City Council - meeting_joint

Thank you. Beep. Thank you. Thank you.

If you're here for any of the lien issues, there's staff available here to help you in hearing room four on the second floor.

All right, let's go ahead. Let's get it started.

Good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon. good afternoon and we will welcome to the City Council meeting today July 7th the time is now 3 41 and this meeting shall come to order before I call roll I would like to give instructions on how to submit a speaker card for items on this agenda if you are here in person are participating and would like to submit a speaker card please fill out a speaker card and turn it into a clerk representative in front of you here, either before the item is called or two hours after the meeting had began. Submitting speaker cards online were due 24 hours before this meeting began so that time has ended so again if you are wishing to speak on an item listed on this agenda you must submit your speaker talk Clark to a clerk representative either two hours after this meeting begin or before the item is called into record whichever comes first again this meeting began at 3 41 with that I will now call roll On roll for this meeting, I have Council Member Brown. Present. Council Member Fife. Present. Council Member Guyal. I heard a present. Council Member Houston.

Present, here.

Council Member Ramachandran is present. Council Member Unger.

Here.

Council Member Wong. Present. And Chair Jenkins.

Present.

We have all eight members present. Thank you so much, Council Member Jenkins, Council President Jenkins. If you have any special announcements, can you please state them now?

Yes. Due to the amount of speakers and due to the amount of items, Council Member time will be limited today. Also, the public's time will be limited from two minutes to one minute. Thank you.

Thank you for that instruction. Now we will move to our first item, item number three, which is modifications to the agenda and procedural items.

Yes, I have several. We want, in order, 5.6 to be the first item heard. After that, 5.2. After that, 5.7. And then we want to move 4.6 after 5.5, so that'll be the last item heard on non-consent. And then also I want to remove 6.5 from the consent calendar, and I'll need a second for that. Okay, and so 6.5 will be on the regular agenda, and 6.5 will be heard after 5.5, so 5.5, then 6.5, then 4.6. So I'll state that again, because this is very confusing. 5.6 will be heard first, then 5.2, 5.7, Then we'll go in order on the agenda. After that, we will hear 5.5, 6.5, then 4.6, thank you. No, the GAD will come after 5.6, 5.2, and 5.7. The first item will be 5.6.

Thank you for that clarity, Council President Jenkins. We are moving to our first.

Council Member Houston.

Yes, through the chair. I had had some questions for the city attorney about reconsideration about this charter, and I know that it's already passed, but this is the time that we can't speak about it because I wasn't too happy with the piece of the veto that had already been vetted through the city attorney's office, that veto. That veto piece rubs me the wrong way. And what I mean by that, President, is that I had some, for the city attorney is that if we have eight council members up here, eight council members that decide to vote something up, How can one person come in and veto our decision? That rubs me the wrong way, because I was elected by my constituents, and I swore to stand up for them, and that's my voice, but it's their voice, just like every other council member up here. So I had a question about that, President.

So do you have somebody on the prevailing side of the issue that is willing to, somebody on the prevailing side that's willing to have a motion to reconsider?

I had spoke to Council Member Wang, but I had some questions with the city attorney before we could, if we was ready to reconsider that. So I wanted to ask the city attorney a couple of questions. Is that possible, President?

Yes.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, ask me. Do you know what three does?

You know what item three does so let's let's focus on the conversation with the city attorney.

Okay, see the attorney So I wanted to know about because this is item three and this is called modification. So reach your agenda It's called modification and you can modify at this point. So that's what I'm doing So I wanted to actually talk to the city attorney because of I have brought some revisions up for this charter and it was vetted through the city attorney's office. So in the modification stage, which is right now, a reconsideration can be made. I wanted to know would that affect or hold this back because Council Member Wayne can change her vote or reconsider so we can address this veto piece that rubs me the wrong way.

So through the chair to council member Houston, I can read you your council rules, rule eight seven, which says during members request for reconsideration, a council member who voted on the prevailing side of a motion or other action taken at the immediately preceding council meeting may move that item for reconsideration. If the motion is seconded and at least five council members vote in favor of the motion, the item shall be placed on the agenda for the next city council meeting as a non-consent item.

Thank you, but will that throw it off by being on the ballot?

I think your question is a scheduling question. If there was a successful motion to reconsider, an item that was acted upon at the last meeting, it would go on your next council meeting. Your next regularly scheduled council meeting is July 21st. and that's the only other council meeting scheduled before all materials would be due to the county and we also as you'll see on this agenda have a Ordinance to request consolidation with the statewide election. So all actions related to ballot measures Need to be adopted and then there needs to be two meetings to pass that consolidation ordinance

Okay, one last question through the chair. So that would be Wang, Jenkins, Fife, or Aguayo. So I had already spoke to Wang about it because we had had a conversation about that veto piece and I didn't talk to the other council members about it. So it would be up to you if that's something that you wanted to speak on or reconsider about this veto piece. It's on you.

I can respond to that I am I I spoke extensively with city attorney Richardson about what it would look like to do the reconsideration and I think the technical term is hot mess is what it would look like so I'm going to I'm not going to move motion to do the reconsideration okay so through the chair thank you for that so I'm just letting you know each council member here letting you know that

If that does pass, that your constituents that voted you in office, it can be, and you say yes, it can be knocked off. Just wanna let you know that. Your vote. Your vote can be vetoed. So I'm just letting you know what you're standing up against. And I already talked to Ramachana about it, Unger about it, and me. So I got one more question through the chair that made a whole lot of sense. And when certain things resonate with me, they resonate. And Council Member Unger, you don't have to speak, but I'm going to ask you a question. You said something the other day that really resonated with me that stated about your constituents. Why would you, they put us in office to speak for them. And why would you put something in front of constituents when they depend on us to make the right decision? Can you repeat that if you want to? I'm not forcing you.

I think I was just saying that I was voting, I voted against the Strong Mayor because I believe that the Strong Council was the superior system and I wanted voters to have a chance to vote on Strong Council. If it came to that, I'm not supporting Strong Mayor so that was why I didn't put it forward to the ballot.

Thank you, Councilmember. So through the chair, I'm gonna say this. So now that the other councilmembers that voted for it know the situation, you have a chance right now to do what you should do, and if you don't, we gotta deal with it.

Thank you. So thank you. Seeing none, let's continue. Councilmember Wong.

Just one thing for item 6.26. This is the City of Refuge ordinance. Just for the public's awareness, we are keeping it on consent, but there are amendments to be added.

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarity, and just to restate, as stated by Council President, we are taking the agenda out of order, and that was motioned by Council President Jenkins, seconded by Council Member Gallo, and we will be going in order starting with item 5.6, 5.2, 5.7, and then in the regular order of the agenda going back to 3.1. uh... to until we get to item five point five once we get to item five point five we will go to five point uh... six point five four point six and then continue on from there i will move forward to the first item uh... now re rearranged in the agenda which is going to be item five point s five point six one moment while I read that item into record I have a resolution confirming the mayor's appointment of Elizabeth Lake as interim city administrator and authorizing the mayor to execute an employment agreement with Elizabeth Lake on behalf of the city of Oakland before we hear this item we will need to state in an urgency finding and emotion staff here to state an urgency finding before we hear this item mayor's office

Good afternoon, City Council. Thanks, Council President. Preston Kilgore here, Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Barbaralee. Yes, the mayor is requesting an urgency finding to align this item with another item that you will be voting on later today related to, it's a bond item. Thank you.

Yeah, there needs to be a motion. So moved.

Second. I have a motion by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Gallo to approve the urgency finding as stated. On roll Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember Fite. Aye. Councilmember Gallo.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachandran. No. Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

Councilmember Wong aye and Chair Jenkins aye item the urgency findings is approved with seven ayes one no councilmember Ramachandran I believe I read the item in record shall I read it again or no is there a presentation or something from the mayor's office madam mayor thank you very much good afternoon

Before you today, council members, is a resolution confirming my appointment of Betsy Lake as interim city administrator, and I want to focus on why the timing of this action matters for the city's operations. Council action today is absolutely necessary to ensure that there's no gap in administrative authority. The former city administrator's leave expires on July 15th and the charter requires us to have a confirmed interim city administrator to execute a variety of administrative functions to keep the city operations running. This timing is especially important right now because of what's on today's agenda. You'll also be reviewing and considering a related resolution, I believe that's item 5.1, authorizing the city administrator and the finance director to execute the documents needed to complete the city's tax and revenue anticipation notes financing. This cannot be done by an acting city administrator. This is a critical, time-sensitive financing tool that the city relies on for cash flow management. Confirming the interim city administrator at the same meeting removes any ambiguity about who holds execution authority during that financing process. We do not want a lapse in leadership to create uncertainty at the exact moment that the city is completing this financing. Acting today protects continuity of operations and the city's fiscal position, protecting the estimated $750,000 in savings to the city. I also want to be clear that this interim appointment is formality, not a substitute for a permanent hire. My office is already engaging a search firm and several search firms actually to run a thorough competitive national search for a permanent city administrator. We are committed to identifying the strongest possible candidates to lead the city's administrative operations for the long term, and we will keep the council updated on that process and timeline as it progresses. Betsy Lake's deep familiarity with city operations, including as an attorney for over 20 years and serving more than eight years in the city administrator's office, most recently as acting city administrator and assistant city administrator, makes her well-positioned to maintain continuity during this period. But the core reason for bringing this forward today is operational, uninterrupted administrative authority and certainty around execution authority for the city's tax and revenue anticipation notes financing. It would be fiscally irresponsible and very harmful to the city for us not to make this appointment today. We respectfully recommend the council adopt the attached resolution. Thank you again.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. How many speakers do we have on this?

We have two speakers for this.

Let's go to the public speakers and then we'll go to council members after that.

All right, I have Ms. Asala Olaballa and Jean Hazard for item 5.6, thank you.

If I can, President Jenkins, can I ask where the charter? that there's a provision that allows for an interim in this position. Do the council, if they could answer that question, please.

Okay, can we pause this time? To the city attorney, are you prepared to answer that question or do we need to?

Through the chair.

Is the city attorney on?

Yes, through the chair, Ryan Richards, the city attorney. So the charter provides for two types of people to serve as city administrator. One is just a city administrator who's appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council. and the other is an acting city administrator, which means there is a city administrator who's been appointed, but for one reason or another is unavailable and is acting in that person's behalf. So to Mr. Hazard's question, this is an appointment for a city administrator under the charter. The interim part is in the short-term nature of the employment agreement. and in the mayor's public commitment that she's doing a search for a permanent city administrator. But there is no interim city administrator is not a designation in the charter. This would be an appointment as a city administrator with the understanding from the mayor's office and the council that it is temporary while the mayor searches for a permanent city administrator.

Thank you. Okay, please start the time back.

So you can't act on this today because there's no provision in this city charter 502 that has any definition of an interim. There's no such thing in the charter. So how can you move on this act if there's nothing in the charter that describes the recommendations set before you? It only has an acting city administrator. You just previously, when Council Member Houston asked for a clarification and the city.

Thank you, your time is up. Mr. Hazzard, thank you for your time. Thank you so much for your comments.

Welcome, Ms. Asada. thank you madam clerk uh the language is confusion and i don't understand the language at one point in the document it says for appointment for an indefinite term at another top time it says it ends on january 15 2027 or earlier date and then it says the mayor can remove at any time very confusing So if this was such an important item, once the need for a interim administrator became necessary, why didn't you go through the process at that point? See, this is an urgency now because it's a last minute thing. You have an interim chief You don't have to go through a process of having it approved by anybody. It just becomes appointed by the mayor, interim chief, lack of consistency.

Thank you, Mrs. Hodda. I believe that concludes the speakers?

Yes.

Okay, so I'm gonna go to Councilmember Brown and then Councilmember Houston.

Excellent. Thank you so much for bringing this recommendation. I'll make a motion to approve the item.

Thank you. Councilmember Houston.

Yes, student chair, could I have Bradley Johnson come up please? Is he around? I need Bradley. And Ms. Sada, your earrings look really nice, I like them. Yeah, they look good, I like them. So my question, and I can start it before I get started, I mean before Bradley gets up here. This has nothing, my questions and my comments have nothing to do with Ms. Lake's integrity, she's good, we don't agree upon everything, but I have no issues with her. So my questions have nothing to do with this. So is Bradley coming?

or if someone can answer my question.

When do we know, see, I have a problem with urgent, urgent, urgent all the time. It's always an emergency and it's urgent, right? So why is it urgent? And I wanted to know the three things that this city administrator has to vote on that's so critical in July. So I need that answered. And the dates, that's what I wanna know.

Okay. You want to turn your mic on, Council Member Gallo? Okay.

Okay.

And do you want to second while, okay, so there's a second from Unger.

David Jones, Treasury Administrator. Regarding this item today, item 5.1 is soon to follow, but that's for the issuance of the 2627 tax and revenue anticipation note financing. We are planning to price this transaction next week Tomorrow we are planning to post the preliminary offering statement tomorrow afternoon that would require an interim city administrator's signature and then thereafter the closing documents need to be executed before July 28th. So those are the projected dates that we have in play right now. So I see that Brad is here, but to your point, Councilmember Houston, that's what we're facing at the moment.

right so through the chair let me speak to bradley real quick thank you for that so bradley what what three uh votes i mean what three critical um um pieces that this city administrator has to do in july what's the dates thank you uh through the chair to council member houston the three dates that are present tomorrow we will need to post the preliminary official statement regarding the tran uh that would

We have authority to do that. Once we have the preliminary official statement posted, next week we will price and we will need to sign the offering documents. What date is that? believe it will be on the 15th, David. 16th, David, 16th, Councilmember Houston, I apologize. And then we're looking to close on the 28th of July.

So that'll be another something that the city administrator has to sign, correct, or okay?

Yes, the 16th and the 28th are items that the city administrator would need to sign, that's correct.

So that's the 8th, the 15th, and the 28th.

8th, 16th, I'm sorry, and the 28th.

Okay, so my issue is this. the mapping of this. Did we just find out that this had to happen when Justin, before Justin left? Or had to resign? Because we knew that he was resigning on what, July the 14th, right? And what he could have done, and let me throw out a charter section on 504, the duties of the city administrator. The city administrator may appoint a director of finance, which would be you. to act under the city administrator's direction. So if we knew these things were coming up, we could have had his forced resignation to be August the 1st, which he could have appointed you to do exactly what we're doing right now. Is that true or is that not?

through the chair of the Council Member Houston, if there's a sitting city administrator, they can provide me direction to sign off on their behalf, that is correct.

Right, and you're an expert at this. So my question is this, is that this just came up, the mapping of this, this is why I got an issue with certain things. This city should be ran like a business. Like a business. These dates didn't just pop up. We knew about these dates. So if our city administrator did a resignation on the 14th, we could have said, okay, we don't accept that, give him 17 days more, and he could have appointed you as the finance, and you could have signed all three of those dates. Is that true or is that not true?

Council member Houston your hypothetical is accurate. I will say that and maybe this is my ignorance as a new director I was not aware when we were coming up with this pricing schedule one that we would not that Justin would have resigned first off and Secondarily, I only recently became aware of the Charter related issues related to our ability to sign this item is at least for me new this conflict of not having it not having the authority where the finance director who is normally directed by the city administrator to sign off on these documents is new to me i was made aware of them after much after this resignation happened i was unaware of it so and it's honestly within the last couple of weeks that it's become a concern for me it doesn't mean other people didn't know but i can tell you i did not know and so the timing of this deal is coincidental okay

This is not attacking your character, because let me tell you, you do a great job. So I want to go ask through the chair, to the city administrator, to the city attorney, who would know this? Who's supposed to know this? Because I don't like being rushed, urgent, all the time it's always urgent, rush, wave the small local businesses. I'm tired of this, right? I ran businesses since I was a child, paper route to businesses, businesses, businesses not ran like this. You gotta map these things out, right? So my thing is who was responsible to know about these three dates? Through the chair.

Is there someone that's available to answer Council Member Houston's question? Can you state your question again for the record, Council Member?

What I'm saying is this, through the chair, is this.

Councilmember Houston as soon as I was made aware of this through the city attorney it was when we immediately submitted a resolution and then we were not able to get it through rules committee and so that's why the urgency and came here today because it's fiscally responsible of the city to do this because the the financing agencies and authorities want to have the interim as designee for the signing. But as soon as we learned about this from the city attorney, we introduced the resolution to do this.

So through the chair, thank you, Mayor, and this is not towards you either, because you know I've always been 10 toes down with you, but right is right, and what I, like I said, I'm gonna close it out with this. I've been elected by my folks from D7 to represent them, and I take this serious. I didn't take it as serious when I first got elected, but when I started looking at how the charter is and how things are, I take this serious because they depend on us to make the right decisions in their best interest, right? So my point is this, is that we gotta run this city like a business, because that's why we're in the condition that we are in right now, because we're not running it like a business. I see.

Yeah, Councilmember Hughes, I just wanna say we take it seriously also, that's why we're doing this. IT'S IMPORTANT TO THE FISCAL STABILITY, QUITE FRANKLY, OF THE CITY. IF NOT, WE WOULDN'T BE DOING THIS. WE TAKE IT AS SERIOUSLY AS YOU TAKE IT.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. SO LET ME SAY THIS. IN CLOSING, IN CLOSING, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BETSY LAKE. THIS HAS TO DO WITH THE PROCESS. SO I'M DONE.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL MEMBER. COUNCIL MEMBER, CAN YOU TURN YOUR MIC ON, PLEASE? NO, IT'S NOT ON.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. First of all, let me express My appreciation for the leadership of Betsy Lake for many years I've had the opportunity to work with her and certainly she has made many contributions to the city of Oakland and mayor I recognize you know the role that you that you're in and certainly the the necessities the emergencies that Oakland faces and I support your recommendation to get the work done and or it's not about what we say, it's what we do, so we gotta get the work done, and I support you, and so with this recommendation from Mayor Barbara Lee, I'm in full support, and I'll second the motion.

Okay, you could be the third person. Unger, second it. You wanna be the fourth, council member?

I just had a technical question. If I could ask Bradley through the chair about the $5 million in savings, I believe that we'll realize as a result of this action. Is that compounding?

I appreciate what you're saying. The net savings, 750, the gross saving is 5.5 million. The net savings is $750,000. That would be, that additional savings could absolutely be used to compound into future years regarding our payment process. Yes, we are getting what you're articulating, Council Member Fife, is the benefit of putting money up front, which is what we're doing with this TRAN issuance, it's what we plan to do whenever the market allows to save the city money. That is exactly, it's the same context, it's just within the fiscal year as opposed to between fiscal years.

