Good morning and welcome to the Public Works
and Transportation Committee meeting for today, May 26th.
The time is now 1132 and this meeting has come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions
on how to submit a speaker cards for items on this agenda.
If you're here with us in chambers
and you would like to submit a speaker's card,
please fill one out and turn it to a clerk representative,
my left, your right, before the item is read into record.
Online speaker requests were due 24 hours
prior to this meeting.
That time was yesterday at 11.30 AM.
The meeting came to order at 11.32.
Speaker cards are no longer be accepted
10 minutes after this meeting has began,
making that time 11.42.
With that, we will now proceed to take roll.
Councilmember Gaiu?
Present.
Thank you.
Councilmember Huston is excused.
Thank you, Councilmember Wong.
present thank you and chair unger here thank you we do have three members
present and one excuse Houston and chair unger do you have any a nice months for
us today no announcements thanks to everyone for being here thank you so
much glad to be here moving to our first item of the day approval of the draft
minutes from the committee meeting on May 12 2026 and we do have one speaker
all right let's hear from our speaker want to call your name please approach
the podium if you're participating via zoom please wear your hands so you're
easily identified mr. Dwayne Nelson okay you filled out for item 2 mrs.
Asada this items doing else and I'm gonna see my time to mrs. Asada okay
okay mr. Wayne mr. Nelson wait this time to speak I'll entertain a motion on the
Okay, we do have a motion made by Council Member Gallo, seconded by Council Member Wong
to accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting on May 12, 2026, as is, on roll.
Council Member Gallo?
Aye.
Thank you.
Council Member Houston, is it excused?
Council Member Wong?
Aye.
Thank you.
And Chair Onger?
Aye.
This motion passes with three ayes, one excused.
Houston, move into item two, determination of scheduled outstanding committee items.
This is also known as your pending list
and we do have two speakers for this item.
Anything from staff or council members on the pending list?
All right, let's hear from our speakers then.
Thank you.
Wanna call your name, please approach the podium.
If you're participating via Zoom,
please raise your hands if you're easily identified.
We do take in-person speakers before Zoom speakers,
Dwayne Nelson and Ms. Asada.
Dwayne Nelson, District 3 West Oakland resident.
Proud supporter of the Arsenal Football Club running English Premier League champions
So today we're talking trash
So we have the report here from the city auditor and we get to the second page
And we get finally we have found that while the city's illegal dumping cleanup appears to have been effective and timely
So we get a footnote on timely and it says that in 2024 legal dumping crews average monthly median median not average
Time to resolve was two business days.
Well, here we are in 2026 or even going back to 2025 when I have a service request open.
From 2025, June 3rd, still open.
Service request 1524103, now the good thing is that that trash is actually gone.
Service request still open.
But the bad news is we still have a new trash pile there.
Again, I opened up a service request 162460.
over the past two years it's
been open since April 25 this
year.
So I don't know where we are on
this two day median but I think
we're not certainly seeing that
and in west Oakland.
I don't know councilmember guy
if you're seeing that two days
in your district.
So that's interesting you know
like I said second page of this
audit when we get that.
So I think there's a plan now
and we'll try to get a lot of
of the Chinese speakers to be
able to use the platform.
I think that's great.
I'm all for having other
people speaking different
languages as a first language.
Having access to a crappy
system.
You know, welcome to the
platform as they say.
Welcome to the suck.
So I hope we can do a better
job of cleaning up the trash
there.
And so I will yield back my
time.
Thank you for your comment and
Friday, I twisted my ankle, and I almost twisted my ankle again on clay and 14th.
Somebody had to drop me off.
This is big dip.
The sidewalk is not even.
When are you going to fix that?
That project around City Hall is ridiculous.
I've seen them digging up after they've laid it off.
You put tape out here instead of white paint.
So my request is projects that are allocated have to be completed.
And if they're not completed, why?
This is an incomplete project out here.
Over here on Keller and Mountain, you got lights that have been put up for months.
The lights are not on.
You have on the sidewalks throughout the city, sidewalks that are being occupied by vendors.
Right now there's a vendor on the City Island on Mountain in Keller.
There's a tree on that island, constantly large, it's a dysfunctional tree.
Constantly big limbs are dropping off of that tree.
Nobody should be on that island.
But there's a vendor there, and that tree, big tree limb falls on and you're going to
get hurt.
The other thing is, you started clearing the medium of weeds
on Keller, started at Mountain, went all the way up
to college or campus, I can't remember, and then stopped.
After that, from campus all the way up to Skyline,
the weeds are all over the place.
Added to that, where they did do the work,
you still have patchy areas of weeds
still on the on the perimeter of the medium on kel so the work is not being
done effectively and somebody's got to deal with three three years to do a
notice of violation on thank you for your comment mr. sauna and that
concludes your public speakers for item two okay I will make a motion to approve
the pending this do we have a second we do have a motion by chair Unger second
it by councilmember gallo to accept the termination of schedule outstanding
committee items as is on roll, Council Member Gallo?
Aye.
Council Member Houston?
Aye.
Thank you.
Council Member Wong?
Aye.
And Chair Unger?
Aye.
This motion does pass with four ayes to accept.
Determination and schedule outstanding committee items
as is moving to item three.
Receive an informational report from the city auditor
on the performance audit of illegal dumping
and you do have two speakers.
All right, let's hear our report from the auditor first.
How long do you think you need sir ten minutes, okay?
morning
The title of our audit is actually it's a mouthful. It's
Performance audit of illegal dumping improvements to the accessibility of legal waste disposal and the city's enforcement and
remediation policies and operations
Could help alleviate Oakland's illegal dumping problem and the audit report is attached to the agenda packet and is accessible
on a website Oakland auditor.com I
Am Michael Houston the city auditor. I'm joined today by assisted city auditor Stephanie Noble Wilson and performance
Performance auditor Halla Calton Bruner who conducted this audit?
one of the reasons we initiated the audit back in
2024 was how broadly and how deeply illegal dumping
Resonate it as an issue among Oakland residents and business operators
Illegal dumping tangibly affects Oaklanders and has long been a problem in Oakland negatively affecting health safety
the environment
property and economic well-being
Not it had four objectives
First we sought to identify incentives that increase the likelihood and or occurrence of illegal dumping in Oakland
We also sought to assess the City's efficiency and effectiveness in deploying resources to decrease illegally dumped waste.
We sought to determine what controls promote effective illegal dumping cleanups and enforcement.
Finally, we sought out to evaluate how accessible and familiar
services to mitigate illegal dumping, including free bulky pickup and 3-1-1 reporting, were to City residents.
As we do for all of our audits,
Once we designed and completed fieldwork to meet these objectives and the resulting audit
report details three audit findings and 17 audit recommendations.
The first of the three findings was that legal waste removal should be more convenient and
affordable to Oaklanders.
The city's contracted waste hauler, waste management, reported collecting 244.5 tons
or nearly 500 million pounds of legally disposed waste in Oakland in 2025.
In fiscal year 23-24, Oakland Public Works, keeping Oakland clean
and beautiful crews reported picking up about five and a half tons
or over 10 million pounds of illegally dumped waste.
KOCB crews reported picking up about 3.6 thousand tons or over 7 million pounds
of illegally dumped waste in fiscal year 24-25.
uh... during the audit we observed that throughout the city household waste was
more commonly dumped
than apparently
uh... then apparent commercial or construction and demolition waste
both staff from the public works department staff of our contract at
holler
reported that illegally dump
dump illegal dumping
is mainly composed of residential materials
we observe the legal dumping piles throughout the city containing
furniture clothing diaper
uh... food scraps and other household waste
and we point that out in the report.
We wanted to find out what might motivate residents
to dump illegally.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's
Illegal Dumping Guide explains that communities
facing illegal dumping might lack convenient,
affordable legal waste disposal due to residents
struggling to pay for trash pickup,
residents lacking education on local laws,
residents not knowing how harmful dumping could be,
and residents lacking ways to haul waste
to a transfer station or landfill.
And during our audit, we found that legal waste disposal
is more expensive in Oakland than other local jurisdictions.
In 24-25, Oakland residents paid between 23 to 40% more
for curbside service that did residents
of neighboring jurisdictions that used the same hauler.
Oakland residents also paid more for single family curbside
hauling than San Francisco and San Jose,
who used different contractors.
And there are more tenant occupied residents
and owner occupied residences in Oakland,
but we know that while reduced rates are available
to low income and disabled homeowners,
they are not available to tenants.
We also found that the city
can maximize its hauling contract.
Bulky waste disposal services are not used
to their full potential.
Multifamily residents appear to be particularly
under utilizing annual bulky pickup service.
and dumpsters allotted to the mayor
and city council members through the hauling contract
were underutilized.
And in response to our findings
about residential waste disposal service,
we made four recommendations,
including negotiating contract terms
to reduce hauling rates and promote transparency,
and fully utilizing existing services like bulky pickups.
The second finding included commercial waste hauling
addition to residential waste hauling and the title of finding number two was
that the city the city could strengthen its enforcement of illegal dumping
through legislative changes and improved regional collaboration. So first the
audit noted that commercial hauling enforcement is weaker than residential
hauling enforcement. According to the municipal code all commercial
businesses except those meeting self-haul or waiver requirements must
subscribed to collection services. Both the city and its contract of waste
hauler estimated that thousands of Oakland businesses were not signed up
for garbage service as of late 2023 to early 2024. Businesses not signed up for
service may illegally dump waste themselves and are higher unlicensed
haulers who illegally dump waste. So in general, businesses without appropriate
garbage service posed an increased risk of illegal dumping.
During our audit, the city was not pursuing special assessments on commercial properties
that were not subscribing to hauling services.
On the audit noted that renewed collaboration efforts could help bolster illegal dumping
enforcement region-wide.
Both the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and Oakland Police Department have the authority
to issue citations for illegal hauling and dumping.
The Alameda County District Attorney's Office received six illegal dumping cases in 2025.
Six.
And that's including all the other jurisdictions in Oakland.
OPD has authority to cite for violations of hauling permitting and illegal dumping, but
is limited by time constraints and competing priorities.
Criminal enforcement notably requires a higher standard of evidence and Oakland police officers
need probable cause to stop vehicles.
And according to OPD, simply hauling trash
does not meet that threshold.
Oakland's illegal dumping fines are lower than those
in other jurisdictions.
I think this is an area that's already been addressed.
But high fines could hold the dumpers accountable,
recover some of the costs of enforcement,
and could deter illegal dumping.
And we know that how Oakland's administrative citations
were just $100 for the first offense,
250 for the second, 500 for the third,
much lower than cities like San Jose,
where the first offense carries a $2,500 fine.
