November 2012 Endorsements!

Here are my local & state recommendations for the November 6th election. If you're an absentee/vote-by-mail voter, ballots are being sent out starting Tuesday Oct 9.

More resources are listed at the end of this post. Please leave comments!

A quick shout-out to Albany: The Occupy The Farm movement this year injected a lot more energy to the campaigns & a lot more attention to development issues. Now a couple of Greens are running strong campaigns for City Council (Sheri Spellwoman) and School Board (Byron Barrett). Check the Albany Patch & Green Voter Guide links below for more info about the other candidates in those races.

The biggest Berkeley news is that Ranked Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff Voting) is here for the City Council & Mayor's races, changing the dynamics of many campaigns. This means that you can vote for more than 1 person for a seat and rank them in order of preference.

Some candidates running for the same seat are banding together, saying rank us 1 & 2 and do not rank the 3rd candidate.

A key point is that you do NOT have to rank more than 1 candidate, although you can rank as many as 3 candidates. My advice is that if there's someone on the ballot who you don't want to win, don't rank them at all.

The major political controversies this year in Berkeley are development & whether to further penalize the homeless.

The Council majority is generally in favor of increased development at the expense of existing community/city plans which push a more balanced approach to our city's evolution. This is exactly what Measure T is all about. It endangers the current, astonishing diversity of West Berkeley's business, artistic, and non-profits in favor of developer get-rich schemes.

The same goes for the atrocious Measure S- the "Sit/Lie" measure that bans sitting or lying on the sidewalk by the homeless. All of the street behavior that stinks- public drunkeness, disorderly conduct, blocking the sidewalk- is already illegal. Duplicating existing law will not convince the Berkeley Police to enforce laws they already give a low priority. The necessary substance abuse services, housing assistance, and shelter services exist in whole or in part to help our homeless neighbors. Measure S merely saddles the homeless with a misdemeanor fine that they probably won't be able to pay.

Measure S is a political football taking up all of the air in the room while other Measures with imminent real-world effects like Measure R (redistricting/gerrymandering) and Measure T (eviscerating the West Berkeley Plan) sneak by.


Berkeley races: 

Rent Stabilization Board: Igor Tregub, Alejandro Soto-Vigil, Judy Shelton, and Asa Dodsworth.
This is the progressive slate chosen by 200 community members at the Berkeley Tenant Convention in July. These are my allies on the Berkeley Rent Board and I urge you to support all 4.

City Council District 3: Max Anderson, no others. He's rock solid.

City Council District 5: Sophie Hahn, no others.
For the 2nd election in a row, I'm supporting Sophie. Incumbent Laurie Capitelli & I ran for this open seat in 2004 (he won) and since then I've worked with him & other City Council members on disaster preparedness issues. The key reason I'm endorsing Sophie is the role that District 5's seat plays in city-wide development issues. Laurie, a self-described "small scale developer" and Sales Manager of Red Oak Realty, is firmly allied with Mayor Tom Bates pro-development majority. Right now, that majority wavers between 6-3 and 5-4 depending on the issue. Sophie is skeptical about the "Develop Now!" approach of the Council majority and is firmly against Measure T.

City Council District 6: don’t vote for Susan Wengraf. Write in Phoebe Sorgen.

Mayor: For 1st and 2nd choice, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi and Kriss Worthington.
Kahlil is an energetic Green who is running a coalition campaign with Kriss and Jacqueline McCormick against Mayor Bates. I'm not supporting Jacqueline because she's too fiscally conservative for me & she's against the Warm Pool measure (O & N).

Berkeley Unified School Board: Judy Appel & Beatriz Leyva-Cutler

Berkeley Measures:

Measure N — Pools bond. Yes 
This and Measure O are companion measures- both must pass by 2/3rds in order to go into effect. This replaces the Warm Pool, which is key for the disabled, elderly, and people in physical therapy. It also reopens Willard Pool and fixes the other 2 public pools.

Measure O — Pool special tax. Funds Measure N. Yes
Provides dedicated ongoing funding for maintenance & operation of the pools. This means little or no general funds will be needed for the life of these facilities.

