Good morning and welcome to the public works and transportation committee meeting of today, April 21st.

The time is now 1130 AM.

And this meeting has come to order before taking roll.

I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on its agenda.

If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit your speaker's card, please pull one out and turn it to a clerk representative, my left your right before the item is read into record.

Online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting.

This meeting came to order 1130 a.m.

Speaker requests will be due no longer.

With that, we would now proceed to take roll.

Councilmember Gaio.

Present.

Councilmember Houston is excused.

Councilmember Wong.

Sorry, present.

Thank you.

And Chair Unger.

Here.

Thank you.

We do have three members present and one excused Houston.

And we'll before we begin, Chair Unger, do you have an announcement?

No announcements.

Thank you.

Moving to our first item.

As a reminder, item one, no minutes to be approved.

This is a special meeting.

Moving to item two, determination to schedule outstanding committee items.

This is also your pending list, and we do have one speaker for this item.

Anything from my colleagues or staff on the pending list.

No.

All right.

Let us hear from the speaker, please.

Thank you.

Calling in our first and only public speaker, Mr.

Sada.

So uh I just saw you on Instagram talking about illegal dumping.

Nice job.

Thank you.

I want to talk about the trees again.

And I saw Instagram video where they and the individual was uh outraged that we're supposed to be cutting down seventy trees which are owned by BART, with the uh issue being that we're gonna have some housing development Mandela project.

But when did these 70 trees get approved for being cut down?

Uh I I the the question they scot the each tree has a red uh sign on it with if you have a question about cutting down the tree, a number to call and all in all we're talking about 70 trees and inner city.

Now the last time these people were here talking about the love of trees and the need to have more trees in our inner urban communities.

We're getting ready to cut down seventy trees owned by West Bart a BART in West Oakland.

So who permitted this?

And under what circumstances, understanding that this is a serious issue.

It's not the the kind of tree that's there, it's the need to have trees that create health, uh growth, and so forth.

And just as to the aesthetics.

I don't see a clock.

So you want to stop me, darling?

Whenever you need to.

Okay, thank you.

The other thing I'm concerned about is uh we're putting up traffic lights and we're not turning them on.

They are traffic lights that have been put up at Keller and Mountain, and also at the beginning interests of college, Canyon Road.

And that's been there for years.

Traffic lights, and they're not on.

Thank you for your comment, Mr.

Sado.

That concludes your public speakers for item two.

All right.

I will move the pending list.

Do we have a second?

We do have a motion by Chair Unger, seconded by Councilmember Wong to accept the determination of schedule outstanding committee items as is on roll.

Councilmember Gaio.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston is excused.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

Thank you.

And Chair Unger.

I this motion does pass with three ayes, one excuse Houston.

To accept the determination of schedule outstanding committee items as is.

Moving to item three.

Adopt the resolution accepting the public infrastructure improvements directing the following of the unconditional certificate of completion for the MacArthur Transit Village Phase.

One improvements, permanent subdivision improvement agreement for deferred construction on the public infrastructure improvements and making sequel findings.

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

This is a uh Reginald Basile for Oakland Department of Transportation.

Sorry, I just ran up the stairs.

This is an item to uh encourage council to adopt a resolution uh approving a issuing of a certificate of completion for the uh MacArthur Transit Village.

It's a 39th and telegraph.

Okay.

Uh colleagues, do you have questions?

Let's hear from our public speakers then.

Okay, want to call your name, please approach the podium.

You do have two minutes, Mr.

Sada and Zach Thayer, and please state your name for the record.

Thank you.

So hi, I'm Zach Thayer.

Um I got a question for you.

Um bar ETFs, BAR ETFs, uh, so AC Transit BART ETF aren't qualified applications for amendment municipal infrastructure.

Polynomial, binomial efficiencies do mitigate um quadric expiration and Hadley v.

more.

Uh Senate Bill 5893 showed a tax compliance when uh they were going through it.

Some of us are really weird, uh Russian brief scans, you know, Korean brief scans, French brief scans, Yiddish brief scans, Finnish brief scans, Norwegian brief scans, and hand debris scans.

And when we ask it and um Spanish, um we don't ever show uh in the BAR ETS when we hacked your shit, um, excuse me, uh, for the city and the counties don't ever ask what the polynomial binomial a range would be, which would mean that if you guys what we were uh stating in the previous just randomly talking, if it's a $30, $80 bond ETF um based on the infrastructure costs we want your granting, each uh city would have that ability at a three to probably seven to nine cent range.

One six isn't uh specific to the two-year, three year uh three-two equation, and what is known as the five to the ten year wouldn't be the allocation of capital at the city and the county, uh polynomial range.

Well, this city um while granting administrational review and allocation of capital, take that into consideration based on forward projects uh tied to it as a budget to the allocation of of uh capital.

I have a question with that based on construction processes and construction costs.

Thank you, and have a great day.

I'm trying to understand the length of time involved the or the timeline of this project.

When you read the report, it says that it was first dates start March 15, 2006.

Then it says approve 2008.

Then it says revise in 2017.

So what is this long period of time that has contributed to moving on this project?

It says also that this project has five stages of development, each subject to a fund development, a final development permit.

Is that a standard practice when you're doing housing development that you have five stages of development, each stage subject to a final developmental permit?

And if it's not a standard procedure, why is it being used in this particular project?

It says that this resolution that you're you will free up funds.

And uh declining to adopt the proposed resolution will require the developer to tie up funds that will otherwise be used for further MacArthur transit village phases, resulting in added delays.

I mean, how many more delays can you have with this project if it started in 2006 and was revised in 2017 and now we in 2026?

I mean, we can't have projects related to development of housing, and this is commercial development as well.

We can't have these delays because we're trying to catch up on affordable housing.

So I don't know what your discussion would be about, but mine would be why is this project been delayed for so long, and why is it that we have to have all of these final five stages of development would be two main points of the councilmember Wong, did you have a question?

Hi, uh yeah, this looks like it's an important uh TOD project.

Um I think just one question.

What really is the purpose of the UCC and why do you need to come to council for that?

Uh good questions.

Usual and customary to come to council.

Um the approval itself is uh ministerial.

Um so Oak Dot has uh inspected and accepted all of the public infrastructure improvements that have been made.

Um so the release of the uh UCC is a ministerial gesture, but we do come to council so that we can have a public discussion about what is going on.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Um, I'll move to adopt uh staff recommendation.

