Good afternoon everybody and welcome good afternoon and welcome to the City
Council meeting of Tuesday November 10th 2026 before I call roll I will go over
speaker card instructions if you're looking to speak on any agenda item you
must fill out an item before that you must fill out a speakers card before the
item is called for discussion or two hours after the start of the meeting
This meeting was called to order at 332 p.m. Your last opportunity to turn in a speaker's card will be at 532 p.m
Or before the item is called for discussion
on roll today
Councilmember Brown
Present also member five president councilmember Gallo president councilmember, Houston
Is excused councilmember Ramachandran?
present
councilmember under here councilmember Wong
Councilmember Jenkins
present showing six members present at this time
Noting that we do have council members participating remotely per the Brown Act
Councilmember Ramachandran. How are you participating?
through a v 2 4 4 9
dress cause
Is there anyone about the age of 18 in the room with you? No, thank you
Just one moment while we recent Councilmember Wong her zoom link
and I'm on
Councilmember Wong, how are you participating? I am participating remotely
Is there anyone in the room with you 18 or older?
No one is in the room
Thank you
And just noting to the council members participating remotely your camera and audio
must be on for the
bulk of the meeting
So noting seven members present at this time
Going before we get to item three. Do you have any announcements? Yes
Yes, because of a severe lack
We almost have a lack of quorum speaker time will be one minute
One minute and then let's go to item number three
going to item 3 which is modifications to the agendas for in procedural items
Including but not limited to requests to reschedule items from consent to non consent items to the next council agenda
Speak on consent calendar register votes change order of items
reconsiderations etc
I'd like to withdraw items six point two six
I will be rescheduling that and I understand that people will still be able to make public comments on that
In the future date later any any other
any other modifications to the agenda if not we will
Moving noting that removing will be removing item six point twenty six when we get to the consent calendar moving on to item four
Public hearing starting with item four point one conduct a public hearing. I'm sorry. We must can I have a motion to open the public hearing?
Second on the motion to open the public hearing moved by councilmember five second by councilmember brown councilmember brown
I also remember five. I also remember guy. Oh, I also remember Houston
Councilmember rama chondrin. I also remember Wong. I'm sorry councilmember under hi councilmember Wong
Hi and chair Jenkins. I motion passes with a vote of eight eyes. I will now read the item into record
Noting that we will not be accepting speaker cards for this item
conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt the following pieces of legislation a
Resolution adopting an issue in the written report required by government co-section six five eight five eight
subdivision within 35 days of the passage of the 45-day interim emergency
moratorium
Describing the measures taken to alleviate the conditions that led to the adoption of interim emergency ordinance number one three eight nine nine
And making appropriate sequel findings and an interim emergency ordinance pursuant to Oakland City Charter section
213 and Charter government code section six five eight five eight
Extending interim emergency ordinance number one three eight nine nine
The temporary moratorium of the approval of any land use entitlements and or agreements on the development of operation of data centers
and the city of Oakland for ten months and fifteen days noting that we have thirty five speakers
How many is this?
on this item
And a few more
Please proceed
All right
Thank you
Council president and may it please the council councilmember five
Thank you for advancing this item and I am the director of the planning and building department
That's what we've done.
Bill Gilchrist and as was stated
by the city councilor a city
clerk we are obligated under
the declaration of a forty five
day moratorium to provide a 35
day report.
On what we have engaged what we
have discovered what- areas of
investigation.
Have directed us towards where
we are at the moment by means of
to the conclusion of the forty five day moratorium. So I would ask if our good friends at KTOP could advance the slides and we will move with those thank you. So again the next one please.
And again as noted both by the city clerk and by myself a moment ago we are here in response to government code section six five eight five eight D.
And the report is due today.
Next.
So just on the timeline and background.
And I'm going to give myself a shot at this.
See, do we, oopsie.
I need to advance the slide one by one.
Well, hold on there.
May I ask for the staff?
Oh, there we go.
Thank you.
All right, great.
And then we are, on October 6th,
we had our 45-day senate moratorium adopted.
Next.
We are looking at the expiration date of the 20th of November.
So we are in advance of the finalization of the 45 day
moratorium, bringing this to this body.
And our initial research on data center impacts regulatory needs
where we have our gap in our current regulations
to address this facility type, looking at outreach strategies
to ensure that we include the entire community of Oakland,
particularly looking at areas that might be most severely
impacted by land use and residential proximity,
and making sure we engage members of the community
who may historically have not been able to participate
or may invited to participate in this kind of exercise,
but in fact may be most impacted
by the development of these facilities
and the adoption of this ordinance.
Next, all right.
So in the initial staff actions,
research and development of regulatory needs and options,
we were looking at other jurisdictions
that in fact have adopted through their zoning ordinances
other regulatory measures means to regulate the development and the placement of these
facilities within their community, and focusing principally on other urban areas.
Many of you have heard about the data centers across the nation.
This has been a nationwide phenomenon, the development of the facility types.
But there is a specific concern that we have when these are taking place in an urban setting.
And we have within the Bay Area, some of the jurisdictions that have also been engaged
directly in both the moratoriums and in amending the ordinances that deal with data centers.
So San Francisco fortuitously had a hearing the same day we adopted our 45, the moratorium,
and they are in the process of reviewing theirs, and we understand that one of their supervisors
And I think this has also brought forward and in a request to extend the moratorium of the city of Gilroy adopted a moratorium in September fourteenth and they in fact have extended their moratorium ten months and fifteen days so they are now going to be completing theirs in September of next year the city of Oakley which also adopted a forty five day moratorium have extended theirs as well.
the city of Richmond. We have
to complete theirs in April of
twenty twenty seven there was
adopted theirs in April of
twenty. Of twenty six twenty
twenty six the city of
Richmond which adopted theirs
in September fifteenth. I've
actually adopted a twenty two
point five month. Extension and
they'll be completing their's
What I want to say also adopted their moratorium on March 19 2026 and have also taken a 10 month 15 day extension. So they will be completing their moratorium February 2nd 2027 so again one thing that seems to be a common thread among many jurisdictions particularly those that have not had ordinances in place to really address this new facility type.
on the need to extend the review process and the engagement
of community and the technical review of the facilities
and of the locations and environments
where they may be developed and fashioning the regulations
to, in fact, enforce a coherent
and a responsive development schema
for these types of facilities.
Alright. So, we have on our community engagement program,
Our goal here is to build an inclusive outreach program
for the creation of the municipal code amendments
to engage community-based organizations,
residences, business organizations, and government partners,
again, for both their perspective as stakeholders
and for the roles that they play in the actual operation
or regulation of these facilities.
And we'll go into a little bit more detail
of some of the groups we've engaged in that regard.
And also to ensure that we have the engagement
Oakland's breadth of communities. This is most critical for us as a measure of
our work even with the general plan updates. This is an important cornerstone
and for a facility of this type and given the probability of where these may
may occur that it is most critical that we have community engagement and
participation and bringing forward any regulations. So among the utilities and
other government agencies and the provision of utilities and the
these facilities are going to
have to meet and the idea for
us is to do no harm, to make
sure that we are bringing these
facilities in, if we do, in a
way that is going to
minimalize any issues that we
are going to be having, it is
going to make sure that these
facilities are going to have to
meet, and the idea for us is to
do no harm, to make sure that
we are bringing these facilities
in, if we do, in a way that is
going to minimalize any issues
And so I think that we should
continue to recognize any kind
of impact that it would have
for the communities where
they're located.
And among the utilities that
were engaging that
conversation PG&E Ava community
energy at mud air quality
district and understanding also
to the extent that they have
jurisdiction over any of the
areas of concern.
So as an example the air
quality district we're most
concerned about the impact of
any generators that might be
associated with facilities.
We've also been spending much time going through analysis and research and looking
at sources both nationally and locally, within our own backyard, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratories work, the Kapor Foundation, which was located in Oakland, and some of the outstanding
work that they have done, really looking at the community factors involved in technology
and looking at these facilities in particular through affiliation with many California-based
to the city of Oakland. We are
so proud to be a part of this
organization's many of whom
were close within our region
some of them are located within
the city of Oakland. And we are
as a result of the thoroughness
of our methodology and what we
feel we have to do. In order to
bring credible regulations for
consideration to this body. We
are going to be looking for
additional time to complete our
code amendment process. And
again the principal aspects of
this will be community
And so we're looking at the
expertise associated with this
facility type.
We are looking at expertise
beyond the staff of the city.
Certainly we will compliment
that with our capacities around
land use, around regulations on
development, around economic
development, around our office
of race and equity, the
department of race and equity
that we want to make sure that
we're bringing the full array of
skill sets as we go through the
process of bringing forward
regulatory recommendations both
So it's important to recognize
that we want to bring this to
planning commission to this
body and its committees.
Our amendment preparation as you
well know anything that's
affecting land use and
development does go through a
protracted process both in
terms again of community
outreach of having our hearings
before the planning commission
upon their recommendations to
this body review by the
appropriate committee of the
council and then brought to the
council the whole for your
and do this work, and do this as it is intended to be done.
And as evidenced by many other communities
in the state of California and across the nation.
We are asking, as part of a 35-day report,
that this body consider a moratorium extension.
And looking, again, at an additional 10 months and 15 days
as specified through the state ordinance,
a state law that allows for this provision.
And that would take this work through October 5th of 2027.
And that is the principle baseline of conclusion
that we've had based on the work that we've been doing
through the 45-day moratorium period.
And the staff, in terms of the formal action of this report,
requests that the council, under this resolution,
adopted an issuance of the written 35-day report
required by the government code, section 6585AD,
and making appropriate
the city of California. And we
have a report on the California
environmental quality act
findings. And that is a summary
of our thirty five day report.
We're here for any questions you
may have thank you so much to
record the ticket to council
member five. Yes I will was
intending to make opening
remarks to give way for the
presentation but- since most of
the the comments that I was
going to make on this item have
already been stated I just
wanted to give folks a little
Right now, we're seeing basically an uprising across the country when it comes to how data
centers are operating in regards to land use, the impacts to the environment through excessive
water use and pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, a host of things that are really
negatively impacting communities.
And because I represent a district where many of these potential entities are interested
in and two of the giants in the tech industry have leased space in West Oakland and there's
been another showing interest in a downtown location, I felt it was imperative that I
take immediate action to protect Oakland residents from what we've seen happen in other parts
of the country.
This is not a rejection of technology, this is not a rejection of economic growth.
It's guardrails against an industry that we've seen steamroll individuals throughout the
entire globe.
And so in order to ensure that we have those guardrails up, it's important that our staff
have the ability to do the appropriate study.
And it's near and dear to my heart to do the appropriate outreach to the community so the
the community has a voice in anything that we do
that will impact their lives.
So this extension of a moratorium
will give our planning and building department,
as Director Gilchrist just said, the amount of time needed
to make sure that we don't replicate
the harm that's been done.
He stated, do no harm.
I, as a legislator that has West Oakland in my district,
have to undo harm that has been done generationally.
So we don't want to bring in industries
that are requiring elected officials and real estate
entities, the places where they lease from,
to sign non-disclosure agreements
so we can't be transparent with the public about what's
happening.
So I just want to be clear that on top of that,
I represent a district where impacts to the environment
have diminished the number of years that people can live.
The air pollution in West Oakland
have impacted by a quotient of between five and 10 years
for a low-income African-American child in comparison
with a child that's white growing up in the hills just
a few miles away.
And I refuse to allow that on my watch.
I'm so elated that so many people have consistently
come out to speak on this issue.
But I think it's important to note that the public health
data reveals that a resident in West Oakland
has a life expectancy that is six to seven and a half years
shorter than the Alameda County average.
And when compared to their neighbors in the Oakland Hills,
as I just stated, that gap widens to 14 to 20-year lifespan
disparity.
And for African-American children born in West Oakland,
that gap can stretch up to 15 years shorter
than white children living in wealthier parts of the city.
This is not an issue, this particular issue
we're here today is not about race specifically,
but we know that the negative impacts of industry
when not done correctly impacts the lowest income people,
folks who've been impacted by generational racism
and generational environmental impacts.
And I think we can do better.
I think we have to do better as stewards of the city.
So as I said, I was gonna introduce this item
and I'm co-sponsoring it with the planning
and building department, but I'd have to give a shout out
to everybody that's worked on it up to this point.
So everybody in planning and building bill on your team
as well as the city attorney's office,
the city administrator's office, but most importantly,
my policy staff who is the best in the business,
I would say, in the entire state of California,
ready at BEA, thank you for everything
that you've put into this and for the community
for consistently showing up and demanding
what you wanna see in the city of Oakland.
I would like to make a motion to close the public hearing
after we hear public comment and to move this item forward.
Thank you Councilmember Fife.
We're gonna go with Councilmember Brown
and then put your mic on.
Staying firm on this item and I support you 100%.
And to Mr. Gilchrist, thank you for that information
but what I am gonna be requesting for you,
be good for the for the board for the City Council to clearly understand what
properties are available in the City of Oakland what properties are available
for development whether it's the housing the business to be able to attract I'll
give you an example in my district 5 the Fruitvale area 27 acres are being
developed by Prologis and that should start the the construction the next
month, 27 acres of a retail space, manufacturing, and down the line office space as well, but
at the same time, the Goodwill property just got sold right on 19th Avenue and International.
And they're planning on building 250 units of housing, low-income housing.
And so there are other properties that are available within the city of Oakland, but
would be good for this council to know what land is available for development.
We just had Costco purchase a huge property in West Oakland, but if you can let us know
what properties and land is available in the City of Oakland for development.
So at least we can plan that out.
Another example, you got that huge parking lot behind City Hall.
It's been closed down for ten years, it could be an effective location for parking and for
other development, but we as a city need to move forward with action to attract businesses
and to attract community to come to Oakland and be able to support the residents that
we have and children and families.
So if you could, for the City Council, make available a listing of properties that are
available, so we at least were informed at what locations those properties are available.
And I'll leave you with this last comment that, you know, we have properties, we have
police department over at Eastmont Mall that we're leasing every year.
We have public works on Coliseum that I'm paying four million dollars a year to lease
the property.
