Good morning and welcome to the Finance and Management Committee meeting of Tuesday, May
12, 2026.
The time is now 9.33 a.m. and this meeting may come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for items on
this agenda.
If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill
an out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative no later than 10 minutes after
the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record.
to speak via Zoom is now due 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting time. This meeting
came to order at 9.33 a.m. and speaker cards will no longer be accepted 10 minutes after
making that time 9.43 a.m. We'll now proceed with taking roll. Council members Brown.
Present. Sorry. Unger. Here. Long. Present. And Chair Ramachandran. Present. Thank you.
We have four members present. Chair, before we begin, do you have any announcements at
At this time?
Yes, we would like to move item six up to be heard first
followed by item three, four, et cetera.
Thank you, noting the changes made to the agenda
to hear item six after taking items one and two.
Now moving on to item one, approval of the draft minutes
from the committee meetings of March 24th, 2026
and April 21st, 2026.
have no speakers on this item. Great is there a motion? Move approval. Second.
Thank you that's a motion made by Councilmember Brown seconded by
Councilmember Unger to accept the draft minutes from the committee meetings of
March 24, 2026 and April 21st, 2026. On roll council members Brown? Aye. Unger? Aye.
Wong? Aye. And Chair Ramachandran? Aye. Thank you item number one passes with
four ayes to accept the draft minutes from March 24th and April 21st, 2026.
reading in item two determination of scattered while standing committee items
and we have one public speaker that's signed up for this item all right we
will hear the public speaker oh sorry yes to the administration sure and city
administration has two proposed changes one is that item number four for May 26
be moved to the June 23rd Finance and Management Committee to accommodate
I think that is a good option to
make sure that you have all of
the state staff's availability
to present that item.
Thank you and then also to
withdraw item five it's already
on the pending list will update
it and bring it back for
January twenty seventh an odd
year.
Great thank you.
And we will move to public
speakers calling in the name
that sign up to speak on item
number two missus out of all of
all of.
Hey through the chair I don't
assist the city administrator
That's for May 26th meeting, we're looking at the item two, we're on item two right now.
We would have a discussion on the budget deficit.
This is the time, we're going to be behind time, publicly talking about the shortfall
of $360 million.
Is it still there, where are we?
I'd like to see at some point a report on your commitment, relationships, or contractual
arrangements with non-profit organizations, that financial commitment that you have with
Feather River Camp, the Oakland Zoo, Ferryland, the Oakland Ice Rink. I think you have a lot
of financial commitments that we can't afford to keep those commitments at this point. I'm
also concerned with the Coliseum deal. It's my understanding that if that deal is not
complete by June. Thirty eight that the deal falls through. So when are we going to have
a discussion on where we are with that Coliseum deal. Lastly a report on where we have had
financial commitments and we have suffered a loss. Because of that and I'm talking particularly
like the late merit. Lodge where we came out having to pay nine hundred thousand dollars
plus we lost the security deposit,
and any other situation where we have
had a financial commitment,
and because of that, we have suffered a loss.
Lastly, the $700,000 that you committed
for the Roots training camp to be refurbished
when you were supposed to be a part
of the total $700,000 for that completion
with the city of Alameda and the city of Berkeley but you ended up paying the
whole seven hundred thousand dollars. We can't be in a financial situation where
we're doing these kinds of things that all dysfunctional. Thank you for your
comments and incompetent. Chair that concludes all speakers on this item.
Thank you I will entertain a motion. Move approval of the pendulous. Thank you we
have a motion made by Councilmember Brown seconded by Councilmember Unger to
to accept the determination of schedule
about standing committee items as amended
on role council members, sorry,
as amended with the following amendments,
withdrawing item number four from the May 26, 2026
finance and management committee meeting
to the June 23rd meeting
and withdrawing item number five with no new date.
On role council members Brown?
Aye.
Unger?
Aye.
Thank you.
And chair Ramachandran.
Thank you.
Item number two passes as amended to accept the pending list as amended.
Reading in item number six, receive an information report from the city administrator on the
status of implementing policy directives passed by the city council, and we have 22 speakers
that signed up for this item.
Thank you.
Before we begin, we are keeping the full two minutes per time, but in the interest of getting
through our eight items today.
If folks are interested in speaking together
or otherwise that would also be appreciated.
Thank you.
And how many minutes does staff require?
Three minutes.
Oh, great.
Good morning Chair Ramachandran, council members,
members of the public and staff.
My name is Monica Davis, deputy city administrator.
I'm here to share a report on the status
of implementing our council directives.
City council directs our staff to assess
or implement specific policies, programs,
or performance targets and report back at a future date
with findings, recommendations,
or proposed implementation plans.
This primarily occurs during the city's biannual
and mid-cycle budgets.
This report provides updates on the policy directives
from fiscal year 2021-23, the biannual budget,
and that shows up as attachment A.
Attachment B is from the mid-cycle budget
of fiscal year 22-23.
Attachment C reflects the updates for fiscal year 2325
and the biannual budget.
Attachment D reflects updates for the mid-cycle budget
for 2425.
And then attachment E is the most recent update
for fiscal year 2527, the biannual budget.
You'll note that the refreshed information
contains an asterisk next to the policy directive number
in the first column of each respective attachment.
The input for these materials were provided
multiple department heads and so we'll try to answer your questions and happy
to follow up as needed. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues questions or shall we
move first to public comment. Okay we'll move first to public comment. Thank you.
Calling in the names that sign up to speak on item number six in no
particular order you can come up to the podium seat your name before beginning.
Kevin Dally, Chase Fowler, Asada Olobala, Anne Jenks,
Millie Cleveland, Terrence, Keyon Bliss, Blair Beekman,
James Burch, Micah Amichai, Treeva Hayden,
Sean Jones, Ben Ganberry, Eric Erico,
Mila Mora, sorry, Angela Moore,
Raine Robetshaun, sorry if I'm pronouncing names wrong,
Kirby Olson, Kalila Hayes,
O'Furney Labedian,
Jean Tran, Bibi Legardier,
Elliott Goodrich, Ruth Mesa, Rassoni.
And if you are ceding time to anyone,
please let me know ahead of,
once you come up to the podium,
just let me know who's seating their time
and they must be in chamber.
You'll get one minute of their seated time.
Good morning, my name is Elliot Goodrich,
Rain Robichaud and a foray at Benadion
will be sitting their time to me.
Okay, just give me one moment to go ahead
and adjust your time.
You'll have a total of four minutes, two of your original
and two, one minute each from the two that's seated.
You can go ahead and begin.
Good morning Council members.
My name is Elliot Goodrich.
I am a transportation planner in the paving program
at Oak Dot and also an Oakland resident.
Thank you to the committee for bringing this item today.
Listen, OPD spends more of the city's general fund
than every other non-fire department combined.
So when we look for tweaks and efficiencies
to ease our budget issues, we should look to OPD first.
Fortunately, our thorough and impartial city auditor
has identified various actions that the city leadership
can take to save the police department
and the city millions of dollars.
The first action is related to contract negotiation
with OPOA.
administration must bargain with Oakland's tax dollars in mind. There are
specific changes that need to be made to the OPOA contract including setting
comp time policies consistent with other forces in the region. These are really
basic changes that should not be controversial and if they are not
reflected in the final contract you should assume that the negotiations were
not in good faith and you should reject the contract, really. The second action
related to the state administrator's report today, is to ensure that the city
civilianizes at minimum the 38 OPD just job positions that have previously been
identified. 38 more officers on the street would increase the effective
presence of the force by 6% and cut into the 55 million dollars this force spent
on overtime last year alone. You need to hold the administration accountable for
actually making this happen. Of the 38 positions identified, 22 are in internal
affairs. OPD is still under federal oversight. The negotiated settlement
agreement is a legally binding agreement that the city made to 119 Oaklanders who
had their civil rights violated. Well, the latest Independent Monitor's report
stated that we have serious concerns regarding the operations of the
department's internal affairs division. Civilianizing IAD positions should be
seen as a direct tool for a just, for finally making Oakland's repeated demands for a just
and transparent police department a reality.
This council can and absolutely should be the one to finally end federal oversight.
As an aside, I want to thank Interim Chief Beer for putting a pause on all discretionary
overtime.
I wish there was a way to see that this was indeed happening, but I'll give him the benefit
of the doubt for now, and look forward to seeing the next overtime spending numbers.
I also want to highlight that in relation to the city auditor's recommendations for
OPD reform, he stated to you all on March 10th that we do not disagree.
Let's hold them to that.
To do this, we need to get HR to get their acts together.
As a reminder, the real staffing crisis is not in OPD, which has an 11% vacancy.
It is in Local 21 and SEIU 1021, which have vacancy rates of 25% and 20% respectively.
Public safety looks like more than police officers in cruisers with sidearms.
It looks like functioning streetlights, parks and libraries that are clean and open when
people need them, and it looks like safe streets.
These services are actually cheaper to provide than policing, but you, as counsel, need to
to continue to put consistent quarterly pressure
on human resources to fill vacancies
as they have been instructed.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Ruth Meza,
and I'm here to ask council to take action
on police civilianization and the vacancy crisis.
