Tag Archives: Berkeley government
Berkeley Mayor’s Chief of Staff leaves post after one year
Judith Iglehart, who was appointed Chief of Staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates in January 2012, has left her post to pursue a job opportunity in the private sector.
Mayor Bates said he was sorry to see Iglehart go as she had done good work in helping the office analyze opportunities for economic development in the city, in particular for new-business startups.
“She leaves as a friend,” he said, citing the former staffer’s valuable work on the “nitty gritty” of how to get businesses started. “I am really pleased to have been offered an understanding of what we can do in that area,” he said on Monday Jan. 7.
Iglehart, who had not returned calls at press time, is believed to be starting a new company with a friend.
Before being employed by the City of Berkeley, Iglehart worked for the Keiretsu Forum, a network of angel investors. … Continue reading »
Where to watch election results in Berkeley
We definitely want to hear from you throughout election night. Here’s how: (1) Post on our Facebook page. Comment on the outcomes, share photos of your election event, and more. (2) Email us at tips@berkeleyside.com. You can always reach us via this address. (3) On Twitter, use #berkvote to alert us to your election-related posts, and follow us here.
Berkeleyside will live blog about local reactions and the results of all the local races starting at 8 p.m. on Nov. 6. Scroll down to see a list of election night parties open to the public in Berkeley. … Continue reading »
Still undecided about the election? Let us help
Over the last several months, Berkeleyside has run many dozens of articles on Berkeley’s mayoral election, council seat races, the school board contest, the rival rent board slates and most of the 10 city measures on the ballot tomorrow. On top of that, our collaboration with MapLight on Voter’s Edge Berkeley provides a handy one-stop site for information about the ballot measures. And our Opinionator op-ed section has overflowed with rival views about various election issues.
What Berkeleyside is not going to do is make any endorsements in the election. There are two reasons why. First, we believe in an educated, informed citizenry. Newspaper endorsements are a relic of a pre-Internet era when readers had to rely on insiders to tell them what was what. Our goal is to make sure you have as much information as we have, so you can make up your own mind. We don’t feel the urge to make it up for you. Second, we work hard to be impartial in our news reporting of Berkeley. Even if we convince ourselves that we could create neat compartments between our opinions and our reporting, our readers would be understandably skeptical. … Continue reading »
Disability advocate challenges Max Anderson for council
Dmitri Belser runs a program that makes technology accessible to disabled people, he chaired Berkeley’s Commission on Disability, he renovates dilapidated Victorian homes, and he has raised two sons.
Now he wants to be the District 3 city council member.
“I’ve been frustrated for a long time with how District 3 has been represented,” Belser told Berkeleyside in an interview conducted amid dangling wires, creaking floorboards, ladders and drop cloths at a 62nd Street Victorian he’s refurbishing with his life-partner and campaign manager, Tom White. The couple lives a few blocks south-west on Parker Street near Shattuck Avenue.
“I’ve heard from a lot of my neighbors and a lot of people in this district that they don’t get responses” from Council Member Max Anderson, he said, contending that Anderson, in office since 2004, has been ineffective in solving issues of crime and helping the struggling business district at Adeline and Alcatraz.
“If there’s one skill that I have, it’s customer service,” he said. “I know how to respond to people.”
Belser, executive director at the Center for Accessible Technology (CAT), pointed to his work helping to get the Ed Roberts Campus project built. The campus, above the Ashby BART station, houses nonprofits serving the disabled community, including the CAT. Belser chairs the Ed Roberts Campus board. … Continue reading »
Council members’ charitable donations vary widely
By Hannah Long and Natalie Orenstein
During the past four years, city council members have used money from their city budgets to donate $99,999 to various charities, such as the Juneteenth Festival, UC Berkeley student associations, local business groups, and non-profit arts and community organizations, according to public records.
These donations range from $100 to a few thousand dollars, and, while some city council members are big spenders when it comes to supporting community organizations, others choose to use their money elsewhere.
District 7′s Kriss Worthington is consistently the most liberal with his donations. According to public records, he donated $7,807 to community organizations in the 2012 fiscal year. His $4,332 donation to the Northside Merchants’ Association to buy Christmas decorations was more than the total donations of any other council member in 2012. Other large contributions include $1,000 to Youth Spirit Artworks and $700 to San Francisco LGBT Pride, where Berkeley had its first parade float this year. … Continue reading »
Police contract agreed after 15 months of negotiations
After lengthy negotiations, the City of Berkeley and the Berkeley Police Association (BPA) have reached agreement on a new three-year contract that forgoes cost of living increases, creates a second tier CalPERS pension formula for new employees, mandates cost sharing by employees in the employer’s contribution to CalPERS, and significantly changes retiree health benefits.
The new agreement was approved by the BPA at a July meeting by 107-21. It will be considered by the City Council at its September 11 meeting.
“I think it’s a fair agreement,” said Tim Kaplan, president of the BPA. “It was a long process, but it really was the true sense of collective bargaining. There was a lot of work done by the Police Association negotiating team to come up with creative solutions to the problems the city was facing. The state of the economy is not lost on our members at all. We’re helping in a number of ways through concessions.” … Continue reading »
City Council approves pools measure, debates streets
A comparatively quiet City Council meeting sprang into life late last night as councilmembers discussed whether to prioritize street repair over watershed improvements in a November ballot bond measure. The council also approved unanimously to put a $19.4 million pools bond measure on the ballot, along with a parcel tax to pay for pools’ operational costs.
Public comment focused exclusively on the long-running campaign to restore the Willard Pool and the city’s warm pool. Although pools supporters were cheered by the unanimous support for the measure, many expressed concern about the need for a second tax measure. The measures are linked — both need to pass for either to be brought into effect.
“Just getting a bond measure is not enough. We need a bond measure that can pass,” said pools supporter Donna Mickleson. She described the “poison pill” of the linked measures as “disastrous.” … Continue reading »
Op/Ed: Don’t consolidate waterfront, parks commissions
At the June 26 City Council meeting, a major part of the agenda will be devoted to consolidating a number of the city’s commissions. The city manager’s proposal is to bring together the human welfare and homeless commissions, public works and transportation commissions, and from three commissions — waterfront, parks & rec, and early childhood education — create two commissions (parks and waterfront, and recreation and youth services).
In our Opinionator section today, Waterfront Commission Chair Paul Kamen … Continue reading »
Berkeley’s Mayor lays groundwork for reelection bid
Mayor Tom Bates this week filed the necessary campaign finance forms that would enable him to run for reelection this November.
“I had to file the report, but I’m not officially running for reelection,” Bates told Berkeleyside. “I will make an announcement in the next couple of weeks.”
Bates, who is 73, has been mayor for ten years, serving one two-year term, followed by two four-year terms.
According to Acting City Clerk Mark Numainville, there is an important distinction between required campaign finance forms and the paperwork necessary to become a qualified candidate. The form Bates filed allows him to raise or spend money, but nothing else.
“It doesn’t commit you to run and it doesn’t qualify you as a candidate,” Numainville said.
Bates’ wife, State Senator Loni Hancock, preceded him in the Berkeley mayor’s office where she served for two terms. No other names have yet emerged as candidates for mayor. … Continue reading »