But yet I have other properties within the Port of Oakland, within the school district,
within the city that are public properties that we could be utilizing that so I don't
have to be leasing them for millions and millions of dollars so the taxpayer has to be paying
for that so anyways I ask you for that information thank you thank you and maybe you can send
that as a supplemental to all of council properties that might be available for usage and to the
council president and to councilman beguio certainly would be happy to work on that we'll
be needing to lean up very heavily on our good colleagues in ewd who are probably a little
the city of the city of the city.
and I think that the board of.
economic and workforce development I had mentioned them,
the Department of Race and Equity,
our information technology department,
very much at the foreground.
We will also be looking at our
more utility oriented departments at OPW and Oak dot,
just given some of the implications
that the utilities have on these projects as well,
that we wanna make sure that they're staying aligned.
And what we're probably going to discover,
again, to the President, to Council Member Brown,
and the other thing is that as
we get into this study we're
gonna find there probably a few
departments we did not consider
the front end that need to be
brought in yes so these plans
do evolve in terms of the
stakeholder so we're looking at
engagement within the walls of
city hall as well excellent- and
I know that your outreach to me
about you know my connection
serving on the Ava community
energy board and I also work
really closely with the city's
sustainability team and so I
Absolutely and then I guess like my next question. So as I was reading through just all of the work and research that needs to
Continue to be done
And then really having a look at bullet point number eight under the consultant procurement
Portion of things where we're still working to identify who exactly that would be how much it would cost and the scope of work
I'm I guess one thing that I'm curious if we could do is actually create that within this next 10 months
Can we actually create an implementation timeline where it's like okay within 90 days?
We will have selected the per, you know, the the
Consultants
Etc. Yes, I'm not sure if you all were gonna provide us a timeline
We will be working on that
that's been the last time that
we've been able to run.
Absolutely and part of the work
we've been doing now and that's
among the first action items we
follow up on is the time
loading.
Of the activities and seeing
what I really on the first pass
where we can save time but our
options are some process will
be constrained statutorily as
as this body will knows.
Others we will have to look at
as strategically in terms of
how we may look to be able to
run certain activities in
parallel.
In order to try to gain time
chair to the administration. I think my specific question is, you know, what is
allowed under the moratorium when it comes to reporting back to Council?
Because I would be interested in within the next 30 days what the community
engagement plan is, what updates have been made to regulatory research, and
just and even the procurement consultant. Thank you Councilmember. I'm happy to work
here so we're gonna go ahead and
work with the department through
bill and you to set up regular
updates okay excellent because I
know I guess one thing that I
wouldn't wouldn't want is that
when this item comes back in 10
months that we are still in this
like oh preparation phase.
Made through the council
president to council member
brown that makes two of us okay
excellent and then my last
to do that so if you're
considering that in a way that
you're doing it's a hard time
so thank you so much and so my
last question is status of the
website updates. When will that
be as as I understand and I
will be given a bit of a glance
backwards that we're looking at
having that done before the end
of the year okay excellent okay
perfect thank you so much. Thank
you councilmember hunger. Thank
you so much for your work on
this and thank you councilmember
And I think a lot of this is going to come down to us defining what a data center is.
And I know that there are, you know, there's a sort of a room in the basement of this building.
Does that count as a data center?
You know, I've got a bunch of computers in my house.
Are we a data center?
Obviously not, but we need to figure out what the line is.
And I think it's really important that we do not accidentally create chilling effects
for light manufacturing and industrial uses.
At some level, we are in a society where many different companies connect to tech as their
end users.
And I don't want us to get into accidental situation where we are eliminating economic
opportunities for the city of Oakland just because there are tech components.
Obviously, I am not in favor of these massive GPU farms that you can see from outer space.
That has no place in Oakland.
But we need to talk about what exactly the level is.
Maybe that is the wattage, maybe it is the amount of sort of recycled water they use
or the amount of power they use, or the total square footage.
I don't know what all that is, but I think that we need to be very intentional to not
catch up industrial and manufacturing uses.
Understood.
And to the council president, the councilman Bongar, yes.
And also among the array of facility scales and sizes and capacity, we're also thinking
you know I would like to
comment on some of the
things that we're talking
about a place based strategy
too because as you know Oakland
varies very much from one
location to the other.
So depending on the nature of
the facility things may be
allowed in certain areas where
they're restrained in others.
But again we have to look at
this really with our eyes open.
Thank you councilmember Brown
and then we're going to go to
the public speakers.
And I just wanted to provide
the second thank you.
Councilmember fight them we're
that I wanted to thank the community organization,
Care for Community Action, who surveyed over 400.
Is anybody here from Care for Community Action?
Right there.
Can you stand up?
See for See Action surveyed over 400 people in West Oakland
and provided my office with a host of data
that I was able to pull from to help with my thinking
around this issue.
So I wanted to just thank you all publicly,
and also our revolution for a panel we did with Tom Steyer.
And the coal, oh, y'all, are y'all here?
Wow.
Oh my goodness.
So with Tom Steyer and Mark Schlossenberg
from some organizations and coalitions
that are working on this issue nationwide,
so I wanna appreciate them for that as well.
So there are a lot of people who care about this issue,
and we're gonna go into trying to pull an RFP together
for the public to help us with this information
moving forward.
Director Gilchrist, can you speak about
the community engagement piece?
Because I really want the public to understand
that we are taking this really seriously.
Very seriously.
And we are looking at community engagement
across a full array of participants.
We have many of our more active groups,
organizations, and individuals.
We have many of our not-for-profit,
conversation about the
communication between the
community and the community
with our community based
organizations that we've
worked with. And cultivate
it relationships over time.
One of the- aspects of what
where you just gave the
recognition council members
most impressive when we had
the community meeting at
Beth Eden. Church was to see
the results of the survey.
And those were persons who
what might otherwise not have
engaged they do may not be
the ones to show up at a
community meeting. You know
by invitation. So I'm I also
And making sure one of the cornerstones and Director Flynn and I have talked about this extensively is to make sure that community is heard from that often is not heard from.
So again, the methodology showed there was outstanding and we want to make sure that we're hearing from all the array of stakeholders who are engaged,
is the community's property, owners, renters, businesses,
any approximate use around land where the arrival
of one of these facilities might have an impact.
And again, to Council Member Unger,
through the Council President,
to Council Member Unger's point as well,
we wanna make sure that we are looking
at a balanced approach, and I know Council Member again,
through the Council President too, Council Member Fife,
have also acknowledged too that we do wanna look
at what are reasonable business opportunities
where we are also not bringing in adverse impacts
and coming at an opportunity cost
to the quality of life of our community.
We really do want to make sure that as many as possible,
all of us get to enjoy from what the upside opportunities are
of what we're engaging.
And along that line, if I may,
I do wanna thank the council,
because I'm pretty sure as I'm going through
my own rolodex, I have spoken to each and every one of you
about helping us with this outreach as well,
just to let us know from your own community,
what you know of the
neighborhoods in your community
what might be the best ways for
us to also reach out.
And one of the strategies that
that- I have found over my life
that is most helpful.
Is to know where community is
meeting on their own when are
they convening one of the places
where they assemble.
As opposed to assuming we make
an announcement folks show up
it's best if we can get with
the community where they live
where they can be in where they
work.
And I thank you all for helping
us get that direction also.
I'm not sure if it's going to
be a good question also.
Thank you councilmember Houston
and we're going to go to the
public speakers.
Through the chair.
Thank you.
Mr. Gilchrist.
You said a word that was real
important to me and to my
community and I'm gonna take
some of the councilmember fights
regulations and the reason why I'm saying that is that my community has been steamrolled is smaller than what we're talking about now steamrolled by these
medical marijuana farms
the cannabis operators
Regulations, they haven't been monitored and they just been steamrolling and we spoke about that and I talked to the city administrator about that
So who's gonna be monitoring this enforcement of this moratorium of regulations as it relates to the again?
to the council president to you councilmember Houston through since this is going to be
regulated through land use and to development we will be principally involved in doing that
we're going to have to PBD and we will rely again where things work well work best is
when we also have the community as partners and they also are able to let us know if they
do see situations and I know you you are on top of it in your district that the council
members also can let us be aware when when they are observing something that looks like
I think it's going to be
impossible in the future.
To do something like it's
happening outside of permit or
process.
And we do have other.
Enforcement functions within
different departments as well
that we believe on and we'll
look as we pull this ordinance
together.
And also to the period of more
time whether we'll just be also
whether we also may rely.
On fire may rely on some of the
other departments as well.
Okay through the chart thank you
appreciate that but we have a
problem with enforcement
throughout the city on many
to the councilmember understood thank you madam clerk let's go to the public speakers all right
as a kind name please approach the podium in any order please state your name for the record before
beginning as the council president stated at the beginning of the meeting you have one minute to
address the council if you have time seated to you please let me know before you begin so we can give
you the appropriate amount of time and as standard procedure we would take those in chambers first
and immediately move on to the Zoom Speakers
who have their hands raised.
Mississauga Olliballa, David Peters,
Mina Koochie, Kristen Wright, Leslie Bowling,
I'm sorry, Dyer, Blair Beekman, Bailey Hurley,
Sharon Taylor, Peter Brown, Gerald Petunak,
Mindy Petunak, Petunak, Kwonch, Parker Brightman, Renee Coe,
Dennis Ricardo Thomas, Alicia Kidd, Adriana Martinez,
Cynthia Kaufman, Sarah Lucy Knorr, Zoe Johnik,
Daniela Dane, Leslie Boling Dyer.
I think that's a duplicate.
Tonisha Scott, Nicole Dean, Niamaka Dallas,
Nikki Bovin, Bradley Gentry, Sophia Hefner,
Emily Reeves, Lee Heywood, Jamil Jones,
Kathy Leonard, Mrs. Celia Cunningham,
Naya Tisdale, Diego Agosto,
Anaya Stacey Hogg,
Tim Frank, Quinn Edie,
Arlene Hip, Shari Williams,
Jamal Mohammed Khan, Valerie Batchelor,
Jasmine Hurt, Melody Davis, Madeline Stacy, Amber McZeal,
Angela Matos maybe, and Mr. Hazard.
In any order, please approach the podium.
Please approach the podium.
Yes.
Hi, everyone.
This is Gerald Petchenuk, and I am from District 4.
And what we've all just witnessed
is a gigantic narrative, a gigantic game show,
a gigantic Tom Foolery waste of time.
And I heard the word consultants, waste the money.
Okay, I got three lists here.
I read them real quick.
One is the number top 25 cities in the US.
Next is a number of how many data centers in each.
And a third is what year they went in.
You are repeating research that has been done
in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.
Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, Aspern, Columbus,
Des Moines, Santa Clara, Minneapolis, 185, 166,
156, 136, 136, 114, 69.
Thank you, sir, your time is up.
This is Mindy Petchenuk.
And there is a way to develop data centers, and here it is.
We could use the army base, for example.
And we could actually increase the jobs for our young people
in apprentice programs.
And there's no problem with water and electricity,
because the data centers can pay for that kind of development.
And we can use other things besides East Bay mud for water.
We've got a whole bay out there.
Let's think outside of the box.
rather than being caught in the box.
That's how Oakland developed as a city.
We were the endpoint of the Transcontinental Railroad.
In the 1940s, we were known as the Detroit of the West
because we went with technology.
And the problem in West Oakland
didn't occur because of technology.
The problem in West Oakland
has been going on since the 1980s.
It's a leadership question.
The only way out for Oakland is to develop, is to grow.
You know you've heard it from me.
we could reduce taxes, we can reduce the amount.
Thank you, Mindy.
Your time is up.
Hello, I'm Sharon Taylor.
One second, order in the chambers.
We listen politely.
Others should listen politely.
And I'm in favor of the data centers.
I'm opposed to the board for the record.
Can you state your name for the record?
Pause our time, please.
Sharon Taylor.
Thank you, ma'am.
And as has been mentioned,
they've been going on now for quite a while.
And I'm thinking and hoping that the data centers
themselves, the developers of these things,
are well aware of the problems that people have experienced
if they did experience problems and are making preparations
to do it better.
And Oakland has been a city that thrived on industry
and commercialism for many years.
And I'm hoping and wishing that you would see fit
to let companies come into the city.
There's, there haven't been one catastrophe that we heard of.
Have you heard of a catastrophe?
Have you heard of a water or a shutdown or anything?
Issues of noise or heat are gonna be addressed.
And I think data centers are gonna be beneficial.
Thank you, Ms. Taylor, your time is up.
Peter Brown, Laney College professor
and 56-year Eaton district fire resident
speaking in favor.
As we just saw in the recent election,
Opposition to AI data centers is a massively popular issue
across all dividing lines.
Of 30 moratorium ballot measures nationwide, 29 passed.
Whoever your constituents are, it's highly likely
that they support extending this moratorium.
Don't cast your vote today based on the illusion
we're operating in the old economy,
where corporate investment in Oakland
meant thousands of lasting good-paying jobs,
as well as property, business and income tax
flowing into city coffers.
Those days are long gone.
In this new economy where every investment
is just another asset to be exploited
and used as collateral for more investment,
every corporate move is to extract from our communities.
That's what data centers will mean for Oakland.
Pass this moratorium universe.
Little bit shorter here.
My name is Dennis Thomas and I've been a resident
in Oakland for 50 years.
And one of the things that happened,
I was in the Vietnam War.
When I got out, I went all the way up and down
this lovely state of ours, because we had a job country.
It was in 1975, I don't know if some of the older guys
would know about this.
But I ended up getting a job at Dipsy Pack in Alameda,
Data Processing Service Center.
And it was a data center.
I've been an IT professional for 30 years,
and then I went into food service for another 20
before I retired.
But one of the things that I see about the data centers
is that they're offering opportunities for,
they would have to actually put in their own power,
their own power plants.
And from what I understand that any excess electricity
would go into our grid.
I think that's a plus.
