Good morning and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee
meeting. On this Tuesday, October 13th, the time is now 1132 and this meeting
shall come to order. Before I give a call roll, I would like to give
instructions on how to submit a speaker card for items on this agenda. If you're
here in person and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill out a card and
For the time being and turn it
into myself, you can lay it on
the podium there.
Either 10 minutes after this
meeting began or before the item
is read into record, whichever
comes first.
Again, the meeting began at 11.32.
Online speaker cards were due 24
hours before this meeting began
so we will no longer be
accepting online speaker cards.
But again, at this time, with
that, I will now call roll.
Councilmember Gallo.
Present.
Councilmember Houston.
Here.
Councilmember Wong is excused and we have Chair Unger.
Here.
We have three members present, one excused.
Councilmember Wong, you can lay the speaker cards on the podium there and I'll come and
grab them.
Thank you so much.
With that, Chair Juncken, excuse me, Chair Unger, would you like to make any announcements
before we go to the first?
No.
Thanks, everyone, for being here.
agenda as usual for the Public Works Committee. So let's try to keep our
comments tight. Thanks. Thank you so much for that. We will now move to our first
item. Our first item, one moment, is the approval of the draft minutes for the
committee meeting of September 22nd, 2026. I have no speakers at this time. Thank you.
Okay. Council members? I'll move it. All right, I will second that. And that was a
motion by councilmember Houston kept seconded by councilmember Unger to
approve item 1 the draft minutes as is on roll councilmember Gayle
councilmember Houston Councilmember Wong is excused and councilmember Unger
aye we have three eyes one excuse for the minutes we will now move to item
number two which is determination of scheduling outstanding committee items
which would be your pending list also known as your pending list and with
that if I may for item two we do have a correction to the pending list before
you go to the administration on the pending list under October 27th we have
item number three which is the 2025 safe Oakland Street's annual information
report that was inadvertently placed on that date in was actually scheduled to
the October 27th public safety committee at rules so this item will not be heard
on October 27th public works and transportation committee so I just want
to make that note thank you chair right I love a change that gives work to
somebody else anything from staff nothing to report okay I will move the
pending list thank you so much and I do have two speakers for this item and I
have missus out of olibala and Blair Beekman so I've been trying to determine
without your cooperation of how the parking
for the ICE Center works.
So I might be getting misinformation,
but what I understand is you have an arrangement
with the ICE Center and they pay you
a set amount of money every month.
It's not a validation process.
So with that in place, it means that you might be getting
less money or you might be getting more money,
but people who come to the ICE Center
and use it are free.
Now, what I don't understand is if you have people checking
in the garage over here to see if valid parking is going on,
there's nothing that they put in their system
unless you give them a code.
This is confusing.
So we need to find out how this works,
that you have this free parking going on
over at the ICE Center.
The other thing is I've observed walking down this street
with the protective bike lanes,
since the lane covers a part of the curve,
how does the street cleaning take place?
With the sweepers, because there's nothing but trash
in the bike lane going down this street.
So how does that get cleaned up?
Because usually the curve is cleaned up
with the street sweeper,
but anytime you have a protective bike lane situation,
you can't use street sweepers
as the means of picking up trash.
And the second part of protective bike lanes,
we have to have an equitable system,
how it's been decided to put them
in certain areas of the city.
If you go in East Oakland, West Oakland,
you're not gonna see protective bike lanes.
So is it a privileged thing that you have
going on in this city?
And lastly, we have to have a discussion about lawsuits
with the Department of Transportation.
Sidewalks are uneven, a lot of.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Stay tuned for item three of the East 12th Bikeway Project.
Our next speaker was Blair Beekman.
I do not see him in the queue, Blair.
If you are here participating via Zoom,
please raise your hand in the queue
so we can identify you and give you your two minutes.
With that, I don't see Blair Beatman
who signed up for this item.
We can go with the motion by council member,
I apologize, was it council member Unger or Houston first?
For-
Council member Houston, seconding.
Okay, so we have a motion by council member Chair Unger,
seconded by council member Houston to approve
as amended item number two on roll.
Council member Gayle?
Aye.
Houston?
Aye.
Chair Unger?
Item number two is approved with three ayes, one excuse, long as amended.
Thank you so much for that.
We will now go to item number three.
Item number three is a resolution authorizing the City Administrator to award a construction
contract to McGuire and Hester for East 12th Street Bikeway Project number 1003980, the
responsible and responsive bidder in accordance with the project plans and
specifications state requirements and the constructors bid in the amount of
five million fifty five thousand eight hundred and ninety eight dollars and
authorizing the city administrator to approve and execute change order to
construction contract up to 25 percent of the original contract amount and
adopting sequel findings I have four speakers for this item three speakers
with this item. Thank you. Great. Let's hear from our staff first, please.
Hi, members of the committee. My name is Souti Komsankar. I'm a supervising civil engineer
with the Department of Transportation under the Major Projects Division. This item is
for awarding construction contract to McGuire and Hester for the East 12th Street Bikeway
Project in the amount of $5,055,898. The East 12th Street Bikeway Project will close
a critical one-mile gap in the city's bikeway infrastructure, directing cyclists off into
International Boulevard at 54th Avenue
and connecting them to the Fruitvale Bar station
by East 12th Street.
Project improvements on East 12th Street
include protected bike lanes,
upgrading existing bike lane striping,
roadway paving, reconstructing and adding new curb ramps
for ADA compliance, bike wayfinding signage,
traffic signal improvements, and traffic calming measures
such as traffic circles and speed bumps.
Striping will also be improved on 35th Avenue
from Fruitvale Bar station to East 12th Street.
On July 2nd, 2026, staff received four construction bids
and McGuire and Hester was deemed the lowest responsible
and responsive bidder.
This project is being funded
by Alameda County Transportation Commission Grant
as well as Measure U Funds and Gas Tax revenue.
This item also authorizes the city administrator
or their designee to execute changes
up to 25% of the base contract amount,
which follows the department's typical process
when it comes to construction contracts.
This is in accordance with our 2015 standard specifications
for public construction,
which was adopted by the city on October 3rd, 2017.
The project does not anticipate utilizing
the entire change order capacity,
but this authority does help facilitate
us maintaining schedule with our contractor,
as well as controlling costs as each change order
that comes in is negotiated and evaluated
by our construction management team.
Our team is excited to deliver these projects
that increase cyclist and pedestrian accessibility
Safety in the fruit villages neighborhoods and I'm available for any questions
Excellent, thank you colleagues questions councilmember guy. Oh, you might need to press your button
Thank you. Thank you for the information and for the proposal with the timeline
Yeah, the timeline in terms of construction with through the chair would be
we would be awarding this contract through the resume or through the council meeting next week and then
the contracting will maybe take a few months from there and then so we
anticipate construction starting within spring of 2027. In the springtime it'll
get started? Most likely as contractors tend to avoid the rainy season as it can
start. And it'll get completed by... We anticipate this being completed within a
year so probably by the mid to end of 2028. Thank you I make a motion to approve
the item. Thank you. Okay I will second that and let's go to councilmember
Houston. Good morning sir. I have a couple of questions for the public. Can you
explain credited because sometimes that credited percentage can get individuals
confused like when it says McGuire and Hester's SLBE and this is what I'm
going to speak on is the local participation is 52.94 percent and the
credit is 63.02 percent and then I have a couple more questions about this 25
percent change order value of 1 million 263 dollars 974.5 is that going to be
included in the local participation and I'll ask the other couple questions I
don't want to ask too much right now yes through the chair I will note that
this is memorandum the compliance analysis developed by the Department of
Workplace and Employment Standards and so I may not be able to speak fully to
how this memorandum was created but to my understanding the credit it is for
VSLV so very small local businesses tend to get according to the calculations
double the percentage credited to that contract. Okay so it says here that
that McGuire and Hester proposes 1,384,148
for certified small and very small local businesses.
