Good morning and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee
meeting for today's date March 10th the time is now 11 34 a.m. and this meeting
has come to order before I take roll I will provide instructions on how to
submit a speakers card for items on this agenda if you're here with us in
chambers and you would like to speak on item on this agenda please fill out a
speaker's card and turn it to a clerk representative.
To my left, your right, before the item is read into record,
online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior
to this meeting, making that time yesterday at 11.30 AM.
This meeting came to order at 11.34.
Speaker cards will no longer be accepted,
10 minutes after the meeting has began,
as well making that time 11.44.
With that, we will now proceed to take roll.
Council Member Agayo.
President thank you councilmember Houston I am here president thank you
councilmember Wong present thank you and chair under here we do have four
members present and with the president councilmember Brown we would we will
need to adjourn into a special meeting I will make a motion to adjourn into a
special meeting we have a motion made by chair under seconded by councilmember
to adjourn this meeting of the Public Works and Transportation Committee and
to a special meeting of the full council at 1135 a.m. on roll council member
guy oh thank you councilmember Houston thank you and councilmember Wong I and
chair under I we would now proceed in special meeting and now the council
announcements. Yes so many announcements. First because we have so many folks here
we're gonna do one minute of speaking time each and that gives us a maximum
of five minutes if we are ceding time. We're gonna hear item six first because
I think there are a lot of commenters here for that and then item four we're
gonna withdraw no date specific but we'll still hear the public comment and
and then the last announcement is uh sit down make yourselves comfortable
stay for the party and yes five minutes max time seated yeah
thank you for your announcements chair unger moving to our first item
approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting held on february 24
2026 and you do not have any speakers for
this item all right i will make a motion to approve
the minutes we have a motion made by chair unger
seconded by Councilmember Gallo to accept
their approval of the draft minutes
from the committee meeting held on February 24, 2026
as is on roll Councilmember Gallo.
Aye.
Thank you, Councilmember Houston.
Aye.
Councilmember Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Honger.
Aye.
Thank you, this motion passes with four ayes
to accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting
held on February 24, 2026 as is moving to item two,
the termination of scheduled outstanding committee items
and this is also known as the pending list.
And you do have one speaker.
Anything from staff or colleagues for the pending list?
Nothing at this time, thank you.
While we're taking item six out of order
and we are putting item four back on the pending list
with no date specific.
So let's hear from our speaker, please.
Thank you, call it Mrs. Sada.
So we have a discussion about the parking
for the individuals who attend the meeting.
There's a great deal of confusion going over there
with that parking for the public.
Last year and the year before, I got three tickets,
three tickets that I had to go through the process
of eliminating those tickets
because I'm supposed to be able to park over there.
I come 7.30 in the morning to get a parking spot
because if I come later than that,
I'm not gonna have anywhere to park.
And so what do I see?
I see city cars coming into the garage parking.
Do we have a way that city cars
can be taken home by employees?
Because that's happening.
Also, I see when I stay late at night,
I see these people who are coming to use the gate,
the ice skating ring, they don't pay.
They just get out of their cars
and walk up and go skating.
So we got some issues over there,
and today I come in, they take a picture of my license,
then another person comes in and they're told
they have to go through the kiosk some kind of way
and get a code.
So I hope I don't have a ticket on my call when I go back.
I'm gonna be here all day, but that confusion has to stop.
The second thing is those white lines.
Oh, we are the white paint
that y'all gotta put white tape on the streets.
And where I live up, we don't have any white lines.
They had faded away.
What's happening with whoever's supposed to be
putting white lines down there?
Get that tape off of the ground.
It's my time up sister, because you said one minute.
And I think you were busy.
I didn't wanna, I had some other stuff,
but I think my time's up, right?
Yeah.
I will make a motion to, Council Member Wong?
Amen, on just now that it's pending,
I have been working with the Department of Transportation
Oak Dot on this item and part of the reason that we are withdrawing this item is because
the Oakland Alameda Access Project that construction started last week because of the lack of coordination
with our city teams, at least 20 people have been displaced from under the highway and
moved into both Jack London into the Chinatown downtown area and I just think
it's we have got to do better so it's just not acceptable to displace people
like this with no plan in place and and we need to go that do that going forward
and I am not comfortable moving forward with signing an agreement with Caltrans
until we improve our processes. Okay I will make a motion to approve the
this as amended we will have public comment before we have a motion made by
chair hunger seconded by councilmember guy oh to accept determination schedule
outstanding committee item as amended with the amendments is withdrawing item
four from this agenda regarding the information a report on admit the
proposed Department of Transportation parking and placing it on depending
list no date specific on roll council member Gaia thank you council member
Houston and as a reminder just take roll we would do need you in your chair
councilmember Houston thank you councilmember Wong I thank you and chair
younger I thank you this motion passes with four eyes to accept as amended
moving to item six all right just I'll now read the item into record receive
information report from the city administrator on the proposed re organization of the Department
of Transportation parking division including one the rationale of the proposal to a fiscal impact
statement including any new and unfrozen staff costs and analysis of operational cost savings
three a summary of the outreach of the occurred to the Department of Transportation staff and the
public and the business community and four on how to change what impact the parking division's
collaborations with other departments and you do have a number of speakers on this item.
Okay, just for the sake of the public, we did receive a bunch of emails and I want to be
clear that the committee is not voting today on the restructuring of the parking division. We are
just hearing information and asking questions. That is not a question that is before us today.
So why don't we go ahead and hear from staff first please.
Thank you, Jeri responsible director of finance. This is a supplemental report to your prior request of information report regarding the reorganization of parking at the prior public works and transportation committee, there was request to provide this body, a full
supplemental report with data broken down for meters garages and parking tax
As long along with parking citation fines data on sales tax
Over the same time period data on abandoned vehicles and any data or information related to collections and timing
the report in front of you is designed to provide that information it provides you a
from the year fiscal year
2020
actually
in 2003-2004, through to the prior closed fiscal year,
information on parking meters,
information on parking garages,
information on the city's parking tax,
information on fines and penalties
along two different methods of citation collections,
information regarding the city's sales tax,
information that we have available for us,
which is over a more current period
regarding vehicle enforcement,
along with concerns noted about collection timing.
So the data is designed to note for you
any information that might've been there.
I will say as a high level,
the data shows sort of the trends you might've seen
in our revenue collection data.
There's always a big drop in almost every one
of these categories related to the pandemic.
And then various levels of recovery on the back end,
that's kind of a consistent pattern
you'll see across all of them.
And then again, there's a number of notes
that were delivered created by my collection division
regarding parking and parking related items.
I'm happy to hear any questions that you may have
and relate to the supplemental report.
Okay, colleagues, you have questions.
You wanna do public comment first?
Okay, we can do public comment first.
Thank you, I will call your name in batches of 10.
Please line up in no particular order.
As practice, we will take in-person speakers
before Zoom speakers.
As a reminder, you do have one minute.
As another reminder, seating time up to five minutes
for each item.
Mrs. Sada, Jennifer Finley, Simli Li, Brian Cobartson,
George Spies, Kevin Dahle, Ralph Brown, Jeff Brook-Lavin,
excuse me, Michael Ford, Al Marshall, and Tim Grayson.
Please line up in no particular order.
the record.
Of calling of about just a ten.
Good morning my name is Michael Ford I have three individuals
they were actually called in your batch city clerk.
I believe Doug Mount.
George Gonzalez and one press have submitted cards Doug Mount
George Gonzalez and Doug and one for us.
do you have a comment?
Yes.
Yeah, so Doug Mount, George Gonzalez, and Juan Perez.
Okay.
Let me adjust your time.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
So again, my name is Michael Ford.
I am a local 21 member.
I am a resident of District 2, and I'm here to share my thoughts on this item.
These are my own opinions.
They're not the opinion of the department.
And as you know, there's a lot of
cultural connections.
I've worked with my colleagues who are also local 21 members.
And once again, we've prepared a written response to the,
the city's report.
Anybody who is here or online, you can go to tinyurl.com
backslash parking takeover, and you can access this report.
have about a half a dozen extra copies for the public here, if anybody wants them.
A lot that I could talk about, but reading the supplemental, the thing that really jumped
out at me is the attention that is being given to certain issues that, in my experience
and my opinion should be and routinely are handled at the staff level.
These, uh, these are not issues that rise to the level of city council
or to the city administration that would require a reorg and our
written report addresses, uh, some of these things, uh, for example, uh,
When it comes to the, uh, item where the city has reported some of the issues
that the collections division has listed, I want to note that in response to the
request for data on collections timing, the city provided no data.
They provided a laundry list of issues identified by the collections division.