The other thing is that if we do agree to them
having a data center, let's make sure
that they put training facilities right here
to train people in Oakland to work in these facilities.
as a- as a homeowner thank you Sir your time is up. Hi my name is
idea Martinez I'm a resident of district seven and I work in
district five. I don't believe that we should have data centers
and the moratorium should be expended because they don't
produce anything and nobody wants that in our community
anymore so I'm against the data centers and for the moratorium
thank you. Hi everyone my name is Alicia kid I am a resident
born and raised in district seven and I have a business in
here we are a responsible AI
human-centered company- I do
support the moratorium for the
thirty five day extension- also-
we need to study more of the
environment the utility. The
jobs and have a community of
benefit in a workforce
agreement benefit. I've already
myself as a company have
drafted a framework around
community engagement benefit in
the environment and I'm really
for that RFP as a consultant.
Thank you.
And just before the next member of the public
speaks a reminder to the council members participating
remotely, your cameras must be on for the full time
of this meeting.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Melanie Davis from District 3.
I'm not going to keep you long either.
But I want to say to Gallo, if they had that much space
say to uh gallo if they had that much space 27 acres why don't you have it over in your area
instead of my area which is west oakland i'm tired of them doing stuff to us you know i worked
in the oakland ace thing you guys remember me from that you you knew but the rest of y'all
y'all know me i'm against it because it doesn't benefit me and none of my children are not i
I ain't getting no generational wealth from the data place,
but a big headache.
And you young man Houston,
I wanna say thank you for talking about enforcement.
You know, I know about enforcement.
I worked in the sheriff department.
So I know about that and the games they play.
I'm tired of talking about politics.
And that's what we doing.
They not giving us no community benefits,
none whatsoever.
And job, oh, it ain't for us.
It ain't gonna be for us.
you. Thank you. Hello my name is Stacy Hogue Stewart I am a generational business owner
and resident of eighty years in district three. I stand here and I ask the council to please
extend this memoratorium okay we need this we need to make sound decisions on whether
we vote yes or no on a data center coming to west Oakland. As of the the the comments
before, people are misinformed. They're misinformed and they don't have the
right information to make an informed vote. So I ask the council today to
please honor this extension. Thank you. Good afternoon to each and every
council members that's present. I'm Mrs. Cecilia Cunningham and I've been a
resident of Oakland for over 67 years and every time you look around it's
something coming up and that's fine but the same time whatever comes up here in
Oakland the community is supposed to have a say so and no such thing as
having things done just by the council without the council hearing from the
community. The Punic can have a say so or whatever goes on in Oakland. We pay
taxes here and we got to have whatever goes on here in Oakland. We are supposed to know about it.
And whatever goes on here it has to be accountability. That's why we need to
we have a ten month moratorium.
Thank you Ms. Cunningham, your time is up.
Thank you Ms. Estilia.
My name is Naya Tisdell, I am an East Oakland organizer with Communities for a Better Environment.
I'm here to urge you to vote yes for this moratorium.
We have community meetings every single month and we talk about what's going on in East Oakland.
more than we can do and we were
burdened under resourced and
when we're thinking about these
new data centers coming into
Oakland.
Community members say no.
And we know that if we allow it
it'll go straight to east
Oakland which already has so
much industry so much pollution
and so we are trying to better
our communities and this is a
And yeah, Oakland is a historically
Red-lined and gentrified with deliberate disinvestments by our government. So I
Just urge you to vote. Yes today. Thank you
Tony says Scott and speaking with Bradley gentry with time-seated to us from ebony reads Daniela dane yam. Yaka Dallas
So for me, I have time-seated from ebony reason Daniella, okay, and what's your name? Tony? She's got
Okay, you said Ebony Reese and Daniella Danes.
Hello, council, my name is Ms. Scott.
I represent District 7, and I'm a member of C4C
that's Care for Community Action.
I pride myself on helping others and serving my community.
That's what C4C stands for,
and it's something we don't just talk about,
we put in the work.
We've been going door to door,
speaking directly with residents,
listening to their concerns,
connecting with over 2,500 residents,
and conducting 424 surveys.
We aren't speaking on assumptions,
we're bringing the voices and concerns
of the people directly to this council.
Extending this moratorium is not just an act,
it's a need and it's a request coming directly
from the residents of West Oakland.
When this council votes to extend this moratorium,
you're showing Oakland that resident voices
are finally being heard
and that their concerns actually matter.
We need to do more homework
and that homework requires more time.
Residents want answers.
They want to understand the environmental
and public health risks associated with AI data centers.
That was one of the major concerns we heard
while speaking to our community.
And I have to ask, if residents are crying out,
sharing their concerns and asking for protections,
but nothing is done, then what are we really listening to?
Our surveys show that 73% of residents
support a permanent ban on all AI data centers
being built here in Oakland.
That is a number that this council should take seriously.
Residents deserve to feel safe, secure, informed,
and heard by the people elected in those chairs.
I'm here today to ask you to extend this moratorium
for another 10 months.
Give our community the time it deserves.
Give residents the opportunity to be heard,
and give the council the opportunity
to do the necessary work that is needed.
We need more time to put clear regulations,
safeguards, and protections in place before moving forward.
Right now residents are living with fear and uncertainty
because we do not know what to expect
or how these proposed changes will affect our neighborhoods
and our communities.
Residents deserve to be informed about what is happening
in their own communities.
We should not be moving forward without clear rules,
transparency, and accountability,
and meaningful community input.
I recognize that the author of this moratorium
has already held two town halls
to hear directly from residents about their concerns
surrounding AI data centers.
I believe residents of every district
deserve the same opportunity to be heard and formed
and included in these important topics.
These additional 10 months will give us the time
to work together, listen to residents,
address community concerns, and develop regulations
that prioritize public protection.
Please extend this moratorium for another 10 months.
Our communities deserve safeguards and accountability,
not a rushed process that leave residents
uninformed and unprotected.
Our community deserve a seat at a table
before decisions are made that can impact
all of our futures, thank you.
Yeah, and then I got a time exceeded
from Nikia Bourne and Nyaka Dallas.
And are you Gentry?
Yeah, I'm Gentry.
All right, good evening city council members.
My name is Bradley Gentry.
I'm with C4C Care for Community Action.
And I'm here today to urge you
to extend the moratorium AI data centers in West Oakland.
I'm not just speaking for myself today,
I'm speaking for the thousands of residents
whose voices deserve to be heard.
Over the last two weeks, our team has knocked
on more than 2,500 doors in West Oakland.
We have faces, we have face-to-face conversations
on these issues, and I want you to understand something.
We didn't just hear people's concerns,
we saw the worry and frustrations on their faces.
People are worried about their electricity bills going up.
They're worried about rent continuing to rise.
They're worried about being pushed out of neighborhoods.
They called home for generations.
And they're asking one very important question.
If these data centers are coming into our communities,
how are people here going to benefit?
Where are the guarantee of good paying union jobs?
Where are the protections against rising utility costs?
And who's going to make sure our communities
aren't left paying the price?
Here's what stood out to me the most.
Only 2% of the residents we survey
oppose the ban on AI data centers, just 2%.
That tells us something important.
The overwhelming majority of people we spoke with
who are asking you not to rush this decision,
they're asking you to protect their community.
So I wanna ask the council one simple question.
Do we really believe that 45 days moratorium is enough?
Is 45 days enough to study the environmental impacts,
Enough to understand how these projects
could affect our electricity bills.
Enough to guarantee local jobs, protect renters,
and give residents a meaningful opportunity
to participate in the decisions that affect their future.
I don't believe it is.
I grew up in East Oakland.
I've seen what happens when decisions are made
about our communities without the people
who live there having a real voice.
We're not against development.
We're not against technology.
And we're certainly not against good paying jobs.
but development should benefit the people who live here
not come at their expense.
I'm asking the council to listen
to the residents of West Oakland.
Respect the concerns we've heard of thousands of doors
and extend moratorium long enough to give real answers.
Because 45 days is not enough time to make decisions
that could affect this community for generations, thank you.
My name is Leslie Bolingdier.
I've been seated time by Lee Heywood and Sophia Hefner.
Thank you, Council.
My name is Reverend Leslie Boling Dyer.
I am a resident of West Oakland, as well as a landlord.
I also am a part of the Hoover Foster Resident Action Council,
as well as an associate minister at Allen Temple Baptist
Church.
I want to extend the context here.
Data centers are a part of the necessary infrastructure
for the rise of an economically and politically
untouchable class.
And people are not just being Luddites,
Displaying an irrational fear of technology,
technological innovation is not equivalent
to social progress.
The steam engine was a technological innovation,
but it led to Indian removal
in the name of westward expansion.
The cotton gin was a technological innovation,
but it fueled African enslavement.
Technologies are released into societies
and cultures in ways that creates winners and losers.
Technological advance is not the problem in and of itself,
but it's the people who control it.
Corporate actors continually find that the straightest line
to profitability is to sever any sense of moral obligation
to one's fellow human being in a quest for another dollar.
And it leaves vulnerable communities open
to be thrown under the bus.
If Indian removal and enslavement feel like ancient history,
let me just fast forward.
The tech industry right now is using insights
from behavioral psychology to weaponize them
against our children in the form of algorithms
that make our kids addicted to social media.
Tech industry's inclination was not to protect
our children's vulnerability and innocence,
but to exploit it.
Market behavior is guided by a logic
of competitive economic self-interest.
Government decision making should be guided by a logic of cooperative optimization of
well-being for everyone.
You guys are operating with an industry at opposite kinds of logics.
You need to be concerned and you are and you have been the gatekeepers of the common good.
That is the sacred burden you have taken on.
It is the role of government to stand between the rapacious inclinations of economically
self-interested market actors and the common good of civil society.
And you did that when you passed the initial 45-day moratorium.
And I applaud you for that.
And I am now asking you to continue to stand in the gap for the common good, because we,
the common folk, are going to need at least 10 months to figure out what is the common
and good for our very pluralistic, very different,
very diverse community, and for us to come up
with meaningful community benefits.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, my name is Quanah Parker Brightman,
I'm Executive Director of United Native Americans.
Also remind the City Council and all who are here
that this is National Native American Heritage Month.
So when we're talking about land use, you know,
would be nice if you would consult the indigenous people whose land you're currently occupying.
So as far as the United Native Americans, we're here again to demand that the Oakland
City Council votes to ban data centers here in Oakland, California.
Multiple Native American tribes have implemented bans, moratoriums, and restrictions on building
Hyperscale AI and crypto data centers on our sovereign lands.
So I implore you to please take action
to protect our community, protect our constituents.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, council members.
My name is Tim Frank and I'm here representing
the Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council.
And I wanna thank the council for considering this item
and Carol Fife, Council Member Fife,
for your leadership on this.
data centers really need guardrails. If we want to make sure that we're
addressing the air in the water in the energy and the fiscal impacts and that
we're actually making sure that projects are getting providing real community
benefits you have to do your homework you have to put the rules in place
because that's the only way this works and we support the idea of taking the
time it takes to actually do that right and really appreciate your work on this.
Thank you. Good afternoon my name is Zoe Johnik I'm a third generation
Oaklander and I am a resident of District 1. I am also an organizer with
350 Bay Area, we're a grassroots environmental group with members across
the Bay Area, especially here in Oakland and 350 Bay Area is a member of the stop
AI data centers Alameda County Coalition. We've been very grateful to the City
Council for supporting and pushing and voting for this moratorium, the 45-day
the state. I'd like to just
raise a concern that you know
that the or not a concern but
rather that the city- looks
into and issues regulations
that make sure that there's no
sneaking in of any other kind
of- of anything under the
language that could go through-
we don't want anything that's
can be labeled as incidental
just because it's going to an
additional. The law that's
being used by the state and
and additional and existing building of course hospital. Thank you your time is up. A reminder
against the council members on your cameras must be on for. The duration of the meeting. Thank you. Hi. I'm
Sherry Williams I've been a Oakland residents for about all my life. And also district. Seven council member. Yes. And the
As far as the moratorium, I think
it should be permanent, really.
We don't need this.
Oakland, West Oakland, East Oakland,
we need to really do more in-depth studies
on what's happening.
How is this going to impact the environment of our people,
of our residents here?
And how is the impact?
Is it going to be for our youth?
Don't they have a say so into what's happening?
to me is just we have to stop this.
And do more in-depth study and to make it better.
Far as the housing insecurity.
You know we are having housing insecurity.
We need, we just need to do more research.
Research and impact on the community.
Hello, my name is Jasmine.
I am a organizer for ACE Oakland.
I've been organizing in West Oakland
and I lived in, well, Oakland has been my home
since I was born.
I believe Oakland's future should be shaped
by the people who live there and not by corporations
looking for profit at our expenses.
I want to know how much water and electricity
these facilities will consume
and how will they affect Oakland residents.
I'm concerned about the impact of our utility bills,
our environment, our air quality, public health,
the resources our neighbors depend on.
Our communities are already dealing with rising costs,
housing insecurity, environmental pollution,
and underinvestment, we cannot afford to take
on additional burdens for private corporations' profit.
As a taxpayer, I believe our health, our environment,
and our quality of life must come before corporate profits.
That is why I am here today to support a moratorium
on data centers development in Oakland.
We need to pause approval, conduct a thorough
and independent assessment before moving forward.
Greetings, my name is Jamal Ironcoat Mohammed Khan.
I'm a proud member of ACE, and I've lived in Oakland
for about four years now.
As you can see in this room, there's
a lot of melanated faces.
And what I'm telling you now is that this has started in 1619
and has not abated since.
The billionaires aren't in the room.
This is classism.
We're not talking about proposing a data center
over there in Marin County on Skywalker Ranch
with pros in it in Oakland.
This is where the poor people are.
The wealthy people aren't here.
This is part of a design to disenfranchise us again.
Let's be real about this.
We don't need a data center in Oakland.
Do not do this.
It affects our price, our way of living,
and we can barely afford living as it is in this city.
Think about it.
Peace.
My name is Valerie Batchelor,
and I'm the director of ACE Oakland.
I'm here today to support the moratorium
for data center development.
At ACE, we organize with tenants, working class families
who are already struggling with rising costs of rent,
unsafe housing, and growing impact
on environmental injustice.
Our communities cannot make decisions about Oakland's future
without understanding who benefits and who bears the costs.
Data centers raise serious concerns
about electricity consumption, water usage,
utility rates, even when PG&E is set to increase their rates
by 30% this year, environmental impacts,
and whether these developments actually deliver meaningful long-term benefits to Oakland residents.
