Good afternoon everybody we're gonna go ahead and get started if you can hear me clap once
You can hear me clap twice
Thank you. Welcome everybody. We're gonna go ahead and get started
Welcome to the City Council meeting of Tuesday, October 6 before I call roll
I will go over speaker card instructions if you'd like to speak on any item on this agenda
You must fill out a speaker's card
Before the item is called for discussion or two hours after the start of this meeting
This meeting was called to order at 3 33 p.m
So your last opportunity to submit a speakers card will be at 5 33 p.m. Or before the item is called whichever comes first
You can fill out a speakers card by getting your card at the front table and
Handing it back to the clerk representative at the table
If you're looking to turn in an online speaker card that time has passed as they were due 24 hours before the start of this
Meeting on roll today. We have councilmember Brown present also member five
Councilmember Daya present councilmember Houston excuse
Council member Ramachandran excused
Councilmember Unger here councilmember Wong present and share Jenkins present showing
Five members present at this time. Do you have any announcements before we begin? Yes, because of the amount of speakers and the
Regent to the agenda.
So the potential quorum issues
the speaker time will be one
minute.
You're out of order that's your
final warning.
So item five point one will go
to the top of the agenda and
then after that we will go in
order.
Is the mayor ready.
Going to item three
modifications to the agenda
procedure items including but
not limited to request reschedule
items from consent to non consent.
and so we will have a motion to
approve the items held in
committee so we will move item
five point one.
To the first item on the agenda
then we will go in order after
that.
Noting the change in order of
this agenda starting with item
five point one.
Is the mayor ready to proceed.
I will go ahead and read the
item to record.
Thank you.
Receive an information report
from mayor barberly regarding
Well good afternoon open. First of all let me just take a minute to pause and
just recognize our labor unions, the people who they represent, the dedicated
employees of our city who serve our city each and every day. And earlier I spoke
with some of our Union brothers and sisters and siblings and I reassured
them President Jenkins and members of the council that we are working very, very hard.
Not just to get a contract, but to get a fair contract.
Every city worker deserves this, and I know that our city council and myself are working
constantly toward that end.
So I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you all for being here to join all of
us today elected officials members of the public to hear the state of the
city and what again what labor and what our brothers and sisters who work for
the city have accomplished together. Now let me just take a moment also because I
know today where's council member Pfeiffer her legislation leading the
efforts on a data center moratorium will be voted on later this afternoon and I
I want to thank her for her efforts,
but I want to be clear.
I support a moratorium as the city engages
with community members to have input on this important issue.
Thank you, Council Member Fyke, very much.
On October 19, now we will come together for a Love Life
Week in Oakland.
10 years ago, Love Life became our official motto.
But the story began nearly three decades ago, in 1997,
when 16-year-old Loeche Lacey was tragically
killed in a drive-by shooting.
Her name, Loeche, means love life.
Now, back in 2000, as your Congresswoman,
I honor Donald Lacey and the Love Life Foundation,
because love life, it really is.
It's more than a motto.
It's a promise.
It's a promise for Oakland.
And so I want to also extend today my deepest gratitude
to our dedicated again city staff,
our colleagues on the city council,
to Congresswoman Latipa Simon, Senator Jesse Ottergan,
Assemblymembers Mia Bonta and Buffy,
our elected officials, board and commission members,
faith community, volunteers, local businesses,
activists, nonprofits, and everyone,
all of our residents who are working to lift up Oakland.
Because of you, Oakland continues to be, as I say,
a city on the move.
Now, I want to tell you the truth, however,
about the state of our city.
We have made real progress, and we still face real challenges.
We have a structural deficit.
You know that.
It's coming down, but we have it.
We face federal funding cuts.
You know that, and we're dealing with it.
Too many Oaklanders are unhoused.
Too many families are struggling with the cost of living.
And too many neighborhoods still need basic services
that they deserve.
And too many people are living in fear.
And we're not sweeping these realities under the rug.
We are being intentional and transparent
about how we meet these challenges.
But we will not ignore our progress either.
Crime is coming down.
We're building housing, affordable and deeply
affordable housing.
We're cleaning our streets.
We're fixing our roads.
We're helping small businesses.
In fact, maybe you've heard by now, just this morning,
we learned that Oakland ranked a sixth in the Conde Nast
Reader's Choice Awards for large cities.
So have a little bit of joy about what others think about us.
And I hope that you recognize this is a big deal.
And it's because of you.
We're bringing new investment to Oakland.
We're making City Hall work better.
There's more to do, but make no mistake.
Yes, Oakland is on the move.
And let's start quickly with public safety.
I want to thank our Chief Bearer for being here,
and our Department of Violence Prevention Chief, Josie.
Holly Josie.
Thank you so much.
Because they are working together in their own lanes
to make sure that these numbers continue to trajectory down.
Burglary swelled 26%, violent crime fell 17%.
For three decades homicides and shootings
have fallen by double digits, and gun violence
dropping more than 50% in the last 33 months.
And these aren't just statistics.
Those are lives.
These are families.
These are people who never made it home.
but we must do more to make sure that everyone is safe
and yes, feel safe.
Safe in your home, safe walking down your streets,
safe going to work, safe sending your children to school.
We've also reached a historic moment
for the Oakland Police Department.
And yes, after 23 years, federal oversight of OPD has ended,
and has ended.
But I have to tell you,
And when I first appeared before the federal court as mayor, I said I wanted Oakland to
complete the 51 tasks required by federal oversight under my watch.
And we did.
This was an all hands on deck effort.
And I want to thank everyone who helped us get there.
But ending federal oversight does not mean ending accountability.
Quite the opposite.
The responsibility is ours now.
policing must remain our standard.
Accountability and civilian oversight
must remain our standard.
Community trust must be our standard.
We're improving our emergency response times.
We're investing in care first crisis response.
Our non sworn macro team answered over 7,000 crisis
calls last year.
That's a fact, 7,000.
7,000.
And we double and triple check numbers.
That's receiving 97% of them without police or EMS
intervention.
And that's remarkable.
Recently, an Oakland mother shared
how macro-OPD and crisis clinicians worked together
to help her son during a severe mental health crisis,
delivering care with dignity and compassion.
And we're breaking down the walls between systems
within our city in a moment of crisis.
Oaklanders experience one thing, and I hope you know that.
And people have told me that they're
beginning to believe that we're a city that is there for them,
a city that is there for everyone.
And yes, we're a city of refuge.
We have our policies.
We do not work with ICE.
We do not cooperate with ICE.
Our police do not cooperate with ICE.
And we will not be militarized.
We will not cross that line here in Oakland.
I know this playbook.
When it comes to public safety, investing in our youth
is a top priority for me.
We advocated for almost $2 million
to restore the mayor's youth summer employment program.
We connected youth with Oakland businesses
to develop skills that will support them for years to come.
And that's a big deal.
That was our first year, more this year we're gonna raise.
We secured $500,000 in new resources
to launch a pilot program that offers housing
and relocation support for systems impacted individuals.
And we're working with the National Institute
for Criminal Justice Reform in this new national model.
And let me just say, we're leading this effort.
And Dr. Josie, I wanna thank you very much for this
Because we're like the North Star.
Whether we believe it here in Oakland or not,
we are the North Star in this.
And we're working to make sure that every young person has
a job with an opportunity also.
A young person with a mentor has support.
A young person who can see a future
and who can have some hope.
So investing in young people.
We're investing in young people because they deserve us
to invest in them.
But also investing in them just happens
to be also a public safety issue.
And we will continue rebuilding our police force.
We're recruiting from Oakland, we're holding academies,
we've reinstituted the cadet program,
and we've deployed trust-building officers
to increase foot patrols.
And let me just say, we want a police force,
and I think you'll see through these academies
in the cadet program, a police force that reflects Oakland,
a force that serves Oakland and that protects Oakland.
We're working toward the 700 sworn officers
required by measure in end.
And we continue to strengthen our Department
of Violence Prevention and ceasefire.
We must have this comprehensive public safety strategy,
each doing the work that they do best.
Because we also must prevent violence before it happens.
Public safety is also about the condition
of our neighborhoods.
And let me be clear, illegal dumping is unacceptable
and it's a moral disgrace.
No child should have to walk past piles of garbage
on their way to school.
No senior should have to live next to it.
No small business should have to clean it up
outside its door.
We're changing the way Oakland fights illegal dumping.
We're not just cleaning it up,
We're working to stop it before it starts.
You know, we have the three E's.
We're working with Supervisor Nate Miley.
I want to thank him for that eradication enforcement
and excuse me, education.
My office, we secured $9.2 million investment
to help us develop this new strategy.
That's a big deal.
We've been in office 16 months,
and I want to thank all of you
who helped us get that investment and work with us,
our community work with us to do this.
Everybody, faith in action, so many organizations,
block by block.
But this means more cleanup crews.
Our crews work overtime on the weekends.
Better equipment, more enforcement, and technology,
yes, approved by the Privacy Commission that
helps us target illegal dumping while protecting people's
privacy.
And of course, I'm very proud of our Keep the Town Clean effort,
which we started with our young people last summer.
But City Hall, we can't do this alone.
It takes the city council, the county, Caltrans,
our state and federal partners, businesses, residents,
nonprofits, activists, everybody.
The city council unanimously approved
a comprehensive ordinance to significantly increase fines
and crackdown on illegal dumping.
Thank you, Council Member Zach Unger,
for leading that effort here.
Very important.
Senator Adegene, he authored legislation
increasing penalties for people repeatedly dumpers,
people who continue to dump in our neighborhoods.
And Assemblymember Bonton's bill
allows cities like Oakland to remove abandoned RVs.
Clean streets are everybody's business
and together we're taking our neighborhoods back.
We also have to tell the truth about homelessness.
Housing, for me and for many of you I know, we consider housing a human right, a basic
human right, and homelessness remains one of Oakland's greatest challenges.
There are two things we must do, keep people from becoming unsheltered and help people
who are unsheltered get back into housing with the services that they need to not just
survive but to thrive and to move on with their lives.
And our responsibility doesn't end there though.
Oakland deserves a neighborhood that's safe, healthy, clean, and accessible.
That means addressing the conditions that can grow around long-term encampments, protecting
our parks, sidewalks, businesses, schools, public spaces, and doing so with urgency,
consistency, yes, and humanity.
We should never have to choose between compassion for people experiencing homelessness and the
health and safety of our neighborhoods.
A strong city has to deliver both.
That's the work we're advancing through Oakland's new Homelessness Strategic Action Plan.
Through our Office of Homelessness Solutions, our roadmap to preventing homelessness, expanding
pathways into shelter and housing, and reducing unsheltered homelessness across our city.
And we know permanent housing, that doesn't happen overnight.
And that's why we're expanding interim housing
and other spaces where people can safely come inside
while they work toward permanent housing with us.
Because when we resolve an encampment,
there should be somewhere,
and somewhere safer for people to go.
And a strategy for keeping that neighborhood healthy
after the encampment is gone.
Now between 2024 and 2026,
Homelessness in Oakland fell by 20% and it did.
In the past year, our prevention programs
helped keep 1,000 families in their homes.
More than 1,300 affordable homes
opened over the last two years.
More than, excuse me, more than 1,500 affordable homes
are in the pipeline with 45% of units dedicated
to people existing homelessness.
But not enough, we need twice as much.
And in the next year, the city will award an additional $50 million to affordable housing
developments.
We created, as I said, the Office of Homelessness Solutions.
We hired Oakland's first Chief of Homelessness Solutions Officer.
We opened transitional housing for young people and secured $750,000 in state funding for
new housing.
And we continue to fight, quite frankly, for every single dollar Oakland deserves.
the county, the state, and yes what's left of the federal government. Again, I have to
thank Congresswoman Latifah Simon for helping us tremendously to get federal resources here.
Because Oakland, like every other city, we're losing millions and millions and millions
of federal dollars. But we're making progress, but not enough, but we're making progress.
We can't solve homelessness simply by moving people from one street to another.
We must create real pathways from the street to interim housing to a permanent home.
And we cannot accept unsafe or unhealthy conditions as inevitably simply because people living
in them are unsheltered.
That's not right.
That's wrong.
The answer to homelessness is housing.
housing, stable housing, affordable and yes deeply affordable housing, interim
housing that creates a bridge, housing with dignity, and the measure of our
progress must also be what Oaklanders experience outside their front doors.
Safer, healthier neighborhoods and public spaces that work for everyone.
That's our goal. Fewer people becoming unsheltered, more people moving from the
street to shelter and housing, healthy neighborhoods for the people who call Oakland home and
the path home for those who have lost one. Oakland is also open for business. Investment
is coming into our city. The historic Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts has been restored
and it's an incredible asset. Samuel Merritt University opened its new downtown campus.
We're moving forward on the Coliseum property, and we're working to bring investment in throughout
our city.
But economic growth cannot just be measured by buildings.
It must be measured by people.
Are Oaklanders getting the jobs?
Can small businesses survive and thrive?
Can families, regardless of their income, afford to stay here?
Have we stopped gentrification and displacement?
Do our policies have equity central to them?
Can young people build a future here?
These are the questions that really matter.
We're cutting red tape for small businesses and you know permitting is something else
here, but we're doing the work to shorten the time for permitting.
Commercial planning reviews that once took an average, boy, of 10 months now take less
than two weeks.
And that's a fact. Less than two weeks. More permits can be handled online. Some can be
processed in a single day. Because if you want to open a business in Oakland, City Hall
should help you succeed, not stand in your way. City Hall needs to move at the speed
of business. We are investing in our local businesses and secured $2.5 million in state
funding to relaunch the city's facade and tenant improvement program.
And as we welcome new investment to the town, we will also and we do also insist on something
else.
Oakland's growth must benefit Oaklanders.
That's the bottom line.
We can't talk about Oakland's economy also without talking about our culture, our artists,
musicians, our dancers, our chefs, our writers, our designers, our cultural
institutions, arts and culture. They're not an extra in Oakland. They're part of
who we are. And people are taking notice. For two consecutive years Conde Nast
Travelers Readers Choice Awards ranked Oakland the number one best food city in
the United States. This is the second year. So give yourselves a round of
where is Peter from Visit Oakland? Is Peter here? I want to, where is Peter? Hey Peter.
Thank you Peter because Visit Oakland is working, working with our business community, our nonprofits
and city hall to bring people here to see what we know about our city. We're rebuilding
the city's cultural affairs division. We're supporting more than 40 public art projects
by local artists. We're partnering with our LGBTQ Plus community to bring in art, entertainment,
and pride into the heart, mind you, of City Hall. And we're working again with Visit Oakland
and other partners on landmark installations like La Catrina in Fruitvale, the tallest
Catrina in America, standing tall with her arms outstretched to welcome everyone. It's
beautiful, if you haven't seen it, be sure to go down and see La Cartilla. And we're
fighting for meaningful investment in Oakland's Black Arts Movement business
district. And construction has started on the new Lincoln Square Park
Recreational and Resilience Center in Chinatown, Oakland's first resilience hub.
And this is a project I have been supporting and working on since my time
in Congress. And now, I don't want to talk just a couple years ago, but for years and
years and years. So we were able to cut the ribbon and see this on the move. Oakland really
helped shape American culture for generations, and together we intend to keep it that way.
We also have to get our own house in order, as you know. We inherited serious financial
challenges, and those challenges are not over, but we acted. Working alongside our city council,
We unlocked, and people said we would never do this, but we unlocked 334 million in bonds
to rebuild our roads, modernize public facilities, and build affordable housing.
And I know Wall Street, I was on financial services committee for many years, so capital
markets, securities, you know, I'm not an expert in Wall Street, but I know Wall Street,
and I want you to know, our bond managers, and I want to thank our city council members
because I was on the phone every morning,
4.30 or 5 from Oakland working,
and believe you me, it was difficult,
but on that Thursday, they said,
yes, we want to invest this in Oakland, 334 million.
And so that's a significant step in the right direction.
We also launched, and I said this during my campaign,
an independent forensic audit of municipal contracting
to ensure that every single dollar spent
is spent with accountability and transparency.
And we launched a comprehensive tech audit
to modernize Oakland's systems and to bring City Hall
into the 21st century.
Last month, Oakland was chosen as one of three cities
across the country to join K-POR Center's initiative,
the PRIME Alliance, ensuring public results
through impact and mission-driven entrepreneurship.
We will work closely with Oakland entrepreneurs
and responsible, mind you, responsible tech companies
to break down barriers in bureaucracy
like procurement and payments.
You all who have to deal with the city
know about these systems.
We need to streamline them.
And fortunately, our proposal out of,
I think it was 100 proposals, we were one of three,
designated to be part of the Prime Alliance
And we must apply innovative solutions
to our city's most pressing challenges.
And that will help us address teen safety,
public health access, workforce development,
because we'll be able to have a system of procurement
and payments that work so that we can solve Oakland's problems.
We passed a balanced budget that protects essential services.
It's a tight budget, but it was balanced.
We filled over 1,000 vacant city positions.
And we're working on reforms to make our city government
more effective, efficient, and responsive.
Our goal is simple, and that's city hall
must work for the people.
Your tax dollars must be respected.
Your phone calls must be answered.
Your emails must be responded to.
Your permits must not disappear into a bureaucracy.
And when your government makes a promise, we must deliver.
We're also investing in the Oakland
that people experience every day.
Now in the last year we've paved,
and I know some of you don't believe it, but it's true,
30 miles of roads we've paved.
We've built more than 1,300 curb ramps.
We've replaced nearly 240,000 square feet
of pedestrian walkways.
Filled a lot of potholes and a lot more to go.
We're deploying automated speed cameras across high-injury corridors to reduce dangerous
speeding and fatalities.
The results are significant.
Vehicles traveling 11 or more miles per hour over the speed limit dropped by 70 percent,
roughly reducing 20,000 speeding incidents daily, and that's significant.
Coupled with sliding scale fines and community service options, we're making sure that safety
goes hand in hand with equity.
And block by block, street by street, we're rebuilding Oakland.
And you know, I wanted, when in Congress we, during COVID, we thought about build back
better.
We didn't especially like build back better, but the concept, I think about each and every
day here in Oakland, because even before COVID, even before the world was turned upside down,
we had communities here that deserved more. So we are building back better. We're building
a greener Oakland. Our city was recently named, mind you, as the greenest big city in America.
Yes, that's a big deal. We opened the nation's first eco block in Fruitvale. We install more
than, yes, thank you very much, we installed more than 500 EV charging stations.
And we completed a 28 million community-led project in deep East Oakland that includes
affordable housing, trails, trees, and bicycle improvements.
