Good afternoon and welcome to the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting of Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
The time is now 1.31 p.m. and this meeting may come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda.
If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself.
Or a quick representative before the item is read into record and no later than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting.
Online speaker requests were due 24 hours
prior to the start of this meeting.
This meeting came to order at 1.31 p.m.
and speaker cards will no longer be accepted
10 minutes after making that 1.41 p.m.
We'll now proceed with taking roll.
Council members, five?
Present.
Ramachandran?
Present.
Unger?
Here.
And Chair Brown?
Present.
Thank you, we have four members present
and Chair, before we begin,
do you have any announcements at this time?
No announcements, thank you.
Thank you, starting off with item one,
approval of the draft minutes from the committee
meeting of October 13, 2026.
We have no speakers on this item.
Excellent, thank you so much.
I'll entertain a motion.
So moved.
Second.
Thank you, that's a motion made by Councilmember Fyfe,
seconded by Councilmember Unger,
to approve the draft minutes from the committee meeting
of October 13, 2026.
On roll, Councilmembers Fyfe.
Aye.
Ramachandran.
Aye.
Unger.
Aye.
And Chair Brown.
Aye.
Thank you, item one passes with four ayes
to approve the draft minutes from October 13, 2026.
Item two, determination of scheduled
outstanding committee items,
and we have four speakers that signed up
to speak on this item.
Excellent, perfect.
I guess at this time, there's no one here
from the administration.
Sorry.
And so why don't we go ahead and hear from the speakers?
My apologies, I didn't realize that.
I will call them.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number two, Mrs. Sada Olavala, Cynthia Rodriguez,
Brandon Kitagawa, and Valerie Batchelor.
So this morning in finance,
we had a report out of the city administrator's capacity
to spend over $250,000 with Outcoming to Consul.
Within that spending, quite a bit of spending took place
related to the economic and workforce development department.
And I just want to give you some examples
of what that spending included.
On call economic consultant, $49,000.
We had a item that was for $200,000
from that department, economic workforce development,
but it didn't, it was a grant,
but the document didn't explain what it was for.
They had a grant for economic and workforce development
of $100,000 to the Spanish-speaking unity council
of Alameda County, to the farm jewelry,
I don't know what that's for, $24,990,
to the Laurel Street Association, $200,000,
to the Black Culture Zone, $100,000.
again to the Spanish speaking a unity council family county a hundred thousand
dollars
and then one other one uh...
they had allow family community engagement funding a hundred and fifty
eight dot now this is just some of the money
that the city administrator spent
on economic workforce development
but you need to get when that reports a separate
accounting of spending
under the umbrella of this committee
that the city administrator spent
so you can review his spending
and determine appropriate spending or inappropriate spending
took place.
But a lot of money is going into economic workforce
development and this committee is not.
Good afternoon council members.
My name is Cynthia and I am part of the Havens Court
Safe Homes Initiative with La Clinica.
This week is Lead Poisoning Prevention Week
and I am here today to call for action.
For over four years, our youth and our promotoras
have been working hard to raise awareness in our community
about the dangers of lead-based paint in homes.
We continue to educate our families,
advocate for healthier, safer living conditions,
but awareness is not enough.
We need action.
Our children deserve to grow in a safe home,
free from the dangers of lead exposure.
No more delays, no more pushing this issue back
on the agenda.
families cannot afford to wait while preventable hazards continue to put our
children's health at risk. We are calling the city of Oakland to move forward with
the lead abatement program and the proactive rental inspection program.
These programs are essential to identifying lead hazards, holding
properties accountable for safe living conditions, protecting our children, and
ensuring that every family has access to a healthy home. Council members, we need
your leadership and commitment to turn these solutions into action. Our community has been
doing the work for over four years and we are asking the city to meet us with urgency this issue
deserves. Our children cannot wait. Safe homes should not be a privilege. They should be a standard
for every Oakland family. Thank you for your time and opportunity to speak today. Yeah good afternoon
council members my name is Brandon katagawa I'm with regional asthma management and prevention
we're a project of the public health institute based here in Oakland and we're here talking
about an issue is supposed to be on the agenda today but got pushed back around the city's
use of lead settlement funds according to the city's race and equity analysis lead paint
hazards census tracts in east and west Oakland have some of the highest risk of lead exposure
in the entire state. An analysis from about 10 years ago found that Fruitvale had higher
childhood lead poisoning rates than Flint, Michigan did during the height of its water
crisis. The good news is that in 2019, Oakland was part of a settlement with paint companies
and received about $15 million to address lead hazards in homes. However, seven years
since the settlement, Oakland has remediated zero homes
with those funds.
Oakland has tested zero children for lead with those funds.
In that time, children in Oakland
have been lead poisoned who otherwise
wouldn't have if these funds were
used in a reasonable amount of time.
By contrast, LA County, who is also part of the same lawsuit,
have been using their settlement money
have remediated over 1,400 units. To be fair, LA County received far more money
than Oakland will and can operate at a scale that Oakland won't, but they
started planning before the settlement was finalized. They experienced typical
bureaucratic delays, they experienced the same delays due to COVID, yet in Oakland
And we're still eight to 12 months away from having our first home remediated.
And Oakland has known what to do with this money for years.
In their race and equity report in 2021, they recommended that.
I apologize, your time is up.
Thank you for your comment.
