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The City Council this week grappled with the debate over installing electronic identification devices in public library books. 

The council on Tuesday had two proposals before them regarding the RFIDs, as the devices are known, one from Councilmember Kriss Worthington and the other from Councilmember Dona Spring. The discussion opened with Spring moving for adoption of her proposal, and then Worthington immediately seconded her motion. 

Spring’s proposal called on City Manager Phil Kamlarz to send a letter to library Director Jackie Griffen and the Library Board of Trustees to respond to letters from the Service Employees International Union Local 535, which represents library staff, seeking answers about the costs of installing the technology, service impacts on the public and whether the RFID technology serves the interests of the public. 

The proposal also directed the city attorney to look into the RFID installation contract.  

After Worthington seconded Spring’s motion, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak offered a proposal of his own to have the matter studied further that would have delayed any action on the issue by six months to a year. 

Wozniak also called for the council “to reaffirm that the work of the library board should be to return to the level of services offered before November 2004,” packaging that with his other suggestions as a substitute motion. 

After considerable by-play and a series of testy exchanges, notably between Worthington and Mayor Tom Bates, the board agreed to call for the restoration of services to the level before last year’s cuts. 

Councilmember Linda Maio offered the final compromise: Refer the labor management issues to a joint committee of library staff and management. 

“People want to believe it is settled and benign, but I’m not all of that mind,” said Councilmember Max Anderson. 

Other action 

• On a split vote, councilmembers approved the first reading of legislation that would extend Ellis Act protection for all tentants evicted by landlords seeking to take a rental property off the market. 

Currently, Berkeley requires landlords to pay $7,000 in relocation fees for elderly, disabled and low-income tenants. The new measures provides a basic payment of $4,500 for all tenants to help with relocation, with an additional $2,500 available to units with low-income, disabled and senior tenants. The low-income payment would be shared by all occupants of the unit, but the disabled and senior payments would be divided up only among the disabled and/or senior tenants. 

• The council overturned a Zoning Adjustments Board decision denying an appeal by neighbors who had protested their approval of plans to demolish a small single-floor house at 1532 Martin Luther King Jr. Way and its replacement by a two-unit apartment and a cottage at the rear of the lot. 

Residents, many carrying signs, complained that the house would overshadow neighbors—especially the home of Emily Rogers. Rogers said she would be cast fully into shadow during parts of the year. Other neighbors raised privacy and drainage issues. 

On an unanimous vote, the City Council agreed to grant them a hearing. 

• The council denied an appeal of a ZAB decision to allow a small addition to a home at 2235 Derby St., but city staff promised that all construction debris from the project would be covered. 

• The council overturned a decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission designating an early 20th Century Victorian at 2901 Otis St. as a structure of merit, one of the city’s two historic resource designations. 

Councilmembers also ap-proved construction plans by developers Eric Geleynse, Xin Jin and Danny Tran to raise a three-story, three-unit condo project on the site—although a neighbor who opposes the project has made an offer on the property which could render the construction issue moot.