Good morning and welcome to the Finance and Management Committee meeting of today, November
18th.
The time is now 933 a.m. and this meeting has come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items
on this agenda.
If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card, please
fill one out and turn it into a clerk representative to my left, your right.
Before the item is read into record, all of our speaker requests were due 24 hours prior
to this meeting.
the meeting came to order at 9 33 a.m. speaker cards will no longer be
accepted ten minutes after the meeting has began making that time 9 43 a.m. with
that we will now proceed to take roll councilmember Brown present council
member Unger here councilmember Wong present thank you and chair Ramachandran
we have four members present and before you begin chair Ramachandran do you have
any announcements this morning. No except to congratulate our new finance
director Mr. Bradley Johnson on the new role and also to our new revenue
administrator Ms. Nicole Welch and that's it. Happy to get started. Thank you
so much and congratulations to everyone as well involved. Thank you. Going to
item one there are no minutes to be approved please remember as this is a
special meeting. Moving to item two determination and schedule not standing
Committee items is, this is also known as your pending list
and there are no speakers for this item.
To administration, any changes?
Nothing at this time, thank you.
Okay, I will entertain a motion.
Move approval.
Thank you, you have a motion made by Councilmember Brown,
seconded by Councilmember Unger,
to accept determination to schedule
outstanding committee items as is on roll.
Councilmember Brown?
Aye.
Councilmember Unger?
Aye.
Councilmember Wong?
Aye.
and Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
This motion passes with four ayes
to accept Determination and Schedule
outstanding committee items as is moving to item three.
Adopt an ordinance amending Oakland Municipal Code
title four, chapter 4.56, vacant property tax to one.
Add an exemption of four parcels that change ownership
after assessments.
Two, require the hearing officer to include findings of fact
in the decisions.
and three establishing a 12 month time period
within each month's of parcels deemed vacant assessed
and the vacant property tax must file a petition
to reverse the assessment claim and exemption
or to seek refund for taxes paid.
And you do have two speakers for this item.
New on tax administrator.
Today we bring before you the ordinance.
Staff recommends that the city council adopt an ordinance
Mindy Oakland Municipal Code Title 4, Chapter 4.56.
Vacant property tax 2A, number one,
add an exemption for parcels that
change ownership after assessment.
Two, require the hearing officer to include findings of
fact in their decisions and three,
establish a 12-month time period within which owners of
parcels deem vacant and assess
the vacant property tax must file
a petition to reverse the assessment.
claim an exemption or to seek a refund of taxes.
The proposed changes to the vacant property tax ordinance
codified under Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 4.56
would provide clear and uniform standards
for the administration and management of the tax.
Specifically, staff recommends that the City Council
adopt the proposed ordinance to one,
create an exemption for new owners
who acquire the parcel during or after the year
in which the parcel was deemed vacant
therefore was assessed the tax. The exemption would be afforded to those who
acquire a parcel, sorry about that. The exemption would be afforded to those who
acquire a parcel via an arms-lint transaction with less than 50 calendar
days in the relevant calendar years in which the tax was assessed. Two, remove
Remove the existing discretionary language under OMC section 4.56.110 section D and replace
it with the mandatory language that the hearing officer's decision shall include findings
of fact.
Three, establish a 12-month statute of limitation to file a petition of vacancy or entitlement
to exemption to begin on the due date of the second installment of the secured property
tax bill issued by the County of Alameda for the fiscal year in which the tax was assessed.
The proposed statute of limitation applies to those who seek to reverse the assessment,
file for an exemption and or refund of taxes paid.
If you have any questions, we are here to answer them.
Thank you.
Colleagues, questions, comments?
Okay, thank you for the presentation.
I think these are three very clear-cut amendments, just wanted to uplift that these make a lot
of sense and I appreciate the opportunity to be briefed on this before and we can move
to public speakers.
Thank you so much.
Want to call your name?
Please approach the podium, state your name for the record.
If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hands here easily identified and as procedure
we will go with in-person speakers before Zoom.
Mr. Kevin Dally and Derrick Barnes.
And Derrick Barnes, are you with us online?
That concludes your public speakers for item three.
Thank you, and to the parliamentarian this needs,
can this go to the city council meeting on December 2nd?
Then I will make the motion to move this to December 2nd.
