Welcome to the life enrichment committee meeting of Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025.

The time is now 9.42 a.m., and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking role, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards and how uh 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 myself or a clerk representative, no later than 10 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.

This meeting came to order at 9 42 a.m.

and speaker cards will no longer be accepted 10 minutes after this meeting has begun, making that time 9 52 a.m.

We'll now proceed with taking roll.

Councilmember Guiles absent.

Councilmember Houston.

Councilmember Wong present and Chair Fife.

Present.

Thank you.

We have three members present, one absent, Councilmember Guyo.

Before we begin, Chair, do you have any announcements at this time?

I do have uh one announcement to make, and I see very familiar faces in the chamber.

Many of you who we've shut down this chamber on the issues of arts funding, and over the years we've seen a consistent decrease in those dollars, and it was particularly devastating when we saw the removal of the cultural arts manager from uh the budget this year.

So my announcement is that we have talked to the city administrator, worked with our budget administration, and we're bringing that uh that position back full time.

So I wanted to, I wanted to state that this item um this particular position does bring in revenue to the city.

It also is the foundation for building relationships and fostering uh these artist relationships that are so critical to the city of Oakland.

Oakland is arts and culture, and I I think it's important to state that this is not this will not be funded by one-time revenue, it would be funded by ongoing um funds in the city of Oakland.

So we don't have to worry about that being cut any time in in the future.

So I just wanted to make that announcement, Madam Clerk.

We can move on with the agenda.

Thank you all for your pressure.

Thank you.

Noting that item number one, approval of the draft minutes, since this is a special meeting, there are no minutes to be approved.

Item two, determination of scheduled outstanding committee items, also known as the pending list, and we do have two speakers that signed up for this item.

Okay, calling in the names that signed up for item number two, Vanessa Wong and Asada Olabala.

Good morning.

My name is Vanessa Wong.

I'm the chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission, and I just wanted to thank everyone, both in the chamber and on the dais and on the council who have worked to uh bring this position back in your infinite wisdom.

Uh, I think it is a really important move.

And I hope, in addition with that, that you will remove any strictures on the meager amount of funding that is available to the staff to allocate to the field.

And I just want to remind folks, of course, anything that gets allocated does go before this committee, and it does get approved by the full city council.

And I would just urge you to let the staff do their job in allocating the funds in the most effective way for what the field needs since they are the closest to the ground.

So thank you very much for your efforts.

What's devastating is that we have no one who is a director of homelessness.

We don't have a director of human services, but you up here talking about how we've been accomplishing something by having somebody over a culture manager.

You need somebody in place to deal, particularly when you got people like Wong denying the homeless community in Chinatown.

That's what we need to pay attention to these over 5,000 people who've been on the street with the numbers never decreasing.

But we're gonna talk about how devastating it is not to have a culture manager.

It's too insulting that you pay and how we don't have anybody paying attention to the devastation of African Americans having 8.9% unemployment in this city.

Because you have a dysfunctional workforce and economic department who pays no attention to the African Americans in this city.

That's devastating.

What's devastating is we don't have the ability to concentrate on the racism that's going on in this city.

We have a department, a race and equity office that's underfunded.

We need to support that department eliminating the racism and the lack of equity in the city.

The devastation is too insulting to me to be having you applauding a cultural being here to manage culture.

And we got people dying in this city from Fentanole, and nothing's being done.

We don't have a health department in this city.

We need a health director to deal with the health devastation going on.

So all these people applauding.

It's for them.

But when you look at the total city, what's the higher priority?

It's not culture.

Thank you for your comment, Chair.

That concludes our speakers on this item.

Thank you.

I will I I will take the uh prerogative of the chair.

And all of you all in the audience know that arts creates jobs in our community.

Arts is a big part of several organizations that I work with in District Three, several nonprofits that use arts as therapy, that use arts as healing.

I've been involved in many prison programs where we work with incarcerated folks, and arts is one of the ways that they get through every single day.

So just because some people don't know doesn't mean it's not true, and I appreciate every single one of you all for being here today.

Madam City Clerk, we can call the roll the vote, the motion.

I'll move the item.

I'll make a motion.

Seconded.

Thank you.

That was a motion made by Councilmember Five, seconded by Councilmember Wong to approve the determination of schedule about standing committee items as is.

On roll, Councilmember Guy's absent.

Council Member Houston.

Yes.

Councilmember Wong.

Uh yes.

Aye.

And Chair Five.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number two passes with three eyes, one absent guy.

Reading in item number three.

Adopt a resolution honor honoring the creators of co-founders, the musical, for their contributions to Oakland's cultural and educational landscape and for advancing the city's value of innovation, racial justice, and community empowerment through the performing arts.

And we have one public speaker that signed up for this item.

And I would like to welcome after we hear from our public speaker, I believe we have the mayor in chamber.

Oh, there she is.

Well, Councilmember Wong, do you want to um give some introductory remarks before we hear from our speaker?

Absolutely.

So uh Mayor Lee actually had encouraged all of us at City Council to uh check out this musical uh co-founders, and I have to be honest, I'm not even a musical person.

