Why We Want to Recall Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates

December 2007

A Recall is the last chance for a straightforward mayoral election and a serious evaluation of Mayor Tom Bates.

Without a Recall, Mayor Tom Bates will be likely to win another 4 year term in the November 2008 election. With the mayoral race occurring at the same time as the much anticipated presidential race, all attention will be on electing the next US president. The press will ignore local issues, and voters will be pre-occupied with the presidential election. Bates will no doubt have pictures taken with the Democratic Party candidate and will package himself as Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama’s running mate.

Without a Recall, Bates will remain Mayor of Berkeley for at least five more years.

But in a Recall election—most likely in early June 2008 or sooner—local issues will be the focus. Without a competing presidential or other high-profile election, press coverage will be far more extensive. Voters will be able to make a clear-headed and informed decision about whether to keep Tom Bates in office.

The question is not simply how much damage Bates can do in six more months, but how much damage he can do if allowed to remain in office another five years.

In 2002, candidate Tom Bates stole and trashed hundreds of copies of the Daily Californian after it endorsed his opponent for mayor. 

In 2003, Bates betrayed the Panoramic Hills Neighborhood and greased the wheels for UC to build its six-story Molecular Foundry in the Strawberry Canyon without environmental review.

In 2004, Bates got the City Council to approve a looming nine-story, block-long Seagate/Arpeggio condominium building on Center Street without an environmental impact report (EIR). 

The Bates/UC Settlement Agreement

In 2005, Bates approved a City lawsuit against UC Berkeley’s latest Long Range Development Plan, only to orchestrate a secret settlement of the City’s lawsuit that guaranteed UC all the development it could possibly want in and around downtown Berkeley without City interference. The City’s lawsuit, which raised the hopes of Berkeley residents that the City would defend itself against UC expansion, turned out to be a ruse, to allow Bates and UC to proceed with the massive over-development of the Berkeley Flatlands.

Bates Seeks to Destroy Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance

In 2006, Bates and his allies on the City Council voted to eviscerate the City’s Landmark Preservation Ordinance, making it even easier to bulldoze historic buildings and construct more high-rises. When local preservationists put a pro-landmarks initiative on the November 2006 ballot, Bates worked with the city’s big developers and the Chamber of Commerce to raise large sums of money to mislead the public and defeat the citizen initiative.

Bates Pushes for a High-rise and Sprawling Downtown Berkeley

In 2007, Bates’s hand-picked Downtown Area Planning Committee approved a Plan to more than double the number of blocks in Downtown Berkeley, and to allow 8–12 story buildings from Hearst Avenue south to Dwight Way. A new Shattuck Avenue/Center Street hotel and a high-rise annex to the venerable Shattuck Hotel will both be allowed to rise 19 stories! This high-rise plan was adopted with absolutely no environmental review, and with no consideration given to Berkeley’s existing Downtown Plan.

Without a Recall, Bates Downtown high-rise plan could be adopted by the Council before the November 2008 election. Without a Recall, the low-rise character of central Berkeley will be forever changed. Views of the Hills and the Bay that have been enjoyed since the City’s founding will be lost. The crush of traffic and people will be horrendous. The tens of thousands of people who live within one mile of downtown will be the most adversely effected.

Without a successful Recall, Tom Bates would be allowed to preside over the most radical transformation of Berkeley in 100 years.

Mortgage Crisis & Declining Home Values

Rather than seek to soften the impacts of the mortgage crisis and the resulting decline in home values, Bates’s efforts to flood the Berkeley Flatlands with high-rise apartments and condos will further lower property values and make it more difficult for people to sell their homes. One has to conclude that Bates’s desire to maximize high-rise housing development and thus create a glut of new housing in Berkeley is a deliberate effort to destabilize Berkeley’s Flatland neighborhoods.

Local Tax Burden of City Employee Lifetime Benefits

In his five years in office, Bates has done nothing to confront the pending crisis facing Berkeley taxpayers as rapidly growing numbers of past and present city employees enjoy excessivlly generous salaries and benefits (without accountability) that the city and the taxpayers can’t afford to pay. Berkeley homeowners will see a higher and higher percentage of their property taxes go to cover lifetime benefits for past and present city employees, while many local residents are struggling to pay their taxes and insurance premiums.

Warm Water Pool

Throughout his five years as mayor, Bates has blocked efforts to rehabilitate the Warm Water Pool on the High School Campus, to the detriment of Berkeley’s disabled population. Berkeley’s taxpayers have already paid for a rehab through a bond measure. The City Council should just put up the relatively small amount of money needed to do so.

Throughout his five years as mayor, Bates has been hostile and condescending to City Councilmember Dona Spring, the Council’s main supporter of the Warm Water Pool.

Growing Power of Special Interests

Throughout his five years as mayor, Bates has been hostile and condescending to citizens of Berkeley who sought the address the City Council on important local issues. Public input is minimized, while the influence of developers, the University, and City Hall insiders has never been greater.

A Recall is needed to stop the power grab by special interests and to make the City Council listen to the public.

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