So member or taplain vice mayor when graph can you hear us? Yes. And then could we get unmuted and make sure that we can hear your audio? Can you hear me now? Yes, yes, we can hear your customer taplain. Can we just make sure that we can hear you? Can you hear me now? Yes, yes we can. Thank you. And for anyone who'd like to speak to an item not on the agenda, please fill out a speaker card because we're going to select speakers for non-ingenum matters from the drum. If you're here to speak about an item on the consent or action calendar, we will get to those items later. I think I have a trombone. Yeah. All right. the city council. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. and we are recording correct. Yes we are recording. Okay. Good evening. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Berkeley City Council for Tuesday, September 10, 2024. The first sort of business is roll call. I'd like to ask the city clerk to please call the roll. Okay. Councilmember Kessler-Wine currently absent. Council you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank city council's president. Thank you. Moving now to the land acknowledgment statement. City Berkeley recognizes that the community that we live on is built on the territory of Cuchun. The ancestral unsee the land of the Chichenu, speaking aloney people, the ancestors and descendants of the sovereign of Rona Band of Alameda County. The sand was to use to be a great importance to all of the Alloning tribes and descendants of the Brona Bam. As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of Berkeley. The document is 5,000 year history of a vibrant community at the West Berkeley Shell Mount and the Alloning people who continue reside here in the East Bay. We recognize that Berkeley's residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupations unceded storm land since the City of Berkeley's incorporation 1878. As stewards of the laws of the city of Berkeley, it is not only about how that we recognize the history of this land, but we also recognize that the Iranian people are present members of the Berkeley and other East Bay communities today. The city of Berkeley will continue to build relationships with the Lee-Shan tribe and other Erroney tribes to create meaningful actions to pull the intention of the slant acknowledgement. And so before I move to the next sort of business, I just wanna make a brief announcement. I wanna welcome everyone to this meeting of the Berkeley City Council to allow for full participation by all members of our community in tonight's meeting and to ensure that important city businesses are able to be completed. We ask that all attendees here on in the meeting and on Zoom conduct themselves in an orderly manner and respect the rights of others who are participating in the meeting. Please be aware that the city council's rules are decorum or hibbit the disruption of the orderly conduct of the council meeting. A summary of these rules is available in the one page handout on the table, the rear of our boardroom, in the back of the room. Disrupted behavior, as stated in our rules of procedure, includes but is not limited to shouting, making disruptive noises, creating or participating in a physical disturbance, speaking out of turn or in the violation of applicable rules, preventing or attempting to prevent others who have the floor from speaking, preventing others from reserving the meeting, entering into or remaining in the area of the meeting room that is not open to the public or approaching the council's days without consent. We want to thank you for being here tonight. We ask that you observe these rules so everyone can participate tonight's meeting. We look forward to your comments So if that will proceed to ceremonial matters the only item on our ceremonial calendar is the annual pledge of allegiance We are required by law once a year to do the pledge of allegiance and so I will lead the council and doing the pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it sounds one nation in the school liberty and justice for all. Okay, just because reading the pleasurably doesn't mean that people can interrupt the meetings. So, want to remind of the comments. So, one of the reminds of the comments that have made early in the meeting about making sure that we're not disrupt the proceedings, that we can allow everyone to speak and we can proceed with our business. So, we'll now proceed to sit-in manager comments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would just like to announce for the public a few activities that will be coming up here in the community over the next couple of weeks this Friday. At 7 30 there will be a movie in the park. The movie that will be shown is a million miles away at Grove Park. So if your kids are tired of school already pretended summer and join us for the movie in the park. That will be Grove Park. Please start interrupting the meeting. We will have a toilemi camp. We'll be closing this weekend. So help us close up the camp and enjoy our national forest near Yosemite and get room and board for free. A Saturday, September 14, 1130 to 330 will be the T Mac skate jam. And that's happening at Berkeley skate park. So join us there for live music, skate jam, contest, and refreshments. And one of my favorites, September 19th, Thursday from 6 to 8, pop in Thursday's roller skate party at Grove Park. Bring your roller or your inline skates and enjoy an outdoor evening of music and fun. And Saturday, the 21st will be the California Coastal Cleanup Day at Shoreburg Park. Help us clean up the Berkeley Shoreline and enjoy interactive activities and boobs at this 40th annual celebration that concludes our announcements. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay, thank you very much. As we proceed with our meeting and people are entering the room, if you can please quietly enter the room and take your seat, we do wanna get to public comment, we do wanna get to the agenda items on our agenda. So we ask everyone's participation so we can move through the agenda and get to the business tonight. So at the first meeting of the month, we have a special public comment period for representatives of City of Berkeley employee unions. So I'd like to ask you, and I'm just consent that we take up public comment by employee unions at this time, and then we'll go to public comment on non-genimators. Hearing objection will proceed now to public comment by employee unions. Are there any officially designated representatives of City of Berkeley employee unions that wish to address the City Council this evening? Mr. Clerk, were you informed that there were any people wishing to speak? Is there anyone present who's been designated on behalf of the City of Berkeley employee union to provide comments tonight? I'm telling you look at zoom. No, I don't see anyone who's raised their hand. So this will be the last call for any public comment by representatives of City of Berkeley employee unions. Okay, seeing none, we'll close that public comment period. And we'll now proceed to public comment on non-agent matter. So let me summarize how we're going to conduct that public comment period. And we'll now proceed to public comment on non-agent matter. So let me summarize how we're going to conduct this public comment on non-agent matters. So we will select five in-person speakers to address the council on non-agent matters. If you're here to speak on item 37 or anything that's on our agenda, we will take your comments when we get to that item later on. This is to address anything that's not on our published agenda. And then we'll take five speakers on Zoom. I'd like to ask are there any attendees on Zoom? Wishing to speak on non agenda matters. Please raise your virtual hand to be added to the speakers queue at this time. And so we will take five in-person speakers, five people on Zoom. To speak to anything that's not on our public city council agenda this evening. E speaker will be a lot of one minute to address the city council. You can yield your minute to another individual. And ask that you as we proceed with the public comment on non-ingeneral matters to non-interrupt speakers to allow everyone to have the opportunity to be heard by the council and the community. And there will be another public comment period on non-agent matter that the conclusion of our agenda tonight. So Mr. Clerk, do Anderson, and Russell Bates. Okay, if you can have in those cards, if your name was called, please line up on this set of the room. And anyone who would like to start is welcome to, once again, Isabelle, Barbarra, Avi Simon, Ian, Cordova, Morales, Erica Anderson, and Russell Bates. Russell, one second. Let's restart the clock because the mic wasn't on. I want to make sure we can hear. Oh, okay. All right. All right. Great. I just want to be people that I've been saying every council meeting since October 8th, when the city council members were perfectly refused to acknowledge the genocide going on in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Palestine, the last 76 years, I have even been back to when I became aware of what the Zionist entity is all about when there's act to U.S. as liberty, two in eighth, 1967, killing 30 plus sailors and Marines who were wounded in 170 plus sailors and Marines. And I gotta say, I really don't like the fact that you're still sitting back there doing nothing about it. I see, I see you Cecilia with eight ass assholes and I'm really sick of seeing you guys not do anything. She knows what she's doing. She's young but she's got her shit together. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And if you could just state your name for the record. Is the ball bar bearer and I'm feeding my time to Andrea Hansen. Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Andrea Hansen and I'm the executive director of where we go. We are nonprofit here in Berkeley. And I am very concerned about the hate crimes that are occurring in our city and the vigilante justice. Many of you know that there was rap poison and flyers put on individuals who were Jewish at their homes. Secondly, Marcel Jones was killed at Harrison House. My clients who are homeless lived with him, women. And he had a job. He went to work every day. He was an accomplished Berkeley resident. Yet every day he was called the N-word by his bunkmate and the person who was in charge never did anything. And now he's dead. Third, as I stood in front of my office with Alistair Boone and Kevin Sample, both of whom run street spirit, our local homeless newspaper. We were on Martin Luther Kingway when we saw someone drive up and he was pushing the police and grabbing them and screaming at them because he was threatening to beat a black African-American homeless man because he thought he saw him going to the restroom. I immediately went outside to talk to the police because we were in shock that the police did nothing to this act of vigilante justice and the police were more perturbed at Berkeley PD that I would question them on why they didn't arrest the gentleman who was pushing the police. Not the homeless man. And I asked the homeless man, I said what happened. And he said he was right. But the issue here is that we have vigilante justice against the poor, against people of color, against Jewish individuals. We are a city that stands against hate. And so I want to let you all know that this is happening because BPD did nothing and they were more outraged that I asked them, how come you didn't arrest this man? And he goes, well, we didn't arrest either one. This is not Berkeley. And so I wanted to bring this to your attention as a business owner. Thank you. Thank you. Our last two in first speakers, Erica Anderson and Avi Simon. Yeah, hi. Hi, I'm Erica and I am seating my time. Hi, I'm Avi. I am seating my time To the as well Good evening my name is Yasmin Jenkins, and I'm sure many of you here are familiar with my name. I think on most issues, there's a blanket, a root problem. And one of it is the main thing is that there's a lack of communication from you all. And the main reason I think that there is is because there's a lack of respect. I think if you categorize the people that approach you and you're not familiar with their stories, you just blanket, have your biases and your prejudices, you won't hear them out. And some people aren't able to articulate themselves. They don't have the same gifts. So if someone gets speak to you and they rant, or if they communicate with you in a way that you don't respect it, you won't hear the issue. Even if the issue is very valid, like myself, I have emailed you personally. I have emailed you, Miss Belos, and matters that are not just the subject matter. It's root issues, and it's because you all don't communicate. And I think it's important that you do. And some of these issues can be solved just for a matter of you caring enough. If you all can care enough to just hear someone out, just sit down and listen to them. Find out what the problem is. And there's an easy solution, but you have to sit down and care enough. So I ask you, Ms. Bellos, were you? Mr. Mayor, would you all be willing to have a meeting with me? Some of the issues that they have that most people have is just simply having an understanding and a heart of compassion, but you first have to respect the messenger. And that's what I think is missing here. You don't respect the messenger, so you can't receive the message. So my message that I'll bring to you all will blanket a lot of people that don't have the skills of articulation that don't have the education. So if you will allow me a meeting, you have my email, you have my email with me. We'll talk to Cindy Manjur. We'll follow up with you. Yes. One will that happen because I've been reaching out for months. We need to move on to the next speaker. If you contact my office tomorrow, we can follow. I do. I come there personally to move to the next speaker. Okay. You have I indicated at my willingness to meet with you. Let's move on to the next speaker. Thank you. Are they who are you yielding your time to? I'm here to talk about the special care unit. I'm really wanna express my concern about its survival. Two weeks ago on a Sunday, I watched as Berkeley Police Department responded to a woman who was in a deep mental health crisis. They responded violently. They put a speedy on her head. They wrapped her up in the rap device. She was in full-blown psychotic distress. She was screaming. They put a helmet on her head. They threw her in the back of a police car. This was on a Sunday morning. The special care unit was nowhere around. There was no mental health professional anywhere around. There was not a kind word or a word of consolation from any of those cops towards this woman. If you wanna see the video, I'm happy to show it to you. But what this tells me is that 13 year, I'm sorry, 11 years after the murder of Kayla Moore in her own home, by Berkeley Police, we have gained more ground in the actual, factual what happens on the street. The police department is stone-rolling. They refuse to, the chief has refused to write a general order directing her officers about how to deal when they encounter mental health issue. The special care unit is going to go 24-7, but because the fire department has not gotten it together to conduct and to revamp the dispassion. There's no dispatch calls going to the special care unit. So we are paying hundreds of thousands. Maybe who knows how much they've burned through now of the few millions of dollars that have been allocated to that project is being paid to have a behavioral health clinician, a peer specialist, and an EMT sleep all night long. That money is being turned through. So the chief of police, the chief of the fire department and the mental health division, all have to get on the same page. Otherwise, and then see, when you got $200 million for the police department over the next two years, and what is going for mental health? And this was supposed to be not just mental health, it was supposed to be any kind of call that didn't require the police. We're going in absolutely the wrong direction of what you said you wanted when George Floyd was murdered. Thank you. So we got to put up otherwise the words have no meaning. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Those were our five in person speakers. I will now ask are there any individuals on zoom wishing to speak to items not on the agenda. Please raise your virtual hand at this time on the Zoom screen. Diane Castleberry from AC transits our first speaker. Yes, thank you Mayor, and members of the Berkley City Council members, staff and public. My name is Diane Castleberry, and I'm an external affairs rep with AC Transit. I'm here on behalf of my colleague, Brian Lau. I'm here today to remind the community about AC Transit's real line project. Real line is a comprehensive assessment of every bus line in response to the substantial shifts in ridership and commute pattern since the pandemic. The AC Transit Board has opened the public comment process and set public hearings which are happening this week. The last two public hearings will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and the public comment period closes after the 6 p.m. hearing tomorrow evening. So we're encouraging people to either visit actransit.org for its last real line for more information, including the ways to submit your comment. We encourage the city and community to review and comment on the real line draft final plan as soon as possible. All comments received in writing or at a public hearing will be made part of the real line public hearing record. Once the public hearing closes or concludes on September 11th, which is tomorrow evening, the draft final plan will move to the AC Transit Board of Directors in October as early as October 9th for board decision on the real line plan. And then staff will be depending if they approve it, the staff will be working towards implementation of a new bus that work in as early as March 2025. So thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you and please have a good. Could you just ask you a question because this information will want the council in the public to know. Is there a website people go to for more information? Yes, actransit.org forward slash real line. That's R-E-A-L-I-G-N. Thank you. Thank you for coming. You're welcome. Thank you. OK, we're going to go to Ava, who I understand is here in person. Thank you, Mayor. My name is Eva Cressante, and I have an investigative sub-stack account. And I've been filling in what Berkeley side and the Daily Cal have left out. Jenny Wong, your city auditor, lovely person. The year after Jesse took that controversial JCRC trip to Israel, she took a JCRC trip to Israel, and then she hid her form 700. I've written about that at marinecountyconfidential.subsec.com. It's an entirely free service. I do have concerns because it looks like on a petition circulated by the JCRC that was signed by 51 elected officials in the Bay Area, a surprising number came from Berkeley. About 24% came from Marine County, but something like 12% came from Berkeley. That includes a lot of you guys. Last thing I did reach out to Sophie Hans office because it does appear that Sophie, you did go on that trip. And so I'm just trying to get some confirmation. Thank you so much. I would like to hear back from your aid because he said that he would get back to me. Thank you. Okay. As we proceed with public comment. Let's not interrupt. Are there any other people on zoom wishing to speak on non-agent matters. We can take three additional speakers on non-agent matters. Are there any additional, before we go to you, Ms. Ross, Ms. Rossavik, we got to draw cards. So, will the last call, are there any additional speakers on non-agent matters on Zoom? Okay, let's draw three additional cards. Gordon Gilmore, Lisa Teague and Eid. Okay, Gordon Gilmore, Lisa Teague and and eat Abdullah. Okay, if any of those three people were called, please come forward. Well, very good to see you all again after almost two months. You're always in my mind. I send you today by email also by hand to the article. One is say everything Trump touches dies. It's true. It was a book written by an author who knows the Trump history. The man is a crook and convicted criminal. And we're going to have him as a president because Kamer Harris did not disassociate herself from Biden and she was following his policy and both young people and educated people like myself and most of you know that what is happening in Gaza is a horrible genocide. There's a Lancet said there's at least 166,000 other people came as much as a half million people dead in Gaza. You guys have no choice. I have no choice what I'm born. I could be born. Also have kids. How can you watch all of these kids getting killed every day? What's your no legs, no hands, no arms? Yeah, this is awful. This is the worst manatee. As I said before, King Sran killed 11% people of Paris over 60 million people, but had a role. Never could women or children. What is happening? Nothing. Yeah, I was talking. My math was great by Nanyahu. It was very, and they did it for him to get more land. Well, they didn't gather. Imagine destroying all of the universes. All of the churches even synagogue, Joseph's working gather was destroyed. This is not about religion. It's cruel religions. As I mentioned before, religion is old, very different in some Egypt. All of what's good about humanity. It took our energy down to messy. We're not humans anymore. When you work them in the morning, December 9th and your service gets in pieces. The only decent program you can see, station KDF here of course, which I've talked on at many times, including a couple of days ago, and KDW spoke this morning, and you'll call if you can please go and please. I'm in comments. Yeah, I'm finished. I just want to say that as far as our business may or may keep you word, you all of you don't have funny looking faces. Pat. Thank you. Okay. Gordon Gilmore. Okay. All right. Let's proceed with public comment. Gordon Gilmore. Hi, um, names Gordon Gilmore. Um, and during this, I am with the Berkeley outreach coalition and, um, the union and hear more about that later on. I wanted to let you know about the homeless response teams actions since the time that you all said that you would stand by and Martin V. Boise 2018 ruling. At first they said that they would cooperate with advocates and respect people's rights and the equation and would listen to what they have to say. And during the first couple of cleanings, I mean, they did a good job of respecting that at Ethan Harrison. And the first day, they cleaned a second cedar. But they did a two day cleaner seconds here. One, the big name advocates weren't there. The ones who actually have legal degrees. They didn't, they one had and get one against their word to the people that were there. They said that something would have been sufficient the day before and then they just one had and told them to get up and move out. And it continued with lack of notices to advocates regarding like a sweep at Dwight and Grayson. When a member of the homeless response team was out passing around notices to residents, Paul from where do we go and advocate came by to check in. See what was going on and she handed them a list of services and said, oh, that's all I'm handing out. But then he went and talked to one of the residents and she revealed and noticed to him. And so there's actually active deception going on and you don't want to so mistrust and with your homeless response team. And I think that's important. Thank you. Okay, Lisa Teague. So last speaker. Thank you. I'd like to see my time to yesica Prado. Hi, my name is icica Prado and I am here to say I'm an independent journalist. So I would like to raise some serious issues that the city of Berkeley has lack of transparency. So it's a matter of records requests last year to actually find out how many people you have put in shelter and housing. And until this date, it's almost a year, the city of Berkeley has not even responded to that request or even released a single record. So just to give you a notice, and I actually been reaching out to the other office, to the city attorney's office, to every office that actually manages these records and they have, you're just all being just silent, you know? So I would just say like, if you guys are actually housing people, why can you actually produce these records? Another thing is that I would say that during sweeps, you guys are actually also like, harming my first amendment, right? As a journalist, and you guys, the homeless response team actually doesn't allow me to properly document the sweeps. And I would like to let you know that the first amendment coalition just put out a statement today in behalf of journalists that you should be allowing people to document these incidents. So whether you build the sweeps as appropriate abatement or devastating or dehumanizing, it is difficult to assess without a free and independent press documenting this process. And I've been documenting this process for the last seven years. And I would say that I've been personally harassed just for documenting and actually arrested as well. So I would just like to tell you that if you continue these practices, I will be filing a first and memory right lawsuit. Thank you. And Madam City Manager, can I refer the data request to you? Madam City Manager? Yeah. Okay. That completes this round of public comment on non-ingenimators. We'll now go to the consent calendar. And if I can begin the discussion on the consent calendar. On item seven, the voting delegates to the League of California City's annual conference like to ask that we keep this on consent and designate council member Humber as the city's voting representative since he's the alternate to the League of Cities. And he said he will be able to attend. Okay. Here an objection over the action. And if that council members want to speak on the consent count, please push your button. Item 13 contract amendment with the Multicultural Institute for COVID-19 Outreach and Education. I like to move this to action. I need to recuse myself on this so we can take that up separately. And similarly, council member Wangak needs to recuse yourself on item 25, the Mills Act contract at 1401, the Roy and item 27, the Mills Act contract for seven agree would come and given that she owns property within the 500 feet of those particular properties and therefore, under state law needs to recuse yourself. So, we're moved by unanimous consent, items 13, 25 and 27. So, the action calendar will take those up. It's the first item so we can do the recusals and then take action on those items. Item 31, the recommendation from the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission regarding Panoramic Hill Secondary evacuation access. I just want to say that I had a conversation with, well, the former chancellor, now the new chancellor at UC Berkeley about this very issue. And they are very eager and engaged in this conversation with the city and with the neighbors and with other stakeholders about looking at secondary access, including potential and university properties. So I'm hopeful that through this process, we can find a solution because obviously, the evacuation issues on the parent kill are very significant. So Councillor Hummer, I want to get your advice. Should we adopt 31b? I think that was a policy community recommendation or 31a and b. This is your district. I want to get your perspective on that. Yes, Your Honor. If you're on or I'm doing it again. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Just trained lawyer. Training getting in the way. I think it makes sense to pass both of them. Okay, so we'll, I asked that we adopt 31A and 31B. And that will initiate a process for us to develop this plan. Okay, and just note that in the supplemental two packet that we got yesterday, there were revisions that were submitted to item 34 from Vice Mayor Wengrap, and we will be approving the revised version of item 34 on the consent calendar. And there's all my comments. So my recommendation is that we take up item 13 and 25 and 27 so we can do the recusals and vote on those. Then we'll go to item 36, the ambulance transport fee increase public hearing, and then item 37, which I think most people are here to address. Okay, we'll go next to councilmember Lunaparra. Thank you. My first comment is to councilmember Wanggraf, and I'm curious if I can post sponsor, the last sponsor on item 35 to send a letter to AC Transit, urging them to reconsider the frequency of service for plus line 65 and 67. So unfortunately it's full up. No worries, thank you. And I will be abstaining on item 28, thank you. Yeah. And I will be abstaining on item 28. Thank you. Just clarify. You said item 20. Item eight. 