Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

To the members of the public,

we are just waiting for a quorum to start the meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting

of Tuesday, December 10, 2026. The time is now 1.48 PM and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking role, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for 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 online speaker requests were

due 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting this meeting came to order at 1 48 pm and speaker

cards will no longer be accepted 10 minutes after making that time 1 58 pm we'll now proceed with

taking role council members five president councilmember anger here oh

sorry councilmember Ramachandran and chair Brown president we can check in

so I given the presence of councilmember Houston I'll entertain a

motion to adjourn into a special meeting so moved I'll second that thank

you due to the presence of council oh sorry we have a motion made by council

member five seconded by councilmember Unger to adjourn the community economic

development committee meeting and and reconvene into a full city council

meeting due to the presence of councilmember Houston on roll council

members five I also member Ramachandran I council member Unger here and chair

Brown I thank you at 150 sorry motion passes with four eyes and at 150 we we

can read into a full council meeting sorry before we begin chair do you have

any announcements yes so first I just want to welcome everyone to the

community and economic development committee this is our first gathering

of 2026 and so delighted to be back and look forward to a productive year also

want to extend a warm welcome to assistant administrator Baker who will

be joining us in CED committee and then in addition I know we have some special

guests Councilmember Unger did you want to take a few moments to welcome the

students we have all right we've got a bunch of students here who are studying

government from Oakland Tech the heart of D1 and I've been in contact with some

of them working on a project over the last couple weeks and I can tell you

from personal experience that they're asking good questions that they have a

good understanding of what's going on in city government and I'm so pleased to

welcome them here today to deepen their understanding and involvement and I hope

that we will see some of you sitting up here in the not-too-distant future

excellent thank you so much and welcome it's a pleasure to have you here in CED

and I believe that my last announcement will be just kind of given the sake of

time and wanting to get back on track for our committee meetings we will limit

a public comment to just one minute thank you sorry reading in item one

approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting held on December 9th

2025 there are no speakers that signed up excellent I'll entertain a motion

move approval second thank you that was a motion made by councilmember five

seconded by chair Brown to accept the draft minutes from the committee meeting

held on December 9th 2025 on roll council members five I Rambachandran I

hunger I and chair Brown I thank you item passes with four eyes to accept the

draft minutes from December 9th 2025 reading an item to determination of

scheduled outstanding committee items also known as your pending list and there

are no speakers on this item excellent thank you so much so to the

administration any changes to the pending list to this year no none of this

time excellent thank you so much and I will entertain a motion so moved

second thank you we have a motion made by councilmember five seconded by

councilmember Unger to accept the determination of scheduled outstanding

committee items as is on roll council members five all right Ramachandran I

hunger I and chair Brown I thank you item passes with four eyes to accept the

pending list as is reading in item three adopted resolution authorizing the city

administrator to submit a foreign trade zone alternative site framework

application and to execute an agreement with the foreign trade zone board of the

u.s. sorry board of the u.s. Department of Commerce and we have no speakers that

Signed up. Excellent. Thank you so much. And so I believe for this item, we will hear from our EWD team.

Okay. Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Eric Simanzo with the Department of Economic and Workforce Development in the Business Development Division.

So the item before you is a resolution that will allow staff to submit an application to the U.S. Foreign Trade Zone Board, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce,

to convert Foreign Trade Zone 56, which is currently administered by the City of Oakland,

to the Alternative Site Framework, which is a model adopted by the FTZ board in 2008

and now used by most FTZs nationwide.

FTZ 56 has been in operation since 1980,

provides direct competitive advantages to the port and its customers

through deferral of duties and tariffs on imported goods.

The value of FTZ benefits have only been underscored by recent changes in federal trade policy and tariff rates.

This action will complete a process initiated by city staff over 10 years ago.

The FTZ board requires a resolution within six months of application submission.

While council previously authorized the submittal of an ASF application in 2014 and 2016,

delays from the FTZ board revisions as well as staff turnover or preventive completion.

Currently, the only subzone of the FTZ is a general purpose zone public warehouse at

9401 St. Leandro Street operated by Mattson Logistics, which serves as a public warehouse

for multiple and related users.

The ASF will allow for a streamlined process to designate new FTZ sites, which is now a

time-consuming and expensive process that few firms have pursued, which limits access

to the benefits of the FTZ.

Converting to the ASF will expand our FTZ's capacity

to attract manufacturing, goods movement, warehousing

and distribution activities, driving job growth in Oakland

and increasing business and FTZ license revenue to the city.

The ASF will also strengthen the city's ability to market the FTZ

as part of a broader business attraction strategy

while supporting the Port of Oakland

and expanding international trade in the region.

And that's my presentation.

Any questions?

Excellent, thank you so much.

Colleagues, any questions on this item?

And there were no public speakers?

Okay, excellent.

So I didn't personally have any questions.

I thought the report was very clear.

But I did notice that the staff report mentioned

that without making this change,

there could be some business constraints.

And so I was just curious if you had an example, some examples.

Well, the examples would be that right now the process to add a new subzone to the FTZ is very onerous.

It's expensive and it takes a lot of time.

It's something that small businesses certainly would not go through.