I don't generally like them, but this one was uh truly um it was astonishing.

Um I was amazed it was it could not be more the definition of musicality innovation, and just um, you know, the the theater, uh, the stage, the the storyline was also so authentically about Oakland.

Um, and also many of the actors that I got to meet are actually living in from Oakland, and it really spoke about um you know the challenges of equity in our digital economy, um, about gentrification happening uh in West Oakland, and um we uh wanted to uh uh put forward a resolution.

Thank you, Councilmember Fife for co-sponsoring this.

That way uh we have an opportunity to really feature and hopefully bring this musical to Oakland because it was out in SF, uh the ACT Theater, but we want to see this uh musical come to Oakland, and I also understand that ACT is a, yes, we do.

Um, and it should really I think it it is the definition of Oakland pride of black ingenuity and um it was amazing and I also understand that ACT is a launching pad for uh Broadway, and I think that would be an amazing way to bring some tourism here to Oakland.

So uh that's all I have to say.

Well said, thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, for uh giving me a moment to be with you this morning.

This is a good news day, and I wanted uh thank uh both of you for being here today because you make us very proud, and everything that um our council members have said I associate myself with in terms of the importance of uh our arts and cultural community here, the people who uh are the heart and soul of Oakland.

Uh it the arts are forced multipliers in terms of not only bringing the beauty and and the narrative about the the glass half full of Oakland to Oakland and to the rest of the country and the world, but also um the economic benefits from uh a vibrant thriving uh arts community, and so this recognition today is really uh for me very um in a lot of ways very personal because uh it was uh a moment in San Francisco that uh we witnessed the beauty of Oakland.

And so personally, I'm saying, wait a minute, I'm the mayor of Oakland.

And so we had to figure out I want to thank uh Councilmember Wang uh and Councilmember Five for working together to do this today to honor you, and to um just say that Oakland is a city because of you where art uh drives change.

That's right, and uh the work is really rooted in our creative ecosystem, it's shaped by local voices, and in conversation with the real issues and which uh and the communities that we face and co-founders is the perfect example of what and who Oakland is.

And so, yes, we want co-founders here in Oakland.

Uh we're talking to everybody around the country why we want it here, how much it's gonna cost, and so just know that um this is a very humbling moment for all of us, but we want to just thank you very much.

Uh co-founders was sold out each and every performance in San Francisco.

And so uh Oakland deserves this also, and so just um thank you.

Uh we're gonna continue supporting uh the arts and cultural leaders who uh challenge assumptions who lift up underrepresented voices and who are part of moving Oakland forward.

So thank you for being here, God bless you.

Thank you so much.

Wow, wonderful.

Oh man, let me let me just oh I was actually able one evening to present the mayor's proclamation at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco to our Oakland artists.

So let me just uh present this once again.

Also, regulation of a reasonable we're on premier.

It's also a fly suit, madam Mayor.

Um I don't how much time am I allotted?

We'll give you five minutes.

Five minutes is excellent.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, thank you, Mr.

Wang, Councilmember Fife, thank you so very much.

Everybody here.

Um, all the council members, all the staff.

We are so grateful.

Um, you know, this is an extremely humbling experience for us as well.

We stand on the shoulders of all the artists and culture makers that we've been working with for the 20 plus years of our careers.

This is the work I've been in this council chamber multiple times over my career as an executive director and an arts advocate as an advocate for youth as a young person myself over the last 30 years advocating for this exact uh change.

It is very rare that I get to come in for a celebratory moment.

And so I I just kind of want to sit in here and marinate on this moment where we are able to reinstate the cultural affairs manager position.

I celebrate you all for that.

Because we know there is no cultural department without somebody who is managing it and overseeing how money is allocated, and uh to celebrate a show for which we've been working on for eight years, but really our entire careers represent in our lives here in Oakland.

I'm a third generation Oaklander, Adisha.

You're a second generation Oaklander.

I would say first generator.

First generation Oaklander, but has been here her entire life.

Um and we have particularly dedicated our time and our careers here in the city.

As you know, most of our talent gets exported.

I just want to um highlight some some wins of our show to demonstrate the capacity and the ability for shows like this for arts and culture to generate revenue, to um celebrate culture, uh, to be a signal boost to issues around equity in our city because we know culture moves the needle because culture moves the hearts of the people.

We can make policy, we can do all the things that we need to do, we can build infrastructure, so on and so forth.

But if the heart of people aren't moved, they don't make those changes.

And so if we could please just go to our um, I don't know who has it, but if somebody has the the quick PowerPoint, I'd love to just thumb through to slide number three.

We've gotten to hear the story.

Yes, the vision.

Uh our vision for the show, uh, just so you know, is to take this show from the Bay to Broadway.

Um, and our objective has been to bring uh a rich experience to broad audiences.

We were able to impact an audience from the age ranges of eight years old to eighty-five years old in San Francisco.

Communities representing social and economic uh folks that you know are are really on the margins to people who are making multiple millions of dollars, sat shoulder to shoulder in the audience together.

Um, let's move on to the uh the impact.

This is what I want to show you.

