Office Of The City Administrator - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you to all the members of the public who have come to the Life Enrichment Committee meeting. We're just waiting for quorum. I see one of my council members on the committee just outside. So as soon as we get her in her seat, then we're gonna get started, thank you.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Life Enrichment Committee meeting of today May 26. The time is now 4 0 4 p.m. This meeting has come to order. Before I take roll I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda. If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card Please fill one out and turn into a clerk representative before the item is read into record. Online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting. Making the time yesterday at 4 p.m. The meeting came to order at 4-0-4. Speaker requests will no longer be accepted 10 minutes after the meeting has began, making that time 4-14. With that, we would now proceed to take roll. Councilmember Gallo. Thank you. Councilmember... Thank you. Done.

Present.

Council Member Wong.

Present. And Chair Fife. Present.

We do have four members present. And before you begin, Chair, do you have any announcements for us?

I think I do not. We can proceed.

Thank you so much. Starting with our first item, approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting on May 12th, 2026. And there are no speakers.

I think I heard a motion.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Councilmember Houston to accept the draft minutes of the meeting of May 12th, 2026 as is on roll. Councilmember Gallo.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And Chair Fai. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to accept the draft minutes of the May 12, 2026 as is.

To my committee members, I need to change the order of the agenda. I wanted to move item five last to allow the HSD item to be heard consecutively. So the order would be item number four, then item number six, then item number five. I just need a second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by Chair 5, seconded by Councilmember Gallo to change the order of today's Life Enrichment Committee agenda. On roll, Councilmember Gallo.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And Chair 5. Aye. and once again we will change the order after item two it will be item number four six my apologies item number three it would then be item four six and then five thank you moving to item two determination to schedule outstanding committee items and there are no speakers for this item i'll entertain a motion second We do have a motion made by Council Member Gallo, seconded by Council Member Wong to accept the termination of scheduled outstanding committee items, which is your pending list as is. On roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston. Aye. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Fife. Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to accept the termination of scheduled outstanding committee items, which is the pending list as is. Moving to item three. receive an informational report from the chair of Oakland Mayor's Commission on persons with disabilities regarding their status and recent activities. And you do not have any speakers for this item.

Wonderful. Thank you for being here with us today for this presentation. Madam City Clerk, if you could put seven minutes on the clock. Yep.