Good afternoon city council members.
My name is Valerie Batchelor and as the ace director, I have conversations with tenants
every single day who tell me about the dangers they face inside their homes.
Cities are living in unsafe conditions, worrying about their children's health, and fighting to get landlords to be responsible.
While landlords put profits over people, the cities in action leave tenants waiting and suffering in their homes.
Oakland received more than $14 million in a lead settlement in 2019.
Seven years later, we still don't have any lead abatement program.
children, particularly in East and West Oakland, continue to face risks that can affect their health, development, and their future.
Tenants should not have to wait for their children to be poisoned or for someone to get hurt before action is taken.
That's why we need the equitable lead hazard abatement program and
the proactive rental inspection program up and running immediately.
We need prevention, accountability, and meaningful input, not more delays and canceled meetings.
The city of Oakland and Oakland
tenants are doing their part we
filed over two hundred code
enforcement complaints and we're
speaking up now the city must do
their part the funding is there
the need is urgent and every day
in action puts more families at
risk Oakland tenants cannot
wait any longer get these
programs up and running now.
Thank you for your comments
chair that concludes all
speakers on this item excellent
thank you so much to the public
feedback that you've offered us so for this to the administration any changes
to the pending list no chair okay excellent and so I will entertain
anything from colleagues I'll entertain a motion so moved second thank you we
have a motion made by councilmember Unger seconded by councilmember Rama
Ramachandran to accept the determination
of schedule while sending committee items as is,
on roll, council members five?
Aye.
Ramachandran?
Aye.
Unger?
Aye.
And Chair Brown?
Aye.
Thank you, item two passes with four ayes
to accept the pending list as is.
Reading in item three,
adopted resolution approving the annual report
of the Montclair Business Improvement
District Advisory Board declaring the intention
to levy and collect an annual assessment
for the fiscal year, for the fiscal year,
January 1st, 2027 through December 31st, 2027,
for the Montclair Business Improvement District,
including a 5% increase in the annual assessments
and scheduling a public hearing for December 1st, 2026.
Perfect, thank you so much.
I believe for all of the items
with the exception of Council Member Ungers,
we will be hearing from our economic
and workforce development team.
So thank you so much.
Good afternoon members of the committee. My name is Eric Simonsa with the Department of Economic and Workforce Development and Business Development Division
This resolution intention or ROI will schedule a public hearing that will enable the Montclair bid to a collective assessments from member business owners
For the next calendar year the attached resolution would also approve the Montclair bids annual report to the city of Oakland
If adopted the ROI will go to the full council on consent on November 10th
This will schedule a public hearing for December 1st and that must happen before the winter recess
So the assessments can be billed with the business certificate tax certificate renewals
The annual report contains information required by state law regarding budgeted budgeted improvements and activities proposed assessment increases
And the amount of any contributions to be made from sources other than assessments the Montclair bid encompasses approximately 220 businesses
Located in and around Montclair commercial area and it estimates an upcoming annual budget of approximately
$250,000 the Montclair bid Advisory Board recommends a 5% increase in their assessments
That's within that what 5% annual limit allowed by their management district plan. That's on file
and it would result in
$127,000 and
$50 in projected assessment revenues in calendar year
The rest of the budget consists of $123,000 of private donations and non-assessment revenues.
In addition to state-mandated elements, since 2024, the city has also tracked new metrics
to quantify the impact of bid activities.
These impact metrics include standardized cleaning, marketing, and outreach services.
Staff has reviewed the annual reports.
Last year's services, this year's activities, and next year's plan spending all line up
with the district's approved management district plan.
and funds for pay for services beyond what the city already
provides, such as extra cleaning and public safety,
beautification, special events, and marketing and promotion.
Let's see, let's see if I say, is there slides?
Oh, this...
And as part of the annual report process,
the bid has also provided slides demonstrating their impact.
So I'll just share that briefly here.
So the Montclair bid reported 9,757 pounds of trash collected in 2025 as well as 1,560
merchant check-ins, almost 4,000 linear feet of rooftop lighting, and 66 incidents of graffiti
removed.
There were nine events in Montclair Village, including three pick picks on the plaza, two
outdoor movie nights, and the Montclair beer, wine, and music festival, and also Halloween
and holiday events.
The Montclair bid also reported significantly more engagement on its social media platforms
in 2025, including a 44% increase year over year in Facebook engagement or clicks and
a 67% increase in Instagram engagement.
That's just a sense of some of the highlights of the activity.
The full information is in the full annual report, which is attached to the resolution.
That's the end of the presentation, happy to answer any questions.
Excellent.
Thank you so much.
any questions or comments on this item so that was a motion that you made yes
excellent and I'll second that and we can hear if there's any public speakers
I'm calling in the name that signed up to speak on item three miss Asada Olavale.
I had to push through the crowd to get here.
We got to do better with participation from the community.
A couple of concerns.
I'm not clear on if it's mandated that these 220 business do have that they have to pay
the fee.
What happens if they don't pay the fee?
follows up on that and is there a waver to not pay the fee because a lot of
businesses are struggling blah blah you know opportunities to have waivers from
paying the fee the thing about the Montclair Business Association that
confuses me is that they run the city parking lot and I'm not clear on how
that's working in their report could it be a report on how that is proceeding
Because I don't understand how they issue citations or deal with issues having to do
with public safety or whatever, but it's just a confusing dynamic that they run the city
parking lot and why they have to take on that responsibility they probably wanted.