We were able to see just about 10,000 patrons in the American Conservatory Theater.

We thank ACT for um their co-production and support in this effort.

The average age of our um our folks uh that came to the show was uh age 41, but again, we saw folks from age eight to age 85.

We got to have 58 young black coders from black girls' code come into our audience.

Um, who were deeply inspired.

We uh have generated just about 792,000, 90, yeah, 792,000 in revenues and impacted uh the hyperlocal community, and this is a conservative number, uh, just about 300,000 dollars, and I mean just the businesses around us.

That is a 1 million dollar impact for a six-week production.

This is what is possible when arts and culture is rooted in a city, when there is infrastructure, when the city gets behind it to support arts and culture.

I can only imagine what could happen in a city like Oakland with this kind of investment.

We know that uh arts and culture brought 1.4 million dollars to Oakland over the last year.

Last year, that's a conservative number.

This is more than 90 percent of just this show was generated more than 90 percent revenues.

We can go to the next one.

Uh the streets are talking, it's a hit.

You know, we have many, many people blow up on our social media.

You could go to the next one.

Media hits um of the wazoo.

These are some of our media features.

KALW, K P I X, Cron, you may have seen us in The Chronicle several times, the National Alliance for Musical Theater.

We did some stuff locally, but we also did things nationally.

Forbes, Bloomberg, Broadway World, you know, all reached out to us, did feature stories on our show because we were making that much noise, celebrating a show about Oakland's hustle.

It says it right there.

Let's uh move forward, please.

Thank you so much.

Oh, almost there.

Um we were able to do this through a grassroots engagement, organic growth through community collaborations.

We spent 10 months in a warehouse that we were able to obtain for free.

For 10 months, we we produced events, hyper-local events with partnerships from local community organizations.

East Bay yesterday, High Wave, the American Conservatory, yeah, Robot Heart, so on and so forth.

We want to move forward to the next slide, please, really quickly.

This is our path.

We've been in development since 2016.

We're hoping in 2026 that we see an Oakland presentation and an off-Broadway presentation, and our goal is to take this from the Bay to the Broadway, but our stop has to be in Oakland in 2026.

We thank you all so much.

This is what the the possibilities are with arts and culture and investment in arts and culture.

And we want to make that same kind of impact in Oakland, California.

We know we can.

Thank you very much.

Shout out to the team back there, co-founder Diana Leaf, Angel Adere Kun.

Uh, we've got Joy Meads, we've got Elizabeth Newton, we've got our co-producer Anthony Beniziale in the house, uh, and my husband and my baby girl back there.

Thank you guys.

Are there comments or questions from the committee?

If not, I will entertain a motion.

We have public speakers.

Yes, Councilmember Houston.

She said we want, right?

Why didn't we have it in Oakland?

Well, we got the we got the the the Kaiser J.

We have the Oakland Museum, and she's brilliant, and they're doing it in San Francisco.

We need to bring that revenue to Oakland to the I went and saw Kevin Choice at Yoshi's, he's out here, right?

Um, and that was my first time seeing him.

He was brilliant, right?

I was like, damn, I'm a fan.

No, for real.

I tell him all the time.

So I'm saying we have all this art.

We have all these artists, these brilliant individuals, we have the Kaiser J.

We got the Coliseum, we have, we need to embrace the people that are here.

And everybody knows I keep saying Oakland first, Oakland.

And the mayor, uh, I didn't get to see the play.

Um, I want to see it.

So when are we coming to Oakland to see it?

So there it is.

I just want to say, um, I should have been an artist.

My father died.

No, my father died when I was 12, and I I used to always invent.

And after he passed away, um, I got off track, but art kept me back.

So I became I started doing art with you know, designing buildings because that was my form of art, right?

So art does have a huge impact in our lives.

So we need to keep our artists here in Oakland.

Oakland first, Kevin Choice.

I love that that at the Yoshis, you was jamming, brother.

So I'm gonna say this.

Let's do this in Oakland, okay?

Thank you.

Um, and then one thing I I forgot to say in my remarks before, but uh the points that the mayor made as well as um the points around moving people to define policy and make policy.

I want to stress that actually after watching this musical, um, I think one of my takeaways was like, yeah, like there really is a problem if there's barriers to um if you if we don't have communities like the black community uh being represented in the technology economy, like the outcomes are gonna be injust.

And um, I was realizing like Asada, that might be fiction, but really there's young Asadas everywhere in Oakland actually, and uh reach out to the Hidden Genius Project.

Um they're actually cultivating the next young Asadas um to code, and yeah, I think uh we we met this last weekend, actually had some ideas on how we might support um the efforts, and so we can actually ensure that we have a more equitable tech economy, and it should be the counterpoint to what's happening in San Francisco.

So, yes, that was the policy point that was made by the play and the musical was really heard.

Marilee.

Inspired me to speak one more time.

Uh, and I just want to say this.

Uh, I have had the privilege to visit many cities around the country, many countries around the world.

Art and culture are infused in every single department of of agencies and public entities.

