City Council - meeting_joint

Good afternoon, and welcome to the city council meeting of Tuesday, 01/20/2026. Before I call roll, I will go over speaker card instructions. If you would like to speak on any item on this agenda, please vote on speaker's card before the item is called for discussion or two hours after the start of this meeting. This meeting was called to order at 03:30, so your last opportunity to sign up to speak will be at 05:30PM or before the item is called, whichever comes first. If you'd like to sign up to speak, please get a card and hand it to a clerk representative at the front or if you were looking to sign up to speak online, that time has passed as online speaker cards are due twenty four hours before the start of this meeting.

On roll, council members Brown? Present. Council member Fife? Present. Council member Gayle?

Present.

Council member Houston? Present. Council member Ramachandran? Present. Council member Unger?

Present.

Council member Wong? Present. And chair Jenkins?

Present.

Showing eight members present at this time. Chair Jenkins do you have any announcements before we begin?

Announcements.

Going to item three modifications to the agenda and procedural items including but not limited to request to reschedule items from consent to non consent items to the next council agenda speak on consent calendar register votes or change order of items or pull items held in committee.

To president Pro Tem Guayo 6.9 Caltrans maintenance agreement. So in committee you voted no and the mayor's office attempted to reach you. Would you like us to pull that off of consent or do you want to register a no vote on the consent?

Will continue and I have communications with public works and other members of the city administration. And I will continue to vote no on on the consent item, Caltrans maintenance agreement amendment on page 10 s 6.9. And do I need to explain it now or no. Then then the other item that that I would like to consider in no vote is page 11 s point six, the MOU between OPD and the Santa Clara Police Department.

Okay.

To send OPD over to monitor the game. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. We will register that at the appropriate time. Anybody want to pull anything off of consent? If not, we can send the staff members home that are on consent. Thank you. Number three.

Going to item four which will be consideration of items with the statutory public hearing. You do have one public hearing. I need a motion to open the public hearing.

So moved. Second.

On the motion by council member Gaillos, second by council member Houston to open the public hearing. Council member Brown? Aye. Council member Fife? Aye. Council member Gayle? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Council member Unger? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Jenkins.

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of eight ayes. Now reading the item into record. Conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt a resolution confirming the report and notice of liens for delinquent business taxes with penalties, interest, and administrative and assessment charges and overruling any protests and objections related to the liens included in said report and authorizing the recordation of liens and directing the notice of lien and assessment charges be turned over to the county tax collector for collection. There are four speakers on this item.

Good afternoon and happy new year everyone. My name is Nicole Welch, revenue and tax administrator. I'm before you. Staff recommends the adoption of the proposed resolution which will authorize the placement of liens on real property for unpaid city of Oakland business taxes and authorize the subsequent assessment pursuant to chapter five point o four of the Oakland municipal code. Should the fees and charges remain unpaid prior to the transfer recording of set special assessment levies to the Alameda County tax collector and auditor controller for inclusion on the next property tax roll.

The liens will be recorded against the number has gone down is 1,800 properties parcels in the amount of $5,186,449.10, as well as $397,075 administrative fees for a total property tax roll of 5,583,524 door dollars and 10¢. The proposed assessments represent delinquent taxes for residential and commercial properties up to tax year 2025. Failure to place liens to recover the delinquent taxes will result in a loss of $5,583,524.10 in revenues to the general purpose fund. I am here if you have any questions.

Thank you. Let's go to the oh, count no. Councilmember Moran Missandre.

Thank you for doing this effort on a super timely basis so we can recruit funds that are owed to us as a city for for business taxes. I have a question. So the $5,000,000, which I realize is a little less because you brought down the number of delinquent parcels, which notably is great in as an indication that your efforts on educating the public is paying off, that more folks are actually paying before it goes to through the lien process, so thank you for that. Is the number that is here the actual amount of delinquent amount itself and then the administrative fees is that 397 on top?

It it is a very rough number. Remember the report was written several like about a month ago. The number has gone down dramatically. We had at the timing of this report of through the chair, I'm sorry. At the timing of the report, we have 650 49 properties that have actually were removed from the initial 2,918. We have now removed 1,100 properties and counting. I just got one from council member Unger that will be removed. So that number the final number we will have that tallied up prior to us actually rolling it to the tax roll which will be in August.

Great. Thank you. And so delinquent owners have an ability to pay today. Is that

They have an ability to pay today and all the way up until 08/10/2026.

Great. Thank you.

Council member Wong.

Hi. Director Welch, thanks for this presentation. I think the last time you came before counsel either in finance and management, one of the things I had raised was that we have a number of businesses especially in District 2 but I'm sure it's throughout Oakland of just problem businesses that either drugs, unlicensed smoke shops even though they're not, they don't have their tobacco retail license. We sent you a list. Have you been able to see if at all there is this connection in the phenomenon of not paying your business taxes and being a problem business or nuisance business?

Through the chair, we are right now we haven't had an opportunity to get back out into the field. We're right now we're doing the assessment. We're right now in the process of doing the business tax renewal. We started the business tax renewal on December 10 where it's a 20% increase from there. However, I would like to draw attention that we are going out to the senior centers and doing the renewal with our seniors, our elderly community.

We are contacting different businesses. Your list is one that's queued up for a call. However, we are also working with your office with the the legislation that you will be presenting as far as that is concerned. However, I cannot say that there's a correlation between not paying your business tax and being a problem business.

Okay. Okay. Thanks for following up on that.

Council member Houston and council member Gaio.

Hello. How are you?

Hi.

Through the chair, I had some constituents. I want to know who do they report to or ask. They received business tax assessments against their residential property. Like it was being rented out but they were living there. Who would I address them or send them to to get that fixed because it was rolled over to the county assessors because they didn't pay for it because they live there. Who would I address them or send them to?

Through the chair, they can reach out to the citywide lean group. The telephone number, just in case anyone needs that, is (510) 238-7474. We are taking phone calls from 8AM to 4PM, Monday through Friday, except holidays. We also address things via our email, which is citywideliens@oaklandca.gov. We are also accessible via a chat. When you go onto the website, they can have they can reach out to us via the chat. And we are also our walk in offices, our hours are Monday through Friday, 8AM through 4PM. We're closed for lunch from twelve to one.

Through the chair. Can they make an appointment to come in?

They can make an appointment. However, we're walk in anytime. We're available. We're accessible.

Thank you. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you for that information. So the city of Oakland collects approximately $5,000,000 per year?

Through the chair, not necessarily. Remember, we're catching up on a lot of things that had not been leaned in prior years. So this right here is representative of up to 2025. So there could be years such as 2023, '24, and then 2025. So I would say on average, if we were doing what we were supposed to do, I can't give you that number as it stands because at this particular point in time, the bureau is actually cleaning up and going back to the past so that we can move forward with the future, which is 2026.

And when will you have that information available? Considering the fact that it's money generating due to the fact we didn't collect what we should have collected in the previous years.

Last year, we brought to counsel $7,000,000 in liens in July 1. This is representative of the items that were not included there. So that will be an additional 5,000,000.

Okay. And that money when we collect that money specifically, what is that money used besides just being in the general purpose fund?

It goes into the general purpose fund. I'm just the revenue, I don't do the expenditures.

Okay. Then secondly, what role does Alameda County does is Alameda County also involved in the collection due to the fact that I as a homeowner, I pay my taxes directly to the county as well.

August 10 of each due to chair. August 10 of each year, if the item is left unpaid, we then put it on your secured property tax for twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven. And then when you receive your property tax bill in around October or November of this year, then you would actually pay it if you had a balance from us on there. So Alameda County serves as an they an as an instrument of actually collecting it off of your secured property tax.

Okay. So we're in cooperation with Alameda County?

Absolutely.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you for that information.

Thank you. Let's go to the public speakers.

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order. Please state your name before beginning. If you are on Zoom, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you still wish to speak. Richard Allen Serrado the second, Dick McClay, Miss Asada Olubala, Derek Barnes. In any order, please approach the podium. Please state your name before you begin.

Hi. My name is Richard Allen Searle the second. I'm inquiring about Property 363 Oakland Avenue. I am a personal that's my personal residence that I live in. I do have some income from rental like like this council member was talking about.

And I have received an assessment for a business property business tax delinquency that I didn't know about. I just recently, with all discovery in this, found out that my all my mail for this property, because I own next store also, 375 Oakland Avenue, has been going to my father, which we have the same exact name and he owned property in Oakland. It's been going to his residence and he's been passed since '21. So I recently have done my estate planning, and so now I'm finally getting mail for this property, and this was my first letter. So I made sure to show up to kinda resolve these issues.

I didn't know I

need to have a a

business tax for my personal residence. So I'd like to get this issue resolved. That's all I have to say.

We appreciate you and we'll have there'll be an opportunity to speak with staff. Yeah. Through

chair. We are through the chair, we have I have staff down in Hearing Room 2 who will resolve your account if you would like to go. Yes. You can.

Okay. Well,

no. Through the chair. You can we're waiting. We're waiting. Just to be very clear, I have staff on standby who we're having a parallel hearing. If you would like to resolve the account or if you want to bring different or additional items, we're down in Hearing Room 2.

My name is Dick McClay. This is about a property on 34th Street. It's a rental property. And apparently, I omitted making the business tax payment for the 2025. I discovered that when I got this notice of of a lien in the meeting today.

And I haven't had an opportunity to take care of it in between. I tried to do it this afternoon, but I was directed to come here instead. So here I am. And the reason I'm here is that I wish the amount of the lien were in fact valid, but we have a lot of vacancy now in Oakland, and I have a lot of vacancy. So it's just a little over half of the lien amount, which is actually the amount that was due. And so I'd like to get that straightened out and get it paid, but I was directed to come here instead. So what do we do?

Through the

chair, sir, you can go down the Hearing Room too. I have team I have team members who are there who will get your proper gross receipts and they'll be able to give you an adjusted bill.

Okay. So

They're in Hearing Room 2 down on the Bottom Level. Hearing Room 2.

Hearing Room 2, thank you.

I just had a question to our public speaker through the chair. Who directed you to come to the city council meeting versus going to Hearing Room 2? Who gave you that information?

I went to a couple of different places where I started across the street somewhere and then they sent me down the street somewhere who sent me here. I I don't know exactly who was who.

No worries. The 5th Floor

was the last one of a different building.

The 5th Floor.

5th Floor of a of a building over there.

Okay. I I don't normally come to to this area.

No worries. It but you said you received your notice today?

No. No. I it's dated the ninth, but I was out of town. So You know, I I I had hoped to do it yesterday, but I discovered that we were celebrating somebody's and so he's a great man. We should celebrate him. I remember his march on Washington. It was fabulous.

But I didn't realize it

was yesterday that we were celebrating.

Not a problem. Just wanted to get some clarity. Definitely go to here in Room 2 to get all your issues resolved.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

So

It's happening too much.

I went to the city's web page and it's unreal, the number of businesses that close monthly in the city of Oakland. So in November, 89 businesses closed in 2025. 48 in October, 88 in September, 54 in August, 82 in July, 99 in June. Now, y'all having this discussion about liens on property. You're not going to be collecting a whole lot of business taxes if this volume of businesses are closing, and just today I read that the only boutique hotel in the city of Oakland is closing.