We made three recommendations in this finding.
Institute special assessments for commercial properties
without curb side waste service.
We recommended to improve collaboration
on illegal dumping enforcement with the county.
And we recommended that the city improve coordination
between departments involved in illegal dumping enforcement,
including public works, code enforcement, OPD, and finance.
And the third and final finding,
while the city's illegal dumping cleanup appears
to have been effective and timely,
311 reporting should be more accessible
and enforcement needs clear strategies, procedures,
interdepartmental coordination, and performance management.
So environmental enforcement officers patrol the city
searching for and investigating illegal dumping and present evidence to the city attorney
or district attorney, they also provide outreach and education to the community.
We know that there are no active written policies and procedures for staff, and that the Public
Works Department's Environmental Enforcement Unit's work plan was in draft form.
Staff interviews indicated conflicting understanding of roles and responsibilities, and we found
that the Environmental Enforcement Officers need additional training on hazardous waste
identification, and other cases that could improve enforcement.
The Environmental Enforcement Unit lacks efficient and effective coordination with other departments
involved in illegal dumping enforcement, like OPD Code Enforcement and Finances Collections
Division.
While Public Works has performance data, supervisors report that performance management data is
of limited use and other types of analysis, such as which strategies improve the effectiveness
sub-citations would be more helpful. A bit of good news, which was alluded to a little
while ago, that was that the reactive, reactive illegal dumping cleanups were effective. Emphasis
on reactive, meaning the CCLIC fix requests. In 2024, the medium length of time to resolve
illegal dumping cleanup requests was two business days, which is one day less than the goal
of resolving 85% of cases within three days.
We did note that the time to resolve complaints spiked in the beginning of 2025 when Public
Works experimented with a proactive approach to dumping removal.
Public Works has since returned to a reactive model.
We have an exhibit in the report that shows those trends.
The city administrator's office should work to expand 311 reporting to meet the city's
equal access ordinance.
311 reporting via a C-Click Fix was only available in English.
Non-English speakers would have to report by phone to receive city translation services,
and this is not in line with the city's language access ordinance.
Just checking the answer.
We're at 10 minutes.
Okay.
About three minutes.
Okay.
response to these findings, we made recommendations 8-17 including internal organization and
regular evaluation of citation strategies within the Department of Public Works Environmental
Enforcement Union.
Implementing before and after photos of reactive illegal dumping cleanups, we encouraged continued
reporting by the public and showed the effectiveness of cleanup crews, expanding online 311 reporting
to allow use in other languages as required by the city's equal access ordinance.
The administration accepted all of the audit recommendations and provided timelines for
implementation.
The administration has even reported completion of some of the audit recommendations.
The administration's responses to the audit recommendations are attached to the back of
the audit report.
And we will ask for the statuses of all the audit recommendations and verify those statuses
as part of our semi-annual audit recommendation follow-up process.
The next one will be through the period effective June 30, 2026, and will include updates on
the statuses of recommendations from this audit at that time, and will publicly report
the results.
I just presented a really broad overview of the audit.
Presenting it in detail would take multiple hours, but I encourage everyone to read the
audit report, which again is included in the agenda packet and posted on our website. We're
happy to present our audit in more detail, individual briefings, as well as community
and neighborhood groups. We thank the City Administration for their cooperation throughout
the audit process. And with that, we're here to answer any questions. I saw that we have
the Public Works Director and Assistant Director are here.
That's great. Thank you. So what time period does this report cover?
The audit scope, yes. So the scope of the audit focus on data from 2019 through 2025,
though data as early as 2013 is presented to visualize trends.
And I know that audits are always sort of a lagging process, but there has been a lot
done in the last six months around illegal dumping do you have any sense
from sort of being deep in the weeds on this whether we are beginning to meet
some of the audit recommendations already I see that there was been some
legislation right so the fine schedule has changed or is yes is my
understanding so that's one of the recommendations right there we had a
recommendation that the city should consider increasing the fines so that's
That's an example of something that's already had some movement.
And on the issue around legal and affordable options and the cost, is that something that
– I should say it this way.
I don't believe that's something we can do unilaterally.
That's something we have to do in negotiation with Waste Management whose contract is not
up until 2030.
Correct?
That's correct.
Okay.
Thank you.
Colleagues, Councilmember Gaye.
Yeah, thank you, and certainly just for the members
of the public, I just want to let the public know
that every city council has six employees,
but five of my employees all we do Monday through Sunday
from six in the morning to 12 noon is clean up
my district five, and that includes not just my sidewalks,
my streets, but also around my neighborhood schools
and inside my parks due to the fact that we don't have
that support anymore within the city of Oakland
or Oakland Unified.
And that's all we do Monday through Sunday.
And certainly you'll find me out there Wednesdays and Saturdays
and Sundays.
We don't care if it's a holiday or whatever it is raining,
but we're out there using city vehicles trying to clean up
the neighborhood.
And the reality is I clean it up today.
I go back tomorrow morning, six in the morning,
I go back and clean it up again.
I come back the day after that, it's the same old issue.
But the illegal dumping was abandoned cars
and all that other stuff that's happening.
So the question that I have for you
as a resident of the city,
I do have one of the most expensive garbage bills
that I have to pay for through my home,
that I did anywhere in the State of California.
All right, so I have a garbage bill that's expensive.
Then secondly, you need to point out that this city
is one of the very few, if not now, only two left
that we have what we call a franchise fee.
Where I as a citizen, besides paying for my garbage bill,
I'm charged, or waste management collects,
35 million dollars a year from us residents to give back to the city and the goal beginning
was to give that dollars to help us with public works, keep the neighborhoods clean.
But I still haven't heard where is that 35, 36 million on top of your bill that you have
to pay for?
Where is that money going to the city?
And how is that utilized to keep our cities safe and clean?
And you need to be able to report that back.
One is what is the cost?
Then the other one that you need to report back, I as a resident, what if I have my couches
and my mattress and whatever and I want to go to waste management to dump my stuff is
one of the most expensive in the state of California and in the nation.
I use an example, I do that in Tucson, Arizona
for my mother-in-law, took a truckload, it was $30.
But I come and do that in Oakland, it's $300.
To take, go to waste management and we deliver,
we dump our trash every day in waste management.
But I do want to also ask you,
because you brought up that program we had
where people can line up and go take their trash
to Public Works Yard and all that.
But what I saw this Saturday and a couple times before
were the residents of San Leandro this past Saturday.
If you're a resident of San Leandro,
you get in line and go to waste management
and unload whatever you want to unload.
Didn't cost you a thing.
As long as you show proof you were in San Leandro
with a bill, you went and unloaded no cost.
You didn't have to take it to the public works yard
and give it to them and we paying overtime.
then they got to take it to waste management, pay more.
And so I think that it's the process that Oakland has
in terms of the cost.
I think we need to let the public know
so the city can fix that, all right?
And so that's one, but the reality is that you're right.
There are many properties, apartment complexes,
and businesses that don't have a license.
And it used to be that the city would enforce that,
but now I'm getting waste management
to help me on my streets to come check with you.
Sir, you're throwing your trash on the corner
or leaving it in front of your building,
but you don't have a garbage bill.
And legally, if you have a business here,
you have to not only have a business license,
but you have to have a garbage license.
And many of us don't have that,
including the haulers, you go by Home Depot right now,
You'll see 10, 15 trucks lined up,
ready to pick up your trash,
but none of them have a hauling license, right?
And I'll pick up your trash and I'll wait for the evening
and I'll find a place to dump it.
And we have that experience
because the enforcement that I have is not present.
And, because I do take pictures and videos,
but I got to give them to the city attorney.
The city attorney has to check them
and give them to the county attorney.
Then the county attorney has to send them
before the judge and I have to be pressing at the judge
and yep, that's him, judge.
He's the one that I saw him dumping his stuff.
But if I go do that, he's gonna come back and get me
so a lot of people said, no, I ain't gonna show up
to point the finger, that was the one that did it.
So I think it went as the cost items to recognize
and let the public know where is our money being used
within the city structure, but for me, that franchise fee,
I keep asking publicly, where is that money?
36 million a year that's being collected.
Is that money supposed to be going directly
to hire more people at Public Works,
more vehicles to clean up our suites?
But I don't get our response in terms of how we're using
the money from the taxpayers that we're getting.
Anyway, that's just one question that I have for you,
and I would appreciate that information back.
Thank you.
Thank you for this.
Director Garland, did you want to respond to any of this?
Good morning, Chair and committee members.
I am Liam Garland, Oakland's Public Works Director.
First, I wanna give a big thank you
to the auditor and the auditor's team.
This is a very thoughtful audit
and showed a ton of collaboration
throughout the course of its production.
I'll only take two or three minutes
just to share a little bit about the actions
this city has already taken.
Big picture though, as we sit here today
and we read through this audit, what I see is alignment.
I see alignment between our auditor, our mayor,
our city council, our city administration,
our staff and our community on where to focus.
And that is on enforcement, on more strategic cleanup,
and better education and outreach on legal disposal options.
Now, as the city auditor mentioned,
our specific management responses are pages 57 to 62,
and some of the actions had already occurred
as the audit was being released,
and then subsequent to the audit's release,
the council approved a legal dumping expenditure action plan
that addresses even more of the audit's recommendations.
So as always, let's start with the three E's, and we'll focus on enforcement for a moment.
We need more enforcement tools and better collection processes.
Well, council has already adopted a higher citation amounts for illegal dumping, strengthened
vehicle-related enforcement provisions, and supported proposed state legislation that
would allow DMV registration holds where a legal dumping citation were not paid.
Council also approved in the expenditure plan investments in handheld devices and other
software for the environmental enforcement officers that's going to help increase the
citation numbers and also their collections rate.
That same plan also expanded cameras, the illegal dumping cameras, including solar powered
cameras which give us more flexibility on where we can deploy those cameras.
The plan expanded our capacity for footage review and we're also working with Northwestern
students to see if there's a use of artificial intelligence that might help with review of
that illegal dumping camera footage. The audit also suggests better collaboration
between OPD and public works on illegal dumping enforcement efforts indeed back
in January the mayor and city administrators office convened our
departments to make sure that collaboration occurred and as we sit
here today OPW has shared footage with OPD and OPD has initiated investigations
regulations based on this footage so progress is being made.
Let's talk about eradication.
The audit notes that visible dumping attracts more dumping and this is one of the reasons
why rapid removal matters.
In what council approved through the illegal dumping expenditure action plan, that included
funding for the aerial technology that's going to help us identify those piles and pick them
up more quickly and not have to rely so much on 311.
