Let's get started.

Good evening.

And welcome to the special public safety committee meeting of today, Tuesday, September to 10.

Excuse me, September the 30th.

The time is now 6 p.m.

and this meeting has come to order.

Before taking roll out, we provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda.

If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit submit a speaker's card, please fill one out and turn into a clerk representative before the item is read into record, online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting, making the time yesterday at 6 p.m.

This meeting came to order at 6 p.m.

Speaker cards were no longer being accepted.

10 minutes after the meeting has begun.

Making that time 6 10 p.m.

With that, we would now proceed to take roll.

Councilmember Brown?

Present.

Councilmember Fife?

Present.

Councilmember Houston.

And Chair Wong.

Present.

Thank you.

We have four members present.

And before you begin, Chair, do you have any announcements for us today?

Um I would just say that I would want to acknowledge that we've been seeing, you know, a rise in, I certainly have seen many gun violence incidents in the last month.

Um earlier today in council there was an ebony alert that came on during the public uh transportation committee, and I have learned since that that was um a uh black child, uh a black girl um was kidnapped from international boulevard, but we also know that we have the issues with um sex trafficking that it may be related.

We don't know for sure, but that that is the latest intel that we have, and so um there's also recently I learned that um a community leader, and I'm going to keep their um identity anonymous for now, but as you all many of you know this individual was also attacked recently, and he's hospitalized, and so this is just weighing on me, and I think um public safety is um yes, this is just a really important topic that I know is on top of all of our minds.

So that's it.

Anything from the administration?

Okay, let's get started.

Thank you.

Moving to the first item of the day, which is item one.

Please, as a reminder, this is a special public safety meeting.

There are no minutes to be approved.

Moving to item two, the termination of schedule outstanding committee items, and this is also known as your pending list.

And you do have three speakers for this item.

We don't have any changes for the list.

Thank you.

Moving to our public speakers, Alexandra Jones, Sharon Cornew, and Jennifer Finley.

If I called your name, please approach the podium, state your name for the record.

If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand as you are easily identified.

Thank you.

Um, hi, I'm Alexandria Jones.

Um, I'd like to add something to the schedule.

Yes, okay, thank you.

Um, uh good evening, council committee members.

My name is Alexandria.

I'm a mother nurse and a proud Oakland native, born and raised.

I have a deep respect for the challenging work of our police officers and prosecutors to keep open safe.

Tonight I'm here just to address a gap in our systems.

I believe waste city resources and causes unintended harm to our community members who are victims of a crime.

I'm requesting consideration of the following, and like this added to the schedule.

One, a partnership and transparency between victims.

The Oakland Police Department and the District Attorney's Office.

Uh, to create moments for officers to verify case viability before giving victims information about the potential for prosecution.

Because without clear protocols requiring consultation with prosecutors, law meaning officers may inadvertently provide information that leads to additional trauma for victims and use of police resources on cases that can't move forward legally, enhance training on statute which limitations for officers, professionals development when it comes to cases of historical sexual abuse and assault.

This would give them the knowledge they need to serve their communities from the time of report moving forward, and also reconsidering victims having to use their private contact information when reaching out to abusers.

This practice is a bit archaic, and given the advancement in technology puts us at risk because we do use to have we do have to use our personal cell phone numbers a lot of the times when we do um pretext phone calls that are recorded so that um abusers can call us back.

But what simple Google searches our identities are revealed, and so our addresses and such.

And I just lastly just want to thank you for your time and for your service to Oakland and um thank you for taking the time to come together to listen to your community about collaborative solutions.

Yes, and I also have handouts, please.

They were distributed out.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good evening.

I'm Sharon Corneau, I'm the director of St.

Mary's Center on San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland in District 3.

I came today because you were considering an agenda item for the encampment abatement policy.

And when I was here last with the larger crowd on a late night, uh I offered that anyone interested would be welcome to come to St.

Mary's, meet with our seniors, uh, and to discuss the problems that we see on the ground and what solutions are working.

And I wanted to come back and make the offer a second time uh with a uh less of a full head of steam to make it sincerely and honestly, uh we are open six days a week and available to you whenever you would like to have a meaningful conversation.

I hope that you will schedule this item for a time that committee members, community members can attend, and that there will be the kind of substantial conversation that we can't always have in this room before we write things down and start.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Moving to our Zoom speakers, Jennifer Finley.

You may unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.

Thank you.

Hi, Jennifer Findley, District 2.

OPD needs an up-to-date policy and procedures for interacting with ICE agents and with masked unidentified individuals who may or may not be any type of quote law enforcement.

Any existing policy must be brought up to date with the approval of the new no secret police act.

I saw a video on uh last week on TikTok of several unmarked vehicles with non-government license plates, no agency identification in the Brookdale area for two minutes on video, multiple masked individuals deny being ICE, refuse to identify themselves, and put someone in one of their unmarked cars before driving off.

OPD said they don't know who this is.

How do they know that this individual wasn't kidnapped?

At a police commission meeting two weeks ago prior to the new law being signed.

Chief Mitchell was asked multiple times by commissioners and uh the public about this issue, and I was really troubled by his answers.

I'm still been thinking about them.

And I paraphrase them generally as OPD doesn't have the authority to direct ICE to identify themselves or do anything else really.

Just assume that they're legit and do what they say so that you don't get charged with resisting arrest and the look at the body cam footage in the morning and sort it all out.

OPD will intervene to keep the peace if protesters become aggressive towards ICE agents.

So, let's talk about this policy.

Can OPD protect residents and demand that masked people who are forcibly engaging with or abducting residents identify themselves?

Can they ensure that we're not just being kidnapped by a criminal that isn't with law enforcement?

What's the policy?

I also have a um, will you bring this later, but uh we need to have a conversation about OPD doing more with less and uh being realistic about those staffing numbers, but I'll bring that up again later.

Thanks.

Thank you for your comment, Jennifer Finland.

That concludes your public speakers for item two.

I need a motion.

That's right.

Okay.

Okay, I'll move the item.

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by council member Brown, seconded by councilmember five to accept determination and schedule and outstanding committee items as is on roll.

Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember five.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

And Chair Wong.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes with four eyes to accept determination and scheduled outstanding committee items as is.

Moving to item three.

Receive an information report for from OPD on OPD's progress towards compliance with the negotiated settlement agreement and the case of Delphine Allen et al.

versus City of Oakland at all.

And you do have four speakers for this item.

Five.

Thank you.

Okay.

Let's uh hear from staff in the presentation.

Yep.

Good evening, council members.

Uh, my name is Lisa Osmus.

I am the deputy chief for the Bureau of Risk Management, and so I basically oversee compliance with the NSA policies, procedures, and boards is basically my task at hand.

And I will be providing you with an update to the NSA report.

I believe the last time we've reported out to this body was January 14th of this year.

So a few things have happened.

We've had two sustainability reports, number nine and number 10.

We've also had a CMC meeting as well, which is a case managed conference with the judge and our plaintiff's attorneys.

So with that, uh the following tasks still remain actively monitored.

That's task two, which is uh internal affairs investigative timelines, which is 180 days, and we have to remain 85% compliant with that in both class one and class two investigations.

Task five is uh complaint procedures for IA or the thoroughness of the investigation that also remains out of compliance, and task 45, which is consistency of discipline, and since 2023, we've been out or in a non- or no compliance status, meaning we are not in or out of compliance, and as of the tenth sustainability report, we are now in partial compliance.

So we've made some improvements there, and hopefully when we see the judge in December, we'll get full compliance on all three of these.

So we've been working hard to hard towards that.

Uh in the ninth sustainability report, the independent monitoring team found that the tasks were in compliance, but had concerns about a case that missed the 3304 date, which is the one year date that all cases must be completed by uh in order to issue discipline.

Uh and in a tenth sustainability report, um, it fell out of compliance due to missing uh the 85% threshold with class one allegations.

We were standing at 84%.

So we were out of compliance with that, and we also uh were found to have two cases that also missed the 3304 date or the one-year date with that.

Task five fell out of compliance in the eight sustainability because of a high profile case with senior members of the department, and it continues to be in a non-compliance or out of compliance status uh for that in both the ninth and tenth um sustainability report.

Uh the IMT or the Independent monitoring team stated in both the 9th and 10th sustainability reports that the Internal Affairs Bureau is in a transition stage following the court's order of September 6, 2024, and the department must rectify some of the leadership issues that came with that in the eight sustainability report.

So with that, the judge ordered September 6th to please, not please, but you shall create an internal affairs bureau overseen by a deputy chief.

So we did the restructuring, we're working with that, and I think by the December, I think we will be absolutely in compliance with these.

Review agency.

Because the way it goes is if we are investigating a case and CPRA is investigating a case and we're doing that concurrently but separate, if IAB or OPD should finish their case and we are done, but CPRA does not, right?

Then that that case does not qualify as making the 180 date.

