Residents filled Old City Hall with signs protesting budget cuts for South Berkeley nonprofits during a City Council meeting Tuesday night, which featured the second public hearing of the city’s two-year budget plan.
The 2016-17 biennial budget, first presented to the council May 12, includes significant budget cuts for South Berkeley nonprofits, and residents and local businesses organized Tuesday to express concerns over the proposal. The budget is expected to be approved by the council by the end of June.
According to an analysis conducted by community-led group Friends of Adeline, which was presented at the meeting, the proposed budget plan will include cuts to South Berkeley nonprofits amounting to about $265,000. The group also said the area will be getting more funding cuts than other parts of the city.
Councilmember Jesse Arreguin said during the meeting that South Berkeley has “historically been overlooked” and that the city should invest in “human infrastructure” as Berkeley’s economy recovers from the recession.
According to the analysis, among the organizations receiving the largest cuts are youth and homeless services, such as Youth Spirit Artworks, which the proposed budget would cut all funding for. Some former and current homeless people spoke at the meeting about the importance of the Berkeley Drop-In Center — which will also receive funding cuts — in providing information, work and housing to help people get out of the streets.
Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the budget cuts are ironic at a time when the city is trying to revitalize the Adeline Corridor area. During the meeting, Worthington also expressed his concern that staff recommendations for the budget were made without sufficient input from the public.
“Is there a way that we can get greater transparency about what can happen within the budget?” he said. “How do we get that information so that we could make informed decisions?”
Additionally, an interfaith group of about 20 people circled outside the city hall an hour before the meeting to express solidarity with homeless people. Arreguin, who later joined the group, handed out copies of his draft recommendations for the budget, which, if passed, would reverse cuts in homeless services and increase funding for new programs. He said he will present his recommendations at a City Council meeting June 23.
According to the city manager, the budget for homeless and youth programs will be discussed at a June 9 City Council meeting, and the council is expected to approve the budget at its June 30 meeting.
Another action item discussed at the meeting was the recommendation to require projects more than 75 feet tall to provide additional community benefits, proposed by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. The recommendation suggests that the developers should factor the resources lost for a community during the process of construction into the calculation of new projects’ community benefits.
An alternate recommendation by Arreguin, if accepted, would also specify categories of community benefits and include a mechanism for a third party to evaluate projects’ compliance.
Save Shattuck Cinemas, a group addressing the economic impact of demolishing Shattuck Cinemas on restaurants and businesses, presented a petition to preserve the theater signed by 4,200 community members.
Marium Navid, the 2015-16 ASUC external affairs vice president, and John Caner, the CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Association, also spoke about the importance of affordable housing, in reference to Capitelli and Bates’ recommendation.
City Council will continue discussion of the issue at a special meeting June 16.
Contact Yuka Koshino at ykoshino@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @YukaKoshino.