Is that true?
I'm assuming you're looking at the memorandum
and speaking to it, that's accurate.
Okay, so I want staff to come back.
I wanna track that because the small local businesses
are the most important to me.
When I got elected, that's all I fought for, right,
because we've been underserved for so long.
So I don't want to have that tracked
and report it back to us on that money
that these businesses receive, okay?
Through the chair, the Department of Workplace
and Employment Standards can provide those updates to you,
or can be requested through them.
Okay, last thing, so the additional amount
of the 321,648
That was over July, these non-compliant bid.
I feel is worth it for our local small businesses
because they came in higher than everyone.
I just wanted the public to understand
because when I used to sit here, I didn't understand it.
Now I got it from going through all these documents.
So on that, I'll let it go.
I'm good.
All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.
Thank you so much for that.
If I call your name,
please approach the podium in any order.
If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand
so I can easily identify you.
We will take those who are in person first
and then followed by those who are participating online.
I have Kevin Dalley, Mrs. Sada Olavala,
and Blair Beekman in any order.
Thank you.
Thanks for this presentation, East 12th.
It's definitely the bike route I follow
when I go to the Fruitvale BART station
and it, until a year or two ago,
frequently had a lot of parking in the painted bike lane which is why it needs
to be protected it's not as bad now as it used to be there's been some towing
of vehicles definitely I encourage this to be passed and I will be visiting
councilmember coyotes district more safely thank you thank you for your
comments a next speaker so I heard something where the report says the bikes
are coming from international onto 12 how can you ride a bike on international
yes some there's no he can't talk to me that's why I'm looking at you so you can
ask him yeah but there's no there's no protective any kind of way you don't you
don't have a lane but anyway we'll talk about that later. The change order
situation did y'all get clarity on a limitation of change orders or is this
just up in the air that they can use them again whatever the change orders
have to be addressed early. The other thing is have you determined what are
some of the inconvenient impacts or inconveniences that are going to be a
a part of this are some businesses going to be interrupt or residents going to
be in convenience in any way is noise or safety issues. I notice that when a
lot of the bike lanes are being produced, you have a lot of open spaces
that can people can fall into. Uh, who are the people working on these
contracts? We need to start. You haven't started yet. Y'all talk about
having businesses that are Oakland businesses. But who's actually working?
Are they from Oakland?
Are the race demographics equitable?
I don't see black people working on nothing in this city,
construction-wise, contract-wise.
So when are you gonna start looking at race equity
with contracts with companies?
Lastly, when are we gonna get to the Bancroft project,
Mr. Houston?
We supposed to have bike lanes on Bancroft
But there's more.
And there's more with the mediums being reconfigured in a way
that was discussed like two years ago.
And nothing has happened.
OK, that's that's Ben Croft.
And when y'all going to start hiring,
we all got a lot of turnover.
I've never seen this person before.
But I want to see more black people, that's for sure.
And I'm not talking.
Thank you so much for your comments.
That concludes our speakers for it.
Oh, my apologies.
I did have Blair Beekman, but I again do not see him in the queue.
So that concludes our speakers.
questions just just one more real quick because I didn't get that answered about
that one million two hundred sixty three ninety nine seven four point five that's
the max of the twenty five percent change order will the SLBE small local
businesses apply to that extra money if it goes up to that amount through the
chair so change orders are evaluated on a case-by-case basis in general we can
view change orders in two ways, either additional scope or changed conditions.
And so if let's say a change conditions for concrete, let's say a curb rent for
example, we may need to provide additional costs for work that needs to
be redone and it would typically be for that same subcontractor. And so if that
subcontractor is an SLBE, then that dollar amount would go to them or if
if they're in LBE, et cetera, et cetera.
We are not, if there are potential for new work
to be added, then typically the contractor
evaluates which subcontractors are
available to join on the project.
Hi, I'm Emily Ellers with the Department of Transportation.
All of that is true.
I just wanted to clarify that the overall project amount
still needs to meet the minimum SLBE and LBE requirements.
So the whole project, including change orders,
needs to meet that minimum that was set by DWES.
Yeah, that was basic.
Both of you guys, you guys did a great job.
And at first time, seeing you, a little nervous,
but it's okay, you did really well.
So thank you so much.
I'm good.
ACA Baker.
Thank you, Chair.
And through the Chair, I just appreciate the question
that you asked, Council Member Houston,
in terms of how to track the payments
that are going to the SLBs.
And DWES is not responsible
for necessarily tracking that solely.
So I wanna set expectations that we are,
I also serve as the interim director of DWES.
We are in pilot with HCD to track those payments, right?
Those payments are put on paper.
There's documentation to certify
that those payments were made,
but we don't have an oversight function at this time.
we are piloting software, B2G software
that does track that in partnership with HCD.
So we will work with BookDOT to work in partnership
to track the payments through the Prime.
Prime has to participate in that tracking.
It's their responsibility.
And then we will report back.
But it is a collaborative effort that
includes DWES, Department of Transportation,
as well as the contractor to fully track those payments.
Thank you and when that tracking starts to happen can it come back to council just to
let us know because I like to keep up with what's happening with the SLBE.
Great let's call the vote.
Thank you so much and there was a motion by councilmember Gayle, seconded by councilmember
Unger to approve item three to be forwarded to the October 20th City Council agenda.
On roll council member on roll council member Gayle.
Aye.
Euston.
Aye.
All right councilmember Wong is excused and chair hunger. I item number three is approved with three eyes one excuse and will be
Scheduled afforded to the October
20th City Council agenda on consent
Consent, please. Great. Thank you so much. We are now moving to item number four
Adopt a resolution amending City Council resolution number nine one zero nine one
CMS authorizing the city to accept inappropriate loan and grant funds under the state of California
That's ground eight twenty twenty four through twenty twenty five affordable housing and sustainable communities program for the residents at the
Liberation Park project in the amount not to exceed
44 million six hundred sixty one thousand four hundred and four dollars and I have to three speakers for this item. Thank you
All right. Let's hear from staff first, please. Great. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Emily Ellers with the Department of Transportation
This resolution amends a previous resolution adopted in March
926 resolution number nine one zero nine one
Which accepted state affordable housing and sustainable community strategies funds for the residences at liberation park?
It's a technical amendment
It changes who receives a portion of the grant funds the total award the city's funding and the project the projects are unchanged
Because the original resolution named the specific payees
The state now requires an amended resolution before releasing the funds and I'm happy to take any additional questions. You may have
questions
Right. That was the fastest 44 million dollars ever. Let's hear from
Our speakers, please. Thank you so much as I call your name
Please approach the podium if you are participating online, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you
Once again, we'll be taking those who are in person first. I have miss Asada. Ola Bala Kevin dally and Blair Beekman in any order
Always like to throw in like y'all giving black people something. So what are you giving us?
The STI for the black culture zone community development
152,000 four hundred and thirty seven. What we gonna do with that little bit of money?
then the money for the Eaton
house
same thing one hundred and fifty two thousand four hundred thirty seven now for the civic for the city is seven million
plus 7.1 million dollars.
Why so little amount of money?
And what do you expect we're gonna do
with that little amount of money?
Then you have in your statement,
the project is designed to count a black displacement.
Hell, it ain't.
You can't counter nothing with that little bit of money.
Then in your race equity statements,
you say designed to enhance quality of life
for very low and low.
You can be consistent in keeping on the so-called agenda
of looking at issues for black people.
You change it.
A race equity statement, race inequity statement,
where you don't talk about black people at all.
It's just designed to enhance quality of life
for very low and low-income neighborhoods.
Now, stop playing with black people in this city.
