2022 in Review
As we reflect on our 2022 aspirations and hopes for Reimagining Berkeley, we recognize a pattern. Two basic elements of good governance — accountability and transparency — are lacking. There is a schism between what the council legislates, its implementation by the city manager and what the people demand.
In November 2021, a third party report documenting racist hiring practices by the City of Berkeley was made public. This 4-year study revealed that businesses owned by white men received over 81% of the contracts awarded by the city between 2016 and 2019. The public and city council both expressed outrage at these discriminatory practices. So what has been done to change this? It appears that no one in our city’s government has even tracked the race and gender of the owners of the firms that were contracted by the city in 2022, let alone begun to implement the report’s recommendations.
A year ago in January 2022, the city manager secured generous raises for her senior staff. At the same time, city workers struggled to get the city to make good on the agreements reached in a brutal labor negotiation six months prior in the summer of 2021. City workers morale was reported to be abysmal, resulting in high turnover rates; however, the chief executive of our city takes no responsibility for the continuous exodus of our city’s workers. The city manager blames the lack of staff entirely on the “great resignation.”
2022 also saw a continuation of the harmful and expensive response to those who are unhoused in Berkeley. Several times during the year a crew of city staff accompanied by at least a dozen police officers “cleaned” the streets near 8th and Harrison. Many tons of garbage was collected, including tents, sleeping bags and other usable items that then needed to be replaced, creating even more landfill. Indeed, within just days many people returned with new property to live once again near 8th and Harrison.
The same cycle of harm and displacement is happening to vehicle dwellers, when on December 31 a stable long-term vehicle-dwelling community on Grayson Street was uprooted when the safe parking lot closed. Many of these vehicle dwellers returned to street parking, which will inevitably renew the cycle of ticketing and citing people for being poor. Most of our Measure P taxpayer funds support this cycle of harm where no permanent solution for housing these people is ever seriously discussed.
Also, there’s the years-long reimagining public safety initiative whose meager recommendations were adopted in 2022. This includes $2 million added to the already bulging BPD coffers to create a gun violence reduction and prevention program. Those funds must be reallocated to a community organization so a much needed, credible ceasefire program can be created in Berkeley.
And then there’s our treasured small business community. Once February comes and past rent will begin to come due as the state of emergency is lifted, the city has no plan to help keep the small businesses that uniquely serve Berkeley afloat. Many will likely close to be replaced by multinational conglomerates.
Finally, there’s the overall lack of accountability. The council continues to pass legislation and the city manager continues to have a glut of unimplemented directives from council. Two of these many directives are a sanctioned encampment for unhoused people and a safe parking lot for vehicle dwellers. Will there be oversight to ensure implementation or will the council continue to pass legislation that ends up in a black hole?
There is a gulf to cross here in Berkeley to fulfill the basic elements of good governance. Change must begin somewhere. Let’s start with transparency and accountability.
This article was first published in the Berkeley Times on January 12, 2023.
