Community & Economic Development Committee - Special Meeting

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting of Tuesday, 04/21/2026. The the time is now 01:34PM, and this meeting may come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker card for items on this agenda. If you're here with us in chamber, would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative before, no later than ten minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is reckoned read into record. Online speakers were due twenty, twenty four hours prior to the start of this meeting.

This meeting came to order at 01:34PM, and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after making that time 01:44PM. We'll now proceed with taking roll. Council member Fife is absent right now. Council member Ramachandran?

Here.

Council member Unger?

Here.

And chair Brown? Present. Thank you. We have three members present, one absent, five. And chair, before we begin, do you have any announcements at this time?

No no announcements. Thank you.

Okay. Starting off with item one, as this is a special meeting, there are no minutes to be approved. Item two, determination of schedule of outstanding committee items and we have one speaker that signed up.

Thank you so much. So to the administration, do we have any changes for our pending list? Administrator Baker? No. Alright. Thank you so much. We can hear from the public speaker.

Miss Asada Olubala.

Okay. I'm gonna mention just one item, and it's, your sanctuary city status and how being a sanctuary city is impacting the economics of our African American community. And we don't have information sufficient enough to actually do a data driven look into who is coming to this city via legally through work visas, who is coming through this city without any legal acquirement of documentation, but they're getting jobs. And people say you're against immigration, you're against people who are here trying to make a living. I'm only against it if it's impacting my people.

In my contention, it is impacting because nobody has an unemployment across this country like African Americans. In this city, it's 9% unemployment and you don't give any data. It's hard to keep up with stuff because you you keep data hidden. Unemployment because people who are not here legally get jobs. The highest representation of that is in the construction industry here in this city, as well as in the hotel, tourist, or restaurant business.

So when Barbara Jordan said in 1994 to president Clinton, we have to look at immigration status of how we're allowing people to come into this country because if it continues to be at the level it is now in 1994, African American males are not gonna have jobs, and that's just what's happening. So if you don't weigh in on that issue and I have gotten to the point where I know you're not gonna weigh in on it. I know you're not gonna do anything about your sanctuary city status as far as having a discussion. I see you got in your elevator anti racist academy. Why are having that? This could be considered racist.

Comments, miss Olubala? Chair that concludes all speakers on item two.

Alright, thank you so much. I did want to share with the body that thank you Ms. Asada for consistently bringing up the need for us to bring an informational report from the Oakland Housing Authority And so I would like to note that that item will be coming towards the May. And so at this time I'll go ahead and make a motion to move the pending list and just need a second.

Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by chair Brown, seconded by council member Unger to accept the determination of schedule of outstanding committee items as is. On roll, council members Spive? Aye. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? Aye. And chair Brown. Aye.

Thank you. Item number two passes with four ayes to accept the determination of schedule about standing committee items as is. Reading in item three, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute a new exclusive negotiation agreement with the Museum of Jazz and Art for for development of a museum and art facility on city property located at 1310 Oak Street for an eighteen month term condition on payment of a $10,505,100 dollar exclusive negotiation payment with one additional six month administrative extension condition on, sorry, on payment of an additional $3,500 and 2, adopting California Environmental Quality Act findings, and we have four speakers that signed up to speak.

Excellent. Thank you so much, madam clerk.

And so for this item, we'll

be hearing from our EWD team, Brandon Walensky.

Alright. Yeah. I had a slide deck prepared. I'll just wait for it to perfect. Good afternoon, city CED committee members.

I'm Brandon Wolinski from economic and workforce development department. Today, I'm presenting a staff recommendation for a new exclusive negotiation agreement with the Museum of Jazz and Art for the city owned fire alarm building at 1310 Oak Street. There you go. The fire alarm building sits at the Northwest corner of Oak Street and 13th Street in the Civic Center neighborhood directly adjacent to Lake Merritt. The parcel is approximately point seven one acres, and the existing building is around 4,500 square feet.

The site is zoned downtown district general commercial and carries a green loop combining zone designation under the Downtown Oakland specific plan. The building holds a b a one plus rating under the Oakland's cultural heritage survey indicating major historic importance. About the project, the proposed project is an adaptive reuse of the historic fire alarm building to develop in an approximately 83,000 square foot museum facility. Mojo's vision includes interactive exhibits on the history of jazz, a public garden along Lake Merritt Boulevard, a flexible performance venue accommodating up to 400 seats, youth education programming, rehearsal spaces, and a rooftop restaurant with viewing deck. The developer is the Museum of Jazz and Art, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation established in 2013.

