Arya Aliabadi/File

AC Transit employees could strike this Thursday, following a 72-hour notice they issued Monday night.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192, a union that represents 1,760 bus operators, mechanics, dispatchers, clerical and allied workers at AC Transit, rejected a labor contract proposed by AC Transit. AC Transit union employees have already twice rejected proposed labor agreements.

On Tuesday, AC Transit’s board of directors asked Gov. Jerry Brown to impose a 60-day cooling-off period to stop AC Transit workers from striking, according to a press release from AC Transit. In a letter to Brown, AC Transit said the proposed strike would “significantly endanger the public’s health, safety and welfare.”

In early August, ATU Local 192 and AC Transit reached a tentative agreement on negotiations that included a wage increase of 9.5 percent over the next three years and monthly health care contributions of $70, $140 and $180, respectively, for each of the three years. However, the union rejected the contract.

“Like most Americans, our members lost substantial income during the great recession,” said ATU Local 192 President Yvonne Williams in an Oct. 2 press release by the union. “They are expressing concern about how this raise, after medical deductions, makes up for those past concessions.”

AC Transit spokesperson Clarence Johnson said that AC Transit has not received any requests from the union to change its proposal. There are no negotiations scheduled at this time, but he said there may be “at some point.”

“They rejected the contract, but they haven’t gotten back to us on what’s wrong with it,” Johnson said. “We’re kind of in the dark here on how to proceed with negotiations.”

ATU Local 192 workers transport about 200,000 passengers a day in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Of that number, Johnson said about 60,000 are schoolchildren.

BART union employees also threatened to strike on Tuesday, but they postponed the strike after deciding to continue negotiations that day. If an agreement is not met between unions and BART management, BART workers could go on strike this week.

In that case, 400,000 daily BART commuters could be left without transportation, in addition to the potentially 200,000 AC Transit riders on Thursday.

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Samantha Rosenbaum/Staff

After six years, Nancy Skinner’s California State Assembly term will expire, leaving at least six candidates lined up to take her place.

Skinner will leave behind a number of accomplishments in issues ranging from higher education to environmental conservation to public safety. With term limits barring her from seeking two more years in the Assembly in 2014, five Democrats and one Republican have already stepped forward.

Skinner was first elected to the state Assembly in 2008 and in 2012 became the Assembly member representing District 15, which stretches along Interstate 80 from Hercules to Oakland and encompasses cities throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

During her term, Skinner was heavily involved with the Middle Class Scholarship program, which will reduce tuition for middle-income students at UC and CSU schools by up to 40 percent beginning in the 2014-15 academic year. Additionally, Skinner said after Proposition 30 passed in 2012, she was proud to be able to give funding to universities.

“I know that we’ll be able to continue to increase the funding to our public schools,” she said.

In an effort to help the environment, Skinner has also authored legislation to increase solar energy use and improve home and business energy efficiency.

In 1984, Skinner, who attended UC Berkeley as both an undergraduate and a graduate student, was elected to Berkeley City Council, becoming the first and only student to serve on it.

“She has a great history of doing legislative projects related to sustainability,” said ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack.

Although six have declared their intent to run for Skinner’s seat, candidates still have until next March to file to run for state Assembly.

Sam Kang, general counsel for the Greenlining Institute, where he writes legislation regarding racial justice, hopes to create a business model for California that would create jobs and provide cleaner energy. He said his previous experience has prepared him for Sacramento.

“Every day is like going to war,” Kang said. “You want someone who has the actual experience from day one.”

Likewise, Andy Katz, a UC Berkeley alumnus and director at the East Bay Municipal Utility District, hopes to bring in his knowledge of environmental sustainability to focus on renewable energy, among other issues.

Creating jobs is also a priority for Elizabeth Echols, who has worked extensively on this issue as former regional administrator for the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama.

If elected, Tony Thurmond, a former member of Richmond City Council and the West Contra Costa Unified School District School Board, intends to increase funding for public universities and introduce legislation that would improve the system of collecting truancy data in California public schools.

Peggy Moore, a former political director for Obama’s campaign, said she wants to focus on health care reform in the district and issues in the LGBT community.

Rich Kinney, a San Pablo City Council member and the only Republican candidate for District 15 at this time, hopes running for Assembly will help create more of a political balance in California.

According to Skinner, 64 percent of voters in District 15 are registered as Democrats and only 8 percent as Republicans.

