Good afternoon everyone.
Welcome to the concurrent meeting
of the Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency
and the City Council.
Today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025.
The time is now 3.34 p.m.
and this meeting shall come to order.
Before taking a role,
I will provide the speaker card instructions.
Two common in-person members of the public must submit
a separate speaker's card for each item on the agenda
before the item is called.
Online speaker requests are due 24 hours prior
to the start of this meeting,
the speaker's card at 3.30 PM
this is yesterday Monday by 3.30 PM the last opportunity to
submit a speaker's card is one and a half hours after the
service meeting this meeting came to order at 3.34 PM
therefore speaker cards are due by 5.04 PM.
I will now proceed with taking roll of members present on role
and you don't have to and there you go sorry through the chair
I will unmute everyone councilmember Brown present
councilmember Gail present councilmember Houston president councilmember
Ramachandran councilmember Unger present councilmember Wong present and
council president Jenkins president Ramachandran excused showing seven seven
present one excuse Ramachandran chair do you have any announcements before we
begin no announcements moving to our next item item three we have no actions
motion to approve an item seven
minutes to vote on special
orders of the day moving to
item four modification to the
agenda and procedural items.
Yes- taken chairs privilege
because of. Some recent. Recent
things that have happened I'm
going to motion to pull item
ten. Which is the encampment
abatement policy it is my full
intention that this policy will
be coming back in January. I'm
on item number ten.
But it is my intention if I have a second and a vote from the right, I hear a second.
And if I have a vote from the rest of the council that we will not be hearing item number
ten the encampment abatement policy today.
It's also my full intention that this policy will come back and so if you have any thoughts,
and I want to know if you have
any supporters any oppositions
please contact your council
members please contact your
council members so that they
can know your thoughts how we
can make this policy better-
and with that have a motion in
the second do I have any
comments.
Councilmember Houston.
Can you give me a reason why
it's- being pulled.
Council president.
Yeah so I think it's imperative
that we as a city keep funding
and we are a very urban city
specifically within the city of
Oakland we are a very urban
city so where people- can go
when they are unsheltered.
I something that we're gonna
have to work on and we'll
continue to work on this policy
as.
You guys might remember it took
a year and a half to get the
original encampment.
Management policy.
Done and so it's gonna take
some time to get this done and
I know councilmember Houston
has been working very hard on
And they're saying that our non sensitive areas, we need to add more to the non sensitive
locations.
Is that what they're saying?
Like in district one and four?
Is that what you're saying?
Is that what they're saying?
Because I want to know.
So I don't want to speak for Cal ICH.
And so I'm sure that the US author will be meeting with Cal ICH to ensure that we have
some policy that will ensure that we continue getting funding from the state.
So last comment, we addressed all the items with Cal CH. They move into the poll it looks
like. This just came up with yesterday. So the council did receive an email yesterday
citing some concerns from Cal ICH. So we have people out here against it and people
But we can't speak against it
or for it.
And they came and spent their
time to come out here and now
we just gonna tell them they
can't speak against it or for
it.
I just want to know.
So people so it's not getting
outside of this.
The issue of the item.
People are still welcome good
speak on the item I it will be
items in the last item of the
agenda.
Last question that question but
statement I have something I
these five slides that I'd like to just share
with the public and show them some of the progress
that we've had made and a constituent,
so it happened with a constituent out there.
So one second, there's something from the parliamentarian.
Through the chair to the body,
right now under item four, the body is talking about
the order of the agenda and items on the agenda
and whether or not to defer and withdraw an item
agenda if you want to get into the substance of the item that will have to
be taken up when the clerk calls that item in and the non-consent portion of
the agenda thank you okay so any other modifications to the agenda so there's
a motion in the second on item 10 through the chair there are no other
modifications from the body and or departments moving to item 5 knowing
I think we'll take a vote to withdraw item ten.
There was a motion made by council president Jenkins.
Seconded by council member five to withdraw item ten from this agenda.
On roll council members Brown aye five aye Guile aye.
Houston no Ramachandran aye Unger aye Wong aye
with the consent calendar.
With item five point one.
And council president Jenkins
the motion passes with seven
eyes one no Houston.
To withdraw.
Okay that was modifications to
the agenda moving to the
consent calendar starting with
item five point one.
Approval the draft minutes from
the meetings of October twenty
first twenty twenty five and
November fourth twenty twenty
five.
Item five point two.
I just want to make sure that
item 5.5 an ordinance for
amendments to the city's conflict of interest code action on this item will result in final passage item 5.6 a resolution regarding the reappointment to the city planning commission item 5.7 a resolution regarding Ernesto Sarmiento versus Alameda Contra Costa transit district city of Oakland County of Alameda in those one to
item 5.8 a resolution accepting and appropriating $279,000 from EBCF for mayor's office staff
positions. Item 5.9 a resolution regarding the appointment for the mayor's commission
on persons with disabilities. Item 5.10 a resolution regarding the appointment of Denise
Schmidt Shada Rager and Tanya Love to the bicyclist pedestrian advisory commission.
item five eleven a resolution regarding appointment to the budget advisory commission
item five twelve in ordinance regarding the vacant property tax ordinance amendments action
on this item will result in introduction
item five thirteen
a resolution regarding public works equipment services division cooperative purchase agreements
item five fourteen in ordinance regarding oakley municipal code chapter ten twenty speed
item five fifteen a resolution
regarding the memorandum of
agreement for thirty Blair place.
Item five sixteen a resolution
regarding the east bay Asian
local development corporation
property cell loan forgiveness.
Item five seventeen with
multiple pieces of legislation a
resolution and an ordinance
regarding the economic activation
zones the ordinance the action on
the ordinance will result in
introduction.
Item five fifteen a resolution
regarding the memorandum of
item five twenty.
A resolution regarding the city of Oakland's annual contributions to that youth ventures
joint powers authority.
Five twenty one multiple multiple pieces of legislation.
Regarding the early childhood multiple state contracts fiscal year twenty six to twenty
seven three three resolutions item five twenty two.
An ordinance regarding flex street programs public street closures action on this item
will result in introduction.
action on this item will result in introduction item 523 an informational
report regarding the performance audit of Oakland's police emergency response
times item 524 a resolution regarding Oakland bulk and oversized terminal LLC
versus the city of Oakland item s 525 does require an urgency finding as this
item was added at the three-day regarding the 27th Street complete
streets contract contract award and that concludes your consent calendar is it is
there somebody to give a urgency for s 25 is there anyone from DLT to give an
urgency finding for s 25 the meantime are there other departments that need
modifications to the consent calendar point of clarification was 5.1 8 read
into the consent calendar apologies through the chair I don't believe I did
five eighteen a resolution regarding the fiscal year twenty five to twenty seven budget amendment cultural affairs manager
as well as five nineteen
Resolution regarding the senior companion program foster grandparent program renewal grant applications fiscal year twenty five to twenty six
seeing no modifications from staff
Any modifications from the council members seeing no modifications from the council members. Let's go to public comment
So five twenty five will be pulled. There's no urgency finding
So when we make the motion
It will be with withdrawing 525 and they'll come back to us subsequent rules
councilmember five I
Just wanted to give my brief comments around one of the agenda items item 5.10
I see that one of the appointees from the mayor is in the chamber with us and I wanted to highlight the
the wisdom of Tonya Love who was going to be appointed to the
of the bike and pedestrian advisory commission.
I think she's an amazing asset.
I am a little biased as this is my former chief of staff,
but her dedication to Oakland's community
regarding transportation issues
and the work that she's done over the years
to ensure the health and safety of Oakland residents
is going to be an amazing asset to this body.
I just wanted to say that publicly, thank you.
I'd have to concur with you.
Tanya Love is an amazing asset.
It's good to have her back in some capacity
with the city of Oakland if approved by council.
Did president have a modification?
Good afternoon city council members,
council president Jenkins, president Kilgore here,
deputy chief of staff to Mayor Barbara Lee.
So we have a slight modification regarding file number
260252 appointment.
I won't go through all the appointments on there,
but I'm here to share there was a typo
in the resolution language regarding the term length
For the appointments of the appointees, their terms are supposed to be ending on December 31st,
2028 and not December 31st, 2029 as per the three year term requirement.
We've consulted the attorney and request that we make that slight change.
Thank you.
Through the chair, can you state the name, the number of the agenda item, please?
Yes, it's the file number.
Not the file ID, through the chair, 5.10.
Thank you, 5.10, thank you.
Thank you.
So if there's any modifications to fight or if there's
an urgency finding for DOT, fight no urgency finding.
So we will withdraw and schedule to the next city council
meeting on consent.
Thank you, chair.
Shall we go to public comment?
Yes, please.
OK.
Calling the names of those who signed up for public comment,
once you hear your name, please approach the podium.
Or if you are in Zoom, please raise your hand in the Zoom app.
Ralph Kans, signed up for three items.
Sam Rockby, signed up for one item.
Allison Pham, signed up for one item.
Bob Rahiby, Asada Ollabala, for multiple items.
Bruce A. Gurdon, Kevin Hester, Ann Harvey,
Barbara Leslie, Becky Holm, Blair Beekman for multiple items.
Dan Cobb, Josephine Guzman, Ray Kidd, Semen Lee, this card does not have
a name from E Bell DC, Sharon Lay, Kathy Adams, Stephanie Tran, Dr. Jennifer Tran,
Patricia Toscano, Armando Sorsano, Nikki Margaret Gordon, Shawn Sullivan, Ben Ekeberg,
I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name, Stanley Kupin, Jean Hazard, multiple items, Tristan
Brandon Burglar, sorry, or Trish and Elliott,
Diana Collins, Brenda Johnson, Faye Brooks,
Sean Brooks, Nikki Lowe, or Loewy,
James Von Van, Ronnie Stratton, and Aaron Rivin,
as well as Morn Griffin, or Griffith,
Natalia Nira, Tanya Love, Vanessa Wong,
And Zayed Mohammed, in no particular order,
please approach the podium.
Please state your name for the record.
Good afternoon, Ralph Kans.
For three items.
The vacant property tax amendments
have a major, major loophole in them
that need to be cleaned up.
The vacant property tax in general needs to be cleaned up.
There's a lot of problems with it.
But this particular loophole is the exemption
for parcels that change ownership after assessment.
This is another giveaway to the house flippers
are ripping off this city for millions of dollars
and nobody is elected official seems to give a damn.
The mayor's office drags their feet.
They don't answer my emails.
Mostly city council members have had something from me
and they don't do anything about it.
I have lists and lists and lists
and show you where they don't pull permits.
So what this means, if they pull a permit,
then they're exempted from the vacant property tax.
What this means is all they have to do is buy the house,
try to flip it without pulling permits,
you just gave them another $6,000 profit.
That's absurd.
This whole thing is unbelievable and nobody seems to care.
I'm trying to understand what's going on in this city
because you say you aren't getting enough revenue
and this is a big revenue item
and you're sitting on your hands.
I've been here how many months talking to you about this
and nobody seems to give a damn.
It's getting to be ridiculous, Mr. Jenkins.
It's getting really ridiculous and I don't understand it.
When I'm sitting there handing you the list
and on top of that, people are getting sold homes
that don't have final inspections.
They're being sold defective homes,
homes that have had the structural walls removed
and not have the proper engineering to fix them.
It's all documented.
This is a problem in the building department
that's been going on for decades.
And it also is, it's like you don't care.
And all that money is leaving Oakland.
Almost every one of those house flippers
from out of town, like Point Green Home Solutions, LLC,
out of Utah, flipped 2440 Monticello without any permits.
They did a complete remodel on no permits.
The city would have made more on those permits
than they did on the transfer tax.
You don't wanna look at me, Mr. Jenkins, I know that,
because it's a pretty ugly truth
and you don't seem to give a damn.
I wanna see some out of somebody here
that proves you care about this city.
Thank you for your comments.
Oh, my name is Bruce Juran, and I'm here for two reasons today.
I am the current chairman of the National Association
of Minority Contractors.
We are the premier largest and oldest advocacy organization
for the benefit of minority contractors,
and it's a national organization.
I'm also here for one other reason that's related to it,
And that is that agenda item 5.25 has one
of the consideration would be your small business program,
the development of it, which is extremely important and in line
with what NAMAC is here to advocate on behalf of.
I stand here as exhibit one of when it's done well
or could have, it's been done well.
And what I mean by that is that my headquarters is
in San Francisco, but the relationship is that there's a contract before you that involves
my mentor, the organization that almost 10 years ago.
Thank you.
Your time was on the screen through the chair.
Your one minute has expired.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Yes.
You signed up for one item.
You got one minute.
Yes.
Thank you.
Okay, so my name is Kevin Hester with McGuire and Hester. I'll complete what Bruce Duran was saying. McGuire and Hester and
Bruce Duran and Duran construction is an incredible example of how a mentor protege
contract, the agreement that we had with Bruce
when we're doing work in San Francisco at Hunters Point. This was in 2016 and
Bruce had
He was doing two to three million dollars worth of work.
McGuire and Hester, we connected with him.
We built the project.
We, I would say, we gave mentorship,
taught him in regards to what the back office does,
what estimating does, what operations do.
And now, 10 years later, he's, you know, doing,
he said maybe 10 times as much work as that.
I would say we have consistently had that we have had the the same agreement with Cooper
Engineering.
Thank you for your comments.
Hello Council thank you for listening to me now I'm a Stanley Cooper with Cooper Construction
Engineering.
Right out of Oakland.
Excuse me plus this time order in the chamber please.
Can you restart his time please.
Good afternoon Council my name is Stanley Cooper owner and president of Cooper Construction
in the engineering, we're an engineering firm
right here, out here in Oakland.
I'm also certified VSLBE.
To continue on, what both gentlemen were saying
is that on agenda 5.25, I'm for McGuire and Hester
to get this contract.
And the reasons are, number one,
I have assigned mentor protege program
through contracts and compliance already set in place.
So they are considered the most responsible
because they will help small businesses like myself
grow right here in Oakland.
And we all need that.
Oakland hires Oakland.
I put youth to work.
I have proteges, also have apprentices currently on.
I'm doing West Oakland.
The grand jury already reported on page 32
talks about the lack of usage of these programs.
Thank you for your comments, sir.
Hi.
Hi, I'm Bob Rahibi,
President of Resurbit Construction Company,
an Oakland firm located at 21 Hagenberger Court.
We bid on this project.
We voted a little bitter.
McGuire and Hester signed up with Stanley Cooper
on a Manta Protege program.
They don't meet the required goals.
If you take a look at page 15 of the S-L-B-E,
January 6, 2025, Stanley Cooper needs to do 30% of the work.
They're listed for 15.2% of the work.
So they don't even meet the program 10% bit per friend.
Secondly, I would question McGuire and Hester's
local business.
If you drive by 9-0-0-9 Railroad Avenue,
there's hardly anybody there.
They're Alameda firm.
It makes a difference.
If you're Oakland business,
You just cannot have an off, just a plain old office
and have everybody else somewhere else.
The program is designed for you.
Through the chair, won't you say your name
that we can put the appropriate time on the clock?
Sam Merheby from Redford Construction.
As a gentleman from Cooper Engineering stated,
Oakland hires Oakland.
However, as Bob pointed out,
unfortunately, McGuire and Hester
does not actually have a full fledged office in Oakland.
They have a big beautiful office in Alameda.
It's multiple stories,
but they only have a yard here in Oakland.
On the other hand, Retro Construction
has a headquarters stationed in Oakland.
To build on the point on the mentor protege program,
the mentor protege was double counted mistakenly
at 30% to meet the goal.
However, they are actually only 15%.
to double count a VSLBE as a mentor.
That is for a different category.
Mentor prodigies cannot be double counted.
So if they perform 15%, they only meet 15% of the goal.
However, if a VSLB on a separate category performs,
that's double, but that is not counted.
Hello, my name is Becky Ham.
I'm the Oakland Political Manager
at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
I also live in District 5.
I'm speaking on item 5.24.
We have been engaged in the No Coal in Oakland coalition
and campaign since the beginning.
The No Coal in Oakland coalition has been meeting regularly
for the past year to ensure the city of Oakland
takes the just direction for the health of the people
and against coal.
People are still concerned about health and safety of coal
even with the lawsuit.
In the past, the coalition has worked in collaboration
to figure out the best way to move forward.
Hope you all as mostly new council members
will think of us as allies and resources
to reinforce the will of Oaklanders.
Please look at all the options.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, I'm Sharon Lai with the E-baltzy.
I'm here to speak on item 5.16 and 5.17.
I wanna first thank the City Council
for your consideration and staff's work
on the loan forgiveness item.
This approval will allow us to maintain
long-term affordability for 58 units of housing here
and to meet our shared interest in preventing displacement
and real estate speculation.
Ibalzi remains committed to helping Oaklanders
meet our affordable housing needs
and continue to work on preventing evictions,
protection of our units,
as well as building affordable housing in our town.
And then I'm also here to voice support
for the economic activation zone that's also before you.
We think that it's a really great start
in optimizing Oakland's economic revitalization efforts.
And we obviously look forward to working with the city
in future zones, including in areas like Chinatown
to amplify the city's investment
with our community investment to move the needle together.
Thank you.
Armando, I'm speaking on the homelessness emergency
and the commission appointments.
Political and media elites have bombarded us
with propaganda justifying genocide
to make us accept mass death as normal.
That includes silencing and dehumanizing
the victimized population,
which is portrayed as a dangerous foreign other
that poses a threat to civilization.
This logic of genocide has seeped into our political culture.
We are infected with this collective mind virus
that causes us to treat humans as undesirable and disposable
and collectively punish them.
There is a homeless mortality crisis.
Hundreds are dying on the streets every year.
the unhoused mortality rate is five and a half times higher.
And your response is not to provide them
with sanctuary and access to healthcare.
It's to double down on punishment and stigma,
to portray them as a dangerous, undeserving criminals,
and collectively punish them.
The EAP will escalate the active harm of state violence.
Are you on the side of human rights
or the side of the Trump administration
and the real estate tech and finance oligarchs
who buy elections and have a displacement
and gentrification agenda?
and I'll see the rest of my time to Miss Nicky.
Good afternoon, council.
Through the chair to the public,
just noting that on consent there's no seating time.
Thank you.
So there's no seating time?
No seating time on consent.
Okay, well, I don't have a speech prepared
but I'd like to let you all know
that you have a responsibility
to the entire city of Oakland.
We have elected you and therefore you have a responsibility
to care for everyone in the city of Oakland
regardless of what their income is
and what their housing status is.
The EAP is criminal
and criminalizing people who are poor
is just demonic in every aspect of the word.
That's all I have to say.
Hi, my name is Nicky and I'm homeless in West Oakland.
Since I only have a minute, I'm gonna simply say this.
I said a statement five years ago.
I must share it with you.
Every one of you alameda county officials. Are you looking out for the homeless issues or is the homeless the issue, sir?
Because as I see we're all humans. We all have a place and we all need to be
Conscious of how we're dealing with each other. So I'll remind you guys all
The 14th amendment you guys are breaking our rights
I have to leave because I have a notice to get the hell out of my spot fifth and Mandela. Thank you very much
I'm Kathy Adams the Oakland City Council president of the Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce and we support
Councilmember at large for we know Brown and the city of Oakland
economic activation zones
entertainment zones
Also, this is good for Oakland goods for business and something that will
Make the vibrancy of our businesses thrive and bring more people downtown
So we at some point can just have a celebration. Thank you
Okay thank you.
Good afternoon council members my name is Jennifer Tran
president of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce
president of district two and on behalf of the Oakland
Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and as well as the ethnic
chambers of commerce we're here to support item 517
specifically at-large council member Rowena Brown.
Our chamber has been working with council member
Rowena Brown's office for nearly eight months now
to think about how is it that we can regenerate commerce
in the city of Oakland in a way that includes multiple
community members, starting with Laney College, Mills College,
as well as our small businesses.
And it's extremely important during this time for us
to remember what happens to small businesses,
immigrants, and historically marginalized communities
during the pandemic.
We were left behind.
This is an opportunity for us to bridge
the gap for this technological opportunity
in a way that is inclusive, that builds opportunities,
but also centers our communities.
So we do not want Oakland to be left behind
at this critical moment.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, Council Members.
My name is Stephanie Tran,
President of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce,
speaking on 5.17.
I'm here to express our support
for the economic entertainment zone and responsible AI.
This is an important step toward revitalizing
our commercial corridors and supporting our businesses
and expanding equitable access to innovation.
So thank you to Council Member Brown
for working with our community to make sure
that this happens and is implemented.