Understood, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Oh, Council Member Ramachandra.

Thank you. I just want to be very clear and state for the record my reasons for saying no to this item. City Council doesn't have the power to pick most of our key leaders in this city, but we do retain the power to say no when we disagree. have nothing personal against miss lake i don't know her in a personal capacity but i was elected like councilmember houston just said in his district me and my district to have a fiduciary duty to this city and to be honest about decisions that i think will help or hinder our finances I speak as a council member, but I also speak as the chair of the finance committee that I do not support this because I do not trust Ms. Lake to sell bonds or execute financing notes or any other critical financial decision for the city of Oakland, whether in a temporary or permanent capacity. And this is not unfounded out of thin air. This is based on actions that have been done during her tenure as an as a high level city leader that have negatively harmed the city land deals, sports deals, real estate litigation, and I can go on, but not allowed to go into details. Um, I don't buy the argument that we just have our hands are tied because this was the argument that was used my first two years in this role under a previous mayor that we have. Things are brought to us last minute and then we just have to rubber stamp it. No, we don't. Even now before this July 15th, there is opportunities and I have expressed my concerns previously before this item was brought to the Rules Committee to the Mayor's Office. Um, and suggested other names, even though I have no power to put forward any other names, I've certainly suggested names. Now I'm not in favor of bringing back our previous city administrator either. Let me be clear. But I think that there are many qualified people who do work for this city right now that can be trusted on financial matters. And I think that there are people who previously worked for the city who, who I believe can be trusted on financial matters. So I actually think it's the opposite, that it's an irresponsible decision, but I am one vote, I am one voice, but I have a very clear fiduciary duty, and I will use my vote to exercise it, and Council President, I'm not looking for a response. I'm stating my perspective.

Thank you. Madam Clerk.

And with that, we have a motion by Council Member Brown, seconded by Council Member Unger to approve staff recommendations for item S5.6. On roll, Council Member Brown. Aye. Council Member Fife. Aye. Council Member Gallo.

Aye.

Houston.

Aye.

Ramachandran. No. UNGER. AYE. WONG. AYE. AND COUNCIL PRESIDENT JENKINS. NO. AND WE HAVE TWO NOES AND SIX AYES. THIS ITEM IS APPROVED WITH TWO NOES AND SIX AYES. THANK YOU FOR THAT. WE WILL NOW GO TO AGAIN OUT OF ORDER AS REQUESTED BY COUNCIL PRESIDENT JENKINS TO ITEM 5.2. Item 5.2 is receive a presentation from the AC Transit on current agency deficit projections and associated financial outlook, including potential service adjustments and workforce reduction scenarios and impacts. I have four speakers for this item.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. I apologize, I'm trying to figure out how I work the clicker. Can you all see the slides?

Eventually we'll be able to see the slides. How many minutes will you need for this presentation? Will six minutes do?

We're working with 10, but we will try. We'll move as quick as possible.

Okay.

I'll talk quick.

All right, thank you.

Good day. I'm Sarah Syed, proud to represent AC Transit Ward 3 on the AC Transit Board of Directors. It's a real pleasure to be here today and to introduce and to reaffirm the essential role that AC Transit plays in the everyday lives of people and neighborhoods of Oakland. Alongside members of the AC Transit team, we'll also directly address the current budget challenges that frankly, without a long-term solution, will impact our bus network that our residents depend on every day. But first, let's take a quick look at who we are. AC Transit is not an agency of any East Bay City. We're a special district serving 13 cities and eight unincorporated communities across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. We span 364 square miles, carry more than three million riders each month, and are governed by a publicly elected board of directors. Three out of four riders are people of color and nearly two thirds are low income, making AC Transit an essential lifeline for all the communities we serve. It's why for more than 65 years, we've operated bus facilities in Oakland, Emeryville, Hayward and Richmond, keeping buses close to the communities that rely on them. It's also why we're proud to have received the top honor as outstanding public transportation system in the US in 2023. Being a top transit agency, what does that look like? It looks like 40 million rides every year, more than 140,000 riders boarding on a typical weekday. Each weekday, more than 5,500 commuters rely on AC Transit to cross the bay. and when school returns at least 30 000 students depend on us to get safely to and from school every day riders recognize our affordability and value and the numbers prove it just this spring for three months we had our first straight three months of year-over-year ridership growth since the pandemic We're also a workforce-first employer, supporting more than 5,100 jobs across the East Bay. More than half of those jobs are created outside our agency, and together they generate over $604 million in annual wages, injecting nearly $1 billion into the East Bay economy every year. Every bus we operate creates jobs, supports local businesses, and strengthens our communities. While fueling the East Bay economy, we're also cleaning the air. For over a quarter century, AC Transit has led the nation in zero emission buses. Our fleet of 58 zero-emission buses eliminate tailpipe emissions from our streets. And that leadership earned AC Transit a $40 million federal investment to launch the transit industry's first zero-emission bus university. Alongside Chabot College and Union ATU Local 192, Zeb U will help our employees earn associate degrees while preparing the clean transit workforce of tomorrow. Riders recognize our value because we're committed to making transit more affordable, faster, and safer. Our easy pass provides unlimited deep discounts for participating employers, colleges, and communities. Clipper Start gives income eligible adults half off every ride. We redesigned our 104 bus lines last summer under our realign network. As I mentioned, three out of four AC Transit riders are people of color and nearly two thirds are low income. Let's put those numbers into perspective. More than half of our riders earn less than $50,000 a year below the federal poverty level in one of the nation's most expensive regions. Many are already struggling to afford essentials like housing and transportation. That helps explain why 65% of our riders are transit dependent. So service cuts would not just be an inconvenience, they would upend the lives of those who rely on AC Transit. I'll now turn it over to AC Transit staff, who will share more about our deficit projections and potential impacts to service.

Good afternoon, council members. It's great to see all of you and to be in these chambers again. I'm Claudia Burgos. I'm the Executive Director of External Affairs and Customer Experience at AC Transit. So a number of things that our board member just shared, but AC Transit is making sure that every taxpayer dollar counts. We know that when fares go unpaid, the cost of running the service does not disappear. Instead, it creates a funding gap. This month, we launched a multilingual fare required fare compliance campaign. The message is simple. Pay the fare, protect the bus line. A comprehensive California state audit just recently found that AC Transit syncs well with service with other agencies across the East Bay. Our collective real challenges are sustainable funding, not mismanagement.

I apologize if I can just give you a heads up. You have one minute left of the presentation time. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. Sorry.

Okay. We're doing everything to protect the public funds. What's driving the deficit? 28% of fuel costs increases, 14% increase in bus parts, 35% more expensive to buy buses today. In terms of our financial outlook, we've saved over $9 million in the last fiscal year. Our deficit is projected to be 200 million over the next four years, which would result, I wanna draw your attention to the right side of this slide, 16% reduction in bus service and the potential loss of up to 300 jobs at AC Transit. That's why the 2026 November regional measure is so important to us. It's gonna be on the ballot. The bridge loan from the state has helped provide relief for the current fiscal year, which we've just started this week. However, we're planning for the worst and hoping for the best. We have a contingency service plan that I will go over quickly since we're out of time. We're looking to preserve the core of the network, which is primarily here in Oakland, but if we are forced to enact this service plan, many bus lines in Oakland and Oakland residents would be severely impacted. This will not go into effect until June of 2027 and would go into effect only if the regional measure in November does not pass on the ballot. So thank you for your time this afternoon and we hope you stay engaged on this critical matter for transit for Oakland residents, thank you.

Thank you so much. Let's go to the public speakers first, and then I'll open it up to council members if there are any questions.

Thank you so much for that. I will call the public speaker's name as I call your name. Please approach the podium in any order. If you are participating via Zoom, Please raise your hand so I can easily identify you, and as usual, we'll take those who are in person first, and followed by that, we will take those who are online. I have Blair Beekman, Kevin Dolly, Mrs. Sada Olabala, and John Jones III. In any order, if you're present in chambers, we'll take you first, if I called your name.

Thank you. Through the chair, good afternoon. My name is John Jones III. I'm gonna start by saying I have friends. My auntie was a bus driver for AC Transit. Two of my cousins, two of my friends. I still use AC Transit. So now that I got the niceness out the way, this is a perfect example of unintended consequences. AC Transit blew $200 million destroying International Boulevard. One third of those businesses were severely impacted and went out. Businesses that are owned by black and brown people. And if you go on Broadway, it looks very nice and pretty, ain't it? Nice and pretty painted. Go to the east, you got those plastic homes. It destroys the aesthetics of our community. And now we're here today talking about this deficit that they're in. I hope everyone learned from this lesson. We gotta stop being reactive and making decisions without understanding the long-term impact of that. Because what AC Transit did to East Oakland was just horrible. Council Member Noel remembered because we had to bring vendors together and they didn't even know about the mitigation fund. So please do better next time.

Thank you for your comments.

I don't see the clock. It'll start, okay. So it did not in the present, and y'all stop using that people of color, please. What difference does it make what color y'all riding the bus? You didn't say anything about supplemental bus services that are a part of the OUSD service to students. There's the Student Transit Pass Program, the Easy Pass, the Universal Free Transit School Pass, and the supplemental bus services. Now, if you were in so much trouble, why on January 1st did you start Route 31? from skyline all the way down to the uh i forget where it goes all the way from y'all do all kind of stuff that has to do with uh favoritism 20 buses go up to skyline 10 in the morning 10 in the evening eight go to monterra a total of uh 16. and we never hear how much money are y'all paying for that or is the school district because nobody talks about it thank you mr sada

Thank you for your comments. As stated, we will now go to those who signed up for this item on Zoom. Again, if you have signed up for this item and I called your name, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you and state your name for the record. I see Kevin Daly, you are unmuted, you may begin.

Hi, this is Kevin Daly. Thanks for the presentation and I'm very concerned. We need to keep AC Transit rolling extra transit. The transit reduces the cars on the road at its best. It reduces injuries and fatalities. And while mistakes were made in designing the International Boulevard rapid transit, Oak Dot and AC Transit worked together, reducing fatalities on that line. We need to make sure that Oakland doesn't do anything that risks the passing of this this measure on the ballot in November, and we need to figure out what we can do to keep AC Transit moving. Lack of buses will increase the cost to Oakland, whether or not it's extremely obvious what is going on and how it will happen. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Our last speaker for this item, Blair Beekman, and I don't see him at this time, so that concludes your speakers for this.

Okay, that'll conclude public comment. Are there any questions from the council members? I see, yeah. You have to turn your microphone on.

If one of the representatives can please share with the public, and certainly, Growing up here in Oakland all my life, I certainly understand the level of service from AC Transit, but can you share with us what is your future projection to serving our student population, including our seniors that are utilizing the bus system on a daily basis? I know you provide certain passes and so forth and services to the schools.

Yeah, I'm Sean Deesler, service planning manager, AC Transit. At this point, as part of the contingency service plan, we're not proposing any reductions to our supplemental bus service routes. So all the bus services that serve Skyline, as the resident mentioned, Skyline and Montero, Oakland Tech, Rootsdale High, a number of the schools in the hills, we're not looking to reduce those services because we know they're very essential as part of, they're essential service that we provide.

So does Oakland Unified School District pay for that service or does AC Transit provide that?

So AC Transit does get a small amount, about $500,000 annually from OUSD. It by no means covers the cost of the service, so it is being paid for out of the general, I guess the general fund of AC Transit. Thank you.

Thank you for the information. Thank you.

Councilmember Houston, and then after that, I'll probably make a motion.

Through the chair, I'd like to ask a couple questions too, and it doesn't have anything too much to do with this. Like John Jones said, AC Transit destroyed my neighborhood. It did, it is what it is. District seven, from the board of San Leandro to 73rd, that was just, I would've never voted for that if I was council member at that time. I would've never let that happen in my neighborhood. Because some of the things that were supposed to happen didn't continue to happen. Because they had promised to keep that illegal dumping off of that medium, and it's so trashy, and then who takes care of the delineators or the torch down channelizers that get hit with everybody driving by. It's just awful. Even though this doesn't happen, I'm not happy with AC Transit in my neighborhood, I'm not. And I speak for my people. District 7, I'm 10 toes down for them, and they're 10 toes down for me, and believe me, they are. Some of them gonna speak on this later, something else. But my thing is,

I was just gonna say, this might be more appropriate for the ILC. I understand what you're saying, but it might be, I think they're here in a different capacity, and you're a member of the ILC, and this might be an appropriate thing to agendize.

Okay, President, I'll let that roll. All right, so thank you.

Thank you, is there, Gayo made a motion, I'll make a second.

And that was a motion,

Wong, did you want to say something?

I'll take the opportunity. Yeah, I just, I'm a proud AC Transit rider myself. I just, you know, working class people are using the bus system. That's the other thing that we need to talk about. And with these service cuts, which are drastic, I'd like to just hear, how can we be helpful to ensure that this ballot measure passes? Because it is critically important that this transit service continues.

Thank you, Council Member Wong, for that question. So since we're here in our official AC Transit capacity, my response is we would welcome any opportunities to share this same presentation with your constituents, community groups, community stakeholders, business associations. you could let us know where you think that there are stakeholders that would be interested in this information and we'd be happy to go to where they are. In terms of what can be done in regards to the revenue measure, those are things that as a public employee we cannot get involved in in our public time. Certainly I think a lot of people here are doing a whole bunch of things as private citizens of the city of Oakland.

Okay, thank you.

All right, let's go to the roll.

We have a motion by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Council President Jenkins to receive this presentation in council on roll. Councilmember Brown?

Aye.

Fife? Aye. Gallo? Aye. Houston?

Abstain.

Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? aye wong aye and council president jenkins aye thank you guys so much thank you the item 5.2 was received in a council with seven eyes and one abstain houston thank you so much now we will move again out of order to item 5 s 5.7 adopt a resolution submitting to the voters at the november 3rd 2026 general municipal election a measure to amend the oakland municipal code uh... charter uh... chapter four point a four point two zero uh... to amend the expense exemption for foreclosure transactions in advisory measures on whether the increased revenue from amending the city's real property transfer tax to include certain foreclosure um transactions should be spent for the purposes of providing interim shelter transitional housing encampment closure operations addiction treatment job readiness and other related homelessness services and directing the city clerk to take any and all actions necessary under the laws to submit these measures to the voters at the general municipal election and making appropriate um california environmental quality act findings and I have 12 speakers for item 5.7.

All right, Council Member Wong, can you throw five minutes on the clock for the council member?

apologies and before we read this item into record um thank you for my staff we do need to state an urgency finding on the record before we hear this item so if the author this item can present an urgency on why we need to hear this item sure the urgency item is just timeliness to make it onto the ballot this november thank you i'll second that And that was a motion by Councilmember Wong, seconded by Council President Jenkins to approve the urgency finding stated on record. With that, I'll roll. Councilmember Brown? Aye. Councilmember Fife? Aye. Gallo? Aye. Houston? Aye. Ramachandran? I think we keep pushing the button. Ramachandran? Sorry. Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And Council President Jenkins?

Aye.

We have eight ayes to approve the urgency finding. You may present.

All right, thank you, colleagues. So what is before you today is a proposal to add onto the ballot this November a closure of a loophole in our existing real estate transfer tax. In measure X, this is our progressive real estate transfer tax, there is an exemption right now in foreclosure transfers, including deed in lieu transfers. These types of transfers and these acquisitions, by the way, primarily fall under lenders, so these are banks as well as real estate investment trusts and private equity. I also wanted to note that unlike the title, one of the amendments is actually to remove the companion advisory measure. This is based off of the feedback that I received from my colleagues in rules. We've also added some important exemptions to closing this loophole. We've added exemptions, hardships for natural persons that are experiencing foreclosure. To be clear, the intent is not to punish the individuals that are experiencing foreclosure, but to actually tax, again, these are lenders as well as private equity and the real estate investment trusts that are acquiring what are distressed buildings. Housing conversions is another exemption that we've made. So there is an adaptive reuse element in this tax measure that says the loophole will be or the exemption will be retained when, for example, we're seeing this rise in office buildings that are going into foreclosures because We have challenges. Our office buildings, people are not going back to work, and so if someone acquires that building and actually converts it into affordable housing, into interim shelter, or a number of other uses, they will receive an exemption from this tax. And then, I have also added an exemption that allows authority for council to add exemptions later on in ordinance basis. The reason that I'm proposing this at this moment is because we are entering a foreclosure cycle that will not last forever. And I have the data that I will go through shortly. I also want to note that in San Francisco, they are also proposing a foreclosure tax ballot measure. It is anticipated to raise, and this estimate is done by their controller's office, $200 million over the next three years. Now, I recognize that our real estate market is not exactly this, but nonetheless it shows that there is significant revenue to be generated from this type of closure. And not only that, this is also about tax equity. Are we taxing the individuals and the companies and the corporate entities that have the most capital when we talk about how to raise revenue for this city? I also want to note these headlines. We are seeing again a rise in foreclosures. This is an article by the Wall Street Journal, and we're also seeing very locally that Oakland apartment buildings, office buildings are going into distress. What is not even included in this slide is actually the Clorox building, which just announced that it was going into foreclosure. Also wanna note how much revenue that we've lost because we have not had this loophole closed over the last number of years. In 2024, and this is simply, I wanna note, these are transactions that we can note in the public record. So this is in news headlines. You can see here, that these are a number of properties uh in 2024 as well as the range of tax revenue that they could have borne to generate for the city if this tax loophole had been closed at that time you can see that there's a number in 2024 a number in 2025 and 2026 is actually when we're seeing a substantial increase in those foreclosures To summarize what you're seeing these trends in the last three years is that in 2024, a low estimate for the revenue generated would have been three million to a high estimate of seven million. 2025, that would be around 4.9 million to nearly seven million. In 2026, and this is based off of actual transactions that we're seeing in the market, this is through June. So this is just through half a year alone. We could have generated anywhere from 5.4 million to 24.6 million in six months alone if that loophole had been closed. So I also want to note this is the annualized estimate from finance that they are comfortable with putting onto the ballot. Should we add this onto the ballot? Where it would, again, because this is countercyclical revenue. When we are experiencing recessions in particular in the city of Oakland, we know that that's when we have the most challenges with our tax revenue. That's when our standard real estate transfer tax experiences a low. This is a counter cyclical revenue generator when we're experiencing tough economic times. The estimate from finance that they are comfortable with putting on the ballot is a low estimate of 4.5 million to a high of 13 million.

apologize if I can just quickly let you know that you have one more minute left okay your time thank you so much and that's it I'll take any questions thank you let's go to the public speakers do you want to go first okay or potentially a friendly amendment so

Last time at Rules, I expressed my concern about the definition of a community banking organization because there are plenty of big banks that might, per the Federal Reserve, have assets of less than $10 billion or those that are still predatory investors, whether or not they're a big bank. I don't support this, but I think that I would prefer council has the ability to amend this language. So to section four of 4.20.050, section F4, I would recommend that it says, and I'm open to the city attorney's input on this, of course, city council may by ordinance establish other exceptions or amend the exceptions listed above. so that we not only have the power to add new exemptions to the tax, but also amend this as it is. Let's say in a year we realize there's very predatory investors that qualify under the $10 billion amount who are buying up these properties without paying us RATT, that we retain the power to change this exemption.

