about the loan agreement as well as the transfer of ocean view guard and apartments so with regard to this item three on our successor agency agenda the loan agreement department of finance has to approve ultimately the loan agreement and if they don't approve then what will happen i'm sorry we have to find some other way of paying that making the debt payments right that will be a decision that the city manager will have to make with the city council i assume and then after we pay this these outstanding debt payments are there any is there any outstanding balance of payments that we have to make framed this loan agreement as only for the two payments that we've missed because we're waiting for the outcome of the litigation that will give us direction about what happens going forward so it's looking at the report it says that the i think the intent is to resolve the overall issue by way of the litigation we have an ongoing obligation to make those payments to the retiree medical plan so what we're trying to do is cover the past payments that were made and what we're asking is for a loan from the city to the successor agency to make those payments does the ops cover the ability to make the payment from march yes it's listed in the raw to make the march payment ok and then i had a question with regard to the transfer which is one question so if the transfer goes to the city as the successor agency for housing with the same ground lease in affordability terms present their bits here ok form is present so we have some ceremonial items on council member has a proclamation for good evening sun proclaiming september two thousand and thirteen childhood cancer awareness month whereas thirty six children in the united states will be diagnosed with cancer each day and one out of five children diagnosed with cancer will survive the disease and whereas the types of cancers that affect children are most often very different from those that affect adults and the causes of most pediatric cancers are largely unknown and not strongly linked to lifestyle unlike adult cancers and whereas childhood cancer is not just one disease but it's made up of a dozen types and countless sub types of cancer and whereas pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by chilled by disease in children under fifteen years of age and kills more kids than aids asthma cystic fibrosis diabetes and muscular dystrophy combined and whereas in the past twenty five years only two drugs have been specifically developed for children's cancer and two thirds of children's cancer patients will develop long lasting chronic conditions resulting from treatment and whereas less than five percent of the federal government's total funding for cancer research is dedicated to childhood center cancers and only about three percent of funding from the national cancer institute or directly to pe cancer and whereas the funding for pediatric cancer research has gone down steadily since two thousand and three and despite that fact childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded whereas despite major advances in treatment it is still critically important to conduct research and increase awareness regarding pediatric cancer now for now therefore be it resolved that tom bates the mayor of the city of berkeley does here by declare the month of september twenty third teen as childhood cancer awareness month in order to help raise awareness of pediatric cancer and its victims was there someone here this evening to accept this brother mom couldn't be here tonight but grandpa and brother and sister are here their little brother gavin passed away just this last may from the good cancer steamer the one that supposed to be cured but it's not even from the good cancers if they don't die from the cancer they often die from the treatments which are barbaric and pure torture for those kids and give them side effects   we need more people involved we need people to be aware that kids all the time i've gone to for funerals in the last year and within one year you mr mayor just one i wanted to point out some innovation in our city clerk's office item forty nine on your agenda tonight but i also just wanted to point out that the city clerk's office now processes passports so if you would like to get a passport please go to the city clerk's office and there's information actually on the information calendar tonight so we're very proud of what mark and his staff have done and it's really exciting we're making money on not be on the agenda this evening  community urban vegetable gardens in the city of berkeley i'm speaking today in the hopes that the berkeley city council will pass a motion to suspend enforcement of clearing public and residential parkways in the case of urban vegetable gardens the city of los angeles just passed a motion last month suspending and foresman of a city ordinance requiring them to clear parkways in the case of urban vege gardens in hopes of increasing community health as well as public morale we have six hundred eighty one signatures on change dot org and counting of people who want our berkeley city council to pass a similar motion a motion similar to that of los angeles suspending enforcement of clearing park ways in the case of urban veggie gardens we feel that this would be good for the community because one allowing gardeners to plant parkway plant in the parkway is allows for utilization of land that would otherwise go to waste to creating community accessible parkway gardens allows our lower income community members access to nutritious and therapeutic plants that they would otherwise not be able to get access to and three parkway gardens help beautify the city and improve curb appeal these parkway gardens are already doing great things in the city of los angeles and we the city the citizens of berkeley want to get the ball rolling so  we can bring those benefits here to our city thank you have a question so by parkways do you mean medians yeah medians the strip of land between the street sidewalk i'll just note that we did refer to the city manager looking at a lo question when you say are you referring to parking strips along the side of the road no are you talking about the median between median is the portion in the middle of a road like sacramento st you know that's not what we're talking about we're talking about a time out right next to the curb yeah right next to the curb ok and so i want to clarify that i also wanted to ask you you don't have to tell me tonight maybe you could just send me the information as it is there been any study on the toxic elements that come out of automobiles that land directly on these vegetables there hasn't been any direct study but i do willing to posit that well so hasn't been any direct study but they're already doing this in los angeles and they're getting news thank you very much ok they members of the city council mayor tom bates tonight while the city of berkeley holds its city council meeting next door the city of richmond council will have a showdown vote on the use of eminent domain and order to season right down mortgage for hundreds of homeowners who are underwater like other homeowners who are underwater in berkeley these homeowners figured that their unassuming single for a family home would rise in value over the years upon a time when they would have an asset to sell and finally on still later years now as i approach retirement my work set is just another underwater home and district two and berkeley like many other homeowners like myself owe the bank more than my home is worth as people relinquish homes don't have to water for clothes or simply walk away from a failed investment the city's tax base is shrinking therefore i would like the city of berkeley to consider a proposal advanced by a san francisco base investment fund we're going to resolution partners and use that would relieve homeowners of some of their mortgage burden by using the city's power of eminent domain the affordable modification program or hamp as a federal program designed to lower a homeowners monthly mortgage i have applied for hamp six times yet i was denied each time due to frivolous reasons i flew to washington d for an actual association aka home save event i worked out a loan modification to receive a letter to weeks later that they couldn't offer me a loan modification after all well later i applied for another hamp loan modification and the bank agreed to find a similar letter in the mail saying i didn't qualify i filled out some reforms in order to save my home over the past several years i have an entire file that since that took place first the city of berkeley is out at least twenty thousand bucks maybe as much as fifty thousand dollars in rent and taxes because i had i was a village i was ready to take a couple of stores not just one second bec students out of business to get to buy stuff a discount to buy cable a stable for fifty bucks you can buy tickets for tim also repairs rely heavily on the laptops nobody does repairs in the pipes in berkeley of any value number three other urgently needed rent relief from the city it's a very serious situation we're asking the city for a meeting in the next two weeks so that we can discuss this and i brought a prop here this is a chart which shows recorded as donating one hundred dollars to the berkeley holiday fund that's consent calendar twenty five god like to be recorded is abstaining on item number thirty four and i'd like to move to action number thirty six exercises to the city manager ok thank you very much oh i don't number thirteen is a donation from the berkeley echo lake association and i just like to read the names of the principals in the association who have been working to raise funds for these scholarships so that kids who would ordinarily not be able to experience camp at all actually get to go brian boru who's the president michelle cobb osinski fred huxley rosemary richie they are guys and fung thank you so much for the cash donation to the berkeley eco lake camp programs i like to also add one hundred dollars to a number twenty four the berkeley holiday fund from i do thirteen account we e mailed the letter to you thirty five count some of worthington you want manager to make all signed proclamations available to the public on line which i think is really great but it really involves our doing certain recognize the extraordinarily twelve year old berkeley resident zeke wayne for his successful climate ride action while we were praising him we didn't praise him  enough he actually rode it over one thousand eight hundred and fifty one miles so we want to amend the background to change the number to one over one thousand eight hundred fifty one so that's just changing the number no other change and then on i don't know fifty the city owned retail space i'd like to do i guess the same thing that i'm number forty five b we have important and exciting new information the federal housing finance agency has withdrawn their standards that people were worried about so we have a revised datum that includes what the f a a f a a has done so i'd like to move that we accept the revised item with the exciting pioneering their first solar grant of two hundred fifty thousand dollars which helped installed panels on the full term i will be sorely missed and i just want to adjourn in her hon thank you first say like to adjourn the meeting in honor of alex nicolaas who passed away recently was a longtime berkeley resident along his wife martha who has been very actively involved in in our community  d i'd like to keep item twenty three which is the resolution in support of a b twelve twenty nine on consent but read  amendments to the resolution which is on page five hundred forty nine of our packet so the first amendment would be in the now therefore be it resolved clause at the end of it saying an local control of inclusionary zoning and urges governor jerry brown to sign the bill and then the bit for the resolve clause to also amend the various legislators who are receiving a copy of the resolution to also include the governor the reason i make these changes the bill is now in the governor's desk so we should direct it to the governor's attention and the city managers provide us with some information about the status of the bill so i also would like a way to anything so as part of the consent calendar if you could accept the supplemental agenda material that's submitted as item number forty three supplemental revision regarding affordable housing requirement implementation but it also relates to the item that council member air again was just mentioning because a b twe a co sponsor to her item twenty six regarding the costs county cities and families great thank you very much counselor and i'd like to hold over after consultation with cancer kept telly item forty three which is the referral the city manager on changes to the misspoke over guarding affordable housing fee implementation hold over to october first pending the decision of the governor on a b twelve twenty nine because if he signs the bill set it for a date certain so when we set up for the second meeting in october october fifteenth over fifteen if we could also carry a right i'm forty one which is the information report as well yes and then regarding item fifty five which is an information port i have had a conversation with the city manager about this issue but this relates to the referral that we had made to the staff regarding addressing mold and mildew and if we were to adopt a policy as a as a nuisance that may require additional forstmann new enforcement procedure so i just want to ask the manager if we wanted to give specific direction about a new regulatory approach should we move that to action and then give that direction to referral is city manager i would also like to refer this to the transportation commission since this is also a transportation issues so i'd just like to add that to i don't want to pull the item but i'd like to add that to the with the consumer where these and i too will donate city funds from my day thirteen in the amount of one hundred dollars to the christmas fund think the public should know that we're donating their money  on item thirty six which regards east cigarettes oh it's moved to action ok and then item forty one i have some concerns about confidentiality in making the waiting list for taxi off the agenda is i know thirty three item thirty three was held over to the seventeen and i am forty three was held and item fifty one information report will come back on october fifteenth or so they are the ones if you wish to speak to one of them you can do so that's still on consent we will allow you to speak to the number thirty three or forty three if you're good evening their babies and honorable council members i'm diane hayes president of the community services chapter and this is jackie morgan she's the vice president of the community service chapter for the city of berkeley and we're here tonight to ask you to approve the memorandum of agreement with the sci you tend to want community services and they are chapter we would like to thank our negotiation team for all of their hard work michael marsha deborah short of jones from the health and housing and community services department jackie morgan from the rent board andrea malarky and sam clements from the library merit a player from planning valerie robinson and james wells from parks and recreation representing p t l r a ron roan are representative from the local ten to one tourney peter leonard carter and sidney coulter who are retired from the city the city's team in december two thousand and twelve he wasn't able to continue with the negotiations we also thank the city manager christine daniel and the city's negotiation team william rogers a deputy city manager jane micallef the director of health housing and community services jay collect leanne the apartment director for the report and margarita is a more human services for working in a progressive manner to complete the contract negotiation process it was a long and tedious process but we worked hard to develop an agreement that works and tension with the needs of the city staff and city of berkeley we endeavor to continue to work in a collaborative manner to resolve the many issues facing the city in particular health costs cost of living diminished staffing and our ability to continue to provide quality service that a citizens and community of the city of berkeley thank you thank you merits my name is michelle myers i'm the director of the san francisco bay chapter of the sierra club and i'm here to speak on item number thirty one what is not mentioned is that when i actually did this as a fundraiser for the sierra club because he knows about all the work that we're doing to try to promote climate change solutions locally this was part of his leadership pride for his bar mitzvah and he actually decided not to accept any gifts and said he's just asking people to donate to the bay chapter if you would like to donate to the bay chapter you can do so by going to san francisco bay dot sierra club dot org slash dummy slash zeke's ride it's actually zeke dash ride dot h t m also it again san francisco dot sierra club dot org slash donate slash zeke dash ride dot h t m he's raised a little under four thousand dollars for a sorority and this is about a fifth of a staff salary that's working to promote renewable energy working to fight the export of increasingly dirty forms of crude oil that are looking to come into the bay area and even coral that's looking to be exported out of our ports so we're doing important work and we really appreciate support of zeke and his long bike ride to prove that we can get almost anywhere without using and that currently we have none that are operating in berkeley so we want to see if we can get additional five permits for that as well as i don't number forty which is  pirate taxicab drivers who drive without a valid permit tonight i would give you a brief overview of the electronic filing system for campaign statements that is currently used in berkeley and i'll provide you with some options for me implementing an electronic filing requirement based on my discussions with vendors regarding the upload of data from microsoft excel spreadsheets electronic filing is currently voluntary in berkeley the proposed peer amendment would require electronic filing for campaign committees that raise or spend one thousand dollars or more this system that the city uses to administer the campaign statement filing process both electronic and hard copy is called is a california based company that was founded