All right, we are going to get started. I would like to call to order the Berkeley City Council meeting. Today is Tuesday, March 11th, 2025, and we're going to start with a rule. Okay. Calling the rule. Councilmember Kessarwani. Here. Patelin, President Bartlett. Here. Traygub. Present. Okie. Here. Blackaby. Here. Luna P Paura. Here. Humbert. Present. And Mayor Ishi. Here. Okay. And councilmember Humbert is participating in the meeting remotely this evening. So we just need to run through our script real quick. Councilmember Humbert is participating in the remotely pursuant to the participating in the remote. The council member is participating in the remote. The council member has notified the council needs to participate remotely. The council member, please provide a general description of the circumstances relating to your need to appear remotely, but do not disclose any medical diagnosis, disability or other confidential medical information. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. I have tested positive for a communicable respiratory disease and don't want to be present with other folks to transmit it. Thank you. Okay. Just please disclose if there is anyone in the meeting location with you who is 18 years of age or older. There is no one here in my home office with me. Okay. And then Council Member Hummer will participate in the meeting through both audio and visual technology. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much. Okay. So it is the first meeting of March, which means we'll be reading our land acknowledgement statements. We've had it so that we are taking turns. And so tonight is Councilmember Triggum's night to read the land acknowledgement statement. Thank you, Madam Mayor. The City of Berkeley recognizes that the community we live in was built on the territory of Huchun. The ancestral and unseated land of the Chocenio speaking aloni people. The ancestors and descendants of the sovereign Volano band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to all of the Alonni tribes and descendants of the Verona band. As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of Berkeley. The documented 5,000 here history of a vibrant community at the West Berkeley Shell Mount. And the aligning people who continue to reside in the East Bay. We recognize that Berkeley's residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupation of this unceded stolen land since the city of Berkeley's incorporation in 1878. As stewards of the laws regulating the city of Berkeley, it is not only vital that we recognize the history of this land, but also recognize that the Alonni people are present members of Berkeley and other East Bay communities today. The City of Berkeley will continue to build relationships with the Lajon tribe and to create meaningful actions that uphold the intention of this land acknowledgement. Thank you, Council Member. We now have the closed session report out, so bear with me. It's quite a few paragraphs long. The City Council meeting met in closed session on March 10th, 2025, pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subsections D2 and provided directions to outside workers compensation council and approved a settlement by compromise or release with a release of future medical care as to a workers compensation matter. B-E-R-2-2-0-0-0-5-2 and a WCAB case number A-D-J-179-4-5-9-6-0. The council also gave direction to outside workers compensation council and approved a settlement by compromise and release with a release of further medical care or in the alternative by stipulations for the request for award with open future medical care as to a worker's compensation matter, BER2400023 and a WCAB case number, ADJ18246762. Similarly, the council gave direction and approved a settlement by Compromising Release with a release of future medical care or in the alternative by stipulations with a request for award with open future medical care as the workers compensation matter, BER230048 and a WCAB case number ADJ 107 46024. The council also provided directions and approved a settlement by stipulations with request for award with open future medical care as to workers compensation matter, BER21-0007-9. In addition, the council provided direction to the city attorney pursuant to government code section 5495-6.9, subsections to settle the following lawsuits in an amount not to exceed $287,500. Tizari versus City of Berkeley, Alameda Superior Court case number 23CV030502. I also wanted to take the opportunity to report out on a couple of items from January 23rd, 2024 and December 3rd, 2024 closed sessions where final resolution has been reached. The City Council met in closed session on January 23rd, 2024, pursuant to government code section 54956.9A and 54956.9 subsections D1 and directed the City Attorney to settle with service employees international union local 1021 CSU PTRLA for back pay of their meaning unpaid value of the 3% CalPERS cost sharing reduction retroactive July 29 2021 plus 10% simple interest. Last paragraph. Okay. The city council met in closed session on December 3rd, 2024. Pursuing to Government Code Section 54956.9A, and 54956.9 subsections D2, and directed the City Attorney to settle with employee, public employee's Union Local 1 for back pay of their meaning unpaid value of the 3% CalPERS cost sharing reduction from August 8th, 2021 to April 16th, 2022, plus 10% simple interest. Thank you all. That is the closed session report out. So now we move on to the ceremonial matters. I know it's a mouthful. So there is a proclamation for the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter month, which is March 2025. And it's going to be received by John Erthy, who are you here today, John? Thank you so much. Yes. And I think my staff is grabbing the proclamation. So while they're doing that, I also want to say that we're going to be a journey and memory of Pauli Armstrong, a former district 8 City Council member. And that we will not be a journey and memory of Marty Schiff and bomb because we're going to be moving that to the next meeting so that his would have can attend the meeting and be here in person. And now I will read the proclamation. Thank you. All right. We are recognizing the American Red Cross. Whereas March is American Red Cross month when we recognize the compassion of people in Berkeley and renew our commitment to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need. And whereas with 1,638 volunteers in Alameda County, the American Red Cross assisted or responded to 106 D3 disasters, assisting 305 families. And through our Sound the Alarm program, the American Red Cross installed 988 smoke alarms making 291 homes safer and trained 2,544 youth and adults through Pedro and preparedness programs and whereas Alameda County residents donated 30,572 units of life saving blood hosted 1,154 blood drives and trained 13,893 citizens in first aid CPR, AED, and Aquatics and provided 455 case services to military members and their families and provided humanitarian aid internationally. And where is this work to uplift our community is made possible by those who selflessly answer the call to help whenever and wherever it is needed. We hereby recognize this month of March in honor of their remarkable service and ask everyone to join in their commitment to care for one another. Now therefore it be resolved that I, Adina Ishi mayor of the city of Berkeley do hereby declare March 2025 to be American Red Cross month in the city of Berkeley. Let's. I think I'm going to give this to you. We'll take up a couple pictures, but I want to give you a moment to respond as well. This is live. Good show. Thank you so much. Mayor, thank you so much, Council. Thank you so much. The citizens of Berkeley. We have installed 3 million free smoke alarms across the country. 3 million. These actually speak to you. Latest technology, and they have saved over 2,200 lives, specifically since 2014. If you knew somebody who cannot afford smoke alarms, or is at risk, you can go on the internet and simply look up American Red Cross smoke alarms and a crew like me will come out to your home fully assessed and fully install your home on an every bedroom always leading to bedrooms. This weekend, this Saturday are wonderful students from UC Berkeley Red Cross Club will be be going around the San Pablo Park area and installing smoke alarms in over 30 homes and we do that every week across the country. I'm not taking the rock here. You're going to be going to the little part of the building. Oh, thank you. You got to smell the bar. I love it. I love it. You're good. Oh, thank you. That's all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I 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. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And. name correct here. Oh, Mel. Could you pronounce it for me? I'm sorry. We will also be adjourning in memory of Mel Vappour as well. Thank you very much, Councilmember. You pronounce it for me, I'm sorry. Yeah, Melvapoor. Vapoor, Melvapoor. We will also be adjourning in memory of Melvapoor as well. Thank you very much, Council Member. Okay, we are moving on to city manager comments. No comments tonight, Madam Mayor. Thank you so much. And I believe we, Oh, here it is. Okay, public comments on non agenda matters. Okay. So there's a total of 10 speakers on non agenda matters. Five from in person speakers and five on the zoom glory. Attending remotely. So I'll draw the five in-person speakers and five on the Zoom, who are attending remotely. So I'll draw the five in-person speakers. And if you are on the Zoom and wish to comment on an item that is not on the agenda, please raise your hand at this time. I'm sorry. I think that we are going to take these public comments, but the special meeting that I was referring to earlier will not be on this agenda. It's on the consent calendar. Sorry. I have to vote to add it. Sure. Okay. I see. It's not on the. It will be on the agenda. So now would not be the time. That's right. So it will be on the agenda. So now is not the time because this is public comment on non agenda matters. Thank you, Claire. I was unclear what the question was. Okay. the five in- commenters are a Magdhadee Geith, Cynthia Papermaster, it, it, uh, it, um, R L, summer Brenner and Atlanta, our back. Okay if our five in person. Public commenters can come up to the front please. Just come up here to the side. Any order is fine. Any order is fine. Any order is fine. Just come on up and make your comment and feel free to adjust the mic so that we can hear you. One minute per person says it one minute for each of the 10 speakers. Good evening, Berkeley City Council. I'm here with a lot of my colleagues activists for peace and justice in the city of Berkeley and you see these red banners in front of you. They have the names of children who have been murdered by Israel and Gaza. This is just a small sample of the children ranging in age from zero infants to about seven years old. We just took a small sample wrote their names and sold them onto these red banners. And the reason we're showing these to you tonight is because we are making a plea to you to not stay silent during what is clearly a genocide going on that we're paying for with our tax dollars. The reason I've mentioned the tax dollars is that we. We, sorry, we don't want our money spent this way. We need that money here at home perhaps for housing education health care and all the other things thank you very much for letting me make a comment thank you for your comment to shade it. Good evening my name is Summer Burner and I'm going to see my time to Cynthia, Papermaster. Thank you. So I get another minute. Wonderful. I'm with Code Pink Women for Peace. We are one of the premier peace activist groups in the InWing Nation. We're feminist peace group and we are always working for peace. We don't take sides in these conflicts. We're not on the side of Hamas. And people accuse some of us activists who want peace as being anti-Semitic or on the side of Hamas. That's nothing could be farther than the truth. We simply want peace. We want the killing to stop. We want the starvation to stop. And it's getting worse. It's not stopping. So we really need the city council not to be silent on this. Those of us who I've lived in Berkeley almost 50 years and I need the council to say something. It doesn't have to be the piece of justice resolution that was passed in September. It can be one that's more if you're choosing more of your liking, but you cannot be silent in the face of genocide. That simply is not going to be okay with us. Thank you for taking my comment. Thank you. Hello, good evening. My name is Majdi D. Geith. I'm a Palestinian American Muslim and a business owner here in Berkeley. Me and my brothers worked hard to build our coffee roaster and specialty coffee shop. It was defaced four times between July and August of last year. and my friend Niggins business was defaced with fuck Islam. So before breaking my fast in probably 14 minutes, I just want to read the fatihah from the Quran because Fuck Islam. 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. We're on an hour back. I want you to be aware that Berkeley High is walking out tomorrow because the safety, supposed safety officers are harassing and brutalizing the students. So you need to know about this and I'd like to see the rest of my time to Sheila. Hi, my name is Sheila Jeevin and I'm a resident of district two and I've been a resident of Berkeley for 38 years. I have three kids. We have all gone through the Berkeley school districts since kindergarten. Tonight I'm here as a member of the Peace and Justice Commission. As you all know, the Commission passed a resolution last September, which was never heard and then unnecessarily ignored and then dramatically admittedly delayed because of staff and council. Our commission has been told by staff that this resolution will go to the rules and agenda committee on April 1 and then council on April 15th. I am here on behalf of a number of my fellow commissioners and droves of voting members of this community to thank you in advance for hearing and placing your vote on this item at council on April 15th. I am also thankful to Rex Okiya, the city clerk, and our chair, Pastor Dwayne, for ensuring a safe and peace and justice meeting last week after the fear of many of us commissioners had for safety. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It you for your comments. You eat. Um, eat tomorrow had to leave because of the late hour. Am I able to speak in his place? You see it at his time to me. Whatever the rules are. I'm sorry. I'm glad I asked. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. We can pull back. I think you could do. place tomorrow. Well, Cynthia already spoke. Phoebe Sorgan. Okay, come on. We got it. We got to move along folks. Thank you. Good evening. So, Ilana started to talk about what's happening. It would be really great if some council members were to check you in Berkeley high because what's's happening is they're complaining, there's been like three incidents where resource officers in conjunction with Berkeley police officers have roughed up students. There was an incident I had a teacher spoke right here this past week about how one of the students from BTEC was trying to access mental health services on the Berkeley High campus. He was attacked. He was physically, he was great traumatic handcuffing, all this kind of stuff. As a matter of fact, BPD also attacked a unhoused woman at Old City Hall. Bluehead accessed the bathroom at the city building on center street. When church came back to her 10, she was arrested. Six officers, six officers tacked her. I saw the citation. I can show it to you. It happened. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. So now going to the. Speakers on zoom. The first speaker is a rom James. A rom you should be able to unmute. So I just want to know, let you know that the Palo Alto City Council where I live, it's absolutely an Israeli-occupied city council. They've refused to discuss a ceasefire resolution. I'm asking you to show guts in Berkeley, where I went to school and agendas a resolution against the genocide that's going in Palestine. Do not invigorate our first amendment by refusing to do that. If you do that, you're playing into the hands of the Zionists and the Trump administration. Please, at least allow the conversation. No genocide in our name. I really appreciate you doing that, standing up for the civil liberties of all of us. No genocide in our name in Palestine. No genocide in our name in Palestine. I thank you very, very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comment and just for folks online that didn't hear earlier. I had said that we would be bringing this forward in a special meeting. So just know that this is coming to council. Other online comments? Yes. The next speaker is Eva. Eva, you should be allowed to talk. Hi there. Can you hear me? Yes. Thanks so much. I'm sorry on my bike to me back from the rain. I just want to let you know that I did publish an article a couple days ago about what happened with the assembly district 14 delegate voting and and some issues that that arose there. I'm a little concerned that this is being swept under the rug. I think there is a basis for civil rights complaint based not only on the location, which was certainly not neutral, but the convener. That article is at rincountyconfidential.substack.com. That's rincountyconfidential.substack.com. And I do hope that the council will take a look at the possibility of a resolution urging anyone doing elections in the city to choose purely secular sites because otherwise you you you create the possibility for lots of things. Thank you for your comments. Actually, that's it for online comments. Okay. Okay. Okay. There's a lot going on in the audience here. If folks could just make sure to turn off your phones. Try. If you're going to have a conversation, please take it outside. I just want to be respectful. I know there are folks here who are trying to hear public comment by employee unions. I think is going to be virtual. That's the next thing on our agenda is there's someone I'm sorry please please don't call out. Please, please don't call out. We've we've taken public comment. Okay. Yes. You want to do that? I took seven comments. I will take three more but I don't want anyone else to call out in this meeting. Okay. 