If you're gonna do something for us,
do something that has some substance.
I'm not talking about Africans, Haitians, or people from the islands, or people from
Central America.
I'm talking...
You know why I have to say this?
Because 27% of your city is immigrants, legal or illegal.
And 7% are African and less than 1% are Cubans, Islanders, and from South America.
You got more immigrants than you got black people in this city now.
In 1985 we were 45% of the city.
Now we are 13%.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Next speaker please.
And Kevin Dalley is passing
and I do not see Blair Beekman.
That concludes your public speakers for this item.
All right.
Seeing nothing else from council.
I believe we have a motion and a second.
Let's call the roll.
And did you second?
I'm sorry.
I'll second it, yep.
Yes, sorry.
So we have a motion by councilmember Gayle,
We have a seconded by Chair Unger to approve item four to be forwarded to the October 20th City Council agenda on roll
Councilmember Gallo aye Councilmember Houston
Councilmember Wong is excused and chair Unger. I and we have
approval with three eyes
One excuse councilmember Wong and the item is scheduled requested to be scheduled to the October 20th City Council agenda on consent on consent
Please thank you so much moving on to item number five
Number five is a resolution one awarding a professional services agreement to as as an
engineering PC for an amount of four million dollars to provide
construction management support services for Martin Luther King jr. Way streetscape improvement project and
Adopting CEQA findings. I have three speakers for this item. All right, let's hear from staffers. Please. Thank you
Great. Thank you committee chair and council members. Good morning. My name is Edmund see you from the Department of Transportation
action division manager. The item here today is for the MLK streetscape
improvements construction management support services. In July 26, 2026 council
awarded a construction contract to McGuire and Hester for the MLK
streetscape improvements project which will deliver pedestrian crossing
improvements, pedestrian lighting, street trees, seating, two-way cycle track and
upgraded traffic signals on MLK way between 2nd and 14th Street
Item before you today would award a contract to Azad engineering PC to manage construction of that project and perform the work of resident engineers
inspectors
material testing and special inspections in supportive city staff
Azad is an Oakland SLBE certified firm based here in Oakland, California
their proposal as I proposed to self perform 70% of the scope.
The contract is in the amount of $4 million, and the source of funding for
this contract will be 100% state and local grant funded.
A little bit about our procurement process on July 17th of this year,
we issued an RFP for the construction management support services.
And in mid August, the clerk received two proposals.
Following the evaluation and negotiation process,
Azad Engineering was the highest scoring firm
and selected to be awarded a professional services agreement
to provide construction management support services
for the project.
Pause there if there's any questions from the group.
Yeah, so Azad's a great company.
I'm happy to work with them,
but it is frustrating that we have to sub this out.
I mean, ideally we would have in-house engineers is,
can you talk a little bit about why we are having
to form this out?
Yeah, and so the current vacancy rate
that I was, from our information is,
right now the construction management team
that's managing the large streetscape projects
currently has a 80% vacancy rate.
So very much do have vacancies,
we do need to rely on these consultants
because our funding does have deadlines
and our time lines to deliver the project
and meet our grant commitments.
I understand and I appreciate,
have to do what we have to do but just sort of we have a general desire to come
in-house as much as possible with with projects like this anything from my
council colleagues all right I will second that and let's hear from our
speakers please thank you so much for that I have miss Asada Olobala Kevin
Dali and Blair Beekman in any order if you are participating online please raise
your hand so we can easily identify you thank you the report says that this
project will improve air quality and related health outcomes. Can you go into detail what
you're talking about? How will this project improve air quality and related health? Don't
put in a document just to fill up the spaces, words. If you're saying that you're going
to improve something or whatever you're going to do, demonstrate how that's going to happen.
So this project is supposed to be involved in pedestrian crossing improvement, pedestrian
lighting, something about trees.
You're supposed to deal with two-way cycling, upgrading traffic signs, and so forth.
All right.
But you didn't break down.
What are you going to be doing relative to these 12 blocks with each one of these categories?
And maybe you're not covering each one of these categories.
I don't know.
But you spend a lot of time on vehicle bike lanes
and other parts of what you need to do
are not given as much.
And then are we gonna put up lights
and turn the lights on?
Because we have lights that have been put up
all across the city, particularly at collision fields
and mountain and at Canyon and Keller,
been up for years and never been turned on.
So my question again is, who's gonna be working these jobs?
Are we gonna have race equity with employment?
Are we gonna see some skin color?
Looking like me, working on these jobs?
I go through the streets and I'm looking,
everywhere I go, I'm looking to see black people.
And I'm not talking about Africans,
Cubans, or South Americans.
I'm talking about people who are formerly enslaved
as their ancestors, a part of their legacy.
So please, more detail.
You want details on small business?
Thank you so much for your comments, Ms. Asada.
Next speaker, please.
And this MLK streetscape improvements
is important for pedestrian and cyclist safety.
I do think that the more people you have cycling,
and the more people that are walking,
that are taking transit and able to walk the last couple blocks,
you'll have people that are not driving there.
And that is the direction in which air quality has a chance of being improved.
It would be nice to have it a little bit more clearly stated,
but I think it's pretty straightforward.
And in mention to protected by claims and being cleaned,
Oakland does have a single street sweeper
that fits and protected bike lanes.
It has way more work than it's needed.
We also have the ambassadors that frequently sweep up
the bike lanes.
And yes, 14th Street was blocked in two places on my way here
due to the council meetings, committee meetings today.
I talked to one of the ambassadors,
They said they'd work on it and then I'm reporting it. But anyway, thanks again for
this
for this improvements
Thank you so much and
We had a third speaker
Excuse me Blair Beekman, but I do not see him on the queue
So that concludes our speakers for this item
We had a motion by councilmember Gail seconded by councilmember Unger to approve item three to be forwarded to the October 20th
the city council all roll councilmember guile Houston Councilmember walking
excuse and chair Unger I item number five is approved to be forwarded to the
October 20th City Council agenda on consent that now takes us to item number
six bear with me why I read this lengthy title number six is a resolution
authorizing the city administrator to purchase ready mix concrete from Cal
Portland Company CE mix construction materials and one additional eligible
ready mix concrete supplier including a new market in print on it as needed
basis for four years period any amount not to exceed $400,000 per supplier per
year for an amount for an annual aggregate amount not to exceed one
million two hundred thousand dollars in a total four year aggregate amount not
to exceed four hundred four million eight hundred thousand dollars
authorizing payment of unpaid invoice due to a Cal Portland company in the
amount not to exceed seventy thousand dollars waiving further advertising and
competitive bidding pursuant to the Oakland Municipal Code and authorizing
open market purchases pursuant to Oakland Municipal Code and granting to the extent
required a limited restricted waiver of border wall construction, prohibiting prohibition
pursuant to Oakland Municipal Code, and waiving the sanctuary city contracting prohibition
relating to certain United States immigration and customs enforcement, customs and border
protection, and Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refuge, of Resettlement
Services pursuant to Oakland municipal municipal code for Cal Portland Company and
CMX construction materials and
Conditional for one additional eligible supplier and adopting CEQA findings. I have three speakers for this item
Thank you. Okay, Miss Ellers tell us about concrete. All right. Thank you through the chair. My name is Emily Ellers
I work for the Department of Transportation
This item authorizes the purchase of ready mix concrete from up to three suppliers over four years
Cal Portland C max and one additional qualified supplier including a possible new market entrant
Purchases would be as needed not to exceed 400,000 per supplier per year
The resolution also authorizes up to $70,000 to pay for concrete that we received after our prior purchase or authority
expired
RediMix concrete is critical to our in-house crews building sidewalks and 80 accessible curb ramps
It must be used shortly after batching. So supplier proximity
delivery timing and reliability matter
The Oakland market is tight. There's only two to three providers and they also serve private construction back in 2025
We issued a request for quotes and received no quotes
After that failed solicitation we began open market negotiations and during those negotiations
We contacted all three ready mix concrete providers
Operating in Oakland or that had recently operated in Oakland after multiple attempts Cal Portland and CMACS agreed to our general
purchase order terms including prevailing wage requirements
But they declined to execute the city's additional certifications including schedule I and schedule W
Schedule I prohibits vendors from providing data collection and detention facility services to ICVP and HHS office of refugee resettlement.
