City Council - meeting_joint

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the concurrent meeting of the Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency and the city council. Today is Tuesday, 12/02/2025. The time is now 03:34PM, and this meeting shall come to order. Before taking a role, I will provide the speaker card instructions. To comment in person, members of the public must submit a separate speaker's card for each item on the agenda before the item is called. Online speaker requests are due twenty four hours prior to the start of this meeting, was yesterday, Monday, by 03:30PM. The last opportunity to submit a speaker's card is one and a half hours after the start of this meeting. This meeting came to order at 03:34PM. Therefore, cards are due by 05:04PM.

I will now proceed with taking role of members present On role, and you don't have to un there you go. Sorry. Through the chair, I will unmute everyone. Councilmember Brown? Present. Councilmember Five? Present. Council member Gyle.

Present.

Council member Houston. Present. Council member Ramachandran. Council member Unger. Present. Council member Wong. Present. And council president Jenkins.

Present. Ramachandran excused.

Showing seven seven present, one excused. Ramachandran, chair, do you have any announcements before we begin?

No announcements.

Moving to our next item. Item three, we have no actions on special orders of the day. Moving to item four, modifications to the agenda and procedural items.

Yes. Taking chair is privileged because of some recent recent things that have happened, I'm going to motion to pull item 10 which is the encampment abatement policy. It is my full intention that this policy will be coming back in January. I'm sorry to everybody who came down here to give you a public comment. You still can give public comment on item number 10, but it is my intention if I have a second and a vote from the I hear a second.

And if I have a vote from the rest of the council that we will not be hearing item number 10, the encampment abatement policy today. It's also my full intention that this policy will come back. And so if you have any thoughts, any supporters, any oppositions, please contact your council members. Please contact your council members so that they can know your thoughts how we can make this policy better. And with that I have a motion and a second. Do I have any comments? Council Member Houston.

Can you give me a reason why it's being pulled, Council President?

Yeah. So I think it's imperative that we as a city keep funding and Cal ICH has some questions about sensitivity zones specifically within the city of Oakland. We are a very urban city. So where people can go when they are unsheltered is something that we're going to have to work on and we'll continue to work on this policy. As you guys might remember, it took a year and a half to get the original encampment management policy done and so it's going to take some time to get this done. And I know council member Houston has been working very hard on this. Council member Houston?

Are you saying that our non sensitive areas we need to add more to the non sensitive locations. Is that what

they're saying like in District 1 And 4? Is that what

you're saying? Is that what they're saying?

Because I

want to know.

So I don't want to speak for Cal ICH. And so I'm sure that U. Author will be meeting with Cal ICH to ensure that we have some policy that will ensure that we continue getting funding from the state. So last comment,

we addressed all the items with Cal CH. They're moving the poll it looks like. This just came up what? Yesterday?

So, the council did receive an email yesterday citing some concerns from Cal ACH.

So, we have people out here against it and people for it. And they came and spent their time to come out here and now we're just gonna tell them they can't speak against it or for it. I just wanna know.

So people so it not getting outside of this the issue of the item, people are still welcome to speak on the item. Alright, it will be item 10, last item of the agenda.

Last question, not question but statement. I have something I sent to K Top, just five slides that I like to just share with the public and show them some of the the progress that we've had made in in a constituent what happened with a constituent out there.

So, one second. There's something from the parliament's area.

Through the chair to the body. Right now under item four, the body is talking about the order of the agenda and items on the agenda and whether or not to defer and withdraw an item on the agenda. If you want to get into the substance of the item that will have to be taken up when the clerk calls that item in on the non consent portion of the agenda.

Thank you. Okay. So any other modifications to the agenda? So there's a motion and a second on item 10.

Through the chair there are no other modifications from the body and or departments. Moving to item five, knowing noting that Thank you. We will take a vote to withdraw item 10. There was a motion made by council president Jenkins, seconded by council member five to withdraw item 10 from this agenda. On roll, council members Brown? Aye. Five? Aye. Kyle? Aye.

Houston? No. Ramachandran?

Aye.

Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And council president Jenkins?

Aye.

The motion passes with seven ayes, one no. Houston to withdraw. Okay. That was modifications to the agenda. Moving to the consent calendar starting with item 5.1, approval of the draft minutes from the meetings of 10/21/2025 and 11/04/2025.

Item 5.2, a declaration of a local emergency due to AIDS epidemic. Item 5.3, declaration of a medical cannabis health emergency. Item 5.4, declaration of a local emergency on homelessness. Item 5.5, an ordinance for amendments to the city's conflict of interest code. Action on this item will result in final passage.

Item 5.6, a resolution regarding the reappointment to the city planning commission. Item 5.7, resolution regarding Ernesto Sarmiento versus Alameda Contra Costa Transit District, City of Oakland County of Alameda in dose one to 20. Item 5.8, a resolution accepting and appropriating $279,000 from EBCF for mayor's office staff positions. Item 5.9, a resolution regarding the appointment for the mayor's commission on persons with disabilities. Item five ten, a resolution regarding the appointment of Denise Schmidt, Shada Rager, and Tanya Love to the bicyclist bicyclist pedestrian advisory commission.

Item five eleven, a resolution regarding appointments to the budget advisory commission. Item five twelve, an ordinance regarding the vacant property tax ordinance amendments. Action on this item will result in introduction. Item five thirteen, a resolution regarding public works equipment services division cooperative purchase agreements. Item five fourteen, an ordinance regarding Oakland municipal code chapter ten twenty, speed limits, administrative updates.

Action on this item will result in introduction. Item five fifteen, a resolution regarding the memorandum of agreement for 30 Blair Place. Item five sixteen, a resolution regarding the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation property sale loan forgiveness. Item five seventeen with multiple pieces of legislation, a resolution, and an ordinance regarding the economic activation zones. The ordinance the action on the ordinance will result in introduction.

Item five twenty, a resolution regarding the city of Oakland's annual contributions to the Youth Ventures Joint Powers Authority. Five twenty one, multiple multiple pieces of legislation regarding the early childhood multiple state contracts fiscal year '26 through '27, three '3 resolutions. Item five twenty two, an ordinance regarding Flex Street programs public street closures. Action on this item will result in introduction. Item five twenty three, an informational report regarding the performance audit of Oakland's police emergency response times.

Item five twenty four, a resolution regarding Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal LLC versus the City of Oakland. Item s five twenty five does require an urgency finding as this item was added at the three day. Regarding the 27th Street complete streets contract contract award. And that concludes your consent calendar.

Is there somebody to give urgency for S 25? Is there anyone from DOT to give an urgency finding for S 25? In the meantime, are there other departments that need modifications to the consent calendar?

Point of clarification, was 5.18 read into the consent calendar?

Apologies to the chair, don't believe I did. Five eighteen, a resolution regarding the fiscal year twenty five to twenty seven budget amendment cultural affairs manager.

As well as five

nineteen, resolution regarding the senior companion program, foster grandparent program, renewal grant applications fiscal year twenty five to twenty six.

Seeing no modifications from staff. Any modifications from the council members? Seeing no modifications from the council members, let's go to public comment. So five twenty five will be pulled. There's no urgency finding. So when we make the motion, it will be with withdrawing 05/25 and that'll come back to subsequent rules. Council member Fife.

I just wanted to give my brief comments around one of the agenda items, item 5.1. I see that one of the appointees from the mayor is in the chamber with us and I wanted to highlight the the wisdom of Tanya Love who was going to be appointed to the bike and pedestrian advisory commission. I think she's an amazing asset. I am a little biased as this is my former chief of staff, but her dedication to Oakland's community regarding transportation issues and the work that she's done over the years to ensure the health and safety of Oakland residents is going to be an amazing asset to this body. I just wanted to say that publicly. Thank you.

I'd have to concur with you. Tanya Love is an amazing asset. It's good to have her back in some capacity with the city of Oakland if approved by council. The president have a modification?

Good afternoon, council members, council president Jenkins. President Kilgore here, deputy chief of staff to mayor Barbara Lee. So we have a slight modification regarding file number 260252 appointment. I won't go through all the appointments on there, but I'm here to share there was a typo in the resolution language regarding the term length for the appointments of the appointees. Their terms are supposed to be ending on 12/31/2028 and not 12/31/2029 as per the three year term requirement. We've consulted the city attorney and request that we make that slight change. Thank you.

Through the chair, can you state the name, the number of the agenda item, please?

Yes. It's two or the file number?

Not the file ID through the chair. 5.50.1. 510. 10. Thank you.

Thank you.

So if there's any modifications to fight or if there's an urgency finding for DOT, urgency finding so we will withdraw and schedule to the next City Council meeting on consent.

Thank you chair. Shall we go to public comment?

Yes please.

Okay.

Okay. Calling the names of those who signed up for public comment. Once you hear your name, please approach the podium or if you are in Zoom, please raise your hand in the Zoom app. Ralph Cans, signed up for three items. Sam Ragby, signed up for one item.

Allison Pham, signed up for one item. Bob Rahibi, Asada Olabala for multiple items, Bruce A. Gurden, Kevin Hester, Anne Harvey, Barbara Leslie, Becky Holm, Blair Beakman for multiple items, Dan Cobb for one item, Josephine Guzman, Ray Kidd, Simmon Lee. This card does not have a name from EBAL DC. Sharon Lei.

Kathy Adams. Stephanie Tran, doctor Jennifer Tran, Patricia Toscano, Armando Sorzano, Nikki, Margaret Gordon, Sean Sullivan, Ben Eckyberg, I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name, Stanley Koopin, Jean Hazard, multiple items, Tristan Bergler, sorry, or Tristan Elliott, Diana Collins, Brenda Johnson, Faye Brooks, Sean Brooks, Nikki Lowe or Lowey, James Von Van, Ronnie Stratton, and Aaron Riven, as well as Morne Griffin or Griffith, Natalia Nira, Tanya Love, Vanessa Wong, and Zaid Mohammed. No particular order. Please approach the podium, please state your name for the record.

Good afternoon, Ralph Cans.

For three items.

The vacant property tax amendments have a major, major loophole in them that need to be cleaned up. The vacant property tax in general needs to be cleaned up. There's a lot of problems with it. But this particular loophole is the exemption for parcels of change ownership after assessment. This is another giveaway to the house flippers are ripping off the city for millions of dollars.

And nobody, you know, as elected officials seems to give a damn. The mayor's office drags their feet, they don't answer my emails, mostly city council members have heard something from me and they don't do anything about it. I have lists and lists and lists, and show you where they don't pull permits. So what this means, if they pull a permit, then they're exempted from the vacant property tax. What this means is, all they have to do is buy the house, try to flip it without pulling permits, you just gave them another $6,000 profit.

That's absurd. This whole thing is unbelievable, and nobody seems to care. I'm trying to understand what's going on in this city, because you say you aren't getting enough in, you know, enough revenue, and this is a big revenue item, and you're sitting on your hands. And you've I've been here how many months talking to you about this, and nobody seems to give a damn. It's getting to be ridiculous, mister Jenkins.

It's getting really ridiculous. And I don't understand it. When I'm sitting there handing you the list, and on top of that, people are getting sold homes that don't have final inspections. There's being sold defective homes, homes that have had the structural walls removed, and not have the proper engineering to fix them. It's all documented.

