Good morning and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting of Tuesday, September 30th, 2025.

The time is now eleven thirty a.m.

and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker card 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 to my and turn one into myself or 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 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting time.

This meeting came to order at ten at eleven thirty a.m.

And speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after that meeting has begun, making that time eleven forty a.m.

We'll now proceed with taking roll.

Councilmember Guile is excused.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

Thank you.

And Chair Unger.

Thank you.

We have three members present.

One excuse, Councilmember Guile.

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

No announcements.

Okay, we'll go ahead and begin.

Item one, since this is a special meeting, there are no minutes to be approved.

Item two, determination of schedule of outstanding committee items, and we do have one public speaker that signed up.

Do we have anything from the city administrator or my colleagues for the pending list?

Okay.

Do we have a motion to approve the pending list?

So moved.

Safely drop the kids each morning.

Over 150 families use this parking lot between 7.40 a.m.

and 8:30 a.m.

each morning, which help eliminate neighborhood congestion and ensure our children arrive safely.

The parking lot is located one block from the fruit vale exit on 580.

So you can imagine 150 families making a line to enter the school.

And we have a very small parking space to do that.

We saw signs last week that the parking lot is scheduled to be closed permanently on October 6th.

That is this coming Monday.

Please do not permanently close this lot and help us to do that.

There are alternative solutions, such as closing during the night hours, that can help dumping.

This is a simple solution that will not only come compromise the safety of our children, and uh we would like to collaborate with the city council, I think it's Councilman Gallo, to clean together uh periodically this parking lot.

Uh in addition, our neighbors, the Jarlat Church, uh parishioners use this parking lot on Sundays.

Uh so we wrote to Kyrance seeking to seed with them and find solutions together, but the response was that the decision was already made.

Thank you for your.

Is there anybody from Council Member Gaio's office here?

Um Matt, uh, if you could talk to my staff member Matt, and he can help connect you with Council Member Guy's office.

That'd be great.

He's in the back there.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Wong, seconded by Council Member Houston, to accept the determination of schedule about standing committee items as is on roll, Council Member Guy's excuse.

Council Member Houston?

Yes.

Councilmember Wong?

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number two passes with three eyes, one excuse to accept the pending list as is.

Now reading in item number three, adopt a resolution recognizing the extraordinary vegetation management performance of Ecosystems Concept Inc., its herders, and Caprine Goat staff as the organization, as the organization executes its contractual agreements with the city of Oakland, designed to mitigate the risk of wildfires by deploying hundreds of grazing goats into high-risk fire zones to reduce the amount of hazardous vegetation.

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

All right, let's hear our speaker.

Is there is there a report or just the speaker?

Yeah, I mean, I I can do the report.

Are you are you from the ecosystem concepts?

Yes, I'm Robert McGrew with ecosystem concepts.

All right.

This one is one that I think is really important.

Um I want to honor both our our goats, our grazing goats that have done incredible work for uh vegetation management and also the shepherds and goat herds, I guess, who uh who manage them and the entire the entire program.

This is um something that that all of our our citizens benefit from, whether whether they know it or not, the ability to keep our keep our our hills free of hazardous vegetation is incredibly important.

And I also want to recognize um former council member Kaplan and in particular her staffer, uh Michael Alvaranga, who brought this brought this forth to us and carried it before before she left office.

So I am really excited to adopt this um resolution recognizing the extraordinary vegetation management um impact of our goats, our goat herds, and all of the folks doing vegetation management in the city of Oakland.

So should we go to our speakers?

Or why don't we why don't we go ahead, sir, and you can speak?

I just say I I'm deeply honored and humbled and very grateful to receive uh this recognition from the city council and the mayor of s of Oakland.

Uh this achievement is almost 30 years that didn't happen by myself.

It started with my wife, Dr.

Brimagrew, on figuring out what type of browsing animals would work in fire-prone areas that would separate the fire fuels.

What we call the fire ladder.

The animal was a goat, but not an ordinary goat.

It had to be a goat with the ability to thrive on dry grasses and brush.

These goats would have to be trained and to move and to be contained in fences.

Then they had to be disease-free so that no diseases could be spread to the wildlife that they came in contact with.

She started with about 400 goats.

For the next four years, she blood tested all the animals and started to breed the herd with no outside goats coming in.

This started the biosecurity health plan that is in place for the city of Oakland.

No diseased animals are carried into the city.

We started in early 1990s with the parks and recs department.

Uh Martin Mataresi was in charge then.

He's with us today.

He was running the department at the time.

With his degree in forestry and his local knowledge, the grazing plan started.

After his retirement, he came to work with ECI and was a local face in contact with the different groups.

Then the city of Oakland Fire took over in the mid-90s.

We all worked together: the fire department, the parks and recs department with Martin, the finance department, the fire marshal's office, the contract department, the Oakland Zoo.

Sometimes there was funding problems, but we did work it out.

The citizens' protection was always first most.

And things always got worked out.

Then the open space plant group started.

First was the Friends of Salsa Creek, then the Friends of King Estates, Nolan Park, the Owls, Beaconsfield Group with Wendy Togata.

We meet with all these groups every year and address their concerns during the grazing period.

We have residents in the area of the grazing, and we address their needs also.

We have developed close relationship for 30 years with your community.

Each of you and the city council members and the mayor should be credited for your commit commitment to stop another wildfire that stepped through the city of Oakland and the surrounding communities.

The loss of over 3,000 homes and 25 citizens is a loss that is heavy to carry.

The human loss of life leaves scars that never heal, and economic loss of the community takes years to overcome if it ever does.

City of Oakland should be an example for fire protection for all the cities that have interphase areas in the state of California.

My family and all the people affiliated with ecosystem concepts truly appreciate the City of Oakland recognize us for the 30 years of service we've had for your city.

We are committed to meet and exceed the city's expectations into the future.

Thank you.

Inspector Adam Ball and Dr.

Jones and the contracting.

And Martin Meterassi is here.

That shows us in your different areas throughout the city of Oakland.

So we'd like to give those to you too.

If we could I think I think that's great.

After you speak, sir, let's uh let's get a photo with all of us and this proclamation down in front.

I was in front of City Council about 10 years ago when I retired from working for the city for 33 years.

And I just want to echo what Robert said about working here in Oakland.

Um it's been an honor to serve and um it was satisfying for me to be able to work again in the parks for the additional 10 years with ECI and help prevent fires because we cannot forget, as we had before, about how bad a fire can be in Oakland, and we don't want to repeat the same mistakes as were repeated after by forgetting the fire that was in the Berkeley Hills, started in about the same location, and it could happen again very quickly, and uh with the good work of the fire department, city council, city manager, funding, um, by the citizens of Oakland.

We can keep preventing major fires from affecting our community and the into the future.

Thank you.

That's great.

Let's uh bring up in front.

We'll get a quick photo and send you back out to the hills.

Hi, um, so my uh staffer Michael Alvaranga was really uh advancing this, and one thing that he had mentioned to me that I I think is important to highlight is especially with our immigrant communities feeling attacked under the federal government.

Something that he noted to me is that many of the herders are immigrants, and so I just wanted to highlight that and as we plan for the future of climate change.

Sometimes you got to go old school to uh and use these ancient and uh you know old techniques to actually plan for the future.

So quite innovative, thank you.

Calling the name that signed up to speak on this item, Mr.

Sado Olavala.

I don't get the importance of having to identify that the immigrant community has something to do with this.

Can you educate me at some point why that's necessary?

Okay, if we're gonna do that, how many black people out there doing it?

It's not significant.

Uh, just want to remind you, Ungar, you can't use the word citizen, say residents.

When you use the word citizens, you exclude the illegal people here, and they have to be included because you are sanctuary city.

It's very inappropriate to use citizens.

I appreciate what the uh what's happening with this, but there has to be a distinction of how this works clearly, because this is being paid for by the city, whereas some people who have large portions of property, they have to pay for that uh vegetation to be eliminated.

So, what are the perimeters of how we decide who gets this?

One of the things I'm concerned about is there was a story uh on the news that a lot of these goats died because they ate some vegetation that caused them to become ill and they eventually died.

Now I understand from speaking to somebody that somebody in the beginning process goes out and checks the vegetation to make sure there is any vegetation that would harm these goats.