I also read through some documents that 35,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in Oakland between 02/2019. And today, about one out of fourteen homeowners end up in foreclosure in Oakland. So, you're putting a lien on people, but have you decided to look at the fact that people are struggling? And we are struggling with mortgage increases, rate of mortgage increases, construction work increases. We're struggling with the fact that this crazy man is causing us to have all kind of financial economic struggles.

And where's my clock? Twenty seconds. I do not understand how mister Gallo's issue that I completely agree with needed to be vetted more. I did not know that the mayor has the power to take an item that is been recommended for

Thank you, miss Olabala. Your time is up. Moving to our Zoom speakers. Derek Barnes, please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Hi, city clerk. Can you hear me?

Yes. Go ahead.

Great. Thank you, everyone. Good afternoon to the council members, and, thank you, director Welch, for your proactive activities, thus far, to get into the delinquency, matter that seems to be plaguing the the city for some time now. Just a couple observations and questions. In 2025, the overall delinquencies are still higher than in 2023 as owners are still under significant financial strain due to rent regulations, increasing utilities, taxes, insurance premiums, and rising property costs.

To miss Asado's point, there's still sort of some struggle and financial pressures out there. I also know that there's a critical change in the classification patterns between 2024 and 2025, particularly involving single family homes and multifamily properties. Wondering if there's some additional explanation around that. I would even say that, you know, just understanding what the specific reasons for, the increases were between 2023, 2024 may be helpful. The 2024 data may have some, I don't know, anomalies in it, which may be artificially inflating the numbers.

My concern is that we're using that data to introduce housing policy like we did in 2024 that was adopted by counsel without having good verification and validation methods. We want to make sure that we have clean data. And then I would say, what are the reasons for the sharp delinquency decreases from 2024, 2025? And then finally, is there any data available about why owners are delinquent? I think that's really important.

What support and assistance might they need like we're hearing today, because we want to be careful not to set up the same scenarios where our legacy elderly and disabled and lower income owners and their families lose their properties like we've seen done in the past. We don't want to commit those same

Thank you, Mr. Barnes, for your comments. Mr. Chair, that was the last speaker. All names were called.

Thank you so much. So through the chair and to staff, thank you for bringing this report. I think that my question is kind of in line with the last public speaker. I know that the report states that in 2023 we had eight sixty nine and then it kind of continued to increase almost 2,000 in 2024 and then well over 2,000 in 2025. And so I was curious, you know, what is the do you have an understanding of why there's that increase?

Through the chair,

I at this point I couldn't answer that question. This was not a program that I was actually in charge of. I would absolutely go back and find out why there was a discrepancy in a decrease or an increase in delinquency.

Okay. Yes I would be curious to see you know what that question, you know how you would answer that question based on the research that you're able to do. And then I think that the other question that I would also ask is as we're comparing other jurisdictions how do we compare? So like are they seeing, so when it comes to the delinquency rate are other cities also seeing the same increase as well?

I will bring that research back.

Okay, excellent. Thank you. I'll follow-up via email as well.

Thank you.

Council member Gail?

Yes. Yes. Could could you one of our our speakers presented the information about the business closures that we have had throughout the years monthly. Could you provide that information for the council members?

Through the chair, yes, we can. However, we would also bring to you how many businesses were opened. Okay. So we will look at the we would need to have the amount that were closed and then the amount that is open. So I think that if you would look at the data, it will probably it it would probably negate it.

Thank you, Inouyev. That that's extremely valuable for us to considering the discussions on the budget are gonna increase in the near future. So then the other one that was brought up was about there was another hotel that's planning on closing

Through the chair? I

I'm sorry? On

telegraph? Okay. I or anyway, so if you can share that information with us, it'd be great. Thank you.

Thank you. That come in I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

Motion to close. Second.

On the motion to close the public hearing and would that same motion be adopting the resolution?

Is that a yes council member Bruce? On

the motion to close the public hearing and adopt the resolution with staff's recommendation, Council member Brown. Council member Brown. Aye. Council member Fife. Aye. Council member Gaio.

Aye.

Council member Houston. Council member Houston. Aye. Council member Ramachandran. Aye. Council member Unger. Aye. Council member Wong. Aye. And chair Jenkins.

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of eight ayes. That was your only public hearing. Going to the non consent calendar starting with item 5.1, adopt one of the following pieces of legislation. A resolution accepting the police commission selection panel slate of Ricardo Garcia Acosta and Omar Farmer to serve on the Oakland Police Commission or a resolution rejecting the police commission's selections panel slate of Ricardo Garcia Acosta and Omar Farmer to serve on the Oakland Police Commission. There are 12 speakers on this item.

Okay, so we'll start with two minutes for the selection panel. Is there somebody from the selection panel gonna speak?

Thank you. We resubmitted this, I'm just gonna, I thought she was gonna speak so let me go real quick. We resubmitted the same two names at our December 18 meeting. They still were the top ones out of the seven candidates that we got. At that meeting, we also determined that we're gonna go through, there was a lot of public speaking.

We were asked why we went from 100 and so candidates down to seven. Public did give a lot of comments saying that because there was two viable candidates that were already on the panel that they were good options. Both candidates have a lot of pluses and minuses from the community, but we have our own criteria and we use that criteria and we have criteria cards which tell us that are they able to work with other members. There was a lot of back and forth and one of the things I've asked for for counsel is we usually only do our work from April to October because it's on consent. So each one of our meetings is a special meeting and then in September when we get all the candidates, we could have three or four meetings in that month.

But with a rejection or a plus, we would like some feedback from you of what you're looking for because I think our selection was outreach was well done. I do know that staff has put in, we said one of the things that we did ask is that they have a communication budget. I heard that's been approved. So it sounds like the city's gonna work with us to help us with some publicity. So I think we have some good alternatives for our October 1. But we don't meet regularly so the December 18 meeting was even a surprise for us.

Thank you.

Okay,

staff. Oh go ahead, council member.

Ms. Monique, you had mentioned that I had heard that individuals didn't submit because they had thought that these two candidates were going to be reappointed anyway. And I heard that so that's like they already thought they were a shoe in so that's why individuals didn't submit their application.

So correct. As I just said, some of the feedback we got at our December 18 meeting was because counsel said they asked why we got from a 100 to 10. I'm just gonna use those round numbers. And one of the reasons that we did hear was that we had two viable good candidates that already on and they were reappointments. So they believe that was one of the reasons why we had a lower count. Since then, I think we have a new group of 13 that are interested.

And through the chair. Also, I see some dates here that they had met for five months like a hundred and forty nine days and then one of the individuals on the selection committee, mister Page, couldn't even come because it was just off on off on. I mean, wasn't any set times and he had no input. He's here today and I had asked him to come up and just speak and share with us. To share with us what was his concern because if he's a part of the selection committee, he should have some input and show and speak to what his concerns were.

So we meet special meetings because we don't meet, you know, most panels and committees meet monthly. We meet from if you look on our they're not our bylaws, they're our processes. We set the schedule in January and we meet from usually April to October and then those meetings have to be negotiated in it. So after this round, the November, the December meetings are all special meetings that we do have to try to figure out how to get consensus and quorum at those meetings because they're not normally planned. And to your point, Councilman Houston, the last one was December 18.

I had to forego two things to try to make that meeting. And then we also have families, children's work. So it would help us to have it two months in advance, but we are a special committee that is only supposed to meet a short time. And I smile because when Councilman Gayle put me on this, he's like, no, it's only a couple months work. And now it's becoming hours and hours of work.

So once once more through the chair, I received I don't know if you was able to see the supplemental that council member Brown brought forward. It's so many concerns here that's just just incredible. I'm talking about from outreach to the the process to the the the strategy. I mean, it's just community teams that they said they were involved with, community partners, stockholders. I wanna know who they were. It's much here that needs to be addressed so we gotta do a thorough conversation on this president.

Who was that from? Sorry.

This is from it's a supplemental from council member Brown which was well thought out. Well and some of the most of the concerns is that I had. And also it's like two recommendations here, resolution accepting or reject ing and it's one or two and I'm gonna I'm gonna say number two.

We haven't I don't think we received that. We did? Okay. Yeah. Haven't had it in one of our meetings though.

Right? Okay.

We haven't talked it in a meeting but it has been emailed to us.

So Thank you.

Miss miss Satter, you're out of order. Okay. Council member Houston, does that conclude your Through the chair.

Wanted I don't know when I can have mister Page to come up to speak because I like to So hear what they're meant to

so the selection committee spoke. Right? So now gonna hear from staff, then we'll hear from the candidates. Okay. And then if you wanna hear from someone and

Yes.

And I have a bunch of questions here.

Okay.

Good afternoon, council president Jenkins and members of the council. Felicia Verden, assistant to the city administrator. I have a very brief presentation for you regarding the selection panels process up to this point and and moving forward. So I will go on and I have a PowerPoint presentation here that you can see. There we go.

So just as a reminder, measures l l and s one were voter approved and established the police commission and the police commission selection panel. The police commission consists of seven members and two alternate commissioners. The police commission's duties include oversight of the community police review agency, office of the inspector general, and hiring and removing the police chief among other duties. The nine person selection panel is responsible for nominating four commissioners and one alternate. Can Please help.

Thank you. The selection panel's nominations process started in the 2025. The selection panel conducted an extensive community engagement process encouraging community members to apply to serve on the police commission. During the summer months of 2025, the selection panel conducted two rounds of interviews and conducted reference checks. On October 21, as you all will recall, the city council unanimously rejected the selection panel's nominations.

And the panel met again after that October 21 meeting on October 28 excuse me. On 12/18/2025, the panel voted unanimously to resubmit its original slate of Ricardo Ricardo Garcia Costa as a full commissioner and Omar Farmer as an alternate commissioner. Since your last meeting since that meet the the since the excuse me. Since the city council rejected the slate on 10/21/2025, The city administrator's office has engaged in recruiting additional police commissioners and updated its recruitment flyer, the selections panel, the police commission recruitment flyer translated to Spanish and opened a continuous recruitment process. Through that process and some applications that were received from the summer during the summer recruitment that the panel did not review, So there are a total of 13 new applications have been received.

The panel has not conducted any new interviews since its July 20 since its last meeting since since its July 2025 meeting. However, the selection panel did establish an ad hoc committee on December 18 to make improvements to its recruitment and selection process. The city administrator's office will continue to work with the panel, city of Oakland's communications team, and stakeholders throughout the the community to further its police commission recruitment efforts through a well thought out marketing strategy. And I had a conversation with our our community engagement coordinator this afternoon to discuss the creation of a marketing strategy for the police commission. And at this time, recommends that the city council adopt one of the following pieces of legislation as identified in your agenda packet.

Accept the police commission selection panel's recommendation of Ricardo Garcia Costa and Omar Farmer or reject the police commission selection panel slate of Ricardo Garcia and Omar Farmer to the police commission. And that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for staff at the moment? Seeing none, oh council member Houston.

Yes. I'd like to know it says here partner with local organizations. It says which organizations did you partner with to to advertise advertise this? This?

Mississa Satter, you are out of order. Satter, you are out of order.

Through council president Jenkins, council member Houston, it's clear I think to everyone that the panel will continue to partner. They so the panel has a list of nonprofit organizations that they communicate with regarding the recruitment efforts for the police commission. However, the the recruitment strategy that was presented to the panel on December 18 lays out even further recruitment efforts, tabling at community events, more social media, marketing and engagement and there's a and with the partnership of course of city council as well, we would like to we will continue recruiting for the police commission.

Also on the flyers my my my district is major Latinos and so is council member Gallo's and it says you just guys just did a Spanish flyer transition translation flyer?