Civilianization is not an easy word to say,
and I didn't really know what it meant when I first heard it,
but it's a really important public safety tool
because it'll put sworn officers back on our street
and help us save money.
there are at least 38 positions whose duties
have been previously identified to be
by non-sworn city workers.
So civilianizing positions will help Oakland
balance the budget by saving OPD costs,
and civilian positions are cheaper,
that'll allow officers to do work
during their regular shifts,
doing the work they were trained to do,
while saving overtime,
the amount of money we spend on overtime,
because OPD logged 400,000 hours.
of overtime last year, which spent us $55 million,
which again is more money than a lot of things we spend
on the rest of the city.
So every dollar that OPD can save is dollar
that we can spend on public surfaces,
like fixing our streets, keeping our street lights on,
fixing potholes, keeping recreation centers open longer
for kids to play at.
It helps to maintain our trees and our parks.
So all of these things are very important,
and I think a lot of community members really care about.
So again, in order to deliver these services,
we must fix our vacancy crisis
and city human resources needs to be fully staffed
so we can fill these vacant positions,
including those in the community police review agency.
Council must continue to demand accountability
from human resources for its failure to hire staff.
And finally, there are outstanding
city auditor recommendations, which were mentioned earlier,
for specific changes to the Oakland Police Officer
Associations contract.
These are best practice provisions
to limit excessive overtime spending.
The time is now for the City Council
to ensure these changes are included in the OPOA MOU,
and Councilors should be prepared to reject the contract
if it does not meet the minimum bar at-
Thank you for your comments, your time is up.
Morning, my name is Chase Fowler
and Truda Haddon is sitting in her time to me.
Okay, just give me one moment to adjust your time.
You'll get a total of three minutes.
And you can go ahead and begin.
Morning, Council, my name is Chase Fowler.
I'm here today as a proud member of IPT local 21.
I'm also a civil engineer at Oak Dutt.
I'm here today to ask city council to stand up for itself.
How many times will you at the Oakland Police Department
and city administration thumb their noses at you?
Time and time again, city council has asked
city administration and the police department
to implement one of the most common sense, no brainer,
win, win, win proposals out there.
Take cops out of civilian jobs,
put them out in the street where they claim
they are so desperately understaffed
that they racked up 55 million dollars
in unmonitored overtime spending last year.
Just to reiterate the benefits for everyone in the room,
they are three-fold.
One, less cops and cubicles means more police officers
out in the street doing actual police work.
It means cheaper workers doing the work.
Cops are really, really expensive compared to civilians.
And third, civilian oversight of police
eliminates a perceived conflict of interest
and increases public trust in our police force.
The Council's budget policy directive,
the last budget cycle, was extremely straightforward.
For City Administration to form a task force
by the end of June of this year
and produce a plan and a timeline
for the transfer of internal affairs to the CPRA.
Instead of putting a task force together, what did we get?
I'll quote from the report
that City Administration put forth.
Due to current staffing limitations
in the structure of the CPRA,
this change is not anticipated in the foreseeable future.
Doesn't really sound like a task force
was even convened, does it?
The call for civilianization dates back to 2008,
that's 18 years ago.
Since then has been reiterated many times
by many city councils and in many budgets.
City council needs to demonstrate actual leadership here.
That will not be easy.
OPD desperately wants to cling to these positions
to the detriment of the city's fiscal health
and to the services Oaklanders need and deserve.
It's time for City Council
to hold the City Administration to account.
Convene the task force and produce the deliverables
that were already requested.
No more wishy-washy excuses about why it can't be done.
Bring City Administration to this committee every month
for progress report if that's what it takes.
Do you want this to actually happen or not?
Need to take accountability since the City Administration
has so consistently failed to do so.
Thanks for your time.
Yeah, hello.
Baby LaGuarda has offered to cede her time to me.
And what's your name?
My name is Jean Tran.
Okay, thank you.
Give me one moment to adjust your time.
You can go ahead and begin.
All right, my name is Jean Tran.
I'm an assistant engineer with the DOT,
and I came here on behalf of Local 22
to talk about the police overspending.
And when I looked at the city auditor's report,
I saw that from 2019 to 2024,
There was almost a 10,000 hour increase in admin investigations.
That's an 80% increase.
And that's almost 20% of all of the overtime, like change in that time period, 20%.
And this is for a position that is for internal investigations.
So like looking into misconduct, looking into complaints, looking at malfeasance,
Things that we don't need officers to necessarily do.
And I want our officers to be well rested
and handling the things that they ought to be handling,
that only they can handle.
And so I see that civilianizing these positions
will help us not only with our officer force
being more effective, but also saving us money.
Money that can be better spent
into creating safer streets, cleaner streets,
like they said, streetlights that are actually working,
but also creating the third spaces that we need
to create a safer community, right?
Parks that people wanna spend their time in,
libraries that youths can go to and be engaged
and stay off of the streets.
Like, these are the things that I want
to create a holistic, safer community.
And of course, to do that, we do need to put pressure on HR.
And I really want you guys to keep on it
and see if we can get results
because this gap that we have in HR is going to continue
and is going to continue to affect our budget.
And so whether or not we are able
to put that pressure on them
and whether or not we're able to civilianize this force
and save us, again, 20% of all of the overtime addition
that happened in the last five years.
like this is what we're looking at
to create a better, safer community.
Thank you.
Hi, good morning.
This is Kaleela Haynes with the City of Oakland's
Planning and Building Department here
on behalf of Local 21.
I just want to echo the claims
that my fellow union members have made so far.
I just want to say that, you know,
as a planner working on engaging communities
around the general plan,
we've heard so many people ask for public safety,
public safety, public safety.
And so where we can make changes to ensure
that our resources are being directed
to things that improve public safety.
Like my colleagues have mentioned,
improving our parks and recreation centers,
improving maintenance at our libraries,
and ensuring that where we can save money,
we do so that we can continue to provide
the essential services to our citizens,
to our residents that make Oakland better
and more safe and more livable place to be in.
Thank you.
If your name was called, please come up to the podium
if you would still like to speak.
Otherwise, we will go over to Zoom users.
What's your name?
my name's Andrea Ramirez and Linda Morton
is ceding her time to me.
Okay I have you here, I have you signed up for item three
but you can go ahead, give me one moment
to adjust your time.
Thanks.
You can go ahead and begin.
Okay, good morning city council,
my name is Andrea Ramirez, I am a planner
in the zoning division of planning and building department
and an IFPTE Local 21 member.
I'm here to ask the council to take action
on police civilianization and also on the vacancy crisis.
There are at least 38 positions held by sworn officers
that have been non-sworn positions in the past.
These positions could be filled by members of the community,
people who live in Oakland,
and it would put sworn officers back on the street
to protect and serve our communities out in the public.
It would also help balance the budget.
OPD currently is $38 million over budget.
They've clocked in over 450,000 hours of overtime
costing the city $55 million.
Every dollar that we save on OPD spending
can be spent on public services.
This includes me and my mother are a resident of Oakland,
like senior centers can, like extended hours
would be really helpful for me to like care for my mother.
it would help with maintaining parks
and keeping rec centers open.
To deliver these services,
Oakland must also fix its vacancy crisis.
We need to staff up HR to fill those vacant positions.
I know several employees who are part-time employees
at the city of Oakland who love the city,
want to work for the city full-time,
and they may have to leave the city
because they want the benefits
of being a full-time employee and that really hurts my heart
because I love the city too and I want people
that I know who love it to also be able to work here
and make it a better place.
Finally, the 2019 city auditor recommendations
should be included in the Oakland Police
Officer Association MOU.
City Council should be prepared to reject the contract
if it does not meet the recommendations.
That's all I have.
I'm going to go back to the
state.
My name is Millie Cleveland I'm
here.
With the coalition for police
accountability and I stand in
solidarity with local twenty
one here.
They mentioned that there were
twenty two officers in internal
affairs where those positions
could become civilian eyes.
I want to raise that you know a
lot of people are concerned
oversight, quite frankly, is because of the misconduct within internal affairs.
Every scandal has been because either, not because just of the misconduct, but every
scandal has been because internal affairs minimized it, swept it underneath the rug,
ignored it, and that was what actually created the scandal, the misconduct of internal affairs.
And in fact the most egregious case, the most recent egregious case of Phong Tran allegedly
brining a witness was not even exposed by internal affairs, it was exposed by the civilians
in SIPRA.
So I want to raise that, it's very important to move those officers out of internal affairs,
move them into SIPRA.
that I think is my responsibility
that is your clearest a avenue for moving
out of federal oversight so I stand as a resident in Oakland
and someone that I raised my children here in Oakland I have
family members who work for the city it's time for the city
council to be responsible and accountable you pass this
I'm going to go back to the
committee and I'm going to get
back every month and hold the
city administrator accountable.
Morning to the committee my name
is Kirby Olson I have one person
sitting their time to me their
name is doctor Jones. Do I have.
Do I have a sheet for doctor
Jones. Yes okay. Is it Sean
Jones yes okay it's Sean Jones
here. Okay perfect give me one
Please go ahead. You'll have four minutes
Great. Good morning to the committee Kirby Olsen. I'm speaking today as a member of local 21
In Oakland resident. I'm also a transportation planner in the Department of Transportation
I'm here to support the civilian ization
Every dollar saved is a dollar that can be put back into city services
So we call on the City Council to reject any budget or contract that does not include the civilian ization. I
I also want to address the vacancy crisis.