And so one goal I have is to look at how we can make sure, for instance, in our public works department and our housing department and our transportation department, how arts and culture uh can be integrated into our work, and that is an important uh first step here.

I think to be able to really embrace fully uh arts and culture as as the heart and soul of of Oakland.

So thank you all again.

The cultural strategists and government program that's been going for three to four years now.

Um, many of these folks here, Rashida Chase back there, have been cultural strategists in government.

They have worked hand in hand with the economic and workforce development department.

The the you got you all know these things.

They've worked with council member Fife, so on and so forth.

So the the um infrastructure is there, it already exists, and we'd love to reinstitute it.

Um, you know, with the reinstatement of the cultural affairs manager.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you all for turning out.

If you did not get the opportunity to speak, there will be another opportunity to speak in open forum.

Um, Madam Clerk, call the room.

Oh, moving to our public speaker.

Oh, we have a public speaker.

I apologize.

Yes, Ms.

Asada Olabala.

Let me start off by saying this.

The hypocrisy of how you appreciate art.

The black man, the African American gentleman who has been coming to this city for years for the jazz museum to be put in place, has been ignored.

The last time he was here, it was something about the structure being too high, he would have to work on getting it down lower, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The African American history museum down the street is struggling because it doesn't get support.

Arts and Soul Festival has been eliminated.

A lot of so-called black artists and vendors have been pushed out.

The brother that owns the lounge on 14th Street is supposed to have gotten support from the city, and y'all reneged on that.

So don't tell me about how you support black people in this city related to the arts.

When is that jazz museum gonna be built?

Uh, this uh honoring don't forget Art Shanks Jr.

You approved last June that aukshanks junior would be honored with a plaque and street changing on Mandela.

It hasn't happened.

You told his son he would have to do some things.

No, he doesn't have to do anything because the resolution said the city administrators should move forward to let it happen to that black man.

It didn't happen.

It's wonderful to see a musical that deals with uh issues and themes of racism and gender equity.

We don't have that going on in the city of Oakland.

We don't have it going on when you have gentrification, you mentioned wrong gentrification.

I asked you over and over to bring up the issue of gentrification and what we doing.

It's never been discussed.

And Oakland and San Francisco's number one in the country for gentrification.

You talk about uh the issue of segregation, we got it going on in this city.

Thank you for your comments.

We have a motion made by Chair Five, seconded by council member.

I I can't, I I'm going to take the chair's prerogative again because there's so much disinformation going on.

I am in deep relationship with David Allen.

He's the architect of the Jazz Museum.

He's actually the uncle of Dominique Walker, who was the co the co-founder of Moms for Housing.

I talk to David Allen regularly.

So let's be clear.

Don't we can't just come to these meetings and put out misinformation?

If just because you're not a part of a process doesn't mean a process is not happening.

So I want everyone to understand that this is a moment of joy.

We have adopted AMLO to clean it up regularly so that they don't have to worry about the trash that is constantly um floating around the AMLO.

So community ready core has adopted the space, we've cleaned it up.

Uh, I wanted to mention that.

And we are also working with artists throughout the city and black businesses throughout the city.

So if the only thing you do is come to a council meeting to complain about what's not being done, there are opportunities to work with many organizations to contribute to the beauty and the fabric of our city, and I encourage everyone to join an organization and get involved.

Thank you.

Call the vote.

Thank you.

That was a motion made by Chair Fife, seconded by Councilmember Wong to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the September 16, 2025 special city council meeting.

On roll council member Guyo's absent.

Councilmember Houston?

Yes.

Councilmember Wong?

Yes.

And Chair Five.

Yes.

Thank you.

Item number three passes with three ayes, one absent.

Guile to forward this item to the September 16th, 2025 Special City Council agenda on consent.

Um sorry.

Reading in item number four.

Adopt an emergency ordinance.

One declaring a shelter crisis in the city of Oakland pursuant to the California government code section eight six nine eight and making findings that the significant that a significant number of persons order in the chambers, please.

Are without the ability to obtain shelter and that the situation has resulted in a threat to the health and safety of the per those persons.

Two, for the duration of the shelter crisis authorizing the city administrator to a suspend provisions of state or local regulatory statutes, regulations, and ordinances prescribing standards or procedures relating to housing health or safety for shelter facilities.

B, enter into a below market leases or licenses with homeless services, providers to land owned or leased by the city by the city for the purpose of providing emergency shelters or transitional housing, and C renew existing professional services and or grants grants agreement with homeless service providers in an amount not to exceed 250,000.

Uh 250,000 above previous years.

It providers meet performance outcomes in previous years and three making sequel findings, and we have two speakers that sign up for this item.

Before we go to the presentation, the public speakers.

Yeah, just wanted to share that we got Kat Brooks in here also.

She's an artist too.

You know, she look at her plays, you know, because she she's good too.

So I I don't want to recognize my sister.

Thank you, Councilmember Houston.

We'll have our presentation.

Thank you.

Chrissy Love, Community Homelessness Services.

I just want to touch on a few things, and one is the need for urgency, is that the current shelter crisis ordinance expires on September 19th, which means this needs to go to council on the 16th in order to keep it going and keep things moving along the same lines with contracting and whatnot.