“I’m a speck of red in a sea of blue,” Kinney said.

At the June 2014 primary election, the electorate will choose two candidates to move on to run in the fall general election.

Skinner has not endorsed any candidates yet, but she said she might like to see another woman in the Assembly.

“When looking at the other races up and down the state for open seats, I see very few women,” Skinner said. “The U.S. as a whole is pitiful with gender representation.”

But the end of her third and final term in the Assembly is by no means the end of Skinner’s political career. She plans to run for the District 9 state Senate seat in 2016.

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Katherine Chen/Staff

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Monday requiring motorists to give at least three feet of road space to passing bicyclists.

Assembly Bill 1371, authored by Assemblymember Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, will enact the Three Feet for Safety Act on Sept. 16, 2014, updating the law that requires drivers to keep a safe distance from bicyclists but does not specify that distance.

“It’s pretty important to have legislation that has a clear requirement so you aren’t just relying on people’s good will,” said Danita McGinnis of the Missing Link Bicycle Cooperative, a cooperatively owned bicycle shop and repair service in Berkeley.

Bradford introduced the bill in February. Brown has vetoed similar legislation twice, including last year’s SB 1464, which would have allowed drivers to cross a double yellow line to pass bicyclists. According to Bradford, Brown was concerned  these provisions would increase the risk of accidents and create lawsuits for the state.

“I believe Governor Brown felt the amendments to AB 1371 created a safe environment for bicyclists, while ensuring that the bill did not create further safety concerns and legal dilemmas for the state,” Bradford said in a statement.

The bill makes violations of the new provision punishable by a $35 fine and imposes a $220 fine on drivers if they injure a bicyclist in a collision and are found to have violated the rule.

Berkeley City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin said he expects that violations of the law will be enforced like any other traffic law violations.

“I do think there will be challenges with enforcing a law like this, in the same way that cellphone and texting laws seem to be thinly enforced,” said Joe DiStefano, a board member of Livable Berkeley, a coalition of Berkeley citizens and activists.

DiStefano, who takes his two kids to school by bicycle every day, said he appreciates having the law on the cyclist’s side.

“It’s also the cyclist’s responsibility to not put him or herself into positions where cars don’t have a choice … putting everyone in violation of that three-foot rule,” DiStefano said. “It goes both ways.”

According to Bradford, California had the second-highest number of cyclist fatalities in the country in 2009.

“I think it’s important in cities where there’s a lot of bike riders,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “One of the things that discourages people from riding their bikes is fear of collisions.”

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak of District 8, which includes parts of College Avenue that are only one lane each way and do not have bike lanes, said both bikes and vehicles have to share the lane.

“It may cause some slight delays — the motorists might have to wait a second,” Wozniak said. “Sometimes you have to do that for public safety.”

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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The Fair Campaign Practices Commission, a city organization that investigates the activities of campaign groups, met Thursday to discuss a complaint it received in July. The complaint accused the Berkeley Democratic Club — a city group not affiliated with UC Berkeley — of failing to file expense reports and of being involved in alleged improper conduct of the Yes on S campaign during the 2012 elections.

The complaint was filed by Patricia Wall, director of Berkeley’s Homeless Action Center, and Bob Offer-Westort, coordinator for the campaign against Measure S, last year’s controversial sit-lie ordinance. Offer-Westort said he and Wall visited voting stations on Election Day and witnessed homeless people, who he said were hired and paid under the counter by Yes on S, handing out false campaign literature. The complaint charges that financial transactions between the BDC and the Yes on S campaign regarding these activities were not reported.

Before the FCPC can begin its investigation, it must first conclude whether it has jurisdiction over the organization or whether it should refer the case to the state. If 70 percent of the group’s expenditures are in the city of Berkeley, the BDC will be considered a local organization, and the FCPC will take on the case. The FCPC still will investigate the Yes on S campaign for allegedly illegally hiring homeless people to distribute misleading campaign materials.

“We did not have present the persons who were supposedly paying people money to distribute the fliers,” said Patrick O’Donnell, chair of the FCPC. “We don’t know their relationship. Were they part of the Yes on S campaign or BDC? We need to investigate more information here.”

Offer-Westort said that the campaign materials were labeled as official Democratic Party voter guides but that the contents were not actual endorsements of the Democratic Party.