Mojo's CEO is David Allen who's also principal of Allen Architectural Engineering and brings over thirty three years of construction and design experience to this project. A brief overview of the project's history. Mojo first submitted an unsolicited proposal to the city in 2018. And following completion of surplus land act noticing, the city council authorized an ENA in 2020. Over the course of that agreement, the project navigated several phases of delay.

Early extensions addressed impacts of COVID on predevelopment activities. In July 2022, MoJa submitted a pre application to planning, but the design required substantial revisions to conform with zoning and historic preservation standards. Further extensions were granted through December 2024 to allow additional time to complete planning and environmental review milestones. The most consequential development came in August 2024 when the city adopted the Downtown Oakland specific plan, which introduced new zoning standards applicable to the site and prompted Mojo to revise its project designs before submitting a formal planning application. That redesign process extended into late twenty twenty four and the prior ENA expired in December before Mojo could satisfy all performance milestones.

Mojo has made revisions in order to comply with the DOS requirements and resubmitted its planning application in January. That resubmission is the basis for staff's recommendation today for a new ENA to provide MOJA structured time to complete planning entitlements and negotiate disposition terms with the city. The new e n ENA we are recommending has an eighteen month term with one optional six month administrative extension. The total ENA payment is 10,500 structured as four installments. The optional extension is available at an additional 3,500 payment.

Mojo's required milestones under this new ENA include obtaining zoning and CEQA approvals, conducting community meetings and public stakeholder engagement, assessing the project's potential impact on the city's fiber optic network infrastructure, preparing a financial plan while securing financing letters of intent, and negotiating ultimately the LDDA terms with the city. On community on community engagement, the ENA specifically requires Mojo to conduct outreach to Oakland Heritage Alliance and neighboring stakeholders prior to planning approval. When Mojo completes its ENA milestones, staff will return to the city council to seek authorization for the LDDA and long term lease. Therefore, staff recommends that the city council adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute execute a new ENA with Mojo for the development of a jazz and art museum at 1310 Oak Street. Happy to answer any questions.

Members of Mojo's development team are also in attendance, and I'm sure happy to answer any questions you have as well. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you so much. So, we can hear from the public speakers first.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number three. In no particular order, you can come up to the podium and state your name before making your rec, stating your record. Sorry. Stating your comment. David b Allen, Asado Olavala, Lisi Chen, Grover Rudolph, Arrow Andrew Gellner, Herman Adams, and that's it.

Hello. My name is David Allen. I'm the CEO and board chairman of the Museum of Jazz and Art. I'm so happy to be here today.

Can you speak into the mic? You can move it up. Thank you

so much. Sorry about that. I'm so happy to be here today. There's three words that are very, very important here. Trust, confidence, and motivation.

Those three words incorporate everything about this project and everything about what the city needs. No project of any value can be developed without these three. I wanna thank the mayor and her staff for supporting this project to help build trust into the marketplace. Also, I wanna thank the council members and the city administrators for helping us implement this confidence that's very important in terms of the marketplace. And I think what's very important here is that this project brings in two different types of economic values.

One is economic value, the other is social. So in addition to 500 jobs, addition to prevailing wages focusing on Oakland employment, in addition to a positive contribution to the general funds, hundreds of thousand dollars over a ninety nine year lease, that's a lot of money just for one project, but the social benefits are even greater. We're talking about strong education for Oakland Unified School District kids. We're talking continuous jobs. We're talking the most important thing here is we're gonna build and connect culture using the music.

And so the Black Arts Movement Business District, I was part of the interviewing team. And in that team, the the BAM is now certified as a state district. So we are glad that we're moving forward, and we want to continue to build this trust, confidence, and motivation. And we thank you for your support and your and your vote. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Grover Rudolph. I'm the real estate development manager for the Museum of Jazz and Art. And again, I wanna I'd also wanna thank both Brandon and Teresa Lopez. Been critical in assisting us in what we're doing and just asked for your continued support. This project has been moving forward at all phases. We have a timeline dating back to the beginning of the of the time when we got started. So again, thank you for your support and we look forward to continue to build right here on Lake Merritt.

Hello. I'm Harold Gellner. I'm the director of architecture for Mojo. And I just had two quick things I wanted to to bring up. One regarding the fire alarm building, Brandon very capably gave us a summary on.

I've been an architect practicing over forty years now, I'm I'm sorry to say. I was also a syndicated architecture columnist for many years, which gave me a lot of time to opine on historical architecture and write many articles about it. I've also written three books on historical architecture. I'm a member of Oakland Heritage Alliance. And I tell you all this not to be pompous, but to make the point that we fully understand at Mojo the value and we appreciate the value of historic architecture.

