Good afternoon and welcome to the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting of Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
The time is now 1.32 PM and this meeting may come to order.
Before taking role, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker card for items on this agenda.
If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative before the item is read into record.
online speakers
Speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting
This meeting came to order at 1 32 p.m. And speaker cards will no longer be accepted 10 minutes after that
After making that time 1 42 p.m. We'll now proceed with taking roll council members five
president
Chandra here under here and chair Brown
President thank you. We have four members president chair before we begin
do you have any announcements at this time yes thank you so much so first I
just want to take a moment to express my gratitude for the strong attendance
today definitely encourage everyone to continue showing up for our community
and economic development committee well into the future given that this
committee plays a critical role in shaping the vibrancy of economic
development in our city workforce opportunities zoning and housing policy
on this item I'm sure that
committee will be able to
conduct a committee and so with
that in mind and in an effort
to ensure that the committee
wraps up in a timely manner I
would be a lot in just 90
seconds for public comment
today thank you so much.
Thank you.
Now reading an item one
approval of the draft minutes
from the committee meetings of
March twenty four two thousand
Thank you so much. Um, I'll entertain a motion
So moved
second
Thank you. We have a motion made by councilmember unger seconded by councilmember ramachandran
To accept the draft minutes from the committee meetings of march 21st and april 21st
2026 on roll council members five aye ramachandran. Aye unger. Aye and chair brown. Aye
Thank you item number one passes with four eyes
a plan.
Reading in item two determination of schedule
about standing committee items and we have one speaker
that signed up.
Excellent thank you so much so to the city administration
any changes for our pending list.
I know.
Okay excellent colleagues.
Excellent and so we can hear from the public speaker.
Calling in the name that signed up to speak on item number two
the pending list miss us at all of all of.
At some point.
discussion but you are a sanctuary city and being in that status you have
allowed people to come into this city illegally people who have come into this
city illegally it is estimated that it's over 200,000 in this city state of
California it's 2 million the population of California black people is 2.3
million you have as many illegal immigrants in this state as you have
black people but they are getting the jobs they are getting the housing they
are getting access to education they are getting health care black people we are
not getting much of anything the city of Oakland unemployment rate is over nine
percent the same thing is true for the United States unemployment for black
people close to nine percent. I will not sit here every meeting and allow you to
ignore the negativity, the dispersionality of what's happening in the
city of Oakland as a result of your sanctuary city status. Barbara Jordan
told you in 1994 when she was a part of the immigration investigative committee
on how we should look at immigration in the future, they said you should put a
I do think this is a limitation on it.
Because at some point it was gonna impact
low-level unemployment.
Thank you for your comments, Miss Lavala.
Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item.
Excellent, thank you so much.
And I'll entertain a motion on the pending list.
So moved.
Thank you, that's a motion made by Councilmember Unger,
seconded by Councilmember Fyfe to approve, sorry,
to accept the determination of schedule
about standing committee items as is on roll.
Councilmember five aye Ramachandran I under my and chair Brown I thank you item number two passes
With four eyes to accept the pending list as is
reading in item number three
Adopted resolution authorizing grant agreements with service service providers competitively selected for workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act program services for fiscal years
2026 to 2029, in a total amount not to exceed
$2,650,000 for fiscal year 2026 to 2027
to provide comprehensive adult and dislocated worker,
one-stop operator, business engagement, and youth services,
and amendments existing WIOA agreements
to extend contract terms through June 30th, 2027,
and increased funding in a total amount not to exceed
five hundred eighty four thousand one hundred nine dollars
and we have eleven speakers outside to speak excellent thank you so much
on so for this uh... presentation we will be hearing from a system
on administrator and so if you have
good afternoon just to correct
my title
debbie city administrator but thank you
so through the through the chair and to
counsel and to our public
so if you have our own
And here also going to be co-presenting with
Onorata Lindsay who's acting capacity
while transitioning out of workforce development
to city administration.
So thank you again for this opportunity to present.
So we are bringing forth to council approval
of 2.65 million in new WIOA.
So WIOA Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act
service contracts for fiscal year 2026 through 2027.
Also authorizing renewals through fiscal year 2029
based on performance and funding availability.
Approve 584,109,000 amendments
to extend current WIOA service contracts
through June 30, 2027,
and support continuity of workforce services
during transition to the new procurement cycle.
And I did want to also note that this presentation
was also provided to the Oakland Workforce Development Board
and the funding recommendations that are presented here
were approved by that board on February 26th of 2026.
So quick overview, actually do I have a PowerPoint?
Oh, thank you.
Do you have a clicker?
Appreciate that.
So going into just the overview of recommendation action.
So the new WIOA contracts,
it's a competitive procurement conducted
for adult dislocated worker youth business engagement,
which is a new category in this process,
and the one stop operator services.
Recommended awards were based on scoring,
geographic coverage, operational capacity,
and system coordination.
And also these contracts support
citywide workforce service delivery
that would begin July 1st, 2026.
Contract amendments and transition stability
was something that we felt was needed
to make sure that the workforce system continued
during this procurement process.
So this extends current provider agreements
through June 30, 2027, applies a portion of increased fiscal year 2025-2026 we owe allocations
to maintain, as I mentioned, continuity of services and supports uninterrupted participant
services during this transition, again, to the new procurement cycle.
So why this investment matters.
So the Oakland workforce system supports residents seeking employment training and career advancement
opportunities.
item implements a new competitive procurement cycle
while maintaining continuity during this transition.
These contract extensions also help prevent disruption
to workforce services for job seekers, youth, and employers.
The recommendations prioritize equitable geographic access,
individual services, and historically underserved communities.
Also, increased wheel of funding, as mentioned earlier,
provides an opportunity to stabilize provider operations
and strengthen service delivery citywide.
And this recommended approach balances
procurement integrity, operational continuity,
fiscal stewardship and community impact.
So just a little bit about the workforce system outcomes
and the last procurement cycle.
So every three years we are mandated
to put this out for procurement.
These dollars are federal dollars.
They come from the Department of Labor,
go to Employment Development Department
and then get allocated to local jurisdictions.
So in 2022 through 2025,
more than 1,100 Oakland residents
were served across adult dislocated worker and youth programs over the past three program
years.
Training participation increased by 12 percent over the three year period.
Employment outcomes increased by 10 percent across WIOA funded programs.
The median wages increased from $24.50 an hour to $26.90 an hour.
Obviously we want to continue to see that grow because it's expensive in the Bay Area.
Youth median wages increased from $19 an hour to $21 an hour.
And cost per employment remained consistently below $5,000 despite that funding levels.
So competitive and transparent, sorry, we, of course, had a competitive and transparent
procurement process.
So open and competitive requests for proposal process was conducted.
I want to just note that we were really intentional of starting this RFP process last year.
Our whole intention was to make sure that we started the process earlier so that we
could get ideally through our board,
our committee, and city council
so that we can start these contracts on time, July 1.
We're still aiming and focused on that timeline,
but again, we wanted to make sure
that our providers had contracts starting on time,
because traditionally, as we've heard oftentimes
in council, that contracts don't get executed
until three to six months sometimes after the fact.
So again, we were really thoughtful about this process.
Technical assistance was provided
to support equitable applicant participation.
Independent review process was conducted
by workforce development professionals
and subject matter experts.
There was a two-step evaluation process
which focused on compliance review
and qualitative scoring.
Score was on program design, experience, methodology,
cost-reasonableness, and responsiveness.
recommendations reviewed in alignment
with the Oakland Workforce Development Board priorities
and federal requirements by the Department of Labor.
And we also did have a formal appeal process
that was completed in accordance with the RFP.
So just briefly on the appeal process
and procurement integrity,
which is something that we did provide
as far as this process goes,
all proposers were notified of funding recommendations
and evaluation outcomes.
Applicants may request a formal debrief
regarding proposal scoring and process.
Appeals are limited to procedural concerns related
to the procurement process.
Appeals must be submitted in writing
within the designated appeal period.
And final determinations are issued in accordance
with city procurement and we or requirements.
And that did happen in this process.
So just real quickly with the recommended new awards
for 2026 through 2029.
So this procurement process had three categories.
And that first category is a comprehensive AJCC.
AJCC stands for categories.
Thank you, sorry.
Look at the screen.
So category one is comprehensive
American Job Centers of California.
The two recommended providers for funding there
are the Oakland Private Industry Council,
which would cover the downtown,
they have a downtown location and a West Oakland location.
Lau Family Community Development,
They have a location in Central Oakland and East Oakland
over at the Eastmont Mall.
Those were the, again, two organizations
that were being recommended for funding
for the Comprehensive American Job Center of California.
For category two, we have the one-stop operator.
We have the Oakland Private Industry Council,
who's being recommended to provide system-wide support
to our workforce system.
The category three, and this, again,
I mentioned it briefly earlier, but business intermediary,
This is actually a new component of this RFP process.
When we were in the process of putting together this RFP,
we did have community stakeholder convenings
in addition to connecting with our business community.
One thing that was called out is that we wanna make sure
that through the workforce system,
we are really intentional about collaborating
not only with the chambers in Oakland,
but our own business development division
and really just connecting more directly with businesses.
And so the way that we looked at this RFP process
was business first model.
And what that means is not diminishing the role
and the need and the focus for our job seekers,
but really making sure that we are engaging employers
more intentionally, really focused on the high growth sectors
that we often talk about.
We talk about healthcare, IT.
And so this role would really help us make sure
that we're connecting with those businesses,
bringing in those opportunities for our job seekers
so that we're getting our job seekers
into more high quality paying jobs.
And so that organization was recommended
to be the Spanish speaking Unity Council.
They would provide citywide services
and be working very closely with the providers
that you see here.
Category four is our youth services component.
And the organizations recommended for funding
are the Youth Employment Partnership,
Lao Family Community Development,
Spanish-speaking Unity Council,
Oakland Tech Exchange, and Youth Uprising.
So why these providers?
So these providers were the highest-ranked proposals
within the service categories.
They've demonstrated capacity to deliver compliant,
high-quality workforce services.
It also represents strong red geographic coverage
across Oakland, including East Oakland, deep East Oakland.
The focus on system coordination was also a key priority
for us, employer engagement and participant outcomes.
And lastly, balance fiscal stewardship
with continuity and equity considerations.
We wanted to make sure that as we were recommending
organizations for funding, that we were really ensuring
that there was coverage throughout the city of Oakland.
So in order for this to be realized,
it also requires a contract amendment
to really again support the stability of the transition.
And so recommendation of extending current provider agreements through June 30th, 2027
so that we can prepare for transition for maybe some of the organizations that are not
being recommended to be funded in some of the categories as they had before.
It applies 50% of increased adult, dislocated worker and youth allocations to direct services,
prevents disruption during transition, as I mentioned, to new contracts, maintains participant
access and provider capacity and again supports continuity for employers, youth and job seekers.
So just to reiterate why the extensions are needed, so Oakland received approximately
1.4 million in increased WIOA formula funding.
This is a one-time allocation for 2526.
New providers require transition and implementation time, so that is something that was put into
consideration because we want to make sure our job seekers are being
transitioned appropriately and have access to services. Extensions prevent
disruption of services as I just mentioned. Also employer engagement, youth
programming, and AJCC operations. So the recommendation applies approximately as
mentioned earlier 50% of increased adult dislocated worker and youth
allocations to stabilize services during transition. So this slide sorry it's a
little tiny for folks in the public but this is really just showing those
those recommended increases to in current providers
for fiscal year 2526.
And so you'll see the increase there
based on the proportional percentage.
We'll go through that.
Excellent, just wanna comment.
We've given you 10 minutes plus two, so 12.
How much more time do you need?
Can you give me two more minutes?
That sounds good.
Okay, I have a few more slides.
So equity and community impact.
So we, so this recommendation expands access
for underserved communities and priority populations.
So in this process, we wanted to make sure
that priority populations and areas
that are historically underserved are being served
and those tend to be our East Oakland,
Central Fruitvale, and West Oakland locations.
We also want support youth, low income residents,
and individuals facing barriers, or employment barriers.