And we have gotten some, there's been a lot of interest in the FTZ in the last year from companies who wanted to get those benefits.

but when they see what the process would be to actually designate, say, an individual warehouse of an individual company for the FTZ,

it's just too much for them to take on.

And in some cases, there are companies that, when they have goods imported,

they're doing some sort of additive manufacturing or assembly, and they can't do that in a shared warehouse.

They need to do that in their own warehouse.

So this is something that would allow us to provide those benefits to companies that otherwise would not be able to access those benefits.

Excellent. Thank you. So it sounds like it's a good idea that we do move forward with this.

Council Member Ramachandran.

Just a quick question. Why did Contra Costa County ask to not be a part of this?

They had a concern which was that they wanted to be able to approve or reject any site that's

within Contra Costa County.

They are actually, we are working with them and we think we may be able to come to an understanding

or potentially agreement that would allow them to be part of this.

But, you know, I think it's that if they had a bad actor within their county,

they wanted to have the ability to be able to have some mechanism to approve or reject based on that.

Thank you.

And then I'm curious about the time between when Council first supported this, I think almost a decade ago.

So what happened in that period of time?

Was there a lack of, was there like a recension of support from other folks,

or was it just logistics that took a while?

My understanding is that this was led by a particular staff member

that left the city during that time,

and it took some effort to then restart the submission of the application.

Okay, thank you.

all right if no further questions I will entertain a motion to move this item to

the is that the February 17th City Council meeting so moved second thank

you we have a motion made by councilmember Unger seconded by council

member Ramachandran to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward

this item to the February 17th City Council agenda.

On roll, Council Member Five.

Excused.

Council Member Ramachandran.

Aye.

Unger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number three passes with three ayes, one excused.

Five.

To forward this item to the City,

the February 17th City Council agenda on consent.

Reading in item four.

Adopted resolution accepting the annual report

on the affordable housing transportation,

capital improvement and job housing impact fee

for fiscal year 2024-2025.

And we have two speakers that signed up.

Excellent, thank you so much.

And so I believe on this item,

we will be hearing from multiple departments,

planning and building, HCD,

Department of Transportation and Oakland Public Works.

Through the chair, good afternoon committee members.

My name is Albert Morin.

I'm the assistant director for planning and building.

I will be presenting with my colleagues,

Deputy Director Faye Darmawi from HCD,

Assistant Director Jamie Parks from DOT,

and Acting Assistant Director Jimmy Mack from OPW.

So the item before you is the annual impact fee report for fiscal year 2425.

This report is published 180 days after the end of the fiscal year.

It was published in late December to meet the requirement of the Mitigation Fee Act.

The report can be found at the website that you see up there, www.oaklandca.gov slash

topic slash impact fees.

Oakland currently assesses four impact fees.

First one is job housing, according to Chapter 15.68 of the Oakland Municipal Code.

This was started back in 2005.

We have affordable housing, Chapter 15.72 of the OMC.

That was launched in 2016.

And the capital improvement in transportation impact fees.

That's Chapter 15.74 of the OMC, also launched in 2016.

For fiscal year 2425, for affordable housing impact fees,

we collected about $1.3 million.

For job housing impact fees, we did not collect any amount.

For transportation impact fees, we collected $227,593.

and for capital improvement we collected $165,000.

As you can see, that was significantly less

than what we have collected on average

over the last five years.

As far as these impact fees,

what you see on the board on the right-hand side

is the total amount assessed.

So for affordable housing, we assessed $2.2 million, but it's important to note that only 1.3, actually 1 million 30,000 of those assessed amounts actually pulled a permit.

So for everyone's understanding, we assess impact fees when projects come in and apply, but we don't collect anything until they actually pull a permit.

So we've made an adjustment to the report that reflects what has been assessed and how many of those projects have actually moved to pull a permit.

And for job housing, the assessed amount was $6 million.

None of them at this point have pulled a permit.

For capital improvement, the assessed amount was $2.9.

Only $171,000 worth have pulled a permit.

and for transportation that amount is 2.7 assessed and $281,000 have full

department I will now hand it over to the deputy director of HCD

hello good afternoon chairperson Brown and council members my name is Fader

and I am the Deputy Director of Housing at HCD.

I'm gonna go a little bit into some

of the affordable housing impact fees, impact actually.

So the affordable housing impact fee was established in 2016

and these are fees that we exact

from market rate developments

and they can be used to finance affordable housing,

new construction or acquisition rehab projects.

It's really important to note that most affordable housing

projects are funded through a layer cake approach

of funding sources and these impact fees

are just one of many layers.

So for the affordable housing impact fee,

you can either pay a fee or in lieu of paying a fee,

incorporate the affordable housing into your project

or build standalone offsite.

and attachment B and attachment C of the staff report

have the list of those projects in those two categories.

This is an accounting of the balance

of the affordable housing impact fee

for the period 2024 to 2025.

It's just important to note

that we've actually committed the full amount

as of November, 2025.

And I'm just gonna go quickly through the list

of projects that have been funded in part

by the affordable housing impact fee.

Since we reported last, there's been a lot of progress.

