Public Comment

On Monday, April 10, at the Berkeley City Council Agenda Committee, during the finalization of the City Council agenda for the April 25, 2023 regular council meeting, that the request from Dee Williams-Ridley, City Manager to add the appointments of the Chief of Police and the Fire Chief to the April 25 agenda ran into a bit of a snag. The April 25 agenda would be released on April 13, and for City staff to meet the Brown Act deadline for the publication of the agenda it would have to be completed before the 3 pm City Council closed session which was going to discuss the appointments. 

Placing the appointments on the agenda before City Council met on the matter had a bit of a bad look. So, there was a back and forth between from the City Clerk’s office staff relating the process and past practice of posting appointments for the City Council vote and Mayor Arreguin and Councilmembers Hahn and Wengraf and City Manager Williams-Ridley discussing just how they could get around the inconvenience of the April 25 meeting agenda being posted before the closed session meeting occurred. Several possibilities were discussed before being discarded, i.e. posting the regular meeting agenda on time on April 13 and then modifying the agenda on April 17 or waiting until the first meeting in May. 

Wengraf suggested the special meeting for the public vote on the appointments as special meetings only need a 72-hour notice. With a special meeting already planned for 5 pm on April 25 to precede the regular 6 pm meeting, the Agenda Committee of Arreguin, Hahn and Wengraf decided with Williams-Ridley, they would start the special meeting at 4:30 pm on April 25 and add the appointments to that schedule. And, that is how the discussion ended on April 10. 

If you wish to listen to the discussion go to the Policy Committee Audio Files, Agenda & Rules for April 10, 2023 (posted April 11). The discussion starts at 11 minutes into the recording. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zq7y9dh8dnzxmyr/AAB5RiBjmc_ym-8xpv1e10XOa?dl=0 

The open comment period preceding the Thursday, April 13, 3 pm City Council Closed Session on the appointments of Jennifer Louis as Berkeley Chief of Police and David Sprague as Fire Department Chief ended with Mayor Arreguin stating that the Council would not be taking any reportable action and that if there is an appointment that will be brought forward at a regular City Council meeting agenda. 

Out of the fifteen who showed up in person to comment on the appointment of Jen Louis as Chief of Police, several of whom who were representing community groups, the eleven who commented via ZOOM, and the nineteen letters on file for the meeting, only three individuals supported appointing Jennifer Louis as Chief of Police. The three were Downtown Berkeley Association manager John Caner (zoom), Charles Clarke (zoom) and Todd Andrew (email). 

Hansel Aguilar, Office of the Director of the Police Accountability Board, read a letter on behalf of the Police Accountability Board (PAB) signed by the Chair John “Chip” Moore. The letter from the PAB noted that the investigations are ongoing and stated the PAB’s concern that there’s consideration for the appointment of Jennifer Louis as the permanent Chief of Police even before the investigations are completed. The letter was a reminder that City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley stated that she would bring back the police chief appointment once the investigations were complete; that is not the case as of April 13, 2023. To read the full letter and the Police Accountability Board press release click on these links: release, letter.  

At 4:06 pm, after an hour of public comment, the public was cleared from the room for the City Council’s Closed Session discussion of the appointments. Unless there is an announcement from the mayor, we will all just have to wait for that April 25, 2023 special meeting post. 

The second appointment under consideration, of David Sprague as Fire Chief, received almost no attention. Sprague’s appointment is expected to go smoothly.