We know that the unemployment rate
across our black community,
Latino community are increasingly high.
And so our focus and our priority is to make sure
that we are providing resources where needed
and trying to impact that gap.
So this also promotes economic mobility
and pathways to quality jobs
and strengthens coordination across the workforce system.
Again, super tiny map,
but I wanted to just reflect where services
for 2022 and 2025 have been provided.
So this shares really via zip code,
how many individuals were served in the various locations.
And what you can see in this map is that we hit our mark
of making sure that we, again, it's continuous work
and we need more dollars
so that we can make more investments.
But it does show that we have been serving the areas
that we've been wanting to impact,
which again are the East Oakland, Central Foothill,
and West Oakland locations.
And lastly, just regarding the fiscal impact.
So again, approximately 3.2 million
in fiscal year 2026 and 2027 workforce investment dollars.
It includes the 2.65 million in new awards
and the 584,000 that I mentioned earlier.
And again, I'll just wrap up with the initial one year term
with up to two year renewals
based on performance through 2029.
So when we talk about accountability regarding performance,
the way that we go about this,
it is a three year procurement cycle,
but our contracts are yearly
so that we can monitor and review the performance,
and if there are opportunities to adjust,
or if an organization's not meeting their numbers,
we do go back and we have a process
where we provide technical support.
And if needed, sometimes we do have to do
a corrective action plan to make sure
that folks are getting back on track
to meeting their numbers.
And so usually that's last resort.
We never wanna go there, but we do wanna make sure
that we are good stewards of these federal dollars,
and so we do our due diligence to make sure
that there's accountability in this process.
So with that, I will yield my time.
Excellent, thank you so much.
We will hear from the public speakers.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number three, in no particular order,
you can come up to the podium.
State your name before making your public comment.
Mississauga Ollabala, Tiffany Lascato, Sarah Ackin,
Yolanda Bronson Davis,
Derrick Barbosa, Harla Guerra, Chris Iglesias,
Gabriela Pingaron, Teresa Newsom, Raymond Lankford,
and Richard Dilagrani, sorry if I butchered any names.
Excellent, please come on up.
Okay, good afternoon members of the committee.
My name is Tiffany Rose Napati-Loxado.
I'm the Chief Program Officer at the Unity Council,
and resident of D6 on January 16th the Unity Council submitted three proposals
through the city's iSupplier portal for each proposal our team uploaded two
files as required after loading uploading and downloading each file from
iSupplier to verify the correct documents were in the system we did
everything right despite that OWDB reviewers downloaded our service
category one budget package, iSupplier delivered a different file. Our proposal was evaluated
on materials we did not submit. We appealed, OWDB asked contracts to review, and contracts
said there were no system errors but didn't provide any proof. We are asking the committee
to not finalize the adult award while the question is still open. You will hear from
are speakers today on the specifics of the technical error, the Unity Council's impact
on the workforce system, the consequences of being excluded from this process due to
a system glitch, and the procurement integrity concerns this raises for every applicant who
uses iSupplier.
Thank you very much.
Hello, Council.
My name is Sarah Aiken and I'm with HTA Consulting.
I'm a grant writer, a proposal writer,
and I've worked with HTA for nearly 15 years
submitting proposals to the city of Oakland
on behalf of local nonprofits,
including the Unity Council for the recent WIOA submission.
I've submitted five proposals for the WIOA application
on behalf of two separate organizations,
one of those proposal files had this technical issue
that Tiffany described.
In submitting proposals on iSupplier,
I submit both of the required files
and then download them to confirm accuracy,
and I have time-stamped file records
that show both files for Unity Council's Adult WIOA submission were submitted on time with
the correct file name and correct file contents. This information was submitted through the
appeal that Tiffany just described. As a member of the community, I would encourage the Council
to look at the procurement-related issues for the submission because the Unity Council
has been delivering the WIOA adult service.
If you want more time, we have it.
For more than 20 years, and it would be a shame for their proposal not to be considered
on its merits due to a technical issue with iSupplier.
Again, our submitted documents show that they were submitted on time with the right file
names and right file contents.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Yolanda Davis.
Thank you so much.
I'm the work force director for
the unity council.
I want to emphasize that our
organization risk of losing we
owe a funding is not do support
performance.
Lack of compliance or failure to
serve the community.
This issue stands from a
technical can you can you pause
the time.
On missus out of I'm going to
ask for the first time let's
allow everyone in the room to be
So we're going to go ahead and
move on.
Again, we are not losing our
funding due to our poor
performance, lack of compliance
or fail in our community, simply
to a technical glitch during the
procurement application.
Unfortunately, these consequences
of this issue could have
devastating impact on our
community we serve every day.
Our organization has been a
trusted provider in the
for over 60 years serving primarily Hispanics but also underserved population who already face
significant barriers to employment, education, language access, economic stability. We do more
than provide services. We're culturally responsive, trusted relationships. Our AJCC alone last year
We have a number of services in the area so over two thousand and seven hundred individuals. We provide services in five languages to ensure community members have access to support. This level of accessibility is critical for the for the reasons mentioned above. I respectfully asked the board to consider the full picture and of our track record being a service provider in our community and allow for us to resubmit the application. Thank you.
you're going to be there so
before you begin if you have a
speaker card and are looking to
speak that's fine go ahead and
line up so that we can go ahead
and do this in an orderly
fashion thank you.
How you doing my name is Derek
Barbosa and I'm a new career
services coordinator at the
unity council I was born in
Oakland and raised in the
frugal district.
And I'm working in the
headquarters of my life.
I'm being familiar with the
in the community.
We have the support provided by our AG or AJCC
has helped residents in the city and in the community
matriculate in numerous capacities.
A lot of people who we serve need these resources
and to deny the residents of our community
these essential resources over a technology glitch
will cause a major disservice to the thousands of residents
who are depending on the resources and services
position to thrive as a whole when our residents have access to the numerous
resources and services that our AJCC provides. These options residents will
be left with without access to our AJCC will have negative impacts on the
community in the Frewville multiple ethnicities and also in the city of
Oakland. I thought the plan was always to do what was needed for Oakland to
community and we will be able
to keep the community and the
community to shine bright as we
possibly can.
And I would appreciate it if our
request would be heard out so
that we can continue to serve
the community and continue to
help Oakland get better as a
city.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon see the
community members my name is
Carla Gary I am the policy and
advocacy senior manager at the
unity council in district five
and I'm a resident of risk
And we believe that when systems fail institutions have a responsibility to make it right.
We are here today to raise a procurement integrity concern.
And many eyes are on the city of Oakland today, watching how you hold the city and its departments accountable to that process.
Oakland's procurement process must be fair for everyone that participates in them.
And when the city's technology system fails, and there's a glitch, it needs to provide solutions, not barriers.
What happens when technology fails?
How is this committee going to respond today and will set a precedent for how the city manages technology.
And failure concerns in its procurement systems.
This is not about an RFP, it's about the standard Oakland holds itself to when it comes to systems fails.
And this is just the Rio Grande is specially designated to serve underserved and
priority populations such as Frithville, and that is a population that will be impacted by a technicality.
we submitted a public records act request
and a file level audit request on April 8th of this year.
That request was due on April 20th.
We requested an extension and as of today,
that request remains unresolved.
We're asking this committee to do the right thing,
allow category one to have a due process.
The communities we deserve,
the communities we serve do serve due process
and that is not optional, thank you.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair, council members,
I'm Chris Iglesias, the CEO of Unity Council.
wonderful to be in your beautiful home here today.
So I just want to give a shout out to the city staff
for running a wonderful process, timely process.
And we wholeheartedly agree with the whole process,
at least 99% of it, right?
We think it was very well done.
Everybody had a chance to compete.
But we are concerned about just 1% of the process
and that is the glitch with iSupplier.
And again, I think this is much more of a technical issue
that should have and could have been resolved
before this meeting,
and we were really hoping that would happen.
But we understand that we have to go through the process,
so we're here today with the team and some of our partners.
Honestly, in my opinion,
we think, I think, you should have just extended
this contract until January 20th, 2029,
which is the end of the current Trump administration.
We are under fire, we are a large federal contractor.
We are already dealing with a lot of issues
like constantly with our existing federal grants.
So like you guys are,
we're all partners together here in Oakland.
So we just want to find a common ground here.
We know it's there.
You have wonderful leadership with Ms. Sophia Navarro
and her team.
But again, we just,
we're hoping we find some kind of resolution on this.
So thank you.
Good afternoon, committee members.
I'm Richard Dehow Riggy.
I'm the chief operating officer at the Oakland Private Industry Council.
We were one of the fortunate awardees, and we thank both Sophia and her staff and the
Oakland Workforce Development Board and this committee for that award and the recommendation.
One of the things that I've heard so far about this particular RFP was everyone concedes
that the process itself was unfair, but there was a glitch of some kind.
Well, you know, I certainly sympathize with the Unity Council and their concerns.
However, there are nine other awardees here who are hanging fire.
We are getting very late in the time when our new fiscal year is to begin.
Services are going to be interrupted if we are not able to move forward on July 1.
You can move forward without a contract.
You can't move forward without an award.
And these awards are all being held up.
So if there's a way to work this out, this problem, it should be called out.
And the rest of the awards should move forward because there's no objection to the rest of
the process.
And I again want to compliment Sophia and her staff on running a very fair and well-run
RFP.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair to other distinguished members of the Council. I want to acknowledge
the great work of the Oakland Workforce Development Board. I am Pastor Langford. I'm the CEO
of the Oakland Private Industry Council. I'm a resident of Oakland. I recently moved from
West Oakland to North Oakland, but I love you both. But I'm here because this is a very
delicate moment in situation. I first do want to acknowledge that the Unity
Council is a very strong long-term partner of the Oakland Private
Industry Council. I want to acknowledge that the problems with iSupplier is
certainly beyond the control of the Oakland Workforce Development Board. When
you think of work and training in Oakland, the Oakland Workforce Development
board is one of the leading agencies in this city and their ability to work with
very diverse, aggressive, assertive, supportive, leading agencies. We
appreciate their leadership. However, there are many other grantees that rely
on this award for the work to go forward and we encourage this council to allow
those other awardees to be worked out, while the issue between the central
issue is addressed. But again, I want to thank all of you for leadership.
Mr. Brown, I really respect your work and I'm a try harder to do better.
This history with the Spanish-speaking unity council of Alameda County was
brought to my attention in 2016 when a member of the Fruitvale community showed me evidence
that the Spanish-speaking unity council had misused money under the umbrella that they
were a part of NeighborWorks America. They misused $500,000 for NeighborWorks America
for maintenance and operation of their organization.
They came to you, the city of Oakland,
and you gave them $500,000 to pay back
from a project that they were supposed to be having
to do with senior housing, I think.
Then after that, you continue to, on a regular basis,
ignoring what they had done to give them money,
And year after year after year they get money with no accountability.
Another project they had with Wells Fargo was to help with the issue of redlining.
They could create, with Wells Fargo, first-time ownership.
They gave it those ownership potentials.
Ninety-nine percent went to Latinos or Spanish.
Very few went to African.
I just want to thank you for your comments was all of all of it.
Calling in the name that signed up Gabriela Ping around.
Do you still wish to speak?
Chair all names have been called at this time.
Excellent.
Thank you so much to the public speakers.
I do have some questions for Sophia in team.
But I see your hand.
Council member five if you wanted to start us off.
I just wanted I just had two questions.
So through the chair to DC Navarro, number one,
can you just give a little more clarity
on this new function of the business?
What is the connector, what is it called?
Intermediary?
Yeah, the intermediary.
Walk me through how I as a member of the public
would participate with that body.
So this function would be mostly focused
on engaging with the business community.
And so this entity, which would be the Unity Council,
who's been recommended for this role, would be engaging.
And they actually already have a business center,
so this would be expanding upon those efforts, essentially.
But they would be engaging with the Oakland Chamber,
the ethnic chambers represented throughout the city,
in addition to engaging with employers,
particularly focused on our high-growth sectors, industries.
And so they would be doing that outreach, connecting,
identifying what are the opportunities that are available
within their businesses so we can start identifying
career pathways for the job seekers.
