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Segment 1

Okay, hello everyone.
Calling to order the Berkeley City Council meeting today is Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.
It is 6.05 p.m.
Clerk, can you please start us off? Council member Kesarwani? Here.
Council member Taplin is currently absent.
Council member Bartlett? Tregub? Present.
O'Keefe? Here.
Lackabay? Here.
Lunaparra? Here.
Humbert? Present.
And Mayor Ishii? Here.
Okay, Council member Bartlett is participating in the meeting remotely pursuant to the Just Cause exception in the Brown Act.
Quorum of the Council is participating in person at the noticed physical meeting location.
And Council member Bartlett, if you could provide a brief general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely without disclosing any medical diagnosis or other confidential medical information.
Yeah, so there's a medical situation that I cannot disclose.
Okay, and then please disclose if there is anybody in the room with you who is 18 years of age or older and if so what their relationship is to you.
I'm alone at this time.
Okay, and Council member Bartlett will participate through both audio and visual technology for the duration of the meeting and we can proceed.
And Mr.
City Clerk, it looks like Council member Taplin is on.
There is Council member Taplin so we can mark Council member Taplin as present.
And Council member Taplin's teleconference location is noted on the agenda so we do not need to do the Just Cause exception script for him.
Okay, very good.
Thank you.
We are now moving on to our ceremonial items and today we have a proclamation for American Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month and Council member Lunapara has requested this proclamation and will be reading it.
So if our representatives from CARE, if you want to come up to the podium, you can receive the proclamation.
Okay, recognizing April 2026 as American Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month, whereas the City of Berkeley takes great pride in supporting individual religious freedoms and is strengthened by the diverse religious political and cultural traditions and contributions of its diverse populations, including those that practice Islam, and whereas the history of Islam on this continent dates back to before the founding of the United States, originating with enslaved Africans who brought their Muslim beliefs to the Americas, and whereas over 90,000 Muslims live in Alameda County and significantly contribute to the cultural, political, and economic fabric of our communities, and whereas the City of Berkeley is home to a variety of Muslim institutions, such as the Berkeley Masjid, a vital spiritual and community center for prayer and connection, Zaytuna College, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, and other Muslim organizations, including the Berkeley Muslim Student Association, each providing support for Muslims, and whereas it is critical to acknowledge and promote awareness of the invaluable contributions of Muslims in Berkeley and across the country, and whereas the Berkeley City Council acknowledges the importance of local government in advocating for justice and reaffirms that Muslims everywhere deserve to live in peace, dignity, and safety.
Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Adina Ishii, Mayor of the City of Berkeley, do hereby declare April 2026 as American Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.
Perfect.
We have members of CARE and the Berkeley Masjid here to present.
Okay.
Hello, Mayor Ishii and Council Members.
My name is Musa with CARE, the Council on American Islamic Relations, and we want to thank you all for recognizing American Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month in Berkeley.
This proclamation is especially meaningful as our Muslim communities have faced an unprecedented and unrelenting wave of Islamophobia and discrimination over the last several years.
2024 was previously the worst year of anti-Muslim hate and anti-Palestinian racism recorded in CARE's 30-year history with a sharp rise in hate crimes and discrimination, and this trend has unfortunately only increased and continued through 2025 and into 2026.
We have a federal administration that is openly and violently targeting our most vulnerable immigrant communities for speaking up about global justice, for opposing the genocide in Gaza, and for existing.
2025 saw powerful public officials try to tell our communities that American freedoms come with conditions that they must look, speak, and worship in their approved ways or that they do not belong, and this all has very real consequences for Muslim community members in Berkeley.
And that is why today's proclamation is an important step in celebrating and cherishing your Muslim communities whose contributions continue to strengthen Berkeley's civic, cultural, and economic life.
We thank you for affirming that Muslims are woven into the fabric of Berkeley, especially in this critical moment, and we hope this proclamation serves as a meaningful next step, a catalyst for meaningful next steps, including adopting an ethical investment policy following the lead of Alameda County in the city of Dublin.
Thank you so much.
Thank you all so much.
Okay, moving on in our agenda, I have city manager comments.
Do you have any comments this evening, city manager? I don't, Madam Mayor, thank you.
Okay, thank you very much.
Yes, perfectly on cue, I was just about to say, and our Madam City Auditor, I'll let you take it away.
Thank you so much, Mayor.
Good evening, Mayor and Council, members of the public.
I just want to thank you all for having me here today.
We're presenting on our financial condition audit, which is in the agenda packet.
My name is Jenny Wong, the City Auditor, and I'm joined by my team, Caitlin Palmer, Performance Audit Manager, and we have our Performance Auditor, Manami Suenaga, online, and Katie Wisong is here to help us with some technical support.
So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Caitlin.
Thank you all for having us here tonight.
On April 8th, our office released an audit of Berkeley's financial condition, and we did this audit to provide an update to our first financial condition that we issued in 2022, highlighting the City's financial strengths and risks in both the near and the long term, and our aim was to provide a comprehensive financial context to support the current budget deliberations.
We also wanted to make complex financial information easier to understand, and on that note, in the interest of time, I'll just be providing some highlights of these financial concepts, and for those of you out there who would like more explanation or definitions, please see the full report on our website.
We assessed Berkeley's financial condition by looking at a variety of indicators, such as revenues and expenses, net pension and retiree health care liabilities, and others.
Our scope covered 10 years, from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 25, and we adjusted for inflation and report everything in 2025 dollars, and please note that this is a high-level overview where we explore the causes of some of the financial trends, but we didn't do an in-depth analysis of every trend.
Overall, we found that Berkeley is facing ongoing challenges with its long-term financial condition, which is similar to our 2022 audit, and as you're all aware, in the near term, the City faces a structural budget deficit which poses additional risk to the City's financial sustainability over time, and we report on many financial indicators, but tonight I'll highlight just a few key points.
First, despite the budgetary challenges, the City's actual revenues from governmental activities generally covered actual expenses over the past 10 years, except for in fiscal year 2020.
Revenue increased overall, primarily from growth in revenues from property taxes, state and local taxes, and investment earnings, and of all revenue sources, investment earnings had the largest percentage growth.
The Finance Department updates Council on the City's investment performance through quarterly investment reports, and used to provide an annual investment report to Council that covered the City's investment rate of return for at least the past five fiscal years, but this type of information is no longer provided.
And when we look at more recent trends, since our audit in 2022, revenues for governmental activities slightly decreased, while expenses increased, and decreased revenues in these years were primarily due to less revenue from grants and contributions, such as state and federal funds.
Given the City's structural deficit, we looked at its past budgetary practices to better understand what led to the current situation, and we found that for years the City's used one-time balancing measures to address its structural deficit, rather than making structural changes.
And so one-time solutions like this that rely on other funds may be appropriate in the short term.
Repeating this over time can delay addressing the structural deficit, and put the financial sustainability of these other funds at risk.
For example, to help balance the fiscal year 25 budget, the City redirected 4.7 million dollars that was intended for the Workers' Compensation Fund to the General Fund, and at the time the Workers' Compensation Program was already about two million dollars short of covering its liabilities.
One-time measures aren't sustainable when ongoing expenditures are growing.