So it's pulled from the numbers.

So it's not counted against or for, but it's just pulled from the numbers, right?

And so to try and rectify that, uh, Captain Hubbard and Deputy Chief Mendoza have been working with uh interim director Lawson and is trying to come together and seeing can we say that they're going to be concurrent or uh agree with our findings in the case, or are they going to do their own?

And we're just trying to get better with the 180 dates so that we all make the 180 date, which is really the goal, right?

That's what we're really after.

Um, and that has been working really well.

We continue to meet with city leaders bi-weekly, so the mayor, the city administrator, the CPRA, OIG, um, all meet to discuss high-level cases so that none of these high-level cases fall through the cracks or get missed as they're presented or go through the process, and that's at both levels.

Um task 45.

Um, this is the this is probably the hardest one that we've had is just the consistency of discipline for everybody.

So we've been working hard with that.

Uh, when I took over the Bureau of Risk Management, we started back with quarterly reports out so that department personnel understand what the current trends are, so that you're not waiting a full year to figure out what the trends are and who's making mistakes, and you keep making them over and over and over until you finally learn a year later that maybe we shouldn't be doing that.

So we reproduce those every quarter.

Um, that includes internal affairs, it includes our use of force, and it includes our pursuit boards, right?

So that helps the officers and sergeants and commanders understand what the trends are so we can make corrections early on.

Um, and internal affairs is also added to those findings or the trends and the cases, so you could actually see in the report what the case, a summary of the case, the officers' years on, the officers' discipline, and where it fell in line with the discipline matrix, right?

And then it also gives the race and sex of the officer that was disciplined, just so that it provides more transparency within the department so everybody can kind of see where everybody's at, right?

So that that's been a huge um help to us, and it's also provided and helped with the consistency of discipline in that portion of it.

Um we've also added, we did a our annual internal affairs outcome study, uh, and this is where we look at any disparities in discipline based on race or sex.

And it was concerning this year.

In 2023, uh black officers were disciplined higher than any other race.

In 2024, or excuse me, in 2022, it was black officers, 2024, 2023, it was white officers that were disciplined more, and then this year it's uh black and Hispanic officers or Latino officers that have been more uh disciplined than any other race, and what we really saw with a disparity in is in white officers were disciplined four times over the year in class two, I guess.

So that obviously brings concern, right?

That's that's a disparity that we need to address.

So we work with Stanford University, with Dr.

Eberhart, and with Dr.

Monin, who help us go through this data and trying to figure out where that disparity is.

And right now it's it's not a thing or an item or specific something that came up that shows where the disparity is.

So with that, we've elected to do a what's a qualitative study, which is my first one.

I've never done one before, but it's gonna take a little bit of primary to get it forward.

But we're gonna interview our staff and then come through with a qualitative study and add that to our survey that we do for officers with discipline outcome and just to see where we're at and what happens with that.

I will say now that we looked at the stats for 2025 and looking looking at the statistical data, it has I guess for lack of a better way to say it's normalized out, and now white officers for 2025 are disciplined much higher than the other races for this year.

So it seems to be literally an anomaly that occurred in 2024, but we still want to address it and make sure we're not missing something.

So we're gonna look at some different things there, right?

Um, and then continue moving forward.

So I want to make sure I got the remote.

We did reestablish the race and equity team for the department uh just due to leadership overturning and people moving on and retiring.

Uh our waste and equity team was depleted.

We brought that back.

Captain Dorum is the chair for that team now, and so we have four members right now that have come on, and we have 15 members that have actually applied and want to join the team and become a part of it.

And our race and equity team is going to help us with policy creation, making sure that we are being equitable in our processes and bringing it forward.

So those are some of the items that we've been doing.

I'll stop there, and if you have any questions, I will do my very best to answer them.

Uh let's move to public comment first, and then we'll move to questions from the body.

Thank you.

When I call your name, please approach the podium, state your name for the record.

You do have two minutes.

If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hands you're easily identified.

Ranjit Ganat, excuse me if I pronounce mispronounced your last name, Brad Morgan, Rajni Mandal, Ms.ada, Jennifer Finley, and that concludes public speakers.

Please approach the podium.

State your name for the record, thank you.

Yeah, hi.

My name is Ranjit Ghati, and I've been a resident of Oakland for the last 35 years.

Um I just had one comment regarding where the city is today, uh, based on all the data that I'm hearing.

One is that crime is still high, although it might have gone down the wee bit during the last year.

Um second, we are getting closer to getting compliance with the NSA.

And uh third thing is we are still tight on budget, although the city council was able to manage balancing the budget for last year.

Uh in light of that, I wanted to recommend that we reconsider the role of the police commission since it's more of an administrative body rather than uh rather than uh uh comprising of people who are actively working to, for instance, reduce crime or to impact some of the other ills that the city is seeing.

Um, I would recommend that we either disband the commission or at a minimum to uh decrease the budget that we spend on them and instead spend that budget on things like increasing the number of boots on the ground in the police force, or maybe increasing support for crime victims, or if if you still have more money just going and fixing portholes within the city.

So thank you very much.

Good evening, safety committee and fellow Oaklanders.

I'm Brad Morgan, a proud resident of this city that I love.

In 2003, federal oversight of the Oakland Police Department began under NSA.

That was 22 years ago.

A child born in 2003 is now old enough to wear a badge.

Isn't it time we trust our own community to lead?

The NSA may have been necessary back then, but today it's costly, outdated, burdened with vague mark benchmark with big vague benchmarks with no clear finish line.

Oakland spends at least one and a half to two and a half million dollars a year on this oversight.

Much of that goes to lawyers and a bureaucracy, not to public safety.

Since 2003, we have had 12 police chiefs, eight in the last nine years.

That instability has made the bureaucracy of compliance nearly impossible.

But now we have Chief Floyd Mitchell in just 16 months.

He's shown that he can work with our civilian leaders and begin the slow process of rebuilding trust.

I believe in his leadership and the leadership of our civilian oversight committees like yourself and this body to continue this process.

Federal monitors and judges that live here should not be steering our future.

Oaklanders know Oakland best.

Enough is enough.

Let's end federal oversight.

Let's invest that money in housing, youth programs, violence prevention, real neighborhood safety.

Let's take back control because reform should come from within and not from afar.

Thank you.

Rajni Mandal District 4.

OPD has been under NSA oversight for over 20 years.

And since Robert Warshaw became the federal monitor and compliance director, he has changed the goalposts and given vague criteria for compliance in order to continue to extort money from us from us taxpayers.

He no longer issues quarterly reports according to his contract.

He changes his criteria for compliance, and he hasn't even set foot in Oakland in six years.

And yet he continues to get his paycheck.

We have spent over 20 million dollars on the NSA court and attorney fees since 2003, and that doesn't include the amount of officer time spent on fruitless investigations.

But that's not the extent of it.

What started as an honest reckoning for reform has now become obstruction.

For example, Chief Mitchell proposed changes to the pursuit policy that would include commercial burglary.

Only after speaking with the monitor and the plaintiff's attorney was this taken off the table.

How is it fair that these people have complete control over such policies?

What about the people of Oakland?

The NSA is one of the main reasons officers leave the force.

Its policies lead to officers having 10 times more internal affairs investigations compared to other cities, and most are for minor offenses.

But the administrative burden is real.

Sergeants spend 80% of their time on paperwork.

And in a time of critical staffing where we don't have enough officers to patrol the city, the department has to prioritize the NSA instead.

Thank you.

Moving to our Zoom speakers, Jennifer Finley.

My apologies.

Moving to our Zoom speakers, Jennifer Finley.

Please unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Okay, so I always like to think of public safety.

We need to point out that the plural of anecdote isn't data.

That's the way media, most of council, and sub-public commenters present it to the public.

But the plural of anecdote is not data.

We need to be on the NSA as long as OPD can't police themselves.

They haven't shown that they can for 20 plus years.

We don't have another body established.

We all would like to get off the NSA and have the ability to uh monitor within Oakland and have CIPR up and running.

Civilianizing OPD is also part of uh doing more with less.

Council President Jenkins just pulled the reappointment of OPC Chair Garcia Acosta and Commissioner Omar Farmer from last week's agenda at the last minute.

Um that'll undoubtedly slow down this process.

I would love uh through the chair to find out more about what the uh the reasoning for that is and what's going on with the police commission.

Um, but we really do need to focus on OPD's plan to do more with less.

We need CIPR and running.

Staff is only going to continue to decline for the form for the foreseeable future.

Despite a promise of 45 recruits per academy, the current enrollment is 18.

After ignoring the same math for several years, I'm asking again that you use reality-based information.

Violent crime, particularly homicide rates have been steadily declining for the past two to three years, along with the staffing numbers.

This is clearly not plain to the public.

There this is all obfuscated is anyone having the conversation about what the plan is to do more with less, where that being less staffing, still more budgeted dollars, they're still gonna cost more money, but less staffing is anyone having that conversation.

