Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

STARTED. Good morning and welcome to the rules and legislation, excuse me, I'm usually sharing rules. Good morning and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting on this Tuesday, this is June 9th. The time is 11.33 and this meeting shall come to order. Before I go over, call roll, I would like to give instructions on how to submit a speaker card. If you are participating with us here in chambers in person, would like to submit a speaker card, Please fill out a card and turn it to a clerk representative either 10 minutes before the meeting began, no later than 10 minutes after the meeting began. The meeting began at 11.33, so 11.43 we will stop accepting speaker cards or before the item is called into record. Electronic speaker cards were due 24 hours before this meeting began, so we will no longer accept online speaker cards. With that, I will now call roll. On roll for this meeting, Council Member Gallo. present councilmember Houston excused excused councilmember Wong present and chair Unger here we have three members present one excused councilmember Houston we will now if you have no announcements we will go to our first item item excuse me my apology yeah our first item item number one is approval the draft minutes for the committee meeting on may twenty six uh... the may twenty six and i do have one speaker for this item okay i will second it and let's hear our speakers please all right noting council member houston arriving at eleven thirty four i have one speaker for this item that is zach tyler for item number one

So I'm not here to Joke 13 12 13 82 LWR Terre hurt is a current reactor sitting outside of in the city of Oakland We need a 712 753 Terre heart LWR reactor in this community By procedures of active theater under UNCJ Court Article 912, Subsection C, I challenge under 5 USC CFR 290163 CFR and view a procedural code of conduct based on military standards. As a conflictual application, I, the Deputy FEMA and Deputy Interior Secretary, that was nominated by the Senate and the House Committee, confirms my field of directives, and Bill V. Rubenstein, Hensley V. Seeley, Special recommendation 928.13, New York Pistol and Rifle via the United States, the TVA Authority via the US, Colorado Basin via the Arkansas via Oregon, Trump via Hawaii, Trump via the Water Resource Board, and Voices via the lands via the United States, and San Leandro Police Department via the city of San Leandro. I move against a requestment of active theater for a review for a state measure for purposes of duality for that as an economic planner and as a commercial developer. By that of the view of the state, I request an independent audit of under the Sunshine Act and compliances of measure NN and measure M against quantifiable views of the state under state charter, state senate bill, Thank you for your comments.

That concludes your speaking for this item. That concludes your speakers for this item. We have a motion by Council Member Gallo, seconded by Council Member Unger to approve item number one, which is the minutes for May 26, 2026 on roll. Council Member Gallo. Aye. Council Member Houston.

Aye.

Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger.

Aye.

Item number one is approved with four ayes. That now takes us to item number two. Item number two is the determination of scheduling of outstanding committee items, which is your committee pending list. I do have four speakers for this item.

Do we have anything from staff?

Nothing from the administration at this time.

Okay.

Colleagues, anything for the pending list? All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.

Thank you. Um, as I call your name, please approach the podium. If you're participating here with us in person, as soon as you get to the podium, please state your name for the record. Um, for those who are participating online, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you. And, uh, as usual, we'll start with those who are in person and then followed by those who are participating online. I have Zach, Ms. Assata Olabala, Lars Barnes, and Blair Beekman in any order. If I called your name and you're here in person, please approach the podium.

So in view of the fast track and SFR investment pool via the state, I am submitting a casualty of acknowledgment of tort and duality of clause, an acknowledgment over the record. As the chairman and CEO of TSO Capital, Lotus Capital Investment, and Operation Analyst and Royce Investments, a sales tax, property tax, and tax abatement zoning are scheduled to be asked to be audited in view of the city. I have asked as a request under the Sunshine Act in Oakland v. Simon properties for a review of active theater complied to bankruptcy. In the view of the state emergency management doctrine indicated a field of study based on quantifiable expressions of deviance. In the view of application, we are currently exhibiting a measure that increases the property tax and sales tax in view of zoning based on the domicile application. I ask as a sovereign citizen, an independent agent, that this be a measure that the city and the community takes full-hearted in view of active combat tied to the two-year treasury note and via the 10-year treasury note. This is a qualifiable application where this city was supposed to be in bankruptcy based on the review of active theater. I ask that we take a quantifiable review standard and start asking ourself if sales tax is something that we need tied to our inflation to CPI. Please understand that to what is wondered in bond ETFs for the view of going forward and view of sovereign citizenship. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker, if you're participating in person, thank you.

It is my understanding that you allow free parking at the ice skating center. 4 to 1 o'clock Monday through Friday and on Saturdays 8 AM to 1 AM. It has been stated in an article that over 100,000 people use that center every year. How much revenue are we losing because we give this free parking? We need to have a report on the Mosswood Toddler Center Outdoors. The matting is completely tore up. We need to have a report on any city site that creates a safety issue because of lack of maintenance or repairs. We need a report from the traffic signal operations that are going on. We need to report on transportation permits that the transports petition permit center. That deals with. Esco excavation permits sidewalk repairs in parklets. We need to report from the Oakland school of the arts. that you have allowed them to use, they have turned that into their park. That is supposed to be a piece of property for housing development that you said you're gonna let them use it until 2027 when you would then take the property and create affordable housing on the property. They have put artificial turf down there, signs, like that's their park. How is that working out? Lastly, we need a report that deals with any interruption of sidewalk use because vendors are occupying sidewalks. Who is supposed to do that?

Thank you for your comments. We will now go to our Zoom users. I see, Lars, you have been unmuted. You may begin.

Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. You may begin.