So essentially they would also be coordinating
with the providers that are providing the service.
And so as they're making those,
or creating those relationships,
creating those opportunities,
that there's also a conversation and a partnership
with organizations that are working with the job seekers.
And so ideally, there would be warm handoffs,
there would be conversations with these businesses
to say, okay, how many positions do you have available
at your business?
What are the requirements to get into X job?
And so as they are gathering that information
and building those relationships,
they're communicating that with the service providers
as well so that again, we are building, if needed,
basically road map, or pathways, sorry,
into these opportunities that are available
through Oakland businesses in the city.
How is that different than the one stops?
So the one stops also do some of that work.
So the one thing that we had not,
so our one stop care centers do also have that function,
but it's not coordinated.
So yes, they do individually reach out to employers
and have those relationships.
And there are times when on a monthly
or maybe even quarterly basis, they come together,
but we haven't had it be an intentional approach
to really have, and a holistic coordinated approach
to really reach out to all the businesses
and really leverage city resources, city partnerships,
and really leverage the workforce system as a whole
to bring everybody together.
So this would allow for there to be a point function
and an entity that's coordinating those services.
So it would enhance the current workforce system
right now as we have it.
So right now it's very limited
and across the organizations that do provide this function,
There's like one staff person but this would allow for more resources and more dedicated and again coordinated approach to really engaging the business in this process
And so on that based on what I'm hearing from the public speakers today
The Unity Council will have that particular contract but not their other service provider
Correct currently the recommendations have the Unity Council
getting two of the three
So it would be the business intermediary, which is, again, new effort, and youth allocation,
not the adults.
They're not being recommended for the adult category.
And what steps were taken to confirm whether or not there was an eye supplier issue?
I did read that the director of EWD spoke to that issue, but can you tell us what was
done to investigate the claims that are being made?
So through the chair to Council Member,
I got five, sorry.
I was gonna say my mind's all here.
What happened is when we went to,
when we received and did the funding recommendations,
went to our board, at that point it was identified
and the Unity Council through that presentation was notified.
There was also an expression to share
that there is an appeal process.
The Unity Council did provide an appeal
that came to the workforce board email or general email,
the board then forwarded that appeal
to contracts and purchasing.
And then they went through their process
of investigating the appeal that was submitted.
Is that complete?
So that is complete.
So when we received a response,
so once we submitted that appeal to contracts and purchasing,
they did their investigation.
Then they provided us a response,
a determination of that appeal.
That appeal was then communicated to the Unity Council.
Oh, but it wasn't it but it is complete was it communicated to the council the city council
so it was
That appeal. Yes. I mean that was in part of the report as far as the I
See that a final determination concluded that there were no adverse events in I supplier at the time of submission and user error
Is that what you're correct?
Yeah
so that process and that that determination was complete and was communicated and then we went back to our
the recommendation of the board.
And I would like to thank our workforce board to share. The
determination of that because part of their recommendation for us to move forward was to. They approved the recommendation but we're also telling us that if this appeal did. Come back as sustained that we would have to go back to that process but if it did not that we would be able to move forward. And bring up here to see the for recommendation and.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
I am horrified for the questions.
I also had a handful as well.
First off, I do want to thank staff, our city staff,
for just their due diligence in the process and the work
we heard from the public speakers
saying that 99% of the process they were happy with.
And I think that that's much to be applauded, right?
have a really good understanding of the WIOA contracting
and this work because I had the opportunity,
once I graduated from undergrad, to actually work
at one of the career centers to know and understand
some of the work.
And so as I'm looking at the various allocations,
it's my understanding that this first category, category one,
actually makes up most of the, let me know if I'm wrong,
I believe it makes up the bulk of the work of services
to the community because that I guess like
by the definition of workforce innovation,
you have the opportunity to provide services
to dislocated workers.
I think also under that category could be
like formally incarcerated, right?
Like I think that there are a handful of definitions, right?
And then can you walk me through,
because I guess the thing that I'm looking at is,
you know, the city of Oakland, you know,
that we are actually providing
services across the city of
Oakland and so when we're
looking at this like allocation
I know that historical
precedent is that both Oakland
pick Lao family and the unity
council I guess in the past
were the providers of this
particular category but can you
share with me how many how many
applicants did we actually have
and then maybe some details
about this particular category
and then can you share with me
details about the the scoring and how the various entities were scored. So I'm
gonna hand that over to Honorado Lindsay. Hello, good afternoon, Honorado Lindsay. I'm acting
Executive Director of Good Workforce Development Board. I did spend a lot of
time through the the RFP process and can kind of help explain some of the
proposal scoring. And so there was a two-part evaluation during the scoring
process. One was a compliance review. That compliance review was scored in four
different categories. Oh, I'm sorry, five different categories. And then in
addition to that, there was a qualitative review where we actually assign points
after we did the compliance review. So the compliance review was primarily done
by contract staff and then city staff to ensure that they met all the
requirements the initial requirements of the RFP and the qualitative review was
the evaluation string criteria that I'm not sure if I'm so sorry I'm looking
different documents here if that information was listed here on the
report but I do believe it was those evaluation criteria were around
responsibility and responsive program design, approach and methodology, methodology, qualifications
and experience, and reasonableness of cost proposal. So our raters reviewed criteria
as A through D and then when it came to the reasonableness of cost proposal, that is where
workforce staff had reviewed to arrive at the combined final scores for each of the
providers. And so each proposal in each category was evaluated separately amongst
raters and reviewers. And so no raider and reviewer were reviewing, they were,
They were all reviewing, you know, the single category.
And, so among that, our first scoring criteria once we got
back the scores was who received the highest score.
And then once we evaluated who received the highest score,
we then evaluated, okay, are we serving the geographic location
that we intended to serve?
And then so we took all of those items into consideration. We took into consideration in performance history
administrative capacity
And you know in addition to to some other things and that's how we came up with our score
And unfortunately for unity council absent of a budget
We were not able to evaluate that piece and is why they scored where they did score
You know unity is a great organization
In previous years we did have them there in in our
Workforce network, they are still going to be a part of our work force network through this really exciting opportunity as the business intermediary
We are providing a transition year for current service providers including unity council
So there is no disruption in services that is part of the recommendation today
And so for this next year, we do plan on doing a soft handoff from transitioning our current service providers into our new
System that's presented here. Excellent. I appreciate that answer, but my question was I would get okay
Yeah, so just to follow up you had asked chair. What were the nine?
applicant applicant so we received nine applications for the adult category and just to name those
The Oakland Private Industry Council and their category again adult, but for downtown services in the amount of
385,000 their final score was ninety four point eight
Again, Oakland Private Industry Council submitted a second one as well
And that was for the West Oakland services for the amount of three hundred eighty five thousand that application was eighty five
Was scored at 85 allow family community development submitted an application. They submitted two
One for Central Oakland Services,
proposed budget amount 385,000.
Their final score was 83.
Their second application to cover East Oakland,
again, a budget amount that they put in was 385,000.
Their final score for that application was 80.7.
The fifth organization, Roots Community Health Center,
they didn't put a category,
but they're in the East Oakland area,
proposed budget amount for 385,000.
Their final score was 80.
The Spanish-speaking unity council,
and again just to note the application
that we had received did not have a complete document,
did not include the budget,
so therefore their score with the information
that we had at that time,
which was before the appeal was 79.
The International Rescue Committee, Inc.,
the seventh applicant, for a proposed budget of 385.
Their final score, 78.2.
Swords to Plowshare, the eighth applicant.
Also adult and desiccated worker services.
They're located closer to the downtown area.
Their proposed budget was 114,410.
Their final score was 61.7.
And then finally, the Oakland Career Training Depot.
Their proposed budget was 384,995,
and their final score was 45.0.
Excellent, thank you so much for providing that input.
One thing that I noticed in the report
was that this go-around of WIOA funding,
there was a $1.4 million increase.
Did we consider actually expanding the services
to more providers across the city
versus what we've historically done?
I'm just curious.
So that 1.4 million increase
that was to the current year's allocation,
our 25-26 allocation,
it's being recommended today
to extend current service provider contracts.
That's what that 1.4 million is being used for.
It is a one-time funding.
Yeah, and through the chair,
Now that is the again to support the transition period.
I see.
For stability purposes.
Okay well thank you so much for the input.
I do think it's interesting that in the scoring the Unity Council only kind of without producing
the one document it was only one point shy and then we also I think it's interesting
that I guess Roots Community Health that would be a new provider to the services that they
weren't considered.
It's not that they were not considered.
you know we are considering all of these providers based on the scoring but it is
very difficult right because they are so close and there only is a limited
amount of funding for next year so this past year I believe our budget to our
service providers was around 3.3 million and for next year based on estimates
from what we're getting so we haven't received our we owe a allocation from
the state yet but the estimates that are coming from the feds is that they're
gonna be a really large reduction for adult and dislocated worker funding, and
so the way that we reorganized our system was be able to maintain services
across the state and, you know, within the allocations that we've been given by
the state. And so, you know, taking a look at the scores where Lao did come in is
that they have been in East Oakland for over a decade providing services. In
addition to that, they have, you know, a really great performance within the
WIOA system. They have strong administrative controls around the
funding and so all of those items were taken into consideration where, you know,
roots is coming in as a new organization. They don't quite have the history with
with LEOA, and administratively, they're not quite,
according to the notes, they're not quite set up yet
administratively to support the full function of LEOA.
And ultimately, based on ranking, we were only able
to fund four and scored and recommended
top four applications. All right thank you so much. So colleagues when we look
at these contract amounts I think it's important that we recognize the
responsibility and opportunity that they represent especially with various
community stakeholders and just ensuring that there is that our community
members are actually you know they're comfortable and they have the trust of
of those who are providing the services,
as well as just overall cultural competency.
Because we know that these community members
are going to receive services,
whether it's like new career training,
resume writing, career navigation,
multiple services that can be provided.
We also know and understand that there are concerns
with eye supplier and access and transparency
accountability in the city's procurement services and so I am interested if you
have a look at the document in our reports page four table one you'll find
that there are categories one through four and so I am interested at this time
in making a motion to adopt staff recommendation to categories two through
for the other service providers budget allocations yes and so Sophia are you interested in answering
that but I believe that our goal and I believe that the the goal is making
sure that these are complete by July 1 right is that our so through the chair
to councilmember fives question as far as the impact so if if I understand the
ask correctly to ask us to pull category one and re reevaluate reallocate so then
that would mean that we would need to figure out how we'd have to have
conversations with the providers that were currently recommended because those
amounts would then likely need to decrease in order to be able to consider
the other two Amazon roots and the Unity council yeah the top the top the top the
top five sorry I didn't have the list the top six applications so we would
definitely those amounts for that are currently being provided as recommend
recommendations would need to decrease in order to be able to provide support
to Roots Community Health Center and the Spanish-speaking Unity Council so we
would have to go back have those conversations renegotiate essentially
and then adjust scope of works conversations that one to have right so
that will be limited that would change I'm assuming the plans and for OPIC and
Lao family that they previously had so and that would also I do want to just
that these are so for the Oakland private industry council they mentioned their
downtown operations and West Oakland operations allow family Central and East
Oakland so that would also impact I mean their service delivery in those
locations if they're getting less resources so it will be an adjustment
and it will have impact but but is it actually less in comparison to the year
years past given that the Unity Council historically was receiving the funding
as well in this category?
Through the chair, so if the ask is to the total amount
to be split evenly, then it roughly might be close
to what they have on average been receiving.
However, that would be part of the conversation
if it would be less or not.
There's actually a comment by our contracts administrator,
Laura Woodward, that you wanna comment
real quickly on that process.
Sure, thank you.
Through the chair to the committee,
good afternoon, I'm Laura Gonzalez Woodward.
I am the contracts and purchasing administrator
to share if you were to ask staff
to reconsider the evaluation for category one
for adult services, I do wanna highlight
that Unity Council's proposal did not meet the requirements.
So they would not necessarily be considered
if they were, if you're asking staff
to reevaluate proposals.
