Page One

The City Council Tuesday easily adopted a budget that erases Berkeley’s $10.3 million general fund deficit without laying off a single employee.  

But in spreading the pain around, the city had to strong-arm concessions out of two unions, both of which have threatened to take the city to arbitration. 

Also Tuesday, the council signaled its intent to seek voter approval for four tax hikes in November, rejected a last ditch effort to save a 19th century West Berkeley cottage, and took a stand against noisy motorized scooters. 

The council has debated the budget for weeks, trying to figure out a formula to plug the shortfall caused by shrinking tax revenues, decreasing state aid, and spiraling employee retirement benefits. 

With nearly every budgetary issue agreed upon weeks ago, the council was waiting to see if its six unions would concede to a roughly three percent deferral of salary increases this year to save the city $2.8 million, of which $1.4 million would go to the general fund.  

Three unions negotiated agreements with the city. The Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Locals 790 and 535 agreed to reduce salaries by 2.54 percent for 10.5 months and the Berkeley Police Association agreed to a three percent salary reduction for six months and an additional $646 cut per employee. 

The city had different remedies for the three holdout unions. For the Public Employees Union, Local One, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers, Local 1245, the city invoked a clause in their contracts forcing them to accept the same concessions agreed to by SEIU employees.  

For the Berkeley Fire Fighters Association, Local 1227, whose contract didn’t include the clause allowing the city to unilaterally impose givebacks, the council voted to cut $300,000 from the fire department’s budget—the amount the city would have received in salary savings. Fire services targeted for cuts won’t be decided until October, City Manager Phil Kamlarz said. 

Eight councilmembers hailed the deal and praised the unions who chose to cooperate. 

“It feels good to me and right that we’re weathering the storm together as a group,” Councilmember Linda Maio said before the 8-1 vote in favor of adopting the budget. 

However, Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the lone opponent of the budget plan, called the proposal a “slap in the face to Local One,” and chastised the council for not considering the unions’ proposals to save money, including their suggestion of taking voluntary unpaid time off. 

“It’s a sad day in Berkeley that this is being treated in the media as politicians standing up to unions when in actuality the employees have made the most suggestions to save money,” he said. 

In return for extracting concessions from the three unions, the city has promised not to lay off their members this year or invoke the fiscal emergency clause for the remainder of their contracts. The police contract expires in 2007, while deals for the other unions expire in 2008. 

To erase the $10.3 million debt, the city’s plan calls for using $1.3 million in reserve funds, $300,000 in new revenues, and $1.7 million in cost restructuring, as well as slashing $6.7 million in program reductions, including a $300,000 cut to community nonprofits. 

The budget does eliminate six vacant police officer positions, but nearly all of the most controversial cuts, including school crossing guards and a fire engine company, were spared in earlier negotiations. 

Next year the city will face an estimated $5 million deficit. However, a deal brokered between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the League of California Cities promises to restore several million in state dollars to Berkeley in fiscal year 2007. 

Ballot Measures 

Berkeley voters will be asked this November to approve $8 million in new taxes to compensate for deficits in city funds and to add new programs.  

In a non-binding voice vote to give direction to city staff, the council approved a $1.2 million property tax increase for the city’s paramedic fund, costing the average homeowner $30, and a $1.9 million property tax increase for the library fund, costing the average homeowner $41. 

The council also approved an increase in the property transfer tax to raise $2.2 million for youth services cut from the general fund and a 1.5 percent increase in the Utility Users Tax to fund $2.7 million worth of programs also slated for general fund cuts. 

Fifth Street Cottage 

By a 6-3 vote (Maio, Worthington, Spring, voting no) the council gave the green light to tear down a 126-year-old, two-bedroom cottage at 2211 Fifth Street in favor of a six unit, three story development. Preservationists had appealed a 5-4 decision of the Landmarks Preservation Commission not to declare the building a Structure of Merit.  

Had the council approved the appeal, the owners of the home might have been required to produce an environmental impact report studying regarding whether it would be legal to destroy a historic resource. 

Motor Scooters 

The council voted unanimously on consent to ask the city attorney for a list of options to consider regulating or banning motorized scooters. 

The machines don’t travel faster than 16 mph, but because their young owners often tinker with the engines to amplify noise, they break the sound barrier for neighbors. Councilmember Dona Spring, who requested the referral, said she decided to seek relief because the gas-powered machines are polluters and dangerous for the youth who ride them. 

Earlier this year, 15-year-old Berkeley resident Miguel Caicedo was killed when he drove a friend’s motorized go-cart into oncoming traffic in West Berkeley and was struck by a truck. 

In 2000, the U.S. Consumer Protection Commission reported that there were an estimated 4,390 hospital emergency room treated injuries associated with motorized scooters.  

Spring also has a personal gripe against the machines. “I get awakened on a regular basis because someone goes down Channing Street [on a scooter] at 1 a.m.,” she said. “Think of the hundreds of people awakened by it as it blasts its way down the street.” 

Neighbors in both South and West Berkeley have signed petitions calling for the city to ban scooters. 

The backlash against the machines has even reached Sacramento. The State Assembly recently passed a bill (61-16) authored by Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) to slap new regulations on scooters. 

The bill would require scooter riders to have at least a learner’s permit and prohibit the scooters from being driven at night or modified to amplify noise. 

Rachel Richman, an aide to Assemblymember Chan, said the bill would also allow cities to regulate scooters, a right currently reserved for the state. However, Richman did not think Chan’s proposed law would allow the cities to ban scooters from city streets altogether. 

Spring had originally called for an outright ban on scooters, but changed her recommendation after conferring with Richman. 

w