ECDC Endorsement

Livable El Cerrito
2 days ago
5 min read

The audience at the El Cerrito Democratic Club meeting on April 28

The El Cerrito Democratic Club (ECDC) voted last week to endorse a ‘yes’ vote on the Measure C library tax on the June 2 ballot.

The ECDC endorsement vote followed the April 28 membership meeting at which members and the public were invited to hear speakers on both sides of the measure. A total of 73 votes were cast. There were 128 members who had joined by March 16 and were eligible to vote.

ECDC President Neil Tsutsui said the vote was:

· Yes on C: 58 votes or 71.2%

· No on C: 18 votes or 24.7%

· No endorsement: 3 votes or 4.1%

Speaking on behalf of Measure C was Greg Lyman, its principal author and a 20-year member of the ECDC board. He is currently the club’s Vice President-Membership. Lyman is also a former City Council member and mayor.

Comments from Campaign Leaders

After the vote, the Yes on C campaign posted, “We’re humbled and honored to receive the club’s endorsement in support of a path forward to bring a new (or renovated) library to our wonderful community. We look forward to seeing how the community votes and are optimistic we’ll get to work together towards a new library for El Cerrito.”

Speaking against Measure C was campaign leader Wally Nowinski, who moved to El Cerrito and bought his home in 2023. Nowinski works for a green energy company and has worked on Democratic political campaigns in the past.

He said after the endorsement: “Mr. Lyman has been involved with the ECDC for a very long time and is the membership chair. It's the friendliest audience the Yes campaign has. The fact that nearly a third of the members who voted didn't support endorsing Measure C is very encouraging."

Most people in the audience of about 80 people who attended the in-person discussion were not ECDC members.

Comments from the Audience

B.J. Thorsness, who attended the in-person event, said she appreciated the positive tone of the discussion moderated by City Council member William Ktsanes. She wrote:

“What I mean is, the two guys, actually all three of them, did their best, and they treated each other with respect. They were also good-natured, as was the audience. I feel like that little exercise we all witnessed did a lot to heal some rifts in the town, which have been considerable, especially lately. A note of appreciation for everybody's warmth and tolerance would be really nice to see.”

Linda Cain said, “I thought that William Ktsanes did a good job. Without being heavy-handed, he gave the audience the chance to hear both sides of the contested proposal, with maximum fairness and minimum chaos.”

Senior-Related Issues

The in-person presentation was interrupted twice by upset attendees, both of whom expressed concern about senior-related issues. One person who left without leaving her name was upset about the senior center not being a city priority. The second, City Council member Lisa Motoyama, joined Ktsanes at the front of the room to explain that the council recently passed a resolution to change the initiative’s senior exemption so people 62 and older with household income less than about $55,000 could apply to the city without qualifying for one of two state programs specified in the initiative.

Comments on Zoom

The ECDC meeting was also on Zoom, where posters challenged one another. One person, Tess Taylor, posted more than anyone else – over 100 times. Her posts included “Nobody really LOVES the current library,” and “All I hear from William is dog whistles. William has been pretty crass in the past about subsidized housing.”

When asked later about the comment, Ktsanes said he was confused by it and would welcome meeting with Taylor. He noted he has years of professional experience in affordable housing finance and is currently the finance director for a Habitat for Humanity affiliate. He added, “Affordable housing is almost always subsidized, including what’s being built at BART. Subsidies make it possible to offer lower rents that don’t cover all the costs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we should be honest about it.”

How to “Heal the Rift” and Move On?

At the in-person April 28 event, the last question was, “A library is the heart of the community. Measure C has driven a wedge into this community. Regardless of whether Measure C passes or fails, how do we heal the rift and move forward?”

Lyman said, “We all have to serve in this community after this election. We’re all going to have to respect each other when this is over. We’re having a discussion about a topic – whether or not this library tax is what we want. We all love El Cerrito and when this is over regardless of the outcome we all need to look across and at each other and have conversations about it because if it passes it’s not done, and if it fails we have a lot of hard choices to make because I don’t see the city having any funds to move forward.”

Nowinski said, “We’re all neighbors. We’re all Democrats. I have no personal animosity towards anyone over this…I think the way we have to move forward…is the City Council. We are in this position because the City Council has been pushing for this plan for a long time. They polled on it, realized they don’t have the support (of 66% of voters) and instead of going back to the drawing board and coming up with a plan that we could all get behind, we’re doing this loophole thing. We’re doing an independent citizens’ initiative that just so happens to be what the city was hoping to do in the first place.”

Nowinski added that a statewide measure which has qualified for the November ballot would close the citizens’ initiative “loophole” that allows taxes to pass with 50% plus one vote. It would be retroactive with the intent to invalidate taxes approved by less than a two-thirds majority. “That means if this passes the city’s going to be in court defending it, and the money to defend it will come out of the tax.”

The event ended with Lyman and Nowinski shaking hands.

From left: Wally Nowinski, Greg Lyman, William Ktsanes

ECDC took one other endorsement vote – a second vote on candidates for governor (after Eric Swalwell dropped out). No candidate achieved the 60% vote needed for endorsement. Results are below.

California Governor

No candidate exceeds 60%. No candidate is endorsed.