Good morning and welcome to the Public Works
and Transportation Committee meeting
of Tuesday, December 9th, 2005.
The time is now 11.32 a.m.
and this meeting may come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions
on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda.
If you're here with us in chamber
and would like to submit a speaker card,
please fill one out and turn one into a clerk representative
no later than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting
or before the item is read into record.
Registering to speak via Zoom is now due 24 hours prior
to the start of this meeting time.
And this meeting came to order at 11.32 a.m.
And speaker cards will no longer be accepted
10 minutes after this meeting has begun,
making that time 11.42 a.m.
We'll now proceed with taking roll with members present.
Council Member Gayo?
Thank you, Council Member Houston?
Thank you, Council Member Wong?
Present.
And Chair Unger?
Here.
Thank you, we have four members present.
And before we begin Chair, do you have any announcements at this time?
Can we move items five and six to the end to accommodate the DOT director who is at
a press conference right now?
Oh, no, he's there.
Never mind.
So no longer need a change from DOT?
All right.
Let's keep it in order then.
Okay.
Keeping the order of the agenda.
Reading in item number one, approval of the draft minutes from the committee meetings
held on October 28, 2025 and November 18, 2025.
We do have one speaker that's signed up, Mr. Blair Peakeman, but it looks like he's not
on Zoom.
Okay.
I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes.
Thank you.
We have a motion made by Councilmember Gaius, seconded by Councilmember Houston to approve
the committee draft minutes of October eight sorry October twenty eighth and
November eighteen two thousand twenty five on roll council member Guio.
Council member Houston. Thank you. Council member Wong.
I. And chair Unger. I. Thank you motion passes with four
eyes to. Sorry to approve the draft minutes from the committee meetings held
on October twenty eighth and. November eighteen two thousand twenty five.
Reading in item number two determination of schedule of outstanding committee items and we do have one speaker that signed up
anything from
council members or staff about the pending list
anything from
DoT or public works for the pending list
All right. Well, let's
Hear our public comment, please calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number two, missus out of all of all it
Let me start off by thanking you chair for the information about we do have a new human service
department head. That's fantastic. I just read that the city of San Jose has
focused a target initiative on parked vehicles with expired registrations and
from August 18 to November 8 they have towed 527 vehicles and sighted. What are
we doing related to this issue of parked vehicles with expired registrations
being fined or towed. Can we have a report on that? I am concerned about the
encampment policy not being thoroughly understood by the public. This concept
of criminalization of our homeless community is just too far-fetched. We
need to have a clear, before going to counsel, you need to have a clear
understanding from Mr. Houston what exactly what we're trying to accomplish.
And I'm not sure if this council is being supportive enough, and maybe it's because
they don't know what you're really intending to do.
So the other thing I'm concerned about is the Rules Committee has placed the item of
the ABC security contract on the agenda for approval.
contract expired in June 30th, I think, of this year. And the reason for why we are at
this point extending the contract. There should not be any kind of situation like this. This
should have been brought up a long time ago if you wanted to extend the contract. And
Lastly I got a few seconds illegal dumping the whole perspective of what's going on should be at every meeting
How we handling this illegal dumping situation. Thank you, mr. Hu
Thank you for your comments chair that concludes all speakers on item 2
Okay, do we have a motion?
Thank you
We have a motion made by councilmember Gallo seconded by councilmember Houston to accept the determination of schedule about standing committee items
as is on roll councilmember guy oh hi councilmember Houston councilmember Wong
hi and chair under thank you item two passes with four eyes reading in item
number three adopted resolution updating the city of Oakland's environmentally
preferable purchasing policy to align with the short-lived climate pollutants
act SB 1383 the city's 2030 equitable climate action plan and the city's
reusable food wear ordinance Oakland municipal code 8.0 7 and
Authorizing the city administrator to implement such policy and improve future policy updates and we do have one speaker that signed up for this item
Let's hear from our staff first, please
Good morning council members. My name is Jeffrey Wong with Public Works and
Today I have an update for you on our environmentally preferable purchasing policy which incorporates updates related to state regulation
Sb-1383 the short-lived climate balloons acts as well as existing environmental regulations that the City Council has already approved
Namely our 2030 equitable climate action plan as well as our reusable food where ordinance
This policy was first passed in 2007 by this
Council to better protect human and environmental health as it relates to the city's purchasing decisions and we bring it before you today
For an update a much-needed update
In it, you'll find that there are no additional costs in this purchasing policy.
This is already any expenses related to the environmentally preferable purchasing policy
have already been included in existing policies like our CIP program.
And you'll actually hear later today some items from other departments that have successfully
been able to find grant funding for a lot of the items related to this purchasing policy.
And then the final item is that in terms of authorizing the city administrator to implement
this policy, this will better help our staff be able to adjust and update this policy as
the latest science comes in as it relates to chemical toxicity and climate change. And
I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you. Colleagues, questions. Electric appliances,
works. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that information. In government creating and developing
policies is one thing, but enforcing the policies another. And I think that's one of the challenge
Oakland specifically has. And I think we're talking about, okay, one is one example. And I'm not
sure if it fits within this action. You know, we have many, many vendors on our sidewalks and our
streets as an example every morning at 6 in the morning I and my employees that
clean the streets every day Monday through Sunday we pick up 30 bags of
trash and like 40 15 or 15 20 gallons buckets of that oil that's been left as
cooking oil or other type of oil that in reality I cannot pick up the oil because
cannot take it to waste management, I cannot take it to my dumpsters,
and so it has to be a fire department issue where they remove or I can drop
off all the pollutants, and so what action are we taking to address that
because that issue is out of control. And not just when I walk from
Hundredth Avenue on the, on the veer-kin-the-weather-loupe walk from
102 all the way to Lake Meriden. What I saw on Far East Oakland, I couldn't believe it.
Okay, so what I'm asking you is how do we address that issue? We're talking about oils
and pollutants that are being left on the sidewalk, on the street, and we clearly know
it for a lifetime throughout the city that who's doing the activity. So what is our process
to deal with those contaminants.
Through the chair to the councilmember, so this environmentally preferable purchasing
policy doesn't touch on the motor oil can or the legal dumping, but speaking as someone
who's a member of the recycling team, that's something that we are trying to do more public
education, for example, that folks can drop off for free to the Alameda County hazardous
waste if they have any motor oil or cooking oil that they've left behind, and I am currently
in the process of working with our environmental enforcement
team to do a better job, not just doing the cleanups,
but also where we have evidence holding those folks accountable
for illegal dumping.
Yeah, because years ago, when I started here on the council,
I would deal with that every day.