I could speak to the question from uh the public about the the project and the long timeline.

Um, this project has been around for a long time.

It took seven acres of surface parking and converted it into 900 use units of housing, including 90 affordable units.

Um took quite a while.

Um, developers come and go.

Um, business cycles go up and down.

Uh there was the uh abandonment of some streets on the city's uh behalf and the uh creation of new streets by the developer.

So it's been quite a complicated uh project, but um it is done.

Councilmember Gu.

Yes, yeah, thank you for that information.

Under the item fiscal impact, can you for the m for the members of the public um define that and clearly what that means?

It says staff costs for processing the UCC are covered by the fees set by the master fee schedule and have been paid by the developer.

Yes, uh, thank you, Councilmember.

Um I am the division manager for the right-of-way management division in Oak Dot.

Um, our division um issues permits for the use of public space.

So we issued permits to the developers of this project for all of the public infrastructure that they created, the streets, the sidewalks, the street lights.

Um all of the work that my unit does has to be covered by the fees that we collect.

Um that is in the Oakland municipal code, and we take it very seriously.

Um for this project, we collected, I believe, some 400,000 dollars in fees.

Um, so that would cover uh my time, the time of my staff, um, issuing and more importantly, reviewing permits, because among the things that we have to review are the plans for the public infrastructure.

So if they're creating a street, sidewalks, street lights, all of that has to be reviewed and then ultimately inspected by my staff.

So when you collect those fees, where are they deposited?

Where's the where's the money from the developer deposited within the budget of the city?

It's uh 2415 is is the fund, yes.

Okay.

So it falls okay.

So it covers your staff expenses.

Yes, it does.

And the land development.

I'm sorry, guys.

No, I'm I'm just trying to be clear as we're going through a lot of budget discussions debate.

I want to know exactly if I'm working with a contractor, are we receiving the funds that we should be and where are they being budgeted?

Right?

Because I know real soon we're going to come up with, well, guess what?

You guys have a budget deficit.

But I want to know exactly where the money that is being collected, where is it going?

And is that going that funds that are being collected for this activity being directed back to uh for example the planning department to do XYC?

Or is it just for your salary?

I'm I'm happy to answer that, Councilmember.

So 2415 is a cost recovery fund, so it covers the cost of permitting from permitting departments such as planning and building, DOT, and others.

So it's simply cost recovery.

And so will if this whoever represents this area, if they wanted to know exactly out of this project what was generated, they'd be able to see the numbers.

Yes, permit fees and amounts paid are public information.

All right.

Thank you.

Any anything else from Council members?

All right, and we've heard the public speakers already.

Uh I'll second that.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Wan, seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendation to staff and afford this item to the May 5th.

City Council agenda.

Noting Councilmember Houston present at 1137 p a.m.

on roll, Councilmember Gaio.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wang.

Aye.

And Chair Ungar?

Aye.

This motion does pass what four ayes.

To approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the May 5th, 2026 City Council agenda and do the body.

Would that be on consent or non-consent?

Consent, please.

Thank you.

Moving to item four.

Adopt an ordinance authorizing a city administrator to negotiate and execute an agreement to purchase an easement for public right-of-way, street and utility purposes over a portion of the real property located at 260 Oak Street, Oakland, California, from the Vukasin family limited partnership in the amount of 255,000, and adopt and sequel findings, and you do have two speakers for the salute.

Excellent.

Let's hear from our staff first, please.

Hello, council members.

My name is Michelle Stevens.

I'm a civil engineer and project manager for Oak Dot's major projects division team.

Our project, the embarcadero West Rail Safety and Access Improvements Project will improve the railroad crossing at Embarcadera West and Oak Street for emergency vehicle access, pedestrians, and other vehicles.

The project needs to acquire 992 square feet of property at the corner of 260 Oak Street, and the acquisition of the easement will be funded through previously accepted and appropriated grant funding, including Calsta Assembly Bill 128 grant funds.

Excellent.

Let's hear from our speakers, please.

Thank you.

Kevin Delly, I think this is an exciting project.

It's the route that I would use cycling to and from the Amtrak station right in the neighborhood.

I think this is part of the parking lot in front of it, but I'm not 100% positive, probably doesn't require tearing the building down.

In that case, it it seems like an easy yes, I'm looking forward to having having a safer route across the tracks.

Okay, so this was being purchased for uh East Mont for public right-of-way street and see me.

So this has to do with a railroad crossing, right?

Railroad crossing.

All right.

So I looked up who's responsible.

And when you have railroads, the the railroad owner has certain responsibilities, and the city has certain responsibilities.

So as far as this project is concerned, it says we're responsible for maintenance keeping up of the road leading up to the tracks, uh ensuring traffic safety is in place.

So what are we doing here?

Is this officially our responsibility, or what we're talking about includes uh the railroad owner making a contribution as well?

Is what I'm trying to concern because after the what happened with the 700,000 dollars for the Oakland routes facility that was supposed to be shared by the city of Alameda and the city of Berkeley, we ended up paying the whole 700,000 dollars.

So the only point I'm trying to make is are we officially responsible for everything, or is the railroad uh owner also making a contribution?

That's that's the only thing I'm concerned about.

Okay, okay, that concludes your public speakers for item four.

Councilmember Wong.

Thanks.

Uh through the chair.

So this uh project is my district.

Uh, first just thank you for uh your work on this.

This is a really important one, both for economic development and you know, goods movement from the port as well as uh just safety.

I noted something in your report about um this rail corridor experiencing frequent delays from vehicles inadvertently stuck on the tracks, which is uh terrifying uh to just grapple with.

But um I uh my main question is just around you know, because this is not the first easement and compensation to the property owner that's come before us.

How do we determine the the value and how do we know that we're um you know we're purchasing these things at a at a fair price to the city and the taxpayer?

Yeah, um, an appraisal was performed by our consultant, and it there's a full appraisal report as well.

Um we didn't attach it to this document, but it was provided to the owner as okay.

Okay.

All right, thanks.

And I'll uh move to adopt uh staff recommendation on this one.

Okay, I will second it and then go to council member Gu.

Yeah, just for the public's information again is the expense will be covered by the railroad state of California.

Oh, sorry, the expense will be covered by our grant funds.

Um, the Calsta Assembly Bill 128.

Okay.

Okay.