Environmental justice means every neighborhood in Oakland should be clean, green, and without
any negative health impacts.
what environmental justice is. So we're reopening also the places that bring people together.
Tyrone Carney Park reopened after 24 years. Mosswood Recreation Center is back after
being destroyed by a fire a decade ago. The Brookfield Branch Library was renovated and
reopened, all right? It was really a wonderful reopening too. All of these events and reopening
openings are so important for all of us to participate in because it gives our young
people especially hope, it gives our residents the trust that we need to build that yes we're
doing this together and yes we're spending your tax dollars the way you want it spent
and meant for it to be spent.
These are all more than buildings and I could cite so many more efforts over the last 16
once I've been mayor, but these are safe spaces
where children learn, where seniors gather,
where neighborhoods meet, and where real community happens.
So where do we go from here?
We keep pushing crime down
through our comprehensive strategy.
We recruit more police officers
while supporting our Department of Violence Prevention
and ceasefire.
We strengthen civilian oversight bodies
and hold firm to constitutional policing.
We clean our streets and stop illegal dumping.
We build more affordable and deeply affordable housing
and move people out of homelessness.
We support small businesses
and bring responsible investment to Oakland.
We get our fiscal house in order
and we make sure that every neighborhood
gets its fair share, every neighborhood.
That's the work ahead and I know that we can do it.
And let me just say a couple things
I've been through many many emergencies here and I see I have seen what Oakland does when we come together in emergencies
And I want to thank our firefighters for always stepping up and our emergency response workers who come
quickly quickly
Few weeks ago a three alarm fire broke out in the middle of the night
21 households were displaced some had very young children our
Firefighters responded.
Everyone got out safely.
And I visited the shelter.
I visited many shelters after fires when families
have no places to go.
Council members came.
City workers came.
The Red Cross came.
Community partners came.
Neighborhoods came.
Volunteers came.
And I'm so thankful for everyone because we have had many,
some hit the press, some don't, but we've had many emergencies.
And our public safety team, our OPD, our firefighters,
our volunteers, our residents, everyone hits the ground
working to help save lives and to help people
through these traumas.
So thank you to everyone.
People bring supplies.
I've seen so many people come just wanting to do something,
offering to help.
Oakland shows up all the time.
That's who we are.
We show up for one another.
we fight for one another, we debate each other, we care for one another, but we do not give
up on one another.
So yes, Oakland has many challenges.
We tell the truth about them, we don't sweep them under the rug, and then we get to work
because Oakland also has something else.
We have strength.
We have creativity.
We have history.
You know, I think about my auntie and my uncle today.
In the 50s, they were one of the few African American property owners here, and they own
property all over Oakland, some in Adams Point, and my uncle had to pretend that he was the
maintenance man, and I was a very young girl, but we visited, and my uncle again pretended
he was the maintenance man at their buildings, and Scotty, his accountant, pretended he was
the owner of the building and this black family, two people, they did not have any children,
some of you may know their history, Loyce and Melvin Murrell, they started the first
black savings and loan here in Oakland, Oakland federal savings and loan and I share that
story because so many people, so many legacy families have so much history here, so much
resilience, I know my family have a lot of resilience and determination and in spite
of the odds. People love this city enough to fight for its future, and that's who you
are. So let's keep moving. We have to keep building. Let's keep fighting for every neighborhood
and every Oaklander. And yeah, let us remember the message. You know, some say, oh, why are
you talking about love? Well, loitre is the name. Love life. Sometimes we need to say,
Let's love life.
Let's bring some joy into the work we do.
Other cities, not only here in America, but around the world, look at Oakland and they
call me.
I mean, you'd think I know everybody in the world now.
I did a lot of foreign relations and foreign affairs work.
They call me and they say, you guys are doing a lot in Oakland.
We're seeing you.
We're hearing you.
And some say, will you tell your residents to hang tough and to continue moving forward?
So be proud, you know, feel good about our city, but also keep fighting for a better
future for our children because we know that every family, regardless of who they are,
where they live, what their background is, deserve everything that every other family
with means have.
And so we want to make sure that we continue to work for a safer Oakland, a cleaner Oakland,
a stronger Oakland, an Oakland where families can stay.
We have got to make sure families feel like and know that they can stay in Oakland and
work in Oakland and not have to worry about moving because they love this city, where
young people can dream and where young people can envision buying a home here in Oakland.
We want them to do that.
I bought my first house in Maxwell Park.
It's $19,000.
I was on public assistance, but there was a HUD then that supported people like me,
right?
And so I want young people to be able to dream of home ownership, want seniors to live with
dignity, want small businesses here to be able to thrive.
I had a small business for 11 years and it was hard.
I wouldn't even do business with the city of Oakland, it was so hard.
but I want businesses to be able to want to do business with Oakland, so it's not so hard.
So I want a city where every Oaklander knows, and I hope you know this, that the city belongs
to you.
This is our work, this is your work, this is our promise, and this is our future.
Oakland is definitely on the move, and together, we're going to keep Oakland moving forward.
So thank you all again, and glad to see everybody here today.
have a little fun in our city you guys don't have to stay unless you want to
moving on to the public speakers for item 5.1 as I call your name please
approach the podium in any order or raise your hand if you are speaking
through zoom as with standard practice the speakers and chambers will be taken
first after that the speakers will be taken and you will have one minute to
speak as the council president has determined at the beginning of this
meeting, David Boatwright, Millie Cleveland, Mrs. Asada Ollabala, Kevin
Dally, Rajni Mandal, Derek Barnes, Ann Janks, Kathy Leonard, Amber Kennedy, Kathy
DeLuca, Ben Granberry, Ben Matlow, Herbie Olson, Jonathan Arnold, Daniel
Gonzales, Kima Joseph, Jonathan Spencer, Seth Oyer, Chase Fowler, Maxine Becaya,
Michelle Stephens, Christina Faricone, sorry if I said that incorrectly, Casey
Bowman
Andre, so see
Dave the Robic
Cody mesh burger
And the clock is shown on the screen
behind me
ready
David bow ride district for I have spoken about this issue at council meetings during open forum and during council committee meetings
The council approves many million
Dollars of funding for various projects each year a large percentage of these authorizations involve grants to various entities to support various projects
At present there are no obligations associated with these grants that require that periodic update updates
Be provided to council committees or to the council such updates should include specific benefits resulting from these grants
Statistical results alone are not sufficient to justify these large grants
Specific benefits are especially important given the city's admission that is suffering financial hardship
That merits taking funds from reserves measures or ignoring measure requirements for the use of measure funds
And a reasonable initial threshold for such oversight would be a thousand dollars
Hi, my name is Maxine
I'm a local twenty one member and I've worked for the city for thirteen years. I also live and raise my family here in district six
I'm here today to ask Mayor Lee to direct her administration to offer a fair contract for all city workers. I
Find it difficult to reconcile the messaging from Mayor Lee on KTVU Fox 2 this morning
When touting Oakland's new raking as a top food destination city
That her vision is a town that creates good paying union jobs with the messaging by way of
Inaction that its own city workers aren't valued enough valued enough to be paid to keep up with our
Regents cost of living the mayor herself says the city is too expensive and yet our own council members continue to push for a cost
Of living that is inadequate
And I applaud your successes in obtaining grants and investments so we can get down to business and make Oakland move
but I wonder who's going to do the work when one in five positions remain unfilled here in the city.
Good afternoon. My name is Chase Fowler. I also have two people ceding their time Davey Roback and Cody mesh burger
Davey Roback and Cody mesh burger. Thank you gentlemen. All right. Thank you. Good afternoon mayor council members
My name is Chase Fowler. I'm a civil engineer at Oak dot and a proud member of IPT local 21
I can't tell you how disheartening it is as a city worker to hear mayor and the council members continually talk about this figure of
700 police officers
Can I ask you all this?
Do you know how many agricultural inspectors it takes to maintain our city's trees?
How many civil engineers it takes to maintain our aging infrastructure and streets?
How many planners it takes to fully staff our permit counter?
Where is your enthusiasm and passion for the basic public services that we offer as a city?
Over 20% of civilian positions sit vacant at the city.
That's literally hundreds and hundreds of vacant positions
that are already in the budget that could be filled
by workers like us to fix our streets,
staff our senior centers, and maintain our parks.
Mayor Lee, I want to hear your plan
for filling these positions.
1,000 positions having been filled,
that is factually untrue.
Our vacancy rate has gotten worse year over year.
Instead of working towards
the vacancy crisis at the city we've received nothing but empty platitudes
from your administration and no cost of living adjustment in over 18 months as
inflation continues to rise. Leadership at finance and HR and your bargaining
team have made it clear at the bargaining table that they have no
interest in fixing this issue. Structural deficit is a convenient way of denying
workers these basic cost of living adjustments while ignoring the elephant
in the room. That the cause of the structural deficit is tens and tens of
of millions of dollars in unmonitored,
unchecked police overtime.
Shortly, we will hear from the city auditor
as he provides his biannual update
on the status of the recommendations
resulting from his office's audits.
As you may be aware, there's been a recommendation
dating back to 2019 for OPD to develop a system
to monitor overtime usage.
In this auditor's report that we about be spoken to today,
OPD has pushed back implementation
overtime monitoring another four years to 2031. Does that really sound like an
administration that is serious about solving our structural deficit? How many
miles of streets could we pay with that money? How many more hours could we keep
our senior rec centers open with that money? My co-workers and I, we love doing
what we do and what we do is serve Oaklanders but we can't do that with
hundreds of vacant positions. Your focus needs to not just be on filling the
police vacancies but filling all vacancies at the city so Oaklanders get
services they need and deserve. Thank you for your time.
Alright, I'm Amber Kennedy, Public Works Oakland resident. I want to talk about the promises you guys like to make.
You like to talk a lot about how we're going to pave streets, how we're going to make safer streets,
how we're going to clean up illegal dumping, how we're going to deliver Lincoln Rec Center, and who does that work?
It's all of us. We are the ones that when you make promises, we actually make good on them.
So I think
We need a respectful partnership
Okay for the past six months of bargaining not a single offer has come across the table that wouldn't leave all these workers
Relatively more poor next year than they are right now. Not a single one
so for us to continue to function as a city to be able to fill these vacancies which by the way the two divisions that
Need to deliver Lincoln rec Tyrone Carney Moss would are both at 50% vacant
If you want us to continue to function and deliver the projects that you promised to
residents, let's work together to get a cost of living adjustment, so we can keep people
here and be able to live in Oakland where we work and where we love.
Good afternoon.
I'm Kathy DeLuca, local 21 member and D6 resident.
I'm here to ask Mayor Lee, please direct your administration to approve a fair contract
with local 21 and local 10 to 1.
Sometimes you know we get stuck in our own reality of what's normal.
And I don't know about you, but I find that my spouse is a good barometer.
So I've been talking to my husband about our fight to get a higher cost of living increase.
And he said to me, wait a minute.
You don't get a COLA that's just tied to inflation automatically.
You have to fight just to make the same pay every year.
And guess what?
Like Amber said, we've been fighting for six months just to get the same pay.
And what a waste of time for staff on all sides.
in the neighborhood.
And I'm sure we're trying the
city says it's wants to save
money but you're wasting money
and you're wasting all of our
time.
Look I don't want to go on
strike nobody here wants to go
on strike we can't afford to
lose one day's worth of pay.
But we're going to do what it
takes to keep our families afloat.
So please show respect for all
Oaklanders.
By ensuring that we receive a
fair contract.
Hello everyone my name is Kim a
administrator and the city council to direct the administration to approve a fair contract with local 21 and
SEIU
1021 city workers have been bargaining for six months the city started by asking us to take a pay cut and are now stuck on
Stuck on an offer. They know does not keep up with the cost of living with no coal in the last
18 months and continued increase of basic living expenses
I'm forced to make decisions on filling my gas tank and cutting back on groceries when it comes to creating fiscally responsible
habits, a coalish increase for city workers should be included in the budget, not an
afterthought.
Show your respect for all Oaklanders by ensuring their workers receive a fair contract to retain
those remaining so we can continue to focus on providing the services for the residents
that they deserve in the city that we love.
Thank you.
My name is Michelle Stevens.
I'm a Local 21 member and a District 1 resident and a homeowner.
I'm here to ask Mayor Lee to direct her administration
to approve a fair contract with Local 21 and Local 1021.
Our bargaining teams have been coming to the table
repeatedly with fair contract terms,
and the city's representatives have been dismissive
of our asks, and it's been incredibly disrespectful.
We have been bargaining for half a year now,
and the city has not proposed a fair contract.
We are honestly just looking for fair wage increases
that match the constant increase in cost of living.
If you want employees who are able to afford to live in the city that we pour all of our
work into, you need to provide fair wage increases.
Instead, your representatives at the bargaining table continue to ignore our proposals and
are bargaining in bad faith.
We do not want to go on strike, but we will take necessary steps to receive a fair contract.
It's time for you to step up and show Oaklanders that you care about them by caring about our
city workers.
Good afternoon, my name is Ben Matlaw.
I'm a proud resident of district two
and a union local 21 member.
You all know why I'm here.
Prices rose 3.8% this summer.
That was inflation, nary cost.
Cost of living adjustment for Oakland city workers
was 0% this past 18 months as you've heard.
And Berkeley city workers got a 4% COLA.
Heyward 4%, San Francisco 4%, Richmond 5%.
We are getting nothing over the past 18 months
and we're getting not a fair offer from the city right now.
What we're asking is for a fair COLA.
That is not a pay raise.
That is just getting us at the cost of inflation.
We're just trying to keep up with inflation with this COLA.
We're also trying to get good benefits for the city.
We know you guys want to do the right thing.
We need you to come to the table
and work with us to get a fair COLA, fair benefits,
and a fair living wage for.
If your name was Connie, which is be please approach the podium.
Even Kirby Olson, I'm a local 21 union member and district one resident.
I find it very interesting that San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie,
who was not endorsed by any city unions and is known as a tech back centrist
valued his civilian workforce enough to give them an early 12% increase over
the next four years and his police force of 14% increase over four years,
both months before their contracts expired,
and both contracts ending up close
to the consumer price index of 3.4% per year.
Meanwhile, in Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee,
who's considered a union-backed liberal,
lets our contract expire, directed her negotiators
to refuse reasonable terms over six months
of protracted negotiations and is pushing
the city's civilian workforce towards a strike.
Her administration is offering 7% over three years,
which is well below the 15% over five years offered to OPD,
and well below the standards set by nearby cities.
Why is it that Oakland's mayor seemingly values
her civilian workforce so much less
than San Francisco's mayor?
Thank you.
Hi there, I'm Seth Follier, president of Oakland Firefighters
and I just wanna highlight a few items here
that my brothers and sisters behind me have already mentioned.
The OFD has a 12% vacancy rate but effectively
well over 20% when you account for all the injuries
sustained by this work that we do every day.
Oakland Firefighters are directly affected
staffing crisis and we are the only bargaining group in the city that has a
minimum staffing agreement to guarantee service to every Oaklander. Members have
been working four or five additional 24-hour shifts per month which means
that they were spending half of their life, half of their life in an Oakland
firehouse often with no sleep. We've been out of contract for four months and
we've been negotiating for eight months. Oakland firefighters need a COLA to be
able to keep up with the rising costs of Bay Area living and improvements to
retiree health care since no Oakland firefighter leaves this job without the
physical and mental injuries sustained through a career of service before self.
This is your end of the bargain. We need the leadership of the electives in this
room to get Oakland fire...
Hello, hi everyone. My name is Andre Soussey. I'm a local 21 member working for the city
of Oakland. Mayor Lee, I just heard a lot in your address about a lot of the
milestones and accomplishments that I've been making and the goals that we're setting but
trying to make this work happen
but not a whole lot of attribution
to the city workers that are making all that happen.
All of us, local 21 members, SEIU 1021 members,
they're actually making this work happen on the ground.
The people that are staffing up our senior centers,
our head start in managing those,
people that are pursuing grant funding,
the people that are out here filling in the potholes.
We're doing the work out there
and literally all we're asking for
is to keep up with inflation.
And we're demanding also
that you guys try to fill up our vacancies
work happen and then on top of that y'all want to talk about fiscal
responsibility giving the police these longevity premiums and their OPOA
contract meanwhile we try to propose our equity adjustments for our lowest paid
members and y'all aren't even trying to do that so I mean like let's really
let's actually put like what's important in front of first first first and
foremost and give us a fair contract now can we get building maintenance to
remove these extra chairs again can we get building maintenance to come remove
I appreciate that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And janks I'm from district three.
And I'd like to thank merely for staying and listening to the
comments that are being made- and I also wanted to thank her
for making a commitment to the federal judge to fund
independent police oversight.
Now that we have to oversee ourselves.
I'm sure the mayor was trimming every word in her speech but
we're talking about accountability and oversight
It is not about the public
safety.
She skipped the most important
word, independent.
Because police have shown over
and over that they cannot police
themselves.
Please, mayor Lee, keep your
promise to the federal judge and
fund independent police
oversight.
The mayor's recent budget
disproportionately eviscerated
independent oversight.
Thank you for promising to
reverse those massive cuts in
violation of the city charter
and against the will of the 82%
it must happen now no excuses no delays thank you.
My name is Millie Cleveland I live in district four I also stand in solidarity with labor I think one
of the things that has not been addressed again over and over again is OPTs over time.
Not during the recent negotiations not one of the twenty one recommendations
that auditors have made over the years to control OPD was negotiated in the recent contract.
I also want to say that despite OPDs directly contributed, OPDs over time directly contributing
to that, none of this has ever been brought, has ever been put on the agenda for any kind
and the general council.
It's time for you guys to speak openly.
Good afternoon Cathy Leonard district one resident.
Thank you mayor Lee I support you a thousand percent I'm so glad you're our mayor.
I too am concerned about the police commissions under funding.
According to the charter they must be well funded.
according to the charter they must be well funded it's not it's mandatory now
that the federal oversight is over I also want to thank you for mentioning
macro macro was a vital program in Oakland thank you for mentioning eco
block I worked on eco block we use the built environment to address climate
for the next couple of weeks
that we have changed on blossom
street in the fruit fell
district and now they are
independent from PG and E so
it's a great project and we're
looking to further it instead
of one block in Oakland three
blocks in Oakland so city
council I hope you support this
project mayor I know you do
support it and I want to thank
you to council members- Kevin
at the state of foundational black Americans in this country.
So I just found out something that's important.
The data that comes from the US Census
says black and African-American.
We are combined with the individuals who come from Africa.