Schedule W prohibits the city from contracting with entities involved in planning, designing, or constructing the border wall.
CMACS and Cal Portland cite administrative burden and the availability of private sector work that doesn't require these additional disclosures or certifications.
The OMC does allow council to waive these two schedules
when no reasonable alternatives exist,
or when the city would otherwise be unable
to obtain essential goods on a reasonable basis.
We think that's the case here.
Failed solicitation, very limited market,
and a time-sensitive material, and essential operations.
And regarding the potential third supplier,
in recent years, Sierra Pacific Ready Mix
had operated a plan on Wood Street.
Should that plant reopen or another plant
in Oakland reopen, this resolution would allow us
to purchase ready mix concrete from that third supplier
on similar terms.
Staff recommend approval of this item
because without ready mix concrete,
our teams mix concrete by hand.
Currently staff are limited to small sidewalk
and curb and gutter repairs.
Our in-house ADA curb ramp program is currently suspended
which affects our capital improvement program
and current consent degree obligations.
Thank you, I'm here with Mr. Jones,
our operations manager and Ms. Liu,
our administrative analyst,
should you have any additional questions?
All right, thank you for that.
Colleagues, questions?
Concrete questions?
Council Member Houston.
Thank you.
Thank you for that meeting we had also.
Ms. Emberly, what is being done
to bring on that third supplier?
Go a little more in detail on that one
because it looks like we only have two.
And these companies, these concrete companies,
is it any way we can find out how many local individuals
actually work for them that live in Oakland?
Because we spoke about that also.
Yep, to the first question.
Right now, based on our information,
there are only two in Oakland today.
C-Max and Cal Portland.
Should Sierra Pacific or a new market entrant
open a plant in Oakland,
and we want the ability to work with them under similar terms.
We did call Sierra Pacific to see about their plans for reopening the Wood Street plant, and they did not have any.
They are headquartered in San Francisco, as I understand it.
They may reopen that plant or another entity or vendor may open a concrete plant in Oakland.
And we want to be able to work with them.
To the second question regarding local employment of C-MAX in Cal Portland, after our conversation yesterday, thank you.
I did reach out to both of them.
I heard back from Cal Portland, they didn't have a number.
They weren't able to estimate the number of employees they have in Oakland.
But I would say that the ability to purchase or procure ready mix concrete keeps our staff busy.
And we do have two exempt limited duration employees that are currently concrete finishers.
we're not able to procure ready mix concrete will likely terminate those
contracts when they expire in February okay last question is this this non
structural concrete right this curb and gutter correct this is non structural
concrete mix this is for curbing gutter correct correct okay so can I get the
and mixed designs on what that is for that specific
concrete curb so we can see if there's any other company,
small company that's being,
maybe wanna become a local small business.
I need those concrete mixed designs
so I can see what I can do with that.
Sure.
Okay.
Okay.
Let's hear from our public speakers then.
Oh, Council Member Houston, one more question.
sorry, I just had one more question
and I was just reading this earlier about why are we,
and I know the answer, but I want the public to know,
why are we creating policies and laws
of Century City and City of Refuge
if we're waiving them all the time?
I mean, what's the purpose of creating?
I know, talk to me.
Councilmember Houston I'm working on a large
contracting reform package that will address
some of those questions.
Okay can I work on it with you?
Can I sit in?
It's about done but yeah.
Okay I just wanna sit in with you
and get that knowledge you got.
Cause I got some questions on this one.
So I guess we'll just pass on that
and I'll let my council member Unger school me on this.
All right.
Anything to, all right.
No I'm good.
Excellent let's hear from our public speakers please.
Thank you so much for that.
I have Miss Asada Olobala, Kevin Dali, and Blair Beekman.
If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand
so I can easily identify you, thank you.
So, you are saying if this company was helping
to use their concrete product to build a wall,
that you wouldn't do business with them.
You wouldn't take their concrete because of that,
your sanctuary city status.
Is that what you're saying?
but you won't say nothing about your contract with Israel
when they are killing Palestinians over there in Gaza.
You still do business with Israel.
Your moral status is weak.
There are only 12 states in this United States of America
that are sanctuary states.
In California, you're a sanctuary state,
but you got cities all around Oakland
that's not sanctuary cities.
Wona Creek, Alamo, Danville, Dublin,
Pleasanton, they're not sanctuary cities.
When y'all gonna jump on their back.
But if your sanctuary city interferes
with the quality of life that it does
by having immigrants in this city,
African-American are 10% unemployment in this city.
And y'all keep talking about small business
and you won't talk about our employment.
We are unhoused, but you got people over in West Oakland
from Ukraine over 6,000, no I'm sorry,
700 and something people from Ukraine living in West Oakland
where we used to live.
People from Yemeni living in West Oakland
where we used to live.
But you okay with being a sanctuary city?
Is it, if it pushes us out of the city, that's okay.
But I'm not gonna let you, you're gonna keep doing it,
but I'm gonna keep addressing it.
Sanctuary city, having immigrants in this city
has negatively impact the capacity of black
I apologize, Mrs. Ollabala, your time is up.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Next speaker.
Kevin Dowley, appreciate the work being done
with the concrete contract.
Just want to fill in a little bit more details
about the consent decree.
Oakland does have 30 years from the date
the consent decree was signed to make
Oakland's sidewalks, curb cuts, et cetera, ADA accessible.
Obviously, they aren't today broken sidewalks.
Lack of curb cuts, it's difficult to get around
in a wheelchair.
Council member Houston made a comment
about non-structural concrete.
And there is one possible area where there's some crossover.
In some cases, Oakland could choose to build sidewalks
in a way so that fire trucks particularly,
the laddered trucks could drive onto the sidewalks
without a strong risk of breaking the sidewalks
in order to set up their ladders outside of the street.
And in this case you might need concrete
that's a little bit stronger, you definitely need rebar.
Probably doesn't really affect this contract,
but I just thought I'd bring it up, thanks.
Thank you so much for your comments
and that concludes our speakers
as I do not see Blair Beekman online.
Council Member Houston.
Just one more comment about that non-structural concrete.
That's why I wanted to find out
about the concrete mix designs.
You know, in public works,
we buy all these pieces of equipment.
I mean, equipment that waste management has.
That's what we do.
Why have we ever thought about investing
one of those trucks that you just you put certain formulas in it's really not
that complicated that you can mix it yourself and they can drive it and go
dump it have we looked into something like that to save us money especially in
an emergency situation have we looked into those type of premixing trucks
they're not that expensive have we looked into that through the chair no
as far as mixing trucks, we have one.
Yeah, but they had this special one
that you just punch in, and it just mixes it
per that concrete mix design that I spoke about.
What I'll do is I'll talk to you guys offline about it.
Go ahead, you wanna say something, Miss Emily?
I don't know anything about the specific equipment,
but I do know that our backlog for equipment
is over $50 million, so it's gonna take us a long time
to bring our current fleet up to the standard
should be at I can't speak to any potential new vehicles. Okay so if you
I'm gonna say this in last in closing if you remember back in the day United
Reynolds used to have you can go get their little mixer and they would just
punch in a concrete mix design it just came through mixed in you went and poured
your slab or your your concrete there's nothing that we couldn't do it's at our
facility the same way it's not that big of a deal so I'll look into that and
And I do want that concrete mix design
so I can do my own research, thank you.
