Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning and welcome to the public works and transportation committee meeting of Tuesday, 12/09/2005. The time is now 11:32AM, and this meeting may come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda. If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into a clerk representative no later than ten minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record. Registering to speak via Zoom is now due twenty four hours prior to the start of this meeting time, and this meeting came to order at 11:32AM, and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after that meeting this meeting has begun, making that time 11:42AM.

We'll now proceed with taking roll with members present. Council member Gayo? Present. Thank you. Council member Wong or council member Houston? Present. Thank you. Council member Wong? Present. And chair Unger?

Here.

Thank you. We have four members present. And before we begin, chair, do you have any announcements at this time?

Could we move items five and six to the end to accommodate the DOT director who is at a press conference right now. Oh, no, he's there. Never mind. So no longer need a change from DOT? Alright. Let's keep it in order then.

Okay. Keeping the order of the agenda. Reading in item number one, approval of the draft minutes from the committee meetings held on 10/28/2025 and 11/18/2025. We do have one speaker that signed up, mister Blair Beekman, but it looks like he's not on Zoom.

Okay. I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes. Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by council member Houston to approve the committee draft minutes of October 8 sorry. October 28 and 11/18/2025. On roll. Council member Gayo? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Oh, thank you. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger? Aye. Thank you. Motion passes with four ayes to sorry. To approve the draft minutes from the committee meetings held on October 28 and 11/18/2025. Reading in item number two, determination of schedule of outstanding committee items and we do have one speaker that signed up.

Anything from council members or staff about the pending list? Anything from DOT or public works for the pending list? Alright. Well let's hear our public comment please.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number two miss Isata Olubala.

Let me start off by thanking you chair for the information about we do have a new human service department head. That's fantastic. I just read that the city of San Jose has focused a target initiative on parked vehicles with expired registrations. And from August 18 to November 8, they have towed 527 vehicles and sighted. What are we doing related to this issue of parked vehicles with expired registrations being fined or towed?

Can we have a report on that? I am concerned about the encampment policy not being thoroughly understood by the public. This concept of criminalization of our homeless community is just too far fetched. We need to have a clear before going to counsel, you need to have a clear understanding from mister Houston what exactly what we're trying to accomplish. And I'm not sure if this console is being supportive enough and maybe it's because they don't know what you're really intending to do.

So the other thing I'm concerned about is the rules committee has placed the item of the ABC security contract on the agenda for approval. That contract expired in June 30, I think, of this year. And the reason for why we are at this point extending the contract. There should note there should not be any kind of situation like this. This should have been brought up a long time ago if you wanted to extend the contract.

And lastly, got I a few seconds. Illegal dumping, the whole perspective of what's going on should be at every meeting. How we handling this illegal dumping situation. Thank you, mister Hu

Thank you for your comments chair. That concludes all speakers on item two.

Okay. Do we have a motion? Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by council member Houston to accept the determination of scheduled outstanding committee items as is. On roll, council member Gayo?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Aye.

Thank you. Item two passes with four ayes. Reading in item number three. Adopt a resolution updating the city of Oakland's environmentally preferable purchasing policy to align with the short lived climate pollutants act s b one three eight three, the city's 2030 equitable climate action plan, and the city's reusable food where ordinance Oakland municipal code 8.07 and authorizing the city administrator to implement such policy and approve future policy updates. And we do have one speaker that signed up for this item.

Let's hear from our staff first please.

Good morning, council members. My name is Jeffrey Wong with Public Works. And, today, I have an update for you on our environmentally preferable purchasing policy which incorporates updates related to state regulation SB thirteen eighty three, the lived climate pollutants act, as well as existing environmental regulations that the city council has already approved, namely our 2030 equitable climate action plan, as well as our reusable foodware ordinance. This policy was first passed in 2007 by this council to better protect human and environmental health as it relates to the city's purchasing decisions, and we bring it before you today for an update, a much needed update. In it, you'll find that there are no additional costs in this purchasing policy.

This is already, you know, any expenses related to the environmentally preferable purchasing policy have already been included existing policies like our CIP program, and you'll actually hear, you know, later today some items from other departments that have successfully been able to find grant funding for a lot of the items related to this purchasing policy. And then, the final item is that in terms of authorizing the city administrator to implement this policy, this will better help our staff be able to adjust and update this policy as the latest science comes in as it relates to chemical toxicity and climate change. And I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you.

Colleagues, questions? Electric appliances, plastic forks.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that information. In government, creating and developing policies is one thing, but enforcing the policy is another. And I think that's one of the challenge Oakland specifically has.

And I think we're talking about okay. One it's one example. I mean, I'm not sure if it fits within this action. You know, we have many many vendors on our sidewalks and our streets. As an example, every morning at six in the morning, I and my employees that clean the streets every day, Monday through Sunday, we pick up 30 bags of trash and, like, forty, fifteen, or fifteen, twenty gallons, buckets of that oil that's been left as cooking oil or other type of oil, that in reality, I cannot pick up the oil because I cannot take it to, you know, waste management.

I cannot take it to my dumpsters. And so it has to be a fire department issue where they remove or I can drop off all the pollutants. And so what action are we taking to address that? Because that issue is out of control. And not just in my night walk from Hundredth Avenue on the on the Virgen De Guadalupe walk from Hundred to all the way to Lake Merritt.

And what I saw in Far East Oakland, I couldn't believe it. Okay. So what I'm asking you is how do we address that issue? We're talking about oils and pollutants that are being left on the sidewalk on the street. And we clearly know it for a lifetime throughout the city that who's doing the the the activity. So what what is our process to deal with those contaminants?

Through the chair to the council member. So this environmentally preferable purchasing policy doesn't touch on the motor oil can or the illegal dumping. But, speaking as someone who's a member of the recycling team, that's something that we are trying to do more public education, for example, that folks can drop off for free to the Alameda County Hazardous Waste if they have any motor oil or cooking oil that they've left behind. And I am currently in the process of working with our environmental enforcement team to do a better job of not just doing the cleanups, but also where we have evidence holding those folks accountable for illegal dumping.

Yeah. Because years ago when I started here on the council, I would deal with that every day. But the fire department would send me the marshals, not only to make sure you have the permits to do business, but you cannot block the sidewalk because the sidewalk belongs to the public, everyone. But but secondly, leaving the contaminants, the fire department would make sure that they would pick them up and deal with that issue. But right now, they're being left on the streets and left on the corners, and we just need to address that issue. And thank you for the information and I'll check back with you. Thank you.