Calsta.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

We do have a motion made by Councilmember Wong seconded by the Chair Onger to approve the recommendations of to approve the recommendations of staff to afford the side into May 5th, City Council agenda on roll.

Councilmember Guyo.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

I councilmember Wong.

I and Chair Onger.

I the motion does pass with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the May 5th 2026 City Council agenda and through the body with that be consent or non-consent.

Consent, please.

Thank you.

Moving to item five.

Adopt an ordinance.

One reappealing ordinance number one two nine six zero and replacing it with the addition of Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 15.80 to serve on the city's newfound flood lane management ordinance with the inclusion of the reference of the flood hazard maps to authorizing the city administrator to designate a floodplain administrator to administer and develop regulations in a support of the chapter and adopting appropriate sequel findings.

And you do have three speakers for the file.

Good morning, Chair Unger and members of the committee.

Today we're presenting the proposed floodplain management ordinance required for FEMA compliance and continued participation in the National Flood Insurance Program or the NFIP.

The city participates in the national flood insurance program pursuant to federal regulations.

Participation requires adoption and enforcement of local floodplain management regulations consistent with FEMA standards.

Specifically, FEMA requires local jurisdictions adopt and enforce minimum floodplain management regulations and standards.

Failure to adopt uh compliant regulations could result in one or all of the following consequences.

Suspension from the NFIP, loss of access to flood insurance for Oakland residents located in the floodplain, ineligibility for certain federal disaster assistance for our constituents.

And so today we are looking to propose an update to our ordinance.

FEMA periodically updates flood insurance rate maps, also known as firms, and requires participating jurisdictions to adopt conforming ordinance as already mentioned.

The city's existing regulations require updating reflect current FEMA mapping and regulatory requirements related to building code standards.

Currently, our peer jurisdictions, including the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and Los Angeles have recently updated their floodplain regulations to incorporate FEMA requirements and additional resilience measures such as freeboard and enhanced permitting standards.

Adoption of this proposed ordinance is necessary to maintain the city of Oakland's participation in the NFIP, which enables owners to obtain federally backed flood insurance and ensures eligibility for certain forms of federal disaster assistance.

This ordinance updates the Oakland Municipal Code to reflect current FEMA regulations and best practices that are adopted and comparable to California jurisdictions.

And we have worked quite extensively with uh the city attorney's office as well as the public works department and the State Department so that we can make sure that our ordinance aligns appropriately with FEMA standards.

The proposed amendment establish updated building and construction standards, including elevation and floodproofing requirements.

It clarifies our permitting procedures for development within special flood hazard areas while enhancing climate resilience and protecting vulnerable communities.

And it aligns with the city's local hazard mitigation plan, as well as it designates administrative authority for implementation of the ordinance and building and construction standards.

So there is no fiscal impact.

However, adoption prior to or no later than May 26, 2026 is required by FEMA.

Failure to adopt uh federal and state compliant floodplain management regulations does result in loss of access to federally backed funding for our constituents.

It does increase potentially disaster recovery costs, and it could potentially adverse have adverse impacts on property values.

So staffs recommending adoption of the proposed ordinance as it achieves compliance while maintaining reasonable development standards and authorize the city administrator or designee to take actions necessary to implement the ordinance and maintain compliance with NFIP requirements.

This proposed ordinance will have two readings, one on May 5th and one on May 19th.

Thank you.

All right, this sounds like critical timeline importance, so I will move this item.

All right.

Uh let's hear from do we have any questions from our colleagues here?

Uh thank you through the chair.

Um, just one thing I was wondering, because I remember looking actually at a FEMA uh flood risk map uh about a year ago, and it did strike me that wide swaths of our flatlands are at uh actually pretty high percentile risk for flooding.

Um I think the attachment for the rate map just uh it didn't provide like the before and after.

Do you happen to know like what the changes are?

And and also just want to thank you for tracking and monitoring this and making sure that we get ahead of this before the deadline.

Thank you.

Um through the chair, we do have uh city attorney Brian Mullery on Zoom that can walk us through the maps online, but also my colleague Terry Fashion is here and she could provide an update on the mapping as well.

City Attorney Brian, you may unmute yourself and begin.

Good afternoon through the chair, Brian Mowray from the City Attorney's Office.

I can share my screen.

I think I need to send a request though, and I can show an example of a map.

The maps are done in panels, and so I can show one panel in Oakland.

I I can tell you that one of the panels shows Saucel Creek and many of the properties along Saucle Creek as it goes through district uh five and district four are in the flood prone area.

So that's you know the properties in that area would be, you know, obviously want to make sure they have flood insurance, and so that that's what this ordinance would enable.

Also, as you may imagine, along the um Jack London Square area and the new residential development and Brooklyn Basin is also covered, as well as estuary park, um, which we are you know in the process of developing as a community benefit um for the city.

So those are areas that um you know do you know would be would benefit from flood insurance.

Um and I'll try to share my screen here.

Okay, so here's here's an example.

So the brown is a 0.1 to 0.2 percent, which actually is is uh by FEMA standards a high percentage chance of flooding uh in an annual in a year.

Um so that you'll see along Jack London.

Um the um the blue shading is where there's even a higher percentage chance of flooding because it's at base water elevation.

So you see along um the channel, um you know, and as the channel spills out toward Jack London Square, um and then you you also see Estuary Park area, Clinton Basin, and all of the new development at Brooklyn Basin, as well as the park township commons and that area out there as well.

So that's this is one panel.

Um you'd have to go, you go to FEMA's website, and then you pull the panel sections of the city of Oakland.

Um, but you can see that these are the flood prone areas, and then I can I also have a panel map showing Saucil Creek as well, and I can share that up.

Are you sharing something else?

I should be sharing.

Do you all see it?

No.

Okay, hold on a second.

There we go.

It's going to share momentarily.

And again, you've you've we're limited a little bit in this view because you've got to take it in panel sections, but you'll see all along Saussel Creek this residential area, and as it extends downward in the next panel, um, it's also seen as a uh high risk area as well.

So in East Oakland here, these residences would all be affected.

And where it's actually important, and there's practical import is if we don't have a compliant ordinance on file, then um anyone who buys a home and goes to get a federally backed mortgage needs to show federal um uh flood insurance.

Um and so we you know the city has to be uh enrolled in this program in order for federally backed flood insurance um if you're getting a federal uh federally backed mortgage.

Okay.

Thank you for that, Brian.

Uh council member Houston question.

