BERKELEY — With four city council seats up for election, the municipal ballot is stacked with a total of 14 candidates.
Two of those council seats — representing Districts 1 and 7 — were left vacant when incumbents announced they were not seeking re-election. District 8 Councilwoman Lori Droste and District 4 Councilwoman Kate Harrison both face challengers.
Candidates for the District 1 seat, representing the northwest portion of the city bordering Albany, include retired East Bay Municipal Utility District engineer Margo Schueler, safety engineer Igor Tregub, finance manager Rashi Kesarwani and community activist Mary Behm-Steinberg.
All of the candidates for District 1 consider homelessness and affordable housing availability to be among their top priorities. Tregub — who sits on the city’s rent board and housing commissions — has suggested the city allow sanctioned homeless encampments and usher in or provide homeless people with day-labor jobs for community beautification projects. He has been endorsed by Mayor Jesse Arreguin.
Kesarwani seeks to also focus her efforts on public safety; she has been endorsed by the Berkeley Police Association as well as council members Lori Droste and Susan Wengraf. Kesarwani has also sat on the city’s Housing Advisory and Community Health commissions.
Schueler — incumbent Linda Maio’s pick for the seat — is running out of concern over the city’s infrastructure.
Behm-Steinberg seeks to get the city running more smoothly by creating three new city positions focused on making sure Berkeley is operating efficiently and garnering more grant, federal and state funds to deal with some of the city’s issues.
After District 7 Councilman Kriss Worthington announced in July that he would be ending his 22-year incumbency, three political newcomers filed for the seat encompassing most of the UC Berkeley campus and the Southside neighborhood.
Worthington’s pick for the position is his former intern Rigel Robinson, who worked as external affairs president of UC Berkeley’s Student Association and graduated from the school earlier this year.
The 22-year-old’s top priorities include housing, safety and commercial vitality on Telegraph Avenue, he said during an interview with the Bay Area News Group’s editorial board.
“It’s a complicated district with unique constituencies, and whoever is elected to represent District 7 will need to balance the tension between the campus and the city, town and gown students and neighbors, and the housed and the unhoused,” Robinson said.
Cecilia “Ces” Rosales, who works as a graphics and web designer, has been endorsed by council members Maio, Wengraf and Droste. She seeks to bring her experience as a small business owner and a social justice activist to the table, she said at the editorial board interview.
Housing, safety, infrastructure and healthcare access are her top priorities, she said.
Candidate Aidan Hill works as a dog walker and freelance photographer, and is currently a student. Hill, according to their Facebook page, is the only candidate who seeks to keep People’s Park as open space. People’s Park, which is owned by UC Berkeley and is a landmark in the Free Speech Movement, is slated to be developed into student housing.
Hill frequently speaks at council meetings and is endorsed by Councilwoman Cheryl Davila.
District 8 covers the southeastern portion of the city, including the Claremont and Elmwood neighborhoods. Droste was elected to represent that district in 2014 after Gordon Wozniak stepped down. She is a professor at Mills College.
“I think I’m a pragmatic voice on Berkeley City Council and a really needed fifth vote on some important issues,” Droste said to the Bay Area News Group editorial board.
Her challengers are architect Alfred Twu, engineer Russ Tilleman and attorney Mary Kay Lacey. Twu’s top priorities include housing, traffic safety and reducing income inequality. Tilleman’s priorities in part include homelessness, getting Berkeley homeowners to add new stories to existing houses to increase rental stock and preventing “People’s Park crime from moving to Willard Park,” he said in his campaign statement.
Lacey, who has served on the city’s Planning Commission, seeks to focus on affordable housing, a living wage, and homelessness, according to her campaign statement.
Harrison was elected to represent District 4 — encompassing downtown — in a special election in 2017 after incumbent Jesse Arreguin vacated the seat when he was elected mayor.
Harrison’s top three issues are building affordable housing, finding compassionate solutions to homelessness and tackling climate change through changing building standards and urban agriculture, she said during an interview with the Bay Area News Group’s editorial board.
Her challenger, Ben Gould — who ran against her in the special election — seeks to focus on homelessness, housing affordability and public safety. He works as a sustainability analyst at San Francisco International Airport.
Gregory Magofna, the third candidate for District 4 City Council, works as a nutrition manager at an elder home. He previously worked as a senior aide for former Mayor Tom Bates. His top three issues are climate change, housing and diversity.