But the fire department would send me the marshals,
not only to make sure you have the permits to do business,
but you cannot block the sidewalk,
because the sidewalk belongs to the public, everyone.
But secondly, leaving the contaminants,
the fire department would make sure
that they would pick them up and deal with that issue.
But right now, they're being left on the streets
and left on the corners,
and we just need to address that issue.
And thank you for the information,
and I'll check back with you, thank you.
Council Member Wong.
Thank you, the chair.
This is really important work,
so thank you for all your efforts on this
to move our city towards a greener footprint.
One item I just wanted to inquire about
is you put in the report then, fiscal year 2024, 2025,
that the city spent more than $100,000
to comply with the annual SB 1383
recovered organic waste product procurement requirement.
Can you speak more on that?
And so your proposed updates
and this will actually solve for that issue
because I care about the environment,
but we also need to be fiscally responsible.
So can you speak on that?
Sure.
Through the chair to the council member.
Yes, so by incorporating within the specific policy
the exact definitions around compost and mulch,
for example, that we're producing from city,
you know, down to city trees,
we're gonna be able to reduce the amount
of recovered organic waste product that we need to procure,
thereby reducing the total amount we need to spend.
Unfortunately because of our targets it won't be able to completely eliminate it
But our best guess is that it'll easily be tens of thousands of dollars saved by adopting this policy
Okay, sounds good. I'll second the motion
Do you have speakers?
Yes calling in the names that signed up for item number three, missus sada ola bala
So I haven't seen
Bipod in a report in a long time, but y'all put it in the report bipart. So let me tell you this
Bipod, black, indigenous, people of color.
Everybody is a person of color, okay?
There's no such thing as white people.
They're pink people, beige people, and olive people.
All people of color.
So stop using that term, bipod.
We are not all having the same experience,
no matter what group we're in.
But you want to collectively say,
all people are going through the same experience.
I don't want to see bipod in another report.
If you can defend it, defend it right now.
Anybody want to defend it up here?
Using the term BIPOT.
You are not white people.
You are pink people, beige people and outer people.
Stop trying to make white some significant group
that you've got to separate them from everybody else.
The second thing that I'm concerned about.
This document says we will be pursuing grant funding
and other partnerships to cover costs.
So that means you don't have any money to do anything.
Is that correct?
Presently, we don't have within the scope
of the budget of the city funding
for what you're talking about.
But you're gonna be pursuing grants and partnership
in order to fund something.
That needs to be made clear.
To speak about what we need to do
and that we don't have the money to do it
is important to be recognized.
So, if I'm wrong and there are funds that exist within the budget of any capacity,
a measure or whatever, to deal with this issue, please identify that.
Because I'm understanding you've got to look for grants and partnerships.
And lastly, with your concern, I'm concerned about construction materials being eliminated
in the illegal dumping component.
Thank you for your comments, Chair.
That concludes all speakers on item 3.
Alright we have a motion a second already. Yes we have a motion made by
councilmember Gaius seconded by councilmember Wong to approve the
recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the December 16th City
Council agenda on consent. On roll councilmember Gaius councilmember
Houston. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And chair Unger. Aye. Thank you item number three
passes with four ayes to forward this item to the December 16th City Council
agenda on consent reading in item for good luck with this adopted resolution
one accepting and appropriating grant funds from the environmental protection
agency clean heavy-duty vehicle program in the amount of one million three
hundred sixty four thousand one hundred fifty four dollars to accepting and
appropriating grant funds from the Alameda County Transportation Commission
Transportation Fund for clean air program in the amount of one hundred
four thousand dollars three authorizing the city administrator to enter into
to a cooperative agreement pursuant to Oakland municipal
code section 2.04.080 with tech equipment
through source well contract number 110223-THC
for the purchase of one refuse hauler
in a not to exceed amount of $540,000.
B, own equipment sales through source well contract
number 093021-ELG for the purchase of three electric
street sweepers in a not to exceed amount of $2,850,000
C, Beam Global through the United States General Service
Administration, contract number 47QSWA21D0006,
for the purchase of one electric solar panel charger,
in a not to exceed amount of $102,885.89,
D in charge energy ink through source welcome to contract number zero five one one two three
dash I dash ink to design build purchase and maintain 15 electric vehicle charger chargers
in an amount in a in an amount not to exceed one million four hundred thousand dollars
for appropriating to sorry two million six hundred thirty four thousand six hundred nine
from available fund balance in the comprehensive cleanup fund 1720 for
grant matching purposes five appropriating one million six hundred
forty four thousand one hundred seventy four dollars from available fund balance
in the equipment fund for one zero zero the grant matching purposes and six
adopting appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings do
Do you need me to repeat that?
Nicely done.
All right, let's hear from staff, please.
Thank you.
Richard Battersby, Assistant Director
for Oakland Public Works.
I'm actually the Assistant Director
of the Bureau of Maintenance and Internal Services,
which includes sewers, storm drain,
facilities, and equipment.
So if you're wondering why is Richard always here
talking about sewer and these various items,
have a pretty eclectic portfolio.
This one's a very interesting project
in that it touches two of the divisions in my bureau,
both facilities and equipment services.
And by the way, we probably have earned
some sort of an award for the longest title,
and congratulations to the city clerk
for getting through that.
I would have a difficult time myself.
To summarize, I'm before you today
to accept five grants in the amount
of approximately 4.8 million,
and these grants are going to allow us
to install about 119 electric vehicle chargers
various locations throughout the city and also acquire four battery electric
vehicles, three battery electric street sweepers and one zero emission battery
electric refuse truck. Um, this five grants represent about 12 million in
total projects. Internally, we got about 2.9 available and we're required to
bring 7.1 million match funding to the 4.8 million were accepting. So we are
We're appropriating or requesting the appropriation of 4.3 million from the comprehensive cleanup
fund and also the equipment fund balance.
These projects are in support of mandates to deploy battery electric vehicles.
The advanced clean fleet rule from the air resources boards requiring the city of Oakland
to procure one out of every two vehicles that's over 8,500 GVW has to be battery electric
or hydrogen powered.
So in order to operate these vehicles, we're required to have the electrical infrastructure
to support it that doesn't currently exist.
The PG&E grant is of particular interest because that also includes, in addition to the funding,
they're going to upgrade the power to the Municipal Service Center at 7101 Edgewater,
our primary vehicle domicile yard, at no cost.
So we've gone out and successfully chased grants.
These are five grants.
I think we have a total of 11 on the table.
And it's kind of like a Tetris project
as we use some grant funds
to count as the match fund against the other.
But after all the maneuvers,
we still came up about 4.3 million short.
