Recording in progress.

And the oh, somebody's not muted.

There we go.

Okay.

All right.

We can proceed any time.

Good afternoon.

Like to call to order this special meeting of the Berkeley City Council for five PM on Tuesday, July ninth, two thousand twenty-four.

The first order of businesses roll call.

The city clerk can please call the roll.

Present.

And Mayor Aragorn present.

This is a special meeting to take up one item, which is on our action calendar item one, adopting an ordinance providing for youth voting for persons age sixteen and seventeen years for the Office of School Director, pursuant to Article Three, Section Five Three of the City Charter.

Um for a number of reasons youth voted was not technically and administratively feasible.

Um, but over the past several months, staff with the city, Berkeley Unified School District, Oakland, Oakland Unified School District, and Alameda County have been working uh and in discussions uh confirming that uh Alabama County now has the uh technical ability and has hired outside contractors to um successfully uh you know achieve youth voting in school board elections uh this fall.

Um so the item before you is an ordinance which would um authorize youth voting in the city of Berkeley.

Uh the ordinance also provides that each election year uh the city council would authorize via resolution youth voting for that specific election.

Uh that resolution is also included uh in the item for you.

Um one major thing that the charter requires, and which is uh reiterated and codified in the ordinance is it requires that no city of Berkeley funds can be used for youth voting.

So only the Berkeley Unified School District funds uh can be used to cover any election costs uh associated uh with youth voting.

Um the resolution before you call for youth voting in the November 2020 for election.

And one of the other things it does is it requests that the Alameda Registrar place a vote center, if feasible, uh in Berkeley uh high school to help facilitate uh a voting by persons aged uh 16 and 17.

Uh, I'm happy to take any questions uh from you on this item.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Harvey, and thank you for including that last part because that was my suggestion that we look at having a vote center on the Berkeley High Campus so we can have as much participation as possible.

Um I just have to say outside I am that we're finally taking the step.

Um council member Waynegraff and I uh were on the city council when um uh youth from the YMCA um and from Berkeley High and the Legal voters came to us to ask us to put a measure on the ballot in 2016, which was measure Y1 to allow um persons ages 16 and 17 years old to vote in school board elections, and it makes complete sense.

Um they they should they know more than more than we do about what they need um and who should best represent them in making decisions about um the Berkeley Unified School District.

So I think this is a really important, exciting step.

Um, and my hope is that this will be the beginning of efforts to broaden the ability of people young people to be able to vote in elections, not just school board elections, but city council elections, mayoral elections.

I know there have been efforts at the state level to broaden voter participation for young people at uh uh younger than 18 years old.

I fully support those efforts.

Um it's taken a long time.

Um, I really want to appreciate the work of the city clerk, um, the city attorney and the Lee Win voters um and all the cities that have been working on this.

So we finally got to this point.

One thing I just want to um emphasize, and I know I shared this with staff when we talked about this um uh I think it was a few weeks ago, is the need for us to really prioritize education to eligible voters about this new system of youth voting.

Um, and so uh Mr.

Clerk, I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on that.

Um, could that be part of our broader education efforts?

Um, as is the registrar voters or BOSD, you know, do they have any plans around uh education efforts for young people ages 16 to 17 around youth voting?

Yes.

Well, I I think the focus really has been, and and you know, Mr.

Harvey can jump in as well.

He's been in the same meetings.

Um the focus in our discussions with uh Oakland and the registrar voters and BUSD uh up to this point has been uh making sure that this is going to happen.

Uh first of all.

And so we're still in the registrar is still doing um a lot of testing and verification to make sure that it's going to be technically feasible.

Um I think once we know for sure that uh it's going to happen for in uh November of 2024.

Um that the outreach machine will will kick into high gear and uh you know, we'll I think BUSD will probably be the lead on that.

Yeah, um, along with the registrar voters and probably doing some coordinated work with with you know Oakland Unified to save costs and have efficiencies with the materials that are put out.

Um, you know, we'll do the most that we can um uh in the city while uh adhering to the charter directive that the that there's not uh direct or indirect cost incurred um by the city for youth voting, but uh we will be uh willing partners in the outreach that the the county and and BUSD is is engaging in, certainly.

Um thank you.

Um, I'll certainly follow up with the president of the school board around the really the importance of this element because I think it's gonna be really key to as many young people being aware of and participating in this process as possible.

Certainly um because we want as many people to participate uh now that we have this this expanded voting right um in Berkeley.

Right.

Um so this is very exciting.

I'm glad that we're taking a step.

Um and before we um move to comments or motions, I want to open up for public comment.

So is anyone here in person who'd like to speak on um item one youth voting.