Can we?

Yes, all right.

I'm calling to order the Berkeley City Council meeting.

Today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025.

Can you please take the roll?

Okay.

Councilmember Caserwani is present.

Taking the roll.

I'm here.

Present.

Okay.

Taplin present.

Councilmember Bartlett is currently absent.

Tregab is currently absent.

O'Keefe.

They're both in the back, but I'm here.

Okay.

Uh Blackabee here.

Councilmember Luna Para is currently absent.

Councilmore Humbert present.

And Mayor Ishi.

Here.

Okay, Quorum is present.

Okay, it is the actual first meeting of the month.

Um, and so typically what we've been doing is taking turns saying the land acknowledgement statement and okay, Councilmember Trago.

The city of Berkeley recognizes that the community we live in was built on the territory of Huchun, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo speaking Alani people, the ancestors and descendants of the sovereign Volano Band of Alameda County.

This land was and continues to be of great importance to all of the Alone tribes and descendants of the Verano Band.

As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of Barclay, the documented 5,000 year history of a vibrant community at the West Barkley Shell Mound, and the Alone people who continue to reside in the East Bay.

We recognize that Barclays residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupation of this unceded Stalin land since the city of Barclays Incorporation in 1878.

As stewards of the laws regulating the city of Barclay, it is not only vital that we recognize the history of this land, but also recognize that the Alani people are present members of Barkley and other East Bay communities today.

The City of Barkley will continue to build relationships with the Lajan tribe and to create meaningful actions that uphold the intention of this land acknowledgement.

Thank you very much, Councilmember.

So for our ceremonial items this evening, we have a presentation by Senator Jesse Ergeen.

Um I believe that he is online, but to give him a little bit of time also to to come forward, I'm going to have us do our proclamation adjournment and memory for Evie Wozniak, which will be presented by Councilmember Humbert.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And here is the is that proclamation.

Whereas Evi Wozniak was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, friend, whose irreverent humor, boundless curiosity, and deep devotion to her family and to Berkeley continue to inspire us.

And whereas Ebbie was dedicated to public service as a community organizer in Berkeley during the tumultuous 1970s, and a member of the Berkeley Waterfront Commission, where she did important work parenthetically, and whereas Evie embraced the world with fearless energy, maintaining a special connection to Indonesia and pursuing adventures that range from scuba diving and boxing to skiing and tennis, and whereas Abby also found joy in the richness of daily life, whether maintaining a garden full of flowers, exploring family history in the Mayflower, enjoying K-dramas, and the music of Leonard Cohen, or sharing coffee and fancy birthday cakes with friends, and whereas Abby was a passionate champion of the arts, the arts and culture, serving as a devoted patron to institutions such as the Berkeley Rep, the other Aurora Theater, the Junior Center for Art and Science, and Bamfa, believing in the power of creativity to enrich our community, and whereas Abby leaves behind a legacy defined by her commitment to learning, her spirited advocacy for public spaces, and the vibrant, gracious warmth she shared with her husband Gordon, her children, her grandchildren, and her wide circle of friends.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Adina Ishi, mayor of the city of Berkeley, do hereby honor the life, legacy, and service to the Berkeley community of Evie Wozniak.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Three of us presenting here.

Yes.

So I I'm gonna go first, and Linda Shack and Lonnie Hancock are going to say something.

I just want to stress how much Evie was devoted to Berkeley.

When I finished my PhD in 1974 and was looking for jobs, and I got a job offer from Brooklyn and Stony Brook in Long Island, she said, I'm not going to Long Island.

My friends are in Berkeley.

This is where I want to live.

You got to find a job in Berkeley.

And eventually I did.

I got a job actually.

I went for one, I talked for one year at Cal, and I got a job at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and so it was the best decision that ever made.

So thank you.

I was fortunate enough to be really good friends with Evie for more than 40 years.

Gordon, by the way, met her and was taken with her, and uh decided to throw a party at his house so that she would show up again and he could get to know her better.

Um, and that went on for a long, long time.

Um Evi was just brave.

There was one point when she did love Leonard Cohen, and um she wanted to go to a Leonard Cohen concert in Europe, and she asked me and she asked all of her friends, did you want to come along?

Nobody could go, so she went alone.

And that was pardon me, this kind of thing that she she did.

Um at the same time, she was warm and loving and particularly loved her grandchildren and her family and the city of Berkeley.

Um, she, when she was in Indonesia at one point, uh, she sort of disappeared for about a month, and nobody knew where she was, and her mother had not heard from her, and called her state senator, I think in Rhode Island, and said, My daughter's disappeared in Sumatra, and I don't know where she is, and so they sent out State Department investigators and they couldn't find her, but she had just gone on a trip up a river and was alone, and that was fine, but she was that kind of brave and that kind of adventurous, and um, I will always miss her, and I will think of her often.

Thank you for doing this for her.

Appreciate it.

Hi everyone, I'm Lenny Hancock, and I actually think I've known Evie longer than anybody else here, even her children.

She didn't know Gordon when I first met her.

But she was a quintessential Berkeley person.

Evie was an adventurer, as Linda pointed out.

She was also the consummate, make the world just a little better kind of person.

And when I was first on the Berkeley City Council, she worked with me on the Berkeley Marina.

And honestly, the reason that we had this wonderful facility with so many of the facilities for kids and other things was because Evie Wozniak figured out we weren't getting enough rent for the flips at the marina, but we were the cheapest marina around, and three quarters of the people with boats here didn't live in Berkeley.

Anyway, this woman was relentless and is really responsible for so many of the good things we have there, as well as other places.

She would love this right now.

Going from a person who was part of an opposition political group.

I sometimes say we were the barbarians at the gates, and look at us, look at us now.

But she was there then with selling masks that she brought back from Borneo at our one of our first peace feasts in the anti-war movement to make working and loving the city her whole life.

So it's very fitting that we honor her tonight.

Thank you all for making it possible.

Good evening, I'm John Gage.

I'm Linda Shack's husband.

And Linda and Evie had a special relationship.

Very special relationship.

You've heard of Evie's service in changing the marina.

When she first went on the commission, people thought she wasn't knowledgeable.

She proved to be knowledgeable.

She altered the structure of fundamental infrastructure in Berkeley.

She also worked closely or discussed continuously with Gordon what Berkeley could become.

When Gordon initiated the Berkeley 2050 project, some of you were here, many were not.

But the notion of thinking ahead, based on the experience of those who live in Berkeley every day, that pattern, that way of thinking, that way of involving people in Berkeley in deciding what our future can be.

Evie exemplified that and serves, I think, for all of us here today, all watching, and those thinking ahead for the future of Berkeley.

One person can make a difference, and Evie certainly did.

Thank you.

What is this?

Oh my goodness.

Hands for hand sanitizer.

So I'm Tom Bates, and I just really wanted to echo what my friends have already said about Evie.

She was such a wonderful person.

We were so lucky to have her in our community.

She was a leader, she was a fighter.

She cared about people, she cared about the environment, and we all miss her very, very much.

So thank you for doing this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wow, our ceremonial calendar has three former mayors.

And speaking of, we're gonna move over to our presentation by Senator Jesse Errigeen.

Well, good evening, Mayor Ishi.

Former colleagues and members of the Berkeley City Council, city staff in the Berkeley community.

It's great to be back in the Berkeley City Council Chamber, albeit virtually, as your new state senator representing Berkeley and Senate District 7 to provide a brief update about our work this year to advance Berkeley and California's priorities.

But I want to first reflect on the life and accomplishments of Evie Wozniak and my heartbreaks hearing about Evie's passing.

And was said so eloquently in the proclamation.

She's somebody who was active in Berkeley Civic Affairs for decades, serving on the Waterfront Commission, helping improve our waterfront and Berkeley Marina, and was a loving and supportive wife and partner of my former colleague, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak.

I know that Gordon loves Evie so dearly.

So my heart goes out to you, Gordon, and to your family, and I wish to extend my deepest condolences on her passing and may her life be a blessing in memory for all of us.

Shifting gears, I did listen before your meeting regarding your presentation on the new vision 2050 plan and ballot measures, and really things come full circle, because it was uh just a few years ago that we were looking at how we can address Berkeley's critical infrastructure needs and launched the Vision 2050 process led by former Councilmember Wozniak and John Gage and Ray Yep and so many of the leaders that were there.

And I just want to thank Mayor Ishi for reinitiating that process and helping revise that roadmap to provide a plan for Berkeley to advance its critical infrastructure needs and very committed to working with you, not just to support that effort, but see how we can leverage state resources to help make these projects happen.

Additionally, the Equitable Black Berkeley initiative that's also on your agenda, something that I launched when I was the mayor of Berkeley to advance a reparative framework for how we're uh advancing development at Ashby Bart in the South Berkeley community.

I'm glad that initiative is still moving forward.

Mr.

Clerk, are you going to control the slides or am I clear on the slides?

I did not receive the slide deck, mayor, so I think you will have to do that if that's okay.

That's not a problem.

I'm very skilled at uh how to use Zoom.

So uh Yes, indeed.

Um when we pull that up.

Okay.

All right.

Um, so briefly, I want to touch upon uh the work that the state has done in the past year to support the city of Berkeley.

Um, a number of housing projects um have received state funding, including the Modell Miller Shirec community.

Um, 87 units of affordable housing that opened this year.

Um, and as well, we're working to help secure state funding for the projects at North Berkeley and Ashby BART to build uh hundreds of homes, including affordable homes at these two BART stations.

I want to lift up the work that we did collectively to improve the Gilman Interchange with the new pedestrian and bike crossing, um, as well as the improvements at North Berkeley BART through a $25 million state grant and other grants to improve street safety.

Um moving on to the next slide.

Immigration, and I want to thank uh the city council uh and the mayor for your bold leadership uh immediately after the election of Donald Trump uh to re new the city's commitment to protect our immigrant and refugee communities by adopting an ordinance uh to codify our sanctuary policy.

Um at the state level, we've took taken several actions to uh push back against the immoral and unjust and unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration targeting our immigrant communities.

Um we allocated 50 million dollars, 25 million for legal um legal defense and rapid response to help support people who are facing arrest and deportation, and 25 million to allow our state attorney general to take legal action against the Trump administration against unconstitutional executive orders and actions, including freezing billions of dollars of funds.

We've actually filed over 40 lawsuits.

We have a over 70, 70% success rate in those lawsuits, and we've been able to unfreeze billions of our taxpayer dollars for education, health care, transportation projects, money that we rightfully are owed as the biggest donor state in the union.

We've also advanced several critical pieces of legislation, including SB 81.

I want to thank the Berkeley City Council for its endorsement of that measure, which the governor signed in addition to other bills to protect our schools and uh to protect our immigrant communities.

And we are committed in coming back to the legislature in January to increase our investment uh in rapid response and legal defense to protect our immigrant communities.

On public safety, and I just want to lift up the really transformative work that Berkeley's done in the last few years to advance uh initiative to reimagine public safety.

That was a key focus of the work of the legislature this year, including my work as the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety.

And I just want to uh touch upon a few bills that I was able to successfully author and get the governor to pass, including Senate Bill 524 that requires the use that in the case of AI being used in developing police supports, there's certain disclosures and guardrails.

Um Senate Bill 627, the No Secret police act, um, that would prohibit law enforcement and federal agents from concealing their identity by wearing masks during official operations, no secret police in bur in Berkeley or any city in California, and Senate Bill 704 to regulate the separate sale of firearm barrels that are used increasingly to create illegal ghost guns.

Additionally, we worked to implement Prop 36, a ballot measure that was passed by the voters just last year by allocating $100 million as an initial investment, including $50 million to expand behavioral health treatment in California.

On health and human services, and I really want to touch upon this in the context of what we saw last month during the prolonged shutdown, in which the Trump administration, for the first time in over 60 years, did not provide SNAP benefits to Americans.

Fortunately, we worked immediately once a favorable court decision came down to get those SNAP benefits out to California.

So there was no interruption in SNAP benefits in California while we were working to also augment resources for our food banks to fill the gap.

We know that even before Trump's inhumane attack on uh food security, that there was growing hunger in California and growing hunger in the United States that increase even post-pandemic.

And so that is the challenge that we face coming back to the legislature next year with HR1, the biggelee bill that's gonna make drastic cuts to SNAP benefits.

We need to do everything we can to make sure that we support our food banks and that we provide essential benefits that people do not go hungry in California.

But that was part of a broader effort that we were engaged in, including strengthening uh access to child care and resources for workers that were impacted by mass layoffs, and we're committed to doing everything we can to push back against the Trump administration's cuts to Medi-Cal, to SNAP, and to our social service safety, because it's so essential for people in our state.

On transportation, um, several bills, and I want to thank the Berkeley City Council also for supporting this legislation.

We were able to get a commitment of 750 million in the budget act as a one-time bridge loan to Bay Area transit operators to make sure that next year that they don't have to close stations or reduce service.

We also passed Senate Bill 63, which will allow the Bay Area to consider a regional sales tax measure next year, uh, to provide 14 years of funding, operating funding to stabilize BART and MUNY, AC Transit, and all of our major transit uh agencies in the Bay Area.

In addition, through the passage of our CAP and Invest program, we have increased funding for transit operating resources and transit capital, um, including an investment towards making the high-speed rail project a reality long-term.

Um, and this is part of a broader package of climate initiatives that were funding through Cap and Invest, including efforts to reduce emissions, reduce energy bills, and to invest in transit and capital projects for transportation in California.

On climate and environment, uh, I really just want to lift up the incredible leadership of Chief Sprague and the Berkeley Fire Department.

Berkeley is really a thought leader on the issue of fire safety.

Um, and the first challenge that we faced when we came to the legislature this year was the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, which showed that urban wildfire risk is real.

Something that we've known for a long time, that fire season is year-round.

And so while we were able to allocate immediate relief to support LA, we've also allocated billions of dollars of funding through Prop 4 and through CAP and Invest and other general fund resources to be able to provide more money for uh reducing fuels, managing vegetation, home hardening, and other critical steps to make our communities fire safe.

And so working with Councilman Blackaby and your staff, we're gonna work to make sure that we get our share of resources to support Berkeley's projects and the East Base projects and the work of the East Barrel Wildfire coalition of governments.

Um, and lastly, on housing, once again, I want to lift up the incredible leadership of the city of Berkeley, passing the middle housing initiative, something that we started when I was mayor just a few years ago.

I really think Berkeley demonstrates incredible leadership on how we can think smartly and effectively address housing and homelessness in California, and I think really is a model.

And so this was a banner year for housing in California from CECA reform to SB 79 to legislation that I was able to author supporting ADUs and streamlining the permitting process.

And please know that housing affordability and housing production will continue to be my top priorities next year in the California legislature.

So that was it.

Um, uh, in addition to serving as the your state senator, um, I was on to chair two standing committees in the Senate, the only senator to do that, in addition to eight committees, and work to advance Berkeley's priorities.

And so, welcome your input on how we can work together to provide the resources to support Berkeley and advance Berkeley's values in Sacramento.

It was an honor to serve as the mayor and a city council member for 16 years, and it's an honor to serve as your representative in the California State Senate.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Senator.

We are very lucky to have a representative that knows our city so well.

And we've been in touch quite a lot over this past year, and I really just want to thank you so much for your service to our city and to you know the whole region.

So thank thank you also for coming this evening.

I really appreciate having a presentation from you directly to our city council and our community.

So thank you very much.

And I we have one additional adjournment in memory.

Um sadly, we lost a member of our Berkeley Fire Department recently, uh Fire Captain Scott Hall.

And so I'd like also to adjourn our city council meeting this evening in his memory.

Um I spoke with the uh president of the the firefighters union today, and one of the things he shared with me is that Captain Hall was someone who's very joyous and uh always very bright, and um he said something funny, which was that he was very difficult to make angry, which I really appreciate because this is a group that jokes around a lot, and I think that that's very special.

Um Captain Scott Hall passed away at home on November 28th, 2025.

He was only 56 years old.

Um, he served the citizens of Berkeley, California with honor and distinction for 33 years.

Scott is survived by his wife Laura of 23 years and their children, Savannah, 30, Madeline 28, and Ethan, 21.

And so um it is really just so incredibly sad to lose a member of our Berkeley firefighters.

And I want to give the chief if you have um something you'd like to say, I want to give you an opportunity to speak.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Uh, yeah, just in short, this was uh, and for members of the public, this was uh unexpected and tragic uh death.

Um, we're all reeling and trying to take care of one another, but primarily focused on the family.

And um, we've had a lot of ups and downs over the last couple days.

Um lots of laughs telling stories about Scott because there's plenty.

Uh he was a gregarious uh person full of life, and uh he'll be missed deeply and services are gonna be announced here really soon in the next week.

And of course, you're you're all invited and encouraged to come.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

And I know as a council, we send our condolences to his family and just to all the firefighters.

I know it's so challenging that um you need to continue working at this time.

And so I really want to thank you all for your service.

Um, and thank you also to the council members who um you know brought this forward and also wanted to make sure that they honored him.

So thank you all.

Um so we'll adjourn in honor of both um Evie Wozniak and also Captain Scott Hall.

So thank you.

Okay, um we are moving on with our agenda for this evening.

We have quite a long one.

Um City Manager, did you have any comments this evening?

I don't, thank you, Madam Mayor.

And I I also saw our uh auditor, but she does not have comments for this evening.

Um I will now take public comment on non-agenda matters.

Okay, the first uh five names.

We have Carol Morosovic, we have Rhonda Griska, Ann Hoyer, Cheryl, and Robert.

Okay, so if you heard your name, please come on up.

This is for public comment on non-agenda matters.

Starting with Carol.

Why we need a sex trafficking task force.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was volunteering with food and clothing, giving it out in encampments, I came across a young girl visibly um advanced pregnancy.

Boyfriend looked about 60 years old, and um I uh gave her things and referred to the women's daytime drop-in center, and next day I called up the women's daytime drop-in center, set up an appointment, called the options encampment wellness team.

They went out the following day.

She um they gave them a four-person tent, blankets, uh, and again tried to get rid of women's daytime drop in Sarah.

Even took them out to lunch, and uh said they would pick her up and bring her there the following day.

They went back the following day and they were gone.

And when you know something's off, I don't I don't know what you can do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Rhonda Grushka.

I'm here to speak for the plants you are destroying and want destroyed.

I'm here to speak for the animals whose food and shelter you are destroying and want destroyed.

I'm here to speak for the people who have begged you to listen to reason and stop your destructive ways.

Regardless, you have made it clear you plan to continue down this path of just environmental destruction and hard heartedness that is driven by a self-serving political agenda.

City council member Brent Blackaby, as you clearly have expressed authenticity.

Sorry, just a reminder not to address specific council members, just to the us as a body.

Authentic interest in serving the majority of your constituency and continue to champion draconian plant removal mandates that are not based in established science.