Hello, Chair Fife and Life Innovation Committee. I'm Anwar Baroudi, I'm chair of the Mayor's Commission on People with Disabilities, and I'm happy to be providing my third annual update on our commission to council. To start with some of the positives this year, despite some hiccups that slow down nomination and appointments of new commissioners due to the change in mayoral staff, We have had a number of new commissioners join, and I'm happy to report that they are the most active commission, this is the most active the commission has been in my tenure, with many of our commissioners participating more than I've ever seen in and out of meetings in pursuit of our strategic goal, which is Attach, Attachment B. And our attachment A, which I won't spend too much time on today, provides detailed updates on the presentations, the correspondences, all the activities we've had throughout the year, working with various different city departments, with various different outside organizations, and on various tasks including a lot of project feedback a lot of long-range planning feedback things like that I'd like to move on to oh also we were able to conduct our annual community survey this year and would direct you to the report to see some of the outcomes of it so notable ones As similar to last year, we still have many needs in housing. We have needs in transportation. But we've also found that there is an important lack in just information available to Oaklanders on how to access even existing city resources. And we're working on trying to improve just the distribution of making sure people know what resources are available to them, let alone making use of them. Some challenges we want to highlight are staffing, which we'll get to in a bit, a constant challenge. We have had challenge with emergency preparedness, where we've, after a lot of research and going back and forth, found that, for example, the fire department does not have emergency wheelchairs, we don't have 24-7 staff ready for emergency preparedness, and that we're worried that existing staff are not well enough trained to handle people with disabilities. And those worries about emergency preparedness come up often, along with worries about construction compliance, where we see very often that construction around the city is not compliant to standards and are serving as barriers to Oaklanders extremely often. As mentioned, there are definitely a lack of resources. We have some requests on improving especially housing. The AIP program from HCD in particular could use some love. It's a great program that is understaffed and under-resourced and could use the resources, especially in the face of the current Smith litigation around affordable accessible housing. Lastly, I want to move on to some of our asks for this year. We will continue to, we are starting to work on our survey, community survey for the next year and ask for your support in distributing that, using our mailing list and resources to help get that, extend our reach further than it has been in the past. We, like I said, we have asked around supporting HCD along with Oak Dot to help both prepare for, be proactive around housing and Smith litigation and to continue working on the current settlement as y'all have done in the past and I appreciate. And finally, the most important top issue for us is staffing of our ADAA programs division. Right now it is staffed by two wonderful staff members, but it is missing at least three, two of which have been promised by this council but have not been delivered. In fact, since my time here last year, those positions have been moved over to OakDOT and effectively, all intents and purposes, been eliminated, which is backsliding on our commitment to people with disabilities. This has pretty dire consequences. If you'll permit me to share personally, I don't think you can see it here, but just this last weekend, trying to walk to a friend's house, trying to avoid a solid obstruction, walked headfirst into inappropriately placed construction equipment, suffered pretty rough hit, was shocked by the Trauma from the collision had blood pouring down my face, was extremely frustrated and frankly humiliated at my inability to walk my own city. And thankfully I was only a block away from my friend's house who could help take care of me. Thankfully it was not worse and I'm able to be here today. But this is not an isolated incident. These kinds of barriers exist throughout the city. In our outreach and working with, our commission hosted a neighborhood walking tour last year to support Oakland's general plan outreach and staff were shocked to hear from Oaklanders testimonials that, for example, people in wheelchairs, up to a quarter of their trips that they start, they aren't able to complete. That's a full fourth of their trips they just have to give up on mid-trip because of obstructions in the built environment. This is a direct outcome of failing to staff our ADA programs division, failing to staff at least even the architectural associate that they've been asking for for upwards of a decade. I take some responsibility in not pushing hard enough on getting that position funded and ask that you take that accountability with me and that we move forward on getting this funded. This is not technically difficult. This has been promised to the department in the past and then withheld. Financially, this should not be a big ask. In fact, a quick cursory overview of our city attorney's annual reports over the past few years demonstrates millions of dollars, anywhere from $3 to $18 million per year on infrastructure settlements alone. An architectural associate successfully mitigating even just one settlement pays for one to 20 years of their salary by itself. They should not be financially challenging. We have some recommendations on how to move forward specifically, for example, having those positions funded through an internal service funding model that takes from all departments equally instead of relying only on the OakDot budget. and we are available to talk more and see this through. I ask that before I'll be here in the chambers through the rest of the meeting and ask before you leave here today, come find me and set up some time to talk through this and please help us get this done this budget cycle so that we can, bring more dignity to the lives of Oaklanders with disabilities that concludes my report again there's plenty of details not included in the attachments happy to discuss more of those now or later and thank you so much for your time I appreciate the time support you've given us even as I ask for more of it

Thank you, Anwar, and I do want to apologize and hope you are feeling better for what happened to you. That sounds incredibly scary and painful, and so yes, we do want to work towards making things safer in our community for people with disabilities in Oakland. Madam City Clerk, do you have, do we have speakers on this item? So I will entertain questions for our presenter from the committee, Council Member Guyot.

Thank you for the information. For the public's understanding, can you define a person with disabilities? How is that defined here in Oakland?

There are many different definitions I could go on. Some that are classically used are any person who has some sort of impairment that prevents any sort of key life function, such as mobility, like cognitive ability, things like that. and spans the gamut of difficulty moving, difficulty hearing, sensory disabilities, cognitive disabilities that make it hard to parse the environment around you. And I point out that no one, everyone knows someone with a disability. Everyone will eventually have a disability if they live long enough. We have a large elderly population in Oakland and I'm happy to report that we are on good terms with our commission on aging and we work together often. And these are matters that also pertain to our youth who are also, in some respects, don't have full accessibility to the world.

So disabilities define more physical challenge that we have, not mental, but physical.

It is both.

Okay, and is there an age group that, you know, to receive the services, do I have to be 35 and over to qualify for disability, or can I be 12 years old and be disabled and qualify?