in one thousand nine hundred eighty and currently has ten employees this is the first contracted with net file in two thousand and seven there are two primary functions in the net file system the agency function and the filer function the agency function is what allows the city to provide online public access to the campaign statements city clerk staff also use the agency function to track city campaign committees and conduct enforcement for late the filer function is offered to all berkeley campaign committees free of charge through the city's purchase of the agency function for committees that file electronically they use the filer function to create their campaign statements and transmit them electronically to the agency function for instant web posting and review by city clerk staff this slide is a partial list of other software products that are approved by the state of california for electronic filing of campaign statements some of the approved ender's provide varying levels of ability to upload from excel spreadsheets the products on this list are available for purchase by campaign committees these products have more robust functionality then the net file free file or function but they're also generally more complex to use if the city decides to adopt the electronic filing amendment to bere there are three options for accommodating excel users option number one the city could purchase licenses for the net file professional treasurer product and provide those licenses to campaign committees free of charge you can see the steps required for completing the electronic filing process on the slide please note that this option still requires some manual input of data into net file by the treasure the cost for this option is approximately twelve thousand dollars per year option two the city could purchase licenses for a product that is a competitor to the net file professional treasure product and provide those licenses to campaign committees free of charge as stated previously some of these products have  ability but they also have additional steps for the treasurer in order to complete the electronic filing process it is important to note that any upload from excel to any approved electronic filing software would require that the treasurer use a spreadsheet that is formatted to the vendor's exact specifications the cost for this option is also approximately twelve thousand dollars a year option three campaign committees can currently download into excel all the data they have entered into the net file free file or function they can then add columns to their downloaded spreadsheets to track other campaign related activities as with the spreadsheets that are formatted by the vendor in options one and two this option may not be completely seamless with the current methods of excel users but it does allow for personalization of a spreadsheet to suit the excel users current practices there is no additional cost for this option if the beer amendment is adopted by a two thirds vote we are seeking direction from the council on how to implement the new requirement that concludes the presentation and i'm happy to answer any questions you have so does it require two thirds vote of the council to adopt this correct ok so this is a public airing therefore we closing the public session and council member was now you know mark i mean the concern here is not with electronic filing but an exclusive system that only allows you to use one system and also making it easier i mean we're talking about volunteer treasurers and we don't want to have people entering data twice when you can maybe you can introduce errors that way and an x self spreadsheet is not necessarily the best way to keep information but it's sort of a standard for exchanging information even net file if you want to do a search on somebodies campaign statements or certain donors or whatever to exports the information excel uses it to communicate to users that way but somehow because they have an awfully they said we w we make here you have to pay and then it's only an include solution you know the input information from excel and i use an example is like you can transfer information from one address book to  another you know exporting the data and some file format or excel put it in excel and then you can upload it ok and it should be transparent and it should be relatively easy the burden should not be i think the principle should be the bird should not be on volunteer treasurers which they're volunteering their time there's a lot of work and regulations around our code and we should go to electronic following but not necessarily net file if that's the only require that it be exclusively used to vet c and those are my objections and you give two options and i'm not sure about the first one it's partway  pays twelve thousand dollars a week and you can upload contributor mission which is certainly the bulk of the information and most people can have to put you know have to report and i'm not quite so sure on the second one that would allow you to double all information right i spoke with several vendors at and a few of them do have the ability to upload all types of data the loans expenditures non monetary contributions i mean in some ways to me that seems prefer a boy and i don't like third option because many treasures they have a preferred database that they're keeping information and it's not that use the data that you have to eventually work and forcing people some people may be very happy with that file but other people like other databases tems and what i don't like about this is saying that one size fits all you have to use that file and i guess i'd like the best option c's of being away is option two that that would allow that allows treasure's use the database of their choice for their campaign and yet still exchange information with the city's official system which is certified i mean is that what will happen from right under option to you do have the ability to upload your data from  as a as i stated you would still have to use the spreadsheet format that the vendor provides to you so i asked people very specifically formatted to the vendors requirements so you can export or from your database edit out miscellaneous columns and then dump it into it i mean you have to i mean what we don't want is people having to enter dat multiple times it's a that's that's going to generate tears and it generates a lot of visual work right you would only have to enter it once but you would have to make sure that you're entering it into a spreadsheet that is formatted exactly how the vendor wants it to be formatted exported in a spreadsheet that's compatible it's easy did it x l files once you have the right you just have to make sure that all the fields match and everything is one hundred percent correct otherwise it won't up properly future only now we would continue to it would continue to have that that ability so if we went to option two we'd offer option two and option three same plan correct so then they could choose what they wanted to do so and they could choose whichever system was best for them ye yeah mark i have a couple of questions the twelve thousand dollars figure is for twenty committees to buy licenses for twenty committees but  necessarily would it be used by twenty committees so it's passed is it possible to just buy it for those committees that want to use it and then it wouldn't be tough thousand dollars right that was an estimate based off of how many campaign committees we generally have an election year and it goes down a little bit in the off year and assuming that about twenty of them would want to take advantage of that was the pricing so it's a little bit less than a thousand dollars apiece usually the more device and says you buy the less expensive they are per license so if it's a scale it fluctuates it could be voluntary it could be just those committees that want to use it correct ok but i just want to point out that the fewer licenses we buy the more expensive they become so at some point we'd probably make a decision to buy a certain number to achieve a certain price and then option two the way i read it you it you might have to do more work no you would just you could use one spreadsheet you would just need to make sure that the spreadsheet that you were using exactly matched the specifications that the vend requires that what you're doing is loading it up and then downloading it rather then the other way around you're adding all the information into your excel spreadsheet and then that spreadsheet has to be formatted exactly as the vendor wants can't we just provide templates to candidate committees right we would do that right so if you just like to make sure you can you know when i but i don't have to set it up  e going to just e mail me a template and i'm going to use it right yes so i mean i i like the flexibility although i think we need you to point out that if there are twenty committees out there and five of them want joe's you know database and some of them want net file we're not going to get the quantity discounts that we would get if we stick with just one proprietary we we would select one three period right so if we said we're going to auction off or option one and two both of them and we're going to come in your treasure you come in if you want the program then we'll buy that program porn i think we're sort of getting a little far afield from the public purpose of spending public funds on this so what we were trying to do was pick one vendor and so option one would be the net pile vendor the professional treasurer function and we would buy fifteen twenty licenses for that whatever would be option two would be we would pick a different vendor and buy a slug a licenses for that vendor i didn't but i don't think what we're proposing nor no i think what we propose that any committee can come in and w well i want to just ask a question about option two and how i mean if you have if you have a spreadsheet template it just specifies you know the columns copy that in and put it in and it doesn't matter what with i had in my spreadsheet as long as it it's in the right order of column and row correct i have not had conversations in that dept with the vendors i mean it's generated i figured it's more the column headings and the format of the data in the cells that it would be the width of the column he generally in any any excel spreadsheet i can take data from another one and copy it into it and i don't have to make sure that the column widths are exact ok i have to make sure they're the right word or or they can get scrambled right right again i would say i think there are certain pieces and four and formatting points in the data that have to match exactly and then there's probably some flexibility other wants but like i said i haven't had that ok conversation might be my last comment as i don't think option three is we'll solve the problem i mean i think there's some principles here one is that you know we're dealing with a company in that fall that has a monopoly and they've made it difficult to accept electronic information in other formats you know by other means like excel spreadsheets or other ones and contrary to almost all the rest of the tech industry which facilitates transfers between database and i think this is a really bad precedent to say that you can only use that i mean it's like saying you don't use one operating system or one kind of computer and that's you know that's contrary to all the what the web is about and what the city generally stands say you can only use one system one way and that's defined as the only kind of like tronics filing i think that's a bad precedent so i can't support option three unless we also have option to what i understand is that we're going to have one system because it's complicated enough to deal with many different campaigns and we have to have one single site where we present the data to the public so having other software which would be more expensive but you know i was listening to what you were saying but i don't know what you would get because you'd still have to translate it into what you're going to present to the public so if it if we choose a different vendor we're still choosing one vendor so if you're choosing more than one vendor yes you're spreading around th different types of packages that you're of it making available but you still have to have one way of presenting data i don't disagree with that but you know the campaign database is served several functions and you're saying that the only when i'm going to you either have to use net file exclusively or you're going to have to have a second one which is not does not allow exchange of information when that file because not file won't accept it or you got to buy it spend it several thousand dollars to buy oxen three doesn't allow somebody who uses microsoft's remember the name of its database to exchange information when that access ok and  lot of people use access so you have a millionaire ready with another system so it may go back to the model and access has a lot of other functions for that campaign that rogers find useful so it seems to me that if you wanted to a few wanted to  mean your you had the excel spreadsheet in between here it's a means of communication and so if you're if you're you're dealing with a product that you find is has a lot of barriers right yet if we go to another package which we haven't seen then i just seems to me that you that we're kind of we have to make a decision about what we're going to use and have many different systems it's just much more confusing for people i like the idea that you're going to be sending the already formatted excel spreadsheet to people to use now if they add columns to that or they add features to that you're saying that when they then upload that internet file at now if i want except you saying that if i add a columns that i add to what you send to me you're right if if we were going to use option one or two where yes you would if you added columns into that you'd have to strip that out before you sent the spreadsheet to be uploaded by that file or one of the other competitor products that's option three not one or two you know that that's one in one or two option three is to enter the information into net file and download it into excel from that file that's ok so if i want to prepare my data on on an excel spreadsheet and upload it internet file then i have to do it on a specific really formatted sheet and where do i get that with it the vendor would would provide that and actually that option one describes that the process for using the net file professional treasure function to upload the data from excel so i think we by only moving option three i'm a little bit confused now because i can enter it into the cities website through the cities website this is option three now and then correct and then the licenses for our campaigns to get on with they need a license to get onto to not to these websites who would just buy one license in that case there's no  licenses to be purchased for option three right so the only way for option one you would purchase licenses is if the system if the software reside on my computer if i was the treasurer right ok all right thank you and i think i get it yeah  well i want to make a subsidy a motion that we approve option two option to allow i mean everything all the all the interaction with the public is still on one place and that file but option two allows the treasurer to use another database like access to store the data originally manipulated that's not constrained by net file but still transform it in a way you excel spreadsheets in a way come format that's compatible  in that falls i think it satisfies everything and it's the most flexible i don't like saying that all treasurers have to use net five because even if you can expand exported excel spreadsheets of the data you don't necessarily have the functionality of other things that a treasure may want to do or of campaign may want to do with some of that data so i second the motion ok so i'm going to say you guys are going to institute the twenty minute rule come on we've all let's say i have twenty of them and then i can download those onto a spreadsheet and then if i have additional information that i want to enter in about that donor i have to go to that spreadsheet and start entering additional data set correct right ok under option one though if i want that option one i can do the same thing or i can get from the city this net file professional treasure upload and i can do it i can actually just enter all the i i've got a three by five card in front of me with all this information i can enter it all and then just and then just send to net file the information that they want correct and it all into i can enter it all into a spreadsheet an excel spreadsheet and then and then export all of it up to the city server right as described on option one though you can only upload country contributions  file not loans not expenditures not non monetary contributions but i can do that under option three i can i can listen to option three all your transactions everything so option one gives us the flexibility if we want to put all of our donations which is ninety five percent of the data entered has to do with supporters not with loans or anything like that so that would give us the option then i guess i'm just saying i don't like double entry i don't like to enter something on that file then download it and then add more fields later on this way i can do the whole thing in one shooting match under option one and then upload it to net files that correct motion i think it's the best of three bad choices so i don't remember why i have a question about if we have all of these software packages out there how does all the information get into the single system that the city uses to present the information to the public so if you're using one of the we're using two let's look at option two yeah so you upload and then you create your files in the in that product then you have to add some information into your filing and then you can upload it into an that file so it will accept these information from these other software packages yes no files compatible with all the other software packages because they all operate on the same state approved electronic filing platform and how many licenses are we talking about process possibly having to purchase well in an election year there's upwards of forty campaign committees but i would not estimate that every single one would take advantage of this several of them have been using that file for three