Good morning and welcome to the finance and management committee meeting of Tuesday July 14th
2026 the time is now 9 31 a.m. And this meeting may come to order
Before taking a 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 clerk representative
No later than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record
Registering to speak via zoom is now do 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting time this meeting came came to order at night
931 a.m. And speaker cards will no longer be
Accepted 10 minutes after making that time 941 a.m. Will now proceed with taking roll council members Brown
present
Unger here Wong
present and chair Ramachandran
Thank you. We have four members present chair before before we begin. Do you have any announcements at this time?
No, this is the last set of committees before our summer recess
Which is why we have a packed agenda today and I look forward to getting through it
Thank you reading in item one approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting of June 23rd
2023 or sorry 2026. We have one speaker that signed up, but he's not on the zoom queue
All right. Is there a motion?
So moved
Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. We have a motion made by councilmember Unger seconded by councilmember Brown to approve the
Approved the draft minutes from the committee meeting of June 23rd, 2026
Honorable council members Brown. Hi under I Wong I and chair Ramachandran
Thank you. Item one passes with four eyes to accept the draft minutes from June 23rd, 2026
Reading an item to determination of scheduled outstanding committee items also known as your pending list
Okay, we have one speaker that signed up,
but he is not in the queue, so.
Okay, thank you, anything from administration?
Nothing at this time, thank you.
Okay, I will entertain a motion.
Second.
Thank you, that's a motion made by Councilmember Unger,
seconded by Councilmember Brown,
to accept the determination of schedule
about standing committee items as is.
On roll, Councilmembers Brown.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
We will move on to item 3.
I will not pass this with four
ayes to accept the determination
of schedule about standing
committee items as is.
Reading in item 3, adopt a
resolution to accept an
appropriate grant funds from the
Oakland fund in an amount not
to exceed $202,500 for a
comprehensive independent audit
of the city of Oakland's
technology systems and we have
three speakers that signed up to
speak on this item.
I'm Erica Australia director of data and technology transformation in the office of Mayor Barbara Lee the item before you is a resolution to accept
200 to 500 dollars in grant firms funds from the Oakland fund
The funds will pay for an independent audit of the city's technology systems if I may share an anecdote anecdote
When I started last year I sat in the budget meeting and learned about people needing to hand walk
Hiring documents between departments due to lack of systems integration. I have to say I was shocked
For context my background is over 20 years in private sector technology
And if that had ever been the case anywhere, I worked everyone would drop everything to get it fixed
We pursued this funding because we have heard over and over that our systems failures like this are part of many of the challenges
Facing the city not only just in hiring but in contracting and other areas as well
We cannot land on the right fixes for these issues without fully understanding the problems
This audit will show us what we need to do to make our systems work for our employees and our residents
We will follow the city's existing contracting processes to select an independent firm to conduct the audit
The audit will give us a complete list of every system the city uses
It will trace how technology supports our hiring and contracting work from start to finish
It will show us where our systems fail to connect and it will rank every problem that finds what needs work how urgent it is
How hard it would be to fix and what the fix would cost
This will give city leadership a clear-ed view into the state of our technology systems and what it will take to improve them
Oakland deserves systems that work. This is one step to getting there
Thank you, I
Only have a question for finance department. I see that the funds come from
2999 was this previously budgeted in the biennial
project or is it a new project that we're identifying funds for? To the chair no
this is a new item that was not included in your biennial or mid-cycle adopted
budget. 299 is our miscellaneous grant fund that's normally where we would
receive the grant of the nature in. Thank you. Colleagues, council members
Brown then Wong. Excellent. Well thank you so much for your work on this. I'm very
excited that we're moving forward with an initiative in this manner. I believe
that is a long overdue and I know we've had the opportunity to talk at great
length about some of these tech opportunities and so I look forward to
seeing the results of the audit but just a couple questions that I did have would
you happen to know that the specific timeline for the RFP process I'll start
with that first I don't know the timeline will follow the city's existing
contracting and RFP processes to determine which contractor will use for
this excellent and as I was reading through the report I guess correct me if
I'm wrong will you all need to come back once you find the the once you select
the folks to do the audit or can you just move forward okay excellent thank
Thank you.
Council Member Wang.
Thank you. First of all, thank you so much for pursuing this. I agree. I think your reaction
mirrors mine. And I have worked in the government. So I'm comparing Oakland's city government
compared to other governments, which are notoriously behind the ball on technology. So I think
One thing I just have a quick question on is one thing that I have noticed as a continual
challenge in the city of Oakland is our ability to enforce against civil and administrative
fines that came uncovered around the illegal dumping challenges.
I know that the expenditure plan should help resolve some of those issues, but it's pretty
much across the board and so I would like if this audit has room for you know
additional things to look at that that be part of the audit to figure out just
I think there's a disconnect across the departments in terms of our ability to
do this sort of civil enforcement that is a basic function of city government
through the chair will absolutely consider that if we have room not at
Okay great, thank you. Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item
number three in no particular order you can come up to the podium or if you're
on zoom please raise your hand to be easily identified. Kevin Dalley, Blair
Beekman, and Mississauga Olavala. Hi, Kevin Dalley. I have a couple of, well, my main
question, how do members of the public submit suggestions for areas that the
audit needs to cover.
I'm going to mention a couple areas that I think are a problem, definitely would like
an audit of how 311 calls are handled after they leave 311.
The 311 database communicates with multiple different databases.
Sorry, how much time do I have now?
Okay.
Thanks.
They communicate with multiple 311 databases.
If I report a pothole,
I can't determine which department it was signed to
unless I call the 311 support and talk to a person.
Sometimes it should go to the 311,
sorry, to the pothole department,
but other times it needs to go to the permit department
because there was something not correctly done
that left a hole in the street.
So I definitely want to make sure
that there's a way for community engagement
for the tech audit.
Another suggestion that just hit today,
I would love to have a way on the agenda sign up
to find out which items I've signed up for.
So when I arrived today, I was nearly positive
that I'd signed up for this item,
but there's no way to go to e-comment
once you're at 23 hours and 59 minutes before the meeting.
That disappears, so it no longer tells me
whether I'm signed up.
I have to go to email, click on Speak Up Oakland,
and hope I can figure out which of the way too many items
that I signed up for.
It's the one that I want to talk about right now.
So, anyway, hoping to hear more about this, thanks.
I'm gonna bring this to your attention again
since you tend to ignore important things.
Data centers, you have taken no position
on data centers in the city of Oakland.
And that impacts electricity, water, and noise issues.
So somewhere, I can't remember what state or city,
the water that's coming from the data center,
it's been discovered it has a bacteria
that's affecting the quality of the water.
So this is your last meeting, all committees.
You're not gonna have anything,
all summer to deal with the data centers.
You got time for sanctuary cities,
but you don't have time for this issue.
I don't understand how this issue
is coming from the mayor's office.
It would seem like this would come
from the Department of Technology.
I don't know how that happened
that it comes from that source.
Whenever you have an audit,
it is common knowledge to be able to estimate
from the vendor how much time it's gonna take
to complete the audit.
And I think you asked a question and they didn't know.
And then we should know how time sensitive is this?
Once you go through phase one,
the next phase is recommendations
and that's gonna have a cost component.
The question is, can the city function
if we are unable to meet any of the recommendations
because of the cost component, because of staffing,
because of equipment?
So we're going through a process
where we haven't looked at the whole picture.
Don't start phase one spending all this money
if you can't complete phase two to some satisfaction.
What sense does it make to identify a problem
when you can't resolve the problem?
So the grant is, whenever you have a grant,
what is the source of this grant money?
Can it be used for other higher priority things?
Always ask if the grant requires matching funds.
Nobody asks that.
Thank you for your comments chair that concludes all speakers on this item. All right. Thank you. I will entertain a motion so moved
Thank you
We have a motion made by councilmember Brown second by councilmember Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to
The July 21st City Council agenda on roll council members Brown. I under I long I
And chair Ramachandran I thank you item number three passes with four eyes
To forward this item to the July 21st City Council agenda and to the makers of the motion is that on consent?
Okay, thank you on consent
reading in item four
Receive an informational report on the one-year update to the fiscal year
2026 to 30 Oakland Roadmap to fiscal health a plan to address mid and long-term City financial challenges
And we have three speakers that signed up to speak on this item
Good morning. There's a finance committee Brad Johnson director of finance in view of the time we have
I'm gonna move very quickly through a brief update. The information is contained within your packet though
cities roadmap to fiscal health is an effort to address the city's long-term financial challenges through structural
Changes to how the city does business and how we address our long-term liabilities and structural budget deficit
The roadmap contained 11 planks. I will provide you a brief update on each of them. Again, there's more detail in your packet
The city's first plank was which was put into place immediately was to establish a physical health executive team to manage our initiatives
This team does meet routinely
The second plank was to work on a more aggressive structural balance during our current biennial budget period
I'm happy to report that the structural imbalance in the general purpose fund has been reduced
substantially from where it was a year ago when this was proposed to a single digit million
number within your mid-cycle budget and will continue as we go into our binomial process
to reduce that further.
The third plank was to diversify the city's revenue base.
As we're all aware, the efforts to adopt measure E or a similar measure were not approved
will have to consider other
measures in order to come
fulfill this proposal at future
election cycles should that be
desired.
