Berkeley May End Protections for Manufacturing, Allow R&D Businesses

By Doug Oakley

Staff Writer

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

In an effort to revitalize Berkeley's dilapidated industrial zone and create new jobs, officials are asking the City Council to end outdated manufacturing protections and allow research and development businesses.

Though officials say the changes are vital for job growth and competition, some businesses benefiting from the current rules worry that if highly capitalized startups enter the area, rents will rise, and they'll be pushed out.

John Curl, co-owner of Heartwood Custom Woodworking in west Berkeley, worries that  allowing research and development firms in the area will drive up rents and business like his will have to leave. (Photo by Doug Oakley) 

The area lost 2,754 manufacturing jobs over the past 20 years — and that's with the rules protecting them — according to a city manager report urging the City Council to make changes to zoning rules for west Berkeley.

"Instead of employment growth, there's been employment loss," said Dan Marks, director of planning and development during a Berkeley City Council meeting Tuesday. "Protecting manufacturing space does not protect those jobs. We've had many Berkeley (research and development) startups move to other locations because they were unable to expand, and the building stock in the area has declined." The City Council will hold a second hearing on the new rules in February, followed by a possible vote in March.

The new plan to allow research and development companies in the area and ease manufacturing protections has been aired in 30 planning commission meetings and 45 meetings with community groups over the past two years.

But even with all the meetings, city officials have not been able to convince some business owners the plan is a good way to revitalize the area. Businesses benefiting from the current protections say bringing in highly capitalized research and development firms will drive up rents, and they'll be forced out.

"Any time you take industrial space and rent it to research and development companies it's going to displace all the industrial people for the simple reason they will be able to pay a lot more for rent," said John Curl, co-owner of Heartwood Custom Woodworking on Eighth Street in Berkeley.

Curl said he and other business owners want the city to phase in the rule changes over time to "prevent this destabilizing influence."

"We have a fairly successful sector of business, and this proposal to open it all up is really destructive," Curl said. "It needs to be done slowly. That way the people are not displaced and everybody wins."

But Councilman Darryl Moore, whose district includes much of the area slated for the rule changes, said that argument does not work for him anymore.

"Unfortunately the smokestack model of manufacturing is no longer viable in west Berkeley," Moore said. "Our president, in his State of the Union address, talked about having to compete at a much higher level. So we have to look at research and development and that's where our strength is." Moore and other city officials such as Economic Development Manager Michael Caplan point to nearby UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory as two rich sources the city could tap for research and development business in west Berkeley.

"We have a billion-dollar pipeline from UC Berkeley and the labs," Caplan said. "But these research and development spin-offs often leave the area after being created at UC Berkeley because there is nowhere for them to go. The production needs to be close to the source of innovation."

Moore said he is likely to vote for the changes, but he wants to add requirements that new businesses contribute to a fund that will help with job training in south Berkeley, money for a shuttle bus to get workers from Berkeley's two BART stations and money to "protect and support our artists" of which there are about 800 working in the area.

Rick Auerbach, who works for the West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies Association, said its members who benefit from the current rules just want a fair deal going forward.

"We don't believe you have to open up all that space to research and development," Auerbach said.

"We think research and development is valuable, but retaining the mix of uses and employment opportunities for people of all levels of skill and education is key to our community's economic health."

Police Arrest Knife Wielding Woman Who Threatened Neighbors, Congresswoman

By Doug Oakley

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

A knife-wielding Berkeley woman who allegedly assaulted a U.S. letter carrier, threatened to kill her neighbors and made threatening phone calls to the office of U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee was taken into custody Saturday after more than 10 attempts to arrest her, Berkeley police said.

Groups of police tried to arrest the woman starting Jan. 12, the day she allegedly assaulted the letter carrier, police said.

Berkeley police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said because the woman was usually armed with large kitchen knives and would retreat into her apartment when they approached, officers did not want to force a confrontation where they might have to shoot her.

"Some community members were frustrated with our approach, but we were operating in a very delicate balance," Kusmiss said.

"If we forced our way into her small apartment in unfamiliar territory in close quarters while she was armed with a knife, there may have been a shooting because a knife is a deadly weapon. We also had to balance the safety of the community and our officers."

Elaine Montgomery, 48, is undergoing a mental evaluation in a locked ward at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley to determine if she is fit to be arrested on a felony death threat warrant, officials said Monday.

