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Berkeley gets another sobering look at the reality of the Era Of Diminishing Budgets tonight (Tuesday, March 9) when the director of the Berkeley Public Library is expected to propose laying off 16 employees and closing the main library on Sunday. The proposal will be presented at the City Council’s 4:30 p.m. work session at the Old City Hall, where City Manager Phil Kamlarz will present some $14 million in total proposed budget reductions for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. 

Berkeley’s main library on Kitteridge Street presently opens from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays, while the four branch libraries—Claremont, North Branch, South Branch, and the Tool Lending Library—are currently closed on that day. 

And while in the midst of resolving local and state budget problems, the City Council takes another shot at national and international issues tonight at its regular 7 p.m. meeting, when it takes on competing resolutions concerning the administration of President George W. Bush. The City Council will be faced with no disagreement about whether Bush is bad for the country—only over what to do about it. 

The Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission has requested that the council support a resolution “requesting an investigation as to whether impeachable offenses were committed” by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The alleged impeachable offenses center around the president and vice president’s actions leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the Iraqi government. 

A pre-council meeting impeachment rally co-sponsored by such organizations as the National Lawyers Guild, Veterans for Peace, the Gray Panthers, and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarians has been set for 6 p.m. tonight (Tuesday) on the front steps of Old City Hall. 

A competing proposal—to censure President Bush for the same Iraqi actions—has been introduced to the City Council by Councilmember Kriss Worthington on behalf of MoveOn.org. 

The two resolutions come before the City Council almost one year after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

Meanwhile, in one of the most anticipated staff reports in several years, Planning Director Dan Marks will brief the City Council at the 7 p.m. meeting on compliance of recently-built Berkeley residential developments with various Berkeley ordinances. 

The request for the report came from Councilmember Dona Spring last fall in the wake of revelations that the Gaia Building in downtown Berkeley—built and managed by Berkeley development powerhouse Panoramic Interests—had failed to be billed for certain Berkeley tax assessments. Spring had asked the city manager’s office to report on the status of fee waivers, tax assessments, affordability, and occupancy of three recently-built Panoramic properties. At the request of Councilmember Betty Olds, that inquiry was expanded to include any residential project of 20 or more units approved for construction in Berkeley since 1997.<