For more than 30 years, the Oakland Chinatown Chamber
has produced cultural festivals and community events
that support hundreds of artists and performers every year.
This celebration helps to define Oakland's cultural identity
and this entertainment zone will help to further strengthen
our ability to bring people together,
drive much needed foot traffic to our small business.
And at the same time, Council Member Brown knows this,
that we're disappointed that Chinatown wasn't included
in the initial pilot zone,
but we recognize the importance of launching these pilots
so that it can be implemented citywide.
So we encourage the council to adopt this
and support the economic Services Council.
Council President Jenkins, members of the City Council,
and Barbara Leslie,
president and CEO of the Oakland Metro Chamber.
I wanna first thank and applaud Council Member Brown's
efforts to bring the town alive initiative forward.
It is a groundbreaking piece of legislation
that will help activate our most in need areas of Oakland
as well as provide a roadmap for responsible
and progressive AI as we deploy it throughout the city.
We appreciate that you are starting
with four particular zones,
learning from your experiences
and then pivoting and moving forward as needed.
We appreciate that sensitivity.
Our support is grounded in many years
of listening to small businesses
as well as decades of polling data.
Our recent poll from October says,
indicated that 90% of our voters
support bringing small businesses to Oakland.
More than 80% want to attract technology businesses
to Oakland and nine in 10 believe it's the city government
has a responsibility to help local businesses.
Council President Jenkins, city council members,
my name is Sean Sullivan, a resident of District 3,
a small business owner in District 3,
right here in the heart and soul of Oakland, our downtown,
which has been slow ever since the pandemic
and the needs of our small businesses are stark.
But we are Oaklanders, we are gritty,
and we are scrappy, and we have come together
to try and activate our own streets.
And so we did that, I was a convener,
but there was lots of sweat equity put in
and creativity put in by all the small businesses,
the Fox Theater, the OSA as well,
for creating the uptown stroll.
And that, we believe, strongly is a blueprint
for the activation zones that Councilmember Brown
has put forward before you today.
We have studied and been in contact with other cities
that are implementing this in San Francisco
and Santa Monica to see that this works.
And I wanna thank Council Member Five,
Council Member Brown and our Mayor Barbara Lee
for helping the uptown stroll,
lift it up, amplify it so that it comes ready to you.
Good afternoon, President Jenkins,
member of the City Council.
I'm Nikki Lowy, the Director of Social Impact
for Northeastern University Oakland
on the historic home of Mills College.
I'm here today to express strong support
for Council Member Brown's town alive
economic activation zones legislation.
I wanna thank Council Member Brown
for championing equitable access to technology
through the creation of responsible AI activation zones.
Northeastern is proud to support her efforts
and deeply honored to be designated
as one of the city's AI activation zones
alongside Laney College and the Unity Council.
Our vision as a university deeply aligns
with this legislation that every Oakland student
and business owner should have access
to AI education and training.
So I urge the council to support
this transformative legislation.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Tristan Bagula.
I'd like to speak on item number 5.17
on responsible AI activation zones,
and I would like to speak as myself
on section number 10 on EAP.
So one of Northeastern University's most advanced programs
is its computer science program.
And we have a concentration in AI
that has been recently introduced
that is focused on AI security and privacy.
So it's important, and we care that AI ethics
is taken very responsibly and of utmost importance.
And in a time where AI is threatening job security,
we need to make sure that the people affected by this
are properly compensated for and that we do more
to make sure that AI doesn't go in the direction
that hurts working class people.
Would I be able to say?
Excuse me?
I went for two items, am I able to?
Which items did you speak on?
Number 10.
Number 10, and we're not on item number 10 yet.
Good afternoon, my name is Vanessa Wong,
chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission.
And you've heard from me a lot of times,
I just wanna thank you, particularly those
who are right up in the front of the fight
for restoring the funding for the Cultural Affairs Manager.
And I just wanna point out, point you
to the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Annual
Oakland East Bay Economic Indicators Report
that has a lot of great information
about the creative economy and highlighted,
I don't see my time, I don't, oh, thank you,
that highlighted Oakland's creative and nighttime economy
to help build our city back up economically.
And just to take note that all of these folks,
most of these folks are also talking about
how cultural life in Oakland
is what's gonna bring this back.
So there are equity issues, there are economic issues,
And I just want to remind everyone too
that you voted to accept the downtown specific plan,
which has an entire chapter on culture keeping
and the folks in city government
who are responsible for standing that work up
for arts and culture preservation promotion,
abundant arts and events and affordable arts space.
The folks who are in charge of implementing those policies
are the city staff in cultural affairs division
along with their colleagues.
So that position is...
Good afternoon, council members.
My name is Roni Stratton,
and I'm here to also speak on item 518.
I am the executive director of Oakland Art Murmur,
and for nearly 20 years,
we've been the anchor of culture here in Oakland,
best known as the original organizers for first Friday.
And I urge you to reinstate
the cultural affairs manager position
and restore cultural grants.
This is because we know when art thrives, Oakland thrives.
We've seen firsthand that art brings people into neighborhoods.
It gives people a reason to connect, to gather, to support small businesses, to shop, to dine,
to be in community.
And art also gives us a way to express ourselves and our roots and our identity in Oakland.
And I believe that this position will be strong infrastructure to support arts, our arts organizations
and partners and bring in outside funding to support this ecosystem.
So I support this position and hope you do as well without this leadership and investment,
this ecosystem that sustains both culture and commerce is at risk.
Thank you so much.
Good evening council members, council presidents, my council member, Ken Houston council member
five.
My name is Tanya Love.
I'm speaking on item 5.10.
It is an honor to be nominated along with my colleagues to serve on the bike and pedestrian
Commission and we would be truly grateful for your support our goal in
this role is simple but essential it is to improve the safety for everyone who
moves through Oakland whether they ride drive roll or stroll safe and
transportation is important not just to help people forget from one place to
another it strengthens our economy it supports social connection and I lost my
spot, sorry, but it also helps improve our social connection throughout Oakland
and I want to also highlight the importance and to thank all the
volunteers who work together on a commission whether they are volunteering
to clean up our streets or doing anything they can to help support our
city council and our city staff. Good afternoon council members. My name is
James Van and I'm speaking for the Homeless Advocacy Working Group. I would
like to complement the President on his recommendation to move the homeless
encampment measure. You have aborted a catastrophe in 2022. The Council made a
mistake by putting into place the encampment management plan that was
worked out in the back room by just one council member and turned out to be a
huge mistake. The same is likely to happen with this one if it is allowed to
go forward. The homeless advocacy working group has submitted to the council a
complete a plan that's well thought out, well reasoned and one that has worked
that you don't have to wait till January, you can form a stakeholder group
involving the various interests in the city on homelessness issues and this
is a plan that has worked very well, many issues in the rent adjustment program
and we think that this issue is one that's just right for such a stakeholder
group and we hope that you will move ahead with that recommendation. Thank you.
Good afternoon. I'm Maven Carter Griffin also with the Homeless Advocates Working
Group Steering Committee. Okay. My time hasn't started yet. I don't see it so I
okay. We have two minutes. I'm about equality, right? I mean we the people and I just want to
bring to your attention. Currently I'm going through the eighth sweep that I've
I've been living through out here I have some to tell you I'm not going to be able
to do it in one minute there's just no way I can bring information to you with
60 seconds and there's a lot you need to know you know there is the Wood Street
corridor and today I overheard developers talking disparagingly about
my community I do the same but they're developing not for us not in our
community we had an idea for a campus and the campus is to educate us on how
to have businesses, how to be educated in doing and conducting things with
publicity and moving forward and to not be homeless anymore, right. We're
people experiencing a condition that's unhoused and so if we just pay
attention to that unhoused condition and respect the people, we can do everything
that everyone else can do. It's just that we don't have the space to do it in here
and here. I'm so shattered right now from everything that's happened to me. There's
There's cars whizzing by me at 100 miles an hour at night.
There's people moving cones just because they're bored.
And that's what my cats can sight the cones.
And people can see the cats.
And the cats are killing rats.
I mean, there's no one else killing rats.
But I sound like a crazy person.
And maybe I am starting to lose it,
because I've been out in these streets for a long time.
But I've seen people die that were important to all of us.
And I've seen a lot of wasted time.
We need education, as well as housing,
and a live, work, teach, learn environment.
Wood Street and that entire area there,
if we just had it for 10 years
and a collaborative effort with the rest of the public
so that we're a part of the community,
I see things about we belong
and I see this equality and resilience and all that.
There's nobody more resilient
than our ragtag tired asses out there in these streets
and we're there because we want independence.
We're standing for independence.
There's no unhoused independence day.
We want to be treated equally.
we don't get information down there.
We don't have a voice.
We have.
Good afternoon, my name is Allison Pham
and I'm also appeared to express my deep concern
about how Oakland is treating our unhoused residents.
I work directly with people living on our streets
with disabilities.
I call shelters regularly with survivors
of domestic violence and there is not space.
There is not space and yet the city is continuing
ramp up these violent sweeps and towing more and more vehicles. When people lose
their vehicle, the vehicle is a place where they can lock their
items, where they can stay slightly safer. When they lose their vehicles, they
end up in a tent. We see them lose their identity documents and it makes
everything worse and no one is getting any safer by sweeping our
unhoused neighbors. If Oakland truly wants to improve the safety and health
Of all residents we need to stop taking away the little stability people have
Thank you
Hello City Council. My name is Ben Eichenberg. I'm an attorney
With San Francisco Baykeeper here for agenda item five point two four
Baykeeper is also part of the no colon Oakland campaign
I just want to thank the entire City Council and the city of Oakland
For its emphasis on the health and safety of its citizens over the years with respect to this project
Baykeeper stands with you. There's still a lot that can be done
And I know that the City Council will continue to focus on the health and safety of its citizens as this project
moves forward
Oakland's not alone. Baykeeper will continue to stand stand with Oakland and will
Lobby to other
Agencies as well and do everything we can to make sure this project is a safe Oakland citizens as possible. Thank you
Hello, my name is Natalia Neda. I'm a cultural worker and strategist and a resident of District 1.
I'm speaking on item 5.18 on the consent agenda.
Thank you for everybody who's supporting
Oakland's arts and culture workforce by supporting the cultural affairs manager position being reinstated.
Filling the cultural affairs manager role is directly tied to the livelihood of thousands of workers like myself
who rely on this infrastructure that the position provides.
This is not a symbolic role.
It is a critical revenue generating
and job sustaining position.
The last cultural affairs manager raised upwards
of $8.3 million from philanthropic and public funding.
The role is the backbone of Oakland's ability
to secure and distribute these funds.
And without the ecosystem that employs art workers
like myself will continue to destabilize.
Art work is real work and we cannot do it without-
Good afternoon, council.
My name's Erin Reethan.
I'm a not-so-retired science teacher in Oakland.
And I am one of the thousand signatories,
along with 90 organizations, an open letter
to the coal promoter, coal developer, John Brooks.
And you can find the long-standing open letter
to him on the website of No Colon Oakland, which is No Colon Oakland.info. I recommend
that letter to you. And I'm really just here today to reassure our allies among you on
the council that we know that you've been doing everything in your power to thwart the
insane idea of building an export terminal in Oakland. And don't worry, we're going to
prevail in our opposition.
And to those of you who have been misled to the point
where you are in support of that terminal,
don't worry, we will defeat you.
Thank you.
Good evening, Sean Brooks, item 5.12, vacant property tax.
Your staff report reads that this tax is needed
to deter vacant properties from becoming crime magnets.
I was here about a month or so ago.
As you know, there was a incident on 2400 Box and 66 Avenue
where there were squatters who came in,
there was vacant property.
I inquired with the city multiple times,
Was this property on the list?
Was it being monitored?
No answers from the city attorney's office.
Councilmember Jenkins' office couldn't respond to this.
Also the mayor's office,
and also the city administrator, Johnson.
What I'm here for is saying that we were able
to effectively, through a neighborhood advocacy,
we did have a partnership with OPD,
Alameda County Sheriff's and so forth,
we were able to evict these folks
after heinous crimes, prostitution,
defecating and leaving the latrino in the city.
There was a drug dealing, multiple acts,
a fatal shooting on October 21st,
a tip of the heck with manslaughter what would help to prevent this is a no
trespassing ordinance and I've been advocating for that for the last four
months or so please this counts can you step forward a breeze of no trespassing
ordinance which would allow OPD to remove people who are squatting thank
you for your comments sir thank you for your comments good afternoon president
of the council I'll get it right this time my councilman Jenkins and also Ken
the city council
item here on the item number five twelve
and requesting that the enforcement
of the they can probably tax
ordinance
be put into uh...
put into effect
i also want to talk about
october i was at the last
city council meeting where we talked about
we have squatters
uh... in our neighborhood
it took four
five months
to get them out
thanks to the gentlemen
who orchestrated and it's hard getting squatters out.
I have a heart for squatters, but not when they come
and cause crap in my neighborhood.
I've lived in Oakland all of my life.
I'm just asking and I don't have that many days left.
I just want quality of life.
I want peace.
I want protection.
I'm a taxpayer.
And I support implementing or actually doing.
Thank you ma'am what was your name to the chair yes Brenda Johnson, thank you so much
Good evening council members. My name is Dina Colin
My name is Dina Collins. I live at 24 hundred 66 Avenue. I'm
With these other two people in regards to five point one to the vacant property tax ordinance
I'm wondering how it's being enforced where the list exists who make sure it's enforced in
In addition to that, to help with squatters, to rid them of neighborhoods after they cause
so much anguish, is the no trespass ordinance.
I know a lot of local cities around here have that ordinance, and what it does is it gives
the right to the police department to take people out of homes that they don't belong,
that they're living there illegally.
My family has been very affected by this.
I have an 11 month old child and my wife and I don't feel safe walking in the neighborhood
because on October 21st there was a shooting.
That house is five doors down from where we live.
It's next door across the street from where Brenda lives.
Thank you for your comments.
Hi.
Peter Brown, I'm commenting on the EAP.
Someone would assume these comments are simply opinions.
Can you please?
So let me be clear.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Yeah.
We are not yet on that item to the chair.
We will speak to that item once we get to item number 10.
Not for open comment and wasn't allowed to,
so I have no idea when item 10 will come up.
We're on item number five through the chair,
so we still have a few before item 10 through the chair.
All right, I'll try.
If you heard your name, please approach the podium
for item five, the consent calendar.
If not, we will move to the Zoom.
Okay, thank you, Ms. Asada.
I want to start with item 5.23, the performance auditor report.
The report was phenomenal.
The report gave detailed information about the state of staffing for 9-11.
I think we're blessed to have this auditor, all his reports have been very outstanding.
The next item is 5.21, child care services.
You continue to ignore the fact that our Head Start Program is in trouble.
We fired the director, brought her back.
We got a lawsuit by staff members in Head Start.
We have black people who are coming saying their children are being denied Head Start.
We have black people who are saying they're not being hired in Head Start.
You need to do something about that.
The next item I'd like to address is the forgiveness of the loan on item 516.
That item should have been on non-consent.
You have never had an occasion where you have had property that is foreclosing and you're
going to forgive the loan, $8 million.
That needs to be discussed and detailed and why you're doing it for this particular vendor.
back to the beginning of the agenda with the 5.4 emergency on homelessness you do not have an
emergency of homelessness it is not an emergency you're not dealing with it you have a culture
manager that you're bringing in place you have never had a manager for homelessness you have
never had a department of homelessness you have never dealt with the homeless situation like you
deal with your sanctuary city status people who are coming from outside of this country get
more attention than the people who live in this country who are homeless.
Lawsuit 5.7, I'm very, very concerned. I've brought it to your attention. You have too
many lawsuits related to the Department of Transportation. This lawsuit is $550,000 because
of street scene break. You also, I'm concerned about the leadership in the Department of
Transportation when a council member has to go to the Ethics Commission about that leader.
and how effective can they be under those circumstances?
5.8, you have two mayor appointments.
That should be more discussed.
What are these positions?
I know they're being paid for, but it also needs to be a necessity of what they're doing being valuable to the city.
Just because you're getting the money to pay them, that's not enough, or they are executing a service that we really need as a priority.
5.112 is a vacancy property tax.
That is not a property tax.
Property tax is based on the value of the property.
Every piece of property that is vacant,
you charge them a fee or fine for the exact same,
but it's not based on the value of the property.
Before I start, Mr. President, can I get a clarification?
Because what I'm going to speak to,
I think it's miswritten in the document.
So I need clarification before I speak on that.
Continue item.
Pardon?
Pause this time.
what do you what do you say mr. Hazard 5.3 what do you have you have indicated
adopted resolution renewing the City Council's declaration of local health
emergency regarding cannabis I thought cannabis was legal start its time
please pardon me please continue say why would you continue that and cannabis is
legal. Why are you declaring an emergency there? And while at the same time I've given
you what you did in November 2024, a FIT doll health crisis, why don't you have FIT
doll all here? Children are dying and they don't even get a chance. But yet you're going
have cannabis as a health emergency. That doesn't make any sense at all. Look at what
you approved in November of 2024. Also see you continue to write things and give to the
public a bunch of crap. For instance, those three emergency city council meeting, November
4th, 2025, September 15th, 2025, December 16th, 2024, you can't have an emergency meeting.
one item but yet you went and did a whole city council agenda. Oh that is
nullified but yet the city attorney sits up there over in the corner and he
doesn't advise you accordingly. Go look at what the agenda says. Look at 208 of
the charter. Look at November 9th 2017 of the legal opinion. You could only hold
Stop smiling! This ain't funny. You pull a lot of crap on the public, and so when
we want clarification, you don't say a damn thing. Go look at November 9th, 2017,
the legal opinion regarding special city council meeting. You can't do it. Only one
item. Only one item. You go through a whole agenda, so everything on that, on
all those special city council meeting are nullified every single last item
November 4th September 15th December 16th Madame City Attorney won't you
opine on that thank you mr. Hazard thank you for your comments moving to our
Our Zoom speakers, Dan Cobb.
You may unmute and begin your comments, Dan.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Good afternoon council members, Dan Cobb here.
I'm speaking in reference to item 5.24
having to do with the development of a bulk terminal
at the former army base for handling
and exporting primarily coal.
Anyone who acknowledges the risks and impacts
of climate change and the health risks
of coal related particulate air pollution
can't in their right mind want to locally handle
then ship and in effect facilitate the burning
of so much coal several million tons each year.
How can any business leader say they care
about future generations and then want to do this?
The Trump administration has set aside $625 million
for subsidies to prop up the fledgling
and inherently dirty coal industry.
Without these funds, it's unclear if Obot
and the group of companies involved
would have the economic desire to go forward.
If OBOT intends to develop their proposed
bulk export terminal, then they should be expected
to build the specialized, state-of-the-art,
dome-shaped, enclosed terminal that they had said
they would build to help minimize emissions of coal.
Council Member, you seem to be an expert on this.
Is there any more that you have to say?
Please continue, Council Member.
Okay, without these funds, it's unclear if OBOT
and the group of companies involved
would have the economic desire to go forward.
If OBOT intends to develop the proposed export terminal,
they should be expected to build a specialized,
state-of-the-art dome-shaped terminal
that they said they would build
to help minimize emissions of coal dust particulate matter,
dust that certainly would harm residents and port workers.
Several years back when the city council called
for a public hearing, a record was developed
with thousands of pages of documents being submitted
by all interested parties on either side of the debate.
OBOT and their partners submitted information
about such a terminal design,
indicating that they would build a specialized terminal
to minimize potential coal dust health concerns.
They should be held to that standard.
I'm not privy to closed session discussions
any longer of course,
but if there is still a way within the law
to stop coal as an export commodity in Oakland,
such as compiling new and recently available
environmental health information,
then that pathway should be on the table
and considered seriously.
Thank you so very much for all your good work.
Thank you for your comments.
Noting that Blair Beekman, Ray Kidd, Simmon Lee,
all signed up for Zoom.
Ann Harvey, I think.
Josephine Guzman, Ann Harvey, Ann Harvey,
you may unmute yourself, excuse me,
and begin your comments.
Hi, I'm Dr. Ann Harvey.
I'm active with Physicians for Social Responsibility Bay Area
and Nokolan, Oakland.
And with regard to item 5.24,
and potential future agreements with Obot.
At first, I want to say I am grateful
for the city's actions to date,
and I urge you to not give up on protecting public health.
Federal Judge Chabria, whose findings provided the basis
also for Judge Wise's decisions,
ruled that the city had had insufficient evidence
to ban coal.