So when we did our analysis due to the sensitivity,
I had our contract administration supervisor
conduct the analysis and research
and connect with our IT department
to investigate what was quote unquote called the glitch.
Through findings, it was determined
that that was not a glitch.
The, excuse me, the file that was uploaded
was in fact a technical proposal
versus the budget proposal.
We've done our investigation and so in that case,
they were not moved forward with evaluation.
However, that was determined
after the team had already established their evaluation.
And so they paused and I think in full transparency,
they were bringing forth the technical scores,
but they are not to be considered
as far as meeting the requirements of the RFP.
So if staff were to go back and reassess
and reevaluate the other providers,
they would only be assessing the five
that met the requirements.
Excellent, thank you so much for the feedback.
Through the chair to the administration,
is that something, do you have any feedback
on the process that we could consider, Administrator Baker?
Thank you, and through the chair and to the committee,
I understand that the current process
has been settled.
And so to reallocate the current process
would do exactly what Laura just said,
which would be to reallocate within those
that are in the finals, if you will,
that were past the technical sort of step to even be eligible.
There is possibly another process
that could potentially augment these outcomes
that you're looking to sort of resolve,
but that process would not be the one.
So that's the one process that is settled.
And so that's pretty much where we're at.
I see, and then I know that there was a conversation
around ongoing public records requests
and that information not being received
and that still being, I guess, like under consideration,
is that something that we also should be taking into account?
I can share that when we have an active RFP,
we don't release information as it pertains to scoring,
criteria, evaluations, and whatnot
until the contract's been executed.
I see, thank you. Sure.
Councilmember Fyfe, do you have any additional questions or?
To understand the motion that's being made,
if it means taking away money
from the private industry council and Lao family
and its reconsideration because in the further discussion,
it sounds like if we go with the motion that was made,
the unity council still would not be considered
in that deliberation.
Correct.
So what those public speakers were asking for
will still not be considered with this secondary process.
Correct.
So why would we need the motion to do, what's the purpose?
I guess that would be to the chair,
but she's predisposed.
Can you just then, through the chair,
tell me what is the typical allocation
that, Annarada, you may know maybe
for Lao Family and Unity Council and OPIC?
Yeah, so in previous years,
And this is across adult dislocated worker and youth.
I know we're only, well, okay, let me just pull out the youth,
adult in dislocated worker numbers.
So for both unity and loud, they were about 300,000 each,
and then PIC at the time.
So our current system is actually structured very
differently than the way that we're bringing forward this time.
We, our system, was inclusive of one comprehensive,
which was OPIC, but they also operated
a satellite office, AJCC, and so they got funding for that too.
So OPIC's allocation for theirs was 1.1 million.
Because what we're looking at this time around
is that we're looking at all of our adult and dislocated worker
sites to be full comprehensive sites,
we asked for four to make sure that we have access
throughout the entire areas in Oakland.
And because of OPIC and LAL receiving the four top highest
scores, we were actually knowing that we're
getting a reduction from the state in this upcoming year.
We were able to actually reduce their ask
for shared administrative duties.
So the amounts that you see here are actually
because OPEC and Lao Family won the four sites across Oakland
and then we were able to combine some
of the administrative shared duties
for operating those four contracts.
So if the Unity Council would have been considered,
would they potentially, I don't even know
if this is a question that can be answered
because if staff are saying
that their application was not responsive,
Can you, I don't know.
We can't even consider the, for funding.
Okay, understood, thank you.
Okay.
Great.
So the current motion is still on the floor, and so, did you want to clarify, Nari?
Through the Chair, Nari Chan with the Oakland City Attorney's Office, there is a motion
from Council Member Brown that there be an alternative funding recommendation that goes
from CED to the upcoming City Council meeting.
would be to remove category one comprehensive AGCC
in the amount of $1,420,000.
So, and then to have staff return to the June 23rd CED
with an alternative funding recommendation
for that category one, 1,420,000.
I think there is additional time
that both the city attorney's office
and the city administrator's office
would like to kind of confirm the iSupplier RP process.
But in the meantime, Council Member Brown's motion
still could move forward, which it would be
to read into the record for the city clerk.
It's on the top of page two.
There is a where as.
It would read, based on proposal scoring
and system considerations,
council or city council is recommending
awarding new grant agreements in an amount
to exceed $1,250,000 to selected providers to deliver WIOA program services beginning
July 1st, 2026. And then there will be a new recital, whereas the City Council requests staff
return to the June 23rd Community Economic and Development Committee with alternative funding
recommendations for the equitable distribution of $1,420,000 for Category 1 comprehensive AGCC
We owe a total title adult and dislocated worker funding service categories
Consistent with community representation and historical disbursements and then a similar resolved then in similar
Table one there would be a strike through of the category one to OPIC and Lao
Family and the recommended awards right now because that would be under
reconsideration and then in the resolve clause on the top of page four
There would be a new one that would read further resolved and this was similar to the recital
for the result that the City Council requests staff return with alternative funding recommendations for the equitable distribution of
one million four hundred twenty thousand dollars for category one comprehensive AGCC
We owe a title one adult and dislocated worker funding service category is consistent with equitable community
Representation and historical disbursements the same recommend redlining
would need to happen or change, title change would need to happen on the page one at the
top and I could provide a red line for you city clerk. It would read, because you would
be taking the 2.65 and taking out the 1.42, so it would be a resolution authorizing one
grant agreements with service providers, competitively selected for workforce innovation and opportunity
act. We owe a program services for fiscal years, 2026 to 2029 and a total amount not
to exceed $1,250,000 for fiscal year 2026 to 2027
to provide comprehensive adult and dislocated worker,
one stop operator, oh, sorry.
It would not be comprehensive adult and dislocated.
It'd be for fiscal year 2026, 2027
to provide one stop operator business engagement
and youth services and two amendments
to existing WIOA agreements to extend contract terms
through June 30th, 2027 and increased funding
in a total amount, not to exceed $584,109.
So that would accomplish what Chair Brown is
that she's asking that category one be removed
and reconsidered brought back at June 23rd,
but categories two, three and four
and the proposed amendments to existing contracts
would move forward to the council.
this will be part of like a supplemental packet.
And so then before council, they would have two options.
They'd have staff's recommendation to move as is,
and they would have Chair Brown's proposed recommendation
as an alternative funding recommendation.
And I know Council Member Unger had,
you had your hand up too.
Yeah, frankly I'm confused.
So if we vote for Council Member Brown's amendment,
it sounds like from you all,
that wouldn't do anything for the unity council.
that then I don't know what, is there any way...
I think in this moment, Council Member Unger,
that there is a cross between communications
because I was communicated something differently.
And so I think at this time, I would like the opportunity
to consult with the city administrator and come back.
Because the amendments that we were able to make,
I was leading in a different way
based on what is being kind of said right now
that the unity council is not eligible and so I would like to consult with the
administration to confirm what would actually be the next steps for
consideration for category one and that's why I was uplifting the question
around the point system like who how many points were received from the
various applicants that that applied and so it was a one point difference
between the unity council and roots and through the chair to council member
And five there is also a request from the city attorney's office and city and city administrator's office that we have additional time to run
through these
Assertions about the points and whether or not unity council can be considered
There's additional time that we're requesting so we can run that through the analysis further
So thank you for that. So through the chair to our parliamentarian
has
the city attorney's office and the city administrator's office not been in conversation with staff because it feels like
We're not on the same page.
We just learned about this information from contracts right before the meeting.
So you need additional time please.
Oh my goodness.
Okay, I do want to state for the record.
I'm very happy with the services that are provided by OPIC in my district.
Onorata, I've been seeing you at WIOA meetings since 2014 as a part of this process and I
understand how it goes.
This is so messy.
The only reason I would support this secondary motion if I understand it is so there can
be more clarity and communication between the city administrator's office and the city
attorney's office to find out if there was an error with our system.
To understand how Unity Council and the other proposals that were received, whether or not
They can be considered we need additional time to look at and bet that question
Councilmember Unger. Do you have some additional questions?
Well, I mean are you gonna confer with staff and city attorney now? Like as I mean, I I just don't know what we're doing here
The request is that
chair Brown's
recommended
alternative funding language to pull out category one and
to have staff return to the June 23rd CED that would
Move forward if that is at the decision of the CED committee
So that would allow the remainder of the contracts to move forward
But there would be additional time for everyone to understand how the one point four two can be
And to staff if we do delay it to June 23rd, you know, some of the other the OPIC
Folks thought that would be too late to
Get the projects going
Through the chair to councilmember Unger. So program year starts July 1 2026. So that's and
It's June 30th 2027. So it's always June 1st through June 30th
so
Yes, if no contracts are in place
No work can take place without a contract and so there would be an impact in disruption and services and
It's going to take a couple of
minutes to get that right.
And but then but then as it
relates to the current
contracts that we are moving
forward those can move forward
correct.
The if I'm hearing the business
intermediary and the youth ones.
I'm not.
Would that yes that would be
able to move forward.
Your question.
Excellent can you receive your
answers will be the first part
of the year there we go thank
you.
So through the chair to cancer
number five the first part of
July 1 because of the delay,
we have to go through the process
and make sure that we're going through that effort.
So, in order to get contracts in place,
I mean, that will take some time,
but there won't be any work that can happen
without a contract, but our program year does start
July 1 through June 30th, that's the cycle.
I think the other part of the question was,
what are the, if we move forward with categories
two through four, can we move forward?
Yes, so we would be able to move forward
with the business intermediary contract
and the youth programming contract.
I think I'm clear.
Okay, so can we call the vote?
Thank you so much.
Sorry, through the chair, just a quick clarification.
Is it that you want the staff to return
in this proposed alternative resolution?
Is it that staff return no later than the June 23rd?
So if they are able to come back May 26 or June 9th,
that they could do that okay so it's no later than June 23rd CD I think yes
thank you so much thank you we have a motion made by councilmember Brown
seconded by councilmember Ramachandran to approve as amended with the
alternative recommendations as stated on record to forward this item to the May
council agenda. With the request to return back to the C. E. D. committee no later than
June twenty third. On roll council members five. No. Ramachandran. I. Unger. No. And chair
Brown. I. Thank you motion fails to nose and two eyes. All right so at this time to. Colleagues
I see you all have a, turn my mic.
Do you have an alternative motion?
Councilmember Unger, Councilmember Fyfe.
I think this is unfortunate,
but I think we have to proceed with the award
as staff recommended.
So whatever that motion would be.
All right, and is there a second?
Yeah, the original staff recommendations is what I support.
So if I don't know, Councilmember Unger,
if you made the motion, I'd be happy to second it.
I mean, again, this is unfortunate
and I think it's a shame that we are in this position
we're in, but we have to pick someone
and it doesn't seem like picking,
it doesn't seem like the original motion
of Councilmember Brown would actually achieve
what we want to achieve.
So I'm gonna go with staff recommendation.
Okay, thank you.
We have a motion made by Councilmember Unger,
seconded by Councilmember Fyfe
to approve the recommendations of staff
to board this to the May 19th City Council agenda on roll council members
five aye Ramachandran no younger aye and chair Brown no thank you motion the
alternative motion fails with two ayes two noes it is there does um the city
administrators office have any creative ideas to break this logjam this is a
complicated matter because I think we all have the same sentiment. The question
is legally and with the timelines that we have which are very tight how do we
get funds administered to the groups that won the award and at the same time
try to understand the first item number one in a timely fashion so that's what
we're attempting to achieve in terms of one of the options which is which was
contemplated which is to re RFP if you will the first award that would not meet
our time frames which is is one of the driving factors behind the the amended
motion which was to sort of pull it out and reevaluate it it sounds like what we
found out was that the application, regardless of score, was unresponsive,
which is a binary yes or no. It's not, oh, we can go back and reevaluate and
award it. It sounds like there's a there's a step there that was never
taken, which is that it never made it to the second step because it was
unresponsive. So that's what we're faced with today because we thought that we
could reevaluate the pool of applicants that would be eligible. And so what we're
asking for is additional time to sort out the creative sort of solution and
it's difficult to do that without having all the facts. So with the motion failing
to give us time to reevaluate it because that would then push the timeline
outside of the funding timeframe we now have to see if there's another motion
that would speed that up we could potentially huddle for a couple minutes
to see if there is something creative but that's where we're at right now
councilmember Rama Chandra thank you since there's more communication that
has to happen clearly because I do think that there are there's gaps in what's
being communicated to different parties,
but we need this money out by June 30th,
or we need an approval by June 30th.