No data.
One of the recurring themes in this reorganization is that the finance
department is better positioned to collect parking revenues.
It's important to note based on the data provided that 98% of the revenues
collected by parking operations are currently being done by Oak dot 2% of
the collections are being handled on average by the finance department.
And yet, all of the city administrator's attention
is being directed to the finance personnel, not to OakDOT.
Why?
I think that's highly problematic.
Then there's the question where we get into the details.
So why are not liens being put on cars
that have multiple citations?
Why this delay?
It's costing the city money.
No, that is not the case.
The process that is in place has been in place since 2011.
When the finance department or its former revenue bureau
was responsible for putting the current contract in place,
the lien structure was put in place for good reason.
Why?
Two reasons.
When the city puts a lien, a DMV lien on a car, it costs money.
Second reason it is a proven fact in the industry that when you put a lien,
a DMV lien on a car and the registration is not due for
another three months, you won't get paid.
So if you put a lien on a car six months before the registration is due,
you will incur six months of expenses and not get paid until month six.
That's why there's a delay.
thank you for your comment thank you George fees thank you so this this is an
example and we can look at each of these points that the so-called issues raised
by the collections department the collections division okay these are
non-issues that can be handled at the staff level if the finance departments
believes that we need to revisit the standards that they put in place and
have been in place for 15 years, let's do it together. Let's not drain all of
these resources. Your time, the public's time, and let's focus on the things that
are really important to the city. Finally, I want to point out that the
staffing do not create more management positions, create front-line positions
for our heroic staff. I want you to hear these numbers very quick. 2003 there were
24 public service representatives. 2010 there were 18 public service
representatives. 2018 there were 14 public service representatives. Today
there are four. Kevin Daly from Transport Oakland. The latest report from the city
administrator still does not give a rationale for moving parking enforcement
to finance and abandon auto to the police. In 2021 the council approved the
report from a reimagining Public Safety Task Force that suggested parking
enforcement should stay should be in Oak Dot and abandoned auto should follow. If
If they are making a change, we need to know what the reason is for abandoning the report
from reimagining public safety.
Well, I'm having a tremendous problem supporting the union, particularly how you have negotiated
with the city to put this partial tax on the ballot in June coming up with $200,000 from
SEIU 10-21 and from the International Association, $150,000, that has to do with firefighters,
and there's another group of y'all, how under handy can you be to do that?
So I don't care what happens to y'all because you are manipulating to take care of you by
saying you are a citizen's initiative, and you're not, you're a union initiative that
that you're putting down on that ballot.
And if you are willing to do that kind of sneaky
underhanded stuff, what other stuff you're doing
that's sneaky and underhanded?
So whatever happens to whatever you decide,
go ahead on and do it.
Because-
Thank you for your comment, Mrs. Asada.
I'm not a property owner.
Calling in our next batch of public speakers,
Sharnell Smith, Lakisha Montavo,
excuse me if I'm mispronouncing your first
or your last name?
Monique Ussery, Akasha Newman.
Acacia, thank you.
Lisa Jones, Kenneth Dacroste, Dacrosta,
Savlin Hauser, Jimmy Bluford, Keith Sherholi.
Excuse me if I cannot pronounce your last name.
Shala Azimi.
If you heard your name in person,
please line up in no particular order.
state your name for the record you do have one minute if you heard your name
you're participating via zoom please raise your hands here easily identified
as practice we will go with in person before zoom speakers thank you can you
name all the people that you're that's seating your time to you please and it's
that's up to five minutes.
Lisa Jones, LaKisha Montavo, and who else?
And Ms. LaMajar Lee.
So we have Lisa Jones, LaKisha Masata.
And Ms. Holmes.
And Ms. Holmes, thank you.
And Tyn DaCosta.
So you have five minutes, thank you.
Thank you.
You're very welcome.
Good afternoon, my name is Shernell Smith.
I am a homeowner here in Oakland.
I've been working for the city of Oakland for over 37 years.
I'm here representing the DOT department.
And I would like to make it clear today,
we in DOT would like to stay in DOT.
I know Oakland is going through a lot of problems
and troubles these days, but in DOT is not one.
In DOT we're thriving.
In DOT we're getting better.
So you guys are thinking about re-orging.
Let's not start with DOT.
Because in DOT our problem has not been disorganization.
Our problem has not been the fact
and then we're going to make
sure that we're not doing the
work our problem has been that
we've been short staff we've
been short staff since the
pandemic and before the
pandemic like before and PMAC
we had over fourteen almost
twenty four workers sometimes
at that location. And meter
collections we've had up to ten
people in that location and
parking enforcement we've
hired over twenty people and
we need to make sure that we're
taking care of our staff not
underperforming let me give you
example I've been described with
my job is a will it's a part of
the wheel that make the system
works so in parking enforcement
let's say me as a parking
enforcement officer I patrol an
area and in that area maybe
every ten minutes I'll write a
citation.
And within an hour I'll have
about six citations but since
there's about ten beats there
so instead of me patrolling my one beat I'm covering the whole side so instead
of ten people work in that area you now have two people work in that area and
although that one person is still doing what she was doing the other nine people
that would have been around her is no longer there so there's your shortfall
I go down the block and I have four customers there's the customer that's
going to pay the meter when I
stop at the car to issue them
citation and then they'll drop a
quarter in the meter because I'm
there and then there's the
customer that will not pay it
all and then that person will
get a ticket so from that one
block of enforcement once I go
down that block they're either
going to collect money from the
meters where the citizens have
to pay the meter and they're
going to have to pay the meter
because they're going to pay the
meter and they're going to pay
the meter because they're going
to pay the meter when I stop at
their car to issue them
citation and then they'll drop a
So let's make it clear here
today in the V. E. U. the vehicle
enforcement officers you're
breaking down your revenue so
when I'm asking you is that you
do not re order us just restore
our our value restore our our
workers we've been working
short all the time so let's make
it clear here today in V. E. U.
the vehicle enforcement officers
you're breaking down your
and the EU the vehicle enforcement unit what we want is we want to stay in DOT
and PMAC what we want is DOT and me to repair what we want is we want to stay
in DOT and the meter collection what we want is they in DOT so I want to make it
clear across the board we're not asking just for our jobs we're asking for all
because we're asking you to
restore all our jobs we're
asking you to restore the
dignity and respect that we
want to give to the city and
the citizens we're not just
asking for ourselves were
asking for Michael Ford as
well because a lot of this a
lot of this to came with
Michael Ford came we're here
and we're able willing to do
the work give us a full staff
fully staff us let us see what
we can do because Oakland does
have a lot of problems but
how much help have we been to the city, how much progress have we made through the city?
I'm asking you, don't cut us short, don't cut the city short.
We need the revenue that we can bring in and we need the efforts of the city.
And this year alone, we brought over 20 people in parking enforcement.
Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes and saying this reorg is what did that.
No, your re-staffing is what did that.
Your re-staffing is what's bringing up these numbers, not a re-org.
so don't shortchange yourself.
Don't throw your diamonds away.
We're diamonds in the rough, and please appreciate that.
Thank you.
And please state your name for the record.
Hi, my name is Siflon Hauser.
I'm the chair of the Oakland Bid Alliance,
and I have an incredibly tough act to follow.
I just want to say how floored I am by this process
and these amazing people showing up.
I don't think I've ever seen this number of city employees
coming and being engaged.
and it's just really remarkable to me
and it just shows true alignment with the mission
of the organization that they're in,
in the Department of Transportation.
So as I mentioned, I'm Sablan.
I'm the chair of the Oakland Bid Alliance.
We are proud to represent 11 districts
in the city of Oakland,
reinvesting over $13 million,
representing thousands of businesses
and in partnership with you all, the city of Oakland,
taking care of stewarding our streets
in commercial districts.
Parking and enforcement is an integral part
of transportation and mobility in Oakland.
It is critical to our success in commercial districts
and its effective response to encampments
and supportive businesses.
These are key objectives with DOT in line with other cities
and they have done a stellar job.
Thank you for your comment.
Monique, I'm sorry, I'ma send my time to Keith.
Boots on the ground.
Thank you.
the city of Oakland. And I'm a.
the unit now removes thousands of vehicles each year and increase of
nearly 30% compared to when it was managed by OPD. City work service
request has urged to an all-time high, jumping from 10,000 to nearly 28,000
since the VU took over, proof that the residents are engaging more and that the
system is working. Residents have noticed a difference. Many have reached out to
express their appreciation, praising the team for their quick action and
to keep it in neighborhoods clean and safe, their feedback reinforced that this is working and is making a real impact in the community.