Anyone can qualify if they have a disability, though you will eventually qualify just by what age does to us, right? And life, just as it is.

So right now, the city services that we're providing, the majority are providing to people Perhaps people with a disability that are on wheelchair can't walk physical, but what age group are we providing the housing and the other services?

I can't say for certain. I'd want to follow up exactly, though I'd note that we aren't providing nearly as many services as we should be, and that, yeah, I'll leave it at that.

So right now, so the services that Oakland provides those with disability are more housing-related?

I would ask our department, our access coordinator could better answer exactly what services they're able to provide, but generally they do a lot of behind the scenes work with staff to make sure that new housing, new transportation projects, new all sorts of things are compliant, that we're building things accessibly. I point out, and I've seen this through my advocacy as well, that you cannot properly serve people with disabilities without experience with disability. That lived experience is extremely crucial, and it's essential that we have staff within the city who know exactly what it's like to be disabled and who have those experiences so that everything we do, because it's such as everything we do, is done with the lens of disability. When we fail to do that, it leads to trauma and problems for people with disabilities. It leads to a large amount of legal liability and settlements that we see, and it leads to a worse quality of life for our most vulnerable neighbors.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Guyal. Council Member Wong.

I wanted to ask about the intersection of housing, older housing stock, and those with disabilities. Actually, a neighbor of mine I learned had left my apartment building because we have a really crappy elevator and it's it's an older housing unit and he had gone injured and Was not able to use the stairs and had recently learned I think that apartments that were Older than the cost of Hawkins act before 1983 are not covered by a DA. Is that true? Can you speak more about that?

Yes, and I think this is the subject of the Smith litigation where systematically We cannot rent control any housing newer than I believe is 1990 any housing However, the ADA only applies to housing newer than 1990, which means that there is a systematic gap where you literally cannot have affordable rent controlled housing that is required to be ADA accessible.

Is there anything we can do about that?

we're currently being sued for that right now yeah we're currently yeah we're currently being sued and I I think talking with city attorney and with our program staff can help inform what our options are but yes I think that there is

I just wanna interject. What needs to happen in order for Oakland to be able to make these units available is to change state law. This is state law that governs Costa-Hawkins. There were several attempts to repeal Costa-Hawkins over the years. I'm very familiar with those efforts. But because we are bound by that, there's very little the city of Oakland can do right now. So just to answer your question. But we should support any efforts that occur at the statewide level. That's my personal perspective.

No, makes sense. And then there's this elevator ordinance enforcement. Do you mind educating us on what is that elevator ordinance?

So this is an ordinance we passed just in a couple years, modeled after an ordinance that's existed in Berkeley for almost three decades that basically is supposed to... put fines on buildings that fail to notice and repair elevators within 24 hours to a week depending on this circumstance notably the enforcement for that new ordinance falls on the people who are affected by it they need to basically seek those damages themselves which is a massive barrier and effectively makes enforcement extremely difficult got it

say we have a new law in the book that should help with a better problem but the way it's implemented makes it hard to enforce it okay interesting thank you so I'm aware that there has been a request for the life enrichment committee to help support advocacy with the mayor's office and some other budget requests the budget requests would be a full City Council ass and so that's why I'm going to recommend that we move this to the full city council um so that we can have those conversations at that time i think they're pertinent again as you stated anwar in your presentation those commitments have already been made so we just need to follow up with that second step so i will make a motion for um this item to be i'll wait for the city clerk to okay i'm going to make a motion for this item to be moved to the full city council on non-consent

Thank you, Chair Fife. We do have a motion amended by Chair Fife, seconded by Council Member Gallo to receive and forward this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. On roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston. Aye. Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Fife. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to receive and forward this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. And the request was for non-consent. Moving to. Thank you, Emma. Moving to item four. Adopt a Resolution 1 amending Resolution number 90819 to extend the agreement with CitySpan Technologies for 12 months for the client services and contract database ongoing grants management licensing, user support, project management, and custom programming for Oakland Fund for Children and Youth funded programs in an amount not to exceed $200,000. for July 1st, 26 to June 30th, 27 and waiving the competitive multi-step solicitation process for the acquisition of computerized of information technologies and waiving local and small local business enterprise requirement and there are no speakers.