We presented earlier this
calendar year at plank number
four a multi-year plan to
achieve voter-mandated staffing
and services levels as you may
remember the total cost for
doing that was forty million
dollars annually your mid-cycle
budget does make progress on
this initiative by coming into
compliance with measures C-D-C
by coming into compliance with measures C, D, Q, parks and
homelessness, and X related to the city auditor staffing.
Plank five related on a long term plan to contain rising pensions costs.
This is a little bit delayed, although we are in the process of pulling in additional resources to develop this plan for
consenting pension and benefit costs, I will note that the proposed action for
Pre-funding of our unfunded liability as it relates to calipers is a major step in this direction and should be considered a major effort to address this plank in our policy.
Number six, related to contingency plans regarding our state and federal risks.
We did do an assessment of this in our mid-cycle budget and we were able to allocate resources into the spaces we thought most at risk.
We continue to monitor this as an ongoing effort.
This fall, related to plank number seven, you will receive a comprehensive update regarding
our financial policies.
So this body should expect to consider a comprehensive update, including additional elements to maintain
long-term fiscal health with your financial policies to be considered.
This fall we'll also be doing long-term investment plans on infrastructure, fleet and systems.
These are in conjunction with the ongoing work to reform our procurement, hiring, contracting
and IT systems that are going at the same time, along with investments that we're taking
on our deferred maintenance and fleet.
We have done significant strides on Planck number nine regarding ongoing revenue investment,
including substantial and additional enhanced efforts to improve business tax collection
and now ongoing efforts to improve collections regarding parking resources.
There's an ongoing plan regarding Planck 10 on by our economic development action plan
and our economic workforce development department
to strengthen the city's revenue base.
I should note that the efforts to bring Costco
into West Oakland are a strong element of that plank,
along with the actions that this body took yesterday
about development of the Coliseum site
in terms of putting that
into long-term economic use for the city.
And the city is continuing to work,
as I mentioned, on procurement efforts
and performance measurement efforts for our contractors.
We are hoping to roll those out in our next cycle of review,
and we're working citywide on performance measurements
and I used to see a more full implementation
of that effort with your biennial budget process.
That is a very brief overview.
I've kept it brief for the benefit of this committee
and it's time.
Happy to take any questions you may have.
Thank you.
Just wanna start off appreciating
the many notes of progress that's been done
over the past year.
I think on a number of these items
when it comes to our budget balance,
diversifying our revenue base.
Certainly the voter approved measures,
among other things, have been the business tax collection.
We've seen improvement.
We've used your guidance and suggestions
to help craft our budget, which I do believe we pass
that hit on a number of these points as well.
So I look forward to continuing the progress
on all these 10 points.
and see how we can do even better a year from now.
Colleagues, questions, Council Member Brown.
Sorry, Council Member Unger, Brown, then Wong.
Hi, so in 2013, we became part of the new PEPRA system,
which increased the retirement age for police and fire
by seven years and reduced their multiplier.
In 2019, we dramatically reduced retirement medical,
all but eliminating it for police and fire,
especially new police and firefighters.
How dramatically has this affected our bottom line?
How many people are under the new systems?
I know you shouldn't have the numbers
off the top of your head, but I think going forward
it would be helpful for us to know
sort of how that mouse is moving through the snake
and where we are in terms of how many people
are under those two new systems.
Absolutely, I will, at the next update
I can absolutely provide some more detail
and I expect to have a more detailed report
regarding the structural balancing plan
as approved by your policy directive
that came with the mid-cycle budget
which I will also include some of this information
because it's related space,
along with a more detailed report
on our pension system in general.
I will note at high level,
the reductions to our OPEB unfunded liability
are substantial, although we are still on the sharp end
of that particular curve as costs increase.
We will see that most of those reform efforts
come into place as the workforce turns over.
And so as it relates to both OPEB and PEPRA,
specifically starting with PEPRA,
we've seen a fair amount of the civilian workforce
turn over and so we're starting to see some of the benefit
of that on our pension curve.
Our sworn workforce has not turned over nearly as quickly
and I should note between the two,
there's a differential between police and fire.
Police has turned over much more rapidly than fire has
and so there's a little bit of a differential
between the two sworn units.
But we're still very much on sort of the sharper end
for the sworn side of both the OPEB and the PEPRA curves.
I do expect that over the course of maybe the next decade,
you'll see that curve bend,
but it's not sort of in a more immediate progress space.
But I'm happy to provide more detailed updates
so that when I bring the,
when I bring a detailed report on it.
Great, thanks. And notice on that.
Council Member Brown, then Wong.
Excellent.
I just wanted to also echo the sentiments
that chair Ramachandra mentioned about
just kind of like reading through the report
and it was really,
it felt really good to see a lot of the progress
that we've been able to make in the last year and a half.
And I know that it took a lot of city staff
and the administration to really move these key items forward.
And so I just wanna say thank you to both you, your team,
the entire administration for all of the hard work
because you could really see the city just moving
in a more positive direction.
So I wanna uplift and start there.
I didn't, of course, I did notice in the report as well,
just the ongoing need to be in compliance
with a handful of our ballot measures,
calling out, of course, Measure NN,
as well as Measure W, and how the voters really,
you know, wanted us to move forward with democracy dollars,
and so really trying to figure out
what is our plan in our roadmap to become in compliance
and move these key initiatives forward.
I also appreciated how throughout the document,
if there was an item that we haven't seen an update on,
we were able to get an understanding
of when the item would be coming.
And so I'm really grateful
for that level of efficiency as well.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member Wong.
Thank you.
Yeah, this is great progress.
And I also wanna acknowledge your leadership,
Director Johnson, just stepping into this role
for the last year.
I think everybody here appreciates the professionalism
and competency by which you've run the department
and improved the status of our city.
So thank you for your leadership.
Just a couple of questions I do have on this
is, so where are we with like a forensic audit?
I think that was one of the things
that our mayor had campaigned on.
Is that something that is being carried out by the city?
You have that on your agenda as item number eight
to improve a vendor.
Oh, wonderful, okay.
My apologies, I didn't get through the entire agenda.
And the other thing I just have a question on
is this item, excuse me, number 11.
So this is about holding the city and the contractors
accountable for the delivery of city services.
I really do believe that part of the failure
of measure E to pass is because we have not made
more public this particular piece of the roadmap
to fiscal health and I am wondering if,
since it sounds like the plan is to present this
by May 2027 if some version of that
can be presented to this body prior to May 2027.
Just to provide some input, I will say that
I was looking at the budget, the entire budget document,
including some of the performance metrics,
and some of what I noticed
is our current performance metrics
I think are truly inadequate.
For example, I think our dispatcher,
911 dispatch is being measured at the number of calls being received not the
number of calls that are being answered under a certain amount of time right and
so it's not a true measure of performance as we have and so I think
publicly showing some of the progress on this is going to be important for us as
we move forward as a city. Yeah I can provide a little bit more context so in
Your next item related to the citywide strategic plan.
As a part of that effort, it's baked in to work through
and develop a plan for implementing performance measures.
We provide updates on that every six months.
So we'll be here in six months
and providing an update on that program.
I'm in the process of hiring an assistant
to the city administrator
who will be managing the launching of that program.
And I did interviews yesterday.
So looking forward to moving more forward
having dedicated resources to get that done.
Okay, great.
Thank you for the progress on that.
Chair, if I may, I do want to note,
I've raised over in the report,
the roadmap to fiscal health is not just my doing.
Deputy Senator Administrator Davis
has been instrumental in that process.
I should note that it is also tied in
to our strategic planning process, which is coming later.
Part of what we're trying to ensure we do is that all of,
and it's a component literally
of your agenda report templates now.
We're trying to ensure that these projects move together
with one another so that the forensic audit
that you're gonna hopefully approve a contract with later,
our strategic planning process, your roadmap to this club,
are integrated efforts where we're not duplicating efforts
across multiple spaces, we're aligning,
and we're addressing the whole problem and the deep problem
as opposed to sort of superficially addressing it.
So I do wanna note it's a whole of organization approach
that is working in with our strategic planning team
and across, not just finance, but the entirety of the city
to ensure that we are delivering on these items.
OK, great.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Move the item.
Well, we will go to public comment.
We'll note you moved it.
I'll second it.
I just have a quick note before we move to public comment.
Following on what Council Member Wong said,
I wanted to offer a suggestion.
So in our policy directives, this
is tied into this item, that we passed with the budget
this year.
there's two items around public communications
and public information.
I think this fiscal roadmap,
because to be honest, it's a little hard to find.
I've asked people, where is this roadmap?
And it's linked to this informational report,
but some kind of public messaging around these 10 points,
whether that's an infographic or interactive page
or whatnot, I think can very clearly show progress.
I know in the heads of a lot of us,
we're like, we want a dashboard,
but we know that actually takes a lot of resources to create,
but something that publicly displays these 10 points,
or sorry, 11 points, and a few notes on progress made
I think would fulfill some of those policy directive goals
and show to the public, here's things we've actively
worked on, here's things in the next year
we're hoping to work on, so thank you.
And we can move to public comment.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number four, Mrs. Sada-Olibala, Kevin Dalley,
Blair Beekman. Kevin Dally, I appreciate this roadmap. There is one area that's a
little bit tricky to have it included in the roadmap but I think it is an
important part and that's the settlements that are related to traffic
injuries and deaths. It's common to have multi-million dollar settlements for
deaths and severe injuries and the injuries are not random events. They are
things that cannot be completely controlled but can be greatly reduced
through through smart decisions on street design. In many cases boat dot has
been underfunded, hiring has been slowed down. If we improve the hiring and
improve the funding, we will see, I hope,
reductions in injuries, which includes reductions
in the settlements.