That warrant was signed by the Alameda District Attorney's office after Montgomery threatened to kill her Tenth Street neighbors on Jan 18, Kusmiss said.

After dumping trash into their yard, Montgomery told her neighbors "I'm going to get my Uzi and kill you all, are you ready to die?" Kusmiss said.

Montgomery also called police on Jan. 14 and "challenged us to come and shoot her," Kusmiss said. When police arrived she threatened to stab them.

Police negotiators tried to talk to Montgomery several times through her window and on the telephone, but they were unable to even begin a conversation with her, Kusmiss said.

"There are some people with such significant challenges, it's impossible to negotiate with them," Kusmiss said.

The ordeal began when police said Montgomery pushed the letter carrier down her front steps and punched her. The letter carrier was shaken, but uninjured. Between Jan. 12 and Jan. 22, there were 52 emergency calls to Berkeley police either from Montgomery, who was demanding cigarettes be delivered and ranting at dispatchers, or from neighbors who saw her on the street yelling and screaming, authorities said.

In between the times police attempted to arrest her, undercover officers were watching her apartment waiting for her to come outside, Kusmiss said.

Montgomery called 911 Saturday morning to report that she was going out for cigarettes, and two officers approached her and took her into custody without incident, Kusmiss said.

Humane Society Reopens after Deadly Fire

By Doug Oakley

Staff Writer

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

The Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society has reopened its Ninth Street building that was heavily damaged in a fire last year, but it still has a long way to go before it can resume full operations, the executive director said.

Berkeley East Bay Humane Society Executive Director Stacey Street pets a cat at its Ninth Street building which was destroyed by fire in May of last year. The society had to shut down and 13 cats died, but it recently reopened with limited services. (Photo by Doug Oakley)

The society held an open house Friday to get the word out that it is placing cats and dogs with new owners on weekends, providing medical services to animals from the city of Berkeley animal shelter and offering spay and neuter services to low-income individuals.

But it may be two more years before the nonprofit can rebuild completely and offer shelter and adoption services at the level it did before May 20. That's when a fire killed 12 cats and destroyed one of three buildings it owned at the corner of Ninth and Carleton streets.

Since then, the society has moved its administrative headquarters to a building a few blocks away and was doing adoptions out of the parking lot there.

Executive Director Stacey Street said rebuilding is estimated at $4 million. The society recently sold one of its buildings at Eighth and Carleton streets for about $1 million and has raised $600,000 in donations since the fire, but it needs much more. Money will be coming from a fire insurance policy, she said, but details have yet to be worked out with the insurance company.

"Our hope is that we can be back here in 2013," said Street, who took over as head of the society just a few months before the fire. "We'd love to be able to bring in more animals, offer more medical services and have better areas for people to interact for adoptions. But our first priority is to get back to saving animals and that's what we are doing now."

She said the society is taking in cats and placing them in homes, but only on weekends. During the week the cats live in foster homes. It's the same situation with a limited number of dogs.

Street said that while the fire was a tragedy, it has forced the organization to look at itself with a critical eye and "strengthen what we do -- from programs to fundraising to business planning, so we can have a long-term sustainable program."

Street said she is not sure if the rebuilding plan will include simply gutting the inside of its two adjacent buildings and rebuilding, or tearing both of them down and building from the ground up.

Street said since the day after the fire, the staff has been overjoyed with the amount of financial and in-kind support from animal lovers in the Bay Area.

"People have come out of the woodwork to help, from offers of painting, to construction labor to school kids holding bake sales and donating the profits," Street said.

"Animals touch everyone, and this outpouring has reinforced with us that what we do is important."

Marina Robbery Suspects Arrested

Berkeley police arrest two robbery suspects as they stopped at a red light at the intersection of Dwight Way and San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley on Wednesday, Jan. 19. Police say alleged gang members Arturo Avalos, 20, of Berkeley, in passenger side of car and Luis Hernandez, 19, of San Pablo robbed at gunpoint three women at the Berkeley Marina Jan. 17, taking their clothes, purses, jewelry and their car. The two were booked into the Berkeley jail on charges of armed robbery and auto theft. (Photo by Doug Oakley)

Berkeley Considers Sex Change Benefit for City Employees

By Doug Oakley

Staff Writer

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

Berkeley is considering a plan to set aside $20,000 a year for city employees who want to have a sex change operation.

The City Council will vote on the plan next month. 