It includes spending for additional lightning loader trucks, which are so important for
abating those big piles, additional staffing and overtime for proactive cleanup operations,
which are occurring to date.
They're on Fridays and Mondays and Saturdays.
All of these investments are going to help improve our response times, strengthen proactive
of cleanup efforts in hard hit areas and deploy
our crews more effectively.
Now, we're also, before the summer recess,
we're bringing, staff is bringing an item to impose
or give staff the ability to impose special assessments
on commercial properties that either don't have garbage
service or insufficient service.
And remember, this is important because if they don't
have sufficient service, that waste they are producing is likely ending up on our streets
and sidewalks or our public litter containers.
And what this item will do, if approved by council, will essentially enable us to impose
a special assessment just like we do on the residential side, so it's making residential
and commercial equivalent.
Finally on education, it is we agree with the auditor that many residents, especially
are renters are not aware of no-cost bulky pickup and disposal options. So
because of Council's approval of that illegal dumping expenditure action plan
we now have resources to expand the outreach and education that's already
started. You've got the Ike kiosk with messaging around no-cost bulky pickups.
You've got the electronic billboards that are also showing that that
communication. We've got a partnership with Keep Oakland Beautiful around outreach and education.
Other advertising that is coming to help promote those no cost disposal options. So you look at all
of this together and what I see is alignment and action around enforcement, eradication,
and education and that this alignment and these actions will make a difference. Again,
Thank you councilmember Wong through the chair first of all I want to thank the auditor for lifting up that the free one one system is not compliant with our equal access ordinance it's something I've observed myself just the inequities in my own district and the deep east area where it's mostly immigrants objectively awful illegal dumping and I think that's something that's important to me as well as the people who are working with me.
objectively awful illegal dumping probably five 311 reports compared to
The wealthier areas 400 reports for dumpsters in the right of way
Which is like, you know while some version of illegal dumping is is magnitudes of less worse than what I'm seeing in the eastern area
one thing that I was particularly
Frustrated to read in your report was
around the enforcement and the cost and effectiveness of it.
And I think some of that will be remedied
by the increase in the fines.
But you had noted that we spend $2 million
on the enforcement and we collected only what you noted,
what is it, $16,000 in fines,
which is, I have to say abysmal,
especially as we try to ramp up
and improve our ability to do enforcement.
It was noted, and again, this is the citations
that we actually issue, to be clear.
So, we don't issue many of the citations to begin with.
So, of the ones that we actually issue,
it looks like many citations went unpaid
or received no response.
And that, anyways, can you explain some sort of,
I'd like to dig deeper into that,
and if you have any recommendations
how we improve that since to me that seems to be a gap between the Public Works Department
and the Finance Department and the cohesion between these two departments being able to
work together.
And I've seen this for myself on the human trafficking front and so this is a repeated
theme and I am growing more and more frustrated.
Or maybe Betsy or excuse me, Madam Administrator Lake, if you'd like to also speak to this.
I'd like to ask Liam, if it's okay,
Director Garland to come back up.
I know that the department is working closely,
the public works department is working closely
with our finance department to overhaul the process.
So that is in process.
That's right.
Essentially what we've gotten is our finance team
and our EEOs together along with some IT support.
And we're developing a solution where,
I'll not get into the weeds too much,
But essentially, you have an EEO electronically
submitting a citation.
And then that, if not collected upon, the electronic software
behind it will produce the packet that is required
by finance to collect.
So instead of dealing in paper and having
to put these packages together, essentially
it's happening electronically.
And then even being submitted electronically
from public works to the finance department.
and we think this will make a big difference
in terms of the throughput of these processes.
Right, which is good, and that is why I was excited
to pass that last week, because I do see
that there's remedies noted with the issues
that are noted in the audit.
I think the other thing that I would like to discuss
is just how many more cameras we need.
I know with that expenditure report,
we essentially doubled our cameras from 36 to 72.
I'm not sure if that's, I don't think that still gives us
the coverage we need, to be honest,
and I wouldn't like to know if anyone has kind of a measure,
an estimate of what is needed to provide adequate coverage.
That way we actually issue the citations,
because we don't have, I think,
I have not seen in some of our reporting or in the audit,
how many citations have gone not cited in the first place.
So how many dumping instances,
what percentage of dumping instances
not even being cited in the first place. And how much more coverage do we need in order
to actually issue the citations? Anyone have any ideas?
What if I start and then I'll, okay. In terms of the, I've looked a little bit at the research
around enforcement in terms of what's the minimum level enforcement to help deter the
behavior in the first place. And I think the numbers there are around three to five percent
of all of the dumping incidents.
And so if you translate that into reality,
I think that's around 1500 or so citations per year.
That starts, that likely is to start having
the deterrent effect that we're looking for.
I just wanna correct something on the cameras.
We've got about 36 deployed throughout the city.
The illegal dumping expenditure action plan
gives us some additional resources
for more camera deployments, including solar powered ones.
but we're still on the hunt for resources
to dramatically increase that program.
And I think where we wanna get to
is at least around 100 cameras given the volume
of the dumping that we see on the streets.
Does that answer the questions you're asking?
Yeah, okay, that's helpful.
And then one more final question to either you
or the city auditor on the,
that were being charged more for the same haulers.
So can someone explain more about that?
It was like the 25 to 40% higher rate
that our residents are being charged.
So yeah, we, so when we were,
one of our objectives was to identify why, right?
Like what's driving the illegal dumping
and what we identified was that
a lot of the illegally dumped waste is residential margin
and then, oh, the residents are paying
a whole bunch of money, and are undersubscribed,
maybe in a lot of instances, on the trash service,
and they're throwing the trash away on the streets.
We did not, so that was a cause
for some of the illegal dumping problem in Oakland,
but we did not seek out to assess the reasonableness
of the city's trash rate, which I think is a logical next,
You know that's a
Really noble objective to pursue kind of what you were getting at councilmember guy. Oh like
Why are our race or what does what makes up like what is driving those rights?
That's a whole different endeavor. Okay that I really do think would potentially be a worthwhile
Pursuit it is interesting though
I do want to be kind of auditory and careful, because we really heavily qualify these comparisons.
No two contracts are the same.
But from the resident's perspective, they don't care, necessarily.
They just know, I can either afford this or I can't.
So what the city of Oakland gets from its hauler is different, potentially, from what
other jurisdictions are getting from the same hauler.
Right.
That's why we have recommendation number one, where we're basically just recommending that
the city pursue better deals, right, and try to lend more transparency into what they get,
what ratepayers are getting from their service.
Right.
I guess I asked this because one thing I've observed about the city of Oakland is we have
a lot of different contracts. We have a separate one for recycling versus the garbage collection.
I think we also have CIVICOR. It's just, you know, you pay attention to the bins. We have
a lot of different bins from different companies, whereas other cities, it may be leveraging
economies of scale. And if that is part of it, I don't know. It's a question.
I've got a Pala Kaltenbrunner kind of weighing in.
Hi, Pala Kaltenbrunner, performance auditor.
I did compare the rates and as you said, it's very different from one city to another.
Some have recycling and composting bundled into the rate.
So what we were mainly looking at was single-family trash rates and kind of trying to bundle
in what would the compost and recycling look like? Combined with that versus just trash
alone but for the most part what I noticed looking at this was that the compost and recycling
regardless of whether that was with the same hauler or a different hauler was pretty much
flat rate and it was the trash service volume that would increase the cost of service overall.
Does that help answer the question?
I think so.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Let's, so we are one-sixth of the way through the items and one-half the way through the
meetings.
We're going to have to tighten it up a little bit.
My apologies.
Let's hear from Councilmember Houston, then GAIO, and then the public speakers.
But we, we will not finish this meeting if we don't tighten it up a little bit.
Councilmember Houston was next.
Councilmember Houston is next.
public works but I'm going to
make a motion. Thank you Michael
for your your your your work on
this audit I know it's very
complex but I have a couple of
questions what's the process of
prosecution. And this is for
garland is where everyone over
there what's the process of
prosecution. I yeah maybe I'll
let the public works. Council
member Houston it would be-
footage to the police, the police investigating that, developing evidence, and then that eventually
making its way to the district attorney for consideration of prosecution.
It's obviously not within the police department or the city's control about whether prosecution
ensues from there.
So and I don't mean putting people on the spot, but I've been doing this for 17 years
and the graph is going up and up and up because the deterrent part is not in place.
collected evidence what's the evidence how the evidence collected where we
prosecute. You're asking in the instances where we where the DA has
prosecuted what has the evidence been? Okay so it says six I heard right down
2025 only six individuals was prosecuted and only person that can prosecute is
the DA because the city attorney can only submit fines so out of those six
how many were from Oakland? That I don't know. I don't know if the auditor's
office does. Let me just share something with you and this is not against
anybody here. I've been doing this for a long time right. I've worked it with the
Gavin Newsom with supervisor Nate Miley started the three E's which is educate,
to eradicate and enforce. When I first got in the office, I asked for Councilmember Unger,
for in my budget, three simple things and the most critical things that our city are
dealing with, which is homelessness, illegal dumping, graffiti vandalism, which is a visual
kill of deterioration that brings these things. And it was a million dollars for the EEOs
to train them to collect the data in the proper process.
Because if you just collect a dish that says an address
and it's bags and it's cross-contamination
and I can explain all that
because I worked with Nancy O'Miley
and we prosecuted people under Nancy O'Miley.
But after that, no one has been prosecuted
because the evidence is not collected properly.
So all we're doing is cleaning up, cleaning up,
cleaning up, cleaning up.
We're not deterring this problem.
And when I hear things about license plates,
I understand that people are really trying to help.
I got it, I really got it.
But the serial dumpers don't have a license plate, right?
I know them, and I'm gonna get them,
because it's a certain way we have to collect this evidence.
Like if somebody come by, do a drive-by,
and shoot up some houses, right?
Do they just sweep up the bullets?
No, you collect data,
because that's the only way we're gonna be able
to prosecute them but our EEOs have to be trained properly.
What I mean by properly is to be able
to identify contaminated hazardous materials
so they can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
And that's what's happening.
They're not being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
And if I see six, I'm gonna ask that question
to Mr. Houston, you're doing a great job, Mr. Houston.
How many people were from Oakland that was prosecuted from the DA?
Council member, we didn't, I don't know the answer to that.
Okay, so let me share this with you.
That means that Oakland is the worst, because we're allowing it.
We're putting Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid.
That's what we are doing.
We have to collect the evidence properly so
we can turn it over to the district attorney properly, like I did with Nancy.
Nancy would prosecute if the data was collected
and wasn't thrown out in court.
That's how we're going to do it.
And we have been programming people for years
that we are going to clean up their trash
when they put it on the corner.