This is a problem in the billing department that's been going on for decades. And it also is, it's like you don't care. And all that money is leaving Oakland. Almost every one of those house flippers are from out of town. Like Point Green Home Solutions LLC, out of Utah, flipped twenty four forty Monticello without any permits.

They did a complete remodel, no permits. The city would have made more on those permits than they did on the transfer tax. You don't wanna look at me mister Jenkins, I know that. Because it's a pretty ugly truth, and you don't seem to give a damn. I wanna see some out of somebody here that proves you care about this city.

Thank you for your comments.

Hello. My name is Bruce Geron, and I am the I'm here for two reasons today. I am the current chairman of the National Association of Minority Contractors. We are the premier, largest, and oldest advocacy organization for the benefit of minority contractors and it's a national organization. I'm also here for one other reason that's related to it and that is that agenda item 5.25 has one of the consideration would be your small business program, the development of it, which is extremely important and in line with what NAMAC is here to advocate on behalf of.

I stand here as exhibit one of when it's done well or could've, it's been done well. And what I mean by that is that my headquarters is in San Francisco. But the relationship is that there's a contract before you that involves my mentor, the organization that

Thank you

for your comments, Bruce.

Almost

ten years ago.

Thank you. Your your time was on the on the screen through the chair. Your one minute has expired. Thank you so much for your comments. Mhmm. Yes. You signed up for one item. You got one minute. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. So my name is Kevin Hester with McGuire and Hester. I'll complete what Bruce Geron was saying. McGuire and Hester and Bruce Geron and Geron Construction is a incredible example of a mentor protege contract, the agreement that we had with Bruce while we're doing work in San Francisco at Hunters Point. This was in 2016 and Bruce had, he was doing 2 to $3,000,000 worth of work.

Maguire and Hester, we we connected with him. We built the project. We we I would say, we gave mentorship, taught him in regards to what the back office does, what estimating does, what operations do. And now, ten years later, he's, you know, doing he he said maybe 10 times as much work as that. I would say we have consistently had that. We have had the the same agreement with Cooper Engineering.

Thank you for your comments.

Speak fast.

Hello, counsel. Thank you for listening to me. My name is Stanley Cooper with Cooper Construction Engineering right out of Oakland.

Excuse me, pause his time. Order in the chamber Can you restart his time please?

Good afternoon counsel. My name is Stanley Cooper, owner and president of Cooper Construction and Engineering. We're an engineering firm right here out here in Oakland. I'm also a certified VSLBE. To continue on what they was both gentlemen were saying is that on agenda 5.25, I'm for McGuire and Hester to get this contract and the reasons are, number one, I have assigned mentor protege program through contracts and compliance already set in place.

So, they are considered the most responsible because they will help small businesses like myself grow right here in Oakland and we all need that. Oakland hires Oakland. I put youth to work, I have proteges, I also have apprentices currently on, I'm doing West Oakland. Grand jury already report on page 32 talks about the lack of use usage of these programs.

Thank you for your comments, sir.

Hi. Hi.

I'm Bob Raheby, president of Reservate Construction Company, Oakland firm located at 21 Hagenburger Court. We bid on this project. We were the low bidder. McGuire and Hester signed up with Stanley Cooper on a mentor protege program. They don't meet the required goals.

If you take a look at page 15 of the l SLBE, 01/06/2025, they need to Stanley Cooper needs to do 30% of the work. They're listed for 15.2% of the work. So they don't even meet the program 10% bid preference. Secondly, I would question McGuire and Hester's local business. If you drive by 9009 Railroad Avenue, there's hardly anybody there. They're Alameda firm, it makes a difference. If you're Oakland business, you just cannot have an off just just a plain old office, and have everybody else somewhere else. The program is designed for

Through the chair, won't you say your name, then we can put the appropriate time on the clock.

Sam Merheeby from Redwood Construction. As a gentleman from Cooper Engineering stated, Oakland hires Oakland. However, as Bob pointed out, unfortunately, McGuire and Hester does not actually have a full fledged office in Oakland. They have a big beautiful office in Alameda count in Alameda. It's multiple stories, but they only have a yard here in Oakland.

On the other hand, Retro Construction has a headquarters station in Oakland. To build on the point on the Mentor Protege program, the Mentor Protege was double counted mistakenly at 30% to meet the goal. However, they are actually only 15%. To double count a VSLBE as a mentor, that is for a different category. Mentor proteges cannot be double counted. So if they perform 15%, they only meet 15% of the goal. However, if a VSLB on a separate category performs, that's double, but that is not count.

Hello. My name is Becky Ham. I'm the Oakland political manager at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. I also live in District 5. I'm speaking on item 5.24.

We have been engaged in the No Coal in Oakland coalition and campaign since the beginning. The No Coal in Oakland coalition has been meeting regularly for the past year to ensure the city of Oakland takes the just direction for the health of the people and against coal. People are still concerned about health and safety of coal even with the lawsuit. In the past, the coalition has worked in collaboration to figure out the best way to move forward. Hope you all as mostly new council members will think of us as allies and resources to reinforce the wealth of Oaklanders. Please look at all the options. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Sharon Lai with EBALTZ. I'm here to speak on item five point sixteen and five point seventeen. I want to first thank the City Council for your consideration and staff's work on the loan forgiveness item. This approval will allow us to maintain long term affordability for 58 units of housing here and to meet our shared interest in preventing displacement and real estate speculation.

Ibaltsi remains committed to helping Oaklanders meet our affordable housing needs and continue to work on preventing evictions, protection of our units, as well as building affordable housing in our town. And then I'm also here to voice support for the economic activation zone that's also before you. We think that it's a really great start in optimizing Oakland's economic revitalization efforts. And we obviously look forward to working with the city in future zones including in areas like Chinatown to amplify the city's investment with our community investment to move the needle together. Thank you.

Armando speaking on the homelessness emergency and the commission appointments. Political and media elites have bombarded us with propaganda justifying genocide to make us accept mass death as normal. That includes silencing and dehumanizing the victimized population, which is portrayed as a dangerous foreign other that poses a threat to civilization. This logic of genocide has seeped into our political culture. We are infected with this collective mind virus that causes us to treat humans as undesirable and disposable and collectively punish them.

There is a homeless mortality crisis. Hundreds are dying on the streets every year. The unhoused mortality rate is five and a half times higher. And your response is not to provide them with sanctuary and access to health care. It's to double down on punishment and stigma, to portray them as a dangerous, undeserving criminals and collectively punish them. The EAP will escalate the active harm of state violence. Are you on the side of human rights or the side of the Trump administration and the real estate, tech, and finance oligarchs who buy elections and have a displacement and gentrification agenda? And I'll cede the rest of my time to miss Nikki.

Good afternoon, counsel.

Through the chair to the public just noting that on consent there's no seating time. Thank you.

So there's no seating time?

No seating time on consent.

Okay, well, I don't have a speech prepared but I'd like to let you all know that you have a responsibility to the entire city of Oakland. We have elected you and therefore you have a responsibility to care for everyone in the city of Oakland regardless of what their income is and what their housing status is. The EAP is criminal and criminalizing people who are poor is just demonic in every aspect of the word. That's all I have to say.

Hi, my name is Nikki and I'm homeless in West Oakland. Since I only have a minute, I'm gonna simply say this. I've I said a statement five years ago, must have shared it with you. Every one of you, Alameda County officials, are you looking out for the homeless issues or is the homeless the issue, sir? Because as I see it, we're all humans, we all have a place, and we all need to be conscious of how we're dealing with each other. So, I'll remind you guys all, the fourteenth amendment, you guys are breaking our rights. I have to leave because I have a notice to get the hell out of my spot, Fifth Amendela. Thank you very much.

I'm Kathy Adams, the Oakland City Council President of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce and we support council member at large Rowena Brown in the city of Oakland, economic activation zones, entertainment zones. Also, this is good for Oakland, good for business, and something that will make the vibrancy of our businesses thrive and bring more people downtown. So we at some point can just have a celebration. Thank you.

Good afternoon council members. My name is Jennifer Tran, president of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, president of District 2. And on behalf of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and as well as the ethnic chambers of commerce, we're here to support item five seventeen, specifically at large council member Rowena Brown. Our chamber has been working with council member Rowena Brown's office for nearly eight months now to think about how is it that we can regenerate commerce in the city of Oakland in a way that includes multiple community members starting with Laney College, Mills College, as well as our small businesses. And it's extremely important during this time for us to remember what happens to small businesses, immigrants, and historically marginalized communities during the pandemic.

We were left behind. This is an opportunity for us to bridge the gap for this technological opportunity in a way that is inclusive, that builds opportunities, but also centers our communities. So we do not want Oakland to be left behind at this critical moment. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Stephanie Tran, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce speaking on 05/2017. I'm here to express our support for the economic entertainment zone and responsible AI. This is an important step toward revitalizing our commercial corridors and supporting our businesses and expanding equitable access to innovation. So thank you to council member Brown for working with our community to make sure that this happens and is implemented.

For more than thirty years, the Oakland Chinatown Chamber has produced cultural festivals and community events that support hundreds of artists and performers every year. This celebration helps to define Oakland's cultural identity, and this entertainment zone will help to further strengthen our ability to bring people together, drive much needed foot traffic to our small business. And at the same time, council member Brown knows this, that we're disappointed that Chinatown wasn't included in the initial pilot zone, but we recognize the importance of launching these pilots so that it can be implemented citywide. So we encourage the council to adopt this and and support the economic.

Council President Jenkins, members the City Council, I'm Barbara Leslie, President and CEO of the Oakland Metro Chamber. I want to first thank and applaud Council Member Brown's efforts to bring the Town Alive initiative forward. It is a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will help activate our most in need areas of Oakland as well as provide a roadmap for responsible and progressive AI as we deploy it throughout the city. We appreciate that you are starting with four particular zones, learning from your experiences and then pivoting and moving forward as needed. We appreciate that sensitivity.

Our support is grounded in many years of listening to small businesses as well as decades of polling data. Our recent poll from October says, indicated that 90% of our voters support bringing small businesses to Oakland. More than 80% want to attract technology businesses to Oakland and nine in 10 believe it's the city government has a responsibility to help local businesses.

Council President Jenkins, City Council members, my name is Sean Sullivan, a resident of District 3, a small business owner in District 3 right here in the heart and soul of Oakland, our downtown, which has been slow ever since the pandemic. And the needs of our small businesses stark. But we are Oaklanders. We are gritty and we are scrappy and we have come together to try and activate our own streets. And so we did that.

I was a convener, but there was lots of sweat equity put in and creativity put in by all the small businesses, the Fox Theater, the OSA as well, for creating the Uptown Stroll. And that, we believe, strongly as a blueprint for the activation zones that we that Councilmember Brown has put forward before you today. We have studied and been in contact with other cities that are implementing this in San Francisco and Santa Monica to see that this works. And I want to thank Councilmember Five, Councilmember Brown, our Mayor Barbara Lee for helping the Uptown Stroll lift it up, amplify it so that it it comes ready to you.