So for 350 International, that has started construction

and it's actually close to TCO,

so we'll be occupying that very soon.

And for 2700 International and 34th and San Pablo,

closing of the loan is imminent,

so construction will be starting on that soon as well.

Here are some more projects.

I don't know what that means.

This is another sort of spotlight on the 350 International Flickr Bird Homes.

So it's 75 affordable units, including 31 units that are for homeless exits, and it's

in Council District 5.

It's noted that on the ground floor is the new health center being developed by the Native

American Health Center.

The other type of impact fee that goes through HCD is the jobs housing impact fee, and we

charge this fee on new office or warehouse distribution developments.

Again, what's important to note on this chart is that we fully committed the balance as

of November 2025.

And you can see some of the same projects here.

So this fee also helped build 27 International, 34th and San Pablo, and 3050 International.

Some of the same projects that you see here.

Some acquisition rehab projects.

Here's a notable acquisition rehab project at 2036 Avenue.

The loan that we provided to this project will help the rehabilitation of a two-story

wood construction, 55 units, with new plumbing windows and earthquake retrofit.

And now I will turn it over to Jamie Parks from Oak DOT.

Thank you.

Hello. Good afternoon, members of the committee. Jamie Parks, Assistant Director with DOT.

So I'm going to present quickly on the transportation impact fee. The transportation impact fee

is authorized under the Oakland Municipal Code and collects fees based on new square

footage added for non-residential units and new housing units added. And the fee

is used to compensate for the increased demand on our transportation

infrastructure caused by new development.

Projects funded under the transportation impact fee must fit a

few different criteria. First, they need to be consistent with city goals, plans,

and policies, and they also need to improve or expand the city's

transportation network. They cannot be used for rehabilitation or maintenance.

They need to be creating new capital assets that accommodate additional

transportation demand. And importantly, we use our transportation impact fee to

cover projects that are already prioritized in our in our city's

capital improvement program or our CIP. So we don't have a separate set of

projects funded by the TIF and a CIP. We use the TIF as one of many funding

sources by which we can accomplish projects that are prioritized in our CIP.

In terms of the summary of where we are with collecting and expending the fee revenues,

at the beginning of the year we collected around ten and a half million dollars of

Translation Impact fees in fiscal year 25. We expended around one and a half million dollars.

Our policy is to leave approximately 20% of our fees in contingency and that's contingency for

potential refunds that we have to provide or cost overruns in the projects that are

funded. And the remaining balance of nearly eight million dollars has been

entirely programmed to existing projects, most of which are in active

construction. The table on this slide goes through the five projects that

are active that have programmed funds for transportation impact fees

assigned to them. I won't go through all of these in detail, but they are five

major projects, each of which are improving safety on key streets throughout the city

of Oakland and helping to respond to the increased demand on the transportation infrastructure

from new development.

And you can see four out of the five are already in active construction.

And then finally, because pictures are more fun than tables, here are a few examples of

some of the great projects we've been able to fund with our impact fees.

Vale Alive which is a substantially complete project on Fruitvale Avenue and then also

the Lakeshore Avenue bike lanes around Lake Merritt which are under construction right

now and broke ground last year.

And with that I will turn it over to my colleague Jimmy Mock in Oakland Public Works.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Brown, committee members, members of the public, including students

here.

My name is Jimmy Mock, from the City of Oakland.

I'm an Acting Assistant Director for the Bureau of Design and Construction for Public Works.

I'm here to present the Capital Improvement Impact Fee, and the projects that come out

Part of this fee that utilizes this fee works with planning and building departments, city

attorney's office, also part of the two-year CIP adoption.

There are four funding criteria that can be utilized with the impact fee for these projects.

Firstly, it needs to be a capital improvement program.

It needs to support fire, police, library, parks, recreational services, and also it

needs to improve or expand the city's public facilities.

And it cannot be used for maintenance.

Also it can support storm drainage services to improve, expand, and rehabilitate our storm

system, which we do have a project in.

And the project may include preparation and revisions of plans and studies.

The slide shows the starting balance, the fees collected.

As you can see, with our commitment of $4 million approximately, we do plan to fully

utilize the rest of the funds for our projects.

We have a total of 18 projects that utilizes this impact fee.

Firstly, with the storm drainage master plan, we are currently 70% complete.

We're working on understanding what our needs are, since we don't have a drainage fee and

really want to work on providing education on our system.

Fire stations 10 and 12 renovation project

is in the closeout phase completed.

Brookfield library is in the construction phase.

Moving on to the next slide, I want

to highlight a few projects that are pretty much almost

near to completion.

We did a lot this year as compared

to the last annual reporting.

So the Digital Arts Culinary Academy,

it's near completion.

Mosswood Recreational Center,

we're actually planning a ribbon cutting for that,

so that'd be exciting.

Next slide.

There's a few smaller capital projects,

Junior Science Center, West Oakland Youth Center

from our facilities division that has completed.

And also,

there's a master planning of the community center

and a Revo Bayo Park remodel.

Holly Mini Park is the one that was done.

We had a ribbon cutting and so it goes on and on.

So as you can see, we've done a lot.

Kodakot Trail, we're currently in design.

