Good afternoon. Good afternoon or welcome to the City Council meeting of Tuesday May 5th
Happy Cinco de Mayo
Before I go over speaker card instruction. I mean before I call roll
I will go over speaker card instructions if you'd like to speak on any agenda item you must fill out a speaker's card
You must fill out a speaker's card before the item is called for discussion or two hours after the start of the meeting
This meeting was called to order at 3 35
So your last opportunity to turn in the speakers card will be 535 p.m. Today or before the item is called for discussion
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And turn and get into one of the ladies at the other table
Before the item is called or if you were looking to turn in an online speaker card that time has passed as they were due
24 hours before the start of this meeting on roll today
councilmember brown present councilmember five councilmember Gallo Bresson
also member Houston present councilmember Ramachandran present councilmember
Unger present councilmember Wong present and share Jenkins present showing eight
members present at this time do you have any announcements yes because of the
amount of speakers and our need to conduct the business of the city the
speaker time will be cut to one minute. Thank you going to item three which is
modifications to the agenda and procedural items. Do we have any
modifications? Councilmember Houston. Modifications to the agenda. You are out
of order. That's your first warning. You're out of order. Yes sir. That's your
first warning. The second warning you will be asked to leave. Councilmember
Houston police yes I like to pull s six point two five off the consent to non
consent please so according to our rules of procedure you need a second is there
anyone else that will pull s six point two five off a non consent to non
consent okay so six point two five will be on non consent we will hear that for
On item six point two.
After five point two.
We'll put it.
After five point two.
Noting item six point two five will be after item five point
two.
Going any is that the only.
Council member hunger.
Just want to double check again to the parliamentarian six
point eight the parking administrator this is the
same item six point two.
the parking administrator this is the same issue
as the last time that we couldn't change the title
but we're not actually doing anything
with a parking administrator position?
Yes, correct, through the chair to Council Member Unger.
The title that appears on the agenda does not change
but that change is reflected in the legislation
so it was removed.
Great, thank you.
So as an update, there will be 90 seconds
as opposed to one minute speaking time.
90 seconds as opposed to one minute.
Your warning is removed.
through the chair just a second Teresa and Crystal I'm sorry Teresa and
Candace this is 90 seconds instead of the minute instead of two minutes
I'm in it in 30 seconds going to item 4.1 conduct a public hearing and upon
conclusion adopted resolution finding Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner owners
of record of assessor parcel number 488 7 6 7 2-18 in violation of open municipal
code chapter 1 2.36 by illegally removing 38 protected trees as said
parcel in opposing a penalty per chapter twelve point three six point one five
zero of the open municipal code of a total sum of nine hundred and fifteen
hundred and thirty five dollars and forty cents to place on hold any building
permits and place a lien for said property until this penalty is paid in
full we have 26 speakers on this item is there a presentation from staff good
afternoon chair Jenkins and members of the council I'm Kristin Hathaway
assistant director for Public Works with Bureau of Environment I did not prepare
a new presentation. I can recap some of the information that staff presented last time.
So we're here for a violation of chapter 12.36 of the protected trees ordinance. The ordinance
specifies what trees are protected and the removal permit process enforcement and penalties
for violating this ordinance. We're here because on no less than seven separate occasions,
Matthew Bernard, the co-owner of a parcel on Claremont Avenue
acted in violation of this ordinance
by repeatedly removing trees
and removed a total of 38 protected trees
on his and neighboring properties without a tree permit.
Mr. Bernard was notified multiple times
in person and in writing of the ordinance
and its requirement, including the necessity
of applying for and obtaining a tree removal permit
before removing any protected trees.
Mr. Bernard acted in direct violation of direction
from city staff to cease doing so.
And the tree division called Oakland Police Department
to the site and filed police reports.
Our adopted protected trees ordinance recognizes
the value of such trees and the critical services
that they provide.
And now that all 38 trees have been removed
There's increased fire risk and risk of land slide and other hazards we process approximately over 300 tree removal permits annually and we calculated that the value of the trees that were moved per the formula in our ordinance and as a result staff recommended that the city impose a penalty in a total sum of nine hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and thirty-five dollars and forty cents.
to pay out the costs of the
property expense and to place a
hold on the issuance of any
approvals or permits for said
parcel and to place a lien on
the property until the penalty
is paid per own sea chapter 12.
Three six I'm available for any
questions.
Thank you is property owner
available can we to the clerk's
can we put five minutes on the
clock please.
Come on up Mr. Bernard.
here. In August 2020 we received the city fire prevention bureau notice
requiring removal of hazardous vegetation within 45 days. We immediately
contacted the city and followed instructions to obtain permit
application. We paid the required $434.20 fee, which is city
cash, but we never received a receipt, nor a tree tax, nor any follow-up, despite
been told that a receipt would confirm compliance. In June 2021, the condition was, and we submitted
a second application through Julian Treas and reported an emergency through Oak 311.
Now, this particular point is quite almost like the critical part.
After the Oak 311 call in June 2021, Mr. Todd Larson of the city
scheduled an on-site inspection on June 7, 2021.
But he later canceled it and advised that a waiver was not necessary based on a phone assessment.
Effectively, we're drawing the inspection and my needed waiver.
Here's how it actually happened.
on the morning of June 7, 2021, we all know that we can't reach the 3D vision by any
phone number, office phone number, not your cell phone. So he had my phone number and he called me
and he asked, were the trees still standing? I said, yes, Mr. Larson, if they were not standing,
I won't be calling and requesting for a tree waiver. And he said, do they look green? I said,
some part look green and some look brown, but they're at risk of falling. Then I said, okay,
based on what I I told him on the phone a tree waiver is not necessary and so we need to withdraw
the tree waiver and we also we also need to cancel the site visit. So basically it's like
trying to do the right thing at the beginning city's telling me you this is not what you do.
Then, on June 16, 2021, we obtained a licensed arborist,
we had a licensed arborist's expected property
and recommended the removal of the eight streets
due to being dead, dying, leaning,
hazardous condition including fire and fall risk.
Now based on the city's action including direction
for Mr. Todd Larson, lack of response,
and the city's, the arborist's report,
We recently believed that we were in compliance
and proceeded to remove only those eight hazardous trees.
We dispute the claim that there are 38 trees removed.
The property is only about 11,787 square foot hillside lot
where several trees are falling prior to our purchase
and other trees fell during storms through 2020,
from 2020 through 2022.
We know in January it rains a lot here
and those streets fall around that time.
Also, the area canopy analysis
and counting the stops on the ground can't be reliable.
In particular, the storms were now counted
right after the trees were removed.
And counting these storms four years later
doesn't distinguish pre-existing conditions,
natural tree loss and overlapping canopy structures.
The only verifiable trees that were removed
are the one that identify by a licensed arborist,
which is documented.
At this point, I believe we have taken good faith
follow city instructions, rely on city communications,
while addressing documented safety hazards.
I would like to propose a resolution
where I hereby request the opportunity
to replant trees after construction
when the site is stable and suitable,
with a plan developed in coordination
with the city's planning and building department
under the oversight of this city council.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Bernard.
Let's go to the public speakers.
If there's no questions from my colleagues.
You have a question?
Please proceed.
I needed a question.
Can you call them back up?
From Mr. Bernard.
Mr. Bernard.
Through the chair, do you have pictures
of the fallen trees and the dead trees?
Oh, I presented those in December hearing.
I printed it and I circulated it.
So through the chair, how many dead trees
was there how many falling trees home.
And it's not you got that document and I want to know
through the chair the when we acquired the property we had
we inherited nine fallen trees on the property. And how many
into the chain how many day. I'm sorry.
How many dead trees. Oh home.
You said fall you saw the chair you said nine nine nine
falling trees and we got that and there were there were lots
their trees.
Not at least, through the Chair,
not at least, how many dead trees?
If we factor the eight from the harborist report,
and in January, 2020, about two trees fell,
20 to 21, another two trees fell,
and then fell, and in 2022, four trees fell,
I need 20, 22, four trees fell.
So, two, two, four, that's eight.
Plus, those 18, those eight, that's about 16 already.
So, let's be clear through the chair and let's break it up.
You said there were nine fallen trees.
Yes.
Okay, got it.
Just before we acquired it properly.
Okay, I got it.
It doesn't matter if it's before or after.
Total trees falling?
No.
It would be nine plus.
I know it's 9 falling trees, got it, clear, done with that one.
But that's not the total falling trees, the total falling trees will be 17.
Let me just ask you a direct question please, through the Chair you have 9 falling trees,
we're done with that, how many dead trees, just give me the number please.
For the dead trees that I can categorically say they were dead,
at least those eight from the harbories reports were included.
Those were the eight dead standing trees that-
Okay, eight, got it.
Got it, so that's 16 to 17, okay.
No, eight plus 17, that's 25.
Because there's eight falling trees, 17 falling trees, and there's eight dead trees, that's 25.
I got it, I got it, I got it.
thank you any other questions thank you mr. Benard we'll go to the public
speakers as a car your name please approach the podium in any order please
raise your hand if you are on zoom so I can easily identify you please state your
name before beginning and if you have time seated to you please say that at
the beginning so I can give you your appropriate time and please note if
someone is seating time they must be present in the meeting so whether in the
Room or on Zoom?
Peter Lee, Pat Williams, Brooke Levin,
Emily Wheeler, Sumitra Kalkar,
sorry if I said it incorrectly,
Blair Beekman, Becca Way, Christina Najaro,
Peter Alexander, Mr. Hazard,
Miss Asada Ola Bala, Matthew Bernard,
Lynn Warner.
Ron Lawrence.
Jesse Rosemore.
Ralph Kans.
John D. Bauer.
Kent Wiggener.
Iris Yvonne Gagnis.
Emma Murphree.
Murphree.
Buffalo Sojourn.
Dr. Arash Dhanishzadeh.
Mandalynne Kadera-Redmond.
Rachel O'Leary.
Kevin
I think McWay from TFO
In any order excuse me in any order, please approach the podium. The time is on this screen behind me
Go ahead and begin
approach the podium
Good afternoon Peter Alexander
so I
think this is a wonderful opportunity for the City Council to get together with the federal police here locally because
It seems to me and you can I think a lot of people can verify this
that, similarly, a fellow named Newsom knew ahead of time that the Dew-directed energy weapons were going to destroy tens of thousands of acres of forests full of trees,
and advised his friends in the insurance industry, his cronies in the insurance industry, to withdraw their insurance about a month before all these fires came down, which they knew was going to happen.
So all these people lost their homes let alone tens of thousands of trees if not
hundreds of thousands of trees and they were all burned with millions of acres
so the people could not collect their insurance and rebuild. So here are trees
that were intentionally destroyed and Newsom and his friends knew this in
advance there is plenty of information verifying this all over the place so
everything is seen including all intentions and deceptions all abuse is
seen by the seer the living Lord who wields the sword and there's also an
opportunity for this man here to do something very interesting one of my
nicknames is cactus Pete thank you mr. Alexander your time is up good
Good afternoon, honorable council members,
people of the public, and community members at large.
I am here, my name is Mandeline Kadera-Redman.
I am the executive director with the Oakland Parks
and Recreation Foundation.
We support several different projects
throughout the city of Oakland that support our tree canopy,
greening spaces and parks in collaboration with the city,
several grants and state funded tree planting activities.
You will hear from several of our partners today
from Trees for Oakland who we fiscally sponsor,
as well as some of our other community members
that help us support a healthy tree canopy.
We are here to support the staff's recommendation
to find the full amount and enforce
the protective tree ordinance.
We, our board, wrote a letter.
It was submitted for public record.
That should be available to you,
and our community and some colleagues of mine
will read from that today.
Again, we support the staff's recommendation
to enforce the tree ordinance for this and all,
any time when that is not followed by the law.
Thank you very much.
welcome to the Oakland Parks
and Rec foundation long time
educator in Oakland twenty-five
year teacher no U. S. D. on
behalf of the Oakland parks and
rec foundation we write to urge
the city to fully enforce
existing tree protection
ordinances and associated fines
of a city.
Ordinances only carry meaning when they are consistently in force when violations particularly agree just ones like this are allowed to go under penalize it sends a clear message to the city of Oakland that compliance is optional in this case the property owners repeated disregard for trees services documented misrepresentations and removal of trees beyond their own property reflects behavior that is not only on neighborly but fundamentally anti civic.
the city has both the authority and responsibility to uphold its own standards. Second, the removal
of mature trees creates real and immediate risk beyond any single parcel in Oakland's
hills. Tree canopy plays a critical role in wildfire mitigation. These protections do
not stop at property lines. When trees are removed without oversight, the burden of that
risk is shifted onto neighbors. Research has shown that the vegetation loss in Oakland has
significantly increased erosion and landslide risk over the last several
years according to a US Geological Study that was done in 2020. My colleagues
after me will be reading them. Hello my name is Eris Gagne. I am an arborist with
Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation. I'll be picking up where my
colleague left off. These losses are not easily remedied. The trees removed were
not saplings. They were mature established canopy. Trees of that size
are not commercially available for replacement and even with replanting it
will take depth gates even centuries to restore the ecological and protective
functions that were lost. The scale of the fine reflects this reality. These
trees are in practice irreplaceable within a human lifetime. Studies in
urban forestry confirmed that mature trees provide exponentially greater
ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, air filtration, and cooling.
Fourth, failure to enforce this case sets a dangerous precedent.
If other property owners or developers were to act similarly, Oakland's already vulnerable
urban forests, particularly in the hills, would rapidly decline.
At a time when cities across California are investing heavily in canopy expansion to combat
heat, pollution, and climate impacts, we cannot afford to allow unregulated removal to undermine
that work.
Urban tree canopy has been directly linked to reductions in extreme heat exposure and
and improve public health outcomes, particularly in frontline communities.
Finally, this is a social justice issue.
Enforcement disparities, particularly when well-resourced property owners or developers
are able to skirt regulations, raise serious concerns about equity.
Communities across Oakland, especially in historically disinvested neighborhoods, are
working to build and protect tree canopy as a—
Hello, my name is Emma Murphree.
I'm also with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation.
I'll continue to read the letter.
Tree Canada, or actually I'm gonna read
from the previous sentence, communities across Oakland,
especially in historically disinvested neighborhoods,
are working to build and protect tree canopy
as a matter of public health and environmental justice.
Tree canopy disparities are strongly correlated
with income, race, and health outcomes,
including asthma and heat-related illness.
That work is undermined when rules are not applied
consistently across all actors.
The city should enforce the rules in this case
and all others, including recent large scale removals in West Oakland tied to corporate
property management. Trees are not amenities, they are infrastructure. They mitigate carbon,
reduce extreme heat, filter air pollution, manage storm water, and support physical and
mental health outcomes across our communities. Protecting them requires not only policy,
but also accountability. We respectfully urge the City Council to uphold the staff recommendation
to the full extent of the law. Also, we encourage the City Council to reaffirm the city's commitment
to tree protection ordinances by ensuring
consistent enforcement across all property.
Oakland's urban forest is already under strain.
Strong enforcement today is essential
to ensuring it remains for future generations.
Thank you for your leadership and consideration.
Hi there, my name is Soumitra Kelkar.
I'm a long time Oakland resident
and former OUSD science teacher.
I taught in Oakland public schools for four years
because I want kids in Oakland to have a brighter
and better future to live in.
Having taught at both Skyline and Oakland Tech,
I've seen how profound of a difference
that makes in kids' lives to be surrounded by trees
and birdsong rather than roads, buildings, and astroturf.
I've also seen how access to a healthy living environment
has been so inequitable for so long
that it's seen by some as a trivial luxury
for the wealthy and privileged
rather than a basic necessity that everyone should have.
City Council should uphold their responsibility
to Oakland's children and future inhabitants
and enforce the policies that we already have
to protect the public.
Allowing landowners from outside Oakland
to permanently destroy an irreplaceable part
of our shared living environment
to build a single luxury house
will not solve the housing crisis.
It will set a precedent that will make Oakland
a hotter, louder, and more polluted place,
especially for so many of Oakland's
most marginalized communities
who are already overburdened by the life-altering effects
of the worsening extreme heat and pollution
that trees protect us from.
Failing to enforce the protected tree ordinance
would call into question the city's willingness
to enforce any of the city policies
that exist to protect our communities.
If leaders create policies that are meant
to benefit the public, but then choose not to enforce them,
then what is the point?
I would like to use the rest of my time to point out
that these meetings are often scheduled
during working hours on weekdays,
which is when working class people and young people
who are the most directly affected
by the decisions made here cannot be here.
So please take that into consideration.
Good afternoon and thank you council members.
My name is Rachel O'Leary
and I'm a senior environmental scientist and supervisor
with the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection, CAL FIRE,
with the Urban and Community Forestry Program.
I'm here for a second time to emphasize the necessity
of consistent and thorough enforcement
of the City of Oakland's protected tree ordinance.
As stated in a letter that we submitted to the Council,
CAL FIRE's Urban and Community Forestry Program
has made substantial long-term investments
in Oakland's urban forest to benefit all Oakland residents,
planting over 3,000 trees within the city
through multiple grants,
totaling over $9.8 million in direct grant awards
for projects in this city.
All of these state funded projects were undertaken
to expand urban tree canopy cover in shade,
support biodiversity, enhance climate resilience,
improve public health and environmental equity,
all while strengthening the long term benefits
of the urban forest.
Over 80% of California's urban tree canopy grows
on private property.
The cumulative impact of illegal tree removals extends
beyond immediate canopy loss.
The repeated loss of publicly funded trees
creates a disincentive for future state investment.
When state agencies invest in projects,
we must ensure that funds are directed toward projects
that provide meaningful and lasting public benefit.
For these reasons, Cal Fire respectfully urges
the city of Oakland to maintain and consistently enforce
its protected tree ordinance.
Thank you for your comments.
hi how are you my name is jesse rosemore um i want to bring up how this item is a bit indicative of
the priorities of city council this is the third time that this has been brought up and it's in
prime time which is now 330 instead of five o'clock this contrasts quite a bit to how the eap was
heard how this bypass committee how it was heard at 9 30 um on a on a working day just as the last
speaker said during a work day when most people couldn't come this seems like it was intentional
and the time that's been spent admonishing an immigrant,
having that in contrast to the abbreviated for quorum issues,
apparently time, that was spent using the Trump
administration's grant pass ruling
to demean the human rights and everything
for our most impacted and poor residents here in the city.
It's really shameful, and I just want you all to think about how
that reflects on all of you in this time of fascism in the United States of America.
You know, I also saw in some of the prior discussions, some indignant speeches by someone
running for reelection, and I don't think it reflected very well on them.
And you know, I'm here for it this time, I brought something like for the case, I think
If you really care about trees, your sunrise endorsement would be renewed.
I don't think that's going to be the case, but that must be kind of tough.
So thank you.
Lawrence, I'm here to talk about the optics of proportional justice in the city of Oakland.
Currently, this body is deliberating whether to soften the blow of a $900,000 fine for
a property owner who willingly clear cut protected trees in direct violation of city ordinance,
you are deciding the intent or hardship justifies reducing the massive penalty for environmental
destruction.
I have a friend who recently had his car stolen.
While it was out of his possession, the city issued him a $75 parking ticket.
He didn't cut down any trees, he was the victim of a crime.
Yet he's appealed the ticket twice to the city and it's been declined.
The irony here is that the system is efficient enough to squeeze $75 out of a crime victim,
but suddenly finds its hands tied when it comes to holding wealthy property owners accountable for nearly a million dollars in damages.
The message this sends to Oakland residents is clear.
You are if you are a regular person caught in a bureaucratic gear the city has no grace
for you but if you commit a high dollar violation that permanently scars our landscape the city
is happy to negotiate.
I urge the city commission to stop looking for ways to reduce this fine if the stolen
car victim can't get a $75 break a developer or an individual who knowingly violates tree
protection laws certainly shouldn't get a discount.
Show us that the law applies to everyone not just those who can afford to fight it.
Hello council members. Thank you for the very substantial deliberation last month
It was it was
It was really important to hear that for me and a resident of Oakland district 7. I
particularly I
Particularly love trees I volunteer with a number of tree planting organizations here in Oakland
And I think it's really important to apply the law to me cutting down the trees as this
unfortunate a gentleman
Did is the same thing as a business picking up?
toxic chemicals and dumping them in the center of
Arroa-Hovial Park. So I think we have to hold up the law, we have to do better.
And doing better in this city is really getting hard. So I really encourage you
to find this gentleman. I just wish he was a white rich person. There was a
number of things brought up the last time which indicated there was a
There's a concern about racism.
I see no racism in this,
but I wish he was a white, rich person.
Thank you, sir.
Can you state your name?
Kent Wegener.
Thank you, Mr. Wegener.
Thank you, council members.
My name is John Bauer.
I've been a volunteer with Trees for Oakland since 2010,
and I emphasize volunteer.
We've planted most of our trees in Oakland's flatlands
and frontline communities since that time.
I believe we've planted more trees
in any other organization in Oakland.
We're happy to continue working with our partners
like Oakland Parks and Rec Foundation and Common Vision
to continue to do that work.
I know you are all extremely sincere about this item
and the deliberations you had about it last month.
I appreciate that.
I just wanna point out when you or your predecessor
voted unanimously for the urban forestry plan
in December, 2024, to me what you voted for
was equal in full enforcement of the protected tree ordinance,
as it says in here, should be done,
not reduce fines for the wealthy landowners.
Furthermore, the urban forest plan and policy goal number one,
preserve and protect Oakland's forest,
twice calls for directing fees and fines
towards expanding the tree canopy in Oakland's front line
and disadvantaged communities.
Trees for Oakland and our other partner organizations
will be happy to continue to doing that work.
with your support please take staff's recommendation on this item thank you
very much good afternoon council members my name is Kevin Mulvey I'm a
member of trees for Oakland and also serve as co-chair of the Oakland urban
forestry forum not long ago this City Council voted unanimously to adopt
Oakland's urban forest plan councilmember guy oh I recall you sat in
the chair when we voted on that if I parked my car illegally I'm required to
pay a fine. If I pay my taxes late, I will obviously have to pay a fine. I don't get
to come before the city council three times to make an appeal directly to our political
leaders. When someone deliberately clear cuts their property, which includes statutorily
protected trees, they are required by our city law to pay a fine. This is not complicated.
What is made this complicated is deliberate obfuscation and the invoking of red herrings.
investors are watching these proceedings. The private equity owners of Pacific Pipe
on Mandela Parkway have destroyed dozens of trees planted by TFO volunteers and funded
by Cal Fire. Where there were healthy trees, there is sadly now a parking lot. These wealthy
investors have since adopted the attitude of ignoring Cal Fire and have obviously concluded
they can act with impunity. When citizens break the law, they must pay the price. The
full price not a slap on the wrist that further jeopardizes our constantly
shrinking urban forests and sends the wrong thank you sir your time is up
hello my name is Christina Noharo and I would like to voice my strong support to
impose this fine I wasn't able to come last meeting when I was slightly less
pregnant but because it's still unresolved I am here even more pregnant
These trees were not cut down in my neighborhood. I probably could not afford
to live in that neighborhood, and I also know that that neighborhood has far more
trees than mine does. But I am here because I recognize that everything is
connected, all ecosystems in the city, in the Bay Area, in the state are connected,
and loss of ecosystem anywhere is like a loss of ecosystem everywhere. What we
have lost is immeasurable. Old-growth trees are irreplaceable, so this is not
a plant more trees and move on situation. We must apply the laws that we have to
keep this from happening, and a fine is the best deterrent to stop this in the
future. I'd like to thank the council members who voted in favor of this
resolution last time and urge those who voted against it to reconsider. I am not
blind to who has spoken in favor of this resolution. There are so many people who
this affects who could not be here black and Latino communities children
people working jobs that do not allow them to be here we have a chance to do
better for the people who couldn't be here and for future generations please
vote to impose the fine thank you come on mr. soldier point information I see
you guys are finally getting something because he wasn't doing Robert Phil's
order how long do I have to talk you have a minute and 30 seconds I got a
minute and 30 seconds. It's it begins now. Hey it's all about cosmic slop win
between May Day and Earth Day. Earth Day April 21 1971 political expediency in
games make it other days so here in cosmic slop I'm gonna talk to you about
some trees. I'll visit redwoods my little sister planted on April 21st that's
what I know about it and the man was talking about Mandela Parkway the last
gift of the Honorable David Brower. Now we're gonna talk about trees. For the
record, Los Alcativer died during the tenure of Jean Quandt. Saved y'all the
two pine trees by West Oakland Bart. You know the contractors that play with Bart
they get sloppy and they were gonna cut down the trees just cuz they could. So
Los Alcativar died, organized the business people and then Mayor Jean Quandt, they
put a cork in it. When Grove Street changed to MLK I was part of that
motley crew that planted. Y'all need to plan ahead. Nice to see all these people
who are defending trees, but it was a struggle earlier on. Nice to see you all
getting grant money to talk about it. I'm one of the founders of the great tree
Tenders we tend to the trees you plant we trim suckers. We wonder why you put it in the power lines, etc. Etc
Thank you. Thank you so much, mr. Sojour. Thank you so much. Good afternoon Ralph Kans
What's really disturbing here is the
unequal application of the law across the Oakland
House flippers in this city are doing the same exact thing on a daily basis disturbing lead paint
Doing more remodeling without permits cutting protected trees down without permits and the city does almost nothing
Mr. Jenkins, I sent you lists of them. Nothing happens. There's millions of dollars being lost by the city because of this uneven
Application of the law as an example, 53 39 Trask Street was bought by a flipper three years ago
Who started remodeling without contracts and cutting down protected trees without a permit?