We cannot allow corporations to make decisions that could place additional burdens on our
neighbors, on our friends, and our members of our community, who are already dealing
with affordability and health issues.
Our Oakland resources should serve Oakland people.
Our communities deserve a seat at the table, and we—
Thank you, Ms. Bachel, your time is up.
My name is Diego Rodriguez.
Good afternoon, council members.
Like I mentioned, my name is Diego Rodriguez.
I was born and raised here in Oakland,
and I'm now raising my family.
I have two wonderful kids.
And working alongside communities, particularly
in the flatlands through the Oakland Freedom Project,
I'm asking you to vote yes on item 4.1
and extend the data center moratorium
for 10 months and 15 days.
Oakland residents already face high utility bills, pollution,
and years of being overlooked.
there's no one out there
the information I was learning
you know just today is
ridiculous so we should not
approve or rush to approve any
data centers that use large
amounts of electricity water
increase pollution and place
added cost on our communities
which are already being
stretched.
Technology should serve Oakland
residents and not come at the
cost of our health resources or
household bills.
and I'm going to be able to.
market is there. So where you spend your money, where you spend your time also shows what you
value. You guys even considering the data center in West Oakland also shows the values of the
people of the community. Like you guys said, this is generations of dilapidatedness. Um, to your
point, Congress, excuse me, to your point, mister, about, um, where the buildings are, where there's
plenty of buildings, thousands of dilapidated buildings, grocery stores have closed. So we
So we don't need to waste any more money on those types of research in my opinion.
I would like to see a skating rink in West Oakland.
I would like...
Thank you ma'am.
Your time is up.
DM us to finish your comments.
Ma'am, make sure you DM us to finish your comments, okay?
Alright.
Hi, my name is Angela Maddox, Oakland resident, and I'm here to support the Momentarium.
I just want to say one thing we noticed on Tuesday
is we're being fed a lot of dialogues and philosophies
nationwide about what's going on in this country that
are simply not true.
We do not go into civil war.
Actually, Alabama elected their first trans lawmaker.
You would never believe that by what we're being told.
These dialogues are not true.
We do not have to succumb to them and do what they say just
because they tell us it's our future
and we do not have to comply.
Right now in Kansas and Pennsylvania,
they're trying to pay residents $10,000 each
to have data centers come in.
This tells me that they're scared of being sued,
probably because they are being sued,
probably because they spent $7 million
to put up a sound wall in Memphis, Tennessee,
and it didn't work.
They can still hear it a mile and a half away.
They could be using this AI to cure cancer
and fix the environment, but actually they're creating both.
They're destroying everything.
They're focused on mass surveillance.
They're focused on dynamic pricing.
They're not using this technology to service at all,
and we should not support it.
Madeline Stacy, I've been a West Oakland resident
for 17 years.
Yes, pass the moratorium and then pass it
for the full length that it's allowable.
And then a permanent full ban on all
any sized AI data centers.
We don't want any size at all in Oakland.
Oaklanders have been speaking.
We want none of them.
Data centers are notorious for not bringing in jobs.
There's no place to train Oaklanders
because there's not a number of jobs in these centers.
And we don't want to further fund AI billionaires.
We also don't want to fund Bezos and Musk
with their Prometheus projects.
And the other one is leaving right now.
The point being that Oakland should be for Oaklanders.
And yes, we need to bring business here,
but it needs to be business for Oaklanders.
No displacement for development.
We have to prioritize our people.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Anaya.
I live in district one for more than 40 years.
This, these data centers would just increase the gap
between the rich and ultra rich and the rest of us.
Also, the gentleman who talked about how great it would be
because some data center was gonna have
their own power plant.
This is exactly how the environment gets poisoned
and how people in West Oakland are being poisoned.
I just really want to uplift everything that Carol Pfeiff said.
Thank you so much, Congress, council member.
And I hope that I definitely am demanding that you all pass the moratorium,
but I hope to eventually see a permanent ban. Thank you so much.
Hello, my name is Quinn and I'm with fossil free California and also part of the
stop AI debt centers, Alameda County coalition.
And I wanted to bring to your attention that currently over 56% of electricity
used to power data centers across the country is sourced from fossil fuels,
whether that's through the major energy providers or onsite energy.
And then in addition to that, pretty much every data center has backup
generation that's based on diesel.
As a result of that, predictions are showing from a UC Riverside study that
that one-third of asthma cases could be data center driven by 2030 if we don't do something
about it.
And in addition, in California, we're all very closely experiencing the skyrocketing
electricity costs.
Over the past decade, electricity has doubled in price.
Imagine what could happen to our rates if we have data centers proliferating everywhere.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Cynthia Koffman, also Fossil Free California District 3 resident and part of the Stop
AA data centers coalition.
I am so appreciative of Carol Pfeiffer bringing forward this moratorium.
I think it's wonderful.
A couple of you mentioned the idea of do no harm and issues around disproportionate impact.
I would argue that it's actually impossible to build data centers without doing harm to
a community and without having disproportionate impact on our low-income communities.
I therefore think that we will eventually need to have a ban on data centers.
I also just want to ask staff if they could please keep their eye on the possibility of
the exemption that's in the bill for secondary use being manipulated by bad actors who might
want to use that under the guise of secondary use to actually put in really large data centers.
Thank you so much for all the work you're doing.
Good afternoon.
My name is Sarah Noor.
I'm also from Fossil Free California.
I'm a Fruitvale resident in District Five
and a parent of a student
at Manzanita Seed Elementary School.
We strongly support the moratorium extension
where I live in Fruitvale.
Kids are already exposed to lead, poor air quality,
toxins from industry in East Oakland.
And we don't need to add to that
for projects like data centers
that don't contribute value to our community,
don't create jobs,
and are really just serving two enriched tech billionaires.
Also, as some other folks said,
we're concerned that developers of the 20th Street project
and other mixed use AI developments
could try to manipulate the secondary use exemption
to push through large data centers
that are part of mixed use projects.
So we would ask the city council
and the planning department to put guardrails in place
to ensure that that doesn't happen.
Thanks very much.
Hello, my name is Renee Ko.
I'm a District 2 resident and an organizer
with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
As others have said, the problem is not
the technological innovation.
The problem is technology that's in the wrong hands.
And right now, it's very clear
that AI technology is in the wrong hands.
This weekend, on Saturday, ICE kidnapped four people
from Oakland in four separate operations.
And yesterday, ICE was spotted in the vicinity
of three different Oakland schools.
ICE uses AI data centers to process the information
it needs to stock and abduct immigrant communities.
And so it's clear that the billionaires and corporations
are in the driver's seat right now with AI technology,
and they are motivated only by profit.
Their values do not align with the people of Oakland.
And I appreciate C4C telling us that 73%
of West Oakland residents don't want a permanent ban,
and Oakland workers should be the ones
who make this decision.
So I support this 10-month extension,
but that is just the beginning.
I support a permanent ban.
Good afternoon, Councilpersons.
My name is Kathy Leonard.
I live in District 1 currently, but I've lived in District 3.
I've lived in East, North, and West Oakland.
So I'm concerned about all of Oakland.
But I'm particularly concerned.
Oh, by the way, I've been Sister Asada ceded her time to me.
I've been concerned about West Oakland
because West Oakland has been redlined.
Black people were redlined into West Oakland
where there were harmful industrial emissions,
which continue to this day.
The asthma and cancer rates for children and seniors
in West Oakland is higher than any other district
in the city of Oakland.
So now we're gonna bring data centers to West Oakland
with the noise levels.
We have children there.
We're attending school.
This humming all day, 24 hours a day.
The sucking up of energy, of water, of electricity,
Suppose the electricity goes out.
Those people are going to have backups.
What about us?
What about our seniors, our people
who have health issues, our children?
Data centers are not for Oakland.
Keep them out of Oakland.
So I think this moratorium should be extended forever,
if you ask me.
Not 10 months.
Let's do the research.
And I believe that the research will bear out.
The majority of people in this room
will believe that data centers are not the way.
Let's bring some productive businesses to Oakland that
actually help Oaklanders who improve
the health of Oaklanders, not kill us.
These centers are killers.
Let's protect Oaklanders.
If you love this city like you say you do,
if you love your constituents like you say you do,
extend this moratorium.
And then in 10 months, come back and say no to AI.
Thank you.
Thank you sir, thank you sir.
You're out of order.
That's your first warning, you're out of order, that's your second warning, security
please remove them.
See you next time.
Jean has it, littlecleanoakland.com, people's not profit.
The moratorium, the guard wells are fine,
but don't get locked in to 10 months,
because what's to say you're going to come up
with a realistic solution?
Be in a position to extend that moratorium beyond 10 months.
Like it's already been quoted, a permanent ban,
but we know the powers should be,
you're not going to go for that.
So do it incrementally, keep extending the moratorium.
You're going to tell me you're going to come up
with a solution in 10 months?
I don't think so.
People not profits.
You've got ambient particles.
Data centers are not confined in that brick and mortar.
It extends throughout the whole city,
as been already articulated earlier.
West Oakland, it's the highest hall,
but everybody else is not immune.
Thank you, Mr. Hazard.
Moving to the Zoom speaker, starting with Mina Kuche.
Please unmute yourself.
Yes, please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hi, my name is Mina Kuche.
I'm a resident of East Oakland district six.
First, I wanna thank all the organizers
and activists for coming out,
especially Care for Community
for the work that y'all put in
to engage with the community.
So Oakland has a history of ignoring their residents' health
in the guise of economic progress.
I wanna give an example that in the Fruitvale neighborhood,
we still have children reporting high levels of blood
in their blood because of being exposed to blood.
So we need to focus on healing,
not from the decades of environmental injustice,
not adding more factors to that,
so that we'll have to address them for generations to come.
So I'm in favor of a total ban of data centers in Oakland.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Emi Yoko, please let me know what name
you submitted a card under.
It should be under Emi Yoko Young.
I'm not sure if I got mine in on time.
Yes, I don't have a card for you, I'm sorry.
Okay.
Moving to reclaim your, reclaim our power,
please let me know what name you submitted a card under.
Hello, yes, I submitted a card under Colin Andrew Logan.
I'm sorry, say it one more time.
Colin Andrew Logan.
I'm sorry, I don't have a card for you either.
Moving to Bailey Hurley.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
Hello, my name is Bailey Hurley
from Local Clean Energy Alliance.
Thank you for passing the 45-day moratorium,
but these 45 days have not been enough.
I would like to ensure that we don't see data centers
that don't meet transparency requirements
or data centers that use any kind
of non-disclosure agreements.
I don't want to see more than 7 million gallons per month,
considering all water use of any kind.
I don't want to see continuous noise levels
above 45 decibels or any infrasound.
I don't want to see more than 500 kilowatts of energy,
and I don't want to see any backup diesel generators.
I would also like to see strong enforcement of regulations
with punishments being more substantial than a small fine,
which would mean nothing to a large tech company.
I wanna see publicly available monthly reporting
of temperature to monitor the heat island effect,
as well as air quality, surface water quality,
groundwater quality and soil quality.
And I wanna see publicly available reporting
of energy usage, water, waste output, sound levels,
air pollution and other community environmental impacts.
And I want taxes with no exemptions,
Increasing during emergencies Maria Vargas, please. Let me know what name you submitted a card under
If your name was calling you're in chambers or on zoom, please raise your hand if you still wish to speak on this item
Marina Marina, what name did you submit a card under?
Come with the yamas Marina Munoz, nothing go on seat that part
is
I understand that this is not the
way it is.
At this time all names have been called.
Thank you so much for all the public speakers for coming to
speak on this item.
And we can call the vote.
And to the council members participating remotely please
turn your cameras on.
There was a motion by councilmember 5 seconded by
councilmember brown to close the public hearing and adopt
these items noting that item two is an emergency ordinance does require seven votes and will be approved for final passage and in the same day in the same meeting.
Council council member Brown.
Council member five.
Council member guy.
Council member Houston.
Council member Rama Chandra.
Council member Unger.
Councilmember Wong and chair Jenkins motion passes with the vote of
Moving to item 5.1
Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to amend the professional services agreement with Ralph Anderson
Associates to extend the agreement term through August 31
2027 and increase the not to exceed amount by two hundred thousand dollars from
$250,000 to four hundred and fifty thousand dollars
The Hawkins company to extend the agreement term through August 31 2027 and increase the not to exceed amount by
$100,000 from
$250,000 to
$350,000 the co-operative personnel services DBA CVS HR consulting to extend the agreement term through August 31
2027 and waving the competitive bid process requests for proposals and the local small business enterprise program
There are two speakers on this item
Hi, good afternoon council members. My name is Amber Lidle interim human resources director
Before you this evening is an item requesting an extension of the city's existing executive recruitment contracts with Ralph Anderson
Associates the Hawkins Company and CPS HR consulting these firms
Assist the city with recruiting for key executive and leadership positions
The original request included extending all three contracts and increasing the contract
amounts to support current and anticipated recruitment needs.
Based on discussions during the Finance and Management Committee meeting, we're amending
our request and we're now requesting to extend all three contracts through August 31, 2027
and authorize an additional 75,000 on the Ralph Anderson and Associates contract.
this authorization will allow the firm to complete recruitment currently in
progress and begin other key leadership recruitments. I just want to note that we
will be starting a new RFP process for both executive search firms and temp
services in the upcoming meetings. So these revised requests really does
maintain our ability to utilize all three firms while providing the
additional funding needed to move forward with our immediate recruitment
Priorities, I'm available to answer any questions. Thank you
Council member under a
couple of questions, so this
includes the reduction from 200,000 to 75,000 that we
Committee that's correct. Okay, and just so I understand these are
Contract extensions so they don't require a new RFPs. That is correct. Yes. Thank you. Thank you
Was that a motion?
council member well
Excellent. I'll second it. All right. We've got a motion a second. Let's go. Oh, somebody's yelling. Is that why I'm a chunder. It sounds like where I'm a chunder
Yes
Thank you. I'd like to say a couple of words since
My no vote in finance is the reason this is on non-consent today. I
appreciate the willingness of the HR department to listen to the committee and my fellow committee members
Really trying to question where we're putting our limited city dollars, and I appreciate that you were willing to take away
the several hundred thousands of dollars of additional asks towards these recruiting firms, but I
maintain my position which is a strong no vote on
Increasing even this Ralph Anderson contract by any amount
I believe that we spend way too much money on head-hunting firms and don't
often get good results for it or if we do there's already someone that's
selected anyway and it's almost an additional process that
doesn't really carry the weight given how much money we spend on it. There's
obviously a need to recruit good and talented people for the city of Oakland
especially for these positions that have been recently
vacated, among many, many others.