Good afternoon, president Jenkins, member of the city council. I'm Nikki Loewy, the director of social impact for Northeastern University Oakland on the historic home of Mills College. I'm here today to express strong support for councilmember Brown's Town Alive Economic Activation Zones legislation and wanna thank council member Brown for championing act equitable access to technology through the creation of responsible AI activation zones. Northeastern is proud to support her efforts and deeply honored to be designated as one of the city's AI activation zones alongside Laney College and the Unity Council. Our vision as a university deeply aligns with this legislation that every Oakland student and business owner should have access to AI education and training.

So I urge the council to support this transformative legislation. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Tristan Bugula. I'd like to speak on item number 5.17 on responsible AI activation zones and I would like to speak as myself on section number 10 on EAP. So one of Northeastern University's most advanced programs is its computer science program. And we have a concentration in AI that has been recently introduced that is focused on AI security and privacy.

So it's important and that we and we that and we care that AI ethics is taken very responsibly and of utmost importance. And in a time where AI is threatening job security, we need to make sure that the people affected by this are properly compensated for and that we do more to make sure that AI doesn't go in the direction that hurts working class people. Would I be able to

Excuse me?

I I went for two items. Am I able to

Which items did you speak on?

Number 10.

Number 10 and we're not on item number 10 yet.

Good afternoon. My name is Vanessa Wong, chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission. And you've heard from me a lot of times. I just want to thank you, particularly those who are right up in the front of the fight for restoring the funding for the cultural affairs manager. And I just want to point out, point you to the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Annual Oakland East Bay Economic Indicators Report that has a lot of great information about the creative economy and highlighted, I don't see my time, I don't, oh, thank you.

That highlighted Oakland's creative Oakland's and nighttime economy to help build our city back up economically. And just to take note that all of these folks, most of these folks are also talking about how cultural life in Oakland is what's going to bring this back. So there are equity issues, there are economic issues and I just want to remind everyone too that you voted to accept the downtown specific plan which has an entire chapter on culture keeping and the folks in city government who are responsible for standing that work up for arts and culture preservation promotion, abundant arts, art and events, and affordable art space. The folks who are in charge of implementing those policies are the city staff in Cultural Affairs Division along with their colleagues. So that position is.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Roni Stratton, and I'm here to also speak on item five eighteen. I am the executive director of Oakland Art Murmur. And for nearly twenty years, we've been the anchor of culture here in Oakland, best known as the original organizers for First Friday and I urge you to reinstate the cultural affairs manager position and restore cultural grants. This is because we know when art thrives, Oakland thrives.

We've seen firsthand that art brings people into neighborhoods. It gives people reason to connect, to gather, to support small businesses, to shop, to dine, to be in community and art also gives us a way to express ourselves and our roots and our identity in Oakland. And I believe that this position will be strong infrastructure to support arts our arts organizations and partners and bring in outside funding to support this ecosystem. So I support this position and hope you do as well without this leadership and investment, this ecosystem that sustains both culture and commerce is at risk. Thank you so much.

Good evening council members, council president, my council member Ken Houston, council member Fife. My name is Tanya Love. I'm speaking on item 5.1. It is an honor to be nominated along with my colleagues to serve on the bike and pedestrian commission and we would be truly grateful for your support. Our goal in this role is simple but essential.

It is to improve the safety for everyone who moves through Oakland whether they ride, drive, roll, or stroll. Safe and transportation is important not just to help people get from one place to another, it strengthens our economy, it supports social connection, and I lost my spot, sorry, but it also helps improve our social connection throughout Oakland. And I want to also highlight the importance and to thank all the volunteers who work together on a commission whether they are volunteering to clean up our streets or doing anything they can to help support our city council and our city staff.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is James Van, and I'm speaking for the homeless advocacy working group. I would like to compliment the president on his recommendation to move the homeless encampment measure. You have avoided a catastrophe. In 2022, the council made a mistake by putting into place the encampment management plan that was worked out in the backroom by just one council member and turned out to be a huge mistake.

The same is likely to happen with this one if it is allowed to go forward. The homeless advocacy working group has submitted to the council a complete, a plan that's well thought out, well reasoned, and one that has worked that you don't have to wait till January. You can form a stakeholder group involving the various interests in the city on homelessness issues. And this is a plan that has worked very well, many issues in the rent adjustment program, and we think that this issue is one that is just right for such a stakeholder group, and we hope that you will move ahead with that recommendation. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Maven Carter Griffin, also with the Homeless Advocates Working Group Steering Committee. Okay, my time hasn't started yet. I don't see it, so I Okay.

We have

two minutes.

I'm about equality, right? I mean, We The People. And I just want to bring to your attention, currently I'm going through the eighth sweep that I've I've been living through out here. There's I have something to tell you and I'm not gonna be able to do it in one minute. There's just no way I can bring information to you with sixty seconds and there's a lot you need to know.

You know, there is the Wood Street corridor and today I overheard developers talking disparagingly about my community, I do the same but they're developing not for us, not in our community. We had an idea for a campus and the campus is to educate us on how to have businesses, how to be educated in in doing and conducting things with publicity and and moving forward and to not be homeless anymore, right? We're we're people experiencing a condition that's unhoused and so if we just pay attention to that unhoused condition and respect the people, we can do everything that everyone else can do, it's just that we don't have the space to do it in here and here. I'm so shattered right now from everything that's happened to me. There's cars whizzing by me at a 100 miles an hour at night.

There's people moving cones just because they're bored and that's what my cats can sight the cones and people can see the cats and the cats are killing rats. I mean, there's no one else killing rats but you know, I sound like a crazy person and maybe I am starting to lose it because I've been out in these streets for a long time but I've seen people die that were important to all of us and I've seen a lot of wasted time. We need education as well as housing and a live work teach learn environment. Wood Street and that entire area there, if we just had it for ten years and a collaborative effort with the rest of the public so that we're a part of the community. I see things about we belong and I see this equality and resilience and all that.

There's nobody more resilient than our ragtag tired asses out there in these streets and we're there because we want independence. We're standing for independence. There's no unhoused Independence Day. We want to be treated equally. We don't get information down there. We don't have a voice. We have

Good afternoon. My name is Allison Pham and I'm also up here to express my deep concern about how Oakland is treating our unhoused residents. I work directly with people living on our streets with disabilities. I call shelters regularly with survivors of domestic violence and there is not space. There is not space and yet the city is continuing to ramp up these violent sweeps and towing more and more vehicles.

When people lose their vehicle, that's the vehicle is a place where they can lock their items, where they can stay slightly safer. When they lose their vehicles they end up in a tent, we see them lose their identity documents and it it makes everything worse. And you're not no one is getting any safer by sweeping our unhoused neighbors. If Oakland truly wants to improve the safety and health of all residents, we need to stop taking away the little stability people have. Thank you.

Hello, City Council. My name is Ben Eichenberg. I'm an attorney with San Francisco Baykeeper here for agenda item 5.24. Baykeeper is also part of the No Coal in Oakland campaign. I just wanna thank the entire City Council and the City of Oakland for its emphasis on the health and safety of its citizens over the years with respect to this project.

Baykeeper stands with you There's still a lot that can be done And I know that the city council will continue to focus on the health and safety of its citizens as this project Moves forward Oakland's not alone. Baykeeper will continue to stand with Oakland and will lobby to other agencies as well and do everything we can to make sure this project is as safe Oakland citizens as possible. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Natalia Neda. I'm a cultural worker and strategist and a resident of District 1. I'm speaking on item 5.18 on the consent agenda. Thank you for everybody who's supporting Oakland's arts and culture workforce by supporting the cultural affairs manager position being reinstated.

Filling the cultural affairs manager role is directly tied to the livelihood of thousands of workers like myself who rely on this infrastructure that the position provides. This is not a symbolic role, it is a critical revenue generating and job sustaining position. The last cultural affairs manager raised upwards of $8,300,000 from philanthropic and public funding. The role is the backbone of Oakland's ability to secure and distribute these funds and without it, the ecosystem that employs arts workers like myself will continue to destabilize. Artwork is real work and we cannot do it without.

Good afternoon council. My name is Aaron Reithen. I'm a not so retired science teacher in Oakland and I am one of the thousand signatories along with 90 organizations on an open letter to the coal promoter, coal developer, John Brooks. And you can find the long standing open letter to him on the website of No Colon Oakland, which is nocolonoakland.info. I recommend that letter to you.

And I'm really just here today to reassure our allies among you on the council that we know that you've been doing everything in your power to thwart the insane idea of building an export terminal in Oakland. And don't worry, we're gonna prevail in our opposition. And to those of you who have been misled to the point where you are in support of that terminal, don't worry we will defeat you. Thank you.

Good evening, Sean Brooks, item 5.12, vacant property tax. Your staff report reads that this tax is needed to deter vacant properties from becoming crime magnets. I was here about a month or so ago. As you know, there was an incident on two thousand four hundred boxes sixty sixth Avenue where there were squatters who came in, there was vacant property. I inquired with the city multiple times, was this property on the list, was it being monitored?

No answers from the city attorney's office, Councilmember Jenkins' office couldn't respond to this, also the mayor's office, and also the city administrator Johnson. What I'm here for is saying that we've been able to effectively, through a neighborhood advocacy, we do have a partnership with OPD, Alameda County Sheriffs and so forth, we were able to evict these folks after heinous crimes, prostitution, defecating and leaving a latrine on the city. There was, drug dealing, multiple acts, a fatal shooting on October 21, attempted vehicle of manslaughter. What would help to prevent this is a no trespassing ordinance, and I've been advocating for that for the last four months or so. Please, miss Council, can you step forward to bring us a no trespassing ordinance, which would allow OPD to remove people who are squatting.

Thank you for your comments, sir. Thank you for your comments.

Good afternoon, President of the Council. I'll get it right this time. My Councilman Jenkins and also Ken Houston and the rest of the City Council. I'm here on item number five twelve and requesting that the enforcement of the vacant property tax ordinance be put into, put into effect. I also wanna talk about October.

I was at the last city council meeting where we talked about we had squatters, in our neighborhood. It took four, five months to get them out. Thanks to the gentlemen who orchestrated. And it's hard getting squatters out. I have a heart for squatters, but not when they come and and cause crap in my neighborhood. I've lived in Oakland all of my life. I'm just asking, and I don't have that many days left. I just want quality of life. I want peace. I want protection. I'm a taxpayer. And I support, implementing or or actually doing

Thank you. Ma'am, what was your name through the chair?

Yes. Brenda Johnson.

Thank you so much.

Good evening council members. My name is Dina Collins. My name is Dina Collins. Live at 2466th Avenue. I'm with these other two people in regards to 5.12, the vacant property tax ordinance. I'm wondering how it's being enforced, where the list exists, who makes sure it's enforced in addition to that to help with squatters to to rid them of neighborhoods after they cause so much anguish is the no trespass ordinance. I know a lot of local cities around here have that ordinance and what it does is it gives the right to the police department to take people out of homes that they don't belong, that they're living there illegally. Excuse me.

My family has been very affected by this. I have an 11 old child, and my wife and I don't feel safe walking in the neighborhood because on October 21, there was a shooting. That house is five doors down from where we live. It's next door across the street from where Brenda lives.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi. Peter Brown. I'm commenting on on the EAP. Some will assume these comments are simply opinions. So let me be clear.

Excuse me. Yeah.

Item 10, we are not yet on that item through the chair. We will speak to that item once we get to item number 10.

Not for open comment and wasn't allowed to so I have no idea when item 10 will come up.