Council member Wong.

Thank you to the chair. This is really important work, so thank you for all your efforts on this to move our city towards a greener footprint. One item I just wanted to inquire about is you put in the report that in fiscal year twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five that the city spent more than $100,000 to comply with the annual SB thirteen eighty three recovered organic waste product procurement requirement. Can you speak more on that? And so your proposed updates in this will actually solve for that issue because I care about the environment but we also need to be fiscally responsible. So can you speak on that?

Sure. Through the chair to the council member. Yes. So by incorporating within the specific policy the exact definitions around compost and mulch, for example, that we're producing from city, you know, downed city trees, we're going to be able to reduce the amount of recovered organic waste product that we need to procure thereby reducing the total amount we need to spend. Unfortunately, because of our targets, we won't be able to completely eliminate it, but our best guess is that it'll easily be tens of thousands of dollars saved by adopting this policy.

Okay. Sounds good. I'll second the motion.

Do we have speakers?

Yes. Calling in the names that signed up for item number three missus Sata Olubala.

So, I haven't seen bipod in a report in a long time, but y'all put it in the report, bipod. So, let me tell you this. BIPOC, black, indigenous, people of color. Everybody is a person of color. Okay? There's no such thing as white people, there are pink people, beige people, and olive people. All people of color. So, stop using that term bipod. We are not all having the same experience no matter what group we're in. But, you want to collectively say, all people are going through the same experience.

I don't want to see bipod in another report. If you can defend it, defend it right now. Anybody want to defend it up here? Using the term bipod. You are not white people, you are pink people, beige people, and outer people. Stop trying to make white some significant group that you gotta separate them from everybody else. The second thing that I'm concerned about. This document says we will be pursuing grant funding and other partnerships to cover costs. So, that means you don't have any money to do anything. Is that correct?

Presently, we don't have within the scope of the budget of the city funding for what you're talking about. But you're going to be pursuing grants and partnership in order to fund something. That needs to be made clear. To speak about what we need to do and that we don't have the money to do it is important to be recognized. So if I'm wrong and there are funds that exist within the budget of any capacity, a measure or whatever to deal with this issue, please identify that, because I'm understanding you've got to look for grants and partnerships. And lastly, with your concern, I'm concerned about construction materials being eliminated in the illegal dumpings

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes all speakers on item three. Alright.

We have a motion and a second already.

Yes. We have a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by council member Wong to approve the recommendations of staff and to board this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent. On roll council member Gayos. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger? Aye. Thank you. Item number three passes with four ayes to forward this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent. Reading in item four.

Good luck with this.

Adopt a resolution one accepting and appropriating grant funds from the environmental protection agency clean heavy duty vehicle program in the amount of $1,364,154. Two, accepting and appropriating grant funds from the Alameda County Transportation Commission transportation fund for clean air program in the amount of $104,000. Three, authorizing the city administrator to enter into a cooperative agreement pursuant to Oakland municipal code section two point zero four point zero eight zero with tech equipment through source well contract number 110223DashTHC for the purchase of one refuse hauler and a not and a not to exceed amount of $540,000 b, Owen equipment sales through source well contract number 093021DashELG for the purchase of three electric street sweep street sweepers in an amount in a not to exceed amount of $2,850,000, c, Beam Global through the United States General Service Administration, contract number 47QSWA21D0006 for the purchase of one electric solar panel charger in a not in a not to exceed amount of $102,885.89. D in Charge Energy Inc. Through Sourcewell two contract number 051123Dash I dash inc to design, build, purchase, and maintain 15 electric vehicle charge chargers in a in a in an amount not to exceed $1,400,000 for appropriating two, sorry, 2,634,609 from available fund balance in the comprehensive cleanup fund seventeen twenty for grant matching purposes.

Five, appropriating $1,644,174 from available fund balance in the equipment fund four one zero zero, the grant matching purposes. And six, adopting appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings. Do you need me to repeat that?

Nicely done. Alright. Let's hear from staff, please.

Thank you. Richard Battersby, assistant director for Oakland Public Works. I'm actually the assistant director of the Bureau of Maintenance and Internal Services, which includes sewer, storm drain, facilities, and equipment. So if you're wondering why is Richard always here talking about sewer and these various items, I have a pretty eclectic portfolio. This one's a very interesting project in that it touches two of the divisions in my bureau, both facilities and equipment services.

And by the way, we probably have earned some sort of an award for the longest title, and congratulations to the city clerk for getting through that. I would have a difficult time myself. To summarize, I'm before you today to accept five grants in the amount of approximately 4,800,000.0. And these grants are going to allow us to install about a 119 electric vehicle chargers at various locations throughout the city and also acquire four battery electric vehicles, three battery electric street sweepers, and one zero emission battery electric refuse truck. These five grants represent about $12,000,000 in total projects.

Internally, we got about 2,900,000.0 available, and we're required to bring $7,100,000 match funding to the $4,800,000 we're accepting. So, we appropriating or requesting the appropriation of 4,300,000.0 from the comprehensive cleanup fund and also the equipment fund balance. These projects are in support of mandates to deploy battery electric vehicles. The advanced clean fleet rule from the Air Resources Board is requiring the city of Oakland to procure one out of every two vehicles that's over 7,500 g v or 8,500 GVW has to be battery electric or hydrogen powered. So in order to operate these vehicles, we're required to have the electrical infrastructure to support it that doesn't currently exist.

The PG and E grant is of particular interest because that also includes, in addition to the funding, they're going to upgrade the power to the municipal service center at 7101 Edgewater, our primary vehicle domicile yard, at no cost. So we've gone out and successfully chased grants. These are five grants. I think we have a total of 11 on the table. And it's kind of like a Tetris project as we use some grant funds to count as the match fund against the other. But after all the maneuvers, we still came up about 4,300,000.0 short. So that's why we're here today. And if there's any questions after all that, I'm available to answer them.

Council members, questions? Council member Gaye.

Yes. Thank you. First of all, let me thank you for the work that you do. We appreciate your leadership and certainly, you know, I've seen a difference in terms of addressing the needs on the street. So thank you for that. So what is the timeline though? I do I do sue I do see electric vehicles available at this time from the police department down to public works. What is the timeline to get this actually in place and done?