And then last, the opportunity to have suggestions from the community about how the money is
spent, or is it just spent by a certain body of individuals?
And I'm glad that this particular association doesn't put the fee on the residents, it's
strictly on the business, because we have wavered into some business association chosing
the residents in the immediate area of commercial business having to pay the fee as well.
Thank you for your comments, that concludes all speakers on this item.
And we do have a motion and a second.
And then may I make a quick comment, I'm so sorry.
I guess, you know, over the last, you know, year and two, almost two years at this point,
I've been learning a lot about the business improvement districts and how all of them,
you know, collect funds, how they're managed,
to the public speaker's point.
And of course, please help me out here.
I believe that waivers are available
for some of the business owners.
And then that question of what happens
when they do not pay, curious about that.
Yeah, there are bids that do have a waiver.
It's a hardship exemption process.
I am not certain whether, which of these bids offer that.
Though this is something where the,
and another one of the questions was about
how the budget is set.
The budget is set in the management district plan.
That is something that was brought to all of the members
who voted on this and which set those categories
and determines the spending.
So, that is something that was voted on by the members.
There is, within the budget categories,
there's some ability to set line items depending on need.
But, this will set the public hearing,
which is an opportunity for,
if there are folks, if there are business owners
that protest the renewal,
that is the public hearing is the venue for that.
Was there another element to that question?
You know, I guess we can we can look it up on because I feel like what I'm hearing is that potentially some of the bids offer
Waivers while maybe others do not but I think the last one that came before us was the Laurel Street bid and and I remember
That one specifically does offer weight waivers for hardship. Oh, right. Yeah, so it's so it it there is no
requirement that a bid offer hardship waiver that is case-by-case and it is it is possible that
I'm I'm not certain whether these these offer that
The other question about what happens if the business does not pay
that yes, there there there are collections efforts to
To to then get get those past assessments and it can impact the ability to
I'm going to go ahead and
I will. I renew the business
license. Excellent as those as
these assessments are built at
the same time as business
license tax rules. Excellent
okay thank you so much. We can
go ahead and call the vote.
Thank you we have a motion made
by councilmember ramachandran
seconded by councilmember
brown. To approve the
recommendations of staff and to
forward this item to the
November tenth special city
council agenda. On roll
motion is seconded by Councillor
City Manager.
Thank you.
We'll move on to Council Member
Langer.
Aye.
And Chair Brown.
Aye.
Thank you.
Motion passes with four ayes to
support this item to this
November 10th special City
Council agenda on consent.
Okay, now reading in item number
four, adopt a resolution
approving the annual report of
the Rockridge Business
Improvement District Advisory
Board declaring the intention to
levy and collect an annual
assessment for the fiscal year
including a three percent increase in the annual assessment and scheduling a
public hearing for December 1st 2026. Excellent thank you so much. We can go
ahead and hear this similar presentation. Yeah so this will be condensed again
good afternoon Eric Cimanza, the EWD. This is a very similar item to number three.
It will also schedule a public hearing that will enable the Rockridge bid to
collect its assessments from member business owners in the next calendar year.
and the other part of the
budget that we're focused on
here.
I'm just focusing on what's
different here.
The rock ridge bid encompasses
about 482 businesses located in
and around the rock ridge
commercial area estimates an
upcoming budget of approximately
$240,000.
The rock ridge bid advisory
board recommends a 3% increase
which is again within their 5%
annual limit.
This would result in 193,640 in
projected assessments to be
collected in calendar year
5,000 in associate member revenue, 5,000 in additional revenue and donations, and just
140,000 in funds carried over from the prior year.
Let's see, okay, and this, like we were saying before, oh well, I'll share the also submitted
slides for the, to show, demonstrate their impact, let's see if I can get that rolling.
Okay.
Yeah, just walk through some of the highlights here of what they wanted to present here.
In June, 2026, Rockridge launched the Rockridge Card, which allows shoppers and visitors to
find and support over 40 local businesses.
Over $6,000 in gift cards have since been sold.
The gift cards can be found on the Rockridge and the RDA's new website, which was launched
this year, which includes an events calendar, blog,
and directories by category of district business
for easy searching.
And Rockbridge held a new annual event this year
in the month of July.
District visitors searched for miniature Waldo's
from the famous children's books.
They were hidden in 25 different businesses
with the winners entered enterprise drawings.
This is a fun kind of treasure hunt
to encourage exploration of local businesses.
So nice to see that happening here.
Again, the full annual report
is attached to the resolution
for all of the details and all the metrics.
That's the end of the presentation.
Perfect, thank you.
Colleagues, any questions or comments?
No questions.
Thank you for your work on this.
I'd like to make a motion to approve.
Perfect, thank you.
And I can second that as well.
and then I did have just one in Curry.
I noticed in the report, I guess, like comparing the two
for the Rock Ridge bid,
they don't have any security cameras listed.
It says zero and no new ones,
but then the report says number of incidents
for which camera footage was provided to OPD for.
So does the Rockbridge bid not have any cameras or?
Yeah, that's not something that the specifically funded
could be that they're forwarding information
from other camera being a go between with cameras
that individual businesses choose to have.
This is a merchant based bid in comparison
to most of the bids which are property based bids.
