Public Comment

The focus of the Activist’s Diary is local politics and what happens at our public City meetings. Even in a light week it’s impossible to attend them all. Most of the commission meetings are =not recorded and reading through the minutes of too many is a worthless endeavor.

Councilmember Lori Droste as the author and Rigel Robinson and Rashi Kesarwani as co-sponsors are proposing a Commission Reorganization for Post COVID-19 Budget Recovery. Mayor Arreguin, the leader who is responsible for the expanding the number of commissions in his tenure, seems to have acquired some enthusiasm for the reorganizing. Droste stated last Monday that there was no real basis for choosing to reduce the number of commissions to twenty from thirty-eight. The premise is that reducing the number of commissions will have significant positive impact on the city’s budget.

Given that going through the agendas of the boards and commissions has ruined my Friday evenings for years and deprived me of a good night’s sleep, I can’t think of anyone who would be happier than me to wipe a number of these off the slate, starting with the Animal Care Commission that spent three years as I recall voting and then revisiting, voting and revisiting, voting and revisiting how many dogs professional dog walkers could walk at once (4, 6, or 8 dogs.) This particular commission is listed under the City Manager and maybe she ought to take a look at it.

It is unfortunate that so many of the commissions have been shut down during the pandemic. It would have been a good time for councilmembers to join zoom and see their appointees in action. Then maybe those commissioners who really just warm a seat or at worst obstruct could be replaced. Shutting down the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission at 9 pm because the chair wants to stop is not a reason to quit when there is work to be done. 

There are commissioners that provide significant contributions to the city, with some commissions producing analysis and reports that are more thorough and useful than those coming from the city-hired consultants (a place to look at spending). The Public Works Commission is on a roll, and their recommended five-year paving plan is in the proposed January 26 agenda. The Public Works Commission also produced the information report Phase 3 to Underground Utility Wires. It is so dense that the agenda packet for January 26 was broken into two packets. There are other commissions and task forces that have produced stunning star work. 

The functioning of the city was once described to me as a four-legged table: 1) City Council, 2) City staff, 3) Boards and Commissions and 4) the city at large – the public. City government can be messy, with commissions sometimes making recommendations that staff and the council do not wish to consider. The commission process brings forward ideas. 

From my holiday reading, Tyranny of Meritocracy by Lani Guinier: Diverse groups develop better solutions. Each councilmember making an individual appointment doesn’t bode well for ensuring commissioner diversity. Diversity here is not just race, class, education or life experiences, it also includes persons with disabilities and mobility limitations, the young and old. A successful city needs a broad array of voices, but the most important factor is commitment to finding solutions. 

One last piece from the Monday Agenda Committee: item 19 in the proposed January 19 City Council agenda, Declare Racism as a Public Health Crisis, a Threat and Safety Issue in the City of Berkeley. Councilmember Hahn stated she was “very comfortable” with the committee recommendation. She would be, of course, as she authored the revision which I described in November 27, 2020 https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2020-11-27 Activist Diary as “thin” in content. With all that has happened this week, the rampage on the Capitol by a mob carrying Trump and Confederate flags, bent on overturning the November 3 election it feels like the revision isn’t near enough. The Declaration is much easier to read. It is now listed as item 25 in the final agenda. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2021/01_Jan/City_Council__01-19-2021_-_Regular_Meeting_Agenda.aspx 

It was hard to focus on anything after Wednesday afternoon, January 6, 2021. As I tried to follow the news, I found I was only half listening at the Planning Commission and Public Works Commission. In the Planning Commission workplan table from staff, the Bird Safety Ordinance (bird safe glass and dark skies) fell to the bottom (sort of like the place where injured and dead birds can be found after crashing into glass). Whether commissioners can prioritize bird survival over developer profits remains to be seen. Berkeley sits in the migration flyway, but unfortunately it is the developer fees that finance the Berkeley Planning Department. Birds don’t carry cash on their wings to pay the way to moving up on the workplan priority list. 

The Community for a Cultural Civic Center meeting Thursday noon was a little easier as it fell during a press lull. There will be more at the next meeting on the plan for assessment of water intrusion. The committees of this organization are getting off the ground with the Park group as the only committee that met over the holidays. John Caner is completing the paperwork for Berkeley Partners for Parks as the fiscal agent. A draft for the website berkeleycccc.org is being reviewed by the group with comments due preferably by Monday, January 11. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the books I read in 2020 (41 in total) especially How Democracies Die (2018) by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt and It Was All a Lie (2020) by Stuart Stevens. In How Democracies Die the authors warn that any politician who meets even one of the following four criteria should be cause for concern: 1) Disrespect for norms – rejection of democratic rules, 2) Denial of legitimacy of opponents, 3) Toleration or encouragement of violence, 4) Willingness to curtail civil liberties of opponents including the media. Trump fits all four. 

I’m almost done with Fear by Bob Woodward. Next Up is The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder, who also authored On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. 

There is still a lot to digest from Wednesday.