And just to point out that homelessness continues to be a crisis in the city, the 2024 point in time count showed 5,485 people experiencing homelessness.

It's a 9% increase over the 2022 count, which is it showed that homelessness, the rate is decreasing, but the numbers are still increasing.

I believe the previous count was 20 something percent above the prior one.

So nine percent is not too bad, but it's still bad enough.

Of those counted, 369, 67% are living without shelter, means in encampments and cars on the streets.

This is also a racial equity issue, as a majority of those experiencing homelessness are black.

53% as compared to 22% of the general population.

And just a caveat: the pit count is largely viewed as an undercount.

So the numbers are very likely higher.

And a background on the ordinance.

Since 2017, the city has had a shelter crisis ordinance in place.

Each ordinance has been in place for two years.

Despite the number of shelter beds and resources offered by both the city and county, the need continues to exceed the capacity.

Shelter crisis ordinances have been renewed every two years as the state shelter crisis statute has been extended.

In 2024, the state shelter crisis statute was extended to January 1st, 2036.

Thus allowing cities to adopt longer term ordinances.

And that's my presentation, keeping it short.

Thank you for that.

Sure.

So do we have any questions or comments from the body before we go to our public speakers?

Councilmember Houston.

Public speakers first, yes.

Okay.

Calling in the names that signed up for this item.

Mrs.

Otto Olabala and Miss Tania Scott Smith.

Very pleasant.

Good day.

I'm not here to fuss for head start today.

I'm here as an outreach pastor and an entertainer who this year celebrated 50 years as a professional artist.

And I know firsthand, I won't be able to get through the whole letter that I have prepared to send to all the council members, but I want to get through as much of it as possible.

I stand firmly in favor of lifting the moratorium on group homes and shelters in Oakland, California, because far too many of our unsheltered are children and youth.

These are young people who have aged out of the cradle to carceral system, are fled unsafe environments in a desperate attempt to preserve their fit mental and physical health.

Oakland must become a sanctuary for those with no safe place to call home.

I know this need firsthand.

I was once a 16-year-old homeless black girl with a three-week-old baby from incest, disenfranchised and abandoned by the very systems meant to protect us.

We need more than words and well-meaning intentions.

We need safe spaces, not just to survive, but to thrive.

That's why I've been advocating for a wraparound services center modeled after CEDA in Sacramento to be housed at either the old Walmart or Greyhound locations.

Such a center could serve as a hub for coordinated care, education, salute, housing, and healing.

My commitment to this work is not new, it is lived.

We've spearheaded the funding, creation, and launch of a mobile classroom to reach unsheltered families, bringing education and family support services directly to them.

I've collaborated with ICAC to help launch the Safe Car Park Program, fought to secure RV homes from Governor Newsom, and worked to build and utilize tiny homes for housing and secure students and families at Peralta Colleges.

Since 2014, I have served as an outreach pastor, walking through camps and doing boots on the ground ministry every week, every season, in every form of weather.

Please support this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's great.

We need more people to speak up for the homeless.

So today at 3 o'clock, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors are going to be taking up measure W and how to spend the money for homelessness.

Now, if I go to the meeting, I'm gonna tell them not to give you the money.

Because you have not demonstrated a commitment to the homeless community.

You have not made a commitment to the homeless community, and you're taking money, but you're not getting results.

That's serious.

I went and wrote down every homeless shelter that we supposedly have in this city.

Then I wrote down the districts that they're in.

And some districts take no responsibility, like yours, Wang in Chinatown for the homeless.

And you tend to have most of the homeless community and districts, your district five and district seven and six, where we have a disproportionate amount of the homeless there.

You have a mayor that has not taken the banner up significantly.

Every time I turn on the TV, the mayor of San Jose is talking about how he is dealing with the homeless situation.

Every time I turn on the TV, how San Francisco mayor is dealing with the situation of the homeless.

You have no serious commitment to the homeless community.

I don't know if it's African Americans.

You had over 61 tiny homes over at Lake Merritt Tiny Homes.

Where are those tiny homes now?

That's shelter homes.

The other part about the homeless is you have no serious management of anything that's going on with the homeless community.

You don't have management going on.

So we'll continue to have thank you for your comments, Chair.

That concludes our speakers on this item.

Thank you.

Are there questions?

Councilmember Wong?

Yeah.

So I think the thing that I really want to dig into here overall agree with most of the recommendations, but this is a renewal of a number of contracts.

And I'd like to understand how are you able to really distinguish?

Because I have heard anecdotally certain providers.

I'm not saying that it's necessarily true, but that uh certain providers are not providing the services at an adequate level.

And how are we really evaluating?

How are we really evaluating these nonprofits that are providing these services?

And my second question is I actually I do share Mrs.

Asada's concerns around the lack of a director of the department.

How can we help on the hiring front?

So, yeah.

I'll refrain from answering that part.

But we do each contract has performance objectives, and we do it usually by intervention type.

For instance, safe RV parking has different outcomes objectives than say transitional housing.