It's incredible.
So the education piece has to be put in place.
The eradication piece has to be put in place.
Council Member Guy Ohne understands that.
But the most important piece that we need to focus on
is what I put in my budget.
Was train the people that are on the ground to be safe,
that they can collect the proper indicia.
So when it's documented, the DA can
prosecute to the full extent of the law the proper way, right?
Instead of be thrown out because it was cross-contamination,
because Noel dumped the trash, and Unger dumped some trash,
and it's all accumulated, now we can't say
who really dumped it.
It's a process, it's already been put in place.
This embraced supervisor, Nate Miley,
he has the solution,
but we have to embrace the county and work with the county.
So I can go on and on.
I got a whole book right here I could write,
I could read right now, but I'm gonna do it
because my council member Unger just said
we can't solve this right now.
So I'm just gonna pass it,
but I'd like to speak to you some more, Michael.
Yeah.
Council Member Gayle.
Certainly, I appreciate the time.
This is perhaps one of Oakland's number one priority.
All right, I mean, I grew up here in East Oakland
and, you know, killing each other was the norm.
If we didn't kill each other 150 a year,
well, I grew up, oh, okay, it's 140 only?
Oh, wow, last year was 150.
So, but I never saw a piece of trash
growing up here in the city of Oakland.
So, for me, the reality is that we,
if you, Oakland Public Works,
does not have the sufficient vehicles
to do the job and the personnel
to clean the city like we used to.
You go right now, go to Coliseum Way,
where their Public Works mechanic,
you're gonna see 50, 60 trucks that are broke.
And I drive a city truck,
And most of the time they're outdated, they don't work,
they're sitting there, and we don't have the tools
to clean it up, clean up the city.
And we don't have the personnel like we used to have.
We can do a lot of talking, a lot of complaining,
and make everything illegal, but the reality,
we don't have the tools, the vehicles,
just go by there and take a look.
And to give you one example for your staff,
go by Public Works in front of Public Works Yard,
right on Coliseum Way, right across the street,
it's a hell of a mess.
Illegal dumping trash, and I lean work with them before,
so they would put no parking at any time.
No parking at any time on Coliseum Way
in front of Public Works, and it's a mess.
Go by right now.
Then you can write all the reports you wanna write,
but that's a reflection of what I believe
in front of my house.
If my house is dirty, well, that tells you who I am.
But look in front of Coliseum Way,
how many illegal activities,
and the last one I'll leave you with our police department.
Because we're just talking a lot of stuff to the city,
to the residents of Oakland.
I used to have four officers that helped me in my area
to deal with the homeless encampment issues
that were illegal wherever they were,
but the new chief reduced it to one person.
And that one police officer said,
Mr. Gayleman, I did have four people,
but they took three officers away,
so I can't do all the work
to try to bring the city where we used to.
So the reality is we have to be honest on the inside,
And for those of us that grew up in the neighborhood,
I don't need that someone from the outside
to come and tell me how to clean up Fruitvale,
because we do that a lot nowadays,
bring people from the outside,
they don't know the history and what's actually there.
So for me, it's one, just go by colony and land,
you're gonna see all the trucks and vehicles
that are not operable, because we don't have the mechanics.
We used to have 10, 15, I only have three mechanics.
And I have all these trucks sitting there that could be used
to clean the neighborhood and enforce the rules that we have.
So I, you know, we need to be more honest, direct,
in terms of what we have available.
And I'll leave you with this last one.
Lake Merritt was the jewel of the city of Oakland.
Remember that?
Well, you wouldn't find a piece of trash, a cigarette butt,
on the lake year-round, day and night out.
But I purposely walk the lake with my wife every Friday,
just to check it out,
because then I go to the museum for their events,
but what exists at the lake today is certainly not the jewel,
because I still remember the U.S. Olympics
would come and train at Lake Merritt,
because it was such a beautiful place
to come and safe, but anyway, so I think we,
we need to be more direct on the reports that we're getting.
through the.
Through the chair of move and receive this document.
I'll second it and let's hear from our public speakers please.
Thank you want to call your name please approach the podium state your name for the record if you're participating via zoom please raise your hand so you're easily identified we will take in person before zoom.
The way Nelson and Mrs. Sada.
That's okay Kevin Dowley.
Kevin you did not sign up.
Let me double check.
Let's hear from the other speakers while you're looking.
Dwayne Nelson, District 3.
So I already mentioned service requests
that I have that are aged a lot longer than two business days.
So I think when we say appear to be timely, certainly
not the case in 2026.
I was amazed to hear the public works director actually
use the phrase rapid removal.
I mean, at this point, I would like removal.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
How about rapid removal of the legal dumping?
And I think one of the things also that was mentioned
in the discussion earlier was around the metrics.
I think it's important to understand as far as like
the collections that you talked about, Council Member Wong,
it's not just about the total, right?
Because now that the fines have increased,
we need to look at the collection rate.
And I don't know what the collection rate was
for that whatever, 11, 16,000,
but we're gonna need to know what the collection rate
is going forward so we have a better comparison
against them because like if if next year we come out with a with just a total amount and we compare it to the
Previous amount is not going to be the same because like I mentioned the fines have been increased
and then lastly, I just want to talk about the
Environmental enforcement unit which is mentioned at least five times in the recommendations here
I know councilmember Houston you talked a lot about that unit and it's amazing to me that you know
The city auditor talks about how they need to finalize their training documents
I certainly hope that that is because there are new procedures that are happening and not because they don't have
training documents at all, but I'd just be curious on you know what that is what and when was the last time the training documents were
updated and
What is the timeline? I guess it says the target day for completion is June 30th 2027
Sort of wait like a year for that to be done
That's a bit disconcerting there with that. So I'd be concerned
with the environmental enforcement unit like I said, it's been mentioned at least five times here in the in the report. All right. Thank you
And Kevin Dally you may speak. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks for your patience. I Kevin Dally definitely appreciate this
Report and I'm gonna suggest a fourth e which is make it easy to arrange a bulk pickup, especially for
Multi-family units you that the auditor correctly called out
The difficulty of arranging pickups for multifamily units single-family you can do it
twice a year with just a week or two notice single-family is only
Pretty much at the end of the month and only once
probably bigger turnover for
multifamily
Units, I'm guessing that more of them are likely to dump if if I'm moving out in the middle of the month
and I can't get a pickup till the end of the month.
Where do I put my trash?
Well, there's an easy solution.
And again, appreciate that the auditor called this out.
It's a single pickup for multi-unit.
Is that per unit, per person, per person in a unit?
So if a single unit is a couple,
has two or three residents in a year,
does that mean each one gets a pickup or not?
I'm not quite clear from the website, thanks.
Hi ma'am, did you sign up to speak?
I'm Ms. Fowles, did you call me?
No, Mrs. Sada.
Okay.
So, it's hard for me to validate this department.
I'm sitting here going through
the Lincoln Park Rec Agendized Item
and I see all the manipulation that y'all have done.
And it's sickening.
You don't have the capacity if you don't have credibility.
and I'll speak to that Lincoln Park WREC issue on it,
number five when I get to it,
but I've been sitting here looking at the agenda's report
and how you manipulated to give these people money.
But one of the issues,
if people decide they wanna do something with their waste,
they can go to the David Street Transit Station
for general distribution of waste.
But there's a fee involved.
Have y'all had the discussion of how that fee is applied?
It's based on the weight of the item in the vehicle type.
They don't accept hazardous materials.
So in that case, you have to go to Alameda County
Household Hazardous Waste Facility.
Now that's the county facility.
That facility, they don't take everything.
They don't take prescription medication.
They don't take treated wood waste.
They don't take explosives.
They don't take asbestos.
They don't take large compressed gas cylinders.
They don't take biohazardous materials,
radioactive materials, contaminated soil.
They don't take railroad ties, electrical car batteries,
e-bike batteries and that's just some of the list.
So all of these things have to go somewhere
if you want people to take responsibility
for getting rid of them.
So where do these items I just list?
If you wanna be a good citizen or a good resident,
where do you get rid of these things?
Thank you for your comment, Mrs. Sato.
And that concludes your public speakers for item three.
We do have a motion made by Councilmember Houston,
seconded by Chair Unger to receive and file this
in the Public Works and Transportation Committee.
On the roll, Councilmember Gail.
Aye.
Councilmember Houston.
Aye.
Councilmember Wong.
Aye.
Chair Onger.
Aye.
This motion does pass with four ayes
to receive and file this
on Public Works and Transportation Committee.
Moving to item four.
Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator
to one enter into an agreement
with the Alameda County Flood, Control,
and Water Conservation District to accept funds
in the amount not to exceed $1,600,000 to implement
the collaborative Creek Improvement and Clean Creeks program
over a five-year fiscal year term from the July 1st,
26th through June 30th, 31 term,
two appropriate funds in the amount not to exceed $1,600,000
from the district to implement the programs
for the term of the agreement,
and three, adopt appropriate CEQA findings.
and you do have two speakers for this item.
Okay, let's hear from our staff first please.
Thank you, good afternoon Chair and committee members.
My name is Jennifer Stern,
Capital Improvement Program Coordinator
in the Watershed and Stormwater Management Division.
I've been managing the Collaborative Creek Improvement
and Clean Creek Programs Agreement implementation
for the last eight years.
Today we're asking the committee and the city council
to approve a resolution that will authorize
the City of Oakland Public Works Department
to enter into an agreement to accept 1.6 million
from Alameda County Flood Control
and Water Conservation District
for the implementation of the collaborative creek
improvement and clean creeks programs
over a five year fiscal term as was noted July 1st,
2026 through June 30th, 2031.
And the subsequent appropriation of the funds
upon the agreement authorization
by both the city and the district.
Just a little bit of background,
I'll make this really quick.
The district and public works have worked in collaboration
since the late 1990s to implement these programs,
which are carried out by Public Works
Bureau of Design and Construction,
Watershed and Stormwater Management Division,
and the Bureau of Environmental Services Division,
Stewardship Program, respectively.