Good afternoon, LEC Chair Fife and fellow council members. My name is Robin Love and I'm the Children and Youth Services Manager within the Human Services Department. I am here today to seek your approval to proceed with amending resolution 90819 to extend the contract with CitySpan Technologies for our client services and contract database ongoing grants management licensing, user support, and project management and custom programming. This extension will allow us to continue with the smooth onboarding of new programs and offboarding of old programs during the transitional phase as we have recently closed our RFP and are getting geared up for fiscal year 26-27. It'll also allow us staff time to adequately prepare, publish, and fully conduct the information technologies professional service request for proposals, which was released and is currently open for all vendors. CitySpan Technologies received a zero availability analysis from DeWES, the Department of Workforce and Employment Standards, Without this database, as you can see by our waiver justification, we will not be able to conduct effectively and efficiently the business of managing our grants. We'll have more grants this year, and so this database is vital and essential for us to do the work that we need to do around grants management It increases accuracy, it reduces errors, and it allows me to receive an expenditure report in real time so I can manage our funds, as well as all agency reporting is entered into the CitySpan database. We have also opened up CitySpan to the Office of Workforce Development Board for the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program so that they now are working with their grantees in CitySpan. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Colleagues? Yes, Council Member Guyot.

working with CitySpan Technologies?

So within the Human Services Department, we have a few divisions that actually have a CitySpan Technologies and the database. We have significantly invested and built out the database to accommodate our specific needs. There are early conversations about how can CitySpan be shared with other departments and what the cost would look like because it is a very robust database and allows us to do so many things including produce the data about who we serve and the demographics.

And they report directly to who within the city of Oakland to you then? Yes.

Okay. So we contract directly with CitySpan Technologies. Okay, thank you. And we meet weekly. Make a motion to approve the item. Okay.

I'll second.

Thank you, we have a motion made by Council Member Gallo, seconded by Chair Five to approve the recommendations of staff and afford the site into the June 2nd City Council agenda. On roll, Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston.

Aye.

Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Five. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and a four to sign into the June 2nd City Council agenda and through the maker, is it a consent or non-consent? Consent. Thank you. Moving to item six.

And I'm Robin Love, I haven't changed my title. I'm the Children and Youth Services Manager within the Human Services Department. I'm here today to seek your authorization to amend resolution 902.

Ms. Love, are you for item six as well?

I thought we switched them so my two would be together. I may have misunderstood. Yes, ma'am.

I would need to read it into record real quick. Oh, going too fast. No. Thank you. Reading item number six, adopt a resolution amending resolution number 90310, which awarded Oakland Fund of Children and Youth Grants providing direct services for fiscal year 24 through 25 to replace the lead agency for the Healthy, Wealthy, Wise program from Children and Outreach Program Children and Youth Outreach to the Youth Employment Partnership without changing the grant award amount to $225,000. And there are no speakers for this item. Thank you.

I'll begin. The Youth Employment Partnership is one of our very important programs. They do a lot of work with our career and our employment services for youth. In 2024, 2025, YEP absorbed the program community youth outreach and so we wanted to make sure that we updated our contract and spending authority. I should have brought this to you when we did the renewals for 2526. We tried to QA our work and when it came up that we had not actually made the official change of the program to Youth Employment Partnership, I wanted to bring it back to you as soon as possible in order to get your authorization. YEP has exceeded or met the majority of all their objectives. They are located in the Fruitvale neighborhood and we're excited that they were able to absorb this program because it is vital to the children and youth that it serves. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Colleagues? Council Member Gallo.

Okay. No, just I want to thank your leadership in terms of reaching out to youth employment programs. Thank you. And for the members of the public, the YEP has, it's a program in the neighborhood that's been around for many years, not only, you know, providing these services, but also helping youngsters that want to continue their education to receive their diplomas, but also to learn, they learn how to build construction.