election cycles so they're used to that system and they use it quite well so we estimated based on twenty licenses to be approximately twelve thousand dollars per year so yes but that's for one product that's for net five ok i thought that number two two  complete campaigns and direct file are two of the vendors that i see every time you purchase a license you're purchasing a number of users allowed under that license for one user per license  let's say there is how many packages out there how many different vendors yeah but we're only going to pick one vendor here so option one is the net file professional treasure option option two is we'll pick up a different vendor whether it's truly tile or whether it's who do you want to see whatever it's just one vendor and we would we would buy twenty licenses from that been there thank you i'm going to support option two also so i have a question or another vendor specifically direct file and that file are roughly the same cost for purchasing twenty licenses does it seems very clear to me that we should go with option two because it not only would just allow yeah the u ding of expenditures becan traditions alone so for we're committed to trying to make it easier for volunteer treasures to upload this information it seems like that's the best choice and i just have a question  in a general election uses of words of forty campaign committees and we've purchased twenty what happens if we have more than twenty committees requesting can we go back to the vendor and just add on a few more or how does that work well additional licenses would be an additional cost but like you said the more you buy the cheaper they get per license but there would be some additional cost ok and that would be something you could respond to pretty quickly if the numbers rose higher than you thought they were yes ok ok mr mayor before you vote if i could just request that you also act on item forty two a which is the ordinance we've been talking about implementing the ordinance but we also need an action which is to adopt the first reading of an ordinance amending bera so if you could if the maker of the motion could include forty two as well that would be appreciated so a minute or so or  so the reason i pulled it is because i'm concerned first about the workload of the health commission which is dealing with so much stuff now but more importantly i'm i wonder if the city as a city has any authority on this matter and  guess i'm going to ask the city attorney if the city has the authority to regulate g m o labeling in berkeley well it's a live issue  is not clear there are challenges they've been inserted to the labeling throughout the country and i don't think the final word has been spoken so it i mean it seems like it would present a lot of practical problems for especially small grocers who so produce i'm not i'm not exactly sure how the labeling would be be looked at by the city manager and the commissions and i've already had some initial discussions with the city manager about this issue the actual labeling would be really required to be done by the actual stores but one of the issues is what stores this would be subject to and so that's why the first part of the recommendation says the scale of applicability should only apply to a large grocery stores rather than small grocery stores out of concern and sympathy to the consumer you know this adversely impacting small mom and pop grocery stores so that's one of the issues that will be explored if this referral were to go forward additionally the issue regarding you know the legality or the legal authority of the city to do this would also be explored as well and so you know what i what i'm suggesting is that we study this issue about requiring grocery stores to establish a living and labeling requirements how they determine you know whether a product is you know contains most or not would have to be investigated on the part of the store and you know buys investigated their supply chain whether there are non profits that have done that kind of research that's something we should look at as well i know for a fact with the sweat shop free ordinance we contracted with a consortium which did that research for the city about which particular companies you know were engaging in sweat shop practices so that we are in compliance with that requirement so these are all issues that need to be fleshed out but what this is is a referral to explore this concept and and to get the input of our commissions and our staff about whether this is something we should move forward with hello my name is steve her again and i have a long health journey from having auto immune illness there's a large population that has a lot of all of them in illness now as well as the you know triple the trifecta of obesity and diabetes and heart disease so these things are being increased by genetically modified organisms i happen to be in the organics industry and i'm in the industry of fermented foods i'm healing up what g m owns are tearing up i'm healing the gut you know i could look at it as this could be a windfall for my profits to have more and more guts torn up by g m owes you know come to me and i'll solve the problem but that's not you know for public health that's no good and you all over the internet every day there are more and more articles tying g m o news to put good health good health comprises at least eighty percent of a person's immune system and their overall health you know we've been operating on experimental territory here the younger generations paying for it it's you know everything from autism to a d h t to all kinds of mental health maladies on the rise they've been on the rise they've been on the rise since people started eating less fermented foods since refrigeration can't help so we actually have a lot to learn and one of the key things would be to have the foods labeled so that people who are trying to deal with really hi my name is rachel put chivas and i'm a berkeley resident i volunteered and worked for just about two years on prop thirty seven and it was a really really big journey to see how much support was gained through prop thirty seven and then after prop thirty seven and i just want to thank you guys for bringing this to the table right now we have a whole bunch of volunteers here with us and we're all really supportive that this gets done and we're happy to work with  resolution for this jim those were first introduced into the ninety's by the f d a they were approved by the f d a without any testing done by them they were done by the big tech companies so i mean that tells you right there there is kind of just a little bit wrong with it and i mean where the land of the free and somewhere where we can have a choice and food is not labeled and people have no idea what they're eating and prop thirty seven brought this awareness out there so people can know and people have learned so much through it but imagine the people who haven't heard about it and don't see labels and have no idea what they're eating and i think it's just as simple as that that there is a choice that needs to be had so  mayor council members good evening ok my name's wendy cesar i live here in berkeley and yes i read labels i make sure i buy organic or the products have that little g m o free symbol on them but that's just a tiny percent of all the things that are in a supermarket most things are not labeled that way sixty four countries demand that products with genetically modified organisms in them  have a label on it so people can make an informed choice but not in this country for some reason and if the labels are already done by the way all these big companies have no big retooling to do they have to label these to sell in the sixty four countries so they just you know they could add us to the list and if these genetically modified ingredients are so healthy and so good for us and something we would want to know about why aren't monsanto and these big companies eager to let us know that this product has genetically modified ingredients why are they doing spending millions and millions of dollars to block us from knowing about the presence of these things by the way x monsanto people head up the f d a and the u s d a so it's no surprise that these organizations support the proliferation of genetically engineered products this isn't really about we're not saying no g m owes we're saying we would like to be able to make an informed choice like the people of russia and china and all these other countries to let us know what's in the food that we're purchasing for ourselves our own bodies for those of our families i appreciate the fact that you're bringing this to our attention and thank you very much  working on prop thirty seven labeling the labeling issue and and i thank you for bringing this to our attention i think it's really good if it were to pass this so that it can come to the health committees and be more open discussion for people in the community for us to submit information and so as council member again mentioned there's some of the issues are outlined things that could be talked about who to apply to and so on and so whatever people's concerns are this could all be talked about as has been mentioned the revolving door of people that are in charge of some of these policies you know come from these companies of the fast food companies pepsi monsanto so these are the people put up the money for prop thirty seven when it was so popular before and then the advertising which was so things that were not true to put it mildly in one thing that i think we need to act locally where we can because we can we need to work on all levels but one is local and one thing we want and i know we all value is our children in children are vulnerable because they're they're more sensitive to chemicals and toxins are bodies are developing their cells are dividing their mune systems aren't developed and the metabolize her food at higher rates so they're more prone to allergies and so on so for many reasons i encourage you to support passing this into further study through the city manager and the committee for the environmental committee feel that we as americans have the right to know what we're eating just like they do in other countries i also think that berkeley is a should show an example to the rest of the country as we are very progressive and this is a good place to start with labeling even though i understand you're thinking about it just for fresh produce but i think that is a it's a good way to get going with this and bring awareness and a lot of times it is about awareness and talking about this and so people can understand what it's about and that they can make an informed choice so i know that prop thirty seven passed overwhelmingly  it's on the genetic engineering and the genetically modified foods synthetic biology the next wave of genetic engineering allows seed pesticide and oil companies to redesign life so that they can make more money from these companies now want to take over the forests and the land of the global south to make so called biofuels and so forth but in general it's to make more money and and we want this to be a healthy city in fact you know was you're going to have meetings about that and so there are some principles here i could give them to jesse the principles of oversight of this type of genetic modified so that they're basically the precautionary principle and there are six or seven of them and so all i'll turn that into i'll give so much jesse arrogant for bringing this to the council and to the city and i can't believe susan one graph that you don't even want to ask the commissions to get more information about it you said you thought it would be a burden to them but that's why commissioners like me so that's why we volunteer because we want to help our city be more healthy and we want to keep berkeley on the cutting edge of that and other issues so i'm thirty so again i'm with the move to unmanned coalition that worked very much with the prop thirty seven people against the what month it was poisoning our our nation and i've been on to this for years i have  not genetically modified ingredients for years even though they're not labeled jesse's proposal won't be much of a burden to the grocers because it's only about fresh produce now over seventy percent of our packaged goods contain genetically modified ingredients but the fresh produce it boils down to if it's not organic and it's grown in this country it's probably genetically modified  if it's corn soy alfalfa the corn and soy in this country over seventy five percent is genetically modified if it's not organic only about half of the papaya is from hawaii and a very small percentage of zucchini and cooking act squash if they're not organic or genetically modified so that's that's not too much to label just those things now the things that are not fresh include canola cotton seed sugar from beets a manufactured if they think that it's beneficial to people they would want people to know that this is what's in it if it's not beneficial to people were producing it and selling it for in the first place so if they think that it's beneficial they would label it if they are afraid that it's not beneficial they would hide that fact and not label it the fact that they haven't  one question but i think that the center of this whole issue are the corporations that are producing genetically modified organisms and what this council i would suggest should do is move to make a statement through the industry as a city that they should label  genetically modified organisms and in that sense start a movement on the part of cities and counties and states to put pressure on always companies that they should do that  so to not get into the the merits of genetically modified organism research i fundamentally believe that the people of berkeley and the people of state of california should have the right to know whether the produce that they are buying it was  grown using g m most and people who want to buy non g m o produce should have to pay a higher premium to buy organic produce i think this is essential information and put people should know i'll just also note that the people of berkeley voted seventy four point six percent in support of proposition thirty seven and what this is is building on the framework that was put forth in proposition thirty seven but doing in a very narrow way i think the importance of studying this is not only important to the people of our community will know where their produce comes from but also it helps build momentum for another prop thirty seven on the statewide level were community that really has been at the cutting edge and i think once again we can lead the way by looking at this issue so i'd like to move the item with one addition i have been in conversations with the california grocers association who has provided sixteen occasion to see evening and i think one of the suggestions that they have made is a good suggestion so i'd like to also incorporate into the item a review of existing requirements for produce labeling including but not limited to organic certification and country of origin labeling requirements and that was their suggestion at the end of their letter so i appreciate the fact that the california grocers are open to discussing this and i think this is something i'm i think it's great to have i mean we all want to have you know what we're eating in this going down this road of tinkering with our food is really scary but i'm concerned about your point number t because we have transition berkeley that exchanges crops people who are sharing tomatoes and things from their gardens and it seems to me to be an overkill to include that kind  of exchange by residents who exchange their tomatoes or whatever unless you want to focus on the fact that they they need to pay attention to see us which if we do want to do that i would want to add that because it's a clarifying statement that this pertains to to encourage people to to pay attention to what the source of their seeds are but that's it except you know i don't really want to go and have people worrying about if they're going to have to label everything because they're you know just to get that market should i reword it so homegrown crops that are sold or exchanged by individuals or small groups  pertaining to crops that use genetically modified c s so that people pay attention to what they're buying when they actually buy seeds or all i know a lot of people american said discuss you know the merits of g m o's but is a practicality of how you would do this the problem is that typically i mean it's the problem starts back at the seed as was  seed was genetically modified and once you grow a tomato that's from a g g g m o's seeds or an organic tomato they don't look very different and are because we want fresh products and we live in the northern hemisphere and to get fresh tomatoes and some fruit from some products year round we import them from all over the world i mean the grocer can't tell by looking at it whether it's came from a g m o not the only way to do that is to do it genetic analysis which costs maybe a thousand dollars or something like that it does it's not cheap somebody has to analyze the d n a and see whether there is a you know a gene in there that it's not in a traditional tomato or traditional supplier and so i don't see how you would do it foresman i mean there's one thing to say whether she be labeling but berkeley is not going to somebody there's got to screen these things t whether they're really organic or g m o and then put a you know put a label on it that's best done at the federal level or the state level i don't see how berkeley can do that so it seems to me that this would be one very expensive the monitor two you really wouldn't know the results in most cases and most most supermarkets and groceries operate in very low profit margins of one or two percent and you could significantly add to the cost and i don't i don't see how you would make it work i guess that's my general problem i don't have a problem in some ways maybe studying it but you know it really should be done at the state and federal level not berkeley berkeley can't you know berkeley is not going to take samples of all these fresh products that come in monterey market or whatever in a food you know whole foods and test them ok ok well not in this world is free including the health consequences of we don't pay some attention to this you know when prophecy five was propose we had the same kind of raft of opposition to it from the pocket industrial agricultural interests and that