We're on item number five five through the chair, so we still have a few before item 10 through the chair.

Alright. I'll try.

If you heard your name, please approach the podium for item five, the consent calendar. If not, we will move to the Zoom. Okay. Thank you. Miss Asada.

I wanna start with item 5.23, the performance auditor report. The report was phenomenal. The report gave detailed information about the state of staffing for nineeleven. I think we're blessed to have this auditor. All those reports have been very outstanding. The next item is 5.21, child care services. You continue to ignore the fact that our Head Start program is in trouble. We fired the director, brought her back. We got a lawsuit by staff members in Head Start. We have black people who are coming saying their children are being denied Head Start.

We have black people who are saying they're not being hired in Head Start. You need to do something about that. The next item I'd like to address is the forgiveness of the loan on item five sixteen. That item should have been on non consent. You have never had an occasion where you have had property that is foreclosing and you're going to forgive the loan.

$8,000,000. That needs to be discussed and detailed and why you're doing it for this particular vendor. Going back to the beginning of the agenda with the 5.4 emergency on homelessness, you do not have an emergency of homelessness. It is not an emergency, you're not dealing with it. You have a culture manager that you're bringing in place.

You have never had a manager for homelessness. You have never had a department of homelessness. You have never dealt with the homeless situation like you deal with your sanctuary city status. People who are coming from outside of this country get more attention than the people who live in this country who are homeless. Lawsuit 5.7.

I'm very, very concerned. I brought it to your attention. You have too many lawsuits related to the Department of Transportation. This lawsuit is $550,000 because of street scene break. You also I'm concerned about the leadership in the Department of Transportation when a council member has to go to the ethics commission about that leader, and how effective can they be under those circumstances. 5.8, you have two mayor appointments, that should be more discussed. What are these positions? I know they're being paid for, but it also needs to be necessity of what they're doing being valuable to the city. Just because you're getting the money to pay them, that's not enough. All they are executing the service that we really need as a priority.

5.112 is a vacancy to property tax. That is not a property tax. A property tax is based on the value of the property. Every piece of property that is vacant you you charge them a fee or fine for the exact same, but it's not based on the value of the property.

Before I start, mister president, can I get a clarification because what I'm gonna speak to I think is miswritten in the document? So I need clarification before I speak on

that. Continue your item.

Pardon?

Pause this time. What do you do you say, mister Hazard?

5.3.

What do you

You have indicated adopt a resolution renewing the city council's declaration of local health emergency regarding cannabis. I thought cannabis was legal.

Start his time, please. Pardon me? Please continue.

Say, why would you continue that and cannabis is legal? Why are you declaring an emergency there? And while at the same time, I've given you what you did in 11/20/2524, fentanyl health crisis. Why don't you have fentanyl on here? Children are dying, and they don't even get a chance.

But yet you're gonna have cannabis as a health emergency. That doesn't make any sense at all. Look at what you approved in November 2024. Also, see you continue to write things and and give to the public a bunch of crap. For instance, those three emergency city council meeting, 11/04/2025, September 2024, you can't have an emergency meeting.

Only one item. But yet, you went and did a whole city council agenda. All that is nullified. But yet the city attorney sits up there over in the corner and he doesn't advise you accordingly. Go look at what the agenda say. Look at two zero eight of the charter. Look at 11/09/2017 of the legal opinion. You could only hold stop smiling. This ain't funny. You pull a lot of crap on the public.

And so when we want clarification, you don't say a damn thing. Go look at 11/09/2017, the legal opinion regarding special city council meeting. You can't do it. Only one item. Only one item. You go through a whole agenda. So everything on that, all those special city council meeting are nullified. Every single last item. November 4, September 15, December 16. Madam city attorney, won't you opine on that?

Thank you, mister Hasner.

Thank you for your comments. Moving to our Zoom speakers. Dan Cobb. You may unmute and begin your comments, Dan.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Good afternoon, council members. Dan Collip here. I'm speaking in reference to item 5.24 having to do with the development of a bulk terminal at the former army base for handling and exporting primarily coal. Anyone who acknowledges the risks and impacts of climate change and the health risks of coal related particulate air pollution can't, in their right mind, want to locally handle then ship and, in effect, facilitate the burning of so much coal several million tons each year. How could any business leader say they care about future generations and then want to do this?

The Trump administration has set aside $625,000,000 for subsidies to prop up the fledgling and inherently dirty coal industry industry. Without these funds, it's unclear if OBOT and the group of companies involved would have the economic desire to go forward. If OBOT intends to develop their proposed bulk export terminal, then they should be expected to build the specialized state of the art dome shaped enclosed terminal that they had said they would build to help minimize emissions of coal.

Council member, you seem to be an expert on this. Is there any more that you have to say? Please continue, council member.

Okay.

Without these funds, it's unclear if OBOT and the group of companies involved would have the economic desire to go forward. If OBOT intends to develop the proposed export terminal, they should be expected to build a specialized state of the art dome shaped terminal that they said they would build to help minimize emissions of coal dust particulate matter, dust that certainly would harm residents and port workers. Several years back when the city council called for a public hearing, a record was developed with thousands of pages of documents being submitted by all interested parties on either side of the debate. OBAT and their partners submitted information about such a terminal design indicating that they would build a specialized terminal to minimize potential codot coal dust health concerns. They should be held to that standard.

I'm not privy to closed closed session discussions any longer, of course. But if there is still a way within the law to stop coal as an export commodity in Oakland, such as compiling new and recently available environmental health information, then that pathway should be on the table and considered seriously. Thank you so very much for all your good work.

Thank you for your comments. Noting that Blair Beakman, Ray Kidd, Simmon Lee all signed up

for

Zoom. Anne Harvey, I Josephine Guzman. Anne Harvey Anne Harvey, you may unmute your com unmute yourself, excuse me, and begin your comments.

Hi. Yeah. I'm doctor Anne Harvey. I'm active with Physicians for Social Responsibility Bay Area and Oakland. And with regard to item five dot 24 and potential future agreements with OBAT, I first wanna say I am grateful for the city's actions to date, and I urge you to not give up on protecting public health.

Federal judge Chabria, whose findings provided the basis also for judge Weiss's decisions, ruled that the city had had insufficient evidence to ban coal. He wanted a lot of information that was not available at the time. But since then, UC Davis scientists have performed the measurements and analyses that he wanted based on Utah coal now transported to Richmond. And their health impact assessment shows important effects on mortality, hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease, asthma exacerbation, work loss, and days of restricted activity. Several of these

Thank you for your comment. S in Zoom, can you please say your name, please? Hello. Through the chair, what is your name?

Oh, my name is Samin Lee.

Thank you. You may begin your.

I would like to comment on I I'm not sure if I missed the scheduling comment, but I would like to comment on that. I just wanted to point out how the EAP has been scheduled incredibly erratically. It's been incredibly difficult to get enough time to talk to local businesses and to unhouse folks to actually get enough time to get input on the EAP and community response. I would like to see some clear scheduling, not this month to month strangeness and also some clear public declaration of what amendments council members are adding. This entire process has eroded public trust in the city council, not even to beyond the just the legal breaches of the Brown Act by one of the creators of the EAP, miss Brooks and Ken Houston.

But, yeah, just all of the ethical concerns over erratic scheduling, giving the public less than seventy two hours of notice. I also just want to comment on 5.4 that since the last city audit on the encampment, the there has not been any significant change for our newest council members. The last city audit on the encampment showed that 12,600,000.0 was spent in 2019 through 2020 with the massive majority unbudgeted. There still is no clear accountability in budgeting, and the only change has been an exponential increase in closures and a decrease in cleanings. I still can't find any measurable goals or outcomes of the sweeps, which should include health outcomes and should be led by public health outcomes.

And we would be happy to help schedule yeah. I I agree that we shouldn't be doing nothing, but all the proposals that have been submitted by the council members so far are only worsening the issue. As members have said before, there's a lot of victims of abuse who are being blamed and scapegoated for what is going on. I, yeah, I've heard several council members talk about so called crime and human trafficking. I hope that people are conflating this with people who are suffering from abuse and people who are recover in recovery and people who are, you know, yeah, who are being blamed by their neighbors.

Yeah. I I just don't see why the city is trying to take away vehicles and shelter when there simply is not enough. Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. I didn't have the opportunity to call these names. I signed up for consent, Tamika Riley, a real Realy, S. A. Talib Talib, Aja White. Sorry if I mispronounced any of these names, Carmen Alvarez, Syed Muhammad, I'll call you, and Patricia Toscano. And through the chair please state your name before beginning your comments. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Tomica Ridley.

There

we go. My name is Tomica Ridley and I'm here with my 10 year old son Jacob. We are here today to say thank you for approving your agreement to reimburse Saba Grocers for the Fresh 5x virtual card program. I have been participant in the program for three years at my local corner store Jalisco Market in District 7 which is on Eads Avenue, Cross Street Is Nevada. Fresh 5X has helped me have access to fresh produce walking distance to my home.

I don't drive and with my son this is very convenient. Our health has been positively affected and I am so happy to show my son how to eat healthy for the rest of his and my life.

Hello everyone. Did you call Miguel Varajas?

Through the chair, what was the name?

Miguel Varajas, he needs an interpreter And if there's none, I can help.

Through the chair, do you have a yellow slip

Yeah.

To confirm? If you can show it to the clerk. Thank you. Yes, we have it as well. Thank you to the chair. You may begin. We'll have one minute for him to speak and then you can one minute to Trent. Yes. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Miguel Barrajas and I am here as a participant of the program, the virtual card program, Fresh 5X at the Jalisco Market on Nevada and Eats in District 7, Ken Houston's district. I wanna say thank you to all the council members for approving the reimbursement and the agreement that the lawyer made with the city of Oakland for $500,000 for this program. Fresh five x has helped me and has helped my family and has helped my neighborhood to eat healthier. And I hope that this program continues in my in my neighborhood for a long time. Thank you.

Thank you.

Through the chair to KTOP, you may turn the mic back on through the chair. Thank you.

Thank you through the president and through the chair and everyone here. Thank you so much. My name is Carmen Alvarez. I am coming from Saba Grocers Initiative, and I just wanna say thank you to president Jenkins has been to our store. Also, council member five has been to one of our stores.

And they have seen the transformation that these stores and this program has done in those neighborhoods with community and families walking over to the stores, getting, you know, $5 for every dollar that they spend on their EBT card to get more fresh fruits and vegetables for their families. And so we just want to say thank you for your support for ensuring that we do have healthy access to healthy food in communities, especially in the Flatlands. We are very grateful for your support. If you ever wanna come and take a tour, please let us know. We're happy to give you a tour. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

To the chair, through the chair, all names have been called for consent.

Seeing the withdrawal of 5.25 which will be rescheduled to the next city council on consent and five point what was it 10 from the mayor's office as amended. I'll entertain a motion. Gaio. Brown?

I will second that motion and just wanted to quickly comment on two items. So first off just wanted to show my deep support for item 5.18 in the funding of the cultural affairs manager and then also item 5.17 thank you to all the community members and partners who showed up to support the economic activation zones. And I will second the the motion already on the floor.

So there's a motion and a second. Let's go to a vote.