So the fab is gonna be the crown jewel of of the Mojo development. And the second thing, much briefer, David Allen, the CEO there, I've known him personally since he was in high school. And he was one of those incurably overachieving guys, and he's still the same. He's still incurably overachieving. And I think that Mojo couldn't be in better hands. And so I'm proud to work with this team that he's assembled. Thank you.

Good

afternoon, council members. My name is Lacey Chan. I'm a founding board member of Museum of Jazz and Art, and, also, I'm a lifelong jazz artist. I'm here today to express my strong support for Mojo and its mission. Jazz is more than music.

It's a living history of culture, identity, and resilience, and Oakland holds a powerful place in that history. Through my late husband and musical partner, Michael White, an Oakland native, legendary jazz violinist, composer, and major recording artists who toured the world. I came to understand how deep and important this legacy is and how much of it remains under recognized. The Museum of Jazz and Art creates an opportunity not only to preserve this history, but to teach it through a cultural lens, reaching artists, students, and communities around the world. Jazz has always been a bridge between cultures, evolving by embracing voices from across the globe.

Oakland can be one of its greatest meeting places, a mojo we often say, jazz is our music and

Thank you for your comments.

Good afternoon, council. Hi. My name is Herman Adams, and I'm here in support of Mojo. I'm excited to be a part of in supporting this great opportunity to to help the city of Oakland give something back to the community and the world. There are a lot things that this museum would actually caps encapsulate, meaning it would teach, enhance, it would show create a show place for a variety of different things, the art, the music, the history.

Oakland has this fantastic history that is really not spoken of when when I'm originally from Memphis, so I'm the home of the blues. There's Elvis Presley there. There's a moving here, been here thirty years. I've learned so much about the history of Oakland and how art and history and jazz has actually affected this city. I'm actually wearing a t shirt today of Prince, who's his tenth year of passing.

There's a wonderful history of people respecting music, and if we build this center, there would be an opportunity for people to travel from around the world to come to Oakland, wear t shirts like this, represent Mojo, Oakland, and add to the culture that Oakland already has. Not only for the music, the food, the history, the politics. There are so many different things that Oakland has to present and provide. And this fantastic venue, this art center, Mocha, that will be just down the street here will be something that the city of Oakland can hang their hat on. People will come buy t shirts.

The tourism industry will continue, and we can actually do something that's actually very positive and very informative, not only for our current generation, but the generations to follow. And I wanna make sure that Mojo is actually a part of it. I'm happy to be here today and ask for your support.

Good afternoon. My name is Dimitri Thompson. I am the strategic advisory to the board of the Mojia. I've been in part of the project ten years. Thank you, Brendan.

Thank you, council members. I came here to speak for support of this project. I was on a I'm on a board with various places in in Bay Area, Oakland residents in 2004. This project will bring approximately 400,000 visitors a year. It's a unique project that will preserve the culture of the history of jazz that Auckland has and will teach new develop the new musicians to to learn and vice visitation with the with the kids and schools, they will learn more about the jazz.

It's not only about the jobs and preservation of the culture. It's historically valuable as well as the tourism value for this project. I would like to see if if you remember, but there's no similar project anywhere in The USA. And that's the reason why this project is very important to bring Oakland on a map historically for the jazz and for the tourism. And I thank you for your support. Thank you.

These are such nice people. They come and they're so eloquent in speech. I got a problem with this project. So when you have a project, this is the fourth time we've had an ENA between 2022 and 2024. Fourth time. The last time I heard this project, it was a issue with the height. The height was a issue in the design, and that was, like, two years ago maybe. Let's get this project moving. This is an excellent project. I'm from New Orleans, and jazz is has created a a tourism moneymaker for the city.

If you could see the money that's made off of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, two weeks, three days, you and right now, San Jose is having jazz festival in May, making big money. But besides making money, that heritage, that culture that crosses all cultures. I don't know a culture that doesn't embrace jazz. Oh, it's it's just a a wonderful opportunity. I'm not sure if we have concluded that we this is gonna be a shared property because at one time you had that property being utilized by the main library and some portions of that property still being used by the city.

Have we cleared this property for full usage of the jazz museum, or are we still holding that the main library will have access to some portions of the property as well? I think that we have a struggle here that doesn't have to be. I think we need to put this on speed button, microwave it forward, and see what we can do to make sure that we move I think we're in a design stage. Is that correct? Okay.

That's like McClymond's. We've been in a design stage for four years. And I don't wanna call this a race issue, but it it's it's very similar to what we're with the McClymonds, what we're with the trees, and everything else that comes up. So please, let's move this forward. It's a good project. It's gonna benefit

Thank you for your comments.

Okay, baby.

