Good morning and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting of today,
April 21st.
The time is now 1130 a.m.
And this meeting has come to order before taking roll.
I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda.
If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit your speaker's card,
please fill one out and turn it to a clerk representative, my left, your right, before
the item is read into record.
Online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting.
meeting came to order 11 30 a.m. Speaker request will be due no longer 10
minutes after the meeting has began making that time 11 40 a.m. with that we
would now proceed to take roll councilmember Gaia present councilmember
Houston is excused councilmember Wong present thank you and chair younger
here thank you we do have three members present and one excused Houston and
and we'll before we begin share on here do you have an announcement no
announcements thank you moving to our first item as a reminder item one no
minutes to be approved this is a special meeting moving to item to
determination of schedule outstanding committee items this is also your
pending list and we do have one speaker for this item anything from my
colleagues or staff on the pending list no all right let us hear from the
speak. Thank you Colin our first and only public speaker, Miss Asada. I just saw
you on Instagram talking about illegal dumping. Nice job. I want to talk about
the trees again and I saw an Instagram video where they and the individual was
outraged that we're supposed to be cutting down 70 trees which are owned by
I bought. With the issue being that we're going to have some housing development Mandela project. But when did the seventy trees get approved for being cut down. I had the question they've got the each tree has a red sign on it with if you have a question about cutting down the tree and number to call. And all in all we're talking about seventy trees.
Is there any reason why you need to be in an inner city now the last time these people were here talking about the love of trees.
And the need to have more trees in our inner urban communities.
We're getting ready to cut down.
Seventy trees.
Owned by west Bart apart in west Oakland.
So who permitted this.
a serious issue it's not the the kind of tree that's there
it's the need to have trees that create health
uh... growth and so forth and just as to the aesthetics
I don't see a clock so you want to stop me darling whenever you need to
okay thank you the other thing I'm concerned about
is uh... we're putting up traffic lights and we're not turning them on
that is being put up there.
There are traffic lights that
have been put up at Keller and
mountain and also at the
beginning interests of college
canyon road and that's been
there for years traffic lights
and they're not on.
Thank you for your comment
missus sada.
That concludes your public
speakers for item two.
All right.
I will move the pending list.
Do we have a second.
Councilmember Wong to accept the determination of schedule outstanding committee items as
is on roll.
Councilmember Gallo?
Aye.
Councilmember Houston is excused.
Councilmember Wong?
Aye.
Thank you.
And Chair Unger?
Aye.
This motion does pass with three ayes.
One excused Houston to accept the determination of schedule outstanding committee items as
is.
Moving to item three.
the resolution accepting the public infrastructure
improvements directing the following
of the unconditional certificate of completion
for the MacArthur Transit Village phase,
one improvements per the subdivision improvement agreement,
four deferred construction on the public infrastructure
improvements in making CEQA findings.
We do have two speakers for this item.
All right, let's hear from staff first, please.
Good morning.
This is a Reginald Basile for Oakland Department of Transportation.
Sorry I just ran up the stairs.
This is an item to encourage council to adopt a resolution approving an issuing of a certificate
of completion for the MacArthur Transit Village.
that's it thirty nine th in telegraph.
Okay.
Colleagues, do you have questions?
Let's hear from. Our public speakers now.
OK, when I call your name, please approach the podium.
You do have two minutes, Mrs.
Asada and Zach Thayer, and please state your name for the record.
Thank you. So, hi, I'm Zach Thayer.
I got a question for you.
bar ETFs bar ETFs so AC transit bar ETF aren't qualified applications for a
municipal infrastructure polynomial binomial efficiencies to mitigate
quadric expiration and Hadley v. Moore Senate bill 5 8 9 3 showed a tax
compliance when they were going through it. Some of us are really weird, Russian
breeze scans, you know Korean breeze scans, French breeze scans, Yiddish
breeze scans, Finnish breeze scans, Norwegian breeze scans, and handy breeze
scans, and when we ask it in Spanish, we don't ever show in the BART ETS when we
hacked your shit excuse me for the city and the counties don't ever ask what
the polynomial binomial a range would be which would mean that if you guys what
we were stating in the previous just randomly talking if it's a 30 $80 bond
ETF based on the infrastructure costs we want your granting each city would have
that ability at a three to probably seven to nine cent range one six isn't
specific to the two year three year three two equation and what is known as
the five to ten year wouldn't be the allocation of capital at the city in the
county a polynomial range well this city while granting a ministration a review
and allocation of capital take that into consideration based on the forward
projects, tied to as a budget to the allocation of capital. I have a question
with that based on construction processes and construction costs. Thank
you and have a great day. I'm trying to understand the length of
time or the timeline of this project. When you read the report it
says that it was first date start March 15 2006 then it says approve 2008 then
it says revise in 2017 so what is this long period of time that has
contributed to moving on this project it says also that this project has five
And then we have five stages of development.
Each subject to a fund development,
a final development permit.
Is that a standard practice when you're doing housing
development that you have five stages of development,
each stage subject to a final developmental permit?
And if it's not a standard procedure,
why is it being used in this particular project?
It says that this resolution that you will free up funds, and a declining to adopt the
proposed resolution will require the developer to tie up funds that will otherwise be used
for Fothermack Arthur transit village phases, resulting in added delays.
I mean, how many more delays can you have with this project if it started in 2006 and
that is revised in 2017 and now we're in 2026,
I mean we can't have projects related to development
of housing and this is commercial development as well,
we can't have these delays
because we're trying to catch up on affordable housing.
So I don't know what your discussion would be about
but mine would be why has this project been delayed
for so long and why is it that we have to have
All of these final five stages of development
would be two main points.
Thank you.
Council Member Wong, did you have a question?
Hi.
Yeah, this looks like it's an important TOD project.
I think just one question.
What really is the purpose of the UCC,
and why do you need to come to council for that?
Good question.
It's a usual and customary to come to council.
The approval itself is ministerial.
So Oak Dot has inspected and accepted
all of the public infrastructure improvements
that have been made.
So the release of the UCC is a ministerial gesture,
but we do come to council so that we
can have a public discussion about what is going on.
OK, gotcha.
Well, I'll move to adopt staff recommendation.
I could speak to the question from the public
about the project and the long timeline.
This project has been around for a long time.
It took seven acres of surface parking
and converted it into 900 units of housing,
including 90 affordable units.
Took quite a while, developers come and go.
Business cycles go up and down.
There was the abandonment of some streets
on the city's behalf and the creation of new streets
by the developer.
So it's been quite a complicated project, but it is done.
Councilmember Gayo.
Yes, yeah, thank you for that information.
Under the item fiscal impact, can you,
for the members of the public, define that?
And clearly what that means is that staff costs
for processing the UCC are covered by the fees
project was set by the master
fee schedule and have been paid
by the developer.
Yes thank you councilmember- I
am the division manager for the
right of way management division
and- our division- issues
permits for the use of public
space.
So we issued permits to the
developers of this project.
For all of the public
infrastructure they created the
streets the sidewalks the
streetlights- all of the work
has to be covered by the fees that we collect.
That is in the Oakland Municipal Code,
and we take it very seriously.
For this project we collected, I believe, some $400,000
in fees.
So that would cover my time, the time of my staff issuing,
and more importantly, reviewing permits.
Because among the things that we have to review
are the plans for the public infrastructure.
So if they're creating a street, sidewalks, street lights,
All of that has to be reviewed and then ultimately inspected
by my staff.
So when you collect those fees, where are they deposited?
Where's the money from the developer deposited
within the budget of the city?
It's $24.15 is the fund, yes.
So it falls.
So it covers your staff expenses?
Yes, it does.
and the land development?
I'm sorry, Councillor.
No, I'm just trying to be clear
as we're going through a lot of budget discussions debate,
I wanna know exactly if I'm working with a contractor,
are we receiving the funds that we should be,
and where are they being budgeted?