Tyrone Park Renovation is currently going to, it's in construction right now.

And here's a picture of the Holly Mini Park that was completed with the ribbon cutting

that was already done.

For future projects, there's really not much more left of the impact fees for us to utilize

but these are the two items that we plan to fully utilize.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jamie.

To the chair, this slide shows where we are as far as the impact fee studies.

There was a five-year review that was conducted in 2021 according to state requirements.

we did do a phase two analysis that was completed in 2024 and it was enacted

last summer through the council we will be doing another five-year review in 20

26 again according to state requirements the study that needs to

happen has an eight year life. So currently, we're about five years into it. So that analysis

will not be happening along with the five year review as it did the last time around.

And with that, we asked that CD committee received annual report on affordable housing

capital improvement, transportation, job housing impact fees, fiscal year 2425.

excellent thank you so much colleagues any immediate questions or comments councilmember

Fyfe yes thank you through the chair hello we recently made changes well the council recently

made changes to the impact fees and where they're collected for the housing impact fees so when this

study comes back in 2026 will it include any development projects that may have

been spurred by the changes to the exist to the new impact the ordinance the

report that will be coming out this year is just going to be giving pretty much

a five-year shot of what we collected and how the monies were used the next

study is as I mentioned currently we're about five years into it and it's an

eight-year study so it won't be happening this year but when it does it

will take into account the fact that starting this fiscal year we have

switched how we collect and when we collect impact fees so when should we

see a report on on if if there have been any development projects that have been

just when when the next the next report that will be published in December

December of this year understood and there were some specific references to

projects in district 3 specifically I think the second to the last slide

referenced an additional $75,000 for Malanga Arts formerly Alice Arts and

Uptown and I just wanted to get clarity if that's in addition to the 500,000 that

was set aside because there's an inordinate amount of deferred maintenance that needs to happen to

save that jewel of the city so I was just curious where is that 75,000 coming from is it the impact

fees? Through the chair Jamie Mock here yes that's correct. Okay and has that been allocated

identified allocated and where will it be used because like I said there's a lot of deferred

maintenance and and I'm just interested because that's a that's a very important

location yeah I think it's a proposal that's it's a proposal part of the mid

cycle understood thank you and thank you for your work I saw all of these

different projects that are breaking ground or on the cusp of breaking ground

and with all of the limitations that we currently have in the city of Oakland

it's a tremendous job I'm super excited about Mosswood Park and I look forward

to the ribbon cutting for for that center thank you thank you excellent thank you so much um i

also just wanted to briefly share you know um thank you to um you know staff and planning and

building hcd transportation public works um for just um you know putting together i know this is

an annual report but just putting together such a comprehensive report outlining uh just all of

the ways that these dollars have been utilized in community. You know one of

the first last year one of the first events that I was able to attend was the

Holly mini park and that was actually a park back when I worked with the city of

Oakland back in 2019 that community members were asking about hey when will

this park be reopened and so that was definitely a full circle moment and it

Just having reports like this helps us to really have transparency as to how these dollars are being used and utilized.

I did have one question.

I think it's also on the last slide.

So Oakland Public Works around as we're looking at the projected dollars that are needed for some of the projects,

is it similar to what happens in like with some of the HCD projects?

Are there multiple funding sources in order to complete those projects?

Yeah, Jimmy Mock here again, through the chair.

Yes, that's correct.

It does use a variety of funding, primarily from the bond measures.

I see.

And so the one that caught my attention, and I know that it has been a very longstanding one,

which was the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center.

And I know that that one was originally slated for a remodel.

and I believe in the slide it had that, but it only had the amount being $25,000.

And so I just was curious if you had more of an updated status on that item.

Yeah, I can get back to you on that.

But I think this is just through the study, just to find out what's needed.

Okay, excellent.

Yeah, I think I was under the impression that there was a study done on that one prior in 2020,

and then it was moving forward with the community engagement portion of you know

what the community wanted and I think that those community members have been

on standby I'm really waiting for that park to that recreation center to to be

remodeled and so would love to hear back a little bit more on that one

excellent thank you so much councilmember Ramachandran yeah I think

the projects that these fees are funding are great.

My concern is with the declining fees.

We know for lots of reasons there's less

developments in new projects in Oakland, but

I'm looking at the table on page

nine comparing. In every category there's a

downward trend of how much we've collected.

it's the lowest amount in all the categories the past year on this data.

What's the impact of this on this long list of projects that we're funding,

and are we going to be able to continue these projects?

I can pull some of my colleagues from the departments that actually do

these projects for us planning and building we assess and we collect and we

did see a significant drop as one of the slides show you know we did a

percentage comparison on average what we've collected versus what we collected

this past year and there was a significant drop I can tell you that

what we have done is changed the way the impact fees are implemented moving

forward in order to motivate additional development moving forward starting from

the year that we're currently in impact fees are collected at the back end which should

support our developers because that's not money that they have to spend up front but i'll pass

that on to you hello fey darmawi deputy director of housing at hcd yes thanks for asking that

question so affordable housing as i mentioned before is a is an endeavor that takes a multi-layer

cake funding approach and impact fees are just one layer so when we have reductions in impact fees

which inevitably happens in the downturn we have the ability to benefit from low-income housing

tax credits let's say state hcd funding county funding vouchers that create more cash flow so

we are able to place a private sector permanent loan for example so there's many ways that these

projects get done despite the fact that the impact fees are sometimes less.