Thank you. There was a motion made by council member Gailles, seconded by council member Brown to approve item five as amended the consent calendar including item five ten as amended as well as item five twenty five which will be withdrawn and rescheduled to the December 16 city council agenda on consent on roll. Council members Brown. Aye. Five. Aye. Gaile.

Aye.

Houston. Aye. You. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And council president Jenkins?

Aye.

Thank you. The motion passes with eight ayes approving item five as amended.

So unfortunately because of our rules of procedure we're not able to start right now. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to address it shortly but we're not going to be able to start until five p. M. And so the council will take a break until five p. M. No need for do we need a motion? No. No motion. I'll see you guys at five.

Do the trip and get seven minutes on the virtual clock. Good evening good evening, everyone. The time is now 05:01PM. We shall resume this meeting. Council members, make your way back to the dais.

Let's call an item.

Through the chair, this meeting has resumed at 05:01PM. We do have a quorum at the dais. Moving to our next item, item number six, consideration of the items with statutory public hearing requirements, item 6.1. I do need a motion to open up the public hearing.

So moved. So moved.

Is there a second? Brown. Second. Thank you. At 05:02 p. M. There was a motion made by council member Uncker, seconded by council member Brown to open the public hearing for item 6.1. On roll council members Brown. Aye. Five. Aye. Gaio. Present. Through the chair is that aye to open a public hearing?

Aye.

Houston. Aye. Ramachandran. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And council president Jenkins. Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes to open the public hearing. I will read item 6.1 into the record. Conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt an ordinance as recommended by the city planning commission one, amending title amending title 17 of the Oakland municipal code, the planning code two a, adjust regulations for permitted and conditionally permitted activities and facilities for purposes of providing greater opportunities for ground floor activities, and ease the permitting burden for commercial, civic, and low impact industrial activities. And b, make related miscellaneous and administrative changes into making appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings.

So everyone read their packets and their agendas. Please give the speaker two minutes.

Good evening council members and the public. My name is Laura Kaminski, I'm the strategic planning manager. Staff are proposing a planning code amendment package to streamline conditional use permit requirements. KTOP if we could, thank you. So CUPs are an important tool to address accommodation of uses with special site or design requirements, operating characteristics or potential adverse effects on surroundings where a review, necessary, special conditions of approval can be applied.

However, the CUP approval process is often lengthy and expensive and affords a high level of uncertainty. This can inhibit the opening of a small and neighborhood serving businesses which results in less vibrant commercial districts and reduced tax revenues. Additionally, it hampers the implementation of parks, improvements, and maintenance by the city. Mayor Lee Lee has established a permit reform initiative included as part of her 10 plan for Oakland from which the proposal was initiated. The primary focus of these amendments is to reduce the number of activities subject to this conditional use permit procedure thus allowing these uses to be permitted outright.

The zoning amendments in the Bray Valdes District adopted in May served as a pilot for this project which now expands this to be citywide. So these are the chapters that are gonna be amended in this code package. And let's see. The bulk of the proposed amendments reduce the regulatory barriers to permitting commercial and civic activities in commercial zones. One of the key triggers for CUP often is the square footage.

So therefore this package is looking at expanding and allowing larger square footages for projects before a conditional use permit is required. Also, artisan production is a new planning code new activity in the planning code which we're now looking at expanding to other areas of the city. Also medical service and animal care is something we're looking at allowing without a conditional use permit as long as there's This is requiring transparency in the ground floor. And in Lake Merritt District we're also expanding to make similar changes we made in the downtown.

For open space zones,

the character, just to clarify, for open space chapter of the planning code, it's unique that it only regulates physical changes that are proposed or implemented by the city. Therefore, then the planning bureau reviews this. It's something that is actually coming from parks and rec staff. And so just to be clear, is something that's not initiated by the outside public. And some of the changes we were looking at making was for the food service and concessions to be a conditional use permit or it was a conditional use permit to be permitted by Wright in the region serving community neighborhood and special use in athletic fields.

We wanna make it clear that this does not include, this only is for physical structures such as a kiosk and it does not include mobile food vending trucks or temporary structures. So that is one of the changes that is being proposed.

Through the chair, would you like to allow more time for this presentation?

I can wrap it up, yes.

Thank you.

Okay. So for residential industrial zones, there's limited changes in those as well. And I will just go to since we're out of time, I'll go to the staff recommendation. So staff request that the city council conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt an ordinance as recommended by the planning commission that amends title 17 in the Oakland municipal code, the planning code to adjust regulations for permitted and conditionally permitted activities and facilities for purposes of providing greater opportunities for ground floor activities and ease the permitting burden for commercial, civic, and low impact industrial activities and make related miscellaneous cleanup and admission administrative changes and making appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings.

Thank you so much. Councilman Wong, I believe you have an amendment.

Thank you. Through the chair, I would like to introduce an amendment. This is to exhibit a. In short, I absolutely support overall these updates from staff. I think this is a really important initiative. So thank you for all your work on this. However, we did hear from certain parks advocates especially from Lake Merritt and Jo aquin Miller that the food service provision, this is one line out of many hundreds of lines in exhibit a, would have adverse impacts to the parks especially since we don't have the staff to really We're challenged with the maintenance of our parks. So the amendment that I am introducing

Council member, sorry to cut you off. Is there something that you're gonna be displaying and does the public have a copy?

For the public? I do not have something to display for the public. I have the sheet for every council member.

Okay.

Please continue.

Okay. In short, the amendment is reverting the food service and other concessions to its prior form before this the proposal, before this body where, just to be clear, it's asterisk under this column, it's a table. So asterisk under r s p, r s p, c p, n p, as well as the s u and a f columns. And yes, I did confer with director Gilchrist on this amendment. We had both been hearing from the same set of advocates. So

Director Gilchrist.

Yes. Thank you. And and council president, and may it please the council, I I would also note that essentially what this is doing, the existing ordinance in the section of the council members referencing will not be changed. So it's not as if we're introducing any new language at all. It is going it is essentially staying the way it is, That section.

Thank you. Questions from the council members? Okay. Seeing none.

And then sorry. One more comment for me. I just also wanna be clear that I do think that it is important to seek to lower barriers for people to legally operate things like food trucks and booths and carts. But it it needs this is important tools for economic mobility but it needs to be in areas that don't have sensitive ecosystems. So, know, underutilized parking lots, things like that.

Thank you. Council member Ramachandra.

Thank you. My team met with some of the same park organizations and just wanna echo support for the amendment as well as an understanding, yes, you wanna make city processes as easy as possible for city staff and departments specifically to do this work, but for certain kinds of outside vendors, the existing process, some of those guardrails still apply. So thank you.

Thank you. Yes.

I'll make a motion staff's recommendation.

With the amendment? Yes. So a motion to approve staff's recommendation with the amendment and close the public hearing after public comment. Is there a second?

Second.

Let's go to public comment.

For item 6.1, the following speakers signed up, Asada Olavala, Leanne Alameda, Kate Steele, and Kate Steele.

Is there an order? My name is Kate Steele. Thank you very much to the planning department and to our council members for putting forward this amendment. I represent the Lake Merritt Community Alliance. This is a change that we urged because it's important that the M Cup, this higher level of review be available when we are changing park uses and adding more commercial activities.

And why is that important? Well let's take Lake Merritt. It's also a wildlife preserve. And at the state level they require very strict scrutiny before you introduce commercial activities into a park that includes a wildlife preserve. We've done a survey of other California cities that include wildlife preserves or wildlife refuges within their parks.

They also use this M Cup procedure. They don't do it under the lower standard of permitting. So I'm really very pleased that our council members worked with us to recognize what the hazards could be and that you are returning, proposing to return it to the process that exists which will allow a robust public review if there's a if there's a project that's proposed and it will include a meaningful environmental review to look at the impact of what adding commercial activities to a park that we have here, whether it be a region serving park or any other park. It maintains its park purpose and is not compromised by commercial activities. So thank you very much for your work on this, and I urge you to pass the amendment.

Thank you.

So, it's interesting that you found it necessary to deal with your police commission with its overstepping and making sure certain members of that commission did not have the opportunity to return. But, you have a Park and Rec Advisory Commission who oversteps their boundaries. They are the people who approve anything that goes on in parks, festivals, events. They determine who can sell and what products can be sold. It never comes to anybody but them.

And, it's been brought to your attention, but you continue to allow it. They even developed the Lake Merritt pilot program that put in place how the black vendors would be eliminated from Lake Merritt. It never came to counsel. So, don't jump on the police commission when you have this particular body taking all of these positions of authority and allowing it. The other thing is, it appears that you are looking at creating more space.

But, you already have space and you need to deal with that. You have a lot of office space that is available in this city. You have a lot of space that's available with these new development, the bottoms that's unoccupied. You need to work on using the space you already have for these projects you're talking about, like arts production and so forth. Now, when it comes to things like you're mentioning day care and preschool, I keep telling the school board they got 20 schools with less than 300 students, but they don't want to close schools.

But that's space that can be used for what you're saying, you want to have day care, preschools, and other projects related to children. The other thing I'm concerned about

You're the chair. Thank you for your comments.

Does that conclude public comment?

All names have been called for item 6.1.

So there's a motion to accept status recommendation with the amendment that's on the floor. Council Member Ray.

Clarify the amendment. So the chart that was given, I think it's insider baseball, and I I I wanna thank council member Wong for leading out on what our constituents were requesting. I just want it clarified what exactly is changing in this legislation.

So I suppose the best way to explain it is actually maintaining the status quo for this exact, the food service line. So there is not a change. It's a reversion to what is the existing permitting process. Is that helpful? And perhaps director Gilchrist, your department can clarify since you are the subject matter experts.

Oh, I appreciate that. And also have city attorney representative Michael Branson with us as well. But in the long and short of it is the intention is to bring the conditional uses back. It's of a nature that we've discussed that where there were uses that were not going to have to come before a minor conditional use or a major conditional use where they do now, we're essentially allowing that to continue. So that there will be another layer of oversight around the conditional uses for for vendors and for food for food services and for concessions.

We were taking those out initially and now we are having we're recommending or accepting the recommendation that that continue, that we still have that level of review.

Through the chair, just to clarify for the purpose of the minutes, are you changing something in the legislation? If so, can you point to the legislation language so we can effectively capture what you're changing in the minutes whether it's reverting back to the current version. Is that the language? We need clear language for the minutes.

Alright. And this is why we have this gentleman here through the chair to the city court. Thank you.

This is Michael Branson, deputy city attorney. The changes on page 13 of exhibit a to section 17.11 o six o to the table within that section under community assembly civic activities, all changes proposed by staff in the row related to food services and other concessions would be removed from the packet and I will submit that change to the clerk's office before second reading.

Thank you. And I believe we have one more public commenter that we missed.

Yes. Through the chair, we do have Leanne Alameda on Zoom. Apologies. You may unmute your yourself and begin your comments. Leanne?

Thank you very much council president and council members. I'm Leanne Alameda, the chair of the Lake Merritt Community Alliance. I wanna express my appreciation to the planning department for revisiting the proposed changes on food service and concessions and parks and restoring these back to the minor conditional use permit status. This amendment is an important step in honoring our parks as places for recreation, nature, and environmental protection, especially in our region serving parks with fragile ecosystems such as Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge and Joaquin Miller Park. I also wanna extend special thanks to council member Wong's office for working closely with the community and with the planning department to bring forward this solution, and believe that this is, will allow residents to have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect how their parks are used and preserve the public process that's essential for sensitive park environments.