Correct. We translated the fly the flyers in English and Spanish.

But it

And and also, excuse me, council member Houston, the flyer was emailed to your office, to all of the council members' offices. And so you should have the flyer in your email and we can provide you with additional copies of the flyer if you need it.

Yeah. I I just got the English one. We can let the audience being president and I have some more questions. Yeah I got a bunch more.

Council member

Brown.

Thank you. I would like to hear from the public speakers first if that's appropriate.

Okay. Council member Fife do you want to wait for the public or you want to get to it?

I'm I'm happy to hear the public speakers first. I just wanna make sure that we're speaking to the item in front of us, the agenda item in front of us was which is the qualifications or lack of qualifications for the two candidates. So I I wanna get clarity on what we're voting on.

To the parliamentarian, two questions. What are we voting on and is it appropriate to ask about recruitment and other things?

Through the chair to the council. So the item before you is comprised of two pieces of legislation. One is a resolution accepting the police commission selection panel slate of nominees and the other is a resolution rejecting the slate of nominees. And to your second question, council president?

Miss Milley, you're out of order. So the second question, is it appropriate to have questions about processes?

To the extent that your questions are related to the two candidates before you, then it would be appropriate.

Does that suffice, council member?

Yeah. I also think I I want the public to understand the moment in which we had the highest number of applicants to the police commission is when the police commission was formed. Right? So immediately after the police commission was formed, you had people from all over the city of Oakland wanting to participate in what the nation saw to be the strongest accountability mechanism created in the entire nation. And it's based on a history of of concerns and issues that are are we're we're not done with in the city of Oakland.

And it feels like we're veering off into a conversation about process, which I I agree with is important, but unless there was some nefariousness or some I wasn't here when this was initially discussed so I'm I'm hoping that staff or my colleagues can explain to me the problems with the candidates that would require us to go into a deeper review on the candidates because what I heard from the selection committee and what I reviewed and watching the meeting again, I didn't hear any problems that were validated about the candidates. So that's what I'm trying to ascertain today with the decision that I make around whether I move them forward or reject it. So I haven't heard anything about the candidates being problematic that has been substantiated. Is does that exist somewhere that I I didn't see it in the supplemental, I didn't hear it?

So a couple of things. To that question, I think any of your colleagues are free to answer that question or staff. Also, we still need to hear from the two candidates as well as the public and I think that's when we'll get a wider conversation. Okay. Any other council member comments before I call out the candidates? Council member Houston.

Yes. So I would like to know one of the selection committee candidates wasn't even able to to speak. He wasn't even the the meetings were so he's here now. Would like to hear what he had to say.

Council member, we'll get him in the queue. Alright.

Yeah. Just for Felicia, miss Verdin, Just for for the council's information, I have heard that well, first of all, mister Ricardo Garcia Costa continues to serve as the chairperson, president?

Yes, council. Through the chair. Yes, council member Gaillard. Both candidates concern continue to serve in a hold over hold over status.

And but I had heard that he was reelected to be the president, mister Garcia, by the commission.

That's my understanding as well.

Yeah. Okay. So he was reelected by the commission to be his continuing president of the commission. Thank you for that information.

Thank you.

Thank you. Can the two candidates come up, chair and, mister Palmer? King of them. I had a good amount of time.

Good evening, thank you for the invitation to come to speak. Are there any questions that anyone has that I could answer? Okay. I guess one thing I wanted to point out to the parliamentarian before I get started is that I believe in the agenda packet that's been posted there's only a resolution to reject us. So I'm not sure if that's the only thing being considered.

I believe it may be written in the package that miss Verden prepared, but as far as resolutions being considered, that's the only one that I could find online. But thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. I never take it for granted to come here and speak to city council. It's always been a really proud thing for me to be able to do with the other commissions that I've been on as former chairperson of the SSOC. And I feel like I've always had a really good working relationship with City Council.

You know we worked together to update the burglary ordinance for a new verified response requirement that improved nine eleven response times for OPD. That was something that OPD agreed with. We all worked together on that. That was a long process. I also, we set up a meeting to listen to the ASAP to PSAP presentation, which would improve the 09:11 call centers call answering times by up to 20%.

That was about maybe a year and a half ago. And I remember everyone being excited about that and potentially adopting that. So those were very constructive conversations that we had right here in the chamber. Some of you were still here back then, but a lot of you are new, didn't have the opportunity to hear that. And at our last joint public safety meeting, we also were going to work together with up to two council members on creating a resolution to sponsor the rest of the SSOCs recommendation.

So in terms of being a commissioner here for the city of Oakland, we've had a lot of success in that regard in terms of working together. I've been really proud of that work. Since I've been on the police commission, you know, I also served concurrently on other Brown Act governed bodies such as the chairperson of the Transit Security Advisory Committee for BART, previous chairperson of the Alameda County Veterans Affairs Commission for the county obviously. And I did all that concurrently while serving in my first year as a police commissioner. So I've done a lot of work and dedication, and there's never been any drop off in in production.

And we've worked very well. The commission's worked very well together since I've been on there. You know our chair has done a great job. I don't think anyone should be surprised that people voted to have him reappointed because you know the culture of the police commission has significantly improved under his leadership. I'm proud to have been a part of that. You should applaud, thank you.

Thank you Mr.

Farmer,

your So time is

one question. Did you wanna wrap it up?

Yeah, just a couple other things. Yeah. Know, but I also spearheaded the creation of the mental health ad hoc committee for the police commission and that's to make sure that the police department is receiving all the best treatment in terms of mental and emotional health. As you know, I'm sure of the NSA ad hoc. I do a lot of things out in the community for veterans.

I'll be participating in the point in time report on Thursday. Since my application was submitted, I've had multiple homeless veteran resource fair events and adopt a veteran event, operation green light. That's why you saw this building lit up illuminating green lighting which is to recognize veterans, give them some hope and support. I recently participated in Alameda Point press conference with all the local elected officials. People reached out to me to come there and discuss why we felt that the White House cut the funding for the Alameda Point project.

So I work well together with a lot of different entities here, not just in the city of Oakland, throughout the county. And I feel like I've been an asset to the city and I would love to continue in that capacity.

Thank you.

And just one one one more thing. No, it's all good. You know, and this has been said publicly and stuff about OPOA potentially being involved in this process. I wanna be clear, I want the police department to succeed. You know it's always been my top priority to help the city get out from under federal oversight. And I don't I don't you know, I'm not here to make any allegations or anything, but it is a self governance issue if that is true. That's the last remaining issue for them to get out from under federal oversight. And I think that's why a lot of people are passionate about, know, preventing that from happening if it did happen. That's all.

Thank you. A question mister Farmer. One question for you. One question for you. So are you aware of any issues that would prevent counsel from voting in favor of your slate today?

No I'm not. Thank you.

Good afternoon, counsel. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here. I appreciate the conversation. Definitely appreciate the comments made by council member Fife and the curiosity of the merits of our reappointment.

I stand here today in a little bit of a different space than I was last time. I I think I wanted to apologize if I came off a little bit frustrated, a little bit flustered, which I was the last time because I was really hoping to talk about the merits of our candidacy and where we're heading as a police commission, as a city, as one family that I think that we've been really able to move forward over the last year and a half, almost two years that I've been a part of it and for the most part of my time serving as chair. So you all have my packet, my original packet that I submitted I believe back in April, believe, quite some time ago. Not much has changed. I come here with twenty five years of service to the Bay Area, particularly open Oakland serving families impacted by violence, impacted by homicide.

I've had a unique purview of the Oakland Police Department and how to build those relationships between community and police. And that's what got me to apply in the first place. And I never thought I'd be sitting in this chair in this position as chair leading the commission, but I have been. And it has been one of the biggest honors of my life to be able to work with this body, to be able to work with such hard working commissioners that show up twice a month and numerous times between that and their ad hocs pushing the lot of the work forward of the police commission. Me personally, I come here and present myself as the sitting chair.

I oversee our meetings twice a month. I am involved in many ad hocs including the strategic planning ad hoc, the budget ad hoc, the discipline matrix ad hoc, the racial profiling ad hoc. And so there's a lot of work that happens in between those meetings twice a month that is public that you can see on our website. And I've also had the great honor of working with our really really hard working chief of staff, which is our only paid administrative staff for the police commission. And so together with a group of volunteers, with one staff, we've been able to work on many things including and to echo some of the the comments that were made before me, there's also often a misconception about the police commission, about oversight, about transparency, and what that really means, and how that counter to the police department's mission and their goals, particularly off of getting off of the negotiated settlement agreement.

And that couldn't be further from the truth. A lot of our work is really set up to be the voice of the people to ensure transparency, to ensure that the policies and procedures that OPD is adhering to is at the most and not just constitutional standards, but 24 twenty first policing standards. Standards that we hold dear and near to our heart here in Oakland as Oaklanders. And so with that being said, there's lots of things that we have worked on under my leadership as chair including the m 19 racial profiling policy, the j four pursuit policy which took got national attention, got statewide attention, and we're able to work hand in hand with the police department, with the community to try to try to do our best to support them in passing smart policy. We supported OPD in their extension special order ninety two one four which is the special order around their hundred and eighty days because of their staffing issue.

And because we wanted to see more cops on the street. And so they asked us to give an extension to a hundred and eighty days, we supported them in that. These are just examples of some of the policies that we've passed that we think give OPD the tools to have better policing in our community. With that being said, there there there's a lot of opportunity as we move forward. There's a lot of opportunity for the commission, city council, our city leadership, all of our partners to be able to work together and have a shared vision around what does accountability look like, what does transparency look like, and what does true city community and police partnership look like post NSA?

Only then when we're all aligned and together can we really get off of this and negotiate settlement agreement, which we're hoping is in the near future. We have worked really hard to stabilize our commission. We wanna welcome our two new commissioners and hopefully they receive your support today too because we believe that we need bodies and these folks are willing to come to the table and wanna roll their sleeves up and work with us and we welcome that. We really are working hard on developing strong onboarding for them and a new process so we could

Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Costa, your time is up.

Alright. Thank you. And and I mean, and as we're looking at stabilizing the commission, really looking at continuity. And so it's gonna be great to have a full commission for the first time to be able to really spread out our people power amongst our different ad hocs and our different work that we have laid out in our strategic plan. And so it's exciting time right now for the city and I just I welcome the partnership.

I wanna continue and thank you all for your curiosity since our last meeting. Many of you have made that extended effort to learn more about what we do, to learn more about some of the nuances and just wanna thank you all for that involvement as well. And hey, we we're going in front of the federal judge next next week and we're trying to work in hand with the city to be able to make sure that things are in place so that we have strong civilian oversight and infrastructure in place post NSA. So that the federal judge for the monitor could say, hey, you know what, we don't need to farm out resources out to a federal monitor. We have strong infrastructure here in the city at home and we have a strong partnership that's gonna ensure the continued sustainability and the continued culture change that we've been working really hard to see.

So thank you and I'm I'm happy to take any questions. But yeah, thank you again for having

us and for your interest. Thank you so much. Council member Wong.

Hi. Thank you, Ricardo. I have a question just on the role of the ad hoc committees. I noticed there's a number, there's six I think ongoing ad hoc committees. How do you all as a commission decide to form an ad hoc committee and does it involve staff time? Does Micah Montgomery sit on in each of these ad hoc committees? Does OPD also collaborate with you all in all of these committees? Can you explain that? Thank you.

