WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:21.070 On this week's episode: the council sends a Police Commission slate back to its selection panel, gives a first yes to much higher maximum fines for nuisance properties, and hears an audit of how the city manages capital project money. 2 00:00:24.414 --> 00:00:29.374 From Frank Ogawa Plaza, here's your weekly debrief from Oakland City Hall. 3 00:00:30.294 --> 00:00:41.334 Tuesday's council meeting opened with the city's motto, Love Life. It was adopted in 2016 in memory of a sixteen-year-old girl killed by gunfire in 1997. 4 00:00:41.334 --> 00:00:55.039 And Tuesday was the anniversary of her death. Her father spoke about the foundation he started in her memory. He said it's mostly volunteer-run, and its report counts thirty thousand young people reached in twenty-nine years. 5 00:00:55.039 --> 00:01:01.859 Later, on consent, the council recognized this week, October nineteenth through twenty-fifth, as Love Life Week. 6 00:01:01.859 --> 00:01:07.654 This episode was produced with AI from the public recording of the meeting. Links to the source are in the show notes. 7 00:01:11.077 --> 00:01:26.582 Our top story: the Police Commission, the civilian body that oversees police department policy, will wait a little longer for two new members. On Tuesday the council rejected the slate its selection panel sent, eight to nothing. 8 00:01:26.582 --> 00:01:28.662 Was something wrong with the nominees? 9 00:01:28.662 --> 00:01:50.307 The city attorney's office said rejecting it wasn't a judgment on either nominee's qualifications. Staff reported that the day before, one nominee withdrew, because his law firm represents parties suing the city. Then he asked to take the withdrawal back. City code bars attorneys who represent anyone with a pending claim against the police department from serving. 10 00:01:50.307 --> 00:01:54.067 So why not just vote on the other nominee, a former mayor of Oakland? 11 00:01:54.067 --> 00:02:13.077 A member asked just that. Under the city charter, the council can only accept or reject a slate as a whole, and one it doesn't act on within sixty days counts as accepted. Changing that would take a charter amendment. So the council took the city attorney's advice and rejected the slate, which resets the process. 12 00:02:13.077 --> 00:02:15.077 Did the former mayor get to speak? 13 00:02:15.077 --> 00:02:36.477 She did. She said that since she'll never run for office again, the police officers union can't pressure her. Councilmember Ken Houston, of District Seven, pressed her on the commission's revised vehicle pursuit policy, and she said she'd want to see data first. Councilmember Charlene Wang, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said she'll support her appointment. 14 00:02:36.477 --> 00:02:54.732 About eight members of the public spoke. Four backed the former mayor, among them Chinatown community leaders, and two were critical of her. One more argued the panel had actually sent two separate slates. Earlier, the city attorney had said the charter requires a single slate, and no one took up her point. 15 00:02:54.732 --> 00:03:07.717 Next, the panel, which says it has a reserve pool, sends a new slate. And two questions the city attorney's office raised were left open: whether the withdrawn nominee can take back his withdrawal, and whether he's eligible. 16 00:03:11.061 --> 00:03:20.181 Next: fines for nuisance properties. Last week we told you a committee sent this one to the council. On Tuesday it passed on first reading, eight to nothing. 17 00:03:20.181 --> 00:03:21.301 What does it do? 18 00:03:21.301 --> 00:03:37.756 It's from Councilmember Zac Unger, of District One. Per the agenda, the maximum penalty would be up to twenty-five hundred dollars a day for repeated or continuing violations, and up to ten thousand dollars a day for nuisances on property left unabated after notice and a chance to fix them. 19 00:03:37.756 --> 00:03:39.141 Up from what? 20 00:03:39.141 --> 00:03:53.326 That wasn't settled. Unger said the cap is a thousand dollars a day, set in 1968, and that some repeat offenders treat it as a cost of doing business. A colleague said it had been raised to five thousand dollars in 2020, and that didn't stop dumping. 21 00:03:53.326 --> 00:04:03.461 The pushback was about enforcement: a councilmember said the city doesn't collect the fines it has now, and asked who will collect higher ones. Here's how another councilmember answered. 22 00:04:04.021 --> 00:04:21.601 But the fact is we are collecting fees, not as much as I'd like to, but this sort of enforcement is what deters bad behavior. So I don't think that the argument that we don't have enough people to collect fees suggests that we should keep our fees at a level that is fifty years out of date. 23 00:04:22.326 --> 00:04:44.411 The city attorney's office added that the figure is a ceiling: the city administrator can set a schedule of fines beneath it, and it covers every department that enforces nuisance rules. Councilmember Houston said illegal dumpers should face jail, not just fines, and asked to work with Unger on a separate item to train enforcement officers to gather evidence for the district attorney. 24 00:04:44.411 --> 00:05:01.006 Five members of the public spoke. Three supported it, describing years of noise, truck traffic and unpermitted construction by a meat distribution business in the Golden Gate area. Two doubted it would work. Final passage is set for November tenth. 