The final step for the BIrd Safe Ordinance is the vote by the City Council on June 6 at the 6 pm regular meeting. Reading the 50 page report in the June 6 City Council Agenda packet makes my eyes glaze over.

There are things you should know. This is not a done deal.

Erin Diehm put together a tool kit with the actions (there are three) to take. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZkY-L8ugJoy-sU3WfkPnlh2Mx8UcE6MIM7VRDYlY2nA/edit?usp=sharing

You might ask, Why, is it so important that Berkeley gets the BIrd Safe Ordinance right?

Of most importance is that bird populations are in steep decline. The net loss of 29% of birds in North America since 1970 sent a shock wave across the scientific community, spilling over to front page news. The lead scientist Ken Rosenberg of the groundbreaking 2019 study which reported that nearly 3 billion breeding birds had vanished in North America in 48 years said this:

“Because birds are highly visible and sensitive indicators of environmental health, we know their loss signals a much wider loss of biodiversity and threats to human health and well-being.”

Despite the alarming findings, the scientists say there is hope, but that requires transformative change. Bird-glass collisions are estimated to kill up to 1 billion birds per year and residences, the 1 and 2 story buildings, are 44% of the problem. -more-

On June 6th, City Council will vote on a Whistleblower Program. The goal of the program is a “more accountable Berkeley government through the prevention and investigation of suspected fraud, waste, and abuse.”

The author of the item, which appears on the consent calendar, is City Auditor, Jenny Wong. It is co-sponsored by Mayor Arreguin; and Councilmembers Kesarwani, Harrison, and Wengraf.

To implement the program, the auditor has requested the hiring of a new employee, whose salary and benefits will cost taxpayers in the range of $219,000 to $287,000. Given the city has lost an estimated $21.4 million in revenue each year over the last 10 years due to fraud (the actual loss is unknown), the cost of a whistleblower program manager should be viewed as a wise investment.

In the item, Wong outlines an implementation plan for the program, which consists of five phases. Briefly, they are:

1. Hire a Whistleblower Program Manager (Audit Manager).
2. Determine methods and platforms for whistleblower reporting for employees and the public (which will be available 24/7).
3. Design a process for responding to and referring complaints.
4. Develop and disseminate written procedures and educational materials including how potential whistleblowers will be supported.
5. Launch program.

This is an important initiative and is long overdue. As some may remember, Ann-Marie Hogan, Berkeley’s previous auditor, detailed the “pervasive fraud” throughout the City’s ranks in a 2014 audit entitled, “$52,000 Theft: More Can Be Expected Without Citywide Changes in Culture and Procedures.” -more-

Treatment Advocacy is a non-profit organization operating from Arlington, Virginia, (possibly an hour's drive from Richmond, Virginia, home of Phillip Morris) and has the agenda of making it easier to get noncompliant mentally ill adults into involuntary treatment. Some of this agenda will help some mentally ill people find their way in life.

I agree at least partway with their ethic. I find that to survive, I need psychiatric medication. In the distant past, before these medications were discovered, many persons with mental illness probably died, became the town drunkard, or became the town "idiot." People were locked up for years; in some instances, for the rest of their lives, because we had no method of helping them. In 1950, Thorazine was discovered, and it was finally a way that some mentally ill psychotic people could be helped.

Lynn Nanos LICSW, is a multi-award-winning author who writes books--the subject: getting mentally ill people into treatment. She claims that by treating mental illness, it will enable mental health consumers to fight the rampant discrimination that exists in society, in the job market, in the priorities of medical doctors, and in any area of society you can imagine.

To me, this is a very sound concept, and it describes the course of my life. In my past, I was compliant most of the time, but I would relapse after about six years of being stabilized. This wasn't a long enough stretch of time for me to really get well. Finally, in 1996, I made a firm commitment to myself that I would never go off medication at all, ever. -more-

I write to express my deep concern about the staggering national debt and the factors contributing to its alarming rise. I believe it is essential to question the excessive spending on unnecessary wars that not only drain our resources but also exacerbate global hostility and instability. For example, I find it disheartening that our unwavering support for apartheid Israel seems contradictory to our professed commitment to human rights, especially considering the dire situation faced by the Palestinian people. Another tragic blunder was faulty intelligence which led to the invasion of Iraq resulting in the death of millions of Iraqis and the birth of Al-Qaeda. The catastrophic mistake in Afghanistan on 5 December 2001 when President GW Bush refused to accept the Taliban’s offer of unnational surrender hat still haunts us today. This mistake was compounded by freezing Afghan’s assets which led to mass starvation and condemned girls to suffocating isolation imposed by the Taliban. -more-

I have recently read two fascinating books about the remote mountainous region of Epirus in northwestern Greece. The first book I read was Lament from Epirus by Christopher C. King, (W.W. Norton & Co., 2018(), an account of the author’s lifelong involvement in discovering, initially by means of old 78 rpm vinyl records, traditional music from Epirus in northwestern Greece. The second book, which I decided to reread right after my reading of Lament from Epirus, was Eleni, by Nicholas Gage (Random House, 1983), a harrowing account of how Gage’s mother, a peasant woman from a remote village in the Pindos Mountains of Epirus in Greece near the Albanian border, struggled to save her children. This task, undertaken during the Greek Civil War, ultimately cost this courageous woman her life, while it successfully saved the lives of her children. -more-

Worth Noting:

Check the City website for late announcements and meetings posted on short notice at: https://berkeleyca.gov/

• Tuesday: At 2:30 pm the Agenda Committee meets in the hybrid format to plan the June 13 City Council Regular Meeting. The status of In-Person meeting of City legislative bodies (boards and commissions) is #8 on the agenda.
• Wednesday:
  • From 6 – 7 pm there is a community meeting on the Specialized Care Unit in the hybrid format. Register before the meeting for the Zoom link.
  • At 7 pm the Homeless Services Panel of Experts meets on Measure P.
• Thursday:
  • At 7 pm the Housing Advisory Commission meets in person.
  • At 7 pm the Landmarks Preservation Commission meets in person. The Civic Center Plan is on the agenda.

City Council will vote on the Bird Safe Ordinance on June 6 at the 6 pm Regular city Council meeting.

Bird Safe tool kit by Erin Diehm https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZkY-L8ugJoy-sU3WfkPnlh2Mx8UcE6MIM7VRDYlY2nA/edit?usp=sharing

Directions with links to Zoom Support for activating Closed Captioning and Save Transcript are at the bottom of this calendar.

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BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS and CIVIC EVENTS

Sunday, May 28, 2023 – No City Meetings listed

Monday, May 29, 2023 – Memorial Day Holiday

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

AGENDA AND RULES COMMITTEE Meeting at 2:30 pm -more-