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James Chang, aide to Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, confirmed today that Mayor Tom Bates informed him that tonight's City Council meeting is being cancelled because there might be protesters in attendance, and the council chambers would be too small to hold them all. Chang said that Bates as the council's presiding officer under the city charter, has the power to cancel meetings at his sole discretion. Councilmember Kriss Worthington told the Planet that his aide, Alejandro Soto-Vigil, had been told the same thing, but he pointed out that the city of Berkeley could use some larger meeting rooms in buildings owned by the Berkeley Unified School District or Berkeley City College if the size of the council chambers in Berkeley's Maudelle Shirek Building (Old City Hall) is really the problem which Bates fears. A call to the Mayor's press aide, Charles Burress (who used to cover Berkeley for the San Francisco Chronicle) has not been returned.