Thank you.

good afternoon and welcome to the city council meeting of tuesday january 20th 2026 before i

call roll I will go over speaker card instructions if you would like to speak

on any item on this agenda please follow speaker's card before the item is called

for discussion or two hours after the start of this meeting this meeting was

called to order at 3 30 so your last opportunity to sign up to speak will be

at 5 30 p.m. or before the item is called whichever comes first if you'd

like to sign up to speak please get a card and hand it to a clerk representative

at the front or if you're looking to sign up to speak online that time has

passed as online speaker cards are due 24 hours before the start of this meeting all roll council

members brown present council member fife present council member gallo brisson council member houston

council member ramachandran present council member unger president council member wang

present and chair jenkins present showing eight members present at this time

chair Jenkins do you have any announcements before we begin no

announcements going to item three modifications to the agenda and

procedural items including but not limited to request to reschedule items

from consent to non consent items to the next council agenda speak on consent

calendar register votes or change order of items or pull items held in committee

To President Pro Tem Gallo, 6.9 Caltrans maintenance agreement.

So in committee, you voted no, and the mayor's office attempted to reach you.

Would you like us to pull that off of consent, or do you want to register a no vote on the consent?

Yes, sir.

I will continue to add communications with Public Works and other members of the city administration,

and I will continue to vote no on the consent item,

Caltrans Maintenance Agreement Amendment on page 10, S6.9.

And do I need to explain it now?

No, then the other item that I would like to consider a no vote is page 11, S.6,

the mou between opd and the santa clara police department okay to send opd over to monitor the

game okay okay thank you um we will register that at the appropriate time uh anybody want

to pull anything off of consent if not we can send the staff members home that are on consent

thank you number three

going to item 4 which will be consideration of items with the statutory public hearing

you do have one public hearing I need a motion to open the public hearing

on the motion by councilmember Gallo second by councilmember Houston to open the public hearing

council member brown aye council member fife aye council member gallo aye council member houston

council member ramachandran aye council member unger aye council member wong aye and chair jenkins

aye motion passes with a vote of eight eyes now reading the item into record conduct a public

hearing and upon conclusion adopt a resolution confirming the report and notice of liens for

delinquent business taxes with penalties interest and administrative and

assessment charges and overruling any protests and objections related to the

liens included in said report and authorizing the recordation of liens and

directing the notice of lien and assessment charges be turned over to the

county tax collector for collection there are four speakers on this item

Good afternoon and Happy New Year everyone. My name is Nicole Welch, Revenue and Tax Administrator.

I'm before you. Staff recommends the adoption of the proposed resolution which will authorize

the placement of liens on real property for unpaid city of Oakland business taxes and authorize the

subsequent assessment pursuant to Chapter 5.04 of the Oakland Municipal Code. Should the fees

and charges remain unpaid prior to the transfer recording upset special assessment levies to the

alameda county tax collector and auditor controller for inclusion on the next property tax roll the

liens will be recorded against the number has gone down is 1 800 properties um parcels in the amount

of $5,186,449.10 as well as $397,075 for administrative fees for a total property tax

roll of $5,583,524.10. The proposed assessments represent delinquent taxes for residential and

commercial properties up to tax year 2025. Failure to place liens to recover the delinquent

taxes will result in a loss of five million five hundred and eighty three thousand five hundred and

twenty four dollars and ten cents in revenues to the general purpose fund i am here if you have any

questions thank you let's go to the oh count no councilmember mishandre um thank you for doing

this effort on a super timely basis so we can recruit funds that are owed to us as a city for

for business taxes. I have a question. So the $5 million, which I realize is a little

less because you've brought down the number of delinquent parcels, which notably is great

and an indication that your efforts on educating the public is paying off, that more folks

are actually paying before it goes through the lien process. So thank you for that. Is

the number that is here the actual amount of delinquent amount itself and then the administrative

fees is that 397 on top it it is a very rough number remember the report was written several

like about a month ago the number has gone down dramatically we had at the timing of this report

of through the chair i'm sorry um at the timing of the report we have 650 49 properties that have

actually were removed from the initial 2 918 we have now removed 1 100 properties and counting

i just got one from council member um unger that will be removed so that number the final number

we will have that tallied up prior to us actually rolling it to the tax roll which will be in august

great thank you and so delinquent owners have an ability to pay today is that they have an

ABILITY TO PAY TODAY AND ALL THE WAY UP UNTIL AUGUST THE 10th OF 2026. GREAT THANK YOU.

COUNCILMORE WONG. HI. DIRECTOR WELCH. THANKS FOR THIS PRESENTATION. I THINK THE LAST TIME YOU

CAME BEFORE COUNCIL EITHER IN FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT, ONE OF THE THINGS I HAD RAISED WAS

THAT WE HAVE A NUMBER OF BUSINESSES ESPECIALLY IN DISTRICT TWO BUT I'M SURE IT'S THROUGHOUT

Oakland of just problem businesses that are either you know selling drugs

unlicensed smoke smoke shops even though they're not they don't have their

tobacco retail license we sent you a list have you been able to see it if at

all there is this connection in the phenomenon of not paying your business

taxes and being a problem business or a nuisance business through the chair we

right now we haven't had an opportunity to get back out into the field.

Right now we're doing the assessment. We're right now in the process of doing

the business tax renewal. We started the business tax renewal on December 10th

where it's a 20% increase from there. However, I would like to draw your

attention that we are going out to the senior centers and doing the renewal with

our seniors our elderly community we are contacting different businesses your list is one that's queued

up for a call however we are also working with your office with the um the legislation that you

will be presenting as far as that is concerned however i cannot say that there's a correlation

between not paying your business tax and being a problem business okay okay and thanks for following

up on that council member Houston then council member Guile hello how are you

hi through the chair I had some constituents I want to know who do they

report to or ask they received business tax assessments against their residential

property like it was being rented out but they were living there who would I

address them or sign send them to to get that fixed because it was rolled over to

the county assessors because they didn't pay for it because they live there who would i address them

or send them to through the chair they can reach out to the citywide lean group the telephone number

just in case anyone needs that is 510-238-7474 we are taking phone calls from 8 a.m to 4 p.m

monday through friday except holidays we also address things via our email which is citywide

liens at oaklandca.gov we are also accessible via a chat when you go onto the website they can have

they can reach out to us via the chat and we are also our walk-in offices our hours are monday

through friday 8 a.m through 4 p.m we're closed for lunch from 12 to 1. through the chair can

THEY MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO COME IN THEY CAN MAKE AN APPOINTMENT HOWEVER WE'RE WALKING ANY TIME

WE'RE AVAILABLE WE'RE ACCESSIBLE THANK YOU YES THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THAT INFORMATION

SO THE CITY OF oakland collects approximately five million dollars per year due to chair not

necessarily remember we're catching up on a lot of things that had not been leaned in prior years

so this right here is representative of up to 2025 so there could be years such as 20 uh 23 24

and then 2025 so i would say on average if we were doing what we were supposed to do i can't give

you that number as it stands because at this particular point in time the bureau is actually

CLEANING UP AND GOING BACK TO THE PAST SO THAT WE CAN MOVE FORWARD WITH THE FUTURE WHICH IS 2026.

AND WHEN WILL YOU HAVE THAT INFORMATION AVAILABLE CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT IT'S MONEY GENERATING

DUE TO THE FACT WE DIDN'T COLLECT WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE COLLECTED IN THE PREVIOUS YEARS.

LAST YEAR WE BROUGHT TO COUNCIL 7 MILLION DOLLARS IN LIENS IN JULY 1ST. THIS IS REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE ITEMS THAT WERE NOT INCLUDED THERE. SO THAT WILL BE AN ADDITIONAL 5 MILLION.

OKAY. AND THAT MONEY, WHEN WE COLLECT THAT MONEY, SPECIFICALLY WHAT IS THAT MONEY USED?

BESIDES JUST BEING IN THE GENERAL PURPOSE FUND. IT GOES INTO THE GENERAL PURPOSE FUND. I'M

JUST THE REVENUE. I DON'T DO THE EXPENDITURES. OKAY. THEN SECONDLY, WHAT ROLE DOES ALAMEDA COUNTY,

DOES ALAMEDA COUNTY ALSO INVOLVED IN THE COLLECTION DUE TO THE FACT THAT I,

As a homeowner, I pay my taxes directly to the county as well.

August 10th of each year, if the item is left unpaid, we then put it on your secured property tax for 2026-2027.

And then when you receive your property tax bill in around October or November of this year,

then you would actually pay it if you had a balance from us on there.

so Alameda County serves as an end of day and as an instrument of actually

collecting it off of your secured property taxes so we're in cooperation

with Alameda County absolutely all right thank you thank you for that

information thank you let's go to the public speakers as I call your name

please approach the podium in any order please state your name before beginning

if you're on zoom please raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you

still wish to speak Richard Allen Serato the second Dick McClay missus

Idaho LaBala Derek Barnes in any order please approach the podium please state

your name before you begin hi my name is Richard Allen Serato the second I'm

inquiring about property 363 Oakland Avenue I am a personal that's my

personal residence that I live in I do have some income from rental like like

this council member was talking about and I have received an assessment for a

business property business tax delinquency that I didn't know about I

I just recently, with all discovery in this, found out that all my mail for this property,

because I own next door also, 375 Oakland Avenue, has been going to my father,

which we have the same exact name, and he owned property in Oakland.

It's been going to his residence, and he's been passed since 21.

So I recently have done my estate planning, and so now I'm finally getting mail for this property.

and this was my first letter so I made sure to show up to kind of resolve these issues I didn't

know I need to have a business tax for my personal residence so I'd like to get this issue resolved

that's all I have to say we appreciate you and there'll be an opportunity to speak with staff

WE ARE THROUGH THE CHAIR WE HAVE I HAVE STAFF DOWN IN HEARING ROOM TWO WHO WILL RESOLVE YOUR

ACCOUNT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GO YES YOU CAN OKAY WELL NO THROUGH THE CHAIR YOU CAN WE'RE WAITING

WE'RE WAITING JUST TO BE VERY CLEAR I HAVE STAFF ON STAND BY WE'RE HAVING A PARALLEL HEARING IF

If you would like to resolve the account or if you want to bring different or additional items, we're down in hearing room 2.

My name is Dick McClay.

This is about a property on 34th Street.

It's a rental property.

and apparently I omitted making the business tax payment for the 2025 I

discovered that when I got this notice of a lien and the meeting today and I

haven't had an opportunity to take care of it in between I tried to do it this

afternoon but I was directed to come here instead so here I am and the reason

I'm here is that I wish the amount of the lien were in fact valid but we have

a lot of vacancy now in Oakland and I have a lot of vacancy so it's just a

little over half of the lien amount which is actually the amount that was due

and so I'd like to get that straightened out and get it paid but I was directed to

come here instead so what do we do through the chair sir you can go down to

hearing room too I have team I have team members who are there who will get your

proper gross receipts and they'll be able to give you an adjusted bill okay so

they're in hearing room two down on the bottom level hearing room two thank you I just had a

question to our public speaker through the chair who directed you to come to the City Council

meeting versus going to hearing room two who gave you that information I went to a couple of different

places where I've started across the street somewhere and then they sent me down the street

somewhere who sent me here. I don't know exactly who is who.

No worries. The fifth floor was the last one of a different

building. The fifth floor. Fifth floor of a building over

there. I don't normally come to this area. No worries. But you

said you received your notice today. No, no. It's dated the

ninth but I was out of town. I understood. You know I I had

hoped to do it yesterday but I discovered that we were

celebrating somebody's and so he's a great man we should celebrate him I

remember the March on Washington it was fabulous but I didn't realize it was

yesterday that we were celebrating so I wanted to get some clarity definitely go

to hearing room two to get all your issues resolved okay thank you thank you

I went to the city's webpage and it's unreal the number of businesses that close

monthly in the city of Oakland.

So in November, 89 businesses closed in 2025, 48 in October, 88 in September, 54 in August,

82 in July, 99 in June.

Now, y'all having this discussion about liens on property, you're not going to be collecting

a whole lot of business taxes if this volume of businesses are closing.

And just today I read that the only boutique hotel in the city of Oakland is closing.

I also read through some documents that 35,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in Oakland between 2007 and 2019.

And today, about one out of 14 homeowners end up in foreclosure in Oakland.

So you're putting a lien on people, but have you decided to look at the fact that people are struggling?

And we are struggling with mortgage increases, rate of mortgage increases, construction work increases.

We're struggling with the fact that this crazy man is causing us to have all kind of financial economic struggles.

And where's my clock?

20 seconds.

I do not understand how Mr. Gallo's issue that I completely agree with needed to be vetted more.

I did not know that the mayor has the power to take an item that has been recommended for...

Thank you, Mr. Olabala. Your time is up.

up moving to our zoom speakers derek barnes please unmute yourself and begin your comments

hi city clerk can you hear me yes go ahead great thank you everyone uh good afternoon

city council members and thank you director welch for your proactive activities thus far

to get into the delinquency matter that seems to be plaguing the city for some time now just a

couple observations and questions in 2025 the overall delinquencies are still higher than in

2023 as owners are still under significant financial strain due to rent regulations increasing

utilities taxes insurance premiums and rising property costs to mrs sada's point there's still

sort of some struggle and financial pressures out there i also know that there's a critical

change in the classification patterns between 2024 and 2025 particularly involving single

family homes and multi-family properties wondering if there's some additional explanation around that

I would even say that, you know, just understanding what the specific reasons for the increases were between 2023-2024 may be helpful.

The 2024 data may have some, I don't know, anomalies in it, which may be artificially inflating the numbers.

My concern is that we're using that data to introduce housing policy like we did in 2024 that was adopted by council without having good verification and validation methods.

We want to make sure that we have clean data.

And then I would say, what are the reasons for the sharp delinquency decreases from 2024, 2025?

And then finally, is there any data available about why owners are delinquent?

I think that's really important.

what support and assistance might they need, like we're hearing today, because we want to be careful not to set up the same scenarios where our legacy elderly and disabled and lower income owners and their families lose their properties like we've seen done in the past.

We don't want to commit those same.

Thank you, Mr. Barnes, for your comments.

Mr. Chair, that was the last speaker.

All names were called.

Thank you so much.

So through the chair to staff, thank you for bringing this report.

I think that my question is kind of in line with the last public speaker.

I know that the report states that in 2023 we had 869 and then it kind of continued to

increase almost 2000 in 2024 and then well over 2000 in 2025 and so i i was curious um you know

what is the do you have an understanding of why there's that increase through the chair um

i at this point i couldn't answer that question um this was not a program that i was actually in

charge of I would absolutely go back and find out why there was a discrepancy in a decrease or an

increase in delinquency okay yes I would be curious to see you know what that question you know how

that how you would answer that question based on the the research that you're able to do and then

and then I think that the the other question that I would also ask is as we're comparing other

jurisdictions how like how do we compare so like are they seeing so when it comes

to the delinquency rate our other cities also seeing the same increase as well I

will bring that research back okay excellent thank you I'll follow up via

email as well thank you councilmember yes yes could you one of the our

THE BUSINESS CLOSURES THAT WE HAVE HAD THROUGHOUT THE YEARS MONTHLY.

COULD YOU PROVIDE THAT INFORMATION FOR THE COUNCIL MEMBERS?