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. Mark, are you looking up something? Just checking the rules of procedure. It's not direct. Thank you. It's discretionary. You don't have to ask the question. Mark, are you looking up? Just checking the rules of procedure. It's not direct. It's it's a. It's discretionary. You don't have to take extra speakers if you don't want to. I will take three more speakers, but I will ask that folks. Please don't call out. If you have a question, you're welcome to walk up and whisper to the to the city clerk over here. There's a for in person, um, speakers we have a Daniel Borgstrom, uh, Liz Berkeley, oh, Liz Berkeley artist, um, and Pete Fred. Okay, can those three people come up please? Yeah, go around this way. This. Come on folks. Come up in any order. Daniel Pete is anywhere. Okay. It you have one minute. Thank you city council. So we're my group is here tonight. Just to. Encourage the city council to adopt the adopt adopt the anti-Muslim hate emergency resolution. The City Council's refusal to address and denounce the ongoing genocide against Palestinians has emboldened all these hateful elements we've seen recently. Not going genocide in Palestine is the most compelling example of anti-Muslim hate in the world right now. If as the resolution states you are serious about anti-Muslim hate and Berkeley, in Berkeley and beyond, you must agendaize and adopt the cease fire in embargo, arms embargo resolution passed by the peace and justice commission last September before moving on to a performative measure. Otherwise, this is just a self-serving gesture meant to distract people from our unwillingness to address the single most important human rights issue of our time. After cleansing as a hate crime, since the so-called ceasefire in Gaza, over 40,000 people have been expelled from their homes in the West Bank. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Okay. Okay. My name is Daniel Bordstrom. I'm from that's for peace. I live here. I'm a Berkeley resident. I live with you here. And I want to say that I'm here to speak for 34 people who cannot be here tonight, cannot be here ever, hopefully they're here in spirit. They were crew members of the USS Liberty who were murdered by the Israeli Air Force and Navy. These attacks happened in June 1967. The attacks last about two hours. There's a bit of huge cover-up about this, our government. Did everything to cover this up? Pretend there was a mistake, an accident, it was not a mistake. It was a deliberate attack that lasted two hours by both the Air Force and the Navy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Our last public comments. I'm Liz and I'm seating my time to Marjorie. Thank you. Good evening Honour Mayor and City Council members. First, I do want to thank all the people who cared enough about this important issue to come out tonight to let you know that we are concerned about this issue of our wonderful Berkeley, our progressive Berkeley who has been known to take a stand all these years, you know, for peace and justice and even has a peace and justice commission and it's taken so long for you to get around to passing a ceasefire resolution, even a ceasefire resolution. And so we must, we must speed this along honorable mayor. They have cut off their electricity bill again and all the food and all these, all those children were represented by those bikes they're dying. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So City Clerk I believe that public comment from employees unions is coming in virtually so I just want to see if they've been identified. I see the person on the Zoom there. Thank you. Jocelyn from SCIU. Jocelyn, you should be able to unmute. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Great. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Jocelyn. I'm a city worker, a maternal child health worker, and I'm a member of SEIU 1021 the CSU PTR LA chapter. And I'm speaking on a position, you know, that's just been, been the position of my union, which represents 60,000 members about Palestine. We've taken a strong principled stance and we've been here using our union comment time every month, calling on the previous iteration of the council, this council. I just can't believe month after month after month after month, we're still here talking about this. And then to hear recently about the Islamophobic hate crimes that affected it really wasn't the first time. I mean, we know that physical therapy office, jaffa coffee roasters have been targeted multiple times repeated times. It's heartbreaking, but what really breaks my heart is that this, you can't ignore the content. multiple times repeated times. It's heartbreaking, but what really breaks my heart is that you can't ignore the context that this is happening in a vacuum where Berkeley, California of all places has failed to talk about a genocide. It's unacceptable. So I'm really, really hoping and praying that this will be a wake-up call for you all to try to get onto the right side of history belatedly as it is. And I do want to say speaking, I guess I'm just speaking for myself right now about the Jewish American. If you all make a proclamation about ceasefire and or if you make a proclamation about condemning these Islamophobic hate crimes, I as a Jewish American do not need to be patted on the head, do not need to be placated and told that you still like me by making those proclamations. I really urge you to just take a principled stance as my union has done and tell it like it is. And that's been the position of SEIU 1021, and it will continue to be. I'm really looking forward Mayor Ishii to thank you for your invite to meet with you along with our political director of our local representing 60,000 people to meet with you, really looking forward to it and all the rest of the council members. When I'm not going to say if when you choose to have the moral courage to take a principled stance on this, we will support you. And so give me a call and I'm happy to meet with any of you and I'll bring our political director along. We're here for the long haul. I also just want to speak briefly on item 18 and the other items addressing affordable housing You know our union has always supported Everything in this room that Berkeley has been working on and as we all know Rent in Berkeley are are unaffordable for most city workers, for teachers, for working-class people. These rents are already unaffordable, and so I really, really strongly urge you to do anything that you can to protect workers like me and all the other city workers by supporting item 18. That's it for me tonight. Thank you all so much. I guess I should have mentioned the co-ordinator for our chapter. And yeah, thank you for your time. I look forward to all of you doing the right thing. Thank you. All right, take care. Thank you for your comments. Are there other employee unions here in person or online? No, okay. And I know our city auditor doesn't have comments this evening, so I will move us on to the consent calendar. There are a couple things here I want to say before we get into that. First that in consultation with Council Member Tragum in his office, we're withdrawing item 15 from today's agenda, due to a conflict of interest. So the other thing is that potential conflict. Okay, I'm sorry, potential conflict of interest. Thank you, Council Member. And there's also a supplemental agenda material that's being brought as well. And so Mr. City Manager, if you could speak to this, please. Thank you Madam Mayor. Each of you should have a copy of this supplemental materials that I'm submitting and requesting your authorization for which requires the two thirds majority to have included in the packet and it's basically just a clarification on item number six indicating that the three items that were in public solicitation for plan checking services billboard relocation agreement and generator maintenance services are all encompassed within one attachment. It kind of looks like there's three, but there's really only one that describes each of them briefly. So I just want to make that clarification be in this. Thank you very much. And so I believe we need to actually vote on this to put it onto the agenda to add it, the supplemental materials. There are motion. I move approval. Second. Yep. Oh, okay. Motion from Councilmember Blackbe and a second from Councilmember Traykab. And since we have someone online, we need to take the role, please. Okay, to accept the supplemental material, Councilmember Kessler-Wonney. Yeah. I've got the supplemental. Oh, I'm sorry, didn't hear you call my name, yes. Taplin. Bartlett? Yes. Tritum? I. Okie? Yes. Blackbeat. Yes. Luna Parra. Yes. Humbert. Yes. Ann. Mayor Ishi. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. We will now take public comment on consent calendar and information items only. Oh. Okay. There's also adding Councilmember Tregoob's item to the agenda. I'm sorry. Can you say that again? So Councilmember Tregoob's urgency item. Oh, thank you. Yes. There's also an emergency item, which I don't actually have in front of me um our emergency we also need to vote to put this on as well. I I move the inclusion of the urgency item to the agenda as well. Do we need this is done. Yes, yes, now we're referring to the urgency resolution. Introduced by councilmember Tregg of condemning the recent incident along with all the right. I moved that we add origin to item. Contamining the recent incident along with Contamining a recent incident along with all acts of Islamophobia and Barclay and reaffirming and unwavering support for the Muslim community and Barclay and beyond to the agenda. Mr. City Clerk, can we just clarify because we don't have the physical in front of us. I just want to make sure that we're doing this correctly. Yes, so this item was submitted early enough where it was published in supplemental communications packet. Number one, it's also posted on the website with the agenda for tonight. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, and so there's a second. Yes, Councilmember Kessler, why don't you stick in? Comments before. Okay, all right, so we should roll. to add the item to comments before. Okay, all right. So we should roll to add the item to the agenda. Yes, thank you. For Kessah Wanies. Yes. Kaplan. Yes, Bartlett. Yes, Traygum. Aye. Okay. Yes. Blackaby. Yes, Luna Parra. Yes. Humbert. Yes, and Mayor Ishi. Yes. Yes. carries items added to the agenda. Okay. Motion carries items added to the agenda. Okay. So, all right. Now we will be taking public comment on consent calendar and information items only. Thank you so much. So right there. All right. Go ahead, Mike. I'm in Marga Schuller. I'm here as a member of 350 Bay Area, the Berkeley hub. And I'd like to comment on consent item 16, the first year free Phil empty storefronts. Even though you just met significant time reducing the referral list, I agree and commend your recommendation to send it for referral for the discussion. And with the understanding that you won't wait too long, that residents deserve more local storefronts in the city can use additional sales tax. The alternative is to local services, is to drive more, have more delivery trucks, tearing up our infrastructure. And it reduces the opportunities residents have to bike or walk to local services. And as we continue to experience breaking temperature records, we must do all we can to mitigate local emissions, especially those associated with transportation. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Good evening. My name is Jonathan Mincer. I'm on it to serve as the Senior Director of Government Affairs at JCRC Bay Area, the largest collective voice of Bay Area Jews representing hundreds of Berkeley residents. Our member organizations include Concreation Beth Allen, the Tivo Shalom and Beth Jacob. Today I'm here to ask the council to support the urgent item and to continue showing compassion and principle leadership by keeping our community united as outside and tagging to seek to divide us against each other and speaking against hate is the right thing to do. Last week an awful islamophobic incident occurred in district four and it must be condemned. Sadly this incident is yet another example of rising hate crimes occurring in the state, which according to the most recent attorney general report, have also targeted groups including the Black, Jewish, Asian, and LGBTQ communities among others. In the pace of rising hate, JCR also believes the role of local elected leaders to stick to that incidents foster inclusion, engage in intercommunity education, and assure we don't perpetuate the divisiveness that outside political actors seek. and hit Berkeley as a record of this including United Against Hate Week, Holocaust Education and the collaboration with law enforcement. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay folks, please be polite to our speakers. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kit Saginor and I'm the chair of the Open Government Commission and I'm here to speak on item before the updated commissioners and board members manual. Not perhaps an exciting document but one that does make a difference in how commissions and boards operate. And I mostly want to thank the city clerk's office for entertaining a variety of recommendations that came from the commission including that change to the title so that it's clear that it's board members and not just commissioners. And there, of course, there are some other things that we would like to be done that may be a little more substantial down the line. But this is a very important document and the commissions are important and do some really wonderful work. And we hope to see a stronger support in some in many ways for the work of the commissions and boards that's to benefit the city of Berkeley. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Kate. Go ahead. Hi, hello commissioners. Council people. My name is Merrill and I'm a former teacher. I live in D1 and I'm also a Berkeley Unified School District volunteer. So I'm here to speak about the Berkeley Unified School District housing city preferences overlay. And I request that this item be moved to action because it's really important that everyone is very clear and there is transparency in the leasing practices for this item. I have corresponded with city officials who have given us very good information. However, there are some different perspectives about what it means, what this overlay will mean for the actual leasing practices at the adult school site. We believe that it is really important to have built and installed in the streets. I'm sorry. Your time is up. Thank you so much, but your time is up. I'm really strict about time. I want to be super consistent so we can be respectful for everyone. Thank you. Appreciate your comments. Thank you. OK. All right. You've been given a minute. So anyway, I was just clarifying that it would be good for the city council. Everybody among us to be very clear how what's called Berkeley Unified School District affordable housing will be least. And it does seem to be that, you know, there will be the ability for, for BUSD employees to be there, but not totally. So it would be good to discuss it. And finally, I wanted to also agree with Margot Schuller. And they're excited to see item 16 and hope that it comes back soon because our neighborhoods need vitality and economic development. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Madam Mayor City Council, I will see one minute to Nagimo-sat. Hello, my name is Eva Diethan. I received one minute to Nagimo-sat. Okay. Okay. A third minute. So that makes four. Thank you. Yes. Dear council and Mayor Ishi, I stand before you on the eve of the take down of free speech and other liberal democratic institutions in this country, which has already begun on our college campuses. Over the weekend, the Palestinian activist student, Columbia, I agree, card holder, was detained pending deportation by the Department of Homeland Security for his political speech. DHS is also working with Canary Mission, an anonymous doxingook, for wanting to stand against hate in Islamophobia. that your resolution as written does little to address the root causes of this issue. Let me draw you a clearer picture. The acts of targeted vandalism at my clinic, which started last spring and summer, resulted in me coming before this body in July and sounding me alarm and begging for due attention by the council, by the then council, due to these acts of hate, my comments were largely ignored by both Mayor Eric Gein and the majority of council at that time, say the few like council member Luna Pada. It is only now after television cameras came to town to broadcast to the world this ugly and embarrassing side of Berkeley that you are stirred to take action. Such a timeline casts a shadow on the spirit of your intentions. There has been a concerted effort throughout Berkeley to silence the voices of those who object to genocide and ethnic cleansing, ongoing both in Gaza and the West Bank today. And it is not only Muslim-owned businesses. I recently learned that a poster for peace in Gaza was torn up outside of Methodist Church. I've also spoken with other business owners who told me they wanted to put up such posters in their businesses, but are afraid of being victimized like our clinic has. Let's call these hate crimes what they are. Political violence intended to intimidate Americans from exercising their freedom of speech. Her failure to pass a ceasefire resolution at the time when it was crucial to stand on the right side of history has emboldened those who wish to silence our American right to freely express our opinions. It has empowered a fringe group of pro-war zealots backed by a powerful lobby groups who want to isolate and weaponize their oppression and justify the banality of evil. Normalizing hate and the erasure of an entire group of people. If you truly want to write a resolution against hate and Islamophobia and protect your constituents against political violence, then you must be straightforward and clear and name the inhumanity, which is being done with impunity today in Palestine. A majority Muslim state literally going through an ethnic cleansing. We have seen how during the Weimar period in Germany, acts of violence against Jews were normalized. Jewish people were dehumanized, and the world slipped into accepting their ethnic cleansing in genocide as the third right did so. And it did not stop there. Ethnic minorities such as the Roma people, political dissonance, communists, and even those with disabilities were targets. Groups not unlike Canary Mission encourage citizens to deform, inform on, and denounce their neighbors and friends. Weat starts with one group, but once normalized quickly extends to others. All those who stood by and did nothing were complicit in those acts. I am here fully ready to back this proposal, but only if it gives meaning to its lofty title and makes good on its claim to reaffirm Berkeley's unwavering support for the Muslim community and be on. So I'm going to finish her statement because it says unwavering support for the Muslim community and Berkeley and beyond. So please add the following provisions to your resolution so that it reflects Berkeley's opposition to the Muslim hate and Islamophobia that is festering in our country and threatening to undermine the Republic and our very democracy. Please add this amendment. Whereas US policy towards the Palestinian people has enabled dehumanization, violence, ethnic cleansing, starvation, and genocide, and supporters of these hateful practices have been emboldened, harass, and intimidate those who speak out against these policies in our community in Berkeley. Therefore, be it resolve that our city supports the rights of Muslims around the world to be free from ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide, and we declare our support for a permanent ceasefire, arms embargo, and an end to the occupation of Palestine. Thank you. Thank you both for your comments. My name is Tim O'Brien. Resident Berkeley, but I'm here on behalf of Iman Sundyata of the lighthouse mosque who is not able to make it. He wanted to come but he had a previous engagement. He's very concerned about the timing of this resolution without having passed a ceasefire resolution. I will read his statement. As someone who grew up in the city of Berkeley, I've always felt that it's a sense of pride that I came from a city that usually was on the forefront of so much of the fight against oppression and for equal rights in the free speech movement. However, now I look at a city that has not joined the call of so many other cities to recognize the humanity of the Muslims who are being scapegoated and vilified, whether they be in Gaza or in Iran, by politicians as they seek out votes by instigating cultural division in America. With the total disregard for the humanity of her marginalized Muslim citizens that have endured a year plus of sorrow, I really wish that the city of Berkeley could have the courage to stand up for all our citizens. I'm sorry, your time is up, Tim. Thank you for the comment. Okay. I really wish that the city of Berkeley could have the courage to stand up for all of our citizens, whether they're Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Rastafari, Christian, Buddhist, Europa, Agnostic, or Atheist, and declare that we see the suffering and understand the pain of its Muslim residents. Thank you. Thank you. Please. I received my minute to Simon Shamjee. Good evening, councilmembers. My name is Simon Shamjee and I'm a long time resident of Berkeley who has worked in the criminal legal system for over 30 years. I am also Muslim and an immigrant of South Asian descent from Tanzania. All three of my children went through the Berkeley Unified School District. My husband and I moved to Berkeley about 25 years ago to raise our family here because of the sense of inclusivity and commitment to social and racial justice associated with Berkeley. But now there is a palpable aura of repression in the city as a small minority and its lobby groups exert an outsized influence over all city policy. And we are seeing this influence reverberate across the country, a frightening reality being unleashed on people of conscience, especially students for speaking up for their values. I am disappointed in this council. I'm disappointed that this council has not found its way to denounce genocide. That is not the Berkeley. I came to raise my children and I will not support a council that does not stand against all hate, both in Berkeley and beyond. The time for you to act is now and not hide behind calls for further discussions and meetings which preserves the status quo. I believe that these recent hate crimes against Muslim-owned businesses have come out of your refusal to take a stance for peace and justice for the Muslim community around the world, and your inaction has emboldened these forces of hate. If you're sincere about supporting the Muslim community and do not insult us by adopting this performative and politically expedient measure before first, agendizing and passing the more important ceasefire and arms embargo resolution put forth by the peace and justice commission last September. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, thanks Igor for the urgent item. And please go further with it. Local anti-Muslim hate crimes didn't happen in a vacuum, but are directly related to activism for Palestine. And also to your failure to have passed a ceasefire resolution, which in bolden, which failure in bolden to those who wish to silence our free speech, empowering for war extreme zealots. The way that we end hate is by locking arms across differences together. together to insist that freedom and safety is for all of us including Palestinians and their supporters, no exceptions. Demolishing homes funded by our taxes. That's a hate crime. Destroying Gaza hospitals, blowing up water treatment facilities hate crimes by our taxes. It must stop. Thank you for your comment. Good evening everybody. I'll be putting this on 24 years ago. In other words, I've been a Muslim for 24 years. I believe in Allah. I believe in Muhammad's he's feel upon him. I believe in the afterlife. And I believe everything that we do or don't do in our current life is gonna be for one way or another in the afterlife. So I would urge you when you have a chance to vote for a ceasefire or a resolution to vote as if your life depends on it because at some point either here or in the hereafter, it will. Thank you. Good evening board members. I'm here to speak on item 16, the Phil empty start front act. What I'm seeing in my neighborhood in CD one is business after business disappear, close and leave an empty hole. So I'm very concerned to see that the land use housing and economic development policy committee, for some reason, which is not made clear to me and not in your minutes, has decided that this Phil empty storefronts act, which I don't know if that's the best thing ever, but at least it's some indication that the city has some concern about the growing of businesses and the suffering of small businesses in the city. So I don't understand why this is being pulled, why this is not being acted on, and as other people have said, I really would like to know that this council cares about the small businesses that are struggling the latest one of my neighborhood is Berkeley lighting on some Pablo, which may be disappearing soon. So this is troubling to see council members deciding to pull something for some reason and then not. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Hello, my name is Gabriella and I'm here to say words, words are pretty, words are easy. Why are my community, Muslim community members that have just been targeted by hate taking this opportunity to talk about other Muslim, hate, other hate, just period because they, people in Palestine, people anywhere, an extension of us, we care about these people. And it is beautiful to say we stand against hate. We do this without action, without stopping dismantling the issues that allow for a genocide to continue, for speaking against divestment or not calling to stop the genocide safety aspects of resolution and the council not having passed one. It doesn't only affect our community members and businesses that have been vandalized with hate crimes. On Sunday, February 23rd, I was outside of Zellerbach Hall on UC Berkeley campus right by city property bank craft avenue. And I watched Israeli men with Israeli flags harassing and intimidating Americans who are exercising their free speech rights. I was appalled that any foreigners with foreign flags would be allowed to do that. And then I thought about the accounts of the attacks on peaceful groups at UCLA by Israelis, including with steel pipes. Then I thought about the attacks on students at Columbia University by his rallies with a chemical weapon that Israelis use against Palestinians called Skunk spray. And then I realized it's just a matter of time perhaps. We know these folks are here now. There have already been a harassing citizens in Berkeley. Will it lead to more violence? So that's why I'd like to draw your attention to the safety aspects. And I really feel people are emboldened. And I think the city needs to step up and protect us for goodness' sakes. They're people who are very violent and they really mean business. Damaging businesses is one thing. Getting up in people's faces who are expressing themselves is another. And the next step we fear is violence. There were people there who are legal observers. They told me that these people they'd seen them before and they were Israeli operatives. So we know they're here. So please take steps to protect us from that violence and our students on UC Berkeley campus. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I think we have a few more in person and then then I think we might have some online. Okay, go ahead. Good evening. I'm here to speak on item 14. My name is Courtney Powell, and I'm the policy manager at Resources for Community Development, or RCD, as we're known in the field, we're a Berkeley-based, affordable, non-profit housing developer. And we're here to speak and support of this item today. As we all know, preserving and protecting affordable homes is a key strategy towards ending homelessness and improving housing stability for low-income households in Berkeley. It's really important that the city is able to maintain its existing supply of affordable housing, which is again, like in very short supply compared to the need in the community to maintain that as safe and modern homes over a long life span. And the transfer tax exempt and study proposed item 14 would facilitate nonprofit operators in doing just that in keeping affordable homes affordable for the long term. So I ask for your support for this item tonight. Thanks. Thank you. Now some members, we used to chant the words without actions turn to lies. And although commissioning council member Trigger, I appreciate your your your gesture, but I think that unfortunately, it will become a hollow gesture. If we don't link that gesture to the cause of the problem, unfortunately, the silence of this council and the side, and the US policy towards the Palestinian people is what has enabled the genocide, is what enables the destruction of that coach and those people. And it is our silence that enables US policy. We have to separate ourselves from that. We have to distinguish our city from Trump. We have at the thought of 5,000 Palestinians a day being forcibly relocated with the consent and the urging of our government. We have to separate from that. So please add the resolution. The event, Mickey, your comment time is over. I'm going to go to the council. Good morning, our good evening, council. My name is Audrey Burn and I am a law student at UC Berkeley. I want to support the resolution condemning anti-Muslim hate in our community. And I also want to urge this council to support resolution against genocide, supporting a ceasefire. I think it's clear from everybody who's spoken tonight that as the leaders of our community, as the people who represent us and represent our values, it's clear what the people of Berkeley want and what our values are and I'm not sure what else we need in order to pass the resolution is genocide and against all the hate that's been going on against Muslim people in our community. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Well, Councillor Tregub's resolution is well meaning. Let's all be honest. There's other others have said it's no coincidence that Jafar coffee and Berkeley community physical therapy, places that have been outspoken for the plight of the Palestinian people, are the businesses that have been most vandalized and most targeted for hate crimes. The genocide is the root of the problem. So I would urge you to add the amendment that Oana our Bach and Nguyen proposed to this anti-hate resolution. They are not outside antagonists. The JCRC is. Yes, have JCFC should not be in this meeting ever. And you guys should not be listening to Zionist. And you should add those whereas class. And therefore be resolved to the amendment. And we have a council member that goes to the ignore duration of 47, even though he stated that he didn't get to go in because it was canceled. I don't know if I believe that to be true, but the fact that you went to DC for it to begin with is a problem. And he's a racist, fascist, freaking pig that doesn't give a crap about any of us wants to, you know, get rid of black people, anything black, anything, you know, Palestinian doesn't support humanity. It's just appalling. And you all have to pass this resolution immediately. Thank you for your comments. 1000 family. Oh, Jennifer. I've been. Your time is up. Hey, stop do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if you're going to be I'm going to give context to everything that's been said. So I was born in San Francisco, raised in American Canyon, Napa Valley. I went to school in Berkeley, but I've been to the West Bank part of Palestine, also known as Judea, maybe 40 times. I've lived there from 1997 to 2000 between the Muslim quarter of the old city of Jerusalem and occupied Hebron, H2 in the West Bank. I just want to give 30 seconds to my cousin Rod. He's 16 years old. Him and my three other cousins through rocks at Israeli occupation forces, also known as IDF. And he's been in jail for 63 days. And I just found out four days ago that he's going to do a year in jail for throwing a rock at some Israeli Jeep in his village, our village. We don't have due process. We're not allowed the right to bear arms like the police officers carrying firearms, even though we have that here as a second amendment. There's no due process. There's no city council. There's no kangaroo court. Thank you. Your time goes up. You don't have rights. So thank you. Okay, I see, I see. Just give me 30 seconds. So basically what I'm describing in the West Bank. You have three million Palestinian Muslims and Christians. This includes the famous city of Bethlehem where Jesus was born. whether he was Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Abrahamic. I just want to say that this two-tiered legal system is illegal, it's unhumane. It's so crazy, I mean, it speaks Jim Crow, it speaks South Africa, and you guys can't pass a little ceasefire resolution. I see LGBTQ flags, I see Black Lives Matter flags, land acknowledgments with the US and California flag. It's just people who are laughing at you guys and from business owner to fellow Berkeley resident to Cal alumni. I have no agenda. There's no object. I just ask you, especially people who have put forward this resolution or someone's office who did a piece on our java coffee roasters and never published it. I'm not going to say your name in which district you're from. Just go to Palestine. Go see it for all the lies. If I'm lying, come look me in the eyes and then you're lying, Mejdi. I'm not lying. We're not lying. I guess I have 25 seconds that weren't left by the person I see in my minute too. So first on the commissioners manual, I'm hoping that this is just the first phase. There needs to be additional revisions to have consistency between commissions. Second on the BUSD preferences in the city BUSD workforce housing. The report doesn't explain how this applies with the BUSD performance framework. And I'm hoping that homeless families within BUSD, within the schools are being addressed, and that also undocumented undocumented immigrants. I think your time is up. 25. I know you said you had 25 seconds left. So thank you. Okay, I know councilmember, oh wait, sorry, are there online? Yes. Okay. Eight speakers. I'm sorry. And just for folks that are online, this is for public common consent calendar and information items only. Okay. First is a speaker with a phone number ending in 538. I'm sorry. Mark, could you just let me know how many folks are there? Nine. Thank you. Currently. I just want to do a quick check with Council to see. Sorry, before you go, how are folks feeling? Do we need to take a break or? I don't think the counter needs a break. OK. All right, well, we're going to keep moving on. I just want to give folks an opportunity because we've been sitting for a long time. I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, okay, I will talk about this. So I'm up here and about the community physical security attack. What we have, that's what we see of just the other game and city, basically city council, we do this monster called Trump. The firing, the firing, hundreds of thousands, Good on employees, these people have mortgages, people have bones, have kids, have education, to submit money on, this is unreal. This I again, I curse you, I curse you for watching it into the country, it is destroying the country, it is a mall for Russia, it is a puppet for Britain, You are awful beable. You also caused me millions of dollars of damage for not acting up. You have been burned dead for the last couple of years. That is sorry. You shamed my own city. I mean, about the 62 years. I never have seen it. I love the new mayor. She's a beautiful lady, physically and mentally and everything else. But again, you shame not only Berkeley. You shame my own university, you see Berkeley. I'm sorry, your time is up. Okay, next is Sophia DeWitt. Good evening, council members. I remember in Sophia DeW David, speaking on behalf of the Space Housing Organizations and speaking in favor of item 14 on the consent agenda, which would begin a study of a possible transfer tax exemption for 100% affordable properties that would make it easier for those affordable developers to keep existing affordable properties in the city of Berkeley affordable by reducing costs when they are making our renovations, upgrades or needed repairs. Thanks so much. Thank you. Okay. Next is our director. Please accountability. Hansel Aguilar. Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Hansel Aguilar. And that's the director of police accountability for the city of Brooklyn, the secretary for policeability Board. I'm calling in regarding consent item number three to police accountability board appointment. First, I'd like to express my gratitude from Mr. Randy Wells for agreeing to take on the important challenge on serving on the Police Accountability Board. This commitment is vital to supporting the Board's essential work in the community at large. Second, I'd like to thank the Council for a point in you, a member to the police accountability board. This is important in stepping in, in showing that the board of a field is crucial role in our community. However, I'd like to respectfully raise some concerns regarding the board's current composition. While the staff report indicates that there will only be one vacancy remaining, the the current count is five members this appointment will bring the board to six members still short of its full capacity of nine these vacancies caused by turnover on the board Present significant challenges for the board in our office to effectively carry out the work Additionally, I understand that some new board members some new council members have not reappointed. The board members chosen by the predecessors. I'm yielded from someone in the audience to give you another minute. Oh, solely. Sorry, continue on. And so you have another minute. Okay, sorry. Additionally, I understand that some new council members have not reappointed. The board members chosen by the predecessors should this, those council members choose to appoint new individuals, this could potentially to further turn over on these stabilization. The stability on this board is essential for efficiency and continuity. So I respectfully urge the council to consider prioritizing fillings vacancies as soon as possible. For those council members who may not be planning to appoint new individuals, I encourage the reappointment of existing board members whose experience and knowledge are invaluable to the board's function. Thank you for your attention and commitment to supporting the work of the board in office. Thank you. Thanks for your comment. Next is Rabbi Kat Zavis. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Thank you so much. My name is Rabbi Kat Zavis. I implore you to adopt the amendment offered by Nagin and Ilana. My Jewish tradition teaches that we must love and care for the stranger and the other. The way to overcome hate is through love. Love of this kind isn't easy or soft. It isn't a home art card. This is a fearless love. A love that requires us to name what is, namely that the underlying cause of hatred is the genocide in Gaza and apartheid in Palestine. Unless and until we take a stand against this violence, hate will only grow against both Muslims and Jews. This is perhaps not easy for you as politicians, but as community leaders, you must take a stand. The community has been begging you for more leadership. It is the only path against hate and towards love. Thank you very much. say a comment. Okay. Next is Maddie Teeblum. Hi, my name is Maddie Teeblum. I'm Israeli. I'm an American. I'm the father of three. My husband of one here in Berkeley. I salute you for taking a stance against the hate. I would like to encourage you to take a stance against all forms of hate, including the hate and the literal that you see right here in front of you in this room against me and my heritage and my country of Israel. Anti-Israel and anti-Zionism hate has been proliferating in the boardroom in front of you, hate crimes in front of you in that very room. And that is something that you need to address. Hades cannot be stopped with other hate. It has to stop with love. And I urge you to take the step not towards the resolution against the system for a ceasefire but for a resolution for peace. We should be aspiring for peace and do not for compromises. Thank you so much for your comment. Next is Aram James. Okay, so my true name is Avram Finkelstein and as a Jewish man, I can tell you that the only way that anti-Semitism will end and not continue to expand is for us to say no to Zionism, for us to say no to the apartheid state of Israel, for us to say no to our own country's funding of this vile genocide, the people in the West Bank are having their homes destroyed. Of course, Jews cannot feel safe in this country when we don't take a stand. And we have to all stand together, including that gentleman that says he's Israeli. If he cares about peace, then you must say, though, to the country of Israel that in my estimation, must be eliminated. A one-state solution is the only way to go eliminate the state of Israel. Now, let's then begin to live side-by-side side one vote in a true democracy. Why are Israeli Zionists so afraid of the democracy? Why do they not want to apply? Next speaker is Kelly Hammergren. Kelly, thank you. Okay, thank you. And I want to thank council members Chaplin and Luna Para for co-authoring with council member Tricab the urgency item and I also thank all the public for their comments and support. I want to thank you for the updated commissioners manual and I really want to ask who do I contact when the minutes are not posted because the commissions are not posting the minutes until the next month. So I hope that that will be resolved with the new manual. And as for number 16 for empty storefronts, we're in a heap of trouble. And I'm afraid that the empty storefronts is only going to get worse with what's happening nationally and all the people who are losing their jobs. So those are my comments. Thank you very much. Thank you. And you would contact the secretary of the commission to get those minutes. Sorry, just to check. Are we at five comments left? Or I've lost track two. Two more. Thank you. Next is Deep Mar Lawrence. Hi. On our members of the Council and Mayor, I'd like to speak on item 10 on the Council Calendar that BUSD workforce housing. I'm a D1 residential and business neighbor of the side, I served on the design advisory committee for this project. I'm also a parent of a BUSD student. The proposed integration of the City and BUSD preference list leaves many questions open. Will this be a Trojan horse that will hollow out the promise of BUSD workforce housing? Is there a clear and unambiguous first-ride or refusal for BUSD employees, both for the initial occupancy and future openings. BUSD has given up scarce school land for this project, yet there was no adequate outreach and opportunity for public discourse. Therefore, I'd ask you to oppose this of the constant calendar and allow for more public information and discussion about that. If I have a few seconds left also on item 16. I'm sorry, I was actually up. Thank you for your comment. Next is Maria Sol? Yes. Thank you. And especially you met a mayor because you. Yes. Thank you. And especially you, Madam Mayor, because you really have changed the tone and the decorum of our meetings. We cannot achieve any of these lofty, peaceful possibilities if we don't behave peacefully and respectfully and listen to one another. And you set the space for us to do that. And I can't thank you enough. This is I keep stressing. We are all human. We all are concerned. And some of us are really terrified. And therefore many of us are angry but then if we start to fight again we'll never achieve what we're looking for so please please receive my appreciation for all the people that are here that are trying to come together which is what we must do in order to achieve this hardening. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Sorry, no more speakers on zoom. Thank you. I will now take comments. I know councilmember Humbert has had had his hand up for quite a while. So I'm going to start there. Okay. Thank you Madam Mayor. And we missed the opportunity for me to read a statement about polyarm strong in connection with our adjournment in in her memory. And so I'd like to start out my comments on the consent calendar with that statement. I'm really honored to serve as one of Pauli's successors as council member for D8. It may seem strange, but I think a good place to start with our remembrance for Polly Armstrong is her defense of Tinky Winky. Yes, the Tinky Winky, the Teletubby, the one that walked around with a purple suit on and a purse. I actually didn't think about that until this week that one of the national issues that council member Armstrong touched on during her tenure on council was pushing back against Jerry Falwell's absurd and bigoted vendetta against an innocent children's TV character. And Paulie brought this fighting spirit and positivity to City Council and everything she did in life. And she's a wonderful example to all of us as we face these new and rising threats of intolerance and irrationality. As District 8's Council member from 94 to 2002, Polly was progressive but pragmatic. I'd like to feel like that's part of D H's culture and I'd like to continue that approach. But Polly was hardly just about political gestures. As council member, she was instrumental in helping D8 continue its recovery from the 1991 firestorm and she helped revitalize downtown. She was a champion for the downtown Berkeley Arts District, and as head of later of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, she turned the organization around and helped to greatly strengthen our business community. She excelled at getting down to brass tacks and working across ideological divides, and I hope this is the energy that stays with us as we reflect on her life and achievements. I first met Paulie in 1999. After our wheelchair-bound neighbor, Sharon Spencer died by traffic violence crossing Ashby at Bigmont, which was then without any safety enhancements whatsoever. She joined with us in a protest that literally shut down the intersection for a half hour. Her courage inspired me to work to improve pedestrian safety, a mission in which I'm still engaged and thank Paulie for that. I want to extend my condolences to Paulie's family. Thank you to John Armstrong, Paulie's husband, her daughters Amy and Amanda, her sister Carol, her nephew's Robert and Michael, and her granddaughters Lucy Margaret, Susanna, and Annie for being so generous in sharing Paulie with us. She gave us, Paulie gave much to our community. We're indebted to her and to you, her family for the time, energy and light she gave to all of us. I want to end with a quote from Poly when she was interviewed about the Tinky Winky episode. When you see big, big a tree and self-righteousness out there, you really need to stand up to it, even when it's absurd. I hope we can all live by those wise words and are passionate, hard-nosed, but always amiable example. Policy, poly your legacy lives on through your family, and all of the wonderful things you did for your community here in Berkeley. You're irreplaceable and you are greatly missed. Thank you. That's my statement about Polly and I could go on and make comments on the rest of the consent calendar or I could let somebody else have a turn and do that later. What do you think? I think you should finish your comments and thank you very much for the very touching statement about Polly. Thank you, Madam Mayor. On the consent calendar, I wanna say just how strongly I support the measure brought by Council Member, a treegobb, along with Council Members Luna Parra and Taplin condemning their horrible racist anti-Muslim incident visited upon our community member, Nguyen Moseiyeh. I will be voting to keep that on the content calendar and voting for it. As to item number three, my appointment to the police accountability board, I've appointed I think a very strong candidate to succeed our former d8 appointing to be council member Blackaby. So I really want to welcome my new appointee Randy Wells to the PAB. You have my gratitude for taking on this important work. Let's see. And then I would like to be marked as. Of staining. On item 15. Item 15's been withdrawn from the. Oh, it's been withdrawn. Okay, thank you. And finally, I wanted to confirm that with respect to item 16, it's on consent calendar correct, Mr. Clerk, to take no action. Yes, I was before we voted, I was just going to clarify, but I'll do it now that on items 14 and 16, we are adopting the policy committee recommendation. that would be the standard procedure, but if there's any difference to that standard procedure, if a council member wants to note that, but that's what we would be doing. We would be adopting the policy committee recommendation on 14 and 16. Thank you very much. That's all I have. Thank you. Council Member O'Keefe is next. I'll say one. I'll say one. Okay. Okay. Then oh my gosh this this thing is all right. Well I've got Council Member Traygub, Taplin. So I don't know who was first. Council Member Traygob then, thank you. So we're going to go Council Member Traygob, Taplin, and then I think it's Lunapara Blackaby, okay. Thank you. Thank you so much Madam Mayor. I would like to thank the Council and my fellow Council members, Bartlett and O'Keefe for co-sponsoring my referral to the City Manager to make a recommendation for further council action, which would be a transfer tax exemption for 100% affordable housing projects. I would like to thank my colleagues for considering supporting this on the consent calendar. And I would like to thank members of the nonprofit affordable housing community and land trusts who have written in support of this item or shown up today. In particular, Courtney Powell, who worked with us long hours to make sure that a highly technical item was explained sufficiently to hopefully earn the council's unanimous support. This is one of those examples of well intentioned policy, which I was involved in crafting language for metrapie and helping pass metrapie and now measure W, which supports homelessness services. Unfortunately, there was an issue that we did not anticipate when the item was crafted around the requirement for nonprofit entities that do 100% affordable housing. And And we have we have to be able to exist housing that they have to pay this as well, even though the intent here is to really maximize the amount of affordable housing. sustainable, habitable, affordable housing that's available. So this item is here as a, the first step towards a study by the city manager to see if we can streamline this because it, the transfer tax was never intended to employ a non-profit affordable housing developers. And then I would, on the urgency item, this month marks Ramadan, the holiest month of the year, in the transition of our Muslim neighbors in France. Two Sundays ago, as I was leaving an iftar, breaking the fast ceremony to which I was invited, I learned that a small business in my district was vandalized with hateful words cloud on its window. The following morning, I joined my co-authors, Council members Luna Power and Taplan, inviting the resolution that we are presenting today. Many in our community have sadly experienced an alarming rise in hate-fueled attacks and crimes. An insult to one is an injury to all. Today it is important to call this particular anti-Muslim hate crime in all acts of Islamophobia out for what they are, unacceptable, hateful acts, and condemn them in no uncertain forms. Hate and division are not Berkeley values, period. To all of my neighbors who have experienced Islamophobia, please know that it does not speak for our community and that we are enveloping you in light, love, and friendship today and every day. To all those who observe, I wish you a Ramadan mobabak. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Tapley. Thank you. I move adoption of the consent calendar. Second. Thank you. We should be of other comments. So I just, Council Member Dunaparra. Thank you. We should be of other comments. So I just can't remember the NAPARA. Thank you. I wanted to talk a little bit about the hate crime that occurred the other day. Because, you know, primarily I was saddened and angered on behalf of the victim of this hate crime and those in the community who feel harmed or harmed by this Lomaphobic Act, but I was also ashamed because I know that I sit on a body that has not done all that it can do to push back against the rising anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate in Berkeley. For over 17 months, we as a body have taken zero action symbolic or material to oppose the genocide, ethnic cleansing and occupation in Gaza and throughout Palestine. For a long time, the reason given not passing a resolution condemning this was because it would divide our community, but here we are not having done anything with the divided community and a spike in hate crimes. This particular business has been vandalized three times previously. These heinous acts specifically involved defacing pro-peace and pro-cease fire signs, including the desecration of a drawing of a Palestinian baby calling for a ceasefire. I believe that our failure to condemn the murder of thousands of Palestinian children emboldened them to deface a drawing of one. I believe that passing a resolution condemning atrocities and Gaza would help heal our community, bring people together and send the rising pride of hate and Berkeley. I know the Peace and Justice Commission has passed a resolution that will be coming to agenda in real soon. I'm supporting this urgent resolution before us today because I agree with every word. And I also know that these words alone are insufficient. Only action and a Gaza resolution will truly bring our community together and help end this growing anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hate in Berkeley. I hope this body will put our money where our mouths are and commit to the words about the responsibility of public officials that were endorsing tonight by passing a Gaza resolution. Thank you. Sorry, did you have other comments? I'll make comments. Thanks. That was it. Okay. Let's see. Sorry, Council Member Blackaby. Thank you. Thank you to my colleague, Councilmember Lunapara. And thank you to Councilmember Treggab for authoring the anti-Muslim hate resolution. Proud to support it. Agree that as a body, as a community, he has no room in Berkeley. Islamophobia has no place in Berkeley. And we should condemn it in all forms anywhere, anytime that we see it. I also condemn hate against our LGBTQ members. I condemn hate in racist tones. I condemn hate and I submit hate speech in Berkeley, and I think it's a community we do need to find ways to come together, because hate has no place place here and we should look to find ways to solve our problems together by coming together. But I thank you for the resolution today. A couple other items and I'll be brief on the consent calendar. Thank you to Councillor Humbert for making us a point to you to the Police Accountability Board. I just urge my colleagues to, if we do have vacancies to make appointments to bring the body back to full membership. I'll also note that we have a kind of quirk in the charter that as a council, we can also make an alternate appointment to the body, which I don't think we've made in the past. So I'd also endeavor to bring a nomination back as an alternate, which will also help kind of bridge some of the gaps, even while they're not permanent members on the body. And then lastly, on item 16, again, I'm looking forward to the next one. I council member Bartlett. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, oh, apologies vice mayor. Well, I forgot that too since no one ever says it. Now, tonight is a good great night. I'm really happy about item number nine. This is the home key application. We're gonna submit to acquire a building in South Berkeley that'll house homeless veterans in supportive housing. This is a wonderful opportunity to advance care provision in Berkeley in the housing sector for our people. I'm happy that the Lanyard's Committee, which we serve on, we're able to positive recommend some good items. We've vetted them, we're really proud of them, the Philancy Store Fronts Act, which gives a break to storefronts so they can get it going. And because our fees are sometimes very high, and we know that the retail demand is so soft that we're losing stores every month it seems. So it's a great opportunity to advance our economic development city. And then second, as my colleague mentioned, the Chancellor of Tax Exemption, very important for all the housing is hangin' them by thread, the federal government, is threatening the low income housing tax credits, and other financing mechanisms. So giving them a break on acquiring the land to build the housing for people, I think is very important. So I'm thankful for being forward, Councillor Trigoub. And then also on the topic here at my colleague, I want to thank you for waiting to the frame. And it seems as if the person who's story was may not be on your side all the time politically, but to step into it and support her and other people who are in the community, feel threatened and feel unsafe. It's very important that we take a stand, that we take measures like this and I can congratulate you. And when all are people to feel safe in this community and know that we have your back, no matter who you are and what you are, thank you. Thank you, Councilor Vice-Mayer. Are there any other comments? Okay, so I just want to make sure that. Actually, there's one thing I'd like actually our city manager. If you could address some of the questions that we're having around the USDs housing, because I understand that there are some folks that are confused and I don't want to move into action but I would just like you to clarify what it means as we're combining our policies together here with this. Yeah, sure. Thank you for the opportunity to do that there and I have spoken with the USD a couple of times including today and essentially the way that it would work is that the BUSD home, the BUSD housing preference the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the key to the the BUSD priorities, the city's priorities would be layered in so that essentially if you had somebody This is just an example, who two people were within the BUSD priorities, and one was a teacher who had just moved here from Kentucky, and another was a teacher who had been redlined out of South Berkeley and had been living outside of Berkeley for years, that person wouldn't have priority over the person that just moved here. So it's kind of making them work together, but the BUSD ones would apply first and the cities would apply. And then if not all of the units are filled after the BUSD priorities are layered in, then there's anywhere many units and the city's preference would be used to fill those remaining units. Thank you very much because I felt like I was not going to be able to explain that as well as you did. So thank you. And councilmember Kessar-Wani. Yes, I just wanted to ask for clarification, Mr. City Manager, the intention continues to be for asUSD workforce housing, correct? That is not changing as a result of these policy preferences for who is selected. It's still workforce housing. That's correct. That's the first priority. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. And then just the other thing I wanted to make sure we were clarifying because I think there's some confusion about this as well. For the first year free Phil M. D. Store Funds Act, that was given a negative recommendation to take no action. So that's what we would be agreeing to today on the consent calendar. Although I know that this is an issue that many of us care, excuse me, care a lot about and we are really concerned about our small businesses, our local businesses. That's so important to how Berkeley, you know, just the culture of our cities. So thank you all so much to my colleagues. I know we've got a motion on the floor. I think we are ready to take the role. Okay, to approve the consent calendar, including the Policy Committee recommendations on item 14 and 16. Council member Kessar Wani. Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Trigab. Aye. O'Keefe. Yes. Blackaby. Yes. Luna Parra. Yes. Umbert. Yes. And Mayor Ishi. Yes. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. So at this time, I would like us to take just like a 10 minute break. I think we've been sitting for a long time and as we've been saying, we really want to support people taking self-care, using the rest of your eating something if they need to, taking a stretch. So we will be back in 10 minutes. It is 822, so 832. Thanks everyone. 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 a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a 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. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just so much fun. Recording stopped. you 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 okay Hi folks we're coming off of break we're two minutes late so let's get back. Okay. All right audience. Folks in the audience. Can I have you please sit down. Thank you. Okay. I think we're ready. Let's get back into it. We still have the action calendar. So let's get moving. Okay. Where are we at? Oh. We just had public comment. We just had, we do need to. Okay, so our first thing thing our action calendar is a public hearing. So I our item is number 17 appeal of special assessment tax lien 1806 Walnut street from the city manager. And we have staff here to present. So I will pass it over to you. Thank you. Thank you Madam Mayor. Good evening Council members. I'm Jordan Klein. I'm Director of Planning and Development. I'm joined at the staff staff table by Angel Sondain, the supervising housing inspector. And Jenny McNulty, the Brazilian buildings program manager who is going to present for staff, but. Go ahead Jenny. All right, thank you. So I managed the rental housing safety program and several of our resilient buildings programs in the building and safety division. And I'm gonna give you some background. Can you move them like a little closer to you, please? Thank you. Just pull the whole thing. Yeah, there you go. I'm gonna give you some background about this lean appeal that we received for 1806 Walnut Street and go over the staff recommendation. So Berkeley's rental housing safety program was established by the City Council in 2001 and our function is to increase tenant safety. by requiring property owners to meet minimum housing and property maintenance standards. Those standards are established in the Berkeley Municipal Code in chapter 19.40, which is the Berkeley Housing Code. Now in addition to responding to tenant complaints and conducting housing inspections in response to those complaints, we also do proactive housing inspections. Now, 1806 Walnut Street is a property that was selected for proactive inspections in 2012. This is a building with 13 rental units and of those five units were selected for inspections. The property is owned by Peter and Philip Wright and it's managed by a property management company, the KNS company. Now council directed the rental housing safety program to expand proactive inspections. As you can see on the slide in 2024, we opened up 3,272 new cases. So this property was selected as part of this effort to expand our proactive inspections. I'd like to just go over with you the fee schedule that was established by the City Council or inspection service fees were established in 2019. So when a housing inspector goes out to do the initial inspection at a property, whether or not we find violations of the housing code, there's no fee for that initial inspection. We then send out a notice of violation if we have identified violations and we provide a minimum of 30 days before coming back for a reinspection. And there's a grace period. So if that owner corrects all the violations, there's no charge for that re-inspection. But if we come out and they haven't corrected the violations, we charge $400. Then, if we need to come out again, the fee whether or not violations have been corrected is $600 and for subsequent inspections is $800. As you can see, we charge an increasing fee amount to try to incentivize early compliance so that tenants are not left with substandard conditions in their unit. We also work with property owners, so if there are qualifying reasons, we can grant time extensions. In addition, we charge penalty fees also adopted by Council in 2019. These penalty fees are charged because somebody is delinquent in making a payment. It is not related to whether or not they have corrected the violations at the property. We charge 10% of the delinquent amount if they're passed a month late and then 40%. And then we placed a lien on the property if they don't pay their fees. And there's also a $250 administrative lien fee. So when the housing inspector went to this property for their initial inspection, they did find violations in units A, unit 1, and unit 10. They were missing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. They were also non-grounded and damaged electrical outlets. And in the required locations in the kitchen, there was a lack of a GFCI interrupt, which is ground fault circuit interruptor protection. And why does this matter? Well, smoke alarms are one of the most fundamental safety features. They allow tenants to get out of their units to potentially put out the fire, be notified that there's a fire contact the fire department and if there are damaged outlets missing JFCIs or other electrical hazards, there is a heightened risk of electric shock. This is in your packet, we shared with you all of the notices of violation that were sent to the owner. So the owner and the property manager was Ccedon these notices was noted and it was given 30 days notice when each reinspection was going to take place. And that they should be present. And if the owner is not present, we leave a door tag hanging on the door and they can call the inspector and if their schedule allows, the inspector will also come back if they miss that time window. So I just want to go over what the claims were of the appellant in this appeal. They claim that due to staff changes at the city, there were miscommunications with the property manager, and that that resulted in excessive and unnecessary fines. The initial housing inspector did leave the city and a different housing inspector was assigned to this case, but this is not unusual. And they were sent all the proper notices in a timely manner, and the inspections followed all of our established procedures. In addition, there are multiple staff who have reviewed the fees assessed and confirmed that they were assessed accurately. The property manager also argued that penalty fees continued to accrue unfairly after the city determined units were in compliance and while an appeal was in progress. As I explained earlier, penalty fees accrue because owners are delinquent in making their payments whether or not violations have been corrected and the owner was delinquent. They filed their appeal on May the 26th of 2023. We assessed penalty fees in mid-March, April and mid-May, because they had unpaid fees. I do just want to draw your attention to the supplemental communications submitted last week. And we had, in fact, assessed penalty fees two weeks after they submitted their appeal for $220. And we have actually gone ahead and adjusted them and adjusted out those $220. And so in the supplemental communication, the lean amount in the resolution has been adjusted to take out those fees that were assessed by our system after the appeal was received. So just to sum up our staff recommendation to council is that you adopt a resolution denying the property owners appeal and authorizing the city manager to record the special assessment lien for 1806 Walnut Street for $6,230. And I want to also just state that we are very consistent in the way we charge fees. These are the same fees that are charged of all property owners who have proactive inspections. So Jordan Klein is just gonna say a few words to conclude. Thanks Jenny. So thank you council members. I just wanna emphasize obviously our rental housing safety program is very important to keeping tenants safe and Berkeley. And in case it wasn't clear, our fee structure, it pays the salaries of the housing inspectors that go out and contact the inspections. And so these fees are really important to our program. KNS, which is the company that manages the property, subject to this appeal, manages many properties across Berkeley. And we want to avoid a situation where we're setting precedent and we're sending the message that people can choose not to pay their fees associated with this program. And this staff recommendation that completes our presentation and will be available for questions. Thanks. Thank you so much. Just so folks understand the process. We are supposed to give time for the appellant to speak as well as is the appellant here to speak? Yes, the panelist, I'm sorry, the appellant Jonathan Hicks is on the Zoom so I can promote him to be a panelist so he can provide his comments and he has seven minutes to address the council. And Mr. Hicks, when you're ready to proceed, please do. Can you hear us? There we go. Can you guys hear me? Yes. We can hear you now. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Just give me one moment here. I'm having a little bit issue with my wife. I was unable to sit at the office today, so I'm doing it from my house. Just give me one. I'm going to go to the next slide. Perfect. All right. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate your patience. I'm here representing Peter Wright. He's the owner of 1806. And I'm not arguing the fact that the violations were existing and that the fees were properly assessed. We're just here asking that there may be some sort of reduction in the fees. As you know, the property taxes cost for insurance, the yearly RHSP fees for the city of Berkeley, everything is increasing as well as prevent of maintenance in 1806 Walnut Street. It does have a lot of long term tenants in which we are limited because of the AGA to how much we can increase every single year. And we would like to continue to be able to provide preventative maintenance, maintain the building, and keep a nice environment for our tenants and with the fees that are assessed we're kind of cutting into that and so the owner is reaching out to see if the council would take into consideration the previous things that I mentioned and if there could if you could work with us with some sort of reduction, again, we are, we do understand that violations existed in the units. There was a misunderstanding. Those violations were corrected and we're just, we understand that there will be some sort of fee assessed, but we're looking for some sort of reduction. Thank you. Okay. We need to, I'm gonna open the public hearing and take public comments and then, oh wait. Yes, and then I will wait. No, I'm sorry. I think this is my order is wrong here. Actually, I think we're supposed to be taking questions. Council questions only first. Apologies. My notes are wrong. All right. Council member Humber. I know you had your hand up earlier. So I'm going to let you go first and then Council member Traykub and keeping in mind that our parliamentarian machine is not working that well. Feel free to give me a wave. Sure. Thank you Madam Mayor. I don't have any questions. I have a motion though. I would like to move to. Council Member, I'm sorry. We we'd have to close the public hearing. So this is just time for council questions only. Perfect. Thank you. I'll come back to you when we get to that part. Council Member Traykov, did you have questions? I do, thank you Madam Mayor. I just wanted to confirm from staff. What was the date that these non-compliance is for first black to the city's attention? So the original, but the first inspection was in October of 2022, and then the inspections continued in the early part of 2023. So at the date of each re inspection was when we assessed as a result of each re-inspection, we assessed fees. I couldn't tell you the exact date without looking it up, but it was in the early part of 2023 that we had these re-inspections. Yeah, so well, up to two years, you would say, right? Yeah. Yeah. I have a question for the appellant. Did at any point, if this has been known to the property or the management company for well over two years, were there any efforts to seek relief from the city at that time?'ve we've been reaching out to the city over the last two and a half years trying to get with this resolved. Which I had to reach out to a council member Kate. I believe Harrison and she was the one that was able to actually assess us to get where we are here today two and a half years later. And we did talk to several other people in the process. And unfortunately, it's taken into now to kind of get some resolution to it. Thank you. Any other council questions? Councilmember Blackby? Yeah, very quickly, just to confirm the is I read it. It's more like a six month process, right? In terms of they were first notified in October 2022. And they're filed an appeal on May 2023. So it wasn't a two year process. It was a six month process. Just it's been two years to date, but it was six months at that point. But it looked like, if you look at that initial letter, the first inspection was in December, December of 2022, and then presumably several reinspections in the early parts of May. And do we know how many total inspections, maybe like three, four? Again, I'm just curious, the total number of visits. Yeah. So there's the initial inspection and then three re inspections. So four total visits. OK. Thank you. Any other questions? OK, we will take public comments on this matter only. I see someone coming up. Just as a matter of business being a business owner, it's interesting to me that landlords believe that their business is somehow separate than any other type of business and that it must exponentially increase all the time. I have to provide services for my employees and we cannot keep increasing our fees and we haven't increased the fees since 2007. So the fees have stayed the same yet we are responsible for providing and that's why it's so hard to be a business owner except in the exemption of landlords which they get to continuously raise prices and and without without any curve without any limitation it is a business and they have to provide things including habitability and and I sure that people's life condition is not substandard. And thank you for the work you do. Thank you for your comment. Madam Mayor, City Council members. Well, I'd like to ask this question if somebody can answer it. I'm wondering how long the business owners have owned the building. I think that's very interesting. Also, I find it disturbing that the business, the representative, is blaming the monetary problems on the customers that they're providing a service to. And Berkeley, there are regulations over the rental housing industry. those are rules that they have to abide by, and business owners have to make do with this is the business they're doing. So to blame their consumers on their problems on how they're running their business is a problem, I think. We see last two weeks ago, we were here where we're talking about developers and developers are talking about their products, their products, which are the rental housing units. Again, here we have a business owner claiming to not have any ability or blaming their consumers. I, for one, would ask that you find them the way they should be fine. And as a matter of way of making sure that we are paying for the inspectors that we provide who provides it to valuable service. Thank you. Thank you. I understand correctly the landlord in this case, hires an entire other company to manage the property. Is that correct? So, what does the landlord actually do in this arrangement that they don't seem to be actually, the management company is the one that actually does all the associated work with, you know, owning a building. And then landlord is apparently complaining that they can't pay the fees. It's too expensive to, they say to keep the building habitable to be owning this entirely separate building from the one they live in that it's somehow too expensive to have some standards in the whole extra building in addition to their own home that they own. And has the landlord considered getting a real job? Other other comments online? Yes, there's one commenter online and that is Maria Sol. Yes, thank you again. Thank you. Congratulations that we're all still awake and at work. I know I've mentioned a few Brazilian times that I've been in the construction trades for over 50 years coast to coast and that I really care about property maintenance and about preventing harm and that I also involved with Outwith tenants and homeowners that are suffering uninhabitable and dangerous and unsafe living situations. So I really appreciate the inspections. I've mentioned to a number of people in the different commissions, that things that are inspected are often, you know, not really, except that I'm sure we are doing a better job now. I really also have had a tremendous amount of experience with property managers who, again, perhaps, are ethical, perhaps, function and care for the building and the tenants. But my experience, especially with these huge property management companies, is that it's another way of loading the financial cost and not delivering on what it is that they're supposed to be doing. So I have been inspected and I have done inspections and I have visited homes that and buildings and you know where people in all sorts of different property configurations abide. It's not safe, it must be safe, there must be compliance. I was held to account and I really want people to be safe and careful. There shouldn't be mold and electrical fires, I mean endless things. So I bring this lengthy direct experience in the trades and in the mismanagement and bloated, explode, exploitive cost. And yet I also know that some business owners are struggling. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comment. Is that our final comment online? Yes. Okay. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. A second. Second. Okay. We need to take the role I believe. Okay. To close the public hearing, Council Member Kessar-Wanhee. Yes. Kaplan? Yes. Bartlett? Yes. Trigab? I. Phil Keave? Yes. Black Abbey? Yes. Hunapara? Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Trigab. I. Vokey. Yes. Blackaby. Yes. Unapara. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Mary Eashie. Yes. Okay. Okay. Now moving on to council deliberations. Councilmember Trigab, did you have a comment or comment and a motion? So thank you so much for to staff for bringing this to our bringing this case to us. I. It's it's where that went to housing safety. Program appeals come this far, but so I appreciate this. This is a new experience for me to vote on the dice and to just absorb this. But what I know about the RHSP program is that it was actually set up in response to a tragic fire in which several then UC Berkeley students tragically passed away. And it took some time for that program to be set up in a way that is robust in terms of the enforcement mechanism. I, you know, generally, and I'm thinking about all the times we've heard appeals when I was on the rent board, there are ways to reduce the amount if it is in the interest of justice. Maybe it's a small property owner, maybe they don't have the operating capital, whatever. Like there is this question to look at that. In this case, you staff just to confirm what you said, KNS is one of the largest operating management companies operating in Berkeley. In my experience, they are a fairly sophisticated property management that is either aware or should be aware of all the rules for operating a property in Berkeley. And between that and the multiple attempts to reinspectinspect and the property manager or owner and not being present. It's a little challenging for me to be sympathetic right now. Now this property may be in the district that I serve, but it could be anywhere in Berkeley and I would feel the same way if this was the exact set of circumstances. You know, if I forgot for a bit, I forgot to pay my credit on time. Pertoties would still accrue in addition to the amount that I was owed. If I fail to pay a citation on time, which I confess I have done once before, I would that be able to get a free pass just for paying it late. Council member, did you have a motion on? And so with all that in mind, I move the staff recommendation as described in supplementaled pocket one. Okay. Can you take the role please? Unless anyone else has other comments? Okay. Calling the role on the motion to approve the staff recommendation as written in supplemented communications packet number one, Council member Kessar Wani. Yes. Patlin. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Trigab. Aye. O'Keefe. Yes. Blackaby. Yes. Alunopara. Yes. Humber. Yes. And Mary Eishi. Yes. Okay. motion. Thank you so much. And thank you so much to staff for all of your hard work. I really appreciate you saying at this late hour. So thank you. Okay. We, okay, we're now moving on to the next, next action item, which is adopted ordinance to prohibit the sale or use of algorithmic devices to set rents or manage occupancy levels for residential dwelling units. And this came from the housing advisory commission. Let's start with public comment. Sorry. Did 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. 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. Bye, poji. biopologies. Please start whenever you're ready and just move the mics as close to you as possible because sometimes it can be hard to share. Yeah, but hold on, it's got. I think we need. We want to turn off the. Yeah, video. If you're you just trying to share your screen. Okay. Pretty clear. Just do they need to share with the staff. Any clear. Do they need to share from the zoom or can they just plug. Okay. Is there someone that can help them? Do you need help? Okay. I think Rose is going to come. I'm going to put 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 there something else that we can do? 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. 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. Thank you. Thank you., I am Debbie Potter. I am the immediate past president, or past president, past chair of the Housing Advisory Commission. I'm here this evening with Leah Simon Weisberg, the current chair. And we are here before you this evening, honorable mayor and members of the City Council, to recommend that you approve an ordinance that prohibits the use of algorithmic devices to set rents or manage occupancy levels. What is automated rents, setting or AI revenue management? This occurs when landlords delegate their rental pricing and supply decisions to a common decision maker. That decision maker is a third party. It could be a trade association. It could be a company that offers management software. Landlords who should be competing with each other as to price share data with this common third party decision maker. And that then decision maker provides daily pricing and ongoing revenue oversight. You all might be familiar with the concept of dynamic pricing. That's what this is essentially with the daily pricing. So rather than functioning as separate economic entities, these participating landlords make key competitive decisions regarding their rent and their inventory of units collectively. So rather than competing, and I will say that it's important to know that the sharing of sensitive data and pricing information is not in a competitor's self-interest unless they know that their fellow competitors are also sharing their proprietary and sensitive data, and that together they are making collective decisions. And the result of this action is you drive up rents and it amounts to illegal price fixing. So I've talked about what automatic rent setting is and now I want to touch a little bit on what it is not. Automatic rent setting does not mean that individual landlords who are independently researching websites such as Zillow or Craigslist to set rents are engaged in automated rent setting. It also is not landlords who don't coordinate with one another to set rents, and it is not landlords who rent units as vacancies arise, and who don't hold vacant units off the market. So now that I've talked about what automated rent setting is and what it isn't, what is real page? Real page, according to its own website, provides property management software, data analytics, and services to efficiently manage rental properties and real estate. For several years, real page and its rent setting software, GuildStar, which is the algorithmic device, has been the subject of controversy. And they've pretty much been the subject of controversy since they entered the rental housing market with their algorithmic software devices. And this past fall, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against real pay to accusing them of being a monopoly. They are thought to control up to 80% of the property management software market across the country. And if you want to know what the folks who work with real page, the property management companies and the landlords, how they define what real page is, quote, this is a quote, we are all technically competitors, but real page helps us to work together to make us all more successful in our pricing. Real page is designed to work with the community in pricing strategies, not work separately. We rarely make any overrides to the pricing recommendations. So that's how clients define what real page is. So what the accusation is is that this kind of sharing of information collectively and not competitively is illegal price fixing. And the kind of illegal price fixing that is being done is called hub and spoke price fixing. And the way it works is that you have a centralized company, a trade association, a data broker, a software algorithm that facilitates illegal agreements amongst competitors, landlords in the market. Real pages the hub and the landlords who depend on its recommendations regarding rent levels are the spokes. And by agreeing to follow the rent recommendations using competitively sensitive and or proprietary data, landlords tacitly agree to fix rents without the need to directly compete with each other. This system allows landlords to conspire to limit rental supply and drive up rents creating a cartel in the legal parlance. So this slide is a visual that just illustrates what a hub and spoke price fixing scheme looks like. And you can see that in this depiction real page is the hub. And then these are some of the major property management firms across the country. Many of them who are defendants in class action lawsuits who are the spokes in this hub and spoke system. There has been because there is an accusation of the illegal price fixing, there's been a fair amount of legal action to date. There have been over 30 class action lawsuits that have been filed against real page and the landlords who use the software. As I mentioned, the DOJ sued real page in the fall of 2024, both for its monopoly control of the software market for rental housing. And because it facilitates this illegal price fixing scheme. And once DOJ filed its lawsuit, eight attorneys general, including the attorney general of California joined this DOJ lawsuit. There have also been legislative actions that have occurred. San Francisco and Philadelphia have banned the sale and use of these pricing algorithms. And a number of local jurisdictions and a few states are considering similar bans. And right now there are four bills to ban the sale and use of pricing algorithms that have been introduced in the California legislature. So as I mentioned at the outset, we're here to recommend that the city council adopt an ordinance that would ban the sale and use of these algorithmic devices in the city of Berkeley. And what's our rationale for this recommendation? 57% of Berkeley's population are renters. People of color are three times more likely to be renters than homeowners. 