We know that with our contracting issues,
no one's getting their money by June 30th,
which is another item that we're gonna hear.
But what if we voted to hold this in committee
till the next CD meeting, which is the 26th,
which then gives enough time to figure out another option
That could go to council the full council and you know, certainly I will if by the 26th
We're in good luck. I would vote to move this forward to the full body at least to have it considered
So it doesn't say stuck in committee
but I would like some of the communication channels to be bridged bridged and
Also, I do think it is concerning that the response to public records weren't submitted
In even if it's a we can't give this information some kind of response
I think in that time as well would be helpful
But my motion would be to hold this in committee till the 26th. I can second that
Councilman Brown, I I'm okay with that. I feel like there's got to be a way for us to reach some sort of
Decision, you know through the administrative process and we can't do it up here
so I'm willing to give it another couple of weeks if staff thinks that that would still be enough time at that point to
Get get the programs going
So through the chair to Councilmember Gert
I think that we will I mean we will definitely have the conversations and I think at least
Bringing it back and making sure that we're on the same page
Everyone has the same information and we can figure out how you know to move forward with that without impacting service delivery starting
That would be great. So we will take the extra time to have the conversations and then we'll move from there
Councilmember five I I have to ask through the chair again to staff
Will a delay impact the service providers who did win their awards?
Through the chair to councilmember five. Yes
Right, and so that's why in my original motion
I was trying to move forward the majority of the contracts minus the one
So that's what my motion included was so that so that there wasn't significant delay
especially in the implementation of a new program the business intermediary and also providing the youth services while we figure out
the details of category one
But I think I feel like at this time we've kind of exhausted the subject matter
And so I would like the opportunity to come back on May the 26th so that we can all be in alignment
Instead of moving it forward because that was my original motion so that there wasn't like
Significant delays in all of the services
Yeah, I understand that and it is significant the the services that are provided by Lao family and the private industry council
And I'm also concerned about violating
procurement
Rules and and a host of other things
When staff that does this work every day is saying that the service provider did not do what they were supposed to do
This is a mess and so but again, I don't want to delay
the services going out to the community that are funded through OPIC and Lao and if we need to
to
Call the vote. I think you all know what my vote is gonna be. Can we can we hold just the one until next CD? I mean
through the chair
to Councilmember Unger, so
Chair Brown's original motion was trying to do that
She was trying to have all of the other contracts not affected by category one move forward and then
Hold the category one and then there there is if there is a failure to get to a majority vote
Under your rules of procedure rule five
Subsection 3d if there is a failure to approve any recommended action
In which case the item shall not be forwarded to the next meeting of the full
City Council and the failure to approve that item would be recorded in the minutes
Provided that if the item is urgent
Rules has the jurisdiction to place that item on the supplemental agenda for the next regular meeting or on an agenda for a special
Council meeting upon making an urgency finding that no action was taken, because the committee
was not able to approve any recommended action. And then also on top of that, any item not
forwarded by the committee may always be subject to consideration, pooled by a council member,
right, at an appropriate council meeting pursuant to rule 88. And so there are other mechanisms
where if the rest of the council or the rules want to come in and put it on the next council,
could and would be as is recommended by staff so if we continued deadlock here
the rules committee could put it to full council for which meeting they can
exercise that for the next council meeting or which made or a future one
yeah May 19th it was up to the discretion and would May 19th give us
time to if a decision was made at the May 19th full council meeting about this
would that give us time to get the programs going it would because that's
That's what we're, that's what we would have done today
had we forwarded it to full council.
Sure, so through the chair to council,
if you were to vote at the next meeting
and it was successful, we could move forward
with the July one start date on the contract.
But it's pending.
All right, if there's no further input on this item,
I believe that it will now just go to the rules committee?
So through the chair, it's officially the staff's
recommendation and Chair Brown's amended proposal
have both failed, so the item would be noted as such
in the minutes.
Okay, all right, and then we can move on.
Thank you so much.
Okay, now reading in item number four.
Conduct a study session to receive an informational
presentation and report on the draft land use framework
development as part of the general plan update phase two process and receive public comments and provide feedback to staff on the land
Draft land use framework and we have 20 speakers that signed up to speak on this item
Excellent. Thank you so much. And so now we can hear from director Gilcrest and the planning and building team, I believe
Thank you
Good afternoon chair and may it please the committee. I'm bill Gilcrest director of planning and building department
city of Oakland and we find ourselves in the second phase of
A project that started several years ago many members of this committee
So on the council when we went through phase one of the general plan update staff in their presentation
We'll go through some more details of what a general plan constitutes
But for the state of California for our cities
We are mandated to keep general plans updated for the purpose of governance
they are essentially considered sort of a constitution of land use and development and certainly one of the most important aspects of
the oversight and prerogative of council and a planning commission. We are halfway through the phase two.
We completed phase one back I believe in 2023.
And to the
commendation both of this council to the administration to the staff and mostly to the community. We were one out of
out of a hundred nine jurisdictions that actually made our submittal on time with compliance
and for our housing element that was a very significant milestone.
So again we appreciate the cooperation and engagement that we've had in this forum with
our past work and look forward to engaging it again.
One thing I do want to make very clear, we are about a year plus out from this phase
come into conclusion and we wanted to get in and should be engaging in
conversations with this forum and with the community well in advance of that
deadline so I know we had many many reactions and responses many of you who
have had a chance to review the staff report and attachment B in particular
can see a sample of the range of both how we receive comments what the natures
of them were and all of this is critical critical critical for us to stay on
one point and to move this plan forward correctly.
I do wanna say, as we said in other places,
I've worked in this kind of arena.
This clay is still wet.
What was put out there for public response
is by no means a final adoption,
and the reason it was put down to paper
was to effectively give constituents, stakeholders,
community, and you all an opportunity to react to something.
And through that reaction, give us better guidance
focus on how this plan should proceed.
So we look forward to the opportunity to engage you in this forum.
We will be presenting through the strategic planning unit of the planning and building
department.
Laura Kaminski, who has been before this body in the past, will be presenting the lion's
share of the content.
Edmund Assey, who is the deputy director of the planning bureau, is here, and I also want
And I also wanted to commend the work of the team who've done an outstanding job Kaleelah Haynes, Daniel Finley, and others in that unit.
So having said all that, I turn it over to Laura Kaminsky.
K-Top, if you can have the presentation.
Good afternoon, council members and the public.
I'm Laura Kaminsky, the Strategic Planning Manager for the City of Oakland.
So today we're going to discuss the General Plan Update and the Draft Land Use Framework.
So first of all, what is the Oakland General Plan?
I'm sure you're familiar with General Planville provides some background.
The General Plan is the guiding document for how the city grows and develops like a constitution.
It lays out a city-wide vision with goals, policies, and implementation measures to guide
long-term growth, preservation, and stabilization.
The General Plan reflects on past challenges and accomplishments to help ensure consistent
direction for future development.
And also with this update, we are being very intentional on using this as an opportunity
to address racial inequities and promote inclusion or occlusionclusivity by ensuring meaningful
engagement with communities that have been traditionally left out of the planning and
decision making process.
So the general plan will advance racial equity by establishing more just policies related
to land use, parks, open space and transportation.
The guiding principles are to make sure people are housed, healthy and safe and celebrate
Oakland's rich cultural history and diversity support good jobs and economic
opportunities, have better connected neighborhoods, ensure everyone can have
access to essential services. The general plan update is taking place over two
phases. So in phase one you may recall that we came to you with the housing
safety and environmental justice elements. In phase two we are focusing on four
elements which include the land use and transportation element, open space,
conservation and recreation element, infrastructure and capital facilities as
well as noise. The land use and transportation element will set the rules
for what gets built where and works to create an inclusive multimodal
transportation system that balances mobility safety and connections. The open
space conservation and recreation element will build on equitable
accessible parks network by also protecting existing open spaces and
improving access to them.
The infrastructure and capital facilities element will focus on keeping essential systems
like water, sewage, electricity, and internet reliable and resilient and ensure public facilities
such as schools and libraries are well-maintained and equitably distributed.
The noise element will work to reduce and mitigate noise pollution and its impact on
health.
So last summer we came to the council to discuss the options report, which has three big picture
ideas for how Oakland could grow and develop, we use the community feedback we received
to craft one preferred option for growth which is laid out on the draft land use framework.
So the draft land use framework is at its core a guidance document.
It lays out key strategies and maps for achieving community priorities in the general plan.
These strategies will serve as the basis for development, developing the detailed policies
within each of the phase two elements.
So we've done a lot of community engagement over the last year in collaboration with our
community partners from the Deeply Rooted Collaborative, reaching over 1,300 people
directly through meetings, workshops, walking tours, and more.
We estimate that we had about 1.6 million views through advertising as well.
This photo shows some participants at a walking tour and also at a pop-up at the Oakland Museum.
So for some of the key community priorities that have surfaced from outreach include
investing in Oakland's artistic culture, creating equitable neighborhoods with access
to everyday needs, ensuring accessibility of streets and transit for all users, capturing
new jobs while supporting existing businesses, improving our infrastructure, streets, parks,
and community facilities, and supporting affordable housing and jobs.
To achieve all this, the draft land use framework proposes an overall strategy which draws largely
from the City of Neighborhoods concept, originally proposed in the options report.
It also includes preferred strategies from some other option report concepts.
The framework focuses on fostering complete walkable neighborhoods throughout the city
where people have access to transit, green space, and neighborhood amenities.
Downtown San Antonio, Fruitvale, and Coliseum will serve as major senators with downtown
being the largest and most dense.
We're proposing to increase density and mixed uses along major quarters and near BART stations
to create vibrant quarters and transit hubs.
This is paired with improving walking, biking and transit connections between neighborhoods.
We've also created a new technology and research land use category to support ingrained industries,
advancing manufacturing and artisan production.
So this map represents the overall strategy.
The neighborhood centers are shown in pink polygons and the technology and research areas
are in Upper West Oakland and West of the Coliseum are in purple circles.
Major centers and red polygons in downtown Fruitvale, San Antonio near the Coliseum.
Green circles represent proposed locations for new parks and thick green lines show proposed
Greenway network.
Now I'll get into some of the specific land use and transportation strategies.
We're presenting these together because the land use and transportation strategies support
each other creating mixed use walkable neighborhood hubs requires things like improving walking
and biking connections making it easier to use transit and building safe easy and accessible
connections between neighborhoods as well as making sure to locate parks and open space
close to homes reducing vehicle speeds and creating more public spaces and plazas creating
mixed use centers and high density housing near transit ensures people are closer to
the things they need and can make more trips without a car it's about giving people more
choices. The framework also highlights optimizing bus service to meet Oaklanders
needs and approving services on key routes in support and is supported by
allowing higher densities along major corridors and the core of neighborhood
centers, creating a new transit oriented mixed use land use designation and laying
the foundation for a future infill BART station in the San Antonio neighborhood
or a transit hub. We also want to minimize conflicts between homes and
industry, protect tribal resources, embed disability inclusion and accessibility in
design and construction processes, as well as continue to collaborate with communities
to get to more detailed policies.
For the industrial lands, there's different categories, so these are low-impact industry
that is to create a buffer between residential and heavier industrial uses that accommodates
a mix of industrial and commercial businesses with low environmental impacts.
The industry supports industrial and commercial businesses of various types in closed buildings
and general industry has areas of heavier industry that have good freeway rails, seaport
and airport access.
We also looked at Hegenberger as a gate work corridor.
The Hegenberger corridor is an important part of our city, anchored by the Oakland National
Airport, I-880 in the Oakland Coliseum.
The general mix of businesses in the area are related to visitor services, transportation,
logistics, and warehouses serving as a high-volume gateway for the movement of people and products.
