Office Of The City Administrator - Special Meeting

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Life Enrichment Committee for today, April 21. The time is now 04:02PM, and this meeting has come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda. If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn into myself or a clerk representative before the item is read into record. Online speaker requests were due twenty four hours prior to this meeting.

The meeting came to order at 04:02PM. Speaker requests will be no longer be accepted ten minutes after meeting has began, making that time 04:12PM. Well, with that, we would now proceed to take roll. Council member Gaio.

Present.

Thank you. Council member Houston? Excused? Thank you. Council member Wong? Present. Thank you. And chair five? Present. We do Present. We do have three members present and one excused Houston. Before we begin, council member chair, do you have any announcements for us today?

No announcements at this time.

Thank you. Moving to our first item of the day, item one, due to this being a special meeting, as note, there will be no minutes to be approved. Item two, determination to schedule outstanding committee items, and you do have two speakers for this item.

Okay. For the determination of outstanding committee items, we will hear from our public speakers, and then I will make an announcement on item two.

Absolutely. Moving to our public speakers, miss Asada. As a public announcement, if you are missing your phone, miss Asada has it. Thank you. Miss Asada? Okay. That concludes your public speakers' writing two.

Okay. I if I could have staff from Parks and Recreation come, Micah, if you could come and speak to item two. We are going to be removing item five from the agenda. Staff is going to give a few remarks about why, but after staff gives the remarks about this this agenda item, then I'll make a motion on this this item.

Good afternoon, council members and committee. I'm Micah Hammack, the inner director of OPRID. We are pulling this item due to that the department is not ready to move forward. And at this time, I wanna be fair to the Oakland vendors organization that are here to be able to put their bid in when that time comes for the next when we put it out again for vendors.

So thank you. So when my staff and I reviewed this item and I saw that this was a contract for not well, not to exceed $500,000 to a firm that was not an Oakland based firm on the same agenda when we're talking about local small local business enterprises and our update and our roadmap for how we're moving forward on supporting Oakland businesses. I worked with staff to come up with a recommendation to rectify this issue and I wanna say thank you Micah because you've been amazing. This work started before you were employed with the city of Oakland and so I wanna acknowledge your commitment to Oakland businesses and process. So what I'm recommending today for this item, item number five, is that we take staff's recommendation and move this item to pending no date specific.

So I will entertain a motion to remove this per staff's recommendation from this today's agenda. And we will still hear speakers when we come to this item, but we will move it from the agenda today. I made the motion if you want to second council member Houston, will acknowledge your comments. I recognize your comments.

You have a Thank you. I mean, we've been fighting for the small local businesses and we want all the small local businesses that can do this work to stand up to get qualified or whatever they have to what are they actually through the chair, what do they have to do to become a vendor?

So they need to be able to go into the iSupplier procurement and put all the information in that is needed that they ask on in the system. Once that information is in the system, then once the purchasing department puts out the bid for once it they put out for the bid, they'd be able to see the requirements and if they and if they make the all the requirements that is required for this bid, if they have all the requirements, then they'll be able to be able to bid on the next time we put our RFQ out.

And through the chair, when you think that may be? Just just rough. Nothing set in stone. When you think two months, three months, what you think?

At this time, I can say.

Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

But council member Houston, just let's stay in conversation because I know this is an issue that you care about as well. And we as, you know, council members should be supporting letting the public know how organizations can become registered businesses with the city of Oakland. That is not agendized, so we will continue with this agenda. Thank you, miss Hammack. I appreciate your your partnership on this issue.

Thank you.

Is this business from?

It's it's Hayward. They're based in Hayward.

Yes. Alpine Awards is based in Hayward.

This business was based in Hayward?

Yes.

But when you put it out to bid, you some you put it publicly. Right?

Correct.

For anyone from any location to come and submit their bid to

you. Correct. Right.

Alright. I just wanna make sure we continue, but and, you know, we can put it locally, but it's gotta be a quality bid as well.

You're absolutely right. And this business we've we've done business with Alpine for years. But to be fair, like I said, to be fair, we would like to have some Oakland vendors be able to bid themselves.

Alright. Thank you. You're welcome.

And we do have exceptional businesses in the city of Oakland that I'm sure would love to apply to a request for proposal for this this contract. Matt? We're done. You can call the call the vote. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay.

Chair, I have a question comment.

I'm sorry, I apologize Counselor.

All good. And thank you for doing that. I had the same reaction in part because of the conversations we've been having in this committee on, you know, just the disparity studies. I had a quick question just on the item. Can we ask questions on the item? We cannot.

Not not be we're withdrawing it. I actually allowed a lot of extra conversation. But I'd be happy to have conversation with you and the city administrator as well as our staff offline. Okay. It's not actually right that we're having any deliberation when we're pulling the item from the agenda. We are obligated to hear from our public speakers. So if we have public speakers on item, we will entertain those when we get to item five. Okay. Alright.

Thank you. We do have a motion made by chair five, seconded by council member Houston to accept as amended the termination of schedule outstanding committee items with the amendments of removing item five regarding the contract for customized goods and peril and placing it on the life enrichment committee pending list no date specific from today's agenda. On roll, council member Gaio?

Aye.

Council member Houston. Aye. Thank you. Council member Wong. Aye. And chair five. Aye.

Let me let me just clarify. We did call for public comment, and the speaker waived her right to comment on the item. Would you like would to the chair, do you

Through the chair to the public speaker, we're removing item five from today's agenda, and we're doing it under item two.

Yeah. To clarify We

will be taking public comment.

Yes. We we are taking comments on item five right now. There was one speaker card. The speaker chose to waive the comments on item two. We will take public comment on item five when it comes up despite the item being removed from the agenda.

I will restate the motion. We do have a motion by chair five, seconded by council member Houston to accept as amended removing the item five regarding the contracting customized goods in peril and placing it on a life enrichment pending list no date specific from today's agenda. On roll, council member Gallo? Aye. Thank you. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair five?

Aye. The motion does pass with four ayes to accept as amended, removing item five from today's agenda and placing it on the life enrichment committee pending list no day specific. Please note councilmember Houston was present at 04:07PM. Moving to item three. Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to enter into an agreement with the city of Piedmont to receive $100,008,282,955 dollars to provide Oakland Public Library services to Piedmont residents for fiscal years '25 through '26, '26 through '27, and '27 through '28, and accepting appropriate said funds. You do have three speakers for this item.

Thank you. Oh, you're already there. We will hear a brief presentation by director Terback from the library department and take our public speakers thereafter. Thank you. Good afternoon. You have the floor.

Good afternoon. My name is Jamie Turback. I'm the director of the Oakland Public Library. The proposed resolution authorizes an agreement that allows the city of Oakland to accept about $1,083,000 over the course of three years from the city of Piedmont in exchange for the provision of public library services. For the past hundred and eight years, Piedmont residents have obtained library services from the Oakland Public Library because the city of Piedmont does not have its own public library.

Various agreements have existed between the two cities, most recently in 1999 when the contract terms were based on the per capita cost of each city's general fund contribution for library services. When that contract expired in 2008, the city of Piedmont continued to pay $350,471 each year without a contract. This resolution resolution will establish a library contract between the two cities for the first time in eighteen years. In addition, the annual amount paid by Piedmont will increase by 3%. Under these terms, the city of Piedmont plays slightly more per capita of the general fund contribution than does Oakland.

As noted in the agenda report, city of Piedmont would contract could contract with another jurisdiction, and there would be no savings to the library as well as no revenue for the city's general purpose fund. For this reason, staff recommends that Life Enrichment Committee adopt this resolution, and I'm available for questions.

Thank you, director Terback. We will hear from our public speakers.

Calling our public speakers for item three, miss Asada.

This is a doozy here. So you had a contract with the city of Piedmont that expired in 2011. At that time, there was no consensus how to renew the contract. So for a short period of time, the city of Piedmont agreed to pay you, I forget the amount of money, and they just continue to pay that same amount up to this point point with no annual increase that amount from 2011. Now I have come to this podium many times and requested that you do some for years asking you to do something about the contract.

So the unfairness of this is they get to use our libraries, but they don't have to pay the two measure taxes for the library. I think it's measure c and q. We pay that. They don't. They are in a position of controlling us for the past couple of years, telling us what they're gonna pay with no country.

I don't think legally the city attorney should have stepped in to say we cannot have any business with anybody unless we have a contract. So how did this happen for since 2011 that no contract was agreed upon. That's mismanagement, it's not legal, it's unfair for the citizens of and they don't just use the p they can use any library in the city of Oakland. Any library. So there's no justification for this.

It should have never happened. Why it happened? You guys are just gonna move on without saying somebody screwed up. And please, what you have on here for the amount for them to pay is way under what they should be paying. They're always paying the same amount they were paying in 2011. No annual increases. So

That concludes your public speakers for item three.

I will entertain comments. Council member Wong and then council member Houston.

Director Trebak and I, we we did get to talk about this and I I do agree with the the public comments that we are not getting enough money from Piedmont. Just to inflation adjust the numbers, it's actually we haven't had a contract since 2008. If we took that $350,000 we would that is in present day value $540,000. But as I understand it, director Terback, if we don't move forward with this contract, Piedmont could still access our libraries and pay us nothing. Can you explain why that is?

The state of California has a reciprocity agreement so that if any jurisdiction pays for library services, they can use any other library system in the state. So city of Piedmont would need to contract with somebody else presumably or local library jurisdictions would have the authority to stop providing their citizens service. But there is a cost to stopping to provide services and they could for instance contract with the County Of Alameda or the City Of Berkeley which also has public libraries.

