Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting for today, May 26. The time is now 11.32 and this meeting has come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker cards for items on this agenda. If you're here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card, please fill one out and turn into a clerk representative, my left, your right, before the item is read into record. Online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting. That time was yesterday at 11.30 a.m. The meeting came to order at 11.32. Speaker cards are no longer be accepted 10 minutes after this meeting has began, making that time 11.42. With that, we will now proceed to take roll. Council Member Gallo.

Present.

Thank you. Council Member Houston is excused. Thank you, Council Member Wong. At present. Thank you, and Chair Unger.

Here.

Thank you, we do have three members present and one excused. Houston and Chair Unger, do you have any announcements for us today?

No announcements, thanks to everyone for being here.

Thank you so much, glad to be here. Moving to our first item of the day, approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting on May 12th, 2026, and we do have one speaker.

All right, let's hear from our speaker.

Wanna call your name, please approach the podium. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. Mr. Dwayne Nelson.

Did I fill out one? It's okay if I did.

You filled out for item two, Ms. Asada.

That's two.

For this item, it's Dwayne Nelson. I'm gonna cede my time to Ms. Asada.

No, no, I had no intention. I did not have intention to speak on that.

That's fine, I'll do it next time. Okay. Okay, Mr. Nelson, wait this time to speak.

I'll entertain a motion on the minutes.

We do have a motion made by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Councilmember Wong to accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting on May 12, 2026, as is on roll. Councilmember Gallo? Aye. Thank you. Councilmember Houston is excused. Councilmember Wong? Aye. Thank you. And Chair Unger? Aye. This motion passes with three ayes, one excuse, Houston. Moving to item two, determination of schedule outstanding committee items. This is also known as your pending list. And we do have two speakers for this item. Anything from staff or council members on the pending list?

All right, let's hear from our speakers then.

Thank you. When I call your name, please approach the podium. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hands. You're easily identified. We do take in-person speakers before Zoom speakers. Dwayne Nelson and Ms. Asada.

Dwayne Nelson, District 3 West Oakland resident, proud supporter of the Arsenal Football Club, reigning English Premier League champions. So today we're talking trash. So we have the report here from the city auditor and we get to the second page and we get, finally we have found that while the city's illegal dumping cleanup appears to have been effective and timely. So we get a footnote on timely and it says that in 2024 legal dumping crews average monthly median, median not average, time to resolve was two business days. Well here we are in 2026 or even going back to 2025 when I have a service quest open, from 2025, June 3rd, still open. Service request 1524103. Now the good thing is that that trash is actually gone. Service request still open. But the bad news is we still have a, we have a new trash pile there. Again, I opened up a service request, 162460. It's been open since April 25 this year. So I don't know where we are on this two-day median, but I think we're not certainly seeing that in West Oakland. I don't know, Council Member Gaya, if you're seeing that two days in your district. So that's interesting. Like I said, second page of this audit when we get that. So I think there's a plan now to sort of democratize the platform of 311 and get Spanish speakers and Chinese speakers to be able to use the platform. I think that's great. All for having other people speaking different languages as a first language, having access to a crappy system. Welcome to the platform, as they say. Welcome to the suck. So I hope we can do a better job of cleaning up the trash there. And so I will yield back my time for the moment.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment and noting Council Member Houston present at 11.36.

So Friday I twisted my ankle and I almost twisted my ankle again on Clay and 14th. Somebody had to drop me off. There's this big dip. The sidewalk is not even. When are you gonna fix that? That project around City Hall is ridiculous. I've seen them digging up after they've laid it off. You put tape out here instead of white paint. So my request is, projects that are allocated have to be completed. And if they're not completed, why? This is an incomplete project out here. Over here on Keller and Mountain, you got lights that have been put up for months. The lights are not on. you have on the sidewalks throughout the city, sidewalks that are being occupied by vendors. Right now there's a vendor on the city island on Mountain and Keller. There's a tree on that island, constantly large, it's a dysfunctional tree, constantly big limbs are dropping off of that tree. Nobody should be on that island. But there's a vendor there and if that tree, big tree limb falls on them, they're gonna get hurt. The other thing is you started clearing the medium of weeds on Keller, started at Mountain, went all the way up to college or campus, I can't remember, and then stopped. You didn't, after that, from campus all the way up to Skyline, the weeds are all over the place. Added to that, where they did do the work, you still have patchy areas of weeds still on the perimeter of the medium on Keller. So the work is not being done effectively. And somebody's got to deal with three years to do a notice of violation on...

Thank you for your comment, Ms. Assata, and that concludes your public speakers for item two.

Okay, I will make a motion to approve the pending list. Do we have a second?

We do have a motion by Chair Unger, seconded by Council Member Gallo, to accept Determination of Schedule Outstanding Committee Items as is, on roll. Council Member Gallo?

Aye.

Council Member Houston? Aye. Thank you. Council Member Wong? Aye. And Chair Unger? Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to accept Determination of Schedule Outstanding Committee Items as is, moving to item three. receive an informational report from the city auditor on the performance audit of illegal dumping. And you do have two speakers.

All right, let's hear our report from the auditor first. How long do you think you need, sir?

10 minutes.

Okay.

Good morning. The title of our audit is actually, it's a mouthful. It's Performance Audit of Illegal Dumping, Improvements to the Accessibility of Legal Waste Disposal in the City's Enforcement and Remediation Policies and Operations Could Help Alleviate Oakland's Illegal Dumping Problem. And the audit report is attached to the agenda packet and is accessible on our website, oaklandauditor.com. I am Michael Houston, the city auditor. I'm joined today by Assistant City Auditor Stephanie Noble-Wilson and Performance Auditor Paula Kelton-Brunner, who conducted this audit. One of the reasons we initiated the audit back in 2024 was how broadly and how deeply illegal dumping resonated as an issue among Oakland residents and business operators. Illegal dumping tangibly affects Oaklanders and has long been a problem in Oakland, negatively affecting health, safety, the environment, property, and economic wellbeing. The audit had four objectives. First, we sought to identify incentives that increased the likelihood and or occurrence of illegal dumping in Oakland. We also sought to assess the city's efficiency and effectiveness in deploying resources to decrease illegally dumped waste. We sought to determine what controls promote effective illegal dumping cleanups and enforcement. Finally, we sought out to evaluate how accessible and familiar services to mitigate illegal dumping, including free bulky pickup and 311 reporting were to city residents. As we do for all of our audits, we designed and completed field work to meet these objectives, and the resulting audit report details three audit findings and 17 audit recommendations. The first of the three findings was that legal waste removal should be more convenient and affordable to Oaklanders. The city's contracted waste hauler, Waste Management, reported collecting 244.5 tons, or nearly 500 million pounds, of legally disposed waste in Oakland in 2025. In fiscal year 23-24, Oakland Public Works' Keeping Oakland Clean and Beautiful crews reported picking up about 5.5 tons, or over 10 million pounds, of illegally dumped waste. KLCB crews reported picking up about 3.6 thousand tons or over 7 million pounds of illegally dumped waste in fiscal year 2425. During the audit, we observed that throughout the city, household waste was more commonly dumped than apparent commercial or construction and demolition waste. Both staff from the Public Works Department and staff of our contract at Haller reported that illegal dumping is mainly composed of residential materials. We observed illegal dumping piles throughout the city containing furniture, clothing, diaper, food scraps, and other household waste. And we point that out in the report. We wanted to find out what might motivate residents to dump illegally. The United States Environmental Protection Agency's illegal dumping guide explains that communities facing illegal dumping might lack convenient, affordable legal waste disposal due to residents struggling to pay for trash pickup. residents lacking education on local laws, residents not knowing how harmful dumping can be, and residents lacking ways to haul waste to a transfer station or landfill. And during our audit, we found that legal waste disposal is more expensive in Oakland than other local jurisdictions. In 24-25, Oakland residents paid between 23% to 40% more for curbside service than did residents of neighboring jurisdictions that used the same hauler. Oakland residents also paid more for single-family curbside hauling than San Francisco and San Jose, who use different contractors. And there are more tenant-occupied residents than owner-occupied residences in Oakland, but we noted that while reduced rates are available to low-income and disabled homeowners, they are not available to tenants. We also found that the city could maximize its hauling contract. Bulky waste disposal services are not used to their full potential. Multifamily residents appear to be particularly underutilizing annual bulky pickup service. And dumpsters allotted to the mayor and city council members through the hauling contract were underutilized. And in response to our findings about residential waste disposal service, we made four recommendations. including negotiating contract terms to reduce hauling rates and promote transparency, and fully utilizing existing services like bulky pickups. The second finding included commercial waste hauling in addition to residential waste hauling. And the title of finding number two was that the city could strengthen its enforcement of illegal dumping through legislative changes and improved regional collaboration. So first, the audit noted that commercial hauling enforcement is weaker than residential hauling enforcement. According to the municipal code, all commercial businesses except those meeting self-haul or waiver requirements must subscribe to collection services. Both the city and its contracted waste hauler estimated that thousands of Oakland businesses were not signed up for garbage service as of late 2023 to early 2024. Businesses not signed up for service may illegally dump waste themselves and or hire unlicensed haulers who illegally dump waste. So in general, businesses without appropriate garbage service pose an increased risk of illegal dumping. During our audit, the City was not pursuing special assessments on commercial properties that were not subscribing to hauling services. The audit noted that renewed collaboration efforts could help bolster illegal dumping enforcement region-wide. Both the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and the Oakland Police Department have the authority to issue citations for illegal hauling and dumping. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office received six illegal dumping cases in 2025. Six. And that's including all the other jurisdictions in Oakland. OPD has authority to cite for violations of hauling permitting and illegal dumping, but is limited by time constraints and competing priorities. Criminal enforcement notably requires a higher standard of evidence, and Oakland police officers need probable cause to stop vehicles. And according to OPD, simply hauling trash does not meet that threshold. Oakland's illegal dumping fines are lower than those in other jurisdictions. I think this is an area that's already been addressed. But high fines could hold the dumpers accountable, recover some of the costs of enforcement, and could deter illegal dumping. And we noted how Oakland's administrative citations were just $100 for the first offense, $250 for the second, $500 for the third, much lower than cities like San Jose, where the first offense carries a $2,500 fine. We made three recommendations in this finding. Institute special assessments for commercial properties without curbside waste service. We recommended to improve collaboration on illegal dumping enforcement with the county. And we recommended that the city improve coordination between departments involved in illegal dumping enforcement, including Public Works, Code Enforcement, OPD, and Finance. And the third and final finding While the city's illegal dumping cleanup appears to have been effective and timely, the 311 reporting should be more accessible, and enforcement needs clear strategies, procedures, interdepartmental coordination, and performance management. So environmental enforcement officers patrol the city searching for and investigating illegal dumping and present evidence to the city attorney or district attorney. They also provide outreach and education to the community. We know that there are no active written policies and procedures for staff and that the Public Works Department's environmental enforcement unit's work plan was in draft form. Staff interviews indicated conflicting understanding of roles and responsibilities. And we found that the environmental enforcement officers need additional training on hazardous waste identification and other cases that could improve enforcement. The environmental enforcement unit lacks efficient and effective coordination with other departments involved in illegal dumping enforcement, like OPD Code Enforcement and Finances Collections Division. While Public Works has performance data, supervisors report that performance management data is of limited use and other types of analysis, such as which strategies improve the effectiveness of citations, would be more helpful. bit of good news which was alluded to a little while ago that was that the reactive reactive illegal dumping cleanups were effective emphasis on reactive meaning the the c-click fix requests in 2024 the medium length of time to resolve illegal dumping cleanup requests was two business days which is one day less than the goal of resolving 85 percent of cases within three days We did note that the time to resolve complaints spiked in the beginning of 2025 when Public Works experimented with a proactive approach to dumping removal. Public Works has since returned to a reactive model. We have an exhibit in the report that shows those trends. The City Administrator's Office should work to expand 311 reporting to meet the City's Equal Access Ordinance. 311 reporting via C-Click Fix was only available in English. non-English speakers would have to report by phone to receive city translation services, and this is not in line with the city's language access ordinance.