But I do not believe that this is
a good use of our limited funds.
And there's plenty of other ways that our HR department can
recruit without the need of headhunting firms, especially
ones that are not local small businesses based in Oakland.
So it's not even that this money is going to support Oakland
small businesses or minority businesses or others
that are serving our own people.
So I understand that recruiting does require time and effort
but I think given that we've already spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars
for some of these large scale recruitments
and that the HR department already engages
in their own recruitment efforts spreading the word
for these high level positions far and wide
that your department is plenty capable doing it
without needing expensive outside firms
and just personally, I believe that with limited money
that the city continues to have,
we cannot keep outsourcing roles
that city employees and city leaders can do on their own.
We don't have a lot of money
and we shouldn't be spending our limited dollar
to outside firms,
especially ones that aren't even based in Oakland.
So I'm gonna maintain my no vote, thank you.
Thank you, Council Member.
Council Member Gallo.
Turn your mic on.
There we go.
All right, thank you.
Just for the record, so you're waiving
the competitive process.
Nope.
The end.
That is correct.
You're, I mean, there's, it used to be that in Oakland,
being here for many, many years and working for the city,
that we would train the individuals that are here
to become the managers and the leaders and the administrators
and not have to go out of town to bring someone
that doesn't even know where Fruitvale Avenue is,
but they're gonna tell me how to do it.
And we're experiencing, look at the turnover,
and the hiring and the firing that we're making.
These are people that come from,
coming across from the United States to run Oakland.
So for me, my only, my vote no on this issue would be that
we need to do a better job in-house.
With every department training people, grooming people,
making sure they continue to lead those departments as opposed to hiring someone that
You know is coming from at a time to tell me who to hire and what to do
So thank you for that information, but I will have to vote no on this issue. Thank you. Thank you councilmember
Let's go to the public speakers
As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order
Mississauga Ola Bala and Mr. Hazzard
Well, Mr. Gayo, you are a sanctuary city, and so it don't matter where you come from.
Is that correct?
So drop that.
I don't agree with it, but that's what y'all say.
Anybody and everybody can come into Oakland, it don't matter where you come from.
But I want to applaud the finance committee.
I was in attendance at the meeting, and I love the way the committee scrutinized the
legitimacy of this item and in doing that they identified there's a lot of
unnecessary funds going into executive searches and there was an amendment in
order to not spend excessive unneeded amount of monies from that committee and
so I applaud the committee and I encourage you to continue to do this
scrutinize don't continue to rubber stamp things has been the majority of way
businesses taking place in this city okay so let's let's continue the good
work that happened around this why do you consistently wave the process so why
have it if you got a process in place then you turn around and said we're
gonna wave that particularly as it relates to the SLBE and mr. guile you're
You're right, uh-huh,
seldomly would I acknowledge that publicly.
But in this instance, you're right.
You should not be waiving the process.
And the department here has had long experience,
and they know how to go out and recruit.
You don't have to do these high-paying,
consultant firms to do what you already know how to do.
doesn't make sense you want to grease their pockets for somebody outside to
tell you what you need on the inside thank you mr. Hazard thank you mr.
Hazard all right councilmember Houston yeah through the chair I just want to
piggyback on what council member Janani said if it's not about Oakland and
and wave in and I'm gonna say no on this one, too
Madam, Kurt, let's call the roll
There was a motion by Councilmember Unger second by councilmember brown momento
Yes, thank you very much chair. I'm hoping that Michelle Phillips is going to be able to join us for a moment
this contract is to ensure that we have the ability to close out our
constitutional policing recruitment as well as
that the mayor's priority recruitment, so I just want to make sure that you all know that that's the topic of
This request and I will ask if you have additional questions
For Michelle she is here and available
ACA councilmember Houston would like to hear from you
Good afternoon council members of the public Michelle Phillips assistant city administrator. I also
Oversee the human resources department. I think there were several challenges with our ability to be effectively
Transparent and to ask for the appropriate amount of funding during this process
I do want to say that there are individuals on the Ralph Anderson search firm who are previous employees in
executive level positions in
From the city of Oakland live in California and have an experience as well. What is the
What is unfortunate is that we did not come in a timely manner and was transparent with what was
Necessary from the HR department that is an apology that the city administration
Needs to take on because there is a specific recruitment
That is required. I think we all know that the mayor has asked for a
professional
recruitment firm
to make sure that we get the best qualified applicant
for the city administrator position.
I don't think that that is an unreasonable ask.
It is also very important for us to understand
that there are certain firms
that specialize in certain things.
One thing we will be coming back forward with
is to change contract authority from one of the firms
that we're asking to extend the Hawkins firm
that has a specific niche to change some of that money
And there is a net value that is
cost neutral to Ralph Anderson to cover additional funds.
This is something that we are working on internally.
So one, I want to apologize to not only the city council,
but also the members of the public for not bringing forward
these items timely and being transparent in the way that we
should as a human resources professionals and making sure
that we have quality candidates.
But there are individuals on this proposal that have worked
to move forward.
So I think it's something that
we are actively recruiting for
so I do respectfully request
that you approve staff's
recommendations as we work
together as a city to move
forward.
Through the chair- it's not I
appreciate it.
Miss Phillips but that's not
your fault I mean I.
Appreciate you taking that that
hit.
And it's not too many people can
make me.
Change my vote.
you and then I have a motion to
vote to vote to vote to yes.
That's the member brown yep I
just wanted to make sure just
for the members of the public
and just overall clarity.
You know we discussed this item
in great detail in the finance
committee and the item that is
before us right now.
As my colleague mentioned we
significantly reduce the cost of
the contract so the original
ask was at two hundred and
fifty thousand and we reduced it
And then in your agenda report,
it states the key positions that this item
is recruiting for that has already,
we've already started that recruitment, right?
So that's yet another reason why we need to go ahead
and move forward with approving this contract.
And then I imagine with some of the upcoming vacancies
that we've experienced, you all may be back before us again
in order to facilitate that recruitment.
So I just wanna make sure that there's, you know,
we're aware of what may also be coming again.
And so I don't know if you want to add
a little bit more to that.
Absolutely, through the chair, I think.
Also with the passage of Measure EE,
there are some very specific pointed recruitments
specifically for the city council's newly created office
by way of Measure EE that we will be recruiting for as well.
The chief of budget and legislative analyst office
it's something that we would also likely use a search firm
for given the fact that we are currently searching
for a budget analyst for our citywide finance
that is a specific niche area
that we would likely utilize that same firm
that we're using since they will already have
a compiled candidate pool.
Councilmember Houston.
I wanna say thank you Ms. Phillips.
I appreciate you coming up here explaining that.
You're very welcome Councilmember through the chair.
All right, so Councilman Councilmember Gail Dinh-Wamachandra.
Do you share with us and publicly what are some of the
positions we're looking at for recruitment?
Yes, so as of right now, the active recruitment and I,
let me not take over everything.
We do have the interim assistant director of human resources
who can probably run it down quicker.
Thank you.
So currently in progress,
we have the Head Start program director,
and then we will be launching the Human Services Director
as well as the Constitutional Policing Administrator
and the Budget Administrator.
Those are ones already in progress.
Thank you.
Okay, so we got a motion.
Oh, no, no, Council Member Ramachandra.
Thank you.
I appreciate again that the changes
that the Finance Committee had also requested for,
which is not increasing the contracts
to the other firms was honored,
and I know that it has been a lot of changes made.
My vote remains a no,
and I know that I will be outnumbered here today,
but I want to get down to a fundamental issue on this item.
We're spending a lot of money to recruit people
who don't stay a long time in the city of Oakland,
people not from Oakland, not even from the Bay Area.
So I hope that with these candidates
that are being chosen for roles that again,
may not be a priority to everyone
or take into consideration firstly,
the importance of working with companies that are local
and seeing what you can do in-house.
You have a very talented pool of HR analysts
that are already funded by the city to do recruitment.
And many people coming into the HR department
also have some background in executive recruitment as well.
So I don't think this should be an issue of,
well, we can't do the job,
so we have to pay an expensive outside firm
to do everything.
That includes plenty of new positions being created,
but above that, you're talking about
the Head Start director.
I would love if we use this same energy and money
to recruit Head Start teachers
that are paid barely $18 an hour to start with.
I would love if we use some of this same energy and money
to actually fund career fairs
for some of our entry level positions.
It doesn't seem like our HR department
places the same value on the service level jobs
that impact the day-to-day lives of most Oakland residents,
be that tree trimmers and street sweepers
and Head Start teachers as they do for executive positions
that may or may not really touch the average Oakland resident.
So clearly I will be outnumbered today and I respect that.
And I also appreciate that you lowered
You're a request significantly, but I really hope that the emphasis is not just on these top level positions
Many of whom these people are going to leave us in a year or two. Thank you. Thank you madam clerk. We got a motion in second
There was a motion like councilmember Unger saying to buy councilmember Brown to approve the staff recommendation
Councilmember Brown. All right councilmember five abstain
Councilmember Gallo no
Councilmember Houston aye
Councilmember Ramachandran
Councilmember Unger aye
Councilmember Wong aye
Chair Jenkins aye
Motion passes with a vote of six eyes. I'm sorry five eyes what two knows one abstention
Thank You foundational
Adopt the following pieces of legislation a resolution authorizing the city administrator into a subdivision improvement agreement with
Kenilworth property for deferred construction of public infrastructure improvements as a condition
To parcel map approval for parcel map number 82 to 8 located at Kenilworth Road and making appropriate sequel findings
And a resolution granting a conditional revocable encroachment permit
To Kelenworth property to allow privately owned and maintain retaining walls pressured sanitary suit pressurized sanitary sewer system
storm drain system
Bioretention planters and irrigation systems to encrypt to encroach the public right-of-way
Beneath the adjacent to Kenilworth Road and adopting appropriate secret finding secret findings. I have four speakers on this item
Good evening president and council members. My name is Isha Jahan, supervising civil engineer
with the Oak Drought Benefit Management Division. The today's staff request approval of three
resolutions for the Canverth Road Subdivision in District 4. The project proposes seven
single family homes on vacant downhill parcels along an unimproved section of Canverth Road
Approved in 2006 revised in 2010 with several extensions afterward
The subdivider is Kanawha property LLC, which also owns the property
There are three so the first resolutions the subdivision improvement agreements requires
surface and subsurface
Improvements along the undeveloped portion of Kanawha Road to serve the proposed development
These improvements include roadway construction and utilities and secondary emergency fire
access pathway connecting Kennerworth Road to Devon Way.
The improvements must be completed within two years of the agreement's effective date.
Secured very sure debones equal to 175% of the estimated construction cost totaling $552,000
warranty and maintenance requirements. Second, the conditional and revocable
major encroachment permit allows privately owned and maintained
facilities within the public right of way, including retaining walls,
pressurized soil lines, strong drainage systems and bio-retention facilities.
Third parcel map numbered 8228, conditionally approved creation of four
lots and a remainder parcel with roadway and utility dedications and abutment of an unused
sewer reserve. Together, these resolutions address the site's infrastructure needs and
allow the subdivider to move forward with financing and selling individual lots to support
the construction of seven new homes while protecting the city's interest. Staff recommends
that the city council adopt all three resolutions.
This concludes my presentation.
The development team is also available
to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Councilmember Amatandra?
Thank you, I appreciate staff's recommendation
and support it for this project to move forward.
This has been going on for a very long time.
My team has met both with the developer
as well as neighboring residents.
And I understand that this project has taken a long time
and I think there's consensus among all parties involved
that this project should be over as quickly as possible.
I also understand that there's been genuinely
unexpected situations like discovering
a incredibly large mudslide and other things
that have derailed the project from moving forward
the original timeline. I appreciate the developers interests in addressing some of the residents
concerns around noise, debris, and dust and the intention to hold bi-weekly meetings with residents
and my office will continue to stay involved to make sure that those commitments are honored
as construction starts again in the spring so I support staff's recommendation.
Through the chair before you go on I did not read part three
So let me just read that a resolution conditionally approving parcel map number 82 to eight located at
Kenilworth Road for a four lot subdivision with a remainder parcel a right-of-way
Dedication and a sewer reserve abandonment for property owners
Kenilworth property LLC in it and adopt appropriate sequel findings. Thank you. Can someone much under this that emotion
Yes, all right. Let's go to public speakers
I'm sorry, there are five speakers on this item not for as I call your name
Please approach the podium in any order state your name for the record before beginning
If you are participating via zoom, please raise your hands so I can easily identify you missus out of all the Bala mr. Hazzard
spin kotri
Laura Blair and Carla's excuse me Carlos
Plaza
Council. My name is Swen Khatri. This is my wife, Poppy Crumb. Hello, thank you. We
originally embarked on this project. I guess it started 12 years ago. Obviously,
things have, we've had a number of unforeseen delays that have prevented us
from building, I guess, the home we originally planned, which was, I guess, was
going to be for that, for our daughter to grow up. And at this point, it's, when
we're likely to move in is more likely to be our retirement home than our
child's home but anyhow happy to answer any questions you have about the project
the effort we're committed to seeing it through we've seen a lot of things so
far and we've continued to soldier forth. Hello my name is Laura Blair and I've
been helping the home or the property owners with the entitlements and
permits and I wanted to confirm the scope of the of the permits. There was
already an approved planning application and in EIR. These requests
before you are for an approval of a parcel map and certain public
improvements in the public right of way that were already in that the staff we
worked with staff to confirm that these are in conformance with the underlying
planning approvals. So this is not a new development this is a development that
is underway and these are additional requests in order to be able to continue the development.
