Good morning and welcome to the finance and management committee meeting of Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026.
Sorry, and the time is now 9.30 AM and this meeting may come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda.
If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative.
No later than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record, whichever occurs first.
registering to speak via zoom is now due 24 hours prior to the start of this
meeting time. This meeting came to order at 9 30 a.m. and speaker cards will no
longer be accepted 10 minutes after making that time 9 40 a.m. we'll now
proceed with taking roll council members Brown present younger here long thank
you and chair Ramachandran here thank you we have four members present chair
before we begin do you have any announcements at this time no
announcements thank you okay we'll take it on to item number one approval of the
draft minutes from the committee meeting of June 9th 2026 and there are no
speakers for this item okay great I'll entertain a motion excellent so moved
second thank you we have a motion made by councilmember Brown seconded by
Councilmember Unger to approve the draft minutes from the committee meeting of
June 9th, 2026. Unroll, Councilmembers Brown? Aye. Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And Chair
Ramachandran? Aye. Thank you. Motion passes with four ayes to accept the draft
minutes from June 9th, 2026. Moving on to item two, determination of schedule
outstanding committee items. We have one speaker for this item. No changes at
to go to the public and sign up
this time thank you.
All right we'll move to the
public speaker.
Calling on the member of the
public that signed up to speak
on item two missus sato ollivala.
I'm asking that a report.
That reflects the seven hundred
thousand dollar investment in
the Oakland roots facility.
If that resulted in any revenue
benefits to the city of Oakland.
I would like to see a report
ten million dollars- was any
effort made to read turn those
funds back to the city.
There was a report but there
was no addressing of the funds
being returned back.
Of fiscal impact of the equity
access to services ordinance.
Every year you have a report on
this item but you never and
it's in this department you
have a report on this item but you never and it's in this department but you never reflect
on the amount of money that is being spent related to the equal access service ordinance.
I found a document that says on average you spend $900,000 a year that also includes or
not does not include records of the cost of bilingual premium paid and every department
any individual who works for the city of oakland
is eligible to get bilingual premium pay
i think that's the way it works
but what is how much are you spending on that
and lastly
you need a report on the
agreement to merge
three depart from set several departments
the purpose of the merger was to benefit
uh... in some way fiscal benefits
so you had the department of human services
and youth development
turn into the department of children and youth
families and i don't know through all the other departments
but you did merge departments with them one of the main purposes was to
financially create a benefit
uh... to the city of open
thank you for your comments was all of all of chair that concludes all speakers
we just need a motion
thank you
kept so moved
Thank you, we have a motion made by Council Member Brown,
seconded by Council Member Unger,
to accept the determination of schedule
of outstanding committee items as is.
On roll, Council Members Brown.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
Thank you, motion passes with four ayes
to accept the determination of schedule
of outstanding committee items as is.
Moving on to item three.
Adopted resolution waiving the competitive
multi-step solicitation process required
for the purchase of professional services and waiving
the local and small local business enterprise
program requirements to award a contract
to Inofin Solutions LLC for the purchase
of professional services for the ongoing support
for budget implementation and budget system operations
and maintenance for the Oracle Planning
and Budgeting Cloud Service for five years
from July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2031.
for the amount of $40,000 per year
with the total contract amount of $200,000
and we have two speakers that sign up
to speak on this item.
Anything from staff on this item?
Good morning Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Tiffany Kirkpatrick
with the finance department, budget bureau.
I'll be presenting on the
Innofin Solutions Professional Services Contract item.
The item is requesting approval of a five year contract
& Fin Solutions for the ongoing support of Oracle system planning and budgeting
cloud services better known as PBCS. PBCS is the city's budget system. It's used
for budget development, mid-cycle budget and biennial budget. The proposed
contract is for five years beginning July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2031. The
The amount is $40,000 per year for a total not to exceed amount of $200,000 over the
five years.
A little background, Innofin originally implemented the city's PBCS system in 2016.
When the prior system was no longer being supported by Oracle, since then, Innofin has
continued to support the city through multiple budget cycles since 2017 through the recently
adopted mid-cycle budget. Because NFN customized and built the system, they
are familiar with our budget process, our timelines, reporting needs, system
configuration, and continually available to staff whenever needed. For these
reasons, staff is also requesting a waiver of the competitive bid process
and the local small local business enterprise requirements. Staying with the
The existing system and the current support model maintains continuity, avoids disruptions,
and reduces operational risk.