THROUGH THE CHAIR, YES, WE CAN. HOWEVER, WE WOULD ALSO BRING TO YOU

HOW MANY BUSINESSES WERE OPENED. SO WE WOULD LOOK AT THE, WE WOULD

NEED TO HAVE THE AMOUNT THAT WERE CLOSED AND THEN THE AMOUNT THAT

IS OPENED. SO I THINK THAT IF YOU WOULD LOOK AT THE DATA, IT WILL

would look at the data it will probably it would probably negate it. Thank you

no I have that that's extremely valuable for us to considering the discussions on

the budget are gonna increase in the near future so then the other one that

was brought up was about there was another hotel that's planning on

closing through the chair I I'm sorry

on telegraph okay I anyway so if you can share that information with us be

great thank you thank you that come in since I'll entertain a motion to close

the public hearing second on the motion to close the public hearing and would

that same motion be adopting the resolution is that a yes council members

yeah on the motion to close the public hearing and adopt the resolution with

staff's recommendation councilmember Brown

Council member Brown I council member five council member Gail Council member

Houston council member Houston council member Ramachandran I council member

hunger I council member Wong I in chair Jenkins hi motion passes with a vote of

eight eyes that was your only public hearing going to the non consent calendar

starting with item 5.1 adopt one of the following pieces of legislation a

resolution accepting the police commission selection panel slate of

Ricardo Garcia Acosta and Omar Farmer to serve on the Oakland Police Commission

or a resolution rejecting the police commission's selections panel slate of

Ricardo Garcia Acosta and Omar Farmer to serve on the Oakland Police Commission

there are 12 speakers on this item okay so we'll start with two minutes for the

selection panel this is somebody from the selection panel and speak thank you

we resubmitted this I'm just gonna I thought she was gonna speak so let me go

real quick we resubmitted the same two names at our December 18th meeting they

still were the top ones out of the seven candidates that we got at the that

meeting we also determined that we're gonna go through there was a lot of

public speaking we were asked why we went from a hundred and so candidates

down to seven public did give a lot of comments saying that because there was

two viable candidates that were already on the panel that they were good options

both candidates have a lot of pluses and minuses from the community but we have

our own criteria and we use that criteria we have criteria cards which

tell us that are they able to work with other members there was a lot of back

and forth and one of the things I've asked for for council is we usually only

do our work from April to October because it's on consent so each one of

our meetings is a special meeting and then in September when we get all the

candidates we could have three or four meetings in that month but with the

rejection or a plus we would like some feedback from you of what you're looking

for because I think our selection was was well done I think our outreach was

well done I do know that staff has put in we said one of the things that we did

asked is that they have a communication budget I heard that's been approved so

it sounds like the city is going to work with us to help us with some publicity

so I think we have some good alternatives for our October one but we

don't meet regularly so the December 18th meeting was even a surprise for us

Thank you. Okay, staff. Oh, go ahead, Councilmember.

Ms. Monique, you had mentioned that I had heard that individuals didn't submit

because they had thought that these two candidates were going to be reappointed

anyway and I heard that so that's like they already thought they were a shoe

in so that's why individuals didn't submit their application so correct um

as I just said some of the feedback we got at our December 18th meeting was

because council said what they asked why we got from a hundred to ten I'm just

gonna use those round numbers and one of the reasons that we did here was that we

had two viable good candidates that are already on and they were a reappointment

so they believe that was one of the reasons why we had a lower count since

then I think we have a new group of 13 that are interested and and through the

chair also I see some dates here that they had met for five months like a

hundred and forty nine days and in one of the individuals on the selection

committee mr. page couldn't even come because it was just off on off on I mean

it wasn't any set times and he had no input he's here today and I had asked

him to come up and just speak and share with us to share with us what was his concern because if

he's a part of the selection committee he should have some input and show and speak to what his

concerns were so we meet special meetings because we don't meet you know most panels and committees

meet monthly we meet from if you look on our um they're not our bylaws they're our processes

we set the schedule in january and we meet from usually april to october and then those meetings

have to be negotiated in it so after this round the November the December

meetings are all special meetings that we do have to try to figure out how to

get consensus and quorum at those meetings because they're not normally

planned and to your point Councilman Houston the last one was December 18th

I had to forego two things to try to make that meeting and then we also have

families children's work so it would help us to have it two months in advance

but we are a special committee that is only supposed to meet a short time and I

smile because when Councilman Guile put me on this he's like no it's only a

couple months work and now it's becoming hours and hours of work so once once

more through the chair I received I don't know if you was able to see the

supplemental that councilmember Brown brought forward is so many concerns here

that's just just incredible I'm talking about from outreach to the the process

to the strategy I mean it's just community teams that they said they were

involved with community partners stockholders I want to know who they were

it's much here that needs to be addressed so we got to do a thorough

conversation on this president who was that from part sorry this is from mr.

supplemental from councilmember Brown which was well thought out well and some

the most of the concerns is that i had and also it's like two recommendations here uh resolution

accepting or rejecting and it's one or two and i'm gonna i'm gonna say number two we haven't i don't

think we received that yeah we did okay yeah we haven't had it in one of our meetings though right

okay we haven't talked in a meeting but it has been emailed to us so thank you mr sada you're

out of order okay council member houston does that conclude your due to chair i wanted i don't know

when i can have mr paige to come up to speak because i'd like to hear what they're going to

say so so the selection committee spoke right so now we're going to hear from staff then we'll

hear from the candidates and then if you want to hear from someone and yes and i have a bunch of

questions here okay

Good afternoon, Council President Jenkins and members of the council.

Felicia Verde, an assistant to the city administrator.

I have a very brief presentation for you regarding the selection panel's process up to this point

and moving forward.

So I will go on and I have a PowerPoint presentation here that you can see.

So just as a reminder, measures LL and S1 were voter approved and established the Police

Commission and the Police Commission selection panel.

The Police Commission consists of seven members and two alternate commissioners.

The police commission's duties include oversight of the Community Police Review Agency, Office

of the Inspector General, and hiring and removing the police chief, among other duties.

The nine-person selection panel is responsible for nominating four commissioners and one

alternate.

Okay, Tom, please help.

Thank you.

selection panel's nominations process started in the spring of 2025. The

selection panel conducted an extensive community engagement process encouraging

community members to apply to serve on the police commission. During the summer

months of 2025 the selection panel conducted two rounds of interviews and

conducted reference checks. On October 21st as you all will recall the City

council unanimously rejected the selection panel's nominations and the panel met again after that

october 21st meeting on october 28 excuse me on december 18th 2025 the panel voted unanimously to

resubmit its original slate of rigardo ricardo garcia acosta as a full commissioner and omar

farmer as an alternate commissioner since your last meeting since that meet the the pant will

since excuse me since the city council rejected the slate on october 21st 2025

the city administrator's office has engaged in recruiting additional police commissioners

and updated its recruitment flyer the selections panel and the police commission recruitment flyer

and translated to spanish and opened a continuous recruitment process through that process and some

applications that were received from the summer during the summer recruitment that the panel did

not review so there are a total of 13 new applications have been received the panel has

not conducted any new interviews since this july 20 since this last meeting since since this july

2025 meeting however the selection panel did establish an ad hoc committee on

December 18th to make improvements to its recruitment and selection process

the city administrators office will continue to work with the panel city of

Oakland's communications team and stakeholders throughout the community to

further its police commission recruitment efforts through a well

thought-out marketing strategy and I had a conversation with our our community

engagement coordinator this afternoon to discuss the creation of a marketing

strategy for the police commission and at this time staff recommends that the

City Council adopt one of the following pieces of legislation as identified in

your agenda packet accept the police commission selection panel's

recommendation of Ricardo Garcia Acosta and Omar Farmer or reject the police

commission selection panel slate of Ricardo Garcia and Omar Farmer to the

police commission and that concludes my report thank you thank you any questions

for staff at the moment seeing none oh councilmember Houston yes I'd like to

I know it says here, partnering with local organizations.

It says, which organizations did you partner with

to advertise this?

Mrs. Sada, you are out of order.

Mrs. Sada, you're out of order.

Mrs. Sada, you're out of order.

Through Council President Jenkins,

Council Member Houston, it's clear, I think,

to everyone that the panel will continue to partner.

So the panel has a list of nonprofit organizations

that they communicate with regarding the recruitment

efforts for the police commission.

However, the recruitment strategy that was presented

to the panel on December 18th lays out even further

further recruitment efforts, tabling at community events,

more social media marketing and engagement,

and with the partnership of course of city council as well,

we would like to, we will continue recruiting

for the police commission.

Also on the flyers, my district is major Latinos

and so is council member Agayos,

says you just guys just did a spanish flyer transition translation flyer correct we translated

the fly the flyers in english and spanish but and and also um excuse me council member houston

um the flyer was emailed to your office to all of the council members offices and so you should have

the flyer in your email and we can provide you with additional copies of the flyer if you need it

yeah i i just got the english one um we can let the audience being president and i have some more

questions um yeah i got a bunch more

council member brown uh thank you uh i would like to hear from the public speakers first

if that's appropriate okay council member five do you want to wait for the public or you want to

get to it i'm happy to hear the public speakers first i just want to make sure that we're speaking

to the item in front of us, the agenda item in front of us,

which is the qualifications or lack of qualifications

for the two candidates.

So I want to get clarity on what we're voting on.

To the parliamentarian, two questions.

What are we voting on and is it appropriate to ask

about recruitment and other things?

Through the chair to the council.

So the item before you is comprised

of two pieces of legislation.

One is a resolution accepting the police commission selection panel slate of nominees,

and the other is a resolution rejecting the slate of nominees.

And to your second question, council president.

Ms. Miller, you're out of order.

So the second question, is it appropriate to have questions about processes?

please. To the extent that your questions are related to the two candidates before you,

then it would be appropriate. Does that suffice, Councilmember? Yeah, I also think I want the

public to understand the moment in which we had the highest number of applicants to the

police commission is when the police commission was formed, right? So immediately after the

police commission was formed you had people from all over the city of Oakland

wanting to participate in what the nation saw to be the strongest

accountability mechanism created in the entire nation and it's based on a

history of of concerns and issues that are we're not done with in the city of

Oakland and it feels like we're veering off into a conversation about process

which I agree with is important, but unless there was some nefariousness or some, I wasn't here when

this was initially discussed, so I'm hoping that staff or my colleagues can explain to me

the problems with the candidates that would require us to go into a deeper review on the candidates

because what I heard from the selection committee and what I reviewed in watching the meeting again,

I didn't hear any problems that were validated about the candidates.

So that's what I'm trying to ascertain today with the decision that I make around whether I move them forward or reject it.

So I haven't heard anything about the candidates being problematic that has been substantiated.

Does that exist somewhere that I didn't see it in the supplemental?

I didn't hear it.

So a couple of things.

to that question I think any of your colleagues are free to answer that

question or staff also we still need to hear from the two candidates as well as

the public and I think that's when we'll get a wider conversation okay any other

councilmember comments before I call out the candidates

councilmember Houston yes so I would like to know one of the selection

committee candidates wasn't even able to speak he wasn't even the meetings were

so he's here now would like to hear what he had to say council member we'll get

him in the queue yeah just for Felicia Miss Verdin just for for the council's

information I have heard that well first of all mr. Ricardo Garcia Costa

continues to serve as the chairperson president yes council through the chair

yes councilmember guyo both candidates concern continue to serve in the

holdover holdover status but I had heard that he was reelected to be the

president mr. Garcia by the Commission that's my understanding as well okay so

he was reelected by the Commission of BS continuing president of the Commission

thank you for that information thank you thank you can the two candidates come up uh chair and uh

mr farmer can you give them a quick amount of time

Good evening.

Thank you for the invitation to come to speak.

Are there any questions that anyone has that I could answer?

Okay.

I guess one thing I wanted to point out to the parliamentarian before I get started is

that i believe in the agenda packet that's been posted there's only a resolution to reject us

so i'm not sure if that's the only thing being considered

i believe it may be written in the package that miss verdon prepared but as far as

resolutions being considered that's the only one that i could find online but um but thank you for

this opportunity to speak to you um i never take it for granted to come here speak to city council

it's always been a really proud thing for me to be able to do with the other commissions that

i've been on as former chairperson of the ssoc and i feel like um i always had a really good

working relationship with city council uh you know we worked together to update the burglary

ordinance for a new verified response requirement that improved 911 response times for opd that was

something that opd agreed with we all worked together on that that was a long process

i also we set up a meeting to listen to the asap to psap presentation which would improve

the 911 call center's call answering times by up to 20 percent that was about maybe a year and a

half ago and i remember everyone being excited about that and potentially adopting that so those

were very constructive conversations that we had right here in the chamber some of you were still

here back then but a lot of you are new didn't have the opportunity to hear that and at our last

joint public safety meeting we also were going to work together with up to two council members

on creating a resolution to sponsor the rest of the ssoc's recommendations so in terms of being

a commissioner here for the city of oakland we've had a lot of success in that regard in terms of

working together i've been really proud of that work since i've been on the police commission you

know i also served concurrently on other brown act governed bodies such as the chairperson of the

transit security advisory committee for bart previous chairperson of the alameda county

veterans affairs commission for the county obviously and i did all that concurrently

while serving in my first year as a police commissioner so i've done a lot of work and

dedication and there's never been any drop off in uh in production and we've worked very well

the commission's worked very well together since i've been on there you know our chair has done a

great job i don't think anyone should be surprised that people voted to have him reappointed because

you know the culture of the police commission has significantly improved

under his leadership I'm proud to have been a part of that you should have

was thank you thank you mr. farmer your time is up so one question did you want

to wrap it up yeah I just a couple other things yeah I know but I also

spearheaded the creation of the mental health ad hoc committee for the police

commission and that's to make sure that the police department is receiving all

the best treatment in terms of mental and emotional health as you know i'm chair of the nsa ad hoc i

do a lot of things out in the community for veterans i'll be participating in the point in

time report on thursday i since my application was submitted i've had multiple homeless veteran

resource fair events and adopt a veteran event operation green light that's why you saw this

building lit up illuminated in green lighting which is to recognize veterans give them some

hope and support i recently participated in alameda point press conference with all the local elected

officials people reached out to me to come there and discuss why we felt that the white house cut

the funding for the alameda point project so i work well together with a lot of different entities

here not just in the city of oldham but throughout the county and i feel like i've been an asset to

the city and i would love to continue in that capacity thank you just one one more thing um

you know and this has been said publicly and stuff about uh opoa potentially being involved

in this process i want to be clear i want the police department to succeed you know it's always

been my top priority to help the city get out from under federal oversight um and i don't i don't you

I'm not here to make any allegations or anything,

but it is a self-governance issue if that is true.

That's the last remaining issue for them to get out

from under federal oversight,

and I think that's why a lot of people are passionate

about preventing that from happening if it did happen.

That's all.

Thank you.

A question, Mr. Farmer?

One question for you.

One question for you.

So are you aware of any issues

that would prevent council from voting in favor

of your slate today?

No, I'm not.

Thank you.

Hey, good afternoon, council.

Thank you for having me.

It's good to be here.

Appreciate the conversation.

Definitely appreciate the comments made by Councilmember Fyfe

and the curiosity of the merits of our reappointment.

I stand here today in a little bit of a different space

than I was last time.

I think I wanted to apologize

if I came off a little bit frustrated,

a little bit flustered, which I was the last time

because I was really hoping to talk about the merits

of our candidacy and where we're heading

as a police commission, as a city, as one family

that I think that we've been really able to move forward

over the last year and a half, almost two years

that I've been a part of it,

and for the most part of my time serving as chair.

So you all have my packet, my original packet

that I submitted, I believe back in April, I believe,

quite some time ago.

Not much has changed.

I come here with 25 years of service to the Bay Area,

particularly Oakland, serving families impacted by violence,

impacted by homicide.

I've had a unique purview of the Oakland Police Department

and how to build those relationships

between community and police.

And that's what got me to apply in the first place.