By allowing the vehicle enforcement units to fully focus on their mission,
we freed up the police resources for critical public safety work while delivering better service to residents.
The results show that the independent model is working and it's making a visible difference across Oakland.
Thank you.
And hello, my name's Keith Sherholtz,
I think I have an extra minute.
My apologies, I thought the Keith boots on the ground
was the one prior to you, thank you.
Hi, my name's Keith Sherholtz,
I'm a city employee of 26 years.
I've worked for Oak Dot for the last eight.
This city is in crisis.
Oakland faces $120 million budget deficit.
Our police lieutenant, one police lieutenant,
took home $711,000 last year
while Oakland Police Department blew $31 million
over its overtime budget, and the city can't track
where half those hours went.
City Hall has an entire bank of elevators
that's been out for over a year, and now broken elevators
have spread to every downtown city building.
A homeless person broke into this very building,
lived in the building, and stole the mayor's car
from her own office, getting the keys.
the city has become a laughingstock.
And yet, in the middle of all of this,
the administration wants to strip parking
from a nationally recognized leader
against the wishes of an overwhelming number of staff
people, dozens of businesses, and transit advocates.
We should ask, who benefits from this reorganization?
Because it isn't the public, it isn't the staff,
And it isn't the city's finances.
With all the problems this city faces,
it's absurd to spend any time at all
seeking to break up Oak Dot.
Leave the department alone.
Good afternoon, Shala Azimi with Oak Dot Parking Division.
I'm here to remind everybody that Oak Dot Parking
division has been at best for the past several years.
If something is not broken, why fix it?
We need to, we need to focus on important issues
that the city is facing at this time,
not just fixing parking that doesn't need to be fixed.
All we need, despite of limited resources,
we have done incredible work for the division.
So what we need, we are asking resources.
If the city is working together, and we are all together in it,
why don't you just pour in some help and let us work together?
Not just because we are not finance or DOT.
We are all siblings, all Oakland division departments.
They are all siblings.
So let's help us what we need, but not focus on something
that we don't need to focus.
Oakland citizen, we all as public servants need to-
Thank you for your comment.
Hi, my name is Shante Denham, and I
want to say I want us to stay with DOT I have started off as a TPT and without
DOT I wouldn't be full of time. Ms. Denham I do have a card for you. Oh yes
it's Shante Denham yes. Thank you. So I want to say I want us to stay with DOT. Give me one
second please. You got it? Okay you ready? Thank you. Okay let's go. Oh my history okay.
Well I started here when I was 18 and I was a security guard. If it wasn't for
Michael Ford he came and got me and said this position will be good for you
which is parking enforcement.
I've been here eight years, but I started off as a TPT.
If it wasn't for DOT, I wouldn't be full-time.
I would have been temporary part-time for three days.
So not only that, I don't want us to go,
but it's a good opportunity.
He opened up doors for us for overtime,
me making more money, and he cared for us,
so we don't want to leave.
We want to stay with DOT.
Thank you for your comment.
Calling in our last Bachelor of 19 speakers, Ruth Meza,
Tammy Byrd, Bingaz Cross, excuse me if I mispronounced your first name, Carlos Rosas,
Artisha Rose, Ben Matthew, Kirby Olson, Jobon K. Howard,
Razoo Eugene, Douglas Mooney, Philip Sweet, Kinsha Johnson, Charlotte Niles,
Little more.
Little more Johnny Lee.
Thank you.
Michael Ford has a serious time.
Charlotte Niles, Berks, excuse me,
is mispronounced your last name.
Ayanna rest.
And Jenny or you may proceed.
Thank you for the record Kirby Olsen.
I have four people ceding their time to me.
They are Ben Matlow, Carlos Rosas,
Darnell Robinson and Ruth Mesa.
Thank you so much.
Give me one second to adjust your time.
So you have your five minute max, thank you.
Thank you for the record.
Kirby Olsen, I'm a local 21 union member and a concerned Oakland resident.
The administration says this is all about money.
They've now had two opportunities to show their work, to demonstrate what cost savings they could find,
what efficiencies they can wring out of the system and calculate that for us.
And yet, they've demonstrated no such savings.
They couldn't point to a single dollar that they would save the city, nor to a single dollar of new revenues that they would bring in.
Meanwhile, the costs are a staggering $750,000 per year in unnecessary and duplicative management positions.
Councilmember Wong rightly asked for data related to collections timing,
the thing that they supposedly need to take over DOT in order to improve.
We didn't get that in this report.
Once again, we got no data, no facts, no actual evidence to back up their claims.
It's just more of the same, trust me bro, and a laundry list of petty complaints.
Each one of which are addressed in the unofficial report or by talking to the PMAC staff and hearing their side of the story.
To the extent that any of these issues actually exist, they are caused by the severe understaffing that this administration itself
has helped cause by freezing frontline PMAC positions through the budget.
So while I'm as disappointed as I'm sure you are with the lack of data in this report,
I'm also heartened because it shows they have nothing.
If this were a poker game, they just showed their hand, and it's a 7-2 offsuit.
Any issues that remain after addressing the severe understaffing of frontline positions
should be brought to DOT leadership to address, not handled through a reorganization.
Most of the complaints in the report are related to collections, and yet,
revenues from collection payments account on average for less than one and a half percent of total citation revenues.
They are doing this whole thing over one and a half percent of revenues and somehow they want you to believe they are better with money.
Any first year accounting student can tell you you don't risk 65 million in revenues over 380,000 in collections.
At the previous committee meeting on this topic, council member Unger, you stated four criteria by which you would judge whether this reorganization is justified.
We're going to address two of them.
Number one, are revenues strong and growing?
And number two, are the workers themselves safe, experiencing high morale, and
being given the agency and dignity they need to do their jobs well?
On number one revenues, you can see from the data that the administration provided and the unofficial report provided.
In fiscal year 2425, we saw a 30% increase in parking meter revenues and
a 35% increase in fines and penalties compared to a 2.8% decrease in overall sales tax revenues.
That tells you that the parking system is doing much better than the overall economy.
So far, for fiscal year 2526, revenue is up a similar amount year over year, and I wouldn't be surprised if we break all time records.
30% and 35% annual increases count as strong and growing in my book.
I believe you have your answer there.
On criteria two, I think it's pretty clear that we as staff are all here because we are not being given dignity and agency.
This decision was made behind closed doors by a small cabal of department heads and a consultant.
Their plan was to not let DOT staff or anyone else have a say in the decision.
Only thanks to the heroic efforts of council members Unger and Brown are we even having this conversation.
That is not agency.
Staff were told we couldn't even ask questions about why the decision was made.
That is not dignity.
So in terms of morale, all I can say is that everyone in this room behind me will be extremely disappointed in the leadership of this city if this goes through.
It would cause our great city to become a monument to corruption and nepotism once again.
If the administration can win with a hand this poor, then we know the house rigged the game, and no one likes to be cheated.
Council members, I ask of you just three things at this time.
Number one, listen to your staff from both SEIU and Local 21, who are standing here united along with the BPAC,
our bike and pet advocates, and our business improvement districts to oppose this.
Number two, forward this report onto the full council on non-consent once again.
And number three, vote no on the parking administrator salary ordinance when that comes to finance committee on March 24th.
already have a fantastic parking manager and Michael Ford and we don't need
another overpaid and duplicative management position during this budget
crisis. Thank you. My name is Artesha Rose. I'm gonna concede my I'm going to
concede my time to Tammy Byrd. Let's have one speaker at a time please. Artesha Rose to
Miss Tammy Byrd. Thank you. Give me one second to adjust your time. Alright let's
Let's have order in the chamber, one speaker at a time, please.
Good morning.
My name is Tammy Bird.
I am the parking meter collection supervisor.
I've been with the city of Oakland for 16 years.
I've been on both sides of the spectrum.
I worked in finance, and obviously I'm in DLT.
So just to give you a small little breakdown, parking meter collection, we support parking
infrastructure.
What we do is we go out and collect coin revenues from secure infrastructure for meters.
What we also do is we report broken meters, damaged meters, and we work in conjunction
with meter repair.
The reason why I'm telling you this, if we separate and go back to finance, the communication
breaks down with other units, which is meter repair.
Also, when it comes to collections, we also identify problems in the field and meter repair
restore functionality so the public can continue to pay and revenue continues to flow.
Placement matters.
With do all respect, I remember Unger, you mentioned place about you don't care where
parking is placed, but it matters.
And I'm saying this with do all respect because this hinders our career advancement.
If our jobs are in the field, what cross training will finance provide for parking meter collections
when 80% of the job is in the field?
They would be able to help us
with all our job functions.