It is.

building portable shares for the homeless and down the street and and most of all I just want to publicly thank YP because they're out there cleaning my neighborhood with and they come out and Take care of the streets that we work on and not only their own immediate neighborhood, but uh But I thank you for this information and I'm honored to make a motion to approve the item. Thank you. Thank you

Thank you, we have a motion made by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Councilmember Houston to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda. On roll, Councilmember Gallo. Aye. Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. And Chair Fife. Aye. This motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the June 2nd City Council agenda through the body that will be on consent or non. Consent. Thank you, moving to item five. Adopt a resolution directing the city administrator to develop an amortization program to relocate industrial recycling facilities operated by the California waste solutions and cast ink from areas in the West Oakland to address negative environmental impacts on local residents and proceed to planning commission and immortalization legislation no later than December the 31st 2026 and there are no speakers.

Okay, do we have Brendan Moriarty in, is he here? I just want to make sure you were here just in case you have it.

Okay.

So this is an item that I am bringing forward to this body. It is been a long time coming that West Oakland does significant work to address recyclers and just over overarching the overarching issue of pollution in the district. And this is one of the ways that we are trying to do that. Relocating heavy industry from residential neighborhoods is a longstanding community and city objective, particularly for West Oakland residents who've been subject to disproportionate exposure from polluting industries. Although I'm the council member for West Oakland at this time, I've been a longtime supporter and advocate for environmental issues across the city from East Oakland to West Oakland. I've spent the last 10 years in coalition with residents, everyday residents who are trying to move polluting industries out of their neighborhoods. And in 2012, the city revised its redevelopment plan for the Oakland Army Base to include relocation of California waste solutions and cast from the West Oakland neighborhood to the North Gateway area on the Oakland Army Base as a key community benefit. This resolution details the decade-long effort to relocate these two recyclers per the revised redevelopment plan, including ENAs and an LD, I should probably say, exclusive negotiating agreement, a lease and development disposition agreement with CWS specifically. So I'm trying to not use acronyms so much. However, due to circumstances outside of the city's control, including parties not meeting the terms of their agreements, all contracts have lapsed, which has left the city the opportunity to explore alternatives for relocating these recyclers. As a point of clarification, the memo that is in your packet states that all agreements have lapsed as of December 2022. I want to note that that date applies only to CAS. With regard to CWS, the ldda termination notice was sent to the city in may of 2025. i want to define what amortization is because a lot of people don't know amortization is a process by which jurisdictions like the city of oakland can phase out non-conforming land use after a period of time that is sufficient to allow the owner of the business or the property to relocate The city's adopted environmental justice element of the city's 2045 general plan identifies amortization as a process to allow the city to identify and prioritize non-conforming land uses, which would include existing polluting industries like truck intensive uses, auto body uses, recycling uses, and more. To phase out over time, we are going to use this process, we are seeking to use this process, and we're asking to work with the city administrator's office to bring back specific legislation. Amortization is also discussed in the West Oakland specific plan. In line with the city's planning documents, the proposed legislation directs the city administrator to one, develop an amortization legislation timeline, including making any necessary findings, developing a specific timeframe for amortization to occur, and creating a list of alternative sites to relocate industrial recycling facilities operated by California Waste Solutions and CAS. And then two, to proceed to the planning commission with amortization legislation no later than December of this year in preparation for the council's consideration. I hope that was clear. I'm willing to answer any questions. We also have our city staff here who are able to answer questions as well, but basically what I'm asking for this body to do is move legislation through life enrichment to the full city council to phase out these two major polluters out of West Oakland and to find alternative sites for them. And we have no speakers on this item, so it's all this committee. Council Member Wong. So effort. They are related, but they are also not directly related. Connecting factor is that there has been expressed interest in utilizing the Army base for these two sites. As stated in my comments, both of these sites, or both of these organizations, CAS and CWS, both had contracts to develop at that location, but over the years, they've fallen out of their contracts with the city of Oakland. So because they weren't able to fulfill the aspects of those contracts,

um the site is available for alternative uses okay it's like almost complimentary because yeah okay say that um and then i i have a question i think that is for brendan this list of alternative sites do are we restricted to looking at alternative sites in oakland or i mean these are companies that operate regionally

Through the chair, my name is Brendan Moriarty, director of real estate, and we'll follow the direction of the resolution, what the legislation asks us to do. And I don't recall, does it specifically say Oakland only? Does not, it looks like.

my goal would be to keep the organization well one specific one the one we're still in contract with for recycling services in the city of oakland okay not in a residential neighborhood where there are consistent fires consistent impacts to the overall health of our residents in those locations but again i would prefer that we are able to continue to the revenue that we receive from those organizations, but the health of the constituents that I serve is the top priority.