The city did nothing about it
nothing
The house ended up getting foreclosed
The flipper got foreclosed. Yes, it happens and yet the city still has not given a fine to that house flipper
Who violated the law and now because the house flipper no longer owns it and there was never a lien put on the property
There was no constructive or actual notice to the subsequent owner, which means
The city can no longer collect
defines
For the violations of the law and that happens all the time with house flippers in Oakland
When are you going to apply the lie equally all across the city, especially in East Oakland?
I find it interesting that you are willing to take accountability
for the trees
But you won't take accountability for many things. I'm just gonna mention one
I have come to you several times to say you have no evacuation plan for those students
1500 students at Skyline you can't evacuate them and your fire department is telling the school for that
They will shelter in place on the football field in case of a major fire
No accountability
So you have here?
dead trees
You tried to get the number and you also have trees that supposedly have been identified
That needed to be cut down trees that were fallen you have property that has eroded over time because of lack of action
Your public works department should have taken action in 2021 2022. They didn't
there is a
accountability a
mandate that says you have to mandate anything in terms of fines or violation in a timely manner.
This is not being done in a timely manner and the law allows the property owner to proceed to go to
administrative hearing to listen to this because it hasn't been done in a timely manner. No
accountability to your staff. The property has depreciated. You have also allowed the city to
place vacancy tax on the owner the price.
Thank you, Ms.
Ola Bala.
Your time is up.
The legal issue is whether or not the property order is in compliance with
the protected tree ordinance.
Those are for healthy trees, but you are holding him accountable
for the disease trees.
Nobody has looked at the issue around the arborist.
All those trees, I can't believe the property owner was going
to discard randomly cut down trees.
Mr. Houston was correct to answer the question,
wanted an answer to the question how many trees were already
down and how many trees were healthy.
You have not talked to that.
And for you, Mr. President, to do this Instagram
to get people out here to talk against the property owner,
that's unethical.
So you got two legal issues.
Compliance with the tree ordinance
and how many trees were diseased.
you cannot come to any conclusion tonight and determine the value of those down trees
and those disease trees because you want to hold them accountable for all 38.
Thank you, Mr. Hazard.
If your name was called and you're in the room, please approach the podium.
Otherwise at this time, we'll be moving to the Zoom speakers.
Brooke Levin, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Thank you very much, Council President Jenkins, members of the Council, and Administration
and Public Works staff.
You've done an amazing job here at Public Works.
These are very hard cases to deal with.
I was the Public Works Director, and before that, the Assistant Director over trees.
And when we got a call, it was very difficult to go out there and deal with it, but it was
usually one tree.
In this case, 38 trees were cut and this property owner was warned over and over and over and
had many chances in writing and verbally had the police out there and he kept cutting trees.
He just was a slap in the face of the city of Oakland.
I do not see how this council could vote not to enforce the tree ordinance.
If you choose to not have a tree ordinance like this, then that's a whole nother story.
But right now, this is what's on the books.
And this is a very important ordinance.
I am also a member of the Oakland Parks
and Recreation Foundation Board.
We are out there in East Oakland
and West Oakland planting trees
to help with climate change, to help with air quality
in some of the areas of the city
that have the highest asthma rates.
This was an egregious violation of city law
and it needs to be shut down.
They need to be fined the full amount and they are not poor,
you know, poor people who are not doing something,
they're not doing something for the good of them.
Thank you, Ms. Levin, your time was up.
I think, are you Peter Lee?
Yes, speaking, speaking, speaking, thank you.
I had sent an email this morning,
I was told that I would get time for three speakers.
My name is Peter Lee, I represent the neighbors,
Lee Baker, Schultz, and Shane.
Excuse me.
So what you're saying is three people
seated their time to you?
Yeah.
Are they present?
No.
Okay.
But I sent an email this morning,
I was told that yes I could go ahead.
Can you tell me who told you that?
And I sent it to the deputy clerk
and somebody different than the deputy clerk
sent it back to me and I'm prepared
to speak for six minutes according to that.
Well, can you tell me who told you that?
I have the email in my pocket.
we will take our time please.
Through the chair, he had seated.
Candice, can you go read that thing though?
Through the chair to Mr. Lee,
you were told that the time is assigned by the chair
and that we could not allow you to share your PowerPoint.
Through Mr. Lee, our office has taken note of your request
to sign up for item 4.1.
For any documents to be shared to the public and counsel,
please bring nine copies, which I brought
and you should have, do you have those?
Do each council member should have a copy
of what I brought, which was,
my intention was to present 13 slides,
which I have reduced in this format.
Do you have those?
Can you continue with the email?
Everyone has it.
Can you continue with their email where she told you
that you would be allowed?
You will not be able to share any PDF via Zoom?
Thank you.
She did not say I couldn't have the time,
but I asked for the time in the email above.
So according to.
No, I asked for the time.
Order in the chamber.
According to the, according to the Brown Act,
everybody has to be given equal time.
So please, please proceed with your comments.
You have a minute in there, just proceed.
How much time do I have?
A minute and 30 seconds, 90 seconds.
Please start.
Okay, so I'm here to speak to an issue
on the fire hazard risk and mitigation measures on the site
as it sits today.
It's been four years.
We're coming out of our first winter into our spring,
summer, and we've seen a cycle.
This is a very extreme fire hazard.
And I have here mitigation measures
that we are proposing as neighbors.
But before I speak to that,
I'd like to speak to Mr. Bernard's presentation earlier.
And I would like to say, truthfully,
that 95% of what he said is a...
Excuse me, order in the chambers, please.
Yeah, it's a little distracting.
Please pause this time.
We have to be able to hear Mr. Lee.
Thank you.
Please.
No, I'm not following you.
Stop, please, order in the chambers.
Hey, hey, hey, just continue.
Okay, according to my email.
Continue, please continue.
Okay, thank you very much, sir.
Okay, so 95% of what Mr. Bernard said is a lie and false.
And let me just simply say that those trees were very green
as the last speaker said.
And we have thousands, thousands of photographs
and videos in an album
that we've shared as three neighbors.
I've presented those information
to council member Ramachandran in her group.
We have 30 slides.
We've gone through it painstakingly.
We present the same information to council member Brown.
Very clear that those trees were all very alive,
maybe 95% of them.
Okay, so second.
Order in the chamber, you're out of order.
Mr. Lee, your time is up.
Mr. Lee, your time is up.
Council member Brown.
Council member miss
You are out of order just wait
You have anything to say?
Okay. Thank you
We have one more zoom speaker open teneting. Can you please tell me the card? I mean the name of the card you submitted
For item four point one. Yeah. Hi. Can you hear me? I can
Yeah, I am unable to change my name for this webinar. My name is Emily Wheeler. Thank you miss Wheeler. Go ahead
Just for myself as a private citizen
And I was just commenting
Because I don't really care what sort of punishment or fine you give to this person. I think punishments are bad
But I just want to sort of speak up
For our native oak trees. I think my concern here is that as we know
There are a lot of greedy developers in Oakland and I just want to make sure that whatever happens in this particular case
That you know very wealthy people very greedy developers don't feel like they have carte blanche to
Sort of cut down the rest of our native oaks
I really feel passionate about
justice and including in areas in the flatlands. I think it's really a shame
that Oakland doesn't have the money to have a robust native tree program and I
just really want to keep our native tree canopy, old-growth forests and
biodiversity as much as possible. So again you know it really sucks that this
guy cut down all these trees. I wish it hadn't happened but what I really want
to make sure is that it doesn't happen in the future,
like regardless of what punishment happens now,
I hope that we can find a way to prevent
more old growth trees from being cut down.
Thank you so much, have a great day.
At this time, all names have been called.
Thank you so much.
Clerk, so we're gonna run the clocks on the council members
and we have to get to a consensus on this item
at some point in time.
This is our third time hearing this.
I'm gonna start with council member Ramachandran,
then I'm gonna go to council member Brown after that.
And then council member Unger, then council member Fife.
Through the chair, you all begin.
It would be easier if you gave us a total time
that you want for this item and let the clock run down
because it's hard for us to time
each one of you with the system today.
According to our council rules of procedure,
the total amount of speaker time on any item
is seven minutes.
According to your rule 11 of your council rules of procedure,
no member of the council shall speak for more than eight
minutes on any non consent item without the consent
of the presiding officer or majority of the members
of the council.
So council member Houston knows the rules better than me.
Council member Ramachandran, please proceed.
Thank you.
I will keep it brief today.
My position has not changed in the slightest
and I have been honored to see an outpour of support
for my motion last week and for what four of us
were excited to do last week.
Now, there's a lot of issues that are important
in the city of Oakland, there's no doubt,
and we get lots of comments about lots of things,
but to see people wanting us to stand up for our name,
Oak Trees in Oakland, really warms my heart,
and I want to share my commitment to environmental justice
and upholding the full penalty.
So at the end of this, I will make a motion
to uphold staff's recommendation
to implement the full fine.
Now, I just want to briefly mention that what the law
and our responsibility as elected officials
to uphold the law is today.
OMC 12.36.170 states, and I'm going to read the whole thing.
Use my time for this.
if the alleged violator and or property owner
pursuant to section 12.36.160
requests a hearing before City Council,
the date of the hearing will be set within five working days.
So first off, the violator here, Mr. Bernard,
chose to have a hearing with this body
rather than negotiate with city staff.
A lot of people ask, well, why is this issue
coming to Council when it comes to a fine
and not a whole lot of others?
Firstly, it's written in our tree protection ordinance
explicitly, and a lot of cases,
get to negotiation with staff here typically code enforcement not public
works and here are the requester asked for a hearing and that's why we're we're
doing this continuing on with the with the code at the hearing the alleged
violator and or property owner shall have the burden of disproving the
preliminary findings of the tree reviewer which is public works here in
any event any party requesting a hearing failing fails to appear blah blah blah
the code goes on. So that means that our job here today as council members is not
just to talk about is the decision of staff fair. As presented today and for
the last two times we've had this hearing, staff made their determination
of this find based on the tree protection ordinance. So it is our job to
decide whether the violator slash property owner has disproved staff
findings and there is zero evidence out there and trust me I have spent hours
and hours and hours reviewing every single communication between the property
owner and the city reviewing every tree footage reviewing every video footage
that neighbors have submitted interviewing over a dozen people involved
in this case and there is literally no evidence that suggests that the property
owner can to find that he just that he can disprove the findings of staff that
you cut down 38 trees, we may not like this law.
We might find it unfair, but we have a duty to uphold them
or we can rewrite them.
This body has the power to do that, rewrite
what the ordinance is.
But let me remind this council that this wasn't a law invented
out of thin air.
A past city council and several, including about half
the members on this one, deciding
to reaffirm it through the adoption of our urban forestry
said that we are making a statement here to protect our trees, native species, and uphold
that they have immense value in protecting our biodiversity, being in defense of climate
change, supporting naco-esco systems, wildfire prevention, soil erosion, so much more that
commentors here have more eloquently stated than me, but this is abundantly clear that
this is the law today, and we have to implement it.
So I urge my colleagues to make a statement here about this issue, and also to be crystal
clear to anyone who wants to come into our city and trash our city and violate our laws
and think that you can get away with it.
Today I think we can send a bold statement that the answer is no.
You violate your our laws, you trash our cities, you cut our trees, you are going to be fine.
To me, that's fair.
So I will make a motion to uphold staff's recommendation
and to uphold our values of environmental justice
in this city today and every day moving forward.
Mrs. Asada, you're out of order.
You're out of order, Mrs. Asada.
You're out of order.
Councilmember Brown.
Well, first off, I just wanna say thank you
to all of the community members
that reached out to us, of course, in person,
than also via email, especially all of the young people
that sent us notes from Skyline
and various elementary schools.
And I think that this type of civic engagement
is very important.
And so I just want to state clearly,
and just for the record, I 100% believe
in protecting our tree ecosystem.
As someone who actually studied environmental law,
this is an issue of great personal
and professional importance to me.
I also want to thank Council Member Ramachandran
for actually asking me to engage on this item.
And so myself and her team,
as was mentioned by a few of the members of the public,
we sat down with them to go over all of the details.
We met with city staff, we met with the neighbors,
we met with Mr. Bernard.
And so while I agree that Mr. Bernard's behavior
is 100% egregious,
I was mentioning to a friend
that he in fact was wiling out,
and neighbors certainly have the right
to hold him accountable for the trees
that he cut on their property.
The matter before us today concerns the trees
that are on his private land and not city property.
And so here are the facts.
We're operating, first off,
as Councilmember Paramachandran mentioned,
actually think it is an outdated tree ordinance that fails it's four decades
four decades old it fails to account for the realities of modern development and
also in fact it lacks city accountability to care for the trees
that we have actually planted so I'm going to say that for the record and you
can ask an East Oakland resident while the drastic change to the landscape is
jarring to the community, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question of
justice. Why are we finding a property owner the full replacement value for the
trees the city would have likely authorized him to remove during the
standard building permit process? I passed out a document which was in your
agenda packet, Attachment 3, where you see an example of the developmental
footprint and so I think we should be giving that a matter of consideration
instead of the full fine as I stated in my last comment when this item was
before us as an example these parcels were actually previously owned by Mr.
Peter Lee who was speaking and during when he was trying to develop on his
property to build his home the city authorized him to cut down 19 trees to
to do so.
So I just want everyone to take that in.
And so if Mr. Bernard had waited for a site plan approval,
many of these trees have a look at the buildable footprint.
Those within the buildable footprint of the home
and driveway would have been removed legally
to accommodate housing.
And I believe that a truly equitable approach,
one that is actually supported by our 2024 Urban Forest Plan
requires us to distinguish between preventable loss
and inevitable removal.
I believe that a tiered fine is the only just path forward.
We should calculate the penalty based on the trees removed
outside of the buildable area,
the ones that could and should have been saved,
to do otherwise risk actually setting a precedent
of selective hyper enforcement.
And so we cannot in good conscience
impose an almost a million dollar penalty
that far exceeds the value of the land itself.
And I believe, Mr. Bernard,
I believe you paid about 150,000 for this land.
Especially given the inconsistent history
of how these fines have been applied
across Oakland's diverse neighborhoods.
And so we have to remember that this is not city land.
This is a private citizen's property.
And while we have a shared interest in our urban canopy,
we must balance that against the fundamental rights
of an owner to develop on their land.
And we need to distinguish between allowable removal
for a home and unlawful destruction.
The fine must be proportionate
to the unauthorized destruction
coupled with a legally binding plan
to restore the canopy of the property.
And so one thing that city staff did add
to our agenda packet is a chart
where it says 28 trees outside the building footprint
and there's options one through four.
And so I would make an option,
I would make a motion to adopt
the recommendation of option one in this case.
So that's a motion for option one, thank you.
And to Council Member Ramachandran,
you cannot make a motion for that,
because that motion failed.
There would have to be a motion to reconsider
from somebody from the prevailing side,
either Council Member Brown, Fife, Guile, or Houston.
We're gonna go Fife.
It can't be from somebody who voted,
who voted from the failed measure.
So the measure failed, died.
there has to be a motion to reconsider
for staff's recommendation.
What if it's a slightly different motion
to approve stock recommendation
and require a report on compliance or something like that?
Would that be a new motion?
We would have to hear the details of the motion
to evaluate that, I think,
and make sure it's within the scope
of how the item is noticed.
Okay, so maybe you could talk with the parliamentarian
about your alternative motion.
I'm going to go to Council Member Wong
and then Council Member Bife after that.
Okay, I have a question for our city staff
in the first interaction that was had with the respondent,
I suppose I should call Mr. Bernard on February 2nd, 2021.
You all, it says here that staff spoke with him,
asking him to stop, that you actually explain
violation to him, that he needed the tree removal permit, but that he refused to cooperate
and continue cutting down the tree. Can you just elaborate more on that? Because I think
this is important because this is the first time that this individual has been notified
about his violation of the law.
Sure, yeah, through the chair. So our staff was on site and observed him cutting trees
and informed him that he needed to stop and obtain a tree removal permit, and staff was
ignored and Mr. Bernard continued to continue his activity, right?
And so there were multiple occasions in which staff was on site and informed him that what
he was doing required a tree removal permit, and that there was, you know, essentially
a path forward for him to remove trees related to a development permit, but that there's
process that had to be followed okay thank you council member five I just
wanted to second councilmember Brown's motion I think it was flawlessly
explained and she was deeply involved in this process the entire time and I
couldn't have stated what was stated better than she just did so second thank
you we have a motion and second and council member younger guy Oh or Houston
before I go?
Through the chair, I have a question for staff.
Options.
Why would we have options if we couldn't use them?
So, staff, it's almost like this.
When you go to court, if you go to court,
you got a ticket, right?
You can either pay it in full,
or you can go to court to fight
and maybe get it reduced, cut in half.
So what made you come up with these options?
and through the chair, option one, option two, option three,
because I wish it would have been up on the screen
so the public could see it,
because this picture is really put together well,
Councilmember Brown,
showing how the layout of the floor plan of the property is.
So staff, through the chair,
how did you actually come up with this
so you can explain that to the public?
Sure, through the chair,
the staff created several options for council
to consider understanding that the recommended fine
following the ordinance to the letter of the ordinance
was a very high fine.
So we understood that this was going
to be a difficult case for council to consider
and that there would need to be some options.
So we created alternate ways of valuing the trees.
So as I explained last time I was here,
We had to measure the trees at the diameter that they were,
where they were cut down.
There is a possibility that the trees
would have been slightly narrower
at the diameter at breast height,
which is an arborist standard
for measuring the diameter of trees,
but we didn't have that information
because all of the evidence had been removed from the site,
but we could make some assumptions.
The trees were valued at 100% of their full value of trees.
that is an assumption we had to make
because again the trees were removed from the site
and we didn't have any better information.
So we created options for the council to consider
but staff made the recommendation for the fine that we did
because it was a very egregious case
that we had not seen something like this in three decades
but we understood that it was a lot for the council
to consider hence there were options.
Okay, through the chair, this developmental footprint here
shows you have a grading piece in yellow,
then you actually have the approximate square foot
of the new home, and I count 12 trees within that footprint.
Am I correct with that?
10, we counted 10.
And is that how you decided to,
on your option one, two, to say that these trees
able to actually been removed from the, if this land was going to be developed?
If the applicant, if, if Mr. Bernard had gone through a planning approval process and the
planning department had, had approved his, his application in the suggested footprint
of the house, then if the planning department had approved that application, then the tree
division would have approved his tree removal permit for the removal of these trees.
the process proceeded in the legal normal process and we counted ten in that proposed footprint. So thank you to the chair. I appreciate Councilmember Janati and Brown's their proposed amendments are to this right. And the gentleman that came out that's my constituent Kent. You saw the passion that he had. Did you really see the passion because this is horrendous of what happened. And it and.
I called the gentleman up before and I said just admit that you was wrong on
some of this because you're not a hundred percent right and he wouldn't do
it so I think this option number four four seventeen is way too low and I
think option three is 506 is still too low and this 513 I think I'm gonna
follow councilmember Brown's opinion for the 624 771 55 to find him that amount
I think that especially with knowing about the layout and what would have
been removed and things like that I'm gonna go with that thank you council
member Houston so for me this is a really challenging issue as mr. Hazard
stated I didn't know you followed me on social media but I posted this on my
Instagram just to kind of get a just see where Oaklanders were at with this and
I've never had so much engagement when it comes to something and which is like
crazy Oaklanders might be divided on a lot of things but they absolutely love
their trees and I kind of think that the the issue is not about trees for a lot
of Oaklanders, right?
So we've allowed too many violations of our laws
and rules to go unenforced.
For too long, we've looked the other way
while public trust, public safety, and our economy,
and now even our ecosystem have suffered because of it.
Although this is privately owned land,
the trees belong to the people of Oakland.
We're here on stolen land,
which makes it our responsibility
to protect the natural environment.
So we have to decide as a council if the laws mean something
or they're just ink on a piece of paper.
We have to decide whether Oakland will continue
to have the reputation that people can do whatever they want
without consequences here.
And most importantly, we have to restore trust
with our residents that Oakland will uphold its laws.
Councilmember Gayo, you always say we have enough laws.
We just gotta enforce them.
Are we gonna enforce our laws?
Councilmember Houston, the Hagenberger corridor
is an absolute mess.
It's an absolute mess.
And that's because the perception that you could come
to Oakland and do whatever you want in the city of Oakland.
We're working on restoring and rebuilding
the Hagenberger corridor, but it's because people
thought they can come into Oakland
and do what they want without consequence.
You look at, you look in my district,
in my district, we had a, people came from Stockton,
Stockton to rob a jewelry store in my district because the perception you can do whatever you want without consequence in Oakland
And so I think we just as a council we have to decide
Are we going to enforce the laws and do they mean anything if they don't mean anything don't enforce them?
Why 4 17 why 6 17 just say zero? Let's get out of here
It's either we're going to enforce the laws or we're not
Yeah, I didn't really comment last time.
I was honestly just absorbing the amount of time
that this was consuming.
To be honest, I have an issue just with the premise
that people can make a direct appeal to city council.
This is a unique aspect of this specific ordinance.
Most administrative penalties go to hearing officers
where an outside professional can ensure
a neutral due process hearing.
I do worry that, you know, just like this appeals process
is essentially creating perverse incentives
so people can come to us before as a body
in especially egregious cases to have reductions in fines.
And I just, I don't wanna set that precedent.
And I think it's wildly inappropriate to be honest
in terms of the amount of time
that the specific case has consumed.
For each of us sitting here as city council members,
but also all the city staff who have heard
around the specific case.
And again, the respondent, Mr. Bernard and Lynn Warner,
there's two individuals,
they made the choice to make this appeal
and we have then also had three hearings about this.
So I just, I'm ready to put this to bed, yeah.
Thank you, Council Member Fife.
And then I'll go to Council Member Reimachandran after that.
there are few facts that need to be addressed
because there's been so much misinformation tonight
that is really disturbing.
And one that really bothers me
was the fact that we had a public speaker come up here
and say that the clerk said something that they never said,
which to me undermines the credibility
of everything that was said by this individual
because he claimed that the clerk said
That they, he would have an amount of time to speak.
That they never, they never admitted, they never did.
So, that puts into, you know, it calls into question
the credibility of all of the things
that have been happening up there
that have been stated by certain individuals.
It's been made clear that there's, this issue,
it does have racial implications.
Because the reality is, we're talking about the insanity
of finding someone for building on private property,
which honestly I don't believe should exist,
but we're talking about this person owning property,
being able to cut down trees
had he gotten the right piece of paper.
So we're saying that had he gone through a process,
he would have been able to cut down the trees legally
with the authority of the city, which is asinine.
if they are protected, they should be protected.
Excuse me, you are out of order.
Please let the council member consider.
Council member, I think your words are important.
You should not be disrupted.
Please continue.
Oh, I can handle it.
I got the microphone.
Can't nobody hear them.
So on top of that, we're talking about land
that has been colonized.
We're always talking about giving honor to the Ohlone people
and the land was stolen from the Ohlone people
by colonizers, and now we're talking about finding someone,
the first time in an area where,
and I said this on my social media,
in an area that black people, Japanese people,
Mexican people weren't even allowed to be.
And there's a misalignment of somehow now
this black man who egregiously,
I want to state, egregiously cut down trees
without permission, who is the authority that gives permission
on stolen land?
So this is my philosophy.
I'm getting too much into my personal philosophy.
The point is, today, as a decision,
this body has to decide whether or not
there should be any type of penalty.
So the fact that some people are saying that $600,000 is not
a penalty is just fallacious.
That is accountability.
It might not be to the degree in which everyone is,
and some people are saying that it should be,
but I take issue with some of our council members
being directed on how to oppose this motion
that was made by Council Member Brown.
She spent as much time on this topic as anyone else
and is suggesting that due to the city's lack
of accountability, that our own internal process is failing
in addition to other issues that we have to look
at the totality of what's happening here.
So when I put aside the fact that just like
there are differences in how laws are processed
and how accountability is meted out by legislative bodies
like crack, powder crack, and crystallized crack,
I mean, it's all the same, it's all cocaine,
but we saw how differences in prosecution
led to the incarceration,
mass incarceration of black people.