Inifin built and has supported our customized PBCS system since 2016, and transitioning
to a new firm at this stage would create significant opportunity costs, including loss of continuity,
knowledge, inefficiencies and we would lose cost savings already leveraged with
inoffensive prior work. Funding is budgeted in fiscal year 26-27 for future
years funding it would be subject to available funding and council adoption
of future budgets. Staff recommends that the committee forward the resolution to
the full council for adoption and this concludes the overview. I'm available if
if there's any questions.
Thank you.
Colleagues, any questions or comments?
Okay, we will move to the public speakers.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number three, Mrs. Sato-Olavala and Blair Beekman.
When I saw this item and it identified that it's involved
with the support and ongoing maintenance related
to the budget management and enhancing the budget process.
So what's confusing is where's the evidence of what work they did resulted in anything
that enhanced the budget or how did they in any identified way established management
of the budget.
So the report indicates that you've had seven contracts with this vendor starting in 2016
and 2016 it identifies two contracts, 2017 one contract, 2018 one contract, 2019 two
contracts, 2025 one contract.
So now today you have a contract that is 2026 July 1 all the way to June 30 of 2031.
That's confusing.
In the past you've had these short contracts.
What has led you at this point to have an extended contract with this vendor?
Lastly, if you are dealing with any budgetary item, you just moved, I'm hoping you're going
to have some detailed conversation about specifics of how the budget process has been enhanced
by spending money with this vendor.
Y'all rubber stamp too many things, so I'm going to listen to how you vet this particular
item.
Thank you for your comments. Switching to Zoom user Blair. You can unmute yourself and
begin your two-minute comment.
Hi. Thank you. Thanks for this item. Thanks for the previous public comment. Yeah. To
have explanations of what this program actually does is always helpful to the presentation
process. I hope we can do that more often in presentations in these sort of matters.
I felt that the contract was actually for a real low amount and over five years,
$200,000 over five years, oh my gosh, to do the work that they want to do, I thought that was just,
it was a relief to hear those sort of numbers and thinking. What I'm interested in after
our recent mid-year budget issues on Friday or two ago. I'm interested a bit more how to and with me
being from San Diego and all the budget problems we've been having I've been trying to describe
to yourselves here we really need to acknowledge that in Oakland we have technically the highest
budget deficit of any city in California. San Diego is second
and you guys have to make choices out of that
and we may have to be starting to talk a bit more how you
make those choices. You've been keeping that conversation a bit
tucked away in order to respect the needs of social services and
best practices which you guys I keep saying just do
amazingly well. But we have to make decisions around, say,
city government wage, you know, if they have to pay for their own
insurance or not. And that's a tough question that I'd
like to talk more about. A lot of choices you guys have to be
making, and good luck how we can have open conversations on the subject matter
and a party meeting.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item.
All right, I will entertain a motion.
So moved.
Second.
Thank you.
We have a motion made by Councilmember Brown,
seconded by Councilmember Unger,
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the July 7th City Council,
sorry, July 17,026 City Council Agenda.
On roll, Councilmembers Brown.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
city council agenda on consent.
Okay reading in item number four.
Sorry receiving informational report on the Oakland police
and fire retirement systems investment portfolio as of
March thirty first two thousand twenty six and there are three
speakers that signed up to speak on this item.
My name is Taylor Jenkins I am the investment and operations
manager of the day-to-day supervisor for the office of
and operations manager of the day to day supervisor for the Oakland police and fire retirement
system more commonly known as PFS. The purpose of this report today is to provide an update
on the PFS portfolio as of March thirty first twenty twenty six to assist me in presenting
this information I have David sand switch to PFS investment consultant from Makeda investments.
Just for a brief overview people is a closed retirement system closed in nineteen seventy
after that all city employees became members of the CalPERS system currently
all the peepers members are retired as of March 31st peepers had a membership
of five hundred and seventy three retirees and beneficiaries and based on
the most recent valuation report the fund is a hundred percent funded next
peepers investment consultant David Sands which will go into more detail on
the peepers investment portfolio. Good morning I know you have the books in
front of you and as per usual every quarter I will get to the point and keep
the comments short. Largely because the portfolio is behaving very very very
well. The report you have in front of you is through March 31st, 2026. If you
were to look at one page I would look at page 4 of 71 which just gives you a
snapshot of the portfolio and the takeaway here is in March the stock
market was down the S&P 500 was down minus 5 or 4.3 percent. If you look at
table at the bottom and you look at the median public funds. So we look at median public funds
across the United States in the range of 250 million to 1 billion dollars. That median public
fund was down 0.9 percent. The PIFRS portfolio was up 0.2 percent gross of fees and 0.1 net of fees.