Thank you for your comments, sir. That concludes all speakers on this item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. So first off grateful for the detailed staff report outlining the history and what brings us to this moment. This was actually my first time hearing about this project and although the project has experienced some setbacks, I'm grateful to see some of the meaningful progress. As mentioned by the public speakers, this project will do a lot to support our Oakland youth as well as just overall education around the rich history of jazz.

And so, of course, I fully support, this ENA. I did have a couple questions, to staff, just to make sure we, you know, clear the air. So there were some obstacles that caused the delay, I believe, during the delays during the pandemic, specifically. What has shifted this time to ensure forward progress? And then, I believe the staff report states the the existing use of the property as storage for Oakland Public Works and pub yeah. Oakland Public Works and then the library as well. Just wanna clarify that.

Yes. So the changes have been mostly related to revisions due to the Downtown Oakland specific plan and its adoption. The issue of the height that was raised earlier has been addressed and that's one of the things that were revised in their plans that were recently resubmitted. As for the current uses by city departments, I think at a time OPL was interested in using that space. As far as I know, though, that is no longer their desire for that space, but it is still currently being used by certain staff of public works as well as as being a hub for the city county fiber optic network, which the fire alarm building is a hub for.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Colleagues, any questions on this item? Council member Fife.

I don't have any questions about this item, and I I do support with one of the public speakers who said I don't wanna make this about race. I never ever want to make anything about race. But in this country and in this city, we have to face the facts that black developers have a different pathway forward. And I don't wanna rain on the parade of the beautiful comments that were made today, but sometimes there are obstacles for black developers that don't exist for anyone else. And I've seen it from everywhere from this project to Brooklyn Basin, the differences in how the Kaiser project moved forward.

So I wanna be honest about the difficulties that black developers have, what we're experiencing right now in my district even through about communication. We can be in process for years. I met mister Allen in 2018. We sat down at Pete's Coffee on Telegraph to discuss this project and how I could help it move forward. I will continue to do that.

So I do support this project. I have from as as long as I've known about it and I'm going to continue to help. I look forward to working with you on outreach and incorporating this project into the Black Arts Movement and Business District. And in fact, when I fought to get Oakland's first art designation in the state of California, the first that Oakland has has ever had, this project was a part of that application to the state California that we now have along with the the city of Los Angeles to acknowledge the history that is right here in our city. So I I would like to make a motion to move this forward. And I also want to make a public commitment to you, mister Allen, because we have

a lot of

private conversations. But I wanna make this public commitment to you that I'm here with you in this fight for the duration until we build this so that our children have this in perpetuity as a resource for education, for career advancement, and economic development for the city of Oakland. So I appreciate your work and your dedication to this project because sometimes I was a little concerned that it would fall through. So I wanted to make that motion. And thank you staff to all your work in supporting this and and moving it forward.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And I'll second that, motion. Council member Ramachandran.

Thank you. Again, just a comment, not a question. Miss Jalen, I've really appreciated getting to know you over the years and hearing your vision and passion. Remain firm in the face of challenges. Having been in four different jazz bands myself, I am partial to wanting to be able to have a space in Oakland, you know, on this gorgeous stretch of property.

I'm so excited that this is finally the space that that that is being mover moving forward with. I'm excited that this is gonna be a location for generations to come to celebrate the history of jazz in Oakland and beyond. And I have to give a personal shout out. I hope you I I'm I'm sure your programming is going to be vast and intersectional in many ways, but as a classically trained Carnatic vocalist, the intersections between Carnatic music and jazz is the hottest thing in a lot of parts of the world right now, and I love and we have incredible scenes in both of those communities here in Oakland, and I can't wait for a space to be able to meld those worlds and showcase that along with the intersections of so many other cultures as well. So very excited for this to move forward, and thank you staff for putting in a whole lot of work because I know this is not easy and there's still a ways to go, but, it's many many people on the inside that go unrecognized.

So thank you.

Thank you. We have a thank you. We have a motion made by council member Pipes, seconded by chair Brown to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on roll. Council members Pipes? Aye. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? Aye. And chair Brown?

Aye.

Thank you. Item number three passes with four ayes. Support this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on consent. Reading in item four, adopt a resolution to declare four city owned parcels located at 2824 82nd Avenue and 8327 to 2 sorry, to 8329 as surplus land pursuant to the California surplus at Land Act. Two, authorize the issuance of a notice of availability under the surplus land act.

Three, prioritize offers that provide affordable housing consistent with the surplus land act and for make related California environmental quality act findings and there is one speaker that signed up to speak.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And so we will hear from staff on this item.

You. Krista Katzmolby, Strategic Initiatives Manager with Oakland HCD. And I have a PowerPoint ready to go, brief PowerPoint. Okay, all right. Great.