Okay, thank you. So I am a resident in the diamond district, and there has been some repaving. I think that's been going around. The neighborhood is very excited to have it done, but there has been some frustrations through the email chain that I wanted to address. Mostly that there is like a lack of timely communication regarding the no parking around the neighborhood, or really no communication at all. And there's no signage on who to contact so we can get any further information. So the signs are posted throughout the neighborhood that we can't park on the streets for the duration of almost an entire month. And it's kind of confusing where we're expected to park if not anywhere around our surrounding streets for the whole month. There's also a huge communication about how we might go about requesting speed bumps because once the streets are repaved, the neighborhood is worried that cars will just be speeding down. I know that some of my neighbors have tried to get a hold of... but the emails that were given to like who to email for this were not valid and we were just getting met with like dead end emails. That's really all I have to say, thank you.

Thank you and our last speaker that I don't see in Zoom was Blair Beekman, so that concludes your public commenters for item number two, we need a motion.

So moved.

And that was a motion by Council Member Unger, seconded by Council Member Wong to approve item two, the determination of scheduling outstanding committee items as is on roll. Council Member Guile. Aye. Council Member Houston.

Aye.

Council Member Wong. Aye. And Chair Unger.

Aye.

Item number two is approved with four ayes as is. That now takes us to item number three. Item number three is adopt a resolution summarily vacating a public utility easement located at 747 52nd Street to the property owner Children's Hospital and Research Center at Oakland and adopting appropriate CEQA findings. I have one speaker for this item.

Excellent, we'll hear the report.

Good morning, Reginald Basile, Division Manager, Right-of-Way Management at OakDOT. I'm here today to talk about an item related to the Benioff Children's Hospital, 747 52nd Street in the city. Since 1967, there has been a utility easement on private property at this location. In recent years, the hospital has coordinated with PG&E to relocate the utilities that were installed in that easement. They've established a new easement document, and Oak Dot is here today to ask council to approve the summary vacation of the old easement that will clear the way for construction on that part of the property.

Thank you, I appreciate the work in helping this project move forward. Colleagues, questions? Okay, let's hear from our public speaker, please.

We have one speaker for this item, Blair Beekman, and I do not see him in the queue.

Oh, we have Council Member Gallo would like a question.

Thank you for that information, and certainly we appreciate the work of Children's Hospital. And I just left Life Academy. We'll be touring Children's Hospital throughout the summer and having our high school students become volunteers at Children's Hospital. So I'll make a motion to approve the item.

Okay, any other questions?

Through the chair, I was also going to ask Reg if you could provide the prior commenter with the appropriate email address to reach DOT.

All right. Do we still need a second? Yes. I'm happy to second it.

Okay. I'm sorry, you said? Okay, and we have a motion by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Councilmember Huston to approve item three to be forwarded to the June 16th City Council agenda on consent.

Yes, please.

With that, I'll enroll Councilmember Gallo.

Yes.

Councilmember Houston. Aye. Councilmember Wong. Aye. Chair Unger. Aye. Item number three.

And before you move on, if you could provide to the public the proper email address. Thank you.

The email address is dotonlinepermits at oaklandca.gov. And staff will be on alert to look for your message on the emergency no parking topic.

Thank you. Thank you for that.

Thank you. And with that, we will now move on to item number four. Item four is a resolution awarding a purchase order to own Equipment Sales, Inc., the lowest responsible and responsive bidder in accordance with the RFQ custom equipment specifications and contractors be at any amount not to exceed two million five hundred thousand dollars for the purchase of three vector truck mounted single engine combination sewer cleaners and adopting sequel findings Exemption findings and we do have two speakers for this item Okay, who doesn't love a good sewer pump truck?

Let's hear from staff, please

Thank you, Chair Unger. Richard Battersby, Assistant Director for the Bureau of Maintenance and Internal Services. Under my purview is the Sewer Division, also Storm Drain Division and the Sewer Fund 3100. Before you, we have a purchase requisition or a purchase agreement. to buy three sewer flusher trucks you may recall from previous discussions we have eight assigned units in the sewer division uh lately seven of those eight have been out of service and we've been renting two units uh at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars each so almost thirty thousand dollars a month uh in order to perform the mandatory sewer cleaning as dictated by the federal sewer consent decree we've got to clean 184 miles of pipe every year fortunately we built up due to the hard work and and fantastic efforts of our sewer team we have met our productivity requirements but had we lost those sewer vehicles earlier in the year it would have been devastating and the city can face potential fines This agenda report will authorize acquisition of three replacement sewer flusher trucks. They're about $750,000 each. Each truck is slightly customized to its application, so they're not all the exact same cost. We did go out to RFQ. As I mentioned earlier, we are trying to avoid cooperative agreements as much as possible for two reasons. One, to increase local participation and hopefully get some more Oakland businesses on contract. And number two, that process is much faster going through RFQ RFP. and i think that's about it and i will add that we are seeing very few replacement vehicle agenda reports and that's due to equipment replacement being decentralized in 2023 the sewer fund 3100 is an enterprise fund so we do have funding available but the other departments in public works and other departments in our other divisions and other departments are not able to replace their equipment So this is becoming a critical issue for the city. Normally we replace about 150 vehicles during the time frame 2023 to present when we stop that service. So we're continuing to get behind and replacing vehicles. I think some of you probably all of you saw some of the recent press events where the mayor was speaking with some of the aged fire department vehicles and police vehicles. and also the public works vehicles fall in that same category these three sewer trucks will help us dig out of that hole but there's a lot more work to be done and i'm available for your questions all right digging out of the hole sounds good uh council member houston you're first in the queue

Mr. Richard, through the chair, how many trucks do you need, because you said something just now, to stay in compliance with the federal directives? How many trucks do you think you need?

Yes, through the chair, I think we're where we need to be. I believe there were three on order. I did see one brand new flusher truck and one brand new CCTV, closed circuit television truck, at the equipment yard, so they are arriving. Our hope is to replace all of the existing eight apparatuses and retain a couple of them just to have an additional spare factor. So I think with this acquisition, we're well on our way and we will continue to replace the equipment regularly as it ages and becomes unserviceable.