Yes, I'm not sure um if this is a question or just a statement is real interesting.

It's raining now, and I got a text and I received a text that said um send me the website on how to contact the city of Boba.

I totally forgot I was totally flooded out again.

Um does this um address drainage issues too, um, similar to what um was repaired at Tyrone Carnity Park.

It was a serious um drainage issue over there.

This is just flooding.

This has nothing to do with drainage.

I believe this is for more catastrophic flooding.

It is yes through the chair, yes.

Council okay.

All right.

All right, let's hear from our speakers, please.

Moving to our public speakers, Zach Thayer, Ms.

Sada, and Kevin Dali.

So how are you doing?

How are you doing again?

So catastroph uh flooding was never modeled in our TARP bailout program.

When that's in Zion Bank to Fifth Third and NASA holding, you can show it in Bank of Marim to what was wondered in Well Fargo Bank of America and SVB.

Um how that models and allocation of capital shows it specifically in default loan uh uh abatements and shows it as collateral uh efficiency standards.

Uh I specifically have questions to that.

How I specifically have questions to that is not as a property owner as a uh uh and but as a sales agent and a commercial litigant as a patent holder for free fishing uh docks or hydro turbines, two free fishing docks, solar panels sit on top of the hydro turbine, and the generator you call it left labia, right labia, and don't understand gender differences in the top.

Um if that was the view of the state, I wouldn't be asking abatement and zoning and planning based on the allocation of capital to the view of the state to the view of allocation of resources.

I I am a personal person.

Uh I am an individual, but I am also a patent holder in a commercial entrepreneur.

That that is my personal abatement.

And the view of James Hunt Merkel v.

the office of the impeachment of the president.

Um, I do own a patent where that was supposed to be wandered across the city, state, and county, uh where I could ask that to commercial enterprises.

And the view of protection against my life, the orange uh buoys that sit on the city of Alameda is a receiver and the canister that is the same grain uh the design of the airplane when once you head out onto the base.

That is specific in view of proclamations of the articles of impeachment.

Thank you.

Catastrophic, huh?

So there's nothing more catastrophic than what happened with Coliseum Connection apartment complex in 2023 when 110 units uh had to be evacuated because of stone drain blockage.

They tried to act like the developer was at fault, but what was at fault was the drain system fail, and the water went into the building and caused a lot of problems.

But the whole solution was on the back of the developer when it was the city's draining system didn't happen.

So here in Oakland, catastrophically, it could be a big issue for West Oakland.

Uh this year, 37.1% of the properties have risk of flooding.

The primary areas of flooding in Oakland are along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Estuary, and San Leandro Bay.

But in East Oakland, we have flooding of what I consider catastrophic, and Havens Court, uh, the south of East Mont along the 66th Avenue and large areas near 880.

So don't you didn't bring up all of these areas in the inner city where poor people live and black people and Latino people live, but we acting as if this is targeted, but it's bigger than that.

So catastrophic is anybody that can potentially lose their property or have damage to their property, and I don't think we covered everybody that could be under this banner of being harmed by flooding Kevin Daly.

I appreciate the information on areas at risk of flooding.

Is there information?

How does FEMA look at the future of climate change and how that affects the flooding risk?

Is it looking at current data 10 years out, 50 years out, and what areas might be included that aren't currently included?

Previous item 260 Oak Street, it's right on the edge of the flood plain, and I know Capitol Corridor is well within it.

Capitol Corridor definitely has plans of mitigating the risk, possibly moving or raising the tracks.

What is Oakland doing in this area to not only look at the risk of flooding but do something to reduce the risk?

Brooklyn Basin, why was it allowed without clear funding?

Flooding risk plans back uh what was it, 10 or 15 years ago, and what will we do with future development in areas that are currently in the floodplain, including future Brooklyn Basin, but areas also that will be in the floodplain as ocean levels rise.

Thanks.

We do have a motion made by Councilmember Unger, seconded by Councilmember Gallo to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the May 5th.

2026 City Council agenda unroll.

Councilmember Guyo.

Thank you, Council Member Houston.

Aye.

Thank you, Councilmember Wong.

I and Chair Unger.

Aye.

This motion does pass with four eyes to approve the recommendations of staff to afford this item to the May 5th 2026 City Council agenda due to the body.

Would that be on consent or non-consent?

Consent, please.

Thank you.

Moving to item six.

Adopt a resolution appropriate one, approving the ongoing cooperative purchase agreements, exceeding 250,000 for Oakland Public Works Bureau of Maintenance, Internal Services, Commodity Goods and Services Contracts as outlined in Table 1, in an addition in an additional amount not to exceed 16,815,000 and two adopting appropriate sequel findings.

And you do have two speakers for this item.

All right, let's hear from Mr.

Battersby, please.

Thank you, Chair Unger, Committee City Staff.

I'm Richard Battersby.

I'm the assistant director of the Bureau of Maintenance and Internal Services of Oakland Public Works.

Primarily comprised of four divisions, facilities, equipment services, sewer, and storm drain.

And through the chair, Councilmember Houston, if you'd like to advise your constituent with flooding, submit a request through Oak 311, and I can follow up through it then with the storm drain division.

We're kind of busy, but uh this is what we do.

I'm here today to talk to you about equipment services, and the agenda report and resolution before you is for 33 contracts in the amount of 16 million dollars.

And these are critical contracts necessary for ongoing repair and maintenance operations, fuel, equipment and commodity supplies, uh, some communication equipment, software, it's the full spectrum of services we need to operate equipment services, and some of these contracts will actually you uh be used by other departments or will use other department funding if the amount seems pretty excessive.

Um, our strategy lately has been to ask for contract capacity that will last that's sustainable because due to staffing issues, we find ourselves forced to outsource more activities lately.

Um, this particular agenda report uh is kind of unique, and I just was going to give you it's got some actual uh performance metrics and data in it related to the contracts.

I wanted to just share some performance metrics related to why these contracts are so critical.

And with me here today, before I jump into that, I've got the acting equipment services manager, uh, Angelo Fullen.

Uh, in case I wander into any minefields or get in water over my head, he's gonna save me.

And I wanted to acknowledge Erica Vasquez, who's our management assistant who prepared this agenda report along with our colleagues and purchasing city attorney and risk management.

Uh we find ourselves at a unique convergence of crises with the staffing snarl that you heard a lot about last week, and now we have uh what I'm calling the contract crisis.