Oakland has 27% migrants or immigrants.
7% are African.
When you look at the data that says we are 20% in this city,
that's 7% are African, we 13% in this city.
7% of the African black population is African, 13% black.
We are the highest of unemployment, 10%,
the highest homeless, the highest expelled,
highest suspended, the highest.
If your name was called and you're in chambers
and you wish to speak, please approach the podium.
At this time, we are moving to the Zoom speakers
starting with Kevin Dowley.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, this is Kevin Dowley.
Thanks to the mayor for this report
and for the bond sales paving and sidewalk discussion.
Let's talk a little bit more on traffic safety.
This Saturday, another pedestrian was killed
on lakeside on East 17th by a hidden run driver.
to Street we're trying to make safer. OFD has been great but OFD has slowed down this traffic
calling. Let's move forward quickly. Let's hear it from the city employees. Local 21,
1021 match the raises from OPD. Let's implement more recommendations of re-imagining public
Safety Task Force. MACRA has been great. Let's move traffic reporting from OPD to OOP.
OOP.knows are real causes of traffic crashes and more so than OPD. Thanks.
Thank you. Moving to our next speaker, Rajni Mandel. Please unmute yourself and begin your
comments. Rajni Mandel, District 4, thank you Mayor Lee for your leadership and for breaking
down silos and thank you to every single party that was part of getting us out of federal oversight.
Congratulations. That is a huge milestone and I appreciate everything that you put into it.
I just wanted to highlight a few items that will come up in the auditor's report next.
GPS in police vehicles is pending SEIU contract negotiations.
OPD is exploring GPS on portable radios to measure response times.
Improved police overtime tracking requires an upgrade to the entire city's payroll system
currently projected for completion in 2031. And the police commission has rejected the
auditor's recommendation for an independent study of staffing and resources needed for
civilian oversight. So please consider an ordinance requiring departments and administration to come
before council committees to explain why any audit recommendation is older than two years
are still unresolved. If we spend taxpayer dollars on identifying problems, we should.
Thank you, Ms. Mandal. If your name was called and you wish to speak, please step to the podium or
raise your hand on Zoom. At this time, all speakers have been called. Thank you to everybody that
came out to speak. Thank you to the mayor for the state of the city. I'll entertain a motion to
receive and file this. So moved. Second. On the motion by council member five, second by council
councilmember
we ask councilmember
uncle to receive a file this
report.
Councilmember Brown.
Hi councilmember five.
Councilmember guy oh.
Councilmember Houston is
excused councilmember Rama
changer and I have some member
under I have some member Wong
I chair Jenkins.
Motion passes with a vote of
seven eyes one excuse.
Houston going back to the
regular order of the agenda so
that will be the top of the
agenda starting with item four
for the public hearing.
On the motion to open the public hearing moved by
councilmember Gayle second by councilmember Brown.
Councilmember Brown I have a member of I have a member of
I have a member of I have a member Houston is excused
councilmember Rama Chandra I remember under I have a member
Wong I and chair gee I motion passes with a vote of seven
eyes one excuse Houston I will read the item.
Is there anything to public comment on that question?
Thank you.
Seconded by the planning commission.
I'm going to call the meeting.
I'm going to call the meeting.
I'm going to call the meeting.
I'm going to call the meeting.
I'm going to call the meeting.
I'm going to call the meeting.
I'm going to call the meeting.
and in the city of Oakland.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
It's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
And it's a new zoning map.
designated parcels are excluded from the Senate Bill 79 property development
standards and making appropriate sequel findings. You have two speakers on this
item. Can you throw five minutes on the clock please? Good afternoon. Presentation
please. Good afternoon council members. My name is Kelly Cha. I'm here to present
agenda item 4.1. The chapter, the planning code chapter 1786 which
basically has the Oakland's Senate Bill 79 temporary exclusion ordinance. Just
to provide a brief overview Senate Bill 79 is a state law encouraging denser
housing around transit stops. It was enacted in October 2025 and took effect
on July 1st of this year. Well ahead of its effective date, Oakland actually
adopted its own local exclusion ordinance in March and submitted to the
state HCD according to the law. In June feedback from both the state HCD and MTC
prompted this update. In September staff took this item to the Planning
Commission and the CED committee and received their support to forward staff
recommendation to the City Council without modification and that's why
we're here asking for City Council's consideration and adoption of these
amendments. And this slide for your reference just outlines the SB 79
standards across the different tiers of transit stops and here are three
categories of temporary exclusions that's Oakland adopted back in March.
Oops, sorry, this slide. And this amendment basically addresses the
The feedback we received from the state HCD and the MTC,
the primary issue, involved parcel zone
for open space and industrial.
Under our ordinance, these were ineligible.
However, because both zones technically allow
some commercial uses in addition to their primary uses
like open space and industrial,
the state HCD considers them mixed use
and therefore subject to SB 79,
even though they were never intended
for residential development.
So after multiple discussions with the state HCD staff
decided to update the ordinance and associated zoning map
to ensure compliance with the state law.
So that includes updating our maps
to align with the MTC's SB 79 regional map
that will resolve some minor discrepancies in TOD zones
as well as adding two, sorry, four new stops.
So to address their feedback,
we have updated both ordinance and zoning map
associated with the SB 79.
The open space and industrial zones
were removed from the list of ineligible sites.
And also we added four new stops
to the tier two eligible list,
as well as the excluded TOD list in the ordinance.
And on the map itself,
We have shifted the open space zone parcels
from ineligible to covered if they were in the excluded area
or excluded, if not.
But all industrial parcels are now proposed to be excluded.
That is because we are concerned
with the land use compatibility
as well as some of the environmental impacts
with residential development proposed on these sites.
So these two maps are basically showing
and highlighting industrial sites
that are in the areas that are not,
that are eligible for SB 79.
So only those parcels highlighted will be excluded.
Everybody, every other parcels that are covered
before will remain covered.
So it's, I would like to also note
that excluding these industrial sites
will not have negative impacts to industrial uses
because SB 79 only applies to residential development.
I'm sorry. I have
See the meeting omitted here as I have mentioned before the Planning Commission and the CD committee
Both unanimously approved forwarding the staff recommendation to the City Council
For adoption without any modification and on the 22nd at the CD committee
Committee requested to review the letters received from the MTC and as well as a state a CD
they are included as part of the supplemental report for this item and
Upon adoption of the first reading of the ordinance today
The item will be scheduled for second reading and become effective on October 20th and
This is the official
staff recommendation that
Madam City clerk had stated very clearly in the beginning. So in summary staff
Request that the City Council adopt the draft ordinance and zoning amendment amendments and make the appropriate
secret bindings and
That concludes staff presentation and ready to answer any questions. You may have thank you. Thank you so much councilmember
councilmember Brown
Excellent. Well, thank you so much. I was gonna just thank staff for including the the letters that were requested in CED
we had a great discussion in committee about this item and so it was really
helpful to see the engagement like the feedback from MTC and then kind of the
engagement from city staff on this on this item and so I just really want to
think I know that these changes that come from the state requires a lot of
effort and so just really want to thank of course Laura and all of the city
staff that really worked hard on this one and so I'll also make a motion to
close the public hearing as well and to accept satisfying yes councilmember
Unger I'll second that right okay the question that I have in terms of what
land is available in the city of Oakland I don't think we haven't clearly
identified for this City Council and for this city to clearly define what land is
available for us to do the housing, for us to do the industrial, for us to even be in
cooperation with Oakland. Oakland is a city within Alameda County. And within the city
of Oakland, you have Oakland Unified, you have the Port of Oakland, you have many other
governmental bodies that have access to land, but we're not including them or part of that.
I'll give you an example. I'm working with the Veterans Association. They have the 35
million dollars to build housing for the veterans and they're trying to do it on
Port of Oakland land right across from the park on Embarcadero. They're in the city of Oakland,
just like that park that this there and Embarcadero is port of Oakland land but the city of Oakland
has a 40-year lease for that land. So I guess what I'm asking to include those properties
that will be that are in Oakland that are government governmental owned or controlled
where there is the state of California, the Port of Oakland, Alameda County,
then you have Oakland Unified School District that we ought to be able to
include in terms of what is available to serve Oakland's community.
And we have an Oakland has not presented that or even with the properties that
we do own or have an access to.
And I'm glad Mr. Gilchrist is here. You have right behind home people.
They'd been trying to get rid of that land salad, lease it.
Then we had a block right across from Home Depot
that we used it but we ran all the RVs out.
Why don't we run the homeless out?
Oh, because the management company wasn't doing their job.
And I placed all those RVs throughout the city.
So for me, it's I need to get back what land is in Oakland
that could be available for us to grow.
Because what the mayor says, you know, it's not about what you say, it's what you do.
And so, I can talk all I want to and say how great we are, but at the end of the day,
we have some serious demands within the city for housing, for taking care of our community
that we need to include as governmental bodies working together to build it.
And I'll leave just by the fact that I am a taxpayer in Oakland, I'm paying for Oakland Unified.
I'm paying for the port I'm paying for the city
But we're not in unison trying to serve this Oakland community and those are realities that we're not
so I I
Couldn't agree more with Councilmember Gallo and I think sp 79 specific with transit
but we need to have a holistic look at all the land that we have available and so
Madam City administrator if you guys can work with
the city of New York. And I'm
and we actually have quite a few housing element sites
that are properties of other agencies
that we thought would be prime for housing.
And we also, in our general plan that we're working right now,
we're looking at for land use and transportation element
in addition to other areas that we can have housing.
And we've been working very closely
with Oakland Unified School District
to see what sites they're looking at
of potentially building housing on as well
and making sure that we have, you know, higher densities
allowed on those sites so that we can maximize the housing
housing that can be built on those so we are definitely
looking at you know all the other agencies and open unified
school district in both the housing element process and our
land use and transportation element so that we can you know
try to build you know the housing that we need for Oakland.
So the housing element is already you know it's been adopted
so I can send you the link to that and it does have all the
list of sites inventory there's actually a map as well so you
can look from a mapping perspective where that is and we
We can have some meetings with you to talk about
what we're working on for the land use
and transportation element.
The plan is to adopt that in the fall of next year,
and obviously we're working with council
as part of that process.
And Council Member Gallo, I will commit
that I will have a briefing set up with you
and our staff.
Then of the enrollment.
We used to have.
But now they had a 31% drop in enrollment,
because families are choosing to go to Alameda,
San Leandro, and other cities.
So the bottom line is, Mr. Gilchrist,
and I share that with you.
City of Oakland has a public works yard on Coliseum.
And we're leasing that property for three to five million
dollars a year, where we could be another public land,
not have to pay three to five million dollars.
And I think that's the cooperation,
because at one time Oakland Unified wanted to merge
both facilities with OUSD and the city
to save us all those millions of dollars
because we, I as a city employee,
I'm now cleaning the schools and around the schools.
And we need to get that working together
as governmental bodies, thank you.
Thank you, thank you so much.
And if there's no more comments from my colleagues,
we'll get to the public speakers.
as I call your name please approach the podium in any order please state your name for the record before beginning
as directed by the chair at the beginning of this meeting you will have one minute to speak
miss aside all about love and alexis will keep
in any order please
the the purpose of all
the senate bill seventy nine
was to try to create housing
near transit and board stations mister gallo
and
and in doing that
this body recognize there might be some issues
that your communities here in Oakland
might find inconvenient or not to where their standards are
or values are in having this done.
So what you are doing is creating amendments to 79
that can accommodate the best interests
of certain communities.
But you don't accommodate the interests of communities
when gentrification becomes an issue in Oakland.
You haven't come up with one amendment
to stop gentrification.
And so I encourage you to look at every community
and every issue that's impacting housing.
And Mr. Gallo, we got.
Thank you, Ms. Olibala, Alexis Wokey,
are you in the chamber on the Zoom?
Please approach the podium or raise your hand.
that's going to happen.
At this time on is it been called
for this I seen no more speakers
we have a motion and a second to
accept staff's findings and
close the public hearing.
There is a motion by council
member brown second by council
member under to close the public
hearing and approve this
ordinance for introduction final
passage will be October twentieth.
Council member brown.
I also remember five.
michandran hi councilmember younger hi councilmember Wong I and chair Jenkins
do you want to vote from back there there's a high from long distance I
from councilmember five and I from myself through the chair to the
parliamentarian is that I can pull up the rule with the council members need
to be in the vicinity of their seat when voting so that's a motion with six
eyes to excuse Houston and five well nine says every member of the council
for speaking child address to presiding officer,
no member shall speak except while seated
or outstanding in the immediate vicinity
of their assigned seat.
You wanna throw your eye on the table
from your seat through the chair.
Do you wanna put your eye on the table from your seat?
Eye.
Decent and in order.
Going to item 5.2,
receive an information report from the city auditor
on the audit recommendation follow-up report
As of June 30th, 2026, there are six speakers on this item.
Mr. Auditor, how many minutes would you need?
10.
10 minutes.
Good afternoon Council.
Well, good evening Council members and staff,
members of the public, Michael C. Houston.
The City Auditor, I'm here to present
the audit recommendation follow-up report
as of June 30th, 2026.
So most of the work of the Office of the City Auditor
is conducting performance audits.
We audit services and programs
at the greatest impact to the city and Oaklanders.
The audits provide useful information
on the performance of city operations,
but the most important elements of our performance audits
are the audit recommendations
designed to improve the effectiveness of services.
We make recommendations constructive and feasible
and based on reliable evidence,
but in the interest of independence,
we cannot implement recommendations ourselves.
We rely on the City Administration to implement them.
Following up on recommendations
is the City Charter requirement.
Specifically, the City Charter requires the City Auditor
to submit at a public meeting of the City Council
a semi-annual report to the Council and public
on the extent of implementation of recommendations
for corrective actions made in the City Auditor's reports.
This is our six semi-annual audit recommendation
follow-up report.
So this report covers 329 unique recommendations
from 50 performance audits issued from calendar year 2014
through June 30th, 2026.
We added 29 new recommendations from three audits
we released since the last follow-up report
as of December 31st, 2025.
23 recommendations have changed status
from not implement it to partially implement it,
not implement it to implement it,
or from partially implement it to implement it.
The number of audit recommendations varies by year,
depending on the number of types of audits completed.
Also, not surprisingly, a higher percentage
of the older audit recommendations have been implemented
rather than have been implemented versus new ones.
Some of our audit recommendations take time to implement.
Overall, 234 audit recommendations, about 71%, have been implemented or closed.
Open recommendations have been partially or not implemented.
Closed recommendations are considered implemented, but will no longer, are not considered implemented,
but will no longer be considered open due to changed circumstances.
From December 31, 2025 through June 30, 2026, 18 recommendations were implemented.
For example, the Police Department's Communications Division updated the non-emergency phone tree
to translate the initial greeting into Spanish and Cantonese, as required by the Equal Access
to Services Ordinance.
Public Works has implemented its Management Action Plan to increase outreach and education
on bulky pickup.
The City secured funding to support a pilot to upsize household curbside waste carts to
provide service volume increases without additional costs where needed.
The City Administrator's Office has also hosted regular collaboration meetings to convene
staff from the Police Department, Public Works and the City Attorney's Office to improve
referral systems for illegal dumping enforcement.
The revenue bureau developed an ongoing business tax performance metrics report, which includes
key performance benchmarks and operational metrics.
The report is submitted semi-annually to the City Council's Finance and Management Committee.
On the other hand, 95 recommendations remain open.
Thirteen recommendations from the 2019 audit of the police department over time intend
to improve overtime planning, management, and tracking, with several recommendations
contingent upon the implementation of a management reporting system that
provides timely, accurate and complete information on overtime use. Full
implementation will require active oversight from city leadership, cross
departmental coordination and appropriate budget allocation. And at
least 10 open recommendations rely on the adoption of the draft consolidated
fiscal policy that the Department of Finance presented to the Finance and
Management Committee. These include updates pertaining to citywide policy on grants management,
maintenance of efforts, thresholds, and reserve policies.
Many open audit recommendations are addressed to multiple departments or the City Administrator's
Office. The coordination required to implement some of these recommendations takes time and
effort and resources. Audit recommendations seek to improve government performance, but
the specific intended benefits vary.
Most of the open recommendations
seek better efficiency and effectiveness
by identifying opportunities to improve service outcomes,
save time, or streamline processes.
There are also recommendations
that seek to improve transparency and accountability,
recommendations to promote equitable access to
or distribution of city resources.
Some recommendations improve compliance
to ensure that city operations meet requirements of laws,
regulations, ordinances, resolutions, policies,
or contractual language.
Some recommendations seek to safeguard public resources
by protecting against potential fraud,
waste, or mismanagement.
And some recommendations identify
potential economic benefits or opportunities
to increase revenues or reduce costs.
Details on the recommendations and more
are in the appendices of the report,
which is attached to this packet,
and I'm also, I'm happy to announce
that we have implemented an audit recommendation dashboard,
which is accessible from our website, oaklandauditor.com.
The dashboard is a centralized tool
that allows anyone to track the status
and progress of audit recommendations,
and they allow people to browse recommendations
by department, by status, or by audit report,
by category of intended benefits,
and by lever or the mechanism needed
to fully implement the audit recommendation.
So whether that could be budget decisions, legislation,
labor negotiations, technology, data systems,
performance measurements are examples.
I am grateful to Adri Dabrun who developed our dashboard
during our internship with our office
as part of her studies at the Goldman School
of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.
And I would like to thank my team
who followed up on and verified the statuses
of all the audit recommendations.
And all of us at the city auditor's office
would like to thank the staff
from each of the departments
for making progress in many cases
and providing us with information
and supporting documentation for this report.
We also thank the city administrator's office
for their cooperation and commitment
in establishing a process to regularly follow up on
and prioritize the implementation of the recommendations.
We recognize that many of the recommendations
will take time to accomplish,
and we appreciate the city administration's effort
toward implementation.
Lastly, I would like to thank members of the public,
particularly those who have risen to the status
of audit recommendation follow-up champions
for their review of an engagement
on the audit recommendations.
The people provide the ultimate oversight
of the operations of our city.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I'm here for questions.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Auditor.
We're going to start with Councilmember Unger and then Councilmember Brown.
Thank you for the report.
So, you know, I don't have anything to measure this against.
When you talk to auditor friends in other cities, is 71% normal?
I think is that typical?
You know what?
I better not comment on it, but I do, like other cities, do follow up on it, not at recommendations.
recommendations. I don't know how reasonable it is but I do know that our colleagues all
have open audit recommendations. Some of our recommendations are, you know, take time,
money, effort to implement. So I didn't do the math but if we were to strip out the police
department then our, you know, our numbers are probably in the 80s or something which
feels more reasonable.