Great question. So ad hocs could be stood up in different ways. We have several standing ad hocs that pertain to the internal functions of the commission. So like the budget, strategic planning, and so on and so forth. And those are standing ad hocs and those aren't often public facing ones. So we have a list of internal ad hocs and then we have a list of public facing ones. The public facing ones usually come up because policy issues either arise from concerns from the public or that we're working with city partners, city council, OPD to identify certain things. Also, the federal monitor. Right? There's for instance, you know, the racial profiling ad hoc was that work is really important to getting off the NSA and having strong updated racial profiling policies.

So typically how that works is OPD would work with us. We'll stand up an ad hoc, we'll have a public meeting that staff or our chief of staff, we'll have to record that, we'll have to get notes. It's it's a lot of a lot of work that goes into that. And then whatever work is produced out of that then goes through OCA, through our city attorneys, through the union process depending if there's implications on that as well. And then also the federal monitor gets eyes on it.

And then at that point, we'll be able to bring it to the commission for a full vote. So that's usually typically the process on that. And so different issues come up depending on either municipal code, standing legislation, things that need to get worked on that are outside of that need to work on in addition to what just started meeting to twice a a month. So that gives the ad hocs gives commissioners a chance to have two or three different commissioners on an ad hoc with the public, with subject matter experts to be able to develop, craft or revise policy.

Okay. Thank you.

Any questions for the council members? Council member Huston?

I had a question through the chair. How are doing? When was the last time you guys met?

As a commissioner as an ad hoc?

Commissioner.

Two weeks two weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. We have a commission meeting. We meet every second of four Thursdays.

Okay.

But we also have standing ad hocs throughout the week. So we have about two or three different ad hocs that happen on those off weeks on the alternate week. So we're pretty much meeting every week.

Okay. And to the chair I was you know really disappointed the last time and I appreciate your apologies for that. Was disappointed on how that interaction happened with us voicing our, what we voiced, right? Our decision, right? Because it wasn't personal, wasn't about you, was about the process, about 100 people applying before then it was only seven. And then all these other things that I'm seeing that the Spanish flyer we didn't even get that out on time to even speak to see if our Spanish individuals that wanted to apply. Okay.

And if I could add, and I appreciate the discussion about recruitment. Any way we can help, we've offered also and worked hand in hand with the selection panel. There needs to be a certain level of obviously autonomy and independence with that as well and how they work with you on and having a pool. But I think it is important to have a strong pool, to be able to have a reserve pool. Things happen and life happens, right? So we can lose a commissioner at any time and it's really good to have strong qualified people in the queue. And whenever there's reappointments and things of that nature that there is a strong competitive process as well too. We don't have any control of that, all we have control of is doing the work, showing up and doing our best job. So appreciate it. We're not always gonna see eye to eye but we are one city one family and I and

I look forward to continue to work with you all. Council member Fife.

I I have a question to the staff. Ricardo just mentioned it by saying that the candidates don't have any authority or control over selection process. So can maybe Felicia who who is responsible for the outreach? Is that the candidates who want to be commissioners or is it the city of Oakland that's responsible for a robust process to do outreach to the community to get as many candidates as possible?

Through through the chair, in the charter it states that the city administrator's office is responsible for staffing the selection panel and therefore the selection panel is a partnership. We participate in the recruitment efforts, the the city administrator's office, we we lead out on much of that. Staff will send out a press release at the beginning of the panel's recruitment process when they open up a time for applications because they generally would start the process in February and have a deadline in in April or May. That's traditionally, historically been the process, but now we're proposing that there's ongoing recruitment. So as a city, it it it's a collective effort.

Stakeholders, we What

does the charter say about whose authority it is to do the outreach? Is it the candidates themselves or is it the city of Oakland? I just It's

it's the city of Oakland. Okay. I would say the city

is open

in partnership with the panel selection panel.

Great. Is there a number of candidates that is required, a minimum, a baseline of candidates that is required to have before those candidates are moving their selection ideas to us or to in front of anybody? Is there a a threshold? I'm I'm trying to understand that in 2017, 2018, there were a lot of people. Recently, there were not a lot of people. What is the baseline that we're supposed to have before it's

Through the chair, council member Fife, as far as I know there is no minimum number of of people that the selection panel need to interview in order to make its nominations. There's no minimum there.

Well, that's a problem. No.

It's not

a problem. It's just like if if there's no minimum, what are we arguing about? I'm confused. I'm deeply confused. I really wanna hear from the public because if the police department is is there are there any high ranking police officials here today that can speak on behalf of OPD? Just curious about their influence in this process.

I can't speak to that.

The Oakland Police Officers Association?

I can't speak to that.

Because if there's any if there's not an a a set number of people that are required to interview, if this is not about a process that these candidates didn't have anything to do with in terms of a number of of selection panel requirements, I'm struggling to understand what we're debating here. Can we just call the question and vote them up or down? I I'm confused. If if no one can talk about or tell me today because I was not here when this vote was initially made on what are the issues with these two candidates. Is it because there's so many rumors and it wasn't debated here.

Is it about the selection process was flawed? It was that is that what we're deliberating here today? Because I haven't heard how the that how that process was flawed. And if that is how the decision was made, we have to have a robust conversation about it. Was that a flawed process?

What happened? What went wrong? If it's just we need more candidates, then that can be addressed in the next process, which it seems like the city administrator's office is already doing, that you've engaged in making sure that there's a wider net that's cast. But I'm really I really wanna understand what is the issue here because I did not understand it from the last meeting that I viewed. That's what I want my colleagues, counsel president Jenkins, maybe you can explain it to me because I'm struggling to understand why this is so contentious.

No. Absolutely. So we have two more of our colleagues and then any more questions for Ricardo will go to the public and then council members will have a more robust time to discuss. Council member.

Okay. So I think one of the things that I wanted to I guess kind of like ground us in because I know that on that October 21 meeting I believe that we had a very robust conversation about how many applications were received and what was the process because and I believe all the council members weighed in on not knowing that the application process was open and that you know we should be reaching out to our constituencies to you know try to get more candidates to apply. And you know I believe that after we rejected the slate in October there was a couple key things that really happened in my opinion, right. I think the first email that we got was a new kind of comprehensive outreach and recruitment strategy that came from the administration. And then in addition there was also a new flyer that was sent encouraging us to reach out to our constituencies.

And so it was my understanding that because of those two things that the process had been restarted. And so I would like to just kind of you know have question to through the chair to the city administrator. I'm not sure if Felicia, administrator Johnson, is is that accurate? That's how that's how I received what was happening. That after we made that vote, the process had been restarted on the recruitment and outreach efforts.

Through the chair, so we'll certainly defer some assistant to the administrator, miss Verden, but

I do believe you are correct but let me

just have her come up and confirm your comments.

Council member Brown, can you repeat your question please?

Yes. So in our in our meeting that we had in October, we spoke at great length. Think even some of the selection, members of the selection panel mentioned oh you know how you all were trying to recruit for applications. I think you were the one that shared only five applications were received, right? And so we were kind of calling attention to oh there should be because we know Oaklanders are interested, right?

But the recruitment process was lacking. Question was that based on after the council rejected the slate there were two key things that happened. One there was a new recruitment strategy and process that was sent out informing the council of hey this is what we are going to do And then the second thing that occurred was then there was also a flyer encouraging us to send that out to our constituencies. And so my question is, I I felt that those two things initiated a new a new process.

I I think the the criminal process is ongoing at this time and so we will continue that process. However, since that time, the selection selection panel panel met met again again on December 18 and they voted to put the same slate forward as they put forward, in July and I I believe when panelist Rivera spoke, they felt like those candidates were qualified to serve on the police commission. So the the recruitment happened, some recruitment happened. I do believe that more recruitment needs to happen and I also you know the the panel unanimously voted to put their same slate forward.

I see.

And which is why it's before the city council again.

And was the vote to resubmit the slate agendized for that meeting?

Yes. Yes it was. The city attorney, our parliamentarian was in the meeting and there was no question about whether or not it was scheduled.

And then like in that short amount of time it's my understanding that there were new applications received where the was the selection panel committee made aware of those new applications for review?

They were aware of the applications, however they did not review the applications nor did they discuss the applications. They they made their they they were they made the their motion during the meeting and in the motion like I said was ordered on unanimously by the panel.

Alright. Thank you.

Thank you.

Council member Wong and then council member Gayle then council member Houston.

Thanks. Just to add on to my colleague's line of questioning, this is to Felicia.

Hi

Felicia. So I was reviewing the video footage as well as the some of the attachments to the December 18 meeting. I saw that there was an attachment 70 pages long that had a number of applications around 16. These were some of the new applications and I recognize some of the names since, you know, we had following that October meeting done some outreaches council to get more applications in. Just to understand there was an opportunity on December 18 to interview any of these folks and it didn't happen or what what happened on that meeting?

Those applications that were in the October 18 excuse me, December 18 agenda packet were for the selection panel because the selection panel needs to review those applications to appoint they they need to make a recommendation for the district four seat on the selection panel not the police those those were not for the commission they were specifically for the selection panel and I apologize for that confusion.

Okay, I see. So then how many applications for the actual commission have we gotten since that meeting?

There were there have been 13 received. Okay. However I will say and I haven't shared this but one of the candidates has withdrew that their application.

Okay. And at December 18 was there the opportunity to interview the actual applicant applicants of the commission not the selection panel for the Council

member Wong through the chair. The selection panel did not I I developed the agenda for that meeting with the the chair of the panel Rakesha Heron and there wasn't there wasn't a specific request at that time to interview any additional police commission candidates.

Okay. And and that was a a choice that was made or that was it just was not possible?

It it it was not scheduled on the agenda.

It was

not on the agenda.

Okay. Thank you.

Specifically to interview candidates.

Thank you. Councilor Magaio. Yes.

Thank you. And, I'd like to first recognize and to and thank Ricardo Acosta for serving as the chairperson of the police commission. I was one of the leaders who were involved from the very beginning of the police commission, and I still continue to support that service. And, certainly, I understand the role that you're playing. I mean, is an example of the challenges that we have.

It's still in terms of dealing with a negotiate settlement agreement, and it was within the police department that created some challenges. So I wanna thank you publicly for the work you have done, and, certainly, the community recognizes your leadership And for the public to also recognize, the mayor gets to appoint two members to the commission without having gone going through this process that we're going through. The mayor gets to appoint members to commission. And but I wanna thank you for your service and you have my full support to continue. Thank you.

Council member Houston.

I like to this year, I like to ask miss Felicia a question. Hello miss Felicia. What was the reason why the 13 individuals weren't interviewed? I mean I know we're scheduling because I heard that they canceled, rescheduled, canceled, rescheduled, canceled and one of the the selection panelists is here today that wasn't able to even have his input. You had 13 applications. 13 applications that were not interviewed. I don't get it.

That's correct council through the chair council member Houston, think that's a question for the chair of the selection panel and unfortunately she's not here today.

So were the meetings how was how's this meeting scheduled for the sec selection committee to actually meet? So they could this is an important this is important. These are the individuals that actually select the police commissioners, right, for and they don't meet and you had 13 applications.

Through the chair. The selection panel meets generally from February to July. That's when they complete their recruitment process. So and that's been the case since I staffed the selection panel and it's been three years. And this is honestly an unusual circumstance where the for for from my experience.