This project, through the chair, council member Gao, this project includes EV charger installations, which, if the necessary power grade power upgrades are included, may take up to two years to complete. We hope to have some of these chargers in place within the next twelve months. After, this item, if it's approved, we'll get those vehicles on requisition immediately, and there's probably a twelve month window or so before those battery electric sweepers arrive. Should they arrive before we have the necessary high voltage charging, there are temporary or mobile charging solutions available, and we're prepared to deploy those. There's also an EV charging hub going in across the street from the fifty fifty Coliseum heavy duty truck shop.

So we will actually have, like like a gas station, but for electric vehicles right across the street from the truck shop. So hopefully, everything's done in two years, but we are dependent upon the utilities to some extent to upgrade the power at many of these locations.

Yeah. So so the stations would be at the police headquarters on Broadway, the electric

Actually, this project is is going to install chargers, I think, at 13 different locations.

13 locations. Okay.

Including PAB where we have some chargers, including Eastmont where we have some chargers. City Center West, we already have some there. We're gonna do the truck shop. We're gonna do Edgewater, and I think we're looking to add some additional locations

as well. I just don't have to go to one location to charge my battery or my vehicle. Right?

No. No. And the hope here is to have capacity for city vehicles where city vehicles are now. So where they park, we wanna have charging to support that.

Okay.

And then I have to commend our colleagues at Department of Transportation. If you've been to City Center West, you've seen all that electrical infrastructure. We put in the charge points early on, the level two. There's, I think, 15 of the DC fast chargers, the high capacity charging that DOT was able to install with EVA. So, I mean, it's like a team effort.

Thank you. Thank you for your work. Thank you.

Council member Houston. Through the chair. Good morning, mister Richard.

Morning, sir. Through the chair.

Question. What does through Sourcewell mean? It says, I see the tech equipment contracts with Sourcewell and I couldn't find where they were located, their headquarters. But then the second one with Owens equipment, it says through Sourcewell. And the other companies like Beam Global, Contract, InCharge Energy, they're all from one is from Portland, one is from wow, Oregon, one is from San Diego, nothing from in the Bay Area.

But to answer my first question, why does it say through? They have a contract for $5.40 then the second one says Owens Equipment through Sourcewell. And that's for 2,000,850. Can you explain that for me, please?

Sure. Through the chair. Sourcewell is a GPO, a government purchasing organization. And that's basically a third party entity. I think Sourcewell is a JPA where they go out, they already do the public bid and they establish contracts and we're able to piggyback off that contract. It's very similar to the State Department of General Services statewide commodity contracts that we piggyback off also.

And where are they located? Where's their headquarters?

Sourcewell, I believe, is located in the Midwest.

Okay. You know, through the chair, I always got an issue with, you know, having some companies from Oakland or at least Bay Area. I don't see anybody from here on the Bay Area. So I just wanted to know what through was. So that means that they get Sourcewell has the first one for 400 I mean $540,000 and then it goes through Owens Equipment for 2,000,804 and 50.

Yeah. Through the chair, just to clarify, SourceWell is just the contract holder. So I'm sure that in their business model, they derive some revenue through the contractual relationship, but we're actually contracting with Owen. We're actually contracting with Beam. I know Beam is down in San Diego. They make they're proprietary. They make the self contained solar powered electric vehicle charging that has on-site battery capacity. So Sourcewell's just the contract mechanism to purchase from those vendors.

Okay. So Sourcewell's getting a percentage or just for their work $540,000 to put it all together?

Well, through the chair, I don't think Sourcewell derives any revenue from our purchases, but they may derive revenue from contractors, the companies that contract through them.

Okay. Alright. Okay. Thank you. Council member Wong.

Thank you. This is an incredible effort. I so I commend you for this. One question I have is just you know since we're replacing a lot of these gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, can we expect actually an uptick in the performance of the vehicles and like service delivery or is this, you know, what what changes would we see? Yes.

We'll we'll be decarbonizing, but what it means for our residents in terms of street sweeping. I've been doing some local cleanups in my district and I gotta tell you, I am really learning about importance of street sweeping and some of the worst illegal dumping that we see. I I do believe that it is tied to inadequate street sweeping. So can you speak on that?

Sure. Thank you. Through the chair, these grants are particularly significant from the perspective that we haven't had regular vehicle replacement funding for a couple of years now. I understand there's 5,000,000 available citywide. Just for perspective, one battery electric street sweeper is about $900,000. So that 5,000,000 citywide includes police, fire, as well as public works. So we have to rely on these alternative sources. These are probably the only replacement sweepers that we're going to be getting in for some time.

Right.

In addition to the emissions reduction, we're also going to see noise reduction as well, which is a frequent, complaint we get, especially if the sweepers are running earlier or particularly late. So what I suspect though, even though these are we would like these to be replacement sweepers where we're taking a diesel sweeper out of service and replacing it with zero emission battery electric. We think these will just be added to the inventory since we haven't been able to replace equipment that's been lost or damaged due to mechanical failure or accident, these ones will be bringing our inventory up to where it needs to be. So we should see an increase in sweeping capacity as well as the emission reduction and volume noise volume reduction. And then, of course, we have the battery electric refuse truck that's gonna help us out with the illegal dumping as well.

Right. Okay. Fantastic. And then my other question is just around the maintenance of the electric vehicles from my prior work. Know maintenance of these charging stations actually provide a lot of local jobs. Do you know at all around you know who who will be getting these maintenance jobs?

Through the chair? Yeah. We've been training our technicians through partnership with organizations like the East Bay Clean Cities Coalition. We've been bringing in training specifically for our in house technicians. As far as the station maintenance, traditionally, we've relied on the vendor that supplies the equipment, the majority of which are ChargePoint. They're based down in the South Bay, so they're California based. Ideally, we would like to local small businesses spring up around this new business model that fleets are operating under with electric vehicle chargers and the solar panels. These stations are gonna require maintenance. The solar panels are gonna require cleaning. So there will be opportunities right now.

Currently, I don't know. I believe they're I'm aware of some companies, but I don't think they're local to Oakland that can provide that service.

I think even if the headquarters of those companies are not in Oakland they can this is a good job opportunity for Oaklanders here that can be hired into these roles. Okay. Is there a motion on the floor? I'll second that.