These strategies focus on fostering Hegenberger as a thriving hub with a variety of businesses,
uses south of I-880, including hotels, offices, research labs, and other compatible business
uses, and to the north, a mix that includes housing, creative industries, and small-scale
manufacturing.
The proposed technology and research hubs is in east and west Oakland aimed to attract
green forward thinking jobs, support the creative economy, and focus infrastructure improvements
to support flexible industrial uses.
These land uses would be supported by workforce development programs to build a career pipeline
of Oaklanders to work in these hubs.
And the photo shows workers welding at the Longshot Aerospace startup in West Oakland.
It was taken from a recent Oakland site article.
For supporting arts, culture, and history, we want to integrate arts, culture, and history
into neighborhoods, centers for planning and placemaking processes, provide spaces and
supports for artists, cultural workers, and institutions, and protect tribal cultural
resources.
So the map here shows how land uses are laid out across the city.
Each color on this map represents a different land use designation.
For the dark yellow, gold, and dark brown areas, they represent increased density around
quarters, which corresponds with quarters for increased transit frequency.
Purple represents new technology and research areas.
Light purple shows transit-oriented mixed-use areas
near BART stations.
And light gray is new green low-impact industrial category.
One of the key parks and open space strategies
is creating a Greenway network that connects communities,
promotes active transportation and recreation.
Greenways also improve natural habitats,
increase access to green space.
Investments will be prioritized
in Memorial Justice communities,
and we will set standards for increased maintenance
and programming to meet the needs
of different communities.
We also want to protect our natural resources
like our creeks, find opportunities to use open space
for protection of tribal cultural resources,
and support unhoused residents who live in our parks.
This map shows the parks and open space strategies.
The green circles represent proposed locations for new parks.
The thick green lines show a proposed green way network.
The green dash lines are the city's existing
bicycle boulevards.
Dark green areas are parks, and light green areas are for resource conservation.
Inter-engagement, we receive a lot of feedback related to housing, economic development,
and arts and culture.
Some of the strategies we are proposing in these include developing affordable housing
near transit and amenities, supporting small business development, and ensuring communities
serving businesses with access to commercial space, as well as integrating arts, culture,
and history into neighborhood centers through placemaking and strengthening cultural districts.
Its infrastructure and environment, the draft landings framework proposes exploring new
strategies to address illegal dumping, prioritizing funding for resilience hubs, finding other
funding sources for infrastructure projects, planning for sea level rise, and supporting
urban greening projects.
So for engagement on the draft framework, we had an interactive online document that
had 833 comments, 1,162 total readers, close to 2,000 total commenters.
there was four workshops in partnership with council members, eight boards and commission
meetings, 27 community presentations that included pop-up events and deep listening
sessions, and 76 emails and comment letters were received.
So some of what we've heard is for land use is to address illegal dumping and overall
cleanliness, prioritize affordable housing and support unhoused residents, support existing
businesses, small commercial industrial, improve maintenance of public facilities like libraries,
develop strategies to prevent displacement and gentrification, support Port of Oakland
and port serving businesses, plan for climate change impacts, and support arts and culture.
For transportation, we heard to create protected bicycle lanes, improve roadways, prioritize
disability access, set a comprehensive vision for transit service, and improve efficiency
of public transit, establish a goods movement policy, and update truck routes.
For parks and open space, to improve park maintenance and park programming, increase
equitable access to parks and open spaces, plant more trees, native species improve biodiversity,
and more parks and greenways in East Oakland.
So just as a reminder, the general plan equity goal in guiding principles that are guiding
this whole process is to advance equity by establishing more just policies related to
land uses, parks, and open spaces and making sure people have homes and feel healthy and
safe, celebrate Oakland's many cultures and identities, support good jobs, create better
connected neighborhoods, and ensure that all communities can access essential services
and resources.
So that leads to the discussion.
So for council, does this accomplish the overall strategy of achieving a city of neighborhoods
and supporting the guiding principles that I just mentioned in the previous slide. Do
these strategies help achieve the Council's priorities? What ideas for specific policies
do these strategies raise and is anything missing?
And so next steps in summer of 2026, the staff response to comments will be published on
the website. There will be additional focus group meetings on various aspects. In the
We'll be releasing the draft general plan elements which will then have a further engagement
and feedback that will go through the spring of twenty twenty seven.
And then the summer of twenty twenty seven as we anticipate getting the final general
plan elements to bring to council for final adoption.
And that concludes the presentation.
Excellent thank you so much.
Just very quickly if I may and I know that's a lot to take in and with the attachments
and other information we will have much to discuss.
But again we are really in the middle of this phase right now
of the general plan phase two.
And this is an opportunity again to make adjustments
to catch things we may not have identified with as much focus
or urgency or priority or to perhaps focus on areas
or note areas where we might need
to recalibrate some of the thinking.
This is where we're looking for some early feedback.
it's a it's a one of the more interesting aspects at least I have
found of working with cities is when we have these moments to look at what they
will be and to have that conversation collectively as a community and in
Oakland I cannot imagine an environment more rich with different types of
benefits of of aspects of assets of opportunities and really it is all on
all of us to focus on how we ensure that the city can leverage what it has I mean
And it is an amazing focus of culture, known throughout the world.
It is a remarkable port known throughout the world.
It is a remarkable confluence of people.
And all of that reflects, again, that this city is a gateway.
It is a thriving, thriving place for those of us who live here.
And for the rest of the world, that connects in, you know, through culture, through, as
a destination, again, to the port and transportation.
we want to make sure that we are serving first and foremost our residents, our businesses,
our institutions well in looking forward. And also we do that. We will again hold and
maintain our reputation and our focus as an amazing place among cities in the nation and
again in the world. So we're very, very happy, very excited to be at this point of conversation
with all of you, with the community, with the communities with whom we've spoken and
is to look for some guidance at
this moment.
And as the schedule shows we will be having more
conversations this is not the last one by any
stretch.
Absolutely it's a draft right- since our public
speakers have been waiting some time let's go
ahead and go to the public speakers thank you.
Councilmember five.
Before you leave director Gilchrist through the
chair thank you chair Brown.
Will there be an opportunity to respond
publicly to the questions at the port sent
and your thoughts on that
and what we can do with.
Oh mass and some of the workers.
Yeah we've had some conversations
with them but we can certainly
have public responses to those
as well.
And what we can do we can.
Those out but also with an
understanding that we will be
working with these groups in
process.
Moving forward so it's ongoing
oh yeah so yeah yeah yeah yeah
and again I want to stress the
point one let one more time
we'll say it's the last time.
that we've gotten from the port,
that we've gotten from OMAS,
that we've gotten from the communities,
that we've gotten from the institutions,
is that it gives us a chance now,
because we're more than a year out before we finalize this,
to be able to craft and adapt and change
in order to meet the objectives and needs of the community.
Understood, thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Okay, calling in the names that signed up
to speak on item number four in no particular order,
you can come up to the podium.
State your name before making your comment.
Asada Olibala, Skyler Guanacott, Mike Jacob, Peggy Ibuhay,
Jerry Moro, Susan Ransom, Randy Soso,
Jubilee Martinez-Brombo, Diego Gonzalez, Matt Blaze,
Kevin Finnegan, Mark English, Chris Van Koven,
Linda Hothern, Drew Hess, Jay Hagelin, Bob Connor,
Danielle O'Leary, Brianna Morales, and Sarah Wiltvong.
Good afternoon, thank you council members and staff.
My name is Linda Hodom, we submitted comments for review
and I'm delighted to hear that we can help you calibrate.
By way of background, in 1984, my late husband, Ron Hodom,
and I purchased our first industrial property
in East Oakland and have grown that to a number of three.
In 1990, from 1990 to 2008,
we operated a third-party logistics company, PACAM.
We operated the Oakland Foreign Trade Zone
for several decades.
In 2008, we sold our logistics company
to maps and navigation and continue to be the landlord.
We have supported international trade for almost 40 years
in Oakland employing well over 1,000 employees.
We have looked at the proposed zoning
and find that our facilities would no longer be able
to provide logistics services in our locations
on San Leandro Street and 98th and Independent Road.
It isn't supporting existing businesses,
it will ruin our business.
I would like to highlight the difference
between distribution and green logistics services
that includes solar, E4 cliffs, E truck.
Thank you for your comments.
Good afternoon.
My name is Jubilee Martinez-Bramba.
I'm here on behalf of communities for a better environment out of East Oakland and then I'll read quickly
Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with feedback on the draft land use framework as we shared with the planning department in our written
comments
We are concerned that if the phase two elements adhere to the draft land use framework
The elements will perpetuate environmental injustices and unfair housing practices that shape the uneven geography of opportunity in Oakland
First, we are concerned with the draft land use framework's proposed zoning designations
that ask East Oakland residents to live amongst or adjacent to pollution-generating industries.
The parameters of housing and business mix, green low-impact industry, and technology
and research hubs do not prevent or mitigate land use conflicts that expose residents to
increased air and noise pollution and soil and water contamination.
These burdens would only add to the disparate pollution burdens East Oaklanders already
carry.
that the ocleans that have
broken down in the city of
Oakland wishes to reverse
rather than perpetuate the
negative health outcomes
associated with residing in
east Oakland's EJ communities,
the city must revise its
proposed zoning designations.
Second, to avoid violating
fair housing law, Oakland
should consider what other
meaningful actions it can take
to ensure that forthcoming
elements remedy rather than
enable race-based housing
disparities.
We provide more specific
Land use framework should elaborate how the city plans to facilitate the delivery of a high-frequency transit service
Thank you for your comments
Diego Gonzalez with the Port of Oakland
Thank you committee and thank you for the planning staff for meeting with us as well as administrator Baker for meeting with us and with
the industry
Appreciate the opportunity to comment on the draft land use framework and we absolutely support the city's goals around sustainability
economic growth and equitable development, and our concern is just to ensure that the
general plan reflects the long-term needs of Oakland's airport, seaport, and logistics
and industrial sector that supports tens of thousands of jobs and regional goods movements.
Like our letter mentioned, we're particularly concerned with the proposed green low-impact
industry designation, which appears incompatible with existing industrial and logistic uses,
including recently remediated and heavily invested sites that could effectively be left
stranded under the new framework.
Modern logistics and industrial operations should not be viewed through an outdated lens.
The industry is rapidly transitioning towards zero emission trucks, electrified equipment,
and cleaner technologies, with state law already driving this transition over the next decade.
The question is whether Oakland will create the conditions for those industries to modernize
and remain here, or whether we continue to see investment in jobs move elsewhere because
of uncertainty and lack of support. So we appreciate planning's work and listening
to our concerns. I think it, I think they would agree it definitely incited a little
bit of a reaction. We're looking forward to working with them and working with the
council. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chair Brown, council members. Mike Jacob at the Pacific Virgin Shipping
Association represent ocean carriers, marine terminal operators, port tenants. On the US
West Coast were probably headquartered here in Oakland. I'd like to associate
myself with the comments just delivered by the port and we're obviously also
members of OMAS and have submitted some pretty significant written comments as
well and I'd like to thank the staff for emphasizing the iterative process
moving forward which means we have time to address some core concerns that we
still have with respect to really embracing and laying out all of the assets that we've
already invested in publicly and privately in the city of Oakland to support Goods Movement
to create good blue collar high paying union and non-union jobs in this city and the character
of what we've done over the last hundred years at the port.
what we're gonna be doing for
the port's hundredth birthday
is going to be next year.
And we have done a great job of
marshaling a lot of capital and
creating a lot of good jobs in
the city, focusing that primarily
And keep doing it well. We want to do it obviously in conjunction with all
Good afternoon Council members and chair Brown. I'm piggy egg behind the senior director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific railroad
We are the largest class one railroad serving the Port of Oakland
And we're very proud to be here and we appreciate the staff and you know the openness to have these conversations
They're very important. You know, I think the the rail industry the the industrial industry
and its footprint is really misunderstood.
And, you know, being able to have these discussions
and talk about what we do bring to the communities,
we are a very proud 160 year old, you know,
plus company that has employed many city of Oakland residents
and we want to employ more of them.