Good afternoon. On the transportation side, the transportation impact fees are an

important but relatively small part of our overall capital program

representing a little bit less than 10% of our overall capital funds, most of

which come from outside grants or bonds.

So the projects that are listed here in this report

are fully funded with a combination of the impact fees,

bonds, and grants, so they can continue.

But to the extent that the impact fees decrease,

we'll be able to fund proportionately fewer new projects

going forward in the CIP.

Excellent.

Jimmy Muck from Public Works through the chair.

Yeah, for the capital improvement fees,

all the 18 projects that we listed are fully funded.

So it, and they're pretty much mostly done as well.

Excellent, thank you.

Council member Ramachandran.

Thank you.

I'm very glad to know that these projects

that you're referencing are either fully funded

or that there's other funding sources

because I am concerned in some of these categories,

the decline from collecting $10 million in 2021

to $1 million last year in the Affordable Housing and Jobs and Housing Trust Fund,

and then just the jobs and housing fee.

We went from $2.8 million in 2020 to zero last year.

So, I mean, these are sizable jumps.

And you mentioned the change, which I recall going through last year,

of having developers paying that fee once the project's completed,

rather than is there anything else that you're working on,

a proposal or something that's already there

to try to stimulate more things going on

so we get these numbers up?

We're constantly looking at what we can do.

We're in the middle of an economic adjustment

when it comes to development across this area in California.

Yeah, so we're constantly working with our colleagues

in other cities to see reasonably what we can do

to make adjustments that will stimulate development.

So I can't point to any singular thing,

but I can guarantee that we're constantly looking at this

and working on it because we understand how important it is.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you, colleagues, for your questions.

we could go to the public speakers.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak

on item number four, Mr. Samuel Ramey and Jeff Levin.

If you're here in chamber and would like to speak,

you can come up to the podium or if you're on Zoom,

please raise your hand to be easily identified.

Mr. Samuel Ramey and Jeff Levin.

Good afternoon, my name is Samuel Ramey.

I'm with the California Oakland Mental Health at home in Chicago National.

We have an urgency.

I had to go to Chicago a couple weeks ago because you got 58,000 mental health people running

around the city of Chicago.

and minus two to change the reason why.

The man just died yesterday, 62 years old,

frozen to death. We're going to have this problem if we had our

problems. We're going to start addressing these issues. I told

y'all I'm waiting, y'all give me a landfuck. It's already paid for.

I'm fairly funded to how seniors and middle disabled.

I have a contract we got to. Y'all are playing. I'm not.

We have people to take care of.

Senior citizens, they may wait for us.

Your home is vets.

We take care of people from another country

before we take care of your home.

Thank you for your comments, Mr. Ramey.

Switching to Zoom user Jeff.

You can unmute yourself and begin your comment.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Jeff Levin speaking on behalf of East Bay Housing Organizations.

We did send you a comment letter yesterday evening,

I think in one minute's time.

I can't really summarize all of that, but we'll just note a couple of things.

One, we would really like to see an estimate of all of the unpaid impact fees pending for

projects that have pulled building permits and are under construction.

Those are the fees we can count on coming in in the future and then should be able to

start making fund reservations based on that anticipated revenue.

Secondly, a number of changes were made last year, converting from a per unit fee to a per square foot fee,

suspending the fee altogether in zone three and expanding that zone.

We would like to see an assessment of whether those changes are having their intended impact,

and we don't understand why we would have to wait five to eight years to get that.

We know that the study that is eight years pending was three years delayed last time.

Excellent. Mr. Levine, did you have more that you wanted to say on this subject?

Thank you. I just wanted to note the last five-year review was supposed to include a

program evaluation at the same time, and that portion was delayed for three and a half years,

and we do not want to have to now wait another five or eight years to evaluate new changes

that have been made to the program we don't understand what staff is referring to about

an eight-year time frame i think the city can assess the effectiveness of its program changes at any

time thank you for your comments chair that concludes all speakers on this item excellent

thank you so much members of the public for your comments i did have a quick question for

the building and planning team um just to confirm we'll be getting some of the changes that we made

in 2025 we'll be getting i i would just want to confirm we'll be getting that report towards the

end of the year is that correct yes it is required that the report be posted 180 days after the end

of the fiscal year and we will be doing that excellent sounds good um so i have no further

questions i'll entertain a motion on this item uh so moved second thank you we have a motion

made by council member ramachandran seconded by council member fife to approve the recommendations

of staff and to forward this item to the february 17th city council agenda on roll council members

fife aye ramachandran aye unger aye and chair brown aye thank you item number four passes with

four eyes to forward this item to the february 17th city council agenda on consent reading in item five

receive an informational report regarding the fiscal year 2024-25 quarter three and quarter

four update on the planning and building department's code enforcement activities

and we have no speakers that signed up excellent thank you so much and so we will hear from the

department on this item yes good good afternoon councilmember brown and committee members members

of the public and future leaders of our city.

