Questions Remain on TMD
L A Wood, Berkeley Voice, March 29, 1997

The reorganization of Berkeley's Toxic Management Division (TMD) was the point of a heated debate several months ago when it was placed within the Health and human Services Department. The community outcry which followed has once again provoked a second reorganization of the TMD (Berkeley Voice, Feb. 20). This time, the division has been placed adjacent to the Planning Department. Until the completion of this year's city budget and five-year projection, the questions will remain concerning the future of Berkeley's TMD.

Part of the TMD's mandate is to oversee the cleanup of toxic properties as well as to regulate the activities of about five hundred businesses. The fees paid by Berkeley businesses for these services nearly meet the division's annual budget of $400,000. However, over the last year this budget has been reduced, resulting in the loss of one full-time inspector and a half time assigned clerical. This loss of personnel has meant a loss of services to the community. These cuts and those proposed for this budget period raise serious questions of whether the business community is receiving appropriate benefits from their fees, and the ability our toxics program to meet its new state mandate.

As the '97 budget process nears completion, there has been talk of both a redistribution of available funds and some departmental reorganization. One scheme which has been suggested calls for the consolidation of all city environmental operations. It implies that these operations have like functions, yet a closer investigation reveals another picture. Take for example the Solid Waste Recycling Program, a certain candidate if a new environmental department is created.

The Solid Waste Recycling Program, a large revenue generator with an administration to match, has little to do directly with the TMD. Such changes as this would fail to respond to community assertions that the toxics program is being buried under and unrelated administrative hierarchy. This same claim could be made for other parts of Public Works, too. However, there has been a long-time need to reorganize the TMD to include our city's Clean Water Program.

In 1991, the federal Clean Water Program officially came to Berkeley. Shortly thereafter, a storm drain property assessment was established. Before most could react to this new program, the city's largest department, Public Works, quickly scooped it up, and, of course, most of its staffing funds (1 FTE). This has resulted in the Clean Water Program remaining little more than revenue relief for the Public Works Department.

Public criticism (and a video) pressured Berkeley to formally hire a designated clean water coordinator. For the last three years, this FTE has reported to Engineering, despite the fact that most of the FTE's designated activities are an integral part of the TMD function. The TMD, which manages both groundwater and surface water, has been encumbered by this illogical arrangement. Simply, we spend extra money in the education of the clean water coordinator, while slighting the TMD for what is rightly another FTE to complete its program requirements.

Certainly the key to the TMD's final organization lies in the recognition of the varied functions that the toxics program plays, and, of course, its direct funding level. There can be no denial that the TMD's activities are aligned with the planning process and have little to do with vector control, restaurants, or recycling. Moreover, the TMD has everything to do with clean water. These changes could ensure a more effective toxics program.