Just checking in, sir, we're at 10 minutes.

Okay, about three minutes. Okay. In response to these findings, we made recommendations eight through 17, including internal organization and regular evaluation of citation strategies within the Department of Public Works Environmental Enforcement Unit, implementing before and after photos of reactive illegal dumping cleanups to encourage continued reporting by the public and show the effectiveness of cleanup crews. Expanding online 311 reporting to allow use in other languages as required by the city's equal access ordinance. The administration accepted all the audit recommendations and provided timelines for implementation. The administration has even reported completion of some of the audit recommendations. The administration's responses to the audit recommendations are attached to the back of the audit report. and we will ask for the statuses of all the audit recommendations and verify those statuses as part of our semi-annual audit recommendation follow-up process. The next one will be through the period effective June 30th, 2026, and we'll include updates on the statuses of recommendations from this audit at that time, and we'll publicly report the results. I just presented a really broad overview of the audit. Presenting it in detail would take multiple hours, But I encourage everyone to read the audit report, which again is included in the agenda packet, and post it on our website. We're happy to present our audit in more detail, individual briefings, as well as community and neighborhood groups. We thank the city administration for their cooperation throughout the audit process. And with that, we're here to answer any questions. I saw that we have the Public Works Director and Assistant Director are here.

That's great, thank you. So what time period does this report cover?

The audit scope, yes. So the scope of the audit focus on data from 2019 through 2025, though data as early as 2013 is presented to visualize trends.

Okay. And I know that audits are always sort of a lagging process, but there has been a lot done in the last six months around illegal dumping. Do you have any sense from sort of being deep in the weeds on this whether we are beginning to meet some of the audit recommendations already?

I see that there has been some legislation, right? So the fine schedule has changed, or is my understanding? So that's one of the recommendations right there. We had a recommendation that the city should consider increasing the fines. So that's an example of something that's already had some movement.

And on the issue around legal and affordable options and the cost, is that something that I should say it this way. I don't believe that's something we can do unilaterally. That's something we have to do in negotiation with waste management whose contract is not up until 2030, correct? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Colleagues? Council Member Gaya.

Yeah, thank you for that information. And certainly just for the members of the public, I just want to let the public know that, you know, every city council has six employees. But five of my employees, all we do Monday through Sunday from 6 in the morning to 12 noon is clean up my District 5. and that includes not just my sidewalks my streets but also around my neighborhood schools and inside my parks due to the fact that we don't have that support anymore within the city of oakland oakland unified and that's all we do monday through sunday and certainly you'll find me out there wednesdays and saturdays and sundays we don't care if it's a holiday or whatever it is raining but we're out there using city vehicles trying to clean up the neighborhood and the reality is i clean it up today i go back tomorrow morning six in the morning i go back and clean it up again I come back the day after that, it's the same old issue with the illegal dumping, with abandoned cars and all that other stuff that's happening. So the question that I have for you as a resident of the city, I do have one of the most expensive garbage bills that I have to pay for through my home that I did anywhere in the state of California. All right, so I have a garbage bill that's expensive. Then secondly, you need to point out that this city is one of the very few, if not only two left, that we have what we call a franchise fee, where I as a citizen, besides paying for my garbage bill, I'm charged, or waste management collects, $35 million a year from us residents to give back to the city. And the goal beginning was to give that dollars to help us with public works, keep the neighborhoods clean. But I still don't, haven't heard where is that 35, 36 million on top of your bill that you have to pay for? Where is that money going to the city? And how is that utilized to keep our cities safe and clean? And you need to be able to report that back. One is what is the cost? Then the other one that you need to report back, I as a resident, if I have my couches and my mattress and whatever and I wanna go to waste management to dump my stuff, it's one of the most expensive in the state of California and in the nation. Like I use an example, I do that in Tucson, Arizona for my mother-in-law. Took a truckload, it was $30. But I come and do that in Oakland, it's $300. To take, go to waste management. And we deliver, we dump our trash every day at waste management. But I do want to also ask you, because you brought up that program we had where People can line up and go take their trash to Public Works yard and all that but what I saw this Saturday and a couple of times before where the residents of San Leandro this past Saturday if you are a resident of San Leandro you get in line and go to waste management and unload whatever you want to unload. Didn't cost you a thing as long as you show proof you were in San Leandro with a bill You went and unloaded, no cost. You didn't have to take it to the public works yard and give it to them, and we paying overtime, then they gotta take it to waste management, pay more. And so I think that it's the process that Oakland has in terms of the cost, I think we need to let the public know so the city can fix that, all right? And so that's one, but the reality is, that you're right, there are many properties, apartment complexes, and businesses that don't have a license. And it used to be that the city would enforce that, but now I'm getting waste management to help me on my streets to come check with you. Sir, you're throwing your trash on the corner or leaving it in front of your building, but you don't have a garbage bill. And legally, if you have a business here, you have to not only have a business license, but you have to have a garbage license. And many of us don't have that, including the haulers. You go by Home Depot right now, you'll see 10, 15 trucks lined up, ready to pick up your trash, but none of them have a hauling license, right? And I'll pick up your trash, And I'll wait for the evening and I'll find a place to dump it. And we have that experience because the enforcement that I have is not present. And because I do take pictures and videos, but I got to give them to the city attorney. The city attorney has to check them and give them to the county attorney. then the county attorney has to send him before the judge, and I have to be pressing at the judge, saying, yep, that's him, judge, he's the one that I saw him dumping his stuff, but if I go do that, he's gonna come back and get me, so a lot of people said, no, I ain't gonna show up to point the finger, that was the one that did it. So I think one is the cost items to recognize and let the public know where is our money being used within the city structure, But for me, that franchise fee, I keep asking publicly, where is that money, 36 million a year that's being collected, is that money supposed to be going directly to hire more people at Public Works, more vehicles to clean up our streets? But I don't get a response in terms of how we're using the money from the taxpayers that we're getting. Anyway, that's just one question that I have for you, and I would appreciate that information back. Thank you.

Thank you for this. Director Garland, did you want to respond to any of this?

Good morning, chair and committee members. I am Liam Garland, Oakland's public works director. First, I want to give a big thank you to the auditor and the auditor's team. This is a very thoughtful audit and showed a ton of collaboration throughout the course of its production. I'll only take two or three minutes just to share a little bit about the actions the city has already taken. Big picture though, as we sit here today and we read through this audit, what I see is alignment. I see alignment between our auditor, our mayor, our city council, our city administration, our staff, and our community on where to focus. And that is on enforcement, on more strategic cleanup and better education and outreach on legal disposal options. Now, as the city auditor mentioned, our specific management responses are pages 57 to 62, and some of the actions had already occurred as the audit was being released, and then subsequent to the audit's release, the council approved an illegal dumping expenditure action plan that addresses even more of the audit's recommendations. So as always, let's start with the three Es, and we'll focus on enforcement for a moment. We need more enforcement tools and better collection processes. Well, council has already adopted a higher citation amounts for illegal dumping, strengthened vehicle-related enforcement provisions, and supported proposed state legislation that would allow DMV registration holds where illegal dumping citation were not paid. Council also approved in the expenditure plan investments in handheld devices and other software for the environmental enforcement officers that's gonna help increase the citation numbers and also their collections rate. That same plan also expanded cameras, the illegal dumping cameras, including solar-powered cameras, which give us more flexibility on where we can deploy those cameras. The plan expanded our capacity for footage review. And we're also working with Northwestern students to see if there's a use of artificial intelligence that might help with review of that illegal dumping camera footage. the audit also suggests better collaboration between opd and public works on illegal dumping enforcement efforts indeed back in january the mayor and city administrator's office convened our departments to make sure that collaboration occurred and as we sit here today opw has shared footage with opd and OPD has initiated investigations based on this footage. So progress is being made. Let's talk about eradication. The audit notes that visible dumping attracts more dumping, and this is one of the reasons why rapid removal matters. IN WHAT COUNCIL APPROVED THROUGH THE ILLEGAL DUMPING EXPENDITURE ACTION PLAN. THAT INCLUDED FUNDING FOR THE AERIAL TECHNOLOGY THAT'S GOING TO HELP US IDENTIFY THOSE PILES AND PICK THEM UP MORE QUICKLY AND NOT HAVE TO RELY SO MUCH ON 311. It includes spending for additional lightning loader trucks, which are so important for abating those big piles, additional staffing and overtime for proactive cleanup operations, which are occurring to date. They're on Fridays and Mondays and Saturdays. All of these investments are going to help improve our response times, strengthen proactive cleanup efforts in hard hit areas, and deploy our crews more effectively. Now, we're also, before the summer recess, we're bringing, staff is bringing an item to impose or give staff the ability to impose special assessments on commercial properties that either don't have garbage service or insufficient service. And remember, this is important because if they don't have sufficient service, that waste they are producing is likely ending up on our streets and sidewalks or our public litter containers. And what this item will do if approved by council Will essentially enable us to impose a special assessment just like we do on the residential side So it's making residential and commercial equivalent Finally, on education, we agree with the auditor that many residents, especially our renters, are not aware of no-cost bulky pickup and disposal options. So because of council's approval of that illegal dumping expenditure action plan, we now have resources to expand the outreach and education. That's already started. You've got the Ike kiosk with messaging around no-cost bulky pickups. You've got the electronic billboards that are also showing that communication. We've got a partnership with Keep Oakland Beautiful around outreach and education. Other advertising that is coming to help promote those no-cost disposal options. So you look at all this together, and what I see is alignment and action around enforcement, eradication, and education, and that this alignment and these actions will make a difference. Again, I want to thank the City Daughters Office for the report, which is another important step in addressing illegal dumping. Thank you.