want to mask these chemicals that we get exposed to every day there's a strong argument to be made about the public's right to know and make choices about the things that they ingest and expose their families to one time when we first proposed a precautionary principles and they were passed in this chamber and it was held up as a beacon to guide us into the future when we have any suspicion that any actions that we take on this council could threaten the public health the people it's slipped since slipped into the shelf of  dusty memories of the council we don't pull it out and use it when we should and in this case it's being evoked because it's a very pleasurable and recognizable  whereby i heard that word monsanto for i think they were the chief manufacturers of agent orange that expose all of our military people in vietnam reduce the malaria mosquito population they had a number of different stories they told us but the bottom line is as the gentleman who smoked last year they're only interested in the money and the profits that's all they're interested in and if they had a good product it was sell itself and they would be out there pushing it in every way they could because the merits of it would stand  for those who have lorded these victories all too often over all of us so i'm going to support it i think some things need to be looked at and that's what we're asking people to do council liaison to the health commission and i can tell you that we live for things like this so that we can protect the public on things that they have very little information and  suggest that we would shy away from this because of our workload or something is not is not really accurate and the best interests of our community are not upheld by monsanto they're up held by a community health commission a democratic institutions in this country thank you i absolutely am in favor of the public's right to know what they're eating and i do have a choice i can buy state if i do organic produce when i go to the store to shop but i agree with steve martin you know that it's the chemical corporations that we should be going after not the grocer because the burden is now on the grocer to label and they're sort of the innocent victim and in all of this stuff they're not creating the problem the problem is being created by these giant giant corporations that really don't care about our health so i like steve's idea of maybe coming back with another item at another time that would start i read it writing a letter campaign to these corporations and letting them know you know that we care and that we want we want them to label it why why are we putting the burden on the grocer that's the part that i don't  i'm concerned about i think there are some practical matters and i think other countries have adopted the labeling but it's countries it's it's controlled federally throughout the country to get into lots and lots of problems when one municipality does one thing and other municipalities don't so that's a whole gumbo yeah i i have some concerns about the i have an share them i'm i suspect i'm going to support the item but i think the first thing that we should first question we should answer before we spend a long time and a lot of staff time and a lot of commission time on this is we should find out what our legal standing is and and if there is a somewhat clear cut answer that that we have no standing then i don't think we should proceed because i think it's an empty exercise secondly i think there are class here i see the prices at farmers markets i see the prices for gannett produce and i don't want to set up an environment where i'm discouraging people from buying produce because they have a fear justified or there will be some small grocery stores that will just stop caring produce because they can't figure out they won't be able to figure out themselves whether something has g m owes in them or not or or they will be expensive if i know if i want to buy g m o produce and my local store isn't carrying it and it costs more i'm going to go somewhere else i might even go out of town i also think the scale you know council member airgun points out that several countries european union japan china australia new zealand and likely connecticut these are these are communities of millions or billions of people  not one hundred thousand consumers so i think i think we need to look at that i'm also concerned some time it would be interesting to have the city staff give us a realistic estimate of how much staff time we spend each time this council meets and comes up with one recommendation after another in terms of staff time we're concerned about a budget in the city this is a lot of work and some of it will be done by the commission members but it will have to be coordinated by staff and every time we do that if this is a year long project my guess is that it is it's going to consume maybe a quarter or a half a staff person for that period of time so number one then i would go think i want to keep the commission to also consider access to fresh produce g m o or not and the impact on small grocery stores and i think we should probably go out and interview some of these folks three i think it's important that the commission and i would finish and then ask that these be added three that the commission look at is it going to cost more if it isn't going to you know i see this shaking heads it's not going to cost anything more it's hard for me to believe that but i want the commission to look into is it going to cost more i mean it's certainly costs more to buy on our gannett peach than a non organic peach i sure know that will be looked at should it only apply to large grocery store small grocery stores so that addresses that so i don't think that needs to be incorporated well how about the impact on low income communities and access to produce fresh produce know i mean what would that entail i'd like to know what that will entails well i'm sorry a massive study done a massive study to go out and talk to grocers and talk to people in low income communities and see as max sanderson who's a passionate advocate on these kinds of issues and we're really lucky to have jesse ever again bring this up and put it on our agenda so i'm glad that we're going to move forward in at least do some ok well we've all been heard and i just want to indicate right my own views on this i want to indicate my views on this first of all i'm a long very blessed to be an economic position to be able to buy organic and so i buy everything organic that i can i buy all my good schools only through it's all the packaged goods everything i can buy and i buy organic and also buy and recyclable materials and to the extent that i can class and other things and so i try to my wife and i both try to live the talk not just talk and edition of that you know we're we're fortunate to have all of these options available to us in berkeley i think this issue is a big issue and i think it's good that berkeley takes it on i don't think this is  complicated it's going to take a while it's going to take some staff time but it's important for us to step out and say this is an important issue and we want to we want to raise it and we want to bring it forward i remember in the early i guess it was in the sixty's maybe  seventy's when they started saying that they wanted labeling and stores to tell what for instance how much a thing cost per ounce so that you can actually get the little idea of the cost of products that happened here that have been here in berkeley and that went all over the united states so a yeah i i just the problem that i have with the item is that it says that the council that the commission should return with nation on whether or not to restrict the sale i think that's it's a little premature to do that i think first we need to understand better what the health consequences might be this is a whole new sort of area and  so i'd like to ask council member worthington a piece we're going to amend the record haitian so that it's that the health commission returned to the council with an evaluation of the health consequences to both the user and i don't know how to put the second hand the second hand the second hand effects  it's been reported pretty widely that there's a concerted effort to generalize the approach to electronic smoking and and have it converge with all to inducing young people to view smoking as something innocuous then it's a bad idea and i think part of the health commission's approach would be to look at the broader social impacts you know as well as the health impacts to dovetail with the habit of ingesting smoke or vapors into your lungs well ok so i'm a little out of order tribute that's your comments and i'm going to go back to worthington the essential question that yes i've had a chance to consult with council member when graph and i think we've come up with language  the two modified this to say requested a return to the cancer with a valuation of the health consequences and then you had a few more words your health consequences to the user and also health consequences the secondary effects ok so that would be inserted right after the word recommend instead of recommend oh wait says a recommendation it would say with an evaluation of the health consequences to users as well as evaluation of secondary effects and then if they deem it necessary they will also do a recommendation on whether or not to restrict the sale and use of nicotine so it's sort of i think two part process for the commission trying to get generate new addicks for a product i do have to ask the question the city attorney can we prohibit or restrict the sale of cigarettes he said gretz sale of easy grants to be able under eighteen is already prohibited by state law and the same law gives us the authority to impose further restriction so the answer is yes ok so yes i will say i think the health commission will have a difficult time finding a lot of doubt i have an intern has been working on this for about a month and there's very little doubt out there particularly about the second hand effects so i i think we're going to be facing a question in the next i guess  month or two regarding the impacts of secondhand smoke in an apartment in the housing and i'm very concerned as to the impacts of of nicotine and n ysaye carets there there are regular products now that can be used for not ingesting but smoking cannabis twenty five dollars for the electronic cigarette and twenty five dollars for the prescription or whatever you might call it and and they're selling pardon the euphemism but they're selling like hotcakes i was down at berkeley patient group last week and they were going off the shelf so i  appreciate council member worthington and council member anderson the item and i fully support it and thank you for broadening it so we can look at health impacts johnson wasn't you know i agree that the t obacco industry is really pushing cigarettes right now they're very popular with young people they're listed a lot of movie stars to advertise them and it's also clear that they're safer than burning tobacco and hailing the smoke they're probably not carson the j they may have some small health effects but i think points out the real problem it's still addicting it's inhaling nicotine in the issue really  is does it lead people to eventually smoke cigarettes and and that's a little more complicated issue because i think it's certainly i'm convinced unlike in the literature it's certainly not as dangerous as smoking but it certainly is addictive as smoking cigarettes so once you get addicted to it you know are you also then going to start smoking regular cigarettes i think that's the real issue the second one is  suggest one more friendly amendment is that this be referred to the medical cannabis condition commission and for a couple reasons one is if i remember is the medical dispensary is you cannot smoke marijuana in the dispensary because we haven't those smoking ordinance in public spaces but you can use a vaporizer and any cigarette is basically a vaporizer in the form of a cigarette and so it has some different issues but depending on what we do and how it's to fall it could impact the dispensaries and i think we would least want to have that aspect of it looked at by the medical cannabis condition one one last item i basically make small flavored cigars which are like cigarettes and they're flavored and they're also becoming very popular with young people and it's another entry path entry the cigarette countries are pushing it and they're showing up in convenience stores in particularly in low income neighborhoods and we may actually want to put a separate or more i don't know whether included here but that that's another point of entry and there were some several stories in a national media in the last month saying these things are being really hot items ok i just want to point out we did receive two articles i haven't had a chance to read them yet one is from a journal called inhalation toxicology and the other is a technical report from the department of environmental occupational health at the school of public health trachsel university so i just want to make sure that when this goes to the health commission they have the  is if i'm driving a cab for someone else and i want to get my own medallion or whatever we call in this town my bosses and this is public information then my boss is going to know that i'm thinking of moving on and i i'm not sure i don't see what's gained by transparency so i'm wondering and maybe staff can respond i'm wondering if if i get on a waiting list for a medallion can i just call up and see where i am on the list rather than publish the list because i may not want the world to know that i'm thinking of getting my own cab instead of working for someone else that's my concern that's a we know that you know yeah i think it's i mean i think we would produce it as a public record at this point so i think that's how we would handle it if that request was made which it has been made in the past well i if that's the case if the information is available upon request i don't see this just makes it more public to me and as a person who might be looking for a taxicab license thinking it through i might not want that to be published on the city website or something like that so what are we getting from this i don't know what we're getting and we were losing some privacy i think for for individuals in our community i'm so i'd like to amend the item and delete the reference to putting it on the website and just have it be that they waiting lists would be available and not not going the that you had directed us to draft at the last meeting considering that since so a team of staff have spent considerable time going through and ensuring that all of the blocks that are necessary for each district are reflected in the ordinance and the ordinance is attached for your consideration for first reading ok so i'm going to give us a ten minute break because  forty forty four m b so can i have a show hint as to how many people would like to speak ok so we're going to try for one minute and if you need to go over we'll give you a little bit more but let's do it you can also defer your time to someone else so why don't we begin i defer my time to the next speaker good evening honorable mayor who will be coming back soon and council members  i'm fortunate to know most of you personally by now again my name is safina and i'm happy to be here again with the opportunity to address you about the impending creation of berkeley student district when students first started this campaign in two thousand and eleven we knew that we were fighting a steep uphill battle both because the charter for bay what we are trying to do and because even most student groups were skeptical of our ability to create a student district we have come so far since then through three as you see administrations and a sea of change in the city wide opinion about the importance of protecting communities of interest for all those reasons you have my sincerest thanks for will hear from many people today who believe that the current map does not include as many districts as many students in districts seven as it could i support efforts to make the student district as inclusive as possible and my only request tonight are that first you continue to show the same patience and open mindedness toward the student community as you as you have previously shown and second that you continue to work with us on developing the most inclusive student district although the debate gets more and more complicated every day i speak on behalf of all the students who thank you for all the work that you've done to get us this far in the process thank you i have a question for the speaker maybe sor addressed issues related to the student district right along with you last night a bill was introduced to the as you see senate's external committee that attempted to have a as you see senate an endorse the berkeley student district campaign map and instead endorse the u however became quickly clear that the bill would have failed in a vote it was eventually amended to reiterate the senate supports the b s d c map and include a caviar that the student district should be drawn to be as inclusive as possible as a member of the senate i respectfully request you like the senate so far to continue your support of the as you see endorsed redistricting map while simultaneously considering how to draw the most included inclusive student district thank you so much for your time  years ago when the daily calderon's that its industry it was not a feasible idea but today when so many groups recognize the importance of the student community of interest when there is you see that it meets tomorrow night they will vote on the previously mentioned bill which will both reinforce the berkeley student district campaign map and include a note about the importance of an inclusive student district we believe that this bill will pass the senate will pass in the senate and therefore i respect respectfully request that the council continue to keep in mind the student bodies continued support for the berkeley student district campaign and their map as well as our interest in maps that include as many students as possible in the student district thank you very much my name is polly armstrong i'm the c e o of the berkeley chamber of commerce i come here tonight not to endorse a specific plan but the chamber feels very strongly that the council created a process which was predictable and transparent and a great many people participated in a regular