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June 23, 2026 · 7:00 PM

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Archive URI: berkeley_753b8ec2-4a9c-414c-93c9-5171a9eef523.ogg

Segment 1

Okay. All right. Thank you everyone so much for your patience. I'm calling to order the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council. Folks, if you could quiet down please. Thank you. It's June 23, 2026, 6.17pm. Can you start us off with a roll please? Thank you, Mayor. And before we start with roll, I just want to let everyone know we've been advised by Councilmember Bartlett that he'll be participating remotely under the Just Cause exemption in the Brown Act. So we're just going to run through that script real quick with Councilmember Bartlett. Councilmember Bartlett 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. Councilmember Bartlett has notified us of their need to participate remotely. Councilmember Bartlett, please provide a general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely at this meeting. You are reminded that you need not disclose any medical diagnosis, disability, or other confidential medical information. Thank you. Let's just call it a child care emergency. Thank you, Councilmember Bartlett. Please at this time disclose whether there are any other individuals 18 years of age or older present in the room at your remote location and if so, the general nature of your relationship with such individuals. Unfortunately, I'm the only adult here. Thank you. And Councilmember Bartlett, you are reminded that you must participate through both audio and visual technology. Thank you, everyone. And let's move on with the roll. Councilmember Casarwani. Here. Taplin. Present. Bartlett. Here. Thank you. Trigub. Present. O'Keefe. Here. Blackaby. Here. Luna-Para. Here. Humbert. Present. Amir Ishi. Here. All right. So since tonight is a special meeting, we have only a couple of items on here. So we have a supplemental that will be presented by staff. And then Councilmember Casarwani, if you could also present your supplemental. And just so folks know, what we'll do is I will also have some comments and then we'll move over to questions. So if anyone has any questions for any of the supplementals or anything about the COP or the budget, and then we will take public comments and then we'll hear comments from the councilmembers before voting. So, okay. Would you like to take it away? Thank you, Mayor Ishi and councilmembers. We have a very short presentation for you tonight. So share screen. Thank you very much. Next slide, please. Again, we're meeting a special council meeting tonight to adopt the proposed 27 and 28 biannual budget and the proposed five-year CIP. Also to adopt the fiscal year 2027 annual appropriation ordinance. This particular PowerPoint presentation is just to go over the changes since last Tuesday's meeting, June 16, 2026. Next slide, please. There were some changes that happened within a week that we presented last Tuesday, and most of those were to capture our first source and civic arts budget as well as our pass-through business district budget just to capture the projected revenue. Next slide, please. And the same thing for the expenditures. There were mostly to capture the civic arts and public arts and first source budget to reflect what is contributed from the capital projects that are eligible as well as the pass-through budget of our business improvement districts. Next slide, please. Overall, this is a proposed all-fund summary from the changes. So what we are looking now, further any more changes after this presentation is a proposed budget of $918.1 million of a 2027 budget with a revenue of $787.3 million and fiscal year 2028 budget of $873.1 million of expenditure and $789.6 million of revenue. As I've already stated in the prior slide, the changes come from pass-through business improvement district funds along with anticipated revenues approved by council in May and June of 2026, and changes also incorporates the appropriate budget for first source and public arts as well as updates to the parks tax and measure FF based on the revised public arts and first source contributions. As part of our supplemental two, there is a detailed explanation of the changes in the schedule of changes attachment. There is no changes made to the general fund since the 6-16 meeting. Next slide, please. That concludes this very short presentation. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Do you want to go ahead, council member? Sure. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Mr. City Manager and Deputy City Manager and all of the department heads, Ms. Dupaya, and all of the other staff who have worked really hard to propose really painful reductions so that the budget before us tonight is balanced. I want you all to know that I have spent countless hours over the last month especially poring over our budget to ensure that it reflects our values of fiscal sustainability, investment in basic services like street paving, and protection of the most vulnerable. I have seen the dedication of our city staff, and on a personal note, it really does pain me that this budget before us considers layoffs for certain individuals who will not be able to shift into vacant positions. I do want to thank our HR director for the ongoing work to determine if folks can shift to a position that's vacant for which they are qualified for. That is something I push very hard for, and I'm really pleased that we can do that. Let me go into the proposed amendments that I have submitted, and they're available online. And first, I want to thank the mayor for her proposal, and what I'm proposing here is intended to be in addition to the mayor's proposal. And in working very closely with the city manager and listening to the feedback from the fire department and the concerns that have been raised about the elimination of positions, I am proposing to use general fund sources to fund nine full-time equivalent positions in the fire department. So you can, I'm referring to the exhibit one summary of the proposed recommendation. It's going to take me some time to get it onto the Zoom because I don't have a Zoom. Okay, thank you, Council Member Blackaby. I want to thank, actually, Council Member Blackaby and Council Member Taplin for co-sponsoring this budget proposal. So we have these general fund sources, and we are proposing to use those sources to fund five firefighters, three paramedics, and one fire inspector. In regards to the fire inspector, I do want to note that that position approves, they conduct inspections, permit reviews, and code enforcement services. So to the extent that we have longer wait times for permit reviews, that would pose a detrimental impact to approving building permits for new housing developments in a timely manner. And so I think that is a very important position to propose funding. We also have $50,000 from Council Member Blackaby's district office budget that is going to fund Euclid Street garbage corral design in his district. So that's $50,000 in the first year and $25,000 in the second year. And then finally, I want to talk about this small sites allocation from the housing trust fund. I am a strong supporter of affordable housing, but we are in a $30 million budget deficit that necessitates layoffs. In a situation like that, I think we have to be very smart about how we spend our scarce resources. I want to note that the land trusts in recent years have received $8.2 million from the City of Berkeley to acquire properties. I'm going to say that again. They have received $8.2 million. So what I am asking for is consideration for new affordable housing. As my report notes, we have 1740 San Pablo Avenue, which is a blighted property at the corner of Delaware Street and San Pablo Avenue. That's one example of where these funds could be used. They are in need of $2 to $4 million in local gap funding that will create 54 new units of below market rate affordable housing. I just want to note that people who've already been displaced from our community, particularly the black population, they're not able to come here tonight and advocate for their interests. That's why I'm here to advocate for people who can no longer afford to live in our community. And I have been a champion for six years leading a community engagement process at the North Berkeley BART station to create more than 700 homes at that station, half of them affordable to low income households. And we have a proposal for permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless people at that site, 85 new units. And they are doing all they can to secure their funding stack. They just submitted a Homekey Plus proposal and they are in need of $3 million of local gap funding. So I'm advocating for unsheltered homeless people in the city of Berkeley and in Alameda County so that building can get built as soon as possible and they can have a shot to come inside. So I am for affordable housing. I am for spending our scarce dollars in a smart way. When we put our scarce housing trust fund monies into new affordable housing, you know, in this report, I need to explain to folks, because of the way affordable housing works, that those funds leverage state funds, federal low income housing tax credits, and private investment at a rate of $4 to $1. So the $3.8 million that we're talking about for the housing trust fund, that creates $19 million that can be invested in our community. That is what I am fighting for. And then finally, I take the issue of tenant protection very seriously. I talked at the outset about protecting the most vulnerable. This budget, despite all of the sacrifice that has been made, it still includes $800,000 in each year going to Eviction Defense Center and East Bay Community Law Center to fund eviction defense. And we have $.