Excellent, thank you. Council Member Wong.

Through the chair. First of all, I want to thank the auditor for lifting up that the 311 system is not compliant with our equal access ordinance. It's something I've observed myself, just the inequities in my own district and the deep east area where it's mostly immigrants. objectively awful illegal dumping. Probably five 311 reports compared to the wealthier areas. 400 reports for dumpsters in the right-of-way, which is like, you know, while some version of illegal dumping is magnitudes of less worse than what I'm seeing in the eastern area. One thing that I was particularly... Frustrated to read and your report was around the enforcement and the cost and effectiveness of it. And I think some of that will be remedied by the increase in the fines. But you had noted that we spend $2 million on the enforcement and we collected only what is it, $16,000 in fines, which is, I have to say, abysmal, especially as we try to ramp up and improve our ability to do enforcement. It was noted, and again, this is the citations that we actually issue to be clear so we don't issue many of the citations to begin with um so of the ones that we actually issue it looks like many citations went unpaid or received no response and that Anyways, can you explain some sort of, I'd like to dig deeper into that and if you have any recommendations on how we improve that since to me that seems to be a gap between the Public Works Department and the Finance Department and the cohesion between these two departments being able to work together. And I've seen this for myself on the human trafficking front and so this is a repeated theme and I am growing more and more frustrated. So, or maybe Betsy, excuse me, Madam Administrator Lake, if you'd like to also speak to this.

I'd like to ask Liam if it's okay director Garland to come back up I know that the department is working closely the public works department is working closely with our finance department to overhaul the process so that is in process that's right essentially what we've gotten is our finance team and our EEOs together along with some IT support

and we're developing a solution where, I'll not get into the weeds too much, but essentially you have an EEO electronically submitting a citation, and then that, if not collected upon, the software behind it will produce the packet that is required by finance to collect. So instead of dealing in paper and having to put these packages together, essentially it's happening electronically and then even being submitted electronically from public works to the finance department. And we think this will make a big difference in terms of the throughput of these processes.

Right, which is good, and that is why I was excited to pass that last week, because I do see that there's remedies noted with the issues that are noted in the audit. I think the other thing that I would like to discuss is just how many more cameras we need. I know with that expenditure report, essentially doubled our cameras from 36 to 72 I'm not sure if that's I don't think that still gives us the coverage we need to be honest and I wouldn't like to know if anyone has kind of a measure an estimate of what is needed to provide adequate coverage that way we actually issue the citations because we don't have I think I have not seen in some of our reporting or in the audit how many citations have gone not cited in the first place. So how many dumping instances, what percentage of dumping instances are not even being cited in the first place? And how much more coverage do we need in order to actually issue the citations? Anyone have any ideas?

What if I start and then I'll, okay. In terms of the, I've looked a little bit at the research around enforcement in terms of what's the minimum level of enforcement to help deter the behavior in the first place. And I think the numbers there are around three to 5% of all of the dumping incidents. And so if you translate that into reality, I think that's around 1500 or so citations per year. that likely is to start having the deterrent effect that we're looking for. I just want to correct something on the cameras. We've got about 36 deployed throughout the city. The illegal dumping expenditure action plan gives us some additional resources for more camera deployments, including solar-powered ones. But we're still on the hunt for resources to dramatically increase that program. where we wanna get to is at least around 100 cameras given the volume of the dumping that we see on the streets. Does that answer the questions you're asking? Yeah.

Okay, that's helpful. And then one more final question to either you or the city auditor on the, that we're being charged more for the same haulers. So can someone explain more about that? It was like the 25 to 40% higher rate that our residents are being charged.

So yeah, we, So when we were, one of our objectives was to identify why, right, like what's driving illegal dumping and what we identified was that a lot of the illegally dumped waste is residential in origin and then, oh, the residents are paying a whole bunch of money and are undersubscribed maybe in a lot of instances on the trash service and they're throwing the trash away on the streets. We did not, so that was, a cause for some of the illegal dumping problem in oakland but we did not seek out to assess the reasonableness of the city's trash rate which i think is a logical next you know that's a a a really noble objective to pursue kind of what you were getting at councilmember gallo like why are our rates or what does what makes up like what is driving those rights that's a whole different endeavor okay that i really do think would potentially be a worthwhile um pursuit um it is interesting though i do want to be kind of auditory and careful because we have to qualify, we really heavily qualify these comparisons. No two contracts are the same. Right. But from the residents perspective, they don't care necessarily. They just know I can either afford this or I can't. But so what the city of Oakland gets from its hauler is different potentially from what other jurisdictions are getting from the same hauler.

Right.

We that's why we have recommendation number one, where we're basically just recommending that the city pursue better deals. Right. And and try to lend more transparency into what they get, what ratepayers are getting from their service.

Right. I guess I ask this because one thing I've observed about the city of Oakland is we have a lot of different contracts. We have a separate one for recycling versus the garbage collection. I think we also have Civic Corps. It's just you pay attention to the bins. We have a lot of different bins from different companies. Whereas other cities, it may be leveraging economies of scale. And if that is part of it, I don't know. It's a question.

I've got a Paola Kaltenbrunner kind of way in.

hi uh paula colton burner performance auditor um i did compare the rates and as you said it's very different from one city to another some have recycling and composting bundled into the rate so what we were mainly looking at was single family trash rates and kind of trying to bundle in what would the compost and recycling look like combined with that versus just trash alone. But for the most part, what I noticed looking at this was that the compost and recycling, regardless of whether that was with the same hauler or a different hauler, was pretty much flat rate, and it was the trash service volume that would increase the cost of service overall. Does that help answer the question? I think so, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

All right, let's, so we are, one-sixth of the way through the items and one half the way through the meeting so we're gonna have to tighten it up a little bit my apologies um let's hear from council member houston then gaio and then the public speakers but we we will not finish this meeting if we don't tighten it up a little bit council member houston was next council member houston is next

Thank you, Michael, for your work on this audit. I know it's very complex, but I have a couple of questions. What's the process of prosecution? And this is for Carl and this is for everyone over there. What's the process of prosecution?

Yeah, maybe I'll let the public works.

Councilmember Houston it would be in the instances I just described it's essentially Public Works supplying footage to the police the police investigating that developing evidence and then that eventually making its way to the district attorney for consideration of prosecution it's obviously not within the police department or the city's control about whether prosecution ensues from there

And I don't mean by putting people on the spot, but I've been doing this for 17 years and the graph is going up and up and up because the deterrent part is not in place. How do you collect the evidence? What's the evidence? How's the evidence collected where we prosecute?

You're asking in the instances where the DA has prosecuted, what has the evidence been?

Okay, so it says six, I heard right now, 2025, only six individuals was prosecuted. And the only person that can prosecute is the DA, because the city attorney can only submit fines. So out of those six, how many were from Oakland?

That I don't know. I don't know if the auditor's office does.

Let me just share something with you. And this is not against anybody here. I've been doing this for a long time, right, and I've worked it with Gavin Newsom, with Supervisor Nate Miley started the three E's, which is educate, eradicate, and enforce. When I first got into office, I asked for Councilmember Unger for, in my budget, three simple things, and the most critical things that our city are dealing with, which is homelessness, illegal dumping, graffiti vandalism, which is a visual cube deterioration that brings these things. And it was a million dollars for the EEOs. to train them to collect the data in the proper process. Because if you just collect indicia that says an address and it's bags and it's cross-contamination, and I can explain all that, because I worked with Nancy O'Malley, and we prosecuted people under Nancy O'Malley, but after that, no one has been prosecuted, because the evidence is not collected properly. So all we're doing is cleaning up, cleaning up, cleaning up, cleaning up. We're not deterring this problem. And when I hear things about license plates, I understand that people are really trying to help. I got it. I really got it. But the cereal dumpers don't have a license plate. I know them. And I'm gonna get them. Because there's a certain way we have to collect this evidence. Like if somebody come by, do a drive-by, and shoot up some houses, right? Do they just sweep up the bullets? No. You collect data. because that's the only way we're gonna be able to prosecute them, but our EEOs have to be trained properly. What I mean by properly is to be able to identify contaminated hazardous materials so they can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And that's what's happening. They're not being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And if I see six, I'm going to ask that question to Mr. Houston. You're doing a great job, Mr. Houston. How many people were from Oakland that was prosecuted from the DA?

Council Member, we didn't, I don't know the answer to that.

Okay, so let me share this with you. That means that... Oakland is the worst because we're allowing it, we're putting Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid. That's what we are doing. We have to collect the evidence properly so we can turn it over to the district attorney properly like I did with Nancy. Nancy would prosecute if the data was collected and wasn't thrown out in court. That's how we're going to do it. And we have been programming people for years that we are going to clean up their trash when they put it on the corner. It's incredible. So the education piece has to be put in place The eradication piece has to be put in place, Council Member Guyon understands that, but the most important piece that we need to focus on is what I put in my budget, was train the people that are on the ground to be safe, that they can collect the proper indicia So when it's documented, the DA can prosecute to the full extent of the law the proper way, right? Instead of being thrown out because it was cross-contamination because Noel dumped the trash and Unger dumped some trash and it's all accumulated, now we can't say who really dumped it. It's a process, it's already been put in place. This embraced Supervisor Nate Miley, he has, the solution, but we have to embrace the county and work with the county. So I can go on and on. I got a whole book right here I could write, I could read right now, but I'm gonna do it because my council member Unger just said we can't solve this right now. So I'm just gonna pass it, but I'd like to speak to you some more, Michael. Yeah.