So that's why we're here today.
And if there's any questions after all that,
I'm available to answer them.
Council members, questions?
Councilmember Gallo.
Yes, thank you.
First of all, let me thank you for the work that you do.
We appreciate your leadership.
And certainly, I've seen a difference
in terms of addressing Denise on the street.
So thank you for that.
So what is the timeline though?
I do see electric vehicles available at this time
from the police department down to public works.
What is the timeline to get this actually in place and done?
This project through the chair, Council Member Gao,
this project includes EV charger installations,
which if the necessary power upgrades are included
may take up to two years to complete.
We hope to have some of these chargers in place
within the next 12 months.
After this item, if it's approved,
we'll get those vehicles on requisition immediately
and there's probably a 12 month window or so
before those battery electric sweepers arrive.
Should they arrive before we have
the necessary high voltage charging,
there are temporary or mobile charging solutions available
and we're prepared to deploy those.
There's also an EV charging hub going in across the street
from the 50-50 Coliseum heavy duty truck shop.
So we will actually have like a gas station,
but for electric vehicles right across the street
from the truck shop.
So hopefully everything's done in two years,
but we are dependent upon the utilities to some extent
to upgrade the power at many of these locations.
So the stations would be at the police headquarters
on Broadway, the electric units?
Correct.
Actually, this project is going to install chargers,
I think, at 13 different locations.
Oh, 13 locations.
Including PAB, where we have some chargers, including
Eastmont, where we have some chargers.
City Center West, we already have some there.
We're going to do the truck shop.
We're going to do Edgewater.
And I think we're looking to add some additional locations
as well.
I just don't have to go to one location
charge my battery or my vehicle? No, no and the hope here is to have capacity for city
vehicles where city vehicles are now so where they park we want to have charging to support
that and then I have to commend our colleagues at Department of Transportation if you've
been to city center west you've seen all that electrical infrastructure we put in the charge
points early on the level two there's I think 15 of the DC fast chargers the high capacity
charging that DOT was able to install with AVA so I mean it's like a team
effort. Thank you, thank you for your work, thank you. Council member Houston.
Through the chair, good morning Mr. Richard. Morning sir, through the chair.
Question, what does through source well mean? It says I see the tech equipment
contracts with source well and I couldn't find where they were located
their headquarters, but then the second one with Owens equipment, it says Through Source
Well, and the other companies like Beam Global, Contract, Incharge Energy, they're all from
one is from Portland, one is from Oregon, one is from San Diego, nothing from in the
Bay Area.
answer my first question why does it say through they have a contract for 540
then the second one says Owens equipment through source well and that's for
two million eight hundred and fifty can you explain that for me please sure
through the chairs a source well is a GPO a government purchasing organization
and that's basically a third-party entity I think source well is a JPA
where they go out they already do the public bid and they establish contracts
And we're able to piggyback off that contract. It's very similar to the State Department of General Services statewide commodity contracts that we piggyback off also.
And where are they located? Where's their headquarters?
Sourcewell, I believe, is located in the Midwest.
Okay. You know, I'm through the chair. I always got an issue with, you know, having some companies from Oakland, or at least Bay Area.
I don't see anybody from here on the Bay Area. So I just wanted to know what through was.
So that means that they get source. Well has the first one for 400. I mean five hundred and forty
Thousand dollars and then it goes through Owens equipment to four two million eight hundred and four and fifty
Yeah through the chair just just to clarify source well is just the contract holder
So I'm sure that in their business model they derive some revenue through the contractual relationship
but we're actually contracting with Owen.
We're actually contracting with Beam.
I know Beam is down in San Diego.
They're proprietary.
They make the self-contained solar powered electric vehicle
charging that has onsite battery capacity.
So Sourcewell is just the contract mechanism
to purchase from those vendors.
Okay, so Sourcewell is getting a percentage
or just for their work for $540,000 to put it all together.
Well, through the chair, I don't think source well derives any revenue from our purchases,
but they may derive revenue from a contractor, the companies that contract through them.
Okay.
All right.
Okay, thank you.
Councilmember Wong.
Thank you.
This is an incredible effort.
I commend you for this.
question I have is just you know since we're replacing a lot of these gasoline
and diesel powered vehicles can we expect actually an uptick in the
performance of the vehicles and like service delivery or is this you know
what changes would we see yes we'll be decarbonizing but what it means for our
residents in terms of street sweeping I've been doing some local cleanups in
my district and I gotta tell you I am really learning about the importance of
street sweeping and some of the worst illegal dumping that we see. I do believe that it is tied to inadequate street sweeping. So can you speak on that?
Sure. Thank you. Through the chair, these grants are particularly significant from the perspective that we haven't had regular vehicle replacement funding for a couple of years now. I understand there's 5 million available city wide.
Just for perspective, one battery electric street sweeper is about $900,000.
So that 5 million citywide includes police, fire, as well as public works.
So we have to rely on these alternative sources.
These are probably the only replacement sweepers that we're going to be getting in for some time.
Right.
In addition to the emissions reduction, we're also going to see noise reduction as well, which is a frequent complaint we get,
Especially if the sweepers are running earlier or particularly late particularly late
So what I suspect though, even though these are what we would like these to be replacement sweepers where we're taking a diesel
Sweeper out of service and replacing it with zero mission battery electric. We think these will just be added to the inventory
Since we haven't been able to replace equipment that's been lost or damaged
Due to mechanical failure or accident
These ones will be bringing our inventory up to where it needs to be so we should see an increase in sweeping capacity as well
As the emission reduction and volume noise volume reduction and then of course we have the battery electric refuse truck
That's going to help us out with the illegal dumping as well, right?
Okay, fantastic. And then my other question is just around the maintenance
of the electric vehicles for my prior work I
You know maintenance of these charging stations actually provide a lot of local jobs. Do you know at all around, you know
Who who will be getting these maintenance jobs?
Through the chair. Yeah, we've been training our technicians through partnership with
Organizations like the East Bay Clean Cities Coalition. We've been bringing in training specifically for our in-house technicians
As far as the station maintenance, traditionally we've relied on the vendor that supplies the equipment, the majority of which are charge point.
They're based down in the South Bay, so they're California based.
Ideally, we would like to see local small businesses spring up around this new business model that fleets are operating under with electric vehicle chargers and the solar panels.
These stations are going to require maintenance. The solar panels are going to require cleaning.
So there will be opportunities right now currently. I don't know I believe there
I'm aware of some companies, but I don't think they're local to Oakland that can provide that service
I think even if the headquarters of those companies are not in Oakland they can prove this is a good job opportunity for
Oaklanders here that can be hired into these roles
Okay, is there a motion on the floor?