Right, because I know real soon,
we're gonna come up with, well, guess what?
You guys have a budget deficit.
But I wanna know exactly where the money
that is being collected, where is it going?
And is that going that funds that are being collected for this activity being directed back to
For example the planning department to do XYZ or is it just for your salary?
I'm I'm happy to answer that council member. So 24 15 is a cost recovery fund
so it covers the cost of permitting from permitting departments such as planning and building DOT and others
So it's simply cost recovery and so will if this whoever represent this area
If they wanted to know exactly out of this project what was generated, they'd be able to see the numbers
Yes permit fees and amounts paid our public information. All right. Thank you
any anything else from
Council members. All right, and we've heard the public speakers already
We can move to vote
do it
to the council member thank you
I'll second that thank you have
a motion made by council member
one seconded by chair under to
approve the recommendations of
staff before this item to the
May fifth city council agenda
noting council member Houston
president at eleven thirty seven
P. A. M. unrolled council member
Gallo I thank you comes from
number Houston I thank you
council member one I and chair
to approve the recommendations of staff
and before I decide them to the May 5th,
2026 City Council agenda and through the body
would that be on consent or non-consent?
Consent, please.
Thank you, moving to item four.
Adopt an ordinance authorizing the city administrator
to negotiate and execute an agreement
to purchase an easement for public right away,
street and utility purposes,
over a portion of the rural property
located at 260 Oak Street, Oakland, California,
from the Vukassen Family Limited Partnership
and the amount of 255,000 and adopt and sequel findings
and you do have two speakers for this value.
Excellent, let's hear from our staff first please.
Hello council members, my name is Michelle Stevens.
I'm a civil engineer and project manager
for Oak Dots Major Projects Division Team.
Our project, the Embarcadero West Rail Safety
and Access Improvements Project
will improve the railroad crossing at Embarcadero West
and Oak Street for emergency vehicle access,
pedestrians and other vehicles.
The project needs to acquire 992 square feet of property
at the corner of 260 Oak Street,
and the acquisition of the easement will be funded
through previously accepted and appropriated grant funding,
including CalSTA Assembly Bill 128 grant funds.
Excellent.
Let's hear from our speakers, please.
Thank you, calling in our public speakers,
Mrs. Sada and Kevin Dolly.
Kevin Dolly, I think this is an exciting project.
It's the route that I would use cycling to and from the Amtrak station right in the neighborhood.
I think this is part of the parking lot in front of it, but I'm not 100% positive.
Probably doesn't require tearing the building down in that case.
It seems like an easy, yes, I'm looking forward to having a safer route across the tracks.
Okay, so this was being purchased for Eastmont for public right-of-way street.
So this has to do with a railroad crossing, right?
So I looked up who's responsible, and when you have railroads, the railroad owner has
There's certain responsibilities, and the city has certain responsibilities.
So as far as this project is concerned, it says we're responsible for maintenance, the
keeping up of the road leading up to the tracks, ensuring traffic safety is in place.
So what are we doing here?
Is this officially our responsibility or what we're talking about includes the railroad
owner making a contribution as well as what I'm trying to concern because after what happened
with the $700,000 for the Oakland Roots facility that was supposed to be shared by the city
of Alameda and the city of Berkeley, we ended up paying the whole $700,000.
So the only point I'm trying to make is are we officially responsible for everything or
is the railroad owner also making a contribution?
That's the only thing I'm concerned about.
Okay.
Okay.
That concludes your public speakers for item four.
Councilmember Wong.
Thanks.
Through the chair.
So this project is my district.
First, just thank you for your work on this.
This is a really important one both for economic development and goods movement from the port
as well as just safety.
I noted something in your report about this rail corridor experiencing frequent delays
from vehicles inadvertently stuck on the tracks, which is terrifying to just grapple with.
My main question is just around, because this is not the first easement and compensation
to the property owner that's come before us, how do we determine the value and how do we
know that we're purchasing these things at a fair price to the city and the taxpayer?
Yeah, an appraisal was performed by our consultant and there's a full appraisal report as well.
We didn't attach it to this document, but it was provided to the owner.
Okay, okay
Alright, thanks and I'll move to adopt a staff recommendation on this one
Okay, I will second it and then go to councilmember guy. Oh
Just for the public's information again is the expense will be covered by the railroad state of California. Oh
Sorry, the expense will be covered by our grant funds the Cal State Assembly bill 128. Oh trans
crossto. All right thank you thank you we do have a motion made by council member Wong seconded by
chair Unger to approve the recommendations to approve the recommendations of staff before
deciding to the may 5th city council agenda on roll council member Gio. Aye. Thank you council
member Houston. Aye. Council member Wong. Aye. And chair Unger. Aye. The motion does pass with four
our eyes to approve the recommendations of staff
and afford this item to the May 5th,
2026 City Council Agenda
and through the body would that be consent or non-consent?
Consent, please.
Thank you, moving to item five.
Adopt an ordinance one,
reappealing ordinance number 12960
and replacing it with the addition
of Oakland Municipal Code chapter 15.80
to serve on the city's new flood lane,
management ordinance with the inclusion
reference of the flood hazard maps to authorizing the city administrator to designate a flood
plain administrator to administer and develop regulations in the support of the chapter and
adopting appropriate CEQA findings. And you do have three speakers for this item.
Good morning, Chair Unger and members of the committee. C.C. Muyler, deputy director and
chief building official with planning and building. Today we're presenting the proposed flood plain
management ordinance required for FEMA compliance
and continued participation in the National Flood Insurance
Program, or the NFIP.
The city participates in the National Flood Insurance
Program pursuant to federal regulations.
Participation requires adoption and enforcement
of local floodplain management regulations
consistent with FEMA standards.
Specifically, FEMA requires local jurisdictions
adopt and enforce minimum floodplain management regulations.
standards failure to adopt
uh... complaint regulations could result in one or all of the following
consequences
suspension from the end of i'd be
loss of access out to flood insurance for oakland residents located in the
floodplain
in eligibility for certain federal disaster assistance for constituents
and so today we are looking to proposing update tour ordinance
FEMA periodically updates flood insurance rate maps,
also known as FIRMS,
and requires participating jurisdictions
to adopt conforming ordinance as already mentioned.
The city's existing regulations require updating
reflect current FEMA mapping and regulatory requirements
related to building code standards.
Currently our peer jurisdictions,
including the cities of San Francisco, San Jose,
Sacramento, and Los Angeles have recently updated
their floodplain regulations
to incorporate FEMA requirements
and additional resilience measures such as freeboard
and enhanced permitting standards.
Adoption of this proposed ordinance is necessary
to maintain the city of Oakland's participation
in the NFIP, which enables owners to obtain
federally backed flood insurance
and ensures eligibility for certain forms
of federal disaster assistance.
This ordinance updates the Oakland Municipal Code
to reflect current FEMA regulations
and best practices that are adopted and comparable to California jurisdictions.
We have worked quite extensively with the city attorney's office as well as
the public works department and the state department so that
we can make sure that our ordinance aligns appropriately with FEMA standards.
The proposed amendments establish updated building and construction standards,
including elevation and flood-proofing requirements.
It clarifies our permitting procedures for development within
special flood hazard areas while enhancing climate resilience and
protecting vulnerable communities and it aligns with the city's local hazard
mitigation plan as well as it designates administrative authority for
implementation of the ordinance and building and construction standards so
there is no fiscal impact however adoption prior to or no later than May
the 2826, 2026 is required by FEMA.
Failure to adopt federal and state compliant floodplain management regulations
does result in loss of access to federally backed funding for our constituents.
It does increase potentially disaster recovery costs, and it could potentially have adverse impacts on property values.