If you have any questions I'm available.
Good evening members of the council my name is Carlos Plazola and I am the owner representative
for this project.
They're not seasoned developers so we've been helping them along the way.
My company is Build Zig.
A few things just to mention here the project is about 80% complete.
built over a thousand linear feet of retaining walls, 600 linear feet of
drainage pipes. We've stabilized two and a half acres of slope including that
that subterranean ancient slide that was laying dormant that we've helped to that
we have stabilized for the long term through these efforts. And the intention
here is to finish this project by early 28. So next year we'll complete the joint
and trenching, the road paving and then by the end of the year, we will start on landscaping,
on street lighting and running our water line and hydrants.
So we're almost there.
Need your support.
Thank you.
I don't need any time.
Thank you.
I don't need any extra time.
I was in committee meeting.
I don't understand why this item moved to non-consent.
When you have a project that has started in 2006 and is almost 20 years on the works and
you had two people who are neighbors came and complain and because they complain, y'all
moved it to non-consent.
This project should, if you do not approve this project moving forward, the developer's
going to have to start all over again.
And what do you want them to do?
But what's the what's the
alternative cancel the project.
Understand that I come here all
the time y'all don't listen to
me but to white people come in
here and y'all jump through
hoops and put it on non consent.
Are they here today to two white
people are they here no.
So anyway go ahead and approve
this.
Turn your mike on.
Okay we got a second council
member used to.
I don't know what it is it's
okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Councilmember Houston
Yes, I just wanted to say mrs. Sadat I was on me
Because they came and they wanted
They were talking about no air quality. It's not my district either. It was just it came through chair ungers committee
And that was public works and transportation and they had some questions about air quality and I went against it
because
our councilmember
the city of the city of the. The
Is the consent calendar that
will be all the six items on
this agenda.
Starting with item six point
one a declaration of a local
emergency due to the AIDS
epidemic items six point two a
declaration of a local medic
emergency due to cannabis.
And six point three a
declaration of a local
emergency due to homelessness.
I don't six point four in
ordinance.
And I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
And item 6.4 in ordinance regarding S dash 8 ordinance
amendments item 6.5 in ordinance regarding amendment
to ordinance number 12187 which is a salary ordinance.
Item 6.6 in ordinance regarding an ordinance
admitting on C chapter 8.28 to improve waste disposal
requirements item 6.7 in ordinance increasing
civil penalties penalties on unabated nuisances item 6.8
the city of Piedmont. For fire.
to enter to a cooperative agreement with Neo Gov
for Human Resources Information Systems Subscription Services.
Item 6.13, a resolution for Baker-Tilly Advisory Group,
Procurement Enhancement Services.
Item 6.14, a resolution for Broadway StreetScape Improvement
Construction Management Support.
Item 6.15, a resolution for Montclair-Bidde,
and you will report an intention to levy
calendar year 2027 assessment.
item 6.16 a
Resolution for for the Rockridge bid excuse me Rockridge bid annual report in attention to levy for calendar year
2027 item 6.17 a resolution for BS CC proposition
64 cohort for grant
I'm 6.18 a resolution for improving the North Oakland Regional Sports Center
Adam 6.19 a resolution for internship program mo you with Oakland Unified School District
Adam 6.20 in ordinance for the sale of Garfield Park to open unified school district
Adam 6.21 a resolution for a county Medi-Cal
administrative activities and targeted case management
Merle mo you Adam 6.22 a resolution for AmeriCorps senior companion and foster grandparent
fiscal year 26 to 27 grant renewal
Adam 6.23 a resolution for one appointment and two reappointments of the Cultural Affairs Commission
I'm 6.24 resolution for reappointment of the district 5 member to the Budget Advisory Commission
Adam 6.25 a resolution honoring Cheryl Dunne and celebrating the 30th anniversary of the
the watermelon woman I'm 6.26 a resolution celebrating the 30th anniversary of the public
ethics commission I'm 6.27 a reported recommendation from the city clerk for the 2027 legislative
calendar I'm 6.28 a resolution for appointment to the rent board I'm 6.29 a resolution for
forensic examination of reimbursement and payments I'm 6.30 a resolution for OPD and
IBIN Moderation Grant.
Item 6.31, a resolution for the fiscal year 26,
Bayern Discretionary Grant for Ceasefire Lifeline.
Item 6.32, a resolution for reimbursement
for council members for the 2027 Mayors
and Council Member Academy in Sacramento.
And your final consent item
is a resolution for grant agreements
in support of the 20th Annual Multicultural
and artistic pilgrimage and transfer of funds
for public safety services,
and you have 16 speakers on this item.
Beautiful, so just noting 6.26 is withdrawn,
and we will bring it back sometime in December
when the executive director
of the Public Ethics Commission and the chair
are available to highlight the 30-year anniversary
of the Public Ethics Commission.
Council Member Brown.
Excellent, thank you so much.
So 6.26, I shouldn't comment on since we're pulling it.
Okay, so then on that note,
I'll just be making a brief comment on items 6.25,
which was the honoring of Cheryl Dunyeh
and celebrating the 30th anniversary
of the Watermelon Woman.
Want to thank everyone who joined us last night
for the film screening right here in the council chambers.
Council Member Houston, we have a signed copy
from Cheryl for you.
Cheryl is a groundbreaking filmmaker
whose work has elevated black queer films and voices,
challenged traditional narratives
and created space for stories too often left untold.
It was truly an honor to celebrate her legacy
right here in Oakland.
And just for everyone on members of the public
and also for my colleagues,
she is actually filming her new project
right here in Oakland and so invited us all to set
for anyone who is interested.
Let's go to speakers.
Thank you so much.
As I call your name, please approach the podium.
If you are participating on Zoom, please raise your hand
so I can easily identify you.
Before you begin, please state your name
and as per usual, we'll take those who are in person,
followed by those who are participating online.
I have Sarah Meir, David Peters, Mina Kuche,
Asada Ola Bala, Blair Beekman, David Boatwright,
Mindy Petchnik, Gerald Petchnik, Hector Daniel,
Buffalo Soldier, Samuel Ramsey, Kathy Leonard, Kim Lucas,
Madeline Stacey, Jean Hazard, and Leon Goenes.
Good evening.
You may begin.
You may begin.
Mr. Boatwright?
David Boatwright, District 4.
I'm talking about, with respect to items 6.11, 6.12, and 6.31.
It is encouraging to see that the required administrative
reports of item 6.11 are now being presented.
Less encouraging is the fact that there has not been
a report to the council in the last three years,
such that that lack of oversight has continued
through two administrations
with the current administration accounting for 44%
of the $60 million it was not reported on.
There is obviously enough seniority in the city
and the council to have recognized this problem earlier.
Also, whether these reports are required each six months
annually has not been explained because no periodic oversight reviews are
currently practiced by the council for the tens of millions of dollars for
projects and grants it annually approves I recommend that such reviews be
incorporated in future council meetings importantly these reviews should
address specific benefits resulting from such spending statistical results alone
are not sufficient to justify this level investment by the city. Without
council oversight there will be no way to know whether these projects and
grants and the entities that receive them are successful and which entities
and types of projects and grants merit further support. This is a routine type
of oversight used by solvent businesses and the city's ongoing structural budget
deficit will benefit from such a practice.
Oversight by the council would signal its commitment to funding only the highest priority
projects if such oversight is implemented and continuously executed.
Gene Hazzard, GoToCleanOchler.com, I don't know why this council still refused to put
Fentanyl as a public health crisis.
You got cannabis on there as a public health crisis.
I don't understand that.
You had a seizure, 3.8 grams of fentanyl, August 13
and August 25 on 13th Avenue and on 78th Avenue.
And you don't want to make fentanyl a public health
crisis?
What's wrong with you?
I just gave the city administrator this.
I think some of you have it.
Let me read to you.
We have received your inquiry and conducted
administrative review regarding the citation listed below. The review has
confirmed that the citation was properly issued and is valid. You must submit the
full amount currently due within 21 calendar days of the date of this notice
or late penalties will be imposed and your right to a hearing will be
forwarded. I'm not planning to pay that. You know why? Because the evidence when I
I got it was at a city council meeting and when you come in at the city council
meeting madam city administrator it says free parking for city council
meetings and you get this pattern and practice crap we have received your
inquiry and conducted an administrative review regarding side citation listed
below. The review has confirmed that the citation was properly issued and it's
valid. Okay, so you got a pattern practice. You're going to deny the people of Oakland
who come to a city council meeting or a committee meeting and you're gonna go
through this BS about administrative review and it is BS and then you're gonna
says properly issued and valid. I respectfully ask you, Madam City
Administrator, would you rescind this because I'm sure there are a lot of
members of the public who come here and get this and they would either ignore it
or pay it. Why should they have to pay it for an appeal that you already allow and
and says, free parking on city council meeting.
And I will too,
cause I'm not planning to pay the 21
and I will go to court and you know I want it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hazard.
Madam City Administrator,
is there somebody that can talk to him?
I don't often agree with Mr. Hazard,
but I agree with him on this one.
Thank you, Chair.
And thank you, I'll be working with you
and our finance department on this issue.
I'm not gonna talk about it, but I'm I gotta leave after this meeting because I park over across the bridge
I was afraid to park in the garage because I don't know if I was gonna get another ticket
So I got a lead to walk all the way back there
That's my family doesn't want me walking in the dark. So let me go to item and thank you
Appreciate you
Can you pause our time security? Can we have somebody walk her when she's ready to walk to her car, please?
9.9 affordable housing anything having to do with housing. I'm going to be requesting that you change your city housing
preference order
Currently it says the order is displaced household
neighborhood
Residents Oakland residents and workers you need to change it that the priority order should be citizens
veterans pregnant women family children with children
Domestic violence victims persons with physical mental handicaps and I got some more in here
Your order for preference for housing is not where it should be. I'm requesting that you change it
Looking at the item that has to do with the city administrators
Authority to spend over
$250,000 that's six point eleven that report is required by resolution to happen
annual. You didn't have it for three years. It was 64 pages presented at
finance. Unbelievable the amount of money that has been spent without any
ability to vet it. It was too much. Thank you, Miss Brown for shaking your
head. 6.20. Uh, the sale of Garfield. Remember that there is a state mandate
that if you sell park property, you have to reinvest in some way related
to park property being replaced and that's not made clear.
Uh, let me see, 6.3, three.
Uh, Oh Lord, I'm not going to go there with the Roman Catholic Bishop going up to
see Trump and y'all gonna honor him.
You know, he went up into see Trump and he blessed Trump.
That's the man y'all honoring on 6.3, three.
Thank you for your time.
I'm going to walk to my call.
Yeah.
this is Gerald Petchenhoek, I'd like to cede my one minute to my better half.
There's no ceding time on the consent calendar. Okay. This is, uh,
should I start? Okay. This is Mindy Petchenhoek. And, um,
I want to address, uh, 6.17.
That's a subject very dear to my heart,
the question of drugs and how it's destroyed the city.
I spent about 50 years of my life fighting against the drugs and the drug
cartels.
And I think we do need to have an illegal cannabis task force.
But the question is, how is the money going to really be spent?
And that's my question.
I've seen these illegal cannabis war houses.
I've walked by them on a police, uh, right along that I did.
There are hundreds of them in this city and yet only a few have been shut down
in once by the San Francisco, uh, help with the San Francisco, uh, authorities.
So I wanna know from you exactly how many are you gonna,
in the first year, going to shut down?
What is your policy, how are you gonna do it?
Are you gonna work with the federal government to do it?
Or are you gonna just, Miss?
Thank you, Mindy, your time is up.
So there's no seating time on the consent calendar.
Do I just, oh, okay, hi, my name is Sarah.
There's a couple that I want to touch base on.
I think the first one definitely is
calling homelessness an emergency,
but also labeling it a criminal offense.
You criminalize the most vulnerable,
raid safe spaces and encampments,
and call them beautification sweeps
as if our people are ugly and dirty and erasable.
And in the same breath, you call it an emergency.
Through the encampment abatement policy,
you have shrunk the geographical area
of where unhoused people can live,
cracked down on people who live in vehicles
without the obligation of providing resources
or shelters. You've effectively excluded a whole population, a whole population that
coincidentally happens to be black. Who would have almost held, all those people are black?
The city continuously erases whole communities for its own benefit of gentrification and
profit. The people of Oakland are way tired of the empty declarations. The city of Oakland
is directly complicit in the displacement of its citizens, and the people of Oakland
call on city council to actually work with displaced residents instead of
criminalizing them. And to my fellow citizens I urge you to look out for your
unhoused neighbors. Displacement is insane and crazy, isolating, humiliating, and
destructive to the human psyche. I wouldn't wish displacement on my worst
enemy, not even Kev Houston or Charlene Wong to say, who not only voted in favor
of the abatement program but loudly and wrongly claimed to clean East 12th
street which she didn't do which was a fun that was coming through mayor's
power which she also claims that people are inside they're not overwhelmingly
they were not inside so that's the first one on hopelessness as an emergency we
call on the city to allow us to use public spaces where people are right now
and instead of cleaning them up work with them give them that as a safe
space and y'all got a lot y'all don't have enough money and it's on purpose
But you should count on the people who are around here and willing to make it happen
Instead of criminalizing them for no damn reason. There's a whole thing on nuisances
Historically, it is mostly black and brown people who get called new nuisances. So adding a fine to it doesn't really help
City contracts of which there are many questionable things such as a 50,000 shredding service fee that the
there's the OPD does and a lot of contracts that are being paid twice as well as an unknown amount that is being paid to the Auto Plus towing, which was just not listed there government software that's AI, another OPD contracts is 30 and 617 which Mindy
Chinook was also talking about is just continuing a historic war on drugs that
America has continually failed to do anything about and again criminalizing
black bodies so. Good evening City of Oakland. My name is
Simeon Ramy I'm with the National Home Region for Mental Health and Outreach for
Food Independent Living. We have a crisis in this country. People are killing the
whole family and themselves and it's sad all across this country when you kill
A man just chewed four children a day from yesterday.
We have a mental health crisis, y'all.
This is crazy.
We are in trouble.
Man, we're gonna kill everybody.
