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Priorities

Our City Council is undergoing significant change. After this November, only one City Council Member will have institutional memory longer than six years, and the majority of the City Council will be newly elected this year.

Especially in this period of transition, Berkeley needs experienced leadership who will listen to you to address the complex needs of District 6 and the policy issues facing our City. Andy is the only candidate with 18 years experience as an elected official managing our municipal water utility and 14 years experience serving on Berkeley city commissions. He has an intimate understanding of all the major issues facing Berkeley, and he knows how to navigate complex government bureaucracies to get results.

Below are some of Andy’s top priorities. He’s eager to hear from you on what issues matter most to you and your family.

Fire Safety

The neighborhoods of District 6 are all within the “wildland-urban interface”. That means our homes and our lives are exposed to a much greater risk of wildfire due to flammable vegetation so close to where we’ve built our community. We need to be vigilant about vegetation management, starting with invasive species, and supporting Fire Department services to facilitate the transition to removing hazardous trees and brush both within City limits and in Tilden Park. Andy has helped make EBMUD a leading example, pushing for a comprehensive tree and brush removal plan, and accelerating eucalyptus removal from critical facilities.

Public Safety

As a long-time Berkeley resident, Andy has had the unsettling experience of being stalked and harassed while walking on our streets. This is unacceptable.  

In any emergency, whether medical, police, or fire, minutes matter. Our police, fire, and paramedic staffing must meet the needs for response times that meet the standards needed to protect the public and save lives when time is of the essence. Andy supports the full staffing of Berkeley’s Police and Fire Departments.  

Through his work for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Andy saw first hand how interventions like Project Ceasefire and investments in youth opportunities can help prevent crime. He will push for Berkeley to use these tools to improve public safety, and smarter use of resources, such as specialized mental health crisis units

Saving Hospital Services

Berkeley needs a full service hospital equipped to handle life-threatening emergencies, and to support the medical care needs of our aging community and our birthing mothers. When Sutter Health announced plans to close Alta Bates, having already closed the cardiac and stroke units, Andy developed a plan to keep hospital services in Berkeley, and is working closely with Mayor Arreguin to ensure Berkeley isn’t stranded within a hospital desert.

Reinvesting in our Streets and Aging Infrastructure

Our streets and sidewalks are in serious disrepair. We need more resources to address this unsafe situation. Andy supports the Berkeley Safe Streets ballot measure to fund this needed reinvestment in our streets and aging infrastructure. On the City Council, Andy will work to focus needed resources on the streets with the most failing conditions. As your East Bay Municipal Utility District Director, Andy has focused on improving aging infrastructure, including tripling the rate of replacing aging pipes.

Climate and Environment

Climate change is already causing more severe droughts, wildfires, and storms, and we need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions to avoid the worst impacts. Andy helped initiate the Berkeley Just Transition program currently in development that will leverage incentive programs and economies of scale to help homeowners affordably electrify the gas appliances in our homes. We need to make electric vehicle charging more accessible throughout the city. We also need better transit choices, and safer infrastructure to bike in and around Berkeley.

Affordable housing

Berkeley’s housing crisis impacts all of us when increasingly we find our teachers, service providers, artists, and other assets of our diverse community can’t afford to live here. Andy supports building the housing required to meet our regional housing needs, and ensuring that we are planning for the infrastructure needs to support a growing population. New housing should be focused in areas close to frequent transit service and other resources.