So they're similar but different, and we evaluate them on a quarterly basis through reports through the county system, which is based on the federal system.

And we also are in contact with providers regularly, meeting with them, site visits, things like that.

And if there's an issue, we bring it up to the provider.

Look, how come you're not having enough exits to permanent housing?

And we discuss that, and we try to help or we and we listen to the challenges they're facing.

And then after the third quarter of each fiscal year, we do an evaluation for what could possibly be renewed the next year and what maybe needs to end.

And then we'll plan if we're ending a contract, we'll plan out ideally a year, if not six to nine months of somewhat of a window, similar to what was happening with the building opportunities for self-sufficiency contracts on Wood Street.

We knew they had to end, and we planned for an entire year for that ending.

It just kind of went differently than what we had planned.

But so there is a lot of evaluation that goes into that and discussions with the providers why they're not meeting objectives or kudos for doing wonderfully.

Especially given the fact that we're about to uh work with the county on the measure W funding and the distribution distribution of that.

What have you noticed in terms of providers that do well and providers that are failing to meet their obligations?

What are some things to look for?

Well, it varies organization to organization and also population to population.

It's it's very challenging to get transitional aids youth from transitional housing into permanent housing when they might be dealing with an awful lot of trauma, in addition to getting support to obtain their first job, and I don't know about anyone here, but my first job, there is no way I was able to afford to live by myself.

So what we're doing is we're asking them to the providers get these people ready to be able to afford to live on their own, through mates or what their own housing, and that's quite a challenge for them, and that's why those programs, specifically for transitional age youth, they're two year programs, because it takes quite some time, and you're dealing with a history of trauma in some of these young folks, okay.

Um, I guess this is a question to the chair, actually.

Um I have heard that there is actually a working group that is interested that one of the services that we are currently lacking, and it doesn't have to be funded through this specific pot of funding is that we need a lot more safe parking sites, that the transition away from, for example, if you've been living in an encampment for 10 years is you need to have a graduated transition that many people are not prepared to go immediately into housing, and so I'm wondering if there's an opportunity to you know look at whether it's this set of funds or maybe the measure w funding to ensure that we are funding that type of um services that we're hearing from the unhoused community that they want to see as part of their transition away from homelessness.

Well, I think the the staff that we do have in housing and community development has a lot of experience and understands that there does need to be some transition there.

Uh this is not necessarily an item that's currently agendized, but it is something that we should work on in partnership with our very experienced staff so that we can make sure that um whatever we're doing in the city of Oakland with the funds, you know, knock on wood, because we you know they haven't been planned for measure w yet, uh, that we're doing the right thing with those dollars.

Um, I'm not sure if you had anything else to add because I do, council member, want to kind of piggyback on what you were saying about service provision and some of the complaints that we hear from providers.

Um it's something that I've I've spoken with staff about, but I do want uh for when this information comes back in our annual report to staff to have uh more details around what we're hearing from uh some of the providers so we can determine if there's a pattern because anecdotally it looks like there may be, but I would definitely ask for more details around um what we're hearing back from the community uh that lives in our interventions as well as the community around those interventions in terms of uh how services are being provided because that's one of the biggest barriers for people even wanting certain interventions in their neighborhoods because it looks like the service providers that provide um the housing and and all the wraparound services are not maintaining the space.

So when this comes back in the annual report, I would like to figure out how the staff can work around a detailed uh a more detailed analysis of service provision and what we're hearing from community.

Um Councilmember Houston.

So I'd like to I don't share anything if I don't have experience on it.

I just don't.

You'll see me sit back, but if I have personal experience, that's where I share, right?

And I'm not trying to press anyone, I'm trying to press upon you.

I stayed in the homeless encampment for a month.

This was like 2016.

And I'm a subject matter expert on graffiti vandalism, illegal dumping, and homelessness with the state, the county, and the city, right?

And and and we have a policy coming down the pipeline, which is the encampment abatement policy.

And I just want I'm gonna be all over the place, then I'm gonna come and hone in.

Um, we they closed down um district um 12th Street in Wayne's district.

Those RVs came to my district, right?

And I'm giving and and I don't want district seven to take the blunt of everything as always.

We have the the safe parkings in district.

We have all these hotels in district, and I heard some boy say that um the city doesn't have a health component.

Uh I just want to make sure that we understand.

I have a monthly meeting with Supervisor Nate Miley and uh Hubbard.

Um, health is county's responsibility.

AODs is county responsibility, mental health is county responsibility, and I didn't know that either.

You know, I used to jam up Supervisor Nate Miley and say, why are you not over here doing this?

Why this is not happening?

I mean angrily like that, just what I just did.

And he said, Ken, that's not, you know, that's not my responsibility.

These are my responsibilities.

And I was like, Oh, AOD, health, mental, okay.

Now I got it.

So I'm sharing this.

I like to motion to keep this in count in the committee because I have several more questions for staff that has to be clear.

And we're having a meeting today about measure W, right, with the county, and the mayor is 10 toes down on this because I speak to her about it and she will be addressing this today also.

Um, so I like to keep this here because I think that um, however, the county is going to disperse these funds.