I'll second that
Councilmember Houston you have another comment it just one more comment. I liked what mr. Richard said about some
Local companies bring it up. I like that that music to my ears
I just wanted to ask one more question and that was where is tech equipment located?
tech equipment
Tech has a branch right here. Okay, Oakland. I want to say they're off a Hegenberger, but I'm cool positive. Okay. All right
Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that
councilmember gail
And thanks for the work get the work done for me is get it done today
We're far behind getting Oakland like it used to be a clean safe city
But for me is the question that I have what is our relationship working relationship with Oakland Unified School District?
The reason why I asked you that publicly is that I have to clean around the schools every day
It used to be that the city the school district at custodians
that would do that work, to sidewalk inside their school, but now my city workers are
having to clean around Fremont High School and all the other schools to make sure it's
a clean environment. But what is, considering Oakland Unified's debt of $100 million plus,
what is our working relationship to make sure that we're working in unison? Because I know
at one time we even took the crossing guards and gave them the transportation
but we had the police and others involved in that activity including
Oakland Unified so what is our working relationship to make sure that they're
within our city they're within our taxpayers and they're our children what
is the ongoing work relationship considering they have facilities that at
one time we could use or should have used as opposed to leasing the one on
Coliseum from the Sink family for what three million dollars a year we could
use a Oakland Unified School District facility property to do the same work
and work in unison so is there a working relationship daily that we have with
Oakland Unified? Yes thank you through the chair yeah there's absolutely a
working relationship Oakland Unified while not formally part of the
organization a part of our family. So over the years we've had a working
relationship. I have operationally with facilities on the maintenance side. I
see potential opportunities if there is there is a contraction and facilities
come available. We are our leases coming up at 5050 Coliseum. We're always
looking for options and Oakland Unified deployed the first wholesale battery
electric bus fleet through their partners right here in the city of Oakland, so there's lots of opportunities maybe sharing charging and
I'm happy to pursue that
I'll follow up with you on that issue because they laid off a good 20 plus
custodians and
But anyways, I'll follow up with you see if we can grow that relationship and and including using their properties to service public works
Thank you. Thank you. I
Make a motion to approve the
Moving on to our public speakers that signed up for item number four, Miss Asada Olavala.
It's interesting, you should talk about OUSD and their facilities.
Last night at a meeting, they have a negative bond rating.
And so to use their monies measures, B, J, and Y, that's on hold, besides the hundred
million dollar deficit.
There are pros and cons to having electric vehicles.
The cons is that the purchase of the vehicle might be higher than the purchase of an electrical
vehicle.
So what is the comparative cost that we are looking at if we do a purchase of an electric
vehicle compared to a nonelectric vehicle?
And it says also in the documentation about the pros and cons that sometimes the insurance
is higher with a electric vehicle.
So what are the insurance costs that we are incurring and is it to somewhat of a disadvantage?
Now I don't understand the process of how you're moving towards these electric vehicles.
Are you moving after a gas vehicle has become non-serviceable?
Are you now buying electric vehicles and you have now a surplus of gas vehicles, which
we can't do?
So do you guys understand how this process works?
Are we buying electrical vehicles, are purchasing them, and we now have a backlog of vehicles
that are gas vehicles the other thing is I'm concerned about the street sweepers
and how effective it's been because the clearing of the streets a lot of the
sweets the people are ignoring the signs are we ticketing them because they're
supposed to not have their vehicles thank you for your comments mrs. Stada
chair chair that concludes all speakers on this item let's call the roll please
Thank you we have a motion made by councilmember guy Oh seconded by councilmember Wong to approve the recommendations of staff and to board this item to
The December 16th City Council agenda on consent on roll councilmember guy Oh, hi councilmember Houston
I councilmember Wong I and chair Unger. Thank you item number four passes with the four eyes
To board this item to the December 16th City Council agenda on consent
Now reading in item number five adopted resolution authorizing the city administrator to award a contract to Safeway signs, Inc
to furnish traffic sign making and pavement
Making supplies and materials in an amount not to exceed 2 million five hundred thousand dollars for a five-year period expiring no later than June
30th, 2031 in accordance with the specification number 25 dash zero eight zero one dash
zero zero slash request for quotation number
4 7 5 3 5
1 and the general
conditions on file in purchasing in the purchasing section and the contractors bid and
To waiving the local small local business program requirements and we do have one speaker that signed up for this item
All right. Let's hear from our staff, please
There Josh for on the the director of Oakland's Department of Transportation. This is a
Fairly straightforward award we receive bids from two two non-local companies one was non responsive
That leads us with with this Safeway signs
We we try to keep about a 90-day supply of paint and signs in stock and so we we recommend this for award
Okay council members questions comments
All right. We have a motion. I have a question. Hello, Mr. Rowan question
How is this published and advertised because we only got two you said we only got two
Because I can't even
pronounce the name of this city
So how are we actually advertising that to get these?
companies to respond
We ever through the chair we advertise online and through the the city's officials organ
Okay through the chair. Is it you start this see if we could use some creativity to do it more than that to try to find some
Some some companies because this is a two point five million dollar contract for five years, correct?
That's correct. Okay. All right
All right. I'll second the motion. Do we have any other comments customer one?
Yeah, so is there anything in the report I'm reviewing that says, you know an estimated?
number of signs that we expect to get out of this contract? No, we just keep
we estimate how much quantity of materials we need in about a 90-day
period so our team our team knows what about what they want to keep in stock in
the shop. Okay. And I think as you all know we have things that pop up from
time to time but our workload stays pretty consistent. Okay. I guess my just
council we are the power of the purse and these are not these are the largest
contracts public works in general transportation has large contracts and I
would be more comfortable voting on things if I knew like what you know just
even an estimate of what we're going to get out of these contracts so thanks
okay any other questions let us hear from our speakers please calling in the
name of the public speaker that signed up for item number five,
Mrs. Otto Olibala.
So, uh, this is a part of Trump trying to stir the pot,
but, uh, they're claiming that many of the commercial
drivers or drivers period, uh, are non-English speaking individuals and
they, they can't read the English signs, English language signs.
and right here in California, 17,000 commercial language,
commercial driver's license were revoked just recently,
having to do with people not speaking English
or being able to read the signs
with some other circumstances involved.
So I did notice in Chinatown, you do have signs
that have the Mandarin or Chinese language
as well as the English language, are you facilitating,
my bottom line question is,
signs in other languages other than English.
You have 124 languages that are spoken in this city.
You claim your diversity is so important,
but you don't accommodate that diversity a whole lot.
