WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.111 --> 00:00:11.031 This is CivicFM, with the week at Oakland City Hall. 2 00:00:11.871 --> 00:00:28.736 A City Council committee backed seventy-five thousand dollars more for executive searches, after staff cut their three hundred thousand dollar request. A hillside subdivision moves ahead over its neighbors' complaints, and another committee backed selling part of Garfield Park to Oakland Unified. 3 00:00:28.736 --> 00:00:35.071 This episode was produced with AI from the public recordings of the week's meetings. Links to the sources are in the show notes. 4 00:00:38.389 --> 00:01:00.174 Our top story this week is the firms that find the city's top executives. On Tuesday the Finance and Management Committee took up a request to extend three contracts with executive search firms. One of them is standing by to run the search for a new City Administrator. As posted, the request would have added three hundred thousand dollars across the contracts. 5 00:01:00.174 --> 00:01:08.409 City staff said only about fourteen thousand dollars was left, which isn't enough for the City Administrator search and the ones already in progress. 6 00:01:08.409 --> 00:01:36.159 Members pushed back. The committee's chair opposed adding money, citing what executive searches cost and the city's budget uncertainty. Another councilmember called the increase too large. He said a recent hire in his own office drew about two hundred twenty applicants without a search firm. He also pointed to uncertainty over Measure EE, the proposed charter change on the November third ballot, and over a possible restructuring of the mayor's office. 7 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:52.134 Staff said they believed the mayor's office had chosen Ralph Andersen and Associates for the City Administrator search. Then staff cut the request to seventy-five thousand dollars, all of it for that firm. The money would cover the City Administrator search and the rest of a search for a constitutional policing administrator. 8 00:01:52.134 --> 00:02:18.709 The committee voted to recommend extending all three contracts through August thirty-first, twenty twenty-seven, with that seventy-five thousand as the only new money. It passed three to one. Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, who chairs the committee, voted no. The full council takes it up November tenth, off the consent calendar. Human Resources said it will put out a new request for proposals for search firms by the end of the year. 9 00:02:22.346 --> 00:02:49.186 Next, a long-delayed housing project in the hills. On Tuesday the Public Works and Transportation Committee took up three resolutions for a hillside subdivision on Kenilworth Road, which staff placed in District 4. The main one is an agreement that lets the owner record its parcel map before finishing the public improvements the city requires. Bonds back it, and the city can call them in if the work isn't done. 10 00:02:49.186 --> 00:02:59.266 City staff said the agreement does give the owner more time to finish that work, and that without it, the map would expire and the owner would have to start the approval process over. 11 00:02:59.266 --> 00:03:25.216 Two neighbors who live just above the site complained about the project, and one of them objected to giving the owner more time. They described years of dust, diesel fumes and noise, with little progress. Two representatives of the applicant spoke for it. One blamed the delays on an ancient landslide more than forty feet deep, which forced a redesign, and on pandemic-era inspection delays that let the permits expire. 12 00:03:25.216 --> 00:03:45.716 Councilmember Charlene Wang said she had seconded the motion before hearing public comment and realizing the item was controversial. Councilmember Ken Houston, who represents District 7, said the project wasn't in his district and abstained until he could talk with the District 4 councilmember. He asked to see the contractor's dust control plan and urged the two sides to meet. 13 00:03:45.716 --> 00:03:58.786 The committee voted three to zero, with Houston abstaining, to send the resolutions to the council's special meeting on November tenth, off the consent calendar, so the District 4 councilmember can weigh in. 14 00:04:02.264 --> 00:04:36.124 Our third story is a piece of Garfield Park. On Tuesday the Life Enrichment Committee backed an ordinance selling a city-owned slice of the park on East Seventeenth Street to Oakland Unified. The slice is about six tenths of an acre, and the price is five hundred ninety-seven thousand five hundred dollars, less closing costs. The district wants it to rebuild Garfield Elementary. City staff said the community could use a new turf field on the rebuilt campus. Without a sale, they said, the district would build up to its current property line and cut the park in half. 15 00:04:36.124 --> 00:04:55.194 Councilmember Ken Houston asked why the city wouldn't lease the land instead, say for a hundred years, or trade it. Staff said the city's preference for leasing applies to sites going to permanent development, and here another public agency had asked to buy. They added that the park's open space zoning greatly lowers its value, so a trade would get the city little. 