Setting the Record Straight
It's Time to Set the Record Straight
You may have received a pamphlet from my opponent that is almost entirely devoted to tearing down my record of achievement on behalf of the people of Berkeley. It is full of misrepresentations. As the only candidate in this race with a history of public service to this community longer than nine months (the full extent of his record), I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight.
FLOCK
Berkeley’s Flock contract was first approved in 2023, before I joined the City Council. I not only voted against renewing Flock at the first opportunity, but worked with the Mayor and Councilmember Lunaparra to co-author and design the strongest possible set of privacy and civil rights guardrails against any use of surveillance.
The 2025 vote my opponent references was a complicated sequence of votes that, thanks to my efforts, resulted in one of the strongest sets of guardrails in the nation concerning this technology. Notably, my opponent was not involved in these discussions at all. But for these efforts, Berkeley would have much weaker privacy and surveillance protections today. The real-world impacts of how data from this technology has been misused in other jurisdictions has become even more clear since the advent of the Trump Administration’s cruel and inhumane approach to immigration enforcement. In my votes at the Council, I have made it clear that no amount of safeguards is any longer sufficient given Flock’s abysmal track record with community trust as a vendor. I will continue to oppose contracting with Flock.
I also voted against the lifting of a moratorium on the use of tear gas and was pleased to see a majority of the City Council agreed with me. I am proud to be the only candidate in this race who is endorsed by members of the Police Accountability Board, including its Chair and Vice Chair.
THE BUDGET
This council has had to make extraordinarily difficult choices in attempting to balance a nearly $30 million deficit. Through our due diligence, I was able to identify several million dollars per year in additional revenue that large corporations owed the City, which allowed me to work with the Mayor to reinstate several critical City positions and programs.
As Chair of the Health, Life Enrichment, Equity, and Community Committee and Council-appointed designee to Berkeley’s Behavioral Health Commission, I am working diligently to secure a sustainable funding stream that could help restore Berkeley’s mobile crisis center to handle calls that do not require police intervention.
SUPPORT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
My opponent has challenged me on a 2024 item I co-sponsored to exempt the taxation of business gross receipts relating to government and philanthropic research and development grants in the public interest. As a UC Berkeley alumnus with a degree in Mechanical Engineering who has worked extensively with researchers at all three of the Bay Area’s major national laboratories, I saw time and time again how my colleagues, who had ideas of how to save our planet or produce the next life-saving medicine, had to move the small businesses they incubated out of Berkeley due to, among other things, locally-imposed financial constraints on their ability to continue growing them here.
As your Downtown Berkeley councilmember I also know that keeping these small businesses here in Berkeley has a multiplier effect, as its employees frequent local retail, including downtown coffee shops, restaurants and other small businesses. I have taken a leading role in ensuring that our downtown becomes a safe, accessible, and vibrant destination for all and, among the other items I authored, making it easier for entrepreneurs and their employees to remain in Berkeley as a key strategy. Thanks to our collective efforts, the percentage of commercial vacancies in the downtown - which houses many early-stage companies developing these life-saving products - is down to pre-pandemic levels, and we’re just getting started.
HOMELESSNESS
The reasons why someone may fall into homelessness are complex and all too often intersect with economic inequality and all sorts of inequities that conservative national policies have fomented over many decades. Helping our unhoused neighbors rebuild their lives is not just a core campaign priority - it’s a mission to which I’ve devoted over two decades of my public service to Berkeley.
Even before being elected to the Berkeley City Council, my efforts were instrumental in approving and securing funding for the Hope Center, a 60+ unit deeply affordable housing project with wraparound supportive services for those coming out of homelessness, while helping pass Measure O, a $135 million affordable housing bond, and Measure P in 2018, a ballot measure that has secured millions of dollars for homelessness services each year since then. (My opponent was not involved in any of these efforts, nor appears to have even voted in the November 2018 election in which Measure P was on the ballot).
In 2024, the fruit of these efforts became clear: Berkeley saw a 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness. In my time on the City Council, I have built upon these efforts in a variety of ways - from working with the County Board of Supervisors to ensure that at least 80% of Alameda County Measure W (2020) dollars go towards homelessness services with an emphasis on funding new affordable housing and wraparound services in high-need jurisdictions such as Berkeley, to securing millions of dollars of state funding toward noncongregate supportive housing, including three projects that have opened up in or near District 4 in the past two years.