So staffs recommending adoption of the proposed ordinance as it achieves compliance while maintaining
prepare them to take action on
reasonable development
standards and authorize the
city administrator or designee
to take actions necessary to
implement the ordinance and
maintain compliance with NFIP
requirements.
This proposed ordinance will
have two readings, one on May
5th and one on May 19th.
Thank you.
All right.
This sounds like critical
timeline importance, so I will
any questions from our colleagues here? Thank you through the chair. Just one
thing I was wondering because I remember looking actually at a FEMA flood risk
map about a year ago and it did strike me that wide swaths of our flatlands are
at actually pretty high percentile risk for flooding. I think the attachment for
the rate map just it didn't provide like the before and after do you happen to
know like what the changes are and and also just want to thank you for tracking
and monitoring this and making sure that we get ahead of this before the deadline
thank you through the chair we do have City Attorney Brian Mowry on zoom that
can walk us through the maps online but also my colleague Terry fashion is here
and she could provide an update on the mapping as well.
City Attorney Brian, you may unmute yourself and begin.
Good afternoon through the chair,
Brian Mulry from the City Attorney's office.
I can share my screen.
I think I need to send a request though
and I can show an example of a map.
The maps are done in panels.
And so I can show one panel in Oakland.
I can tell you that one of the panel shows,
as it goes through district 5 and district 4 are in the flood-prone area. So that's,
you know, properties in that area would be, you know, obviously want to make sure they
have flood insurance. And so that that's what this ordinance would enable. Also, as you
may imagine, along the Jack London Square area and the new residential development in
Jack London Square area and the new residential development in Brooklyn Basin is also covered as well as Estuary Park
Which we are, you know in the process of developing as a community benefit
For the city. So those are areas that
You know do you know would be would benefit from flood insurance and I'll try to share my screen here
Okay, so here's here's an example
So the brown is a zero point one to zero point two percent, which actually is
By FEMA standards a high percentage chance of flooding in an annual in a year
so that you'll see a long Jack London the
The blue shading is where there's even a higher percentage chance of flooding because it's at base water elevation
So you see along?
the channel
You know and as the channel spills out toward Jack London Square
and
Then you also see estuary park area Clinton Basin and all of the new development at Brooklyn Basin as well as the park
Township Commons in that area out there as well. So that's this is one panel
You'd have to go you go to FEMA's website and then you pull the panel sections of the city of Oakland
But you can see that these are the flood prone areas
And then I can I also have a panel map showing Saw toll Creek as well, and I can share that
Are you sharing something else? I should be sharing. Do you all see it?
No, okay
Here we go, it's going to share momentarily and
Again, you've we're limited a little bit in this view because you've got to take it in panel sections
but you'll see all along Sausal Creek this residential area and as it extends downward in the next panel, it's also
seen as a high-risk area as well. So in East Oakland here, these residences would all be affected.
And where it's actually important, and there's practical import, is if we don't have a compliant ordinance on file, then
anyone who buys a home and goes to get a federally backed mortgage needs to show federal
flood insurance and so we you know the city has to be
Enrolled in this program in order for federally backed flood insurance if you're getting a federal federally backed mortgage
Okay, thank you for that Brian councilmember Houston question
Yes, I'm not sure if it's a question or just a statement it's real interesting
It's raining now and I got a text and I received a text that said
Send me the website on how to contact the city about but I totally forgot. I was totally flooded out
again
Does this address drainage issues too? I'm similar to what was repaired at Tyron carney park
it was a serious drainage issue over there.
This is just flooding, this has nothing to do with drainage.
I believe this is for more catastrophic flooding.
It is, yes.
Through the chair, yes.
Council?
Okay.
All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.
Moving to our public speakers, Zach Thayer,
Mrs. Sada and Kevin Dalley.
So catastrophic flooding was never modeled
in our TARP bailout program.
When that deviates in Zion Bank to Fifth Third,
in NASA, holding, you can show it in Bank of Merrim
to what was wondered in Wells Fargo Bank of America and SBB.
How that models an allocation of capital
shows it specifically in default loan abatements
and shows it as collateral efficiency standards.
How I specifically have questions to that
not as a property owner, but as a sales agent and a commercial litigant, as a patent holder
for free fishing docks, where hydro turbines, two free fishing docks, solar panels sit on
top of the hydro turbine, and the generator, you call it left labia, right labia, and don't
understand gender differences in the top.
If that was the view of the state, I wouldn't be asking abatement and zoning and planning
based on the allocation of capital to the view of the state, to the view of allocation
of resources.
I am a personal person.
I am an individual, but I am also a patent holder and a commercial entrepreneur.
That is my personal abatement.
In the view of James Hunt, Merkle v. The Office of the Impeachment of the President, I do
own a patent where that was supposed to be wondered across the city, state, and county
where I could ask that commercial enterprises.
In the view of protection against my life, there were orange buoys that sit on the city
of Alameda as a receiver and a canister that is the same design of the airplane when it
once you head out onto the base, that is specific in view of proclamations of the articles
of impeachment. Thank you.
Catastrophic, huh? So there's nothing more catastrophic than what happened with Coliseum
Connection Apartment Complex in 2023 when 110 units had to be evacuated because of stone
drain blockage. They tried to act like the developer was at fault, but what was at fault
was the drain system failed, and the water went into the building and caused a lot of
problems. But the whole solution was on the back of the developer. When it was the city's,
draining system didn't happen.
So here in Oakland, catastrophically, it could be a big issue for West Oakland. This year,
37.1 percent of the properties have risk of flooding. The primary areas of flooding in
Oakland are along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Esquiry, and San
Leandro Bay.
But in East Oakland, we have flooding of what I consider catastrophic, and Havens Court,
the south of Eastmont, along the 66th Avenue, and large areas near 880.
So you didn't bring up all of these areas in the inner city where poor people live and
black people and Latino people live, but we act in as if this is targeted, but it's bigger
than that.
So catastrophic is anybody that can potentially lose their property or have damage to their
property. And I don't think we covered everybody that could be under this
banner of being harmed by flooding. Kevin Daly, I appreciate the information on
areas at risk of flooding. Is there information, how does FEMA look at the
future of climate change and how that affects the flooding risk? Is it looking
at current data 10 years out, 50 years out and what areas might be included that aren't
currently included.
Previous item 260 Oak Street, it's right on the edge of the flood plain and I know capital
corridor is well within it.
corridor definitely has plans of mitigating the risk, possibly moving or
raising the tracks. What is Oakland doing in this area to not only look at
the risk of flooding but do something to reduce the risk? Brooklyn Basin, why was
Is it allowed without clear funding,
flooding, risk plans back, what was it,
10 or 15 years ago?
And what will we do with future development
in areas that are currently in the floodplain,
including future Brooklyn Basin,
but areas also that will be in the floodplain
as ocean levels rise?
Thanks.
we do have a motion made by council member Unger
seconded by council member Gallo
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the May 5th,
2026 city council agenda.
Unrolled council member Gallo.
Thank you council member Houston.
Aye.
Thank you council member Wong.
Aye.
And chair Unger.
Aye.
This motion does pass with four ayes
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the May 5th,
2026 city council agenda due to body
would that be on consent or non consent?
Consent, please.
Thank you.
Moving to item six.
Adopt a resolution, one,
approving the ongoing cooperative purchase agreements
exceeding $250,000 for Oakland Public Works
Bureau of Maintenance Internal Services,
commodity goods and services contracts
as outlined in table one in an additional amount
not to exceed 16,815,000 and two,
adopting appropriate CEQA findings
And you do have two speakers for this item.
All right, let's hear from Mr. Battersby, please.
Thank you, Chair Unger, Committee, City staff.
I'm Richard Battersby, I'm the Assistant Director
of the Bureau of Maintenance and Internal Services
of Oakland Public Works, primarily comprised
of four divisions, facilities, equipment services,
sewer and storm drains.