Yeah, okay.

Council Member Houston, I see your light on, and then Council Member Guyot, did you have questions as well?

Thank you, and thank you for bringing this up. We've had here at the City of Oakland a long historical challenge with CWS, and specifically in this area, locating their recycling or a location for them to, since they pick up their recycled goods from every home, and the challenge has always been, and challenging with waste management, waste management has a facility and cws didn't have one and when we started this whole process and but certainly i don't want those sites located in my district at all and not even come nearby maybe ken will be open to that but not in my area and um but i thought uh Madam Chairperson, I thought that one is, I'm not sure what the deadline is to renew the contract with CWS with recycling, because that's gonna be a challenge, and as it was with waste management going together. But, so I can understand, in terms of removing that operation from West Oakland, But I don't have have any idea where I would locate that in Oakland and certainly don't want it in our neighborhoods So Good luck with that process.

Thank you, and it's more of a legal Thank You councilmember go councilmember Houston

through the chair. I thought of CWS, they lost their contract, right, with the Army base, so they're stuck to where they are unless they find some other location, right? Okay, and since we're talking about property, someone is gonna come up and speak about something that I want the city administrator and the city attorney to address, so it's on the record, so we know as a city how we're gonna move on helping my small business in my district. So that'll be at open forum.

understood thank you if there are no other questions i will make a motion to move this to the full city council uh it will probably need more debate though i'm sure yeah okay so i have a motion by council member houston i mean i'm sorry second i made the motion a second by council member houston to non-consent yeah

And thank you, Chair 5, to correct my mispronunciation of the word. It's amortization. We do have a motion made by Chair 5, seconded by Councilmember Houston to approve the recommendation of staff and afford the sign-up to the June 2, 2026 City Council Agenda on Rural. Councilmember Gallo? Aye. Councilmember Houston? Aye. Councilmember Wong? Aye. And Chair 5? Aye. Aye.

And I do want to thank the Planning and Building Department, whoever is over there representing that was available to answer questions.

Give me one second. I need to finish the motion. Oh, I thought you did.

I'm sorry.

And thank you to Real Estate. Four ayes, the committee approved the recommendation of the staff before deciding to the June 2nd, 2026 city council agenda and the request was non-consent. Moving to open forum.

I would also like to thank the city clerk for putting up with my shenanigans and appreciate you immensely, thank you.

It's so wonderful to be here. want to call your name please approach the podium state your name for the record you do have two minutes if you're participating via zoom please raise your hand so you're easily identified and we will take in person before zoom speakers anthony del del toro david boatwright jeffrey kayo and excuse me for mispronouncing your name as well rosa gairon lara cabral Cabral, Yasmin Villabala, Villa Balba, Brianna Gomez, Pamela Lopez. If I called your name, please approach the podium, state your name for the record, and you do have two minutes, thank you.

Good afternoon, my name is.

Excuse me, I'm sorry. One moment, I do wanna allow Councilmember Houston to say a couple words before you speak.

Yes, through the chair, as the representative of District 7, I have a business owner here that's very responsible to speak in an open forum about this real estate piece that he can explain more, and I just wanted it on the record so the city attorney and the city administrator can help him move through this piece. So, Anthony, go ahead, boss.