I'm not saying that's what's happening here,
but I find it interesting that we can have an entire area
of the city of Oakland colonized
where probably hundreds of thousands of trees
have been failed, but the first level of accountability
is to a black man who is cutting trees
on his own property, and again, I say egregiously,
because they shouldn't have been cut
in the way that they were, none of the trees in the hills
should have ever been cut, but they have.
So I am moving to support Councilmember Brown's
recommendation because it takes into accountability
the fact that we don't know how many trees were fallen.
We don't know how many trees were dead or diseased.
We do know that there should be a consequence.
So the consequence that I'm suggesting should happen
is not accountability for the harsh punitive accountability like some of these speakers
and e-mailers were saying that this man needs to do jail time, jail time.
We are receiving those saying that we support this individual serving jail time when there
are people that look like me living on the streets and I've never seen this kind of accountability
from the public, like I've seen for trees, as the way that I see people allowing people
to just live and die in the streets.
And I want to see the same level of discourse and accountability when we talk about flock
or surveillance or all of the other ways that we will talk about this evening.
I want this same energy for the technology that is being used to surveil individuals
the left and all around the all around the world. Again, I digress. But I'm saying if
we're going to engage and we're going to call injustice and equity, let's look at the ways
that communities that are impacted have been not equally addressed by the law because that
is what we are doing here today. We are holding this person accountable and sending a message
that this will not happen again, but that means that the city needs to do our job and
imposed fines in a timely manner and uphold the laws that we have in a way
that is actually equitable because that's not what we're suggesting today
thank you councilmember five councilmember gail thank you and certainly
appreciate the debate the discussion and having grown up here in the city of
Oakland haven't served on this council I was part of the urban development that
They dealt with our trees in our neighborhood
throughout the city.
But I do wanna get to the point,
make a motion to reconsider staff's recommendation
as a substitute to the motion on the floor.
All right, so I wanna make a motion
to reconsider staff's recommendation
as a substitute to the motion on the floor.
Second.
that we're making the motion.
Okay so as.
In brown act substitute motions
will go first so we'll hear the
substitute motion to reconsider.
First okay so madam clerk can we
hear the motion to reconsider.
Motion on the motion to be
calling the motion on the motion
to reconsider first before we
call the motion to reconsider.
The motion to reconsider moved
Brown no council member five no councilmember Gallo I councilmember Houston
no councilmember Ramachandran I councilmember Unger I councilmember Wong
I council president Jenkins I motion passes with a vote of five ayes through
the chair to the parliamentarian so now they wouldn't need to actually make the
motion or correct that was the motion to reconsider the action that was taken at
the preceding council meeting to adopt staff's recommendations so now the body
needs to vote on that motion now calling the motion for the staff recommendation
and which was the $900,000 and some change.
Council Member.
One second.
Council Member Fai, do you have a question?
I have a question for staff
because they gave us a list of options to choose from.
So I'm wondering, to my council colleague's point,
if are the options all valid finds to approve today?
Because why would we have options that we can't choose from?
And I'll take the time for
comments so through the chair
to council five.
As we were meeting with city
staff on this item basically in
the chart it lists it lists out
that based on the health of the
trees which we don't know.
They're those are the various
tiers and then on one side of
the chart it lists like if we're
going to find him for the full
the tree. And so the tree was a
clear what the council is voting on.
It's a motion to reconsider the prior action,
which was to adopt staff's recommendation,
which is the resolution in the packet,
including the fines in the amount of $915,135.40.
You're out of order.
Starting the vote over, Council Member Brown.
No.
Council Member Fyfe.
No councilmember guy oh aye
councilmember Houston
councilmember Ramachandran aye
Councilmember Unger aye
councilmember Wong aye
Councilmember Jenkins aye motion passes with a vote of five ayes
And I'm that motion was to close the public hearing as well and adopt the staff recommendation
We have dispensed with this item
Going to the public hearings
Starting with item five
I'm sorry
The non consent calendar starting with item five point one
Adopted resolution amending and restating councilman council rules of procedure in their entirety in order to add rule 33
regarding hybrid meetings and technological disruptions there of
We have five speakers on this item. Do you have a presentation? I
Have just a few words
I will present from my seat
This rule this item is before you as the Brown Act requires a rule for
hybrid meeting disruption
So we are proposing to add rule 33 to the council rules of receipt to the current council rules of procedure
We have not changed anything else in the rules of procedure just simply amending to add rule 33
For disruption and the city attorney is here to address any specific questions. You may have about this item
Thank you. Let's go to the public speakers
As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning
Emily Wheeler
Blair Beekman, Miss Assata, Ola Bala
Ralph cans and Jesse
Rosemore
Hi, I'm Jesse Rosemore
I brought popcorn to the right item for all I know that that one skipped the Brown Act too and went straight to council after
Failing in committee, but you know who knows I have some serious reservations about this item. It allows
Council to just say like okay like the meetings disrupted
so we're gonna cut something and do something else and you know, we were all here for flock and
We saw the council presidents which the meeting time the time the item was heard. So it would be heard at 1 p.m
And we know that all of that was worked out in advance with all the people who are anti
Police accountability and pro surveillance so that they could all speak on time that a lot of other speakers would be cut
So I you know it's up to you as a council to uphold democracy and we're seeing you fail at that
Many many times especially the first the sixth first term counselors that we have on the dais
So reading what's in this legislation?
I just don't trust you to uphold the democracy that you're required to do based on your prior action
which we've seen again and again.
I think the flock item, which we're all here for,
is the most indicative of that.
And there's many other pieces.
The other thing I want to say is,
if you want to invest in tech, you know,
you're not investing in this, but you're giving the cops
all kinds of AI stuff,
and they submit their time cards with a pen, that's great.
Thank you for your comments, and as the next figure comes up,
just to clarify, this item did go to committee
Before being placed on the council agenda. Thank you
Okay getting your off cans
This is just a
continuation of the continual continual decline in the public's involvement in the City Council process
There's been going on ever since this has been a 25 to 30 year process where we went from having City Council meetings every week
That was the good old days
It means right now the City Council needs like
Less than half of the number of meetings. It has that's why we have these meetings that are jammed up
meetings that
Don't give the people enough time to make their input on items that are being heard
The following I'll just say on this is this whole thing it
These rules of procedure are just continued and continued to erode
the public's participation in this process
It's being done
For the convenience of the city council members you're supposed to be here for the convenience of the people of the city of Oakland
And that's not what I see going on
The other thing I would say is these issues should be sent to the Public Ethics Commission for comment
According to the charter and the code. Thank you
so according to what this
rule will do if you have some disruption in your
services you're gonna stop the meeting and you're gonna give technology one
hour to work on fixing it. How did y'all come up with one hour? I mean you got to
make sense of what you're doing so how did you come up with one hour? Why not
half an hour, 15 minutes, whatever. Then if you don't fix it within the hour, the
technology, you're going to resume the meeting without any availability of
zoom or the mean being exposed to telecommunication. First of all, why is
this on the consent agenda? High priority. Now I've already been
insulted with the trees. Now I'm coming to this issue and we can't fix it in an
hour we're going to resume the meeting. When y'all going to deal with
gentrification when you're gonna deal with your sanctuary city status you up
here talking about following the law but you do not follow the law when it says
you can't come into this country legally we're going to know that law you allow
16 year olds to vote when this Constitution of California says you have
to be 18 years old and a citizens to vote you selectively follow the law thank
Thank you Ms. Olobala, your time is up.
Thank you Ms. Olobala, your time is up.
Through the chair, if I could,
this rule is required by the Brown Act.
It is taken verbatim from the Brown Act
and this is the non-consent portion of the agenda.
I have Emily Wheeler and Blair Beekman on,
okay, Blair Beekman on Zoom.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, Blair Beekman.
I'm in San Diego at this time.
We're going through our budget stuff.
They're having a meeting right now.
And I'm speaking here on Zoom at the meeting here.
Hi everyone.
I thought this item was in reference to,
there's a Senate bill from state level SB 707
that's requiring all cities have to have Zoom
in their public meetings starting July 1st.
And you're trying to help update that process right now
with this item.
And I thought this item initially set out
by the new SB 707 stated that if the meeting after an hour
isn't fully resolved, the issues of problems with Zoom,
the meeting cannot continue until the problems are resolved.
And if you could provide some clarification
at the end of public comment,
what exactly this item is meant to be doing
because item 707, the Senate bill is an awesome bill.
I mean, it gives, it codifies that Zoom has to be a regular part of California public meetings.
City, you know, cities like San Jose that don't have Zoom anymore, and Baye Wasey that don't practice Zoom.
They now have to use Zoom and allow the public process.
So, there is something really important to this that I hope you can better clarify for ourselves.
And thanks for this item, and thanks for allowing a minute 30 for public comment today.
A really nice gesture.
Thank you.
Those are all the speakers on this item.
Is there a motion or any comments?
We'll entertain a motion.
I'll make the motion to move this item.
Second.
On the motion by Council Member Brown,
second by Council Member Bonger
to approve the staff recommendation.
Council Member Brown.
Aye.
Council Member Fyfe.
Aye.
Council Member Gallo.
Aye.
Council Member Houston.
is absent Councilmember Rama, not you yet.
Councilmember Edgar?
Aye.
Councilmember Wong?
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran?
Aye.
Noting that Councilmember Jenkins
and Councilmember Houston are out of their seats.
Motion passes with a vote of six ayes.
Going to item 5.2,
adopt a resolution approving
ongoing cooperative purchase agreements
exceeding $250,000.
For Oakland Public Works Bureau of Maintenance
and internal services, goods and services contract
as outlined in table one, an additional amount
not to exceed $16,815,000,
and adopting appropriate CEPA findings.
We have three speakers on this item.
Does the staff have a presentation or a few remarks?
No presentation.
I can see the looks of disappointment already.
Thank you.
I'm Richard Battersby, assistant director
for Oakland Public Works Bureau of Maintenance
and internal services.
This is the Bureau within Public Works
that encompasses fleet, facilities, sewer, and storm drain.
I'm here to talk to you today
about 33 cooperative contracts
in the Equipment Services Division.
Equipment Services Division at full strength
is about 60 employees.
We provide full support for the city's
approximately 1,800 pieces of fleet equipment.
The 33 contracts today are necessary operational contracts.
I would say routine and necessary to conduct the city's business and encompasses items
such as repair and maintenance of city vehicles, fuel, software technology such as the information
system we use to create work orders and dispatch vehicles as well as items such as tires, mobile
data terminals, radios for police vehicles.
The amount of these contracts totals $16 million.
These are increases in extensions and it's approximately over a two year period although
the contracts may vary.
These contracts are also intended to be used by other departments such as police and fire.
So these are not just equipment services and BMIS contracts.
We find ourselves at a unique convergence of crises today.
In the current environment we have the budget issue which is resulting in staffing shortages
We're short mechanics. We're about 20 to 25 percent short in the heavy equipment truck shop
This means that we have to outsource more work
Consequently, we have to rely on the contracts to get the work done
Some of these contracts will enable that work. Some of these contracts will also
provide the parts that are needed to repair the vehicles and if I haven't
Communicated previously how dire of a situation we're in
Just recently, we have a total of 13 flusher trucks between sewer division and storm drain
12 of those were offline and unavailable
So we were forced to rent a flusher truck which costs about fourteen thousand dollars a month
We are still currently renting that truck to ensure we remain in compliance with the sewer consent decree out of 17 street sweepers
We have at time only had eight to ten available, which is about a fifty percent availability of street sweeping
Unfortunately, we were up to 11 this morning. So that was a positive move out of seven animal services trucks
as many as six have been unavailable and not capable of providing service to the community and
Both of the lightning loaders the only two trucks that are assigned to illegal dumping were both unavailable at the same time
In order to continue moving forward what we need to get these contracts approved while these are cooperative contracts
We recognize the interest in making opportunities available to Oakland businesses to bid on contracts
We are moving to an RFP model. We have 33 cooperative contracts that
We're requesting approval to allow us to continue doing business
But we also year-to-date have 28 RFPs
Requests for proposals that have been advertised and are available for Oakland businesses to bid on so with that
I would entertain questions that you might have for me and also the public
speakers thank you any public speakers yes we have three public speakers I call
your name please approach the podium or raise your hand in the queue I have
Blair Beekman missus out of Olabala and Jesse Rosemore in any order please you
are so concerned about being responsible with your trees but you're being
irresponsible with these 33 contracts all at the same time 16.8 million dollars
contracts that have already been in place with the city and you did not ask
for a performance evaluation to guarantee that the contracts that you
currently have in place are fulfilling what is necessary related to those
contracts you also have varying amounts of money being spent with no
no identification why they increasing the amounts that previously see had not been increasing
it we don't know why we don't know why we have extending contracts that have ended in
twenty twenty five already twenty twenty six and some ending in twenty seven seven
but you're increasing the amount not knowing why they need more money not knowing thirty
three contracts on an as needed basis.
So after you approve it,
you don't have nothing no more to say
with the dysfunctional public works department
who couldn't find a violation in 2021, 22, did it in 20,
that capacity makes me very suspicious.
The same public works department when you go outside
and see the white tape on there instead of white paint.
What's wrong with white paint in this city?
Did you have that in the contract to get some white paint?
Thank you, Ms. Ollabala.
Thank you, Mrs. Otto.
Thank you, Mrs. Otto.
I would never tell you, politely.
Politely.
Are we good?
OK.
Hi, I'm Jesse Rosemore.
I looked at this item, and it seems completely innocuous.
It seems the only reason it's on non-consent
is because a particular council member who
voted no on this in committee has a very strange interest
in contracts, a very corrupt kind of weird interest
in contracts.
And we're watching Donald Trump do inappropriate media posts,
social media posts saying diminishing things
about his opponents and just doing wild ethics violations.
And we're seeing that here with the council member who voted
no in committee on this.
And I just wonder when you guys will.
We have six of you first termers who
sort of line up behind him for your super majority conservative right wing agenda and I'm just wondering when it's gonna be in like too much when you're gonna actually formally censure this behavior because we're watching it just happen over and over and over and more and more and more and this is just one example the fact that we even have to talk about such an innocuous contract, you know, why is he so interested in this particular contract, it's just it just comes up again and again and again and you know, we're watching federally.
how our federal government is failing us and without you centering behavior from
this particular council member we're watching all of you fail us all of the
first term council members that are up here on City Council I just wonder when
that liability is going to be too much for you and you will actually say
something about it. Thank you Jesse. Thank you for your comments going to our
final speaker on this item Blair Beekman please unmute and begin your comments.
Thank you.
I'm reading over the brown act things right now.
So I may have been wrong in my initial assumptions.
Thank you for public comment and good luck in how we're talking about this sort of item.
I like public comment on this item.
Thank you.
At this time, all names have been called.
Thank you.
Councilmember Houston.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I ran downstairs because I was going to get a ticket that I would have had to pay.
So I'm through the chair, Mr. Richard, thank you so much.
And I'm not council member, they're talking about.
That's me.
Because if we have 33 contracts and only three are Oaklanders,
I guess you can call me whatever you want to call me,
because I'm going to continue to fight for SLBE.
So I have a question through the chair to Mr. Richard.
We have contracts that's coming up, like for collision.
We have contracts coming up for just the basic tires, right?
We have, in my district, we have a tire company
that can provide the tires to Public Works, right?
And they have a huge one in my councilmember's Fife's district,
but we're going outside of Oakland to get these tires.
We have many companies that can repair cars in my district.
And we're going outside of Oakland to get that done.
So how can we make that work, Mr. Richard, where we embrace?
And I know some of them have problems with us paying on time.
I got it.
I understand.
And sometimes our process is very difficult.
I got it.
I understand.
so how can we embrace because thirty three
out of the city contract and only three
i'm the one that did
or oaklanders
and now we're waving it but i understand if we had relationships with them and
they were doing the work but expressed that about the tires in the body shop
sure uh... through the chair and and thank you for that question councilmember
houston
uh... i'd in public works committee i've said it
and i'll say it again we are committed to moving to our fp which is request for
proposal
the local businesses will have an opportunity to bid on these contracts
we are looking
and through this agenda report for some bridge support some bridge contracting
support
until we can get those are fp's out on the street where oakland businesses can
bid on them
uh... i provided earlier at staff identified twenty eight
Individual RFPs that were either recently awarded or in the process of being awarded and councilmember Houston
You'll be happy to hear that the collision repair is one of those categories. It has not yet been awarded
We are looking at tires as well
the the I
think for convenience in the past and also
Just because of work or workload restrictions the contracting process has become very cumbersome
What you're looking at with these 33 cooperative contracts, you'll note some of them expired in 2025
Staff didn't wait for the contracts to expire before they started trying to increase or renew them. They started work on them
This is I think about an eight months
timeframe for these 33 cooperative contracts
So we've got to figure out a way to do better
When we just need to increase or extend the contract
But to more directly answer your question
I think breaking up some of these larger contract awards where because of expediency because of workload restrictions and
Timeframes we've tried to put a large contract out so a single vendor is providing
Most of the tires we can break that down to where one vendor does police pursuit tires another vendor
maybe does heavy-duty truck tires. We are happy to work with anyone that can
share ideas with us where we can increase the participation of Oakland
businesses. I believe in keeping the tax dollars here in Oakland, I believe in
supporting Oakland small businesses, and I believe in following the will of the
City Council. And we get the message not just from you, Councilmember Houston, but
from other council members. And I just want everyone to know we in public works
agree we're doing our best to move the needle it's not fast enough but we are
in conjunction with our colleagues in purchasing City Attorney's Office risk
management and even DHRM under these very challenging times we are trying to
course correct so thank you for making us do our best work miss a saw to thank
you as well I welcome all criticism even I can you know I've been in this
business over 30 years, I can learn new things. And switching from co-ops to RFP, co-ops used
to be the fastest, most straightforward way to get a contract approved, increased or extended
because another municipality has already done the public bid or it's a bid that's being
sponsored by a GPO, a government purchasing organization that meets that public bid requirement
before expending public funds. In this day and age, the opposite is true. Now cooperative
agreements are so difficult and challenging to get through the RFP is
faster and more efficient so we recognize that and we're adjusting this
unfortunately is going to make extra work for our colleagues and purchasing
so they're going to need support with the additional staffing resources to do
all these RFPs which take more time and effort because now you're advertising
you're soliciting bids you're answering questions you're evaluating bids and
making awards whereas with the co-op someone else has done all that work so I
I apologize for the really long answer.
No, that was great, Mr. Battersby.
I appreciate that.
Through the chair, one more second question
for Mr. Battersby.
Why couldn't we do RFQs, Mr. Battersby?
Because RFPs, you get more, but if you do the qualification,
you have people that you don't have to go through so many.
And again, through the chair,
folks are gonna think we rehearsed this.
No, we didn't. RFQ, I agree.
Multiple awards is the way to go.
That's what we're trying to do
with the collision repair or the body shop.
have multiple vendors instead of just a single vendor
in a winner take all and then you're stuck
with that vendor for three years or five years,
whatever that contract term is.
When I say RFP, I mean RFP or RFQ interchangeably.
Okay, through the chair, thank you, Mr. Batterley.
I really believe in you, thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Brown, Wong, and then Gayle.
Excellent, thank you so much for ensuring
that this item came before us.
you know, I'm not on the Public Works
and Transportation Committee,
so I definitely have a couple questions.
And I guess just to, I guess repeatedly we talk about
ensuring that we're supporting Oakland-based businesses.
I guess my more specific question is,
I know you mentioned that there is a goal
to go out for RFP, but as I'm looking at the agenda report,
I noticed that a lot of the contracting dates,
They vary and so can you share with me what is the timeline to try to I guess go out for
RFP and then also can you also answer the larger question of how come we're why do we
have 33 separate contracts just looking at some of the vendors it looks like it could
be consolidated.
through the chair thank you for the question regarding the number of
contracts between equipment services and facilities we have over 200 contracts
that we administer just within the Bureau of Maintenance and Internal
Services for efficiency purposes we are in lack of staffing we're forced to batch
process contracts were in the past we would come to council two three times a
year and there are much smaller numbers because of the again those limitations
you see a backlog of contracts that we just couldn't get executed and here they are before you today and
What was the first part of your question again?
I was focusing on the
When when would you predict going out for RFP given the different contract times like and at different times?
Sure again through the chair. It's an ongoing process
I mentioned we've got 28 that we've awarded or are in progress in 2026.
Three of those RFPs are actually for contracts that you see right here where we've awarded
a co-op, but in order to continue business, we had to get some contract mechanism in place.
We've been trying to get this item in front of the Council since January, and prior to
that, we were working on it for four months.
We realized the timelines were becoming unacceptable.
So in the meantime, we've already started RFPs, I know of, on at least three of these
contracts that we're trying to get the co-op extension approval.
The RFP process will typically take us probably two months, and that's working really well.
That's our purchasing colleagues really holding their nose to the grindstone and getting the
work done.
I think it's amazing.
But the co-op process is so cumbersome that here we are talking about contracts that we
We initiated the extension or renewal process back in 2025.
The RFP process is ongoing.
It could be on a daily basis.
It could be on a weekly basis.
You're going to be seeing a lot of me up here.
All right, sounds good.
Thank you so much.
Wang and then Gail.
Thanks through the chair.
So I do want to defend just like the council scrutinizing these public works contracts.
I used to work in civil engineering
and environmental engineering,
and it was one of those well-known things
that public works contracts often have
in old boys' network, that is true.
I'm not saying that this department has that issue,
but it's just, it's a well-known fact.
And so I just wanted to defend that.
I also wanna say that, you know,
I think some of what I've been scrutinizing
as someone who sits on the public works
Transportation Committee is just making sure that we have levels of service, like expected
performance metrics, especially we've had a number of cooperative agreements that have
had no sort of expectation. And so I think it is definitely a positive development that
this report has some of these operational metrics, but I also want to make sure that
these are inbuilt into those contracts. It's not just an estimate in a report, but that
We have these expectations of these performance standards for these contractors, and I do
think it is good that we are moving to an RFP process, considering what we've learned
around the disparity study.
Thanks.
And I will move to adopt the staff recommendation.
Thank you.
Councilmember Dio, can you press your button so we can get you?
Thank you.
And thank you for the information and for your service to Oakland.
growing up here in the city of Oakland, I've never seen the streets like I've
seen them in Oakland today. And we do need more tools, more vehicles, more
personnel to bring this city back in order. And I appreciate, I work with you
every day, my five employees in my office are on the streets cleaning them up,
picking up the illegal dumping, the trash, and certainly other activity that's
going on that we see daily. But we do need the tools and the personnel and the
And the vehicles to get the job done in this city
and we can sit here and talk a lot about we need this,
we need that and complain and blame everyone in town
but the bottom line is we need the equipment
and the personnel to get the job done.
So with that, I appreciate the level of service
and I second the motion that's been made
to support public works, thank you.
councilmember Kyle I mean my manager thank you I support this as well and
appreciate the detail that you gave I was a little surprised by some of this I
knew we had an issue with our fleets but I was a little surprised with some of
the statistics of the inoperable street sweepers and animal control trucks what
is the situation with our fire apparatus and our fire trucks as well given that
It's one of the more frontline vehicle services. Yeah. Thank you for that question through the chair
I actually have it on my notes here. I neglected to mention it
Councilmember Unger's well aware as we enter weekends and end of day shift
Transitions we are sometimes entering these periods with the single ready reserve and no spare
Apparatuses there are minimum
vehicles availability requirements from the firefighters union where if we fall below that level
We actually have to shut a fire station. So we are in very dire straits make no mistake
And the the bigger issue at hand here is even if we were to order new apparatuses tomorrow
It's going to be 48 to 60 months before it's delivered now think about that for a minute
That's going to be four to five years before that fire apparatus. We order tomorrow shows up
Not only is that a detriment to the operation frankly. I'll probably be retired by then I won't even see the equipment that I'm ordering
So we need a strategic plan
To input in place where we regularly purchase replacement vehicles because we're putting off
investments now that are going to create a crisis later and I you know I keep referring to councilmember Unger because he and I
Talked about this issue regularly before he was elected as a council member
We got our hands we got our arms around it. We were having problems earlier
But now we're at crisis mode because we haven't been replacing vehicles regularly since 2022
So that's four years of not buying replacement vehicles and pretty soon. We're gonna have to pay the piper
Thank you
All right. We have a motion in a second
One item 5.2 moved by councilmember Wong second by councilmember Gallo to adopt the staff
recommendation councilmember Brown I
councilmember five aye councilmember Gallo aye councilmember houston aye
councilmember ramachandran aye councilmember under
aye councilmember Wong aye chair jenkins aye motion passes with a vote of eight
ayes now we are moving to item 6.25 i will read the item members of the
public please note that i have pulled your cards
from the consent calendar if you signed up for this item
At six point to five does require an urgency for the urgency got your urgency motion
Noting that there was a title change at the three day portion of this agenda so it does
require an urgency motion before being heard on the urgency councilmember Brown Councilmember
five through the chair we could just finish the boat to hear the item it does need an
urgency because it was added at the supplemental for noticing so it does
need a motion to be heard. So we're in that vote. Council member Fyfe.