And I never thought I'd be sitting in this chair,

in this position as chair leading the commission,

but I have been.

And it has been one of the biggest honors of my life

to be able to work with this body,

to be able to work with such hardworking commissioners

that show up twice a month,

and numerous times between that and their ad hocs,

pushing a lot of the work forward of the police commission.

Me personally, I come here and present myself

as the sitting chair.

I oversee our meetings twice a month.

I am involved in many ad hocs,

including the strategic planning ad hoc,

the budget ad hoc, the discipline matrix ad hoc,

the racial profiling ad hoc.

And so there's a lot of work that happens

in between those meetings twice a month

that is public that you can see on our website.

And I've also had the great honor of working with

our really, really hardworking chief of staff,

which is our only paid administrative staff

for the police commission.

And so together with a group of volunteers, with one staff,

we've been able to work on many things, including,

and to echo some of the comments that were made before me,

there's also often a misconception about

the police commission about oversight about transparency and what that really means and

how that's counter to the police department's mission and their goals particularly off of

getting off of the negotiated settlement agreement and that couldn't be further from the truth

a lot of our work is really set up to be the voice of the people to ensure transparency to ensure

that the policies and procedures that opd is adhering to is that the most and not just

constitutional standards but 24 21st policing standards standards that we

hold dear and near to our heart here in Oakland as Oaklanders and so with that

being said you know there's lots of things that we have worked on under my

leadership as chair including the m19 racial profiling policy the j4 pursuit

policy which took got national attention got statewide attention and we're able

to work hand-in-hand with the police department with the community to try to

try to do our best to support them in passing smart policy. We supported OPD

in their extension, Special Order 92-1-4, which is the special order around

their 180 days because of their staffing issue and because we wanted to see more

cops on the street and so they asked us to give an extension to 180 days. We

supported them in that. These are just examples of some of the policies that

we've passed that we think give OPD the tools to have better policing in our

community. With that being said, there's a lot of opportunity as we move

forward. There's a lot of opportunity for the Commission, City Council, our city

leadership, all of our partners to be able to work together and have a shared

vision around what does accountability look like, what does transparency look

like, and what does true city community and police partnership look like post

NSA. Only then when we're all aligned and together can we really get off of this

and negotiate settle an agreement which we're hoping is in the near future we

have worked really hard to stabilize our Commission we want to welcome our two

new commissioners and hopefully they receive your support today too because

we believe that we need bodies and these folks are willing to come to the table

and we're gonna roll their sleeves up and work with us and we welcome that we

really are working hard on developing strong onboarding for them and a new

process so we could thank you mr. Garcia Costa your time is up all right thank

And as we're looking at stabilizing the commission, really looking at continuity,

and so it's going to be great to have a full commission for the first time

to be able to really spread out our people power amongst our different ad hocs

and our different work that we have laid out in our strategic plan.

And so it's an exciting time right now for the city, and I just welcome the partnership.

I want to continue and thank you all for your curiosity since our last meeting.

many of you have you know made that extended effort to learn more about what we do to learn

more about some of the nuances and just want to thank you all for that involvement as well

and hey we we're going in front of the federal judge next next week and we're trying to work

in hand with the city to be able to make sure that things are in place so that we have strong

civilian oversight and the infrastructure in place post-msa so that the federal judge for

the monitor could say hey you know what we don't need to farm out resources out to a federal

monitor we have strong infrastructure here in the city at home and we have a strong partnership

that's going to ensure the continued sustainability and the continued culture change that we've been

working really hard to see so thank you and i'm i'm happy to take any questions um but yeah thank

you again for having us and for your consideration thank you so much councilman um hi uh thank you

ricardo um i have a question just on the role of the ad hoc committees i noticed there's a number

there's six i think ongoing ad hoc committees how do you all as a commission decide to form an ad hoc

committee and does it involve staff time does micah montgomery sit on in each of these ad hoc

committees does opd also collaborate with you all in all of these committees can you explain that

thank you great question um so ad hocs could be stood up in in different ways we have several

standing ad hocs that pertain to the internal functions of the commission so like the budget

strategic planning um so on and so forth and those are standing ad hocs and those aren't often

public facing ones so we have a list of internal ad hocs and then we have a list of public facing

ones the public facing ones usually come up because policy issues either arise from concerns

from the public or that we're working with city partners city council opd to identify certain

things also the federal monitor right there's for instance um you know the racial profiling uh ad hoc

was that work is really important to getting off the NSA and having strong

updated racial profiling policies so typically how that works is OPD would

work with us we'll stand up an ad hoc we'll have a public meeting that staff

our chief of staff we'll have to record that we'll have to get notes it's a lot

of a lot of work that goes into that and then whatever work is produced out of

that then goes through OCA through our city attorneys through the union process

depending if there's implications on that as well and then also the federal

monitor gets eyes on it and then at that point we'll be able to bring it to the

Commission for a full vote so that's usually typically the process on that

and so different issues come up depending on either municipal code

standing legislation things that need to get work done that are outside of that

need to work on in addition to or just start meeting to twice a twice a month

so that gives the ad hoc gives commissioners a chance to have two or

three different commissioners on an ad hoc with the public with subject matter

experts to be able to develop craft or revise policy okay thank you any

questions for the council members councilmember Houston a question to the

chair what are you doing when was the last time you guys met as a commissioner

as a commission two weeks ago yeah we have a commission meeting we meet every

second and fourth Thursdays but we also have standing ad hocs throughout the

week so we have about two or three different ad hocs that happen on those

off weeks on the alternate week so we're pretty much meeting every week okay and

through the chair I was you know really disappointed the last time and I

appreciate your apologies but I was disappointed on how that interaction

happened with us voicing our what we voiced right our decision right because

it wasn't personal wasn't about you was about the process about hundred people

applying before then it was only seven and then all these other things that I'm

seeing that the Spanish flower we didn't even get that out on time to even speak

to see if our Spanish individuals that wanted to apply so okay and if I could

add and I appreciate the discussion about recruitment any way we can help

we've offered also and worked hand in hand with the selection panel there needs to be a certain

level of obviously autonomy and independence with that as well and how they work with you on and

having a pool but i think it is important to have a strong pool to be able to have a reserve pool

things happen and life happens right so we can lose a commissioner at any time and it's really

good to have strong qualified people in the queue and you know whenever our there's reappointments

and things of that nature that there is a strong competitive process as well too we don't have any

any control of that all we have control of is doing the work showing up and doing

our best job so appreciate it we're not always gonna see eye to eye but we are

one city one family and I look forward to continue to work with you all council

member Pfeiff I have a question to the staff Ricardo just mentioned it by

saying that the candidates don't have any authority or control over the

selection process so can maybe Felicia who is responsible for the outreach is

Is that the candidates who want to be commissioners,

or is it the city of Oakland that's responsible for a robust

process to do outreach to the community

to get as many candidates as possible?

Through the chair, in the charter,

it states that the city administrator's office

is responsible for staffing the selection panel.

And therefore, the selection panel is a partnership.

We participate in the recruitment efforts.

The city administrator's office, we

lead out on much of that.

Staff will send out a press release

at the beginning of the panel's recruitment process

when they open up a time for applications,

because they generally would start the process in February

and have a deadline in April or May.

That's traditionally, historically been the process,

but now we're proposing that there's ongoing recruitment.

So as a city, it's a collective effort.

stakeholders.

What does the charter say about whose authority it is

to do the outreach?

Is it the candidates themselves, or is it the City of Oakland?

It's the City of Oakland.

OK.

I will say the City of Oakland in partnership

with the selection panel.

Great.

Is there a number of candidates that is required, a minimum,

a baseline of candidates that is required

to have before those candidates are moving their selection

ideas to us or to in front of anybody is there a threshold i'm trying to understand that in 2017

2018 there were a lot of people recently there were not a lot of people what is the baseline

that we're supposed to have before it's through the chair council member fife as far as i know

there is no minimum number of people that the selection panel need to interview in order to

to make its nominations.

There's no minimum there.

Well, that's a problem.

No, it's not a problem.

It's just like, if there's no minimum,

what are we arguing about?

I'm confused, I'm deeply confused.

I really wanna hear from the public

because if the police department,

are there any high-ranking police officials here today

that can speak on behalf of OPD?

just curious about their influence in this process.

I can't speak to that.

The Oakland Police Officers Association.

I can't speak to that.

Because if there's not a set number of people that are required to interview,

if this is not about a process that these candidates didn't have anything to do with

in terms of a number of selection panel requirements,

I'm struggling to understand what we're debating here.

Can we just call the question and vote them up or down?

I'm confused.

If no one can talk about or tell me today,

because I was not here when this vote was initially made,

on what are the issues with these two candidates,

is it, because there's so many rumors

and it wasn't debated here,

is it about the selection process was flawed?

Is that what we're deliberating here today?

Because I haven't heard how that process was flawed.

And if that is how the decision was made, we have to have a robust conversation about

it.

Was that a flawed process?

What happened?

What went wrong?

If it's just we need more candidates, then that can be addressed in the next process,

which it seems like the city administrator's office is already doing, that you've engaged

in making sure that there's a wider net that's cast,

but I really wanna understand what is the issue here

because I did not understand it

from the last meeting that I viewed.

That's what I want.

My colleagues, Council President Jenkins,

maybe you can explain it to me

because I'm struggling to understand

why this is so contentious.

No, absolutely.

So we have two more of our colleagues

and then any more questions for Ricardo,

we'll go to the public

and then council members will have a more robust time

to discuss.

Council member.

Okay, so I think one of the things that I wanted to,

I guess kind of like ground us in,

because I know that on that October 21st meeting,

I believe that we had a very robust conversation

about how many applications were received

and what was the process,

because, and I believe all the council members weighed in

on not knowing that the application process was open

and that we should be reaching out to our constituencies

to try to get more candidates to apply.

And I believe that after we rejected the slate in October,

there was a couple key things that really happened

in my opinion, right?

I think the first email that we got

was a new kind of comprehensive outreach

and recruitment strategy that came from the administration.

And then in addition, there was also a new flyer

that was sent encouraging us to reach out

to our constituencies.

And so it was my understanding that because

of those two things that the process had been restarted.

And so I would like to just kind of, you know,

have a question to through the chair to the city administrator I'm not sure if

Alicia Administrator Johnson is is is that accurate that's how that's how I

received what was happening that after we made that vote the process had been

restarted on the recruitment and outreach efforts through the chair so

certainly the first and assistant to the administrator of Miss Verdon but I do

believe you are correct but let me just have her come up and confirm your

comments councilmember Brown can you repeat your question please yes so in

our in our meeting that we had in October we spoke at great length I think

even some of the selection members of the selection panel mentioned oh you

know how you know you all were trying to recruit for applications I think you

were the one that shared you know only five applications were received right and

so we were kind of calling attention to oh you know there should be because we

know Oaklanders are interested right but the the recruitment process was lacking

and so my question was that based on after the council rejected the slate

there were two key things that happened one there was a new recruitment strategy

process that was sent out informing the council of hey this is what we are going

to do and then the second thing that occurred was then there was also a flyer

encouraging us to send that out to our constituencies and so my question is I

felt that those two things initiated a new a new process I think the criminal

process is ongoing at this time and so we will continue that process however

since that time the selection panel met again on December 18th and they voted to

put the same slate forward as they put forward in July and I believe when

panelists Rivera spoke they felt like those candidates were qualified to serve

on the police commission.

So the recruitment happened, some recruitment happened.

I do believe that more recruitment needs to happen.

And I also, the panel unanimously voted

to put their same slate forward.

I see.

Which is why it's before the city council again.

And was the vote to resubmit the slate agendized

for that meeting?

Yes, yes it was.

the the city attorney our parliamentarian was in the meeting and there was no question about

whether or not it was scheduled and then like in that short amount of time it's my understanding

that there were new applications received um where the was the selection panel um committee

made aware of those new applications for review they were aware of the applications however they

did not review the applications nor did they discuss the applications they they made their

they they were they made the their uh motion during the meeting and in the motion like i said

was ordered on unanimously by the panel all right thank you thank you

council member wong and then council member gallo then council member houston thanks um just to add

on to my colleagues line of questioning this is to Felicia

hi Felicia so I was reviewing the video footage as well as the some of the

attachments to the December 18th meeting I saw that there was an attachment 70

pages long that had a number of applications around 16 these were some

of the new applications and I recognize some of the names since you know we had following that

October meeting done some outreaches counsel to get more applications in just to understand there

was an opportunity on December 18 to interview any of these folks and it didn't happen or what

what happened on that those applications and were in the October 18th excuse me December 18th agenda

packet were for the selection panel because the selection panel needs to

review those applications to a point they need to make a recommendation for

the district for seat on the selection panel not the police can those those

were not for the police commission they were specifically for the selection

panel and I apologize for that confusion okay I see so then how many

applications for the actual Commission have we gotten since that meeting there

were there have been 13 received however I will say and I haven't shared this but one of the

candidates has withdrew that was withdrawn their application okay and at December 18th was there

the opportunity to interview the actual uh applicant applicants the commission not the

selection panel for their mission council member Wong through the chair the selection panel did not

um i i developed the agenda for that meeting with the um the chair of the panel with keisha

harron and there wasn't there wasn't a specific request at that time to uh interview any additional

police commission candidates okay and and that was a choice that was made or that was it just

was not possible it was not scheduled on the agenda it's not on the agenda okay thank you

specifically to interview candidates.

Thank you.

Councilor McGaill.

Yes, thank you.

And I'd like to first recognize and thank Ricardo Acosta

for serving as the chairperson of the police commission.

I was one of the leaders who were involved from the very beginning

of the police commission.

And I still continue to support that service.

And certainly I understand the role that you're playing.

I mean, this is an example of the challenges that we have.

have is still in terms of dealing with a negotiated settlement agreement and it was within the

police department that created some challenges.

So I want to thank you publicly for the work you have done and certainly the community

recognizes your leadership and for the public to also recognize the mayor gets to appoint

two members to the commission without having gone through this process that we're going

through.

mayor gets to appoint members to commission and but i want to thank you for your service and you

have my full support to continue thank you council member houston i'd like through the chair i'd like

to ask miss felicia a question hello miss felicia um what was the reason why the 13 um individuals

weren't interviewed i mean i know it was scheduling because i heard that they cancel

reschedule cancel reschedule cancel and one of the the selection panelists is here today that

wasn't able to even have his input you had 13 applications 13 applications that were not

interviewed i don't get it that's correct um council um through the chair council member

houston i think that's a question for the chair of the selection panel and unfortunately she is

not here to see today so um were the meetings how was how's this meeting scheduled for the

selection committee to actually meet so they could this is an important this is important

these are the individuals that actually select the police commissioners right for and they don't meet

and you had 13 applications uh through the chair the selection panel meets

generally from february to july that's when they complete their recruitment process so

and that's been the case since i staffed the selection panel and it's been three years

and this is honestly an unusual circumstance where the from my

experience so the the chair chose not to the panel will conduct additional

interviews and review applications going forward however they the chairs not

chose not to do so and in October in December and going forward the the

selection panel is scheduled to meet on the second Tuesday of every month so

they do have a regular meeting date however though that all the meetings are

special meetings of the selection panel so through the chair now it's going to

be regular yes and it wasn't before it's they meet intermittently as needed

these okay I want to bring up I don't know if he's here one second council

member we've got another councilman oh thank you council president Jenkins I

was gonna actually ask on zoom is the vice chair of the selection panel I had

a couple questions that I wanted to to ask them so similar I think similar to

councilmember Houston did you have someone as well please proceed okay so

in the Zoom, his name is Vice Chair Alex Clovis.