He wanted a lot of information
that was not available at the time,
but since then, UC Davis scientists
have performed the measurements and analyses that he wanted based
on Utah coal now transported to Richmond.
And their health impact assessment shows important effects
on mortality, hospitalization for cardiovascular
and respiratory disease, asthma exacerbation, work loss,
and days of restricted activity.
Several of these.
Thank you for your comment.
S in Zoom, can you please say your name, please?
through the chair, what is your name?
Oh, my name is Samine Lee.
Thank you.
You may begin.
I would like to comment on,
I'm not sure if I missed the scheduling comment,
but I would like to comment on that.
I just wanted to point out how the EAP
has been scheduled incredibly radically.
It's been incredibly difficult to get enough time
to talk to local businesses and to unhouse folks
to actually get enough time to get input
on the EAP and community response.
I would like to see some clear scheduling,
not this month-to-month strangeness
and also some clear public declaration
of what amendments council members are adding.
This entire process has eroded public trust
in the city council, not even to mention,
like beyond the just the legal breaches of the Brown Act
by one of the creators of the EAP, Ms. Brooks,
and Houston, but yeah,
just all of the ethical concerns over erratic scheduling,
giving the public less than 72 hours of notice.
I also just want to comment on 5.4,
that since the last city audit on the encampment,
there has not been any significant change
for our news council members.
The last city audit on the encampment
show that 12.6 million was spent in 2019 through 2020 with the massive majority unbudgeted.
There still is no clear accountability in budgeting. And the only change has been an
exponential increase in closures and a decrease in cleanings. I still can't find any measurable
goals or outcomes of the sweeps, which should include health outcomes and should be led
by public health outcomes.
And we would be happy to help schedule.
Yeah, I agree that we shouldn't be doing nothing,
but all of the proposals that have been submitted
by the council members so far
are only worsening the issue.
As members have said before,
there's a lot of victims of abuse
who are being blamed and scapegoated
for what is going on. Yeah, I've heard several council members talk about so-called crime and
human trafficking. I hope that people are conflating this with people who are suffering
from abuse and people who are recovered and recovery and people who are, you know,
yeah, who are being blamed by their neighbors. Yeah, I just don't see why the city is trying to
to take away vehicles and shelter
when there simply is not enough.
Thanks.
Thank you for your comments.
I didn't have the opportunity to call these names
that sign up for consent Tamika Riley or Really?
They say Talib, Talib.
Ajiya White.
Sorry if I meant to pronounce any of these names.
Carmen Alvarez.
Sayid Muhammad, I'll call you and Patricia Toscano.
And through the chair, please state your name
before beginning your comments, thank you.
Hello, my name is Tomika Ridley.
there we go. My name is Tomika Ridley, and I'm here with my ten-year-old son
Jacob. We are here today to say thank you for approving your your agreement to
reimburse Sabu Grocers for the Fresh 5x virtual card program. I have been
participant in the program for three years at my local corner store Jalisco
Market in District 7, which is on Eads Avenue, Cross Street is Nevada. Fresh 5X has helped me
have access to fresh produce walking distance to my home. I don't drive and with my son this is
very convenient. Our health has been positively affected and I am so happy to show my son how
to eat healthy for the rest of his and my life hello everyone did you call Miguel
Barajas through the chair what was the name Miguel Barajas he needs an
interpreter and if there's none I can help through the chair do you have the
yellow slip yeah to confirm if you can start show it to the clerk thank you
yes we have it as well thank you through the chair you may begin we'll have one
minute for him to speak and then you can one minute for Trent yes thank you.
all the commas community the district to see it the a commercial level and we've
been in the hole that's it good afternoon my name is Miguel Barajas and I am here
as a participant of the program the virtual card program fresh 5x at the
Halisco market on Nevada and needs in district 7 can Houston's district I want
to say thank you to all the council members for approving the reimbursement
and the agreement that the lawyer made with the city of Oakland for $500,000 for this program.
Fresh Five X has helped me and has helped my family and has helped my neighborhood to eat healthier.
And I hope that this program continues in my neighborhood for a long time.
Thank you.
Through the chair to K-Top, you may turn the mic back on.
Through the chair, thank you.
Thank you through the president and through the chair and everyone here.
Thank you so much.
My name is Carmen Alvarez.
I am coming from Saba Grocers Initiative and I just want to say thank you to President
Jenkins has been to our store.
Also council member five has been to one of our stores.
And they have seen the transformation that this stores and this program has done in those
neighborhoods with community and families walking over to the stores,
getting, you know, five dollars for every dollar that they spend on their EBT card
to get more fresh fruits and vegetables for their families. And so we just want
to say thank you for your support for ensuring that we do have healthy access
to healthy food in communities, especially in the flatlands. We are very
grateful for your support. If you ever want to come and take a tour, please let
us know. We're happy to give you a tour. Thank you so much. Thank you. To the
chair through the chair all names have been called for consent. Seeing the
withdrawal of 5.25 which will be rescheduled to the next City Council on
consent and 5.10 from the mayor's office as amended. I'll
All in turn a motion.
Gail.
I will second that motion
and just wanted to quickly comment on two items.
So first off, just wanted to show my deep support
for item 5.18 in the funding of the cultural affairs manager
and then also item 5.17.
Thank you to all the community members and partners
who showed up to support the economic activation zones.
And I will second the motion already on the floor.
So there's a motion and a second, let's go to a vote.
Thank you, there was a motion made by Councilmember Gayle,
seconded by Councilmember Brown to approve item five
as amended, the consent calendar including item 510
as amended, as well as item 525,
which will be withdrawn and rescheduled
the December sixteen city council agenda on consent on roll council members brown five guy oh Houston Thank You Rama Chandra
younger I Wong I and council president Jenkins I thank you the motion passes with eight eyes approving item five as amended so
unfortunately because of our rules of procedure we're not able to start right now I'm pretty sure we'll be able to
it. So I'm not gonna be able to
address it- shortly. But we're
not gonna be able to- start
itself by PM. And so the
council will take a break and
tell five PM. No need for. Do
we need a motion. No no more
so I'll see you guys at five.
To the traffic at seven minutes
on the virtual clock. We shall
resume this meeting. Council
through the chair this meeting have resumed at five oh one pm we do have a
quorum at the dais moving to our next item item number six consideration of
the items with statutory public hearing requirements item six point one I do
need a motion to open up the public hearing so moved so is there a second
Brown second thank you at 502 p.m. there was a motion made by councilmember
motion is seconded by councilmember brown to open the public hearing for item six point one on roll council members brown I.
Guy oh.
Through the chairs that I to open a public hearing.
Houston I.
Ramachandran I.
Unger I.
motion to approve the motion.
to make sure that we have the
best practices and activities.
And be make real related
miscellaneous and administrative
changes into making appropriate
California environmental
quality act findings.
So everyone read their packets
and their agenda is please get
the speaker two minutes.
Good evening council members in
the public my name is Laura
Kaminsky in the strategic
planning manager.
And we it's after proposing a
planning code amendment package
So CUP is an important tool to address accommodation of uses with special site or design requirements,
operating characteristics, or potential adverse effects on surroundings, where through review
if necessary, special conditions of approval can be applied.
However, the CUP approval process is often lengthy and expensive and affords a high level
of uncertainty.
This can inhibit the opening of small and neighborhood-serving businesses, which results
and less vibrant commercial districts
and reduce tax revenues.
Additionally, it hampers the implementation
of parks, improvements, and maintenance by the city.
Mayor Lee has established a permit reform initiative
included as part of her 10-point plan for Oakland
from which the proposal was initiated.
The primary focus of these amendments
is to reduce the number of activities
subject to the conditional use permit procedure
that's allowing these uses to be permitted outright.
The zoning amendments in the Breiveldes district
adopted in May, served as a pilot for this project, which now expands this to be citywide.
So these are the chapters that are going to be amended in this code package, and the bulk
of the proposed amendments reduce the regulatory barriers to permitting commercial and civic
activities in commercial zones.
One of the key triggers for CUP often is the square footage.
So therefore this package is looking at expanding and allowing larger square footages for projects
before a conditional use permit is required.
Also Artisan Production is a new planning code, new activity planning code which we're
now looking at expanding to other areas of the city.
Also Medical Service and Animal Care is something we're looking at allowing without a conditional
use permit as long as this is requiring transparency on the ground floor.
in Lake Merritt district we're also expanding to make similar changes we made in the downtown.
For open space zones, the character, just to clarify, for open space chapter of the
planning code, it's unique that it only regulates physical changes that are proposed or implemented
by the city. Therefore, then the planning bureau reviews this. It's something that is
it's actually coming from Parks and Recs staff.
And so just to be clear,
this is something that's not initiated
by the outside public.
And some of the changes we were looking at making
was for the food service and concessions
to be a conditional use permit,
or it was a conditional use permit to be permitted by right
in the region serving community neighborhood
and special use in the athletic fields.
We wanna make it clear that this does not include,
This only is for physical structures such as a kiosk
and it does not include mobile food bending trucks
or temporary structures.
So that is one of the changes that is being proposed.
Through the chair,
would you like to allow more time for this presentation?
I can, I'm just about, I can wrap it up, yes.
Thank you.
Okay.
So for residential industrial zones,
there's limited changes in those as well.
and I will just go, since we're out of time,
I'll go to the staff recommendation.
So staff requests that the city council
conduct a public hearing, and upon conclusion,
adopt an ordinance as recommended by the Planning Commission
that amends Title 17 in the Oakland Municipal Code,
the Planning Code, to adjust regulations for permitted
and conditionally permitted activities and facilities
for purposes of providing greater opportunities
for ground floor activities and ease the permitting burden
for commercial, civic, and low-impact industrial activities
make related miscellaneous cleanup and admission administrative changes and
making appropriate California marijuana quality act findings. Thank you so much
councilmember Wong I believe you have an amendment. Thank you through the chair I
would like to introduce an amendment this is to exhibit a in short I
absolutely support overall the these updates from staff I think this is a
really important initiative so thank you for all your work on this however we did
to hear from certain parks advocates,
especially from Lake Merritt and Joaquin Miller,
that the food service provision,
this is one line out of many hundreds of lines
in exhibit A, would have adverse impacts to the parks,
especially since we don't have the staff to really,
we're already challenged with the maintenance of our parks.
So the amendment that I am introducing.
Council Member, sorry to cut you off,
is there something that you're gonna be displaying
and does the public have a copy?
For the public, I do not have something to display
for the public.
I have the sheet for every council member.
Please continue.
Okay.
In short, the amendment is reverting the food service
and other concessions to its prior form
before the proposal, before this body,
where, just to be clear,
it's asterisk under this column, it's a table.
so asterisk under RSP, CP, NP, as well as the SU and AF columns.
And yes, I did confer with Director Gilchrist
on this amendment.
We had both been hearing from the same set of advocates, so.
Director Gilchrist.
Yes, thank you.
And council president, and may it please the council,
I would also note that essentially what this is doing,
that the existing ordinance in the section
that the council members referencing will not be changed.
So it's not as if we're introducing any new language at all.
It is essentially staying the way it is, that section.
Thank you.
Questions from the council members?
Seeing none.
And then, sorry, one more comment for me.
I just also want to be clear that I do think
that it is important to seek to lower barriers
for people to legally operate things like food trucks
and booths and carts.
But it needs, this is important tools for economic mobility,
but it needs to be in areas
that don't have sensitive ecosystems.
So, you know, underutilized parking lots, things like that.
Thank you.
Councilmember Robinson.
Thank you.
My team met with some of the same park organizations
and just wanna echo support for the amendment
as well as an understanding, yes,
you wanna make city processes as easy as possible
for city staff and departments specifically to do this work,
but for certain kinds of outside vendors,
the existing process, some of those guardrails still apply.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
Yes.
I'll make a motion to approve staff's recommendation.
With the amendment?
Yes.
So, a motion to approve staff's recommendation
with the amendment and close the public hearing
after public comment.
Is there a second?
Second.
Let's go to public comment.
For item 6.1, the following speaker signed up.
Asada Alabala, Leanne Alameda, Kate Steele, and Kate Steele.
Is there an order?
My name is Kate Steele.
Thank you very much to the planning department
and to our council members
for putting forward this amendment.
I represent the Lake Merritt Community Alliance.
This is a change that we urged
because it's important that the M-Cup,
higher level of review be available when we are changing park uses and adding
more commercial activities. And why is that important? Well, let's take Lake
Merritt. It's also a wildlife preserve, and at the state level they require very
strict scrutiny before you introduce commercial activities into a park that
includes a wildlife preserve. We've done a survey of other California cities that
that include wildlife preserves or wildlife refuges
within their parks.
They also use this MCUP procedure.
They don't do it under the lower standard of permitting.
So I'm really very pleased that our council members
worked with us to recognize what the hazards could be
and that you are proposing to return it
to the process that exists,
which will allow a robust public review
if there's a project that's proposed.
And it will include a meaningful environmental review
to look at the impact of what adding commercial activities
to a park that we have here,
whether it be a region serving park or any other park,
it maintains its park purpose
and is not compromised by commercial activities.
So thank you very much for your work on this.
And I urge you to pass the amendment.
Thank you.
So it's interesting that you found it necessary
to deal with your police commission
with its overstepping and making sure certain members
of that commission did not have the opportunity to return.
But you have a park and rec advisory commission
who oversteps their boundaries.
They are the people who approve anything
that goes on in parks, festivals, events.
They determine who can sell and what products can be sold.
It never comes to anybody but them.
And it's been brought to your attention,
but you continue to allow it.
They even developed the Lake Merit pilot program
that put in place how the black vendors
would be eliminated from Lake Merit.
It never came to counsel.
So don't jump on the police commission.
When you have this particular body,
Taking all of these positions of authority and allowing it.
The other thing is, it appears that you are looking at creating more space.
But you already have space and you need to deal with that.
You have a lot of office space that is available in this city.
You have a lot of space that's available with these new development, the bottoms that's unoccupied.
You need to work on using the space you already have
for these projects you're talking about,
like arts production and so forth.
Now when it comes to things like you're mentioning daycare
and preschool, I keep telling the school board,
they got 20 schools with less than 300 students,
but they don't wanna close schools.
But that space that can be used for what you're saying,
you want to have daycare, preschools,
and other projects related to children.
The other thing I'm concerned about.
You're the chair, thank you for your comments.
Does that conclude public comment?
All names have been called for item 6.1.
So there's a motion to accept staff's recommendation
with the amendment that's on the floor.
Council member Y.
Clarify the amendment.
So the chart that was given,
I think it's insider baseball
and I wanna thank council member Wong
for leading out on what our constituents were requesting.
I just want it clarified what exactly is changing
in this legislation.
So I suppose the best way to explain it is,
is actually maintaining the status quo
for this exact, the food service line.
So there is not a change.
It's a, it's a reversion to what is the existing
permitting process.
Is that helpful?
of all of them.
And perhaps director Gilchris your department can clarify
since you are the subject matter experts.
Oh I appreciate that and- also have- city attorney
representative Michael Branson with us as well.
But in what the long and short of it is the intention.
Is to bring the conditional uses back it's of the nature that
we've discussed that where there were- uses that were not
going to have to come before.
those are the things that we
were able to do with the major
conditional use where they do
now.
We're essentially allowing that
to continue so that there will
be another layer of oversight
around the conditional uses for
vendors and for food services
and for concessions.
We were taking those out
initially, and now we are
having the, we're essentially
recommending or accepting the
recommendation that that
continue, that we still have
that level of review.
something in the legislation if so can you point to the legislation language so
we can effectively capture what you're changing in the minutes whether it's
reverting back to the current version is that the language we need clear language
for the minutes all right and this is why we have this gentleman here through
the chair to the city court thank you this is Michael Branson deputy city
the changes on page 13 of exhibit A,
section 17.11.060 to the table within that section
under a community assembly civic activities.
All changes proposed by staff in the row
related to food services and other concessions
would be removed from the packet,
and I will submit that change to the clerk's office
before second reading.
Thank you. And I believe we have one more public commentary that we miss.
Yes. Through the chair. We do have Leanne Alameda on zoom. Apologies.
You may unmute your yourself and begin your comments, Leanne.
Thank you very much council president and council members.
I'm Leanne Alameda, the chair of the lake merit community Alliance. Um,
I want to express my appreciation to the planning department for revisiting the
proposed changes on food service and concessions and parks and restoring these
back to the minor conditional use permit status. Um,
This amendment is an important step in honoring our parks
as places for recreation, nature,
and environmental protection,
especially in our region serving parks
with fragile ecosystems such as Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge
and Joaquin Miller Park.
I also want to extend special thanks
to Council Member Wong's office for working closely
with the community and with the Planning Department
to bring forward the solution
and believe that this will allow residents
to have a meaningful voice in decisions
that affect how their parks are used
and preserve the public process that's essential
for sensitive park environments.
Thank you again for listening to community input
and for supporting a thoughtful approach
to managing our open spaces
and urge the council to support this amendment.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Are there, through the chair, are there further discussions?
No further discussions.
Call the roll.
thank you there was a motion made by council member guy else
second by council member five to approve
as amended on introduction with the following amendment
of page thirteen of the exhibit a section seventeen point eleven point
oh six zero
under community assembly civic activities
all changes proposed by staff in the role related to food services and other
concessions would be removed from the packet
to approve on introduction council members brown I will unmute you to the
chair councilmember five Ayo I Houston I Rama Chandra younger I Wong I and
council president Jenkins I thank you as well this was also to close the public
hearing at 5 21 p.m. the motion passes with eight eyes to approve on
introduction as amended final passage will occur on December 16th Madam
clerk to make an announcement because of the amount of speakers and because of a
we might lose quorum the speaking time will be one minute thank you making that
note moving to item 6.2 for the public hearing do need a motion to open the
public hearing as well okay there is a motion made by council member guy oh
all in favor of a motion to
open the public hearing.
Aye.
Aye.
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Aye.
the public hearing and upon conclusion adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and
execute a transient occupancy tax sharing agreement with Oakland Pro Soccer LLC doing business as Oakland roots and soul and an amount not to
exceed
$300,000 to support the attraction of a World Cup team to the Oakland roots and soul soccer club training facility during the 2026
FIFA World Cup term tournament
Thank you. Councilmember, I'ma Chandra
Thank you. I'm so excited to be a co-sponsor of this IDA along with Councilmember Gayo and of course EWD
I just want to express my enthusiasm for the idea that Oakland might be very close to potentially hosting an
entire country team during next year's FIFA World Cup and if that happens we could have
30,000 hotel stays in Oakland we could have up to 80,000 visitors
We could have a lot of economic investment into Oakland and have a totally different country be able to call Oakland home for an
entire month and reap incredible economic benefits from that so
That I will pass it along to EWD to share the details of what this TOT arrangement is
but just want to express my support for this proposal and
My deep deep gratitude to the Oakland roots for making this happen
and there are a lot of sites that have been contemplated
as base camps, but the process of even getting our certified
as one was no small feat, and I know there's a lot
of financial work to do and fundraising, among other things,
but I'm confident that the roots are really taking the lead
and helping us become this incredible site for next year.
Thank you.
Director, is three minutes enough?
I was gonna just do one.
Oh, perfect.
I heard one, I'm gonna go with it.
I did have a PowerPoint I will we can pull it up okay thank you councilmember
Ramachandran councilmember Gayo appreciate the support and this is this
is really exciting World Cup is coming summer of 2026 it's coming to Canada
Mexico and the United States states they're gonna be 16 host cities and one
of those sites is the Bay Area and the games will be played at Levi Stadium in
Santa Clara June 13th through July 1st but the Oakland Roots and Soul Soccer
Club is competing to be a team-based camp. What that means is that
one of the World Cup teams would use the Roots and Soul facility as a practice
venue for the duration of the tournament. So the team would practice locally, stay
in the area, and participate in local events, watch parties, etc. And the main
benefit to the host community and surrounding area is just as Councilmember
Ramachandran said. It's the visitor activity and the associated economic impact generated
by the team and the fans. So the proposed resolution enables the roots and soul to share
up to a maximum of $300,000 from the incremental transient occupancy tax anticipated to be
generated in the city. Just by way of additional information, the City of Alameda had already
approved a similar resolution, so there are a number of cities in the Bay Area
trying to support the roots and soul in this way. This proposal does not impact
the portion of the TOT that goes to support arts and culture, it's just
limited to the base 11%. I think it's important to note that. And really
adoption of this item improves the competitiveness of the roots and soul
proposal by allowing them to finalize their financial plan and demonstrate
their readiness, while allowing the city to benefit from the direct and indirect
economic benefits of a local team base camp.
