Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the Public Safety Committee meeting of Tuesday, February 2,

10, 2026. The time is now 6 0 8 PM and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking role, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards on items on this agenda.

If you're here with us in chamber would like to submit a speaker card,

please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative no later

than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record.

Registering to speak via zoom is now due 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting time.

This meeting came to order at 6 0 8 p.m.

And speaker cards will no longer be accepted 10 minutes after making that time 6 18 p.m.

We'll now proceed with taking roll

Council members five

Council member

President council member Houston president and chair Wong

Present. Thank you. We have four members present before we begin chair. Do you have any announcements at this time? I

Don't I will ask for some

just gonna ask people to keep it down in the chamber I know everyone's excited

about the disparity study but just if we can go ahead and proceed with this so

no announcements except and ask for order in the chamber thank you reading

in item number one approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting held

on January third come on you go 2000 okay I'm sorry we need some order in the

chamber I need voices to lower down and if you have a conversation please have

it outside of the chamber so everyone can look can hear and listen to everyone

thank you thank you I get approval of the draft minutes from the committee

meeting held on January 13 2026 in January 27 2026 and there are no

speakers on this item I'll move approval okay I'll second that thank you that was

motion made by councilmember Brown seconded by chair Wong to approve the

draft minutes from the committee meetings held on January 13th and January

27th 2026 on roll council members Brown I council member 5 council member

Houston I and chair Wong I thank you item number one passes with four eyes

reading in item 2 determination of schedule about standing committee items

is also known as your pending list.

There are no speakers that signed up.

I do want to comment on the pending list.

I know that there's been a report that has come out

around some troubling overtime

published in the Oakland side recently.

We do have that report being scheduled

to the March 10th Finance and Management Committee meeting.

I invite anybody on this committee

who wants to listen to that to come to that meeting.

So that's going to be March 10th, 9.30 a.m., colleagues.

And anything from the administration?

No, thank you so much, Chair.

I'll entertain a motion.

Second.

Thank you, that was a motion made

by Council Member Houston,

seconded by Council Member Brown,

to accept the determination of scheduled

outstanding committee items as is on roll.

Council members Brown?

Aye.

Aye.

Houston?

Aye.

And Chair Wong?

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number two passes with four ayes

to accept the pending list as is.

Reading in item three,

adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator

to enter into a professional services agreement

with Evergreen Counseling,

a marriage and family therapy corporation

to provide behavioral science consultation, training,

and confidential mental health services

for the Oakland Fire Department

from February 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2028

in an amount not to exceed $450,000

with two one-year options to extend the agreement

for up to an additional two years

in an amount not to exceed $150,000 per year

without returning to council

for a total contract amount not to exceed $700,000

and there are no speakers on this item.

Okay, well, we're ready for the staff presentation.

somebody from OFD here

beg your forgiveness for my inexperience here good evening everybody my name is

Chris Foley I'm an assistant chief with the Oakland Fire Department tonight I'm

here to speak to the importance of the issues of mental and behavioral health

support for Oakland firefighters I've worked with the Oakland Fire Department

since 2002 and I've worked on the issue of peer support for our members for 10

years and I can speak firsthand to the fact that this issue has never been more

critical and we're trying to minimize health and wellness impacts on our

first responders and acting this contact with evergreen counseling will go a long

way in supporting and strengthening of these health and wellness program.

Firefighters routinely faced traumatic incidents, cumulative operational stress

and exposures to life-threatening situations that significantly affect

their psychological well-being. The proposed agreement provides OFD with a

licensed behavioral science partner to deliver confidential mental health

counseling, post-critical incident response, training and wellness

counseling and to the staff department-wide. Evergreen counseling was

selected through a competitive RFP RFQ process in 2025 and demonstrated the

specialized qualifications needed to support firefighters effectively. This

agreement fulfills the city's obligation to support the wellness of OFD

members, aligns with the IAFF local 55 MOU provisions regarding mental health

resources, and strengthens OFD's capacity to respond to behavioral health needs

with clinical expertise, confidentiality, and timely intervention. The Oakland

Department has long recognized the necessity of supporting the mental health of its workforce

due to the unique stressors associated with emergency response.