It ended the quarter at 495 million dollars and just a quick snapshot through the end of May,
the portfolio is at $512 million and has had an 11% return through the end of May. The expected
return on this portfolio is 5%, so it's more than best at its return expectation. This is also after
last year where we de-risk the portfolio. We put over 60% of the portfolio into bonds. Bonds,
as you know, if you may have listened to the news, are fairly high yielding at the moment and the
Fed Chair has indicated they're holding rates steady throughout this year and they may even have to
increase rates at some point before the end of 2026 the other thing to keep in
mind is that as of July 1st 2026 this portfolio will not be getting any
contributions from the PTO fund that's reviewed every single year by the
actuary so we'll hit the next fiscal year and see how the portfolio is doing
the other comment I would make just to remind the public is that this portfolio
has not taken any money from the general fund it's been funded by the pension tax
tax override, which I think two years ago was reduced, because of the increased funding
and the strong performance. So we continue to monitor this, and if there's any changes
that need to be made, we'll certainly do that. See if there's any questions.
Thank you. Councilmember Unger.
Can you just go into a little bit more detail on that bit about the PTO not being collected
anymore? So some of it rolled off two years ago, and more is going to roll off. So for
the, what does that mean for the average taxpayer?
that.
Yeah I'll let all that staff
handle that. David Jones
treasury administrator. Through
the chair councilmember younger
yes a couple years ago we did
reduce the property tax
override rate which slightly
reduced the property tax bill
for the city of Oakland taxpayers
will be levying the tax again in
August of this year we're doing
the analysis right now to see
So it's a little bit of a
good thing.
But you anticipate it going down
in the future?
It's hard to say.
It's hard to say.
Thank you.
To the chair of Councilmember
Unger, I can bring you more
information on what we're going
to be looking at with the tax
override in the coming year.
I will note that in your report
PFS is suspected to be fully
funded toward the end of at the
end of this fiscal year and the
need for continued contribution
of tax overrides will be very
Thank you, through the chair. So on page seven you all you have noted in the
report that performance was aided by AI-related hardware demand. I'm just
curious since there is quite a bit of news this morning around the stock
markets crashing huge yes chip makers and whatnot right there was it there to
be an impact for the foreseeable future I'll turn over to David but yes this
This morning there was a huge sell-off on the NASDAQ.
Last time I looked it was down over 500 points.
So it wasn't really impacted by the Dow Jones this morning as much, but definitely on NASDAQ.
I don't know where it stands right now, but let me let David add as regarding the AI and
the hardware and what the future is looking like because we're going to continue to see
a lot of volatility around AI and in the tech sector as we move forward.
I don't know if you want to add anything, David.
Yeah, just a couple of comments.
So that's one of the reasons why we de-risked this portfolio last year.
We don't want it to rely on a very volatile stock market.
PIFRS portfolio is invested not just in AI and big tech, it's invested across the spectrum.
They're also using active portfolio managers, so we would expect active managers to go in
and sell those stocks when they become overvalued and buy them when they are cheap.
We try not to be day-to-day timers with this portfolio.
much emotion gets involved when you start doing that. So, look, we'll see how far this
sell-off goes, but we've really been a portfolio, we've built a portfolio that's focused on
capital preservation, not on capital growth. It's just been nice to have the gains when
they've come.
Could I, on the topic of de-risking, can you, I know we're speculating, but in the context
of a very large equity sell-off, what is the typical reaction of the bond market in that
circumstance where the majority of our portfolio for PIPRS is invested?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So generally when there's a quick sell-off in the equity markets, folks like to de-risk
so they buy things that are safe, which is bonds.
So you generally see an uptick in the bond market when the equity markets go down in
a very quick basis.
So usually with a day or two or three or time we see bond prices go up, which benefits PIFRS
while the equity markets are going down.
Probably in the next couple of days this news will let itself out and you'll see the market
start to go back up again and reverse.