Council member Houston, you have another comment?

Yeah. Just one more comment. I like what mister Richard said about some, local companies springing up. I like that that music to my ears. I just wanted to ask one more question and that was where is tech equipment located? Tech equipment.

Tech has a branch right here in Oakland. I wanna say they're off of Hegenberger, but I'm Okay.

Alright. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Council member Gaye.

And thanks for the work. Get the work done. For me, it's get it done today. We're far behind getting Oakland like it used to be, a clean safe city. But for me, it's the question that I have, what is our relationship, working relationship with Oakland Unified School District?

The reason why I ask you that publicly is that I have to clean around the schools every day. It used to be that the city the school district had custodians that would do that work, the sidewalk inside their school, but now my city workers are having to clean around Fremont High School and all the other schools, to make sure it's a clean environment. But what is considering Oakland Unified's debt of a $100,000,000 plus, what what is our working relationship to make sure that we're working in unison? Because I know at one time we even took the crossing guards and gave them the transportation where we had the police and others involved in that activity including Oakland Unified. So what is our working relationship to make sure that they're within our city, they're within our taxpayers, and they're our children?

What is the ongoing work relationship considering they have facilities that at one time we could use or should have used as opposed to leasing the one on Coliseum from the Singh family for what, $3,000,000 a year? We could use a Oakland Unified School District facility property to do the same work and work in unison. So is there a working relationship daily that we have with Oakland Unified?

Yes. Thank you. Through the chair. Yeah. There's absolutely a working relationship. Oakland Unified, while not formally part of the organization, they're part of our family. So over the years, we've had a working relationship. I have operationally with facilities on the maintenance side. I see potential opportunities if there is there is a contraction and facilities come available. We are our lease is coming up at 5050 Coliseum. We're always looking for options.

Yeah.

And Oakland Unified deployed the first wholesale battery electric bus fleet Yeah. Through their partners right here in the city of Oakland. So there's lots of opportunities, maybe sharing, charging, and happy to pursue that.

Okay. I'll follow-up with you on that issue because they laid off a good 20 plus custodians. And but anyways, I'll follow-up with you, see if we can grow that relationship relationship and and and including using their properties to service public works. Thank you. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve the item. Yeah.

Speaker. Moving on to our public speakers that signed up for item number four, miss Asada Olubala.

It's interesting you should talk about OUSD and their facilities. Last night at a meeting, they have a negative bond rating and so to use their money's measures, BJ and Y, that's on hold, besides the $100,000,000 deficit. There are pros and cons to having electric vehicles. The cons is that the purchase of the vehicle might be higher than the purchase of an electrical vehicle. So, what is the comparative cost that we are looking at if we do a purchase of an electric vehicle compared to a nonelectric vehicle?

And it says also in the documentation about the pros and cons that sometimes the insurance is higher with a electric vehicle. So, what are the insurance costs that we are incurring and is it to somewhat of a disadvantage? Now, I don't understand the process of how you're moving towards these electric vehicles. Are you moving after a gas vehicle has become non serviceable? Or, are you now buying electrical vehicles and you have now a surplus of gas vehicles, which we can't do?

So, do you guys understand how this process works? Are we buying electrical vehicles or purchasing them and we now have a backlog of vehicles that are gas vehicles? The other thing is I'm concerned about the street sweepers and how effective it's been because the clearing of the streets, a lot of the sweets the people are ignoring the signs. Are we ticketing them because they're supposed to not have their vehicles?

Thank you for your comments miss Estada. Chair that concludes all speakers on this item.

Let's let's call the roll please.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by council member Wong to approve the recommendations of staff and to board this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent. On roll council member Gaio. Aye. Council member Houston. Aye. Council member Wong. Aye. And chair Unger. Aye.

Thank you. Item number four passes with four ayes to forward this item to the December 16 City Council agenda on consent. Now reading in item number five, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to award a contract to Safeway Signs Inc to furnish traffic sign making and pavement, making supplies and materials in an amount not to exceed $2,500,000 for a five year period expiring no later than 06/30/2031 in accordance with the specification number 25 Dash zero eight zero one Dash zero zero slash request for quotation number 3475351 and the general conditions on file in purchasing in the purchasing section and the contractors bid and two waiving the local slash small local business program requirements and we do have one speaker that signed up for this item.

Alright. Let's hear from our staff please.

Josh Rowan, the the director of Transportation. This is a fairly straightforward award. We we received bids from two two non local companies. One was non responsive. That leads us with with this Safeway signs. We we try to keep about a ninety day supply of paint and signs in stock and so we we recommend this for award.

Okay. Council members, questions, comments? Alright.

We have a motion. I have a question. Hello, mister Rowan. Question, how is this published and advertised? Because we only got two, you said, we only got two because I can't even pronounce the name of this city. So how how are we actually advertising to to to get these companies to to respond?

We we ever through the chair. We advertise online and through the the city's official organ.

Okay. Through the chair, is it you start to see if we could use some creativity to do it more than that to try to find some some some comps because this is a a $2,500,000 contract for five years. Correct?

That's correct.

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

Alright. I'll second the motion. Do we have any other comments? Council member Wong.

Yeah. So is there anything in the report I'm reviewing that says, you know, an estimated number of signs that we expect to get out of this contract?

No. We we we just keep we we estimate how much quantity of materials we need in about a ninety day period. So our team our team knows what about what they want to keep in stock in the shop. Okay. And I think as you all know we we have things that pop up from time to time but our our our workload stays pretty consistent.

Okay. I guess my just because council we are the power of the purse and these are not these are the largest contracts. Public works general transportation has large contracts and I would be more comfortable voting on things if I knew like what you know just even an estimate of what we're going to get out of these contracts. Thanks.

Okay. Any other questions? Let us hear from our speakers please.

Calling in the name of the public speaker that signed up for item number five, Ms. Sato Olabala.

So this is a part of Trump trying to stir the pot, but they're claiming that many of the commercial drivers or drivers, period, are non English speaking individuals and they can't read the English signs, English language signs. And, right here in California, 17,000 commercial language, commercial driver's license were revoked just recently, having to do with people not speaking English or being able to read the signs with some other circumstances involved. So, I did notice in Chinatown you do have signs that have the Mandarin or Chinese language as well as the English language. Are you facilitating, my bottom line question is, signs in other languages other than English? You have a 124 languages that are spoken in this city.