Segment 2

Allocate the D6 officer plus funds of $50,000 for FY27 and $25,000 for FY28 for the Euclid garbage corral design. Confirming also that the small sites allocation of $3.8 million is for FY27, and that if that money is not applied for in FY27, that any unallocated funds at the end of the fiscal year would return to the general pot of the Housing Trust Fund. And then also return for a mid-year budget review in early 2027, which is when we usually get our numbers for AO1, to assess revenue projections and make informed decisions on positions to be included in the FY28 budget. You'll notice when I walk through it, or I'll scroll through it, that we have not recommended any positions for FY28. And that's specifically because we don't know what our financial situation will look like until after November. And to me, it's important that we make fiscally cautious decisions right now, while we have so much uncertainty. And the assessment will include any revenue impacts resulting from local sales tax measure, bond measure, and other local, state, or federal policies that have changed. So I'm going to scroll through that. So you can see at the top here, all of these are funds that are special fund allocations. These are not general funds. This is funds for the Downtown Berkeley Revitalization Projects, including Oxford for All, Car-Free Telegraph, Small Sites, Sacred Rest Village of Love, and then general fund transfers, including the Pitch Project from Council Member Humbert, with funds from his office, and then the general fund expenses that I was talking about earlier, including the one Office of Economic Development full-time position, funding for Solano Stroll, Live Free, a DBA outreach worker, $38,000 of that, and then as I mentioned earlier, these were added, the Fire Inspector position of $238,232, and the Euclid Street garbage corral design. And the revenue fund transfers that we would be looking at to fund those positions and projects include salary savings from my office, $160,000, CAO non-personnel, CAO salary, that's the City Attorney's Office, sorry, salary savings, a VTO, City Council catering, the Cannabis Settlement funding, increased annual ambulance transport revenue, as I mentioned, which would fund the Fire Inspector position, and the Euclid Street garbage corral design. Additionally, in regards to the CIP, again, I know that that presentation was done at the last meeting, so folks have not been able to see that, but I really want to thank the work that Public Works, Parks, IT, all City Staff, really, because our Finance Department, I know, is involved as well, so thank you so much for all the work you did on the CIP plan, and we're interested in ensuring that items that were identified for Measure FF funding are in fact eligible, and so for that reason, we'd like to move these four items to unfunded and pending, pending further review by staff and the Safe Streets Oversight Committee, which was the committee that was started with Measure FF, and this is the streets Measure FF, not the fire one. Yeah, it's okay, I didn't put it out. Okay, so the different pieces of the CIP that would move into unfunded and pending further review would be the Citywide Traffic Signal Master Plan, which is on page 220 of the PDF, the Transportation Design Guideline Study, which is on page 224, Transportation Nexus Study, which is on page 225, and the Vision Zero Plan Phased Implementation Roadmap, which is on page 225. Yes, Council Member Humbert. Yes, for purposes of discussion, I'd like to move the Mayor's. Second. Thank you. Are there any questions on any of the budgets, the proposals, the CIP from Council? Oh, yes, Council Member Taplin. Council Member Taplin, are you speaking? Hello. Oh, yeah, we can hear you now. Thank you, and good evening. Is there a way to compare what each is proposing with respect to the fire, to the permit positions? Yeah, so we have added onto our budget funding for the fire inspector position just for FY27, and that, again, it was because we wanted to make sure we understood what our financial situation was going to be after November so that we would be able to make decisions about other positions as well, not just FY28, but all of these positions that we're talking about. Yes, thank you, and the other? Apologies, Council Member Taplin, I didn't know you were referring to this proposal. So the proposal that we've put forward, it funds five firefighters, three paramedics, and one fire inspector. And I do want to say, you know, to what the mayor is talking about as it relates to fiscal uncertainty, I am also considering that. I have never been fiscally irresponsible in my time on the council, and I am aware of the transfer tax uncertainty that is out there. You know, there's this possible ballot measure, there was some movement in Sacramento for a possible deal. It's unclear if the deal is going to be accepted or not. So I am aware of that multimillion-dollar risk. I'm also aware of other revenue sources. So I'm taking all of that in totality when I'm proposing this, and I think it is a reasonable approach to do this now and not wait until November. Thank you. Questions, Council Member Blackbee? Yeah, question on the mayor's proposal. One thing that we've considered in the Kassarwani-Taplin-Blackbee proposal on the fire side is that one way or the other, these services need to be provided. Citizens expect fire safety, they deserve fire safety, and whether we do it through full-time staff or we do it through overtime of people who are currently sworn and serving, that time, that service will be provided. I think it's a more cost. So have you considered what happens to overtime if we don't fund these positions? Yes, and actually I think that recently Mr. David Whitehead had given an answer about that as well, looking at positions versus overtime. So perhaps you can address that. Sure. Deputy City Manager. I would say theoretically, if you look at what's proposed, you could argue that there's going to be a reduction in overtime. I think pragmatically, we wouldn't recommend any reductions in overtime because when we've observed the fire department's overtime over the past few years, for various reasons, no accusations to be offered, they've been going over their allocated overtime budget, and we see that trend continuing. So hypothetically, you could do it, but I think pragmatically, we wouldn't recommend it because they're going to need what they're allocated going into the next two fiscal years. Yes, my question, it's a topic we've kind of talked about with respect to police as well as fire, which is at the end of the day, we either have people in the sworn positions doing the job and potentially less overtime, or we have fewer people in sworn positions and potentially more overtime if there's some amount of service that needs to be provided. So I guess my point of view on this is, from the perspective of health and safety of people in those jobs, it's sort of more prudent to have people in the full-time roles than have less people and then rely on the overtime, where people are working extra shifts and putting themselves in. So I guess that's my considerations. I don't know if this proposal is fully considering what happens if we don't fund these positions in terms of the overtime piece, not to mention the health care costs, mental health care costs, and that kind of thing. And have we thought about that? Anyway, if we have fewer people in the full-time roles, we rely more on overtime. Right. So with the fire department proposals, Council Member Kassarwani's proposed, the firefighters, so there's two differences. The firefighters are filling in overtime shifts so that if they don't have those positions, someone's going to have to cover the overtime when it occurs. The paramedic positions are a little bit different because they're not assigned to filling overtime roles. They're actually assigned to pieces of equipment. But again, in terms of what the department needs for overtime, they need everything that they're allocated. So there'd be no change in that, regardless of how this shakes out. Keep in mind that these positions that you're looking at have already been frozen for FY26. So it's not that we're getting rid of more bodies. So as the Deputy City Manager said, the overtime would be the same. So my proposal does consider that. Good. We'll come back to that. I'm hearing the commentary, but thank you. Are there other questions? Okay. So let's move on to public comment then. If you have public comment on any of these pieces. Mayor, I apologize. Before we do public comment, I just wanted to point out that there is revised material from the City Manager for the City Council's consideration. And if the Council would like to move forward with a motion to accept that. So if we could amend the motion to accept the sub-free funding from the City staff. Second. Do we need to make a motion to amend or just a friendly amendment? In order to consider it and fold it into the actual action of the Council, we do need to vote to accept it for consideration. We have a motion from Vice Mayor Trega, and a second from Council Member Taplin. So go ahead. On the motion to accept the revised material, Council Member Kesarwani? Yes. Taplin? Aye. Bartlett? Yes. Trega? Aye. O'Keefe? Yes. Blackaby? Yes. Munipara? Yes. Humbert? Yes. And Mayor Ishii? Yes. It's accepted for consideration. And if the maker and seconder of the motion would like to include that in their motion, that they may do so. Yeah. They're both okay with including that in their motion. Okay. It's acceptable to the mover and seconder.

