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Tonight (Tuesday, April 20) is public hearing night for the Berkeley City Council. Aside from the much-anticipated hearing on ex parte communications (see accompanying story, above), residents will also get a chance to weigh in directly on proposals for the allocation of public housing funds, a new police youth service counselor, higher park fees, a new parking rate plan for the Center Street garage, and the first of several fee hikes targeted at closing the city’s $10 million deficit. 

While the ex part e hearing is scheduled for information-gathering only, with the council set to make possible ordinance-changing recommendations at a later council meeting, the remaining proposals have accompanying resolutions that the council is scheduled to vote on toni ght.  

The youth service counselor would be paid for by the city out of part of a $155,816 grant from the California Citizen’s Option for Public Safety. The money was originally slated for a youth center, Councilmember Kriss Worthington said, but after efforts to start up the center were delayed and bumped up against the grant application deadline, the city changed course. In addition to the youth service coordinator, the funds will also pay for a youth program volunteer coordinator, police aides and DNA testing of suspected criminals. 

The city manager’s office is recommending raising more than $58,000 for the general fund in recreation fee hikes, including increasing tennis court fees in general and charging youth for the formerly-free tennis lessons ta ken during the After School and Fun Club Programs, eliminating city purchase of BART and bus tickets for youth field trips, and eliminating free swimming for Summer Fun Camp participants. 

A bigger boon to the general fund will come if, as expected, the c ouncil approves a proposal to discontinue the waiver of building permit fees for seismic retrofits of residential buildings. The city approved the fee waivers, which average $400, in 1991 to encourage homeowners to retrofit their properties. Over the last five years Berkeley has waived an average of $298,000 annually in building permit fees for seismic retrofits, according to a report from Planning Director Dan Marks. 

The council is also expected to approve a new fee policy for the Center Street garage. To bring more short-term shoppers downtown, city staff has proposed a flat-rate $1.50 fee for two hours of parking between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Currently, the city charges a $3 fee for two hours of parking and $1 for the first hour of parking. The change is not anticipated to affect parking revenues. 

On the housing front, the City Council will discuss this coming year’s allocation of federal housing money. Berkeley will receive $3.88 million in 2004-2005 from th e Federal Community Development Block Grant—$75,000 less than the current fiscal year. The proposed budget includes no money for the University Students’ Cooperative Association and 10 percent cuts to Affordable Housing Associates and Resources for Commun ity Development, Berkeley’s two largest non-profit developers. 

Aside from public hearings, the council will consider a proposal from Mayor Tom Bates to hold four special City Council community meetings on the city budget each Thursday in May. Mayor Bates had also proposed that the council request Alameda County to conduct an investigation of problems encountered with the county’s Diebold voting machines and that the city staff explore other options if the problems persist. 

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