We there.
It's his fault.
It's a little man's fault.
It's our fault for not getting him his health.
Okay?
He needs housing, food, and medical
to have a sustainable society.
Joe Biden took my grant.
Joe Biden took my grant.
Joe Biden took my grant
and started all the talking.
He reached Chicago State.
I put five point billion.
We don't need some more money.
Donald Trump just told me, push it.
We're in trouble.
And now I won't help but do it.
I need land.
If I get land, I can be a senior citizen
and visit a mental health facility right now.
I don't need no money.
I just need the land.
Y'all approve of it.
Been 10 to five years.
In Chicago, Detroit, New York,
all of them using my grant right now.
Office are using it.
What's wrong with Oakland?
Huh?
What's wrong with Oakland?
I think it's racism.
It's sad.
I would be in Mississippi being Oakland.
Plus, I'm going to get a body here.
OK?
You see a hundred ladies in Mississippi all day?
There was just no, we in trouble.
And we've been in trouble because we
don't want to do it right by our people.
You hire people from another country
before you hire a brother to sleep on the ground, born
raised here.
$17, $13, $35 out.
He can use that.
But y'all look over us, and we built this country.
It won't for us to come from people like it is
But you're gonna get us along. They said we got five point eight billion dollars
I'm waiting on somebody to give me some help so I can do this fucking get by I got five. I'll see I got you
Thank you, mr. Ramey your time is up. Oh
I'm got a minute. He got to the one before I'm got three. Let's see if we can squeeze this into a minute
First credit where is due?
Mr. Unger, I don't know you, but the salient question for the last two hours
What is a data center and what benefit is that data center going to do in the community in which it's occupied?
The next item. Mm-hmm. I
Had a minion of a belly bully try to tell me I got apologized for what I didn't say
Well rather than do that. I think I'll apologize what I did say
Sometime the last year or so I called a woman a narrow lip lyre
Now I apologize for the adjective she was a liar
But narrow lift is a little bit more. I'm supposed to be about public ethics and policy not persons, you know
poor woman
Can you imagine she worked for the Housing Authority?
Thank you, mr. Sojourn. Your time is up. Hi. I'm Kim Lucas and
Do I have three minutes?
Should have
Okay, thanks. I'm Kim Lucas, and I'm a board member of the Golden Gate Community Association in North Oakland.
And first, I want to thank Zach Unger for sponsoring the OMC amendment to increase fines for unabated public nuisances.
And I also want to thank the city attorney's office for its tireless efforts to bring relief to the community by filing a preliminary
injunction and public nuisance lawsuit
to stop the extreme noise and public right
of way and sidewalk obstruction by Suprema Meats,
a warehousing distribution company that's inflicted
harm on our neighborhood since 2013.
So why has it taken so long, and why has Suprema
not paid any of the $2 million or so in fines and penalties?
The main reason is failed code enforcement
for over 14 years now, which has allowed Suprema
to continually expand through a massive amount
of illegal construction and unpermitted operations,
generating extreme noise and obstructions six days a week.
Since 2013, the city has documented but not stopped
Supremea from illegally expanding operations
by constructing unpermitted loading docks,
freezers, and other modifications,
operating at two properties without a business license
or zoning permit, unloading big rigs as early as three
in the morning next to numerous homes,
and parking its trucks nearby in a newly purchased
$3 million 34,000 square foot warehouse.
How does code enforcement get away with this?
Through a lack of transparency and accountability.
Complaints languish indefinitely without inspections,
or they're closed without explanation,
often with claims no violation was found.
A blatant example is Supreme conducting a commercial truck wash, which slams the neighborhood
with 90 decibel diesel generator power spray noise.
On Saturday mornings, code enforcement knows that neighbors are driven out of their homes
for hours, yet refuses to show up and do an inspection or issue any noise violation notices.
can take months or even years despite known violations at Supreme's properties.
Reinspections are uncommon, fines have been delayed for years, actually over a decade,
and none of them have been collected.
Enforcement documents are not accessible through the ASEALA portable, even to council members
or city staff.
Our emails and phone calls to planning and building, requesting information or community
engagement usually go unanswered. PRA requests consumed city time and
resources but often yield no documentation or little information if
any at all. Under the new fine structure, Suprema would and should
be charged $30,000 per day. That's $10,000 a day. Thank you Ms. Lucas your
the board of directors. And I'm
but we talk about a deficit with the city of oakland how many other companies
in the city of oakland are operating illegally
and all fines in the millions of dollars that remain uncollected
uh... and and how we collect those fees
nobody seems to know
does code enforcement
collect the fees
does the finance department
planning a building who
we can't get a straight answer
as to how these fees will be collected
Now the city of Oakland, thank God for the city of Oakland
cause they have been very instrumental as Kim said.
And we had to force the city to bring action.
But the motion for summary judgment is on for December.
So that, and the city's gonna win that.
They're gonna win the motion for summary judgment.
So again, more attorney's fees, more costs, more fees.
Are we not gonna collect those?
I wanna know, Ms. City Administrator,
who's gonna collect those fees?
And so I wanted to talk to you
about things how do we get
those fees collected- and
lastly I'd also like to thank-
this is on another subject.
So we- our association- paired
up with some in reveal
neighbors.
To fight Sutter Hill right
Sutter health bring a regional
hospital.
To in reveal which would have.
Horribly impacted Oakland
residents- with twenty thousand
and we're going to stand for-
Council person under- bill
Gilchrist and Peter Bowman from
planning and building.
Ricky Wells a policy advisor
with oak dot for showing up at
our town hall meeting and
explaining to our community and
listening to our community
actually about how we wanted
them to respond to the fight
against Sutter and we won Sutter
have to do that to get them
out to understand so community
must band together to fight
people who come in and want to
harm our our city but it's also
important that we work with our
council people and with city
staff because if we continue to
reach out to them they will
respond to you in a positive
way so complaining is one thing
but actually getting out and
doing something and banding
We're gonna be talking to residents throughout all the city of Oakland and find out who are the who are the
Thank you, miss Leonard. Your time is up
Good evening. Thank you city council for your service. My name is Hector Medina
I'm a community organizing Oakland for 30 years and I leave it there like 15 years
I'm here to ask for your support for the items six six
dot three three
This is a cultural expression that began by 187
from Governor Pete Wilson, if you remember.
So we saw the opportunity to create artistic expression,
cultural expression, and we started organizing this march.
The march grew up so much that we started bringing floats,
dancers, live music, and it grew so much
that the business in Oakland helped us
to the people marching with gifts, with meals
that help us to make it easier and more clients for them.
Since then, the Oakland police have provided us
their services, and through Noelle Gallo,
it's helped us to pay for those services
to provide security.
So we ask you to allow us to have this cultural expression.
My name is, my name is Leonor Godines,
and I'm here to ask you to vote in support of item 6.33,
the 20th Annual Multicultural and Artistic Pilgrimage.
This annual community tradition has existed for 20 years.
It started actually as a protest against an anti-immigration
proposition.
Sounds much too familiar.
This event has brought and brings thousands of visitors
from across the Bay Area together with Oakland residents
in a peaceful celebration of culture, creativity, and unity
through beautifully decorated car floats, live music,
celebrating their cultural values in a joyful
and peaceful environment that also benefits
our businesses in the area.
Please approve this measure,
and thank you, Noelle, for bringing it forward.
If your name was called and you're in chambers,
please depart to the podium.
We will now move to the Zoom speakers.
Blair Beekman, please unmute yourself
and begin your comments.
Hi, Blair Beekman, I wanted to speak
on consent calendar item 6.1, 6.3, 6.11, 6.13, and 6.14.
So hi, everyone.
I've made it to Bangkok, Thailand.
I'm here now, and it's pretty nice.
It's pretty definitely.
There were items that are on this week's agenda
that were committees and rules.
the last week I was in Oakland, and they're here now.
So just to kind of better talk about them now, I wanted to comment on IM 6.1 and 6.3
that you actually are, these items, they're still around,
that they make City Council agendas every once in a while.
And thank you, working on AIDS issues, addressing that, and also addressing the homeless issues,
a declaration of local emergencies for both issues.
They're important matters.
We're working hard on different ways to talk about displacement and trash issues and the like.
And you've come up with a set of punitive damages that really has to be balanced
with a humanistic approach and, you know, what are the carrying ideas involved in,
you know, AIDS things and with homelessness issues.
We had a really good public comment earlier, who asked those questions very well also.
It needs to be noted that you have a certain set of punitive damages going on.
How are you going to continue to address the human side, the community side?
How do we get community involved with trash issues in our future?
And that are not so punitive in nature to solve our issues.
I also wanted to comment for item 6.11 that it was nice to hear that item and a nice conversation
from David Bowright today, thank you for his words on the subject.
For item 6.13, procurement issues that was also spoken a week or so ago.
Good luck, I came up with the idea that procurement should be an item where we can kind
of reaffirm our values as a city of Oakland to address, you know, our love life issues,
to address the future of tech accountability, best practices.
That's a good standard in how to create our procurement process.
And just to reaffirm it with each other what are our best values and practices
for our future procurement and equity ideas.
Good luck with that effort.
And we had a final item that I'll speak to at another time.
Thanks for meeting, sir.
All names have been called.
Let's go with council member five Houston, then Kyle.
I just wanna adjourn tonight's meeting in the memo.
Oh, we're not on that item yet.
I'm trying to rush us out of here, I apologize.
You're making a motion as amended?
I am making a motion as amended,
that's what I meant to say.
That's exactly what you said.
That's what I said.
councilmember Houston I wanted to register a no vote on 6.2 and it's and I
know it's gonna go through of course it's cuz it's on the consent I just wanted
to make 6.2 or to 6.20 0.2 0 okay and that is sell of Garfield Park to the to
OSD and the reason is is that we have leverage they need something from us and
we're gonna sell our piece of land, land is king.
Five nine for $597,000.
Oakland Unified School District has so much land.
If we did a land swap.
One second, you're out of order.
If we did a land swap,
people are speaking about our homeless situation, right?
In my district, 99% of the people that are homeless
are not from my district.
I got dated a show that so on that point is that this on this subject if we did like a land swap
Because the Oakland Unified School District has so much land and we're giving up money
We're giving up land for money that's going into the general flood fund. It does not make sense to me
Land is king, right
so I just wanted to make a register I know even though it's gonna go through a no vote on six point two zero because I'm
make sense of the city of
school district and I'm going to
bring this issue up again to
everybody and it's gonna show
why I did it. Thank you thank
you council member- maybe the
more appropriate place would be
to- work with council member
Brown on a partnership
committees to see how the city
and school district can work
together when it comes to which
land might be appropriate for
which entity there's some.
and so talking with the chair of ed partnerships might be a good start.
So so I appreciate it. I totally appreciate that. I do. However, it's
something that they want now and it's called negotiation. You can shh or you
want to shh. I don't shh you. So let me say something. Money for land can't make
And they have property that they're not using for years and years and years we're talking about the homeless situation, right?
We're talking about that. They have property right now that can be used for their teachers and for the homeless people that are on house people in our districts, right?
So I just wanted to make a point and register my no because I'm gonna make a bigger point later. So noted councilmember five your
Motion as amended noting council member Houston's no on 620 councilmember guy. Oh, I
Wanted to second the or second the motion to approve the consent calendar. Thank you. Thank you. Council. I'll see a number
comments
Vote
Councilman on the consent calendar moved by councilmember five second by councilmember guy Oh
Noting the withdrawal no new date of item six point two six and noting councilmember Houston's no on item six point twenty
Councilmember brown aye councilmember five aye councilmember Gallo. Aye councilmember Houston aye
Councilmember I'm sorry councilmember Ramachandran. Aye councilmember Unger. Aye councilmember Wong
Aye and chair Jenkins. Aye
That's an calendar passes as amended with a vote of eight ayes
And then we'll, you know, go
into item seven.
Council announced, excuse me,
council and acknowledgments and
announcements.
Um, excellent.
Um, thank you so much.
I wanted to take an opportunity
to invite members of the
public, um, to a community
conversation to talk about
home ownership.
Um, we know, uh, in partnership
with our housing and community
development department, a lot
myself, council member Houston
and council president Jenkins
will be hosting this conversation
next Monday, the 16th, 6 p.m. to 730 virtually.
You can find the link on my social media
and this will be a good conversation
around how we can create more homes here in our city,
support home buyers and also help ensure
that, you know, generations can stay in their homes.
Thank you, Council Member Gail.
Yes, thank you, just for the public's information
that on December 13th, we're currently working
with Orlando Zapeta, Hall of Famer, and baseball.
And his son works for the San Francisco Giants,
so we're gonna be holding at this Oakland Stadium
a Christmas celebration, baseball training for the youth,
toy giveaways, food giveaways, and so forth,
not only with the previous Oakland A's ball players
will be present, and as well as the San Francisco Giants
players will be joining us to celebrate our young people and celebrate the
holidays and please join us on December 13 at the Oakland Stadium. Thank you.
Do you have a time? From 11 a.m. all the way up to 4 o'clock. Beautiful. And
everything's free and welcome and you'll see all the baseball stars present.
Thank you. We love free. Councilmember Fife. Yes I just wanted to adjourn in the
tell me a little bit about
that in the memory of
you know well black homeless
advocate be very upset that I
did not say his name
appropriately he passed away in
September and unfortunately I
just I didn't get the notice I
appreciate Asha our clerk
arshari for bringing it to my
attention as well as top Talia
husband Hanks are also known as
boots for letting me know he
wanted to make a announcement
that we had time with his
colorful language but his fierce
advocacy for the homeless
community in the city of Oakland
so I just want to acknowledge
his passing and I will be
bringing a resolution in support
of his life and contribution to
the fabric of Oakland.
Thank you.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
Ms. Sima as well.
Do you want to have an
announcement before me?
Yes, I just wanted to make an
announcement that today is
a place where I'm excited when
my clerk babies move up so
those are the I'm not going to
say where she's going but those
of you on a particular outside
commission may still see her
but I'm very proud of her and
I'm happy for her future
endeavors.
Congratulations are in order and
I want to be the first to
congratulate councilmember Wong
on being reelected.