And fundamentally, what's happening is because we don't have the internal staff, the mechanics and service workers to perform the work, we find ourselves having to outsource more.

What that means in the real world is we have five vacancies or frozen positions and heavy equipment mechanic or service worker currently, and we've also had those positions reduced by I think five FTE.

So we're short staff on the floor, which means we have to outsource to third-party vendors, some of which you will see in this agenda report.

Um, unfortunately, that costs about 50 to 150% more, and it incurs more downtime.

But this is the environment we operate in.

Uh, currently, and at any given time, this could be accurate, and these are not solicited data points.

These are issues that were brought to my attention externally.

Uh we have 13 sewer and storm drain flusher trucks in the fleet between sewer and storm drain.

Right now, 12 are unavailable.

We have a single sewer flusher truck available to respond to any flooding emergencies, or even more importantly, uh sewer sanitor sanitary sewer overflows.

We're under a federal consent decree, and we have no leeway responding to sewer overflows.

So, this is actually a critical situation where we've been forced to rent one flusher truck and they cost about 14,000 a month, and we're considering renting a second one.

Out of the 17 street uh the street sweeper fleet of 17 vehicles, typically we average eight to ten available on any given day.

So we're running about a 50% availability rate on street sweepers.

Out of the nine animal services truck, we've got seven available, maybe eight.

I'm not sure if they got the nail out of the tire that Joe DeVries was bringing to my attention.

We have two lightning loaders in service with KOCB, keep Oakland Clean and Beautiful.

These are our force multiplier dealing with illegal dumping.

Uh at any time, we could have both of those vehicles unavailable and not able to respond.

And then finally, um, and perhaps more critically, uh, as we approach overnight and weekend shifts.

I've noted we have a single ready reserve fire department apparatus with no spares.

And these are situations that cause me a great deal of alarm, and I'm hoping that the council uh recognizes and can help work with us and other city staff to find a solution.

Uh contributing to the issues, there's been no significant vehicle replacements in the last four years, other than the 78 uh Oakland Police Department patrol vehicles that we were able to requisition, which proved quite problematic to bring into services.

So you can kind of see because of the staffing issues, we are having to outsource more, having to have more contracts, and that's why we've got a list of 33 contracts in front of you, and you will probably see me probably not before the end of the fiscal year because there's not time, but you will see me in the future coming before you to talk about contracts.

And oh, by the way, with those five vacant or frozen FTEs in the mechanic positions, we've got requisitions submitted for all of those.

So I'm here to answer any questions you might have.

Colleagues, questions?

Councilmember Gyal.

Thank you for that information, and certainly this is long overdue.

And um what is holding up the one is filling the mechanic positions.

I mean, we drive by whether it's at the Colosseum Public Works Yard or at the other yard, and and you see a good number of trucks, vehicles, fire trucks that are sitting there waiting for service.

And uh then here we're talking about you know illegal dumping in a beautiful city and a safe city, but we don't have the vehicles or tools to get the job done.

So what what what I mean?

What is it that what is it that this council working with administration need to do to get the tools necessary to do all the policies and all the statements we're making about having a clean safe city?

So, what is it that's missing today that we need to take action to replace the vehicles, service the vehicles, uh to service our streets?

What's holding us up?

Yeah, through the chair, thank you, Councilmember Guyo.

Um, I think as we heard last week, our colleagues in DHRM need additional staff and resources just to churn through the volume of vacancies that they have currently.

I don't know if that means uh they necessarily need to have to hire FTE.

It kind of feels to me like they need an all hands on deck, maybe look at outsourcing some temporary help.

Um, for us on the mechanics shop, it's not so easy.

I wish there was a temporary help solution for mechanics, but there isn't.

Uh we just have to hire full-time FTE or explore ELDE or TCSE opportunities, which are less attractive to mechanics in this market who pretty much can get a job wherever they want to work.

But again, okay, so this is not the first time that we've brought this issue before the council.

Right?

And but I need the vehicles to have a clean city.

And certainly I need the the mechanics.

I don't need more administrators doing more talking and walking around because I never see one of them on me pick up a piece of trash in the neighborhood.

But they're gonna tell me how to do it.

So what how do I?

I mean, what is it that this council needs to do to get the vehicles and the personnel necessary to have a clean city?

Yeah, again, thank you.

Uh through the chair.

Uh clearly funding is an issue.

Um, I understand we're operating in a resource-constrained environment, so working with our colleagues in finance, uh, we're exploring potential funding opportunities.

We've also gone out uh seeking grants to help us acquire equipment, um, but there aren't that many vehicle related grants available.

We've been very successful being awarded grants for electric vehicle charging and infrastructure.

Um, I think fundamentally uh we need to figure out what our priority is and then uh have a uh collaboration to determine how best do we move forward.

I think we've got some great plans uh to tackle illegal dumping, but I am concerned, and I hope it came across in this presentation today.

I am concerned that we will not have the necessary vehicle and equipment support to sustain this.

All of our mechanics are working as much overtime as they can handle, and frankly, they're turning down overtime opportunities.

So I just you know, I wish if it was an easy solution, I think we would have had it, Councilmember Gu.

Thank you.

Well, I'll go ahead and follow up because we can do a lot of talking about a safe clean city, but I don't have the tools and the personnel to get the job done.

And that's a reality, city administration.

And uh you can make all the policies you want.

But take a drive down the Coliseum way and look at the parking lot with all the trucks sitting there.

And then the mechanics, where are they?

Well, sir, I can replace we lost a lot of mechanics that retired.

And uh so, but anyway, so I'll follow up because this is not the first time we've heard this report about not having the vehicles, not just for public works, but you go and you look at the police vehicles that are damaged sitting there that we have to go rent out a police vehicle to be able to provide the public safety.

And so I will follow up and thank you for that information.

It's not your first time presenting this, but certainly being out there every day, and that's just talking about a clean city, but being out there with personnel that we need to get the job done.

And so I value the work of our employees, uh, but we need to give them the tools.

We need to give them the tools and vehicles to get the job done and not just create more policy after more policy, and uh and that's what's missing here in the city of Oakland.

Thank you for that information.

Thank you.

I think that's a compelling argument for this uh item.

Yes, the administrative and through the chair, council member Gu.

Public Works will be bringing um a very welcome, I think, uh item to you shortly, which is spending for a spending plan for vehicles around illegal dumping.

So stay tuned.

Coming shortly.