So, how did it happen in this case needs to be addressed?

And if that happens, are we responsible as the city to replace any of those animals that died doing the uh doing the work for the city?

Uh, but please don't start that immigrant stuff in here, okay, unless it's really relevant.

There's no way you know who's an immigrant because you're a sanctuary city, we don't put out any data about immigrants.

Somebody told you that you don't know if it's true or not.

I just sent a picture through the chair to K Top.

Can you put it up?

Because I always talk about the things that from experience, right?

So did this inspired me when I had a lot in the city of Oakland to put my goats on the lot to clean it up.

So it was like they're here to clean a lot for upcoming fire season.

So when I see those, and I'm saying that to you guys, when I see the goats up there, so inspiring, it inspired me to get two goats, and then I took them to the the schools for the kids and goes uh to to pet them and stuff.

So congratulations.

Keep up the good work, and the fire season is very important.

So it inspired me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I believe we need a motion.

Anybody?

The move.

We have a second.

Second, and no, I will not stop talking about immigrant communities on this dias.

Thank you.

We have a motion to approve the recommendation.

Let's uh let's have some order in the room, please.

Let's have some order in the room, please.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Houston, seconded by Councilmember Wong to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on roll.

Councilmember Houston.

Yes.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

Aye.

Sorry, and then noting that Councilmember Guile was excused.

Item number three passes with three eyes, one excused guy to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Now reading in item number four.

Adopt a resolution waiving the city's request for proposal requirements under Oakland Municipal Code Section 2.04.051B and the local and small local business enterprise program requirements to awarding a three-year professional services agreement to Doppler Inc.

in an amount of $810,000 for the period of October 16, 2025 through October 15, 2028 for emergence for emergency call management services with two one-year options to extend the contract for the for the amount of 270,000 annually for a grand total contract amount of one million three hundred fifty thousand dollars without returning to council, and three making appropriate SQL findings, and we do have one speaker that signed up for this item.

Alright, let's start by hearing from staff if we have anyone.

All right, let's hear from the speaker then.

Is there is there in a report?

There you are.

Thank you, Richard Bradersby, Oakland Public Works, late to the podium.

Through the chair, we have before you uh three-year agreement for professional services with Doppler Incorporated.

Doppler is the technology provider that helps route after hours emergency calls for service to our standby crews.

They also um have integrated their system with our uh city works system of records, so automatically work orders are uh created through this contract.

So the request is for uh 270,000 annually for three years with two one-year extensions, and I'm available for any questions.

Okay, do we have questions from council?

Morning.

Um I come with the same issue all the time and can't help me understand it, please.

It says without returning to council.

Um I that that just why wouldn't we come back to council just to give us a briefing or something like that?

I have an issue with that on not just this, but with all of them that says without turning to council, because we are elected to understand to follow, so it's transparent to the individuals that actually voted us all into office.

So can you explain what's the negative of returning to council and what would be the positive without returning the council, please?

Sure, through the chair.

Um I actually enjoy coming to council.

I love the interaction, I love talking about what we do, and I like sharing how the mechanics behind the scene operate within the city.

Uh but realistically, uh, we can't bring every contract back to city council just within my bureau in public works.

We have over 200 contracts, so it's just a efficiency mechanism from my perspective, and I think that's pretty much boilerplate language, but that's you know my personal version.

I'm sure each department has their own reason for including that type of language.

Hi.

Thanks.

Through the chair.

Um, can you just clarify the hours?

So sometimes just even as a council member when we're trying to be responsive to constituents with Oak 311, what the hours are, and uh is this going to support like beyond business hours this this particular contract?

Correct.

Uh through the chair.

Oak 311 is open from 8 a.m.

till 7 p.m.

Monday through Friday.

After that, the Oak 311 line is answered by this firm, Doppler.

So they take over the dispatch services when Oak 311 isn't staffed.

Okay, I think now I can try this again myself because I just did a call, but you get a voicemail, like what exactly are they providing after hours?

Uh through the chair.

They have live dispatch operators, so there's a like a call tree or a um message sequence, press one, press three, press eight, et cetera.

And if you have an emergency, you actually connect with the operator who takes the information and then subsequently dispatches the call to the public works or DOT standby crews since we're not 24-7 operation.

These are employees that have returned home for the evening, but they get called back, and Doppler is the technology that enables us to do that when Oak 311 isn't operating.

Okay, I see that's helpful.

So it's they're really triaging for the emergency level calls in the after hours, basically.

Um I hesitate through the chair to say that they're triaging.

Um we have some basic criteria what constitutes an emergency call.

It goes to the standby supervisor, and then they're able to perform that assessment.

Okay, and then uh your report also noted that there were some calls that um get routed from OFD to uh OPW and DOT.

What just out of curiosity, what are those types of calls that do that?

Yep, correct.

And again, through the chair, um just sort of an overall big picture.

There's three first responder agencies, actually, four within the city counting DOT, police fire, public works, and DOT.

Sometimes after hours, police and fire notice a condition that may or may not require a response from public works or DOT after hours.

This could be a traffic signal that's out, it could be street light out, it could be a missing uh storm drain grate, things that pose a hazard to the community.

So we will get those calls uh from fire dispatch.

A little more detail.

Most of the calls from police OPD actually go through fire dispatch and then fire dispatch routes to the Doppler operator after hours.

Okay.

That that's helpful.

And then my final question is just we're noticing and constituents have reported too just that the 311 system has not been, it hasn't been as responsive as it used to be.

What is going on?

And I know that somewhat goes beyond this contract, but would love to understand what's going on and what support is needed.

Sure.

Um through the chair, I can't really speak for Oak 311.

They're actually under the city administrator office.

Okay.

Um, I don't really know if what you're hearing is related to during the business day when it would be Oak 311 or if it's after hours.

Um, I'm pretty much the most knowledgeable knowledgeable person on the after hours calls, and I haven't heard any concerns, but if you got some, I'd be happy to look into them for you.

Okay, thank you.

That's it.

Moving to the public speakers, calling in the name that's signed up for item number four, Miss Asada Olabala.

And I say it again.

Speak to immigrants as much as you want, but make it relevant.

Don't make it seem like you not you're being told not to speak about immigrants.

I know that twisted kind of language.

So is there a report for 2324?

If this is an agency we've used before, how many times were they used to make emergency management services?

Because the total amount of money that they're receiving is $1.3 million dollars.

That's a lot of money to just say we're gonna answer the call and then we're gonna redirect the call to somebody employed by uh the city of Oakland to do whatever.

So does this meet the standard of this amount of money?

Then when this gentleman says we can't bring every contract back to the council, that means you need to sit down and determine some criteria for what contracts need to come before this council.

If you're not if you're not a committee, I'm sorry, if you're not seeing all of them in committee, and it just being rubber stamped.

So again, waiving local small business all through the agenda today, y'all are waiving small business, local businesses.

You're doing it all day, and you're you're doing this also.

Why do you need to extend the contract?

Uh more than what is originally it is being said necessary to do.

I just can't see 1.3 million dollars for two years with an option to extend.

Why are you doing this option to extend when you end in a budgetary crisis?

You just say you bring it back, and we have the money, we'll do it again.

But it doesn't look like you have anything that substantiate 1.3 million dollars being uh sufficient to say yes on this contract, but y'all gonna rubber stamp it anyway, um and thank you for your comments, chair that concludes our speakers on this item.

All right, I will make a motion to advance this to full council on consent at the October 7th meeting.

Second.

Thank you.

That was a motion made by Chair Unger, second by council member Wong to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on roll council member guiles.

Excuse Council Member Houston.

Councilmember Wong?

Aye and Chair Unger.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number four passes with three ayes, one excused guy to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Now reading in item number five, adopted resolution waiving the formal advertising and competitive bidding requirements of OMC subsection 2.04.051i and the RFP and RFQ requirements of OMC subsection 2.04.051B, to approving and authorizing the city administrator to award and execute a three-year agreement with yes construction group Inc.

for backflow prevention device testing certification and minor incidental repairs at city facilities in an amount not to exceed $270,000 for the periods of November 1st, 2025 through October 30, 2028, with two one-year options to extend in an amount not to exceed 90,000 per year for a total not to exceed 450,000 dollars, subject to the available availability of funds and three adopting appropriate SQL findings, and we do have one speaker that signed up for this item.

