Welcome to the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council of Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024. Okay. Call please. Councilmember Kissarewani is absent. Councilmember Taplin, present. Bartlett, here. Traydab. Present. On. Here. Loonopara. Here. Humber, present, and. Winopara here. Humber present and acting Mayor Wengrap. Present okay. Okay first order of business we have two ceremony items this evening and council member Humber would you like to start off. Yes I would love to. And this is a proclamation by the City of Berkeley honoring and celebrating John Muir Elementary. And I'm going to absolutely, whereas the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes outstanding elementary, middle and high schools based on their overall high academic achievement, where success in closing the achievement gap among diverse groups of students, and whereas being declared a National Blue Ribbon School is the highest level of recognition that a school can receive from the federal government. And whereas John Muir Elementary has been declared for the second time in its history, and that's parenthetical, a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School. And whereas this distinction was earned through the hard work and dedication of Principal Jeremy Pacco-Furland, John Muir faculty and staff, John Muir parents and PTA members, and whereas Berkeley Unified School District, BUSD, Superintendent Anikia Ford-Morthell, BUSD School Board members and BUSD staff are instrumental to the success of John Muir Elementary in all Berkeley schools. And whereas the faculty, staff, parents, and students of John Muir Elementary, as well as the BUSD Superintendent, school board members, and BUSD staff deserve recognition for their outstanding achievement. Therefore, be it resolved that I, Susan Wendgraf, mayor of the City of Berkeley, do hereby declare December 3rd, 2024 to be John Muir Elementary Day. And I have the proclamation to present to principal furlough. Thank you. I'm sorry. Good. Good. Good. Great. You want to have some pictures taken. Yeah. So can I stand with you all? Yes. I'm not so tall. I'm not tall. I'm not tall. I'm not tall. I'm not tall. We really want to thank you for honoring John Muir tonight with this award. It really, really means a lot to us. And this is not all of our staff. This is just a small number of classroom teachers, special educators, and literacy coaches and specialists that we have out at John Muir working to support our kids here in Berkeley and we could not be more proud to be members of the Berkeley Unified School District, the first school district of voluntarily desegregate and to be able to deliver excellent education to our kids here in Berkeley and I want to talk to you just a little bit about what led us to this award. Last year around February we were nominated based on our outstanding academic achievement and this team wrote a nearly 40 page application after we were invited to apply. And they really looked at the whole school and how we really educate the whole child. They looked at our PE program. They looked at our outdoor education program. They looked at our intervention programs, our deaf and hard of hearing programs, our special education programs. They looked at our music programs, everything that makes Berkeley special and unique, and they really said, wow, you are amazing what you're able to offer at your school in Berkeley and the kind of achievement that you're able to get for your students. John Muir is one of 33 schools in all of California that was awarded this award and one out of 356 schools in the whole United States. So it's a pretty amazing, a pretty amazing honor. And just to talk a little bit about where we came from the pandemic to now, cause that was such a dark time for all of us, particularly in education. But our student achievement rose nearly 20 percentage points from the pandemic to now in reading and nearly 8 percentage points in math. And right now John Nears is outscoring the state average by about 30 percentage points in reading and throughout all of the schools in Berkeley. And you all should be really proud to be our city council and we really appreciate you, really appreciate your support, appreciate the support of all of the Berkeley voters that pass our B-SET measure, even though the majority of those voters don't have children in school. It really means a lot to us. Thank you so much. Thank you for this recognition. We're going to frame it in our front office and have a in school. It really means a lot to us. Thank you so much. Thank you for this recognition. We're going to frame it in our front office and have a wonderful evening. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Congratulations. OK, we have one more proclamation. And this proclamation is probably the best kept secret in District 6. In the 32 years that I have been involved in representing District 6, I have not received a single complaint about New Bridge Foundation. And you may not know what New Bridge Foundation is. But the gentleman coming to the microphone is Costa Marcarquez, and I have a proclamation for him and Sylvia Richie and New Bridge Foundation, which I will read now. Whereas Costa Marcarquez was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1937, and after surviving World War II at the age of 12, immigrated to New York where he later attended college and then worked with the UN as a liaison officer in Cyprus. And whereas when Costa returned to New York, he became addicted to heroin. And ultimately landed across the country in Berkeley where he entered a rehabilitation program at the New Bridge Foundation successfully graduating from the program. And whereas in 1984, customer carcass became the CEO of New Bridge Foundation and started his collaboration with Sylvia Richie, COO, a licensed social worker who begun working at New Bridge Foundation as a volunteer in 1979. Sylvia has developed groundbreaking programs for women in recovery. Together, their collective vision has made New Bridge Foundation what it is today. And whereas New Bridge Foundation is in District 6 and has 93 residential beds, and 88 transitional beds, and has provided treatment to tens of thousands of individuals with drug and alcohol addiction, and those battling co-occurring disorders, including specialized programs for active duty personnel and veterans and members of the LGBTQ plus community. And whereas Newbridge Foundation contracts with many school districts, including Berkeley, Oakland and Emoryville, as well as the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and Federal agencies. And whereas New Bridge Foundation is celebrated as one of America's best addiction treatment centers. And whereas Costa and Sylvia have worked tirelessly for decades to develop and strengthen New Bridge foundations, rehabilitation and recovery programs. Now therefore, I'll be it resolved, but I Susan Wengwaff, Acting Mayor of the City of Berkeley, do hereby celebrate New Bridge Foundation and thank custom Arcas and Sylvia Richie for their vision, leadership and lifelong dedication to helping those who were struggling with addiction. I want to thank the City Council for this extraordinary acknowledgement. Mike on. Am I being, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, you can. Thank you. Sorry. Anyway, we started out serving in all kinds of individuals way back in the Vietnam War pair, in which America's endless wars produced a series of very horrifying results in the lives and futures of many of the service individuals who serve there, not to mention the catastrophe of the civilian populations. We quote unquote, liberated or attempted to liberate. In any case, we started with agent orange with the Vietnamese experience among a lot of our veterans. We went on to the various other wars that we were engaged in. And to this day, we're serving all the armed forces, the VA, and well, that's one part of our mission. The other part, of course, is that we've been serving the community of Berkeley and East Bay for some, for the same period of time and when we measure the the benefits that one individual who goes through the program and is managed to put their lives together again, when we measure that and then we measure their wives, their children, their husbands and fathers, we see a cascading effect of impact. So over the years, I would say that we served tens of thousands of East Bay community members and their families. It's something. It's something. That's it. Thank you so much for your knowledge. Yeah. Yeah. It's always the kind of thing you like to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, now we'll move on to the consent calendar and we have one item on the consent calendar and we will take public comment now on that item. It's the memorandum of understanding the SEIU local 1021 CSU PT RLA. So anybody in the room who would like to comment on this item? Okay, see you now. I'll go to zoom. And I see one hand up. Joseph Lysner. Joseph Lysner. Sorry. Yes. You hear me? I did not want to comment on that. I thought there was going to be comment on, I mean, a public comment on items not on the agenda. I was waiting for that. That's six. That's at six o'clock. This is a special meeting. And we only take public comment on items on the agenda. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. OK. We'll see you at 6. Thank you. OK. So item number 1, we're being asked to adopt a resolution. Is there a staff presentation or anything on this? No? OK. I'll open that for discussion from the dice. Yes, Sophie? I want to make an emotion to approve the staff recommendation. I'm really excited that we were able to close this contract and really please that Berkley's workers will be getting Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, Lunapara. Yes, Humber. Yes, and acting Mayor Wenger. Yes. Okay, that motion carries Okay, then I'll entertain the motion to adjourn I so move second You'll call please. Okay Tap customer Taplin? Yes. Partly. Yes. Trigab. Aye. On. Yes. Nupara. Yes. Umbert. Yes. And acting Mayor Wangra. Yes. Okay. Thank you. 530 meeting is adjourned. The special meeting is adjourned. The time is 630. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.