Right. Okay. And as discussed you know I will go ahead and move to vote for this but what is the negotiating leverage if any that we have with city of Piedmont on this moving forward?

Well it's been a multi year process to bring this forward and we did get a slight increase from them. I agree that we want to maximize our revenue. The formula by which it's based actually has them paying more than Oakland so I think the question lies in the formula and how we come to the table with a different calculation that allows more balanced payment. One of their points of contention is that they have the same population as the city of Emeryville but they pay twice as much. So that's another point where the formulas aren't aligned in a way that sort of benefits all three cities.

Okay. Thank you. That's the

end of my question. Council member Houston and council member Gaio.

When you said about through the chair about renegotiating, that that sounds like good. And to the public comment, I wasn't here in 2011. So it wouldn't happen. Trust me, I wanna get that money. So I wanna move this this item even though we're in this situation. We just wanna move it. I moved this item, chair.

Council member Gayle. We

do have a motion by council member Houston, seconded by council member Wong to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on roll. Council member Gaia?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair five? Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda and through the body of this meeting. Would that be on consent or non consent? Thank you. Moving to item four.

Do item three and that this is I'll read

the item into record. Go ahead. Yep. Adopt a resolution number one, authorizing the city administrator to enter into an agreement with the city of Emeryville to receive $459,827 to provide Oakland Public Library services to Emeryville residents for fiscal years '26 through '27, '27 through '28, '28 through '29, and accepting appropriate set funds. And you do have one speaker.

Director Turbach, you have the floor.

Okay. Again, Jamie Turbach, director of the Oakland Public Library. So again, as similar to item three, this is a contract. The city of Emoryville also does not have a public library system so they have paid Oakland for library services. Unlike the city of Piedmont they have had a contract with us.

The most recent was a three year contract that is ending this 06/30/2026 and for each year of that contract they paid a 5% escalation cost and this contract is a three year contract that proposes a 5% escalation of each year as well. So again similar to Piedmont they could also contract with a different jurisdiction And so this resolution gives some benefit to the general purpose fund and it does not significantly increase any expense to the library department. Therefore, I recommend you approve.

Thank you. Any initial commentary from the body since we just heard a similar item? Council member Gayle?

I second.

Let's hear from the public

speakers. Miss Lassada?

So how much we getting from Piedmont all total for three years? Because you don't have to say anything because Oakland officially asked in 2011 for a fee increase of 3,009, $955 annually. And you got a contract here in 2026 where they're gonna be paying a 100 and something dollars, every year. Now just to say some unfairness here, in 2011 Emeryville was paying significantly less per resident, 10 per resident compared to the rate of $33 per resident for Piedmont. So not only do you have to come up with a system of getting the money when you're supposed to get it, but you have to be fair about it too.

I still have a serious issue with you have library taxes that the citizens of Oakland and residents of Oakland pay. Measure q, I think as of 2024, that's a $114 for measure q and another 104 for single family and another 114 for measure d. So we got a process where you're not you're not thoroughly participating in funding the library. You just gotta pay a low fee per person resident how much they paying annually. Is it still $40 per person?

And we paying over with measured measured q and d a total of $238 compared to 30 something dollars, and in Emeryville $10 annually per resident. Now show me. Now they wanna go someplace else? Well, help yourself because this is not fair.

Director Turbach, we we do have a motion and a second on the floor, but director Terback, can you help me understand why there is a different price or cost for both municipalities?

It was before my time, but my understanding was that Emeryville was contributing something through senior services that Oakland benefited from, and so they were able to negotiate a lower contract at that time. And so this current contract is based on this multiyear moving forward. And what is so the formula could change. Is do you perceive

those two different cities I I maybe I should say Piedmont because Piedmont has not had a contract. Have they balked at getting into a contract? Can you speak to the relationship that Oakland has with Piedmont?

Both cities consider themselves under financial pressure and so it's difficult for them to agree to pay more. Piedmont? They're saying that this city I'm not justifying it. I understand what they're what they're saying.

They're they're saying that they are financially

distressed? They have a fixed budget. They do not have a parcel tax that pays for library services and

Okay. Okay. What you you spoke to them potentially going to Alameda County. What would that allow them to do and what would be the loss to the general purpose fund if that were to occur?

We would have no income from City Of Piedmont if they went to Alameda County. They would pay Alameda County.

And so that there would be a gap in in our in the library. But could does the do the general purpose funds end up back with the Oakland Public Libraries or do they just go in the general purpose fund to

be used? I believe they go to the general purpose contribution for the library.

Okay. And so that could be potentially if we forced try to force a regular formula that put them both on the same, you know, put them at the same amounts, they could potentially say, you know what, we don't wanna be in contract with you anymore. We're gonna contract with the Alameda County with Alameda County. What would that allow them to access through Alameda County? What libraries?

All libraries. Because of reciprocity, they would just be paying somebody else

for the same come to Oakland?

They would have the right to come to Oakland, yes.

Well that puts us in a pickle, doesn't it? Mhmm. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Thank you. Oh I'm sorry, council member Wong. Can we at

least because I know we waive the fines for if we don't, if Oakland residents don't return the materials, can we at least apply those fines to Piedmont and Emeryville residents?

I think there's operational issues with that but we could look into that. Not part of the contract right now. The contract proposes that they would get the same services as Oaklanders.

Okay. It'd be great if we could look into that. Thank you.

We do have a motion made by council member Gaio, seconded by council member Houston to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on roll. Council member Gallo? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Thank you. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Fife? Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the May 5 city council agenda due to body. Would that be consent or none? Consent or nonconsent? Thank you. Moving to item five as a reminder.

Item five regarding the contract of customized goods and apparel was withdrawn from this today's agenda under item two and placed on the life enrichment pending list. No date specific. But through practice, we will take public speakers calling your name, David Boatwright and miss Lesata.

It's it's kind of hard David Boatwright. It's kind of hard to ask questions about something that hadn't been discussed, but I'll make a stab at it. It would be interesting to know, and I know you can't tell me, the solicitation list that this opportunity for providing this apparel went out to because it looked like there weren't any takers. And now we we find people that are takers. So there's a it looks like there's a problem in the solicitation listing process, whatever that is.

Because if if there wasn't anybody that was interested before and now they are, it doesn't make sense unless they feel like they can get a real good deal out of out of the thing. And I assume this is for all summer. And it's not clear from what I read. And is it like two weeks per per participant? It's not an all summer type thing where this apparel is used throughout the summer to access our parks and things.

And just taking the $100,000 per year, five years divided into $500,000 that's $100,000 a year. Assuming $50 per outfit or whatever it is, that's 2,000 participants, which sounds like a pretty good number. Anyway, those are things might be considered when this comes up the next time.

I think that a report that says we're going to have the ability to spend money on athletic and casual uniform apparel should have in it this is what it's gonna be used for. What sports are you talking about? What what is the number of sports participants that we're gonna have that these uniforms are gonna be necessary? Because whenever I hear about children at the school board meetings, it's always a prioritization process where they never have enough money for everybody and they have to pick who will get. So is this a process where $500,000 was over five years, that's not every year.

That's a $100,000 a year for how many participations in what sports, boys and girls, all age levels. So you gotta have all of that inclusive to say this is valid. Not just to come up, oh, we're spend $500,000 over five years over sports apparel. They have more depth to it. So I hope the depth will be in the report the next time this item comes up.

That concludes your public speakers for item five. Moving to item six. Adopt a resolution authorizing its city administrator to, one, accept monetary gift grants, gifts, and donations from the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation in an amount not to exceed $10,000,000 through 06/30/2036, and two, appropriate set fines of the city of Oakland Parks Recreation and Youth Development Department, and three, accept funds goods and in kind services from OPRF valued in amount not to exceed $10,000,000 through 06/30/2036. And you do have two speakers.

Thank you. Miss Hammond, how much time do you need for the presentation?

Six minutes. About six, seven minutes. That's it. Yeah. So I'm Micah Hammond, once again, interim director of OPRID. I have my assistant director, Sarah Herbaland, and Madeline Redman here, the executive director of OPRF, for any questions that are needed at this time.

Good afternoon, chair Fife, members of the committee. My name is Sarah Herbalin, assistant director for Oakland Parks Recreation and Youth Development. OPRYD is asking for authorization to continue to accept monetary gifts, grants, and donations, and also goods and in kind services from the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation for an additional ten years. Previously in 2024, Oakland City Council authorized OPRF donations through 06/30/2026. This resolution would continue OPRYD's authority to receive monies, goods, and in kind services.

OPRF has a long history of supporting OPRYD and other city programs. As a non profit organization, OPRYF OPRF has the qualifications, philanthropic expertise and five zero one c three status to encourage private donations. The funds that OPRF raises are used to improve services and for families for Oaklanders and facilities for Oaklanders including scholarship funds for Oakland youth to participate in summer camp and after school programs, retrofitting playgrounds and ball fields, and supplies for recreation centers. Most of the funds, donations, and in kind services provided to the city for OPRF are non recurring with no commitment to be funded for multiple fiscal years. The use of donations is stipulated by the donors and or grantors to be used for specific programs and or sites.

Approval of this resolution would allow for streamlined acceptance from donors who are often working within a compressed timeline. Staff are available to answer questions as our director indicated.

Thank you for that. And at this time, we will hear from the mayor's office or wait. Let me make sure we're on the right item. That's the next item. Ignore me, Lanise. We'll hear from our public speakers.

David Boatwright and miss Asada.

Can you state your name, please? I I I'm having can you Miguel?

Miguel?

I don't have he he submitted a comment, but it's not a What

I'm hearing from our clerk is that you submitted a comment, not a request to speak. I will allow you

You say Miguel, she says she's gonna let you speak. Go right ahead. Thank you.