So just to summarize, these are four parcels that we're seeking to declare a surplus land in Council District 6. Our intent is to issue a notice of availability under the state surplus land act and then evaluate and recommend responses either open to market rate or affordable housing with a priority for development of market sorry, of affordable housing consistent with the Oakland municipal code. Just a little bit of summary of the locations. The parcels are located just east of McArthur Boulevard and 82nd Avenue. Two other nearby vacant parcels have already been deemed surplus land that are we're working closely with economic and workforce development staff on MacArthur Boulevard.

Those are the red stars. Just a little bit of history, the parcels and several other parcels along Gulf Links Road were originally purchased by the city in the nineteen sixties as part of a road widening project and then made available sometime in the late nineteen nineties for development. Oakland HCD went through several different rounds of seeking development proposals for the property that are outlined in the staff report. About fifteen years ago, a handful of the parcels were developed as affordable homeownership, but the rest have been kind of lingering since then. Part of the reason for that is that the parcels are pretty small.

They're irregularly shaped. They're very sloped, and they have some challenging soil conditions that make development costly. And so just going through again, this little bit of the process of what we'll do in terms of declaring the land surplus, seeking proposals. If we don't get bids, we'll initiate a a city RFP process. We'll be prioritizing affordable housing development.

But in the event that we don't get proposals for affordable housing development, we would look at selling the parcels for market rate development, returning them to use, and using the sales proceeds for affordable housing. And I just wanna thank we've been working closely with economic and workforce staff on preparing for this, especially since they've got parcels around the corner and also on doing some maintenance on the properties including some fence repair in the last six months or so, as well as planning and building staff for assisting us with trying to figure out the development potential of the sites. And we're available for any questions. And I just wanted to also thank Nikki Duesberg on our staff who helped write the staff report. This is one of her last staff reports for her school horse retires next month.

That is correct. And so thank you both so much for the work on this item and special congratulations to Nikki on retirement. As it relates to this specific item, I know this is in District 6 and so just want to note for my colleagues council president Jenkins is also in the loop on this item. Staff has met with him. And then some of the questions that I had around this was how do we ensure especially the property that's at four eighty second, a 100% impacted by illegal dumping.

And did you wanna say just on the record who is the who who city the city of Oakland has been partnering with to ensure that both the fencing and just the area is maintained?

Certainly. So we've been working on on the maintenance both vegetation management and the illegal dumping with economic and workforce development who has contract with men of valor for doing that cleanup. For fencing, we did have to go to an outside contractor because that was work that they couldn't do.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Do we have public comment? Excellent. We can hear from the public speakers.

Miss Sato Olabala?

When you read the report, the question is, is it in the best interest of the city to sell these properties for development at Golf Link Road? And the reason why is because it there are property decline issues. And it says that the the cliff, the challenge of irregular slope terrain, the challenge of the soil condition, the landscape, the seismic activity, the drainage challenge, bordering, the property is bordering on sensitive habitat along creek and waterways. Now who wants to build on that property? And are we being good stewards to put that property out there for sale?

And you even say it's gonna be a challenge to sell a property. I know that property because I pass it regularly and it is nothing but a cliff, it's a decline. And you have an alternative if you can't sell it as as housing project to offer it in some other form. But my question is, are we doing well to even consider to put this on the market? Is it feasible to to have housing on that property?

And and I think not. But if you all wanna pursue to spend the time, how much we are gonna have to invest financially to get this property to selling stage? Do we have a financial fiscal commitment that has to be taken in order to sell this property? And what is that? Because I think it's gonna be very challenging to sell the other property that's on Oak I'm sorry, 82nd Avenue. I can see that, but that's gonna be challenged because that's a high safety issue, legal you said illegal dumping. And who wants to live build? I don't know. But the effort is there. Thank you for your hard work.

Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item.

Alright. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues on this item? Alright. And so then I would entertain a motion on this.

Oh, sorry. I had a question.

Oh, sorry. Council member Ramachandran.

Thank you. So what is is there any are there any structures on the land right now?

So through the chair, there may be some old foundations from prior work, but there aren't the sites are vacant.

Yeah. Thank you. And I'll second.

Second. Oh, council member five.

Yes. Through the chair to the staff, do you have any hi. Do you have any idea how long it would take for this to potentially sell once on the market?

Through the chair, I'm gonna pull up my staff report.

I don't I don't recall seeing that.

Can't okay. So I think we've got a timeline for the the notice of availability which is, you know, probably three to six months. And then yeah. Looking at I think honestly we're looking at something close to a year to two years just to to be reasonable at work and if anybody from economic workforce development because we're gonna turn over.