The Collaborative Creek Improvement
and Clean Creeks Programs include work
to implement watershed management, creek protection,
and stewardship activities that support the city's
and the district's efforts to meet flood control
objectives improve water quality benefit communities and protect Oakland storm drainage system creeks and
water bodies in the San Francisco Bay
And I think I'll just conclude my presentation with that. I'm available for any questions
Thank you for that colleagues questions
Councilmember Wong a movie item
Okay councilmember Gallo
What other governmental bodies are involved with our creeks they're not all city properties
But it's the county involved is in the Port of Oakland
What other counties are we cooperating with to make sure that our creeks are clean and safe?
through the chair councilmember Gayo the
Alameda County the flood control district who is
Giving us this funding to do this these programs. We collaborate with them
Because they they manage several creeks in Oakland
and then a lot of
creeks are on private property and so I think I think your question was about what other agencies so
We're mainly cooperating with the flood control district
But but but are we as a city as an example you have Josie the La Cruz. There's a creek behind it
and sometimes people go in there do all kinds of things but the city won't clean it because it
Assigned to somebody else then that somebody else won't clean it because they say the city is on city property
But it's the county who else is involved still to make sure that their property that they're responsible
It's kept clean in Oakland
It's a great question with that particular site
I've been behind Josie Dela Cruz and looked at that Creek and we've met with the county out there. So that is
maintained by a cup
This that is a flood control district channel there that we've yeah
so I believe we've had a couple meetings out there that was years ago now, but
Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to answer your question
the crease run from the hills all the way into the channel and some are underground right they've been paved over right and
so it but it's
For me it's working and that is the challenge who's in charge. I was trying to find out who has
Hi through the chair. Thank you councilmember guy. Oh, I'm Terry fashion. I manage the watershed and stormwater management division
so as Jen started to say
if a on when we have private properties of a creek runs through it is the
property private property owners
responsibility to
Keep the creek properly maintained and we have the ordinance language that dictates this and we have
Enforcement Authority to work with private property owners to ensure that they understand what their responsibilities are and then when a creek runs through private proper or through
city property it is the city's responsibility to maintain that Creek and
We can get back to you about joy Josie de la Cruz
I can't remember exactly what the deal is because we have many you know complicated
Situations in Oakland, but generally it's a property owner
So if the city owns it sometimes where the flood control district has a an easement
They're responsible for it from a flood protection point of view, but then the city is responsible for maintaining it
So it really it's a patchwork of responsibility
and if ever there are detailed questions we can research it and then take action to ensure that
the proper cleanup or
Creek management actions are taken. Thank you. Okay
Okay, do we have speakers or councilmember Houston?
Just real quick due to chair. I'm Terry and Jen
What is that a creek down at the dead end of a hundred and fifth?
It's a brand new park. Let me share this with you. And this is true when I was a kid
I used to catch turtles
salamanders fish
It's nothing there frogs. It's nothing there. Does this actually protect my community?
where
The drainage from the storm drains with the swept that goes into you know from where the homeless
Encampments are where all that the needles the oils does this
include protecting the storm drains that go into my creeks and
My waterways that have been just
of a state it yeah and I am through the chair councilmember Houston I am sorry
about that there are many issues in the city of Oakland that we're trying to
address we we do respond to complaints when there are illegal discharges to
storm drains we try to enforce against that but one cool thing that this funding
is gonna be providing for us to do
is we're gonna do a little program where we do,
where we conduct outreach to creekside property owners
and so that we can make sure people understand
that they have a creek in their backyard
and that there are certain responsibilities
that come with that.
But all I can say is that where there are violations,
We are equipped to enforce if we can find the responsible party and then, you know,
we do work to, through the compliance with our stormwater permit, we do work to reduce the amount
of pollutants that are making their way into the storm drain and into creeks.
And this is a very hard, challenging proposal, right?
And so we are gonna continue working on it.
And we, you know, there are certain things
that are outside of our control, I suppose you could say,
but in that area, I know what you're talking about,
and we'll definitely be looking at what we can do
in especially areas of East Oakland
to try to get people involved in caring for their creeks
and preventing stormwater pollution in their storm drains.
This funding actually does help a little bit
with implementation of the adopt a spot program.
And so with our colleagues
in Environmental Services Division,
we hope to just keep improving creek protection.
And I will not deny that it's a challenge.
Yes, and one more question through the chair.
Jan and Terry, I really appreciate what you guys are doing.
I just, it's just that District Seven
has been so underserved for so long.
And it's just sad because I'm third generation there
and I remember, right?
And how can we be proactive?
Proactive, where we see this problem
and we know where our drains are
and we know when the rain is about to happen
and the runoff is going in there, right?
How we use the sweat, the screens, whatever,
so it doesn't go into,
because I would love to rejuvenate that
because I had a ball when I was a kid,
catching turtles, salamanders, frogs and all that.
and it's gone.
I was over there with Oakland Public Works,
council member Unger, nothing, no life.
It saddened me, it saddened me.
And so my community's been underserved
and I just hope my colleagues understand
that District 7's been underserved for so long
and I'ma fight tooth and nail, Terry Jed, believe me.
Tooth and nail, get it done.
Thank you, I appreciate you guys.
Thank you so much.
All right, let's hear from our public speakers, please.
want to call your name, please approach the podium.
Duane Nelson and Kevin Dalley.
Duane Nelson.
All right, that concludes your public speaker stratum for.
We do have a motion made by council member Wong,
seconded by council member Agayo
to approve the recommendations of staff
and the four decide on to the June 2nd city council agenda.
On roll council member Agayo.
Aye.
Council member Heston.
Aye.
Council member Wong.
Aye.
And chair Unger.
Aye.
This motion does pass with four ayes
to approve the recommendations of staff
and the four decide on to the June 2nd City Council agenda
and through the body, would that be on consent
or not consent?
Consent please.
Thank you.
Moving to item five.
Adopt the following pieces of legislation.
The first legislation is a resolution
awarding a construction contract
for the project number 1004857,
Lincoln Recreation Center expansion,
renovation project to SJ, Armoso Construction Company,
the lowest responsive and responsible bidder,
and according to the Contractors Bid Project Plan
and specifications for the amount of $28,437,000
and adopting appropriate CEQA findings.
And two, the second piece is a legislation,
a resolution amending resolution number 89491
to increase the professional services agreement
with Shah Kawasaki, Kawasaki, excuse me,
architect by an amount not to exceed 848 thousand seven hundred and ninety seven
bringing the total contract amount to three million twenty thought twenty
thousand eight hundred and forty nine dollars to three million eight hundred
and seventy seven thousand six hundred and forty six dollars and away with the
competitive request for proposal qualifications requirement and adopting
sequel findings and you do have eight speakers for the side of okay let's
from staff please. Good afternoon Chair Unger and members of the Public Works and Transportation
Committee my name is Jimmy Mock from Public Works. I'm here today recommending city council approval
to award construction contract to SJM or also construction that which is the lowest responsive
and responsible bidder an amount of $28 million for your $37,000 and also amending a professional
service contract to Shah Kawasaki Architects in the amount of $848,797 and adopting appropriate
California Environmental Quality Act findings.
I'm going to provide a little background of the Lincoln Rec.
The Lincoln Rec Center project is located in City Council District 2 in Chinatown and
downtown. The center will be the city's first resiliency center. In fiscal year 19 and 20s,
CIP budget cycle, Lincoln was ranked number one on Oakland Parks Recreation and Youth
Department's project list to get its initial funding. The project was originally funded
in fiscal year 20 with $1.7 million to begin the community engagement and planning. A new
The new recreational center has been a high priority for the community since the early
2010s, as the Rec Center was built in the late 1970s with only 7,500 square foot structure.
It's the only public recreation center and park in Chinatown and downtown area with public
staff, public restrooms, and active programming on site.
The Rec Center requires significant expansion to meet the growing community demand.
The new rec center will be two stories, 22,221 square foot recreation and resiliency center
that includes park improvements.
The community outreach started by Friends of Lincoln Square, Asian Pacific Environmental
Network, and direct director Gilbert Gong, who's with us today as well, with the concept
by the new recreation center in the early 2010s
as requested by the community.
As the funding became available in the fiscal year 19
and fiscal year 20 with seed money,
public work started meeting with the community
and started the planning phase, the community engagement.
As the project was not fully funded at the time.
I'd like to ask public commenters to reserve their comments
for the public comment period, please.
As the project was not fully funded,
OVW, friends of Lincoln Square and APEN
applied for and received two state grants,
Proposition 68, with $8.4 million,
and the California Department of Food and Agriculture
Community Resiliency Center grant,
otherwise known as CDFA,
an amount of $9.25 million in 2021 and 2022.
Additional funding followed,
which included the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development, a federal grant,
otherwise known as HUD,
and also Measure KK and Measure U funds were used.
Due to grant deadlines, construction is slated
to start summer of 2026,
with a completion estimated for December of 2027.
I want to note that the architect,
Shaw Kawasaki Architects is a certified local business.
S.J. Amoroso, the contractor,
is based in Redwood City, not local.
However, they are a union signatory general contractor.
They're required to hire from the local union hall
for new hires.
Although they may have a core group
that the contractor firm brings in for the work,
any new laborers that's needed would need to come from the local hall.
We encourage the prime to hire locally at the RPKON meeting.
There's a total of 21 subcontractors listed in the contract that they will be using.
And some of them are near Oakland.
from there, San Leandro, Hayward, and other types of specialty work is local around Oakland,
but not in Oakland.
But we do suspect that they will be hiring some local laborers as well.
That concludes my presentation.
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Excellent.
Councilmember Houston.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Through the chair, thank you for having the meeting with me
and explaining about the federal
that you can't enforce individuals
that are with this federal funds included.
And I like what you said, you said encourage them
to use local participation from Oakland.
And I would add another word on top of that,
encourage would be strongly encourage them
to use local participation because of federal funds.
Local unions, is the union that they use
since they're from Redwood City,
will that be our local union on this side of the group?
Our local hall, yeah.
They wouldn't have to hire from here.
Okay, from our local hall.
Okay, that's important to me, too.
And along with core group, how does that core group work?
Does it, is it like,
because sometimes I see people getting around it
with core groups, right?
They just use all their core.
I'm a contractor, I've seen it happen.
So how does that core group work?
Do you know?
And if not, you can call me, talk to me later.
Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that they do have some workers
of their own in the company that typically run projects.
Could be superintendents, it could be some laborers as well
that they count on to do the construction.
But any additional force that they need
that would do the job, it's actually at their advantage
to hire locally because they don't,
They might save some money instead
of having to come from Redwood City.
And last thing through the chair,
I know Council Member Wong has been waiting
on this for a while, so I'm gonna support that.
So I'll move that.
Okay, I'll second it,
and let's hear from Council Member Wong.
I'm a motioner, so to speak.
If you'd like to second it, I'm happy to withdraw.
I would like to, yes, have my name on this.
Thank you.
Yes, I just want to say that for your all's context
and for the public to,
this moment has been such a long time coming.
For 30 years, the community has been organizing
to upgrade the center.
And if you go to this location,
this is one of the most used recreation centers.
Excuse me, this has been one of the most.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
This is.
Hey, hey, hey.
We can only have one speaker at a time.
