As the new year begins, Mayor Adena Ishii reflected on her goals for the city — including addressing the budget deficit, communicating immigration resources to the public and implementing a speaker series and a service corps.
The city is facing an ongoing budget deficit of 18 million dollars, which Ishii noted is her biggest focusfor the year. She stated the city is looking at both ways to cut costs and generate revenue.
“We’re in a situation where we really need to make some hard decisions. I would say that’s my biggest focus this year,” Ishii said. “We’re looking to see what kind of support the city needs. How can we make sure that we are continuing to support our community, especially in light of federal budget cuts and even state budget cuts?”
Additionally, 2026 is an election year, which Ishii commended voters, stating they had been “very generous” to the city in the last election, approving a variety of measures. However, she mentioned that she is aware of the current public concern about paying additional funds to the government, adding, “I know times are hard for people.”
In the past year, the city codified its Sanctuary City Ordinance into its municipal law. The ordinance prohibits city departments from cooperating with federal agencies.
Going into the new year, Ishii stated that the city has been having more conversations about how to publicize the resources of the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership, or ACILEP, hotline — a telephone number to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement sightings.
“We’ve been working very closely with our County Supervisor Nikki Foutonato Bass to make sure that ACILEP is well funded, and that the community knows about that resource,” said Ishii.
In addition, Ishii noted her commitment to ensuring that the surveillance data the city uses is not accessible to federal agencies. The city is under contract with Flock Security for its Automatic License Plate Readers, which community members have voiced concern over federal agencies accessing the data.
“I think there were a lot of people, especially after the pandemic, who were really concerned about public safety,” Ishii said. “I think that’s why we’re seeing a rise of interest in cameras and drones, different technology that could be used … At the same time, we need to make sure that different organizations that are accessing our data are organizations that can be trusted, that our system has the correct settings so that the federal government is not able to access that data.
Ishii emphasized that the city has asked the police department to ensure that “we are closing any loopholes that could potentially endanger our residents.” The Berkeley Police Department currently has technology settings in place, including the requirement that all outside agencies sign agreements to comply with Berkeley’s sanctuary city policy.
Ishii characterized the issues of housing and homelessness as her “top issues.” She noted that affordable housing projects take multiple years to build and develop, meaning community members often do not see the results for years.
“I think that that’s one of the really challenging things about housing is, we’re doing so much work now to get the funding together, to figure out where projects need support, to figure out, you know, how we can get funding specifically for affordable housing — at the end of the day, it doesn’t get built right away,” Ishii said. “It takes years for these projects to come about.”
However, she contrasted this reality with the current state of housing construction in Berkeley, claiming that the increase in supply has led to lower rents.
She noted that eventually the city will need to come to voters asking for additional funding for affordable housing. An Alameda County affordable housing bond will be on the ballot this election, which Ishii said her team has been following closely.
Ishii is also in the middle of discussions on how to start a speaker series, as a way to inform the public on city topics and give residents access to their elected officials.
“I think there’s just so much information to get out to the public; it’s very challenging,” Ishii said. “Being really intentional about making sure we’re doing that beforehand, before anything major comes up, is really important.”
In the new year, she hopes to launch BerkeleyCorps, which would provide civic engagement opportunities to community members.
Ishii plans to continue fostering relationships between council members, noting that in 2025, she worked hard on cultivating a culture of respect among the council. She added that the council will be going on a staff retreat in the coming year.
“We worked really hard to make sure that people got the chance to know each other on a personal level…” Ishii said. “When you come to council meetings, there’s laughter.”
Beyond goals for the city, in the new year, Ishii said she has restarted practicing Spanish on Duolingo and promoting self-care through staying active.