And so there were three questions that I had asked,

which was, was a vote to resubmit the slate agendas

for the selection panel meeting,

and then at the time of that vote,

were members informed of new applicants who had come in,

and then were any new interviews conducted

before the decision to resubmit the slate?

can you guys hear me yes okay um i i can answer you can you go one at a time and i'll answer them

of course um so the first question was was a vote to resubmit the slate agendized for the selection

panel meeting uh no not to not to my knowledge and i'm looking at the agenda right now um and

it just says that there's going to be an update on the selection panel nominations um but there was

nothing about like voting thank you Alex and so at the time of the vote were

the panel members informed of new applicants that had come in applications

that had come in for the police Commission I was not no excellent and

then were any new interviews conducted before the decision to resubmit the

slate no all right thank you Alex did you want to add any more since you have

the floor no okay thank you Alex thank you

okay councilmember Fyfe then councilmember Houston I really want to hear

from the public if possible yeah I would love to hear their expertise on this

before we continue on with this debate thank you councilmember councilmember

Houston is the young man that you wanted to come up here this please we'll hear

from the public after this young man from the commission.

How you doing? My name is Covonne Page.

And just as one of the newest members, just like Alice Clovis said, just like,

there's so much uncertainty surrounding the meetings.

It's like, you know, we don't know when we come and we don't know where we're going.

There's no certainty around scheduling or timing.

So that's like I'm saying, one of the new members, I think, for something so important for our staff,

city it should be some type of schedule and more certainty around meetings and what we're

actually doing because half of the time I don't know what we're doing when we're actually

meeting so I think just we need to figure out how we can have more certainty around

scheduling and when we're actually meeting and when we're actually making decisions surrounding

some of the things that we're talking about today thank you I don't know

No, I stated so I stated that he would be allowed to have his commissioner come up.

Do you have any more questions for your commissioner?

He's a commissioner.

I mean, you have a whole bond page.

Go back.

Mr. Page.

Can you come back up?

Okay.

He's on the selection committee.

So there you go.

It's corrected now.

So what was it when you said that it was it wasn't scheduled?

were you able to

did they give you the resumes for the 13 other people

where you guys can actually look at them at least?

No, so like I'm saying

so usually when they do like the special meetings

Ms. Miller, you're out of order.

That's your final warning.

Like nothing you can look at to actually see

when the meetings are

so you kind of just waiting around

until somebody emails you to tell you

when they might be

so sometimes when those happen

then you you might set up because like you said we got families and you know

things of things going on in our life then it'll be canceled and then you okay

you wait and we'll let you know at a further date when the next meeting is so

like I'm saying it's just no certainty around when we go meet and when those

dates are actually going to be to discuss a lot of the issues thank you

mr. page thank you let's go to public comment as I call your name please

approach the podium in any order please state your name for the record before

beginning if you are on zoom and you hear your name called because you

submitted a card please raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you still

wish to speak Anaya Lance Wilson Millie Cleveland miss Asada Olabala Rajni

Mondal Rashida Gredage Lorelei Bosserman Angela Jackson Custain Miss Hawthorne

Mr. Boatwright Kevin Daly Blair Beekman Mr. Hazard Miss Kramer in any order please

Go ahead.

So I actually asked to speak for another

for 6.7.

Could you please not time this

question? So can

I have both of the times now, please?

Can you take your card? Please start it over.

Excuse me. Please take

your card to the clerk so we can get some clarity.

And state your name, please.

Okay. Hi. My name's Anaya.

I've lived in Oakland for 40 years. This is only

my third city council meeting, and I have to say that I'm quite concerned about the

issues that has come up that I've heard about violations of the Brown Act.

But I want to talk about Mr. Farmer and Mr. Garcia, who have been active and upstanding

members of the police commission.

I'm appalled that there are questions about them being reappointed even after the selection

committee put their names forward twice.

My understanding is that it wasn't even within the Council President Jenkins' purview to send their appointments back to the selection committee.

However, they have been resubmitted, and because they are committed and responsible members of the police commission and should be allowed to continue their work.

What is happening with democracy in our city?

This is a time in which the whole country is facing issues of the dismantlement of democracy,

and I'm shocked and appalled that it is happening in our city as well.

Here in Oakland, that democracy would include giving an explanation for your votes,

and adherence to the Brown Act would include transparency now and through all your votes and deliberations.

I also want to point out that it seems that when Council Member Brown asked the gentleman on Zoom

about if the first question that you asked, council member,

I believe he answered for the future

and you were talking about the past

because the woman who spoke over here, Ms. Felicia,

she said that yes, it had been agendized.

So I would like for you all to clarify that.

Anyway, I ask you to follow the city custom

and reappoint these two gentlemen to the police commission

so that we can continue to have thorough oversight

of our police department.

Thank you.

I'd like to refocus the conversation on the relevant issue, which is the merit of the

candidates.

If this council is so concerned about lack of recruitment and outreach, then I suggest

you give the staff more money because that's who's responsible.

It's not the responsibility of the volunteers.

The only relevant issue is whether the candidates are qualified to advance constitutional policing

standards for OPD, of which none of you have spoken to.

When a council member alludes to there being a personnel issue without transparency, it's

unprincipled, it lacks integrity, and it's borderline slanderous. When a council member is still raising

questions about process after three months, when they haven't bothered to read the selection panel

manual, it's obviously a smokescreen and a diversion from the topic. When the rules committee

votes to advance the mayor's OPD-approved candidates without resumes, biological statements,

or interviews, the only thing it seems to matter is the lobbying efforts of the police union as

reported by the East Bay Times. And when you march in front of the No Kings banner,

standing for democracy and denying transparency in your own house, the hypocrisy is glaring.

The failure for transparency is undemocratic and it's opportunist. Answer the question,

Why are these candidates not qualified to advance constitutional policing?

That is the question.

If you do not speak to that, then you are being opportunists, and it's a violation of your mandate.

Paula Hawthorne, unpaid gun violence prevention activist here in Oakland.

Having a good police commission is key to stopping gun violence.

Why is that?

Because if you don't trust the police, you're going to go get a gun to protect yourself.

The more guns there are, the more gun violence there is, absolutely.

So we need a strong police commission.

The attacks that were made against Omar and Ricardo

were because people didn't want a strong police commission.

These are two of your best commissioners on the police commission,

and that's why people went after them.

It doesn't matter whether you have 10 people who are applicants for the selection panel

or you have 200.

Omar and Ricardo are the best.

I have worked with both of them.

I worked for a couple, three years, I think, with Omar on the Measure Z Oversight Commission.

He works hard.

He is an amazing man.

He takes it seriously, the job to be done.

He maybe has annoyed a policeman or two.

That's his job, guys, you know.

I've worked closely with the police department myself because I do gun buybacks.

I can tell you they can take it.

They're good, strong men.

If they get annoyed, that's part of the job.

But he is an amazing person.

So is Ricardo.

I have known him for years in my gun violence prevention work.

They're both excellent men.

They both should be reappointed, and it's an insult to try to stop them because you don't like the police commission.

Support the police commission.

Support these two amazing people.

Thank you.

Lance Wilson.

Lance Wilson.

Good evening.

I'm here to support both Ricardo and Omar they're both overqualified they've

been you know working with the Commission's for a while now I'm just

confused of what the problem is with the council why you guys are so hung up on

all these processes and when they've already been unanimously selected

numerous times like what's the problem with the candidates that's what I'm

confused about and nobody seems to want to answer the question what is the

problem with these two candidates is there a problem that somebody has a

problem on on up here i mean what's the issue i don't understand what the issue we keep going

around in circles for hours and all these meetings about all these processes that's not their job

their job is not the process that's not that's not their job to do that process that's not their job

so why are we even why we keep going around about this process process they're unanimously selected

by the selection panel reappoint them what's the problem with these two commissioners if you guys

have an issue with and then state it on the record what your problem is that's it thank you

hi thank you Blair Beekman I've spoke a few times on this item for the past few months now

thank you that if you want to speak specifically on if they should be approved or not approved today

That seems to be the main focus in how Oakland is working at this time.

I kind of question that technique, but if that's what is presented before us, I hope we can vote for approval today.

Thank you for the words of Councilperson Fyfe, who I think, as city administrators want to be expanding this role,

Councilperson Fyfe says maybe we should be focusing on the approval or disapproval process today.

I think over the past year, there's been a real push by a certain portion of Oakland and new city councilpersons

to make a shift in previous voices that were pretty strong and important and progressive in Oakland.

And a more conservative voice was being left out, it was felt.

Over the past year, you guys have been really working for that conservative voice

to be a more regular part of the Oakland process.

I think you've accomplished a lot in that effort.

And I think by this fall, we're realizing that you're really hurting two really, really good police commissioners,

review commissioners at this time.

And I think we're all, we've had a really heavy fall together on issues.

And we're realizing these possibly are really good commissioned people that we should be continuing with.

and we're just reflecting and reviewing that we should

we got to continue to work towards good balance but to respect that when there's

good things happening in the commission process we respect that and allow it

and what Councilperson Pipe also offered the city administration office

can now build from here on out a future of how to

bring in new candidates in the future. That's only

just a part of what I want to talk about. Good luck on how you vote today.

Go for a...

Jane Kramer.

I think somebody said it in the beginning of the discussion.

The responsibility of the process is not to be placed on the candidates.

What is to be garnered from the discussion is their qualifications.

Now, I worked before retirement.

I worked as a licensed LCSW.

And much of what I did was dealing with the criminal justice system.

When I go to the meetings of the commission,

I see individuals on that commission

who are dedicated to the point where for no payback

except their own personal satisfaction,

they put in incredible amounts of energy and effort and time

into trying to decipher exactly how this particular police department works

and how it can be for the better changed.

And to do that, they have had to withstand and accept

and deal with criticism.

And they deal with that criticism very well

when they self-confront themselves

to change the manner in which they may do something.

I think you will be...

I think that voting for them on...

to maintain them on this commission

will be a betterment to this community.

Please don't...

Kevin Daly from D4.

I agree that a good police commission

and will can help to establish trust in the police department.

I appreciate Council Member Fife's questions on why the process has been delayed.

I asked some very good questions there.

One aspect of having police department we can trust is related to an area I care about,

which is traffic safety.

In neighborhoods where people don't trust the police, we find out that traffic injuries are not reported.

Council Member Houston raised this issue in a recent meeting of the HC Transit Interagency Liaison Committee.

committee and a good way of improving reporting of injuries is to get a

trusted police department and that requires I think the trusting trustworthy

police commission and I hope that we can approve the commissioners if we need to

work on a better process for next the next cycle but we need to move ahead now

thank you

Any more speakers in the chambers?

If your name was called and you were in the chambers, please approach the podium.

Good evening.

My name is Angela Jackson-Castain.

I'm an Oakland resident, born and raised, and I'm also the longest standing police commissioner

police commissioner on the police commission currently. I applied back when there were 100

or so applicants years ago, and we were actually in a pandemic then, so we were 100% remote for

quite a while, and I think that is a good part of the reason why we had so many applicants back then.

We have lost great commissioners because of the work that we do. It's so intense that they're not

able to keep up with that as well as their professional jobs. We just recently lost our

last vice chair because she took on a new professional role and we're volunteers. This

is a lot of work. So I wouldn't say that the drop in applicants is directly correlated with

a lack of recruitment. I think the selection panel does a great job of recruiting. We do as well.

And I know that the OIG does road shows in the public and talks a lot about the police commission.

So there's information out there about what we do.

I think it is unrealistic for a lot of people to be able to do this.

We do it because we love it.

We're committed and we love the city of Oakland and we want to see ourselves do better.

I want to say that I'm here today to urge you to reappoint my fellow commissioners.

These two I've worked with directly on many ad hocs.

and they are the hardest working and most dedicated commissioners I've seen to date.

They do more work than even I do, and I'll readily admit that.

They are very committed, and not only that, they have the skill sets that we need.

We're really focused on our mandated task, but also doing a little bit more,

and I think they bring a different perspective.

Commissioner Farmer is very much well-versed in mental health and wellness.

That is part of our charter mandate that we're completed to do.

We need his expertise.

Our chair, Garcia Acosta, is well-versed in community organizations and outreach,

and that's a huge part of what we do, and we need his expertise.

Thank you. Your time is up.

If your name was gone, you were in chambers, and you still wish to speak,

please approach the podium.

Gene Hazard.

When Mr. Farmer came up to this podium,

him. He asked, did any of you have any questions? Neither one of you asked him anything. It's

about the skill set, what both the candidates have to offer. This was a three-ring circus.

You're talking about process. You know what was lacking? Maybe some of the marketing from

staff. Each of you have a website. Neither one of you put anything about the recruitment process.

Look at yourself. You lack the marketing and you want to come and criticize staff.

Could they have improved it? Yes. But you needed a whole lot of improvement.

Where's the smoke screen?

You spend a half hour, 45 minutes talking about process.

We got two well qualified candidates.

Every one of you with the exception of two on this body,

I won't say who, you're a joke.

You're a joke.

Stop this discussion and vote these two candidates up.

Because anything else short of that, you're lying to the public.

There's something else going on here.

Tell me, are these two candidates qualified?

That's the issue.

Stop looking at your papers as though you're doing something.

Oh, we want to see what the process is.

Oh, what did you do on the recruitment?

What did each of you do with recruitment?

You had an opportunity.

You have a website.

Neither...

Thank you, Mr. Hazard.

Why we can't hear the lady going to tag former first?

Anyway, so y'all want to talk process.

Let's talk process.

The important thing about the selection panel is each one of you appoint a member to the selection panel.

And the mayor appoints one.

So if you're having problems with the selection panel, it's because of you.

You select them.

So if it's not working, your process is not working because of you.

Let's talk about the process for how the mayor puts a candidate on the commission.

She goes out and picks anybody she wants, invites them to apply, brings it to rules,

which they did.

This time without a background check, y'all approved a process that wasn't supposed to

be in place until a background check was done. We don't know who these people have been involved

with as far as criminal activity that you have proven tonight because in the agenda

there is no background check. So why has the number been reduced? Because the police commission

from a historical process, because I know I've been around, they had difficulty with

getting the city attorney to work well with them. They had difficulty getting

fiscal support from the council when they were getting ready to vote to fire

Kilpatrick. Y'all didn't support them. So people began to believe that the police

commission wasn't getting support from you. And that's why the numbers went down.

And they weren't getting support from the city attorney's office. That's why the

numbers went down as far as applying because they weren't getting support from you.

In my last couple of seconds I have never met a person like Omar Farmer and I have so much respect

for the chair. Thank you Ms. Olabala your time is up.

David Boatwright.

Obviously, there's a lot of support here for the two candidates we've been listening about,

and I can understand why.

They're both very eloquent and spontaneous speakers.

but I stopped going to the meetings because they were basically the only ones that were doing the

talking and this commission can't exist with just two dominant players and if these men are

re-elected to their post I would suggest that they do more training of the other members to

get them to speak their minds. I know there's one member there that has tried in the past

and he's been kind of shut down while he was talking.

So good luck on your vote.

Thank you, Mr. Boatwright.

Moving to the Zoom speakers, starting with Rajni Mandel.

Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Rajni Mandel, District 4.

My concern is not about individuals.

It's about process integrity.

When these reappointments came before Council in October, they were rejected because of concerns about recruitment, outreach, and vetting.

The expectation was that those issues would be addressed before the slate returned.

The supplemental report clarifies what has and has not changed.

No new recruitment process was initiated by the selection panel.

No new candidates were interviewed.

While the administration notes limited outreach and 13 new applications, none of those applicants

were reviewed or considered before this resubmission.

So what's before you today is not a substantively different process, but largely a procedural

resubmission.