Excellent, thank you.
Let's call the roll, please.
I need a motion and a second for this item, thank you.
Apologies.
All right, Council Member Houston made the motion
and I will second it.
Okay, thank you so much.
And that was a motion by Council Member Houston,
seconded by Chair Unger to approve item six
to be forwarded to the October 20th City Council agenda
on roll, Council Member Agayo?
Aye.
I councilmember Wong is excused chair uncle I item three is approved with three eyes one excuse
To be forwarded to the October of 20th
20th City Council agenda on consent that now takes us to item seven
Read that item in receive an information report from the city auditor on the audit of capital improvement program financial management
implementation comprehensive systems policies and practices to enhance oversight of capital project delivery and
I have three speakers for this item. Thank you so much
Order Houston welcome. Thank you. How much time do you need? Oh 20. All right, we will give you
19
Well, good afternoon everyone Michael Houston City auditor
We're here to present our recent audit of the capital improvement project by natural management
Here's what we hope to get through in the 19-20 minutes
I'll introduce audit team identify the audit objective and scope provide background present the audit findings and recommendations
And the audit team and I will entertain your questions
Here is the audit team. We have
assisted city auditor Stephanie noble Wilson performance audit manager Marisa Lynn and
performance, uh, senior performance auditor Jaylen Huang who is the auditor behind the
audit and Jaylen and Stephanie are here with me this afternoon.
We initiated this audit after the DLT director requested it in fiscal year 24-25.
The audit objective was to evaluate the financial management of the city's capital improvement
projects, including assessing internal controls over the timely, appropriate and cost effective
use of capital funds.
The audit covers July 1st, 2022 through June 30th, 2025.
So that's fiscal years 23, 24, and 25.
So for background, the Capital Improvement Program
guides the city's strategic decisions
in forming the construction, repair,
and replacement of capital projects.
Those are long-term investments in assets like roads, parks,
and other city infrastructure that have useful design life
of at least 10 years and costs at least $100,000.
The city relies on contractors to deliver capital projects
through two different types of contracts,
open bid contracts and on-call contracts.
All contractors can bid for open bid contracts
while only pre-qualified contractors
can bid for on-call contracts.
Public Works and DLT are responsible
for managing the Capital Improvement Program.
Public Works oversees capital projects for public assets,
including buildings and structures, parts and open spaces,
Sanitary sewers, wastewater systems, storm drainage,
and watershed management.
DLT manages transportation and street-related projects
like roads and sidewalks.
In fiscal year 2026, the city separated
the Construction Management Division as divisions
of Public Works and DLT.
So previously, the Construction Management Division
resided within Public Works and was
responsible for construction execution
for both Public Works and DLT capital projects.
And when a DLT project advanced to the construction phase,
responsibility for the project transitioned to Public Works.
The Capital Contracts Division within Public Works
administers contracts for both Public Works and DLT.
It is also responsible for assisting project managers
in developing requests for proposals and bids
that follow state and city guidelines.
Fiscal Services teams from Public Works and DLT review capital projects payments submitted
by resident engineers.
The Construction Management Division, Capital Contracts Division, and Fiscal Services teams
collaborate with project managers to deliver capital projects.
So here are the five phases the city delivers capital projects through.
phase, budgeting phase, pre-construction phase, construction, and close out. And those are
defined and charted in Appendix A of this audit report.
From fiscal year 23 through fiscal year 25, the city spent about $300 million on capital
projects. Bond measures are the largest funding source. Measure K was the largest funding
source specifically of capital projects, mounting to $153 million.
The first of our four findings is that the City can adopt more comprehensive systems,
policies, and practices to improve consistency, oversight, and segregation of duties for capital
project management.
The Construction Management Manual is the primary source of guidance for managing capital
projects and needs to be updated and formally adopted.
review of the manual identified some issues the manual specifies different
contingency per percentages than are used in practice management informed us
that staff seek City Council approval for change orders that exceed 25% of the
contract base value but the manual advises seeking City Council approval
and much lower percentages for higher contract base values the manual
currently requires that the city prepare official documents authorizing changes
to original scopes of work, cost, and or project timelines within two weeks of when the cost
and time impacts of an order to proceed, which authorize contractors to begin work,
are determined.
As Exhibit 13 here shows, in practice, the process to issue change orders takes much
longer.
The projects that we reviewed took an average of 79 days and a median of 35 days to issuance.
told us that 30 days is a more reasonable goal. The contract management
manual is supposed to be the primary source of policies and procedures in
managing capital projects but neither Public Works or DLT have formally
adopted the manual. And we recommend that the Public Works and DLT adopt the
manual and regularly review and update it to ensure its policies remain
relevant. We also recommend that the City, we also found that the City does not
have comprehensive guidance on required approvals for change orders in orders to proceed. Orders
to proceed authorize contractors to begin work. The construction management manual lacks a policy
on review and approval of time adjustments and change orders that reduce the contract amount,
usually due to reductions in the scope of work. Those are called negative balance change orders.
An approval policy can help to ensure the scope reduction is legitimate,
that change is thoroughly documented and it will not negatively impact project completion.
An approval policy would also control against inconsistent approval practices.
There's also no formal guidance on amending on-call task orders which authorize the start of
professional services. The lack of guidance results in inconsistent practices among city staff.
The capital contracts division advised that amendments exceeding 25 percent of the original
task order should receive City Administrator or City Council approval based on the contract
amount, but we found that this recommended practice was disseminated via email.
Three on-call task order amendments that we sampled lacked specified approvals.
Two on-call task orders below $250,000 with amendments above the 25% threshold did not
received city administrator approval in one task order above $250,000 with
amendments exceeding the 25% threshold was approved by the city administrator
but not the City Council. We also found construction change orders for a paving
project moved forward without City Council approval despite increasing the
original work order amount by over 25%. We attribute these inconsistencies to a
lack of specific formal guidance on when to obtain City Council approval. We also
noted that the manual does not have clear approval requirements for
orders to proceed. For work above ten thousand dollars and less than twenty
five thousand dollars, the manual does not specify the approval authority and
appears to have contradictory information on an authority of the
supervising civil engineer. Also the manual does not provide guidance for
issuing orders to proceed under on-call contracts.
This could lead to inconsistent practices and cost overruns.
To ensure that scope changes and additional expenses are sufficiently reviewed, Public
Works and DOT should create formal policies to define approval and review requirements
for time adjustments, negative balance change orders and change orders for on-call contracts.
From fiscal year 23 through 25, the city spent $105 million or 41% of its total contract
capital project spending on on-call contracts. We noted that the city has no
centralized or general guidance on when to use on-call contracts or how to
structure them. In addition, no existing policies or procedures to find an
allowable duration for on-call contract extensions. As shown in exhibit 17 here,
the city's on-call contracts were extended in an average of two years with
the longest extending extending four years. There's also a lack of guidance on
issuing and approving on-call task orders which should which could
increase costs to the city by reducing competition. We made two recommendations
related to on-call contracts and on-call task orders. We recommend that the city
administrator establish a policy on when the city should use on-call contracts
and on-call task orders, and we recommend that the public works in DOT establish guidelines
for determining when to extend existing on-call contracts or initiate new ones.
Staff are not consistently following policies in the Construction Management Manual, and
we observed multiple instances of staff's inconsistency in following it.
Over half, 34 out of 65, of sampled orders to proceed were not issued in line with requirements
the manual. 11 out of 42 sampled on-call construction related change orders
lacked contract change order memos to describe proposed modifications. A change
order of over $50,000 was not signed by the assistant director and design manager.
