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Over objections raised by the city’s police union, the City Council voted 8-0 at its meeting Tuesday to add its support to Assemblymember Mark Leno’s bill, AB1648, which would re-open police complaint procedures statewide. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was absent. 

The council also approved sports fields at the Eastshore Park and heard a report saying the Oxford Plaza project is on track. 

Council supports open police hearings 

Complaint procedures were closed to the public in some jurisdictions and suspended completely in Berkeley after the state Supreme Court ruling in Copley Press v. San Diego led to the conclusion that police discipline is a personnel concern and therefore private. 

“Unlike all other public employees, the public is prevented by state law from learning about serious police misconduct and any discipline that came as a result of misconduct,” wrote Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, who introduced the resolution.  

“This prevents the public from learning about the extent to which problems exist within the Police Department [and] also from learning about how management addresses misconduct when it occurs,” Capitelli wrote. 

Addressing the council in favor of the item, Michael Diehl, chair of the city’s Mental Health Commission, said, “We need to protect the rights of those that are basically powerless.”  

Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director for the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union and former PRC commissioner wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Planet: “Berkeley’s Police Review Commission is the longest continually functioning civilian review board in the country. The public should not be closed out of this important process.” 

Sports fields 

The council unanimously approved a sports complex 25-year lease from the East Bay Regional Parks District for sports fields that will be built on Eastshore Park land at the foot of Gilman Street. 

Berkeley is the lead agency in the five-city group that will lease the sports fields. Albany, El Cerrito, Emeryville and Richmond are also participating. The project is funded with $5 million in state grants and $2 million from an agreement with an outdoor billboard company. 

Last week hundreds of parents and their youngsters paraded through the council chambers calling for council support of the deal. 

Discussion of the project took place only after Councilmember Kriss Worthington pointed out that the council had just received the previous day the 149-page contract, not available when the council received its background reports the previous week and that council rules call for special council approvals before discussing late items. All councilmembers present voted to go forward with the item. 

Appeal for 2701 Shattuck Ave.  

The council voted unanimously to hold a hearing to appeal the Zoning Adjustments Board’s approval of a five-story project at 2701 Shattuck Ave.  

Before the hearing, however, Councilmember Max Anderson will work with the developer, Rev. Gordon Choyce and the project’s neighbors, who say the building will overshadow their residences. 

Oxford Plaza/Brower Center OK 

Housing Director Steve Barton gave a presentation to the council on the Oxford Plaza/Brower Center housing and environmental nonprofit complex slated for Oxford Street and Allston Way, saying that the project “has met the preconditions you set.” 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz added a caveat, saying, “There are still a few loose ends.” 

Mayor Tom Bates commented that the project, which has taken some seven years to get all the various funding and approvals needed, is “the most complicated project in the history of the city.”