So is it, are there other departments
that are having trouble achieving their audit reports?
It's interesting because we, there was an exhibit
in that presentation that I just made
and it's in the actual audit recommendation
follow-up report as well.
We have like the rate of open audit recommendations
or the departments that have the highest rates
of open audit recommendations.
Oh, yeah, there it is.
I can't pull it back up, but it's on one of those slides.
Yeah, exhibit three in the report.
The majority, well, 34 of the open audit recommendations
are to multiple departments.
In 17 to the city administrator's office,
the finance department, 15, police department, 11,
public works, eight.
And then we have SIPRA six, fire department one,
police commission one, city attorney's office one,
commission on homelessness one.
And I will say, though, that the audit recommendations
are different, right?
Some of them are really complex and have multiple parts,
and some of them are really simple.
Okay.
Thank you.
I mean, I just, I think we need to do everything we can
to help the police department close those audits,
because as our staff have mentioned,
the overtime issue is complex
and needs to be dealt with immediately.
Thanks.
Thank you, council member Brown.
Excellent, excellent, thank you.
Well, first off, I just wanted to say thank you,
Auditor Houston and team.
I definitely always look forward to reading over
the reports that you all put together.
And I know it takes a lot of work.
And then also I was gonna applaud the dashboard.
I really liked the ability to look through each
of the departments to see what's open, implemented, et cetera.
And then additionally I also wanted to share, I hosted a community engagement event last
Friday, and I ran into some community members that attended your community engagement event
that you all had.
And they really appreciated all of the insights that you shared, and it was very informative.
So I just wanted to share that first.
And so I'm not sure if it's really a question but maybe more of a comment as I was reading
through this very lengthy report and I guess I was trying to like really get an understanding
of like when we really, I feel like it's one thing to say like something has been implemented
and and I'll just give an example. I was looking at the the pay equity
recommendations. There's a handful, I think they're on page 38 and 39, and it
says like one of the sentences says something like you know HR is you know
working to create a dashboard that will be updated like it's like an effort to
to keep it updated and do this work.
And so I think it, I guess in a way it's appropriate
to say implemented, but what are actually the next steps
to ensuring that that recommendation is actually followed
through in comparison to, I think it's like one
up where the audit recommendation was something
about the use of debit cards and the administration needed
you know check the usage it had to do with Saba grocery and then the it said
closed yeah and the example of closed was the city determined that we will no
longer be using debit cards and I guess like when I think about a solution I
mean that could be a solution right but also it's 2026 and so I think that we we
we know that a lot of our operations are a little outdated.
And so I'm not sure the true solution is like,
hey, we're not gonna use debit cards anymore
for said program, when we actually probably
could come up with something
that actually better regulates these things.
And then like the domino effect is,
you know, we no longer like as a city
are issuing like debit cards, et cetera, right?
And so I guess like, and I know this is kind of broad,
But I guess maybe my question has more to do with like,
how are we really tracking true implementation?
Yeah, well, to your second point,
I'm going to hand the mic to Assistant City Auditor,
Stephanie Noble Wilson,
to talk about the pay equity recommendations.
But as far as the recommendation arising
from the Solid Grossers Initiative audit,
yeah, I understand, it's like,
Does it make sense to totally eliminate
a real convenient way of compensation in many cases?
I'm not going to opine on that, right,
but that was how the administration has addressed that one.
I think, though, as time goes by,
service delivery approaches change,
and then we would probably be looking into
how those are working in the future, right?
Thank you.
Thank you for the question Councilmember.
So on the SABA item, I would agree with Auditor Houston
Michael, but the change in service delivery
is the distinction between why we call it closed
as opposed to implemented.
Whenever we do implement something,
we do request from staff that they provide us
with supporting documentation.
And so in the instance of the pay equity audit
recommendation, I did see over multiple quarters,
the dashboard that Department of Race and Equity staff
put together with the HR department and the IT department.
It is currently hosted internally.
And so the next steps would have broader access.
But it's definitely working, and it has the data being pulled
directly from Oracle.
And it's quite comprehensive.
I will say I agree with you.
The next step is then to look and see
where are there pay gaps and disparities that
need to be addressed with a deeper root cause analysis.
Thank you.
Thank you, who's next in the queue?
Turn your mic on.
There you go.
So I'm testing one, two, three.
Thank you, thank you for that information.
I just have questions regarding the role
that you have to play in terms of doing the audit work
on different departments of progress
and activities and work.
In Oakland, besides having an auditor,
we have many advisory commissions,
Police Commission, advisory for this,
advisory for that, overseeing the police department.
And at the same time, we have a,
anyway, so for me, it's then the counsel
and the administration and the mayor
supposed to be monitoring and overseeing
the activity from the fire, the police,
and other departments.
But your role is very clear, you're independent, right?
You're an independent, it's an example
with the police department.
You're doing the audit work to make sure that the overtime
is handled according to a process administrator
believe that Oakland has in place.
Is that your recommendation?
Right, because we also had workshop,
we're paying millions of dollars a year
to monitor the police department to be in compliance.
Yeah, we just, Council Member, we just complete it
in audit of the police oversight agencies.
Yeah, so, yeah, we do have that broad purview
to audit all the city departments and divisions,
including the police department,
police oversight agencies, or any of the city.
Then the other example for the public's information,
you're also overseeing the finance department, right,
in terms of providing advice.
I guess the last thing that I wanna see ever happen
is for us to go bankrupt.
Well, you have a budget advisory committee,
We have you doing the audit work,
you have the administration from the finance committee,
got the mayor, then you got the council members
to oversee the activities and actions
that are happening open, and that's the challenge.
So I'm trying to just get clarity in terms of exactly
when you provide a recommendation
to the finance department,
is that recommendation being implemented
by the Finance Department with the approved request.
At the end of the day here, the mayor is in control
overseeing the administration
and the administrator's sitting here.
So I guess, and you say there's like 13 over here and 15
that haven't been corrected or implemented.
Well, we just issued our work plan for fiscal year 26, 27.
One of the audits on that work plan
is audit of the city's financial condition, right,
which is very finance heavy.
We have several recommendation,
so we'll be looking into the city's financial management.
Finance department, any other department
to whom we've directed audit recommendations,
you can search for those and tell,
yeah, there's several open audit recommendations
to several city departments.
So I guess just to be for clarity,
so at the end of the day,
your recommendation clearly defines whether this,
we're moving in a direction financially
to be stable, balanced,
as opposed to heading towards bankruptcy.
Because I'm being asked to support different union requests
that requires more financial support,
like we did with OPD,
but are you monitoring, evaluating that
to advise the council that if I give you a 4% increase,
you're gonna go bankrupt,
as other cities and school districts have done.
We haven't done preemptive kind of analysis,
which I think you might be alluding to,
or are you saying like if we,
is it the role of the city auditor to project
how much a blank percent increase would cost the city?
I mean, what we could do, I mean, that theoretically could be something that the City Auditor's
office would do.
We generally do do audits, though, which is after the fact, as far as the bankruptcy.
I think that's a policy decision.
We would talk about, like, auditors use words like solvency.
Thank you, Councilmember.
Councilmember Rumschagner and then Councilmember Wong.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you for the presentation.
I have two questions.
The majority of the recommendations since these 20, 24,
sorry, these 2014 audits that were not implemented,
do you see it as mostly because of lack of funding
or is it also a high percentage of an unwillingness
to, from departments to implement it for whatever reason.
Like I'm trying to understand if this is funding
the main barrier or is there bureaucratic hurdles
or unwillingness for other reasons?
Yeah, thank you, council member.
It's hard for me to answer that.
I'll be thinking about the question
as I also point out to take another opportunity
to plug our dashboard because we do have
in the dashboard a section where you're able to
filter, open recommendations by a lever needed to implement the recommendation.
Like for instance in some cases, like the police overtime audit, labor negotiations
is what is needed to implement those outstanding audit recommendations.
There's other cases where policy reform is needed, legislation is needed, and there's
others where there's a technical investment is needed.
I don't remember from the top of my head that you have something so yeah I would point
you to your new dashboard which does have that as a breakdown and then each of the individual
recommendations is going to have some description because it's going to vary so it's hard to
say that it's overwhelmingly one thing or another but that would give you an idea of
about how many thank you I forgot my second question I'll come back if we have time thank
All right, ladies, Council Member Wong.
Thank you.
So one question I have which is relevant to an item
that we are discussing later in this council meeting
is cost controls around some of our contracting processes.
There's like a truly eye-popping change order that we have
that we'll be discussing today.
Have you guys looked at any of best practices
or is there an upcoming audit in that
to make sure that our contractors are not ripping off
the city or bidding purposefully low dollar amounts
to win the bid and secure the bid,
and then later overcharging us with change orders.
In this, our food report...
Thank you, Council Member Wong.
In this our food report,
there are several recommendations related to contracting
or contractor or contract management,
such as the Saba Groses Initiative recommendations
that have already come up.
But none come to mind that address exactly
what you're getting at, but we did just issue
an audit of the capital improvement program
financial management.
And we do get into some of those change orders
in a lot of those issues.
But that was issued in September.
in this report, August, I'm sorry, August,
and this report is only through June,
but I'm happy to talk with you about that brief you on.
Okay, great.
I know also of high interest from the general public
is the every six month audit around the flock camera usage
is where are we in that?
What are we expected to see that?
And that is underway as well.
I really don't know when it's going to be complete,
did you want to?
Well, I don't even think the contract
has been executed on that.
Okay.
And so like I think the first audit was supposed to,
it was contemplated that it would be after
the contract was executed and then there would be
recurring audits thereafter.
We might have to, I'm happy to talk to you
about that also like in different forms.
Because that doesn't match up with some
of my own internal conversations.
My final question is just on the police over time.
It is pretty eye popping.
I will say this is definitely the most far out timeline
for the target date is February, 2031st on the,
just the implementation of the management reporting system.
It looks like the response is that it's dependent
on the implementation of a new enterprise resource program,
which I understand we are working
with extremely outdated technology here
in the city of Oakland,
and we have extremely old legacy systems,
but I'm wondering if in your own analysis
of different cities, does it require an entire overhaul
of a payroll system to put in place
overtime management system, or do people come up with other ways to track overtime?
And is that exactly what you're recommending, or could there be a path forward that doesn't
require us to wait until February of 2031?
Thank you for that question.
The department has its idea as to how it's going to fulfill that recommendation.
So the recommendation that we had back in 2019 was that the department should work on
implementing an integrated management and scheduling system that will allow it to track
MOU and policy requirements.
The way that the department envisions that is going to take 2031 and I won't speak for
them because I do think we have representative sort of police department here who could comment
on them, but that's what they say it's going to take to implement the solution that they
they have, that they've identified.
Yeah, I suppose I'm wondering not to oversimplify the issue
or the solution here, but have you seen other cities
stand up like, I don't know, a Microsoft forum
so we can track the overtime?
And is that something that would be adequate enough?
Are you really expecting of a,
like, eventually we can get to that.
But do we need, in the meantime,
are there interim solutions here?
We were intentionally not very prescriptive in the recommendation text and we tried to
not be super prescriptive so there are many ways that a recommendation could be implemented.
I don't want to dive into what it will take to implement that one though right now on the spot
but I'm happy to think about it and talk with you in another forum.
No problem. Sounds good. That's the end of my questions.
Thank you. Councilmember Fife and then we will go to public comment after that. I'm actually I feel like we've deliberated this quite intensely. I would like to hear from the public. But I also just before we go to public comment did I hear correctly that the flop contract has not been executed. I think the police about that is what I said. But I think that the police there might be people from the police department here who could probably give a more complete.
status report on that it's my understanding it's not it's not executed I
Have a lot of thoughts
lots of thoughts
But that is not what is agendized for tonight, so I will follow up at another time
Thank You councilmember. Let's go to the public speakers
As I call your name, please suppose to put in me any order if you're participating via zoom
Please raise your hand so I can easily identify you and you will be taken after the speakers and chambers
David Boatwright, Millie Cleveland, Mrs. Haudalabala, and Jenks, Mr. Hazard, Ethan Cambridge.
David Boatwright, District 4.
City audits are an important component of oversight of city operations, but a component
without enforcement powers.
Enforcement is the job of city leadership.
and the number and vintage of too many city audits,
city leadership is not meeting its responsibilities.
I encourage the council to utilize its leadership capabilities
to help ensure city audit recommendations
are fully addressed in a timely basis.
Millie Cleveland from District Four.
One of the recommendations the auditor has made
that would help track overtime
is activating GPS in the patrol cars.
People, a lot of people don't realize there is no GPS
in the patrol cars.
And on top of that, every time I talk to a police
representative, they claim for the last two or three years
that it's been in the meet and confer process.
And on top of that, they say, well, we can't do anything
Because, you know, SEIU and Local 21 is in the same department.
That meet and confer occurs between the employer and an individual bargaining unit, not the
whole department.
If that was true, then SEIU and Local 21 would be at the table with OPOA when you get.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Cambridge.
So basically, Oakland has not implemented 93 items from the audit.
There are, of the 35 open audit items, 13 deal with Oakland Police Department.
With that being said, it would be foolish to approve the memorandum of understanding
with the OPA, with these open audit items, even with what the auditor just said, the
Oakland police department has not implemented various things regarding over time and their
best projection is the two thousand thirty one which is from a in B. A. or business perspective
that's just insane to be out that long and suggest that they're not trying to fix the
one thing that would curb their misuse of the overtime system you could be heroes if
if you hold off from approving the memorandum of understanding, thank you.
Anne Jenks, District 3, I just want to clarify a couple of things.
First of all, the questions that the council could be asking are how can we address overtime
prior to the 2031 data, blah, blah.
There's lots and lots of things that could be done to address and manage overtime so
that it's being used as needed and well.
In terms of GPS, there was a commenter earlier who said that the auditor had said that GPS
was waiting for these other unions to negotiate.
That's incorrect.
The auditor's report just quotes the OPD explanation.
And the fact is that it's that changes are implemented by bargaining units so you can
implement GPS in the police vehicles tomorrow.
If you've worked it out with OPOA you don't have to talk to anybody else and it would
be incredibly helpful to...
The report says that special orders of the police department development does not address
The need for limits on the number of hours an employee can earn in a fiscal year, excluding
mandatory overtime.
Consideration of how overtime will be dealt with should be in the memorandum of understanding
that you are proven without addressing anything.
You go rubber stamping.
So it says in the memorandum of understanding you need a process for overtime calculations
but you don't say that you've actually developed that.
It also says in the MOU on item 6.5,
overtime requires written chief of police written agreement.
I don't know if that's going on, but you should
have placed that memorandum understanding separately
and stub a rubber stamp in it.
You also have SIPRA.
Gene Hazard, for the record.
Go to cleanokon.com.
How can you have an audit report?
And I didn't hear any figures at all.
I thought the audit's supposed to tell you
about dollars and cents.
This was a strict narrative.
What I just gave to you is I got my case number, A177630,
on the transaction and use tax.
The special election that was had April 15, 2025.
They thought they were going to get rid of it.
We're on our way to the state court of appeals.
The mayor's budget was predicated upon what the voters approved,
what the city attorney altered the ballot measure tax,
and misled the voters.
That was $30 million a year.
that would was enacted on October 1, 2025.
Mr. Hassell, your time's up.
And I believe all names were called.
There were no Zoom speakers for this item.
Thank you.
Do we have a motion to accept and file?
Receive and file?
So moved.
Gail second.
On the motion to receive and file this report,
moved by Councilmember Gail, seconded by Councilmember Unger.
Councilmember Brown.
Aye.
Councilmember Fai.
Aye.
Councilmember Gallo.
Aye.
Councilmember Hudson is excused.
Councilmember Ramachandran.
Aye.
Councilmember Unger.
Aye.
Councilmember Wong.
Aye.
Chair Jenkins.
Aye.
Motion passes with a vote of seven ayes.
When excused, this item is received and filed.
Moving to item 5.3, adopt the resolution amending and increasing the construction contract
with Oliver De Silva, DBA Gallagher and Burke for the active transportation program 19th
to Lake Meared-Urban Gate Greenway Project,
project number 1003211 by 4,185,426.69.
Program total contracts amount not to exceed
$10,624,575.40.
Waving further advertising and bidding selection requirements
and adopting appropriate CEQA findings.
there are four speakers on this item.
Good evening, my name is Ahmed Silvan,
Principal Civil Engineer with Department of Transportation.
This item is to amend and increase the construction
contract with Kelliganburg for 19th Street Bar
to Lake Merritt Urban Greenway Project by $4.2 million
to a total of $10.6 million.
This project is on 20th Street from Broadway
to Harrison Street and on Franklin Street
between 20th Street and 22nd Street.
Key improvements included reducing travel lanes
from two in each direction to one,
widening sidewalks, upgrading curb ramps,
adding pedestrian median refuges,
and installing protected bike lanes.
Additional enhancement features pedestrian scale lighting,
upgraded striping and wayfinding signage,
traffic signal upgrades, and improvements
to the 19th Street barge station drop-off
and accessible loading zones.
So following the issuance of the notice to proceed
in September 2021, the project experienced a series
of unforeseen field conditions and challenges
that significantly affected the construction schedule
and budget.
Major delays resulted from previously
unidentified underground utilities
that required substantial design plan modifications,
ongoing coordination with utility owners
and external stakeholders,
unforeseen field conditions encountered
during construction accommodations
for major annual public events
and weather-related constraints.
So the contract period of performance
was extended from the original end date of June, 2023
to December, 2026 for over three years.
The amendment will be funded by Major Yu
for around $2 million
and Transportation Impact Fee for $500,000.
I'm available for questions, thank you.
Council members, seeing no questions
from the council members.
Let's go to the public speakers.
As I call your name, please approach the podium
in any order, please raise your hand if you are on Zoom.
Tosha Crystal, Mrs. Adolabala,
Ethan Cambridge, in any order please.
All right, even Cambridge.
These projects are imperative
for Oakland meeting our housing goals.
Also, housing on schools like council member Gallego
was alluding to just makes sense.
The housing should be, of course,
prioritized towards families
and it wouldn't violate civil rights laws
as a family is in a protected class.
Should be high density, of course.
I can think of several examples of my alma mater, Anthony Chabot Elementary has a huge
green field behind it, two separate playgrounds, near to a freeway and a BART station.
Kaiser Elementary also has a huge field on its property.
