Council Says Yes to Cutting Military, More Money for Home Needs

The five-member El Cerrito City Council declared unanimous support for Tuesday night calling for quick withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and Iraq and shifting of federal priorities from military spending to domestic programs that benefit local communities.

The action came at the request of the Bay Area New Priorities Campaign, several of whose members appealed for support during the meeting's public comment period. Campaign representatives have asked for support at other recent council meetings as well.

Issue is local, council members said

Council members, in apparent acknowledgement of critics who questioned why the council was getting involved in national and international issues, defended the action, saying that America's international and federal policies – particularly the huge amount of funds devoted to the military – have a direct impact on El Cerrito citizens by spending their taxes on war and weapons instead of on addressing local problems.

Councilwoman Ann Cheng, back in her seat after missing recent council meetings because of back injury, said she sees the local-versus-national disctinction as a "false dichotomy."

"What's national is global, what's global is local," she said. "There's always a way to bring it back home. And I think most importantly, it's important for citizens to feel empowered and take action and learn."

Councilwoman Janet Abelson said the justifications for the vote include not just compelling domestic needs but also the human cost in lives lost and impact on families from war.

She said she recognizes that the U.S. government has a plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan in the near future, but that it should be quicker, "as soon to now as possible."

Councilman Greg Lyman noted that a report received last week from the American Society of Civil Engineers with a report card giving California a grade of D+ in urban run-off (a measure of contamination of water run-off), while the water of San Francisco Bay is rated as "impaired."

"We're unable to meet some of storm-drain cleaning problems as a result of not having the funds to do all the capital projects that we need to do," he said.

Councilwoman Rebecca Benassini the issue provides a forum for the council properly discuss "how government at different levels affects our local community. ... We definitely have a role to play in sending messages to our federal elected representatives."

The resolution is addressed to the U.S. Senators from California, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Mayor Bill Jones stressed the importance of the U.S. maintaining a strong enough military to meet its responsibilities as a global power and defend itself from threats. "We can't forget that, like it or not, we do have a responsibility to make sure that our guard is up and our defense is out there."

But at the same time, the country needs to take a "balanced approach" and refrain from excessive miliary spending, he said, noting that some politicians are calling for adding $100 billion to the military budget over the next 10 years.

Jones said he agrees with the priorities of the campaign, though he questioned whether a reduction in military spending would in the short term be devoted to domestic programs instead of paying acculumated debt caused by the wars.

Appeals during public comments

Representatives of the New Priorities Campaign who addressed the council included Al Miller, who noted that the movement is a "nationwide grassroots effort to try to convince our elected officials at the local level representing the city and then to use their influence on national elected officials."

Miller himself is a locally elected official, a board member of the Stege Sanitary District, and is also a stalwart of the El Cerrito Democratic Club, one of the many organizations supporting the campaign. 

"The resolution ... will bring the war dollars home and exert as much influence as we can on Washington to create new priorities so we can extend it – instead of destroying things and killing people – building things and investing in our future," Miller said.

Jean Rabovsky, an 18-year-resident of the city, said local seniors are having to pay increased fees for programs at the El Cerrito Center, which is one of the organizations that could be helped by a transfer of federal spending.

Joanne Pearlman, a member of East Bay Peace Action, said those who visited her group's booth for the two years that it's been at the El Cerrito July 4th festival expressed overwhelming support for spending more federal tax dollars on health and education and less on the military.

El Cerrito taxpayers' 2012 contribution to the U.S. Department of Defense regular budget, not counting wars, amounts to about $51.55 million, based on average per capita taxes, and an additional $10.5 million for wars, said Michael Eisenscher, local coordinator the Bay Area New Priorities Campaign and national coordinator of U.S. Labor Against the War.

He brought those numbers up, he told the council, because he read recently that the council was dealing with a budget deficit of $313,000. "It's quite clear that there's lots of money available. It's just that it's going in the wrong direction. You wouldn't have that budget deficit if your taxpayers were giving you the money instead of the Pentagon and corrupt Afghan warlords. ... The reality is that this a local issue."

He also stressed the number of jobs that could be created by more domestic spending.

Eisenscher afterward posted a report on the meeting, along with supporting documents for his comments, on the New Priorities Campaign Web site.

One speaker who was not a member of the campaign, El Cerrito resident Peter Loubal, called the resolution "naive and counterproductive." He said he agreed that there's a lot of military waste and reasons to have opposed the war in Iraq, but at the same time, he said, past U.S. pacifism invited international aggression while U.S. military strength has served to limit aggression, such as in the Korean War and in promoting the collapse of the Soviet "Evil Empire." 

Attached to this article are the resolution adopted by the council and a flyer brought to the council meeting by Bay Area New Priorities campaign.

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