We can employ college, you know, high school graduates
without a college degree making $160,000 a year.
There's not a lot of industries that offer that kind of a job
and the Port of Oakland is really under utilized
and what this plan does is it continues to degrade
what the economic engine that you guys have here today.
Something else missing from the general plan
is really an emphasis on the infrastructure
and you guys have heard me say this, council members.
Adeline bridge we need a replacement in addition to the seismic retrofit
It you know, we have 65 trains that travel under that bridge every day
Good afternoon, madam chair and members of the committee
My name is Skylar Wannicott and I'm here on behalf of the California Business Properties Association as well as NAOP
San Francisco Bay Area chapter CBPA represents California's industrial logistics office and retail commercial real estate
advocating for over 10,000 members statewide.
We are concerned that the phase two draft framework
includes the rezoning of industrial land
to residential uses.
That concern is heightened when viewed alongside
recently enacted statewide policies
that have already placed major land use restrictions
on warehouses and logistics development
throughout California.
Policies like AB 98 enacted in 2024
creates significant new requirements
logistics facilities near sensitive receptors tied to residential uses, while bills like SB 79
continue to encourage residential development in historically industrial areas. When industrial
land is converted to residential, it creates additional sensitive receptors that can trigger
even more restrictions for warehousing, distribution, and goods movement uses in the future.
The cumulative effect of these policies working together need to be carefully considered by
to the California State Department.
You can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
or you can go to the federal law office
We are here today to respectfully object to the proposed
redesignation of parts of international Boulevard from the general industry and
transportation to the green low-impact industry. We became involved with this
project after the city rejected General Electric's proposed demolishing of the
property and capping and leaving contamination in place at the property.
We have invested over 170 million dollars to remediate the property obtain
approvals and build our building along International Boulevard, a major
private investment made in direct reliance on the city's approvals,
direction, and desire to see this property cleaned up and reused. The staff
report recognizes that Oakland must continue to support existing businesses,
sustain industrial jobs, and preserve important logistics and good movement
functions and notes the importance of evaluating truck routes, overweight
corridors, and last mile connections. We worked together last year with the city
and the port to create, to authorize overweight truck permits along
International Boulevard and this effort was specifically aimed at business
retention port related logistics and preserving Oakland's ability to
accommodate modern class a warehouse and logistics users we respectfully ask that
the committee direct staff to remove International Boulevard from the
proposed green low impact redesignation and maintain its current general
industry and transportation designation thank you for your time good afternoon
Good morning council members thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Matt Blais and I work for a company named Tereno Realty and we own 1,720th Street
in West Oakland a 92,000 square foot warehouse distribution building.
I'm here to express our opposition to the city's plan to rezone our property to a technology
and research district.
We believe in Oakland and its long term future and the vision that the plan has of building
large campus sized technology and research parks is a fine goal to have in the long term.
But when you look at the Bay Area as a whole, there's a limited amount of large technology
campuses and even smaller number of technology companies that would actually occupy a full
campus.
When you step back and look at the life science research market, it has been overbuilt.
Several of these large life science campuses in South San Francisco were completed two
to three years ago and are still waiting for their first tenant to move in.
Right now, the buildings designated in this future technology and research district are
industrial buildings which are designed to support industrial and logistics uses.
If the city moves forward with the rezoning plants, which would prevent
traditional industrial uses from operating in these technology and
research districts, it will massively impact our ability to release this
property. If the building is vacant for an extended period of time, it will have a
negative impact on our business as well as the surrounding businesses in the
neighborhood and it will certainly lead to an increase in crime around the
building. We strongly urge City Council to rethink their approach to rezoning
plans because they're a solution where we can keep both the permitted industrial uses.
Thank you for your comments.
Research.
Good afternoon City Council member Susan Ransom, Client Relations Manager for SSA, Oakland
Chamber member born in Oakland, live in Oakland, committed to Oakland.
SSA historically has been one of Oakland's largest revenue generators with SSA at the
top of that chain and supporting thousands of good paying jobs across Northern California.
We feed the world on movement of goods.
So here I stand before you today to say good movements are still not recognized or included
in the current general plan after years of asking.
I would never understand why the port has to constantly battle to be recognized.
It should be celebrated in Oakland.
I'm very passionate about it.
Freight movement of goods needs to be part of the general plan.
SSA Marine is committed in advancing sustainable terminal operations in partnership with the
Port of Oakland customers and local communities.
Across our Oakland facilities, we're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in innovation,
infrastructure, and operational improvements that reduce emissions, prioritize safety,
and support a thriving workforce.
In addition to negotiating a long-term lease with the Port, we really appreciate the open
conversation and look forward to more, and I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Jerry Morrow.
I'm representing the Harvard Trucking Association.
The general plan update fills to address
many of the concerns regarding goods movements
that we have repeatedly raised with the city.
Establishing standalone good movement policies
with the land use and transportation element,
a formal policy is necessary
to protect the extended overweight corridor
and ensure the truck access is prioritized
on designated routes without this,
the city risks truck spillage into residential neighborhoods.
Adopt a comprehensive truck map as part of the framework,
key transportation strategies that distinguish
between various weights and modes.
Re-evaluate the city's proposed bikeway network
and feasibility based on a right of way of width
and interaction with existing truck routes
and proposed design that maintains safety
for all roadway and all uses concerned.
Overlaying the city designated truck routes and all land use some transportation diagrams without these overlays
There is no technical basis for the city
comments and managed industrial parcels in relations of the truck routes and I'm with the lady over here the first one that
extended corridor between 98th and High Street on San Leandro Boulevard without that we're in jeopardy
Good afternoon. Thank you for having us here today and thank you for holding the session. It's really helpful
My name is mark English. I'm here on behalf of ley line. We are a locally. They Oakland based
Real estate investment company and we are headquartered here and work here
I want to first say that we fully support the outreach process and the extensive groundwork that the city staff have done to
Get us to this point. I think as it relates to the industrial sector the two most important
Important goals here are to capture jobs and forward-looking industries while supporting existing businesses and entrepreneurs
entrepreneurs to support the inclusive economic growth and reduce conflicts between residential
and industrial land uses.
Oakland's industrial base is largely obsolete.
It's obsolete in terms of its functionality for the businesses that work there and it's
also obsolete in terms of its relation to the communities surrounding it.
Oftentimes you have industrial and residential and indirect adjacency to each other.
Other cities in the Bay Area and across the state have tried to regulate and improve the
situation through restrictive land use policies and zoning, and it hasn't worked, it's actually
had the opposite impact.
It has served to basically freeze in place what's already there, which we all know is
not what we want going forward.
So I would encourage this council and staff to, instead of taking that zoning approach
to this, to focus on the development characteristics of these new projects, and that in turn will
spur the investment to achieve the city's goals.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your time.
I'm an Oakland property owner of seven industrial properties and I've invested here for over 40 years I am also the president of the Medford industrial Park owners Association, which is a 15 acre site adjacent to 98 and San Leandro Boulevard.
to ask that you retain the current industrial zoning
of the Medford Industrial Park,
and in lieu of some combination
of residential and light commercial.
The park is not a vacant redevelopment site,
it's a functioning employment district.
Across more than 18 units,
the park supports an estimated 200 jobs,
which include small contractors,
warehousing, automotive and logistics services,
manufacturing and engineering support,
and environmental waste services.
My request is that the planning department
be required to mail notices
to the actual industrial property land owners
who have been excluded, and many of which had no idea
that this monkey business was going on.
So they should be notifying the actual owners
and business owners.
Thank you.
Daniella Leary.
I'm with Pearl Adjus and we're a property owner in town.
Good afternoon, committee members, city staff,
community development director.
Thank you for the work that has gone into the framework
and the opportunity to comment.
I wanna focus on one concern,
the relationship between the proposed land use changes,
the Port of Oakland and the logistics network
that supports the port function.
The plan, as we read it, would redesignate
a significant amount of industrial land uses
into not allowing warehousing, distribution, and trucking.
They are not hypothetical future uses,
they are many existing operating businesses,
and if they become non-conforming,
that will limit their reinvestment ability,
modernization, and long-term viability
within the city of Oakland.
The city is being tasked to consider
significant land use changes now
while the analysis of how those changes may affect the goods movement,
the port function, and the broader economy seem to be deferred.
Before final major land use changes,
we respectfully urge the city to complete a goods movement or
an economic analysis to quantify how
much industrial land would be affected and to evaluate how
existing businesses could become non-conforming and eventually have to exit the city.
Supporting the port means supporting the logistics system that
allows the port to function.
And I thank you for your consideration
of our comments today.
Good afternoon.
My name is Briana Morales, and I am with the Housing Action
Coalition.
We are a member-supported organization
that advocates for housing at all levels of income.
I am also here speaking as an Oakland resident who
loves the city and does hope to stay in it.
But as you all know, California is currently
in a housing crisis where a part of that ramification
is that families are being pushed out.
Workers have to travel along commutes
in order to get into the Bay Area.
And the people who created this culture
are no longer able to stay in place.
The framework gets a lot right,
including encouraging housing near transit
and being able to create neighborhood centers
that invest in the vitality of Oakland.
We hope to see that the land use framework continues
to build upon and sort of address the crisis
and the emergency status that we're currently in.
We hope to see density and hope to see housing
so that families can stay
and that workers are able to build
and create a life where they live.
We hope to also have further conversations like this
and would love to be able to remain in the conversation
and to help inform these future plans.
So thank you for this time and have a good afternoon.
Good afternoon, my name is Drew Hess,
small business owner here in Oakland.
I've lived here locally for 30 years
and over my career I've actually focused on logistics,
real estate up and down the West Coast,
not just the Port of Oakland,
but around the ports of LA, Long Beach and Tacoma and Seattle.
And I've been investing on behalf of teachers
and firefighters and trade unions and their pensions.
my whole career, just a couple quick points.
We're so lucky to have the Port of Oakland here.
And it was really fun to hear the railroad,
the port, the owners, the users all talk about this.
So I just wanna, I support all of their comments
and just the port jobs or good jobs
and many union jobs and the jobs
the community actually holds.
So I just wanna underscore that.
And then as it relates to building new buildings,
the interesting thing about trying to limit down uses
is it will pinch off and constrict supply.
Whereas if you're kind of inclusive of all uses,
it gives the ability to build these new flexible buildings
that can be used for manufacturing.
Because we all want the manufacturing jobs
and we want more jobs, but we need good new buildings
to move businesses into and grow them.
So if you're looking to move Oakland forward
and support the local community,
these proposed changes don't help.
They cement in what's.
So you've been asked over and over to discuss the issue
of lack of jobs for African Americans.
In this country, unemployment for the entire country
is 4.3%.
For African Americans, for the entirety of the country,
It's 7.3%.
The whole state of California,
unemployment for African-Americans is 9.7%.
Since December of 2025,
unemployment for African-Americans in the city of Oakland
is 9.9% that increased from the following year.
Increase unemployment for African-Americans
and no discussion about how we deal with this.
One of the ways you have to deal with it
is your sanctuary city status.
Your sanctuary city status, you have unemployment
for Hispanics only at 5.9%.
Everything in this city has decreased for African Americans.
There is no district, no district, no neighborhood
in this city where African Americans are the majority.
East Oakland, at one point when I came here in 2007,
was 60% African American, now it's 40% African American
with the majority group being Hispanic.
We have a situation you are not dealing with.
Unemployment, housing, somebody just got up here
and talked about housing displacement,
homeless 70%, African-Americans you say it's in the 50s.
Displacement, everything that you can talk about
in terms of how to.
Thank you for your comments.
Switching to Zoom user, Sarah, you can unmute yourself
and begin your comments.
Thank you, good afternoon.
My name is Sarah Wiltbong, and I am here on behalf of the supply chain federation and
National Trade Association representing ports, warehouses, transportation, retail, labor,
and other critical links of the supply chain.
Oakland plays a critical role in the regional and national supply chain.
The port and its surrounding industrial ecosystem provide essential economic benefits about
the city and the broader region.
We are concerned, however, that the draft framework does not fully reflect the operational
realities of the sector.