They are aligned with outdoor
outside functions.
So we're exposed to meter
collection streets and sidewalks,
parking enforcement and things
like that.
So it gives us more advancement.
Also, just in fact, in 2021, in
June, finance itself stated in
agenda report parking meter
collection aligned better with
DOT operations.
the justification and what different conclusion comes today, if nothing has changed. Also, lastly,
I would just like to recognize the Park and Meter Collection Unit, who I've been having a frozen
position for over three years, two people collecting the whole entire city with no delay. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm Philip Sweet, Park and Meter Collector. I'm just here to give some insight
we're going to look at.
I'm going to start on how
the collection works from the
employee standpoint- eighty
percent of what we do is
actually in the field is a
field based operation as
supervisor said- while we're
out there not only do we
collect money we also-
troubleshoot the equipment we
provide reports to other
significant issues that may
arise as we come- into contact
with them in real time.
And also- because of that
to be able to hold this
legislation in the field.
That being said- it doesn't
make sense for us to be
anywhere else but with the
O. T. and I feel like. That
would actually hurt the
progress we have made so
far- I would like to urge
counsel that they actually
vote for not consent because
we are more effective with
the O. T. and I like to
continue to promise that we
have made so far. Thank you.
Hello hello- my name is
I would like to speak against this reorganization.
We first heard about it through the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission late last year.
Seemed half-baked at the time.
We asked for more information.
The more information we get, it still seems half-baked, and I would like you to draw attention
to the letter that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission sent to this body and
all of the questions that I
thought through- at this point
there doesn't seem to be a good
reason for it. So we would
oppose it thank you. Hello my
name is Don T. hollow I'm not I
didn't get to submit a card but
Janee or is- conceding her time
Thank you.
Donte Hollowell and Janae Orr.
Is Janae in the, thank you.
Let me adjust your time to two minutes.
You may proceed.
So again, my name is Donte Hollowell.
I'm actually a SEIU 10 to 1 shop steward,
and first and foremost, a parking enforcement officer.
I would first like to say that SEIU 10 to 1 is, I'm sorry,
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
And I think that's a good thing.
say that in 2012 when they proposed a reorg the council also requested that
administration consider any revenue revenue producing concepts from the
staff in the parking department. I would ask that we consider that as well this
time because last year I took the time to partner with Trader Joe's on Lake
make sure um a CVS in East Oakland and sprouts off of Broadway um to enforce private property
um and by partnering with those local businesses I was able to produce a full days of work
to work on um my overtime days um and that's just one idea from one person and there's
an entire team of individuals behind me that probably have similar ideas that can help
with revenue generation or whatever other concerns
that may be encouraging this transition.
Yeah, lastly, I'd just like to say yes.
We, as parking enforcement and vehicle enforcement unit,
we would appreciate standing DOT.
We wanna stand DOT.
Thank you for your comment.
Morning, my name is Benica S. Cross.
I'm a senior public representative
in the Parking and Mobility Assistance Center.
I've been with the city since 2017, all in the same unit.
So I've been in finance,
been in the Department of Transportation.
Under Michael Ford's leadership,
our ability to make new changes
and be more effective has improved greatly.
He's very facilitating and open to empower
and encourage us to contribute in ways
that maybe we haven't done before.
And he's definitely enhanced our ability
to do our work effectively.
The biggest problem we have is staffing.
When I first started in the unit, there were 10 people.
Now there's four of us.
It's impossible to do everything with minimal staff.
What we really need is staff.
And what really concerns me about this reorganization
is the narrative that has been created
and pushed by collections is troubling.
They're complaining about the same thing they did
when I started, like the reconciliation process,
You know things the things that are better you're confident
Rose and I live in district one my main concern is moving this over
I totally opposed this my main concern would be moving it over to the police department that already has
Way more overtime
Costs and just way too much costs and it will just increase the cost with that's what you're all are trying to deal with
I also think that separating enforcement away from planning and
Policy will just make it more difficult for all three aspects of it
And I I think that if the the police department is going to have
control over this then it's more likely there's gonna be more towing and
What we need to stay safe streets not more towing of people's cars. Thank you
Hello again, it's good to see you guys. Thank you guys for your time
I just simply just want to say just to please your name for the record. My name is Charlotte Niles Burke's
Thank you. I don't control technician for the city of Oakland very proud to be a parking control technician
And so that's why I'm asking for us to remain and a DOT
At this time and for you guys to please
Vote no when it comes to the budget and the reconciliation
Because that is the way that you guys have the power of the purse so that you guys can
Reevaluate because the I had a chance to look at the report that they responded to they're missing out
other
information about OPDs numbers, but then they give a number for the EU and so all of the numbers are not
Adding up, so I'm asking you to take a delve into the answer that finance just sent back
there are a lot of things that
are not true and those numbers
can easily be answered by
staffing, by moving other things
around, but you do not have to
dismantle a whole department
just for one or two things.
So please vote no.
And we're moving to our Zoom
speakers.
If I did call your name, you're
participating via Zoom, please
raise your hands.
You're easily identified.
Moving to Brooke Levene.
You may unmute yourself and begin
Thank you very much, Chair Unger, members of the committee.
Brooke Levin, and I'm speaking in my own capacity
as former public works director.
I asked questions the last time I spoke which were,
what is the purpose and the benefit of the reorganization?
Why is it happening outside of the budget cycle
which all reorganizations in the past have happened through?
What are the real costs?
There's been no fiscal analysis that I have seen
in the response or in the original report
to what this is actually gonna cost
to move these functions to the police department
and the finance department.
That is critical.
New high level people are being added,
new responsibilities are being incurred
and there's no fiscal analysis.
And then what are the existing vacancy savings
in the parking division fund 1010
and the multi-purpose garage fund 1750?
It was referenced in the original report,
There has been no detail given of that.
It was not in the supplemental,
so please council ask.
Thank you for your comment.
Moving to our next Zoom speaker, Brian Culbertson.
Brian, please unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.
Hi. My name is Brian Culbertson.
I'm an Oakland resident with zip code 94607.
I'm commenting against the change of moving parking to Oak Dot. I'm from Oak Dot.
The purpose of parking policy and enforcement should not just be myopic
revenue stream. The purpose of parking policy enforcement should be a tool for
supporting our local businesses and for ensuring traffic safety. This change is
being pushed through without a significant rationale. The real
issues that we hear that need to be improved is to improve
staffing at OakDOT to handle like the parking call center
issues. We don't need new management positions. We need
new positions in OakDOT to address any of the issues that
were brought up. Parking and abandoned autos in OakDOT has
made Oakland more accessible, productive and livable for the
past eight years. Let's keep it.
Thank you for your comment.
Ke'an Bliss, do I have a speaker card for you?
And if so, under what name?
Ke'an Bliss, that concludes your public speakers for item six.
OK, thank you to all the speakers.
I appreciate you taking the time.
So we have Director of Finance here.
And let me start off with a couple of questions.
First, what gives you confidence that this
will increase collections if we make this move?
I think we can improve the sync
and the timeline between the collections process
and the citation issuance and addressing the issues noted
in the report regarding timely movement
into the proper collection cycle,
timely reconciliation of the reports noted
to make sure that people aren't in dual collection processes.
Again, more timely and immediate follow-up.
I can understand moving collections to finance,
but why move metering and ticketing to finance?
I think the idea was to move the,
and again, I'll defer to the city administrator
on responding to whatever he thinks
is appropriate in the space.
I think the context was that the full cycle
from collection to the field would move into finance
to ensure the continued sync between those functions
within the parking operation.
And in finance, who will oversee the street level operations?
we would continue to use a parking enforcement
supervisor two position,
which is currently overseeing the street enforcement levels.
That would be a classification we continue to use
for the oversight of it.
So that would not change in terms
of its structure organization.
And that's a newly created position?
No, that's one of the existing positions right now.
The current,
the parking enforcement technicians report up
to parking enforcement supervisor ones
who then all collectively report
to a parking enforcement supervisor too.
And that is your sort of tree within the actual
on the ground meter enforcement.
So we won't be creating new positions.
That's not, there are new positions being thought through
but that is not one of them specifically.
It's the new position we were to think
that we were talking about is related
to the overseeing of the total unit.
And that would be an ad delete from the PM2
to a parking administrator to align
with the other administrators and the finance.
and then the other position requested
and the prior report to be added
is a parking supervisor for the direct oversight
of the parking citation assistance center.
So is council going to be asked to fund new positions
as a result of this reorg?
The budget proposal would include the full funding
of those two positions.
We have existing resources to do that in the current year
through salary savings and cost savings within the unit.