Council member Gallo. Aye. Council member Houston. Council member Houston. Aye. Council
member Ramachandran. Aye. Council member Unger. Aye. Council member Wong. Aye. Chair Jenkins.
Motion passes with a vote of eight ayes. I will now read the item. Adopt a
resolution authorizing the city administrator to weigh the request for
proposals and qualifications competitive process execute a construction contract
with capital repairs and replacements at feather with excuse me feather River
camp located at 5469 Oakland Camp Road Quincy California and a total amount not
to exceed five hundred twenty three thousand nine hundred and thirty eight
dollars and nine cents with Ackley engineering for the replacement of three
the septic septic tanks drain system and the drinking water system and adopts appropriate sequel findings
You have 13 speakers on this item
Thank you staff
Good afternoon council members. I'm Quincy Williams. I'm the assistant capital improvement project coordinator for open parks recreation and youth development
I'm here to present
on this resolution
prior to
Me going into more details. I want to give you an executive summary from the actual
Engine report so open feather river has been
Founded in the city of Oakland since 1924 and the sea opened the camp in on June 28th 1924
While the US Service Force owns the land the city as the holder of the special use permit operates and maintains an
organization camp for public use and the camp improvements which consist of tents, cabins,
restroom showers, water streaming plant, a water tank, and a sewer system. Pursuant to
the special use permit, the city has a license agreement with the nonprofit camps in common
to provide outdoor programming at the camp. In 2025, the executive director approached
us, OPRYD, to inform us that the 5,000 gallon septic tank, drain field, and a 14-year-old
water filtration system needs replacement.
Let me just tell you about the number of people
that are served by this camp.
Last four years, 1,130 open youth were served.
Also, Oakland Further River Camp serves families
in the last four years, 4,110 open residents
attended this very integral and valuable asset
that the city owns.
Again, the reason for the urgency is that
we need this septic and water filtration systems
that are past their lifespan.
And so, again, because of the deferred maintenance,
we're at this critical nature for this repair to take place.
If there are any questions,
me and Director Mike Hammack can answer those questions.
Thank you.
Any questions from Council Member Houston?
Mayor Gail?
Yes, I have a few questions.
I wanted to see if Darlene Flynn was online
because I have some equity questions about this.
And while they're pulling her up,
I want to know if my Miss Mike is she around too
because I have a couple of questions but not just yet.
I just wanted to share this organization,
Feather River Camp.
I'm gonna give you a little history.
I'm third generation Oaklander,
been here all my life, all my life.
And this organization been around for a hundred years.
I never heard of it.
I never got the equity to, or my friends from my district,
I'm talking about district seven, never got the equity.
And I wanna share something that was very, very troubling
to me, but I learned some things also
from the city administrator, Justin Johnson,
and my city attorney, Ryan Richardson said Ken,
you know, the decisions you make have to be
in the best interest of the city, right?
So I'm going to vote on this, but I
want to share something that was very troubling.
And I have a board behind me that I'm going to just show.
This board shows that the percentages of district one,
two, three, four, five, six, and seven.
And my district has been underserved for so many years.
And the children from my district, district seven,
percentage is 2.99 2.99 that's troubling to me that is troubling to me I see that
district one is 28 percent I see district two is 13 percent I see district
three five percent district four thirty three percent five five percent that's
I'm not sure if it's yours.
Councilmember Gallo.
Six, 10% president.
District seven.
2.99%.
I wasn't just mad.
I was angry when I saw who allowed that to happen to my community.
But after talking to you, Mike, you brought up my spirit.
You did.
You really did.
I'm going to have to talk to Justin Johnson.
He brought up my spirit.
He brought us together.
And now it's time to tell the
council does just have Darlene
Flynn to come on because this is
an equity problem.
Equity problem I want to find
out what are we planned to do.
To bring equity equal.
Equity and outreach to this
program so my kids that are at
nine two point nine nine percent.
That I didn't know about over a
hundred years or some of my
was there and these numbers are real. So can we pull Darlene Flynn up online?
Because I just want to get her opinion that brought me to rest along with you
Micah you did today. So can we get Darlene Flynn on for a second to talk
about this how we're going to increase the equity across the districts and
specifically my district, District 7. Yes, Councilmember Houston through the
chair. I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Great. I'm so glad. So this is not, these kinds of
outcomes are not surprising. I often say to people, if we look under a rock, we'll find these kinds
of disparities because they are a product of a hundred years of practices and more recently,
because I know the organization that's running the camp now actually came into, I've been doing
some research since we spoke this morning. I've just been brought into this issue today, but I've
been doing some research and the organization that's running the camp now has actually come
together fairly recently to save the camp, to keep the camp going during COVID and and various hard
times that the camp has been through. The problem is that if we don't approach this in a structured
way with the intention of producing equity that normal barriers that present themselves
to marginalized communities, communities that have been most impacted by other disparities,
will cause these to be the outcomes. So in order to undo that we need to do some analysis,
speak with the community at large, talk about what are the barriers that are keeping
the the children in your particular part of the city from accessing this service that has always
been there and that lots of families in Oakland and children in Oakland have been accessing but
not equitably. So what's being proposed is that we do that work to understand more deeply what
the root causes of these disparities are. And then we can work on undoing or strategizing to
Mitigate those barriers or remove those barriers and increase participation
That's a commitment that that we can make
in councilmember you're saying that
District 7 tax dollars are going to the septic tank and there's an equity issue with campers being
Coming from district 7 you're relating it back to the septic tank, right?
So yes going back to the septic tank and it's like you just said how bad?
district 7 was on the Haganburg corridor you mentioned it just a minute ago so
that's what my children got to deal with so Micah you brought up my spirits
after I spoke to you and even so it's going back to the septic tank what I
mean is that I'm going to vote yes on this however my conscience tells me to
say no but like the city administrator my city attorney said Ken this will
benefit your children if this happens we can do the outreach we can outreach and
get them there if it's not up to date my children can't go visit it right so
share a little bit with me about the subject so earlier so earlier when we
discussed about the septic tanks and what it would like if we don't get this
job done. No one, not your children, nobody in district sick. All districts will not be
able to attend Feather River Camp. Just understand, once the septic tank is done, the job is done.
All the sites will be able to attend. And once again, I told you earlier, if you want
your children in your district to attend Feather River Camp, I am willing, my department is
willing, to outreach to the families. Make sure they contact our sites, because you have
I've got two sites in your district, TASA and Ira Jenkins.
All it takes is a phone call or email to myself or my staff
to make sure that the children in the district six
is able to attend.
Now the numbers that you're showing,
just know that the kids did not last year
go to Feather River Camp.
So the numbers that you're showing
is not from Feather River Camp from last year.
Through the chair, what are they from?
We went to OVY last year.
Yep.
It was just a little bit of effort.
So, Feather River Camp didn't occur due to the system of last year, we didn't know we
were going to be funded through OPRI ID, so the leadership had to wait to decide on what
was the next step, but the council, you guys have voted on us to go and fund our programs
for summer.
When we got the AOK, the Green Light film council, when we contacted camps and comments,
they gave our dates away, so that's why the children wasn't able to attend Feather River
Camp.
This year we're going to have a larger number but we're making sure that every kid in Oakland
attend Feather River Camp so once again like I said earlier if you want your kids to have
kids in mind that want to attend let me know let the department know and I will make sure
that they're able to get there.
All right so through the chair thank you Darlene Flynn online thank you Micah for making me
happy and I want to move this this item.
Thank you.
Congratulations Director.
you. I support the item as well but I do have a question for staff. I even if
those numbers are not specifically to Feather River Camp my guess is that
they're not that far off. There's gonna be inequities and where in what districts
kids come from and while there's a lot of support in my district for Oakland
Feather River Camp and I very much support the program and I hope to stop
by for the first time this year, I do wholeheartedly agree that a city
resource should be used for, should have more of an equity lens and should be
way more proportionately different districts, but I am a little confused in
the race and equity statement that it says the population served for this
program is overwhelmingly composed of black African American and Latino
Hispanic residents, including youth from low income households who are already experiencing
racial disparities, et cetera, um, regardless of what...
Could you talk about the racial demographics?
So the racial demographics is all across the board from each district.
It is every race that attends Feather River Camp.
And in this race and equity part, we have to put, you know, we put that in there to
and to make sure that it's solidifies everyone of all color
of attending Feather River Camp.
So this time what we're doing, we're going to do analysis
so we can make sure we get the correct data
to show exactly who's attending Feather River
Camp across every district and even up at Camp St. Common.
Who are they serving as well?
Because right now, we don't know who all they're serving
because we don't do the analysis with them.
We just don't do the analysis on our end
because we pulled it from our data from Perfect Mind.
Thank you.
And is our outreach focused on OUSD, or are there ways we can be more proactive in District
7 in telling the youth over there and spreading it to under enrolled districts?
Or is OUSD, are they the ones that cover the marketing?
No.
No, no, no.
So we market our own programs through social media, through Perfect Mind, our system that
we use.
And then our staff, when they come into our building, the staff breaks down to the parents
what programs we are going to be doing for the summer in Feather River Camp is one.
Some parents in District 7 back out of it because it's like, okay, we're in Oakland
but now my child has to be five hours away from me.
It's kind of hard because if something happens, how are they going to get up there?
A lot of parents don't have the transportation, the means of transportation to get in their
child in case of emergency.
And the septic tank too, right?
Thank you.
In the septic tank.
Thank you.
Appreciate these efforts to spread access across the city. Yes, you're welcome
Thank you. Let's go to the public speakers
As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record if you are
Participating via zoom and you submitted a speaker's card, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you
for Rana
table soon
Yasi
Laffinia.
Vince Yorba.
Diana Christine Essex.
Zilla Terri.
Johanna Brekka.
Brekki Brano.
Lucas Brekki-Mensnier.
Katrina Brekki-Mensnier.
Mrs. Adolabala.
Mr. Hazard.
Jessie Rosemore.
Sorry, Rosemore.
Karen Louie Legault.
Vanessa Sedino, can I approach the podium?
Hi, good afternoon.
My name is Farhanat Avasom, and I'm speaking
in my capacity as the former lead fiscal person
for the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department.
Before OPR YD, I worked for Head Start, Aging,
Public Works, and Violence Prevention.
So my broad overview at working at different department,
It helps me assess which projects are the most impactful
and I must strongly urge you to vote no
for the Federal River Camp
because the Federal River Camp is a money page.
It's not only the $70,000 for room and board
that you see on the budget.
It's the 25 to 30 K in transportation costs,
another 25 to 30 K in labor and materials
plus the grants you have previously given
to the tune of 100K for administrative cost.
I feel like we can achieve the same goal
at different nearby camps where the money
would be reverberated back to the Oakland economy
and it can be done at much cheaper.
So you can, like we have the police activities league camp,
we have the OVY camp, we've previously we had a co-op
agreement to, for getting camping really cheap with the East Oakland Regional Parks Foundation.
And the savings from this can be divested into meaningful projects that...
Thank you, ma'am.
Your time is up.
I'm Carol Legault.
I am yielding my time to Yasi.
Good afternoon, Chair, Council Members and members of the public.
My name is Yasi Safinha.
I'm the executive director of Camps in Common.
We're the operators of Oakland Feather River Camp
called OFRC, and I'm also speaking as somebody
who attended camp as a kid with my mom and sister.
Before anything else, I just also wanna thank you today
for your public service and also for the care
of Oakland families.
To the equity issue, I just wanna say that compared
to other campsites and family campsites,
we're actually leading the way nationally
compared to what equity looks like
across the entire country so despite these numbers here I can let you know
that camps in common we do report these numbers and we have over 53 percent of
our campers reporting as non-white we're also thankful for our ongoing
partnership with the city and Oakland Parks and Rec youth development program
so that is a separate entity we do do direct outreach with OUSD and we
particularly work specifically to provide our camperships with the
community schools managers.
So our camperships go all the way up to 100%
worth the cost of coming to camp.
One quarter of all campers are campership campers.
We also have created a partnership
with First Five in Malameda County.
It's a $500,000 grant over two years
that makes sure that folks who are accessing
First Five programs are coming.
And we have reduced all of the barriers
aside from people coming directly and asking to come.
That's why I emailed council member Houston yesterday
and said let's find that bridge that gets people
from your district to the camp.
I just started as the executive director last May
and I'm very eager to make sure that we have
true Oakland representation showing up at camp.
That was the quote platform under which I applied
for the job.
I'm Oakland all the way.
So I just wanna say that the thing about a septic system
is it's a health risk, it's an environmental risk.
period, end of story, a water filtration system.
It's a health risk.
We cannot operate camp unless we have these systems in place.
This is almost a 40-acre campus.
It brings people from all over Oakland
and has, for over 100 years, the inception of this camp
was exactly about equity.
Its location was placed so that people
could go straight from the train station,
right up to the camp, so that while there
was a national movement to make sure that people could access
the outdoors that would be accessible
to working class folks.
I just want to say that we have been growing the numbers.
As you can imagine after COVID,
it was hard to convince people to want to go camping
or to want to do a lot of things.
So from 2022, our growth went from 644 to over 1300 people
from the city of Oakland coming and participating at camp.
And so far we already have over 1200 Oakland enrollees.
So we're just really thankful for the fact that you all are considering this item.
We are also-
I'm one of the speakers, I cede my time to Yossi.
Thanks.
What's your name?
Can you state your name?
Anna Essex-Lautier.
Thank you.
We're also leaving no stone unturned to keep this camp strong in the future.
In addition to developing long term sustainability plan in partnership with the city.
We're actively inviting philanthropy to help sustain Oakland Feather River Camp so
opportunity to do so that we
can continue to serve Oakland
families for generations to
come again this place has been
around for over a hundred years
on its inception was about
equity on in the time when the
city decided that it was not
able to can he's continue the
camp I recognize it admit that
it is because of people with
access and resource that the
campus continued to be viable
place that continues to be able
to you as a council member and talk about how we can beat people from your district up to camp,
you'll respond so that we can find that access.
Because we definitely want to make sure this is for every single Oakland family.
With all the issues that we have with respect to isolationism that the US Attorney General reported on in 2022,
this is an antidote to that.
When you talk about ACEs, this is an antidote to that.
When you look at the landmark report that just came out about the nature gap,
and particularly the fact that it's hitting black and brown communities the
most and rented communities the most and that the health disparities that come
with a lack of nature this is an antidote to that. So we invite you to
please make sure the Oakland families can come come to a place where they're
disconnected from these things and reconnecting with one another.
Good evening President Jenkins and members of the council my name is Vanessa
and I'm here on First Five, on behalf of First Five Alameda County, one of our early childhood
local county agencies in strong support of this item, S6.25, to fund critical capital
improvements to the subject and drinking water systems at Oakland Feather River Camp.
First Five is proud to partner with Oakland Feather River Camp to expand access to outdoor
family-centered experiences
for Alameda County families with young children.
Since launching our partnership in 2023,
we have invested over $800,000
to provide fully subsidized family camp experiences,
covering transportation, meals, gear, and programming,
so that cost is not a barrier to participation.
As we heard, there are barriers.
Through this partnership,
We've supported hundreds of families each year,
growing from just 28 families in our first year
to an estimated 50 families this year.
And over 65% of these families are from Oakland.
And for about seven in 10,
this is their first camping experience.
We consistently hear from families
that these experiences reduce stress,
strengthen family bonds,
and provide rare opportunities
to connect with nature and each other.
Outcomes that are directly tied
community in other cities.
And we're looking to early
childhood development development
and kindergarten readiness which
is our north star of the system.
Good evening my name is Lucas
Becky Meisner I'm fourth
generation Oakland herb on a
raising east Oakland and I'm a
lifelong feather river camper.
My mom first got a job at
feather river camp when she was
nineteen and my family's been
going up ever since- and now I
get to grow up and I get to
watch my- my daughter's
and it's been a critical resource
for Oaklanders for a long time.
And, you know, when CAMP was founded in the 1920s
as an escape for working class Oaklanders
to easily get out into nature,
it's brought thousands and thousands of Oaklanders up.
And as the executive director of Oakland Kids First,
I work with young people at Castlemont, Fremont,
Oakland High, Skyline Tech.
I know experientially how important it is
to get our young people, get our families up into nature.
And the investment that the council is considering
and infrastructure is really critical.
Can't, you know, was gonna be closed 23 years ago,
and it was community rallying to save it programmatically
that has kept it alive, but the city's commitment
has continued in the form of a partnership
around infrastructure.
And so, you know, Council Member Houston
bringing up the stuff around outreach and equity and access,
we always have room to improve in all those areas,
and yet we can't improve on any of it, right?
If we don't have septic, we don't have water filtration,
et cetera.
on this. I really encourage
your support on this- so
generations of Oaklanders I'm
can continue to have immersive
access to nature- and continue
to represent open proud. Thank
hi my name is Jesse rose more-
yeah you know councilmember
Houston seem proud of flipping
us all off during the flock
boat he seems proud of- being
called out for his absurd- you
city contracts and you know we got this thing about equity if he really cares
so much about equity we'll see how that goes in the next item where celebrate is
used inequity inequitably against black people specifically look mrs. Sada
please give this gentleman his time okay if if councilmember Houston really
cared about his district and the people in his district you know we would see
something different in the public ethics complaint that Sean Everhart of the
of the Privacy Advisory Commission levied against Ken Houston everything
in there shows Ken Houston's disdain for his district his disdain for Mr.
Rosemore do you have anything about feather river or septic tanks yeah you
know this is a lot of pontification by the council member about feather river
and septic tanks and you know I don't appreciate as a member of the public
having to sit through this council members pontification and I don't think
you should either it's a little bit of a liability for you as you line up behind
him for your right-wing agenda it's disgusting thank you for your comments
miss Asada mr. Hazard do you wish to speak on this item anybody else's name
was called for item 6.25.
Leave that black man alone.
I got you, brother.
So I went and looked up this Feather River Camp.
And on their site, they have family, basic camp, youth camp,
group, rentals.
So if you want to rent for four weeks
or be a part of the camp for four weeks, $9,800.
Two-week session, $5,200.
One-week session, $2,600.
So they have a 75% discount for Oakland residents,
but they serve anybody that wants to come into that camp.
It's not an Oakland camp.
So since it's not just for Oakland,
why are we doing like you did with the $700,000
for the training facility over there,
And what used to be the Raiders camp, paying them for everything.
Why are you paying for everything?
You have agreed to facilitate the infrastructure care for this place.
And they making money four weeks.
I don't know what they're doing in four weeks for $9,800, two weeks, $5,200.
One week.
This is not no charity group.
They making money and we helping them to make their money.
And who participates?
I know black folks is just like that ice rink over there
that y'all helping to take care of.
It's good it's there.
No, you still got time.
Mrs. Seabe, you mind putting that sign back up for me?
Thank you.
Desmond, they had called you.
Desmond, they called you.
Every single day, my old counsel.
I was basically gonna just,
Mrs. Seabe took the words out of my mouth.
I don't think this Feather River Camp,
I think it's a good idea,
a great place for the kids.
But we have a lot of organizations coming to Oakland
like it's a cash cow.
And we're putting a lot of money out
instead of putting money,
we have a East Bay water facility.
Sometimes that doesn't have enough lifeguards
in Ken Houston's district.
We have a lot of other recreation centers
that need swimming, the swimming pools need to get redone.
They need lifeguards at those centers.
So are we just giving our money out
and allowing other organizations to take it
that are not residents or organizations
that reside in Oakland?
So just think about that.
That's my word.
Thank you, anybody online?
Do you have a card?
Do you have a card?
Even Cambridge.
Did you sign up for the item?
Yes.
Okay, go ahead.
All right.
So I actually worked for the Boy Scouts for five years
As a senior executive, I have experience running camps.
I would say that a camp is a money pit.
And if we aren't asking the real questions of,
how viable is this camp?
We need to bring this camp's finances
as a matter of a meeting item.
And actually, look, is this camp solvent?
How solvent are they?
How much are they profiting?
With all that being said, you have to spend money
on the septic tank.
You can't not spend money on the septic tank,
simply because you can't sell a camp to anyone else
if the septic tank is ruined.
However, we should consider selling the camp.
If we are not, if the camp is not viable,
we should consider selling it.
For the simple fact, this camp is akin
to gas subsidies for an oil company.
If they're profitable and we're footing the bill
for $500,000 for their septic,
they should be able to afford that themselves.
Thank you sir, your time is up.
If your name is called and you wanna speak on this item,
Mr. Hazard, Vince, Joanna, Breckie, and Katrina,
otherwise at this time all names have been called.
Mr. Hazard, you coming up?
Oh, you gave your time.
Thank you for being, thank you for that.
I appreciate that.
Anybody online?
If not, Council Member Brown.
Excellent, thank you so much.
I just wanted to just say, you know,
I fully support this Feather River Camp.
I remember just growing up, one of the first times
that being able to actually attend for three weeks,
actually, and we did a lot of amazing activities.
And so I just know that it's definitely transformational
for a young person to be able to have that experience.
And I think I also wanted to note I think it's great
that we reach out to OSD but also keep in mind
that you know Oakland actually is full of charter schools.
Right.
And all of those youth live right here in Oakland
most of the time. Right.
So and actually I would say actually in District 7
there's probably more charter schools and so that could be
a part of the gap of ensuring equity as well.
And so I definitely look forward to working with
the executive director and team to help support the efforts,
because I think equity and ensuring that black and brown
young people in our city can have access to this
because I think it's really transformational.
So, and do we already have a second?
I think you might be the second.
Second.
All right, let's go to the roll call.
Read testing one, two, three.
I just wanna take a minute of your time.
I've been to Feather River many times, several times,
being Parks Manager and so forth,
and also from the neighborhood.
And the reality is some of these youngsters
out of our neighborhood never have that experience
or that opportunity to see a different environment,
a different discipline, to learn something different
than you can provide.
And by these youngsters from other neighborhoods
coming together, they provide not just recreational,
educational, but working together.
And that's something we don't get in the hood
growing up in East Oakland,
but it's a different positive environment
that the children and young people can enjoy
and bring back home.
And so with that, I will support the Feather River Camp
to continue but I do want to also acknowledge that
you know we need to reach out to the neighborhood and certainly
that decision is up to mom and dad
to allow me to go as
didn't have that opportunity as you can shake your hand
but many of us didn't have the mom and dad at home
but what we received our discipline
information and exposure
through other avenues and this is a
a great avenue where children in east oakland
get that exposure, working with other children
from different neighborhoods,
and the environment is a real positive one.
So everyone sitting on this council,
if you wanna go up to Feather River and take a look at it,
they provide those experiences for adults here in Oakland,
whether you're in the leadership or the Oakland Unified
or within government here in the city.
So just contact them.
you can go up there right and spend the night
and be able to see what goes on.
So with that, I also support the motion.
Thank you.
We will all go up there and see the septic tank.
Where you, the septic tank.
Keep it on the septic tank.
Let's get to work.
All right, let's win the roll.
On the motion by council member Houston,
second by council member Brown
to adopt the staff recommendation.
Council member Brown.
Aye.
Council member Fyfe.
Aye.
Council member Gallo.
Aye.
Council member Houston.
Aye.
Councilmember Ramachandran.
Aye.
Councilmember Unger.
Aye.
Councilmember Wong.
Councilmember Wong.
Aye.
Chair Jenkins.
Aye.
Motion passes with a vote of eight ayes.
Going back to item 5.3.
Going back to item 5.3.
Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator
to enter into a professional services agreement
with Cellbright for provision
of universal forensic extraction devices
and related services for the Oakland Police Department
for a contract amount not to exceed $140,000
for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30th, 2027,
waiving the competitive multi-step solicitation process
and small, local business enterprise program requirements
and accepting the 2024 Sailbright annual report
and making a determination regarding
whether the city should continue to use this technology.
You have 23 speakers on this item.
Thank you, staff, to the staff.
Good evening, council members.
I'm Sergeant Zhao with Oakland Police Department.
I work in the co-case section of the homicide unit.
To kind of begin, I just want to give a really quick
rundown of what this technology is and how it works.
It's a little box that OPD owns.
What it does is that it downloads cell phone data
onto this, for a forensic report for criminal investigations.
So the way it, uh, logistically work is that opd sees a cell phone, uh,
pursuant to either search warrant or probable cause.
And in almost all, but one or two use cases, opd would seek a search
warrant to extract data from this phone.
The other cases would tend to be on consent.
Um, so once we have a search warrant to, um, search this phone, it's going to
be pursuant to a criminal investigation.
This device is the cell phone is hooked up to this device or
extract the data on the phone.
California law and also, OPD's use policy
dictates that the investigator
to seal information on that phone
that's unrelated to the investigation.
At which point, they examine the report
that's generated by this device
pursuing their investigation.