So the the chair chose not to the the the panel will conduct additional interviews and review applications going forward. However, they the chairs not chose not to do so in in October in December. And the going forward, the the selection panel is scheduled to meet on the second Tuesday of every month. So they do have a regular meeting date. However, though all the meetings are special meetings at the selection panel.

So through the chair, now it's gonna be regular?

Yes. And it wasn't before? It's they meet intermittently as needed.

These okay. I wanna bring up I don't know if he's here.

One second council member. We got another council.

Thank you. Council president Jenkins, I was gonna actually ask on Zoom is the vice chair of the selection panel. I had a couple questions that I wanted to to ask them. So similar I think similar to council member Houston.

Did you have someone as well? Please proceed.

Okay. So in the zoom his name is vice chair Alex Clovis. And so there were three questions that I had asked which was was a vote to resubmit the slate agendized for the selection panel meeting and then at the time of that vote were members informed of new applicants who had come in and then were any new interviews conducted before the decision to resubmit the slate?

Hi, can you guys hear me?

Yes. Okay.

I can answer. Can you go one at a time and I'll answer them?

Of course. So the first question was, was a vote to resubmit the slate agendized for the selection panel meeting?

No. Not to not to my knowledge and I'm looking at the agenda right now and it just says that there's gonna be an update on the selection panel nominations but there was nothing about like voting.

Thank thank you, Alex. And so at the time of the vote, were were the panel members informed of new applicants that had come in applications that had come in?

For the police commission I was not, no.

Excellent. And then were any new interviews conducted before the decision to resubmit the slate? No. Alright, thank you Alex. Did you want to add anymore since you have the floor?

No.

Okay. Thank you, Alex.

Thank you.

Okay. Council member Fife then council member Houston.

I I really want to hear from the public if possible. Yeah. I would love to hear their expertise on on this before we continue on with this debate.

Thank you council member. Council member Houston is the young man that you wanted to come up here? This please. We'll hear from the public after this gentleman from the commission.

How you doing? My name is Covan Page, and just as one of the newest as one of the newest members, just like Alice Clovis said, just like there's so much uncertainty surrounding the meetings. It's like, you know, we don't know when we come and we don't know where we're going. There's no certainty around scheduling or timing. So that's like I'm saying one of the new members.

I think for something so important for our city, it should be some type of schedule and more certainty around meetings and what we're actually doing because half of the time I don't know what we're doing, when we're actually meeting. So, I think just we need to figure out how we can have more certainty around scheduling and when we're actually meeting them, when we're actually making decisions surrounding some of the things that we're talking about today. Thank you. Hold on. No.

I stated so I stated that he would be allowed to have his commissioner come up. Do you have any more questions for your commissioner?

He's a commissioner. I mean Do have any Covant Page. Covant mister Page, can you come back up? Okay. On the he's on the selection committee. There you go. It's corrected now. So what was it when you said that it wasn't scheduled, were you able to enter did they give you the resumes for 13 other people where you guys can actually look at them at least?

No. So, like I'm saying, when usually when they do like the special meetings

Miss Milley, you're out of order. That's your final warning.

Like nothing you can look at to actually see when the meetings are. So you kind of just waiting around until somebody emails you to tell you when they might be. So sometimes when those happen, then you you might set up because like you said, we got families and you know things, other things going on in our life, then it'll be cancelled. And then you okay, you wait and we'll let you know at a further date when the next meeting is. So like I'm saying, it's just no certainty around when we're going to meet and when those dates are actually going to be to discuss a lot of the issues.

Thank you, mister Page.

Thank you. Let's go to public comment.

As I call your name, approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning. If you are on Zoom and you hear your name called because you submitted a card, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you still wish to speak. Anaya Lance Wilson, Millie Cleveland, Mississaada Olabala, Rajani Mandal, Rashida Gronage, Lorelai Bauserman, Angela Jackson Costain, miss Hawthorne, mister Boatwright, Kevin Dally, Blair Beekman, mister Hazard, miss Kramer, in any order please. Go ahead.

So I actually asked to speak for another, for six point seven. So could you please not time this question? So can I have both the times now please?

Can you take your card?

Please start it over.

Excuse me. Please take your card to the clerk so we can get some clarity.

And state your name, please.

Okay. Hi. My name's Anaya. I've lived in Oakland for forty years. This is only my third city council meeting and I have to say that I'm quite concerned about the issue of The issues that come Has come up that I've heard about violations of the Brown Act. But I wanna talk about Mr. Farmer and Mr. Garcia who have Garcia Acosto, who have been active and upstanding members of the police commission. I'm appalled that there are questions about them being reappointed even after the selection committee put their name forward twice. My understanding is that it wasn't even within the council, Council President Jenkins' purview to send their appointments back to the selection committee.

However, they have been resubmitted and because they are committed and responsible members of the police commission and should be allowed to continue their work. What is happening with democracy in our city? This is a time in which the whole country is facing issues of the dismantlement of democracy and I'm shocked and appalled that it is happening in our city as well. Here in Oakland, that democracy would include giving an explanation for your votes, and adherence to the Brown Act would include transparency now and through all your votes and deliberations. I also wanna point out that it seems that when council member Brown asked the gentleman on Zoom about if the first question that you asked council member, I believe he answered for the future and you were talking about the past.

Because the woman who spoke over here, miss Felicia, she said that yes, it had been agendized. So I I would like for you all to clarify that. Anyway, I ask you to follow this the city custom and reappoint these two gentlemen to the police commission so that we can continue to have thorough oversight of our police department. Thank you.

Where is the timer today? I'd like to refocus the conversation on the, relevant issue, which is the merit of the candidates. If this council is so concerned about lack of recruitment and outreach, then I suggest you give the staff more money because that's who's responsible. It's not with the responsibility of the volunteers. The only relevant issue is whether the candidates are qualified to advance constitutional policing standards for OPD, of which none of you have spoken to.

When a council member alludes to there being a personnel issue without transparency, it's unprincipled, it lacks integrity, and it's borderline slanderous. When a council member is still raising questions about process after three months, when they haven't bothered to read the selection panel manual, it's obviously a smokescreen and a diversion from the topic. When the rules committee votes to advance the mayor's OPD approved candidates without resumes, biological statements, or interviews, the only thing it seems to matter is the lobbying efforts of the police union as reported by the East Bay Times. And when you march in front of the no kings banner standing for democracy and denying transparency in your own house, the hypocrisy is glaring. The failure for transparency is undemocratic, and it's opportunist.

Answer the question. Why are these candidates not qualified to advance constitutional policing? That is the question. If you do not speak to that, then you are being opportunist and it's a a violation of your mandate.

Paula Hawthorne, unpaid gun violence prevention activist here in Oakland. Having a good police commission is key to stopping gun violence. Why is that? Because if you don't trust the police, you're gonna go get a gun to protect yourself. The more guns there are, the more gun violence there is, absolutely.

So we need a strong police commission. The attacks that were made against Omar and Ricardo were because people didn't want a strong police commission. These are two of your best commissioners on the police commission and that's why people went after them. It doesn't matter whether you have 10 people who are applicants for the selection panel or you have 200, Omar and Ricardo are the best. I have worked with both of them.

I worked for a couple, three years I think with Omar on the Measure Z Oversight Commission. He works hard. He is an amazing man. He takes it seriously, the job to be done. He maybe has annoyed a policeman or two. That's his job, guys, you know? I've worked closely with the police department myself because I do gun buybacks. I can tell you they can take it. They're good, strong men. If they get annoyed, that's part of the job.

But he is an amazing person. So is Ricardo. I have known him for years in my gun violence prevention work. They're both excellent men. They both should be be reappointed and it's an insult to to try to stop them because you don't like the the police commission. Support the police commission. Support these two amazing.

Thank you.

Lance Wilson. Lance Wilson. Good evening. I'm here to support both Ricardo and Omar. They're both overqualified. They've been working with the commissions for a while now. I'm just confused of what the problem is with the council, why you guys are so hung up on all these processes when they've already been unanimously selected numerous times? Like what's the problem with the candidates? That's what I'm confused about and nobody seems to want to answer the question. What is the problem with these two candidates? Is there a problem that somebody has a problem up here? I mean what's the issue? I don't understand what the issue is. We keep going around in circles for hours and all these meetings about all these processes. That's not their job.

Their job is not the process. That's not their job to do that process. That's not their job. So why are we even, why are we keep going around about this process, process? They're unanimously selected by the selection panel. Reappoint them. What's the problem with these two commissioners? If you guys have an issue with them, then state it on the record what your problem is. That's it. Thank you.

Hi, thank you. Blair Beakman. I've spoke a few times on this item for the past few months now. Thank you that if you want to speak specifically on if they should be approved or not approved today, that seems to be the main focus in how Oakland is working at this time. I kind of question that tactic technique, but if that's what is presented before us, I hope we can vote for approval today.

Thank you for the words of council person Fife who I think as you as city administrators want to be expanding this role, Councilperson Pipes says that maybe we should be focusing on the approval or disapproval process today. I think over the past year, there's been a real push by a certain portion of Oakland and new city council persons to make a shift in previous voices that were pretty strong and important and progressive in Oakland. And a more conservative voice was being left out, it was felt. Over the past year, you guys have been really working for that conservative voice to be a more regular part of the Oakland process. I think you've accomplished a lot in that effort.

And I think by this fall we're realizing that you're you're you're really hurting two really really good police commissioners, review commissioners at this time, and I think we're all, we've had a really heavy fall together on issues. And we're realizing these possibly are really good commission people that we should be continuing with. And we're just reflecting and reviewing that we should, we gotta continue to work towards good balance, but to respect that when there's good things happening in the commission process, we respect that and allow it. And what councilperson Pike also offered, the city administration office can now build from here on out a future of how to bring in new candidates in the future. That's only just a part of what I want to talk about.

Good luck on how you vote today. Go for

Jane Kramer. I think somebody said it in the beginning of the discussion. The responsibility of the process is not to be placed on the candidates. What is to be garnered from the discussion is their qualifications. Now, I used, I worked before retirement, worked as a licensed, LCSW.

And what, much, much of what I did was dealing with the criminal justice system. When I go to the meetings of the commission, I see individuals on that commission who are dedicated to the point where for no payback except their own personal satisfaction, they put in incredible amounts of energy and effort and time into trying to decipher exactly how this particular police department works and how it can be for the better changed. And to do that, they have had to withstand and accept and, deal with criticism. And they deal with that criticism very well when they self confront themselves to change the manner in which they may do something. I think you will be,

I

think that voting for them on to maintain them on this commission will be a betterment to this community. Please don't

Kevin Dally from D four. I agree that a good police commission will can help to establish trust in the police department. I appreciate council member Fife's questions on why the process has been delayed. Asked some very good questions there. One aspect of having police department that we can trust is related to an area I care about, which is traffic safety.

In neighborhoods where people don't trust the police, we find out that traffic injuries are not reported. Council member Houston raised this issue in a recent meeting of the HC transit interagency liaison committee. And a good way of improving reporting of injuries is to get a trusted police department, and that requires, I think, a trusting trustworthy police commission. And I hope that we can approve the commissioners if we need to work on a better process for next the next cycle, but we need to move ahead now. Thank you.

Any more speakers in the chambers? If

your name was called and you were in the chambers, please approach the podium.

Why can't we get a video online?