Somebody trying to peek around the column to

Yeah. Come up. It's gonna be a few years.

Come on up, Brandon. Okay.

Okay. So from the state process, through the chair, thank you. Sixty day open period and then ninety day negotiation, that's if we get proposals through the surplus land act process. And then we still would have to come back to counsel with a disposition recommendation once we'd work through that. And then if we don't then we issue our go into our own RFP process.

I see. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks.

I did. Yep.

Thank you. We have a motion made by chair Brown, seconded by council member Ramachandran to approve the recommendations of staff and support this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on roll. Council members five? Aye. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye.

Thank you. Item number four passes with four ayes to support this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on consent. Reading in item five, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to execute a grant agreement with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation as fiscal sponsors for the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative in an amount not to exceed $25,000 to disperse I'm sorry. Resilience Hub grant funds previously awarded to the city of Oakland by Pacific Gas and Electric Company and we have three speakers that signed up to speak. Excellent. Thank you so much.

And so for this item we'll be hearing from our city's sustainability team, Nick. And I don't wanna pronounce your last name wrong but good to see you.

Good afternoon. Nick Cordesch from the sustainability and resilience division of the city administrator's office. This resolution would authorize payment of PG and E resilience hub grant funding to Oakland Parks and Rec Foundation. Oakland was awarded a feasibility grant under PG and E's resilience hub program for $25,000 to fund an assessment of resilience hub needs. The definition of resilience hubs are physical spaces that support communities in the face of climate driven extreme weather events like wildfires and smoke as well as the day to day interruptions like power outages.

They typically provide access to power, shelter, and information. And the purpose of this grant is help the community build a network of local resilience hubs. These should be trusted spaces that can also be accessed year round and build community connections. The Oakland's Equitable Climate Action Plan includes a commitment to build three resilience hubs and the city needed input on features and desired locations in East Oakland. This grant provided that.

We selected East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative to conduct the implementation. The city's requirements were data on trusted locations for resilience hubs including city owned properties, data on community needs and features in the resilience hubs, and a workshop that provided community benefits that we've been asked for repeatedly including real time translation, childcare, food, stipends, and recording of community stories. East Oakland Neighborhood Initiatives was selected for after their work on the Better Neighborhoods and Same Neighbors program and for their ongoing work on convening groups to work on resilience hubs in East Oakland. The result of this engagement was a successful summit about a year ago, successful closeout of the grant with PG and E. And we have members of East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative in the audience today.

I wanted to recognize Kita Price and Jeffers Fabro for doing a great job on the event. We collected valuable feedback that the city will use to apply for further funding and to inform our capital improvement program. Thank you. I'm open for questions here.

Alright. Thank thank you so much. Do we have public speakers? Let's see.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number five, Aya Jeffersfabro, Kita Price, and missus Sato Olabala.

What's up with everybody? How y'all doing? My name is Keeter Price, also known as the hood planner from East Oakland. Today, I'm representing the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative as a project manager. As Nick said, we worked with the city about a year ago to host, a resiliency summit. For the East Oakland Neighborhood initiative. First of all, who we are, we've been together for about five, six years now. We came together to kinda fill the gap that the redevelopment dollars that used to be allocated from the state to actually fix neighborhoods outside of the block by block, money. It was no more money to kinda redevelop neighborhoods. So instead of us waiting for the city and the city had no plans.

I was an intern in the planning department, and I saw that the city literally had no plans for D P Stokland. So it motivated me and other folks to get out there and try to find ourselves. Long story short, we got a we got found money, for a planning grant for a 100 k, put together a plan, 13 different groups which create the East Oakland neighborhood initiative, black and POC groups. We worked with the city as a lead applicant and was able to use that plan to attract $28,000,000 and other different funding. And so our initiative as the East Oakland neighborhood initiative is to really anchor community planning and DP Stokeland.

And so whether the city came with the PG and E funds or not, we were set to, we were gonna do what we can to, address the not topic of resiliency, but, again, I don't even like the word resilience because in my community and just where we're from, like, I don't we we part of the the summit was about defining what resiliency means to our community because for us, we've been experiencing, you know, weather and the storm forever. So, so, yeah, that was part of what the resiliency summit was all about, not just trying to identify for the city and check a box. Where where do you wanna have the East Oakland Resiliency Hub? It was also for us to do the work we already do and further understand from community. Again, what does resiliency mean to you?

And, how do you wonder whether the different storms that's coming from heat island effect and other things. And so, yeah, again, we've completed this about a year ago on a completely other another side note. While this was a very good event and stuff, I only got three seconds left. Do you wanna talk or see

Well, Kita Kita, is there more that you would like to say?