Yes, and thank you, Mr. Richard. And through the chair again, what's the warranty look like? Because what's the difference between owning it and renting it? Because if you rent it, you don't have to do the repairs, but if you own it, you have to do the repairs. What's that warranty look like?

Through the chair, I think this equipment comes with generally a one year warranty. There may be a longer warranty on some of the chassis items as well as the auxiliary engines. I'd have to actually go into the contract. The difference between renting and owning a piece of equipment like this renting is okay for a short term period But as we operate the equipment because it is a construction apparatus in addition to flushing sewers We also use these vector trucks and back on trucks to do excavation work. So we actually it's it's Forget the exact terminology, but we actually use the flusher truck to do hydro excavation So they're very versatile units, but they can become damaged and worn in our rental use. And then when we turn the vehicle back in, we have to pay to have those repairs made. So renting is usually not a good idea only for very short term periods.

And last question to the chair. Council member guy always mentions that knowledge listen to him when he says it's about all these trucks that are in the yard that haven't had been repaired. So is it any way possibly we can get a longer warranty on that because you just mentioned a bunch of things about the damage that happens that you have to repair it or when you do turn it in you have to pay for that cost. Is it any way we can get a better warranty so it's not something that we'll be having in the yard or having to repair quite often? Is it any way we can do a, you said one year warranty?

yes through the chair i think i think that's standard on some of the heavy equipment again i'd have to check the specifics of the contract i don't know offhand some of the other manufacturers have especially the lighter duty vehicles are like a three-year 36 000 mile type warranty what you're talking about is uh exploring use of an extended warranty and i'm happy to do that it does come at an additional cost but it is an effective strategy one that i saw the highway patrol used to their advantage they timed their vehicle replacement and paid extra for the extended warranty yeah so it is very effective we'll have to do a cost analysis to see if it makes sense with sewer equipment and construction equipment so through the chair thank you can you do that because

We want to do what's best for the city in the long run to keep the equipment up so we can keep it moving.

Absolutely through the chair. We will include that as an option in future RFP RFQs price with standard warranty price with extended warranty.

Councilmember Gaya Thank you. Thank you for that information What we need to do is some members of the council is and city administrators be able to bring back a report In terms of the vehicles that the city of Oakland has could use to clean our streets To provide the safety that includes the police department public works transportation because the reality is we're way outdated and terms of replacing the number of vehicles that are operable uh can can you share just briefly with the public in terms of how many vehicles should be replaced the trucks and the cars and so forth that we haven't done for years uh yes thank you for the question council member gaio through the chair i would say we're behind

probably have to look up the number and get back to you we have a annual report that we do that it's in the form of a report card or a pie chart that shows the assets to be replaced by condition and age probably more than half of the fleet is recommended for replacement now so we're talking about a number in the six or 700 range so we are quite a far quite a bit behind we are We do have a agenda report coming after the fiscal year because of the summer break. The timing was such we couldn't get it in before the end of the fiscal year. We actually went out and hired a consultant to take a look at how the city is conducting their equipment replacement and make some recommendations as far as best practices and getting back into a regular replacement cycle. We expect to have that, I'd say, July or perhaps August, depending on the scheduling.

I'd like to work with you to make sure the council understands our need. You know, we talk about a clean city, make all these policies and reports and studies, but the reality is we need the tools to get it done. So how am I going to deal with illegal dumping if I don't have the trucks and tools to do it? Talk about it. More city hall, more policies, more ordinances. But so the only other... But I'll work with you in terms of... you know clearly identifying for this government the city council and administration what are the needs that we have when it comes to the tools necessary to get the job you know and uh... so that that's one action but at the same time you know where other cities are heading in electrifying the vehicles that they're purchasing And does the city of Oakland have the tools and the locations where the future vehicles are, if we buy, they're gonna be electrified, we need to be able to plug them in. So I'd like to work with you to bring back to this council the need of numbers, but at the same time, considering what the future's calling for is electrifying the trucks and the cars that we purchase. Thank you for that information, and I move approval of the item.

Okay, we have a Council Member Wong.

uh thanks um first of all i wanted to actually commend the way that you wrote this report i don't know if this was necessarily in response to some of my comments around wanting to see more metrics but i like how you laid out the economic argument as to why this was needed instead of just renting out the trucks um one question i have is uh well first of all i agree with uh my colleagues comments on the extended warranty but How long on average can we expect these trucks to last for?

Yeah, through the chair. Thank you, Council Member Wong. And yes, we do listen to what the council puts out and try to incorporate that into our future activities. Thank you. I think an average age for a unit like this where the funding is is not the limiting factor would probably be between five and seven years because of the hard use here at the city of Oakland. We're hitting the ten year mark. I don't know if we included that. Uh, in this specific agenda report, but we do have that data on the age, and I think we're running our equipment about twice as long as what the industry best practice recommends. That does hurt the resale value as well. Um, typically when you sell equipment like this, you can generate some revenue to you that you can. in turn used to buy additional vehicles. But when they're basically so worn out, by the time we get rid of them, it really lowers the resale value. We get a little bit more than scrap, but not as much as we could with an effective replacement program on time cycles.

Okay, gotcha. That's helpful. And just one other question, which is, I believe we're under the consent decree by the EPA on our sewage system. Can you just speak specifically as to how this equipment will help us meet that consent decree?

yes absolutely through the chair the federal consent decree is a requirement by the oversight authorities the federal epa and also the regional water quality control board due to sewer discharges during wet weather events east bay mud and the city of oakland and other satellite agencies other cities in the area have requirements by the federal government that we clean so much of the sanitary sewer collection system each year and it comes down to 20 percent so each year we clean 20 percent of our 920 miles and so every five years we should have cleaned the entire system and then there's also a requirement that we cctv 10% of our sanitary sewer collection system that comes out to 92 miles a year in order to run the CCTV cameras the pipes first have to be clean so that's one use for the flusher trucks the other uses as preventive maintenance to go out and hit pipe segments on a regular basis to ensure that they're operating at optimal And then also we have high frequency locations where we've experienced problems. There's been a sewer spill or another sewer incident. So we send the trucks out there to clean those areas more frequently than once every five years. Some as frequently as every six months until we can have the resources to go in and do a capital improvement project and replace or rehabilitate the pipeline.

