Tag Archives: Kriss Worthington
Board candidate accuses Capitelli aide of trespassing
A candidate for the Berkeley Rent Board, who is also an aide to City Councilman Kriss Worthington, filed a police complaint Monday charging that the aide to City Councilman Laurie Capitelli trespassed on his property.
Alejandro Soto-Vigil said that his wife saw Capitelli’s aide and campaign manager, Pamela Gray, walk onto his property on Berkeley Way around 3:20 p.m. to look at a recycling bin that was stuffed with campaign signs.
“Pam apparently had gone onto our doorstep and porch looking at things and then she went to the recycling area and pulled out some signs and started taking photos,” said Soto-Vigil.
Capitelli told Berkeleyside that he and Gray were delivering campaign material to Soto-Vigil’s neighbor when they saw that the recycling bin contained campaign signs. Since so many of Capitelli’s signs have been torn up or taken during the election, he wanted to see if any of them were in there. They were not. … Continue reading »
Ranked choice creates uncertainty in mayoral race
Tom Bates’ fourth race for Berkeley mayor has a different dynamic to the previous three. In all of those contests, he faced a single major challenger: Shirley Dean in 2002 and 2008, and Zelda Bronstein in 2006. He won comfortably each time; the closest vote was in 2002, when he beat Dean by 5,000 votes, 55% to 43%.
But this year there are two organized challengers, Jacquelyn McCormick and Kriss Worthington, and, equally important, the new system of ranked choice voting (RCV). If the challengers (along with long shots Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Zachary Runningwolf and Bernt Wahl) can keep Bates’ tally below 50% plus one vote, then RCV will be used to produce an instant runoff. … Continue reading »
Independent expenditure funds Worthington billboard
Drivers on University Avenue might have noticed large billboards for mayoral candidate Kriss Worthington in the last week. But Worthington’s campaign did not buy the billboards. Instead, the Committee for a Progressive Berkeley, an independent organization established by Council Member Jesse Arreguín, spent $1,000 with CBS Outdoor for the billboards, one at Grant for eastbound traffic, the other at Curtis for westbound traffic.
“I did see the billboard when I was cycling on University,” Worthington told Berkeleyside this morning. “I didn’t know who paid for it.” … Continue reading »
Five Berkeley mayoral candidates face off at local forum
Five of Berkeley’s six mayoral candidates faced off on Monday night in a bid to persuade a slice of the Berkeley populace that they were best suited to lead the city for the next four years.
No one issue dominated the discussions, but some of those being debated included the proposed sidewalk sitting ordinance, the city’s unfunded liabilities and how it spends its money, how to boost business locally, the town-gown relationship, and the achievement gap in the school system.
An estimated 150 people turned out to St John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley on an unusually warm evening to hear incumbent Mayor Tom Bates and challengers Council Member Kriss Worthington, local business woman Jacquelyn McCormick, Cal adjunct professor Bernt Wahl, and activist Zachary RunningWolf, share their vision and address questions from a panel of journalists as well as from the audience. (The sixth registered candidate, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, did not attend.) … Continue reading »
Berkeley first city in nation to mark Bisexual Pride Day
The City Council on Tuesday night proclaimed Sept. 23 as “Bisexual Pride and Bi-Visibility Day,” making Berkeley the first city in the nation to formally honor people with this sexuality, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Other cities such as Boston and Santa Monica have events on Sept. 23, but Berkeley is the first city to highlight a separate day for bisexuals.
The resolution was brought to Council by Council Member Kriss Worthington. He said the move was prompted by a bisexual woman he talked to who said she did not feel comfortable coming out to either her straight friends or her gay friends. “I thought that was sad. In the Bay area many people talk about the LGBT community but most of the focus is on lesbian and gay people,” he said.
“Since we have supported June as Pride month every year since I got elected, I think it is consistent to give positive affirmative support to the bi community as well,” he added. … Continue reading »
Worthington runs for mayor, urging “progressive” policies
City councilmember Kriss Worthington today announced his entry into Berkeley’s mayoral contest. Worthington has been a councilmember since 1996, representing District 7 in south Berkeley.
“Someone has to stand up and say to the mayor that what you’re doing is unaffordable, unreasonable and damaging to the people of Berkeley,” Worthington said, standing on the steps of the city’s municipal building on Milvia. “Every single council meeting it seems the mayor is drifting more to the right.”
He joins incumbent Mayor Tom Bates, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Mary Rose Kaczorowski, Jacquelyn McCormick, Zachary RunningWolf, and Mark Schwartz in the mayoral contest. Worthington’s own District 7 council seat is not up for election this year, so he would retain his council seat if his mayoral bid does not succeed. … Continue reading »
Community rallies to get pool measure on ballot
About 75 people rallied on the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Derby Street in Berkeley Sunday afternoon to convince the City Council to put a pool bond measure on the November ballot.