round of hearings and understanding and it feels uncomfortable to change the pieces around after the time to come up with the plan was met and generally speaking because people's lives are complicated i think predictability and transparency in the in the proposition jewel propose and the way you finish them is an important value in the chamber would like to encourage you to stick with that thank you very much for your time good evening honorable mayor and council members my name is no after all and i've been the a c c as redistricting director under the last three external affairs vice presidents ever since joey freeman first began addressing you as someone who is fortunate enough to have a long view of this process i have to echo safina as thanks for your willingness to negotiate with the students on the creation of the nation's first student district additionally many students recognize that redistricting is a citywide process we understand that moving one block in one district affects all to other districts as well we understand that the student community is not the only community that has a stake in this process and we also understand that not all thirty five thousand callus students can fit into a fourteen thousand person district we recognize and want to stress the necessity of drawing an inclusive student district but we also recognize that the best possible map will not be perfect and that we have to come up with something that's workable for all parties in the end we thank you for your taking the time to create the best student district we can indicate our willingness to continue to work to create honorable council members thank you for hearing us out tonight i appreciate you working with us on this for the past couple of years my name is nolan pac and the executive vice president and the a c c and chair of a s u c senate i want to echo my colleague d j paedos sentiments in her message that she sent to us president to say that the students would really appreciate more time to talk about a more inclusive student district the reason this is so important to us is because nine cooperative houses which is about fifty percent of the student cooperatives housing community and three dorms are currently excluded and we would love to work with all of you to make sure that we can draw the most inclusive map the senate did in fact pass a bill calling for additional time so that we can include north side that clause that talks just a good map but the best map thank you hello everyone my name is dave vonte jackson i'm a fourth year political science major at u c berkeley and i'm here in support of a map that includes nor size student housing i think is really important as a co op or a member of the african american team co op in this important that our constituencies is represented within this campus district so i would like to encourage collaboration on that issue and i to support the northside inclusion so you'll be supporting the cooperative executive committee and board of directors young dance in a deadly car so again they are going to board of directors for the clubs and we really appreciate it if you already consider including our side in the clubs thank you so much hi i also agree that there should be i think there should be a district all around the campus that includes on the side facing the downtown because a lot of students come through there and so they want to have an influence all around but i think that it's kind of ridiculous to think that a student can do this and when i've interviewed both sides because there were two sides then i found out that they didn't care if they elected a student and so there is this eric panzer and you know the map so if you look and see what's going on and i don't even see the map here tonight i brought my own and so another way to elect the students that get real students is i think that every year you see has an election and they should elect a team of students some might be specialists in this and that whatever and you know you might only be here a year but there will be an opportunity and every year the students should be elected that way so we think of it if you can understand i only have two seconds and i've been coming to these meetings for about a year and so i think that's bad too that people get a few one minute hello my name is sophie cross and thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to speak today i am the president of democrats and i am speaking today on behalf of our executive board as a student living in the quote coin co op and as someone who has had extensive experience registering students to vote it's really great to see that the city is supporting including the student voice in in our local politics and i really encourage you to support the inclusion of all students in the proposed  district as a student living in the co ops i look forward to also working with my fellow students to encourage more folks to get involved in local politics and so i really encourage the cooperation between all sides involved on on this issue to make sure that students voices are being heard and we really appreciate that the city of berkeley is looking to draw a map to include north side hopefully north side residents and to make sure that the hello ladies and gentlemen my name is allie armaan and i am a fourth year at u c berkeley and first i'd like to thank you so much for your continued cooperation in creating the student district and i would like to reiterate the purpose of the berkeley student district in that it serves to unify the student voice into  truly inclusive and representative district and the map without the north side co ops is incomplete and does not achieve this goal because of the amount of work that has gone in the amount of potential change that this has to create on our campus and the city of us on the a c c senate presenting the co ops although i never lived in one myself and while i did not physically live in a mechanical engineering building for all intents and purposes i did we aren't many nights there w and i believe they should have an opportunity to do so if this is truly going to be about respect the wishes of the students the daily cal and that you stay young my organization has weighed in in support of u s d a thank you so much for your consideration  hello my name is james chang and i'm the vice president of external affairs for the berkeley student property i want to once again thank you all for your service to our community by not just making berkeley a place where students can learn but also a place where students live and want to ago i wrote in favor of the b s the and i just want to thank all of you all for your support for the students but i'm going to let you in on a little secret i kind of rushed the process a little and now that new information has been presented and brought to light under the guidance of the board of director and also on behalf of the members of the co ops i strongly urge all to consider all options of creating a more inclusive campus district so that way not just the northside would be represented but also the north side dorms and greeks and that way hopefully we can all come together and create a more inclusive district and also cover mice to make the districts not just good for the students but also for all the residents in the berkeley and berkeley thank you all my name is caitlin quinn and i'm an a c c senator this year i'm coming here though as a student used to live on north side i lived in foothill when i was a first year which is on the upper corner of campus and it was so so hard to politicize those students i saw that when i was a freshman there i thought that when i was doing flags and so for me i would really urge you all to consider extending the time so we can get those students input and figure out how to get those students and the co op students and engineers and other folks that live on north side like graduate students into the student district i going what other people have said before it just everyone here that's been a student has urged us to consider more time cal them which i'm a member of and even the daily californian which is sometimes hard to get their editorial board to take a stance of the fact that their board took a stance of like a pretty big deal i think that all students should feel invested in the berkeley city community and i think that including all berkeley students are as many as possible in the student district is a good way to ensure that thank you was jacqueline mccormack and it's good to see us all going electronic finally finally berkeley was once known as the city of neighborhoods yet consistently neighborhood priorities and goals were dismissed in favor of special interests our city council should have a ian movie alliance and the west berkeley neighborhoods and community affairs the b n c map the berkeley neighborhoods council preserves that integrity neither neither of the student groups who are presenting maps tonight have attempted to collaborate with the neighbors in producing an optimal map if the council really considers an other map tonight that is outside of the process that we went through it's a further slap in the face our neighborhoods and it's something that won't be forgotten because the neighborhoods are where our long term residents live some for decades some have third fourth generation berkeley residents berkeley neighborhoods have not been considered as a community of interest in this process yes we recognize and we support and started with creating a student district and we started our map and we included the north side but you have ignored us and you continue to ignore it nor us and i really hope that you either stick with the process or instruct the students and the neighborhood groups to get together and and produce a coordinated map thank you cooperated to go to school and build a ford that first i want to urge you all to please deliver your vote on the redistricting maps the current ordinances not only divide my housing community the cops but also lose three large drum complexes many group classes and their national also because they see the senate has been played such an integral role at every phase of this process now that we enter this final phase with this politically approved maps as we're looking at the ordinances i think it's only appropriate the senate also has time to a two districts were posed i really commend all the work that the previous industry campaign has done to put forward your district something i've been looking forward to for a while so you know that's great but the thing is i still would not be included in that district and some of my most politically active people are not as well through my to my roommates during the time they're also in the executive board of democrats and they also will not be able to participate in you know in electing  a crucial step for the city council wants to create a student district and that's wonderful but lower income students and students of color tend to not live in the fraternities and sororities they tend to live in the north side co ops to look at students simply as young people without acknowledging the diversity of our communities without acknowledging the fact that more than likely folks who live in the co op system have come from a background of a far lower income statistically demonstrated by the housing department  that concerns that they have their interactions with the city are substantively different than folks in the dormitories it's important to students district does what it can i'm sure that counseling went off would do everything that she could to represent those students but for them to have their voice heard along with their like how is incredibly important thank you really do respect your time and effort you have done so but we still want to continue to build this relationship and work together and really maximize the opportunity and the student voices that we can have so giving us more time will essentially give us the opportunity to include more students that's exactly what we want to because we want to unify our student district and we want to be able to represent represent as many students as possible so i would like to again thank all of you all for working with us and working with the past year please give us more time that we can continue to work and improve our not me living me living outdoors as a freshman was and i really think it's important to include those northside residents and i want our voices to be heard because we're continually already excluded from the campus already given that we're so far that we want to be included and please give us that opportunity and continue to work with us thank you mayor if we are to have a student district doesn't it make sense that we have a majority of the dorms and the co ops if we are to have a campus district doesn't it make sense to include both northside and south signed the that they have done however we feel they it is necessary to have to have a student district is as inclusive as possible and so by making sure that we have the law sides which has been frightened of being kicked out we make sure that we have over ninety percent of student age population including making sure that we have a majority of the daunce a majority of the courts a majority of fraternities and sororities and the highest possible amount of students it's only is only logical to make sure northside and southside we can vote to have a map that divides the soon into the into different voices the choice is obvious to many of us i hope it's obvious to you and that you make the right choice thank you very  much i didn't even want to speak about this issue tonight because i have to be on something called reality but i'll just say something that things are never what they appear to be and i lived in the city of berkeley my entire life and it wasn't too long ago for some of us who lived here our entire lives that there was no such thing as districts and it is a cliche to say that divide and conquer is often the policy but if you look at the history of the divide and conquer strategies that's what we're fighting about we're fighting about dividing the city and polarizing an economic situation because berkeley is not a city of neighborhoods berkeley is an economic situation that's all that is ever seen and i just want to remind people that divide and conquer has always been the way that the people who have the most resources in the economic situation rule by the force of their economic might martino again i want to start out by saying that i support the idea of a student district and i like the u s d a plan of well the student proposals but the board berkeley neighborhoods council came up with an additional plan that was not in contradiction to the u s d a plan but that focused on keeping neighborhood associations integral within specific districts and not splitting them among districts and there was there was the ability to put the two together a student district and the way we had redistricted to put the to have the neighborhood associations be integral within districts and that plan was simply rejected out of hand last june now that speaks to me of a fear of the first and the the political power all of the neighborhood associations and if i was just what we had the two community meetings prior to the submission deadline the one communing prior to this mission deadline and then we had one community meeting after the submission deadline and then there was to hearings before involved and it's something that you know was there some some one of the speakers indicated we had to the end of the year and that's correct we do cording to our charter we need to do something with up something by the end of the year but it takes a long time to for you to prepare and and have a ordinance ready for us to consider right so yes it's a considerable amount of work ok ok well the other thing i wanted to mention i i'm sorry that there we have a proposal that's for continuance till the september seventeenth council meeting at the request of the a c c presidents in the many people who spoke in the c evening to give the senate the opportunity way in but with regard to item forty four b the united  amendment this plan is an enhancement of the berkeley student district map but it what it would do is incorporate northside blocks which are currently in district seven as well as the international house and unit for full stern and foothill into the proposed campus district so what i'm requesting that the council do whether or not this meeting or future meaning if it's delayed is to direct our manager to review the proposed redistricting plan for compliance with state and local requirements and to return back to the council with an analysis as well as the berkeley student district campaign redistricting ordinance which is i guess item forty four a as well as an ordinance to adopt u s d a so the council had both options before it and we could decide at a future point also note that  even if we adopted a first reading of an ordinance to adopt redistricting plan by the the first november meeting that would still give us ample time to adopt a redistricting plan by the charter deadline ok i'm going to offer review consistency with the state and local requirements of proposed united student district amendment redistricting plan and refer to the agenda committee disco's will presentation of the analysis as well as the proposed ordinance to allow adoption of the very affected by this proposal district six has never historically gone down to shout it at cedar and so this is a pretty radical change for district six also if we're talking about you know keeping communities of interest together it seems to me that there's a whole area of south side south of dwight here that's now that's being proposed to be in district eight not in district seven so we're sacrificing one group of students for another group of students which you know i mean what's the net gain if you want more students then it's you trading one group for another so i'm not i'm not very happy about this configuration you know this would simply bring it forward and we'll have both and you can just make a decision well i'm wondering if and this is following up on linda's concern if there might be yet another proposal which is even better than the two that we have on the table well came very late to the table after a process that had begun really i remember still talking about a student district by the way which i prefer to call a campus district probably two years ago i think one of the problems is as one of the speakers said there's thirty two thousand students and we can only cram