Okay, I'm comfortable with that. Okay, thank you.

All right, let's go to the public speakers.

Thank you. As stated earlier, as I call your name, people approach the podium in any order. If you are here in person, we'll take those first, those who are participating via Zoom. I will take those following those who are in person. Again, if you're participating in Zoom, please raise your hand so we can easily identify you. With that, I have Ms. Asada Olaballa, Barbara Leslie, Blair Beekman, Derek Barnes, Kevin Daly, Palayo Lamas, Robert Optica, Josephine Guzman, Dan Kolb, Kathy Leonard, Anne Jenks, and Jean Hazard. Again, if I called your name and you're here in person, please line up at the podium in any order, state your name for the record, and following those who are here in person and they've given their time, I will take those online. Is everyone that is signed up for item 5.7 passing to speak on this item? Thank you.

So I'm just gonna use this as an opportunity to ask people who are gonna be voting, make sure you understand clearly what you're voting for or against. I just heard something, I don't know what the hell she said. And so when I don't understand something, I tried hard, I read it several times, but I don't know what she's trying to do. And I'm not a dummy. but it's not clear. All I got is foreclosure, community bank, and trying to help, you're trying to help some kind of way. So my recommendation is we need to do something with the high level of foreclosures of these office buildings and these hotels that are in the city. Stop the foreclosure before it happens. What's the process that can happen? Are we talking about the end foreclosure and after that process is taken, this is a way to do something? I don't know. All I'm gonna tell you is, Wong is trying hard to validate

I apologize, Mrs. Sato, your time is up. Thank you so much. If I called your name and you're here in person, please step up to the podium for item 5.7.

Ann Jenks, District 3. I appreciate the conversation about how to ensure that the proposal doesn't have unintended impacts, but I also appreciate the time that I hope the council is willing to take to ensure that we do address foreclosures in every and any way possible. As far as I'm concerned, getting some extra money out of it is secondary to doing everything possible to make foreclosures more challenging. If you do get some money out of it, you could also always follow the charter and fund independent oversight, which you failed to do. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Again, if I called your name and you're in person, please approach the podium. Otherwise, we...

Good afternoon, my name is Robert Apodaca, a resident of Alameda County for the last 55 years, of which 40 years in Oakland, and the last 23 years in District 2, Chinatown. I have seen many economic cycles over the last 20, well, 50 years, quite frankly, and longer, and we've lived through these booms and busts, was here for the 10K boom and the continued growth of Oakland, but unfortunately now we're seeing the bust. There are many office, hotel, and apartment foreclosures, and it's just getting worse. And we're missing out on revenue that would otherwise be available had it not been for Measure X. I support the amendment to get more money from these foreclosures and that money need to be invested so that people have more security, fix the potholes and make this a more livable city and people won't be foreclosing on their home properties and business properties. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments. Again, I'm going once, going twice. Mr. Hazard, are you wanting to speak on this item you signed up, but Mr. Hazard has passed? I will now go to those who raised their hand and signed up for this item in Zoom, starting with Kathy Leonard. You may unmute yourself and begin.

Kathy Leonard, resident of District 1. I approve this being on the ballot measure for this particular reason. I'm looking at the executive summary and I want to read the second paragraph of item 3. In our residential neighborhoods, National Real Estate Investment Trusts and Wall Street hedge funds routinely outbid local working families, working class families at trustee auctions. These institutional entities buy foreclosed starter homes tax free. This loophole actively subsidizes the rapid conversion of owner-occupied housing into corporate-owned rental portfolios, permanently raising the barrier to affordable home ownership for local residents. I am upset that these companies are coming in and buying our homes. They're not even in Oakland. And so we cannot buy homes in Oakland. And they resell them at a high price.

Apologies, Ms. Leonard, your time has ended. We will now move on to the next person who signed up via Zoom. I have Josephine Guzman. You're on mute. You may begin.

Hello. Good evening, Council President and members of the City Council. My name is Josephine Guzman and I serve as the Public Policy Manager for the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. We're here just to thank Councilmember Wong for her leadership on this legislation and specifically highlight the importance of a thoughtful stakeholder engagement process on ensuring us as community partners have the opportunity to provide meaningful feedback. The Oakland Chamber appreciates being included as a stakeholder and having the opportunity to share perspectives on behalf of the business community, ask questions, and better understand the considerations behind this legislation. We believe strong stakeholder engagement is essential for developing these effective policies and bringing together voices. So thank you for your time and for sharing your thoughts on this.

Thank you for your comments. We will now go to the next speaker. I have Palau. You are unmuted. May you may begin. You would need to.

Hello, my name is Palau. I'm from District 4. I'm going to just keep this short. Thank you, City Council. And for this to end, thank you, City Council, very much. And I hope you adopt this resolution in support of the foreclosure tax to stabilize housing. And I hope it will prevent homelessness. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments. I have next Kevin Daly. You may unmute yourself and begin.

Hi, this is Kevin Daly from D4. I think this tax is a really interesting idea. I am concerned that like so many of Oakland taxes, the money is going into the general fund with recommendation that it be used for specific purposes. And the council has a habit pretty much every year during budget time to override any suggested purpose. Let's be honest here. If it goes before the voters, let's just remove the clause that has suggested uses and be upfront, admit it's going to the general fund. my other concern is having this tax on the november ballot at the same time as the ac transit sales tax mentioned previously uh could be a problem when there's multiple taxes on the ballot at the same time it reduces the chances of any thank you for your comments we have blair beekman up next you may unmute yourself and begin

Hi, Blair Beekman. Thanks for the words of Kevin Daly. Yeah, I wanted to ask that opinion as well. So thank you for that. Also, I mentioned a public comment. If this item can be used for the foreclosure process can be taken over by corporate structures instead of low homeowners. That's an interesting concept. I mean, I want to support this measure, and I prefer to call it Measure Y instead of Measure X to be supportive. But it is an experiment. If this was done by a Republican Party person, I'd be very careful of it. But I am trying good intentions of what a Democratic Party person in offering this can do. And just that how we talk about the funding, what it's used for. I mean, if we make specific guidelines to not use it for enforcement, homeless enforcement. That's the direction I'd like to work in, not with litter enforcement, but with our more positive, constructive programs. Maybe that can be a safeguard.

Thank you for your comments. And I have Dan Cobb. You may unmute yourself and begin.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I respectfully urge city council members to support this proposed ballot measure, which amends the real estate transfer tax, Measure X, to effectively close the loophole and therefore ensure that large banks and big business investors are not given a free pass when real property is transferred due to a foreclosure. I believe that this could raise $1 to $3 million a year annually for the general purpose fund for vital public services, and in some years, even more when large commercial properties become subject to foreclosure, which has indeed happened. post-COVID. Interestingly, this could also from time to time have the consequence of incentivizing large banks to avoid foreclosure of residential homes in order to avoid this tax. This might mean that homeowners could be given more flexibility with payment plans instead of sudden foreclosure. That's a good thing. This tax change would only be paid for by a very small number of entities such as larger banks, not the broad public. I urge an aye vote to put this on the ballot. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. I have Barbara Leslie. If you are participating, please unmute yourself. All speakers have been.

Thank you. Council Member Brown, and then we'll go to Wong.

Excellent, well thank you so much Council Member Wong for bringing the item. I know we've had the opportunity to ask many questions and engage on this, so I'll keep my questions brief. I'm also supportive of the friendly amendment that Council Member Ramachandran uplifted. I did wanna get an update on the additional community engagement that you were able to do on this, if you wanted to just share that publicly.

Yeah, absolutely. So these are the groups that have been engaged on this topic. Chamber of Commerce, who you heard from. We also spoke with the BID Alliance, the East Bay Housing Authority, HERA, which is the Housing and Economic, well, anyways, let me not spell out that. That organization, but they basically do focus on foreclosure policy as well as just housing affordability The Wellstone Club Sierra Club East Bay for everyone the the Yimby groups East Bay Yimby We also spoke with Housing Action Coalition. They have a neutral position on this as well as other organizations and individuals like former now Now, Supervisor Bass, former City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bass, who was also exploring this measure during her tenure. And then also, I just want to mention that we also engaged with stakeholders in San Francisco, as well as our city attorney spoke directly with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office on this item.

Excellent, and the update for the city and county of San Francisco is that they are also moving forward this item on the November ballot.

Correct, correct, yep.

Excellent, thank you.

Council Member McAvoy, turn your mic on.

I did follow the foreclosure tax development in San Francisco, and certainly considering the emergencies that we have in our neighborhoods, I am in full support of this initiative, and thank you for your leadership. Thank you.

you councilmember gallo and then i also wanted to address some of the public comment there was one comment that well we are taking off the advisory measure because i think it's it anyways it'd be more democratic if we as a body then decide on what to use with the revenue right instead of what i had proposed in its original form with the advisory measure with the intent to use it focused on interim shelter The other piece that I wanted to touch upon is, which is what Dan Kalb spoke to on the phone, which is right now when we have this loophole in our tax policies, it's actually incentivized for banks to move towards foreclosure instead of trying to negotiate a better loan or a short sale or something that would avoid someone going to foreclosure and then experiencing a hit to their credit score.

Council Member Fife.

yes i um there are two things i would like to through the chair um have some commentary by our finance director if bradley johnson is still available i would just like to get an understanding of the finances because the presentation stated that finance was comfortable with certain numbers but i want to know if finance is confident with certain numbers uh... because if i'm being honest this type of legislation is right up my alley and uh... i appreciate the opportunity to have weighed in on it in the rules committee but if i'm being honest i feel extremely rushed on this legislation and it's changed so many times i'm struggling with understanding what is real with this legislation. I think the intention is spot on and absolutely correct. And a lot of the properties that were listed in the presentation are in District three. And so it is absolutely vital that we address these challenges. But I'm concerned about the nature and the way that this was presented and how many times it's changed as to what is actual in the ballot language. And now I'm trying to really scrutinize what goes before our voters. And so if I could, through the chair, uh director johnson if you could articulate your confidence in the numbers that were associated with this initiative in terms of what the city can yield in an annual um allocation to the general purpose fund understood so uh the range i believe in the report is that four to thirteen million dollar range that is a reasonable range based on all the data we've collected this uh

exemption elimination and sort of its incremental amount will vary a lot year to year rett is already our most volatile revenue source and this particular item will likely be counter cyclical and what i mean by that is normally real estate transfer tax booms when the market is going up this would attack certain kinds of foreclosures which inherently happen in down markets And so it will only be in the periods, we may go years where we realize if we were to go back to like the late 20 teens boom time, you probably would have collected almost nothing from this because the market was very hot. And so why would you ever foreclose? You would just do a sale. But when you have a bust, like we were going back to 2008 when the market fell out, this would then raise lots of revenue. And so the fact that there's a spectrum on that is real. It will be there year to year. There will likely be some amount of turnover every year. I think that $4 to $13 million range is reasonable, and I do think it will move in that range year to year. I don't think there's a way of pinning down a more stable number. This is likely to yield new revenue. It is just removing the exemption that exists in our current code.

And how... what authority do we have to say that this revenue will be for this specific purpose

As I understand it right now, this is being proposed as a general tax. And so it would go to your general purpose fund. So it would just sit like all your other real estate transfer tax does in your general purpose fund. The way to think about it would be, if you go back to your budget years, every year of your GPF RETT number, it would be $4 to $13 million higher, depending on the context of the market. And as I mentioned earlier, you're likely to see more of that 13 side in down markets. Buffers are lows, but it probably doesn't increase your highs very much, because when you're in a really up market, you're unlikely to see a lot of these kind of foreclosures.

But we can't, and I'll maybe be more direct, we can't say that this will solve homelessness, or we can actually guarantee that these funds go to address homelessness.

you would have to do the allocation of this resource through your budget process. It's a general tax. If you were to restrict its usage in the ballot measure itself, it would become a special tax and that's a different kind of measure.

Two thirds?

Yes, a special tax is a two-thirds measure, and there are some recent restrictions that have likely come about at the state level regarding special taxes involving RATT that are a result of a negotiation with the governor and the legislature and some ballot measure proponents at the state level. So it's a more complicated question for a special tax to RATT, a general tax that, and in this case, is not so much imposing a new tax, but eliminating a loophole or an exemption that exists in our current tax structure is a different space, and so it's likely to be justifiable at the 50% margin, provided it's general.

Thank you. Excellent, thank you so much. Council Member Houston?

through Chair Brown. Madam City Clerk, I'll second that if Council Member Giannani's amendments are in that.

Do we have a motion already on the floor from Council Member Wong?

I can go ahead and make a motion I did before I make a motion just want to quickly respond to also my colleagues questions around this just a special fund allocation that is something I did actually explore and that would have been my preference however beyond the two-thirds threshold it's also legally not allowable this kind of closure of a loophole requires this to go to the general fund and so that's why you saw a special advisory companion manager which is ultimately non-binding and seemed like it was not worth the cost to do that so that's why i'm removing that in the this version that is before you and so it is really just going to the general fund and then if we do put this on the ballot we then can uh put forward via budget resolution what the what the proposed allocation is and i would like a portion of that to go to homelessness

Excellent, thank you so much. Would you like to make the motion?

And yes, and I will make the motion adopting the amendment from Council Member Ramachandran.

Excellent, and do we have a second? Council Member Houston. And then Council Member Ramachandran, if you have a question.

parliament turned to it can I read in the exact language okay great thank you so just clarifying the amendment that I read in for section for the city council made by ordinance establish other exceptions this is the new part and slash or amend or remove exceptions listed above and then goes on to the tax imposed by this chapter for foreclosure related transfer by amendment of this subsection F

and there was a motion by council member my apologies sorry madam clerk through the chair to the council we would also like to read in an amendment to the reso which just will capture the ballot question which is in all the resolutions for ballot measures so i can read that in at this time yes Okay, this would be in the second resolved clause. There's a box there that says ballot question, and then we'd like to insert the following language. Shall the measure amending Oakland's real property transfer tax ordinance to eliminate the foreclosure exception for all property transfers except transfers converting commercial property to certain housing or healthcare uses, transfers to community banking organizations, and certain transfers of residential properties or less, and allowing the city council to establish, amend, or remove foreclosure-related exceptions, raising approximately four to 13 million annually pursuant to tax rates in the Oakland Municipal Code, section 4.20.020, beginning January 1st, 2027, until repealed be adopted, question mark.

All right, and just for confirming that, we have a motion by Councilmember Wong, seconded by Councilmember Houston to approve as the amendment stated on the record by Councilmember Ramachandran and City Attorney. On roll, Councilmember, aye. Aye. Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

Council Member Wong. Aye. And Council Member Brown, who's chairing at this moment. Aye. And Council Member Jenkins is excused at this moment. This item is approved as amended with seven ayes, one excuse, Council Member Jenkins. Thank you so much.

That now takes us again back to the— Through the chair, before we move on, please provide the amended resolution to our office as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam City Clerk, for your elegance. We will now move back to the order of the agenda, the items 3.1 and 3.2, and this is the beginning or the start of the joints. Leona Quarry and Oakland Geological Hazard Embatement District shall be convened, so I don't know if staff needs to come here or how the process is out there. all right thank you so much you may uh begin your presentation as the uh leona corey shall be come to order this is 507. thank you so much oh i i'm not sure if the peop person who chairs it or if the clerk does the reading in of these items i don't know My apologies, I just refresher on these processes. But again, I will read in the item 3.1, which is Adopt a Resolution 2026-01, Adopting the Annual GAD Budget for Fiscal Year 2026-27, Updating GAD Manager Payment Limits Under the Existing Consulting Service Agreement and Suspending the Assessment Levy for the Fiscal Year 2026-2027. I do have a few speakers for this item. Thank you so much.

Excuse me.

Good afternoon GAD Chair and board members.

My name is Haley Ralston. I am with NGO who serves as the GAD manager for the Leona-Corey and Oakland area GADs. I am also here with Patricia Curtin with Fenmore-Wendell who serves as legal counsel for both GADs. Just a quick information on GADs. GAD stands for Geologic Hazard Abatement Districts and only affects a few communities within the city of Oakland and provides services to only those residences within the community. But before the board this evening are two items, one for each GAD and I'll present briefly on the Leona-Corey GAD item first. Before the board is resolution 20-26-01, adopting the annual GAD budget and updating the GAD manager payment limit under the existing consultant services agreement for fiscal year 26-27 and suspending the levy for the Leona-Corey GAD residences for fiscal year 26-27. The proposed budget estimates about $405,670,000 in total expenditures and anticipates approximately $162,000 in total revenue from investments off the current account balance. For annual administration and preventative monitoring and maintenance oversight for fiscal year 26-27, GAD managers requesting a payment limit of $126,260. As part of the annual budget preparation and analysis of the GAD's reserve fund balance, it has been determined that an adequate target reserve has been maintained through the current fiscal year 25-26. Therefore, GAD manager recommends a suspension of the assessment levy for fiscal year 26-27. The GAD's reserve account balance is anticipated to be approximately $4.9 million at the end of the current fiscal year and is anticipated to be approximately $4.7 million at the end of fiscal year 26-27, assuming all expenditures are spent. Each year the GAD's reserve fund balance will be compared to the target reserve balance as prepared in a prior reserve study for the GAD, and an annual budget and recommended assessment levy will be brought to the board for review and approval every year. GAD staff recommending adopting resolution 2026-01 for the Leona-Corey GAD. We're available for any questions the board may have on this item.