I'm sorry, Caitlin, can you just speak up a bit? It's a little hard to hear you.
Yes, is this better? One-time measures aren't sustainable when ongoing expenditures are growing.
According to the Budget Office, salaries, pension costs, overtime pay, and public liability insurance have increased in recent years.
We also found that the City used one-time measures such as transfers from other funds to help balance enterprise funds with structural deficits, and these enterprise funds are supported by fees for services and are intended to primarily cover their costs.
City management is now using some more sustainable strategies to develop the fiscal year 27 and 28 as demonstrated in their proposed budget balancing plan.
For example, the City asked departments to evaluate current fees for funds such as enterprise funds, and this is a great step, but we note that there isn't a city-wide policy to regularly evaluate and adjust enterprise fees to help keep up with expenses going forward.
And this and other more sustainable strategies have not yet been formally adopted as policies for the future.
Next, looking at pension and retiree health care, we found that the City's net pension liability is still high risk at about $695 million as of fiscal year 25, and net pension liability is the difference between estimated cost of benefits and the assets the City has set aside to pay for those benefits.
And Berkeley's not alone in this.
Unfunded pension liabilities pose a challenge for many California cities and can impact credit ratings and may result in CalPERS requiring higher contributions in the future.
And according to the Government Finance Officers Association, Berkeley would have the highest bond rating as a result and as a result cheaper borrowing if it weren't for the size of its pension liabilities.
The City also provides retiree health care coverage as a benefit, and some good news here is that the City has made progress in decreasing its net retiree health care liability to about $43 million in 2025.
So this is a decrease of more than $100 million over 10 years.
And as we reported in 2022, the City was saving for future pension payments by contributing to an IRS Section 115 trust.
However, the City hasn't consistently been able to meet its annual contribution goal.
And also the City used $3 million in the trust to cover required CalPERS pension payments to help balance the fiscal year 2025 general fund budget.
And we noted that the City's City Council's fiscal policies don't explicitly require the City to replenish the trust as soon as feasible after the funds are withdrawn.
Another long-term risk area is the City's unfunded capital and deferred maintenance needs.
These grew to $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2024, which is up from the $1.2 billion that we reported in 2022.
And without sufficient investment, capital needs will continue to grow and get more expensive to address down the line.
In fact, while the City has increased its spending on capital assets since fiscal year 2016, this hasn't been enough to cover the unfunded capital needs.
And so the City will likely need to raise new funding to keep pace with the investments needed to maintain or update its aging infrastructure.
General obligation bonds are one way that Cities finance capital infrastructure projects.
And as you're all aware, the City is considering placing a $300 million general obligation bond on a measure on the 2026 ballot to help address some of these unfunded capital needs.
We noted that Berkeley's capital improvement program, it's the City's five-year capital budget plan, doesn't include advanced planning to determine if and when the City should propose new funding mechanisms, such as bond measures, to address these long-term capital needs.
And advanced planning around new funding options could help the City regularly anticipate and communicate to the public about these proposals and the capital funding needs that they plan to address.
Other jurisdictions like San Francisco and Berkeley Unified School District do do this more advanced planning around new funding options, and they have 10-year capital financing plans.
Our audit includes nine recommendations to address the risks we identified, and I'll highlight a few of them here.
We recommend that City management propose a fiscal policy to Council that formalizes the use of more sustainable budget strategies to help prevent future structural deficits.
We also recommend that the City adopt a policy to regularly assess enterprise fees and establish reserves as appropriate for each enterprise fund.
We recommended that finance provide investment reports to Council that include the City's investment return rate for at least the past five years to provide clear information about investment performance trends.
And we recommend that the City amend its fiscal policies to ensure that funds that are withdrawn from the Section 115 Trust are replenished so the City is more prepared to meet its future pension obligations.
And lastly, we recommended that the City develop a capital financing plan that includes proposals for future funding sources such as such as bonds to help address the City's growing unfunded capital needs.
And City management agreed or partially agreed to our findings and recommendations and provided an action plan to address those recommendations, and right at tonight we ask that Council request that City management report back in a year with an update on the implementation of these recommendations.
And to conclude, I'd like to thank the City Manager, the Budget Office, the Finance Department, Public Works, and the City Attorney for their contributions to this audit.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I really appreciate you sharing all this information with us and I would be interested in seeing a report back in a year on this audit and any of the changes as you've suggested.
I think that would be a good idea for us.
I do want to give my colleagues time if you do want to ask questions.
Anyone? Okay.
Yes, Council Member Blackabee.
Thanks Madam Mayor and thank you to the auditor team for all your hard work on this and sort of synthesizing the numbers and kind of presenting some of the key findings.
I just had a couple of questions on a few of the slides.
On slide five where you're talking about the revenues and expenses by year over the past 10 years, you know, we've talked a lot and we know we are facing the sort of structural deficit in the general fund that we need to deal with and we are dealing with it in this process.
So how do we reconcile the way these numbers are showing that like we're actually, you know, if you look at total government activities, revenues, and expenses, we've done a pretty good job of tracking our expenses underneath revenue.
So what's the disconnect in terms of what we're facing and what these numbers show? Yeah, these numbers in this graph show actuals so and the budget, the structural deficit is something from the perspective of the budgeting process.
So anticipating that ongoing revenues and expenses aren't balancing and so through one-time balancing measures that the city has taken and then the actual reality that occurs in revenues and expenses, this is showing what actually happened which is as a result of the budget process working to balance.
The city is legally required to pass a balanced budget.
Because in some ways like it's not even, you know, we're 40 million to the good last year, 24 million to the good the year before.
So it's not like we're just eking it out.
Like it's like we have a pretty healthy, so that's, so I'm just trying to figure out what we can learn from this does that mean, you know, our budget process isn't fully accommodating what anticipated revenues or how would you attribute the difference? Yeah, I think one way to think about this is that these are the the actual revenues and actual expenses and so there could be expenses that were not or there could be potential expenditures that the city would have liked to spend money on but then couldn't because of the deficit and because, you know, we have salary savings.
I mean there's a whole host of other reasons why that line isn't the opposite way or just meeting.
So I think you mentioned it and we're we have sensitivity to like, you know, our availability of grant funding we can't necessarily count on going forward maybe in the way that we saw in previous years.
That's a consideration.
So also part of this which is some of this money is also being seen in the enterprise funds and not the general fund.
Is that also a bit of this? Okay, okay.
Thank you.
On slide seven about the net pension liability, my main question is like what should our goal be? Because I think, you know, it's it's unrealistic and also not appropriate for our goal to be zero, right? Because this is our total liabilities of people who are currently employees and may not be retiring for 30 years.
And so to have assets fully set aside today for something that we're not going to be on the hook for for 30 years.
So we know that this the net pension liability is high but it's also not the difference between 694 million and zero, right? There's some other number that's probably the target.
Do we have any rough idea or is that worth more work to think about what that target should be? Yeah, there's two ways to look at this.
One is that CalPERS is trying to get cities to an appropriate, what they consider to be appropriate levels of funding for the liabilities by adjusting the contributions that they're requesting from cities.
Another way to look at this, the city or the state auditor had a dashboard.