“I think that the nature of elections is competitive … but that doesn’t require that we use people, that we mislead people, that we make people that are already on the margins feel that they are being abused,” Offer-Westort said. “I think Berkeley deserves better politics than that.”

The BDC denies it was involved with hiring homeless people to hand out misleading campaign materials on Election Day.

“They can investigate all they want, but they won’t find anything, because there’s nothing to find,” said Roland Peterson, a BDC board member who was at Thursday’s meeting. “The allegations are wild and groundless and misdirected.”

The next FCPC meeting will be held Nov. 21. The commission will review the information gathered and decide how to move forward. It is not clear how the FCPC will proceed if allegations against the BDC are found to be true.

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

Clarification(s):
A previous version of this article could have been interpreted as referring to the Cal Berkeley Democrats, a student group at UC Berkeley. In fact, it refers to the Berkeley Democratic Club, a different organization from the city of Berkeley.

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Sureya Melkonian/Staff

After almost two years of vacancy, the Oaks Theater may be brought back to life as a multipurpose performance venue.

City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, who represents the district in which the theater is located, and the Youth Musical Theater Company have teamed up to renovate the facility.

“I want it to work for a whole bunch of purposes,” Capitelli said. “For theater, for dance, for symphony.”

Jennifer Boesing, artistic director of the YMTC, said she hopes to organize a nonprofit group to manage the Oaks Theater. The group would consist of members from the community and tenants of the building.

“I created a survey, (and) we had close to 1,200 responses,” Capitelli said. “Ninety-eight percent were favorable toward the Oaks Center becoming a theater.”

Allen Cain, director of the Solano Avenue Association, said many families live in the neighborhood surrounding the Oaks Theater.

“We want to appeal to a youthful market,” Cain said. “We need something for the youth to do on the street.”

The Oaks Theater, located on Solano Avenue in North Berkeley, opened in 1925 and was used as a movie theater until 2005. It reopened briefly in 2010 when Merriment Media used the theater to show Bollywood films for several months. The space has remained unused since.

John Gordon, a commercial realtor and the owner of the Oaks Theater, said he is supportive of the theater being a multiuse venue. Capitelli and the YMTC have worked out an agreement with Gordon so he will not rent the theater to any other operator for the next four months, giving the task force time to finish renovation plans and find organizations that want to use the theater.

The task force is working on a plan for renovation it can present to the city. Donn Logan, the lead architect for the renovation, said his team will be building a stage, redistributing the seating and taking down the wall that divides the building’s two theaters.

“We’re just at the beginning,” Logan said.

Capitelli estimated costs will amount to anywhere between $300,000 to $500,000, but an official cost analysis has not been completed. He added that more than $100,000 has already been pledged.

“We’ll need help from the neighborhood, the core tenants,” he said. “We’ll need to do some fundraising.”

Capitelli said he plans to get started on the plans by mid-October and submit them by the end of the year. He hopes to start the renovation sometime next spring for an opening in September of next year.

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Nathaniel Solley/Staff

Berkeley City Council will discuss increasing the number of medical cannabis dispensaries in the city from four to six at Tuesday’s meeting.

The council members will decide on referring the ordinance to the Berkeley Planning Commission, which will make the final decision of whether to approve adding two new dispensaries. The commission will likely not review the ordinance until early next year.

“The reason for the increase might be because the current number is inadequately meeting the needs of demand,” said Kris Hermes, spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, a group that promotes safe and legal access to cannabis.

Councilmember Jesse Arreguin said that the City Council will also have a chance to clarify the difference between collectives, which are allowed in residential neighborhoods, and dispensaries, which are not.

“Patients won’t have to go to Oakland. They won’t have to go to Richmond,” said Charles Pappas, a member of the Medical Cannabis Commission. “It’s good to have more choices. It’s going to be better for patients.”

If the council decides to move forward with the initiative, Hermes said that the price of medical marijuana in Berkeley could decrease as the number of dispensaries increases.

The MCC has made recommendations to the City Council concerning the criteria for choosing future dispensary owners and locations.

If the limit on dispensaries is increased, a ranking process based on a point system would be placed to moderate applications for the new dispensaries. Application requirements for opening a dispensary would include being subject to a criminal background check and having a clear business and security plan.

The applications would go to the MCC for review, but the City Council would ultimately make the decision of who gets to run the new dispensaries.

“I think there will be at least one added,” Pappas said. “They can’t stop that.”