Thank you for your comment.

And Ms.ada, thank you.

But I have a feeling and a position on this, and I could be wrong, but the history of the NSA is a history of the police department being involved in.

Let me find my notes because I don't want to get it wrong, involved in harassment uh of African Americans, and that involved uh falsifying police reports, planning evidence, using excessive force, framing citizens.

So when they filed the case of a hundred and nineteen plant plaintiffs, a hundred and eighteen were African Americans and one was Latino, and I really believe because all through this process, who has been the main victim of police misbehavior, it's been African Americans.

The stop data has said that you've reflected on it.

If you read the reports of complaints, we can't, we can't see the complaints because they won't report race.

But I just take this opportunity to thank Officer Keith Batts.

He was the whistleblower, had only been on the police department for 10 days when he and he was white, and he reported this.

But the four officers who were the riders, one was Mexican, two uh Filipinos, and one white.

Okay, so throughout the history of what we've been dealing with, the black police office grievance was the one that stuck out in my mind.

It wasn't just about discipline, it was about hiring, it was about uh uh promotion and a whole bunch of issues that they had.

And I really stand by this.

Would it have been the same if the victims weren't black?

Would it take would have taken 22 years if they would have been members of the sanctuary community?

Would y'all stand for it?

No.

So I I think that we can get out of this, we need to get thank you for your comment, and that concludes your speakers for item three.

Okay, um, questions, colleagues.

Okay, uh council member Fife.

I don't really have any questions.

I'm just perplexed about this ongoing situation that we're faced with.

I feel like the city council has very little role to play.

Um, so I I'm happy that we get these updates, but it feels like a lot of the negotiations and the conversations are way above us, and uh again, I I don't know what we can do about it.

And so I would I have some ideas.

I I sent off some emails um just recently and had a couple conversations, but we have this information, we can't direct staff, we can't tell OPD what to do.

So it's great.

Thank you, um, officer for this this update, but I I just feel really helpless in this situation.

So I I um I just wanted to to make it clear.

We can't tell the judge what to do, we can't tell the the monitor what to do.

We can't tell the police department what to do.

So I guess I would ask through the chair to um I I'm gonna put this on Joe to breeze.

I want to find out from our parliamentarian or um just state for the the public or ask for this particular conversation.

What role can the city council play to ensure that this process is going is transparently and is best as we possibly can make it.

What can this body actually affect in terms of change?

Thank you, and through the chair.

I mean, I do think one of the important roles of the city council is to be a communication to the public about the public's concerns and to share information to the public about what's happening.

And so, yes, this is in the hands of the monitor, our police department, you know, our city attorneys.

Uh, but I do think that these the these um, yes, the police commission, bro.

Yes, all of that, but but I do think that having these these regular updates, you know, definitely helps the public to know where we are.

Uh, and to see that we're down to three tasks, and to know that you know, we've we've brought on uh our former IEG is as uh as an assistant city administrator, and to see the progress that the deputy chief has reported tonight is is actually promising.

I mean, I think when you look at the data in the report, so uh does that give you a policy direction to take?

Not necessarily.

It's really information, uh, but it does keep it in the public eye, and I think it does keep people informed, and I think that is important to future policy decisions that you may make uh in terms of in terms of funding in terms of uh the conversation that you had some months ago about uh the transfer of internal affairs uh to civilianization.

So those are conversations that you will have that you'll have to make hard budget decisions about, and having this information will help you make those decisions.

Uh but but you're right, uh, as far as the the power to to change the immediate situation is not in your hands.

Yeah, I will say that the timing of this report is is the chair.

I wanted to make sure that this body saw it at this point because our next um opportunity before the judge is gonna be in December, and so this is um it's key.

And uh I will say I I'm definitely the newest member of council.

I've talked to um some folks in the administration who are present for the hearing, and people are feeling more optimistic than they have or ever have been before, you know, knock on wood, gonna stay rather keep expectations low, but um I think um yeah, okay, council member Houston.

Oh, right.

Through the chair, I got a question.

So when in the police commission when I'm saying this is to the city attorney, if they wouldn't have proved what Chief Floyd had presented, what where would it have gone and would it have come to council and we would have had to make decisions if they didn't approve it on the pursuit policy?

Uh could you repeat the question again?

I'm just a little confused.

Okay, on a pursuit policy.

You know the pursuit policy that was with the police commission?

Yes.

Okay.

If they wouldn't uh accept it, Chief Floyd's recommendations, what would have happened?

So the question is, is that if the police commission didn't accept the recommendations from the chief, what would have happened?

Yes.

So I don't actually know that that answer off the top of my head what I can do is I can consult with my team and get back to you with an answer on kind of where those kind of questions go.

No I need to know this stuff this this agenda you got to make a phone call because I this is she this is a special meeting.

I got it okay so tell me what what do those normally what will happen is if if the commission said no we disagree we don't want that change then it would that policy would then come to police safety commission and then present it to council and then at council you guys would make the determination to whether accept make your change do whatever you're going to do from that point.

So it would eventually you would have come here and went to full counsel yes okay okay because that's important and the gentleman right there had mentioned he came and spoke and he said I want to make sure did he say that that the police commission should have been dismantled did did I hear that the gentleman the public speaker did you say can I just I just wanted to know did you say that the police commission should be dismantled I just want to know okay okay good um what'd you say council member okay yeah what it's got to do with the getting off topic I will say just to bring this on topic uh council member houston at the last hearing before the federal judge um a question was asked to the judge if he had an opinion on our revisions to our uh chase policy he said he actually did not have a stance so um I'll say that the recent decision made by the police commission should have no impact correct me if I have that wrong deputy chief um uh have no impact to our ability to comply with the the NSA so everybody know what I'm gonna say and what what I'm thinking let me say what I want to say what I'm saying is this is that I spoke to Chief Floyd and he said the reason why he wasn't um on pushing other issues for the pursuit policy was because it may affect the NSA that was told to me personally so I just want to know because I want to be clear about things um so on the NSA.

Yeah I I I got my question I got it okay thank you Councilmember Houston um I do have a few questions um so on task two just to understand exactly because it sounds like uh there's this discussion around the CPRA and um they need to go through their own parallel disciplinary process um just to understand what is being stated is that if the CPRA does not meet the 180 day timeline it doesn't actually bring down our rate that 85% compliance rate it actually just gets pulled from the denominator so it's not even a consideration is that make sense and then the they don't we don't go to separate discipline when the CPRA has completed their investigation then we go in front of Chief Mitchell we both present our cases and then chief will make a determination but chief and director Lawson must agree right so and if it doesn't then we go to police commission from there.

Okay.

Um it you do say in your report that the city remains out of compliance on task two you have some more optimistic data earlier in the report around saying that we are actually nearing 95% in the second quarter of 2025.

So I guess just trying to what do you predict is are you are we going to be in compliance by the time we get to our next hearing before the judge on task two or not?

I'm gonna say we're working really hard to get to that point and that 90% is for class twos, just to be specific, right?

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Sorry.

So now through you, um, I'm very hopeful.

We've worked very, very hard to work with the other stakeholders, meaning the CPRA, meaning OIG, our department, to really just kind of be on hopefully the same page, and just trying to really get these cases through uh for the 180 timeline.

Right.

And so I don't want to jinx us because we are on a good roll, and I just would like to keep that rolling through December and show Judge Orric that we are we can do this, we can um come out of oversight.

Remember the NSA never goes away.

Those 51 tasks are with us because they are now in our charter for the city of Oakland, but we will come out of oversight, and that will then go over to the Office of Inspector General, where then Inspector General Maloof will be in charge of making sure we're staying compliant with everything as required by the charter.

Okay.

So it sounds like on task two, we can be cautiously optimistic.

I think on all of them, I would say we could be cautiously optimistic.

We meet with our city attorney every week, every Monday after our executive meeting, we meet with her and we go over what we're doing, our plans, how does this look?

Can we have reports written to show our compliance, what we're doing to stay in compliance, things like that.

So I think with that, and um Assistant City attorney Phillips, with her help and some of these other projects, I I really do think we have a good shot at December of hopefully being out of compliance with this.

Yes, I've been here for 25 years, and 23 years it's been under the NSA, so I do not want to jinx it.

Right.

Absolutely.

Um, it looks like tax 45.

We have a clear plan with um just the establishment of the race and equity team.

I think the one task task five is the one.

Um I don't I it's not clear to me what what we did to rectify that high-profile case that you mentioned where C per CPRA and our own uh and OPD were not in alignment with the discipline and what happened there.

That was that high-level case that involved some senior management, senior executive members, and the monitors, uh, rightfully so took issue with it, right?

So, in that we did the department did an after action report of lessons learned from that.

Um, but we also since that point, remember, this is a I believe it was an older case, and since the Hiller Hines study, we've put in um guardrails for lack of a better way to put it, to prevent these kind of things from happening.