That's one of the reasons why we don't want to be day traders in the portfolio.
Okay, Council Member Wong, are you complete?
Yeah, I'm good with my questions and just moving the item.
Thank you.
Is there a second?
Second.
Okay.
Oh, sorry.
That was fierce.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number four, Asada Ola Bala, Blair
Beekman and Kevin Dally.
The 573 retired individuals who come under the umbrella of this item, do they identify
their beneficiaries who at the time of their passing then become the beneficiary of those
funds?
Okay, that's how my retirement works.
This document that you have, I get Charles Swab upkeeps of my investments frequently.
Do the retirees have the same opportunity to understand the investments that are going
on with this portfolio, or is this strictly a document that is shared with you?
I don't know when I get this stuff, I don't know what it says.
I don't understand it at least, but I do know I'm constantly informed with the investments
that I have with y'all as well.
Then the last thing is only, it's very important to recognize, I'm going to keep bringing this
up, what percentage of these retirees live in Oakland?
I know 32% of your employees live in, all your city employees live in Oakland, and not
living in Oakland, they are the city of Oakland taxpayers are contributing, but
they are not contributing to this system and will constantly bring up the fact
that we have city employees who make no contribution. They're not invested in the
city of Oakland, but they're making decisions about the city of Oakland
financially and services and resources. I don't see the clock. Is my time up, sweetie?
it?
Yes, it is.
Thank you.
Okay.
Ali, just to – I appreciate the report.
Just a quick check.
I think you've implicitly answered the question, but on page two, as of July 1st of last year,
it said that there was a funded ratio of 95.3 percent.
And I think you said now it's fully funded.
I assume that was – yay.
Market went up.
And then you sold off.
moved to bonds, so everything's better now.
Anyway, thanks again for the presentation.
Thank you for your comments.
Switching to Zoom user Blair Beekman.
You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.
I forgot to add previously,
and from all of our budget questions we have,
how we include that in that previous app item, good luck.
So I could do that nice and formally.
this item yeah once again just you know I've been describing I think San Diego
has been learning incredibly important lessons how Oakland works its budget and
its priorities. We made amazing changes in San Diego in the past few months
really worked hard and I really you guys can't be thanked enough for your
dedication to social services first and how to address our budget. With that said,
from the mid-budget report you guys just had, it was being described that city
workers are possibly going to have to be paying for their own retirement and
health care and that's basically because of budget deficit issues and you know
what I've learned in San Diego and in San Jose they really try to take care of
their city workers a lot and you know so much so that I would always ask that
there has to be a certain they have to learn to step back and take cutbacks
when appropriate you know for the good of a team kind of thing you're trying to
do that here in Oakland at this time which with you know taking away
retirement plans and health plans but I think that's a bit too strong and I'm
wondering if there's other ways like taking a small decrease in pay of maybe
25 or 50 bucks a month and then allowing you know the health insurance and
retirement plans like what you're offering for this item so there can be I
think it's great a better harmony for city workers good luck how we work on it
and thanks for your patience to listen to myself this item. Thank you for your
comments chair that concludes all speakers on this item and we do have a
a motion made by Councilmember Wong second by Councilmember Unger to receive
and file this informational report in committee on roll councilmembers Brown
hi Unger I Wong I and chair Ramachandran I thank you item 4 passes with
four I's to receive and file this report in committee reading in item number 5
adopt the following pieces of legislation one a resolution recommending
to the Civil Service Board the exemption of the classification of employee and
labor relations technician for the from the operation of civil service and two
a resolute resolution recommending to the civil service board the exemption
of the classification of employee and labor relations analysts assistant from
the operation of civil service and three a resolution recommending to the civil
service board the exemption of the classification of employee and labor
relations analysts from these offer from the operation of civil service and for
a resolution recommending to the Civil Service Board the exemption of the
classification of exempt limited duration employee from the operation of
civil service and five an ordinance amending the salary schedule of
ordinance number 1 to 1 8 7 CMS to a at the full-time classification of employee
and labor relations technician and be at the full-time classification of employee
and labor relations analyst assistant and see at the full-time classification
of employee and labor relations analyst and D add the full-time classification
of exempt limited duration duration employee and E amend the salary of the
full-time classification of deputy chief of fire and F amend the salary of the
full-time classification of assistant chief of fire fire department and G
amend the salary of the full-time classification of fire marshal and we
have three speakers that signed up to speak on this item. Good morning Chair
Ramachandran and members of the committee. I'm Jamie Pritchett, Principal
Human Resource Analyst with the Human Resources Management Department. The item
before you involves routine maintenance to the city's classification plan. We
typically bring salary ordinance amendments to the City Council a few
times a year. These actions generally result in the creation of new
classifications and revisions to existing classifications.