Thank you again for listening to community input and for supporting a thoughtful approach to managing our open spaces and urge the council to support this amendment. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. There to the chair, are there further discussions?

No further discussions. Call the well.

Thank you. There was a motion made by council member Giles, seconded by council member Fife to approve as amended on introduction with the following amendment of page 13 of the exhibit a section 17.11.060 under community assembly civic activities, all changes proposed by staff in the role related to food services and other concessions would be removed from the packet. On roll to approve on introduction, council members Brown. Aye. I will unmute you to the chair. Council member five. Aye. Gale. Aye. Houston.

Aye. Ramachandran. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And council president Jenkins.

Aye.

Thank you. As well this was also to close the public hearing at 05:21PM. The motion passes with eight ayes to approve on introduction as amended. Final passage will occur on December 16.

Madam Clerk to make an announcement because of the amount of speakers and because of a we might lose quorum the speaking time will be one minute.

Thank you making that note. Moving to item 6.2 for the public hearing. We do need a motion to open the public hearing as well. Okay, there is a motion made by council member Regallo, seconded by council member Fife at 05:22 p. M. To open the public hearing. On roll, I will unmute you. Councilmember Brown? Aye. Fife? Aye. Gale? Aye. Houston?

Aye.

Ramachandran?

Aye.

Unger.

Aye.

Wong. Aye. And council president Jenkins.

Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes. To open the public hearing I will read the item into record, item 6.2, conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute a transient occupancy tax sharing agreement with Oakland Pro Soccer LLC doing business as Oakland Roots and Soul, and an amount not to exceed $300,000 to support the attraction of a World Cup team to the Oakland Roots and Soul Soccer Club training facility during the twenty twenty six FIFA World Cup Tournament. Thank you.

Council member Ramachandra.

Thank you. So excited to be a cosponsor of this idol along with council member Gayo and of course EWD. I just wanna express my enthusiasm for the idea that Oakland might be very close to potentially hosting an entire country team during next year's FIFA World Cup. And if that happens, we could have 30,000 hotel stays in Oakland. We could have up to 80,000 visitors.

We could have a lot of economic investment into Oakland and have a totally different country be able to call Oakland home for an entire month and reap incredible economic benefits from that. So with the I will pass it along to EWD to share the details of what this TOT arrangement is, but just wanna express my support for this proposal and my deep, deep gratitude to the Oakland roots for making this happen. There are a lot of sites be that have been contemplated at as base camps, but the process of even getting ours certified as one was no small feat. And I know there's a lot of financial work to do and fundraising among other things, but I'm confident that the Roots is are really taking the lead and helping us become this incredible site for next year.

Thank you. Director, is three minutes enough?

I was gonna I was gonna just do one.

Oh, perfect.

I heard one. I'm gonna go with

it. Alright.

So I

did have a PowerPoint. I will oh, we can

pull it up. Okay.

Thank you, council member Ramachandran, council member Gayo. Appreciate the support. And this is this is really exciting. World Cup is coming 2026. It's coming to Canada, Mexico, and The United States States.

They're gonna be 16 host cities and one of those sites is the Bay Area. And the games will be played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, June 13 through July 1, but the Oakland Roots and Souls Soccer club is club is competing to be a team based camp. What that means is that one of the World Cup teams would use the Roots and Soul facility as a practice venue for the duration of the tournament. So the team would practice locally, stay in the area, and participate in local events, watch parties, etcetera. And the main benefit to the host community and surrounding area is just as council member Ramachandran said, it's the visitor activity and the associated economic impact generated by the team and the fans.

So the proposed resolution enables the roots and soul to share up to a maximum of $300,000 from the incremental transient occupancy tax anticipated to be generated in the city. Just by way of additional information, the city of Alameda had already approved a similar resolution. So there are a number of cities in the Bay Area trying to support the roots and soul in this way. This proposal does not impact the portion of the TOT that goes to support arts and culture. It's just limited to the base 11%.

I think it's important to note that. And really adoption of this item improves the competitiveness of the Roots and Soul proposal by allowing them to finalize their financial plan and demonstrate their readiness while allowing the city to benefit from the direct and indirect economic benefits of a local team based camp. I'll make this final point and then leave it and that is that this item is really structured as a win win in that if a World Cup team selects, let me, I'll change that. When a World Cup team selects the Roots and Soul facility as a base camp and when we see the increment that surge in transient occupancy tax revenue, then we will have net new revenue to share back with Roots and Soul. If that increment is less than $300,000 we would only share back that increment.

If the increment is more than $300,000 we would share back $300,000 and then keep the rest. And with that, I will turn it over to any questions if there are any.

Thank you. Any questions from the council council member president Proxima Gayed.

Thank you for your support of Oak for Oakland and certainly we appreciate your leadership and your commitment, your employment opportunities, economic development. And with that, I make a motion to support the recommendation.

Second.

So a motion to accept staff's recommendation and close the public hearing. Let's go to the public speakers. Oh, council member Houston. I

had

a Alameda had a similar resolution. What was that similar resolution that Alameda had?

Sharing back through the chair, sharing back up to a $150,000 of transient occupancy tax increment.

And did they through the chair, did they decide why couldn't we decide to do something like this at the Coliseum to actually have it because this other event is gonna be at the Coliseum to embrace the the World Cup?

This is in partnership with Roots and Soul and they are incurring costs well beyond the $300,000 that we would be sharing to ensure their competitiveness here. So they're competing on a world stage to be selected as a team base camp. That's not the case with the Coliseum.

So last question through the chair. Where is the camp at? What's the address of the camp?

It's that former Harbor Bay former Raiders training facility Harbor Bay.

Okay. Thank you.

Councilmember Brown.

Through the chair to Director Kennett just to confirm the facility will be utilized for as like a training base, is that correct? Not necessarily like hosting a large game.

Correct, the bit through the chair, the big games will be played at Levi's Stadium. This is where the practices will be occurring during the full length of the tournament.

Excellent. Thank you.

Seeing no more comments, Ms. Wong?

So just to confirm since I was reading the report and trying to understand especially the table, if we essentially do the sharing agreement you expect even though we can't predict the future but that we would essentially recoup the funds for the POP funds plus more?

Correct. We're anticipating the increment of TOT to exceed $300,000 especially when we look at the supply of rooms and the room rates and the using June 2025 as a baseline vacancy. So the way that we're setting this up, we will not be worse off in June 2026 than we were in June 2025. Okay. That's the analysis in the agenda report.

Okay. And it doesn't also capture the sales tax revenue that we'd expect?

Correct. This is not the sales tax or any of the other economic economic activity we will expect to see from the visitors who are here.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. Can we go to the councilmember Question.

Is that Harbor Bay location in Alameda or is that Oakland?

It's in the city of Alameda. Alright.

Council council member Fife. I think just from what I'm hearing from my colleagues it needs to be if we could reiterate how supporting this entity that based in Alameda will have an economic benefit for the city of Oakland?

Absolutely. So what we're looking at when we when we when this event comes, it's over the course of many weeks. Right? It's a it's a whole month of activity and so teams and fans come and they need to stay in hotels. The City Of Alameda does not have the same hotel room supply that we do.

So the City of Alameda will benefit from increased hotel stays and increased TOT. So will the city of Berkeley, so will the city of Emeryville, maybe even San Francisco. But we expect through the partnership with Bay Area host committee, Visit Oakland, Roots and Soul that there's going to be a real a node of activity here in the city of Oakland. And so we have the rooms, we have the quality rooms that these fans are looking for and the analysis shows that with, you know, 30,000 room nights over the course of the event, there's no way the city of Alameda could capture all of that. The city of Oakland will for sure benefit from those nights.

Thank you for that explanation. Can you also bring back a report on whether our estimations actually led to the outcomes that we perceive because I think that's important to you know make sure that we have the public trust and that the investments that we're making have a return that benefit benefit the city. It I think it's important to to follow-up on on those projections and to have an actual path with those institutions that you just listed Visit Oakland and others about how we are intentionally working to capture those dollars coming into the city of Oakland through our relationships with the Marriott and the the hotels that are still here that we have an actual roadmap to work with any any of the entities that are going to be the the host committee to bring those dollars to Oakland. Yep. I think that makes sense.

Thank you. It does and through the chair at the CED committee meeting, council member Brown introduced a request basically that we come back with that report by October 2026.

Council member Houston. Yes. Through the chair, how are we advertising for the individuals that actually since this Harbor Bay is in Alameda near District 7 you have to go down Doolittle and they have some major hotels down over there in Alameda, Harbor Bay for sure, right? So how are we advertising for them to actually stay in the corridor of District 7 where our hotels are hurting since we're investing in Alameda.

Through the chair. I can attend in part and I'll also just note that Lydia Tan from the Roots and Souls Soccer Club is here to speak on the item and she can further respond to some of these questions. So the mayor and the Bay Area Host Committee and Visit Oakland are in partnership working really hard to identify exactly as you're saying, a path for making sure that there are packages available, deals. There's a lot of marketing and promotion that goes into getting ready for an event like this. And Visit Oakland, this is what they are solely focused on right now is getting ready, I won't say solely on their behalf, but they're this is a major project for them to be ready for this event and to make sure that Oakland hotels are ready and that there's a whole package of visitor activities around this, watch parties, deals in restaurants, you're gonna be start seeing the promotion for it.

Councilmember Unger, do you mind if Ramachandran has this before you? Okay. Okay.

Thank you. Just to clarify, what has been certified as a base camp is the old Raiders training facility that Oakland, not the city of Alameda owned. Oakland owned 50% along with Alameda County, but this property is right next to the Oakland Airport. It's in that side of Alameda, near Bay Farm Island, the Harbor Bay area that is technically Alameda, but the closest hotels to this facility are Oakland hotels, the one closest to the airport. Obviously, we're still competing with people wanting to stay in Alameda or otherwise, but the closest hotels in the vicinity are Oakland.

And it is obviously gonna be a big effort to continue to market Oakland hotels and other things. But this, until extremely recently, was Oakland property even though it was located in Alameda.

Councilman Miranda. So just to be clear, in in response to some of our concerns about this, you essentially de risked the proposal. This is not us sending money and hoping we recoup it. This is if there is a surplus in year over year receipts, then that's when the money will go out. So it's been de risked if I understand correctly.

That's correct. Okay.

Council member Houston.

I've got a question through the chair to the city attorney. Do we still own a part of that property?

I defer to staff to answer that question. I don't know. I believe we don't.

We do

not. So there we go. It's a Alameda. It's it's not a part of Oakland. It's not a Oakland property. It

It is no longer an Oakland property.

There it goes.

The Crazy, man.

We always

Through the chair, I'll just note that in trying to be competitive or in their in their bid to be selected as a team base camp, there are a whole range of expenses associated with this effort. A lot of it is marketing, promotions, they need to hire staff, there is security that Roots and Soul are required to provide twenty four seven. So there are an there's there are a whole host of expenses estimated at $700,000 plus that that is that are needed in order to compete in this way. And so we are trying to help them because of the overwhelming economic impact that we are expecting to see from this event, we are wanting to help defray that expense that they are really incurring on behalf of the Bay Area.