And through the chair, Council Member Houston,
if you'd like to advise your constituent with flooding,
submit a request through oak three one one and i can follow up through it then
with the storm drain division
we're kind of busy but uh... this is what we do
i'm here today to talk to you about equipment services
and the agenda report and resolution before you is for thirty three contracts
in the amount of sixteen million dollars
and these are critical contracts necessary for ongoing repair and
maintenance operations
fuel
equipment and commodity supplies,
some communication equipment, software,
it's the full spectrum of services we need
to operate equipment services.
And some of these contracts will actually
be used by other departments
or will use other department funding
if the amount seems pretty excessive.
Our strategy lately has been to ask for contract capacity
that will last, that's sustainable,
Because due to staffing issues, we find ourselves forced to outsource more activities lately.
This particular agenda report is kind of unique, and I just was going to give you...it's got
some actual performance metrics and data in it related to the contracts.
I wanted to just share some performance metrics related to why these contracts are so critical.
And with me here today, before I jump into that, I've got the acting equipment services
manager Angelo Fulen in case I wander in any minefields or get in water over my
head he's gonna save me and I wanted to acknowledge Erika Vasquez who's our
management assistant who prepared this agenda report along with our colleagues
and purchasing city attorney and risk management. We find ourselves at a unique
convergence of crises with the staffing snarl that you heard a lot about last
week and now we have what I'm calling the contract crisis and fundamentally
what's happening is because we don't have the internal staff the mechanics
and service workers to perform the work we find ourselves having to outsource
more what that means in the real world is we have five vacancies or frozen
positions and heavy equipment mechanic or service worker currently and we've
also had those positions reduced by I think five FTE so we're short staff on
on the floor, which means we have to outsource to third party vendors, some of which you
will see in this agenda report. Unfortunately, that costs about 50 to 150 percent more and
it incurs more downtime, but this is the environment we operate in.
Currently and at any given time, this could be accurate and these are not solicited data
points. These are issues that were brought to my attention externally. We have 13 sewer
sewer and storm drain flusher trucks in the fleet between sewer and storm drain.
Right now, 12 are unavailable.
We have a single sewer flusher truck available to respond to any flooding emergencies, or
even more importantly, sewer sanitary sewer overflows.
We're under a federal consent decree, and we have no leeway responding to sewer overflows.
So this is actually a critical situation where we've been forced to rent one flusher truck,
And they cost about $14,000 a month, and we're considering renting a second one.
Out of the 17th street, the street sweeper fleet of 17 vehicles, typically we average
8 to 10 available on any given day.
So we're running about a 50% availability rate on street sweepers.
Out of the nine animal services truck, we've got seven available, maybe eight.
I'm not sure if they got the nail out of the tire that Joe DeVries was bringing to my attention.
We have two lightning loaders in service with KOCB, Keep Oakland Clean and Beautiful.
These are our force multiplier dealing with illegal dumping.
At any time, we could have both of those vehicles unavailable and not able to respond.
And then finally, and perhaps more critically, as we approach overnight and weekend shifts,
I've noted we have a single ready reserve fire department apparatus with no spares.
And these are situations that caused me a great deal of alarm and I'm hoping that the
council recognizes and can help work with us and other city staff to find a solution.
Contributing to the issue is there's been no significant vehicle replacements in the
last four years other than the 78 Oakland Police Department patrol vehicles that we
were able to requisition which proved quite problematic to bring into services.
So you can kind of see because of the staffing issues, we're having to outsource more, having
to have more contracts.
And that's why we've got a list of 33 contracts in front of you.
And you will probably see me, probably not before the end of the fiscal year because
there's not time, but you will see me in the future coming before you to talk about contracts.
And oh, by the way, with those five vacant or frozen FTEs in the mechanic positions,
We've got requisitions submitted for all of those, so I'm here to answer any questions
you might have.
Colleagues, questions?
Councilmember Gayle.
Thank you for that information, and certainly this is long overdue.
What is holding up, when is filling the mechanic positions?
We drive by whether it's at the Coliseum Public Works yard or at the other yard, and you see
a good number of trucks, vehicles, fire trucks that are sitting there waiting for service.
And then here we're talking about, you know, illegal dumping in a beautiful city and a
safe city, but we don't have the vehicles or tools to get the job done.
So what, I mean, what is it that, what is it that this council working with administration
need to do to get the tools necessary to do all the policies and all the statements we're
making about having a clean safe city. So what is it that's missing today that we need
to take action to replace the vehicles, service the vehicles, to service our streets? What's
holding us up?
Yeah, through the chair. Thank you council member guy. Oh, I think as we heard last week our colleagues in DHRM need
Additional staff and resources just to churn through the volume of vacancies that they have currently
I don't know if that means they necessarily need to have to hire FTE
It kind of feels to me like they need an all-hands-on deck. Maybe look at outsourcing some temporary help
For us on the mechanic shop. It's not so easy. I wish there was a temporary help solution for mechanics
but there isn't. We just have to hire full-time FTE or explore ELDE or TCSE
opportunities which are less attractive to mechanics in this market who pretty
much can get a job wherever they want to work. But okay so this is not the first
time that we've brought this issue before the council right and this but
but I need the vehicles to have a clean city and certainly I need the
mechanics i don't need more administrators to do more talking in
walk-in iraq's i never see one of them probably pick up a piece of trash in
the neighborhood
but they're going to tell me how to do it
so what how do i
me what is it that this council needs to do
the vehicles and the personnel
necessary to have a clean city
yet again thank you
uh... through the chair
Clearly, funding is an issue.
I understand we're operating in a resource-constrained environment, so working with our colleagues
in finance, we're exploring potential funding opportunities.
We've also gone out seeking grants to help us acquire equipment, but there aren't that
many vehicle-related grants available.
We've been very successful being awarded grants for electric vehicle charging and infrastructure.
I think fundamentally we need to figure out what our priority is and then have a collaboration
to determine how best do we move forward.
I think we've got some great plans to tackle illegal dumping but I am concerned and I hope
it came across in this presentation today, I am concerned that we will not have the necessary
vehicle and equipment support to sustain this.
All of our mechanics are working as much over time as they can handle and frankly they're
turning down over time opportunities. So I just you know I wish it was an easy
solution I think we would have had it councilmember Gallo. Thank you well I'll
go ahead and follow up because you know we can do a lot of talking about a safe
clean city but I don't have the tools and the personality get the job done and
that's a reality city administration and you can make all the policies you want
but take a drive down the Coliseum way and look at the parking lot with all the
truck sitting there. And then, the mechanics, where are they? Well, sir, I can replay. We
lost a lot of mechanics that retired. And so, but anyways, I'll follow up because it's
not the first time we've heard this report about not having the vehicles, not just for
public works, but you go and you look at the police vehicles that are damaged sitting there,
that we have to go rent out a police vehicle to be able to provide the public safety. And
And so I will follow up, and thank you for that information.
It's not your first time presenting this,
but certainly being out there every day
and not just talking about a clean city,
but being out there with personnel
that we need to get the job done.
And so I value the work of our employees,
but we need to give them the tools.
We need to give them the tools and vehicles
to get the job done and not just create more policy
after more policy.
And that's what's missing here in the city of Oakland.
Thank you for that information.
Thank you.
That's a compelling argument for this item.
Yes.
And through the chair, Council Member Gallo,
Public Works will be bringing a very welcome,
I think, item to you shortly, which
is a spending plan for vehicles around illegal dumping.
So stay tuned.
Coming shortly.
Well, you know, we've been waiting and hearing
about the need for many, many months and years now
and we're still talking about it.
All right, thank you.
Council Member Wong.
Thank you.
So first, I know that Director Garland had reached out to me
and said that he had picked up on a number of my comments
around needing more metrics.
So I know especially around the cooperative agreements,
I must say that I've seen a lack of data that justifies,
you know, enormous contract expenditures.