I urge council to clearly state on the record what has and has not changed so the full council

can make an informed decision based on process, not urgency.

If Council believes improved recruitment and vetting were necessary in October, it's reasonable

to ask whether those conditions have truly been met today.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Moving to the next speaker, Rashida Grenage, please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Ms. Grenage if you are speaking we cannot hear you I see you unmuted yourself but I

can't hear you there you go okay Ms. Grenage we're getting an echo which means you probably

have more than one mic on so please turn off one device

I'll give you a second to adjust and I will come back to you

Laura lie bosserman please unmute yourself and begin your comment

hello can you hear me yes thank you please don't fall for all the red herrings questions about the

selection panel's process are a red herring. That's not what's driving this, and I think you know that.

The whole question started, I believe, when Rajni Mondal sent a letter to the city council

complaining about police commissioner Omar Farmer. I do not believe that that letter said

anything about process. I believe that came up later when all of her issues had been rebutted.

I'm sorry, can you still hear me? I'm seeing someone talking.

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, I apologize.

All of Rajni Mandal's original issues have been effectively rebutted, and once that happened, people started looking for other justifications for what is happening.

I would like to point out that Rajni Mandal wants to eliminate the police commission.

She has said this publicly.

Council Member Houston has raised a number of concerns, but he is woefully misinformed. Flyers have always been in both Spanish and English. The selection panel did interview other candidates before deciding to reappoint these incumbents.

The candidates who haven't been interviewed yet are people who have applied since that cycle, and I believe they're people who applied not for the police commission, but for the selection panel. I know that's confusing. Everyone gets confused about it. There is a police commission that does the work. There is a selection panel that picks who's going to be on the police commission.

The meetings of the selection panel have been irregular lately because the selection panel doesn't normally meet this time of year. It is seasonal work. They're only meeting now because you rejected the slate and they have to deal with that.

The only year there were 100 applicants was the first year after that applicants dropped off. So why are we seeing all these red herrings because the so-called.

Thank you for your comments. Ms. Gournage trying again. Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Hello, can you hear me?

We can hear you, but there is an echo.

Sorry, is this better?

No.

Do you have a computer and possibly your phone on?

I turned it off.

Maybe mute your computer.

Is that better?

It's a little bit better.

Okay. Thank you.

I want to.

We still have the echo.

Ms. Grinage you want to try one more time?

I could try.

I could try.

No, sorry.

Ms. Grinage, is it possible for you to call Ms. Millie and she could put you on speakerphone?

can we drive that way

you want to come up miss milley colorons

cell phone

she's going to call me

You want to try and call her?

thank you

You want me to try and call her?

Okay, so we're going to give her another opportunity.

Ms. Rashida, please raise your hand.

We're going to give you an opportunity to speak on Zoom.

Now we're going to have to move forward.

Let me just say, Ms. Grenage, before I unmute you,

if you're on your phone, you need to hang it all the way up and use your computer,

or if you're on your computer, you need to actually mute the sound on your computer to not have the echo,

because you can only have one device on, otherwise the mics interfere.

So I'm going to unmute you.

So please unmute yourself and begin your comment.

is this better better no it it's not better can you answer the call from miss milley she's going

to call you and we're going to put you on speakerphone i want to make sure we hear your comments

is that okay miss miss granage we'll try okay perfect

All right, let's move forward.

Are there any more speakers?

Okay, council members, any questions?

Council member Gallo and then Council member Brown after.

Thank you and thank you to all the speakers that were here with us this evening and certainly I understand and recognize the debate and discussion,

but clearly understanding the process of the police commission and the role and

those that are currently servicing I appreciate your work and so with that I

like to make a motion to accept resolution number one and the

resolution accepted the police commission selection panel slate of

Ricardo Garcia Costa and Omar Farmer to serve on the Oakland Police Commission

that's my motion thank you there is a motion a second they're still discussed

councilmember Brown thank you I was just gonna address three items that came up

during public comment so the first one I did just want to say on the record that

that I've heard from a handful of commissioners that serve on the selection

panel that they would like to receive more training in that in that in that

seat and so I think that that's something that is usually administered

through the city administration so just wanted to share that feedback I think

we heard it even publicly right so I just wanted to say that for the record

And then, oh, and then one of the public speakers mentioned that, and we had such a robust conversation about this during our last meeting, about how the council members hadn't received the recruitment for recruiting for the police commission.

and so that's why the new flyer was updated and all of us sent that out and one of the key reasons

why I continue to ask hey were the 13 applicants actually um outreach was um I had a handful of um

you know folks reach out to me because of their interest and so that's why I was asking that

question and they did inform me as was stated that those applicants there you know no one has called

them after submitting their application so just also wanted to just say that for the the record

because when we wrapped up that meeting in October,

I know I was under the impression

that the process had been restarted.

And then I think the last question

that came from one of the public speakers

was about the specific question around

was the item agendized at the selection panel?

And just, I guess, getting clarification around that.

So I guess through the chair to,

Is it would it be the parliamentarian maybe for that meeting

to confirm whether or not the item was agendized?

I have the agenda pulled up and it just said an update, receive an update

on the selection process, but just wanted to make sure we had some clarity around that.

So I think the question is, was it agendized and was it properly agendized?

Through the chair, our office was not asked to look at that agenda either before or after.

so we've not reviewed that, but this body can vote

pursuant to process issues.

So if you think there was something correct

about the notice, you're able to consider that

in your vote on this item.

But we did not look at whether it was appropriately noticed.

I guess through the chair to the administration,

either felicia or administrator phillips any comments on that

through the chair council member brown i did raise that question about whether or not the

it was noticed for the selection panel to make a vote take a vote and it was ruled during the

meeting by the parliamentarian that since it was an action item on the agenda that they could if

you if you look at the agenda it says at the top action items and they voted on under item number

five to forward their nominations i see yeah because it's worded update on the 2025 selection

panel nominations the selection panel will receive an update on their july 2025 nomination process

correct that item they took the action on I see all right thank you councilman

Houston it through the chair city attorney can you repeat what you said

about taking consideration on a vote you repeat that I said we had not I have not

reviewed the agenda that agenda item and how it was noticed if this body feels

that there was something you can take into account the process when you're

voting on this item so you can look at the process of how it went through the

selection panel that is so through the chair I'd like to make alternative

motion to reject that I want to reject the slate so there's an alternative

motion on the floor okay so any more questions for the commissioners if not

I have a question Commissioner Fulheimer question

Oh, Council Member Fyfe, do you want to go first?

Okay, you can.

Out of all of the conversation that we've had tonight, I have not heard one statement that validates not moving these two candidates forward based on their performance.

When I reviewed the previous meeting from October, the selection committee panel member that called into that meeting had stellar views from interviewing Omar Farmer.

Omar Farmer is a non-voting member of this body, and I've not heard one of my colleagues talk about anything about what the problem is with these two people.

I've only heard about the process which is fine but that's not what we're here to discuss

tonight I heard the comments from our parliamentarian that we can take that into

account but that does not talk about let me just let me frame it this way the only process

that we should concern ourselves with tonight is the process of independence and we are losing

that independence by trying to move pieces around the chessboard when the selection committee

has made their decisions twice now. So we're attempting to change the decision of an independent

body that was selected by council members who have given nothing but stellar recommendations

of these two individuals, and I'm willing to discuss what the Police Officers Association has

said because they've lobbied this body. And I've had conversations with the president of the OPOA

and other members of the police department that don't want oversight, which is fine.

Anybody can feel any way about anything they want to. But the reality is the voters chose an

independent commission to oversee the police department for a myriad of issues that have not

been resolved to this date. And the independent selection committee that was chosen by the

electeds sitting in this body chose their selection committee members to do a job which they've done

and they've come back to us twice telling us, utilizing the democratic process, telling us

what they want. I want to hear from the Oakland Police Department and the Oakland Police Officers

Association that if they feel that this is hindering their ability to do police work,

I want to hear that from them. I don't want to hear that from Rajni Mondal or any member of the

public. I want to hear it from the body. We heard from the oldest, the longest standing commissioner

today, and we're questioning the selection panel when the selection panel told us what they want.

I want to hear each of my colleagues tell me today so I know what we're voting on.

Are we voting on the process being flawed?

I said it already.

Or are we voting on the quality of these candidates?

Because oftentimes in application processes, you will get a bunch of candidates that are not qualified for several reasons.

So everyone isn't justified to have any business owner or anyone who's done any kind of hiring knows just because you apply doesn't make you qualify for an interview.

So let's talk about can we please have a transparent conversation about what is going on here.

It is clear that there are some police officers who don't want oversight.

There are some who actually really do.

So if it's a question about what the police department wants, what they think is best, can we hear from them?

Because what I'm hearing is a moving of goalposts.

First, we got a letter from a community member in District 4 who said all of these things about Omar Farmer,

but then called in tonight and said this isn't about personalities.

I'm confused.

because once those things in the letter were dispelled about Mr. Farmer,

then the goalposts moved to being about process.

That is not within our purview to discuss tonight.

We are going to vote up or down.

I wish we could have a transparent conversation about why.

We have shifted the goalposts and now we're talking about process

versus quality of candidates.

And I really just want to get down to the bottom.

I don't judge people's perspectives regardless of what they are.

I want to do what works.

I don't care if you are pro-police, 110%, 20 toes down, or anti.

I want to do what works for Oakland.

And we are not having a clear conversation about why we're making these decisions,

and that's what I want to get to tonight, period.

Thank you, Councilmember Fyfe.

So, Mr. Farmer, a question about your work on the committee.

would you say that the police commission wants Oakland to get out of the NSA and do policing in a constitutional manner?

Would that be a fair statement?

Yes, sir.

Second question, when it comes to the statements to the monitor, what type of information are we putting in there?

Is it all factual information?

What do you mean statements to the monitor?

statements to the judge? Do we put factual information in there? Absolutely.

Okay. So I appreciate you guys changing the statement that you guys had, but one

sentence in your draft really concerned me because I want counsel and the

Commission to be able to work together. It said, after review, the OPC selection

committee unanimously approved chair and alternate commissioner Omar Farmer for

reappointment to their present commission post. Nonetheless, under the

guise of concern about candidate recruitment and qualifications, the city

Council rejected their appointments. Does that statement help us get out of the NSA?

What's the point of that statement to the judge and the monitor?

Right, no, thank you for bringing that up and you and I spoke about this briefly offline.

But as I was saying then, our communication to the court, a lot of the things that they're

concerned with are us being a stable enough body to be able to take over oversight from them

to us and you know we weighed the balance between input we received from the public

from commissioners and from people who were on the ad hoc and so we put all that input together

and deliberated on it and that's how we ended up at the final product where you said that

line has been removed.

Right, and that's a good, yes, and also can I just add that?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, and so on the ad hoc, the ad hoc is made up of not just commissioners, but community members as well as staff members.

The inspector general is on the ad hoc. I asked him to be a part of the ad hoc and respect his expertise.

the director of CPRA, now the director of CPRA, is on the ad hoc.

And then you have the chair, vice chair of the commission, myself as chair of the ad hoc.

And then we have community members, and then we also take input from the public during the meeting if they do have input.

Thank you. I guess my challenge is our charter says that council has the right, excuse me if I'm not stating correctly,

to accept or reject slates, right? And so when adhering to the charter, counsel is accused of

being anti-police oversight. This is just what our charter tells us what we are to do. And so

it's concerning for me that, and again, I'm not going to belabor this point because you guys,

and I appreciate the chair, I have an excellent working relationship with the chair. I've gone

on to commission meetings after we rejected the slate. I see how diligently he works, how hard

he works. I've had conversations with you this morning, so none of this is taking you off guard,

is it? No, none at all. Absolutely. We had this conversation this morning. So I'm challenged when

people say we're anti-oversight when we're just following the charter. I mean, maybe we should go

back to the charter. Maybe we should open the charter back up when it comes to the police

Commission because there are certain things that need to be changed because

something in the process isn't working but for us to be seen as anti-oversight

by just doing what our job mandates us to do is a challenge to me.

Can I respond to that sir? Yeah of course. Yeah and like we were discussing I think a

A lot of the perception around that issue has to do with, and not just perception but past precedent,

has to do with how the selection panel's nominations have been conducted in the past,

as well as the independence of the police commission, how it was written not just within Measure LL

but through our enabling ordinance and measures S1

and the independence of that part of the process,

how it's intended to be separate from

politics within City Hall, for example.

Yeah, I think so.

And this is the first time the selection panel slate

has ever been on a non-consent.

So yeah, so I think that's right.

And I want to continue

working with all stakeholders to strengthen civilian oversight. I've been on the record

calling for the resignation of other commissioners, but I didn't get anyone saying anything to me that

I was doing anything wrong in 2023 when I did that in public at a budget meeting.

Called for the resignation or asked someone if they were going to resign from the police commission,

but it was little fanfare when I did that.

I understand how it feels to have the accusations about, you know, that you disagree with just

how people tried to say that, you know, the police commission or myself for anti-police

or something like that and that's completely not true.

You know, I'm an Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom Era veteran.

I also was a lead law enforcement officer in the military.

So I just, you know, I believe in law and order and justice

and doing things the right way fully and completely

and transparently.

Yeah, OK.

So thank you.

That concludes my questions for you.

Questions to staff?

Felicia?

So in the past, how has it been agendized when there is going to be a vote for a selection

slate to move forward to council?

Is it consistent with what was on the previous agenda?

Council President Jenkins, so if you look at the July meeting of the selection panel

and how the item was agendized, it

is quite different from how the action that they took

at the December meeting.

It clearly states on the July agenda, and forgive me,

I don't have it in front of me, but I believe it was July 18.

It clearly states that the panel will take action

on police commission appointments

for the police commissioner and the alternate.

I did just read the agenda.

And then I read the December agenda,

and it it does read differently it seems like the public would have advanced notice on what's going

to take place as opposed to an update um so we have a motion we have a second motion without

a second but i want to hear oh councilmember rama chandran thank you i have um a quick question can

Can you clarify that in the last time we heard this item in October, there were five applications?

And then since then there were 13 more applications or is it a total of 13 applications?

There were additional applications received after.

And it's complicated.

Councilmember Ramachandran and members of the council.

There have been applications received in various ways through Granicus, the portal, and now

there are applications being accepted on the jobs postings for the city of Oakland.

So there were some repeat, I would say that there were some repeat applications in the

13 number of applications.

So, but before this new round opened, it was about five.

That's what I remember from the last meeting.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Now, I just want to make a statement which really resonates with the same thing I said

at the last meeting.

Well, firstly, I'm very grateful for every Oakland resident that chooses to volunteer

their time and face headaches, face stress, face meetings like this to serve our city

and make it better.

And I have great respect for Commissioner Farmer and Commissioner Ricardo Garcia-Costa.

And I think that there are also a lot of other great candidates out there.

While council members don't have direct appointees to the police commission, back in 2023, I think my first year,

I gave my strongest recommendation and served as a reference for former

councilmember Wilson Riles to be on this Commission so I've been engaged in

thinking about candidates that I think have the values the justice driven

initiative in wanting to serve our city I similarly later today on an item you

know give my strongest support for someone that I know has done very

grassroots meaningful work in this city Doug Wong who the mayor has selected so

So I think it's not fair to say that we have, I think it's fair to say that many of us know

and support proactively so many people in this community who are in the running for these positions,

but what we really need to do is open our doors, literally, read applications,

interview candidates that don't have political connections because I was one of those people.

Back when I applied and eventually got on to the Public Ethics Commission, I applied to eight other commissions that I never heard back from.

And mind you, I was not at all involved in City Hall.

I was cold emailing people.

