Homelessness, police reform among council election issues
BERKELEY >> A total of 12 candidates have thrown their hats into the ring for four seats in this year’s Berkeley City Council election. In Districts 2 and 3, discussions of climate change and police reform are on the forefront of candidates’ minds, which have seven candidates total.
In District 2, current incumbent Cheryl Davila’s district, the challengers are business owner Timothy Carter, solar energy scientist Alex Sharenko and Berkeley transportation commission vice chair Terry Taplin.
In District 3, incumbent Ben Bartlett is being challenged by construction manager Orlando Martinez and real estate broker Deborah Matthews.
Davila, in an interview, ad
dressed homelessness as one of her top priorities, saying she’s a supporter of tiny homes, safe parking for RV dwellers, sanctioned encampments (with regular trash pickup and good neighbor policies). She said during her tenure on council she’s helped bring change — such as taking mobile showers to the city’s homeless in the city. Recently, she’s been trying to coordinate a cleanup for encampments that are on Caltrans property.
On the topic of police reform, Carter said the conversation seems to be around money and cutting police funding when it should really be around the systemic racism in the department.
“We need to address the issue: How do we change that culture? How do we change the police officers’ view of our black and brown community?” he said.
He suggests giving the city’s police commission “teeth” and adding prov isions to protect whistleblowers who come forward within the department.
When asked if he thinks the police budget should be cut, and if so by how much, Sharenko said he’d like any cuts to be data- driven, and not arbitrarily “pull numbers out of the air” like “the incumbent has tried to do,” he said.
“I want police officers to not be treated as a Swiss Army knife,” where they are a social worker, mental health worker, traffic cop and investigator of violent crime, he said. Instead, he wants to narrow their focus and shift resources to social workers and mental health workers.
Taplin agrees with using data to make informed
decisions about changes to the police budget, “so that we’re tagging things like unnecessary militarygrade equipment, or unnecessary tactical training.” He instead wants to take a look at where the department is spending most of its time and money, and make changes accordingly.
Davila said she was the council member who initially introduced legislation for a 50% budget cut to the police department’s budget. While her recommendation did not pass, the mayor introduced his own proposal that included some of her points, with a goal to eventually reduce the budget by 50%, which did pass.
She supports redirecting funds from the police
budget, such as for mental health professionals to help respond to calls, and noted that she wants to take a look at overtime funds. “I’m not convinced it’s efficient,” she said.
“I’ve lived here for 39 years, I have the experience. We don’t need someone in there learning the job during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
In District 3, Matthews said she’s running to bring a fresh start in leadership to south Berkeley, and she wants to focus on bringing housing to the area. She also ran unsuccessfully in 2016. Incumbent Bartlett, first elected in 2016, said he wants to finish what he started and focus on pandemic recovery, including
economic recovery, housing and homelessness in the city.
Regrading police reform, Matthews does not want to “defund police” but redirect funds and focus on how racism has shaped the city’s police department and focus on community policing. That could include bringing in speakers, working with former gang members and providing educational opportunities for those who are at risk. She also wants police trainees properly vetted, “making sure they are not connected to white supremacy” and have no previous history of abuse.
Bartlett said he introduced the “George Floyd Community Safety Act” this past summer (which passed unanimously) that declared racism as a public health emergency. With it, came a comprehensive plan for “smarter budgeting,” he said, since the police department is 40% of the city’s budget, most of which is overtime, with police responding to calls of mental health crisis and homelessness. The act proposes a specialized care unit that would provide professional social workers or EMTs to respond a mental health call, freeing up police to solve crimes.
According to his website, Martinez has a background in construction and engineering. His priorities if elected include “tackling the issues of homelessness, creating safety awareness, improving development programs for our youth, ensuring tax equity for all, and becoming a voice for the community.”
Martinez did not respond to requests for an interview.