Berkeley City Councilmember Dies

The omnipresent voice that could often be heard in the Berkeley City Council Chambers advocating for the rights and the well-being of the underdogs, the elderly, the disabled, the animals and even the fenced-off tree-sitters, has sounded its final note. Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring died Sunday evening after combating a longtime illness. She was 55.

Spring had been fighting rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own tissues, since she was a 19-year-old junior at UC Berkeley studying anthropology and psychology. She had been wheelchair-bound for the past two decades and was one of the few publicly disabled politicians.

Most Tuesday evenings Spring could be found in front of her television screen at her Berkeley home participating in council meetings via teleconference, as she had done almost exclusively since late 2005, when the obstacles to attending meetings became too onerous.

"Dona was in a great deal of pain for a long time," said former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean. "I'm sure everyone feels a lot of relief for her in the sense that she's now free of pain."

Sping had been hospitalized for about two weeks at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia and was found to have a pulmonary failure.

Dennis Walton, who had been Spring's primary care-giver during the past 27 years and who calls himself Spring's soulmate, said Spring had been very weak during her hospital stay, saying she had been vomiting when she was in critical care. She was unconscious much of the time in hospital, he said.

Known as one of the most progressive and left-leaning members of the Berkeley City Council, Spring fought far and wide for issues ranging from animal rights to taking on international issues like sponsoring an item addressing the actions of the military junta in Myanmar.

"She's the most visionary trail-blazer on the council," said Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. "So the rest of us are going to have to work a lot harder to keep in tune with what is going on in the community."

Spring first ran for the District 4 council seat in 1992. After campaigning door-to-door, she won the election.

"I never dreamed that someone in a wheelchair could run for council, could run for public office," she said early last year.

Those who have worked in the city government, and even those who just knew her story, say that Spring serves as a reminder of what one can accomplish regardless of physical capacity.

"It's remarkable, it's really remarkable that a young woman who was so severely disabled was able to campaign, was able to go to the various meetings and things that she had to go to, none of it was easy," Dean said.

City officials said the city has not yet set plans on how to fill the District 4 City Council seat, but is considering putting the seat up for election in November along with four other council seats that are set to be on the ballot at that time.

A film completed in July 2007 about Spring's life titled "Dona Spring, Courage in Life and Politics" will be shown at the Unitarian Church at Ceder Street and Bonita Avenue on Friday at 7:00 p.m..

Angelica Dongallo of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

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