Unfortunately, this case did come through prior to that.

With that being said, though, you still have to take your mistakes and learn from them.

So that's what we've done, and I think through that we have a much more uh thorough or a much more pointed where we are much more thorough with our investigations, right?

And now because we are presenting to the city administrator and to the mayor and to other stakeholders, it's less likely for those cases just to fall to the wayside or not be seen, right?

They have to be seen, they're there, and so I think it's just a matter of lessons learned, Chair, that that's why we're coming into compliance.

The monitor reviewed 24 cases between July and December of 2024 and didn't find any issues with the cases and found a satisfactorily in compliance with the subtasks of subtlask 5.

Okay, oh that's right.

The monitor had a report that was due.

Is that in the attachments?

So you have the 9th and 10th, okay.

Um published yet or given to us.

So our monitor is out of compliance in some ways you could argue.

Okay, so all right.

Um that's that's helpful.

Um and then this just goes back to some of the questions that my colleagues have asked, which is what can we do as your council colleagues to support this?

I think in the last budget that we passed, we had included um funding, for example, for Skelly investigators, and just wanting to see where are we with the hiring on that?

What else can us as colleagues um do?

Can we advertise some of these Skelly positions?

You know, we have listservs, we've got social media.

What can we do to help?

Because we would really want to get us across the finish line.

So to you, Chair.

Um, the biggest thing is just can you provide the leadership?

Be supportive, uh, help where you effectively can with policies, with technology, with the different things that will help us get through these investigations and get and help make the NSA just um more natural, I guess, right?

Um, those are the biggest things, right?

And that's one of the biggest things that Mayor Lee asked for after the last CMC is just to come together as one city, one voice, whether you're the CPRA investigating one side or OPD, or whether your role is the Office of Inspector General or Assistant City Attorney, that we just come together as leadership and making sure that we have the communications that we're using and with each other to make sure we're staying on task.

Because remember, it's here forever, it's in our charter forever.

But we all do want the oversight to go away.

I totally agree.

I see my colleague has a question.

Uh Councilmember Brown.

Ah.

I think I don't know.

Okay, there we go.

Thank you so much.

Um I know that specifically in the budget, there were a couple call-outs that we did make.

Um, there were some policy directives around creating a task force to really kind of um bring all the key parties together OPD, the mayor, council, um, CPR uh, you know, director Lawson and his team.

Um, so um, and and I remember after the court during the court hearing um there was a lot of excitement around bringing on um our assistant uh administrator Phillips, right?

So I think that there's a lot of as stated by our administrator, there's a lot of positive synergy in this moment, and so I think um you know uh that we're headed in the right direction.

Um so thank you so much for the report.

Um, I'll make a motion to receive and file this in committee.

Do I have a second or council member five?

Do you have another question or a comment?

Ah, hold on.

Uh, and yes, I did want to second.

I I think we can receive and file this informational report in committee, correct?

Yeah, so I I hope that was the motion that was made, and I I will second that.

But um, I I apologize for expressing my frustration over the ebbs and flows in the emotional roller coaster of thinking we're going to move from this um negotiated settlement and be able to utilize the uh city's resources and other places.

Uh, I do want to express to the public if there's any confusion that my ultimate goal is that we move to a space where our police department is actually doing the work and making sure that we are compliant in these areas, and I also want to give um credit to the organizations that have helped hold hold us all accountable in terms of um our elected positions and the Oakland police department over the years because there has been significant shift um that said uh this is a very very expensive uh contract to have, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to actually utilize those resources in places where they can be fully um fully effective towards our overarching objectives.

I just wanted to apologize because I know that seemed a little fatalistic earlier, um, but I've just seen ups and downs, and like we're yeah, anyway.

I I second the motion to receive and file in committee.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Five to receive and file this in the public safety committee on role, Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember five.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Thank you.

And Chair Wong?

Aye.

Thank you.

This motion passes with four eyes to receive and file this in the public safety committee.

Moving to item four.

Adopt a resolution authorizing a city administrator to enter into a professional services agreement with Jennifer Herbert Heart, DBA Herbert Hart, the Consulting Inc.

to provide technical assistance services for the negotiated settlement agreement, Delphine Allen versus City of Oakland to the Oakland Police Department from September 1st, 25 to August 31st, 28, and the amount not to exceed 750,000 and to waiving the competitive request for proposal qualifications and the local small local business enterprise program requirements, and you do have three speakers for this item.

Alright, let's go to the presentation.

Okay, great.

Are we?

I have a we did yeah, perfect.

Did a little PowerPoint.

Good evening, Council members.

Um, my name is Kristen Burgess Menderos, and I work for Chief Osmus in the Bureau of Risk Management, mostly doing risk management and data analysis.

And I'm bringing to you an opportunity for you to do something that will be really helpful since that's what we were just talking about.

We can approve this contract.

Um, so I wanted to provide a little bit of a background for those of you who are not familiar with our work with Stanford and Professor Eberhart.

OBD has a over a 10-year relationship with Dr.

Eberhart and her team at Stanford.

Um Dr.

Eberhart is is obviously a Stanford professor.

She also is the co-director of Stanford Spark, which is the behavioral science research and intervention center.

If you want to go to the next.

Oh, oh, I have a click alarm.

Got it.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

So their research has been vital to understanding race racial bias and policing, and that's what she has also helped OPD with.

Our partnership with Stanford has really been crucial in our ability to get into compliance with uh parts of the negotiated settlement agreement.

So just to go over a little bit of what our partnership has resulted in.

We started off in 2014 working with Stanford and Dr.

Eberhart.

We gave them uh a year's worth of data, stop data, and body worn camera video, so that they could analyze to help us reduce racial disparities and manage risk.

In 2016, after their analysis of all that data, they published uh a couple of different reports data for change and strategies for change, which led to 50 recommendations for reform.

Um thing that came out of that in 2019, uh, we actually changed our policy on searching individuals who are in supervised release, probation, and parole.

Um, so we actually started we adjusted some of our policies based on our work with Stanford and their research.

Um in 2022, we actually finally achieved full compliance with Task 34, which is our stop data, vehicle stops, field investigations, and detentions.

That was very much uh helped by Eberhart, Dr.

Eberhart and her team at Stanford.

Um the monitor and the judge has credited their work for helping us get into compliance and really encouraged us to maintain that partnership.

In fact, in the last CMC, which are not in the last uh not July but in September of last year.

Uh the court the the um the court went on record saying what an outstanding job they had done, and they really encouraged the city to maintain our partnership with Stanford and Dr.

Eberhart.

We did in fact um enter into we brought this to council, it was approved in December of last year.

We entered into a MOU with Stanford to continue providing our data to Stanford so they could continue their work.

Um, but we are also hoping to continue our relationship with Dr.

Eberhart and on a consulting basis for the history of the contract.

Just like I said earlier, 2014, we entered into two contracts, one with Stanford University and one with Eberhart Consulting to provide technical assistance on the work that we were doing on Stop Data.

Um that resulted in their reports in 2017.

The Stanford work ended after they did the report, but in 2017, we hired we entered into a new uh professional services agreement with Eberhart Consulting to help us implement the 50 recommendations that came out of the work from their initial contract.

And that contract was extended through August of this year, but it expired in August.

So we are hoping to get approval to continue working with Everhart Consulting to help us with achieving compliance in some areas where we're not in full compliance and sustaining compliance with Task 34 most importantly.

So we where they have helped us the most have been Task 34 stop data and with Task 45 consistency of discipline.

Chief Osmus went through this a little bit earlier, but we were we have three tasks that are still not in full compliance, and one of them is task 45.

Task 45 is consistency of discipline.

Okay, sorry.

One of the ways that we are able to get into compliance with task 45 is to show the monitoring team, the court, that we are looking at the data constantly, analyzing the data, trying to understand where there might be disparities and how we can mitigate those disparities.

And Stanford or Dr.

Eberhardt has been instrumental in us being able to do that.

So Task 45 really does hinge on our ability to be able to provide objective analysis, and their assistance is critical.

Also, they continue to provide help with task 34 stop data, and that is another area that's critical to the NSA, and we need to sustain that compliance.

Their 10 years of experience with us.

They are familiar with our data, our policy, our processes.

So it's they're just invaluable support.

Our proposed contract is for three years 250,000 per year for a total of 750,000.

That's what we're requesting.

And we're also asking to waive the competitive bidding process and the local small business requirement.

We have a decade of working with of partnering with Stanford, and her experience and her team are uniquely positioned to help us do this.

We've we rely on them to help us comply with the NSA, improve our police community relationships, promote better risk management practices, and reduce disparity.

Both task 34 and 45 are key to reducing disparity.

And that's my quick presentation.

Sorry if I took so long.

Any public speakers here?

Okay.

Let's go to public comment.

Thank you.

Want to call your name.