Okay, all right, thank you so much. Thanks for working on this, and I'll second the motion.

If I may, through the chair, I believe Council Member Houston seconded the item. And we do have two speakers for this item. As I call your name, please approach the podium. If you signed up to speak within the designated speaking time, please approach the podium and state your name for the record. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand in Zoom as I call your name so I can easily identify you. And as usual, we'll start with those who are in person, and then we will follow up with those who are participating online. I have Ms. Asada Olabala and Blair Beekman.

miss asada we're on item number four would you thank you i was trying to find out there's some east bay mud you have to pay for piping okay so something that hit me you said you're trying to avoid a cooperative agreement now what i just looked up of cooperative agreements are supposed to be beneficial to local government agencies. It's supposed to simplify the buying process. It's supposed to provide public transparency. It's supposed to create efficiency of delivery, and it's supposed to produce consistency of the product. So I don't know if you wanna know, but I wanna know, based on cooperative agreements, it's supposed to be so beneficiary Why is this department saying we're trying to avoid cooperative agreements? The $30,000 a month rental that you've been paid, collectively, how much money? You said you paid $30,000 a month. Well, what is the total amount of spending that this department has to put out for rental of many trucks? And the reason why I'm asking is sometimes our staff members don't do things in a timely manner. And have we been renting for a long period of time where we could have taken up this matter and avoided paying the rental costs to an exceptional amount? That should be delved into as well.

Thank you for your comments. Our last speaker is Blair Beekman, but I do not see him in the queue, so that concludes your public commenters for item four. And I had a motion by Council Member Guyal, seconded by Council Member Houston to approve item four to be forwarded to the June 16th City Council agenda. Council Member Guyal.

Aye.

Council Member Houston.

Aye.

long aye and chair hunger aye item number four is approved to be forwarded to the june 16th city council agenda on consent yes please thank you for that we will now go to item number five A moment. Adopt an ordinance amending ordinance, an ordinance granting an exclusive franchise to Lyft Bike Scooters, LLC, formerly Bay Area Motor, Motor, LLC to operate a bike share program authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute an amendment to the bike share program 2030 excuse me program franchise agreement with lyft to extend the term to no later than december 31st 2032 and authorizing advertising signs on the bike sharing program equipment pursuant the oakland planning code and adopting sequa findings i have Several speakers for this item.

OK, thank you. Let's hear the presentation, please.

Good morning, council members and the public. My name is Kirby Olson. I'm staffed to the Department of Transportation. I have a very brief presentation for you today about this item, which concerns an extension of the franchise for the bike sharing program. So some background on this item, our bike sharing program in Oakland is operated by Lyft under the name Bay Wheels. This program is at no cost to the city other than my staff time to manage the program. The system in Oakland includes about 500 electric bicycles and 350 standard pedal bikes. These bikes must be docked at one of 102 stations in Oakland. Ridership in Oakland has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. So the system launched first in 2017, but the ridership has grown by about 30% year over year since 2023. So we've seen good recovery in ridership and 2026 is on track to be the highest ridership year ever. We've actually seen a 50% year over year increase from quarter one of 2025. This is a map of the 102 bike share stations in Oakland. And this is a chart showing the ridership over time. So you can see a big drop off in 2020 and 2021 and 2022 as a result of the COVID pandemic, and then a good steady increase since 2023. The program has a fairly complex governance model. So there is the master contract is the program agreement between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Lyft. That agreement will be expiring next year. And so MTC is planning to extend that until July 2032 with another option to extend by six months to December 2032. There's also a coordination agreement between MTC, Lyft, and all of the five cities that participate in this regional program, Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, San Francisco, and San Jose. That term coincides with the program agreement. And then there's our agreement with Lyft, which is a 10-year franchise agreement that was signed in July 2016 and is now coming up for expiration next month. So the action requested today is to extend the franchise agreement with Lyft until December 2032. And this would put our agreement in coincidence with the regional program agreement so that there's no gap in the program. Other than that change in the expiration date, there are no changes requested for the franchise agreement. And the ordinance does include a reference to advertising, so the program has had advertising since it launched in 2017, and that would continue with the franchise extension. And that's my presentation, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Can you just briefly tell us about the finances of this? Do they pay us? Do we pay them? What kind of money are we talking about?

Very little money changes hands, so there's just my staff time, as I mentioned. There is also a revenue sharing formula, and that is based on the amount of revenues that come in from the advertising and the ridership. that there is a minimum amount of revenue that must be achieved before there is any revenue sharing. That's only been achieved once in the history of the program. And so it was a very small amount of money. And so that's, yeah. And that funds has already been accepted and appropriated when the franchise was originally signed and passed.

Great, thank you. Council Member Wong.

Thank you. Thanks for this presentation and all your hard work on this. Just in terms of the placement of the docks, thank you for sharing that map. I was just looking at it on my phone actually and I noticed a lot of the docks are in the western and northern part of Oakland. What drives the decision making around the dock placement?

The decision making around dock placement is primarily to locate them in places where they will be well used and that is primarily based on job density and population density and proximity to public transportation. And also, As we expand the footprint of the system, we also want to do so in a way that has a certain amount of density. And so, for example, we wouldn't want to establish a station like a satellite station that's very far from the existing stations because typically bike share is used for relatively short trips. And so we did complete a system expansion last year. We added 20 new stations, but those were primarily added in places to sort of slowly grow the footprint of the system and not to establish stations that are some distance from the system, if that makes sense.

