Berkeley needs Kesarwani and Humbert for challenges ahead

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Berkeley is a metropolis that seeks, generally efficiently, to be a pacesetter addressing social points resembling homelessness and policing. However the financing will get brief shrift, leaving the town with difficult occasions forward.

The excellent news is that there have been no homicides within the metropolis final yr. And in the course of the pandemic, the town, not like the remainder of Alameda County, stemmed the expansion of its homeless inhabitants. The dangerous information is that the town is dealing with a extreme police staffing scarcity, and it nonetheless has about 1,000 individuals with out housing.

In the meantime, the town faces annual finances deficits within the years forward. By how a lot will not be clear due to the town’s opaque projections. The forecasting of the town’s normal fund stability for the present fiscal yr and the subsequent reveals deficits totaling $22 million. After that, the forecast amazingly doesn’t comprise reasonable expenditure numbers — particularly, it doesn’t account for will increase in salaries and profit prices.

It’s a bury-your-head-in-the-sand type of budgeting. Particularly so as a result of, in a separate report, metropolis officers warn that over the subsequent 10 years, the town’s funds for employees’ retirement advantages are projected to quickly enhance, and complete profit prices are projected to greater than double.

The quickly rising pension prices are due partly to the town’s failure to handle its mounting retirement debt that, even when adjusted for inflation, has continued to rise over the previous decade. And the town’s unfunded capital and deferred upkeep wants have greater than doubled in simply 4 years, once more after changes for inflation.

The 2 money owed mixed complete a staggering $1.9 billion, or about $41,000 for each metropolis family. Metropolis officers can’t simply tax their means out of this mess. They will’t simply preserve coming again to voters for increasingly more levies.

In addition they want to begin analyzing their spending and guarantee metropolis authorities is getting the largest bang for its buck. Berkeley wants leaders on the nine-member Metropolis Council with the chops to information the town’s progressive insurance policies and the monetary acumen to look at the information, guarantee cash is correctly spent and plan forward to keep away from future finances shortfalls.

That’s why voters ought to reelect Rashi Kesarwani in District 1 in northwest Berkeley and elect Mark Humbert in District 8 within the southeast nook of the town. These are the one contested Metropolis Council races on the Nov. 8 poll.

Incumbents Kate Harrison in District 4, bordering the west facet of the Cal campus, and Rigel Robinson in District 7, on the south facet of the campus, are working unopposed.

Dist. 1: Rashi Kesarwani

It’s onerous to overstate the significance of Kesarwani’s eager analytical strategy to public coverage and authorities spending and the distinctive expertise she brings to the council. She has labored as a fiscal forecasting supervisor for the San Francisco Human Providers Company and as a fiscal and coverage analyst for the California Legislative Analyst’s Workplace.

In a metropolis the place knee-jerk politics usually result in new packages and spending with out cautious consideration, Kesarwani in her first time period has turn into identified for her cautious evaluation and considerate decision-making. She shares the progressive values of her council colleagues whereas recognizing the necessity for sensible, data-driven use of cash. It’s refreshing and badly wanted.

Her main opponent within the race, architect and Planning Commissioner Elisa Mikiten, grumbles about Kesarwani’s strategy. “Not all the things is about metrics,” Mikiten mentioned. Really, most good policymaking is pushed by knowledge and metrics; if cash is correctly spent it could assist extra individuals. And Kesarwani’s consideration to element is mirrored in her superior data of metropolis insurance policies and points.

The third candidate within the race, Tamar Michai Freeman, was invited to take part however didn’t present up.

Dist. 8: Mark Humbert

Lori Droste, one other analytically considerate member of the council, opted to not search a 3rd time period. However there is a wonderful candidate ready to switch her in District 8: Humbert is a extremely regarded legal professional, arbitrator and mediator who handles sophisticated circumstances usually involving advanced monetary points and has argued earlier than the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.

He has additionally served on Berkeley’s Transportation, Public Works, Honest Political Practices, and Parks, Recreation and Waterfront commissions and was president of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Affiliation.

Most necessary, he has carried out his homework, is well-versed in metropolis points and is able to serve on the Metropolis Council. He needs to revive the Police Division positions which have been misplaced and in addition helps the council’s push for a brand new strategy to policing that releases officers from dealing with non-violent psychological well being crises. Key to District 8, he helps UC Berkeley’s growth of Individuals’s Park to supply housing for college students and homeless.

And he shares Droste’s push for progressive insurance policies with monetary accountability. Palms down, Humbert is the perfect, and the one credible, candidate on this district.