The last time I was here, I mentioned a transportation planner two list that expired, and the department
asked for the list to be extended three days after the expiration, and we're told that
that was not possible.
I want to refer back to the MOU with Local 21, Section 14.10.2, which says that any time
the city declares a hiring freeze all civil service lists should also be
frozen and extended for an equivalent amount of time as far as we can tell
that did not happen during the most recent hiring freeze so what I fear is
that we had a hiring freeze in practice but no official formal hiring freeze was
actually communicated to the unions or to the departments what that means is
that during the time when no hiring was being approved all of our civil service
list basically kept going. The clock continued on those lists and by the time
the informal hiring freeze ended and it was time for us to hire again, our lists
were right at the verge of expiration and so that's what ended up happening
with our transportation planner 2 list that we had 60 names on that had to be
thrown in the trash and never used. So I just want to make sure that number one
we ask HR if that list can be retroactively extended considering they
didn't actually extend it during the time of the hiring freeze, and number two, that
we make sure that any future hiring freezes are official hiring freezes and not simply
de facto freezes when no one's hired but our civil service lists are essentially wasted.
Thank you.
Am I good to go?
Yes, go ahead and just state your name for the record, please.
I'm Terrence, Terrence Charity.
I'm a resident of Oakland and I'm part of the Oakland Alliance Against Racism Political
repression. I'm speaking in support of civilianisation of work being done by
OPD officers. Oakland should not be discussing cuts to services until you
have replaced officers and administrative jobs with regular city
staff. Oakland should be good stewards of the tax money and should create
structural oversight over that and transparent OPD oversight. A brief
reduction in overtime is nice but not the real solution. The council told the
City Administrator to begin looking at civilianization of OPD internal affairs
to the cheaper better CIPRA investigators. The Council did not find
out whether the City Administrator had taken any steps to follow those
instructions. That is a failure of the City Administrator. It is also a failure
of the City Council. These are issues the Police Union does not want you to act
on. Please start listening to Oaklanders like me instead of the Police Union.
Thank you
Good morning. My name is refill away
I'm with the anti police terror project and I'm here in solidarity with my community here to say that you all should make the fiscally responsible
Decision and civilianize these positions within the Oakland Police Department to be done by city staffers who are here on the front lines of protecting
What it means to a reimagine public safety in our city to invest in city resources and services that have supported me my whole life
Right before this meeting, I was down the street at Cafe Gabriela, which has just celebrated 16 years in the city of Oakland.
And when I walked in, they were like, what were you doing 16 years ago?
And I thought about middle school and what Jack London looked like, and my experience there.
And the reality is that this demand for civilization, for fiscally responsible decisions,
reimagining public safety is a demand that's 20 years in the making, right?
Last year's budget cycle, folks in this dais were speaking passionately just to that fact that 20 years in the making community has been trying to work and operationalize this reality.
And there are folks in the room who want to be partners in supporting this council in doing so.
So we ask this committee again to just make the fiscally responsible decision for
Oaklanders such as myself who's relied on the kind of services you all have put yourself in the position to cut.
than to reimagine what it would look like to invest in the resources that have
allowed for us to be retained here in the city, those of us who are still here.
Thank you. Anne Janks, I'm a resident of District 3. The Community Police Review
Agency is an independent investigatory body. OPD's Internal Affairs Office has
to change its name every time it's involved in a scandal. I don't know what
current one is, has been involved in every scandal and every cover-up for the past 20
years, including two in 2023, because police can't police police.
Every city council member on this dais today is developing a reputation for doing the bidding
of the police union instead of what Oaklanders ask for.
There are well more than 38 administrative positions that do not require a sworn officer.
You could do a complete review of OPD staffing, that wasn't what the auditor was doing.
The police union opposes civilianization, although they say we need more officers doing
direct public safety work.
OPOA says that civilianization would, quote, be bad for morale, end quote.
It would be good for Oakland's morale.
OPOA is opposed to real oversight of OPD overtime.
They assure you that overtime is temporarily reduced
until it's out of the headlines.
OPOA is opposed to independent transparent oversight.
OPOA wants weakened oversight.
OPOA does not want a public discussion of their contract,
which is currently under negotiations.
The council has not held public discussion,
which would include discussing changes requested
by Oakland police chiefs.
You need to decide if you're on the side of Oakland
or the police union.
you. So thank you. Kevin
Daly had district for. The
re. The reimagining public
safety task force looked at
civilian eyes and many of the
key positions. It was approved
by the council in twenty
twenty one. I'd like to see
what progress has been made in
what positions can still be
moved. One of the suggestions
from OPD to Oak Dot.
The single biggest overtime expense
was half a million dollars for one individual
for crash reports, something that should be civilianized.
OPD crash reports are mostly limited
to describing which laws are violated
and not what the real cause of the crash was.
Speeding only counts when it's 10 miles an hour faster than the limit, but crashes can
be deadly when traveling at the speed limit.
Five miles an hour, it's even more deadly.
OakDOT has the expertise to analyze the real causes of crashes and should be handling the
reports.
I know they analyze some of the crashes anyway.
I believe they do not have access to the speed of the vehicle that crashed, even though that
information is pulled from cars, from black boxes by police, unless it's a hidden run.
Another item is that the city administrator has blocked hiring of parking dispatch positions.
That's an important part of parking policy.
I recently reported that a car block to curb cut preventing my mother-in-law's wheelchair
from getting from the street to the sidewalk.
I reported it on three one one dispatch did not happen because there aren't any
dispatch people hired and haven't been in a long time.
Thanks.
I find it very interesting that all these union people decide that it's their
responsibility to hold the police union accountable.
It's their responsibility to go into the policing arena and determine how it
it needs to be run. I can take every department in this city and identify
issues. Yes, the police department has issues. So does human resources. So
does park and wreck soldiers workforce development. But I find it insulting
that a union can't meet with another union to have a collaborative
understanding where your issues are without coming before the public and
beaten up on him. And I have an issue with the union, with Measure E, how you
connived to create a citizens initiative when it wasn't a citizens initiative.
It's the city of Oakland and the union people working with you to get this
Measure E passed. What is wrong with people? We are a collective city
employees. It's inappropriate to come here and beat up on other employees,
that's just my position. Why are they doing it? I don't know. But there is no
department in this city that cannot be scrutinized for some issue. No department.
So what gives them the badge of honor to come here and beat up on the police
Department. Look at them. They're cheering. This is insulting. It's not what we do to
say how we can collectively work together as city employees. And I don't know why they
decided to do this because this is. Thank you for your comments. Switching to zoom users.
James Burch, you can unmute yourself and begin your comments. Good morning. My name is James
I'm the executive director of the Black Solutions Lab.
I want to talk about money.
Oakland is facing a structural deficit of over $137 million.
The city has already eliminated over 400 positions and reserves have dropped from $258 million
in 2022 to $157 million in 2024.
Every department outside of police and fire has absorbed deep cuts and the mid-cycle budget
update this spring is likely will require more.
Against that backdrop, the city is spending $13.2 million a year in overtime, but it doesn't
to spend. That figure comes from the PFM staffing study. The city paid $310,000 to produce an IFPTE
and other unions. Analysis of the 38 sworn officers currently assigned to administrative
desk jobs and internal affairs, training, IT, recruitment, and public information. These
positions do not require peace officer authority. They can be performed by civilian authorities at
lower base pay, lower overtime rates, and lower pension costs. The OPOA contract expires June 30th
and it's not just the civilianization ban that needs to be addressed. The current contract allows
officers to accrue over 300 hours of compensatory time per year, the highest limit the city auditor
found among large California cities. When officers take comp time, other officers work overtime to
cover their shifts, and those officers can also accrue comp time. The contract also permits shift
extensions without prior management approval, and while that's been temporarily addressed by Chief
beer. This is the type of thing that we need to be addressing contract negotiations as well.
If the city does not begin capturing these savings now, the next round of cuts will fall on libraries,
parks, housing, public works, and youth services. That's the direct fiscal consequence of inaction.
The city has the study, it has the directive, it has 20 years of history on this at this point.
What it needs now is implementation. Who's going to do it? Thank you.
Key on bliss, you can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Yes, here to echo what everybody else is telling you and really wondering whether
members of City Council here today are actually listening to all that,
recognizing that a lot of you take a considerable amount of money from not not just specifically
the Oakland Police Office Association, but also their primary backers in the business
communities, such as the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, as well as several astroturf
organizations from the Abundance Network to empower Oakland to revitalize East Bay,
all of which want you to ignore this push to civilianize and follow your fiduciary duty,
which is to maintain and use the best interest of the public, and include
responsibilities as a transparency in avoiding such conflicts of interest.
You have credible data right in front of you that are presented by dozens of people
showing that civilianization actually saves the city money, and that there are at least
38 positions whose duties have been previously identified to be done by non-sworn city workers.
within the police department.
Given that the OPD continues
to go drastically over budget with this overtime,
$31 million over budget is absolutely absurd.
It's a violation of your fiduciary duty
not to think about how to reduce
this amount of overtime and civilianize these positions.
In fact, it's what you promised to do
is what Oaklanders have been demanding for you to do.