It's no longer available but they looked at, I believe it was being like 80% funded or higher as low risk.
I don't remember all of the categories and I can follow up with you about that.
But that's a benchmark out there as well that might be useful for the city to consider.
There's also a middle, a mid-level risk and Berkeley is considered high risk.
And if you look at page 31, we do look at the funded ratio of the pension plans of Berkeley compared to some of the other cities.
And note that Berkeley is, we're at 66% and Santa Clara is at 63%.
So they're even lower.
Oakland is close at 68%.
Pasadena 74, Long Beach 78, Santa Monica 78.
So it's a range.
Berkeley is not alone on this issue, but we do note that this is an area of risk for Berkeley.
Perfect.
Okay.
So that helps.
Last question is on the capital, the unfunded capital, deferred maintenance, the $1.8 billion.
Similar question, which is sort of, you know, and you showed how it's sort of, our unfunded capital and deferred maintenance has gone from $600 million eight years ago to about $1.8 billion now.
And we've been investing anywhere from $47 million to $90 million a year to try and make a dent.
Again, I know this is another hard question, but I'll put it out there and happy to have a conversation down the road.
You know, what do we need to be investing on an annual basis to kind of bend the curve? Because clearly, to your point, we've not been investing enough on an annual basis.
It's like the number, our total backlog is still growing, but it would be really helpful to have a sense as we go to, out to the voters, potentially with this ballot measure, and we're seeking more bond support, like how much do we need to be investing on an annual basis in capital to just not make the problem worse? And your report may not have that, but that's a number I would love to, at some point, for us all to figure out and get to.
Yeah, that would be worth, look, we didn't look into that in detail.
That could be a whole audit on its own.
And one way to look at this is near term investments or ongoing investments, proactive maintenance is cheaper in the long run than rehabilitation replacement.
So yeah, we didn't look at that in detail.
Okay, so I'll leave it out there with staff with it.
This is, you know, much more fertile ground to cover in the coming months.
But thank you so much for just illuminating a lot of these and giving us a lot to think about, and I really appreciate the effort here.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Great questions, Council Member.
Council Member O'Keefe.
Thank you so much for this presentation and all the work that went into this audit.
It's really very important work and not the sexiest thing, so I really appreciate it.
My question, I have one question that's sort of maybe bouncing off of Council Member Blackabee's question about reducing our unfunded pension liability.
I was wondering, it caught my ear when you talked about the possibility of getting a higher bond rating if our pension liability was less, and I'm wondering, like, if you have a sense of how much it would take reducing it, like, how much would we have to reduce it? Like, is that really within reach or would we have to have zero, which, you know, is ridiculous? Or if we just decreased it a little bit, could we get a higher rating? I don't know if the credit raters, I can't remember the source for that.
I don't remember if the credit raters assessed that.
I don't think they went into that level of detail.
Berkeley is at the second highest bond rating, which is pretty good, so I don't know what the number would be.
I think it's a qualitative assessment that they do, so yeah, I don't have that number.
Okay, I just, I guess I'll just name my curiosity.
It would be interesting if we were close, that would make it a lot more worth it, because then, of course, we could save money on the other end of that as well, so thanks for highlighting that.
Thank you.
Council Member, or Vice Mayor Trachub.
Thank you so much.
Again, really appreciated this important report.
I have a few questions.
My first question is, actually, on the first, no, on the slide with revenues and expenses, something that caught my attention is there appeared to be an inverse relationship year over year between revenues and expenses, and I was wondering if you could speak to that.
Two points that might lead to this are fiscal year 2020, where this is the one year where revenues exceed expenses.
There are a lot of funding shortfalls related to the COVID pandemic led to this data point, and in fiscal year 2022, this was related to, I don't want to, we didn't look at the relation, I can't, I don't think I can speak to the inverse relationship.
I think this was related to, I'm going to ask Manami if she.
Yeah, I'm on the line.
It's related to federal funding received for the American Rescue Plan Act, so that's why there's the increase in governmental revenues between fiscal year 21 to 22.
Thank you, and I guess my question is broader than just that time period.
It is more pronounced, for sure, in 21-22 with the ARPA funding, but it looks like sort of year over year for any number of years as expenses go up, revenues go down, and vice versa.
Yeah, there's different factors that lead to the changes in both of these trend lines.
Yeah, I'm not sure how to quickly reconcile that.
Okay, yeah, just curious.
I also, this is a little esoteric, but in the report on page 11, there was an other category that showed a decline.
This is in under figure eight personnel expenditures by category.
I was curious what was in that other category.
It includes life insurance, commuter benefits, terminal payout, contributions to the workers' compensation fund, and other fringe benefits.
Okay, because in the note, oh, I see now.
Okay, thank you.
I just noticed, obviously, it's not a significant decline, but everything adds up.
Sixteen million, that's 16 million that could be repurposed elsewhere.
Okay, I had a question back on the slide with the net pension and retiree healthcare liabilities.
I did want to uplift the decrease in the net retiree healthcare liability pretty significantly.
I was wondering what factors may have led to that, and more broadly, what is the methodology by which the city pays off these liabilities? Is it a waterfowl model where you pay off one, and then you go to the next, and the next? So I'm wondering if this could be a good model to continue to make a dent in paying off at least some of the liabilities.
For the latter question, I think that would be a good question for the finance department.
We can get back to you.
We didn't look at that in detail.
And your first question was about what the factors in the OPEB liability risk reduction.
Do you want to answer this one? Yeah, for net retiree healthcare liability, that decreased primarily due to net investment income for these retiree healthcare.

Segment 2

The Berkley City Council Meeting.
I would like to start by explaining a little bit about the budget.
And just to give some examples of where liabilities the net investment income had increased within the period.
So that helped explain the liability decrease.
Okay.
That is helpful.
Probably, these are all very important recommendations.
And I recognize for some time now, have to try to do this with increasingly more limited resources.
So I'm wondering of these excellent recommendations, which ones would you prioritize? Maybe, if you could pick the top three where if we don't do them, there would be very significant impacts down the line.
We haven't prioritized them, but my first thought would be that focusing on ones that are that would affect revenue generation would be beneficial, such as evaluating enterprise fees and establishing reserves for those funds.
That doesn't really, reserves aren't part of generating revenue, but making sure that the funds are sustainable and healthy, as strengthened as possible.
And recommendations related to planning, such as the capital financing plan and formalizing the use of more sustainable budget strategies to develop future budgets, to avoid structural deficits in the future.
Thank you so much.
And I would just add my interest.
I think the mayor spoke about this too.
Well, yeah, getting an annual report from the city manager about progress towards these goals.
I highlighted on my list, providing investment reports to the council.
That includes the city's return rate for at least the past five fiscal years in line with some of the other jurisdictions you looked at formalizing a requirement that the city must replenish the section one 15 trust after funds are withdrawn and developing a capital financing plan that proposes future funding sources beyond what exists now.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Do you have a comment? Council member Luna Parra.
Yeah, I just really wanted to thank the auditor and her team for, for this work, especially at this time.
I think it's very, it's very, very useful for us to, to look, take a look back and, and understand the structure of these issues.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Council member Humbert.
Did you want to add something? Yes.