Very nice to meet you. Look, I'm not gonna argue about this. That's a donation. So I'm not gonna say anything about that. All I wanna do is bring up in '24 2019, when you were part of the council, you guys you guys got us to to sign to that measure to put a lien on our taxes. Okay? And you guys said that some of this money was gonna go to homeless, and I don't like that it's gone to the home not gone to the homeless. The parks and recs should have allowed them to do their tents or whatever. I told you guys I'd come back here. Okay?

If you didn't do anything about it. Okay? And I'm pissed off. I was glad what happened here and what you guys allowed because the people of Oakland spoke to you about the homeless. We don't want them screwed with. They've had a hard life, man. I don't want to see that stuff. Okay? I just don't. I don't think the way we treated them is worth but how you treat human beings, little homes. You're like the architect of the little homes. You had them down there when what was that, the the library. Okay? That little library burned down. Okay?

That was a joke. Okay? You know, you guys got to do this right. Those apartments that the union council wants to build, and I don't think they should be building those. The ones on 35th To 38th Avenue. Those buildings should go to brothers. Black people have worked so hard to make this city what it is, and they paid the price for this city. Union council should not do that thing at at between 35th And 38th Avenue. I know you guys have an exclusive agreement. You guys are pulling some stuff that I think is borderline illegal, okay?

Especially the way esponded with those properties that Michael Johnson was supposed to do. I think that was just a total hose job. And you did it during a 09:30 meeting on a Monday morning. I think that was garbage. Okay? And then that's just all I have to say. Okay? It was nice meeting you all. Okay? Thank you.

Have to give thanks and praise to Miguel. Miguel is the one that hit me to all that wrongdoing that. The what is that group called over there in Oakland? I'll think of it. The the u the unit the Spanish speaking unity council. Miguel gave me a lot of information about that. And that's a Latino man who stands up for black people, stands up for the right thing. Miguel, I'm so glad to see you. On this issue. I don't know if you remember miss Fife.

We had a donation over at the the park that's being used by the ballers that they were gonna resurface the soccer field for free. But the cons what they wanted to do was set up this they have the right to set up the schedule for soccer. So my question is, whenever you get donations or gifts, what are the clauses where they have a voice on controlling some aspect of whatever they're giving the money to? So we're getting money from this group. Do we have to listen to anything they're gonna say in terms of how the money can be spent, or do we have the liberty to spend the money as we see fit?

Anybody given money with the specification that I have a right to tell you how to spend it, that could be problematic. So that's my question. The other question is this race and equity statement that they have here. Staff did not complete a racial equity impact analysis on the recommendation. Why not? You're acting as if you give the the gift based on helping with enrollment cost. That's all. But race demographics, it is gonna be equitable. Is it gonna be geographically equitable? You needed to have a race and equity statement.

You don't have a choice. That's required that you have a statement. It almost is like they're saying we didn't do it. I've seen it where it says we don't need to do it because it's not

David Boatwright.

David Boatwright. My questions have been answered. Thank you.

That concludes your public speakers for item six.

If if I could have staff come to the podium to answer a few questions. I had similar questions around what happens what is the authority that donors have to determining where certain donations should go and what would happen if they primarily were were centered in a specific location? If the request, say all of the donations requested were for the Temescal pool or an imbalance of of funds or or donations went to a certain geographical location. Is that allowed and how would that be approached by city staff?

I will give you my best answer. Do want to answer that? Okay. So donors have the option to say what they want to donate for. We can always choose not to accept donations. But if they do donate for a certain pool, then those funds and generally they come in through the foundation, then the foundation would say they donated the idea that this goes to this pool. We could say we don't wanna receive any donations, in which case that would be fine. Or we could say we'll use that at Temiscale pool and hey, look that frees up opportunities of our own city funds to maybe meet the needs of our other pools. I mean, we would have to work within our department. Our goal is to serve the entire city of Oakland.

For scholarships, it's not equally distributed. Right? Some parts of the city have more of a need for scholarships. Our camp fees are the same throughout the city. But our incomes are different throughout the city. And so the foundation support enables us to cover the cost of our programming without having to charge disparate rates and to allow people who can't pay the full cost to participate. So internally within our department, equity is a strong focus and serving all of Oakland. We don't get to determine and a donor gets to choose what, you know, we can choose to accept or not. If they said we're gonna fund Temiscale pool and you have to shut down all the other pools, you know, we wouldn't. Right?

So at some point, you can just say, no. We're not interested in that.

Thank you. Questions, comments from the committee? I'll entertain a motion.

We do have a motion made by customer Regallos.

Didn't you waive your opportunity to speak, mister Boatwright? Oh, you are so lucky. You it's your it's your lucky day today. Go ahead.

Great. Thank you.

I'm gonna

give you sixty seconds.

David Boatwright. Temiscale is a mess and has been for the last twelve years. That lake's almost unusable. And if somebody if you could ask them if they could do something to dredge the lake out and make it usable again, that'd be a great thing. Thank you.

Thank you. And I do wanna state that that was just a hypothetical to to ask the question. I wasn't specifically making any statement about Temiscale, but I see we have a request to dredge the pool that is not agendized. But thank you for your comments. Council member Houston.

We have a motion made by council member Gallo, seconded by council member Wong to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda. On roll, council member Gaio? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Thank you. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Fife? Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda through the body. Would that be consent or nonconsent? Thank you. Moving to item seven.

Before we hear from our presenter, I will ask for Lanise Jones to come and speak for the mayor's office. Thank you for being here with us today.

And I would need to read the item into record. Thank you. Adopt a resolution accepting the plan accepting the planning and oversight committee recommendation to award nine nine grants within the youth summer jobs, mayor's mayor's summer youth employment program funding strategy totaling an amount not to exceed $1,480,253.60 for the two summer program service term grant cycles June first twenty sixth through September the thirtieth twenty sixth and June first twenty seventh through September thirtieth twenty seventh, contingent upon funding availability and program performance. Two, award 12 grants across four funding strategies. Elementary school based expanding learning, middle school based, and youth development and leadership and career access and employment, totaling amount not to exceed $1,712,558 for the two summer program terms.

Grant cycles 06/01/2026 through 09/30/2026 and 06/01/2027 through September 3027, contingent upon funding availability and for and program performance. And you do have four speakers.

Thank you. You have the floor, miss Jones. Good afternoon, chair five and council members. My name is Lanise Jones, director of community engagement in the mayor's office. And I'm here in support of this resolution to accept planning and oversight committees recommendations to award 21 grants supporting the mayor's summer youth employment program and OFCY's summer programs for 2026 and 2027 cycles.

Together, these investments totaling over 3,100,000 and will provide more than 2,000 young people with access to paid work experience, academic enrichment, leadership development, and career pathways during the summer months. Under expanding access to opportunities for young people, especially those with with the least access has been a top priority. The mayor's summer youth employment program alone will connect more than 500 youth to one hundred hours of paid work experience, helping them build skills, earn income, and see pathways to their future. The mayor's summer youth employment program is not just a workforce development program for young people. It is also a public safety strategy that will continue our work of reducing violence and keeping our young people engaged, supported, and connected to positive opportunities.

We also wanna acknowledge the strong partnership that makes this work possible, including the human services department, the city administrator's office, OFCY, the Oakland Workforce Development Board, the Oakland Children's Initiative, and many other community based organization delivering these services on the ground. This is a coordinated effort, citywide effort in approving these grants ensure that we continue to invest in our young people, our communities, and a more safer and equitable Oakland. Thank you for the opportunity and consideration of this item. Well done. Perfect timing.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I will call Robin Love. And if we could have our staff presentation, we'll put ten minutes on the clock. And then we will hear from our public speakers.

Good

afternoon, LEC chair, Fife, and fellow council members. My name is Robin Love and I am the children and youth services manager within the human services department. And we are pleased to be here today to bring forth to you for your review and authorization the first 21 grants that we have as a result of the RFP, request for proposals, that was released on October 4. We have a presentation for you and then upon the conclusion of that presentation we are happy to answer any questions you may have. I'd like to introduce our children and youth services planner.

Good afternoon. My name is Robin Levinson, the other Robin with the OFCY team. I'm the program planner with the children and youth services division within the human services department. As stated by both Robin and the mayor's office, we're here to present the mayor's summer youth employment program recommended funded awards for the summer service term along with the other OFCY summer service term awards. I'll begin by highlighting that the mayor's summer youth employment program is really building off of funding that has taken place over the last four decades, providing one hundred hours of paid work experience, financial literacy support, and giving job readiness opportunities to youth ages 14 to 21 during those summer months between June and September.

As highlighted, we wanna just recognize the coordination between, Oakland Workforce Development Board, Oakland Children's Initiative, and the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, OFCY, to ensure that this could happen in this more expanded way. In our last funding cycle during the fiscal years twenty two to twenty five, across three summers, the mayor's summer or excuse me. At the time, the summer youth employment funding strategy served 980 youth, which 988 youth. This was 79% more than initially planned, but what I'd really like to highlight is something the mayor's office already noted, which is that in this increased investment, we intend to fund 505 youth annually. What this look like looks like is just in two years alone, we'll already surpass that amount.

You can also see that youth earned approximately $1,600 through their participation in this experience. Here you'll see the list of our proposed mayor's summer youth employment awards. The first three agencies listed, Tribe Inc, the Youth Employment Partnership Inc, and Lao Family Community Development, excuse me, are all current fundees through the summer youth employment program. You'll see the expansion across these following six as well. We have nine total agencies this time, which helps us align with our additional funding investment.