Medical cannabis dispensaries have long been a contentious issue in the city of Berkeley. In 2010, the passage of Measure T enabled Berkeley to raise the number of medical cannabis dispensaries from three to four.

“What the Medical Cannabis Commission has been working on since (Measure T) is a set of regulations to not only improve our law around allowing safe access to (medical) marijuana, but (also) who will (run) that dispensary,” Arreguin said.

This past August, the Obama administration announced in a memo that the federal government would not interfere with state laws legalizing recreational marijuana use and would refrain from targeting dispensaries based on “size or commercial nature.”

Arreguin said that he hopes this change in policy may turn U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag away from her attempts to shut down dispensaries in Oakland and Berkeley. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice announced efforts to enforce regulations on the marijuana industry throughout California.

“The news that they are changing their stance about enforcing marijuana laws is very encouraging,” Arreguin said. “I hope it will allow us to move ahead.”

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Joe Wright/File

After more than a year of discussions, protests and petitions, Berkeley community members are looking at a newly proposed zoning ordinance that may finally decide the fate of the Downtown Berkeley post office.

The ordinance would shift zoning lines to include the 99-year-old post office in the Civic Center Historic District, which includes places such as Old City Hall and Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. The law would limit the use of areas in this district to nonprofit or government uses.

“We’re trying to work with the Planning Commission to come up with zoning that protects the whole Civic Center Historic District,” said Mike Lonergan, a member of the Save the Berkeley Post Office organization. “If the building’s going to be repurposed, we’d want it to have some public use.”

Lonergan mentioned that if the U.S. Postal Service sells the post office, the space could be used for profit through businesses such as an upscale restaurant or a hotel.

“We see this as a bigger issue of privatization,” said Moni Law, a UC Berkeley alumna and another member of Save the Berkeley Post Office.

She also expressed concerns about the effects of downsizing, which she said would result in eliminating a number of post office employee positions. Law said the Postal Service is one of the largest employers in the country. The Postal Service employed more than 500,000 career employees as of January 2013, according to its website.

The Postal Service has not yet set up an official sale of the post office space, but its representatives argued against the zoning proposal at the last Berkeley Planning Commission meeting.

“The citizens of Berkeley have shown they have positive and constructive ideas to offer to the postal office,” said Igor Tregub, a Zoning Adjustments Board commissioner. “The postal office would ignore these ideas at their own peril.”

The Downtown Berkeley Association does not support the zoning ordinance. John Caner, CEO of the association, said that while “it’s important to keep the building open to the public,” the association does not want to limit future uses of the facilities to only nonprofit or government uses. He referenced the San Francisco Ferry Building as an example of a historic space being used for public, for-profit purposes.

“Our concern is that we don’t want to preclude something that could be a private partnership, something that could be a marketplace,” Caner said.

The Berkeley Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Oct. 2 at the North Berkeley Senior Center to further examine the issue.

“I would welcome any discussion that would lead toward a win-win outcome, whatever form that discussion might take,” Tregub said. “This is an issue that has seen almost unprecedented cohesion in members of the community.”

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Assembly Bill 484, authored by Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, would end the STAR tests that California schools use to judge performance in math and English.

Unlike current testing methods, the new assessments will have public school students take statewide assessments on computers and explain their reasoning through essays in both English and math subjects.

California K-12 schools are transitioning from the current curriculum to the Common Core curriculum, which has been adopted by 45 states. Teachers will be trained to prepare their students for the Common Core standard, which will be adopted by all schools by the 2014-15 school year.

“If you’re in the middle of switching but using the old test, what’s the relevancy of the data you’re collecting?” said Karen Hemphill, president of the Berkeley Unified School District School Board.

The new curriculum is intended to teach students to think conceptually and write analytically in all subjects. The STAR tests do not reflect the curriculum of the Common Core, and this bill aims to make that adjustment sooner.

Frank Worrell, a campus professor in the Graduate School of Education, said the Common Core program will benefit students by preparing them to think conceptually, as is required at the college level.

“What we need to see is the conceptual understanding in students who didn’t necessarily have good conceptual understanding before,” Worrell said. “It will be interesting for us to look at our materials and see that we are actually in line with what they are doing at K-12.”

If the bill is passed, students will take field tests of the new Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress in place of math and English STAR tests this school year. MAPP is a set of assessments aligned to Common Core, and AB 484 includes plans to permanently replace STAR with MAPP in the 2014-15 school year.