Got another I got one more question.

Council member Houston.

Yeah. I got one more question. Harbor Bay, they have a couple of major hotels right in Harbor Bay and that's Alameda. And Alameda has 27 hotels. 27. Right? If I'm coming to visit there I'm gonna stay because with the stigma of District 7 and the stigma of Oakland, I wanna know how we're going to benefit and get that. We're putting 300,000 we're always giving money, giving money. Do we have any equity in it? Do we have any equity? This is through the chair. We gotta run Oakland like a business, not like a a a a like we're just some nonprofit fundraiser or whatever you wanna call it. So through the chair I'm saying this, it's a Alameda property. You got 27 hotels in Alameda. Why I'm gonna come to Oakland if I'm in Alameda?

Through the chair, if I may, the designated hotel has been selected and the selected the hotel was the Claremont Hotel which and the TOT from the Claremont Hotel comes back to the city of Oakland. We believe that there is there will be more demand for hotel room nights than the Claremont can accommodate. And so I think that there are gonna be there are gonna be other hotels in Oakland that benefit as well.

Thank

you. Just to clarify, I think this is actually the exact kind of thing we want to be a business deal for Oakland. If we are selected as a base site, we potentially get over $10,000,000 in benefits to the city through hotel stays, through economic activity, through people visiting restaurants. And let's say even some of this projected 80,000 people go to Alameda, they're still gonna come to Oakland and spend money in Oakland and shop and dine and do things here. There we have to think big picture, in my opinion, and if we are going to do things to help our city be a, an attraction for large scale sporting events, including being a base camp for FIFA, including hosting big events like Major League Cricket Tournaments and International World Cups and all these different things that could happen at the Coliseum as well as other sites, we do have to think big picture and do the things and support the efforts that's gonna bring us over $10,000,000 plus of revenue, foot traffic, commerce, visitors.

So, yes, it's a cost that we will have to give if and when we do get selected as a base camp and people come here, but it is actually makes the most economic sense that we start thinking big picture. We have to invest a little money to get a whole lot more.

Council member Unger? I just wanna reiterate that we are not sending money out unless we get a surplus back. So it it is at best at worst cost neutral.

Through the through the chair, we've established June 2025 TOT levels as our baseline. Next June, when the team is here and all of the World Cup activity is happening and we're experiencing the demand for 30,000 hotel room nights, we expect our TOT to increase above our June 2025 baseline. If our TOT increases more than $300,000 we will be sharing $300,000 back to Roots and Soul, keeping the rest. If that increment does not emerge in the way that we've anticipated and we are worse off than we were in June 2025, I'm knocking on wood, they don't get anything at all. If that increment is something less than $300,000 it will go to Roots and Soul.

Thank you.

Council member Huston.

And this is not mocking you to the chair council member Ramachana. The bigger picture is this. It's in Alameda and you they identified as a hotel in West Oak I mean in Downtown Oakland instead on the corridor that's closer to the Coliseum where we're gonna be having events. The bigger picture is invest that $300,000 in the Coliseum and have events there. We if the if we're going to invest in Oak, we're investing in Alameda.

I'm telling you straight up. When we do that we invest in Alameda. I don't have a problem with Alameda but I have my problem is we're going to what? Pick a hotel down in Downtown Oakland instead of right there where the coliseum is and where the facility is five minutes away instead of those hotels. Those hotels should have been identified and then I would have had a different opinion.

Thank you council member. I want to get to the public. That's okay and then we can come back for deliberation.

Lydia Tan, Asada Olavala, Barbara Leslie, Jean Hazard, and Josephine Guzman for item 6.2. Please state your name for the record.

Hello. My name is Lydia Tan. I'm with the Oakland Roots in Seoul. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today. And thank you to staff, council member Mamashandra and council member Gayle for cosponsoring this item.

As Director Kanat had mentioned, we are projecting to incur actually more money than is being potentially committed with between the City of Alameda, City of Oakland, and the County Of Alameda. And the reason we are still interested in participating in this process is because of the economic impact we think will come to Oakland. We look back at the two thousand and four World Cup that happened. Brazil was in Los Gatos at their hotel. They practiced at Santa Clara University and it was Los Gatos that was activated.

It wasn't the practice facility because the practice facility tends to be private for most of the time. There will be activation there. We'll also be

Thank you for your comments.

So, the tax you're talking about is deposited into the general fund And, it supports essential city services. So, what you're saying is all essential services have been taken care of, and we got this extra amount of money that we can spend $300,000. Or, we're saying we are going to eliminate supporting the city Of Oakland essential services in order to give the money for this. The other part of this is that, in order to go forward with this kind of initiative, there's certain things that have to be in place in the city of Oakland. You have to have the amount of police officers available for this type of population to come into the city, and we don't have it.

You have to have a clean and safe city. We don't have that. And, we don't have the ability, because you won't deal with the encampment policy, to clean up the city.

Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your comments, miss Asada.

What are y'all smoking? We don't have 30 or 40,000 rooms in Oakland. Maxey's in bankruptcy, Hilton closed, Waterfront closed, the one over here on Jefferson in bankruptcy, the courtyard, Wang is using to house the Asians. So what are you doing? You're not even sharing the cost without a meter.

Give me some of that what you're smoking. Because this is a pipe dream, Rama Chandra. You're say we have 30 to 40,000 rooms, And we got over and Maxi is in bankruptcy? Paramount Hotel is burke Berkeley and Oakland? Come on. And you're not even sharing the cost with Alameda. And miss Ola Butler told you, the mate Thank

you for your comments, mister Hazard. In Zoom, Ren, please let us know if you provided a public comment card under a different name. And if so, what name? Ren in Zoom.

Hi. No. I did not submit a public comment.

Thank you for your honesty. You thank you. We do not have a card for you. Chair that was our last speaker. All names were called.

We have a motion and a second.

There was a motion made by council member Gailles, seconded by council member Ramachandran to close the public hearing and approve the resolution. Time is 05:47 to close the public hearing on roll. To do so council members I will unmute you. Brown. Aye. Five. Aye. Gaio. Aye. Houston.

So this is to approve and close the public hearing.

No.

Ramachandran?

Aye.

Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And counsel president Jenkins?

Aye.

Thank you the motion passes with seven ayes, one no Houston to close the public hearing and approve the resolution. Moving to our next item, another public hearing. We will need a motion and a second to open the public hearing. Again. Okay.

At 05:48 there was a motion made by council member Gaile, seconded by council member Brown to open the public hearing for item 6.3. On roll to do so council members Brown. Aye. Five.

Aye.

Gayo. Aye. Houston. Aye. Ramachandran. Aye. Unger. Aye. Wong. Aye. And council president Jenkins?

Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes to open the public hearing for item 6.3. I will read the item into record. Conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion, adopt a resolution, one, confirming the annual report of the Montclair Business Improvement District Advisory Board, and two, levying the annual assessment for the Montclair business improvement district for fiscal year twenty six through twenty seven, including a 5% increase in the annual assessments.

I'm sure all my colleagues read their agenda. Will two minutes be sufficient for you?

Yeah. I think so.

Okay. Perfect.

My name is Jenny Wong, economic and workforce development. Good afternoon president Jenkins and members of the city council regarding the item before you, the Montclair bid was formed in 2001 pursuant to the parking and business improvement area law of 1989. And as such, the Montclair bid must annually receive approval from city council to levy its assessment for the following fiscal year. Accordingly, the council the item before you is to hold a public hearing to hear all public comments and protests and to take final action as to the levying of the proposed Montclair bid fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven assessment. If at the close of the public hearing, no majority protest exists as defined by the above legislation, then counsel may consider adopt adoption of the attached resolution which would approve the proposed levy as well as confirm the annual report the Moncler bid advisory board attached as exhibit a to the resolution.

As of this reading, no majority protest exists that would prevent counsel from adopting the attached resolution to approve the Moncler bid fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven levy if council so chooses. The Montclair bid is comprised of approximately 220 businesses located in the Montclair commercial neighborhood, And the bid anticipates generating approximately a $121,000 of special assessment revenues in fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven, which will be used to pay for special benefit services outlined in the district's approved management plan on file in the office of the city clerk and annual report, which is attached as exhibit a to the proposed resolution. The district's annual report requests no changes to the boundaries of the district or to the original method and basis of loving the assessment. However, the Montclair village association board of directors is recommending a 5% increase to the fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven assessment rate across all categories to enable the district to maintain the current level of services as costs of providing those services and inflation have increased. Recommendations to increase the assessment up to 5% per year are allowable per the plan on file with the office of the city clerk.

This is the end of the presentation and I can answer any questions you may have.

Thank you so much. Council member Ramachandra.

No. I'm I'm very supportive of this. No comments. Thank you. Staff.

So that's a motion to approve and close the public hearing?

Yes. So

moved. Gayle, second. Public speakers.

Miss Asada Olabala.

The concern I have is that the city collects the assessment. And that staffing, and we get 1% of whatever is collected as a fee for doing that. But, do we have to do that? We have a staffing problem. And, we have several of these business districts. I think about seven of them. And, we have a lot of time is devoted to this. Do we have to collect these taxes? Then, what's the penalty if you don't pay the tax? Are y'all gonna do like waste management, take responsibility for people not paying the tax and then put a lien on their property?

What's the consequence? What happens if you have a nonprofit administrator who can collect a tax, or hire an agency to collect a tax. But that, what is the burden on the city, if any? This is a non burden, we able to do this without becoming a problem? Lastly Thank

you for your comments.

Thank you miss Asada.

The last speaker.

The last speaker. There's a motion to second. Let's take the roll.

Item 6.3 was moved by council member Ramachandran, seconded by council member Gayo. The time is 05:54 to close the public hearing as well as adopt the resolution. On roll to do so council members Brown. Aye. Five. Aye. Gayo.

Aye.

Houston? Aye. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And council president Jenkins?

Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes to close close the public hearing as well as adopt the resolution. Moving to item 6.4, we need a motion and a second. Second. At 05:55PM, there was a motion made by council member Gaillos, seconded by council member Fife to open the public hearing for item 6.4. On roll, council members Brown. Aye. Fife. Aye. Gaio?

Aye.

Houston? Aye. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger?

Aye.

Wong? Aye. And Jenkins?

Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes. To open the public hearing, I will read the item into record. Conduct a public hearing, and upon conclusion, adopt the resolution one, confirming the annual report of the Rockridge Business Improvement District Advisory Board, and two, levying the annual assessment for the Rockridge Business Improvement District for fiscal years 2026 through 2027, including a 3% increase in the annual assessments.

Will two minutes suffice?

Yeah. Alright. Thank you. Okay. Regarding the item before you, the Rockridge bid was formed in 2000 pursuant to the parking and business improvement area law of 1989 and as such, the Rockridge bid must annually receive approval from city council to levy its assessment for the following fiscal year.