Thank you, madam mayor.
I just wanted to thank madam city auditor and your team for all this really hard work.
And this is such a timely report.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
I will add my thanks as well.
And say, thank you all so much for presenting and also for doing this entire report.
I find it very helpful for us as we're thinking about the budget.
So thank you very much.
Okay.
Anyone else? All right.
I think that's it then.
Thank you so much for your, for your presentation.
Thank you.
Okay.
So we now have a public comment on non-agenda matters.
Okay.
I'll draw names from the.
Okay.
For the in-person attendees.
And then also, if you are.
Tending remotely, this is the time to raise your hand on zoom for.
Non agenda comments only for, again, for items that do not appear on the agenda.
So for.
In-person.
Okay.
So we have two cards here.
We have a.
Stephen Alpert.
We're all fell and Celeste marks.
So come forward in any order.
Good evening.
I'm Dr.
Stephen Alpert.
I afford links and executive summaries of three recent publications on housing affordability to all city officials.
The titles of these publications are shown here on this poster.
All three publications examine and dismiss a core tenant.
That excessive regulation is responsible for the housing affordability crisis in United States.
The book holds study in particular.
Published by the London school of economics.
And I was really well data from San Jose and San Francisco.
As shown in the upper portion of this table.
Even under very optimistic.
Overly optimistic conditions.
And our areas, it takes about 20 years.
For newly built market rate housing to eventually filter down.
To become affordable.
Whereas of historical data.
It takes over a hundred years.
The details regarding these assumptions and equations underlying this data on pages 12 and 14 of the study, which I forwarded to you.
Note that the number of years before market rate housing becomes affordable.
Is longer in the San Francisco Bay area compared to metropolitan, New York.
Los Angeles, Washington, DC, or Boston.
These findings quote illustrate that interventions focused on market rate supply.
Unlikely to generate widespread affordability, any meaningful timeframe.
A publication by the Georgetown laws center on poverty and inequality concludes quote.
Addressing housing instability for lower income house.
Requires comprehensive strategies beyond a reliance on market rate supply.
Despite these findings.
In a recent zoom quarters, listening session.
Council member Keith stated quote.
I believe that housing affordability can be met to market rate.
I'm grounded in.
Trustingly.
The mayor and some members of this council.
Willfully ignore.
At will documented real world data from internationally recognized housing experts.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Crisis.
Your time is up.
Thank you.
Next is.
Ralph bell.
Good evening.
I'm Ralph bell, a 26 year resident.
I'm 26 year resident of Berkeley and a business owner.
Thank you for the extra two seconds.
In the last two months of 2024 at the corner of Bancroft way and six 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 residents.
Directly impacted.
None of them received a notice.
A traffic light makes the pedestrian crossing safer.
But three of the four left turn lanes make cycling more dangerous.
And Rob, 30 businesses and 16 residences of essential parking.
We find it bizarre that our council member or mayor haven't seen 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 the time for us along with the traffic.
Engineer and help us correct this over-designed.
And yes, dangerous intersection.
We have sent all of you more information via email.
And we implore you to read, review, review it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rob.
I'm so sorry.
We're going to get back to you.
We'll follow up.
Okay.
Moving to the commenters online.
First speaker is a phone number ending in.
211.
You should be able to unmute.
Right.
Good evening.
I spoke with you before.
Occasions.
I've been in the business for 62 years.
They did one of the largest consumer electronic.
In the whole Bay area at about.
And competitors.
Only our business.
The ideas.
Electronic is the only one left.
For many reasons.
I wanted to.
Your business with the city.
Not with the Megalan roads or nothing.
A bunch of crooks.
So very quickly.
We actually in the process.
We have to raise our demand.
Financial losses to $5 million.
With the way.
I told him.
The whole genocide of Gaza and everything else.
Damage.
There's a whole people.
Damage.
Need to fix that.
Have a good night.
And.
I think I played a big role in bringing in office.
Give me a call.
Let's have a friendly meeting.
We can consider all.
I'm a young man.
I grew up in the city.
And I grew up in the city.
And I grew up on.
You know, well, educated woman.
And educated man.
Let's get together.
Thanks for your comment.
Okay, next is Rob.
Good evening.
I'm Rob.
I work out of the workstation West to coworking space on big crofton.
And I work on the parking lot.
And I work on the parking lot and the traffic lights.
First, the construction and then the traffic lights.
It makes having guests over very difficult.
You know, we are lucky to be not too far distance from Amtrak public transit.
But even so some people just because of the situations have to park.
And so similarly, I'd like to Echo.
I'm working with the city to help give more space for parking, but I'm also working with the city to help give more space for parking.
Thank you.
Bet.
Hi, can you hear me? Yes.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Good evening, mayor.
Council members and neighbors.
I'm fetching when and a homeowner in district five.
I know you're facing some tough budgeting decisions right now.
And I want to start by thanking you for the hard work you do for our city every day.
For nearly 60 years, the Berkeley art center has been a quiet, but robust gallery here in my book park.
We're tucked away in that majestic spot, but we're anything but quiet.
When it comes to our community.
We spent six decades bringing thoughtful contemporary art to the bay area.
And I'm really grateful for the city's support.
But I also want to share where we are today.
Like many organizations, we've gone through a leadership transition.
Our new executive director.
Has been incredible.
She's built bridges with diverse communities and is helping us build a model that earns its own income.
To eventually rely less on city funding.
I'm sorry.
Your, your time is actually up, but if you.
I'm sorry.
I don't know if you can hear me.
I'm sorry.
I'll try to get as much information.
You can.
Thank you.
Okay.
Next is.
Look, hi Freeman.
You should be able to.
Unmute.
Change.
At the center.
Okay.
That's just launch.
And all our streets.
Campaign.
Residents on the hardships.
Obstacles and tenants.
The parking.
Sidewalks.
Blind and deaf residents that are.
Our safety.
I will be requesting.
You may.
And council members.
As you.
Check the truck.
Reduction in.
Accessible.
This is a big.
Major.
Discrimination.
And tenants.
Why is not good.
In the community.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Feel free to reach out to us.
Thank you.
Okay.
And last speaker is Della Luna.
Yes.
Hi, I was wanting to speak about the lack.
Yeah, so.
There was a bathroom there and it was taken away and it.
Because that's like an official city event.
It doesn't make sense to be like, luring people over there when there's no bathroom and I'm as the constituent, not clear what happened to the bathrooms inside the building.
So they seem to be working pretty well.
And so it would be nice to have the bathrooms open during the farmer's market, rather than no bathroom.
And so, yeah, I just want to say, thank you so much for your comments.
There needs to be bathrooms right now.
And like every Saturday, there needs to be bathrooms at the farmer's market and even handicap accessible bathrooms.
At the farmer's market.
Thank you.
Thank you, Della.
Okay.
Thank you all so much for your comments.
We are moving on to our consent calendar.
But before we start the consent calendar, I just wanted to give you all a little overview of what's going on with the budget.
Which I feel like you need no reminding, but that we have a lot of work to do around the budget over the next.
Two months.
And I just wanted to give you all just a little overview of what's happening because on May 14th, the city manager will present his full budget proposal to the budget and finance committee.