Well, you know, we've been waiting and hearing about the need for many, many months and years now, and we're still talking about it.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

Uh thank you.

Um, first I I know that uh director uh Garland had reached out to me and said that he had picked up on a number of my comments around needing more metrics.

So I know, especially around the cooperative agreements.

I must say that I've seen a lack of data that justifies you know enormous contract expenditures.

This is the first time I've seen this, so um I do want to just thank the administration for listening to those comments and uh providing that.

I mean, especially because this is this is a lot of money that's being requested at 16.8 million uh dollars.

Um my other question is just when it comes to the funding source, there is a number of um equipment funds noted.

Are these tied to the general fund or what what where are we getting this uh revenue that goes into each of these funding codes?

Um through the chair, thank you for the question.

The majority of the funding is going to be from within the 4100 fund, equipment services internal service fund.

Uh but as I mentioned, some of the other uh expenditures could come from other department fundings, and just as an example, um we've got clean energy fuels, there are renewable natural gas provider, multiple departments will be uh contributing to that particular line item.

When it comes to enterprise rent a car, again, most of the rental cars come from external departments using the equipment services contract.

Um Golden Gate or excuse me, Golden State Emergency Vehicle Service and Golden State Fire Apparatus Incorporated.

Uh Oakland Fire Department utilizes that vendor as well.

Um Hunt and Sons, their bulk lubricant, primarily that's in equipment services, but other departments purchase off that as well.

Uh same with Lacal equipment, uh Lear Auto Equipment, their patrol vehicle, equipment upfitting and supplies.

I'm not going to read them all.

Telepath, again, Motorola products.

So we're talking about the MDTs, the mobile data terminals, and potentially radios for OPD.

So this the 16 million is not all within the 4100 fund equipment services fund.

It will be utilized by other departments as well.

Okay.

And because public works is essentially almost like a provider of fleet you know, maintenance, all of that across the departments, and I gathered that from uh this report.

Um I think uh I mean, I really do want to dig into this whole hiring crisis that we're having.

Um I don't know if this is the correct way to estimate the billable labor hours, so it's states in the report 52,300 billable labor hours.

If we take 16.8 million and divide that, that's 321 dollars per hour.

That probably doesn't account for you know the cost of purchasing certain equipment and all of that.

So I want to acknowledge that as you know, flawed math, but to your own point, it's 150 percent higher than compared to doing that in-house.

One of the things that HR has pointed out is um, or from their perspective, let's let's call it that, that um departments have not been submitting requisitions.

Uh do you have a perspective on that coming from the public work side of things?

I noted in the HR vacancy report that public works has an 18% or 17 to 18 percent vacancy rate.

And um what is uh preventing uh the hiring of more of these positions into public works?

Yeah, thank you for the question through the chair.

Um again, I think it's a staffing or resource limitation at DHRM.

Um our requisitions are in, frankly, sometimes before the employees even departed.

If we try to get them to uh issue us a letter of resignation, uh it's very important.

We track it very closely in public works and actually had a meeting about it this morning just to ensure that we weren't dropping the ball.

Um that being said, uh DHRM is overwhelmed by the significant number of vacancies, and when faced with a challenge like this, I think you just have to tackle it at the beginning and work through it to the end.

Um there's staffing augmentation.

Obviously, we can't staff for peaks, we're in the same situation in public works.

So we try to have additional resources like some of these vendors you see here, they accommodate peak need within uh public works, especially the equipment services shop.

Um, perhaps there's some sort of an arrangement with DHRM or some sort of alliances with other municipalities in the area who maybe aren't in the same boat.

I kind of feel like everybody is in the same boat though.

So those that's about as creative as I can get in my inexpert opinion.

I think DHRM is is doing a fantastic job with the resources that they've got, but they just need some help so they can help us.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

Question Good morning.

I wanted to find out out of these 32 vendors.

I couldn't find their addresses.

Are there Oakland vendors?

Through the chair.

Council Member Houston, we on the table in here.

I I think we noted three are with when within Oakland.

Um I was hoping we would have the actual municipality in which these vendors are located because quite a few of them are in close proximity to Oakland.

But this is something we're paying a lot of attention to, and I don't want to divert too much from this um agenda report, but moving forward, you're going to see more RFPs coming out of our shop and less co-op.

The co-op you're limited to the vendor that's established that contract already, either with another municipality, which probably means it's not within Oakland, or a government purchasing organization, a GPO, such as Source Well or HGAC.

Um, going to the RFP model we found is actually faster than working co-ops through the procurement process, and it will give more opportunities for Oakland-based business to bid on these contracts.

Because we want Oakland-based vendors supporting us, hopefully as much, if not more, than you, and I know you're the strongest advocate I've seen so far for local Oakland-based businesses.

Thank you.

I just wanted to know because I was looking at these, and we're gonna be talking about it later on today at um life enrichment.

So thank you for your your your your service.

Just souncil member Gaia.

Yes, one more for the the members of the council here that are new to the council.

Um can you share with us right now?

We're are we still leasing the public works yard from the Sink family for three to five million a year?

Because at one time we were trying to merge with uh the Oakland Unified Facilities Department because they have to land in the space, but politically we got in mixed up with that.

So, how much are we still paying for the lease of that property to have our vehicles and everything there?

Yeah, through the chair.

I don't know the number off the top of my head, and I'm not sure of the property owner, but that's correct.

We lease the properties at 5050 Coliseum and 750 50th as well.

Um, I can get you that information shortly after this meeting if you like.

If you could share that with the council members, that would be so we have an understanding the cost and the value when it comes to having a clean city, what we're investing in.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh remind me where we are.

We need to hear our speakers, public speakers, right?

Let's do that.

Thank you.

Want to call your name, please approach the podium, Zach Thayer and Mr.

Sada.

Hi, Zach.

Yes, they're your fathers.

Um 50 Coliseum Drive.

Uh, I don't know about you, but Sheldon Elden Anderson's generation skipping the state wasn't enough to keep the Raiders.

Uh Zodus and Dolores with the Up John Foundation wasn't enough to keep the eggs.

Uh, how much we've wondered and uh girls' basketball team wasn't uh commercial uh developer enterprise and took the uh 49ers championships away because of it.

Um, this is wondered as the City.

Eaton Johnson control seaman, I can't believe I've been asking this for over eight effing years to this board and to the city.

How this is wondered to the management and allocation and LKQ, you can scrap that more.