The city chose to skip bond sales for a year,
which slowed repaving.
Now, as you know, my friend died on Skyline two years ago
because it was not paved because we didn't have money.
So good news is things are improving
with the funding of OatDOT.
Megan Weir is doing a great job of looking at how,
getting better information on injuries and deaths.
And I know she's back here.
So I have to call her out and appreciate her.
And I think we're gonna get a better handle
on what we can do to increase the,
to decrease injuries and deaths.
And it would be nice to have that mentioned
as something that we spend way too much money on.
Thank you.
So you failed to follow the roadmap of Seattle
related to democracy dollars.
When they put it on the ballot,
they put it on the ballot for voters
and they put it on the ballot
for a funding source to be identified.
You didn't do that.
It was originally presented as democracy dollars
for voters, because your need for sanctuary city inclusion,
all residents would get money.
Now you've reduced it that they're
going to have some kind of lottery system
where some people will get money, excluding all voters.
So that's crazy.
But you're still going to push for it,
even though it's not being done right.
Related to Measure E, you make it
seem like people need to get more
information about Measure E. The main reason why people
vote for Measure E is because of the deceptive way you introduced it to the public. It was
not a citizen's initiative. It was the labor unions in the city of Oakland, including council
members, collaborating to put Measure E on the ballot in order to get the 50% plus one
necessary to pass, rather than the two-third percent necessary to pass. Manipulation, lack
of integrity, lack of moral code. So you have challenges. You have challenges with the general
cost for police or fire and street repairs are challenging. You also have the pension
payroll costs, slumping commercial revenue, federal funding cuts, lost property tax dollars,
revenue and not coming up that you might have to reduce or eliminate impact fees.
The governor was here yesterday saying in order to get more money for housing you're
going to have to look at your impact fees. You have all of these challenges but what's
the biggest thing is you lack moral integrity to do the work the way it needs to be.
Thank you for your comments chair that concludes all speakers on this item
we do have a motion on the floor. Thank you. We have a motion made by Council Member Wong,
seconded by Chair Ramachandran to approve the recommendations of staff and to receive and file
this informational report in committee. On roll, Council Members Brown? Aye. Unger? Aye. Wong?
Aye. And Chair Ramachandran? Aye. Thank you. Item 4 passes with 4 ayes to receive and file this
informational report in committee. On to item number 5, receive an informational report from
from the city administrator on the fiscal year 2025
to 2028 city-wide strategic, sorry,
city-wide strategic plan, one year update,
and we have three speakers that signed up
to speak on this item.
Good morning, Chair Ramachandran, council members,
members of the public and staff.
My name is Monica Davis, I'm the deputy city administrator,
and I'm here to report out on our one-year progress
for our city-wide strategic plan.
presentation will be put up
momentarily, but just wanted to
remind you all that in March of
2024 we launched this planning
effort really to better
facilitate balancing our
resource constraints, but still
trying to deliver to our
residents in the best way we
can.
In that planning effort, we
spent about a year developing
our strategic priorities, and we
are now at the one-year mark
where the team has been
implementing action items and also assessing some of the originally
decided action items and making a few changes so looking ahead to the next two
years we will continue to implement action items and do a little shifting
where it makes sense based on the feedback we've been gathering. I just
wanted to uplift there are five citywide strategic priorities streamlining
operations fostering cross-departmental collaboration enhancing our
communication and coordination. Number four is optimizing a workforce
management and five particularly fond of aligning our budget with our citywide
priorities. I will note that we have about 30 high performing staff members
dedicated to helping move these forward. I'm really grateful for Caleb Smith and
preparing the staff report. This year Patricia Moreno Price have been
co-leading with me to make sure this effort continues to move forward and
Andrea Mariano has also been joining us to continue to co-lead. I did want to
invite the members of the respective teams to share out our progress for each
of these and what you can expect looking ahead. Assistant City
Minister Davis, about how much time do you need? They're planning to do about
two minutes of priority, so 10 minutes total. Can we move because we have a
number of items, can we have put five minutes on the clock instead? We'll do
our best to comply, thank you. We're very excited obviously you have read the
report so I'm grateful for that so we'll keep it as short as we as possible. With
that I'll turn it over to Tara to share about the streamline operations. Good
morning. I'm presenting for team two of streamline operations. Some of the work
that we've done includes hearing about the draft ordinance to update
procurement that's in the works. At this time the scope and status is unknown to
us, unclear to us I should say. Our next steps in regards to contracting is to
identify additional process improvements and assess whether staffing capacity
aligns with the city's contracting workload. There have been some new ideas
put forth by HR that are currently on hold pending the contract improvement
process improvements. There haven't been any advancements with the payroll
processes as of yet. The next steps will be to reconnect with HR and payroll.
Thank you. I'll hand it over to team two. Good day. Robin Abad with the City
administrator's office representing strategic priority team number two
fostering cross-department collaboration we've had a great
interagency team working on this including Rec and Park Public Works our
office the city administrator's office the police department and I think I
already said Rec and Park you get double recognition in our first sort of area
within this priority is to maximize community engagement and our kind of coordination in
terms of outreach. This has had huge impacts. We've made excellent progress. We've started
to implement a structure across all departments that allow for better communication and coordination
around all the great work that the city departments are doing. The second item has to do with
our housing and delivering housing in Oakland this by far of all of the areas
within strategic priority number twos where we have made the most progress and
I'll go quickly since I know that we are crunched for time we're also seeking to
ensure that we are deeply coordinated around emergency preparedness and our
approach to public safety so that is ongoing work in terms of making sure
that especially our first responder departments are coordinating having
higher contact and there's better responsiveness between departments and
in doing an emergency preparedness response as well as planning and
strategy. We're also interested in ensuring that all expertise and insights
from all levels and strata of the departments are more effectively
involved in decision-making rolling up to directors and of course to the city
the administrator's office.
Workforce development is also something
that is by nature interdisciplinary
and really demands the coordination and participation
of many of our agencies and disciplines.
So as you can see here, there are a number of items
that are underway to better ensure
that we can be responsive and supportive
around economic development.
So with that, I will close and pass it to my colleague
to talk about strategic priority number three.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Kimatakia Joseph,
and I am with the Oakland Police Department,
and I'm here representing Group B,
which is the Enhanced Communication and Coordination Team.
It's headed by Monica Palayoloc and Kalila Haynes,
with planning and building.
So our objective is to enhance communication
and coordination across city departments.
And so we're focusing on the three areas,
which is to streamline communication channels
between the City Administrator's Office and City Council
and citywide, strengthening internal citywide communication
practices and enhanced decision transparency and staff
engagement.
And so the idea of the best way to accomplish this goal
was by creating a newsletter in a shared location
everyone could have access to.
So we've reached the milestone of one year of the three year
plan.
And since the original introduction,
the idea has gone from thought to reality.
Slide two, please.
Oh, I have it.
All right, and so here's the example template
of an internal newsletter that the city could produce
to meet the stated goals.
And that is to the purpose of the internet internal,
excuse me, internal communication,
is to build awareness of the services offered,
lessons learned in future initiatives,
to deepen connection to the mission of our work,
and to create collaborated spaces across city departments
to improve and streamline services.
All right, and so in year one,
for strengthening internal statewide communication practices,
The City is looking to set up a monthly internal newsletter and is currently refining the content
structure and template.
I apologize to cut you off.
Five minutes is over.
About how many more minutes can I put on?
There's one more person left, so I'll just…
We'll put three more minutes on.
Thank you.
Deep and connected to the mission of our work, Create Collaborated Spaces Across City Departments
to Improve and Streamline Services.
Slide three.
The City is looking to set up a monthly internal newsletter and is currently refining the content
content structure and template. The next steps will be to pilot the newsletter and develop
standard operating procedures. The community engagement working group has become a central
hub for communications work and training across departments. The meeting space has had workshops
around ADA compliance and website edits. Currently, work is being done to standardize branding
using the branding guidelines as well as standard templates that all departments can access
and use. There has been progress at the director level with the implementation of a director's
biweekly report for the city administrator and the mayor. And citywide
com communications has been working with emergency services on developing
emergency communications best practices which was successfully tested during the
annual Golden Eagle exercises. And this is the goals for year two and year three.
And that is to implement an internal communications framework that ensures
timely updates from city council and the city administrators office are shared
across all staff levels, and for the City Administrator's Office to identify potential
policies and practices for sharing the impact and purpose of decisions and decision-making.
And I'll now hand you off to my colleague team, to represent team four.
Hello everybody, I get we're at the end of this thing.
So I'm going to just try to give you some major points.
I'm Jamaica Moon, I'm from the Oakland Public Works Department, and I'm here to provide
update on group four, which is focused on optimizing workforce management. Our work
supports three strategic areas.
I apologize. Can K-Top move the slides to what's being discussed, or is that okay?
No, I'm sorry. I have the – There we go. Sorry, guys. Our work supports three strategic
areas – strengthening employee performance and HR coordination, optimizing the intranet
to improve communication and transparency, increasing communication and resources related
to Equity Indicators and Goals.
We'll go ahead and move on.
I won't bore you with all our details.
Our first area is Strengthening Employee Performance and HR
Coordination.
You know, through our work in the past year,
we reviewed existing work and initiatives in the Human
Resource Management Department.
These initiatives include retention strategies, projects,
and the departmental personnel support optimization.