10 out of 25 review task orders lacked the required approvals including
authorization from the capital contracts division, assistant director and
department director. In one instance staff issued a task order to extend the
contractor's existing work rather than issuing an amendment. We recommend that
Public Works and DLT generate regular reports to allow management to monitor
change orders in aggregate for appropriateness and costs. And Public
Works and DLT should train staff on policies in the construction management
manual and monitor staff compliance with the policies through performance
evaluations as needed. Vacancy rates have been persisted persistently high
on since fiscal year 23 as shown in this exhibit 19 and also the exhibit 20.
Approximately half of the construction management division civil engineer
position positions remains vacant over the past three fiscal years. The capital
contracts division had 7.6 vacancies out of 14.6 FTE in fiscal year 25. The
The fiscal services team in the Public Works and Transportation departments have also experienced
high vacancies, and that's shown in Exhibit 20, the fiscal services teams.
Taking multiple vacancies have led to staff taking on multiple roles.
Taking multiple roles may result in reduced review of project decisions, over-reliance
on certain staff members, and introduce potential conflicts of interest.
Additionally, staffing shortages have caused delays in projects, especially in DOT, where
high vacancy rates have slowed paving and street repair work.
To mitigate the risk from high vacancies, we recommend that Public Works and DOT implement
a comprehensive segregation of duties policy that includes independent oversight, minimum
approval signatory requirements, and designated alternate approvers for staff serving in acting
roles.
The department should also configure the AP Portal to prevent individual staff members
from holding multiple roles in the payment process.
And the city does not have a centralized project management system for capital projects.
Capital project information is spread across SharePoint, Excel, Virtual PM, AP Portal,
and Oracle, which limits centralized reporting and oversight.
PMWeb is replacing Virtual PM, but currently excludes on-call and professional services
contracts. In addition, there are no complete records for capital projects
and there are inconsistent construction logs and financial data. The lack of a
centralized system makes it challenging to monitor projects and maintain oversight.
So we recommend that Public Works and DOT, in coordination with the IT
department, develop and implement a centralized project management system or
tailor existing systems to monitor the statuses of capital projects and
maintain oversight. The second finding is that the City can streamline and improve management
of its payment process for capital projects. We noted that limited oversight of resident
engineers increases the risk of incorrect payments. The City overpaid $35,000 for seven
capital projects out of the 46 that we reviewed. This amount included incorrectly applied markup
rates for subcontractor work, duplicate markup payments, and other incorrectly applied markup
rates. Overpayments can be attributed to unfamiliarity with the city's markup rules
and lack of added a quick review. Management reported relying on resident engineers to
review construction invoices before project managers submit the invoices to fiscal services
for payment processing. The city does not require documentation of expenses for subcontractor
of their work.
The manual states that prime contractors should report the payments they make to subcontractors,
but does not require prime contractors to submit actual copies of subcontractor invoices.
The City's 2024 disparity study found that some prime contractors are not submitting
subcontractor payment reports as required, which limits the City's ability to verify
payment accuracy for subcontractors and increase the risk of overpayment.
To ensure invoices are accurate and adequately reviewed, Public Works and DOT should implement
a process to independently verify that each payment aligns with the contract terms.
The department should also formalize reviewers' responsibilities in their policies and procedures
while establishing procedures to review and validate subcontractor expenses.
The Accounts Payable Invoices portal, so AP Portal, is an online tool where contractors
submit invoices for payment and check the status of outstanding or previously submitted
invoices.
According to management, some contractors email their invoices rather than submitting
them through the AP Portal.
Working outside the portal may result in incorrect payments and lengthy invoice processing times.
As shown in this exhibit, the city's payment process is long.
The city took an average of 47 days to process the invoices we reviewed.
According to the municipal code, local prime contractors must be paid within 20 days, after
which the city owes a 10% annual interest penalty for each month payments are late.
State law requires that non-local prime contractors be paid within 30 days with a 2% monthly interest
penalty for late payments or construction contracts.
We found that delays in payment for one capital project resulted in the city paying $66,000
in interest.
The city should also strengthen its policy on change order expenditures.
Public Works and DLT lacked formal written policies for managing and recording funds
when executing on-call change orders.
Four out of 28 transactions we reviewed indicated that funds were not reserved when the city
issued the change orders.
These cases involved payments for the DOT paving projects in which funds for the change
orders were not reserved until the invoices were received.
So to manage capital project payments more effectively, we made three recommendations.
The first was public works and DOT required contractors to submit invoices in the AP portal
before issuing payments, and we recommend that public works and DOT regularly update
payments documents, including the Transmetal Payment Forum and other related payments support
templates to reflect and streamline current invoice payment process.
And we recommend that the respective fiscal services teams in public works and DLT adopt
a policy to encumber funds for on-call change orders within a defined timeframe.
And the third finding that the city can improve its oversight of bond funds.
The City has not provided adequate oversight of Measure KK and Measure U bond funds, which
are the largest fund sources for the City's capital improvement program.
We identified instances in which the City processed bond payments without proper review,
including one transaction that was incorrectly assigned to a bond fund and one transaction
that incorrectly charged a transportation project payment to a fund reserved only for
the city's sewer facilities. We also noted that the City has not conducted annual required
audit of the use of these funds. The City Administration has reported that it will start
audits from fiscal years 25 through 27. So to enhance the IT environment for monitoring
bond fund use, the Finance Department's Treasury Bureau and the Public Works and DLT Fiscal
services teams in coordination with IT should enhance the AP portal to flag potential errors
in misspending.
In the last finding, it's that short-term planning may affect the effectiveness of capital
project delivery.
The city has open bidding on projects that were not fully designed, which has led to
additional change orders.
Some projects sometimes move to bidding before designs are complete, largely due to bond
and grant deadlines that require funds to be used within a specific timeframe.
Of 92 change orders we reviewed, five could have been avoided with more thorough pre-construction
planning.
Gathering essential information from other parties early in the planning process has
been a challenge in completing project designs.
While short-term planning can expedite project initiation, it can increase costs, extend
timelines, obscure inadequate preparation, and cause additional change orders.
The City adopts capital projects on a two-year biennial cycle, as do several other jurisdictions.
Unlike other jurisdictions that have adopted multi-year capital plans, the City has not
developed one since fiscal year 2223 while the city has long has some long-term planning efforts such as the 22
2022 5-year paving plan and long-term sewer plans. It lacks a comprehensive long-term capital plan
This limits effective planning and budget allocation
That is 20 minutes. Sir. How much more time do you need?
three, okay
We recommend a long-term planning effort in line with best practices by the Government Finance Officers Association
GFOA. The GFOA advises jurisdictions to report annually on project status and
activities and to develop a long-term capital plan spanning 5 to 25 years.
To better align with City's capital improvement planning processes with best practices, public works and DLT in coordination with the Finance Department
Should recommend that the City Council adopted 10-year capital improvement project plan in addition to approve oversight and visibility to the city's progress
And delivering capital projects public works and TLT should provide regular reports to the City Council on the progress of the city's capital improvement plan
and active capital projects at least annually and
We think the city administration including staff and public works DLT
Finance for the cooperation and insight during the audit their responses to the recommendations are included in the back of the audit report
And that QR code takes you to
Our contact tree and you can access the report
And with that take your questions
Excellent. Thank you. This is a big one. I think we have a
complimentary report from either
city administration or
Public works, I think maybe our best bet is to hear that first and then we can direct questions to the appropriate people
No, looks like finance
Thank you, chair hunger and members of the committee on behalf of the city administrator
This departments of public works transportation and of course my own department finance
I want to thank us auditor Houston for the audit and its recommendations
I want to note that the administration takes the findings seriously about how we strengthen
our management of capital projects.
We agree with the auditor that it's important to have strong financial controls, consistent
procedures and effective oversight of our investments in our infrastructure.
The audit includes 17 recommendations, as you've just heard, and management has agreed
or partly agreed with all 17.