We have 58% of the homeless in Alameda County are in Oakland, right?

And I shared about being a uh uh expert on this, being out there, Oakland should not take the blunt force of all these cities in Alameda County.

Because I can tell you people tell me, oh, they told me to come to Oakland from Castor Valley.

People tell me when I'm out there, right?

And not just Alameda County through the state.

There's people here.

I just had someone on my street that was from Wyoming, right?

So I like to hold this in council because I have several more questions for staff, and I like to see what the county's gonna say today.

Um, that'll be my motion.

I hear you, um, Councilmember Houston, but there is a level of urgency if that could be explained um by staff one more time around the expiration of the shelter ordinance.

If if staff could explain again why this has to move.

Thank you.

Councilmember Houston, I hear you and I understand you, but this is the last life enrichment committee meeting before the September 16th City Council.

So that's why we are asking for it to come here and then go on to council because on September 19th, 2025, the current shelter crisis ordinance would expire.

So we're trying to bring it forth prior to that, and then we can get a new one in place.

Councilmember Wong.

Thank you, Chair.

So uh are the contracts basically expiring then September 19th.

So we talked about all of the programs would be out of compliance with the current regulations should the ordinance expire without a new one in place.

Okay.

Councilmember, so this is a problem.

I say, what why are we coming last minute about everything?

I'm I'm I'm not I'm not being I have give me up because I can't think when I hear um things come up last minute.

I've been in office a hundred and ninety-five days, and ever since I've been in office, it's last minute, last minute, last minute, last minute.

Then we have to make a a a movement on this.

I'm gonna say no, because um, and I want a motion to keep this in committee because it's things that we're being responsible for that we should not be responsible for.

Oakland is taking the blunt of everything.

That has to stop.

And it's gonna be a hard decision for me to make this this decision.

It's gonna be hard because people are gonna come and say, Oh, you're against the homeless or whatever.

Whatever, whatever, right?

Because I'm not scared.

So what I'm gonna say is this is that I'm gonna make a motion to keep this in in committee because Oakland is taking the blunt of everything.

The county I want them to give us fifty eight percent if not more.

My district is being ravished with illegal dumping graffiti vandalism crime we just had a officer parole officer murdered in my district and then I went to a meeting the other day that I walked out of because they were saying everything was okay it's not okay.

I'm gonna make a motion to keep this here because I believe that everything is falling on the backs of Oakland and that has to stop.

We're bleeding thank you Councilmember Houston I will entertain the statement by uh Councilmember Wong I will say Councilmember you would need a second for that motion to pass but I do want to allow councilmember Wong to speak.

So thanks Chair um so I I share some of the concerns that councilmember Houston has I will say that I I want to see this renewed because there's an urgency to it so I will not be seconding the motion made by Councilmember Houston but can I propose a substitute motion where we renew this for six months I do want to see like I just feel like this is fifty nine million dollars I want to also know what's the total contract amount that we're that's what I see here at the end of this table.

Thank you so much through the chair um I just wanted to clarify the request today okay this is not for um use of any specific dollars this is not approving any specific contract to interrupt you sasha I we can't continue we don't have quorum damn we have to we need to get this renewed do we have disrict seven staff I'm not sure if the council member has left uh the meeting sorry it's okay not your fault but we do need to renew the we do need a renewal just for clarity and chambers if we don't have quorum we can't take action and deliberate on items so we're working to find out if council member houston has excused himself from the meeting.

Okay am I allowed to ask questions while we while we wait for yourself.

Yes there the currently there is no meeting um you can you can talk to staff um but but there's no there's no meeting right now uh to take action on okay sorry could you could you just uh clarify it's not a renewal of fifty nine million dollars in contracts correct there's no financial aspect to this oh okay about the homes Okay, well, due to the absence of council member Houston and the lack of quorum for the life enrichment committee, we have to adjourn.

So I apologize.

We will hear public comments on this item, but we cannot take action at this time.

We've already heard public comment on item four.

So if you signed up for open forum and would still like to speak, um please come up to the podium if you hear your name.

Kat Brooks, Asada Olabala, Diane Sanchez, Robert E.

Badoya, and Ken Choice.

Or Kevin Choice, sorry.

Oh, public comment?

I'm sorry.

I walked out for a quick second.

First, I just wanted to say, um, my name is Kev Choice.

I'm uh City of Oakland Cultural Affairs Commissioner, also board member with Oakland Symphony, also president of the SF chapter of the recording academy.

Um, all these spaces I hold as an Oakland resident, uh, Oakland native, uh representative of our arts and culture community.

I want to thank uh council member Fife for her efforts to help restore the cultural managers' position.

We know how important this was for our not just for the city, also our our sector of arts and culture.

Uh we know that this was a difficult process.

Um we know that there were challenges with the budget, but we have to create a new dynamic and a new new narrative where arts and culture is looked at as a core value and an integral part of every aspect of life.

Hearing the mayor say that she wants arts and culture integrating in every department is something that we have we have the uh the framework for with the cultural strategies program, which I was one with the uh Office of Communications uh pushing the love life agenda.