We will support the project base as needed.
In year two, we will work on plans
to engage department managers
and their HR single points of contact, which are our SPOCs.
During the first half of the year,
we also experienced the departure of two team members,
which understandably affected our capacity.
Rather than pause the work completely,
we shifted our approach and brought on some new members.
We'll go ahead and go on.
The group we can even have a couple more minutes. It's okay. Thank you. Thanks
The group met with group three. We work really closely with group three
We will focus on area number one to develop content related to strengthening employee performance and HR
Coordination our second priority focus on proving improving communication through the city's intranet
The original vision was to create a more centralized
user-friendly resource for employees by improving information sharing and
establishing more consistent department page templates. We also reviews examples
of existing SharePoint sites across departments met with information
technology and explored several options for how HR information could be best
organized, including whether resources should live on department SharePoint
sites within document libraries or through updated page templates and
information architecture. There's a whole lot more information that we want to
share with you that we will on the next round but I'll just go ahead to slide
four. This slide four is for an item for year number three. The equity indicators
report will not be refreshed. The RTE provided a demonstration of a salary
disparity dashboard we will consider how to incorporate it. Our third priority is
increasing communication and resources related to the city's equity indicators
report. Our goal is to help departments better understand how equity data can
inform workforce planning and decision making. During the first year, I'm sorry,
during the first half of the year we had the opportunity to review and discuss
the equity indicators report and attend a demonstration of the salary dashboard
developed by the Department of Race and Equity. However, because the updated equity indicators
report is still under development, we recognize that it would be premature to build new workforce
management tools or processes around data that is still evolving. As a result, we intentionally
place this initiative on hold until the new report is available. In the meantime, we'll
continue resourcing how organizations use equity indicators to support workplace planning,
lessons learned and best practices, and begin thinking about how equity metrics can eventually
be integrated into workforce management strategies. We'll also continue coordinating with group
one to identify opportunities where equity data can support future performance management
initiatives. Although progress on this priority has been more limited than originally anticipated,
we believe waiting for reliable data will ultimately lead to a stronger, more meaningful
outcome and that's what I have for you today is that is there time for me to
pass it on to good morning Madam Chair and steam committee the Monson's
deputy chief open fire department part of team number five and our strategic
goal is aligned budget with city-wide priorities we have two specific action
items the current action item we're working on is integrating and
exercising the evaluation criteria scale that was put together by the
strategic plan team and that evaluation criteria scale consists of six different
dimensions. We've exercised that criteria scale using several different
departments. We received feedback. We can continue to fine-tune that evaluation
criteria scale into the work plan so that as departments prepare for the
budgeting process for the next two fiscal years they will have an objective
tool for assessing special projects and programs based on citywide initiatives
and priorities and available funds and that's what we are as of today. Thank you.
Thank you. I have a couple of questions. So, especially for the teams one and
four, the priorities one and four, the first one on streamlining operations, I
feel like there's a number of very critical things that council has talked
about quite a bit, especially when it comes to procurement and contracting, as
as well as hiring and transparency in hiring,
it seems just to be frank that very little's happened
on this bucket of things.
Can you talk a little bit more about the roadblocks
to progress on this item?
So I can share, I actually anticipate in the fall
we'll be bringing a more complete report on our progress
for streamlining the contracting processes.
we're working on a package of administrative changes.
So it's just a involved process.
We've been bringing components like last month,
you heard the prompt payment policy.
So just trying to solicit feedback
on related administrative changes that we can bring.
So we'll actually be bringing a full package
in the fall of changes.
We are moving forward.
It doesn't seem like it, but it's a large beast.
Okay, great, and then there's, again, I know this is a big,
there's a set of issues and not all these priorities
have the same scope of work, clearly,
but the hiring as well, it seems in this update that,
it doesn't seem like there's a big update, basically,
when it comes to, and then maybe this ties in
with the item four, I would love to know
from anyone working on the items,
The priorities 1 and 4, how you feel the coordination with HR has been going on the various items.
They have been through the chair, they have been open to meeting with us.
I think we've met with them once or twice at this point.
At this point I think there are some roadblocks that we're experiencing, they're experiencing,
I should say, and those roadblocks are unclear to us,
but we do hope to continue moving forward
through the next several months.
And as Monica said, we should have an update for you
in the next set of updates.
Thank you.
And Ms. Davis, are you able to elaborate
on the HR roadblocks?
Yeah, so actually we just added Amber Lytle to Team 4
to better support and uplift the workforce management
movement for that priority. So having her join the team Jamaica is wonderful and also just joined.
And I just wanted to speak could you ask about the communication with HR group four were heavy in HR.
And so we kind of have a streamlined right to that department to be able to and as I spoke to in the
slide we've already reviewed with human resources management department the initiatives that I spoke
and so there's a really close working relationship with them in our group four.
Okay, thank you.
And just elaborating on that, if Ms. Moon wouldn't mind answering a couple other questions,
I'm glad that there is collaboration with HR for, I guess, the priority one was the hiring,
I think I was interested in, but, and then the priority for seemed other HR issues, what
are the kind of issues that you feel like you've made progress on with HR?
Just collaborating closely or closer with them and getting engaged with the, well, we're
still working towards this part closely with HR management, but getting to engage with
department managers and our SPOCs and have clear communication through them
if that helps we're working to build those relationships with the heads of all these people who make everything work in order to
Make better decisions
Okay, great. Thank you
And again also a blip for a team for some of the work that Andrea Mariano had been leading as it relates to supporting
the team for effort is building a
Strategic retention effort to be able to engage staff on staying
Interviews and trying to support and retaining staff here
Because we all know it costs way more to train brand-new employees and we value our employees and want to keep them and do we and
perhaps that comes in
The next staffing report. So let's understand if you don't have the information yet, but I would I'm interested in those retention numbers
because I think we've seen it for our sworn staff,
PD and FHIR, but I would love to see how we compare
in our non-sworn positions to some of our neighboring cities
if this is not already contemplated
in the second staffing report coming this year.
Okay, colleagues, Council Member Wong,
sorry, Council Member Brown, then Wong.
Excellent, so I have a series of questions,
but I'll start first just by, you know,
just genuinely thanking all of the teams.
I know that all of you have your, you know,
regular, your everyday, you know, jobs and things that you,
and responsibilities that you have to manage
and take care of.
And so then being a part of this team
that's really working to move key,
make key changes in the city is really important.
So I want to start first by thanking all of the teams.
and I think maybe just for efficiency,
I'll ask most of my questions to Miss Davis.
So my first question is, can you refresh my memory?
How often do the teams meet?
We have team meetings on a monthly basis
and many of the teams meet off schedule on their own
to just progress the action items.
Got you, and when will this item return to this body again?
In six months.
Okay, excellent.
Okay, so most of my questions are related to team one
and team four and five.
And so can you share who is actually leading out
on the shifts and changes that we need to make
around contracting, procurement and contracting
within the city of Oakland?
Like who's leading that team?
So the streamlining operations strategic planning team
is playing dual roles.
They're making sure that this priority gets implemented
and they are actually doing a small component
of implementing a change to the contracting process.
But in a separate effort,
I'm actually leading a contracting working group
through the city administrator's office
and convening the key owners of all the contracting changes.
existing plans to make contracting changes so from finance trying to
implement the Baker Tilly study the feedback that and the plan that M brought
related to the small local business enterprise changes so I'm facilitating
and mapping out and developing a process and this is why I advise that we'll be
bringing a report on that in the fall. Okay excellent thank you so much for that
update because I think that that's has to do with a lot of my questions and I
I think that an important flag that I would make
is that in the last year and a half,
being the chair of CED or even in some
of the other committees, I feel like there is a theme
that also speaks to the results of that Mason Tillman study.
So as I'm reading through this,
I feel like somewhere I'm looking for consultation
with council members as a key component
and also like the community component.
And so, I guess that leads me to my next question.
I know that in this moment,
we are really looking internally
about our internal processes,
but at the end of the day, the impacts are on Oaklanders.
Is there a community engagement component to this?
Yes, absolutely.
So Chuck Baker, our Assistant City Administrator,
is leading the effort in supporting the issues
that were raised by key community stakeholders
around the disparity study.
And so he's developing a community engagement plan
to be able to work with those folks
to ensure that there's feedback integrated
and provided back down to the contracting changes
that I'll be implementing as well as some other changes
that will be brought.
Okay, that sounds good.
And so would a fair expectation be that
when the report comes in the fall,
we'll also get more insight
into that community engagement plan,
what has occurred, or will it just be still
like in a planning format?
I don't have an answer for you yet on the schedule
of when those specific changes are gonna come.
I will note that I believe,
I have been working with some council member staff
to identify legislative changes.
And so I'm happy as we progress through that,
if there's interest in having those conversations
to support and do briefings on that work.
Okay, excellent, thank you so much.
And then my last question has to do with team five
and just the last sentence,
or item number two around align priorities.
Well, this is like establish a priority alignment process
amongst the mayor's office, city council,
city administration, and I believe this is related
to the budget, and this would come in year three,
but not very much, there's no engagement on that.
I do see that a tool was piloted during the spring,
I think I recall maybe hearing a little bit about that,
maybe specifically under the DVP, like a DVP item,
or just that process but is kind of more information
coming in six months on this or?
Yeah, so this first round, a handful of departments
piloted the tool including DVP, ITD,
part of the fire department
and using the evaluation criteria
and in the sort of like the pilot phase.