Segment 3

People and I study city planning at UC Berkeley. First, I just want to thank the mayor and everyone who worked on the mayor's budget proposal. I think it did a really good job balancing the budget and I asked the entire council to back the mayor's budget proposal, specifically because of the car free telegraph funding allocation. Telegraph has the second highest pedestrian traffic in the East Bay. It's also my favorite street to walk on. I walk on it multiple times per day. Pedestrians vastly outnumber cars on the road, if you just take a look, but cars get most of the right of way space. From a public safety perspective, every month pedestrians and cyclists are injured or killed by cars on Telegraph and in Southside. So making Telegraph a car free street is the right thing to do for public safety. Cars are dangerous, inefficient, and polluting. So please support the mayor's recommendation. Thank you for your time. Thanks. I also have a minute given to me by Betsy Morris. Good evening. My name is Leah Simon-Weisberg. As many of you know, I have spent the last 25 years trying to address the housing affordability crisis. What the proposal includes, particularly around small sites, is extremely uninformed. There's a reason that you have none of the affordable housing, the new production people here supporting it. You also, as much as I love Randy Shaw, he's a colleague of mine, he is a producer of affordable housing. So the fact that he wants you to give money to him doesn't really mean that that justifies it. As I've said many, many, many times, when you ask tenants where they would prefer to live in Berkeley, they will always say the land trusts. I have never had someone come up to me and say, I can't wait till RCD's next project. I can't wait to live there. And part of the problem is, is that the land trusts provide an enormous amount of democracy and respect. And tenants feel seen, and they have good management because they participate in that. That is why there's almost nobody here from the city of Berkeley who lives here. The only residents that are here are people fighting for the small sites. Because we have neighbors who live there, we have teachers who've taught our children who are now retired who live in them. The community of Berkeley lives there. Please do not think that you are protecting tenants, because the tenants are saying fund this. Please do not say that you are doing something around affordable housing because people, these products also leverage money. And small sites, there's almost no other funding for it. Where production, there's lots of sources for it. It makes a huge difference. That's why so many of your residents, and I'm in District 2, why we are here fighting for it. Thank you. I have two other give me minutes. Good evening, Mayor Ishii and City Council. My name is Isabel Gaston, and I live in District 6. I strongly support preserving the firefighter and paramedic positions that are under consideration for elimination. There are few responsibilities more fundamental to city government than protecting the lives and safety of its residents. Firefighters and paramedics are the people we depend on during the most critical moments of our lives. When a home is on fire, a family member suffers a heart attack, a major bike collision occurs, a wildfire, an earthquake. In those moments, every second matters. The speed and effectiveness of Berkeley's emergency response can mean the difference between life and death. I know this personally because I had such an experience several years ago. These positions are not discretionary services. Cutting nine positions will inevitably place greater strain on remaining personnel. The impacts would be felt across every single council district and by residents of all ages, including seniors, people with disabilities, and those experiencing homelessness. We are a densely populated city, vulnerable to earthquakes and wildfires and frequent fires in homeless encampments, unfortunately. Maintaining a fully staffed, highly trained emergency response system is not a luxury. We are fortunate to have a fire department that is widely respected for its professionalism, expertise, and commitment to serving the community. BFD has earned a reputation as among the finest emergency responders in the state of California. Their dedication saves lives every day, often under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. With a budget of close to $800 million, I think the city can find $1.7 million to fund these positions, and that's exactly what Rashi, Terry, and Brent's proposal does. I urge the council to vote tonight for preserving these nine positions. We cannot afford to take this exceptional service for granted. Thank you. Thank you. I think I have an extra minute over here. Okay. Hi, I'm Lisa Bullwinkle. I am from District 3. I am on the Art Commission, but tonight I'm speaking as a resident. Departments were all asked to cut their budgets by 10%, and I would like you to consider how much you are asking civic arts to cut theirs, especially knowing that the arts are an income generator to the city. Current budget cuts to civic arts include eliminating the leadership position and the reassignment of remaining staff responsibilities, which would limit the scope of arts programming. This totals a loss of $288,000, more than 20% of the civic arts budget. This should be more than enough to cover the 10% originally required of all departments. However, civic arts is being asked to cut their budget even further by reducing the grant program another 10%. Organizational grants are currently in the second year of a two-year cycle. This is bad timing. Festival grants have already taken a hit of more than $40,000 reduction during the last cycle from their prior level of $200,000. If we do need to take any additional funding cuts, it would be preferable to cut the large pass-through funds that the council issues without any oversight of the Art Commission. In future, we're considering asking that all pass-through funds, which are one-time fixes, should be allotted to the grants program to be distributed in a transparent and equitable manner. Cutting 50% of these funds now from the affected organizations that are budgeted to receive them would give them time to adjust their budgets until the funds are correctly applied for and distributed through the grants program. Help us bring joy back into this community, especially during these dark times. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Claire Greensfelder. I'm a homeowner in District 6. I'm a member of the Berkeley Cultural Trusts and Executive Director of the California Institute for Community Art and Nature. Two points about the arts budget. One, the position that was, Jennifer Lovarn, who had been our coordinator, director, is set to be cut. We requested it be frozen because there's a possibility in the future that there's funds to bring it back. If it's cut, it will be much harder. Second, as Lisa just referenced, the $83,000 cut to civic grants. Approximately about 100 grants are made. That's about $800 per group. This is not a huge savings for the city, but it's devastating to the groups that receive the money. When you think about the fact that $830, at least in our organization, provides $800 honorariums to artists, puts money directly in their pockets for participating in events. Artists are struggling right now, and we don't want to mirror what is happening at the federal level with the NEA and NEH cutting grants to programs such as ours. Please consider restoring the $83,000. Thanks so much. I'll speak for two minutes. John Butler. Good evening, council members and Mayor Ishii. My name is Vinita Goyal. I'm a Berkeley resident and work for First Spectrum Labs. We are building economic power and economic democracy for communities so that they can build the muscle to defend public political democracy. Especially in the current moment when our basic rights are being dismantled, as we are witnessing today precipitated with Council Member Kesarwani's proposal. When a city wins a voter-approved measure, it needs to deliver on the approved allocation items to win voter trust and confidence, but to actually serve the community on the intended outcomes. The city has lost over a thousand unsubsidized affordable homes since 2020. A thousand more are at risk in the next five years. Without sufficient resources to fund permanent affordable housing, displacement in the city is and will be inevitable. Mayor Ishii's allocation of $2.5 million to the Small Sites Program in the upcoming budget is a crucial step in the right direction. The city's dollars will not only unlock regional and state dollars, but also private and philanthropic capital needed for the acquisition of buildings and protection of residents who remain at risk. We can't afford to conflate the city's preservation goals with those of production and protection. We need the city's political will to fund permanent affordable housing now. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Should only need about three or four minutes and I think I have enough time to yield behind me. Oh, could you ask who's yielding? Oh, three. Do you three? Okay, Madam Mayor, City Council, City Manager, my name is Steven Gilman. I'm the International Association of Firefighters 10th District Vice President. I represent 57,112 firefighters in the proud states of Hawaii, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the Mariana Islands, and today I'm here to talk about your firefighters. Firefighters standing in this room behind me. And today's more about a line item. Today's more about a budget. It's about whether a promise that the people of Berkeley had that was made by the City Council because the citizens of this city have already done the part, the heavy lifting. They've passed two sales tax initiatives, Measure GG, Measure FF. They came back to the ballot twice with 74% of the budget. The people of Berkeley reached into their own pocket and they said fire protection and public safety are a priority and will pay for it ourselves. And they taxed themselves in good faith because they believed that when they called 911, their firefighters would.

Segment 4

Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Jane White, District 5. I'm a member of NSA and also work with SBS. I'm not speaking officially for those organizations. I'm speaking for myself. I'm here to urge the support of what us voters voted in good faith to allocate the money for the small sites. It just keeps feeling like we're shifting sands and we vote for something and we all go and celebrate and then all of a sudden what we have said has disappeared. So I'm really urging we know that small sites is a proven tool for preserving affordable housing and preventing displacement and it is the values that we in Berkeley supported and rallied again for. Thank you very much. Good evening, Janice Ching, District 3. The issue with removing funds from the small sites project is trust. Ten years ago I voted for Measure U1 just like 75% of the voters of Berkeley did because I believe the funds would be used for affordable housing. So this measure was advertised that way and yet it was put into the general fund and so that is an issue with all these tax measures that people are talking about. So last year you voted to divert $2.5 million of U1 funds from this budget to balance the budget last year in 2025. This year you're proposing another $3.5 million to take away from the small sites program. This diminishes your credibility when you also adamantly state how much our city needs affordable housing and how much you want to see people housed. The Kesarwani-Taplin-Bakabe proposal does not guarantee that money to go where it needs to go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council and community. I have a firefighter. I'm a wannabe firefighter. I practice law instead, but I want to be a firefighter. One of them I hear has a minute. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I also have my fellow SEIU 1021 member on the line, Christina Rhea, who's succeeding her. Can someone else from fire give another minute so we don't have to find that person? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I have three minutes. My name is Moni Law, and I speak as a wannabe firefighter, a city employee, and a supporter of affordable housing. And my position is that we can have all three. We do not need to divide families against firefighters. We do not have to opt for one or the other. It is critical that our promises are kept, GG and FF. Firefighters supported it. The community supported it. We have to support them. Small Sites was approved by U1. There is unity for urgent, urgent housing. I go out on the streets, as many of us do as community members, and help unhoused families that we found in the rain on the corner. And who else showed up? The paramedics. Blind Tony, who died recently but was housed finally, was helped by the paramedics. Also, children sleeping on sidewalks is unacceptable in the city of Berkeley. How can that be? Often, we also look at no shelter during the winters are available for families. There is no shelter in Berkeley for families. It's unacceptable and shocking to me. Families include low-income workers, people with disabilities, seniors, and the Small Sites program is critical. Please do not cut it. Finally, I really want to thank Mayor Ishii for her efforts to emphasize the importance of credibility and consistency in effective governance. Your proposal is strong and solid, and we can make room for everyone, including art and the joy of community festivals, etc. So I also speak as a member of the Indigenous Peoples Pow Wow Committee and the Juneteenth Committee. But I think Berkeley is special because we prioritize things such as culture, such as community, such as unity, such as diversity, such as housing people because they have the right to housing, such as employees who work hard and are very much putting their lives on the line often to help us make a better city. So SEIU 1021, union strong, city of Berkeley, historic, and our being the first on Earth Day. Last point, in the fires that are to come because of climate change, more reason for the priority of fire department staff as well as housing for people to not be in the outrageous climate actions that were having recently with nowhere to go. So we can't have blind ponies on the street suffering for years or families that I've met and housed and got housing for them with hotels. Thanks. Thank you. Give them housing, not hotels. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Dustin Tranberg, District 3. Dustin Tranberg, District 3. I'm the proud son of a San Jose firefighter, and I'm here to speak in support of the Small Sites Program. The Small Sites Program helps transform rental housing from being fed to the sharks of the speculative market and helps transform it into self-funded, resident-managed housing that supports democracy in the city of Berkeley and prevents people from being kicked out of their homes. Often people have been here for decades or their entire lives. So I urge you to not put these two communities at war with each other. Firefighters and equal housing can live together, and the city of Berkeley is the place for that to happen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, she's going to give me her minute. Hi, so my name is Bridget, and I'm actually a recipient of the Small Sites. I live at 2627 California Street. If it had not have been for the Baylor Community Land Trust and Small Sites, I wouldn't even be able to stand here and talk to you today because I would have been exempted out of Berkeley. I would not have been able to afford to live here. So I am here to represent. I'm also here to represent Black people, people of color, and what's happening out there. It's hard. If you're on this board or you're the mayor, you don't understand how expensive it is to try to just make it every day, and we're just trying to keep a roof over our head. We don't really want to try and do too much of anything else. I hear an understanding about a proposal today about affordable housing and building it from the ground. That can be. I don't understand why it can't be that and Small Sites. That would even give Berkeley an overall design of low income. And when sometimes things are built from the ground up, what they consider affordable is not affordable for the people that actually live there. But if it's already there, it's preserved, and we want to preserve it, we want to improve it, we want to make it better, it's hecka cheaper. So I just want to say please, please do not get rid of Small Sites. It's people like me that cannot afford to do it, and I work a decent job. I'm not diligent or whatever. I'm just trying to keep a roof over my head. And then as we get older and start getting to the point of retirement and stuff, trying to stay here and keep some sort of balance on the rents that we pay, Small Sites, low income housing is the only way that that's going to happen. So I just wanted to make sure that I give that to you and help you understand that it is important. I know that the firefighters are important because without them, I'm not going to be – I want to be able to have them respond right away if something happens to me, like I think all the rest of you do. Thank you, Richie. Hi, Jennifer Hanson-O'Meara. I'm actually Vice Mayor of Albany, and I wanted to come here and thank Mayor and the rest of the City Council for working so difficultly with everything going on and so many decisions to make and so many things to do. And, you know, Albany is part of Solano, and so is Berkeley part of Solano, and the line goes very kind of staggered up and down. So you have businesses that are, in fact, part of Berkeley but are on Albany streets and sidewalks. So it's so important for our partnership to be able to do this between our cities together, combined, to unify and be able to bring this 50th Solano stroll to our people and surrounding people and all of the businesses and hope for that economic wealth. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, there, Council and Mayor Ishii. My name is Alan Kane. I'm the Executive Director of the Solano Avenue Association. I'm here to supplement the very short comments that were made in the midnight hour last week. I did want to express the Solano Avenue Association's sincere appreciation for the fact that everybody stepped up to the plate to help us produce the 50th Solano stroll. We're roughly 60 days away from the event, so not only are we scrambling to produce this festival, we're also looking at ways to make sure that 2027 happens, and we're adjusting the ways that we do our fundraising and that kind of thing. But it's just fantastic that everybody stepped up to the plate. I just can't express our appreciation enough. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Jennifer Hanson-O'Meara. I'm actually Vice Mayor of Albany, and I wanted to come here and thank Mayor and the rest of the City Council for working so difficultly with everything going on and so many decisions to make and so many things to do. And Albany is part of Solano, and so is Berkeley part of Solano, and the line goes very kind of staggered up and down. So you have businesses that are, in fact, part of Berkeley but are on Albany streets and sidewalks. So it's so important for our partnership to be able to do this between our cities together, combined, to unify and be able to bring this 50th Solano stroll to our people and surrounding people and all of the businesses and hope for that economic wealth. Thank you. Good evening, City Council. My name is Reverend Sophia DeWitt, Chief Program Officer at East Bay Housing Organizations, and I'm here to.