You claim your diversity is so important, but you don't accommodate that diversity a whole lot. I'm also concerned that I saw something happening where we were painting the street on Lakeshore, a rainbow color painting, and it was beautifully done, but they had eight people from public works doing the work and most of them just standing around. And, I'm saying, are we sufficiently staffing or are we over staffing? Because, I see this a lot. I see people involved in work and I see people in public works just standing around.

And, so, I'd ask somebody

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes all speakers on item five. And we do have a motion and a second. That was a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by chair Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent. On roll, council member Gayos? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong?

Aye.

And chair Unger? Aye. Thank you. Item number five passes with four ayes to board this item to the December 16 city council agenda. On consent now reading in item number six, Adopt a resolution amending resolution number nine zero eight one four CMS which waived local slash small local business enterprise program requirements for pedestrian right of way construction to to increase competition, lower prices, and in a enable rapid compliance in the event of parties of current versus the city of Oakland reach settlement to specify that the waiver includes local slash slash small local business participation, local employment, and apprenticeship requirements and there are four speakers that signed up.

Okay. Let's hear from our staff first please.

Yeah. Yes. Mister chair, Josh Faron, director of Oakland's Department of Transportation. This is a bit of a cleanup item. We've been before this body seeking an SLBE waiver for our consent decree work for ADA noncompliance.

The city team was in federal court last week. The terms of our our settlement have been accepted by the judge and we now have twenty five years to to bring the the city into compliance for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Presently, we we do not believe that we have the the capacity to to meet the the needs to comply with this twenty five year program. So we we sought this waiver to basically open up competition as best we can to get as as many contractors in here to to perform this work. If I may take a point of personal privilege, ultimately, I'd like to start shifting a good portion of this over time in house.

We we have amazing people both in DOT and public works. Today, the the city celebrated the sale of Measure U bonds. A story behind that was that the folks in DOT have kept paving throughout the past year, have done a fabulous work. We have amazing crews concrete. And I think one of the factors that we're also gonna have to look at is how much more we bring in house. But as we sit here today, we're not ready to meet the required outputs. We're going to get ready and this is an important part of that.

Questions from council? Council member Houston.

Yes, student chair. I like what Mr. Warren just said about, in house. I'd rather be in house than waving our SLBE, SLBE because we always waiving it. I'll say the same thing and I know we're under this decree and we have to get this work done. But we're behind the ball on both embracing our SLBE's and the work that can cost us lawsuits. So through the chair, can our in house handle it, mister Rowan?

Through the chair today, no. No. But but the the thing I think that changes our thinking on this is this isn't a singular project that may take a year. This is a twenty five year program that represents, depending on the type of work, anywhere from two to three times the amount of work we we presently do. I I I think an area that you and I share that we're both passionate about is jobs creation.

And and I I I think that my my my goal going forward is to use this type of program to expand our service offerings internally. I I think that's gonna challenge how we how we recruit, how we retain, how we train. But I look at the work that that's presently done in house, we're fully capable of it. We do an excellent job. We just need more internal resources.

And so that's something we're going to vet. And so, yeah, we do struggle to attract the contractors as we just talked previous item. I think there are other strategies that in play. If if I were had any inclination to pour concrete in Oakland, California, now's the time. And I think that's a separate conversation we need to have about how how we can break projects into smaller pieces.

I've I've been here before and have said asphalt paving is is a very difficult area to break into because the price of the mix is so expensive and and the the capital needed to build an asphalt plant, that's why you generally have a a few large paving firms. But concrete, that's where you get into the construction market. And so that's that's we need to tee that up as a future conversation that if there are local firms doing commercial work, doing residential work, there there's an opportunity for them too. So I I don't believe we're we're gonna be in a world it's either or. I think it's a both and.

One more through the chair. And this has nothing to do with mister Rowan because we created this SLBE in February ago. And mister Rowan just mentioned that this program may take twenty five years. Now if we would have been proactive, we would have had the skill sets and the people to actually do this work. And also this this concrete that we're doing on sidewalks and curb and gutter is non structural. Correct?

80% yes, 20% no. So we we the sidewalks is not structural. Most of the ramps are not structural. We actually had to create a category called engineered ramps because of the basements in the downtown area. Those are actually small structural engineering projects. So your your point is is mostly correct. We we do have some some items that will be quite complicated, but most of it is standard ADA ramp and standard sidewalk.

Last question through the chair. So the concrete mix designs, you know, are not that complicated when it comes to non structural. So it's like we can use recycled. We have a couple of companies in here in my district, Argent Materials, it has all this the the the recycle where they can create non structural concrete mix designs for this type of work. But my point I wanted to know and I want the public to recognize and understand that we are behind the curve and mister Rowan through the chair just said it would be twenty five years before this would actually happen.

And if we would have actually taken the SLBE small local business series twenty four years ago instead of at the same place that we were twenty four years ago, we wouldn't even be talking about this. So we don't want to wait another twenty four years to actually embrace because we can see what's happening to our community and our kids and our like Mr. Councilmember Gayle said we got a school we got kids we could be teaching them this skill set so when they get out of high school you know we can utilize these things. I just wanted to put that on the record and make that statement. Thank you.

Council member Wong.

Hi. Thanks. Through the chair. So this it it looks like just understand because we really need to get into compliance as quickly as possible that by waiving these arms it'll ensure that I mean this is a just a basic mobility justice issue for wheelchair users and this will enable to be more rapid and compliant complying with that.

Through the chair that that is correct. We're we're trying to move remove as many barriers as we can to be in compliance. I would at at a smaller scale, I would I would liken it to this is the the second holiday season in Oakland where I've I've waived the the holiday restriction and have allowed our contractors to work. We we really to to echo what council member Gallo said, we need to be focusing on on delivering and shortening the time that it takes us to deliver. But to what council member Houston said, I I think there's a there's a metric that that I used in a past life and it's a very simple one, which is how many new new businesses get into the game with us.

Again, this is a great opportunity. It's it's long it's only long term is going to be sustained. There's there is a lot of work to do.

Yeah. Absolutely. And is this the program where the property owners, the adjacent property owners need to absorb the price of the construction?