I hereby serve you with these documents to initiate your recall.

Thank you.

And good night.

Well, it goes to the actually.

Um, whoever's next, um, whose name's been called?

If your name was called, you can come up.

Oh, okay.

Was someone else's name?

Yeah, okay.

Come on up.

I got a pass.

Okay, thank you.

Mark.

Okay.

Uh anyone else?

Yeah, this is a copy for you.

Okay.

And this is for the official.

How do I do that?

Cheryl, was your name called?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Come on up.

And goodbye, I'm too late.

Okay.

So for one, I want to say shame on the city of Berkeley.

I was at the Indigenous People's Day.

I know it's been a while.

I was out of the country for a few weeks.

But shame because on Indigenous People Day, all the trash cans were covered up.

It was pathetic.

I couldn't take a picture, but my phone was full, but the garbage cans had plastic over them.

You couldn't put any garbage in them.

And I just thought that was so pathetic, disrespectful, kind of racist, definitely racist against the indigenous people.

Um, why?

Why would you do something like that?

That's that's just like so so pathetic and petty.

Um, and I hope that doesn't happen next year.

Um, otherwise, it was a great event, but I didn't see any of y'all here there, thankfully.

Um, anyway, also um uh please accept my condolences to the fire department um for their loss.

I'm really sad and um I'm sorry to hear that.

So please accept my condolences for your loss and rest in peace, rest in power.

And also there's an arms embargo now campaign.

I hope y'all assigned it because Oakland Airport is shipping.

Weapon cargo parts to murder Palestinians, they're going straight to it's not real.

Um to uh kill people, murder people, murder children, murder women, um, whole families, whole communities, tear down buildings, and they're not allowing any um aid in food, medical, nothing.

Um, very, very, very small amounts.

It's not enough to people that are starving, and you know, almost past being able to recover from what's been happening what's happened to them with starving them and not giving them any medicine, shelter.

They're holding back tents.

It's just freaking insane.

And it's just really disgusting that you all are elected officials.

One of you um is not wearing the kafia that they used to wear.

Um, and I think that's a little shameful because nothing's changed.

There was no ceasefire.

People continue to die.

Today it's a 787th day.

Thanks for your comment.

People are being killed and murdered.

I understand that, and I'll be finished in a second.

Cheryl, you're just shame on you.

You know, we're shame at the time.

We've got a long agenda.

You know, I don't give a crap about your long agenda.

I know you don't, but you're here.

We're we're we're finished.

Your time is finished now.

Thank you.

Uh, for the online comment, Sir City Clerk.

Let's take a look here.

Uh, so this is uh for um public comments not on the agenda.

Um for people uh on the Zoom, raise your hand.

First is Daniel Brownson, one thing I noticed uh when uh our no good state senator was speaking, is he uh didn't mention how he voted for AB 715, a bill that you know seeks to muzzle our educators from teaching the actual history of Palestine, uh, especially in our ethnic studies program um as it adopts a definition of anti-Semitism that conflates anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel.

Um so while he can well he talks about how fascist Trump is, he himself voted for a measure that is also uh fascist and authoritarian um law that is also deeply unconstitutional.

Thank you.

Uh next is Jerry's iPad.

Should be able to unmute.

There you go.

There we go.

Good evening, everybody.

This is Jesse Shann, uh, director of the chess club.

Um I'd like to thank Mrs.

Lunapara's office.

We have the Telegraph Holiday Festival will be taking place on Telegraph Avenue again.

Everybody that helped make that happen.

Please give give yourself some credit.

Um, thank you for doing that.

Um, it'll be three weekends in December.

I would like to also point out um that it shouldn't have been in jeopardy.

Um we changed the seat of government in District 7, Mrs.

Lunapara.

We shouldn't be having these same issues.

Um, we know Peter Redou set out to cancel our festival last year from the city manager's office.

Uh Mr.

Budenhagen, I know you weren't there when Peter Ridou was there last year he unilaterally decided to move the festival um bypassing the mayor and the council's office he peter redou did the same thing this year he bypassed the council's office and bypassed the mayor and unilaterally decided a neighborhood wasn't gonna have their holiday festival i will have a table asking for peter reduce next is maria soul maria should be able to unmute oh I'm so sorry okay so hi again I forgot to mention a few things when we were speaking about the infrastructure and I've really got to I'm really thrilled that there's a siren but I don't know if it's still working in terms of notifying people and I don't know what the central command or coordination uh stems from because in my work in Contra Costa County they had comms really handles for the people to be informed even by radio possibly especially since the police scanning thing has been shut down and that really sad in terms of in terms of emergency shelter for people to warm up and stay dry I really requested we find some safe space for people to park and hopefully sleep safely and I'm concerned about all of the obstructions in on the street um that are blocking uh thanks Maria thank you thank you uh this is non-agenda public comments so yeah uh next to public comment right off the next day you can only offer a minute if your card was selected since your card wasn't yeah uh okay last uh hand raised is caller ending in zero zero zero hi good hi good evening this is so my assistant manager and you some paper he didn't respond one of small what a big company at one time biggest company in the area and consumer electronics couple of comments very quickly um we contributed over million dollar and business license and tax for city treasury city of treasury mayor thanks mayor failed us completely he backed on his words he did not at all keep his words not as a as a mayor but the man as well also he brought in the genocide moron monastery in the white house when he refused to best top resolution that was awful most of people sit home and that's why this monastery in the white house that elected were looking at some of the darkest history on the planet thank you and what you know this will be both of us luck i do like to meet the mayor is uh the mayor next as soon as possible thank you okay that's it no more hands raised okay thank you very much um all right moving on um we are going to our consent calendar um this the union public comment thank you yes is there anyone here for public comment from employee unions any designated representative my apologies anyone online here for public comment uh by employee unions i don't see any hands raised okay okay all right, we will we will then be moving on to the consent calendar um does council have any comments on the consent calendar?

Yes.

Council member.

Council member Humbert.

Again, first i just i didn't think i would be.

Um, I just I want to um contribute some money to various of these items.

Um, with respect to 20 number 28, which is the annual Berkeley holiday fund um from Mayor Ishi.

I'd like to to contribute 250 dollars for my office account.

Um item 29, the urban compassion project, um, uh authored by council member Cassarwani would like to contribute 250 to that.

Um item 31 creations Berkeley Black Joy Kwanzaa Toy Drive in celebration.

Um I would like to match Councilmember Bartlett's contribution of 250 dollars on that for my office account.

Um I wanted to um thank uh councilmember Blackabee and his his co-sponsors for item number 36, which is a referral to the city manager to develop a proactive communication system to alert the community of upcoming infrastructure projects.

That's I think it's really important to notify folks about this, um, to give them time to adjust their lives in advance of major works of improvement, including safe streets work, which I'll be really excited about.

And then finally, well, not quite finally, uh 37.

I'd like to contribute a hundred dollars to the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Winter Promenade.

That's an item um uh authored by uh Councilmember Luna Parra.

Um with respect to 38, which is the renewal of the Elmwood Avenue bid for calendar year 2026.

Uh we still have a long way to go.

So just a quick thank you to Eleanor Hollander and Vincent McCoy from OED, and thank you all the merchants and individuals who've been involved with EBA, especially district's eight's bid member, Andrew Hahn, as well as Cara Hammond, Michael Byrne, Eric Green, Sarah Sabra Stepak, Jesus Chavez, Michelle Shore, Claudia Hunka, and all the others who've been involved with the bid, the merchants and the merchants association in the Elmwood.

And I think that's it.

Okay, very good.

Thank you, Councilmember Bartlett.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And uh quickly just running through the uh you know I'm I apologize.

I think I think that item was on the action calendar because it's a public hearing.

So um but I still mean all those things.

That's fine, thank you.

Noted for the future.

Uh this one, uh item 22, the uh the tree planning proposal.

I'm curious as to is there a geographic plan for the the tree planting proposal.

I see this $750,000 for tree planting.

I love this.

And years ago we put forward a measure to uh ramp up tree production.

I don't know if uh are you on the line, Director Ferris.

I know that he had this was like a part of an original grant that did have a geographic plan and there was a big equity component to it.

Um and it went and fits and starts and finally got funded, so that's why we're coming back before you tonight.

Oh, wonderful, great.

Because I'm hoping I'm hoping of course this goes where the um where the air needs the cleanup the most, right?

Right.

Okay, thank you.

Uh item 24, the uh I want to call out the youth works program and the funding there.

Really, really great program, a lot of young people getting tooled up.

Wonderful to see.

Um, very happy to see uh the two, I guess two companion reports around uh loan modifications for the housing trust fund projects.

Uh some of them are in my district, and I really support these products really well a lot.

Uh and this this does the monies are hard to find nowadays.

It's good and we can we can um achieve sort of new financing protocols around them to extend their viability.

Um then, of course, the uh holiday holiday party, uh, Berkeley holiday Holity Fund.

I'd like to contribute myself.

Uh, 250 dollars as well.

Thank you, uh Madam Mayor, for a good party.

Be there with some eggnog in hand, ignog.

Um, okay, the um, and then I want to thank everyone uh for um contributing to our holiday drive for the the Black Joy Club Kwanzaa Toy Drive should be a lot of fun.

These toys have these kids.

Uh you know, Kwanzaa actually was actually created uh adjacent to Berkeley.

These are Berkeley people that created the holiday.

Um, they're in Berkeley and Oakland.

Um really it's a it's a local holiday they made it's a locally derived holiday that uh has created spirit around the around the country and the world, even so um great to support it.

And I think um I wanted to also give $100 to the Urban Compassion Project.

Uh and thank you, Councilman Kessarwani, for your your item there, the support you there.

And um that's it, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Taplin.

Thank you.

Um, on item 28.

To relinquish 500.

Item 29, 250, item 31250, and item 37, 250.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Councilmember Blackby.

Thanks, madam mayor.

Uh, first, I just like to say uh if anybody's got a legal notice, I'm happy to meet you out front later.

If you'd like to do it in person, happy to do that also rather than it might be easier to do it next time in person.

So I'm happy to do that.

Um, so more than willing to do it over coffee or over lunch as well.

So either any of that would work.

Um on the consent calendar.

Let me just say on item 17.

Uh just appreciate the work that Berkeley Community Media does.

Um, they aired our council meetings, they've also aired a number of our community events uh around Ember and other stuff, and just want to lift up the good work that they do to keep our um residents informed about the work that the city is doing.

Um I wanted to comment on item 26A and B that I support.

I appreciate the work from the hack.

Uh, I do support the staff companion report that does not forgive the accrued interest, and I appreciate that from a fiscal responsibility perspective.

And on 27A 27B, similarly support the staff report on um uh allowing council to sort of make referrals through the budget process in terms of those recommendations.

Uh I'd like to add $500 as a co-sponsor to item 28.

I'm already a co-sponsor, so that's done.

Uh, item 29, 250 from my office, and on item 31, 250, and item 37, 250.

Um, I want to appreciate the support of Councilmember Tragueb, Councilmember Kessarwani, Councilmember Taplin on item 36 and also um the work from the city manager and his team.

Um, you know, we've had a couple of uh feedback kind of opportunities from members of district six as we're doing more and more street repaving work.

Um there's a lot more of this activity that's gonna continue to happen with measure F F.

And I think being able to proactively communicate with residents about um projects that are happening in their area, it's just gonna help everyone sort of understand how to navigate.

Um, and so I appreciate the city managers already.

We've been kind of talking about how this might work and um and look forward to having that come back so that we'll have a better system for notifying people, and also I would just invite staff to lean on the council member offices as well, because again, we do we're doing regular communications already with constituents, and if we can be a part of that process, we'd be we'd be happy to help.

Um item 37, contribute 250.

I think I mentioned, and then the last thing um to Elinor and her team on the information calendar is this great report, uh, an economic impact study on Berkeley's creative economy that I just encourage us all to take a look at.

And just a couple of factoids out of there, just in terms of the importance that the creative economy plays in Berkeley.

Um, that uh the fact is that about 7% of our total workforce or 8,000 people are employed in the creative economy.

It's a significant part of what we do here in Berkeley.

It's a really important part of the economy.

Um, it is not recovered post-pandemic, so efforts that we can continue to do to support it and nurture it are really really important.

Um the total impact of the creative economy on Berkeley is about a billion dollars in terms of our our gross regional product as a city.

It's a significant driver of economic activity, and visitors to uh arts and culture organizations generate approximately 56 million dollars in additional local spending every year.

So I just want to lift up this report.

I encourage people to take a look at it.

The importance of the arts, the um the economic impact of the support, the grant funding that we made during COVID to keep this um this part of the economy afloat, has paid huge dividends, and it continues to be a real driver of our economy locally.

So I'm proud to be a supporter of the arts in Berkeley.

I'm also proud to be an early supporter of the uh the new arts measure that's worth the signatures being gathered.

I just really lift up the work that um the creative economy does here in Berkeley.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Councilmember Traegott.

Uh thank you so much, Madam Mayor.

Um, I uh would like to give 250 dollars for my G13 account on items 29, 31, and 37 with appreciation to um the co-authors of those items and the organizations uh that this supports.

Um I wanted to uh make a brief remark in sincere appreciation for the work that the housing advisory commission and the civic arts commission does every day.

Um, not to uh just wanted to call out those two since uh a couple of their items are on our agenda tonight.

Um, and I just want you to know that uh regardless of whether we uh end up uh passing A or B on the consent calendar, um, you know, in particular uh item 27, which is an item that is very near and dear to my heart, and that work started um right around the time that I was finishing up my time on the housing advisory commission.

Um this is only going to be the beginning, uh not the end of the conversation, whatever we do tonight.

Um, and I wanted to also um just appreciate um everyone who has been a thought partner uh to us in the items uh we have authored um item 32, a budget referral um to uh refer the Addison Catenary Lighting Project, the Oxford for All proposal, and the Herald Way Placemaking Project Schematic Design.

I did want to ask for one change in consultation with uh the city manager, um, I would like to refer this to the AAO 2 uh budget process, and uh, if necessary, the uh FY27 um annual appropriations process or budget process as well.

Um, and then on item 33.

Um, this is the vibrant store fund policy.

It is a referral to the city manager and the city attorney.

Um, there have been so many um thought partners to us on this item, and I want to specifically call out with appreciation uh the mayor as well as council members Blackaby and council member O'Keefe.

Um they're probably going to be too many staff members to list, but I wanted to specifically call out Eleanor and Ruel in the economic uh development department.

Um we basically wrote this item together, and it would not be on this agenda without uh your input.

Um please know that this too is on the uh, it's a very important step, but this is only a first step.

The success of the downtown and all commercial districts in Berkeley is the tide that lifts all boats.

Um I understand that just this item alone may not be able to bring back um the closure of another bookstore.

That was very unfortunate.

However, we are uh continuing to work on a set of items that will uh ensure that we are um despite the challenging times that we are in, always putting ourselves in a position where our downtown and our commercial districts are on the rise.

And I'm looking forward to engaging with the community and my thought partners here on this dice to continue those efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember.

Council Member Kissarwani.

Oh, is it?

I think skipped you.

Councilmember O'Keefe.

Okay, it doesn't matter, but sure.

Thanks.

Let's see.

I've got a lot of things here.

Um okay.

The first thing I actually really want to call attention to a very procedural item, uh item 20, which is um it's just a formality, but it's um allowing the city to accept donations for the um Michael Seltzer Memorial Play Structure.

I don't know if you guys remember that, but it's um it's a really lovely idea uh to make a play structure to a resident of district five who tragically who grew up in um in district five who um tragically passed away just over a year ago.

And I just really want to thank um Peter Case and Michael Selter's family for all the work they're doing to raise money for that.

And um, so this is just a little procedural thing, but I wanted to highlight it because I think it's a really wonderful um project, and I I hope it succeeds.

Um I would like to donate 250 dollars to um the Berkeley Holiday Fund item 28 and um the Black Joy Kwanta Toy Drive, item 31.

And I want, oh, as a um proud member of a teachers union, I want to express my support for item 30, the uh unitization of Equilong.

So I hope that works out.

Uh and I want to express gratitude to Councilmember Trago for allowing me to co-sponsor item 33, which he just talked about.

It's a great item.

And um I also want to thank uh Council Member Kessarwani for um item 29.

Uh the I've already um I think I'm already donating to that, but uh the Urban Compassion Project is a really really wonderful um wonderful um endeavor, and I really just I'm happy to be able to support it.

And uh similarly, item 37, the um the orchestra.

I'm I'm not a musician, uh, but I am extremely musician adjacent.

So any opportunity to support music, I will jump at uh very quickly.

So thank you very much for that.

And I think that's it.

I've got more things, but that's enough.

Thank you very much, Councilmember.

Councilmember Kessarwani.

Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.

I want to thank my colleagues who've generously donated to item number 29 to the nonprofit organization, the Urban Compassion Project.

We had uh over, I think about 60 volunteers who came and cleared 24,000 pounds of debris in the Harrison Corridor recently, and we want to support this group so that they can continue their good efforts and uh so thank you again to my colleagues for supporting that item and uh I wanted to make some donations uh first to item number 28, the Berkeley Holiday Fund.

I'd like to donate a hundred dollars.

Item number 31, the uh Berkeley Black Joy Club Kwanzaa Toy Drive, I'd like to donate $100.

And um, and then I think this is the final opportunity to donate item number 37, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Winter Promenade.

I'd like to be recorded as donating $100 to that as well.

Um, I think um Madam Mayor, you're going to um talk about items 26 and 27.

I I just wanted to uh just state for the record my support for the um city manager's version in each case, and um on item number 30.

Uh I want to thank Councilmember Taplin for bringing that item forward to support the unionizing efforts at ECOL.

I'm mispronouncing bilingue.

I don't know, that's wrong.

I don't know how to say it.

But um is there room to co-sponsor that item or is it full?

Uh thank you so much, but we just we it is full.

Okay, I snagged it.

So you shouldn't let me go before you.

Oh, okay, okay.

Well, that's wonderful that so many people are in support of that.

And um, and then I did want to just um say for the record for item number 36.

I'm very happy to co-sponsor the item from Councilmember Blackabee to work on providing um more notification.

And for me, I think the real concern I just want to state is the public works projects, and and you know, we have a number of big uh infrastructure projects that are happening that have been happening for weeks.

I think about on University Avenue, and so I do want to make sure that we can notify neighbors um when that's occurring so that they can plan for that.

And um I'm less concerned about the housing projects because I think we're already doing the noticing with the yellow signs for the big projects, and then for ADUs and middle housing, we have the neighbor notice.

So so I see it as more of a public works referral.

So I just wanted to say that I see Council Member Blackaby is nodding.

Um, yeah, it's for like traffic when it actually comes to construction.

So, but it's its impact on the right of way and and the ability to anyway.

But yes, I we're on the same page.

Okay, so it's more a public works referral than uh than a planning referral.