I'm also concerned that I saw something happening
where we were painting the street on Lake Shore,
a rainbow color painting, and it was beautifully done.
But they had eight people from public works doing the work,
and most of them just standing around.
And I'm saying, are we sufficiently staffing,
or are we overstaffing?
Because I see this a lot.
I see people involved in work and I see people in public works just standing around.
And so I ask somebody.
Thank you for your comments.
Sure.
That concludes all speakers on item five.
And we do have a motion and a second.
That was a motion made by Councilmember Gayle, seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendations
of staff and to forward this item to the December 16th City Council agenda on consent.
On roll.
Councilmember Gayle.
Councilmember Houston.
Aye.
Councilmember Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Unger.
Aye.
Thank you, item number five passes with four ayes
to board this item to the December 16th,
City Council Agenda on Consent.
Now reading in item number six.
Adopt a resolution amending resolution number 90814 CMS,
which waived local slash mall,
local business enterprise program requirements
for pedestrian right-of-way construction.
to increase competition, lower prices,
and enable rapid compliance in the event of parties
of current versus the city of Oakland,
reach settlement to specify that the waiver
includes local slash small local business participation,
local employment, and apprenticeship requirements,
and there are more speakers that signed up.
Okay, let's hear from our staff first, please.
Yeah, yes, Mr. Chair,
Josh Furlan, Director of Oakland's
Department of Transportation.
This is a bit of a clean up item.
We've previously been before this body seeking
an SLBE waiver for our consent decree work
for 88 on compliance.
The city team was in federal court last week.
The terms of our settlement have been accepted by the judge.
And we now have 25 years to bring the city into compliance
for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Presently, we do not believe that we have the capacity
to meet the needs to comply with this 25-year program.
So we sought this waiver to basically open up competition
as best we can to get as many contractors in here
to perform this work, if I may take
a point of personal privilege.
Ultimately, I'd like to start shifting a good portion
of this over time in-house.
We have amazing people, both in DOT and public works.
Today, the city celebrated the sale of Measure U bonds.
A story behind that was that the folks in DOT
have kept paving throughout the past year,
have done a fabulous work.
We have amazing crews who pour our concrete.
And I think one of the factors that we're all
going to have to look at is how much more we bring in house.
But as we sit here today, we're not
ready to meet the required outputs.
We're going to get ready.
and this is an important part of that.
Questions from Councilman?
Council Member Houston.
Yes, through the chair.
I like what Mr. Warren just said about in-house.
I rather it be in-house than waving our SLBE.
SLBE, because we always waving and I say the same thing
and I know we're under this decree
and we have to get this work done,
but we're behind the ball on both,
embracing our SLBEs and the work
that can cause us lawsuits.
So through the chair, can our in-house handle it, Mr. Rowan?
Through the chair today, no, no.
But the thing I think that changes our thinking on this
is this isn't a singular project that may take a year.
This is a 25-year program that represents,
depending on the type of work, anywhere from two to three
times the amount of work we presently do,
I think an area that you and I share
that we're both passionate about is jobs creation,
and I think that my goal going forward
is to use this type of program
to expand our service offerings internally.
I think that's gonna challenge how we recruit,
how we retain, how we train,
but I look at the work that's presently done in house,
we're fully capable of it, and we do an excellent job,
We just need more internal resources.
So that's something we're going to vet.
And so, yeah, we do struggle to attract the contractors
as we just talked about in the previous item.
I think there are other strategies in play.
If I had any inclination to pour concrete
in Oakland, California, now's the time.
And I think that's a separate conversation we need to have
about how we can break projects into smaller pieces.
I've been here before and have said asphalt paving
is a very difficult area to break into
because the price of the mix is so expensive
and the capital needed to build an asphalt plant,
that's why you generally have a few large paving firms.
But concrete, that's where you get
into the construction market.
And so we need to tee that up as a future conversation,
that if there are local firms doing commercial work,
doing residential work,
there's an opportunity for them too.
So I don't believe we're gonna be in a world
where it's either or.
I think it's a both and.
One more through the chair.
And this has nothing to do with Mr. Rowan
because we created this SLBE in 2001, 24 years ago.
And Mr. Rowan just mentioned that this program
may take 25 years.
Now, if we would have been proactive,
we would have had the skill sets
and the people to actually do this work.
And also, this concrete that we're doing on sidewalks
and curb and gutter is non-structural, correct?
80%, yes, 20%, no.
So the sidewalks is not structural.
Most of the ramps are not structural.
We actually had to create a category
called engineered ramps because of the basements in the downtown area.
Those are actually small structural engineering projects. So your,
your point is, is mostly correct. We,
we do have some some items that will be quite complicated,
but most of it is standard ADA ramp and standard sidewalk.
Last question through the chair. So the concrete mix designs, you know,
are not that complicated when it comes to non structural. Um,
So it's like we can use recycled, we have a couple of companies in here in my district,
Argent Materials, it has all this, the recycle where they can create non-structural concrete mix designs for this type of work.
But my point, I wanted to know, and I want the public to recognize and understand that we are behind the curve.
And Mr. Rowan through the chair just said it would be 25 years before this would actually happen.
If we would have actually taken the SLBE small local business series 24 years ago instead
of at the same place that we were 24 years ago, we wouldn't even be talking about this.
So we don't want to wait another 24 years to actually embrace because we could see what's
happening to our community and our kids and our like Mr. House member Gayo said.
We got a school.
We got kids.
We are pushing them to skill set so when they get out of high school, you know, we can utilize these things.
So that's just wanted to put that on the record and make that statement.
Thank you.
Councilmember Wong.
Hi, thanks through the chair.
So it looks like, just understand because we really need to get to compliance as quickly as possible.
That by waiving these requirements, it'll ensure that, I mean, this is a just a basic mobility justice issue for wheelchair users.
And this will enable to be more rapid and compliant complying with that through the
chair that that is correct where we're trying to move remove as many barriers as we can
to be in compliance.
I would at a smaller scale I would I would liken it to this is the the second holiday
season in Oakland where I've I've waived the the holiday restriction and have allowed
our contractors to work.
be really to to echo what council member guy who said we need to be focusing on on delivering
and shortening the time that it takes us to deliver but to what council member Houston
said I think there's a there's a metric that that I used in the past life and it's a very
simple one which is how many new businesses get into the game with us again this is a
great opportunity it's as long as we long term is going to be sustained there's there
There is a lot of work to do. Yeah, absolutely. And is this the program where the property owners, the adjacent property owners need to absorb the price of the construction?
