Judge Barbara Miller Grants Cal Right To Replace Trees - But Opponents Have One Week To File Appeal

Well, the war for the right to alter Cal's Memorial Grove continues; score this battle in the war as a win for U.C. Berkeley. Alameda County Judge Barbara Miller granted Cal the right to replace the trees on Tuesday, but also gave their opponents one week to file an appeal.

This has been a long, hard, emotional battle between Cal and The Tree Sitters, who still remain in the trees. I captured part of that battle in a three-part video series.

For their part, the Oak Grove Tree Sitters plan a march to Berkeley City Hall Thursday. Here's the schedule from their website (with spelling corrections):

Oak Grove Supporters
Plan March to City Hall
Thursday July 24th


On Thursday the Berkeley City Council will presumably make it’s final decision on pursuing an appeal in the UC stadium case. Supporters plan a rally in front of the City Counsel. The plans include:

3:33 pm Meet at Oak grove
4:00 pm March from grove to Council
4:44 pm Rally in front of Counsel Building
5:00 pm City Counsel holds public
hearing before closed
session

Oakland John Edwards Fans: Edwards Was Caught In A Scandal

Oakland fans of Senator John Edwards will not like the news they're about to get. For the full story, go over to Zennie's Zeitgeist with a click here.

Oakland City Council Kills Kids Funding Program Compromise For Ballot Measure

I can only hope Kids First passes in November because the City's budget problems are so potentially bad that this "zero-sum" choice was presented: pay for more youth programs, and cut jobs, or don't and wait to see if the Kids First Initiative passes in November, and save City jobs.

Here's the Trib story, in part..

OAKLAND — The City Council rejected the idea of a compromise ballot measure Tuesday that would have increased funding for youth programs, but not as dramatically as a separate initiative expected to qualify for the November ballot.

A majority of council members worried a ballot-measure compromise could seriously dent the rest of Oakland's budget.
The meeting came on the heels of another blow to the city's finances: The council voted unanimously early Tuesday not to collect $12 million in increased Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District fees after officials faced questions about whether the new rates would have held up in court.

The decision followed a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this month in a Santa Clara County case that left it uncertain whether the increased fee would hold up in court if the city faced a legal challenge.

"It's a painful decision, but I think they made the right decision," City Attorney John Russo said.

The youth funding debate came more than a month after the Kids First! Coalition turned in about 43,000 signatures hoping to force a November ballot question that would, in three years, more than double funding for the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, which goes to nonprofit organizations providing youth programs.

Councilmember Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel) worked with the League of Women Voters and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County as well as Kids First! to craft acompromise that would have had less of an impact on the city's budget. Kids First! expressed approval of the compromise Tuesday.

Oakland City Council Votes Not To Collect LLAD Tax Increase

In what Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhoods (ORPN) calls a "victory for the people" the Oakland City Council voted last night not to collect the increase in the tax for the Landscape Lighting and Assessment District (LLAD) after the Alameda County Superior Court upheld the tax.

ORPN reports on this:

City Backs Off LLAD Tax Hike

At a special July 22, 2008 meeting, the Oakland city council voted not to collect the Landscape and Lighting Assessment (LLAD) tax increase that it previously declared voters had approved.

The decision is a $12 million victory for Oakland residents, who expressed broad outrage at the blatant ballot-box stuffing in a mail-in vote that City Hall conducted in April and May.

However, no councilmember admitted that she condoned and participated in the vote rigging. Instead, the council took cover under a state supreme court ruling on assessment districts in general issued last week.

Before the vote, one resident told the council, "If the press play on this matter starts to become bigger, the last thing Oakland needs is more loss of credibility and more scandal." He was referring to the Deborah Edgerly affair, the county grand jury expose of credit card abuse, the KTVU report on mayor Dellums' luxury living and short working hours, and more.
Another resident told the councilmembers, "You need to apologize" for stuffing the ballot box. They did not. In fact, councilmember Kernighan went out of her way to insist that the LLAD election was conducted properly. She said giving the City's Port about a million extra votes was just fine. Her pugnacious disrespect for the people of Oakland was not well founded, however. She disclosed that the council in closed session had considered going to court itself to get a ruling on its vote count, in effect trying to pre-empt an imminent legal challenge from some voter. With the state supreme court ruling, however, Kernighan conceded the tactic was doomed.

The failure to ram through a LLAD tax hike that would not even help parks is a particular failure for councilmember Quan. She failed to pass a LLAD increase in 2006. She insisted to her colleagues that there be a LLAD vote this Spring. Having lost her wild proposal for a $100 million palace library (Measure N), too, Quan's reputation as the tax queen is tarnished.
At the July 22 meeting, the council voted to leave the LLAD tax at its current level. The council did not rescind its banana-republic certification that voters "approved" an increase. It was a bitter moment. No councilmember made any self-criticism. The decision did not reveal any change in the political character of any councilmember.

Oakland residents have learned a lot about City Hall during this fight. Oakland residents won a victory....