Okay, do we have a staff report?

Nice.

There's been promptly to the podium on this one.

Uh assistant director Oakland Public Works.

Uh we have before you request to approve contract with yes construction.

This is a firm that does backflow valve testing, which is on the water service line to every city facility.

This is a mandated service that East Bay Mud requires us to perform annually, otherwise they shut off water to the building, uh, which makes it uninhabitable, so we definitely have to provide this service.

Um, construction has been the only responsive bidder for the last two RFPs that we've put out, and they are a local Oakland business, so we're we are requesting the council to again approve a three-year contract, uh $90,000 a year with two one-year extensions for a total of $450,000.

And uh that's the same criteria applies when I was discussing returning to council for each contract.

I mean each year for each contract.

So that's why we do the um without returning to council language, and I'm available for any questions.

Council colleagues, do we have questions?

No, all right.

Local business, right?

Through the chair, 100% local business.

I'm talking about.

Thank you for that acknowledgement, sir.

All right, let's go to public speaker.

Calling in the name that signed up for item number five, Missisado Ulabala.

Okay.

What is this practice where we asking for two one-year extensions?

What's the basis for this?

Is it to make people's jobs easier so they don't have to come back?

Where is the performance evaluation?

If any, is this a renewal?

This is a three-year maintenance service.

Then you want to extend it.

Why don't you just make it a five-year contra uh contract?

If that's what you want to do.

What is the manipulation going on here where you have these extensions?

And I don't know if you're coming back to council and it doesn't make any difference whether it comes back to council or not, because y'all have a habit of rubber stamping and everything.

But this practice, who came up with this practice with the extension of the contracts?

Just about every contract you're looking at today, the majority of them have extension of two years, extension of one year, whatever, without coming back to council.

And what's the reason for it?

It makes it easier for them.

But does it have true accountability and transparency that the public needs to see?

Does it allow for uh any issues that are being brought up?

How many times have we used this service in the past?

Is $90,000 uh considered reasonable?

How do they come up with the $90,000?

Is it per hour, whatever?

Y'all just so satisfied with whatever staff brings to you, it's okay.

Any more speakers?

All right, I would like to make a motion to advance this to the October 7th council meeting on consent.

This is cardiac.

Through the chair, can I share a couple of things?

Oh, thank you.

Um backflow preventing is very very important.

Um I mean it's is extremely important, and I wanted to go through the chair to the city attorney if if we wanted to bring it back just for review.

See, I don't know how this works.

We wanted to bring it back for review or to look at the contract.

What would I need to bring that back to the attorney?

On any contract, on anything.

About do I need five people, five votes or how how do I say, for instance, this contract?

I just wanted to go, since it's not returning to council.

I just said, hey, I want to review it.

Um what would I need for my colleagues to bring it back just to review it?

Sure.

So language can be added to the resolution to go through the standard process, which would be to start at committee and make its way through the regular legislative calendar.

So I could do that on any item.

You could certainly make a motion and put it on the floor.

It's up to the body to vote.

And I could do that later, or do I have to do it now?

Not for this contract.

I just wanted to understand how it worked.

Yes, generally, you'd make it at the time that the body is considering and taking action on the item.

So through the chair, if I wanted to do it after the fact, what would I do?

Or what would I have to do?

Well, generally, items are only able to be discussed when they're properly agendized and publicly noticed.

So I'm not sure there's a mechanism to do that after the fact.

So I would have to go through rules and get it agendized again to address it.

Correct, it would have to go through the regular legislative process, okay.

I just wanted to know.

Thank you.

I'll move it.

Thank you.

Oh, council member Wong has to respond.

Uh just one question to staff.

Hi, are we just to confirm all of our facilities?

Because this is really important.

This is like a fundamental, you know, worker safety issue.

Um, all of our facilities do have potable water, right?

We're not, or are there any that you're aware of that are do not have potable water?

Uh that that's correct.

All of our occupied facilities have potable water, so these are mandatory inspections in order to operate the building.

We do use some non-potable water sources, but that's mainly for irrigation.

Uh we have over 300 facilities throughout the city, but this is not for the full inventory because that count includes structures such as sheds and storage buildings that may or may not have a backflow valve uh equipped on them.

Okay, but sounds like the performance of this vendor is satisfactory then, and they've been compliant.

Through the chair, yes, absolutely.

We've been um satisfied with the performance of this vendor, and in fact, it's um challenges with getting the contracts in place uh that sometimes cause issues.

Um, that in this case we did have a backflow, a backlog of backflow valve testing, and this vendor has twice helped us work through a serious backlog, avoiding the water shutoff to the facilities, which has been a major disaster for the staff working there.

Yes, it would.

Okay, thank you.

I second the motion.

Thank you.

We have a motion that was made by Chair Unger, seconded by Council Member Houston to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

On roll, Councilmember Gaio is excused.

Councilmember Houston?

Yes.

Councilmember Wong?

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

I thank you.

Item number five passes with three eyes, one excused guy to forward this item to the October 7th City Council Agenda on Consent.

Now reading in item number six, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to one award the community facilities district to 2015-1, Gateway Industrial Landscape Maintenance Contract 2025, project number 1004284, based on all contract documents and specifications to Los Lozas Inc.

for a three-year period in an amount not to exceed $560,000, and two adopting appropriate California environmental quality findings.

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

All right, let's hear from staff, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Unger and members of the Public Works and Transportation Committee.

Tom Morgan, acting assistant director for public works.

This landscape maintenance contract will cover the maintenance and trash pickup of the landscaped and bioretention areas, as well as the pathways along Maritime Street, Burma Road, Wake Avenue, and Admiral Tony Way.

Funding for this contract is provided by annual assessments from the tenants of CFD 2015-1 and the Port of Oakland in Fund 2332.

Um the formal RFP process began in January 22 with legal notices advertised on January 24th, 2025 through various local newspapers, and also through the city's ice supplier system, which notifies regional trade and business groups, including the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Oakland Brack Board of Trade and Commerce, Bay Area Business Roundtable, and the Construction Bid Board.

Ads were also placed in the Oakland Post, Elmundo, Daily Pacific Builder, and the World Journal publications.

Bids were received by the city clerk on February 27th, 2025, by Bay Construction for 235,000 and Los Lozo Inc.

for 560,000.

DWES performed a compliance analysis on April 11th, 2025, and deemed both Bay Construction and Los Lozo meet the city's 50% L uh SLBE participation requirements, but bay construction was deemed non-responsive as their bid submitted was for a two-year term versus the requested three-year term.

Bay construction's bid was also well below the engineer's estimate.

We are requesting council to authorize the city administrator to execute a three-year landscape maintenance contract in the amount of 560,000 to Los Lozo Inc., the only responsible and responsive bidder to perform landscape maintenance in the CFD 2015-1 boundary area, and I'm available for any questions.

Um this money comes not from the general fund but from the special district?

Correct.

That's all I have.

Other questions?

Councilmember Wong.

This is a general question.

How do we determine which properties need, like a contractor to do the maintenance versus staff?

And is it because this is part of a special district?

Correct, yeah.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

I have a question.

How complicated is this this type of work?

You have to be a little bit more clear on what you mean.

But I mean it's like what kind of okay, give me the scope of work.

Um, like I said, it's to um cover the maintenance of the landscaped areas, so trimming the brush, making sure it's it's neat and alive, um, clearing out the bioswales, which does require some specialty knowledge, uh and trash pickup, litter cleanup, making sure the bike paths are clear, things like that.

Okay, and I see that they're from Hayward.

You said it was two individuals or two companies that um apply.

Where was the other company from?

Um, they're in Oakland, the Bay Construction's an Oakland company.

I'm just gonna make a suggestion to study chair that you know we have some nonprofits and that could actually do this type of work that we can hire the justice impacted and on the house because I don't see it being too difficult.

I'd just like to just bring that out there to we could um just try to reach out to so we can have an impact on those companies or those nonprofits that address those justice impacted in the unhoused, but I'll I'll move it.

Thank you.

Yeah, sorry, another question.

I know also that something that has been of interest of the council as well as council member Fife, has been this the army base being remediated in order to, I don't know, at some point turn it into uh shelter and housing.