Lynn Riordan, a Berkeley city employee who had a sex change operation in 2003 from man to woman, urges the City Council to pass a plan that pays for such operations for city employees. Riordan, who came up with the idea, has been pushing the city to do so for almost four years. (Photo by Doug Oakley)

Formal consideration comes three and a half years after the City Council asked city staff to study the idea and return with a plan in six months. That was in May of 2007.

After discovering that it would be too expensive to include the surgery in its Kaiser or Health Net plans, the city decided to cover it out of its own pocket, wagering that not many employees will want sex change surgery.

City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who supports the plan, said the operations can cost between $7,000 and $60,000.

The new plan was conceived in 2007 by city employee Lynn Riordan, who on May 1, 2003, paid $11,000 out of her own pocket to have the surgery done in Canada. Riordan made the transition from man to woman.

"It's great they are moving forward with it," Riordan, who is a clerk in the finance department, said Tuesday. "It's really all about removing restrictions on transgender medical coverage. It's a birth defect. People are born with (the wrong gender) and they don't go out and have the surgery for entertainment. Nowadays it's not acceptable to give some people medical coverage but deny it to others."

Riordan said the surgery she had was a life saver. "If you had the wrong junk down there, it would drive you crazy, every day, every moment," she said.

But Berkeley resident Isabelle Gaston said she is insulted that the city would spend $20,000 more on employee benefits when it already has an un-funded liability of about $300 million for employee benefits that taxpayers will likely be paying in coming years. The City Council talked about that in a public workshop just before Tuesday's regular City Council meeting.

"It's not fiscally responsible," Gaston said. "There have been a lot of decisions in the last year made by the City Council that have been pretty dire for a lot of people living in the city, the closing of Willard Pool chief among them. I find it surreal that they are meeting to discuss $300 million in un-funded employee benefits liabilities, then an hour and a half later they are voting to expand employee benefits by $20,000 each year."

Worthington said he already received calls from other residents opposed to the plan.

"The whole purpose of doing a policy like this is having equality," Worthington said. "Shouldn't we have a policy like there is in San Francisco where it's included in health coverage? Some day this will be a standard medical thing."

Worthington said the $20,000 is "not giving away the store" because very few people will take advantage of it.

"It is a serious health need for a very limited number of people," Worthington said. "It's not like you're bored and you just decide to go and have surgery."

A report to the City Council said Health Net would charge $15,400 in premiums to include the surgery in its plan whether anyone took advantage of it or not.

Bay Area Schools Get Millions for Solar Panels, Energy Efficiency Projects

By Doug Oakley

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

Sixty-one California schools and school districts will receive $848 million in federal tax credits to offset the cost of installing solar electricity panels and building energy-efficient classrooms, according to newly elected state schools superintendent Tom Torlakson who released a list Friday at a Berkeley news conference.

Six districts in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will get $83.3 million in tax credits: Berkeley, Piedmont, Mt. Diablo, Dublin, John Swett and Byron.

The credits mean schools that sell construction bonds will be able to subtract their awarded amount from interest they pay on the bonds.

A total of 20 schools and school districts received tax credits throughout the Bay Area.

Torlakson released the list of schools and districts receiving the tax credits at the Berkeley High School football field, against the backdrop of a $12 million school athletic and classroom project that includes energy-efficient designs such as low-flow toilets, recycled materials and double-paned windows.

The tax credits are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Schools and school districts had to apply and compete for the credits.

"When we solarize schools across the state, we can save hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs and put that money back into education," said Torlakson, who was sworn in as California's superintendent of public instruction this month.

In Berkeley for example, voters recently approved $210 million in construction bonds for schools. The principal and interest on the bonds combined will reach $610 million.

Berkeley's award of $25 million in tax credits will reduce its interest payments from about $400 million to about $375 million, according to Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Bill Huyett.

"The voters of Berkeley just passed a measure to tax themselves for school bonds," Huyett said. "These are tough times for people to be taxing themselves, and these credits will cost them less and will allow us to accelerate our projects."

Torlakson said the credits will create construction jobs and "teachable moments" for students.

"It makes no sense to teach the next generation of California's students in facilities that are relics of the past, powered by energy sources that are out of touch with our state's renewable future," he said in a news release.

In addition to announcing the credits, Torlakson said he is creating a Schools of the Future Team, which will help schools cut red tape, find funding sources for renewable energy projects and assist districts in negotiating deals for solar and renewable energy projects.