At the same time, I think most Berkeley voters understand that there are encampments and unhoused living situations that are fundamentally unsafe or uninhabitable for people sleeping there and/or unfair to other Berkeley residents going about their lives. I’m committed to continuing to be an effective change agent in helping our unhoused neighbors rebuild their lives in safe and supportive environments.
SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS
Ensuring that our downtown, and all of Berkeley, is a safe, accessible destination in which our arts and cultural uses can thrive is a top priority of mine. In my short time on the Council, I helped bring a pop-up art gallery at the former Half Price Books location on Shattuck and Addison, secured funding for catenary lighting in the Arts District, and am currently actively working with stakeholders to return the Aurora Theater back to its former home in Berkeley's Arts District. A significant amount of my attention has also focused on exploring various funding strategies to bring a movie theater back to Downtown.
Regarding the specific project my opponent is referencing, I am limited in what I can say given legally privileged information that came before the Council prior to that 2024 vote - a difficult one for me - but part of the responsibility of a councilmember is also to take appropriate steps to avoid costly litigation that the city is unlikely to win.
HOPKINS
Hopkins Street provides an important access point for those who shop at Monterey Market and the other beloved small businesses along that corridor, attend Ruth Acty Elementary or King Middle School, or just go about their day. It is critical that this corridor is made safe and accessible to all - and that it is paved as soon as possible.
As your councilmember, it is my duty to listen to the entire district, and opinions on the appropriate visions for Hopkins street safety improvements were split nearly down the middle. While I was disappointed that a supplemental referral by Councilmember Blackaby to also study alternative corridors such as Rose St and Ada St, which I voted for, did not receive the needed five votes to advance, I supported a study that would explore the feasibility of different approaches to make the Hopkins corridor safe and accessible for all, paired with a robust parking demand management system so that parking spaces are readily available to those who need to drive and park along the corridor.
As I have been doing with other complex and contentious issues that come before the Council, I will hold a community listening session for District 4 neighbors on whatever proposal might come before the Council in the future.
RENT CAPS
My opponent alleges that I voted for a less robust reduction in the absolute rent cap than a different proposal. Context and facts matter. The reality is I responsibly voted for the strongest rent cap that could actually pass. In 2024, the Berkeley City Council was voting to place Measure BB, which was later approved by the voters and is now law, on the ballot. In a public setting, a former member of the City Council stated that they would support a 5% absolute cap but not a lower one. Because they were expected to be the deciding vote on any tenant protection measure before council at that time, I cast a vote in support of this.
Because of my vote, the measure received five votes - the minimum needed for the Council to adopt it - which is why we have a stronger set of tenant protections and a tenant’s rights to organize their building in place now.
If I had taken the current position of my opponent on this issue (he was not involved in advocacy for or discussion on this issue at the time), these protections would not exist. I am proud to be the only candidate in this race to be endorsed by any current Rent Board members - let alone a supermajority of them - and the California Democratic Renters Council.
CEASEFIRE RESOLUTION
I worked with the Mayor and Councilmember Bartlett on a thoughtful ceasefire resolution that we felt could pass through this Council. We voted for it along with with Councilmember Lunaparra, one vote short of the needed five votes to advance, I voted for the only remaining resolution - one that spoke of our aspirations for peace and peaceful coexistence in that region of the Middle East, and continued condemnation of Islamophobia and antisemitism.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I have served this community for more than two decades – 2 years as a City Councilmember, 8 years as a Berkeley Rent Stabilization Commissioner, and many years of combined service on 12 city and regional commissions, 6 of them as their chair.
My opponent can’t run on his record of public service to this community, because it barely exists. In fact, he can rarely be counted on to even vote! According to the voter file, he has not voted in five of the past six elections, choosing not to be counted as Berkeley voters have made major decisions on housing affordability, tenant protections, infrastructure investments, support for parks and public schools, and much more.
I welcome the opportunity to talk about our respective records. I know what I’ve accomplished for this community, and it would be nice to learn more about what my opponent has done, since he doesn’t have much to say about that. I know that I have the experience, the dedication, the progressive values, and the commitment to civic duty to help us navigate the challenging times ahead.
Yes, I have an extensive public record of service and have had to gain understanding, hear people on all sides, and make tough decisions on many difficult and divisive issues over the years. I work hard, strive to hear the diverse views of this community, and do my best to elevate Berkeley values in the decisions I make. In doing so, I recognize that reasonable people will disagree with some decisions I’ve made along the way. That’s ok! That’s Berkeley in action, and that’s democracy in action.