Is that is this that is not within the scope of this contract?

I understand that.

Yes, but what I am curious is whether this funding source could be used to help supplement remediation costs, it could not.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Okay, where are we on the motion?

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Do we have public speakers?

Calling in the name that signed up for item number six, Mrs.

Olabala.

So at some point in a discussion, we have to look at areas of this city for which we are investing in contaminated soil, the um the army base is contaminated, and I would assume because this says bio uh retention areas that we're dealing with contaminated areas.

Uh I don't know, but that has to be addressed.

You're dealing with it at McClyman's with a contaminated football field uh that they don't want to remediate.

My question is have you determined a set schedule for which work will be done?

In other words, will be will this work be done once a month every two weeks?

What is the schedule?

Because uh that's important because if we have too long of a space between work, you know we potentially have a pile up of uh trash and debris.

Uh the second question is I do like what appeared in not a question but a statement.

What appeared in the item that was item uh under item four?

When you have the source of funding, you address that it does not impact the general purpose fund, and Mr.

Anger, you spoke to that.

That's important.

Every item should have for the public's as well as your gratification, the understanding that we're not impacting the general fund.

So I encourage you to continue to ask that question, but also to inquire to require staff when writing their reports to state if it doesn't or it does impact the general fund, and lastly, uh, I'd like to know: have we had any issues that are challenging related to this kind of work, like the homeless community being uh on the property, or the property having uh besides trash uh things like couches and mattresses and large items?

Are we able to thank you for your comments?

Chair, that concludes our speakers on this item, and we have a motion, and we do have a motion, a motion made by Councilmember Houston, seconded by council member wong to approve the recommendation of stop and support this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on rule.

Councilmember Guile is excused, Councilmember Houston, aye.

Councilmember Wong?

Aye, and Chair Unger.

I thank you.

Item number six passes with three eyes when excuse guyo to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Now reading in item number seven, adopt a resolution amending resolution number eight nine seven three six CMS, which among other things expand the scope of work for the City of Oakland's contract with Civil Corps, formerly Civil Corps schools to include trial trail maintenance and brush clearance services in open space parks by one waiving the city's advertising and solicitation of proposals/qualification requirements, and two authorizing the city administrator to increase the contract amount for $900,000 to an amount not to exceed two million seven hundred thirty-five thousand dollars.

And we do have four speakers that signed up for item number seven.

Alright, let's hear from staff, please.

Good afternoon, Clinton Pugh, uh Park Services Manager Public Works.

Uh the Public Works Department requests City Council approval to expand its long-standing partnership with Civil Corps, the only conservation corps in Oakland uh for over the past 34 years.

Civil Corp has worked closely with the city to provide job training, education, and development opportunities for at-risk youth while supporting critical fire abatement, efforts that reduce wildfire, wildfire, while supporting abatement efforts that reduce fuel loads.

Under this agreement, which extends through June 2029, civil courts civil courts will remain maintain over 51 acres in Oakland's high fire zones, carrying out vegetation clearance, brush reduction, roadside treatments, and limited tree mitigation with 2.3 million in reduction uh in annual measure MM funding.

This expansion will bolster wildfire prevention, habitat, resilience, and public safety across priority sites such as Joaquin Miller Park and Nolan Park, while directly supporting Mayor Elex Lee's top 10 priorities and underscoring the city's commitment to reducing fire hazards, improving operational efficiency and protecting vulnerable communities.

Okay, do we have questions from my council colleagues?

So the chair, I just like to thank Clinton Pew for all your great work that you do for the city and the tree department and all that.

Just thank you for that.

Appreciate it.

Councilmember Wong.

Thank you for this presentation.

So it is it looks like a substantial increase in their scope.

Can you just uh walk us through just why it's so important that the their scope be increased to all the items that are included in this item?

And actually uh Civil Corps has already been supporting trail maintenance and fire abatement, um, and it's very important because we receive Measure MM funding uh to abate the fire priority parcels.

Um, and the scope is is basically what civil courts is already doing, expect for now we can do it annually with the funding that we receive.

Okay, sorry, I'm a little confused by that.

So they're already doing this, but now, because it it will increase the contract amount from 900,000 to 2,700,000.

So I I just want to do that.

No, and actually the two million is is the money that was allotted to public works.

Okay, but there will be a portion uh committed to civic courts, and the expansion of the work is 51 acres.

Um civil courts will annually receive 400,000 of that 2.3 million.

Okay, I see.

That's helpful.

And then so this is one of those very local issues that we're dealing with.

I will say that, like for example, in my district on Lakeshore Avenue, uh, I see a number of Civic Corps bins, uh, versus I see also California waste solutions bins, these are the carts, as well as the waste management ones.

And I'm wondering how do all of these systems interact with each other?

Because on the one hand, I'm getting a lot of calls about people angry about all these bins and the right-of-way, and so I'm just looking at the names of the bins, and I must say it's uh there's a lot of different companies represented on um when I'm looking at the right-of-way of the bins, and are my question is are our various contractors are they interacting well with each other, like because it's spilling out into you know the frustrated constituent calls that I get.

I could only speak to uh park services purview, okay, and that's vegetation management.

Um internal external contractors, city staff, we communicate well in regards to the trash bins uh that you're referencing.

I I have no intel for that.

Okay, I see director Rowan is coming up.

Maybe he has a response to this.

Uh Josh Rowan, dual director of DOT and public works.

I really do want to thank Clinton for the work he's done.

Just point of clarification, he's he's over our parks and trees division, and through the measure MM Money, we we in public works have a scope of work where we we are clearing higher fires higher high fire zones, say that 10 times fast.

And um, that's what this this item is for.

So it's it's not an issue related to anything civic core is doing on the solid waste side.

That would be something separate that would be handled still out of public works, but not out of out of Clinton's shop, and so um speaking to cans in the right-of-way, we're we're having regular conversations about making that stop.

Um we don't want dumpsters in the right-of-way, we don't want cans in the right-of-way, those things need to be stored on on private property.

Right, okay.

All right, thanks for that clarification.

Thank you.

And uh correct me if I'm wrong.

If I understand correctly, some of this increase is from Measure MM, the wildfire assessment district.

Correct.

And so that money is coming from that source and is for expanded work that the citizens of Oakland voted for and decided to pay for.

Correct.

Thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

Yes, Mr.

Pugh, can you share that the difference between like waste management California waste solutions that the individuals that they hire the that that civil core because I've been they've been around for a long time, and the individuals that they hire support and um to do this work?

Can you repeat that question?

You know, the individuals that they hire, the youngsters and the people that they hire.

Can you just elaborate a little bit on how they actually embrace and train and things like that?

What Civil Corps does?

Oh, yeah, civil corps have has extensive training, uh in regards to uh vegetation management, tree abatement, um and it's very critical because it's a win-win for the city.

Uh our at risk community, they're chained through this program, um, and then in most cases, uh the city of Oakland hires a lot of these young folks at risk, so it's a win-win for both.

Right.

Thank you.

I just want to share that through the chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Pugh.

Speakers, please.

Thank you.

Calling in the names that signed up for item number seven in no particular order, you can come up to the podium.

Um, Mississauga Olabala, Yvette Royal Albornez, Dave Lee Weaver, and Roberto Vargas Jr.

So it's you got to stop saying citizen.

You are a sanctuary city.

You have to say resident.

I'll keep reminding you how important that is.

So you have a process for what is called at-risk youth being considered.

In the application process, if you're hiring a hundred and 200 apply, what is the process for determining who gets hired?

And that's important because we have an issue with uh race discrimination at all levels.

And I just want to remind you, all you people that voted for Donald Trump, even though 92% of black women didn't, that one of the things he immediately did was uh to defund civil core.

And um, yeah, I'll take take responsibility for that, all you other folks.

Then the other question I have is uh what is the at risk description?

How do you determine at risk students?

And you cannot say that picking up trash and cleaning up trash calls for a high level of training.

I mean, civil call can train you, but to say that a whole lot of effort went into training people to pick up trash is a big deal when it's not.

Uh I appreciate that.

And lastly, one of the things that we have to do at some point is look at the uses of our parks.

I see parks throughout this city with no participation whatsoever, never see anybody in those parks.

And we have to look at that.