And I think that's the kind of thing we need to do.

Respond to people who are qualified with life experiences, with whatever other kinds of backgrounds.

and show that we're actually trying to recruit and respond to people.

So when you have 13 people at the minimum applying for an opportunity,

I don't know what their connections are or not,

but they need to be in the door to see and be evaluated.

Are they a better pick than the other two commissioners that are selected?

And no disrespect to their qualifications,

but we have to do the bare minimum of interviewing other candidates

because let me tell you, the majority of Oakland residents on the street that are out there

think that we appoint people and hire people based on nepotism and political favoritism.

And don't take my word for it.

Literally to this day, my most viewed TikTok is about the city's lack of hiring,

and you have hundreds of Oakland residents commenting,

yeah, I never heard back, yeah, I never heard back.

The city just hires its friends.

The city just hires people it knows, not qualified people who want to serve their city, be that a paid position or a volunteer position.

So this is not about placing blame on who should outreach more or who should outreach less, but the reality is the people that we have access to need to be interviewed.

I went through three rounds of interviews, over 50 applicants for this Public Ethics Commission job.

and yes interest in these positions wax and wane but it is the city's job to

actually be proactive and recruit and interview and talk to the people who are

interested in these jobs or else we're gonna continue to look like a walled up

ivory tower that's not trying to access and reach people who are interested so

my position is very simple I would like to for the selection panel to actually

interview some of these new applicants that they feel qualified and come back

with a new decision not have one meeting where you're not talking to a single one

of the 13 new candidates and then come back and if the recommendation still is

the same two candidates so be it and we this this can go on of course but at

least let there be a process that's somewhat democratic because our

reputation in the community as a city continues to be we're a walled up ivory

tile that only appoints and hires people with political favoritism and I say this

as someone completely who had never been to City Hall before my at my interviews

and it's something that we drastically need to change as our reputation and

you councilmember cancer long yeah I just wanted to add that

Order in the chamber.

It has been frustrating because I know that I myself reached out to a number of the candidates that submitted one of those 13 applications.

So for me, look, we can look at both Farmer and Acosta again, but it's important that because we did our outreach,

and in this last selection panel meeting,

I looked up the footage from the 18th.

There was no consideration given to any of those 13 candidates,

not to even interview them.

I think that is important.

And with that, I do second Council Member Houston's motion.

Okay, so we have a second to Council Member Houston's motion.

It seems like everybody's spoken.

Madam Clerk.

Starting with the substitute motion

moved by council member houston second by council member wong which is rejecting the police

commission selection panels slate of ricardo garcia acosta and omar farmer to serve on the

police commission council member brown aye council member fife no council member guayo so we're

Supporting his, not our motion.

Correct.

No.

Council Member Houston.

Yes.

Council Member Ramachandran.

Aye.

Council Member Unger.

Aye.

Council Member Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Jenkins.

Aye.

Motion passes with a vote of six ayes, two noes, Fife and Gayo.

Moving to the consent calendar, starting with item 6.1, approval of the draft minutes from

the meeting of January 6, 2026.

Item 6.2, a resolution regarding the declaration of a local emergency due to AIDS epidemic.

Item 6.3, a resolution regarding the declaration of a medical cannabis health emergency.

Item 6.4, a resolution renewing the declaration of a local emergency on homelessness.

Item 6.5, a resolution appointing the mayor's appointments to the library commission.

Item 6.6, a resolution regarding early care and education emergency grant, measure C.

Item 6.7, a resolution regarding the mayor's appointments to the police commission.

Item 6.8, a resolution regarding the Montclair Parking Facilities Operating Agreement.

Item 6.9, a resolution regarding the Caltrans Delegated Maintenance Agreement and Amendment for Little Removal.

Item 6.10, a resolution authorizing the city administrator to enter to an MOU between OPD and Santa Clara Police Department.

Item 6.11, a resolution regarding ITPSA with Medical Priority Consultants, Inc.

Item 6.12, a resolution regarding HSD 2026, Summer Food Service Program.

You have 23 speakers on the consent calendar.

All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.

As I call your name, please approach the podium in any order.

Please state your name for the record before beginning.

If you are on Zoom, please raise your hand so I can easily identify you.

You will be taken after the speakers in chambers.

Anaya, Denisha Davis, Deidre Donaquin, sorry if I said the end correctly, Ms. Asada Olabala,

I have you with multiple items on consent for the maximum amount of time.

Millie Cleveland, Joy Eppel, Felicia Tashon Anderson, Michael Cangeja, Charles Usui, Anita Roberts,

Carmen Marie Hidalgo, Sundra Williams,

Irvita Kelly Smith, or is it Irita?

And Mr. Barnes, Rajne Mandal, Kevin Daly, George Spees, Derek Barnes, I have you with two cards.

Rashard Davis

Blair Beekman, I have you with multiple items

Ruben, Adrian Martinez, Ramirez

Mr. Hazard, I have you with multiple items

Marcelo Manuel Jaime

Go ahead, Mr. Hazard

What you just did is going to come back and bite you on the rear end

Go to my website

I gave you each this

copy.

This is a notice of motion to confirm

writ procedural process, correct administrative classification

for issuance of an order to show cause

and or alternative writ preemptory writ.

Second one is my declaration of gene hazard in support of the motion

to confirm writ procedural procedures, correct administrative

case, etc., etc.

and orders for the court.

This will be filed tomorrow or the next day on the transaction and use tax.

Where's the city attorney?

Where he altered the tax.

Where a provision to enjoin folks.

You better read it because this is going to go forward.

And I'm going to do a writ on what you did when you talk about the charter

or the rules and procedure, what Ramachandra and the president did with regards to suspending the Rule 29.

You insulted the mayor when she chose discretionary not to break the tie.

And you were pompous.

And yes, if the president has the power to order out of order, they can't do it with the court.

And I will be filing a writ on what you did unlawfully, yes, yes you did,

unlawfully when you rejected what the mayor had discretionary power to do to not to break the tie.

And I asked for an opinion from the parliamentarian.

But the president was so pompous because he can't, sitting in that chair, tried to, excommunicated me, ejected me.

Oh, here he comes now.

And Sarah Mosley had the police take me out of the chambers.

You won't be able to do that, Mr. President.

And this agenda tonight is an example of what you reordered,

what normally is consent calendar first, but you put non-consent.

Because that BS that you did on December 16th,

I've already written a draft and you will get it

just like the city attorney is going to get this

on the special election of April 15th,

when there was a transaction in use tax,

not a sales tax, which you are collecting right now.

You won't be able to get around the courts.

and the court has tried to procedurally knock me out of the box.

They can't do it because I'm determined to deal with the rule of law.

I'm determined to show all of you, except for y'all over here,

violating your own charter, violating your own rules,

and you got the unmitigated nerve to talk about what's in the charter.

Read it. I've read it.

from cover to cover so I know what I'm talking about.

And I will stay in the court if I have to stay in the court and go to the-

Thank you, Mr. Hazard, your time is up.

And Mr. Boatwright, I have a card for you too, also.

I want to speak on the mayoral appointees.

You voted in rules to advance the mayoral appointees with no information.

You had no interviews.

You had no biographical information.

You had no application.

You had no resume.

And you moved that for consent.

The one guy that showed up was asked, what is constitutional policing?

And he couldn't even answer.

The other guy who wants to be on the police commission didn't have the time to show up or even attend virtually.

So when we talk about process, you allow to move something for approval with no information.

And I am particularly disappointed in you Councilman of Councilmember Brown

Thank you miss Cleveland your time is up

Good evening council members funding partners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today

My name is Denisha Davis, Director of Rapid Rehousing with East Silicon Community Project,

and I'm here to address item 6.4 on the agenda as it relates to delays in funding impacting

not only RE Entry clients but also frontline staff tasked with carrying out this work on

behalf of the city. RE Entry clients are individuals returning to the community after incarceration

with often no housing, limited income, and urgent needs. When funding is delayed, housing

opportunities are lost. Units cannot be held, landlords move on, and clients are

forced to remain in shelters, unsafe environments, or homelessness. These

delays directly undermine the city's investment in public safety, housing

stability, and successful reintegration. What is often unseen is the impact on

staff. Our team does the work up front, completing assessments, securing housing

leads, coordinating with landlords, gathering documentation, and preparing

payments only to have the progress halted because funding is not

thank you your time is up

good evening my name is erbita kelly smith and i am referencing agenda item 6.4

and i'm here today not only as a leader at eocp but to but as successful outcome of this

organization. EOCP provides the support structure and belief that clients need to move forward.

This is why funding matters. When funding is timely, people succeed. When funding is delayed,

services are disrupted, staff are stretched in, and progress stalls, not because of lack of effort,

but because of the lack of resources. EOCP is currently owed funds by the city, and this delay

has had a serious operational impact. It affects the staffing program stability and our ability

to consistently deliver the outcomes the city expects.

Despite this, EOCP continues to serve residents every day,

but we cannot continue to absorb these delays without consequences.

My call of action to the city is simple, urgent, and direct.

We are asking for immediate release of the outstanding funds owed to EOCP

and for the establishment of clear, reliable reimbursement timelines moving forward.

Good evening, my name is Marcelo Jaime.

I am the QA manager from East Oakland Community Project.

We started after the 89 earthquake.

Our facility saw that we had folks who were homeless.

We started as a program called Mission Safe.

That grassroots eventually became the East Oakland Community Project, which was partnered

with the city and the county.

At EOCP we don't focus necessarily what happened to the person but who they are and what they

need.

Whether we're serving families, veterans, young adults, individuals, we don't offer

bed, we walk alongside our residents on a journey towards self-reliance.

We believe that every individual and every family deserves a path rooted in dignity and

compassion because when we chose to truly see our neighbors we don't just provide shelter,

we begin to heal our community.

funding we received from the city state and county are what allows us to provide

these services and any delay impacts both our org and the people we serve

good evening I'm referencing 6.4 on your agenda my name is Deidre Dunnigan and I

manage the CES program at East Oakland Community Project serving individuals

and families experiencing homelessness today I want to talk about time because

the people we serve. Time is not abstract. It's counted in nights without shelter, missed

connections, and opportunities that don't come back. Funding delays don't just slow down programs,

they slow down exits from homelessness. A delayed contract can mean a delayed housing placement. A

delayed reimbursement can mean fewer outreach hours. A delayed budget decision can mean we

lose staff. We know our clients by name, not by case number. As a manager, I'm responsible for

building continuity and accountability but it's difficult to plan when we don't

know when resources will arrive. When funding moves on time people move out of

homelessness faster when it doesn't people stay stuck longer not because they

fail but because the system stopped. I urge you to consider the human cost of

funding delays and the progress we can make if stability

right good evening city council my name is ruben adrian martinez ramirez i'm coming here today as

the current managing director of transitional housing services for the east oakland community

project how are you guys doing it's an honor to be here unfortunately because i'm here is because

there are problems that need to be addressed and looked into by the members of this council

I currently hold a credential victim advocate at the intermediate level with the designation of a comprehensive victim intervention specialist.

We get tasked to do so much with so little.

When there are delays in funding, services falter.

Families are not able to get housed.

It doesn't matter if we've gotten them document ready.

When I'll sit there and draft the letter, and then it will be given to a landlord only for it to be given back.

that is the concern that I have, and that is what I'm bringing here before you.

I thought it was two minutes, but thank you for this one minute.

Thank you.

Referencing agenda item 6.4, my name is Carmen Marie Hidalgo.

I'm the family services manager at East Oakland Community Project.

Oh, thank you.

I have been with the agency for nearly five years and currently oversee two

family housing contracts during the 2425 reporting year our program successfully

housed more than 90 families in the city of Oakland however due to the non

payment of funds owed by the city 80 of those families were displaced through no

fault of their own this was not the result of a program failure client

non-compliance or lack of effort it was the direct consequence of interrupted

funding despite the severity of this situation I'm proud to say that not a

single family was displaced back in the homelessness our staff worked tirelessly

leveraging every available community resource partnership and support system

to ensure families remain safely housed this requires extraordinary effort and

long hours and unwavering commitment to the families we serve witnessing those

many families lose their housing was one of the most difficult moments in my 15

years of working in nonprofit. Thank you ma'am your time is up. Hi my name is

Felicia Anderson and I'm addressing agenda 6.4. I'm the food service manager

at East Oakland Community Project and our organization is built on a strong

reputation for our food, our nutritionist food that we provide. And due to funding,

despite of our partnership with the Alameda County Food Banks and numerous

donations, we have been struggling with providing these meals. We provide three

hot meals for over 250 people three times a day daily and it's needed our

funding is needed to continue to make these nutritionist meals I feel like

with all the what they're going through if we can't provide them with nothing

else a nice meal is what helps them get through their day as well thank you

Hello, good evening. My name is Rashard Davis and I represent as the payroll accountant for East Oakland Community Projects.

Our payroll has been delayed over five times since I've been employed here since 2024.

We receive our payroll for November. This is the most recent one. We have to split it into two.

Employees got paid on the 9th of December and on the 11th.

This is direct in compliance of our labor code 210.

In our incoming situation, imagine having to go to work and tell employees that they

will not be paid.

Imagine having to live and depend on that check for housing to be fed and to be secured.

As many work in Californians do, imagine finishing a full pay period without even knowing if

you will be paid.

I don't think a lot of people do.

That directly affects our clients because positions will not be filled.

Joy Eppel Hi, my name is Joy Eppel and I've worked

with the EOCP for four years. Great organization, does the best work in the community, and I

don't get paid. I work for performance. I provide the food. I've made deliveries there. I have

literally donated there. They are the core of my life. I circle only around them. Where's

the money? Who's sitting on the money? I'm not getting paid. Answer anybody. Where's

money? Anything? Go ahead. I'm waiting.

Okay. So, yeah, we don't... You don't answer?

Comments will be addressed at the end of... Well, that's my gist of it, is I'm not getting paid, they're not getting deliveries.

So what do I say to these people when I see them outside?

And I know a lot of them that go there and live there and eat there, and I can't provide now.

Good evening. My name is Sandra Williams, and I'm the Human Resources Director for the East Oakland Community Project.

And I'm here to address the item 6.4.

I've been with the agency since 2017.

I work directly with Wendy Jackson.

For those of you who do not know Wendy Jackson, she was the force behind the agency and she started it in 1990.

Wendy's dedication and commitment to serving the community to reduce homelessness in Alameda County was relentless.

On the day before she died, she completed an interview in her hospital bed to fulfill a key position that needed to be filled.

I know if she were alive today, she would be devastated regarding the treatment that we are currently receiving from the city of Oakland

by not providing the agency with timely payments for services that the agency has already provided for being able to pay our employees on time.

We need to know from the city council here today who actually...

Thank you, ma'am. Your time is up.

Hi. My name is Michael. I'm addressing Agenda 6.4.

I work at EOCP for around two years.

I'm a accounts payable manager right now, and then it's been difficult to pay our bill

since the city has not paid us.

And then we never have our checks bounce back until recently, this past two months, because

lack of funding.

And then there's this for like a payroll check, landlord check, and then a vendor check.

So we cannot keep doing this business if all the checks that we issue bounce back again.

Yeah, I just, hopefully we can resolve this issue in the near future.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Charles Osuji.

I'm the financial controller at EOCP, and I worked at EOCP for over 10 years.

And I've worked with several team members, team leaders at the city of Oakland under the human services.

But this current team lead has imposed a lot of problems for EOCP.

So it's really difficult to figure out what the process is when it comes to billing.

and currently EOCP is about a step away from shutting down.

We have an outstanding bill of close to half a million

that is still outstanding right now,

and payroll is due this week.

These payments are really difficult to make

without this city providing the necessary fund.