Yeah, through the chair yes that will be a key element of it as we will be more more strict in how we interpret the OMC regarding adjacent property owner responsibilities.

Well given that and your report did a nice job of laying out the price differential when we waive the those these requirements in terms of lowering those costs so I motion to approve staff's recommendation. Recommendation.

All right any other questions before we hear from our public? Alright let's go to public speakers please.

Calling in the names that signed up for item number six as standard practice we will take in person speakers first and then Zoom after. Kevin Dally, Asada Olubala, Blair Beakman, and George Spees.

Hi, Kevin Dally from Transport Oakland. I definitely encourage passing this. When I add twenty five years to my own age, realize that I may need the ramps, I know my mother-in-law sometimes does today. Good news, in my neighborhood, Rose's Brothers, Oakland's own company, has been replacing, putting in new ramps. So I know we will still be hiring Oakland businesses even while we look outside Oakland.

But as soon as possible, we need to get moving and not slow down just to make sure that Rose's brothers say gets all the contracts, but they still need to get as many contracts as they can handle. Thank you.

I don't think that it'll be 100% the case where the property owner will have to absorb the cost. Because, there are situations where the sidewalk deterioration or the issue with the sidewalk is because of the city. And, McClymonds is the best example. The city trees uprooted the sidewalk through the whole block. The other thing I'm concerned with is remediation of the problem at McClyman's was to take black asphalt and even out the uneven areas with black asphalt.

And, I'm told that in some cases you don't redo the work, you do this procedure because you don't have enough money to redo it the way it's supposed to be done. So, are we talking about the possibility of correcting the issues of sidewalk with this black asphalt being put on the surface? And, what are the situations as it relates to the lawsuit, is there a time specific mandate for completion of the work? Or, do we have the ability to go on forever to get it completed? Usually, within a court decision, they mandate a time for the work to be completed.

So has that been discussed as well? That's it.

Calling on our Zoom user, mister Beekman. You can unmute yourself and begin your two minutes.

Hi. Thank you. Blair Beekman. My question for this item that I don't necessarily see, but it should be an important part of this process is what is the technology involved in all of these upcoming procurements? I mean, it's a really good plan that you have here, and, working with mobility issues is really important.

I think there's a really important future in how mobility, construction, and technology, you know, to to make clear we have an open accountable process with technology. And and that within the procurement process is also, the technology, you know, best practices are are are asked for. That should be, I think, a part of this whole process you're talking about. We don't know how to do that well enough yet. You know, tech accountability is still fledgling as it were, and we're trying to understand it better.

I really hope that's the future we're headed towards, And Oakland really can be a leader in innovation, believe it or not, in those terms. What is good practices with tech in in construction of of these sort of pedestrian issues? So good luck how it can be included and that the procurement process with with this issue has really important, you know, good tech guidelines and and best practices. That's important stuff. If you're not working on it now, it's really, I just think, vital in how we develop our future. Thank you for your time and your efforts.

Thank you for your comments, mister Beekman. Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item, and we do have a motion on the floor. We have a motion made by council member Wong, seconded by council member Gayle to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent. On roll, council member Gayle? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Aye. Thank you. Item number six passes with four ayes to port to port this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent reading in item seven adopt a resolution one authorizing the city administrator to accept and appropriate a grant a grant from CalSTART in an amount up to 800,000 for the Oakland electric bike lending program. B amending the professional services agreement with bike hub to operate the electric bike lending program for an additional four year term in an amount not to exceed $66,203 per year for a total contract amount over four years of $264,812 two waiving advertising bidding and the request for proposalqualification competitive selection process and three adopting CEQA findings. And we do have four speakers that signed up for this item.

Alright, let's hear from our staff first please.

Good morning members of the council and the public. I do have a short presentation today on this item. So the item before you today is about the e bike lending program. Next slide please. Oh, sorry.

Great. So a little background on this program. The idea came out of the 2019 bike plan, also known as Let's Bike Oakland, where the community identified the desire for an e bike lending type program as an alternative to our bike sharing program in order to allow people to have bikes for the longer period of time. In 2021, the city turned that idea into a grant application. We applied for a $1,000,000 grant from CalSTART to implement the program and we were awarded that grant.

In 2023, the city issued a request for proposals to operate the program. There was one respondent, which is Bike Hub. And in January, we issued that contract to Bike Hub. And then in this September, a couple months ago, the program opened. So Bike Hub began operating the e bike lending program. So this is a photo from our launch event. Thank you to council member Gallo for joining. We also had the mayor and council member Brown in attendance. So some details of the program. It includes 50 e bikes.

The one shown here is the one we're using. It's called the Gazelle Modeo t nine. The rentals come with a lock and a helmet, basically everything that you need. The rentals are for four weeks. The cost is a $120 or only $20 if you're low income and this represents a discount of anywhere from 95% to maybe 60% over the market rate.

The program's only available to Oakland residents aged 18 and over and it is operated out of the Fruitvale BART bike station which is adjacent to the Fruitvale BART Station. So it's only been in operation about two months and as of the twenty fifth there had been about 30 rentals. So we still have capacity in the program and we're trying to get the word out. The resolution before you today would accept and appropriate an additional $800,000 from the grantor CalSTART for the program. The grantor has offered this additional funding in order to offset the rising costs of insurance, tariffs, and other costs.

The resolution would also amend professional services agreement with Bikehub for an additional four years to coincide with the grant term and add $264,000 to their contract to continue operating for the additional four years. It would also waive the competitive bidding and RFP process and make appropriate CEQA findings. We believe it is appropriate to waive the competitive bidding for this contract for a number of reasons. One being the unique service that BICUB provides. So they are located in a SB 35 disadvantaged community of Fruitvale.

They're located right next to the BART station. They have the capacity to store the entire 50 BART bike fleet. There's also some efficiencies here. They are currently operating the program. They have relationships with the customers, with the community of Fruitvale and of course experience working with the city. And they have proven performance. So the contract only started January 20. They had to procure all of the vehicles. They had to build out the electric charging infrastructure in their space, create an online reservation system, and launch the program. And they did so diligently and staff have been very satisfied with their performance.