Why we are not using the parks, how much money we're investing for property that's not being used.

Okay, and lastly, again, I'm gonna say this, your your wildfire prevention does not include evacuating those kids 1600 from skyline high school.

Good afternoon, committee.

My name is Yvette Arroyo Albernos.

I am the director of core member programs at Civil Corps.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Pugh, for giving a brief description about Civil Corps.

Um, we truly value the partnership between the city of Oakland and Civil Corps, and I hope that the committee will vote in favor of expanding the agreement between the city of Oakland and Civil Corps, so our young people have the opportunity to continue to gain valuable fuel mitigation work skills that will prepare them for entry-level work opportunities throughout the Bay Area.

Fuel mitigation is part of one of our pathways that we specialize in at Civil Corps.

So not only are they gaining the skills to become wildland fire fighters and fuel mitigations to be able to work with crews like EBRPD fuels crew, but the actual work that we're doing through the city of Oakland and through East Bay Regional Parks, um, helps support this pathway in allowing young people to gain the experience to make them qualified for entry-level jobs.

So again, I thank you, and I hope that you're able to pass this through.

I had the opportunity to earn my high school diploma and learn valuable work skills.

I've had the opportunity to receive a number of tool certifications and the opportunity to work in public areas of my community.

I hope the community will vote in favor of expanding the agreement between the city of Oakland and Civil Corps.

So young people like myself have the opportunity to continue gaining valuable work skills at while performing work in area we live.

Good afternoon, uh members.

Thank you for your time.

Uh, my name is Dave Weaver, and I'm the interim conservation manager at Civic Corps.

Um, I haven't spoken in this chamber before, but a little bit about why I like working for the Corps.

I am a uh product of the core member experience that allowed me to go into uh public works and into park work over the years and now being back in the privileged position of being the manager, I get to help uh go for um continued experiences for these young people, which is really personal to me.

Um we truly appreciate the partnership between the city of Oakland and Civic Corps.

I hope the community uh the committee will vote in favor of expanding the agreement between the city of Oakland and Civic Corps so that our young people can continue uh to work in the communities that they live and and gain access to the opportunity to work in the open spaces uh in Oakland.

We really care about our community and keeping it safe and feel that uh mitigation work is important.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments and chair that concludes our speakers on this item.

All right, let's vote.

Do we need to have a motion yet?

All right, I will make a motion to forward this to full council at October 7th on consent.

I second.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember, sorry, Chair Unger and seconded by Council Member Houston to approve the recommendation of staff and support this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on roll.

Councilmember Guile's excuse, Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Councilmember Wong.

Um I do want to just add a comment with this expansion.

I think this sounds like a great program, but I just want to make sure that this is really prioritizing Oakland at-risk youth for this program.

And that would be my comment.

Thank you.

And your vote.

Okay, thank you.

And Chair Unger.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes with three eyes, one excused guy out to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Now reading in item number eight, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute maintenance agreements and related amendments between the city and California Department of Transportation, Caltrans, and making environmental quality act findings.

And we do have two speakers that signed up for this item.

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

Welcome.

Thank you.

Um hello, my name's Audrey Harris.

I'm with a supervising transportation planner with the Department of Transportation.

This item is a request to authorize the city administrator to negotiate and execute maintenance agreements and related amendments between the city and the California Department of Transportation or Caltrans.

When the city performs capital improvements in Caltrans right-of-way, the city is required to apply for an encroachment permit for Caltrans under the state's code.

As a condition of this issuance of the permit, Caltrans requires the execution or amendment of a maintenance agreement.

If approved, this action would reduce administrative burden, minimize delays, and streamline the approval process while maintaining proper oversight to negotiate and execute into these agreements.

Colleagues, questions?

Questions.

All right, seeing none, let's go to the speakers, please.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number eight, Kevin Daly and Asado Olabala.

Thanks.

So Kevin Daly from Transport Oakland.

Make it brief when I think this is a great plan.

I hope sometimes there are conflicts between Caltrans and Oakland on safety of especially Oakland City streets near Caltrans projects.

I hope that these the communication between Caltrans and Oak Doc will encourage uh whenever possible Caltrans to make transportation safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.

Thanks.

Oh this uh agreement says that there will be no Pacific construction or maintenance work agreed upon.

But at some point, y'all gonna have to get with Caltran to work out how we're gonna deal with the big issue of uh our homeless community uh being on the property of Caltran in the city and when we share some common encampment issues, and you need to get the encampment policy, be uh a part of it is the it it contained the relationship of how Caltran and the city will work on encampment issues.

Uh one thing I have to give credit to uh Caltran is recently and over the years I've seen better um uh maintenance of the exits because uh it had been a period of time when they were and the exits go into the city property, and so it's a combination of you you leave the uh Caltran, but at some point you're on city property and working through how we get the exits to look better.

Uh for against for Keller, you get off and then you on the street, and then you back on the entrance of the highways.

So it's it's intermingling.

So how we work together to get the exits off of the Caltran property and city property, but I'm gonna repeat this because you weren't here.

Uh the relationship of how we work through our encampment policy to include Caltrans participation and working with them when we have to do uh encampment um enforcement, and there's nothing in this document that allows us to set anything in place, but we need to get to that point where we work with Caltran on the issue of homeless encampment issues.

All right, I will make them up.

Go ahead, Councilmember Houston, Chair.

Um, I like to say that the city did have a contract with Cal Tran with Clean California maintenance agreement with 57 sites, and they did work with them on um closing the encampments and embracing the encampments with the justice impacted and uh on housing, it worked out really, really well.

So that's what the um the when you saw the the on-ramps and off ramps were being beautified and cleaned.

That was a contract that the the city, I think it had it for Victoria.

How long was that contract?

Four years.

It was for four years, and that's where the improvement and and they were hiring, and and humanely removing the encampment, so that was a great great program.

But I think the program ended, and then the city picked it up for 250,000 dollars, and they're gonna do some of the same thing, but I'm not sure if they're gonna be using the same um individuals.

I think it's just gonna be not things.

I know it's gonna be just city employees, it won't be embracing the justice impacted and unhoused like it was for the four years through clean California.

So I just want to say if you saw that, that was a great, great um program, and it was a great uh partnership.

Councilmember Wong.

Okay, thank you.

Um, just a quick comment.

Uh this sounds like really needed uh legislation, so just to improve and streamline our processes, and I would agree with uh Mrs.

Asada's comments that it has been uh, you know, I would just encourage if in addition to this whatever maintenance agreements that can come out of this.

If we can think through um just any agreements that are needed around improved handling of our encampments, I do think we need we need that.

So uh I think we've all been there.

We're we've seen people just go from state right away to city right away, back to state right away to city right away, and we need a better solution for this.

So, yes, but um I I want to move the staff recommendation on this.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Wong, seconded by Council Member Heaston to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the October 7th city council agenda on consent.

On roll.

Councilmember Guy is excused, Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Council member Wong?

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

I thank you.

Item number eight passes with three eyes when excused to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Now reading in item number nine.

Adopt the following pieces of legislation.

One, a resolution waiving for further advertising and competitive bidding under OMC section 2.04.050i 2, authorizing open market award under Oakland Municipal Code Section 2.04.050J, issuing a limited restricted restricted waiver under OMC section 2.22.050 and waive and a waiver under OMC section 2.23.030B, and authorizing the city administrator to award a purchasing contract to Martin Marietta Materials Inc.

in an amount not to exceed one million dollars per year for two years with one additional two-year option in an amount not to exceed one million dollars per year for a total not to exceed four million dollars over four years in accordance with specification number 25-745-00 slash RFQ 339527 and the contractor's price quotation dated July 8th 2025 without return to council adopt appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings authorizing a one-time payment in an amount of 250,000 dollars to pay outstanding invoices and a resolution waiving further advertising and competitive competitive bidding under Oakland Municipal Code Section 2.04.050 I2, authorizing open market award under OMC Section 2.04.050J and authorizing the city administrator to award a purchasing contract to read and gram inc in an amount not to exceed 1 million dollars per year for two years with one additional two-year option in an amount not to exceed 1 million dollars per year for a total amount not to exceed 4 million dollars over four years in accordance with specification number 25-745-007 RFQ 339527 and the contractor's price quotation dated August 6 2025 without return to council for to council and adopt CEQA findings and we do have two speakers that signed up for this item could you repeat that title?