fourteen thousand people students and non students into a district so that's that's a problem for me i think i'm so number one i'm concerned about this process number two i think we are to some degree robbing peter to pay paul with with whatever we do with it and i have a map at home by the way which i will secretly keep at home but in other words we have organized housing we have co ops we have dorms we have greeks we have the clark kirk campus and then we have what i was which is an independent student living in an apartment on dwight way and there are a lot of independen students so it seems to me each of these is looking at clusters of housing the latest proposal to come to the floor is one that talks seriously about the north side and about been a greeks in the dorms on north side what about a huge number of students who live independently and mainly on south side so that's one concern i have another concern i have is we talk about communities of interest and you know that's a bigger concept than just students old people latino's women men were taught there those all need to be balanced together and when i look at the interests of south side and north side yes there are a lot of students in both of those neighborhoods but i think if we drill down we would see that there are different interests for people who live on south side the north side not because the students but because they live on south side rather than north side issues of public safety issues of economic development impact south side much more than they impact the north side so in my mind as i'm sorting through these maps i'm trying to balance communities of interests economic development and commercial districts i think for instance the euclid corridor is an important one to keep intact some commercial development but i have always said every council person should have at least one contiguous commercial district in their district so that they can understand the issues of small businesses and berkeley a one tampers with that a bit so in my mind over the next month or whatever it is before this comes back to us and i i will say i'm not happy about only having two choices because had i known that we were going to sort of abort the process two months ago and and allow another consideration i would have submitted another man and i would be insisting tonight that that map be analyzed and i apologize to  the marker for saying that so when i when i balance communities of interest i'm not just focusing on students i'm talking about campus district i'm talking about south campus now look at that and north campus and i look at that council member ballot and one of the reasons was that i really felt that creating the districts they had split the student or campus community over for districts and so they had diluted their impact now i worry a little bit that maybe we're going the other way we have one plan that says according to the statistics and jesse's item has eighty six percent of the residents of student age in the next one the u s d a is ninety percent so we're talking about making substantial changes to increase the percentage of the six percentage point to ninety percent now there are some good arguments for that and if we only had six council districts rather than eight it would be easy to make a student district that had most of the students  we have eight at the moment less somebody wants to put another charter member and so i think what the students have to appreciate and we've heard this from a few community representatives who spoke is how do we balance you know  growing the concentration of student age people from eighty six to ninety percent of the district with the impact that it has on some of the other districts as council member when grabbed his head in districts six and i would note industry ga that district has moved twelve blocks to the west not all of it due to it but you know where it is now with the you know with the student district that's a substantial change you k and it isn't as much but it goes further when you go to the u s d a when in is that that impact down there and you know in district gate worth adding four more percentage points to the student district i'm willing to support the mayor's motion to think seriously and hear the arguments for a higher concentration as to nate in the district but i'm not sure i'm convinced that there is an eighty six and ninety percent is really significant thank you so first to just speak to a counselor miles points and to the council so the mayor is motion is to ask to have to analyze u s d a and to schedule a workshop for future discussion that would give the my my point was that this would allow for further analysis of u s d a which would give the as you see senate adequate time to be able to weigh in and provide us their perspective about this proposal i also no that in the last redistricting process there were last minute amendments that were made by the berkeley city council and so there is precedent for the council considering new information and making changes and so this would be consistent with that and i think the issue really comes down to so yes we can only fit so many students in one district the question is what students and how diverse an inclusive of a district are we going to have and to me there's no logical reason why we can't draw north side in to us to a campus district so i'm very glad that will be analyzing this and join the daily how the cal berkeley democrats in the east being democrats in considering us think you know where we're going to well i  guess i want to address the issue that in terms of the south side and north side being seen as so different from each other and that crime is a big issue on the south side and not on the north and that is totally not understanding the campus area when i've had meetings in the north side not just with students but with faculty members and staff members we had hundreds of people filling up the university hall who were concerned about the lighting and safety issues in north side so to think that north side and south side are like two different worlds is really nothing related and i know both both i and council member when i have been concerned about issues of safety in the north side it's not it's not just safety's a problem in the south side it definitely is in the entire campus area is this the the hotbed of crime and people being assaulted and people being having their cell phones and computers and bicycles stolen and so it's you know the campus is one campus northside and southside together i i like the mayor's motion i haven't had a chance to consult with them yet but i also think what happened ten years ago was that four members of the city council sat down together and tried to work out a compromise since the districts that are the most affected seem to be districts seven obviously six four and eight i don't know if those four individuals have the time and the energy to actually sit down and see if we could come up with a compromise or it might be that you know the students come up with a compromise and save us having to do all that work but i'd certainly be willing to sit down that gives us you know a mixture of different different political opinions and different experiences from the council to try to craft a compromise you know i don't think either version that's before us is is ideal if we did try to come up with a compromise we'd have to do it on a very quick timeline we can't you know have a meeting once a month and get the work done and i think we'd have to have several meetings and do them pretty quickly but my what what's interesting to me is when you actually sit down with the cities the giant city map and actually see block by block how many people are in each block i think council member when graf and i were looking at this map on five thursday and you understand so much more when you have this giant map instead of all these little tiny maps that we're putting in the agenda packets and unless unless year genius it's hard to know what's what's in whose district so i don't i just want to  i certainly am comfortable with the mayor's motion i have no problem with that but i wonder if in addition to that if the council members who were most affected were willing to sit down together with you know the two sides of the council with you know different students also in the room if we could sort of blend the best of both of these together in the meantime i just saw that out as an idea ok i want to just say i'm i'm not going to go for th it back to us because you can't let the ordinance tell you think your work thank you very much ok moving right along so we're not going to go to the if you were properly assessed clean energy program this is number four d forty five point forty five i take your conversations outside please don't let your council the city council referred to the energy commission a an item known as the hero property assessed clean energy program this is a mechanism for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy that was pioneered here in berkeley  the council referred it to the energy commission to consider joining a program that was started in the west riverside council of governments it's known as the hero program which provides for financing for energy efficiency for and renewables for residents and businesses the city has joined a nother program known as the california first which was sponsored as part of a california energy commission and  stimulus funded project but that program for the residential side was put on hold because of a pay statement from the federal housing finance authority that put lenders or borrowers and the community potentially at risk under the pace program so the energy commission considered the proposal to join the hero program which is now serving residential and commercial markets and recommended that we not join at present because there are certain risks to borrowers and the community under the proposal so that's that's the commission's recommendation ok and then when the audience wishes to speak to the side i'm ok so you know what i'm going to yes everyone practically in the city of berkeley believes global warming is a serious problem and we should be doing everything possible to address it this is a situation where we have a company and i think that there's going to be other companies out there also but this particular company has expressed an interest in coming to berkeley investing millions of dollars and helping berkeley people get clean energy and the energy commission the impact of the energy commission recommendation is to say no you you know they have identified that they have worries about the residential component of the program that it's not going to work and that there are potential problems with the f h f a i i don't agree with them that there i see no indication that that federal agency is going after these programs anywheres in the country i've asked repeatedly can you show me one case of the hundreds of cities that are doing that are there are moving on this that any of them have been punished by the f you know by anybody there's not a single instance in all of these companies i mean in all these cities that there's been any punitive action and under the energy commission recommendation not only are we prohibiting this company from offering residential programs where there's arguably an intellectual question we're also stopping them from offering commercial programs we have one commercial program in berkeley so we have already said it's ok to have a commercial program in berkeley that particular program doesn't happen that's the beginning a lot of commercial businesses to sign up what's wrong with giving another company the opportunity if they have millions of dollars that they want to bring to berkeley to do clean energy what's wrong with letting that company invest their money in berkeley they're investing in all these other cities if you look at the item and the list of cities keeps growing week by week council when we first started working on this there were far less cities now the hero program alone now has seventy two cities that have  so you want to submit your hours oh yes thank you i'd like to move that we accept the revised i don't with new information that the city clerk passed out earlier this evening you so i'm not trying to have a fight about the residential program that there's questions about you know i'm willing to defer to the fear factor there i don't see it being a problem anywhere else but i'm willing to defer that but why should we deny our commercial properties in berkeley a chance to have a company who wants to bring millions and millions of dollars to berkeley and use it to create green energy for berkeley businesses why prohibit them from coming to berkeley we already have one company that we've allowed to do this but the fact that they are not getting a lot of companies to sign up maybe this company has a different way of doing heroes to do commercial markings there's no real problem right it's a residential it's a problem of the residential presents problems at risk with the f a a check right the commercial doesn't present those same risks so we could have the energy commission look at doing commercial some of the possibility but i don't have any problem with the new commercial i don't think so you know you're moving it there mr mayor if i could just one of the things i think we'd like to do is what i would like to do since i haven't had the benefit of it is ask the commission to investigate the company they were being asked to join a j p a and b participant participating with thanks company but we haven't actually looked at it yet ok so i'm i'm somewhat agnostic but i think we do need to take a look at who were joining with particularly towards folks who are entering the housing market at the beginning with small down payment so we could see real discrimination from lenders in terms of people who are coming in with five percent down or ten percent down and so i appreciate the residential being taken off the table the other thing is we've been trashing corporations for the last two and a half hours here so i appreciate the fact that we're going to investigate this corporation before because they're not doing it because they want to save the atmosphere they're doing it because they want to make a profit and so we need to make sure that that's in balance with whatever whatever our values are as a community and i think we forget that when we hammer away at large corporations and people want to it's it's of it's very profitable to do business in berkeley and i think i appreciate the fact that we're going to investigate them randerson the questions and the concerns you have about the residential part of this are there him are they amenable to solutions you have some ideas about how to reduce the risk because if we can make this available and feasible for all income groups and residential areas it certainly would advance the concept were true we're pursuing in terms of greenhouse gases so before we throw up our hands in total you know you know unacceptab particular financings jeopardize their position and they have said that anybody who gets one of these loans they will not they will not insure a reinsurance so that takes away all the housing the ministration has fought like crazy to try to get them to reverse themselves they will not reverse themselves legislation has been introduced in the house of representatives and the united states senate and of course nothing passes so it's we're stuck stuck the only the only other option everybody object to that motion and so please let me know if not passes you know honestly thank you very much so now we come to item number forty six the development of the berkeley way parking lot and we're on schedule to get out of here by eleven o'clock possibly you know there's a new fight song for the council somebody told me it's legal after lean to the right stand up fight fight fight  at the idea of developing an r f p for the development of the berkeley way parking lot which we own to allow for the construction of an affordable housing project particularly a permanent supportive housing project which will provide housing and supportive services to our homeless in the item i have done a very good job with consultation from other people about trying to address a number of issues which have come up such as how we address the not only of the parking lot going off line and the impact they may have on the parking supply downtown but as well what kind of parking will we require if this project were to go forward and the parking issue is absolutely critical you know we cannot lose more parking downtown and so what this proposal would do is ask that we look at the issue of requiring parking on site to replace the number of spaces that would be lost if this project were to go forward this is consistent with the downtown area plan which we adopted a number of policies to look at the development of the berkeley parking lot in addition to a place in the parking so what this item would do is ask the city manager in our commissions to look at the idea of developing an r p and what conditions should be an r f p and bring that back to the city council for discussion this is the beginning of a process i've heard many comments from business owners and other stakeholders in the community about this proposal issues of parking are important and we can address those as part of this process you know the parking issues and allowing this to go for not mutually exclusive and so what this would do is start a process in which meetings would occur where yeah i just wanted to say that this is called old business but when it came up in the olden days you said that having parking would jeopardize it and now i appreciate that you're talking to the community however there's another problem here we have eight times our share of homeless i learned that the homeless commission and we don't have enough parking the university has seven thousand stalls they are developing on two they picked up five hundred more of ours and they're going to get two hundred in the center street garage when that gets and they're keeping those seven thousand they're making tons of money millions and millions of dollars and they're flooding the city with cars and those cars aren't our cars i don't have a car they're there if you go down if tom bates goes down in lot he's car he's going to know where he's going to go he could you have your own parking space you know and so you can't mess with that parking lot we need that you guys have been taking away maybe you haven't jesse but they're your does wiping them out and