Thank you. Good afternoon, counsel. Thank you for having me. So basically, my situation is a little different. I am a business owner. I used to work in the nonprofit sector for about 10 years, ran an organization called California Outreach with Mr. Henry Woods, and did that for about 10 years, opened up a body shop so I could help kids do my own business. Long story short, there's an organization that's at the corner of my body shop that the city of Oakland owns that they got illegal permits to basically build a $150,000 portable on my property now i don't know about you guys but i don't know nobody that can build and get permits in any one of your guys's backyard so how can they do that in mine i've helped the community i've given jobs i've donated i've done everything i was supposed to do as a community person and now i um i have to sell my lot because we're going to purchase a different lot to expand the business I've already lost two potential clients because the person doesn't want to leave, and it's an organization that the city of Oakland has given the authority to not move. So I don't know what else to do. I reached out to Mr. Kent. He's in my district. I don't know what else to do. You know what I mean? And I know that if it was any one of your guys, you guys would be doing a lot more than what I'm getting help with. And it's just very frustrating. I'm a business owner, I pay taxes. I clean up my own neighborhood. I do a lot, because our district is very underserved. And I know Kent's out there by himself, out there with us, helping out, doing whatever we can do. At this point, it's just frustrating. So as a business owner, and as somebody who's done their due diligence with the community, what else? thank you for your comment i apologize i did miss the top but did the city attorney i could repeat it i do have a quick question can i ask a question can you uh tell me the name of your business and where you're located it's b m collision 9901 pippin street we own that it's right on the corner and right across the street there's a lot I don't have, it's two parcels, I don't have the addresses in front of me, even though I own them, but it's two parcels. It's on Pippin Street, and the East Bay Boxing Association, which is a great organization, the lady Donna's doing everything she can do, so I'm not knocking her, but she is the ED, and I just wanna know what it is that we can do together, because she's left without resources, Me as a person.

I think I got it.

What do I do?

I think I got it.

And I don't know how you guys got permits to get on my lot. That's just crazy. I don't understand that.

I think we're going to, the city administrator's office is going to help you kind of think through that issue. Thank you. We can follow up. Thank you. Thank you.

Does time just begin on my first word?

Please state your name for the record.

My name is Jeffrey Cal.

May it begin.

Dear council members, my name is Jeffrey, and today I come to speak on behalf of the mental health crisis affecting our community. One in five members of our community are affected by a mental health disorder, and surveys show that more than 50% cannot find the help that they need. With policies like macro already supporting our community and policies like Prop 1 having major implications on how we budget around this issue, we have already completed the hardest step, starting. However, it is more important that we do not forget that we still have some ways to go. School-based health centers are currently caught between scrambling for compensation from insurance companies and very volatile funding from Prop 63 and now Prop 1. Prop 63 fluctuates with the economy, and Prop 1 is a bond. It's a one-time payment that doesn't systematically solve for anything. By establishing some sort of baseline funding annually for them, young citizens affected by mental health issues can finally find help. Creating a community where people feel safe seeking treatment is essential if we want to continue fighting for a healthier and better city overall. Mental health affects students, families, workers, people of all ages throughout our city. When people cannot access treatment, the effects are felt across the entire community, from schools and workplaces to public safety and homelessness services. As a life enrichment committee, you play a key role in shaping the health and wellbeing of our community. I urge you to prioritize preventative mental health care and ensure that future funding decisions go towards access to early treatment for those who need it most, instead of late reaction-based treatment. So when voting on budgeting for mental health policies, please do not think about it as just another piece of legislation, but as a way to benefit 90,000 members of our community. Thank you for your time.

Hi, good evening, my name's Laura Cabran. I don't know if my time starts yet, thank you. I'm the program director of the Safe Passages Baby Learning Communities Collaborative Program that's been funded by OFCY for 15 years. I wanna thank all the council members and OFCY for the support throughout this time. We've been able to reach thousands of families in Oakland, children and their parents during that time. And I'm here to support the grant recommendations that are gonna come to you soon. And thank OFCY and the POC for just how committed they are to funding as many kids and youth as possible. A lot of the funding went to older youth this time and which is much needed and we appreciate it as an organization. We fund from the spectrum from early childhood to young adults. Many of the kids that started in our programs 15, 16 years ago are now teenagers so they need that funding as well. Many of them are in workforce development programs serving our program now and giving back to the program and their community. So we are very much in favor of the recommendations and the older youth funding, but as an early childhood program, we're also here as advocates for the little ones and their families. So we would like for OFCY reserve funding to be dedicated to early childhood funding and funding more of these programs that are not just programs like play groups and workshops, but we connect families early on to other resources and really special opportunities that we've been using your investment to offer courses to offer also just additional support for health and mental health related needs for families and just essential needs as well like food distributions diapers and thank you for your comment thank you