And to kind of give an example,
sometimes in gun investigations,
a photo of the suspect holding the guns
obviously extremely important in the investigation.
We tend to see a lot more usage
in terms of robberies, homicides, human trafficking.
We're building a relationship of the user device
to the victim or to other suspects,
how a robbery is planned,
or do you worry about how a homicide occurred
because of prior communication
between victim, suspect, fuse, what have you.
So it's a piece of evidence that's critical
to a lot of the serious felonies that we investigate.
Once it's done by the investigator,
this data is uploaded into our evidence.com
for safekeeping and encryption.
And it is shared with the District Attorney's Office
for discovery process.
And if other law enforcement agencies
serve OPD with a search warrant,
obviously pursuing a judge order,
we would have to comply with a search warrant
and provide that data over.
And to kinda go into the practical usage for OPD.
Last year, OPD extracted over 700 cell phones
pursuant to search warrants.
I believe one or two was under consent,
but almost everything else is on search warrants.
Out of those, we rely to celebrate
to extract almost all Android devices that OPD encounter.
It's just because the technical build
that celebrate device and it is the only device
that OPD and other forensic lab have encountered
that works very viability in terms of Androids.
Out of those 700 devices, about 30% were Androids,
So, which translates to a little over 200 devices that were searched,
pursuant to these criminal investigations.
Uh, almost all of them usually come, uh, to us locked.
It's very rarely did we get a passcode to phones.
Um, and so we tend to be dealing with a locked device that we're trying to get
evidence in, um, from consulting with outside experts and other labs and the
best practice, OPD have not identified any viable alternatives to this, uh,
vendor in terms of Android extractions.
OPD does understand the optics of this company.
Unfortunately, we have done some testing and some other alternative vendors in terms of
looking for possibilities.
For example, right now we're undergoing a 30-day testing process with a particular vendor,
and to kind of highlight how a lot of these sales pitch and how a lot of these vendors
present their products.
When I was in the initial meeting with this particular vendor, it was the way they sold
the data sheet, the way they sold the product, it was a direct one-to-one replacement for
Cellbright.
It worked just as well, or it should be able to meet your needs.
We have this particular device for about a week now.
We usually run 30-day tests on these things.
We have tried eight lock Android on this device, and he has failed on all eight.
In contrast, we tried these same eight devices on the cell bright and has passed seven out
of eight.
And these are not devices OPD particularly use, these are devices that OPD have seized
pursuant to criminal investigation and are searching using a search warrant.
So we're using, we're testing in terms of real world experience and we have not encountered
anything that's viable as we stance.
So therefore, OPD is asking that we're allowed to continue to use a cell bright with the
understanding and continue search for a better alternative that can replace this capability
because the capability to extract these phones are so important to investigations. That OPD
would it would be a detrimental to OPD criminal investigations without this technology. Thank
you any questions from the council members council member guy oh then pressure better.
Recommendation motion from guy oh council member five then council member more. Yes,
Through the chair, could you say more about the statement you just said you're testing
other vendors?
Is it one vendor or multiple vendors?
And can you state the vendor that you tested that you did not like, or no?
We're undergoing the current one we're testing.
I don't want to name them because we haven't gone through the whole testing.
It could be one of those weird, just luckware like a fail on these eight and be very successful
on the other ones.
So I don't want to speak to the effectiveness.
I'm just saying as ongoing, what we observe that is not meeting to my standards.
There's not a lot of vendors in this space that are, that does this kind of thing.
And so it's rare that we encounter vendors that we can use or try.
There's a couple that does it and we tend to, that Motorola does, has some sort of,
Motorola has a product that we tested a while ago, but they haven't made any updates.
So it didn't make sense to reach back out to them.
So we tend to wait until a particular conference is where someone the purporting that they
came up with a new product.
And that's when we start to testing our face.
Are you aware of any data risks with cell rights technology?
The extraction that OPD performed is stored locally on the OPD computer after it's done
is then uploaded into evidence.com.
That's controlled by OPD.
So the data risk would be a breach of evidence.com server.
Cell write does not touch our data.
So who owns it?
We owned it, but we store it in the cloud with evidence.com with Axon.
Okay.
And then how is that information, how long is that information stored?
And is there a framework that's available to be made public around how the information
is used to, or can you give us data that shows
that use of this technology has actually led
to an impactful decrease in crime
or solving the crimes that have happened?
Yes, so it supplements our investigative efforts.
I don't have any stats in terms of,
it increased our solvability by 20, 30%.
However, anecdotally, we have seen significant
in terms of assisting them, helping prove particular statements or a particular case.
It's case in point, so we live so much of a life on our phones.
Even the location on your phones that we extract from it helps put you at a crime scene or
not put you at a crime scene.
The communications that individuals have prior to, you know, committing a robbery or prior
to committing a homicide helps to prove state of mind, helps to prove, helps to go to like
particular if they were having a few with the victim.
So, anecdotally, it sheds a lot of light
and it's a very strong piece of evidence
that helps support an investigation.
It's almost like video surveillance, right?
It's one of the key pieces of evidence
that the DA's office came to expect
in a criminal investigation of any magnitude.
That whether we have examined the mobile forensics
for any way to either find exculpatory evidence
or incriminating evidence.
Because, you know, just personal anecdote, we have found on a particular shooting case
that this individual that we die committed a shooting, the data location puts him somewhere
else and that kind of sheds a different light and investigation in the direction we went.
So it's, it assists in most investigations, but unfortunately OPD doesn't have the staff
to say it, you know, it helps off 20% or however it is.
And how long have you been using it?
OPD has some form of this thing for almost a decade.
We've been using-
No, not some form, like this vendor.
This, yes, I'm sorry, this particular vendor,
and we have been using their technology
since about 2014, 2015, I believe.
We had our use policy passed by the PAC,
and it might be off by a year or two,
I think 2021, 2022.
And kind of to go back to your question about retention,
I forgot to answer that question.
The way we tension or these data are stored on evidence.com,
it's a social, per our use policy,
our mobile forensic extraction use policy.
It's tied to the adjudication of the case.
So if this criminal case is adjudicated
and data is set to purge along with the body-worn cameras
and everything, all the other digital evidence associated
with this case that lives on Axon,
the phone data gets purged along with it.
So is there a reason, if this has been utilized
for 12 years since 2014, why the data is still just
anecdotal on whether it actually has a tangible percentage
decrease in the amount of crimes we're able to solve using it?
And the reason I'm asking is because it
has been really problematic in other parts of the world
in the ways that it's been used.
And I'll get more into that after our public speakers.
but is there a reason why we're not collecting hard data
about how it's helping us solve crimes
versus anecdotal results?
Sure, because solving a homicide
is like building a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Each little piece helps, right?
It would be, celebrate is a very enormous piece that helps,
but without the other pieces, without your witnesses,
without your electronic records from phones,
without your video surveillance,
without tying your victim and suspect to the scenes
without all these other pieces.
Even though you have a good piece of evidence,
you might not be able to finish solving this case.
It's akin to kind of trying to explain how important
or how much video surveillance would help solve a case.
We all know logically that it's a huge part of this case.
However, without this video's events,
could it be solved?
Possible.
Would it be extraordinary?
But would it be important to the case to have?
Absolutely.
So that's why I don't have a heart stat.
And as I stand, I would struggle to come up
with a heart stat in terms of how X percentage,
other than it's all these things that we need
are a huge part of a criminal investigation division.
And without this part, we would be at a huge disadvantage
in terms of solvability.
I hear what you're saying,
but I'm having a hard time connecting the dots
that if it's so significant that we can't actually document
how significant it is, how it's actually contributing.
And the reason I'm asking is the same reason
I've brought up issues around FLOC
is because the vendor is horrible, horrible.
They are, Celebrite is an Israeli surveillance company
whose CEO admitted that most of his employees
come from unit 8200, which is a military intelligence
warfare unit that is used to undermine civil rights
and torture people in the countries
that they sell their technology to,
and it's been used in ways that have outed
non-heterosexual individuals,
used cracking people's phones in order to coerce them
into becoming informants, targeted peoples.
I mean, this is a powerful tool, I don't disagree.
But what I'm asking for is with this vendor,
why can't we show after the use of over 10 years of data
that we can't say, celebrate directly,
helped us solve these many crimes in the city of Oakland?
And that is why we're using it
versus I found four vendors when I was doing a search
and I do not have the professional expertise that you have.
But I wanna know why do all of the public safety tools
that come before this body
have such a terrible human rights violation record
and in public surveillance record
that we have to only use the worst vendors in the world?
If I could find a better or cheaper vendor
that does just as effective, we will switch over tomorrow.
Well, can you tell us what the process is
to investigating other vendors?
because what happens with this body is,
and I hear this with OPD all the time,
the city council is tying our hands,
we can't do A, B, C, and D because our hands are tied.
I feel like the city council's hands are tied
when we are brought legislation,
particularly contracts at the last minute,
at the 11th hour, to have to approve
without the due diligence being done
of investigating other potential vendors.
So I feel like my hands are tied
when I have to engage in critical decision making
around contracts but have to do it
within a certain amount of time
because we're gonna lose some continuity
because things are not improved in a certain timeframe.
So when you're bringing these forward,
can you bring other,
because right now you're in the middle
of reviewing another vendor.
Can you bring at least like,
when I get quotes from my house, I get three.
Can you bring three quotes of other vendors
Did you see anything that you've
investigated to see- what pans
out the best.
Absolutely we'll be happy to
continue to do this for- the
next annual report and document
all the efforts that we have
spent and tested- we.
Did the way it works that we
reach out to these vendors that-
we have not tested before.
That or maybe vendors that made
some of the development that
asked for testing unit and we
would test it for about a month-
to evaluate.
But OPD will document that on the next agenda report
and provide that full transparency
in what we have tested.
Okay, so what I wanna just say to the public
so you can have a little bit of context
for my concerns here is because we keep having
to approve contracts that have been shown
around the world to have proven violations
of people's human rights.
And Cellebrite has a documented record
of arming repressive regimes around the world.
And this company's technology has
been used against journalists in Myanmar
who exposed a massacre.
It's been used against a blogger tortured in Bahrain
for criticizing the government, which is something
Oakland is known for, its resistance models.
It's been used against journalists in Botswana
who were arrested over social media posts,
against activists in Serbia, where
Amnesty International documented Selbright's tools,
been used to secretly unlock phones
during police interrogations and internal spyware.
Selbright has been sold,
it has sold its products in Saudi Arabia,
the UAE, Venezuela, and other countries
with serious human rights records.
And I just don't want Oakland to be a part of that
list of bad actors who continuously violate human rights.
And so I will end, council member, council president.
Thank you councilmember five councilmember Houston Houston okay okay so
what's what's the timeline to find alternative vendors when will you come
back to council we have to identify them and we have to try them out I think at
this point if councilman if I once named before that she looked at we probably
have tried most of them if not all four of them because there is it's a space
where there is really limited amount of people making these things and
unfortunately they know cell device but in this business so long they kind of
have you know they had they they have that first step and they're keeping up
with the forefront of that level of technology so that's the problem we're
facing what's the adverse impact to not approving this item so if we don't
approve this will you be able to find other vendors or like what will happen
when it comes to like I don't know closing of cases help me understand why
this needs to be approved so if we didn't have it last year looking at our
stats they'll be probably over 200 something devices that we cannot access
access for data. And these devices were spent over robbery cases, shooting cases, gun possession
cases, and homicide cases. And they're all obviously associated with the criminal investigation
and we searched these 200 plus devices with a search warrant. So that is a significant
impact. It's about 30% of the device that OPD looked at for our criminal investigation.
So one in three devices would not be able to look at by OPD. So I would imagine that
would be a significant in terms of health availability.
Real quick, thank you, Chair.
This is Chief Casey Johnson.
Just want to kind of piggyback on that.
We look at the crime numbers of the last year
and this year now, we've seen a significant drop
in all of our part one major felony crimes
to include shootings, robberies, and homicides.
Last year, the department had
over a 90% homicide clearance rating
and all of these cases have used some form
of technology or celebrate
And to kind of answer Council Member Fife's question
as far as why can't we just figure out
how many of these cases were used with Cellbrite.
When you look at the technology in Cellbrite,
especially when you're talking about a phone,
something like when you're looking at
a homicide investigation,
that investigation may take a month
with a bunch of really good evidence,
or it may take years.
And so if you're using that Cellbrite technology,
by the time that case goes to trial and closes,
you'd have to go back then to tell the investigator
that the cellbrite was used in that investigation.
So again, it's very hard to track, I'm sorry.
So when you're looking at like using cellbrite
and trying to figure out what a totality of number is,
it's not as easy as saying we use cellbrite
on 30% of our cases.
And because when you're looking at the technology,
when you use cellbrite, if you're using,
looking at a homicide case, if there is video surveillance
and a bunch of really strong evidence,
that case may be solved in a very short period of time.
But if there's not very strong evidence,
that case may take years to solve.
And if Selbright was used in that case,
let's say the case of four years to finally solve
and Selbright was used in that case,
now you have to tell the investigator four years later
that Selbright was used in that investigation.
So it's not as easy as saying,
we use Selbright on these 50 cases and they were all solved
because some of these cases may take time.
And so it's very challenging to try and,
when Sergeant Zaw was saying, trying
to give an exact number of how many times
this technology was used.
To question, with this help right usage,
is this common in the region?
Which one of the law enforcement agencies are using it?
Do we know who's not using it?
Do we know who has alternatives?
Yes.
I have spoken to pretty much most, if not all,
the forensic labs or the department that uses it.
So the biggest one will be the regional forensic computer lab down in Silicon Valley and that's ran by the FBI.
It's a regional task force that helps with electronics, right?
So they use two major devices, cell bright and great key.
Cell bright is still the device that they defer to in terms of Android extractions.
The Secret Service Task Force, also same day.
It's a running team when you, like I talked about them,
a PD, the alco sheriff's department, and maybe not in a field, but it's a running team
that these departments or labs have two major devices.
They have cellbrite and they have magnetic gray keys, predominantly used for iPhones
and cellbrite, predominantly focused on Androids.
We're not tied to this company in terms of, you know, we are tied to it because of necessity.
have not with there's no one else using some other vendor that are like almost
as good or or as a viable replacement if there is a viable replacement just
because it costs a long I think most of us will switch over so that's that's
unfortunate part we're stuck here we're stuck you haven't using it because it's
such an important tool for investigation but we did wait there's no vendor that
would any of us regionally have to identify that we would prefer to switch
you.
Thank you.
Let's go to the public speaker.
Oh, Councilmember Houston.
Through the chair, so if we stop using Sailrite, what will happen?
Giving our historic stats over probably close to a third of our devices that we seize and
want to search as pursuant to a criminal search warrant and a criminal investigation
would not be searchable.
We wouldn't be not privy to that data.
30%?
Roughly.
Whoa.
I second that
no else motion
All right. We have a motion to second. Let's hear from our public speakers, please
As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order
Please state your name for the record before beginning if you're on zoom
Please raise your hand so I can easily identify you will be taken after the in chamber speakers
Ralph Brown
Emily Wheeler
Keon bliss
Juan Abanil
James birch
Simon, I think it's Seaman Lee, Blair Beekman,
Peter Alexander, Mrs. Asada Olliballa,
Madeleine Stacy, Peter Brown,
Mitra Zarabeth, Jesse Rosemore, Mark Dudley,
Juan Kenham, Charlotte Ione, Kathleen Kinney,
Nicole Dean
Pamela Drake
Matt Boyd I think Lori Christine Castro
Francis Vian
croto
Sumitra
Kalkar in any order
please begin
Peter Alexander, thank you and beautiful blessings to everyone here and
Let's see here. I want to do a
Quick shout-out to local 81 that gave me this wonderful shirt on May 1st after I talked to them and the students about
Striking the system into submission for 40 nights and 40 days. I am Peter
I am commanding this strike for all time is now and now is the time now regarding this particular topic
I think that you guys are in really good luck because you have an amazing
alternative
an amazing alternative
You go ahead and set a meeting with the police chief and you guys with the Tom Steyer
Elon Musk Michael Recona juto and JD McAfee
these four brothers possess knowledge
Honesty and sit and sincerity above and beyond most all other wealthy alleged so-called experts and
Even law enforcement is not beyond being controlled by mind control programs
I could give you a dozen examples, but let's start off with the most well-known Oscar Grant
Officer Peroni was a CIA handler who disappeared after officer measurly a total mind controlled mentoring candidate shot Oscar grant
That's a fact
And we have the ability to do better for this for our law enforcement
They need help and I am advising them the best way to get this help now
He brought up human trafficking and I advise you to include detective James Rothstein human compromise into this operation
and please know that
Thank You mr. Alexander your time is up
If your name was called please approach the podium
Hi, my name is Mitra. I'm a member of East Bay Democratic Socialist of America. I'm urging all council members to vote no
Like council member five said this is an Israeli company is also on the boycott divest sanction list the BDS movement
And they've tested their technology on Palestinians with the Israeli Defense Forces
It's also used by ice so I have to ask what kind of example is OPD attempting to serve
Let's say celebrate celebrate is actually necessary. There was no bidding or consideration of other vendors
But actually I just learned it seems like there may have been so we're not even done reviewing vendors
So why are we even considering this technology today? This is an ongoing pattern with OPD
I don't know when it's going to stop and I don't know how long we're gonna let OPD continue to use our tax dollars
Like we can't or shouldn't have a say but I do not believe OPD needs this technology
I saw how much it was utilized, but how often was it actually useful?
Also, this is coming from them, considering their federal oversight, overtime corruption,
and flock somehow getting past public safety and their bloated budget, how much more tech
do they need to play with?
There was no public outreach for Israeli tech during a genocide and Israel bombing my family
in Iran.
I really do think some residents would have something to say, because these are not separate
issues at all.
Last thing I'll say is I read the report, it said that race was not going to be considered
to most of these with a new tech and all this talk about equity, racial identity,
I would expect the same from OPD. So I urge you to vote no. Hello my name is
Francis Crutteau and I would like to say that you're talking about optics. It's
not optics, it's people's real lives. You are using technology created by Israel.
They are actively committing a genocide so it's not really an optics kind of
situation. You either choose to support them or you don't. And I would love to
urge you all to please not support this kind of technology. It's a it's a fast
track to a surveillance state. It's it's just it's frankly it's disgusting and
it's kind of disturbing to me that you don't seem more concerned with the fact
that you are using technology that has been routinely used to essentially
uphold fascist dictatorship around the world I think that if it's that
important it that would have proved itself a lot sooner because if you've
allegedly been using this for like a decade or so how come only in the last
year you've seen any kind of statistics proving that the crime rate has gone
down all crime rates went down broadly after the pandemic you have no idea if
it's causative or correlative you're just saying it's causative because it works
for you to call it that. Speaking to you, lovely, lovely City Council members,
please, please, please vote no. Do not give them $140,000 to then send to a
company that is... Hello, my name is Sominthra Kelkar. I'm a longtime Oakland
resident and former OUSD science teacher. The City of Oakland should not, in any
way, shape, or form, invest public funds in businesses that operate out of a
country whose entire society is militarized and structured
to exploit, subjugate, and exterminate other human beings.
If OPD is allowed to spend our public funds on a contract
with an Israeli company, we will not
be able to trust that our information and identities
and those of our neighbors will not
be sold to entities like ICE and DHS who seek to do us harm.
It is unreasonable to believe that an Israeli surveillance
technology firm will not exploit our contract with them
to put our community members at risk
on the grounds of their immigration status,
political activism, or country of origin.
We've recently made major strides
towards protecting public safety
and reducing violence throughout Oakland
and the Ceasefire Lifeline program
which has delivered the lion's share of these benefits
is a system built on personal relationships and trust.
City Council must not jeopardize the public's trust
in our public safety policies
by allowing OPD to enter into this contract.
Since I have time left, I will also say that yes,
they have said that the data will not be shared
with the company, the data will belong to OPD,
but given the history of what
Israeli surveillance technology companies have done
and what former members, former and current members
of the Israeli Defense Forces have done,
it would be extremely foolish to believe that promise
at face value.
Madeline Stacy, hello again.
I spoke at the Public Safety Committee meeting about this,
and so I'll say a little different things this time.
Google locations, your Google searches,
your password manager, your photos of your children
and your grandchildren, your news, your private messages,
Universal forensic extraction devices,
celebrate, are used to extract the maximum amount
of information possible,
which can then be programically searched.
With the amount of sensitive information
on our smartphones today,
people call it a window into the soul.
Our cell phones are a window into our soul.
And so my question is,
do we really, really need to look into that window?
I talked about the usefulness of this tech before
and Council Member Fife said almost exactly
what I had written in my comment,
asking if it's 30% of seized phones are Androids,
and we need this specific tech for those 30% of phones,
then what percentage of crimes are solved
due to, key we solve due to this technology?
If it's a big puzzle and there's all these different pieces,
do we really need this piece of the puzzle?
It might expedite it, but at what cost?
What percentage of crimes are solved, like I said,
but solely due to data extracted?
What are the stats of lives that are being saved
with the information that's extracted?
Where is that data?
What exactly are we gaining from relinquishing?
Jesse, you're out of order, that's your final warning.
That is your final warning, do not touch that.
Please speak.
Oh my God, okay, so please don't know on this,
OPD's lying about this, they were lying about Flock,
And it's not just Ken Houston that mistreats the public.
One of the lies that we're gonna hear about this
is that this isn't used against activists.
And I went to the flock vote at Alameda Board of Supervisors
two weeks ago and I was mistreated
by the council member there.
I was giving an interview with KQED.
He walked by with a smirk on his face
and said my name over and over and over and over.
So what I would like to know from you all
is how we can trust you to have this technology
not be used against activists.
When members of this city council
are mistreating activists now,
it is not just Ken Houston,
it is also you council president.
Your behavior reflects on the entire city council
and the people that witnessed this behavior
that I'm mentioning,
they said that this was intimidation harassment.
I felt intimidated and harassed.
You're reminding me that you know my name
in this specific moment, at this specific time,
when I'm asking another elected body
not to sell us out the way you and these others have.
You wanted this item to be on non-consent.
You didn't even want,
or you wanted this item to be on consent.
You didn't even want us to talk about this.
This will be used against activists.
You have council members as models
of this kind of misbehavior already here now.
Thank you, Jesse.
Nicole Dean, Care for Community Action.
Democracy is great, right?
We get to have these conversations together.
I want to thank my honest and principled council member
for District 3, Carol Fife, for keeping this no bid contract
off of the consent calendar.
Oakland is supposed to have a commitment
to equitable contracting, right?
So why are we waiving a competitive bidding process
for two politically controversial surveillance companies
that are run by literal white nationalists.
Like, I genuinely want y'all to answer that question.
How are we committed to an equitable,
competitive bidding process,
but we wanna waive this one.
For literal white nationalists,
this contract warrants community input
and a competitive bidding process.
Instead, this council is bypassing committee once again,
telling residents that we have to choose
between safety and human rights.
That's a lie that I'm really, really tired of hearing.
We can use technology as part of our public safety strategy
without investing our tax dollars
into a company that is aiding in a genocide
and attacking journalists and activists
on behalf of authoritarian governments around the world.
I'd like to see OPD turn their GPS trackers on
before asking for more invasive spyware,
maybe use the resources they already have.
OPD brings all of this urgency to these discussions
like they did around Flock.
Three months later, they haven't even executed the contract
that they pressured you all to vote for.
If they told you, you have to vote for it
or we're gonna be in trouble, they haven't even executed it.
Thank you, Ms. Thien, your time is up.
Council Member Wong, did this bypass committee?
It was a three-to-one vote, yeah.
It went to committee?
Yes, it went to committee.
Thank you.
Public safety.
Matthew Boyd, care for community.
In addition to what Nicole said,
This seems evasive when we're talking about the competitors
to Celebrite.
I know it's a small vendor space.
There's pretty much Grey Key, and there's Celebrite.
And Celebrite is preferred for Android,
is my layman's understanding.
But I think it's a misrepresentation
to say that if we only had Grey Key,
all Androids would be off limits for us.
Is there an analysis of how much worse it is?
When asked if there'd been a side to side comparison,
I think the wording was I don't want to say the name
and kind of put them on the spot,
but like it's great key.
There's nobody else as far as I know.
So what happened when they compared him to side by side?
If we're not going to have a bid on this,
shouldn't we at least be able to answer that?
Hello, my name is Mark Dudley.
I'm here as a tech worker
and an Oakland resident in district two.
I'm here speaking against 5.3.
I do not think our city should be entering into contracts
with companies like Celebrite Technology.
This is a company whose bones are based on the exploitation
of a captive population, and with a history of harassing
folks for speaking up, and at least one product suspension
for enabling the targeting of citizens
by an authoritarian government.
A company with a history like this
can never be a trusted partner, and we certainly shouldn't
paying for the privilege. Drop the contract counselors, there are better uses of $140,000.
Thank you.