well you're going to berkeley that's get on the bus and now they're messing with the fifty one bus and plan bay area wants to have a barrier to like buses and take out the buses the rest of the little buses so we need to look comprehensibly and we have to do something that's fair about the homeless we should not have eight times as many and people joke oh they're sending them from nevada that's not ok they need to we take care of her own first and we're not taking care of them well because i'm friends with a lot of the homeless and they're not taking care of their warehouse sorry then you can turn him out to vote in an election but guess what we need to take care of our own and we need to have send them to good programs like in walnut creek they have a program that if if wind and i were homeless difficult and i've had to rinse excuse me feces from my storefront and by adding this in the shelter in the area listen for helping the homeless no problem but in the words of mr worthington who's not sitting down there right now he said that the majority of the emergency services that are provided to the homeless are either substance abuse or mental health and i'm sorry it kills my business it kills all the other businesses in the area when people are exposed to these elements downtown and we're working hard to revitalize we have the u c theater going on across the street hopefully with his shop and others will see a lot of his research we need that parking and the d b a is recommending if it is developed that there's a doubling of parking at that location and we've met with terry to talk it through and she hasn't endorsed a more beginning to talk to various if that happens also there are a lot of concerns with the property owners and the merchants of the impact of additional homeless services there we haven't really had time to fully discuss it with all the stakeholders or on a board level so becoming back on that also but we certainly want to make sure that we hear from a suit and others about those concerns and issues will be coming back to you on that thank you very much in this item is urgent we've been talking about this since two thousand and nine and for us we are a block away from telegraph avenue we serve as emergency shelter in the wintertime when there's not enough emergency shelter for nights that it goes below forty degrees we serve breakfast this summer for folks who are homeless we live with this issue and we see the effects of homelessness on people every day this is a community issue a business issue of course it's a moral issue people do not get clean on the street they do not get their life together on the street we have the capacity to make huge progress in this area in berkeley i think you for yes i'm the reverend mary louise hince and the outreach minister at all souls a possible parish here in berkeley i'm also a member of the board of directors of berkeley food and housing the sign on the entrance to the veterans memorial building in downtown berkeley says enter at your own risk this sign greece our homeless brothers each day as they enter the emergency shelter for a bed for the night berkeley food and housing project is grateful for the years of affordable space for emergency shelter provided by the city of berkeley but it is time for the city to take the positive and responsible action of approving a new facility to provide a safety net for our most vulnerable citizens the faith community is asking that the berkeley city council act on their responsibility to those who are poor and vulnerable and approve the request for proposal for the mayor and council members my name is the reverend shonda the director of interfaith programs at east bay housing organizations a membership organization with over three hundred members from nonprofit housing developers to architects to social service providers city governments community members people of faith and affordable housing residents all advocating for housing equity in alameda and contra costa county now i imagine you've all been around berkeley in a row aware of the homelessness crisis here i imagine you have constituents and local business leaders expressing concern about the homelessness crisis i imagine you know the extensive data about how supportive housing which actually resources homeless people as well as providing them a place to live but also providing them all the services they need is a viable solution that actually improves whole communities and their economic standing as well as the lives of those people but if you didn't i hope that you would listen to the words of the prophet isaiah who reminded the people of israel when they wondered why god wasn't present in their community is not your lot to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly your vindicator shall go before you the glory of the lord will be your rear guard i believe that your investment in this will be the glory of the city of berkeley thank you thank you for this time my name is odette lockwood steward i'm a resident of berkeley i until this last year was pastor of a port united methodist church in berkeley and now i'm on the faculty of pacific school of religion in the graduate theological union also in berkeley and the students are here to stand with me and make sure i speak the truth i want to thank you for this item i think it's long overdue unconscionable that a downtown plan would not take into consideration the most vulnerable citizens veterans yes people with challenges of every kind i really appreciate that permanent supportive housing is a part of this plan and i think it's it seems long ago that the  communities of boca had in action at st paul's a m e church were city council members were present and committed to this and now is the day has come when it's before you and i thank you and urge you not to delay this one step which is a step to refer and to begin the process of conversations and hearings and addressing issues of parking and other issues and so i hope that you will without hesitation take this one step and allow us and make possible the development of moral imagination and collaboration among faith communities business leaders and city government i urge you and i think you i'm genevieve wilson i'm the homelessness and housing organizing lead for boca berkeley organizing congregations for action i'm also an employee at the acme bread company and boca is we have eighteen member congregations and we're representing about ten thousand families i think most of are are familiar with us at this point and thank you for your cooperation and collaboration with us this item has been an action item on as a part of our action in june two thousand and twelve and continues to be homeless and housing continues to be a platform issue for us with boca and so we're grateful that it's come up at this time and we believe because it's a faith based organizing group that people are god's image bearers and that their lives are precious and that the time and energies that are invested in their lives are really worthwhile so i think that the thing that i really felt that i want to share about this tonight was just an interaction that i had with a homeless friend of mine today who said that he had been homeless for thirty two years and he was telling me what was keeping him from housing and what was keeping him from getting a job and he very much wants those things but there's no low threshold shelter available to him at this time in his life and so i joined the others in urging you know attack now and to move forward thank you my name is mike friedrich i'm a surgeon aeration berkeley resident i've me acting as a deacon berkeley methodist united church and a community for the nation i'm going to echo all the speakers before me from the faith community that recognize that this is something that we are we are called from the deepest part of our soul to address and that it's been way too long that people are forced to  find shelter in a building that might fall down on them at any moment when we would be safe in this building we hope you know ok well right so rather than repeat what i waver you've heard before let me let me thank the people who have brought this forward and i are just passing hope lake i serve on the mental health commission i'm a downtown business owner and real estate owner i briefly want to address the linking of homelessness and mental health and substance abuse homelessness that isn't the problem mental health and substance abuse is not the problem the problem is no homes they don't have a home there are a lot of people who are mentally ill and abuse substances that have homes there's no difference between their disease except they've got a home in the homeless don't i spend a lot of time out in the streets of berkeley dealing primarily with homeless kids and it's time to give people a home you want to solve homelessness give people a home it's the statistically it lowers the homeless rate and also makes it easier for us to work with the homeless thanks outrageous hypocrisy of anyone who is connected to a quote unquote faith organization particularly it broke my heart to see someone from all souls i will speak about my area of expertise the episcopal church in berkeley california which i've been a member since one nine hundred sixty eight as a so called and how this is a person which is the term i've referred to myself and i'm not an housed by choice and i'm not nuts as what i'm rich routinely called i don't drink and use just focus on the episcopal church as an example of the so called faith communities in berkeley particularly my parish st mark's episcopal church which i'm not allowed to attend because it is a white supremacist organization which it refers to people of mixed race backgrounds literally as a mixed race is that bastion of hatred currently about to be in the can speak over time of constitutional rights bill church is about to have a new puppet rector installed by the bishop of california this sunday and in my own series of tragedies at my own parish where i'm not allowed to practice my religion  and allowed to attend the church services long before i became an announced person it is incumbent upon every so called faith community to lead the way not just the building homes for people because my church recently is building a mammoth meat keeper dormitory for rich college students it is incumbent upon the faith communities to lead the way and not tell the city in the state to do what they are supposed to do no one from these faith communities helps anyone on the streets and i'm on the streets twenty five hours a day which is a slight exaggeration is actually twenty four it is a it is a state of hypocrisy and it is outrageous for anyone from a so called faith community to come to the city council and say do this do this when they don't do it themselves evening my name is mark seem sure again i'm here as chairman of the board of the pate based community organizing entity boca and we try to remain as on hypocritical as we possibly can i'm also here on behalf of a homeless shelter for transition based youth and in our meeting last saturday they requested that i come and just let you know that yet fully supports this proposed new sustainable housing shelter that's going to go up with all respect to the other needs of downtown merchants it's our belief that if people are housed the become less of a pestering problem in the community then if we i'm sorry sir you want to speak at the microphone you're doing we're going to we're going to take it back to the council let me just express my my concerns about this first of all i totally think it would be a great thing to have happen i mean that we could get a shelter and we can get services and we can provide twenty four hour care for people or be fabulous and i think it's a dream and a goal that we should aspire to but i have some reservations along the way first of all the parking issue is not as minor issue  of potentially facing an acute problem in terms of being able to see people come to the downtown because a parking is being eliminated primarily this point in time by the university but there's been ever other opportunities that come along from for people to do things and need parking if the if for instance you see theaters actually opens up to that which is a big gift but the potential is there that's twelve hundred people they're expecting to come and if we have the repertory theater and you have the aurora theater and you have the downtown i mean it is a perfect storm you can't come and we i don't have a car for cars i had you know i would rather nobody had a car but i think we had the reality is we have to face look at that and so if you say you're just going to replace the current housing and parking sydney that doesn't do it and you've got to have i think the suggestion made that we look at doubling the parking if you can make a thing work where you double the parking from eighty to a one sixty then that makes some sense and i'm happy to go forward but i say it's got to look at the parking it's got to be the first issue i know the city manager and staff are now working with the university to try to come up with a plant parking plan that will will  some of this plus we're talking about building our own structure so i would ask that this referral goes forward would be amended to say that we're not going to go forward and tell we have the opportunity to examine the overall parking situation  except that ok second is you have to figure out how we're going to pay for this how we're going to pay for this right i mean you know we don't have to do it right on the box but you know if we're going to quote our opinion you got to figure out first of all i'm very concerned maybe the faith community can come together and they can put lots of money but it's going to be this is you talking you know you're talking maybe fifty million dollars to build the kind of parking will the kind of structures you want or i mean we don't have that coming and the city and so you have to look at the money issue so i wanted to be out front so look at the parking a look at the money and then if we look at those things and we can figure out how to do it i'm not saying you know that that's impossible i'm not trying to very or but why would you start doing something you never afford to do it right so i would say if you put those two barriers your ideas up front and have that looked at then talk about doing or are a big week and then that makes some sense to me so i'd ask that you consider the financing that they have a viable financial plan about how to be good because i think that's we have to look at that but i mean we won't know until we get  well no no that's not true because i mean this is not a profit making organization if you're going to have service the homeless people are going to house homeless people it's it's got to be all tied together and i think that's important that look at i q so as long as those two things proceed looking in our own favor of this council member where the interim thank you i think this is one of the most visionary and exciting things to come before the city council in a decade i remember when we started working on the ed roberts campus it was perhaps the only single thing that shirley dean and i were on a committee and we agreed enthusiastically to work together and make it happen and i would say the edwards campus was an impossibility but it's there in the real world today when we started working on the david brower project and the r c d affordable housing that's a part of the bower project people said it was impossible they said we should an issue the r f p we should in fact it was actually propose that we give the city's lon to a private for profit developer because they would bring more jobs and more benefits to the city and luckily the city council by one vote we jetted that idea and decided to move forward with that project to me this is one of those a mega exciting concepts that like the end robert's campus and it's like the brower center and yes all of these ideas are impossible in the wheel world but this is berkeley think we can have a dream but i don't want to take twenty years to realize that dream so i hope the r f p is flexible i mean the city has a six to eight million dollar asset sitting at berkeley way and it also has a lot of parking spaces there so as we formulate this r f p i hope we're creative and flexible in terms of what we're asking for if we loaded up with unrealistic goals it won't happen at least it won't happen for a long long time so i obviously endorse and supported and helped bring this about and i look forward to moving it forward as rapidly as we can i do think we need to coordinate with all of the other activities that are going on in the downtown particularly parking i can speak as one person i know firsthand has been talking to me about this for five ok thank you well every time i i see at the end of the day people waiting to go into the shelter at night i'm really a stock afraid because there are a whole lot of people building for a lot more hours and we use this one and this one is unsafe quite unsafe it's just unconscionable that we allow that to continue to happen so here's an opportunity for us i have to say that if we're doing two levels of parking ground and then below it gets very expensive you're right about that but the way these projects are done is in pieces you have a grant you have a loan you you have  campaign i mean you you never start out knowing where your money's going to come from it's momentum it's community commitment it's opportunities that show up from the state or the feds it's just let's get started and i think that's what this does by putting it on the ballot and thank you for doing their you know putting on the agenda thank you for doing that and i'm really glad to be co sponsoring it and moving it forward with all of the you know issues that we're facing we're getting started  i agree that the issue of parking is very important and it will be discussed and i think it has to be addressed as part of this process you know we own the land so we can impose whatever conditions you want to on you know who we give the land to you know that's why in the i don't we you know one of the things we talks about is the replacement of parking the timing of other parking projects so that this project would not  natively affect the parking supply downtown these are all issues that we have to look at and just briefly is cancer miles you know as we well know with many affordable housing projects that we funded throughout the city you know our share of the pie is one share of the pie but that leverage is so