Which we will be, which will be followed by presentation to the full council on May 14th.
And that will be in the budget for FY 27.
And FY 28, which is $500 million for FY 27, FY eight, 28.
So understanding this, we do have four budget referrals that have come forward over the past few months.
I'd like to ask that council members get any of their budget referrals for the next two year budget cycle.
To the May 19th meeting.
So they can be taken into consideration.
I think we did this last year too, but I'm just wondering if you could provide any additional resources just so you know, if you can bring that to the May 19th meeting, that would be really helpful.
And how we're thinking about the budget moving forward.
Keeping in mind that we have no money set aside for any of these extra.
Referrals, but I'm still curious to know.
What's on everyone's minds and what are their priorities? Okay.
So do council members have any comments on the consent calendar? Seeing none.
Council member Taplin.
I see your hand raised.
Thank you very much.
And good evening, Madam mayor and everyone.
On item number 10, this is the D 13 resolution supporting the dances May day and May day gathering and bizarre event.
I want to just uplift the work of this organization.
They are a Vanguard arts work and district two in West Berkeley.
This is going to be an amazing event and I encourage all to attend.
Thank you.
Council member Bartlett.
Thank you.
I'd like to donate a $200.
To the Luna dance creativity festival should be great event.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Council member Luna.
Thank you.
I'd like to donate $200 to item 10, the Luna dance.
And thank you.
Council member Taplin for authoring.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam mayor.
A couple of things I just wanted to on item three.
No, we're making our, our office is making our appointment to the police accountability board.
Pat the temple.
I just want to thank.
My colleagues in advance for their support and thank Pat in advance for his service.
Pat previously served as.
In the past.
So he is well-versed in these issues and a long time resident of the community.
And I'm looking forward to his service.
On the pad.
I also think council member.
Okay.
For her recommendation.
Cause Pat lives in her district.
And you'll be a great addition.
So appreciate his willingness to serve.
Great minds think alike.
You notice items seven and eight, the disaster and fire safety commission.
We submitted a package of 13 bills.
For the wildfire and insurance space.
Our office also came forward with item 11.
Which is a resolution supporting a package of 13 bills.
They're moving through the legislature.
This this spring and summer.
And actually item seven is, is one of the bills in that package.
And so we're, we're looking forward to it.
The letters and some of the content from the disaster disaster and fire safety commission on item seven.
And makes it.
With, with the support of the chair of that commission, sort of kind of enhances what we're doing in, in.
Item 11.
Let me just highlight again, a little bit more about what this legislative package does, because it is really important.
To what we're doing here in Berkeley in terms of our Ember.
This package includes more support.
For loan financing for people who are doing home hardening.
So more financial support, which we know is, is really needed.
And this would be a state.
Program to make more loan financing available to homeowners.
More support for home hardening.
It would expand some existing fire mitigation programs that are already at work across the state.
And it would reduce the barriers to doing more beneficial fire.
So it's a whole kind of package of bills that collectively are going to make the state more.
Fire safe.
And we'll also help us in Berkeley.
So I just wanted to thank.
Senators, Alan Becker and stern as well as assembly members, Bennett Connelly and Rogers for their authorship.
And again, urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this package, which is.
Really timely and so important.
The other item from the disaster and fire safety commission, which is item eight.
Is a bill by Senator Perez that will.
Basically creates more of a linkage between homeowners that do home hardening.
And guarantees them ongoing insurance coverage.
This also is one of the things that we're working on.
We're working with the city of Berkeley to make sure that we have more of a linkage between homeowners that do home hardening.
And guarantees them ongoing insurance coverage.
This also is really a missing link.
And a lot of, of, of the resiliency work.
That's what's happening.
Homeowners need more assurance that if they're going to make the investments.
That they need to, to comply with state rules and also what we're doing in Ember.
To do the home hardening and do the, the defensible space that they should get insurance.
I think there'll be, I hope some additional enhancement to this bill.
Because I think like what we're seeing with Ember.
It's one thing.
If you're an individual homeowner and you do the work and no one else on your block does.
And insurance companies, I think, have a difficult time.
Guaranteeing a homeowner who's one person out of a hundred that does the work.
So I think, I think enhancements to this bill will be necessary.
I'm hoping that it happens in the legislative process.
That if it's a homeowner in concert.
With a whole neighborhood.
And they're not doing the work.
And they're not doing the work.
And they're not doing the work.
And they're not doing the work.
And they're not doing the work.
And so I think that if we can have widespread adoption, like what we're trying to do in Ember.
That should make the whole neighborhood more insurable.
So, but anyway, this, this, this bill is.
A step in the right direction.
I think with some adjustments.
To recognize the community's role in doing this, it will be even better.
But again, proud to support this.
And I appreciate disaster and fire safety commission bringing it.
Lastly, I'd also like to give $250 from our office budget to the Luna dance.
So I would ask since we're moving part of item seven and item 11.
I'd ask that we formally take no action on item seven.
Because item 11, basically what.
Takes the action from seven and just in broadens it to all the bills.
So the ask is no action on seven.
Item 11 now incorporates that.
Disaster and fire safety commission.
It also made that same recommendation.
And that's it.
Thank you.
Is there any opposition to that? I think.
That's fine.
Okay.
Thank you.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay.
Vice mayor.
Thank you so much.
I wish to abstain on item one.
I would like to think the.
Disaster and fire safety commission.
For their work.
As well as council member.
And I, I would, I'm excited to support items eight and 11.
And also mentioned that last week.
And I also have a motion on SB 13, 0 1 by senator Alan.
Reforming the insurance, non-renewable process and letters have been sent to applicable committee.
Chair's on that bill.
Lastly, I wish to contribute.
$1.50.
And I would like to thank council member.
For his work on this.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Council member Humbert.
Thank you, madam mayor.
And I would like to donate $200.
From the district, a discretionary account to item number 10, the Luna dance.
Creativity item.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Item 11.
I want to really extend my thanks.
To.
Council member black could be the author of 11 for adding me as a co-sponsor.
This is really.
Critical stuff.
And this is a really important letter.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Council member.
Thank you very much.
I would like to be recorded as donating a hundred dollars to the fire department.
And I would like to be recorded as a co-sponsor for item 11.
Supporting the mega fire prevention package.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Council member Keith.
Thank you.
I would like to be recorded as donating $250 from my office account to item 10.
I regarding item 11.
I really want to thank council member.
Thank you for letting me co-sponsor.
And then lastly, yeah, Pat the temple.
I just, I'm really excited.
Congratulations, Pat, if you're listening.
I've known Pat for almost 20 years.
And I actually introduced them and I'm just so happy.
I think he's extremely well qualified to serve on the pad.
And he really is.
He's one of the most civic minded people.
I think I've ever met.
So I'm really, I think that'd be a great addition.
Those are my comments.
Thank you very much.
I'm very excited that we have another appointee.
So congratulations, Pat.
And thank you.
Council member black me.
I know that many of us are waiting for either interviews or.
Background checks, but that we are moving those forward.
So just so folks know.
We are working very hard to get our PAB appointees on as soon as possible.