Mrs. Asada, Mrs. Asada, Mrs. Asada,
we cannot have these outbursts from the audience
or we're gonna have to, Mrs. Asada, Mrs. Asada,
if we can have one speaker at a time, this is, thank you.
Councilmember Wong, please continue
and if the audience can reserve their comments
for the public comment period.
Thank you, thank you, Chair.
So if you go to this rec center,
you can see that it is falling apart.
There are missing ceiling tiles, there's clear water damage.
It's also one of the most used rec centers in the city.
The community, also through Lincoln,
Friends of Lincoln Square Park has done
a significant amount of private fundraising
on top of everything that has been noted in the report,
and they did the grant writing themselves
on behalf of the city to make this happen.
We've also experienced delay after delay,
disappointment after disappointment,
and having been overlooked for years.
And so I also want to emphasize
this is an incredibly high need area.
In the surrounding census tract area,
this is a 34% poverty rate.
The kids at the adjacent Lincoln Elementary,
80% are on free and reduced lunch.
And they have so little room on that school campus
that they actually need to use
the adjacent Square Park out of necessity
because there is no room for these kids to play.
Over the last 25 years I also want to note there have been major park facilities
Updates in every single district except for district 2. It's the one district that has been left out
so
That's noteworthy
And finally, I want to just note too that there are citywide benefits. This is going to be Oakland's first resilience hub
And because it is so centrally located it means that it's going to be an important distribution hub of
Emergency supplies in the case of an natural disaster, which we know is coming and so this benefits everybody
And as it's been noted
It will also provide local union jobs when construction jobs have totally frozen up and on that
I urge my colleagues to support this
Councilmember Gallo. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the information
I drive by it every day and certainly see a lot of the negative activity surrounding the facility. So what is the timeline to get it?
Completed and open to the pub. What's the time? Yeah, we we are actually in a rush because of a grant deadline
So we do need to finish by the end of next year. We're gonna start right in summer. Oh good. Thank you
moving to our public speakers
When I call your name, please approach the podium. You do have to minute state your name for the record
Please if you are participating via zoom for this item item 5 with both pieces of legislation
Raise your hands. You're easily identified as practice. We will take in-person speakers before zoom speakers
Dwayne Nelson
miss Asada
Lee Hawaii shin
you who while gone
Fang Ying Zhao, Claudia Leah, Stephanie Tran, Tiffany Ong, and Karen Dia.
If I mispronounce your name, I do apologize, and from my understanding with translation,
I will give two minutes to the public speakers and two minutes to the translator.
Thank you.
This is a very important topic for the future of the country. I would like to ask you to please state the public speaker's name before you begin.
My name?
The public speaker's name.
Okay, yeah. So her name is Lai Huachen. So good morning Council Member. I'm an APAN Member and I have lived in Oakland for 36 years.
For many years, Lincoln Rest Center has been an important public space in Chinatown.
It supports seniors, families, and young people as they exercise,
connect with one another, and care for each other.
To many of us, it's like our community's living room.
But as we face extreme heat, wildfire, smoke, power outage, and earthquake,
the current facility is no longer in love.
And we know with it, Lincoln Residency Center will provide solar power,
Air conditioning, clean air and emergency support.
In normal time, it will continue serving the community
during the disaster and it will help protect the residents.
It's not just an investment in a building,
it's an investment of balance feature,
public safety and community residence.
I urge the community to support the contractor resolution
and move it to city council for a while as soon as possible.
Our community has way too long.
Now is the time for action.
Time is money.
Thank you.
in Vietnam, I was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
My mother was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
My grandfather was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
My mother was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
My mother was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
My mother was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
My grandmother was born in Vietnam, also known as the U.S.
I would like to make a shoutout to the staff of the School of Business.
I would like to make a shoutout to the staff of the School of Business.
I would like to make a shoutout to the staff of the School of Business.
I would like to make a shoutout to the staff of the School of Business.
resolution so the Lincoln Residency Center project can move to the city council for a
while to begin the construction as soon as possible.
For many years, Lincoln Residency Center has been an important public space in Chinatown.
Senior, family, and young people come to here to learn, connect, exercise, sing, and dance.
It's a place where residents build relationships and find joy and hope.
Transforming the Lincoln Residency Center into a Residency Center is not just a facility
It is also a result of many years of community effort and advocacy.
Now, the funding, planning and the bidding process are ready.
And the qualified constructors have been selected.
What the community wants most is to see the project move forward, not facing more delays.
Every delay increases the cost, budget risk and also construction risk, wasting the public
resources.
This project is about our community safety and future.
support this resolution and help move this important community project forward. Thank you.
Good morning, Councilmember. My name is Fengning Ziaa Zhou. I'm an APAN member, and I have
lived in Oakland for nearly 20 years.
Lincoln West Center, located near Harrison and 11th Street, is easy to access and have
long been an important public space for Chinatown and nearby residents. Over the years, I have
often seen young people playing basketball, senior and children spending time there, and
community member dancing, playing ping pong, practicing tai chi, and joining community
activity and training. But Chinatown and nearby low-income immigrant communities has long
lacked enough investment in public resources and infrastructure. Transforming Lincoln West
Center into a residency center is not just about renovating a building, it's also about
adjusting this longstanding inequity.
As we're facing wildfire smoke, extreme heat,
and power outage, we need a space that can provide
clean air, electricity, cooling, and emergency support
to protect our residents.
I urge you to support and pass the contractor resolution
so that the project can move forward
and begin construction as soon as possible.
Please, invest Chinatown, climate resilience,
and the future of our residents.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment if I called your name
and you would like to speak on this item,
which is item five.
And please state your name for the record, thank you.
Hi, my name's Claudia Lee.
My family lives in District Two.
My son is wrapping up second grade
at Lincoln Elementary this week,
and he's in the Lincoln Explorers After School Program
at Lincoln Community Center.
I'm here today as a community member and a parent,
a Lincoln Elementary parent and a Lincoln Explorers parent
to express my support and encouragement
for the new community center,
specifically for both item five resolutions
on today's meeting agenda.
The community center is a home base for over 100 school kids
each afternoon through the Lincoln Explorers program run
through Oakland Parks and Rec.
Kids love the Lincoln Explorers after school program,
having to do their homework, perhaps not so much,
but they get to try every sport, learn lion dance,
play chess, develop and perform dance routines,
do arts and crafts and cooking, you name it,
the kids are doing it.
My hope is that the after school program keeps
running throughout construction.
Being right next door to Lincoln Elementary,
logistically, it's an easy decision for many parents
to send our kids to this after school program.
As working parents, knowing our kids have a safe,
fun place to be until 6 p.m. is a relief
as we walk that delicate work-life parenting balance.
If the after school program isn't in place
during construction, it'll be a tremendous loss to the kids
and parents will be under incredible stress
to find other programs,
many of which require stopping mid-afternoon
to transport the kids from school to aftercare.
And as I'm sure you know or can imagine,
that's just not an option with most jobs.
I also hope there's close coordination between the city,
the contractor, and the school during construction,
specifically related to the safety of students and staff.
Lincoln is one of the largest elementary schools
in the district with almost 700 students.
We're the only public school in the district
that uses a public park, Lincoln Square Park,
as a playground for recess
and as our meeting spot during fire drills.
I encourage the contractor to come to our campus at 825.
Tomorrow or Thursday before school ends,
during drop off to understand what it's like
with this many kids in that space.
Thanks for your time.
We're very excited for the new center.
Thanks.
Good afternoon, Chair Unger and council members
and members of the committee.
My name is Stephanie Tran,
president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.
I'm here today in support of moving forward
with the Lincoln Square Rec Center
and approving the contract without further delay.
Lincoln is not just another neighborhood park.
It is one of the most heavily used
and culturally important public spaces for all of Oakland.
For generations, it has served as a gathering places
for seniors, youth, families, cultural programs,
and community events.
But beyond recreation and culture,
Lincoln Square is also an important economic engine
for our neighborhood.
The daily activity at the park generates foot traffic
that support surrounding businesses, restaurants, bakeries, retail shops, and service providers
throughout Chinatowns, families visiting the park often dine, shop, and spend money in
the neighborhood before and after programs and activities.
So for many small businesses that are already struggling with rising costs, public safety
concerns, and reduced foot traffic, spaces like Lincoln Square help sustain economic
activity and neighborhood vibrancy.
So that is why I'm deeply frustrated and disappointed that this project has actually been delayed
for over a year.
A project that is tied to one of Oakland's most utilized community spaces should not
continue to face delays without urgency or accountability.
Our communities deserve better.
Chinatown has continually contributed to Oakland's economy, culture, and identity, and our residents
That this project will help us
deserve investment that are
delivered in a timely manner.
So we urge this committee to
move forward with the contract
approval and advance this
project without further delay.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Tiffany Eng and
I'm here with Karen D. who is
seating one minute.
Hi, I'm Tiffany Eng, one of the
co-founders of Friends of
Lincoln Square Park.
I'm here with Karen D., she's
co-founder with me and also on
of our community. I thank you
for being here with us today
and thank you for being here
as a personal sponsor. Also
here is my dad a proud Lincoln
school alum and a proud 1956
Lincoln Park yo-yo champion.
Six generations of my family
have grown up and grown old in
Oakland and for over a century
Lincoln Park has been a safe
haven for my family and so many
others. It's the beating heart
of our community. I urge you to
around. It's the community and
city this year twenty twenty
six marks thirty years since
your open space plan first
called to expand the center
twenty years since the city.
In their own city park master
plan started that process and
ten years since we started
friends of Lincoln Square Park
to get the center built once
and for all. After three
decades we've waited long
enough. For this next phase we
with APEN and all the stakeholders to keep the community connected and informed and we can only
do this with your support. I'm asking all of you to do everything in your power to complete
construction quickly without any delays or reduction in scope. Chinatown is a textbook case
for how government infrastructure projects, BART, Laney, 880, the museum, proceeded with little regard
for the neighborhood, local businesses and residents. This lasting harm from these past projects are
are well-documented.
Let's work together and get it right this time.
Please keep all part programming going
and keep the community informed while the city contractors
perform open heart surgery on our beloved park.
Thank you to the many city departments
that have made this project possible,
too many to list, especially Public Works,
and to our main contact, Henry Choi,
for everything he's done over the last handful of years
to advance this project through the city's many,
many processes to get us to this point.
We look forward to working
with the construction management team
and we hope to work closely with S.J. Amoroso Construction
and continue to work with Shah Kawasaki
to respond to community interests and community concerns.
And we welcome you all to the park anytime,
but especially on July 9th,
when the community will be hosting
a free circus performance for the whole city.
Come see and feel the energy for yourself.
Thank you for your support,
and I hope to see you at the groundbreaking very soon.
Thank you.
The department decided to use Measure K, K Money,
$700,000 to renovate Lincoln Park.
The friends of Lincoln Park didn't want a renovation.
They decided they wanted a new facility.
See the administrator?
You're new on that chair,
I'm gonna see how you're gonna handle this deception.
So what they did is they made arrangements,
They got a design, went to the advisory committee of Parks
and Rec Advisory Committee, gave their design,
their proposal for what they were going to do to them,
and they approved it.
Then they went to the design committee.
They had to go to the preservation committee,
and they say they were going to proceed to raise the money.
And that's not in the history.
Somewhere, you, City of Oakland, Department of Public Works,
say we're gonna fund it.
We're gonna fund it.
So you've gotten Measure K money, $2.7 million.
Measure K money, again, $7 million.
Measure U money, $4 million.
Measure U money, $4 million.
Then you got capital project money, $8.4 million,
which is for money for underserved communities
from the state.
Then you got CDFA money, $9.2 million,
which is the California Department of Food and Agriculture,
claiming you're gonna be an emergency center.
You also got a million dollars for somebody
in the House of Representatives.
One of the centers gave you a million dollars base.
It's gonna be a community center.
All kind of manipulations.
But you don't want no homeless people in your community.
And when you gave the presentation,
Friends of Oak, you talked about how diverse it was gonna be.
You talked about it, you were gonna include Indian culture
in the building.
I heard all of this.
But where in the hell did the...
Thank you for your comment, Mr. Sada.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, thank you.
Dwayne Nelson, would you like...
Thank you, your time is up.
Your time is up, ma'am.
We do have a motion made by Councilmember Wong,
seconded by Councilmember Houston,
to approve the recommendation of the stat
and the four of both pieces of legislation
to the June 2nd City Council Agenda.
On roll, Council Member Gallo.
Aye.
Council Member Houston.
Aye.
Sorry.
Aye.
Thank you.
Council Member Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Unger.
Aye.
We do have four ayes to approve the recommendation
of the stat and to afford both pieces of legislation.
To the June 2nd City Council Agenda
and through the record would that be
don't consider non consent consent. Thank you move into item six adopt the
following pieces of legislation the first leg piece of legislation a
resolution authorizing the city administrator to apply for accept and
appropriate up to seven hundred and fifty six thousand three hundred and
sixty four dollars in fiscal year twenty six twenty seven state
transportation development article act article three funds to fund the corn
Stockway stair path rehabilitation, East 23rd Street stair path rehabilitation, Longridge
Road to Rosemont Road stair path rehabilitation, bicycle signage program, and City Rec's bicycle
parking program phase 18 and adopt sequel findings, second piece of legislation, a resolution
adopting the list of projects for fiscal year 26-27 funded by SB1, the Road Repair and Accountability
act of 2017 and adopt and adopting sequel findings and you do have two speakers okay
let's hear from our staff first please good afternoon committee members and
chair younger my name is Yvonne Chan I'm a transportation planner with the
Department of Transportation this item includes two pieces of legislation to
accept and allocate a total of 13 million in regional and state funding
with no required local match the first resolution would authorize the city to
to apply, accept and appropriate 756,000
in fiscal year 2027 Transportation Development Act
grant funds to fund three stair projects
as well as bicycle signage
and bicycle parking installation.
The second resolution would adopt a list of projects
to be funded by fiscal year 2027,
Senate Bill 1 Road Maintenance
and Rehabilitation Account Gas Tax Funding.
The adoption of this project list
would fulfill an annual requirement
for the city to receive these funds from the state.
Consistent with past years,
the proposed use of this funding is for paving,
street maintenance, lighting, traffic calming,
and grant matching for capital projects
from the adopted capital budget.
Thank you for your consideration
and happy to answer any questions.
Council members, do you have questions?
Council member Gaia.
I will second that.
Any other council questions?
All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.
Wanna call your name?
Please approach the podium.
your name for the record. If you're participating via Zoom please raise your hands you're easily
identified. Mrs. Asada, Dwayne Nelson and Kevin Dolly.
Dwayne Nelson and so I didn't get a chance to read on the list of our projects, on the
section two of this, but I would just say that one of the institutions we have in Oakland
is the the New Parkway Theater. They're on 474 24th Street, you know, between Telegraph
Avenue and Broadway were even more specifically between Telegraph and
Valley Street and it's a great theater. They have first-run films, revival films.
I'm not affiliated with them, not part of management or ownership or anything
but I think they would say that they're a community center as well. They had a
District 3 city council debate there. I was able to watch a documentary there on
on. The subject was a former Oakland council, Congresswoman Barbara Lee. So there's been
a lot of events there, but I think one of the issues that they have there is right outside,
right on the street. The street's pretty much deteriorated. So I don't know if this is on
the list of projects, but I mean it should be to try to sort of pay that, like I said,
between Telegraph Avenue and Valley Street on 24th, that would be great. Because, I mean,
have a problem if you're either walking on the street or if you're using a cane, a walker,
some sort of assistance, it's an issue trying to navigate that street or if you're riding
a bike or a scooter or something like that.
So I certainly hope that we don't have to wait too long to get that paved.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
So you supposedly have $13 million that can be used for sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian
walkways, bike lanes, bridges, to connect neighborhoods
and improve school communities.
So you've got a variety of ways to,
but what I just saw happen with this department,
how do we know things are gonna be done fair and equivalent?
How do we know?
You've got certain communities
where the community looks like a beautiful community.
Then you've got run-down communities,
like District Six and District Seven,
And then there's no balance whatsoever to how we distribute funds that we get from the
state.
Now, you go into Chinatown, they got crisscross, they got signs everywhere.
I'm going to say that during Open Forum, what they do.
But anyway, how do we know wildfire crossings, I don't know what that means, electrical vehicles,
All of this is, where's the list of how you're gonna spend the money?
So you can determine, yes, it's being spent fairly.
They're not giving you that.
They're not telling you District 1 through 7 are gonna have equitable distribution of
this money.
They're not identifying the Pacific spending of the money, but you're gonna let them do
it.
And that new city administrator ain't gonna say nothing, and by the way, where is the
report of the two hundred and fifty million a hundred thousand dollars that the city administrator
can spend that hasn't been given to you since twenty twenty three. As an annual report.
I hope to see that the next meeting new city administrator. Because it was supposed to
be here in April. That's what y'all say. I don't trust you to do the right thing. Thank
you for your comment. We do have a motion made by council member Galio seconded by chair
under to approve the recommendations of staff before both pieces of legislation
to the June 2nd City Council agenda yes yes please on consent on roll council
member Gallo council member Houston I can't remember Wong I and chair under I
this motion does pass with four I super the recommendations of staff for both
pieces of legislation to the June 2nd City Council agenda on consent yes
Please, I guess that.
So we're just gonna go straight through an order.
Okay.
Move into item seven.
Receive an informational report
on the status of the compliance with the sewer,
consent decree, wastewater discharge requirements
for the wastewater sewer systems,
and national pollutant discharge elimination system permit
during the 20 month period
and from January 1st, 2024 through December 31st, 2025.
And you do have two speakers.
All right, let's hear from our staff, please.
Good afternoon, Chair Unger, esteemed committee.
Tyree Jackson, I'm the compliance officer
for wastewater programs at Oakland Public Works.
So we're pleased to present and request
that the committee receive this informational report
concerning the status of the city's compliance
with the sewer consent decree,
the state discharge requirements
for sanitary sewer system and NPDES permit.
I want to clarify that these are three separate,
but complimentary regulatory obligations
under which the city operates this WISBAR program.
The committee may already be aware,
as a reminder, in 2014, the city of Oakland,
along with the cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley,
Emeryville, Piedmont, the Steege Sanitary District,
and East Bay Municipal Utility District
entered into a final agreement with the APA,
the State Water Board, and a local NGO as intervener
to implement a 22-year performance plan
with the express purpose of reducing storm-related inflow
and infiltration into the sewer system
with the goal of one, eliminating the need
for activation of East Bay MUD's three wet weather facilities
at Point Isabel, which is in Richmond and Oakport
and San Antonio Creek, both of which are in Oakland,
and the second goal of which is to reduce the sewer spills
that discharge the waterways of the US.
Over this 24 month period, roughly January 1st,
2024 through December 31st of 25,
the city achieved full compliance
with a cumulative 87% of the performance mandates
and work requirements of the consent decree.
Notably the city surpassed work requirements for pipeline maintenance and inspection and assessment of the sanitary sewer system
And consequently achieved a 61 percent reduction in the number of sewer spills that occurred over that reporting period
That also resulted in a roughly 41 percent
Decrease and the total volume of untreated wastewater that spilled into the public right away into Oakland
creeks and waterways and onto private property
Due to some technical issues beyond the City's control, the City achieved only a partial
compliance with system monitoring requirements to ensure capacity during wet weather and
unfortunately the City did not meet its compliance obligation for sewer repair and replacement
mandates for the most recent reporting period.
Both of these issues have been addressed and corrected and the City anticipates returning
to full compliance with all mandates of the decree within a 12-month period.
So the first of these three wet weather facilities, the San Antonio Creek facility, is scheduled
to go offline by December 31, 2028.
And then there will be a follow-up mid-course performance check-in in 2030.
While the city's efforts, combined with the work performed by the other agencies, has
resulted in an estimated 76 million gallons per day reduction and wet weather flows
Achievement of these two compliance milestones
remains at risk
In the event that the city does not or the facilities do not make their
check-in
reductions
The city would be opening up a work plan to find ways to further decrease
The amount of wet weather inflow and infiltration
into the system
So far at this point the wastewater program is fully
And adequately funded for all repair maintenance and inspection activity that includes equipment
vehicles
And tools that are used both for operation and for design and construction
And with that I'll conclude this report. I'm happy to answer any questions
colleagues questions
Councilmember Houston
Through the chair. Thank you. Mr. Jackson. I'd like to just move and receive about this. Okay
Council member guy
So we're fully staffed
to do the work
Because the challenge has been we don't have the staffing to or the vehicles to do the work
Correct. There are some challenges and both those regards at this point
I'd have to check and see what our staffing levels are for each of the
Divisions the burials are involved with the work
But on paper where we do have the positions
Going to our public speakers when I call your name, please approach the podium the way Nelson and Kevin dollar
doing would you put
Thank you. That concludes your public speakers for item 7
We do have a motion made by Councilmember Houston seconded by Councilmember Gallo to receive and file this in a public works and transportation
transportation committee on roll comes from Agaya. Thank you councilmember Houston
Hi councilmember Wong. Hi and chair under
The motion does pass with four ayes to receive and file this in the public works and transportation committee moving to item 8
Adopt the resolution waving the advertising and competitive bidding for authorized for amount of East Oakland Arts Center project
With CWS construction group and we're from 25% to 56% of the original contract amount of one million seven hundred eighty five thousand
For a total contract amount not to exceed two million
Seven hundred eighty four thousand six hundred dollars and you do have two speakers for this item
All right. Let's hear from our stuff first, please
Afternoon chair Unger and Public Works Committee and transportation committee. My name is Jimmy mock from OPW
I'm here to present
Requests for City Council to increase a construction contract change order amount
from 25% to 56% in dollar wise is from 1.7 million dollars
1.7 8 5 million dollars to
one 2.7 8 4 6 million dollars
During construction, work was paused temporarily
while new electrical switch gear was prepared
for installation and connection to new utility service.
While work was paused,
the bandles broke into the facility
and removed new HVAC components, kitchen equipment,
electrical conduit, and caused extensive damage
to interior partitions and ceilings.
This change order increase will fund replacement
of all those items.
The east and the center that we're talking about
is the East Oakland Arts Center.
It used to be called DACA.
It's a part of the Rainbows Rec Center, operated by OPYRD.
Its core mission is to educate and empower young people
through after school and summer programs
for digital audio and video production, culinary arts,
and urban agriculture.
The East Oakland Art Center facility
is a vital community resource that has been closed
since the start of COVID pandemic,
denying access to learning opportunities
and support services.
Stakeholders are unified in their support
to move the project forward
and complete work as soon as possible.
This includes my presentation.
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Council Member Houston.
Real quick, due to Chair.
So Mr. Jimmy, you said it went from 25% to 58%.
That's over 100%.
And it was because of burglary and vandalism.
Shit and insurance cover that.
I mean, change orders, let me finish, Mr. Jimmy.
Change orders usually come from unforeseen things.
You know, like say, for instance,
we gonna bust out here.
We said it was some two by fours,
but it's two by threes or two by twos.
Change order, you know.
But burglary and vandalism should be done by insurance.
And that's over 100%.
I wish I could get 100% on change orders.
Explain that one,
because insurance should be covering that, Mr. Jimmy.
Through the chair, Council Member Houston.
Unfortunately, the work was paused
because of the electrical switch gear
that we were waiting for.
If it was not paused, usually it's the contractor
that we will go after and their insurance company.
When we paused the construction project,
the liability went back to the city
and that's when the vandalism and stuff happened.
So through the Chair, how long was it paused?
Because that's important because if it was paused
because of us, then they should still carry insurance alone
if their contract is still in place.
Through the Chair, I do not have that information with me,
but it was for several months at least.
It wasn't that short of a period.
Yeah, so let me just share this from my personal experience,
and that's how I move is on my personal experience,
is that if a contractor's in place
and it's paused by the city, they still should cover,
sometimes insurance is covered by the city also.
So we're gonna give them over 100% on change order.
I can't see that one.
I just can't see it.
But I'll pass it to my council member Noelle Guy.
Councilmember Wong is next
Thanks. Um, do we have any work? I mean, we know that construction sites are
sources of crime because there is valuable equipment. Do we require our contractors to secure the height the the site? I mean what?
What provides the disincentive that a contractor wouldn't just say whatever the city would will cover the cost
I just I fear that the sets of precedent. Yeah, thank you for that question through the chair
Councilmember Wong.
Typically, if the project was ongoing,
they would, for their own interests, protect the site.
The fact that it was paused, we didn't have any security going
on on it.
And in retrospect, if we should have hired our own security
and watched it even after hours, it does.
Usually, the crime's done after hours, not during work days.
Right.
OK.
Why was it paused again, this project?
We're waiting for some electrical switch here to come.
Council Member Gallo.
You gave us, what's the time left for completion?
It should be relatively soon.
We're already, should be within months
where we're even planning a ribbon cutting already,
so it should be within a month or two.
So within a month or two based on the adjustments
we've made it'll be completed.
That's correct. Open to the public.
That's correct. Thank you.
And so we have the funding to make sure it gets completed.
That's correct, we do have the funding.
And along the lines to provide the safety
and all that was necessary.
That's correct. Okay.
I'll make a motion to approve it.
I'll second that and council member Houston.
So, due to chair, who's the contractor, are they local?
They are not local.
contractor CWS construction. Okay are they are they obligated like federal do
they have to we can't strongly request that they use local or their subs because
I'm gonna go against this because if they're not local first off we're giving
some outside company some business and are they are they using local
participation? It is a requirement that they do that here. The yeah unfortunately
the contractor is not local here they are so if a hundred percent of this
this change order is going to my local contractors I'm good if it's not I'm not
good. Yeah I'm I have to get back to you on the extra work whether it comes from
local not but a lot of those are appliances and kitchenware and so that
those are pretty big lead item big items I appreciate that mr. Jimmy but I'm just
saying to install it I'm local if it ain't local I'm not going with if it's
not Oakland I'm not going with it we've been underserved for too long my
community's been underserved I'm gonna I'm gonna say no on it until they come
back with some information that my people gonna eat because we starving
All right, and if we okay, I believe it like that miss
What's the address of this building? I don't have that. Can you tell me what what district it's in?
District six, okay. Oh I have the address. It's a 58 18 international Boulevard
Let's hear from our public speakers then councilmember wonk
We do need to wrap this up. We have another yeah, no, I understand
Just for the amount because this is not an unsubstantial
Change order is this based off of that they itemize the damage and all of that or are we just trusting them at their word?
It should be itemized as usual through change order process. It needs to be itemized and
Yeah, I just want to add that if we were to add another contractor to do this work
Contractor that's not familiar with the job
It would be very difficult for them to repair things that were done by a previous contractor and the city would be in more
Liability with any additional change orders to have another contractor to do their work
Okay, I just this is again a general comment, but I would like to see going forward in these reports
You know these details spelled out that way we we aren't just going off of you know trust. This is public dollars
I want to make sure that you know, there's the evidence that says this is why this amount of money is needed for this
This heightened contract amount. Thank you
All right calling in our public speakers, mr. Sada do a Nelson
It's hard to read some of your reports from Public Works because information that's pertinent to understand
It's not clear in the report
So it looks like the contract with this company was initiated in 2023. I'm trying to find out when it ended
Okay
Because I would think in 2026 it might be that this contract has ended already
the issue with the
increased change order
What happened at that site happened in?
2024 and we're fixing it. We're funding the fixing of
Something that happened at that center in 2024 and 2026 so what happened was Vandals
Took parts of the HVAC
The kitchen equipment. They took electrical convicts and some other stuff now
He says it's been held up because electrical stuff. They had other things that happen why those things weren't fixed
But that's what happens when you go in the East Oakland
When you go into district six and seven
You're talking about local contractors, but the project wasn't done properly.
Since 2024, the vandalism took place and nothing happened.
Now they've got wordage in here because they're making sure you don't spend no more money than you have to spend
because it says it's important to be completely as quickly as possible.
that's a lie, then it says required expenditures but no upgrades to scope of
work. In other words they're not gonna spend no more money. They're protecting
that but with other projects you don't say that kind of stuff. Funding
identified with the existing project funds. Funds with will not be committed
unless funding is identified boy they want stay on top of these thank you for
your comment miss Asada thank you for your comments we do have motion made by
councilmember guy oh second by chair Unger to approve the recommendations of
staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda on the roll
councilmember Gallo aye councilmember Houston no councilmember Wong aye and
and chair.
Aye.
The motion does pass with three ayes, one no, Houston,
to approve the recommendations of staff
before deciding to the June 2nd city council agenda.
And that will be on non-consent.
Moving to open forum.
When I call your name, please approach the podium.
Dwayne Nelson, Kevin Dahle, and Ms. Fowles.
Okay, let's.
You may approach the podium.
State your name for the record if you signed up.
Ms. Asada, you did, thank you.
good afternoon
council members
thank you for this opportunity to speak
an open issue
i'm only wally fouls housing director at tradition at telegraph community
ministry center
in oakland
nine
or six oh nine
and uh...
we're here to talk about what happens
our clients are victimized
participation of public works trucks
and trash pickup under the Encampment Abatement Act.
At 4 a.m. in the morning of April the 16th, it was a Wednesday,
there had been no posted nor verbal announcements about a sweep.
This was on the corner of Shattuck
and 51st Street right next to the Arco Station.
We have people were awakened with.
Oh, oh, oh, Oakland police department snatching their things out from under
them, waking them up, throwing things here, there, and everywhere and putting
them in a truck and driving them away.
They also had the complicity of two, uh, I guess subcontractors who were told
trucks and those told trucks took away two RVs and one car.
The other lady was able to get her car to move.
So she didn't lose it.
The issue that I'm raising here is that one of the solutions we need to look at is the
definition of trash.
We need to redefine the concept of trash that does not include poor people, which under
the Encampment Abatement Act it does.
But more correctly, trash is aimed toward such items as things put into appropriate
the trash bins or receptacles that are being cast off,
but not just the property of homeless people
nor homeless things.
Such reckless and lawless sweeping of so-called trash,
also called trash removal.
Thank you so much for your comment, Ms. Fowls.
Your time is up, Ms. Fowls.
Thank you for your comments.
So recently, you closed three homeless shelters.
Three homeless shelters.
And you could have used Measure U money to keep them open.
But you didn't.
But you gave $5 million to this Lincoln Recreational Center
from Measure U. That's how you do things.
Chinatown had an opportunity to have a facility with no expense
for sick homeless people to get care,
no expense to the city.
Wang and them went out there and said they didn't want it,
because these sick people, homeless people,
were gonna be a danger to the community of Chinatown.
You had a grant that would allow the purpose of the grant
where communities that had been impacted by redlining
could take the money to uplift their communities.
You gave the money to Chinatown
so that you could build a cross way
from them to leave Chinatown
and walk over to Jack London Square.
What the hell was the red lining that went on in Chinatown?
That they got that money.
That's what y'all do.
You got double parking in Chinatown,
nobody never gets a ticket.
You got officers still sitting in Chinatown
observing the community to protect them.
And you talk about overtime issues in Chinatown.
You got gambling in Chinatown, prostitution in Chinatown,
the FBI was in Chinatown in 2022.
You never heard about it because you protect Chinatown.
That's what you do.
So I'm gonna keep talking about the inequities.
We got the unity council sitting in the room right now.
They're coming next meeting to get more money.
You gave them $500,000 to get out of the hole.
Thank you for your comment, Mrs. Sada.
Duane, that concludes your public speaker's open forum.
Okay, we are adjourned.
Thank you.