16 00:04:55.194 --> 00:05:12.689 Staff said the money goes to the general fund. They had tried to steer it to Parks and Rec but were told the city's fiscal policy requires the general fund. One public speaker opposed the sale. She said she believed state law requires money from selling park land to go back to parks, though she allowed she could be wrong. 17 00:05:12.689 --> 00:05:22.984 The committee voted four to zero to send it to the council's special meeting on November tenth. Staff said Oakland Unified's board has already approved the deal, so the council's approval is all that remains. 18 00:05:26.301 --> 00:05:53.731 Now some shorter items from around City Hall. Also at Finance on Tuesday was a report on contracts the City Administrator signed without a council vote, under authority that goes up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Staff said earlier years' reports came late and promised to bring one every fall. One councilmember called it a red flag that a single vendor can get more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars in a year without council review. The report goes to the council. 19 00:05:53.731 --> 00:06:12.006 Human Resources told the same committee the citywide vacancy rate was just under eighteen percent in mid-September. That's down from nearly twenty percent in February, and the lowest of the periods staff showed. Staff named departments' own hiring processes as the biggest obstacle to hiring faster. 20 00:06:12.006 --> 00:06:34.786 The committee also took up an ordinance authorizing the rest of the city's voter-approved bonds under Measures DD, KK and U. Staff put the total at about five hundred thirty-two million dollars, for parks, transportation, housing and other projects. Each sale still comes back to the council, and the next is planned for March. The committee voted four to zero to send it to the council's December first meeting. 21 00:06:34.786 --> 00:06:57.501 Public Works backed a five million dollar contract with VSCE to manage construction of the Broadway streetscape project. Staff said the contract is fully grant-funded and VSCE is a certified Oakland local business. Councilmember Charlene Wang voted yes but called the paperwork too thin for a contract that size, and asked for more before the council votes. 22 00:06:57.501 --> 00:07:20.981 The Community and Economic Development Committee took up applying for a state grant of up to four and a half million dollars over five years to fight illegal cannabis businesses. Staff said most of it would pay for staff, including police overtime. The committee's chair questioned spending it on police overtime rather than youth prevention, as other cities have. The committee voted four to zero to recommend it. 23 00:07:20.981 --> 00:07:45.841 At Life Enrichment, staff gave a spoken update on carrying out the city's twenty twenty-four disparity study, which found disparities in how the city uses prime contractors and subcontractors. About eight speakers, most from business and contractor groups, credited recent progress but called for results. The committee voted four to zero to continue the item to January, when staff are to bring a written report. 24 00:07:45.841 --> 00:08:05.506 The Public Safety Committee heard a police report on lesser crimes, known as Part Two crimes. Officials said police had rarely, if ever, reported these publicly before. Staff called the figures preliminary. They said human trafficking cases rose from forty-five to one hundred two, which they tied to a new focus on pimps and buyers. 25 00:08:05.506 --> 00:08:26.736 Two weeks ago we told you the committee had put off the twice-yearly report from the Community Police Review Agency, which investigates complaints about officers. On Tuesday the agency's director said it has three investigators where the charter calls for about six. He said an expanded agency would need twenty-one positions, and he promised a budget comparison next week. 26 00:08:26.736 --> 00:08:51.381 And Oakland Unified students may spend summers working at the city. Life Enrichment voted four to zero to recommend an agreement letting students intern at city worksites, starting with the fire department. Staff said taking part costs the city nothing. The district's program pays the students stipends from Oakland Fund for Children and Youth grants, and they have run about a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars for five weeks. 27 00:08:54.859 --> 00:09:10.579 Before we go, a look ahead. The Rules and Legislation Committee meets next Thursday, November fifth. Members are set to review the committee's pending list, take up new scheduling requests and look over draft agendas for upcoming council and committee meetings. 28 00:09:14.056 --> 00:09:20.776 If you hear something we got wrong, there's a link on the episode's page to report it, and we read corrections on air. 29 00:09:20.936 --> 00:09:24.456 That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.