Features

Moore Denies Endorsing Edwards 

A minor controversy has emerged over a major endorsement in the Area 4 Peralta Community Colleges District Trustee race. 

As published in the Daily Planet earlier this week, candidate Kamau Edwards had listed outgoing Area 4 Trustee Darryl Moore as one of his supporters. Shortly after the publication of the article, Yuen said that the listing of Moore’s endorsement for Edwards was “flat out wrong.” 

Two days later, Moore issued a statement stating that “I have never endorsed Mr. Kamau Edwards.” In a subsequent telephone interview, Edwards agreed. 

Moore has endorsed one of Edwards’ opponents, Nicky Gonzales Yuen. In his statement, he said that he “made this very clear to [Edwards] early on in the race and so [I] was startled to see his listing of me as a supporter.” 

The Planet article also listed Moore as an endorser of Yuen. 

The Moore endorsement information for Edwards in the article came from Edwards’ Candidate’s Statement form obtained from the Alameda County Registrars Office. Instructions on the form are that it is a “statement...expressed by the candidate himself/herself.” At the bottom of Edwards’ typewritten list of education and qualifications for the trustee position, he included a handwritten list of “some of my supporters,” including Moore. 

When asked about the Moore endorsement in connection with this story, Edwards initially said, “That’s not true. I haven’t got Darryl Moore’s endorsement. You must have gotten me confused.” 

When told that the endorsement information came from his filed campaign statement, he initially denied it, stating, “My candidate’s statement doesn’t even have any endorsements on it.” Edwards eventually admitted that Moore’s name was on the statement turned in to the registrar.  

“We turned that in,” he said. “At the time you turn [these statements] in, people were still wrangling to get endorsements. At that time I was trying to get [Moore’s] endorsement, but Nicky [Yuen] ended up getting it.” 

Edwards, a Berkeley attorney, was appointed in late August to the Berkeley Public Works Commission by Councilmember Maudelle Shirek. He also lists membership on the California State Assembly’s Select Committee on Community Colleges, to which he was appointed by Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton) in August. 

Moore is running for the Berkeley City Council District 2 seat being vacated by Councilmember Margaret Breland. 

—J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 

Richmond Progressives Upstage Council Meetings 

A coalition of Richmond activists has been turning recent city council meetings into something akin to guerilla political theater. 

The Richmond Progressive Alliance, a coalition of liberal Democrats, Greens, union activists and others, has fielded two candidates in the November city council race, Andres Soto and Gayle McLaughlin, both frequent visitors to the podium during council meets. 

During Tuesday’s session, Soto made frequent visits to the microphone, often accompanied by allies supporting whatever cause he was espousing at the moment. 

In one of his first appearance, a group of tenants—including several Hmong residents—followed him to the mic when he rose to call for a “just cause” eviction law and a rent stabilization measure.  

Colorful multilingual signs added to the impact. 

Then there’s Jerome Smith, who invariably opens his remarks with a poem (John Milton and Robert Frost were two recent choices) and closed one of his commentaries with a song Tuesday night. 

Smith also includes “the four-gones” in his opening statements, referring to the four sitting councilmembers the alliance hopes to see gone after the elections. 

Their tactics are clearly starting to wear on the council, eliciting the occasional rebuke from Mayor Irma Anderson, who tries to keep her council colleagues under a tight reign. 

The ultimate test of the group’s effectiveness will become apparent on Nov. 3 after the last ballot is counted. 

—Richard Brenneman 

Regents Approve Underhill Funds 

The UC Board of Regents has approved close to $39 million in construction funds for UC Berkeley’s Underhill Parking Facility and field replacement, although the money itself will not come from state funds but from fee-based monies operated by UC Berkeley. 

As part of its Underhill Area Project, UC Berkeley is planning to replace the current Underhill Parking lot on College Avenue between Channing and Haste with a new three-level parking structure with a playing field on top. The Environmental Impact Report for the project was approved in 2000. 

The regents’ approval is intended for money for preliminary plans, working drawings, and construction. 

Actual construction on the facility is expected to begin next summer. 

UC Berkeley Facilities Services Communications Manager Christine Shaff said that the regents’ action, taken at last week’s San Francisco meeting, was “part of the regents’ managerial role. Essentially, they’re giving us the go-ahead to continue with the project based upon the fact that the university has identified a funding source.”  

UCB’s Parking and Transportation and Recreational Sports self-supporting programs will provide $31 million of the funds, while $8 million will come from UCB’s parking System Net Revenue Fund and Parking Replacement Reserve Fund. 

Construction for the new facility has not yet been sent out to bid. 

—J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 

ª