Segment 5

quickly clears the streets for ambulances and fire crews so they can respond without fighting traffic. So I'm asking for the sake of all Berkeley citizens who thrive and live on Telegraph, one of the most busy intersections in Berkeley, please support this measure. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Matt Gustafson with the Bay Area Community Land Trust, resident of District 2 in Berkeley. I want to stand in solidarity with firefighters and also city staff tonight. I want to say the memo isn't really about getting the most bang for your buck. This is about totally eliminating preservation. A budget without preservation for housing is a budget that doesn't believe low-income Berkeley residents deserve agency in their homes, don't deserve to remain in place, or self-manage or self-govern. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Kristen Leimkoller, District 1. I'm here to express my concerns about eliminating the nine paramedic and firefighter positions. I believe the decision to eliminate these positions is short-sighted and does not reflect a commitment to Berkeley's public safety. In recent years, a dramatically changing climate coupled with the devastating fires that destroyed over 10,000 homes in L.A. have opened our eyes to the risk Berkeley faces in the event of a catastrophic firestorm. We know that Tilden Park, while providing a green belt that we all enjoy, also poses a serious risk to not just the hills but our entire city below. If the climate conditions and high-velocity winds combine with a spark, we will need every single trained firefighter and paramedic defending our lives. We also know that firefighters have responded to numerous fires near the freeway and railroad tracks that are sometimes a result of unsafe practices by unhoused people. Our first responders are there to protect both the housed and unhoused, even when that is extremely challenging. Thank you. I have two additional minutes, one from Eric from the fire department and one from Lisa, who's in line. On behalf of the Homeless Services Panel of Experts, I am Carol Murasevic, the Chair. Firefighters provide an essential service, and they provide it efficiently and equitably in Berkeley, and I can testify to what happens when that is not applied. When I was in my 20s, my parents had strokes five days apart. I was with my father while my mother was in the hospital when he had a massive stroke, and it seemed like when I called, there were a lot of questions before the paramedic was dispatched, and it seemed as if there was a delay. I would later be told at the hospital by that paramedic that they didn't dispatch until after I had answered all those questions because my parents lived in a Black neighborhood, and that's what happens when there's a lack of equity. As to the Small Sites Program, this is homelessness prevention. It is also an essential service. Shelters, that is, homelessness being addressed, is an essential service to this community. We asked on the Homeless Services Panel of Experts if Council would consider referring to staff to negotiate with the motel conversions to reduce the price so that the shelter could be restored, the emergency shelter. We still believe that can be done. There are planned negotiations that staff is already planning to do with the conversions, and we hope that we can save that emergency shelter. Thank you for restoring the downtown business district DBA worker. I'm sorry you're all in this position because these are our essential services. You're clearly paying for the sins of your father because there has been waste in the past, but we cannot reduce these essential services. Again, housing and the small sites is important. We shouldn't really be debating one against another. The fire department is important. Homelessness prevention is important. We have to have all of this, and we have to cut back on consultants. We recommended that from the Homeless Panel of Experts. Things have to be scrutinized a lot more carefully. I've come to you over the years often wondering where is all this money coming from? We have to scrutinize everything carefully so that we preserve these essential services. Thank you. Thanks, Carol. Did you have a public comment? If you can't reach this mic up here, we can also move one over. I think I can reach it. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I just want to thank the fire department and all the city workers. I believe that they all deserve their fair pay. The Bible says a hired hand is worthy of their pay. I live at 2747 San Pablo Avenue in Terry Taplin's district, and the building I live in is a relatively new building, and the fire alarm system doesn't work. The Berkeley Fire Department has showed up several times because the system doesn't work. It's malfunctioned, but I think the biggest problem we have is not cutting people's jobs out. It's oversight and accountability. I believe that if City Council and elected officials were held accountable for managing budgets, and if they did not and that affected their pay, the outcome would definitely be different, and homeless people definitely need affordable housing. Thank you. Okay, we have a number of folks online. All right. Our first speaker is Makai Freeman. Makai, you should be able to speak. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Sorry, I was fumbling for the mute. Good evening, Mayor Ishii, City Council, and City Manager. My name is Teresa Gonzalez, and I'm speaking on behalf of Live Free California and the Berkeley Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention Program. First, thank you to Mayor Ishii and the entire council for your leadership during an extraordinarily difficult budget season. We are especially grateful to you all for identifying funding to save many critical services and programs, including the $200,000 to close our fiscal year 27 funding gap. In 2024, Berkeley experienced three fatal shootings and five non-fatal shootings. Eight people were shot. The financial cost exceeded $13 million, but the human cost was even greater. Lives lost, families shattered, children traumatized, entire communities left carrying the lifelong pain, and all Berkeley taxpayers ultimately bearing the cost. In 2025, Berkeley experienced zero fatal shootings and zero non-fatal shootings. That means youth and adults who are most vulnerable to gun violence are alive today. It means safer communities and stronger communities for all of Berkeley. Thank you. Thanks, Teresa. Merrill Siegel is our next speaker. Hi, thank you. I'm here to support the Small Sites funding, and I'm also here to support democracy. Democracy is alive when you see 75% of voters voting for a ballot measure and having that ballot measure stay intact. Measure one, this is the second time it's been raided by our city council, and this is a very important measure for affordable housing because with Small Sites housing, you have the housing now. You have it right now. You don't have to wait for it. It's not going to be a monstrosity in the community. The people are living there. Many are senior citizens and poor. I just can't even fathom why anyone would want to touch that money. It is an essentially Berkeley-esque, beautiful idea, and we need to preserve that. Thank you. Thanks, Merrill. Heather Bromfield. Good evening. My name is Heather Bromfield. I'm with Enterprise Community Partners in Northern California. I'm also an East Bay resident, and I'm commenting today on the proposal to cover $200,000 emerging developer capacity building grant. Enterprise gets to work with both small and large mission-based developers in Berkeley in a variety of ways, investing and positioning projects for major grants and tax credits. Capacity building grants are lifelines for small organizations who perform deeply necessary and difficult anti-displacement work in the Berkeley community. We're grateful to Council Member Kasowani for citing Enterprise's research and their memos, but I wanted to clarify a couple of things. First, Enterprise is in support of all three keys of affordable housing, including production, protection, and preservation. The memo cites our research stating that new construction leverages state and federal dollars and claims that preservation cannot. This is untrue. Preservation can leverage regional and state funding, and small sites projects in other jurisdictions recently leveraged funding from Boffa to execute six projects or multiple projects. Second, just earlier this week, our Assembly Member Buffy Witts and now State Senator.. Heather, I'm sorry. Your time's up. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mia Gerden. Hello. Oh, yes, we hear you. Sorry, I was fumbling for the mute. Good evening, Marin City Council. My name is Mia, and I'm the board president for Telegraph for People. I would like to thank the council and Mayor Ishii for including funding for car-free telegraph designs in the mayor's budget proposal. I respectfully ask the council to support the mayor's proposed budget and follow through with previous council president in prioritizing the pedestrianization of Telegraph Avenue. As a student at UC Berkeley, living on Southside was the first time I ever experienced living in a walkable area. The proposal to pedestrianize Telegraph is the exact kind of policy that not only preserves a special part of our city, but also follows through with the city's Vision Zero goal of promoting pedestrian safety. With so many pedestrians, cyclists, micro-mobility users comprising an overwhelming majority of Southside residents and traffic violence being ever-present, we must approach this issue as what it truly is, as one of public safety. Keeping the mayor's proposal and funding the city to pedestrianize Telegraph Avenue is a vital step that the council can take to reduce these preventable deaths and injuries. Please vote to support the mayor's budget proposal and fund car-free Telegraph. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mia. Dorothea Doren's. Good evening. Hi. I support the proposal that Terry Chaplin, Kishelwani, and Blackaby have.