They tend to have larger budgets.
The Montclair Bid does have some cameras.
They also do a lot of significant fundraising
outside of their assessment revenues,
which can potentially pay for that kind of thing.
Both bids are considering conversion
into property-based bids.
And that's, you know, I think what I've heard
from Rockridge is if they were to convert,
that that would be something they would consider.
Excellent, thank you so much.
We can hear from the public speakers.
Calling in the name that's signed up to speak
on item number four, Mrs. Asada-Olavala.
I'm trying to understand this process.
This gentleman works for the city, is that correct?
Yes, sir.
So the submission of their report should be given by them
and not the staff member.
Because the questions that you're asking
are questions that they should respond to.
I don't understand the process.
So they have submitted a document to him
and nothing against you, you did a fantastic job.
But it would seem that the report would come from them.
The other thing is, there's some areas
that I would really want to focus in
with these associations, public safety.
And I think it's the Temecil Association
because the gentleman who is their safety manager
is on the police commission.
And so they have, it looks like they have invested
a lot into public safety.
So with each one of these associations,
with level of investment in particular areas,
but public safety, or clean up, or whatever,
has been a part of where they've taken
a position of prioritizing.
So what is the investment that this particular association had
made to public safety?
Could that be considered in the future?
This is an area of extreme importance.
And lastly, I didn't understand is this one of the associations where residents pay the
fees with good.
That's great.
Thank you for your comments.
Chair, that concludes all members that signed up to speak on item number four.
Excellent.
Thank you so much.
If no other comments, we can go ahead and.
Thank you.
We have a motion made by Councilmember Unger, seconded by Chair Brown, to approve the recommendations
the staff and to forward this item to the November 10th special city council agenda
on rural council members five aye Ramachandran aye Unger aye and chair Brown aye thank you
motion passes with four ayes to forward this item to the November 10th special city council
agenda on consent reading in item five adopted resolution on the city administrator to apply
for accept and appropriate a grant in an amount not to exceed sorry four million five hundred
in State of California, Board of State and Community Corrections, Proposition 64, public
health and safety grant, program funds and expend and administer the Prop 64 grant by
assisting the City of Oakland's capacity to conduct public safety operations and coordinated
enforcement of illicit cannabis activities including unlicensed cultivations, manufacturing,
distribution and retail and
Enabling equipment purchases covering overtime staffing costs and providing funding for other related administrative costs over a five-year
Five-year period beginning July 1st 2026 and ending June 30th
2031 and we have two speakers on this item. Excellent. Thank you so much madam clerk
And then just wanted to clarify on the last item that will be going to the December 1st meeting not November
through the church of the chair.
It's my understanding that this should go
to the November 10th council agenda for approval
and then that will trigger it to schedule
a December 1st public hearing.
Thank you.
Okay, perfect.
Thank you.
Thank you both.
And on this item we'll be hearing from Kat Toyo.
Hello Kat Toyo, EWD program manager
for special activities permitting division.
Thank you so much.
have a short presentation on the Board of State Community Corrections
Proposition 64 of Public Health and Safety Grant. Thank you so much. So staff
recommends today, it's not working, sorry. Next slide. Thanks. Staff has a
recommendation that council adopt a resolution to accept an appropriate
4,500,000 of BSCC Proposition 64 grant fonts. These allowed expenditures include 4,280,880
to cover staff costs, to augment the city's capacity to conduct public safety operations
and coordinated enforcement of illicit cannabis activities. And that is the bulk of the money
going to that, the rest of it will go toward equipment purchases and technology upgrades
to support enforcement protocol and tracking. There are also staff and other administrative
costs associated with the grant management, which include an evaluator. For some legislative
history, the Prop 64 Public Health and Safety Grant Program was created through the passage
of Proposition 64, which directs a portion of state tax revenue generated from the cultivation
and retail sale of cannabis towards grant programs to mitigate impacts resulting from
the legalization of recreational cannabis.
We have been a recipient of this grant before, and I'm speaking of EWD in general.
B SEC cohort three was awarded in 2022.
It allocated 2,260,000 to fund physical and technology,
excuse me, technological improvements
at cannabis business locations
and provide overnight private security
at licensed cannabis retailers.
And those are grants that we are still currently giving out.
And this also covers shared use manufacturing facilities,
which covers the two equity shit kitchens that we have.
This grant is also supporting 310,000
for a campaign to enhance public awareness
of Oakland equity businesses,
and you might be familiar with the work
we're doing with Oxtrogen to create a trademark for equity,
which has been used on a couple things,
and the ballers featured them recently.
So that's been going very well,
and that continues up until 2028.
Next slide, please.
The Proposition 64 cohort funding grant,
this is the labor breakdown,
and I wanna just give some background
on why we focus so much on enforcement on this.
Between 2025 and 2026,
in 2025, we had approximately 21 cases
of declarations of public nuisance
that were related to cannabis businesses
that increased in 2026 to 39 cases,
which is an estimated 86% increase of workload.
Currently, as you most know, we only have one inspector.
So we are very grateful that we're going to be
bringing on four inspectors,
and we're hoping that this money,
we know that it will enable us to create better training,
create a task force, funding OPD and fire
to come out and do joint inspections.
And that way, we can continue with our work.
We have about 74 locations
that require additional enforcement activity.