How that is wondered more appropriately, what I wondered as LWR reactors is a 712, 78 uh uh 1780 compared to a 1320 LWR, PWR based a pebble-based reactor and natural gas.

This community could do a hell of a lot better job.

When this is an allocation, the other thing that I asked this community to consider, we do not uh how how the military base is wonder to diesel mechanic-based jobs, all of diesel mechanic based programs at the city of Alameda College at Berkeley College and USF college have been taken away and have been earmarked.

I can show that.

How that is wondered to the OASIS commercial development to Ladira, I did propose with a five and an eight senior housing and a residential housing and using the back uh application to fix fire trucks and diesel mechanic-based program as a question.

I did propose that, I did petition that as a county as a commercial developer.

I again ask that that be understood.

So this is an item that is called a cooperative purchase agreement.

And what does that mean?

It means spent you're gonna spend over 16 million dollars by bypassing the solicitation process.

The solicitation process gives you an opportunity to look at cost comparative components, the possibility of spending less, and the possibility of having a better quality product.

You're eliminating that to say we're just gonna go with what we have without a performance evaluation of what you have.

You also have like you questioned, you have 33 vendors, only three are Oakland vendors.

Of the 33 vendors, 16 contracts have expired.

So what you're doing is you're giving money to companies that have a contract.

The contract has not expired, but you're giving them additional money.

You also have, like in the case of Cow Line equipment, that contract ended September 30th, 2025.

When it ended, you had not used 15, 513.

All of these contracts, if you look at the data provided to you, they were given a contract for a certain amount of money.

They didn't spend all of the money.

They still have money left from the existing original contract, but you are now giving them more money even though they haven't spent the money that they originally were given.

This doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense.

So what do you do with thank you for your comment, Mr.

Sado?

That concludes your public speakers for item six.

Councilmember Houston, you have another question.

It just I just wanted to make in some notes and just do the chair.

Do we say three are from Oakland and the other 30 aren't?

Was that what I just want to make sure I got these numbers right in my head when I'm writing these notes down?

There's a table in the agenda report that indicates that I looked at it right now.

There's three that indicate they're from Oakland of the 33.

So that bothers me.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

Hi, uh, thanks through the chair.

Um funny thing, I was starting to scrutinize those same timelines.

Uh Mrs.

Hada.

Um I just want to make sure, because again, this is a lot of money that is being asked for.

Um I'm just looking at the first line.

For example, we've got asset works.

It says that the end date is August 31st, 2026.

That's in a couple of months.

The amount used at a one point about two million dollar contract is six hundred ninety-four thousand.

They still have a balance, and there's a proposed increase.

Um, I don't see this being noted in the report.

Are we extending the timelines for this?

Or is are we giving more money to the vendor and their contract end date is still going to be the same here of August 31st?

Yeah, uh, thank you for the question through the chair.

Um, just to clarify, adding contract capacity to a contract is not committing to spending with the vendor.

It's giving us the ability to make those expenses, should we need to do so?

And we cannot uh increase an expired contract.

We can't take any action on it.

So I would assume including with the um increase is also an extension of that contract, but I don't have the information here in front of me.

Um, and I do believe that these uh contract renewal processes were started a significant time ago.

So some contracts were at the verge of expiring, some expired while we're working through the process, and then to the point where we are moving to an RFP model.

I let me say that again.

We are moving to an RFP model.

The co-op model is too time consuming.

Um, frankly, contracts that the council approved back in December 2025, uh, including the ABC security contract that's set to it was just an extension until June.

That just got approved this month in April, and we have others that haven't.

So the the co-op process just isn't working for our unit, so we are moving definitely to the RFP model, which will increase hopefully Oakland-based company participation and thus awards to Oakland-based companies.

Okay, all right.

And so just just to be crystal clear, asset works will continue to do approval of this resolution.

Means that asset works, for example, will continue to do work for the city of Oakland for the public works departments after August 31st, 2026.

Yeah, absolutely.

Through the chair, asset works is our fleet information system provider and provider of our automated fueling equipment where operators don't have to key in numbers or use cards, the sensors on the truck.

So this is a vendor we've been committed to.

They're pretty much um incorporated into our day-to-day operation, the fleet information system that issues all of our work orders that integrates with our GPS system.

That's all provided by asset work.

So they're not gonna go away anytime soon, and we're not gonna start spending uh additional funding with them.

We just don't want to have to keep coming back to the committee and council because we didn't ask for a significant significant enough contract increase.

This is a lot of work to do these 33 contracts, as you can imagine.

Uh, we can't return every year trying to renew these.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Councilmember Gaia.

Yes, I'll I'd like to to make a motion to approve staff's recommendation, and I appreciate the work and let's get the work done on the streets.

Thank you.

I will second the motion.

Thank you.

We do have a motion made by councilmember Gaio, seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the May 5th 2026 City Council agenda.

Councilmember Guyo.

Aye, Council Murray Houston.

No.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Ungar.

I we do have three ayes and one no Houston to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the May 5th, 2026 City Council agenda.

And that will be on non-consent.

Thank you.

Moving to item seven.

Non-consent.

He voted no.

Adopt the respect a resolution one, amending resolution number 88379 to increase the professional services agreement for architectural and engineering design services with KTK2A, Mary McGrath, associate associated architects for the Fire Station 29 project by an amount not to exceed $700,000, bringing the total contract amount from $1,800,000 to $2,500,000, to waiving the competitive request for proposal and qualification requirements, and three adopting appropriate SQL findings, and you do have one speaker for this item.

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

Good morning, Chair Unger, members of the committee.

My name is Alan Chan.

I'm the current public works project manager for this item.

Back in 2020, the city authorized K2A, Mary McGrath Architects, a joint venture local and small local business firm to design a new 16,000 square foot replacement on a city-owned parcel at 9056 Avenue.

That contract was for an amount of 1.8 million dollars.

Since then, the city directed the architect team to take on work that wasn't part of the original scope.

Utility relocation studies, environmental clearances, a significant level of community engagement that went beyond the scope.

Six community engagement sessions, a design workshop, 16 advisory meetings.

Now, after the community engagement was done and design was underway, the state and the city executed an agreement for the middle mile broadband initiative to construct a fiber hut on the project site.

That agreement required us to pause design, conduct additional environmental review, and recoordinate the site civil and utility engineering.