Council Member Gallo.

Certainly, I appreciate the time. This is perhaps one of Oakland's number one priority. All right, I mean, I grew up here in East Oakland, and, you know, killing each other was the norm. If we didn't kill each other 150 a year, well, I grew up, oh, okay, 140 only? Oh, wow, last year it was 150. So, but I never saw a piece of trash growing up here in the city of Oakland. So for me, the reality is that we, okay, if you, Oakland Public Works does not have the sufficient vehicles to do the job and the personnel to clean the city like we used to. You go right now, go to Coliseum, Coliseum Way where their public works mechanic, you're gonna see 50, 60 trucks that are broke. And I drive a city truck. And most of the time, they're outdated, they don't work, they're sitting there, and we don't have the tools to clean it up, clean up the city. And we don't have the personnel like we used to have. We can do a lot of talking, a lot of complaining, and make everything illegal, but the reality, we don't have the tools, the vehicles, just go by there and take a look. And to give you one example for your staff, go by Public Works in front of Public Works Yard, right on Coliseum Way, right across the street, it's a hell of a mess. Illegal dumping, trash, and I worked with them before, so they would put no parking at any time. No parking at any time on Coliseum Way in front of Public Works, and it's a mess. Go by right now. Then you can write all the reports you want to write, but, you know, that's a reflection of what I believe in front of my house. If my house is dirty, well, that tells you who I am. But look in front of Coliseum Way, how many illegal activities, and the last one I'll leave you with our police department, because we're just... You know, talking a lot of stuff to the city, to the residents of Oakland. I used to have four officers that helped me in my area to deal with the homeless encampment issues that were illegal wherever they were, but the new chief reduced it to one person. And that one police officer said, Mr. Guileman, I did have four people, but they took three officers away, so I can't do all the work. to try to bring the city where we used to. So the reality is we have to be honest on the inside, and for those of us that grew up in the neighborhood, I don't need someone from the outside to come and tell me how to clean up Fruitvale, because we do that a lot nowadays, bring people from the outside that don't know the history and what's actually there. So for me, it's one, Just go by Coliseum Wayne, you're gonna see all the trucks and vehicles that are not operable, because we don't have the mechanics. We used to have 10, 15, I only have three mechanics. And I have all these trucks sitting there that could be used to clean the neighborhood and enforce the rules that we have. So I... You know, we need to be more honest, direct in terms of what we have available. And I'll leave you with this last one. Lake Merritt was the jewel of the city of Oakland. Remember that? Well, you wouldn't find a piece of trash, a cigarette butt on the lake year round, day in, night out. But I would purposely walk the lake with my wife every Friday. just to check it out, because then I go to the museum for their events. But what exists at the lake today is certainly not the jewel, because I still remember the U.S. Olympics would come and train at Lake Merritt, because it was such a beautiful place to come and save. So I think we need to be more direct on the reports that we're getting. Thank you.

Through the chair, I'll move and receive this SOP document.

I'll second it, and let's hear from our public speakers, please.

Thank you, want to call your name, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. We will take in person before Zoom. Dwayne Nelson and Ms. Assata. The next item on the list,

If I'm not, that's okay. Kevin Daly.

Kevin, you did not sign up for item three.

Let me double check.

Let's hear from the other speakers while you're looking.

Dwayne Nelson, District 3. So I already mentioned service requests that I have that are aged a lot longer than two business days. So I think when we say appear to be timely, certainly not the case in 2026. I was amazed to hear the Public Works Director actually use the phrase rapid removal. I mean, at this point, I would like removal. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. How about rapid removal of illegal dumping? And I think one of the things also that was mentioned in this discussion earlier was around the metrics. I think it's important to understand as far as collections that you talked about, Council Member Wong, It's not just about the total, right? Because now that the fines have increased, we need to look at the collection rate. And I don't know what the collection rate was for that, whatever, 11, 16,000, but we're gonna need to know what the collection rate is going forward so we have a better comparison against them. Because if next year we come out with just the total amount and we compare it to the previous amount, it's not gonna be the same, because like I mentioned, the fines have been increased. And then lastly, I just wanna talk about the, environmental enforcement unit, which is mentioned at least five times in the recommendations here. I know, Council Member Houston, you talked a lot about that unit. And it's amazing to me that the city auditor talks about how they need to finalize their training documents. I certainly hope that that is because there are new procedures that are happening and not because they don't have training documents at all. But I'd just be curious on what that is. When was the last time the training documents were updated? And what is the timeline? I guess it says the target date for completion is June 30th, 2027. So we're gonna wait like a year for that to be done? That's a bit disconcerting there with that. So I'd be concerned with the Environmental Enforcement Unit. Like I said, it's been mentioned at least five times here in the report. All right, thank you.

And Kevin Daly, you may speak.

Thanks. Thanks for your patience. Kevin Daly, definitely appreciate this report. And I'm going to suggest a fourth E, which is make it easy to arrange a bulk pickup, especially for multifamily units. The auditor correctly called out The difficulty of arranging pickups for multifamily units, single family, you can do it twice a year with just a week or two notice. Single family is only pretty much at the end of the month and only once. Probably bigger turnover for multifamily units. I'm guessing that more of them are likely to dump. If I'm moving out in the middle of the month and I can't get a pickup till the end of the month, where do I put my trash? Well, there's an easy solution. And again, appreciate that the auditor called this out. It's a single pickup for multi-unit. Is that per unit, per person, per person in a unit? So if a person, if a single unit is a couple, has two or three residents in a year, does that mean each one gets a pickup or not? I'm not quite clear from the website. Thanks.

Hi, ma'am. Did you sign up to speak? I'm Ms. Fowles. Did you call me? No, Ms. Asada. Okay.

So it's hard for me to validate this department. I'm sitting here going through the Lincoln Park rec agendized item, and I see all the manipulation that y'all have done, and it's sickening. You don't have the capacity if you don't have credibility. And I'll speak to that Lincoln Park wreck issue on it in five when I get to it, but I've been sitting here looking at the agendized report and how you manipulate it to give these people money. But one of the issues, if people decide they wanna do something with their waste, they can go to the David Street Transit Station for general distribution of waste. But there's a fee involved. Have y'all had the discussion of how that fee is applied? It's based on the weight of the item and the vehicle type. They don't accept hazardous materials. So in that case, you have to go to Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste Facility. Now that's the county facility. That facility, they don't take everything. They don't take prescription medication. They don't take treated wood waste. They don't take explosives. They don't take asbestos. They don't take large compressed gas cylinders. They don't take biohazardous materials, radioactive materials, contaminated soil. They don't take railroad ties, electrical car batteries, e-bike batteries, and that's just some of the list. So all of these things have to go somewhere if you want people to take responsibility for getting rid of them. So where do these items I just list If you want to be a good citizen or a good resident, where do you get rid of these things?

Thank you for your comment, Ms. Asada. And that concludes the public speakers for item three. We do have a motion made by Council Member Houston, seconded by Chair Unger to receive and file this in the Public Works and Transportation Committee. On the roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston. Aye. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger. Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to receive and file this on Public Works and Transportation Committee. Moving to item four. Adopt a resolution authorizing a city administrator to one, enter into an agreement with the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District to accept funds in the amount not to exceed $1,600,000 to implement the collaborative Creek Improvement and Clean Creeks Program over a five-year, five fiscal year term from the July 1st, 26th through June 30th 31 term two appropriate funds to the in the amount not to exceed $1,600,000 from the district to implement the programs for the term of the agreement and three adopt appropriate sequel findings. And you do have two speakers for this item.

Okay, let's hear from our staff first, please.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and committee members. My name is Jennifer Stern, Capital Improvement Program Coordinator in the Watershed and Stormwater Management Division. I've been managing the Collaborative Creek Improvement and Clean Creek Programs Agreement implementation for the last eight years. Today, we're asking the committee and the City Council to approve a resolution that will authorize the City of Oakland Public Works Department to enter into an agreement to accept 1.6 million from Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District for the implementation of the Collaborative Creek Improvement and Clean Creek Initiative. over a five year fiscal term as was noted July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2031 and the subsequent appropriation of the funds upon the agreement authorization by both the city and the district. Just a little bit of background, I'll make this really quick. The district and Public Works have worked in collaboration since the late 1990s to implement these programs. which are carried out by Public Works Bureau of Design and Construction, Watershed and Stormwater Management Division, and the Bureau of Environmental Services Division, stewardship program, respectively. The Collaborative Creek Improvement and Clean Creeks programs include work to implement watershed management, creek protection, and stewardship activities that support the city's and the district's efforts to meet flood control objectives, improve water quality, benefit communities, and protect Oakland's storm drainage system, creeks, and water bodies in the San Francisco Bay. I think I'll just conclude my presentation with that. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you for that. Colleagues, questions? Council Member Wong.

Move the item.

Okay, Council Member Gallo.

What other governmental bodies are involved with our creeks? They're not all city properties, but is the county involved? Is it in the Port of Oakland? What other counties are we cooperating with to make sure that our creeks are clean and safe?

through the chair, Council Member Gallo, the Alameda County, the flood control district, who is giving us this funding to do these programs. We collaborate with them, because they manage several creeks in Oakland. And then a lot of creeks are on private property. And so I think your question was about what other agencies. So we're mainly cooperating with the flood control district.

But are we as a city, as an example, you have Josie de la Cruz. There's a creek behind it. Sometimes people go in there do all kinds of things but the city won't clean it because it's assigned to somebody else Then that somebody else won't clean it because they said the city is on city property But it's the county who else is involved still to make sure that their property that they're responsible It's kept clean in Oakland

it's a great question well that particular site i've been behind josie de la cruz and looked at that creek and we've met with the county out there so that is maintained by a cup um this that is a flood control district channel there that we've yeah so i believe we've had a couple meetings out there that was years ago now but um Yeah, I think I'm going to have to answer your question later.