Lastly, we need an initiative on fixing the rate of profit in a rental unit, fixing the
and rental units to lower
inflation.
So at some point, can we get a
total amount of money that we've
invested around Lake Merritt?
Because it's excessive.
Lake Merritt is a very important
part of this city.
But the fact that we have spent
so much money on this particular
area, where you go into West
Oakland and East Oakland, you
and that's not happening you
don't see that amount of
investment.
And the the the the scope of
what needs to happen and is not
happened no matter where you are
and what arena we speak about.
Is a balance of equity and
fairness.
And some communities and
neighborhoods get more than
others.
We talk about ten million
dollars.
and I can just tell you this,
we've turned this whole city into one lane city.
That's what y'all need to call it, one lane city.
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you, Mike, foundational.
Hello, good evening, my name is Tushia Crystal.
I'm an Oakland native, I'm a business owner here,
I work here, I live here, and I would like to piggyback.
There is so much focus on downtown and around the lake.
I am a biker, a public transit user,
a walker of Oakland from West Oakland to East Oakland.
I see a huge deficit.
Bike lanes and paved roads disappear
once you leave the lake.
You head East, they disappear, literally.
If you're coming from San Leandro
and you're heading West into deep East Oakland,
the bike lane disappears as soon as you hit the sign
that says welcome to Oakland.
There are no bus stops, bus stops have been removed,
so we are waiting in the rain.
There are barely garbage cans at bus stations
and bus bar stations in East Oakland.
Downtown is a hot mess.
It's like a concrete jungle.
There is no parking.
We need more green spaces.
We talking about turning.
Thank you, Sue.
The speakers, all names are called.
There were no zoom speakers for this item as well.
Thank you.
Is there a motion?
Angra Wong?
This recommendation, again, if you read the report,
actually adds in total 65% on top of what was the base contract amount.
That means that this contractor is getting 165% of the funding that they originally proposed
to win and secure this contract.
Has there really been an analysis that the cost-effective thing is to just amend the
contract and continue to give this contractor more funding instead of doing
an open RFP and opening up the bid and in light of the disparity the racial
disparity study to really look at opportunities for more small businesses
thank you for the question I would like to add to start with this project was
bid in December 2020 and we had the engineers estimate for 5.6 million dollars. That's what
our engineers think it should cost to build this project based on the the latest trends.
The Gallagher number, the lowest responsible bidder, at 6.4 million dollars, so 14 percent
above the above the engineers estimate. Now after the after we receive bids there is a
provision for doing bid analysis. So, what we do is we compare all the bid items with
the, with the, what our engineer has proposed and what our contractor has proposed and we
look at it and we compare that according and we try to make sense why there is a difference.
If there is a significant difference, for example, if somebody is bidding too low, then
there is a red flag. We can always rebid for that purpose. We can recommend not awarding
the project but if it's like 10% within 10, 15% then we look at how the cost is increasing
within the time because engineers estimate are made like they are developed like a year
ago before the bid or maybe six months ago. So, bid analysis tells us the story why we
are different from the contractor and regarding the question for 65%, so right now with our
latest resolution we have 25% contract contingency that we have executed the
task orders. Remaining 40%, we have not negotiated, we have not executed those
change orders because we need authorization from the city council. Once
the city council provides us authorization to negotiate, then we will
review the potential change orders, evaluate them, negotiate with the
contractor and execute change orders. And I'm very positive that it will not be
going that high. This is a worst-case scenario I'm talking about. So all the
change orders are evaluated and negotiated according to our bid
specifications and reviewed by at different levels based on the thresholds.
My other concern with this is that you're seeking mostly
measure you funding to fund this change order. I actually know because I used to
work at the Department of Federal Department of Transportation where a
federal grant is actually funding another portion of this Greenway
Project, the East of Lake Merritt. And so to me I have concerns that this is also
taking away funding from many of the other local projects that we could have
for this change order where I just have not seen enough evidence that we are
trying to do our best to bring down the cost going out the door to this contractor.
So, yeah, my concerns with this are huge. And I would also say we had a vigorous discussion
in public works and transportation around moving from design bid build to design build.
Maybe we do some piloting. I would just really encourage we look at that model as a way to
better cost containment around these contracts thank you thank you counsel member five yes
I just wanted to know if this project was utilizing the mentor protege program so this
is a federally funded project so we do not apply your local requirements think that is
it possible for the city to go above and beyond what the federal government requires in these
So my understanding is once, even if there is one dollar of federal funds, their regulations
apply.
We cannot use our small, small, local business requirements.
Do you, okay, so it's not agendized.
I'll talk offline to you all.
I'm concerned about us not reaching the goals that were suggested in the disparity study,
and I want to find out how we make sure that minority contractors are able to access some
of these larger contracts and how and when they can be broken up into smaller chunks
for our minority contractors.
So but we can talk more about that.
I'm bringing something to the Life Enrichment Committee to discuss it.
So we're good.
Was there a motion?
Do you want a second?
Second.
And thank you for talking about what's agendized.
Appreciate that.
Let's normalize it.
You always do that.
motion to approve the staff
recommendation.
Item five point three moved by
councilmember younger segment by
councilmember.
This is to approve the staff
recommendation councilmember
brown.
Councilmember five councilmember
Gallo.
Councilmember Rama chandrin.
I also remember hunger.
I also remember Wong no.
And chair G.
houston going to item 5.4 adopt the resolution granting a conditional
revocable major enculturing permit to Edward K Hemet and Rashawn Hester
trustees of the Kalee and Rashawn Hemet 2001 trust to allow portions of five
outwards swinging doors and associate associated planters serving as
pedestrian barriers to encroach into the public right away adjacent to 10 21 44
5th Avenue and adopting appropriate sequel findings. There's one speaker on this item.
Good evening Reginald Basile, Division Manager, Right of Way Management, Oak Dot. Here to
talk about a major encroachment permit, that's for 1021 45th Avenue. This is an existing
structure that has five outward swinging doors. Each door will be protected by two planters.
We need an encroachment permit to guarantee access and safety for the traveling public.
We're pleased to say that after the encroachment, that is, after the doors have swung out three
feet, we will still have nine and a half feet of usable sidewalk available for the walking
public.
And happy to take any questions.
the public speaker. Mr Sada. My foundation of decline. Thank you. Thank you. Mr Obama.
motion to approve the staff.
from the meeting of September
15th, 2026.
Item 6.2, a declaration of a
local emergency due to the
AIDS epidemic.
Item 6.3, a resolution relating
to the death of a family.
Item 6.3, a resolution relating
to the death of a family.
Item 6.3, a resolution relating
to the death of a family.
Item 6.3, a resolution relating
to the death of a family.
three, a resolution regarding a declaration of medical
cannabis health emergency, item 6.4, resolution regarding
a declaration of a local emergency on homelessness,
item 6.5, an ordinance for a MOU between the city
and the Oakland Police Officers Association.
This item will be final passage if approved today.
Item 6.6 was the information report for the performance
audit of the vacant property tax.
Item 6.7, in ordinance amending ordinance number 12187,
which is the salary ordinance.
Item 6.8, a resolution
for parks restoration services contract.
Item 6.9, a resolution for residential permit,
excuse me, permit zone changes.
Item 6.10, a resolution for 98th Avenue
crossing improvements construction contract award.
Item 6.11, a resolution for 1006266,
Okay, item 6.14, a resolution for a grant for service opportunity for seniors for meals
on wheels food delivery program for fiscal year 25 to 27, item 6.14, a resolution for
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
I'm a resident of the city of
the department.
Conforming and ratifying the mayor's
the actions during the mayor's annual recess
Adam 6.19 a resolution confirming the mayor's appointments to hit the Head Start Advisory Board
I'm 6.20 a resolution for professional services agreement with burretto co for signage and wayfinding services
item 6.21 a resolution honoring scouts, excuse me Scott seafood and grill for their 50th anniversary
item six point twenty-two a resolution
reappointing council members five and Ramachandran and hunger to a bag
I'm six point twenty-three a resolution for OPD ATF
Mo you renewal
I'm six point twenty-four resolution for the OPD DA Task Force mo you
item six point twenty-five a resolution affirming the mayor's appointment to the police and fire retirement board
Adam six point twenty six the resolution confirming the mayor's appointments to the Commission on Homelessness
Adam six point twenty seven a resolution
For settlement for Willie Wilson versus the city of Oakland
Adam six point twenty eight a resolution recognizing September as national Hispanic Latinx heritage month Adam six point twenty nine a resolution
Celebrating the 15th anniversary of soul lovely Adam six point thirty a resolution
Honoring the Black Panther Party commemorative Street renaming and that concludes your
Consent calendar. Let's go to staffers
Good evening council president Jenkin members of the council Kristin Hathaway assistant director for Oakland Public Works
Staff would like to read in a language modification to item six point twelve
The language modification is related to the language for section eight
point two eight point two nine zero of the OMC modifications the language would read
e
the provisions of OMC sections eight point two eight one
eight point two eight point one eighty through eight point two eight point two fifty are
hereby incorporated by reference and will apply to this section eight point two eight point two ninety as
as a fully set forth herein and will prevail in any conflict between this section
8.2 8.2 90 and
sections eight point two eight point one eighty through eight point two eight point two fifty
Thank you. Thank you. All right, so I want to take chairs privilege
Talk about 6 22 and 6 2 1 happy to reappoint
Thank you councilmember fight from a Chandra and anger to a bag. It's a very important committee and know councilmember five has been doing some good work there for
years and
They say very nice things about them
About her and then six point two one as we're seeing businesses and Jack London closing left and right
it's a testament and an honor that scott's has been there for 50 years serving the community and
deeply appreciative to your service
to the city of Oakland and Romero the managing partner taking chairs privilege
Would you like to come up and have some words and happy to sponsor this item with councilmember five in the mayor's office?
Thank you. What a great honor to be standing here before you I want to thank the mayor's office
Kevin Carol, thank you for all your support. I want to thank the city of Oakland
Scott's employees and
You know, we this is our first 50 years and we look forward to the next 50
how many people do you employ?
85 right now.
Beautiful.
Several.
Several black.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Foundational black.
Thank you, Romero.
Through the chair, just if I could, noting that I believe I thought Councilmember Houston
I don't remember Houston was on, but I do not see him, so.
Just regarding Scott's, if we could,
well, I'll make a request to have the tuna tartare
on the full menu, not just catering, thank you.
Council Member Rao.
Excellent, I wanted to briefly highlight a few items
on the calendar here.
So one is to start first with 6.15,
and I'm going to call on Councilmember
Haynes for being here.
As I said in the Life Enrichment Committee,
thank you Councilmember Fyfe for bringing the item.
There were a lot of important questions that were raised,
but of course I'm in full support of this moratorium,
so just wanted to say that.
In addition, thank you so much for the item 6.21,
honoring Scots.
Personally, my favorite salad and fry combo are there.
for item
6.28. I look forward to
Honoring my honoree. Thank you councilmember Gallo for bringing the item honoring his bet Hispanic and Latin next
Heritage month. Hopefully your office will talk a little bit about the event that's upcoming
And then lastly, I just wanted to highlight items six point two nine
Where we are honoring some amazing folks in our community DJ lady Ryan
I
I ama as well as emancipation who have put on amazing events supporting LGBTQ plus community for over 15 years and I want to really highlight that you know next year they're looking to bring a so lovely festival to the city of Oakland and so I hope that all of my colleagues can really rally to it was something that they were trying to pull off in 2020.
the city of Illinois. And I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
very pleased to be here and I'm
We do have a big part of the
moratorium on data centers that
this takes seven affirmative
votes.
We have seven, six council
members here right now, and so
I think it's imperative that we
are pithy with our comments so
that we do not lose quorum, but
I'm sure councilmember
Ramachandran will be back, but
we cannot lose one member, if we
now or would have passed.
Yeah.
Okay.
So with that, if there are no more comments, let's call the public commenters in.
Calling all names.
If you're in the chambers, please step to the podium in any order.
Please state your name for the record before beginning.
If you are on Zoom, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you wish to
speak.
If your hand is not raised, you will not be called on.
Madeline Stacy, Ethel Long Scott, Ariel Loud, Phil,
Kevin Dally, Sierra Warwick, Linda Warwick, Bailey Hurley,
Priya Amin, Audrey Luna, Isabelle Soder,
Jacqueline Cabasso, Sherry Cabral,
Jessa Gagarin, sorry if I said the incorrectly,
Kimberly King, Amani Desan, Quanna Brightman,
Vanessa Veet, Sharon Taylor, Christina Bertay,
Elizabeth Dauchery, Adele Watts,
Eben Cambridge, Mr. Hazard, Kathy Leonard,
Madeline Stacey, I have two cards for you,
or multiple cards, sorry.
Anne Jenks, Derek Barnes,
Mrs. Asada Olavala, multiple cards for you,
Simeo Remy, Linda Vu,
Andrea Ingram, Ned Nuresh,
sorry if I said that incorrectly,
Gerald Petunic, Mindy Petunic, Deborah Gilbert,
Millie Cleveland, Toshiya Crystal,
Dylon R, Tina Wang, Michael S,
Renford, or Ransford, Colin, Andrew Logan,
Jesse, Akbar, Megan Phillips,
Ellie U, Vanessa, Pearl,
Yuvi Ponda, Ampersand, Priya, that's a duplicate,
Renew, Diane Viguzi, Shalea, Charlotte Ione,
Raffi Atlas, Chase Gray-Gatieres, Angela Matix,
K. Abul, two cards for you, Pastor Parker,
Renee Cox, Elmi, Yoki Yong, sorry if I said that incorrectly,
Cynthia Kauffman, Elaria Nunez,
Dominique Cowling, Gustavo Gutierrez,
Elizabeth LoVano,
Kristen Ricatias,
Ursula,
Emily June Chin,
Warren Saki,
Connie Persephone Murphy,
Erica Death by Data Centers,
Donna Camille Davis, Sarah O.
Shelby, Alejandra Ureno,
Doi Kim, Amari,
I'm sorry, I can't read the last name,
and Jonathan Franzner.
Three minutes on the clock for Mr. Hazard.
Go ahead.
How much time do I have?
Three minutes.
Okay, thank you.
So go to cleanoakland.com.
Let me just, first of all,
Why do you keep having cannabis as a public health emergency?
I keep telling you, it's not.
Cannabis is legal if you didn't know.
So why don't you have Fentanyl.
People are dying.
August 13, 2026, they did a major operation in Oakland
on Fentanyl.
This is not coming from the border.
It's in this town, 13th Avenue and 78th Avenue.
And you're not doing nothing about it.
You remain silent, guile.
You talk about how value our children are,
children are dying behind fit and all.
Shame on all of you.
So what I gave you are the court of appeal case information.
The notice of appeal filed on the date set forth above
has been lodged in the court of appeals.
The following case number and division
have been assigned to the appeal.
This information must appear on all correspondence documents
filed in the court of appeals.
Case number A177630, division four.
This is around measuring the transaction use tax.
when your city attorney lied to the public.
Change the language.
And I'm not talking about what I don't know,
cause he filed with the Alameda County Tax Voter Register
on January 16th, nine days after the council approved
resident ordinance 13833.
And you sit there and be silent.
Ryan Richardson, and the court on January 25,
and they did a demure, and they sustained a demure
without leave to a man, trying to get rid of me.
But I said on May 19, 2025,
I will take it all the way to the appeals court.
Little did I know all the crap that I had to go through,
nearly 400 days, but we got there.
And the October 1, 2025 sales tax,
that's an illegal sales tax.
What's wrong with you?
All of you, President Jenkins,
and you're running for a re-election?
Shame on you.
Thank you, Mr. Hazard.
Your time is up.
Looking forward.
There's Theresa, three minutes for Ms. Leonard as well.
Thank you.
Kathy Leonard, born and raised in Oakland.
I'm living in District 1 now,
but I've lived in many districts in Oakland.
It's interesting that not one police officer showed up
on item 6.5.
You know why?
Because they got everything they wanted.
City workers are out here striking.
But the police, whenever they come before this body,
they get whatever they want.
But we can't rein in over time.
It's gonna take five years.
That's absolutely outrageous.
As usual, things continue with OPD.
MLK Junior Way, I'm glad to see this is happening.
I wanna thank, I'm gonna mispronounce his name,
Colin Pithy, with Oak Dot.
In 2017 or 18, I called the city
about all the accidents that happened
on MLK between 52nd and the Berkeley border.
People have been killed.
That's the widest street in district one.
Three lanes in each direction.
I'm happy that Oak Dot took up the cause.
We now, hopefully in December, construction will start.
We'll have two lanes in each direction.
We'll have a bike lane.
Sorry, but we needed that bike lane.
We'll have pedestrian fixes.
We can't even cross the street
because when we get in the middle lane,
the first lane and the third lane of traffic
are driving like they're in Indy 500.
We have three senior citizen homes or apartment buildings.
We have the North Oakland Senior Center
and they can't cross the street.
So I'm glad that this is happening.
Mills on Wills, cost of food, high as hell.
Our seniors need to be fed.
So I don't know if we're giving them all the money
that they need, but we have got to feed our seniors.
Yeah, and the food must be delicious
because some of it is crap.
I'm sorry but it is what it is.
Moratorium, I agree with the moratorium.
Trafficking, every day, when I go to and from my office
on Embarcadero, I pass by the blade.
There are minor children, minor girls,
12 and 13 years old, naked on the streets.
Their whole bodies are exposed.
I see cop cars sitting on the side streets doing nothing.
Why aren't we arresting the pimps?
That's what I wanna know, why are we allowing minor girls
to be marketed on the streets of Oakland?
And you know what we decided we'd do though?
We put up some barriers.
What's, how's that gonna stop the Johns
from exploiting minor children?
They're pedophiles for God's sakes.
Are we allowing pedophiles to operate
in the city of, thank you Ms. Leonard.
love and respect to chairman Fred I saw him in the room thank you thank you
councilmember the senior tech day was fantastic continue to look out for us
seniors I'm concerned with items six point five you are and there's two other
items that have this you have an item where the agreement starts for the
memorandum, understanding with the police July 1st, 2026.
This is October, the 6th, 2026.
Are you saying you're going to back pay from July 1st
to pay these officers?
Okay, you can't do that.
You can't do that legally.
Where's your counsel to tell you,
you have to approve any item before it becomes effective.
That's what you're doing.
You have a contractual arrangement with the police union
that starts July 1st, 2026 and ends June 30th, 2031.
You're giving them a 14% pay raise over five years.
Where's the source of funding for this?
Not identified.
Then when you go to item 6.3 and 6.4, same thing.