The currently used Academic Performance Index, a collection of data from standardized tests, would not be recorded for the next two years, because the data collected from the new testing curriculum cannot be compared to the API data taken from the previous STAR tests.

The bill has been cleared by the Senate Appropriations Committee and is awaiting a vote on the state Senate floor.

“We will know so much more after the State Accountability meeting in October,” said Debbi D’Angelo, the Berkeley school district’s director of evaluation and assessment, in an email. “Through the hard work from the teachers and professional development department, we are preparing students for these exciting changes.”

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Jan Flatley-Feldman/File

Berkeley public schools have seen an overall improvement in performance on state tests, according to a progress report released Aug. 29.

According to the California Department of Education’s report, the Berkeley Unified School District achieved an Academic Performance Index score of 821, surpassing state goals. That score represents an improvement of 10 points over last year’s score of 811.

The API score is based on standardized tests and assessments and is used as a measurement of student progress in California K-12 public schools. It is scored on a scale of 200 to 1,000, with a statewide target of 800. Only four schools in the district did not meet this goal.

“The more people understand the test scores and the impact they have on our students, the more they will be able to help them to improve,” said Mark Coplan, spokesperson for Berkeley Unified School District.

Eight schools in the district saw a decrease in API scores. John Muir Elementary had the greatest drop — 41 points — and received a score of 782. The school’s principal, Audrey Amos, said faculty and administrators are already using the data to re-examine the curriculum.

In the first weeks of school, the report is shared with teachers, Amos said. Students also receive their individual reports to take home.

In the district, socioeconomically disadvantaged students’ API scores improved 21 points over last year, and African American students improved by 16 points. Still, school board President Karen Hemphill said these groups were 150 to 200 points behind other student groups.

“(There were) gains overall, but there’s not an acceleration,” Hemphill said. “The achievement gap isn’t narrowing.”

Hemphill said there will be more focus on underachieving student groups in the next year. She added that she hopes the implementation of the Common Core — a program that seeks to improve student success by aligning state education standards — eventually will help to narrow the achievement gap.

“Common Core is really changing the way schools teach all subjects,” Hemphill said. “I think that’s going to be the basis for making those strides.”

Tara Hurley covers city news. Contact her at thurley@dailycal.org.

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If approved, the restraining order would prohibit the two-day strike planned by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299. According to a statement released by the UC Office of the President on Friday, strikes that pose an imminent threat to public health and safety are illegal under state law, and the university believes the strike would improperly withhold health care from the public.

Dianne Klein, a UC spokesperson, said that if the union cared about patient safety, it would not endanger patients by striking.

“This (strike) is one of their tactics to get what they want, which is a special deal for their workers,” Klein said. “That is not only unfair but fiscally irresponsible.”

The strike comes amid ongoing contract negotiations that began in June 2012. The university proposed a pension reform that would increase contributions toward pension benefits from both the university and employees, but AFSCME 3299 rejected these reforms, arguing that the university is prioritizing pensions over patient care.

According to Todd Stenhouse, spokesperson for AFSCME 3299, the university is prioritizing executive pension benefits instead of adequate patient care and staffing.
“We are seeing the university cut corners in ways that are so dangerous for patients,” said Kathryn Lybarger, president of AFSCME 3299.

AFSCME 3299 has established a Patient Protection Task Force to care for patients during the strike, but that it is something in which the university refuses to participate, according to Stenhouse.

During pension reform negotiations, AFSCME 3299 asked for caps on executive pension benefits, which the university would not discuss, according to Lybarger.

“Right now, these executives are going to retire on upwards of $300,000,” Lybarger said. “That’s a lot of money to live on for doing nothing.”

The university filed a similar restraining order in July 2008 in response to a planned AFSCME 3299 strike. The court approved the restraining order, but the union went ahead with the strike.

“If the court says you are prohibited from striking and they go ahead and do it anyway, they are breaking the law,” Klein said. “We hope there is not a strike. We are prepared for one.”

University Professional and Technical Employees, another UC medical workers union, also held a demonstration Wednesday at the five UC medical centers.

AFSCME 3299 also held a sit-down protest at Wednesday’s UC Board of Regents meeting in Sacramento, resulting in the arrest of 13 demonstrators.

“We are in this fight to win real patient protection,” Lybarger said. “It’s not an option to emerge from this fight without having won real gains for our patients.”

Contact Tara Hurley at thurley@dailycal.org.

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