28. 20. Sorry. Wait. 29. Okay, so Councillor Moira Parti, you are abstaining on item 29, the contract for recruiting advertising and marketing for the Berkeley and Fire Police Department. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Councillor Member Humber is next. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The first thing I'd like to do is ask that item eight be moved from consent to action. If that's the case then let's just hold it over to the 24th. Okay that's fine with me. Are there other are there two additional council members that want to pull it for discussion? Yes I'd be interested to talk about one. So let's just, so let me ask, is there unanimous consent to hold over item eight given that there are three Councillors that wish to discuss it action hold that over to the September 24th agenda? Is there any objection? Okay. So that will go over to September 24th. Yes. And the other thing I wanted to speak about were the two companion items 31A and 31B. the next one. I will be back. I will be back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I want to thank the disaster and fire safety commission for their work to advance this key safety effort. And it's really important. Finally, I'd like to thank the residents of this incredibly beautiful and one of a kind neighborhood for the continual advocacy for this and other safety efforts. Panoramic Hill is probably the single most dangerous neighborhood in Berkeley when it comes to evacuation for wildfire and other disasters. And the investigation of the creation of a second route for evacuation and firefighting access is overdue. I'm really looking forward to seeing additional reporting and I hope the fire department and other staff will stay in contact with me and my office through this project so we can keep moving it forward and on track. And so we can involve the neighbors, especially when it comes time to potentially getting an evacuation route project off the ground. Thank you. I think that's it for my colleagues who have questions. I did work on that with the clerk's office very closely. And so I don't have a brown extra colon it. I didn't know there was, there were concerns with it. But if folks want to reach out to me between now and the next meeting. To the extent that I can talk to people. I'd be happy to discuss any concerns that people have. I was not aware there were specific concerns, but happy to be helpful if I can. Let's see. I'm also very excited about the panoramic hill conversation that is long overdue. It is literally a death trap. It is extremely dangerous. And I really hope that we can come up with some solutions. I'm glad to hear that UC Berkeley is interested in helping with that. And I think that was all that I had. Thank you. Are there any other Councillors wishing to speak on the consent calendar? Yes, I would like to speak to Mr. Wang-Graff. Yes, thank you. I just want to reiterate that I need to recuse myself on items number 25 and number 27. I think it's that there's been moved to the action calendar and we'll recognize you to address the recusals at that time. Okay, thank you. And then council member Humbert last week had asked if he could be added to number 35, the AC transit draft final plan letter. So I would like to add. Council member, 100 to that. And then on item. 34, amending the BMC 7.52.06.0. To include wildfire hardening in the real property transfer tax exceptions. I want to thank the legal department, the finance department and especially the fire department for their collaboration on this item. I think that if this passes tonight. The insurance industry is watching. Yes. And the insurance commissioner is aware of this item. And I think it's going to really set a precedent. Throughout the state for how we can help subsidize people to do the work that needs to be done to reduce wildfire risk to their property. So I just want to let everybody know that. And I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I want to just take this opportunity to thank you council member wing graph for bringing item 34 forward. I think this is really an important step to provide incentives for properties to harden their homes to make them more resilient to thread of wildfires and hopefully make them more eligible for insurance coverage which we know is a matter-state-wide concern. Councillor Treggat. Yeah, thank you. I also wanted to thank Vice Mayor Wengwaf for her leadership on crafting item 34. This is something that is increasingly impacting not just the hills, but the flats as well. And this is an opportunity to be first in the state on this important issue. So thank you for your leadership. All right, any other comments on the consent calendar? Managing manager, anything on the consent calendar? Okay, so let me just summarize the changes to the consent calendar. We. Are keeping item eight, the City Council rules of procedure and order revisions on the consent calendar, but that will be continued to our next regular meeting on September 24th. And item 13, the contract amendment with Multicultural Institute, item number 25, the Mills Act contract for 141 Delroy, and item 27, the Mills Act contract for seven green would common. Those have been pulled by unanimous consent and will be moved as the first items on our action calendar. We are approving items 31 A and B and those are the changes. So can I give Chef Hans of members of the public here and person and on Zoom? How many people would like to speak on the consent calendar? Okay, a few people. So if you want to speak on a consent item, if you can please line up on this side of the room, and we'll go first to those speakers who are here in person, and then we'll go to speakers on Zoom. So who would like to start public comment on the consent calendar? And if you're on Zoom and want to speak to an item on the consent calendar, please raise your virtual hand. I'm going to turn it again in a minute. Okay. So hi, my name is Andrea Henson. I'm Executive Director and a little counselor at where do we go? I apologize. I read through everything, that I don't have the details, but I hope that each of you in whatever contract demand in the mental health services reports that they tell you who is going out to talk to the people on the street. Right now, not one clinician. We used to have clinicians coming out with great success. We got people housed because folks with actual medical backgrounds in psychiatry and psychology were talking to people. I keep talking to Peter Radoo. No one is coming out now and I don't know why. So I know that you're going to be getting these updates. Please ask that they send their people out if you're going to give them money. That's the key to success. Thank you. So as a follow up to that comment, the 2021-22 MHSA planned did have a full service partnership for homelessness and there is supposed to be five to six persons in the mental health division that are addressing homelessness including outrage. So not sure why they're not going to the encampments. It would seem that that was within their role. Also, the options mobile wellness team, finally, the contract is being circulated for signatures. It's been a year since it's come to council and a few months before that that we selected a provider. And had we had the mental health division out there consistently providing services to the persons in the encampments around the Harrison area and second in Cedar and had we had the options wellness team which is intended for homelessness in place from the state state those monies. Perhaps we wouldn't you wouldn't be sued right now because they would have been mitigating those issues. Thank you. We'll go to our next speaker. And once again, if you're on Zoom and want to speak, raise your hand. I James McFadden. I'm going to say a few words about 31, B. That's the one that chance. OK. I do James McFadden, I'm gonna say a few words about 31 being. That's still on the agenda. Okay. Vacuation plans. You're also dealing with other things in the community. Like how to deal with a homeless. And I don't think what's ever thought about. Is if somebody who's homeless really got mad. How much damage they could do to our community, how anybody who got mad about the way the council has behaved toward the homeless in this community, how much damage could be done by a single person. And I think that really has to be because we have to find solutions. We don't have to find, we don't want to be going across secuting people. I also want to say something about your cyber security measure on here. And this whole thing is cyber security. It's all about trying to protect money. And what's not thought about is how this is changing our society. And what it's doing to put in charge of a small number of people using AI. How they're going to use that. And it's an example, the AI systems are so bad, but they're being sold to us so hard that this is going to be some great time saver and money saver. I asked a very simple physics question of AI the other day on Google AI. And it came off, it was just like what is the j the driver radius in a certain magnetic field strength of a proton, the certain energy. And it gave an answer back real quick. It gives an answer that's like a psychopath answer, an answer that you want to hear. Oh, it was off by we got it. Millie, the next speaker, this stuff, this whole thing, you know, of Cybert's security and the wake appears is really a problem and you got to be thinking about it. Don't worry much. Council, I'd like to drink your attention to number 29. The all start talent for recruiting advertising and marketing strategy for the police and fire You know 1.3 million dollars is a chunk of change You just passed the mine standing is that it's about two hundred million dollars for the next two years for the police department 20 million a hundred million dollars a year and And what I what I constantly see throughout the years, these little ad lines that go to the police department. And I just really want to stop for a second and ask you, what was the last time you read the job description for a police officer? Do you ask yourself, why is it so hard? When you're paying so many of these guys, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Many of them, over a half a million dollars a year in total compensation, why is it so hard to attract people? And maybe it's something about the job itself. Maybe it's something about the way that the job has been stigmatized because it's not about care first. And we're supposed to be a care first, Jail's last city who adopted that policy. And I'm curious about what that means to you in four years after George Floyd's murder. When we're imagining, what have you reimagined? How can you compare the job description? Why do you need to spend 1.3 million? And why is that not part of their annual budget anyway? Something to think about. It's interesting how you add $1.1 million to the police budget. And I remember back when I was sitting up there, it was $250,000 for advertising. And that was seemed like a lot. And now it's 1.3. And if you see the recruiting things, it's 1.3 and if you see the recruiting things it's just disgusting. It looks like what's going on over there in Palestine because the Israelis have trained forces here in the United States. And it would be nice if you all could pay freaking attention and stop looking down, especially the mayor. I mean, come on now. It's really disgusting. You're here to listen to comment and then you just sit there looking at whatever and you're not supposed to be texting to encounter meetings either. But you don't need to spend that much money to recruit. A lot of the city employees are leaving. Why is that? Because they're not happy with the city of Berkeley. Because the city of Berkeley doesn't treat their employees well. And they're all leaving the city, which is really unfortunate. So you all need to do something really to maintain employees. And the police, it sounds like they're still doing the racial profiling that they've been doing for the last how many years. Nothing's changed. So obviously you're not doing the recruiting that you need or the training. And we don't need any more police. We don't need any more surveillance. And stop texting and writing notes. That's kind of annoying because you're supposed to be paying attention. But we need to move on to the next speaker. Your time is up. We move on your time. So Jesse. I'm going to say. Let's move on your time, so Jesse, to welcome. Thank you. That's smooth on. The next speaker sit down. You're out of order. You are out of order. If you continue to interrupt the meeting, we'll have to call recess. Too bad, Jesse. You scared. We're going to go to this gentleman who's the next speaker. I'm speaking on item 20, Dell computers. I know Dell computers are relatively affordable for large organizations, but I would urge the council to reconsider the purchase of Dell computers because, you know, even among other large tech firms who obviously are all capitalist and have no morals whatsoever, Dell stands out because through my political life, which knocked that long, but as long as I can remember into Bush administration, Dell computers never met a right-wing politician that they didn't love. So even more than other large companies, so if possible, I would like to see the city use a different supplier, also free Palestine. Man, would you like to speak on the consent calendar? Yes, please. Hi, I'm a long-term Berkeley resident and I just wanted to speak on the RV and the campment. California has some free. That's on the consent calendar. Are you. Are you, are you going to speak on item 37? We're going to get to that very soon. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I will go now to the speakers on zoom on the consent calendar only. The Elaine Jeffrey. Do you do you want to speak on the consent calendar? Yes, please item 37. That is not on the consent calendar, but we'll happy to take your comments so we get to that item. Anyone else on zoom wishing to speak on the consent calendar. Okay, sing on. We're going to take up 13, 25 and 27 separately after we've been on the consent calendar. So our second second. Okay, any further discussion? If not, please call the roll. Councilmember Kisner, why? Yes. Patlin. Yes. Bartlett. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. question. If not, please call the roll. Councilmember Kisarwani. Yes. Patlin. Yes. Bartlett. Oh Bartlett is absent. Come back to him. Okay. Trigum. Hi. Khan. Yes. Wengrap. Yes. Luna Parra. Yes. I'm going to go to the council. I'm going to go to the council. Luna. Yes. Um, I'm going to go to the council. Luna. Yes. Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, I'm going to be able to get a lot of information about the economic entrance out of an abundance of caution. I will be recusing myself from this item. And so I'll turn the chair and go to councilor Han I'll leave the room. Thank you, Mayor. We'll just read this agenda item. Thank you. We'll just wait one second. Don't imagine exits. Okay. I'm not calling up. I need to. Recuse myself as well. And I believe the clerk will put me on hold. I believe we're only doing item 13. Did you mean that separately? Oh, 13. Okay, I'm sorry. I thought you would do it once. No worries. I know from afar. It's harder to follow. So right now we're just doing item 13 because the mayor has to recuse himself from that and it comes first in numerical order. The mayor will then come back. And then he will take up the items. Council member Wengraff that you have to recuse yourself. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So. take up the items Council Member Wengrath that you have to recuse yourself. Thank you. Okay. So we are now I'm calling up item 13 contract number 322 00135 second amendment multicultural institute for COVID-19 outreach and education. Is there anyone here would like to make public comment on item 13? Senator, when the room wants to comment on item 13 and Mr. Clark, I actually don't, I'm not in the Zoom. Is there anyone on Zoom who wishes to speak to this item? No, there's no speakers on Zoom, no raised hands. Okay, so we have no public comment on this. I don't know if you can answer the question. I don't know if you can answer the question. No, there's no speakers on Zoom. No raised hands. Okay. So we have no public comment on this. I'm bringing it back to the council. Does anyone on council have a comment or a question? Or perhaps could provide a motion? Bounce a member. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yes. Partly is absent. I. On. Yes. Wenger. Yes. Loonopara. Yes. Umberg. Yes. And Mayor Ergine is recused that motion carries. So we put Wenger on hold. Yes. All right, we'll now proceed, is Councillor Wenger off on hold? Yes, she is on hold. We'll now proceed to item 25, the mills that contract for Fortune 1, Leoy, and Councillor Wenger I've indicated she's accusing us of because she owns property within 500 feet of the subject property. I move that we approve item 25. Is there a second? Second. Is there any public comment? I'm 25. Seeing none, let's call the roll. Councilor Marquist, are you wanting? Yes. Taplin. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Treggub. Aye. Hon. Yes. Lengrap is recused. Luna Parra. Yes. Lengrap is recused. Luna Parra. Yes. Combert. Yes. And Mary Errigin. Yes. Okay. We'll not proceed item 27. The mills at contract for seven green wood common. And councilman Wengerf is recusing herself for the same purpose. She owns property within five of your feet of the subject property. I move that we approve item 27. Second. Any comments from council? Any public comment? I'm 27. Seeing none, let's call the roll and I'm 27. Okay. So, member Kessler-Wani? Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bartlett? Yes. Traygum? Hi. Yes. Wengerf is Rikis, Lunapara. Yes. Humbert? Yes. And Mayor Erick. Yes. Okay Okay, so that is approved. Um, and we'll bring back by smare wind graph. Yes. Should be back. Okay, vice mayor wind graph. We've taken action on 25 and 27. So let's now move on to the action calendar. Item 36 is a public hearing on ambulance transport fee increases. I'd like to turn the board to the fire chief for any opening comments on the set. Nothing available for questions. Okay. So I'll now open the public hearing in item 36. And this is the recommendation is to adopt the resolution, adjusting the ambulance user fee to match all of me to county's approved ambulance user fee schedule made effective July 1, 2024. The increase will be include as an as an addendum to the ambulance provider agreement. Are there any members of the public here in person that would like to speak? That's part of the public here in item 36. Please come forward. And we'll take comments on Zoom thereafter. If there's anyone else after the speaker, please line up. I'm just curious. I remember there was like 19 million dollars that they wrote off for ambulance fees. And I'm curious if like what what what's the collection rate these days because that was 19 million dollars that you wrote off or something to that effect, it was a lot of money. So I'm just curious about that. And does it say how much the fee is? I'm wondering like, what's the rate? Because it doesn't say in this little description, I didn't go to the long version. But interesting. And I hope that these transport people and the ambulance are doing a good job because that's how Gus and the port died in transport. So, yeah, Rest in Peace Gus and I want to take a moment of silence for all the martyrs in Gaza. Great Palestine. Thank you. Are there any other speakers on item 36, the public hearing on the ambulance transport fee increase? Are you speaking on that Adam? Okay, thank you. My name is Stacy Poyden. I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? Is that better? Okay. I just wouldn't bring it. I can't even believe that you pay what you do already for these ambulance in these paramedics. I mean, I have been transported to the hospital via ambulance probably nine times in the past two years and I cannot believe the treatment that I've received. The treatment that I've received, I was having a stroke and they wanted me to get up and they were talking to me about calling a friend. Don't you have any friends that have cars that can give you a ride? Well, I see a credit card right there in your wallet. Can't you get a Uber? I'm like, are you freaking kidding me right now? They want to meet because I insisted on going via ambulance, they told me to get up, walk to the ambulance, getting myself, and then when we got to the hospital, they told me to get out, walking, and I sat down and sit down in the lobby, and they threw me a blanket and said, have a good night. And what they did that, because I'm homeless, that's why. And that is the way that they treat people. That's the way they treat people. And then that rolls over into the doctor, into the, you know, intake staff and into the nurses, then into the doctors. And it's a certain horrible, horrible situation being. It really is. Thank you. Next speaker please. I don't know if this adjustment includes Falk, who we use for 5150 transport. Okay, thank you because I want to make the point that the city was going to be negotiating a reduction and that so we wouldn't have to be using so much of measure B-money's for the homeless towards Falk. Thank you. Okay, I don't see any attendees on Zoom wishing to speak for the public hearing on item 36. So I'll make a motion to close the public hearing on item 36. So a second. Second. Let's call the roll- wrong that motion as we have remote participants on Be out composing. Council member kisser wanting yes, taplyn yes Bartlett yes, Trigav I on yes Lengra yes Luna para yes, umber yes and Mary already yes, okay? Okay, I was Before we entertain a motion chief anything like the ad okay Umber. Yes. And Mayor Erdogan. Yes. Okay. Okay. Before we entertain a motion, chief, anything like to add? Okay. I move adoption of the resolution. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Second by Taplin. Questions or comments before you vote? If not, let's call the roll. Okay. Can't rememberarwani. Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Treggive. Aye. On. Yes. Lengrav. Yes. Luna Parra. Yes. Humbert. Yes. And Mayor Erie. Yes. Okay. Okay. Item 36 is approved. Thank you. Okay. We'll now proceed to item 37. Incantement policy resolution. As proposed by Councilmember Kessarwani. Item 36 is approved. Thank you. Okay. We'll now proceed to item 37, encampment policy resolution as proposed by Councillor McKessor-Wanney. And I want to, as we do with any item that's submitted, give the author an opportunity to introduce the item. And, and then we can open up public comments. So Councillor Kesson-Wayne. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. First, I want to thank all of the residents who wrote to the council, particularly those who shared their experience of working, visiting, or living near the Harrison encampment, or the second and cedar encampment. Thank you to the homeless advocates who have shared their perspectives. I appreciate and understand the concerns you have raised. Finally, thank you to our city staff and city attorney's office for your input on this item. This item is responding to a change in court president. First, we are seeking to codify our desire to offer shelter when feasible. Now that the Martin V. Boise standard has been overturned, it's important to state our intention to continue to offer shelter when feasible. Something that we have discussed at length in this item and in the resolution is the significant investments we have made in this city due to the generosity of our voters in approving a $135 million affordable housing bond in 2018, as well as an increase in the transfer tax on the top third of real estate transactions. And both of those revenue sources have enabled us to make significant investments in permanent housing, permanent supportive housing, like home key sites, as well as 24-7 transitional motels. As the district one representative, I have proudly welcomed many of these sites in our district. And I also want to note that this council just last month, or I think it was before the summer recess actually, again unanimously placed on the November ballot an extension of the transfer tax so that we will continue to have this vital revenue source available to continue to expand shelter opportunities moving forward. So I want to be clear about that commitment and aspect of this item is trying to balance the needs of people who are unsheltered on our streets and their need for shelter and housing with the detrimental impacts that the most persistent and dangerous encampments pose to neighboring businesses, workers, residents and visitors. And we focus in this report on the two encamets industry one where we receive emails and phone calls every day about the serious fire risks, the imminent health hazards, and other dangerous conditions that persist. And the report discusses at length what we're describing. What we mean by that are open-use syringes, feces, urine, spoiled food, rats, rats that are entering neighboring buildings, rats that are chewing the wiring of people's automobiles and leading to thousands of dollars of damage, blocked sidewalks, the lane of traffic that is blocked, a fire that occurred two weeks ago that threatened neighboring buildings. These are situations that are not healthy for the homeless individuals that find themselves in these encampments, and they are not healthy or safe for the surrounding neighborhood. And so what we are trying to say in this item is that we have to have some balance here between our desire to offer shelter whenever feasible and to make those revenue commitments, but to also give some flexibility to deal with these imminent fire, health, and other safety hazards. So in consultation with the City Attorney's Office and the City staff based on their real world experience of seeing the types of encampment situations that exist in our city, we have developed these six exceptions that are narrowly tailored. They reference the Berkeley Municipal Code, and this will allow us to be able to address the most serious safety concerns that we find in our encampments, and to try to deter re-encampment in a very dangerous area that has persisted for more than five years in both of these cases and these two encampments. And I will leave it at that. I look forward to hearing from the public tonight and to hearing from my colleagues as well. Thank you very much. Excuse me, as we are proceeding with this item, I like to ask that people not yell or interrupt, we wanna give everyone an opportunity to express their opinions on this. So. So at the mayor's suggestion, I'm going to, so I want to share screen. Okay, so I can do that on the zoom. Yes. Okay, and just keep my audio off. Is that visible? Is that visible? Okay. Okay. That's a good size. Okay. So this is the item. And we have made some minor edits. They're not very significant, but I think they are important to clarify. So this is the recommendation. I think people have seen this. I just wanna note in the track changes, I'll read the sentence where we have some edits. We are now proposing to say, however, in the event that the city manager determines that a shelter author is not practicable, then the city manager is nonetheless authorized to enforce state and local laws under the following specific circumstances. So I want to clarify, so what has been removed here is the mention of the use of citation and arrest. And in discussions with our police chief and other members of our city staff, it is the belief that it is more precise to talk about the enforcement of state and local laws. And to make that clear, arrest is not what we wanna lead with. As somebody noted in the public comments, we are a care first jails last city. It is a tool in the toolbox. I want to make that clear. That is part of enforcing state and local law. Please stop interrupting the. But I want to be more precise in this language. So that is the change we're making there. Let me continue. And then in this other other section here, we're just making the language again, similarly aligning it to say we are talking about enforcement of state and local laws. And the other piece of this is that we are making related changes to an ordinance so allow our city manager to make those changes. So that is what this paragraph is talking about. We just want for transparency sake and for my colleagues sake to know what those two administrative regulations are about and what changes we are expecting as a result of this policy approach. And there were some corrections made in the report, but the current situation and its effects section isn't really as pertinent. But we have these edits there just to clarify that what actually occurred with the Martin decision. We just wanted to clarify. We removed the Fifth Amendment, because that actually refers to the federal government. Those are not as important here. Let me just scroll down to the resolution now, and just show the related edits. Sorry, if you give me a moment, I will get there. Okay. and just show that the related edits, sorry if you give me a moment, I will get there. Okay, so nothing has changed in these whereas clauses. And what we have is the related changes talking about the enforcement of state and local laws. And again, in the other further resolved clause, again, enforcement through applicable state and local laws. So that's really all we are proposing to change here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Kistorone, for presenting those amendments and for accepting those changes. So I want to make sure everyone saw those amendments before we open public comments. Those are being read. Those were introduced into the record. You saw what they're proposing. Anyways, we are proceeding now with public comments. And so we will open public comments, stop interrupting Ms. Davila, or we will have to take a break. Okay, we're gonna take a recess. And if the staff can please talk to Ms. Davila about ceasing interrupt the meeting. But I take a five minute recess. We'll see you guys. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. 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I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do to the next room. Okay. The City Council's back in session. If people can please take their seats so we can proceed with the discussion this item. And so we have the language up here on the screen for everyone to read. This is the substantive change that Councillor McKessor, one reference that she is the amendment she's making on the floor tonight. And this change being made at various points in the item. But we'll keep this up so everyone can read it. And I'd like to ask the city clerk and city attorney if you can apply on the procedural question or whether the council has the ability to amend a, a mental proposal on the floor during the meeting. Yes, certainly thank you mayor. As is customary practice legislative bodies are permitted to amend the legislative items before them from the dius. That's certainly been a standard practice in my 17 and a half years here in Berkeley. So tonight does not deviate from that. And there is no requirement in the Brown Act or the Berkeley Open Government ordinance that for changes made at the Dias that hard copies must be provided. Okay, thank you. So we'll now move to public comment. I know we have a, can I get a show of hands? How many people here in person would like to speak on item 37? Okay, pursuant to the city council rules, the procedure in order, each speaker will be allowed in one minute to address the council. You can, if three other people use you, they're minute, you can speak for the maximum time of four minutes. So if there's like a representative in an organization, you can, other people can yield their time for a maximum four minutes per speaker. So we'll go first to speakers who are here in person at 1231 Addison, and then we'll go to speakers on Zoom. And as we begin public comment, just really like to ask, you know, we want to hear from everyone, and really want to ensure that everyone could afford respect to everyone who's here tonight, and who wants to express, as I stated at the beginning of the meeting, that we not have interruptions or booing or interruptions of speakers, give them, please give them the respect and the attention that they deserve, that we will give to you as well as we hear your comments tonight. So, like to reiterate, we will not tolerate any disruptions of speakers as they are providing their comments. Let's be respectful of each other and provide a space for everyone to be heard. So we'll go first to for one minute to speakers on Zoom in person. If you'd like to speak, please begin to line up. I see we have a line forming and would you like to start? First, in the spirit of do unto others, as you would have them do unto you, I wanna first just extend some grace and compassion to each and every one of you all because I don't know what your own personal lives entail. And I'm sure you all do an extremely good job at what you do as far as the effort in your own minds. And we appreciate that and thank you. But I first want to just say, I have lived in multiple regions in the United States, but I am a native of the South side of Chicago. And on paper, Berkeley seems like a very progressive city, which is why I moved here. But unfortunately, moving here, it was just the opposite. I have found it to be extremely oppressive. And I just wanted to just impress upon you all that the unhoused population here is profoundly different than most regions because the weather here. If you can please wrap up your comments. Well, we have to go the next speaker. I just want to say what anybody here comes to say to you. Okay. Thank you. Oh, okay. Well, somebody said they. This person here is yielding to two. Okay. Okay. Oh, okay. Well somebody said they would. This person here is yielding two. Okay, side. Okay. Two additional minutes. This is all you all should roll the back. I gave you a compliment and I led off with niceness. So that should, that should amount for something. But I understand that a lot of times people don't have the articulation to say what they want to say in the most nice pleasant way because you have to understand when you all leave, you're going home to running water, lights, and these people are going home to really horrible conditions, something that the most of us wouldn't even be able to fathom. So I think in the spirit of communication and understanding, before you move to make a law or an ordinance, I think it will be who's everyone. If you have a spokesperson of a specific entity that maybe you don't quite understand that can translate and can communicate to you the problems or the solutions that they propose. Because right now what it sounds like to me, this is my very first meeting ever since I've lived in Berkeley in six and a half years and I can say that it seems like a being in a room where people speak different languages and you don't understand their language and they don't understand your language and so you need a translator of sorts someone like yesica or someone who can translate and speak on the behalf of a population of people that you can respect and that you can hear and not feel that you're being heckled or just respected. Because what they, what their message is absolutely right in the hose a lot of validity, it's important that they're heard. Just as well as you all have a, I agree with you because even in the south side of Chicago, the unhoused population is nothing like here, because they die in Chicago, because the weather is so horrible. So I feel just like you all too, in one instance, the unhoused area is horrible. They don't want to live like that either. I'm sure you all know that, but there has to be some solutions. Hear them out. Listen to Yesiko or someone that won't call you out of your name or someone that you can receive the message and find out what's the issue. How can you actually help? And that's with any solution, any problem. Thank you. Okay. I know you don't want to hear from me, but I'm waiting. No, I just we need to move on. There's a long line of people that want to speak. So thank you for your comments. Mr. Whitman. Thank you. I have a one minute from Cielo. And I don't know if there's anyone else has a minute. Okay. So I represent the speaking for the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission. I'm Vice Chair. We passed a resolution, which is alternative to this resolution before you. Back on August 7th hasn't made its way to you yet apparently, but I just want to reflect on what we said and I would hope that you would put off your decision tonight until that resolution does come to you. But just to summarize, the resolved savings. Be resolved by the Council of the City of Berkeley that Berkeley will come to you, but just to summarize the resolved statements. Be resolved by the Council of the City of Berkeley, that Berkeley will continue to operate under the framework of Martin V. Boise as permitted under the recent Supreme Court decision in Grant's past, Ressa Johnson, and refrain from any criminalization or effective prohibition of sleeping while unhoused, including citation or arrest. Simply for sleeping outside if no adequate shelter is available without precluding enforcement of laws, banning actions that threaten the health and safety of the whole community. Secondly, we called for the council to oppose Governor Newsom's executive order N124 and urge Governor Newsom to engage with community organizations over comprehensive policy reforms that sustainably and humanly address the needs of the unhoused in California without encampment sweeps. And finally, the Berkeley Shell Strength in its commitment to connecting unhoused people with vital services, including adequate short-term shelter and regional permanent supportive housing solutions. I want to say this executive order because this hasn't been talked about very much. On July 25th, Newsom requires the removal of encampments on state lands and request local governments to take the same action within their jurisdictions while the order provides no new funds for a creation of new housing or shelter despite a shortfall of approximately 110,000 emergency shelter and transitional beds in California and provides no direction as to where unhoused people should go once encampment evacuation orders are given. I reflecting on the present resolution before you. Some of these these these circumstances are frightening. One, the city had determined that a situation constitutes a public nuisance as defined in the BMC. Another, the encampment interferes with our impede city or utility companies construction or maintenance activities in the public right of way street lighting, insulation or repair. We all want these things to happen. Nobody wants there not to be public lighting or construction or, or, but the language that we use the way we talk about people who are homeless is so. God awfully inhumane. That all I was to think of is is the line from the he's spoken the maximum form. All right, I'll just I'll just hold on hold on. It's one. It's one more. It's one point. All right, he gets one more minute. OK. One point from from Woody Gutheys great song or deportees. And I think it applies to looking at any human population. Sorry. The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon. A big ball of fire. It shook all the ground. Who are these friends who are falling like dry leaves? The radio said they were just deportees or we could say they were just homes people who were in our way and it wasn't pleasant. But let's think about them a little bit more as human beings. Thank you. It's me again. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, I want to bring attention to a lot of things, but I've only got one minute. So I want to, you know, bring attention to a lot of things, but I've only got one minute. So I want to bring attention to the rats. The rats, okay. That's such a set up. That is such a set up. The city does not supply a duster. And we've got 40, 50, 100 people or more. And we're being told, we're told to put all of our garbage loose garbage. Because we don't have garbage bags. We've got to use garbage in one big pile. I'm a street corner. I'm a city street corner. Of course it's going to attract rats. Of course it's going to attract complaints from the neighboring businesses. Because we also live in a wind valley on Second Street and it blows all over the place. And I am out there every single night with many trash picker uppers and I'm picking up garbage, meaning wake up to it's same thing. And then, you know, I'm picking up garbage and all these people because we don't have any other choice. So that's a complete setup right there. And as far as toilets, I mean, you know, these things in urine, blah, blah, blah, really? What did you try it? Try it. Try looking one night without it's for the show living one night without heat without, you know, then you wouldn't have fires or without, you know, someplace to cook. I mean, I challenge any one of you to live my life for one week at the Cheney thing you tapped out before I do. And if you support me to ragdune in any way, having a final say so in anything, you are looking for trouble. You're looking for trouble because he's gonna bring it to you. I guarantee you, why else did they make this an emergency situation? Six days before his new boss starts. Why is that? And you, Mr. Mayor, just a few months ago, you know, you're like a single praises because you work these homies rate went down 47%. But you know what? And Oakland's way up. Why is that? Why? Because you guys all starved everybody out to other neighboring, you know, out of the economy cities. Give the speaker additional minute. Thank you. So I mean, what now right now, you know, I mean, you there, but now with your herd mentality, you know, you're changing your story now. Now you're going to go with, okay, let's just do it this way. Let's do it the way that you know, they still to do it in print, you know, in the Supreme Court. Let's do it. I mean, come on now. You guys come in. Adventure super serious, Maglomaniacs. And in turn right now. Peter, Radu is dangerous. He is not a good person. And if you think he's doing good for people, you have more idea what he's done to me. Just me alone, begging him. When he went into put me in Oakland, didn't tell me it was a place run by backs. That's what I've been trying for two years to try and get away from backs with Peter. I do. Didn't tell me that it was only a 30-day voucher and that I would have been stranded at Oakland after 30 days. He means people out and then he's got his crew ready to go. We put up the fences, put up the containers, put up the boulders, whatever, so that they can't come back. What a jerk, man. He's so sick jerk. Peter Radeo is not a good person. I'm telling you right now, he's gonna bring this city down. He's gonna bring you down with him. Abs of frickin' lately. You can shake yourself, head no, but you have more in day what he's doing to me. Me personally, I begged him and I cried. And asked him, please, if you're going to take me, you know, why just me? Why just me? Why not? There's nothing in Berkeley. Well, really, there's nothing in Berkeley. Can you at least take my neighbor call? Because now because of this homelessness that I've been forced into by this system. And that I've been forced into by this system and that I have been forced to stay in because of the system. I mean, come on now. Thank you. We need to move on. Thank you for your comments. That's all right. Next speaker. You know what? I'm going to get a restriing on that. I'm here. Hello. I lost my brother in 2021. He was living on the streets, Berkeley. My sister just moved out of Harrison House a few days ago because of the killing that happened there. Homeless is not a crime. What is a crime is public urination, public defecation, public drug use, attack dogs waiting in the corners, you know, as you try to walk by the encampments, this is unsafe. I do look forward to the city giving back the streets to all of the public, not just a few campers. We want to walk our city, we want to drive on our streets. We don't want the filth. I know, but I ask my please. Why is it so quiet? I mean, why is it so dirty? He said, that's what happens. Have some self-respect. Please stop interrupting the speakers. Okay. Once again, as we are proceeding with public comment, please do not interrupt the speakers. Let them have the floor. We want to hear from everyone. Let's, let's be civil. Let's be adults here. Let's make sure we can proceed with the discussion. We'll go to the next speaker. That's all. Let's be quiet. My name is Andreas and I'm a district one resident and the parent of a child with Down syndrome. I'm here to support council member, Kastrawanis proposal and urge the city council to do the same. As a parent, I've seen firsthand how difficult it can't be for vulnerable members of our community to navigate unsafe and unpredictable environments. The encampment situation in Berkeley has worsened and families like mine and district one have been disproportionately affected. We need to take steps to protect all residents, especially those who are in the state of California. and families like mine and District One have been disproportionately affected. We need to take steps to protect all residents, especially those with special needs or more sensitive to unsafe conditions. I recognize that homelessness is a complex, deeply rooted crisis that won't be solved quickly, but we have an opportunity to manage its impact more active, more effectively for both those experiencing homelessness and the broader community. Because our one is planning strikes a balance of addressing immediate health hazards and dangerous encampments while still working in peril with the city's ongoing efforts to provide shelter and resources. While it may result in difficult outcomes for some, taking no action leaves families, businesses, and those living in unsafe conditions at risk. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Hi, my name is Drew Peyton. I am a pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, a large congregation off of telegraph. I'd like to speak against the resolution. Our campus is host to a variety of programs that serve on house folks, many of which we also support with staff, volunteers, and funding. We've already seen some of the cost of the displacement caused by the closure of people's park. I am deeply concerned about the proposed and and funding we've already seen some of the cost of the displacement caused by the closure of people's park. I am deeply concerned about the proposed encampment policy resolution that appears to criminalize homelessness. The six exceptions to existing policy are so broad that they render meaningless the promise to create viable pathways to safe and dignified housing before perpetrating the violence of forceable displacement and the destruction of property and the violation of civil rights. I'm just really worried. These are not hazards or nuisances or obstructions we are talking about. They are human beings and beloved children of God. And we have no right to push them aside. Thank you. Mayor Ergine and City Council members. My name is Olivia Dupree. I am a nurse practitioner and the medical director for street medicine at lifelong medical care. I am here as an individual in opposition to the encampment policy resolution. For the past four and a half years, I have taken care of people's medical needs at the eighth in Harrison camp and at the second and page, second and cedar encampments. I know the people who live there and their medical histories extremely well and I wrote a letter to you all that was sent by email last night that you're receiving now. I am very concerned about how the sweeps who are pulling will impact my patients and by the mistake and motion that seems to be circulating that sweeps will help the health and safety of my patients. That is not true. The conditions that you describe in the resolution will simply be recreated in the place. When I have a patient, when I have a patient who is HIV positive and on treatment and you sweep the camp that they are in and they run out of medicine and their viral load goes up, the disease is transmissible. When I have a patient who has spent no use disorder and they get on buprenorphine which is a life-saving treatment and they run out of medication and scatter and we can't find them. They will go into withdrawal, which is like having the flu times 10 and they will return to fentanyl and it will cost them their life. When I have a patient who has syphilis and there are a lot of folks with syphilis on the street, the treatment, the most of the time, ends up being three shots of biceline one week apart. When you sweep their camp and I'm in the middle of treating them, and they go MIA and I can't find them, they will not finish treatment and they will spread the disease. I could give you numerous other examples. Please do not pretend that sweeps help the health and safety of my patients. They do not. When a patient of mine has an RV, it gives me a chance to actually treat a disease they have because they've a place to put their medicine and a door to lock so it doesn't get stolen. When you sweep their camp, it reduces my ability to treat their disease. RVs also protect people from assault, from sexual assault, from being kidnapped and trafficked, from robbery, when you sweep their camp and their RV is taken because they can't drive it, you are putting them in danger. Please do not pretend that you are improving the health and safety of my patients with sweeps. Most people on the street have significant disabilities. They may be paraplegic, frail, pregnant, unable to walk, have heart failure, COPD. They often cannot do activities of daily living. There is no in-home support services on the street. When you live on the street, you rely on your community to provide for you. If you're pregnant, people in the camp bring you food. When you're a paraplegic, people literally have a lookout to make sure that you will not be taken advantage of. When you sweep and people scatter and they don't have that community, you are hurting them and putting their lives in danger. Non-summembers, Kessa Wani, you have stated concern for the health and safety of my patients. Yet, I have never received a call or an email or any contact from you or your staff, and you definitely know who I am because several times I send an email to you and to Miller Erickine about episodes I've been especially concerned about. I would expect to hear from you if you were truly genuinely concerned about their health and safety. City staff unfortunately do not know what my patients need medically. They do not have medical training. Just a week or two ago a member of the hot team asked me about one of the most known patients by the hot team. The most key issue to their disabilities, to how to get them housed, to how to get them better, and that City of Carlywood is completely unaware of the most basic thing with this patient. Putting people in who tells has worked. You have helped them. You have helped their health. You have increased their likelihood they will get into housing. Why you are taking a UN term when you have something that works, I do not understand. If you want to vote for this, because it will help the health and safety of other people in the community, I agree. I acknowledge that that would happen, but you will not help the health and safety of my patients by passing this resolution. This will lead to sweep after sweep after sweep and wasting city resources. Thank you. Okay. First I'd like to start by saying, you look everywhere else in California, literally to no other cities have resolved to offer shelter to the homeless, despite the grant's past decision. I want to give you guys probably the only compliment you'll get tonight and thank you. That's it's great that you guys did that last time. I also want to beg for help in our neighborhood. Things have gotten really bad. The Virginian camp is actually newly rivaling that of Harrison or Second Street. Start out as one guy who kept himself really clean and pleasant guy and he even swept the sidewalk more than I do. At this point, trashes spew everywhere. We can't use the sidewalks. The street smells like piss. My daughter almost picked up needle thrown into the yard. I'm literally picking out literal needles from a haystack. A single prick might kill or have been overdosed. It's a spectrum between, there's a spectrum between what's reasonable and what's dangerous. Kesterwanis proposal interest, Kesserwani's proposal defines that spectrum. It basically sets out some rules and it allows the city to enforce and do something about these hazardous conditions before something bad actually happens. Nobody in this room agrees that Pistfield Streets or Babies Paking Up Needles is a good thing. I'm begging you guys, please help please please do something about this. Thank you very much. Hi, I'm Zach from D1. I'd like to thank Councillor Kessarwani for writing this proposal. I just have a brief thing to say about fire safety. So, one of my friends, I was visiting a friend in Alameda and he was driving me back and we were stopped at the light kind of near the safeway. And there was a, like we had our windows rolled down and there's a car next to us. And then we see like the biggest blaze I've seen up close and it was it was an encampment. It was a tent and it was just going. And the woman in the car next to us blew like before she blew the light. She shouted my sons in there and we called 911 but like I'm not a firefighter. There's like once, once like the whole things up, and if he was in there, like how much can you really do? And I just, I'd like to see us like do something about this before we have another go ship on our hands. Like these things go up quickly because they're not designed with sprinklers or other things for safety. So just keep that in mind. Anyway, thank you. I think there's still. Dear Berkeley City Council and fellow residents. I live in a mixed commercial and residential neighborhood. Over the past few years, our neighborhood has become increasingly unmanageable with the situation worsing with each passing month. Due to Berkeley's lack of enforcement regarding encampments in our V, our area has become overrun. While we typically understand that commercial areas can be busy during the day, they typically quiet down after 5 p.m. However, we now experience disruptive activity at all hours, including screaming and people yelling, I'm being attacked or murdered. We have one lady who has psychotic episodes and imagine being woken up at three o'clock in the morning with somebody yelling in your backyard saying, I'm going to kill you or somebody's going to kill me. It's this whole situation has just become untenable and unsafe, and we urge Berkeley to pass this resolution to at least have something to be able to enforce. Thank you. I'm going sure if you're going to get the information that you're going to be doing. I'm not sure if you're going to get the information that you're going to be doing. I'm not sure if you're going to get the information that you're going to be doing. I'm not sure if you're going to get the information that you're going to be doing. I'm not sure if you're going to get the information that you're those things. Is you guys are trying to plan on something you mean? You guys are so upholed to that. Thank you Mayor and Councilman for spending your evening this way. I would like to say the one thing that's clear is the current situation is extremely dangerous for everyone and unhealthy and that we do have to look at both sides of it, the humanity of the people there and we need more tools and that's why I support the resolution come out and thank you for your concern and hope you work at through. Thank you. My name is Nigine Mossad. I am the owner of a physical therapy clinic that serves a lot of people that are on the streets and many people that are very