Hi, everybody. My name is Kathleen Kennedy. I live in District 1. I'm also a Palestinian
American. I understand the District Attorney's arguments and the police department's arguments
that these tools can help solve crimes. But usefulness alone is not enough justification
for adopting powerful surveillance technology
without strong safeguards, oversight, and public trust.
A cell phone today contains nearly every aspect
of a person's life.
Private communications, financial information,
medical data, and information about family members
and third parties who are not even under investigation.
This level of access demands extraordinary care
and accountability.
This is a no-bid contract involving technology
that raises significant civil liberties
and human rights concerns nationally and internationally.
I'm troubled by the instances
that City Councilwoman Carol Fife described,
and I know that the Israeli government
is used against my family and people as well.
Oakland shouldn't move forward with this technology
and without demonstrating that civil liberties
and democratic oversight are being fully protected,
so we want both, as residents,
we want both public safety and civil liberties,
and those values are not in conflict.
Please vote no.
I'm Dr. Lonnie Castro.
I am a resident of Oakland,
and I oppose this contract with Seligright.
For all of the reasons already spoken,
certainly it has been a major force
in maintaining the apartheid state that Israel is
and facilitating the genocide.
In particular though, if you're going to look,
I don't know that you need full phone extraction,
I would be opposed to that, but in particular,
you don't want a company like Celibrite,
regardless of what it did in Israel and other places,
because it uses a closed source, it's proprietary methods,
It has raised a lot of questions about the workflows
and lack of independent auditability,
which prevents defense experts, courts, and the public
from reviewing how the data were extracted,
parsed, and interpreted.
So if for any reason you do go
with some kind of phone extraction,
it needs to be an open source,
not close proprietary workflow data that can't be analyzed by anyone. This will lead to accusations
that can't be verified independently. And so you should also look not just at which
crimes you saw, but how many people were accused and then found not to be guilty of anything
or just guilt by association. Thank you. Your time is up.
There he is, he's awake.
Pamela Drake with the Wellstone Club and the Progressive Working Group.
And I just want to say we had a lot of talk earlier about Oakland youth, particularly
Oakland Black and Brown youth.
And the idea that we can't connect the dots between, I will, okay, the idea that we can't
the dots between hiring this kind of company and supporting this kind of company and putting
money into what this company does around the world and you know who they're doing it to
around the world and then we're going to talk about whether kids should go to camp or not.
I mean, how these kids, first of all, they'll have no privacy. They'll have no protection
for their families with these kind of companies being allowed in to take up every bit of their
information.
No protection.
If you look at the fact that right now the President is
trying to get into the poll workers, the volunteers in
Atlanta, Georgia, and get information about them so that
he can persecute their families, and you think that
can't happen here, I think you're being a little naive.
But the fact that we're also then continuing to donate to
companies that commit war crimes day in and day out.
Does everybody know who Hint Rajab was and how old she was
when she was murdered with her family?
This is not hyperbole, people.
The young people that spoke here are the people
that are voting in the future, and they're watching you.
I thought white people on top of everything.
But last year, I came to you and told you
you were proving a contract that was based in Israel,
And nobody said anything.
You didn't say anything while you were discussing
the reasons why this contract should be approved.
Nobody spoke about Israel.
They're not gonna talk about Israel.
They're not gonna talk about Israel.
But you were given the information by me,
and you approved the contract,
and I told you it was based in Israel.
You did it anyway.
So y'all, they're gonna approve the contract,
they might disapprove the contract,
but they're not gonna talk about Israel.
Their political careers would be at risk if they do that.
How can a city that for 23 years plus
you have had human rights violations of black people
based on your police officers,
excessive force, racial profiling,
and you sit here and you haven't been able to take them
and put them in place around that issue
and come in compliance with the NSA.
What you want to talk about all over the world,
human rights violations, and your police department,
human rights violation of African Americans,
you can't fix it.
But all these people coming up here talking about Israel,
they're not gonna say nothing about Israel.
They're not gonna talk about it.
Thank you, Ms. Ollabel.
If your name was called and you're in chambers,
please approach the podium.
At this time, we'll be moving to the Zoom speakers,
starting with Emily Wheeler.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Emily Wheeler.
Hello.
My name is Emily.
And I am here to ask City Council
not to enter into a no big contract
with an Israeli terror firm.
This council claims to support a ceasefire in Gaza,
but you're bankrolling the genocide there
by funding this horrible company.
And additionally, OPD should not be rewarded
for failing to follow Oakland's surveillance law.
It's really, really simple
to just have a competitive bidding process.
There's no need to approve this no-bid contract.
And I am especially disappointed
in Council Member Ramachandran
who specifically ran on cleaning up City Hall.
Yet now, instead of reviewing these contracts
and requiring them to go
through the competitive bidding process
that they really should be going through
is more focused on social media.
So please do your job, city council,
and please do not send this contract through
without a bidding process.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Ralph Brown, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Ralph Brown, please unmute yourself
and begin your comments.
All right, we will come back to you.
Simin, please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, my name is Simin.
I currently mostly work with unhoused people
to support their rights, which are being violated,
life done right, without much dispute from the city council.
But in my past life, I worked with the Potomac Institute
of Policy Studies and worked on analyzing racial bias
in machine learning.
And I think it's telling that no one has brought up
how Solubrite uses generative AI to help summarize
which chat threads are important and relevant as reported
by the Business and Human Rights Center
as well as their own website.
And generative AI is flagrantly racist.
There was a paper published in Nature just in 2025
that shows the trend has deepened
that AI generates covertly racist decisions about people
based on their dialect.
If you look at their findings, they
found that if someone uses the word FINA,
sorry, I'm not African-American, or ain't, or in,
and depending on their inflection,
therefore more likely to associate negative stereotypes
with someone, including calling them dirty, lazy, stupid.
And in fact, it's gotten worse over the time
because researchers have tried to scrub current racist
language, they're starting to bring up racist language
from years in the past.
So I would very much encourage you
to not support this genocidal company
and consider some other companies
that aren't using such terrible practices, thanks.
Juan, you are next,
can you please confirm your last name for me?
Hi, yes, this is Juan Albanel.
Thank you, please begin.
Hi, yes, I'm Juan, I'm a tech worker
with Digital Security Experience
and I'm here to urge the members of the council
to vote no on this motion.
Like council member five and others here,
I am very tired of having to show up
to the city council meetings
to push back against 11th hour requests.
From OPD to use limited public funds on technology
that even a very quick online search will show you
are just evil tech with little to no evidence
of positive public safety outcomes.
Cellright has a documented record of human rights violations
as already mentioned by others here.
We should really not be supporting a company
with our public funds that has done such evil abroad.
I won't repeat all the things that we already said.
Israel and Serbia and other places. But more importantly it's been used on minorities to
discriminate against them. It's been used on journalists and activists to silence them.
And while I understand that these sort of perfect criminal scenarios might sound like good use
cases, the reality is that they can and will this technology can and will be abused on our
most vulnerable neighbors. This is a no-bid contract and the OBD representative already said
that they are not even sure if the other tool they were testing performed worse because of
bad luck so clearly there's still work to do here. At the very least we should push back until we
have properly completed an honest analysis of other alternatives. So council members if you
vote yes I promise that all of us who talked in opposition today will ensure you are either not
reelected or recalled. Vote no. Ralph Brown please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
You know I think it's rich to hear council members like Jenkins wax poetic on the need to enforce
opens laws and yet as many of us have noted already last December, 70 y'all sat there and
ignored the city's surveillance policy and sanctuary ordinance to force the two million
dollar no big plot contract through your dumb axes are now being sued for at our expense.
And here we are again about to do the exact same thing to waste more money.
I don't know how many lawsuits will it will take before you actually start following the law
and stop listening to these numb nuts on OKD.
First of all, it's a costly waste of resources,
considering that Celebrite's price jumped 46%
from $96,000 to $140,000, despite no competitive bidding
to justify the price hike.
OPD cannot tell us how many of its hundreds of extractions
actually led to arrest or solve cases.
That money should go to violence prevention
or mental health crisis response,
not just some unchecked surveillance,
But here we are contracting with an Israeli company
whose tools have been used by totalitarian regimes
against dissidents, journalists,
and most importantly, civilians,
most recently during the Gaza genocide.
OPD claims no other company makes these technologies,
but that's actually false,
considering that there are multiple alternatives
that have been documented by organizations like Upchurch
that show graphics and other...
Charlotte Ione, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hello, my name is Charlotte, I live in district two.
This contract is a mistake
and it fits into a constellation of recent decisions
by this council.
You handed millions to flock surveillance
breezing past the fact that crime is falling,
lack of solid stats from OPD,
a record of bad behavior from flock
and the overall ethical ickiness of doing business
with a company that is 100% enthusiastically down
mass deportation and mass detention. Last month you empowered OPD to harass unhoused people
and push them to the literal margins creating literal maps where those who can't pay rent are
allowed to exist. No one was surprised where you wanted to put them and no one was surprised that
it comes at a time of sky-high rents, a housing market stuffed with tech dollars, cuts to HUD,
and so on. Now OPD is back asking for more toys and this body seems poised to back.
But to put back on the blinders, la, la, la.
Palantir, Israel, who cares?
Something, something force enhancer.
President Jenkins, you balked at the label fascist
being applied to members of this council.
Well, sometimes when you carry this much water,
you get a little wet.
I won't be speaking on the next item,
but you can imagine I'm saying the exact same thing.
Can y'all bless, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
I'm calling on this council to vote no
on any continuation of Celebrite or its technologies, given what everybody has just said, from its
costly waste of resources, to the fact that OPD has used Celebrite for years without following
Oakland's own surveillance laws, which now the department is asking you to stop tracking the
racial data that already shows 65% of the people whose phones were cracked by this Israeli company
are black. Not only does this hide the full impact of racial profiling on Oaklanders but it also
prevents us from actually measuring whether Celebrite is worth this additional cost. That's
not transparency. That is a cover-up at the city taxpayers expense. Considering the fact that
Celebrite is an untrustworthy company that profits off oppression across the globe,
particularly of black and brown folks like many of us in Oakland, Oakland is a sanctuary city.
yet most of you are about to hand a no big deal violating and waiving your own
competitive procurement process and procurement integrity in order to award a company that has
48 million dollars invested in ICE as we speak helping the target and kidnap our immigrant
neighbors. I would I appreciate council number five pulling this contract and for good reason
this should not be what our city spends money on please vote no listen to like listen to what
your constituents are telling you Blair Beekman you are next please unmute yourself and begin your
comments hi Blair Beekman uh thanks for everyone's public comment uh this has been a good learning
experience for myself for this item this item was brought to you public safety committee I think
March 21st or so, 19th, something like that.
I was really impressed that Council President Large Brown
and Council President Wang a bit,
they were questioning the item
and seemed to have genuine concern
that they are hearing from the community
and that different practices for this item
need to be developed.
It was stated at that meeting that they could come back
in a year's time to better clarify different sources
and choices for a future site self-right.
I've been offering at public meetings, can that be
in a six-month time frame?
Can we speed that up a bit and get some sort of standard going?
How is the ALPR process going of a new vendor?
Can that come to at least a public meeting sometime soon,
just to give an update on how that is going overall?
I've heard some stories that I would like to better clarify
in future meetings that concern me about is the block contract actually taking place right now
that was supposed to be of an urgent order back in December.
Otherwise, thank you for your efforts on this.
It's part of a large series of things we're talking about towards the.
Juan Canham, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, I'm Juan.
I'm a D4 resident, a member of DSA.
I'm once again asking what the hell is wrong with this council.
Most of you ran as Democrats, I think, I'm not sure about Houston to be honest, yet you
sit here finding more and more ways to shovel taxpayer money into the hands of fascists.
OPD think you're stupid, they're claiming they can track evidence for years, yet they
can't track what tools they're using?
Come on, they're lying to you.
This is at least the third piece of tech they've given credit for, for the decrease in crime.
First it was flock, then it was the speed cameras, now it's this. There isn't anything they want
claimed, they need renewed immediately because it caused the decrease in crime that honestly
had more to do with the actions of this council bringing back ceasefire than any of these
technologies. Ramachandran specifically ran on cleaning up City Hall, yet now instead of that,
instead of reviewing these awful contracts requiring they go through competitive bidding
processes. You seem more focused on making TikToks. It will be nice if you spend as much time digging
into these million dollar contracts as you do on your social media. Celebrate is in particular an
Israeli hacking firm whose tools have been used against Palestinians, journalists and citizens in
repressive regimes around the world including by ICE here. How can the council claim to support a
ceasefire, yet you want to keep funding the war on Palestine by rubber stamping this dodgy deal.
OPD already used celebrate for years without following the law, I guess.
Thank you for your comments. At this time all names have been called. If your name was called
and you wish to speak and you're in chambers, war on zone, please raise your hand and step to the podium.
There's a motion and a second. There is a motion and a second on the floor.
Moved by council member Gayo, second by council member Houston, too.
Yeah, I just, I do want to make some comments.
I'm the chair of public safety, and you know,
I take those responsibilities extremely serious,
and I think after the conversation
and the public comment that we had and public safety,
I really did a thorough review just to see
how really my values match up with this contract.
And you know, I want to say that it is undeniable
that Celebrite has been used by authoritarian regimes
to surveil activists and journalists without consent.
I don't wanna downplay that.
And what is being used with this technology is,
it is heinous, it is anti-democratic,
but what's also not being told is that it is also widely
used in democratic nations,
known for being at the forefront of human rights
to investigate violent, organized crime
and human trafficking.
These countries include Sweden, Denmark, Norway,
Finland and New Zealand,
which rank at the very top of worldwide rankings
for human rights and freedom.
And, yes, I do want to acknowledge that these countries are fairly homogenous.
They don't have the racial diversity that we have, and we know that black and brown
communities have been historically unjustly and unfairly surveilled.
That being said, in the United States, the use of celebrate is bound by the Fourth Amendment.
The courts have established with Riley versus California and ruled that police must obtain
a warrant before searching a cell phone using this technology.
that Fourth Amendment protection that distinguishes the use of that technology here in the United
States versus the use of this technology in these authoritarian regimes.
And because this technology is so widely used, both domestically in the United States and
internationally, we're not going to make a dent in celebrate its financials by not signing
a $140,000 contract with them.
And what we will do is undermine our own ability to solve violent crimes.
It's just been this last year that we've been able to bring up our homicide clearance rate,
which has been an abysmal 50% and those families, which are also disproportionately black and
brown, also deserve justice.
And much of that improvement has been credited due to the use of surveillance technology.
We also have one of the highest violent crime case loads per officer in the country due
to our severe police understaffing crisis.
And it's because of this that these surveillance tools that are needed, if we had enough officers,
it wouldn't be so critical to have technology like this.
There's also been some reporting that claims that I use human trafficking as a cover.
No, I hate to say it, but I have to confront that reality every single day when I go on
International Boulevard.
Just two weeks ago, the police rescued four juveniles in one night that were being exploited
on the blade.
There was an article that came out in 2021, this was actually an article talking about
the controversy around this technology, but Kately Haywood, a 15 year old girl, met her
killer through Facebook.
When her body was found, please use a special phone unlocking device to extract information
that was celebrated from her badly damaged and locked cell phone or smartphone which
helped them track down who had been messaging and their whereabouts.
This evidence helped uncover her groomer, okay, Lou Carlo, and her killer, the neighbor
here.
Anyways, the point is I've also independently verified that Celebrite has an integration
with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
So we do have trade-offs to make, and I do want to see that in a year from now that we
do have an RFP process, especially when we have this incredibly controversial surveillance
tech.
my own review, they all look problematic. They are all being used in some sort of
problematic context. But what we do have to do is we have an obligation to
protect our citizens and to use this technology wisely here in the City of
Oakland. Thank you. We have a motion as second. Councilmember Fife? I think this
is a very worthy debate which is why I wanted to have it on non consent versus
And I do want to appreciate the comments made by my colleague that, you know,
celebrate was used in this one case to identify a groomer that later killed a victim that is tragic.
What I want to see is concrete data.
So I want to ask for three specific things when this item comes back,
because I know fear is a hell of a tool when it comes to directing elected officials
who are not able to say that Israel is a, uh,
is a terror state that is perpetuating genocide on, um,
Palestinians to this date.
And the reason why they're able to have technology that is so advanced is because
they utilize fear of all of these governments from either governments that
want to control and oppress or governments who utilize the tool of fear to beat
police departments in the United States over the head for, you know, utilizing their technology.
So you get, you can be an advanced organization or company when you soak up all of the resources
to advance this problematic tech.
But that said, the three things that I want to make sure that we bring back to this item
when it comes back in, you said a year?
I'm not sure when the annual reporting is due actually it should come back in front of you
Public safety
March or April next year if the annual reporting cycle runs
Okay
April April
And and I want to be super clear because people always
You know try to frame me as anti public safety when it comes back to public safety
anti-public safety, when I think, when I have questions, and I think it is our diligence
as council members to ask these tough questions.
So I want to ensure that the three things that come back in April, if this is allowable
according to the parliamentarian, for a review, a thorough review of all of the market, of
all of the different vendors because I talked about the four that I found but I you know
because councilmember Wong mentioned Sweden they are using their own version of a celebrate
type of technology in Sweden that could be potentially reviewed but I want a full review
of all market vendors that are available and I want to understand even if it has to be
discussed in closed session what are the other vendors that have failed the test that you
required. I understand that that could lead to potential litigation if it was
discussed publicly so I want but I want to understand who you're testing and how
they're failing. I want to get an independent legal analysis. I'm asking to
our city attorney what what we need to do in order to have a legal analysis of
this contractor's data access and their policies because it has been abused in
in other places, and I would like a public reporting
of how extractions are actually leading
to a decrease in crime, particularly part one crimes,
if we're saying that it's having an impact
in the city of Oakland.
If we've been using this technology for 12 years,
and a trial takes four years, then we should still be able
to look back and say, will you celebrate
on a certain type of case, right?
I would think that if we're using celebrate, celebrate,
celebrate, I don't know, we should be able to identify
all of the cases that celebrate is used on,
correct or incorrect?
We do track all the cases that celebrates have used on.
The last three annual reporting have success stories.
And we will, OPD will figure out a better reporting
in terms of how these usage and these success stories
leads to decrease, I understand what you're asking.
Yeah, I think that data is critical.
So we move from anecdotal into actual.
So even if it's a little check box,
I don't know the technology,
I will find out how you create reports.
Cylbrite was used.
And then later, four years from now
or whenever the case is solved,
the case was actually solved or not.
So I think we need to get concrete data.
so we know what we're getting into.
I don't support the use of this vendor.
Israel is a genocide state.
They are utilizing their power and their control
and their monopolies in the public safety sector
to address, I mean, to monopolize
law enforcement agencies around the world.
And so I would like, and I will share with you
the different agencies that could potentially
be investigated for future contracts.
Thank you.
Okay, to the parliamentarian.
To the chair too, Councilmember Fyfe's questions
about those other items.
So I would recommend that that would be a separate item.
You could work with my office and we could come up
with the title, we could schedule a rules,
perhaps like an information report
that would cover that information.
But a lot of that would go beyond the scope
of how this is noticed for this particular item.
Okay, let's go to the wall.
there was a motion by councilmember Gayle seconded by councilmember Houston to adopt
the staff recommendation councilmember Brown aye councilmember five no councilmember Gayle
aye councilmember Houston aye councilmember Ramachandran no councilmember Unger aye councilmember
Wong aye and councilmember Jenkins aye motion passes.
into item five point four adopted resolution authorizing the city
administrators to enter into a three-year agreement with Peregrine
technologies for the provision of a law enforcement records search platform and
related services for the Oakland Police Department at a cost not to exceed one
million twenty four thousand for the time period of July 1 2026 to June 30
2029 and waving the competitive request I'm
Excuse me waving the competitive multiple-step solicitation process in the local small business enterprise program
We have 21 speakers on this item
Evening again council members
To give a quick background what this is OPD had a F has a used policy for this technology. I think
Almost 20
2021 and 2020 we've been using this down just in 2012. So prior we were using our
currently we're using what's called Crime Tracer and it's different iterations as
vendors call it. Essentially it's a search dashboards for the police
department. OPD feeds in information such as reports, stop data, traffic tickets,
shot spider activations, essentially records that will show up in a public
request are fed into this database that allows OPD and other outside agencies
that shares access to conduct research of our records for particular
things. What is not fed into is we don't feed flock data into it and that is not
something OPD isn't asked to be fed into. The way it kind of works is that
what we were using Crime Tracer we run say I'm looking for a purple Honda
the court with a black door.
We feed into it, and it searches the records that OPD have access to for any dimension of this particular thing.
It allows ease of access of data that we already have, and if we're sharing this data with other agencies,
allow it to see into regional data that we have access to, such as SF, San Yandro, or Richmond.
So we've been using this as a crime tracer.
problematic thing that OPD had with Crime Tracer,
it was that it was not auditable.
Meaning, our data is fed into Crime Tracer,
and OPD does not have a clear insight
into who have access to our data,
who's seizing our data, and who uses our data.
We've been attempting to identify
a second or a different vendor for a while.
The other thing that also locks OPD into particular vendors
is that which agency chooses this vendor.
So if we would like access to SF's data,
we want access to all the regional partners' data.
If they're not in a particular company
or a particular database,
we don't have a vision in that.
So a couple years back, I think SFPD was within Crime Tracer
and we're able to see into SFPD's data.
As the regional agencies transition to Paracrine,
we no longer have views into those agencies.
So as it stands today, OPD does not have any view into SFPD's data.
Uh, and obviously the other problematic is that we're using crime tracer.
Our data is fed in and it's up and we don't have a control over it.
We can't opt out of other agency view into our data using crime tracer.
Whereas Paragreen allows us this audit ability, um, with, with, with the
way, um, their system setup, I OPD would have individual oversight,
the two types of data we're
going to use as an example.
And then we're going to see
over searches of conducting our
system as well as what agency
that we have a lot of access
into what they view in term of
our data and obviously it's a
opt-in process.
So OPD can pick and choose which
agency we share our own data
with.
Meaning we can control access to
only a local regional partners
and not allow other agencies to
use our data that we have not
Obviously, even with California laws, this data is not shared with federal partners or outside of California.
Just giving the law within California.
Now, the cost, well, the cost of the crime tracer contract for
the next three years, which we'll be locked into, is about $800,000.
And obviously, it's up to a million dollars.
OPD does use this technology significantly.
We conduct tens, hundreds of thousands of searches.
and this is primarily used both by responding patrol units
as well as criminal investigation investigators.
Responding officers tend to use this
by making simple follow-ups on reports taken,
such as license plates or names they provided,
so something like John Romney,
and they might conduct a search in terms of any John
that was contacted within this particular area
to see how this crime happened and see how valid that is.
basis of it or like a license plate or when they're dealing with a particular
residence, the history, or all the prior reports that OPD has made or received
regarding this address and determine like what kind of situation they're
dealing with. Criminal Investigation Division used it in terms of
following up leads, allowed them to sort through the reports that are available to
them at a much faster rate because it searches all of our reports and
context as opposed to using RMS and different data system to kind of find
the one piece of looking for. A lot of these other record management system
we're using are not that search-friendly. So it greatly reduces the amount work
investigator need to in looking up a particular lead or particular
information regarding a case or investigating. This tends to become in
forms of researching a victim's history or contacts in terms of homicide, whether they
have prior contact with other people within a particular area, or other ongoing issues
that they have, or a particular vehicle that the investigators are looking for, whether
this vehicle has been contacted by police officers or seen in the other area.
It speeds up investigators' ability to sort through all of the data that they already
they have at their tool tip or fingertip, and it dramatically reduce the amount of hours
that they need to go through reports, right, especially with OPDs staffing at this point
that anything like this would greatly enhance our efficiency.
And again, I also, you know, finally, this gives OPD the ability to control our data
and audit our access of data, and that's what OPD is here asking for.
we're also want to every day that due to about regional partners moving to Peregrine or stuck in terms of following with if we
Want access to their data we have to follow that platform if we choose to stay a crime tracer or we choose a different vendor
We will not have access to the agencies that went to Peregrine and vice versa obviously
That'll take any questions. Thank you so much any questions from
council members
council member five
do we have any data on the
part one crimes that have been solved, what our solve rate is for 2025 or 2026.
I don't have the annual reporting in front of me.
But we have that.
Okay.
Accessible, right?
Or no.
Because the last, the last I recall is 2024 and so I was just wondering if we have, if
that acts, if we have access to that information, what's the most recent?
Maybe.
Thank you.
So a little bit of data that I have in term of search and usage.
In 2024, over 400 OPD users have conducted 204,000 searches into this platform.
I apologize.
Is it DC Johnson over there?
What is it?
AC?
AC DC?
Councilmember?
I did not do that on purpose.
Do you know or do we have access to our investigation reports on solve rates for 25 or 26 yet?
So what our current rates are at for, let me see here.
So currently, our Part 1 crimes, where we're at now as far as how many versus this year
versus last year?
