JASON OVERMAN’S OFFICIAL CANDIDACY DECLARATION
August 26, 2006
Redwood Gardens Senior Housing—Berkeley, CA

Prepared for delivery

Good afternoon. I’d like to thank you all for coming out on this beautiful afternoon.

Today, I am officially announcing my bid for the Berkeley City Council, District 8. My name is Jason Overman—and I’m running for City Council.

This announcement has been long-awaited, and it is a decision I did not make lightly. I have decided to run, in part, because of the immense support not only of my friends and family, but because of the tremendous support and encouragement I’ve received from my community. And I’m honored to have many of them standing with me today.

I didn’t just throw my hat in the ring, as candidates often do. The input of my community is of paramount importance to me, which is why I helped to organize a community meeting to discuss the need for new leadership of our neighborhoods.

And I’m incredibly honored to have been overwhelmingly selected by a diverse coalition of senior citizens, environmentalists, tenants, students and homeowners to run for City Council. Our community is ready for a new approach—one that invites them into the process, rather than shutting them out with secrecy. And I’m honored to carry that torch.

And I’m honored to have the support of the Alameda County AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, Councilmembers Max Anderson, Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring, a host of local elected officials, a diverse group of neighborhood leaders like Janice Thomas and Gene Bernardi, and more students than I can count.

A great portion of my decision, however, also rested on my deep-seated belief in public service. The late Senator Paul Wellstone used to say that politics isn’t a game; he said that it’s a serious business, with serious consequences. He said that politics is not about power. And politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Instead, he said, politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world.

And no words come closer to my beliefs and my commitment to public service.

It’s a shame that we’re losing great leaders like Wellstone. And as a result, our nation has been led down the wrong path—a path of deceit and secrecy, where the voices of average Americans are increasingly ignored. And sometimes, with such travesties occurring throughout our nation and across the world, it’s easy to be blind to the outrageous decisions of our local officials.

And our community, here in District 8, is also being led down the wrong path. I believe that the incumbent is clearly out of step with the values of our community.

He boasts of his fiscal responsibility—yet his priorities have become clear: while voting in favor of closing down fire stations for 286 days out of the year and cutting 19 positions from the police and fire departments, he’s voted to increase the tax burden on our homeowners, and he’s proposed 7 ways to raise rents on our tenants.

He voted against new senior housing and against the popular Brower Center project, and he’s refused to put a dime of general fund money into the affordable housing trust fund. Since the incumbent took office, it’s become harder for everyone to afford living here—and we can do better than that.

He was the only councilmember who voted against a resolution expressing opposition to Governor Schwarzenegger’s costly, wasteful special election that was an assault on California’s working families—and in a district with a large and wonderful Asian American community, he was the lone vote against keeping the statewide Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs Commission. And we can do better than that.

And this councilmember unapologetically supported the secret, backroom settlement deal with high-paid UC administrators—a deal that shut us all out of the process and dumped more traffic in our neighborhoods. And in four years, he hasn’t taken some of the most basic steps to ease congestion in our neighborhoods—and we can do better than that.

And I’m proud to stand here today with many of my senior citizen supporters—and one of them, whom I’m honored to call my friend, was without heat in her apartment for an entire month. She asked a councilmember from another district to help her out—because she was tired of trying to get the district 8 councilmember to respond to the needs of his district. And the incumbent has voted against the life-saving warm water pool for seniors and the disabled. And many of the residents here have asked time and time again for assistance in fixing their bus shelter across the street—but no response from this councilmember. In the winter, these wonderful people are forced to stand out in the rain while they wait for their bus—and I’m here today to stand up for THEM. Because we can do better than that.

And for someone who boasts of being a scientist for many years, it’s ironic how unscientifically this councilmember has quickly dismissed serious environmental concerns—including concern from the community over the issue of transporting nuclear waste through our city. As I stand here today, I’ll ask this question: can we at least study it? We need leaders who take seriously the health and safety of our community, not people who will be a rubber stamp—and we can do better than that.