So the billing process has been...

Thank you, sir. Your time is up.

Good evening. My name is Dr. Anita Roberts and I'm the finance director for EOCP. This

retaliatory process that we're experiencing, the shenanigans from Stanley Wong and the

company's department regarding delayed processes in excess of $1 million throughout 2025 to

The city staff, city administrators, city council, our representative, region 10, and

Sacramento have all been escalated to them.

Retaliatory because we still have unexecuted contracts in month seven.

I have two binders here of the back and forth emails that have gone back and forth in 2025

with Stanley Wong and his department.

Let me close by saying we cannot pay our employees this week.

I am sure everyone on the dais is going to get paid a payroll check.

What's at stake? 128 employees, unemployed, and over 100.

Thank you.

Hi, Kevin Daly from Transport Oakland, talking about 6.8 Montclair parking facilities.

I frequently park my car in the Montclair LaSalle garage.

I definitely encourage renewing the contract.

However, I'm concerned about the city administrator's plans to dismantle parts of parking and move

it from OakDot to finance.

In 2016, Transport Oakland, my organization, pushed for the creation of OakDot with parking

as part of it.

There was city council input.

There was public input.

So, legally, city administrator doesn't have to ask for council input or public input for destroying parking, but it would be good to do that, and I hope the council will push for it.

Parking policy makes for safer streets, less driving.

Thank you.

Hi, thank you.

Sorry about that.

Blair Buechman, hi, thank you.

I have multiple items.

6.8 is Montclair parking facility issues.

Thank you for the words of the previous public speaker.

This was a committee a few last week.

I tried, it was mentioned by a few council persons

about surveillance issues around the facilities.

I mentioned that the ALPR use for just your everyday parking issues

on these park issues can be really good models on how to practice better accountability and

overall policy practices with tech, sharing that with the community, making it accessible

and understandable and creating good policies.

Good luck in those efforts and working with the PAC on it.

6.9 is Caltrans maintenance for litter removal.

This is kind of related to item 6.4 in your continuing declaration of respecting homeless

issues in Oakland. We worked really hard in November that the working on the unhoused

ordinance issues that you're working on are not quite together. And you've been looking for

solutions around cleaning issues instead, since then, I feel. And you've been doing a great job

with that. Thank you immensely for that. And I think from that, you're working on litter issues

that Councilperson Houston very nicely mentioned that Caltrans they have one

section that they can work on and then the City of Oakland can work on another

one this contract is to combine so Oakland can work on all of this through

say April I think by April we can have a whole a larger community process ready

to go and Councilperson Gallo did an awesome job describing a committee last

week that this is an item that Caltrans can really be doing a lot of the cleanup

that we can be more organized to talk about and clear about by April with community, I hope.

Good luck in those efforts.

Item 6.10 is MOU between OPD and Santa Clara Police Department about Super Bowl issues.

Man, Bayouasi is a big part of this process.

They're the federal agency that works to create emergency management

so all of this can go together at Super Bowl time and throughout the year, too.

Bayouasi is going through a sea change in how they work their administrative practices.

They're no longer wanting to allow the public process, I feel.

Talk to them about it.

Ask them how to continue what was a really good public process.

I think it's important that continues in however the future of the administration will be developing.

6.11 is not of interest to myself.

Sorry, not at this time.

6.12 was summer food program servicings.

This was really nice to hear.

you do really good work on this summer food program for kids from state funding

things good luck we continue can continue that this good work this summer

working with local Oakland groups to work on it and thanks for your time

speakers that sign up for multiple items get the maximum amount of time which is

three minutes.

Okay, so you guys are stuck on process.

Let me show you how you don't follow your process.

Starting with item that deals with the Santa Clara, which is S6110.

So in order to allow this to happen, you have to follow the Oakland Police Board General

orders. So they have general orders related to outside jurisdiction restrictions. Oakland

police officers are considered private citizens when they're off duty. And when outside of

the city limits, they are off duty and are not considered active police officers. So

So you're saying this contract is signed for off-duty police officers.

You can't do that.

The next one you have is item, we're going backwards, S9, Caltran.

Caltran is another contract that you're going to use your employees off-duty.

So off-duty, they work seven days a week.

Off-duty, they get off at 3 o'clock, bring their equipment back.

They'll probably get to Caltrain about 5 o'clock.

They're going to be doing this work at night.

Probably, if they do it.

Then you have an opportunity.

If they have $200 and something thousand dollars and it's off-duty,

why can't they give it to their employees off-duty?

Or why can't they continue the process of them hiring individuals

who come out of the prison system to have an opportunity to have a job?

The next one you have, the mayor.

The mayor's appointing two people, one alternate and one commissioner.

No process.

She just goes out and anybody she wants, bring them in.

And then when you have them at rules, one person doesn't show up.

The other person don't have a clue, no disrespect, a good person,

but don't have no connection to policing whatsoever

and didn't do any background checks and y'all put it on consent.

Wow, did you follow the process?

No.

Let's talk about the homeless crisis.

Homeless crisis, process.

The reason why you're not getting the cut

and the $419 million that the governor appointed

to San Francisco, LA, and San Diego

is because you didn't follow the process

that you had to come up with encampment policies

and at the same time you were required

to ensure that city provide a pathway to housing.

That's why you're not getting the money.

You didn't follow the required process.

Check, you're missing out on money.

That's why y'all not getting paid.

Because they're not following the process.

Thank you, Ms. Olabala, your time is up.

Because I love this thing.

David Boatwright, District 4.

Items 6, 2, 3, and 4 are related to the issue of emergencies in this city.

We have two other big emergencies.

One is the budget that required us to close down alternately fire stations.

And we also have the problem of our roads.

We're not repairing our roads.

and as a result we paid out seven million dollars in one settlement for an accident that occurred

because of the roads if y'all are going to put these three down you need to add to the list

and i know you're not going to do it but i'm going to say it anyway thanks

thank you mr boatwright moving to the zoom speakers if you if your name was called and

you wish to speak please raise your hand miss mandala have you with one card please

Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Marajna Mundell, District 4.

I'm speaking in support of the Mayor's Police Commission appointments.

The nominees bring complementary strengths to the commission,

one with deep judicial experience and a strong grounding in due process,

and the other a respected community advocate with longstanding engagement in Oakland.

At this moment, the commission needs members who can balance community trust

with disciplined governance and an understanding of the legal

and operational responsibilities of civilian oversight.

These appointments reflect that balance,

and I believe it will strengthen the Commission's ability

to carry out its charter mandate effectively.

I respectfully urge counsel to confirm them.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

If your name was called and you still wish to speak,

please raise your hand or please step to the podium.

At this time, all names have been called.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for everyone who had the opportunity

to come out and speak.

to the folks from ELCP.

I am deeply sorry that you guys are going through that.

Deeply, deeply sorry that you're going through that.

So this is not an agendized item,

but you guys have my word

that I'm going to reach out to the administration.

As council, we allocate money.

We don't send out checks or anything like that.

So you guys have my word

that I'm going to check in with the city administrator tonight

to see what's going on.

Nobody should have to go without a paycheck.

to item 6.7 the mayor's appointments I believe that there's going to be something from the

mayor's office and then I'll have a comment you know that's mayor's office it's office

thank you council president good evening city council members I'll be very brief I know you

all had a long night Preston Kilgore deputy chief of staff to mayor Barbara Lee so I'm here to share

some remarks on Judge Griot who's here with us tonight. Again apologies he

wasn't able to make the rules committee. Unfortunately he had a conflict that

come up but appreciate you all and your flexibility. So Judge Griot's

appointment comes at an important moment for Oakland. Over the past year the city

has made meaningful progress on public safety including significant reductions

in gun violence and the lowest homicide total in decades. While this progress

matters public safety remains an urgent priority and continued leadership and

oversight are essential, particularly as we move through a police chief transition and continue

to work to complete the NSA. Judge Griot brings more than 20 years of judicial experience and a

strong record in civil, criminal, and complex litigation, including issues of governmental

accountability and public records. Throughout his career, he has emphasized transparency,

fairness, and public trust, values that are central to the Police Commission's work.

As I mentioned earlier, Judge Griot is present today and has prepared some remarks, if amenable.

Unfortunately, Judge Wong had an emergency and sends his regards.

And because of that emergency, he was unable to finish his background check.

We would like to request that counsel separates the file and moves Judge Griot forward today

and holds off on Mr. Wong until a later date.

We respectfully request your support of Judge Griot.

Thank you all.

Thank you so much.

Question to the administration around background checks?

Felicia? Is Felicia here?

Okay.

I guess

no one will be able to answer it.

It's okay. It's all good. Thank you for that.

When it comes to the police commission,

I think there's some opportunity for us to improve

civilian oversight to strengthen some of the things that have been challenged

and I'm looking forward to working on doing that I'm looking forward to getting

rid of some of the consternation and strengthening the police commission

through the chair I did interview both Wong and Grio spoke to him thoroughly

had a great conversation I mean we're not gonna agree up on everything but

that that that the dedication was there the experience was there and I gave them

a check I like to share also no I'll share that later but yeah I do just just

griot would you like to come up please do it's absolute pleasure good evening

president Jenkins and members of the City Council thank you for having the

opportunity to address you. I don't really have any prepared remarks but if

you're considering this appointment I think it's only fair that you have an

opportunity to ask me any questions you have. I can tell you it's been years

since I've been in this chambers. It may not be reflected in my biography but

almost 50 years ago I was an assistant to the mayor Lionel Wilson and worked in

that corner of office right over there. I and Councilmember

Gallo, that's when he was working with community-based

organizations. So I've got some pretty deep roots in this

city. Public service has always been important to me. As you

know, I've spent the last 21 years or so as a judge of the

Superior Court in Alameda County, and that was very

important to me because it was public service and I feel as a

judge I was able to make my mark in a couple of areas, public

records, disclosure of public records. I have got a couple of

police cases. For those of you who get police videos and don't

have to pay for them, that was my case and it went to the

Supreme Court. I think accountability is important. I think openness is important.

You know, I hear people throw around the word constitutional policing and I get

concerned sometimes because it seems to have a different meaning for a lot of

different people. Well, we have a right to have our policing be constitutional.

That's a minimum, but it's not enough.

You know, there's a constitution out there that lays out what the limitations are that

lays out the obligations of law enforcement, and you have to follow it.

That's clear.

Now, I have some experience with that.

I mean, I spent 20 years going over search warrants, making sure they complied with the

Fourth Amendment.

I had the cases in front of me.

I had to afford everyone due process.

What I'm trying to tell you is,

I love the work of the public.

And I think due process,

I think being constitutional, whether it's...

Mrs. Satter, you're out of order.

I'll be happy to talk to you afterwards,

if you'd like to talk to me, ma'am.

Mrs. Satter, you're out of order.

So at any rate, I am really glad to be honored by Mayor Lee to come back into public service.

And if you have any questions, I'm glad to answer your questions now.

Council members, get ready for your questions.

I will go first to Council Member Five.

You had a statement or questions?

Questions?

Okay.

Part of the question was answered through the chair to Judge Grillo.

So thank you for adding your perspective to constitutional policing and what that means in Oakland.

And you're absolutely correct.

If you ask 100 people, you might get 100 different answers.

And to be quite frank, I don't know if you were prepared to answer that.

That was my question to the other mayoral appointee, and they did not answer that question well at all.

So I'm glad that you do have a grasp of what it should be.

but my question is what is your primary objective on this body what is your goal

that's a good question I think that my goal is to help this Commission fulfill

its role its oversight role over the police department and to do it in a way

that we have a functional police department that serves the city of

of Oakland. Constitutional policing is not inconsistent with law enforcement. It's just

not. That's just people who say that are just finding, you know, trying to find ways to

duck their constitutional obligation. At the same time, you could have, you don't want

to have constitutional policing in an ineffective police department. You know, policemen have

to be constitutional, but they have to be polite. They have to be approachable. There's

a lot of things that have to happen.

So that's my story.

All right.

And then how do you come to this work

understanding that this is such a fraught body?

I mean, it's working better than it

has in a long, long time.

But just a few years previous, there

were a lot of political pressures on the commissioners

as well as the selection panel.

How do you handle political pressures external to the body

when you have a lot of different people in your ear telling you

what you should or should not consider or do or believe?

Oakland.

I'm a really good person to reason with.

I'm a really hard person to pressure.

I'm a judge.

I was a judge.

I listen to what people have to say.

I talk to them and figure out what makes sense, but not once in 21 years on the bench,

and even when I did things in my life prior to being a judge, did I ever roll over to pressure.

I don't do it.

I love that answer.

We'll see.

This is a tough place.

Well, you know, that's who I am.

I love to hear it.

My last question.

in the last 21 years while you've been on the bench,

have you had the opportunity or the time to volunteer

for any nonprofit or charitable groups

in the city of Oakland?

And if so, who?

No, and I have not done it on purpose

because as a judge, you have to remain completely impartial.

So I couldn't even join clubs that I wanted to join.

I couldn't, you know, I never did social media

because once you are affiliated with, say, a club or social media or something like that,

you're subject to disqualification potentially because you're affiliated with this organization

or that organization.

Different judges handle it differently.

I always was very, very careful to stay clean and to stay spotless.

And that meant that I didn't join a lot of organizations that I would have liked to join.

I didn't make contributions to organizations that I would have liked to come.

I mean, I used to love conservation.

I had to quit contributing to conservation organizations

because if a case came up before me, I didn't want to either have to reacuse myself

or to get, you know, to get bounced from the case.

And that's, you know, I was just very careful about that.

And what district do you live in?

Pardon?

What district do you live in?

I think it's, what's the real long one?

Seven? East?

Which one of us up here?

I think it's six, okay?

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Thank you for your answer.

But I don't like to get too specific of it because I still do have security concerns from being a judge.

Oh, yes, as we all do.

Yeah, I'm very well aware of those security concerns.

Thank you for your answers.

Anyone else?

Council Member Moore.

Yep.

Thank you, Judge Grio, for your interest in this position, first of all.

And Council Member Five took my first question, so I will ask my questions, number two and three.

just when it comes to reform of the police department,

what do you think is the most needed and critical reform

that we should pursue with our police department?

You're asking me to answer a question to which I'm not informed enough.

I mean, I have some views based on what I see the media report,

which is not always accurate.

So I don't come in with an agenda as I want to reform this

or want to reform that, what I want to do is listen and look at it and do what's appropriate.

Okay. And also, do you have an opinion on just the role of local law enforcement,

especially given what is happening with federal forces and just the, especially given your legal background?

I'm not sure what the question is. Can you be a little more specific?

Yeah, just is there a role for local law enforcement, given just, for example, what happened with Renee Goode?

And I've seen, for example, what, say, is happening in Philadelphia.

What is, do you think there's a role that our local law enforcement can play in?

Well, if your question is to what extent could local law enforcement pursue charges or a claim

for what happened to Ms. Good, I think there's probably an issue there with the supremacy

clause, the Constitution, that may preclude them from doing that.

And if the question is, do I think local law enforcement has the autonomy not to, say,

be the handmaiden, the federal troops who are doing the types of things that are happening in Minneapolis,

I think absolutely that's the case.

And I don't think, you know, local law enforcement may have a role in, as they always do,

you know, policing demonstrations and things, but when you've got ICE charging and the way they're charging,

THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE A PART OF THAT.

OKAY. THANK YOU.

ANYONE ELSE? THANK YOU.