Measure P — Reauthorize taxes (Gann override). Yes. This continues existing taxes for libraries, emergency medical services, parks, and emergency services for the disabled. (Easy Does It, the non-profit I used to run, administers this last item for the city)

Measure Q — Modernize utility users tax. Yes.

Measure R — Redistricting. No.
Right now Council districts are pretty static. This would allow for the City Council to radically redraw the districts every 10 years- no matter whether you like the current Council majority or not, what about the majority in a decade? Or the decade after that? It opens the door to local gerrymandering to protect incumbents. Can you imagine the political chaos in Berkeley if every decade led to radically different Council districts?

Measure S — Sit-lie ordinance. No.
This duplicates existing laws and would be applied only to those who "look" homeless, not people sitting in the median on North Shattuck eating pizza. That's called discrimination.

Measure T — West Berkeley Project. No.
West Berkeley's a vibrant, exciting, economically & socially diverse part of the city. Big-time developers have wanted to increase their profits in West Berkeley forever and this is their latest best hope.

Measure U — Sunshine Ordinance. No.
I'm directly affected as a member of the Rent Board, and while I love a lot of the things in this, it puts too many restrictions on open meetings. For instance, the Rent Board could not receive oral reports from staff, slowing down our response time to & increasing already heavy staff workloads. This is a tough call for me.

Measure V — Biennial Financial Reports, if not submitted, no tax increases (FACTS initiative). Yes.

State Propositions:

Proposition 30 Jerry Brown's Tax Increase for Schools - Yes

Proposition 31 Two-Year Budget Cycle- No.
This restricts the state's budget flexibility.

Proposition 32 Ban on corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates - No
It's another attempt by corporations to obstruct unions to give to campaigns by prohibiting payroll deductions for political purposes by either unions or corporations. Of course, the vast majority of corporate donations do not come from payroll deductions, while the opposite is true of unions, imagine that!

Proposition 33 Car Insurance- No.
An Insurance magnate put this on the ballot again- it does not benefit consumers.

Proposition 34 "End the Death Penalty"- YES!

Proposition 35 Prohibition on Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery- No.
Devil's in the details, like expanding the definition of a trafficker &requiring all registered sex offenders to turn over their internet passwords for life to the state.

Proposition 36 Reform "Three Strikes" Law- YES!
Requires the 3rd Strike to be "violent and serious."

Proposition 37 Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food- Yes.

Proposition 38 Molly Munger's State Income Tax Increase- No. Vote Yes on 30 instead.

Proposition 39 Income Tax Increase for Multistate Businesses- Yes.
Fixes loopholes that will make CA $500 million in 2013 & $1 billion in 2014 & 2015.

Proposition 40 State Senate Redistricting Plan- Yes to oppose the legislature's redistricting plan.
Sacramento politicians are still pissed off that they can't gerrymander anymore. We voters removed that power to a non-partisan commission a few years ago.

More Resources:

City & County races:
Albany Patch
Berkeley Voters Edge
Berkeley Daily Planet

Local & State races:
SF Bay Guardian
Green Voter Guide

This Sunday!
Green Sunday: 4-Person Panel on the State Propositions
The Green Party of Alameda County invites you to a Green Sunday discussion about the November 6 general election, featuring a 4-person panel. The discussion will focus primarily on the state propositions.

Sunday Oct 14 5 to 6:30 pm Niebyl-Proctor Library 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland wheelchair accessible

You can also get a bundle or two of the Voter Guides to distribute in your neighborhood, workplace, etc. Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are held on the 2nd Sunday of each month.

NYC coverage of Berkeley Rent Board!

From NYC's Tenant/Inquilo newsletter (from the Metropolitan Council on Housing, or Met Council) comes this write-up of our Rent Board campaign!

Berkeley Elects Pro-Tenant Rent Board

What happens when a city elects its rent guidelines board?

In Berkeley, California, it means that a pro-tenant slate won all six seats on the city’s Rent Stabilization Board this month, easily outrunning their three rivals.
The six—five incumbents and one new member—were nominated at the Berkeley Tenants Convention, a gathering of more than 100 people in late July, after 12 potential candidates had been interviewed by a coalition of local liberal and leftist groups. They each garnered more than 10,700 votes; their top rival got about 6,800.