Please approach the podium, state your name for the record, Rajney Mandal and Ms.

Sada.

Rajni Mandal District 4.

Task 45 of the NSA, as we heard, tracks consistency of discipline policy.

Basically whether discipline is enforced without bias.

And Stanford has had a big role in helping us gain compliance in other tasks.

However, for this task, 45, I'll just give you a little bit of history.

In 20, in back in 2020, a disparity study showed that black officers are more routinely to have sustained complaints.

So Stanford was brought on board to develop a cultural training program.

And OPD then did another disparity study, which the federal monitor found flawed because it didn't include a survey.

So in 2022, OPD conducted the survey.

But this data analysis was not enough for Warshaw, who demanded better analysis, and that's where Stanford came in.

But even after the Stanford analysis, Warsaw was not satisfied.

He said that although the department had addressed the issues, it still needed to address cultural issues.

Even in 2024, after a follow-up study showed no racial disparity, Warsaw says, quote, the department's efforts continue to continue to be more in the form of studies and analyses instead of real cultural change.

My point is this we have the Stanford contract because Warshaw demands it.

And even Stanford's analysis is not good enough because we haven't even reached compliance.

Warshaw still withholds compliance.

So what's the point?

I don't think that we should be spending $250,000 for something that our monitor is requiring and still withholds compliance.

OPD does have competent data analysts, but several of them have left to greener pastors.

But the contract, I think, is yet another way to extort money and time from Oakland taxpayers.

I would recommend having a clause in the contract to end it if we get out of the NSA.

Thank you.

I think the judge made it perfectly clear last year, he wanted to see how the department could bring about culture change.

And if culture change related to training, leadership, having empathy for people and so forth within the department, and that is a true challenge.

But with Miss Dr.

Excuse me, Dr.

Everhart's expertise, is she capable of working on that?

I had some problems with Dr.

Everhardt when she presented that the best way to work with our police department was to deal with everybody as if they were practicing potentially implicit bias.

And I asked her there's a possibility that the department is the members of the department are engaging in explicit bias.

But she said she's gonna stick with the implicit bias because it's easy to get by in.

So I didn't like that.

You don't usually do this.

This contract was from September the 1st to of 2025 to uh August.

You usually deal with contracts before they come uh up for consideration, but so but this is one that is supposed to have started September the first.

But again, uh data collection is not the big issue.

We need some culture change methods.

That concludes your public speakers for item four.

Um council member Brown.

Yes, right, thank you.

Okay, excellent.

Um, through the chair to Christine.

Kristen, yeah.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for um you know uh providing a I would say a clear nexus to the importance of this contract, and just really kind of outlining, you know, what are some of the key um work that you know Dr.

Eberhart has been able to do around task 34, 45.

Um, and then I also heard you say with the goal to help the department stay into compliance.

Um, so I heard you say that.

Um, but I I still have this question around can you and and and I saw it a little bit in the presentation and in the agenda report, but still just didn't quite walk away with the info.

So, what would you say are some of the key deliverables and goals for the next three years um with this partnership with um per Professor Dr.

Um Aberhart and her team?

So we they have been um incredibly helpful in we're required to do our annual IA outcome and discipline study.

Um that is something that we have committed to doing, it's in policy, and it is we've had as Chief Osman stated, each year.

We have a little bit of a difference in terms of sustained rates and possible disparities between uh races and in some cases gendered.

And their help in really doing more complicated analysis and drill downs is truly invaluable.

And then we also did another survey this year, which we're currently working on the results, and they have been having their assistance on that.

I we couldn't probably couldn't have done it without them to get it to the place where it is.

So those are two things that we do routinely.

Um our survey is every other year, our IA outcome study is every year.

They also helped us really look at our stop data and come up with a strategy for how to look at the data and how to present the data that we've been using over the last couple of years.

But it's always nice to have a partner, an academic partner, who can you know think about different ways to present stuff and how to look at it and how to analyze the data that's going to be most help beneficial for the department.

So they're just a really wonderful resource to have.

And you know, it's it's nice to be able to say that we we looked at this, and we also had an academic partner, a world-renowned um institution, professors from a world renowned institution also looking at it to help validate what we're seeing.

Okay, perfect.

Um, okay, thank you so much.

And you know, I heard the bullet point number one and then bullet point number two.

I heard another survey.

What is the survey?

The second so we do so we do our annual study of the data, and then we do an every other year, we do a survey of an employee survey of perceptions of the IA process.

So that is something that just got administered this summer, and we are currently working on the results.

Okay, and we are we're hoping to do additional qualitative work as well, and that also we may need you know, way on Stanford to help with that as well.

Yeah, um, thank you so much.

I I do think that as we are, you know, having some of these contracting agreements that there should be some key deliverables that should be outlined so that we're guiding the work.

Yes, um, yes, as we were having this discussion, I took the liberty to look up uh Dr.

Eb Hart and um she does look supremely qualified.

Um she's an expert in the field, not just you know, I think the report emphasizes data analysis, but in addition, she has served as a consultant to multiple law enforcement agencies, it looks like, and is also the author of a book named Biased that has also been reviewed by um criminal justice or experts in evaluating inequality or criminal justice systems like Brian Stevenson's.

So I think this looks like a good partnership.

Um question I just have is it looks like this is being funded by um 1010, so our general fund.

I'm just surprised that would be the funding source because I would imagine that this type of partnership with this type of expert could qualify for grant funding or maybe even support from academic.

This is with an academic uh institution, so I would just encourage that.

Um I do believe there's a grant writer at OPD, that this is something.

Oh, we don't okay.

I think you all were hiring at some point for a grant writer, but this feels like something that um we we should be able to get grant funding for okay.

Um other than that, I'll let her date a motion, right?

Excellent.

Um I will make that motion to um go ahead and advance this um contract to the um city council meeting on October the 7th on consent.

Second.

Sorry.

Thank you.

I have a motion made by Council Member Brown, seconded by council member five to approve the recommendations of staff.

And to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on role.

Council Member Brown.

Aye.

Council Member Five.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston is absent.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

The motion passes with three ayes and one absent Houston.

Moving to item five.

Adopt a resolution authorizing a city administrator to accept an in-kind technical assistance award valued at 1 million for the period October 1st, 25 to June 30th, 29, and to enter into a no-cost agreement with Green Light Fund and Urban Peace Institute in support of the development of community violence intervention academy in Oakland for the four-year term.

And you do have one speaker for this item.

Good evening.

Holly Joshi, Chief of the Department of Violence Prevention.

It's good to see everyone.

Wait for the slides for a moment.

Thank you.

So this no-cost agreement between the Department of Violence Prevention, the Green Light Fund, and Urban Peace Institute represents over a year's worth of work of us trying to secure the funding resources and supports needed in order to create a peace academy in the city of Oakland that will certify community violence intervention workers.

And so just as quick reminder and background, our work at the DVP is part of a national field of practice called community violence intervention work.

It disrupts cycles of violence and trauma by focusing proven strategies and tailored services on the individuals who are most likely to draw or drive violence in the near term.

And when we speak about the near term in Oakland, we're talking about 90 days.

So our CVI programs are tailored to individual communities delivered by trained professionals with relevant lived experience and deep ties to the community they serve.

And of course, the Department of Violence Prevention has both community violence intervention workers internal who work for the city, and we have many community-based organizational contracts where we have CVI workers working in community-based organizations as well.

So in the fall of 2024, as the Department of Violence Prevention was thinking through and dreaming up what a Peace Academy could look like, we get a call from the Greenlight Fund who was wanting to learn more about community violence intervention work in Oakland.

We told them about the community violence intervention work in Oakland.

I floated the idea of a peace academy as one thing that this funder may be interested in thinking through.

By winter 2024, the funder had interviewed organizations nationally and they'd identified the Urban Peace Institute as a possible partner.

The Urban Peace Institute was known to the DVP and has been known to the City of Oakland for many years.

They're known in the field as experts.

By spring 2025, the Department of Violence Prevention and Urban Peace Institute in LA came together and jointly presented a proposal to the Green Light Funds Advisory Board.

And within a few weeks, we were notified that the advisory board had selected us and our CVI Academy proposal to receive four years of funding.

And the four years of funding from the city perspective is in the form of TA and training because the Green Light Fund is not willing to provide direct investments in a city government, but they are willing to provide the investment in the Urban Peace Institute, which is a nonprofit institution, and we'll hear more about that in a moment.

So, what the Greenlight Fund does, they're a national uh funder, and they work to identify cities and jurisdictions to support.

They speak with stakeholders to understand that city's most pressing social issues, and then they do what they did for us, which is conduct a national landscape scan to identify organizations that have successfully implemented solutions to their city of interest problems, and then they engage local stakeholders, national experts to select the social issue solution and the technical assistance that they're willing to fund.

And then they provide the framework for collaboration between the lead agency and the TA provider over four years, as well as funding the TA provider.