NOFD's health and wellness program currently includes peer support, a critical incident

stress management team, and access to employee assistance program.

However, the EAP alone is insufficient to meet the specialized and often immediate mental

health needs of firefighters.

Evergreen Counseling was selected based on its clinical expertise, fire service experience,

capacity to provide confidential services at scale the cost of this

program over two years is $450,000 with an option to extend the agreement for an

additional two years it's a minimal cost in relation to the impact it will have

on our members and their fight against cumulative mental health challenges and

I'd be happy to answer any questions I don't see any blinking mic so I will ask

ask a question. First of all, I completely agree that behavioral health, mental health services

is a completely critical service that we need to ensure that our first responders have access to.

I just have one question around the funding source. Is this being funded through 1010?

1010, correct. Yes. And I'm now asking this of essentially every department for many of the

things that come before me which is that is there another fund that could fund

something like this was that sought out or at least looked at before using the

general purpose funds for this I'd have to defer that to the fire chief I'm

sorry I don't have a good answer for you on that one I'm imagining that yes if he

was directed to search for other alternative sources he certainly would

have. Okay. Okay. And just to walk us through a little bit of the RFP process, how many people

responded? Was this the only respondent? We had a total of four respondents and of the four, this

Evergreen was the only local participant in the process. So the three other respondents were from

Southern California. Okay. Yes. Got it.

Colleagues, any questions? Council Member Brown. Excellent.

So good to see you. Nice to see you too. So through the chair to

Mr. Foley. So a couple questions. I think the

first one, is this our first time doing a contract

with Evergreen? It is. Yes, that's correct. Okay. And I guess I'm

blending it all together because I know in 2025 we

I'm sorry let me back back that up a little bit we do have an existing

contractor with Evergreen so this is sort of an additional contract with them

okay I'm sorry okay I was gonna say I thought so because I remember reading

and reviewing this before and so one question I have do you know by chance

how often the services are utilized by our firefighters at our last meeting I

the number that was given to us by Evergreen staff was we've had 744 visits up to this point so I don't know how many as this is confidential I don't know how many members that encompasses but so we've had 700 over 700 clinical visits thus far with Evergreen

Okay, excellent. And I would just share, you know, Evergreen Counseling has a very robust website that you can view.

And it just shows some of the stats and just some of the details of what our firefighters go through and how vital this supportive service is, right?

Yes, absolutely.

And I think maybe my only flag that when looking at the practitioners and thinking about the makeup of our Oakland firefighters,

just ensuring that, you know, there are, you know, people of color practitioners that are also on staff with this counseling agency.

And also, you know, maybe like gender as well.

It looks like 90.

Let me make sure I do my math right.

Yeah.

98% of the staff are women and not a person of color and so I think that

would just be my only flag and just making sure because we know that when

you're seeking support it is important to have you know folks that you can talk

to that maybe look like you absolutely as a priority and if I may speak to that

point that question has come up before people that have sought their assistance

on the front end that very concern came up and that was never asked again you

know the people that had that concern their needs were met by this group of

practitioners so but yes very well taken point excellent thank you yeah I just

want to echo my colleagues comments that look I know many therapists we can speak

frankly are white but um i do think that we have a role as a city to to push those that we contract

with to offer a diversity of clinicians um since i think therapy is one of those areas where that

sort of cultural um just empathy and not just empathy but just the shared cultural background

is incredibly important yes and i believe if you look at their website there this is mentioned um

as kind of part of their explanation of their company and their beliefs.

You know, Annie Wright, who's their founder,

I think she takes this extremely seriously and discusses it on her webpage.

And I think that it's perhaps, it's not for lack of trying.

Maybe perhaps, I can't speak to a hiring pool that she's up against,

but certainly know that it's a priority for her.

And I would imagine, knowing a bit about her background,

she's done everything she can to alleviate this concern,

whether or not, I mean, clearly, if you look at her homepage,

it's mostly women.

