Page One

City Coucil will hear mix of issues

By Josh Parr Daily Planet Staff
Monday October 09, 2000

The City Council is back, after a one week hiatus, and will address its usual eclectic mix of issues tomorrow night.  

At a closed session prior to the public portion of the evening, the council will discuss a legal strategy to challenge UC Berkeley’s plan to build a seismic replacement building at Oxford and Hearst Street.  

Also, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s case against the City of Berkeley could be resolved. Jacobs-Fantauzzi is suing the Berkeley Police Department and the city for more than $1 million over his arrest last year during a demonstration outside the KPFA studios on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

After that, the most weighty agenda item might be a plan to return number dispensers – the likes of which keep many a deli calm – to Berkeley post offices in time for the holiday mailing rush. 

“Without numbers the post office is just going to be pandemonium,” Councilmember Polly Armstrong told the Daily Planet. “If we don’t have number dispensers, people will have to just stand in line, and around the holidays, that could mean hours.” 

There are other issues as well. 

Skate’s Restaurant at the Marina is hoping for an exemption from the Living Wage Ordinance passed last month. 

Also, Councilmember Kriss Worthington is asking his colleagues to support a Proclamation for National Coming Out Day, October 11. 

“We’re going to do it a little bit differently this year,” he said. “In the past we’ve always had white gays come to our meeting, which makes the movement seem white, which it isn’t. So this year we’ll be having representatives from Cal Queer and Asian come for the proclamation.” 

The council may also authorize City Manager Weldon Rucker to accept a $500,000 grant from the California Endowment Communities First program to expand Berkeley’s breast feeding peer counselor program. 

“The program is a response to the health disparity here in Berkeley,” said Fred Medrano of the Health and Human Services Department.  

“We’ll be aggressive at targeting African-Americans, who have lower birth weights in our city. Breast feeding is a concrete step to improve health outcomes for babies and young children.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring has suggested that the council approve plans to allow the Peace and Justice commission to review all contracts, with some exceptions, between the University and the City which involve nuclear issues. 

Spring also said she liked the way council meetings have been run in the last weeks. 

“There has been a real improvement, with less in-fighting between members,” Spring said.  

“Even with all the very deep-seeded antagonisms between moderates and progressives, things are going well.”