I'll make this final point and then leave it, and that is that this item is really structured
as a win-win in that if a World Cup team selects, let me, I'll change that.
When a World Cup team selects the Roots and Soul facility as a base camp, and when we
see the increment that surge in transient occupancy tax revenue, then we will have net
new revenue to share back with Roots and Soul.
We if that increment is less than three hundred dollar three hundred thousand dollars
We would only share back that increment if the increment is more than three hundred thousand dollars
We would share back three hundred thousand dollars and then keep keep the rest
And with that I will turn it over to any questions if there are any
Thank you any questions from the council council member that president protein guy
Thank you for your support of oak for Oakland and certainly we appreciate your leadership and your commitment
Your employment opportunities economic development and with that I make a motion to support the recommendation
Second so the motions accept staffs recommendation and close the public hearing. Let's go to the public speakers. Oh
Councilmember Houston
Media had a similar resolution. What was that similar resolution that Alameda had sharing back through the chair sharing back up to
$150,000 of transient occupancy tax
And did they, due to chair, did they decide, why couldn't we have decided to do something
like this at the Coliseum to actually have it because this other event is going to be
at the Coliseum to embrace the World Cup?
This is in partnership with Roots & Soul and they are incurring costs well beyond the $300,000
that we would be sharing to ensure their competitiveness here, so they're competing on a world stage
to be selected as a team base camp that's not the case with the Coliseum
so last question through the chair where's the camp at what's the address of
the camp it's not former Harbor Bay former Raiders training facility Harbor
Bay okay Councilmember Brown through the chair to director can it just to
confirm the facility will be utilized for it as like a training base is that
correct not necessarily host like hosting a large game correct the bit
through the chair the the big games will be played at Levi Stadium this is where
the practices will be occurring during the during the full length of the
tournament. Excellent. Thank you. Seeing no more comments. So just to confirm since I
was reading the report and trying to understand especially the table if we
essentially do the sharing agreement you expect even though we can't predict the
future but that we would essentially recoup the funds for the TOT funds plus
more.
Correct.
We're anticipating the increment of TOT to exceed $300,000, especially when we look at
the supply of rooms and the room rates and using June 2025 as a baseline vacancy.
So the way that we're setting this up, we will not be worse off in June 2026 than we
were in June 2025.
Okay.
That's the analysis in the agenda report.
Okay.
also capture the sales tax revenue that we expect.
Correct, this is not the sales tax
or any of the other economic activity
we will expect to see from the visitors who are here.
Okay, thank you.
All right, can we get to the,
Councilmember Houston?
Question, is that Harbor Bay location in Alameda
or is that Oakland?
It's in the city of Alameda.
All right, Councilmember Feit.
I think just from what I'm hearing from my colleagues
it needs to be, if we could reiterate how supporting this entity that's based in Alameda
will have an economic benefit for the city of Oakland.
Absolutely.
So, what we're looking at when we, when we, when this event comes, it's over the course
of many weeks, right?
It's a whole month of activity, and so teams and fans come and they need to stay in hotels.
The city of Alameda does not have the same hotel room supply that we do, so the city
of Alameda will benefit from increased hotel stays and increased TOT, so will the City
of Berkeley, so will the City of Emeryville, maybe even San Francisco, but we expect through
the partnership with Bay Area Host Committee, Visit Oakland, Roots and Soul, that there
is going to be a real, a node of activity here in the City of Oakland, and so we have
the rooms, we have the quality rooms that these fans are looking for, and the analysis
shows that with 30,000 room nights over the course of the event, there's no way the city
of Alameda could capture all of that.
The city of Oakland will for sure benefit from those nights.
Thank you for that explanation.
Can you also bring back a report on whether our estimations actually led to the outcomes
that we perceive because I think that's important to make sure that we have the public trust
and that the investments that we're making have a return that benefit the city.
I think it's important to follow up on those projections and to have an actual path with
those institutions that you just listed, Visit Oakland and others, about how we are intentionally
working to capture those dollars coming into the city of Oakland through our relationships
with the Marriott and the hotels that are still here, that we have an actual road map
to work with any of the entities that are going to be the host committee to bring those
dollars to Oakland.
I think that makes sense.
Thank you.
It does.
And through the chair at the CED committee meeting, Councilmember Brown introduced a request
basically that we come back with that report by October of 2026.
Councilmember Houston. Yes through the chair how are we advertising for the
individuals that actually since this Harbor Bay is an Alameda near District
7 you have to go down do little and they have some major hotels down over there
in Alameda Harbor Bay for sure right. So how are we advertising for them to
actually stay in the corridor of District 7 where our hotels are hurting
since we're investing in Alameda.
Through the chair, I can attend in part,
and I'll also just note that Lydia Tan
from the Roots and Souls Soccer Club
is here to speak on the item,
and she can further respond to some of these questions.
So the mayor and the Bay Area Host Committee
and Visit Oakland are in partnership,
working really hard to identify,
exactly as you're saying,
a path for advertising,
making sure that there are packages available,
deals there is a lot of marketing and promotion that goes into getting ready for an event like this and
Visit Oakland. This is what they are solely focused on right now is getting ready
I won't say solely on their behalf
But they're this is a major project for them to be ready for this
Event and to make sure that Oakland hotels are ready and that there's a whole package of visitor activities around this watch parties
deals in restaurants
You're gonna be start seeing the promotion for it
Can't swim around or do you mind if I'm trying to cause before you okay, okay?
Thank you just to clarify
What has been certified as a base camp is the old Raiders training facility that Oakland not the city of Alameda owned?
Oakland owned 50% along with Alameda County, but this property is right next to the Oakland Airport
It's in that side of Alameda
near Bay Farm Island, the Harbor Bay area that is technically Alameda, but the closest hotels to this facility are Oakland hotels,
the one closest to the airport. Obviously, we're still competing with people wanting to stay in Alameda or otherwise,
but the closest hotels in the vicinity are Oakland and
it is obviously going to be a big effort to continue to market Oakland hotels and other things,
But this until extremely recently was Oakland property even though it was located in Alameda
Council member under so just to be clear in in response to some of our concerns about this you essentially de-risked the
Proposal this is not us sending money and hoping we recoup it
This is if there is a surplus in year-over-year
Receipts then that's when the money will go out. So it is it's been de-risked if I understand correctly, that's correct
Okay Councilmember Houston I got a question. I'm through the chair to the city attorney. Do we still own a part of that property? I
Defer to staff to answer that question. I don't know. I believe we don't we do not
So there we go
It's an Alameda. This is not a part of Oakland. It's not an Oakland property
It is no longer an Oakland property. There it goes
Through the chair. I'll just note that in trying to be competitive or in
In their in their bid to be selected as a team base camp
There are a whole range of expenses associated with with this effort a lot of it is marketing promotions
They need to hire staff there is security that they are that roots and so are required to provide
24-7 so there are and there's there are a whole host of expenses estimated at seven hundred thousand dollars plus
But that isn't that are needed in order to compete in this way
And so we are trying to help them because of the overwhelming economic impact that we
are expecting to see from this event.
We are wanting to help defray that expense that they are really incurring on behalf of
the Bay Area.
I've got another I've got one more question.
Councilmember Houston.
Yeah, I've got one more question.
Harbor Bay, they have a couple of major hotels right in Harbor Bay, and that's Alameda.
Now, Alameda has 27 hotels, 27, right?
If I'm coming to visit there, I'm going to stay because with the stigma of District
now we're going to do it.
I want to know how we're going
to benefit and get that we put
three hundred that we always
given money given money do we
have any equity in it.
Do we have any equity this is
through the chair we got to run
Oakland like a business not like
a like we just some non-profit
fundraiser whatever you want to
call it so.
Through the chair I'm saying
this is a Alameda property.
You got twenty seven hotels in
Alameda well I'm gonna come to
made the designated hotel has been selected and the selected the hotel was
the Claremont Hotel which and the TOT from the Claremont Hotel comes back to
the city of Oakland. We believe that there is there will be more demand for
hotel room nights than the Claremont can accommodate and so I think that there
are gonna be there are gonna be other hotels in Oakland that benefit as well.
Ramona, Jiren and Brown. Oh you good? Alright. Thank you. Just just to clarify I
I think this is actually the exact kind of thing we want to be a business deal for Oakland.
If we are selected as a base site, we potentially get over $10 million in benefits to the city
through hotel stays, through economic activity, through people visiting restaurants.
And let's say even some of this projected 80,000 people go to Alameda.
They're still going to come to Oakland and spend money in Oakland and shop and dine and
do things here.
We have to think big picture, in my opinion, and if we are going to do things to help our
city be an attraction for large scale sporting events, including being a base camp for FIFA,
including hosting big events like major league cricket tournaments and international world
cups and all these different things that could happen at the Coliseum as well as other sites,
we do have to think big picture and do the things and support the efforts that's going
to bring us over 10 million dollars plus of revenue foot traffic commerce
visitors so yes it's a cost that we will have to give if and when we do get
selected as a base camp and people come here but it is actually makes the most
economic sense that we start thinking big picture we have to invest a little
money to get a whole lot more councilman longer I just want to reiterate that we
We are not sending money out unless we get a surplus back, so it is at worst cost neutral.
Through the Chair, we've established June 2025 TOT levels as our baseline.
Next June, when the team is here and all of the World Cup activity is happening and we're
experiencing the demand for 30,000 hotel room nights, we expect our TOT to increase above
our June 2025 baseline.
If our TOT increases more than $300,000, we will be sharing $300,000 back to Roots & Soul
keeping the rest.
If that increment does not emerge in the way that we've anticipated and we are worse off
than we were in June 2025, I'm knocking on wood, they don't get anything at all.
If that increment is something less than $300,000, it will go to Roots & Soul.
Thank you.
Councilmember Houston.
And this is not mocking you through the chair of Councilmember Ramachana.
The bigger picture is this.
It's in Alameda and they identified a hotel in downtown Oakland instead on the corridor
that's closer to the Coliseum where we're going to be having events.
The bigger picture is invest at $300,000 in a coliseum
and have events there.
If we're going to invest in Oak, we're
investing in Alameda, I'm telling you, straight up.
When we do that, we invest in an Alameda.
I don't have a problem with Alameda,
but my problem is we're going to what?
Pick a hotel down in downtown Oakland
instead of right there where the coliseum is
and where the facility is five minutes away instead
of those hotels.
Those hotels should have been identified,
and that I would have had a different opinion.
Thank you, council member.
I wanna get to the public.
That's okay, and then we can come back for deliberation.
Lydia Tan, Asada Olliballa,
Barbara Leslie,
Jean Hazard,
and Josephine Boosman for item 6.2.
Please state your name for the record.
Hello, my name is Lydia Tan.
I'm with the Oakland Roots and Soul.
Thank you very much for the opportunity
you speak with you today and thank you the staff councilmember machandra and
councilmember guy up for co-sponsoring this item as director cannot had
mentioned we are projecting to incur actually more money than is being
potentially committed with between the city of Alameda city of Oakland and the
county of Alameda and the reason we are still interested in participating in
in this process is because of the economic impact.
We think we'll come to Oakland.
We look back at the 2004 World Cup that happened.
Brazil was in Los Gatos at their hotel.
They practiced at Santa Clara University,
and it was Los Gatos that was activated.
It wasn't the practice facility
because the practice facility tends to be private
for most of the time.
There will be activation there.
We also be thank you for your comments.
So the tax you're talking about is deposited into the general fund and it
supports essential city services.
So what you're saying is all essential civil services have been taken care of.
And we got this extra amount of money that we can spend $300,000 or we're
saying we are going to eliminate supporting the City of Oakland essential
services in order to give the money for this. The other part of this is that in
order to go forward with this kind of initiative there's certain things that
have to be in place in the City of Oakland. You have to have the amount of
police officers available for this type of population to come into the city and
and we don't have it.
You have to have a clean and safe city.
We don't have that.
And we don't have the ability,
because you won't deal with the encampment policy,
to clean up the city.
Thank you for your comments.
Thank you for your comments, Mrs. Otto.
What are y'all smoking?
We don't have 30 or 40,000 rooms in Oakland.
Maxi's in bankruptcy.
Hilton close, Waterfront close.
The one over here on Jefferson and bankruptcy.
The courtyard, Wang is using to house Asians.
So what are you doing?
You're not even sharing the cost with Alameda.
Give me some of that what you're smoking.
Because this is a pipe dream, Ramachandra.
You're gonna say we have 30 to 40,000 rooms,
And we got over and maxi is in bankruptcy.
Paramount hotel is Berkeley and Oakland.
Come on.
And you're not even sharing the cost without a meeting.
And Miss Olibata told you with the mate.
Thank you for your comments, Mr. Hazard.
In Zoom, Ren, please let us know if you provided
a public comment card under our different name.
And if so, what name?
Ren in Zoom.
Hi, no, I did not submit a public comment.
Thank you for your honesty.
Thank you, we did not have a card for you.
Chair, that was our last speaker.
All names were called.
We have a motion and a second.
There was a motion made by Councilmember Gail,
seconded by Councilmember Ramachandran
to close the public hearing and approve the resolution.
Time is 547 to close the public hearing on roll.
To do so, council members, I will unmute you.
I hear no aye.
I'm brown.
I.
Five.
I.
Gail.
I.
Houston.
So this is to approve and close the public hearing.
Ramachandran.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
Aye.
And council president Jenkins.
Aye.
Thank you the motion passes with seven ayes.
One no Houston to close the public hearing and approve the resolution.
Moving to our next item.
Another public hearing.
councilmember brown.
I have a motion in a second to
open the public hearing.
At five forty eight there was a
motion made by gap councilmember
gail seconded by councilmember
brown.
To open the public hearing for
item six point three on roll to
do so council members brown I.
Five.
I will read the item into record conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt the resolution one confirming the annual report of the Montclair Business Improvement District Advisory Board and to levying the annual assessment for the Montclair Business Improvement District for fiscal year 26 through 27 including a 5% increase in the annual assessments.
and the annual assessments.
I'm sure all my colleagues who are at their agenda,
will two minutes be sufficient for you?
Yeah, I think so.
Okay, perfect.
My name's Jenny Wong, Economic and Workforce Development.
Good afternoon, President Jenkins
and members of the City Council
regarding the item before you,
the Montclair Bid was formed in 2001,
pursuant to the Parking and Business Improvement
Area Law of 1989.
and as such, the Montclair bid must annually receive
approval from city council to levy its assessment
for the following fiscal year.
Accordingly, the council, the item before you is to hold
a public hearing to hear all public comments and protests
and to take final action as to the levying
of the proposed Montclair bid,
fiscal year 2026 to 2027 assessment.
If at the close of the public hearing,
no majority protest exists as defined by the above legislation, then council may consider
adoption of the attached resolution which would approve the proposed levy as well as
confirm the annual report of the Montclair bid advisory board attached as exhibit A to
the resolution. As of this reading, no majority protest exists that would prevent council
from adopting the attached resolution to approve the Montclair bid fiscal year 2026 to 2027
when the city of Moncler
would be on a special level if
council so chooses. The
Montclair bid is comprised of
approximately two hundred and
twenty businesses located in
the Montclair commercial
neighborhood. And the bid
anticipates generating
approximately a hundred and
twenty one thousand dollars of
special assessment revenues in
fiscal year twenty twenty six
and twenty twenty seven. Which
will be used to pay for special
benefit services outlined in
staff report which is it is
attached as exhibit A to the
proposed resolution.
The district's annual report
requests no changes to the
boundaries of the district or to
the original method and basis of
loving the assessment.
However, the Montclair village
association board of directors
is recommending a 5% increase to
the fiscal year 2026-2027
include those services and
inflation in the current level
of services as cost of
providing those services and
inflation have increased.
Recommendations to increase the
assessment up to 5% per year are
allowable per the plan on file
with the office of the city
clerk.
This is the end of the
presentation and I can answer
any questions you may have.
Thank you so much councilmember
chandra.
No I'm I'm very supportive of
this- no comments thank you
public hearing yes guy oh second public speakers mr. Sada olabala the concern I
have is that the city collects the assessment and that staffing and we get
one percent of whatever is collected as a fee for doing that but do we have to
do that we have a staffing problem and we have several of these business
districts I think about seven of them and we have a lot of time is devoted to
this do we have to collect these taxes then what's the penalty if you don't pay
the tax are y'all gonna do like waste management take responsibility for
people not paying the tax and then put a lien on their property what's the
consequence. What happens if you have a nonprofit administrator who who can
collect the tax or hire an agency to collect the tax but that what is the
burden on the city if any this is the non-burdened are we able to do this
without becoming a problem. Lastly thank you for your comments. Thank you miss
I'll just call the roll.
This last speaker.
There's motion to second.
Let's take the roll.
Item 6.3 was moved by Councilmember Ramachandran,
seconded by Councilmember Gail.
The time is 554 to close the public hearing,
as well as adopt the resolution.
On roll to do so, Councilmembers Brown?
Aye.
Five?
Aye.
Gail?
Aye.
Houston?
Aye.
Ramachandran?
Aye.
the public hearing as well as
adopt the resolution.
Moving to item six point four
we need a motion and a second.
At five fifty five PM there was
a motion made by councilmember
gio seconded by councilmember
five to open the public hearing
five and six point four on roll
council members Brown.
I.
Five.
I.
Gayo.
I.
Houston.
I.
Ramachandran.
I.
Any other.
Long I and Jenkins motion passes with eight eyes to open the public hearing of a read the item into record conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt the resolution one confirming the annual report of the rock which business improvement district advisory board into loving the annual assessment for the rock which business improvement district for fiscal years twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven including a 3% increase in the annual assessments.
Okay, regarding the item before you, the Rockridge bid was formed in 2000, pursuant to the parking
and business improvement area law of 1989, and as such, the Rockridge bid must annually
receive approval from City Council to levy its assessment for the following fiscal year.
Accordingly, the item before you is to hold a public hearing to hear all public comments
to the public hearing. No
majority protest exists as
defined by the above
legislation. Then council may
consider adoption of the attached
resolution which would approve
the proposed levy as well as
confirm the annual report of the
rockridge bid advisory board.
Attach as exhibit a to the
resolution. The resolution is
approved. The resolution is
approved by the board of the
board of the board of the
that would prevent council from
adopting the attached resolution to approve the rock
ridge bid fiscal year 2026 to 2027 levy. If council so chooses. The rock ridge bid is comprised of
approximately 480 businesses located in the rock ridge commercial neighborhood. And the bid
the city's city's city's city.
the district's annual report
requests no changes to the
boundaries of the district or
to the original method and
basis of levying the assessment.
However, the Rockridge Business
Improvement District Advisory
Board is recommending a 3%
increase to the fiscal year
2026 and 2027 assessment rate
across all categories to enable
the district to maintain the
current level of services as
Costs of providing those services and inflation have increased. Thank you
Council member anger
It's your district. You make the motion. I would like to make a motion to approve the staff's recommendation
Close the public area. Yes. All right
public speakers
Mrs. Atta all about
What's different from the last?
Proposal this proposal
allows you to see when the billing period takes place.
And that's January 1st, 2026 through December 2026.
That means the staff all year long
is gonna be dealing with collecting assessments.
It also states that the assessment for the Rockbridge
is based on two variables,
business, grocery, seats, or business type.
The last business district didn't have any way
of determining how the assessment is based.
The funds are in place in a special trust established by the finance department.
We do a lot of work here.
Then you have a race and equity statement that don't make no sense, and I keep telling
you people, tell your staff, if there is no race and equity statement, just say there
is no race and equity statement.
So you can't say transparency and sustainable funds and management services is an equity
I'm so sorry I don't have a
final a statement it is.
Thank you for your comments.
No ma'am did the chair thank you
for your comments.
I was our only speaker for this
item we do have a motion a
second motion made by council
member younger second by
councilmember guy oh at the
time of six PM to close the
public hearing and to adopt the
resolution Friday I'm six point
four.
Through the chair to counsel
were Houston thank you.
To approve this item and close
the public hearing council
that is brought to you by the
public hearing.
Aye.
Houston aye.
Ramachandran aye.
Unger aye.
Wong aye and council president
Jenkins aye.
The motion passes with eight
ayes to close the public hearing
as well as adopt the resolution.
Moving to our non-consent
calendar items starting with
item eight.
Adopt a resolution awarding a
our complete streets project.
Project number 1005314, the lowest responsible
and responsive bidder in accordance with project plans,
specifications, state requirements,
and with contractors bid in the amount of 8,810,715 dollars
in adopting appropriate sequel findings.