And so something that we can certainly bring back to them as a point.

Yes. Yes.

that's what I would yeah request that you do especially because there actually

are more and more people of color actually serving in these types of

therapists roles so I will have a conversation with her about that thank

you great any other questions or or I will entertain a motion councilmember

so moved thank you we have a motion made by councilmember Fyves seconded by

councilmember Brown to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward

this item to the February 17th City Council agenda on roll council members

Brown aye five aye Easton aye and chair Wong aye thank you item number three

passes with four ayes to forward this item to the February 17th City Council

on consent reading in item 4 a motion to designate councilmember Houston as vice

chair of the Public Safety Committee and there's one speaker that signed up

council member Houston do you want to you have five minutes to make your pitch

to us. Oh it's a pitch okay all right I just want to say that public safety has

been my my passion for years it's been for illegal graffiti or graffiti

vandalism illegal dumping homelessness and it's just been a passion of mine to

move our city in in the right way just like I'm doing with that EAP that

encampment abatement policy that we're gonna be working on real soon that I

spoke to some about um public safety is the key to the city if we don't have public safety

our city won't be able to get businesses we won't be able to um to move forward in a healthy way

so um in case you're not around and and i'll i'll be that person that is chair for um the public

safety committee and that's it so i like to say

sounds good council member brown yes um so to the chair and council member

houston i guess i was i know this is a new item that the council has moved

forward with with having the vice chairs i was curious how you

um propose operationally for this position to be working and functioning

um how i imagine this would work and i think this is the first

committee that has a vice chairperson appointment coming before it is that in times when I would

be absent, I don't plan on being absent much, but whoever gets appointed as the vice chair

would then serve in the chair role for that session.

I see.

Anything else?

Or is it just the chairing of the meeting?

um i think that would be it and then i imagine that whoever is the vice chair because i i know

that sometimes say when i want to reach out to the district attorney or the alameda sheriff or

dv you know just various um entities that are not just within the city but outside of the city that

i have used that title in order to you know get access to somebody to have a conversation around

public safety and I would imagine a vice chairperson could also use that title to you know

be taken say seriously by entities outside beyond directly out of the city that we have purview over

thank you I was just curious

council member Brown or Fife excuse me I'll be fully transparent that I was the sole vote

on the city council against the change in the rules of procedure because in all of our committees

the chair can identify who should chair in their absence so this change in the rules of procedure

just was not logical and it was one of the reasons that I voted no that said if the body

the public safety committee does want to move council council member Houston forward then I

want to offer my support and services, council member,

because sharing is more than a passion.

It's about understanding the rules of procedure.

It's understanding the Brown Act.

It's being able to manage the public.

It's being able to manage time and manage yourself.

Because a lot of times in these spaces,

people will come specifically to antagonize.

So it takes a lot of self-management,

but also community management.

So I wanted to articulate that because,

and just state again for the record

why I thought this particular change

in the rules of procedure didn't make sense

because it's something, again,

that the chair can already do

without this formal procedure.

And what I felt at the time,

what it was, is that it was a political move

to choose an individual to be the vice chair

of the rules committee.

That is what was happening.

But that said, I just wanted to state my opinion

for the record and I'm happy to be a part

of calling the vote.

Sounds good.

I think we have a public comment.

Let's move to that.

Calling in the name that signed up for item number four,

Ms. Paula Hawthorne.

Is there a timer somewhere

that I need to pay attention to?

Because I'm from Texas and I'll talk forever.

So I had the honor of working with Bridget Cook, a friend of mine, and of Mr. Houston's.

And in one project that went sideways, she said she would call Ken Houston.

I said, who's that?

She said, he is a wonderful man who runs a really good group and who we can depend upon.

She said he is honest.

His people do the work that he says they'll do.

They come in on time and on budget, and we need his help, and he'll be here for us.

And that is exactly what happened.

I stand here partly in memory of my friend and of the time we had together,

but partly to tell you what I think she would tell you,

which is that Ken Houston has been devoting his life

to the betterment of the people of Oakland,

and he's a wonderful person to have as your vice chair.