This is the first time I've seen this.
So I do wanna just thank the administration
for listening to those comments and providing that.
I mean, especially because this is a lot of money
that's being requested at 16.8 million dollars.
My other question is just,
when it comes to the funding source,
there is a number of equipment funds noted.
Are these tied to the general fund or where are we getting this revenue that goes into
each of these funding codes?
Through the chair, thank you for the question.
The majority of the funding is going to be from within the 4100 Fund Equipment Services
Internal Service Fund.
But as I mentioned, some of the other expenditures could come from other department fundings.
And just as an example, we've got clean energy fuels.
There are renewable natural gas provider.
Multiple departments will be contributing to that particular line item.
When it comes to enterprise rent a car, again, most of the rental cars come from external departments using the equipment services contract.
Golden state emergency vehicle service and
State Fire Apparatus Incorporated. Oakland Fire Department utilizes that
vendor as well. Hunt and Sons, they're bulk lubricant primarily that's in
equipment services but other departments purchase off that as well. Same with
LACAL equipment, Lear Auto equipment, their patrol vehicle equipment upfitting
and supplies. I'm not going to read them all. Telepath, again Motorola products so
we're talking about the MDTs, the mobile data terminals and potentially radios
those for OPD. So the 16 million is not all within the 4100 fund equipment services fund.
It will be utilized by other departments as well.
Okay. Yes. Yes. And because public works is essentially almost like a provider of fleet,
you know, maintenance, all of that across the departments. And I gather that from this
report. I think I really do want to dig into this whole hiring crisis that we're having.
I don't know if this is the correct way to estimate the billable labor hours, so it states
in the report 52,300 billable labor hours. If we take 16.8 million and divide that, that's
That's $321 per hour.
That probably doesn't account for the cost of purchasing certain equipment and all of
that.
So I want to acknowledge that as flawed math, but to your own point, it's 150% higher than
compared to doing that in-house.
One of the things that HR has pointed out is, or from their perspective, let's call
it that, that departments have not been submitting requisitions.
Do you have a perspective on that coming from the public work side of things?
I noted in the HR vacancy report that Public Works has an 18% or 17% to 18% vacancy rate
and what is preventing the hiring of more of these positions into Public Works?
Yeah, thank you for the question through the chair.
And I think it's a staffing, a resource limitation, at DHRM.
Our requisitions are in, frankly, sometimes before the employees even departed if we try
to get them to issue us a letter of resignation.
It's very important.
We track it very closely in Public Works and actually had a meeting about it this morning
just to ensure that we weren't dropping the ball.
That being said, DHRM is overwhelmed by the significant number of vacancies.
when faced with a challenge like this,
I think you just have to tackle it at the beginning
and work through it to the end.
There's staffing augmentation.
Obviously, we can't staff for peaks.
We're in the same situation in public works.
So we try to have additional resources like some
of these vendors you see here.
They accommodate peak need within public works, especially
the equipment services shop.
Perhaps there's some sort of an arrangement with the HRM
or some sort of alliances with other municipalities
And so.
I think that's about as creative as in the area who maybe aren't in the same boat I kind of feel like everybody is in the same boat though.
So those that's about as creative as I can get in my an expert opinion I think the HR am is is doing a fantastic job with the resources that they've got but they just need some help so they can help us.
Okay.
Thank you.
thirty-two vendors couldn't find their addresses are there Oakland vendors
through the chair councilmember Houston we on the table in here I think we
noted three or without when within Oakland I was hoping we would have the
actual municipality in which these vendors are located because quite a few
of them are in close proximity to Oakland but this is something we're
paying a lot of attention to and I don't want to divert too much from this
agenda report. But moving forward you're going to see more RFPs coming out of our
shop and less co-op. The co-op you're limited to the vendor that's
established that contract already either with another municipality which probably
means it's not within Oakland or a government purchasing organization a GPO
such as SourceWell or HGAC. Going to the RFP model we found is actually faster
than working co-ops through the procurement process and it will give
more opportunities for Oakland-based business to bid on these contracts, because we want
Oakland-based vendors supporting us, hopefully, as much, if not more, than you.
And I know you're the strongest advocate, I've seen so far, for local Oakland-based
businesses.
Thank you.
I just wanted to know, because I was looking at these, and we're going to be talking about
it later on today at Life Enrichment.
So thank you for your service.
Councilmember Gayle.
Yes.
the members of the council here that are new to the council, can you share with us right
now are we still leasing the public works yard from the Sink family for three to five
million a year? Because at one time we were trying to merge with the Oakland Unified
Facilities Department because they have the land and the space, but politically we got
And mixed up with that so how much are we still paying for the lease of that property to help our vehicles and everything there?
Yeah through the chair
I don't know the number off the top of my head, and I'm not sure of the property owner, but that's correct
We lease the properties at 5050 Coliseum at 750 50th as well
I can get you that information
Shortly after this meeting if you like if you could share that with the council members that would be so we have an understanding
the cost and the value when it comes to having a clean city what we're investing in all right
thank you okay remind me where we are we need to hear our speakers public speakers right let's do
that thank you and i call your name please approach the podium zach fayer and missus sada
zach yes they're your fathers um i'm here i'm j 50 cal see him drive i don't know about you but
Sheldon Alden Anderson's generation skipping the state wasn't enough to keep the Raiders
Zodas and Dolores with the of John foundation was enough to keep days
how much we wondered and
Girls basketball team wasn't a commercial developer enterprise and took the 49ers championships away because of it
How this is wondered as the see the Eaton Johnson control semen I can't believe I've been asking this for over eight effing years
To this board into this city
How this is wonder to the management and allocation an lkq you can scrap that more how that is wondered more
appropriately what I wondered as the lw our reactors as a 7 12 7
1780 compared to 13 20 lw our PWR based a pebble based reactor and natural gas
This community could do a hell of a lot better job
When this is an allocation the other thing that I asked this community consider
we do not
How the military base is wonder to diesel mechanic base jobs all of diesel mechanic base programs at the city of Alameda
College at Berkeley College at a US F F College have been taken away and have been earmarked. I can show that
How that is wonder to the oasis commercial development to Ledera I did propose with a five and an eight senior housing and
a
Residential housing and using the back application fixed fire trucks and diesel mechanic based program as a question
I did propose that I did petition that as a county as a commercial developer. I
Again, ask that that be understood
So this is an item that is called up
cooperative purchase agreement.
And what does that mean?
It means you're going to spend over $16 million by bypassing the solicitation process.
The solicitation process gives you an opportunity to look at cost comparative components, the
possibility of spending less, and the possibility of having a better quality product.
You're eliminating that to say we're just going to go with what we have without a performance
evaluation of what you have.
You also have, like you questioned, you have 33 vendors, only three are Oakland vendors.
Of the 33 vendors, 16 contracts have expired.
So what you're doing is you're giving money to companies that have a contract, the contract
has not expired, but you're giving them additional money.
You also have, like in the case of Calline Equipment, that contract ended September 30th,
2025.
When it ended, you had not used $15,513.
All of these contracts, if you look at the data provided to you, they were given a contract
for a certain amount of money.
They didn't spend all of the money.
They still have money left from the existing original contract, but you are now given more
money even though they haven't spent the money that they originally were given.
This doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense.
So thank you for your comment, Mr. Sotto.
That concludes your public speaker for item six.
Councilmember Houston, you have another question.
It just, I just wanted to making some notes and this through the chair.
Do we say three are from Oakland and the other 30 aren't?
Was that what I just want to make sure I got these numbers right in my head when I'm writing
these notes down.
There's a table in the agenda report that indicates that I looked at it right now.
There's three that indicate they're from Oakland of the 33.
So that bothers me.
I mean, yeah, okay.
Thank you.
Council Member Wong.
Hi.
Thanks to the chair.
Funny thing, I was starting to scrutinize those same timelines, Mrs. Sada.