much more money that developer is able to get so i don't believe that the expectation is that we're going to pay all the fifty million dollars for this project to go forward but you know if we were to contribute money down the road and that's a separate decision will have to based on their hearings the hunger strike that the strikers are on actually terminated because of the hope so i think that you know i'm i don't know why we should do a letter right now to jerry brown i think we should might want to think about wearing till this hearing has an opportunity to see what comes out of it and then and then point to some actions that we could actually you know take taken hold and the other thing i want to mention is is that my wife is so involved in this that there's a proposal now to to actually divert some of the money that's being used in prisons and potential use in prisons to front end mental health and other kinds of programs to get people out of the out of prison and out of the jails in the first place and prisons in the first place and if the judges there are three judges there over same the state thirty three prisons if the judges say that it's ok they will be allow them to to to make that diversion they won't have to empty nine thousand people right away and together this letter originally and it's not a letter based on the hunger strike it's a based on the situation in the california prisons california has more people in solitary confinement than any other government entity in the world both in terms of absolute numbers and percentages it has ten percent of the entire cerate a population in isolation texas was embarrassed when it found out it had five percent and ways to do something about that and did something about that the conditions so this is not really about the hunger strike this is addressing and of course you guys have a right to decide whether or not you want to do something now or later or both but the conditions at pelican bay are particularly egregious where people did not that's in the in the terms of the letter and i think you know as as berkeley people that it's a purpose of local government to represent its citizens on matters even where they have no  of their assignment by the present administration and i'm the basis of their gang status people are assigned where they go to live based on their color the national origin and their geographic call our action as if they're in a gang so this is a very difficult terrible thing and the sixty day hunger strike has just ended as you said hello my name is john dated her mother stopped by as incarceration network and i am asking you as a council as hearings are going forward to go on record this is a non cost item except it's going to cost us our morality if we don't stand up with these prisoners these courageous prisoners who basically have have enjoyed their lives forty thousand started the hunger strike over  hundred lasted two months for the simple demand when you boil it down to be treated as human beings they have shown their humanity and it's up to us to show ours to be locked up in a windowless cell for decades without meaningful human touch without any chance to get out without snatching and having that nose stand that they do not want somebody to tell a lie on somebody so they take their place i think is courageous and it actually presents an example to people generally plus the fact the story of thing of the prisoners nineteen across racial and jail graphical boundaries and a stamp issue the troops and the prisons and the jails which is also spreading to the communities is something i think we should cherish and celebrate so i'm calling on the council as a council to join up with daniel ellsberg and and michelle alexander and alice walker and norm chomsky in signing this which is growing which has been in the l a times and wanted the other papers around let's set a standard here the berkeley can be proud of and that other people can learn from thank you thank you that's want to make you aware that peace and justice commission has sent you an item similar to this more focused on the on the hunger strike than this item is but we're definitely in support of an end to solitary confinement on the extended basis that it's practiced that item is not scheduled to come to you till october so i do recommend that you do you pass this resolution tonight this joined with this open letter mainly for the reason that i think it's a good idea that to reinforce with the senate and the assembly the issue of this particularly of solitary confinement an aspect of torture that internationally agreed to let's bring that issue to the forefront so in their deliberations in october being out over that's at the forefront that's an issue as we see it in the wanted to testify to your wife's senate committee and he submitted a proposal for reducing the amount of cost on lives and dollars to the state by increasing money and rehabilitation training substance abuse etc and she welcome that and i appreciate her work i am outraged and hurt and my heart is just breaking by seeing what i see in our prisons and the prison pipeline that's currently occurring you see students are actually trying to correct that a little bit to change that direction and have the church directory sending those inmates instead to use the system they're actually talking about a externship program of the inmates that president clinton and others they're brilliant people some have made mistakes who is perfect none of us but i do appreciate the work that you might hope to do in signing this letter that has been proposed and it's never too late to do that and it certainly would help me to supplement the work that the senate is doing and others in the congress thank you i didn't come here tonight to speak about this issue either but it seems like most of the issues i've commented on even though it might seem crazy are related to the sign that i'm holding and everyone who knows anything about the correctional system knows that people are not being processed the way they are supposed to be processed because ideally ideally in an ideal world which we know more than the purpose of the correctional system is to remove the most violent and dangerous people in the society and to put them in a place where they are away from those of us who do not engage in violent acts despite what we may look like to people who don't like us and once the violent people are in the correctional facility there is posed to be rehabilitated there's to be healed and cured of their violence and made into noble human beings and then they are supposed to be returned to normal society in a better state than they ever were in before that's not what's happening ok thank you very much i think that concludes the testimony so i actually think of it i think that i would withdraw my suggestion we should go ahead and so a l people were concerned about some of the language in it and i personally felt that sense seemed to give governor brown the responsibility for torture and a sin heritage this whole system so i took it upon myself to make a couple of wording changes but i would like to send this letter to him or something like it you want to read and stuff so you know i do so that's why i'm so moved to second and and if it's all boys honestly to accept this it's it changes a very minor the body of the letter is remains the same but we send the letter to oppose current in you main conditions in california prisons particularly those inhumane it extends extend his confinement such as his practice in california prisons is inhumane and it describes what happens when you are cut off  such a thing called buried alive conditions i just don't know how people keep their sanity i just don't know so like i do and they don't so we would call on governor brown to address the in human conditions overemphasis but i will say this you know i don't know how many people in the sixty's as seventy's read france france finance a book about algeria and the torture that went on there and the dual tragedy both for the torture and the torch for three and when we have people that come into prison having committed serious felonies  there's a bigger chance of them read offending there's the biggest chance of them not being able to fit into society in an economy normal way and you know if waterboarding and other torture member messes are illegal internationally then and certainly a part of the torture scene is isolation extreme isolation and when you're talking about a twenty three hour lockdown in a place where you only can exercise for an hour in your own cell you're talking about extreme isolation and we are social creatures all over and when we're not associated with other human beings pathologies result and those pathologies translate into anti social behavior and crimes once they get out or within prison those crimes take place as well so i think this is a step forward i think is a i'm wondering if we could give just one minute to the author of this original proposal we gave her a copy of the amendments and i just wanted to see if she had any thoughts on these modifications i thought that might be helpful because she's been a champion of getting this letter signed and how this fits in with that i'm very happy that you're leaning toward doing anything resembling this but it i've spent a lot of time interviewing people who are in solitary for extended periods that's part of the constitutional law challenge that's going through the federal courts right now and as a result of that i have talked to people who are definitely they are experiencing torture and that was this was not lightly chosen and also we did not we are aware that we didn't see this as saying that brown did not inherit this certainly he did inherit it we were trying to take a very strong stand about just how horrible  the confinement for decades is without sunshine without human touch without seeing a bird or a tree or another person's face and how horrible that is and that's why we chose that language because you know because i don't think there's any problem with things that are prior to the meeting but it's a little difficult to modify so when would you consider would you consider discussing this with the manager offline and coming back with something more more that we can understand why don't we just hold it over till next week and more talk in the meantime and we can have the person who did this this we give us a report on what they did and how it's your work why i think i think it would be good to sort of get a report on what what just happened tonight in the hallway and  anyone have an issue they want to bring that's not on the agenda now's the time to do it you know two minutes minutes ladies and gentlemen the council my name is damien moskovitz i'm not a member excuse me i'm not a berkeley resident but one of the proposals that you'll be considering in next week's council meeting been passed years ago i believe i still would be a berkeley resident allow me to explain throughout my life i had a number of mercury amalgam fillings placed by licensed dentists in berkeley where i was born and raised not once did a dentist inform me that mercury amalgams carried any risk since i was not aware of any risks i allowed them to insert mercury fillings into my teeth until recently this did not seem to be a problem i managed to get elected soon by president of berkeley high school thanks to an excellent education from the berkeley public schools i graduated with honors from harvard college graduate  and then i started a ph d in what is possibly the most competitive clinical psychology program in the nation at u c berkeley where a undergraduate research fellowship from the national science foundation three years into the ph d in two thousand and seven i began clenching my teeth only later did i learn that published scientific research has shown that teeth clenching causes the release of mercury from mercury based fillings in the days and months that followed my health deteriorated dramatically and i was forced to drop out of u c berkeley and abandon the national science foundation fellowship uncontrolled fatigue and severely impaired concentration my health and deteriorated further to the point that by two thousand and twelve i was newly longer able to work and pay rent in berkeley and was forced to move elsewhere eventually my primary care physician r hearing urine tests that showed that i have mercury levels in the top percentile of the population i do not eat unusual amounts of fish there is no plausible explanation for my ever elevated mercury levels other than the mercury fillings that i clenched how my dentist in berkeley informed me of the risks of mercury amalgam fillings years ago i'm confident that i would have chosen to have my teeth filled with a safer material and we will still be living healthfully in berkeley having completed the ph d in fellowship that i had to abandon due to mercury poisoning  next tuesday's kitty council meeting he'll be voting on two proposals one from council members capitally and mayo and one from council member reagan i sincerely hope that you all vote in favor of council member reagan's proposal and said council member  proposals aside here's why on july sixteenth mr capitally volunteered to try to find a compromise between the three proposals on the table one from the community health commission when they can from the community environmental invitees or commission and one from the community manager susie the city manager instead of finding a compromise between these three proposals however i believe that what mr can copy telling miss mayo have done is simply to water down the three proposals to the point that the so called compromise proposal is now nothing more than two or a compromise is supposed to be middle ground but their proposal is clearly weaker than the three items of which it was supposed to be a compromise if you don't believe me please compare the proposals yourself and read the emails i and others have sent you about this which will be published in supplemental communication packet number one on the website for the seventeen september seventeenth agenda this friday since mr capitally miss mayo have clearly failed to do what they said they do to create a compromise i encourage all of you to put their proposal aside council member a go in on the other hand has written a proposal to schedule work session where the dental amalgam issue can be discussed in greater detail i think this is essential since there seems to we so much confusion  misinformation on this important topic i know that a number of you have been contacted by representatives of lifelong medical clinic in berkeley as well as dennis herman the california dental association some of us has been told that the california dental association has been exerting inappropriate influence over certain members of the council please you keep in mind that the county california dental association is a trade organization first and foremost please don't let yourself be manipulated by big money and powerful lobbyists of the c d a or the misinformed  from my dental fillings and i want to share my story with you with the hope that you will seriously listen to me and others who have also been harmed from what we thought was silver amalgam dental fillings hundred ninety eight i was suddenly struck with double vision and diagnosed with lupus m s and my athenia gravest three very very serious life threatening auto immune diseases i was told that i would be sick for the rest of my life by three neurologists and all i was offered with steroids to fix my eyes i was told that i would be sick for the rest of my life i rejected those diagnosis and i proceeded to do my own homework i went home with an eye patch and for five days i did my research online on the fifth day three thirty in the morning i discovered that i had been recreated poisoned from the removal and placement of  mercury fillings seven days before i was outraged that i hadn't been informed that a silver filling was actually fifty percent mercury the second most toxic element on the face of this earth i committed myself and i have committed myself for the last sixteen years to bring public awareness about this issue i have worked in the philadelphia area i work with city council it took me five years to get a bill passed philadelphia is the first nation first city in the nation to pass a farm consent bill which advises patients that their silver fillings are fifty percent mercury it requires the dentist and the patient to sign off it includes the warnings of mercury fillings it also includes an f that has done research on the subject matter for thirty years their position paper against mercury fillings is on their website you w w i a r o t dot org there is another website that you can take a look at it's mercury exposure dot info to ignore this in fact the united nations this coming october has a mercury treaty that's being signed him in amman to be japan which will require the phase out and phase down a mercury containing products including dental amalgam this is a global issue it's been being recognized how is it in berkeley times oh ok ten seconds president i want to thank the city for the civic center park area and the benches that have been painted and the grass as it's kept clean but i worry time i walk by this intersection i just keep telling myself to send an email to the city and i haven't done it so  you now i see a blind gentleman who lives in the neighborhood and this light here doesn't have auto audio signal so if you're blind you can't hear that the light is still red he started to walk into the street right here on m l k and i was on the opposite corner and i yelled and his dog i think might be new didn't realize that there were cars coming at him and he almost walked right into the traffic so i just want to bring to your attention i think you for the park and h peace in the middle east end of the night and i hope everybody gets an sleep but i just wanted to speak about the issue i came to speak about tonight which is the violence factor in berkeley and  sign that i'm holding speaks to the issue of when i was almost beaten to death on labor day and that individual is free as a bird and i just want to speak particularly to her bates who has two sons and i know of one was my high school class a berkeley high school it's jonathan a very popular lawyer help me at one point when i was almost killed on the streets by some violent teenagers in the north berkeley bart station i hear that casey bates works for the disk attorney's office and i mean we want to make a public service announcement that the disagree turnings office