I’m also honored to be surrounded today by many student leaders—many of my friends—who support my candidacy. This councilmember has neglected, rejected and disrespected the concerns and interests of students—and in addition to proposing 7 ways to raise rents on students, last year’s commission study showed that he had only appointed one student out of his 35 commissioners. This, in a district that’s nearly half students. And we can do better than that.

And this councilmember recently voted against allowing the voters to decide for themselves whether or not we want to get money out of the political process. We’ve got to get money out of politics. We need clean money, and we need it now. Money has corrupted our democracy—and we can do better than that.

You know, I’m critical of the incumbent’s record on a wide range of issues. But this is a positive campaign—this campaign is about values, it’s about community, it’s about diversity, and it’s about unity.

What’s truly negative is the incumbent’s troubling record on so many critical issues—a record of exclusion. A record that is out of touch with the needs and concerns of my constituents—a record that has ignored the bread and butter issues that affect us all every day.

And my agenda is forward-thinking and positive. I’ll bring leadership that will bring everyone back in—that will bring us all back together. Neighbors and students, moderates and progressives, tenants and homeowners—we’re lucky to have such a diverse community, and my leadership would unite us once again, as one community. Because we deserve better.

And rather than making taxpayers pay more and giving them less—I’d work to do the opposite. We need leadership that is willing to listen to the concerns of the entire community, and that’s the leadership I’d bring.

And my commission appointments would represent the wonderful diversity of our neighborhoods. President Clinton boasted that his cabinet “looked like America.” And my commission appointments would look like my district.

We must be stronger in our efforts to protect our community. While the incumbent was in a meeting cutting funding for public safety, I was walking the streets as a Community Service Officer for the UC Police Department. And at my first city council meeting, my very first act in office would be to push the city to restore the funding to re-open the fire stations the incumbent closed and to reinstate funding for the police department. Because a safe community is a strong community, and we deserve better.

And we must be stronger in our efforts to make our community more affordable. And I’d continue my record of supporting affordable housing without allowing inappropriate development. And I oppose the devastating initiative on the ballot this November that would open the floodgates to condominium conversion. I support home ownership opportunities, but not at the expense of our community’s long-term residents, and not on the backs of evicted tenants. I support a genuine first-time homebuyer’s assistance program, and I’d continue to protect the financial security of tenants in our city. And with me, what you see is what you get—because we deserve better.

And we must be stronger in our efforts to foster a good working relationship with the university—and I’d oppose any backroom settlement deal that keeps our community in the dark. In fact, that’s the sort of secrecy that I would make illegal. Because we deserve better.

And we must be stronger in our efforts to ease congestion of traffic in our neighborhoods. I’d take some of the most basic steps towards ameliorating our traffic problems; I’d demand traffic counts and origin-destination studies along the Warring-Derby-Belrose corridor, I’d push to reclaim Ashby Avenue from the horrible Caltrans bureaucracy, I’d oppose putting almost 1,000 parking spaces atop a fault line that would dramatically increase the flow of traffic in our neighborhoods, I’d push for mitigations to any expansion of the Caldecott Tunnel, and I’d pressure UC and major employers to provide a free ecopass for employees in order to greatly reduce traffic. Because we deserve better.

And we must be stronger in our efforts to include the entire community in our democracy—and I’ll stand up and fight for the concerns of our senior citizens. I’d personally see to it that nobody was every without heating—and that nobody was ever left standing in the rain. And I’ll stand up and fight for the concerns of students, because it’s high time that our voices were heard once again. And I would never vote to disregard the voices of our Asian American community.

I’ve got a vision for our community that shares your values—that shares our values—and that would bring us together once again.

The incumbent is out of step on the issues that face us all on a daily basis—and we must win for the seniors; we must win for the students; we must win for our neighborhoods; we must win for our safety; we must win for our tenants; we must win for our homeowners. We must win for our families.

Because we can do better—and we deserve better.

I’m so honored to have your support—and know that I’ll never stop fighting for you, and I’ll never leave anyone behind.

Thank you, thank you so much.