“The point of the slate is unity among tenants and tenant-friendly property owners,” says Jesse Townley, a punk-rock record-company manager who was the top vote-getter. The slate included two tenants, one homeowner, and three small landlords.
This coalition, says Townley, was needed to overcome “the super-anti-rent-control property owners, organized by the Berkeley Property Owners Association.” When the BPOA’s pro-landlord slates won a majority for a few years in the mid-1990s, he says, “rents went up 45 percent during that time under rent control. They basically did everything they could to raise rents as much as they could while staying within the letter of the law.”

The main opposition candidate, George Perezvelez, “ran as neither pro-tenant nor pro-landlord, whatever that means,” says Townley. Perezvelez was endorsed by Mayor Tom Bates and six members of the City Council. Tenant activists believe he was encouraged to run “to drive a wedge into the slate process,” Townley adds.
California law bans cities from limiting rents on vacant apartments, but it lets them reregulate the new tenant’s rent. As Berkeley, a city of 100,000 that’s home to the University of California’s flagship campus, has gentrified significantly, market rents are dramatically higher than regulated rents. However, city residents voted in 2004 to limit annual rent increases to 65 percent of the increase in the federal consumer price index for the San Francisco Bay Area. Thus, the maximum increase for tenants renewing their leases in 2011 will be 0.7 percent.

The board also adjudicates landlord-tenant disputes and works on code enforcement, such as requiring buildings to be earthquake-proofed.
— Steven Wishnia

(Steve Wishnia is a founding member of 1980s NYC art-punk band The False Prophets)

Election results!

Thanks to you all, I was reelected to the Berkeley Rent Board, along with my 5 fellow candidates on the Progressive Slate. As of tonight the totals (which are pretty much final) are:

Jesse Townley 12,632
Pam Webster 11,660
Dave Blake 11,432
Lisa Stephens 11,037
Kathy Harr 11,005
Asa Dodsworth 10,772

As for the rest of my election suggestions, it was a mixed bag. On the local level almost everything passed, but I was much less accurate at the state level. (Although Alameda County hewed closer to my suggestions than the state- not surprising considering our Bay Area bubble!)

Here's a quick list of who I endorsed, followed by the winner in CAPS.

City Auditor – Ann Marie Hogan HOGAN
City Council District 1 - Linda Maio MAIO
City Council District 4 – Jesse Arreguin ARREGUIN
City Council District 7- Kriss Worthington WORTHINGTON
City Council District 8 - Jacquelyn McCormick, Stewart Jones WOZNIAK

Berkeley Measures:
Measures H & I (schools)- Yes YES
Measure R (downtown)- No YES (don't worry, it'll be back, sigh...)
Measure S (tax on marijuana sales)- Yes YES
Measure T (medical marijuana zoning)- Yes YES

Alameda County:
Superior Court Judge, Seat 9- Victoria Kolakowski KOLAKOWSKI
EBMUD, Ward 4- Andy Katz KATZ
Measure F - $10 Vehicle Fee - Yes YES

State Propositions:
19 - Legalize Marijuana - Yes NO (booooo!)
20 - Congressional Redistricting - Yes YES
21 - Vehicle Fee for Parks - Yes NO (smacks forehead)
22 - Local Government and Transportation Funds - Yes YES
23 - Gutting of Greenhouse Gas Laws - No NO
24 - Repeals Business Tax Loopholes - Yes NO (smacks forehead)
25 - Approval of State Budget by Majority Vote - Yes YES
26 - Extends 2/3 Vote Requirement to All Revenue Items - No YES (this'll be a treat in the next few years!)
27 - Returns Redistricting to the State Legislature - No NO

Jesse's November election picks!

Berkeley:
Berkeley Rent Board- Progressive Slate:
Dave Blake, Asa Dodsworth, Katherine Harr, Lisa Stephens, Jesse Townley, Pam Webster
(remember, vote for the candidates whose last letters of our last names spell SHERRY!)

City Council races are ranked choice voting this year, which means you can rank up to 3 people in order of preference for the seat. You can choose 1, 2, or 3 names. I've listed who I would rank (not in all races), in descending order (choice #1, choice #2, choice #3).

