thedrifter
04-12-08, 07:10 AM
Marines issue may cost Berkeley
By Steve Harmon
MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 04/11/2008 06:23:52 PM PDT
SACRAMENTO — The lone Republican Bay Area lawmaker wants to withhold state transportation funding from the city of Berkeley until it rescinds a resolution that grants protesters a parking space in front of the U.S. Marine Corp's recruiting office.
Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, said the Berkeley City Council is making a political war zone out of what should be a public right of way for those who want to join the military.
His bill, AB2615, would suspend $3.3 million in local road and street funding in the next two years from Proposition 1B. It's scheduled to be taken up Monday in the Assembly transportation committee, but is unlikely to get through the Democratic-controlled panel — particularly because the new chairman, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, opposes the bill.
"Berkeley's City Council has granted anti-military activists a public resource to assist in barricading the Marine recruitment office," Houston said. "The public right of way has been violated, and the state must not stand idly by."
Berkeley has every right to grant parking privileges, said Julie Sinai, chief of staff for Mayor Tom Bates, and it has no intentions of backing down on its resolution, which gives Code Pink the parking space every Wednesday from noon to 4 p.m., and includes a loudspeaker permit. Others may apply for a permit to use the space at other times.
Houston is "making a grandstand," Sinai said. "There's no nexus between
transportation funds and a local citizen's right to have an opinion about the Iraq war."
The League of Cities opposes the bill, saying it would undermine a local government's ability to reflect the views of its citizens. In a letter to Houston, Liisa Lawson Stark, the league's lobbyist, said the city's share of transportation funds should not be held hostage to a political dispute about the war.
The bill sets a "dangerous precedent," Stark wrote, "in seeking to stop the voter-approved allocation of Proposition 1B funding due to a disagreement over the action of a local governing body." Berkeley made national news in late January when the City Council voted to send a letter to the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps stating that it was not "welcome in the city," and recruiters would be "uninvited and unwelcome intruders" if they chose to stay.
The City Council also voted to condone residents and organizations such as Code Pink to impede "passively or actively, by nonviolent means" the work of any military office in Berkeley.
The city has since rescinded those resolutions.
Houston's bill is designated as an urgency bill, which if approved by two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature, would take effect immediately.
Houston, who is term-limited at the end of 2008, is running for the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors. His Assembly seat has shifted from a solid GOP district to one that has equal party registration. State Democrats are likely to give major backing to Joan Buchanan, a San Ramon School Board trustee, to capture the seat in the fall.
Reach Steven Harmon at 916-441-2101 or sharmon@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Ellie
By Steve Harmon
MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 04/11/2008 06:23:52 PM PDT
SACRAMENTO — The lone Republican Bay Area lawmaker wants to withhold state transportation funding from the city of Berkeley until it rescinds a resolution that grants protesters a parking space in front of the U.S. Marine Corp's recruiting office.
Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, said the Berkeley City Council is making a political war zone out of what should be a public right of way for those who want to join the military.
His bill, AB2615, would suspend $3.3 million in local road and street funding in the next two years from Proposition 1B. It's scheduled to be taken up Monday in the Assembly transportation committee, but is unlikely to get through the Democratic-controlled panel — particularly because the new chairman, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, opposes the bill.
"Berkeley's City Council has granted anti-military activists a public resource to assist in barricading the Marine recruitment office," Houston said. "The public right of way has been violated, and the state must not stand idly by."
Berkeley has every right to grant parking privileges, said Julie Sinai, chief of staff for Mayor Tom Bates, and it has no intentions of backing down on its resolution, which gives Code Pink the parking space every Wednesday from noon to 4 p.m., and includes a loudspeaker permit. Others may apply for a permit to use the space at other times.
Houston is "making a grandstand," Sinai said. "There's no nexus between
transportation funds and a local citizen's right to have an opinion about the Iraq war."
The League of Cities opposes the bill, saying it would undermine a local government's ability to reflect the views of its citizens. In a letter to Houston, Liisa Lawson Stark, the league's lobbyist, said the city's share of transportation funds should not be held hostage to a political dispute about the war.
The bill sets a "dangerous precedent," Stark wrote, "in seeking to stop the voter-approved allocation of Proposition 1B funding due to a disagreement over the action of a local governing body." Berkeley made national news in late January when the City Council voted to send a letter to the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps stating that it was not "welcome in the city," and recruiters would be "uninvited and unwelcome intruders" if they chose to stay.
The City Council also voted to condone residents and organizations such as Code Pink to impede "passively or actively, by nonviolent means" the work of any military office in Berkeley.
The city has since rescinded those resolutions.
Houston's bill is designated as an urgency bill, which if approved by two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature, would take effect immediately.
Houston, who is term-limited at the end of 2008, is running for the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors. His Assembly seat has shifted from a solid GOP district to one that has equal party registration. State Democrats are likely to give major backing to Joan Buchanan, a San Ramon School Board trustee, to capture the seat in the fall.
Reach Steven Harmon at 916-441-2101 or sharmon@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Ellie