And I will make a motion to move this
to the December 2nd full council meeting on consent.
Second.
We have a motion made by Chair Ramachandran,
seconded by Council Member Wong
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the December 2nd,
2025 City Council Agenda on Consent on Roll.
Council Member Brown.
Aye.
Council Member Unger.
My bad, aye.
Thank you, Council Member Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
This motion passes with four ayes to accept the termination,
I mean, to improve the recommendations of staff
and to form this item to the December 2nd.
City Council agenda on consent.
Moving to item four.
Receive an informational report
from the city administrator
for their designee of the special revenue collection project,
including the hiring and activating work
to bring an additional revenue to non-foul businesses.
And you do have three speakers for this item.
Thank you, I'll just make a brief comment
as one of the co-authors of this before we begin.
For context, last year and the year before,
there were a lot of concerns about the cities
not adequately collecting tax revenue
from various businesses.
And this is due to a number of factors,
including the pandemic, some unofficial policies
during the pandemic under different administrations.
But one of the things that myself
former Council Member Kaplan were focused on last year and a little bit of
this year was seeing how we can engage with our finance department to really go
after and make the businesses that are not paying that should be paying and
make sure that we have as close to a hundred percent payment of our business
license taxes. I'm sure revenue administrator Welch can go into much
detail but very much and in appreciation of your work in the budget we did make
some projections about potential revenue that could be collected from this
project. We also put in a small amount of money to hire someone to be able to
pursue this work. This is not the first time that a special revenue project has
been done by the city but it's possibly one of the most important that we're
undergoing right now. So I will let you take it away to explain the status on it.
To the committee. Nicole Welch, Revenue and Tax Administrator. Today I bring before you an oral
report of the measures that we have taken. I have made a couple of notes, so if I'm looking down,
that is what I'm actually reading. On August 4, 2025, an annuitant was onboarded to do the following
Revitalize the Revenue Management Bureau's outreach and education program.
Reestablish and expand the Revenue Management Bureau's outreach and education efforts to improve taxpayer awareness and compliance.
Engage with all of Oakland's business chambers of commerce.
Strengthen partnerships with local chamber of commerce to foster a collaboration,
share information, and support business tax compliance initiatives.
develop a comprehensive field activity program, design and implement a structured field activity program for
tax enforcement officer tools to enhance on the ground enforcement and business engagement.
Produce targeted outreach media, create and distribute educational materials via flyers,
billboards, and commercials to inform businesses about Oakland's tax obligations and filing requirements.
Analyze vendor lists for partner agencies, obtain and review vendor data from internal and external agencies,
BART, AC Transit, Oakland Housing Authority, and the Building and Planning
Department to identify and pursue unregistered businesses operating in
Oakland, coordinate with city departments on collections, collaborate with other
city of Oakland departments to ensure timely referral of outstanding
receivables such as illegal dumping invoices to the city-wide collections
division. Current actions, outreach and education under the guidance of the
The revenue management bureau participated in three major community events.
First Friday, September 2025, Oktoberfest 2025, Dia de las Muertes, November 2025.
During these events, staff actively engaged with attendees to provide education on Oakland's business tax requirements and
available payment plan options for most city receivables.
These payment plans are administered and monitored by the city-wide collections division.
The Revenue Management Bureau has initiated outreach efforts with several key business organizations,
including the Unity Council, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce,
Black Chamber of Commerce, and Chinatown Business Chamber.
These conversations have focused on opportunities to participate in member meetings and
to disseminate important messaging to the broader business community.
As part of this collaboration, the bureau is providing content for inclusion and
partner in newsletters and in actively presenting and membership meetings to raise awareness about business tax obligation and available resources.
Additionally, the bureau was invited to speak at the African American Chamber of Commerce monthly small business forum,
held on October 24th, 2025, this further strengthened our engagement.
Outstanding business tax collections.
Between September 10th, 2025 and November 14th, 2025,
Approximately 7,025 delinquency notices were mailed to business owners with outstanding
obligations covering both property-based and non-property-based accounts.
In addition to the mailings, commercial non-property accounts located within Oakland were subject
to follow-up telephone outreach and field visits.
These efforts aimed to assess business continuity and, where appropriate, initiate referrals
to the citywide collections division for potential court action on all unresolved balances.