You say in your report that the memorandum of understanding with the ATF,
I don't know why y'all messing with the federal government.
Y'all, you said it begins October the 1st through September the 30th.
When did it go to the privacy commission?
You lied and said it went September the 3rd.
It went last Thursday, October the 1st, okay.
The privacy commission reviewed it October the 1st.
that's the day it's supposed to start October the first what is today October
to what you are proving something that was supposed to start with item six
point twenty three and six point twenty four with the federal government you
are proving something that was supposed to start October the first listen
people I'm not gonna let y'all screw with Trump because Trump was coming for
you can do this? Can you approve contracts? She's going to look down and act like she
don't hear me. I know you hear me. You're not supposed to allow council to approve contracts
with the understanding they've already started. And we have three items on there, three agreements,
and one memorandum of understanding involving money. And that should have been on the non-consent
agenda to discuss where we're getting the money for this so I pray that you
guys start doing the right good day my name is Ethel Long Scott and I'm
speaking for the Laney college for people's campaign students organizers
and neighbors committed to moral resistance and collective action I rise
to urge this council to adopt councilwoman members by 45-day urgency
and it's a series of
applications we're going to
see mora- moratorium on data
centers. Oakland's planning
code has been it's is out of
out of date a large a large
data center can use up to five
million gallons of water a day
and uses the same amount of
electricity as tens of thousands
of homes. Dana centers could be
they're growing in their use in
the country. West and east
don't add to this burden before the rules are in place.
The biggest tech companies are working to dominate AI
for profit and power, not for communities
and our health benefits.
45 days is really reasonable.
More than 300.
Thank you, ma'am, your time is up.
Thank you, ma'am, your time is up.
Thank you, ma'am, your time is up.
You will help me out on that.
Thank, excuse me, thank you.
I wish you didn't have a heart.
Sir, you're out of order.
Please continue.
Good evening, members of the council.
My name is Philip Johnson.
I am a truck driver.
I drive a Packard truck and a box band truck
for one of the biggest corporations
in the United States and throughout.
I'm in support of the data centers to come to Oakland
because I go to Google, I go to Microsoft,
I go to Amazon, and let me tell you,
I've been doing this for 42 years driving the truck.
We need truck drivers, whoever wanna work, they can work.
I have made a, I'm sitting on a gold mine,
cause I go to those corporations.
I dial a cost average into the S&P 500
and the company Wirehouser gave me shares of the company.
33 years, I'm sitting on that, shares,
I never went in there.
Been 33 years.
I'm a landowner through Wirehouser.
Look it up.
If you want to get rich, you teach your kids to get rich early with their father and mother.
Maybe we need financial literacy in every school, in every home, in Oakland.
I grew up in Trussell Glen, a Jewish realtor told my mother.
Thank you sir, your time is up.
Thank you sir, your time's up.
Because Trump stopped the immigrants as immigrants, he referred to them as the New Americans,
as a 10 year old, as a 10 year old.
you sir your time is up thank you I appreciate that thank you you're out of
order please proceed please proceed ma'am sir you about order that's your
second warning please proceed Vanessa due to resident employee I support the
45-day moratorium but more than that I implore city council to permanently ban
all data centers including the bearings facility on 20th Street if we see AI
I don't want to see way mo cars out on our shoes taking funding away from our public
transit which is already threatening funding cuts. Law enforcement is already receiving
so much of taxpayer dollars that could be invested somewhere else. We've seen in 1990
and 20 through 20 11 with the rise of big tech in the Bay Area where Oakland lost close
to half of its black population mostly due to gentrification. We've seen with the rise
there are people who live in
Oakland and often where Oakland
lost close to half of its black
population mostly due to
gentrification do not let
history repeat itself we must
learn from our lessons to show
that our people here are worth
investing in.
I want to name that this is not
us against city council nor is
it us against tech as a tool
this is us against the
billionaire corporations hoarding
trillions of dollars of wealth.
My name is Sharon Taylor I
was born and raised in Oakland.
I've lived in most of the areas of Oakland,
from the West Oakland, when my parents first got here,
and now was considered affordable,
all the way to down by Lake Merritt,
where I own an apartment building,
in the Lake Merritt area.
What we call now, what we used to call more affordable,
people call low income now,
but really it's just neighborhoods
where people can afford to live.
One of the reasons that my relatives all got here
and were able to flourish,
is because they could get a job.
Data centers will bring jobs.
They will not take jobs away.
I am in support of Oakland being vital
and having factories back here.
It's not gonna hurt people.
They can do whatever they need to do to make them safe.
And as Mindy Petchenich for Oakland
is trying to help bring more jobs to Oakland,
I totally support that.
And I think we should.
Thank you, ma'am.
Your time is up.
Good day, my relatives. My name is Cornel Parker Brightman. I'm Executive Director of the United Native Americans.
As far as the indigenous population, we'd really like to see a ban on data centers.
A number of tribes have actually stepped forward and implemented bans in our constitutions on our sovereign lands.
We have an opportunity here today to start that process, to follow the leadership of a very strong, powerful black woman who I believe in.
And I hope that this community does believe in and will follow her lead. Thank you very much.
My name is Simeon Ramey. I have a national program, Homeless and Mental Health.
Everybody in the country using facilities
with the city of Oakland.
Everybody, even Arkansas, where I came from,
these men got mad, come upon you,
got a hospital, hardtack, they couldn't find no place,
I called her, he said, what?
They're all fired, they lost them, they're all fired.
This country so corrupt, they getting fired,
changed in Section 8, come on now, what's up with that?
I can get a hot dog.
I choose one of them, can't get books.
I got a contract from school and a USDA
to feed the house, that's it, I choose.
They are important to us.
They are future.
Now ain't giving a damn about them.
That's what they do, what they do.
They ain't got nothing to do but get in trouble.
I got off-school program, all of it.
Oakland wanna implement it.
I need that USDA on schools and on all the bases.
This kids got plenty of money.
You ain't around here about five, 10 years ago.
Say, damn, you got top 10 universities, five of them.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsey.
Your time is up.
you can pull the mic down before you go, thanks.
Hello, my name is Linda Vu.
I'm a 10-year Oakland resident SF native,
grew up in East Oakland with family roots.
My parents, Vietnam War refugees,
classic post-Vietnam story.
My dad owned a little furniture factory
near the Coliseum in the 90s.
I opposed the moratorium on data centers.
I'm for the data centers, and here's why.
There's a deep philosophical and spiritual question here.
AI robots and computing is not human creativity.
AI or SI created by humans serves as aids
to human advancements.
Now, I grew up in the streets of San Francisco and Oakland
at all walking through the streets
at all hours of the day and night.
And I remember a once thriving downtown Oakland
with open bus bustling businesses along Broadway.
Today, I know many Oaklanders who won't even leave
their homes past a certain hour and can you blame them?
So how do you turn Oakland around?
Now AI just is a chat box where teenagers
and college students cheat on their midterm papers.
It will be critical.
Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you, ma'am, your time is up.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, excuse me.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Councilmember Fife.
I just wanna reiterate what the council president said
at the beginning of this agenda item.
In order to get through all of the speakers,
each speaker has to respect the amount of time
that each individual receives.
It's the same time, it's democracy in action.
So I'm asking the speakers to please respect
the two minutes that's allotted per person.
Please proceed.
I'm a longtime resident of Oakland.
We need the data centers.
We need every form of modern science
and technology and industry we can get.
Oakland is good at driving those things out of the city.
And then we turn around and we say,
how come we don't have enough money
to give a raise to the city workers?
How come we're talking,
outcome we're talking about please pause your time city bank one second man
one second now please pause the time
we need to be in order everybody has the right to their time
please continue
so
yeah we need we need more more industry more technology people created you know
there were people that were afraid of all kinds of technologies in the past
some people tried to stop electricity they said it was dangerous they said it
was going to
be too expensive they said it was going to take away jobs
and look at the world today.
They couldn't even imagine the kind of world
that would be made possible by the invention
and implementation of that kind of technology.
So let's not think backward.
Let's not think like cavemen.
Let's bring modern science and modern production
into Oakland.
We need the jobs, we need the science,
we need the progress.
Thank you.
Mindy Petchenich, candidate for Oakland mayor.
And I want to remind people,
this is not a Democratic or Republican question
or an MPP question.
Remember President John F. Kennedy
when he developed the space program
and what that did for the country
and opened new frontiers that we had no idea
how we were gonna get to the moon when he posed it.
And yet we put our human creativity to work
and we made breakthroughs in science, in life,
things that affect us today.
Well, it's the same thing with the data centers,
which is why I oppose wasting taxpayers' money
on a moratorium, which might get extended again.
Better we just use our resources
and actually put us to work in the 21st century.
And just to remind people very quickly,
in Coyote, Japan, it was just the 23rd annual meeting
of science and technology in society.
And you had countries like Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile,
Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, the United States,
United Kingdom, and others,
approve the use of this kind of technology.
Thank you, ma'am, your time is up.
Hello. My name is Deborah Gelber, and I'm also in favor of the data centers, but I want
to start with a thought, and hopefully I'm going to spark a little bit of thinking, serious
thinking, not popular opinion, but serious thinking. You know, I'm old enough to remember
when people freaked out at nuclear energy, the 60s and 70s. I mean, people were crying.
I mean, they were hysterical.
I mean, there were protests.
It was intense.
And, you know, people really, really, really believed
that they were going to blow up our cities
and kill millions of people,
that they were gonna leak and kill us all.
I mean, this was the discussion.
I'm not like tonight, you know, this was the discussion.
Okay, so history gives us a different perspective
on that one.
And what I want to say is this, I'm pretty convinced that the moratorium is probably
going to pass.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your time is up.
Good evening.
My name is Ned.
I've been to this podium many times over my lifetime.
I'm here today to say yes on the data centers and I'll give you a real simple reality why
you might want to.
Elon Musk, the man that many people used to love because
of Tesla and the electric car, he has a program where he's
going to put you out of business.
He's got the technology to take the data centers outside
beyond the atmosphere, beyond his already existing Wi-Fi
system called Starlink. He's got the capability with the rocket lift. You'll
be putting them up way beyond this. Thank you sir, your time is up. Your time is up.
Thank you. Thank you for the warning. Theresa, if you can put three minutes on
the clock for Ms. Janks. Thank you. And Janks, District 3 and I really want to
councilmember five. I thank all
of you for. Giving the time for
some. Public discussion and
public consideration of a
decision that will be impactful
to the city- and I appreciate
councilmember five for. For
getting this going. It is
regrettable that this is not
the way that this council
approaches. Other issues that
It was really horrifying to watch at the last meeting when it was not on the consent calendar
the real lack of discussion, the real lack of inquiry, the real lack of curiosity on
council before making a vote that is going to do more to our budget than really any other
vote that you're going to do.
And you couldn't bother to ask basic questions, how is this going to affect the city's pension
obligation. When you're giving a 25% bonus to 20-year employees, that's going to affect
what they get in their pension if they retire. How is this, HR stood here and said this contract
is going to help with retention. But they also said that the people who were leaving
were the officers with five years of service. They get a 2% bonus and a 3% bonus. Is that
really going to stop them when they're being offered $75,000 at a new police department?
And why are the bonuses 25% for a 20-year veteran if you're trying to retain the five-year
officers?
It wasn't one question asked.
We had urged the Coalition for Police Accountability, urged this council to have public, open discussions
as you are supposed to earlier on during the negotiations before the negotiations about
these issues that are so impactful to the city's budget and to public safety.
This council did not do that, and it's most regrettable.
Issues like GPS, which the data available from having GPS in police vehicles would help
understand 911 response time, it would help understand overtime, it would help understand
staffing but you have not acted upon that you haven't acted upon
civilian ization so that officers can be involved in real public safety instead
of administrative work and you've left overtime woefully unaddressed it's
deeply regrettable I'd ask you to give it the same level of attention that
you're giving to the moratorium on the data centers thank you point of order I
was just asking if I was on for two items thank you you can raise the mic
to be a moratorium on that same
as the data center.
Most of the Oakland audit items
deal with the OPA or the OPD.
They haven't shown that they're
willing to do the very minimum
amount of things to actually put
in the processes that would stop
So I'm going to go talk about
the people in the local government overspend.
I see all the people in the local 21 shirts
from no blood for old men,
or no blood for old men, or something like that.
But basically, they're drinking out of your cup, okay?
OPD is drinking out of the very resources
that could be going to you.
Oh, no country for old men, something like that, yeah.
And in terms of, um, basically
all your resources, so no way
should this be funded.
Once again, you guys could be
heroes for not approving this.
Item 6-6, um, in terms of that,
uh, land tax usage is a great
way or example of influencing
land usage on a legislative
point.
Uh, we should mandate a tax is
used specifically to abate our
current housing costs.
for- profit things. As much as
possible we should also
consider a tax on for profit
businesses buying single family
homes- in terms of the data
center we need to. Kinda change
the way we're thinking- we. The
technology you can ever stop it
I'm a early adopting over
driver lift driver I was one of
the people that was driving
around with them. Mustache on
that you should be thinking about taxing them energy parameters segregating their consumption
from public noise constraints radiation thank you mr. Cambridge for two items
gotta give us your name first good evening to this distinguished body i haven't been in
front of you guys in a while so we can give you the appropriate amount of time could you
can you please give me your name?
K. Abdul, my head.
I'm here to support the city putting a 45-days moratorium
on the data center in place.
I believe 45 days is a reasonable time frame.
However, the city must use this time to educate themselves
and their specific district resident
these specific areas where these data centers are proposed. There need to be
some zoning laws that district members need to be vast on because don't get
this twisted. At the end of the day data center is also about providing jobs and
we must make sure Oakland stay in the mix of economic development and
And guaranteeing that these jobs are occupied by Oaklanders
so that Oaklanders can afford to stay in Oakland.
We must have, we just had an amazing week
of Oakland Tech week.
I've never seen people coming together
trying to be in the city.
We need to keep that momentum going.
We need to have a reasonable timeframe where we compose,
we as City Council members could engage
their resident, so that we could all learn together.
Because the reality is, AI is already here,
and it's here to stay.
So we need to embrace it, we need to be ahead of it,
we need to educate ourselves.
We need to be in the mix.
We cannot afford to lose this opportunity.
That is a big transfer of wealth that taking place.
We need to get Oaklanders prepared.
We need to get these programs and all the provolter colleges so that people can
make informed decision. I yield the rest of my time care.
Yes. This is Gerald patching up.
The other patching up related to Mindy for 44 years.
Um, I think there's a couple of things this city council really needs to know
since the date of the hearing and the passage of the moratorium for 45 days.
because you are so wrong.
You are wrong.
Number one, there was a meeting on the 29th of September
with the 30 top technology people in the country.
And it's full speed ahead on AI, full speed, no moratorium.
And then October 4 just happened.
My wife said it.
16 countries called.
We stand at the frontier of an immense opportunity
to harness super intelligence.
There's nothing.
Thank you, Mr. Pertunich.
Your time is up.
Thank you.
Hi, Tisha, you're Crystal.
I have some five, one item addresses
and of course the 615.
28 to 30 years as a taxpayer.
I personally would just like to suggest
and to request that at this point, right,
that all taxpayers receive an invoice every year
or some type of report to see where the funds
are actually being spent.
I'd like addresses, the business names,
the dates of the work, the amount spent
so that I can actually go and verify an audit for myself.
OPD does not need more funds, they need more training,
they need more education.
I as a licensed cosmetologist require more education
than a police officer, and that's a shame.
Businesses in Oakland, business fees are high.
Water is high.
Why are the fees so high?
Dumping?
We have flock cameras, but we don't have any cameras
to watch the dumpers.
Housing.
I am dreaming of housing, like our mayor said.
I'd like to consider myself one of those young people
in Oakland who can see themselves buying property here.
But I can't.
I've been struggling to do that for two years in Oakland
because it's so hard and affordable.
Rance Reheiman.
I'm an Oakland school parent and resident of District 2,
and I'm here in support of the 45-day moratorium
on data centers in Oakland.
but we should also have a complete ban on these facilities
until the people's needs are sufficiently met.
Instead of investing in data centers
that will undoubtedly need cooling,
how about we invest in our children's schools
and cool them down so our babies can learn better?
Instead of leasing our lands to the billionaires,
why aren't we creating a true jobs program
for our community paying $30 minimum wage,
like the cause being made by the Black Organizing Project?
It is time like this where we are called
to remember our history here in Oakland.
80 years ago, over 100,000 workers
and demand for better wages and working conditions.
As the community calls for a $30 minimum wage,
a fair contract for our city workers,
for weapons not to be sent through our public airport,
for more investment in our schools
and support our black and brown children,
the community deserves their investment first.
We address the needs of the other interests
of the billionaires, investing the people.
Hey Dawson.
I'm sorry, before you begin,
can you pull the mic down closer,
because we can't hear you?
Mic down closer, okay.
Hi, my name is Marnie Dawson,
I'm here to talk about 615.
I have so much to talk about.
I'm kind of like a refugee of Palo Alto
and the fact that I can't really buy a home
and where I grew up, it's millions of dollars,
I'm priced out.
My family is just a line of black technologists,
my grandparents, my uncles, my dad, myself,
my mom's in real estate, my dad's in private,
I mean, my brother's in private equity.
This is the way things are going, it's very parasitic.
We wanna make use of technologies that's coming forth,
but if we don't set a moratorium,
it's going to take full advantage of us.
We think that, you know, that we can make the most of it,
but we need to follow the lead of, like,
the UN Habitat's International Guidelines
on People-Centered Smart Cities.
I recommend, you know, that we take a look at that.
And, you know, data centers should be a public resource.
If it's a private resource,
we're giving up the entire game,
and it's a duty, a civic duty and a human duty,
to make sure we do all this on our own terms
and on the people's terms.
Thank you.
Hi, I have Hadar Jarel is going to cede his time to me.
Unfortunately, there's no ceding time on the consent calendar,
so just go ahead with your name.
OK, my name is Emily.
I'm a city worker, and I live in District 1.
In 1972, the Black Panther Party updated the last point
of its 10-point program.
It called for, quote, people's community control
of modern technology, end quote.
This was over 50 years ago, but these revolutionary leaders
understood what would happen when
the development of technology continued to replace workers
under the control of greedy corporations of businessmen.
Capitalism is going to drive us off of a cliff,
and the tech billionaires don't care
as long as they make a buck,
but the people of Oakland know how to fight.
We have the power of organization,
and we will fight for our future,
for a livable planet, a thriving planet,
and we will fight for our city.