So what is the cost of those two new positions?
I'm sorry, and I think it is in the prior report.
So give me a second.
The change to the parking administrator
would be roughly $16,500 fully burdened.
And the fully burdened cost of the parking supervisor
is $209,000.
So those two together, $240,000, something like that.
That's it.
That is the full extent of the new positions?
That's as of what's been proposed right now,
that's what we're thinking we need
in terms of staffing up the unit.
So we'll have to increase collections by 240,000
just to get to zero.
Correct.
Is that right?
Correct.
And then moving on to the other piece of this,
the OPD piece of this.
We heard a lot of discussion in the finance committee
this morning about how short-staffed OPD is.
And are you confident that OPD can
handle this increased workload?
I'm going to defer to the state commissioner on that.
Through the chair, members of the committee,
so in conversation with the leadership in Oakland Police
Department, they did offer a level of confidence
that gave me comfort that they could
take on this additional responsibility,
as has been communicated with me to me from the department
that about 80% of the vehicle tolls are handled by OPD.
so this is an additional threshold.
Again, coming from information that we received,
that's the feedback that we have,
and so based on a conversation with leadership
within the department, they did convey that,
yes, it's something that they can handle.
So will there be any sworn officers
taken away from police work
and devoting their attention towards parking and towing?
Yeah, through this year, I think,
If I'm not mistaken, was it one sergeant
that it would fall under that particular purview,
but with respect to removing someone from patrol
to oversee this function, that was not the intention
or the design of it going into the department.
What's that sergeant doing now
that they have capacity to add this?
To answer that question, I can't say specifically
what is that sergeant doing right now.
That person has not even been identified.
I think there's a lot of work that's being done here
before we even get to that point.
Finance director?
Yes, sorry.
Chair, to maybe directly more answer your question,
my understanding from OPD is the parking enforcement
supervisor to position, which would be overseeing
the VEU would report directly in my understanding
as to the lieutenant over the traffic division.
So there would be, it's lieutenant level actually
that where there's already a traffic unit with an OPD,
this would be an additional unit that report up
through the existing civilian supervisor position
to that lieutenant.
Okay, I may have some more questions later,
but let's go to my colleagues.
Councilmember Brown.
Excellent, thank you so much.
Just first off, I wanna thank all of the staff
that showed up to kind of speak and state
why you all would prefer to stay in DOT.
So really, I'm grateful for you all showing up.
I've been really focused in on the page four of the report,
just kind of showing the reorganization,
because it does appear that kind of the primary concern
is around the citation collections process.
And so I just have a few questions about,
well, I guess one, it's my understanding
that during our last budget cycle,
we actually added more staff
for the parking technicians, I believe.
So I just wanted some clarity around
if that's under the, I'm looking at the org chart,
it's under parking enforcement, is that the 63 FTE?
So just wanted, and what is the status of bringing on?
Because I believe I heard from staff
that there continues to be areas of opportunity
around staffing to get these various jobs done.
So just wanted some clarity there
in what is the status of hiring.
To the chair, to Councilmember Brown.
So if we're talking about the 63FTE,
those are your park and control technicians.
So these are on the ground people that are day to day
enforcing the meter operations.
I do know that DOT has an active list for those positions
and they've done one recruitment.
We've moved a lot of those people into permanent
from permanent part time and part time positions.
I do expect them to, I do expect a second round
of recruitment once permanent appointments are made
to the vehicle enforcement unit.
So once that is done, I would imagine that that list
would remain active, because that list remains active,
there would be more appointments immediately
based on that active list into those places.
And yes, again, that's the place you have 63 FTEs
and I think that was recently augmented.
In the budget but I guess maybe more specifically did
Did was there any clarity that we gave in that vault budget allocation around what specific?
Positions it would fund
The chair to councilman Brown. I don't remember specifically. I'm happy to go look at that
I don't remember specifically if there were okay specific details around that
I'm because the reason I'm asking kind of for two reasons if you can help
help answer this around some of the comments had to do with like career advancements and their
Being the possibility of you know, not being able to
Advance can you can you walk me through?
How that would work with this proposed change?
Sure within the context of the finance unit side of it
So the current progression for the vast majority of people
In the largest units, the parking enforcement unit and the natural progression is from parking control technician to parking enforcement supervisor one.
Parking enforcement supervisor two, that's sort of the natural progression and
then two, that would, that's sort of that tree.
Under the parking citation assistance center, it would be from public service rep to senior public service rep
the new position of parking supervisor we're including here.
So there would be now, actually, as there's a new supervisor over that unit, you'd have an advancement career there.
Within meters of collections, it's meter collectors to meter collection supervisors, and then there's also an admin unit as well.
And so the idea would be you'd have a tiering, that would be your normal advancement progression.
I think we would continue to, within finance or wherever it would sit, to want to do internal advancement.
that's generally the best practice within the organization. And then I would
say within the traffic section, again not the section coming to finance, it would
be from the parking control technician two roles that were recently established
up to parking supervisor one to parking supervisor two. Okay, so basically in
in short, no impacts to the ability
to kind of grow in the role.
From our line workers up to higher level
mid-management roles, no, we would continue
to have all those tiers and structures.
I see, and then I guess my final question,
as I was reading through the report,
I began to think a little bit about the city's
new speed camera system in that implementation,
And eventually we will come to the point
where we're collecting fees from those citations.
Does that fall anywhere here?
Absolutely.
So the DOT's plan when we applied for the speed camera
program was to have the parking citation assistance center
actually be the entity that would be reviewing and looking
at the speed cameras.
One of the key reasons why finance and DOT,
regardless of the organization chart, are really, really
pushing the staffing up at PCAC.
And one of the reasons that we're recommending a supervisor there is that it's actually a fair amount of additional work for
PCAC regarding that new program and structure.
As I said in the prior committee meeting, regardless of organizational structure,
there's a strong recommendation that there be a supervisor over PCAC for
the purposes of getting the existing work done and again that the current plan had been or
as originally a DOT for that program to live heavily in PCAC and again it's a fair amount of additional work.
fully staffing of that unit and providing in this designated supervisor
would be a clear recommendation. Yeah because I think my observation would be
that there's not enough staffing if if we are if that's something that we know
that we are expecting in the coming months. I would fully concur with that
and again as with all elements of regardless again of organizational
structure we need to be analyzing all structures in the city for adequate
Staffing again within our resources constraint and I think this is a key space that we need to be looking
Thank you
Those are all for now
councilmember wall
Thank you
so
Just looking at my emails. I was wondering I will I have verified through my emails that my policy director did ask the question
around whether the parking tech a technician number two position would be eliminated in this
Unstructuring is is that happening or not our current our current plan is not to eliminate the piece of the PCC 2
Classification we would want an advance in space
I know there's some conversation about the background check in that of that group should it go into OPD, but
as
Contemplator reorg does not eliminate that right now and
Obviously, that is a conversation we would have to have in conjunction with our labor partners as well as this body
I think
No one wants to eliminate civilian or professional staff as they would call it within PD
Operations of this unit, I don't think there's any desire to have that be sworn enforcement
So that that's definitely not contemplated as a city administrator mentioned earlier one way or the other
Okay
My other question is is this the numbers that we see in the supplemental is that?
Adjusted for inflation. I just want to make sure that we're really comparing apples to apples
Right to know why we did not inflation adjust numbers we normally
Not to say that we can't we normally don't inflation adjust your revenue data. We normally show you your actual data
I'm happy to try to I can deflate it with a CPI deflator if you want that
It's not not wouldn't be super difficult to do. I would say the
Trends you're seeing on most of your items and just I wanted to be clear about what they all were
Your on-street parking meters, to be really clear, that is the data regarding coin collection and
credit card collection of meters in operation.
I do want to note that in 2024, July 1, it has a note at the bottom there,
we increased the rates from $2 to $3 an hour.
So there's a 33% increase in the rate, and only a 30% increase in the collection amount.
actually would fell off a little bit related to that in that last year. It's a
key note there. Your garages, which is your next page, was the next set of
information you had. I think there was a public comment around this, I just wanted
to be clear. This is fund 1750, so that is actually the fund this is all received
into. We noted it by revenue category, but this all goes into fund 1750, and you
can note the more recent trend on that. The big fall off for all these
categories, as I mentioned earlier, is the pandemic that you should see that same
trend just about everywhere. Although on this particular category we're still far
below sort of where we were pre-pandemic. Many of the other categories have
returned to near where they were before. Your parking tax revenue and this is an
important distinction you did ask for it. I want to be clear this is not collected
by the parking unit. This is actually already collected by our revenue bureau.