Recognizing the coordination across our different, divisions and agencies, you'll see that OFCY intends to allocate slightly over a million dollars to the mayor's summer youth employment program alongside allocated funds from Oakland Workforce Development Board, Measure HH, and the Oakland Children's Initiative. And through this coordination and partnership, we were able to fully fund this this investment, meaning that all proposals that met met our minimum score threshold were able to receive funding. Now this is the first year of this grant cycle, and so we don't come today with our past performance. That being said, OFCY is really proud of the effort and road map that we're on, particularly under the leadership of Robin Love to ensure that our outcomes are really specific and showing a collective impact in real measurable ways. Specifically, for the mayor's summer youth employment program, we have these, specific outcomes that we intend all programs to meet.

One, the number of youth that are gaining summer employment increases and those that get access to first time work experience. We also want our young people to be aware of different career pathways and employment opportunities, particularly those in industries that are expanding or are more competitive, for example, health care. We also wanna see improved financial stability and increased ex equitable access to paid work experiences, particularly in East Oakland, West Oakland, and Central Oakland. Now outside of the mayor's summer youth employment program, the new OFCY strategic investment plan does not have a dedicated summer strategy recognizing that we wanna deepen our investment during our summer months across our other funding strategies. And we know just as the mayor's office emphasized that summer programming provides critical developmental, educational, and economic benefits for young people.

With this in mind, we have additional awards, 12 dish additional awards we provide for your recommendation today on during the summer service term of June to September. These are across four other funding strategies approved by the council in December 2024 to serve an additional roughly 1,600 youth. You'll see the four strategies listed there. That last one is youth development under the, speaking notes. Here, you'll see our list of recommended agencies for award.

We have on this list nine agencies that have received funding in the past and then three new agencies for a total allocation of roughly $1,700,000. Again, we're expanding our total number of summer programs. In this past fiscal year, we funded 12 summer programs altogether. Here, we see 21 programs that we bring to you today recognizing that deeper investment. You'll see column three shows the average score that each of these proposals received, but we wanna note that we didn't just use score to determine final allocations and recommendations.

Additionally, OFCY considered factors including the geographic population served, the number of proposals submitted by each agency, their total funding requested and all the funding requested that we received overall, our history their history, excuse me, the agency in Oakland, the applied expertise they have, and the funding landscape overall. These factors contributed significantly to how we determine final allocations. And we also have, again, these outcome measurement categories. We really wanna see that this investment means impact. And you'll see, actually, coming up to the life enrichment committee, be providing our evaluation from this past fiscal year, which actually puts in practice these eight outcome measurement categories for the first time.

So we built these outcomes into the RFP that all these agencies applied to, and they had to demonstrate to us in their proposal how they intended to show positive impact across these eight, outcome measurement categories. So overall, we bring to you today both the mayor summer youth employment program allocation, our OFCY summer program term allocation for a total allocation of roughly $3,000,000. Here, you'll see by funding strategy, the number of youth served. Here, you'll see by race excuse me, specifically by identity, and ethnicity. About 40% of all proposed, youth served, identify as Hispanic or Latinx, and an additional 35% identify as black or African American.

If you look at ZIP code, I apologize. I shoulda had, like, stars or something highlighting exactly where we see the most investment. But I do wanna note that 23%, almost one quarter, are residents of the ZIP code 94621 in DP Soukland. That's about, yeah, 502 as listed there, followed closely by the ZIP code 94605. And sifted slightly differently, you'll also see number of youth served by council district here.

Recognizing that last one shows citywide investment, and also wanted to know this is just estimates and just proposed. We do see overall investment across the city with intentional, we did say in RP, we wanted to specifically see support in East Oakland, West Oakland, and in, the Fruitvale Central Oakland area. And with that, we welcome questions. Thank you.

Miss Love, did you have any commentary as well? Because you all have oh, never mind. Are are you complete with your presentation?

I just wanna add that we also recognize that during the summer, our young people need opportunity. They need opportunity to earn income. They need opportunity to be involved constructive and productive activities. And we think this is really important, particularly given some of the challenges we have. We also believe that this is very much connected to youth safety. Idle minds, we know this tale about that, so we wanted to make sure that this summer, for summer twenty twenty six and summer twenty twenty seven, we would invest in our young people for their future.

Thank you so much. We will hear from our public speakers.

When I recall your name, please approach the podium. Please state your name for the record. You do have two minutes. Chris Nanyo, Mississaata, David Boatwright, and Lina Lamaw Conley. And excuse me if I mispronounced your name.

Alright. Good afternoon. Chair of five esteemed council committee members. I stand up here today as someone who grew up and was raised in West Oakland, West Oakland resident, and someone who has deeply benefited from summer programs as a kid growing up in the town and now as an adult as well. The city has made a lot of progress this year on, as an example, violence prevention.

And I don't need to tell you all what happens when our young people don't have something to do in the summer. So, as the mayor's office and OFCY staff already has expressed, the ability to engage our young people this summer continues to be critical, both in terms of jobs and putting money in their pocket, like I was getting money in my pocket when I was young, and also these summer programs as well. So, the benefits of OCY is immense, and the benefits of our community based organizations who have implemented these programs have been wonderful over the years. So I'm here in support, full support, of the adoption of this

resolution, to make sure that our young people are well, are safe, and are connected because that's what they deserve, y'all. So thank you for the time. Thank you for your comments. So I

I'm was looking at the list of vendors, and it's good not to see the same people. The Spanish speaking Unity Council for first time not on here. Hallelujah. So opportunities for young people to get necessary skill development has to be things like being on time, teamwork, understanding your responsibility and fulfilling it. So that's just some of the things.

Training, which all of these vendors is training involved. Safety issues, are they being covered? Are you dealing with the fact that we have particular skills that need to be concentrated on because these this is where the jobs are. So in the future, if we can look at health care, if we can look at technology, if we can look at skills trades, plumbing and electricians, they're making a big money. They're making more than doctors now.

Business and finance, those are the areas where the jobs are. Okay? Now so I would ask the question, with these job opportunities for training, what is the training skills that they're gonna develop? How much time is all this? Is this three weeks, six weeks?

Are we really gonna have? Are we looking at the career pathways that OUSD students are following and following it up with career pathways so they can have consistency? I I am concerned about Miguel just told me geographically, he didn't see anything in 94601 zip code. So are all zip codes being covered or we are not covering all of them? So I just think an opportunity for our young people today, they got some issues with, what they call it, job work ethics.

Thank you for your comment, miss Zada.

David Boatwright. Great program. I like to see it. The earlier, the better. When kids learn what it takes to be an adult, it really helps them in their development. One thing is clarify who the participants are. The number of 14 to 21 ages came out in the presentation. After 18, they're not in school anymore. So I wonder why it extends that far out. Those kids ought to be in college or working full time jobs, I would think.

And these amounts of money or one of them anyway was kinda strange. They're very exact. And I I wondered how that came to be. What the reason for that would be. And there may be a typo. It says this goes through the end of September. Kids are back in school, I would think, by end of August. Boy, wish I had a four month summertime when I was a kid. If there's a reason for that September period, that'd be interesting to know. And is there any parental involvement?

I would think parents would be trying to find jobs for their kids so as many kids as possible could get jobs during the summer and get that good experience. That's it. Thanks.

Thank you.

Calling in our public speaker, Lania. Please state your name for the record. You do have two minutes. Okay?

Okay. Yes.

Hi. My name is Lanea Conley Travis. I am a student at Oakland Technical High School. I'm here with my goddad, Chris. I worked four years in summer programs, two years at Oakland Freedom School, two years at YEP Youth Employment Partnerships. I would like to speak on the funding funding summer programs. I think my I think for myself and my peers, it keeps us occupied instead of kids being on the streets like grabbing cars, drug abuse, or even shoplifting. Working during the summer helps me and my peers with management, professionalism, responsibility, and etcetera. Many kids like myself have to learn to provide for themselves because becoming becoming of age, many things are expensive. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time, Vu. Thank you.

That concludes your public speakers for item seven. What a

great way to end this public speakers. Thank you, for coming and sharing your testimony. Stanley, which Yeah. Which item are you here for?

I wanna speak on on it's so important with these kids.

Did you

fill out a speaker card?

Nope. Not for this.

Nope. You can speak on the next item. No. This is I'm trying to maintain a schedule because I we have several speakers on the next item. Thank you. I will hear from my colleagues at this time. Council member Wong.

But

I first of all, I really have to compliment you on the quality of this report. I could, I actually for me when I see a report that's been thoughtfully developed I often think that it reflects the way that the program manager has thought through the program and how thoughtful they have in the design of the program and to me that shone through clearly to me. So I just, well done and I just have one question which is are there particular careers. I mean we've got AI, all kinds of challenges in the society that we're preparing our youth for the types of careers that we're preparing for through this program.

Through the chair and Sofia's wearing DCA Navarro is also the executive director of the Workforce Development Board and so she's gonna speak to answer your question. And thank you. We did put a lot of thought and intent into this report recognizing what you all are looking for. And I'd also like to shout out Robin Levinson, our CYS planner who's been doing a phenomenal job leveling us up and making the work better. So thank you for those compliments.

Thank you, Robin. So DCA Navarro wearing also the the other hat. And again just wanted to emphasize before I get to that question, the importance of this collaboration. Super grateful for Robin and team for all their partnership and also the children's initiative. It has been a journey but we have been able to expand our efforts.

So related to pathways, we've actually been really focused on the high growth sector industry. So health care is definitely one given that we have that infrastructure here in Oakland. We're also looking at tech. We wanna increase construction participation, and that's through other partnerships, and then also IT. And there's one more that I'm missing, but we are definitely wanting to engage with businesses.

