Voting is open for the Berkeley Tenants Union’s slate of “progressive, pro-tenant” candidates that will be up for election to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board in November.
All Berkeley residents who are 16 years and older are able to vote online until April 28, with physical ballots available by request on the BTU’s website. The last day to request a physical ballot is April 24. Students who are registered to vote in other districts, as well as unhoused residents and non-citizens, can still cast their votes in this primary.
Seven people applied for the BTU’s nomination, but only five will be selected, as only five of the Rent Board’s nine seats are open for election. As of April 23, 180 ballots had been requested, according to Elizabeth Geno, co-chair of the convention’s planning committee.
Ida Martinac and Nathan Mizell are the only incumbents seeking reelection for a second term on the Rent Board. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Attorney and meditation teacher Vylma Ortiz has been living in Berkeley for the past 18 years, where she has raised her two sons. She currently resides in a rent-controlled apartment, and said she wants to get involved in local politics as one reason for running.
“I hope … to try to see the glass half full, to be grateful for the beautiful city of Berkeley and its beautiful history, and yet still try to make it even better,” Ortiz said. “I want to be a soldier in that too. I want to make things different.”
UC Berkeley political science student Derek Rodriguez is also running. He describes the affordability crisis as structural, rather than accidental, in his profile statement.
Another candidate, Whitney Sparks, unionized her building owned by Raj Properties, a large corporate landlord in Berkeley. She claimed she faced “incredible discrimination” from her landlord and became involved in advocating for herself, her son and other tenants. If elected, Sparks hopes to help other tenants unionize their buildings.
“I have a lot of lived experience,” Sparks said. “I have been unhoused before. I have been threatened with eviction illegally by multiple landlords in California, and I have taken my case to the rent board and won.”
Jon Touissaint is another candidate running, and he has worked with fellow tenants in the Harriet Tubman Terrace Apartments. He is currently the vice president of the building’s tenants’ union; the apartments house disabled and senior residents. At the time of publication, Touissaint was unable to be reached for comment.
Avery Arbaugh, the BTU chair and head of the Berkeley Tenant Organizing Task Force, is also in the running. Arbaugh describes assisting a dozen groups of tenants in buildings which represent about 1,000 people.
“Berkeley is a better place to live when everyone can afford to live here, and we’re not meeting that obligation as a city right now,” Arbaugh said. “We need to make sure that we’re pursuing all avenues we can, all of the tools in the toolbox to make sure housing is affordable for all of our residents.”
The BTU organized a convention on Sunday, which allowed prospective candidates to meet with organizations representing tenants’ rights. The candidates are then scored based on their interviews and nominated after the voting period closes.
“It’s vital that (for) whoever is nominated to be on the slate we all rally behind them and make sure that they’re elected in November,” said President of Cal Berkeley Democrats Ben Gildea.