So rather than just going along
with whoever is like is paying your campaign coffers,
please listen to the people.
Please civilianize these positions.
Thank you for your comments.
Blair Beekman, you can unmute yourself
and begin your comments.
Hi, Blair Beekman, thanks a lot for this item.
A lot of public comments on it, really nice to hear.
I, in living in San Diego these days
and we've had these tough austere budget meetings going on.
I've lost track if it was in San Diego or in Oakland,
they want to not be continuing community policing
or the ideas of civilians in the police force.
I don't know if it was San Diego or Oakland is doing that,
but what is being explained here today,
I'm being really reminded the importance
of the long-term goals of what we are really trying
to work towards of a more civilian police force,
and we're working towards the ways to do that.
Thank you much for your initial memo
that had outlined the initial four policies
of how you wanna be working as a city on issues,
and community involvement and participation.
I can't quite remember the list,
but it was really nice to hear, I wanted to say.
And I just, good luck what you're working on.
It's important stuff.
And I hope San Diego can be doing the same thing.
I certainly will be talking in San Diego public meetings,
what's being said here.
It's important issues.
About the streetlight ideas and how that can help
and ideas of better efficiency for policing.
As important as that efficiency can be,
there's a lot of accountability that's needed
with our smart streetlight tech.
and it has to be a balance
in wanting street light efficiency
compared with the practical concerns of privacy,
civil protections for people,
not just in terms of public safety,
but in terms of privacy rights.
All of that has to be worked out.
So good luck in working together on this.
It's a together process.
Good luck what we can be doing all together.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Chair, all names have been called at this time.
Thank you.
A couple of things.
Appreciate all of the many people who
came here to make public comment.
This entire committee here was the budget team last year.
And that directive that you see most recently
about the civilianization asks, that
is all of us here plus a majority of council
that voted for this.
Six out of eight council members.
So I have a couple of questions for the administration.
first and foremost I just want to read out that policy directive that the four
of us here authored last year and that's direct the city administrator to work
with police department in HR and return to council with the detailed plan
costing and any necessary budget amendments to increase the number of OPD
positions filled by qualified civilian staff every effort must be taken to
and ensure that as many sworn OPD officers as possible
are available for patrol, special operations,
or conducting criminal investigation.
Shifting admin and other non-law enforcement
responsibilities to civilian staff
will help further this objective
while increasing employment opportunities
for Oakland residents and ensuring greater cost savings
for the city.
We also direct the city administrator to form a task force
to facilitate implementation of council direction
to transition the functions of OPD's
Internal Affairs Division to CIPRA for investigations.
The task force should include representatives from council,
city attorney's office, city administration,
police commission, OPD, CIPRA, and the inspector general.
The task force should produce a plan and timeline
for the implementation of this transition by June 30th, 2026.
In addition, transferring IID functions to CIPRA
would remove any conflict of interest
that might exist within OPD officers
investigating their fellow officers.
Again, this is now, we're entering my fourth budget cycle
and every one that I've been a part of
we're talking about civilianization.
I think it's around 38.
But last year, we explicitly included this
with the goal of June 30th.
So I would love to hear from administration
because the response that's written here
doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
yes, there's always staffing challenges.
There's staffing challenges in HR,
which is responsible to address the staffing challenges
of everything else.
We're never gonna, we have over 800 unfilled positions.
We're not there at any time soon,
but for so many years at this point,
council, even before we got here,
has been asking for civilianization.
And even if it's not all 38 positions tomorrow,
what is the barrier that's getting us
toward civilianizing a couple per month maybe
and then getting to the 38 by the end of the year.
To the chair, so as you're aware,
we're currently in ongoing labor conversations
and so some of this is being discussed at the table
so I can't get into the specifics of it.
Recognize that the task force hasn't been convened
and I think part of that has been
the resource allocation piece.
I would have to say that the city administrator
had personal matters, not able to be here today,
but happy to have him also provide more context.
So apart from the staffing challenges,
is there an answer as to why none of the 38 positions
have been civilianized?
Again, we're currently in labor negotiations,
and so some of this context is within that framework,
and so can't get into the specifics of that.
Okay, I just do want to say for the record,
if council is passing something publicly
and there are barriers to having it passed,
I would appreciate if administration,
city attorney, auditor, whoever else is involved
tells us straightforwardly, hey, this is not possible,
rather than us continuing to pass policies
and us be frustrated and the public be frustrated.
I mean, yes, this is part of our issues
with our city charter.
The council doesn't have power to implement policies
actually pass, but this is a bigger issue of there's been so many resolutions
authored by this council as well as previous councils and we just don't have
answers and if they're not possible from the get-go please let us know so we
don't pass things that need other levels of reforms to get there. That being said
my own my own other question for moving to my colleagues is last year I'm proud
that this budget team, as well as, again, six out of eight of council members,
supported the transition of five civilian positions from OPD officers to
civilians. These positions weren't OPD to begin with. They were tasked and coded as
civilian jobs, but there were OPD officers performing it because of the
lack of hiring, which is unacceptable to have five fully capable officers of
of being on the street instead being in desk jobs.
And I want to know the status of hiring this more,
I check the city jobs page every single day.
So I think this morning I saw one of those five
was listed online, the intake technician for OPD,
but I'd love to know the status of what this council
has said should be, well, is already a civilian job.
They were intake tax, fleet compliance coordinator,
forensic analyst, there were five positions total
and what the status of each of those five are
from the budget we passed last year.
I don't have that answer on the top of my head,
but I can provide that to you and post it again
along with the informational memo I posted with this content.
Thank you, if we held this item in committee,
would we be able to get more answers
to the civilianization questions
with the city administrator being here,
and I think we could probably speak to it at closed session
and then determine what we can discuss publicly.
Okay, well I would be interested
in holding this item in committee,
but I will pass it to my colleagues.
Council, oh, sorry, Council Member Unger-Brown, then Wong.
What specifically are the barriers in the contract?
Because I don't see it.
I mean, some of these positions were civilian before
and are now being filled sort of temporarily by sworn,
So what specifically are the barriers in the contract?
I'm going to jump in for W.C. Minister Davis here.
There are some provisions in the contract
that relate to the work done by OPOA,
and again, I'm going to be very circumspective.
We should have that conversation in closed session
as it relates to the negotiations going on.
So I can see that with some of the positions,
maybe there are meet and confer,
but not all of them are subject to that
before we civilianize.
And so I don't wanna just sort of give this blanket answer
of the contract prevents it,
because the contract might prevent some of it,
but I don't see that the contract prevents all of it.
So I would love to move forward
with the civilianization of the positions
that are not blocked by contract negotiations.
Do you think that there's a way
we could do that prior to June 30th?
I think I'd have to discuss with the city administrator
on his priorities of what needs to happen.
I think it's a possibility.
Okay, I think that would be a real show
of good faith and progress,
if we could civilianize some portion of the positions
that are not subject to contract negotiation.
So that, I think that that's my ask.
And I probably think that my colleagues would agree
with that if we could just start the process
because the issue of this being barred by labor negotiations
is made a little weaker by the fact that council
has been asking for this civilianization
through multiple renegotiations of the police contract.
So if the renegotiation is the problem,
why are we allowing it to remain the problem
through multiple rounds of negotiation?
I will note there are a couple pieces moving through
collaboration with HRM and OPD. So, for example, as noted, the criminal investigation and traffic
divisions are working to support the movement of the criminal investigator position. So, there are
ongoing efforts. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it is frustrating for us because we continue to put
this in our budget. We continue to put it in our directives and then, you know, the public comes to
us and says, hey, counsel, how come you didn't put it in your budget or your directives? Well, we did,
but the administration has to enact our directive.
So, if we could begin to do that prior
to this next budget cycle, that would be a real show of progress
that I would value very much.
Thank you.
Thank you for going to Council Member Brown,
just restating the five positions
that were already civilian.
So, it's not even civilianization,
but were being performed by officers
were four FT police anti-tax, one fleet compliance coordinator and one grants coordinator in
OPD, and again, this morning, I believe, 11 months after we asked for these positions
to be hired, they're civilian jobs already, 11 months later, the first job posting goes
online. So I think it's really, this shows a lack of commitment to the
civilization process when we're talking about not even IA jobs, we're not even
jobs that were coded as sworn officers. These are already for civilian, they're
already civilian jobs, but it took 11 months from when we passed the budget to
the day it goes up on the website. And I would really like an update as to those
those five positions that are already civilian
and why it took so long to be able to do that.
Thank you.
Councilman Brown.
Excellent, well, thank you so much.
Always grateful for all the public speakers
that came to speak on this particular item.
In addition, Deputy Administrator Davis,
thank you so much for including in the packet
all of the, you know, kind of all of the prior
the policy directives because it was really helpful
and kind of grounding around like hey what were some
of the things that have consistently come.
So thank you for including that.
And so I'm gonna have some very specific questions
and of course I know in your role you're not necessarily
the administrator that oversees some of the items
and so I guess it's just some information to take note of
and then I will be specifically commenting on the items
that I actually, myself and my team wrote
into the policy directives and so these were things
that were of great concern.