Evening. My name is Angela Jackson Castane. I'm a Oakland resident, born and raised, and I'm also the longest standing police commissioner on the police commission currently. I applied back when there were 100 or so applicants years ago, and we were actually in a pandemic then. So we were 100% remote for quite a while. And I think that is a good part of the reason why we had so many applicants back then. We have lost great commissioners because of the work that we do. It's so intense that they're not able to keep up with that as well as their professional jobs. We just recently lost our last vice chair because she took on a new professional role and we're volunteers. This is a lot of work.

So I wouldn't say that the drop in applicants is directly correlated with a lack of recruitment. I think the selection panel does a great job of recruiting. We do as well. And I know that the OIG does road shows in the public and talks a lot about the police commission. So there's information out there about what we do.

I think it is unrealistic for a lot of people to be able to do this. We do it because we love it, we're committed, and we love the city of Oakland and we want to see ourselves do better. I want to say that I'm here today to urge you to reappoint my fellow commissioners. These two I've worked with directly on many ad hocs and they are the hardest working and most dedicated commissioners I've seen to date. They do more work than even I do and I'll readily admit that.

They are very committed and not only that, they have the skill sets that we need. We're really focused on our mandated task but also doing a little bit more. And I think they bring a different perspective. Commissioner Farmer is very much well versed in mental health wellness. That is part of our charter mandate that we're completed to do. We need his expertise. Our chair, Garcia Costa, is well versed in community organizations and outreach and that's a huge part of what we do and we need his expertise.

Thank you. Your time is up. If your name was calling you were in chambers and you still wish to speak, please approach the podium.

Gene has it. When mister Farmer came up to this podium, he asked, did any of you have any questions? Neither one of you asked him anything. It's about the skill set, what both the candidates have to offer. This was a three ring circus. You're talking about process. You know what was lacking? Maybe some of the marketing from staff. Each of you have a website. Neither one of you put anything about the recruitment process.

Look at yourselves. You let the marketing, and you wanna come and criticize staff. Could they have improved it? Yes. But you needed a whole lot of improvement.

What's where's the smokescreen? You spend a half hour forty five minutes talking about process. We got two well qualified candidates. Every one of you with the exception of two on this body, I won't say who. You're a joke. You're a joke. Stop this discussion and vote these two candidates up. Because anything else short of that, you're lying to the public. There's something else going on here. Tell me, are these two candidates qualified?

That's the issue. Stop looking at your papers as though you're doing some oh, we wanna see what the process is. Oh, what did you do on the recruitment? What did each of you do with recruitment? You had an opportunity. You have a website. Neither

Thank you, mister Hassett.

Why we can't hear the lady gonna attack former first? Anyway, so y'all wanna talk process. Let's talk process. The important thing about the selection panel is each one of you appoint a member to the selection panel, and the mayor appoints one. So if you're having problems with the selection panel, it's because of you.

You select them. So, if it's not working, your process not working because of you. Let's talk about the process for how the mayor puts a candidate on the commission. She goes out and picks anybody she wants, invites them to apply, brings it to rules, which they did. This time, without a background check, y'all approved a process that wasn't supposed to be in place until a background check was done.

We don't know who these people have been involved with as far as criminal activity that you approving tonight because in the agenda, there is no background check. So why has the number been reduced? Because the police commission from a historical process, because I know I've been around, they had difficulty with getting the city attorney to work well with them. They had difficulty getting fiscal support from the council when they were getting ready to vote to fire Kilpatrick, y'all didn't support them. So people began to believe that the police commission wasn't getting support from you.

And that's why the numbers went down, and they weren't getting support from the city attorney's office. That's why the numbers went down as far as applying, because they weren't getting support from you. In my last couple of seconds, I have never met a person like Omar Farmer, and I have so much respect for the chair.

Thank you, miss Olabala. Your time is up.

David Boatwright. Obviously, there's a lot of support here for the two candidates we've been listening about, And, I can understand why. They're both very eloquent and spontaneous speakers. But, I stopped going to the meetings because they were basically the only ones that were doing the talking. And this commission can't exist with just two dominant players.

And if these men are reelected to their post, I would suggest that they do more training of the other members to get them to to speak their minds. I know there's one member there that has tried in the past, and he's been kind of shut down while he was talking. So good luck on your your vote.

Thank you, mister Boatwright. Moving to the Zoom speakers starting with Rajni Mandal. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Rajni Mandal, District 4. My concern is not about individuals. It's about process integrity. When these reappointments came before council in October, they were rejected because of concerns about recruitment, outreach, and vetting. The expectation was that those issues would be addressed before the slate returned.

The supplemental report clarifies what has and has not changed. No new recruitment process was initiated by the selection panel. No new candidates were interviewed. While the administration notes limited outreach and 13 new applications, none of those applicants were reviewed or considered before this resubmission. So what's before you today is not a substantively different process but largely a procedural resubmission.

I urge counsel to clearly state on the record what has and has not changed so the full counsel can make an informed decision based on process, not urgency. If council believes improved recruitment and vetting were necessary in October, it's reasonable to ask whether those conditions have truly been met today. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Moving to the next speaker. Rashida Grenage, please unmute yourself and begin your comments. Miss Grenage, if you are speaking, we cannot hear you. I see you unmuted yourself, but I can't hear you.

There you go. Okay. Miss Grenaj, we're getting an echo, which means you probably have more than one mic on, so please turn off one device. Okay. I'll give you a second to adjust, and I will come back to you. Lorelei Bosserman, please unmute yourself and begin your comment.

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Please don't fall for all the red herrings. Questions about the selection panel's process are red herring. That's not what's driving this, and I think you know that. The whole question started, I believe, when Rajni Mandal sent a letter to the city council complaining about, council member about, police commissioner Omar Farmer. I do not believe that that letter said anything about process. I believe that came up later when all of her issues had been rebutted. I'm sorry. Can you still hear me? I'm seeing someone talking.

Yes. We can hear you.

Okay. I apologize.

All of Rajni Mandal's original issues have been effectively rebutted. And once that happened, people started looking for other justifications for what is happening. I would like to point out that Rajne Mandal wants to eliminate the police commission. She has said this publicly. Council member Houston has raised a number of concerns, but he is woefully misinformed.

Flyers have always been in both Spanish and English. The selection panel did interview other candidates before deciding to reappoint these incumbents. The candidates who haven't been interviewed yet are people who have applied since that cycle, and I believe they're people who applied not for the police commission, but for the selection panel. I know that's confusing. Everyone gets confused about it. There is a police commission that does the work. There is a selection panel that picks who's going to be on the police commission. The meetings of the selection panel have been irregular lately because the selection panel doesn't normally meet this time of year. It is seasonal work. They're only meeting now because you rejected the slate, and they have to deal with that.

The only year there were a 100 applicants was the first year after that applicants dropped off. So why are we seeing all these red herrings? Because the so called

Thank you for your comments, miss Gornage. Trying again. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Hello. Can

can you hear me? We

can hear you, but there is an echo. Sorry. Is this better? Do you have a computer and possibly your phone on? I turned it off. Maybe mute your computer. Is that better?

It's a little bit better.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I

want to We

still have the echo.

Gronage, you wanna try one more time?

I

could try. Hi.

Miss Grenage, is it possible for you to call miss Milley and she could put you on speakerphone? Can we try that way? You wanna come up miss Milley? Call her on cell phone.

She's gonna call me?

You wanna try and call her?

Answer the phone Rashida. Tell her answer the phone.

Miss Rashida answer the phone. You want me to try and call her?

Please leave her message.

Okay. So we're gonna give her another opportunity. Miss Rashida, please raise your hand. We're gonna give you opportunity to speak on Zoom. Now we're gonna have to move forward.

Let me just say, miss Grenage, before I unmute you, if you're on your phone, you need to hang it all the way up and use your computer. Or if you're on your computer, you need to actually mute the sound on your computer to not have the echo because you can only have one device on, otherwise the mics interfere. So I'm going to unmute you. So please unmute yourself and begin your comment.

Is this better?

Better? Better? Better? No.

It it it's not better. Can you answer the call from miss Milley? She's gonna call you and we're gonna put you on speakerphone. I wanna make sure we hear your comments. Is that okay, miss miss Granaj?

We'll try. Try. Try.

Okay. Perfect. Alright. Let's let's move forward. Are there any more speakers?

Okay. Council members? Any questions? Council member Gaio. And then and then council member Brown after

Thank you and thank thank you to all the speakers that were here with us this evening. And, certainly, I understand and recognize the debate and discussion, but clearly understanding the process of the police commission and the role and those that are currently service servicing. I appreciate your work. And so with that, I'd like to make a motion to accept resolution number one. And the resolution accepted the police commission selection panel slate of Ricardo Garcia Costa and Omar Farmer to serve on the Oakland Police Commission. That's my motion. Thank you.

Second. There

is a motion and a second. There's still discuss Council Member Brown.

Thank you. I was just gonna address three items that came up during public comments. So the first one I did just want to say on the record that I've heard from a handful of commissioners that serve on the selection panel that they would like to receive more training in that seat and so I think that that's something that is usually administered through the city administration. So just wanted to share that feedback. I think we heard it even publicly, right?

So I just wanted to say that for the record. And then, oh and then one of the public speakers mentioned that and we had such a robust conversation about this during our last meeting about how the council members hadn't received the recruitment for recruiting for the police commission and so that's why the new flyer was updated and all of us sent that out. And one of the key reasons why I continue to ask hey were the 13 applicants actually outreach was I had a handful of you know folks reach out to me because of their interest and so that's why I was asking that question and they did inform me as was stated that those applicants, know no one has called them after submitting their application. So just also wanted to just say that for the record because when we wrapped up that meeting in October I know I was under the impression that the process had been restarted. And then I think the last question that came from one of the public speakers was about the specific question around was the item agendized at the selection panel?

And just I guess getting clarification around that. So I guess through the chair to would

it

be the parliamentarian maybe for that meeting to confirm whether or not the item was agendized? I have the agenda pulled up and it just said an update, receive an update on the selection process. But just wanted to make sure we had some clarity around that.

So I think the question is was it agendized and was it properly agendized?

Through the chair. Our office was not asked to look at that agenda either before or after, so we've not reviewed that. But this body can vote pursuant to process issues. So if you

think there was something correct about the notice you're willing you're able to consider that in your vote on this item. But we did not look at the whether it was appropriately noticed. I guess through the chair to the administration either Felicia or administrator Phillips. Any comments on that?

Through the chair, council member Brown. I did raise that question about whether or not the it was noticed for the selection panel to make a vote, take a vote. And it was ruled during the meeting by the parliamentarian that since it was an action item on the agenda that they could if you if you look at the agenda it says at the top action items and they voted on under item number five to forward their nominations.

I see. Yeah. Because it's worded update on the twenty twenty five selection nominations. The selection panel will receive an update on their July 2025 nomination process.

Correct. That's the item they took the action on.

I see. Alright. Thank you.

Council member Houston. Through the chair, city attorney, can you repeat what you said about taking consideration on a vote? Can you repeat that?

I said we had not I have not reviewed the agenda that agenda item and how it was noticed. If this body feels that there was something, you can take into account the process when you're voting on this item. So you can look at the process of how it went through the selection panel.

Got it. So through the chair, I'd like to make an alternative motion to reject that. I want to reject the slate. So there's an alternative motion on the floor.