Okay, okay, I just wanted to clarify that, and then I think that that's all I have for now.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lunopara.

Thank you.

Um I want to first thank Council Member Kessarwani for bringing forward item 29.

I'm proud to be a co-sponsor and contribute $800.

Um I also thank you to my colleagues for donating to the discretionary item for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Winter Promenade.

It's on December 4th from 5 to 7 30 at the Berkeley City Club.

So please attend if you're free next Thursday.

Um for items 28 and 30.

I would like to contribute 200 to each item.

Um thank you to the council members who authored that.

I'm also proud to be a co-sponsor of the resolution in support of the French bilingual school.

I'm not I don't speak French and I'm not gonna be tricked into saying it.

Um, good call.

Um for their unionization unionization effort.

Um thank you, Councilmember Taplin, for supporting those workers in your district.

Um I also want to echo Councilmember Blackaby's comments about Berkeley Community Media.

Um, and huge shout out to their executive director, David Flores, for all the great work that they do.

Um, and for item one, I also wanted to talk about it quickly just to make sure the public is aware about why we're doing this.

Um, after we passed our ordinance, we were sued by Real Page, the corporation that was also sued by the that was then sued by the Biden administration for their anti-competitive cartel-like behavior, which is um the uh former president's quote.

Um, and since we passed our ordinance, cities across the country have followed our lead.

Um, and Governor Newsom recently signed AB 325 into law, which was endorsed by by our council and has similar strong language that we passed in February.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Councilmember Bartlett, I know you had something else you left off.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

I I forgot to uh to donate uh 250 dollars to uh item 37, the uh Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Winter Promenade.

Uh thank you for uh putting this forward, Councilman Lubara.

Thank you, Councilmember Taplin, something to add?

Yes, thank you.

I wanted to thank my colleagues for their support of the resolution in support of the Colby Land Union union, and I wanted to confirm that we are adding Council O'Keefe as a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um so I just want to clarify that the Berkeley Holiday Fund is not a party.

Um it actually sends grants to over 1,200 people each year during the holiday time.

So I just want to make sure folks know that.

Um I really want to appreciate staff for applying for and winning so many grants.

Awesome job.

Our staff is so great.

I think we should clap for our staff on that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um and I also want to thank the Civic Arts Commission and the Housing Advisory Commission for their work on the affordable housing report.

I know a lot of work and collaboration went into uh the report and recommendations, and I I do feel like we need to better understand the implications to be able to balance all of our priorities.

So I really appreciate for item 26.

I just want to clarify that council is adopting 26B, and for item 27 that council will be adopting 27B, which refers recommendations one to seven to the city manager for either incorporation into existing work in progress for analysis and action if feasible or for council ranking via the RRV process.

And I'd like to make number two a citywide referral to develop an incentive program, and in that case, in the case we recommend RV.

Uh for item 29, I'd like to thank Councilmember Kessarwani and also to her staff, Beth, who oh, who's here?

Hi, Beth.

Um, for all the coordination with the Urban Compassion Project, who together with unhoused folks living in the Harrison and 8th Street encampment cleared 24,000 pounds of debris on November 8th.

I know you said this already, but I just want to highlight 24,000 pounds and also the fact that it was with the residents there, the unhoused residents.

So I'm proud to be able to contribute to this effort and appreciate those who joined us in contributing as well.

For item 30, um, I just wanted to make sure folks know I support this, and also I sent my own letter separately before this, so I'm glad to be able to join and have us um send it as a whole council.

31, I want to donate 250 dollars to the Creations Berkeley, Black Joy Kwanzaa Toy Drive.

And for item 32, um, I'm happy to be a co-sponsor with my colleagues on the vibrant storefront policy.

It's urgent that we find short-term strategies to address ground floor vacant storefronts while we seek long-term businesses for future stability.

This is something that I've been working very closely with Council Member Traegu on this year, and I just want to thank you all.

Um, wow, it's our last consent calendar for the year.

Okay, anyone else?

Did I miss anything?

Okay, all right.

We will take public comments on consent calendar and information items only.

Thank you very much for your patience.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Jeff Melcher.

I live uh at the Addison Court Housing Cooperative, so speaking to uh item 26.

And um we're just down the street, we're your neighbors.

We're just really a block away.

Um, and I'm just gonna give a shout out to um Lordis Chang, who's been helping us for the past couple years, get the paperwork together, go through all the process, um, and really grateful to be working with the city of Berkeley and the Northern California Land Trust.

We're uh we're a low-income medium income uh nonprofit to try to keep housing affordable in this 10 little 10 unit place, and um, so being part of district two, Mr.

Taplin, we should invite you over for you know barbecue sometime.

Yes, please do.

But uh anyway, thanks so much, and I just wanted to appreciate all of you for um working on this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening, and I am also here to speak to item 26 and 13.

I think you have an extra minute from Sally in the back.

Oh, thank you.

Go ahead.

Uh I tend to run long.

Um I just this is a very personal thank you.

I have a relationship with almost all of the these examples of what we're talking about when we talk about community-based, community-oriented, permanently affordable housing.

That is a these are legacies to the whole Berkeley community, but I knew some of the people who the who these buildings are named after.

My proudest accomplishment, and I'll is that Addison Court Housing Cooperative was a 10-minute garden apartment, and I was able to introduce uh some a longtime resident to the Northern California Land Trust.

And if I've done anything good in this world, that turns out to be one.

Uh, and they have proven over and over just how uh working through challenges of having a contract that has to do with being uh an affordable limited equity housing cooperative and the work that the land trust has done to support that.

This is what this is what the poster child for social housing as a movement, as housing as a human right, that we grow more and more of these kinds of of buildings and support the residents to grow in their own leadership and management capacities.

Thank you for personally ensuring that we're still supporting these community legacies.

Thank you.

Thank you, Betsy and Solly.

Thank you, Sal.

You want to give it to me?

Okay.

Okay, um, uh on number one.

Uh, first, really pleased to see this.

Uh, moving forward, uh, and next, we need to look towards algorithms and AI and housing discrimination.

Also, again, it's good to see a number three, our unrelenting commitment to us as a sanctuary city.

Number the affordable housing for artists provision, wherever you, oh, here, next.

Number 24.

It's really good to see that we're being independent enough of the federal government to continue to seek external grants.

That's what we need to do and private partnerships and also in philanthropy.

As to number 27B, if this the affordable housing for artists is to move forward, it's important that the initial proposal said something about after two years of being non-productive, you could be evicted by a jury of your peers.

They don't need any more homeless people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I have three people who are going to cede their time to me, and we have Civic Arts Commission and Hack Commission people here.

Leah Simon Weisberg is the chair of the Hack, Cameron Wu is the chair of the Civic Arts Commission, and I'm sorry, Audrey.

And Audrey is on the Civic Arts Commission.

I'm Debbie Potter.

I'm also on the housing advisory.

Make sure you speak in the mic so we can hear you.

Okay, and I didn't realize my time was ticking away.

Sorry, can you give her the time?

I think she's explaining who's giving her the minutes.

So go ahead.

Just so you know that we're well represented with the two commissions, but I timed my speech at home, so hopefully it's just under four minutes.

So um so you guys want to stand?

You guys just started.

Just start.

Okay, okay, good evening.

I'm um Debbie Potter.

I am a member of a hack, and I was a member of the joint subcommittee of the HACC and the Civic Arts Commission that produced the report, keeping creativity local, a strategic response to affordable housing for artists, item 27A and B on your consent calendar.

Over the past 20 years, the city has commissioned and approved several studies that look at the importance of the arts and artists to the city's economy, culture, and identity, and make recommendations about how to sustain an economic and cultural sector that is highly valued but not well compensated.

The number one recommendation in all reports is the need to increase access to affordable housing and affordable spaces for artists and arts organizations.

Unfortunately, recommendations in these reports have not advanced within the city.

This report has seven specific recommendations to begin to address increasing access to affordable housing for low-income artists.

It is our understanding that for any of the proposed recommendations to move forward, the council needs to provide specific direction on each of the seven recommendations.

If such direction is not provided, the report, along with its recommendations, will join the list of other reports from the past 20 years lamenting the loss of the city's artists, especially low-income artists and artists of color.

While the Hack and Civic Arts Commission unanimously approved recommending council adoption of all seven recommendations, we are requesting council direction on three specific recommendations.

One, adopt an ordinance implementing AB 812 to allow up to 10% of BMR units within cultural districts to be set aside for low-income artists.

The ordinance has been drafted.

We actually drafted it for you, and it's included in the report as an appendix.

Adopting the enabling ordinance is the first required step in setting aside BMR units for low-income artists.

From our perspective, adopting this ordinance is low-hanging fruit that jump starts the city's commitment to affordable housing for artists.

Number two, integrate policies to incentivize affordable housing and affordable commercial space for artists in the San Pablo Specific Plan and Corridors Zoning Udate.

These policy recommendations can be included in the city's ongoing planning efforts as an efficient and effective way to capture work done by the commissions.

And number three, place an affordable housing bond measure on the November 2028 ballot.

November 2028 will mark 10 years since the passage of Measure O, the affordable housing bond measure approved by 77.5% of Berkeley voters.

Approval of measure A was the single most important action to promote affordable housing in the city.

This momentum must continue.

And with only 1.8 million remaining in unallocated measure of funds, that can only happen with a new bond measure.

The initiative process is technical and lengthy, and it should get underway as soon as possible.

Council action on these three recommendations will go a long way in retaining low-income artists in the city and continuing the city's vibrant arts community and culture.

And with 20 seconds, I will say that we appreciate the um the feedback from the council about the report and the work that was done, but I truly hope that the direction can be given clearly on the um individual recommendations so there's actually action within the city staff structure to move these recommendations forward because that's really critical.

Okay, with that, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Uh good evening again, John Canor, Downtown Berkeley Association.

Number eight, I want to thank uh staff and council for your support of the renewal of the downtown Berkeley property-based business improvement district for another 10 years, 2027 to 2036.

I want to particularly thank Councilmember Tregab for item 32 for the um revitalizing projects and the vibrant storefront policy, particularly this vibrant storefront policy.

I also want to do a shout out to Roel Cook who came back from our IDA conference in DC talking to the folks in Cambridge and found out that they require window film or some kind of treatment on windows.

Digital printing has gotten really cheap.

Look at what we've just done, the Walgreen space and the B A space.

Where we need to make sure every vacant um storefront looks cared for.

Regarding the revitalization projects, um Harold Way project, thank you so much for the planning money, and then the Addison Catenary Lighting Project to beautify and make a placemaking project.

You're gonna hear more from Tom Parrish of the Berkeley Rep.

Thanks, John.

Oh, the buzzer didn't go off, but thank you for finishing it up.

Hello, all uh my name's Tom Parrish.

I'm the managing director of Berkeley Repertory Theater.

I'm also vice president of Downtown Berkeley Association, and I wanted to come and speak in support of item eight uh for the downtown property-based improvement district.

Um, item 32, thank you, Councilmember Tregob for for that budget referral, um, particularly the Addison Street Catenary Lighting Project, which will add to the safety vitality and placemaking in the arts district downtown.

Uh, I want to speak in support of item 33, the vibrant storefront policy, and also to our colleagues um from the arts commission, uh, item 27 for affordable housing for artists.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hello, Mayor and Council David Floor is here.

I'm the executive director for Berkeley Community Media here to speak in support of item 17, just to give you all a little understanding of what that money is for.

It's for uh replacing some of our equipment that's uh become outdated or gotten broken, you know.

We're public access stations, so members of the public are using it, our equipment and give it some pretty hard use.

But then additionally, we're hoping to um retrofit our head end, which at this point is running Windows 7.

So uh, you know, it's a little outdated, and not only that, all of our computers have what's called planned obsolescence, so can't really bring it up to all the computers up to speed, but um the head end is a real big thing because we'll be able to get a much greater final end product to folks who are viewing our meetings at home, uh, doing a direct RTMP stream from Zoom to our head end, so without some of the uh things that have given us issue in the past.

So that's all I have to say.

Thank you all so much for your time.

Thank you.

Okay, folks online.

Folks online.

We have five hands raised, six hands raised.

First is Cheryl Daville, a former council member.

Computer world.

So, yeah, um, I I think it's interesting that there's so much money that from your discretionary funds to donate.

It seems like I haven't calculated all the numbers I've heard, but it seems like you guys got more money.

I don't know.

Might want to comment on that.

Um, but anyway.

Um, yeah, free Palestine, free Palestine, arms embargo now.

Sign the petition.

And try to have some compassion, empathy.

Did you add love in 2026?

Or information items.

Are you talking to me?

Yes, I'm wondering if you have comment on the consent calendar information items.

That's what this time period is for.

I understand what it's for, and I don't need you to be obnoxious and tell me that every.

Okay.

Next is Kelly Hammergren.

Um, item 22, urban trees.

Can we please plant native trees?

Uh I am not opposed to traffic circles, but I do ask that we put nature and small trees into new traffic circles to make them visible and serve nature instead of curb height, bricked in traffic circles, which are barely visible and a hazard.

On 33 on vibrant storefronts, can we please put meeting with our small business owners, especially those who rent their space to establish standards for commercial retail spaces and new constructions to be proactive instead of being reactive after we're saddled with unrentable spaces on 32?

Thank you for postponing this request.

I would hope our city is working on securing the site of the stalled project at Kittridge, Herald Way, and Alston for 100% affordable housing as either a donation or imminent domain.

Thank you.

Thanks, Kelly.

Next is David Schear.

Hi.

On the loan forgiveness proposal, uh, I do think that there is more to the story here than what's in the companion report.

I understand that's what you're gonna pass.

I respect that.

Um, the description of the fiscal impact says I think it I think it's uh debatable.

It says the city would be quote foregoing full repayment in the short term, uh, collectively estimated at $5 million.

That's if you forgave the interest.

And I think it's really important to understand that there is not five million dollars that's going to be coming back to to the city in the short or any term.

These loans are repaid on a residual receipts basis, and there's not five million, there's probably not a tenth of that coming back from these projects when HHCS is doing budgeting.

They don't assume that any of that money is coming in, even though these buildings aren't meaningfully paying back the loans, having the debt on the books can have a negative impact on their ability to access other types of financing.

I'm sure it's very complicated.

Uh, and I hope so I hope that the council and staff will revisit the HDF guidelines.

Um, last I did I just have to heap praise on the folks who wrote the artist housing report.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate your comment.

Next is Carla Appleberry.

Good evening, council members, Mayor Ishi, and everyone here tonight.

My name is Carla Appleberry, founders of Creations Berkeley Media and Performing Arts, and I want to express my sincere gratitude.

Council member Bartlett, thank you for your support and for allocating funds to our organization.

Your commitment to uplifting youth and creative programs in Berkeley truly makes a difference.

Um, to the full city council and mayor Ishi, thank you for your ongoing leadership and for supporting community-based arts and youth development.

Your decisions directly impact the futures of the young people we serve.

Creations Berkeley has now entered our fourth year.

We've become a creative home for youth across the city.

We offer dance media performing arts programs, school-based enrichment and opportunities for young people to perform, create, and express themselves confidently throughout the community.

Uh before I close, I'd like to invite you and all of the Berkeley community to our boots on the ground workshop fundraiser this Sunday from two to four at the sports basement, the old Iceland.

For more information, you can find it at CreationBarkley.com forward slash events.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carla.

Next is Jesse Sheehan.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

Hello.

I just wanted to bring up on thank you for giving the money to the folks who'd cleaned up Harrison Street.

That was very helpful.

Again, this goes back to what I was discussing earlier.

I know you have a hiring freeze, Mrs.

Ishi.

It appears that the city manager's office needs help.

Again, the Harrison House, it shouldn't bin 26 tons of trash there.

This is Peter Ridou.

The arts commission projects.

If you don't think our special events are where all these arts come from, you have Peter Ridou writing this archaic thing about it makes it impossible to throw a special event in Berkeley.

Peter Radu was your political enemies hire.

Yeah, can you keep your comments off of our staff and just you can speak more broadly on our topics?

Yes, ma'am, but it's this guy.

He's attacked the he's a joke in the police department during your homeless sweeps.

He's a joke among business owners.

And he was hired.

Next is Kim Anno.

Yes, thank you so much for recognizing me.

It has been a decade and a half to fight for artists' affordable housing in the city of Berkeley, of which I had a lot to do with it for many years.

And I'm so want to congratulate the unprecedented collaboration between the housing advisory commission and the civic arts commission to hammer out finally the artists affordable housing uh report.

And I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart, and I want everybody to consider this.

It's a pillar of civil society to take care of the artists, especially the ones who do not have housing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kim.

Next is Jeff Lomax.

Yeah, good evening, Council.

I just, you know, I'd hope, you know, I this billion dollar figure that was cited in terms of value added on the arts side, and I mean it's an impressive number and it sounds good.

If you try to actually unpack it and go follow the references in the report, you basically get a proprietary software, is for what I understand, or at least that's what I tried to do.

And I so I I think it would be just a service in that report to either break down how that number was derived or give it a little bit more detail because uh a standard in data analysis is that it's reproducible and accessible.

And at the moment, unless I'm missing something, that figure violates both those common principles of data analysis.

So while it's a very nice number to be able to cite, it would be very helpful to understand how it was derived.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is um Maria Hasid.

Hi, can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Um, my name is Maria Seed.

I'm the executive director of the downtown Berkeley uh of the of the David Brouwer Center.

Um, and I'm I'm uh want to call to speak in support of the property-based business improvement district for the downtown Berkeley Association.

Um, I just want to put in how valuable this resource has been to me and to the center.

Um, and also in terms of the support of the vibrant storefront policy and the downtown Berkeley River Revitalization Project.

Um, Berkeley really lives and breathes on its downtown, and it's really important that the city government continues to support in its rebirth post-pandemic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, and then we have um last speaker is Bill Pounding.

Should be able to unmute.

Oh.

There you go.

You can hear me.

I'm sorry.

Yes, now we can hear you.

Right.

So my name's Bill Padding, I'm a Berkeley resident.

Uh I just wanted to make a um say thank you to the park district for um providing pickleball courts in Berkeley and realize that there's there's been a huge demand.

Uh we've really enjoyed the courts at Cedar Rose, and we appreciate the city creating these new courts at Tom Bates, which is uh item 21.

So thank you in particular to Scott Ferris and the rest of the city park staff.

That's it.

Thank you.

I I'm not sure what item that was, but I I love that you're loving our staff, so it's great.

Thank you very much.

Um are there other okay.

Oh and are there additional comments from council members?

Yes, Councilmember Taplin.

Uh thank you very much.

I just wanted to um thank the members of Hack and Civics Commission who spoke tonight.

Um I did want to share that um we did pass a referral to um develop an ABA12 ordinance uh last year, and that was ranked um number 26 among the council referrals.

Happy to um happy to regroup and and strategize on moving that forward.