Because, you know, the creeks run from the hills all the way into the channel, and some are underground, right? They've been paved over.

Right.

And so, but it's, for me, it's working, and that is a challenge. Who's in charge? I was trying to find out who has control of that area.

What other agencies? Yeah. I'll let Tim come in.

We're talking, yeah.

Yeah. What do you want to answer? Okay.

Hi, through the chair, thank you Council Member Gallo, I'm Terry Fashing, I manage the watershed and stormwater management division. So as Jen started to say, when we have private properties, if a creek runs through it, private property owner's responsibility to keep the creek properly maintained. And we have ordinance language that dictates this and we have enforcement authority to work with private property owners to ensure that they understand what their responsibilities are. And then when a creek runs through city property, it is the city's responsibility to maintain that creek. And we can get back to you about Josie De La Cruz. I can't remember exactly what the deal is because we have many complicated situations in Oakland. But generally, it's the property owner. So if the city owns it, sometimes where the flood control district has an easement, They're responsible for it from a flood protection point of view, but then the city is responsible for maintaining it. So it really, it's a patchwork of responsibility. And if ever there are detailed questions, we can research it and then take action to ensure that the proper cleanup or creek management actions are taken.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay, do we have speakers? Council Member Houston.

Just real quick, through the chair, Terry and Jen, is that a creek down at the dead end of 105th and Subrani Park? Let me share this with you and this is true. When I was a kid, I used to catch turtles, salamanders, fish. There's nothing there. Frogs, there's nothing there. Does this actually protect my community where the drainage from the storm drains with the swept that goes into, you know, from where the homeless encampments are, where all the needles, the oils, does this include protecting the storm drains that go into my creeks and my waterways that have been just devastated?

Yeah, and I am, through the chair, Councilmember Houston, I am sorry about that. There are many issues in the city of Oakland that we're trying to address. We do respond to complaints when there are illegal discharges to storm drains. We try to enforce against that. But one cool thing that this funding is going to be providing for us to do is we're going to do a little program where we conduct outreach to Creekside property owners. So that we can make sure people understand that they have a creek in their backyard and that there are certain responsibilities that come with that. But all I can say is that where there are violations, we are equipped to enforce if we can find the responsible party. And then we do work to, through the compliance with our stormwater permit, we do work to reduce the amount of pollutants that are making their way into the storm drain and into creeks. and this is a very hard, challenging proposal, right? And so we are gonna continue working on it, and we, you know, there are certain things that are outside of our control, I suppose you could say. But in that area, I know what you're talking about, and we'll definitely be looking at what we can do in especially areas of East Oakland to try to get people involved in caring for their creeks and preventing stormwater pollution in their storm drains. This funding actually does help a little bit with implementation of the Adopt a Spot program. And so with our colleagues in Environmental Services Division, we hope to just keep improving creek protection. And I will not deny that it's a challenge.

Yes, and one more question through the chair. Jen and Terry, I really appreciate what you guys are doing. It's just that District 7 has been so underserved for so long. It's just sad because I'm third generation there, and I remember, right? And how can we be proactive, proactive, where... we see this problem, and we know where our drains are, and we know when the rain is about to happen and the runoff is going in there, right? How we use the swept, the screens, whatever, so it doesn't go into, because I would love to rejuvenate that, because I had a ball when I was a kid catching turtles, salamanders, frogs, and all that, and it's gone. I was over there with Oakland Public Works, Councilmember Unger, nothing, no life. it saddened me it saddened me and so my my community has been underserved and i just hope my colleagues understand that district seven's been underserved for so long and i'm gonna fight tooth and nail terry jen believe me tooth and nail to get it done thank you i appreciate you thank you so much all right let's hear from our public speakers please i want to call your name please approach the podium dwayne nelson and kevin dowley

DeWayne Nelson. All right. That concludes your public speakers for item four. We do have a motion made by Council Member Wong, seconded by Council Member Gallo to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. On roll. Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston. Aye. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger. Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. And through the body, would that be on consent or non-consent?

Consent, please.

Thank you. Moving to item five. ADOPT THE FOLLOWING PIECES OF LEGISLATION. THE FIRST LEGISLATION IS A RESOLUTION AWARDING A CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR THE PROJECT NUMBER 1004857 LINKING RECREATION CENTER EXPANSION RENOVATION PROJECT TO SJ ARMOSO CONSTRUCTION COMPANY THE LOWEST RESPONSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE BIDDER AND ACCORDING TO THE CONTRACTOR'S BID PROJECT PLAN AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF $28,437,000 and appropriate and adopting appropriate SQL findings in two. The second piece of the legislation, a resolution amending resolution number eight, nine, four, nine, one to increase the professional services agreement with Shaw Kawasaki. Kawasaki, excuse me, architect by an amount not to exceed eight hundred and forty eight thousand seven hundred and ninety seven, bringing the total contract amount to three million twenty eight thousand twenty eight thousand eight hundred forty nine dollars. to $3,877,646 and waiving the competitive request for proposal qualifications requirement and adopting CEQA findings. And you do have eight speakers for this item.

OK, let's hear from staff, please. good afternoon chair ungar and members of the public works and transportation committee my name is jimmy mock from public works i'm here today recommending city council approval to award construction contract to sj amaroso construction which is the lowest responsive and responsible bidder an amount of $28 million, $437,000, and also amending a professional services contract to Shaw Kawasaki Architects, an amount of $848,000, $797, and adopting appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings. I'm going to provide a little background of the Lincoln Rec. The Lincoln Rec Center project is located in City Council District 2 in Chinatown and downtown. This center will be the city's first resiliency center. In fiscal year 19 and 20's CIP budget cycle, Lincoln was ranked number one on Oakland Parks Recreation and Youth Department's project list to get its initial funding. The project was originally funded in fiscal year 20 with $1.7 million to begin the community engagement and planning. A new recreational center has been a high priority for the community since the early 2010s as the rec center was built in the late 1970s with only 7,500 square foot structure. It's the only public recreation center and park in Chinatown and downtown area with public staff, public restrooms, and active programming on site. The rec center requires significant expansion to meet the growing community demand. The new rec center will be two stories, 22,221 square foot recreation and resiliency center that includes park improvements. The community outreach started by Friends of Lincoln Square, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, and direct director Gilbert Gong, who's with us today as well, with the concept of a new recreation center in the early 2010s as requested by the community. As the funding became available in the fiscal year 19 and fiscal year 20 with seed money, public work started meeting with the community and started the planning phase, the community engagement. As the project was not fully funded at the time.

I'd like to ask public commenters to reserve their comments for the public comment period, please.

As the project was not fully funded, OPW, who are friends of Lincoln Square and APEN, applied for and received two state grants, Proposition 68, with $8.4 million, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture Community Resiliency Center grant, otherwise known as CDFA, an amount of $9.25 million in 2021 and 2022. Additional funding followed, which included the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a federal grant, otherwise known as HUD, and also Measure KK and Measure U funds were used. Due to grant deadlines, construction is slated to start summer of 2026 with a completion estimated for December of 2027. I want to note that the architect, Shaw Kawasaki Architects, is a certified local business. SJ Amoroso, the contractor, is based in Redwood City, not local. However, they are a union signatory general contractor. They're required to hire from the local union hall for new hires. Although they may have a core group that the contractor firm brings in for the work, any new laborers that's needed would need to come from the local hall. We encourage the prime to hire locally at our pre-con meeting. There's a total of 21 subcontractors listed in the contract that they will be using, and some of them are near Oakland. Some are in San Leandro, Hayward, and other types of specialty work is local, or around Oakland, but not in Oakland. But we do suspect that they will be hiring some local laborers as well. That concludes my presentation. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Excellent. Council Member Houston.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Through the chair, thank you for having the meeting with me and explaining about the federal that you can't enforce individuals that are with federal funds included. And I like what you said. You said encourage them to use local participation from Oakland. And I would add another word on top of that. Encourage would be strongly encourage them to use local participation because of federal funds. Local unions, is the union that they use, since they're from Redwood City, will that be our local union on this side of the?

Our local hall, yeah. They would have to hire from here.

Okay, from our local hall. Yes. Okay, that's important to me too. And along with core group, how does that core group work? Does it, is it like, because sometimes I see people getting around it with core groups, right? They just use all their core. I'm a contractor. I've seen it happen. So how does that core group work? Do you know? And if not, you can call me, talk to me later.

Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that they do have some workers of their own in the company that typically run projects. It could be superintendents. It could be some laborers as well that they count on to do the construction. But any additional force that they need that would do the job, it's actually at their advantage to hire locally, because they might save some money instead of having to come from River City.

And last thing through the chair, I know Council Member Wong's been waiting on this for a while, so I'm gonna support that, so I'll move that.

Okay, I'll second it, and let's hear from Council Member Wong.

The motioner, so to speak.

If you'd like to second it, I'm happy to withdraw.

I would like to, yes, have my name on this. Thank you. Yes, I just want to say that for your all's context and for the public too, this moment has been such a long time coming. For 30 years, the community has been organizing to upgrade this center. And if you go to this location, this is one of the most used recreation centers. Excuse me.

this has been one of the most i'm sorry i'm sorry this is hey hey hey we can only have one speaker at a time miss miss asada miss asada miss asada we cannot have these outbursts from the audience or we're going to have to miss asada miss asada if we can have one speaker at a time this is Thank you. Council Member Wong, please continue and if the audience can reserve their comments for the public comment period.

thank you thank you chair um so if you go to this rec center you can see that it is falling apart there are missing ceiling tire tiles there's clear water damage it's also one of the most used rec centers in the city the community also through lincoln friends of lincoln square park has done a significant amount of private fundraising on top of everything that has been noted in the report, and they did the grant writing themselves on behalf of the city to make this happen. We've also experienced delay after delay, disappointment after disappointment, and having been overlooked for years. And so I also want to emphasize this is an incredibly high need area. In the surrounding census tract area, this is a 34% poverty rate. The kids at the adjacent Lincoln Elementary, 80% are on free and reduced lunch. And they have so little room on that school campus that they actually need to use the adjacent Square Park out of necessity because there is no room for these kids to play. um over the last 25 years i also want to note there have been major park facilities updates in every single district except for district 2. it's the one district that has been left out So that's noteworthy. And finally, I wanna just note too that there are citywide benefits. This is going to be Oakland's first resilience hub. And because it is so centrally located, it means that it's going to be an important distribution hub of emergency supplies in the case of a natural disaster, which we know is coming. And so this benefits everybody. And as it's been noted it will also provide local union jobs when construction jobs have totally frozen up and On that I urge my colleagues to support this Councilmember Gaya.

Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for the information I drive by it every day and certainly see a lot of the negative activities surrounding the facility. So what is the timeline to get it? Completed and open to the public What's the time?

Yeah, we are actually in a rush because of a grant deadline, so we do need to finish by the end of next year. We're gonna start right in summer.

Oh good, thank you, thank you.

Moving to our public speakers. When I call your name, please approach the podium. You do have two minutes. State your name for the record, please. If you are participating via Zoom for this item, item five, with both pieces of legislation, raise your hand so you're easily identified. As practice, we will take in-person speakers before Zoom speakers. Dwayne Nelson. Ms. Asada. Li Huo-Hsien. Yu Huo-Guan. Fang Ying Zhao, Claudia Lea, Stephanie Tran, Tiffany Ang, and Karen Dia. If I mispronounce your name, I do apologize. And from my understanding, you're with translation. I will give two minutes to the public speakers and two minutes to the translator.

Hello. I am a member of the A-class, and I have lived in Oakland for 36 years. For many years, the Lincoln Center has been an important public space for Chinese people. Accompanying elders, families, and young people to exercise, communicate, and take care of each other, it has been like a community living room. But in the face of extreme temperatures, fires, and smoke, The power outages, earthquakes, and existing facilities are no longer sufficient. Reconstruction of the Renewable Air Conditioning Center will provide solar, air conditioning, air-conditioning, and emergency support. It will continue to serve the community in times of disaster and protect residents. This is not only an investment in construction, but also an investment in the future of housing, public safety, and community humanity. And to the translator, please state the public speaker's name before you begin.

My name?

The public speaker's name.

Okay, yeah. So, her name is . So, good morning, council member. I'm a member, and I have lived in Oakland for 36 years. For many years, Lincoln West Center has been an important public space in Chinatown. It supports senior, family, and young people as they exercise, connect with one another, and care for each other. To many of us, it's like our community's living room. But as we face extreme heat, wildfire, smoke, power outage, and earthquake, the current facility is no longer in love. And the renovated Lincoln Residency Center will provide solar power, air conditioning, clean air, and emergency support. In normal time, it will continue serving the community during the disaster, and it will help protect the residents. It's not just an investment in the building, it's an investment of Oakland's future. public safety, and community residents. I urge the community to support the contractor resolution and move it to city council for a roll as soon as possible. Our community has waited too long. Now is the time for action. Time is money. Thank you.

Hello, I am a member of A-Ping. I have been living in Oakland for 23 years. Today, I would like to ask all of you for your support in passing the decision to establish a business partnership. We hope that the NAMC will be able to adapt to the new center and increase the number of business meetings as soon as possible. The NAMC Center has been an important public space for many years. Elders, families, and young people can learn to communicate, exercise, sing, dance, and build relationships here. They can also find happiness and hope. It is not only the quality of the facilities, but also the achievements that the community has worked hard to achieve over the years. At present, the project, planning, and bidding procedures are all ready to go, and we have already selected the right candidates. The community hopes to see the project move forward, Thank you.

Good morning, council member. My name is Yu Hua Guan. I'm also an APAN member, and I have lived in Oakland for 23 years. Today, I urge you to support to pass the contractor resolution so the Lincoln West Residency Center project can move to the city council for a vote to begin the construction as soon as possible. For many years, Lincoln West Center has been an important public space in Chinatown. Senior, family, and young people come here to learn, connect, exercise, sing, and dance. It's a place where residents build relationships and find joy and hope. Transforming the Lincoln West Center into a residency center is not just a facility upgrade, it's also a result of many years of committed effort and advocacy. Now the funding, planning, and the bidding process are ready, and the qualified constructors have been selected. What the community wants most is to see the project move forward, not facing more delays. Every delay increases the cost, budget risk, and also construction risk, wasting the public resources. This project is about our community's safety and future. Please support this resolution and help move this important community project forward. Thank you.

Honorable members, My name is Chow Fung Ying. I am a member of APIC. I have lived in Oakland for nearly 20 years. The Lincoln Center is located on Harley Street, 11th Street. It is a public space that is convenient for transportation, and is an important public space for Chinese and local residents. Over the years, I have often seen young people playing basketball, adults and children participating in activities, residents dancing, playing ping-pong, and practicing martial arts. I have also participated in community activities and retreats. However, the low-income immigrant communities around the province have long been short of sufficient public resources and basic facilities to invest in. Reconstructing the Lin Meng Center into a climate-adapted center is not only to rebuild buildings, but also to respond to inequality in resources. Faced with fire and smoke, extreme temperatures and power outages, we need to provide clean air, power supply, cooling, and emergency support spaces to protect community residents. Good morning, council member.

My name is Fung Ying Chuk, I'm a member and I have lived in Oakland for nearly 20 years. Lincoln West Center, located near Harrison and 11th Street, is easy to access and have long been an important public space for Chinatown and nearby residents. Over the years, I have often seen young people playing basketball, senior and children spending time there, and community member dancing, playing ping pong, practicing Tai Chi, enjoying community activity and training. But Chinatown and nearby low-income imported immigrant communities has long lacked enough investment in public resources and infrastructure. Transforming Lincoln West Center into a residency center is not just about renovating a building, it's also about addressing this longstanding inequity. As we're facing wildfire, smoke, extreme heat, and power outage, We need a space that can provide clean air, electricity, cooling, and emergency support to protect our residents. I urge you to support and pass the contractor resolution so that the project can move forward and begin construction as soon as possible. Please invest Chinatown, climate resilience, and the future of our residents. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. If I called your name and you would like to speak on this item, which is item five. And please state your name for the record, thank you.

Hi, my name is Claudia Lee. My family lives in District 2. My son is wrapping up second grade at Lincoln Elementary this week and he's in the Lincoln Explorers after school program at Lincoln Community Center. I'm here today as a community member and a parent, a Lincoln Elementary parent and a Lincoln Explorers parent to express my support and encouragement for the new community center, specifically for both item 5 resolutions on today's meeting agenda. The community center is a home base for over 100 school kids each afternoon through the Lincoln Explorers program run through Oakland Parks and Rec. Kids love the Lincoln Explorers after school program. Having to do their homework, perhaps not so much, but they get to try every sport, learn lion dance, play chess, develop and perform dance routines, do arts and crafts and cooking, you name it, the kids are doing it. My hope is that the afterschool program keeps running throughout construction. Being right next door to Lincoln Elementary, logistically, it's an easy decision for many parents to send our kids to this afterschool program. As working parents, knowing our kids have a safe, fun place to be until 6 p.m. is a relief as we walk that delicate work-life parenting balance. If the after-school program isn't in place during construction, it'll be a tremendous loss to the kids, and parents will be under incredible stress to find other programs, many of which require stopping mid-afternoon to transport the kids from school to aftercare. And as I'm sure you know or can imagine, that's just not an option with most jobs. I also hope there's close coordination between the city, the contractor, and the school during construction, specifically related to the safety of students and staff. Lincoln is one of the largest elementary schools in the district with almost 700 students. We're the only public school in the district that uses a public park, Lincoln Square Park, as a playground for recess and as our meeting spot during fire drills. I encourage the contractor to come to our campus at 825 tomorrow or Thursday before school ends during drop-off to understand what it's like with this many kids in that space. Thanks for your time. We're very excited for the new center. Thanks.

Good afternoon, Chair Unger and council members and members of the committee. My name is Stephanie Tran, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. I'm here today in support of moving forward with the Lincoln Square Rec Center and approving the contract without further delay. Lincoln is not just another neighborhood park. It is one of the most heavily used and culturally important public spaces for all of Oakland. For generations, it has served as a gathering places for seniors, youth, families, cultural programs and community events. But beyond recreation and culture, Lincoln Square is also an important economic engine for our neighborhood. The daily activity at the park generates foot traffic that supports surrounding businesses, restaurants, bakeries, retail shops, and service providers throughout Chinatown. Families visiting the park often dine, shop, and spend money in the neighborhood before and after programs and activities. So for many small businesses that are already struggling with rising costs, public safety concerns, and reduced foot traffic, spaces like Lincoln Square help sustain economic activity and neighborhood vibrancy. So that is why I'm deeply frustrated and disappointed that this project has actually been delayed for over a year, a project that is tied to one of Oakland's most utilized community spaces should not continue to face delays without urgency or accountability. Our communities deserve better. Chinatown has continually contributed to Oakland's economy, culture, and identity, and our residents deserve investment that are delivered in a timely manner. So we urge this committee to move forward with the contract approval and advance this project without further delay, thank you.

Hi, my name's Tiffany Eng, and I'm here with Karen Dee, who's seating one minute. Hi, I'm Tiffany Eng, one of the co-founders of Friends of Lincoln Square Park. I'm here with Karen Dee. She's co-founder with me and also on the board of Wasong Community Service Club, our fiscal sponsor. Also here is my dad, a proud Lincoln School alum and prouder 1956 Lincoln Park yo-yo champion. Six generations of my family have grown up and grown old in Oakland, and for over a century, Lincoln Park has been a safe haven for my family and so many others. It's the beating heart of our community. I urge you to vote yes. Community support is overwhelming, and I hope and this project brings us hope for a safer and more resilient community and city. This year, 2026 marks 30 years since your open space plan first called to expand this center. 20 years since the city in their own city park master plan started that process, and 10 years since we started Friends of Lincoln Square Park to get this center built once and for all. After three decades, we've waited long enough. For this next phase, we ask continued partnership, programming, and transparency. Friends of Lincoln Square Park will be working with APEN and all the stakeholders to keep the community connected and informed, and we can only do this with your support. I'm asking all of you to do everything in your power to complete construction quickly without any delays or reduction in scope. Chinatown is a textbook case for how government infrastructure projects, BART, Laney, 880, the museum, proceeded with little regard for the neighborhood, local businesses, and residents. This lasting harm from these past projects are well documented. Let's work together and get it right this time. Please keep all park programming going and keep the community informed while the city contractors perform open heart surgery on our beloved park. Thank you to the many city departments that have made this project possible, too many to list, especially Public Works, and to our main contact, Henry Choi, for everything he's done over the last handful of years to advance this project through the city's many, many processes to get us to this point. We look forward to working with the construction management team, and we hope to work closely with SJ Amoroso Construction and continue to work with Shaw Kawasaki to respond to community interests and community concerns. And we welcome you all to the park anytime, but especially on July 9th, when the community will be hosting a free circus performance for the whole city. Come see and feel the energy for yourself. Thank you for your support, and I hope to see you at the groundbreaking very soon. Thank you.