60% of Berkeley tenants are lower income and half of all renters in the city of Berkeley are rent burdened. In addition, we've seen an increase in corporate concentration in the housing market over the last several years. And the city's rent stabilization staff did a preliminary high level look to see if Berkeley was being impacted by this corporate ownership in consolidation. And just at the high level, they identified six property management firms who have been named as defendants and other class action lawsuits controlling about 1300 units in the city of Berkeley. So this is an issue that is important for the renters in the city of Berkeley and an opportunity to alleviate rapidly increasing rents for Berkeley residents. And just by way of a little more rationale and some background data points, over the last nine years, rents have increased 19% throughout the East Bay. The city's housing element notes that rents for rent control and market rate units have increased dramatically over the past decade. The city's black population has declined rapidly over the last 20 years due to rising housing costs in the city. The use of these devices is illegal price fixing and it negatively impacts the rental market by artificially inflating rents and creating housing scarcity. So why take local action? There have been numerous lawsuits, as I've mentioned, that have been filed throughout the country, but those lawsuits could take years to litigate. And while these lawsuits are going through the legal process, tenants are not realizing the benefits of an ordinance that would make the use of these algorithmic devices illegal in their jurisdiction. Acting locally will ban these practices to protect tenants now without waiting. Therefore, we, the hack is recommending that the City Council adopt an ordinance banning the sale and use of algorithmic devices to set rents and manage occupancy rates. I believe that you all have received a letter of support from Tech Equity and that letter of support has a couple amendments that they believe and say will strengthen the proposed ordinance by updating the definition of algorithmic devices and including algorithms that use all data, not just non-public data. So council may want to consider those recommendations that were included in tech equities letter. And with that, we're concluding our presentation and both commissioner Simon Weisberg and myself are available to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Bull. Very much for your presentation and for the data. I think that's very helpful. Are there any clarifying questions before we move on to public comment? Okay, let's move on to public comment. I'm going to check with our city clerk just make sure our time is okay on the clock and everything. Okay great thank you. Fantastic. Good evening Mayor and council members and I'd also like to think that think the presenters for their wonderful presentation. My name is Avery Arba.. I'm a board member for the East-Based Stonewall Democratic Club, the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, and the Berkeley Tenants Union, as well as the head of the Berkeley Tenant Organizing Task Force. I'm also a student and a tenant in Berkeley, and I've had friends who have been pushed out of this city because of Rent Burton. I'm here to stand in support of item 18 because we must stop the cartelization of our rent prices. We must be clear that just because this new era of price fixing is done using apps and algorithms rather than explicit conversation between landlords, the effects of price fixing remain the same. It harms tenants and it lines the profits of large corporate landlords at the expense of everyday worklands. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. I'm at support of this item, but I hope at some point that someone develops this item by reviewing how algorithmic devices are used to have a discriminatory impact on screaming of tenants. There have been studies that this is done, that it marginalize persons are often excluded from housing based on these use of these types of devices. So I am hoping that someone brings forward that type of item. The city is doing really good things with homeless housing and also with the expanding of the in the loo units, the inclusionary units for additional section 8 and shelter plus. But the reality is that people still have difficulty in Berkeley with vouchers and with subsidies despite despite then 2017, it was, okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for your presentation. And I just, my name is Nigine. I've spoken a few times tonight. And I'm Chair of the Berkeley Tenning Union. And in my capacity as such, and personally I want to support item 18, housing is the biggest financialized global commodity in the history of mankind. And this type of AI price fixing only makes it worse. Did you, I'm just clarifying question, did you say that six landlords in Berkeley own 36,000 units? How many? Okay, 1,600. You said something about six landlords. Anyway, it's unbelievable how one person can have control over so many people's lives and the possibility of of them staying in Berkeley or not. And then colluding with other people and creating this type of monopoly only makes it much harder. I'm glad that you guys are taking this up and out of passes. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, thank you very much for the heck members. And Madam Mayor City Council members, I also am speaking in favor and I hope that you would adopt an ordinance that would look at preventing AI from setting prices. This is another example of housing being looked at as a product. Two weeks ago we were here, we were talking about the, the, the, uh, in Lufese and they presented it as products. Here landlords business owners are looking at their products. But the product that they're selling is a service, they're providing a service. And so consumers should be protected. And this is a perfect opportunity to protect the consumers in this rental housing industry. So I ask that you please consider protecting the consumers and pass the ordinance that would benefit the consumers here. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Shane. I'm speaking in my personal capacity in support of item 18. As an RA, I'm working with a myriad of students as they navigate the housing system for the first time and price is a huge concern. The particular group of tenants navigates the process with fear and uncertainty with less metrics to determine what is a fair price or lease. It's evident from the prior presentation that this program is predatory. I'm unsure how exactly it uses AI in its operations, but AI in and of itself is not a reliable source for social issues. First, generative AI is consistently false, which anyone who sees AI Google results will be familiar with. Secondly, AI is trained on the internet and is thereby accumulative amalgamation of every inhumane bias that it trains its algorithm on. Any rental pricing that relies on a system shown time and time again to be not only biased, but outright false is both ridiculous and predatory. I urge you to vote yes on item 18 and approve Council Member Lunapara's supplemental. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of the city council. I've got one minute seated to move by the general one in the back. My name is Sally Alpert. I'm the chair of the Brooklyn Rent Stabilization Board and speaking in strong support of the item and as it's been modified by the supplemental submitted by Council Member Luna Parra. Obviously, as someone concerned with tenant protections and the affordability of housing in our community, it's really important. But don't also just as another comment you mentioned as a basic consumer standpoint. It's really sad that we even have to be here putting this forward. If the laws, our federal laws around anti-competitive behavior were better enforced, this would have been totally illegal and would have been shut down long before. But we know, unfortunately, that big business has controlled a lot of our federal regulatory apparatuses. And so luckily, we have resources that we can put to use at the city level to combat this kind of behavior. And this is one really common sense way to do that. Right? Unfortunately, we live in a world where the market sets the price of housing. I wish that weren't the case. But if we are going to live in that world, then the market should be regulated appropriately, and the competitors in that market should actually be in competition. And if they are engaging in this kind of anti-competitive behavior, in this kind of collusion, this kind of cartel, then that's not happening. Rens aren't being... actually be in competition. And if they are engaging in this kind of anti-competitive behavior, in this kind of collusion, this kind of cartel, then that's not happening. Rents aren't being set based on the market. They're being set based on a skewed market that hurts Berkeley's community. So I'd urge you to pass the strongest possible version of this legislation as submitted in your supplemental this evening. Thank you so much. Thank you. I also strongly support this measure to item 18 that is to prevent the housing in Berkeley from being further cartelized and price fixed. I say further because this already goes on, while this would rapidly and exponentially accelerate cartelization of housing, cartels already exist. One such is the Berkeley Property Owners Association, which masquerades is a trade group, but they have their meetings, you know. What do you suppose all these property owners who call themselves rental housing providers talk about in their meetings with each other. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to figure out that they're not really in competition. Thank you. Thanks for your comment. Hello, my name is Alan. I'm a renter in Elmwood. And I support the general idea of this, but I just want to separate the two issues and not confound them. One issue is the use of non-public data. The other issue is the use of algorithmic device. So I want to make sure that the council understands that. I think the core issue is the non-public data segment and that's kind of the price fixing issues that is being sued under real page. If we ban use of algorithmic devices, I think you're creating issues for a lot of landlords who may use any sort of software to be able to control rent. A lot of times rent is inefficiently set. It might be too high and the algorithm may actually recommend that landlords lower their rent to be able to reduce their vacancy, reduce their time spent, add only their property. And that incentivizes both landlords and tenants. So the issue in a housing scarce market obviously is going to look like the pricing is too high, but if we get more housing, then that will also push pricing down and the algorithm can detect that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any other public comments online? There's hello. Oh sorry. Yes, there's four public commenters. First is David Shearer. Hi, David Shearer, Housing Advisory Commission, I'm speaking only for myself. I am speaking in favor of this item tonight in particular the text as recommended by hack and not in the supplemental. I want to make sure that we are clear about what this is about and what it's not about. This is about anti-competitive collusion and market manipulation. It's about landlords making more money by declining to compete against each other for tenants. Folks are talking about algorithms and AI. It's not about algorithmic price setting. The problem is not that the price came from a computer. The problem is collusion. What the technology is doing is making that collusion more scalable and more efficient. But the main story here is not algorithms. It's a cartel of landlords colluding rather than competing. We should not overstate the impact. Banner real page will not fix our housing crisis. We need to build a lot of new housing at all income levels. But cartels like real page can have a meaningful impact on the housing market and housing prices. It is totally unnecessary and I hope you will approve this item as recommended by hack. Thank you. Thank you. Next is a caller with the phone number ending in 538. should be able to mute press star 6. Caller ending. Caller with a phone number ending and 538. Please unmute. All right, we'll go to somebody else. Kelly Hammergren. Thank you. I'm pleased to see this on the agenda. And it was several months ago when I started reading about real page, which was maximizing rents over filling units. And so, maximizing rent and to leave vacant units seems to me to be very concerning. So that's all I'll say about it. I hope you pass it. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, we'll go back to the collar with the number ending in 538. I just want to mention two things very quickly. The first house of Washington, Berkeley was in crackment in 1968 was 28,000. The second one in Newclid was 101,000. What happened to housing prices unreal is so unreal. The fact is, lots of money coming out from foreign money that is found by what's called private equity firms. And destroying those housing in the whole country. The other point I like to make was living in a quick country. And what Trump did with the idea that NOAA was in big, big, big trouble. NOAA is very important to earthquakes, to ships, to weather, to everything. This man really should be in beach as soon as possible, as well as going to have a country. Thank you and I'm sorry, my apology to Mayor Irrigain and to the City Council people. I just got excited to look back at the last four years and not very heavy about that. Thank you again. Always good city. Always love this city. Have a good night. Okay next is Maria Sol. Yes, thank you again. I'm so glad we're still all here. I support this as I did the other one because this is basically a call back to the Berkeley values that we've been speaking about all night, whether it's the other ring and the heat or the division and the violence and the lack of safety. You know, it's all the same thing. It's either all of us or none of us. We've got a few globally that are exploiting and pillaging and plundering at the expense of the rest of us and it's not going to work. So here's to Berkeley coming together and not letting a few property owners or realtors, hedge funds, etc. Take position of our hearts and souls because housing is necessary for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Is there one person or is that different? Two more people. Next is Krista. Thank you. Thank you Mayor and Council. Krista Goldransson, Executive Director of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. I am honestly really just trying to suss out and understand the difference in this proposal, which is different than San Francisco's, in that it wants to prohibit algorithmic devices that use both private and public data. Zillow uses algorithms to set its suggested rents to anybody who is viewing, anybody in the public who is viewing. As as far as I read this proposal and ordinance it would actually prohibit the use of anybody looking at any public data. That could be inclusive of the rent registry even if someone takes that public data and inputs it into an algorithmic device. So I'm having a hard time understanding that. I'm also having a very difficult time understanding how the 1300 identified units that are part of the real page lawsuit in Berkeley. How those 1300 units are using an algorithmic device to send all rents in Berkeley. So I'm time is up. Oh, sorry, I did not see that. Thank you so much. No, it can be hard to see online. One more, did you say? That's it. Actually, you have the person dropped off. Okay. Council member Humber, I know you, I think you had your hand up first. Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's easy for me to do that online. We've read through these two items, the original one and the supplemental carefully. And I can't support either version of this item tonight. And my primary reason is that the definitions in both versions, but especially the definition and the supplemental, are overbroad and likely unenforceable. The way the original version defines algorithmic device and competitor data could, as we've been discussing, prevent a landlord from using their own non-public records to inform their decisions about rent levels and vacancies. If a majority, additionally, I would like to see algorithmic device change to algorithmic software if it were to pass or something similar with attendant changes. But I think this is not ready for, you know, this is not ready to pass. It would need a substantial amount of work before it made a whole lot of sense and was precise and targeted enough for us to adopt. Even so, the pricing algorithm definition in the supplemental is any analytical or computation processes that use data to recommend or predict the price of consumer goods or services. This definition is really, really overbroad, unenforceable, and possibly and likely, I think, unconstitutional. Although the ordinance provides additional examples or then we're specific pricing algorithms in mind, it does not adopt a more limited definition that could withstand scrutiny. So, you know, I think under this broad definition, a couple trying to rent out their ADU and plugging a bunch of rental information from Craigslist into an Excel spreadsheet to find an average rent in their area would fall into the prohibition. Under either ordinance, it's at best ambiguous whether something like Zillow's rental services, which rely on public and private data, would be illegal for people to use in Berkeley. I also think the ordinances, both of them, both versions written are in precise in a number of ways. For example, they currently allow tenants a private right of action, but theoretically the people most affected would be prospective tenants. So as written these ordinances don't provide a legal avenue for their intended primary beneficiaries. And if we're going to open the door to prospective tenants using a private right of action, this needs to be carefully prescribed to prevent abuse. I think another issue with these proposals overall is the difficulty really, and this probably is the crux of the biscuit, is the difficulty approving such tools that have been used. As a city, we don't have the resources to conduct the level of investigation necessary to establish whether a landlord used illegal algorithms, especially if they tried to do so covertly. There's nothing about a particular asking rent level or vacancy that would in and of itself qualify as evidence that such an algorithm was used. You know, establishing that such an algorithm was used would essentially require season computers and subpoenaing records from the landlords or the service providers. And this differs from so many of the other ways in which we regulate Reynolds where the evidence of wrongdoing would be much planar in physical form in communications with tenants or in landlords discriminatory actions toward perspective tenants. You know and saying all this I want to emphasize that I think and a competitive behavior and price fixing by large market actors is bad and something we should try to crack down on at a higher level. But I don't think this makes sense for us to do here. This is because we don't have the resources of something like an attorney general's office or the Department of Justice. And because I think the nuance and enforcement are difficult to get right. Finally, looking at the big picture, I think that we see from the data that the single most important thing we can do to lower the price of housing is to build more of it. The sort of price fixing schemes, this ordinance aims to prevent only work when there's scarcity and oligopoly in the market. And to pretend that these devices somehow are leading to high rents really is a gross oversimplification. I want the city to stay focused on the areas where we can make the biggest difference with the resources at our disposal and those resources are becoming more and more strained as we move forward into this new era. So I'd like to make a motion to reject both proposals. I'll second for the purposes of discussion. Okay, the next person to speak is Councilmember D' Dampara. And I'm going to reserve myself a spot after Councilmember Blackbeam Bartlett as well. Thank you. Um, I want to based on feedback from advocacy organizations, uh, tech equity members of the housing advisory commission and city turns office. I introduced a supplemental item to clarify some definitions and close potential loopholes and Councilor Patrigo has co-sponsored the item. So I appreciate that. These changes include changing the term algorithmic devices to pricing algorithms as a clarification and making sure that companies like real page can't use any data, public or private to fix prices or leave units vacant with the goal of price gouging brachelians. I'm concerned that the positive effects of our city's strong action towards building more housing may be curbed by this kind of collusion. Also frankly this is the kind of legislation that's best taken up at the regional level, so I hope that this is one step towards broader legislation to stop the cooperation between competitors to manipulate the housing market. I have also incorporated further feedback from the City Council's resident tech expert, Council Member Blackaby, and I'm grateful for his collaboration as well. The City Attorney's Office reviewed these technical changes this afternoon, and I'd like to thank them for their quick responses and collaboration. I'm going to share my screen in a second to show these technical changes to my supplemental. I need to Give me one second. I need to be able to join the meeting. I'm so sorry. I'll just say the changes and then yeah, let's go. Yeah. So there back. So there's two main changes, one large one and one small one, one clarifying the definition of pricing algorithms to make sure that the director and the direct coordination with competitors, including through third active, third party vendors is a legal under this ordinance. And one smaller change to remove the explicit naming of the East Bay Rental Housing Association the Berkeley Properties, Property Owners Association in finding Section F. So, could be a second while I pull that up, I'm so sorry. Sure, thank you. We will now go on to Councilmember Blackbeard. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you to our presenters, including D6's nominee to the or commissioner to the housing advisory commission. And thank you to our presenters, including D6's nominee to the, or commissioner to the Housing Advisory Commission. And thank you to Council Member Luna Parra, who's been so willing to take feedback and think through these issues. I share a lot of the feedback from folks at this meeting that algorithms in and of themselves aren't good or bad. And by the way, I'm not the only resident expert actually will point to Council Member O'Keefe, who's actually a computer science teacher. I'm just a marketer. I have no practical knowledge whatsoever. I agree. Well, good. Well, let me take that for a little bit. Let me take that for a little bit. That's great. So anyway, so algorithms in and of themselves aren't good or bad. You could certainly envision an algorithm to help renters, for example, gather wide swaths of data across an entire market to help them make an informed decision about what they should be willing to pay. That'd be a great algorithm, right? That'd be a great LLM. That'd be a great use of technology to give them access to data to make informed decisions. Similarly, you could envision an algorithm, neutral algorithm, to help landlords survey the market and determine a fair price to rent out a unit. That also could be a great use and a fair use of an algorithm. So to move the problem isn't the tech per se. It's not the tech strictly speaking. It's the collusion, as some of the commenters have have said. It's the collusion, it's the coordination among competitors in an anti-competitive way, kind of behind the scenes outside of the free and fair market that we're concerned about. And so any technology that facilitates that kind of coordination and joint price setting, no matter what the source of the data is, it's the coordination and the collusion amongst the market players, I think, is the problem. So when Council Member Linapara shows you, we worked a lot on the definition of pricing algorithm to try and introduce that it's, thank you. It's, we added the highlighted parts in yellow, that it's not just the analytical or computation process that uses data to recommend or predict the price. It's in director, indirect coordination with one of more competitors, including potentially through a third party vendor. The other thing we did is we made the other section plural because I'm less concerned about one landlord using one piece of technology and setting a price in isolation. But jointly if landlords together are making decisions together about vacancy or about pricing, again that to me is more problematic. So one other broader point and then I'll see my time. Barre point is as a city, you know, we should support innovation. We should support technology. We have a world-class campus right down the street. And so I want to make it clear that as a city we support smart thinkers, we support development of AI, we support development of technology that makes things better. We support technology that makes things more transparent, that makes markets more transparent. And accessing more data to make more informed decisions is a good thing. But we don't support collusion. We do not allow collusion. Collusion is illegal in our rental marketplace. And so that's I think the balance we were trying to strike here. Last thing I think I'll mention and we may not fix this tonight and we've been talking the city attorney is what we actually call it. We're calling it here pricing algorithm. I think we could probably even be more accurate to say that it's something about and that this isn't exactly right, but you know market setting algorithm or price fixing or price control out out there's something about it because again in and of itself I don't have a problem with pricing algorithms. I have a problem with algorithms that facilitate collusion and that's really what we're trying to regulate here so thank you to customer moon apart for indulging me and hopefully we can get this balance right. Thank you yes moving on to Council Member Bartlett. Thank you. And thank you for bringing this forward. And we had a great talk about this at the committee. And we discussed the entity committee practices and collusion inheritance we talked about the erosion of tenant protections that come as a result. And there's further GDPR, California privacy, protection, data concerns, the trending towards housing discrimination and systematizing it. And this overall, this tech monopolization, this algorithmic AI capture of the American consumer. And we see it in pricing for airplane tickets, we see it in everything. Anything you shop on, depending on what time of day you get a different price, or it knows your banking information, so it knows how much money you make, you get a different price. It's turning into a real prison for people. And as my colleague was saying, this black would be, this technology, I think this is the really first time we're going to, the first of many times are going to have to come out with some guidance on how to use this new force that's coming into our world. And it is neutral, but we need to get a hold of it and make it positive. And that means making work for people, and not against people. So, I think really need to pass this. I like the changes made in the supplemental by my colleagues. It addresses, I think, some of the concerns raised by Councillor Bauer. He's not here. Humbert. There we are, there we are. Humbert and really describes the hub and spoke nature of it and this anti-competitive model. And in the absence of any real federal enforcement, unless so as we see a dead by day, I think we have to stick up for our residents here. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Moving on to Councilmember Taplin. Thank you. I just had one question. You mentioned that there was pending sale legislation. Are you able to share with those those are? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. legislation are you able to share with those those are. I think your mic is not on. Yeah. Just pull it close to you. There we go. It's so funny. After so many years of being up there to be on this side and have to learn how to use his mics again. Um, there are four. I don't have have, I could pull up in a minute. I had them up, but I don't have them, but I will get them there for. The tech equity has been working closely with one of the bills. And this, the definitions that were recommended that were the base of the Lunapara and Tragueb suggestions are reflected in that. I just, I think that it's unclear that we've been doing, there have been state bills across the country. This one is more modeled off of San Francisco's and I think that that, you know, that regional impact is gonna be very, very important. I mean, I hope the state passes it because that'll make a huge difference. You know, Grace Star, not only is one of the bigger players in Berkeley and in the Bay Area, but particularly of our student housing. And I think that one thing I really just wanna emphasize is all all the empty units. I teach at the Relaun School, previously known as Hastings, and I taught this legislation. I do antitrust as one of the topics, and I've never had so many students talk because they all live in the student housing overseen by Graystar, and they talk about how three of the floors are empty. And they use, they're using the algorithm for that student housing. And they are using that algorithm on our student housing here. And so I think it will make a huge difference of just a great start. We'll stop using it. And our students wouldn't have to spend as much on housing as they are on their tuition. So I think that we really need to do it right away. I mean, in February is when I rents our highest in Berkeley because all the students are looking for housing because of that algorithm. And so I hope that at the state level these bills passed. But we've had one of the federal level, I think on three years, that was introduced as soon as the pro-publica article came out but I can I can provide the the four bill numbers and I believe that at least two of them have already come together. Thank you. Did you have other questions or comments council member? That's all thank you. Thank you. Moving on to actually, I think it's supposed to be council member O'Keefe for some reason yours was flashing and then it. My number 31 apparently. It's been, it's yeah, it's confused. Thank you. Thank you so much for these changes. They have scratched an itch that I had. It was really, really good. And as Councilmember Blacka B. said, I teach computer science. These words mean something to me. And I don't, they've been used, I'm talking about the original language. And I'm sorry for whoever wrote it. I don't mean to, you know, be too mean to you. But I just want to point out like algorithm, we think it It means software, it means something computer-y. No, an algorithm is actually to the series of instructions that accomplishes something. A device is like a thing and data is information. So I mean, you, I'm like using an algorithm on a device when I'm cooking from a recipe and I have a digital thermometer. the router. I mean, not. I'm using an algorithmic device. So this, this two, it was too loose and it was the objections that this isn't really, this could capture normal behavior that any landlord would engage in. I think was legit a bit concerned before. But I really like these edits, the red ones and then all the yellow ones even more, because it really, as the custom of black would be said very well, this really focuses on the thing that we actually don't like, which is the collusion. And so I think, I definitely agree with the goals, these scenarios that were described by our wonderful presenters are bad. We want to stop this from happening, absolutely. And I think that with these edits, this is actually very well tailored out to actually do that. So I'll be supporting it. And thank you for, thanks everyone for your work. Thank you, Councilmember, Councilmember Traygup. I just wanted to see if the Councilmember Lennopara, if it was your intent to introduce the substitute motion. Yes, thank you so much. Yes, I will. I will. Let her make the motion. Go ahead. I will make a substitute motion to adopt a supplemental to with these changes that are highlighted here and this change that's highlighted here, which is removing the naming of the property owners association and the East Bay Mental Housing Association. And I will send that to the clerk's office as well. And then you'd like to second it. Council member Traca, thank you. I just wanted to make one comment. Oh, I'm sorry, I just't see. I just wanted to make one comment just to say, you know, about addressing some concerns about this potentially being illegal or unconstitutional, just to comment on the fact that this has happened in other states, counties, et cetera, and that we've also had our city attorney's office go over it. And so, you know, that gives me a lot of confidence that that's not the case. And so I just want to make that comment because I think that's important Councilmember Kessarwani. Yes thank you very much Madam Mayor and thank you Councilmember Luna Patta for this supplemental and thank you Councilmember Blackaby for the amendment. I think I feel more comfortable supporting this now with this change that we are defining this as indirect or indirect coordination with one or more competitors. I share the concern that Council Member Humbert raised about enforcement, but I think that all in all on balance passing this and saying that we don't support this type of price collusion is a reasonable thing to do. So I'll just respectfully withdraw my second of Council Member Humber's motion and I'm prepared to support this with the amendments proposed. Thank you. Okay, then I would ask the clerk to take a role unless there are any other comments. Okay, thank you. On the motion by Councilmember Loonopara to adopt the ordinance and supplemental number two with the additional changes made on the dius councilmember kisser wanting. Yes, taplain. Yes. Bartlett. Yes. Treg up. I. Okay. Yes. Blackby. Yes. Unapara. Yes. Umber. No. And Mayor Ishi. Yes. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you all so much. I appreciate seeing you all at work here and trying to figure out the boundaries. So thank you. I really appreciate it reminds me of game night. Thank you very much, Count. So there was a adjournment in memory of Pauli Armstrong, the former District 8 City Council member. Again, there was a very touching tribute from Council Member Humbert that was said earlier. And so I'm wondering if there's a motion to adjourn. No, did I missing something? I'm sorry. Oh, yes, thank you. I'm so sorry. Is there any additional public comment for items? Not listed on the agenda. From individuals who did not speak. Thank you. At the beginning of the meeting on the agenda. Thank you for clarifying, yes. For folks who did did not speak earlier. On the same area. Okay. There's no zoomed hands so we can measure in the meeting. If there's a motion. Yes, is there much again. Thank you. Taplin seconded. Second. Is there a second? Okay. Okay. We're going to park you. Okay. To adjourn the meeting, Council member Kessor wine. Yes. Tatlin. Yes. Bartlett. Gregor. Aye. Okay. Yes. Blackaby. Yes. Lentopara. Yes. Humber. Yes. And Mayor Eishi. Yes. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you all so much. Thank you to staff and thank you so much to my council members. All right.