Thank you so much. Seeing no questions from my colleagues, let's go to the public speaker.

Thank you so much, I will call your name. And if you are participating in person, please approach the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. I have Ms. Assata Olaballa and Blair Beekman. Ms. Assata.

So I'm trying to understand the status of Oak Knoll. because at the time that that project or development became a part of GLAD, it was determined by the developer that any individuals who purchase property or homes would automatically be liable for an assessment under GLAD. He made that determination. So now we have a new developer, not the developer who was at that time taking that position or allowing that to be the case. So will the new developer have to come forward to do something to require any residents who purchase homes at under old no property to be on the glade is my question through the chair and the other thing is apologize missus out of your time is that we thank you the next speaker is clear beekman it please I meet yourself and you may begin

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman. I just wanted to ask really quick with this item. I'm very unclear about it. Is this item not going to allow for or not work towards better environmental concerns? Are you reducing the environmental concerns to get this item across the goal line? That's my question. I hope it's relevant. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And that concludes your public speakers for this item.

Thank you. I'd like to move the item and close the public hearing.

Thank you so much, and that was a motion by Council President Jenkins, seconded by Council Member Gallo to close the public hearing and approve this item. On roll, Council Member Brown.

Aye.

Council Member Fay. Aye. Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston is excused. Council Member Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

Councilmember Wong. is excused and council president jenkins hi hi this item is approved with six eyes two excused that now takes us to item 3.2 um i will read the item into record adopt a resolution of 2026-01 adopting the annual gad budget for fiscal year 2026-27 and updating gad manager payment limits under the existing consulting service agreement i do have two speakers for this item

Great, thank you again. Before the board is resolution 202601 adopting the annual GAD budget for the Oakland area GAD and adopting the GAD manager payment limit under the existing consulting service agreement for fiscal year 2627. The proposed budget estimates $20,498 in total expenditures and anticipates $20,976 in total revenue for fiscal year 26-27. For administration and preventative maintenance operations for fiscal year 26-27, the GAD manager is requesting a payment limit of $9,490. The GAD's reserve accounts balance is anticipated to be approximately $132,000 at the end of the current fiscal year and is anticipated to be approximately $133,000 at the end of fiscal year 26-27. Each year the GAD's reserve fund balance will be compared to the target reserve balance and an annual budget and recommended assessment levy will be brought to the GAD board for review and approval. GAD staff are recommending approval of resolution 20-26-01 for the Oakland area GAD and are available for any questions the board may have.

Thank you so much. Let's go to the council member Brown.

Excellent, I just had a really quick question as I was reading through the reports. I was curious, it's on page 10, how there's scheduled monitoring events that occur. How is either Council President Jenkins, who represents District Six, or any of the council members updated about these monitoring events?

Sure, we do perform the monitoring events twice throughout the fiscal year, once in the fall and once in the spring, before and after rains to see how the site is doing, and we do publish the reports on the GADS websites, and so we have not traditionally circulated them to the board, but we are happy to do so if the board would like to see that.

And when was the last time the website was updated?

most recently within the last couple months for the recent board meeting, but we are verifying, or completing our spring monitoring event report to then post that to the website.

Excellent, thank you so much.

Thank you, let's go to the public speakers.

Thank you so much, I have Blair Beekman and Miss Assata Olaballa.

So you're addressing a budget which you break down for the things that GLAD comes under and which is, GLAD is responsible for vegetation management, habitat management, erosion control, fire suppression and some other things. So where's the breakdown under those categories exactly what happened under the last budgetary period? And who does the monitoring? You can't do the monitoring because you're not no manager of vegetation expertise. I think it would be somebody in the fire department, somebody who's dealing with soil erosion. You have to have a level of expertise to monitor something. Who does that? And the other thing is, y'all got to stop this phony representation that this is a public hearing. The public gets up here, and you just ignore what we say. So won't you say this is a fake hearing that the public.

Thank you, Ms. Olaballa. Moving to the Zoom speaker, Blair Beekman. Mr. Beekman, I don't see your hand raised. Do you still wish to speak on this item? Blair Beekman for item 3.2, going once, going twice.

Thank you to everybody that came to speak on this item and this public hearing. I will move the item and close the public hearing. To the GAD manager, to the GAD, do you guys have any responses to any of the public comments?

sure we're happy to um address here or if you'd like us to address directly yeah briefly um would you like me to touch on all of them or just the most recent comments as many as you can in one minute um sure i know there was a previous comment regarding the oak knoll assessment development that has already been passed and approved by this board currently and with a new developer they are not required to go through that process again and that assessment will remain on those residences as they are as they are built and come into the development As far as environmental concerns, the projects themselves already went through the EIR process during development and that is not a focus of the GAD. The GAD focuses on geologic hazards specifically for each of the communities within the districts. And then also questions related to specific budget items. In the budget report we do present a table that compares the previous year's Anticipated expenditures are for the current fiscal year against what was proposed and approved by the board For this fiscal year and then what the board is presented with approving for this current fiscal year and so regarding the items in there the GAD does have certain responsibilities related to prevention, control and emergency response for geologic hazards, but does also have some responsibilities related to fire suppression as the GAD does own some open space in those areas. And we do work with Oakland Fire Department routinely to make sure that those requirements are being upheld or if they change that we're adhering to those as well. So yes, and then NGO, we are a geotechnical firm serving as GAD managers. So we do have engineers and geologists on staff that do perform the routine monitoring and also emergency response events.

Thank you for that. So I wanna make the motion to close the public hearing and move the item and acknowledging what Council Member Brown said. One, updates. Two, making sure that the website is updated.

There is a motion by Council President Jenkins, seconded by Council Member Brown to close this hearing and adopt the item. Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember Fife.

Aye.

Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Councilmember Houston is excused. Councilmember Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

Councilmember Wong is also excused. Council President Jenkins.

Did you want to get your vote in before? How do you vote?

Aye.

Aye.

council president Jenkins aye motion passes with a vote of seven ayes one excused Wong the GAD board hearing is now adjourned noting that the GAD hearing is adjourned and we are now convening as the Oakland City Council. Going to item 4.1. Need a motion to open the public hearing.

Second.

On the motion by Council Member Gallo, seconded by Council Member Brown to open the public hearing, item 4.1. Council Member Brown?

Aye.

Council Member Fife?

Aye.

Council Member Gallo?

Aye.

Council Member Houston?

Aye.

Council Member Ramachandran? Aye. Council Member Unger? Aye. Council Member Wong is excused. Council President Jenkins? Aye. Motion passes with a vote of seven ayes, one excused. Wong? I will read the item into record. Conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion, adopt a resolution accepting and appropriating a total award of United States Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funds in an amount not to exceed $14,674,799.07. for community development block grant, home investment partnerships, emergency solutions grants, and housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, programs for fiscal years 26 through 27, authorizing the city administration to prepare and submit to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development the annual action plan for fiscal year 26 through 27, appropriating any available revolving loan program income for housing, rehabilitation activities, authorizing the city administrator to award agreements for activities that set forth in exhibit a in the list of eligible backup activities to be funded with funds that become available as a result of projects being completed under budget delayed or canceled attached here to inclusive inclusive of prior year funding availability subject to compliance with any applicable competitive beating requirements. and authorizing the city administrators to designate certifying official or designee of the certifying official for the purpose of Title 24, Part 58 of the Code of Federal Regulations and submit to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. You have 11 speakers on this item.

That was a long title. Can you put five minutes on the clock?

Thank you for the time to present today. My name is Hannah Batesh. I am with the Housing and Community Development Department. I will walk through our department's annual action plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. So I will just quickly go through what this plan is and why we do it, what activities we're proposing to use our HUD funding for, and close with just a little context about the opportunities and limitations of this funding, which represents just one part of how our department funds safe and stable housing for our neighbors. Oh, another way. So this is the very long resolution that we are asking council to adopt, essentially accepting the federal funds and giving us flexibility if we need to make minor adjustments to how we use them. So for example, if one project is delayed and another is moving faster, we could have the option to fund the faster project at a higher level than planned. So a little bit about the city's HUD funding. We are an entitlement jurisdiction, so we get funding based on our population level. We have an ongoing cycle for planning and reporting on this funding. That is shown up here. What we're doing today is in purple, so we'll mainly talk about that. At the top, we have a five-year plan. At the bottom, we have reporting what we have done. What we're doing today is the middle, so we're just talking about what we are doing for this particular year of our five-year plan, And so that's what we're presenting to council for approval today. The last part of the cycle is that at the end of every fiscal year, we'll submit a report which reviews how we did achieving the outcomes that we laid out in last year's annual plan. So if you're interested in outcomes, that's a separate report. I'm not gonna go through all of the items in our five-year plan. They're up here and this is publicly available. So the funding that the city receives from HUD is through these four grant streams. The exact amounts are announced each spring, and as I mentioned earlier, it's a congressional appropriation based on a formula that's tied to our population size and demographics. As you can see, most of the funding is for capital improvements, and not for services. And so this is another reason that this is just one way that we fund what we do for our neighbors because there are some restrictions in what we can do with the HUD funding. The first two grants, community development block grants and home investment partnerships are administered by our department. And then the last two are administered by the community homelessness services division in the human services department. The amounts we got this year are pretty similar to what we got last year overall, although by grant streams, some amounts are higher than last year and others are a little bit lower. So briefly, some examples of what we have done with these funds is these kinds of rehabilitation and repair and accessibility projects with the Community Development Block Grant. We've also done anti-displacement and tenant stabilization programs. With the home investment partnerships, we've done a lot of new construction and rehabilitation. So here are some examples of recent projects we've done. And again, the outcomes for those projects are in a separate report that happens at the end of the fiscal year. For housing opportunities for people with AIDS, we provide these kinds of services that you can see up here. Again, those are administered by Community Homelessness Services. And for ESG, similarly, we've provided these kinds of homelessness services. And again, those are administered by our sibling department, Community Homelessness Services. So a little bit about the challenges and constraints of using federal funding. As I mentioned, there's a lot of restrictions around what we can actually use the funding for. It is primarily capital and not services. We also have some restrictions in when we can use the funding. So we have to use it by a certain date or else we lose it. We also have to be very clear on exactly when we're going to use it because it can be challenging to So this is why we're asking for the flexibility to do that this year. We also have to be very careful about what we use federal funds for because there's a lot of layered requirements. So it can add a lot of complexity to an existing project. if we add a federal funding source. So this again is one reason why we have a lot of different ways that we fund the services that our department funds. This is only one because we want to be careful about triggering those extra requirements using federal funds. So the process you can see up here, we have actually made the annual action plan available for 30 day public review on our website. It's also gone out through email and other channels. Today represents a public hearing and then we will have a separate presentation on outcomes um in september on activities that we did with these grant funds during the prior fiscal year so again we're in the middle part of a hud cycle and that will end in september and there will be another report on what we've actually accomplished with the funds thank you that was five minutes exactly great job uh let's go to the public speakers first

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning. If you're participating on Zoom, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you still wish to speak. Blair Beekman, Miss Asada Olaballa, Arlene Hipp, Avery Arbo, Mike Robles, Renee Moon, Michelle Washington, Linda Wade, Kathy Harris, Janice Slaton, Gray Slaughter, and Donna Greggs Murphy, in any order.

Hello. My name's Avery Arbaugh, and I am a organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. And I'm here today with some of our Oakland neighbors and tenants calling for urgent action on the housing crisis. Across the city, renters have been living with unsafe conditions. I've encountered organizing with a lot of tenants, mold, pests, broken appliances, and serious habitability violations. And repair requests constantly go unanswered, and landlords continue collecting rent without any form of accountability. We're calling on you today to invest in proactive code enforcement so that we can strengthen landlord accountability and ensure that real protections occur and landlords are held accountable for these persistent habitability violations proactively.

Locals members, my name is great slaughter. I'm a I live in this 7. We the tenants and residents of Oakland are calling on the city to invest in proactive code enforcement stritten to certain landlord accountabilities in the shoe or real protection so tenants can be report violations and stay safely insured without fear of retaliation and displacement. All we ask for is for you guys just to make sure that we get taken care of. We take care of you, we vote you in. Like I said, I love what Mr. Houston over here said, okay? Hey, he's for the people. And I believe that. So I think we all sustain with together one another. And I do ask again for, uh, Kevin, uh, in Houston, if you guys could see a parking enforcement on my block, it's just getting worse over there as far as parking sidewalk parking. Thank you.

If your name was called and you wish to speak on this item, please approach the podium. Also, if you are on Zoom and you wish to speak on this item, you submitted a card, please raise your hand.

I'm chewing my peanuts. Okay, I'm ready. There's a lot to be covered in this initiative. How do you prioritize? Because even though it covers a lot of things like public facilities, blight, it covers housing, it covers our aid community, so forth. She made a statement, funds are based on population levels. Then it says in the document that Oakland uses the Alameda County Homeless Management Information System to collect data from them about what's going on in your community. Data collection like the count in time for homelessness, it's not accurate. That's an estimate. You don't really know how many people are in this community are homeless. You're a sanctuary city. You don't know how many people in this city are actually here illegally. You know what the housing authority said when they came to this report? 5,000 people on the waiting list for housing.

Thank you, Ms. Olabalo. Your time is up. Do any other ACE members wish to speak on this item? Kathy Harris, Michelle Washington, Linda Wade, Blair Beekman. Gone. Arlene. Okay.

Thank you. Anybody online?

No hands raised.

All right. Thank you for everybody that came out to speak on this item. Council Member Houston.

Yes, through the Chair, I just wanted to say, Mr. Gregg, that you, President, and Council Member Brown has really helped on that Oakland station. We're holding them accountable with these violations. We're definitely holding them. I appreciate you, Council Member Brown and Council Member Jenkins, for stepping up for my seniors. You know how much I love my seniors, right? In East Oakland, so that's all I wanted to say.

Are you moving the item?

yes sir i moved the item all right and closing the public hearing council member houston through the chair and closing yeah you're closing the public hearing yes closing the public hearing all right no problem i believe there was a second by gaio is that correct was it council president kev all right There is a motion by Council member Houston second by Council president can to approve the staff recommendation and close the public hearing. Council member Brown. I also member fight. I also remember guy. I also remember Houston. I also remember on the challenge and I also remember under I also remember long I and chair Jenkins I motion passes with the vote of 8 ayes Going to item 4.2, I need a motion to open the public hearing. So moved.

Second.

There is a motion by Council Member Gallo, second by Council Member Fife. So open the public hearing. This is item 4.2. Council Member Brown.

Aye.

Council Member Fife.

Aye.

Council Member Gallo.

Aye.

Council Member Houston. Aye. Council Member Ramachandran. Aye. Council Member Unger. Aye. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Jenkins. Aye. Public hearing is open with a vote of 8 ayes. I will read the item. Conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt a resolution confirming the report and notice of liens for delinquent taxes. Excuse me, business taxes with penalties, interest and administrative and assessment charges and overruling any protests and objections related to the liens included in said report and authorizing the recordation of liens and directing the notice of lien assessment charges to be turned over.

to the county tax collector you have six speakers on this item will five minutes suffice it should thank you good afternoon council president and the rest of the city council um i would like to first start by saying that we are standing by staff in hearing room four to hear people who have an issue with their business tax so after this you can go and see staff they're standing by My name is Nicole Welch. I'm the Revenue and Tax Administrator. Today, the Finance Department Revenue Management Bureau brings before this body the report of the Special Assessment of Delinquent Business Tax. notices were sent and an administrative hearing was conducted the business tax is inclusive of penalties interest and administrative and assessment charges and is a wrap of our 2026 business tax renewal cycle this represents the final step in our process for notifying and collecting business tax obligations We currently have 2,174 accounts representing about $4,061,000 in taxes. and $380,000 in, $50 in administrative costs, excuse me. Altogether, that totals approximately $4,441,000. The Revenue Management Bureau notified 2,822 property owners by mail and email regarding their delinquent business tax. We held an administrative hearing on May 19th Following that process, along with payments and account closure, 648 accounts were removed from the list. Accounts continue to be removed as payments and updates come in. Timely collection of business tax supports the city's roadmap to fiscal health by maximizing the existing revenue sources. It protects the general purpose fund, ensures compliance with the Oakland Municipal Code 5.04, and strengthens the city's overall financial stability.

am here if you have any additional questions thank you council member brown then council member fife excellent um thank you so much for the um detailed report um as i was reading it um i guess i kind of zeroed in on the language that says you know up to the tax year 2026 and then as i was looking at the attachment um i was noticing how there are you know decent amount of properties that have outstanding balances, like even the first one's like 2017 to 2026, 2021, 2026. And so can you help me understand like what is the process and why do we have some of these locations that have multiple years outstanding?

They are either found, meaning that they were not registered, they were not compliant, or they did comply and their original start date was during that time. If they are within the orders, how it applies, that if you, your business start dates from the time that you start actually doing business so for example if you were renting out your property and you rented it out you didn't know or an oversight and you started renting in 2006 then that would be your actual business start date okay so basically as we're looking at this report it's not necessarily reflective that as a city we weren't collecting the tax we have gone through a process in my time and under Council Member Ramachandran and your direction of collecting all of the outstanding business tax. So this is an actual catch up. Well, no, we're actually current right now. There was another item brought in January 20th of 2026 that were all the ones that were previously not brought in. so this is the actual full cycle for 2026 meaning that from renewal which started in december all the way up until delinquency which ended in june 30th okay thank you council member fife

Yes, thank you for your support with my office trying to get answers around how some of these addresses got left off the list. We have two specifically that are not listed in the documents here. So I just have a couple questions. Number one, can we, I've asked this in the past, but is there a way that we can get zip codes or which district the properties in the spreadsheet are listed in?

We can put that in there. I'll make a note to make that happen for the next round. Do you want it now or do you?

I've asked a few times over the years.

We can actually get the zip codes on there so we can actually extract it from our database.

That would help me with the calls that I get specifically to my office. And I wanna support targeted outreach if you all don't already do that. We do. To some of the smaller housing providers because It seems that some people, and maybe you're clearing this up now, are not being reached by the correspondence that you send out.