Accordingly, the item before you is to hold a public hearing to hear all public comments and protests and to take final action as to the levying of the proposed Rockridge bid fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven assessment. If at the close of the public hearing, no majority protest exists as defined by the above legislation, then council may consider adoption of the attached resolution which would approve the proposed levy as well as confirm the annual report of the Rock Ridge bid advisory board attached as exhibit a to the resolution. As of this reading, no majority protest exists that would prevent counsel from adopting the attached resolution to approve the Rock Ridge bid fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven levy if council so chooses. The Rock Ridge bid is comprised of approximately 480 businesses located in the Rockridge commercial neighborhood. And the bid anticipates generating approximately $206,000 of special assessment revenues in fiscal year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven, which will be used to pay for special benefit services outlined in the district's approved management plan on file in the office of the city clerk, an annual report which is attached as exhibit a to the proposed resolution.

The district's annual report requests no changes to the boundaries of the district or to the original method and basis of levying the assessment. However, the Rockridge Business Improvement District Advisory Board is recommending a 3% increase to the fiscal year 2026 and 2027 assessment rate across all categories to enable the district to maintain the current level of services as costs of providing those services and inflation have increased.

Thank you.

Council member Ranger, sir district, you make the motion. I would like to make a motion to approve staff's recommendation. Closed the public hearing?

Yes.

Alright. Public speakers?

Miss Asado Olavala.

So what's different from the last proposal? This proposal allows you to see when the billing period takes place, and that's 01/01/2026 through December 2026. That means the staff all year long is going be dealing with collecting assessments. It also states that the assessment for the Rockridge is based on two variables: business gross receipts or business type. The last business district didn't have any way of determining how the assessment is based.

The funds are placed in a special trust established by the finance department. We do a lot of work here. Then you have a race and equity statement that don't make no sense, and I keep telling you people, tell your staff, if there is no race and equity statement, just say there is no race and equity statement. So you can't say transparency and sustainable funds and management services is an equity statement. It is

Thank you for your comments. No, ma'am. Through the chair, thank you for your comments. That was our only speaker for this item. We do have a motion and a second. Motion made by council member Unger, seconded by council member Gallo. The time is 6PM to close the public hearing and to adopt the resolution for item 6.4 through the chair, council member Houston, thank you, to approve this item and close the public hearing. Council members Brown? Aye. Fife? Aye. Gaio?

Aye.

Houston? Aye. Ramachandran?

Aye.

Anger?

Aye.

Wong? Aye. And council president Jenkins?

Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes to close the public hearing as well as adopt the resolution. Moving to our non consent calendar items, starting with item eight. Adopt a resolution awarding a construction contract to Gallagher and Burke Inc. For the Lakeside Drive, Lake Merritt Boulevard Complete Streets Project, Project number 1005314, the lowest responsible and responsive bidder in accordance with project plans, specifications, state requirements, and with contractors bid in the amount of $8,810,715 in adopting appropriate sequel findings. We do have 10 no. One speaker on the two speakers on this item. Excuse me.

Move to waive the staff presentation and move approval. Let's go to the speaker.

Excuse me. Miss Asada Olavala and Blair Beakman.

I just want to demonstrate for you how you do not fairly take care of your business here. Look at all the projects you have at Lake Merritt. The Lakeshore Avenue Specialty Bike Lanes Project, the Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Project, the 19th Street Bark and Lake Merritt Urban Greenway Project, the Lakeside Drive and Lake Merritt Boulevard Complete Streets Paving Project, the 14th Street Project, the Lake Merritt Bark Project, including senior housing and marketing rate housing, the Measure DD Project for Lake Merritt. All of those for one area, one park gets all of these projects. Now, name a project in your district.

Name a project in your district or your district that has to do with parks.

Thank you, miss Asada.

Moving to our one Zoom speaker, Blair Beekman. You may unmute yourself and begin your one minute comments.

Hi. Blair Beekman. I'm currently on a BART train, so my Zoom may cut out. I'm really sorry if it does. Thank you for this item.

It's been on your for a complete street. You know, they're public safety, good practices, and accountability, and good open public policy. So good luck that we are connecting all of those at this time. Yeah, this is a lot of money and how we work this out and how we talk about this in terms of the future of a contract compared to a future of a different ALPR vendor. I hope we can keep those concepts in mind, how we're developing that conversation.

And good luck how that

Thank you, mister Biekmann. We got a motion and a second.

Through the chair, can you restate who made that motion? Was that you, council president? The motion was made by council council president Jenkins, seconded by council member Gaio to approve the resolution for item eight. On roll council members Brown. Aye. Fife. Aye. Gaillard. Aye. Houston. Aye. Ramachandran. Aye. Unger? Aye. Wong? Aye. And council president Jenkins?

Aye.

The motion passes with eight ayes to adopt item eight. Moving to our next item. Item nine, which is a resolution regarding the amendment and retaining the council's rules of procedure. At the 11/04/2025 city council meeting, there was a motion made by council member Ramachandran, seconded by council member Unger to approve as amended with amendment to council requiring majority vote to take an item off of consent to non consent. The motion tied with a vote of four ayes, Brown, Houston, Ramachandran, Unger.

Two no, five in Wong, one absent Gayle, one excused Jenkins. In pursuant to rule 29 of resolution nine zero zero six six in CMS, council's rules of rules of procedure, this item has been scheduled to the agenda to allow the mayor to cast the tie breaking vote.

Is there somebody here from the mayor's office to weigh in? If not, can somebody go get Preston? Council member Houston.

President, how are you? Is it any way since we're waiting, can we speak on this? Or that's a city attorney's question. Can we speak or can we say We anything on

have

to wait for the mayor to tiebreak. If the mayor doesn't tiebreak, we have other options.

Say that one more time.

If the mayor chooses not to tiebreak, we have other options. But, council discussion is permitted. Go ahead.

It is permitted. Okay. So, bullet point five. Require that moving an item off the consent calendar to the non consent calendar to have a majority vote. Normally, just do a motion and a second. Makes no sense to me to do that. Item six, remove and require that committee recommendations that are not anonymous must go to the non consent calendar. Why would we have to do that to move that to their non consent? That makes no sense. That's like blocking public opinion.

President's here. So let's see what President says. Preston, how does the mayor weigh in?

So Preston Kilgore, deputy chief of staff to mayor Barbara Lee. So regarding file number two six zero zero two eight, the proposed amendments to the council's rules of procedure, the mayor requested me to come down and share that she does not intend to vote on the pending motion. The mayor Prince, sorry. I'm out of breath. I just ran down. The mayor prefers to defer to city council on their own rules of procedure, and therefore, will be not will not be weighing in today. But thank you all for the the opportunity.

Thank you so much, president. So I entertain a motion to suspend council rules of procedure so that we can hear this item now as opposed to the next agenda because the next agenda might be impacted. That's a motion. Motion and second, Wamachandran and Jenkins. This is to suspend counsel rules of procedure. Rule six is that rule 16?

Correct. Rule

Mrs. Sato, one second. Mrs. Sato, let her power limit it. Mrs. Sai? She's not weighing in. Go ahead. The mayor decided not to break the motion. That means that the motion failed. One second. So parliamentarian, please.

To your question on rule 16?

Yes.

Rule 16 of your council rules of procedure allow the council to suspend one or more of their rules of procedure on a temporary ad hoc basis for a single meeting only if the council passes a motion by an affirmative vote of six council members and including a finding or findings of necessity provided the temporary suspension otherwise complies with applicable law including Charter, Brown Act, and Sunshine Ordinance.

So So this motion is to suspend council rules of procedure so that we can hear this item now as opposed to the sixteenth because the sixteenth will be impacted. There's a motion and a second on the floor.

And to clarify, council president, I believe that your recommendation is to suspend a portion of rule 29 which provides that the in the event that council members are evenly divided in their vote which happened at the last meeting where this item was discussed, That item will automatically be continued to the next regular meeting which is tonight solely for the purpose of allowing the mayor to cast a vote. And I believe you your recommendation is to suspend that portion of the rule that says solely for the purpose of casting the vote so that the council can continue to discuss the item

Yes.

That's been agendized.

You're out of order, mister. You're about to order. That's your first warning? That's your first warning? This is our order. This is your second warning. This is our order. Police please remove mister Hazard. Please remove mister Hazard from the chambers. Yeah.

Can talk about it. Now, mister officer, please remove him. Yes. So we could further discuss the item.

Okay. There was a motion by made by council president Jenkins, seconded by council member Ramachandran to suspend a portion of rule 29 so that we may further discuss this item through the chair to the parliamentarian. Is there any other language that I should be relaying in this motion to to further this discussion for this item?

Pursuant to rule 16 which allows the council to suspend its rules, you should include a finding or findings of necessity for the the basis for the suspension.

So the finding is the impacted December 16 agenda.

Thank you. On roll to suspend a portion of rule 29 so we can further discuss this item. On roll council members Brown? Aye. Five? No. Gyle? No. Houston? No.

Ramachandran?

Aye.

Anger?

Aye.

Wong?

Aye.

And Jenkins? Aye.

That motion fails. I'll restate my motion. I will motion. So it needs six votes. So I'll restate my motion.

So this is just so that we could talk about it. To be able to talk about it, we need six votes. So I motion to suspend council rules of procedure. So this is so that we can speak on the so this is so that we can take a vote on it. So if council member Houston, there are certain sections that you want removed, we have to take this step first.

This is first step. This is not approving.

Through the chair. And this is just to talk about it?

So this is to talk about it and then we will remove those sections as you asked for.

Through the chair for clarity, this vote is to basically and essentially reconsider this item or no to possibly vote on this item later. This is the permission to talk about this further and to possibly vote again on this item.

Yeah. If I can I'll I can try to clarify. So your rule 29 and your council rules of procedure speaks to tie breaking votes by the mayor. At the last meeting, there was a motion that resulted in a tie, the mayor's office, and and and therefore, under the rules, it was automatically continued to this meeting. The mayor's office appeared and declined to break the tie.

The council is permitted to discuss the item, but if you wanted to move forward and continue deliberations and make new motions, you would need to just temporary temporarily suspend the portion of your rule 29 that says that it can only be continue this to meeting solely for the mayor to to break the tie. So in other words, you're suspending that one piece of of rule 29 so that you can continue deliberations on that item and consider other motions. Otherwise, the council, of course, can schedule this, you know, in another manner.

There's a motion and a second.

Okay. One more time through the chair. There's a motion made by council president Jenkins, seconded by council member Ramachandran to suspend a portion of rule 29 as stated by our parliamentarian to further discuss this item on roll to do so council members Brown. Aye. Five. No. Gayle. No. Houston. No. Ramachandran.

Aye.

Unger.

Aye.

Sorry. Wong. Aye. And Jenkins. Aye. Okay. Through the chair I believe this motion fails because it does not have a total of six affirmative ayes.

Correct.

So this Your

rule 16 requires the vote of six six affirmative votes to suspend your rules.

We'll go to the next item.

Through the chair, we did have public commenters on this item even though we did hear these this item at the previous meeting. If you still wish to speak on this item, please approach the podium or raise your hand in the Zoom app. Asada Olavala, Ralph Cans, Emily Wheeler, Jennifer Finley, Prescott Chair, Simmon Lee, Nicole Dean or Dan, sorry for mispronouncing your name, Jean Hazard, Armando Sadorzano, Matthew Richard. In no particular order, do you still wish to speak on this item? Item number nine.

And please state your name for the record before you begin.

My name is Nicole Dean for the record and I have time ceded to me from Matt Boyd.

From, excuse me, through the chair. You said your name was what ma'am?