An amazing man.

And also, I want to say as a public safety committee,

this is amazing honor in that this is probably other than rules the second most powerful committee.

Desley Brooks ran this committee in such a way that it was the most powerful thing ever

and she did it by asking for reports.

This current issue with the inequitable discipline, black police officers getting harsher discipline than white,

she'd have them in here, OPD, day after day.

What's going on? How are you going to fix it? When are you going to fix it?

Now report back to me on how it is fixed.

She wouldn't have stood for it. I ask you not to.

Thank you for your comments.

Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item.

Okay, thank you.

And then my request of you, actually,

Council Member Houston, is if you do become vice chair,

I think for a number of the recent meetings

that you have taken them remotely,

it is important for me if you're appointed in this role

that you are here more in person

for these meetings going forward.

okay great thank you do you want to make a motion you want to make the motion I'll

make a motion to move it all right I'll second that thank you we have a motion

made by councilmember Houston seconded by chair Wong to accept the to approve

the motion to designate councilmember Houston as vice chair of the Public

safety committee on roll council members Brown aye five aye Houston aye and

chair Wong aye thank you item number four passes with four eyes to appoint

councilmember Houston as vice chair of the Public Safety Committee moving on to

open forum we do have 16 speakers that signed up to speak in no particular

order you can come up to the podium state your name for the record or if

you're on zoom please raise your hand to be easily identified Marcus Romero Garcia

Greg Slaughter, Alberto Parra, Christine Miller,

Avery Arball, Donna Griggs Murphy, Cameron Preston,

Ethan Lipman, Tariq Woods, Barley Anastos,

Candida Hayes, Sheila Jackson, Adriana Martinez,

Michelle Washington, Marie McKenzie, and Valerie Batchelor.

When you come up to the podium,

please state your name for the record.

Okay, good evening, council members in the community.

My name is Gregory Slaughter.

I am a resident of District 7 and a member of ACE.

I'm here today to share some concerns around public safety.

Okay, FLOC.

Data surveillance, in December, the majority of you voted to enter into the contract with

FLOC.

at the hearing from hundreds of constituents over multiple hours of city council meetings.

Now Santa Cruz, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, and Richmond has all canceled

their contract with Flock because they allowed ICE and other federal agencies to

access their system despite it prohibit it under state law our immigrants families deserve

sanctuary and that means counseling flock please reckon uh uh thank you for your comments

Good evening, councilor and community. My name is Alberto Parra, I am resident of District 5 and member of ACE.

I am here to share some of my concerns about public safety.

I am an inquilino in Oakland and currently I am dealing with the sucias, cameras that don't work and plagas.

I contacted my owner and the owner of the property, but I have no found any solution.

This is not only stressful, but also a public security issue.

Because I know that not only thousands of inquilinos in all Oakland

and enfrentan a problem of habitability and proprietors

that prioritize the benefits of people.

That's why I'm organizing with ASE and I ask you to support a proactive inspection program.

Thank you for your comments.

Sir, will you be translating for him?

Thank you.

Good evening, council members and community. My name is Alberto. I'm a resident of District 5 and a member of ACE. I am here today to share some of my concerns around public safety. I'm a renter in Oakland, and I'm currently dealing with security cameras that do not work and pests. I have reached out multiple times to my landlord and property management with no solution. This is not only stressful, but it's a public safety matter because I know I'm not alone. Thousands of tenants all over Oakland are dealing with habitability issues and landlords who put profits over people. That's why I'm organizing with ACE and calling on you all to

to support a proactive rental inspection program

that will help renters like me have a habitable home.

My comment.

Good afternoon, committee members.

My name is Marcus, and I'm an organizer working daily

with tenants across Oakland.

I'm here today because of our current compliant-based code

enforcement system is failing.

I see the human cost of this failure every day.

I've sat in living rooms where children are developing

chronic respiratory issues because of pervasive,

untreated mold, mold the landlord has ignored

for months, if not years.

I've spoken with seniors living in senior buildings

that were once dedicated senior housing

who have gone years without heat,

huddled around space heaters in the winter

because they are too afraid to complain

or have complained and it's gone unaddressed.