Okay. I think it does. I get questions sometimes actually on a more uh just like literally block by block level um and i'm just wondering do you all take feedback on the placement can we work together because there's a couple of stations where i have stakeholders that just think you know move it over a block because it's inconveniently placed and all of that absolutely um so i would encourage them to just reach out to me okay and we can work with them on that if you have the ability to move some of the stations Okay, great. And you also noted in the report that some of these stations are going to be taken offline, the lower utilization. Do you have a sense of where those are right now?

Yeah, so the general report did also mention some of the terms of the program agreement amendment that's being currently negotiated between MTC and Lyft. And so we included the terms in attachment A. However, that is not under the purview of City of Oakland, but it was more for your information. And there are some terms. One of them is that if there is a station that is extremely low ridership, that Lyft can start to charge a fee for those stations. However, before that fee takes effect, which I believe is in two years after the agreement is signed, the city will have the opportunity to move any underperforming stations to a nearby location, and those stations would not be subject to that fee. So we do not anticipate having to pay that fee because we will take advantage of the option to move any underperforming stations somewhere nearby that we think might perform better.

okay all right uh final question is just around what happens if somebody gets injured especially with the e-bikes they can go pretty quickly if they malfunction or maybe someone's just not wearing a helmet is the city liable for their injury

Well, that's a I mean, I think there's a lot of scenarios that could occur there. I don't want to speak for like every possible scenario. But of course, the program does have all the standard terms of city contracts such as indemnification, insurance, etc.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Council Member Houston, you're next in the queue.

Thank you to the chair and you mentioned exactly what I wanted to speak about chair is about where's the finances. How does Oakland make some money. I mean you know they have how many docs are they.

Did you say one hundred and two.

That's advertising. I mean every time they see that lift that's advertising for their

Jeopardy.

Okay, I'm sorry. I just couldn't hear some noise and sit here and think that it's just something that's not, that's safe. And this is safe. This is just little, they're doing it. I'll sit for a second.

What you want me to do?

Can you talk without a noise? It's ridiculous. Look at that. Councilmember Unger, do you want me to continue or wait? You tell me.

You can go ahead. oh

And we're talking to so many of what they want to see in a fair contract and the city has every red fly.

And they're not telling us that we can't do our normal.

First one, health care is a requirement of all the table. Second, power is real work. i'm ready we deserve a real call that keeps up with the regional set. Here are what what it's not serious, especially after receiving no. We deserve our real call us now. so city administrator betty lane can you tell us real leadership and ensure that the city is well we hope that the city will do better moving forward

That's exciting.

this is the most working i like i like that i'm really good job and then coming in and then yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah if we could close that door that'd be great okay thank you local 21. let's talk about bikes where were we i i think uh was council member houston were you in the middle of questions or was it uh council member gallo All right. Can you put Houston on the mic, please? Yep.

I want to go back to where I started. Please do. That was democracy at the highest level. I don't know how all those people got through security, but we're about to find out. So on that level, what I was saying is I think I was at advertising when it came to they have, you said, how many locations do they have?

120. 120.

So where are we, because the council chair had mentioned, where are we benefiting? Where are we benefiting when it comes to economics? Are we getting any money? How many hours did you spend on this as a whole? Did they pay for that? I need to find out, because I'm going to say keep it in committee until I find out how Oakland is benefiting as a business. Because we keep running this city like it's not a business. This is a business. I want to find out how we benefit as a business.

Through the chair to council member Houston. It's a great question. There are a number of ways that the city benefits. So if the city were to procure a system such as this on our own, we would be the last time that we estimated it would cost something like $8 million a year because these systems tend to not cover their own costs. So it provides a great benefit to city of Oakland because our citizens have a new relatively low cost, low carbon mode of transportation. It allows people to access our BART stations, our job centers, people to get home, et cetera. And so in almost every part of the country, when a city wants to procure a system like this, they have to pay for it. There's a few places where the system pays for itself, like New York City, places that are incredibly dense, have a ton of ridership. And then there's places like the Bay Area where the system more or less breaks even. And in Oakland, so we're part of a regional program. The majority of the revenues and the rides are happening in San Francisco. Of course, we do have a lot of rides occurring here, but it's not enough for the system to be profitable on its own. So that's one of the benefits of being in a regional program but you mentioned revenues in general and the there are revenue sharing as I mentioned earlier that part of the Agreement is governed by the program agreement not by the city's franchise agreement. So the franchise agreement does not discuss revenue sharing at all the program agreement includes two ways actually that the city can receive revenue from the program. The first is through revenue sharing from advertisement and from ridership. And so as I mentioned, that threshold has only ever been reached once in the 10 years of the program. There's another way which is liquidated damages. So essentially, there's a number of key performance indicators for the program. If the operator lift doesn't meet those key performance indicators, then they get a fine. That's called liquidated damages. And we have actually received liquidated damages a number of times, probably almost every single quarter since the program launched. Those funds are required to be reinvested back into the program. And that requirement was set when the funds were originally accepted and appropriated. And we use those for staff time. And then you mentioned a question of staff time. So I am currently the staffer on the bike share program. I probably spend maybe 10% of my time supporting the program. There have historically been grants from MTC also that cover staff time. We have one right now that's about to be closed out, but moving forward, it doesn't appear that there's gonna be any future funding from MTC. So we will need to appropriate that staff funding through the budget.

Councilmember Gaya.

No, just wanna move forward with the item. So is there, I'll make a motion to support that. Okay, I'll second it.

Any other comments from council? Okay, speakers please.

As I call your name, please approach the podium. If you're participating online, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you. And when you approach the podium, please state your name for the record. Ms. Asada Olaballa, Kevin Daly, Buffalo Sojourn, Colin Hughes, and Blair Beekman, in any order?

