Tag Archives: Mayor Tom Bates
Summer movie series launches in downtown Berkeley: Vote for the films you want to see
Today sees the launch of “Center Street Summer Cinema” — free screenings of movies under the stars in downtown Berkeley on four consecutive Saturdays in August. Berkeleyside is proud to be the lead media sponsor of this exciting new addition to the Berkeley summer calendar.
Center Street will be the place to be on the evenings of August 6, 13, 20 and 27. At least 15 local restaurants — including Alborz Persian Restaurant and Sportivo – will serve café-style specials on or near the street, which will be closed to traffic between Shattuck and Oxford starting at 6:30pm.
Movie-goers can come early to dine al fresco while being entertained by performers from the Downtown Berkeley MusicFest. Other fun activities being planned for the events — which are being orchestrated by the Downtown Berkeley Association — include cartoons, short features, face painting, all of which will precede the main movie screenings. … Continue reading »
A councilmember takes to Twitter, other officials lag
Councilmember Kriss Worthington took to the Twitterverse on Thursday, and he did so with a vengeance.
Worthington signed up for Twitter in the morning, and began sending out a steady stream of tweets. “Congratulations to Berkeley High RISE students (EBAYC) on filming immigration documentary “The Next Step,” was one tweet. “Pinkberry’s grand opening on Telegraph Avenue happening soon!” was another.
By evening he had sent out 15 messages to his nine followers (Two of whom are Berkeleyside reporters).
“I just signed up today,” said Worthington. “We won’t send out quite so many every day, but in a burst of enthusiasm we sent out a bunch today. We’ll sort of find a pace how much to send and how much to be humorous and how much to be serious. We’ll be working on that.”
(The “we” must mean his staff is helping with his tweets). … Continue reading »
Will pharmacy war lead to new restrictions in Berkeley?
[This story was updated on 4/19/11.]
As the retail war between CVS and Walgreens heats up in Berkeley, Mayor Tom Bates is calling for a new law that prohibits any new pharmacy from locating within 1,000 feet of another pharmacy.
Bates will ask the City Council on April 26 to consider the new restrictions. If adopted, the planning department would work to amend the city’s zoning ordinances to add the changes.
“Everywhere you turn you see a Walgreens or … Continue reading »
City’s best scenario: cuts of $12.5 million
Some of the scale of the budget difficulties face by the City of Berkeley was painted graphically at a special session of the City Council last night. The city faces a deficit of $3 million in its general fund and $9.5 million in its special funds that could require the elimination of 96 positions over the next two years.
“These are tough decisions and they don’t come easily,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz, introducing the discussion. City Budget Manager Teresa Berkeley-Simmons described the pressure on the city from shrinking state and federal budgets as “staggering”.
Three Berkeley sites proposed for new LBL campus
When officials from Berkeley Lab open proposals for a second campus today, there will be three Berkeley-based offers: one at Golden Gate Fields, and two separate projects near Aquatic Park, according to informed sources who asked not to be named.
The fact that there are three sites proposed in Berkeley may give the city a good shot at snaring the Lab’s expansion, since it is more than any other city is offering. Alameda, Emeryville, Dublin, Oakland, Walnut Creek, Albany and Richmond are also vying to grab the second campus, which is expected to generate thousands of jobs in the coming years. … Continue reading »
Berkeley in landmark “keep it local” deal with unions
The Berkeley City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to enter into a landmark agreement with a number of trade unions that would give Berkeley and Green Corridor workers top priority for most contracted city projects.
The move has garnered the support of many local union workers who see the agreement as a way to help provide local prevailing wage jobs, but it is seen by some as a distortion of the free market, where competition over projects will be less fair and more expensive.
The decision by the council to enter into what is known as a Community Workforce Agreement makes Berkeley the first city in Northern California, and the second in the state, to approve a comprehensive, citywide local labor ordinance. Both San Francisco and Oakland have similar, but less comprehensive, agreements.
Under the three-year agreement, signed by the city, the Alameda Building Trades Council and 22 other trade organizations, projects contracted out by the city worth more than $1 million must have 30% of total labor hours prioritized to Berkeley workers first — union or non-union. If Berkeley workers cannot fill the requirement, workers located within the East Bay Green Corridor gain priority; the Green Corridor was established in 2007 and takes in UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, Emeryville, Alameda, Albany, El Cerrito and San Leandro. Finally, if no workers can be found at either of those levels, a search throughout all of Alameda County comes next before a contractor can bring in out-of-county help. … Continue reading »
Council faces tough decisions on unfunded liabilities
The Berkeley City Council special session on the $310 million — or higher — unfunded liability on promised employee benefits revealed the difficult choices faced by the city.
A presentation by budget manager Teresa Berkeley-Simmons made the root of the problem clear. The California Public Employee Retirement System (Calpers) assumed annual investment returns of 7.75%. The crash of the Great Recession in 2008 meant that returns in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 were negative 24%, producing an annual loss against assumptions of 31.75%. For Berkeley’s city employees, that has produced investment losses of $200 million.
“We can’t grow our way out of this,” Berkeley-Simmons said.
“Even if Calpers gets 7.75% forever now, they have lost $200 million on which we’ll never get 7.75%,” explained City Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan.
City Manager Phil Kamlarz said the money to close the gap has to come from either increased contributions or a reduction in cash available for city services, or some combination of the two. Long term, the gap can be closed by reduced benefits for new employees, but that does little in the short and medium term.
“Rather than cut services, people are asking employees to contribute more,” said Mayor Tom Bates. “That’s the path we have to go down. People will need to start contributing more. It’s unfortunate, but they’re lucky to have a job.” … Continue reading »
How did Berkeley do on those 2010 resolutions?
A year ago, we suggested 10 resolutions for 2010 for Berkeley (we’ll have our 2011 resolutions tomorrow). How did our city do?
We went back to look at those 10 resolutions and scored them 0 for no movement (or backward movement), a ½ point for some improvement and a full 1 point for true progress. We have to say that, even with the most generous grading possible, we can only give ourselves a score of four out of 10.
Here … Continue reading »
The city will lose $52,000 in revenue when it gives drivers a parking holiday on Dec. 18 and 24.
The city earns about $20,000 each day in parking revenues and garners $12,000 in parking citation revenue each day, according to a report prepared by City Manager Phil Kamlarz. Dec. 24 is a city employee holiday anyway, so the city was not expecting citation revenue for that date.
Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli, Darryl Moore, and Susan Wengraf proposed a two-day parking meter holiday at last week’s council meeting. They argued that it would show small businesses that the city is trying to help during the current economic recession. The discussion at the meeting grew pointed, as Kamlarz argued against the holiday because it would worsen the city’s fiscal health. Mayor Tom Bates joined with Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Jesse Arreguin, with whom he usually disagrees, to oppose the proposal, but it passed anyway.
The city can program the multi-space parking meters so they tell patrons that Dec. 18 and 24 are meter holidays. But they won’t put a bag over standalone meters because the city does not have enough bags.
