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Politics & Government

Websites Provide Venues for Citizen Participation

Berkeley Council Watch and Open Town Hall allow residents and others to comment and discuss on-line.

You can watch City Council meetings on your computer or TV, or you can listen to them on the radio. But if talking back to a screen or a radio doesn’t cut it for you, you can respond to city hall through two web sites.

Berkeleycouncilwatch.com is run by Jacquelyn McCormick, a southeast hills resident and former District 8 city council candidate. The other, opentownhall.com/for/berkeley, is managed by District 8 Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. (Wozniak beat McCormick in 2010 and retained the council seat he’s held since 2002.)

On Tuesday, when there’s a city council meeting, you’ll find McCormick in rapt attention during the sometimes hours-long session or sessions. “I like to be there, to feel the heartbeat of what the public is saying,” she said. “I am never bored.”

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She said her goal is to educate and activate the community. “There’s no Berkeley newspaper, like there used to be,” she said.

Berkeleycouncilwatch “is a snapshot of what’s going on and easy to use,” she said. “The city website is difficult to navigate.”

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But McCormick’s website’s not just a place to find out what’s on the council agenda or what’s happened at the meetings. It’s a tool for community members to interact among themselves and with the city council.

“The community gets engaged during the electoral cycle,” but then the interest slacks off, McCormick said. Many items before the council are critical, she said, pointing to current council discussions on the budget that will lead to decisions on what services will be provided – and what won’t -- and how taxes are spent.

And so, on the web site, you can click on “the forum,” and read Susan Clayworth’s comments on the budget. “Cut the pork,” she wrote recently. McCormick forwards all comments posted on the site to the City Council and insists that participants use their real names. Currently, Clayworth’s is the sole comment on the budget.

The most vigorous debate on the site is on the question of whether the south and west Berkeley libraries should be demolished and whether that is legal under Measure FF – the library bond measure – to do so. Only a handful of people have weighed in on that debate.

McCormick said she isn’t worried about the low level of traffic on the site, which she said went “live” just at the end of April. She’s more concerned with the low level of community participation at council meetings. The same people seem to show up at the meetings to comment, she said. “I wish there were a bigger cast of characters.”

Asked whether the site is a way to build for a second run at the District 8 seat, McCormick said it’s too early to know whether she’ll make another attempt. “My commitment right now is to mobilize the community,” she said.

When she ran for council last year, McCormick was much less familiar with citywide issues and concentrated on a few questions that particularly affected the east hills, such as the impact of the rebuilt Memorial Stadium. But now that she’s attending council meetings regularly, McCormick said she’s come to understand the broader challenges the city faces, such as infrastructure needs – maintaining the parks, pools and other city assets.

Though she manages the site, McCormick has a team of advisors: former mayor Shirley Dean, former council candidate Sophie Hahn and community activist Dean Metzger.

Gordon Wozniak calls his website Open Town Hall. The site hones in on specific questions on which the councilmember will vote, such as: “Should the city approve new fees and increase current fees for select recreation and marina education programs and facilities?”

Forty-five people weighed in on this question, which was before the council on May 17. People overwhelmingly said yes.

One was Jenny Wenk of District 6 who wrote, “I say yes. Once again I don't see that you have much choice. And it is fairer to have the costs paid by the users of the programs than by all City residents.”

But Barbara Gilbert of District 5 was among the minority who wrote: “I say no. The City can get the revenue it needs and maintain vital services by getting the money in givebacks and concessions from our overpaid and overbenefitted City employees.”

Wozniak said he reads the comments and considers them when making decisions, just as he considers comments from the public at council meetings. He pointed out that on the question of raising fees, while nobody came to council and commented, 40 to 70 people commented on the various fee-related questions on his web site.

“It’s an efficient way of getting input,” he said. “A lot of smart people write comments.”

Wozniak’s site is part of the “Open Town Hall” sites produced by Peak Democracy, a company co-founded by Berkeley resident Robert Vogel, who was responsible for an earlier, similar venture called Kitchen Democracy. On it’s website, Peak Democracy describes itself: “Peak Democracy is a for-profit corporation. However, the co-founders intend to run it as a socially responsible (triple bottom-line) company with an orientation towards the environment (i.e. sustainability) and equity, as well as economics (i.e. profits).”

Mostly cities, such as Ashland, Ore. and Palo Alto, contract with Peak Democracy, rather than individual council members. Wozniak said he’d like to see the city of Berkeley and city clerk department take on the project.

More ways to get city council information:

City Council meetings are televised on Cable Channel 33, live during meetings and rebroadcast beginning at 9 a.m. the following day. Meetings are broadcast on KPFB 89.3 and are streamed live at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=9818.

Meeting agendas can be found on the city website at http://www.cityofberkeley.info/citycouncil/

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