Student Action Rejected By City - Action Item 42 Fails
The Berkeley City Council finally considered Action Item 42 at around 11:25 PM. After Gordon Wozniak spoke for a moment on the motion, he nearly failed to get a second to the motion to even consider the item. Betty Olds gave him what seemed to be a “sympathy second” in order to let there be debate on the bill.
Kriss Worthington was the first to respond, claiming”This is possibly the most laughable item I’ve seen before the city council this year.” For Berkeley, that’s saying something. That was followed by Wozniak and Worthington accusing each other of politicing.
My Marie Antoinette award for the evening goes to Betty Olds, who declared: “If the other kids don’t like it let them rise up.” Cake was then served.
Max Anderson summed it up: “It’s a bad idea - let’s vote.” The final vote: 1-5-3, motion fails. Wozniak was the only person to vote in favor of the motion.
Roll call of votes:
Capitelli - abstain
Moore - abstain
Olds - abstain
Worthington - No
Bates - No
Maio - No
Spring - No
Wozniak - Yes
Anderson - No
This makes the Berkeley City Council the fourth forum in three months (Judicial Council, University/ASUC Auxiliary, Alameda County Superior Court) that has rejected Student Action’s claims to power.
Other reports of the day’s events can be found at Tilted Fish (with illustrations!), Beetle Beat, and Calaholic (1 and 2).
I wasn’t watching, I’ll catch up on it some other time. Who abstained? I’ll wildly guess Bates, Capitelli, and Spring, for no reason.
Politicing? By elected officials? How awful.
Comment by Beetle — July 25, 2006 @ 11:00 pm
Bates voted No, I dont many of the city councilmembers’ names but I think Moore might have been one of the abstains
Kris even tried to motion an apology to the students and the asuc for even considering the matter
Comment by Josh M. — July 25, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
God that took forever. Don’t ever run for city council. It’s just hour after hour of people yelling at you for anything and everything. Global warming, traffic, magnetic polar shifts. Everything.
Comment by Simon — July 25, 2006 @ 11:13 pm
Well, if I have my Student Action math right, the measure really passed with a supermajority.
Comment by Beetle — July 25, 2006 @ 11:17 pm
and they’ll probably sue the city council now. so can we plan ahead for this and organize a tailgating get together in the courthouse parking lot so that we can properly get our game on before promptly laughing and pointing at SA as they walk into the building?
Comment by Calaholic — July 25, 2006 @ 11:26 pm
Good work to all of the people who were opposing this measure.
I used to be impressed that SA was constantly coming up with innovative solutions that caught their opponents off-guard (EO#8, the Alameda County lawsuit and the city council bill for example) but seeing how these things work out it appears that they alternate between a desire to win at any cost no matter how destructive it is to the ASUC and sheer incompetence. Sometimes both of those at the same time.
Finally, I think that Wozniak deserves a lot of the blame for this little stunt, and I think students should not forget it and make sure he is no re-elected.
P.S. Can anyone who was there or watched the webcast list any of the drinking game rules that actually happened? Did anyone say “free and fair”? Was I mentioned by name? etc…
Comment by Andy R. — July 25, 2006 @ 11:40 pm
i’m pretty sure none happened because i had to start making up my own
Comment by Calaholic — July 25, 2006 @ 11:49 pm
Ratto -
The word chalking was used multiple times.
The name Narodick was mentioned.
I daydreamed about the council members naked while i was there and then watched porn when I got home.
Also, they pronounced the name Karosek wrong. And although that wasn’t one of the rules, I drank anyway.
Comment by Andy M. — July 26, 2006 @ 12:08 am
Morris–
Pssh, you spelled Karasek wrong and we’re supposed to be tight…suckaaaa…and by “suckaaaa” I mean “Bob Saget lookalike.”
I’m pretty sure “free and fair” were used as well, but perhaps in public comment. Providing more opportunities for you to get drunk fast–just another way your student government serves you.
I personally got to be super sassy towards a city council member, so I drank heavily in celebration…which I definitely would not have done had I not gotten to be sassy.
Why did no one make a rule about the word “autonomy?” There would have been a whole lot of drinkin goin on.
And sadly Ratto, to the best of my knowledge you were not mentioned by name…no googleness for you…but I still like ya.
Comment by Punch My Ballot — July 26, 2006 @ 6:48 am
I heard free and fair used around the time of the voting. They said it out of order but I drank anyways.
Comment by Josh M. — July 26, 2006 @ 8:47 am
ha ha ha. SA gets beat down again. I wonder what the anony-bots will have to say this time?!?
And Wozniak, what a dumbf*ck!! I can’t wait to vote you out of office Gordo!
Comment by chet (the virgin CEO) — July 26, 2006 @ 9:10 am
Speaking of voting Wozniak out of Council, does anyone know if there are enough students registered *in berkeley* to effectively do that? Should someone try to organize some sort of campaign to re-register students here?