And I think that's something that we need to revisit, but that does take funding and also collaboration.

Um also would just want to thank all the other council members who are in support of this initiative.

I know it was a lot going on.

Um, and I also want to uh just thank community who was deeply a part of this uh advocacy uh groups like APTP, uh Kat Brooks and Lance and all of their uh advocacy efforts to rally us to uh to get us together to come to meetings or rather rally rally community, uh all of uh the cultural affairs commissioners who also set up meetings individually with different council members.

Um and also just announced, you know, that we've had a huge coalition of arts and culture organizations, grassroots and large organizations from the Symphony to Black Arts Movement directive that has kind of arisen from this advocacy and will continue.

Um also just want I know I only got a couple of seconds, but I just want to show love to uh co-founders.

Those are my sisters, they are amazing.

It's good to see them get their flowers.

Let's continue to uplift our artists and um in community.

That's what's possible when we give support.

It was it, good morning.

My name is Kat Brooks.

I'm the co-founder executive director of the anti-police terror project, and I'm also a playwright and actress, a director.

Um I've been an artist my entire life.

And so this is like the least angry I've ever been standing at this platform.

Um I I really just came to thank Councilmember Fife for working with community to get this done.

Um, it's it's critical.

Arts as as Kev just pointed out, that's not a luxury, right?

It's a it's a necessity, it's a mandate.

And some of the folks that that were here cheering on co-founders and and are now acknowledging, right?

That are as important, also voted to get rid of that money.

And so I'm not here to talk smack today.

Today, today.

But we got people on tape talking about how important art is.

And so I do, I mean, I believe in the power of people to change, otherwise, I wouldn't be an organizer.

So I I my sincere hope is that this process opened folks' eyes to the importance of art.

All art, but specifically black art and black art in Oakland, California, and who we are to the rest of this country.

What we do here reverberates around the world, and you need to understand that.

Look at the artists that this town produces.

Ryan Coolish, Naka Hodge, Kev Choice, Ryan Nicole, right?

That's what we do here.

I wish he hadn't left.

Right?

But you're talking about the disasters that are running on these streets.

Part of that's because we've divested from arts and culture.

Part of it is because every time there's a problem, we throw the money at the cops to solve it.

They got a four to six percent solve rate.

Period.

In the discussion, that's a fact.

Look at the data.

Four to six, but that's what we give all the money to.

We do, we're in a budget crisis.

I understand that.

I'm not, I'm a rational logical person.

I also understand that bazillions of dollars go to a failed system, and we could take a fraction of that and reinvest it in arts and culture and particularly black arts and culture, and we would see an immediate turnaround in the in the tone tenor fabric feel of the city immediately.

He lifted up the big folks.

I gotta talk about Oakland Theater Project, I gotta talk about lower button players, I gotta talk about Malonga, right?

Folks that are getting by on nada, nothing to bring arts and culture.

Hello, I'm Roberto Doya, former cultural affairs manager.

I want to thank you, Councilmember Five, for your effort to uh bring restore that position, unfreeze it, it's really important.

Uh I think it speaks to the power of our cultural community.

They've been out here advocating for weeks on and Kev's a great example of sort of raising uh the visibility of the sector and its power, as when I was a manager, you know, my job was to raise money.

So I brought in over seven million dollars during my tenure there.

But one of the most important things that we did was support the cultural strategies and government programs, an innovative program.

So when the mayor was talking about um the uh uh artists in the city hall, we did it.

We've done, we did three rounds.

Ryan is uh widening the report on the final round, so that's really an indicative that in our artist community, they not only make objects, they make policy arguments that are manifest through demonstration projects around homelessness, around education, about prison reform.

So this is the richness of Oakland's cultural life that we're not like they're activists, the cultural activist community, and at the end of the day, the division um it's a small monies.

I was joking with Ryan.

It's that small monies that I give that artist 10,000 or they give that artist 10,000, but content providers, we are the content providers for those creative voices that animate our city.

And so I thank you for understanding that and bringing that to the foreground and hopefully we'll we'll get across the finish line.

Thank you.

So I'm reading this article in the post about how the mayor is uplifting, we're gonna be doing pedestrian infrastructure with some funding.

So you're giving the message that we're gonna be able to repair sidewalks with some money that's being made available.

That's not true.

The responsibility for sidewalks are the responsibility of those who own private property.

The city of Oakland is only mandated to repair property that is public property.

What happens is if the city of Oakland deems sidewalk property that is private property to be a threat uh to safety.

They will repair it, but the city will demand reimbursement from the property, private property owner.

Misleading information.

That's what y'all do.

You did the same thing with the vacant property tax.

Vacant property tax is supposed to be based on the value of the property assessed.

What you did is you passed a law for all property, regardless of the value of the property, to be anywhere from six thousand dollars or some other number.

Misleading information that people are not well informed about.

Same thing happened with the so-called transaction and sales tax that you put on the ballot to be a sales tax.

Now that you're trying to deal with it, you're recognizing that it's a transaction and sales tax, mostly used when you do sales outside of the city of the state of California, mostly online sales.

Misleading the public.

See you next uh September.