So the department decided to use Measure KK money, $700,000, to renovate Lincoln Park. the friends of Lincoln Park didn't want a renovation. They decided they wanted a new facility. The city administrator, you're new on that chair, I'ma see how you gonna handle this deception. So what they did is they made arrangements, they got a design, went to the advisory committee of Parks and Rec Advisory Committee, gave their design, their proposal for what they were gonna do to them, and they approved it. Then they went to the design committee, they had to go to the preservation committee, and they say they were gonna proceed to raise the money. And that's not in the history. Somewhere, you city of Oakland, Department of Public Works, say we're gonna fund it. We're gonna fund it. So you've gotten Measure K money, $2.7 million. Measure K money, again, $7 million. Measure U money, $4 million. Measure U money, $4 million. Then you got capital project money, $8.4 million, which is for money for underserved communities from the state. Then you got CDFA money, $9.2 million, which is the California Department of Food and Agriculture claiming you're gonna be in the emergency center. You also got a million dollars for somebody in the House of Representatives, one of the centers gave you a million dollars basis, gonna be a community center. All kind of manipulations. But you don't want no homeless people in your community. And when you gave the presentation, Friends of Oak, you talked about how diverse it was going to be. You talked about it, you were going to include Indian culture in the building. I heard all of this. But where in the hell did the...

Thank you for your comment, Mr. Sato. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thank you. Dwayne Nelson, would you like? Thank you, your time is up. Your time is up, ma'am.

We do have a motion made by Council Member Wong, seconded by Council Member Houston to approve the recommendations as that and to forward both pieces of legislation to the June 2nd City Council agenda. On roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston. Aye. Sorry. Aye. Thank you. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger.

Aye.

We do have four ayes to approve the recommendation of the stat and to forward both pieces of legislation to the June 2nd City Council agenda. And through the maker, would that be on consent or non-consent? Consent. Thank you. Moving to item six. adopt the following pieces of legislation. The first piece of legislation, a resolution authorizing the city administrator to apply for, accept, and appropriate up to $756,364 in fiscal year 26-27. State Transportation Development Article Act Article 3 funds to fund the Cornstalk Way Stairpath Rehabilitation, East 23rd Street Stairpath Rehabilitation, Long Ridge Road to Rosemont Road Stairpath Rehabilitation Bicycle Signage Program, and City Rec's Bicycle Parking Program Phase 18 and adopt CEQA findings. Second piece of legislation, a resolution adopting the list of projects for fiscal year 26-27 funded by SB1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 and adopting CEQA findings. And you do have two speakers.

Okay, let's hear from our staff first, please.

Good afternoon, committee members and chair Unger. My name is Yvonne Chan. I'm a transportation planner with the Department of Transportation. This item includes two pieces of legislation to accept and allocate a total of 13 million in regional and state funding with no required local match. The first resolution would authorize the city to apply, accept and appropriate $756,000 in fiscal year 2027 Transportation Development Act grant funds to fund three stair projects, as well as bicycle signage and bicycle parking installation. The second resolution would adopt a list of projects to be funded by fiscal year 2027 Senate Bill One Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account gas tax funding. The adoption of this project list would fulfill an annual requirement for the city to receive these funds from the state. Consistent with past years, the proposed use of this funding is for paving, street maintenance, lighting, traffic calming, and grant matching for capital projects from the adopted capital budget. Thank you for your consideration and happy to answer any questions.

Council members, do you have questions? Council member Gaya? I will second that. Any other council questions? All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.

When I call your name, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hands if you're easily identified. Ms. Asada, Dwayne Nelson, and Kevin Dolly.

So I didn't get a chance to One of the institutions we have in Oakland is the New Parkway Theater. They're on 474 24th Street, between Telegraph Avenue and Broadway, or even more specifically, between Telegraph and Valley Street. And it's a great theater. They have first-run films, revival films. I'm not affiliated with them, I'm not part of management or ownership or anything, but I think they would say that they're a community center as well. They had a district three city council debate there. I was able to watch a documentary there on the subject was a former Oakland council member, Congresswoman Barbara Lee so there's been a lot of events there but I think one of the issues that they have there is right outside right on the street the streets pretty much deteriorated so I don't know if this is on the list of projects but I mean it should be to try to sort of pave that like I said between Telegraph Avenue and Valley Street on on 24th that would be great because i mean it's you have a problem if you're either walking on the street or if you're using a cane a walker some sort of assistance it's an issue trying to uh to navigate that street or if you're riding a bike or a scooter or something like that so i certainly hope that we don't have to wait uh too long to get that paved thank you thank you for your comment so

You supposedly have $13 million that can be used for sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian walkways, bike lanes, bridges to connect neighborhoods and improve school communities. So you've got a variety of ways. But what I just saw happen with this department, how do we know things are going to be done fair and equally? How do we know? You've got certain communities where the community looks like a beautiful community. Then you got rundown communities like District 6 and District 7. And there's no balance whatsoever to how we distribute funds that we get from the state. Now, you go into Chinatown, they got crisscross, they got signs everywhere. Plus, I'm gonna say that during open forum, what they do. But anyway, how do we know wildfire crossings? I don't know what that means. Electrical vehicles, all of this is, where's the list of how you're gonna spend the money? So you can determine, yes, it's being spent fairly. They're not giving you that. They're not telling you District 1 through 7 are gonna have equitable distribution of this money. They're not identifying the specific spending of the money. But you're going to let them do it, and that new city administrator ain't going to say nothing. And by the way, where is the report of the $250,000 that the city administrator can spend that hasn't been given to you since 2023? That's an annual report. I hope to see it at the next meeting, new city administrator, because it was supposed to be here in April. That's what y'all said. I don't trust you to do the right thing.

City administration.

Thank you for your comment. We do have a motion made by Council Member Gallo, seconded by Chair Unger, to approve the recommendations of staff and afford both pieces of legislation to the June 2nd City Council agenda.

Yes, yes please, on consent.

On roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston.

Aye.

Thank you. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger. Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations established for both pieces of legislation to the June 2nd City Council Agenda on Consent.

Yes please, on consent. So we're just gonna go straight through in order.

Okay. Moving to item seven. Receive an informational report on the status of the compliance with the sewer consent decree, wastewater discharge requirements for the wastewater sewer systems and national pollutant discharge elimination system permit during the 20 month period and from January 1st, 2024 through December 31st, 2025. And you do have two speakers.

All right, let's hear from our staff, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Unger, esteemed committee. Tyree Jackson, I'm the compliance officer for wastewater programs at Oakland Public Works. so we're pleased to present and request that the committee receive this informational report concerning the status of the city's compliance with the sewer consent decree the state discharge requirements for sanitary sewer system and mpdes permit i want to clarify that these are three separate but complementary regulatory obligations under which the city operates this wastewater program The committee may already be aware, or as a reminder, in 2014, the City of Oakland, along with the cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, the Steege Sanitary District, and East Bay Municipal Utility District, entered into a final agreement with the EPA, the State Water Board, and a local NGO as an intervener. to implement a 22 year performance plan with the express purpose of reducing storm related inflow and infiltration into the sewer system with the goal of one, eliminating the need for activation of East Bay Mudd's three wet weather facilities at Point Isabel, which is in Richmond, and Oakport and San Antonio Creek, both of which are in Oakland, and the second goal of which is to reduce the sewer spills that discharge to waterways of the US. Over this 24-month period, roughly January 1st, 2024 through December 31st of 25, the City achieved full compliance with a cumulative 87% of the performance mandates and work requirements of the consent decree. Notably, the City surpassed work requirements for pipeline maintenance and inspection and assessment of the sanitary sewer system. and consequently achieved a 61% reduction in the number of sewer spills that occurred over that reporting period. That also resulted in a roughly 41% decrease in the total volume of untreated wastewater that spilled into the public right-of-way, into Oakland creeks and waterways, and onto private property. Due to some technical issues beyond the city's control, the city achieved only a partial compliance with system monitoring requirements to ensure capacity during wet weather. And unfortunately, the city did not meet its compliance obligation for sewer repair and replacement mandates for the most recent reporting period. Both of these issues have been addressed and corrected. And the city anticipates returning to full compliance with all mandates of the decree within a 12-month period. So the first of these three wet weather facilities, the San Antonio Creek facility, is scheduled to go offline by December 31st, 2028. And then there'll be a follow-up mid-course performance check-in in 2030. While the city's efforts combined with the work performed by the other agencies has resulted in an estimated 76 million gallons per day reduction and wet weather flows achievement of these two compliance milestones remains at risk in the event that the city does not or the facilities do not make their check-in reductions the city would be opening up a work plan to find ways to further decrease the amount of wet weather inflow and infiltration into the system. So far at this point, the wastewater program is fully and adequately funded for all repair, maintenance, and inspection activity. That includes equipment, vehicles, and tools that are used both for operation and for design and construction. And with that, I'll conclude this report. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Colleagues, questions? Council Member Houston.

Through the Chair, thank you, Mr. Jackson. I'd like to just move and receive and file this.

Okay. Council Member Gallo.

So we're fully staffed to do the work. Because the challenge is we don't have the staffing or the vehicles to do the work.

Correct. There are some challenges in both those regards. At this point, I'd have to check and see what our staffing levels are for each of the divisions. The bureaus are involved with the work. But on paper, we do have the positions.

Thank you. Thank you.