So in the first one around OPD recruitment,
I just wanted to make a small flag
that I think it's interesting, very grateful
that there will be the launch of a website
around recruitment but I can't help but flag
that it's not gonna be launched until April of 2027
and so that will kind of put us in place
for a whole nother budget cycle
So I guess I'm, I would love, I would like the opportunity
to have an answer around why it is delayed
for into April of 2027.
In addition, in item number two
that all of the public speakers have mentioned
and as my colleagues have mentioned, you know,
these are things that we wrote and put
into the policy directives and they've been uplifted literally
for about a decade.
And so I wanted to call attention to the creation of the task force with a plan and a timeline
for implementation by June 30th, 2026.
And then we also listed the, you know, the bodies that we would like to participate.
I do want to flag for the public that this evening at the Public Safety Committee we
we will be receiving a report from CIPRA,
and I know that we've, in our last budget cycle,
I believe there were multiple positions
that were added to help support CIPRA,
so very interested to know how that staffing is going,
but definitely really focused in on the creation
of that task force, so that we are actually,
because I noticed in the table,
item number two is just blank.
It doesn't say in progress, there's no notation,
so just wanna uplift that.
In addition, for item number three,
I would like an answer for what was stated
where it says the surges were complete,
but the allocated funding for removal of the vehicles
was deemed ineligible for the funding source.
I believe that line item fell under measure BB,
And I'm just curious if there's any impacts
that we should be aware of.
Potentially that question would go to Director Johnson
around that one.
Item number three, funding for abandoned autos, any impacts.
Lastly, I think I wanted to bring up something
about item number six around HR hiring.
And I guess specifically to the public commenters
would be the city administration
that would actually go to the civil service board
and actually uplift the removal
of expiration for eligibility lists.
So I just wanted to ask that question
to see if that is the route to try to tackle
that issue and concern that potentially
many departments are having around
the eligibility list.
departments are having around the eligibility lists.
But as always, thank you all for all of the hard work.
And I think I would support a public conversation
around the policy directives.
And so if we were able to hold this in finance
to get some of the answers, that would be great.
Thank you.
Is that a second?
Yes, second.
Yeah, I agree.
I think I would like C.O. Johnson to be here
to answer some of our questions.
ACA Davis, I don't know if you're able to answer this, but I am wondering as it relates to the civic
civilian ization, it's right very difficult word to pronounce
of the
38 positions
If I'm reading the table correctly so far
None of those positions have actually been civilian civilian ized. Is that correct?
Like there's some movement, but we haven't actually hired anyone into that. I
I was gonna say I can't speak with certainty that the answer is no
So I'll just confirm with you as this item is going to be continued. Okay, that sounds good
I think a particular interest to me is ensuring that we civilian eyes positions like the IT position. I think
That would be an ideal position to civilian eyes as well as the intake technicians
Where you know when someone needs to issue a police report after the fact after an incident happens
It doesn't have to be a sworn police officer. This would also be great efficiency since I know of
individuals who have tried to
Just put in a police report and they they have to wait for an officer to come at some odd hour
And I don't it's just it's also about improving our level of services
delivered by the police department
The other thing I wanted to ask a question about there was a flag under the abandoned
Vehicle surge that the allocated funding for removal of vehicles from the right-of-way was
Subsequently deemed ineligible for that funding source
Can someone elaborate and explain more about that?
Thank You council member well for the question, I remember when we were
Making the various allocations under measure BB funds
I believe we were under the impression that by definition,
if something is in like the public right away,
then it could be an allowable use for that funding source.
And so that's why when I read it in the report,
that maybe that wasn't actually accurate.
And I don't have my Excel sheet in front of me
as far as like how much that allocation was.
And so that's why I kind of had that larger question
about how that will pencil out.
Sure, and then to address that question
to the Chair, to Council Members Wong and Brown.
So the funding for that was Measure BB.
We are in discussions right now with ACTC
on funding eligibility for those particular surge operations.
Given some feedback we've gotten from them,
I can confirm for you that if those surges relate
to more related to encampment related activities.
We have some major discussions ongoing with ACTC,
but again, that will be, I'll be happy to update you further
once those discussions are complete
as it relates to that item.
I did do a little bit of homework
as it relates to the positions
that were being discussed earlier
related to item two in civilianization,
based on the list that the chair provided of for intake techs,
the Fleet Compliance Coordinator and the Grants Coordinator,
and for everyone's heads up, what I did is I went back
and looked at our staffing study report,
which does have in its attachment aid,
the breakdown of where all positions stood at that time.
The, right now there is one vacant intake tack in SEPRA.
There is not a requisition submitted by SEPRA to fill it.
So HR can't move on it.
The fleet coordinator is under class spec review.
So HR is working internally with the department
and then with the actual union
to develop the full class spec before it can be posted.
And the grants coordinator has been posted,
there have been candidates identified,
and they're in background and review.
Okay, thank you for that.
And I just, part of the reason I do wanna dig
into the abandoned car and the eligibility there
is because I have to think that most of our abandoned
vehicles are in fact in the right of way.
So if it's not an eligible use, then, you know,
that is something that we need to know.
And finally, I do want to comment on the academy recruitment.
It's been something that I've been working closely
with OPD on.
I've been bluntly frustrated at times with our ability
to move quicker.
As a council that allocated those marketing dollars,
these academies are not cheap to fund.
And I know that some of our early academies
did not bear out a ton of graduates, to be honest.
I think I see in this report
that this next upcoming one has 46 candidates.
So that's actually really promising progress.
But I did want to just make sure,
since I know some of what we've done is delay academies
in order to fill more of the slots.
It's not a, and I agree with that,
that makes a lot of sense.
But I was wondering if we're still on schedule
to complete all five academies
by the time that we reach the end of the FY27,
or if we'll expect delays beyond that.
Because there is, it's cut off in the table.
So if we're not prepared to answer to this,
I would like CEO Johnson to be able to answer that
the next time this item comes before us.
And then the other thing I just wanna note
is on the human trafficking directive.
Reading this, I was reflecting that this says
that the city administrator's office
is really supposed to do this.
I feel like, in many ways,
I have taken on so much heavy lifting myself.
I know oftentimes we as city councilors get told,
stay out of it, you know,
don't get into the administrative side of things.
Trust me, I'm getting way into the administrative.
Me and my team have gotten so much
into the administrative side of things
when it comes to human trafficking,
and I am just plain that I need some more support
prioritization from the city administrator's office. So I am not just, you know, we're
not doing this as a city council office.
May I respond to the second question you asked in conversation with chief bear. There's no
anticipation of delays of academies at this time. Okay, great. Thank you. Just to follow
up on those. So the public has quoted 38 positions that council is directed to be civilianized.
I would add five more, the ones that we had put last year,
to basically get to a number of 43 positions
that could release officers to sworn jobs
and civilians can be, and Oakland residents
can be hired to do these civilian jobs.
That being said, to the finance director,
the one, the intake tech that is posted
on the jobs website, is that for four positions?
We had tried to submit a total of six last year,
and then there's one posted this morning
on the jobs website.
Which is that part of this?
To the chair, so all I did is I went back
because I don't have the specific insight
in all of the details.
What I looked at is our staffing matrix
that came with your staffing study.
And what it shows is in the classification,
I see Amber Lytle is here from our HR department.
I'll finish, at least from what I saw,
I looked through the intake technician classification
where it showed up.
It shows filled with one vacant
and the one vacancy was in a status of no requisition
submitted as of the staffing study
that is likely the one that was requisitioned
and is going now, but I don't have the internal details.
All I did was research the documents already
in the public record.
Through the chair, the position or the eligible list
will be established to fill all positions
for the next two years.
And that eligible list can be extended
for an additional two years.
So, even though there's only a requisition
for one position at the moment,
we can use that eligible list to fill multiple vacancies.
Okay, thank you.
I will, Council Member Brown.
Excellent, I'm so sorry, since Amber is here,
I just wanna clarify that, so based on what you said,
if an eligibility list expires,
if a department head just calls over to HR
to extend that, we can do that.
the request for an eligible list extension
has to come before the eligible list has expired.
So we do send out monthly emails to departments
letting them know all the active eligible lists,
and they have time to request it before it expires.
All right, good stuff, thank you.
Okay, thank you.
I will restate my motion with a request
for supplemental information.
So the request is to hold this in committee
until the June 23rd FMC meeting
with a request for additional information
elaborating on policy directive two
from the directives passed last year
as well as council member Wong had said,
ask for additional information on policy directive one.
And I think also council member Brown had said,
policy directive three.
So the auto surge, the academies
and of course, the organization.
Thank you, that was a motion made by chair Ramachandran,
seconded by council member Brown.
to continue this item to the June 23rd
finance and management committee meeting
with the request for supplemental information
as stated on record.
On roll, council members Brown.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
Thank you, item number six passes with four ayes
to continue to the June 23rd
finance and management committee meeting.
Now reading in item number three.
Receive an information report from the city auditor's,
city auditor on the audit of the revenue management bureaus business tax
collections process and we have three speakers that signed up to speak in the
interest of time since we have 45 minutes to get through the next four
items auditor Houston how many minutes will you need minutes I'm not going to
be doing the bulk of the speaking is it possible to have five or we can
I'm going to postpone this item to the next FMC.
We could do it in five, and why don't I give a brief
introduction.
