The Berkeley City Council met on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 6:43 PM. The meeting covered the city auditor’s report, consent calendar approval, adoption of building and zoning codes, a pause on Mills Act agreements, and a referral to explore drone‑as‑first‑responder technology. Council also heard public comment on housing, tenant issues, and fiscal concerns.
Non‑agenda public comment: Speakers included:
Consent calendar public comment:
Item 30 (Mills Act pause) public comment:
Item 31 (drones as first responders) public comment:
City Auditor Comments: City Auditor Jenny Wong reported on the 2025 audit recommendation follow‑up: from November 2024 to September 2025, 23 open recommendations were implemented; 48% (45 of 94) of recommendations since 2020 are now implemented, an 11 percentage point improvement. She also presented an independent third‑party audit of the payroll audit division (by GPP Analytics), which found that payroll procedures ensured accurate pay and benefits for the sample tested. She noted the city’s $28 million deficit and contributed $30,000 in savings to the general fund.
Item 28 – Adoption of Berkeley Building Codes: Director Jordan Klein presented the three‑year update to adopt California Building Standards Code with existing local amendments (no new ones). The amendments include stricter seismic standards (e.g., no drywall shear walls, plain concrete limitations) and updates to electric vehicle charging requirements for new dwellings. Councilmember Blackaby asked about impacts on housing costs and clarified the EV charging rules apply to new single‑family dwellings and ADUs with parking. No public comment. Motion passed.
Item 29 – Zoning Ordinance Amendments (SLTE 2025): Staff presented routine corrections, reference updates, and clarifications to maintain consistency with state law. Councilmember Lunapara noted these were part of the ZORP process. No public comment. Motion passed.
Item 30 – Pausing Mills Act Agreements: Councilmember Humbert introduced the item, citing the city’s structural deficit, lack of evidence that the program cost‑effectively preserves landmarks, and equity concerns (benefits mostly affluent property owners). The resolution pauses new agreements, allows two pending applications (cutoff November 19, 2025), and directs non‑renewal of all existing contracts. An amendment added language to initiate non‑renewal proceedings for all contracts at the earliest opportunity. Several council members supported the pause while expressing continued support for historic preservation. Staff explained that Mills Act contracts are 10‑year terms that renew annually unless a non‑renewal notice is sent. After non‑renewal, the tax benefit phases down over 10 years. Motion passed (9‑0).
Item 31 – Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Drones as First Responders (DFR): Councilmember Taplin introduced the referral to the city manager to begin the process under Berkeley’s surveillance technology ordinance (SCO). Chief Lewis, Captain Okeefe, and Chief May presented: DFR involves drones stationed on rooftops that autonomously respond to 9‑1‑1 calls, arriving in 2–3 minutes; UAS are operator‑flown drones used for specific incidents. Benefits include faster response, enhanced de‑escalation (e.g., identifying a cigarette lighter rather than a gun), better resource allocation (20 % of calls cleared by drone in some cities), and support for fire operations (thermal imaging, search and rescue, post‑disaster mapping). Costs: UAS $5,000–$14,000; DFR $60,000–$150,000. The department currently borrows drones 6–7 times per year. Council members raised questions on privacy (heat signatures, microphones, data retention), vendor ethics (Flock/AXON), community engagement, and use at protests. Mayor noted that the item is a referral to begin policy development, not an acquisition. Motion passed (9‑0).
Okay, hi everyone, thank you so much for your patience. It's 6 43, and we had uh uh special meetings that ran late, so apologies for that. I'm calling to order the Berkeley City Council meeting today is Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. Clerk, could you please take the roll? Okay, Councilmember Kesserwani. Here, present present. Trago, present. O'Keefe here. Wackaby here. Unapara here. Humbert, present, and Mayor Ishii. Here. Okay, quorum is present. All right. Um we have no ceremonial items this evening. Um, so I will move over to city manager comments. Also no city manager comments this evening. Thank you. Very good. I think our city auditor is here and has some comments. So I will call her up. All right, good evening. Um I wanted to share tonight um a few items on the council agenda. The 2025 audit recommendation follow-up report that my office released in October and the results of an independent third-party audit we initiated of our payroll audit division. Before I do that, I just wanted to make um quick comments on item eight, the annual appropriations ordinance. As you know, the city has a very large 28 million dollar deficit. And during the budget process in June, my office offered 200,000 in salary savings to help with that. And while the BMC exempts the auditor from the same salary savings as other departments, I do want to share tonight that thanks to information from our budget office. Um, we do have about another $30,000 in savings, and so we'll be able to contribute some of that, actually, most of that into the general fund. So, just happy that we can contribute in that way. So, next I wanted to share highlights from our 2025 uh follow-up report. Our annual report provides a comprehensive overview where the city stands in implementing audit recommendations and what risks still exist. From November 2024 to September 2025, city departments implemented 23 open audit recommendations. As of this update, the departments have implemented 48% or 45 of the 94 total audit recommendations released since 2020. And I just wanted to say that compared to the last follow-up period, the implementation rate has gone up 11 percentage points. That's a really great accomplishment. Um, I'd like to thank the city manager, department heads, staff for their efforts in closing these recommendations. But there's still more work to be done. So there's 48 audit recommendations remain, and you can learn more about these open audit recommendations on our public dashboard. Next, I wanted to share the results of an independent third-party audit we initiated of our payroll audit division. The City of Berkeley's payroll audit division organizationally sits within our office. While the payroll audit division is one of the smaller divisions in terms of staff, it is one of the large has one of the largest jobs reviewing and processing biweekly payroll for approximately 1800 city employees in fiscal year 2025. The division processed approximately 47,000 checks and direct deposits. It's important to ensure that all those payments are processed correctly because personnel costs represent about 65% of the city's general fund in fiscal year 2025. I want to first recognize all the payroll clerks in each department. These are the workers that make sure that all of that information gets entered, as well as the payroll auditors on my team who are ensure that these paychecks go out accurately every two weeks. It's no small feat, and during COVID, my team they divided themselves into two teams without contact. So if someone got COVID, there would always be a healthy team, up and up and willing and being able to process the payroll so that all employees would get their paychecks. So what we do is um within this unit, we periodically will initiate an independent third-party audit to look at the division's internal controls, ensure there's sufficient safeguards against fraud, waste, and abuse, and ensure that payroll is accurate and complies with policies and regulations. To safeguard our office's independence, we had to contract this out, and GPP Analytics was the one that conducted this audit.