Today, we are representing an informational update

on the planning and building departments, code enforcement activities

for fiscal year 2024 and 2025,

specifically for quarters three and four covering January through June of 2025.

My name is Cecilia Muela, and I'm the building official currently

overseeing the code enforcement unit for planning and building.

The purpose of this report is to provide transparency and to complain trends,

inspection activity, enforcement outcomes, case resolution timelines,

and key initiatives underway to improve service delivery.

It is important to note that our code enforcement efforts are well aligned

with an equity lens that focuses on being able to set standards

for compliance that are consistent and across the board,

really focusing on our housing and making sure that we have fair,

safe housing for all of our constituents in the city of Oakland.

Next slide, please.

As you can see here, we're going to kick off the presentation with just a before and after

of our team's great work.

This is what our code enforcement unit focuses on every single day, is ensuring that we are

not only safeguarding public health and safety, but we are making sure that we're reducing

blight and creating safe communities for all in Oakland.

Next slide.

Today, we're going to go through our complaints received, metrics, first inspections, the

the case management duration, any enforcement actions,

and our fees that are assessed

through our code enforcement program,

as well as we're gonna go through some numbers

regarding our abatement and closure of cases.

We're gonna review our open case totals

at the end of the quarter,

and then go through some additional resources

that we provide through our program.

Next slide.

So as you can see here in this slide,

code enforcement has three primary enforcement categories,

blight or property maintenance,

housing maintenance and zoning.

As you can see here through that column under blight,

we focus on trash, debris, overgrown vegetation,

use of gas power leaf borers,

any recycle bins that are left out.

And then we move over to our housing maintenance,

which focuses more on habitability,

making sure that our constituents in the city

are in safe, healthy housing,

while assessing plumbing and electrical hazards,

heating components, mold, unpermitted work.

And then we go into our zoning code enforcement types,

which focuses on businesses in residential zones,

commercial zones, industrial zones,

and then also tackles even the minor things

that we would think are minor, such as fencing.

Next slide.

Here we have a clear depiction of our fiscal year 2024,

quarter four, or 2022 quarter four,

through fiscal year 2025 quarter four.

As you can see here, Oakland has received an average

of 1,813 violations or complaints per year.

Just in quarter three of fiscal year 25, we had 1,870.

And ending in quarter four, we had 2,052 complaints

that came in cumulative in these three specific areas.

Next slide.

As we see here in our first inspections,

we had an increase beginning fiscal year of 2023 into 2024.

And this correlates with our deployment of our inspection app,

which has allowed us to be more efficient

in our compliance measures.

So what this means is that the complaint

or the employee, I'm sorry, the code enforcement app

allows our inspectors to focus a bit more

on how we are assessing complaints out in the field,

uploading our results, generating our notices,

and makes us more efficient.

Next slide.

Under Q3 and Q4 for January through June 2025, we see here our inspections for first inspections

per category, our re-inspections, and our total.

So just to give you a quick preview, blighted properties, we received 971 first inspections

or conducted 971 first inspections.

Out of those, we had a cumulative of 2,579 re-inspections.

What that means is the 971 are included in that 2,500 mark because it also includes other

inspections that were previously in queue for a total of 3,550 for this reporting period.

Next slide.

Here again, we show the good work of the team's good work out in the field enforcing for our

community's blight nuisance cases.

Next slide.

So this here depicts our enforcement tools.

So code enforcement counts on cleanup contracts,

notice of repeat violation, stop work orders,

and compliance plan.

So as you can see here, our cleanup contracts

are agreements that the city agrees to work with

other contractors that help us clean up blighted property.

When it comes to cleanup contracts, we saw two contracts come through through this reporting period.

We had zero repeat violators in this reporting period.

And I want to note here that this is an effort by our unit to make sure that we are looking through code enforcement through an equitable lens.

And what does that mean?

That means that we understand that some properties are going to be hindered by blighted conditions.

and so rather than focusing on issuing

a repeat offender violation,

we are working closely with property owners

and constituents to make sure

that they bring their property into voluntary compliance.

In the same reporting period,

we issued 58 stop work order notices.

So this is a notice that we issue for properties

that are doing work beyond scope

or doing work without the benefit of a permit.

We also see here that we entered

into 31 compliance plans.

Now, these are important because a compliance plan

serves as a tool of enforcement to allow us an opportunity

to work with property owners on a milestone plan

that allows them to not only submit for a permit,

but also work with their architects, engineers, professionals

to assist them with plans, approvals and inspections.

And as they're meeting their milestones,

we're able to work with them.

Now, if there's ever an opportunity or a condition

where they aren't able to meet their milestones, depending on the situation,

we will continue to work with this property owner or if they're flat out

not not wanting to work with within the measures and agreement of the compliance plan,

then it allows us to be able to escalate that enforcement.

Next slide, please.

Here we have our metrics on abated and closed cases.

This also includes non actionable complaints.

So non actionable, actionable meaning complaints that we received, but we weren't able to verify.

There wasn't a contact.

We weren't able to see that in fact there was something going out on site.