For instance, the proposed redesignation of significant industrial areas to uses that
prohibit warehousing raises concerns.
These areas are strategically located near major freight corridors and limiting warehousing
in these locations risks reducing capacity and pushing essential supply chain activity
out of Oakland.
This may have unintended consequences, including job displacement, reduced economic output,
and impacts the city's tax base.
Furthermore, the framework lacks necessary consideration for truck routes and transportation,
industrial areas remain compatible with rail access and port operations is essential to
maintaining efficient and safe goods movement. Given the scale of these changes, we respectfully
encourage the City to carefully evaluate the potential impacts of proposed industrial land
use changes, ensure alignment between land use, transportation, freight network needs,
and conduct a comprehensive economic impact analysis of the proposed changes, including
impacts to jobs and city tax revenues. We appreciate your consideration and remain
available as a resource to the council thank you thank you for your comments
chair at this time all names have been called excellent thank you so much to
the public speakers I know we received a lot of valuable insights so at this time
it is about 349 recognizing that LEC starts at four and so my apologies chair
five and so hopefully we can have the opportunity to just uplift some feedback
that we've had councilmember five did I wanted to give you the opportunity to
share some thoughts then councilmember Unger and then I'll go last I guess the
most encouraging thing thank you chair Brown in this conversation is the
reminder by director Gilchrist that this is still in progress and then we have
time to incorporate the input that so many public speakers had today we ran out
of time according to director Gilchrist we have time and I and I see that you
Thank you for taking the time
to talk to me about this
conversation.
I want to respond to that
director Gilchrist I was just
going to say to the chair you
are not going to get me argue
with that good.
From from New Orleans I know
this lady.
Okay but I I definitely want to
encourage that conversation I
want to be is- participatory is
is necessary or possible-
particularly around the impacts
of truck transportation
infrastructure in west Oakland-
our port properties- we are
about how do you do that?
And I did have a specific question
around land use designation from this particular framework
that transitions heavy industry to low impact light industrial.
Because you know we're working on the amortization
of a couple heavy industrial sites
in the district in West Oakland.
So is there a specific area for the shift
or is it just overall the industrial areas
industry or is it just overall the industrial areas and Oakland all together and how will
nonconforming uses be addressed where heavy industry exists in residential neighborhoods
with no buffer?
Right.
Well, I'll give a quick response and turn it over to Ms. Kaminski.
No, it's not everywhere, Council Member.
I mean, it's not a ubiquitous change and we recognize that there's nuance and different
categories of different types of businesses and industries and that we benefit from diversity
investigation you know along those interesty types one thing I just I just
want to mention and I'm going to do a little bit of exploring with staff and
some of the folks receive comments from is looking at the paraphrasing but
looking at the physical design a character of some of these building
types or use types to see where they may be able to be made more compatible with
other use types than just going by the zoning we have I'm getting a little
of zoning we have zoning on land and pretty much what is developed there is determined
zone, zone, zone, zone. There are also some approaches to development and we would want
to test them especially in a dense urban environment where perhaps it's not just about
the use but it's about how the facilities are designed. That they can be designed in
a way that a range of uses can happen that might end up being compatible with each other
in ways that we might not be considering at the moment. But I think one of the commentators
always made a comment on that line, statement on that line.
So there's some things we can look at.
I think the bottom line is that we will have
different opportunities for different kinds of development
under the zoning, but where we do have some adjacencies
or want some more flexible development on property,
we can have some different approaches towards that
which we'll explore.
I would add to that, I think some of the things
that we were looking at, which is exactly what
you were talking about, is areas where we have
these conflicts between heavy industrial
and residential.
So those are the areas that we were primarily looking at
of trying to create a buffer area
where you would have lower, lighter industrial uses
that are not causing those issues
being right next to residential.
So that was one of the biggest things that we looked at.
As well as there's some areas in Oakland
where there's some industrial areas
that are completely surrounded by residential.
And so, you know, that is a historic injustice
that we wanna look at trying to remedy that situation.
And so there are some changes we're looking at
of those areas as well.
Council Member Unger.
Yeah, Director Gilchrist, I think I echo everyone here
when I say that I appreciate you framing this
as a clay is still wet situation
with giving us something to react to.
And my reaction is that I wanna focus in
on the specific situation that a lot of folks are here
to talk about today is that we revise and develop the plan
to include the port and industry
in as pragmatic a way as possible, right?
There's definitely potential conflicts
between industry and trucking,
and environmental and cyclist and pedestrian concerns,
and those are real, but they're probably also solvable
if we confront them head-on.
And I don't personally know what street is right
for what particular usage, but I know that nobody
in any of these stakeholders groups
is interested in getting it wrong.
So we have diverse businesses and industries,
and that's a strength for us.
So let's have a general plan that includes that
in a realistic way.
And we're not gonna solve the externalities
of those potentially conflicting uses
by just wishing we didn't have to confront them.
So I would ask that all of us put the work
and the emphasis into recognizing
that the port and goods movement are still central
to our city and our economy.
We're still an industrial city.
Specifically, I would like to see an actual map particular
to the truck routes so that we can see them
alongside the map of the greenways
and the pedestrian improvements
and see if we can make all of those more compatible.
And then for industrial uses in East Oakland,
I'm certainly not an expert on that,
but I would like to make sure that we drill deep
into that to make sure that we're not,
I don't know the word,
outzoning existing industrial businesses out of existence
because we certainly can't afford that.
And I know the port submitted you a list of questions.
probably the same ones they sent me and that's a good place to start so I don't
necessarily have any questions for you I must just like the sound of my own voice
but no questions but an ask and the ask is that we fully cognize the industrial
uses and incorporate these stakeholders fully and ask to all of these
industrial stakeholders that you all continue to engage and be patient and
help us craft these workable solutions so I know we can find them if we look
and at the risk of subjecting all of us to more meetings.
I think this is totally doable,
but we have to do it,
and I'm ready to help in any way I can.
All right, through the chair, Council Member Unger,
thank you very much for everything we received.
Excellent, and so the good news is,
is that we will be moving the item
to a public hearing, right, of the full body,
so we'll have an opportunity to ask more questions as well.
So first off, I did want to just, you know,
really thank the planning and building team
for undertaking this work, I know that it was a lot.
I was really delighted to read in the report
how many community engagement activities
across the city was there.
And then also in attachment B,
I think it was over 100 pages of community input
that I thought was really good.
And so I guess at a very high level,
of course appreciated the feedback that we received today
from OMAS and the Port of Oakland,
specifically around goods movement.
there was some notes around how we're supporting
the Hagenberger corridor that I thought were very important
in community feedback.
I also noted some remarks, the fellows that you all had
go out and engage and do some community engagement.
When they were talking with young people,
they really emphasized the need for more lighting
in our city as well as park safety.
So just wanted to uplift that.
I did think that the note was very interesting
the city of Miami. And I think
And I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
where I can't get to the point
not able to see. And so when
we're talking about legislation
that typically moves one to the
top of the list I've been on
those selection committees and
that's often the kind of
conversation. That ensues the
other thing I want to note is
that we didn't get into much
detail here but we'll be
tracking it to the remainder of
the exercise. Is that we do have
a a capital project
infrastructure element as well.
And I want to give credit to
it- deputy. Director Manasse
over planning this is something
very helpful also in getting to the point you're making.
That we're looking at having the capital program projects,
road streets, libraries, fire stations, et cetera,
identified in a constructive priority with the general plan.
And that gives us an opportunity both to know
where we're leaning, that we've had enough conversation
to know what some of those priorities are.
When we're ready to pursue funding for them,
either through our own capital budget,
through bond programs, through whatever funding
may be left from other agencies
that are focused on transportation or infrastructure,
We'll have the strength of a plan
that leverages an indication that we really thought
about this, that this is a priority.
We're ready to do it and we understand
the consequences of that choice.
Excellent.
Is that responsive?
Absolutely.
Okay, thank you.
And then the last thing I was gonna mention,
there was also some community members
and also public comment here today
around anti-displacement efforts
and how we're going about that.
And so I know that our goal here is to make sure
that we're supporting all of our residents,
to the city and as well as our
natural environment industry
businesses on all that are
super crucial to the city and
so definitely look forward to
engaging on this item further
on and so I at this time I
would make a motion to move
this to a public hearing and I
actually wanted to go to the
Tuesday June the second city
council meeting.
That's fine and thank you for
me very quickly the chair for
that I've been doing for a couple of years and all of us
as part of this exercise excellent thank you so much and
may I have a second.
I'll I'll have a second I just want to understand the.
Agenda for June second because I felt rushed and that I didn't
get to ask all of the questions that I wanted to ask in this
meeting so is it will we have the adequate time to it's the
least impacted so I had a look.
I second thank you we have a motion made by chair Brown
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the June 2nd
City Council agenda as a public hearing?
Yes, thank you.
On roll, Council Members, five?
Aye.
Ramachandran, excuse?
Unger?
Aye.
And Chair Brown?
Aye.
Thank you, motion passes with three ayes,
one excused, Ramachandran,
to forward this item to the June 2nd
City Council agenda as a public hearing.
Moving on to open forum,
calling in the names that signed up to speak.
Mrs. Sada Ola Bala, Robbie Ayelyn, Blair Beekman, and Anne McLean.
One of the things I'm not going to allow you to do or anybody else is act like nonprofits
like the Lau family and the Spanish-speaking unity council supports African Americans.
Here's what the Lau family has on their website.
The Lau family concentrates on refugees, immigrants, and low-income individuals with limited English.
programs, refugee health, marriage health, willingness for Asian, uh, well, well-heldness
for Asian families, help for seniors with diverse refugee, immigrant, and limited English.
That's what they do. But they come here and they get funding to support the whole community
of Oakland and they don't do that. The Spanish speaking unity council has an arrangement
with the OUSD to support Latin American youth.
And that's what they do.
That's why they call the Spanish-speaking unity council.
And they bring, and it's hard, they bring,
I've never seen them bring black people in here before
to have them speak as if they all that diversity going on.
Okay, so please, whatever you're doing, do what you do,
but don't act like you helping black people when you're not.
I have no problem with any group supporting their community.
That's what you're supposed to do.
The problem is when you make it seem like you support
my people and you're not really doing it.
Switching to Zoom user, Ann McClain,
you can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Ann McClain, you can unmute yourself
and begin your comments.
Ann, you can unmute yourself.
Can you hear us?
Yes.
My name is Ravi Ayala.
I'm gonna be ceding my time towards Ann McClain.
I'm here with it as well but I don't have I'm trying to find just say I have to find my um
and uh she's also looking for her speech is it possible to skip us and move to us towards the
back not at this time at this time you are the last speaker and you can use your two minutes
and 30 seconds if you like no no this is terrible uh give us will be right there in 10 seconds
Okay, we'll go ahead and let the two minutes and 30 seconds run
Within that time if you want to give your speech you can otherwise once your two minutes and 30 seconds
Your time is running go ahead and
Okay, I don't think that the city council or the CDD committee look for my papers
Understand the importance and impact of the city clerk's lack of due process of the city's lack of due process in regard to the addition
Of new properties during the renewal of a business improvement district
I will use the laurel business improvement district as an example the laurel business
And it was initially formed in 2005 the district was clearly defined on the mccarther
commercial corridor from 35th Avenue to High Street. The businesses were and are highly
dependent on public patronage and the purchase of goods and services. The city when a new district
is formed there must be a mandate for a CED committee to convene to hear out new
members that are being brought into the district in this 2005-2025 renewal, 18 properties were
brought in, 16 of which were single family, all of them residential, 16 were single family dwellings,
condos and 61 rent-controlled apartments and one commercial property being
converted to, proposed to be converted to residential and only one gas station.
We had no opportunity to, the city must have a way of giving
renewal, newly brought in people to the district to be able to speak before a CED committee.
Otherwise our voices were completely outnumbered by the MacArthur Boulevard commercial district.
We might as well have not voted.
We were a 90% vote to not come into the district, only one yes to come into the district.
Thank you for your comments, Chair, that concludes all speakers for Open Forum.
Excellent.
Thank you all so much.
This meeting is adjourned.