And um and same goes for the other recommendations as well.

Thank you.

Councilmember, I'd like to be part of those conversations as well.

If you could also include my office.

Oh, yes, yes, please.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um uh council member Traega.

Yeah, thank you.

I uh similarly wanted to provide a di some additional context on item 33.

Uh this particular item is a uh while it doesn't say short term referral in it, it essentially is a short-term referral such that when we go on recess, um our hard working uh city administration staff will continue the work of effectuating this and bringing um a first tweeting to the council uh shortly after we get back from recess.

Uh there is um another item that I can't speak too much about, but I will say that uh it is prospective in nature and it looks at uh a number of strategies to revitalize the downtown and commercial districts with small businesses and the arts uh and anyone else uh that is uh part of this community in mind.

Um so if you would uh like more information um or to get more engaged, please reach out to our office.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

So moved.

Okay, second, okay, second from Council Member Traegub.

Is there any opposition to approving the consent calendar?

All right, we have approved the consent calendar.

Thank you very much.

Um we jumped back into this meeting from the previous one, so I'm gonna give us our 15-minute break now.

So thank you, everyone.

Recording stopped.

Hello.

Oh, here we are.

Okay.

All right, folks, we got this.

Come on.

Recording in progress.

Last meeting of the year is very sad.

I'm very sad to miss you all.

Um, I'm sad.

Okay.

Anyway, we're moving on to the action calendar.

All right.

Um, and I just want to just say, right now, I'm gonna move item forty two on the retail sale of alcohol after the bid items and before the fire code items so that you all those who are connected to that can go home.

Um, we're going to uh we have public hearings, so I'm going to open the public hearing for the renewal of the Elmwood bid for the calendar year twenty twenty six.

All right, very good then.

Um Council.

Yes, Councilmember Humbert.

Yeah, I just want to uh incorporate by reference the the remarks I made earlier about this item during the consent calendar that I made mistakenly.

Um your service on this, thank you.

Any other comments or questions on this item?

I just want to state my support for the Elmwood.

Um, I'm a big fan.

So thank you.

Is there any public comment?

Okay.

Very good.

Is there motion?

Close the public hearing.

Oh, we will motion to close the public hearing.

So move.

Second.

All right, any opposition to closing the public hearing?

Okay, the public hearing is closed.

I also move to pass this item.

Second.

Any opposition to passing this item?

Okay.

Motion is approved.

We have renewed the Elmwood Avenue bid for the calendar year of 2026.

Congratulations, Elmwood.

All right.

Moving on to item 39.

We are going to open the public hearing for the renewal of the Solano Avenue bid for calendar year 2026.

No presentation for this one as well.

So are there any other questions or comments from my council member colleagues?

Yes, Councilmember O'Keefe.

I think I'm required to say something.

Um Solana's amazing.

Uh I guess I want to give a shout out to Fern Solomon of Fern's Garden.

Who's if you don't know her, she's the best person.

And you should go to her store and buy things.

That's that's all I have to say.

Absolutely.

Also a fan of the Solano Avenue bid and just generally Solano Avenue, especially as we're going into the holiday season, folks.

Remember to shop local.

Okay.

Yes.

Um any comments on this item.

Okay.

Is there a motion to close the public hearing for this item?

So moved.

Second.

Any opposition?

All right.

We have closed the public hearing for this item.

Is there a motion to approve the item?

All right.

Second.

Very good.

Any opposition to approving?

All right.

Very good.

We have approved the renewal of the Solano Avenue bid for the calendar year 2026.

Congratulations.

All right.

And as I said, I was going to move item 42 up.

So we are going to move item 42, which is the amendments to Title 23 to allow the retail sale of alcohol in the Telegraph Avenue Commercial Zoning District.

Hello.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Jordan Klein, Director of Planning Development.

I'm joined at the staff table by Faye Messner and Justin Horner from the land use policy team.

Uh we have a brief presentation prepared only if you request it.

This is a pretty relatively straightforward item to allow the retail sales of alcohol in the CT district.

Uh in accordance with a council referral to do the same.

So we're we can just be available for questions as well.

Are there any questions from my council colleagues?

Nope.

All right.

Um since this is a public hearing, is there any comment on this item?

Uh we any in-person public comment for item 42?

Amendments to the zoning ordinance.

Okay.

Uh we have one hand raised online.

Uh first commenter is uh Alfred Two.

Hi there, thank you.

I'm here to speak in support of this item.

The telegraph CT district already has some bigger stores that were there before this prohibition was passed.

And repealing it would allow us to have a full service grocery store or supermarket, which is much needed.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Uh that's it, just one commenter.

Very good.

All right, any comments from my council colleagues?

Yes, Councilmember Luna Para.

Um, I am so happy this is happening.

Thank you so much to planning staff.

Um, I want to thank also the planning commissioner, um, my commissioner Alfred True, the TBID, my staff, um, and city staff for helping formulate this change seamlessly seamlessly.

As Southside lacks a full service grocery store, the current prohibition contributes to a lack of healthy, affordable, accessible food options for many Southside residents and visitors.

And this code change will align the city's regulations on alcohol beverage retail sales in the Telegraph Avenue commercial district with those on the every other commercial district in Berkeley.

Um not only is this distinction for telegraph was this distinction for telegraph specifically ridiculous, but this change will also help bolster uh existing efforts to fill empty storefronts and expand local grocery options in a neighborhood that needs more accessible, affordable, and healthy food options.

So I'm very excited to approve it, and I'll move to close the public hearing first.

Second.

Okay, is there uh I just want to make sure are there any other comments?

Maybe yes, go ahead.

Um, I just want to say a major thank you to Councilmember Lunapara for her leadership on this significant and frankly historic change.

It really is historic.

And to Director Klein, Justin Horner, and Faye Messner for their work on this.

I'm excited to get this done for the reasons articulated by Councilmember Lunapara.

Thank you.

Okay.

Very good.

Yes, thank you so much for your work on this.

Very exciting.

Um, all right, there's already a motion on the floor to close the public hearing for item number 42 and a second.

So is there any opposition to closing the public hearing?

Seeing none, we have closed the public hearing.

And is there a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve item 42.

Second.

Okay.

Any opposition to approving this item?

Okay, motion is approved.

Very good.

All right.

Uh we have approved item 42.

And thank you very much, staff, for being available to answer any of our questions.

Thank you so much for your work.

I knew I know it was much more work than just that brief amount of time.

So, okay.

All right.

We are moving on to item number four.

Okay.

So before we have before we go into item number 40, as our fire department sets up, um, I wanna make sure that folks actually I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna I want to make sure that folks know that I have spoken um with the city manager about this item.

I know that there are a lot of concerns, and I wanna say that a lot of the concerns are around these um appendix D, and because of that, I really want to make sure especially when it comes to this 26 feet or 20 feet piece.

Um, I know that there's some confusion about one is 26 foot feet needed, um, because of the situation with Telegraph Avenue, and then I know that there's a situation that's been out of line as well.

And so um I want to let folks know that the city manager is committed to working with city staff on design standards and preparing for the January 20th meeting formally requesting this action.

So hopefully that will give folks uh you know a sense that um we want to make sure that there's clarity that folks understand um how this will impact events and also any physical changes that we make to the street for safety.

Okay, passing this over to you all.

Thank you very much.

Uh, good evening, council and mayor.

Uh, tonight I'm joined by Deputy Chief Keith May, Assistant Chief Colin Arnold, and Fire Marshal Drew White.

And we're presenting on first on the second is um on the reading of the fire code with a focus on sections 503 and appendix D.

I'm gonna give a brief verbal presentation and I'm happy to dive into any specific questions and we can pull up some visuals if needed.

Uh so section 503 is an optional section that Berkeley's adopted at least 2008.

It establishes baseline criteria for fire app rest access roads, it defines when the roads are required, how wide they must be, what clearances and surfaces are necessary, and how it must be maintained.

These requirements have been applied by staff for many years and have facilitated both major development and transportation projects across the city.

Appendix D.

It's also an optional appendix that Berkeley has also adopted since at least 2008.

It provides more detailed and prescriptive guidance, things like turning radius, maximum dead end lengths, and exact roadway widths needed for more complex emergencies that we usually have in taller buildings.

It's also applied uh the 26-foot roll is in appendix D, and that's also applied adjacent to hydrants immediately in the 20 feet adjacent to hydrants on each side on each side of a hydrant.

Uh both section 503 and appendix D.

Uh, if both section 503 and appendix D were removed from the fire code, staff are still obligated to enforce the minimum 20-foot access uh roadway access width that exists within California Code of Regulations, Title 19.

Title 19 assigns that responsibility directly to the fire chief, and in certain cases also allows for the roadway width to be wider to support safe emergency operations.

So, in essence, to boil that down, removing section 503 and appendix D does not remove the state requirement that's found in the CCR.

It simply removes the public-facing prescriptive section of the BMC, reducing public clarity and predictability for the local adoption process or for local local projects move through the project design pipeline.

So examples of projects have been adopted since 2008 that have undergone a review of that included both Appendix D and Section 503, include just a couple.

There's many more, but Bancroft Way, the bus and bike lane project, Fulton Street, Calming and Bike Lane, the MLK common and pedestrian islands, downtown Shatdock reconfiguration, Delaware bike lane, speed humps and barnproof, the Gilliman roundabouts, Dana Street bike lanes, south side complete streets, and San Pablo Parallel Streets project, which is at 100% design phase.

So these are just some examples showing the fire code is compatible with these multimodal urban street designs and has not been a barrier to these safety improvements.

On the housing front, the city has issued building permits for an average of roughly 500 new housing units per year over the past decade.

So with a housing stock of approximately 53,000 housing units, that's the equivalent of adding about 1% to the total housing stock each year.

This reinforces that the codes also housing production while maintaining essential access for emergency operations.

Why does roadway width matter?

And probably some visuals would be helpful here during question and answer phase, but it's important to note that while the focus is on the fire department tonight, all commercial vehicles, including transit buses, refuse trucks, and fire engines are eight to eight and a half feet wide.

The chassis that doesn't include the mirrors.

When you add the mirrors, that's nine to nine and a half feet width.

So on narrow lanes, especially when parked cars are not right on the curb and encroaching of the travel lane, the margin for air for collision is pretty small.

The fire code, while applicable to fire apparatus, also helps protect all users, bus riders, pedestrians, cyclists, and emergency responders by preventing these predictable side swipe and collision hazards.

When it comes to tall buildings, why 20 foot 26-foot uh important?

Even small fires in taller buildings can represent a big challenge for us.

It's logistically intensive to get equipment fighters up to the fire floor, and as a representation of that, our initial response to a fire in a tall building is 13 pieces of apparatus.

Six engines, two fire trucks, two ambulances, two chiefs, and uh EMS supervisor.

That's 37 people.

If the fire is confirmed, then we strike additional alarms immediately, which brings a lot more resources to the scene.

So you can imagine how complex a configuration of apparatus that represents on a street, and specifically that 26 foot width also helps us deploy the outriggers on our aerial apparatus with extend four feet on each side of the apparatus, and that's necessary to create the stabilization that's needed for to extend that 100 foot ladder.

So these conditions can't be safely supported in constrained roadway widths.

Not to be morbid, but the fire code is a book of tragedies, and um it's built on decades of real world lessons, situations where things have gone wrong, and resulted in loss of life, property, and damage to the environment.

So longstanding provisions that have been consistently preventing predictable tragedy, should be carefully changed and considered only after a staff analysis is brought back to council, which wasn't possible before tonight's meeting just because of the short amount of time we had.

So finally, staff is recommending approval of the second reading of the 2025 fire code, including sections 503 and Appendix D.

We remain fully committed to working collaboratively on creative multimodal designs, supporting Berkeley's housing transit and public space goals and maintaining dependable emergency citywide access.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Councilmember Taplan, you have a question?

Yes, thank you so much.

Um thank you for being here.

We really appreciate uh your time and the opportunity to ask these questions.

I do have five questions.

The first two are for the C manager.

Um, process-wise, what would be the operational effect of the council adopting a recommendation during tonight's second reading that substantially deviated from the first reading?

What are the consequences of the city of Berkeley failing to adopt the California fire code?

If there were substantive changes to tonight's first reading, a second reading, then it would become a first reading, and there would be a requirement to do a second reading to adopt whatever changes were made.

Uh, I should note the earliest because of noting requirements, and the city clerk can weigh in on this.

The earliest that the second reading could happen uh this month, well, the earliest it could happen is December 26th.

Um there are noticing requirements, and so you can't just like do a second reading a few days after because there may be people who care about this and who want to know about it and need to have time to think it through.

Um so that would be that would be an act in the ordinance effect 30 days after the approval of the second reading.

So in this case, that would be January 20, whatever 6th or after.

Um so then for January 1st through January 25th.

If it went on the 26th, we would basically default to the state fire code, and then starting on January 26th, if that one is one of the reading was it would be that that whatever was approved would take effect.

Thank you.

And um can you speak to um which of the local amendments would be left in the balance where we do not adopt this tonight?

The Chief Sprague could speak to that more uh definitively than I can hold over to him.

Yeah, so essentially what you see when you go look at the BMC, um that entire section, all those amendments would um not be enforceable until uh 30 days after the second reading.

So that includes um all of Berkeley's local amendments, including the regulation of uh hazardous materials transfer, the appeals process, storage of explosives, and other um and other um local amendments that are in the BMC currently.

There's a long list.

Uh thank you very much.

My next several questions are for the fire team.

So section 503.4.1 states traffic calming devices shall be prohibited unless approved by the fire code official.

What was the rationale for adopting section 503 and appendix C in 2008?

Have circumstances in the city change and so um everybody who was in administration in 2008 is not here anymore.

So my presumption is that it was added to the code, then adopted as uh included in the state as an optional uh optional um amendment, and then the city adopted it at that point.

It's just a a passed down, and uh it's been consistently um used from that time.

Um however, I think it's important to note um it's not while it reads as um a prohibition, that's not actually how it's played out in real life.

Um I don't know that staff uh between fire and pd, or I'm sorry, I don't know that fire staff in the collaborative relationship that we have with PW have um specifically denied the installation of traffic control devices.

We there's a collaborative effort that tries to solve the problem when a design comes through that doesn't meet the fire department standards uh where there's concerns and um my experiences though that solutions are arrived at that meet all all the needs.

Uh thank you, and just real quick.

I I watched that play out in my neighborhood, so thank you for that.

Yeah.

Um so appendix C uh states where a fire hydrant is located on a fire apparatus road, the minimum road width shall be 26 feet.

Are there other instances where the 26 foot rule would apply?

And can you speak to the uh I mean, and my apologies um for you did respond to a lot of this already, but I think um can you restate the operational basis for each scenario and why this is necessary for apparatus responding to fires?

Yeah, the the two major categories that we see in Berkeley are uh uh 20 feet adjacent to a fire hydrant, and then when buildings reach a certain height, so generally over three stories or around 30 feet, uh that's called out in appendix D.

There's also a provision in Appendix D that has to do with high pile storage, which we don't really have that situation in Berkeley happen that often.

That would be another scenario that that would come into play.

Uh, thank you.

And and my last two questions are are pretty similar, so I'll just sort of ask uh combined version of it.

Um, but as you stated, 503 and appendix C were adopted in 2008, and despite that, several traffic homing bike pedestrian facility and other railway projects have been completed.

Can you speak to the collaborative process that does take place um regarding each project?

And um, similarly, in some of the communications the council leading up to tonight, there seem to be at times an intimation that by repealing 503 and appending C, the department would no longer play a role in determining roadway changes.

Can you uh elucidate how projects would be evaluated um were we to repeal those?

Yeah, so first the design review process that's managed by public works transportation.

Um so they're really the the experts on that process, but I can speak from our experience as a stakeholder in that process.

Um so when a when a transportation project is proposed, um actually it starts off um almost always meeting most of our standards because the trap transportation engineers are familiar with what what we're looking for, what AC Transit's looking for, what public works refuse is looking for.

So usually the initial designs are are pretty close to uh compliant with all those standards.

But uh there's a series of designs that come to fire and other stakeholders through that design review process, and um comments are there's either just discussion and comments given and then written uh feedback from us to public works on uh um a summary summary documenting that conversation and what we would like to see modified in order for that project to move forward, the engineers make revisions and then um the next iteration of that design comes uh back to all the stakeholders and additional comments are made if necessary, so on and so forth.

I think that happens about three times for each project, and then um and then the project moves forward to uh implementation.

Um the second part of your question.

So if uh 503 and appendix D were removed, what would that process look like?

It's really a question for public works, but my assumption is one the process would look largely similar.

Um, primarily because we would still have the responsibility to enforce that minimum roadway width that's found in the CCR Title 19.

Um there uh and because there's not that I can think of times where where we have said you cannot build that traffic control device.

Um I don't think that relationship would largely largely change.

It's collaborative.

We work together to get projects through as they're as they're proposed and dropped into the process.

Did I answer your questions?

Councilman?

Yes, uh, thank you very much.

Yeah, those are my questions.

Thank you, Councilmember Bartlett.

Oh, thank you.

And um, again, as always, thank you for excellent work.

Uh you are definitely the um preeminent public safety people um in our region around fire for sure.

Thank you.

And so this upgrade and this this uh I guess um the adaptation uh the people are kind of surprised why the change is happening now, right?

And I understand uh there's uh the fire chief is involved with the fire marshal's involved with incorporating state law and there's other issues like that.

Is that what's happening?

Uh this is no change from how the code has been adopted in previous years.

Uh this language has been included since 2008.

Um if there's a specific situation you're talking about, I could maybe respond to that.

Okay, yeah, I'm talking about the uh I guess really it's good cut to the quick here.

Um Juneteenth.

Okay, so what do these changes mean for Juneteenth?

Um so there's it's not a change, but uh what we did request um during this special events permitting process um was well, one staff from multiple departments um are concerned about the safety of participants of that event in its current location.

Um they you know there was a request to have the event move several blocks.

Obviously, there's um a lot of displeasure with that.

And the conversation we had recently with the city manager and the mayor was that that event can continue to move forward as long as they provide a fire lane, as they did this year, which is um uh minimum of 20 feet uh to provide access if an emergency occurs in the event or in buildings adjacent to the event.

Okay, so okay, thank you.

So the the fire lane that um that they provided last year, um I didn't even notice it.

I guess um it's okay to continue.

They're here.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

We'll follow up later.

Thanks so much.

You bet.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Um public comment on this item.

Sorry, mayor, I have questions.

Oh, yes, sorry, you do have questions.

Um apologies.

Go ahead, council member.

Um thank you.

Um and thank you to the fire department for being willing to answer our questions.

Um first, can you clarify if the 26 foot uh clear width adjacent to hydrants in appendix D applies to just right next to the hydrant or the whole street?

Yeah, 20 feet on each side of the hydrant.