Comment by Anonymous — July 26, 2006 @ 10:55 am
Wozniak represents a certain geographic district which I (living at Regent and Derby) do not belong to. Though there are enough students in Berkeley, they do not all live within his district and therefore can’t all participate in that district’s race (The Woz vs. The ‘Man)
Comment by Eddy Crochetiere — July 26, 2006 @ 11:11 am
Right… districting. Isn’t there a way, though, to find out whether there are enough eligible student voters in that district (and then decide to act or not), or are we relying on Wozniak’s constituency to vote against him for, I don’t know, not presenting sufficiently-informed issues in a prudent manner to the Council?
Comment by Anonymous — July 26, 2006 @ 12:25 pm
Does anyone think the US congress or the California legislature will help SA out now?
Comment by RepBast1984 — July 26, 2006 @ 12:53 pm
Woz is disliked by progressives, who’ll probably vote against him. There are plenty of students in his district, particularly the greeks.
Comment by Beetle — July 26, 2006 @ 12:59 pm
Yeah, if anyone is interested in helping to register students to vote IN district 8 so that we can help vote him out, please get in touch with me. The only thing I’ll be doing between now and November 7th is mobilizing the community to support new leadership. And it’s VERY do-able, especially without a third vote-splitting candidate in the race this time.
Comment by Jason Overman — July 26, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
I don’t know, many students in his district (particularly athletes at CKC) might vote somewhat conservative (relatively). Jason will do best amongst the more socially liberal neighbors who are mad at Wozniak who allegedly hasn’t done anything for them.
Comment by Anonymous — July 26, 2006 @ 1:38 pm
So what’s next in this pageant of the absurd? We go back to Big People Court?
Comment by Morbo — July 26, 2006 @ 2:39 pm
Wozniak’s main power base comes out of the landlords and conservative homeowners in the southeast side of the district. A grad student came fairly close to beating Woz 4 years ago, but Woz was able to drive out more from the homeowners than the amount of students that got out. However, there is enough of a student population to kick him out, they just need to be mobilized enough.
Comment by Josh M. — July 26, 2006 @ 2:45 pm
Anonymous– It’s not just the socially liberal neighbors who are mad at him. There’s a lot of mainstream issues regarding public safety, traffic and taxes that he hasn’t represented even the “moderate homeowners” well. And I think students will realize that in city government in a college town, it’s not really about “left and right” issues, but rather who’s going to stick up for them. I’ll do my best to make crystal clear that it’ll be me, and Wozniak’s record on sticking up for students has been abysmal. We really have a strong and diverse coalition of people who don’t feel he’s a) on their side, and b) effective at improving neighborhoods.
Comment by Jason Overman — July 26, 2006 @ 3:20 pm
Anonymous #18:
I highly doubt the athletes in CKC will vote conservatively for Wozniak. I highly doubt they will actually vote in the first place, or know that a vote is going to take place. Generally athletes’ attention and care are rarely focused on anything outside of the athletic sphere. This sphere does not include neither city politics nor college academics. Getting tons of ass is the rare exception.
Comment by Eddy Crochetiere — July 26, 2006 @ 5:27 pm
Didn’t we just go to Big People court? Oh wait VERY big people court. Federal Court. Right out of the BAMN playbook
Comment by RepBast1984 — July 26, 2006 @ 5:41 pm
he does look like bob saget!
Comment by Anonymous — July 26, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
Eddy, when did you start hating the athletes? They’re a good part of the reason you have so much damn Cal pride.
Comment by anonybot — July 27, 2006 @ 8:31 am
Of course he looks like Bob Saget…*SQUELCH!* doesn’t lie!
Comment by Punch My Ballot — July 27, 2006 @ 8:37 am
I never expressed hatred or dislike for athletes…because true our athletics programs are a part of my glaringly obvious Cal pride.
I was just pointing out that speculating what the “ckc athlete” vote will be in the city council election is probably looking too far into things. It’s just the reality of the situation…
Comment by Eddy Crochetiere — July 27, 2006 @ 1:38 pm
May I ask… what are “Punch My Ballot”’s credentials for running with SQUELCH!…? I know the party is unrelated to the magazine, but let’s not overlook the overlap. So what’s the deal? Are those guys just letting anyone run for president? I know for a fact that Simon Ganz and Aaron Brownstien run the squelch. Explanation?
Comment by Borracho — July 28, 2006 @ 2:28 am
her credentials are that she is LAUREN “SHADY WITH THE LUBE” KARASEK
Comment by Calaholic — July 28, 2006 @ 2:48 pm
Sounds like another elected official. Good job at picking candidates.
Comment by Anonymous — July 28, 2006 @ 4:24 pm
ok, it wasn’t supposed to be taken like that
Comment by Calaholic — July 28, 2006 @ 5:32 pm