We want to decide what gets built here
and how the money gets spent.
We want money for public transportation,
affordable housing, healthcare,
education, and city services.
We don't want the bearing facility in downtown.
I am asking City Council
not just to pass this 45-day ban,
but also to join our movement
and fight for the interests of the people of Oakland.
This is about data centers,
but it's also about community control of our city.
All of these struggles are connected, and the black...
Hi there.
My name is Shalea, I live in Oakland, District 3.
I just want to point out how inspired and proud I am
of all my neighbors here today.
Yes.
Look at how the working class has shown up
to show our commitment to Oakland and to each other.
This is the second city council meeting I've attended
where Oakland residents have made themselves heard
via public comment in regards to this data center.
I am in support of the moratorium.
Our concerns have ranged from cost of living
to environmental impacts.
Where is bearing?
Aside from bragging about the interest in their site
from numerous companies and the press conference
with Carol Fife, I haven't heard any appeals
or input from this developer on how this is good for Oakland.
Yeah, I support the moratorium
and that really tells me all I need to know
about this company and this proposed project, thank you.
My name is Arbaaz, I'm a resident of District 2,
and I support the 45-day moratorium
on data centers in Oakland.
However, this is just a start,
and despite what we heard from Amir earlier,
our rents keep going up, our food prices keep going up,
water and electricity bills keep going up,
and to top it off, our airport continues to ship bombs
and have 35 parts to kill kids halfway across the world.
So until we demonstrate that we're able to meet
the people's needs, you know, to house our unhoused,
fund our children's schools,
and you know, we shouldn't be siphoning off our resources
and mortgaging our people's futures on an AI bubble
that will undoubtedly leave us holding the bag in the end.
So until then, we need to completely ban these facilities.
I don't wanna see any loopholes
for converting existing facilities,
for closed-loop cooling, for exemptions on data centers
below a certain size, none of that,
and none of the stuff around, you know,
what that squeezes this bearing one to.
So, yeah, thanks.
Hello, I'm Jessie, I wanted to speak today
as a chronically ill and disabled person.
It takes me every fiber of my existence
just to be a semi-functioning human being,
and there are so many others in Oakland
who can't even make it out here today,
even though we pretty much universally oppose
the construction of this data center.
How is an AI data center supposed to help disabled,
chronically ill, neurodivergent people like myself
and many others in Oakland?
Disability income is not keeping up with inflation
and most of us aren't getting any disability income
in the first place.
Most of us work full-time jobs and the reality
is that more of us are becoming disabled under capitalism.
It is disabling to have to work three, four jobs
just to survive.
Our utility bills are already too high
and this AI data center is only going to contribute to that.
I wanna thank Council Member Fyfe
for introducing the 45-day moratorium
and we will continue to fight
for a permanent ban on data centers.
My name is Dominique Cowling.
I'm born in Oakland and a long-term resident.
I'm in support of moratorium.
I've worked in trauma and nature-based healing
for over a decade and fear the disruption
data center will bring to our ecosystem. The noise pollution, use of excessive
natural resources and displacement will bring trauma here. We've seen and heard
many negative impacts to communities where data centers have been built.
Bringing a data center into our community will be devastating to our
health and all the beings that call this beautiful place home. We must invest in
Oakland but this will decrease our quality of life. We will continue to
to fight for a permanent ban on data centers in our city.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm ampersand, I live locally here.
And I'm also in favor of this moratorium.
We know, we hear a lot that data centers might bring jobs,
but the fact is that AI deletes, erases,
gets rid of our jobs.
It doesn't create more.
I know that 73% of Californians oppose data centers,
and we know that half of data centers in the United States
have been delayed or stopped by concerned local people,
which is incredible and happens for a reason.
And we should know that this is a really critical moment
in Oakland, because the decisions that we make right now
about AI data centers are gonna determine the standards
of what's acceptable here for people and for land.
And there is a lot we don't know right now,
and the things we don't know can absolutely hurt us.
We don't know what the impacts are gonna be
environmentally on, for example,
the first wildlife preservation center in the country,
actually, which is in Lake Merritt.
But we do know that the Bering Company
trying to avoid doing the CEQA or the environmental analysis to find out what
the what the pollution would be to find out what the consequences would be.
Renee, my name is Renee I'm a district 2 resident and we've been hearing about
companies like anthropic, meta, Waymo and bearing and what these companies are
doing is they are gambling on Oaklanders lives and livelihoods and either way
Oaklanders are going to lose they are dumping billions of borrowed money into
AI investments with the hope that it will pay off and what is paying off mean
for them it means that the best case scenario that AI will replace human
workers and hundreds of thousands of working class people will be laid off
from their jobs and if AI doesn't live up to all that is promised before their
credit runs out the bubble will burst and cause a recession that is projected
to be worse than the 2008 crash when one in four Oakland homes were foreclosed and the
billionaires were bailed out. Oaklanders know what happens when billionaires make bets on
our homes and our jobs. We are asking you to act. Thank you. Chase Gutierrez. So you
guys all talk about how Oakland has so many intelligent creative geniuses and I agree.
And what those artists say is they're vehemently against AI. So I also support the moratorium
and banning data centers, and stopping the AI expansion,
aka the deterioration of society.
AI is taking jobs, it's rotting brains,
and it's killing our planet.
Billionaires are never the solution.
History has shown us that every time a city
has invested in big tech, it's only led to gentrification
and a detriment to the people
who are actually from that city.
Let's look at our neighbor, San Francisco.
They are a prime example to me,
in that they invested in big tech,
and now their black population is under 6%.
That's not how it used to be.
I don't want that to happen to Oakland.
So I go back to the artists and creatives.
I wear the Superman shirt to remind us and myself
that artists imitate lives as the geniuses they are.
Superman fights for the people
and literally fights big tech billionaires,
aka Lex Luthor.
Now I'm not Superman, but I and we are all fighting.
Thank you, Mr. Gutierrez, your time is up.
Hi, I'm Yuvi, I'm a D3 resident.
I've been observing the software industry
for a long time and over time,
I think that marketing has gone more and more full of lies.
If we believed them, we would be all using cryptocurrency today to transact,
live in a metaverse with heads strapped to our faces and wear creepy Google glasses.
So for every product that we do remember, there's a million that bombed
that were promoted by the exact same people with the same fervency
that they are promoting this as the future,
as something that we must get behind or we will be left behind.
I'm very happy we left behind from the cryptocurrency.
I'm very happy we left behind from all of these things.
So I want us to not believe the marketing, right?
And remember that the big Foxconn factory
that was supposed to bring 10,000 jobs in Wisconsin
lays completely abandoned today,
making that land unusable for anyone around it
when the initial interest and investment dried up.
So it doesn't provide 10,000 jobs,
it provides practically zero.
So I support the moratorium
and then a total ban until this bubble.
Hello, my name is Angela Maddox
and I support the 45-day moratorium on AI centers.
If we truly want people to stay in Oakland,
and visit Oakland, then it's,
we cannot have the data centers.
They just pollute everything around them,
they destroy things around them, they make people sick.
The main job influx comes from the construction,
which will tell our roads, and then it'll be over.
Honestly, it's an assault on to society and human living,
and the people who want these data centers are companies
like Palantir Committing Genocide.
You have EOMS with ROT creating child porn,
and I don't think it's any coincidence
that you have these types of people running these companies,
and we've seen uptick of lynching in the south.
We have KKK recruitment going on in the Midwest,
and when you have people driving our country
in one direction who have these beliefs,
and they're open about them,
it translates throughout the entire country,
and we need to stand up to them in general
and say no to all AI data centers.
Hello, I am death to data centers.
Yeah.
Hello, City Council.
Once again, I'm a resident of District 3
and a public health nurse of 16 years.
We know the results of D3 have been disproportionately
affected by environmental and health impacts
seen by freeways and industrial sites.
These conditions are a direct result of decades
of systemic racism and disinvestment in communities.
Data center harm reduction will never be enough
to hold these techno billionaires accountable.
They will demand more land.
Data centers have become a form of colonialism.
They kill people, land, and living beings.
This is not responsible technological growth.
Oakland City Council, please support Council Member Fife's moratorium and halt all data
center developments with a ban to follow.
Hi, hello council members.
My name's Amawuri and I'm here to speak for the moratorium.
Yeah, so I am a, I worked as a environmental and garden educator in the school district
this past year.
this issue does hit close to home.
Yeah, so I just wanted to mention how maybe he was talking about how the city advocates
for environmental justice, and so, and even outlined some of the, you know, the main principles
of environmental justice rights, so the right to a healthy living environment free from
environmental hazards.
So data centers do in fact pose a threat, environmental threat to our, the health of
residents here.
first time doing this, so yeah, and yeah, I think, but please yeah, thank you for
your time, and yeah. Hello, my name is Megan, I'm a resident and student here in
Oakland, and I strongly support a moratorium on data centers, but more than
a moratorium, I want to ban on the capitalist development of AI in Oakland,
Not because I'm against technology but because I see how tech billionaires are
pushing AI in ways that are destructive. Ways that sacrifice human needs and the
planet for short-term profit. We keep being presented with a false choice
between big tech and empty storefronts but both these options keep us in a box
where billionaires are in control and we are told to ask for crumbs. That is a
false choice. We have agency and this belief in ourselves, the working class, is
is what we need in the face of an existential climate crisis.
We can't wait for someone to save us.
We need to save us.
So please listen to your constituents
and vote in support of Councilmember Fife's moratorium.
But we, we need to organize,
because this moratorium is only step one
in taking back power from the billionaires.
Hi, my name is Eliana and I live in District 3.
I want you guys to stop and look in your hearts right now.
We all, all of you, you have hearts.
I know you do.
And you know that creating a data center here is not right.
Be it underneath the greed or the oppression
that creates internalized injustice
that pours outwards onto your people,
you know that this is not the right decision.
Our children, their lives are at stake.
We know what population Oakland is.
This would be an act of environmental racism
because you all have not proven to us
that you have the capacity to build an infrastructure
that will support these people in finding a place in tech.
Also, don't forget about the climate.
You will be impacted too.
You will.
Remember that.
Penny Murphy, I'm here today to talk about
the moratorium.
Thank you, Council Member Fyfe, for bringing this.
I've heard a lot of people talk about AI and the,
you know, whether it's good or bad.
That's not what this is about.
It's about having a data center specifically in Oakland,
where we've seen data centers,
we've seen environmental crisis,
we've seen utility prices go up,
we've seen water quality go down, noise problems.
It's not going to be good for the community.
That's all.
So we're not ceding time today?
Okay.
Hi, I'm Kristen Ricotello from District One.
Please pass the 45-day moratorium on data centers
so we can work towards a full ban
on all data centers in Oakland.
Any short-term benefit to the city's budget
does not outweigh the massive future financial implications
on Oakland's residents, as well as the environmental
and health implications it will have.
Remember how many of your residents showed up
at the last city council meeting
in support of the moratorium
and look at all the people here today.
To truly be a representative of the people's wants
and needs would be to pass a full ban
on data centers in Oakland.
Banning data centers in Oakland does not remove us
from the forefront of technology.
It only protects the health and wealth
of Oakland and its residents.
The electricity demand profile for data centers
requires 24 seven supply, known as firm power.
As more data centers come online,
The utilities are under increasing pressure
to procure power for fossil fuels like natural gas.
Oakland should not support or contribute
to this long-term trend and back to higher carbon emissions.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Donna Davis.
I live in District 3, and I work in Jack London.
I'm in favor of the moratorium and beyond that, a full ban.
The question that keeps on coming up for me
is if AI is so smart, why is it so destructive?
I mean, that's pretty dumb, right?
Bearing, I mean, come on, you could look at,
they're acting like teenagers.
Why are they so secretive?
Why are they hiding behind a loophole, right?
I mean, if they're honest, why don't they come out
and say, hey, yeah, let's talk about it.
Let's talk about what we're doing.
Let's talk about the impact.
They're not, they're afraid, right?
They're afraid of the truth.
they know how harmful it is.
Putting a data center near a senior living center
that's only like a couple blocks away to me is stupid.
Putting a data center near the oldest wildlife refuge
in Lake Merritt is pretty stupid.
Hi, my name is June Chen, District Two.
Last Saturday I canvassed in the neighborhood
of Tristle Glen.
I canvassed for Nate Adams in District Two
after Charlene Wang repeatedly voted for flock cameras,
selling the people of this city out to big tech,
to mass surveillance, to AI facial recognition.
The houses in this neighborhood were beautiful,
brass door knockers in the shape of animals,
mahjong tables facing a wall of glass
overlooking a biodiverse front yard.
In every city, there are a few millionaires
and even fewer billionaires.
The rest of us live paycheck to paycheck,
try to do our friends and families right.
Think about how to map our routes
to avoid deliriously long wait times on the Bay Bridge,
skyrocketing grocery prices, dodging salmonella and eggs,
cyclosporone, lettuce.
We don't need AI.
We have never needed AI.
We need functional city planning.
We need to stop bombing Palestinians.
We are currently debating AI, which brings us closer.
I'll vote yes on the moratorium and support a full ban.
Hello, my name is Charlotte.
I'm from D2.
I'm here in support of a moratorium
and a ban after that, I'm hard to see how many people
are out here to challenge the logic
that we have to beg the oligarchs to invest in our city.
And also the logic that says we have to shape our city
to be attractive to them.
When we talk about violent sweeps of homeless people
and surveillance by shitty tech companies like Flock,
that is what we are talking about.
And one more thing I wanna say
that might sound a little bit silly,
but the Luddites were onto something.
They understood that what matters about a technology
is not just what it does, but who controls it
and what kind of power it has to concentrate power.
We do not control this technology.
There, in my mind, is very little we could do
to actually control it in a meaningful way.
I think it is a big mistake for us to gamble
with the future of our city and trust that the oligarchs
have a benevolent vision for us
or a place for us in their vision at all.
Rafi from District 2. I am here in support of the 45-day moratorium and I
like to urge the City Council to support a permanent ban on data centers
in Oakland. A 2026 Gallup survey shows that 71% of Americans oppose data
centers in their communities. 71%. We are concerned about our access to basic
resources and quality of life. Don't let burying and the tech elite convince you
that we, the people, are confused or misinformed.
We, the people, are very clear.
We want permanent jobs that support our communities
and the ability to afford our basic needs,
including housing and utilities.
A data center in Oakland threatens all of this
and all of us.
Oakland already knows what happens
when big tech moves into our town.
Working class and black people are displaced
and suffer direct harm.
It isn't hypothetical.
It's happened and it will happen again.
It's not data centers or empty storefronts.
It's data centers or a thriving town supports.
Hello, Council, my name is Ursula.
Thank you, Councilman Councilwoman Fife for the 45 day moratorium.
And I agree on that.
And I think we should have a total ban.
I agree with what a lot of people said here today.
Everything I read about a lot of states and they regret just jumping in.
And you know, I was taught as a youngster all money and good money and they could bring in all that money
But for our health and the noise and the water and the energy, it's all bad. So I just really hope
You guys study it and just say no we could do something else. We can make Oakland great
Another way like the old days. All right, thank you
go out there is
side I owe district two good evening community and council members and council member five. Thank you. I appreciate you
I'm a fourth generation resident and therapist here in Oakland
I urge you to pass the 45 day moratorium and to use that time toward keeping data centers out of Oakland for good in
Our city with the housing crisis that impacts the overwhelming majority of us
We're being asked to welcome a building whose main tenant is computing power, not people.
Before we do, we should ask what it takes from the people already here that have carried
more than their fair share of pollution and systemic neglect.
No amount of promised revenue makes that trade worth it.
Oakland's land, water, and energy should serve the people that live here, not machines
that answer to someone else.
to techno colonialism not today not ever good afternoon council members my
name is Alejandra Oreno and I'm a resident and campaign organizer here in
Oakland as those before me have already stated we are unwilling to accept a data
center that puts public and environmental health at risk consumes so
much of our resources and further jeopardizes the economic stability of
everyday working-class people I do think it's very important to note that at time
and in a political climate where there exists so much division and disagreement
this issue right here, AI data centers, has been putting people, uniting people
across so many political, economic, and cultural lines. People who've never
taken an interest in civic engagement, people who've never stood up before a
city council to speak their thoughts have done so for the first time, because
they recognize the critical nature of this issue. So I urge you to please
listen to our pleas. I think the people of Oakland have made it abundantly clear
tonight that we do not want, we do not need, and we will not accept an AI data
here please vote to support the data center moratorium I just wanted to say
to the public and to my colleagues that this is an amazing opportunity of
people speaking out I don't want to lose quorum so if there's anyone that's
thinking about leaving because we need every single one of your votes please
reconsider that and to the public if you can consolidate your comments that would
would allow us to make sure that we retain our quorum here.
I just want to reiterate that to pass this item we need seven affirmative votes.
We have seven council members here.
We are at risk of losing a council member.
If there are not seven council members here, this item 615 will not pass.
This is Dohee Kim and I'm going to address all the seven council members here on quorum
and holding your attention because tonight will be a historic vote and I
hope you are listening to the majority of people here who are telling you how
to vote. This is not only an environmental issue but an existential
one and this is not only an Oakland fight but a nationwide and global fight
against AI data center creep infiltration and unjust development in
our local community. I hope you have read the environmental
element in the city of Oakland, where communities of color and indigenous communities and low-income
communities have historically been disadvented.
I live in West Oakland, where a 30-minute walk to Lake Merritt is telling.
And I think we need to abolish colonial and unjust gentrified racialized policies, and
AI data center creep is part of that.
And I support the...
Thank you ma'am. Your time is up. If you guys can come closer to the mic so we can get through
you all quicker. Can you hear me? Cool. All right my name is Shelby. Hi, nice to see you all again.
I was also encouraged by the a couple days after the last time I came here. Councilwoman
Five saw me out while I was trying to retrieve some headphones that I left here because it made
me feel really seen and I hope that you guys still see the amount of people here
and I was also really surprised by the amount of people that came and talked
like against the moratorium and I want to say that I think there's a large
population of people here who are very for the moratorium and I think there's a
big difference in the diversity and the population that came out you see every
single kind of person here who is here for this moratorium and I really really
hope that you guys see that and please take that into account thank you.