Okay, so just right next to the hydrant and okay, great, thank you.

Um, my um, how does BFD determine if a traffic calming device will delay response to the degree that BFD would not approve it, or what is the fire department's general approach to those conversations?

Generally, TCDs come in the form of um an entire project design.

Um so we evaluate the whole project um uh in its totality.

But generally speaking, to kind of specifically answer your question from prior testing we've done where we're running fire apparatus over primarily speed dumps, uh, different designs.

We know that they generally uh add about 10 seconds per device to the response just because uh the trucks have to slow down, obviously.

So um that's a general answer um, and we're doing a specific analysis right now, um, to try to have a more broad idea based on all the different TCDs that are um on the menu to understand what are the impacts of all those different devices so we can be a little more specific and actually have some um uh more scientific data than just running apparatus with a stopwatch over these different devices.

So that is hopefully gonna be done in uh sometime in 26.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um I also I have a question about um what counts as a mountable barrier or flex post that is considered as part of the minimum width requirement.

Um does BFD consider areas separated by these barriers as clear width for the purposes of determining whether a street meets minimum width requirements.

Um and if there's a policy or practice, is it documented somewhere?

There's not a policy or practice on this, but um generally you're correct, it would largely be dependent on what type of barrier it is.

And um, but also there's could be a number of other factors that would be specific to each project.

So one example is is the roadway that these are being installed in a primary response route that's used multiple times a day uh for emergency response and is crossing the barrier something that would be necessary on many of those responses because traffic in the travel lanes couldn't pull over due to parked cars or um other other immovable obstructions.

Um and if that were the case, that might be something we would not consider.

Um but if it's on a not a primary response route, and the primary purpose uh of that space would be to during a fire event or another complex emergency where vehicles are um infrequently using that space for deployment of outriggers.

Yeah, absolutely, we would consider that space as part of the with the required width.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, thank you.

Can fully or partially pedestrianized streets meet clear width requirements?

Like is there a possibility to design streets that are that do meet this with um the clear width requirements?

And would street furniture and other movable elements be acceptable in or near the clear zones?

Um so our understanding based on what we've seen in other jurisdictions is that uh there are some type of barriers at each end that are you know retractable bollards, things we can drive over, the things that can be easily moved that aren't gonna delay us from getting into that area, and within the pedestrianized zone, there needs to be an unobstructed fire lane of 20 feet.

They could also double as bike lanes, um, but there cannot be uh furniture or other things that have to be moved out of the way in that uh 20 foot fire line.

Thank you.

And I should say, council member, we're always uh open to uh creative ideas that people find in other jurisdictions and be able to evaluate if those would work here.

Awesome.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um I have a question about Milvia specifically.

Can you explain what uh fire department feedback was incorporated into the Milvia street design?

Um because there are narrow areas between concrete bike lane barriers that are less than 20 feet, and wider areas are still below 20 or under 26 feet.

Um and can you explain why these are not subject to the 26 feet foot rule when there are um taller buildings on the street?

Yeah, um, so unfortunately everybody who worked on that project on our team is retired.

Um but um in in kind of quickly looking at um, I mean, we're familiar with that that street, of course, and in looking at the surrounding areas, I think there could be a variety of things that influence that decision.

For example, um all those BS BSD buildings have fire apparatus access roads that are in the campus, uh courtyard, there's the parking lot, so there's other access points to those buildings.

Um there's also possible potentially the consideration of what was built on the east side, which is two parking lots at the moment.

If those were, you know, potentially gonna become tall buildings, then there might need to be a reevaluation of that street layout.

Um the fire marshal could have also considered the public benefit that the project would bring.

That's a high traffic area with thousands of students crossing it every day, and uh also you know, completing the bike boulevard.

So that also could have could have been a consideration of the public benefit, and the fire marshal has the ability to uh in certain circumstances to um not require 26 feet, and that's their that's their their decision to make.

Okay, but there's no kind of policy that that dictates what what public benefit could mean.

No, and and that's my that's my interpretation of what might have happened without having the notes.

Okay, I understand.

Thanks.

Yeah, um, and then my last question is uh um how do clear width requirements affect parking in areas in in the hills that have also taller structures um or in streets in south side and downtown, yeah.

So uh throughout the city, there's a number of streets that are existing and non-conforming.

So just like um structures and the building code, we don't apply the fire code retroactively to streets that are non-conforming.

Our goal is generally to um not create additional streets that are are um not meeting the standard.

So that answer your question.

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, um, I also I had a question for the city clerk because I was a little confused about the second reading um situation because we we have in the past adopted second readings a week after um first readings, and from my understanding it has we have also done it in special meetings, but I could be wrong about that.

Do you mind just clarifying?

Right, so the the um adoption of uh the fire code and the building code has um very uh unique um requirements in the in the government code for how it's adopted like the first reading can be on consent, but then the second reading is a public hearing.

That's obviously very different than how we do most um ordinance amendments, and in the government code there are uh specific noticing requirements for the second reading public hearing.

It has to be published uh twice with at least five days in between the two notices.

Um, you know, and then the 14-day noticing period starts when the first notice is published.

So it's that's when we figured all that into the calendar.

That's how we came up with the December 26th date would be the earliest possible time you could have a public hearing for a new second reading.

Got it.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Those are all the questions.

Thanks.

Um I also realized, did you want to present your supplemental or do you want to wait till comments or uh yeah, yeah, I think um I wanna um I want to express, which I I did already, but I want to again express my gratitude to the Berkeley Fire Department for their amazing work.

Um I wanna emphasize that the goal of the supplemental was not intended to overrule or override the fire department, but instead to encourage and invite more dialogue about some of the challenges and apprehension about certain aspects of the fire code and its enforcement.

Um and I wanna frame the supplemental as not a struggle between competing priorities, but an example of how we can come together to find a solution that we can all trust in.

Um, and hearing from community members and diving into the code myself.

Well, you wrote this supplemental, which proposes to pass everything as proposed, except for uh appendix D section 105.2, um, which governs with requirements on streets with tall buildings, and then and refers um the provisions of 503 and all of appendix D to the city manager, um, the disaster and fire safety commission and the transportation and infrastructure commission to provide collaborative process and engage community members.

Um I can talk a little more about the the reasons for this, but I in in lieu of this information that we're getting from the city clerk, um, I think we need to have a further conversation about how best to proceed um and incorporating maybe some of the elements of of the supplemental.

I think um there's um the the way that especially the 26 foot rule um has been um enforced differently at different periods of time has I think led to a lot of confusion and I think it would be great that we when if we adopted a code that we are all fully um that we are all uh confident in and that we actually want enforced as written.

Um I and it is in unfortunate timing that we're in.

So we're not gonna be able to to fully flesh through all of the very complicated pieces of this um of this code, but um I hope that we can figure out a way forward.

And council member, I think that what I said at the beginning of of what we were saying, I was hoping would address some of your concerns.

Um and so you mind repeating it.

Yeah, so I know I was explaining it very quickly, and there were a lot of words, so I I wanted to say that uh basically I've been having conversations with the city manager about this, and that he's agreed to work with staff on a trans on transportation design standards to address this lack of of uh uh I would say murkiness.

I will say murkiness about this 26-foot rule when it applies and how it applies, because I know we've had multiple issues specifically with the telegraph fair and also with Juneteenth and just some confusion.

And so um, you know, the city manager and I both feel that this this would help address those concerns, and also would of course involve community participation conversations about concerns that the community you know would have.

So that way, you know, they could understand it.

Um and that I've committed to preparing a referral for the January 20th Berkeley City Council meeting to formally request this action.

Can I ask a question?

Yeah.

Um this is question period.

Around this would not just be only for festivals, but also for design.

Right, also for design.

I'm sorry, yes, and to address the fact that that there are some concerns around uh safety uh changes that would be made to the street and how that might impact things.

So, you know, really making sure it's clear that we're all on the same page.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

I apologize for leaving that out.

That's very important.

Um, and council member Humbert did you have questions?

I did, although I think one of them I only had two.

Um, was answered by the chiefs in response to one of Council Member Lunapara's questions.

I think I want to thank you all for being here for your presentation for answering our questions and for the incredible good work that you do on a daily basis.

It's it's heroic work, and I'm very grateful.

Um, I want you to know that I'm I continue to be just very very concerned about traffic violence, about the deaths and injuries that are happening on our streets.

That's one of the reasons why I joined um uh councilmember Lunapara in her supplemental.

Um and that's from where you know that's the place that my questions are coming from.

Um so the first question is, you know, I just want I just want to understand um or or sort of um lift up publicly the the data about how many people are killed and injured on our streets in traffic violence versus how many people are killed or injured in um structure fires.

So could you answer, you know, could you give me the data on that, you know, with a comparison?

Sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I you know oftentimes we find ourselves in this position of having these conversations.

Um it's paramount to me that everybody understands that we also really struggle with the number of traffic incidents that occur on our streets.

I mean, we're the ones that see all this stuff first, and experience the trauma of people maimed and dying in the back of the ambulance in front of us, it's horrible.

Um, so to answer your question directly, and then I'll give a little more context.

Uh, we did a quick scan of the last five years, structure fire data in the last five years.

There's been six fatalities and 54 injuries.

Um the challenge with that is that that data doesn't capture the number of people that um were removed from that incident before they're injured, or it doesn't capture um modern fires grow so rapidly, and that doesn't capture what could have happened if it had taken us another minute, two minutes, three minutes to establish fire attack, and fires could have spread from the room of origin to the whole structure or the primary structure to the neighboring structure.

So it's really difficult to quantify the negative kind of what didn't happen and what was prevented.

And if we're gonna have a conversation about numbers, um we all have to remember 60% of the call volume that we run are medical emergencies.

That's uh almost 7,000 patients transported per year, that is about um 1,500 of those patients get a critical intervention.

So that's a um something that is life altering medication, uh bleeding control, CPR, and of those 1500 people about 800 a year, 750 a year are transported code through the hospital, meaning that time is even after the critical intervention, time is still of the uh of the essence.

And so, um, if we're gonna talk about numbers, then those people also have to be considered, and that's that's why that's the primary reason that you see us advocating is we have this experience with people um thousand a thousand people, a thousand fifteen hundred people a year that are in these life-threatening positions, and we're worried that the outcome is gonna be worse as it takes us longer to get to the scene and for the amulet then to get from the scene back to the hospital.

So that's an important thing that is always left out of this conversation when we're comparing traffic violence to fire fatalities and injuries, right?

Do you have but having said all that, and I understand that, and that's all legitimate.

Do you have any data on the number of you know people killed and injured on our streets during the same period?

That's not something that we track.

I think that's something that uh you can zero tracks.

Okay.

But I'm familiar with the general numbers.

And they're more significant right than the the numbers that you mentioned with respect to fires.

With respect to fires, but not for the emergency medical incidents.

Correct.

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Uh the other one, and this is the one I think that you may have answered.

Um, although my question's a little bit different.

If it's important to maintain the 26 foot rule as opposed to the state 20 foot rule, why isn't that rule, the 26 foot rule being applied to the narrow streets in the hills?

Not but to remove parking from those roadways.

Yeah, there are three-story buildings, at least on many blocks in the hills, I think.

Probably not all of them, but many of them.

Um the same, you know, situation the same um situations could apply there.

Yeah, it's uh the answer I provided before, which was there are many streets both in the hills and in the flats that are existing and nonconforming, and just like the building code, when there's a change to the building code, we don't go and retroactively apply that to the entire city.

So uh we don't retroactively apply the street width to existing non-conforming streets anywhere in the city.

It's when there's um uh modification to structures um along that roadway that necessitated that it would trigger um the requirement for or the need for 26 foot.

And and it's there's also a huge difference in a single family or a duplex, a fire in a duplex or single-family home versus a um four-story, five-story apartment building with a hundred occupants and a fire is on the fourth floor, it's just a completely different type of response, different type of firefighting.

Yeah, no, thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I appreciate that response.

So if somebody built a new three-story building um in the hills, you might require the removal of parking adjacent to that building, is that right?

Potentially, we'd have to of course look at uh that when the permit was applied.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

Those are my questions.

I appreciate your answers.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Traegov.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Um you mentioned that um there are some.

I think I'm probably using the wrong term, but travel routes or high high frequency routes that um emergency response uses.

Is there a list of such routes documented somewhere?

Uh, we have a map that was just produced as um as part of a study we're doing this year.

It's based on a pretty limited data set of I think um responses collected over three days, but from our analysis um looking at it, it l it looks pretty accurate.

We'd like to collect more data to make sure that um it's really representative, but we do have a map that um that we can share.

Uh I I would welcome that.

I I don't need it in order for me to decide um on um tonight's uh vote, but I I think it would be valuable.

Um could it provide um kind of a certain level of fidelity around say um two parallel streets may let's take the Milvian Shaddock case, um, where maybe if you know um what whatever determination was made around that um the dedicated bike lanes that are protected for fine there, maybe shot up would be used as the travel um avenue.

Um does the map provide um kind of a minimum set of uh uh uh routes for emergency responders the map the map um purely shows by width of line how many times a fire vehicle traveled to go three to an emergency along specific routes so it's it's that's what it's showing is the routes that our drivers are using most frequently and of course that's gonna change as the city changes um because our drivers are um very familiar with every block of the city and they're gonna start to if if something makes it more difficult to get through one location they're gonna start to find other routes and that can obviously impact how long it takes us to travel.

Yeah.

Had another question um you so um you mentioned uh your your best hypothesis in um around the Milvia determination that it was fine to have uh protected bike lanes on both sides of the street um it is there essentially a catch all statement of overriding determination that uh fire chief or the fire marshal can make um say like you know what what that the public interest essentially is such that um it is worth um putting in uh additional um devices to slow down traffic and protect uh pedestrians bicyclists and micromobilities following your your question uh your you said that your best guess was that someone made a determination that uh the treatments on Milvia were fine because of some kind of um overriding public determin or determination that um for for the betterment of the the public um that was sufficient to go below uh 26 feet um and I think my question is really how how commonplace is it to make such a um determination yeah well uh that was one of I think three things I listed as potential reasons and again that's that is not based on any conversations or anything I've read that's based on my analysis of of looking at it this afternoon.

And so I would say generally like that's a rare occurrence that we would um would make I think we generally try to adhere to the standards that we have put forward in the code um but we also you know are gonna evaluate every situation on a case by case basis and they're all so different with so many different variables that it's hard to give you a really specific concrete answer.

Yeah um right hence they are discretionary okay um I wanted to ask um let's say hypothetically we were to take an action tonight such that the clock resets and you know that means uh I guess at the earliest second reading would be January sometime after January 26th that well that something would actually be implemented.

What is the I would say the most the highest level of risk in your professional opinion between the code we are under and the code we're being asked to adopt.

Council member I I feel like that's a very hard question for him to answer given that he can't you know tell what the future could bring and I would hate for you to make a a guess and then for that to happen I I feel like um yeah let me let me try um there there's certain provisions uh in the code that uh going beyond um appendix D around you know transport of explosives and I um w what would be uh what what what are what is the order of magnitude around um kind of that gap I'm I'm not even talking about appendix D.

What is the thing if we don't adopt this code that would probably be um the greatest level of risk that um kind of your best I honestly I honestly can't give you an answer because it's such a complex question and you're you're talking about humans that are gonna see an opportunity and people are gonna exploit that opportunity, and I don't know what that would look like.

Yeah, we've never done that before.

I don't know.

That's fair.

Um I think my other two questions are for the city manager.

Um what would it look like to adopt a new uh second reading of a new code tonight and have a um commission-based process um to recommend further uh changes or to solicit input um and who uh which stakehold or how would you envision the stakeholder engagement process being done?

As that's my last question, two parts.

The stakeholder process being done for the referral that the mayor is talking about making, or if you uh adopted the code tonight and referred it to refer that part, yeah.

To the city manager for further input.

I mean, if you if you adopted the second reading as is tonight, then that would go into effect 30 days from today.

And then if the referral was to the city manager to come back with more information about some specific aspects of this, maybe I don't know if you're referring to council member Lunaparrand Humbert's specifics or something else, um that could happen as well.

Um and are you open to um engaging certain commissions that may have a nexus to this issue as part of the um uh looking at if if we were to adopt this and uh refer further um input to you?

My preference would be that it passes tonight as a second reading as staff recommend right um council member, you're you're over your time.

Do you have a uh it's no it's fine?

I'm just in in the memo that we received um there was a an openness to asking us to adopt this tonight and um solicit uh council member can you maybe state this as a comment later?

I will do my best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Um Council Member Taplin, did you have an additional question?

Yes, thank you very much.

And I really hate to have to ask this, but as you know, Medic1 has responded to my mother quite a bit over the years.

Can you do you have data um about the percentage of EMS transport that is related to stroke or cardiac arrest?

Can you speak to what happens in that window between first response and transport to a hospital?

And how might the closure of the hospital affect um EMS transport?

Yeah, I can generally speak to um morbidity for several types of emergency medical incidents that occur, cardiac arrest, stroke, um sepsis, anything where the body's being deprived of oxygen, specifically the brain, the chances of survival in the example of cardiac arrest go down seven to ten percent per minute.

Berkeley has one of the highest cardiac arrest survival rates in the country right now.

Uh that's walking out of the hospital with neurologically intact.

Um for strokes, it's obviously a progressive uh injury, so the longer that um it takes to get to from the patient to get the patient to the hospital, the more severe the injury is.

Um I don't have the data in front of me on on what that is.

There's a similar statistic for trauma, not just vehicle trauma, but any type of trauma.

Um the longer that people are bleeding out, bleeding internally, um, the lower the chances of survival are.

Um there's a variety of other medical conditions that have time kind of critical uh nature associated with them, any type of breathing incident, asthma, um anaphylaxis, allergic reactions.

Um so it's there's a variety, and um I can show you some data on emergency medical calls if that'd be kind of helpful or illustrative to see you to understand what I'm talking about.

I have a couple slides I can show you, or we can follow up with more specific data after the meeting.

Uh yes, thank you very much.

I think that data was sp uh was um illuminating enough.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Um, okay, I will open up for public comment now.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, um City Manager.

My name is Gerald Baptiste Jr.

I am a board member for the Berkeley uh Juneteenth Festival.

I'm here basically uh just first of all to thank you guys for for the wonderful job you've done so far.

My time is limited, so I'm not gonna have the original speech I had at first.

I'm just gonna use some of the things that were said already tonight.

And um Council Member Luna Perro, we support you 100% in what you said.

I think that this probably needs to be tabled for further consideration and conversation based upon uh the lack of input by us as a stakeholder.

Uh I like what you said earlier in the sense that Berkeley and the uh Aloney uh Indians here.

This is basically sacred ground, so holy, a holy um uh site here, and South Berkeley in particular is the same thing to us.

That is our holy ground.

That's our sanctuary.

That's where we have been having this festival for over 40 years.