So we collect this. This is the tax that you pay for all parking operations of
structured parking within the city. So a private garage pays your parking tax and
actually it's useful data because it kind of tells you what happens in the
parking space across Oakland overall. The bigger drivers of this though, just to be
very clear, is parking at the airport. That's like the largest driver of what
you're seeing around this category. So it is a little bit different and this one
one has stagnated unfortunately, but it has kind of returned to pre-dominant levels.
And then your last chart is your fines and penalties.
This is your collection data.
This is actually the citations issued and again you had a little bit of a fall off over
the pandemic.
Not nearly as much, although sort of a little bit of a flat lining in sort of more recent
years.
And then your sales tax data is provided here citywide.
I will note that this is citywide sales tax,
this is driven by several things
that are not related to parking.
If I were trying to explain to you
the drivers on this train, because you did ask for it,
I would say parking for better or worse
is not the major driver on what any of these trains are.
There's tons of other things that drive this,
but we wanted to be complete
and respond to your questions.
Yeah, no, that makes sense.
I will say I went ahead and actually did it,
I did my own inflation adjusted chart.
And I think some of what I observed in that is the fact that,
that as you had said, the pandemic has made a huge impact,
but I think it's best to compare maybe Oak Dot.
There was a transition in 2017 to Oak Dot
and to look at the department's operations
in the period right before the pandemic.
And some of the trends I'm seeing is parking tax went up.
I see, again, inflation adjusted,
the garage revenue actually went up,
and the meters also went slightly up,
not at a huge rate.
I will say that the sales tax revenue that I'm looking at,
at the peaks and the nadirs,
actually, I am seeing,
even though there's many things
that goes into the sales tax,
I'm seeing some of what our Bit Alliance representative
Savlon has pointed out to, which there is,
when there are dips in parking revenue,
we actually see some peaks in sales tax and vice versa,
which I find is an interesting trend
since I think it says something about parking,
driving consumer behavior.
And then I think the one thing I will note to be fair is
I'm seeing that the parking fines have seen a decrease
And so we're not doing as well on the enforcement side of things
Compared to the to the regorg that happened in 2017
But I think we need to have a fair evaluation and that's what really my goal with the this data is to uncover
What is working and what is not?
Councilmember guy Oh
Thank you, and thank you for the information and thank you for your work with the Department of Transportation
and parking meters and so forth.
What's happening in our neighborhood
is a lot different than what City Hall recognizes.
You can do a lot of City Hall discussion
and talking and planning and direction,
but what's happening in the neighborhood
is completely different.
And so I value the work that you're doing
because at one time when I was here,
I was here on this council when we made some changes
to the Department of Transportation.
As an example, we wanted to make sure,
since you're on the street daily,
to make sure that you recognize what the improvements
of our streets that are needed,
what's needed in front of our schools
to make sure our children can get to schools safely
and come back home safely.
And that's where we changed a lot of direction.
And as an example, the crossing guards.
The crossing guards used to be under the police department.
And we took that action and brought it
under the Department of Transportation.
Because you see the children, you know what the needs are,
and you made those corrections to make sure
the lighting work, the crossing guards were there,
and so forth to improve the safety, where sometimes those
of us sitting in the hall, we never see that.
And that's what's happening with government today.
All right, so for me, it's very clear
that we need to continue to support
Department of Transportation, because when I make those calls and I'm out
there on the streets daily, cleaning them, make sure my streets are clean and safe,
but now considering what Oakland Unified is going through, now I'm actually
cleaning around the schools, making sure they're safe and clean. But that the
issue is here today for this City Council that didn't see what happened
in the past, that we need to continue to provide the safety for our children and
families directly because when you look at what's happening with OPD today
because I met with the chief yesterday well they're down to 600 officers when
budgeted they should have 678 oh but at the same time any given day there's 497
people on leave and yet when I call on an emergency sir can you please come
and help me because somebody's blocking somebody's driveway they don't come it's
not an emergency. But when I run into the parking attendant that's on the street, they
come right directly, and whether it's the hoodie or the neighbor or the people, they
highly respect that individual. All right, and when I have to make sure that my cars
are not parked on a Wednesday because the street sweeper comes by, then the public recognizes
peacefully and then makes an issue by having an officer sitting there arguing with you
threatening you and all that other stuff. So I value that. I value that so when I
get the calls from my schools, transportation, the officers, you know, take
care of it and we move on. When I need to remove a homeless individual that's
sitting there, the people on the side look on the street, well, you know, I
call the ladies that help me in my area with transportation, gets done. Not a
fight and not an issue and it's not an argument, it gets done because the laws
policies are very clear when it comes to my children and families in my schools
and and that's what we need to adhere to and force but so we're getting back to
the so to the administration I think we need to continue to strengthen that
activity. What is best for the children and families in the neighborhood? Alright
and and so the only thing with my finance department my advice to you with
all due respect. I want to make sure that the numbers you give me, financial numbers
are accurate, and I don't have to be hiring consultant after consultant to help me understand
what numbers I have. Because I've been through this before, oh yeah, we've got a balanced
budget, and three, four months later somebody comes up like Oakley, oh guess what? We've
got a hundred million dollar deficit. And I don't want to go through that experience
with this city. I don't want to have the finance department come by a month or
two months or guess what we're 30 million dollars short or we're 40
millions dollars short. I want to make sure that we maintain the numbers and
the only other advice that I would give you is an example what we went through
this week. Right I read about we're not collect you know we're providing
illegal dumping citations but we're not collecting the fee. So who's doing that?
Who else who's supposed to be doing that? And so I think through the finance we
need to strengthen that activity but most of all the responsibility is to
make sure that the numbers that you have and give to this council you have a
balanced budget and don't surprise me three four months from now as we have in
the past. So guess what? We have to cut so many positions and lay off so many people
and change what's happening in the neighborhood. So the and I'll leave you the reason you and
I are here. We're here because of the taxpayer pin our salaries to provide a quality service
and we cannot forget that and get caught up in the administrative debates. Thank you
and I support. Thank you for the work that you do and I value it and I can all continue
you to support the actions that you're taking.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Councilmember Houston.
I'd like to echo my council member, Noel Gyos.
I value everyone out here.
I know two-thirds of them, so I'm in a tough situation.
I might have to recuse myself,
because I know everybody out here.
So that's a joke.
But I really appreciate it, because I've worked directly,
And I always use my personal experience.
Every time I speak, I use my personal experience.
I've worked with DOT.
We removed just what, three, four weeks ago, 36 cars.
Two of them were felonies where the police had to come out and actually take them away so they were working together.
So thank you for your hard work.
I really appreciate you guys, and ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate you.
So through the chair, I like to say you said something.
You said you didn't have an issue with collection going
under finance, that you said that?
I mean, I have a, my preferred solution would be
that finance runs the collections and billing
and the customer service counter, that DOT continues
to operate meters and ticketing and rights of way
and that OPD tow truly stolen cars
and that DOT retain truly abandoned 72-hour cars.
That would be my preferred solution, but what I'd like to do is move this to the full council on
316 on non consent understanding that it's a special meeting so that might change but I would like to ask you all to make
The strongest affirmative case you can for this move because right now, you know, if I'm reading the mood in the room, right?
I don't see a lot of support for this. I think I think they
But I think that I think
it seems to me my colleagues remain skeptical and we need a
Strong affirmative case made for why this would be an improvement. So chair under
Thank you for that. I want to ask a question to mr. Johnson, please. So mr. Johnson, how are you?
So I saw something here that I needed to just need some clarity where it said joint
responsibility DOT and finance where it says a park and meter slash
parking fee collection technology expansion
installation repair
Including associate associated contractors apps machines contracts payment options
What joint responsibility anything I see that's always joint always is a problem is either
One department handles it or the other. Can you explain that a little bit? Absolutely. So if
With the organization structure proposed, we want to make sure we consultively have a conversation around
the vendor contracts where we need to renew our parking citation contracting vendor at some point.
When it relates to technology, a key element that DOT has put on that would remain a DOT responsibility is related to parking policy.
So technology would have to be, any sort of technology put on the street would have to be able to do, for instance, demand response of parking.
that's a parking policy pushed by DOT.
Again, there are apps used like Park Mobile,
which is the one that's used in the garage right now.
So we would have to have compatibility with Park Mobile
with, again, the other systems, both for use in the field,
but also to reinforce the parking policy elements
that are the responsibility of DOT.
So prior to getting into a new contract
or renewing a contract with any vendor,
one would imagine that consultation would be necessary.
And I would say that we routinely have contracts with vendors that are multi-departmental in general.
But we also routinely have contract processes by which we have consulting departments on board when we do a vendor let.