affluent. And I see the two sides of the coin and I see the conditions. And I'm also speaking on behalf of the BTU in some manner. The policy that you're passing tonight is a result of the condition that has been forced on us because of the commodification of housing and the unattainable situation of real estate, taking funds for your campaigns by the same people that are caused the conditions of the push out of our community members and they're ending up on the street. Make sure almost not appropriate to make a decision on how to treat the condition. The condition is a condition of capitalism, it's a condition of commodification of housing. The unfortunate people who is a Russian Roulette end up on the street as a condition of capitalism, is a condition of commodification of housing. The unfortunate people who is a Russian Roulette end up on the street as a result of one person owning 90,000 homes in their portfolio so they can have increased wealth and they can be evaluated a higher rate is on the right side and the person on the street is on the wrong side. So how are you gonna fix this by criminalizing the people on the street is on the wrong side. So how are you gonna fix this by criminalizing the people on the street? That's not an answer. Hello everybody. My name is Grace Moore-Zawa and I'm the chair of the Peace and Justice Commission. I am so alarmed about this resolution. I heard several of you speak that you would never adopt the grad's past resolution. And I was moved and felt that your concern for the humanity of justice, I know George has already talked about this, so I'm not gonna go into it. But I know when we worked on a resolution, we learned from the staff that we are the only city in the Bay Area with reduced population of homeless people. And that really showed me that although there is a big problem, I'm not gonna deny it, but humanity and recognition of people's struggle is still a part of Berkeley and we're working to make a difference. Okay, I'm just going to ask you to vote no and thank you. My name is Freway and I'm the president of the Oakland home museum and I'm here today to urge council members in the mariterum to vote no on this agenda item. And to get the citizens of the UN the other citizens of Berkeley the same respect and consideration that you need to give to those that live inside of your city. The fact that we're even discussing this item is terrifying in and of itself. I was present at the last council meeting on this matter. Without witness, there's nothing more than a vast organization of the city's democratic process. For over 20 minutes we listen to council members in the mayor and the city's attorney argue about other agenda items and the linked and meticulous process that each item had to go through to even be discussed. When it came to this item, suddenly democracy policy and fairness, great up the window. This is not anything new as I'm housed in formal and house organizers. We are quite used to watching the double standards and hypocrisy of societies up across and repeatedly make policies that are against their big existence. If you don't believe me, just look to the policies like anti-Aggley laws. You already yield your minutes, so we'll take this guy. Thank you. Just look to the anti-Aggley laws all the way way to the most recent Supreme Court ruling on Johnson versus Grand Pass. Each of these examples and accountants that lie in between are reminders to the poor just exactly where we stand in relation to the politics that make the laws. The City of Bergen is a history of being a beacon of progressive I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. vulnerable faction of people. These are individuals who are already publicly demonized, shined and criminalized for reactions and inactions of the status quo. Sorry, their lives are already dramatically cut short by the variable such as exposure disease and mental health and overdose. And these proud of my variables do not get solved with sweeps, rather they are exacerbated. When I hear about the tired, complained about the blight, the rodents and the unsafe living conditions, what comes to mind is the indifference of the elected officials that created these living conditions. Good evening, Council. My name is Bryce Miller. I'm president of Telegraph for People at UC Berkeley. I'm also a voter in District 4. And I hope to urge each and every one of you to vote no on this resolution. Unhoused people existing on the streets should not be a crime and should not be punished. There are so many other solutions and I hope to see the city of Berkeley use their money resources and times on literally anything else, like providing bathrooms or trash cans on the streets for these people to use or hear me out housing. There is an extreme affordability crisis in the city of Berkeley. Berkeley needs to be providing so much more social housing for its people and that is the root cause and this policy will not address the root cause and will be counterproductive in the long term. Thank you. of the resolution this evening and to thank Council Member Kesart-Wani for proposing it and to thank my own Council Member Humbert for sponsoring it. I'd like to say that the homelessness crisis that we see on our streets is a disgrace. I think it's unforgivable that we're allowing our neighbors to suffer in this way. I think it shames the conscience of our city and to fix that crisis, I think we need to build radically more housing to help people who are at risk of becoming homeless. And I think we need to build radically more homeless shelters and permanent supportive housing to help those people who are currently homeless. What we do not need and what I think it's really sad that we're currently doing is abandoning public space to to anarchy and to chaos and to unsafe conditions. There is nothing that requires us to give up the public fabric of this city in order to treat our fellow residents with dignity and respect. And that's why I hope you'll pass the resolution. Thank you. We heard balance mentioned a lot of times tonight. And what are we talking about? We're talking about balancing the needs of the rich against the needs of the poor against the poor and the homeless. And who wins in those situations, especially when we have a council that consists of eight rich people, maybe in one not so rich person. So what are you going to expect you to rule before always losing in those situations. We heard about feces. We heard about rats. I tell you I walked the streets all the time. Most of the rats are up there by the frat. It has to be removed. Not it's a last resort. It has to be never. Berkeley needs to resist this neoliberal attempt to basically impoverish people more and more. We need to stop the escalation because once you start escalating against the people and they become where they're hopeless, they're gonna retaliate and it would take one person with a lighter and a and a bucket of gasoline to light up those hills. So you should not your comments how you're what you're doing here. We have to house the homeless. We have to create a situation we don't have these problems. All right, well, it was John and I'm a member of the Wood Street community and was on house for about 10 years. And what's really scary and concerning to me is that the same thing is going on in Berkeley is going on in Oakland. And it's like you guys are communicating to do the opposite of what people are asking to do. It's a simple solution, and I'll piggyback off my brother, Monty, provide more bathrooms at the encampments, provide dumpsters so they can put the trash in there, provide fire extinguishers, and have the fire department come out, and help with fire abatement classes and stuff. A lot of this stuff is very simple, instead of wasting all the money on sweeping people when we don't have anywhere to go. Use that money to help screen up the encampments in a humane way and give people a place to be so they can get their medicines. They're not attacked when they're by themselves, you know? It's just baffling to me. Thank you. Hello, my name is Alicia Harger. I've sat up here, stood up here so many times, referencing the specific Black Lives Matter flag. Because of Black Lives Matter and Berkeley, we need to care about homeless people. I don't have the updated numbers from the point in count, but we know, we all know that Black people are vastly overrepresented in the homeless population. So I want to start with a little thought experiment. You guys are saying that we're going to clean up our streets by throwing people in jail. How does that actually work? You send someone to jail, you force them to go to jail, and then they're going to come out the other side, what? How? They're going to come out the other side healed. They're going to come out the other side, what? They're going to come out the other side worse for the wear. They're going to come out the other side traumatized because jail is a traumatizing experience. It's not going to solve anything. So everybody here who's a citizen of Berkeley, who's upset by the blight, who's upset by the needles, how is jail going to solve that problem? The answer is it's not. You're searching for solutions to a problem that can only be solved with permanent supportive housing, and jail is not going to solve that problem. I have another minute. Fantastic. I'd also like to point out that if I asked any one of you and probably even most of the people who've made public comment in support of this item today, if you support Donald Trump, I think you probably say no. And if I asked you if you support Donald Trump packing the Supreme Court, I think you'd probably say no. But what you are trying to do is only made possible by a Supreme Court ruling that was only possible because Donald Trump packed the court. This is a political opportunity afforded to you by a far-right fascist and you are jumping on it as fast as you possibly can. Jailing people is not going to solve this problem. Jailing Black people specifically because that's what y'all are about to do. You're going to be disproportionately jailing black people and black people are in. You got a little smile on your face. I'm so sorry. I know I'm not supposed to get personal, but I'm going about putting black people in jail and you're smirking and that's just crazy to me. I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next slide. Okay. As. As we are proceeding with the public comment, let's give the floor to the speaker. Yeah, I know it's a very complex issue. There's a lot that goes into the homeless situation. Everything on the street. I've been in the government district now for 10 years and during that entire time. I've been trying to get a business running and keep it going. It's been very hard. There are needles. There are right now there's a bed in front of my place that I can't move and I call the city and they can't help me because it happens to be off the sidewalk on my property. So I don't know how to get it out and I don't have the money because I've used up all my funding. I don't even have the money to hire someone to come and help me with that. Anyway, I just wanted to advocate for it is all citizens of Berkeley that you guys have to think about. And West Berkeley is predominantly working in lower middle class businesses and people that own homes or rent. And for whatever reason, a lot of us feel like we're sort of the ugly step children of Berkeley businesses are broken into our building got caught fire because somebody had it. Okay, bye. Hello, I have one minute yield to me from Lila Himati. Hello, councilmembers and mayor. My name is Avery Arba. I'm a student at UC Berkeley, the former president of the Cal Berkeley Democrats, and resident of Berkeley. But the reason I'm here today for the most part is because I'm someone who's formally homeless and I know what it's like to be criminalized on a nearly daily basis just for existing. And I know what the lifelong trauma and anxiety that comes from that feels like. I'm sorry. So I had a bunch of stuff prepared about the history of the grants past decision and how we're emulating a far-right Supreme Court by trying to pass this here tonight. But I really just wanna talk about having to live in a car and have police officers knock on your window and bring you somewhere else. It is just terrible. It's really difficult. And I have to say that every single day before school, you're not going out and I don't understand how you guys can call yourself progressives if you're trying to do this to more people. I'm really sorry. Thank you. Thank you. I really hope you guys will see that the people in this room that's human beings and vote against this measure tonight. Thank you so much. July the mayor said that promised the city would abide by the Martin versus Boise ruling and here we are today with adding question. Can we trust anything that comes out of the mayor's mouth if you decide to descend, go back on that position? I don't think so. I'm a disabled resident. I've lived here in Berkeley my entire life. The problems with things on the streets, the block my path, when I use my walker are problems that can be easily solved by by providing dumpsters for people for unhoused by providing safe disposal sites for needles and emphasizing harm reduction and like practices and supporting initiatives such as Punx with Lunch. They can't be solved by jelling people. Thank you. Good evening. I'm here as the Man director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, whose offices and production facilities are adjacent to the Harrison Street encampment. While we have deep compassion for our unhoused neighbors, I urge you to support the resolution tonight. We desperately need to address the hazardous encampments that pose a fire risk and imminent health hazard to our facilities and our employees. Berkeley Rep Property and Employees have been victims or witnesses of multiple fires, rat infestation, vandalism, theft, public nuisance, egress blockage, road blockage, harassment, gunshots, toxic smoke, noise, domestic violence, illicit activities, and more. And most recently, the serious incident of the fire on August 21st, which damaged our property, melted our fencing, damaged our storage container, and almost caught our trees on fire, which could have been catastrophic to our facilities and our ability to operate a business here in Berkeley, as well as the lives of the individuals who are working in our building at that time. So I urge you to support this resolution. Thank you. Okay, once again, as we are proceeding with public comment, let's not interrupt. People have very strong and passionate opinions about this issue. Let's respect each other. Let's provide an opportunity for people to express themselves respectfully. We'll go to the next speaker. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council members. My name is Caroline Winnett. I am a Berkeley resident and I own a small commercial building at Fifth and Harrison. Thank you. Thank you for introducing this resolution, especially thank you to Council member Kessarari. You've heard the stories. I want to first say to everybody in the room and all of you, I have nothing but compassion for unhoused people who are simply trying to survive. Once again, stop interrupting. They are trying to survive and I know that the council and the city has done so much to try to solve this problem. And it has not worked yet. The fact of the matter is that something different needs to be done because you've heard the stories. The father who's afraid his daughter will pick up a needle and receive an overdose. This gentleman who just spoke, whose business could have burned down. My building has had to put out fires in front of my building several times every time I have the same worry as this gentleman. Please take the compassion that we have for everybody and bring it to us business owners and please pass this resolution. Thank you. I just want to say that actually I disagree with the previous speaker. I don't think there's anything new here at all. I think it's as old as it's as old as time itself. The lack, the cowardice, the cowardice of hiding behind the police to mask your lack of leadership on this issue. Cleaning up feces, that's not rocket science. Now working with poor people to alleviate the conditions that everybody's suffering from. But rather than engage productively and respectfully with poor people and advocates and all kinds of people who want to solve these problems with throwing the cops. And you know what? One of the things that makes it hard to hire cops is the reputation that they have for that kind of inhumanity. When y'all send the cops, and if you're going to respond to this resolution, respectfully, council member, I think you should be present. I think you owe it to yourself and to the people that you're inflicting yourself on to be present and see how that goes down. But the cops don't want to be there and they'll be that one among the first to say that it's a failure of leadership that brings them to that unhappy moment. But I also want to point out this genocidal mind. and the human rights of the people. And so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, go. So long as they're out of your backyard, that's a genocidal mind because it's just a matter of degree council member that when you can erase people suffering, when you can erase a demographic, when you can erase a people, once you've allowed that to take hold of your heart, it's just a matter of degree. And perhaps that's why you have not been willing to address the genocide that's going on in Palestine because you have spilled your heart and you have put your head in the sand. And councilmember, I know that you've got something urgent to speak with. Time is up. But you might do me the respect. Your time is up. Of hearing me and acknowledging. Councillor Dabla, stop interrupting. I was talking in the hope that you might hear me. That you might hear me. Let's move on. Your time is up. When a homeless encampment is swept, you know, they're such a, yeah, seriously. It's such a, it's such a, anodine word for what is an active extreme violence. Imagine if someone brings your house down, deprived you of everything that you own. That's what it is to sweep a homeless in the gamut. They throw all of the people's belongings in the trash. Kessarwani, when you were introducing this, you mentioned hearing from many groups, business owners, homeless advocates even. You know who I didn't hear you mentioned? The unhoused people themselves. There's a Berkeley in stop being a Berkeley in when they get evicted. Does a Black life no longer matter if they sleep on the street. Does that LGBTQ flag no longer apply to someone who's unhoused, which homeless people are disproportionately LGBTQ? Is a citizen no longer afforded the rights of citizen ship because they've been evicted. Thank you. Okay. Before we proceed with the next speaker, before we proceed with the next speaker, I want to call attention to section 4F, 4G, rather, of the City Council rules of procedure, which says people addressing the council may give their first name and an audible tone of voice for the record. Our mark should be addressed to council as a body and not to any member thereof. So the rules prescribe that your comments should be directed to the council as a body and not sing on any staff person or individual. So I want to call attention to the rule and ask that people comply with that rule. Please address your comments to council as a body and establish, remember that because you're on the council not too long ago. So go to the next speaker. I have. I'm not you're going to keep that. All right. Thank you. All right. I was born in Berkeley. I've lived here most of my life, specifically in District 1. I never have I did more shame to be a resident of this district. Both because the district council member put forth this resolution is from a district because of the vial classes racist, ableist, some comments that I've heard from some people that live in my neighborhood. If I ever see you out, I'm not looking you in the eyes ridiculous. You are treating people like they're not human. Everyone has said that, but it's just true. And to people who are complaining about feces, needles, et cetera, we're beating a dead horse here. But if the city hasn't been able to help you with those things, what makes you think they're going to be able to solve any of these issues, their swoops? You don't actually care about these things. What makes you think they're going to be able to solve any of these issues to swoop? You don't actually care about these things. You want to live in your market rate housing, get on bar, go to your work job and forget that anyone else exists. But you are not a burden. I'm sorry. three. Three years ago, you were discussing what was then considered to be the worst encampment, the freeway. And you handled that by when you cleared that encampment, people were referred to Horizon and the spark are V-lot and it worked. Some people were referred to the motels, it worked. So the homeless panel of experts is opposing this item without an offer of shelter or housing because of what worked. It's not effective. You can't block off every street in the city and people will merely return to the same location, return a few streets away, disperse, possibly throughout the homeless, full service partnership to be working with people individually that are in these encampments so they can support them, help them and mitigate the very circumstances that the community members are complaining about. They need consistent someone working with them and mental health. My name's Ocean Newell. I do not understand. I understand why District one representative has put this forward. I do not understand why the rest of you, city council members are voting for it, because it what it will mean is that the people who are now in camped in her district are going to move into your district. That's the only thing that's going to happen here. That's what's happening. So I don't understand why you're voting for this rather than taking the time to come up with a solution that actually would help all of you and all your district and not result in as I say simply a migration because the people who are now on Harrison Street many of them I've known them for years They've been outside. They're probably going to continue to be outside They began in places where they were not near any businesses. They were in all the landfalls, some of them, way out there and they got pushed from there under the Gilman overpass and from there onto the CalTrans property at sea breeze at University Avenue. And finally, and finally I ran out of time. There you go. I have another minute. You'll yield the shipment already. But please complete your thought. And finally, they ended up on a place where on Harrison Street, where now they are creating a big problem for the Berkeley Repertory for you. I will want to say, I'm on the board of the where, where do we go? I'm also on the board of Middle East Children's Alliance who supports the Palestinians. They also are there on eight-speed. They are not complaining because they represent people who also when they were pushed out of their homes ended up under tents and are now in Gaza going to be under tents again. And the reason why they are not protesting is because they are empathetic, genuinely empathetic, and if you folks want to know more about what's going on with people who they really are, there are plenty of people who are real expertise. I suggest that where do we go Berkeley is happy to invite you to come and go with us and actually talk to these people and find out why you're having this problem and why it's not going away. Well, can I have a minute? Okay. Seeing the waves. sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a song, sing a lost, but now I found This is typically sung at Eulogy's and I'm afraid if you vote on this, this is the end of Berkeley. We are the home of the free speech movement. We are the home of Crip Camp where they came up with innovations to work at Berkeley Rep innovations. We are the home of Black Panthers and people's park and coming up with new opportunities, doing things differently. These business owners, we need to help opportunities, doing things differently. These business owners, we need to help them by doing things differently. That's the Berkeley. We just heard a young woman who talked about living in Berkeley, not policing. We haven't swept. Everyone else in the country has swept, has pushed. Let's help those on our streets. Otherwise, the Berkeley that we stand for, the Berkeley that has been commercialized so beautifully on telegraph with hippie clothes and Tibetan clothes, which if I were, I would just look like a peasant. It's our university is. It's our legacy. And if we start to change that now and not think of something innovative to keep Berkeley Rep in place where crypt can't win to change the laws to change how we treat people. That's who we are. We are not this item that is not anything that Berkeley has stood for in the past. And will never be what we stand for in the future. So if this passes, this is the beginning of the end. This is the death of Berkeley. Hello, that brought tears to my eyes because we've got so many people here with so many different interests and everyone deserves care. The Presbyterian Minister, I'm aware of those programs. I was here in the 60s. I'm aware of all the programs that do work. I've been doing this my entire life. Housing the home was feeding the hungry. It isn't rocket science. It requires human recognition that as human beings we all have physical needs. And I've often said any one of us could be there and there before the grace of God. I have been there. So it's like, go on, we've got to make peace, we've got to find a way because we can. One doesn't have to win, it's someone else's expense. And there's communities already in operation that provide support, just like hospitals provide support. We can find the way to do this so that we care for those that need to be cared for so that everyone can be okay. I know we can and we I'm here talking to you as an officer for the Berkeley homeless union. So quickly, I would like to address the fire that happened two weeks ago at the Aden Harris and in Campman, which I have to have video footage of. And I will tell you that that was actually a failed response from the Berkeley Fire Department. The encampment is literally two minutes away from the fire station, but the fire the fire engine took more than 10 minutes to actually show up to the camp. I basically everything got out of control. Camp residents were actually trying to put out the fire themselves with their bare hands trying to pull people's tents and anything that could continue feeding the fire And then the fire never had to get out of control like what our camp was not prioritized Multiple people called and then five and then six fire engines showed up after the fire was already out Just to just to let you give you an idea The fire department also promised or camp residents for fire safety education classes last year. I have the recording of this meeting, but they never fulfilled their promise and no fire safety measures have been taken with the encampments. Now, I want to introduce you the Berkeley Homeless Union, which is an organization that represents all on-house people in the city and we stand together today to demand the dignity, safety and respect for our on-house neighbors. The city's ongoing enforcement actions against on-house burgliance, including threats, arrests, citation and property destruction constitute a pattern of harassment. This includes but it's not limited to limited to verbal threats made by city staff, city officials, and law enforcement officers were occupying public spaces. The destruction and confiscation of personal belongings and central force of the Bible, such as tents, clothing, bedding medications, and identification documents, continuous forces placement without offering safe, adequate, and accessible shelter. Neglecting on how people's mental health needs and incarcerating them for bad behavior that could actually be treated. Can I have another minute? Somebody? Okay, thank you. And also intimidation tactics and hostility, including threats against numbers of the press and homeless advocates, preventing them from documenting sweeps and the actions of city staff and police. We respectfully urge you to immediately cease and resist from enacting this policy, as it will accelerate the harms already faith-barred house neighbors and further criminalize their very existence. This letter that is being passed down to you is a formal notice for the city of Berkeley to cease all acts of harassment and the criminalization of a house's burgliance. These punitive actions force this placement, each of incitations and threatening arrests are violations of the basic human rights of the members of the Berkeley Homeless Union. If the City of Berkeley does not cease this act, we will be left with no choice but to pursue legal action in federal court. Councilwoman Kessler-Wanna will become a name defendant. This lawsuit will seek to remedy the harm cut by the actions of City staff and pursue all available legal options including in junk that we believe. We urge you to rethink the resolution, please read our letter, and I want to remind you that November 2021, 10 on health plaintiffs from the Aiden here for the Encampment Challenge the RB overnight parking ban and house cars ordinance. As a result the city had to remove these ordinances off the books. We are not afraid to apply for the next slide. When you all hear me all right. Now, again, my name is Gordon Gilmore. This time I'm with the Berkeley Homeless Union. And the Berkeley Homeless Union urges the city council to work with us. We propose an alternative path forward. One of the prioritized is care, dignity and meaningful support. Below are the Berkeley homeless union agreements, which serve as a step towards the solutions that can address the city's concerns while protecting the basic rights of unhoused Berkeley. One, protect the right to sleep safely. The city must commit to decriminalizing and ceasing the penalization of unhoused berglins. One, protect the right to sleep safely. The city must commit to decriminalizing and ceasing the penalization of unhoused people for sleeping in public spaces when there are no adequate alternative shelter options. This is a fundamental right and lines with the human decency that Berkley stands for. Two, focus on care, not punishment. The Berkeley homeless response team should prioritize human care and harm reduction over enforcement, communicating directly with residents in an open and honest fashion. Have another minute? All right. The hat, the black hat. Are you yielding a minute to this gentleman? Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chris. Merry Christopher. Um. Three create sanctuary spaces established safe and welcoming spaces where unhoused people. Thank you. Are protected from harm and harassment. These spaces should be used to provide shelter and security until permanent adequate and accessible housing is available. Four, work together on health and safety. Collaborate with unhoused residents to address health and safety issues at their communities by providing safe alternatives to meet folks needs. Five, access to health services. Ensure unhoused people have access to essential medical and mental health services, provide proactive mental health outreach to help on house community members. Six, keep communities together. Unhoused people rely on community networks to support wellbeing and the sense of belonging. We urge the city to respect and preserve these networks. Oh, one more minute, anyone? One more cool. Seven, protect the right to have animal companions. Many unhoused individuals rely on their pets for emotional support, companionship and protection. These agreements reflect our deep commitment to a humane and equitable approach to homelessness. We urge the Berkeley City Council to engage with the Berkeley homeless union and other advocates to develop a more compassionate and inclusive policy. Let us work together to create a fair social contract that prioritizes human dignity, health, and community support rather than punishment and displacement. And together we can see the Berkeley protects all of this residents, how's it on the outside like? Let's make sure that no one is left behind. Thank you. That's pretty much what we need to do is we need to collaborate. There are over a thousand people who are sleeping on our streets. Something needs to be done. We can't just focus on the unhoused. We can't just focus on the unhoused. We can't just focus on the Fowl's neighbors and the business owners. We have to focus on everyone and create a holistic plan. Okay. I've mentioned a safe stay sanctuary. You just heard the requests for a respectful social contract from the newly formed Berkeley Homeless Union. We can do this. This has a very important project from the newly formed Berkeley homeless union. We can do this. This has been done in communities around the country. In Austin, Texas, they have community first, which is a raving success. There's a documentary film about it. You can check it out. Do not follow this city council. It's falling into authoritarianism. If you follow this grant pass, if you vote yes on item 37, you will continue down that road. Don't do it. Vote no. Let's do something together and be creative. Hi, council members. My name is Luca and the way I see this, you know, I'm going to go back to the last one. Hi, council members. My name is Luca. And the way I see this, you know, these aren't just words on paper. When you sweep somebody off the streets, when you take away their insulin, when you take away their medicine, when you take away, it would keep some more at night, especially as it's getting colder. People die. That's called murder. You call that murder. And I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't want murder in my conscience. I don't want to go home at night, go back to my bed, go back to my family, and think about the death war, and so I just signed by voting for this bill. That's all. Thank you. What evening. My name is Lindsay. I'm the president say it again. If you vote yes, you're telling people that they don't deserve to exist. To say, we don't have anywhere for you to go. You can't be here. We don't want to see you. We just want you gone. I. I really hope that you guys are better than that. And that you believe that you're going to be here. I'm going to say it again. for you to go. You can't be here. We don't want to see you. We just want you gone. I, I really hope that you guys are better than that and that you believe that people have a basic human right to exist. I would really, really hope that you guys think that and it would break my heart if you don't. There are solutions if you don't like the encampments. There's ways to do it. Sinction encampments. There's so many ways to address the root causes of homelessness. This isn't one of them. And I mean, yeah, just I just can't even end with this. Please vote no. Yeah. Please vote no if you believe that people deserve to exist. Thank you. With evening council, my name is Ben. I'm speaking today to ask you to oppose item 37. I just I think we've heard a lot about all the harm this item would do. So I don't want to focus too much on that. Instead, I want to ask you, like, what's the point? Because if you're just back in another year, because these people aren't going to disappear, you sweep them up, they move, they're back again, they inform another encampment because they, they're people, they have to live, they have to live somewhere. And it's just another constituent complaining from another street or near someone else's business or near what and whether it's North Berkeley or South Berkeley or the Elmwood, I just I don't see what you hope to accomplish by this. Anyway, thank you for your time. Hello, I'm Evan and I am a lifetime resident of the Bay Area. This issue has divided us in this room, but I want to reinforce something. I want to reinforce that unhoused people are humans. The thing is, is this is this this this this motion to to criminalize homelessness is dehumanizing people. What homelessness people, what unhoused people have to deal with is not frivolous things, it is serious things. What unhoused people have to deal with is they have to worry about if they're going to have a meal tomorrow, they're going to have to worry about where they're going to sleep tonight. They're going to worry about if they get sick, how are they going to get medicine? They do not have what happens is when you instead of giving a helping hand to unhoused people and responding with a police baton, you are not helping unhoused people. You are hurting them. On house people need help and by criminalizing it, you are causing major issues about it. Hello. I am a Berkeley student and a lifelong resident of the big area. And this is my first time giving public comment, but I'm absolutely appalled by this item. Not not only because of just how cruel it is, but the fact that it just it increases issues that we're going to have, because not only are you dehumanizing unhoused people, you are also increasing their vulnerability by stripping away their access to medicine, their access to documents that they may need, you know, a shelter, a community. and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public I'm asking you today to oppose item 37. As we have heard from many people, it is a cruel policy as it will basically permit the city to both site and arrest the homeless people without offering them first a shelter. This is a cruel and that housing is a human right. You need it like with food with water, clothing to survive and it is also a logic call and that's it and that citing and arresting people will only increase the fines and fees that they have to pay and consequently this will only further the cycle poverty. And this easing goods like medications, legal documents and other important items will only make it harder for them to apply for government to get all scared to find jobs. All right. Peace. Yeah, just finish your complete your thought. Your time is up, but complete your thought. So I, okay. So for those reasons, I recommend this city to vote against item 37, which would only worsen the homeless situation here at Berkeley. Thank you. Man, you can go out there. Thank you. First, all of you got us here and all you got us. Pass this. My name is Art. I'm a Berkeley boy, Lieutenant Resident on my life. And I've seen just a little bit. of how much we love our community and all the different aspects. And one day we're probably going to see a whole other way of looking at mental health and being like, wow, that's just different folks in their expectations and who hit walls and what we do with all the most neurospeciest, most beautifully special, extra, extra double duck or yellow bus kids. I am just at grace and thanks because the community in different aspects also connects and helps each other out. And no matter what, it's going to make it through. But it would be nice to do it all together with all of you. And that's it. Thank you. So when you have suites, people lose all their items and it takes months to get them back if they can get them back. And it puts a lot of trauma just like receiving the notice. That's when the sweep is going to happen. The trauma begins. And you know, you don't never come with services to help people dealing with these sweeps when they're happening. They shouldn't happen at all. And yeah, I'm sorry that the community members, you know, don't like to see the unhoused people, but you know, that's just the part of our reality. And unfortunately, nobody is trying to get to the root cause, trying to help people, reading with them on a daily regular basis to solve issues. And you have to realize this is a fascist way of dealing with our unhoused community. And it's a it's a it's a you have to see the comparison between Palestine. The both the people over there are living in tents and getting bombed. A sweep is similar to a bomb. So you can't continue to harass people that are already, you know, marginalized on so many levels. And you have to take care and show humanity to them. They are human beings. They need respect, they need love, and they need care. Just like you need those things, they are no different. The only difference is that they're living on the street or in their vehicle. They still, they eat shit and do everything else like you do. And they don't have a place to do those things, actually. And if you, if you gave them those services, if you provided portapollis bodies, if you provided water and not an plastic thing, but something that's more reasonable and provided showers on a regular basis and picked up the trash, you wouldn't have rats. Do set this up to justify your item. And you continue to do it and nothing's changed. When I was on the council and at the homeless Task Force, her swanning was on that task force. Did she ever give any input? Not a not a word. Jessica was there. There were lots of unhoused people, but she never came to the meeting. She sent her a. Miss Stavila, you're talking about two minutes. She doesn't care. She never has. And you need to start caring. You're trying to get to higher offices, and it's not gonna happen. Thank you very much. The Bronco Beccals to State Senate. Thank you. much. Welcome back to the state Senate. Thank you. Three towel of time. Let's go to the next speaker. Hi, my name is Shane and I'm a student. Frankly, this is just deplorable. I'm shocked that this is even up for discussion. How is this only up for discussion? These are human beings. No alternative shelter offered. Where are people going to go? Where are people supposed to go? People are already in the streets, just push them somewhere else, push them again. People are going to be, have their possessions taken from them. Their pets, their identification, any semblance of humanity. How are people supposed to live that way? Where are people supposed to go? That's all I have to say, frankly, deplorable that this is even up for consideration. All right. Unless there are any additional in-person speakers, any additional, anyone who hasn't spoken a yield of time, we're gonna go to the Zoom speakers. The Nessomorero followed by Catherine Falk. Hi, good evening. Can you hear me? Can you hear? Yes, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to speak to the humanity of Berkeley. The Berkeley that I moved to 20 years ago from New York City was a Berkeley that believes that all people can thrive, no matter what your background is. My concern about typelining folks into incarcerated systems is it really is an act of oppression. And it's not an institutional oppression. It's actually very overt. I wanted to remind you all that the UN rights, human rights commission or council discussed this as well, that the way we treat human beings must be like human beings. I lived in District 4 for 20 years and I had mice, rats, needles, all sorts of things on a very high price block. So what I would love to see from us given that we have people from all over the world that study here is of use of participatory action. What is it that we can do together to promote a solution that's gonna uplift humanity? Thank you. Our next speaker is Katherine Falk, followed by Beth Rossiner. Hi. So I'm Katherine and I grew up in Berkeley and I'm temporarily living in Berkeley again because my daughter is at Berkeley high and I am asking the council to rewrite it to soften it a bit, but the effect is still the same sweeps are really destructive. And they don't really fix anything like somebody else mentioned that the unhoused get pushed to Oakland where where I also have a home and they have the same problem. Possibly people get pushed to where it's harder to get services and harder to get the firefighters to put out a fire quickly. And it's really bad for that and how people themselves. And it's not that I want to see people living on the street, but this grants pass ruling, it just seems to amount to you get these people out of my site and that's a terrible approach that's that's not anything. Thank you comments. Okay thank you. Beth Rossner followed by Steve McFessel. Thank you good evening Marin council this is Beth Rossner CEO of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. I urge you to vote yes on Council Member Kessarwani's encampment policy item. This policy is a balanced and reasonable approach that continues the city's commitment to offer shelter whenever available. But more importantly, it also allows city staff to address encampments that pose a fire, imminent health hazard, or other serious risks. We've seen the city reports tonight that detailed hazardous conditions, including rats, feces, syringes, fire, and more. It is not progressive to allow people to live in unsafe conditions that are detrimental to themselves, as well as their neighboring residents, workers, and visitors. Residents and businesses have been patient long enough. Now is the time for action. Please vote yes on this resolution. The taxpayers of the city deserve clean and safe neighborhoods. Thank you. Our next speaker is Steve McFessel, followed by friends of five creeks. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, I'm Steve McFassel. I'm a small business owner in downtown Berkeley. It was a long time Berkeley resident. First of all, I want to say I'll start by saying I support this measure. And I support it because logically, not philosophically necessary, but the reality is Martin versus Boise and Johnson versus Martin has increased homelessness dramatically. 50% of the people who are offered shelter since that those were passed have refused it. Occupancy and shelters have decreased as a result of this and there are many, many more deaths on the street. I do want to say it breaks my heart. Both sides break my heart. I did have a business that was destroyed because of an encampment in front of it. I don't ask for any pity for that. All I say is we need to be compassionate to everybody. It bothers me immensely. I've spent half my life working in nonprofits and supporting nonprofits. I wanna say, I know everyone on the council is a compassionate person. I know everyone who spoke tonight is a compassionate person. I wish everyone who spoke could acknowledge that everyone else was a compassionate person. That truly bothers me. I think it's the best way to do this compassionately, but I support the measures. Thank you. Our next speaker's friends of five creeks, followed by Elaine Jeffrey. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you so much. I'm Susan Schwartz, the head of Friends and Five Greeks. We're an all volunteer group that has worked for Greeks and watersheds and nature for 29 years, including on Codernisis Creek adjacent to the eighth and Harrison camps. Our bylaws wisely limit us to matters directly relating to our mission. So we have no general stand on the tragic and ever worsening problems of homelessness, mental illness and addiction that we deal with on the green. The struggles of the small business people there, the very real efforts of the staff, and the of course the things that the residents face daily. Our work to create an oasis for people and wildlife has been repeatedly destroyed up to four times. Often by people you can't be angry at because they're mentally ill and they often think they're helping. We do ask that whatever rule you make, they apply, it should apply to the city's natural areas as well as streets and sidewalks. If the eighth and Harrison camp for example is cleared, people are going to again flock to the creek bank south of Coderneases on a South Bank of Coderneases. It's publicly owned and the city cannot even post signs there saying no camping or no fires. You have our letter with with examples and photographs. The council has to consider the entire city and unintended consequences. Please don't sacrifice our natural areas, aquatic park, the waterfront. Thank you. To a narrow policy. Thank you. Elaine Jeffries, our next next speaker followed by Matthew Barry. Hi, I'm Elaine Jeffrey. I'm a volunteer with Berkeley need and I urge the council members to vote no on item 37. It doesn't present any real solution to homelessness. Instead, it just presents an expensive way of harassing unhoused people. I personally know folks in Oakland and Berkeley who lost housing opportunities because their case workers couldn't find them after sweeps. And while I do understand the frustrations of house folks and business owners, there are numerous ways that those residents can be part of the solution instead of whining for somebody else to make it go away. Like don't like needles in the street, Berkeley need and other programs provide sharps containers for free. Help us hand them out. These kinds of harm reduction efforts don't just serve homeless folks, public toilets benefit everyone. Sweeps don't end homelessness, they prolong it and make it more dangerous and miserable. The solution to homelessness is adequate housing and community care, not incarceration or harassment. Please vote no on 37. Thank you. Our next speaker is Matthew Barry, followed by Becca. Hey everybody, my name is Matthew Barry and I am someone who has worked in the Guillemain District for the last nine almost ten years and I'm in strong support of this. I feel like the entire thing has been very mischaracterized and I want to start with the first sentence of the resolution. Adopt a resolution affirming that City of Berkeley will continue to offer interim housing shelter offer with a preference for non-congregate options when closing encampments. This is the least that the City of Berkeley can do. These are exceptions. These are adding exceptions for extreme cases to help deal with people that are dangerous and that should not be in these communities. There's been nothing done over the last seven years and I understand why many roadblocks legally and politically to do nothing and to continue to do nothing is insanity. This is the base level and the bare minimum that the city of Berkeley should do to help give the tools to the city and to the police department to be able to help clear and clean up some of these encampments. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, our next speaker. I see now is Sam followed by Eva. Good evening, Council Mayor Eregine. As you know, I worked in City Hall for one year and one thing that remained constant during that time was that this City Council prided itself on addressing homelessness better than other cities. While everyone else was busy hunting encampments between neighborhoods, Berkeley was proud to be doing the work to actually reduce homelessness by acquiring home key units and massively increasing shelter acceptance. You resolved long standing encampments through project home key offers. And as a result, homelessness has fallen in the most recent point in time count. Berkeley's making so much progress. But if you pass this today, you're undoing that progress. San Francisco has seen complaints about encampments double in some wealthy neighborhoods where there weren't encampments before because when you tweet people and tell them that they have nowhere to go, they still have to go somewhere and that somewhere will be Berkeley's residential neighborhoods because unhoused people do not evaporate. Please don't undo the progress our city is making for a headline. Thank you. Our next speaker is Eva. Eva followed by when Fitzgerald. Thank you. I just wanted to note the irony. Your first Asian American city council member, Ying Lee, was actually homeless several times in her life. And so was her younger sister who was my mother and Berkeley gave them a halt. And Berkeley has given me a home and I want to express my incredible gratitude to the city for that and for providing a home for my mom and my aunt. I do want to point out that this sort of policy has a legacy, a kind of history in California. And even though this one isn't racially motivated, there was a long history of weeps. If you want to call them that, some people call it the trucking method. Things used against Chinese American communities. And I hope you will not pass this. I think you guys were doing a good job. I think a lot of this, you know, we should look at where the feds are failing. And there's a KQED article by Vanessa Rancanios from September 9th. It's very, very good. And it talks about, you know, what's, what's happening? What's missing at the federal level. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Ren Fitzgerald. I'm a Berkeley voter and at one point, I was an unhoused child. I remember the moment that my clipper card ran out and I couldn't make it from one friend's house to another to sleep inside that night. All I could think about in that moment was how incredibly lucky I was that I had a roof over my head. You have no idea how terrifying it is to be unhoused as a 17-year-old, and you have no right to dictate what that experience looks like. You cannot sweep people out of existence. Voting for this resolution will displace people into your districts. There are real solutions you neglect to implement like shelters housing and outreach. This is not a solution. This is an intensification of a problem. When you go home tonight and get in your bed, I hope you think of the coldness of outside, the fear, the grief and the injustice you are electing to pause if you vote for this. Thank you. Okay, we'll go next to Anthony. Followed by highly-launch. Hello, I'm a district seven resident asking you to vote no on item 37 because I'm opposed to sweeps without an offer of shelter. The council recommendation spends a lot of time discussing the success of a housing first approach. And I don't understand why that's in there if we don't intend to continue that. The language and the resolution is overly broad. I've never seen a homeless encampment that isn't along the side of a road. And I think we need to be honest with ourselves about the lack of a fig leaf that is offered by the so-called extreme exceptions in this proposal. This would take advantage of the six three majority on the conservative Supreme Court to allow us to cruelly sweep people who have no other option, not just without offering them housing, but without offering them a spot in a shelter bed or another place to go in the city. All we need to do as Yimbees on the city council is build a couple more shelters. And then we can sweep people as much as we want. If we're not even willing to do that, I don't know how we can live with ourselves. Thank you. Our next speaker is Kylie Lanej, followed by Heather. Good evening, council. My name is Kylie and I am the program manager at downtown streets team Berkeley. Our organization employs an assist on how's people throughout the city and Cleanson provides outreach to residents of the Harrison encampment. My chief concern with this policy is the lack of safe and amenable shelter options for those who are being asked to move. Instead of allocating funding towards sweeping and displacing unhoused people, funding should be directed toward improvements to the existing sites. While Berkeley's commitment to expanding shelter beds and permanent supportive housing is admirable, this is not enough. On August 25th, a resident and participant employee at downtown streets team Marcel Jones was shot and killed by his bunkmate at the Harrison House shelter. This was preventable. I would like the city to provide oversight and allocate funding to improving the conditions, security and staff preparedness at local shelters. To increase the acceptances of shelter offers, we need to improve the conditions in these shelters so that they are more amenable to the than the conditions that people are currently living in on the streets. And speaking to our participants who sleep in the encampments and on the street, their number one reason they have cited for not accepting shelter offers is the unsafe conditions. If you truly wish to end homelessness, you must house people not push them out to the fringes arrest them or make them disappear. If you'd like to work toward real solutions, please vote against item 37. Thank you. Our next speaker is Heather, followed by Judy Ann. Hi, my name is Heather Mulhall and I live in West Berkeley. I am a third generation Berkeley resident and and I too when I was a young adult was unhoused living in a storage space on Adeline and spare changing on telegraph avenue, but it was because I had an addiction from which I would, I am now in recovery. I know that we have a number of resources that go unutilized and because people want to stand Berkeley, they do not accept shelter in other places like Contra Costa County or Alameda County. I happen to know people who work in this system for recovery and I just want to support this resolution. I know that the city of Berkeley does everything they can to make sure that people get placed in shelter and supportive and treatment housing and I just wanna make sure that we're doing everything we can to get people out of, what is often a horrible situation that they're going into the crowd. Every covering, thank you. And next speaker is Judy Ann, followed by Nathan Maisel. Judy Ann, you should now be able to speak. And I'm just gonna say this is really like. Okay, Judy, how are you there? It looks like you're in need, but we can't hear you. While we're waiting, we're going to need to my zone. I'm a American, you know me? We can't. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Councilor. My name is Nathan, my zone. And I was the chair of the city's 17 member, reimagining public safety task force. As you all know, the issue of homelessness is a bit beyond what the task force itself covered. But I can say quite strongly that at least at that time, I recall us talking about how fines and fees were not illogical or effective tool for solving a number of social problems in the city. I remember us discussing how important Black lives are and how Black lives matter and how our policy would reflect that into city. And I fear today that your colleagues are now asking you to endorse the logic of a nearly right wing Supreme Court majority that has eviscerated the constitutional rights of women and many other groups and has now eviscerated the constitutional rights of many poor folks and disproportionately black folks in our city. This is simply not something that can be okay. Are we leaders in this city or are we simply followers? I'll leave you with a quick quote, gradually Davis, you all may remember all of you voted in favor who were there at the time of a item 18D that also quoted to Angela Davis or anti-racist, but I'll quote her here. Presidents do not disappear of social problems and disseper human beings. Vote no, thank you. Thank you. My next speaker is Jess, followed by Eva Tong. Jess, are you there? Hi, can you hear me? Yes. I'm going to ask you to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to use the excuse of rats and health hazards to dismiss people who have to live on the street, but don't you think houses folks deserve to live free from those two? I don't think you fully understand how few public restrooms and resources we have in this city. When people's park was swept and folks set up a care site on Dwight Triangle, your cops throughout their safety supplies, their first aid kit, and their fire extinguisher. So I question, who's actually making the city unsafe? And I also ask you, what if you give all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you give to cops to brutalize houses people and send them to jail directly to those folks instead so they can afford safe and affordable housing? This is just lazy politics and I'm ashamed to be a resident of Berkeley. Our next speaker is Eva Tang, Bob by Sangjana Pshah. Sangjana. Sorry. So item 37 claims to uphold Berkeley's commitment to not sweeping without alternate shelter, but it uses exemptions that, like default to settler colonial structures that have always relied on displacement and death. So do you realize that it's your dependency on criminalization, sweeping displacement and incarceration that create the conditions that you one are not experiencing. And so you're not in the place to determine the safe things of the folks who do experience them daily. And two, are now trying to use to protect your decision to keep acting in these deeply violent ways. You say that it's important to protect the safety of our communities, but you label homeless folks and their needs inconvenient to your capitalist agenda that you seem ready to defend indefinitely, but are still unable to speak on why in an truly honest or meaningful way. Who are you seeking validation from, your stakeholders, because they will also dispose of you. Your fear of your own disposability is nonexuse to use your power to try to dispose of our community. Thank you. Okay. Our next speaker is Sanch. Na Shah. Good evening, Mayor Ergen and Council members, fellow attendees. My name is Sanchana Shaw, a district seven resident and political science student at UC Berkeley. I'm here to express my opposition to item 37, which authorizes the city to dismantle unhousing campments through law enforcement and displacement. While this proposal claims to address safety concerns, moving encampments across the street or to another nearby location does nothing to resolve the root issues. Instead, it perpetuates the cycle of displacement and destabilization, pushing unhoused individuals from one area to another without addressing their basic needs for housing, mental health services, or economic stability. By constantly moving these communities, we only prolong their suffering and force them into further marginalization. Further, the resolution frames enforcement as a means to promote healthy and safe neighborhoods. But my question is, safety for whom? This approach creates an unjust hierarchy where conditions of house residents who are equipped with immensely more resources are placed above the basic human rights of the unhoused. If we are truly committed to public safety, we must consider the safety and well-being of everyone in our community, including those without homes. By voting no on item 37, you reject harmful policies and make room for Berkeley to prioritize long-term solutions or succumbing to the punitive measures of the Supreme Court. Thank you for your time. Our next speaker is Lorraine H. filed by Jay, Day, John, West. Lorraine, you should now be able to speak. Hello, my name is Lorraine and thank you for the opportunity to speak in strong opposition to item 37. I'm a Berkeley resident and I'm a direct service advocate for survivors of interpersonal violence who are over represented among the unhoused and highly violence and trafficking and their advocates. More than at any point in my career, it is impossible to find safe and dignified housing for them. For those in support of this item, please picture the very worst day that you've ever had, and now imagining that happening outside. Then imagine your community and your neighbors choosing criminalization and further violence first before care, support and housing. I urge you to vote no. Deshawn West, followed by Mali. Deshawn West, please unmute yourself. Use to speak. Deshawn West, last call for Deshawn West. Okay, we're going to Molly, followed by Maya. Hi, my name is Molly. I was born in Berkeley. I'm a resident of district one and I oppose item 37. To solve homelessness, we should not be exclusionary. We need to be creative and think outside the box. Otherwise, these issues will just get worse. This is a pre-incorred decision that encourages this was literally decided about a woman who was homeless because a wildfire burned down her house. In the age of increasing natural disasters, huge climate change, we need to be building community resilience, not neglecting each other. There are already established community organizations at the encampments and west Berkeley doing self advocacy and mutual aid. If the city supported them they could do even more. One idea would be to set up public camp rooms in every neighborhood such as the RV part that recently closed. Residents of the campsites could delegate representatives that would be included in any policy decision that impacts homeless people. The city could provide amenities like public restrooms and waste facilities at these campsites, just like any other campground in addition to biomedical waste receptacles. It has been proven many times that harm reduction is the best policy approach to substance use, so just needle exchange and biomedical waste containers. I am concerned about violence as anyone else, but it is an indisputable fact that it violence is almost always caused by poverty abuse, isolation, hatred, and neglect. Forcing homeless people in our city makes all to leave, makes all these issues worse. Using aggressive force via the police to do so is adding more trauma and is inhumane. We're going to go to Maya followed by Megan Waxpress. Hi, my name is Maya. I live here in Berkeley. And I've heard countless folks plead with you to take another path here tonight. And I truly hope you thoughtfully heard them. These are our neighbors. They are neighbors. We are responsible for them. They deserve dignity at a bare minimum. They did not create the circumstances that pushed them to these living conditions. We can thank greedy folks, capitalism, and corrupt governments for that. I hear you allocating more and more money to the police, so I know that you have the resources to actually improve their material conditions, but you're choosing to put money elsewhere. Some of our on-house neighbors were here tonight asking you to support them to provide sanitation, bathrooms, fire safety, and more. You say you care about them so I don't understand how your response is kicking them out. You say you have tried many things to care for them and it's clearly not enough. Do more. Do something different. People here are asking to collaborate with you to offer solutions to be creative and compassionate, but your response is to sweep it away. I hope you make a different choice here tonight. I hope that you won't know. Thank you. Okay, we're going to next to Megan Waxpress, followed by Charlotte. Megan, you should now be I'll speak please and meet yourself. If you wish to speak. Hi, my name is Megan Waxpress. I'm a resident of district one. I'm a former member of the homeless services panel of expert, although I've been speaking a little in my personal capacity. I've met with a lot of the individuals from these encampments as well as unhoused folks throughout Berkeley. And I think this measure is really wrong and it will further eat away at any trust that has been built between the city and these individuals and make it harder to find solutions and build towards mutuality between those communities and those who feel adversely affected by them. I think the lack of mutuality in the encampment policy itself is really problematic. Someone comes to my house once a week and collects my trash. And when we, yes, in our own home had a rat infection, we were able to resolve that without being asked to move. And I would just really urge that any policy and steps moving forward comes from a place of mutuality and that we vote that everyone on the council vote no on this policy, which I think will damage relationships and really hurt people. Thank you. Charlotte is our next speaker, followed by Matt. Charlotte, you should not be able to speak. Hi, sorry, hello. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? You can? Okay. Hi, I'm calling to join the many people in voicing my opposition to item 37. I am a current and long time, last, last 20 years of my life, resident of West Berkeley. I, there's so many, so many troubles with this resolution from the humanitarian human standpoint, that people should have a right to shelter, and that if they are only option for shelter is living intense on the street that they still deserve to be alive. Also, for people who do have concerns about their own comfort and safety of garbage that might be in front of on the sidewalk and things like that. Even within those or businesses who are uncomfortable with the sight of people living out their lives in public while those people are struggling, the resolution won't solve those problems. We've Berkeley has cleared encampments for years and years. There are still people living on the street. They are not gonna disappear. They shouldn't have to disappear. And arresting people or moving them to other parts of town is not gonna solve the problem, even for business interests. So yeah, thank you. Matt, followed by Nancy. Matt, you should now be able to speak. Thank you, my name is Matt. I live in District One. that followed by Nancy, Matt, you should now be able to speak. Thank you. My name is Matt. I live in District one. I am a long time volunteer and board member of a nonprofit housing developer. And I deeply feel that you know, the is a challenging issue. I think what is being proposed is a common sense approach. There is a lot of, there are a lot of services and offerings. And I think those should be continued to be expanded. However, I think that we need to give the tools to the city staff who are interfacing with these homeless individuals on a daily or very regular basis, the ability to address the health and human concerns, and that doesn't always mean moving people. I would strongly recommend support of this measure to give city staff and frontline workers the ability to do so. And on a personal note, myself and my 11 year old son walk and ride bikes to a bicycle practice, or to a soccer practice at Gate Pitalfo Field. And we've been verbally emotionally and physically abused numerous times both going down Harrison Street going through UC Village going along Courtney's is Creek. Of course, it's not all homeless people, but we do need to do something to make sure that this place, this city is safe for all. And that includes both the homeless individuals as well as the residents that are trying to use the services of the city. Thank you. Nancy's our next speaker followed by Bridgett Nicoletti. Hi. Yeah, my name is Nancy. I have lived in West Berkeley for since the year 2000. I also ride my bike past encampments choice, who are homeless and are on the street, they don't need to be arrested and being arrested doesn't help. The city needs to do more to house people, to provide the services, to reach out, more community health workers, more peer support specialists. I don't think that we've done what we need to do and to just now throw up our hands. And also, there are already laws against bad behavior. There are already laws against harassment. So as the previous speaker was addressing, you don't wipe out a community because one or two people have done something wrong. That's what we have laws for. Bridget Nicoletti. Is there next speaker? Hi, my name is Bridget Nicoletti and I work at East Bay Community Law Center. I'm speaking in opposition of agenda item 37. This item is a blatant attempt by the city of Berkeley to arrest and displace its unhoused residents. This will do absolutely nothing to address the housing crisis that Berkeley residents are facing. It will only lead to more pain, suffering, and death in the unhoused community, and the burden of this policy will fall heaviest on unhoused people of color and people with disabilities. Beyond the grave human rights implications of this policy, I'd like to draw the council's attention to the letters submitted by 14 local and national advocacy groups outlining the illegal and inhumane nature of this policy. Berkeley deserves better. And you've heard from many of your unhoused residents, solutions that are actually workable. I hope that you consider those instead of this policy. Thank you. Okay. Our next speaker is Matt. Matt, you should now be able to speak. Matt. Very spoken. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I don't see any additional hands. So we will complete public comment. And Clark is informing that we are overdue for a captioned break. We have a remote caption in this live transcribed in the meeting. So we'll be back in 15 minutes. And then we would we have to do a 15 So I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start take a few questions and give them a little bit of a little bit of a Thank you. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of things. I'm going to have want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go back to that. Oh, sorry. Did I? Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm going to say that I'm not starting. I'm going to say that I'm not starting. I'm going to say that I'm not starting. I'm going to say that I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm going to have to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something. I'm going the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the middle of the conversation. I'm in the say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to is what I'm going to do. Two different things. Now, you can go to the other side. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I think it's going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say where we're going to go. That way it's a plan. I have to take a second. It's up to you. It's up to you. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah's all we have. You've got to work that out. So if you're a child, if you're a child, you're a child. If you're a child, you can't be a child. And now you know, there's no reason you're also going to have a better, a better child. So I see that you're over-short, just a little bit. There's everything else that I'm going to talk about. It's the last time I've done research. I'm going to see the plan. We have our university. It's up in the hot system. We know a lot of people have been talking about. Because you have a hot stream. You can do it on a different day and it's on a different day. And I've heard you do work in town. I'm not giving you my name. Because they have to get their interaction. It's a word for that. I don't have to question that. No, I'm not. And you are so big. No, the AF also. Oh, it's a thing. That's my word. Yeah, that's the thing. And that's my word. Yeah, that's the thing. Sometimes I didn't know she was there. I had a five. That's not good. Well, I know about one. It's 5 seconds early. 80 per person. I'm going to line it up. Okay. What do you do? I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. I'm going to line up. We're just You know, you know, you just, you know, you know, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you know, you just, you just, you know, you just, you just, you know, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you I'm going to give them. I'm going to give them the first one. I'm going to give them the first one. I'm going to give them the first one. 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I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm calling. That's a perfect date. I'm going to come back. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The city council is back in session and I'd like to ask council members if you would like to speak. Please press your button to be added to the speakers queue. I will recognize council members based on the order of the parliamentarian. And so I'll first go to councilor Kisarwani. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Thank you to everybody who has given public comment tonight and I want to acknowledge the hundreds of emails we received on this issue. I do look forward to hearing from my colleagues as well for the purposes of discussion. I'd like to. Reporting in progress. Okay, for purposes of discussion, I'd like to make the motion to pass the resolution as amended and related first reading of ordinance amending chapter 14.48. Second. And reflecting just a clarifying ship. I made the amendment that you Yes, as amended. I said pass resolution as amended and when we get closer to being ready to vote, I will show those edits again. And I do want to thank Susan Schwartz for expressing concern about coordination's is creek and the sensitive habitat. And I do want to publicly state that it is my commitment to work on an item to establish a park at Cordenese's Creek that could be publicly accessible. And so that's something I just wanted to put into the public record. And I want to reiterate again that we will offer shelter when feasible. And that's not just empty rhetoric. We have a measure on the ballot to raise more revenue. It's projected to raise 4 million more than we currently receive from the existing transfer tax so that we can acquire those couple of more shelters that somebody gave public comment about. So that is our intention that we will make shelter offers and I continue to stand by the description that we are striving to have a balanced, reasonable approach so that people can walk down the sidewalk, they can go to their place of business and not be worried about the fire risk. We want our public spaces to be safe for everybody. And so we will continue to make the commitment to offer shelter when feasible and continue to expand those shelter options and also promote the safety of all in all of our neighborhoods. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We'll go next to next Councillor McHugh, Councilmember Humbert. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My comments will be relatively brief. I want to thank Councilmember Kessar Wani for her efforts on this item, which I think does an excellent job of keeping our housing first approaches at the forefront and resisting the less humane approaches that the grants pass, decision has the potential to enable. I don't want to mince words. I have to say I am appalled by those who are trying to make out. Council member, Kessar Wane to be callous, or anti-homeless, with the possible exception of the mayor. I don't think there's a single person on the council's work as hard as council member, Kessar Wane to create move housing for homeless individuals, or been as willing to host such facilities in her own district. The councilmember Kessler-Wani is stuck her neck out more than anyone else on this diast help people and address our homelessness problem. Her recommendations are about reiterating basic safeguards around public health and safety and the city's ability to maintain its infrastructure. To attempt to recast it as some sort of right-wing anti-homeless effort is wrong-headed, and I would say read that as disinformation. And out of step with Berkeley voters. If the people disparaging my colleague had their home catch on fire due to a neighboring encampment, irregularly found their sidewalks strewn with human waste and hypodermic needles, our offices would be hearing from them about how something needed to be done. And I'm gonna be supporting Council Member Kessar-One, he's a very reasonable proposal. Thank you. Okay, thank you. We'll go next to Council Member Loonapara. Thank you. I am deeply disturbed and frankly heartbroken by this proposed resolution and ordinance for a number of reasons. I have received critique for being young and idealistic. And to that I say our community is capacity for envisioning worlds without punitive approaches to poverty is not naive. It is not impossible. It is the future. I have heard people say that we have done everything we can. of approaches to poverty is not naive. It is not impossible. It is the future. I have heard people say that we have done everything we can. We have offered shelter and food and this is our last resort. I am appalled by that approach. Our only resort is to further displace people. To destabilize the communities they have built, we know that won't work. 91% of humans people surveyed after a sweep report remaining outdoors, most often just moving two or three blocks away when they received a move along order. Are we not asking people why people are refusing shelter? We act like we are benevolent saviors by offering them a prison cell. The cruelty of this policy cannot be overlooked. I understand its intent is to disband encampments, but the reality is that it's nearly impossible to be unhoused in Berkeley without violating the BMC. I don't doubt that my colleagues genuinely want the best for our neighbors and our friends and our community members, but this approach either reflects a profound misunderstanding of the lived experiences of unhoused residents or at worst a willful disregard for them. I have a few questions to ask city staff if they're on the call. Who in particular? Mr. Radoo. If you do still on the zoom. Yes, council member Lina par are he is on the show. Thank you so much. My first question is how many open shelter beds does the city of Berkeley have at this moment? Thank you councilmember for that question the number of shelter beds we have varies literally by the hour We get a report every morning and city staff are not the only Source of referrals for those beds. So it's hard to keep track of things. We get a report every morning. I can if you give me just a moment, maybe while you tee up any other questions, I can pull up this morning's report to tabulate exactly how many beds we have as of this morning. Perfect. Thank you. Should I wait or ask my next question? If you give me just a moment, I can pull that up. I apologize. Typically it's my staff that are. More familiar with these numbers on a daily basis than I am. Okay. Okay, as of this morning, we show a 11, I'm sorry, 15 congregate beds that are available. And again, I can't speak to whether or not there's also going to be 15 tomorrow that changes. In terms of non congregate units, I know we have fewer than five at this time. And those are and we are actively working with advocates from the Harrison Street encampment to try to prioritize those to people in the end that in camp. Thank you so much. This is definitely fewer beds than on house people in our city at the moment. My next question is if a person is given an administrative citation or infraction, what are the immediate consequences? Well, with respect to homeless and can't men's and people who are un sheltered, I can tell you that we haven't issued any administrative citations to them. And we don't plan to do that. So typically, you know, in typical co-enforcement circumstances, when a administrative citation is issued, it will come with financial penalty that if not paid, you know, future, if the violation continues, future citations can be issued and that balance will continue to occur. and continues future citations can be issued and that balance will continue to accrue. Thank you so much. Another question that I have following that is what are the consequences if the person who I would like to remind his on-house does not, is unable to pay these fines? That may result in, well, I would defer to the chief on this, but I believe that may result in a warrant for their arrest. Thank you. I want to point out that most homeless individuals can't afford these fines and may as a result skip court dates and many also miss court because they have no address to receive court notices or because they lack the money for transportation missing court can lead to arrest warrants to more charges in jail, thus driving them deeper into the criminal justice system under federal law, people who have spent more than 90 days incarcerated lose their chronic homelessness status and are no longer a priority for permanent housing. I have one final question. Is there anywhere in the city of Berkeley that an unhoused person can legally camp if this passes? Not at this time. Thank you. Thank you so much for that information. I have some questions for the authors of the policy as well. My first question is the East Bay Housing Organization, the East Bay Community Law Center, and the ACLU, along with many unhoused residents and advocate groups, expressed a strong concern regarding the effects of criminalization and displacement in this policy. What unhoused people organizations or advocates were consulted during the drafting of the policy? If any. We received a lot of feedback when this item was made public, and I read all of the comments that we received. What? Sorry. What data shows that this would be an effective policy in the short term and long term in reducing homelessness or fire and environmental risks. I would refer you to the attachments in the item that document the abatements that occurred at these two encampments as well as the data that we included related to police and fire calls at these two encampments as well as the data that we included related to police and fire calls at these two encampments. Okay. Thank you. I have some statistics that I'd like to share with my colleagues to highlight exactly who this policy will disproportionately affect. For young people, family dysfunction and rejection, sexual abuse, juvenile legal system involvement, aging out of the foster care system and economic hardship make them particularly vulnerable to homelessness. Nearly half of San Francisco's homeless youth just across the Bay are LGBTQ, with even higher rates among transgender and non-binary youth, and 10% of UC Berkeley students experience homelessness well enrolled. For Indigenous Americans, policies of removal and resettlement and tribal lands have caused displacement, resulting in a disproportionately high rate of housing insecurity and unsheltered homelessness in the Bay Area in 2019. The indigenous population made up 0.6% of the general population, but comprise more than 6% of the homeless population. 