So the reason this is a completely no-cost MOU is because the Green Light Fund is providing the entire cost of TA to the Urban Peace Institute, essentially on behalf of the city and the Department of Violence Prevention.

The Urban Peace Institute, our technical assistance partner, has been around since 2008.

They train community violence workers in standard curriculum and provide professional certification, attesting to each individual's acquisition of knowledge and skills.

And they have trained over 3500 CVI workers in Los Angeles and similarly supported the implementation of academies in Chicago and DC.

So we're very confident in their capacity to come to Oakland in partnership with what our needs are, but also bring their years of experience of implementing community violence intervention certification courses.

So the resolution that we are asking for would authorize us to enter into this no-cost agreement with Green Light Fund and Urban Peace Institute and to accept the technical assistance beginning October 1, going through June 30th to develop and launch the Community Violence Intervention Peace Academy in Oakland.

The technical assistance is valued at 1 million dollars over four years, and in fact, Greenlight Fund is entering into a contract with Urban Urban Peace Institute to provide them with a million dollars.

Here's a quick overview of what that technical assistance looks like throughout the years.

This would be a year one.

So the Urban Peace Institute would be coming in and out of Oakland from Los Angeles, conducting interviews, focus groups, surveys with community violence intervention workers and other stakeholders in the city.

They'll recommend content and structure for the academy based on the information that they learned from Oakland and their expertise.

And then we, the DVP, will select up to 10 people to serve on an advisory committee, and those folks will be responsible for the development implementation of the academy.

And then year two, we'll get a bit more into the weeds of identifying who the actual trainers will be for the academy.

We'll customize the curriculum to make sure that it fits Oakland culture and group dynamics and the needs of our CVI community.

And then we will select the trainers and develop the new curriculum as needed.

Year three is actually the first launch date.

So year three, the DVP and Urban Peace Institute will facilitate two cohorts of up to 25 individuals each.

And these cohorts will be for existing community violence intervention professionals working inside of the city and inside of the community-based organizations within Oakland.

And then year four will be us facilitating two additional cohorts of up to 25 individuals each.

And these cohorts will be for individuals looking to enter the CVI world.

So we're really looking to build out a peace academy that can do two important things.

Make sure that the existing workforce of community violence intervention workers is certified and up on best and promising practices in the field, and then create a pipeline of additional community violence intervention workers.

And in year four, UPI will continue to provide guidance, feedback, help us with the evaluation and any updates that need to be made to the curriculum based on the you know a hundred individuals that will have been through the cohort at that time.

That's the end of the presentation, and I'm open for questions.

Council Member Fife.

Got ahead of myself.

Thank you.

So through the chair to Dr.

Joshi, thank you for this presentation.

I know it's been in conversation for a while about standardizing this work.

Will there be opportunities for this to be certified?

As a certificate program for people to get credentialed to be to go through this sort of program that could potentially even be duplicated in other places.

Through the chair.

Absolutely, Councilmember Fife, that's the exact idea, is for it to be a 14 to 16-week certification course where the individuals that graduate are certified in community violence intervention work.

So both the individuals who are currently in the field and the individuals looking to get into the field will be certified in community violence intervention work.

And we're hoping that that certification will help the individuals who are pipeline folks secure a job in the field.

What sort of credentialing or certification accreditation agency would do that?

Would it be the city or it would just be the city?

So we would develop it in collaboration with UPI, who is the certifying body in Los Angeles.

They certify all community violence intervention workers in Los Angeles and Greater Los Angeles all the way to Long Beach.

I had the opportunity to go down and watch UPI in action and to see them actually certifying in Long Beach, very thorough, very rigorous, very hands on.

And so that's exactly what we're hoping to bring here.

Thank you for that.

And I know we have to hear from the public speakers, but I do want to make a motion to accept this.

It's it's not every day that we get the opportunity to receive funds, in kind funds, or cash funds.

So this is nothing but a win-win to me for the city.

So thank you for this.

Definitely.

Councilmember Brown.

Oh, yeah.

Excellent.

Um, thank you so much.

Yeah, I I echo the same sentiments.

I think this is absolutely amazing.

Congratulations on ensuring that the city could, you know, be a participant and receive these funds to help support this this needed work.

Um, so uh one of the questions that I wanted to ask was can you share more about the challenges that the DVP and even like our community-based organizations are finding, like are having in trying to find quality candidates to fill some of the CVI roles, and um, and then I guess how much of a need does a program like this um like fill for an academy.

Thank you through the chair.

Uh councilmember Brown, the field of community violence intervention work nationally is growing, and that is a great thing that we're being recognized for how the important role that we play in public safety.

With that being said, I speak about Oakland specifically.

We have grown the Department of Violence Prevention quite a bit since I walked in the door 21 months ago through the securing of resources, Kaiser, um, the state grants, the federal grant that we have, and the votes from council around what our budget needs to look like.

So the growth of CVI is outpacing the current pipeline of the workforce.

So when it comes to hiring, it's extremely challenging.

I think it's it's challenging for community-based organizations as well, but I know that they have more flexibility than we have in the city because in the city we have very specific HR rules and regulations, and so in order to get someone through a city hiring process, they have to have a certain level of minimum qualifications.

If they don't meet the minimum qualifications in terms of um years of experience, or certifications can count as well, um, you know, junior college college classes, certifications can count, then I don't even see their resumes because they don't make it through central HR because they don't check all the boxes on the minimum qualifications.

So this academy will definitely help in that regard, both in terms of making sure that the pipeline of individuals flowing into community-based organizations are high quality and well-trained, and that the pool of people that we have to choose from when it comes to time to city hiring is also more robust.

All right, we've got public comment.

Let's move to that.

Move into public comment to our public speakers, Ms.

Asada, please approach the podium.

You have two minutes.

Thank you.

So the primary function of what we're gonna get with this contract is we're gonna get life coaching, violence interruption, and intervention and healing services.

But at some point, we gotta go a little broader in what we offer to end violence.

And so what we need is opportunities for people to change their lives through job training, rehabilitation programs, programs to develop that deal with stress management skills.

We need programs for women to have uh to make more available bad women's shelters.

Uh we need to have better prepared people to return home from prisons, deal with that, so uh have programs within the prison system that helps them to come out and not have to deal with recidivism.

So uh fix the uh unhealthy home situations that a people are dealing with and parenting skills uh that need to be, it's just a it's a conglomeration of many things, and what I've been seeing is life coaching, violence interruptions, and I haven't seen the expansion of the many things that need to be in place, and when we get to deal with those things, we'll have an opportunity to really deal with this issue of violence prevention.

That concludes your public speakers for item five.

Okay, thank you.

And um, uh sorry, Dr.

Joshi, I have another questionslash comment for you.

Um, first of all, I'm I also share my colleagues' excitement for this.

This is great, this is free at no cost to the city.

So thank you to you and your team for your leadership and giving us this opportunity.

Um, I think one thing that I, you know, you and I have had some discussion around the importance of and my priorities around addressing sex trafficking and um just observations around how not all, but some perhaps of our violence interrupter um organizations having a cultural issue and not taking the sex trafficking issue seriously, sort of underplaying it as pimping culture or something like you know, things like that when we're talking about commercial sex exploitation of minors and um I would just um ask if you could speak to that and whether this academy can help push to change those push a um a change in that norm in what we've discussed.

Yes, madam chair, thank you for the question.

I would agree with you.

I think the culture in America, generally speaking, doesn't necessarily always take the issues of gender-based violence or understand the issues of sex trafficking specifically.

So I do think it's a broader cultural issue and a cultural issue that we've been working on inside the Department of Violence Prevention the whole time that I've been here, and really what we're most interested in is understanding and making visible the intersections between gender-based violence, both in terms of the intersections of gender-based violence and gun and group violence and all community violence, and so really trying to make visible that the root causes are most often the same, and oftentimes folks are coming from the same vulnerable populations, that folks after being victimized by one form of violence or another are then not necessarily receiving the system supports that they need, similar to what Miss Asada was speaking to, and then making sure that we also understand that oftentimes the interventions look very, very similar.

And so helping life coaches, violence interrupters, and the network of community-based organizations understand that when you're working on gender-based violence or human trafficking specifically, you don't need to be nervous because the skill sets that you've built responding to other forms of community violence are applicable.

We just need to fine-tune some of those things.

So we've been working on that in the DVP to your specific question around the Peace Academy.

That is one thing that we've already lifted up with the funder and Urban Peace Institute because as their current curriculum stands, they don't have a carve out for gender-based violence or human trafficking.

And so we've said that the Oakland Academy will need to have at least 40 hours.

And so we have a gender-based violence specialist on staff who is going to be working really closely to make sure that at least the basics, a one-on-one understanding of gender-based violence and how to respond to trafficking is built into every community violence intervention worker in Oakland's repertoire.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Do I have a second?

Or council member Houston.