So we, as noted, we sent out 75,000 postcards and letting everyone who owned a property in Oakland know that you are required to have an Oakland business license. That was done around April of this year. We actually have billboards up which are located in BART that are advising that if you're a property owner, we were actually, we had a four month campaign that were on highway corridors where we actually had notification that if you were a landlord in Oakland that you needed to pay and you needed to be registered for Oakland Business Tax. So we are doing, we're ramping up our outreach. We've also been in community events, Lake Fest, Dia de los Muertes, Oktoberfest, educating of the different services that we do offer within revenue.

Oktoberfest, ain't nobody remembering what you talked, anyway.

Oktoberfest, excuse me. Oktoberfest, yes. That's different. Yes.

Okay, and then lastly, I... want to know if there are phone numbers available because I could get volunteers to support with my office. And the reason I'm asking is because there is one case in particular where a business in my district received a notice, I think you are aware of this, for $65,000. This business has been in operation for decades. And so I'm not sure how they, for six years, did not receive notice.

The issue is is that as a property owner, and as per the ordinance, you're required to come in and register. It is optimally your responsibility that as soon as, and you get notification when you actually go through the real estate process. There is a notification that says, Is this your primary residence? And if it says no, then sometimes there is, the real estate agent will allude that you need to get in contact with your local jurisdiction to actually find out if there's any other local taxing that is due for your property. To be very clear, the information which will be there, we cannot release that. It's confidential information. I have to walk on the line that I absolutely welcome you to help and to outreach within your district. However, the Bureau would not be able to release that kind of information. We keep it to the parcel number, and the amount that's due for privacy sake.

Understood. Maybe it was around trash. I remember in 2021, 22, I did call a couple folks and say, you're leaned. You're about to go into lean. And they were able to come in and clear it up. It had to be trash, right?

I don't know. I bring a lot. So I think that for garbage, with the report, if you would look at the attachment, we have, due to feedback from the community, we keep it very sanitized to just the parcel number, any amount that's due. Any other information, it's just a matter, I wouldn't want my information to be disclosed in a public setting, and I'm pretty sure that most of the property owners would not like that either. of course um how many people came upstairs today we have a lot um as you saw we we are currently seeing people um we have we're down to three but if there's anybody in the chamber that would like to go and talk to staff we are available thank you all right um councilmember ramachandran and then councilmember latonia michael

Thank you firstly just really want to acknowledge and appreciate how far things have come and you know less than 2 years. The pace of notices being sent out the public outreach the billboards the individual communication you can really I mean. see it around the city, and I really appreciate these efforts. I know there was a report that kind of detailed some of the trends earlier this year, and if you don't have this information now, no problem, but can you give a sense of how much ended up on the lien roll last year compared to the 4.4 million now? Could you rephrase that? The value of the liens that you're gonna be sending to the county now is 4.4 million for last year. What was it the year prior approximately?

I don't have that information before me. I know that we brought $4 million in January, and this is around $4 million here. I do want you to take into account that people will pay. Some people will provide documentation that will have them removed. So we won't have a final tally until August for this particular fiscal year. For the prior fiscal year, I will get that information back to you.

Thank you. So I recall August is kind of the final date when you send these properties to the county. What's the approximate timeline of the city getting that money? For example, let's say a million people of this, a million dollars worth is paid. And when would we get the rest of that 3.4 million?

so we roll it to the property tax in august the property tax bills go out in october i believe the first payment is due in december so that will come in and then the second payment is due in april and then we i would say everything should be trued up around june by the budget time got it and i mean because this is in a property tax bill i imagine we get

a vast majority of the money. Are there circumstances where we don't get that amount?

I just want to be very clear. If a person is not paying their property tax bill, there are other circumstances. However, I will defer to my director.

through the chair to Councilman Ramachandran. The vast majority of property tax is paid should a lien validly placed on a property tax not be paid and the property go in delinquency, it actually is subject to the auction process at the county level. So the city is typically made whole. Our tax liens are senior to a lot of other kinds of liens that might be on a property. And that's one of the processes. I should also want to make the point as it relates to actually receiving revenue in cash, yes, we would get it on the property tax bill. There's a separate policy in the city related to revenue recognition. When we lean a property, we do recognize the revenue and book a receivable. So we're actually gonna recognize that revenue and accrue it back. That's how our process works. So once we, because the property tax roll is such a secure means of collection, we actually will book it immediately upon sending it to the county.

Great, thank you.

THANK YOU.

CAN YOU FOR THE PUBLIC JUST GO THROUGH AND EXPLAIN THE PROCESS ONCE MORE? YOU'LL SEND ME A NOTICE OF DELINQUENCY OR DOES SOMEONE COME KNOCK ON MY DOOR AND SAY YOU HAVEN'T PAID THE BILL FOR THREE YEARS? BECAUSE THERE'S PEOPLE WITHIN MY NEIGHBORHOOD THAT ARE GOING THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE. The process is you receive a notice through the mail,

the first notification that you will receive is either an email or a notification that you need to renew okay so then where do i go to make the payment do i show up you can either mail your payment or you can do it online okay or you can come into our office yeah so we're open monday through friday 8 a.m to what office would i come to you would come to building 250 suite 1320. thank you thank you thank you council member houston

the chair i just wanted to say good great job mr cole welch great job thank you thank you let's go to the public speakers as i call your name please approach the podium in any order please state your name for the record before beginning if you're on zoom please raise your hand so i can easily identify you if you submitted a card for this item cosette c jacob poland missisata olabala Carini Cardenas Hernandez Rose Pratt nervous. And Mister has it in any order. And we'll take this speakers in chambers first and then move to the zone speakers.

So in April the city auditor submitted a report to the Council for which it was reported in the in his findings that the Business Tax Bureau process did not collect all revenues that was due to the city during certain periods, which was 2021 to 2024. The Bureau did not refer delinquent business tax accounts for collection in a timely or consistent manner. The system's control lacks adequate data The Bureau lacks adequate management and monitoring systems. Now, with all of that, under the issues you gotta deal with, why would y'all have the expectation you're gonna get some results? Until you correct what the auditor has identified with some of the issues. Now, this is like a sanctuary city status issue. Some people are legally going through the process they're supposed to, others are not.

Thank you, Ms. Olaballa. If your name was called and you wish to speak on this item, please approach the podium. Mr. Hazard, are you speaking on this item?

Mr. Hazard?

You know, I get tired of the parliamentarians sitting there and let all of you violate the government code on the item that was amended. Let me read you the government code so you could understand what I'm talking about. It's 54954.3. Whenever there's an amendment, Wong, The public has an opportunity to speak. You cannot approve an amendment without the public speaking. Parliamentarian, and you should know that. You want me to read it? Why don't you read what the government code says with that respect? And you sit up there and you let them do it. What's a parliamentarian for?

Thank you, Mr. Hazard. Your time is up. Moving to the Zoom speakers. Jacob Poland, you are first. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Good afternoon. My name is Jacob Poland, and I live in District 3. I need help with a lien that does not apply to my house. The report to the council said the tax amounts owed were settled on, included via administrative hearing. That is false. My hearing is on calendar. It has not occurred yet. It's simply a false statement. These hearings matter. I paid all of my taxes to the city, but the city improperly added more than $2,000 in penalties to these taxes I knew nothing about. That's an 87% penalty. That would make a loan shark blush. The lien process itself is also unfair surprise. The department told me in May that I was not part of the process. Since then, it apparently changed its mind, and it made a statement to the council that we had noticed in May, which at least has applied to me, is incorrect. When asked about the shift, they said they just have too many liens to deal with and they have to shove them all together, which also raises serious questions about how they're justifying tacking on the $400,000 administrative fees. Please ask the finance department to fix these liens before passing them. They are not doing a good job at making sure this process is organized.

Thank you for your comments. Moving to Cosette. Cosette, please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Council. My name is Cosette. The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act requires 21 days notice before a bill is due and caps late fees. This lien notice not only states additional fees will be stacked on top later, but it's dated June 26th. which gave me an 11 day window to dispute it at this meeting today on my birthday, nonetheless. Credit card companies aren't allowed to do that under the Truth in Lending Act. So why is our government held to a lower standard than the corporations we regulate? This debt isn't from irresponsibility, it's from job loss. being sole caretaker for two dependents and tenants who became squatters protected by local laws and ordinances. When I called the business tax department for help, I was told nothing could be done. The penalties and fees beyond the initial amount charged twice for the same overhead. If this were truly about cost recovery, it would look like a modest processing fee, not a rate that beats credit card interest. I'm asking for an abatement, please.

Thank you for your comments Carini Cardenas Hernandez and Rose Pratt-Nervous here in the chambers on zoom please raise your hand. Speaker by the name of. Ken Dale did you submit a card or so under what name. Ken Dale. Did you submit a card if so under what name. No I'm sorry I didn't have time to submit a card is there any way. At this time, our names have been called. You do have to submit a speaker's card and the directions to do so are on the face of the agenda.

That concludes the speakers. All right, who's making a motion? Close the public hearing.

Make a motion to close the public hearing.

And?

He has to finish the motion.

So Council Member Houston is closing that public hearing and moving the item? All right, Council Member.

I'll second, but I also wanna tell the public speakers that we're calling in online, it's beneficial if you leave us your district number and information so that we can contact you for any issues or concerns you might have.

There is a motion by Councilmember Houston second by Councilmember five. To close the public hearing and adopt the resolution. Councilmember Brown. Aye. Councilmember five. Aye. Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Sorry, Councilmember Gallo.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And Chair Jenkins.

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of eight ayes. Going to item 4.3. We also need a motion to open the public hearing.

So moved.

So motion by Council Member Brown, seconded by Council Member Gallo to open the public hearing. Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember Fife.

Aye.

Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. Chair Jenkins. Aye. Motion passes with a vote of 8 ayes, 6 0 1. Reading item 4.3 into record conducts a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt a resolution confirming the reported notice of liens for a delinquent real property transfer taxes with penalties interest and administrative and assessment charges and overruling any protests and objections related to the liens included in said report and authorizing the recordation of liens and directing the notice of lien and assessment charges be turned over to the county tax for collection you have two speakers on this item will four minutes suffice just one minute oh perfect yeah make it real quick i really like him

Well, hello, honorable members of the City Council. My name is Huey Dang. It's a privilege to be here with you this afternoon or this evening. Before you today is, of course, an item from the Finance Department regarding outstanding real estate transfer tax or real property transfer tax. Staff recommends that you conduct a public hearing, overrule any objections, and adopt a resolution authorizing the recordation of the property liens against the 29 properties listed in the report. I should also mention that we might end up not having all 29 being liened. It's just a list that we prepared at the time that we came to you for approval. So these property owners were notified of the assessments and afforded opportunities to go through the administrative process, including filing an appeal through the administrative process. So at the end of the day, we ended up not having them all resolved, and that's why we're here today. The total assessment is approximately $235,000, which includes $5,075 in administrative fee as authorized in the master fee schedule. Following your approval, the next step in the process is to coordinate with Alameda County to place the assessment on the upcoming tax roll. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Let's go to the public speakers.

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning. If you are on Zoom, you will be taken immediately after the in-chamber speakers, if you submitted a card. Cosette C and Ms. Assata Olaballa. And this is for item 4.3.

It's always been confusing how you say the seller and the buyer are jointly responsible for paying this. That can be resolved if you create through some process the required property report. And a property report details legal and financial responsibilities either to the buyer or the seller. And in that report, it is identified who is responsible for the transfer tax. It says in reporting, again to the auditor's report that the problem with collecting these taxes has to do with system failures, staffing shortage, delays in notification process. And then you have in the report some person's overpaid. How do you overpay? How do you overpay? I'll say that again. How do you overpay a tax? But you have that in the report that people have been

Cosette, do you wish to speak on this item? If so, please raise your hand, thank you. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

I just wanted to comment that if there's an e-comment that was written to this agenda item, it should have been applied to 4.2, if you can move that. That's it, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you for every, thank you everyone. Is that a motion by Gallo? Okay. And Unger? All right. Very good.

And again, is that motion to?

Close the public hearing and move the item.

There is a motion by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Councilmember Unger to close the public hearing and adopt the resolution, the staff recommendation. Councilmember Brown is excused. Councilmember Fife?

Aye.

Councilmember Gallo? Aye. Councilmember Houston?

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachandran? Aye. Councilmember Unger? Aye. Councilmember Wong? Aye. And Chair Jenkins? Aye. Motion passes with a vote of seven ayes, one excused. Brown? Going to item 4.4, I do need a motion to open the public hearing.

So moved.

On the motion to open the public hearing, moved by Councilmember Unger, seconded by Councilmember Gallo, Councilmember Brown is excused. Councilmember Fife?

Aye.

Councilmember Gallo?

Aye.

Councilmember Houston? Aye. Councilmember Ramachandran? Aye. Councilmember Unger? Aye. Councilmember Wong? Aye. Chair Jenkins?

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of six ayes, two excused, Houston and Brown.

Will the poor minister suffice?

One minute. Good afternoon again. My name is Nicole Welch, Revenue and Tax Administrator. I am bringing before you the delinquent trash. In accordance with Oakland Municipal Code 8.28, the City of Oakland sent delinquent notices on July 29, 2025, October 23, 2025, January 27, 2026, and April 22, 2026. Administrative hearings were held on August 19, 2025, November 6, 2025, February 17, 2026, May 5, 2026, and June 23, 2026. Of the original 19,604 delinquent accounts, 804 were removed due to payment or other adjustments. This number is still going, meaning that they will be removed according up until the actual tax roll. As an additional measure of notification, the city mailed 18,759 postcards to affected property owners, reminding them of this public hearing. The special assessment process ensures that garbage is collected regardless of a property owner's payment status. Today, the total amount due to the city is $9,100,374.82. Of that $6,000,000, $929,550.82 represents the delinquent service fee. And $2,170,824 represents city administrative fees. If you have any additional questions, I am here.

Thank you, let's go to the public speakers.

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning. You're on Zoom and you wish to speak, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you. If you submitted a speaker's card, you will be taken immediately after the in-chamber speakers. Blair Beekman, Derrick Barnes, Andrew Vincent, Gina McGee, Ms. Asada Olaballa, Karen Cardenas Hernandez, Rose Pratt Nervous,

So is this, when they don't pay their bill, y'all collect for that. This is a separate trash fee that goes to the city. Is that what this is, Mr. Jenkins? What is it? Because y'all picking up, when they don't pay their waste management bill, y'all take responsibility for getting waste management's money. and put a lien on their property if they don't pay their bill. Now for the utilities company and the electricity company, you don't do that. And that's a necessary service. Y'all say you do it because it's a necessary service. Water and electricity is a necessary service, but you don't have the responsibility of making people pay their gas and electric and water bill. But y'all messed up on that contract. You agreed to do this. You didn't have to do this. So you're taking responsibility. And I didn't get an answer. Do y'all have?

Thank you, Ms. Olaballa. If your name was called and you wish to speak and you're in chambers or on Zoom, please approach the podium. or please raise your hand at this time. Our names have been called.

Thank you for everybody that came to speak on this public hearing. Council Member Moore.

Hi, thank you to the chair. I just want to make sure I understand what I'm reading. So does this have anything to do with the actual trash service? Like I'm just commenting because I see some apartment buildings with some overflowing trash bins in my district, really like unacceptable blight. And I'm wondering if when we're reviewing this table, which I found really interesting, Table 3, about delinquent parcels by council district, I see a lot of delinquent parcels in District 6 and 7. But I'm just wondering if that is related at all to actual trash service or... this is what we do in order to actually make sure that those property owners or um you know for like say multi-family buildings are continuing to get trash service for the residents anyways yes the garbage is picked up whether they pay or not so the and it's under California environmental law why we are required to have an agreement

because we have to make sure it's a health and safety issue therefore garbage has to be picked up whether your ability to pay or not the only way to recover in some cases would be the process that we have before you okay got it thank you for the clarification you said motion

I'll make a motion.

To move the item and close the public hearing? All right. Was that Gayo's second? All right. We're really moving.

There was a motion by Councilmember Wong, second by Councilmember Gayo, to close the public hearing and adopt the resolution. Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember Fife. Aye. Councilmember Gallo.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

Chair Jenkins.

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of 8 ayes. Going to item 4.5. Do need a motion to open the public hearing.

Second. Was that Houston and Brown.

On a motion to open the public hearing moved by Councilmember Houston second by Councilmember Brown Councilmember Brown. I Councilmember five I also remember guy. I also remember Houston. I also remember Ramachandran I also remember under I also remember one I and chair Jenkins I motion passes with a vote of 8 ayes. I will read the item it's a record. Conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion, conduct a study session to receive an informational presentation and report on the draft land use framework developed as part of the general plan update phase two, process and receive public comments and provide feedback to staff on the draft land use framework. You have 34 speakers.

We'll have five minutes of ice.

um let me ask our presenter how much time are you offering council president five five will you five minutes for your presentation all right then i will turn that over to to laura commincy we'll do council number five says eight minutes eight minutes yeah thank you very much appreciate that all right then very quickly again uh council president may please the council i'm bill gilchrist the director of planning and building Laura Kaminski of our department will do the presentation. I do want to thank you all for this opportunity to come before the body of the whole. We were able to meet with CED several weeks back, and the two things I want to do just to frame the presentation, I want everyone to understand this is still work in process. We are not bringing forward for any decision or any final determination. This is an opportunity for you to provide feedback, for us to hear feedback from the community on what areas we might need to focus on, clarify, prioritize, et cetera. So we hope to have a good exchange in that regard. I will turn this over to Laura Kaminski now to do presentation. I do want to also note that we have been having various levels of outreach which will continue. She'll speak to that as well through the summer. And I want to thank those of you at this dais who have helped facilitate that possibility. To some of your meetings, you have pointed us some very good directions in terms of constituents whom we need to greet and meet and work with. And we will continue to work in that spirit through the summer and through the fall when we'll be coming back to present content coming out of that exchange. And we have been making modifications and responses to the feedback that we've been getting. So it's been very instructive and we look forward to more. I turn this over to Laura. Thank you.