Kevin Daly, definitely support this resolution. I want to mention one more item where I think there's a benefit that the amount of space that many, many bike shares take up, you could get maybe one car parked there, maybe two. Often it's on the corner where you're not allowed to park cars anyway. It also takes cars off the street. And that's a benefit that's not a financial benefit. Well, not an easily measurable financial benefit, but it is still a benefit to Oakland. Fewer cars on the street, fewer collisions, fewer accidents, maybe even more people visiting the businesses. And I think that is worth looking at also. Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Hello, council members. My name is Colin Hughes, and I'm the principal for bike share at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which serves as the regional program manager for the bay wheel system throughout the region. And I'm here to speak in support of Oakland's franchise agreement for bay wheels. MTC has made significant recent investments in bay wheels, including bringing e-bikes back to Oakland. Baywheels is dependent on daily to connect Oaklanders with their city to the broader East Bay, including Berkeley, Emeryville and soon Alameda and to transit, including BART and AC Transit and to San Francisco, San Jose and the broader Bay Area region. Baywheels ridership has grown roughly 30 percent year over year, as Kirby mentioned, since 2023. And in 2026, the system has already set multiple daily, weekly and monthly all time ridership records. So the momentum is very high. And 2026, we're on pace to have the highest ridership year in the system's history. Extending Oakland's franchise agreement keeps that momentum going and provides the operational continuity that riders, the city and the region depend on. MTC would also like to thank the city for its continued partnership and its staffing to maximize the benefits of the system to Oaklanders and the region. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Are these the bikes that they rent? Okay. So we've had some previous discussions about the bikes that are rented and the issue of monitoring regulatory violations that can be committed when these bikes are not following the regulations that are required. And that issue became challenging because there's only one person that was assigned to give tickets, I guess that's what they were, tickets or notice of violations to users And so it wasn't done right, it wasn't done completely right because it was underrepresented in terms of catching people for whatever reason the violations were committed. So has that been corrected? Because there are a lot of abuses like going through red lights or abusing the equipment, damaging the equipment, whatever. Another issue is when I was protesting in front of the homeless encampment at Lake Merritt, I observed a lot of these bikes being taken by the homeless community and converted for their usage. So what is the loss issue related to stealing or vandalism And is the loss so much of an issue that the investment can be considered challenging? And does this also involve the scooters? Is that another discussion? Okay, they don't know. They're in another land when I'm up here. It's like you're talking to the walls, but anyway.

Thank you for your comments, Ms. Assata. Next speaker, please.

Friends, enemies, and ignorant people, you may all address me as Buffalo Soldier. It just flat is a hoot that that crook who was occupying the city administrator's office is gone before the question comes up. First question is, In your franchise with Oakland, the restaurants pay money when their institutions interrupt parking. Do you pay that? Second question, to you members of the city council, do you understand what going to the pump means? I'm a bike rider. I was riding bikes around here before they had bus lifts. These people They want me to keep going to the pump. They want you to get tired of the cost of maintaining your bicycle and get one from them. My question to you, city council, the city administrator, poor lion sap. He didn't know that grand theft property rape was going on every time they cleaned up. As I said then and I say now, that's either collusion or corruption. Now, a good part of y'all wasn't here when word came through. Word came through in 2024. The truth is the light. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. That's why we have all you new city council members. Is that clear? Now, about that check yourself before you wreck yourself, I have to vote with Houston there. How much is Oakland getting off of this? And how many Sit on your behind administrators. Is this lift program supported? See, I'm just a pobrecito. I know if I go through your stuff and put my phone in there, you're going to let me have a bike for a cheap price. But when you talk about costs.

Thank you for your comments. That concludes our speakers for this item.

Council Member Houston, do you have a follow up?

Just one more, I mean it's through the chair. I don't know who all have been an entrepreneur or a business owner, but Oakland has to be ran like a business. And when I say that, is Lyft, they have cars driving around our city all day long. Do they advertise in their cars and say, fly Oakland? Let me just share this through the chair. I'm going to say no. I want to hold it here. I want to see what Oakland is getting because let me share this. A business person wouldn't do that unless they're getting something else out of it, whereas Oakland should be getting something out of it. Oakland has a bad reputation right now. I just spoke to some people out of state, said, oh, I'm going to fly here. I'm going to not come here. I'm not going to stay in your hotel. I'm going to stay in the new one in Alameda, right? So Lyft has cars. Couldn't they put fly Oakland here, visit this restaurant in their cars? We have to get something out of it. It just can't be paying salaries being paid. It's some salaries being paid, right? So I'm gonna say no, or I wanna hold it here because I wanna see what Oakland is gonna get out of it. Oakland needs to get some benefits.

Thank you.

There it is. There was a motion by Councilmember Gallo, seconded by Councilmember Unger to approve staff recommendations to be forwarded to the June 16th City Council agenda on consent.

Depending on how the vote goes.

Yes On roll councilmember Geil. Aye Councilmember Houston. No councilmember Wong. Aye I and Councilmember chair hunger. I item number three Excuse me. Number five is approved with three eyes one No to be forwarded to the June 16th City Council agenda on non-consent Due to the no vote that now takes us to our last item item number six item of a discussion Item number six is a resolution authorizing Excuse me authorizing the city administrator to award a construction contract to mcguire and hester for martin luther king jr way streetscape improvement project the lowest responsible and responsive bidder in accordance with the project plan specifications state requirements and with contractors being in the amount of twenty six million four hundred ninety nine thousand three hundred and thirty nine dollars and fifty cents in adopting appropriate sequa findings i have three speakers for this item

Thank you. Let's hear about the project, please.