Ah, yeah.

You had mentioned the sex trafficking.

Um, it's embarrassing.

It's embarrassing, and and on international E14, we got a hundred plus girls on the street.

Yeah.

I mean, it's embarrassing.

And it ain't it's not like that in Alameda, it's not like that.

I'm gonna just say some it's not like that in other cities.

What's that mean?

What does that mean?

We are not doing our job.

What does that mean?

They have clients.

That's what that means.

That's exactly what that means.

It's not the girls, they have clients, right?

And when is enough enough?

I mean, I've been talking about this before, are hearing the same thing, and it's just getting bigger, bigger, more and more.

It's embarrassing, and it's sad that we allow this to happen in our city.

Like I said earlier, the city of Oakland is not gonna be in the dumping ground no longer.

I am not gonna tolerate it, I'm gonna pull in whatever forces I have to pull in to help that.

If it's my colleagues or outside of the city, outside of the state, I'm gonna do it.

Because when I drive down international, E14, and I see over a hundred young girls, young women on our street.

Why should we have to live like this?

It's unacceptable.

I agree with you, Councilmember Houston.

And if you want to work with me on the legislation I'm trying to author, please do.

So thank you.

Oh, do the chair, and I will have a couple of ideas, how they're being transported over here.

So I'd like to co-chair something and just share my ideas from my personal experience.

You and I have worked together in the past on this issue.

I think most folks are familiar with my background working on human trafficking issues.

I was an investigator, I was a head of the human trafficking unit at OPD.

I've worked on legislation, I've closed down motels, I've rescued hundreds of girls, I've done all the four corners of the work.

At this point in my career, my job is to make sure that the advocacy, the response, and the pathways for women and girls who want to get out of the life exist.

And so that is what we do at the DVP.

Internally, we're hiring two gender-based violence specialists to specifically be able to work with the young women and girls who are living at that intersection that we've been talking about, because unfortunately, as you're seeing, that intersection is growing, meaning that a lot of folks that are involved in the sex trade now at this point are also gang and group involved, and there's a lot of gun play and violence associated with it.

And so we want to be able from the city perspective to have gender-based violence specialists working inside the DVP that have expertise and capacity to work with people that are living at that specific intersection of gang and group involvement, sex trafficking, gun play, and violence.

So we're building the team.

Thank you all for helping us unfreeze those positions.

And we're also funding community-based organizations.

Thank you all for approving those contracts to be the wraparound supports that Mississauta was speaking to.

So although we don't have all of the capacity within the city to do job training, to offer emergency and transitional housing, to do therapeutic supports, we do partner with the 21 community-based organizations that were funding through Measure NN to provide those support services, both for the gun and group violence and for the gender-based violence and human trafficking side of the house.

Great.

Do I have a second?

Second the motion.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember 5, seconded by Councilmember Brown to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this to item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Unroll, Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember Five.

Aye.

Council Member Houston.

Aye.

And Chair.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes with four eyes to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this to item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent moving to item six.

Adopt a resolution amending a grant with Oakland Private Industry Council for Employment Services from October 1st, 2025 to September 30, 26, to add $90,000 for a total amount not to exceed $390,000 and to amending a grant with the National Institute of Criminal Justice reform for community violence intervention services from October 1st, 25 to September 30, 26, to add 100 103, 112,000 for a total amount not to exceed 538 and 100 538,112.

Three amending a grant for communities united restorative youth justice for the community and school-based violence intervention services from October 1st, 25 to September 30, 26, to add 130,000 for school-based violence intervention services from October 1st, 25 to June 30, 26 for a total amount not to exceed 1,095,000.

And you do have one speaker for this item.

Great.

We'll have the presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Jenny Lynche, Deputy Chief of Grants Programs and Evaluation for the Department of Violence Prevention.

I do have slides.

Thank you.

So with this item, we are asking the committee to approve several small updates to community-based grants for our grant year of 2025 through 2026.

Those grants start tomorrow, October 1st and run through September 30th of one of uh 2026, and they are one year grants.

As a reminder, this body and then city council approved on May 20th, 2025, us awarding 10,765,000 to community violence intervention services for the period again of October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2026.

From October 1st, 2025 through, I'm sorry, that's a typo through June 30th, 2026.

Those are nine-month grants, and all of the funding for these grants comes from Measure NN.

There are two conditions that have arisen that require us to make a few small adjustments that we're presenting today.

The first is that as uh Deputy City Administrative Reese reminded us yesterday, we were in the very fortunate position where Measure NN revenues came in higher than originally anticipated, so we have more money to give out than we were expecting.

The legislation does require us to give out 75% of the Measure NN funds that are allocated to the Department of Violence Prevention to community-based organizations.

And so we have an additional 193,112 to give out in grants for this grant year 25-26 in order to comply with legislation.

And then the second thing is that one of our providers that we had funded to deliver life coaching services at McClyman's High School through the School of Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, student program for academic and athletic transitioning, also known as SPAT, notified us in August that unfortunately they would be unable to continue delivering those services beyond August 31st.

So we do need a new provider to deliver those services through June of next year.

So the three changes that we're hoping to make: the first is that we're hoping to add $90,000 to a grant with the Oakland Private Industry Council to increase monthly incentive payments from $375 to $1,000 during two four month employment training cohorts that they are going to run for internal DVP life coaching participants.

The grant that was already authorized with them allows them to run two 16-week employment readiness cohorts where for 16 weeks, two hours every week they deliver training content to our internal life coaching participants to prepare them for employment or job training programs, and we've always sought to increase the monthly incentive payments that our life coaching participants receive, which is currently $375 per month.

And so these additional funds will allow us to increase those payments while they are actively participating in these training cohorts to a thousand dollars per month.

The second change is that we are adding 103,112 to a grant with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to increase funding for emergency relocation services and increase slightly the number of people who are able to be served.

It's become apparent over the last few months that the current allocation of roughly $3,000 per individual who needs to be relocated outside of Oakland is not quite sufficient, and so we're looking to increase that to closer to $5,000 per individual and also slightly increase the number of people who can be served.

And then very lastly, we're looking to switch the provider of school-based life coaching services at McClyman's High School from SPAT to communities united for restorative youth justice, also known as Courage.

Courage already delivers school-based life coaching services at several other high schools as part of the school VIP program, and they also deliver violence interruption services at McClyman's High School, so they already have strong relationships with staff and students at that school.

So that feels like a natural fit, and they are excited to take on that bucket of work.

That's the end of the presentation.

I think there was public comment.

Let's move to that.

Thank you.

Want to call your name, please approach the podium.

Okay, you were being very gracious when you dealt with the SPAT issue.

So SPAT reported to you not getting paid, and you did an audit, and you found out there was some discrepancies with the handling of money.

So they decided to step aside because of your findings, and I appreciate you finding that.

And I don't know how they could have been in McClyman's in 2024 when SPAT was supposed to be there.

So they haven't been at McClyman's.

Now the group is a very effective group, but they are a mostly Latino Hispanic group.

And the culture of our community at McClyman's is majority African Americans.

Now they've hired one person, and the guy from SPAT, they're gonna hire him recommending that, but they get to control our black community as far as what's happening.

But that's our fault, that's our fault as black communities members.

And so I can't fault you for doing what's going on now because we failed.

We failed as black people, and we're failing to step up to do the work.

And I have to say, in this case, we have a community that's not representative of the majority of students that's gonna have oversight with a member of SPAT.

I don't know why they deserve to have this.

And they only have one other person that works at bunch, but that concludes your public speakers for item six.

Okay.

Uh council member Fife.

Yeah, I I actually uh have similar questions around the racial components of uh the service deliverers at McClyman's High School.

So through the chair um to our staff, is the existing program that's being offered at McClyman's right now.

Will it still have the same operators and just be managed by courage, or will they be bringing in their own uh service individuals to provide the details of this program?

Through the chair, courage will be hiring the life coach who has been working through SPAT at McClemmins High School, who is an African-American male, and so he will be continuing to provide those services just as an employee of Courage.

Okay.

So he was hired by Courage.

He was he is being hired by Courage.

And was and I I do have to state for the record, I've seen some of the work that they do in the fruit veil and other places, and I I don't think there are many organizations that do it better when it's they're working with young people.

Um, but I am I I was concerned until you just clarify that for me, because of the racial demographics of McClyman's.

Um I do I am curious if other organizations were considered that were our black serving organizations.

I don't want to put folks on the spot that are in the room, but I am familiar with black organizing project, and I just wonder if other organizations were considered.

We had to stick at least for this contract period with the organizations that had applied to the RFP back in 2021 that we originally selected agencies through and that have been operating through the school VIP program.

So we only had several agencies to choose from, and because of courage's again established relationships through their violence interrupter, who is also an African-American male at McClyman's, as well as their experience delivering the life coaching model.

Um we felt that courage was the best fit.

Thank you.