50% of the residents at 8th in Harrison identify as black, while only 8% of Berkeley residents are black. For women, almost 60% of those experiencing homelessness report that fleeing domestic violence was the immediate cause. The city of Berkeley does not have a 24-7 domestic violence shelter. The closest one is an Oakland, which also rarely has vacancies. At the current rate of production, it will take 32 years to produce enough affordable units to meet the barriers growing need if all affordable units, all current affordable units are preserved. And, eventually, homelessness is a policy choice. The city of Berkeley and the Bay Area have not built enough housing, have not built enough affordable housing to accommodate our housing crisis. If we pass this tonight, we're effectively criminalizing the mere status of being unhoused without providing any sort of reasonable alternative. These are the people that we will be burdening with our regional failure in affordable housing. I understand and empathize that many house neighbors and business owners are concerned and frustrated about encampments and the physical and environmental dangers within them. And I was thrilled to see that recently the city's homeless response team conducted a deep cleaning of an encampment in collaboration with advocates and residents that was successful and reducing these risks. I'll also point out that on how people are statistically far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators of it. Sorry. other cities as well as what happened when the West Berkeley Horizon transitional shelter closed at the end of 2022. This will not stop encampments from popping up. It will not cause them to be safer or cleaner and it will not cause any fewer people to be living on our streets. If someone is arrested and an encampment tomorrow, they will simply spend their 24 hours at San Arita and then return setting up a new place to sleep a few blocks away. In fact, one could argue that the size of the encampment on second-street increased as a direct result of closing the West Berkeley sanction encampment. Human beings need to sleep and this policy will just shuffle around on house people from street to street block to block, neighborhood to neighborhood without solving anything. To be clear, encampment safety is an issue that I take seriously and there are solutions to it, such as working to create a new sanctioning campment. However, this policy is a false solution. It is a reactionary policy that only kicks the can down the road, creating new crises, new trauma, and new incarceration as we wait for affordable housing to be built. And we don't have to accept it. I've heard today that this policy, that, sorry, I've heard today that this policy, that, sorry, I've heard today from supporters of the policy that it is not progressive to allow people to remain living in harmful conditions. And to me, it is unfathomable, dangerous, cruel, and utterly inhumane for the proposed alternative to be Sanerita jail. What is progressive is finding solutions in direct collaboration with the folks most affected by the policy. What is progressive is finding ways to expand and preserve our affordable housing stock and housing at all income levels and prevent displacement. What is progressive is treating people like human beings rather than trying to sweep the structural problems that we have to address under the rug. And what is progressive is our residents being able to hold us accountable rather than allowing for un lateral management discretion. What is progressive is humanely responding to the question, where do we go? I would like to see this policy at the very least. We set back to a policy committee and the homeless panel with experts for review be brought back to us again at the very least, a thorough and comprehensive safe-safestate sanction and camp plan to partner with it. Otherwise, this body would be reactively and dangerously effectively criminalizing the mere status of being unhoused without providing a reasonable alternative and I find that a point to its core. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm going to go out to the my colleague there. I don't want to follow her, but I guess I have to. There's an order to this thing. First of all, I want to thank you, Councilman Kessar-Rani for being responsive. You know, in many ways, your district has borne the brunt of the local crisis. And you've also been front and center with the solutions. I watched you confront your neighbors who are upset about the things you're doing for the unhoused persons. And you've also housed my pet project, Step Up Housing, which is groundbreaking and will be ready in a couple of months. Our first brand new model of supportive housing, come check it out, it's going to be great and should be if it goes well, a solution to what we're talking about here as we scale out. And so as I go through this journey of understanding how to approach the problem that we're describing, a quick question from Mr. Radu if you're still with us in the ether. Are you here? Yes, I'm here. I never get used to this. You know, it's so strange. It's like I'm laying in bed. Are you there? God, it's me. Ben, right? So, I'm just ready. So, you know, care court. Yeah, I may not be answering this, but maybe for everyone here, can we, can you tell us what the statuses of care court and really what it is. And if it's ready to be deployed for certain census such as ours. I appreciate that question. Council member, I see that director Gilman from HCS is on and I would defer to him to speak to that. Thank you. Yes, council member. I can answer that. Care court actually is. The responsibility of the county. Thank you. Yes, councilmember, I can answer that. Care court actually is the responsibility of the county. We're actively participating with the county as they develop it. It's scheduled to be implemented by December. And as far as we know, they're on track with that. We're viewing our role as how to refer people into the into the care court. I should say it's a very, a very high bar for individuals. They have to have a diagnosis, a specific diagnosis of, of schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder. And so at this point, we're waiting for more information on how to refer and all those things. And I should also mention it's a court driven process. And so the court across the state has been working out a lot of protocols, procedures, forms, how individuals are referred into the program, et cetera. Okay, thank you. Yeah, that's what I thought. And so a court, of course, is one of these things that we would hope to help this issue because listen, a generation ago or longer, the California and the country as a whole, demobilize its mental health infrastructure, stop funding and close down mental health hospitals and never replace them. And then after Vietnam, people came back and it began. I remember as a young boy, when the homelessness epidemic first started, it was on the news, it was on TV, it was on Newsweek and Time, and the movie, Down Up Beverly Hills was about it. And I remember we were all shocked that there were homeless people on the streets. And now, of of course 50 years later I'm younger than that, but years later There was it's become the backdrop term in life and we've all become a new to it and we all had to Walk by people and suffering and pretend it's not happening and if you have children You all know the feeling when they ask you what's going on, when they pull your finger, and pull your hands, say, why are they on the street, daddy? What's going on here? Help them, we can't have a house. You all know this if you have kids. And it renders the soul to even begin to try to answer it. And so, somewhere in that time, these decades despite our tremendous wealth as a state, California, the fourth largest economy in the world now, we never replaced that infrastructure. And so now, I hear numbers of half million people on the street in the state. And someone tonight in the room mentioned 110,000 beds are short in this region. And, you know, so we're really, we're really caught in a deep, deep pit of mismanagement that's going on for a very long time, disinvestment. And I think we need some help at the state. Because we can't dig ourselves out of this on the local level. It's just too much. But we do have to manage it. And, you know, I for one, I'm a critic of the Housing First Model that California subscribes to where you can't condition services for care. And as a result, you have a lot of bad decision making going over and over again. It's what we're hearing about from our community. But again, as we manage it, I just don't know that criminal sanction is an effective tool. And I think that we've worked hard in this city in other places as well to move public safety into a healthcare realm and to allow police to focus on violent crime and to let experts do what experts do and let social workers and healthcare folks work with people who are in discomfort, mentally, socially, and let police investigate and they're in crime. And we get our best results when we have that, because we know that 80% of our police calls are going towards mental health crisis. It makes the job really hard to do. Very stressful, not very much fun. And the impacts in the street remain unabated. So, you know, I for one, I do want to get a handle on this. And we have to, because we know I for one, I do want to get a handle on this. And we have to because we know that other cities are now sending people here due to the same court case that we're talking about. And we need to manage our population and our city before it's out of control. By saying that we need to really sit down and be creative and figure it out. And so, I'm kind of leaning towards advising us to engage in more study on this matter to really come up with a good solution that doesn't involve, in my opinion, a costly waste of police resources. Thank you. Okay. We're going to go next to Councillor Taplan, who's participating on Zoom. Thank you very much and good evening, everyone. First, I want to say that just because someone is sheltering in a tent doesn't mean that there's an imminent health or a safety hazard. And I want to thank Councillor Couser-Wanney for taking this on. I've watched this council since 2016, make homelessness its top priority in alignment with the community's priority. And I've watched my colleagues pursue creative solutions one after another to address this from every single angle. Sorry, can you just hear me? It's hard to be. It's hard to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you know, my district alongside district one is also impacted by enhancements and RVs. And I was proud to have other Grayson site and the Spark program in my district. And I worked with the neighborhood and I got by and they trusted the city. And we have successful programming. We were able to get people into permanent housing through the transitional housing village and the safe and re-parking program that being said after it closed we spent years trying to find a replacement for it. We send letters to the UC to large industrial landlords to to the Golden Gate fields, to everyone in the area. And no one responded. I'm command to still pursuing a relocation to host those programs. But the residents of my district and Rashis District don't have a luxury of pontificating away the things that they're experiencing at daily basis. People are not emailing my office or our offices about people sheltering intense or just experiencing at a houselessness. People are only reaching out because they are experiencing instances of violent harassment, needles, etc. And I don't think that we should be blamed people who are in these situations. And we should, I think we should continue to get them the services they need. But we have to be able to mend our public right of way for the benefit of the entire city. And this disproportionately impacts my district, my neighborhood, and Rochelle's district, the California district, as well as the downtown and the California Burtless District as well. We are infinitely committed to housing first, even those of us who are critical of that. Provincial board of housing, we're putting the renewal of the measure out on the valid. But I'm getting asked why are we asking for more and more money to fund programs and people are seeing their conditions, deteriorate, why are people saying that they feel like they can't walk home in their own neighborhoods? It's not because someone is just down their luck or doesn't have a roof. People are experiencing behaviors that are making it such that they and their families do not feel safe experiencing the public realm. And that is a problem. And there's not going to be a one solution. And I don't agree that a criminal law enforcement response is not the answer. But that's all we're talking about. We're not talking, like, there's, I don't see how we're gonna be sending cops to deal with encampments on an arbitrary reactionary basis. The amount of things we have to clear in order to do a basic response is so high that I don't think that that's likely to occur. City admin will still have to make a qualified valid finding to the clear a new sense in order to initiate a response. And even that would be a last resort. And that's based on our current practices and our policies. So I will be supporting them in the motion. Thank you. Okay, Councilor Matrega. Thank you. First of all, I also want to echo Hi, remarks and acknowledge council member Kessarwani for her shortage in taking on this difficult issue. It is an issue that all of us find hard to grapple with. And we all understand that there is no ideal solution other than providing adequate housing that includes services to help our unhoused neighbors stabilize, recover, heal, and re-enter our community with dignity. I also want to relay that I deeply sympathize with our unhoused neighbors, and they man's challenges and trauma that they face every day living on the streets. The situation truly is inhumane. I also sympathize with our homeowners, our ranchers, business owners, workers, predominantly working class or middle class, or trying to make it work under challenging circumstances. Again, at times face unsafe conditions caused by some people in distress living on our streets. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude and extend recognition to our city staff and other workers who are tasked with the impossible job of ensuring that our streets are kept safe for our residents. These are the people that often come face to face with human suffering and conditions that are difficult to bear. The ordinance before us is a response to the outcry we received from many members of our Berkeley community. The majority of those who emailed us are compassionate toward our unhoused neighbors, but they also demand healthy and safe conditions for themselves, their families, their children, the elderly and their friends who visit them. Our small and medium-sized businesses are also crying out for help. To ensure their workers are safe, their property is not vandalized, and customers feel safe patronizing their businesses. As council members work tasked with considering all sides of any issue. For me, the web line for this resolution was that I would not support criminalizing people, including siding or arresting them, simply for sleeping on the streets. for this resolution was that I would not support criminalizing people, including citing or arresting them simply for sleeping on the streets as a peace and justice commission wrote in a sletter to us. However, I do believe that we should hold everyone to the same standards that we would hold everyone in our society. And that does mean that being unhoused does not automatically shield them from the consequences of unlawful behavior if the behavior is unlawful. And our staff does need the tools to do their job safely and effectively. I was very clear with my colleagues to the extent allowed under the bound act that I would not vote for anything that criminalizes people for simply sleeping on our streets if we cannot provide them with adequate shelter. I'm very grateful to the author for agreeing to amend the ordinance to reflect the stands. And I've also heard police from our Berkeley residents who are concerned about our environment and how we're tweeting our Greeks, our watersheds, our parks, the other sensitive natural habitats that we're fortunate to have in the city. To this end, I do have some questions both from my own edification and to provide information for residents so that we and they can make informed conclusions about the legislation before us today. That said, the public comments that we have received from my district have been split down the middle and there are passionate views on both sides. So, in my two and a half months on the City Council, this is the most agonizing decision, and I am determined to keep an open mind. Whatever the outcome is today of how we vote, tomorrow I continue campaigning for measure W, the extension of measure P. I will continue my staff and I just met with Robin Montoya, who does excellent work with the Dorothy Day House, who are committed to working with them, who are committed to working with inside, we're committed to working with inside housing and supporting additional opportunities working with my council colleagues and staff to increase our opportunities for housing of all types. And this does take a regional approach. And this is also on our neighbor, who some of whom have not been holding public open meetings like this one, frankly, and where the policy has been at times giving folks a one-way ticket would then end up in my district. And in council member Keselessarwanis and Councilmember Patlin's district and Councilmember Bartlett's district as well. So we need to, it really does take a regional evidence based approach. And whatever the outcome is tonight, that is what I am 100% committed to. With that, this is for Peter. I have received concerns that the nuisance can be defined broadly and used to move people outside of the most urgent circumstances. Could you walk me through the process of declaring something on nuisance? Yes, thank you Councilmember. I just want to reiterate that, you know, making this determination of a nuisance, including fire hazards, imminent health hazards, things like that, our decisions that are made by trained and credentialed staff whose professional integrity is on the line. So it's not something we take lightly. And typically that is a last resort. It is rare that we see something that we will jump to declaring a nuisance. Our process in the homeless response team is to reach out to people, try to, you know, provide deep cleaning, scarved runs, other efforts to work with the person to try to mitigate the circumstances that are contributing to the nuisance. If all those things fail, that is a tool in our toolbox, but it is used relatively and frequently. Thank you. I wanted to clarify or get clarification when you were addressing a previous question. I wasn't clear if you responded in this way, but would you consider this ordinance to be adding to the criminalization of homelessness. No, I really think that as I read this ordinance, these are, these are relative we rare circumstances that we nonetheless do repeatedly encounter at some of our more impacted and impactful and frankly dangerous encampments. And this is as I read this, which is to try to balance the needs and the rights of people who are on shelter living in these un sheltered situations and these encampments against the reason of the expectation of the public to having clean safe and accessible spaces. And we really do take it seriously to try to individual, to try to analyze these situations on an individualized basis and make that determination. And this is, I will also state that we take very seriously that we are a care first jails last year restriction. And we will continue to lead with outreach and efforts to achieve voluntary compliance. If this item is passed, it's not going to lead us to start jumping to enforcement right away and certainly not to arrest. I hope that answers your question. Yes, I have to more. Thank you for your patience with me. Can you speak to how many offers for housing are being made on an annual basis and are rejected and what are some of the circumstances of reasons for the rejection? and what are some of the circumstances or reasons for the rejection? I can tell you that in the past three years, I don't actually have it based on per year. I can get that number for you if you wish. But over the past three years since the launch of the homeless response team, we've made just shy of 700 shelter offers total across the entire city. And we have an acceptance rate overall of roughly 44% and that includes when we offer congregate shelter. When we offer non congregate shelter, that acceptance rate nearly doubles to more than 80%. It's at 81% right now. And that is really when we are, in the course of intervening at an encampment during a deep cleaning or a closure, that were especially effective at getting people to move inside. Some of the reasons that people decline shelter, primarily what I have noticed is the distinction between congregate and non-congregate. Folks are generally way more interested in and it better meets their need for privacy and dignity if they have their own space in an non-convivalent. Thank you. And lastly, there were some public comments made around instances of following sweeps, case workers not being able to find those formal residents of the encampment to offer them housing. Can you speak to the extent to which it has been your observation? And if that has been observed, do we have existing policies to minimize the impact on the unhoused following those sweeps. We call together neighborhood services. My division calls together on a regular basis, a case conference with our outreach providers and with our homeless services providers. It's been on hiatus for some time now, but we do intend to bring that back. And in those case conferences, we talk regularly to the extent of course, permissible under privacy laws that about the people living in these encampments and other and shelter situations so that we can stay coordinated, update one another as to where folks are both physically and in terms of their care plan. And we will continue to do that. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. I know we have a couple more counselors that wanna speak including myself. So I'm gonna make a motion to suspend the rules and extend the meeting to 1130. Staffing. If you can please call the roll on that procedural motion to extend to 1130. Okay, Council Member Kessar-Wanning. Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Tragdham. I. On. Yes. Lengra? Yes. Loonopara? Yes. Cumber? Yes. And Mayor Ergine. Yes. Okay. And if that's okay, Councilor, I just want to briefly make some comments. So I want to pick up on something that Councilor Trega raised, which is the need for a regional approach to how we address the humanitarian crisis of homelessness here in the Bay Area. And it's really unacceptable in the wealthiest part of our country, in the fifth largest economy of the world. We have such widespread poverty. And I have to say that we are doing more in Berkeley, and I would acknowledge that there's a lot more we have to do. But we are doing more in Berkeley than any other city in Alameda County. We spend more per capita than any city in Alameda County on housing and interim housing on direct services to addressing homelessness. And that is that why we have seen a 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in Berkeley. And that's why I hope the voters of Berkeley proved measure W to provide more resources so we can further reduce the number of unhoused people on our streets because our goal should be to get everyone off the streets into permanent stable and affordable housing. But not every city's doing that. And so I over the past several years have been working with my fellow mayors in Alameda County and with the county government to work together to see how we can address this issue from a regional approach. And I've chaired an ad hoc working group of the may mayor from the 14 Alameda County cities. And we have worked with the county to actually put in its five year strategic plan on addressing homelessness to give priority to local investment and local programs so that we can work together with the county who controls billions of dollars, billions of dollars and behavioral health and public health and all these social services to make sure that what we're doing in Berkeley is aligned with the county so we can maximize impact and actually help people. But it's difficult. And what we have seen since Grand Pass is a race to the bottom. Where San Francisco is doing widespread enforcement with no offer of shelter. And I've been informed by our city staff that the city of Richmond, that police in the city of Richmond, are telling homeless people in Richmond to go to Berkeley and while they're doing enforcement. That is a fact. And other cities like Emeryville are doing enforcement as well. Where is the outrage about what's happening in those cities too? That's not acceptable. And so we need to be thoughtful about this. I agree. But we need to work together. So I intend to bring the mayors of Alameda County together next month in a conversation here in Berkeley. We're hosting our monthly meeting in Berkeley, to talk about what each jurisdiction is doing since grants pass, allowing candidates, and to see whether we can work together on a coordinated approach. So it's not a race to the bottom. There's no doubt that we've seen more people who are experiencing homelessness on our streets of Berkeley these past few weeks. Not surprisingly because San Francisco and Richmond are sweeping encampments on a weekly basis. And that may continue. But that does not change our approach that's focused on housing first, evidence space practices, reading with compassion. That will continue to be our focus and how we address this issue. And Berkeley, because that's what our residents expect, and that's our values. But I call on all of the cities of the Bay Area. We have to work together. We cannot be pushing people from city to city. We have to work together. I call on our governor and our state government who is asking for city's reinforcement, give us the resources so we can build permanent support of housing and so we can expand supportive services so we can work in partnership to address this issue. So while this addresses how we're going to deal with very, very specific as-is-igent circumstances in Berkeley, where in the most, most cases, we will continue to offer shelter first. We need to do better as a region. And so, I call on all of us to really continue to put pressure on other jurisdictions in the East Bay to step up. Albany doesn't have an incentive to step up and address homelessness. So when they closed the Albany bulb, that's when we saw the proliferation of encampments in West Berkeley, not surprisingly. When Cal trans removes an encampment, that's when we see the Harrison Street encampment, I mean, campment on 2nd Street. Who tells people? But we are working to still address those issues because these people are neighbors as well. So we have to get to a point where I think it's something the station mandate as a condition of funding that in order for cities and counties to get direct resources that they have to coordinate and they have to work together and they have to meet some responsibility of housing people who are experiencing homelessness