Please know all right uh let's hear from staff please um good afternoon uh chair unger members of the committee jamie parks assistant director with the department of transportation uh so this this item is to support our asphalt crews for the city uh we do a variety of asphalt work in the city of oakland uh preventative maintenance pothole filling installing traffic calming devices such as speed humps and of course uh full street repaving and we need a variety of asphalt products and multiple vendors to support that work uh recognizing the need for asphalt supplies we issued a competitive RFQ in March of 2025 and did not receive any responses to that bid um and based on that we are recommending moving forward with these contracts through open market and direct negotiations with the with the vendors there are two separate resolutions here to award two different contracts each of those are not to exceed contracts so the vendors are not guaranteed and any purchases we only purchase money that we have budgeted and the budgeted appropriations for this work are generally through the state gas tax and through measure you bonds there's no general fund uses uh for for these purchases uh the the first of those con first of the contracts is to read and graham uh which is a vendor that provides um a product called tack oil for a preventative maintenance or crack sealing and that one's a pretty straightforward approval the second um vendor is martin marietta, which provides hot mix asphalt for filling of potholes and for constructing speed humps um and this for this vendor uh we are asking council to waive um two sections of the Oakland municipal code uh section 2.22 related to border wall construction, and section 2.23 related to sanctuary city contracting.

Each of those sections of the municipal code includes provisions for waiving those sections if certain findings are made.

And in this in this case, those findings are you know are in fact the case because we cannot procure the materials on a reasonable basis without using Martin Marietta.

There's no other hot mix asphalt uh vendor within a reasonable distance that we can use to get the materials.

And then finally, the resolution also includes authorization to pay existing invoices to Martin Marietta up to 250,000 dollars, uh recognizing the time it was taking to uh complete this contract.

We we did purchase, we did make purchases up to 250,000 from Martin Marietta using the city administrators' purchasing authority.

Uh those purchases were made prior to Martin Marietta notifying us of their violation of the border wall uh provisions of the code.

And so for the avoidance of doubt for the avoidance of doubt, we're requesting council authority to pay those existing invoices as well.

And that concludes my presentation.

I'm joined as well today by DOT operations manager, Mr.

Kenneth Patton, and either of us are available to answer questions.

Thank you.

Great uh questions, colleagues, council members, council member Houston.

You explain when you said something about sanctuary city contracting.

What did you mean by that?

Yeah, there's an or there's a part of the municipal code, section 2.23, which uh prevents or which prohibits contracting with companies that participate in certain activities, including with ice.

Um, in this particular case, the vendor Martin Marietta is not currently in violation of that code, but they refused to sign a waiver that they would remain in compliance, and and they've and they declined to tell us whether they would remain in compliance, and so for transparency, we're requesting a waiver of that provision.

So if they don't sign it, what are they saying?

To the chair.

I mean, they s what are they uh I mean, why wouldn't they sign it if they if they haven't participated all these years or have they?

Um it's not only uh the what the city would ask them to sign, the typical schedule not only asks them about past behavior, it also would commit them to continued compliance over the term of the contract, and they're unwilling to make that commitment.

So through the chair, do is that document?

I didn't see that document included that what they would be cited in my package.

Trinity, we can not see that document that they would be signed in to the chair.

Because I didn't see it in my package Trinity and Victoria.

Through the chair, Sally Awareness, Office of the City Attorney, it would be one of the schedules that the contractor would have to submit.

You're talking about 2.32.

I think that would be schedule I, and I can bring you a copy of it if you want to look at it.

Yeah, I want to see that before we vote on that.

I want to just look at it.

Councilmember Wong, do you have anything?

Um, um I feel a little conflicted, but um we definitely need to fill the potholes, which um I'm just wondering what senses should increase our capacity for paving uh with this proposal.

Do you have a projection for how um just our our paved our pavement miles per year, whatever metric you use to measure the amount of pavement you can um you can fill or redo, so to speak?

How would it increase our capacity exactly?

Yeah, I don't believe that it would increase the number of miles that we're able to complete.

It would allow us to fulfill the commitments that we've already uh made in the budget, and so particularly you know filling the number of potholes that that we typically fill, and then also completing the in-house paving work where we re repave streets with city crews whether rather than using contractors.

So it will it would allow us to fulfill those commitments, but it wouldn't increase our paving beyond what we've already committed to.

Okay, and and it sounds like without this, would we not meet our commitments essentially?

That's correct.

Yeah, okay.

And uh just to understand the no reasonable alternative to Martin Marietta.

Can you walk us through a little bit more detail on you know the state of asphalt vendors and and why they're they are the only reasonable all the only reasonable vendor for this?

Yes, I can I can start and um Mr.

Pat can feel free to add additional details if I miss anything.

So generally, uh hot mix, hot mix asphalt, you know, needs to be procured locally because it needs to be hot when you put it in the truck and it needs to be put onto the street within several hours, and so we don't have the ability to you know order it from a long distance away or take our trucks a long distance away to take it to pick it up.

The closest available vendor, I believe, is uh Martin Maretta is located in Berkeley.

Um the closest, the next closest available is in Martinez, and so that would you know add another hour each direction for for our city crews?

Right, okay.

Understood.

Thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

Can you explain the two contracts in a two fifty, two, two hundred and fifty thousand dollar threshold?

Because it aren't it two contracts.

There are yeah, there are two proposed contracts, each of which is one million dollars per year for a two-year term.

Uh those they are not to exceed contract, so that's the maximum amount that we could purchase from the vendors.

Uh the actual amount that we purchase would depend on our our specific needs.

And then the $250,000, that's to pay existing invoices for purchases we've already made from Martin Marietta.

So it says here is two boxes assigned, please complete and sign the first one as I declare under the yeah, you'd know what it says.

And the second one, what's the difference between the two?

Through the chair, Celia Warren, office of the city attorney.

The second, what you're referring to is Schedule I, and schedule W is the same, but for the border wall ordinance.

The a contractor can sign to indicate compliance with our sanctuary city contracting ordinance or our border wall ordinance by checking the first box on that schedule and then signing.

They can also, if they're not able to comply, they can still sign the schedule, but check the second box, which says I have reviewed the the law, but some part of this above uh promise that you're asking me to make is not true, and that would kick them into the waiver territory.

So why don't they just sign a second box?

They could sign it, but but practically speaking, they would still require a waiver for the contracts that are over 250,000 in value from the council.

Although technically the 250,000 dollar purchase that staff is also here seeking authority for, they could actually uh go straight to the city administrator for that waiver, but I believe and I don't want to speak out of turn, because they were already coming here for the larger contract, they added in the 250,000 dollar purchase to seek authority.

But the council could decline altogether to weigh in on the waiver, and the city administrator would still retain his authority under both ordinances to grant a waiver if it meets the specifics, the specific terms within each law.

So so can we put that on the city administrator?

Because I know he'll make the right decision.

You could yet through the chair, Sally.

You could, yes, for the con for the purchase, that's 250,000.

I suppose you could delegate your authority to the city administrator to exercise it for the contract, uh above for the for the contract above 250 or the contracts above 250,000 dollars as well.

All right, Chair.

You understand what's going on?

Cause this kind of I mean, I I think you have always said that you want items to come to council.

I do.

So I would like to keep this in council, that would be my preference rather than delegating it to the city administrator.

Okay, that's what I like to do, Dan.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have any more questions?

Uh, Councilmember Wong.

Uh, not a question, but considering that we just paid seven million dollars in a settlement for somebody who got injured on one of one of our roads.

I think you know, we we need to fill the potholes.

So I am going to motion to adopt the staff recommendation.

I'll second that.

And this is to advance it to full council on October 7th on consent.

Councilmember Wong.

Uh that's right.

I'll second that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

Councilmember.

Can we make it on non-consent?

If if you that's my that's my you have to ask the speaker, the maker of the motion rather.

Okay, make her to the chair.

Can we make it on non-consent, please?

Make it on non-consent.

All right, let's do it.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by council member Wong, second and seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendation of stop and to forward this item to the October 7th city council agenda on non-consent on roll.

Councilmember Giles, excuse councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

I thank you.