And what we'd like to do more than anything else is actually partner with the fire department.

That went fast.

Thank you.

I know it does go fast.

Thank you.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Always great to have collaboration.

Carol?

Just addressing the accuracy of data.

So when I was hit by a car as a pedestrian crossing the street at Martin Luther King and University, um, I was taken away in an ambulance, but the police report wrote it down has a minor injury when it was clearly not an iron injury.

So I'm just saying some data may not be accurate.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Good evening.

Uh Lucky Thomas, uh Juneteenth Festival board member, uh former uh Berkeley firefighter, and um uh I'm really pleased to hear uh what the fire department had to say in regards to uh the code adoption.

Uh it really resonates with me.

I was uh fire marshal for 10 years, it was in the process and adopted fire code uh three times.

So um there is one section that I do have issue with, and and the mayor and council member knows, and also the fire marshal knows is it is the uh fire access road in the 26 feet, and once it's codified, uh the concern is whether it's weaponized and how it's enforced.

And uh, but uh in terms of the triennial, uh the code is adopted every three years.

Um I would not want for the sake of uh fire and life safety, I would not want to hold up this code adoption for that, but would like to look at how we can look at uh maybe a more restrictive code.

Uh he has an extra minute, Rose.

But supportive of the community.

Thank you.

Oh, you didn't need it.

Okay.

Do you want it?

Oh, yeah, I take it.

Okay, go ahead.

I'll take it.

I was just getting started.

Okay, so so anyway, um, so the the code adoption, it is a complex process, right?

And uh again, uh I I really believe that the the festivals are really caught in the middle in terms of uh fire response to just daily operations.

And as uh when I was fire marshal, the same thing we were stressing was uh, but it's what it's more now.

So uh there was the uh uh you had the uh bicycle lanes are here now you have calming devices and so those are all the things that really stressed the fire department and meeting is performance measures ensuring as providing the safety for the public we as as Berkeley Juneteenth we want to make certain that we are safe our our community is safe the city of Berkeley is safe and we would like to partner with the uh fire department and that's well I like to ask thank you.

Thank you very much appreciate it.

Good evening uh thank you city council uh madam mayor thank you Berkeley Fire Department um it's very saddened to hear about the loss of Captain Hall.

Um and I also want to say Medic One has responded to my mother several times too so thank you for all the work I'm here representing the Berkeley farmers markets as the farmers market program manager.

We've operated three times a week for almost 40 years and in the roughly five thousand markets that we've done we've never had a fire.

So I do hope um that the city will continue to engage with the farmers markets with special events around ways that we can work with this code and possibly create local amendments which recognize Berkeley's unique geography and history so we can continue to have the vibrant city and special events that we have always had.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening everybody thank you I'm Jacob Kahn I work with the North Shadow Association uh operations and events um I think the primary concern that we have one of the concerns we have is what is the economic impact going to be uh as it relates to special events if we enforce some of these things in this in this proposal here's what we think of the North Shadow Association if these codes are currently implemented as currently written public events will be negatively impacted and we're concerned about that the separation between tents and parked vehicles the rules about the separation between groups of tents and the 26 foot fire lane we request the council establish a public process to further improve on the amendments and engage in the collaborative process that has been mentioned already and thank you thank you.

Just just to clarify folks this is not a new new thing this is just approving what has already existed since 2008 so just to clarify go ahead.

Well it's being enforced differently now John Kahner downtown Berkeley association um the 26 foot rule is going to kill most of the events in the downtown except uh Shattock Oxford and um and MLK.

If you think about Alston where we've had Barrier Book Festival Earth Day Addison where we've had Freight Fest Center Street where we had eats beats and brews salsa sundays all of those events could not happen.

We have added 15 tall buildings in the in the last since I've been with the DBA many before that we have 17 more on the drawing board with this density we're gonna lose the ability to do special events.

I think we need some flexibility totally respect the work that the fire department does but when these events are just a day long maybe we have a little bit of flexibility and we revisit this we're gonna lose the heart and soul of the downtown if we aren't allowed to do events in our downtown.

Thank you very much, Benjamin Fry, Street Safety Advocate uh I just wanted to start out by saying uh thank you for uh council and staff and fire to for uh reenably uh getting the telegraph street fair uh back on uh when it ran followed the 26-foot rule.

Uh I support the mayor in uh and uh encourage council to adopt an ordinance to use the NACA design standards to or in order to help clarify a lot of these rules uh in when uh designing our streets to help clarify things and make sure that our projects are moving quickly.

We need uh to start saving the lives of the people who are being hit and killed on our streets, uh, which I've witnessed myself.

Uh the optional sections five or three in appendix D need not delay projects or event put any of our events in jeopardy.

Uh I would ask the council to support the revisions to those sections.

Uh, like many of our city neighbors have done uh to those rules themselves, and so we should be following suit and making sure that there's clarity there.

Uh thank you for your commitment to resolving these issues.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, council.

I'm Ben Gerhards Dyn with Walkbike Berkeley.

Uh for years we have been engaged in really constructive dialogue with uh the Berkeley Fire Department and thank them for their service.

And we share a commitment uh to public safety here in Berkeley.

Uh to that end, we have been advocating, as you know, for an opportunity to modify certain sections of the fire code and ensure that they support both the city's vision zero goals and our effective emergency response goals.

Um and we appreciate the attention all of you have given to this, it really does show.

Um we support the mayor's plan to develop a transportation design standards.

Um I think we can all benefit from having detailed street designs for various road types that optimize on our mobility or our safety, emergency response, and sustainability goals, while also clarifying and ensuring consistent application of fire codes.

Um, in addition, we would welcome a council referral to collaborate with commissions and city staff to recommend future changes to Section 503 in appendix D.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening.

I have a minute as well from back there.

Um good evening, Mayor and members of the city council.

I hadn't planned on speaking about this, but I really appreciated the nuance of the conversation.

Uh, and particularly um the mayor's emphasis on a process that will bring stakeholders together.

Um, as Councilmember Luna Parra said, this is not a zero-sum game between safety on the one side, fire safety and pedestrian safety.

Um, we can find compromises that really result in better safety for everyone.

Um it seems like it's not going to be feasible to have an amendment at this time, and so I'm really looking forward to that collaborative process to enable uh cultural events and traffic safety to continue.

Um I wanted to address one issue particularly about the retroactive application of the fire code.

I may be misunderstanding, but I think it's I think it's a mistake to analogize the retroactive application of the building code to buildings to structures and the retroactive application of the fire code to parking.

So, you know, when a building is built, it costs, it could cost many hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to bring it up to modern standard for the building code.

If parking is not up to the code standard, the cost is paint.

And I, you know, certainly we know parking in the hills is a very contentious issue.

Um God knows people are apparently willing to file recalls over their uh plant, so I don't know what they would do about parking being taken away.

But I do think that it is a different situation, and I think that it is worth revisiting.

Um, you know, we know that there are many of these streets, uh, particularly in the hills, but throughout our community, where um the parking arrangement makes them unsafe and um for fire and evacuation.

And I I think that's a different a different thing than requiring building code to be uh applied to new buildings or old buildings.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Um I just wanted to uh come up here to say that I think that it's been brought up several times this idea that like this is the um this is the like the existing law and the what and what's been on the books for several years.

But I'd like to point out that if this was the um what will like if if this that this is not the stand clearly people are coming up and saying that something has changed in the enforcement and if the the status quo that was liked was having this on the books and just not enforcing it, it.

It doesn't seem very logical to me to have um a law on the books that you don't want enforced.

I would also like to bring up the fact that you know the pedestrian deaths are way, way too common in Berkeley.

Literally a few weeks ago, I was walking and I saw a caution tape on the street and a phone bicycle, and Black and blatant.

I was like, oh, look, it's another week in Berkeley because it's not the first, like, this shouldn't be a common issue.

And so I really hope that the city council will take action to prioritize street safety.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I've uh Tom Alaguchi, District 2.

I just want to just express my gratitude and uh for the uh the council for listening to the community and really working for uh creative solutions.

I'm thankful to the fire department too.

Uh also expressed my control and so the loss of one of your team members.

Uh I have memories when I used to work at the uh at the uh the polls at the Ice Street at uh fire station the Whiteway.

How kind and how generous and supportive of the uh the crew was there.

So I really appreciate that.

I just want to also add that earlier uh Tom Bates, our uh former mayor was here, and Trom Bates had a vision of having Berkeley as a bicycle or world's class, world-class bicycling city, and I think that we're on that way there, and appreciate Tom Bates.

I appreciate the uh current council.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Comments online, okay.

So this is public comment on item 40, fire to code amendments uh going to speakers on Zoom, so please raise your hand if you'd like to to speak.

Currently have the uh 14 hands raised.

Uh first speaker is David Mendelson.

David Menelson, you should be able to unmute.

Thank you.

Okay, go ahead.

I want to make two quick points.

Um, when it comes to street design and safety improvements, the fire department should have input, but it should not have a veto.

Our council members are elected, they're charged with making decisions for the city as a whole.

The fire department is not elected, and its advice should be considered, but it is not charged with setting overall priorities for the city in the way our elected officials are.

It would be inappropriate to limit the council's decision-making ability by adopting the optional section 503 and appendix D.

Berkeley's streets, this is my second point, were laid out a hundred years ago and more.

Oakland, Emoryville, and San Francisco have all made modifications to the state code, and Berkeley should too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, next is Jesse Sheehan.

Yes, hello.

I would like to point out um that um these provisions have already been weaponized before they'd even been adopted.

Um, we have the city manager's office uh with last year's holiday festival and this year's holiday festival, as well as our grateful day festivals.

Um this code was weaponized already by the city manager's office, and I know it was before Miss uh Mr.

Uh Budding Hagen had come in.

And again, this was Peter Ridou who weaponized it.

So Chief Sprigg, you have to blame Peter Ridou for the distrust in these sorts of things.

Um yes, the city council should tell us what we do in our neighborhood with recommendations, and it shouldn't be dictated to us through city manager's office using the fire departments, whether or not it's a regulation has been clear, but city officials were lied to by the city manager's office, and this was weaponized, and it affected the Juneteenth festival, and it affects our entire community.

Thank you.

Your time is up.

Next is Cheryl Daville, a former council member.

Yeah, um Juneteenth should continue to stay where it is.

And um, you know, it's interesting how these things have been going on for such a long time, decades, and now all of a sudden things are gonna be changed.

That's interesting.

Um, and it's not all the way around.

It's like some rules apply in some parts of the city, some rules apply, different rules apply in other parts of the city.

Um, and yeah, I don't know if um the elected officials should be the ones to decide because they kind of are can be bought, sold, and delivered.

Um, they're not always elected, they're selected and they play their game to give to win.

So um, yeah, I think that y'all need to do better on lots of things, uh including your comment.

Next is Mari Cruz.

I'd like to give my minute to Jonathan.

Jonathan Miller.

Yes.

Strata.

Okay.

That's the next speaker.

Jonathan Miller Estrada.

Jonathan will have two minutes.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Before um, before I begin, I have additional minutes from Jeremiah as well on Zoom.

Hello, City Council members.

My name is Jonathan Miller, and I am on can we just hold on with uh Jeremiah?

Yes, trying to find we're gonna find Jeremiah first.

Make sure you have your minute.

No worries, no worries.

Yeah, Jonathan has my minute.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

So Jonathan has three minutes.

Hello, we go ahead.

Okay, yeah, you can you hear me?

Yes, yes, you have three minutes.

Perfect.

Give me a second, sorry.

I'm getting my notes.

Okay.

Um, hello, city council members.

My name is Jonathan Miller, and I'm a member of um a member of the Berkeley and Cooperative.

Yeah, very fire safety, but we are concerned about several provisions of the fire code that the council is considering adopting.

Section 503.2.1 and appendix D regulates roadway width and includes the 26 foot rule, which states that any street with building more than 30 feet high must have at least 26 feet of unobstruction uh undestructural food rule will create a de facto ban on the streets closure for events in entire neighborhoods.

We've already seen how this has impacted the BSC, our annual block party which takes part on the outside and brings together approximately 250 people for performances, vendors, vendors selling goods and speeches from social organizers, spreading awareness about the various ways in which we can be mobilized to care for our community was canceled last spring because we were told the 26-foot rule would make it impossible to host any street event on the south side.

This took away the opportunity for the community to explore affordable housing in Berkeley, where housing is at a height demand while dealing with low supply, creating an unaffordable housing environment for students and lowering economic activity to flow in the city of Berkeley.

Have also been impacted by this policy.

The 26-foot rule can all only be enforced selectively because it was designed for suburbs with wide streets, not for older cities like Berkeley with narrow streets.

This is why Oakland, Emoryville, and San Francisco have been elected to modify our exclude this rule altogether.

Our commitment to balancing safety and vital community design rules that work for Berkeley Streets as all as Austin said has.

And just just so you know, Juneteenth can stay where it is, and telegraph will be still the holiday market will still be on telegraph on telegraph.

Excuse me.

Okay, next is Kelly Hammergren.

Okay.

And our fire department told us we have 7,000 transports per year, and 750 hospital transports.

And we had six street fatalities and 54 injuries.

I spent years in intensive care.

And I know how precious the minutes are before someone gets the needed care.

And I think we really need to listen to our fire department.

And I would hope that that's where we go.

Instead of um putting other priorities ahead and creating uh hazardous situations for the public.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly.

Um, next is just identified as iPhone.

Um should be able to unmute.

Yes, go ahead.

Hi, yes.

I uh I am the organizer of the Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair, and I just wanted to say thank you, and I'm glad we were able to find some resolution to keep this historic event in its home and allow all of these small businesses that depend on it to continue to thrive.

And I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you.

Everybody go this weekend.

Uh and um next is Alfred Twuck.

Hi, thank you, everyone.

I want to echo the points made by the vast majority of previous speakers.

When this issue first came up, I looked into what our neighboring cities with historic downtown areas did.

Oakland requires 20 feet, San Jose requires 20 feet, Hayward requires 20 feet, San Francisco requires 14 feet.

So clearly our neighboring cities are able to make this work, and we should be able to as well.

I urge the council to support council member Bunaparas supplemental.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Nancy Rader.

Oh good evening.

Uh Nancy Rader speaking on behalf of the Berkeley Fire Safe Council tonight.

The council urges you to adopt the fire code update tonight as proposed.

The updated code will ensure that all traffic calling street infrastructure is reviewed for impacts on emergency response, including early response to wildfire conditions and thousands of emergent emergency medical calls annually.

As the mayor noted, and the chief explained, these standards have been in place since 2008, and the city has approved all kinds of new street infrastructure and street fairs while keeping everyone safe.

Every single person in Berkeley benefits from fast emergency response where every minute, if not every second counts.

The city's 2023 standards of coverage and community risk assessment found that complete emergency response already exceeds best practice here in Berkeley by over seven minutes, and that the department is struggling to meet current demand, much less demand with the future growth of the city and university.

To keep everyone in our city safe, proposed structure must be reviewed.

All right, Nancy, your time's up.

Thank you.

Next is Janice Ching.

Good evening.

Thank you.

I'd like to comment on something that hasn't really been discussed, and that is that with the increased height and density that we all see in Berkeley, that there is increased fire risk, and the middle housing ordinance allows 35 foot heights throughout the city.

So we might see even more and have more need for the extra height.

Sorry, the extra street width.

Another point brought up tonight was about Milvia Street, where um recent bike tracks were put in, which sounds like they reduced the width to under 26 feet.

There's a new six-story senior housing building on that street.

And I'm wondering how that is impacted.

And after you know what we see, you know, how fires can spread so excuse me so quickly, that does concern me that we are creating existing and non-conforming streets with with the bicycle track.

And like Kelly, I work in healthcare, and I've um I've seen the impact of all the um accidents and injuries.

So Janester, time's up.

Thank you.

Next is Beth Rossner.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

This is Beth Rossner from the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber supports strong fire and life safety stamp standards, but we are concerned that large community events such as the weekly farmers markets and the Juneteenth festival and others mentioned tonight could be significantly affected by the rules related to permits, fire access, temporary structures and equipment.

These events are essential to Berkeley's culture and small business economy, and even small operational changes can impact their feasibility.

So we ask that we please collaborate with event organizers before any code enforcement to ensure safety improvements do not unintentionally threaten long-standing community events.

Thank you.

Thank you, Beth.

Next is Charles Siegel.

Hello, so I want to point out that the 26-foot rule was designed for new cities with wider streets than Berkeley Streets.

It's not just the narrow streets in the hills.

Most of the streets in the flatlands typical street is two traffic lanes and two parking lanes, and that has only about 22 feet of clear road space.

And any street would build any street like that with buildings over 30 feet high, is out of conformity.

Most of the streets in downtown Berkeley do not conform to the 26-foot rule.

Most of the streets in Southside do not conform to the 26-foot rule.

And there's really no great benefit to worrying about a farmer's market that doesn't conform to the rule one day a week and ignoring all of these streets in downtown that don't conform 365 days a year.

So we really can do something that is actually working.

I'm sorry, your time's up.

Next is Sarah Bell.

Hi, thank you, Council.

I wanted to speak in support of the direction expressed in council members, uh Luna Paras and Humbert's supplemental.

Um I think there are trade-offs here.

And I think we uh I really appreciate the previous commenter who mentioned that you know the fire department should have input, but they should not have a veto.

Um we I think um I also agree with a previous commenter that um if these codes are too strict to enforce, let's not codify them.

Um I also um I think um it rings false to say that these codes are already in place because if they're not being enforced, then they're clearly not in reality, actually in place.

Um Oakland, SF Sacramento, they've all removed or greatly modified the 26 foot rule.

Clearly it's possible to do.

So again, agreeing with previous commenters, let's follow suit.

Um, and um I'd like to eh, I don't have time.

Thank you so much.

Um, let's proceed thoughtfully.

Thank you.

Thanks, Sarah.

Next is Theo.

Hi, Council.

Uh, my name is Theo Gordon.

Uh, I'm a member of the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, although I'm speaking for myself tonight.

Um, I just wanted to uh support the direction of uh the supplemental from Council Members Luna Parro and Humbert.

And I really just wanted to call out that this process that we're talking about today is is in stark contrast to the partner for the process that I witnessed for the Ember Ordinance.

Um, over the last year, the disaster fire safety commission has met multiple times.

There's been an entire other work group stood up and several council meetings and community outreach sessions, all to make some changes to landscaping requirements.

And I wanted to I think that we should be asking ourselves why are we not doing that same thing when it comes to street design in the flats.

Um we have vital community uh events uh that were almost destroyed because of the application of this rule.

And I think that we can go through the commission process uh and work with community stakeholders before we codify this.

Uh again, as others have said, uh, we can look at other cities, our peer cities.

Um, and yeah.

Thank you, Theo.

How many comments, please?

We have four more hands.

Okay, thank you.

Next is um David Shear.