Going to our public speakers, when I call your name, please approach the podium, DeWayne Nelson and Kevin Dahle. Dwayne, would you please? Thank you. That concludes your public speakers for item seven. We do have a motion made by Council Member Houston, seconded by Council Member Gallo to receive and file this in the Public Works and Transportation Committee. On roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Thank you. Council Member Houston. Aye. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger. Aye. The motion does pass with four ayes to receive and file this in the Public Works and Transportation Committee. Moving to item eight. Adopt a resolution waiving the advertising and competitive bidding for authorized for amount of East Oakland Arts Center project with CWS Construction Group. And we're from 25 percent to 56 percent of the original contract amount of one million seven hundred and eighty five thousand for a total contract amount not to exceed two million seven hundred eighty four thousand six hundred dollars. And you do have two speakers for this item.

All right. Let's hear from our staff first, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Unger and Public Works Committee and Transportation Committee. My name is Jimmy Mock from OPW. I'm here to present requests for City Council to increase the construction contract change order amount. from 25% to 56% in dollar wise is from $1.7 million, $1.785 million to $2.784 million. During construction work was paused temporarily while new electrical switch gear was prepared for installation and connection to new utility service. While work was paused, the vandals broke into the facility and removed new HVAC components, kitchen equipment, electrical conduit, and caused extensive damage to interior partitions and ceilings. This change order increase will fund replacement of all those items. The center that we're talking about is the East Oakland Arts Center, used to be called DACA. It's a part of the Rainbow Rec Center, operated by OPYRD. Its core mission is to educate and empower young people through after school and summer programs for digital audio and video production, culinary arts, and urban agriculture. The East Oakland Arts Center facility is a vital community resource that has been closed since the start of COVID pandemic, denying access to learning opportunities and support services. Stakeholders are unified in their support to move the project forward and complete work as soon as possible. This includes my presentation. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Council Member Houston. Real quick to the chair so Mister Jimmy you said it went from 25% to 58% that's over 100% and it was because of burglary and vandalism, shouldn't insurance cover that? I mean, change orders, let me finish, Mr. Jimmy. Change orders usually come from unforeseen things, you know, like say, for instance, we gonna bust out here, we said it was some two-by-fours, but it's two-by-threes or two-by-twos, change order, you know, but burglary and vandalism should be done by insurance, and that's over 100%, I wish I could get 100% on change orders. Explain that one, because insurance should be covering that, Mr. Jimmy.

Through the chair, Council Member Houston. Unfortunately, the work was paused because of the electrical switchgear that we were waiting for. If it was not paused, usually it's the contractor that we will go after and their insurance company. When we paused the construction project, the liability went back to the city and that's when the vandalism and stuff happened.

So through the chair, how long was it paused? Because that's important because if it was paused because of us, then they should still carry insurance alone if their contract is still in place.

Due to chair, I did not have that information with me, but it was for several months at least. It wasn't that short of a period.

Yeah, so let me just share this from my personal experience, and that's how I move is on my personal experiences, that if a contractor's in place and is paused by the city, they still should cover, sometimes insurance is covered by the city also. So we gonna give them over 100% on change order. I can't see that one. I just can't see it. But I'll pass that to my Councilmember Noel.

Councilmember Wong is next.

Thanks. Do we have any, I mean, we know that construction sites are sources of crime because there's valuable equipment. Do we require our contractors to secure the site? I mean, what provides the disincentive that a contractor wouldn't just say, eh, whatever, the city will cover the cost? I fear that this sets a precedent.

Yeah, thank you for that question through the chair comes remember long. Typically, if their project was ongoing, they would for their own interests, protect the site. The fact that I was paused, we didn't have any security going on on it. And in retrospective, we should have hired our own security and watched it even after hours. It does. Usually the crimes done after hours, not their work days.

Right, okay. Why was it paused again?

We're waiting for some electrical switch gear to come.

Council Member Gaya.

You gave us, what's the time left for completion?

It should be relatively soon. We're already, should be within months. We're even planning a ribbon cutting already, so it should be within a month or two.

So within a month or two, based on the adjustments we've made, it'll be completed? That's correct. Open to the public?

That's correct.

Thank you.

And so we have the funding to make sure it gets completed.

That's correct, we do have the funding.

And along the lines to provide the safety and all that was necessary.

That's correct.

Okay, I'll make a motion to approve it.

I'll second that, and Council Member Houston.

So, through the Chair, who's the contractor? Are they local?

They are not local. The contractor is CWS Construction.

Okay, are they are they obligated like federal do they have to we can't Strongly request that they use local or their subs because I'm gonna go against this because if they're not local first off We're giving some outside company some business and are they are they?

using local participation It is a requirement that they do that here the Yeah, unfortunately the contractor is not local here. They are...

So if 100% of this change order is going to my local contractors, I'm good. If it's not, I'm not good.

Yeah, I have to get back to you on the extra work, whether it comes from local or not, but a lot of those are appliances and kitchenware, and so those are pretty big items.

No, I appreciate that, Mr. Jimmy, but I'm just saying to install it. I'm local, if it ain't local, I'm not going with it. If it's not Oakland, I'm not going with it. We've been underserved for too long, my community's been underserved, I'm gonna say no on it until they come back with some information that my people gonna eat, because we starving, right? And if we, okay, I'm gonna leave it like that.

What's the address of this building?

I don't have the address.

Can you tell me what district it's in?

District six.

Okay.

Oh, I have the address. It's 5818 International Boulevard.

uh let's hear from our public speakers then council member wong we do need to wrap this up we have another yeah no i understand um just for the amount because this is not an unsubstantial um change order is this based off of did they itemize the damage and all of that or are we just trusting them at their word

It should be itemized as usual through change order process. It needs to be itemized and yeah, I just want to add that if we were to add another contractor to do this work contractor that's not familiar with the job. It would be very difficult for them to repair things that were done by previous contractor in the city would be in more liability with any additional change orders to have another contractor to do their work.

Okay, I just, this is, again, a general comment, but I would like to see going forward in these reports, you know, these details spelled out. That way we aren't just going off of, you know, trust. This is public dollars. I want to make sure that, you know, there's the evidence that says this is why this amount of money is needed for this heightened contract amount. Thank you.

All right, calling in our public speakers, Ms. Asada and Dwayne Nelson.

It's hard to read some of your reports from Public Works because information that's pertinent to understand is not clear in the report. So it looks like the contract with this company was initiated in 2023. I'm trying to find out when it ended, okay? Because I would think in 2026, it might be that this contract has ended already. The issue with the increased change order What happened at that site happened in 2024. And we're fixing it, we're funding the fixing of something that happened at that center in 2024 and 2026. So what happened was vandals took parts of the HVAC, the kitchen equipment they took, electrical conduits, and some other stuff. Now he says it's been held up because of electrical stuff. They had other things that happened. Why those things weren't fixed. But that's what happens when you go into East Oakland. When you go into District 6 and 7. Okay, you're talking about local contractors, but the project wasn't done properly. Since 2024, the vandalism took place. And nothing happened. Now they got wordage in here because they're making sure that you're making sure you don't spend no more money than you have to spend. Because it says here, important to be completed quickly as possible. That's a lie. Then it says required expenditures, but no upgrades to scope of work. In other words, they're not gonna spend no more money. They're protecting that. But with other projects, you don't say that kind of stuff. Funding identified with the existing project funds. Funds will not be committed unless funding is identified. Boy, they want to stay on top of this.

Thank you for your comment, Ms. Assata.

Thank you for your comments.

We do have a motion made by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. On the roll, Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Councilmember Houston. No. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger. Aye. The motion does pass with three ayes, one no. Houston to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. And that will be on non-consent. Moving to open forum. When I call your name, please approach the podium. Dwayne Nelson, Kevin Dolly, and Ms. Fowles. Okay. You may approach the podium. State your name for the record if you signed up. Ms. Asada, you did. Thank you.

Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for this opportunity to speak on an open issue. I'm Omowale Fowles, housing director at Telegraph Community Ministry Center in Oakland, 94609. And we're here to talk about what happens when our clients are victimized by participation of public works trucks and trash pickup under the encampment abatement act. At 4 a.m. in the morning of April the 16th, it was a Wednesday, there had been no posted nor verbal announcements about a sweep. This was on the corner of Shattuck and 51st Street right next to the ARCO station. People were awakened with Oakland Police Department snatching their things out from under them, waking them up, throwing things here, there, and everywhere, and putting them in a truck and driving them away. They also had the complicity of two, I guess, subcontractors who were tow trucks, and those tow trucks took away two RVs and one car. The other lady was able to get her car to move so she didn't lose it. The issue that I'm raising here is that one of the solutions we need to look at is the definition of trash. We need to redefine the concept of trash that does not include poor people, which under the Encampment Abatement Act, it does. But more correctly, trash is aimed toward such items as things put into appropriate trash bins or receptacles that are being cast off, but not just the property of homeless people nor homeless things. Such reckless and lawless sweeping of so-called trash, also called trash removal.

Thank you so much for your comment, Ms. Fowles. Your time is up, Ms. Fowles.

Thank you for your comments. Thank you.

Okay, so recently you closed three homeless shelters, three homeless shelters, and you could have used Measure U money to keep them open. but you didn't, but you gave $5 million to this Lincoln Recreational Center from Measure U. That's how you do things. Chinatown had an opportunity to have a facility with no expense for sick homeless people to get care, no expense to the city. Wong and them went out there and said they didn't want it because these sick people, homeless people, were going to be a endangerment to the community of Chinatown. You had a grant that would allow the purpose of the grant where communities that had been impacted by redlining could take the money to uplift their communities. gave the money to Chinatown so they could build a crossway from them to leave Chinatown and walk over to Jack London Square. What the hell was the redlining that went on in Chinatown? That they got that money. That's what y'all do. You got double parking in Chinatown, nobody never gets a ticket. You got officers still sitting in Chinatown observing. the community to protect them. And you talk about overtime issues in Chinatown. You got gambling in Chinatown, prostitution in Chinatown. The FBI was in Chinatown in 2022. You never heard about it because you protect Chinatown. That's what you do. So I'm gonna keep talking about the inequities. We got the unity council sitting in the room right now. They coming next meeting to get more money. You gave them $500,000 to get out of the hole.

Thank you for your comment, Ms. Assata. Dwayne, that concludes your public speakers for open forum.

Okay, we are adjourned, thank you.