We do have 10, no, one speaker on the,
two speakers on the side, excuse me.
Move to waive the staff presentation and move approval.
Let's go to the speaker.
excuse me, Mrs. Asada Olibala and Blair Beekman.
I just want to demonstrate for you how you do not fairly
take care of your business here.
Look at all the projects you have at Lake Merritt,
the Lakeshore Avenue Specialty Bike Lanes Project,
the Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Projects,
the 19th Street Bark and Lake Merritt Urban Greenway Project,
the Lakeside Drive and Lake Merritt Boulevard
Complete Streets Paving Project, the 14th Street Project, the late merit bark project,
including senior housing and marketing rate housing, the measure DD project for late merit,
all of those for one area, one park gets all of these projects.
Now name a project in your district.
Name a project in your district or your district that has to do with parks.
thank you missus hata moving to our one zoom speaker blare beakman
you may unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comments
hi blare beakman i'm currently on the bark train
um so my zoom may cut out i'm really sorry because thank you for this item
uh it's been on here
and accountability and good open public policy so good luck that we are connecting all of those
at this time yeah this is a lot of money and how we work this out and how we talk about this in
terms of the future of block contracts compared to a future of a different alpr vendor i hope we
can keep those concepts in mind uh how we're developing that conversation and uh good luck
thank you mr. beakman we got a motion in a second through the chair can you restate who made that
motion was that you council president the motion was made by councilmember council president
jinkins seconded by councilmember guayo to approve the resolution resolution for item eight on roll
council members brown aye five aye guayo aye houston aye ramachandran aye unger aye wong aye
the motion passed with eight
ayes to adopt item eight.
Moving to our next item.
Item nine which is a resolution
regarding the amendment and
restating the council's rules of
procedure at the November 4th
twenty twenty five city council
meeting.
There's a motion made by
councilmember.
Rama chandron seconded by
councilmember under to approve
as amended with the amendment to
council the requiring majority
with an aye vote of four ayes
Brown Houston Ramachandran Unger
two no five and Wong one absent
guy oh one excuse Jenkins in
pursuant to rule twenty nine of
resolution nine zero zero six
six eight CMS council's rules of
rules of procedure this item has
been scheduled to the agenda to
allow the mayor to cast the
type of breaking vote is there
somebody here from the mayor's
office to weigh in if not can
somebody go get pressed to
council member Houston
president how are you is it any
way since we're waiting can we
I'm sorry, I'm sorry that's a to the attorney's question.
Can we speak or can we say anything on this?
We have to wait for the mayor to tie break.
If the mayor doesn't tie break, we have other options.
Say that one more time.
If the mayor chooses not to tie break,
we have other options.
But council discussion is permitted, go ahead.
Oh, it is permitted, okay.
So bullet point five.
require that moving an item off the consent calendar
to the non-consent calendar to have a majority vote.
Normally, we just do a motion and a second.
Makes no sense to me to do that.
Item six, remove and require that committee recommendations
that are not anonymous must go to the non-consent calendar.
What, what, what would you have to do that
to move that to the non-consent?
That makes no sense.
That's like blocking public opinion.
President's here.
So let's see what president says.
President, how does the mayor weigh in?
So, President Kilgore, deputy chief staff
to Mayor Barbara Lee.
So, regarding file number 260028,
the proposed amendments to the council's rules of procedure,
the mayor requested me to come down
and share that she does not intend
to vote on the pending motion.
The mayor, sorry, I'm out of breath.
It's a lot of people will be
I don't know if that's what
the president just ran down.
The mayor first you defer to
city council on their own rules
of procedure.
And therefore we'll be not we'll
not be weighing in today but
thank you all for the off.
Thank you thank you so much
president saw entertain a motion
to suspend council rules of
procedure so that we can hear
this item.
Now as opposed to the next
agenda because the next agenda
the motion. One second one my
The council we've been hearing
the council rules of procedure
allow the council to suspend one or more
of their rules of procedure on a temporary ad hoc basis
for a single meeting only,
if the council passes a motion
by an affirmative vote of six council members
and including a finding or findings of necessity,
provided the temporary suspension otherwise complies
with applicable law including charter brown act
and sunshine ordinance.
because the 16th will be impacted.
There's a motion and a second on the floor.
And to clarify, council president,
I believe that your recommendation
is to suspend a portion of rule 29,
which provides that in the event the council members
are evenly divided in their vote,
which happened at the last meeting
where this item was discussed,
that item will automatically be continued
to the next regular meeting, which is tonight,
Solely for the purpose of allowing the mayor to cast a vote and I believe you your recommendation is to suspend that
Portion of the rule that says solely for the purpose of casting the vote so that the council can continue to discuss the item
Yes an agendized
You're out of order mister you're about to order
That's your first warning. That's your first warning
This is your second warning
Police, please remove mister hazard
Please remove that mr. Hazard from the chambers
Yeah, we can talk about it
No, mr. Officer
Please remove them
Yes, so we can further discuss the item
Okay, there is a motion by made by council president Jenkins seconded by council member Ramachandran
To suspend a portion of rule 29 so that we may further discuss this item
Through the chair to the parliamentarian is it any other language that I should be
relaying in this motion to
to further this discussion for this item.
Pursuant to rule 16, which allows the council
to suspend its rules, you should include a finding
or findings of necessity for the basis for the suspension.
So the finding is the impacted December 16th agenda.
Thank you.
On roll to suspend a portion of rule 29
so we can further discuss this item.
councilmember. I'm on roll. On
members of the council.
So this is just so that we could
talk about it to be able to talk
about it we need six votes so I
motion to suspend council rules
of procedure.
So this is so that we can speak
on the so this is so that we can
take a vote on it so if
councilmember Houston there are
certain sections that you want
removed we have to take this
step first.
This is first step this is not
a proven.
So this is to talk about it and then we will remove
those sections as you ask for.
Through the chair for clarity, this vote is to basically
and essentially reconsider this item or no,
to possibly vote on this item later.
This is the permission to talk about this further
and to possibly vote again on this item.
Yeah, if I can, I can try to clarify.
So your rule 29 and your council rules of procedure
speaks to tie-breaking votes by the mayor.
At the last meeting, there was a motion
that resulted in a tie, the mayor's office,
and therefore, under the rules,
it was automatically continued to this meeting.
The mayor's office appeared and declined to break the tie.
The council is permitted to discuss the item,
but if you wanted to move forward
and continue deliberations and make new motions,
you would need to just temporarily suspend
the portion of your rule 29 that says
that it can only be continuous to meeting solely
for the mayor to break the tie.
So in other words, you're suspending
that one piece of rule 29 so that you can
continue deliberations on that item
and consider other motions.
If otherwise, the council, of course,
can schedule this in another manner.
there's a motion in the second.
Okay, one more time through the chair.
There was a motion made by Council President Jenkins
seconded by Council Member Ramachandran
to suspend a portion of Rule 29
as stated by our parliamentarian
to further discuss this item on roll
to do so Council Members Brown.
Aye.
Five.
No.
Gail.
No.
Houston.
No.
Ramachandran.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Sorry.
the motion is seconded by the.
Please approach the podium or raise your hand in the Zoom app.
Asada Olibala, Ralph Kans, Emily Willer, Jennifer Finley, Prescott Chair,
Semen Lee, Nicole, Dean, or Dan, sorry for mispronounce your name,
Jean Hazard, Armando, Sodorzano, Matthew Richard, in no particular order.
If you still wish to speak on this item, item number nine.
please state your name for the record before you begin. My name is Nicole Dean
for the record and I have time seated to me from Matt Boyd. From excuse me
through the chair you said your name was what ma'am? My name is Nicole Dean and I
have time seated to me from Matt Boyd. Matt is Matt present. Okay thank you Matt.
So we have a total of two minutes. Thank you. My name is Nicole Dean I'm the
organizing director at Care for Community Action,
we are a pro-democracy civic engagement group
and our mission is to dramatically increase
the participation of Oakland residents
in the democratic process.
We are strongly opposed to this proposed change
because starting the non-consent calendar before 5 p.m.
would make it even harder than it already is
for working people to participate
in the public comment process.
Please don't do this.
Democracy in this country is on its deathbed,
and Oakland has an important role to play nationally
in making democracy real.
These changes will kill too many opportunities
for working people to participate in the process.
If you do this, you're gonna be hearing
from consultants, not constituents.
You're gonna be hearing from people who do not live here,
who do not have a base, and cannot tell you
what your constituents actually want.
And you're not gonna hear from Norma and Jesus
and Fred and Sharina and so many other people
who's best shot at power over the issues
that make or break their lives
is through accessing the democratic process.
I totally get that you don't wanna be here till midnight.
I don't wanna be here till midnight either.
But blocking public participation will backfire.
People will have even less trust in
and respect for government than we already do.
Please think about what that could mean
and vote against this anti-democratic change.
Thank you.
Armando.
So you're trying to make these meetings even less accessible
to working class people, and I'm not surprised at all.
The council has shown disdain for public participation
and the values of transparency and accountability,
such as when President Jenkins scheduled a special EAP
meeting during a council meeting,
yet failed to publicly announce it
and failed to provide an agenda or amendments
with sufficient notice to the public.
And don't accuse me, as you did before, of spreading conspiracy theories when you're
the one conspiring to ram through a policy that violates human rights with minimum notice
and transparency and violated the Brown Act to do so.
You should be working to make meetings more inclusive and accessible, not less so.
If you're in chamber, please approach the podium.
Ms. Asada, Jean Hazard.
There are a couple of rules of procedure that have not been recommended that should be recommended.
is that you should require all Rule 24 items to be placed on the non-consent agenda, not
consent. All amendments that are brought before Council should be shared with the public in
a written form before public comment, and that happened tonight, that you had an amendment
and the public had no idea. The Brown Act should be respected when it says, reasonable
opportunity to have public comment. And we are not having that
with one minute to speak on items. Any item that involves a
certain amount of money should be identified on the agenda item
where that money is coming from. You also should have funds
that are identified on each item on the agenda.
should have a limited number of items. Thank You miss Asada. If you heard your
name and your in chamber and still wish to speak to this item please approach
the podium if not we'll move to our zoom speakers. Starting with Simmons. You may
unmute yourself and begin your comments. Simmons Lee. Hi I want to yield my time
to Delphine? Through the chair to Simon, I don't have a card through the chair for
a Delphine. I have not, do not, through the chair. I will move to Jennifer. I believe
that she signed up for Zoom comments. Okay, through the chair, thank you. However,
we do not have a card for a Delphine. Jennifer Finley. Trying to have the
rules of procedure suspended in order to vote on rules of procedure that were
already voted down in committee and then having to vote a second time hoping to
flip enough votes with enough I don't know intense eye contact and insinuation
that there's a plan you could be discussing this without actually voting
to have deliberations that allow a vote if you want a discussion with council you
You could just have that conversation. I don't support doing it this evening. The community hasn't been notified of anything other than breaking a tie, but absolutely.
With everything else that's happened with this council with rescheduling the meetings with committee meetings being moved, special meetings repeatedly time to comment being cut in half having the committee meetings.
so impacted that we can't comment fully
that the item's there either.
This is ridiculous.
Thank you for your comments.
Jennifer, knowing that the outstanding names
that I did call for this item that signed up proactively
for this item were Jean Hazard,
Prescott Chair, and Ralph Kans.
I will ask the remaining hands if they submitted a name.
Anne Harvey, through the chair,
did you submit a card under a different name?
Anne, through the chair.
And Delphine, did you by any chance submit a card
by a different name as well?
We know that you submitted an e-comment.
I tried to submit an e-comment,
but I was like one minute late.
And I also pressed the button for sign up to speak
on that same webpage.
So I would like to speak if I could.
Thank you, through the chair.
You were successfully able to submit a e-comment.
We do have that e-comment,
but we do not have a speak-up request for you
through the chair.
Through the chair, to the chair,
how would you like to proceed?
Shall we go to the next item?
To the parliamentarian, can we make a motion
to schedule, to post, continue the item
to the next regularly scheduled council meeting?
Yes, the council can vote on the scheduling motion
to schedule this item to the next council meeting
or any other meeting.
Okay, and I will make that motion
to the December 16th council meeting on consent.
Second.
Well, that's not non-consent.
Non-consent, second.
There was a motion made by Council Member Ramachandran,
seconded by Council President Jenkins,
to schedule item nine regarding the amend
and resetting the council's rules of procedure
to the next City Council meeting of December 16th, 2025
on non-consent.
On roll to do so, Council Members Brown.
We don't have it on the agenda
and we have five.
I'm confused I thought we said
that agenda was impacted in my.
It's impacted but.
We didn't solve it here.
So.
I just want to be clear because
this whole process is
convoluted and I do believe
let as the public has stated at
the last meeting and this this
is anti democratic I.
This item needs to come back
after it's vetted in actually
I'll just vote. No. Kyle. No. Houston. Ramachandran. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And council President
All right thank you the motion passes with five ayes brown Ramachandran
Unger Wong and Jenkins to schedule this item to the 1216 agenda on non consent
and there were three noes five Galle and Houston. We have one last final action
item item 10 which under modification to the agenda was withdrawn don't know
through the problem tearing if there needs to be another motion to withdraw
this item or if item 4 was sufficient correct the council already voted to
withdraw this item but as was stated earlier the public is allowed to speak
okay through the chair we have about 131 speakers that signed up for this item
and if you still wish to speak on this item I will call your name because there
There are a robust amount of people who signed up.
I will call in batches of 25 so that we can still conduct and have and maintain order
in the chamber.
So, if you did not hear your name in the first batch or the second, please be patient.
You will hear your name if you signed up for this item.
Okay.
Once you hear your name, please approach the podium and or raise your hand in the Zoom app.
Lowering all hands in the Zoom, thank you for your patience.
Mark Han Slider.
Luz Hernandez.
Rachey Jozel.
David Boatwright.
Jasmine Hertz.
Avery Arbo Arba.
Sorry if I mispronounce your name.
Adriana Martinez.
Alberto Parra.
Michael Wharton.
Greg Slaughter.
Jonah Hole or Howl.
Sorry if I mispronounce your name.
Zeta Mays, Ms. Shelly, Charlotte Armando Sorzano,
Michelle Williams, Lauren Matt, Zach Liu, Athena Wheaton,
Ash Wagness, Amy Martin, Robert Rawborn, Kathy Eberhart.
That is the first batch.
I will continue with the next batches after we hear from this.
And take in tears, privilege,
can our partners from BART come and speak first.
Victor Flores.
Thank you.
Is my time starting?
Thank you.
Council members, good evening.
My name is Victor Flores.
I have the honors of representing downtown West Oakland,
east, and parts of East Oakland as well as North Oakland.
Thank you all so much for the work in meeting with us
to get our insights on the impacts
for our critical infrastructure.
As you all know, we are the backbone
of the region's transportation network.
But one of the issues that we face is making sure
that we can keep our infrastructure safe,
not only for our riders, but also our community members.
We do run high voltage electricity along our track way
and any fire impacts due to, I'll be quick too, so.
I'll wrap up.
But the, we just wanna make sure that we're working
in partnership with the state of Oakland.
So we're looking forward to continue those discussions
to make sure that we can fine tune the language
and continue to be good neighbors and partners
with the city of Oakland and our community members here.
We appreciate that the city is doing a lot of work
to move forward in the right direction,
which helps us also recover
as we come back from the COVID pandemic.
So thank you all so much
and look forward to continue that conversation.
Thank you.
Can I ask him through the chair?
Can you elaborate, sir?
Can you elaborate on something real quick please for me?
Okay, you're out of order.
Are you saying that we need more low sensitivity zones
or more high sensitivity zones
when you're benching what you mentioned?
When we're looking at the language,
we want to make sure that we're...
When we look at the sensitive infrastructure,
that we're being very specific about the rail infrastructure,
so we, in the future, don't get deprioritized
as you're looking, as you're weighing out
where to invest your resources.
the city.
I'm not saying more high
sensitivity zones and for.
I'm not saying more high
sensitivity zones on some I
think what I'm saying is more.
Clear language OK yeah thank
you thank you.
I'm on the.
Patricia Brooks and council
member Houston say that when
the city displaces and
dispossesses people.
The health and safety
consequences become the county's
You need to stop passing the buck to the county and do your part by identifying land for county-funded housing interventions.
Activate vacant lots for supported governed wellness communities where people can heal and make progress towards housing.
Identifying land 90 days after enforcement begins is totally ass backwards.
If you give people a place to go, you won't need all this draconian enforcement which will divert resources from essential city services towards a policy
that doesn't actually solve homelessness. The police can already investigate crimes and tow vehicles without notice.
They don't need new authority AC health will not let you make referrals to hundreds of new county funded beds
If you do reckless and chaotic sweeps, you must adopt humane standards to access those resources that you need to resolve encampments
My name is Richie Jozo
live in district 3 I
Think it's telling that the Cal ICH has concerns about the EAP
I also have concerns about the EAP this policy is inhumane point blank period
Not only is it inhumane, but it will not solve homelessness.
Homelessness cannot be solved by arresting people.
The mayor has created a new office for homelessness,
yet the council members have not worked with this office,
and I want to know why, and I think the public also knows,
wants to know why.
I would like that addressed now, if possible.
That's it.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Charlotte, I'm a resident in district two.
I wanna talk about some of the shifty rhetoric
that is being used to push the EAP.
I'm talking about all the vague fear mongering
about crime, suggesting that people in encampments
somehow have carte blanche to engage in human trafficking
and drug dealing and whatever else.
In September, you had an OPD spokesman right there
and when you asked if there was anything preventing OPD
from enforcing criminal law, criminal law,
not the vehicle code, he told you point blank
that there is nothing.
I'm talking about saying we need to make Oakland ADA
compliant and just leaving out that most in-house people are disabled and their
wheelchairs, walkers and meds regularly get swept up in sweeps. I'm talking about
insisting that this is not a moral lapse and then wondering out loud, well if
they're not even from here, do we even have a responsibility? Yes, you do, shut
up. I'm talking about the grandstanding about how conditions and encampments are
so bad. We can't let people live like this. When we know that behind closed
doors the authors are giddy about the load grants passed took off your hands
and just dying to pass the buck to the county.
If you're thinking about voting for this
because you wanna seem proactive
and don't wanna vote for the status quo, just know...
Zach Liu.
Speaking as a Oakland resident
that is very concerned about the proposed
encampment abatement policy
that would further criminalize and dehumanize
our most vulnerable residents.
I know this will likely come back next year
and especially concerning is the provision
to enable the mass confiscation and towing
of vehicles that people live in threatening to take away
the very things they would need to find stable housing.
And this is a very dark time with rising authoritarianism,
the gutting of our social safety net,
and ICE kidnapping people off the streets.
And instead of Oakland being a beacon of light,
the proposed EAP is directly out of a right-wing playbook.
I mean, this literally aligns with a Trump executive order
issued earlier this year so I urge you to reject this proposal and instead
support real solutions with the same urgency as was shown with this effort
that would only worsen the homelessness crisis. Thank you. Hi, my name is Ash Wagner
and I work in District 3. I work for the Center for Independent Living, an
organization that was founded by and for people with disabilities and it's no
coincidence that the people, most of the people that would be affected by the
of the encampment management policy are disabled.
It's no coincidence that most of the people
who'd be affected are black and brown,
and it's no coincidence that most of the people
who'd be affected by this policy are elders.
We have seen the systematic exclusion
and dispossession in Oakland again and again.
The resolution claims to be
about unhoused people's health and safety,
wanting to prevent death, injury, and exposure to weather,
But all I see in this policy is more death,
more harm, and more people left without shelter.
This policy will not make anyone safer.
Housing will make people safer.
We have beautiful examples of homeless people's solutions
to homelessness with homeless.
Hello, my name's Avery Arba.
I'm formerly homeless.
I'm a organizer with ACE,
and I'm a tenant union member and organizer.
I'm here today to speak on this item
and encourage you to vote no.
I know it's not up for a vote today,
but when it comes back in January,
I want you to consider the fact that the policy
as it was proposed tonight would have hurt
our most vulnerable neighbors.
Clearing camps causes a public health crisis
within our communities.
It prevents people from forming stability
and getting out of the situation.
And it doesn't solve the issue.
As many people have said before,
criminalizing and arresting people
kicks the can down the road and doesn't solve anything.
What we need is homes, not criminalization.
Hi, my name is Riley.
I'm speaking against the proposed
encampment abatement policy against the current
encampment management policy
and for housing first solutions.
The idea that some groups of people
must be removed from society
in order to improve society for others
is a definition of fascism.