Good evening council in the public. My name is Laura Kaminski. I'm the strategic planning manager for the city and I will go over very quickly the draft land use framework So we're updating our general plan which includes the infrastructure and facilities element as well as the open space conservation recreation element a noise element element as well as the land use and transportation element So to build off of what Bill was just saying is that for our general plan update, we are still very much in the beginning stages of this. So the draft land use framework was meant to be a very high level document and not get into a lot of the details because before we got into the details, we wanted to make sure that we got the overall framework correct. So that is why we're here. We want to hear from the public as well as from council on changes to be made. And we got over 800 comments that we are looking at, and we are already looking at making changes. As Bill mentioned, in the summer right now, we've already started meeting with various stakeholders about letters that they've sent and looking at making the changes that they've asked for. We then in the fall will be having the, what will be the draft elements. So the draft elements themselves of the plans will be making, showing all the changes that we've made based on all the feedback that we've heard and that will be published in the fall and then we will have more public comments. So publics can then comment and say did we actually get the changes right that people said. Are there still more changes to be made? So there'll be a public comment period from winter of late of this year through spring of 2027. So there's still a lot more time for even additional comments and changes. And then we're planning on adoption in the fall, summer of 2027. And we'll make additional changes that we hear from those public comments before we bring that final adoption. So just as a reminder, the general plan update, we have guiding principles that advance equity by establishing more just policies that are related to land uses, parks and open space and transportation. We wanna assure people have homes and feel healthy and safe, celebrate the many cultures of Oakland, support good jobs, existing, leveraging existing economic strengths, welcome new opportunities and also create better connected neighborhoods. So for the draft land use framework, we essentially looked at for the land use and transportation to create walkable connected neighborhoods. We wanna ensure that everybody can get to the services that they need within a walkable distance. Also improving transit connections, which there was some discussion of that earlier today in council. focus on high density development in the downtown and San Antonio Fruitvale Coliseum areas along major quarters, also address illegal dumping. Economic development is very important, aligned with city's economic development action plan, support current and grow key industries, sustain and support businesses, build Oakland's workplace, invest in places, and also for parks and open space. create greenway networks to connect communities and prioritize this in environmental justice communities and set standards for park maintenance. So this was the overall concept of looking at the land use concepts. So the red areas are the major centers, the pink are the neighborhood centers, and then the purple are new technology and research areas. And then there's also green areas proposing for potential new parks. For the land use designations, we're looking at having higher densities of residential along major corridors to help better support transit. The dark purple, again, was areas of technology and research, which is in West Oakland area and just west of the Coliseum. Then we also have light purple areas that are around the BART stations for mixed-use areas, and light gray is a new low-impact industrial category to buffer heavier industrial uses from residential. So again, we had, from the engagement of the draft land use framework, we had over 800 comments. We had workshops in different council districts. We had boards and commission meetings and pop-up events. And again, we're continuing to have more engagement this summer and we'll continue to meet with constituents of where we've received letters and we wanna get additional feedback and have discussions with them. So what we've heard so far, a lot is really the importance of leveraging the city's existing legacy industrial businesses, and we want to make sure that we've heard loud and clear that that is something that is important, that has really brought the what is Oakland, Oakland, and continue that, especially with the port, supporting the Port of Oakland and all the businesses that are serving the port. as well as addressing illegal dumping that's happening, support existing businesses, improve maintenance of public facilities like our libraries, also prioritize affordable housing, develop strategy to prevent displacement and gentrification, plan for climate changes, and also supports arts and culture, and also reduce where we have conflicts with residential and industrial areas. For transportation, we want to, what you heard as well, is really the importance of establishing a goods movement policy and updating our truck routes. And so we've already had some discussions with stakeholders on that. We will continue to have those discussions with meetings and workshops this summer, into the fall. also to create protected bicycle lanes, improve roadways, prioritize disability access, and set a comprehensive vision for transit service and improve the efficiency of public transit and increase safety and reliability. for parks and open space. We've heard a lot about the need to improve park maintenance and programming and increase equitable access to parks and open spaces, plant more trees, more parks and greenways in East Oakland, and partner with native tribes in planning for parks and open space. So in the next steps, so as you can see, there's still a lot of time left here, and so again, in the summer and the fall, we're having additional focus group meetings with stakeholders on the industrial uses and the truck route, since we've heard a lot of comments about concerns about those designations, and we've already been, as I mentioned, having some meetings with stakeholders already, and we will be reaching out to have more of these meetings and we're in the process of addressing this feedback and making these changes. So then in the fall of 2026 is when we release the draft general plan elements, which will have, again, a large public engagement process that will go through the spring of 2027, and we'll continue to make additional changes based on that feedback. And then in the winter of 2020, sorry, 26 to 2027 is we'll also release the draft EIR and have feedback on that. And staff will continue to make additional changes based on the feedback. And then the plan is in the spring through the fall, we will make additional refinements based on the comments that we got on the draft elements and then bring to council the final for adoption in fall of 2027. And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you so much for that, appreciate it. Council Member Houston.

Yes, through the chair, can we go back to where it says land use, what we've heard so far on your bullet point one, it's very important to me.

K-Top, can you bring the?

And then we can go back to figure two. And while we're looking for that, I wanted to ask Mr. Gilchrist, yeah, right there. Top one, leverage the city's legacy industrial businesses. I didn't see anything in here about grandfathering businesses in that's been here, legacy, a long time. Especially when you go back to... WHERE IT SAYS GO BACK TO FIGURE TWO, WHEN YOU SEE THAT RUBY RED, IT LOOKS LIKE MY DISTRICT IS BEING CHANGED ALL ALONG THAT SAN ANGEL CORRIDOR. SO LOOK WHAT IT SAYS RIGHT THERE, LEVERAGE. I MEAN, YEAH, THE CITY LEGACY INDUSTRIAL BUSINESSES. IS IT ANYTHING IN THIS THAT TALKS ABOUT GRANDFATHER, GRANDFATHER CLAUS?

Yeah, so all businesses, if they were to become, where they weren't allowed, would be grandfathered in. What I would say is that the areas that you're talking about, specifically I think at 98th and San Leandro, We've actually had discussions with that particular group, it's the Medford Industrial Group. We had a very productive meeting with them and we are recommending changes based on that meeting to their area so that, and I believe they were happy with the recommended changes that we discussed in that meeting.

Yes, and I have a constituent here that you're gonna need to, that need to, I appreciate, because I don't want to direct no staff. I appreciate if you went and spoke to her, and she's gonna be speaking in a second. Can you go back to the figure two, figure two? Where's, it was figure one and then figure two. Where's district seven? That's not figure two.

Oh, sorry, the? The map. Map, okay. Yes.

Okay, so look at my district right there. It's all ruby red and purple down there. What does that say, because I can't see it this close? What's it say, it's housing?

So the dark red is regional commercial, and which is the area right now that is already designated around Hagenberger as regional commercial. So the purpose of that is really to have hotels, and commercial type businesses that serve the region, as well as especially for the airport and the Coliseum.

Okay, I just wanna talk about that grandfather, Mr. Gilchrist, okay? Yes. All right, thank you.

All right, let's go to the public speakers.

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning. If you are on Zoom, you wish to speak on this item. Please raise your hand so I can easily identify you. Palayo Llamas, Barbara Leslie, Jennifer Finley, Blair Beekman, Miss Asada Olaballa, Josephine Guzman, Yacine No, Giselle Barrages, John Jones III, Jennifer C.M. Elrath, Mary Canes-Simon, Kasheen Unique-Holland, Nikki Alexander, Christian Huthurn, Hanak Gi, Binder Baines, Danny Whalen, Linda Hortham, Mike Jacob, Aaron Wright, Susan Ransom, David Legrand, Elena Serrano, Joanna Martinez, Jocelyn, is it Gamez or Game? Vicente Trujillo, Alec Howell, Brooke Tran, Anne Jenks, Christina Tostado, Sage Ambrose, schuyler wanakot john lee david harris and jared mitchell thank you welcome is that an idaho tattoo yeah nice try not to hold it against me

Oakland is a beautiful place, but the city's current land use policies are actively erasing the plants and animals that give us our identity. The city of Oakland puts the symbol of an oak tree on every street sign, yet every time an old oak dies, it gets replaced by a tree from Europe, like the London planes that are so often planted. I don't know about y'all, but I don't live in London. I live in Oakland. land of the coast live oak quercus agrifola a tree that supports over 250 species these foreign trees don't just rob us of our unique sense of place but they cut the tree of life off at the roots oakland is home to the most beautiful drought and fire adapted species in the whole world and all we have to do is plant them Requiring 100% of the plants planted on city property and 50% on private developments to be native to the Bay Area will ensure that all of the city's residents, not just the rich folks in the hills, can benefit from the very real and proven benefits that come with being part of a healthy city ecosystem. Bird songs and crickets reduce the ill effects of urban noise and soothe tempers. Add some more, but it is not too late to savor out.

What's your name, please?

Sage Ambrosek.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council, Linda Hodum. Since 1989, our family has owned and operated warehousing and logistics centers in East Oakland in Districts Six and Seven. Thousands of good-paying jobs are generated under our Oakland warehouse rooftops. Please preserve vital industrial zoning to save these jobs and support the Port of Oakland and goods movement in Oakland, thank you.

Good evening, council members. My name is Christian Houghton. I share your vision for a more affordable, vibrant and equitable Oakland. The port of Oakland is one of the city's greatest economic assets, supports nearly 100,000 regional jobs and $174 billion in economic activity. That's over a billion dollars in tax revenue for schools, roads, and public services. Once industrial land is rezoned and developed, it's gone, and every acre we lose weakens the ecosystem that keeps the ports competitive. Oakland's economy depends on the port, so let's protect that land that allows it to succeed. Thank you.

Good evening, Council Members. Skyler Walnicott here on behalf of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association of San Francisco Bay Area and the California Business Properties Association. First, I want to thank the city staff for continuing to engage with stakeholders throughout this process. We appreciate that the supplemental report reflects many of the recommendations raised by the industrial and goods movement community, including planning for goods movement, truck routes and preserving Oakland's industrial lands. While that is meaningful progress, we remain concerned that the current framework continues to reduce the flexibility for logistics, distribution and rail uses that are critical to Oakland's economy. Rail infrastructure is an essential component to the region's goods movement network and should remain integrated with the city's long term industrial land use planning. We respectfully ask that any major land use or zoning changes affected in industrial areas be guided by a comprehensive analysis of industrial land needs, good movement and rail infrastructure and employment impacts before those changes are made. We respectfully.

Hello City Council, my name is Jared Mitchell and I am the founder of the Topsoil Project which is a street level librarianship initiative. I attended the draft land use framework presentation that was delivered to the Library Commission on March 30th and was encouraged to know that this robust process to solicit community feedback was underway and I want to commend the Building and Planning Department for facilitating it. I do have concerns that we also might be flying too high and looking far too high on the sky level. Oakland has very urgent priorities at its city facilities for the management of its parks, for the repairs of its roads, and I believe it should be of high concern that there are so many people who still feel the need to provide input outside of that framework. I think that is in part because the conveyor feedback system is not intuitive and not very accessible, and there are information improvements that can and should be made to this process. Thank you.

Good afternoon, President Jenkins and council members. My name is Yacine. I'm here not only today to represent my employer, Prologis, but also as someone who is deeply invested in the future of Oakland as a fellow Oakland resident myself. Over the last several months, we reviewed the draft land use framework, the staff reports, and the hundreds of community comments. One thing stood out pretty clearly to us. The community is asking for better planning, as they should. There's asking for better and more affordable housing options, safer neighborhoods, cleaner streets, better transit, parks, more accountability. What they did not ask for was a request to reduce Oakland's industrial land use. Today we're being asked to make major land use decisions before completing a comprehensive analysis of industrial land needs, freight movement, and economic impacts to Oakland's existing employers. This feels backwards. You cannot support the port of Oakland while shrinking the industrial land that allows this to function. Industrial land isn't just vacant or obsolete land waiting for use, it's working land. Every day it supports.

Good afternoon, I'm Mary Kane Simon from your Public Library Commission. I came here today to ask you as you go forward with the general plan, please bear in mind your public libraries, the significant role that they play in the community. There's an Urban Libraries Council and they remind us bad libraries build only collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build up their communities. We have great libraries here in Oakland. Please plan ahead. They are your warming centers when it's cold. Anybody can walk in the door and warm themselves, charge their devices. They are your cooling centers when it's too hot. Same thing. They are the guardians of green knowledge in Oakland. Where else can you go to learn how to set up your own chicken house and raise chickens in your backyard and grow food in metal containers? You can go to the Elmhurst branch of the public library. You can do that today. You can go there tonight for free movies.

Good evening, council members. I'm Danny Whalen. I work for Pacific American Group, where we manage industrial property in Districts 6 and 7. Our sites here require three times the personnel of comparable properties elsewhere, dealing daily with encampments, break-ins, illegal dumping, and crumbling roads. These are issues that directly threaten our ability to operate and lease our buildings. These properties serve the Port of Oakland, moving the goods all of us rely on, like the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the products on store shelves. Many of these same industrial sites could be rezoned under this Phase 2 proposal. The Port of Oakland is one of the most balanced ports in the country, with imports and exports matching one-to-one, making it uniquely efficient and valuable to producers who export, export goods and businesses that import goods alike i think that is an advantage the city should lean into and support industrial use property owners as they continue to improve the environmental footprint of the goods movement sector thank you

Council members, I'm Jennifer McElrath. I applaud the general plan efforts, but I am cynical. Oakland's reputation is that the plan will be ignored, that council members are beholden to developers, that the city only seeks the most tax revenue rather than pursuing affordable housing. that the city ignores its own zoning and does not protest state overrides so yes to a city of neighborhoods but proactively with backbone and ideally and inclusive of all facets concurrently by neighborhood thank you i see my time in debbie harris john jones iii

I'll never do that again.

Good evening, I'm David Harris, president of Urban Strategies Council. We're the backbone organization for the Deeply Rooted Collaborative, a cult consultant for the city that consisted of over 13 organizations over the last four years. We've talked to thousands of Oakland residents, and I have to change what I plan to say, given some of the previous comments before me. Land use starts with people, not businesses. And our land use policies have been siloed and needs to include what your residents are saying, particularly those from the flatlands. If we uplift their voices and take care of the issues that they are concerned about, that will rise the tide for all residents of Oakland. I want you to listen to these young people that will be following me. They've been out there talking to your residents. We've appreciated our work with the city, the planning and building staff, but these are the organizations that have been involved. Black Cultural Zone, Black Arts Movement Business District, Block by Block Organizing Network, Deepwater Dance, Eastside Arts Alliance, Frontline Catalyst, Molonga Arts, Resident Association, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, The Village, Courage, Lyle Family Development, Unity Council, Just Cities, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Projects. Those are the organizations that you've entrusted to help advance this process and talk to your constituents about what the future of the city should be and it's the future of the vision that these young people represent all right i'm giselle barajas and i've seen my time to work

Thank you, good evening council and thank you planning staff for your partnership. My name is Brooke Tran D4 and I've been a fellow with Urban Strategies Council for the past year conducting community engagement. Our cohort of fellows ages 16 to 26 are committed to making sure Oaklanders voices are represented in this critical roadmap for the city and will continue this work until the adoption of the general plan in 2027. the engagement activities we conducted have spanned conducting interviews on public transit in both english and spanish across generations gardening alongside students attending saturday school these students have fallen behind on attendance and accumulated multiple tardies and also leading vision board activities with elementary to high schoolers drawing and collaging the ideal community they want to grow up in Our overarching framework has been to make government and civic engagement accessible. Additionally, we have been guided by the fact that young people, including those under 18 who can't vote for their representation, are still constituents of this council. As the general plan update will lead the development of an Oakland our youth will inherit, urban strategies is urgent consideration of our findings. We support the priorities staff presented, but also want to highlight the community's continued concern with the process, engagement, and execution. Looking at a few specific examples from the staff report, expanding parks, greenways, and shoreline access, we want native plants to be utilized as they are more fire resistant. Also, if we were to expand these areas, we want more regular maintenance, trash cleanup, and better lighting for safety. In support of jobs in emerging industries, we want environmental and racial impacts to be considered. We want natural resources to be preserved. We also want to make sure land, especially in East and West Oakland, will not be rezoned for industrial use such as data centers. Regarding housing and the implementation of SB 79, we are also concerned about whether housing development will include deeply affordable and affordable housing, in addition to preferences to get current Oaklanders into those units. Without consideration for affordability, Prioritizing more market rate housing means units will sit vacant and people will continue to remain unhoused. With this, my colleagues will detail further findings. Thank you for your time and commitment to Oakland.

Playa on Zoom and Alec Howell will cede their time to me. Good afternoon, my name is Vicente Trujillo Jr. One second, one second. Sorry.

Palayo, are you seeding your time?

Yes, I seed my time.

Thank you, and what was the other name?

Alec Howell.

Is he on Zoom as well? Okay. Yeah, I do. Thank you.

Good afternoon, my name is Vicente Trujillo Jr., and I've had the privilege of serving as a fellow with Urban Strategies for the past year, supporting the general plan update initiatives and community engagement efforts. As a lifelong District 5 resident and a Fruitvale native, I believe it's essential that Oakland's future is shaped by the voices of those who have long called this city home, especially those who are at risk of being displaced. Equally important are the voices of our youth. They will inherit the outcomes of the decisions we make today, so they deserve a meaningful role in shaping the city we will one day lead. During phase two, we engaged students from Life Academy who predominantly live in Dufruitville and Deep East Oakland. to gather youth perspectives on the draft land use framework through workshops focused on third spaces and the general plan update salute, OSCAR, and environmental justice elements. From this engagement, three clear priorities emerged. First, green infrastructure matters. The strongest message from students was a call for more trees, greener parks, and a well-designed public space. They view these spaces not simply as amenities, but as essential investments in mental health, well-being, and community resilience. Second, students, want free, safe, and walkable non-commercial public spaces. Participants consistently emphasize that gathering spaces should be accessible to everyone, not dependent on spending money. They want places where they can learn, connect, and build community without financial burden. Third, maintenance is just as important as investment. Students have identified poorly maintained facilities and concerns about cleanliness and safety as its primary reason for avoiding existing public spaces. Their message was clear. Before we build new spaces, we must take better care of the ones we already have. Based on these findings, we offer three recommendations. First, launch a youth safe and clean parks initiative that prioritizes maintenance, beautification, and rapid improvements in historically underserved and neglected neighborhoods. Second, modernize Oakland's municipal recreation centers by investing in updated financial facilities, expanded library resources, and ensure future land use, no, expand library resources and culturally relevant use-focused programming. Finally, establish a designated use seat on the planning commission. This will give young people a permanent seat at the table, ensuring future land use reflects decisions of the voices of the generation that will inherit Oakland's future. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Joanna Morales-Lopez. Gathering perspectives of our land use, I had the privilege to work at International Community School located at International Boulevard and 29th Avenue, District 5, represented by Noel Gallo. I spoke to first, second, third, fourth, and fifth graders averaging ages seven to 11. My students expressed they wanted cleaner streets by adding more trash cans, specifically by the beach. More trash cans was brought up by at least five students, and a couple more expressed wanting a cleaner environment and less littering. They want more accessible soccer fields that are accessible and up-kept, as well as free to all. They want more activities and extracurriculars like dancing, break dancing, roller coasters, or hiking trails around Lake Merritt. They want more accessibility for disabled people like braille vibrations for visually impaired individuals and nicer paths for wheelchairs. They want less people in the streets by providing more housings and kids want more shelters and more food for unhoused folk as well as more fresh food in general.

