Politics & Government
Authorities: 'Occupy the Farm' Costs Nearing $383,000
A brief update on the costs of Occupy the Farm activities; legal actions against activists; and a recent "visioning workshop" and survey by Occupy the Farm. Click "Keep me posted" for an email alert when we write about this topic.
Click the "Keep me posted" button below for an update when we publish future stories on this topic. Read more on Albany Patch about the Gill Tract occupation.
Following a request for information, authorities late last week provided Albany Patch with a short accounting of costs associated with Occupy the Farm activities and clean-up at the Gill Tract from April through May 2012.
Activists on April 22 with the goal of turning the space into an urban farm that was open to the community.
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University spokesman Dan Mogulof said Occupy the Farm costs related to University of California Police, as of June 6, were estimated at $311,914. This includes overtime for officers; mutual aid costs for officers from UC campuses other than Berkeley (time, room and board); equipment rentals; and private security contractors.
Another $53,548 was spent on Physical Plant and Capital Services, such as materials and labor costs related to damage repair for fences, gates, locks and pipes; and lighting rental.
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Chief Mike McQuiston said costs to the city of Albany as of June 6 were approximately $16,965 for overtime for officers, and roughly $100 for miscellaneous materials and supplies.
McQuiston added, via email: "Albany PD’s primary focus throughout the event was on minimizing risk to persons, property and governmental operations outside the Gill Tract should there be any 'spillover' effects, and in coordinating operational aspects such as traffic safety and parking control, while also ensuring the right of all persons to peaceably assemble. It is important to note that these overtime costs are not limited exclusively to uniformed police officers, as our needs also required overtime assistance from public safety dispatchers and other support personnel in the police department."
UC Berkeley officials have said that, while they have been sensitive research done at the does not allow for unfettered access to the site.
University of California Police cleared activists from the area, near Marin and San Pablo avenues in Albany, on May 14. Police that day, after earlier related to the occupation.
Last week, the Alameda County district attorney's office said, according to multiple media reports, that charges would not be filed against seven people who were arrested outside the Gill Tract on suspicion of unlawful assembly.
Two others reportedly still have charges pending against them, but their names have not been released.
Occupy the Farm addressed the dropped charges in a post on Twitter: "Why won't the #UC press charges? Because the #UCPD grabbed 7 of us from off of the Albany city sidewalk. No charges to press."
Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick told the Daily Cal that a 10th activist, Edward Miller, "who was arrested on May 14 after allegedly climbing a tree, urinating on a police officer and throwing a plant starter at an officer," pleaded guilty in late May "to resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer. He was sentenced to 30 days in county jail, three years of probation and a stay-away order from the Gill Tract."
WEEKEND VISIONING WORKSHOP HELD
On Saturday, June 9, supporters of Occupy the Farm held what they called a visioning workshop at an undisclosed location in Berkeley. People who wished to attend were directed to email "gilltractfarm@riseup.net for the meeting location."
Organizers also asked fellow farmers to fill out a survey about the occupation; questions involved what about the action was inspirational, and what about it was open to criticism. The survey is attached (for reference only) to this story as a PDF, and it can be filled out here.
The Occupy the Farm post about the meeting is copied below in full:
Saturday 09 June 2012, 12:00pm - 06:00pm Hits : 190
Dear Farmers,
We're excited to craft this visioning process together! Please read this entire email.
Saturday's meeting will center around survey responses, and ideas that participants have written down on pieces of paper. Please express your ideas as simply and briefly as possible. You don't have to do every survey question but only written responses will be used to seed the discussions.
This visioning meeting will not be a place for debate. Rather than spend time talking about how we disagree, significant controversies or tensions between ideas will simply be identified and set aside for a future decision making process guided by the statements that we CAN agree on.
The meeting will take place in Berkeley, from 12 noon until 6 pm. Please come on time and if you anticipate scheduling conflicts or cannot stay for the whole time check in with us before hand to make sure it is OK. RSVP to gilltractfarm@riseup.net for the meeting location.
If you have farmy friends/comrades who don't have access to email, please tell them to come at 12pm sharp on Saturday so that they can fill out the survey then.
Click the "Keep me posted" button below for an update when we publish future stories on this topic. Read more on Albany Patch about the Gill Tract occupation.
If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at albany@patch.com.
