Wednesday, July 1, 2015

City Council Postpone Voting on New Regulations For Berkeley’s Homeless

A lengthy agenda and a lengthy meeting of the Berkeley City Council last night - there was the budget and a pending deal with the city's unionized workers. And then there were four proposed ordinances on the behavior of homeless people from councilwoman Linda Maio who says the status quo is no longer acceptable and points to a growing encampment on Shattuck and Telegraph Avenues. Opponents of her measures complained that the actual language of her proposals was not available until late last month and a last minute amendment distributed last night undermined the democratic process. Maio's supporters suggested that the opponents were filibustering the meeting to drive it into the early morning hours and scuttle the legislation. Pacifica's Saadia Malik reports.