So it's been a pleasure to be
here and on being reelected as
well looking forward to working
with you guys on this council
for the next two to four years.
Appreciate it.
No, that's pretentious.
Let's go to public speakers.
Moving to open forum.
As I call your name, please
approach the podium in any order.
Please state your name before
beginning.
If you're on Zoom, please raise
your hand.
Mrs. Sada has departed us.
boss James Welch, Daniela Lopez, Valerie Ure, Flora Pablo, Camila Domingo, Brandon
Caragawa, Cynthia Rodriguez, Donna Griggs Murphy, Kathy Leonard, Arlene Hip, Crystal
Harding, Shari Williams, Isabelle Ruiz, Jamal Mohammed Khan,
Valerie Batchelor, Jasmine Hurt.
Can't see the first name.
Maybe Faunus Lucas, maybe?
Alberta Parra, Teresa Salazar, Sarah Amir, in any order.
And Anita Bean.
Go ahead, Mr. Hazard.
Yes, I just want to put it on record.
Sometime, hopefully before the end of November,
we will be filing in the state court of appeals
with regards to that special election ballot measure,
Mr. Unger, on January 9, 2025.
Case number 25C, 122, 33, 38, excuse me.
So I'm in the appeals court where none of you
thought I would get you better have a contingency plan when the city became a
respondent unlawfully because I was understanding why did they do a dimmer
on June 25 because they falsely characterize my rich supplemental
the state of the state of the.
children should never have to live play or sleep in homes where they are at risk of being
exposed to lead.
We are calling on you to move forward with the lead abatement program and the rental
lead inspection program.
These programs are critical to identifying and addressing lead hazards and protecting
the health of our children and families.
No more delays, no more pushing this issue further down the agenda.
Council members we need your leadership, we need your commitment and most importantly
we need action.
children's health cannot wait. Safe and healthy homes should never be a
privilege. They should be a standard for every Oakland family. Thank you
for your time. Good evening everyone. My name is Camila Domingo. I'm a high
school student, resident, and one of many families in Oakland. I'm also part of the
Safe Homes Initiative at La Tignica de la Raza as a youth advocate. I am here
today to advocate for the lead abatement program and a proactive rental
inspection program. These programs are essential in securing safe homes for
every family. Every family deserves a safe place to call home. No parent should
have to worry about their children being exposed to lead-based paint in a place
meant to protect them. This is more than just improving housing conditions, it is
about protecting vulnerable children, supporting families, and making sure
everyone has the opportunity to live in a healthy and safe environment. By
supporting the lead abatement and proactive rental inspection program, harm
can be prevented before more children are impacted. We have done our part now it is
time for you to do yours. Thank you. Good evening everyone my name is Flor Pablo
and I'm here with the Heaven's Court Safe Homes Initiative at La Clinica.
Our goal is to protect young children from lead exposure.
Lead can cause brain damage and delays in children's speech, learning, and development.
Imagine if this were your family.
You would feel devastated knowing your city failed to protect your children.
So how many more children have to be put at risk before action is taken?
Our community has already been failed and we cannot continue to wait for change.
That's why we are here today to demand that funding be used to support the lead appointment
program and proactive rental inspection program.
Every child deserves a safe and healthy home regardless of their race, financial situation,
or background.
No child should have to suffer or be put at risk because of circumstances beyond their
control.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, City Council members.
My name is Valeria, and I'm a student here in Oakland,
and I'm a youth advocate for Heaven's Court Safe Homes
Initiative at La Clinica in collaboration
with All Children's Thrive.
We need to ask ourselves, how can we
expect children to succeed in school, grow,
and have a healthy future when the place they're
supposed to feel safest, their home,
can be putting their health at risk?
Lead exposure is not something children can just grow out of.
It can affect their brain development, learning,
and behavior with consequences that can follow them
throughout their lives.
And the heartbreaking part is that this is preventable.
We're asking you to put the allocated funds to use
and invest in a lead abatement program
or proactive rental inspection to identify and address
these hazards before more children are exposed.
Children don't get to choose the homes they grow up in,
but you have the power to make those homes safer.
Thank you for your time.
hasta des mi nombre es tereza soy mienbro de hace y estoy feliz soy mienbro
de distrito dos por trenta y tres anos y estoy aqui por que todos los edificios
de renta en Oakland escepto los nuevos estan en muy malas condiciones el piso
the way electricity not last by it is
put it on my data is we have a
little said he thinks the rent
does increment back I don't know
there are no loss of regular sea
service
my name is that is that I'm a
resident of district two for the
last thirty three years and an
ace member many of the buildings
that are rental units that are not
new not the new construction are
very poorly maintained
There's bad conditions like water damage, damage to walls,
damage to mold and other issues.
Yet, rental units increase every single year.
Yet, nothing is fixed in our rental properties.
That needs to change.
So the last bit is my petition to the city council is that we have a proactive rental
inspection program that takes care of these units.
Good morning, my name is Alberto Parra, I'm the resident of the district of Cinco.
I'm very happy to be here with you.
I am very happy to be here with you, and I'm very happy to be here,
because the system controls the complement of norms of the city
don't function for me, for me, for us.
I will be talking more about the work of the author Daniel for La Jolla.
I will present the work of Ardo and I will not receive any respect for the inspection.
I will be talking about the situation of the property.
I live in District 5 and I'm a proud member of ACE Oakland. I've been living in Oakland
for many years and the system of code enforcement is fundamentally broken. I have asked for
All of the work done is done
for fixes from my landlord, from code
enforcement and multiple times have had issues in my
unit and with my neighbors and nothing has been
fixed.
And again, the system is fundamentally broken.
As someone who is an older person, I am asking for
proactive code enforcement department so that we can
proactively take care of these issues like the fire
that occurred in my building.
I'm here because the city's code enforcement system is not working for our community the habitability issues we are facing is horrible people are living with infestation mold leaky roofs carpet that has never been changed since the date of those apartments were built amongst other things the current system puts the burden on students to identify hazards report them.
need to be a part of it is to
identify hazards report them.
And wait for help that never
comes when a landlord in the
noise recourse request for
repairs in the city of north
request for inspections tenants
are left without an effective
way to get serious problems
addressed I urge the city to
establish a proactive friend of
inspection program to ensure
safe housing does not depend on
tenants ability to keep filing
complaints that have gone so far
I'm sure that there will be
more to come earlier and ensure
that repairs are completed.
Thank you.
My name is Sherry Williams I'm
a member and been living in
Oakland all my life and- well I
won't tell you my age but- I
live in the Oakland station.
I'm a hundred and fifth in
international which is district
seven fairly new complex.
It's deplorable at the short
We need a more proactive code enforcement if you don't have it we got people to hire
I mean if you need to hire more people to do the inspection
Really need to help. This is all across Oakland to not only our building
But West Oakland to it's just ridiculous and we have to have some type of accountability
On your code enforcement. Thank you
My name is Isabel Ruiz. I lived in Oakland for five and a half years. I live at the Oakland
station. I've had issues with my apartment where my child had been lifted up and I fell.
I ended up going into emergency. And unfortunately, I've talked to the owner or the manager and
And I've gotten no result.
And I'm just frustrated because I don't know where else to go.
I feel like I'm not being listened to or heard about my issues.
Thank you.
My name is Valerie Batchelor and as the director of ACE Oakland, I have conversations with
tenants every single day who tell me the dangers that they face inside their own homes.
Families are living in unsafe conditions, worried about their children's health and
fighting to get landlords to take responsibility.
We have helped tenants file over 200 code enforcement complaints over the last three
months and nothing has changed.
Literally nothing has changed in these units.
While landlords put profits over people, the city's inaction leaves tenants suffering
in their own homes and not feeling safe.
Children particularly in east and west Oakland continue to face risks of adverse health for
their futures.
Tenants should not have to wait for children to be poisoned, a fire to take hold in their
building or a loved one to get hurt for something to take action. We need a lead abatement program
and a proactive rental inspection started now. We need prevention, accountability, and meaningful
community input, not delays in canceled meetings. I just heard of the code enforcement department
having a meeting with landlords on the 17th of November. Thank you, Ms. Bachelor. Your time is up.
Good evening, council members. My name is Brandon Kedigawa. I'm with regional asthma management and
prevention and we're joining our partners around safe and healthy homes
today because delay has become the norm here in Oakland. Seven years after the
city finalized a multi-million dollar legal settlement with paint companies to
remediate lads from homes, Oakland has remediated zero units. Oakland has
supported zero kids with lead poisoning with those funds. By contrast Los Angeles
County was also part of that lawsuit. They've remediated over 1,400 units by
this time. Because delay has become acceptable, children have been led
poisoned who otherwise wouldn't have if it was treated with the urgency it
deserves. Now we commend the City for centering equity and its approach to
implementation and program design, but we don't see how equity is being served by
delay. So we ask the Council to do everything possible to to fast-track the
remaining steps. Hello. I'm Faunus Lucas. I'm a small business owner, a resident of
Oakland. The litter assessment fee, I think it has gotten a little off track
of what it was intended to do in the first place in regards to the Jack in
the Box and it's having an unintended consequence for small businesses which
are mayor. It's her agenda to support the small businesses. Basically like my
business. I take care of cleaning up around the street. I'm always spending time there making sure things are good.
And the city wants to vote for this thing. I did a public records request for the ELF pickups where they do them.
And I ran all the numbers and they do zero pickups in 94618. They have seven in Piedmont, two in Grand Lake.
So we're not even really getting the services
that we're paying for on top of everything
we're already paying.
So I would like you guys to reconsider.
Hello, Sarah again.
Gag.
I'm here to talk about ICE and Oakland's sanctuary city
status because it doesn't really make much sense to me
based on what we're seeing and the policies
that are being implemented.
Just today, Mayor Barbaralee and Superintendent Denise Sadler
sent out like a joint memo claiming,
you know, Oakland's a city, a sanctuary city,
but does like sanctuary city end with the police department
because when ICE brought themselves
over to Highland Hospital, which is in Oakland,
they invaded that sanctuary city status.
Opie D rolled out the red carpet. All that was left for them was to bring them breakfast at this point
They were in cooperation with them
So while I have the understanding that the police will never protect us, this is just
Hi, I'm Anita Bingham with small business administration office of disaster recovery
And we are here in Oakland because of the Bancroft apartment fire that occurred on September 25th
We are boots on the ground. We have a disaster loan outreach center opened at the Melrose branch library
that's at
4805 foot Hills Boulevard in here in Oakland and I want to thank the city for being of assistance
in getting us off and running really fast in sharing this information with the public and
the emergency management department also has been very hopeful these loans are low interest they can help the
Survivors from the apartment prior replace their personal property
Also for business owners that have been negatively impacted by the disaster
They also can apply for these low interest loans for those renters that have had
Do you have anything else to say?
Okay, those interest rates are as low as three percent interest.
So if they have paid higher interest rates in order to replace that personal property
or vehicles, they can flip over into these lower interest rates.
We do have a short window of time.
We're only here until next Friday, November 20th.
Hey, peace and love, everyone.
My name is Crystal Harding.
I'm with All Children Thrive, a statewide initiative connecting with community members,
their organizations to pass policy.
I'm so grateful I get to be the coach and cheerleader
for the Havens Court Safe Homes Initiative,
led by La Clinica and Ramp, regional asthma management,
and the P, y'all know.
I wanna applaud the young people, the residents
that use their voice, their energy, their time
and talents to advocate for this matter.
Although the city of Oakland may cancel some
of their engagement meetings or the info sessions,
they still held theirs in English and Spanish.
We worked on our public speaking, our advocacy efforts,
showing up at meetings to share our thoughts.
I wanna tell council member Fyfe,
thank you for being our champion
and taking the voice and the feedback from community members
into the different committee meetings or council meetings.
We are at our last year of this grant
and I just wanna applaud the team
for their efforts and what they do
and I hope y'all have the same energy to make this change.
Move into your zone.
Speaker is Blair Beekman.
Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.
All right, thank you.
We're big men.
It's 9 30 Wednesday morning in Bangkok.
Thanks to the work of years of work from Teresa.
It was nice of, she made a good experience
for the city council members.
Thank you.
It's that it was, you're working on,
thank you for your broadway and what it will be like.
Don't forget to include tech accountability,
policies and best practices,
working with community.
We're coming up one year of flock, leaving flock,
community process to leave flock by the end of next year.
Good luck what we do to do that.
I keep saying we can reduce a lot of technology
and streets and still offer the same amounts
of public safety.
Believe it or not.
Good luck in working on that and figuring that out.
It's there, it's ready to go.
You guys have to really work at it, good luck.
And to comment news issues one more time,
Good luck in the ideas of a office of a coordinator.
Arlene Hipp, you are next.
Good evening, my name is Arlene Hipp
and I'm a resident of district two.
I'm here to speak about the need for letter abatement
and proactive rental inspections
because of the extraction of housing,
the market manipulation and discriminatory practices
of tech algorithms.
We have rents that are unaffordable.
We want to preserve housing and communities.
We know the impact of health issues in specific districts
and the largest growth populations are seniors.
Many are unable to move or suffering in apartments
with habitability issues and serious health impacts.
This is the very young to the very old.
We, this is predominantly in the black and brown communities
in low income census tracts.
Hopefully when this program moves forward,
workforce development is included in the increased volume
of work required for this to happen.
Also, oversight and enforcement are needed
on a semi-annual basis and cross collaboration
with agencies who are working in this capacity.
We have jobs available.
Let's hire Oaklanders
and change the quality of life for our cities.
Thank you.
Mina Kuche, you are next.
Hi, I'm Mina Kuche again,
resident of Oakland in district six.
We've had so many kidnappings of ICE in my district
and in district seven,
and I just have not seen a concerted effort
from council member Jenkins or Houston
want to address any of what's going on right now.
So, I just want to take this moment to ask what are we doing to stop this, because it
seems to be ramping up even further.
I know Alameda County is doing what it's can with the cease and desist, but we'd love to
hear from the council members on what actions they're taking to protect our residents.
Thank you.
Noting that we lost quorum at 617 however we are adjourning tonight in honor of black homeless advocate
Thank you. This meeting is adjourned