Item number nine passes with three I's one excuse to forward both items to the October 7th City Council agenda on non-consent.

Reading in item number 10.

Adopt the following pieces of legislation.

One, a resolution to ensure to ensure compliance with the sewer consent decree by waiving all local slash small local business enterprise program requirements, ordinance one three one zero one and ordinance uh one three six four zero as amended.

Except to continue to provide bid discounts to local slash small local businesses, and two, a resolution to ensure compliance with the sewer consent decree by awarding sanitary sewer construction contracts to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder in accordance with project plans and specifications to all contracting program requirements, each up to an individual amount award of 10 million dollars for each adopting for each adopting appropriate California Environmental Quality Act findings without return to council, and we have no speakers that sign up for this item.

If we miss that, I apologize.

I apologize if we missed your speech.

If you would like to speak on item nine, we can we can hear that now.

If you'd like to speak, please approach.

Of course, I want to speak on that.

So what you have with your uh sanctuary city ordinance, it says all services will not be contracted with ice or the customs border patrol, all services.

So if ice goes and buy Ford trucks, it means you don't do business with Ford.

If ICE goes and purchase a vending machine with Coca-Cola in it, that means you don't do business with Coca-Cola.

That's how that reads all services.

So I thought it was supposed to be the border wall, and anybody that had anything to do with the construction of the border wall.

That's the conversation I remembered when y'all make when y'all did this ordinance.

Now, how it came out to be like this, I don't know.

But I do know this.

There's no way in hell you're gonna be able to truly enforce all services that ICE does business with.

They got ICE agents that stay at the Ramada Inn.

And oh, come on, you people.

Y'all need to go back and look at this.

But for right now, this is your test.

When you start to say, I believe in this, but we need the roads fixed, we're gonna let them get by.

See, when you get ready to, you're gonna die on a sword, or you're gonna say exceptions will be made.

Okay, this is important.

This is the test, and I'm gonna see what y'all gonna do, and I'm gonna cram it up your throat if y'all pay us this, and don't hold ICE accountable.

Because that's your ordinance, you don't say waiver.

I don't remember any kind of waivers being a part of this.

Thank you for your comments, Mrs.

Sada.

Um, and then calling in Kevin Dally if he'd still like to speak on item number nine, as we did miss the public speakers on that item.

You can come up to the podium.

Thanks.

Uh Kevin Daly Transport Oakland, I'm really excited to see major U bonds being sold and plans for using the money.

Thanks.

My apologies for missing the public speakers, just um for a matter of our institutional hygiene.

Let's uh vote again on this item.

Okay, thank you.

On item number nine, retaking the vote on that as we missed the public speakers.

We had a motion made by Council Member Wong, seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward that item to the October 7th City Council agenda on non-consent.

Honorable councilmember Houston.

Sorry, we are retaking the vote on item nine as we missed the public speakers.

Oh, okay.

Okay, I was like, didn't we do okay?

I'm sorry, I apologize.

Whoa.

Um I.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

I thank you.

Again, item number nine passes with three eyes, one excuse.

Uh Guyo to approve the recommendation to stop and to forward that item to the October 7th city council agenda on non-consent.

And now we're on item 10 as I read that in already.

Back to sewers, starting.

Sorry for making you wait.

Then public works.

Seems like my there we go, the microphone is now working.

Um, the item before you uh requests council's permission to waive the small local business enterprise program requirements for sewer construction work, except that it continues the use of bid discounts so that local construction firms can get the benefit of those discounts when they compete for the sewer construction work.

The other request uh from staff is approval to award the contracts without a return to council.

I just want to provide a little bit of context of for the why of these requests.

So in Oakland, our sewer is collect, our sewage is collected in pipes.

We then transport it over to East Bay Mud, who treats the sewage before it enters the bay.

However, during significant rain events, what happens is that that stormwater gets into the sewer system.

And imagine that happening in multiple cities.

You get a large volume of sewage that's now mixed in with stormwater that's headed toward East Bay mud.

They don't have the facilities to treat the water, so they minimally treat it and then they send it to the bay.

All of that is an explanation for why we've got uh a program to replace our sewer mains, because what we want to do is is um seal up that system so that there's not the flow of stormwater coming into it, because then you reduce the volumes that end up at East Bay Mud and you help uh uh prevent that minimally treated sewage from getting to the bay.

The other thing that those sealed uh renewed pipes do is they prevent sanitary sewer overflows uh in our neighborhoods.

So there's very good reasons for us to be replacing those sewer mains uh as much as we can.

Now, with that context, we've also entered into a consent decree with the EPA and other uh East Bay cities, where we've agreed to a whole list of activities uh so that we've got a properly functioning sewer system.

One of the requirements in that consent decree is to replace 13 miles of sewer main, and as I just covered, uh, there's good reasons for us to want to be to uh replace that sewer main uh as quickly as we can.

The difference here is that because of that sewer consent decree, if we fail to meet that 13 mile requirement on an annual basis, we're subject to uh stipulated penalties under the consent decree.

And so where we are at today is we're actually about five miles short on last year's sewer main replacement program, and that means we are at risk of those stipulated penalties.

And so, what staff are bringing are ways for us to accelerate the award of those uh uh sewer construction contracts as fast as we can so that we can get back into compliance uh with the sewer uh consent decree.

So let me talk a little bit more about the delays that are at the root of this.

We've looked at the last nine solicitations for sewer construction work, seven of those faced at least a month or two of delays, and much of that is related to uh the small local business enterprise program, where we're either taking extra time to figure out whether the firms who are competing for the work actually comply with the program.

Sometimes the delay is caused by getting no bidders for the work.

Um, sometimes the delays are because the bids because of lack of probably due to lack of competition are coming in too high.

They're coming in over uh engineer estimates.

We did a little extra homework to look backwards to see if this is part of a larger trend and indeed a larger trend, and indeed um uh over the last 29 solicitations for sewer construction work, 24 of them had either zero, one or two bids.

And in the construction world, you really want to meet that three bid um uh you really want to get at least three bids.

In fact, we took an extra step of looking at other cities uh in the Bay Area and who were subject to the consent decree, and we found that in those cities they're getting an average of six bids for their sewer construction work, whereas in Oakland, we're getting an average of two bids.

Now I just want to um uh a couple caveats.

So we are seeking a waiver from um from the SLBE requirements for sewer construction work.

We're keeping those bid discounts.

So uh if the uh our uh whether it's a local, a small, or a very small local firm who uh competes for the sewer construction work, they're gonna get a range of a discount that'll make them more competitive in the process.

And those discounts can be up to 10%, so the that should mean our local firms are gonna stay competitive.

And this is the what the staff recommendation is trying to do is to balance council's interest and our community's interest in uh making sure our local construction firms are active, engaged, and getting work along with the interest in making sure we comply with the sewer consent decree.

I do want to say there's a few things that will not change.

So our professional services contracts related to sewer construction work, they will continue to comply with our small and local business uh program.

We'll continue to use a new uh continues the wrong word.

We're setting up a new program, which is a mouthful.

It's called the Mandatory Small Local Preferred Business Program.

It's pretty exciting.

This is for construction contracts of 250,000 or less, where we would only be going to small local firms to get bids for this work.

Um, and we're pretty excited.

We've got about seven firms uh pre-qualified through that process.

We held a webinar in the last couple weeks.

About 40 firms from Oakland uh registered and participated in that webinar.

So we're excited for the growth of that program.

So it's all to say we're still other parts of this uh sewer program will continue to advance um uh council's goal of tapping into as many uh small and local businesses as we can.

Finally, uh uh staff is requesting that the awards for the construction contracts uh be made without return to council, essentially delegating that uh um uh authority to the city administrator.

Let me just share a little bit of uh of context on this is the those consent decree requirements, they are annual ones.

So we've got to meet them by June 30th.

And from the outside looking in, you might think well, what's the big deal about coming to council for those?

It actually takes us at least a month and often two months to draft a report, go through the various um approval process, um, come to PWC, then come to council.

That two months with most of our work is not a big deal.

And in fact, we uh uh uh as a uh an assistant director said earlier, we enjoy doing it.

In this instance, because you've got that consent decree requirement where we're under time pressure, and as of right now, we're delayed in meeting that and subject to potential stipulated penalties.