In Oakland, we have a fascist approach
to people experiencing homelessness.
I empathize with people who are frightened
and uncomfortable with homelessness in their communities.
I also don't want to have to walk through encampments
on my way home.
But remember that the people who are the most affected
by homelessness are not the people living next
to encampments, it's the people living in encampments.
These people are not the cause of homelessness.
Homelessness is caused by public policy
that allows for rampant housing speculation
that puts real estate profits over communities
and by our lack of social safety nets.
In a country, in a country where the middle class,
the poor did you hear your name through the chair if you heard your name please
approach the podium if not I'm sorry yeah I'm in the group of 25 that was
called okay hi I'm Michelle Williams district one resident I'm a public
health professional and a developer of permanent supportive housing it's gonna
take decades to resolve the humanitarian crisis of housing affordability and
homelessness that this city has helped create and if you think that you can
victim displace thousands of Oaklanders and have them magically end up in permanent housing
that does not exist, you are deluding yourselves. The evidence is clear the EAP will bring needless
death and suffering to thousands of Oakland's people while bleeding the city budgets dry
so that the EAP's creators and proponents can personally profit from the from the destruction.
I urge you not to entertain this criminal and cowardly betrayal of the EAP's author's
sacred duty to serve Oakland's people.
I urge you to vote no,
wholesale on the encampment abatement policy,
and any of the tinkering around
the edges amendments that may come about.
Thank you for your comments.
We'll move to the next batch.
Through the chair to the Zoom,
we will proceed with the Zoom once
we've heard all in-chamber speakers.
Calling our next batch, Irene Farnsworth,
Zach Stern, Damon Johnson, Jasmine Sozi, JT, T.O. Dora.
We have a Damon Johnson, a duplicate card for Damon.
Ryan from Grassroots, Julia Feenberg, Jessica Limon, Brittany Henderson-Wilson, Latif McLeod,
Paolo Arengo, John Lindsay, Poland,
Jesse Nguyen, Azabi,
Kari Maliki, Tash Nguyen, Edward Martin,
Batman, Miesz Kabal,
Carter Griffin, Mom Carter Griffin.
I'm sorry, Ms. Maven,
and Alison Pam in no particular order.
Please state your name for the record.
Hello, everybody. My name is Damon Sujah Johnson. I'm the executive director of Black Men Speak.
My family's been in Oakland since 1942. My grandfather, Dr. Otis Stillwell, built the Oakland Acorns,
built the Charms bowling alley in 1948. Oakland gave him $150,000 of black men to do business here.
And now, I'm a peer specialist and a trainer.
The one thing in the peer movement we say, because everybody here has a peer, it's not
what's wrong with you, but what happened to you. And to make a movement, and I'm also a returning family member.
I was incarcerated 34 years. I just returned home about six years ago. I'm in shock.
Because
we look at a law today. We make a rule, a policy. What does it look like in 10 years, 20 years? Affirmative action.
We have laws, proposition 27.
care court proposition one, it seems like it's a reinstitutionalization of poor
people. We don't have enough housing. Thank you for your comments Mr. Johnson.
Good evening. I go by Batman of San Jose. I am an advocate for the on-house and
homeless community throughout the Bay Area and I'm disappointed but not
surprised with this policy and I want to bring you a word of warning. I've been to
almost every single meeting in the Bay Area regarding a policy such as this, in
every single one of these ordinances that have passed, people have died. People I
know personally have died. People have taken their own lives. People have lost
their lives due to exposure to the elements. And it's appalling. It's
disgusting. It's revolting that there's such a policy. And I want you to pay
attention to me Houston I would like you to pay attention to me when I'm talking
that this policy is coming to conversation you need to turn this policy
away before more people die because it will happen and it is going to it is
happening now stop. Thank you for your comments. Hi I'm Zach Stern with I
reside in District 1. The original EAP presentation prominently cited the
Supreme Court grants grants past ruling which said it's legal to criminalize
people for being unhoused for not even being able to afford housing. This was a
moral failure for the ruling itself and for us to embrace it here locally. Is
Oakland better than this? We need to listen to unhoused people and support
them with programs and housing that they asked for. If we're trying to protect our
marginalized communities from fascism on a national level we can't create new
tools to do their work here locally. Please, when this comes back again it
keeps coming back let's please vote against it and end it for one final time.
Thank you. Hi, I hope I don't start crying. I'm Maven Carter-Griffin, Wood Street
People's Collective. I'm also on the steering committee for the Homeless
Act working group. Last year, on Wood Street, while I was living in the easement and promoting
our different type of community, I was displaced, made more homeless. They took my trailer and
smashed it up and distributed my belongings into a dumpster for everybody to go through.
And I was left with nothing. And I've been living without any shelter at all except for
what I could make out of foam cardboard stuff. And I did my best, but I was under six inches
water this very last rain. My cats are all sneezing and about to succumb to bad
health and and I had pneumonia at Christmas and almost died. What I want to
propose to you guys is that these these policies didn't include us. We didn't
sit at the table and help or have word about what we go through to help form
better policy. What we need to consider in adapting and encampment policies we
need to have some unhoused people that are together enough to be able to
present ideas and curative answers from our perspective
and come together, unity in community.
Thank you for your comments.
Hello, good evening, my name is Paola Arango.
I'm a resident of District 3,
and my concerns with this proposition, one of the many,
is that my tax dollars would be used to fund
the displacement and destruction of our neighbors,
their homes, and their entire neighborhoods.
We as Oakland must stand against this act of dehumanization
if we want to support and look out
for all of our communities.
Our tax dollars should be used towards preventative care,
elder and veteran housing, tenant relief
and eviction moratoriums, harm reduction for the addicts,
childcare accessible to all,
but especially for our homeless.
Our homeless residents are also Oakland
and as such we must show our Oakland strengths
by giving them strength.
If we want to raise Oakland up,
we must start from the ground up.
If we want Oakland to be prosperous,
We must all be prosperous.
Oakland's homeless populace deserves the same peace
and respect as our house do.
You want to be Oakland strong?
Then give your strength to everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
If you heard your name and still wish to speak
in the first two batches, please approach the podium.
If not, I will call the next batch of names.
Please approach the podium
or raise your hand in the Zoom app,
reminding the public that we will get to the Zoom speakers
once we have commenced with all of our in chamber speakers.
Nicole Dean or Dan, Nikki, Stephanie,
Tiny or Tinney Garcia, Leah J Harper,
Linda Warwick, Allie Catt, Larry,
Satia or Satia, Jazz, C delivery,
sorry for mispronouncing your name,
Sarah Malish, Nate Peterson, Matt Boyd,
Camille Sacristan, Carmen Jovl,
Megan Corden, Elliot Tristan, Aaron,
Nguyen Neff, Peyton Yin, Peter Brown.
You may line up if you heard your name.
Henry Simmons, or Simons, James Van,
Tayla H. H.,
Bridgett Nicoletti,
Michael Hayes.
Please state your name for the record.
Hi, my name is Nate Peterson.
I'm a District 2 resident,
and I'm an organizer with Care for Community Action.
With Care for Community Action,
I've been knocking on doors
where we've been speaking with Oakland residents
about the EAP for months.
And over that time, I've personally spoken
with dozens of people.
Those residents are not at all interested in policy
that doesn't provide solutions
and that wastes city resources.
From talking to residents,
what they do want to see are solutions,
like programs to provide permanent supportive housing,
designated sites for parking for RVs and other vehicles,
Designated safe camping locations and at all of these sites providing services like trash pickup mental and physical health and addiction services and others
People want to see vacant buildings and lots used for these sites
to put it simply people believe that other the people need a place to go and that place should have services for people and
We should be providing services. I have a few people seating time to me
Should I state their names?
Sierra Warrick, Linda Warrick, Kelsey Hubbard,
and Samin Lee, they're on Zoom.
Through the chair, what is your name?
My name is Satya.
Cynthia? Satya.
Do you have your yellow confirmation sheet
through the chair?
Okay, and one last time.
Who was sitting your time through the chair?
Sierra Warrick, Linda Warrick, Kelsey Hubbard,
and Samin Lee.
One moment through the chair, through the chair.
you said Kelsey, Linda, are they, okay through the chair to Linda Warwick do
you cede your time? Yes I do. Thank you. Through the chair to Kelsey Hubbard do
you cede your time? Yes I cede my time. Thank you and you said Sierra through the chair. Yes I do.
Okay thank you and then through the chair to the parliamentarian if I'm not
mistaken I think believe the max to see time is a total of four minutes or five
minutes not mistaken five minutes five minutes okay you have four people that
sit at their time and the last name I'm sorry through the chair we had Sierra
Linda Kelsey and some meanly Simi with the s that's through the chair yes
it's Simi can you raise your hand if you're still in zoom okay we can start
with the four minutes through the chair and if Simi raises their hand you have
If Simeon's not there, I have one other person
who could save their time, Tania Ortega.
Okay, I've located Simi with the S, Simni.
You may unmute, do you cede your time?
Yes.
Okay, thank you.
You begin your five minutes, thank you.
Thank you, my name is Satya.
I'm here speaking against the EAP today
in the hopes that this governing body, like myself,
would like to see the city of Oakland
institute real accountability and repair
for the ongoing harm caused by decades
of segregation and gentrification in Oakland,
both of which created the conditions
of homelessness and poverty on this land.
The city of Oakland established
segregated housing in 1943.
They split black and white workers
between West Oakland and the lower bottoms
and East Oakland by the estuary.
The Oakland Housing Authority's current website
describes the establishment of Oakland's
first public housing, but they do not
describe the segregation.
Later, in the 1960s, the city of Oakland
displaced 10,000 people from West Oakland
to build freeways, destroying thousands of units
of housing in black neighborhoods
and scattering these communities
into different de facto segregated neighborhoods
across Oakland.
In the decades since, we have seen wave after wave
of gentrification push more and more black
and working class families,
the cultural backbone of the city,
out of their homes and onto the streets
and neighborhoods they still call home from east to west.
And in response, rather than investing
in economic support and housing
for these most impacted communities,
The city of Oakland has conducted countless sweep operations all over Oakland.
They destroy homes and impound live-in vehicles while in most cases offering no accessible
shelter and indeed no direct housing referrals at all to those displaced, continuing the
long cycle of displacement and gentrification enforced by racial capitalism.
The city of Oakland describes her neighbors as unhoused on their website.
Let me be clear, it is the city that unhoused them.
It is the city of Oakland who allows our neighbors to die on the streets while the capitalists
and developers hoard buildings and empty apartments.
I know that you're all here to propose amendments to the EAP or in January, a policy that would
allow for more violent and racist displacement and theft from the poor.
Many of us are here to tell you that this needs to go back to the drawing board.
Over half of Oakland's unhoused population lives in vehicles, most of them inoperable,
simply as a way to have reasonable shelter from the elements.
Regardless of the proposed amendments, the very framework of this policy is one that
further dispossesses people and degrades their living conditions instead of improving
them.
That is unacceptable.
The people who have spoken in this chamber to refuse this deathly policy are organized
and mobilized, and there are many of us.
Every level of government is currently moving to cut basic services, from the defunding
of Medicare and Section 8 housing to the closure of several city-run shelters and safe parking
sites just this year.
As we brace for another wave of newly unhoused working-class families onto the streets, the
city of Oakland will see those abandoned by the federal and local governments to homelessness
and starvation organized with one another to survive.
And this is only the beginning.
We don't just want amendments.
We don't want to pretend that equity considerations are even applicable to a policy that is fundamentally
built to accelerate racist gentrification, police violence against the poor, and death
on our streets.
We want for the people in this city to be fed and housed.
We want accountability for what has been done to people here over the years.
We want the City of Oakland to set an example,
to refuse to legitimize the national war on the poor,
and to sit down with the organizations
that have been proposing holistic solutions
for years, if not decades,
only to be turned away repeatedly
in favor of billionaires and developers
who offer no long-term economic
or social repair to the people,
but who I guess have the money
to fund your reelection campaigns.
One additional thing that I want to add
with the rest of my time
is that I've heard a lot of narrative and rhetoric
around the idea that certain people don't want
to build safe parking or interim housing sites
or even permanent supportive housing in district six
or seven because of equity concerns stating
that it's unfair and that the specific argument being used
is why are there so many people
on the streets specifically in these districts?
The answer is that the people on the streets
in those districts are from those districts
and they've been displaced from their homes
onto the streets.
Additionally, the best economic investment
that you can make in a community
is lifting up people who have been excluded
from economic participation in society
into a position where they are able to participate.
And the first step to that is creating a place to stay
where they are welcomed in their hometown
and in their neighborhoods.
Thank you.
I'm Erin Nguyen-Neff.
I'm a senior staff attorney
at Disability Rights Education Defense Fund
and also a resident of District Two.
Dreadiff has been a leader in civil and human rights
for people with disabilities for the last 45 years.
And we're really struck that in this
encampment and abatement policy,
not once does it take into consideration
the needs of people with disabilities,
despite the fact that they're disproportionately represented
among the unhoused population.
Instead of providing accessible shelters
and accommodations for people with disabilities,
this new policy will undoubtedly make life harder
for people with disabilities.
In terms of RVs, these are a crucial lifeline
for people with disabilities who cannot access
accessible shelter and housing,
and have nowhere else to go,
yet this policy removes the protections
that currently exist for RVs.
This inevitably means that RVs and vehicles
that serve as a last resort for a home
will be towed and destroyed.
Criminalization is not the answer,
it's housing and compassion.
Hi, yes, my name is Ellie Kat,
and I am right now living in my RV.
I run from the city of Oakland with my RV
so that I cannot, so they don't destroy it.
I am from Oakland, I'm born and raised in Oakland,
and we don't even know that we can speak
at these meetings and things like this.
You guys don't reach out to us,
you guys don't listen to us,
when you think we are criminals.
I ain't currently working two jobs and lost my housing,
not Section 8 regular housing.
So the rent is so high, we can't afford it.
So now we end up in this RV and sometimes they break down
and you guys promise us safe RV parking
and guess what you guys don't.
Then you come back with that machine and eat it up
and then we don't have anything.
Take everything from us.
So I just wish you guys would not think
that we are criminals because we are not.
We just want someone to live comfortably
and be able to live our life with our families too.
My name is Jazz and I go out every day
and almost every night to support unhoused loved ones
here in occupied with Chin, so-called Oakland,
who are being displaced actively by the city every day
with taxpayers money, with state funds, with federal funds,
millions of dollars going to people being put at risk
to have all of their shelter and belongings
taken away from them every day of the work week.
And this doesn't make any sense.
This policy would increase that.
The fact that this is already being treated
as if this policy has passed by the cops
and by the encampment management teams that are going out
and taking people's belongings without notice
are towing RVs while people are not at home
without putting an orange tag.
OPD is doing this already,
even though this has not passed through council.
And the fact that all this money is being wasted on this
when Homefulness and Wood Street exist
and are housing people and are helping people move.
My name is Tristan Elliott Bughula
and I'd like to start off by saying
I agree with council member Jacobs.
We shouldn't be delaying this conversation.
We should actually make sure it's off the table for good.
But to me council member,
it sounds like you have one of two goals.
Either to force the unhoused out of their hometown
or maybe put them on the streets to be arrested,
to have them jailed on our tax money,
and have them work tirelessly for less than minimum wage.
Unhoused people are kids, brothers, sisters,
aunts, uncles, if you want to tear the community away
from you, council members, passing the EAP
is exactly the way to do it.
You know, the Turner is actually pretty great here.
What do we think?
Yes or no?
Yes or no?
Now I'd like to relay some info from Professor Peter
Brown at Laney College.
Eight out of 10 Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
Homelessness nationwide grew 35% in two years,
and that rate is accelerating.
Cities like New York have turned to democratic socialism
because they know.
Hello, my name is Matt Boyd.
I'm an organizer with Care for Community Action.
Since this was proposed, we've been talking
to a lot of people in West Oakland.
Personally, I haven't talked to anybody
who thinks the current situation is okay
because it's not, but I haven't talked to anybody
who really thinks this proposal is going
to actually fix anything either,
and that's housed, and unhoused people.
People understand that if you move people around
or tow their cars, they don't just stop existing.
Someone who's moved from one place
might be in front of their house tomorrow.
When they look around their front porch,
they see land that's just going unused
and weeds are growing on it,
sometimes even owned by the state,
And when they hear, well, why not safe parking spots?
The very least, why not build affordable housing on it?
Those are the ideas they respond to.
My name is Michael Hawes, homeless since 5 December 2012.
And have had a lot of experiences,
including having my vehicle towed three June of this year.
Part of the reason I'm here is to give six-month notice
to the city that damage to my vehicle is compensable.
Back when I was in Noel Gallo's district,
we worked together on Saturdays picking up garbage
in Union Point Park,
and just to try and resolve the situation, the homeless.
But over the course of all these years,
nobody's actually said, what can we do to help you?
This, Mr. Houston, is really not a valid agreement.
encampment to exclude vehicles this is follow trying to follow the grants pass
ruling federal ruling which allowed for clearances under state property but it
allows the police to tow their vehicle Nicole Dean make some noise if you think
public land should be used for public good the encampment management policy
didn't fail because it wasn't punitive enough it failed because it's
are unenforceable in practice.
And the EAP is no different.
How is it realistic to expect that OPD, Public Works,
and Oak Dot, departments that already struggle
to meet their current responsibilities,
are going to successfully implement
a very labor intensive directive
without any additional resources?
How is it the realistic solution to push thousands of people
out of vehicles and onto the sidewalk?
That's gonna improve sanitation issues?
constituents don't think so instead of wasting money playing musical chairs
with people's lives we could stand up real solution sites on publicly owned
parcels we could work with the city and the county to offer safe structured
designated spaces for unhoused people to live in allow unhoused and housed
neighbors to work together to keep away the kinds of people who take advantage
of encampments to commit crime thank you all calling our next batch of names
once you hear your name please approach the podium if you're in zoom please raise
your hand. And again we will get to our Zoom users once we are done with our
in-chamber speakers. Delphine Brody, Al Ujumori, believe these are all on Zoom,
Alex Pinigas, Pinnikish, sorry if I mispronounce your name, Angelina
Alina Cornejo, Ann Harvey, Armando Solorzano, Becky Hom,
Blair Beekman, Brock de Lapp, Chuck Brown, Damien Scott,
David Motorsback, Dolores Tejada, Emily Willer, Aaron
gravely. I'm on Kahlil Jeff Levin Jennifer Finley
Jessica Lehman Herr Lehman Josephine Goosman Juan Canham Ken Nooriso
Ledette Awoke Lily Robles. If you heard your name you may approach the podium
without further delay. Hi my name is Alex Penigis and I'm a district 4 homeowner
here with just cities and the Housing and Dignity Project. When this item was
being considered by the Public Safety Committee we requested five analyses to
be done. A racial equity impact analysis by the Department of Race and Equity
which ensures city policies do not result in racial inequities. A budget
analysis because during a budget crisis the city cannot afford costly
ineffective sweeps. A legal analysis by the city attorney on whether this policy
violates the Mariah settlements or any other laws, a Berkeley human rights
sensor analysis to determine whether this proposal violates human rights laws,
and a health impacts analysis from the County Public Health Department. Today's
agenda doesn't include any of these analyses. Why is the full council
deliberating this proposal when the committee has not done its due
diligence to understand its impacts? The city's policy around homelessness is
is failing, and needs to improve,
but this policy will make things worse.
Vote no on this.
Thank you for your comments.
Hello.
Becky Hom with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
I'm here today to oppose the EAP.
One of the reasons stated for this policy
is that the current encampment management policy
is not working.
Why is the answer then another policy
that will make it harder for people
to become stable in the long run?
It will likely make the problem worse,
by removing people from their shelters and encampment
without being able to provide housing for most people,
putting people in more precarious positions
which can exacerbate physical and mental health problems,
even causing death.
There is more support coming in the future
and the county's MetroW funding, but that's in the future.
So really should be, let's see, the shift in policy
instead of waiting for more shelter,
permanent support housing and more to exist.
I'm very concerned this policy would put
Brooklyn's current homelessness funding at risk,
which would also increase the harm of this policy.
But no one that can't be abatement, Pauline,
work with the houseless community come up.
Hi, I'm Juan, a D4 resident,
member of the Tenants Union and a democratic socialist.
I'd like to thank the council for pushing this back.
I've stayed to emphasize that the most effective thing
the council has done on homelessness
was the eviction moratorium.
No possible, there's no solution to the homelessness crisis
that doesn't involve preventing people being made homeless
in the first place.
