Berkeley Considers New Law to Help Tenants Buy Where They Rent
By Zack Haber
Nine candidates are running to represent District 5 on the Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors.
District 5 covers West and North Oakland and includes Emeryville, Berkeley, Piedmont and Albany.
The five-member Board of Supervisors sets the county’s budget, governs its unincorporated areas, oversees the sheriff, Alameda Health System, and the mental health system.
Voting in this election has already begun. Most of those living in the district will have been mailed paper ballots. Residents can also vote in person on March 5, the last day voting is open. If no candidate gets more than half of the votes, the top two candidates will face off in the general election in November.
Candidates in Alameda County are required to report all of their campaign donations. The public can search these filings through an online portal.
Looking through the county’s campaign finance reports, we found that residents, businesses and other organizations, such as unions, have donated around $705,000 in total to all candidates as of Feb. 13. In three cases, candidates donated to their own campaigns, but we excluded these figures.
Of the nine candidates, John Bauters, the former Emeryville Mayor and current City Councilmember, has raised the most, about $167,500. Alameda County Board of Education Trustee Ken Berrick has raised about $157,500. Piedmont resident and East Bay Rental Housing Association board member Chris Moore has raised about $129,000. Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas has raised about $130,000; and Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett raised about $103,500.
The other candidates, Omar Farmer, Gregory Hodge, Gerald Pechenuk and Lorrel Plimier have all raised much less than the other candidates. So far, Hodge has raised about 11,500 and Plimier has raised about $5,500. Farmer and Pechenuk haven’t reported receiving any campaign donations.
While there were over 525 donations to candidates in total, of these, about $342,500 or a little less than half of the about $705,000 in total donations, came from just 30 sources. For the purposes of this article, we’ve defined these 30 donations as large donations—$5,000 or more. Bartlett, Bas, Bauters, Berrick, and Moore have received large donations, while Farmer, Hodge, Pechenuk and Plimier have not.
Below is a listing of each reported large donation, and information we could find about its source. We ordered the list in alphabetically by candidate name.
Large donations to Ben Bartlett:
Mukemmel ‘Mike’ Sarimsakci of Millbrae donated $10,000. Sarimsakci is a real estate developer and the CEO of Alterra Worldwide, a commercial real estate company. Man Hao Chen of San Francisco, CEO and founder of crop farming company Sunbber, inc., donated 5,000. Bao Le of Fremont, CEO of medical marijuana company Hemp.co, donated $5,000. Retired Berkeley resident Frank Brown donated $5,000.
Large donations to Nikki Fortunado Bas:
Alameda Labor Council AFL-CIO Unity, which represents about 135,000 healthcare, construction, service, education, and manufacturing workers, donated $20,000. Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County donated $20,000. Quinn Delaney of Piedmont, founder and the board chair of Akonadi Foundation, donated $20,000. Wayne Jordan of Piedmont, husband to Delaney, Akonadi Foundation board member, landlord and founder and president of Jordan Real Estate Investments, donated $20,000. California Working Families Party, a “grassroots party for the multiracial working class,” donated $10,000. Bas also received a $5,000 donation from the San Francisco crop farming company, Sunbber, inc. Man Hao Chen, who donated to Ben Bartlett’s campaign, is the CEO of Sunbber. IBEW Local 595, a union representing about 2,000 electric workers in Alameda and San Joaquin/Calaveras counties, donated $5,000. UA Local 342, a union representing around 4,000 workers in the pipe trades industries in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, donated $5,000.
Large donations to John Bauters:
Maryam Asefinejad of Orangevale, board member of Teranomic Software, donated $20,000. Fred J Bauters of Lisle, IL, relative of John Bauters, donated $20,000. The International Association of Firefighters Local 55 donated $11,000. State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks donated $10,000 from her reelection campaign. Nick Josefowitz of San Francisco, commissioner with the Metropolitan Transportation Commissionand co-founder of the nonprofit Permit Power, donated $10,000. Daniel Golden of Santa Monica, who works in sales at the pharmaceutical company Bausch Healthcare, donated $5,000. Marc Hedlund of Berkeley, founder of the investment company Tenuki Moves LLC and board treasurer of the nonprofits Bike East Bay and Code 2040, donated 5,000. The California YIMBY Victory Fund donated $5,000. Steven Berger of Berkeley, president of the company NYF Properties, inc. donated $5,000.
Large donations to Ken Berrick:
Megan Salazar of Richmond, director of advocacy for the Bay Area based nonprofit, Just Advocates which Ken Berrick founded, donated $13,520. Christopher Ciauri of London, England, CEO of the software company Unily, donated $17,500. Betsy Maushardt, unemployed resident of Santa Cruz, donated $10,500. Christopher Seiwald of Alameda, member of the University of San Francisco’s Board of Trustees and investor with the Berkeley Angel Network, donated 5,000.
Large donations to Chris Moore:
Quintin Anderson of Redwood City, Chief Operating Officer with Granite River Labs, donated $20,000. Madeline Moore, retired resident of Walnut Creek and relative of Chris Moore, donated $20,000. Philip Dreyfuss of Oakland, partner with Farallon Capital Management, a San Francisco based hedge fund, donated $20,000. Fred Morse of Piedmont, landlord with Morse Management, donated $15,000 through individual and company donations.
Justin Wallway of Oakland, landlord with JDW Enterprises, donated $10,000.
