Editorial: In Berkeley, elect Hernández Story for vacant council seat

With the election of at least four new City Council members this year, Berkeley’s leadership change will markedly shape the political and policy approaches to challenging community issues.

One of those new members will be chosen in a May 28 special election in District 4, which includes the city’s downtown, to replace Kate Harrison after her puzzling January resignation from the council.

In the four-way race to replace Harrison, Rubén Hernández Story is the candidate who can best and most pragmatically address the city’s progressive goals.

He currently works as chief of staff for Berkeley City Councilmember Terry Taplin and previously held the same job for then-Richmond Mayor Tom Butt. He’s thoughtful about policing — looking to better address the root causes of crime and alternatives to deal with mental-health calls, but recognizing the need to fill vacant police positions and end what he calls a culture of demonizing police.

And he supports UC Berkeley’s plans for development of the People’s Park site with student housing for more than 1,100 students and supportive housing for more than 100 homeless and extremely low-income persons. He also wants to find ways to revitalize downtown and to boost the city’s housing supply for all income levels.

Harrison’s surprising resignation was the second to hit the City Council in January. She abruptly quit during a council meeting after reading off a perplexing list of grievances about a litany of city issues.

But she declared that she would continue her campaign for mayor in the November election. That, of course, raises the question of why Harrison, who, as a member of the council, couldn’t deal with the difficult issues confronting the city, would somehow be qualified and prepared to be mayor. But that’s a discussion for the fall.

Her resignation followed the departure of Rigel Robinson, who cited “harassment, stalking and threats” he had endured and wrote that it was time to prioritize his well-being and his family. Unlike Harrison’s departure, Robinson’s was a significant loss of a promising young politician.

And, for the November election, there will be two more open seats because Mayor Jesse Arrequin is running for state Senate rather than seeking reelection, and Councilmember Susan Wengraf has announced her retirement after four terms.

In the April 16 special election to fill Robinson’s seat, Cecilia Lunaparra, 22, a senior at Cal majoring in urban studies who also served on the city’s Environment and Climate Commission, received 60% of the vote. She defeated James Chang, 33, a graduate student at Cal’s Haas School of Business who had served a maximum eight years on the city’s elected rent board.

Turnout in the student-dominated District 7 drew just 493 voters, only 17% of registered voters. Let’s hope that voters in District 4 can do better on May 28.

Ballots already have been mailed out. Because there are four candidates in the race, the city’s ranked choice voting system will be a factor. Voters need to think beyond just their top pick.

While our top recommendation goes to Hernández Story, our second choice is Igor Tregub, chairperson of the Alameda County Democratic Party central committee and a former member of Berkeley’s elected rent board.

Tregub’s leadership of the sometimes-chaotic central committee has been less than stellar. But he is pragmatic on key Berkeley issues, including the need for a fully staffed police department and support for UC’s plans for housing on the People’s Park site.

Local activist Elana Auerbach gets our third recommendation — for showing up, which the fourth candidate, Soli Alpert, a member of the rent board, declined to do.

Auerbach opposes development at People’s Park. Many of her solutions to city problems involve new taxes on wealthy people, corporations and owners of vacant commercial property. But she has not thought through the specifics, or analyzed the potential effectiveness, of her tax plans.

With major turnover at City Hall, Berkeley needs pragmatic new leadership. Hernández Story can help provide that.