Councilmember Brown.

Okay, excellent.

Uh, through the chair.

Um, thank you so much for bringing this report.

Um, just have a couple questions.

Um, so I think maybe the first thing that I see.

Well, the first question is kind of around the increase in the I'm definitely grateful around the measure and in that there was increased revenue.

I am curious, um, what really like what contributed to the increase in that in the revenue.

Um, I don't think a report has come to council um around kind of that that revenue revenue increase.

So that's kind of part one of my question.

And then as I'm looking at the um, I guess I kind of have the same question as council member five, but I'm gonna ask it maybe a little different way.

Um, as I'm looking at the um providers that were selected to kind of receive this increase, it's very clear the different buckets that they're falling under.

So we see employment, we see um an increase in funding around like community services, um, relocation, right?

And then we have the second bud bucket supporting our students.

Um I am aware of a handful of organizations that maybe in the last round of funding, they were advocating for more dollars based on um just impacts here in community.

One that comes to my mind is um the Qaddafi Washington Foundation and some of the work that they're doing to support families that have been impacted by the gun violence in our city and and and how they um really um you know don't have they don't have enough resources to be kind of providing some of the services, right?

Because their funding kind of got reduced.

So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Um kind of maybe it's kind of the same question around like how were the how are the allocations actually considered given that there were a handful of organ nonprofits that did apply for this funding, but maybe it's under a different bucket, but maybe we can clarify.

Sure.

Through the chair, council member Brown.

Um for the most part, the vast majority of our organizations are always advocating for more dollars, um, through all different types of means, and I most oftentimes agree with their need for more dollars.

Uh, although when we have this conversation about measure NN and it's 13 million dollars, it sounds like a lot of money, but when we really think about the need that is in our community around violence intervention and prevention, it's not that much money to go around to 21 different community-based organizations with three different strategies that we're trying to invest in.

So I agree with the conversation around how do we generate more revenue and support our community-based organizations in getting to more revenue because each one of them is important and all the work that they're doing and the entities that we've selected to do the work are important.

In terms of this selection process or how we came to what we came to once we were notified by Bradley that this revenue project his original revenue projection was underprojected, that's how we found out.

So he came and said my original projection is underprojected, the revenue is on track to be more, and in order for you all to be in alignment with the requirements of measure NN, which require that 75% of the dollars go out the door to community-based organizations each year.

You all need to figure out where this additional money needs to go.

So I always just look at the need, the need, and and particularly when we're talking about violence intervention in the immediacy.

I always start with focus deterrence.

So what do the focus deterrence clients need becomes my very first question because all the clients are important, but the focus deterrence clients are the ones that we've identified as being most at risk of drawing or driving gun violence in the next 90 days, and so I have to start there when it comes to triaging need, and so that's where I started.

And the question about relocation was crystal clear.

All the family, there's about 20 families in the relocation process at any given time, and we've just received so many challenges with actually doing successful relocations on $3,000, as you all can imagine.

Um so we piecemealed things together.

Um we've you know worked with other entities who have additional funds to contribute, but it really is a real struggle to try and actually relocate highly at risk family or even individual out of the city of Oakland.

We try to get people out about 60 miles, that's our goal.

Um, sometimes we don't meet our goal because there's different, you know, considerations.

Um, the family has child care concerns or they have a job that's you know, all of these things, and so sometimes we make exceptions that are more like 30 to 40 miles, but we're trying to relocate families to safety, and three thousand dollars is really uh challenging budget to work with excellent.

Um, thank you so much for explaining that that totally makes sense.

Thank you.

Okay, colleagues, do I have a motion so moved?

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by council member five, seconded by council member Houston to approve the recommendations of staff.

And this is the forward to the October 7th.

City Council agenda on consent on roll.

Councilmember Brown.

Aye, council member five.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye and Chair Wong.

I thank you.

This motion passes with four eyes to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on Consent, moving to open forum.

Want to call your name, please approach the podium.

If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand as you're easily identified.

Rajni Mandal.

Sharice Gosh.

Ms.

Sada, and Jennifer Finley.

Rajney Mandel District 4.

I want to praise the efforts of Councilmember Wong in our office for partnering with the NAACP to improve officer recruitment.

However, we haven't really addressed the root causes for our high attrition rate and low recruitment, which are the work conditions of OPD.

And these work conditions stem from city policies and oversight that amplify and strengthen voices that do not trust OPD.

A prime example is the Measure N Oversight Committee.

The committee has said they do not believe officer staffing is tied to crime rates and are proposing reducing the 700 officer requirement for measure NN, which is against what voters wanted.

It's these anti-police activists who influence and obstruct efforts by OPD to improve its technology and equipment, such as the police commission taking six months to review requests for drones and rifles that replace aging equipment and recommending to get rid of them altogether.

Such as the Privacy Advocacy Commission, taking over four months to review OPD's urgent request to develop a community camera program and threatening to sue the city if it doesn't meet its demands.

No other city has this level of unelected oversight for funding, discipline, equipment, and technology that has an inherent bias against the police.

This is one of the causes of why officers are leaving the department.

And if this isn't addressed soon enough, we won't have a police department, which I guess is what the anti-police activists want.

Thank you.

My apologies, this is just off the record.

What temperature is this room?

Because it is so hard to get out of this chair at this point.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Um my name is Sharice Gash and I live on 29th in Martin Luther King.

And since this is a special public safety committee, I would like to let the committee know that my neighborhood was inundated with domestic terrorism, meaning that there was over 100 gunshots that were fired on my neighborhood in August of August 22nd on a Friday night.

We experienced a gang that took over our neighborhood for the uh like 11th time and blocked off our neighborhood for their um sales of uh altered weed and prostitution, which they advertise through um Instagram for themselves and their cells, and they're utilizing our neighborhood as a backdrop to do so.

And on this night, in particular, for their eight-hour festivities and blocking off our neighborhood from corner from Martin Luther King to West.

Um, by the ending of about 11 22, over 100 gunshots were fired through altercations to themselves, not with the neighbors in an entity.

Um I have a very curious question about, you know, people that carry um military-style weapons, concealment, and able to buy a bullets and able to utilize those on a neighborhood that they are not from and utilize this type of violence to indoor terrorism.

They wanted us to be compliant and stay in our homes so they can deal their drugs and prostitutions.

And um, you know, we are not those type of neighbors.

We don't comply to terrorism or terrorism acts, and I consider that to be one of them.

I know Oakland is going through uh multitude of changes and issues and everything like that, but what do we do when we that we're neighbors that are living in um hostile situations that are brought upon us?

We don't want to be labeled as this gang's um backdrop.

I thank you so very much.

Thank you for your comment.

Moving to our Zoom speakers.

Jennifer Finlay, you may unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Good evening, Jennifer Findley, District 2.

Yemki Poor begins tomorrow, and there is no turn atoning for the US and Israel Israel genocide.

What we're continuing to do to the Palestinian people.

But in the name of our collective humanity and remembering lost loved ones, we have to act any and every way we can.

Keep your eyes on Gaza, keep talking about Palestine, divest from so-called Israel.

Watch the global suburb fertila, call for protection for them and their efforts to develop to deliver humanitarian aid and open an international aid corridor.

Mobilize on Friday at 9 a.m.

to demand Alameda County divest from apartheid.

Fight to stop trafficking arms through Oklahoma.

Has everyone read this report?

I'm going to read from the beginning of that.

Since January 2025, at least 280 military cargo shipments to Israel have been identified departing from OAK, with Nebatim Air Base being the primary final destination.

These ships shipments have occurred multiple times per week for nearly the entirety of the year and have included F 35 fighter jet components used to carry and release munitions, guide weapons, power surveillance, and targeting systems and support critical flight operations, all essential to sustaining the combat readiness of Israel's Air Force.

The frequency of these shipments, particularly when compared to other U.S.

airports positions, Oakland is one of the few consistently active logistical nodes in the U.S.

military supply chain to Nevateam Air Base.

Many of the items shipped, such as the bomb release units, weapons bay adapters, surveillance sensors, and critical electronics are the precise mechanisms that enable the F 35 to fly its bombing missions and to identify target and strike with lethal accuracy.

The capabilities enabled by these components have been used extensively by the Israeli Air Force in bombing campaigns in Gaza, including this airstrike on Al Nawasi.

That concludes your public speakers for open form.

Thank you.

And to the public uh speaker who came who testified about um her neighborhood's experience with gun violence.

I'm so sorry.

It's totally unacceptable, and this is the task we have ahead of us ahead of ourselves, um, my fellow colleagues.

And um I would say too, just to add on to uh Rajni's comment around um the NAACP recruitment initiative.

Um we've heard over and over again about um the severe understaffing that we have, and uh would just encourage um all of you to um join and uh go out into churches and community groups to talk about the importance of policing and and why we need more officers.

Okay, all right.

With that, we will adjourn.

Thank you.