Okay. So any more questions for the commissioners? If not, I have a question. Commissioner Folmer, question? Council member Fife, do you wanna go first? Okay. You can

I out of all the conversation that we've had tonight, I have not heard one statement that validates not moving these two candidates forward based on their performance? When I reviewed the previous meeting from October, the selection committee panel member that called into that meeting had stellar views from interviewing Omar Farmer. Omar Farmer is a nonvoting member of this body, and I've not heard one of my colleagues talk about anything about what the problem is with these two people, I've only heard about the process, which is fine, but that's not what we're here to discuss tonight. I heard the comments from our parliamentarian that we can take that into account, but that does not talk about let me just let me frame it this way. The only process that we should concern ourselves with tonight is the process of independence.

And we are losing that independence by trying to move pieces around the chessboard when the selection the selection committee has made their decisions twice now. So we're attempting to to change the decision of an independent body that was selected by council members who have given nothing but stellar recommendations of these two individuals and I'm willing to discuss what the police officers association has said because they've lobbied this body and I've had conversations with the president of the OPOA and other members of the police department that don't want oversight, which is fine. They anybody can feel any way about anything they want to. But the reality is the voters chose an independent commission to oversee the police department for a myriad of issues that have not been resolved to this date. And the independent selection committee that was chosen by the electeds sitting in this body chose their selection committee members to do a job which they've done and they've come back to us twice telling us, utilizing the the democratic process, telling us what they want.

I want to hear from the Oakland Police Department and the Oakland Police Officers Association that if they feel that this is hindering their ability to to do police work, I wanna hear that from them. I don't wanna hear that from Rajni Mandal or any member of the public. I wanna hear it from the body. We heard from the oldest, the longest standing commissioner today, and we're questioning the selection panel when the selection panel told us what they want. I wanna hear each of my colleagues tell me today, so I know what we're voting on.

Are we voting on the process being flawed? I said it already. Or are we voting on the quality of these candidates? Because oftentimes in application processes, you will get a bunch of candidates that are not qualified for for several reasons. So everyone isn't justified to have a a any any business owner or anyone who's done any kind of hiring knows just because you apply doesn't make you qualified for for an interview.

So let's talk about can we please have a transparent conversation about what is going on here? We it is clear that there are some police officers who don't want oversight. There are some who actually really do. So if it's a question about what the police department wants, what the what they think is best, can we hear from them? Because what I'm hearing is a moving of goalpost.

First we got a letter from from a community member in District 4 who said all of these things about Omar Farmer, but then called in tonight and said this isn't about personalities. I'm confused because once those things in the letter were dispelled about mister Farmer, then the goalpost moved to being about process. That is not within our purview to discuss tonight. We are going to vote up or down. I wish we could have a transparent conversation about why we have shifted the goalposts and now are talking about process versus quality of candidates.

And I really just wanna get down to the I'm not I don't judge people's perspectives regardless of what they are. I wanna do what works. I don't care if you are pro police, a 110%, 20 toes down, or anti. I wanna do what works for Oakland, and we are not having a clear conversation about why we're making these decisions, and that's what I wanna get to tonight, period.

Thank you council member Fife. So mister Farmer, a question about your work on the committee. Would you say that the police commission wants Oakland to get out the NSA and do policing in a constitutional manner? Yes,

sir. Second

question, when it comes to the statements to the monitor, what type of information are we putting in there? Is it all factual information?

Are you you what do you mean statements to the monitor?

Statements to the

The judge statement? Yeah. To the judge.

Do we put factual information in there?

Absolutely.

Okay. So I I appreciate you guys changing the statement that you guys had. But one sentence in your draft really concerned me because my I want counsel and the commission to be able to work together. Right. It said, after review, the OPC selection committee unanimously approved chair and alternate commissioner Omar Farmore for reappointment to their present commission post.

Nonetheless, under the guise of concern about candidate recruitment and qualifications, the city council rejected their appointments. Does that statement help us get out of the NSA? What's what's the point of that statement to the judge and the monitor?

Right. No. Thank you for bringing that up and you and I spoke about this briefly offline. But as I was saying then, our communication to the court, a lot of the things that they're concerned with are us being a stable enough body to be able to take over oversight from them to us. And we weighed the balance between input we received from the public, from commissioners, and from people who were on the ad hoc.

And so we put all that input together and deliberated on it. And that's how we ended up with the final product where he said that line has been removed. Right. And that's a good yes. And also can I just

add Yeah? Absolutely.

Yeah. And so on the ad hoc, the ad hoc is made up of not just commissioners, but community members as well as staff members. The inspector general's on the ad hoc. I asked him to be a part of the ad hoc because we respect his expertise. The director of CPRA, the director of CPRA is on the ad hoc. And then you have the chair, vice chair of the commission, myself as chair of the ad hoc. And then we have community members and then we also take input from the public during the meeting if they do have input.

Thank you. I guess my challenge is our charter says that council has the right, excuse me if I'm not stating correctly, to accept or reject slates. Alright? And so, when adhering to the charter, council is accused of being anti police oversight. This is just what our charter tells us what we are to do.

And so, it's concerning for me that and then again, I'm not gonna belabor this point because you guys and I appreciate the chair, have an excellent working relationship with the chair. I've gone to commission meetings after we rejected the slate. I see how diligently he works, how hard he works. I've had conversations with you this morning, so none of this is taking you off guard, is it?

No. Not at all.

Absolutely. Had this

conversation Yeah. This So

I'm challenged when people say we're anti oversight when we're just following the charter. I mean, maybe maybe we should go back to the charter. Maybe we should open the charter back up when it comes to the police commission because there maybe there's certain things that need to be changed because something in the process isn't working, but for us to be seen as anti oversight by just doing what our job mandates us to do Mhmm. Is a challenge to me.

Can I respond to that, sir?

Yeah, of course.

Yeah. And like we were discussing, I think a lot of the perception around that issue has to do with, and not just perception, but past precedent, has to do with how the selection panel's nominations have been conducted in the past, as well as the independence of the police commission, how it was written not just within Measure LL but through our enabling ordinance and measures S one and the independence of that part of the process. How it's intended to be separate from politics within city hall for example.

Mhmm. Yeah. I think so.

If And this is the first time Yeah. That the selection panel slate has ever been on a non consent. So

Yeah. So I I I think that's right. Wanna continue working with all stakeholders to strengthen civilian oversight. I've been on the record calling for the resignation of other commissioners, But I didn't get anyone saying anything to me that I was doing anything wrong in 2023 when I did that in public at a budget meeting. Alright? Called for the resignation or asked someone if they were gonna resign from the police commission. But it goes little fanfare when I did that.

I understand how it feels to have you know the accusations about you know that you disagree with just how people tried to say that you know, the police commissioner myself are anti police or something like that and that's completely not true. You know, I'm an operation enduring an Iraqi freedom era veteran. I also was a lead law enforcement officer in the military. So I just, you know, I believe in law and order and and justice and doing things the right way fully and completely and transparently.

Yeah. Okay. So thank you. That concludes my questions for you. Questions to questions to staff? Felicia? So in the past, how has it been agendized when there is going to be a vote for a selection slate to move forward to council? Is it consistent with what was on the previous agenda?

Council president Jenkins, so if you look at the July meeting of the selection panel and how the item was agendized, it is quite different from how the action that they took at the December meeting. It it clearly states on the July agenda and and forgive me, I don't have it in front of me but I believe it was July 18. It clearly states that the the panel will take action on police commission appointments for the police commissioner and the alternate. I did just read the agenda and then I I read the the December agenda and it it does read differently.

Seems like public would have advanced notice on what's going to take place as opposed to an update. So, we have a motion. We have a second motion without a second but I want to hear oh, council member Ramachandran.

Thank you. I have a quick question. Can you clarify that in the last time we heard this item in October, there were five applications and then since then there were 13 more applications or is it a total of 13 applications?

There were additional applications received after And it is complicated. Council member Ron Ramachandran and members of council. The there have been applications received in various ways through Granicus, the portal, and now there are applications being accepted on the jobs postings for the city of Oakland. So there were there were some repeat I would say that there were some repeat applications in the 13 number of applications.

So but before this new round opened it was about five that's what I remember from the Correct. Last Okay. Thank you. Now I just wanna make a statement which really resonates with the same thing I said at the last meeting. Well, I'm very grateful for every Oakland resident that chooses to volunteer their time and face headaches, face stress, face meetings like this to serve our city and make it better.

And I have great respect for commissioner Farmer and commissioner Ricardo Garcia Costa. And I think that there are also a lot of other great candidates out there. While council members don't have direct appointees to the police commission, back in 2023, I think, my first year, I gave my strongest recommendation and served as a reference for former council member Wilson Riles to be on this commission. So I've been engaged in thinking about candidates that I think have the values, the justice driven initiative in wanting to serve our city. I similarly, later today on an item, you know, give my strongest support for someone that I know has done very grassroots, meaningful work in this city, Doug Long, who the mayor selected.

So I think it's not fair to say that we have I I think it's fair to say that many of us know proactively so many people in this community who are in the running for these positions, but what we really need to do is open our doors literally, read applications, interview candidates that don't have political connections because I was one of those people. Back when I applied and eventually got on to the public ethics commission, I applied to eight other commissions that I never heard back from. And mind you, I had I was not at all involved in city hall. I didn't I was cold emailing people, and I think that's the kind of thing we need to do, respond to people who are qualified with life experiences, with whatever other kinds of backgrounds, and show that we're actually trying to recruit and respond to people. So when you have 13 people at the minimum applying for an opportunity, I don't know what their what their connections are or not, but they need to be in the door to see and be evaluated.

Are they a better pick than the other two commissioners that are selected? And no disrespect to their qualifications, but we have to do the bare minimum of interviewing other candidates because let me tell you, the the majority of Oakland residents on the street that are out there think that we appoint people and hire people based on nepotism and political favoritism. And don't take my word for it. Literally, to this day, my most viewed TikTok is about the city about the city's lack of hiring, and you have hundreds of Oakland residents commenting, yeah. I never heard back.

Yeah. I never heard back. The city just hires its friends. The city just hires people it it knows, not qualified people who want to serve their city, be that a paid position or a volunteer position. So this is not about placing blame on who should outreach more or who should outreach less, but the reality is the people that we have access to need to be interviewed.

I went through three rounds of interviews, over 50 applicants for this Public Ethics Commission job. And, yes, interest in these positions wax and wane, but it is the city's job to actually be proactive and recruit and interview and talk to the people who are interested in these jobs or else we're gonna continue to look like a walled up ivory tower that's not trying to access and reach people who are interested. So my position is very simple. I would like to for the selection panel to actually interview some of these new applicants that they feel qualified and come back with a new decision, not have one meeting where you're not talking to a single one of the 13 new candidates, and then come back. And if if the recommendation still is the same two candidates, so be it.

And we this this can go on, of course. But at least let there be a process that's somewhat democratic because our reputation in the community as a city continues to be we're a walled up ivory tile that only appoints and hires people with political favoritism. And I say this as someone who had never been to city hall before my at my interviews, and it's something that we drastically need to change as our reputation.

Thank you, council member. Council member Wong. Yeah.

I just wanted to to add that Order

in the chamber.

This it has been frustrating because I know that I myself reached out to a number of the candidates that submitted one of those 13 applications. So for me, I look we can look at both farmer and Acosta again but it's important that because we did our outreach and in this last selection panel meeting I looked up, you know, I looked up the footage from the eighteenth. There was no consideration given to any of those 13 candidates not to even interview them. I think that is important. And with that I do second council member Houston's motion.

Okay. So we have a second to council member Houston's motion. It seems like everybody's spoken. Madam Clerk.