The fiscal impact, there would be an additional $800,000 in grant funds for the city to use and there is no matching requirement for this grant. Here is the original $1,000,000 budget for the project as well as the proposed budget appropriating the additional $800,000 Some highlights here, we would be accepting additional funding for staff. There are a lot of reporting requirements for this program. So over the course of the next four years, we just want to make sure that we have capacity to comply and also to advertise the program to the community. We also are reserving some funding for an additional partner to operate an adaptive vehicle version of this program with four people with disabilities.

We do have a contractor identified and we're in discussions with them and we hope to bring a contract to the council next year for that aspect of the service. And so to sign up, you can go to our website. The URL is listed here. And if you're an Oakland resident over 18, you can sign up for the program. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Council. Council member Gallo.

Yeah. Thank you for your work. Certainly, participation from the neighborhood and we'll in the future, I'm sure this activity is gonna grow, considering with our younger generations. So with that, I'll make a motion to approve the item. Thank you for your work.

I'll second that. Any other council members? Alright. Let's hear from our public speakers please.

Calling in the names that signed up for item number seven. Sam Wilson, Kevin Dally, Asada Olubala, and Blair Beakman.

Transport Oakland, this is an exciting program. I need to pick mine up soon because I rode an old school bike, and I appreciate Councilmember Gayo calling me part of the younger generation that'll be picking up one of the e bikes, and I'm hoping all the council members that haven't tried it yet, go ahead and try it for a month. You'll get a few people reducing car traffic a little bit, and we only need a little bit of reduction to reduce the risks of injuries and deaths and global warming. Anyway, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

There are some places in this city where bikes should not be, and Fruitvale is one of them. There's no way you can ride a bike on international. There's no bike lanes and we still haven't successfully been able to deal with the speeding component or lack of people riding safely on international. Another place where you can't have bikes is Chinatown. There's so much double parking in Chinatown, it is not safe to have bikes riding because you have to go around the cars, I mean, throughout Chinatown, double parking, and there's been no effort to hold people accountable for that.

There should be no bikes on my street that I use frequently, that's Keller. The incline of, and decline of, Keller, it is just it creates a fast move that you can't control a bike. So, you have to start off by saying in this city, you just assume everywhere you can ride bikes. No, you can't ride bikes safely everywhere. There are some places where bikes should not be allowed.

The other thing I'm concerned about is when I was protesting at the Lake Merritt tiny homes, I noticed something that was going on. Our homeless community was stealing a lot of bikes and they fixed these bikes up and sell parts and a lot of the city bikes were being stolen. So, do we have an issue with theft of these bikes to the point that we are looking at a cost? And I did see something about State law with electric bikes. I think young people 17 and under are mandated to have a helmet when you're on an electric bike.

So, any enforcement of the proper use of bikes on the streets, who does that? Who regulates any components related to violations that

Thank you. Switching to Zoom user Blair Beakman. You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.

One more.

Oh, sorry.

Blair Beak. Yeah. Hi. Ready?

Yeah. Go ahead.

Thank you. Hi. Blair Beakman. I was just gonna quickly comment, just very much of a thank you that you're offering to have the ebike program start at the Fruitvale BART Station, if I think I heard that correctly. I think that's a very nice idea and very, very cool of you guys.

Thank you. From the previous public comment that did offer a long list of worries that's important, I've been trying to learn, you know, the concepts that we are trying to bring in, you know, bicycles and and pedestrian use to areas that were once traffic dominated, and it takes a lot of community effort from everyone to do that. Good luck in the efforts that it can be made clear, you know, that that bicycles can be on the road and how to do that. And I think that's the sort of future that I think is important to work towards and how to develop and to do that as a shared community process. Good luck on those efforts.

So thanks a lot for this item, and and it seems like really good intentions. Thank you.

I'm Sam Wilson. I'm from Bike Hub. Just wanted to come out today, you know, to kind of put a face to the to the name. If you know us at all outside of this program, it's probably from our capacity operating the free valet bicycle parking programs at the BART stations. So, yeah, we're all about any programs that make micro mobility easier, more accessible, more practical, and this lending program has been a really exciting program that's very much aligned with what we do.

It's been up and running for a couple months now. As Kirby said, there's been good participation. About 50% of the rentals that we have seen have been from low income qualified residents. So, yeah, we're excited to it's it's still early days to keep it growing in Fruitvale and thank you all for considering.

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes all speakers on this item and we do have a motion. That was a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by chair Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and to board this item to the December 12 sorry December 16 city council agenda on consent on roll. Council members Gayos? Aye. Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Yep. Aye.

Alright. Thank you. Item number seven passes with four ayes to be forwarded to the December 16 city council agenda on consent.

Bicycles that I don't know if all of you read that some of our refineries here in Oakland I mean, in California are moving out of the state, going to Texas for gasoline and oil and so forth. And they're predicting the next year's price per gallon of gas is gonna be $6 in California due to the refineries leaving town where in other states it's $2.30. But in California, the price per gallon of gas here is gonna go up to $6 per gallon. So, you know, we might wanna get an electric vehicle or find a different way to commute. Thank you.

Okay. Reading in item number eight, adopt a resolution accepting and appropriating technical assistance and gap funding in the amount or in the amount of $100,000 and additional funding as available for fiscal year 2027 to 2028 from the Bay Area Regional Energy Network, Bay Run, for energy audits, equipment replacement, and building electrification improvements at municipal facilities to further the city's climate action, electrification, and equipment modern modernization goals. Two, adopting appropriate California environmental quality act findings, and three, authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and enter into professional services agreements with sorry. To participate in the building decarbonization showcase program, and we do have three speakers that signed up for this item.

Alright. Let's hear from our staff.

Nick Cordesch from the sustainability and resilience division of the city administrator's office. Here to present an item authorizing the city to accept funding and technical assistance from BayREN. That's the Bay Area Regional Energy Network. It's a coalition of the nine Bay Area counties that administers rate payer funded programs focused on energy efficiency and building decarbonization. Their new decarbonization showcase program provides technical assistance and gap funding to help public agencies, transition to all electric buildings.

We applied for the program using the Temescal library and we were selected for participation. Program would include $100,000 for the Temescal branch plus free engineering consulting. The reason we chose the Temescal branch is that it has an active CIP project. The gas furnace there is really at the end of its life. Public Works spends a lot of money and time repairing that.