We received some learning from that upper
And so we re-envisioned and hopefully launched
with the biennial budget.
And so that will be available in our process,
and then hopefully we're trying to figure out
how best to provide transparency in that scoring
for the council members, for the mayor,
as she's making her choices,
and then also for members of the public.
I see, and for the pilot, do you feel that
as we get into the next budget cycle,
The tool that was used will then be used
by other departments now?
The idea is that all departments would now move forward
with the tool for the biennial budget.
Okay, very interesting.
Okay, thank you.
Yes.
Council Member Wong.
Thank you and thank you Deputy Administrator Davis
for your leadership on this work
as well as every single one of the leads that presented.
I did wanna echo my colleagues' comments just around HR.
We know this is a continual challenge just for the city.
So I'm looking forward to that report
that you will all be providing.
One item actually wanted to uplift,
which I think is incredibly important
and it actually, I'm very happy to see this
within the Foster Cross Departmental Collaboration.
A team is the engagement of middle management
and decision-making processes.
As it's noted here, middle management are the closest link to frontline staff and is
someone who's worked within all levels of various government bureaucracies.
It is often frontline staff in the middle management who are working closest with the
issue and often have ideas on how to improve operations within the city, but depending
on the culture of the department, those ideas are not always translated upwards to department
leadership.
I'm seeing all kinds of different cultures within bureaucracies, and so the fact that
you are intentionally pursuing this does make me very happy to see that.
But I do want to note that it is at risk, the status, and so I would just emphasize
that making progress on this item is important, both in operational improvements but also
So morale improvement, because, and this is not a critique of city of Oakland bureaucracy,
but so often frontline staff suffer from morale because they feel like they have ideas
but don't be empowered to communicate that upward to leadership.
So I've just seen that play out, and people not feeling supported in their roles, and
so I think it's also about retention, this piece.
Thanks.
OK, we can move to public speakers.
Calling in the names that sign up to speak on item 5,
Kevin Dowley, Ms. Asada-Olavala, and Blair Beekman.
The issue of data collection.
Data has to be the basis for evidence
that is reliable and creditable.
You have unreliable data.
Counting time, for example, is not
an accurate count of our homeless population. It's identified that that
counting time for homeless population is an estimate, but you present reports
like this is the amount of of a number of homeless people we have in the city
of Oakland. That's an estimate. You have an item on the agenda and public safety
to later this evening where the Oakland Police Department has to provide a
report to the California Highway Patrol related to collisions. But you have stripped the report
of data, name, address, social security number, driver's license, stripped it to protect people
who are here illegally. You also have no data that you collect on people that are here illegally,
But you are a sanctuary city with no data to support you are a sanctuary city.
You have no data that you collect on gentrification.
You have no data you haven't even had a discussion on reparations.
You have a system where you are doing equity analysis and you don't have data.
You don't speak about the 10% unemployment of African Americans.
You don't speak about the fact that housing is an issue related to you provide housing
for people no matter where they come from.
Do you know that the state motor vehicles department had to revoke 20,000 commercial
truck licenses because the visas had expired?
This unknown data.
Kevin Dalley, thanks for presenting this strategic plan.
really appreciate mentioning HR in hiring.
But most of I'm gonna talk about enhancing,
Team 3 enhancing communication.
I'm hoping that the tech audit mentioned earlier
will help with the communication.
And I'm glad that the communication
between the city administrator and the council is mentioned.
I've noticed, I think some of the council members
have noticed that there often isn't enough communication
that often the city administrator brings items to counsel
without time to make really substantive suggestions
or changes to the items.
It's an emergency, everything has to be passed,
it needs to be passed in the next two weeks.
Maybe next time we can discuss the renewal of the contract
in more detail.
So I'm hoping that enhancing communication improves
getting to council early.
And I'm also want to sort of call out what happened
with the parking reorg over the last year.
To me, this was an area where the city administrator
failed in communication both with the council
and with the staff, that things were changing constantly.
I'm glad they changed quite a bit
from the initial proposals, but reports were delayed.
There wasn't sufficient communication.
What can we do to reduce these changes
and to improve the communication,
decrease the crises in the future?
Thanks.
Thank you for your comments.
If your name was called and you still wish to speak,
please raise your hand on the Zoom queue.
Okay, Chair, at this time, all names have been called.
Thank you, and to the administration,
are you looking for this to go to the full city council
or to be filed here?
On consent, thank you.
Okay, I will entertain a motion to move this
to the next city council meeting on consent.
So moved.
Thank you, we have a motion made by Councilmember Wong,
seconded by Councilmember Brown,
To approve the recommendations of staff
and to receive and forward this item to the July 21st,
City Council agenda on consent.
On roll, Council Members Brown.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
Wong.
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran.
Aye.
Thank you.
Item five passes with four ayes
to receive and forward this informational report
to the July 21st, City Council agenda on consent.
Reading in item six, adopted resolution,
authorizing the City Administrator
to amend the Professional Services Agreement
with the City of Oakland Parking Partners
for operation and management of municipal parking facilities
to extend the term for up to three years,
including a two year extension
and an optional month to month extension
for up to one additional year
for a total amount not to exceed 12,399, sorry,
12,399,039 dollars waiving the competitive request
for proposal qualification requirements
under Oakland Municipal Code Section 2.04.051 B
and adopting CEQA findings
and we have three speakers on this item.
Good morning through the Chair.
My name is Jose Segura,
Assistant Revenue and Tax Administrator
with the Finance Department.
Today, I am presenting a resolution
requesting authorization for the City Administrator
to amend the Professional Services Agreement
with City of Oakland Parking Partners
for the continued operation and management
of the city's parking garages.
City of Oakland Parking Partners
supports daily garage operations,
including customer service, security, maintenance,
and facility management services.
The current agreement expires on July 31, 2026.
The proposed amendment would extend the agreement
for two additional years with an option
for up to one year of month-to-month extensions.
The annual contract amount would remain unchanged
from the current agreement at approximately 4.1 million.
Staff recommends this extension to ensure uninterrupted parking operations,
while the city develops and conducts a competitive request for proposals process for a new agreement.
With finance assuming responsibility for these functions beginning in the current fiscal year,
the department will evaluate garage operations as part of the RFP process to identify opportunities to improve enforcement,
revenue collection in overall performance.
That concludes my presentation
and I'm available to answer any questions.
Thank you, I have a few questions.
What are we paying this city of Oakland
parking partners for and what all companies does it include?
So, so the annual amount or up to its 4.1 million,
it's mainly staffing expenditures.
which is the main item.
And I see Director Johnson that you would expand.
Sure, City of Oakland Partners is a conglomerate
business entity that operates all of our parking garages.
So if we were to go over here to the parking blocks below 250,
they're the staff that are actually there
dealing with the garage,
dealing with the operations of the garage facilities.
Same would be true for City Center West
and the other City of Oakland operated garage facilities.
And so what are we paying them?
And when someone comes and parks in a garage, that is our revenue.
We pay the contractor to manage them.
So when you talk about this in terms of a dollar amount, the revenue flow is through
the city and then back out to the vendor in terms of the management structure.
So the largest, the resource coming from that four point, two million if I remember correctly,
is actually the fees received and then it comes back as a payment to the vendor, if
that is helpful.
Partly, but not really. So how many garages is this for? That's owned by the city.
So it's a total of seven garages and eight parking lots that this
organization covers. And so it's for staffing of the seven garages and eight
parking lots, not the technology or anything like that, just for the first
the individual staff? That's the main component, but it's the management of the
facilities in general, so they also do minor maintenance, provide security
services for the garages, and so they're in charge of the overall
operations basically of this group of garages. Now do they do enforcement to
collect the parking fees as well? No, the enforcement is done, to the chair,
enforcement is done when it relates to the sort of where you come in and use
your phone to pay for by application and note it, that would be done by City of
Oakland staff in our parking garage just to the extent that that's a
enforcement mechanism. If there is gated entry to a garage at a space, that would
be the gating structure would be handled by that. Maybe to prevent the question
part of the reason why finance is asking for this extension is we do want to explore other models of collecting revenue from our garages.
I don't think we're satisfied with the technology, the solutions, the operations as they currently sit.
We don't want to interrupt that process, but we know we need to engage in a full sort of rethink and
then RFP in a full competitive process in order to get better outcomes and results.
And tell me, I don't wanna preempt your thoughts
on this chair, but I think I have the same concerns
as you do around the total amount of revenue
we're collecting, the fact that it has not recovered
since the pandemic, the capacity for people
to scoff, scoff, laugh, park at our garages,
those are our concerns as well.
We don't wanna interrupt garage operations in the meantime
and given the time to get a full RFP
for a contract of the scale and scope
and really in a fully competitive way to maximize value.
We're asking for the current contract to be extended
so we can engage in that process.
But those are the same concerns that we would engage
in the next RFP process.
Thank you.
Yes, the lack of collecting revenue from these garages
definitely is my concern.
I mean, there is a commonly held belief
that you can just park in the city garage next to City Hall
and never pay because of how messed up
the technology is in practice,
not to say that a pay by meters,
The, not to say that the gate is a perfect solution,
I know there's been transition in a number of our garages
from that, but this pay by license,
but it clearly isn't working either,
if people just know that you can go park for free
and get away with it.
I am highly uncomfortable with having this
be a two year extension.
I appreciate that you do need,
I understand that you do need time to issue an RFP
and look for other vendors.
I also don't see anywhere all of the companies
that's listed as part of this operating contract.