And I just wanna make it clear
that these cannabis operations of all sorts,
they can be within dispensaries,
smoke shops, gift shops, mini markets,
convenience stores, cultivation sites.
We often see businesses start as one thing
and sort of morph into something else.
So, reoccurring visitation to these sites
is super important.
and that's why we have decided to point most of this funding
towards the task force and being able to cover over time
which current city budget does not allow over time
expenditures on a consistent basis.
See, next slide please.
Some of the other items that will be covered by this grant
are services and supplies, so that's at 26K,
professional services which will be our evaluator,
equipment which will include upgrades to a cello the permitting platform and an inspector module which will allow us to track in
in real time with
Planning and building and fire to make sure that public health and safety
Is met at each of the locations and we'll also be able to provide some additional training to our new inspectors that are coming on
next slide, please
And just to reiterate, the goals of this grant are public health and safety.
We will have this funding going through 2031.
So in that case, it's about $450,000 we're spending each year on staff, and the rest
spread out between those five years.
This grant does roll over, so if at any point we have less enforcement we need to do, which
would be ideal, we could roll it over to the next year and hopefully be able to allocate
this will also help us be in parks and help with some of that consistent
enforcement in parks and on city streets some of the activity that we see at
first Fridays afterwards will be part of this task force as well so you know to
strengthen the operational capacity optimize our workforce enhance our
ability to use technology to deliver data and core results that will be done
through the Acela module increase our ability to prevent or respond to reports
legal cannabis activity. We often get reports from council members, we get
reports from staff, and also from business corridors and residents of
complaints of cannabis operations and activities. We want to be able to respond
to those effectively and this grant will allow us to do that. And addressing
illicit sales as we know in these corridors will really help the legal
market to get a boost. We have had reports from the Cannabis Regulatory
commission that they're it's really difficult to stand up a legal business
when you're battling with illicit cannabis businesses all around you so
in those efforts we have brought this forward and that is the end of my
presentation thank you so much excellent thank you I have a handful of kind of
questions and comments on this item while I'm all I'm all I'm always I'm
I'm grateful to see the city receiving funds, right?
Receiving dollars.
I guess I'm curious around,
I know that when I looked up the BSCC grant,
there were a couple umbrellas
to which we could have applied for these funds.
I think what concerns me the most is just the red flag
of these dollars going to like OPD over time to do this.
While in my research what I found other local cities
and jurisdictions in the state of California using these funds
on youth development prevention and intervention,
youth programs for at-risk youth.
I'm just going through the list.
San Francisco, for example, they are using it
for grant opportunities to strengthen compliance
around addressing youth development
and intervention strategies, the city of Berkeley,
youth together program, once again using that
to support youth mentorship.
And so, as I'm, so a couple questions.
I'm also curious how the, have we gotten a report back
on how we use the funds that we got for cohort three?
I know that that report said that there would be an auditor
or an audit that would be performed,
and so I'm very intrigued to know
what the status of that is as well.
So can you share how it was that we decided
to go after the funds in this manner?
And then I had some follow-up questions on the chart
that's on page five around the inspector position,
program analysts, which department are those in?
That would be all in EWD.
It's under Special Activities programming division.
Okay, so the police officer and the fire inspector.
Are separate, yeah.
They work with us.
I see, and then the three are under EWD.
Correct.
Yeah, so.
Sure.
So Special Activities programming division,
we have the burden of enforcement.
So as much as we work towards using education
compliance, we also have to enforce when those are not met. So for us we were
seeing just a consistent lack of being able to respond to complaints and to
problems and there's been, it wasn't me I swear, there's been a lot of
violence as you know and fires and other things that were in the report as far as
not being able to address those concerns
with the complete team,
having fire there to use their abilities.
Our enforcement can only go so far.
We really depend on working with other departments
to be able to move forward with public declarations
of public nuisance and to be able to move forward
with enforcement.
So for us also, we have a staffing capacity issue.
And when it comes to managing third partners,
as far as non-governmental organizations
and being able to produce.
We don't have, that's one of the reasons
there's a program analyst on here,
we don't have anyone to staff that.
It's very difficult, it's something,
we don't harbor any youth development programs
as a division.
We do an economic workforce development,
but not necessarily special activities.
So in that way we saw that the best way for us
to use this money was to use it towards enforcement
because it's something we can easily transfer these funds,
we can easily get these records
instead of having to come up with qualitative narrative
that would working with a non-governmental agency
and drawing reports from them on results.
So, you know, those were the two reasons
that the ones that really stand out
of why we moved to enforcement
because we at the time only had one inspector
and we were not sure if we were going to have
any new inspectors coming on.
So it was really, hey, we need to do something.
This is money that's available for that.
The incentive of the grant was to use it
for these efforts over the other two options that you had.
And so it just seemed like the best fit for what we do.
I see.
And then it looks like in recent years,
when we received the money, it looks like in 2021,
under the cohort two, it looks like there was a robust program
that was put forth towards cannabis equity,
with some of those funds going to support efforts
in OUSD, East Oakland Youth Development Center,
the Public Health Institute,
to do an educational campaign in decreasing youth usage.
So that was the funds for cohort two,
and then it looks like for cohort three,
it says funding security measures
for Oakland's licensed cannabis operators,
and a public education campaign.
And so, do we have any updates and statuses
on any of, one, have we spent all the money of Cohort 3?