We developed an implementation plan with the responsible departments and target completion
with a limited number of
updates for each of the audit
recommendations.
First, we are looking to
address seven of the 17
recommendations to the upcoming
update and adoption of the
city's construction management
manual.
The updated manual will
clarify approval requirements
for change orders, financial
controls, establishing
responsibilities for independent
review, improvement in
documentation, and provision of
Public Works and DOT are working and committed to updating that manual by
February of 2027. Second, we are working to strengthen our procedures with the use
of on-call contracts, and we agree that clearer guidance is needed on when and
how we should be using on-call contracts. Our Capital Contracts Division will be
developing written guidance regarding this for the approval of the City
Administrator shortly. Third, we are looking to improve financial controls for
payments and processing. The audit identified opportunities to improve
accuracy and timeliness of payment, strengthen independent review, and better
separate financial responsibilities for, again, a proper segregation of duties. Some
improvements are already complete, including updating our payment forms and
documents. Others will require collaboration between all the
departments mentioned in ITD, especially related to our electronic payment
systems. Fourth, we agree that it's important to strengthen our long-term
capital planning and reporting we're committed to improving our multi-year
planning this I should notice a component of our roadmap to physical
health is along with a number of other planning processes and we are committed
to multi multi-year planning through app it asset specific plans on things
like infrastructure streets sewers storm drains and facilities for example this
can be will learn more about our sanitary sewer master plan and our storm
that we've made. In our major
response to the outer report.
And we appreciate the others
work and look forward to any
questions you may have about
our implementation of those
recommendations. Thank you.
That's great thank you both- I'll
I'll start- it seems like
capital projects are consistently
the slowest to be paid I think
we got a- report at the finance
committee that said about the
capital projects. That's what
we're doing right now is we're
going to have to have a good
understanding of what we're
going to be doing. And I think
that's what we're going to be
finance committee that said about, we're about 55% on time
when it comes to capital projects,
but 90% on time for other projects.
Is there something unique to bond grant funding
that consistently makes us pay late?
So an acknowledgement of the auditor's report
and findings, some of our items are internal process issues,
so those can be resolved related to the encumbrance of funds,
notification and verification of them prior
to going through the change order process
to improve timing and speed.
There are additional checks required for bond proceeds
that are different from normal city funds.
Before we actually draw on bond proceeds from trustee,
there's a second independent analysis
conducted by our Treasury Bureau, which is in finance,
to ensure that we have proper allocation of those resources.
So it is longer.
It is a longer process with that additional step.
However, per the recommendations, the auditor,
we're focused on the front end of ensuring
that we have proper, timely encumbrance of funds,
and that we're using tools like the AP Portal
to ensure that things don't get lost,
don't get stuck in email boxes, email inboxes
to ensure that things move quickly and appropriately.
Should we set ourselves a more realistic timeline
if we have these additional requirements
and we just keep missing it?
Should we change what we're aiming for?
No, I think that's a reasonable recommendation.
I think we need to undertake initially these steps
to improve our practices and procedures.
And then once we are more readily adhering
to a reasonable series of internal processes and procedures,
it may be appropriate to adjust our internal timelines
for these projects.
I would note, as the auditor noted,
we also need to ensure there may be additional
compliance steps that we even want to undertake
beyond these and one of the other one that was mentioned
as part of our disparity study is ensuring
that prime contractors when we're paying them
that they are actually paying their subs
and that actually may require
additional verification work for us.
So in the time we're adjusting those policies,
we may wanna extend deadlines for ourselves or payment
but it makes sense for us to focus
on our low hanging fruit first.
It does seem like we don't require a lot of paperwork
from our primes to our subs.
Is that something we can do?
Is that something we can require without it becoming
too much of a burden on primes,
it might help us get better at verification
and tracking these payments?
I think that is something that we're heavily looking at.
I know that Assistant City Minister Baker
and as Acting Director of Duess is looking at that.
I know we're looking better
in our broad contract reform efforts.
Invite him if he has any additional feedback on that.
But that's something we're looking at.
And again, it was raised in our disparity study.
It's a key thing that we need to make sure
we're holding our primes accountable
is often those local, those subcontractors are the local
and small local businesses within the city of Oakland
who need to be treated fairly.
All right.
Is he a baker?
Thank you.
And through the chair, yes, as I mentioned earlier
to Council Member Houston's question,
we do need to work collaboratively with the primes
as well as the departments to fully track the payments
from prime to sub.
There is an exhibit, exhibit G, that
That is submitted when an invoice is requested.
That exhibit lists the payments, but we still need to provide oversight to make sure that
those payments actually happened.
But we do have that document.
In addition, we are looking at the city to prime contract to see how we can strengthen
that, put some teeth in it through an amendment that passes along some of the agreements between
the city and the prime to the agreement between the prime and the subs.
So we're looking at those agreements.
But yeah, it's a collaborative effort, so.
Do we have a comprehensive list of capital projects
that is easily accessible?
The easily accessible, I would say no.
The best list of them is ongoing what's gone on in the budget.
I would say an easily accessible, useful format, no.
I think that is a space where we would need improvement.
Yeah, I know that would be a lot of work,
but it would be great to have just a spot we could all
Click on to see you know where we are in each of these projects. What's upcoming? What's planned?
I think that would help bring a lot of transparency to it
Okay
Councilmember Houston
through the chair
auditor Houston
That wasn't available a legislator and I might have missed it. But are the pages numbered?
Because I wanted to go back to a page, but I didn't know which one it was
So if it is it not make sure they're numbered before we get it council member Houston
Yes, I do not think we have the actual PowerPoint on Legistar.
We have the report.
So this one right here, can you send this to my office, please?
Yes. And through the chair, what I was mentioning when I first got in council,
when I first came to council, I was like, this is what happens
when it doesn't return to council, which is our job.
And I'm still trying to understand why
we're not doing design builds.
I don't get it.
Design builds can actually save you money
and the change orders are lower.
So I've been saying this ever since I got into office
21 months ago, I like it when it returns back to council
so we understand and it just doesn't flow through
and happens and why don't we do design builds?
Those two simple questions I keep asking.
Did you want me to? No, no, no, that's you.
That's you. You're just the numbers, just the numbers of the pages.
Mr. Houston. Through the chair, I'm Liam Garland, open public works director
and council member Houston.
We are very open to the idea of design build on our projects.
It's especially fitting for some of our larger facility projects.
So you think about a new or replaced fire station or recreation center.
Those are a good fit for a design build.
And we think we have most of the authorization
and municipal code to go down the design-build path.
The key point, though, is it's got
to be done at the beginning of the project.
And so we've got to figure out the right project
to start with and then go down the design-build path.
And that's something that OPW can
keep an open line of communication in your office
when we see that opportunity in front of us.
Please, because we save money and we save change orders.
So just keep me up on that.
And when we do do these projects,
and this is through the chair masking,
can we return to council so we'll know what's going on,
so it's just not just moving through the process,
and then we come and see an audit like this
that Mr. Houston did, please.
Councilmember Houston, I hear what you're saying,
and let me think through the ways to do that.
I think it combines a little bit too
in terms of the information
that our departments provide about capital projects.
We do, if you go on our website,
we do have a list of projects and our status,
and it's all mapped, and so that's a good place to start,
but I definitely hear what you're saying
in terms of a more comprehensive update
on a project once it closes.
Yeah, so when the change order comes up,
can it come back to through the chair?
Can it come back to us so we can see
and have discussion about it?
Because these change orders are astronomical.