And I'd also like to add $250 for item number 10 for the Luna dance creativity.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
Is there any public comment on it? Consent items or information items only.
Anybody online.
Okay.
Very good.
Is there a motion.
I move we adopt the consent calendar as amended.
Second.
Okay.
Can we take the role, please? Okay.
To adopt a consent calendar council member.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
Motion carries.
All right.
Consent counters approved.
Thank you all so much.
We will move on to our action calendar.
For public hearings.
We've got.
Item number 12 submission of the program year 2026.
So I will send it over to city manager.
So if you'd like to introduce.
Yeah, thank you.
Our housing community services manager.
Margo is going to.
I think Margo is going to lead this presentation.
You can introduce.
Thank you.
There we go.
Good evening, mayor.
Good evening.
Tonight health, housing and community services staff are here to present the draft annual action plan.
Which is submitted to the U S department of housing and urban development for the city's annual allocation of community development block grant.
Emergency solutions grant.
And the home investment partnership program funds.
We are here to present the draft annual action plan.
The staff report and the annual action plan.
And we are both available to answer any questions you may have after.
No, pass it over to Kat.
You weren't expecting us to be done so quickly.
Feel free to move your mic closer to.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Can you hear me? Okay.
Thank you, Margo, for that introduction.
Good evening, mayor Ishii and members of the city council.
In my role.
I oversee and monitor federal and state grant compliance for the housing and community services division.
The draft annual action plan.
For the U S department of housing and urban development or HUD.
This presentation will include background of HUD requirements, the annual action plan process.
Including public participation.
And provide a brief overview of the planned projects and activities for the next year.
The full draft annual action plan is available in this council meeting agenda packet and on the city's website.
The draft annual action plan is a five year plan.
Meaning that the city receives a formula allocation of community development block grant CDBG.
Emergency solutions grant ESG.
And home investment partnerships program or home funds from HUD each year.
As a requirement of receiving these funds, the city must submit several reports include and include public participation throughout every process.
The draft annual action plan is a five year plan.
It covers the planned projects, activities, and outcome goals for this funds.
Each of the five years we submit an annual action plan.
And how we intend to meet the goals for that one year within the five year period.
The annual action plan is this annual action plan is the second year of the current consolidated plan and covers the period of July one, 2026 through.

Segment 3

June 30th, 2027.
The annual action plan follows the goals, projects, and activities that were identified in the consolidated plan.
This plan was presented to the Housing Advisory Commission, or the HAC, for comments and feedback at the March 5th meeting, where they voted to recommend that Council approve the plan.
The official public comment period opened on March 27th and will close this Friday, May 1st at 1159 p.m., and the final report is due to HUD around mid-May.
For the upcoming fiscal year, the City of Berkeley will receive approximately $3.4 million across the three funding streams, with CDBG making up the largest amount at about $2.6 million.
HUD did release the final allocation amounts in early April.
These funds received from HUD are allocated in three main ways.
The first is to community agencies through a Request for Proposal process that is conducted every four years.
This RFP process also includes state, local, and general fund dollars and authorizes the City to proceed with key federal projects utilizing these HUD funds, such as the Public Facility Improvement Program.
The public and several commissions are involved through reviewing proposals and recommending awards to Council.
I want to pause here and highlight that the majority of the funds being proposed in this annual action plan tonight have been allocated through this RFP process, which was adopted in June of 2024 for the cycle of FY 25 through 28.
Secondly, funds are expended through program delivery costs, such as staff, community agencies, developers, or consultants processing loans, conducting environmental reviews, inspections, or other program-related activities.
And finally, for administration, which is largely made up of personnel time, but also includes some operating and other overhead costs.
And now we will review the planned projects and activities.
So, the five-year consolidated plan sets goals that all of our annual projects fit under.
These include increasing affordable housing supply and quality, improving public facilities, and providing public services, and providing homeless prevention, shelter, and rapid rehousing.
Specifically looking at CDBG, these projects include rehabilitation of multifamily residences, single-family homes, and public facilities that support the preservation of affordable housing, improve the health and safety, ADA access, and or energy efficiency of homes and public buildings.
On this slide, I'd like to highlight that the Public Facility Improvement Program is projected to have a significant increase in funding due to expected program income, with the projected total to be about 1.3 million, and this will help fill a critical need for rehabilitation of public facilities.
Other projects under CDBG include public services, which are addressing housing navigation and fair housing services.
ESG will be used to provide financial assistance, housing relocation, and stabilization services to rapidly rehouse and support through emergency shelter.
The home funds will be used for housing trust fund and affordable housing development, where city staff support rehabilitation of multifamily housing and work through all the requirements of developing affordable housing in the city.
In closing, we ask that council consider the following recommended action, which is to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute any results and agreements and amendments for agencies receiving funding under the CDBG, ESG, or home program in accordance with the approved proposal.
Adjust reporting dates, due dates for community agency agreements, allocate the proposed funding plan described in the annual action plan, and finalize and submit the program year 2026 annual action plan to HUD.
Thank you very much, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate you presenting all this and going over all the timeline.
I think it's really helpful, especially.
Are there any questions from anyone on council here? No questions.
Okay, very good.
Thank you so much.
Is there any public comment on this item? We are on item number 12, which is the submission of the program year 2026 annual action plan containing allocations of federal funds.
I think Carol is moving towards the mic.
Okay, go ahead, Carol.
I don't know that this is the appropriate time to mention this, but I just want to say that had we known that the emergency shelter would be in jeopardy this year would be planned to be eliminated.
I think we would have given that high priority when we made our recommendations on the homeless services panel of experts.
Certainly shelters are the highest priority to keep people safe to keep people inside when the conditions are bad.
It was in Emeryville in the past year, but still, it was always full.
Carol, are you connecting it to this item? Okay, go ahead.
It was always full and there were 27 places there, and they were always full.
And so I hope that somehow we can identify a source of funding for it.
As I said, had we known during our community agency allocation recommendations that it would be in jeopardy, we would have addressed it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other public comment online? There's one hand raised online.
That's Mackay Freeman.
There we go.
Should be able to unmute you.
Yes, this is Shane.
CAO, you will be sharing our recommendations for priorities for deeply horrible housing and subsidies for housing preservation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Mackay.
That was the only raised hand.
Okay, thank you very much.
Any comments? I see that Vice Mayor Trigub has his light on.
I just wanted to appreciate the HHCS team for your hard work on this.
I remember reviewing these when I was on the Housing Advisory Commission a million years ago.
I know that since then, especially with this current federal administration, it has gotten more challenging to find financing.
And yet, nevertheless, we persist, you persist.
And I think this plan is a laudable statement of our city's values around ensuring that this is or can be a place that we can all call home.
And I'm proud to support this and will, if or when appropriate, would be happy to make a motion for this to approve the staff recommendation.
Thank you.
Council Member Humbert? Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor.
And I would echo the comments of Council Member Trigub.
Thank you to the HHCS team for all your work on the presentation and also for putting together the spending plan.
It's really harrowing and unfortunate that we may not be able to rely on these funds in future years.
But it's important we make the best of it while we can.
So thank you for all of your efforts on this.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Any other comments? Thank you all so much for your work.
I appreciate it.