Also at the news conference were Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, state Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, and her husband, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.

CPR Training for Berkeley Middle School Students

Students at Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley practice CPR on physical education teacher Cheryl Draper on Thursday Jan. 13. The training, which included practice on blow up dolls, was sponsored by the Alameda County Office of Education. At right is physical education teacher Greg Ward. (Photo by Doug Oakley)

Longfellow Middle School Student Vanessa Echeveste, left, works with physical education teacher Greg Ward on a CPR doll on Thursday Jan. 13. The training was sponsored by the Alameda County Office of Education.
(Photo by Doug Oakley)

Kristian Overbey, left, and Lakendra Edwards, right, get ready to practice  CPR at Longfellow Middle School on Thursday Jan. 13. The training was sponsored by the Alameda County Office of Education. (Photo by Doug Oakley)

Neighbors Want Massage Parlor to Go

By Doug Oakley

Staff Writer

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

A group of Woolsey Street residents are hoping Berkeley can find some way to get rid of a massage parlor and its steady stream of all-male customers where police made an arrest for prostition in 2009. 

Using a different tactic to make it known the business is not wanted in the neighborhood, Berkeley police now have referred the Sunflower Wellness Center, at 2103 Woolsey Street near Shattuck Avenue, to the city's code enforcement division. The division is scrutinizing business and operating permits there, said Code Enforcement Supervisor Gregory Daniel.

Neighbors say after police made arrests, the place was quiet for a few months, then the customers returned just like before. The business is also advertised as Sunflower Massage.

Sallie Hanna-Rhyne, who lives across the street, said people in the neighborhood don't want a wellness center or massage parlor on their block. And she is frustrated with the city's inability to make the business go away.

"They just keep saying they are aware of it, but why are they not doing something about it?" Hanna-Rhyne said. "This is a family neighborhood. We have children growing up here."

A person who answered the phone at Sunflower Massage hung up when asked about the neighbor's complaints.

Berkeley City Councilman Max Anderson, whose district includes the massage parlor, said he is aware of complaints about the business.

"I got a call from a constituent and I notified the city manager," Anderson said. "We don't need this in the community, that's for sure. Especially if neighbors are complaining and it's becoming a problem."

The Berkeley Police Special Investigations Bureau made an arrest for prostitution at Sunflower Wellness Center in June 2009, police said. The defendant pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace in December 2009, authorities said.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. said it's difficult to go after a business where prostitution may be ongoing because an officer has to be there to witness it. She said scrutinizing business permits and compliance with city codes is easier.

"Like other locations and businesses where there may be illegal sexual activity going on in the City of Berkeley, we have to confirm the elements of any crimes in order to get the probable cause for any arrests," Kusmiss said.

"The employees who offer, and those customers who are seeking a particular service, are not likely going to tell the police. We have found in other cases like this one that our collaboration with City of Berkeley Code Enforcement has been more successful in addressing any ongoing activity."

Marty Conrad, who has lived on Woolsey Street for 30 years, said she has contacted the landlord of the building but got no response.

"My concern is this is a residential neighborhood with lots of children," Conrad said. "Having lived here for 30 years, whenever you have something that is illegal like prostitution there is usually drugs and exploitation. I'm against prostitution and I don't want it in my neighborhood."

Security Guards Take Gun from Berkeley High Student

By Doug Oakley

Staff Writer

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

Berkeley High School security guards confiscated a handgun from a 15-year-old boy this morning and called Berkeley police to investigate the incident.

Principal Pasquale Scuderi, in a message to parents, said security officers learned the student had a gun from “multiple sources.” Berkeley High School will refer the student for expulsion as required by law, according to Scuderi’s statement.

A Berkeley police spokeswoman refused to comment on the incident, saying she was not authorized to speak about crime on school property.

School district spokesman Mark Coplan said he did not know whether the student was arrested by police, how the gun was confiscated from the student or where the student was when the gun was taken from him.

“I am pleased to say no one was hurt, and the firearm itself was safely and quietly turned over to law enforcement officials,” Scuderi said in the message to parents.

Scuderi told parents to remind their children that “if they ever hear or see a student with a weapon on campus that they should immediately contact an adult that they trust like a teacher, administrator or safety officer.”

City Sanctioned Pot Farms Just a Pipe Dream?

By Doug Oakley

Staff Writer

Bay Area News Group East Bay

doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

It may be a very long time -- or maybe not at all -- for Berkeley's voter-approved medical marijuana farms to start growing the green.

