-year contract for emergency services to the disabled will be contested at tonight’s meeting by people who say the services are too expensive and do not serve those who need to use the services frequently. A competing nonprofit agency has been formed by disability rights activist Michael Pachovas. This group, called Emergency Services Provider, Inc., is asking the city for the contract. 

An advisory group of disabled clients has recommended to the city manager that the city switch providers, however, the city says EDI “best met the evaluation criteria in the Request For Proposals.” 

A city manager’s report concludes that EDI has “high client satisfaction,” but notes the vendor has difficulty finding people willing to work as attendants. 

TAXES, BONDS AND 

BALLOT MEASURES 

The council will likely place a number of tax and bond measures on the November ballot. Councilmembers voted to ask the city attorney to craft legal language for the measures and now must vote again to approve the language. 

One is a fire tax that would pay to buy an emergency mobile system of flexible hoses and pumps to take water from the Bay, Lake Anza or reservoirs and bring the water to a fire that cannot be extinguished using only the water from traditional fire hydrants. The cost of the equipment is estimated at $8 million, and another $1.7 million is added for a reserve. 

Homeowners whose income is $21,000 or less would receive a low-income exemption and would not pay the tax, which is $1.25 per square foot or $24 per year, for a person with a 1,900-square-foot house. For technical reasons, the tax is put in the form of a district, so there is a public hearing in July before the council can formally place the item on the ballot. 

Another proposal is a parks maintenance tax which would raise $600,000. It would hike the current tax, which means a person owning a 1,900-square-foot house would pay $169 per year, up about $15 from previous years. 

There is a new streetlight tax plan, in addition to the tax people already pay. It would raise $300,000. A person owning a 1,900-square-foot house would pay $4.94 per year. For a 10,000-square-foot industrial property or 5,000-square-foot commercial property the tax would be $52 annually. 

The city attorney also prepared a ballot measure amending the owner-occupancy provisions of the rent law. 

Currently, a landlord can evict a tenant from an apartment if the landlord is acting in good faith and the apartment is for the landlord, the landlord’s spouse, child or parents’ principal residence. The landlord or the landlord’s relatives are currently required to live in the apartment for 24 months. 

The amendment would: 

• Prohibit a landlord from evicting a tenant if any comparable unit owned by the landlord becomes vacant - not just a unit in the building where the tenant lives. 

• Mandate that the landlord offer the noncomparable unit to the evicted tenant and base the rent on the tenant’s previous rent, with adjustments for the comparability of the unit. 

• Require that the landlord or the landlord’s relatives live in the unit 36 months, rather than 24. 

• Not allow the landlord to evict a tenant who is 60 years old and has lived in the apartment for five years, or who is disabled and has lived in the apartment for five years. 

• Prohibit the landlord who owns at least 10 percent of five rental buildings in Berkeley from evicting any tenant who has lived in the unit for five years. 

• Allow the landlord to evict a senior or disabled person if the landlord is attempting to place a disabled or senior relative in the building and all the tenants in the building are either over 60 years of age or disabled. 

MONEY AND HEALTH 

Councilmembers continue to recommend funding for various agencies and organizations. The items voted to be “referred to the budget process” will be considered next week. The list includes $20,000 for the North Shattuck Merchants, $12,000 for the Rosa Parks School evening recreation program, $42,000 for arts-related job training at Crucible, and more. 

The Community Health Commission is asking the council to declare a public health emergency over the disparities in health between African Americans and Caucasians in Berkeley. 

A RATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING 

Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan is asking the council to do a better job preparing its agenda. It cannot discuss most the items it lists, so proposals are carried over from week to week, often for months. 

Hogan points out that when issues are addressed, it is often late at night. Citizens do not know when an item they want to hear will come before the council, since the agenda is generally reordered. 

“In many other cities, a subcommittee of council members meets with the city manager to plan to agenda each week,” the auditor writes. 

But Hogan says Berkeley should not emulate this. “Because the Berkeley City Council is essentially a two-party system as well as one with district elections, a subcommittee structure does not appear realistic,” she says. 

So Hogan suggests that: 

• The councilmembers, like the staff, turn in council items 20 days before a council meeting, giving staff time to analyze them. When the council considers the item, it would have a more complete analysis and might be voted up or down more quickly. 

• The number of items each councilmember brings to the council would be limited to three each meeting. 

• Items held over from one meeting must be voted on at the next meeting. 

Hogan calls on the council to discuss her proposals before July 11 in open session, rather than sending them to the rules committee. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, however, argues that the answer’s much simpler - the council needs to have more meetings. 

In any case, the council is not likely to get to this matter tonight. 

The City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. tonight. The meeting is held in Council Chambers in Old City Hall, at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way and broadcast on KPFB, 89.3-FM, and B-TV, Cable Channel 25.