I will say that in partnership with the mayor's office and with the the chambers, we are gonna be putting on an event, I believe, May 14 where the mayor is inviting different businesses throughout city Of Oakland to really make the ask, right, twofold. And that one, asking businesses to host young people. And if they're able to pay for it, that'd be great because then we can also continue to expand our effort and reach. And so that is something that's happening May 14 to really engage more businesses in this process and really having the opportunity for more young people to participate. That's great.

Let us know how we can be helpful in that. Thank you.

My question before you leave, you were listing the the industries. Is hospitality one of those industries? Because that's with Oakland being the number one food city for two years in a row, I mean, I'm not even pressed. I think Oakland has the best food in the country.

Yes.

I mean, the top cities, they don't got nothing on Oakland. So I know in West Oakland, there's a pathway at Ralph Bunch that deals with hospitality, and the children really wanna get involved. And I've talked to some chefs who own restaurants who would also be happy to facilitate some partnerships. So I want that to be considered as well.

Through the chairs. So, yes, that is definitely another industry. We do have a partnership, like, with YEP. They have their own culinary institute, so there will be that that pathway that is also embedded and something that we focus on. The other piece too that I wanna mention, we've been hearing from young people of what are the industries that they're interested, and it evolves year over year.

But creative economy, as we all know, is is definitely an area that is of interest. And so given the the fact that we have so many small businesses here in Oakland that are within that industry, that is also an industry that we're engaging in this process. And, of course, there's many others, but those are two that have definitely been highlighted. I'll also just mention too that through some of these existing providers, they also have their own relationships with businesses that include the Oakland Zoo, BART, and other industries and and businesses as well. So it'll definitely be a new year where we'll be able to see more young people engaged and in more different industries that we'll be able to report back.

And I did wanna just quickly address the the question about September. We put this grant program goes through September because we allow for providers to do the end of the the program report. So we give them an extra month so that we can compile that data to be able to come back and share those results.

While you're there, can you also speak to the twenty one years old?

Yep. Yes. Through the chair. The kids first charter that was approved through 2033 allows for service of young people and young adults up to the age of 21. So we are honoring our charter and adhering to our mandate with that charter to serve that population as well.

We also know that we have young adults that, take a little bit more time in order to reach their full development and need a little bit more support. It is a challenging job market right now for young people and young adults and so we think this is a value added benefit for, older brothers and sisters that often accompany their younger brothers and sisters to program. I also wanna add that no community based organization that we work with will turn away a young person. In the proposals, the proposal respondents did identify how they wanted to serve and who they wanted to serve in terms of their scope of work. But know that if a young person shows up to any one of these programs and wants to participate, they will not be turned away.

That's just something we don't do. Even if they're not eligible, our programs will work with them to do information and referral and connect them to. But because this is a noncategorical funding, it's not restricted, we can serve this whole city of Oakland and the population and meet young people where they are.

Thank you. And I also wanna just add that we also know that young people's brains are not fully developed at 21.

I was gonna say that.

Okay. We we yes. Frontal lobe. Yep. On this item or the next item?

Oh, we're now? Is that what's happening? Stanley, why you put why in order to speak madam city clerk, go ahead. Stanley, did you

sign up for the previous item the next item?

Sign up for the other items already.

Already signed up for item eight?

I wasn't gonna speak on this, but

And, miss Asada, you already did you already used your time for this item, so you can't cede your time.

Because we have so many speakers signed up for the next item, I have to take the role for this item so we can get it's a very substantive item. And so, Stanley, I appreciate I I know what how you feel about making sure young people have work and are doing what they're supposed to do. And so we're gonna we're gonna make sure that you sign up to speak next time this item comes before the the body. I will entertain a motion or are there questions or comments from the committee?

Through the chair, I did wanna add one thing that I think you all will appreciate. We are braiding and leveraging our funding, but we are also entering into one contract with workforce development board so all of the agencies that are funded through the Mayor Summer Youth won't have to contract with both OFCY workforce development and OCI. We've aligned our outcomes as part of that RBA work results based accountability I've been sharing with you for the last eighteen months. And so we're hoping this reduces the burden so that we can execute contracts quicker. And the reporting will be done in our city span database.

So all the information that you get from demographics to actuals to projections to outcomes, we'll be able to report back out to you. It is a pilot and a joint collaboration to see if we can make it a little bit easier for our community based agencies to work with the city of Oakland.

Efficiency. I love to hear it. I will entertain a motion on this item. We

do have a motion made by council member Gaio and seconded by council member Wong to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the May 5 city council agenda on roll. Council member Gaio?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Fife? Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and forward this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda and to the motion the maker, miss Gayle, on consent or nonconsent? Consent. Thank you. Moving to item eight.

Receive an informational report on the impact of ordinance number one three eight two five that amended the local and small local business enterprise program certificate certification requirements, and two, draft road map and maximizing contract opportunities for local and small local business enterprises. And you do have 18 speakers.

Outstanding. We will put ten minutes on the clock for you, director Espia, and hope we can get through the presentation as well as all the public speakers who signed up today. Before you give your presentation, I want to put two minutes on the clock so that we can hear a a statement from administrator's office.

Thank you, chair five. So on behalf of city administrator Johnson, I'd like to read the statement before the presentation. So over the past several months, the city administrator's office has operated in good faith and collaborated with key stakeholders to meaningfully meaningfully implement the recommendations of the Mason Tillman disparity study, which was presented by doctor Eleanor Ramsey a few months ago. This collaborative process takes into account the realities of our staff capacity, administrative processes, legal requirements, and the city's fiscal state. While we recognize that implementing aspects of the study has a fiscal impact and may require city council authority, we are working diligently to identify realistic time frames for the implementing recommendations within the city administrator's authority.

For example, one area that the stakeholder focus group meetings spend considerable time on is eliminating SLBE waivers. I have given preliminary direction to our directors to halt these waivers, and I continue to receive feedback for future consideration. While we recognize that some items require city council approval, we will bring them back to the life enrichment committee for your consideration. It should be noted that you all may be in receipt of several proposals from a subset of stakeholders that request a significant financial commitment from the city. These requests will require consideration by the council during the budget process.

In closing, I would like to thank Kathy Adams and the African American chamber, members of local chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, director Emeline Espia, and the Department of Workplace Standards team, director Darlene Flynn, Felicia Verden, members of the capital contracts division, and others who continue to stay engaged in implementing the key recommendations of the disparity study. So that's on behalf of CA Johnson and he wanted to just make sure that I express that. Thank you.

Alright. Good afternoon chair Fife and committee members. I'm Emmeline Espion. I'm the director of the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards also known as DWES. Thank you for the opportunity to present this informational item.

So today's brief presentation has two goals, to update counsel on the early impacts of ordinance 13,825, which amended LSLBE certification requirements. We also want to present a draft road map co developed with community partners to strengthen contracting equity. As context, the city has amended the LSLBE certification requirements three times in the last four years. This update reflects the first full year of data since the most recent changes. Before the ordinance, the program had structural issues that created confusion for businesses and inefficiencies for staff.

Certification criteria were inconsistent as clerical errors restricted eligibility for firms not headquartered in Oakland. Staff spent a lot of time reviewing applications that ultimately did not qualify. A vast majority of denials were due to location or headquarters issues. As I'll show in the slides to follow, the ordinance corrected these issues and has stabilized the program. In the first year, demand remained stable with applications holding steady.

Most of the growth came from firms renewing their certification. We also saw temporary shifts in firm size during the headquarters requirement period, but those returned to baseline once the requirement was removed. I also want to note that the data we are presenting today are certification trends only not contract awarded data. In terms of the race and ethnicity makeup of all firms, all racial and ethnic groups increased in number and the percentage share stayed stable. Industry growth was strongest in professional and technical services as well as construction.

And importantly, clearer criteria significantly reduced confusion for applicants and reduced staff workload. This chart shows how application volume remained steady. The growth that we've seen in certified firms is driven primarily by renewals. As of January 2026, 62% of certified firms were recertifications and 38% were new certifications. Across all major racial and ethnic groups, we saw numerical increases, The overall percentage shares remained about the same.

This tells us the program is stabilizing without shifting representation. The top four industries continue to be the same with technical services and construction firms growing the most. We also saw that the number of certified vendors headquartered in San Francisco initially decreased during the headquarters requirement period and then returned once the requirement was removed. It is still too early to know whether firms are newly relocating to Oakland. We'll need more time and data to assess that.

Overall, these early trends show that the ordinance is functioning as intended. It's stabilizing the program, improving clarity, and reducing administrative barriers. Our first recommendation is to maintain the current requirements and continue monitoring trends over the next one to two years. Our next recommendation is focused on strengthening equity and access by supporting small certified firms, targeting underrepresented industries and improving our demographic data collection and reporting. And finally, we need to better connect certification to outcomes by linking certification to contract awards and improving our procurement forecasting.

We know how important it is for the community and for the city to understand which certified firms are actually getting contracts. The reality is that the city hasn't produced this kind of contract award data in more than twenty five years. We are only now beginning to implement b two g, which will finally allow us to track and report on this information. Our expectation is that over the next year, we'll be able to provide some level of contract award data that the community has been asking for. So I'd now like to shift and provide a high level overview of some work city administration has been doing with some community stakeholders on developing a draft roadmap for maximizing contracting equity.

This work reflects some structured collaboration with both leaders and member organizations representing the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Minority Contractors, the NORCAL chapter, Construction Resource Center and the East Bay Rental Housing Association. The lived experience of these stakeholders, their frustrations, and their recommendations have shaped this work. Community partners identified a wide range of priority areas from establishing an oversight committee to strengthening monitoring, transparency, compliance and administrative procedures. They also emphasized the need for better reporting, expanded remedial programs and stronger support for contractor and workforce equity. From that broader list, we worked with stakeholders to identify five areas for early action.