Anything that's being proposed at the moment
is just a non-starter.
If it is an emergency, we should treat it as such
and bring the moratorium back until we can find places
for all of our unhoused neighbors to stay.
Voters keep approving funds for affordable housing,
Measure KK, Measure Q, Measure U, Measure W,
do we need to run out of letters
before you'll listen to us
and actually start building the 3,000 beds and homes
instead of focusing on punishing people?
The only council member I've seen take this seriously
is Council Member Fife,
who was trying to get the army barracks used
for temporary housing,
but it looks like the city administration would rather.
Thank you for your comments.
Blaire Beekman, Mrs. Asada Olabala,
Chris Mackay, sorry for mispronouncing your name,
Brock Wilson, Dilap, Kevin Hester,
Michael Pyatok, Pullman,
sorry for mispronouncing your name, Wong,
Alex Pinges, Patricia Toscano,
William Dure, Erika Gordon, Willow Brackman,
Bracken, Erica Bracken, Liz Imba,
Yazid, Chris, Tahaf, or Tohaf,
Barley, Astana, no Fos, sorry I mispronounce your name,
Miss Celia, Cunningham, Lagnaw, Stop the Sweeps,
and Supervisor Nicky Fortinato-Boss.
These people in here are talking about
taking homelessness seriously.
If you take homelessness seriously,
you would be in every meeting like me,
talking about homelessness.
Don't pop up on one meeting
and talk about what has to be happening with homelessness
and call yourself being serious.
I can speak about homelessness.
I've said it before, I lost everything in 2005.
I've been homeless ever since.
But I've been blessed because I have a family that has given me
home to live in.
I've never been able to be back in a home on my own.
But let me say this, there's no one group that's right.
We seriously need to deal with the homeless situation, but the homeless situation has
created some issues that we have to deal with.
And correct, we can't continue to have people living on sidewalks with all the illegal
—
Thank you for your comments, Ms. Asada.
Hi, hello.
My name is Puyman Wong, a D2 homeowner, a former federal official at USAID and US EPA
for over two decades.
As an international humanitarian urban planner,
I manage large-scale encampments in war
and disaster zones globally.
I urge you to end EAP once and for all.
It violates humanitarian law,
principles, human rights laws.
In my work across the globe,
I have seen that forced removals
and punitive measures only deepen trauma,
erode trust and create cycles of harm
and displacement without addressing the root causes.
Oakland is facing a humanitarian crisis
right here on our streets.
There is a better path forward.
Health EAP redirects the political will and staff capacity
in funding to community-led housing solutions.
This means investing in transformative options
from use of city and county vacant lands,
self-government villages, to adaptive use of motels
and underutilized buildings, and housing-first policies.
join us in ending this Hello Council. My name is Barley Anastos. I'm a resident of district two.
I'm also a member of Ace. That's the Association of Californians for Community Empowerment.
I encourage you to vote against this policy. This will not solve the issue of homelessness
in our community. It will only temporarily disappear the issue only for it to reappear
in the future. It also risks losing county funding for homeless services. This is a sad
weak attempt at fixing homelessness in our community.
We can do better than this.
The best way to tackle this issue
is by providing people with housing.
We have an opportunity to provide an example
of how to deal with this issue to the rest of the country.
And I think y'all have heard exactly
how everybody here feels about this today.
Thank you.
It's over here, sorry, sorry.
It's under Layla's stop the sweeps, thank you.
You're welcome.
Okay.
Just give me a second to compose.
OK.
This walker right here, this walker was,
I even helped save it at a sweep.
Actually, I want you guys to know,
Ivan Satterfield, who's doing a lot of these crooked sweeps
or in charge of them, is humiliating people.
And he's cruel to people, and it's wrong.
And it wasn't for one of his workers that actually cared.
He asked if we wanted to save this.
This walker could be used by people right now.
And this would be clogging up our landfill for no reason.
This is not a solution.
Humilianing people is what's causing a lot of deaths,
literally.
Evictions, whether it's unhoused or housed people,
is literally killing people.
Look up Darlene Chaney and her brother Derek in Atlanta.
They are suing the city of Atlanta
because of the crushing of Cornelius Taylor, their brother.
And lawsuits are going to happen if you guys don't stop this.
And they should still happen, even if you don't,
you have to stop.
Thank you for your comments.
Hi, Blair Beechman.
I was signed up on Zoom, but I made it to the meeting,
so I figured it'd be better to speak here in person.
Hi, I've been, I work with tech accountability
for the past 10 years here in the Bay Area
and in San Diego also open public policies and such.
I've been really impressed with public speakers tonight talking
about the importance of how we need to invite everyone
to the table and to make Oakland strong.
It has to be a full community effort.
There's a rhythm and pattern over the years
that sometimes you invite the homeless community
to the process and sometimes you don't.
I hope this can be a time to really start asking how
to invite the house list themselves.
Deaths always happen with these sort of items
and that was also stated tonight and that really moved me.
Good luck how we can be working on this.
Check out Mountain View by the way.
I think they tried to do a nice job.
They may be a bit disorganized but they really tried.
Good luck in those sort of efforts.
My name is Mike Piatak and I'm requesting an additional minute.
One of the other speakers, Patricia Tascano is
who I am to say.
Do the chair, what was your name?
Patricia, and then do the chair your name?
Michael Pyatuck.
Michael, thank you.
I live in district two, have been there
for almost 50 years now.
I'm a homeowner, I'm not unhoused,
and I'm an architect who designed
a lot of affordable housing.
And even founded a business,
so I'm a business owner in a sense.
in downtown Oakland.
But I have friends on both sides of this debate,
but they come to you today,
firmly on the side of those who grew up here,
who went to school here, who worked here for many years,
but who now find themselves in an economic hole
unable to participate in this most expensive
housing market in the country.
When I came to Oakland in 77,
45% of the residents were African Americans.
It's now only 20%, and more than 50% of the unhoused
are African-American.
This proposed ordinance will only exacerbate the problem,
sweeping people from their fragile communities
with no alternative shelters.
There is only one shelter bed for every five
unhoused people in Oakland.
Traumatized people removed from their self-created
communities will now be roaming the streets
as itinerants in the wintertime.
Some will die, some will become emotionally unstable,
and some will probably commit petty crimes just to survive.
There's one portion of this proposed ordinance,
which I seem to think makes some sense,
requesting the staff to make available
all those city-owned land that could be transformed quickly
into shelters, either the Sanction Tent communities
or RV communities or cabin communities.
But you're asking that study to be done in 90 days,
it could be done in 30 days,
with the help of volunteer architects,
and I'm a member of an organization
called Housing and Dignity,
that has a number of professionals,
and is guided by thoughtful leaders.
Thank you for your comments.
Good evening, this is working, all right.
All right, good evening.
My name is Lassimbu Yazid,
I've been a citizen of this lovely city
For about 18 years, grew up in Berkeley,
both of my kids were born in my apartment in District 2.
I'm here to stay, but what I'm hearing
and seeing proposed this evening is an atrocity
to any of you, the fact that you're entertaining this
as an option for our citizens.
I would humbly ask you to remember that you are servants
of all of the people of Oakland.
And I know many of you are getting paid over $100,000 to sit in your seats and make these
decisions and I ask you to make those decisions thinking as if you are one of those homeless
people.
Okay.
I'm a member of ACE, that's Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.
I am an after school teacher, I teach soccer, poetry, and community service.
Thank you for your comments.
My name is William Dewar, not to be disrespectful, but this is my first time at a city council
meeting ever, but I care and I'm confused.
Your jobs are to serve your community, not to move people out of the community.
Where do you expect people to go when you're directing funds at displacement rather than
solutions?
All of these people come here today and many of us with expertise regarding the matter
of encampment sweeps.
I'm an urban studies student at UC Berkeley doing my senior capstone project on homelessness
and I can tell you that encampment sweeps are not the solution.
Beyond that, there's multiple unhoused people that have spoken today giving you their direct
experience.
I leave you with a question.
Is doing what's easy the right thing to do?
you for your comments. Okay, our next batch, Noel Forrest, Jack Peterson, Jacqueline Peters,
Therese Mitros, Rache, Zee, Peggy, I'm so sorry if I mispronounce your name, Carol Wyatt,
Enzo
Nikki
Andrew Rice
Shani Turner Shani Turner Ray can
Excede excede son, so sorry Peggy Peters
Parrish Scott
Please state your name for the record
Hi, my name is Yaldison. I
opposed the EAP
You need to start over. I know council isn't thinking about this problem creatively
believe enough because the phrase safe parking is mentioned in the EAP exactly once it is to create a
report to find safe parking this needs to happen before you pass the EAP if the Department of
Transportation cannot tell us today where to park your vehicles after a sweep and transport them there
Then they it is not the AP is not ready the Department of Transportation
and OPD are not ready to enforce the EAP.
Right now this work is being done by community members,
volunteers, who are scouting out locations
and transporting belongings.
OPD is doing none of this work.
If the community has to step in, then the system is failing.
These banded amendments is like trying to put a cherry
on top of rotten food and then telling us
that it is tellable.
You have to start over, and the community is more
than willing to tell you how to do it.
Thank you for your comments.
We'll now move to our Zoom speakers.
Lorcan, can you please state the name
of the name that you provided for your card for speakers,
for your speaker comments?
Sorry, through the chair.
Lorcan.
Lorcan Slider.
That's the name that you provided?
Yeah. Okay.
You may begin your comments.
Thanks.
This is Lorcan Slider.
I'm a resident of district four
and a housing and racial justice organizer in Oakland.
You removed the encampment abatement policy
from the agenda tonight,
but then allowed Ken Houston to ask pointed questions
of a BART representative on public comment time.
That's corruption.
The EAP did not pass the public safety committee
because hundreds of people came out to oppose it then too.
And we will come out to oppose it
no matter when you schedule it.
You cannot fix the EAP.
All you can do if you are serious
about changing conditions in Oakland
is to implement strategies from the people
with experience living on Oakland streets
and developing community systems of support.
These are the people who have positive solutions
for the housing crisis
that could actually improve all of our conditions.
Sweeps kill.
Repeated evictions make people more unsheltered,
exacerbate chronic health conditions
and remove people from their social support.
Policies like our current encampment management policy
and the EAP target the people in our city
who are already the most systemically oppressed.
The vast majority of our households.
Thank you for your comments.
Delphine Brody.
may begin your comments. Hello, as a formerly unhoused, disabled Oakland
resident in district one, I call on you to vote no on the EAP. There's no way to
fix this. This cruel and wasteful policy criminalizes homelessness by
subjecting unhoused Oaklanders to arrest if they returned to the site of a swept
encampment. It would, as husband pointed out, legalize the city towing people's
homes, people's RVs, which OPD is already doing to its shame and this is unconscionable.
Furthermore, the EAP will increase homelessness in Oakland because it authorizes OPD
to displace people both by towing their vehicles and destroying their homes with no notice.
This is cruel and egregious. It also threatens Oakland's access to needed county resources.
Thank you for your comments. Jasmine Sosie, you may begin.
Good evening council members. My name is Jasmine Sosie. I'm a District 1 resident and also a
representative of the Real People's Organizing Collective, a collective of small businesses
and worker co-ops here in Oakland fighting for a people-centered economy. I'm also the
of the board president of the Bay Area Community Land Trust
and I'm standing in the strongest opposition
of the encampment abatement policy.
From a small business perspective
and neighborhood perspective,
this policy fails on every level.
Criminalizing our unhoused neighbors
and bringing more police into our corridors
does not help our neighborhoods,
our unhoused neighbors or small businesses.
It does not reduce encampments.
It does not reduce trash.
It doesn't make anyone safer.
It simply forces people and their belongings
from block to block.
That's not a solution.
It's displacement on repeat.
Oakland already spends $1,500 an hour on sweeps.
In this budget crisis, we cannot afford to pour more money
into an approach that fails on every level in every study.
Criminalization doesn't work, housing and care do.
Please reject this policy and give real transformative
strategies a chance to succeed.
Thank you.
Thank you. Latif McLeod.
Latif, you are unmuted.
You may begin.
Hello.
I am Dr. Latif McLeod.
He and him pronouns.
have been an Oakland resident for the last 21 years. I am speaking in front of you today with
the plea for you to vote no on this policy. This will just punish and criminalize the most
vulnerable in our society who have the misfortune to not have homes. As was said before, most people
without homes are also people of color and people with disabilities who face racist and ableist
policies daily. This policy is reminiscent of the ugly laws which criminalize people with
with disabilities in the 19th century,
San Francisco passed such ordinance in 1867.
We should not repeat history.
We do not need further criminalization,
but more affordable homes.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Also noting, I don't believe I said the names
of Courtney, Simone, Staton and Zoe,
or Zoe Nicolette Cineras or Cinevos if you're in chamber.
Jesse and Zoom, may you say your, please state your last name so I can identify a card for you.
Nguyen. Thank you. You may begin. Good evening council members. My name is Jesse Nguyen. I am
a Vietnamese food business owner of 10 years. I work in district five representing the real
people's organizing collective. We are small businesses and co-ops fighting for an economy
where all of us thrive. Since 2022, we have organized with over 300 businesses in the town
to help win a progressive business tax for the city of Oakland,
win 1.5 million of funding for community safety ambassadors,
and 400k in small business grants.
From the hundreds of conversations we've had with small businesses,
we know safety and cleanliness are a top priority,
but Councilmember Houston is pushing forward a dangerous proposal that he insists small
businesses want. It would criminalize homelessness and harm the physical and emotional health of
unhoused people. This policy is not a solution and definitely not what our small businesses
want with our tax dollars. We know when all residents are housed and cared for,
our small businesses thrive. We urge you to vote no
on the encampment abatement policy, protect Measure W, and support solutions
rooted in dignity and care of our people. Thank you.
Thank you. Asa? Hi, um, Kari Malki will be using their time to me.
So requesting an additional minute. Okay, yes, this is Kari Malki.
I yield my time to Aysa. Thank you. We'll have two minutes on the clock. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm Aysa B, D6 resident and organizer of Restore Oakland. Perhaps it'd be wise of me to
simply echo the powerful words of my community which expose this proposal's ludicrous display
of local leadership. But I must directly address you, Council Member Houston, and I do hope I have
your undivided attention at this moment, as you're the central culprit who'd be responsible for the
ruthless ongoing destruction of our streets if your council doesn't harness its political will
to do as you wish to the people and trash this EAP with a staunch vote no. You claim yourself
to be the quote unquote son of Oakland but no true son of Oakland with integrity would shamefully
fill your seat today. A true son of Oakland would refuse to be fiscally obsequious to corporate pack
lobbyists like Philip Dreyfus who invests in the recall efforts of progressive leaders,
the coal industry's pollution of our air, and the disenfranchisement of queer neighbors like
me at the ballot box in an effort to squash Prop 6 just to line his pockets at the expense of his
own people. A true son of Oakland would recognize the historical hangover of 20th century urban
renewal in the ongoing nightmare of modern-day gentrification you extol refusing to perpetuate
the widespread removal and caging of his culturally rich black and brown neighbors
Under the guise of public safety, a white supremacist tale older than time.
A true son of Oakland would know that in this town, we don't sweep dignified people away like
thankless waste, but house them like family because we keep each other safe. I yield my time.
Aza B, were you through the chair? Were you done with your comments?
Okay, thank you. Moving along.
Miesh Cabal, you may unmute yourself
and begin your comments, Miesh.
Hi, my name is Miesh Cabal,
urging City Council to affirm the dignity
of people experiencing houselessness
by voting no on this encampment abatement policy.
People experiencing houselessness deserve dignity,
community solutions, and care,
and not to be swept like trash on the street.
I became houseless for the first time this past May,
two weeks after my best friend and soul family died,
Dodari Blue and six months later my closest grandma,
Orea, passed.
A community member earlier today reminded me
that so many are just one incident away
from becoming houseless.
In the last nine months, I had unstable work,
I'd spent nights in my car, caught my car towed,
and had to move from house to house.
I'm infinitely grateful for the friends and family
who have given me soft places to land
and supported me through,
but I'm pained and enraged that there are countless
beloveds who are denied access to life-saving resources,
being criminalized for their situation
and are disposed of and displaced in cruel ways
like the deadly sweeps.
From human to human and from my heart to yours,
vote no on this policy that denies the dignity of...
Thank you for your comments.
Moving to Jeff Levin.
You may unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Jeff?
Thank you.
Good evening, Jeff Levin, Senior Policy Director
with East Bay Housing Organizations.
We've already submitted written comments
in opposition to this policy
and we agree with the many people
who've spoken in opposition tonight.
Personally, as someone who has spent the last 40 years
working to solve Oakland's affordable housing challenges,
I am outraged and embarrassed by this proposal.
You act as if the problem is unhoused people
rather than homelessness itself.
Oakland deserves better.
We don't think this proposal should be brought back,
but if it is, there must be a more democratic process.
First, what's described on page six of the staff report
public outreach is completely inadequate broad stakeholder participation is required which must
include unhoused people and the organizations that work directly with them second this must
be scheduled at a regular meeting when you put this on the agenda for a special meeting the public
only gets three days to review the materials and finally it must be scheduled at a time that allows
as for broad participation by the-
Thank you, Jeff, for your comments.
Victoria Sun, you may unmute yourself, Victoria, and begin.
Hi, my name is Victoria Sun,
and I am a non-profit immigration attorney
at Kanji Legal Services.
I'm also a resident of Oakland District Two.
I wanna share a story of how this kind of policy
can absolutely devastate an individual's life.
One of my clients, he became homeless
due to housing and affordability.
He ended up spending his life savings on a car,
which would serve as transportation to his job
and a place for him to sleep.
During a similar encampment as one proposed in this policy,
his car was towed and impounded.
He lost his job as a result.
And he couldn't find a new job because he had no car.
He couldn't afford the impound fees.
His green card and social security car were stolen.
And now eight years later, he is still homeless
because of that one encampment sweep.
It caused devastating effects
and we'll see this happen for thousands of our neighbors
and fellow Oakland residents if you pass this policy.
Thank you for your comments.
Sanford Forte, Sanford Forte, you may begin.
Through the chair to Sanford Forte, okay.
Sanford Forte, West Oakland neighbors.
A dysfunctional codependency exists
between the city of Oakland
and Alameda County's homeless service apparatus,
including homeless advocates.
Some believe that Oakland can save
every out and unhoused person,
67% of whom are mentally ill or drug addicted,
to settle anywhere they want or do whatever they want,
including refusing or leaving treatment,
returning thousands to the street, often to die.
Alameda County spends hundreds of millions of dollars
on harm reduction services that do not work at scale.
Result, neighborhoods turned into dysfunctional drug
and mental health treatment centers.
The AEP is needed therapy, an adult in the room,
bringing serious controls to restore civil order
in our public commons and streets
and insisting on mandatory humane long-term care
for unhoused residents who are mentally ill or drug addicted.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Moving to Peter.
Peter may please state your last name so I can ensure
that we have a card for you.
Peter?
Peter Brown.
You may begin, thank you.
Thank you.
Peter Brown, District 5.
Some will assume these comments are simply opinions,
so let me be clear.
I'm a professor of manufacturing technology at Laney College.
My research for the past 25 years
has been the interaction of technology,
the economy, and society.
My sources are solid.
Today's economy is not the economy
that supported affordable housing, health care, food,
and education.
Manufacturers had used automation and now AI
to eliminate workers from production
and to reduce pay for most of those remaining.
By 2017, the US Labor Department said six out of 10
were living paycheck to paycheck.
Now it's eight out of 10.
Homelessness grew 35% in the last two years.
The working class is in action.
Zoran Mamdani won the Mayor's Ship of New York City,
one of the great centers of capitalism in the world.
Chicago and Seattle are going the same way.
If you vote for this EAP,
you will vote against the actual community
and it will turn against a system
that turns housing into.
Thank you for your comments.
Leah Jay Harper.
Thank you.
You may begin, Leah.
Thank you.
My name is Leah Jay Harper.
I was a resident for 10 years on Wood Street,
now home full for the rest of my life at homefulness.
And I'm here to urge you not to pass
the encampment abatement policy because sweeps kill.
We're not advocating for people to remain outside.
We're advocating for people not to be further harmed,
displaced, and dehumanized.
This policy doesn't solve homelessness.
It simply moves beings around out of sight as if erasing them
where the same is helping them.
While the amendments may soften the language,
the impact remains the same.
More sweeps, more trauma, and more public money
spent pushing people from block to block instead of investing
in real solutions.
Every dollar spent on clearing encampments
is a dollar taken from systems that are already underfunded.
