BERKELEY — A typical community meeting turned tense last week, resulting in a councilmember filing a police report accusing a resident of assault. City staff say the incident is indicative of a lack of civility that’s grown all too common at community events.
On Oct. 24, residents, city staff and Berkeley Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani gathered at the Berkeley Adult School for a community meeting on missing middle housing.
The event was going as planned when about 30 minutes in participants started to demand a chance to speak. Soon after, a man approached Kesarwani, who was trying to calm the crowd, and attempted to snatch a microphone from her hands, said Rubén Hernández Story, Councilmember Terry Taplin’s chief of staff who was at the event in place of his boss.
In an audio recording of the incident, Kesarwani can be heard shouting at the man to “step away from me.” It was at that point that a man from the audience intervened and Kesarwani left the event, Story said, sharing doubts someone would have grabbed her if she were a man.
Kesarwani has since filed a police report and the incident is under investigation, the Berkeley Police Department confirmed.
“There can be zero tolerance for becoming physically aggressive with anyone at a public meeting, especially a public servant simply trying to do their job,” Kesarwani said in a statement last week. “I’m also deeply saddened that a small group of residents proceeded to disrupt the meeting with screaming, shouting, and chants.”
Protest is woven into the fabric of Berkeley, Story acknowledged. But the aggression toward staff and councilmembers appears to be worsening, he said.
During any given council meeting, the room becomes filled with chants, disruptions and insults lobbed at officials on a variety of topics. Residents are passionate about whether the city weighs in on the conflict in the Middle East, the types of policies adopted to address homelessness and public safety, and, as last week’s event showed, housing.
During council meetings, in which police are present, Story noted that barriers exist between the dais and public speakers’ podium.
“We have seen this on the national level, the local level, this growing trend of members of the public who treat elected officials and city staff very terribly,” Story said. “People want to solely blame the rise of (Donald) Trump and the Tea Party, but in the liberal Bay Area that excuse comes out as paper thin.”
A report by the National League of Cities asserts that threats to city officials have grown in recent years. Citing Princeton University’s Threats and Harassment Dataset, the League notes 240 threats to officials have been reported through June of 2024, a 15% increase from the first half of 2023 and 60% greater than those reported in the first half of 2022.
The treatment has cost Berkeley at least one councilmember so far. Rigel Robinson, the youngest person to be elected to the Berkeley City Council in 2018, abruptly resigned this January because of escalating harassment, exhaustion and a need to focus on his family.
Former Councilmember Lori Droste said Kesarwani is the last person deserving of abusive treatment. As both a friend and legal aid to the councilmember, Droste said she feels “fiercely protective” of Kesarwani and lauded her as a hard worker dedicated to engaging with residents and unafraid to take stances she believes are right in the face of dissent.
Debate and dialogue is expected in policy making, but physical intimidation and assault are not, Droste said.
“You have to ask yourself why would someone want to do this if they get that kind of abuse,” Droste said. “I just think that it’s important that if people are going to be physical, that there needs to be consequences.”
While individuals may face legal consequences, Story said the greater community is also punished by what he described as toxic behavior from a small group of people who don’t represent the views of the entire community.
Both Droste and Story said the disruptions bog down city processes. Droste noted the city has been discussing missing middle housing since she proposed the issue be studied in 2019.
The council was about to finally put an end to the discussion this summer, but ultimately postponed allowing construction of duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and other “gentle density” projects in all residential neighborhoods after hours of public comment and council discussion to allow staff to consult local tribal leaders about the change.
And while a number of factors contribute to what Story described as a “staff crisis at city hall,” including poor pay, unmanageable workloads and a lack of support from supervisors, according to a 2023 Auditors report, being shouted at by community members doesn’t help, Story said.
In addition to staff leaving the city, Story said the chaos discourages residents from attending meetings and sharing their opinions on important city issues, preventing staff from capturing a full picture of community wants and needs.
“The more you make it not a safe space where people can go talk to local electeds, the more you’re hampering the process,” Story said. “We’re all people who care about Berkeley and we all have opinions on how to get things done. I just wish people could really see people are taking time to serve on City Council and they don’t deserve this level of ire.”