Subcontractor Compliance Initiative. This was initiated by the Inuitant. A meeting was initiated in September of 2025 with the Department of Building and Planning to obtain the names and addresses of all contractors who have pulled building permits over the past six years.
The goal of this initiative is to identify subcontractors associated with these projects and cross-reference their information against the City's business tax registration database.
database. Subcontractors found to be unregistered will be formally notified of their obligation
to register and comply with Oakland's business tax requirement. This project is ongoing.
Where we are at, last year we had 1,125 visitors in our office between the month of July 1st
October 31st this year our we have served 1,000 and 1,552 citizens in our
offices. So that is a 30% uptick in people that we have served during the
same time period. I am here if there's any other questions. Thank you
colleagues. Okay excellent thank you so much for the report. A couple questions
I believe, I guess first to the chair of this committee with bringing this special revenue
collection informational report, is it your expectation for this to be something that
is reported on quarterly or what was your thoughts?
Yeah, thank you for that.
I think my, this was a very helpful update and I know the most important part of your
work right now is being out and collecting this this money and going
after the business again this September through up through November period is
showcasing a lot of results. I would be very interested in keeping this item in
committee so that we can receive another report early next year to for any updates
potentially a little after the March 1st deadline so we get a sense of you know
some of the progress that's received potentially April if the department is
amenable to that so we can hear more updates on the success of the project
potentially through a written report. Excellent I definitely agree and
appreciate the the detail and the and the work that you all put in definitely
hearing about the outreach being out in community as that is important and
really trying to ensure that stakeholders, you know, are engaged. And so definitely appreciate
that collaboration. I think that one thing that I would be interested in when this item
comes back again would be a written report so that we can read and review just some of
the activities, especially around some of the areas of opportunity that we've had in
Revenue collection whether it has to do with some of the illegal dumping fine so that we can track and record that data
I know that both the office of the mayor and some of my
Colleagues are very interested in how that collection is going along with a handful of other
You know special revenue projects and so being able to see that in a written report and that data
I think that would be super helpful as we are trying to just really make improvements across the city of Oakland
But once again, thank you so much
Councillor wonk
Thank you through the chair and thanks for agendizing this item
Just a few questions. So what ultimately is in your opinion the biggest barrier to doing the revenue collections at this point?
the biggest barrier
For example, we know that with the legal dumping fines,
I think that only 11% of those are collected,
at least based off of historic data.
So what do we need to do as a council
to move to increase that number and move the needle?
Well, right now, we are engaging in an internal education
of other city departments on what
we require for a referral over to our citywide collections
department.
There are key items which we would call a valid collection
referral, such as pictures, identifying the individual who
did this, the location, the actual signage,
and where it is actually happening
for the illegal dumping.
But the thing is that each collection referral
requires a different thing.
If you're doing or you're engaging in parks and rec,
and you have a contract, we actually need that contract,
and it needs to be signed and executed.
As far as what council can do, I think that as supporting
as you are, what you've been doing in this space
has been very successful.
What I think that is that as an administration, as a city,
we need to tighten things up.
And that way, we can actually move forward
on these different items and ensure
that we are actually able to collect on it
and actually take it to court and win the judgment.
OK, that's helpful.
And then the other thing I would just note,
what I am finding, especially diving into the trafficking
issue in my district, is that there is a number of businesses
a lot, a shocking number of businesses,
I will say, on international that are like convenience stores
that are selling.
It's like a red light district in essence,
but also we have found that a number of the businesses
The businesses, these are nuisance businesses,
don't have any business license under them.
And so this work is not just about revenue collection,
it's also about helping really to put out
the nuisance businesses that are creating a lot of problems.
We hear stories of drug trafficking
and all kinds of terrible things.
So this is all that to say that this is important work.
So thank you.
Thank you.
We are, and we do have, a field component
where we are actually canvassing.
We used to call it field visits, but we
are canvassing these different business locations
where we're actually finding unregistered businesses issuing
out notice of violations.
And then after it's no payment, then
we will be referring them over to our collections department.
And that is how we are able to assist with that.
So in our last field visit, which happened last month,
We were able to find 20 unregistered businesses
throughout the city.
This will, it is a labor intensive process.
However, we are being pulled in different multiple areas
where we have a delinquency that we need to run on property
and non-property accounts.