25 00:05:04.510 --> 00:05:17.470 Our third story: the city auditor's audit of how Public Works and the Department of Transportation manage money for capital projects, like roads, parks and buildings. It's another one a committee sent up last week. 26 00:05:17.470 --> 00:05:18.665 What's the scale? 27 00:05:18.665 --> 00:05:29.305 It covers fiscal years 2023 through 2025. At the meeting the auditor put spending at about three hundred million dollars; the written audit says about three hundred thirty million. 28 00:05:29.305 --> 00:05:30.680 And the findings? 29 00:05:30.680 --> 00:06:04.870 The construction management manual was never formally adopted, and doesn't match practice. Orders to proceed and task orders often lacked required approvals, and some cost increases went ahead without council approval. About half the construction management engineer positions sat vacant, and the auditor said high vacancies at Transportation slowed paving and street repair. Required annual audits of Measure KK and Measure U bond spending haven't been done. And the city hasn't developed a multiyear capital plan since fiscal 2023, only pieces, like a five-year paving plan. 30 00:06:04.870 --> 00:06:07.430 How did the council react? 31 00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:28.850 Councilmember Wang called it alarming that one on-call task order reached eight point four million dollars, against a seven hundred thirty thousand dollar limit in San Jose. Another member asked what happened when projects went over without coming back to council. The auditor said there generally weren't consequences, but they could be built into policy or legislation. 32 00:06:28.850 --> 00:06:30.290 What's next? 33 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:47.830 Staff said their November 2026 target for the on-call contract fixes was overly ambitious, and January 2027 is the real one. The auditor's office tracks recommendations twice a year, and said more than three hundred remain outstanding. The council received the report, eight to nothing. 34 00:06:51.253 --> 00:06:54.533 Now a few quicker items from around City Hall. 35 00:06:54.533 --> 00:07:07.998 The council confirmed Mayor Barbara Lee's appointee to the Planning Commission, a land-use attorney and former chair of the commission, seven to nothing, with Councilmember Carroll Fife excused. A second appointee was confirmed on consent. 36 00:07:07.998 --> 00:07:24.373 Staff reported that Oakland Roots and Soul met every target in its World Cup hotel tax deal, bringing Australia's national team to its facility. June hotel tax came to about one point seven million dollars, and the club got the full three hundred thousand. 37 00:07:24.373 --> 00:07:53.563 On consent, the council backed Proposition 1, a state housing bond, opposed Proposition 43, which would raise the vote needed for local special taxes to two-thirds, and allocated up to fifty million dollars from Measure U and other funds for affordable housing. It passed with six votes, with Council President Kevin Jenkins and Councilmember Noel Gallo excused, and Councilmember Fife voted no on one item, a concrete purchase that waives the city's border-wall and sanctuary-city contracting bans. 38 00:07:53.563 --> 00:08:04.028 Three ordinances, including the S-8 zoning changes for housing near transit, missed final passage because the newspaper didn't publish required notices. They're back November tenth. 39 00:08:04.028 --> 00:08:30.358 And Thursday, the Rules Committee sent a citizen initiative, the Oakland Living Wage for All Act, to the council's December first meeting. Per the agenda, it would raise the minimum wage to thirty dollars by July 2037. The council must adopt it as is, send it to voters, or order a report on its effects. Two speakers with One Fair Wage backed it, and one said the coalition will ask the council to adopt it and avoid the ballot. 40 00:08:30.358 --> 00:08:37.413 Rules also set a November tenth public hearing on extending the data center moratorium by ten months and fifteen days. 41 00:08:40.917 --> 00:08:55.442 Before we go, a look at what's ahead. Committees meet next Tuesday, October twenty-seventh. Finance starts at nine with an ordinance to issue the remaining Measure DD, KK and U bonds, and a citywide staffing report. 42 00:08:55.442 --> 00:09:13.727 Public Works has a five million dollar construction management contract for the Broadway streetscape. Community and Economic Development takes up proposed assessment increases for the Montclair and Rockridge business improvement districts, and a state grant of up to four and a half million dollars for enforcement against illegal cannabis businesses. 43 00:09:13.727 --> 00:09:34.517 Life Enrichment considers selling about six tenths of an acre of Garfield Park to Oakland Unified, for a school renovation. Public Safety, at six, hears police crime data and the Community Police Review Agency's report. And Thursday, October twenty-ninth, the Rules Committee takes up next year's meeting calendar and a Rent Board appointment. 44 00:09:38.261 --> 00:09:43.981 Spot something we got wrong? There's a link on this episode's page, and corrections are read on air. 45 00:09:44.141 --> 00:09:47.661 That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.