So as you see here, from our first quarter until quarter, quarter four of 2025, we had a heightened rice in the middle two quarters there.

And these are indicative of changing of climatic changes.

So for example, winter season tends to create more mold cases, heat cases because of lack of heat, moisture, water intrusion.

Or when it gets real hot, you know, there tends to be other elements of maybe perhaps rodent infestations and such.

Next slide, please.

Now, this is a slide that is most representative of the good work that the code enforcement units do.

as you can see here in fiscal year 2022, we were abating cases as much as we could and trying to

do the best job that we can. And as we get to fiscal year 2025, that number has increased by

more than 55%. So we were successfully able to close 1,277 cases. Again, this is attributed to

our efficiency and being able to leverage our electronic app or our app that allows us to be

able to generate resulting from the field and our noticing once we complete inspections on site.

Next slide please. So the average resolution time here as you as you see for blight cases is 26

business days. Now I know that at first glance you might think oh my gosh 26 business days.

I want to walk you through this a little bit. So from case intake, meaning somebody calls in a

complaint to the first inspections, there's a total of seven days here that take place,

give or take a holiday or a weekend. And then from first inspection to the notice of violation

that's being sent, there's a total time period of 15 days there to allow for mailing. This might be

inclusive of staffing that might delay that timeframe or fluctuate that timeframe a little bit.

And then from intake all the way to abatement,

you see that there's a 56 day turnaround time.

Now I do wanna expand on this a little bit.

Most jurisdictions in the state of California,

and actually nationwide,

provide a 30 day compliance time period.

Within that 30 day,

that's your first initial compliance period.

That doesn't mean that in 30 days,

most of these cases are gonna be complied with.

That just means that we're gonna give you an initial 30.

Most cases will go beyond that

to an additional 15 to 30 days.

So really you will see that the total abatement period

between intake and abatement ends up being about 60 days total,

if not a bit more, depending on the type of complaint

that it is.

So as we see here, we see 56 days from intake to abatement,

which is actually a really great number to see.

Next slide.

Now here we have our housing case management duration.

You'll see that the number's a little bit more.

This is indicative of perhaps permits being required, right?

So if somebody comes in on a housing habitability complaint,

maybe there's lack of heat,

maybe somebody created a new space,

maybe there's a plumbing issue,

they're gonna have to come in

through our permitting process,

they might need to hire a contractor.

Here's where we work with the property owner

to be able to retain the services

of the licensed professional

to be able to do the work effectively.

So the time period will increase here

because of those things, those considerations.

Next slide, please.

Once we get through our zoning case management here,

we have about 17 business days.

Again, walking you through case into abatement.

We have the first five days

for first inspection to take place.

23 days for us to be able to send a notice of violation,

and then 56 days to completion.

Now the notice of violation here,

see that there's an uptick in days there. I'm happy to report that since this time period, we were

able to hire a zoning investigator who then has been able to absorb some of this workload and has

helped us manage this time period better and lower this number or this the days, the number of days

that it takes us to issue our notices. Next slide, please. Once more, this is what your code unit does

here and and enforcing their tools this is what makes us proud it makes us proud to serve our

community as well as all of you here today next slide so our total open cases from fiscal year

2024 to 2025 we see here that we opened about 2 132 blight cases at the end of quarter two

and fast forward to end of quarter four we have an uptick of those two thousand

three hundred and thirty nine cases maintenance saw an increase as well of

about 200 as well as the zoning complaints that we were receiving in

our office next slide so through our escalated enforcement process we do

often if there is no compliance assess fees here you see the depiction of how

many cases were invoiced per fiscal year quarter as well as how many fees

included bonds now if I can just elaborate on that a bond is something or

a number a fee that we take in to ensure that work is going to be done or

completed when we enter into a compliance plan with a property owner so

So for example, somebody comes in and they say, hey, Cece, I want to go ahead and, you

know, make sure that I legalize my addition to my house.

But it's going to take me some time.

I can't do it right away.

This is where we say no problem.

We'll enter into a compliance plan.

We'll go ahead and take in a bond of about $5,000.

You get a list of milestones that you have to meet.

If you meet all these milestones, getting your permit, plans approved, and inspections,

then we return that bond to you.

If work isn't completed, if milestones are met, if unfortunately the property owner doesn't

comply, then that bond is collected by the city.

It's basically a promise to do this work.

Next slide.

So moving on, we have some other fees that are assessed and collected.

As you can see here from fiscal year 24, quarter four to your latest quarter in fiscal year

25, we are collecting about 42% of all fees assessed in this reporting time period.

Next slide.

So here are some key initiatives.

Our digital enhancements.

This is the code enforcement inspector app.

Again, this helps us reduce inspector time out in the field.

It helps us generate those notices of violation directly from the app.

reduces the timeframe that we spend on these, makes it more effective for us to respond.

We also have our proactive rental inspection program that we're currently working on and

coordinating with our housing partners and their LHAP program focused on older housing

stock.

We are working collaboratively with other units of the city to include the encampment management

team as well as our special activities team, DOT, NPW, FHIR, so that we can make sure

that our enforcement is parallel across the board.

Next slide, please.

This is some additional information and resources that are available that speak a bit more

about our code enforcement program.