We want to be able to uh uh delegate that to the city administrators so that we can get these construction contracts awarded as fast as possible, get the work done so that then we get in compliance with that uh consent decree.

With that, uh, we're happy to answer uh any questions.

I've also have Jimmy Mock, our principal civil engineer who runs our wastewater engineering division.

Uh either Jimmy or I are available for any questions you may have.

Great.

Thank you so much for that report and for your work in increasing our pool of bidders.

Um council colleagues, Councilmember Houston.

You have mentioned that um other cities have six and we have two.

Who are those two contractors?

Uh the two uh contractors who've gotten a significant amount of our sewer work are Andes and Pacific Trenchless, and I'm just gonna look back to see if Jimmy Mack is giving me a thumbs up on that.

Yes, he's giving me a thumbs up.

Okay.

Yeah, I know about Pacific Transit.

Uh, did did Broadway McCause we have Monterey and my district?

I have Monterey and Broadway Mechanical.

Have they tried?

Because they're local businesses too.

I'm gonna defer to see if Jimmy is aware of whether those two firms have put in.

Okay, and but before Jimmy comes up, you had mentioned that um the overflow, the stormwater and the wastewater intertwined, right?

How how is that intertwining with if the stormwater can go into the wastewater?

Why can't the wastewater go into the stormwater?

Both those instances are things we don't want doing.

Right.

What's happening is that there's uh essentially points that are not sealed within our sewer system that are allowing for that stormwater to get in.

Uh what we're trying to do is to keep those systems as separate as possible.

Yes.

The obvious reality is that a lot of this infrastructure has been out there for you know 80, sometimes 120 years, and so there are failures within both portions of that system.

And through the chair, I just I don't know.

They might know, but why are we in the consent decree?

Sure.

So that consent decree we've been in since 2014, that's along with other East Bay uh cities, and just overall what the EPA and some other nonprofits were pushing us and other cities to do was to seal these systems, these sewer systems, so that the discharges to the bay would actually get treated so that we'd improve the uh water quality in the bay by actually having our sewer systems uh more sealed up.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

So thank you to the chair about Monterey and Broadway.

Sure.

Through the chair, uh Councilmanner member Houston, um, Jimmy Mock here.

I'm not familiar with those two companies.

I don't believe they ever uh uh came to us for a bid.

Really?

Yeah, how are you guys advertising?

Uh we advertise through the normal channels, uh through the local papers and all the typical uh papers that uh capital contracting division does along with all the other capital improvement uh solicitations.

Through the chair, I'm gonna find out because Broadway is a 99-year business in Oakland, right?

And they hire a bunch of local individuals.

I'm gonna find out why they're not, because they're a great, great company.

Well, tell them to call me, and we'll be happy to work with them.

Okay, cool, cool.

Um, good.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

All right, can you walk us through the public health risks if we do not meet this consent decree?

Yeah, sure.

Through the chair, uh Councilmember Wong.

Yeah, definitely there's the public health risks um, you know, to not just the local residents and businesses when there isn't a sewer overflow in the streets, uh, which eventually goes through our drainage inlets and eventually goes out to the to the bay.

Uh it's also a violation of the Clean Water Act, which is really the um the reason why we have a consent decree.

Um, you know, the sewage is uh unsanitary, obviously, and uh we definitely don't want that to be spreading around and um our sewer division or maintenance division handles the operations of those whenever um there is an overflow, and you know, there we do have a specific program to tackle that and uh alleviate and uh and capture that overflow.

Uh it is part of a state requirement as part of our NPDS permit as well.

Um, and there's a lot of regulations behind it that we have to follow.

Okay, yeah.

Um, that sounds good.

Thank you for this important work, and uh I will move to adopt staff recommendations.

Let's uh not miss our speakers this time if we have any.

Thank you, Chair.

We actually have no speakers on this item.

Okay, so with that being said, we have a motion made by Councilmember Wong, seconded by Councilmember Houston to approve the recommendation of staff and support this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on roll.

Councilmember Giles excuse council member Houston.

Aye, councilmember Wong.

Aye, and Chair Unger.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number 10 passes with three eyes, one excused guy to forward to be forwarded to the October 7th city council agenda on consent.

Now moving on to open forum.

We do have three members that's um signed up to speak.

In no particular order, you can come up to the podium, or if you're on Zoom, please raise your hand to be easily identified.

Asada Olabala, Kevin Dali, and Mary Forte.

We'll take Mary first.

Yeah.

You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Mary Porte?

No, yes.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, you can begin.

Uh thank you very much.

My name is Mary Forte.

I'm an Oakland native, grew up in East Oakland.

District 6 and District 7.

The city has three priorities.

The first being public safety, the second being homelessness, and the third being illegal dumping.

But we sit here during this meeting today, and there were no items on the agenda regarding illegal dumping, no status updates or anything.

Today, I would like to just find out why it takes so long to get requests that you submit via Oak 311 completed.

I submitted one on August 7th, and I heard back today from uh staff member on Council Member Jenkins staff that it had been picked up as of yesterday.

So that was August 7th through September the 29th, residents are really discouraged by how long it's taking to get trash picked up in our city.

It used to be two to three or or three to five uh business days.

It's now seven to eight weeks if we stay on it on top of that.

We have volunteers cleaning up throughout Oakland.

They collect their trash, put it in nice piles, and it sits for weeks.

In the meantime, more is being added.

Animals are going through it.

The last thing I'd like to bring up is regarding trash containers removals in East Oakland.

They are being removed by public works, but the waste manager.

Thank you for your comments, Ms.

Forte.

Kevin Daly, I'm a co-chair of the policy and legislative committee of the bicyclist and pedestrian advisory commission.

Heads up to the committee.

Well, this committee, this year, Oakland will be approving changes to the California fire code.

This happens every three years.

And my plan is to have my BPEC committee here from the fire department in the city attorney's office on October 7th at 6 p.m.

If we can get around to it.

So every year, every year the city attorney and the fire marshal has passed code changes which encourage wider streets near tall buildings.

Wide streets lead to speeding, which lead to fatalities and severe injuries.

And OFD has to respond to those incidents.

Can I give her an opportunity to finish her thoughts and I will sit down?

That's fine with me.

You can unmute yourself.

Mrs.

Sada will be seeding her time to you.

Ms.

Forte.

Oh, yes, I'm sorry.

Yes, Mrs.

Sada will be ceding her time to you.

Okay.

I also wanted to continue to talk about the trash container removals in East Oakland.

This is happening because there is so much trash left around the containers throughout Oakland.

But every time you remove them, people continue to leave trash in just another place.

In addition, the waste management contract says that they are Monday through Friday are to empty those cans.

So now if there are less cans to be empty, what is how is the waste management handling?

Are we going to get a refund because they haven't done that?

This needs to be addressed.

Again, I just want to repeat that the residents call me almost on a daily basis.

How do I get the trash picked up that I've collected?

There's illegal dumping on this street on this corner.

It's daily, and then this committee did not have one agenda item on illegal dumping.

It needs to be given the same priority as public safety and homelessness.

In the words of the late Frank Rose, grind breeds crime.

Thank you, Mrs.

Sada, for the additional times.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

That concludes all speakers for open forum.

Council Member Houston.

I'd like to share uh Ms.

Forte.

Um her concern is valid.

It's very valid.

It's one of my top priorities, my top, top priorities.

That is homelessness.

And and the city is not a cleanup service, right?

And and Mr.

Rowan is work.

We have an opportunity right now that uh the waste management contract is coming up to address some of these issues, and and I can assure you that Josh Rowan is on top of that also.

That the city is cleaning these things up.

It's just people are redumping, and that's where it comes with the three E's.

Eradicate, enforce, and um educate, right?

So the city is doing their work.

It's just that it's it's a magnitude of people that are um um dumping these items on our our city that shouldn't be.

And and the problem is is this.

But it it when things are not in place for two years, it takes time to get them back in order.

It takes time to get them back in order, and they're falling back in order.

And I just want to say this to the public, be patient.

And I know patience is is is is something that we we have to have, but I see true change coming.

I do.

I see it, and and you can guarantee that I'll put my whole heart and soul in change in this public health and safety issues that our city that we all have to endure.

So change is coming.

Just just sit back and watch.

And with that, we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.