Again, I'm Michael C. Houston, I'm the city auditor.
This audit arose from a request from the city council.
We put in on our annual work plan for 24-25,
and we contracted out to conduct this audit
to the very experienced and well-respected,
qualified firm Schoberg Evershank Consulting and today we have George
Schiles whose partner with SEC to present the audit. Good morning chair
members of the Finance and Management Committee. For the record my name is
George Schiles, partner with Schoberg Evershank Consulting and my firm was
engaged by the city auditor to conduct a performance audit of the revenue
management bureau's business tax collection process. The objectives of the
The audit were to determine whether the Bureau was collecting all business tax revenues due
to the City, whether it had systems in place to ensure accurate and timely collection of
business taxes, and whether opportunities for improvement could be made to enhance revenues.
The audit covered the period July 2021 through June 2024.
We also looked at activities occurring through 2025 to better understand recent actions taken
by the Bureau. Our audit focused on three key areas, procedure, data accuracy and
consistency, and program oversight. First, procedures. The audit found weaknesses
and how delinquent accounts were identified, researched, and referred for
collection. Historically, the Bureau had structured processes in place in which
the Tax Compliance Division research delinquent businesses,
verified whether businesses were still operating,
conducted outreach, and then referred accounts
to specialized enforcement units,
such as collections or citywide liens.
Beginning in 2022, this process declined significantly.
In 2023, no batches of delinquent accounts
were sent to collections.
And in 2024, about 4,100 delinquent accounts
were sent to collections tolling about $14 million,
but the vast majority had not been fully researched,
prepared, or prepared for referral.
This caused significant delays,
and delays matter with the three-year statute
of limitations for collection.
Second procedural process is that the audit found
that the Bureau reduced or ceased
several business discovery practices
intended to identify unregistered businesses.
These included field inspections,
the use of government data sources,
and internet-based searches.
As a result, the number of discovered,
unregistered businesses declined significantly
during the audit period.
They fell 48% just in fiscal year 2024 from the year prior.
The second problem we found was related to data accuracy
in the tax management system.
You ought to found inconsistent use of account status codes
within the Bureau's tax system.
Different users apply different terms to similar situations.
And this resulted in the system data
that was not adequately reliable or usable.
Account statuses were not timely updated as well.
Delinquent accounts were often not labeled delinquent
until many months after taxes were actually overdue.
For example, in 2024, nearly 57% of accounts
that eventually received the delinquent status
were not marked delinquent until November of that year,
even though taxes were considered overdue in March.
Without standardized terminology and timely data entry,
management could not reliably determine the status
of delinquent accounts or assess the effectiveness
of their collection process.
The third problem we found related to oversight.
First, the Bureau had not implemented adequate segregation of duties controls over manual
adjustments of business tax accounts.
Multiple staff members, including non-supervisory personnel, had the ability to change account
amounts owed in the system.
And there was no written policy requiring a secondary approval or documentation supporting
those adjustments.
Our analysis identified more than 2,800 manual adjustments, totaling approximately $2.7 million
during this audit period, with roughly 75% of them being performed by non-supervisory
personnel.
Second, the audit also found that communication and monitoring across divisions became less
consistent during the audit period.
Leadership relied heavily on total revenue collected as a performance measure.
But that metric did not provide visibility into whether the divisions within the Bureau
were performing well.
Importantly, and I'll skip over this relatively quickly, the audit did find some units within
the Bureau to be performing well.
The Business Tax Audit Division as well as the customer support and business tax registration
both performed well and consistent with leading practices. The report resulted in
10 recommendations, including developing formal written
policies and procedures, standardizing account status definitions,
implementing regular and timely referral processes for delinquent accounts,
reinstating and expanding business discovery practices, strengthening
segregation of duties controls, and developing comprehensive performance metrics and monitoring
systems.
I went through this relatively quickly, cut some out, so I'm happy to answer any questions.
The last thing I would like to say is that we acknowledge the work of the Revenue Bureau
as we were conducting this audit.
We noted a lot of improvements in place and a recognition of some of the problems that
were occurring in the past.
Most audits are never easy, often not pleasant, but I think management's view of this audit
process was an opportunity to improve and they embraced the process and cooperated in
a very professional manner.
So I want to send my appreciation for that as well.
Thank you.
I, back in early 2024, this was probably the issue
I spent my most time on over the course of six months.
Every single Finance Committee meeting,
and I have this in my notes, I was asking the questions
about when were the NODs gonna be sent?
When were the NODs gonna be sent?
For the entirety of 2023, like when you said
no notices came out, this was a major issue
which prompted us to then ask for this audit and this review,
so I really appreciate the effort that went in.
Now, I do have some questions about the numbers
because my deep dive over the six months
taught me much more than I knew about
the process of collections
and the importance of the timeliness of notices going out,
the importance of tax enforcement officers.
To this day, several of my questions are still not answered
from the department,
but I do wanna acknowledge how many changes
the revenue division has made since then.
From my last set of questions that I have in my notes
back in June 2024, I know that many of the processes
have been changed, and since the audit period
that you studied, significantly more notices
have gone out in our collections of business tax revenues
as well as others have improved monumentally,
and I do want to point that out.
Now, I do have a question about the numbers
because back in early 2024,
when we were asking for these reports,
the numbers that I have are higher,
of missed revenues is actually higher
than what you're saying.
So I'm curious how you got to it.
Well, we had, which in my presentation
back in at the special city council meeting
on April 30th, 2024,
my estimation from different sources was 50 million,
but the number that the finance department
then admitted to was about 30 million.
In FY23-24, 6,960 businesses didn't paid,
both combination of rental and non-rental,
that was eight million.
FY22-23, it was about 8,600 businesses that didn't pay,
which is about $16 million estimated
for the projected gross revenues from those businesses,
and then 21-22 was about 10.8 million.
Was the period that your audit studied different,
or how are, and these were the numbers
that the finance department had projected.
My own estimates and others' estimates were higher,
but how did you get to your numbers
and is it the time period that's different?
The time period was partly different.
I think the primary reason is the system,
and when we extract reports from the system,
the data that we are receiving
is as of the date of the extraction.
So over time, as accounts are closed out,
there could have been accounts that would have been open
when those were reported to you at that point.
When we pulled, when we extracted data in July 2025,
November 2025, many of those accounts
could have been closed out, businesses could have closed,
so the data set would have been different.
A lot of them would have been the same,
but a lot of them would have been different as well.
So then basically, because of trained practices or notices
or whatever changes happen, some of those numbers
that I'm talking about from early 2024
were then received by the city.
It's likely that many were received
and it's likely that many were closed.
Okay.
And then, so what about one of the biggest issues
that I remember I found concerning two years ago
was the statute of limitations and the fact
that several of these businesses of this,
let's say between 30 plus million dollar figure
that was not collected in that three year period,
much of which could not be collected anymore.
Do you have an estimate of what that cannot be collected
due to statute of limitations?
I do not.
We believe it's in the tens of millions,
but the statute of limitations prevents the city
from taking legal action against those businesses
that didn't pay, depending on what actions
had taken place by the collections division.
That doesn't mean the amounts are uncollectible.
A business that inadvertently didn't pay
can voluntarily bring their account status up
to be current, that is possible.
So I don't have a precise number at this point.
And I think given the data accuracy
that we saw in the system,
with accounts either not being designated as delinquent,
it makes it very difficult to come up
with a precise number.
Okay.
Colleagues, Council Member Brown, Unger, then Wong.
Okay, excellent.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for this audit.
Give me one second.
I had a specific question about on page 27,
and I guess maybe the answer, I guess,
through the chair to our finance director
and or those who conducted the audit.
I'm interested in the recommendation number five.
Of course, all of them interested in the timeline
of implementing these recommendations,
but for recommendation number five,
develop and implement written protocols
so that no single individual is capable
of modifying business tax records, et cetera.
Just wanted to get some more kind of insight into that.
Do we actually, can you provide an example
of what would be a manual adjustment that would be made?
Yeah, there are legitimate reasons
why there would be a manual adjustment
if the tax auditors were to audit a business record,
audit the filings of a business,
and find that they misrepresented their revenue.
That auditor can update the amount owed,
the gross revenues received by the business,
and say, no, you didn't earn a million dollars
like you reported, it was two million dollars,
and they can update.
So there are legitimate reasons for adjustments.
But when adjustments are made,
there should be a secondary review,
and there's a system problem
in that the system allows an adjustment
to be made by one person.
So incorporating a system control
that automatically requires a secondary review
would help resolve this problem.
So I guess as a, oh, sure.
Good morning, Nicole Welch, Revenue and Tax Administrator.
To further delve into your question,
we have a written policy
and that was actually given over to the auditor.
We are also in a process of migrating our client base,
meaning our client-based system to the cloud,
where we will have a user group where you will be limited
on what you can actually do in the system.
So we're gonna do that via system and policy.
So right now, the policy is that to close an account,
it will be okay to close and it will be reviewed
by the supervisor if it meets the merits of being closed.
If it needs to be adjusted,
meaning the account needs to be adjusted on a dollar limit,
it is based on what your role is within the actual bureau.
I see, excellent, thank you for that detailed update.
And of the recommendations that are listed
by the city auditors team,
are there any of these that you know
that hey, you know what we need to go ahead
and implement a system very top of mind?