in their jurisdiction, that they can't push those people into another jurisdiction. But until that time, we have to address this issue here in Berkeley and we will continue to address it in a thoughtful, compassionate way. And I thank Councillor Kessler-Wonif for bringing this forward. I intend to vote for it. I think this is a balanced approach. I know not everyone likes it. But I really trying to find a way to deal with these very specific, very limited circumstances. We're people that are living in very dangerous conditions. And I hear you that, you know, there are reasons why that's happened and we have responsibility to make sure that that doesn't happen. But we also have responsibility to not let people continue to live in dangerous conditions and not let conditions be so dangerous of threatening the immediate businesses and neighbors as well. We are responsible to keep everyone safe to make sure the quality of life of everyone housed and unhoused business owners and residents is protected. So for that reason, I will vote for this today. Councillor Hone. Well, thank you, Mayor. And thank you to all my colleagues. First, I just want to say that I really didn't appreciate the personal attacks on Councilmember Kessar-Wani or on Mr. Redou, who works for the city. And does, I don't think there's, I've never met someone who cares more about ending homelessness through compassionate means and more committed to shelter and housing and more knowledgeable and I really I know people are passionate about these policies, but it's not appropriate to question the goodwill of the people who are involved in trying to find a way through what is a really very, very complex and very heartbreaking set of circumstances. I was gonna ask Mr. Adieu some general questions I'm not sure if you're going to ask any questions about how we approach shelter and housing. But I do think some of that has been covered, but Mr. I do I just want to give you just a little bit of an open opportunity here to just maybe. Tell a little bit what are practical. that have an open opportunity here to just maybe tell a little bit what our practices are in the city of Berkeley in terms of working with outreach, housing offers, shelter, et cetera. So what does that look like when we go out and try to work with folks who are experiencing homelessness? And I know that's a big question, but just kind of, just a little overview of the approach. Thank you very much, Council Member. I'll try to be brief. About a month after the Council created the homeless response team with the budget item in 2021, this council adopted the Hall Home Regional Action Plan and that committed the city to a very bold goal of a 75% reduction in street homelessness in three years. And that we took the homeless response team, we took that as our mission to do everything we can to try to be the tip of the spear for implementing that. Obviously something like that is a big city wide effort, but the homeless response team would be the tip of the spear. And so we coordinate with all the departments in the city who are impacted by this and have a role to play in this. And we coordinate very closely with Health Housing Community Services and all the agencies that provide outreach and shelter and homeless services that they contract with to do this work as best we can. We understand that outreach is an iterative process and that it is, you know, we're dealing with people. And so one thing that I'm very proud of that my team has brought to this is understanding that encampments are not just, you know, situations of others, right? There are communities of people and they really take the time to get to know who's living there and to try to form relationships with people living there. And we prioritize as best we can when we make shelter offers based on, you know, not just who's sort of vulnerable in the encampment and who would really benefit from and and use those opportunities at that moment in time to meet their needs, but also taking to account, you know, how can that shelter offer be something that we use to help mitigate some of the community impacts that encampments are creating. So it's very complicated calculus, but we try to keep it based on the person and the relationship that we try to keep it based on the person and the relationship that we try to build with the person. Thank you very much. And so would you say that the, they all read, I forget the name, the All Region Action Plan, All Home Region. That was on the steering committee. I helped develop it. That's the right name for it. All home. All home, yes, the All Home Plan. And you had also mention some federal standards in the past that you use as guidance. Would you say that those two documents kind of are the basis for how you approach rehousing and service provision to people experiencing homelessness. Are those the guiding documents? In a word, yes, I would say the All Home Regional Action Plan is something that's about our broader homeless system. And so that was the subject of the analyses that we presented to this Council on July 9th when we had that broad overview of the homeless system. The other documents that you are mentioning are the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. They have promulgated a series of best practices and white papers with respect to how to address and resolve encampments and we do our best to follow those. OK, thank you very much. Those were the questions I had. I appreciate. So I'm going to do a little history and a little law. And then I suddenly realized, oh, yeah, I was a history major and I went to law school. No wonder that's how I think about these things. And I want folks to bear with me a little bit while I do a little bit of those two things. So in 2017-2018, the city of Berkeley adopted what can only be described as a new paradigm in its approach to addressing what I consider to be our city and our states and our country's biggest human rights catastrophe, which is homelessness. After more than a decade of outright hostility towards homeless individuals, including nighttime raids, confiscation of personal belongings, and other harsh practices. The city shifted to a set of humane policies and programs that put housing in humanity first. This new paradigm and a series of new policies, programs and facilities that were launched in 2017 and accelerated with the generous funds made available through voter approved measures O&P in 2018 have resulted in rapid and unprecedented success. A 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness and over 20% reduction in homelessness overall. This success is unique among communities in the Bay Area and let me say it's not just statistics that make it a success. This is human beings who have been relieved of the suffering of living on the streets. It's not just percentages, it's people. This success is unique among communities in the Bay Area and across California that are significantly impacted by the crisis of homelessness and is directly attributable to the policies, programs, and facilities, the city of Berkeley has been able to put in place. And the tireless work of city of Berkeley and partner agency staff who have worked with a compassion and professionalism to increase the wellbeing of Berkeley's homeless population and above all, to build the trust necessarily to successfully rehouse over 1,500 homeless individuals. And there were some who said that they had done a PRA request about how many actual people have been rehoused. I asked that question in an email to our staff a couple months ago. And I was given the number around 1700 since 2016. And since 2019, which is the first year that we were able to deploy the funds we got through Meadows O&P, it's been 1500 people. So I hope that we can get that to you directly, but I want you to know that I asked that same question. And this is a very large number of people. It's unprecedented. We are not pushing people off to other communities. We are rehousing them. That is why we have this level of success. So the city's new policies governing temporary non-commercial items. It's a little arcane, but it is attached to Councilmember Kessarwani's item. This policy is something that we spent a lot of time on. When we wrote that policy, we specifically chose to address accumulations of belongings. We don't have an encampment resolution policy in Berkeley because that's never been a policy. We have a policy to manage the accumulation of belongings and belongings when they spill over into the normal path of travel on our sidewikes and into the street. location in a persistent manner. But we chose to talk about belongings, not people, because we understand the human beings have to be able to survive on our streets. They are human. We understand that. But we tried to strike a balance by addressing accumulations use the sidewalk and that they were so large and persistent that they really had a big impact on businesses and neighbors and people trying to use these spaces. So it really was a shared use of space policy. So we sought to address accumulations and materials not sleeping or other human activities, giving the city the ability to manage the amount and location of personal materials and possessions necessary for survival and ensuring they could be maintained. In addition, at the time, we established voluntary storage facilities, free storage, so they could store their belongings at no cost. And another regulation specified that we also spent a lot of time on, specify the belongings removed by the city except for things that are sort of excessively soiled or really can't be stored must be stored for retrieval. So these regulations focusing on the management of objects and not people have served the city incredibly well for close to five years and have complemented our incredibly successful efforts to rehouse our homeless neighbors through compassionate services and offers of shelter and housing. At the same time, the city has been able to reduce the impacts of accumulated belongings on the broader community, striking as good of a balance as possible when managing a truly harsh set of realities. In the overwhelming vast majority of instances, the city's combination of intensive housing health and mental health outreach, trust building and assistance with management of personal belongings has resulted in homeless individuals accepting offers of shelter in large numbers and moving at a relatively quick pace towards permanent housing. So in short, our cities, policies and programs and facilities on a macro scale have been working incredibly well, and we should complement ourselves. Interrupting, please. But in a few circumstances, notably, but not exclusively the two rest Berkeley locations, described at length in the Kessar-Wan-i-Wengraf item, the city's extensive efforts, which are documented in this item, to work with and invite homeless individuals into shelter and housing have not been accepted, and individuals and their belongings have persisted, and accumulated in these locations to the great detriment of both people living in these encampments and to the businesses and residents in the vicinity. Accumulations of debris, food, and other organic and human raised furniture and other materials, along with open flame camp stoves, have resulted in tire block faces that are dangerous, unsanitary, attract rodents, persistent fire hazards, and are unacceptable by any measure. At the same time, the city has worked extensively with individuals and communities in these locations, offering assistance shelters, housing and other services and opportunities over and over again, only to be met in many cases with rejection. When the city has moved to clean, extreme, unsanitary and dangerous conditions, we have been met with lawsuits. It's not acceptable. There is no question that for the well-being of both the individuals experiencing homelessness and for nearby residents and businesses, these conditions absolutely must be addressed. And while I reject the idea that sleeping can or should be criminalized, when no other options exist for an individual, experiencing homelessness. And by the way, my definition of available options includes a modified shelter or housing offer previously made to the individual and rejected. I do welcome clarification of the city's authority to manage catastrophic persistent accumulations of materials and dangerous unsanitary conditions like those in a few locations in Berkeley and potentially in other locations including the city's ability to ask people to move from a specific location so it can be cleaned and return to the use and enjoyment of the entire community. These are exceptions. So in 2018, the ninth circuit in Martin versus Boise created a new standard addressing criminalization of sleeping. While Berkeley has been focused on managing accumulations of materials and Martin focused on camping, i.e. sleeping, Martin in other cases decided under Martin have severely limited the city's ability to manage these large accumulations and to move otherwise deeply unsanitary and campments that pose a hazard of people living in them and to others. The City Council in passing our own regulations of objects and materials never contemplated that huge and permanent accumulations in a single location would be allowed to persist. I know that because I participated in writing them. On the contrary, the rules were written to explicitly allow the city to limit materials on sidewalks in a right of way and remove materials that individuals would not manage or limit voluntarily themselves. The recent grants pass decision by the Trump Supreme Court majority overturned Martin, arriving at what I also bruise in absurd conclusion that sleeping can be criminalized. I reject that dangerous paradigm, but I also don't support the other absurd idea that it is okay for people to languish in dangerous dirty circumstances on our streets or that is okay for people to repeatedly reject our city's bonafide offers to help manage belongings and our offers of shelter and housing and for them to remain in terrible conditions with horribly unacceptable impacts to the adjacent area. So where do we go from here? Clearly, the path is somewhere between these two extremes. The question is, how do we thread the needle? So that our policies give us just enough authority to address the kinds of encampment conditions we're seeing right now in these few extreme locations without opening the door to the other extreme of criminalization as a frontline policy, which I know would never be the policy in our city. So I understand that this item is an honest attempt to thread the needle. And I also understand the urgency because the conditions in numerous locations in Berkeley are intolerable and need to be addressed as quickly as possible. I want to provide a little legal ease clarification to the public and maybe also to some of my colleagues. I don't know how they perceive of this. Homeless advocates oppose this policy because they believe it enables the city to sweep encampments as a frontline policy and criminalize sleeping. Business owners and nearby residents support it because they think it gives the city power that it doesn't have right now to clean and manage encampments and even move folks to other locations. But let me clear what is going on here is the exact opposite. Now let me explain this. The city does not have an encampment resolution policy at this time. We only have policies about objects and materials. We are and always have been governed by constitutional and case law as the limits to how we work with encampments. So when Martin was passed by the Supreme Court, our authority was vastly expanded. It is not constrained by any local Berkeley laws or regulations. Right now, our city has all the authority provided by that decision, quite frankly, more than our city would ever want to exercise. So the Kessir-Wengriffe item is trying to restrict our authority, not expand it. I know it's hard to get your head around, but that's what is happening. So anyone who wants to see the limit the power is given to us by this Remembrance Court should support this policy. Ironically, however, the limits provided are so wide open and so broadly conceived that they're kind of not worth the paper they're written on. So as an example, I looked up what the BMC's definition of a nuisance is. And I invite anyone here in the room to just go to our birthday municipal code and search the word nuisance. And you will find, I mean, there are so many pages of definitions of nuisance that I just stopped going through them. And some of these things were written like in 1919, vicious animals, funeral cats. It's quite an interesting mix bag of things that are nuicences in Berkeley. It's quite an interesting mix bag of things that are nuisances in Berkeley. It's extremely broad. So that supposed marrowing of our power, then by referencing a concept that's huge, then it gets big again. I, someone's actually following me. I hope I'm being clear. Maybe I am making sense. I'm almost there, man. So, what I conclude, we have a ton of authority because we don't have a policy. We just have what the Supreme Court gave us. We have a massive amount of authority right now. Kestorwanis item is seeking to limit that authority. It is seeking to say, well, we can only use it in these limited circumstances. But I think perhaps in the rush to get something on paper and get our staff, you know, what they need to see to be able to go out and manage things in these terrible locations is that the exceptions are too broadly rendered. So I will say that my preference tonight is that we provide clear authority for our staff to address the conditions at these two extreme locations and to adopt the amendments to BMC chapter 1448, which simply gives the normal typical rulemaking authority back to the city manager. to come back with something more limited and nuanced than what we have here, but most importantly, that more fully articulates what I know is our practice, which is to do extensive outreach, offer shelter in the housing, and work humanely with people. This current policy assumes all of that because we all know that's how our city operates. This is in fact our practice, but a written policy, this would be our first one. Can't just assume half the equation. When you put your pen to paper and this is literally, would be the first encampment policy we ever put on paper and Berkeley. I think the whole picture needs to be drawn, not just one piece of it. So I would like to make an alternative motion. A substitute motion, sorry, thank you. A substitute motion, two, one. Direct staff to enforce our TNC, which is temporary non-commercial item policies, as written, at the two West Berkeley locations that have been so severely impacted for so long, and any other severely and persistently impacted location. To approve the changes to the BMC, what was it, 1224 or 1448, sorry. I as presented with any amendments that were made. And then three refer to staff, the concepts in this item, and the comments received from homeless services providers, the comments of my colleagues tonight, and for them to come back to us with a much more carefully nuanced written item with the effective policy that articulates our affirmative commitments to shelter services in long-term housing, and that provides a clear and more more actually limited set of circumstances where we might enforce our rules against large and persistent accumulations and materials. That is my motion. Seconded by Council Member Bartlett. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor Wangart. Thank you. I have to say that I was quite shocked by all of the comments that we heard tonight from many of the attendees at the meeting, not all of them, but some of them because it seemed like they were responding to a very different item than what I had read. And I'm concerned that there was a lotilani for working so hard on this. I know she collaborated very closely with staff and with legal and that it was a tremendous amount of work to put it all together. I also want to thank you, Mayor Argin, for all of the work that you have done regionally on this. Your comments were actually very inspirational to me because I've been trying to do the same thing on wildfire risk. And I really think that a regional approach is the only approach that makes sense. And I want to thank you Councilman Bahan for your work on measure O and measure P, because measure O and measure P have been extremely important in our efforts to approach this problem, which is extremely complex. But I don't think you'll find a city in the country that approaches this city, this problem with more compassion and more sensitivity than Berkeley. And we've made a huge investment. We've put resources behind that, behind our compassion, and behind our sensitivity, and behind our real concern for the people who are unhoused. I'm gonna support this item. I trust staff to implement it in the most narrow way and only under the most extreme circumstances. I think we have very trust them to do the right thing. And if it's not working, then you always have the opportunity to come back and amend it. So, yeah. So I'm going to be supporting the main motion. And with that, I'd like to call the question. Okay, well, we have Councillor Kessor-Wanning who would think wants to just clarify the motion before we vote. Yes, I did want to ask on Council Member Hahn's substitute motion. And this actually a question for Mr. Reddo, the first part where Councillor Mahon, you want to direct staff to enforce TNC at two West Berkeley locations, the two in Canaan, cited in the item, and any other severely impacted location. Mr. Radoo, without the resolution and the detail in it about deterring re-encantment and the signage, are you clear on what that direction is in the first part of that substitute motion? I'm not sure that I actually cop. Councillor M. Rahan, would you mind reciting that very first part of your motion? I'm sorry I was scrambling to write it down but I think it was to enforce that Harrison Street and Second Street and similarly, similarly impacted locations. Yes. And I did refer to the TNC regulations that allow you to request that objects be reduced to 9 foot square foot footprint, request that the objects be moved to another location, remove and store objects or and or issue an administrative citation or infraction. And everything else, I'm sure you're very familiar with the whole policy, but those are the enforcement elements. Yes, thank you for that. And so to your question, Council Member Kestewani, I can say that we have been desperately trying to enforce AR10.2 and the provisions in the municipal code on our sidewalk policies at these encampments for the past several years. And I don't say this lightly, but I believe we are at the upper limit of what our current policy allows us to do in clearing the right of way and maintaining it clear. And so we do spend a great deal of time in these encampments. In fact, over the past three years, we've performed 120 encampment interventions overall. 43% of them were at Harrison Street and Second Street those two locations. So we spend a lot of time here and whereas our policies are effective elsewhere, they just have not been effective at clearing and maintaining clear the conditions that these encampments. Okay, thank you very much. I am ready to vote. Okay. We have a subsidy motion. Councillor Rahn, we could go to the procedure. Yeah, I wanted to make a friendly amendment ask for a family amendment to the way in motion. Would you accept to include in that a referral to staff to come back with a policy that also includes the affirmative pieces of how we work with encampments? Can you just say a little bit more? You mean just what do you mean by affirmative pieces of how we work with encampments. Can you just say a little bit more? You mean just what do you mean by affirmative pieces of how we work with it? At the beginning of your resolution to you know how we we start with offers of shelter and housing. Uh-huh. Something that would articulate that with more in a in a more robust and complete manner and layout, not just kind of the end piece when all of that has failed. But the upfront pieces of like, okay, how do we, because we know we keep saying here like we have faith. I'm sorry, I'm flake of order. I call the question. Yeah, to, well, you have to vote to call the question, which is a motion to suspend the bill, and that requires six affirmative votes. But let's just let me finish. I understand the friendly amendment. And what I think you're asking for, Council Member Hahn, is some kind of off-agenda memo that goes into detail about the existing practices in terms of our city staff engaging the outreach providers prior to any kind of enforcement action that is contemplated in this item. It articulates it so that it's known beyond that. That's fine. And just Madam City Manager, is that fine that we can prepare an off agenda memo that explains our practices related to outreach. Adding campments. Absolutely. That's okay. Yes. And that it was available to the public. Yes. And who's the seconder Humbert I am and that's fine. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Kester. Yes. Of course. And so in terms of proceeding to the vote. We're going to vote on the subsidy motion first. Yes. But Council Member Bartlett, do you want to see the edits of the main motion? Or let's do that briefly at 15 minutes. Sorry. OK, let me go to that. OK, share screen. Let's. OK, so we are here with the recommendation. I do want to go to the chair screen. Okay, so we are here with the recommendation. I do want to know council member. Humber is a co-sponsor. He's been added in this version that we've mentioned on the dius. And so again, we are stating that the main change from what we had posted is that we are removing the language about explicitly stating citation and arrest. What we're talking about is enforcing state and local laws. I do want to say, as Mr. Redu has stated, we are a care first, jail's last community. An arrest is possible. It is a considered sort of a tool of last resort. And so that's why we want this language to be more precise. We're talking about enforcement of state and local laws. And so that's that piece. And that is just repeated in the resolution. This is the same thing where, instead of saying citation arrests, we are talking about enforcement of state and local laws. This is just some clarification related to the administrative regulations of how they need to be updated to conform with this policy. These are just corrections to the background section, but are not as important. And then I'll just take you to the resolution where you have the same corrections or changes removing citation and arrest and changing it to enforcement of state and local laws. Our arrest continues to be a possibility, but it's not something we feel is necessary to emphasize here because we just want to be more precise about what we're asking. Okay, thank you. And if you have them, please send that to the clerk. So we have it for the record. them, please send that to the clerk. So we have it for the record. Yes, I will do that. Okay, so we'll now vote on the subsidy motion by Councillor Mahon, seconded by Councillor Bartlett. This is the subsidy motion to the main motion. The clerk, and please call the roll. Councillor Member, Councillor Wanie. No. Patlin? No. Bartlin? No. Bartlett? Yes. Trigab. I. Han. Yes. Wengrath? No. Lunapara. Pass. Humbert. No. Mara-Arguine? No. Okay, that motion fails. Okay, on the main motion, which is to approve item 37, with the revisions that Councillor Kisser-Wyne just read into the record and the friendly amendment from Councillor Mahan, which also includes a first reading of the amendment's 1448, and then the adoption of the resolution, please call the roll. That's a member, Kirsta Rwani. Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Tregub. Aye. Khan. Yes. Wengraff. Yes. Loonopara. Yes, and Mayor Ergine. Yes. Okay. Okay. That motion carries. Thank you. I make a motion to suspend the rules in a adjourn. Is there a second? Second? He's all that procedural motion. Okay. That's remember, Chris are wine. Yes. Patlin. Yeah. Partly. Yes. When, Grah? Yes. Unapara. Yes. Umbert. Yes. And Mayor Ergine. Yes. OK. Thank you. We're adjourned. Recording stopped. No, no, no, no, no.