City Auditor – Ann Marie Hogan
City Council District 1 - Linda Maio, Jasper Kingeter
City Council District 4 – Jesse Arreguin only
City Council District 7- Kriss Worthington only


City Council District 8 - Jacquelyn McCormick, Stewart Jones

Measures H & I- YES- these reauthorize existing property taxes that support Berkeley schools.

Measure R - NO- this is kind of a waste of time. It's not an actual plan, just a guide for the City Council. There was a 5 year Downtown planning process that had mostly things that everyone liked. Drama ensued. Instead of putting forward the detailed compromise put together by this 5-year planning process, a majority of the City Council put this nice-sounding ballot measure up instead. Send a message that they should either send the full plan to us OR find some courage & vote to approve it or another plan themselves, which they can do.
Not only that, but $25,000 of the $32,000 raised so far has come from one major downtown property owner, Equity Residential, founded & run by by zillionaire investor Sam Zell. If this measure had major green credibility, the lion's share of its money wouldn't come from a slash-and-burn investor like Zell & other major downtown property owners like Lakireddy Bali Reddy. Yes, THAT Lakireddi.
More on Zell:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/business/media/06tribune.html
More on Reddy (this IS an incredibly biased site, but even so the facts pretty much conform to this site's retelling of the incredibly tragic saga):
http://www.wassusa.com/
No matter what happens, this will come back to voters in one form or another.

Measure S - YES Tax on Cannabis Businesses- legalize it, tax it, help pay for services with it!
Measure T- YES Medical Cannabis Ordinance Amendments- cleans up & clarifies existing zoning language & treats dispensaries like other legal businesses.

Alameda County:
Superior Court Judge, Seat 9- Victoria Kolakowski
EBMUD, Ward 4- Andy Katz

Measure F - County $10 Vehicle Registration Fee - Yes. The state's been stealing- er, appropriating- money from the counties, who've in turn appropriated money from the cities. This is a start to ending that vicious cycle (but only a start).

State Propositions:
19 - Legalize Marijuana - Yes. Legalize it, tax it, regulate it, make $$$ off of it, just like we've done with the much more dangerous and deadly drug called alcohol.
20 - Congressional Redistricting - Yes. Makes the non-partisan commission that redistricts state legislature seats also responsible for redistricting House of Representatives seats. The reason I supported the 2008 prop that created this commission (and won, barely) is the then-current gerrymandering & creation of "safe seats" in the dysfunctional state legislature has inherently undemocratic results.
21 - Vehicle Fee for Parks - Yes. The state's been stealing- er, appropriating- money from the counties, who've in turn appropriated money from the cities, all of whom promise to pay it back with interest (with what money?). This is a start to ending that vicious cycle (but only a start), and the funds stay within the park & wildlife conservation systems.
22 - Local Government and Transportation Funds - Yes. This says that the state cannot steal- er, borrow- money designated for counties & cities in order to balance the state budget. This is a big step forward in stopping the vicious cycle mentioned in Prop 21 & Measure F.
23 - Gutting of Greenhouse Gas Laws - No. Hole in sand, meet head.
24 - Repeals Business Tax Loopholes - Yes.
25 - Approval of State Budget by Majority Vote - Yes. Holy moly, our state budget process is an annual embarrassment and a major impediment to getting incredibly necessary work done at the state level.
26 - Extends 2/3 Vote Requirement to All Revenue Items - No. This would make the current situation even worse.
27 - Returns Redistricting to the State Legislature - No. The whole point of removing redistricting from the legislature is because it was corrupted by both parties gerrymandering ridiculous "safe" districts.

Statewide and Congressional races:
First: Why are the 2 major party candidates excluding Green party Governor candidate Laura Wells from the debates and having her arrested when she tries to enter the hall? It's business as usual from the 2 parties that have a stranglehold on US politics.

Second: Meg Whitman & Carly Fiorina are disasters-in-waiting and I shudder to think what harm they'll do to California. These are excellent examples of why Ranked-Choice Voting is great- vote your heart and vote strategically at the same time- unfortunately that's not available state-wide (yet).