I'm gonna be very candid.
The majority of the items within the audit
we acknowledge that they did happen.
However, we are at an inflection point.
That inflection point happened in June
when I took over as interim.
We are actually turning it around,
and I always say to everyone that it took us years
to get there, it's gonna take us years to get out of it.
However, my team and I have been diligently
getting these things happening.
One of the things that council chair Ramachandran highlighted
is that the delinquencies notices did not go out timely.
They are going out, the property accounts went out
last week on Friday.
You're probably gonna get a lot of calls
from your constituents because that is happening.
And in June, the non-property notices
will be going out, the NODs.
And those are the notice of determinations.
In July, we're scheduled to do, I would call them,
identification, and we did the pre-identification
because we sent out postcards to all property owners
who own property in Oakland, whether you
were industrial, commercial, residential,
that if you are renting your property,
even as a short-term rental, you are
required to have a business license.
So we are enacting a lot of the things that were in the audit,
and I really appreciate having a third party
looking at our processes and giving us ideas
on where we are at a blind spot
and at this particular point in time
to affect the changes that we're going to be
and what we are doing.
What we need right now is patience and time.
And for all of our partners on the city council,
when you have your complaints from the residents,
We do understand that we are just doing our job.
Excellent, thank you for the update.
Thank you.
Just following up on that specifically,
and like I mentioned, I really appreciate the progress
that was made in the course of just a year
and sending these notices out and processes,
but are there aspects, I know a lot of the audit
looks at this before a period when things were a mess
between the pandemic and end of 2024.
other things that are being pointed out that can help you currently today?
The things that's obvious that we know you've improved on very well is outreach, getting
more businesses aware that they have to file and making sure notices are sent out on time.
Are there other aspects of this audit that you plan to, recommendations you're considering
adopting?
Absolutely, the controls.
Having those internal controls was absolutely critical.
It is an audit.
I look at it as I need to be able to follow an account
from inception to is eventual outcome of either active,
closed, bankruptcy, and what have you.
So having that identification of having
our internal controls was absolutely critical.
The other part of the audit that was absolutely critical
was the getting back into the work
of identifying new businesses,
looking at businesses that are, may not be aware
or who are aware, but are avoiding us
and actually delving in and finding these companies
and actually bringing them into compliance.
So those have been things that in this actual audit report
that is actually, I think has been a motivating factor
for my team to actually enact.
Great, thank you.
Council member Angred and Mark.
I just want to highlight Ms. Welch,
your use of the term inflection point
because I think that's really important
and as the auditor, your job is to be slow and careful
in your work, and so what we end up with
is telling the story of 2024
when 2025 and 2026 are really different,
and because you issue this report,
the headline literally becomes we're not collecting taxes
when the truth is that in 25 and 26,
that's no longer the reality.
I think it's important that we highlight that here
and let the public know that this is a story about
a problem that is in the process of being fixed.
And I hope that when you do your audit report follow-up,
whenever that is in a year, that we highlight the fact
that the change in the inflection point
had already happened by the time you issued this report
and that there are improvements
and we're collecting more taxes.
Thank you, Council Member.
And that actually reminds me of something
which is that the finance department provided a response
to this audit, the actual letter and implementation plan
where it details their agreement, partial agreement
to the audit recommendations and a timeline
as to when those are gonna be implemented.
We have not included it in the report yet,
but they did generally agree with all of them.
I'm going to make sure that that's included in the back
and it also provides some of that context showing areas
that have already been acted on.
We will follow up on these recommendations
as part of our semi-annual audit recommendation
follow up process.
And the first one will be effective June 30th, 2026.
Yeah, I have a question.
So first of all, I just wanna say the audit team,
you always do excellent work.
so thank you for pulling this together.
So I think in the report it established something
we're leaving around nine to $12 million
on the table annually.
Are we expecting because of this inflection point?
Like do we have a projection of how much
we're leaving off the table now or in the near future?
I'm not able to answer now.
I can tell you talking about inflection point
That 2025, beginning of 2025, the problem still existed.
By the end of 2025, many steps had been taken
to resolve that, so I don't believe that in 2026,
that kind of money is going to be left on the table,
that the Bureau is taking action to refer accounts
in a timely manner, that's what we found
at the end of 2025.
It's a process, right, as Nicole mentioned,
It took years to get to the point where the Bureau got
and it's gonna take some time.
So we do see that it's being resolved.
I'm not able to answer the question
about specific dollars though, I don't know.
Okay.
Nicole, do you wanna take a stab at that?
At this particular point in time,
I'm leaving no money on the table.
My objective, my job is to collect every dime
that is owed to the residents of the city of Oakland.
we will be bringing to you on July 7th,
the second batch of items that will be up for lien.
We are actually will be going through the process
of non-property accounts.
We are actually, what we will call,
we will be outreaching on those starting in June.
So it will start with a notice and then it will go.
The next step will be if you are a commercial
in-city business, we will be visiting you
to find out if you're there.
And if you're there, why did you not file
and why did you not pay?
Then after that is when you're going
to have the other part of the part of what the job entails,
which is identifying the new businesses.
So the prelude to that was the 75,000 postcards.
The next step will be identifying properties
that are not registered and that are renting.
And that will be happening in July.
OK, that's right.
So to answer your question, I absolutely and my team
absolutely take very seriously our fiduciary responsibility
of collecting the money that is due on this particular taxes
and all others.
OK, gotcha.
That's great.
And then just to confirm, because it
was mentioned that there's a statute of limitations
for collections.
That is set by state law, right?
We can't change anything about that here in the city of Oakland.
No, we can't.
Okay, and I also just want to confirm,
because we've talked about the plague
of unregistered businesses that I have
in especially along international boulevards.
We checked your businesses.
Yes, okay, and so this audit I think does not actually,
like looking at the nine to $12 million gap,
that's based off of licensed and registered businesses,
so we may actually be leaving more on the table,
and it does sound like there's an important thing
that I know Nicole, we've been in discussion
that we should also try to get people
into just the basic compliance
of being registered to begin with.
That's why I said be prepared for complaints.
Okay, sounds good.
We'll take that, thank you.
Okay, is there a public comment?
Yes, calling in the names
that signed up to speak on item number three,
Asada Ola Bala, David Boatwright, and Kevin Dalley.
Kevin Dalley, I'll be quick.
I think it's great that you're looking
yet fire code inspections and building inspections
to find some of the businesses that aren't yet paying,
hoping that you're also looking for the money
that the businesses owe for unpaid fire inspection fees.
Thank you for your work.
David Bowry at district four.
As a city taxpayer on time, it is very discouraging to hear
that so much revenue was missed.
interesting to hear what the statute of limitations is and how much of this
money we will be able to recover. I too, like the committee's chairperson, am
frustrated by delays in receiving responses to questions and in my case
it's from district representative, my district representatives office. I'd like
to know how much of our ability to collect taxes is being held up by the
the fact that you have to collect deal with waste management when people have
not paid and you have to deal with holding them accountable who's
responsible for that in the city if we didn't have that responsibility we could
spend more time on dealing with this issue I hope you I don't think your
contract with waste management is not coming up anytime soon but when it does
come up get out of that responsibility of dealing when people do not pay waste
management bills. Now anytime you receive in the mail a postcard that says if you
are a landlord you should be paying a tax. That means you don't know who should
be paying business taxes as landlords. The other thing is this report reflects
data from July 1st, 2021 through July 30th, 2024, we don't have any report on the two
years since 2024. We're looking like two years ago where we were at that time. Where are
we today? So we're looking at no regulatory reviews, lack of policies, delay on refunds,
inconsistencies, lack of accuracy, lack of timeliness,
lack of proper oversight.
That's a lot of lack ofs.
So I don't know the deadline for the overall total fix is what date.
What is the timeline for fixing this?
And it has to be fixed because it's too-
I'm sorry.
Chair that includes all speakers on this item. Thank you I'll entertain a motion. I'll make
a motion to receive and file the report. Second. Thank you that was a motion made by Councilmember
Wong seconded by Councilmember Brown to receive and file this informational report in committee
on roll council members Brown. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And Chair Ramachandran. Aye.
Item number three passes with four ayes to receive and file this information report in tonight item clerk
May I make a quick announcement since we have 15 minutes and three
Apparently very time sensitive items. We will be reducing speaker time to one minute and request a very abbreviated staff presentation. Thank you
Okay reading in item number four
adopted resolution approving the city of Oakland landscaping and lighting assessment district fiscal year 2026 to 2027 preliminary engineers report
declaring the intention to levy and collect the annual landscaping and lighting assessment district assessment for fiscal year
2026 to 2027 and setting June 2nd
2026 at 3 30 p.m. As a date for the date and time for a public hearing and we have two speakers that sign up to speak
Good morning through the chair. I am Jose say what a principal budget and management analyst with the finance department today
I am presenting a resolution of intention to levy and collect the fiscal year 2026 27
Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District,
or LAD Assessments.
This item represents the second of three annual steps
required under state law to administer the district.
And it sets June 2nd, 2026 at 3.30 p.m.
as the public hearing date
for Council consideration of the final levy.
We have our consulting assessment engineer
from Francisco Associates available via Zoom
for any questions that you may have.