These areas rose to the top not only because they have the greatest potential impact but also because each one of these strategies could realistically be implemented implemented within the next ninety days. And at the same time, we want to be clear that additional resources, particularly for capacity building, are critical to sustaining this work and ensuring early actions translate into long term equity gain. As I showed earlier, this roadmap was built with community stakeholders. The goal is simple. We want to rebuild trust through shared decision making.

We recognize that this trust has eroded over many decades of inaction, so rebuilding it requires us to be consistent, transparent, and accountable in how we move forward. We've also heard clearly that the community wants immediate wins, some within thirty days. We understand that urgency, and we share the desire to move quickly. At the same time, many of these issues are deeply structural and resource intensive, which is part of why they haven't been addressed. So while we won't be deliver be able to deliver everything in thirty days, we are committed to moving as quickly as possible with the resources we currently have.

We want to be able to demonstrate steady visible progress that the community can see and feel. We also know that contracting equity only works when policy, strategy and day to day practice are aligned. We're tightening that alignment so businesses experience consistency across the system. And we're also striving for a performance driven culture. Data will guide decisions, measure progress, and hold us accountable.

And I will reiterate again that we know that equity requires sustained resources and investment in both city capacity and in small business capacity. We need to build a system that is stable, predictable, and built to last. We've already begun moving on several of the high impact priorities, so this work is not starting from zero. It's already underway. City administration has recently taken action on a directive around waiver requests, has met with project managers to socialize the results of the disparity study, and we're continuing to refine contracting mechanisms to maximize small contractors working as both primes and subs.

Over the next phase, we'll continue defining exactly what each priority needs to deliver and we'll be clear about who is responsible for driving that work. To do this effectively, we need to identify the resources required and set specific timelines that match both our capacity and the city's broader priorities. Once those pieces are in place, we'll launch the early action initiatives and strengthen compliance where it will make the biggest difference. As we implement, we'll track the outcomes that matter, LSLVE participation, payment timelines, contract awards, waivers, and more so we can see where progress is happening and where we need to adjust. And throughout this process, we'll keep refining our approach based on data and ongoing community feedback because this roadmap is meant to evolve as we learn.

This concludes my updates and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Good timing. I'm gonna take your forty five seconds that you had left on the clock and open the floor up to public speakers.

When I call your name, approach the podium and to the pub through the chair, to the public speakers. From my understanding, a group of you are exceeding time. Please make sure everyone is in a room that is exceeding their time to you. It's a max of five minutes. Miss Kathy Adams, Harman Herman and Petra, Derek Barnes, Michael Barnes, Samuel Adams, Paul Cobb, Lynn Turner, Stanley Cooper, Terrence Gilfillion Gilfillion, excuse me, if I mispronounced your last name, miss Asada, Mick Penn, Chadwick Spell, Jaylene Drew, Stanley have you twice, Derek Bonin Bonin, Dave Peters, and Carol Hoof.

Please state your name for the record.

And how many minutes? I have five.

Your max is five minutes. And if anyone is ceding their time to you, please allot them allow them to acknowledge themselves in the room.

They have Herman Adams is here.

Terrence Adams. Terrence Infilion is here. Terrence.

And Petra Brady.

Okay. And you have your max of five minutes. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. I won't be five minutes. I'll try to be quick. So good evening. I'm Kathy Adams of OAACC. I am here today on behalf of the Oakland African American Chamber Of Commerce and our coalition partners. I respectfully request that the supplement document provided to you be entered in an official meeting record. I emailed that document to everyone on yesterday. That was the supplement. First, I want to acknowledge and thank city administrator Johnson, council member Fife

To the public speakers, I'm gonna pause your time. Chair Fife does have a question.

Where did you send that document? To each of your emails. Okay. I'm gonna search right now. Staff, d three staff could help and search the d three inbox, I would appreciate that.

It went to all council members of the, life enrichment and then I subsequently sent the other four to the non, members.

You may proceed with your comment.

Okay. Should I start over? Was clock going? Should I start over?

Yes. No problem.

Alright. Thank you. So I'm here on behalf of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce and our coalition partners. I, respectfully requested that the supplemental document provided to you be entered in the official meeting record and that was emailed on yesterday from Kathy@oaacc.org. First, I want to acknowledge and thank city administrator Johnson, council member Fife for bringing the disparity study forward to the council and DWS staff for engaging in this process and hosting meetings, that that work matters.

But today, I'm here to say clearly, we have talked long enough and we need action. For six years, I have been a part of this fight. For twenty years, the city has completed disparity studies that all say the same thing. There are clear racial disparities in contracting. That question has already been answered.

Under the law and under basic fairness, once disparity is documented, the city has a duty to act. So the question today is not about more study. It's about our more discussion. It is about whether this council will act with urgency. Our coalition broke this down very clearly. Not everything requires new funding. Not everything requires long timelines. Some of the most important steps can happen days. Within thirty days, and, director Xpilar did say some of these things, but this is more about reinforcement in action. Within thirty days, you can establish odor of sight.

Within thirty days, you can fix the waiver process. Within thirty days, you can enforce prompt payment. Within thirty days, you can require transparency and reporting. Within thirty days, you can ensure federal compliance. These are administrative actions.

They do not require delay. They require will and not the word shall, shall. We usually have these reports and often time they say shall, but shall to me doesn't really state action. It's like a possibility perhaps, maybe, those sort of things. So we cannot continue also to talk about capacity while businesses are being locked out of opportunity.

Certification is not equity. A certified firm that never wins a contract is not success. It's failure. So today, we are asking you to move immediately on the items that can be done now within thirty days. Let the rest follow, but show us that you are serious about acting now.

The public, they're giving me a hard time. They don't trust the process. I keep telling them, council member Feife, she's been there, and she has. And I thank the other council members that are weighing in, particularly council member Janani that says she'll be talking about prompt payment again. But a lot has happened in these four past four years. A lot has not happened. So it feels good. It feels right. But because after six years of fighting this, I can tell you the community really is tired of talking. We are ready for results.

So as we move forward, and I certainly thank the city administrator, I certainly thank DWS. I also know that this is very critical. Our city administrator is busy. I would like to make, just a request that if he is absent when we're having these meetings, that we can have one of the deputy administrators, assistant administrators in the room so that we don't lose any momentum. And then finally, when we're meeting, I will feel more comfortable if we can get up the get up get rid of the word shall and say will. Thank you.

If I called your name and you're wishing to speak, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. You do have two minutes. If you're participating via Zoom, please please raise your hands so you're easily identified. We will take in person speaker before Zoom speakers. Thank you.

Chadwick Spell and Michael Baines, seating his time to me.

Michael Baines, are you in the room? Thank you.

Alright, so Kathy said a lot of what I was going to say, but I'm gonna stress one of the things around timelines. I've not been fighting this for six years like she has, but I've had the pleasure of understanding what has been done before me and honoring that. We have an opportunity that we have a city council, we have that is coming to yes, it came into some things after this last administration that was not so great, but you have an opportunity to fix it all. An opportunity to adjust everything that's been happening, but also honest opportunity to fail. And that's why this coalition has come together to make sure not only you win, the city wins.

And if we can get together and stay together, know, all the new stuff can can just go in the background and be positive and keep going. But if we cannot get the fundamental things in the city hall that can be done now done, it's not gonna be good. Because we're getting pressure. We're we're working in it. The city's working with it. Emmeline has been great. Justin has been great. It's everybody has this is the furthest we've gotten in this process in decades. People are listening. People are working.

People are trying. Don't let it be a waste because we can't get to November and a new election and new people come in and it's all for a waste. It's gonna be some fire at that point and you don't want that fire. So what I'm saying is you're gonna get pressure, but the pressure is love. Love of Oakland. That pressure is love and optimism of what you can do. As we put pressure, we want you to put pressure as well. The other piece is, first thing you look at is the waiver thing. The biggest issue is the waivers. That can be done and started now.

I don't care about all the input from departments, I'm being honest with you. It's a leadership thing that needs to happen now. This has to stop, it has to change, it has to be equitable. Period. Do the job. And after that, the construction workers here and the contractors that are not getting these jobs, once you get money they get money, they're Oakland. They get jobs, The city gets money. As much as we hire all these outside firms, their dollars go other places. The city needs the money to stay here. And outside of that, the trades are great, but you also have other contracts that we do for consultants, other services that we do.

That needs to be more visible and more accessible for all the other small businesses in Oakland that we have today. So all I'm gonna say is as we prepare

Thank you for your comment.

Madam Clerk, I think if someone wants to cede time to meet Jolene Drew, she's in the

Jolene, thank you. You may proceed. Thank you so much, Derek.

Great. Thank you. Chair Fife and committee members, Derek Barnes with East Bay Rental Housing Association, a member of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce speaking on behalf of the Disparity Business Coalition. What's in front of you today is an informational and certification report, and we respect the good work that administrator Johnson and director Espia has done so far in working with us. But Oakland's problem is not a certification problem.

For example, black owned firms specifically represent 27% of our certified construction vendor pool. If the Mason Tillman study documents, they receive a fraction of actual city construction and contract dollars. That gap between certification and contract is the disparity, and that disparity shows up downstream too. Why is the housing association involved? About 10% of our 1,500 members are actually industry supplier, vendors, tradespeople, and service providers.