Yeah, through the chair, yes. That will be a key element of it as we will be more strict in how we interpret the OMC regarding adjacent property owner responsibilities.
okay well given that and your report did a nice job of laying out the price differential
when we waive the uh those these requirements in terms of lowering those costs so um i motion to
approve staff's recommendation all right any other questions before we hear from our public
all right let's go to the public speakers please calling in the names that signed up for item number
As standard practice, we will take in-person speakers first and then zoom after.
Kevin Daly, Asada Ola Bala, Blair Beekman, and George Spies.
All right, Kevin Daly from Transport Oakland.
I definitely encourage passing this.
When I add 25 years to my own age, I realize that I may need the ramps.
I know my mother-in-law sometimes does today.
news in my neighborhood, Rose's Brothers, Oakland's own company, has been replacing
putting in new ramps. So I know we will still be hiring Oakland businesses even while we
look outside Oakland. But as soon as possible, we need to get moving and not slow down just
to make sure that Rose's Brothers, say, gets all the contracts, but they still need to
get as many contracts as they can handle. Thank you. I don't think that it will be
100% the case where the property owner will have to absorb the
costs because there are a situation where the sidewalk deterioration or the
issue with the sidewalk is because of the city and McClimans is the best
example. The city trees uprooted the sidewalk through the whole block. The
The other thing I'm concerned with is remediation of the problem at McClellan's was to take
black asphalt and even out the uneven areas with a black asphalt.
And I'm told that in some cases you don't redo the work, you do this procedure because
you don't have enough money to redo it the way it's supposed to be done.
So I'll be talking about the possibility of correcting the issues of sidewalk with this
black asphalt being put on the surface,
and what are the situations as it relates to the lawsuit,
is there a time-pacific mandate for completion of the work?
Or do we have the ability to go on forever
to get it completed?
Usually within a court decision,
they mandate a time for the work to be completed.
So has that been discussed as well?
Calling on our Zoom user, Mr. Beekman,
you can unmute yourself and begin your two minutes.
Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.
My question for this item that I don't necessarily see,
but it should be an important part of this process
is what is the technology involved
in all of these upcoming procurements?
I mean it's a really good plan that you have here,
and working with mobility issues is really important.
I think there's a really important future
in how mobility, construction, and technology,
you know, to make clear we have an open,
accountable process with technology,
and that within the procurement process
is also that technology, you know,
best practices are asked for.
That should be, I think, a part of this whole process
you're talking about.
We don't know how to do that well enough yet.
Tech accountability is still fledgling, as it were,
and we're trying to understand it better.
I really hope that's the future we're headed towards.
And Oakland really can be a leader in innovation,
believe it or not, in those terms.
What is good practices with tech in construction
of these sort of pedestrian issues.
So good luck how it can be included
and that the procurement process with this issue
has really important, you know,
good tech guidelines and best practices.
That's important stuff.
If you're not working on it now, it's really,
I just think vital in how we develop our future.
Thank you for your time and your efforts.
Thank you for your comments.
Mr. Beekman, chair, that concludes all speakers
on this item and we do have a motion on the floor.
We have a motion made by councilmember Wong seconded by councilmember Gallo to approve the recommendations of staff and support this item to the December 16th City Council agenda on consent on roll councilmember Gallo Councilmember Houston councilmember Wong I
And chair unger I thank you item number six passes with four eyes to port to port this item to the December 16th
City Council agenda on consent reading in item 7 adopt a resolution one authorizing the city administrator to accept and appropriate a grant
But a grant from Cal start in an amount up to eight hundred thousand for the Oakland electric bike lending program
Be amending the professional services agreement with bike hub
To operate the electric bike lending program for an additional four-year term in an amount not to exceed
six thousand two hundred three dollars per year for a total contract amount over four years of
two hundred sixty four thousand eight hundred twelve dollars to waving advertising bidding and the request for Proposo
slash qualification
Competitive selection process and three adopting CEQA findings and we do have four speakers that signed up for this item
All right. Let's hear from our staff first, please
Good morning members of the council and the public. I do have a short presentation today on this item
So the item before you today is about the e-bike lending program
next slide, please
Okay, so a little background on this program
The idea came out of the 2019 bike plan also known as let's bike Oakland
Where the community identified the desire for an e-bike lending type program as an alternative to our bike sharing program
In order to allow people to have bikes for the longer period of time in
2021 the city turned that idea into a grant application
We applied for a 1 million dollar grant from Cal start to implement the program and we were awarded that grant in
2023 the city issued a request for proposals to operate the program. There was one
Respondent which is bike hub and in January of this year
We issued that contract to bike hub and then in this September a couple months ago the program opened
So BICA began operating the e-bike lending program.
So this is a photo from our launch event.
Thank you to Council Member Gayo for joining.
We also had the mayor and Council Member Brown in attendance.
So some details of the program.
It includes 50 e-bikes.
The one shown here is the one we're using.
It's called the Gazelle Medayo T9.
The rentals come with a lock and a helmet, basically
everything that you need.
The rentals are for four weeks.
The cost is $120 or only $20 if you're low income.
And this represents a discount of anywhere from 95%
to maybe 60% over the market rate.
The program is only available to Oakland residents
aged 18 and over.
And it is operated out of the Fruitvale BART bike station,
which is adjacent to the Fruitvale BART station.
So it's only been in operation about two months.
And as of the 25th, there'd been about 30 rentals.
So we still have capacity in the program
and we're trying to get the word out.
The resolution before you today would accept
and appropriate an additional $800,000
from the Grand Tour Cal Start for the program.
The Grand Tour has offered this additional funding
in order to offset the rising costs of insurance,
tariffs, and other costs.
The resolution would also amend
the professional services agreement with BICUB
for an additional four years to coincide with the grant term
and add $264,000 to their contract
to continue operating for the additional four years.
It would also waive the competitive bidding and RFP process
and make appropriate CEQA findings.
We believe it is appropriate to waive the competitive bidding
for this contract for a number of reasons.
One being the unique service that BICUB provides.
So they are located in a SB35 disadvantaged community
of Fruitvale.
They're located right next to the BART station.
They have the capacity to store the entire 50 bike fleet.
There's also some efficiencies here.
They are currently operating the program.
They have relationships with the customers,
with the community of Fruitvale,
and of course, experience working with the city.
And they have proven performance.
So the contract only started January 20th of this year.
They had to procure all of the vehicles.
They had to build out the electric charging infrastructure
in their space, create an online reservation system,
and launch the program.
And they did so diligently,
and staff have been very satisfied with their performance.
The fiscal impact, there would be additional $500,000,
sorry, $800,000 in grant funds for the city to use,
and there is no matching requirement for this grant.