My supervisors are pushing their people out.
We just were able to attain vehicles under,
with the help with the city administrator,
so that we can actually get out
and start canvassing these areas.
But that is, and you will be receiving notification
from my people when we're in your area.
So we are coming into your areas.
They will notify you, but we also
are opening this up so that we can actually
have an education with all of your people
on exactly what revenue does and what our aims are
and see where we are in alignment.
And absolutely, we will be visiting and you're
saying, International Boulevard will
be on International Boulevard.
OK, great.
We'd love to give you some intel that we're hearing from that can actually we love tips. Okay. Okay. Great noted
Okay, thank you for this report I think that's great work to show, you know 30% increase in
folks voluntarily coming to City Hall to understand how to get more information on
Registering their business paying their taxes all of that's really great
Appreciate the efforts. I know in the past the city is
Certainly not sent notices on on time and not always followed up with the phone and field visits
So this is really great to know that there's multiple points of contacts for delinquent businesses because a lot of the time
Businesses that don't pay just don't really know or forgot or never received the mail
And so I think all of these points of contacts are really
Helpful in getting our revenues up from this from these unpaid this category of unpaid business taxes
I think last year early last year potentially
I'm in several reports that were then presented to counsel
It was estimated that it was about 15 percent of businesses that didn't pay does that seem
approximately accurate of the number of the percentage of delinquent businesses currently I
don't feel comfortable giving you a percentage right now.
I would absolutely like to go back and we will be able to present with you how many
businesses are actually delinquent.
So I will bring that back to you and get you that information.
Great.
Wonderful.
And as far as this coming in the form of a written report next year after more progress
is made, there's either a committee meeting on March 24th or a committee meeting on April
21st.
Is there a preference to bring this back?
I think April 21st would be a better target for us.
OK, thank you.
And if you do have the numbers or percentage
of delinquent businesses ahead of time,
if you're able to present that in an email to the committee,
that would also be appreciated.
We'll do it.
We'll get that to you.
OK.
And public comment?
Thank you.
When I call your name, please approach the podium,
state your name for the record.
You do have two minutes as we will take in-person speakers before online speakers. If you're participating via zoom
Please raise your hands. So you're easily identified David boat, right?
Kevin Dolly and Derek Barnes
Hi, this is Kevin Dolly in district 4
Wondering whether there's collections on fire
Code inspections that whether those have improved from where they were a year ago
So the CVS in the Diamond District, which is District 4, has had a long running problem
with its fire exit being closed.
Every once in a while it gets inspected, it fails the inspection, and then they don't
get around to collecting the fees.
So best case, we actually get the fire code violations fixed.
Second best, we continue doing inspections and preferably collect fees while we're doing
the inspections. And I know this has been a long-running problem, both not
following up and not collecting fees when the inspections are done. Thanks.
David Biltwright, District 4. This is a great plan. Great to hear that y'all are
really on top of following up with the businesses and checking to make sure,
making them clear that they have an obligation to pay these taxes. The foot
foot traffic through your office is another good sign people are paying
attention the big question is how much money have we actually made so far this
year this physical year I didn't hear that number come up in the presentation
maybe there isn't any money because it's so early but that would be an important
number to quote in future reports thank you moving to our zoom speaker Derek
You may unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.
Yeah. Thanks, Madam Clerk,
and good morning, committee members.
Director Cole, well done.
I mean, I think this is all heading in the right direction.
I remember a few months ago when you were giving updates in terms of
what your priorities would be in support of businesses and being more proactive,
and I'm really happy, I think a lot of us are really happy to
see the city moving in this direction, becoming more proactive when it comes to engagement and
outreach, education, and certainly around enforcement. But those first two pieces are
essential in helping us move the needle in terms of supporting our businesses and the commerce that
they provide and making sure that they understand their responsibilities to the city. So I'm very
pleased to hear that your plans are in action and helping us move the needle in that regard.
As I think some of you have already heard me say as it relates to housing and owners
providing rental housing through the program that we have with the city, we certainly see this all
the time where as Chair Ramachandran said that a lot of people just do not know what their
responsibilities are as it relates to running businesses, especially rental housing businesses.
And so I think we and other organizations are in good position to help with your outreach and your
education activities. And we're here to be a good partner with the city in that regard.
