The City Council in Salinas has voted unanimously to support a union bid to buy the Monterey County Hearld and 11 other newspapers owned by Knight Ridder, according to a report on the Hearld’s web site. Other bidders for the paper include Pacific Grove developer Nader Agha and MediaNews, the chain headed by Billy Dean Singleton. The union’s bid is backed by billionaire Ron Burkle, whose personal fortune stems from leveraged buyouts of supermarket chains. He is also known to use money from the United Arab Emirates and the state pension fund CalPERS for his investments.