Segment 6

given to us. And the reason is, it's not that I don't care about small sites and people being housed. Actually, I care very much about the future of housing in this city, because it will supply us with more housing for people. The fact that the measure for small sites was passed in 2014 doesn't take into account the major changes that have gone down around the city being forced to create 9,000 new residences in our city. The picture has changed enormously, and so we have to be flexible and find more housing for more people. Not take away housing, but find more housing. And the idea that this proposal figures out how to keep the firemen hired is very, very important. So I'm asking you to look into the future. Thank you. Thanks for your comment. All right. Della Luna, you're up next. Yes. Thank you. I wanted to speak in support of bringing in the more housing. Well, one I want to say, I think the fire departments and the nine hirings is just critical. That should not even be a question. So I appreciate the council members that went through effort to bring those positions back. My reasoning behind that is just those firefighters, those positions could help any resident in Berkeley at any time. So the value that it presents to all of us, whether small sites, affordable housing, or in the hills, you know, it benefits all of us, even the potentiality that it could save our lives. But I'm in support of the larger housing projects being built. And I know, well, not just generally speaking, but in this case, because I know that there are people waiting for the right to return. And I don't think the small sites actually creates a funnel for new people or people to return into Berkeley, because people are already in those homes, generally speaking. And then they're also very expensive. Small sites has been very expensive. Thank you. Our next speaker is Paula Senhoy. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, city council members and community members. My name is Paula Senhoy, and I'm from district five. So I'm here to speak as a resident of small sites, allocated funds that the community allowed to acquire. And I am basically here to in support of that and also in support of the mayor's proposal. Of course, the firemen are very, very important for our community as well. But again, I don't agree with having hearing the community talk about putting us or pinning us against the very important fire community, the firemen, people that need those spaces that need to be filled. Basically, it's a very essential, very essential necessity for our city to function correctly, because they are like our first line of defense when anything happens. Basically, if we're calling the fire department or 911, they will be the first ones to come. They are heroes. Thank you, Paula. Thanks for your comment. Our next speaker is April Victoria King. Good evening, Mayor Ishii and council members. I'm a district three resident at the Stewart Street co-op. As a music educator, artist, mother and Berkeley resident, I'm deeply grateful to have affordable housing in an environment where my family is valued, rooted and protected from displacement. At Stewart Street, we're members of a forming co-op who have agency, responsibility and a voice in the place we get to call home. My family's story should not be considered lucky or exceptional in Berkeley. What the small sites program makes possible is permanent affordability, resident power and preservation of Berkeley's neighborhoods. I implore the city council to continue to support the small sites program while supporting everything our city needs. Berkeley is one of the best cities in the world, and we have a duty to keep leading as an example in an inclusive, thriving community. I want to thank Mayor Ishii and the council members supporting small sites, and I urge the full council to protect Measure U1's purpose and fund small sites program in this budget. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Berkeley neighborhoods, you should be able to unmute. Hi, this is actually Christopher Pearl. I'm not, I'm representing only myself. I do want to note that last year I had a serious bike accident and the wonderful EMTs from station three on Russell Street, who I really appreciate, helped. I had serious facial injuries and thanks to them, I was able to get to Highland Hospital and get treated. So I'm very grateful to have the personal experience. To the emergency services, the fire department of the city of Berkeley. That said, I'm here today to support the mayor's supplemental. I do not support pitting emergency public safety positions against a measure that was passed by the voters by 75% 10 years ago to provide for much needed affordable housing in Berkeley. I urge you to not repeat what happened last year when this funding was raided and to leave Measure U alone and not take money from that fund. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Call in user one. You should be able to unmute. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hi. My name is Bernadette. I'm a Berkeley resident. I've been in Berkeley for about 40 years. I'm actually appalled that we're being asked to choose between firefighters or affordable housing or the Small Sites Program. I know that we can do better as Berkeley. The city council members, I would like for you all to come up with something that's a win-win situation, which is thoroughly doable, that we don't have to worry about if somebody has an emergency. We know someone who had a pulmonary embolism that had to be carried down the stairs by the firefighters. If they had not shown up, that person would not be alive today. We know people personally who have also been having to call the ambulance because of other illnesses. We can't be talking about losing our housing or having safeties. Why are we pitching safety against shelter? Thank you so much for your time. Sorry, your time is up. All right. Our next speaker is 1000 Ida Martinek. Hello. Good evening. I'm a resident of District 3, and I'm also a commissioner of the Berkeley Rent Board, but speaking here on my own behalf. I would like to incorporate by reference what others have said tonight in support of the Small Sites Program, and would also like to add the following. What kind of mind devises a budgetary supplemental pitting vulnerable people in dire need of remaining in their homes against the fire department that we all love and need? The rationale that Small Sites Program doesn't take advantage of federal funding flies into the face of massive uncertainty in regard to everything coming down from D.C. at this time. We cannot and should not base our budgetary decisions on any federal monies. This is happening at the time when the senior population of the state of California is facing exponentially rising— Sorry, your time is up, but thank you for your comment. Thank you, Ida. Our next speaker is Cheryl Davila, former council member. It's interesting and sad that you would put an item in that's going to take money away from the—well, not good to have a bond issue on the ballot and use the money that you already received for something else that it wasn't intended to do. That's not cool. That's like—that's really, really bad. And you should have given Makai more time. And also you need to fund mental health. I was out and about, as I am in Berkeley often, and people that work for the city come up to me and tell me all the crap that goes on in the city, and it's not good. Like, why are you funding the police department so much money? You could take away some of that money and fund mental health in the— Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Alfred Trew. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Great. Thank you, everyone. Thank you to the mayor and council members supporting the small sites. This is a great program that keeps housing affordable, and it also modernizes and makes it safer and more accessible. The first small sites project, which was on Stewart a few years ago, it turned a vacant building nobody was living in, added a wheelchair ramp, made other upgrades, and created new housing. It also saves tenants for current buildings the expense of moving and preserves their community relationships and their state money coming. SB 1091, which Senator Aradine is a co-author, passed the Senate and also passed Assembly Housing Committee, where every Democrat voted for it, including our Assemblymember, Buffy Wicks. And finally, I also want to put in a word for the telegraph, car-free. That's been a long time coming, and with thousands more living in Southside, it's long overdue. Thank you. Thanks, Alfred. All right. Next up is Sloan. Sloan, you should be able to speak. Peace, Council. My name is Sloan, and I'm with Live Free. I wholeheartedly support the Mayor's proposed budget, including the $200,000 reallocation of Live Free's gun violence intervention and prevention program, which will close our funding gap for the fiscal year of 2027. This work is deeply personal to me. I have seen firsthand the impact that violence has on individuals, families, and entire communities, and I've also witnessed the power of a community-based intervention, healing, and support to transform lives. We thank the Mayor, Ishii, and all the Council members in advance for your support of our program and your commitment to our community safety. Your investment helps ensure that life-saving work can continue, reaching those who need it most. Thank you all for your time and consideration. Thank you, Sloan. All right. Kelly's iPad, you're next. Okay. As I go through City Council agendas, meeting after meeting, I see spending on consent rarely questioned. It is as if we have endless unquestioned spending until we get to the budget process, then we are in a crisis. This round has put the Fire Department as.