So keep up the good work and thank you. And we're here to help in the matters of data. I think
paying attention to that and making sure that we have good data comparisons so that we understand
what in your plan works and maybe not is working for continuous improvement. And yeah and making
sure that our data repositories are up to date and correct so we can do all that good work as well.
That concludes your public speakers for item four. Thank you. Councilmember Brown could you clarify
what information you want brought in the follow-up report? Or was it just to have a written report?
Yes, definitely to have a written report. And if it's okay,
perhaps I can email some of the specifics for the next time if that's all right.
Yep. So we won't include it in the motion. And I'm happy to move the item.
Great. To the April 21st Finance Committee meeting.
Sounds good. Thank you.
I will second that and just add a clarifying question.
Since April is close to the time we start looking at our budget more in more detail,
would you be able to by that point have
some projections on how much revenue this project has amassed?
I'm going to look at my people one moment and let me see what they can do.
Yes.
Okay, great. Just a sincere acknowledgment.
I think there's massive progress that's been made on this issue over
the last year and much appreciation to you,
revenue administrator Welch and Director Johnson on being able to move this forward.
I think this is a very much a step in the right direction for the city. I will second.
Thank you, we have a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Chair Ramachandran.
And this is to continue this item to the April 21st, 2026 Finance and Management Committee
meeting.
On roll, Councilmember Brown.
Aye.
Councilmember Unger.
Aye.
Councilmember Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
The motion passes with four ayes to continue this item to the April 21st, 2026 Finance
and Management Committee meeting. Moving to item 5, Receive an informational cash management
report for fiscal year 2526, first quarter ended September 30, 2025, and you do have
three speakers for this item. Good morning. Chair Ramachandran and committee
members, my name is David Jones of the Treasury Bureau. Before you this morning is an informational
management, cash management report, excuse me, for the first quarter of the
fiscal year ending 25-26 as of September 30th. Highlights on page one of the
report shows that the portfolio had a balance of approximately 2.09 billion
dollars. It was down slightly from June due to some disbursements. Days to maturity of
the portfolio 242 days portfolio had a yield of 3.98 percent slightly down from June and
the portfolio had a daily liquidity of 20.97 percent and approximately 70 percent maturing
within the next 180 days and the portfolio is in full compliance with the city's investment
policy and we still invest for safety liquidity and yield and I'm available
for any questions that you may have. Thank you. Colleagues, Councilmember Ungar. Is there any
kind of seasonality to our cash management? Do we tend to be higher at
one time of the year? It does. It does fluctuate. One of the big like in October
we have a large debt service payment for the port so you'll see a drop but yes it
does you know as ebbs and flows so are we in line with so are we better off
comparing ourselves with previous seasons as opposed we're basically flat
so we're going we're doing fine okay we've got plenty of liquid cash and we
manage it on a daily basis great thank you public speakers yes when I call your
name please approach the podium state your name for the record and we will
take in-person speakers before zoom participating via zoom please raise your
hands they're easily identified. David Boatwright, Kevin Dally, and Derek Barnes.
David Boatwright, District 4. Councilmember Unger just asked the question I was going
to ask and that is, is this unusual to get such a big drop in the cash? And the answer
was it's normal, there's seasonal changes, so I guess we shouldn't worry about that.
Thank you, Kevin Dolly and Derek Barnes, you still wish to speak.
That concludes your public speakers for item five.
Okay, colleagues, I will entertain a motion to receive and file.
I will make that motion to receive and file.
Second.
We have a motion made by Councilmember Unger, seconded by Councilmember Brown to receive
and file this item in the Finance and Management Committee on roll.
Councilmember Brown.
Aye.
Councilmember Unger.
I
Councilmember Wong. I and chair Ramachandran this motion passes with four eyes to receive and file this in a finance and management committee
Moving to open forum
You do have two speakers for open forum when I call your name, please approach the podium state your name for the record
David Kevin Dalley and David boat, right?
David boat right district four. I don't have anything really substantial to say other than it's really helpful
If people will speak into their
Microphones, I've noticed we were at four or five people this morning and some
Turn away from it like maybe I did a little while ago when I was talking
And that will really help the people in the public understand what's going on. Thank you
That concludes your public speakers for open forum. All right. Thanks everyone meetings adjourned