I just want to make sure because, again, this is a lot of money that is being asked for.
I'm just looking at the first line.
For example, we've got asset works.
It says that the end date is August 31, 2026.
That's in a couple of months.
The amount used at a one point about $2 million contract is 694,000.
They still have a balance, and there's a proposed increase.
I don't see this being noted in the report.
we extending the timelines for this or is are we giving more money to the vendor
and their contract end date is still going to be the same here of August 31st
yeah thank you for the question through the chair just to clarify adding
contract capacity to a contract is not committing to spending with the vendor
it's giving us the ability to make those expenses should we need to do so and we
cannot increase an expired contract, we can't take any action on it. So I would
assume including with the increase is also an extension of that contract, but
I don't have the information here in front of me, and I do believe that these
contract renewal processes were started a significant time ago. So some contracts
were at the verge of expiring, some expired while we're working through the
process. And then to the point where we are moving to an RFP model. Let me say that again. We are moving to an RFP model. The co-op model is
too time consuming. Frankly, contracts that the council approved back in December 2025, including the ABC security contract that's set
to it was just an extension until June. That just got approved this month in April and we have others that haven't. So the co-op
process just isn't working for our unit so we are moving definitely to the RFP
model which will increase hopefully Oakland based company participation and
thus awards to Oakland based companies okay all right and so just just to be
crystal clear asset works will continue to do approval of this resolution means
that asset works for example will continue to do work for the city of
for the public works departments after August 31st, 2026.
Yeah, absolutely.
Through the chair,
AssetWorks is our fleet information system provider
and provider of our automated fueling equipment
where operators don't have to key in numbers or use cards,
the sensors on the truck.
So this is a vendor we've been committed to.
They're pretty much incorporated
into our day-to-day operation.
The fleet information system that issues
all of our work orders that integrates
with our GPS system, that's all provided by AssetWorks.
So they're not gonna go away anytime soon
and we're not gonna start spending
additional funding with them.
We just don't want to have to keep coming back
to the committee and council because we didn't ask
for a significant enough contract increase.
This is a lot of work to do these 33 contracts,
as you can imagine.
We can't return every year trying to renew these.
Okay, thank you for the clarification.
Councilmember Gayo?
Yes, I'd like to make a motion
to approve staff's recommendation
and I appreciate the work
and let's get the work done on the streets.
Thank you.
I will second the motion.
Thank you.
We do have a motion made by Councilmember Gayo,
seconded by Chair Unger,
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the May 5th,
2026 City Council Agenda.
Councilmember Gayo?
Aye.
Councilmember Houston?
No.
Councilmember Wong aye and chair under I we do have three eyes and one no
Houston to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the
May 5th 2026 City Council agenda and that will be on non-consent thank you
moving to item 7 adopt a resolution 1 amending resolution number 88379 to
increase the Professional Services Agreement for Architectural and Engineering Design Services
with K2A, Mary McGrath, Associated Architects for the Fire Station 29 Project,
but an amount not to exceed $700,000, bringing the total contract amount from
$1,800,000 to $2,500,000. Two, waiving the competitive request for proposal and qualification
requirements and three adopting appropriate CEQA findings and you do
have one speaker for this item. All right let's hear from staff please. Good
morning Chair Unger members of the committee. My name is Alan Chan. I'm the
current Public Works Project Manager for this item. Back in 2020 the city
authorized K2A Mary McGrath Architects a joint venture local and small local
business firm to design a new 16,000 square foot replacement on a city owned
parcel at 90566 Avenue. That contract was for an amount of $1.8 million.
Since then, the city directed the architect team to take on work that
wasn't part of the original scope, utility relocation studies, environmental
clearances, a significant level of community engagement that went beyond
the scope, six community engagement sessions, a design workshop, 16 advisory
meetings. After the community engagement was done and design was underway, the
The state and the city executed an agreement for the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative to construct a fiber hut on the project site.
That agreement required us to pause design, conduct additional environmental review, and
we coordinate the site civil and utility engineering.
We accommodated the state's initiative because East Oakland has some of the lowest broadband connectivity rates in the city.
And this project site was identified as a critical investment, critical node in the
state's network.
The delay was necessary to co-locate two public investments on one city-owned parcel, a new
fire station and broadband infrastructure serving a community that needs both.
On top of all of that, the 2026 building code cycle required a structural and energy redesign
and overhaul of the fire station.
Additionally, we also had a large swath of easement conflicts on the site that needed new plats and legals.
This $700,000 covers replenishment of fee slated for design support during construction that was consumed by the additional scope.
Additionally, the new fee covers the code redesign, the easement work, and cost escalation from the extended schedule.
We're also requesting the waiver of the competitive RFP process because K2A,
Mary McGrath Architects, was competitively selected in 2020 for
the Planning, Design, and Construction Administration of the fire station.
Bringing in a new firm at this point would delay the project and cost the city more money.
Design is currently at 65%, and that concludes my talking points, and
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Excellent, questions from my council colleagues.
Councilmember Houston I like to move the item okay I'll second it and we can
hear from our public speakers please mr. Sada I'm sorry I was just telling your
staff member how great our presentation was on the encampment policy yes you did
a nice job all right I'm concerned about this property in district six let me see
if I got this right y'all I'm sorry I'm sorry to get y'all off I'm sorry
There's some deficiencies at this station, lack of adequate space, seismic resilience,
deferred maintenance, reasons why the system has deteriorated so long as because we haven't
been effective in maintaining the property.
That's an issue.
And so we can't avoid that.
The code requirements that are going to have to be put in place, can the report reduce
the cost that's involved in that code requirement issue?
The other thing is the design and construction administration, you have a design method that
I forget the name for it, design lease, design bill, with one of them limits change orders.
And as the city starts using that method, because that method brings in the contractor
and the designer, they complete their role, then you bring it to the council with a price,
and you can agree on the price, or not agree on the price, but you don't wait for the project
to proceed with all of these change orders.
And so, you look like you know what I'm talking about.
And I know this because the school board does this, okay?
All right, that's the only thing.
Trying to think of ways of money that can be saved
if we use a design method that is starting
to be used frequently to eliminate excessive change orders.
Thank you to our speakers.
I think we're ready to vote.
We have a motion made by Councilmember Houston,
seconded by chair younger to approve the recommendations of staff and this
before to the May 5th 2026 City Council agenda on roll Councilmember Gallo
councilmember Houston I thank you councilmember Wong I and chair onger I
this motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and
the forward this item to the May 5th City Council agenda and through the body
with that beyond consent or non-consent consent please thank you moving to item
Receive an information report on the status of city compliance with the municipal regional
storm water permit trash reduction requirements and you do have two speakers for this item.
All right let's hear from our staff please.
This is Ben Livesey, watershed program specialist in the watershed and storm water management
division of the public works department.
I have a short presentation for you today.
As directed by this committee each year we provide a progress update on the municipal
regional stormwater permit trash reduction requirements, changes to these requirements,
and any forecasted challenges ahead on meeting future requirements.
I'll refer to the permit as the MRP in this presentation.
Trash on the streets of Oakland can be washed into the storm drain system and end up in
waterways such as Cortland Creek and Lake Merritt where it affects both water quality
and aquatic life, such as those shown in the picture of Lake Merritt at the bottom of this
slide.
The MRP is issued by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and requires
the city to prevent pollution from entering waterways through the city's storm drains.
The city takes enormous efforts to meet these regulations, not just for water quality, but
also for the quality of life of the citizens of Oakland.
Last fiscal year, the city achieved the 100% trash reduction compliance requirement.
