Mayor John Williams

Tim Hunt: A BART turnaround for Livermore

THE SURPRISE OF the week came Monday when three members of the Livermore City Council voted to adopt an initiative that requires the city to support the BART extension on the Interstate 580 corridor to its terminal station at Greenville Road.

A citizens group gathered more than 8,400 signatures on its initiative to reverse the council's prior unanimous vote to route BART downtown from Isabel Avenue. The tracks would have been in a tunnel and then gone back to the surface along the existing railroad right-of-way to a second station at Vasco Road.

The BART/freeway route had been established for years, but when city leaders started pushing the 2,000-seat regional theater downtown as well as higher density housing around it, they shifted the route. The final decision belongs to the BART Board of Directors, but they unanimously supported Livermore's prior change of position when it was brought before them, so presumably they will go along.

Mayor Marshall Kamena introduced the idea and pointed out that the pricey report (almost $200,000) that the council ordered had reported that all of the required high-density housing could be contained south of the freeway on the Greenville Road site.

Any rail extension, to obtain funding from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, must have more than lots of residential units within one-half mile of the station. For two stations coming to Livermore, that would be more than 7,500 units, according to the consultants.

The required housing densities, a policy that didn't exist when the line was extended to Pleasanton and Dublin in the mid-1990s, create a substantial trade-off for Livermore.

It's particularly sharpened because the second station -- Greenville -- must take the vast majority of the housing on the freeway route because of the city's airport protection area, and the regional air board's policy against residential development near freeways, severely limit what can be done at Isabel Avenue.

Of course, regardless of the route selected, there still is no money to extend BART to Livermore.

Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, a member of the board of the county transportation authority, just pushing to get BART extended to the site of Isabel. The county authority is to prepare for another reauthorization of the tax-half cent sales and Haggerty pressed for a sum of money for the extension of a position in Livermore.

If that happens, that creates leverage for the state and federal funds should they become available.

Mayor: Sunday to be 'John T. Williams Day' in Seattle - seattlepi.com

Sunday will be declared John T. Williams Day in Seattle, a spokesman for Mayor Mike McGinn said.

The event will include a proclamation, expected to be given to his family during the 1:30 p.m. ceremony at the Chief Sealth Club in Pioneer Square. Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith is scheduled to represent the mayor's office

The proclamation is expected to increase already-tense relations between the mayor and the Seattle police union .

Williams was a celebrated, seventh-generation carver who at times sold his work to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront.

But less than a week before his fatal shooting by a Seattle police officer, Williams was recorded threatening to kill police officers. In 2009 prosecutors described him as having 30 criminal convictions over two decades, including lewd conduct and indecent exposure.

Williams was killed in an Aug. 30, 2010, police shooting ruled unjustified by the Police Department's Firearms Review Board . The officer who shot him, Ian Birk , resigned Feb. 16 after King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced charges would not be filed in the incident.

That decision has sparked several protests, including a few acts of violence. But the Williams family has spoken against violence, and at a Steinbrueck Park carving session Saturday a speaker told the crowd actions of violent protesters "make it more difficult for all of us."

Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer called many of Birk's actions "egregious." Other police brass said Birk was right to make contact with Williams that day, but said that the young officer should have called for backup, didn't properly assess the risks and shouldn't have used deadly force.

Shortly after Birk's resignation, his attorney said the officer was "another victim" of the fatal incident and said Birk had suffered emotional trauma because of the backlash of public anger.

Questions about officers unjustified actions during shooting

Last month, an inquest jury was split over whether Williams actually posed an imminent threat to Birk. Four of the eight jurors said they believed Birk thought Williams posed a threat. Four couldn't determine whether he did.

The inquest carried no legal weight, but was a factor in Satterberg's decision.

The ill will against Birk came from a small but very vocal group "who frankly didn't know what kind of threat Williams posed," Birk's attorney, Ted Buck said last week.

Buck noted the patrol car video recorded days before the fatal encounter shows Williams made a threat to kill officers. Birk did not know of the threats.

An almanack for the year of our Lord ...

Letters of Archbishop Williams, with documents relating to him

Letters, Ed. with Notes by J.E.B. Mayor

Annual report of the Commissioner of Labor

The reports of the most learned Sir Edmund Saunders, knt, of several pleadings and cases in the Court of King's Bench, in the time of the reign of His Most Excellent Majesty King Charles the Second. [1666-1672]