I've seen homes with physical holes in the walls

and in the floor where the basic structure of the building

is literally failing the people inside.

For immigrant tenants in Oakland,

requests for repairs have been met with threats of ice.

I have seen landlords explicitly use a tenant status

as a weapon to avoid fixing a leak or heater.

Under a compliant based system,

a city inspection is a tell

that the tenant spoke up, making them a target for retaliation.

This isn't just a housing issue.

It's a civil rights and public safety crisis.

We need to take the target off of tenant's backs.

I'm asking the committee to implement a proactive rental inspection program.

Safe housing is a foundation of a safe city.

Please move forward with a proactive rental inspection.

Hello.

My name is Avery.

I'm an organizer with ACE.

I organize mostly in District 2.

And I'm here today representing myself, but also representing almost 100 tenants and ACE members in District 2,

many of which couldn't be here today, but signed on to a petition calling for safe and healthy homes for all.

And that means proactive rental inspections so that, as Marcus illustrated, we have a system in which tenants aren't going to be retaliated against for calling for habitable homes, but it also means taking our illegal dumping crisis seriously.

We have some folks here who have pictures of the conditions.

I've seen it every single day walking around the trash on the streets in District 2.

It's only getting worse and we need to really take care of it and start to...

Yeah.

Hi, my name.

My name is Christine Miller, and I'm in district two also.

And yeah, we've collected signatures from.

I don't know the total count of people, but I helped collect signatures

and and there's a everybody seems to be in agreement.

You know, that this is something we need.

We also need proactive trash cleanup too.

Instead of just reactive, like in our area,

wait five or six days before somebody shows up after you call 3-1-1.

A lot of the people that I spoke with in the neighborhood

definitely have issues with the fact that it's filthy.

It's a safer environment when our neighborhoods are clean.

I'd also wanted to say about the flock thing.

I wanted to know what,

whether you guys are actually actively looking for

another company to run this thing,

because that's what I heard was the possibility.

But could.

Thank you for your comments.

Hello, my name is Barley. I'm a member of ACE and I'm also a resident in District 2. I live

on East 19th Street. I was also out knocking doors trying to get petitions for this the same

thing so proactive rental inspections cleaning up some of the potholes in our streets and also

proactive dump or trash removal. I've also been out knocking doors for ACE

since September in my neighborhood and the most common things I have my

neighbors tell me that they're concerned about because that's all we're asking

them is what they're concerned about is the trash and the streets and some of my

neighbors have while we were there talking them pointed out trash that had

been sitting there for up to a month large pieces of trash like sofas and

mattresses and they're also complaining about the potholes in their streets

tearing up their cars which is causing it's already unaffordable in this city

in this country and having a vehicle that you have to go get maintenance more

often than you should is

Bless you.

Hi, I'm Cameron Preston.

I'm also in District 2 and just found out about this today, so I'm not exactly prepared.

But, Charlene, I saw you at the cleanup at the Clinton Park the other day, and I do a

lot of cleanups in the neighborhood and really care about Oakland and keeping it clean.

I live right next to Clinton Square Park and there's there is lots of piles of trash all over the place

I walk around Laney College with my dog all the time that place gets trashed really heavily too

There's a car that's been right in front of my house now for

Since last March that's been abandoned. I called it into 311

Six or about eight months ago, and it's still there

walk around my street all the time in the box springs and the mattresses and just the general

upkeep that needs to happen. I think there could be a lot more like community organized stuff. It

doesn't even necessarily like have to be tax dollar supported stuff but I think there's a lot

of people that would get together if we started organizing a lot of things more. So if we can have

more. If you can stick around I'll if I could get the location of that abandoned vehicle we can

escalate that with oak 311. good evening city council members my name is

Valerie Batchelor and I'm the director of ACE Oakland and the district 6

resident and we're all here today because we want safe and healthy homes

and communities and to us that's first starts off with getting rid of the flock

contract as you have heard hundreds of other cities are also getting rid of

their flock contracts and just recently Santa Cruz, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View and Richmond

have all canceled their contracts because ICE and federal agencies have accessed their systems even

though it's prohibited by state law. So we're asking you to re-agendize that agreement and cancel

that contract. As other folks have also mentioned one of the largest issues that's going on in Oakland

right now is the lack of proactive rental inspection. We have seen tenants go years without

a heater, years with mold, years with thousands of other issues and none of

those have been deemed important enough for landlords to take care of them and

we have to have a proactive program because...