We are proposing the creation of four new classifications today.
Three of them are in the Human Resources Management Department, and one of them is a temporary
classification that is a companion to an already existing temporary classification.
HR's Employee Relations Division is adding division-specific classifications at the technician,
analyst and analyst level, and this is in lieu of utilizing the existing general
human resources classifications. They will not be represented by any bargaining
groups, and we hope this will avoid any potential conflicts of interest. As they
carry out their duties, they are primarily responsible for collective
bargaining, meet and confer, and providing guidance to departments. The other
Another classification being added is a temporary classification exempt limited duration employee
the acronym ELDE and it will encompass temporary assignments that cover 40 hour work weeks.
The existing ELDE classification already encompasses 37.5 hour work week classifications.
ELDEs are most commonly used when a body of work has not been classified yet or there
There are revisions to existing classification specifications.
There are two other categories.
It could be for limited funding cycles that are up to one year, or it could be for short-term
special projects the last six to 12 months.
ELDEs have to compete in the competitive civil service process and earn placement on the
eligible list to be appointed to permanent positions.
All four new classifications will be exempt from civil service, more commonly known as
at will and they will not be represented by any bargaining groups. Advancing these
resolutions to the Civil Service Board will ensure that these new
classifications are properly classified within the city's classification plan.
Per section 9.02f of the city charter, these classifications are
recommended for exemption based on their position in the organization, scope of
responsibility, independence of action, and consequence of error. Regarding the
salary adjustments to the deputy chief, assistant chief, and fire marshals born
classifications, these changes will ensure equitable retirement treatment
for employees serving in these leadership roles. This action incorporates
an existing 15% administrative assignment premium into the base salary
for the three OFD management classifications. Staff recommend
advancing these pieces of legislation to full council. I'm available to answer any
questions you may have. Thank you. Councilmember Unger. Thanks for the report. For the new HR
classifications are those creating new positions to hire into or is this moving
existing people into new classifications? We actually have place holder positions
In the budget and so we will be filling them moving forward
That's great
I know that that vacancies in HR have contributed to our problem citywide
Do you think this will make a measurable impact on the amount of the pace of hiring that we're able to do?
If I may again through the chair
This is limited to employee relations and so they are a separate division from the employee
Employee employment operations services division and that is responsible for recruitment
So this is the employee relations and labor relations wing
Okay, so what?
what will
In layman's terms. Can you explain to me what they will?
Be doing and what they will help the city do better by hiring these four positions
Sure through the chair. So these positions will be responsible for helping guide
through disciplinary matters through grievances
They will be participating in collective bargaining as we're currently involved with right now and then any meet and confer
Processes with a union and so the impact is part of the again employee and labor relations side of the house
Okay, we can move to public speakers
Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number five a solder all of Allah Blair Beekman and Kevin Dali
There's such a shortage of
jobs that are needed to be
open to
Phil, are all of these jobs considered high priority needs jobs?
Are they at the top of the list of what the priorities are for having staff available
to deal with any element of the city's services or resources, whatever?
How did you determine these jobs based on other jobs that could have fallen into the
same category?
What was confusing in reading the document, it says exempt limited duration appointments
may not exceed one year.
Is that standard procedure or is that something that you develop based on some criteria?
It also says in the document, employees with exempt limited duration will continue to receive
the same fringe benefits received during regular assignments.
So it sounds like that these are employees who have been regularly employed, and now
they are going to be temporarily employed.
And am I interpreting that correct?
These are regular employees who had regular assignments that will now be doing temporary
assignments.
And then at the end of the one year, are they going back to their regular assignments?
already covered this one, the classification will not be covered by any bargain units.
So if these had been regular employees who were covered under the bargaining unit, now
they are in a position where they will not be covered.
And what is the risk factor for not having that ability to be covered by your bargaining
unit that you're putting them under?
7-DALI, a small request. Whenever possible, when PDF files are attached, it would be great
if they're searchable and have text in them rather than scanned images. That makes it
a lot easier to look through rather than have to read it all, and it looks like at least
some of these documents today seem to be scanned. At least my tools can't easily search it.
I appreciate the report though and the information could be my fault my tools faults. Thanks a lot
Thank you for your comments chair
Calling Blair big man. Did you wish to still speak on this item?
Okay chair at this time all names have been called
Second
Thank you
We have a motion made by councilmember Unger seconded by councilmember Wong
by the state of California.
I ask that you take your time
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward all pieces of legislation
to the July 7, 2026 City Council agenda.
On roll, Councilmembers Brown.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
Thank you.
Item five passes with four ayes
to forward all pieces of legislation.
To the July 7, 2026 City Council agenda on consent.
Reading in item six, adopt an ordinance
to amend the salary for the councilmember, city attorney and city auditor in accordance
with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission's charter mandated salary adjustment and we
have three speakers that signed up to speak on this item.
Good morning again, Jamie Pritchett with Human Resources Management.
This item advances the Oakland Public Ethics Commission's charter mandated salary adjustments
for the classifications of council member, city attorney and city auditor.
The applicable charter sections are 202, 401, and 403 respectively, which describe how salaries
for elected officials are to be amended.
The PEC met on March 18th and approved a 5-person increase for the council member classification.
It will take effect on July 4th, 2026.
On April 15th, the PEC met and approved similar increases for the city attorney and city auditor
classifications.
These will also take effect on July 4th
2026
staff recommend advancing this legislation to the full council
I am available to answer any questions you may have and that the executive director of the public ethics Commission Suzanne Doren is
also available
Thank you. I
Appreciate this item
Just to clarify this is the standard ethics Commission action that they take every two years
to increase salaries according to our ordinance, correct?
Okay, thank you.
And they had approved this back in March of this year
and we are adopting the PC's recommendations.
To the chair, that is correct.
Okay, colleagues?
If I may, just for a point of clarification,
these are charter requirements,
not requirements that were imposed by ordinance.
So these are in the city charter.
understood so voter-approved amendments.
All right, if there's no questions,
we'll go to public speakers.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number six, Asada Olibala,
Blair Beekman, and Kevin Dalley.
So y'all don't have nothin' to say about
you're gonna get an increase in salary of,
for you, $9,520 and 26 cents.
added to your already $114,243.13 that you get every year.
So since we are the process of charter amendments,
this needs to be a charter amendment.
The ethics commission in a position on an annual basis
to increase your salary.
Plus we already have a proposed charter,
now this proposed, it's gonna be on there
with the mayor and somewhere in that charter
voting item in November,
it talks about increasing your salary.
So can somebody speak to,
you're already getting an increase in your salary
every year or whatever percent,
but there's something on the ballot in November
to increase your salary.
Anybody want to straighten that up
and make that clear to the public?
Because it sounds fishy.
Now here's the part of it.
You can decline yet.
You can decline this.
You're not obligated to take the money.
So how many of you gonna volunteer?
I can't take this money because whatever reason.
I wanna give the money to charity, to the homeless.
No, you're not gonna do none of that.
So the city attorney is getting an increase.
$338,290.
and increased $28,190.
The city auditor, I ain't gonna say nothing
about the city auditor,
because I appreciate him.
Y'all give him all the money you want to give him,
because he's working hard.
So the source of the funding is the general purpose fund.
All total, we're talking about $123,885.
Calling in Zoom speaker Blair Beekman.
You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, Blair Beatman, thank you for this item.
Thank you for the words of these public commenter.
Mr. Olavala, nice to hear.
I'm in something of the same line.
Thank you for the explanations of, you know,
why these salary increases are happening
and all of this gone through.
And I'm still a bit unclear if it's ordinance or charter,
which it is a chart of mandated salary adjustments
that says here at the end,
you made those explanations clear, thank you.
It's from that, you know, I'm having my,
the work I do in San Diego right now,
I mean, we're really heavy into figuring out
better budget practices right now.
And I figured out a very nice formula
that if our city workers and city council and mayor all took a very small pay cut of
like 50 to 25 to 50 bucks a month, which is about six, I mean a week, which is about 600
bucks a month altogether, that could be, you know, if you have 3,000 plus workers, city
workers, that's a savings of about almost $2 million, and I think that can go a long
And I think it would be a lot more agreeable than cutting health programs, health care programs, and retirement funding.
And we're looking for ways to get the community involved and to feel that there's camaraderie and that, you know, our city government can take one for the team kind of thing.
and I think these are the ways to do it
in how to address our budget issues.
Good luck in figuring out that good balance, I guess.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
That concludes all speakers on this item.
Thank you, Council Member Brown.
Excellent.
Thank you so much for the report and the update.
Just wanted to kind of uplift some comments
that were already mentioned, right?
This is very routine.
I know that in prior years,
maybe someone has some background on this,
but I believe in prior years,
the council members have declined the increase,
and so I'm not sure if you all are prepared
with any of the data and the facts relative to that.
And, you know, we know that,
you know, I'm only gonna comment
on the salary of the council members.
We know that in order to like, live here in the Bay Area,
you know, you, and not even to like,
maybe live comfortably, right?
there's a certain amount that one needs to make.
I believe I read in a recent study
that in the San Francisco Bay Area,
even like as a household of two,
a minimum of like 130,000 would actually barely be enough.
And so in this moment, I know that there is,
as a city, we have a lot of financial challenges.
And also I do think that the work that we do daily,
it makes sense to have a decent wage as well.
But I am curious if we have the,
I guess like over the course of the last five years,
for example, how often have the council members
decline the increase?
That is information we would need to research
and bring back to you.
Okay, and then what about last year, for example?
did this item come before us last year?
Again, through the chair,
I believe it's every two years,
and so it would have been two years previous.
Yeah, I think if I recall correctly,
I feel like two years ago, it was declined.
I think that's what I remember,
sitting through one of the meetings and knowing that.
And so I think I am curious like the,
maybe perhaps when this report comes before us again,
it maybe it could include
just like over the course of the last six to eight years,
how often these raises have been declined
by council members, thank you.
All right, I will, oh sorry, Director Johnson.
Just for clarification, the item before you
is an ordinance increasing the statutory salary
for these positions.
That is distinct from council members
individually choosing to do actions.
And I will note, based on our past practice with this,
we would recommend that we not engage in activities
where council members individually declined salaries
and said you do a donation back to the organization
because of what it does with our payroll system.
However, this ordinance to be really clear
is about the statutory maximum for all council members
versus individual council members and their own actions,
just to be clear.
And as I know some of the prior actions
to include, I don't know if
there have been individual
council members doing things.
Versus declining the actual
wage on that so just I want to
clarify that because that's a
question that's been asked.
Right entertain a motion.
So moved.
Second thank you we have a
motion made by councilmember
Brown second by councilmember
Wong.
To approve the recommendations
of staff and to board this item
city council member.
On roll council members Brown I hunger.
Wong hi and chair on the agenda I thank you item six passes
with four I support this item to the July seven two thousand
twenty six city council agenda on consent.
Moving on to open forum we have two speakers that signed up to
speak.
Calling in the name's the Mrs out of all the ball and Blair
big men.
So I am very concerned with the ice center parking situation
and then they validate parking and supposedly the management group sharks pays for the parking.
I haven't seen anything out at works.
I hope with the new proposed that the finance department will handle that, that you look
into that.
I was very shocked.
There's an item coming up later on today that deals with the independent business groups.
that we have. And within the payments that are who's responsible the city has
to pay. For instance Chinatown the city pays eight different assessments on your
property in Chinatown. One of them is the Oakland Museum of California where you
pay sixty two thousand one hundred and seventy nine dollars and ninety nine. Thank you for your comments. Switching to zoom user Blair.
you can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi Blair Beekman thanks for Council person Brown's words really nice I you
know my words I spoke with city workers it was meant for city council and the
mayor too actually so good luck how to be considering that within budget
concepts taking one for the team as the saying goes and finding good ways to do
that. I think currently you're having a bit of trouble you know by cutting into
health insurance plans and retirement plans. I don't it doesn't seem to be
feeling good. I'm trying to find a better way to do that. So good luck. My big
project, things I want to talk about today, I want to talk about the future.
What are we going to do about SPOC and finding a new AOPR vendor besides
o'clock and to talk about strong mere things. I got some disconcerting news
about the future of block what it can be doing in this next 18 months that it's
still here. I'll talk more in other meetings today. Thank you for your
comments. That concludes all speakers. Thank you everyone. The meeting is
adjourned.