After mortgage cost, and that's about 55% of rent collected, about 40% of Oakland's $2,800,000,000 in rental housing pays for fees, taxes, repairs, and contractor services. In other words, local jobs. When local businesses don't get these housing jobs and city contracts, the lost income potential doesn't circulate back into the community. This is the economic leakage in Oakland that I talk about all the time. Dollars don't circulate enough times for us to stabilize our communities, and this has changed this has to change immediately because it shows up as deferred maintenance and blight in families who can't rent or buy homes and communities that can't build wealth.

Contracting equity and housing stability are the same economic ecosystem. I will call your attention to a document that I hope you all have. It kinda lays out the connection between the pop the population of of blacks in Oakland to the homeownership and also what we're seeing in terms of unhoused, And that looks like this document. Hopefully, was circulated. By the coalition's estimate, African Americans have been locked out of about 1,500,000,000 in city contracts and economic opportunity over the last twenty five plus years.

Today's report has no contract award data, no waiver deadlines, no funding commitment. We have four disparity studies over twenty years confirming the same pattern. What we don't have yet are dates and firm commitments. You all know that I'm results oriented, and I think we need to move fast and we can immediate we can actually move on some very immediate action items as director Spia said and Kathy Adams noted that won't cost the city much. So the I asked that the Thank you, chair Fife.

So there are a few questions I wanna leave the committee with today to ask staff. Number one, what is the the specific deadline for waiver reform and timelines for the 20 recommendations in the staff's report? Number two, when will certified MWBE firms contract award outcomes be tracked and published? We recognize that there's a a a breach in the data between the certification of of of contractors and the actual contract information itself. And number three, will dedicated remediation funding be in the f y twenty twenty six and twenty seven budget proposal?

Yes or no? And I just wanna say skilling up our youth and young adults is paramount. I'm a beneficiary of the summer jobs program. I don't think I turned out too bad, so I think all of this can be connected. Thank you.

Good afternoon council and staff. My name is Lynn Turner and I'm with Construction Resource Center. And I'm just gonna piggyback on what some of the things that, they just said. And we have enjoyed a really good working relationship with the administrator and, DeWes with Emily's leadership. So we really really appreciate the progress that we've made so far.

And so one of the things that I wanted to mention is we need to adopt. It's a it's it's our working document. It's an operational document that's always gonna change and evolve in a sense. But how do we know how to track these things that we're working on? We need a document that we all, in a sense, have access to.

Like Google Docs, where you can actually input and track information and say where you are with things. For for example, now these are things we just learned by talking, we didn't even know this existed. But just by talking to the different groups, we learned that small companies, and we don't have any details yet, they don't have to do a bid bond. Bid bond is is huge, but we don't know that. They only have to, they being the small contractors, only have to bond half of what they bid.

So if they bid 500,000, they only have to bond 250,000. That's huge. But nobody knew that. So things like that should go on this working document as as a win. It could be a win because it really is a win. And when we look at this document, it's accountability. And that's what we're trying to do is make sure everyone is accountable even on our side. If things are supposed to happen, why didn't they happen?

Do you have time seated to you from someone to finish your comment?

Samuel Adams. Thank you.

And I only need maybe thirty thirty more seconds really, but the last part wait a minute. Am I talking? Okay. So the last part, the the document that we want as our working document. Let's say if the administrative staff changes. Let's say if I'm not around anymore, how do we get this document memorialized so that whoever's in charge, this is what we're working from. We don't have to start from square one. We we're starting from what all the hard work that we've all put in. Thank you.

For those individuals who haven't spoken yet who have speaker cards, please stand in line so we can know. We have public safety coming up in fifteen minutes.

I'll call your name, Paul Cobb.

I'm sorry, clerk. I I had a speaker card in. Mick Penn with Swinnerton. And sorry, Kathy.

Yes, sir.

I couldn't cede my time because I I did so my name is Mick Penn, director of community relations.

To the public speaker, you give me one second, please.

Sure. No problem.

Thank you. So we have Paul Cobb, Stanley Cooper, McPenn, Derek Bowen, Dave Peters, and Carol Hood. You may proceed. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, clerk. Chair Fife, council member Wong, Wang, Gayle, and Houston, I wanna thank you, council member Fife and Gayo. Hopefully, you remember me when this law was being pushed along. I work for a company called Swennerton Builders.

We've been in Oakland for well over thirty years. We built the Port Of Oakland building. We built the Ellington Hotel, multiple buildings in the 51st And Broadway. So I just wanted to thank council member Fife, chair Fife, for the legislation, the work that Dwess has done. We have over 50 Oakland employees that, you know, in our Bay Area group that are contributing and to be a part of the local business program as an l b e we're appreciative of.

I do wanna flag that I'm in agreement with director Esprit that we continue to see the program layout. I understand the seriousness of the issues that many of my colleagues are here speaking on, but I wanna tip my hat to Dwess. Yeah. Let's continue to look at the data. One of the things that I've seen is mobility around minority contractors on both sides of the bay that are adding competition to the marketplace and creating opportunities for black and brown businesses. So thank you.

Alright. So, first of all, before we start

Please state your name for the record to the public speaker.

Oh, yeah. I'm Stanley Cooper, native of Oakland, first generation contractor. So I I got someone to yield their time, so I'm I'm asking for the whole five minutes. Alright. Thank you.

So before we start, I'm hope

And to the public speaker who seated their time, are you in the room?

She's right there. And then also you see two cards they messed up, so that's a yield time.

Miss Assata already yielded her time to someone else.

Alright. But remember I had two cards, and one of them should have been for another so I want to use all my time on this. That's why I have two cards. Open form.

We're not an open form. We're on item eight, And missus Thoth already yielded her time, and you put your time your card in. It's only one card per item.

Is there anybody else in the audience who could yield some time to me?

You gotta do your best, Stanley. Get through it.

Alright. Anyway, Stanley Cooper, Cooper Construction Engineer. First of all, thank you everyone, director Espilia and and administrator Johnson. So look, to the waivers, we're asking for no more waivers to to be presented to city council in any form. All all the current waivers that's current now, we want those all to be dismantled immediately.

For example, you have a twenty five year waiver on sewer work. That does not help local companies grow. We need to stop that. So all all of the waivers, all of them that's current, we want those dismantled, and that's one of the things that can happen right away, like Kathy said. We want to also to all the lower local participation goals, we want those brought back up to 50%.

Right now, you have some projects out there. They're, like, 1816% for local participation. Once again, that that does not help generate local dollars right here in the city of Oakland. And if you do if they do need to be lowered, then they need to be reevaluated. Alright.

And also with the with the local community organization right here, we work with them. And we also wanna brought to you councilwoman of Fife's committee first before it comes to the city council so we can have, some negotiation right there. Prompt payments, we want that in fifteen days. It needs to be in the first page when you have invitation to bid, it needs to be on the first page so the prime and the subprime can read it together because primes are out there acting like pay when pay, and that's not right. Enforcement, we need enforcement on all projects.

We need local participation goals on all projects, including on the federal dollar projects. Anything come out

Stanley, do you have these, comments written?

I do. I'm

Can you share those with me, please?

Okay.

You could take a picture and text me.

Alright.

Thank you.

Am I done?

Yep.

I gave my time, but I did have thirty seconds when he walked away. So can I I can do it in thirty? I

I'm sorry, Sam. No. Y'all are trying to press me today. Thank you. Thank you.

Moving to our on Zoom speaker. Wu Can, you may unmute yourself. What name did you sign up under? Wu Wokan.

Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes. What name did you fill out for your card?

Dave Peters.

Thank you. You may begin your two minute comment.

Are online Zoom speakers able to see time of speakers in the room?

Yes. You may. Who would you like to seed your time to?

What is and what is the point of what I want to clarify, because I it was unclear whether that could happen. Perhaps that's something that should be clarified in the new rules that are, coming up. If there is somebody who who who wants to use this time, I I don't know who they would yeah. The last couple of days, I don't know it'll be I'll make I'll make these comments.

It can't you can't keep talking. Would you like to cede your time, mister Peters?

I because I didn't coordinate because there's not a way to coordinate with people,

know to cede your time, mister Peters? Okay. No. Please begin your two minute comment. Thank you.

You. We should need to facilitate a process that allows seating at time, know, quali ease more easily between people and Zoom and people in the room. We support the progress made on certification and the adjustments to the headquarters requirement. The report makes it clear that certification data does not reflect who actually receives contracts. The real opportunities in the second part of this report in the road map, regarding oversight, waivers, payment, capacity building, and forecasting.

These are systemic issues that require systemic solutions. We must shift from policy discussions to systems that produce measurable results. I'll say it again. We gotta shift from these policy discussions and go where the rubber meets the road. One of the ways to do that, we need to track contract awards, we need to maintain and implement department level accountability, and we must have transparency across procurement.

I think there's multiple years outstanding report due from the administration that identifies the small amount of grantees and I think that's multiple years in the waiting. Now as a third generation Oakland resident, these systems of divestment divestment on the state, federal state, county, and and Oakland municipal level against black folk are systemic and ongoing. And it is, you know, we we we pride ourselves in Oakland and talk good about how activist we are and all that we do, but we continue to maintain these same racist structures. And, you know, it's ironic that the county is about to produce a reparations commission's report, and the city of Oakland has yet to even make an acknowledgement or apology for long standing systemic racism issues. Let's hope that we have an open process to do the same.

And and first of all, we make sure that we treat our black contractors equitably because we know

That concludes your public speaker's right of me.

Wonderful. Wonderful. I I wanna take an opportunity for, the deputy city attorney I'm sorry. Deputy city administrator to reiterate, the statement that administrator Johnson made about the immediate shift towards a departmental administrative waivers being made because I don't I think that was missed. I know, one of the our public speakers said that the city administrator in his absence should have a deputy here, so I'm asking our deputy city administrator to restate that comment because I I believe what I heard, because I did not see this statement previous to coming into this meeting, was that waive those waivers were going to end effective immediately.