I'm asking because I was in my latest research, it says that the solve rate for Part 1 crimes
investigation was 3% that we solve 3% of our part one crimes in 2024 and I
understand that that's up I just want to know how much let me see if I can find
that may I hear real quick because I'm trying to ascertain how this technology
and I want to state for the public that this is a Palantir created firm and they
are creating a mass system of surveillance and I have the same
concerns with this technology that I had with the other one and it just feels like, again,
the only people we can contract with because the region is contracting, it gives us access
to other bodies in the region.
With them, yes, within here in the Bay Area and California.
Are we doing the same?
So it doesn't even matter if we wanted to use a less problematic firm because we wouldn't
have access to the other...
This is...
That is correct.
Crazy.
This is wild.
Oh, there's nothing to say then because it feels like the impetus for wanting to engage
with this palantir firm is because everybody else is using it and it just makes it.
It is part of it and when you look at all the other surrounding agencies that use this,
it's being able to share that information with these agencies.
As we know, crime doesn't have borders.
It doesn't just happen here in Oakland, doesn't happen in San Francisco or San Leandro, but
for you to do so.
And being able to share that
information with each other
helps us combine our forces and
hold those accountable who are
committing crimes here in Oakland
and all over the Bay Area.
So being able to share that
information with each other is a
great tool and a very useful
tool for our investigators to
follow up on crimes that have
occurred and hold those
accountable.
Okay, thank you.
I don't have anything else to say
other than we're screwed as the
the group staff's recommendation.
Okay, we got a motion, Council Member Houston.
Through the chair, when Council Member Fife said solve rates,
is that, has that been prosecuted through the district
attorney's office, is that how that would work?
When she mentioned that?
I don't have an answer to how that particular numbers
calculated, just speaking from experience,
I can only tell you to solve for a more homicide,
how that's calculated.
How's that calculated?
OP to calculate a homicide is solved
as charged by the DA's office, so not just an arrest.
Okay, got it, got it, thank you.
I'll second that.
All right, we have public speakers.
Let's go to our public speakers.
As I call your name, please approach the podium
in any order, please state your name
for the record before beginning.
If you are participating via Zoom,
please raise your hand so I can easily identify you.
We will take the speakers in chambers first
and then take the Zoom speakers immediately after.
Charlotte Ione, Ralph Brown,
Emily Wheeler, Keon Bliss,
Juan Canham,
Simeon Lee,
Juan Abanel,
Blair Beekman,
Mississauga Ola Bala,
James Birch, Madeleine Stacy,
Mitra Zarenboff,
Jesse Rosemore,
Lori Castro, Kathleen Kenny, Mark Dudley,
Buffalo Sojourn, Matt Boyd, Pamela Drake,
Nicole Dean, Sylvie Crotow.
Please approach the podium, go ahead.
Madeline Stacy, this platform software
will consolidate a wide range
of residents' personal information,
including geospatial mapping
into a mass surveillance database
that is vulnerable to security risk
and constitutional privacy violations.
ParaGreen is currently working
with the National Fusion Center Association
in an attempt to implement nationwide,
to be implemented, excuse me,
implemented nationwide in fusion centers.
They brag about it online.
These fusion centers,
federal immigration enforcement agencies like ICE,
can have access to our local data
in violation of state and local law.
We may put amendments and guardrails into place now,
but those can not only be ignored by agencies like ICE,
but can be changed further down the line
as is being done with the ALPR policy
and the Privacy Advisory Commission on Thursday.
Accepting this tech starts us down a slippery slope.
Millions of data points aggregated into a platform
which prides itself for being a leader
in predictive policing.
Predictive policing is simply a method of automating
the already existing disparities faced
by a constantly over policed community.
In Santa Cruz, predictive policing and companies that provide predictive policing were banned
in 2020 because they, along with other cities, saw the danger it would have on communities
of color who are already victims of targeted overpolicing.
The only way to lower crime is to fund community programs that treat the root causes of crime,
not by continuing to increase an already inflated police budget.
One million, twenty four thousand dollar OPT contract, that's big money.
My name is Sylvie Crutteau and I think that a contract with Peregrine is an awful idea
and I do not think you should vote yes on it.
So I think actually a contract with crime tracer is also a bad idea because I think
predictive policing is a really bad idea.
I guess what I think of it as sort of like a dog chasing its own tail in the sense that
You say, well, there's more crime in this area as based on our data of where more arrests
are made, therefore we're going to put more cops there who can then make more arrests
in that same area, which means that there's more crime in that area, therefore we need
more cops in that area.
That's a circle.
It's not logical.
It doesn't feel like it's contributing to any kind of lasting solution as far as making
people safer or like, I don't know, putting us on a path towards things that we want to
create.
seems like another way of allowing surveillance to expand its boundaries and to give awful
companies like Palantir a foothold in Oakland, which is something that I think they don't
deserve and you shouldn't give to them. You definitely shouldn't pay them for the privilege
of. In general, I would say that I think I believe that all of you could act in a really
Wonderful way by choosing to vote against this contract
Hello, my name is Mark Dudley, and I'm here speaking against 5.4 these tech oligarchs cannot be trusted as stewards of Oakland's data
I recognize the tune they play suggests greater transparency, but these people have shown time and time again to be lacking scruples
This is not a mom-and-pop tech shop and the fact that they are being fast-tracked through this local
business enterprise process seems ridiculous to me.
They are a venture capital funded firm
with a 2.5 billion dollar evaluation.
I think they can afford a proper bidding process.
These folks do not care about us.
They do not care about what we want them to do
or not do with our data.
Their only animating belief is chasing exponential growth
and damn anything that aims to stand in that way.
Tech has long plagued the Bay Area
with its ethos of move fast and break things.
Our right to privacy and our community should not be one of those things.
At some point, we have to stand up to these people and say enough is enough for that region.
I urge council to reject tightening the relationship with Peregrine.
Thank you.
My name is Jesse, my name is Jesse Rosemore.
I would love to see the OPD come with a no bid contract for something
that fills out their time sheets other than this.
We have fascist tech contracts coming here before you.
And we know you're all going to vote for it.
But they're filling out time sheets with a pen.
This rampant overtime fraud.
And meanwhile, they're asking for this nonsense.
In the Public Safety Committee, there
is a question about facial recognition as it came to this.
And OPD's response or an inability
to give a real response was kind of telling.
I'd like to see you ask them you guys lied to us about floc and said it won't use facial
recognition now the state is going to go into peregrine and use facial recognition so where
does it end you know I you guys could at least insult us with some performative amendments
and say that this technology doesn't do exactly what it does you know kind of say that oh
aren't doing what we are doing right now and we're just gonna go on this fast
track to authoritarianism and fascism with this six first termers that are
just kind of going off on this right-wing untethered path. Where does it
end? Where does the ball end? This is the people's house and we will one day take
it back. Vote no on this. Hello this is Mitra with East Bay Democratic
Socialists of America. I'm here to encourage you all to vote no. And before
you bring up a specific story to defending fascist technology I want you
to remember that every time a crime is quote-unquote directly solved because of
this technology that hundreds of people are ending up in prison for minor
offenses, no offenses, racial profile because of tech like this. And if
you're going to vote yes on this fascist technology, I would really appreciate it
if I heard your justification before you just put our lives away. I'm glad Oakland's
going to end his contract with ShotSpotter, but Peregrine is far from the
answer. The city of Durham rejected Peregrine after public outcry. Alameda
County last week postponed the vote because of its AI usage. Algorithms are
coded for predictive policing, it's going to create crime out of racial biases, a
suspect of a suspect, and details that are unnecessary for a criminal case
because all of a sudden, defining someone's years in prison. This is
because it relies on historical data in coding. Today I read in the police car
building, on the police car it wrote, building relationships with the
community. How in the world is this instilling that ethos? We are handing data
off to a third party that's going to decrease public transparency and like
flock is going to give that data to ICE, and they're going to access that data. We
need people, not fascist technology. The quotes, all the attachments were from
peregrine, all from cops. Where were the community leaders talking about, oh I
love peregrine? There's none. One second. To the staff, are we getting rid of
Spotspotter? Spotspotter? No. Crime tracers owned by
I opposed this contract with Peregrine for all of the reasons that have already been
mentioned, but also this predictive policing combined with AI is very dangerous.
Oakland does not have to be at the forefront of this.
This is something that you can go slow on.
Other cities are now reconsidering or not doing it.
You will not be alone in that.
But again, it's this built in opacity.
It's kind of black box policing.
It's very dangerous.
The algorithms and all the data that they collect,
even the systems engineers can't parse out what's going on.
So if one data point, for instance,
if there's an error in perhaps a false gunshot detection,
that's put into the system.
It combines that data point with all the other inputs
and these can compound the errors.
And you can't even figure out where the error originated
and how to address it.
So these police departments have not shown the value of this
and you don't need to be at the forefront of this.
Oakland can go slow on this.
Thank you.
Hello again, Kathleen Kenney, District One.
Well, I hope this doesn't go the way the last vote went, honestly.
I'm opposed, obviously, to this contract.
We're being told that Oakland should adopt the system because other regional agencies
are using it and it makes investigations faster.
But everyone else is doing it is not a sufficient standard for Oakland public policy, especially
when we're talking about expanding surveillance infrastructure.
Peregrine was built by the former Palantir executives.
They pioneered large scale aggressive aggregation of surveillance and law enforcement into searchable
intelligence systems with my people in Palestine.
That model raises profound concerns because it concentrates enormous amounts of information
expands the government's ability to monitor, track, and profile people and jurisdictions.
And believe me, as an activist here in this community, I certainly don't support this
effort.
The issue here is not convenience, it's power.
When multiple agencies feed data into interconnected systems, oversight becomes harder, mistakes
The bill is set to be approved.
I'm going to try to get everyone.
Do you want him to come up there with you?
So, no, no, no, he has to come up there with you.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
I can't talk.
There you go.
Thank you, Desmond Jefferies, District 6 resident.
Technology is moving faster than policy.
That is bad and there is no regulation or oversight.
and we'll have more data than our very own government and you guys. We have
Silicon Valley and SF Tech right in our backyard. We could create a position in
house. If there is a security breach, how many times has that happened? Who's gonna
have our data? Is it gonna be staying within the nation or is it gonna be all
around the world? Around the world. It's gonna have all our information, our
we need to make sure that we're
not taking our pictures our
passwords no one will be safe.
We need to air on the side of
caution we need and it's okay to
slow down. And hold on this. And
so I move forward with.
Resolution one I hope you guys
right we need to not do
business or have contracts be
solicited to states that take
with the gerrymandering and of course DC right now with the current administration.
Second, we need to do have a resolution to not have contracts with organizations and
companies that are committing genocide or human rights violations around the world.
We need to keep the money here.
We could have this debt.
Thank you Desmond.
Thank you Ms. Ollabala.
Your time is up.
Simian did you fill out a speakers card? Oh
Okay
Okay, I see I see
Moving to the zoom speakers
Key on bliss you are first. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments
Mr. Bliss
Yes, hi. Can you hear me? Yes?
I'm urging this council to vote no on this terrible
parroting contract and just to call out how
OPD and specific members of council like Wong and Houston
are collaborating to tech stack
and build this massive surveillance infrastructure
that will be used by ICE
and the federal immigration agencies
using what Paragram markets itself as predictive policing.
A soft, like, you know, a model of policing
that is widely discredited as unscientific
and prone to automatic racial profiling.
And it uses historical crime data to unblack people and places.
But when that history is polluted by decades of racist overpolicing
of black and brown communities, that's not actually fighting crime.
It's just automating racial profiling on a massive scale.
Alameda County just delayed its own paragon vote after massive public
outcry over exactly this issue.
And, but the city claims or OPD claims that there is an urgency because the
current contract expires June 30th but this is a manufactured emergency. Staff
knew about these deadlines for months and chose not to start a competitive
RFP process. Voting yes under pressure means voting without independent
security on it, without cost comparisons to other vendors and without real
public oversight. For those reasons and more Ralph Brown you are next after
Ralph is Emily Wheeler. Mr. Brown, okay we'll come back to you. Emily Wheeler, please begin
your comments. Hi, my name is Emily Wheeler. I am here to comment, although it's not like
you really listened to the last set of comments very well. Most of you are just chills for
cautious, and I really hope you don't pass this, but regardless you all suck.
Have a great night. Thank You Miss Wheeler trying Mr. Brown again. Please
unmute yourself and begin your comments. Mr. Brown come back to you again. Juan,
you are next please unmute yourself and begin your comments. Hi this is Juan
again, a tech worker here in the Bay Area just urging members of the council to vote no on yet
another evil surveillance technology. Predictive policing, as mentioned already, and specifically
its use of artificial intelligence is prone to racial profiling and discrimination. There's
endless studies on this. We are eventually effectively just going to put people in jail
who do not necessarily deserve to be in jail and who are not here to voice their concerns,
unfortunately. Also just generally there are so many better ways to spend a million dollars when
it comes to public safety. I feel like this we often forget to talk about this because of how
evil these technologies are so I will just briefly remind ourselves that there are many understaffed
under-research programs that Oakland runs that would love help that would love a million dollars
or even a chunk of that supporting youth services community outreach programs and so on so forth.
preventing crime is certainly a much better system than trying to police more aggressively,
and just as I said with my first my earlier comment just locally showing up here it's people
across districts across backgrounds every single one of them so far in opposition to this contract
and the one before it. So once again council members I urge you to vote no if you vote yes
we will come at you at upcoming elections especially Councilmember Wang and Jenkins I
I know you have that one coming up in later this year or if you're not coming up we will try to
work on recall so vote no. Simian you are next please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hello I would also like to encourage the council to vote no echoing everything that people have
said about racial bias in predictive policing. You can look at groundbreaking papers from
Black academics, like Joy Blowong, who wrote Gender Shades showing how basically
predictive policing, essentially it's very good at repeating trends. And clearly the biggest trend
in America is how people of color and Black people are continually punished and policed.
and I think there are so many programs that you can spend this money on. I can give you a taste
of predictive policing. I'm currently working with two individuals who are in active DB situations.
I've been calling centers, churches, places to see if there's a place that they can stay because
there's not enough shelter and I'm very sure that something very bad is going to happen very soon.
Yet there's not enough money for them to actually have any shelter or any protection
and how is this going to help them tell me thanks player beakman you are next please unmute yourself
and begin your comments mr beakman sorry got it ready uh thank you i don't know what happened
player beakman uh i'm back to my old self again uh i'm not fully understanding how i'm like a few
steps behind and it hurts but i'm trying to keep up and uh thank you for the fact that you've had
two really important items here today that I think very much are consider what you've worked on
previously with the flock issue. Alameda County is seriously questioning their future of flock
come July. San Diego is actually you know now starting to openly talk about leaving flock.
So I mean I think that should be a really important point in this time of continual war
that we actually can be talking about um technology of best practices and to do that in a time of war
uh really says something important and I know it's difficult for you guys to do that at this time
especially you know Zach Unger is trying to work on a declaration about opposition against war in
Iran um how can we bring that all together without insulting Israel at the same time
And I think there's ways to do that. I think if we talk about U.S. democracy, the importance of
civil protections and law, you know, our best practices and still practicing good public safety,
we have to learn how to have that conversation more openly. And I thought you guys were going
to have that conversation today. You're not really having it. We have to be working on that stuff.
And then we could be doing really important work that you're trying to do for this item.
please try to work on Ralph Brown trying you one last time please unmute
yourself and begin your comments mr. Brown I see one can't move does that
conclude all speakers one please unmute yourself and begin your comments I'm
Kwan I'm still one I'm still a D4 resident I'm still unclear what the point
of this council is why not just give all officer Dolan or whichever office
are going to cost us the most money a year, a credit card,
and see how much they can rack up,
then retroactively approve it like we do for the overtime.
Peregrine was built by former planetary executives.
While they haven't put out a fascist manifesto,
the tool's predictive flagging is just a minority report
style tech veneer on a tool that will primarily
be used to report minorities.
Because that's how data analysis in a fundamentally
racist system works. Again this is a bad contract for bad tech owned and operated by fascists.
OPD know that which is why they're asking for yet another rubber stamp. If you pass this it's clear
there's no oversight in this city. This council should just be replaced by the drinking bird toy
that just approves whatever OPD requests regardless of what voters want and how much it
violates our rights in order to shovel money into the hands of fascists uh i see the rest of my time
okay try and ralph brown one last time please unmute yourself and begin your comments
can you hear me yes yeah uh if this council had any integrity that wasn't paid off by power
oakland and revitalize east bay the story that opd is telling you should make you feel this
Here's what OPD has admitted to, both in Privacy Committee and here.
The current database platform has no barriers to outside agency access and no tracking on
who searches open data.
Any agency anywhere could have been searching our police records and OPD has no idea how
often or by whom we're doing so.
That would be a scandal in any sanctuary city with integrity, but so OPD's solution is to
ignore procurement integrity and rush through a no big contract with a more expensive vendor,
Peregrine, that we know has billions of dollars invested in federal integration agencies.
OPD has had up to nine months to issue a RFP for competitive bids, but did nothing of the sort,
entirely their fault. Yet here they are manufacturing a sense of urgency
for you to push through and vote on this multi-million dollar contract.
Alameda County just delayed the same vote on this technology based on widespread public outcry
and this council should do the same but I don't have any faith that you're actually going to do
so but I would love for you to prove me wrong. Oakland should actually follow their lead and not
repeat the mistakes that it's already done that's currently being sued for its recent block vote.
Thank you for your comments on names have been called councilmember Houston
Yes through the chair. I like to thank
Councilmember Wong for doing her thorough research as a chair of public safety
She says she takes this very serious and as the vice chair of public safety
I do too and I just wanted to make sure I heard what she had said cuz she does real thorough research
She has said they needed a search warrant before they could implement this
Is that what you heard chair or to the chairs that what you said? Yeah, and that was the prior technology
So, okay. So is that the same it's across the board or
I would maybe OPD can take this one in terms of the use of a warrant to conduct these searches
So for this technology, it's not a search warrant
It's a dash for us to search it perhaps it might be easier if I can kind of take it for what OPD used to
use and how we're using it now yeah so when I first started in 2008 if I want
to search a report right if I get an information of John Smith did this I
log into our RMS system and I go person and I type John Smith if this person was
listed in the police report under the proper subject name that pops up however
if John Smith was listed in a narrative without tool that we have back then that
we're actually still using now that would not pop up so that narrative is
gone. We won't, I won't have any searches like that. Then as 2012, we bought the
earlier, earlier, earlier version of Crime Tracer. I forgot what it's called now. That
searches narratives of these reports. So now, you know, John Smith pops up. So,
we're search, so, so, and, and this paragraph also does similar things, right?
We're feeding police reports, stop data, traffic citations, our email
it doesn't do predictive, we're not using for predictive policing.
It's allowing us to look for all our records to find something that's written down.
So that's what we're using it for, and obviously we're also asking to share and see regional agencies' information.
So that when I run John Smith, that I can probably see that in their written narratives.
We're not feeding Flock, we're not feeding license plate image into this database.
That was good, thank you.
there's no more comments we have a motion to set up councilmember fight that
into you I'm sorry I just wanted to end by saying there's a very very famous
african-american man who was deeply surveilled by the surveillance state of
his time and eventually assassinated in this country and he said that cowardice
Confidence asks if a decision is safe, vanity asks if it's popular, and expedience asks
if it is politic.
But conscience asks if it's right.
Martin Luther King was surveilled through technology that was cutting edge in his time
and it will be used on activists, journalists, people of this day and it is coming to this
country.
It is here actually.
seen how individuals of certain groups, students in this country, are labeled terrorists.
Black extremist terrorists by this federal government, depending on who's in leadership
and power, will be labeled as anti-this country by a problematic or fascist dictator.
And I know that seems far away, but with the person in the White House, it is happening
every day and innocent people are being disappeared and they're using this type of technology
to do it.
It is coming to Oakland because Oakland is a beacon of resistance for the world and being
able to compile this mass surveillance data into one network is going to create that opportunity
faster than we can even understand.
I am not opposing this and I pray that even speaking out on these issues does not impact
the uh... ability not even the ability to but the decisions
oakland police department too
provide law enforcement services to my constituents
because i have been penalized
by different departments in the city of oakland for speaking up
and just voicing what some of my constituents are saying
i pray that that doesn't happen because everybody deserves to be safe
but we also does deserve
to have a transparent system that is not reliant
on local agencies to dictate what technology we should use.
I wanna see the Oakland Police Department lead
the other agencies and say, you know what?
We want to work with tech agencies
that don't have these issues that Palantir has
and say, hey, you know what, San Francisco?
You know what, Alameda?
You know what, Richmond?
And all these other agencies, we wanna work with you
to have a different type of technology
that is not funded by these tech bros
who literally are white nationalists,
one of the public speakers said it earlier,
who are definitely focusing right now
on the low-hanging fruit of brown people,
disappearing brown people, that is going to expand.
And so I wanna see the Oakland Police Department
lead on other types of technology
that don't have these human rights abuses in their repertoire.
That said, I think you all know how I'm gonna vote.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Fife.
Let's go to the world.
For item 5.4, there was a motion by Council Member Gallo,
second by Council Member Houston.
Council Member Brown.
Aye.
Council Member Fife.
No.
Council Member Gallo.
Aye.
Council Member Houston.
Aye.
Council Member Ramachandran.
Aye.
Council Member Unger.
Aye.
Council Member Wong.
Aye.
Council Member Jenkins.
Aye.
passes with a vote of seven ayes and one no five
Going to the consent calendar, which is all of your item sixes
And before I call the consent calendar noting that you have urgencies due on item six point two five
Six point two nine and six point thirty
Do you want to dispense with those urgencies now or right before you call the final vote?
But let's do it before we call the final vote. Okay
Good evening, Council President Jenkins and members of the council, Brandon Walensky, economic workforce development department.
I'd like to note a minor correction to the proposed resolution for consent items six point sixteen,
recommending an exclusive negotiation agreement with the Museum of Jazz and Art at the city-owned Fire Alarm Building.
In the resolutions whereas clause, referencing the Second Amendment execution date, the date is incorrectly stated as December 6th,
2023 and instead should read June 6th, 2023
This correction has no effect on the substance or intent of the resolution
The corrected version of the resolution has been provided to the clerk and I asked the council adopt the resolution as corrected. Thank you
Starting with item 6.0 approval of the draft minutes from the meeting of March 3rd
2026 March 16th April 14th at 9 30 and April 14th at 3 30
I'm 6.1 a resolution for the declaration of a local emergency due to due to the AIDS epidemic
I don't 6.2 a resolution renewing the council's declaration of a local emergency due to cannabis
I don't 6.3 a resolution renewing the council's declaration of a local emergency on homelessness
I don't 6.4 resolution regard regarding the agreement to sell the fireboat
Item six point five a resolution confirming the appointments to the steering committee reappointments to the
community policing advisory board
item six point six in ordinance
for final passage for strengthening illegal dumping enforcement
item six point seven in
Ordinance for final passage regarding the purpose of real I'm sorry purchase of real property at three one zero five San Pablo Avenue for a Hoover
library
Item six point eight in ordinance for a final passage for amendments to ordinance number one two one eight seven
For salary the salary ordinance for various is classifications and exemptions
Item six point nine a resolution. I'm sorry an ordinance for final passage for lease agreements with Oakland Parks and
Recreation Foundation for maintenance of Tyrone Carney Park item six point ten
Information report for the city of Oakland 2026 homeless strategic action plan. I'm 6.11 a resolution for fiscal year 26 to 27
landscaping and lighting assessment district
initiation item 6.12 a resolution of the issuance of an unconditional certificate of
Completion for MacArthur transit village phase 1 public improvements item 6.13 an ordinance
For adoption of a federally federally compliant flood plan management ordinance and flood hazard maps
item 6.14 in ordinance for the easement at 260 oak streets
item 6.15 a resolution for consultant contract
Contract amendment for the fire station 29 project. I'm 6.16 a resolution for fire alarm
building Museum of Jazz and art
new exclusive negotiation agreement.
Item 6.17, a resolution for surplus land,
declaration and disposition of a four city-owned parcels.
Item 6.18, a resolution for authorization
to disperse resilience hub grant funds
to Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation
for community outreach activities.
Item 6.19, a resolution for the library agreement
with City of Piedmont.
Item 6.20, a resolution for the library agreement
with the City of Emeryville.
Item 6.21, a resolution for acceptance
of Oakland Parks and Rec Foundation Grants.
Item 6.22, a resolution for the Mayor's Summer
Youth Employment Program and OFCY Summer Program.
The second, item 6.22, which is really 6.23,
An information report from OPD Federal Task Force 2025
annual reports.
Item 6.24 resolution for ceasefire lifeline contracts.
Item 6.25 has already been dispensed with
as a non-consent item.
Item 6.26 a resolution authorizing
and directing the city attorney
to settle the case of Andrew Marshall
versus the city of Oakland.