Segment 7

Absolutely. And please do not claw back the $1.3 million. Thank you. Alright, next speaker is Linda Alevenbaum. Hello, good evening. I urge you not to reallocate Measure U-1 funding to fill gaps in the upcoming city budget. Measure U-1 was passed overwhelmingly by Berkeley voters to support truly affordable housing, and that is the only purpose for which its funds should be used. Reallocating its funding only increases the skepticism and distrust among voters who see it as a bait and switch by the council. Providing funding towards purchasing existing affordable housing is cost effective, keeps people in their homes, and preserves the income diversity that still exists in Berkeley, even though this diversity is under severe strain. Please keep the small sites funding in the city budget. Thank you. Thanks, Linda. Leo Goldberg. Hi, good afternoon or good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Leo Goldberg, born and raised in Berkeley. I research gentrification and empty displacement strategies. And programs like small sites are the best way of addressing displacement pressures, both in Berkeley and elsewhere. If we're serious about maintaining our racial and economic diversity, we need to maintain funding for small sites and capacity building funding for groups that use small sites. So I urge the council to maintain funding for the program. Thank you. Thank you. Stephen Barton. Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Barton, former housing director for the city of Berkeley, now retired. I want to speak in favor of the small sites program and capacity building for preservation organizations. Yesterday, the governor of California announced that there will be a multi-billion dollar bond measure for affordable housing that will include $500 million for preservation. So there will be matching funds. But if you defund Berkeley's preservation program, Berkeley will not be able to access that funding. Second, anybody who thinks that rent stabilization and good cause for eviction, despite all our protections, is enough to protect tenants when a new landlord comes in and decides that they want to push people out, is not paying attention to what is actually happening in the city of Berkeley. And of course, eventually people do move out. And if they have been.. Stephen, sorry, your time's up. Thanks for your comment. All right, next up, Grayson Savoy. Yes. And one of the founding members of Telegraph for People, speaking in support of Mayor Ishii's supplemental budget. I want to thank the mayor and council for recommending over $1.3 million in funding to study and design a car-free Telegraph Avenue in Southside. Today, Telegraph is failing to reach its full potential. Telegraph is an ideal location for pedestrianization, the second busiest pedestrian area in the East Bay, at the foot of the world's best public university, in a neighborhood where the vast majority of residents do not own a car. Yet the current design of the roadway does not reflect the mobility needs of residents or support the city of Berkeley's climate, traffic safety, or equity goals. A new roadway is long overdue. Today, pedestrians bump shoulders on crowded sidewalks, buses stall behind double-parked cars, and visitors dangerously traverse the noisy, smelly, and uninviting public realm. A pedestrian at Telegraph will not only make it safer for all road users to move around, it will reinvigorate the street, turning the historic heart of Berkeley into a world-class destination. For decades, plans to explore car-free Telegraph have come and gone, getting passed on and forgotten. Thank you. Thanks, Grayson. Next is Bach. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, hi, my name is Devon Banks, and I'm in support of the Mayor's proposed budget, which includes a reallocation to live free for gun violence intervention and prevention program in the amount of $200K, which will close our funding gap for the physical year of 2027. We give Mayor Ishii and the council members in advance, we thank Mayor Ishii and the council members in advance for your vote and support of our program and my personal story that's tied to this vote in support is I am affected by gun violence, and with last year's budget, it has now enabled a place like Live Free to employ me to help me and my family and prevent recidivism. I do not want to return back to prison. With a job like this, this has really helped me and my family get back on the right track, and so I am in major support of it. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Next up is Tim Frank. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Terrific. Thank you very much. So my name is Tim Frank, and I am representing the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County. We supported Measure U-1, and I participated in the committee that wrote and managed the ballot measure committee campaign to promote that measure, and we're really proud of the projects that have been funded by it, including the project on Berkeley Way for formerly homeless and people at risk of homelessness. It's managed by the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, paid for by, substantially by U-1 funding, but also leveraged with a variety of other state, local, and federal funding. And at this point, there is still more funding available to leverage that kind of work, that new construction work. Thank you, Tim. I'm sorry, your time's up, but thank you for your comment. Kenren Wu, you're next. Hello, I'm Kenren Wu, and I'm a member of, I'm a resident of Berkeley and a resident of District 2. I'm a member of the Civic Arts Commission, but I am here tonight speaking only for myself. I would ask the mayor and the speakers to consider freezing the position, the Chief Officer of Cultural Affairs in the Civic Arts Department, and those extraordinary skills that come with it, and not eliminating the position and those very unique skills. Thank you for your time and your dedication. Thank you, Kenren. Tawana Grant? Hi, I'm speaking on behalf of Live Free. We wholeheartedly support the mayor's proposed budget, which includes a reallocation to Live Free, the gun violence and prevention program in the amount of 200,000, which will close our funding gap in the fiscal year of 2027. We give thanks to Mayor Ishii and all council members in advance to your vote in support to our program. I am a mother healing from my son being killed. Live Free has been there to support me and my four daughters and grandson 100% along the way. Without them, I don't know what I would have done. There's a lot of things that people do not know about, and they open the avenues for people to get knowledge on what to do, how to go about it. I just recently was at San Pablo Park Saturday, seeing over 2,000 kids at an unprovoked meetup that we saw happen. Sorry, your time is up, but thank you for your comment. Next is Good Brother Network. Hello, Mayor Ishii. My name is Londell Porter. I'm an implementation specialist with Live Free California. I'm in full support of the budget for reallocation for our program to keep saving lives in the city of Berkeley. Nice to see you, my friend. Thank you. Thank you. All right, and one more time. Caller ending with the number 405. Hi, I'm Joseph, my heart, a homeowner in Berkeley. I'm tuning in to say no flock and no tent and report to the police. We have to find a better way. Thank you. Thank you. All right, those are all the callers that are online. We're going to take a 15 minute break and come back. Recording stopped. Recording in progress. Okay. Hi, everyone. We're back in session. Thank you very much for your patience. I really appreciate the time. I'm going to make a friendly amendment to the motion that's on the floor. A few different things. One, the downtown Berkeley revitalization project. Let me put this up actually on the screen. The downtown Berkeley revitalization project. There it is. The amount should actually be 2.8. And that's because $100,000 is already going to, it's already set aside for this. So it's just a numbers, a number being incorrect. Additionally, I'd like to make a friendly amendment to include the five firefighter, three paramedic positions on here with funding. Oh, as well as the inspector position. Oh, that was already on there. And that would come from the increased annual ambulance transport revenue. As well as a position from the city clerk's office, which is currently vacant. And that would prevent us from using any U-1 funding. And there was additional general fund revenue, which is not part of U-1, just to be clear. And that would also go towards those positions. So that's my friendly amendment. Accepted. Seconded. So I also just want to make it clear that I'm very concerned about making this decision, that I'm really worried about our financial situation in November. And I understand that this decision is going to make some folks really upset. Because there are many positions that are being cut in the city. And I recognize that we've had conversations with some of the other unions and folks who will be upset by this decision. And I really just want to say I'm sorry. And so this is the current motion that's on the floor. And I want to allow my council colleagues to make comments now. Starting with Council Member Kasarwani. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, for those amendments. I want to thank all of the public commenters. And I know there's a lot of varying views. And I was listening to all of you. And I do just want to clarify this issue of U1, this measure U1 funding that we heard a lot about in public comment. It was passed by voters in 2016. And it is a general fund tax, meaning it can be used for any general purpose. And folks in the public comment were talking, I think, about the language of the.