COUNCILMEMBER GAIL.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND COMMITMENT TO SERVE

OKLAND. CERTAINLY WITH YOUR BACKGROUND, YOUR EXPERIENCE,

AND YOU CERTAINLY WOULD ADD A LOT OF STRENGTH TO THE POLICE

COMMISSION WITH YOUR BACKGROUND AND CERTAINLY, YOU

KNOW, WE ARE TRYING TO CREATE A BALANCE OF DELIVERANCE

when it comes to public safety and I think you'll be you'll add a lot to the

city of Oakland and make sure that public safety and our police department

is makes our community a priority to serve and to make sure that our

children and families are protected so thank you for your your interests and

commitment to continue to serve Oakland thank you councilmember Gallo thank you

Any more questions before I ask a question? Process. So to the judge, the police commission is very focused on the police department, but another function of their supervisorial duties is the inspector general and also SIPRA.

Right. And just please keep that in mind when you are on, if you're selected for the police commission.

Please keep that in mind that that's one of the duties and we need to ensure that there is proper supervision of the OIG and CIPRA.

And CIPRA needs policies.

Yeah, I did some homework on it. I know that. Thank you.

Excellent. Well, I really appreciate a handful of the questions that my colleagues answered.

and I really appreciated your intentionality in the response.

And so just to keep it consistent, there was a question that I asked during rules of one of the other candidate.

And so I'll go ahead and pose it for you, and then hopefully you have enough background as well.

And so it was specifically, you know, what would be like the top three things that, you know,

serving on the police commission that you would want to focus on?

Well, I think the NSA has gone on much too long,

and I think we need to work really hard to get out from under that.

I think that we've got to get people talking,

because right now the perception that I have is that there's a lot of talking,

not to each other, but beyond each other, and I hope that that happens.

and I hope that the third thing is I hope by that process of talking which by

the way to get people to talk what you have to do is listen you have to listen

very carefully but hopefully when you get people talking and listening to each

other some of the issues that you know we have specifically the policing issues

and how things are going to be policed will fall into place.

So, you know, policing is not easy.

It's tough work.

And it's different now than it was 20 years ago,

and in 20 years it'll be different again.

And we have to adapt to it,

and I think the police commission can help in that regard.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you for having the opportunity

TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS AND I LOOK FORWARD TO ONCE AGAIN SERVING MY CITY. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. OKAY. SO WITH THE AMENDMENT FROM THE MAYOR'S OFFICE,

I'LL ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT CALENDAR.

YES, ABSOLUTELY. PLEASE FEEL FURRY. I'M SECOND. CAN WE MAKE IT OUT?

yep okay so there's a couple items that I want to register a no vote and the

first one is the Caltrans maintenance agreement amendment which you'll find on

page 10 as 6.9 and the other one that I want to register a no vote is on page 11

S.6 MOU between OPD and the Santa Clara Police Department S6.10.

And the reason with Caltrans voting no on that recommendation is certainly I know that practice well.

I've done cleaning streets through the council for 12 years.

And certainly I have a relationship with Caltrans.

with Caltrans, I have a relationship with the railroad company that I can call directly

to clean the areas in our neighborhood.

And by Caltrans offering the city of Oakland $300,000 to do the work that they should be

doing, because I know what's going to happen, they're going to say, no, no, we gave Oakland

the money, you ain't doing your job.

They say, you ain't doing your job.

And so we get blamed for that.

And so what I would, now if Caltrans wants to support the Oakland, well, clean your property.

There are state properties from International Boulevard, 42nd Avenue, the freeway entrances,

underneath the freeways, that is a state property that Caltrans and Newsom should be cleaning daily

and maintain it.

just like the county has other responsibilities,

but no, they are waiting for the city of Oakland.

And the reality here with administration in Oakland

and the city council, we're not supporting public works

to have the employees necessary,

to have the equipment necessary

to maintain the properties around our schools

that are safe and clean and throughout the city.

So what I would do, I would recommend to the administration,

We need to reach out to Caltrans and make them responsible and accountable to the properties that they own.

And I give me 25 cents to go and do their work when I can't even clean my own streets, my own parks that I should be cleaning.

Doesn't make any sense for this government, this administration, to bow down to Caltrans and take that recommendation.

and secondly when it comes to the police department

I need my police officers on the street

because our response, well we don't have enough officers

to attend to address the need.

Look at the lady that's working for the city.

They stole her car and they still haven't responded

and I reached out to the investigators,

deputy chiefs and all that

and they still can't tell her what happened to her car

and who stole their car.

Now, so for me, I want to make sure that OPD stays in Oakland, monitors Oakland, and provides

the safety and not go to the Santa Clara stadium to monitor their activity.

And so anyway, so I will vote no on Caltrans grant or their commitment, and secondly, against

our OPD being

involved out in Santa Clara when I need them daily, 24 hours

a day on the streets, because the reality is we all recognize

the violence, but we're all sitting here worrying about who's going to be on the

police commission. Having more press conferences after press

conferences, what a great job I'm doing, but where I'm living, and where

some of us are living, it's a whole different environment that as a council

So we need to get our act together to make sure that what I invest my dollar in stays

in Oakland and builds Oakland and provides safety necessary and takes care of those people

in need in our streets.

So I'll vote no on those two items.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Guile.

Council Member Wong.

Yeah, I wanted to make actually a statement about S6.10, and I'm not registering a no vote.

I will keep the yes vote, especially since in public safety committee we did a certain amount of vetting for OPD to provide assurances that these are going to be off-duty officers.

Nonetheless, I just want to make sure that OPD, as well as the administration, knows that I will use my authority as the public safety chair if it turns out that I just, OPD is going to be making operational decisions right now around how to staff that event.

and I just want it to be made clear that Oakland's public safety needs to come

first and if it turns out that this decision by this body is what leads to

some sort of incident and there was an issue with staffing I will use my

authority as public safety chair to ask tough questions and ask for an

informational report from OPD. Thank You Councilmember.

Councilmember Houston.

Yeah, I just want to say through the chair, when it came to EOCP,

I already called and I thank the president for being involved.

I think my council member at large,

we already have a meeting set coming this week with the city administrator's office.

So just be aware that we did hear you loud and clear.

Related back to homelessness.

Related to homelessness?

when it relates to homelessness, when it relates to homelessness, I'm not sure if

you guys heard about that $1 billion that Gavin Newsom just gave $419 million

away for home, this is for homelessness, to San Francisco, San Diego, hmm, in LA,

why not Oakland? Because we didn't pass the EAP, that's why. Thank you, Council

MEMBER

COUNCIL MEMBER FIFE YEAH I'M NOT SURE IF THERE'S ANYONE HERE FROM THE MAYOR'S OFFICE

BUT I WE RECEIVED AN EMAIL UM PRESIDENT JENKINS ABOUT THE CALTRANS ITEM UH THAT WAS NOT PRESENTED

WHEN THIS FIRST CAME TO COMMITTEE MORE A LOT MORE DETAIL SO I JUST WANTED TO ASK THE MAYOR'S OFFICE

Is the president still present?

We'll go grab him.

Okay.

I'm not sure if you know anything about this item.

Specifically?

If city workers that are taking over the cleanup of Caltrans properties,

Is that in replacement of Caltrans workers cleaning up Caltrans properties?

So I'm going to let the mayor's office speak to that.

Through the chair, I can speak to that before Preston gets back.

Caltrans has 57 sites that are in line or right on the border of Oakland.

on their property line and so what happens and I mentioned this last time

it are precedent is coming I'll let him speak to it

right that's I'm confused

Hi, hello, council members. What was the question? Excuse me. Mia with the mayor's office.

Thank you. Through the chair to the mayor's office, I was asking if this will move, will

these dollars go to pay city workers versus paying CalTrans workers for stewarding the

properties the Caltrans properties so our staff our SCIU 10 to 1 they're the

ones that will be cleaning up the freeways now they'll be provided so

Caltrans is going to provide us with money to prove to pay overtime to public

works staff to clean the on and off ramps these 29 on and off ramps because

this is in response to the Caltrans not providing this and so this it they would pay the city to do it.

So Caltrans doesn't have a crew to do that work do they typically outsource it to vendors outside of Caltrans.

You know I'm going to have to ask the city administration to weigh in they've been.

is public works.

They're not.

Well, if

they're

terrible. We can continue.

They're terrible. The off and on ramps look

terrible. And I don't know

if it is in their purview

to manage their locations. I would

assume so. But I just wanted

to have more information about

are they pulling their crews back?

Are they doing other things? Do they not have the money?

I just wanted to

I'm not going to be able to get more information because our to pay our teams over time to take care of their locations to me is not an answer to the problem. And I'm the only reason I'm bringing this up is because district three right now looks worse than ever. And I want city workers to be looking at my district and districts five, six and seven as we heard from this recent panel discussion with faith in action about just we're not taking care of the basics and I don't.

I want our off and on ramps to be clean and I want Caltrans to pay their own staff to do it.

And I do want them to give us more money to do things too.

Yeah, I think this was an effort by the administration and the mayor's office to bring more resources to these 29 on and off ramps that are really dirty and need a faster response.

And so this would be a partnership with Caltrans similar to contracts that they have in San Francisco and San Diego and other cities across the state to expedite the cleaning in these areas.

And so Caltrans would be paying the city overtime funding so that our workers can go out and clean these on and off ramps.

That's not happening right now.

And so.

How long will this money last? How one year?

What 370? Really?

So and there's a 30 day period in the beginning where we have the option to cancel it.

Three three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars a year will cover staff

that work for the city of Oakland for a year to clean on and off ramps?

In 29 locations.

In 29 locations.

Okay, I just...

Yeah.

So you're saying they don't have the staff to do it?

Caltrans doesn't have the staff to do it?

Or they just...

I can't say that definitively right now,

but what I can say is that this is an effort to speed up that cleaning.

AND COMPENSATE THE CITY FOR DOING IT ON OVERTIME.

AND NOT REPLACE ANY EXISTING WORK BY THE CITY TO DO CLEANUPS,

BUT TO JUST PROVIDE OVERTIME TO FOCUS ON THESE VERY DIRTY ON AND OFF RAMPS.

OKAY. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

COUNCIL MEMBER HOUSTON, AND THEN WE'LL ENTERTAIN A MOTION AFTER THAT.

That's okay. She cleared it up.

Okay. So to clarify what the motion will be,

it is to the parliamentarian removing one of the members of the police commission from 6.7.

Yes, correct. For 6.7, the proposed amendment was to remove the reference to Doug Wong.

So the resolution would move forward without confirming that.

Commissioner just wanted to clarify that for the record.

just need a motion i'll understand emotion so moved i second it

on the motion by council member unger seconded by council member houston to approve the consent

calendar as amended and noting council member guiles no on item 6.9 and 6.10 council member

brown aye council member fife no council member gallo no council member houston aye council member

ramachandran who is excused council member unger aye council member wong aye and chair jenkins

aye motion passes with a vote of five eyes two no fife and gallo one excuse ramachandran

that was your final action item going to item 7 which is council member

acknowledgments and announcements and after that open forum any announcements

anyone any adjournments announcements or adjournments I just want to thank the

amazing men and women at the Oakland Fire Department for their work this this

past MLK day on just getting people off a four-story building balcony and getting

babies to safety and all of the work that they did to support District 3

residents with this massive fire that displaced hundreds of people this week

so I wanted to give a shout out to them and everyone that's in the EOC I spent

my entire MLK day getting you know supplies for folks and will encourage

individuals to contribute to the Red Cross. I've reached out to Costco for

the needs of our individuals. Most of them have been covered by the Red Cross

and the work of the City of Oakland, but there are some things that they just

don't provide like undergarments for people. I know there was a young man in

ninth grade who wanted to go to school first thing in the morning but didn't

have anything to wear because his family lost everything. So for individuals that

are looking to contribute please check in with my office the city administrator

again his team has been a stellar in supporting these folks but we do need

ongoing resources to address them so shout out to parche shout out to bar

shero and shereen and all the individuals who've who've showed up to

throw down thanks Costco for for taking my call and thanks thank you to

everyone who's who supported thank you councilmember no more announcements we'll

go to open forum as I call your name please approach the podium in any order

please state your name for the record before beginning if you're on zoom please

raise your hand so I can easily identify you if you still wish to speak

Milly Cleveland, Mrs. Osada Olabala, Kevin Daly, Derrick Barnes, Rajni Mandal, Blair

Beekman, Mr. Hazard.

In any order.

Okay, let's go back to the item 6.6 process.

approved a grant and the grant starts July 1st, 2025 and ends June 30th, 2026.

Process followed. Check. Okay, let's look at the process that you have as it

relates to the OUSD. Went to a meeting last week. OUSD is in conversation with

you that you're going to give them Garfield playground. Process. How does that work? They

saying that y'all agreeing to give them the playground, they're going to turn it into

a soccer field, but they also put some portables on there while they're doing remodeling. Process.

OUSD is saying you're going to give them 18 million dollars from your, what's that, early

children's initiative money so that you can build some extra classrooms. Now you can't

use that money for construction. Process. How is that working? How is that happening?

Process. Process. You just had a person from the community getting on a police commission

and you ask them everything they said would qualify for them. You ask them about constitutional

policing. The NSA don't have nothing to do with constitutional policing. It has ending

police brutality and excessive force. That's the focus. Now there is constitutional policing.

You ask them about what was the issue?

I can't even remember now.

But you ask them questions qualifying them

to be on the police commission.

Now when Omar Farmer and them got.

Thank you, Ms. Olabala.

Mrs. Hutter, your time's up.

We are out of process.

We are out of process.

Yeah, you have a good time saying you're out of order.

I'm going to show you who's out of order.

Prompt payment.

The city of Oakland prompt payment policy requires prime contractors and city managers

to pay their subcontractors for undistributed invoices within 20 business days.

I'm going to help these folks do a claim against you, okay?

Because they're entitled to be paid under the rules in this city.

I'm going to be filing a writ on your Rule 29 when you suspended the rules and disrespected the mayor.

Shame on you.

Yes, when you ejected me on November 4th from the council chambers.

Because I dare to ask for a clarification from the parliamentarian.

And you just had a drug raid in Oakland week before last on fentanyl.

You do not have fentanyl.

Thank you Mr. Hazard, your time is up.

You better wake up.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I hope you can come to,

If you have 13 new candidates for a police review commission, I hope the previous two candidates can be considered.

You guys are taking more and more time away from a good commission process.

You're expanding it and creating more and more confusion instead of having a focus.

I'm pretty upset.

I am pretty upset at the Trump administration who is continuing to fight a war against everyday

community and the progressive community in Minneapolis. I hope they learn important lessons

from what we're doing in San Francisco Bay Area. We asked them to stop. It was more than the Super

Bowl. We had good reasoning. Every city can offer their good reasoning. Trump has got to learn to

listen to that good reasoning and deal with respect

of good dialogue and not war.

He's practicing war.

What are we doing?

We have to talk to him.

Thank you, Mr. Beekman.

Moving to the Zoom speakers, Rajni Mandel.

Please unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Rajni Mandel, District Four.

I'd like to use my time today to thank the office

of the city clerk.

The city clerk's office is one of the most professional,

responsive and steady parts of Oakland's government.

From preparing agenda and minutes,

to managing e-comments,

to keeping meetings running late into the night,

the work is essential to transparency

and public participation.

For residents like me who follow city hall closely,

the clerk's office is often the first point of contact

and consistently the most reliable.

Questions are answered promptly,

records are handled carefully,

and procedures are applied fairly,

even when meetings are contentious or complex.

City council quite literally could not function

without this office.

And yet the clerk's work often happens quietly

behind the scenes and without recognition.

I hope the council will join me in recognizing

the city clerk and their staff as unsung heroes

of Oakland's democratic process.

Thank you.

Thank you for your kind words, Ms. Mondal,

through the chair.

Process.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.