Here is the original $1 million budget for the project,
as well as the proposed budget,
appropriating the additional $800,000.
Some highlights here,
we would be accepting additional funding for staff.
There are a lot of reporting requirements for this program.
So over the course of the next four years,
we just wanna make sure that we have capacity to comply
and also to advertise the program to the community.
We also are reserving some funding for an additional partner
to operate an adaptive vehicle version of this program
with four people with disabilities.
We do have a contractor identified
and we're in discussions with them.
And we hope to bring a contract to the council next year
for that aspect of the service.
And so to sign up, you can go to our website.
The URL is listed here.
and if you're an Oakland resident over 18,
you can sign up for the program.
That concludes my presentation.
Thank you.
Council.
Council Member Gallo.
Thank you for your work.
Certainly the program,
and I see the participation from the neighborhood
and we'll, in the future,
I'm sure this activity's gonna grow,
considering with our younger generations.
So with that, I'll make a motion to approve the item.
Thank you for your work.
I'll second that.
Any other council members?
All right, let's hear from our public speakers, please.
Calling in the names that signed up for item number seven,
Sam Wilson, Kevin Dalley, Asada Ola Bala, and Blair Beekman.
Transport Oakland, this is an exciting program.
I need to pick mine up soon
because I rode an old school bike,
and I appreciate council member Gayo
calling me part of the younger generation
that'll be picking up one of the e-bikes.
I'm hoping all the council members that haven't tried it yet
go ahead and try it for a month.
It'll get a few people reducing car traffic a little bit,
and we only need a little bit of reduction
to reduce the risks of injuries and deaths and global warming.
Anyway, thanks a lot.
Appreciate it.
There are some places in this city
where bikes should not be, and Fruitvale
one of them. There's no way you can ride a bike on international. There's no bike lanes
and we still haven't successfully been able to deal with the speeding component or lack
of people riding safely on international. Another place where you can't have bikes
is Chinatown. There's so much double parking in Chinatown. It is not safe to have bikes
Riding because you have to go around the cause I mean throughout China town double parking and there's been no effort to hold people
accountable for that there should be no bikes on my street that I use frequently this Keller the incline of
In decline of Keller it is just it creates a fast move that you can't control the bike
So you have to start off by saying in this city you just assume everywhere you can ride bikes
No, you can't ride bikes safely everywhere.
There are some places where bikes should not be allowed.
The other thing I'm concerned about is when I was protesting at the Lake Merritt Tiny
Homes, I noticed something that was going on.
Our homeless community was stealing a lot of bikes, and they fixed these bikes up and
sell parts, and a lot of the city bikes were being stolen.
So do we have an issue with theft of these bikes to the point that we are looking at
a cost?
And I did see something about state law with electric bikes.
I think young people 17 and under you are mandated to have a helmet when you're on an
electric bike.
So any enforcement of the proper use of bikes on the streets, who does that?
who regulates any components related to violations that...
Thank you, switching to Zoom user Blair Beekman,
you can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah, alright, ready?
Yeah, go ahead.
Thank you, hi, Blair Beekman.
I was just gonna quickly comment just very much
but thank you that you are offering to have
the e-bike program start at the Fruitvale BART station,
if I think I heard that correctly.
I think that's a very nice idea
and very cool of you guys, thank you.
From the previous public comment
that did offer a long list of worries that's important.
I've been trying to learn the concepts
that we are trying to bring in bicycles
and pedestrian use to areas
that were once traffic dominated and it takes a lot of community
effort from everyone to do that. Good luck in the efforts that
it can be made clear, you know, that the bicycles can be on the
road and how to do that. And I think that's the sort of future
that I think is important to work towards and how to develop
and to do that is a shared community process. Good luck in
those efforts. So thanks a lot for this item and it seems like
really good intentions. Thank you. I'm Sam Wilson. I'm from Bike Hub. Just wanted to
come out today, you know, to kind of put a face to the name. If you know us at all outside
of this program, it's probably from our capacity operating the free valet bicycle parking programs
at the BART stations. So, yeah, we're all about any programs that make micromobility
easier, more accessible, more practical.
And this lending program has been a really exciting program
that's very much aligned with what we do.
It's been up and running for a couple months now.
As Kirby said, there's been good participation.
About 50% of the rentals that we have seen
have been from low-income qualified residents.
So yeah, we're excited to,
it's still early days to keep it growing in Fruitvale.
and thank you all for considering.
Thank you for your comments, Chair.
That concludes all speakers on this item
and we do have a motion.
That was a motion made by Councilmember Gayo,
seconded by Chair Unger,
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to board this item to the December 12th,
sorry, December 16th, City Council Agenda on Consent
on Roll, Councilmembers Gayo?
Aye.
Houston?
Aye.
Councilmember Wong?
Aye.
And Chair Unger?
Aye.
Aye.
Thank you.
Item number seven passes with four ayes to be forwarded to the December 16th City Council agenda on consent
quick comment regarding the electrified
vehicles and bicycles that I don't know if all of you read that some of our refineries here in Oakland
I mean in California moving out of the state going to Texas
For gasoline and oil and so forth and they're predicting the next year's
Price per gallon of gas is going to be six dollars in, California
Due to the refineries leaving town where in other states is two dollars and thirty cents but in California the
price per gallon of gas here is going to go up to six dollars per gallon so
You know we might want to get an electric vehicle or find a different way to commute. Thank you
Okay reading an item number eight
adopted resolution accepting and appropriating technical assistance and gap funding in the amount or in the amount of
$100,000 and additional funding as available for fiscal year
2027 to 2028 from the Bay Area Regional Energy
Network Bay run for energy audits equipment replacement and building electrification improvements at
municipal facilities to further the city's climate action
electrification and equipment modernization goals.
Two, adopting appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings.
And three, authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and enter into professional services agreements with,
sorry, to participate in the Building Decarbonization Showcase Program.
And we do have three speakers that signed up for this item.
All right, let's hear from our staff.
Cordosh from the Sustainability and Resilience Division,
the city administrator's office,
here to present an item authorizing the city
to accept funding and technical assistance
from BayRAN, that's the Bay Area Regional Energy Network.
It's a coalition of the nine Bay Area counties
that administers rate payer funded programs
focused on energy efficiency and building decarbonization.
Their new decarbonization showcase program
provides technical assistance and gap funding
to help public agencies transition
to all-electric buildings.
We applied for the program using the Temescale library,
and we were selected for participation.
Program would include $100,000 for the Temescale branch,
plus free engineering consulting.
The reason we chose the Temescale branch
is that it has an active CIP project.
The gas furnace there is really at the end of its life.