She'll take her time.

You you can go ahead. You can keep speaking. It's fine.

Sorry. I'm I'm I'm speaking really fast right now. It's okay. It's okay. Just yeah. I'm speaking fast. One from time and just two is I just got a lot on my mind right now. And in turn, when it comes to the city and these processes, just like clarified said, I haven't been to the city council in a minute. I've been since I first met you in city council here as a student on the cannabis issue, I haven't really been back when once I started getting my footing in this stuff because I've been on the trenches. It's hard to be in both places at once.

And so, again, just long story short, this is like one of, like, three or four projects that I'm personally a part of that the city processes are dragging their feet as on, and it's, like, really becoming an issue. And we'll come more formally to, like, really lay out what those four projects are and, like, what are the actual issues and barriers of the community literally going out finding dollars and we are having issues with the staff, like, just meeting us halfway to get us the funds to to complete to get the license agreement so we can work on the the Tullianjo Creek. It's just so much beautiful things that's going on, and I don't even have time to share it, talk about it, or enjoy it because I'm just I'm tired. And I know some of y'all tired and stuff too, and there's there's all kind of stuff going on out here, but I just had to express that. Like, I'm trying to be cool and diplomatic, but honestly, like, the city got us fucked up right now with DPS Oakland, like, because we've been doing what we need to do to beat y'all halfway.

And it's like, where y'all at or whatnot? And I'm not talking about Ken. He just got here whatnot, and we did meet with Ken Houston, Eoni, after the last item didn't pass because we want to keep get him up to date on what we've been doing so we can work together and have a working relationship where it makes sense. But it's just like, yeah, like I said, I can be doing anything as a 30 year old person in East Oakland, but I'm instead of going to be in corporate and something like that, I'm out here working in my community as a for outside of EOP. I'm a for profit poor for profit consultant and working as a community centered consultant because we don't have those people looking for our best interest in the community.

So I just wanted to put that out there that it's just it's been a year, a year or whatnot, and it's only 25 k. The work has been done. The residents have been paid, and it's and Yoni, we don't have no money. I'm not nothing to say like that, but our funds are getting exhausted, and, like, we're in financial crisis. And so yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Go go go with this. Alright. It's alright.

Thank you so much. I met with them.

Can I can I can I apology council member Houston because we need to adjourn into a special meeting and it's also public comment? So if you can hold your comment for the the next speaker then we can have you speak. Thank you. So I'll make a motion to adjourn into a special, meeting of the city council. Second.

Thank you. Due to the presence of council member Houston, a quorum of the city council was noted in a motion made by chair Brown, seconded by council member Unger, to adjourn the community and economic development committee meeting and to convene as a special meeting of the full council at 02:23PM on roll. Council members five? Aye. Ramachandran?

Aye.

Unger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye. Thank you. Motion passes with four ayes to convene into a full council meeting.

Okay. And at this time, if you if you submitted your name for public comment, please come up.

Lower that down. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Aya Jeffress Fabra, and I'm here along my sister, Kita Price, as a co project manager for the East Oakland Neighborhoods Initiative, otherwise known as EONI. Just building off of what my sis said, as EONI continues to advance our projects and plans from our community plan created in 2018, at the root of our work, we're anchored in the vision for creating better neighborhoods while keeping the

same

neighbors. Building off Hakita's remarks, bringing a resilience hub to the deep is in alignment with both ECAP and the Eone community plan. And, again, this summit happened last year. It was a success. It was a beautiful event full of storytelling, education.

There was laughter. There was tears. It was multigenerational, and it was a place where our residents and stakeholders could bring their visions into fruition. Working with our collaborative partners, Nick and the Climate Action Fellows, we held a successful event where we were offer able to offer child care interpretation, food, and stipends as the only centers of culture of care culture of care for our community. Going forward, we're taking the data gathered from this event to do neighborhood scaled pop ups led by our resident leaders in the three engaged neighborhoods, the Branny Park, Brookfield Village, and Columbia Gardens, And working with the local architects for fee feasibility and design, and we'll continue to collab with the city and council member Houston's office as we co build our next steps.

This reimbursement is critical for carrying this good work forward. Happy to answer any questions, and thank you for your time.

Alright. Well, thank thank you all so much. Council member Houston, did you want to share some comments?

Things. Thank you. Thank you. I met with Kita, and she had mentioned we was online, and she had mentioned that she hadn't been paid in a year. And I said, how can you function without getting paid? How much was it? She said, 25,000. I said, she need to get her money. And she'll tell you. I said, get get your money so you can continue to do what you're doing. Right? At the same time, this was happening before I was council member. So I've been getting some emails emails about their scope of work. So what I would like to do is put their scope of work in the report so people know so they can't be questioned on what work they did and what work they performed. Right?