And I believe we actually do need to vote on it.
There was a motion that was made.
The public hearing.
Sorry.
Yes.
Let's make a motion to close the public hearing.
Second.
Can we take the roll on that? Okay.
To close the public hearing, Council Member Castorwani is currently absent.
Taplin? Aye.
Yes.
Council Member Castorwani, to close the public hearing? Yes.
Okay.
Taplin? Aye.
Hartlett? Yes.
Trigub? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabay? Yes.
Munapara? Yes.
Thank you.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Thank you.
So now we need to actually..
We had a motion that was made.
But there was a second.
I second Council Member Trigub's motion.
Okay.
Thank you.
And can we take the roll on that, please? Okay.
To approve the staff recommendation for the annual action plan, Council Member Castorwani? Yes.
Taplin? Aye.
Hartlett? Yes.
Trigub? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabay? Yes.
Munapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Motion carries.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Okay, moving on to item number 13.
California Municipal Finance Authority Bond Financing for Ephesian Legacy Core Departments Project.
We don't have a presentation for this one, Madam Mayor.
But if you have questions, HCS Manager Ernst is here.
Okay, very good.
Are there any questions from Council? Yeah, we're on item number 13.
No questions.
Okay.
Is there any public comment on this item? Anybody online for public comment on item number 13? This is item number 13.
California Municipal Finance Authority Bond Financing for Ephesian Legacy Core Departments Project.
California Municipal Finance Authority Bond Financing for Ephesian Legacy Core Departments Project.
Now is the time to raise your hand on Zoom.
There are no raised hands.
No speakers online.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Any comments on this item? Yes.
Council Member Humbert, I know your clicker is not working.
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
I simply want to thank the HHCS team and the City Manager for their work on the item.
I'm excited to see the project get underway and appreciate everything City staff have done to help move it forward.
I do have more comments.
I also want to point out this is the sort of project that is made possible because developers pay in-lieu fees into our Housing Trust Fund, which, if I understand correctly, provided pre-development funds for this project.
So, if some people get their way and we see in-lieu fees dry up, this is the kind of permanently affordable housing project that may no longer be feasible.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member Bartlett, your district.
Yes, I'm going to say this is a really special moment.
This was, I think, the second in our line of church housing opportunity sites that we developed here in Berkeley.
And through the years, this went through many iterations, and the original developer, who was a wonderful man, he passed away before seeing his creation.
This is his creation, too, before seeing it come to fruition.
And I'm just really happy that it's here, and I wish he was here to see it.
And my colleague, Mr.
Humberg, makes a great point.
And this is really important as we talk about the debate around onsite in-lieu fees, et cetera.
It is complicated because the in-lieu fees do enable these hard-to-finance housing projects involving many, many people.
So, bear in mind as we go forward debating this topic.
And again, just thank you again to the staff for delivering this project.
It's been many years, and it really feels wonderful.
Thank you so much, Council Member.
I just also want to add my thanks and my excitement for this project.
This is also in my neighborhood, and I'm just very excited for this to become something more.
For a long time, it's been a dilapidated building, and it's very exciting to see it become something that is going to be really positive for our neighborhood.
So, thank you so much, and really looking forward to the groundbreaking.
So, thank you.
Okay.
All right, so now we have finished with that.
Can we? Yes.
It might require adoption of the resolution.
Yeah, I was going to say, I think I need to also have us first close the public hearing.
So, is there a motion to close the public hearing? Second.
Okay, can we take a roll on that, please? Okay, to close the public hearing, Council Member Kisarwani? Yes.
Kaplan? Bartlett? Yes.
Trigub? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabay? Yes.
Munapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Very good.
We have closed the public hearing, and now we'll see if there's any motions to move forward the item itself.
So moved.
Second.
Can we take the roll on that, please? Okay.
To approve the municipal financing authority bond financing, Council Member Kisarwani? Yes.
Kaplan? Aye.
Bartlett? Yes.
Trigub? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabay? Yes.
Munapara? Yes.
Humbert? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay.
Motion carries.
Thank you very much.
Sorry, I know we have to close the public hearing, and then vote on the actual item.
All right.
So moving on to item number 14, amendments to Berkeley Municipal Code, Title 23, zoning for consistency with state law and technical edits.
I will, oh, hello.
I will pass it over to our Director of Planning.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Thank you, Mayor.
Good evening, Council Members.
I'm Jordan Klein, Director of Planning and Development.
We have another of our periodic updates to the zoning ordinance that, as the Mayor mentioned, includes technical edits, no substantive policy changes, consistency with state law.
Presenting for staff is Justin Horner, and also at the staff table with us is Anne Hirsch, Land Use Planning Manager.
Take it away, Justin.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor Ishii, members of the City Council.
Justin Horner, Planning Department staff.
Tonight, we ask that you review, conduct a public hearing, and approve a package of amendments to the Berkeley Municipal Code to reflect state law changes and to correct technical inaccuracies.
The ordinance amendments in your packet include 26 total sections, 15 are simple copy edits, and include correction to terms, some clarifying language, corrections of inaccurate references, and an instance of a typo.
Of the 11 remaining changes, 4 are updates to the development standards to accurately reflect the City Council's action on middle housing from July of last year.
One removes additional permit requirements for middle housing projects in the MUR District that were intended to be approved ministerially.
Two are changes to JADU regulations pursuant to new state laws.
One is a clarification on state density bonus requirements.
And the last is the inclusion of a definition to the glossary section that was not ported over from the old Berkeley Municipal Code.
That concludes my presentation, and I am available for any questions.
Thank you so much for that very efficient presentation.
Are there any questions? Okay, any public comment on this item? We are on item number 14, that is the amendments to Berkeley Municipal Code, Title 23, for consistency with state law and technical edits.
Anybody online? There's one hand raised online.
Kelly Hamburger.
Hello, can you hear me okay? Yes.
Okay, so in this list under ordinance sections number 20, there's case law city cannot require documentation for waivers, and you have ES-R, which is environmental safety-residential.
And that's Panoramic Hill, which is a very high fire hazard safety area.
And I thought that this could not be applied to the very high safety, the very high fire zones.
And so that is, that's my question to look at that, and maybe you can ask, since I don't get to ask directly, an explanation of why we're including environmental safety-residential in Panoramic Hill.
After hearing people talk about Panoramic Hill, I just don't know why.
Thanks, Kelly.
I see them looking it up.
Any other public comment online? No, no more hands raised.
And go ahead, Vice Mayor Tracob.
Comment, do you have a comment? Yeah, through the chair, if I may ask that question, if you could just speak to if ES-R was contemplated.
Do you mean Director Klein? Director Klein.
Okay.
I was like, what chair? Thank you, Vice Mayor.
There are no changes to that section of the zoning ordinance.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Any other comments on this item? I have one quick one.
On the city cannot require documentation for waiver requests, I know that's kind of come up in recent appeals.
So that's responding to some state law changes.
Could you just give us a little bit of color on that, if you wouldn't mind? Yeah, so following that discussion at the city council on a recent ZAB appeal, we reviewed the local ordinance sections regarding density bonus projects.
And we found some specific language that we feel is inconsistent with government code and case law.