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Emily Ehlers. I work for the Department of Transportation, leading the major projects division. I'm here today to request that we award the contract for the Martin Luther King Jr. Streetscape Improvement Project to McGuire and Hester, the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. So just a bit on the project. The Traffic Safety Project spans MLK Jr. Way from 2nd Street to 14th Street. This street is located on our high injury network, which is the 8% of our streets that account for 60% of severe and fatal collisions. The corridor currently lacks protected bicycle infrastructure to physically separate people biking from vehicles, including heavy vehicles, and has existing sidewalk accessibility gaps. The scope of this project is a direct response to years of community engagement dating back to 2017. When we asked community members their top priorities, the answers included safety for all roadway users, especially people walking and biking, traffic calming, urban greening, and freight access, especially on the blocks near the Port of Oakland. To deliver on these priorities, this project will install upgraded sidewalks, curb ramps, pedestrian ball bouts, and pedestrian countdown heads, a protected two-way sidewalk level cycle track, with upgraded traffic and bike signals, pedestrian lighting, pedestrian seating, 79 new street trees almost doubling the tree canopy along the corridor, and then wider travel lanes and an additional southbound travel lane between the block between second and third to accommodate freight access. This project is fully funded by state and local grants, including grants from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the California State Transportation Agency. These grants do not restrict the use of the city's local and small local business enterprise. Several months ago, we initiated a competitive bidding process and received four bids. In alignment with the local and small local business enterprise program, we offered bid discounts to encourage local partnerships beyond the requirements of the LSLBE program. Two bidders achieved the maximum 10% discount by establishing approved mentor-protege agreements with certified very small local firms. After the application of these bid discounts, McGuire and Hester emerged as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Their bid came in at $26,499,339.50, which is 8% below the city's engineer's estimate of $29 million. Staff recommends awarding this construction contract to McGuire and Hester to advance construction of these long-awaited safety improvements. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Council Member Houston.

I love it. Through the chair, McGuire & Hester is a good company. They are in my district. As a matter of fact, they are responsible. They're doing SLBE, small local businesses. They've been in our city for over 100 years. I want to move this item.

Council Member Gallo. I do have a question. Can you talk a little bit about the potential change orders and what the cost of those might be?

Yeah, so the standard specifications for the public works construction code recommends or the protocol is a 25% change order. So by right, we could approve 25% change orders. So above the 26.5 million, things come up during construction that we just cannot anticipate. So some change orders are inevitable. obviously on a project this scale 25 really adds up so we need to and director rowan has been working with our construction management team on some updated protocols to ensure that we're getting the best value and and the change order process is not being abused and would those come back to council for approval not above 25 percent so we can yeah 25 so below 25 percent We can issue the change order. Of course, they're escalating levels of approval. I could not approve a change order at my level. It goes to our director above $100,000. But if the change orders is something extreme were to happen along the corridor, let's say a sewer line bursts and it costs millions and millions of dollars to repair and it costs more than 25% of the value of the contract, then we are coming back to council to address that.

I think I would just ask that we always look at these change orders very critically, especially in a project of this size and not just sort of rubber stamp millions of dollars in change orders.

Absolutely. As someone managing the program funds, I'm extremely sensitive to those change orders.

Thank you. Council Member Wong.

Thank you. I just want to make sure, since the price tag on this is, what, $29 million for about 12 blocks, that this is going to be a significant upgrade for the district, I think, two-way cycle track? So this isn't my district, but this is right across the way. And I know that something that is incredibly challenging about this whole corridor is the connectivity between Jack London and the downtown area is part of this project going to be making it. I would love to have more connectivity and ways that people feel safer actually just walking from downtown to Jack London. Will that accomplish that, this project accomplish this?

I would say so. So the scope of the project is widening the sidewalks on the east side of MLK from 14th Street down to 2nd Street. And when we widen that sidewalk, we're creating space for people biking. So there'll be a cycle track, so it'll be a designated area for people biking, and it'll make pedestrians who are walking on the street further away from vehicles. So that alone will make it a more comfortable pedestrian environment. Plus, the additional street trees were that the street is a more welcoming, friendly place for people walking and biking. And in terms of the connection to Jack Lennon Square, this is not directly part of this project, but another project we're working on are under-crossing improvements. When we were doing our outreach, the biggest barrier we heard was that freeway. So crossing under 880 is challenging, it's not welcoming, it's not comfortable, people avoid it. So we are going to be improving the undercrossing along MLK so that we don't just have beautiful cycle tracks and widened sidewalks north and south of the freeway, but we also have lighting and gatekeeping underneath the freeway so that it just doesn't feel so far away. Jack Lennon Square is not far from downtown Oakland, but it can feel so because of the undercrossing barrier.

100%. Okay. Thanks so much. Thanks for your work on this.

Council Member Houston.

THROUGH THE CHAIR, LAST QUESTION. I LIKE SITTING ON YOUR COMMITTEE, UNGER. UNGER, BECAUSE WE HAVE SOME OF THE SAME QUESTIONS ABOUT CHANGE ORDERS. I REALLY LIKE THAT. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'VE EVER SEEN THAT PICTURE WHEN IT SHOWS CONTRACT, IT SHOWS A LITTLE BOAT AND IT SHOWS CHANGE ORDER AND IT SAYS YACHT. HAVE YOU EVER SAW THAT? IT'S REALLY HILARIOUS. EXPLAIN TO ME ABOUT THE CHANGE ORDER PIECE. WHEN YOU SAY 25%, IS THAT PER SCOPE OF WORK WITH A CHANGE ORDER OR OVERALL 25% BECAUSE IT'S TRICKY.

It's the latter. So overall, 25% of the total project value, and on a project this complex, we're rebuilding the street, redoing the drainage, widening the sidewalks. It's a really complicated, and to your point, Councilmember Wong, relatively costly project. So 25% above the $26.5 million. So what is that, about $5.5, $6 million total for the whole scope, not just individual bid items, 25% for that.