Third: Last election's horrendous Proposition 14 excludes all but the top 2 vote-getters in November elections, meaning future state elections will be all Dem-Dem, Dem-Rep, or Rep-Rep. No Green, no Libertarian, no Peace & Freedom- no way to express dissatisfaction with the 2 major parties.
http://nader.org/index.php?/archives/2201-California-Enshrines-the-Duopoly.html#extended

Even so, you all are on your own for these races- while I'm a proud Green Party member since 1992, the state-wide Green races strike me as quixotic and a huge drain of energy and resources. I'd rather see the excellent Green candidate Laura Wells become a Green mayor (like Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond who's up for reelection, hint hint!) and move up into state-wide office that way. Real political power as a party comes from having... real power. Local race by local race, we and other 3rd parties ought to be battering down the barred doors of the 2 major parties until they cannot refuse us entrance anymore because we are already inside due to voter support.

I'm torn on whether to recommend the excellent Green candidates for these races (Governor, US Senate, US House, State Legislature, etc) or to recommend the mainstream Democrats running against creeps like Whitman & Fiorina.

June 2010 Endorsements!

Short version:
Measure C- Yes
Prop 13- Yes
Prop 14- No
Prop 15- Yes
Prop 16- No
Prop 17- No

Superior Court Judge Office #9- Victoria S. Kolakowski
Board of Education, 1st Trustee Area- Joaquin A. Rivera
State Superintendent of Public Instruction- Larry Aceves

Contested Green Partisan races
Governor- Laura Wells
County Committee- Patti Marsh, Dave Heller, & Greg Jan


Long version:
Since this is a primary election, many of the candidates are party-specific & often unopposed. For this reason I'm only mentioning contested races & non-partisan races.

Superior Court Judge Office #9:
Victoria S. Kolakowski - She's a long-time administrative law judge who is transgendered & progressive.
Website

Board of Education, 1st Trustee Area
Joaquin A. Rivera- He's been an effective member of the Berkeley School Board for the past 12 years- the county needs more hands-on people like him.
Website

State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Larry Aceves- He's been a local Superintendent, teacher, and school principal, & is endorsed by many progressives & major newspapers.
Website

Contested Green Partisan races
Governor- Laura Wells. Of the 2 running, she has the most realistic approach to this perennially unrealistic campaign.

County Committee- 10 are running for 9 seats. All would do a good job, so I'll just highlight the 3 I've worked closely with on both Berkeley & county-wide issues: Patti Marsh, Dave Heller, & Greg Jan.

Berkeley Measure:
C- Yes!
This is a small property tax to replace the warm water pool that's being torn down, as well as renovate & fund the existing municipal pools. This replaces an earlier tax (Measure R in 2000) that was never collected. The collected tax can only be spent on the pools & will ensure a dedicated funding source in perpetuity. The warm water pool is vital for the disabled, people in physical therapy, infants, and children, and all of the pools will be brought up to the highest Green building standards.
Website

State Propositions:
13- Yes!
This gives unreinforced masonry buildings the same existing tax break for earthquake retrofitting as other types of buildings. These are generally brick buildings & susceptible to catastrophic collapse, so this incentive to retrofit is very welcome.
LA Times endorsement

14- NO!
This is a power grab by the 2 major parties & would restrict the general election to the top 2 vote-getters in the primary. For instance, if 2 Republicans are the top 2 gubernatorial candidates, then we'll have no other choices- write-in votes are also banned under this Proposition. Even more expensive state-wide campaigns will be necessary to run a successful state-wide campaign, and third parties will be shut out of the elections and be completely devastated. Less choice, more corruption, atrocious proposition.
Website

15- Yes!
It's a baby step towards public financing of elections- qualified 2014 & 2018 Secretary of State candidates would be given $ collected from increasing state fees on lobbyists.
League of Women Voters Endorsement

16- No!
One of 2 clearly corporate giveaways on the ballot, this is funded by PG&E and is an attempt to squelch the spread of non-profit public power systems (see: Alameda, Anaheim, Palo Alto, etc) which are cheaper & greener than PG&E's system. 16 is all about crushing competition to one of California's most powerful (pun intended) corporations.
Website

17- No!
The other corporate giveaway is just as ridiculous. Mercury Insurance Company is funding this law that would allow insurers to jack up rates on anyone who hasn't had car insurance at any point in the previous 5 years- even if it's because they haven't owned a car or they were overseas in the military. In addition to ensuring more profits for major corporations from us, it'll also force financially strapped drivers to drive without insurance, since public transit is not a viable option in much of the state.
Website


P.S.- I've donated money to Measure C, Proposition 15, & Joaquin Rivera.