Oakland can afford policies that make the crisis work.
We need investments in stability, housing,
and human dignity, not another strategy
designed to make people disappear.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Bridgett Nickoletti, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
My name is Bridgett Nickoletti,
and I'm an attorney at East Bay Community Law Center
and district one resident.
Instead of spending more time and energy
trying to amend and save the EAP,
I want the council to partner with unhoused people
and also to community-led organizations
to come up with holistic and sustainable solutions
to the city's affordable housing crisis.
You've heard about some of these solutions tonight,
and I know people have a lot more to say.
With federal cuts to HUD funding
and section eight likely on the way,
Oakland should be organizing to save those tendencies
and increase access to affordable housing.
Sweeps are not the solution.
They are cruel and they are a waste of money.
And the council should take this opportunity
to think creatively and proactively.
I know there are many people, including our organization,
who'd like to partner with you.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Lily Robles, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
My name is Lily Robles.
I'm a housing advocate
with the East Bay Community Law Center,
speaking in strong opposition to the EAP.
This evening, we've seen Oaklanders come out in force
to protect unhoused community members' safety and dignity,
even though there won't even be an EAP vote today.
The consensus is clear.
Oakland does not want the EAP.
This proposal will only criminalize
black, brown, and disabled community members.
The city would waste millions of dollars
destroying unhoused Oaklanders' shelters
and essential possessions.
It proposes no solutions for the underlying
causes of homelessness and will leave
unhoused Oaklanders with nowhere to go.
Community members with lived experiences
the answers to our homelessness crisis and must be heard instead of being shut out of the process.
For years they have demanded that the city open up public land and RV parking,
ensure existing shelters are meeting residents needs, and provide sanitation services to
encampments. Instead of meeting unhoused Oaklanders needs, this policy punishes them.
When the EAP comes back, it must not be adopted. Thank you.
Taylor H. H., you are next. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, my name is Talia, and I'm with Love and Justice in the Streets. Since 2016, I have been
involved with supporting unhoused community members in Oakland. During this time, I have
witnessed hundreds of sweeps, and I've seen firsthand the extreme harm that sweeps cause,
from losing medications, important documents, ID, phones, clothing, and other critical belongings,
to causing severe stress bringing on seizures and panic attacks and exacerbating other serious
health conditions. Sweeps only make life harder for unhoused people which makes accessing housing
more difficult. The proposed encampment abatement policy is dangerous and wasteful targeting vehicle
dwellers and impounding people's only shelter is cruel and ineffective at solving homelessness.
In the midst of a budget crisis when the city is defunding shelters this policy would spend
millions of public funds with zero housing solutions.
House and unhoused residents want real solutions, not more costly and ineffective sweeps.
I urge you to vote no on the EAP.
Thank you for your comments.
Tash, can you confirm your last name, please?
My last name is Wynn.
Thank you.
Please begin your comments.
Hi, I'm Tash Wynn.
I'm a homeowner in D6 and an executive director of Restore Oakland in D5.
We support small businesses in staying afloat,
and we help people coming home from jail and prison
get access to life-affirming resources.
I have two questions for you guys.
Who profits from obscuring the true causes of homelessness?
Whose financial interests are served by shifting blame
from those driving the crisis
to those forced to suffer through it?
We know that homelessness is a predictable policy outcome
when we have skyrocketing rents, poverty wages,
and gutted social supports.
And for many, it's big business.
This proposal does nothing to support our small businesses
and neighborhoods.
So please do not guise this as something
that the small business community wants or needs,
as we know that it's robbing resources
from essential services.
So until we confront who benefits from the system,
nothing will change.
I hope you can stop criminalizing homelessness.
Ray Kidd, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Thank you, my name is Ray Kidd.
I'm a 50 plus year resident of West Oakland.
The proposed abatement policy amplifies the flaws
in the encampment management policy
by failing to identify any areas that could accommodate
potentially or potentially accommodate homeless people.
In fact, it adds more restrictions
to both the high sensitivity areas
and the low sensitivity areas,
and then additional restrictions
under the public safety section.
so it becomes impossible to conceive or identify
any location that homeless people
subject to the mass evictions arising from the EAP
will have access to.
I can't in good conscience support any policy
that would treat people this way.
This policy will not abate homelessness
but will push homeless people from one spot to another
and only cause increased misery.
We can do better than that.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for your comments, Angelina Cornejo you are next please unmute yourself, it being
your comments and before she begins if you are in the chambers or on zoom and you turned
into card and you wish to speak please approach the podium or raise your hand in zoom at this
time all names have been called.
I'm Christina Cornejo resident of district one and from East Bay housing organizations.
We submitted a letter of closing this ordinance with 10 points outlining why this is a bad
policy as written procedurally and it's just plain wrong ethically and that's
not going to change in January. In particular the mayor has created a new
office of homelessness solutions to implement a five-point strategy to
addressing homelessness. Point number two calls for deploying additional outreach
workers to connect people on the streets of services, treatment, and documents
needed for housing. Towing and sighting RVs and vehicles are so-called
reasonable efforts to make shelter offers. This policy outline is the exact
opposite of the point number two in the mayor's plan. The office of homelessness has been engaging
stakeholders for months now developing best practices and strategies and at solving root
causes of homelessness specific to Oakland. Yet some council members think they know better than
experts and are attempting to pass the ordinance that does nothing besides tow and sight essentially
take people's best shelter from them. The solution to homelessness is home. It's really that simple
punitive enforcement actions without the guarantee of real referral. Ann Harvey please unmute yourself
and begin your comments. Hi, I'm Ann Harvey, a retired Safety Net family doctor, 30-year D1 resident,
and strong opposition. I'm very concerned that the proposed policy would significantly worsen
our city's unsheltered crisis. It would further harm thousands of Oaklanders who, due to systemic
failures, are already extremely vulnerable with five times the mortality rate of the housed.
The EAP basically attempts to define vehicle dwellings out of existence and would likely
result in many impoundments of vehicles and their contents. I've been having trouble sleeping trying
to imagine myself in that situation suddenly losing the vehicle I depend on for transportation
and to keep me and some essential belongings dry and relatively safe. Rather than impound
unregistered or non-operational vehicles, the city should help arrange for emergency
funds for registration fees and repairs and provide safe and sanitary parking sites. The
proposed resolution Nakia Eddard's Eden's I'm sorry you're next please unmute yourself
and begin your comments. Hello everyone I am here listening I'm sorry my name wasn't
call. I apologize. I yield my time to Parrish Scott. I'm sorry to who? Parrish Scott. I
don't believe we have a card for that person. Okay. Parrish, Parrish Scott, are you on Zoom?
I do not see you. Zay, you are next. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments. Hello
friends and to all that are in the chamber. I'm so grateful for our shared
discussion today. I had something in my mind before I started speaking but
spirit really leads me to just be aware of how I'm feeling in my body. Heart is
racing. I'm tired. It's the end of the day. Anxious about this issue as many are.
And I think that can teach me something about the people that we're talking
about because they feel the same way. And when I feel this way, how can someone
connect with me? How can I hear what someone is saying? How can I tell someone
what I need? Though I have degrees in all the learning, I think sometimes the body
gives me better information than when I stay too much in my head in an
analytical point of view. So I'm hoping that we will have ongoing cultural
humility to learn the actual lived conditions of those about whom we are
speaking I'm from youth spirit artworks blessings to all. Jessica Lehman you were next after. Jessica
will have Angela Lloyd. Hello council members my name is Jessica Lehman. I'm a disabled person
in Oakland resident and homeowner of district one. I use a power wheelchair and I'm an organizer with
the grassroots disability organizing project. The proposed EAP is an anti-disability and anti-older
person act, and you must oppose. Over 60% of unhoused people in Oakland are disabled,
and more than a quarter are older. More than 72% are black or brown, and 80% have lived
in the county for more than 10 years. The UCSF Benioff Housing and Homelessness Initiative
found that many seniors and disabled people became homeless due to one medical emergency.
And we know that people with disabilities are often not safe in shelters due to discriminatory
treatment and inaccessible spaces and policies. City officials have claimed
they're removing tent encampments for sidewalk access. This is not true. Do not
pit disabled people against each other. We need housing and services. Please
oppose. Go ahead. Okay. Hello. Good evening council members. My name is Angela Lloyd
and I'm a District 7 resident and an OUSD field supervisor. I strongly support the
encampment abatement policy. District 7 corridors like San Leandro Boulevard,
Hagenberger, and 85th have been overwhelmed by RV encampments, abandoned
vehicles, and debris. Sidewalks are blocked, schoolwalks are unsafe, and
and businesses are impacting.
We need clear structure and enforcement.
Please adopt this policy. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, Ken Nerusso.
You are next. Please unmute yourself and begin
your comments after Ken will be Damien Scott.
Good evening. My name is Ken Nerusso.
I speak tonight in support of the EAP.
I am a business owner,
fifth generation plumbing and HVAC company which has been based in Oakland for the majority of our
existence. We're headquartered in district 7 on 81st Avenue between Acorn Woodland Elementary
and New Hall which was formerly Sunshine Biscuits near San Leandro Boulevard. We are in a school
and manufacturing business area. 81st is meant to be for public bus stops, big rig trucks turning
into our nearby businesses and also meant for the children that go to school and pedestrians
working safely on our sidewalks. We are a compassionate business, however our streets
have been taken and our sidewalks have been taken over by broken down unregistered RVs
whose owners continue to leave trash, extend their temporary dwelling spaces onto sidewalk
and attach to our business properties. These RVs leave debris all over and we have
Damien, go ahead.
Good evening, my name is Damien Scott, a district 3 resident and organizer with East Bay Housing
Organizations, and we strongly oppose this policy.
This policy would really necessitate an increase in funding for police activity to destroy
the basic shelter and belongings of unhoused Oaklanders at a time when the federal government
and this council is also limiting the amount of money dedicated to real solutions to homelessness,
building affordable housing. Being homeless is not a crime. The crime is allowing thousands of people
in the city to become homeless and threatening them with arrest when they try to find shelter.
We don't think this policy really should be amended. It should be killed as soon as
possible so that we can actually find real solutions to our housing crisis. I work with
Many unhoused and formerly unhoused seniors,
now of whom have said that more police
and destroying their belongings
would help them become housed.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, Julia Feinberg, you were mixed.
Hi, my name is Julia Feinberg
and I'm an Oakland resident person with a disability
and a clinical psychologist.
It does not take a mental health professional
to know that destroying someone's home
is not an effective policy
if you want to reduce the mental health crisis
or homelessness.
Losing your home is traumatic,
and that is what this policy is.
I have worked with many disabled and queer unhoused folks
whose lives spiraled when their vehicle or shelter
was impounded or destroyed.
I also want to say that as a wheelchair user myself,
how dare you use me as an excuse to pass
this cruel and heartless policy.
If you want clear sidewalks,
provide housing and other services
that would actually end homelessness
and not just make you look good for your donors.
Thank you.
For magazine, could you please state your name?
Tanya Ortega, ceded time to me.
So that means I have two minutes.
Can you state your name?
Yeah, this is Tanya Garcia, a poverty scholar.
You said tiny or Tanya?
Tiny.
But a person named Tanya Ortega ceded their time as well to me.
Is Tanya in the chambers or on Zoom?
Please raise your hand.
I don't see her, so you will have one minute.
OK.
Starts now?
Yes, go ahead.
We want the parks clean again.
We want the streets clean again.
We want the sidewalks clean again, clean like when?
Like the Jim Crow South clean, like the Rafa and Hanyunas
clean, like Derek Chauvin clean, like we are not people
when we live outside clean, like kill houseless people
with bulldozers from Uchun to Palestine clean,
like ethnic cleansing clean.
How clean can do the streets have to be?
So clean, we can't be seen.
So clean, there isn't one houseless person
that can ever even be.
How clean must it be?
Like a shiny metal countertop at Starbucks?
How long must I wash?
Do I need lie and bleach and a colonial cross?
Can I sit, can I hide, can I make myself so small?
There is nothing left of me inside,
just so I don't hurt your eyes when you walk by,
just so the streets stay clean of my dirty,
houseless life.
So I was houseless on the streets of Oakland,
San Francisco, and Los Angeles for most of my childhood,
and then again as an adult.
Not once when I was incarcerated, when I was swept,
when all my belongings were taken,
when my mom was left on the street with nothing
as a disabled elder, not once in that time
did sweeping ever solve my houselessness.
What it did is make my life more intractable,
wait my mom's sicker, take us all the way
into incarceration, which I eventually did
for three months for the act of being houses
on these occupied indigenous streets.
I'm actually ashamed that someone who would call themselves
the son of Oakland would perpetrate
this violent colonial terror because that's what it is
against the most vulnerable people.
That's your grandma, that's your auntie,
that's your uncle, and that's your grandfather.
And that's who you are proposing to sweep
like they are trash.
You should be ashamed,
and anybody who goes along with it,
and we have a solution, it's called homefulness,
a homeless people's solution to homelessness,
and it currently houses 25 youth adults and elders.
Learn about it.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments,
and we were able to find Tanya
to give you your additional minute.
Irene Farnsworth, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Irene Farnsworth,
I'm a District 2 resident,
co-owner of a restaurant in District 1 as well.
I'm here to oppose the EAP and I support
all the comments that have been made this evening,
condemning this cruel policy,
and I particularly appreciate and support
the comments from people who are
or who have experienced houselessness.
I want to speak specifically to
the inefficiency of this policy.
It goes against the overwhelming evidence
on how to prevent and end homelessness,
providing permanent housing, interim housing,
and financial support to
people who are at risk of losing their housing in the first place.
This policy was a terrible idea when it was first
introduced and recent federal funding policy changes are
further threatening thousands of existing housing units in our county.
We need to be unified as a city and county right now to use our scarce public funds for what works,
what protects our neighbors,
and what will ultimately ensure that everyone has the housing they deserve. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments Lola can you please state I'm sorry please state
what name you submitted your card under if you submitted a card Karen please
state what name you submitted your card under Karen long we do not have a card
for you for this item thank you for your comments everyone at this time all names
have been called so I'll take chair privilege just reading a comment from
I'm Pamela Drake who asked me to read it.
The Wellstone Democratic Club does not support
this new encampment policy, which makes it difficult
for Oakland's homeless elders to maintain shelter
and vehicles, whether running or registered or not.
The city is obligated to keep these areas
around the encampments clean without causes.
Seeing those who have lost almost everything to lose
the little that remain in the way of protections
while sweeps do little to improve anyone's life.
this time of year especially we must consider our own house neighbors needs
before we consider our own more privileged positions. Thank you
Pamela Drake. So we have a item that was withdrawn in that the parliamentarian do
you want to weigh in? Sure. The council has already voted to withdraw the item.
chair has discretion to to recognize any councilmember for brief comment but
the item should essentially retreated as if as any other item that's not placed
on the agenda it's essentially been removed from the meeting at this point
so brief not substantive there's anyone have any comments councilmember five I'm
I'm just asking for Lola to be recognized as a public speaker.
Her name was called and she was in a Zoom room but wasn't able to speak.
You said that you read the Zoom name.
Dolores Tejada?
I believe there's a card.
Lola.
Thank you.
Hello.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Thanks so much.
I'm Dolores Tejada, statewide director of the Disability Organizing Network and Oakland
tenant union member and also with the Grassroots
Disability Organizing Project resident of District 3.
Homelessness is not solved by over-proleasing further
displacement and inhumane treatment
of our houseless neighbors.
This policy is a eugenics approach to a socially
constructive problem determining who does and doesn't
have the right to live and exist in Oakland
and continue to harm people until they ultimately
leave or die from the impacts of displacement.
There are ample solutions available to us
that cause less harm, opening public land for safer use,
following the Measure W framework,
and disability justice principle
of centering the most impacted in creating solutions.
Instead of bringing back this horrible policy,
kill this policy, don't bring it back.
Houston, remove it from the agenda entirely,
stop killing people, kill this policy instead.
So that concludes our public speakers.
We won't be hearing any more public speakers.
Are there any more brief comments from council members?
Seeing none we'll go to the next item on the agenda.
And memorial, so I want to end this meeting
in memory of Coach Beam, who was an absolute legend
in the city of Oakland.
I had the chance to get to know Coach Beam
and his impact was just amazing on the city of Oakland,
the young men and women's lives he touched,
not only through sports, but just through mentorship.
You hear so many different stories of people
from generations that Coach Beam was able to touch
so many different people that were able
to get out of Oakland.
I was watching a video from I think 1997, 1998,
and he was talking about how he just wanted his kids
to get on a plane, right?
And these are kids in Oakland
that had never been on a plane.
And Coach Beam was the first one to be able to take them
to different games and put them on planes.
Coach Bean served as a commissioner on the JPA
and did that admirably.
And he lived, absolutely lived,
what it meant to be an Oaklander.
And so Coach Bean's life was tragically taken from us,
but his memory will live on forever.
And we'll end this meeting in memory of Coach Bean.
Council Member Fife.
Yes, I would like to associate myself with those comments.
I'm a graduate of Laney College.
I received an associate's from there,
and after the occupation that Moms for Housing did,
and I saw the documentary Last Chance University,
and saw how he was advocating for his homeless students
trying to get housing that played football
for Laney College.
I just really, really tried to meet him,
and unfortunately, I was not able to do that.
I was able to be at the hospital after he was admitted,
of care for his wife and was
there when the physicians were
removed from his care is deeply
saddening but in his loss and
what he advocated for I hope
that gives us more energy to
fight for the things that he
fought for and housing for
people who didn't have it is
one of those things thank you.
Me any of the council members
take a moment since she already left. I just want to congratulate my assistant
city clerk Brittany Davis. Today was her last meeting. As she moves on, she
elevates to another entity. So I just want to congratulate her that she will
be the clerk somewhere else. So as we move on to open forum, as I call your
name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the
record before beginning. You have one minute for open forum. If you are on
please raise your hands so I can easily identify you. M. Chaz Walker, Miss Asada
Ollabala, Simmon Lee, Blair Beekman and Jennifer Finley. Good evening council
members. My name is M. Chaz Walker. I have the honor of being the vice chair
of the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission and I'm here tonight to ask
for your help. We've done some great work in the year and a half that I've been on
the commission, but we ran into a problem between June and September. We lost three
members. As a result, we cannot establish a quorum so we can continue the people's business.
Please, if you have not appointed anyone to the Cannabis Commission, appoint someone.
We've got a great head of steam going some amazing momentum as we attempt to reimagine
what the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission looks like so that we can continue to support
the growth and development of Oakland's cannabis industry.
I travel throughout the country, and I will tell you this.
There are larger markets for cannabis, but Oakland, California is the heart and soul
of the legal cannabis industry because of innovations like equity and collusion.
So thank you for your consideration, respectfully.
So a part of the NSA is supposed to be weighing in on the stop data, which y'all don't do.
That's important data that demonstrates that we don't lack, what they're trying to change
it is that we don't have constitutional policing.
No, we don't have policing that involves racial profiling fairly or excessive force.
So when you look at the stop data for the year of 2024, from January to December, every
category African Americans are number one.
They are number one with traffic violations, reasonable suspicion, probable cause truancy,
arrests, moving violations, number one with non-dispatched stops, and every area, one,
two, three, four African Americans at the top of the stop data, no matter what category
except for area six.
you're not looking at this stuff, but you're looking at some stuff with the homelessness.
Thank you, Miss Ollabala.
If your name was called and you wish to speak, please step to the podium, raise your hand
on Zoom.
At this time, all names have been called.
Hi.
Thank you.
Blair Beekman.
New Bay Wasee planning promises may offer.
It can be better leaving the era of 9-11, continual war, and its large federal government
projects, but this future promise may also have a very specific goal to end public oversight
and the public meeting process for the future of Baye Wasee.
There are already well-established good ways to leave the era of 9-11 and continue a war
with the open public process, open participatory democracy, and public oversight.
I feel these concepts simply have to continue to have an important role and good purpose
in the decision making and choices in what will be the future direction of Baye Wasee.
A well-structured and focused Bayu Aussie subcommittee process can quite possibly better
invite local Bay Area governments and communities to help better develop more clear cooperative
efforts towards organization, information, sharing ideas, consensus building, and to
define best practices for both Bay Area emergency planning and the future direction of Bayu Aussie.
Please continue to ask questions and for open conversation.
Thank you Mr. Beekman. All names have been called. We adjourn tonight in honor
of Coach Bean. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.
Lowell was a self-taught guitarist influenced by the strains of his 90 year old
grandfather's violin. In 1939, one of his first professional jobs was