So if you could clarify that for me and for the public, I would appreciate that.

Thank you, chair Fife. Again, DCA Navarro. So the statement that city administrator Johnson shared was that based on the feedback from the focus groups that the SLBE waivers, he gave preliminary direction to the directors to halt these waivers. He's still getting feedback from directors, and we're hoping that that will be officially effective within the next week, but they are, at the moment, halted.

Okay. So they're not moving forward? Okay. So that is we're gonna get feedback from the

So we're still waiting to get feedback from other departments on what other waivers might be pending so that we could just assess fully. But for now, he has provided preliminary direction to halt the waivers.

Understood. I do want to address a question that council member Houston had, earlier that wasn't able to be addressed. So council member Houston, please go ahead. You have the floor.

Thank you. Through the chair, I just wanna say thank you for, I've been in office for fourteen months, and I I I feel good to stand beside you or sit beside you, council council member Fife, in fighting this SLBE policy that someone had mentioned that it's been a while. Me and my brothers, before in my other life, we've been fighting for twenty five years for this. And it's a little emotional to see that this is actually happening, and I see that some movement. And when I first came in the office, I spoke about stop these waivers.

Stop the waivers. Stop the waivers. Right? Because it does not make sense. And I'm looking at this right here, and I heard someone say it was three it was amended three times. And from my research with Trinity, it sent to me in my morning huddle today. Are ordinances considered amendments? And I'm asking that through the chair to the city attorney because ordinance one three one zero one was adopted '20 I mean, 12/2031. Then another ordinance was adopted, and that one was one three six four zero. That was 02/24/2021.

Then another ordinance was adopted. It was one three six four seven five four twenty '21. Then another one ordinance was adopted, one three eight one four ten one twenty twenty four, and one more was adopted. One three eight two five adopted 12/17/2024. So what what we've revised this many times. Right? And it's about implementation. What's different from all these revisions and ordinance that we're going to be able to do to implement this process? Implement this. We need to implement this.

This is going on for twenty five years, council member Fife. Twenty five years. Right? So I wanted to bring Lynn Turner. Mister Turner, can you come up real quick? And I want Sam to come up real quick too because I wanted you to elaborate on the the the how they monitor it, how they they do the research. Remember you had stopped, had got cut off on how they follow the process.

So so if if I can give an example of just what the assistant administrator just said.

To the public speakers, you do have one minute. Okay?

Okay. Thank you. So what the assistant administrator just said is that these waivers have been halted. But when she was speaking, didn't really know if that was really what she said. But what I was trying to say with this document, this working document, in that document we know exactly what's being done and why. If it's not being done, here are the reasons why. If it is being done or if it's completed, everyone knows. But we don't know how this waiver's moving. We don't know how do we track this stuff. So we need a process and that's what we need to develop.

Thank you for that. Alright. And mister Adams, what was being asked by council member Houston that mister Turner was speaking on that he was asking for elaboration for is the item that no one knew about, and maybe director Espeia you can support with this too. There was something around construction agencies not having to have the full bonding that they only have to have 50% of the bonding. I believe that was the question that you had. But mister Adams, if you could speak to that with your comments.

About about the bonding?

Yeah. That there would is that Yeah.

So if a contract required a if it if it's a $500,000 contract and you fit the requirements, you could bring a $250,000 bond and it it meets as if it was a $500,000 bond. So they basically split it in half. So that made it a little easier for a smaller contractor that maybe didn't have the bonding capacity or could bond up to 500,000, they could bond $2.50 but still have a $500,000 contract.

So it just makes it easier for Okay, we still got open forum y'all.

Big big sis told me a couple other things. So I I What also is important here is, it wasn't out to the contract community. So if there was a small contractor, it wasn't written nowhere, it wasn't a requirement in the bid documents, so nobody knew that. So once we spoke on it, and or when the committee spoke on it, we were like, nobody knew. And and that's that's huge because you have a requirement, it's for us, but it doesn't get out to the the community. So that that's the huge part and that's what basically what's Kathy saying. Yeah. And would you like me to go further?

Are you complete?

I am complete, but I will say, I will say thank you to the council for what you're doing. Thank you for these organizations, those four organizations that are supporting us. We're business owners and we need this. But we gotta push this to the finish line. We can't stop here. Headquarters was great. Right? Substantial completion, that's great. But that we can't just stop there. We gotta implement the rest of these things that are in there.

Understood. Thank you. Council member Houston, were you did were you finished with your comments?

Yeah. I just wanted to receive and accept this informational report also, along with what, our city administrator said about the the waivers too. So I just wanted to know is that that's froze right now by waiving through the chair?

Through the chair to council member Houston. So at the moment, yes, the waivers have been halted, and we're also waiting to hear back from other departments on what other waivers are pending so that we could review, and those will likely also be halted as well. But we'll have official communication, by end of week, if not early next.

Thank you. So I'd like to receive and accept this, informational report.

I will second that, and I will hear from council member Wong.

I just, one thing I wanted to ask about because I question why in the attachment, attachment the federal DBE contract compliance, why that is not aligned. I ask that because I do think that with our construction contracts we have a big opportunity to close these disparities and at the same time a condition of getting and being compliant with federal funding, federal U. S. DOT funding is to have a DBE program. So it's also about making sure that now albeit this administration is trying to dismantle that but Congress nonetheless authorized the DBE program. And so I'm just wondering why that is not aligned.

Thank you for that question. And I may be well, director Spia, if you could come and elaborate to answer. We are running a bit over and we still have open forum speakers to hear from, but it's my understanding that the program was on pause. If the if things have changed over the last couple weeks, please elaborate. But from what I understand, the federal program is currently on pause and people are waiting to see if they are reconfirmed after the federal requirements that did not allow to acknowledge women or gender and race in federal designations has been changed. Well, if you could speak to it, you know this better than

I do. You you got it though though, council member Fife. So, yes, there's an interim final rule in October that the DBE program that presumes gender and race as disadvantage was was halted. So we are a subrecipient of funds from both Caltrans and BART. We received communication from them that we had to halt all of our DBE activities, oversight, cuff reviews, everything related to assessing DBEs until the state or the certifying agencies can recertify DBEs as disadvantaged not using the presumption of gender and race.

I know that Caltrans gave folks until late last week to resubmit certification applications with the new narrative. And at this time there are no firms in the state of California that have been recertified as DBEs.

Okay, that's helpful. I just wanna make sure when we hopefully do have a new administration in place and these decisions are reversed that our city is well positioned to be in compliant with the federal government and also reduce our disparities. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who's been participating in this process. We do have an emotion and a second on the floor. I will say I'm very sensitive to the concerns of the community and feeling like things are not going to move forward. I'm not gonna let that happen on my watch, and I know my colleagues feel the same way. So we will continue this. Thank you, council member Houston. Thank you to all my colleagues, and I will, call for the vote. Thank you.

Thank you, chair five. We do have a motion made by council member Houston, seconded by chair five, to receive and file this in life enrichment committee. Unroll. Council member Gaia?

Aye.

Thank you. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. Thank you. And chair five? Aye. The motion does pass with four ayes to receive and file this in the life enrichment committee. Moving to open forum, miss Asada and Philip Birdsong.

Oh, okay. So I'm I'm gonna ask for five seconds just to check the pulse in the room. Would doctor Randall please stand up? Doctor Randall right here. So I'm gonna ask everybody in the room if a fire alarm went off right now and we had to evacuate. Show of hands, how many people would help this woman down the steps? Raise your hand. You guys on the days too. Raise your hands. That seems pretty unanimous.

Seems pretty unanimous. However, human service director and department of adult aging is telling us not to. It's a masterpiece of bureau bureaucratic insanity. They actually made it illegal to be a good neighbor. The policy says other participants, that's us, are not allowed to provide assistance if our buddy is struggling with bus steps. It's a watch them fall policy. It's an assault on the ADA. It's It's an insult to low income seniors because the alternative is they suggest you bring a professional care attendant. Yeah. Right.

We need to tell human services and department of adult agent to strike the mandate. Don't let them bury this in a paragraph about safety. It's not safe to leave a senior stranded because their friends are afraid of getting in trouble for helping. This isn't just about safety protocols. This is a moral failure.

The city administration is teach is treating a senior's outstretched hand as an illegal threat rather than an act of grace. They are telling us the city's insurance premium is more valuable than our human dignity. And under the federal ADA act, we have the right to mutual consent. If I choose to help a friend and my friend chooses to accept that help, it's a protected civil

Thank you so much for your comment. Your time is up. It was. Thank you. Miss Asada? You can't you're it's no saving time on open forum.

I'm sorry. I was okay. That's okay. This youth summer opportunity can take and that's what I was trying to speak to you, miss Navarro, can take another step. You can have internships nonpaying where young people get the experience.

I'm looking for my grandchildren to have experiences where there's nothing to do with money. It has with the opportunity for you to learn skills that you need. And what I mean by that with these young boys, how to talk to people, how to be on time, like I was mentioning before. So is it possible that we can do outreach for internships with companies, particularly health field, nursing homes, to have people come in voluntarily to learn. I'm trying to get my grandson to go into the medical profession.

I'm looking for an internship in any health capacity this summer that he can seek service. He did it last they did last year with councilmember Miley. You're not go it's not about money. It's about you needing to learn skills and talents, how to work with people, how to appreciate giving to the community. So could that be taken under consideration? I would much appreciate it. Thank you.

So it looks like the answer was yes. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.