Good evening. My name is Yasmin and I am here to be on the Safe Patch Baby Learning Community Collaborative Program. I am a parent of four children and a resident of East Oakland. Thank you for your continued dedication to children and families in Oakland. I am in support of the upcoming OFCY grant recommendations. I want to acknowledge the difficult decisions that were made when selecting proposals and understand why more funding was dedicated towards older youth. I have two teenage boys. and appreciate the support provided to teens. I am also the mother of two young children, so I would like to request OFCY reserve funds be dedicated to early childhood and elementary after school programs. I have experience in the impact programs like the Safe Passage Baby Learning can have on families. The program connect me to Alameda County Office of Education Opportunity Academy of the Safe Paths Wellness Center. I am receiving my high school diploma this summer through the academy and the program has offered me support through my time at their academy. It is a type of special support offered by early childhood programs to provide additional service that will be missing unless we dedicate more funds to early childhood. Please consider committing OFCY reserve funds for early childhood and elementary programs after school. Thank you.

Congratulations on your degree.

Hello, my name is Brianna Gomez, and I am here today representing the Safe Passages Baby Learning Program. I want to thank OFCY and city council members for helping to fund early childhood programs that have helped so many families, including mine. The program has been part of my life since I was a child. My mom attended the play groups with me and my younger siblings, and through those programs, she found community, support, and lasting relationships, including meeting my godmother, Vero, who's also part of Safe Passages herself. Now, years later, I have the opportunity to give back to the same community that once supported my family. And through Safe Passages Baby Learning Program, I have help with food distributions, toy distributions during the holidays, and giving back to those families that are in need. I have seen firsthand how these programs bring people together and create safe, supportive spaces for children and parents. Early childhood programs are not just programs, they are opportunities for families to feel more connected, supported, and empowered. That is why committing future funding to early childhood and elementary school after school programs is so important. When we invest in early learning and community support, we also invest in the future of Oakland's children and families. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Ms. Love, are you still in the building? Okay. Okay, after we're done, can the city administrator's office or someone from your department speak to this organization about what their asks are? Yes, they can. Oh, okay. Thank you. You haven't seen the agenda reports yet. No, ma'am. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Rosa Giron and I work for Safe Passages Baby Learning Community Collaboration Program and I have had the honor of working for the program for 16 years and serving so many wonderful Oakland families. I would like to thank OFCY and this committee for the support and dedication to children and families in Oakland. For the last 16 years, I have seen firsthand how programs like Baby Learn help families with young children grow and build strong connections. I would like to request committee OFCY reserve funds to early childhood and elementary after One more thing, I feel so proud that one of my first work, I worked with the last speaker, Brianna, and she is now serving our program. Thank you very much.

Well done.

Hi, my name is Pamela Lopez. I am here today to support the OFCY grant recommendation that will be presented to this committee in an upcoming meeting. I am also here to ask that you consider funding more early childhood programs through OFCY reserve funds. Early childhood programs are families who depend on this resource and safe spaces to help their child grow. Every child deserves opportunity to learn, grow, play in a safe, supportive environment. Without more funding, many families will lose access to programs that truly make a difference in their child's lives and futures. Early childhood programs are not only beneficial for children today, but they are also an investment in the future of our community. Thank you for your continued support and funding for programs like baby learning. We understand that there are many important programs that are limited funds to advocate. We truly appreciate what OFCY had already made in the early childhood education and families we serve. Consider funding the more early childhood programs through OFCY reserve funds. Thank you.

David Boatwright. These comments apply not only to the Life Enrichment Committee items. I believe the effectiveness of all city measures and significant projects, including grants to outside entities, be required to make at least semiannual periodic brief reports to the related city committees. Better follow-up and oversight of city operations will aid in decreasing time and money losses that are currently occurring in too many occasions. The only regular example of this city awareness effort is the crime reporting by the police department.

That concludes your public speakers for open forum.

Oh, it's almost 5 o'clock. This meeting is adjourned at 4.59 p.m. Thank you.