Berkeley City Council Rejects Save KPFA Resolution, San Francisco Postpones

On December 14th, the Berkeley City Council rejected a motion by councilmember Darryl Moore to restore two laid-off employees at KPFA. The motion was supported only by Berkeley mayor Tom Bates (a long-time Concerned Listeners - Save KPFA endorser) and councilmember Moore. Before the vote, councilmember Jesse Arrequin made a spirited comment about broadcaster independence and freedom of speech and the audience, which was largely composed of interested parties on the KPFA matter as well as supporters of the tabled motion to support PFC Bradley Manning, broke out in a round of applause. The council then rejected both a substitute motion by councilmember Maio as well as Moore's original resolution.

In San Francisco, Supervisor John Avalo's motion, which steered clear of advocating for the restoration of jobs, but advocated for more negotiations, was postponed against the wishes of the motion's author. Since the resolution was drafted outside committee and brought to the full board of supervisors without undergoing committee review, it required only one supervisor to redirect it back to committee. To avoid that, consideration was postponed to the next meeting on January 4th,

In other news, a preliminary hearing on the election lawsuit brought by Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jeserich, and Lewis Sawyer using the Dhillon-Smith law firm founded by Lawyers for Bush-Cheney 2004 chair and ex-Heritage Foundation employee Harmeet Dhillon, was inconclusive. Dhillon herself was in attendance at the small courtroom at 201 13th Street in Oakland, as the judge left the status quo October results in effect temporarily while declaring his intent to expedite the case for a resolution prior to mid-January. The next board meeting is scheduled in mid-January and the board will not meet or take any actions prior to mid-January. The pre-case hearing will occur on December 21, 2010 at 1:30pm.