And do we have any updates on those ones?
Cohort 3 is still being spent.
It runs until 2028.
And so, we do quarterly reports to them
on what has been spent.
A lot of it is going towards security grants
and that is for generals and for equity.
businesses so it's it's wonderful that we can serve both on that particular grant and security measures if you go by o'connor you'll see
They have an out overnight security that's always parked there and that's really been a great deterrent and really helped
Make things a little bit bit easier and peace of mind for business operators
So we're still actively giving that out as you know, the grant process has changed
So this year we've had a harder time getting that money out the door, but we are actively doing that
We also have other funding that we get from the governor's office and go biz grants
We're on go biz 6 right now
And we're very fortunate that we've been able to give out a good portion of that and we have more that we're giving out
So we've had like 21
About 18 of those are getting ninety one thousand dollars and these are all monies that are going to equity
applicants we also have
Two 86 K that are going to equity applicants and three additional awards that are under 50 K
so we have been pushing and pushing to get those out the door we expect to get those all out before the end of this month and
That will make us eligible for gov is eight and that is a grant
That's more focused on programatics and we can expand and do a lot of different things and we do want to have some
public awareness events that would be inclusive of education and informational sessions and
Those are things that we're talking about with the CRC,
the Cannabis Regulatory Commission,
and also stakeholders in the industry
to see what is the best way that we can use those funds.
We do give out surveys to find out,
and so we're happy to take any suggestions.
We'll be applying for that probably
at the very end of the year.
Okay, colleagues, I think Councilmember Ramachandran,
you had an answer, okay.
Councilmember Fyfe.
Yes, thank you for this presentation.
I'm just trying to understand the math a little bit
in addition to the questions that were asked by the chair.
What was the educational amount that you said,
I believe it was 310,000?
Yeah.
What does that pay for?
That's for the public awareness campaign.
So that's the one that we're doing
in conjunction with Amsterdam to,
they created the trademark and they're doing a number
events in actual dispensaries where they feature equity products they'll do like
you know specials on them and things like that so we're working with them
pretty and that runs all the way through 2028 and there are different
components of it is that in the in the document I'm trying to that's for cohort
three so what we're just we're requesting a recommendation for us for
cohort for today which is the newest so the 310 is for it's not related to what
we're doing today are we doing that okay so you're throwing me off cat so we're
talking about last year but that's not relevant to this year no is there an
educational component this year is it primarily enforcement it's primarily
enforcement and so this will address the smoke shops and all the different places
that are selling things illegally.
Okay, and how can you explain to me how it would work
with OPD and their overtime system?
Because that's my biggest concern.
If there are no checks and balances on how we assess
overtime, how it's allocated, how it's managed,
how do we know that this will add up to that,
or that we'll even get people signing up to do this program?
Well oftentimes when we ask for assistance from OPD they say do you have funding?
So that is our hope that now we can say yes we have funding.
We can give them a funding code and we can tell them that this is where the money is
going to come from to cover these services that we're requesting.
So they come with us as you know our inspectors aren't armed.
So when we're going into places especially if they have never been permitted before we
don't really know what we're walking into.
We work with our OPD partners for them to go in assess the situation see if it's safe
and then we enter.
And that's why it's so important.
We can't really do the operations without them.
We can do regular inspections.
We can check on things.
But if something is a little amiss or off
and there's a chance of anybody being armed on the property,
of course, we would not enter.
So having OPD really helps us kind of move this work forward.
So will the programs overlap?
Will the spending overlap?
Or do you have to spend down the entire amount
from the previous cohort before you start with this one?
Yeah, they're two separate.
The reason why Special Activities Primiting Division
is the lead on this one is because EWD
was the lead on the last one.
So it has to be separate leads agencies.
For example, Workforce Development wanted to come in
and do a youth component of it.
They could have applied for that and been a separate.
So one jurisdiction can have multiple grants
from this same grant program.
So it doesn't run, it runs concurrently,
but they don't affect each other.
Can you give us an understanding of when
these enforcement activities will start?
So the grant period goes back to July 1st.
So we have already done some enforcement.
We're going to see if we're able to retro bill
that enforcement that we have done.
But it basically starts in January and, I mean, July,
and it runs all the way till January, 2013 when.
and it rolls over each year.
So whatever is not spent in one year
will roll over to the next year.
And do you know if they're gonna allow you to bill?
I'm not sure. That works.
It said that as long as our grant agreement is signed,
which it has been as far as we've done everything
we needed to execute to be at this point
to get the resolution, once the resolution is completed,
then the agreement can be fully executed.
Once it's fully executed, we can send in our first report.
first report is actually due November 15th so we will attempt with that one if they say no then we
we we prepared for that we do have money to cover whatever we took on. Okay and then my last question
is can you give us some understanding of where these enforcement activities will take place if
or is that it's kind of across the city um so it will help us with what's going on in parks because
we do have um permitted dispensaries that are setting up in parks it will help us with um on
on the streets just in general, in business corridors,
where there's activity and folks are setting up
on the street selling.
It will help us in dispensaries that have maybe been
permitted in the past, but since have lost their license,
but continue to operate.
It will help with smoke shops where they're selling
multiple items, but cannabis may be being part of that,
of what they're selling, and any other types of business,
the gift shops, any of those things.