Thank you for your comments.

And I'm Paula Hawthorne I believe you have a thing for me also. When we were

trying to get ceasefire implemented in Oakland, I gave away books to people, to every single

person on the city council, I gave a book.

And right now I'm seeing some, not as much support for the police commission as I think

it deserves.

And so I'm giving you books.

So I have brought books for each of you.

And that is Darwin Bond Graham's The Writers Come Out at Night.

And I have marked where it talks about the police commission, why it was implemented,

how it was implemented.

And I'm giving each of you one of these.

If you've already read it or you don't want it, just give it to someone else, please.

But I really ask you to inform yourselves about why the police commission is so important

and why it needs your total support.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Moving to Zoom users.

Do you have a...

I do.

Hi, my name is Candida Haynes, and I am particularly interested in what's going on with proactive rental inspection.

I don't know how to get support in terms of situations that the landlord refuses to intervene in.

I live in a co-op situation, a co-living situation, so none of us own.

And there is a safety concern that probably goes more towards domestic violence, although there are no familial or sexual ties.

So I'm really here because I think there need to be services related to tenant-on-tenant harassment,

which is something that I found that none of the agencies or nonprofits that I reach out to handle.

I know Seeds used to do that.

Thank you for your comments.

Now switching to Zoom users.

Donna Murphy, you can unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.

Hi, my name is Donna Griggs Murphy. I'm a member. I live in District 2 and a proud member of ACE. I stand with my ACE colleagues on the FLOC issue. I'm hoping that you heard all the comments about FLOC and that you will re-agendize this item.

it's important that we keep ice out of our sanctuary city

and that we do all we can to make sure our city is safe

so I'm hoping that you re-agendize the item on FLOC

and I look forward to supporting it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Marie, you can unmute yourself and begin your comment.

Hello, my name is Marie.

I live in District 3 and I am an ACE member.

I'm here to talk about public safety.

I live in a senior building and right now I would love to be in person, but it is very

dangerous for seniors to leave our building at night.

There's a bunch of people having their cars broken into.

um our gate isn't as safe so a lot of homeless people like to wander in and cause issues with

other residents here and you know it's not their fault that they don't have the resources needed

to help them get into actual housing but it harms the other people who are actually able to be in

housing um we don't have proper lighting on our streets and we need that stuff like that to get

fix because you know I feel like the seniors are a lot of forgotten people in Oakland and we need

to change that. Thank you for your comments. If your name was called and you'd still like to speak

please come up to the podium or raise your hand to be identified on zoom. At this time all names

have been called

all right um thank you everyone who made public comment uh all um after this

meeting i'd love to chat with you all and uh with that this meeting is

dismissed oh unless councilmember fife you have

something to say i just want to uh confirm because i've

been working on um prip and lhap since 2021

And even though things are moving slowly in the city of Oakland, they are moving.

And I want to confirm that this organization is being consulted and is a part of the conversation.

I can ask that offline because from my understanding, that is happening.

So if that is incorrect, then I need to go back and talk to staff about what's happening.

But I'll take my responses offline.

Sounds good.

Council Member Brown, it doesn't look like you got a call or you do?

Okay.

Yeah, I was actually going to provide that update that the, at least as far as like internally with the city, I believe, I just had a briefing on the kind of the lead abatement program that city staff has been working very diligently on for some time.

And it's nearing completion.

And so I want to say in March or April, it should be coming to CED.

Yeah, that's true.

so we will have we'll have an update on that very that's true that that's not all inspections but

it is a subset of what needs to be addressed okay well with that i move to dismiss this meeting

thank you so much

Thank you.