Neighbors for Jason Overman | Berkeley City Council, District 8

Four years ago, the incumbent promised to protect police and fire services.

But in 4 years, he has voted to cut 19 positions in the police and fire departments—and has even voted for “rolling brownouts” of fire stations, which closed down fire stations 286 days out of the year.

Even in tough fiscal times, our first responders should be the most protected from cuts. And so my very first act in office would push the city to restore funding for police and fire services and permanently re-open the fire stations that the incumbent closed.

While the incumbent was sitting in a meeting cutting the services most critical to our neighborhoods, I was keeping our streets safe patrolling our community in a UCPD car and on foot, as a Community Service Officer.

Our neighborhood is one of the most vulnerable to major devastation in the tragic event of a large earthquake. So it’s bewildering that in his 4 years in office, the incumbent has done little to beef up disaster preparedness. Now, in an election year, he’s campaigning on a pledge to do the work on this issue that he should’ve been doing for the last four years. Creating a genuine, comprehensive disaster preparedness plan would be among my top priorities immediately after being elected.

Four years after realizing he hasn’t made good on his campaign promises, my opponent is proposing the creation of a Public Safety Commission. But to combat the violent crime and property crime we face in our community, we don’t need another city bureaucracy—we need dollars.

Now, after cutting police officers, the incumbent has proposed solving our property crime problems by using city dollars to put tracking devices in peoples’ cars. It’s a pretty good tactic for an election year—but it won’t keep cars from being stolen. It’ll prompt quicker recovery and save insurance companies money when they are stolen. But we’ve got to get to the root of the problem and restore the funding he cut.

Last year, the incumbent voted to cut over a million dollars from fire prevention. This June, he proposed adding $1 million for fire prevention—but after the city manager couldn’t find enough money in the budget, the incumbent refused to second a motion adding an additional $100,000. In a show of lip service, he “voted for it before voting against it.”

We need leadership that genuinely cares about crime, fire safety, and disaster preparedness—and a councilmember whose actions will reflect this commitment.

That’s why my first act in office would push to restore the funding the incumbent cut.