And I'm also available to answer any questions
that you may have.
Thank you.
and we can move to public speakers.
Calling in the names I signed up to speak
on item four, Asada Ola Bala and Blair Beekman.
I just need a point of clarification.
Are union members considered a part of the public?
Are they employees of the city of Oakland?
Because you referenced that we heard from the public.
You didn't hear from the public, you heard from the union.
That y'all are working together
to get this illegal Measure E out.
So something that's confusing
because I always take the position that public hearing,
you have to do it, but you don't take it serious.
Because in the document it says,
after hearing adopted resolution,
confirm the report and levy the assessment.
Now I thought the public hearing was supposed to be
a way of determining whether you're gonna
levy the assessments.
What's the purpose of the public hearing?
if you already have in your directive
that you are gonna approve leveling the assessment.
Why are we speaking as public members?
Are we just going through the motion?
Are you keeping your minds open
to possibly voting one way or the other?
Thank you for your comments, Ms. Ola Bala.
Blair Beekman, if you still wish to speak,
please raise your hand.
All names have been called at this time, Chair.
Thank you, I'll entertain a motion.
I'll move the item to the Council meeting, June 2nd.
Can I, I'd like to ask just one confirming question.
So we have an opportunity, this is gonna be on June 2nd,
where we're actually gonna vote
and have a lengthier discussion about this.
Okay, all right.
Thank you, that was a motion made by Council Member Brown,
second by Council Member Unger
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item
to the May 19th City Council agenda.
on roll council members brown um are we forwarding this item to the june 2nd
through the chair to the city attorney the item goes to the next council
meeting to fix the here and we'll fix the hearing date for the third
stitch at june 2nd okay thank you council member
younger i long i and chair ramachandran hi thank
you item number four passes with four i support this item to the may 19th city
to Council agenda on consent.
Reading in item number five,
adopted resolution approving the appointment
of an annuitant without a 180 day break in service
where the appointment is necessary to fill
a critically needed position before 180 days have passed
since the employees retirement in accordance
with government code section 21224 and 7522.56.
And we have two speakers that signed up to speak.
Thank you, Assistant City Clerk and through the Chair.
My name is Chuck Baker.
I'm the Assistant City Administrator.
And the city administrator's office
is bringing forward this resolution
to retain a retiring employee supporting
critical and time sensitive Oakland army-based work
with myself, City Administrator Johnson,
and Economic and Workforce Development Department.
This allows for continuity during his transition
into retirement.
While administrative in nature, CalPERS regulations
require City Council approval.
Brendan from our department will provide additional detail,
and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We can move to public comment.
Calling in the names, I sign up to speak on item five,
Asada Olavala and Kevin Dally.
Problem with this person being,
I have an opportunity to continue his work,
but I have a problem with the work
that's being done at the Oakland Army Base.
The Oakland Army base is heavily contaminated
with toxic substance, including lead, arson,
petroleum products, that's kerosene,
asbestos carbonated solutions.
These pollutants remain in the soil and groundwater,
causing significant environmental and public health
concerns for the surrounding West Oakland community.
Y'all, those toxins have been there for years
and you did not seek to utilize the property
but now you're ignoring all these health issues.
Just like you're ignoring the Oakland Hills skyline,
cannot be evacuated.
You ignore anything that is a challenge
to doing the right thing that you don't wanna deal with.
Kevin Dalley, I want to make sure
that when we do approve exceptions to the Inuitant Rule
they're not aware that this is
something that we don't. We
have a way of tracking the
maximum number of hours that
they're legally allowed. To
perform before something else
happens as long as that happens
and this is fine thanks. Thank
you for your comments chair
that concludes all speakers on
this item thank you I want to
take a motion councilor Brown
excellent and I do have a slight
question- I'll be quick- this
is my first I'm seeing an item
Is there like a timeframe of how long the employee
is able to work outside of this scope?
Through the chair to Councilmember Brown,
960 hours, no person who can work more than
960 hours in a fiscal year.
960 hours, excellent, thank you.
Councilmember?
Okay, I'll make, oh, I'm just making a motion.
Second.
Yeah.
Second.
Councilmember?
I apologize, were there any other questions or comments?
Okay.
Thank you, we have a motion made by Councilmember Wong,
seconded by Councilmember Brown
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the May 19th
City Council Agenda on...
Sorry, May 19th City Council Agenda
on roll, Councilmembers Brown?
Aye.
Unger?
Aye.
Wong?
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran?
Aye.
Thank you, item number five passes with four ayes
to forward this item to the May 19th
City Council Agenda on consent.
Now reading in item number seven.
Adopt an ordinance authorizing the borrowing of funds
and the issuance and sale of 2026-27 tax and revenue anticipation notes in a principal
amount not to exceed $200 million payable from revenues received for or accrued to the
general fund of the city during the fiscal year 2026-27 and approving certain related
matters and we have two speakers that sign up to speak.
Good morning, excuse me, good morning, David Jones, Treasury Administrator to you, Chairperson
Ramachandran, and committee members before you is this first reading of the ordinance
for the borrowing of this year's notes for 2627.
The note will mature in less than 15 months, and the city has successfully done this type
of transaction in the past, funds that will be used to temporarily even out the cash flows
arising from fluctuations in monthly tax and revenue receipts.
And also, we'll include a prepayment to CalPERS for
our unfunded actual liability and we receive a discount of approximately 3.34%.
And we'll be coming back with resolution as well as other documents in June.
And we're recommending that this go next Tuesday to Council on non-consent.
Thank you, is it typically required to go on non-consent?
Yes, yes, there's some type of legal ramifications
that outside bond counsel has recommended
they'd like to see it on non-consent.
Okay, colleagues, questions, comments?
Take a motion to adopt the staff recommendation.
And I will second that and we can go to public.
Calling in the names of sign-up to speak on item seven,
Asada Olavala and Kevin Dalley.
So the thing that concerns me is that you agree
when you go through this process to repay within one year
using expected future revenues,
such as fees, grants, and taxes.
So are you prepared to say you can guarantee
that you'll be able to in one year repay,
and we're talking about rep, he's shaking his head,
okay, Brian, we'll see.
Mr. Dali, do you still wish to speak on?
Thank you chair that concludes all speakers on this item and we have a motion made by Councilmember Wong second by chair
Ramachandran to approve the recommendations of staff and to port this to the May 19th
2026 city council agenda on non-consent on roll council members Brown. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And chair
Ramachandran. Aye. Thank you item number seven passes with four eyes to port this item to the May 19th city council agenda on non-consent
Now moving on to open forum calling in the names that sign up to speak Mike
Petal off David boat right Asada, Olavala Millie Cleveland Blair Beekman and Kevin, Dali
Interest of time I have a takeaway for the council members I could I could leave behind
Open forum is for items within the scope of the committee
But not on the agenda and I have that today in terms of coordinating paving that you funded and trenching
Let me say congratulations to this committee for your work in fiscal diligence to improve our credit rating so we could have bonds we have
and paving moving forward.
But we need to deal with trenching.
And let me say, I'm actually a member
of the Budget Advisory Commission.
We made a recommendation in the mayor's budget last cycle.
But I'm speaking today really as a resident of District 4
and as a registered professional civil engineer in California.
Let me just state the obvious, maybe.
Our streets are also utility corridors.
Storm drains, potable water, electricity run in our streets.
Private and public entities put their utilities there
and need to trench and dig up our streets.
That impacts the need for paving sooner
and can mess up paving that's been done.
Many cities, and I've experienced this personally,
have provisions.
Thank you for your comments.
Your one minute is up.
David Boatwright, District 4.
It's amazing that so little has been
said about the upcoming budget.
What happened to the community meetings
to obtain budget input?
What is the expected deficit if Measure E is not approved June the 2nd?
I'm very grateful for the groups Empower Oakland and Citizens Oakland for putting out and identifying
the issues with Measure E. So it says that and from the group, citizens Oakland, high
tax per capita, they call this broken promises, the fire station and the misusing and all
of this.
And I'm not going to go into detail, but I just appreciate that there are groups out
here, not like Wellstone, not supporting Measure E. And if you take the time to go look at
the reasons, you shouldn't be supporting it either.
So I'm just going to continue to tell people, vote no on Measure E, that you've got to come
up with a way to fairly present to the public.
You're looking at, I just saw today that farmers' insurance is going to be going up on the payments
for homeowner's insurance, mortgages.
Thank you for your commerce, Miss Olavala.
Okay, baby.
I'll take a consideration.
Blair Pickman, you can unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.
We need to track this as well.
I miss the landscape and lighting item hopefully my words about the future of street lighting can be related we need to practice is all the way around with the issue.
I'm learning more about what you accomplished with the cell bright issue that actually it can be brought back in a year's time which is actually amazing again like with
We got promises. We got a long list of promises. I hope we really want to work on those promises.
I will definitely be speaking of public comment to remind you of our good promises, of what's
possible and capable. Man, we are setting the course for the nation quite possibly.
So thank you immensely. I really hope we can stick to our good work and good efforts and
and want to continue questioning the future
of our technology and finding more appropriate ways
to work with our future technology.
We're doing that in Oakland, thank you.
Thank you for your comments, Chair,
that concludes all speakers.
Thank you, this meeting is adjourned.