So as we review a contract or we're approving a new piece of technology, there'd have to be collaboration.
And I think, candidly, as it relates to a lot of these systems right now,
I would hope actually we have collaboration between finance even under the current structure on a number of these items as it relates to
the feasibility of collections integrations
with Oracle and our POS system.
So that's not an unusual thing to see,
calling out on the report just to note it.
Okay, through the chair.
The only thing I see here that I agree with
is with the chair is about a collection with finances.
I just don't see it.
So I'll just leave it like that.
If I have any other questions, I'll ask.
All right, I've got a motion on the floor
to move this to the three sixteen meeting on non consent.
All right.
Thank you. We have a motion made by Chair Unger seconded by Councilmember
Houston to receive and forward this item to the March 16th special
City Council agenda on roll. Councilmember Gallo.
Aye. Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye.
And Chair Unger. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes
to receive and forward this item to the March 16th
Special City Council agenda and as a request for non consent moving to item
three are regularly scheduled items. I just want to flag that we have a couple
more items and a short period of time so if I could ask everyone to be brief in
a way that I did not hold myself to that would be appreciated. Thank you. Reading
item into record receiving information report from BART addressing Bart's
current fiscal outlook addressing revenue and ride share decline its plans
for addressing the fiscal challenges and parameters Bart set the accepting alone
in the state of California and you do have two speakers for this item all
right let's hear from our part representatives please is the mic on
there we go good afternoon council members staff thank you all for the
opportunity to present my name is Victor Flores I'm the dish I'm sorry to
interrupt. Let's hear from councilmember Wong first who brought this item. But I
wanted to schedule this because just this is clearly an incredibly important
thing. I wanted to I think all of us deserve to understand what is at stake
if the November ballot measure does not pass. So thank you. Great. Thank you. We
appreciate that opportunity. My name is Victor Flores. I'm the district director
for District 7, which includes West Oakland, North Oakland, parts of the hills.
And we have my colleague, Director Rayburn, who covers the flatlands from 23rd all the
way down to South North Hayward.
So is there a slide deck?
Just want to make sure you all can see what we're looking at.
So next slide will, this is 2026 is going to be defined in year, I think not just for
BART but the whole Bay Area. Before we can really talk about our budget, I want
to make sure that we talk about some of the things that we're doing to make sure
that BART is safer, cleaner, more reliable for all of our customers. So one of the
things that you may have noticed is that we have the next-generation fare gates
that have been an absolutely major game changer for us. Not only are the stations
are the gates reducing fare evasion, they're preventing unwanted behavior, and
they're keeping the stations cleaner for way longer than before. The hours that we
spent on corrective maintenance within the paid area in our stations has
actually reduced, like, incredible. I wish we had the bar graph because it went from
this to this, so just having that visual would be great. But our overall crime has
So it's been a long time since
the pandemic has plummeted.
41% in 2025.
So we're making great strides in
increasing safety.
The hard work of BART PD to boost
visibility presence has shown its
effectiveness.
And not only that, but we've also
deployed our ambassadors and
crisis intervention specialists.
And you can really feel that
difference when you hop on one of
fleet of the future that has better lighting, better HVAC systems, all of our
legacy cars are gone and because of the new fleet and their design we are
actually able to clean those not just twice as often but they're far more
easier to clean. So how can we tell that we are satisfying customers? Nine out of
ten of those customers surveyed say that they would recommend a BART to a family
or friend. So we're also embracing new technology to meet the real-world needs
of our riders.
Tap and Ride, which we announced a few months ago, allows people to simply tap their credit
card or debit card onto the reader to access the train system.
You don't need to have a clipper card anymore.
No pre-registration.
If you're a tourist or you have family and friends, they can just tap and ride.
And it's become really popular with our tourists who typically tend to use this, especially
internationally.
We've also just implemented Wi-Fi at our five busiest stations, but we do plan to deploy
to all 50 by early 2028 and making sure that they're accessible on our moving
trains and the official BART app has also been updated so not only does it
feature our trip planner but also real-time train departures so that's
easier for you to plan out your trip and you can also pay for parking on the app
instead of at the kiosk. So we like to say that we that BART is getting a real
glow up and it's not just about the service and the new trains it's also
about the stations. LED lights are being installed to brighten up all of our
stations. Simple change like better lighting really makes our station so
much more welcoming. We've also been working hard to replace our oldest and
most heavily used escalators in our system. We've replaced 23 out of the 40
escalators just in downtown San Francisco stations. So one of the things
that we want to do is also invite the community into our spaces. So we just had
the second version of the valentrain a few weeks ago. We also had Sketchfest, a
comedy train sketch program on a BART train where comedians did their routines
in different train cars. We also had our Led's Glow Anime Festival at
Warm Springs which drew thousands of customers and fans to celebrate BART and
what it means to our communities. But on top of all that there's some pragmatic
improvements that we're working on with the region.
For our transit to really work with our riders, it's important that all of our agencies collaborate as one team.
We do have 27 agencies, transit agencies in the entire Bay Area.
Our BART general manager leaves a weekly meeting with all of the Bay Area transit agencies to make sure that we're staying on the same page.
What this looks like, for example, is the big sink.
this is when we all release our updated schedules at the same time to make sure
that services transfers are all aligned together. These changes so these changes
streamline transfers and save our customers time and on top of that with
the new Clipper 2.0 we have implemented a free fare transfer really it's a
discount but it's basically free so if you go from BART to AC Transit or from
BART to Muni you should have that transfer that discounts your ride and
and saves an average of $1,000 per rider per year.
So Cal students recently also voted to join Bay Pass, that's the region's universal transit pass.
Now all students there get to, they pay a low monthly fee and get unlimited rides on all transit agencies.
Riders with Bay Pass have actually been shown to increase ridership by 35%.
So that's one of the big things, but you can see the new way finding that we're working with at the region.
It's supposed to be more standardized visual, but
also more user friendly across the region.
So it is currently in its pilot phase, and you should see more of that over the next couple months.
So BARDA is making these improvements all over the Bay Area, but we're also deeply invested here in Oakland.
Where we are headquartered, 19th Street Station, for example, was recently renovated.
And it's one of the most welcoming stations in the system.
one of my stations, transit-oriented development
also helps communities and transit agencies
increase sustainable transit ridership
by placing our riders right on top of our stations.
So this helps us increase ridership,
increase housing affordability,
also enhancing the regional quality of life
and strengthening our economic competitiveness,
which I know is important for all of our cities right now.
In October, 2024, BART celebrated the groundbreaking
of the Chinatown TOD senior housing
at the Lake Merritt station,
beginning the construction of 97 units
of a subsidized affordable housing for seniors.
The Lake Merritt station plan also
with the Valtzi and Strada Investment Group
also calls for another 557 units
with 35% of those being affordable.
And then in West Oakland, we have the Mandela Station,
which is about to break ground soon.
So now we get to talk a little bit about the budget.
So remote work has absolutely changed how the Bay Area residents live, work and travel.
While millions have returned to BART, they are writing it less frequently.
Before they used to write five times a week, now it's one to maybe three times.
This means our fair revenue is down 300 to 400 million compared to pre-pandemic.
And we face a $370 million deficit beginning in fiscal year 27.
So while we and other agencies have relied heavily on fares, but
we do need a new funding model that is similar to how transit is supported elsewhere.
And people always ask, why don't you guys operate like a business?
Well, I would argue that we have, because 70 to 80% of our operating budget used to be funded by fares.
So this is especially important for us as we have the highest working from home rates.
So we are seeking an additional source of, so on top of that we are also making sure that BART is running efficient service.
BART is one of the lowest operating costs per passenger mile out of all of our peer transit agencies.
Director Flores, are you able to, how much more time do you think you need?
And director Rayburn, how much time do you need?
We're almost, yeah, we're almost.
We have 20 minutes left in the meeting and another item after this.
We should be wrapping up soon.
If you want to take a look at the slides on costs
and compare our revenue, I do just do want to highlight
on this slide really quick before we pass it
to Director Rabin a little bit.
The blue bars, those are expenses and those are the ones
that scale with service.
So if you want to save money by reducing service,
that's where you look at and there's really not a lot
of wiggle room there.
And you can see on the right our revenue.
And so our fares, that gap is being supplemented by the emergency assistance,
which is running now at the end of this fiscal year.
So what I'll just highlight, some of the things we've been doing to cut service, or cut costs,
freezing 56 positions, eliminating 672 vacant positions,
reducing train cars to save on energy costs, and then looking out for
revenue models and operational efficiencies. With that I'll pass it to
Director Rayburn. Thank you very much for having us here today. Let me click the
top. Oh, let's see. There we go. BARDA is not alone in facing a deficit since 2024.