I checked the report on the attachment
unless I'm missing something.
Where are the list of companies
and the full list of garages?
I believe the list of companies
is on the top of page four of your dinner report
and reading that aloud.
It's S&P, CMA Wellington,
And then two small local venison enterprises,
which are Oakland CME asset managers
and Wellington Property Co.
So I, but Jose, please jump in if I'm missing that.
That is correct.
And the three main ones are Wellington, CMA and SP plus.
And then on the list of garages and facilities,
we don't have that in there.
I'd be happy to get you a supplemental report
that has a listing of all the city's parking facilities.
I don't actually see that here,
so that's a good note for us.
Happy to provide that as a supplemental.
Okay, before I pass it to my colleagues,
personally, I'm very uncomfortable with passing this today
and I know that we have,
our next meeting will only be in September,
but I would really appreciate if you could use that time
to provide a little more details on the current operators
and the garages and the numbers since the pandemic
of how much we're collecting
and also to explore if we can change this
from a two year contract with month to month extension
to something much shorter to start issuing RFPs
for better vendors.
And I will pass it to my colleagues
before I make a motion to see their thoughts.
Council Member Wong-Bin Brown.
I, yeah, I just wanted to emphasize
and my concerns coincide with the chairs as well,
just around the revenue collection
and I would support also shortening
the length of this contract as well.
I think one of the,
it doesn't seem coincidental that
the revenue decrease doesn't coincide with just the pandemic
but also the move towards the gateless system.
And can you walk us through how the enforcement
currently occurs in this gateless system?
And I do think when this item returns or as we move towards an RFP, we need to be looking
at a gated system and the cost associated with that.
The chair to Councilmember Wong.
So a couple of things.
First off, on your second point, I think we concur again, finance is taking over this
operation now from DOT.
I think I have the same instinct as you do about the change in structure.
I would note that in order to actually get this changed,
it's going to take time.
This is not something that we can do quickly.
We're not ready to do an RFP right now on this structure.
We have a lot of evaluation and homework to do
about how the system is operating,
what the best practices are with other
municipally owned garages as to how to do this structure.
And so we'll need to do all of that prior
to getting an RFP out,
then competitively go through RFP process
before we get to award.
So part of our timeline right now
is actually being able to do that appropriately
without having to come back to you again and again
and again for sort of short-term extensions on this.
We wanna be able to do the full process.
To answer your question, in a gateless garage,
the way it would work right now
is city of Oakland DOT parking enforcement staff
would patrol the garage using technology
to identify plates that haven't paid
and ticket those particular plates.
That's how it works.
We do know that there are challenges on that.
We're in the process of working hand-in-glove
with DOT to explore those, but the concerns that you've
expressed are the same concerns that we have about maximizing
these resources.
No one should be accessing our parking facilities
without paying for them.
Right.
OK.
What is a timeline that would work?
I mean, I think it will realistically,
if we were to take the next six months to actually get
the system we want RFP for, and then we were to RFP it,
think the October of 27 is the soonest I could see us being ready to come back
for you with award. And that's just a realistic timeline of exploring the
options, doing a full competitive RFP process, doing in a way that allows
local and small local vendors to bid on that process of where we end up being.
Those are time intensive processes to be done properly and we don't want to rush
this one we want to do it properly so that we actually solve this problem okay
thank you appreciate it
council member Brown okay yeah so I definitely echo all of the sentiments
that my colleagues mentioned and I think well first I'm also shocked that the
agenda report doesn't have the list of garages and so if we can please add that
that would be helpful.
I also think that there's opportunity for us
to also provide a report on the maintenance status
of these garages.
I think that a deciding factor for myself
whether or not I park in a garage
is not whether or not it's free,
but actually the safety of the garage
and if it's actually being maintained.
And so, I guess, like, my question would be when was the last time that we actually did
an audit of the garages, their safety, maintenance that needs to be done?
Basically everything that said vendor should be doing.
I think it says here operations, facility management, repair, security, facilities management,
financial reporting.
How often do we actually receive feedback from this vendor that we've been working
with?
I'm not sure if it's through the chair.
So there's a semi-annual performance audit that gets done and basically every time that
there's a survey that gets done to the end users, the Oakland Parking Partners have come
In the words that I received with flying colors, so they have always received a good approval
rating from the end users.
And so that's done semi-annually.
There's no official audit that has recently been done in terms of the maintenance.
And just for clarity, is this an audit that is being done by them?
It's a survey, so it's more of a customer satisfaction survey.
I see.
Yeah, so there's not an official audit that I can point to recently to answer your question more directly to the chair to councilmember Brown
We need to evaluate all the facilities. You're a hundred percent correct their status of maintenance and repair
I would notice any capital improvements are not actually the result of the vendor and that's a key thing that we also need to assess
These are city of Oakland facilities and they need to be included within our capital improvements program
And so that's one of the key things that finance is also working to do and to ensure that the actual asset
When it needs capital repair is properly done
Agendized and brought to you for consideration with our various funding sources as a consideration your capital improvement plan
But you're correct. We need to look at the safety for our parking patrons
especially for facilities after dark
in that space
there are maintenance activities that need to be done and we need to be able to actually assess audit and validate those and
And those are the exact kind of considerations that we need to do both as a sort of a status
assessment as to where we are before we RFP, but we also need to build into any future
contracting procedure for a new vendor, whoever may bid for that.
So we need to have a structure by which we are receiving routine audits, updates, repairs,
logs of those, not just satisfaction surveys.
And so all the things that you're addressing are the kinds of things that we need to put
out as in our scope of work for the next RFP process, but there's a lot more that we need
to address and be done, so that we can go out and ensure that we have, as we talked
about our prior item, we are able to ensure performance on these contracts and real performance
for our partners that are patching, both on the revenue and on their customer experience.
I see.
And then one last, I guess, note, I would be interested in, like, when we see the list
of all of the facilities, like I would be curious,
like, okay, well, you know, facility number one actually
is the, I hate to use this word, but is the best, right?
Like, we have the, you know, right payment method,
or, you know, all of the cameras are operational,
versus like, you know, facility 10, actually,
it looks like we need to update the gates, et cetera.
So I would be curious if we can get an update
in that matter and are all the payment like methods of payments across all of
the garages analogous are they the same they are I can I don't think they all
have the same pricing mechanism if I remember correctly I don't know if the
updated status is I don't know if the payment structure is the same I think
they are almost all using the same enforcement structure now but what I
but I heard you say, Council Member Brown, just to make sure I got it right.
You would like to understand the revenue, the size, the ranking,
the various statuses of some sort of the L-evaluation of repair status.
I think that that would be notable for
this but please Jose, if I have not covered the council members questions, please add anything.
And we can certainly provide the supplemental information that's been requested.
we're happy to do that, we can include it as a supplemental if that's the desire, but
regardless of whether we postpone this item until September or now, we are intending to
initiate the RFP process immediately, so we're not waiting until, you know, a later time
we're engaging right now, and so, you know, regardless of when this may or may not be
approved, we are already engaging in the work that needs to be done, but it will take some
time, it will take, the RFP process takes approximately a year at least to be able to
get someone through the door. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that regardless
of, or the reason why we're asking for this extension is to not disrupt the current operations,
because as I mentioned, the contract expires on July 31st, and so we are hoping to avoid
a lapse in that contract while we are working, as I mentioned, we're beginning the work on
on the RFP immediately, we're starting right away.
Thank you.
I have two more questions.
So if my understanding of this is right,
we basically make no money off of our garages right now.
OK.
That is a correct understanding and a notable problem.
Yeah, so then I will.
Director Johnson, I know you've tried
to do a significantly better job in bringing things to us
right before, but not before they expire,
but this item is coming to us right before it expires,
but since we're making no money off of it anyway,
I am very inclined to not want to move forward
with this right now until we get more information.
I would like to make, I know we have to hear public comment,
but I would like to make a motion to continue this item
to the first Finance Committee meeting,
I believe that's September 8th, September 22nd.
And a couple of things that I would like to know
is what Council Member Brown said
of what's the performance of different garages.
Because I have, you know, just driving
a different garages, they operate very differently.
So I'm sure that some of them are making a little more money
and others are probably operating at a loss.
So garage by garage or parking lot by parking lot data,
as well as which of those companies manage it,
is wanting additional information I would like,
and an option to not, what are our alternatives?
Because I am highly uncomfortable
with spending $12 million of money
over the course of two years for this.
So what is the tightest timeline
that we could authorize an extension in September?
Could it be just for six months
while an RFP is complete?
It doesn't need to be nine months because if we're not making money anyway and we're spending money for these garages
I mean, I'd rather parking be free for
six months
Then spend money on companies that are not producing results as neither is our enforcement. So
I
Will make the motion to continue this to September 22nd with the request for the at that additional information
I'm sorry through the chair. So I was just advised to make it clear that the
But the continuation till September will create a gap in services
with
Because we won't have a contract in effect
Is a gap in services mean that the lots will be closed or what does that mean?
We we do not have this we don't have city staff to operate them in the meantime. And again, I apologize
I tried to get things in advance
Finance is just taking over this particular contract set.
If it is helpful, it might be helpful
to extend the current contracts just to October 1,
which would allow us the time to get back to you
at that September staff meeting
with your ability to take action
then after that particular time
so that we can just do like a three months extension
so we can continue the operations as they are.
Council Member Brown.
