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Berkeley’s Mayor Tom Bates needs to brush up on the history of the city of Berkeley’s and community members’ relationship with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) as well as the democratic process known as Roberts’ Rules of Order. 

Bates, without a motion, on March 25, 2003, unilaterally tabled an agenda item asking for a meeting and extended comment period on LBNL’s proposed construction of a molecular foundry. Bates then proceeded, without benefit of further council direction, to follow up on a previous council motion requesting a meeting on the molecular foundry. But this time, Bates must have forgotten what he had written to the lab on Feb. 5 — “I am offering to host a community meeting on upcoming lab projects, including the molecular foundry ... Such meetings would be held fairly ...” — because he allowed the lab to host the meeting and call all the shots. 

The result was a colossal travesty: A meeting held May 8 at the Haas Clubhouse in Strawberry Canyon, inaccessible by public transportation, at which there were virtually no seats for the 75 or more people attending who were expected to have simultaneous “conversations” with lab employees stationed at booths devoted to “The Berkeley Lab,” “Scientific Initiative,” “Fire Protection” and, low and behold, the “Molecular Foundry.” The ensuing chaos arose out of Mayor Bates’ desire to rectify his belief that “terrible relations existed between the lab and the community when I came into office” (Planet, May 6-8 edition) and “I want them to start to talk to each other” (West County Times, May 10 edition). 

Following the Berkeley City Council’s unanimous vote in 1996 calling for the permanent closure of the National Tritium Labeling facility, LBNL, the city, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Departments of Health and Toxic Substances Control set up a Tritium Issues Workgroup. The group met with representatives from Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC) and the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste for 25 months.  

At that point, all CEAC and community members, with the backing of Rep. Barbara Lee, withdrew from the tritium workgroup because of the lab’s and the environmental regulators’ lack of good faith and cooperation. Abhorring a vacuum, the lab, about a year or so later, set up an Environmental Sampling Project Task Force (ESPTF) for which they selected the representatives who would represent the organizations the lab chose to represent the community. However, the concerned community, represented by the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste (CMTW) was allowed one representative at the table. 

During the realm of the ESPTF, thanks to Representative Lee’s having arranged a meeting between the National Institutes of Health (which fully funded the tritium facility) and the CMTW, NIH decided to end its funding of the facility. So the “talking” between the community and the lab on that issue soon ended. (Except for clean-up.) 

Terrible relations exist between the lab and the community because of the lab’s utter disregard of the city’s resolutions, its Nuclear Free Berkeley ordinance and the health, safety and comfort of the general community. The U.S Department of Energy, formally named the Atomic Energy Commission, which owns the Lawrence Berkeley (Radiation) Lab, is a part of the federal government. The Berkeley City Council has passed resolutions condemning the War on Iraq and asking that the city not cooperate with the U.S. Patriot Act. I hope Mayor Bates will not attempt to rescind (unilaterally or otherwise) these resolutions in the name of improving the city’s “terrible relations” with the federal government.  

Gene Bernardi is a Berkeley resident and former co-chair of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste.