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Segment 1

Okay, hello everyone, good evening.
I am going to call to order the Berkeley City Council meeting.
Today is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026, and it is 6.08 p.m.
Thank you very much for your patience, everyone.
Can we please start off with the roll? Certainly, and Mayor, before we get started with the roll, Council member O'Keefe will be participating remotely under the Just Cause provision of the Brown Act, so we're going to run through that script real quick.
Council member O'Keefe is intending to participate in the meeting remotely pursuant to the Brown Act under the Just Cause justification.
A quorum of the Council is participating in person at a single physical location that is identified on the agenda, open to the public, within the boundaries of the agency, and meets accessibility requirements.
This satisfies the requirements of the Brown Act.
Council member O'Keefe has notified us of her need to participate remotely.
Council member O'Keefe, if you would please provide a general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely, and you're reminded that you need not disclose any medical diagnosis, disability, or other confidential medical information.
Yeah, thanks.
I have a sick kid.
Thank you.
Council member O'Keefe, please disclose whether any other individuals 18 years of age or older are present in the room at your remote location, and the general nature of your relationship with such individuals.
Just a cat.
He's under 18.
Thank you.
And Council member O'Keefe, you're reminded that you must participate through both audio and visual technology.
Okay, I might turn off my camera briefly if I have to go check on my kid, but I'll be here.
Okay, thank you.
All right, and we can go ahead and proceed with the roll.
Council member Keserwani? Here.
Council member Taplin? Is absent.
Council member Bartlett? Is absent.
Council member Traigub? Present.
Thank you.
O'Keefe? Here.
Blackabee? Here.
Munapara? Here.
Humbert? Present.
And Mayor Ishii? Here.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Rose.
All right, so we have a quite lengthy report out from closed session, so please bear with me.
It's a lot of letters and numbers.
Item number one, the City Council met in closed session on August 20th, 2026, pursuant to government code section 54956.9, subsection d, and provided directions to outside council and approved a settlement by compromise and release as to a workers' compensation matter assigned to claim number BER2200002 and WCAB case number ADJ15513397.
Item number two, the City Council met in closed session on April 20th, 2026, pursuant to government code section 54956.9, subsection d, and provided direction to outside council and approved a settlement by compromise and release for the release of future medical care or in the alternative by stipulations with a request for award with open future medical care as to a workers' compensation matter assigned claim number BER2000151 and WCAB case number ADJ17521808.
Item number three, the City Council met in closed session on April 20th, 2026, pursuant to government code section 54956.9, subsection d, and provided directions to outside council and approved a settlement by stipulations and request for award with open future medical care as to a workers' compensation matter assigned claim number BER2400105.
Two more items left.
Item number five, the Mayor and City Council met in closed session and voted to authorize the City Attorney's Office to file appeals in the matter of Berkeley Homeless Union et al.
v.
City of Berkeley et al.
425-CV-01414-EMC and Prado et al.
v.
City of Berkeley case number 323-CV-04537-EMC in the Northern District of California.
Item number six, the Mayor and City Council met in closed session to discuss the matter of INRI DHCS audit of City of Berkeley REGEMT cost reports OAHA appeal numbers GE24-06021-963-TS, GE26-0622-731L-VT, DHCS matters matter numbers 24-026104 and 24-026106.
The Council voted to authorize the City Attorney's Office to engage in settlement negotiations with the agency and commence litigation if necessary.
Thank you all for your patience.
So we have no ceremonial items this evening so we'll move straight on to the City Manager comments.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
I don't have any comments tonight.
Thank you.
Is there any public comment on non-addenda matters? Oh did you submit a? Okay good.
Great.
Thank you.
All right thank you Mayor.
We do have a couple of cards here for individuals in the room so we'll take those first.
Okay and our in-room speakers in no particular order are Rachel Berry and Rolf Bell.
So please go ahead and come on up to the podium and each speaker will have one minute to speak.
Hi good evening Council Members.
My name is Rachel Berry.
I work with Root & Bloom Institute, a non-profit renovating a vacant building on 6 and Bancroft Way in Berkeley.
We're excited to open later this year for a holistic mental health therapy and vocational training.
I'm here tonight because after we began renovating this building a new traffic light was installed on our corner and with it came red curbing curbing 150 feet in all directions taking away nearly 50 parking spaces including ADA parking from our corner.
When we spoke to our neighbors no one seemed to know this traffic light would include the inclusion of four left turn lanes which is significant because those are what eliminated most of our parking spaces.
While many of us appreciate the traffic light, bike lanes, and crosswalk, most of the left turn lanes of this intersection are unnecessary at Bancroft Way which to the east is a designated traffic suppression street and to the west dead ends after four blocks.
In January of last year several of us in the neighborhood began reaching out to city officials and staff to share the impact and request some dialogue.
After 16 months of emails with mayor's office, city council members, and city staff we have gained no traction on this issue and we ask for your support in finding a real solution.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have online speakers as well.
You are correct yes but we do have more than five.
We do.
Thank you very much.
Just checking.
Do I need to press the button or you press the button? Yeah we can hear you.
I'm Rolf Bell a 26 year resident of Berkeley and a business owner.
In the last two months of 2024 at the corner of Bancroft Way and 6th street all four corners were torn up and a total of 16 signal lights were installed and the entire intersection reconfigured.
There are 30 small businesses and 16 residences directly impacted.
None received a notice.
The traffic light makes pedestrian safe pedestrian crossings safer but three of the four left turn lanes make cycling more dangerous and robbed 30 businesses and 16 residences of essential parking.
We find it bizarre that our council member Taplin and our mayor can't seem to find the time to meet with us and find a resolution that is better for cyclists, better for residents, and better for business.
Now we ask you to make time for us along with the traffic engineer.
Thank you.
I'm sorry your time is up.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll now go to the online speakers.
Catherine you should be able to speak.
Okay can you hear me? Yes we can.
Okay great.
Yeah my name is Lily Howell.
I am the parent of three Berkeley community members and I have a daughter who is 18 years old who had the blissful experience of going through the Parks and Recreation's therapeutic recreation program.
She has autism and intellectual disability and was enabled to access community programs through the Parks and Recreation's department for enrichment and joy just like any other kid and like her siblings through therapeutic recreation.
I saw on the mayor's budget not a reduction but an elimination of this vital program for students with disabilities and in the birthplace of the disability rights movement.
I'm pretty appalled at the city of Berkeley to eliminate accessibility, inclusion, and recreation for our children with disabilities in our community.
Frankly shame on you.
It's very upsetting.
I cannot fathom that in a place that cares about disability inclusion and DEI.
Catherine thank you for your public comment.
Our next speaker is the caller whoops I'm sorry our next speaker is Della.
Yes thank you.
I'm calling or telling you all about some thoughts I had.
I was reflecting on how many fires there were recently in Berkeley and I'm noticing that maybe it's with the new non-reporting clauses with the emergency but we're not as constituents getting a report back on like getting a report back on like what the cause of the fires were and it just makes me think that we all could be sitting on you know a hazard that we're not aware of maybe it was like an e-bike charging battery or a lithium battery or countless potentialities I could think of that it could possibly be but it would be nice to hear about what is causing the fires in Berkeley so that other constituents can be careful and more mindful and make sure we don't have the exact same hazard in our units.
That's it thank you.
Thank you Della.
All right thank you the next speaker is the caller ending in 211.
Caller you should be able to speak.
Hi good evening so our manager business manager Roy handed you some paper documents please read them and let's take some consideration our business did over 200 million dollars for business since 1973 help us everybody need help I want you to walk down telegraph from Mancroft down to Ashby about half of the retail spaces are vacant it is a shame shame on the city why are these spaces vacant when they can be thriving businesses to help students to help business to help everybody need a call I need a call for a new mayor as soon as possible need to get together and let's make Berkeley great again right now Berkeley is bankrupt have a good night I will call you again thank you thank you all right our next speaker is Craig Craig you should be able to speak yes hi my name is Craig Nagasawa I own a building at 1201 6th street which is Harrison and 6th and I'm sure you're all aware of what's going on down there I've been there for 25 years and the last five years have been completely living hell I'm on the front lines of all of the unhoused stuff that is going on last week or 10 days ago there was a fire blistered the it was hot enough it blistered the paint on the side of my building the next day the city came made sure that the person who started the fire was okay and cleaned up and then allowed him to move back in there's no parameters whatsoever for people coming or going anybody who wants to can set up another tent another house another whatever they want there's trash and garbage there's disease I mean you know all of the adjectives there's all of this stuff going on dangerous dangerous safety issues I have been thank you thank you Craig your time is up but thank you for your comment all right thank you mayor that was our last speaker for non-agenda public comment and I'd just like to take a moment and acknowledge that council member Bartlett has joined the meeting remotely and council member Bartlett if you are available we can go through the just cause script I'm here I'm still working on getting set up my my computer is acting up but I'm here super all right wonderful we'll go through this script which will allow you to participate in the remainder of the meeting council member Bartlett is intending it was intended in the meeting remotely pursuant to the brown act under the just cause justification a quorum of the council is participating in person at a single physical location that is identified on the agenda open to the public within the boundaries of the agency and meets accessibility requirements this satisfies the requirements of the brown act council member Bartlett has notified us of his need to participate remotely council member Bartlett at this time would you please provide a general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely at this meeting and you are reminded that you need not disclose any medical diagnosis disability or other confidential medical information I'm recovering from a medical condition thank you council member please at this time disclose before we take any action whether there are any other individuals 18 years of age or older present in the room with you at your location and if so the general nature of your relationship with them no however my spouse may come in and out at will all right thank you all right council member Bartlett you are reminded to please participate through both audio and visual technology thank you be there soon thank you I just wanted to make sure there was a public comment that was made earlier although I think that person has gotten off but there was a program that they had mentioned in particular and I just want to make sure that that person knows I don't think they're listening anymore but that we propose to keep it with the sales and use tax passing so so they should just know that okay oops so many things all right here we go I think that that was it then for our public comment on non-agenda matters thank you all very much and we will now move on to the consent calendar so I would like to see if my council member colleagues have any comments oh uh councilmember traco I thank you so much madam mayor um I would like to thank my colleagues for um supporting or I would like to thank my colleagues on the agenda uh and votes committee for moving items 14 15 and 16 to the consent calendar um item 14 uh is uh a support position on sb 1301 uh by senator allen reforming the insurance non-renewal process um which is uh obviously something that is um uh a situation that is um that is increasing um not just among homeowners in uh around in and around zone zero but also now uh in the berkeley flats including my district so the apart from a number of constituents um and this bill is an effort to reform the insurance non-renewal process I would like to thank council members blackaby humbert and o'keefe for their co-sponsorship uh item 15 is a support position on sb 12 57 by senator arreguin which would be a report um around federal immigration uh enforcement uh another way to keep the federal government accountable um and I would like to thank uh the mayor councilmember lunapara and I would also like to add councilmember kesarwani as uh co-sponsors to as a co-sponsor to that item uh and lastly item 16 um which is a support position on three uh environmental bills uh sb 222 the heat pump access act by senator weiner sb 868 also by senator weiner which is the plug and play also known as the balcony solar act and ab2389 by assembly member or when uh which will uh extend a tax credit for uh rooftop solar which will otherwise expire at the end of this year and I would like to add councilmember lunapara for for co-sponsorship um also I would like to thank councilmember blackaby for um uh adding me as a co-sponsor to item 17 setting measurable goals and metrics for key city priorities thank you very much thank you very much and then um something else I want to make a comment on before we um before we move forward with comments from my colleagues is that I'd like to move item 11 from the peace and justice commission on the flock safety on flock safety to may 7th when we hear this item the surveillance and flock contract item and also move item 12 from the peace and justice commission on the proposed use of controlled weapons and other policing tools to the meeting when these items will return from the public safety committee and mayor may I recommend that item 12 be referred to the agenda rules committee for scheduling at that time thank you yes that would be good rose do we need to take the action can be part of the action the council takes on the calendar okay thank you very much okay councilmember blackaby thanks madam mayor um just a few comments on the consent calendar um in an order first I just wanted to thank uh councilmember bartlett on item two for his nomination to the police accountability board um as we're working to kind of re uh reset and restock the board uh with a full complement of board members my nominees coming at our next meeting and I know a number of us have others coming and so again just following up on on that and making sure that folks know we are trying to get the board fully staffed and back uh fully functional as quickly as possible so just want to thank councilmember bartlett for his nomination and look forward to mine next week um item four I wanted to really appreciate our health housing and community services team uh for their work with the east bay asian local development corporation to help secure nine million dollars in state funds to support the affordable housing project at the north berkeley bart station which I know is near and dear to many of our hearts in particular councilmember castor wani so thanks to city staff uh for again securing that important financing um item 14 um thanks to councilmember um traigub for adding these a co-sponsor um this is senator ben allen's bill to reform the insurance non-renewal process as councilmember traigub mentioned this is a bigger and bigger issue for many families here in berkeley we're seeing it in my district all the time um the number of people who are losing insurance and then do not know why they've lost insurance do not know how to sort of remedy the situation they're given sort of very vague um communications and have no sort of recourse and so I just want to appreciate the bill and also councilmember traigub's work on this we also have a um a full kind of docket of other wildfire safety legislation that's being considered by the legislature uh we're bringing a resolution on that at our next meeting um that I hope my um my uh colleagues will will support um there's a lot of good stuff happening in the legislature and it's important for us to lend our voice um to those things that are addressing real problems that we're facing here in berkeley and then on item 17 you know we've seen um we've kind of been seeing different pieces of this the city auditor came out with a report and some suggestions this is the setting measurable goals and metrics for key city priorities the city manager and his team have been very helpful and supportive the health life enrichment equity and community policy committee have reviewed it I'm excited that again with adoption on the consent calendar tonight we'll be able to move this forward to help bring even greater transparency and accountability around key performance goals I think that again no no no no news to anyone that we're facing some real budget challenges here in in berkeley so I think it's even more important to be able to communicate to the public what we are delivering with a reduced level of financial resource what they can expect from us in terms of what the city is delivering and I think this is one measure that again is about setting those goals and holding ourselves accountable for for meeting those those marks so I just want to appreciate uh the support on that and that's it thank you thank you council member humbert thank you madam mayor um my first comment um is on item 13 which is an item from the peace and justice commission to reaffirm city of berkeley commitment to international peace opposing war on iran and standing in solidarity with the people of iran and I want to say that council's already adopted an item on this topic that I believe is substantially similar very similar to this one I don't think it's sensible for us to adopt a second item especially without knowing whether and how it may conflict with the earlier item I don't know if it does or not and I don't believe it is worth the time of council or staff especially in the context of a major budget crisis to try to reconcile largely duplicative items I'd suggest if the commission feels strongly that their item touches on subjects that are essential in which we missed as council then I would encourage them to send a new item that specific specifically calls out those areas of difference and explains why they necessitate further council action um number 15 the federal immigration enforcement report I was going to ask to be added but now I think it's full but thank you very much for the council members who are the author um council member tragoob and the co-sponsors um item 17 is a wonderful item thank you council member blackaby that's setting measurable goals and metrics for key city priorities and I'm privileged to be added as a co-sponsor on that and then there was one more that I wanted to address and um maybe that was it um oh it was the insurance the insurance uh non-renewal process and thanks I want to thank council member tragoob for authoring that and for adding me as a co-sponsor it's a really critically important issue um thank you thank you um any other council members have comments I will just add um a thank you also to council member Bartlett um for putting forward his PAB nominee and I know that council member Blackabese is coming up I believe in the next meeting um just so folks know we are moving those appointments forward um so we will hopefully have a full PAB very soon um thank you very much okay can I please take public comments on and information items only come on up I um I don't know if I get two minutes because there's oh good and I have uh Ralph Bell is giving me his time as well if I need it uh George Lippman I'm representing the Peace and Justice Commission tonight um and uh at the request of the chair Pastor Dwayne Phillips who couldn't be here tonight so he's asked me to represent um first I want to say with regard to item um 13 I appreciate the uh comment and and agree we uh we kept with the council member we um did pass this before the council acted and we also appreciate the similarities and also to appreciate uh the council members comments at that time in very full-throated support of the item so appreciate that and the whole council um I want to speak about item and and I and I support the mayor's move on 11 and 12 to defer those that's not a not an issue um I want to um read a little bit even though we're moving this item 11 um to another date uh I want to take the opportunity to read a little bit of what we asked for um this is the Peace and Justice Commission recommends applying a social justice lens to to policy policing decisions that could have a significant impact on the lives of Berkeley's residents and visitors including disparate impact on marginalized low-income disabled elder and community members of color the proposal is the recommendation is cancel flock safety contracts for public surveillance images and video footage and do not sign any new contacts contracts with flock for stationary cameras or for drones such as first responder by drone due to flocks repeated sharing of such data with immigration authorities and the inherent risk of exposure of cloud-based storage to trump administration access and I'll just make from my perspective a few key points what we've learned over time it can't first of all it can't be said too many times no matter what safeguards you have built into your contract with flock a judicial warrant obtained by homeland security will override your contract and ice will get our photos and videos of our vulnerable community members and if you're hit with a secret FISA warrant you won't even know your data was taken because it would be a felony for flock to tell you this has to be taken seriously you check with your with your attorney if you want but all this work that you're going through to find exceptions isn't going to help you when they come with a subpoena secondly flocks biggest shareholder is Andreessen Horowitz that is owned by billionaire ice supporter Mark Andreessen who is a leading supporter of trump he flipped from being a liberal to being a MAGA and he considers and this is the quote to remember DEI and immigration to be quote two forms of discrimination that's from fortune magazine not a left-wing paper thirdly flock is engaged in politically corrupt business practices is reported that the company has hired had hired the mayor of Moreno Valley California 300,000 population to work as a community engagement manager to get local policies passed and contracts signed to benefit flock this is corruption and this is what they're doing this is what they want to do with every community in the state this is the company that we're in bed with your constituents are warning you of the risk you're taking on we love Berkeley and we are trying to protect it from.

Segment 2

Moral, Public Health, Financial and Legal Exposure.
Please be careful with your vote.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening.
I'm Todd Yamaguchi, District 2, and I use the pronouns he and him.
I'm just here to thank Councilmembers Tregub and Lunaparra for the item 16, the support of the two bills by Scott Wehner on heat pumps and balcony solar, as well as the Irwin's Keeping Solar Affordable Act.
I really appreciate all the support from the City on Clean Energy this weekend.
Thank you also for your support for the upcoming home electrification fair at the Broward Center from Citizens Climate Lobby.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there, but I hope you all are able to come out and keep moving progressively on the climate while Washington continues to go backwards.
But we're moving forward.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I guess I've missed you.
I had to come back, and I do have an extra minute.
I'm speaking to number two.
I really encourage the support that we're getting for the Police Accountability Commission.
I am so impressed with their diligence, their brilliance, and their wanting to serve this community.
I'm really concerned on number four about the low income and actual, quote, affordability of so many of these projects.
The ratio is like a few to 100 in most of these enterprises that I've been listening to, so I'm concerned about that, just as a general principle.
And then in terms of number 10, STAIRS, I've had personal interaction with them such that I have nothing good to say, given that they broadcast themselves as being ADA compliant and definitely were not, and yet had been paid – I'm trying not to yell, I'm sorry – had been paid a bazillion dollars to do it with over 90 code violations.
So they've also, again, been given more money to create this amended situation with structures that were left out in the rain, all which are fault.
Anyway, and now they're asking for more money.
I just want to alert you, I have intimate first-hand and second-hand knowledge, and I am not pleased, especially when I know of programs that actually do what they say and come through and serve the community, such that we aren't wasting money, getting pillaged and plundered.
And back to then the – I'm going to jump to number 17, because this measuring thing so that there can actually be transparent accountability is brilliant.
But again, the numbers in the wrong hands can be misused, as we're seeing all over this country.
All right.
And then in terms of the Peace and Justice Commission, I go there, much to their chagrin and mine, over and over again, because peace is not just a noun, it's a verb.
It's a verb.
And justice? It's not about fighting who's right.
It's about could there be some measure of equanimity, equality, care and concern for everyone in humanity? It's like, oh, my God, so the flock thing, safety, not really weapons? No, thank you.
And what about committing to, like the old hippie that I am, make love not war? Again, it's a darn good idea.
I'm really trying to encourage you to remember that we could be living in peace and harmony where everyone could be okay.
So, all right.
I just thank you.
I'm so glad you're still willing to show up.
Hang up Willie, I am too.
So, take care of you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Maria.
All right.
We do have some raised hands on Zoom.
The first speaker, and this is comments on the consent calendar.
Our first speaker is the number ending in 211.
Speaker, you should be able to speak.
Okay, so now I'd like to speak on consent item two and consent item 13.
Two, memory of our great Berkeley police chief, Dash Butler, who made Berkeley very safe, a great man.
Also, my family, one who had over a million dollar embezzlement in our San Francisco store, 22 Berkeley policemen, I paid them $6,000 a month to save my family, my son and everybody.
As far as the 13, Donald Trump actually was going to the National Pomp and Circumstance on Iran, but the man who held the nuclear football refused to walk out of the room.
This man is extremely dangerous.
He is extremely dangerous.
Every day when he's in power, all of our life, everyone's life is in danger.
Again, our business paid over a million dollars in taxes at the city of Berkeley in license fees and sales tax.
We need help.
Berkeley people need help.
Everybody wants to have a TV location in Berkeley where we can do a lot of business, help everybody, and where I can, the whole city of Berkeley.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, it's number 35 included on the peace and justice commission included on the consent calendar now.
Yes, the items that's what I wanted to speak in support of the.
Peace and justice commission recommendations with regard to the flock safety contracts and strongly urge that.
No action be taken to engage in contracts at this time.
I don't think we know enough to do so in a safe and prudent manner that would safeguard all of the interests of all of the people of Berkeley.
Thank you.
I really appreciate the stand that's been taken by the mayor.
Council members, and our vice chair, and I hope that the rest of you will consider.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm allowing public comment for items 11 and 12 for the peace and justice commission, but we've also part of the action that will take on the consent calendar is to move those items to the meetings in which we'll discuss those issues.
So, just to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is the caller with the number ending 405.
You should be able to speak.
Thank you.
I'm sorry to be off topic here, but I'm severely anti-flock.
I just had to put my two bits in.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Lisa.
Lisa, you should be able to speak.
Thank you.
I just wanted to say that I agree with the recommendations of the police and justice commission's recommendations via the contract.
I believe that they are correct and that council should really take them to heart.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Lisa.
Thank you, everyone, for everything.
In particular, my addition to the PAB, Benjamin Nash.
He's an excellent young man.
He's going to serve the body really well.
I hope you approve him.
He's going to, you know, really deliver a whole new vantage point, and he's really a conscious young man.
He's been active in the community and happened to teach his class as a coincidence at the grad school at Bacal, and it was quite a wonderful day.
And I'm really impressed with him.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member.
Yeah, Council Member Humbert.
Public comment is over.
Is that right? Okay.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Yeah, I wanted to, in connection with the motion on accepting the consent calendar, because Item 13, following up on my prior comments, because Item 13, as salutary as it may be, is duplicative of what we've already done.
I'd like to keep that on the consent calendar for the purpose of taking no action.
Just to clarify, Rose, does that need, like, that would happen unless there are objections, or could you, I'm sorry, please refresh my memory.
Yeah, if that is the Council's intention to take no action on that item and that is accepted by the body as the motion related to that item, then that can proceed.
As long as there's no objection, is that right? Correct.
Okay.
So just wanted to make sure that there's no objection to that.
Okay.
Okay.
Very good.
Thank you.
All right.
I move adoption of the consent calendar as amended.
Second.
Okay.
Can we take the roll on that, please? Certainly.
On the consent calendar, Council Member Casarwani? Yes.
Taplin? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Tragob? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabay? Yes.
Munapara? Yes.
Humbert? Aye.
In solidarity with Council Member Tragub, I'll say aye.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you all very much.
Okay.
So we have completed our consent calendar.
Moving on to our action calendar, to item number 18, which is to conduct a public hearing in compliance with Assembly Bill 2561, Government Code Section 3502.3, regarding vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts.
And we have a presentation, so I will pass it over to staff.
Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council.
I'm Monica Walker, and tonight, on behalf of the Human Resources Department, I will be presenting on the vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts under AB 2561 and Government Code 3502.3.
Effective January 1, 2025, AB 2561 and Government Code 3502.3 now requires public agencies to present on the status of vacancies, recruitment, and retention at a public hearing once a year prior to the budget being adopted before the governing body.
Just to note, the measurement period for the data that we will be presenting tonight is from calendar year 2025, so it spans January 1st through December 31st of that year.
The vacancy rate citywide during that timeframe averaged about 15% at the end of each month, with the highest vacancy rate being 16.1% and 14.7%.
And although the staff report refers to the frozen positions that were held vacant, those were added in as part of the number.
When we look across the bargaining units, most of the bargaining units were under 20%.
Two of them were over 20%, Berkeley Chief Fire Officers Association, BFCOA, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW.
BFCOA's percentage resulted from two battalion chiefs who retired in December 2025, and because a snapshot was taken as of December 31st, 2025, it captures those vacancies before they could be filled, and they were filled a few weeks later in January.
Of 2026.
For IBEW, the vacancies were two electricians, which have since been filled or are now in pre-employment, two lead electricians, and one lead communications technician, which resulted from an internal promotion from within that bargaining unit.
And just to take a moment out to talk about percentages as it relates to smaller bargaining units, the number of vacancies in a smaller bargaining unit represents a larger portion, each position does.
So although we had five vacancies in IBEW, it represented an over of 20% percentage, but with those two positions that have since been filled, it reduced it to under 20%.
And the same with the battalion chiefs.
It was two positions, but the total number was seven, which resulted in a higher vacancy.
These are the general steps for a civil service recruitment, starting from when a position is vacant all the way to when an employee is onboarded.
These steps are part of a civil service framework to ensure that there's transparency and fairness and an equal opportunity for everyone to apply for a position.
And though we operate within this framework, we try to look continuously at ways to make things more efficient.
Our entire process is electronic.
We have brought a lot of things in-house, such as our fingerprinting, and we try to move things along while still embracing a civil service framework.
One of the things that we're also doing is reaching out to get qualified candidates, and we're not waiting for candidates to just hear about a job opportunity or to be looking for a job.
We reach out to find them.
This is our dedicated career website where they can find out about how wonderful it is to work for Berkeley.
These are examples of our continually increasing social media presence where we talk about and feature our existing employees and why they like to work at the City of Berkeley.
We also have information on how to apply for jobs, and we really try to outreach to candidates in that way.
We also do, for the harder-to-fill positions, professional industry websites.
For example, for the electrician positions, we went to professional websites such as this to try to find those who are already in the profession and see if they're interested in working for the City of Berkeley.
We also go as far as doing executive recruitment strategies where we have a dedicated analyst who acts in the capacity of an executive recruiter and looks for candidates who might not even be looking for jobs.
Because sometimes they're the best candidates.
As a result of our efforts, we received close to 16,000 applications in 2025, and 12,000 of those were unique applicants, unique persons.
And this is an overwhelming number for the position that we are trying to fill, and it resulted in the relatively low vacancy rate that was reported earlier.
Of the 229 vacancies created in 2025, you can see that over 40% of them resulted from internal promotions, internal transfers, or budgeted positions.
And the rest were due to natural attrition, retirement, voluntary terminations, and a few involuntary terminations.
We also filled 248 vacancies in 2025 through new external or internal recruitments, internal-only recruitments, and existing eligible lists.
We also have very rich benefits at the City for retention.
In addition to strong compensation, we offer a defined benefit retirement plan through CalPERS, medical, dental, vision insurance, Claremont EAP support services throughout the employee's life cycle, and organizations such as Team Unity, who plan events to try and unify the City.
We also offer training and development opportunities.
We have a supervisor learning plan.
We will soon have a manager learning plan.
We offer a skilled worker academy, and we offer a lot of courses through NeoGovLearn to enhance and grow our employees from within.
And this has resulted in a 93% retention rate.
We had 3% through natural attrition, 4% through turnover, and overall, a very, very strong retention rate throughout the City.
I would also like to take a moment to highlight the efforts of our small but mighty HR team.
Without the members of our HR team, I would not be able to report the numbers that I am reporting today.
Our team supports our employees through every phase of their employee life cycle.
And I'd like to give special recognition to our director, Janelle Rodriguez, for her leadership and guidance, and Anna Guler, our HR analyst, for compiling and tracking a lot of the data that you saw on this slide.
As well as spearheading our outreach and digital outreach for our candidates.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Monica.
Thank you for the presentation.
Okay, so I'd like to start with any Council questions.
Questions from my Council colleagues? Okay, Council Member Buckley.
Just one quick one.
Thanks for the presentation.
So other agencies that we've seen average from between 14 and 20%.
So we're about average.
And it really depends on the composition of their workforce, too, right? Our vacancies might be different than their vacancies in terms of the classifications that they have.
That's great.
And then similarly on the numbers around, sorry, the turnover and attrition and retention.
I think you said 3%.
Sorry, 93% retention.
And how does that kind of look? I can look more into that.
I don't have that number offhand.
But I can look more and get a follow-up with you.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other questions? You stole my questions.
Good questions.
Okay, very good.
Can we have a report on the number of vacancies in the workforce in the U.S.
And how many of those are actually in the U.S.
And how many of those are actually in the U.S.? Good questions.
Okay, very good.
Can we please have any public comment on Item No.
18, which is the public hearing in compliance with Assembly Bill 2561, Government Code Section 3502.3, regarding vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts? Public comment? Yes.
And for the unions, just so you know, I've given you five minutes, you know, so you have a little more time than public comment.
Thank you.
I don't know if – oh, you're just here to take a video? Okay.
All right, very good.
Okay, go ahead.
Hello, Mayor and Council.
I appreciate this opportunity to speak.
My name is Thomas Gregory.
I'm the president of SEIU 1021 CSU PTRLA, and I'm commenting on behalf of my chapter.
As you know, the city management is planning to eliminate many vacant positions when the new fiscal year starts in a couple of months.
As of December 31, 2025, there were 270 vacant positions citywide, and 77 of those 270 vacancies are within my chapter.
If Council passes the budget balancing plan, as is this June, the city will eliminate 42 of my chapter's 77 vacant positions, and the city will eliminate at least 114 of the 270 vacancies that currently exist citywide.
And this 114 figure only accounts for the non-sworn vacant positions to be eliminated in fiscal year 27.
On top of this 114 figure, there are sworn positions that could also be eliminated in fiscal year 27.
Of course, elimination of positions, including vacant positions, is bad for our members, bad for members of my chapter and other chapters.
The elimination of positions results in less collective power for bargaining units, fewer opportunities for promotions and lateral moves, and fewer opportunities to retreat during times of proposed layoffs, such as right now.
That said, tonight I wanted to stress the negative impact that the elimination of so many positions will have on the community at large.
As opposed to the city's various labor chapters.
Eliminating vacant positions makes permanent a downward adjustment in the city's capacity to serve its constituents.
Vacancies obviously don't provide value to constituents, but at least vacancies have the potential to benefit the community in the future when funding and or qualified candidates are more abundant.
Planning department vacancies that get eliminated will deprive homeowners and businesses of the potential for quicker turnaround times for permanent approvals in the future.
Behavioral health vacancies that get eliminated will deprive at risk and unstable residents the potential for prompt delivery of mental health care.
A permanently understaffed accounts receivable team will perpetually struggle to adequately adequately collect revenue.
Every eliminated position translates into a permanent deficit in capacity, and this deficit will have tangible impacts on the constituents who avail themselves of city services in the future.
It's true that an eliminated position could theoretically be established and reestablished in the future.
However, given the city's H.R.
departments failure over the course of years to fill large numbers of vacancies, it would be a mistake to assume that H.R.
and other leadership staff will be nimble enough to adequately create needed positions in the future when funding allows.
I urge council to consider rejecting management's plan to eliminate large numbers of currently vacant positions come fiscal year 27.
I urge council to demand accountability from H.R.
leaders generally, and more specifically, to require management to conduct a thorough analysis to discover all the reasons for the city's chronically high vacancy rates.
Again, please do not eliminate any positions through a wholesale reduction in force process, as doing so only serves to make permanent a downward adjustment in the city's capacity to serve its constituents.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other public comment on this item? I don't see anyone online.
I don't see any hand raise.
OK.
Are there any comments on this item? Council member Kisarwani.
Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.
I just wanted to thank you very much for the presentation.
It's very helpful to get this information about vacancy rates.
I think you had it by position, right? I thought you may have.
But in any case.
And then you also.
Oh, yes, you do.
On one of the slides, the vacancy rate by position.
And so I just wanted to to note that.
And and then the other thing I wanted to note was the the the retention rate and the the vacancies created.
And I know this was this is technically a question I didn't ask it during the question time, but I just wanted to clarify when you have this 93 percent annual staff retention rate.
Can you just explain how you're calculating that? Are you just looking at.
Well, I'll just let you answer.
I'm sure.
So the first two numbers, retirement and voluntary separations, that's that number added together, divided by the number of budgeted positions.
Can you just speak into the microphone a little bit more? OK, so it's the 38 retirement, the 15 involuntary separations added together and then divided by the total number of budgeted positions.
Oh, OK.
OK, that's helpful.
I was just a little.
Oh, OK.
I misread 20, 25 colon is 227.
OK, thank you so much.
That's very helpful.
Thank you again for the presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council member Humbert.
Yeah, I just wanted to quickly say thank you for the presentation and all the work that went into it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other comments.
OK, yeah.
I also want to just add my thanks.
I really do see the work that HR is doing, not only to receive a lot of applications and do outreach into the community to to get more applications and strong applicants, but also in the retention work.
I think it's something that folks in the public don't get a chance to see very often.
And I do really see you all trying to create a culture that helps people feel supported.
So I just want to thank you all for that.
And thank you for the presentation as well.
OK.
Thank you.
And I don't think we need to actually vote to accept this report.
I think it's just that right.
Could I get a motion to close the public hearing? Sorry, Monica, we can we should do that.
Is there a motion for the public hearing? The Berkeley Police Association would also like to present.
Two week.
There was a we actually finished the comment period.
Did you want to make a comment? Yeah.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah.
So I was saying earlier that unions could have five minutes to speak during the comment period.
But do you want it? You can just since we haven't closed the hearing, you should just go ahead and get your comment.
Thank you.
There's a presentation that Monica, are you able to put it up? Thank you.
I'll go through this as quick as possible.
Thank you for the time and the mayor and council for hearing us out regarding our vacancies.
Looking at our current authorized versus actual vacancies, this is up to date current, not for 2025.
We're currently looking at 44.
They get sworn officer positions to sworn sergeant positions for a total of 46 vacancies, much higher than the numbers from last year due to many factors.
That's based on our current authorized staffing.
If you look at what we do have numerous trainees and people that have been hired and are in the academy currently are in the process.
So that does boost us up to one hundred and five sworn positions that are filled for officer.
And so definitely that is in the works.
But as you can see, out of our 179 authorized positions, seven are currently vacant due to vacant frozen positions.
And we currently have a total of 15 on both modified and workers comp.
So basically working with a total of 66 percent of our actual authorized current staffing positions on the next slide, you'd be looking at what the proposed budget would do to our staffing based on the two possible scenarios, which would be a reduction of 32 positions for the worst case scenario.
You'd be looking at a total of only one hundred and thirty three sworn positions, basically putting us almost at full staffing right now, which is our lowest staffing in my entire 15 years.
Even with our trainees and whatnot, we'd be pretty much approaching that.
The if the sales tax measure passes, we'd be losing a total of 17 positions, which would still put us at a total of one hundred sixty two sworn positions.

Segment 3

I'm Mark Humbert, and I'm here to talk to you about our current staffing challenges and numerous vacancies.
Some of our current staffing challenges is that we, in 2020, had 174 sworn positions compared to our current numbers.
In the past couple months, we've had one sergeant and six officers leave the department to join.
Most of those joined San Francisco Police Department and one another police department.
We currently are anticipating a handful more in the next few months to go to San Francisco Police Department as well.
Our current staffing challenges is that we're currently at about 50% of our department has 10 years or less of experience right now with a total of about 25 by the end of the year.
And some of our other staffing challenges have been a long, long term struggle to recruit lateral police officers, which are quicker to get trained and onto the streets.
And we're currently at about 50 for 55% of our department has 10 years or less of experience, which is a pretty much a low in my career right now.
So, in addition to that, we've had a decline in our staffing in the past couple of weeks compared to April 2021.
So, April, 2021, we had 16 beats.
Now we have 14 beats.
You can see there's been a 25% decrease in our patrol officers from 73 to 55.
And 2024, the city hired an outside company to do a workload survey.
And 73 was the number that they recommended that we have as our patrol staffing, along with creating numerous other proactive positions and things like that.
Regarding our workload, 2020, our calls for service and our case reports have stayed pretty steady.
But the bad is looking at our staffing numbers, officers will be responding to approximately 32% more calls for service in cases on a basis.
What that means is that your patrol officers will have longer response times to these calls for lower priority calls for services.
You're going to have less time for follow up with victims.
You're going to have less time to do investigations.
And for me, some of the more important things, a lot less time to interact with the community on just a one on one basis to have downtime to talk with them and to conduct traffic enforcement.
If you have officers that are just on calls all day, you have no time for them to do any kind of interactions with the community besides going from call to call to call.
Our current hiring situation is we currently have one conditional offer to an entry level police officer, one entry level and one lateral officer in the background process.
And we have police recruit interviews being conducted in a physical agility test scheduled for this week.
It's approximately about a three plus month process to get people hired.
And when the police officer recruit is hired, it takes about six months for an academy and then a four month field training program.
So all those recruits that we have hired right now, we won't see them probably till end of this year, next year, actually working on the street.
And they'll most likely just be filling positions that are people retiring and leaving this year.
We can go to the next slide.
Some of our biggest recruitment challenges we're facing, but main to our lack of industry standard tools and lack of opportunity due to our understaffing.
Most of when trying to recruit people from other departments, they're used to working with tasers, canines and drones first responder nowadays.
Also, our lack of our understaffing leads to a lack of career opportunities.
Our investigations division, our traffic unit are both understaffed.
We currently don't have any kind of narcotics or special investigation unit, and we don't participate in any of the county task forces.
It's very difficult to recruit officers away from other departments.
I can get like to one more minute.
I'm sorry.
I just I offered to give the unions five minutes.
I apologize that we didn't have this conversation beforehand.
Thank you.
Thank you, though.
I really appreciate you giving us this presentation and folks have the slides here so we can look through them as well.
Thank you.
OK.
Is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved.
Second.
OK.
Can we take the roll now, please, Rose? All right.
All right.
All right.
To close public hearing.
Council member.
Yes, Kaplan.
Yes.
Bartlett.
Yes.
OK.
Yes.
And clerk, would you e-mail me the slides, please? Yes, we will do that.
Mayor Ishii.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Is there any public comment on items not listed on the agenda? I don't know.
I don't know if it's permissible for me to speak on 12 since I wasn't here.
No, I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Thank you.
OK.
Anyone online? No hands raised online.
OK.
Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved.
Second.
Can you take the roll, please, Rose? To adjourn.
Council member.
Yes, Kaplan.
Yes.
Bartlett.
Yes.
I.
OK.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
All right.
Thank you.
Recording stopped.