Okay, to the chair, I think the thing that's standing out
for me is the overall operations of said garages
and ensuring that even in this moment,
the basics are operational.
So I would be curious if you would be,
because you heard our director state
that they're gonna start the RFP process
and get things rolling.
And so I think I would be curious.
One, of course, the report back for more information,
but could we do a contract extension
maybe to the end of the year,
just to give a little bit more time,
versus I even think the October one is not really manageable.
So I'm just trying to see if we can do maybe six months.
But the truth is, we also heard that
the entire RFP process at minimum will take one year.
So it's like, here's this thing
that we need to do in the meantime,
while we are trying to get to this other goal.
So, I think my proposal would either be,
if a minimal six months to a year,
while these other things are taking place,
so that the garages are indeed manageable.
Because there's no city staff to take over these operations,
security for these multiple garages
that we don't have a list for.
So that would be, I would feel most comfortable
with either six months to a year.
Let's move to public comment and think on it.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number six, Mrs. Asada Ola Bala, Kevin Dalley,
and Blair Beekman.
Kevin Dalley, I agree with Council Member Brown here
that a moderately short term extension makes sense
without getting into a crisis mode.
Again, let's just stabilize it, take a look at things.
Parking garages are more complicated
than just a revenue source, of course,
even though we're not legally required to do CEQA,
the environmental quality is part of the existence
of a parking garage.
I'm glad that Oak Dot is still handling parking policy,
And we should look at both the garages
and the street parking policies together
and see how they work, how they do work together.
They're not independent entities.
You know, all of us at, well, they don't die at least
in some of, you guys know about the high cost
of pre-parking by Donald Shoup.
It really changes the city,
this choosing to make giant parking garages.
We do have higher parking prices for special events
at some of the garages, that's the way it should be.
Otherwise, the lot is full.
Sometimes the lot's full anyway.
Are there garages which could be converted to housing?
It's worth considering, maybe it's housing
on top of a garage, especially with the open lots.
There's room for housing just as Bart's converting parking
At the Lake Merritt Art Station to housing,
Oakland should look at the same.
We should encourage transit, cycling and walking
in addition to driving.
Every garage should include a bike lake locker
similar to the locker that I'm using
outside City Hall today.
And hoping this goes forwards.
So when I read the report, this statement stood out.
Within the next 12 to 24 months,
staff will envision new ways of managing the parking system.
What brought that on?
What's going on with management that that has to be stated?
And why does it take 24 months or 12 months?
This is an item that's under Rule 28.
Now one of the things y'all need to do during the summer
is instruct all departments to have the ability to bring items in a timely manner before counsel
and not have all of these urgency and emergency where if we don't do it, then we'll be in
a situation where we won't have services or resources.
This has got to stop that we use this rule 28 too much and staff have sufficient time.
if it's a staffing issue, if you can't do it,
define why you can't do it.
Now I have brought to your attention many times recently
when you were looking at the ice rink center,
that the report indicated that people that use
the ice center get free parking, validation parking.
How does that work?
Nobody thought it was important enough to bring it up.
You haven't brought it up yet.
But through some unknown system, if you're
parking in that garage, the Clay Street garage,
you park for free.
How does it work?
Nobody brought up that the Montclair parking garages,
why did you determine that the Business Improvement
Association runs the garage?
Why?
Why don't we have the same company running the garage
in Montclair, the two garages?
That wasn't brought up.
So, I wanna know how...
Thank you for your comments,
switching to Zoom user Blair Beekman.
You can unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.
Hi, Blair Beekman.
There's a San Diego City Council meeting going on here.
So, I've been trying to listen to both their meeting
and your meeting as well.
I didn't hear everything for this item,
but thank you that it's here.
I wanted to be able to quickly comment
that I hope to work with check accountability
and the ALPRs, readers that will be a part
of these future parking projects.
There can be great systems developing
in how policies can work around ALPR readers,
public policies, and learning how public policies
can work well can often be a pretty exuberant experience
for people once they're understanding its process,
and it creates kind of like a good feeling
and good understanding.
Good luck reviewing good public policies
for AOPR readers for these parking garages
and parking lots, what that will mean
and be about and I just wanted to remind
of those concepts and thank you for this item.
Thank you for your comments.
Sure, that concludes all speakers on this item.
Thank you.
I'm very hesitant on this item.
And I think it's such a missed opportunity
that we make no money from our parking garages.
But beyond that, there's also operational issues
that give me pause.
So for example, Black Joy Parade on a Sunday
had packed streets, like some of our most packed days downtown.
And our city garage was closed.
Like one of our public commenters mentioned,
special events are days to increase fees for parking.
And people will actually do it because they
want to come to Oakland.
That could have been a couple hundred thousand dollars on one day of all of our city parking garages were open.
So its enforcement of collection is one thing, but also making sure that our garages are open at the right times.
And like my colleagues mentioned, safety, all of these things together, I think, really needs an overhaul in how we think of parking garages.
And I understand that that takes a little bit of time to do.
So I am open to extent to changing my motion
and I'll make a motion to continue this
to the end of the year.
So I guess five and a half month contract.
And I would, but I would really appreciate
if for the supplemental packet for Tuesday's council meeting,
you can provide that information about garage by garage data
which I know is a short time turnaround,
but for next week's supplemental packet,
I would really appreciate that information
because as we continue this conversation
of how do we do better with our garages and enforcement,
but also operations safety, et cetera,
I think there's a lot to think about,
and I think that'll help guide the conversation.
So I will make a motion to amend the contract
to move it to six months rather than two years,
so till the end of this year,
and send it to full council on consent.
Thank you, we have a motion made by Council,
by Chair Ramachandran, seconded by Council Member Brown,
to approve, as amended, the recommendations of staff
and to send this item to the July 21st City Council agenda
on consent, with the amendment to the legislation
to extend the contract to the end of the year,
with a request to staff to provide in a supplemental support
a list of all city parking facilities
and the garage by garage data.
On roll, Council Members Brown.
aye aye
Long hi and chair on much on June. Hi. Thank you item six passes as a
Passes with four eyes to be for sorry to be forwarded as amended to the July 24 City Council agenda on consent
reading in item number seven
Adopted resolution declaring the city's city council's official intent to reimburse certain
Expedentures from proceeds of obligations for project cost in connection with the Oakland Trust for clean water and safe parks measure
DD affordable housing and infrastructure measure KK and 2022 affordable housing and infrastructure bond measure you and we have three speakers on this item
Good morning chairperson Ramachandran and committee members David Jones of the Treasury Bureau
I'll make this very very brief as this is really a formality this morning
But before you as a resolution declaring the intent to reimburse certain expenditures
from proceeds of obligations for project costs in connection with measure DD measure KK and
measure you
pursuant to IRS regulations
project expenditures occurred that occur prior to the issuance of the bonds can be reimbursed with the bond proceeds
this proposed resolution is a requirement of the IRS to utilize tax-exempt bond proceeds for such reimbursement
purposes
the adoption of the proposal
Resolution will provide the city with the flexibility to initiate projects prior to the issuance
In a turn this allows for projects to be efficiently completed and bond proceeds spent efficiently
as the city is intending to issue its next issuance in the first quarter of
2027
To fund projects that are in accordance with them with ballot measures
So this essentially is a formality for the IRS basically to reimburse
Expenses that have been incurred and I'm available to answer any questions that you may have
Thank you colleagues. Okay, we can move to public comment
Calling in the names that sign up to speak on item number
So even with measures like KK and you, we have limited funds.
We end up with a prioritization process.
We can't fund any and all things.
But it really ticked me off when you use Measure U money for that Lincoln Park Recreational
Center that was under measure KK for renovation of the center. The community,
the Friends of Lincoln Rec Center came up with a scope of work that would
include a totally new rec center that they would pay for. And you went through
a series of engaging with that group, Friends of the Rec Center, to move
forward with the project. With the understanding it would be paid for by
the community. Then some kind of manipulation went on with BASC to have
the city pay for it using Measure U over 30 something million dollars. And why
did you do that when you had a commitment from the community to pay
for it, and you're moving forward with this. I saw the design, the design was
done by a private agency, a group, not by the city, and you're going forward with
that scope of work by a private agency. You have not approved the scope of work
as a city initiative, it's their initiative, the Friends of Lincoln Rec
Center. Doing these kinds of things lacks credibility again, lacks integrity and
what would you have at West Oakland? The Howard Durant Library for 20 years
trying to get funded, hasn't gotten funded. Thank you for your comments. If
your name was called and you still wish to speak on this item you can come up to
the podium or please raise your hand. Okay Chair at this time all names have
and call. Okay I will entertain a motion. So moved. Second. We have a motion made by
councilmember Brown seconded by councilmember Wong to approve the
recommendations of staff and support this item to the July 7th sorry July 21st
City Council agenda on roll council members Brown. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And Chair
Ramachandran. Aye. Thank you item seven passes with four ayes support this item to the
July 21st city council agenda and to the most makers of the motion is that on
consent on consent thank you reading in item number eight adopted resolution
authorizing the city administrator to enter into a professional services
agreement with Weber and Tidwell LLP for forensic audit services for a one-year
term with the option to extend for an additional one year without returning to
council for a total contract amount not to exceed $490,000 and we have to speak
three speakers on this item
Good morning chair Ramachandran and members of the finance and management committee. My name is Rose Drupal
I'm an assistant to the city administrator with the city administrators office
The proposed resolution before you today would authorize the city administrator to enter into a professional services agreement with Weaver and Tidwell
LLP for forensic audit services for a one-year term with the option to extend for an additional one year
For a total contract amount not to exceed four hundred and ninety thousand dollars
The proposed professional services agreement aligns with the office of the mayor and city
administration's ongoing efforts to evaluate and strengthen the city's contracting procedures and implement best practices to improve
Accountability and ensure that each stage of the process is conducted in a consistent fair and transparent manner
across departments programs and project types
The city issued a formal request for proposals on November 14th
2025 followed by a Q&A document with responses to questions from potential vendors on December 26 2025
Responses to the formal RFP were due to the city on January 2nd of this year and the city received a total of four proposals
The Department of Workplace and Employment Standards conducted a bid and proposal review to evaluate each proposals
responsiveness to the city's local small local business enterprise requirements and
and issued a determination on January 30th,
finding that two of the vendors,
Protivity Government Services Inc. and Weaver and Tidwell LLP,
qualified by meeting the 20%
small local business enterprise requirement
for this contract.