More votes...

Thanks to Slate Mate Igor, I now know our vote totals are increasing as more of the huge backlog of absentee ballots are being counted.


NP - Nicole Drake 23447 18.24
NP - Igor Tregub 23240 18.08
NP - Judy E. Shelton 22702 17.66
NP - Jack Harrison 20111 15.65
NP - Jesse Townley 17381 13.52

Yay us!

Hello RENT BOARD! Hello KALX!

*** Our Rent Board Slate Won!
*** Jesse Luscious back on KALX!


*** Our Rent Board Slate Won!

Thank you for all of your good wishes, volunteer hours, and donations to the Progressive Rent Board slate! It paid off as the 5 of us were handily elected to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board. We will be sworn into office in early December.

#/votes %/votes
Nicole Drake 19256 18.13
Igor Tregub 19138 18.02
Judy E. Shelton 18691 17.59
Jack Harrison 16660 15.68
Jesse Townley 14170 13.34

The local election results mostly hewed to my endorsements, which was a pleasant (& rare!) surprise. The only close Berkeley race that so far isn't going my way is the hard fought District 5 race between Sophie Hahn (yay!) and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli.

With 6,660 ballots counted (absentee & provisional ballots are still being counted) Capitelli has a 400 vote lead. In 2004, 7,700 people voted on this race, and with this year's record turnout the vote total could easily go above 8,000. That said, 400 votes will be tough to make up for Sophie. Regardless of the outcome, she's happy that her supporters proved that there is much more diversity in opinion in our district than previously thought.

Like anyone with half a brain, I'm extremely relieved that McCain/Palin did not win the Presidency. I'm guardedly optimistic about Obama/Biden. The giddiness & joy that swept the streets Tuesday night was intoxicating. We watched the crowd outside of the Guerilla Cafe break into a spontaneous singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" after the night's hip-hop djs finished their set. People were blocking the streets in joy, not in anger or frustration.

Speaking of frustration- with all the good news locally (Jesse Arreguin in District 4!), state-wide, and nationally, one measure- Proposition 8- reminds us that we still have a fair ways to travel until we get to a truly just society. Updates on fighting for equal treatment under the law can be found here http://www.noonprop8.com/ and here http://www.aclunc.org/


*** Jesse Luscious back on KALX!

That's right, I'm back on the air as DJ Jesse Luscious, every Tuesday morning 6-9am, on KALX, 90.7 FM & streamed live at http://kalx.berkeley.edu The 1st show is Veteran's Day so tune in for at least a set or 2 of relevant tuneage.

Thanks to everyone who donated during our recent annual fundraiser- you truly ROCK! If you missed the programming, no worries. You can donate here:
http://givetocal.berkeley.edu/browse/?u=KALX%20Radio

Rent Board fundraiser! Jello Biafra @ 924 Gilman

Vale from Re/SEARCH will be interviewing punk & political icon Jello Biafra about "Punk, Presidential Politics, and Art." It's at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, $7-$10 sliding scale, Thursday October 2nd. Begins at 7pm & will end by 10pm, all ages.

This will be a great, funny, & informative night!

http://berkeleyrentboard.org
http://www.924gilman.org
http://www.researchpubs.com
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=jello

Today's McDonald's protest

Stopped by the downtown McDonald's protest early (around 11am) & was happy to see one of the fired workers, her brother, Michael Delacour, and some other people already there holding up signs & passing out information.

I had to split for work around 11:15 or so, but if you showed up later let us know how it went! Seemed like a good early turnout for mid-day on a weekday since I was there before the announced starting time of 11:30!

P.S.- Here's the information about Dona Spring's public memorial service on Sunday August 10th.

The memorial for Dona Spring will be held
Sunday AUGUST 10th; 2-4 p.m.
at MLK JR Civic Center Park, by Berkeley City Hall;
followed by a reception 4 to 8 p.m. at
North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst and MLK Jr Way.

Dona was an incredible human being and a great leader for Berkeley and
beyond. We will have a videographer present at the reception to record
YOUR remembrances of Dona.
If you have suggestions please call 548-8796. T

Jesse For Rent Board!