Hi Council, my name is Gustavo Gutierrez. I'm a District 3 resident and an
organizer with Communities for a Better Environment. An amazing man and educator
named Marvin Boomer once said to me in a group of volunteers that the only AI
that we've only ever needed is ancestral intelligence and it's our ancestors who
teach us about abundance right and that this world has everything that we could
possibly need to survive right and to thrive. The tech industry is an offer
you know we have a lot of
people offering that test right
you can't eat computer chips
last time I checked. And more
than that right. We have
everything that we need to be
abundant in the city. Right but
I think it really comes down to
some of the things are
highlighted today. Around
mismanagement right of our of
our funds and allowing the
police- to eat up a majority of-
on the funds that we have
available here- so we have
exactly what we need- we have
to be smart about the resources
the health and well-being of people in East Oakland,
West Oakland, and Oakland.
Hi, Tina Huang.
I'm in favor of the moratorium.
And I also believe that there's a literacy
crisis because of where everyone's using AI to save time.
I understand that saving time is easy for other things,
but then we're losing that creative flow and also
critical thinking skills of truly how
get from point A to point D. We lost B and C. So, and for me, I personally love
researching my topics, going deep into it, and then, like, learning how to write
down, look at it, and then manufacture how to, how to did that. And we're all, from
because of AI, we're robbing up with children. They don't, they're already
passing through that. They don't have that critical thinking skill, the creative
a lot of work that I did.
And so it's like a flow of it.
So in order to in adding on the data centers in open,
we are already creating more problems for the children,
and we don't want that anymore.
We don't need more of it, so.
Hi, my name is Emi Okoyang.
I'm a District 6 resident and also a policy organizer
with RK superpower utility justice campaign.
I'm in support of Council members 5's 45-day moratorium
new data centers in Oakland would guzzle water
and sustainably, keep fossil fuels online,
drive more pollution, raise local temperatures,
annoys, and displace Oaklander jobs.
AI data centers also require massive power usage
and an energy demand growth that will in turn
require new electric infrastructure.
This will increase already outrageously high
electric rates for our communities
who already cannot afford PG&E's high energy bills.
Let's join other Bay Area cities, Richmond, Oakley,
Gilroy and just earlier today San Francisco in passing moratoriums and
protect our communities. Thank you. Good evening my name is Colin Logan. I'm an
organizer with Reclaim Our Power, a utility justice campaign and coalition
based in Oakland. We're building the movement to abolish PG&E and replace it
with a not-for-profit people's utility to put people and the planet over profits.
Thank you so much Councilmember Fife for your bold leadership in introducing
this moratorium on data centers.
We will continue to fight alongside you
for a permanent ban.
Data centers are a massive threat to Oaklanders,
especially black and brown communities in the flatlands
who were already on the front lines of pollution
due to the ongoing legacy of redlining
and environmental racism.
Data centers would raise our PG&E bills at a time
when our rates are the highest in California.
And when California's rates are the highest
in the continental US occupied Turtle Island,
black and brown and indigenous and disabled people
are harmed first and worst by these utility shutoffs
and utility debt.
No to corporate greed.
No to PG&E.
No to data centers.
Stand with Oaklanders, not the techno fashion.
Madeline Stacy, I signed up for four items.
For four items.
Okay, first I want to again address the declaration
of local emergency due to the existence
of the city's homelessness.
I want to again emphasize that the existence
of unhoused themselves is not the emergency.
They are not obliged, they are our neighbors.
And I wanna make sure we keep the right framing
as we move forward.
And I also wanna bring up El Nino is coming.
We're going to all feel the effects
of the severe weather situation,
and it's going to significantly impact
our unsheltered relatives and neighbors.
And so I wanna propose,
and it's not really something we're discussing now,
but I'm gonna put it into the atmosphere,
a moratorium on sweeps during this winter season.
I want to also address because Mayor Lee did speak about it, about solving homelessness
in the new department, the Office of Homelessness Solutions, and our chief, Cupid Alexander,
that's new with it.
And so much of what they're doing is focusing on the EMAT, the Encampment Management and
Abatement Team.
And per their presentation at the Commission of Homelessness just recently, between May
in September four months 86% of their operations were closures and those are
sweeps we're spending a lot of money every year every week every month on
sweeps and that is not a solution to homelessness the Office of Homelessness
Solutions needs to focus on actually solving homelessness and then I want to
also speak and echo what Ann Jenks and Millie said about the MOU with the Oakland
the Police Department and especially the wage increases.
I know last time we dealt with the first two portions
at the last full city council meeting
and now we're doing the third portion
about the salary schedule.
And I just wanna again emphasize
that actions speak louder than words
and your prioritization of rubber stamping
the OPOA's requests while the city workers
who provide actual on the ground services
for the city of Oakland are still at the contract table,
are still in communication,
are still trying to get a contract finalized
when OPOA with higher than CPI rates,
higher than cost of living,
are getting increases in raises in this MeToo agreement
when we can't even get close to COLA for the city workers
and they still don't have a contract finalized
And not only have been going either eight or six months
with their contract negotiations,
but are out of contract for several months.
That speaks to the priorities that you have
and who you answer to and who you prioritize, which is OPOA.
And now I'm out of time for what I want to say,
but yes, the moratorium is low hanging through.
It is just a pause, people.
We're not doing anything crazy.
Everyone should vote for it.
Thank you, Ms. Stacey.
Moving to the Zoom speaker,
starting with Jacqueline Cabasso.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Thank you.
Jackie Cabasso, District 1.
On behalf of Western States Legal Foundation,
a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, District 3,
working for peace and justice in a nuclear-free world,
I speak in support of the moratorium on AI data centers.
Given the inevitable bureaucratic time lags,
we also support Councilmember Wang's proposed amendments,
which provide concrete measures to ensure
that the 45-day moratorium is used
to produce a substantive analysis,
including a strategy for community engagement and input,
which can inform critical future decisions.
While the proposed ordinance identifies
a wide range of harms associated with AI data centers,
it does not address the very real and growing concerns
about the multiplicity of dangers
posed to humanity by AI itself.
With the lack of leadership at the federal level,
it is incumbent upon local governments
to protect public health and safety.
public hearing held just yesterday by the New York City... Thank you for your
comments moving to Luna. Can you please confirm your name? Luna. Audrey Luna, District 3.
Go ahead. And sorry, I thought I had more time for 6.5. OPOA should take zeros for
the next five years and allow city workers to catch up. But regarding 6.15,
I'm asking the Council to fully approve this temporary moratorium and work toward the total
ban on these new generation data centers during this time.
I am thankful for the Mayor's comments.
Her statement reminded me that Oakland constituents need to fight for the Oakland that we know,
love and imagine.
I will not repeat the same concerns that the hundreds of community members have voiced.
I trust that the Council has heard and understands these concerns based on their unilateral support
given by the Life Enrichment Committee.
Please remember this and our voices and our stories as you consider the future of Oakland
beyond the 45-day moratorium.
You are the people the city has trusted to speak for the citizens of this city.
Lead us into a future that Barbara Lee said we need to fight for.
Please vote to approve this ordinance.
Please expand all data centers in Oakland.
Please don't sell us out to corporate tech and billionaire interests.
Bailey Hurley, you are next after Bailey is Linda Warwick.
Bailey, please begin your comments.
Hello.
Hello, my name is Bailey Hurley, and I am in favor of the 45-day moratorium.
AI data centers are known to make false promises, lie to the public, and hide the truth about
their environmental impacts on the land, which is why I wish the moratorium had more systems
to ensure transparency and mitigate the impacts of NDAs and corporate secrecy around AI data
centers.
I encourage the council to strongly consider enforcing transparency measures on data centers,
such as a ban on NDAs, required public disclosure when any plans to create or expand data centers
are submitted, and mandated environmental reporting.
The public deserves to know what's really happening, and democracy depends on our ability
to make informed decisions on data centers.
To those still in opposition to this moratorium, I encourage you to look further into the predatory
practices of these data centers.
The money from these data centers go to tech billionaires, not our people.
I am someone who does believe AI can be used for good, but these are just a way to exploit
our community.
This moratorium is a great first step.
Thank you to everyone who's come out here to make their voice.
Thank you for your comments.
Linda, you are next after Linda is Elizabeth Daughtry.
Linda, would you please begin?
Hi, yes.
My name is Linda Warrick, a constituent here in Oakland, and I also want the moratorium
and also a ban on the data center.
We already have problems with our water systems
and our power plants, and we do not need to add that.
And also, it will be an addition of the air problems
that we already have that are gonna be getting worse
with the EPA breakdowns.
We, this will not help bring jobs to Oakland.
And I would really thank Council Member Fyfe for this
and we need to slow down and think what we're doing,
even some of the ADI people are telling us
that it's dangerous and we need to slow down.
So I think we need to do that for the city of Oakland
and its constituents.
Thank you so much.
Elizabeth, you are next after Elizabeth.
We have Sierra and Christina.
Go ahead and begin.
Thanks.
Elizabeth Daugherty from Holy H20 in district one.
Oakland is at threat, and that threat
stems from a particular group of fascist billionaires.
They're like a body whose head is personal gain,
their heart is AI, their lungs are data centers,
and all the other organs are the chips and other forms
of associated manufacturing.
the whole body must be kept out of Oakland.
Here is what they are offering us,
a massive increase in the use and costs
of very limited electricity and water resources,
environmental impact on wildlife,
environmental justice impact on human communities,
Musk and Bezos and other nefarious folks
influence in our local political scene.
Oh, and the end of humanity, pass the moratorium.
Don't let this body take a single foot.
Sierra, please and meet yourself in the game.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes.
I'm Sierra, District 4.
Please vote yes on the moratorium with no amendments.
We know data centers have environmental impacts,
that they suck up water, strain energy grids,
and poison the air with diesel fumes and noise pollution.
We know lower income and BIPOC communities
are disproportionately affected,
we know that once built, data centers must run 24-7,
but need very few full-time staff,
so those saying it will bring jobs are kidding themselves.
We know all this, but we don't yet know the extent.
The 45-day moratorium is the first step needed
for a full ban, which I support,
but at the very least, it will allow us to study
this enormous unknown.
This is not about whether you personally like AI,
it is about studying how data centers could harm Oakland
and not charging ahead recklessly.
It is your responsibility to keep Oakland safe.
Pass the moratorium.
Let us study this so we can move from knowledge.
Thank you.
Christina, you are next.
Christina Bertilla.
I support the moratorium in a permanent ban on data centers.
My concern is the infra-sound and low-frequency noise
produced by data centers.
In other industrial, occupational, and community contexts,
what's called ILFN, this kind of sound,
Exposure has been associated with documented non-auditory health effects including sleep
disturbance, cardiovascular stress response, cognitive impairment, and audio vestibular
symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, balance disturbance.
Oaklanders don't need more health challenges.
We don't need to bring data centers into our city and creating sacrifice zones around them
And I don't know if you're
Thank you, everyone for your
comments.
All names have been called at
this time.
Thank you for everybody that
came to speak.
Councilmember Fyfe.
Yes, I want to make a motion to
approve the consent calendar
including the data set of
moratorium.
And I want to give a shout-out
to myself for...
No, no, not for that, for the
renaming of the black pant, the
Broadway for the black pant
the rollaway for the black panther party 60th anniversary so a motion as
amended is I also want to register a no vote for six point five motion as
amended with the changes to six point twelve registering your no vote is there
a second second from I'm a chondrin and Gayle and Brown let's go scroll on the
seconded by councilmember five seconded by everybody but really councilmember
ramachandran noting the amendments made to item six point five I'm sorry six
point twelve and councilmember five snowboat on item six point five
councilmember Brown aye councilmember five aye councilmember Gallo aye
councilmember Ramachandran aye councilmember Unger aye
Councilmember Wong.
Hi.
And Chair Jenkins.
Aye.
Motion passes with a vote of seven ayes.
Yay.
So we will go to announcements.
Laura, did you come here to say something about Black Panther?
I did.
Come on, come on up.
Yeah.
I moved to tears.
So, Lori, or third generation Oakland, or thank you.
I'm here to represent the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation,
co-founder of Fredrika Newton, the widow of Huey Newton,
the thousands of people who have kept this legacy alive,
the people who have spoken today that really speak to that legacy
of what the Panthers did, the thousands of young women and men
that kept survival programs, 65 survival programs,
a ten-point platform to lift everybody.
There's still so much more work to do.
And when we have these three blocks named,
the Black Panther Party Boulevard,
people will be driving by the heart of activism in Oakland
to see what we have done to keep it alive.
And I am so grateful on behalf of everybody
that's here with me right now to say thank you.
We have a big celebration coming up next week.
I look forward to seeing you guys there
starting on Thursday night, Friday night.
Saturday we're gonna do the renaming
because of your support. Council you've done great work. And I say thank you. May the rest
of you be guided. Thank you. OK. Council member announcements adjournments. Council member
one. I just wanted to clear up the discussion around flock and city auditor Houston. He
clarified with me over e-mail that he didn't understand the question. The city auditor
is going to be publishing a report by January of this year,
of next year on the floc contract.
And it is not dependent.
It is not dependent on that contract being signed
in order to audit what flocs use of our data.
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
Council Member Brown.
Excellent.
I'll go really quickly.
Just wanted to invite community members.
I started my second annual community engagement tour
happening during the entire month of October.
We had a great first stop on first Friday.
We'll also be at the Lake Merritts Farmers Market
on Saturday, and I'm very excited to be partnering
with Councilmember Houston,
as well as Council President Jenkins,
and so many of our city departments
to bring City Hall to East Oakland.
That one will be Friday, October the 16th.
And then we'll also have another event
where we're gonna be talking about housing
on October the 30th.
But more details can be found both in my newsletter
as well as on social media.
Do you have a handle?
Oh, my social media?
Yeah. Yeah.
His Rowena dot Brown, Oakland, yeah.
Make sure everybody follows her.
Anybody else?
Councilmember Brown?
I mean, Fife?
Yes, I just wanna say-
to my foundation, I was confused.
Wow.
We're having another data center conversation
in my district Saturday, October 24th at 10 AM
at Beth Eden Baptist Church, 1183 10th Street.
I encourage everyone who still has questions
or wants to have more conversation
to come to this conversation about data centers.
We're incorporating several folks from Oakland Tech Week
to be a part of the conversation.
so please bring your voices, questions, and concerns.
Beautiful, please repeat it.
October 24th, 10 a.m.
at Beth Eden Baptist Church, 1183 10th Street
in West Oakland.
Can we find a flyer on your social media?
It is on my social media pages.
You wanna drop that handle?
At Carol for Council, on everywhere probably, I don't know.
All right, anybody else?
Seeing none, let's go to open four.
Moving to open form as I call your name,
please oppose the podium.
Please set your name for the record before beginning.
If you're on Zoom, please raise your hand
so I can easily identify you.
David Boatwright, Barbara Tangieri,
Millie Cleveland, Mrs. Adalabala, Madeline Stacy,
Toshiia Cristal, Kathy Leonard, and Mr. Hazard.
I don't know if you could see this.
This is a dangerous combination.
This is Andy Duong and our president, Kevin Jenkins.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah.
This trial is starting to come up for the former mayor
this week, this week or next week.
I think he's going to be a witness.
Also, vote no on the mayor's proposed charter change, EE.
Vote no on that, that's a dangerous, dangerous situation
that the city will be confronted with.
Also go to cleanoakland.com
and you could follow what's going to happen
around my state court of appeals.
We should be filing that as soon as the paralegal
finishes the document, thank you.
David boat ride district for
Continuation of what I was trying to say earlier if the council implements periodic required updates by grant recipients
it would signal the council's commitment to funding only the highest priority projects and
respect for their constituents and non-city funding sources if such oversight is implemented and
Continuously executed not just for grants, but for all significant city spending
considered by the council.
Thank you.
Hi, Kathy Leonard.
I know we always beat up on city staff
and say they're not doing anything,
but I wanna give some thanks to some city staff
who has been working with me.
So I'm the board chair
of the Golden Gate Community Association.
We're a 30-year organization
in the westernmost part of North Oakland.
I wanna thank our city attorney, Ryan Richardson,
He's also doing a lot of work
on the commission for the work
he has done.
His office has done and fighting
supreme of the old the city
over a million dollars in fines
and attorney's fees.
Also our council person zach
under has been supportive in
this in this effort to supreme
has been tormenting our
neighborhood for.
At least twenty years and so
hopefully with this motion for
some judgment we're going to
see some some changes so thank
you very much to both of you.
coming to emeryville but impacting Oakland at a very negative way I want to
thank the mayor thank you for your comments miss Leonard thank you good
evening my name is a barber ten Gary in my search to find someone to come and
cut down a tree at the corner of where the uptime apartment is 500 William
street. And telegraph Avenue I found and learn that the man that used to head it no longer
does so I wanted I came here to see if you council members can fill that position because
we do need trees and some other things that need to be done. Thank you very much.
I'd like to hear from you.
Thank you.
Can you follow up with us?
Excuse me.
My staff's going to follow up with you.
Ms. Taylor?
Thank you.
No worries.
Madeline Stacy, I want to quickly speak to the vacant
property tax.
The city auditor, of course, in your agenda today
did submit their audit of it.
And it's being vacant properties being assessed well
well. But we can really get a lot more revenue by adjusting the fee schedule. I
know prop 13 limits jurisdiction's ability to increase tax based on assessed
value but length of vacancy excuse me the light status property size can
increase the money for this same cost of administrative effort and work because
just for and more importantly just 4% of the vacant property tax revenue a
I mean, a little under a million has gone to housing
and community development, HCD,
and more than a million a year is being spent on sweeps.
So we really need to, as we move forward,
especially with budgeting in the future,
get more money to homeless services and housing.
Thank you so much for your comments.
That concludes our speakers.
Thank you, this meeting's adjourned.
Go ahead.
Oh, we have to start, one second.
You may be, is it, just give it a second.
the clock is here on our end.
It'll probably take a second for K-Top to pull it back up.
So you may begin, we got you.
Okay, awesome. Thank you so much.
Tisha and Christo, I'd just like to touch back
on the housing situation.
So, right, our mayor said and quoted,
write some prices and was very proud
about owning a home here in Oakland
and being able to purchase a home here in Oakland.
I would like to be that proud.
I would like to be able to have that opportunity
to own a home in the city that I grew up in,
that I work in, that I live in, where my heart lives.
And literally for two years, I've been searching
and have not been able to even obtain a home.
It is not because of my credit,
it is not because of any debt, it is because of systems.
So I am dreaming for housing, not only for myself,
but for all, for the homeless, for the unhoused,
for the first time homeowners,
for those who want to live unconventionally.
Everybody doesn't wanna live in a high rise.
Some folks wanna own a home like myself.
When will there be houses built in Oakland
for Oaklanders to stay in Oakland like myself?
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Thank you, this meeting's adjourned.