Um, hi.

Um I just want to emphasize that this is not a neutral technical change that we're talking about here.

This is the fire department weighing in on major political issues about the distribution of public resources in the city.

Um, a few years ago, after substantial public controversy and public investment, we were told that the fire department was essentially vetoing the Hopkins Street bike project.

Um, that is what got me interested in in local politics.

Um, the enforcement of these rules is incredibly selective and systemically biased.

It is incredibly dangerous for the leaders of the city and for BFD to allow emergency services to become politicized in this way.

I am personally outraged and infuriated at the idea that I and my children can't move around the city safely because trucks need to be able to drive down every street going 50 miles an hour.

Thank you.

Uh next is David.

Do you mean Daryl?

Oh, yes.

Sorry, David's the next one.

Daryl.

Go ahead, David.

Uh good evening.

Thanks.

Uh good evening, council.

Um, I want to reiterate, I extremely support our fire department.

I don't care what the outcome is.

I've always supported fire funding measures.

I'll continue to do so.

We have a great fire department and we have low fire deaths in part because they're just really skilled firefighters.

All I want to understand is why the rule on street width is not applied to streets where the parking clearance is less than 20 feet throughout the high fire zone hills.

I have firefighter friends who tell me on numerous occasions that engines get stuck and cannot go through the parking and the hills.

And I just don't understand why parking is allowed there, but we're applying these rules to one time a year festivals.

I'm not saying that the rules can't change.

Maybe we do need to adopt, and that's fine.

I'm just trying to understand.

Can we get some consistency with these applications of the rules?

And that's why I think that Lunapara's supplemental will help deal with that problem.

Just consistency.

That's all I'm asking.

Thank you.

Uh next is David.

David, you should be able to talk.

Okay.

Hello.

Yes, I'm an artist, I'm a vendor, I'm a community organizer.

I appreciate the fire department, the city council.

And I understand that surrounding cities are not really pushing this 26-foot rule.

I don't understand why the city of Berkeley is pushing it so so so much in making this happen.

Because as a society, a city, as a community, we need cultural events in our streets.

And it was mentioned that the farmers market, Juneteenth, and the Telegraph Holiday Fair wouldn't be affected.

How can we get that in writing where it's documented and on the books for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years down the line, they're gonna still happen, so that organizers won't have to stress.

Oh, are we gonna be able to have our event?

So if it's not gonna be affected, we need to have it on the books that no matter what happens, no cultural event is gonna be affected by this 26 uh foot rule that if it goes into effect.

That's it.

Thank you.

Just to clarify the farmer's market wasn't included in what I said earlier.

Next is Lisa Bullwinkle.

Hi, good evening.

Uh my name is Lisa Bullwinkle.

I'm an art commissioner and I am an event producer, and I've produced almost 250 street fairs and festivals in Berkeley and Oakland without any problems, might add.

And I want to thank the fire department for always being there to help me and to help our neighborhood when we needed you.

But most of the time it's been totally safe.

As event producers, we want to be safe.

We don't want to create a problem or have fires in the community.

And we understand we have to play by the rules, but we need to have them applied equitably.

So I am in favor of council member Luna Perra's um amendment to this, and I would highly recommend some sort of community body that is um able to go over some of this until we can work this out in an equitable manner so that we maintain our incredible cultural events in the city and don't turn into a big staff.

Okay.

Um next is Sam Greenberg.

Hi everyone, Sam Greenberg here at Pro Walkback Berkeley.

Uh wanna uh echo all the many previous commenters, and and the way I you know, I see this is that we're we're making choices about public space in our city, but whether we want our city to be more of a city or more of a suburb, and there's no reason why we should be making choices um that are different from our our neighbors, um, more in the direction of our public space, um, our streets being like a suburb.

Um I don't think that's what any of us would agree on here, and that needs to be our North Star.

How do we make this work in a way that results in the urban space we want?

Um, but right now that's that's the way we're making decisions when the hills have you know differential, you know, this is applied in a differential way in the hills.

Um, and you know, I so I I echo previous commenters and and thank you for uh your thoughtful consideration of uh all the complexities here.

Thank you, Sam.

Uh that's it.

Okay.

So someone asked, how do we make sure this is clear?

And that is definitely what we were talking about earlier about transportation design standards as a way to kind of make sure it's clear.

Um, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna move the recommendation with the understanding that we'll be coming back in January with a referral for staff to develop transportation design standards.

Okay, okay, Madam Mayor, can I make a substitute motion?

And um, I I'm sorry, I want to share my screen.

It's not that long, but I I'm having today's December 2nd.

I think I've okay.

Let me let me try to log in.

It's gonna take me a moment though.

If you I don't know if you all want to wait or give me a moment.

Yeah.

Do we want to wait?

I don't know if you want to wait.

I I think we should just take, I think we should, I think we should take some comments.

Okay, go ahead.

Okay, Councilmember Chaplin, you're next.

Uh uh, thank you so much.

Um, I just wanna just for the record the 20 foot rule is state code that's not changing, that's not going anywhere, that's gonna apply.

I do have to say I understand it's difficult when uh the city has previously not enforced rules, but now we are.

I understand that is disruptive, but that's what happens when you have new leadership and they have priorities that include enforcing our laws.

So I do want to welcome all of our festival people to continue working with the city and our fire department and all the other departments to ensure that our festivals can happen in a compliant, successful manner.

Um, and you know, I I want to highlight some things I heard earlier on.

I fully believe that all of our city departments, all of our staff, all of our colleagues and council members and community members are interested in collaborating and finding solutions, and we understand that when we're making changes to the right-of-way, it involves a great number of stakeholders, both internal and external.

And it is entirely our job to weigh all the needs and concerns of those stakeholders and arrive at solutions that are mutually beneficial.

We may not always agree staff and council may not always agree.

Council members agree but it is very important that all of the people who the changes impact have a say in the outcomes of those changes.

And it is entirely appropriate for a city to include both the fire department and the public works department when it comes to changes in the right of way.

I want to just be very transparent about that.

You know obviously or you know not obviously perhaps but I am a cyclist I am a transit writer I'm a pedestrian I also have elders in my life and so emergency access bicycle pedestrian safety transit priority are all things I care about.

Parking is not one of my priorities but the things I mentioned previously are and I don't think we have I don't think there's any way around addressing all those needs and I do take issue with this um certain statements claiming that the fire department has vetoed or killed projects I I think that is entirely I understand the frustration regarding certain specific projects but I do not think that this city is a city that would allow its constituent members to harm our collective goals and I don't think I've seen that from this department I don't think I've seen that from any of our departments and I also want to acknowledge it yeah like no one from 2008 is here to my knowledge maybe I'm not sure if if Mr I'm not sure if he's for the city um you know but we're all but we're all here now and so we we inherit our codes our laws and if we want to change those or reevaluate those we should but we should do that in a formal productive manner that allows for real input both from our professional staff and the community this is a second reading okay this is a second reading the first reading of which is unanimous council vote.

So you know I would have and I know I know of course hindsight's 2020 but I you know as as you know we're all on we're all on various policy committees I would have appreciated that there were concern back in September so that we could have you know taken steps to address it ahead of time but here we are in December at a second reading and I won't be supporting any motion that derails code especially at this late stage if members of the council will do additional referrals to certain elements great I welcome that and as I understand the mayor's conducting that and I would support that and I will be supporting the mayor's motion and that's why I seconded it but I you know like in in full you know to speak candidly and frankly I think we should treat these choices these decisions with more of a proactive attitude so that we can initiate all these things that we claim to want about you know collaborative collaboration and and process and and you know we should do do these things on the front end instead of trying to, you know, shoehorn things in during a second reading.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, council member.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you very much, the mayor um thank you to our oh.

Sorry, I I I just had one last thing.

I'm so sorry.

And I love all my I love all my speakers tonight of uh I just have to say it's not just trucks going 50 miles per hour, it's people in ambulances who are holding on for their lives for those moments, you know, and that matters, just like just like you know, the people who deserve safe streets matter, all this matters, right?

And it's our job to ensure that every road user is safe.

But I to stop again, because in those vehicles, yeah, transparent, um public hearing after 10 p.m.

And the next two items agenda are both important, sure folks know.

Um we didn't this one has already been opened, so this one is fine, but the next two, I want to say that before we move on so folks know what's going on.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you, uh Madam Mayor, and I want to thank the fire department for your presentation tonight and uh express my deepest condolences on the loss of uh Stephen Hall, and um and especially uh my condolences to his family.

Um and I want to so move moving into this item.

Um being brought to this review of the fire code, I just want to acknowledge that and um so so I'd like to find a way to thread the needle, find a way for us to adopt this fire code tonight, but recognize that we um have these very specific sections um in uh section 503.2.1, 503.2.2, and 503.4.1, those sections mentioned by the council members in their supplemental and appendix D, including section D 105.2, that I think uh could benefit from some further public input.

So having said that, I want to ask um a question for the city manager about the mayor's proposal, and I do appreciate it, you know, having some kind of transportation standards.

Um, city manager, can you explain if if that were to come before the council in January and pass, you know, how long would that take?

It's really hard to say because it's not defined.

So depending on the scope of that, it could be fairly quick, like a few months, or it could be a you know, a year.

It really depends on what the the scope of that whole design is.

Okay, so and if I could answer also just because it would be my item that I would be bringing forward, just to say that I would work really closely with the city manager to make sure we have an understanding of that timeline and that it's you know that it it happens as quickly as possible, but also that we're making sure we we take care of um you know addressing all these concerns.

So okay, thank you.

I appreciate that.

So okay, so so that's helpful to understand.

Um I also want to just recognize uh, you know, I think we're all concerned about the fire department's ability to respond to emergencies, all emergencies, you know, whether it's a structure fire, whether it's a 9-1-1 call for a health emergency, or uh whether it's serious injuries on the street itself.

Um, so and I want to just state for the record, I want fire department, I I want you know, people with expertise to provide input into our safety infrastructure that we want to add to our streets as a result of the passage of measure F.

Um, you know, I I really believe it's important for our public works department and our fire department and other relevant departments to work collaboratively to promote the safety of everyone in our city, and you know, I think uh Chief, you've demonstrated your commitment to that.

I just want to recognize, you know, with the street trauma prevention program, trying to have somebody in our fire department who can uh work closely with public work so that we can do that collaborative work.

So okay, having said all of that, those are my comments.

I want to I'm gonna share so people can just see my the motion that I have.

That's not the motion.

Here is the motion.

Is that visible?

You want a bigger okay?

Oh, I see.

Okay, see it over there.

Is that big enough?

Okay, so this is my I guess this would be my substitute motion to adopt the fire code as proposed by the city manager tonight, but further to refer the sections that were of concern in the supplemental from Council members Humbert and Luna Pata to uh which are sections 503.2.1, 503.2.2, and 503.4.1 and appendix D, including section D 105.2, um D105.2 speaks of the 26 feet, by the way.

And uh those other three sections, um, my understanding here is that there are some words that are used like shoulders or public safety objectives that uh I think the community wants to have a better understanding of what those words mean.

So um, so so that's the idea of referring these specific sections to the city manager and the facilities, infrastructure, transportation, environmental, environment and sustainability policy committee to develop and recommend potential revisions or definitions or clarifications, whatever they come up with uh for council consideration by April 2026.

That's the motion.

Council member, is it is this really a friendly amendment to my motion?

Because really it's just the same thing, but you're adding this section.

Um I think it's a separate motion.

Also, do you want to just clarify it?

Just to clarify, what what is the difference that you see?

You are leaving out the transportation design standards piece.

Well, I do you are do are you referring these sections to fights?

If you are, then that's great.

Oh no, I can.

That's what I'm saying.

So, you know, you are I my question was are you making a friendly amendment to mine?

Which is that if you want to take that amendments, I'm happy to do as a friendly amendment.

Yeah, great.

Then I'll accept them as a friendly amendment.

May I ask a question?

Yes, why is it Python public safety?

Uh because I think the concerns are related to street infrastructure.

So my feeling, I mean, they could it could go to either one.

I I think it's complicated to send to both.

And I I think um, you know, the motion is to send it to fights.

Uh I mean policy-wise.

I mean, if this were general rules, I would send the public safety, but I'm wondering, Mr.

Clerk.

Um do the rules provide any guidance as to whether it makes more sense to send this to fights or public safety, or is that entirely council discussion?

That's a discretionary call, but it can only be referred to one committee.

It can only be referred to one.

Okay.

So, you know, our proposal is to send it to fights.

And are you okay with that as my seconder?

Um, yes, I just it's two of the authors of the supper on fights, so I don't know if it would change anything.

Sorry, can you say that again?

I guess I guess it's I guess it wouldn't, I guess because this would close out this from Brown Act, then it would start new.

Okay, yeah, then yes, I accept.

Okay, great.

So, yeah, then I think we'll hopefully be unanimous then.

Well, we'll see.

Um, okay, do folks have additional comments?

Um, and before, sorry, before we move forward, I do want to just say, so you with the woo we item, the number 40.

Will not be able to do 43 tonight, which is the amendments to Title 21 to allow separate sale of ADUs.

So I just want to make sure folks understand that.

So we will be able to close out with the WUI item, but not the other one right after.

So okay.

Madamair, I'm sorry, I don't want to get us off track, but why why can we do one but not the other?

Uh do you want to have I think it makes sense to have the city attorney address that?

Okay.

Since the two items are related, we felt comfortable moving forward with the two, but given that it's past 10 o'clock.

Okay, it's a bit risky to have that other item.

Okay, and it was it was just uh all right.

Okay, I'm yeah, I'm disappointed in that, but that's what it is.

Okay, so uh all right.

We have one motion.

This plus the um your statement, mayor, to do a referral in January related to uh transportation design standards.

We should, yeah, and we should close the public hearing first.

Just motion to close a public hearing.

Uh second.

Any opposition to closing the public hearing?

No.

Okay, the public hearing is closed.

Okay.

All right.

So comments on that.

Councilmember Trackham.

Did you have comments?

Yes.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Uh I want to thank our community for your active participation in shaping our streets and shared spaces.

And I also want to thank our fire department for their foresight and their tireless work to keep Berkeley safe and prepared for emergencies.

Over the last few weeks, I've heard of a wide range of perspectives on sections 503 to 1, 5032, 50341, and appendix D.

What comes through clearly is a shared desire to balance robust emergency preparedness with the everyday safety and activation of our streets for people walking, biking, brawling, and moving through Berkeley in many different ways.

I've heard from residents in the span of this these past two, three weeks, biking and micromobility advocates, uh, AGA accessibility um stakeholders and others who have emphasized uh the importance of keeping our transportation network connected, accessible, and safe.

Uh I've also worked from event organizers in their devoted attendees, and everyone has raised thoughtful questions about how these amendments may affect the planning of long-standing and new cultural events, and I appreciate the willingness across the board to collaborate and adjust so that our approach reflects Parkley's evolving needs, I really appreciated this discussion.

Uh I will be supporting uh this supplemental, uh, I believe it is a win-win.

Um I wanted to share um that the my reasoning uh for supporting um moving forward um with uh these new codes tonight.

I spent nearly 13 years, uh, this was my first career as a safety engineer at Livermore Labs.

Day in and day out, my life and the life of everyone at the lab depended on the professional input when it came to matters around fire and emergency response to the fire department and fire protection engineers.

So when I asked the question about uh acceptable level of risk, which I have done many times in my professional career, um and uh for very understandable reasons, the level of risk of not moving forward tonight could not be quantified.

The old safety engineer in me um came back and said uh I'm going to take the precautionary principle here.

I am not willing to accept additional risk on behalf of the city of Berkeley and everyone who lives here and everyone who relies on the expertise and the incredible work uh and the professionalism of our fire department and all of our forced responders.

I do appreciate that this supplemental and all of our discussions here and all the public comments has opened the door to fuller conversation about how these standards are being interpreted and applied across our city.

And this gives us time to continue to make uh informed uh recommendations.

We can look at what other cities like Oakland are doing.

Uh there is an opportunity to refine this.

So I really appreciate this discussion.

Uh, and I also want to um appreciate uh the mayor's uh desire even before we had this discussion to um bring back an item around transportation design standards, and I'm glad that we are able to um just do that tonight.

Um so thank you.

Um I also um just in my last 20 seconds.

Um I know that everyone uh is passionate and comments were made with sincerity.

Uh but I want to apologize to the fire chief and the fire department for whatever comments were made that fell short of recognizing the professionalism that you demonstrate every single day.

I'm honored to be on a council that has a fire department that uh is the growth standard in the state and the nation in its professionalism day in and day out.

Thank you for keeping us safe.

Okay, Councilmember Humbert.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Tregoub for making that last statement.

I I join in it uh fully.

Um I think everybody has been struggling with this a bit because fire codes are complicated in general, they're truly complicated.

I'm a lawyer and I'm used to dense, you know, regulatory texts and statutory texts and fire codes are like they're on a different planet.

And this is turned up to 11 because we have international codes, local codes, and a state code that in various ways reference an overlap with one another and perhaps even in some cases contain contradictions.

It's clear that we're also seeing heightened public interest in this issue because of our ongoing failure to achieve vision zero.

Two people were hit by drivers in my district and died this year, and that just deeply affects me.

And also because we've seen our street fairs and farmers markets having to contend with major disruptions because of portions of the fire code.

We received dozens and dozens of emails from safe street advocates, from the folks having um uh who are involved with the with the farmers' markets and the and the um and in the festivals, and dozens and dozens from folks who want us to pass this without any amendment or further consideration.

You know, I'll be honest and admit that I'm still not sure why we adopted optional provisions of the state code, which our neighboring cities did not adopt, then proceeded not to vigorously enforce them for what appears to have been years and years, only to suddenly start enforcing them this past year.

This has created a lot of confusion and frustration for those who organize our street fairs for the public and our street safety advocates.

But I think we're reaching a really good place.

I mean, I think we have to to pass um these code provisions on this second reading, and I think the motion um, you know, that's a combination of the mayor's motion and council member uh Cassarwani's motion, you know, with influence from um obviously the the supplemental that um council member uh Lunapara drafted.

Um I think we're in a good place, and um I'm gonna support that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Blackby.

Thanks, Madam Mayor, and thanks to the fire department team.

I'll be really, really brief.

I know we've had a lot of discussion.

Um I also agree that it's really important that we adopt the fire code tonight.

Um that is um especially it is a fire code that we've had in place.

Um we are not making changes to what has been on the books for a while, and I think it's important to acknowledge that.

That said, I do think it's really important that we continue this dialogue.

There are a lot of um very um passionate um people on on all sides of this discussion.

