OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Berkeley City Council Special Meeting on Referral Prioritization - January 28, 2026

City Council — Wednesday, January 28, 2026
BodyBerkeley, California
SessionCity Council
DateWednesday, January 28, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 43:00
Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Thank you.

0:01

I call to order the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council.

0:04

Today is Tuesday, January 27, 2026.

0:07

Clerk, can you please call the roll?

0:10

Okay.

0:11

Councilmember Kessarwani is currently absent.

0:13

Councilmember Taplin is currently absent.

0:16

Councilmember Bartlett is currently absent.

0:19

Councilmember Tregum.

0:22

O'Keefe.

0:24

Blackaby.

0:26

Here.

0:26

Humbert.

0:28

I am present.

0:29

Well, I guess Mayor's okay.

0:34

Here.

0:35

And Mayor Ishi.

0:38

And Councilmember Taplin is also present.

0:44

Okay.

0:48

I'm going to move over there.

0:53

Thank you.

0:54

We have one item on our special agenda today.

0:59

It's the 2026 City Council referral prioritization process using reweighted range voting RRV.

1:07

And I'm going to pass it off to staff to present this item.

1:13

Okay.

1:16

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

1:18

My name is Mark Newmanville.

1:19

I'm the city clerk for the city of Berkeley.

1:22

And I'm going to bring up a short presentation on the RRV prioritization process.

1:28

And bear with me just one moment.

1:52

Okay.

1:55

RRV City Council.

1:58

Referral prioritization process.

2:05

Doing two jobs at once, sorry.

2:13

Okay.

2:15

So today's presentation.

2:18

We'll have a brief review of what re-weighted range voting is and how the RRV process works.

2:27

We can then discuss a little bit about the items marked for removal.

2:32

And I'll summarize also what actions are up for the city council to take at today's meeting.

2:40

So, how does reweighted range voting work?

2:46

There's a list of referrals.

2:47

Each council member rates every referral on a scale of zero to five, zero being the least amount of support, and five being the most amount of support.

2:59

There's no limit to repeat scores or how many or how few referrals a council member assigns a score to.

3:08

After the meeting today, the scores are all tallied up for all the referrals, and the referral with the highest total score becomes the first priority.

3:22

Then for all of the remaining referrals on the list, the scores are reweighted based on a formula.

3:32

And that's affected by how much influence each council member has used up to that point.

3:41

And this guarantees sort of an equal influence over the long run and gives more voice to minority opinions.

3:50

That's the how the system was designed to work, and that's that's how it works.

3:56

So our current process from start to finish is the council adopts a referral on the city council agenda.

4:04

Then that referral is categorized by the city manager, either long term, short-term, or urgent.

4:13

The long-term referrals are added to the RRB list to be prioritized by the council.

4:20

The short-term referrals, work is started on those right away.

4:26

Annually, the city council assigns the scores to the long-term referrals on the RRV list, the process that we're doing right now.

4:35

And staff generally starts to address the referrals in the order of council priority.

4:41

Of course, some departments are overrepresented in the results, so the city manager and those departments have some discretion as to how many referrals they can take on all at once.

4:53

Completed referrals are reported back to the city council through an item on the agenda, or also often through an off agenda memo.

5:03

So the data that we have in the item itself.

5:10

Is the raw scores assigned to each referral by the mayor and all the council members?

5:19

Where no rating was assigned, the default score is zero.

5:24

And the list in the agenda packet is sorted by meeting date from the most recent date back to the oldest date.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Procedural█████████████████████████████████████████████86%
Equity in Transportation██████12%
Pending Litigation█2%
Summary of Proceedings

Berkeley City Council Special Meeting on Referral Prioritization - January 28, 2026

Note: The transcript for this meeting indicates the date as January 27, 2026, but the official meeting date provided for this summary is January 28, 2026.

The Berkeley City Council held a special meeting on January 28, 2026, to conduct the annual reweighted range voting (RRV) process for prioritizing long-term council referrals. The council reviewed a list of 53 active referrals, considered items marked for removal, and voted on amendments to add or restore certain referrals. A final prioritized list is expected to be presented at a special meeting on February 10, 2026.