Item 6.27 a resolution regarding Vima Harrison
versus city of Oakland.
item 6.26 a resolution for settlement for kennedy sanchez versus city of oakland
item 6.29 a resolution naming romero g hernandez street renaming probably the
most significant item on the consent calendar a resolution recognizing May
3rd through May 9th as municipal clerk's week absolutely so we have urgency
findings oh so I want to acknowledge our clerks who work very diligently and
deal with our nonsensical things they are absolutely amazing and they've been in a
space of transition and we lost one of our clerks Brittany right and we gained
an amazing assistant clerk who gave someone six minutes today but I just
just want to say thank you for all that you guys do and we celebrate you every day, so
don't ever forget that.
Anyone else?
I've been here now for six years of clerk appreciations and eleven on the other side
of the dais and I think when we give our appreciations we should do more than just words.
We have one of our clerks lied on today.
We've had them sued.
had all kinds of individuals say just derogatory lies on social media and they
don't always get paid what they're supposed to get paid I'm just gonna be
honest so when we appreciate the clerks let's try to do that in the budget too
thank you so I'm gonna make a motion and take the urgency finding and then we
could talk about the other items is that a second from Houston second from
councilmember. I'm a member of.
Six point thirty and six point. We've already dispensed with six point two
Councilmember Houston. I just wanted to say that the clerks know how much I got love for them
They deal with me all the time and I tell them how much I appreciate them in so many different ways
So I do appreciate you class
We just run through the names very quickly Peter Alexander
Blair Beekman, I have you with multiple items Peter Alexander have you with multiple items?
Jeff live in I have you for item 6.10. Mr. Hazard. I have you for
multiple items. Mrs. Asada multiple items
Madeline Stacy
Henry Simmons Mitra
Jesse Rosemore have you for multiple items
Mandeline Kadair Redmond
Simeon Ramsey
Have you with looks like multiple items here?
Sean
Everheart I have you for multiple items
Earnish Johnson
Mr. Hazard
Vote no on partial on
Measure e the parcel tax cuz it's misleading as
Another things just like this evening
when guile
Listen to Ryan Richardson, the city attorney who held up with Ramachandra and another staff for him to do a motion for
reconsideration on a previous item.
Let me read you something that's in violation.
Because the prime motion failed by the vote.
No prevailing side existed.
And no valid motion for reconsideration could be made.
You have to do a 72-hour notice.
That was not agendized.
5.4 is void.
You have to go back, get a legal opinion through the present,
get a legal opinion with the 72-hour notice.
You can't do that because the previous action that she did failed.
Also, I gave you this item here.
Stop listening to the city attorney, Guile.
I told you in the bathroom with regards to Measure A, the transaction use tax.
On January 30th, Alameda County Superior Court acknowledged court
clerical error, misclassification of petition.
My petition filed May 19th, 2025.
A letter to the clerk.
This matter presents purely legal and facial constitutional issues arising from a municipal ballot measure and its implementation.
The petition challenges a provision stating in the ballot measure 4.26.130,
and joining collections forbidden which purports to restrict judicial review.
Measure A is in violation, counsel.
There is an absence of any factual dispute.
You're collecting a sales tax on October 1.
You're trying to collect $29 million annually for 10 years.
That's $300 million on a sales tax that is illegal.
Why don't you get off your butts and address this issue?
That's why I'm urging people to vote no on partially,
on measure E, the partial attack,
because it's misleading.
90% of first responders live outside of Oakland.
Maybe in another state, in some instances.
50% of your.
Thank you, Mr. Hazard.
Your time is up.
Ms. Redman, Cadair Redman, I have you
with two items, two minutes.
Thank you.
Hello, again.
the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation.
Since I have a little bit more time,
I just wanted to appreciate all of you
and your commitment to Oakland.
There's so many complicated concerns and issues.
And you make room for public comment.
And that is a really valuable part
that we all get to participate in.
So thank you.
We are a nonprofit independent of the city of Oakland,
but we do have a lot of good stuff.
the city of Oakland but work very, very closely in partnership with Oakland's Public Works
Department and Parks and Recreation Youth Development Department primarily that we work
with city administrator's office as well as environmental services, human services in
the gamut because parks are where we all meet, greet, and celebrate and activate in community.
organization is three items in the consent calendar thank you for all of
the engagement that got us here I just wanted to take the opportunity to speak
to those items this is where we activate our spaces so we talked about our green
spaces and our landscape so these items are where we bring that to life in
working with community both as a fiscal sponsor to multiple community groups so
So Tyrone Carney Park 6.9 allows us to activate East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative, Yoni,
who came before you to celebrate their work in Stewart, that park, once it is opened in,
hopefully, August. Then 6.18 is around the resiliency hubs, and that also is in support
of some neighbors around the Sibrani Park neighborhood. Lastly, 6.21 is for our organization
I want to thank all of you for
taking the time to join us and
to partner directly with O. P.
R. Y. D. to bring ten million
dollars to the parks- programs
over the next ten years.
Thank you.
I council members I'm Henry
Simons government community
relations representative from
Bart where I cover the city of
Oakland for part.
I'm here to comment on the city
of Oakland twenty twenty six
homelessness strategic action
plan- I want to thank so many of
you for taking the time to meet
in the encampment and basement policies high sensitivity zone. As you all know
preventing containment fires that can damage Bart's trackway and infrastructure
is good for both Bart and good for Oakland. Bart has been doing our part by
placing k-rail and other interventions at four locations near critical Bart
assets with two inter additional interventions planned soon. And as the
administration develops the Homelessness Strategic Action Plan we're engaging
the city administrator's office and other stakeholders to ensure BART's fire prevention needs align with city policy and we're looking forward to working with the council, Mayor Lee, the city administrator's office, OPD, and OFD to support a thriving economy in Oakland by providing high quality...
Mr. Rosemar, I have you with multiple cards. You have three minutes.
First off, I want to thank the only person on the dais who has listened to what we came
here to speak about tonight.
I really, really appreciate you.
I really appreciate you for being the only person to actually listen to us and the only
way that we were reflected that we're heard.
We had a hard time getting a lot of people to come out tonight because we knew what the
people on the dais with you would do.
I'm truly sorry for our entire community.
And, you know, we've talked to people out on the streets about what's going on here.
And you won't be alone for long if we can help it.
I just want to say that.
I also came to speak to 5-5.
We knew this was going to pass, this obviously unqualified person to get
on the police commission, and this would have contrasted pretty well
with what happened with Omar Farmer and sorry Garcia Acosta.
There were multiple lies told on the dais
about why these two people weren't re-approved.
It was just an awful thing to watch, just a, you know,
police accountability is overwhelmingly popular.
80 plus percent voting for like a robust police
accountability and oversight, and the motions that pass tonight,
these disgraces to our community,
show why we need police accountability and oversight
over a department that is systematically
lying to all of you and to all of us.
We all see it.
One of the lies that wasn't spoken on the dais
about why this council did not approve those two people
is in a town hall in January with Zach Unger.
before that meeting, Zach Unger said that these two people,
there's a HR issue involving the two of them,
and he's not at liberty to discuss it,
but he has to vote no because of that.
Given everything that's happened
and everything that we're seeing this council do
to please accountability ongoing,
you should really explain that for the public that you serve
because after that we saw this entire council lie
about why these two real public servants were denied their reappointments is absolutely
shameful.
Another thing on the consent calendar is a disastrous, you know, the lawsuits that you
guys are going to get for failing in legislation.
Now litigation is what's going to keep us safe and keep everything okay.
You should act like you are going to get sued, because these actions that this feckless
council is taking is going to result in lawsuits.
So many lawsuits.
Thank you, Jesse.
Starting with item 6.10, which is dealing with homelessness, to solve the homelessness
problem in this city, it would cost you $1.3 billion over ten years.
You can come with all kind of plans
where you're gonna get the money.
Anything having to do with the jazz museum
or the, what's the library Carol?
Hoover, they were here but they couldn't stay.
Support that fully, fully.
Now this item here that you have for 6.17,
that surplus land that you own,
how could you dare to sell that for affordable housing?
That land has seismic issues,
corroding issues of the land, toxic issue.
It's not even suitable for housing,
but you're trying to sell it for that.
Don't even talk about Emeryville and Piedmont contract.
And you're talking about accountability?
How many years you didn't hold Emeryville
and Piedmont accountable for paying you
for the use of your library?
Over 20-something years.
But you speaking tonight about the trees,
gonna hold people accountable. As it relates to item 2.14, ceasefire. Tonight, y'all talking
about producing the data to show, you don't have no data to show, that ceasefire is working.
Ceasefire is for gangs. All murders are not gang related. You can't solve it but just
ceasefire. Oh, we did the feather rhythm. Help me, Jesus. Then 2.27, breach of contract
with human services.
You allowed the consortium housing of the East Bay
to have management over Lake Merritt
and they completely destroyed it.
Now you're paying $695,000 because we destroyed it
and you're also giving up the security deposit of $950,000.
You have to have good oversight of whatever you're doing
related to this homeless that happened at Lake Merritt.
Now I wanna go back to this issue that you have
for these people taking over to run that Suburnee Park.
The community should be running that.
These people don't even live in that community.
Why do they wanna, what's the liability issue?
If somebody gets hurt on that park,
are there some violence that takes place on that park?
Are they gonna be liable or are we gonna be liable?
I don't see the sense of having some outside entity
come in to run a community park. If they run it, the community people that live in there,
that's fine. How much time I got left? Going back to the issue of nonprofits, we've got
to have some accountability with these nonprofits doing things. It is not working. Nonprofits
have to be held accountable. Thank you Mrs. Dada. Madeline Stacy, Mitra,
Ernest Johnson, Semio Ramsey. Madeline I have you with one card. Madeline Stacy on
610. There is an encampment engagement and neighborhood health portion in the
homelessness strategic action plan. Yet the encampment abatement policy was
brought to the full council before this report. It was brought with law
enforcement as experts on homelessness, meaning it's criminalization, but no
experts on actual homelessness. This backwards out-of-order handling signals
that helping then housed was not the objective. Please consider this plan as
well as, let's actually name it, gentrification, as you move forward with
with interacting with encampments
and enforcing these policies.
Is Mr. Ramsey in the chamber?
Moving to the Zoom speaker, starting with Blair Beekman,
I have you with multiple items.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.
You have a few items on illegal dumping
and litter abatement issues.
And then you also have working on unhoused issues,
policies and planning and then you have a few other items
I wanted to speak to.
Thank you for the previous public comment.
I really needed that because when I see that you work,
you have, you know, the litter abatement policies
and homeless items together, to me, that's a sign that,
you know, what was really the issue is how to better work
on litter issues and with the unhoused issues.
And I felt that was a conversation
that is one that doesn't have to be punitive.
And working out solutions that aren't so punitive
towards those goals is important.
And I'm still really confused with the unhoused issues
that we already had a system where police can,
could be called in when there were issues.
and you created a whole new set of policies
to define those things.
That is like half baked ideas
compared to what San Diego is doing.
People keep on bringing up grants fast.
I think you're trying to emulate San Diego
and you're only doing it halfway.
And I'm not happy with what San Diego is doing
and you're trying to emulate that.
And many cities are these days.
And I think we could have made a lot smarter choices
to do that, and I hope we continue those efforts on how to do that. We don't have to, you know,
bring in tons of police, I don't think. I don't think this is an issue of police. And litter is
an important concept to that. How Noel Gallo is working on how to work with the state on funding
issues, I hope gets conversation more. And that, you know, from this, this has been an item,
you know, for the past six months now, there's been a lot more community involvement to address
litter and that it's a community effort that we can address this problem and of course I mentioned
the tech accountability practices with that that can be really helpful too that helps develop
community bonding instead of separation so good luck how to do that there are a few items of tech
accountability the Mcarthur Heart Park development Boulevard development things good luck what you're
doing with that. The tech accountability can be important and with the task force,
federal task force things, I think it's important that the PAC, I mean I was there at the beginning
and the PAC had a really important role to help define good tech practices for our federal
agencies and it just opened up really important conversations overall in the role of our federal
agencies in the local area and we need those conversations in the public space and PAC was
great at that. Good luck how we respect that. Thank you.
Sean Eberhart, I have you with 6.63 items.
Please help me begin your comments. Hello everyone.
Good evening council members. My name is Sean Eberhart. I'm a
resident of District 7. I'm here to address 6.6, 6.27, and 6.28.
Let's first talk about 6.6 and the city's obsession
with punishment over solutions. We were talking about ratcheting up
penalties for illegal dumping. But what I want to know, has any member of this body
actually asked DOT or Public Works what real infrastructure recommendations look like?
Is it bigger trash cans? Are there neighborhood dump sites that someone could go to to access?
Just this week I spent two hours helping my sister-in-law dump trash because she had a water leak.
Two hours of red tape and logistical hurdles just to do the right thing. And to be honest with you,
I get why people dump. I get when you have to be
full or have a part-time job just to be a law-abiding citizen,
you're going to take the path of least resistance. If you don't fix the accessibility issues,
you're just taxing the poor for a system that you failed to build.
Turning to 6.27 and 6.28, another meeting item, it's a pair of massive settlements.
This is exactly what I've been sounding the alarm on.
I wrote an article in the Oakland report in November, the city refuses to do the
actual work on the front end which in turn causes lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit.
We're hemorrhaging public funds nearly a million dollars on these two items alone
tonight because of the negligence. We claim we quote unquote don't have the money to provide
dignified services to the unhoused or to fix our crumbling streets. So instead we settle for a
policy of we'll rest and pay. We rest the people we fail to help and then we pay out
millions when our own negligence causes these people harm. This body has become purely transactional.
You aren't governing your processing invoices for your own failures. You're balancing the
book on the back of Oakland residents while the core of the city rots because you won't
invest in prevention. This transactional mindset is the anchor dragging Oakland down to the
depths of hell. You cannot enforce your way back out of a lack of services. You cannot settle your
way out of failing infrastructure. It's time for this council to stop acting like claims like a
claims department and start acting like a leadership body. Stop waiting for the lawsuits to happen and
start doing the work to prevent it. Retired of these payouts and I'm tired of the excuses. Please
do the work. Thank you. Thank you for your comments going to our final Zoom speaker, Jeff
LeVin. I have you with one card for item 6.10. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Thank you. Good evening, Jeff LeVin with East Bay Housing Organization speaking in support of the
Homelessness Strategic Action Plan. We support this plan. It's a comprehensive approach to
homelessness that includes prevention, services coordination, encampments, interim housing, and
permanent housing. It uses an equity approach, it's evidence-based, it's data driven, it was
developed with the involvement of all the key departments responsible for addressing homelessness
and most important included engagement with unhoused people and people with lived experience
of homelessness. It's a really excellent plan. We are disappointed though that this comprehensive
plan has been placed on the consent calendar with no presentation, no council discussion.
After multiple meetings and countless hours of discussion about the encampment policy
and everybody telling you it needs to be done as part of a comprehensive approach,
you now have a comprehensive plan and you're not discussing it. Why is that?
Thank you, Mr. Levin, that all names have been called. If your name was called and you're in
chamber, please, of course, the podium. The only card I have is Mr. Ramsey and I don't see him.
So thank you to everybody that came out we want to wish everyone older America older Americans day a month older Americans month
Older Americans month
older than me
It's always a way and it's also a mental health awareness month. So we want it. Oh
I love the nurses to nurses week. Okay and teachers appreciation and
and Pacific Islander month.
All right, this meeting is adjourned, thank you.
Wait, that wasn't open forum?
Yeah, no, you have open forum.
Open forum, come on.
Well, you have announcements then open forum.
Announcements, I'm sorry.
It's okay, I got you, I'm sorry guys.
Let me just run through these names.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
We need a vote on that side, I'm sorry guys.
Okay, so we have a motion for the urgency finding,
second for their Okay so I'll take a motion for the consent calendar
Houston fire including the amendment for 616 that was read into record earlier
as amended just moving too fast councilmember Brown aye councilmember
five aye councilmember Gallo excused councilmember Houston aye
councilmember Ramachandran aye councilmember Unger aye
Assemblymember Wong aye share Jenkins aye motion passes with a vote of seven eyes one excuse you now have item seven
Which is announcements and after that you have opened any announcements, or did I get them all when I almost adjourned the meeting?
Councilman fight I
Know people have probably seen the news stories about some of the violence that's happened after the first Friday
Events have occurred, so I'm having a town hall
That's youth-led at the Oakland School of the Arts on June 3rd
I will have a save the date put out, but I'm asking for people to come and participate and
Discuss some of the alternatives that are being tossed around by our business owners community members and young people in the city of Oakland
June 3rd. Thank you. That's very important. And will it be posted to your socials as well?
Okay, and you can check councilmember five socials for that and then we all should repost it as first Fridays
a jewel in the city of Oakland and we want to make sure that
One the community is safe businesses are protected and that Oaklanders can have a absolutely good time
And I support you 100% and whatever we do going forward councilmember Unger
Yeah, I have a comment from Maria Henderson from AC Transit who was not able to stay till the end
So I'm just gonna read her comment
She says on Wednesday, June 10th at 5 p.m
The AC Transit Board will receive a staff report on potential service reductions doing ongoing budget challenges
While a state loan has stabilized the next fiscal year,
we're facing $200 million deficit of the next four.
Without new sustainable funding,
we may need to reduce service by more than 16%
and could lose 300 jobs.
No final decisions have been made
and no specific routes have been selected.
However, all bus lines are under review.
If additional funding is not secured,
any service changes would likely begin in June 27th.
We remain committed to preserving service
and being transparent about these challenges.
An open house will be held just before the June 10th
board meeting at our headquarters, 1600 Franklin Street,
the community can learn more and share feedback. I'll share additional details in the coming weeks
and look forward to working with you to keep our communities informed. Thank you.
Your lights on, is that later? Oh, okay. I want to thank councilman Houston for all that he's doing
for the district seven community and advocating for just really advocating for the underprivileged
the city of Houston. And we're
going to be looking at those
kids that don't get an
opportunity. To go to feather
river camp even if people are
trying to throw your sign down
we appreciate the work that you
are doing for those black and
brown children. Even though
people don't want to see that
message and so I just thank you
for your advocacy and the
councilmember Houston I are
really working on the Hagenburga
corridor. And we're going to be
looking for residents- to
support us in that effort. Into
revitalizing the Hagenburga
the library I'm sure that they
do not understand now that the
consent calendar is at the end
of the meeting so I want to
make sure that when we have
elders or young people who are
here who are speaking on issues
that they really care about
specifically this library that
was red lined and taken out of
the the city that we offer
opportunities for them to have
their voices heard.
opportunities for them to have their voices heard. Thank You councilmember
let's go to open forum and again my apologies I've got a little tired so my
apologies to all the people who have comments on what form. If I could just
run through the names. My apologies Mr. Hazard. Dr. Mary Motzby Jeffery and
McLean Alicia. Alicia Lander. Blair Beekman. Peter Alexander. Jeffrey Ferguson.
Mr. Hazzard, Mrs. Asada Olibala, Madeleine Stacy, Jesse Rosemore, Mitra Zaremboff,
Simeon Ramsey, Shawn Everhart, Maria Henderson, and Farana Tabasan.
Go to clean Oakland dot com and I'm looking for contributions,
hundred dollar contributors to the fund to deal with this illegal ballot measure.
Okay? Go to Mike, go to Zell, call me, you could use my email for Zell, hundred
dollar contributors to the support fund. Also, measure 20, measure 2022 was
illegal, measure A was illegal, and this parcel attack is misleading and illegal.
vote no on Measure E. Do not put this burden on the property taxpayer for
first-refinders who mainly live outside of this area and deal with this illegal
reconsideration that Gayo did because there was it was not agendized and it
requires a 72-hour notice under the Brown Act you thank you Mr. Hazard your
time is up she's left the room for standing up for Miss Candice I think it
was absolutely ridiculous with that man did falsely accusing her of doing
something she didn't do I value this lady because you don't know how much of
an asset she's been in my life with a lot of things.
I also want to thank Ms. Feitfeld speaking at the Rules Committee.
The man that the mayor nominated for the Police Commission is not qualified.
I'm sorry.
Three times he had to be asked about constitutional policing.
And he might be a nice person, but he's not qualified for the Police Commission.
Lastly, Ken Houston, anybody come for you?
I know we don't agree on anything, I got you back.
Same thing for you, Jenkins, my black men, I got you.
Lastly, measure E, I'm sorry.
It was not done appropriately.
It is not a citizen's initiative.
It's a union initiative.
Hi, Jesse Rosemore.
The malfeasance and abuse of power
that we're experiencing as activists
is not just coming from Ken Houston.
It's not just coming from Kevin Jenkins.
It's also coming from Zach Unger.
Zach Unger on a phone call,
you asked me if I condone violence.
You called me a Luigi fanboy.
You said people at City Hall are scared of me.
This is absolutely inappropriate.
It really scared me, you know?
It really did.
But I know that this kind of thing
is meant to silence people and we won't be silenced.
Seriously, none of you read emails.
This is documented in an email.
I forward it to this entire council.
So if you care to read or answer calls or anything,
you have this information.
Thank you, Jessie.
Hi, Farhan Atabasum, former city staff.
I am very disappointed today for rubber stamping
the Feather River Camp decision.
I feel like if you had a good, competent director,
it should have been a no-brainer
to nip something like that in the butt,
but you fired one director
and only skipped the most competent person
and replaced them with the interim director
who is even more incompetent
and even more of a poorer leader
because she leads by fear and by force,
which is also why, part of the reason why I left.
you took away funding from public works,
bulky block parties, you try to cut funding
for the city auditor, these are vital programs,
invest in those programs more
and watch out for Parks and Recs,
it's the most inefficient department I worked in.
They have a very bloated staff
and they are hiring people.
Thank you ma'am, your time is up.
Madeline Stacy, as a body, you have voted for Flock.
flock operating system, and to add cameras that track people,
the pan-tilt zoom cameras.
You voted for Peregrin, the Palindar spin-off technology.
You voted for Celebrate, the Israeli-based tech
that's utilized to violate human rights and suppress activists.
You voted for the Encampment Abatement Policy,
which criminalizes living in a vehicle.
These votes are not representative
of the values of Oakland or Oaklanders.
In fact, they align with the values of the Trump regime.
But city council seats are limited term.
District six, Jenkins, district two, Wong,
district four, Romeshondron,
they're all up for election in November.
So, constituents and endorsers, we can vote them out.
They don't represent our values.
Thank you, Ms. Stacy, for your comments.
Moving to the Zoom speakers starting with Blair Beekman.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi Blair Beatman. Yeah disappointing meeting today.
Kind of sad.
You guys did amazing work on Flock and I wish you know
you had items here that were very much related
and the future that we can have in a community
process deciding what ALPR vendor will have.
We could have been doing that same work together
as a community with the two items today.
And I hope this the conversations today the items
today can continue to be on our minds and that we can work on it and this isn't the end.
We can be working towards a better future and we have the skills in Oakland that no other city
is doing as well as you guys so I hope we can continue the efforts. Please try and see what
we come up with working together all parts adding a really significant voice. Good luck
luck in our future meetings, thanks, bye.
Anne McClain, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Okay, that's good.
Okay, ready again.
I'm Anne McClain and a residential property owner
on 35th Avenue.
A letter has been submitted to you via the city clerk
requesting a hearing before the CED committee
for the purpose of describing the wrongful inclusion
of 18 properties on 35th Avenue
to the Laurel Business Improvement District
and our request for the removal from the district.
The executive director of the district lied to you
on July 1st, 2025 by stating
the 35th Avenue corridor is commercial.
Council President Brown stated
that had council been aware of our objections,
a CED committee hearing would have been held.
Of the 18 property owners, only one voted for inclusion.
The corridor contains single family dwellings, condos, and 61 rent control departments, only
one and only one active commercial property.
We want a CED hearing and our removal from the business improvement district by the month
of July before the start of the pandemic.
Thank you, Ms. McLean.
Your time was up.
Mr. Everhart, you are next.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Sean Everhart and I live in Shepfield Village.
I'm here because the city continues to act like it doesn't care about getting sued.
Even after formal notice and months of life safety hazard at the corner of Marlowe and
Foothill Way, they even wrote about this pattern in my piece in the Oakland report, we ignore
problems until they turn into settlements.
But this is not about safety anymore.
This is about the conduct of Ken Houston and that was written about in the Oakland Observer
After I advocated for my neighborhood, council member Houston responded by calling me, texting
me, and bad mouthing me to my neighbors in a documented attempt to intimidate me.
In the private sector, if I treated people this way, I'd be fired and blacklisted from
the industry.
He's allowed to do this, and no one has stepped in.
So to the city administrator and the city attorney, do you actually care how the councilman treats
their constituents?
And to President Jenkins and Deputy Chief, or excuse me, Justin Johnson, are you going
to hold this member accountable. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who's came out to speak
tonight. This meeting is adjourned.