I need your help!

The Rent Board Convention- happening Sunday August 3, 4pm in Berkeley- will choose 5 candidates for the 5 open seats. This Rent Board slate has been the winning slate for the past several elections and has ensured that the Rent Board has protected tenants during the housing bubble as much as legally possible. It's also begun work on dealing with the foreclosure crisis as it relates to rental properties.

There are 13 people competing for the 5 seats- including myself. I will be honored to run for Rent Board if the Convention chooses me- but I will not run if it chooses other candidates. Since the slate is progressive & has been filled with common sense candidates, I'm not willing to distract from the slate's success by running an independent campaign.

I need you- Berkeley resident & Jesse Townley supporter- to attend this Sunday's convention at 4 PM at the North Berkeley Senior Center at 1901 Hearst (c/s MLK Jr. Way, 2 blocks from University Ave). It's open to all & accessible. A donation of $3-10 is requested to cover the cost of the room. Please vote for me - and every other candidate you prefer!

Berkeley Rent Board http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/DepartmentHome.aspx?id=9546

What do I stand for? Here's part of the questionnaire I submitted to the Convention's selection committee:

Q: Tell us about three or more issues that you consider important to tenants in Berkeley.

1. Providing comprehensive disaster preparedness & planning for apartment dwellers. Residents of single family homes are easier to contact, so our overworked & understaffed Office of Emergency Services has not been able to do anywhere near as much effective outreach to tenants of apartment buildings.

2. Ensuring affordable housing that’s actually affordable to residents and potential residents who are earning at or close to minimum wage. The further service employees have to travel to work, the more environmental damage is done to our planet, plus intelligent zoning of appropriate projects in existing neighborhoods will ensure economic & ethnic diversity.

3. Expanding environmental programs in cooperation with property owners & tenants- from solar power to composting to recycling- will ensure a healthier future for all.

4. Ensuring that the upcoming Mitigation piece of the Soft Story Ordinance results in structurally safer buildings for tenants while controlling the costs for both property owners & tenants. Also, ensuring that rental properties with less than 5 units are covered by this or subsequent legislation will lessen the amount of death and dismemberment after the next major earthquake.

5. Identifying non-property tax sources for City revenue. This will increase city funds for city programs benefiting tenants and property owners alike, since there will be less cause for anti-tax groups like BASTA to campaign against necessary revenue programs.

There's a lot more in the questionnaire- maybe I'll post more of it later? Let me know if you want to read more, thanks!

Dona Spring RIP

Dona was my political mentor. She was quite supportive & helpful when I was curious about getting involved with local politics and was one of the "good guys." She always stood up for what's right, even when she was in the minority.

Thoughtful, savvy, and caring- that's Dona. She'll be missed.

Jesse


From Lindsay, director of the documentary mentioned below:
Dona Spring, died at 6:30 pm on July 13, 2008 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, CA. She was still serving on the Berkeley City Council when she died and is the longest elected Green in the United States ( 16 years).

A memorial event and biography will posted in the next month or two.
http://DonaSpring.com

A 70 minute film of her life completed in July of 2007, will be shown on July 18, 2008 see below for details.

Film -- Dona Spring, Courage in Life and Politics - film and discussion
Unitarian Church
Cedar and Bonita
North Berkeley
-- Dona Spring, Courage in Life and Politics --

The film, completed in July of 2007, is about Dona Spring sometimes called the "Conscience of Berkeley", who also happens to be the longest elected green party member in the United States (over 16 years on the City Council of Berkeley).

Among many others, the film shows Dona on TV shows, such as, Oprah Winfrey, Bill O'Reilly and CNN debating the worst elements of the status-quo. Also, Dona is shown with Ralph Nader, Al Gore and Barbara Lee and many local activists.

Dona has been the best vote on the council for environmentalists, peace activists, safe food activists, animal protection advocates and disabled advocates.

The film is 70 minutes and free or a small donation for those who can afford it, at the Unitarian Church at Cedar and Bonita in Berkeley. 7 PM opening remarks and 7:30 PM film showing, Dr. Michael Parenti, author and Berkeley activist will make some remarks before or after the film.

For more information contact:
LDP@igc.org