And I'm ceding my time to Joanna.

I also spoke to the unhoused community members located behind Ephemery Park in West Oakland on 16th and Poplar Way. These individuals expressed dissatisfaction with sanitation. They want cleaner streets by upkeeping how often public trash is picked up. Unhoused individuals state that they sweep their sleeping area, but other community members dump their trash on their things and sleeping areas. Individuals see houses and empty buildings, so the housing market crisis lacks to make sense. We see empty houses and buildings and hundreds of people without a roof over their head. This housing crisis is an everything and everyone issue. Grade school youth understand how interconnected our land use is to our unhoused community members. I hope we can reconsider and acknowledge our unhoused community members in phase three. Let's consider all Oaklanders.

Hello, my name is Jocelyn, and I'm here also representing and working alongside the Youth Fellowship here with Urban Strategies Council. I also represent District 5, and I've had the privilege to also be working within the fellowship since 2023, so since its starting times. And through this work, we've repeatedly have listened to our neighbors, built relationships, and elevated the lived experiences of residents who are often left out of planning conversations, particularly young people. As they mentioned, we've conducted outreach, we've went to schools, schools like Life Academy, And right now we really want to emphasize and target the flat lands and give you guys this conversation that we want to target East Oakland, disinvested, historically disinvested neighborhoods. And our shared goal here has been clear, which is to transform personal stories into meaningful policy to ensure those voices are reflected in the general plan, and that's why we're here today.

Kaishin Unique Holland Good evening, I'm Kaishin Unique Holland with Deep Waters Dance Theatre and a part of the Deeply Rooted Collaborative. Thank you. We are really We held deep listening sessions with a number of community members focused mostly in West and Deep East Oakland. And it was a wonderful opportunity for folks who hadn't even heard about the general plan process or hadn't seen any of the outreach materials. It was an opportunity for communities who have already feeling burdened by this notion that their voice is not included or doesn't matter to be included. I echo what the youth fellows shared in terms of feedback. And we'll just add that a really important thing that was emphasized with the groups that I sat with was the desire to be a part of the process as it moves forward.

Good evening, council members. My name is Nikki Alexander, executive director of Friends of Sausal Creek. For 30 years, FOSC has partnered with the city on restoration, education, and stewardship in the Sausal Creek watershed. In the draft framework, we were concerned that resource conservation areas received little attention. We're asking the city to strengthen OSCAR's provisions for stewarding nature. That means updating park management policy to explicitly protect native plant and animal communities and directing trail design and maintenance towards minimizing environmental impacts. Protecting our resource conservation areas is an environmental justice issue. Joaquin Miller and other city park lands have the potential to become truly accessible, intact ecosystems for Oakland residents to enjoy. A free and AC transit reachable stand-in for Redwood National and State Parks or the Sierra for Oaklanders who can't easily reach those places. With stronger protection through the new Oscar element, we have a real opportunity to create these places. Thank you so much.

Hello everybody, Susan, oh, should I start? Susan Ransom, SSA Terminal, Port of Oakland, long-term resident, District 4. On behalf of OMAST, I would like to thank each of our city council members and all other officials who took the time to meet with us, listen to our concerns regarding the movement of goods through the Port of Oakland. Thank you, Laura, for all the updates. I don't need to tell you the importance of the Port as a vital economic engine for our city, region, and nation. Thousands of jobs, local businesses, families depend on a strong, reliable, and competitive maritime industry. Having said that, we still have some questions and concerns regarding Adeline Bridge, Heavyweight Corridor, and industrial zoning, goods move-it plans, just as importantly, an economic study. That need to stay in the spotlight and look forward to further conversation on those items. Thank you again for your time, your willingness to listen, and your continued support. We look forward to continuing our partnership as we work together in support of this amazing port city.

Good evening, Council President Jenkins, Council Members, Mike Jacob with Pacific Merchant Shipping Association representing the marine terminal operators and other ocean carrier tenants, customers of the Port of Oakland. Just wanted to say and reiterate the point of thanks to the planning staff, transportation staff, the folks who put together this new framework for the report that's in front of you today. It really does express that this is an iterative process. There's going to be a lot more communication and conversation between the city and its employer community. It's going to really embrace its industrial legacy. Oakland is a strong, blue-collar, working-class town, and all of us have invested amazing amounts of time, energy, and resources to make this successful. we're going to continue to do that we're going to continue to work with your planning department to make sure that that's part of the future of the city going forward in addition to all the other things we want for oakland in terms of growth diversification of its economy and we're really looking forward to doing that together

Good evening, Council. Aaron Wright, ILWU Local 10, third generation longshoremen, residents of District 4. We're here today because we are worried. We're worried about this plan. Seven years ago, a major fight started when city government packed in with the A's to give them 200 acres and $1.3 billion. And it would have crippled our port, our longshore jobs, and our economy. So thankfully we won that fight and thankfully we have a council and city government that's a lot more responsive than the past. We want to thank you for your engagement with us In this process, we appreciate the process being lengthy and taking input. We still have some ask, adoption of the over a quarter legislation designated of international as a heavyweight route expedited.

Thank you sir, your time is up.

So I saw something that said you wanna stop the displacement and gentrification. Y'all have never had a conversation on gentrification, even though you're the number one gentrifying city along with San Francisco. So displacement and gentrification in sanctuary city status has caused African Americans in West Oakland, 1990, 70% of the population in West Oakland was African American. 2010, 53%. 2020, 30%. DC, Oakland. 1990, 63% African American. 2010, 54%. 2020, 28%. Some of it is gentrification, but some of it is because of your sanctuary city status. We have limited housing. You have to be prepared to provide 10,000 houses by 2030 for low income purposes. That's a state mandate. when we looked at the report on who's getting.

Thank you, Ms. Olabala, your time is up. Moving to the Zoom speaker, starting with Barbara Leslie. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Good evening. I also have time seated to me by Josephine Guzman.

Ms. Guzman, are you seating your time?

Yes, I'm seating my time. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. President Jenkins, a member of the City Council. I'm Barbara Leslie, President and CEO of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the importance of the Port of Oakland and our goods movement sector as critical economic drivers for both our city and the broader region. Their inclusion in any long term planning effort, especially as 1 is consequential as the general plan is essential. I also want to acknowledge the supplementary report and its emphasis on this being a participatory process. We appreciate that. Today's session is intended to gather stakeholder input and that the draft framework remains a work in progress. That approach is vital to ensuring the final plan reflects the realities and the needs of those most directly impacted. The supplemental report highlights several important areas that we strongly support. In particular, we urge the City to prioritize the adoption of an overweight corridor ordinance and the establishment of designated heavyweight truck routes. These are critical to maintaining efficient goods movements and supporting our industrial economy. Additionally, we encourage the city to finalize the updated track route map and to conduct a comprehensive economic analysis of the goods movement sector. As noted in the Chamber's 2026 Economic Indicators Report by our Economic Institute, This sector remains foundational to Oakland's economic recovery and long-term competitiveness. And as stated previously, with over 100,000 jobs across Northern California, 5,700 of those in Oakland themselves, and $174 billion in annual economic activity. Thank you for your leadership and for continuing to engage industry stakeholders whose expertise will help ensure a strong and effective general plan for Oakland's future. Thank you for your time.

If you submitted a card and you wish to speak on this item, which is item 4.5, and you are in chambers or on Zoom, please step to the podium or raise your hand. At this time, I have called all names.

Thank you to everyone who came out and spoke. Council members, any comments right now? Council Member Fife?

I just want to thank staff from the planning and building department for meeting with me. I met with several constituents from the maritime industry and want to echo their concerns. I know planning and building has been meeting with folks from the community for several months and so the articulation through the supplemental was so critical and then just the information that was shared on the record today that this is an ongoing iterative process important for the community to hear because they are and from different sectors are genuinely concerned about how the city is moving forward so I want to appreciate you for spending some time with me and helping me to mediate some of these conversations that I've been having in the community but I also wanted to express to the public speakers that even with competing priorities that are all very relevant in the city. It's important that we understand the benefit that the Port of Oakland brings to the city and the resources that we have coming through jobs and all the different affiliated industries connected to the port. But as we move into the future, we have to figure out how we work together to ensure that we can balance the environmental needs of our residential neighborhoods while balancing out the jobs and the industries that are currently here. So it's going to be a work in progress. And I know we have the right people at the table to make sure that things are happening. But if there ever happens to be a point where your voice doesn't feel like you're being heard, please continue to reach out to my office. because I'm deeply interested in hearing where folks are coming from, and we were able to show that that could have some impact with our process over the last week. That said, I wanted to also make sure through the chair that our staff could speak to some of the very granular points that were raised by the public today around the Adeline Street Bridge, a mission statement for a goods and movement policy that is necessary to help us tie all of this work together. and a potential timeline on an economic impact report and some of the granular points that were made by speakers today.

and through the chair to council member Fife. Okay, so there were a range of items that were particulars. And one thing I do wanna say, and again, in setting the framework, and I know this gets deep in the weeds sometimes with the way planners do things. And because this is a cyclical process, done every decade or several decades, I think as Laura was stating, this is at a highest level, a policy document. And as a result of it, though, we do specify goals, objectives, sometimes projects are mentioned, there is content there that may be specific to a need. Usually what we'll see if we name a project coming out of it, it's because it is working along the line of a policy. What we don't expect at the end of the process is to have Um, a lot of specificity around projects on location as part of the general plan itself, because that means just as an example, let's say with the, uh, truck routes that I see my colleague from Oak dot is behind and, and they've been engaged much more on the front line. We're working also. So everyone knows across departments. very clearly based on what was presented up here and what we heard from the community. This is an all hands on deck process. This is not just us. We are the fulcrum in terms of doing the planning process, but we've gotta rely on the rest of city hall and departments to support. But in many cases, if we were to prescribe in the general plan something very specific, like okay, this has got to be this way, if the realities change, let's say five years down the road, we find that the market has changed, demographics have changed, there's a new opportunity, We want the general plan to work at a level of policy and intent that we can get to specific projects in alignment with it, but we also maintain flexibility. We don't want to have to make a general plan amendment every time we change a route on a street. We do want to state that routes are important, and we do prioritize them, and we can even get into some of the geographic goals and objectives. But in terms of the actual specificity of a project per se, What the general plan will do is lay out, okay, this is important, it must move forward, but the specifics of how that happens will be done, you know, either through a capital program or through zoning or instruments that we'll bring forward. Okay, having said all that, now that those items were brought up with specificity, I would defer to the Director Volkdott to deal, you know, within the rubric of what his department does, because those two items, they have really been engaged more at the front line. I will say that even with everything I said a moment ago, we do wanna hoover up all these questions or all these concerns that are specific because often what we find is that the reason they're a problem is that we didn't have a policy in place. We didn't address it in terms of priority. We didn't consider what the allocation of funds or fund sourcing might be. And one of the things I will say on the practical end of having plans like this in place is at least for a long time, cities stood a great advantage in pursuing funds, foundations, grants at state, federal, or local level, once they are citing a project that is supported by a plan. So if we have a plan that notes that goods movement is a critical element, then if we were to pursue a grant or pursue some assistance with that implementation in mind, the fact that we have it in our plan ALSO GIVES US A LOT OF STRONGER CONSIDERATION FOR WHOEVER IS MAKING THAT GRANT OR THAT AWARD. THAT JUST SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN THE HISTORY THAT I'VE SEEN IN TERMS OF COMPETITIVENESS FOR CITIES. WE STAND IN A MUCH BETTER PLACE AND A BETTER COMPETITION WHEN OUR PLAN IDENTIFIES THAT THIS IS A PRIORITY WHEN WE PURSUE THAT ITEM, AGAIN, THROUGH A GRANT OR THROUGH A FOUNDATION OR THROUGH OTHER SOURCES. SO WHAT I'LL DO TO DEAL WITH THE INFRASTRUCTURE ITEMS THAT YOU MENTIONED, I'LL DEFER TO NO, OKAY, ALL RIGHT. Well, um, if there are any other specifics, I mean, the libraries were mentioned, I mean, things that, again, we want to make sure that we are reinforcing. We want to make sure first we do no harm, right. To make sure that the plan is going to enforce those things we value. And again, one of the things we're looking at bringing forward to the council is a capital facilities and infrastructure component as well. So that will be coming again next year, towards the end of next year, but that will also give us a real focus on all these policy positions we take over here. What does that look like on the ground in terms of what we're going to be targeting and hoping to achieve?

and i just wanted to clarify thank you for offering the opportunity for other staff to speak but i wanted you to speak in general to what because there was a list of granular detailed very specific projects that were listed by several members of the public so i wanted you to articulate why those weren't listed so far in this plan and you you did that you explained that that's the that level of specificity goes into a capital projects planner

things like that that's right no thank you council member thank you very much and again to the chair to the council member because that that that's one of the things also we got to make sure as we go through this process that we explain how it functions because again a lot can get lost in that

And I also wanted you to just reiterate that this is a listening session that you are getting feedback from these community groups. And this today is an informational report. We're not taking action on passing anything today.

Absolutely. chair through council president to the council that is absolutely correct it is our chance to listen we have presented what we what we have we want to hear back again in this session the community who's here and also through the other forums that we have out in the community many of you have been instrumental in helping us also make those connections and much appreciation to those of you who have

And lastly, I just wanted to articulate for the record that whether or not there will be an economic study, I heard that from some of the speakers as well, an economic impact study, and then just a mission statement or some kind of collective agreement on what goods movement or a goods policy actually, how that's defined.

Yes. And on each of those, I will certainly commend our very good colleagues at Economic Workforce Development Department that they, again, as I said, this is an all hands on deck exercise. They have been great partners to us even getting to this point. We did have, as part of phase one, many of you may remember, an economic study that was also a baseline for us to look at, particularly around housing and other opportunities for development. We will be building on that, but also economic growth first development is going to be our partner in helping us to define the scope and approach towards doing that kind of analysis.

And so lastly, and I know our council president wants to move the agenda, and I'll make a motion to accept staff report on this item, is that I don't think I can stress enough, and I rarely speak for the body, but I know that we all want to preserve Oakland's position as the fifth largest port city in the state of California, and the benefits that come from that, and I wanted to state that they have been making strides at the port in terms of electrification, the use of hydrogen, and just different energy sources to move towards a cleaner and greener port. And we need to continue and accelerate those moves and also consider implications that come from moving certain types of changing the definitions of how industrial spaces operate particularly in residential neighborhoods so again it's a balance but we all want to see the continuation of a strong port and what that means for the city of Oakland and again through the chair to the council president to council member fife as a relocated New Orleanian you know I feel you yes indeed thank you all right

thank you council turn your mic on you turn your mic on all right thank you i just want to publicly thank mr gilchrist and staff for for the presentation but i really appreciate your cooperation with other governmental bodies here in the city of oakland to unify us from the port of oakland oakland unified some of the nonprofits that your staff is working directly with to accommodate the housing and other growth in the city. And so I just want to publicly thank you for your work, and I'll second the motion.

right thank you thank you and go ahead if i may i also along that line i want to commend staff who is here uh kalila and daniel if you don't mind just come on up real quick and i hope you all will give me some grace here but again these are our folks who are out there keeping it real and making it real in terms of how we move this forward and wanna make sure that's right. Thank you very much. All right, appreciate that.

Thank you, Houston.

Mr. Gilchrist, so through the chair. I'm sorry, sir. That's okay. I just wanna ask a favor that I know you have in these community meetings and group meetings, but there's not many historic businesses left in my district. I would ask you and your staff personally, to send a message to them, because we're the city of Oakland. We know who it is, right? We know who the businesses that are historic, that you can have a one-on-one with them instead of a group, so you understand the needs and what they want and what they need. Is that okay?

Through the chair, to the council member, what I'd like to do, and as we have worked together in your district to also come out to the larger groups, if I can follow up with you and to the city administrator's office just to see how we can make that work logistically. I'd like to get more details to see how we can make that work.

Okay, through the chair. So you know I have my East Oakland Gateway meeting. Yes, sir. What I'll do is I'll just make that a specific for that, nothing else. You know how I add other things to it? Yes, sir. I'll just make it specific, and I'll get those historic businesses in that area to actually come out and just speak to that so they'll know who you are. All right. And you'll know who they are.

Right, and through the chair to the council member, and we're familiar with that forum. Thank you, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Wong and then we'll go with Brown and we'll go through all that.

Okay. Thank you to the chair first of all director Gilchrist and Laura and team just I There's so much work went into this. So thank you so much for your due diligence and putting all of this together as well as all the community engagement sessions I did have just three comments to make. One, I just wanted to echo the concerns and comments around the industrial policy. It's just incredibly important, especially with 51% of adult Oaklanders not actually having a bachelor's degree or higher, that we really retain these blue collar jobs. That's incredibly important for the employment of our community. The second thing that I thought was super exciting is this map of the cultural districts. I think it's so cool that we are actually formalizing these boundaries. I see everything from the black arts movement, the LGBTQ district, Chinatown, the Latinx cultural district as well as the black cultural zone. I think it's great to formalize this because that will allow us to then actually implement policies for those districts. One thing I just wanted to note, though I would be remiss to not note, that Little Saigon I think is missing from the map. That is something I would want to work with your staff to ensure that we don't oversee this important Southeast Asian refugee community. And the final thing I just wanted to comment on is I know we made some critical SB 79 amendments to increase housing density around transit corridors. Council Member Unger, myself, as well as Council Member Houston made some amendments and I couldn't tell in the map of the density if those changes were made to our respective districts where we excluded us from the exclusions, if that makes sense. And I just wanna make sure that that is reflected in those maps.