Okay, so how do we keep up on that change order? Because that's important, because as a contractor, I remember how people manipulate that, not saying that this has nothing to do with that company, I'm just gonna follow Councilmember Unger's, that change order, we wanna keep up with change orders on McGuire & Hester or any company. It's about the best interest of Oakland, any company. So how do we keep up on that?

absolutely i may have to follow up with you on that my division works on the planning the engagement the design i don't manage the construction of the project so i want to make sure i'm not giving you inaccurate information on how they manage the change order process i do know that the project manager is involved in approving all change orders so someone on our team on the project team We'll be reviewing those change orders, making sure that they're absolutely necessary and consistent with the scope and the grant. So this is fully grant funded. We can't do anything that's not in the grant. So if we can follow up maybe after the meeting, I can connect you with our construction management division who could answer more detailed questions. I'm getting way out beyond my skis on construction.

I'll have Evelyn Vega or Trinity Hall to reach out to to find out. Okay, thank you.

Do we have a motion and a second?

We do. I'm not sure if we call the speakers for this item. Yes, Ms. Asada Olaballa, Kevin Daly, and Blair Beekman.

Speak about sidewalks I get thoroughly confused because it's my understanding that private property owners are responsible for the sidewalks. So you go you doing sidewalks that completely cover. The city of Oakland property and not commercial residential sidewalks is that clear. Okay, nobody's in the room. Then there's timeline for completion. Sometimes when you put in a contract timeline for completion and that timeline is not met, then the contractor has to pay a fee to you for not completing it on time. Is that in the contract? Commercial businesses interruption. Are we having any interruption potential of businesses and how do we help those businesses stay financially viable? I know you had that problem when they did the work on international. It became a concern for the businesses to stay functional and profitable. uh... parking for residents are any uh... interruption of parking for residents going to happen so you have a twenty six point four million dollar project have you seen the itemized breakdown of all the work that's going to be done to substantiate that proper funding is going to the areas i tend to believe too much money is spent on bike lanes uh... also project totally completed. I didn't understand out here when they did the work that they put that white tape down there for months instead of just putting the paint down. Then they had concrete completely paved the streets and then they were digging it up to do something under that had to be repaired under the pavement. So if they have to come back and do any work, I know you say change all.

Thank you for your comments. You're welcome. Next speaker, please.

Kevin Daly, I look forward to the completion of this project to make MLK safer for pedestrians and cyclists and wonderful to have wider sidewalks, especially in protected bike lanes. Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. All speakers have been called for this item. We do have a motion by Councilmember Houston, seconded by Councilmember Guyal, to approve staff recommendations to be forwarded to the June 16th City Council agenda. On roll for this, Councilmember Guyal?

Aye.

Houston?

Aye.

Wong? Aye. Chair Unger? Aye. And item number six was approved with four ayes to be forwarded to the June 16th City Council agenda on consent. With that, we will now go to open forum.

Open forum, sorry.

I have Zach, Ms. Asada Olaballa, Kevin Daly, Blair Beekman, and Samuel Ramsey. In any order, if you're participating here in person in chambers, please approach the podium. State your name for the records. Following those in person, we will take those who are online.

I'll do a fun one.

Hans Alexander Gorin Littenberg Von I'm pretty.

I'm gorgeous.

You know, I need a Trump tusk, you know, right here. As Ruth Ann Marie, the North American, North Atlantic. This is Mr. Erkland's testimony. Where you want it? That guy named John Edgar Hoover, I mean Richard Kleindest, is ordered in Watergate. I'll send that to you. I've already put that Ehrlichman and Lutensy across the bay, or across the ocean. When Kleindurst goes as well, it means I order a Anschnick missile on the country. I have a very big thing. I'm going to put this in the court system today without a question and put it on social media. You're going to tell me, and via Cape Canaveral and two hypersonic missiles that I ordered, that we're to put retrocliners before the end of the day by procedure of combat. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker for this item, open forum. Joseph Biden, August 28th.

So when is the city gonna rename Cesar Chavez Library in Cesar Chavez Park, or is your intent is to keep the name in place? A sex abuser according to allegations. Other municipalities have taken it upon themselves to act immediately. You have done nothing. What is your intent around that? What is your intent? Thank you, thank you, Mr. Gallo. I'm also concerned with the demonstration you just had in here with your employees. I think it was very disrespectful for the union to put on the ballot measure E representing a citizen's initiative when it was a collaboration with the city and the union. What makes it extremely difficult, only 32% of all your city employees live in Oakland, 32%. So that was insulting to have people put on the ballot something for which the majority of people, 68%, I'm sorry, that might be wrong, don't even contribute to the ballot measure or pay taxes. or take their checks and go outside of Oakland. So whenever the union comes around, I don't wanna hear it. I wanna give you something on a good note. You have a relationship as council members that I highly respect. You collaborate and work together extremely well. I go to school board meetings and that is a hot mess. They are so insulting and disrespectful to each other. So continue to have that opportunity to work together for whatever you're doing, but you're very respectful of each other. And I appreciate that as someone has to sit here and watch your leadership.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. We noted Kevin Daly is passing Samuel Ramsey.

Good afternoon, city of Oakland. My name is Samuel Ramey. I'm with the California Oakland Union of Helmets for mental health outreach for independent living. We have a broken system in this country, been broken all along. We need to start all over again. You was on point. How you going to let somebody else come here up in here and do the same thing? And how could the department head's chair y'all know? They should be fired, like he said. Oh, they're violating the people's right. And y'all need to start voting on stuff that takes your people. So we don't have all these problems. Mismanagement's the problem, not the people. I don't know where all this money's going, but $100 million is coming to this city every year. Has nothing to do with y'all, but I've been working here 35 years. Not missing no one. And it's wrong what y'all are doing with your people. It's sad. So don't make nobody homeless no more. Leave them where they at. Those three shelters, y'all need to give me the information so I can have it paid for by her. I can do all that. And we're going to build a senior citizen mental health center so we can get these streets cleaned up. What's up to y'all? Say okay. Have a good day.

Thank you for your comments. All speakers have been called for open forum. That concludes our open forum speakers.

All right. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.