So this is kind of across the entire city
that we would do this.
we will work with the DCC on locations that they find
or wild fish and game locations that they put
on our radar as well to try to coordinate with them
and also help with those efforts.
So it's a combination.
We sometimes get information from council members,
from staff and from residents.
And it will follow up all of those 311 calls
that we get in any type of warning or complaints
that we are receiving about cannabis operations in general.
Thank you.
We can hear from the public speakers.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item five,
Mrs. Ado-Ollabala and Blair Beekman.
Thank you, thank you, Miss Brown,
because that's what I do, when I see the grant,
I go look and see areas that it can be covered.
So one of the areas is our youth prevention and intervention.
And it says the reason why this exists,
grant is supporting school districts and community programs to educate youth on
substance safety and fun programs such as family wrap around services and the
the reason why we have to deal with all of this is because our children and the
The use of substance abuse has skyrocketed and this with overdosing and poisoning, brain
development impacted, mental health complications, behavior and social harms have happened with
the substance abuse.
So I hope that in the future that we will consider more investment in the area of prevention
and intervention with the use of these funds.
Thank you, Ms. Brown, for bringing it up.
Switching to Zoom user Blair.
You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, Blair Beekman.
Thanks for this item, it was informative.
I don't know as much about this item as I wish I did,
but I've been around Oakland enough
that you guys have done some amazing work
with equity issues that are just models
for the state when I'm in San Diego, you know, it's just, you guys are light years ahead
of how to talk about these issues and, but, you know, we're still trying in San Diego
to figure things out and we're doing some good work and we did figure out things
like there's brighter tip issues for cannabis.
There's some sort of forms of unaccountability which on its surface, you know,
it can be addressed and it needs to be addressed, but then you have to involve equity
and good concepts and it becomes a balance that's not so black and white, cut and dry,
and so good luck in that continuing effort. Miss Olafalo mentioned and you guys mentioned
how much a lot of funding is going to prevention programs, youth prevention,
really interesting to hear that. We have several speakers in San Diego who really speak about the
that they are not marijuana supporters of cannabis shops.
I am and I'm trying to figure out what that balance is
and I really like your work on equity on it
and on the issues and hearing about prevention,
it's a learning process for me.
So thank you for this item, Billie,
and keep up our basket work, how to be developed,
future of cannabis issues, and Oakland, thank you.
Thank you for your comments, Chair.
That concludes all speakers on item five.
Okay, perfect.
And then one last question that I had,
and so do you know if the officer
that will be supporting this work
will be the same officer?
Is it just someone who is made up
of the ABAT team or something?
So we have one officer that's somewhat
embedded with us from LPD, Isaac Harris,
And so I imagine that he will help
with creating the task force around that.
ABAT may assist, especially if it's something
that's in the parks and we kinda know
that possibly alcohol is involved as well.
But we wanna diversify and make sure
that multiple people are trained on this
and that we make connections and create a task force
that's very, that can work together
on a lot of different projects.
I see, and then I guess in the past
when you've done some of the operations
that you outlined, is it just one officer that comes?
It would depend on which operation.
So most of our cannabis stuff that we've done
has been just the one,
or we're working with Fish and Wild Game,
so some of the state, or the DCC,
depending on who brought it to our attention.
But typically it's the officer that's embedded with us,
they make kind of the call on who else will be involved.
Excellent, thanks so much for answering the questions.
colleagues if anyone wants to make a motion to move the item please do
second thank you we have a motion made by a councilmember Ramachandran seconded
by councilmember fly to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward
this item to the November 10th City Council agenda on on roll council
members five aye Ramachandran aye Unger aye and chair Brown aye thank you
motion passes with four ayes support this item to the November 10th special
City Council agenda on consent.
Reading in item six, adopt a resolution requesting
the City Administrator to negotiate the terms
of a non-exclusive agreement with the nonprofit
organization North Oakland, South Oakland Little League,
and the College Preparatory School
to provide capital improvements,
and ongoing stewardship of the North Oakland
Regional Sports Center known as Kyle de Cottfield,
located at 6900 Broadway, and it's successful,
And if successful, return to city council
with legislation containing proposed terms
and appropriate California Environmental Quality Act
findings and there are two speakers on this item.
Perfect, thank you.
Council Member Unger.
Yes, thank you, colleagues.
I don't know how many of you have been up
to the North Oakland Regional Sports Center lately.
You know, it's an enormous city-owned field
up by the tunnel over to Arinda.
Most people call it the Caldecott Field.
It's a great place to play and run around,
but at this point, mostly only if you're a gopher.
Not so much if you're a kid who wants to play soccer
or baseball right now, it's an incredible field, enormous.
It's fallen into disrepair over the years
because of water supply issues
and just general city budget limitations.
It's got dead grass, destroyed playing surfaces,
inoperable bathrooms, which again is fine for gophers
who famously don't wash their hands
after they go to the bathroom, but I like a little soap.
So at the moment there is no plan to fix these fields up beyond a little bit of trailhead
work.
It's not even like a future dream plan on our capital improvement list.
But good news, we have been approached by Nolsol Little League and College Prep School
about doing a public-private partnership kind of similar to what we have done at Raymondi
and other places.
They want to invest considerable money into Caldecott fields for a very long period of
time.
Calcutta is not on our capital improvement plan, and because we frankly don't have the
money to improve it anytime soon, we're interested in exploring the possibility.