Um, and again, I think like so many times before, we're really being asked to balance um, you know, the interests of different stakeholders, as well as really in this case balancing um the different kind of components of public safety, because you're really saying um, you know, how much of what we do should be around preventative um traffic calming and you know preventing uh traffic violence from a preventative standpoint versus the emergency response needs of um how the fire department responds to fires, but also other kinds of emergencies, health emergencies, not just traffic emergencies, and those aren't necessarily competing interests, but we need to somehow harmonize them and sort of figure out what our approach as a community is to how we balance those interests and balance those priorities.

So it's a lot more than we could do, you know, tonight.

I think we will benefit from having a much more you know detailed conversation.

I support um the proposal to send it to committee where we can have that kind of a process and maybe come out of this on the other side with something where we all um feel better about what and at least there's agreement uh hopefully as a community in terms of how we balance those interests.

So um again, thank you for being here, and thank you for the mayor's motion and uh councilmember Kessarwani's amendment to it, which I will be supporting.

Thank you, Council Member Lunopara.

Thank you.

Um I I there's not much I want to add.

I I appreciate my colleagues' comments.

Um, I'm also very I'm I wanted to say that I'm very grateful to the fire chief to the city manager and um and their teams to find a way to keep the annual Juneteenth Festival and Telegraph Holiday Fair in their traditional locations.

This was a successful collaboration, and it proves that we can find solutions that honor both safety and community vitality.

Um, and so I really appreciate everyone's effort in that.

I also want to I guess uh broadly summarize my over what I've been really thinking about since we started um digging into this.

Um the staff put together a memo that that very clearly demonstrated that appendix D has rarely substantively impacted street design in the almost two decades it has been implemented, and this is helpful, but it also raises the a question that I've been really grappling with.

Um what is the ultimate goal of continuing to adopt a policy that we hope not to enforce?

That doesn't make any sense to me.

So I'm I'm looking forward to to thinking about that some more and figuring out how we can um work with and and figure out a um a solution to a lot of the concerns that we heard tonight.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Um did you move your supplemental?

Okay, I'm gonna be supporting the main motion.

Okay, just to make sure I understand because Councilmember Trekovit said he was supporting yours, so I just wanted to make sure everyone understood.

I would I to clarify I am supporting the amended motion.

Very good, okay on the floor.

All right, in that case, let's take the take the roll.

Okay.

On the motion um to adopt the code, the understanding that the mayor will introduce an item in January 2026 regarding development of traffic design standards and to refer the items mentioned by Councilmember Kessarwani, the city manager, and the facilities um policy committee.

Okay, on the motion, Councilmember Kessarwani.

Yes.

Taplin, yes, Bartlett is absent.

Traegum?

I.

O'Keefe?

Yes.

Blackaby, yes.

Lunapara, yes.

Humbert, yes, and Mayor Ishi.

Yes.

Okay, motion carries.

Okay, thank you all.

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you for being here.

Um, well, and now you have to stay because we're going to the next one.

Okay, so I'm gonna open the uh public hearing for 41, which is the adoption of an amendment to the California Wild Urban Interface Code.

It's the second reading.

Did you have anything that you were gonna present to us?

We do not have uh a presentation um substantially beyond the one that we had from uh the first reading.

We've got a couple of updates and comments to make uh just to bring you up to speed with where we're at.

Sounds good, thank you.

Uh so this would be the second thanks.

Uh this would be the second reading of the WooE code, which uh is an additional new code that is applied in addition to the fire code for areas of the city that have exposure to wildfire risk.

Um, those areas are predominantly determined by the maps that were previously adopted, establishing high, very high or excuse me, high and very high fire hazard severity zones in the Berkeley Hills.

Uh and the code is applied depending on where you live in those zones.

Uh the plot is the code essentially applies both the building standards for new construction, uh, generally called home hardening, uh, and then what are called fire protection measures under the wooy code, which would be vegetation management.

The wooy code essentially carries over the state um uh the state recommendations for building construction.

Uh, the one major change that was made as a local amendment to the wooy code would be the adoption of a what's called rigid zone zero, which is the lack of any combustibles within the first five feet of this of any structure, uh and that also includes vegetation.

The only thing that I wanted to highlight to the group tonight is that as a part of the initial adoption of these local amendments, uh you requested that a worry a wooy work group be established uh to review a couple of priorities.

Uh and I just want to briefly let you know with where we're at with those priorities.

Uh, the work group has essentially concluded the emerging science and code language review.

Uh the code language is what you see before you as a part of this measure.

Uh the group has not been able to complete the uh mandate to review the Board of Forestry ruling uh and align that or or review that with the city's policies because the Board of Forestry has not made uh their final ruling.

Uh we expect a emergency rulemaking at some point next year.

Um and the group is currently working on pivoting to focusing on the resident guide for the remainder of the year, including clarity around the AMMR process, where they're making some great progress.

Uh in the uh packet tonight, you have a supplemental, which is a cover letter from the work group.

Uh, in there, I just wanted to highlight that the work group is a part of their work uh also um suggested some other areas that were outside the purview of the group for council to consider.

Um some of those may be attainable, uh some of those may not be, but uh the group felt it was important to pass those on.

Uh and then one uh final piece from the group is that there was a recommendation from the group that because we were not able to complete uh that board of forestry mandate uh that the group or the council consider having the group revisit that at the time that that emergency rulemaking happens so that we can uh wrap that up.

I believe that's the only those are really the only substantive changes from the last time we talked, but I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions from my council colleagues?

Okay, is there public comment on this item?

Any public comment on the side button?

There's two hands, oh okay.

I've got a couple folks maybe heading this way for public comment.

Go ahead and come forward.

Said there were two hands online as well.

Oh, three.

Well, we're waiting for that uh comment.

One more thing that I promised I would add is that the group also suggested or uh made themselves available if council in the future did want to hear from the group during a work session, they did want you to know that they were available.

Great, thank you.

Come on up.

I'm Margaret Roos Collins.

I'm one of the members of the work group, and uh we just wanted to give you a little more of what Colin was saying, or less actually.

Uh but we're starting to work on fleshing out a creative idea that the fire department has about.

Um keeping some treasured plants in zone zero by creating equivalent ember protection in other ways.

And so one of the things I want to say is this fire department has a great attitude about how to gentle us into this and try to preserve what doesn't add to risk and find ways to make that happen.

And I think what you can do, what we're we were asking for is the kinds of changes that will make all this effort more effective.

So you know it was a hundred years ago that the city first tried to get rid of.

Thank you.

Yeah.

She's got a minute from someone in the audience.

Go ahead.

It was a hundred years ago that the city tried to get rid of shake roofs, but there's been a repair loophole.

You could close it.

It's hard for people to give up plants and still have shake roofs.

That's an example out there causing risk.

Another thing is please be sure your city doesn't allow new structures, whether they're tool sheds or ADUs or anything else within five feet of a property line up there so that zone zero falls entirely inside the property boundary.

But I think we're gonna get there, and I can't imagine a better group in this whole group to make it happen.

It's great to hear.

Thank you.

I'm Judy Dale, I'm a resident of um council district five.

Um I wanted to say about the the WooEy legislation you're considering tonight.

Please look at this as a first pass and not the last thing you're ever going to do on this because it's very important to keep considering what we need to do for fire protection.

Um I I feel like the council really jumped the gun and rushed to um decision on this, and that there has been inadequate public input, inadequate consideration of how effective this will be, inadequate consideration of the negative effects of all the vegetation removal, and inadequate inform um evaluation of alternatives, um uh the WUI work group has done good job of making the legislation clearer and more easily understood, but they haven't been able to finish their work, particularly on um making the legislation uh reflect unique local conditions of the city of Berkeley.

Um, you know, the the legislation is based on the state um state board of forestry regulations, and um they seem to have been devised basically for more rural or you know not not an urban situation that we have here, and um so it would be really good if we could adapt our regulations to the specific fire situation that we have in Berkeley.

Uh um there's a recently passed um assembly bill 1455, an urgent statute that um specific specifically allows local agencies to develop alternative practices that provide for substantially similar practical effects, which is you know that's what we're after.

Um and it looks like the state, thank you.

Thanks for your public.

I hope you let the work group do more.

Thank you finish.

I think you said there's two hands online, is that right?

Yes, the uh first speaker is Alfred Twu.

Thank you.

This is a great item.

Those clarifications are gonna be really helpful for a lot of my neighbors full of support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alfred.

And next is uh Richard Ilgin.

Good evening.

I'm also a member of the WUE working group, and then we've been working.

Sorry, I have a respiratory illness, so I'm having trouble talking.

But um we've been working for steeped in this for two months, and I need to say a couple of things about it.

One is I disagree with staff, we have not completed any review of science on this.

We're waiting for the state to act, and we need to get science is applied to zone zero.

So we have not completed any scientific review, we barely started it.

Secondly, there are folks in the community going around saying that the that the misdemeanors have been removed from this.

The misdemeanors have not been removed.

Misdemeanors are still part of this.

Um they took the the word misdemeanor out of the section on violations, but they specifically said it's subject to penalties prescribed by law, all those legal remedies, civil or criminal, so on.

So the misdemeanor has not been removed, much as you grant of many people in the community who who have wanted that to see that go, and it's still there.

Now I know the fire department probably takes the position, well, we're not don't intend to use them very much, or they're only as last resort, but you have to spell that out in the legislation.

You have to say that in legislation, they don't say that, it's not there.

So as far as the legislation is concerned, um the misdemeanors are still part of this, and also I know some people have been concerned about the appeals process.

It's still the same.

That's even worse because now they've clarified it that anything happening under WUI has to go through the appeal process, which are which gives people only very little time and goes to the city council for all the appeals under WooEy.

Is that what you really want?

Do you want to hear all those appeals?

And I also like to see us continue the work of the of the of the working group into the next year and to cover all the other issues we didn't get to.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all.

Uh council member Treka.

I think you, I just wanted to ask uh the chiefs um if you could comment on um what the previous commenter mentioned on misdemeanors.

Can you explain the extent to which it is or is not in the code and for what?

I can briefly tackle part of this and then I'll turn to uh other folks at the table.

Uh the original language back in June of last year had a clause in it that was the considered to be applied to the WUI language.

None of that language is included in the WUE code.

Um, that's the section that I'd be responsible for.

So there is there isn't language around misdemeanors in the WUE code that doesn't necessarily apply to other sections of the Berkeley municipal code as it pertains to violations of any uh um of any code section, and so that's outside the purview of the WUI code, we'd fall under the same jurisdiction.

I don't know if I'm missing anything.

Yeah, I think you covered it.

It's not in the WUI code, and that's what we were asked to do.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Blackaby.

Thanks, Madam Mayor.

Um, and thank you again to the BFD team for being here uh and for being so diligent and working with us uh and with the work group.

Um I also want to thank the work group.

Um I'll just say, you know, at the beginning, um uh, you know, folks were selected to serve on the work group not because there was unanimity of thought, but because uh Colin and the team and the chief wanted a diversity of opinions, and you've heard some of them tonight, and and I think that we are the better for this sort of going through this process and trying to kind of hammer it out.

Um so I just again I I want to thank them for convening the process uh and for improving.

I think you know, we we in in June sort of set the kind of planted the flag and said this is where we're heading.

Uh as one of the public commenters mentioned, um, you know, there will continue to be room for improvement.

But I think as a body and as a fire department, I think we felt it was important to say let's plant the flag and move in this direction.

Then we will improve, learn, get better, you know, um, and and educate ourselves, educate the public, um, and and as we go.

It was important to sort of plant the flag, this is the direction of heading.

Uh, and this work group has been an important part of really kind of crystallizing and addressing some of the big concerns.

Doesn't address all the concerns, there's still concerns, and I get it.

We'll work through that, but I'm for the work.

Um, I also just to share that this.

I literally got this direct mail piece of the first reading, and I was.

I sorry I didn't get home to see it before I came to the meeting, but I do just want folks to know, like, you know, in addition to everything that we've been talking about, you know, the department is communicating with folks that are in this very high zone and giving them information about you know what it means to do zone there.

And I just I want to compliment the team for again continuing to go the extra mile.

We're not done, we have a lot more to do, but in terms of like providing materials, you know, helping to sort of you know give people information, scheduling personal home consultation, even in advance of the inspection starting next year.

Again, this is this is just kind of part of part of this piece where we're talking about why we're doing zone zero, highlighting the kind of work that we're doing, people can download their own self-inspections checklist that they can start the process for themselves.

Uh, and then we're highlighting as well, you know, individual neighbors who are doing work and talking about their experiences with the process.

So this is a process.

This is going to continue, and we're going to continue to kind of as we move towards fuller participation.

This is this is a really important um part of the effort.

Um, on the work group um letter, um again, I it was really thoughtful.

And there were actually two reports back to council, one that came a few weeks ago and one that came more recently, um, that really I think very accurately described the work that had been done and some questions and issues that remain.

Um, and I want to thank them for that.

And so um, I know we'll still have more discussion, but I do want to incorporate some of those suggestions in what we're doing tonight.

Um, on that letter, they identified, and as Margaret mentioned, you know, questions about can we work with um the Zero Waste Department to develop more non-combustible trash and recycling bins?

Um, that's a great idea.

What's possible there?

Um, can we do more to sort of move away from wood shake roofs in a very high fire zone uh so that we don't have as many of them?

That is a fantastic idea.

Uh, there are questions about the size of the wire mesh holes that the vector control team uses when they're they're dealing with rodents, and can we shrink those down so that they're more consistent with what we need for for zone zero?

Again, it's a great idea.

Uh they even had the idea that you know neighbors remove privacy hedges that they may have had for many many years, and they're being asked through the privacy edges if they're within five feet of the house, but can we facilitate the permitting of metal privacy screens that maybe are a little non-conforming because they're a little higher than what might otherwise be allowed, replace uh the question and so on the motion on night um here.

The memory and progress, including their very detailed and thoughtful recommendations.

I do want to refer to the city manager, the items in the letter, those four things that I mentioned in particular, uh, so that the city manager and staff can work through those.

Some of them may be more implementable more quickly, some of them may take more time to flesh out, so I'm not we're not kind of saying that this is on a everything will be on an expedite, at least go through the referral process, ask staff to come back with specific proposals for the and then third, um, make the point that we're already looking, a lot longer than the work group comment on the identify the difference what the state says.

So, what my is after the Board of Force has finalized the regulations, convene this group that's already done work, reconvene the group after those regulations are promulgated to help back on those differences, and staff comes back to council with an update within 90 days of those new rules going into effect.

We have the benefit of this work group's um input into that process.

So that's my approved stack recommendation with those three additional second, and again, thank you, staff, thank you, department for the work group for your great work.

Thank you.

This process it's been a long.

Who has truly gone through trial by fire code?

Uh continue.

Council member.

Can I read my own hand?

And I want to thank you for your oman safety effort.

I absolutely fully invested in it.

Um you're a relative member, and you really took this major uh piece of work and and again, thank you as well to our city attorney and staff and to all the neighbors, commissioners, and others who participated in the other relation, um, strong argument for doing the right and say independent state action.

So I think we should continue move and that right pattern.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments from council members?

Okay, I just say I'm thoroughly in support of council's motion, and uh, citizen committee has really been a valid voice.

The development I really want the fire department for taking the time to engage in such really robust community dialogue.

Um being in the trenches with you all over the last year.

Um I I really appreciate just your patience and your thoughtfulness and and um just double of respect that you bring.

So um thank you all very much, and of course, to council member Blackabee.

Um I've got your back, so thank you.

Um all right, in that case, we'll do a motion to close the public hearing.

Yes, we need a motion to close the public hearing.

Thank you.

Okay, is there any opposition to closing the public hearing?

Hearing is closed, all right, and we have a motion as well, yes, as read by Councilmember Blackaby on the motion, Councilmember Kessarwani.

Yes, taplin, yes, Trega, I O'Keefe, yes, Blackaby, yes, Lunarra, yes, Humbert, yes, and Mayor Ishi.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

Item 2043.

Yes, yes, and yes, regarding item forty-three.

I'd like to make a motion to continue the ADU item.

And number 43 to the next meeting.

To the next meeting, January 20th, yes.

Okay, that I feel like that's gonna be really busy.

But okay, well, to the next to the January 20.

Second, no, but it's just it's busy.

Second by OK.

Sorry, what did you say?

Here was it.

Okay, a second from Councilmember O'Keefe.

Thank you.

Yes, okay.

Uh, motion to a motion on the motion to continue item forty-three to January 20.

Councilmember Kwani.

Yes, Applin.

Yes, Traga.

Uh, on a device of council, I am used.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh Councilmember O'Keefe.

Yes.

Blackie.

Yes.

Munapara.

Yes.

Humbert.

Wait, yeah.

And Mayor Ishi.

Um can I change my vote for cues?

Uh recuse.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

And and I will vote yes.

Yes, Mayor Ishi.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

One, two, that's we almost didn't pass it.

Okay.

Motion passes.

Whoo.

Okay.

All right.

All these people.

All of them who have to accuse themselves.

So wait, everyone's packing up.

We're not done on a second.

Okay, so we have public comment for items not listed on the agenda.

Is there any public comment for items not listed on the agenda?

Okay.

So before we end, I know I'm holding you all uh hostage a little bit longer.

Sorry?

There's one online.

Okay, go ahead.

Okay.

This is uh non-agenda public comments.

Uh caller ending in 000.

Well, this is Ida again.

I wish you're happy, very happy holidays.

Doing very good.

I wish I had you.

The fact is uh tens of thousands of consumer people in not only in Berkeley, the whole barrio.

Rely on us, and they get tripped off by other companies.

The only one that's really best by and people hate it.

So let's work together.

Let's get our business.

We're in business.

We'll never go out of business.

Um, let's get our business uh in a rent mall as it was supposed to have happened.

Yeah, places available there, and again, wish you have a holidays and great city.

I've been living here for over two years.

This makes make Berkeley great again.

Have a good night.

Okay, thank you so much for your public comment.

Any other public comments?

No, okay, all right.

Before we leave, I just want to say a few things.

Number one, happy holidays to all of you.

I hope you get to spend some restful time with your family, your friends, whoever.

Um, I also want to say a reminder to folks that um we have a lot of need in our community, especially right now when it comes to food security, and you are to food networkslash my office holiday party on Sunday.

So I just want to remind folks about that, um, and invite you if you you know aren't able to attend, you know, to still continue to support um our nonprofits that we have in our including the Berkeley Food Network.

And then um I I just want to say, like, that we are together now and I'm really grateful for all of the work that we've been able to do together.

I'm just incredibly proud of our council and just our ability to work on really challenging issues.

Um, I really want to thank our city manager and our city attorney and all of our staff.

Um I like I'm honestly very touched by the work we've been able to do.

I'm incredibly grateful for our grateful for all of you, so thank you very much, and thank you to the public for attending as well.

And um, with that, I will see if there's a motion to adjourn.

Before we do it, I want to thank the mayor for leadership and study.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks everyone.

All right.

Well, we've got a motion to adjourn.

If there is no opposition to the motion, then we are adjourned.

Thank you all.