Lawmakers in Sacramento have recognized the need for a reliable long-term
funding source for transit operations, not just BART, but all Bay Area transit.
Senator Scott Weiner and Senator Jesse Aragon passed into law Senate Bill 63.
It allows the Citizens Initiative to put a five-county sales tax measure on the ballot
this November.
That won't be enough to fill our projected deficit.
projected to provide $310 million in operating funds annually to BART.
The measure also provides funding for other transit systems throughout the Bay Area.
You might have heard about a state loan that the Governor recently included in the state
budget.
We also have available a federal loan, but we're taking a very conservative approach
towards loans. The loans primarily serve as a cash flow in the scenario the
measure that the measure passes. We will use the loan money to run service while
we wait for the sales tax revenue to become available. If the funding measure
does not pass, we can't use these loans because we won't have a way to pay them
back. There is great uncertainty as we plan for multiple futures, but at the core of everything
is our ongoing efforts to deliver a high quality service and increase ridership using the emergency
funds we have. We are currently running service by using these funds, but we'll run out this
year and reducing costs are our highest priority. February ridership was 12.6%
higher than a year ago. That's great for BART and helpful for our bottom line. It
is important to keep in mind that each 5% increase in ridership translates to
about 13 million a year in new fare revenue. To close our ongoing
structural deficit from just fair revenue, ridership would need to more
than double. Moving forward, we have a plan for two futures, a future where a
revenue measure passes and the BART Board will have a base budget with no
cuts to service or station closures. The BART Board's budget work needs to be
done by July of this year to produce a balanced fiscal year 27 budget.
Because we are in this unprecedented financial planning scenario, the board
needed to give direction to staff for how to plan for the future. The board
approved an alternative service plan that outlines the very specific cuts and
financial strategies that would be needed to close the
376 million dollar deficit. This wasn't an easy plan to develop and I didn't run
for the BART board to vote on scenarios like this, but we have a fiduciary
responsibility to do this work. The plan also includes a combination of cuts. Each
of them are needed because rail has fixed costs. Cutting a certain percentage
Percentage of service does not result in the same percentage of savings
I'm sorry director. I'm gonna need to cut you off pretty soon. I'll walk you through the cuts
This is bleak, and I'm sorry
We will know by the November election whether we pass or not
The very next day we will meet with our labor partners if it fails
We will begin to implement these steps that you see on this slide
The first of which would happen in January just ten months from now
We would close at 9 p.m. Seven days a week
That would be that is because running service after 9 p.m. Cost Bart more money than the fair revenue
it brings in weekend service would be spared because
but
It would we would open on Saturdays at 8 p.m. 8 a.m
The map shows the revised service. We're only running one line all
from Richmond down to Bariessa
The green and red lines are curtailed except during the peak hours
We would raise fares 30 percent. We would make cuts to safety and cleanliness
Those dividends that we so love right now
Over 800 employees would be laid off. This will impact our safety and
we're
drawing down our
our
reserves
There's going to be nothing left
By I'm so sorry, we have an appropriations item that we have to get to okay
it gets worse you can have one one more minute and
By fiscal year 27-28, we will be making additional cuts if we see it's possible.
Personally, I have my doubts.
The final cut is that BART would end service.
That is incredibly bleak.
At this point, we can't say exactly what those final cuts would look like.
We don't even want to go there.
But we're not making decisions about station closures today.
We've made decisions about what kind, the total amount of the cuts we need to make are.
And it will be a major impact on the entire Bay Area.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have another item to get to, so if you can keep it short, Councilmember Houston.
Move to receive and file this item, so I just wanted to keep it moving.
But I did want to say one quick, it's a little funny, but it's not that BART was built by
my house when I was a kid, and I'm still dealing with sleep deprivation from that noise.
It's true.
It's like I can hit it with a rock, but anyway I move that.
Council Member Houston, or Guy.
Yes, thank you for that information,
but this is an example for our administration
to provide a service plan in terms of our budget.
And it's very clear in terms of the measures don't pass,
this is what we have to do.
And if they do pass, this is where we are.
But the last question that I have for you,
is your plan still to close the airport BART connection?
again we have 50 stations and we are not naming any one station we expect about
15 stations but right now the bar to the airport is open for the people of
course because that's a question I keep our goal is to continue quality service
throughout thank you thank you all right I'll second council members
houston's
Councilmember Wong. Oh
I just wanted to verify for the three line line closure or the the three lines that would be
Continue to just be the yellow or into the blue ones. Is that the only ones are we reading that man correctly?
okay, initially in the next phase when we
reduce our track miles by
25 miles
It's likely that even the blue line goes away
I don't think I would be able to
do that.
Okay.
Thank you we need that ballot
measure to pass.
Thank you let's hear from our
public speakers please.
When I call your name who's
approached a podium with the
sadha.
And Kevin dollar.
Anybody coming to speak.
That concludes your public
speakers we do have a motion
made by councilmember Houston
seconded by chair under to
receive and file this any.
Public works and transportation
committee on roll comes from
motion passes with four ayes to receive and file this item and the public works and transportation committee moving to item four as a reminder this item regarding the Oakland Alameda project was withdrawn under item two which is the pending list we will take public comment missus sada and she passes that concludes your public speakers for item four moving to item five.
notice is in Councilmember Wang's disgroup. Why do we withdraw item four
because that she explained at the outset that there are negotiations ongoing with
Caltrans still but that okay it's it's it's your district so I'll leave it
alone but all right okay move into item five adopt the following pieces of
legislation one a resolution authorizing the city the city to accept an
appropriate loan and grant funds under the state of California's round eight
twenty four to twenty five affordable housing a sustainable communities
program at liberation Park project and an amount not to exceed forty four
million six hundred and sixty one thousand four hundred and four dollars
and two a resolution authorizing the city to accept and appropriate loan and
grant funds under the state of California's round nine twenty five
to twenty six affordable housing a sustainable communities program for the
285 12th Street housing project and amount not to exceed thirty five million eight hundred and seventy three thousand and
Sixty-six dollars and you do have two speakers
Thank you. Let's hear from our staff. Please. Good afternoon. Craig Raphael. I'm our project manager with the Department of Transportation
We are seeking council approval to accept and appropriate over 80 million dollars in affordable housing and sustainable communities state funds to deliver new
Affordable housing and fund priority transportation projects these funds have already been received by the state
And we just need council approval to affirm our compliance with state requirements in the interest of time
I'll leave it at that, but happy to answer any questions
Outstanding we love accepting money questions council members councilmember Gaia. I will second that
Moving to our public speakers. It's Kevin. Mr. Kevin Dali and Asada
the end result of this project, it talks about low and low income, 25% of the
units will be for special needs, eight units will be for home occupation,
space for smaller home artists, they will have 41 bed units, 33 two bed
units, 32 three bed units, building park and garage, bike park and community room,
office space for property manager amenity space for residents it's just a
lot and I don't know if we're going into detail I just I just got very confused
on how much stuff is going into this project but they're not identifying how
many parking spaces many a lot of things but it's a good project that space has
been vacant a long time. Thank you for your comment Mrs. Sona. We do have a
motion made by Councilmember Gail seconded by Councilmember Wong to approve the
recommendations of staff and to forward all pieces of legislation to the March
16th, 2026 special City Council agenda on roll. Councilmember Gail? Aye. Councilmember
Houston? Aye. Councilmember Wong? Aye. And Chair Unger? Aye. The motion does pass
with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and for all
pieces of legislation to the March 16th special City Council agenda and through
the body would that be on consent or not on consent on consent and moving to open
forum you do have three speakers Jennifer Finlay Kevin Dali and miss Asada so I
told you about prac and on Wednesday prac is voting on allowing collection
of a registration fee. They are voting on accepting $47,000 to put a fence around Joaquin
Miller Park area. They are voting on spending. They are voting on approving things. And they
are supposed to be a recommendation to us. Now, what I got from this discussion today,
I'm wondering, are y'all working together to allow them to get what they want? Because
y'all going to get that ballot. Y'all work together on the ballot measure that you're
going to put it on in June.
Is that's why you were so conciliatory to understand
what these union people were saying?
That's what goes through your head
when you do these kind of things,
when you collaborate with each other.
And then a part of the collaboration
that put the ballot measure on is when you want something,
oh, I'll help you get what you want
because we're working together on that ballot measure.
And you're wishing to speak on open forum.
That concludes your public speakers for open forum.
Okay, this meeting is adjourned, but don't go far.
We're right back here in five minutes.
You can join.