Holding signs that read “Save Willard Pool,” and “Honk if you like to swim,” the group of students, parents, and community members yelled, chanted, and encouraged people to sign a petition that called for the reopening of Willard pool, which was closed and filled with dirt in 2010. (The petition is also posted at Change.org.)
“I would like to see Willard Pool open again,” said Amelie Melde Fontenay, a parent of a Willard School student. “My only son got here just in time to see the pool filled in with dirt. I don’t think it’s fair that the other two (middle) schools have pools and Willard doesn’t.” … Continue reading »
Berkeley police officers promoted in public ceremony
Four officers from the Berkeley Police Department were promoted in a ceremony at Berkeley Repertory Theater on Tuesday, only the second time officers have ever been promoted in public.
Four former police chiefs, a number of city officials, off-duty cops, and dozens of friends and family gathered at the theater to watch as two officers became sergeants, one sergeant became a lieutenant, and a lieutenant became a captain.
“As August Vollmer (Berkeley’s first police chief and a pioneer in the field) once said, ‘it is by developing people that we make progress in our society,” Police Chief Michael Meehan said in his remarks to the crowd. “What was true then is true now.” … Continue reading »
After seven years, Berkeley gets a new downtown plan
After hundreds of meetings, seven years of contentious debate, and the sting of a ballot referendum still fresh, the Berkeley City Council on Tuesday night adopted a new plan for its downtown.
The 8 to 1 vote, with Councilmember Kriss Worthington dissenting, may bring as many as seven tall buildings to the area bounded by Hearst Avenue to the north, Dwight Way to the south, MLK on the west, and Fulton on the east. It creates open space requirements, allows a faster approval process for buildings that are extra “green,” encourages LEED Gold construction, and creates a fund to build more affordable housing.
And, according to critics, it might create a cookie-cutter approach to building construction and a density that is out of character with Berkeley. … Continue reading »
Spotlight on city manager’s response to Chief Meehan
While eyes across the country are focused on Berkeley’s City Hall to see how it responds to Police Chief Michael Meehan’s attempts to get a reporter to change his story, the eyes at City Hall are all focused on Interim City Manager Christine Daniel.
With just a six-month contract that is due to expire in May, the way Daniel handles the Meehan matter may play a large role in whether she gets the job permanently.
Daniel learned on Friday March 9 that Chief Meehan had sent Sgt. Mary Kusmiss to the house of Oakland Tribune reporter Doug Oakley at 12:45 am that day to ask that he change a story on a community meeting about Peter Cukor’s murder. But Daniel did not issue a statement on the matter until around 2:20 pm March 10, hours after the story garnered significant airtime and play in regional publications.
And since then, Daniel has been quiet. … Continue reading »
Should Berkeley have a kinder parking ticket policy?
Kriss Worthington wants Berkeley to have a kinder, gentler ticketing policy.
If you park in a red zone or in a disabled space, you deserve no mercy, said Councilmember Worthington, whose district covers the Telegraph Avenue corridor. But if you encounter a meter maid writing you a ticket, you should be able to talk him or her into ripping it up.
“If you show up and you are going to move your vehicle, which is the goal in the first place, the police shouldn’t be forced to finish writing you a ticket when you are standing there mad at them,” said Worthington, who rarely drives a car and can been seen riding his bike all around town.
Worthington will ask the City Council on Tuesday to reconsider the city’s ticketing policy. … Continue reading »
Berkeley property company in court over deposits
A Berkeley property company that has refused to return the security deposits of a number of former tenants agreed Wednesday to make some reparation.
Cleo and Eula Lekas, the mother and daughter behind Lekas & Associates, agreed to pay Alyson Sato $2,487 by Jan. 31, according to City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. The two sides reached the agreement after a two-hour, closed-door meeting in front of a judge in an Alameda County courtroom.
The resolution, if carried out, would end a 19-month-old fight over the return of Sato’s security deposit, a disagreement that made its way into small claims court, prompted a protest outside a meeting of the Berkeley Property Owners’ Association, led to a demonstration in front of the Lekas’ home in Oakland, and led the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of Cleo Lekas.
“The landlord has now agreed to pay Alyson by January 31 and she has signed a document, witnessed by the judge, that the check will be in the mail and received by Jan. 31st,” said Worthington. … Continue reading »
Alameda County bans use of some plastic bags
The Alameda County Waste Authority voted Wednesday to ban the use of plastic bags at pharmacies and grocery stores county-wide, starting in 2013.
The authority, which also goes by the name Stopwaste.org, also voted to require businesses and multi-family dwellings to recycle all “high-market value materials,” as part of an initiative to reduce waste going the landfill.
The plastic bag ban will apply to 2,000 stores around the county. The ban does not include restaurants or retail stores. … Continue reading »