Subsequently, an internal cross departmental
staff working group conducted interviews
with Protivity Government Services Inc.
and Weaver and Tidwell LLP on April 13th
and scored each vendor's proposal.
Based upon this evaluation process,
The staff working group has recommended Weaver and Tidwell LLP
to be awarded the Professional Services Agreement
for Forensic Audit Services.
The scope of the audit shall include forensic audit services
associated with all phases of capital projects
and human services executed July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2025.
Under the proposed scope of work,
the recommended vendor, Weaver and Tidwell LLP,
will perform an independent assessment
financial statements as well as performance recovery and contract audits
in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, financial
information, adherence to financial compliance requirements, and internal
controls, and organization or program performance to identify areas for
improvement. This will include identifying process improvement
opportunities and transaction mapping from original project inception through
transaction completion cycle. The audit shall include but not be limited to
development of contracts, disbursement of funds, and any other relevant contract
and fiscal activities. Upon completion of review and assessment, a report of
findings will be delivered to city leadership. While the scope of the
proposed professional services agreement is focused on capital improvement
projects and contracts administered by Human Services, the city may identify and
seek to implement changes to the contracting process more broadly based on
on the findings of this forensic audit.
Per Oakland Municipal Code, chapter 2.04.030,
city council authority is required for contract awards
for professional services in excess of $250,000.
Therefore, our staff is requesting
that the city council authorize the city administrator
to award a professional services contract
to Weaver and Tidwell LLP for a one year term
with the option to extend for an additional one year
without returning to council for a total contract amount
to exceed $490,000. Thank you and staff are available to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you. I have a question. Can you explain how they meet the small local business requirement?
They seem like a over $300 million company based in Texas. I'd be happy to follow up with
additional information. We did receive the report from DWES with the
determination so I can certainly share more and I'll also just defer to Deputy
City Administrator Davis if she has more information to add. So in conversation
we did interview both those vendors and did meet with for each of the interviews
there's subcontractors who are Oakland based. Okay thank you. Do we have names
of those subcontractors? Probably but my brain doesn't remember at the top of my
head I am happy to get that information to you. I would appreciate that in a
supplemental report if this is voted to move to full council. Council member
Unger. So capital improvement projects in Human Services are a big chunk of our
budget but they're by no means all of our budget are there other plans to do
forensic audits on other parts of our budget how did we select these two
pieces where are we going next through the chair to councilmember Unger so in
order to do a comprehensive audit of the entirety of the city's open operations
that would be a multi multi-million dollar contract and candidly no firm
probably is the capacity to do the entirety of the city at once we did a
a risk assessment as to where we thought we had the most space for improvement, and candidly
where we had seen the highest level of dissatisfaction and concern, both from this body and from
the public.
So we narrowed the scope as to the places we thought we most needed improvement.
And as was mentioned, we will be able to hopefully extrapolate, given these are sort of our highest
through a space in terms of process improvements
across the organization.
A lot of what human services does, for example,
is grant work.
That'll likely be heavily applicable
to other similar grant projects.
Capital improvements are our largest capital,
our largest sort of construction-related projects.
And so again, we think one, we have sort of the highest risk
or need to audit in those spaces,
and we plan to extend the learning spaces
across the whole organization once we get there.
Makes sense, thanks.
Okay, Council Member Brown.
Oh, sorry, Council Member Wong, then Brown.
Thank you, through the chair.
Just one question.
This particular company, what kind of findings
have they been able to uncover for other cities?
And what were the outcomes?
What can we possibly expect
in terms of process improvements?
So they've done, I don't know off the top of my head
through the chair what other sort of jurisdictions
or agencies they've worked with.
I'd be happy, it sounds like there may be
a supplemental report coming along with this item
for the full city council meeting,
so I'd be happy to provide those additional details
in that report, but as I mentioned,
the sort of components of the scope of work
as far as assessing financial statements
and looking at performing transaction mapping,
exercises, looking at the sort of full cycle and development of all contracts
through completion that is work that they have done elsewhere and again I can
provide those additional details in a supplemental report. I also defer to my
colleagues if they have additional information on that question. Through the
chair to Councilman Wong I know that this firm has noted means of improving
doing one process improvement they've done to that normal jurisdictions. I do
note that this firm at the sort of on I'll give you the full range of what
they've done, we've seen sort of basic process improvement,
step improvement coming out of their work.
We've also seen them identify literally malfeasance
in their press spaces.
So they are capable of doing that full cycle of work
from both the, here would be some helpful steps
to make your process better, more transparent,
more clear, more easily understood and followable,
more digestible to different stakeholders,
to identifying a fully malfeasant
non-compliant process or outcome in the sample that they've audited and the city
will be open to receiving feedback on the full scope of those things and we're
looking forward to seeing what they uncover. Part of the process of having a
forensic auditor is they are supposed to be a little bit distant from you that is
kind of that's the nature of this process we will provide them the full
set of records that they require to be able to dig in and encumber whatever we
can help them uncover. Okay thank you. Councilmember Brown. Second. Okay we can move to public speakers. To the make, through the
chair to the maker the motion can you clarify exactly what the request for
supplemental information is. I have how the company meets the small local
business requirement names of all the subcontractors and your questions what
kind of findings have this company been able to uncover from other cities and
those outcomes along with what
can we expect in terms of
process improvement.
You got it.
Okay.
Sorry, I didn't hear.
Did you capture Councilmember
Brown, the chandrin's request?
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
So we have a motion made by
Councilmember Wong, sent in by
Councilmember Brown to approve
the recommendations of staff and
to forward this item to the July
21st City Council agenda on
consent with the request to
staff to provide in a
supplemental report of how the
company meets the small local
business department names of all the subcontractors what kind of findings
have this company been able to uncover from other cities and what were those
outcomes and what can we expect in terms of process improvement on roll
council members sorry oh sorry yes we will go to public comment on sorry for
calling in the names that sign up to speak on item number eight missus out of
Olavala, Kevin Dalley, and Blair Beakman.
So here's the definition of a forensic audit.
It is an in-depth examination of an organization
or individual's financial records
to uncover evidence for legal proceedings.
Forensic audits investigate specific,
suspective actions, such as fraud, embezzlement,
asset management or failure to have regulatory compliance.
Forensics audits are used to confirm
or to rule out financial misconduct,
quantity losses or quality losses,
and to prepare evidence for court proceedings.
I didn't hear anybody talk about that.
So are we looking at Pacific violations
that can result in legal actions?
Are we soft peddling this?
Is this a real forensic audit?
Are you redefining forensic audit, like you said,
to make corrections as necessary to improve the process?
You don't need a forensic audit to do that.
A forensic audit, again, has to do
with potential legal actions that have to be taken
based on Pacific circumstances of violations.
So don't try to present stuff to the public
where you want to soft pedal it.
So what happened with capital projects?
What happened in human resources
that we need to have a Pacific forensic audit?
It's not a general audit.
You're looking at certain Pacific circumstances.
That's what a forensic audit is.
Thank you, if he still wishes to speak,
you can come to the podium or raise your hand.
Okay, all names have been called.
Again, we have a motion made by Councilmember Wong,
seconded by Councilmember Brown
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the July 21st.
City Council agenda on consent with the request of staff
to provide in a supplemental report,
how the companies meet the small local business requirements,
names of all the subcontractors,
what kind of findings have the company been able to uncover
for other cities and what were those outcomes
and what can we expect in terms of process improvement
on roll council members Brown?
Aye.
Unger?
Aye.
Wong?
Aye.
And Chair Ramachandran?
Aye.
Thank you, motion passes with or I support this item
to the July 21st city council agenda on consent.
Moving on to open forum,
calling in the names that sign up to speak,
Ms. Asada Olibala, Kevin Daly and Blair Beekman.
The issue of immigration,
I cannot believe how I'm discovering
challenges related to immigration.
In 1994, Barbara Jordan, commissioned
by then President Clinton to look at immigration, period,
immigration.
The recommendations from the commission
said we have to monitor immigration
because at some point it's going to impact the workforce,
particularly for African-American low skill
workers.
Then I find out we got legal immigration going on where
people come to this country pregnant
and go into what is called housing, birth houses,
so they can have their children be born in sentences.
Most of these are Chinese.
13 birth houses are right here in California,
and these people pay up to $60,000 to $80,000
to come here and do that.
So when that president is talking about birthright,
when you manipulate in the system, is this fair?
Thank you for your comments, Chair.
That concludes all speakers of open forum.
All right, thank you.
This meeting is adjourned.