However, the MRP became more stringent this fiscal year and now it eliminates several
trash reduction categories the city has relied upon including product bans such as plastic
bags, a problematic litter source, phases out other categories such as volunteer creek
and shoreline cleanups, and credits for illegal dumping and homeless encampment abatement
cleanups. Based on these reductions in trash compliance credits, we currently
stand at seventy nine point three percent. It should be noted here that on
page one of the agenda report, it incorrectly lists our current trash
reduction status as 75.1. We expect to reach 85.1 at the end of this
reporting year, which is short of the hundred percent trash reduction
requirement. At the end of 2025, we provided a status update to the regional
Water Board, as required by the MRP, and let them know we needed more time to
achieve compliance with the 100% trash reduction benchmark. Staff
have been working with the Regional Water Board and expect that we will have
until December of 2030 to achieve the 100% trash reduction benchmark. To
achieve compliance, we plan on expanding existing trash reduction programs such
as illegal dumping and street sweeping, installing 300 to 525 additional small
trash capture devices in the storm drain system, and in partnership with Caltrans
installing three more large trash capture systems. An ongoing challenge
for the city is the maintenance of hundreds of trash capture devices to
prevent clogging, continued implementation of existing trash cleanup
efforts in adapting to future regulations.
So how is compliance determined?
The 100% trash reduction compliance benchmark is related to a trash generation rate developed
in 2009.
Trash generation is a term to describe the levels of trash deposited onto land areas
that could potentially be transported to storm drain systems and waterways.
For example, the picture on the right shows trash in the curb and gutter that during rain
events would be washed into the storm drain and deposited to water bodies such as Lake
Merritt and the Oakland Estuary.
Here is what the baseline trash map looks like.
Each color corresponds to a trash generation level.
Red is very high, orange high, yellow moderate, and green low.
The trash generation rate for every part of the city was calculated using a formula
that includes land use classifications, median household income, and observed trash levels.
As you can see, areas of high density, commercial land uses, and transit corridors such as Market
Street, Grand Avenue, and West MacArthur generate very high levels of trash.
At the end of 2025, we provided, sorry, new actions such as the installation of trash
capture devices or enhanced online activities such as illegal dumping and other litter cleanup
efforts are compared against this benchmark to determine MRP compliance credits.
The city must install additional trash capture devices to achieve the 100 percent trash load
reduction requirement.
We install large devices such as the one shown on the upper right under Mandela Parkway
completed in 2024 that removes trash from a 600 acre area.
The picture on the bottom right shows a large trash capture device with significant amounts
of beverage containers and food fast food debris that would otherwise be transported
to water bodies.
As discussed the city will be installing three additional large trash capture devices in
the next few years with Caltrans funding. Here you can see an example of a
small trash capture device called a connector pipe screen. The trash flows
into the device and clean stormwater flows out. These small screens are
secured in storm drain inlets and while they are relatively cheap to install,
they clean smaller areas and have a high maintenance cost compared to larger
devices. The city receives a large amount of trash reduction credit, currently 56.1,
from existing programs such as those listed on the slide. To calculate trash
reduction credit in this category, the city must conduct online visual trash
assessments of streets and sidewalks and compare the results against the 2009
baseline trash levels discussed earlier. Actions the city takes, such as legal
dumping abatement and street sweeping result in cleaner conditions providing
valuable trash reduction credit.
As described earlier, we expect to be at 85.1% this incoming reporting year based on full
trash capture device installations and continued implementation of other land control, trash
control measures.
We would need to make up 14.9% trash reduction credit by 2030.
There are many challenges to achieving and maintaining 100% trash reduction benchmark.
One challenge will be to maintain hundreds of trash capture devices two times per year
in high and very high trash generating areas.
Another will be to maintaining the existing level of effort for on-land cleanup actions
such as illegal dumping, abatement, and street-souping.
Finally, the Regional Water Board is working on the next iteration of the MRP provisions
in this new permit could impose more costly requirements to track and prevent trash and
storm water.
If you want to learn more about trash reduction compliance programs or other actions the city
is taking to meet the MRP, you can read through our MRP annual reports posted on our website.
These annual reports provide a comprehensive summary of how the city is doing in meeting
its storm water quality regulations.
Thank you.
I'm happy to answer any questions you have.
That's great.
I like the sound of 100% trash reduction.
Colleagues, questions?
Councilmember Gallo?
Yes, thank you for that information. I tend to walk with my family at least once a week at Lake Merritt and known Lake Merritt for a lifetime and certainly haven't seen it at this condition that it is today.
It was always the jewel of Oakland. It was the cleanest, safest location that we can take our children and families to walk around it day in, day out, the lighting and all that other and we...
Anyway, so what what is
What what is holding us?
I mean the trash in the water as you walk around the lake is out of control
around the whole lake and
What is it that we need to do to bring it back to a condition where it was clean on the regular basis?
Yeah, yeah
Thank you councilmember Gaia
for lake merit specifically we prioritize the
Installation of additional small trash capture units throughout the city
Based on trash reduction credit we can receive we will be citing that will be between three to five hundred and twenty five
Additional trash capture units some of which would be around Lake Merit
Of course those trash capture units only capture trash that goes through the storm drain system as you know around Lake Merit
We have the walking path and the biking path where sometimes trash is directly deposited in the lake. Yeah, we also have a
Work with the Lake Merit Institute who helps to remove trash and through the volunteer network
So hopefully over time we can you know work towards creating that jewel that you speak of back to that condition
You know working with the volunteers is that on schedule because it used to be that
You would see us on a boat on a regular basis cleaning it up
Right picking up the bottles the trash all from Lake Merit
So I'd like to, you know, if you can share that with us, I'd like to go back and join that effort
You know that you would have volunteers
Cleaning it up so it doesn't look as bad as it is today
Anyways, thank you. I look forward to working with you on that project. Thank you. Thank you
Council member Wong
Thank you, by the way, this presentation was very well put together. I think the visuals really help
illustrate what your intent is.
I do have a question, so in 2024,
since this is related to the EPA,
the EPA fined us about $280,000
because we were dumping raw sewage into our waterways.
Has that been resolved?
Through the chair, this is Jimmy Mott,
Acting Assistant Director.
My permanent position as a principal self-engineer
in charge of the sewer program.
It was actually a 2014 sewer consent decree
that we started with the EPA
as well as the State Water Control Board.
And right now we're still in the middle of the consent decree.
It ends in 2036.
We're currently fully pretty much compliant
with the annual goals that we have
with maybe a little bit of a shortfall
in rehabilitation of our sewer system.
but we're constantly working on replacing our pipes
and reducing sanitary sewer overflows
through the maintenance program.
It's an annual report that we also provide
and look out for an upcoming informational report
about the consent decree progress.
Great, thank you, I look forward to that presentation.
And then the next question I just have is around,
so I have issues in my district,
I will say that large swaths of District Two
were in that red, in that map that you showed.
Again, alarming, but very helpful and informative.
But where the trash is actually accumulating
over the storm drain, and so it's not actually
even getting into the storm drain itself,
and what it's causing is flooding.
And I get concerned because it is dangerous,
because you see cars have to drive out of the way.
It's this kind of safety concern I have.
So do you all have plans or how can we solve that type
of trash that remains at the surface?
Yeah, so through some of our online cleanup efforts
such as street sweeping that would get the trash
from that curb and gutter area that could prevent
some of that clogging, our drainage maintenance department
does address the need to inspect every storm drain
throughout the city once per year.
And so hopefully over time that could reduce flooding,
as well as when flooding does occur,
citizens should report it through our 311 system
to make sure that we're aware of that.
And we also have our Adopt a Drain network
where citizens can adopt a drain
and essentially help to keep it clean to prevent flooding.
Okay, I do not know about these programs.
And they basically adopt a drain to help maintain it
and clean up the trash that accumulates over these drains.
Yeah, so both the trash and leaf and other debris
that could clog the actual drop inlet structure
and develop flooding problems.
And it sounds like there is no existing technology
or infrastructure improvements that can help
solve that issue other than what you've just named.