They don't even manufacture the parts anymore, so credit to Public Works for keeping it going. It also doesn't provide air conditioning, so the library has to shut down if the temperature reaches 86 degrees and has no air filtration. This funding will allow the city to install a modern electric heat pump system that adds efficient heating, air conditioning, and enhanced air filtration, and this aligns with the city's Equitable Climate Action Plan requirement that major retrofits of the city buildings are all electric. It'll also allow the library to provide heat, respite from heat and smoke days. And I'll open it up to questions. Thanks.

Questions? Council members, questions? We have a motion and a second. Let's hear from speakers.

Thank you. Calling in the names that signed up for item number eight. In no particular order, you can come up to the podium or raise your hand. On Zoom, Kevin Dally, Asada Olavala, and Blair Beekman.

I'm gonna be real quick. I want to respond to your comment about these use of these electric vehicles. For me, I'm not gonna get an electric car. I'm in the process of looking at cars right now. And, the reason is because the charging stations, living in Oakland, it's not safe.

You don't have a safe space for me to go to charge. I would have to go outside of Oakland to one of the shopping centers like San Leandro because charging, it takes some time to charge. I forget this time span, but it doesn't happen right away. So, half an hour to an hour, even more than an hour, you have to be prepared for your car to be in that spot. And, you do not have in the city of Oakland a space that's safe for charging.

And, if you do, tell me where. You can go into your parking garages, which you have to pay to go into the parking garages and sit in a garage. Most cities allow these parking charging stations and shopping areas. So, you have the option of leaving your car and coming back after the car has been charged. So, you can't sell me on the use of an electric vehicle for that reason. I respect that you're trying to go in that direction, but just name some place safe we can go to charge our cars in this city.

Switching to Zoom user, mister Blair Beekman. You can unmute yourself and begin your two minutes.

Hi. Thank you, Blair Beakman. I'm interested in overall ideas of of bringing in, community energy and local energy to our local daily life. I guess this is an item that helps with ideas of infrastructure building that's really important for the future of community energy. I'm I'm trying to better understand what that exactly means, infrastructure building, for the future of community energy.

And I but I think this is one of the ways to do it with this item and all the, equipment and necessary, goings on, and how to, you know, build a more efficient, you know, energy community system. Good luck how we can be doing that and thinking about it, and I hope this is one of the ways to build that good infrastructure. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes all speakers on this item, and we do have a motion. That was a motion made by council member Houston seconded by council member Gaillard to approve the recommendations of staff and to

Do we have another comment?

A quick response to our speaker. There is a station that opened up on 23rd Avenue in International and they're able to charge 19 vehicles. And it takes for you can go there, sit there for ten, fifteen minutes, charge your battery, and it's you know, you can have coffee while you're waiting for the battery charge, but they do they now provide statewide different stations throughout the state. If I wanted to go to LA, then, you know, clearly on the highway, they tell you where I can stop and charge my vehicle. And the charge of of your battery, the new technology, you're able to drive 200 at 250 miles with that one charge and recharge it at the next station.

But anyways, that's part of the future and a station opened up a month ago here on 23rd Avenue in International. If you have a an electric vehicle, you go there and charge it. Thank you. Thank you. Alright.

Let's k. Let's keep moving.

Okay. That was a motion made by council member Houston seconded by council member Gaillard to approve the recommendations of staff and support this item to the December 16 city council agenda on consent on roll. Council member Gaillard? Aye. Council member Houston? Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger? Aye. Thank you. Item number eight passes with four ayes to be forwarded to the December 16 city council agenda on consent. Moving on to open forum and we do have three members that signed up to speak. Missus Sato Olubala, Kevin Dally, and Blair Beakman.

Hi. Kevin Galley from Transport Oakland and want to talk about parking policy. I have a lot of respect for our new finance director Bradley Johnson, but I don't want him to be controlling parking policy. I don't think he has the expertise. The city administrators currently planning to move the parking policy and other parts of parking from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Finance, dismantling parts of DOT.

Twenty years ago, parking policy was part of finance, that was when Deborah Edgeley was the city administrator. And twenty years ago, Donald Schoop published this book, The High Cost of Free Parking, which changed the way cities think about parking policy. Ten years ago, Oakland established its own Department of Transportation, it went through city council, it went through committee, it had public comments. If we're moving parking policy out of transportation and into finance, it needs to come back to counsel and be discussed. I think it's a bad idea anyway, but at least if it comes to the public comment, I would have a chance to comment on it.

The way it's happening now, city administrator is sending messages, sending email to the unions to tell them what the plan is, but they have not come to counsel for doing this. We need to be able to maximize parking occupancy, maximize turnover, and maximize visits to merchants. DOT knows how to handle that. I don't think that is in the finance department's area of expertise. Thank you.

Switching to Zoom user, mister Beekman. You can unmute yourself and begin your time.

Hi. Blair Beakman. Thanks for the meeting, this morning. I wanted to comment. I'm still thinking about block issues, ALPR issues for Oakland. And being from San Diego, we are working, like, on the exact same items about the future of a flock contract in San Diego. And in fact, it'll be we're in the beginning stages. It'll be working on it'll come back probably around February or so for a more full discussion, I'm guessing. It's we're kind of in the same place, believe it or not. And I think that can be a good thing.

And I think I'm hoping that yeah. I from my words, from last week, I think it was, I I spoke I didn't quite speak fully clearly. I if it ever the flock item does come back to council in January or February, I think it's to return as an information item and and not as an action item. And, to make that clear, I think, we need a lot more community dialogue with the subject. And, if it returns to committee, that can be a good place to have upcoming city staff create any sort of agenda item that discusses the future of life without a clock contract, that I think is important.

That also can be an information item. Yeah. I I'll continue working on this item. There just has to be there there's strong community support that we can have other choices besides the flock contract and how to do this. And I've offered my own little time scales of how we can parse out a contract, a short contract with Flock to eventually work towards a new contract with a different, group. And I think, you know, creative ideas are possible. Good luck on ourselves working on these important goals and and creating a really good community process for all of us. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. The

document that says it's estimated the city of Oakland paid over $35,000,000 in legal settlements for its dangerous roads conditions between 2013 and 2023, the most of any Bay Area city. We need to look at lawsuits related to the Department of Transportation. It's overtaken the supposedly big lawsuits we had with the police department. $35,000,000 that could have been used for other projects like our homeless community.

Thank you for your comments. Chair, that concludes all speakers on open forum.

All right let's call it a day until the next one. Meeting's adjourned.