The Berkeley City Council met on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, from 6:00 PM to approximately 11:30 PM (meeting extended) at the School District Board Room. The meeting was held in a hybrid format. The council addressed a 37-item agenda, including consent calendar items, a public hearing on ambulance fees, and a highly contested encampment policy resolution. The meeting featured extensive public comment, with over 50 speakers on the encampment item alone.
Meeting Statistics: The meeting lasted over 5 hours. Over 50 public comments were received on Item 37 alone. The city reported a 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness since 2019, 1,500 people rehoused, and 700 shelter offers with a 44% acceptance rate (81% for non-congregate).
Councilmember Taplin, Vice Mayor Wengraf, can you hear us? And then could we get uh unmute and make sure that we can hear your audio? Uh can you hear me now? Yes, yes, we can hear you. Councilmember Taplin, can we just make sure that we can hear you? Can you hear me now? Yes, yes, we can. Thank you. And for anyone who'd like to speak to an item not on the agenda, please fill out a speaker card because we're gonna select speakers for non-agenda matters from the drum. If you're here to speak about an item on the consent or action calendar, we will get to those items later. Yeah, all right. Good evening. Uh, we do have a quorum of the city council present. So um if people can please take their seats. Uh, we're about to begin tonight's meeting. And we are recording, correct? Yes, we are recording. Okay. Good evening. Like to call to order the regular meeting of the Berkeley City Council for Tuesday, September 10th, 2024. The first order of business is roll call. I'd like to ask the city clerk to please call the roll. Okay. Uh Councilmember Kessarwani, currently absent. Councilmember Taplin. Present. Okay, Bartlett. Present. Uh Tragum, present. Han. Present. Wengrat. Present. Munapara. Here. Umbert. Present. And Mayor Araging. Present. Okay. A quorum of the city council is present. Thank you. Moving now to the land acknowledgement statement. City of Berkeley recognizes that the community that we live on is built on the territory of Kuchun, the ancestral unceded land of the Chechenyo speaking Allone people, the ancestors and descendants of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to all of the Alone tribes and descendants of the Verona Ban. As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of Berkeley, the documented 5,000 year history of a vibrant community at the West Berkeley Shell Mound, and the Alone people who continue to reside here in the East Bay. We recognize that Berkeley's residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupation of this unceded stolen land since the city of Berkeley's incorporation in 1878. As stewards of the uh laws of the city of Berkeley, it is not only vital that we recognize the history of this land, but we also recognize that the Alone people are present members of the Berkeley and other East Bay communities today. The city of Berkeley will continue to build relationships with the Leishon tribe and other Loney tribes to create meaningful actions to pull the intention of this land acknowledgement. And so before I move to the next order of business, I just want to uh make a brief announcement.