Segment 8

I mean, it's just open. It can just stay open. We would just need to make sure we have the funding still carrying forward in the budget. But it could stay open. It could stay open. Okay. If there's a possibility of acquiring properties as small as five units up to 25 units, I believe that that $2.5 million could be viable. And so I want to propose that that can stay with small sites, but that this $1.3 million that is unallocated in the Housing Trust Fund remain there for new affordable housing. So with that, I'd like to make a substitute motion that builds on everything the mayor just proposed with the amendments, with the exception of taking off the Assistant City Clerk. And actually, I can share screen to show this. Hang on. Let me.. So just to be clear, so you want to stay, you want to keep the U1 funding in here? No, let me share my screen and show my substitute motion. Okay, so can you all see that? I can make it bigger. Is that good? Okay, so yeah, if folks are interested in not having U1 be used as a funding source, I have stricken that out, but I don't support taking from the City Clerk's Office. I talked to the City Manager, and we will likely be receiving more increased ambulance transport revenue. So I just put the $200,000 there. It doesn't change any of the totals. So that allows us to continue to fund those 9.0 positions. And then the compromise on small sites appears below that we would keep the $2.5 million and leave the $1.3 million in the Housing Trust Fund. And so that is my substitute motion for the budget. Second. So if there is an additional $200,000 in the ambulance fund, Mr. City Manager, then I would also like to make a friendly amendment to ours to have that funding instead of the City Clerk's position. Accepted. Second, I accept. So the only difference here would be that in yours you would be taking money from small sites. Is that correct, Council Member? Yes, I want to keep $1.3 million in the Housing Trust Fund. And I thank you for accepting all of the other proposals I've put forward. Okay, so there's a second and a motion. Do we want to have discussion on this or should we just? Sure, let's keep going. Okay, so Council Member Blackaby. Thank you, Madam Mayor. In the understatement of the year, I do want to acknowledge that we all know this is a difficult budget. We all know it reflects really hard decisions that will have real impacts on residents, on staff, on real people. I want to thank all of our labor partners for their advocacy leading up to tonight, for their outreach, for being here tonight. I want to thank City staff for all the hard work in getting us to this point. I want to thank the public for being here. I want to thank the Mayor for her draft and her updated proposal. I want to thank my colleague, Council Member Kesarwani, for her supplemental. To address our structural deficit and put the City on a sustainable path, we know we need to make significant reductions, including the loss of valued staff positions and the elimination of unfilled positions. I'm both proud of the work we have done, but also extremely mindful of the sacrifices that these decisions require. We've made substantial progress, but our work is not finished. Looking ahead, as we've discussed tonight, we know we may face significant additional challenges if local funding measures fail or if state and federal funding is reduced. I remain committed to finding creative ways to strengthen our finances, especially on the top line, the revenue side, approving efficiency and supporting economic growth. I'm hopeful that a stronger local economy will help generate the revenue growth we need in the years ahead. And I'll say, kind of by way of sidebar, just a conversation I had today. Just today I was meeting with a high-tech company, a clean-tech company, a startup that's considering locating here in Berkeley because they want to be part of the ecosystem and all of the innovation that's happening here in Berkeley. And I think as a City Council, as a city, we need to be doing more of that. We need to be bringing these sort of businesses to Berkeley. That's a way of generating revenue without increasing fees or taxes at all. It's moving more economic output through the pipeline. And I think there's a lot of opportunity to do more of that. And I'm excited by that prospect. On the discussion we've been having about the supplemental, I want to be really clear that we've heard a lot about pitting fire versus small sites or fire versus housing. And that's a false choice. That is not what's happening here tonight. We're working on two separate issues in one budget at the same time in different parts of the budget. We're talking about how to optimize what we're doing in the housing trust fund. And we're talking about optimizing what we're doing in the general fund. I think, and then Council Member Kesarwani and others have proposed, is trying to get the most out of those limited resources. As a matter of fact, we don't want to spend less on affordable housing. We want to spend more. If you consider the dollars that we're talking about putting on the table and the match from state and federal funding, we're proposing spending more on affordable housing here in Berkeley in the Kesarwani proposal. And I want to be clear about that. So I appreciate everything that the land trusts are doing, the small sites are doing. The residents in those properties are benefiting from that impressive work. But we do have limited funds across the board, and we need to decide how best to scale these limited resources. So here is the choice that Council Member Kesarwani is offering. We can preserve a smaller number of existing units, and again, I think that's valuable, but I'm just saying this is the choice, or creating, adding, and developing a larger number of new units with the same money. That's the choice that's being presented. That's the choice that's being presented. You can disagree with that, but that's the policy decision. That's a policy discussion. This is not pitting one against the other. This is saying that's a policy choice for the Council and for this community. Do we want to preserve housing with those $3.8 million or now the $1.3 million? Or do we want to match that money and use that to provide more affordable housing? The Council will vote, we'll decide, but that's the choice. It's not saying we want less affordable housing, it's how do we provide as much affordable housing as we can. On the public safety front, as a representative of District 6, it's the highest area of fire risk in the city, as we all know. Nothing is more important to me than public safety. After we went through the whole debate and discussion about Ember, and we're asking residents in District 6 and across the city to do their part to provide fire safety, we need to make sure the city is doing their part. That's why I appreciate what the Mayor has offered. You can have one of my minutes. I appreciate the fact that we're stepping up on that because if we're asking residents to do their part, the city needs to do their part and provide the kind of public service we need, the kind of fire safety that we need. I wish we could have done a little bit more on both the police and the fire side, but I'm comfortable that we've done a lot. Depending on how revenues trend in the months ahead, we can come back and look at that again. Anyway, I appreciate the discussion. I just wanted to clarify a little bit about how I think some of us are thinking about this up here. It's not about not caring about affordable housing. It's like, what do we think is the best choice to get more affordable housing here? That's really the question. It's not pitting one against the other. It's not pitting fire against housing. It's saying, how can we get more public safety and what's the best use of those limited dollars to get the most affordable housing we can? With that, I appreciate Council Member Kessler-Wanny's proposal. I support the supplemental. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Treygub. I'm just sorry, just so you know, Vice Mayor Treygub, Council Member Humbert, Council Member Taplin, and then Council Member Luna-Para. Just so the folks online know, I can still see you. Then Council Member Bartlett after. Thank you, Madam Mayor. The last several months have been nothing short of heart-wrenching for so many of us. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to the city administration, to my colleagues, to our mayor, to the city manager, to Deputy White, Budget Manager Dupaya, and their team, and all city staff and labor partners for approaching this budget early on with transparency, honesty, and integrity worthy of the city we serve. It has been and will continue to be some of the most difficult times through which to lead the city. And the only way we can do it is together. I also want to thank all of our community partners, residents, and the public who are doing the work in our community for all of their input. We all understand how much these decisions affect you and your neighbors. Thank you for your grace, understanding, sacrifice, and collaboration. I will continue to look under every rock and in every corner to save our staff positions and to support our community, our arts and culture, and our many community partners. And I know I'm not the only one on this dais. I think we all share that sentiment. Tonight, I want to speak directly to the preservation of affordable housing. In my time working towards a Berkeley we can all call home, including serving eight years on the rent board, helping craft measure you one, and serving as chair of the measure all oversight committee, I've learned that affordable housing policy truly needs to be built around.

Segment 9

The trust fund supports a variety of affordable housing projects, so there should be some flexibility to make the most sound choice with our limited resources. And for that reason, I will be supporting the substitute motion. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lunenparra. Thank you. This is, without a doubt, the hardest part of this job. My staff and I have worked tirelessly to identify other ways to sustainably balance the budget that limits layoffs and keeps necessary services intact. And I know that the city manager, the mayor, and each council member on this dais has done the same. Ultimately, the budgetary decisions that have prioritized one-time funding for continuous services, patched anticipated deficit with unsustainable revenues, and bypassed established council processes have brought us to this moment. Throughout this process, my goals have remained steady. Protect as many filled union jobs as possible while balancing the critical need for emergency services, comprehensive public safety, and sustainably balance the budget so future city managers, councils, and city workers are not faced with this impossible task. This whole process has forced us to examine how we approach budgeting and has given us an opportunity to reflect on where we have fallen short. Past decisions have shifted the responsibility for making these heartbreaking and nearly impossible decisions onto the city manager's team while asking our employees to bear the heaviest burden through layoffs and service reductions. And I'm not suggesting that we control every variable. There are certainly economic and financial conditions beyond our influence. But we do have a responsibility moving forward to make difficult policy choices, set clear priorities, and create a more sustainable framework for the future. If we fail to do that, we will continue to place staff in an untenable position and force our workforce and community to absorb the consequences. I believe this council has really stepped up to the plate. We do not take city workers for granted, and we recognize the weight of navigating competing priorities with limited resources. We are no longer comfortable with funding ongoing projects with one-time dollars. We are mindful of the actual labor required to implement our policy intentions, and we respect that true democracy and meaningful change do not happen overnight. I want to thank the mayor for her leadership. You've been dealt a really difficult hand, and you faced it head on. I want to thank the mayor and her brownback circle for making the study and design of a car-free telegraph a priority. This idea has been discussed since the 1960s, and it remains one of the most important opportunities for creating a more sustainable, people-centered city. It is near and dear to my heart and what got me excited about and energized to join civic life in Berkeley. By investing in this effort, we're sending a clear message that our city values the people who walk, bike, roll, and rely on public transit to move around our city. It shows that we're committed to designing streets with them in mind, not as an afterthought. It also shows respect for the council's established planning and ranking process and a willingness to follow through in the community-centered democratic vision it was created to advance. This is a first step to a long process, and I'm so excited to see it progress. I also want to thank the mayor for prioritizing the Sacred Rest Drop-In Center. It's an extremely important fixture in Southside and enables homeless folks to rest, store their belongings, and get connected to local and regional services. It has been really important for me this year to develop items and identify priorities that do not require general fund money, and I'm grateful that that is an evident goal of this budget. On small sites, we received many emails saying that we should fund firefighter positions over the allocated small sites funding, and I want to clear that up again. These are not flexible dollars. They have to be used on affordable housing funds as they are part of the housing trust fund. I am deeply in support of new, dense, affordable housing, and I am not under the false assumption that it is the only way to solve our affordability crisis. If preservation was not an important part of the puzzle, organizations fighting to address the housing crisis, like East Bay for Everyone and EPO, major affordable housing developers, and regional partners would not support preservation funding, which they do. This consensus reflects a clear understanding that preservation must be part of our housing strategy and one that I think makes sense to go after because we ultimately need an all-of-the-above approach. Developing new housing at the moment is unfortunately incredibly expensive. I also want to clarify where this money for small sites is coming from. We have $2.5 million that we would be carrying over from the allocation last year, and the mayor and her Barnack Circle are also proposing an additional $1.3 million from the housing trust fund. If that's what the council decides, as of right now, there's still another $1.4 million in the housing trust fund. Overall, I support the main motion, and I'm very grateful for everybody's work. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. We are moving online to Council Member Bartlett. Okay, thank you. I, for one, too, want to thank everyone for your work. This is tremendous. The level of scrutiny you had to apply to our complex city operations and all the facets of it. I know it was hard. You put a lot of time into this, all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you from the city side and my colleagues on the Budget Committee side. Thank you again. I do want to speak to the accusations as well. Council Member Jessica Wani, I know her really well, longtime friend and colleague, and she believes she's doing the right thing for her community. That is valuable. It's not going to be distrust. It's just something you may not agree with, that's all. So, for one, I'm really excited. The elements of the mayor's budget, of both budgets that I'm happy about here, this latest interpretation of it, makes me happy because, you see, I swore an oath quite some time ago to defend the weak. And this budget does just that. The first responders, they're there, front line for the people. And all the times we've worked with people and worked out our health programs, we created the health equity plan, we created the SCU, it was all about these people on the ground and fire interacting with them. And police as well. And so police are going to come to this later, I think, after this moment. But so getting those jobs stood up is important. And then the small sites initiative. You know, this city was decidedly anti-housing, as you all know, for many decades. And part of the way that we succeeded in moving the needle and getting people to accept the new consensus of housing production and new housing and legalizing housing, there was an 18-month-long charrette series throughout the region to come up with a framework everyone could get into, buy into. And that framework, as Vice Mayor Trigo mentioned, the three Ps, produce, preserve, protect. So we're producing a lot. I know right here in my district we have tons and tons of affordable housing, all new. Preserve, come to that. Protect, we pass the strongest tenant protections in the country. And now preserve. This is the small sites initiative, and I'm very proud of it because I've seen it work. My district was the first church housing version of this thing in the country. And it was amazing. People were going to be gone, had nowhere to go, and now they're here. Another building in California that people, again, are so happy, and they have roots here, they're from here. It won't be a new family that you don't know in seven years trying to get in. These are people who have existing connections to this community now. And so capturing this land value and land trust I think is very valuable, and it's an important part of the three Ps. And it's the most underutilized P, too, by the way. And so a balanced housing portfolio has the three Ps in full effect. And it's an anti-displacement strategy must incorporate the second P, preservation. And third, I just want to call out, again, the need to do it. So we're going to have to really rework everything as we go forward. And one thing I just want to put out there now, I said this before years ago, it may be time to explore any George model taxation. And that's a public value creation benefit value. So that's something we can discuss later. But I want to get that conversation going right now because this is not sustainable with our desires and our needs. But to that effect, I'm supporting the mayor's motion. Thank you very much for all your work. Thank you, Council Member. Moving on to Council Member O'Keefe. Thank you. First, I want to express just a couple of small things to begin, and then I'll talk about the big issues. I want to express some gratitude that the salon is full and some really important strictified infrastructure projects are slated to be funded. I want to thank Alan Keene and Vice Mayor Jennifer Hansen of Albany for working with me on the stroll issue and a number of my constituents for working with me on the infrastructure issues and, of course, city staff that supported all of that. Regarding small sites, I'll be supporting the mayor's motion. I understand the arguments made against this allocation that the funding is not optimal. I get that. I think this is a situation where the argument is maybe more or less technically accurate if you look at it a certain way. But in order to do that, you really have to ignore some of the unquantifiable benefits of a program like this, which includes keeping communities intact. You cannot put a price on that. And also shielding people from the life-altering trauma of being displaced. So I actually think it's okay to pay a little more for those intangible benefits that can make a world of difference to the people affected. And I'm glad that we have a diverse portfolio of affordable housing strategies because you have to do all of it.

