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The City Council will hold a regular meeting for the first time since it began its spring break on April 8. The critical item on the agenda is the budget.  

The city manager on Monday submitted his proposed budget for fiscal year 2004 and 2005, and council will have to approve reduced grant allocations for as many as 93 nonprofit programs that serve the city’s most vulnerable. The council will also consider another request for money to redesign the troubled Harrison Street Skate Park, which has been closed since January, and a recommendation to amend the city’s election law to allow larger campaign contribution limits. 

Bad News Budget 

City Manager Weldon Rucker has completed his proposed biennial budget for 2004 and 2005. The budget attempts to deal with a $4.7 million deficit by not filling approximately 23 staff positions (most of which are currently vacant) and increasing parking ticket fines.  

City Council will hold two public hearings, May 20 and June 17, prior to approving a final budget on June 24.  

According to Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the budget was designed to be flexible because the city won’t know how much state funding to rely on until the state Assembly approves its budget, which might not be until the fall.  

The budget deficit has long been expected, and the city manager began working with the City Council, city commissions and labor unions as early as last January.  

In his draft budget, Rucker braces the city for additional cuts facing staff and programs next year when the estimated deficit is expected to soar to $7.6 million. 

“My proposed budget addresses the immediate fiscal year 2004 funding gap and potential impacts from the state budget. However, many more difficult choices lie ahead as we look to address the remaining projected fiscal year 2005 shortfall,” he writes. 

Council to approve grants 

City Council will approve about $8.1 million in federal, state and local moneys for as many as 93 nonprofits. Due to the economic downturn and sagging state and local budgets, available grant money was reduced this year by more than $700,000. 

During a public hearing last week about 70 people asked the council not to make reductions to the nonprofit programs.  

Skate Park  

The Parks and Waterfront Department is asking for $57,000 to hire Geomatrix Consulting, Inc. to develop a permanent solution to prevent the carcinogen hexavalent chromium from seeping into the popular but troubled Harrison Street Skate Park.  

The skate park has been plagued by problems relating to Hexavalent Chromium, or chrome 6, since construction began in 2000. Work was halted on the project in November 2000, when chrome 6 was discovered in groundwater that had seeped into nine-foot-deep holes being dug for the skate bowls. The city was saddled with hazardous waste treatment costs as well as the cost of hiring groundwater engineers to design a concrete base that would prevent chrome 6 contaminated groundwater from seeping into the bowls.  

Construction began anew and the skate park opened to rave reviews in September 2002. However the cost had risen from $380,000 to about $750,000. 

Then in January, after a heavy rain, the city discovered small amounts of chrome 6 in the base of the park’s concrete bowls. The park was immediately closed to the public and has remained closed since.  

Revising the election process 

Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniack are asking the city manager to explore revisions to the city’s election process. One suggestion is increasing campaign contribution limits. Currently individuals and organizations are limited to $250 contributions to individual candidates or ballot measure committees, according to the Berkeley Election Reformation Act of 1974. 

According to the recommendation, the cost of political campaigns has soared in the last decade and there has been no inflation adjustment since 1974. 

The recommendation does not include new contribution limits but suggests allowing different limits for council district elections and citywide elections. 

Saving the Bancroft vendors 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington is recommending that a license application deadline for two food cart vendors who operate on Oxford Street at Telegraph Avenue be extended through December. 

Currently there are four vendors who sell lunches from rollaway carts.  

City Council approved an ordinance in February that began to phase the carts out. Only two were approved for licenses last year, and the two remaining carts are currently operating without a license. If approved, the two unlicensed carts would be allowed to operate until the end of the year, but it is uncertain if they would qualify for licensing under the new ordinance.