And again, I just wanted to highlight that, you know, we have staffed up since this reporting

period so you will see at our next reporting period that some of our numbers are going to be

a lot better than they are at this reporting period and so we're very excited to have more

staff on board with this we ask that you please accept our report to this committee for the fiscal

year 2024 and 2025. thank you excellent thank you so much for the very detailed report and also

incorporating some of the questions that I had asked as well prior especially around the staffing

piece and look forward to seeing just the updated report after right once we since we've included

brought on more staff colleagues any questions council member Ramachandran thank you good to

know that more hiring and onboarding is happening I wanted to know how many full-time inspectors

there are currently through the chair council member ramachandran we currently have 42 inspectors

20 of them are dedicated specifically to our code enforcement unit thank you and how many vacancies

are there we currently have seven vacancies that we are actually actively looking to fill okay thank

you the report mentions continuous recruitment for inspector roles so does that mean that they're

constantly being prioritized or how does that that's correct currently we we had we have a

continuous recruitment yes so that we can fill those positions okay because it's one of the rules

i don't see on the city website um so i just wanted to know what's being done to prioritize it

even though if it's continuous typically they stay on the or supposed to stay on the city's website

through the chair councilmember Ramachandra in addition to the 42 positions that we have

as a combination code inspector we also have five assistant code enforcement positions that

we're trying to fill we're working with HR for them to make an adjustment to that classification

so we can actually fill it.

Currently we have some ELDs in those positions.

We do have a list that has been compiled

from the continuous recruitment.

So we will be going through that interview process

before that goes back into circulation.

Great, thank you.

Excellent, and while you're there, Director,

or I just wanted to ask this question

that I was noticing in the report, page six.

It looks like in Q1, we saw, you know, basically double of the blight cases.

I just wanted to, I was curious if we had some insights as to that increase.

Council Chair Brown, I can go ahead and answer that.

So, yes, we definitely did have an increase in our blight cases there.

that had to do with vacancies that we had at the time this number has now seen

a more positive change I see okay definitely helps us understand how when

those positions aren't filled you know clearly the work is unable to get done

and then you can see it automatically just go right down so I thank you

councilmember Fyfe yes thank you for the presentation I just had a couple

questions, clarity if you could provide. You said that digital enhancements are part of the process moving forward. Can you speak to what those digital enhancements are and if they're connected to any of our existing technology like our 311 system?

Yes, through the chair, Councilmember Five, the digital enhancements focuses on the code

enforcement inspector app.

Now this app launched in 2024, March 1st of 2024, which allowed us to reduce our response

time for field work resulting and issuing our notices of violations.

So before what would happen is we would go out or we would receive our case, go out,

our inspection inspection come back result in the office and then prepare a

notice which ate up a lot of our time and it really impacted our response so

now with the inspector app we're able to do everything through this app upload a

photo results right on site issue the notice kicks it back to the office and

off it goes into the mail so it's really improved our process that sounds very

efficient that's awesome so the type of incidents that are being captured

through this app can you give me like one or two scenarios absolutely so some of the scenarios

would be like flight cases graffiti cases that come through anything that comes in through that

3-1-1 system gets generated through our acela portal that is cello portal then allows us access

through the app so we can see everything that comes in when it's assigned to a code enforcement

officer at that moment they're able to respond in real time to that specific case by scheduling it

and all the other items that I mentioned.

So these are connected to 311 requests

or there's a way for the two systems to talk to each other?

That is correct.

Yeah, it all lands in for us to be able to schedule and respond.

So if there were hypothetically an ongoing case where, say,

a youth center was continuously tagged with graffiti,

could you look that up through a 311 ticket number

to see what the process was through your system?

through your system? We would look it up through the address itself and it'll show us anything

new that has come in for that particular address. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Of course. Excellent. Do we

have any public speakers? All right. Well, I don't have any more questions. Thank you so much for

this detailed report. Thanks for all of the hard work and then we look forward to the new staff

that will be joining to help further the work that needs to be done so thank you

and so I would entertain a motion on this item so moved to receive and file

second thank you we have a motion made by councilmember Ramachandran and counts

seconded by councilmember anger to receive and file this informational

report in committee on roll council members five I Ramachandran I hunger I

And Chair Brown. Aye. Thank you item passes with four ayes to receive and file this informational report in committee

Moving on to open forum and we have one person that signed up. Mr. Samuel Ramey

I don't get it.

These old people need housing just like everybody else do.

The veteran in the farfetch country need housing just like everybody else do.

I want to continue to fight for their rights because I'm going to fight for my human rights.

Our human rights have been violated.

You guys are going to be next because they ain't going to stop.

They grieve.

They're not going to stop.

Capitalists are not going to stop.

We have to stop them.

We have to stop them.

We have something right now, health, education, welfare.

That's all I said.

Give us some land so I can do it as far as people.

has to work with it has to spend not one piece already we have 52 billion dollars on surface

but you know i'm not going to touch a dime because i get some things on paper saying

you're going to build this do this right for american people god bless y'all

thank you for your comments mr ramey chair that concludes all speakers

excellent thank you all so much um this meeting is adjourned

Thank you.