Consent Calendar

  • No consent calendar items were presented.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Public comment was opened and closed with no speakers in person or online.

Discussion Items

  • RRV Process Overview: City Clerk Mark Newmanville presented the reweighted range voting process, explaining that each council member rates referrals on a scale of 0 to 5, with the highest-scored referral becoming the top priority. Scores are reweighted to ensure equal influence across members. The annual process helps staff prioritize long-term work items.
  • Removal List Discussion: Councilmember Humbert proposed adding 10 referrals that received low scores (total score less than 5, no single score above 3) but were not originally marked for removal. Councilmember Kesarwani moved to remove all eight items on the removal list except the West Berkeley residential preferential parking referral (04053), and to add the 10 low-scoring items to the removal list. The motion was seconded.
  • Amendments: During discussion, council members proposed adjustments:
    • Councilmember Blackaby requested keeping the 2028 affordable housing bond measure (4240) on the list because it was marked low only due to timing, not lack of support. This was accepted.
    • Councilmember Humbert suggested removing TOPA/COPA (04197) but withdrew after Councilmember Tregum objected.
    • Councilmember Tregum requested restoring two referrals: the no-right-on-red budget referral (4059) and the police accountability board legal memorandum referral (0422). Councilmember Humbert agreed, reluctantly approving the second. These two were restored from the removal list.
  • Tie Scores: The city clerk noted that current raw scores include ties, and he will consult the RRV program originator to resolve ties in the algorithm.
  • Budget Referrals: Councilmember Taplin asked about budget referrals on the list; staff clarified that policy referrals with budget components are included, while pure budget referrals are tracked separately.

Key Outcomes

  • Motion Carried Unanimously (9-0): The council voted to:
    • Remove all eight originally marked referrals except the West Berkeley RPP item (04053).
    • Add nine of the ten low-scoring referrals to the removal list (excluding the 2028 affordable housing bond measure, which remains).
    • Restore two referrals (no-right-on-red and police accountability board memo) to the active list.
    • Direct staff to run the RRV algorithm using the updated referral list and return the prioritized results at the special meeting on February 10, 2026.
  • Next Steps: The final prioritized list will be presented on February 10, 2026.

Meeting Transcript

Thank you. I call to order the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council. Today is Tuesday, January 27, 2026. Clerk, can you please call the roll? Okay. Councilmember Kessarwani is currently absent. Councilmember Taplin is currently absent. Councilmember Bartlett is currently absent. Councilmember Tregum. O'Keefe. Blackaby. Here. Humbert. I am present. Well, I guess Mayor's okay. Here. And Mayor Ishi. And Councilmember Taplin is also present. Okay. I'm going to move over there. Thank you. We have one item on our special agenda today. It's the 2026 City Council referral prioritization process using reweighted range voting RRV. And I'm going to pass it off to staff to present this item. Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor. My name is Mark Newmanville. I'm the city clerk for the city of Berkeley. And I'm going to bring up a short presentation on the RRV prioritization process. And bear with me just one moment. Okay. RRV City Council. Referral prioritization process. Doing two jobs at once, sorry. Okay. So today's presentation. We'll have a brief review of what re-weighted range voting is and how the RRV process works. We can then discuss a little bit about the items marked for removal. And I'll summarize also what actions are up for the city council to take at today's meeting. So, how does reweighted range voting work? There's a list of referrals. Each council member rates every referral on a scale of zero to five, zero being the least amount of support, and five being the most amount of support. There's no limit to repeat scores or how many or how few referrals a council member assigns a score to. After the meeting today, the scores are all tallied up for all the referrals, and the referral with the highest total score becomes the first priority. Then for all of the remaining referrals on the list, the scores are reweighted based on a formula. And that's affected by how much influence each council member has used up to that point. And this guarantees sort of an equal influence over the long run and gives more voice to minority opinions. That's the how the system was designed to work, and that's that's how it works. So our current process from start to finish is the council adopts a referral on the city council agenda. Then that referral is categorized by the city manager, either long term, short-term, or urgent.

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