So when somebody wants to find out what they did, they can look it up, look at the report, scope of work, things, data, things like that. So let's get them their money. It's been a year. You know what mean? Whatever it takes to get it to them so they can keep up the work that they're doing. Excellent. Okay. Alright. Cool.

Alright. Thank thank you so much and and thank you Kita and the East Oakland neighborhood initiative. I know that you all have been doing work on behalf of Oakland for for quite some time and so, you know, know that, you know, I genuinely value all the work that you're doing and, you know, we go back to our days at community college. And so if there's anything that you need, please don't hesitate to reach out. But I guess I do have a larger question of like what contributed to the delay in them getting paid.

Yeah. I can can I can speak to that. So it it has been a series of learning the city's processes together and I'd say that one delay was with the previous fiscal sponsor. There was an issue with the contract so we've really had to go back through the entire process and going as fast as we can but that takes number of weeks. We're close. Think we can get the payment out very soon.

Okay. Excellent. So I'm hopeful that my colleagues will approve this authorization. I'll I'll make a motion to do so so that we can move this forward to the full council. Council member five.

I I just wanted to say to Marquita, I I listen. I remember when you was an intern. I was here. I I mean, the the work that we did, I wanna I make wanna make it clear to the public that we're not questioning the work of Eone or the the validity of the work that's been done. My questions are more concerned about why this is a consistent issue for small organizations throughout the city where this keeps happening persistently.

We have a prompt payment policy that's consistently violated. And if there's something that needs to happen legislatively for this to be to be minimized, then we need to make that happen. EONI is an amazing organization. We've worked in collaboration and coalition. When I was at ACE, when I was a director, we did a lot with communities for a better environment about cleaning up East Oakland, and a lot of my members lived in that area.

And it's an area that is consistently disregarded like many places in in my districts. And small what what seems like a small grant to many of us, 25,000, can mean a lot for a small organization. I want this to never happen again. And if there's something again that needs to happen legislatively that we need to pass as a body to make it easier for these these smaller organizations to get funding more immediately, then I want staff to let us know what that is. Because listen, I don't I was over there before I was over here, and I understand the challenges of what it takes to make things happen in in visible communities.

Keita, thank you for continuously doing this work. I know I have not forgotten that meeting we was at around at the black culture zone, so we need to have some conversations. But at the same time, I recognize the the self determination and what you fight for, and I have your back. And don't let this go for another year. Don't let it happen where you don't come and communicate to elected officials about the challenges that you're having so we can do what we need to do on this side of the dais so you can continue to fight for your community. You hear me? Okay. I, second the motion if it has not been seconded already. Yeah.

Administrator Baker.

Yeah. Through the chair. Could could we just articulate, what the specific issue is for the public with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, the fiscal sponsor? What specifically was the issue? Thank you.

Thank you. I'd like to clarify. The issue was not with Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation. They're the current fiscal sponsor that we are paying through. This was we initially had attempted to pay this through Eone's agreement under the TCC grant with Higher Ground and that contract was suspended before the payment kicked out.

Thank you. We have a motion made by chair Brown, seconded by council member Fife to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on roll council members five? Aye. Ramachandran? Aye. Unger? Aye. And chair Brown?

Aye.

Thank you. Item number five passes with four ayes to forward this item to the 05/05/2026 city council agenda on consent. Moving on to open forum, we have one speaker that signed up, miss Olewala.

Open forum, right? Me get my book.

Hope we have time.

I believe it's extremely important that particularly African Americans find out what your capacity is. And as it relates to economics, we have had a history of tremendous capacity. I I recommend every African American who is engaged in an economic arena to read this book. You have this book? It demonstrates chronologically year by year how we have successfully participated in development of business and economic initiatives.

It shows you, like I've given this to my grandson, it shows you we are capable because the misinformation is going around, the brainwashing that has been successfully achieved that we are underachievers and we are not. That doesn't take away from anybody who has been put under this umbrella of race instead of all of us being under the umbrella of being human beings, and that's sufficient. We've been pushed into an identification process where people have labels and we can't all work at the same level because a part of those labeling some people don't deserve or some people aren't capable. Some people just because of the color you send your skin, you're much better. And that's unfortunate.

But this book gives you an opportunity to see the volume of success under that economic umbrella year after year. And your children and you people have to have to do that because we come here like that young lady and you see that elevation we get to. It gets there because we have been so pushed back, unheard, disrespected. Thank

you, chair. That concludes all speakers on open forum.

Alright. Thank you all so much. This meeting is adjourned.