Starting with the substitute move excuse me, substitute motion moved by council member Houston, second by council member Wong, which is rejecting the police commission selection panels. Slater, Ricardo, Garcia, Acosta, and Omar Farmer to serve on the police commission. Council member Brown? Aye. Council member Fife? No. Council member Gayle?

So we're supporting his not our motion?

Correct.

No.

Council member Houston?

Yes.

Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Council member Unger?

Aye.

Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Jenkins?

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of six ayes, two noes, five and Gayle. Moving to the consent calendar starting with item 6.1, approval of the draft minutes from the meeting of 01/06/2026. Item 6.2, a resolution regarding the declaration of a local emergency due to AIDS epidemic. Item 6.3, a resolution regarding the declaration of a medical cannabis health emergency. Item 6.4, a resolution renewing the declaration of a local emergency on homelessness.

Item 6.5, a resolution appointing the mayor's appointments to the library commission. Item 6.6, a resolution regarding early care and education emergency grant, measure c. Item 6.7, a resolution regarding the mayor's appointments to the police commission. Item 6.8, a resolution regarding the Montclair parking facilities operating agreement. Item 6.9, a resolution regarding the Caltrans delegated maintenance agreement and amendment for little removal.

Item 6.1, a resolution authorizing the city administrator to enter to an MOU between OPD and Santa Clara Police Department. Item 6.11, a resolution regarding ITPSA with Medical Priority Consultants Inc. Item 6.12, a resolution regarding HSD 2026 summer food service program. You have 23 speakers on the consent calendar.

Alright. Let's hear from our speakers, please.

As I call your name, approach the podium in any order. Please state your name for the record before beginning. If you are on Zoom, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you. You will be taken after the speakers in chambers. Anaya, Denisha Davis, Deidra Donoquin, sorry if I said that incorrectly.

Miss Asada Olabala, I have you with multiple items on consent for the maximum amount of time. Millie Cleveland, Joy Epple, Felicia Tashan Anderson, Michael Kangeja, Charles Usui, Anita Roberts, Carmen Marie Hidalgo, Sandra Williams, Edvita Kelly Smith, or is it Arita? And mister Barnes, Rajni Mandal, Kevin Dally, George Spees, Derek Barnes, I have you with two cards. Rashard Davis, Blair Beekman, have you with multiple items. Ruben, Adrian Martinez, Ramirez.

Mister Hazard, I have you with multiple items. Marcelo Manuel Jaime. Go ahead, mister Hazard.

What you just did is gonna come back and bite you on the rear end. Go to my website. I gave you each this copy. This is a notice of motion to confirm writ procedural process, correct administrative classification for issuance of an order to show cause and or alternative writ preemptive writ. Second one is my declaration of gene hazard in support of the motion to confirm writ procedural pro procedures, correct administrative case, etcetera, etcetera, and orders for the court.

This will be filed tomorrow the next day on the transaction and use tax where where's the city attorney? Where he altered the tax? Where a provision to enjoin folks, you better read it because this is gonna go forward. And I'm gonna do a writ on what you did when you talk about the charter or the rules and procedure, what Rama Chandra and the president did with regards to suspending the rule 29. You insulted the mayor when she chose discretionary not to break the tie, and you were pompous.

And, yes, if the president has the power to order out of order, they can't do it with the court. And I will be filing a writ on what you did unlawfully. Yes. Yeah. Yes.

You did. Unlawfully, when you rejected what the mayor had his discretionary power to do to not to break the tie. And I asked for an opinion from the parliamentarian. But the president was so pompous because he can't, sitting in that chair, try to excommunicated me, ejected me, oh, here he comes now. Unseriously, had the police take me out of the chambers.

You won't be able to do that, mister president. And this agenda tonight is an example of what you reordered what normally is consent calendar first, but you put non consent. Because that BS that you did on December 16, I've already written a draft, and you will get it just like the city attorney is gonna get this on the special election of April 15 when there was a transaction and use tax, not a sales tax, which you're collecting right now. You won't be able to get around the courts, and the court has tried to procedurally knock me out of the box. They can't do it because I'm determined to deal with the rule of law.

I'm determined to show that all of you, except for y'all over here, Violating your own charter, violating your own rules, and you got the unmitigated nerve to talk about what's in the charter. Read it. I've read it from cover to cover, so I know what I'm talking about. And I will stay in the court if I have to stay in the court and go to the state

Thank you, mister Hazard. Your time is up. And mister Boatwright, I have a card for you too also.

I wanna speak on the mayoral appointees. You voted in rules to advance the mayoral appointees with no information. You had no interviews. You had no biographical information. You had no application.

You had no resume. And you moved that for consent. The one guy that showed up was asked what is constitutional policing, and he couldn't even answer. The other guy didn't who wants to be on the police commission didn't have the time to show up or even attend virtually. So when we talk about process, you allowed to move something for approval with no information. And I am particularly disappointed in you, council, council member Brown.

Thank you, miss Cleveland. Your time is up.

Okay. Good evening council members, funding partners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Denisha Davis, director of rapid rehousing with East Oakland Community Project, and I'm here to address item 6.4 on the agenda as it relates to delays in funding impacting not only our reentry clients, but also frontline staff tasked with carrying out this work on behalf of the city. Our reentry clients are individuals returning to the community after incarceration with often no housing, limited income, and urgent needs.

When funding is delayed, housing opportunities are lost, Units cannot be held, landlords move on, and clients are forced to remain in shelters, unsafe environments, or homelessness. These delays direct directly undermine the city's investment in public safety, housing stability, and successful reintegration. What is often unseen is the impact on staff. Our team does the work upfront, completing assessments, securing housing leads, coordinating with landlords, gathering documentation, and preparing payments only to have the progress halted because funding is not

Thank you. Your time is up.

Good evening. My name is Edveda Kelly Smith and I am representing agenda item 6.4. And I'm here today not only as a leader at EOCP but to but as a successful outcome of this organization. EOCP provides the support structure and belief that clients need to move forward. This is why funding matters.

When funding is timely, people succeed. When funding is delayed, services are disrupted, staff are stretched in and progress stalls not because of lack of effort but because of the lack of resources. EOCP is currently owed funds by the city and this delay has had a serious operational impact. It affects the staffing program stability and our ability to consistently deliver the outcomes the city expects. Despite this, EOCP continues to serve residents every day, but we cannot continue to absorb these delays without consequences. My call to action to the city is simple, urgent, and direct. We are asking for immediate release of the outstanding funds owed to and for the establishment of clear, reliable reimbursement timelines moving forward.

Good evening. My name is Marcelo Jaime. I am the QA manager from East Oakland Community Project. We started after the eighty nine earthquake. Our facility saw that we had folks who were homeless.

We started as a program called Mission Safe that grassroots eventually became the East Oakland Community Project which was partnered with the city and the county. At EOCP we don't focus necessarily what happened to the person but who they are and what they need. Whether we're serving families, veterans, young adults, individuals, we don't offer a bed, we walk alongside our residents on a journey towards self reliance. We believe that every individual and every family deserves a path rooted in dignity and compassion because

when

we chose to see truly see our neighbors, we don't just provide shelter, we begin to heal our community. This funding we receive from the city, state, and county are what allows us to provide these services, and any delay impacts both our org and the people we serve.

Good evening, I'm referencing 6.4 on your agenda. My name is Deidra Dunnigan and I manage the CES program at East Oakland Community Project, serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Today I wanna talk about time because the people we serve, time is not abstract, it's counted at nights without shelter, missed connections, and opportunities that don't come back. Funding delays don't just slow down programs, they slow down exits from homelessness. A delayed contract can mean a delayed housing placement, a delayed reimbursement can mean fewer outreach hours, a delayed budget decision can mean we lose staff.

We know our clients by name, not by case number. As a manager, I'm responsible for building continuity and accountability but it's difficult to plan when we don't know when resources will arrive. When funding moves on time, people move out of homelessness faster, when it doesn't, people stay stuck longer, not because they fail, but because the system stalled. I urge you to consider the human cost of funding delays and the progress we can make if stability

Right. Good evening, City Council. My name is Ruben Adrian Martinez Ramirez. I'm coming here today as the current managing director of transitional housing services for the East Oakland Community Project. How are you guys doing? It's an honor to be here. Unfortunately, because I'm here is because there are problems that need to be addressed and looked into by the members of this council. I currently hold a credentialed victim advocate at the intermediate level with the designation of a comprehensive victim intervention specialist. We get tasked to do so much with so little. When there are delays in funding, services falter.

Families are not able to get housed. It doesn't matter if we've gotten them document ready. When I'll sit there and draft the letter and then it will be given to a landlord only for it to be given back. That is the concern that I have and that is what I'm bringing here before you. I thought it was two minutes, but thank you for this one minute. Thank

you.

Referencing agenda item 6.4, my name is Carmen Marie Hidalgo. I'm the family services manager at East Oakland Community Project. Oh, thank you. I have been with the agency for nearly five years and currently oversee two family housing contracts. During the twenty four-twenty five reporting year, our program successfully housed more than 90 families in the city of Oakland.

However, due to the nonpayment of funds owed by the city, 80 of those families were displaced through no fault of their own. This was not the result of a program failure, client noncompliance, lack of effort. It was the direct consequence of interrupted funding. Despite the severity of this situation, I'm proud to say that not a single family was displaced back into homelessness. Our staff worked tirelessly, leveraging every available community resource, partnership, and support system to ensure families remain safely housed. This requires extraordinary effort and long hours and unwavering commitment to the families we serve. Witnessing those many families lose their housing was one of the most difficult moments in my fifteen years of working

in

nonprofit. Thank you, ma'am. Your time is up.

Hi. My name is Felicia Anderson, and I'm addressing agenda 6.4. I'm the food service manager at East Oakland Community Project, and our organization is built on a strong reputation for our food, our nutritionist food that we provide. And due to funding, despite of our partnership with the Alameda County Food Banks and numerous donations, we have been struggling with providing these meals. We provide three hot meals for over 250 people three times a day, daily, and it's it's needed, our funding is needed to continue to make these nutritionist meals.

I feel like with all the what they're going through, if we can't provide them with nothing else, a nice meal is what helps them get through their day as well. Thank you.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Richard Davis, I represent as the payroll accountant for East Oakland Community Projects. Our payroll has been delayed over five times since I've been employed here since 2024. We received our payroll for November. This is the most recent one. We have to split it into two. Employees got paid on the December 9 and on the eleventh. This is direct in compliance of our labor code two one zero. In our incoming situation, imagine having to go to work and tell employees that they will not be paid.

Imagine having to live and depend on that check for housing fed, to be fed and to be secured as many working California Californians do. Imagine finishing a full pay period without even knowing if you will be paid. I don't think a lot of people do. That directly affects our clients because positions will not be filled.

Hi, my name is Joy Epple and I've worked with EOCP for four years. Great great organization. Does the best work in the community. And I don't get paid. I work for performance. I provide the food. I've made deliveries there. I have literally donated there. They are the core of my life. I circle only around them. Where's the money? Who's sitting on the money? I'm not getting paid. Answer, anybody. Where's the money? Anything? Go ahead, I'm waiting. Okay.

So, yeah, we don't

You don't answer?

Comments will be addressed at the end of Okay.

Well that's my gist of it is I'm not getting paid. Yeah. They're not getting deliveries. So what do I say to these people when I see them outside and I know a lot of them that go there and live there and eat there and I can't provide now.