I would worry a little bit about like if we came back to a committee for every change
order that would essentially mean slowing our capital projects down considerably but
I hear your point which is on some change orders there. There might be a good reason
to do that. Could we come back with a certain dollar amount like if it's over two hundred
thousand or you know could we come back with a certain dollar amount. That's definitely
something that we'll talk about it. Yeah right on. OK. OK. Further questions. Let's go to
our speakers from the public please thank you so much for that I have Kevin
Dally missus out of all Abala and Blair peak peak men in any order if you are
participating online I please ask that you raise your hand so we can easily
identify you in any order thank you so much Kevin Dally thanks for yet another
amazingly detailed audit I'm looking forward to improvements in the process
that we're following for, especially for the bond expenditure.
Of course, we had a problem that for a year we weren't selling bonds, and that slowed
down the expenses.
I think that's outside of the audit report and might have happened after the year of
the audit was finished.
One of my concerns, which I think is also the council's concerns, is how frequently
departments come to council with an urgent contract, where it's way too late to make
any changes, but still expects an approval from council.
And I'm not sure how that would fit in with the audit report.
I know Council Member Unger is working on changes to the contract process, and I look
forward to seeing those in the near future. I have great faith in his abilities to bring
things together on this item. And as far as the regular reports for paving, et cetera,
I'm looking forward later this week to a report at the Bicyclists and Pedestrian Advisory
which will be on paving incomplete streets so looking forward to hearing
hearing that information thanks a lot. Thank you for your comments next speaker
I didn't hear the city's response to the request for looking at staff vacancies
and for the need for management improvement systems you might have heard
I didn't. I didn't hear a response to the auditor saying that the city has not provided
adequate oversight of measure KK and measure U bond funds. The city has not yet concluded
an annual required audit of use of these bonds. Two instances in which the city precede bond
payment without paper review was a part of the report. The city has not developed a long
term capital plan in recent years and I think that's going to be addressed. Mr. Houston,
I applaud you on some of the things you're saying but I can tell you that design, what
is it called, design, design bill was used for the McClymon project with a set amount
of 72,000 when they went in and looked at some of the unforeseen issues, it went up
to 92,000 because you had to address those issues related to environmental safety, plumbing,
and I think it has to do with seismic issues.
So it looks like even though you use that design, sometimes you're forced to come up
with more money and that happened in that case up in some cases governmental
agencies will use that system when they're not that invested in the
community they'll make a limit on that community rather than putting extra
money into it as well as usual you're fantastic I like your questions mr.
Unger mr. Houston keep pushing I know you have done your homework thank you
For your comments, I don't see Blair Begman in the queue,
so that concludes your speakers.
Auditor Houston, were you hoping to present
a similar report at full council, or?
Happy to.
Yeah, I mean, that would be ideal
if the bigger the audience in the full city council.
Okay.
Can't wait.
I will make a motion to bring this
to the next council meeting on non-consent
so that you can give a presentation,
and I will let the council president tell you
how long you have to give that presentation.
Yes, yeah, negotiations will begin, yeah.
We have a second from council member Houston.
Thank you for that, I have a motion by council member,
Chair Unger, seconded by council member Houston,
to approve item seven to be forwarded
to the October 20th city council agenda on non-consent.
On roll, council member Gallo.
Aye.
Houston.
Aye.
long as the skews and chair under I item number seven is approved with three
eyes one excuse to be forwarded to the October 20th City Council agenda on
non-consent that now takes us to item number eight and eight is a resolution
authorizing the city administrator to accept an appropriate grant funds in the
amount not to exceed three million dollars from the US Environmental
protection agency San Francisco Bay Area Program for PCB
Remediation in Aurora VA Oh Creek and adopting CEQA findings. I have three speakers for this item. Thank you
Good afternoon committee members Brittany Jenkins. I'm the environmental services division manager with Public Works
I'm happy to be here with you today to discuss proposed resolution to accept three million dollars in grant monies from the environmental protection
agencies San Francisco Bay program this funding will support the city's
obligation under a 2022 cleanup order by the San Francisco Bay regional water
quality control board under that order the city and the Union Pacific and Union
Pacific Railroad excuse me UPRR were named jointly responsible parties for
legacy PCP contamination in and around Oreo Bay Hill Creek due to historical
Industrial activities at adjacent properties the remediation efforts required under the order will be performed under a cost-sharing agreement
Currently being developed between the city and UPRR which will split the cost between the parties at 5050
This funding significantly reduced the financial burden of these remediation costs with a maximum of estimated costs of a proxy of
Approximately excuse me eight million dollars, which would otherwise fall
In large part four million dollars of that on the city
Further cleanup will improve public health residents of East Oakland and reduce exposure to legacy contaminants. Happy to answer any questions
All right. Thank you. Miss Jenkins questions from my colleagues
All right. Let's go to the public speakers, please
Thank you for that again as I call your name
Please approach the podium in any order if you're participating online, please raise your hand so we can easily identify you
I have miss a side of Ola Bala Kevin Dally and Blair beak men in any order, please. Thank you
When you look at the grant, it says that this grant typically requires twenty five percent
cost share
Match
What would which can be cash or in kind?
Excluding of a federal funds. So do we have to come up with some money with this grant?
Hello
Do we have to come up with some money with this grant to match 25 percent of the grant?
Okay, I'll stay at you. You stay at me. Somebody say something
I'm finished. I'm waiting for an answer. I
Understand this this is as you always point out not not a back-and-forth
It's not a question of back-and-forth. Ask the question. You got it. You can ask her you know, I can't ask her
You can't ask her if you're not worried about the fact that you might have to come up with money
It doesn't match just to show me you don't have to answer me. I'll go ahead and finish it finish
It's important finish your time ma'am. I don't want to I don't want to take your time up. It's not taking my time
It's answering the question does this grant require us to come up with matching funds? Yes, or no?
And it says that it typically requires 25 percent if it's not 25 percent. What is it if it's not at all say it
It wasn't in a report at all
Are you yielding the remainder of your time?
I'm not yielding nothing. I'm asked waiting for an answer
Y'all want procedurally to have something done procedurally when you don't do stuff procedurally correct. You can't have it both ways
I'm happy to ask the question. But this is your time answer the question, please. Thank you
Sure, so there is a 25% match of the three million dollars which would be one million dollars and then the agenda report
It was identified the source of those funds
Some from Monsanto settlement and some from the city facilities fund
Thank you
Thank you for that. And then
Next speaker was Kevin Dally, but I do not see Kevin in the room and Blair Beekman
So those concludes your speakers for this item
okay, I will make a motion to
Put this on the consent calendar
And that was a motion by Council
Chair unger seconded by Councilmember Gallo to approve item 8 to be forwarded to the October
20th City Council agenda on consent on roll councilmember Gallo
Houston
That's your eye. Yeah. Thank you so much councilmember Hwang is excused and then chair unger
I thank you so much
And that is a motion by councilmember unger seconded by Councilmember Gallo to approve item 8 to be forwarded to the October
20th City Council agenda on consent and that completes your discussion items. We will now move to our last item, which is open for him
As I call your name in any order
Kevin dally again, I do not see him miss a side of Ola Bala and Blair beat men
Supposedly negotiating with contracts for your
City employees now. I got problems with your union because your union
tried to manipulate falsely that they were a citizen's initiative and put
Measure E on the ballot, so you know I don't care what happens with them, but I
do care that only 32% of your city employees live in Oakland, and is it
fair to have a demand for pay raises for city employees when you don't make a contribution
to the city in any way. So 32% of city employees, 92% of police, and 87% of fire workers don't
live in Oakland. But they want to demand that the people that do live here give them
money to take to their communities to spend. They don't commit. They don't make a contribution
to the bonds measure KK measure you measure whatever ever. I apologize. Miss Obama open
forum is one minute. Again our next speaker was Kevin Dally which I do not see in the
room or Blair Beekman. So that concludes your open forum speakers. Thank you. That's a wrap.
Thanks everybody.