Hello, through the chair, thank you Chair Unger.
I'm Terri Fashing, I'm the division manager
for the watershed and storm water division.
We are working on a storm drainage master plan right now
where we're really looking at the entire
storm drainage system and identifying locations
where the pipes are undersized
and then recommending projects to increase capacity.
So sometimes we do, it is a capacity issue
and then other times it could be a clogging issue, you know?
And it really just depends on where in the system
are. But we will be our plan is to complete that study and we'll be
presenting to the council on that. We'll actually provide a bit of an update I
think in June, but then the full results of that plan and that study will be
provided probably in early 2027. Okay, Dr. thank you so much. Councilmember Houston.
yes thank you through the chair is you guys did a trash collection or Kerry
Avenue in D7 and it's right around the address of what 659 carry with a C my
question was like supervisor Nate Marley always says that illegal dumping has no
boundaries and always say that illegal dumping is a crime against my community
and not like like you know Lake Merritt and other areas that are further up
their illegal dumping is a little different than District 5 6 and 7 right
so I wanted to find out do you guys identify the items that are collected so
we'll know contaminated and hazardous items that are collected and on that
collection that was on carry was that the smaller one or the larger one?
Through the chair, thank you for the question.
Yeah, so on Carey Avenue, it was a large
trash capture device that does capture
trash that goes through the storm drain system.
For illegal dumping materials, you know,
some of that cannot get into the storm drain system.
Maybe it's large mattresses or
even refrigerators, other things.
And so when, keep Oakland clean and beautiful,
when they do pick up illegal dumping piles,
they do do things to characterize that
power to identify things that could be hazardous that the Oakland Fire Department might need
to deal with.
So the trash capture device on Kerry Avenue is a large trash capture device, but it only
captures trash that goes through the storm drain system.
So through the chair, let me educate you just a little bit, not in a bad way, just in a
good way.
The things that are dumped, the needles, the batteries, the best those, all these things
go up.
I mean, I have data to back that up, right?
I wanted to know all those things are small things that go in the drain.
I've cleaned them out, right.
I use the sweat process with the bottles and the strainers and things like that.
And I know it's collected because it's going through the actual drain.
And when I pull out the screen, you have needles, you have batteries,
you have chipping, a besto, so whatever.
All these hazardous and contaminated.
So I wanted to know the things that do go through those drains.
You know, the oils, the so.
see my district is totally different like I said no boundaries they have no boundaries right
what they dump so I wanted to know those items that are collected that the the small items
are they identified on what is actually being dumped near the drains that are being collected
so we'll have that data because data is everything I've I worked with the county
and they made me do everything with data right so is that data collected so we know what's being
And so we do have that
material, we do have that data
in the past through the
municipal regional stormwater
program.
And we do have a lot of
information on that.
We do have a lot of information
on the type of events that
have been dumped and collected
in my district, which is a
crime against my community.
Through the chair, thank you
for your question, council
member.
We don't characterize on an
individual cleanup event what
types of trash are in that.
We do collect information on
permit. We did studies on the types of trash that we see on the street, whether
it's plastic bags, cigarette butts, food, fast food containers, things of that
nature. That was done on a region-wide level, so the nine barrier counties that
encompass the San Francisco Bay region. That has been done in the past, but we do
not collect the information that you're speaking to on the individual cleanup
event, what types of material that we're finding.
Okay, what, through the chair, when you said cleanup event, does that mean what's collected
and gathered out of that unit?
Through the chair, yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, let's hear from our public speakers, please.
Mrs. Sada and Kevin Dahle.
So when I was volunteering at McLean and speaking of trash, there was a homeless
person across the street with a camper and he would use the drain as his
bathroom waste disposal system and so his human waste was going in there and
at some point it created a stench that was horrible so I'm saying all of that
to say from that experience I'm assuming that it's a possibility that we have
have from our homeless community and maybe others,
human waste going into those drains.
And is that a issue for concern health-wise,
contamination of the waters-wise?
I don't know.
I think a little bit more work can be done
because I was gonna offer that we need to create
like Oakland Beautiful, you know, clean your drain.
But he's saying there's a program, I didn't know about it.
But maybe we need to do a little bit more outreach
people. I have a drain outside my house and whenever I go out, I look for trash and I
look at the drain. If there's something there, I pick it up. That's automatic. But we gotta
change the culture of responsibility of our people who live in this city that you contribute
to helping to keep this city clean and safe. It's just not the city's responsibility. And
once you take on that responsibility, we're gonna have a whole lot more effectiveness.
The concern in the report, it says that staff are confident that the compliance target will
be met.
However, maintaining compliance targets will be challenging since there is not adequate
or sustainable funds for ongoing maintenance of underground full trash capture.
So it looks like the report is saying we got a funding component that we need to deal with
and how will we deal with it?
Hi, Kevin dally
Appreciate the report in Glenview. Some of the storm drains don't have greats
They just have horizontal bars that are many inches apart
I think that's more likely to lead to trash going into the storm drain
It's also risk to cyclists and pedestrians because you suddenly have a multi-inch drop on what looks like smooth asphalt
I know that not only Glenview has those
Around East 38. I've seen them in Rockridge as well and I suspect quite a few other neighborhoods
Are they going to be replaced as?
Oakland goes through this storm train improvement
process thanks
Okay, I would like to move this item I second it
Councilmember guy. Oh, would you have a comment?
It's mayor of the city. He hired me to be the parks manager for the city and but he said no
Well, I'm gonna locate you at Lake Merritt
I want Lake Merritt to be the cleanest safest spot in the city of Oakland
But I'm gonna give you a pickup truck and every day you got to come back for your pickup truck loaded with stuff
You picked up from Lake Merritt
So I think we got to get into that attitude that if I'm there working at the lake
We got to maintain it because even the park rangers used to help me keep the lake clean
But I you know, it's
By getting back our personnel that's sitting there make sure that that lake is clean daily
Because that you know the people that I see walking when I'm out there walking
many some come from out of town, but most of them are with children and families and and we got to have a
Safe clean lake to enjoy and I'll be happy to work with you on that. Thank you
Okay, we have a motion made by councilmember Unger chair Unger excuse me
Seconded by councilmember Houston to receive and file this in the public works and transportation committee on roll councilmember guy
Oh, I councilmember Houston. Hi. Thank you councilmember Wong
I and chair Unger
I just motion passes with four eyes to receive and file this in the public works and transportation committee moving to open the forum
Thank you very much thank you
for your time Mr Sada Kevin
dolly and Zach there.
Well let's go back to the tree
issue that we're dealing with
in May some things I took notes
on it was stated that the fire
department don't know what I'm
talking about the trees that
the guys being charged in the
hunt nine hundred thousand
dollars fine the trees were the
owner was told that they had
The property has erosion issues because it has been neglected based on this issue not been timely met with.
The issue of race.
This is property owned by two people, a black man and a white woman, but we keep alluding to the black man being at fault and not holding the white woman accountable because she's owner of the property as well.
The property is identified as residential, okay?
The neighbors acted, this something is wrong because the owner wasn't accountable to them
when they asked questions. After 23 trees were cut, no action was taken. So we had trees cut
that the public works department should have intervened and we wouldn't have 30 something
trees cut. The notice of violation did not happen until July of 2025 because the planning department
identified that this issue had to be dealt with.
Didn't come from Public Works, planning department notified Public Works.
The property owner has been paying the vacancy tax because you wouldn't allow him to bill on it,
but because his property is vacant and you made him pay the vacancy tax, okay?
Not clear if the property can be used for property development.
It's residential, but you're acting like you're going to have to replace those trees as a part of the fine payment.
The city did not have a direct measurement method.
You used an assessment method.
You didn't use the official method for coming up with the fine.
And you came up with three different...
That concludes your public speakers for open forum.
All right.
I believe we are adjourned.
Thank you, everyone.