And so that's the proposed correction.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Any other comments before we close the public hearing? Okay, is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved.
Second.
Can we take the roll on that, please, clerk? Okay.
Council Member Kastorwani? Yes.
Kaplan? Aye.
Bartlett? Yes.
Traigub? Aye.
Oki? Yes.
Lackabay? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humber? Aye.
Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay, public hearing's closed.
Okay.
And does anyone want to make a motion here? So moved.
Second.
Can we take the roll, please? Okay.
On the motion to adopt the amendments to Title 23 of the Berkeley Municipal Code, Council Member Kastorwani? Yes.
Kaplan? Aye.
Bartlett? Yes.
Traigub? Aye.
Oki? Yes.
Lackabay? Yes.
Lunapara? Yes.
Humber? Yes.
And Mayor Ishii? Yes.
Okay, motion carries.
Very good.
Thank you all so much.
I feel like we've spent most of tonight taking roll.
All right, we are moving on to item number six, which is the amendment to the title 23 of the Berkeley Municipal Code.
All right, we are moving on to item number 15.
Do we need a break or can we push through? I think we can push through.
Okay, so item number 15, it's 1646 and 1650 Fifth Street rezoning and associated general plan amendments.
And here you are again.
Thank you.
Good evening again.
Now joined also at the staff table by Joshua Muller, an associate planner with our projects and policy team.
Take it away, Josh.
All right.
Good evening, Mayor Ishii, council members and members of the public.
My name is Joshua Muller and I am an associate planner with the Planning and Development Department.
On October 20th, 2025, the Planning and Development Department received general plan and zoning map amendment applications from the property owner of 1650 Fifth Street to rezone 1646 and 1650 Fifth Street to entirely MUR, mixed use residential, and to change the general plan land use designation of those two properties to solely be mixed use.
The subject properties both have single family residences with accessory storage structures, and the applicant has proposed a residential development project in a separate application with the city as residential uses are not permitted in the newly mixed use light industrial zoning district, which is the light blue portion on the existing zoning designation slide there.
The owner is unable to utilize the entirety of the parcel for a residential development project unless the map and the plan amendments are adopted.
And at the regular meeting on March 4th, 2026, the Planning Commission unanimously approved a recommendation to the City Council to adopt an amendment to the zoning map to rezone the portions of the subject parcels from MULI to MUR and to make the conforming amendments to the general plan land use map and the West Berkeley plan land use map.
The slide shows what the proposed zoning designation will look like.
You can see the full parcel is the dark blue now.
And staff's recommending that the council conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion, adopt a resolution to amend the general plan land use map and change the existing manufacturing and mixed use designations to solely mixed use and amend the West Berkeley plan for the conforming amendments as well.
And to adopt an ordinance amending the zoning map to rezone the portions of the subject parcels from mixed use light industrial MULI to mixed use residential MUR.
That is my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions that Councillor, the mayor has.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any questions.
Okay.
Is.
Are you moving for a question? Okay.
All right.
Is there any public comment on this? Come on up.
Hello, my name is Matthew.
I'm the applicant speaking to just pull it up.
Yeah, you can move it.
So it's.
There you go.
I am Matthew Wadland.
I am the applicant, the owner of 1650.
Two points when I initially applied for this, I contacted the owner 1646 and they happily allowed me to include them.
And then I also contacted the city of Berkeley.
They are the owner of the adjacent parcel on the other side, 1654.
They were not able to change this change.
It's just a realignment.
The reason it's significant, it's kind of twofold for property adjacent.
My pretty now has to pretty that has two different zones, and this is applicable when you go project, you're always asked what's on either side.
And I actually makes it.
For example, if you have commercial on one side in that.
So, for example, if you have commercial on the other side, and you have a residential, then the zones back changes.
So.
Also, there's a.
It doesn't make sense that that house is in the city had a very easy opportunity to change that join the.
So, that's the reason why I contacted the owner.
1654, the city on property to join this and do it all at once.
Otherwise the city at some probably have to do the process.
Took me about 6 months and 10,000.
Thank you.
Anybody let's see.
Any any comments from council.
Yes, go ahead.
Council member.
Yeah, I just short comments.
I want to thank you.
Client and Joshua more their work on this for minor change that none.
Well, let's serve to simply wreck.
So, yeah, I was wondering if you could.
I think that was probably a graphical surveying artifact.
Support from planning commission, and I'm happy to move it, but I would make the motion to approve.
Yeah, do you want a motion.
I was moved to close the hearing 1st.
I second.
All in favor.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's in use for that purpose.
We intend to maintain these for that purpose.
And so it seems and the applicants.
Feels like this, we're using it for that purpose.
At this point to transfer.
Felt like premature to comment on that.
Yes, yes.
Yes, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a.
House on that.
Housing most people sometime, HHC has managed contract.
So, it would, it would put some.
Similar process, but, you know, but.
We're not prepared to do that.
That's correct.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Council member.
Okay.
Okay, would you like to make that question? Yeah.
I motion.
Okay.
Is there a second? 2nd.
Okay.
Can we take the role now, please? Okay.
Move a.
Move a.
Move a.
Men, the general plan and amend the West Berkeley.
And an ordinance and men.
For.
55th street.
On the motion council member Kester want.
Yes.
Bartlett.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
And Mary she yes.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you, everybody.
All right.
So I meant to comment on the.
If you haven't all checked that.

Segment 4

Incredibly successful, and so I do want folks to just make sure you take a look at that if you hadn't already.
The researcher, Margot Cushel, Dr.
Margot Cushel, who worked on it, is amazing.
I'm a huge fan of hers, and she's the one that spoke at our Mayor's Conference, Alameda County Mayor's Conference, that I had invited you all to.
I think some of you were there.
So anyway, make sure you check that out, and I also want to see if there's any public comment, again, for items not listed on the agenda.
I actually was going to mention the report.
I have not read it yet, but the RV buyback program was incredibly successful with the motel conversion.
This is just for off the agenda.
That is off the agenda.
It's an information item, so..
Okay, okay, yeah, but we didn't get a chance to speak on that.
I didn't get a chance to speak on it, but we have a time earlier for consented information items only.
Oh, so this is..
So, just in closing, it's unfortunate that we couldn't receive County Measure W funds so that staff had so well planned a second RV buyback program.
It's really unfortunate, and whether it's Ephesians or anything else, other things that have been done, as much as you hear us complain, maybe myself included, about the lack of affordable housing to accommodate people, there is so much more than there was in the past.
So, so much has been done to provide for the homeless and bring them out of homelessness in our community.
It's unfortunate.
We're going back in time, and I don't know what's going to happen when our Shelter Plus Continuum of Care subsidies are lost, and we clearly have to look towards non-governmental options.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone online? Okay, I will see if there is a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second.
Can we take the roll, please? Okay, to adjourn the meeting, Council Member Kesarwani? Yes.
Aye.
Taplin? Yes.
Bartlett? Yes.
Trigub? Aye.
O'Keefe? Yes.
Blackabee? Yes.
Unapara? Yes.
Humberg? Yes.
And Mary Ishii? Yes.
Okay, meeting is adjourned.
Meeting is adjourned.
Thanks, everyone.