Public Works spends a lot of money and time repairing that.
They don't even manufacture the parts anymore,
so credit to Public Works for keeping it going.
It also doesn't provide air conditioning,
so the library has to shut down
if the temperature reaches 86 degrees
and has no air filtration.
This funding will allow the city
to install a modern electric heat pump system
that adds efficient heating, air conditioning,
and enhanced air filtration,
and this aligns with the city's
equitable climate action plan requirement
that major retrofits to city buildings are all electric.
It will also allow the library to provide
respite from heat and smoke days and I'll open it up to questions thanks
questions council members questions we have a motion and a second let's hear
from speakers thank you calling in the names that signed up for item number 8
in no particular order you can come up to the podium or raise your hand on zoom
Kevin Dali Asada Ola Bala and Blair Beekman I want to respond to your
comment about these use of these electric vehicles. For me, I'm not going to get an
electric car, I'm in the process of looking at cars right now. And the reason is because
the charging stations, living in Oakland, it's not safe. You don't have a safe space
for me to go to charge. I would have to go outside of Oakland to one of the shopping
centers, like San Leandro, because charging, it takes some time to charge.
I forget this time span, but it doesn't happen right away.
So half an hour to an hour, even more than an hour, you have to be prepared for your
car to be in that spot.
And you do not have in the city of Oakland a space that's safe for charging.
And if you do, tell me where.
You can go into your parking garages, but you have to pay to go into the parking garages
and sit in a garage.
Most cities allow these parking charging stations in shopping areas, so you have the option
of leaving your car and coming back after the car has been charged.
So you can't sell me on the use of an electric vehicle for that reason.
if you respect that you're trying to go in that direction,
but just name someplace safe we can go to charge
our cars in this city.
Switching to Zoom user, Mr. Blair Beekman.
You can unmute yourself and begin your two minutes.
Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.
I'm interested in overall ideas
of bringing in community energy and local energy
to our local daily life.
I guess this is an item that helps with ideas
of infrastructure building that's really important
for the future of community energy.
I'm trying to better understand what that exactly means,
infrastructure building for the future of community energy.
And I, but I think this is one of the ways to do it
with this item and all the equipment and necessary goings
on and how to, you know, build a more efficient, you know,
energy community system.
good luck how we can be doing that and thinking about it and I hope this is one
of the ways to build that good infrastructure thank you thank you for
your comments chair that concludes all speakers on this item and we do have a
motion that was a motion made by councilmember Houston seconded by
councilmember guile to approve the recommendations of staff and to do we
have another comment a quick response to our speaker there is a station that
It opened up on 23rd Avenue and International,
and they're able to charge 19 vehicles.
And you can go there, sit there for 10, 15 minutes,
charge your battery.
And you can have coffee while you're waiting
for the battery to be charged, but they do now
provide statewide different stations throughout the state.
If I want to go to LA, then clearly on the highway
that tells you where I can stop and charge my vehicle.
And the charge of your battery, the new technology,
you're able to drive 200 to 250 miles with that one charge
and recharge it at the next station.
But anyways, that's part of the future.
And a station opened up a month ago
here on 23rd Avenue in the International.
If you have an electric vehicle, you go there and charge it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, let's keep moving.
Okay, that was a motion made by Councilmember Houston,
seconded by Councilmember Gayle
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the December 16th
City Council Agenda on Consent.
On roll, Councilmember Gayle?
Aye.
Councilmember Houston?
Aye.
Councilmember Wong?
Aye.
And Chair Unger?
Aye.
Thank you, item number eight passes with four ayes
to be forwarded to the December 16th
City Council Agenda on Consent.
Moving on to open forum.
And we do have three members that signed up to speak.
missus out a little bala kevin dalley and blare beakman
want to talk about parking policy
i have a lot of respect for a fact new finance director
bradley johnson but i don't want him to be controlling
parking policy i don't think he has the expertise
the city administrators currently planning to move
the parking policy and other parts of parking
from the Department of Transportation
to the Department of Finance, dismantling parts of DOT.
20 years ago, parking policy was part of finance.
That was when Deborah Edgerly was the city administrator.
And 20 years ago, Donald Shoup published this book,
The High Cost of Free Parking,
which changed the way cities think about parking policy.
10 years ago, Oakland established
its own Department of Transportation.
It went through city council, it went through committee,
it had public comments.
If we're moving parking policy out of transportation
and into finance, it needs to come back
to council and be discussed.
I think it's a bad idea anyway,
But at least if it comes to the public comment,
I would have a chance to comment on it.
The way it's happening now,
city administrator is sending messages,
sending email to the unions to tell them what the plan is,
but they have not come to council for doing this.
We need to be able to maximize parking occupancy,
maximize turnover, and maximize visits to merchants.
DOT knows how to handle that.
I don't think that is in the finance department's area
of expertise, thank you.
Switching to Zoom user, Mr. Beekman,
you can unmute yourself and begin your time.
Hi, Blair Beekman.
Thanks for the meeting this morning.
I wanted to comment.
I'm still thinking about
Palak issues and LPR issues for Oakland.
being from San Diego, we are working like on the exact same items about the future of a flock
contract in San Diego. And in fact, it'll be we're in the beginning stages, it'll be working on,
it'll come back probably around February or so. For a more full discussion, I'm guessing it's we're
kind of in the same place, believe it or not. And I think that can be a good thing. And I think I'm
I'm hoping that, yeah, from my words,
from last week, I think it was, I spoke,
I didn't quite speak fully clearly.
If ever the flock item does come back to council
in January, February, I think it's to return
as an information item and not as an action item.
And to make that clear,
I think we need a lot more community dialogue
with the subject.
And if it returns to committee, that can be a good place.
to have upcoming city staff create any sort of agenda item
that discusses the future of life without a flop contract.
That I think is important.
That also can be an information item.
Yeah, I'll continue working on this item.
There just has to be, there's strong community support
that we can have other choices besides the flop contract
and how to do this.
And I've offered my own little timescales
of how we can parse out a contract,
a short contract with block,
to eventually work towards a new contract
with a different group.
And I think, you know, creative ideas are possible.
Good luck on ourselves working on these important goals
and creating a really good community process
for all of us, thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
The document that says it's estimated
the city of Oakland paid over $35 million
and legal settlements for its dangerous roads conditions
between 2013 and 2023, the most of any Bay area city.
We need to look at lawsuits
related to the Department of Transportation.
It's overtaken the supposedly big lawsuits
we had with the police department.
$35 million that could have been used
other projects like our homeless community thank you for your comments
chair that concludes all speakers on open forum all right let's call it a day
until the next one meeting is adjourned