Features

In 2002 I ran as an independent who could bridge the gap between the two often-warring factions on the City Council. Council meeting were acrimonious and often ran into the wee hours of morning. Under the leadership of Mayor Bates, the City Council has developed a more collegial manner while addressing difficult issues. I am proud to have played an important role in this transformation. 

Budget 

During the last four years, the Council has addressed a serious structural budget deficit, due to a combination of increased pension & salary costs and weak business revenues. The Council eliminated a $20 million deficit by implementing a hiring freeze, reducing the City’s workforce by 10 percent, delaying wage increases and raising fees. The workforce reductions were done via normal attrition (7 percent/year) so that no employees were laid off. With stronger revenues, pension costs leveling off and all of the City’s labor contracts up for renewal, we have a unique opportunity to eliminate the City’s structural deficit, decrease its unfunded liabilities ($160 million), and put its finances on a firm footing without resorting to new taxes.  

Workers’ Compensation 

Although it is popular to bash the City for its many perceived failings, it has an impressive success story with regard to workplace injuries. When I joined the Council, I was surprised to learn that injury rates of 20 percent/year were not uncommon. These high injury rates cost the City over $6 million a year in workers compensation costs.  

Since I believe that the City has an obligation to provide its employees a safe working environment, I requested the City Council to ask for quarterly reports on Employee Safety and Workers’ Compensation. In addition, the City implemented a safety bonus program, where employees received a year-end bonus, if they met certain safety goals. During the next three years, medical and indemnity claims dropped by a half and a third, respectively. In addition, workers compensation costs have dropped significantly, with projected savings of up to $1 million in the current fiscal year. This is a great success story that the City, its employees, and its citizens should be proud of. 

Crime 

In the summer of 2005, I requested that the City Council ask for quarterly crime reports. These quarterly crime reports have been well received by Council. In response to my questioning, the police department has adopted a goal of reducing property crime by 40 percent in the next five years. In addition, the crime maps showed hot spots where the crime rate can be ten times larger than the rate in other parts of the City.  

I believe that all residents of Berkeley deserve a safe environment, free of crime. To make a major reduction in crime in Berkeley, we need to engage the community to come up with innovative solutions. To this end, I have proposed the creation of Public Safety Commission to work cooperatively with the police department on the goal of making all Berkeley neighborhoods safe. Recently, Vince Casalaina, a resident of District 8, put forth an innovative proposal for reducing auto theft in Berkeley (www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/council8/AutoTheft.pdf). The auto theft rate in Berkeley is 50 percent higher than the rate in Alameda County and 100 percent higher than the rate in California. My Office is currently working with the Mayor’s office to implement a pilot auto theft prevention program during the current fiscal year. 

Promoting local businesses 

Early in my tenure on the City Council, business in the Elmwood Business District was undergoing hard times. The Avenue Books store closed, Nabolom’s and Ozzie’s announced that they were closing, and there were a number of empty storefronts. Today, the Elmwood has turned around. We have a great new bookstore (Mrs. Dalloway’s), Jeremys has expanded, Nabolom and Ozzie’s have been revitalized and a new ice cream store (Ici) has recently opened. 

During the last two years, my office has worked with the merchants and neighbors to organize semi-annual Elmwood cleanup & beautification days. This summer my office hired a summer intern to recruit local businesses to participate in Caltopia and to promote the Elmwood to 30,000 Cal students. Thousands of students stopped by the booth and sampled pastries from Nabolom, curry dishes from The House of Curry, and beauty products from Body Time. Hundreds of brochures promoting the Elmwood, discount coupons from Elmwood Hardware, and literature from Mrs. Dalloway’s were passed out. Almost 700 students signed up for a raffle with gift certificates donated by Elmwood Merchants. 

Improved town/gown relations 

With the advent of the settlement agreement between the City and the University, Town & Gown relations have greatly improved. Currently, my office is helping to implement a pilot program to improve disaster preparedness in the Greek Community, which is especially close to the Hayward fault. In addition, we helped facilitate a pilot program featuring additional trash pickups both before and after games days. I have also proposed that the City and the University work together to extend the AirBears network off campus so that students can access wireless in their residences. Finally, my office worked with the University, the Telegraph business community to help construct a new website: www.telegraphlive.com to promote businesses in the Telegraph area to students. 

Communication with constituents 

Each year, my office host’s dozens of community meetings on different topics from traffic to problem properties. We publish a regular electronic newsletter to keep constituents informed on City issues and events. Recently, we have used the Internet as a tool to promote citizen participation in municipal decision-making. In particular, we have worked with KitchenDemocracy (www.kitchendemocracy.org) on local and citywide issues.  

Group endorsements: 

Berkeley Fire Fighters Association, Berkeley Democratic Club, and Berkeley Chamber of Commerce 

Elected officials: 

California State Senator Don Perata, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Mayor Tom Bates, Former Mayor Shirley Dean, Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds, ASUC Executive Vice President Jason Chu , School Board members Shirley Issel, Nancy Riddle, and Joaquin Rivera 

For a complete list of my 500 endorsers go to: www.wozniakforcouncil.com/