So today's resolution is a non-exclusive opportunity to begin talking to these organizations.
Again, non-exclusive about what this sort of partnership might look like.
All of the terms are up in the air.
So this legislation just starts our talks and doesn't lock anything in, and it would
absolutely come back to Council again before anything is set in stone. So it's
really important to everyone in our office that this that this agreement
maintains robust public access to the sports facility so we've specifically
written into the legislation that we want to do a comprehensive equity study
to make sure that when we enhance the field we're not locking it up or locking
anybody out and that everyone from Oakland will be able to enjoy the
enhancements. So we do have really a lot of demand all over the city, North Oakland
in particular, for sports fields were under parked. And because we're not
creating new open space in Oakland, I think it's incumbent on us to do
everything we can to protect and improve the open spaces that we do have. So I'm
grateful to organizations who are willing to invest in public space and
serve as long-term stewards of it. So it's an exciting opportunity to upgrade
the city resource and provide a better park experience
for Oaklanders.
That's it.
Council Member Rommachandran.
Thank you.
I think this is a great idea.
This is very close to district four
and it very much needs some love.
What is the obligation of the city
since they're gonna be taking on
the financial responsibility?
Well, so this is just to open up negotiations.
That's gonna be something we negotiate
about sort of what the long-term maintenance agreements are,
what percentage of it the city takes,
what percentage of it this group takes.
All of that is gonna be discussed.
Okay, great.
And are they gonna combat illegal dumplings?
Ideally, that's the dream.
All right, thank you for bringing the item.
I don't have any questions.
And then Council Member Fyfe.
I'm just curious, Council Member,
through the Chair to Council Member Unger,
did you review any of the stuff around Ramondi?
because we did run into a couple problems.
Yeah, I mean I think we probably will run into problems
and things that we'll have to have.
Not problems, challenges that can be overcome.
Yes, I think this is, we just wanna open the talks
and I think we're gonna probably discover
what some of the issues are.
Water supply is a big one that's gonna involve
bringing in East Bay Mudd and PG&E.
We've got a meeting about that this week
to sort of start dealing with the infrastructure issues.
But I think we just wanna start these talks
and see what the problems are.
but I would love to get your advice on what worked
and what didn't at Ramondi.
Absolutely.
If you haven't made a motion and received a second,
I'd happy to second.
I'd be happy.
I'll make the motion.
And was there a second?
The second Council Member Feit, okay, perfect.
And we can hear from the speakers.
Calling in the names that signed up to speak
on item number six, Mrs. Asada Olavala and Blair Beekman.
So I remember when the Romney soccer group won.
Is that what you're talking about?
Yeah.
It was great, but they wanted to have the ability to do scheduling and make decisions.
So who is going to manage the field?
How will the scheduling of events and activities occur?
Will that be in the hands of the city or them?
The rules of conduct, the rules for the use of the field, the facility rules.
anything that has to do with special events or tournaments,
all of that has to be brought under consideration
so that the city still maintains the ability
to have the power, last word at least.
This is great, but we still have to make sure
that access is open to everybody,
regardless of who's donating
because it remains a public facility.
Madam Chair of the open forum,
I'm gonna ask your indulgence.
This lady just came in from the community.
You know I talk too much.
So it's this opportunity for somebody else to have a voice.
Would you mind her taking my time, please?
Thank you.
They haven't called me yet.
Okay.
Switching to Zoom user Blair.
You can unmute yourself.
Mr. Bregman, you can unmute yourself
and begin your comment.
Okay, last call from Mr. Bregman.
Okay, oh, there he goes.
Nope, oh, looks like we lost him out of the queue.
Chair, that concludes all speakers on item six.
Excellent, we can go ahead and call the vote.
Thank you, that was a motion made by Councilmember Unger,
seconded by Councilmember Fyfe,
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the November 10th
City Council agenda on roll, Councilmembers Fyfe.
I'm a chung jin I hunger I and chair Brown I thank you motion passes with four
eyes to port this item to the November 10th City Council agenda on consent now
moving on to open forum calling in the names missus sada but she's giving her
time away and Blair Beekman I'm Rita Watson and I'm representing my church at
at 9941 D Street, Russell City.
We're the only building that's left of Russell City
of D Street.
We're trying to get help.
They're destroying the church.
They're breaking in.
We've walked in on several occasions.
We've called the police.
Police came out, didn't find anyone.
I came in on yesterday.
Criminals in the church were still there.
We need help.
We're the only Russell City, our building, that's left.
So if we can get help, I appreciate it.
I'm not trying to take up too much time.
I've been to the mayor's office, I've called the police.
They've come out, they caught criminals on the ground.
They were just there the other night.
We need help.
Russell City, 9941 D Street.
We're the only building that exists.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you so much.
I think, thank you so much for,
and then thank you for your comments.
No question, thank you so much for your comments.
My team can come over and chat with you,
and we also didn't get your name, so.
Okay, Rita, excellent.
And so we will definitely follow up,
and I believe this is in D7.
And it looks like we have Mr. Beekman back in the queue.
Mr. Beekman, you can unmute yourself
and make your comment for open forum.
Mr. Beekman, I see that you have your hand raised.
Last call from Mr. Beekman.
Okay, Chair, that concludes all speakers.
Excellent, thank you so much.
This meeting is adjourned.