This story was first published at 10:18 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
Councilmember Kate Harrison abruptly resigned in the middle of a Berkeley City Council meeting Tuesday night — but says her campaign for mayor will press on.
Harrison made the resignation announcement during a discussion of a proposal to expand the use of surveillance cameras by police nearly three hours into the meeting, stunning her council colleagues, several of whom said they were unaware of her plans. She read from a prepared statement that touched on a wide range of local issues where Harrison contends the city is not adequately addressing residents’ concerns, then packed up her belongings and walked out of the meeting.
“Berkeley’s processes are broken and I cannot in good conscience continue to serve on this body,” Harrison said.
In a brief interview late Tuesday night, Harrison said she is not dropping out of the race for mayor because “I still think that there is a possibility that Berkeley can return to being a place that looks at process.
“This city is not well-run, and I’m tired of it, so I’m going to do something else,” she said.
Harrison is the second councilmember to resign unexpectedly in the past three weeks, joining Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who stepped down and ended his campaign for mayor on Jan. 12, saying he had experienced harassment while in office. Her resignation means the council now stands at just seven members who are navigating a tumultuous chapter marked by protests, which continued Tuesday, demanding they pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Harrison has represented council District 4, which covers downtown and Central Berkeley, since 2017, when she won a special election to fill the seat Jesse ArreguÃn vacated when he was elected mayor. She was re-elected twice, most recently in 2022 to a term that runs through 2026.
Harrison’s resignation will be effective Feb. 15, and she said she will participate in two council meetings that are scheduled for early February.
Berkeley’s charter requires that open council seats be kept vacant until the city holds a special election to fill them. The council earlier this month scheduled a special election on April 16 to fill Robinson’s seat representing the Southside neighborhood near UC Berkeley; City Clerk Mark Numainville said the city will need to hold another special election to replace Harrison.
Cites concern over housing, People’s Park
Unlike Robinson, Harrison wrote that she did not decide to resign because of harassment.
Instead, her statement touched on more than a dozen topics, ranging from local bond measures to the end of the Berkeley Kite Festival. Harrison raised concerns about housing policies that don’t take into account shadows new buildings may cast on neighbors’ solar panels, UC Berkeley’s increasing enrollment and practice of “master leasing” privately built apartment buildings, the future of the city’s waterfront and debates over law enforcement practices.
“I know it will be considered quaint to highlight transparency, good government and
engaging the community,” Harrison wrote. “I am not interested in process for process’ sake. But our current approach does not reflect the skill or agility to develop the solutions we need to survive our climate, health and inequality crises while understanding that change is hard and must be implemented carefully.”
Harrison said she did not blame ArreguÃn for her concerns about the city’s direction, nor did she directly criticize City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley. But, Harrison said, “There are a lot of problems with city administration.”
City spokesman Matthai Chakko wrote in an emailed statement Wednesday, “City staff strive to implement City Council policies in ways that are efficient, effective, prudent with resources and designed to best serve Berkeleyans. We can never reach perfect, but we seek to improve over time.”
The final straw that prompted her to resign, Harrison said, was UC Berkeley’s move to wall off People’s Park ahead of a planned student housing development, a project she supports. Harrison took issue with the university starting its project in the dead of night, and said the shipping container wall was more extensive than city-issued permits for the barrier allowed.
“People’s Park broke my heart,” she said, “because the university lied and we let them do it.”
In a written statement Wednesday, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof did not address Harrison’s comments, but said university officials plan to meet with her next week “to communicate with her directly, hear about the specifics of her concerns, and to share the information we have.”
Some criticize announcement
While Robinson’s resignation was met with an outpouring of support from fellow councilmembers, some of Harrison’s colleagues criticized her move Tuesday night.
“I never thought she would abandon her constituents and all the people we serve citywide by walking away in this manner,” Councilmember Sophie Hahn, who is competing with Harrison in the mayor’s race, wrote in a statement. “We are elected to serve a term. Abandoning midway for no particular reason other than disagreement with some colleagues on some issues is shocking.”
Councilmember Terry Taplin, who had a tense conversation with Harrison after her announcement that was captured by a Daily Californian reporter, wrote in a post on X late Tuesday, “Never in my life have I ever been sworn at by a coworker, colleague, or anyone in any professional setting. There is zero tolerance for discourtesy, let alone racial micro-aggressions [especially] in this climate of toxic political discourse.”
Harrison responded, “CM Taplin continually interrupted me from the dais during the police camera debate, and when I told him it was not OK for a man to keep interrupting me, he didn’t stop. I won’t be spoken to by a man like that. It is sexist, unacceptable and I will not stand for it.”
ArreguÃn thanked Harrison for her service in a statement provided by a spokesman Wednesday, writing, “She was an integral part of the city’s leadership team, helping advance important policies combating climate change and building affordable housing. While we have lost a colleague, the Council is united in its commitment to continue to serve the Berkeley community.”