That's according to city officials and people in the industry who saw a letter from the Alameda County District Attorney warning Oakland officials they face prosecution for a similar plan.

After receiving the Dec. 8 letter from District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, Oakland suspended its plan to allow and tax four medical marijuana farms of unlimited size.

And to further dampen the spirits of potential Berkeley pot growers, those in the industry say there is no suitable space to grow pot in the city in the area designated in the plan approved by voters.

Berkeley voters, with 64 percent saying yes, approved six, 30,000-square-foot medical pot farms in the city's manufacturing district. A separate measure to tax the proceeds won approval with 82 percent of the vote.

The City Council still needs to write a law with specific rules making Berkeley's plan happen. But now it seems like a long shot.

"It will never happen unless they change state and federal law," said William Panzer, an Oakland attorney who represents medical marijuana dispensaries and patients. "It's illegal under state law and the feds are not going to let it happen. If you're a City Council member and you get a letter from the U.S. attorney's office telling you you're facing a 10-year minimum sentence, you're going to think twice.

O'Malley's letter said state law only allows a "primary caregiver," who also is responsible for the housing, health or safety of the patients, to supply medical marijuana to them.

The implication of the letter, said Panzer, is that those who grow pot also would be responsible for the housing and safety of those members of the dispensary and "if they did that, they would go out of business." Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said O'Malley's letter has caused the "whole picture to change" and "the implications of her letter put a chilling effect" on Berkeley's plan. But he is optimistic that by proceeding slowly, Berkeley might still be able to make it work.

"We believe that growing has to be done exclusively for the dispensary, and it cannot be engaged in a larger activity, and even then we're not sure the U.S. Attorney General will allow it to continue," Bates said.

In supporting the plan before the election, Bates said the city wanted to put a limit on any future actions the City Council might make to allow unlimited growing in the city.

Bates said once the city drafts its ordinance for the voter approved plan that shows the pot farms bring weed only to dispensaries, he would like to get an assurance from O'Malley that the plan will pass her scrutiny.

"Then we would like to get approval from the state attorney general and ultimately the feds," Bates said.

Teresa Drenick, O'Malley's spokeswoman, said the Alameda County District Attorney's office is reviewing Berkeley's plan but "we have not, nor will we provide legal opinion or guidance regarding local ordinances." Bates said Berkeley's plan is different from Oakland's because it's on a smaller scale -- six, 30,000 square-foot-farms in Berkeley as opposed to four farms of unlimited size that were proposed in Oakland.

"Oakland was thinking about growing huge amounts and that was overkill," Bates said.

He said rather than ruining the scheme for Berkeley, Oakland has shown the world what will not be allowed by law enforcement and that's a good lesson for Berkeley.

Berkeley City Attorney Zach Cowan said the city wants to do what's within state law, and that is always changing as new cases go before the courts.

"Our rule No. 1 is in trying to keep in compliance with state law," Cowan said. "And the state medical marijuana law has a lot of unanswered questions. So we're trying to take it very slowly and carefully and if things change, we will keep track and make sure its consistent with state law."

Cowan said Berkeley's new medical marijuana commission, created by the voter initiative, will have a chance to weigh in on the law that creates the pot farms as will his office before it goes to the City Council. Only one of the city's nine medical marijuana commission members has been appointed by City Council members so far.

Brad Senesac, spokesman for Berkeley Patients Group which has 10,000 members, said his organization would love to be one of the city-sanctioned pot growers, but the voter approved measure restricts the farms to the city's manufacturing zone where there are no available buildings to use.

"There's one building out there, the Flint Ink building, and it's a complete and utter wreck," Senesac said. "You'd have to tear it down and then clean up all the ink underground before you could start and that's not going to happen." As for the legal hazards of growing, Senesac agreed with Bates that state law should be interpreted to allow dispensaries to grow exclusively for their patients.

"As a collective we are allowed to grow for our members," Senesac said. "Legally, you only will be allowed to grow if you have a relationship with a dispensary, and that's what I think the feds are going to tell the city."

Ahhhh, Baby Chicken!!!

Amanda Berry holds a baby chicken during a class called Animal Friends at Lawrence Hall of Science on Jan. 3.  (Photo by Doug Oakley)

Amanda Berry holds a baby chicken during a class called Animal Friends at Lawrence Hall of Science on Jan. 3.  (Photo by Doug Oakley)