Yeah, we'll be moving forward with what is designated legally, what's been adopted.

Okay, great, thank you.

Council Member Brown, then we'll.

Excellent, thank you so much. Likewise, I just wanted to also thank the planning and building team for their work on this item and also engaging with a lot of the key stakeholders. And then I did just wanna uplift the comments that were made from the Urban Strategies Council and the Youth Council and just really making sure that we're also centering their voices as we are working on this plan. And so I would like the opportunity to help support any of the additional community engagement to make sure that we're we're meeting with some of our younger community members as well.

Absolutely, again, to the chair, to Council Member Brown, yes. And they were wonderful partners for us during phase one. And much of the success we had with that, they were instrumental. Thank you.

All right, Madam Clerk.

There is a motion by Council member 5 second by Council member guy to receive about this report and would that be to also close this public hearing. Councilmember Brown. Aye. Councilmember Fife. Aye. Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Ramachandran. Aye. Councilmember Unger. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. Chair Jenkins. Aye. Motion passes with a vote of 8 ayes. Going out of order, going to item 5.1 next. Adopt a resolution providing for the borrowing of funds for fiscal year 26 through 27 and the sale of the city of Oakland 26 through 27 tax and revenue anticipation notes in the amount not to exceed $200 million. Approving an official statement, approving the execution of one or more note. Purchase agreements relating to such notes and authorizing actions. in connection therewith. We have two speakers on this item.

Can you get this done in four minutes? One. All right, one. Beautiful.

Good evening, President Jenkins and council members. I'm David Jones with the Treasury Bureau. Before you this evening is a resolution providing for the borrowing of funds and the sale of the fiscal year 2627 tax and revenue anticipation notes in an amount not to exceed $200 million and approving the preliminary official statement, as well as other related documents. On June 2nd of this year, Council adopted Ordinance 13881, authorizing the borrowing of funds for cash flow management purposes during the course of the fiscal year, and also prepunding our accrued liability with CalPERS, where we would receive approximately 3.34 percent discount and right now based upon market conditions that's going to garner a savings of around 750 000 the notes have garnered the highest ratings by s p and moody's in the short term space and we plan to price next week and close around july 28th and i'm available for any questions that you might have thank you so much let's go to the public speakers

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record. Also, please raise your hand if you are participating via Zoom. Ms. Asada Olaballa and Blair Beekman. This is for item 5.1. Ms. Asada, 5.1.

It's all good. Don't worry about it. Take your time.

5.1 tax and revenue okay I'm sorry I think I'm gonna sit down for a while. That's okay.

Thank you, Mrs. Sata. Online?

Blair Beekman, if you wish to speak on this item, please raise your hand. I don't see your hand raised at this time, and all names have been called.

Seeing no more speakers, looks like Gayo. Turn your mic on. Okay, Gayo Unger.

I don't 5.1 move by Council member guy a second by Council member under. So be to approve the staff recommendation. Council member Brown I also member 5 I also member guy. I also member Houston. I also member of a change and I also member under I also member Wong I and chair Jenkins I motion passes with the vote of 8 eyes. Going to item 5.3, as we've already dispensed with item 5.2. Item 5.3, adopt an ordinance calling and giving notice for the holding of a general municipal election on November 3rd, 2026 for the purpose of submitting to the electors of the city of Oakland proposed ballot measures requesting consolidation of the city of Oakland general municipal election with the statewide election to be held in the city of Oakland on November 3rd, 2026. authorizing the city clerk to take all necessary actions to hold the municipal election asha reed city clerk and city clerk of the council this is your standard ordinance before you for giving notice for the election and also consolidating um the consolidation ordinance that is required for us to consolidate our election with alameda county noting that there will be amendment to this ordinance noting the passing of the ballot measure on today's agenda we will have to add that ballot question to this ordinance for introduction and the city attorney will read that into record and there's no speakers on this item I'm sorry there's one speaker two speakers on this item

Thank you, city clerk, through the chair, to the council. As we stated previously, this consolidation ordinance, by state law, it must list all the ballot questions for the measures that have been placed on the ballot. There was a measure placed on the ballot by the council earlier this evening, and so I'm gonna read that ballot question into this ordinance right now. So it will go in section two of the ordinance. There's currently a bullet point that says TBD that will be struck out. and we will insert the following language. Shall the measure amending Oakland's real property transfer tax ordinance to eliminate the foreclosure exception for all property transfers except transfers converting commercial property to certain housing or healthcare uses, transfers to community banking organizations, and certain transfers of residential properties of four units or less, and allowing the city council to establish, amend, or remove foreclosure-related exceptions, raising approximately four to 13 million annually pursuant to the tax rates in Oakland Municipal Code section 4.20.020 beginning January 1st, 2027 until repealed be adopted.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Unger?

Speakers. Oh. Ms. Assata, Olaballa, and Blair-Beekman for item 5.3.

Ms. Assata, the elections item?

The consolidation ordinance.

Did I sign up?

You didn't sign up. It's okay. Okay. It's where Beekman online.

Mr. Beekman, please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Hi, I just made it back to the meeting. Hi, everyone. This is an important item for myself. I'm worried about this consolidation process that's going on with this item. I don't think, I'm worried that city government has some sort of special privilege and they don't want to take the time and care to better describe their items on ballots. I mean, I understand the process and that you have a legal right to, and it does create differences between a community-led ballot process and a city-led process. But the voter is still unaware of what exactly an item is about. And I don't think that serves anybody any good except elitism. And we're supposed to be working away from that at this point of our democracy, I feel. So I question what you're doing with this item. Thank you.

Thank you so much, we appreciate that. Welcome back to the meeting. Is there a motion? Gallo? Unger?

On the motion by Councilmember Unger, second by Councilmember Gallo to approve this ordinance for introduction as amended. Councilmember Brown? Aye. Councilmember Fife?

Aye.

Councilmember Gallo? Aye. Councilmember Houston? Aye. Sorry, Councilmember Houston? Aye. Councilmember Ramachandran? Aye. Councilmember Unger? Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And Chair Jenkins. Aye. Motion passes with a vote of eight ayes. I'm sorry, this item is approved for introduction. Final passage will be July 21st.

Madam Clerk, please call in 5.4 and 5.5 together. And if people signed up for both, they will get two minutes of time.

Calling in item 5.4 and 5.5 together. Receive an information report on the inventory of city-owned properties analyzed for use as interim shelter, safe parking, and vehicle storage pursuant to the encampment abatement policy. And item 5.5, receive an information report from the encampment management team on encampment management operations.

Cupid, can you do consolidate it?

Yeah, absolutely. Good evening, Council President Jenkins, commission members, council members and community members. I'll just quickly run over the city's analysis of city owned property under the encampment abatement policy resolution nine one zero zero two. I do want to give a huge shout out to Sean Keener, Sean Garcia, Jordan Flanders, Brendan Moriarty and Kelly Khan for the work and the time that they put into this analysis. I believe I have a slide. Yes, thanks. So just really quickly, when Council adopted the encampment abatement policy in April, it directed staff to complete a review of city-owned property for potential homelessness response uses. Specifically, we were asked to evaluate city-owned properties across every council district for three possible uses. Interim shelter, safe parking, and vehicle storage. Today's presentation fulfills that request. The team evaluated 46 city-owned properties of significant size, 42 vacant parcels, and four buildings. One procedural note, presentation of this inventory fulfills the reporting requirement established in the adopted policy and allows implementation of the encampment abatement policy to move forward. Again, this is an informational update. So I want to explain how we came through this approach. It would have been easy to bring forward just a list of vacant properties, but that wouldn't have been useful for you all. So what we did is we asked a practical question. Which city-owned properties have the greatest potential to safely and responsibly support shelter, safe parking, and vehicle storage while serving the greatest number of people at a reasonable cost and in the shortest practical timeframe? availability was not enough. We used three guiding principles. First, public investment matters. Second, community connection matters. Third, this is just a snapshot of today. A property's tier reflects its current condition, agreements, and constraints. It is not a permanent verdict. A property that is not feasible today may become feasible later if an agreement ends, a constraint is resolved, or new infrastructure becomes available. So, Each of the 46 properties was reviewed using the same set. Oh no, this is the wrong. This is the EMAT. Yes, this is the EMAT presentation. This shouldn't be, it should be the land inventory presentation. Okay, they're working on fixing it. Yes, I will continue while they're fixing it so we can utilize this time. I don't want to delay it. So each of the 46 properties were reviewed using the same set of criteria. So we looked at the parcel size, surface conditions, slope infrastructure, proximity to infrastructure, Cost, existing legal or contractual commitments, environmental conditions, fire risk scalability, and how quickly a site could realistically be activated. The consistency matters. We did not want different standards depending on the location. We wanted one citywide framework, so we applied this to all council district. There were also three automatic disqualifiers. First, exclusive negotiating agreements or pending property sales, second, location within a very high fire hazard severity zone, and third, known environmental contamination that makes habitation unsafe. Where those conditions existed, we did not advance the property. If council would like to discuss a specific property or technical issue during or after the presentation, I have my colleagues here who will be able to answer that question. Of the 46 properties evaluated, five emerged as the strongest candidates for additional evaluation, nine showed potential but currently have identifiable constraints, and 32 were not feasible under the current conditions. And I want to be candid, the largest category is the not feasible today group. That reflects the reality of the city's land portfolio. Many properties are already committed to other public purposes, constrained by environmental or legal issues, located in areas that are not safe for habitation, or simply too small to support a functioning program. The value of the exercise is focus. Instead of spreading attention across dozens of parcels, we now have a clear understanding of where the strongest opportunities are, what barriers remain, and what properties should be monitored on conditions of change. So let me start with the five strongest. The first five tier of the five, the first of the tier one five properties represented the strongest opportunities identified through this analysis. This means that they may not be shovel ready, but it means that they have the fewest barriers and that the rest of the portfolio warrant additional planning, due diligence, and funding analysis. The five sites are East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue in District Five. We had 90566 Avenue. We had 711 71st Avenue, which we're currently strategizing on right now. And then we also had 7425 San Leandro Street and the Malibu lot at 8000 Southwest, I mean South Coliseum Way in District 7. Each side has a different potential use depending on its characteristics. Some may be better suited for interim shelter, others may be more appropriate for safe parking or vehicle storage. I want to stress two points, though. First, every site still requires additional due diligence. That may include environmental review, utility confirmation, engineering analysis, design work, or other pre-development scopes. Second, feasibility is not the same as funding. Before any site could be activated, it would require capital funding to prepare the property and ongoing operating funding for staffing, security, services, maintenance, and program management. Today's presentation identifies opportunity. It does not authorize construction or activation. So in the tier two, there was nine different properties. These are not permanent no decisions. They are not not yet decisions. For example, the Henry Robinson, which is an SRO. We know that it takes a lot more to get significant capital investment before the units could be returned to service. There was also High Street, which has been used for RV related infrastructure before and then the home baseline. And finally, to close this out, we have currently infeasible sites and rather than walk through all 32 currently individual properties, we group them into areas and they fall into seven categories as to why they were not in tier two or tier one these categories generally fall under some properties were already committed to affordable housing some are under active development agreements or other legal commitments some have known environmental contamination some are local located in very high fire hazard severity zones Some are too small or physically unsuitable to operate a program, some are active public or retail parking sites, and some serve as community open space, green space, or recreational space. The important point is that the inventory is dynamic. If conditions change, for example, if an agreement ends, if environmental concerns are addressed, or a public use changes, a property can be reevaluated using the same framework. so with that today's report provides the city's first comprehensive policy-driven assessment of its own property portfolio for potential homelessness response uses it establishes a consistent framework it identifies where opportunities exist today and it documents where constraints remain throughout the portfolio more importantly this gives the city a repeatable decision-making tool as properties and circumstances change we can reevaluate them using the same objective methodology that ends my report

Thank you, thank you so much. Council Member Houston, then Council Member Brown.

Yes, through the Chair, thank you, Mr. Kubik. I was the author of the EAP, and in seven days, it's going to be launched, because we had three months, right? And six months prior to that, I knew it was gonna pass, but it just took a little work. There is a property, not in my district, but I work hand in glove with Councilmember President Kevin Jenkins, it's in his district, and it was a site at 711, it says District 7, but it's actually in District 6, that the city spent $500,000 to get it ready for RVs. It was closed down, wasn't secure. The $500,000 is damaged, ripped up, telephone poles cut down, lights pole cut down, and this is what happens when you start changing staffing, and I don't know what I call Justin's staff. Justin Johnson came out, looked at it, and we were rolling on it because it's something that needs to happen. In the city of Oakland, I need you to share with the public and share with my colleagues what property is the top of the chain ready to go. I want them to hear it all. Which one is the best ready to go?

Yeah, through the chair to the council member. It is 711, the 71st Street parking lot.

Okay, so we're behind the ball. because in seven days when it's launched, we don't have a property ready that could have been ready three months ago, President. Could have been ready. Could have been ready six months prior when I first started the EAP. We can't wait until it's launched to have these properties and get them ready. I wanna move on this, because I already have an obligation, I already spoke to Alameda County, and they're willing to provide the provider. And that's why we shut it down, Council Member Giannotti, they shut it down because they didn't have the funding for the provider. The county's gonna provide the provider from the Measure W money. I wanna know, I want the public to hear too, when is this gonna be ready to get that money to kick, because we have to put skin in the game, and that's what the supervisor from Alameda County said. Put some skin in the game. It's gonna cost me, I got an estimate, I got a layout already done. It's gonna cost about $300,000. And we got what, $1.2 million we put to the side, President? Did we put $1.2 million to the side for RVs, of safe parking and things like that? Is that the case? So that means that I can use 250 or 40. Councilmember Aguayo can use 240, and Councilmember Fife can use 240, and Wayne can use 240, right? So that means I could put my 240 together, and that'll be 480, that we can get that site rolling in Councilmember President Jenkins' area. So I want some commitments here. We got a new city administrator. She came out and watched it and looked at it and walked it with Justin Johnson. We could've had this rolling if Justin would've been forced to leave. So my thing is this, the public wants to know, my people want to know, because my community is the most underserved. Right, and when we come up with this sanctuary city ordinance that's coming up in the City of Refuge, I'm gonna change that too. I've been working with Council Member Wang. So I wanna ask and I want my public and I want my people to know when is that site gonna be ready, when we gonna have the money to put it up so the county can put their money in, because they ready.

Yeah, that's a processional question through the chair to the council member. I can't speak for the county's money. You know, we affirmatively reached out to the county. They have a process amount measure W. So we are actively engaging with them. What we're doing right now is hoping to go through a physical needs assessment so we can identify how much it costs to get the property up to where it needs to be so that's the first step that we're taking right now that's currently happening we're trying to see if we have a contract that we can build off of so that's where it can be done one of the things i want to caution on is that i did see the cost assessment that was provided to you previously and i think it was underbid so there are contingencies that need to be considered saying that they have all the property all the proper you know uh materials And the considerations that need to be given to that property, but I want to separate out two things Also, there is the capex capital expenditures with what it takes to build a thing and then there's the operational expenditures And that's what you're talking about with the county since we do not control that County funds We are looking to you for the engagement with the county But we've also reached out to them and said how do we go through the process of getting the measure W dollars? So we can get that commitment. Those are the two driving things for our timeline.

Okay, so let me share this with you We got the $1,200,000. We got that. That was in the budget. The money's there, right? Already got the commitment from the county. I had a relationship with the county, the state, and everybody before I even became council member. He already sat down with me. I'm gonna have a meeting with you guys. The money is there. He's ready to go. Matter of fact, he was gonna do, they were gonna do the zone building and use that parking lot Per my relationship, but I told him I didn't want to because I didn't want what happened to 7-Eleven to happen over there on his watch or on their watch because it's ridiculous what happened if the public goes out there and see what happened to that. That lot is embarrassing. John Jones, it's embarrassing. So what I'm saying is this. This don't wait, let's get it done, because we need it anyway, because we got all these other lots that need to be done. We have one that's shovel ready right now, it's already been there, it's just been destroyed. And with my relationship with Jim Moore, he already gave it. You said it's under bid, I understand. He doing it for me.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because he know how much I need this for my community, right? So he's done all the other safe parking, so he's qualified. Right, so I wanna get this rolling. I wanna get this moving because like I said, it's been already three months since 4-14-26 when we passed the encampment abatement policy and it was six months prior to that when I started it. So in seven days, it's gonna be 7-14. That's gonna be the three months. So I want some commitment. I hear you, President. I see you moving that mic.

So there's a couple of things you could do. You could do resolution. or you can work with the administration to have them come back for allocation of.

Can we do an urgent like they always do to us? Can I do emergency?

So you have my commitment, I'll work with you to get that property addressed.

Okay, so the next question. IS THAT I SPOKE TO UNGER, COUNCILMEMBER UNGER, I SPOKE TO COUNCILMEMBER GINATI, THEY SAID THEY WANTED TO BE INCLUDED TOO, AND THAT'S REASONABLE, I UNDERSTAND, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT properties in their district that we can use our through all the districts that we can use um not just my district because i'm going to tell you that's where they're looking to put them right and that's not there that's not there so i want to i want to disperse this across all the council members right so so so where could they be placed yeah that's what the the land inventory is

So we've identified across the entire city, including some of the impediments, to get land buildable. That's what this analysis that you have in front of you actually is. It identifies from council district ones through seven for city-owned property.

Okay, so last question, or last statement. The one on 73rd Amtrak, that property, I took care of that property for about nine years, kept it free from encampments and everything. Part of that is contaminated, but part of that could be capped, too. It could be capped, and we have contractors that we just gave a $4 million contract to RG Material, McGuire and Heschel, we gave them some money, let them do some in-kind work for us, right? So we can cap that and put that on there, because I'm willing to do that in my district, even to help out Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, because we're working together, because we got all these encampments and these RVs that need to be pulled off the street in the last thing. We just don't want to keep pushing them around. See, that's the problem. We keep pushing them here, pushing them there, pushing them there. We don't want to do that. We want to actually place them. And this is my last question. This is going to be for Amari. And when we start closing down these encampments, the return... has to stop. I had to remove two, President, Council Member Fife, I had to move two Connix boxes out of Elmhurst Tennis Court and another one at another park that they closed down and had recamped four times. So that city money wasted that I had to remove that myself so that doesn't come back. How can we stop those kind of things from happening? I'm gonna ask Omari when he gets up. But I got a lot more to say when it comes to this stuff.