Segment 10

Thank you. Okay, all right, so I did just want to make a few comments about small sites, but then I really would like us to vote. So as we've said, and as many folks have already said, preservation is an important part of the equation. The money for new buildings can be leveraged because there is more funding available for new housing. And as we heard, there's also some opportunities coming up for these projects to leverage funds as well. The cost per unit for homes that are preserved is lower. From the Berkeley side article that was published yesterday, according to data from our city, the three buildings acquired through the small sites program cost $459,000 per unit to buy and rehabilitate on average less than half the cost of recently, recent newly built affordable developments Berkeley has funded, which has averaged $930,000 per unit. New housing takes many years and does nothing to keep people in the neighborhoods and communities they live in now. We really need both types, preserved and new. So I did also want to just add one thing about staff. As I said already, I am very disappointed that we weren't able to find additional funding. I know there are a number of folks who won't be able to continue working in the city, although we are working to offer those folks positions as well. And I did want to especially comment on the fact that I really appreciate BPA about this and do recognize that this will feel painful, especially to our police department. I want to thank staff very much for all the work that they've been doing, both our finance director and deputy city manager, city manager, my chief of staff and also my chief of policy have been meeting weekly. I have been talking to our city manager about this budget since I was elected. And so although I am definitely relieved for us to be able to take this vote tonight, I am definitely want to acknowledge just the sacrifice and the time and energy that's gone into this, both from city staff and my staff and all of us here on the dais. As has been said, these are not easy decisions and none of us got elected so we could cut positions. It's incredibly painful. And I want folks to know that I'm also working very hard on increasing our revenue. We've been doing a lot of work around tourism, encouraging the development in downtown to move forward and also helping to keep a lot of the startups that are at UC Berkeley in our city locally so that they continue to grow and stay here. And so just know folks that cutting during budgets isn't the only solution. We really need to be working on revenue generation and that that takes time. So we are very focused on that. I know my council members agree with me on this as well. And we will continue to keep an eye on November's elections to see how this is going to impact our budget so that we can move forward and continue to make responsible decisions. That is really important to me. Okay, so there is a motion that's on the floor. Oh, Council Member Kesarwani, did you have something else? Yes, I just I have to clarify that the numbers you said in the Berkeley Side article, the unit per unit cost for Berkeley for each unit of the small sites, it's $286,000 compared to the new buildings, it's only $209,000. I just I think the facts matter. And we are creating new units with less money with the new affordable housing. Thank you. Okay, so there is a substitute motion that's on the floor. Council Member Kesarwani's substitute motion. So could we take the roll on that, please? Okay, so on the substitute motion, so I'm just gonna go through it. Please indulge me. The substitute motion is everything from the main motion with a few differences. So it's to adopt the staff recommendation that includes a revised material from the city manager supplemental to the revised material from the city manager that was accepted at the meeting, further revised by the mayor's amended proposal that she went through on the floor, including the four projects that were reclassified in the CIP, retaining the assistant city clerk position and using the additional $200,000 from the ambulance transport revenue, clarifying that the $25,000 in fiscal year 20 for the Euclid Street project is a reduction from the office budgets rather than relinquishments, and adding the provision of the small sites language that the acquisition needs to take place within 36 months. And then the main difference being that for small sites, retaining the $2.5 million for small sites, and retaining the $1.3 million in the housing trust fund. Thank you. That was very, very well said. Yes. All right. So we're voting on the substitute motion. Council Member Kesarwani. Oh, yes. Taplin. Bartlett. No. Tregub. No. O'Keefe. No. Blackabee. Yes. Munapara. No. Humbert. Abstain. Mayor Ishii. No. Motion fails. All right. On the main motion. Council Member Kesarwani. Yes. Taplin. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Tregub. I. O'Keefe. Yes. Blackabee. Yes. Munapara. Yes. Humbert. Yes. And Mayor Ishii. Yes. Motion passes. All right. Thank you, everyone. So, Mr. City Manager, could you speak to what happens for this item number two here? This FY 2027 annual appropriations ordinance. Mari Carr will.. Mari Carr can just say a little bit about it and then we'll turn it back over. We need to capture the motion that just passed because that has impacted the 2027 annual appropriation ordinance. Would it be possible to take a quick five-minute break? I think we have to, so thank you. Testing. Here we go. Okay, we are back. Thank you all so much. We are moving on to item number two, which is the FY 2027 annual appropriations ordinance, and I will pass it over to Mari Carr, please. Thank you. The recommendation will change as follows. So, the current gross appropriation was $918,080,782. The change will be $3,515,334, with a new revised gross appropriation for fiscal year 2027 to be $921,596,116. And that captures new appropriation for the Downtown Berkeley Re-Vitalization Project, so SIP Fund, small sites, $1.3 million, Sacred Rest Village of Love Fund 147 at $100,000, the ORED Community Development Project Coordinator General Fund, five positions, and the CIP reduction of Measure FF projects, Fund 166 at $1.65 million. The net appropriation was $792,372,533. The change to that is $3,456,799, with a new net appropriations of $795,829,332. And that concludes the revision of the annual fiscal year 27 annual appropriation ordinance. Thank you very much. Is there a motion to approve? Move as amended. And I'll second and say you're amazing. Thank you very much. Okay, can we take the roll on that, please? All right, including the materials in the SUP 2 and further.. Sorry, do we need to take public comment on that? Oh, sorry, we were all jumping the gun. Any public comment on this item? Okay. Seeing no commenters on this item. All right. Okay. I assume that you all don't have any comments on the dais. Okay, great. In that case, can we take the roll, please? Sure thing. Including the revised material from the city manager in the SUP 2 and further revised on the floor at the meeting. Council Member Kessler-Wanney? Yes. Taplin? Yes. Bartlett? Council Member Bartlett? On item two, annual appropriations ordinance? We'll come back. Yes. Oh, great. Thank you. Try again. Aye. O'Keefe? Yes. Blackaby? Yes. Luna-Para? Yes. Humbert? Yes. And Mayor Ishii? Yes. Motion passes. All right. Can we get a motion to adjourn, please? So moved. Second. Can we take the roll on that? To adjourn, Council Member Kessler-Wanney? Yes. Taplin? Yes. Bartlett? Yes. Try again. Aye. O'Keefe? Yes. Blackaby? Yes. Luna-Para? Yes. Humbert? Yes. Mayor Ishii? Yes. We are adjourned. Thank you all so much. Thank you, everyone. Recording stopped.