Now we accommodated the state's initiative because East Oakland has some of the lowest broadband connectivity rates in the city, and this project site was identified as a critical investment, critical node in the state's network.

The delay was necessary to co-locate two public investments on one city-owned parcel, a new fire station, and broadband infrastructure serving a community that needs both.

On top of all of that, the 2026 building code cycle required a structural and energy redesign and overhaul of the fire station.

Additionally, we also had a large swath of easement conflicts on the site that needed new plats and legals.

This $700,000 covers replenishment of fee slated for design support during construction that was consumed by the additional scope.

Additionally, the new fee covers the code redesign, the easement work, and cost escalation from the extended schedule.

We're also requesting the waiver of the competitive RFP process because K2A, Mary McGrath architects, was competitively selected in 2020 for the planning, design, and construction administration of the fire station.

Bringing in a new firm at this point would delay the project and cost a city more money.

Design is currently at 65%.

And that concludes my talking points, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Excellent.

Questions from my council colleagues.

Councilmember Houston.

I'd like to move the item.

Okay, I'll second it, and we can hear from our public speakers, please.

Ms.

I'm sorry.

I was just telling your staff member how great her presentation was on the encampment policy.

Yeah, she did a nice job.

All right.

I'm concerned about this property in district six.

Uh uh.

Let me see if I got this right, y'all.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to get y'all off.

I'm sorry.

Oh.

There's some deficiencies at this station.

Lack of adequate space, uh, seismic uh resilience, uh, deferred maintenance, uh, reasons why the system has deteriorated so long as we haven't been uh uh effective in maintaining the property.

That's an issue, and so we can't avoid that.

The code uh requirements that are gonna have to be put in place.

Can the report reduce the costs?

It's involved in that code requirement issue.

The other thing is the design and construction administration.

You have a design method that I forget the name for it, design lease, design bill with one of them limits change orders.

And has the city start using that method because that method brings in the contractor and the designer, they complete their role, then you bring it to the council with a price, and you can agree on the price or not agree on the price, but you don't wait for the project to proceed with all of these change orders.

And uh so you you look like you know what I'm talking about, and I know this because the school board does this.

Okay.

All right, that's the only thing.

Trying to think of ways of money that can be saved if we use a design method that is starting to be used frequently to eliminate excessive change orders.

Thank you to our speakers.

I think we're ready to vote.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Houston, seconded by Chair Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and this before to the May 5th 2026 City Council agenda on roll.

Councilmember Gaio.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

Aye.

This motion does pass with four eyes to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the May 5th City Council agenda and through the body with that beyond consent or non consent.

Consent, please.

Thank you.

Moving to item eight.

Receive an informational report on the status of city compliance with the municipal regional stormwater permit trash reduction requirements.

And you do have two speakers for this item.

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

Ben Libsey, watershed program specialist in the watershed and stormwater management division of the public works department.

I have a short presentation for you today.

As directed by this committee, each year we provide a progress update on the municipal regional stormwater permit trash reduction requirements.

Changes to these requirements and any forecasted challenges ahead on meeting future requirements.

I'll refer to the permit as the MRP in this presentation.

Trash on the streets of Oakland can be washed into the storm drain system and end up in waterways such as Courtney Creek, sorry, Cortland Creek and Lake Merritt, where it affects both water quality and aquatic life, such as those shown in the picture of Lake Merritt at the bottom of this slide.

The MRP is issued by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and requires the city to prevent pollution from entering waterways through the city's storm drains.

The city takes enormous efforts to meet these regulations, not just for water quality, but also for the quality of life of the citizens of Oakland.

Last fiscal year, the city achieved the 100% trash reduction compliance requirement.

However, the MRP became more stringent this fiscal year, and now it eliminates several trash reduction categories the city has relied upon, including product bans such as plastic bags, a problematic litter source, phases out other care categories such as volunteer creek and shoreline cleanups and credits for illegal dumping and homeless encampment abatement cleanups.

Based on these reductions in trash compliance credits, we currently stand at 79.3%.

It should be noted here that on page one of the agenda report, it incorrectly lists our current trash reduction status as 75.1.

We expect to reach 85.1 at the end of this reporting year, which is short of the 100 percent percent trash reduction requirement.

At the end of 2025, we provided a status update to the regional water board as required by the MRP and let them know we needed more time to achieve compliance with the 100% trash reduction benchmark.

Staff have been working with the regional water board and expect that we will have until December of 2030 to achieve the 100 percent trash reduction benchmark to achieve compliance.

An ongoing challenge for the city is the maintenance of hundreds of trash capture devices to prevent clogging, continued implementation of existing trash cleanup efforts, and adapting to future regulations.

So, how is compliance determined?

The 100% trash reduction compliance benchmark is related to a trash generation rate developed in 2009.

Trash generation is a term to describe the levels of trash deposited onto land areas that could potentially be transported to storm drain systems and waterways.

For example, the picture on the right shows trash in the curb and gutter that during rain events would be washed into the storm drain and deposited to water bodies such as Lake Merritt and the Oakland estuary.

Here's what the baseline trash map looks like.

Each color corresponds to a trash generation level.

Red is very high, orange high, yellow moderate, and green low.

The trash generation rate for every part of the city was calculated using a formula that includes land use classifications, median household income, and observed trash levels.

As you can see, areas of high density, commercial land uses, and transit corridors such as Market Street, Grand Avenue, and West MacArthur, generate very high levels of trash.

At the end of 2025, we provided sorry.

New actions such as the installation of trash capture devices or enhance online activities such as illegal dumping and other litter cleanup efforts are compared against this benchmark to comp to determine MRP compliance credits.

The city must install additional trash capture devices to achieve the 100% trash load reduction requirement.

We install large devices such as the one shown on the upper right under Mandela Parkway, completed in 2024 that removes trash from a 600-acre area.

The picture on the bottom right shows a large trash capture device with significant amounts of beveraged containers and food fast food debris that would otherwise be transported to water bodies.

As discussed, the city will be installing three additional large trash capture devices in the next few years with Caltrans funding.

Here you can see an example of a small trash capture device called a connector pipe screen.

The trash flows into the device and clean storm water flows out.

These small screens are secured in storm drain inlets, and while they are relatively cheap to install, they clean smaller areas and have a high maintenance cost compared to larger devices.

Actions the city takes, such as illegal dumping abatement and street sweeping result in cleaner conditions providing valuable trash reduction credit.

As described earlier, we expect to be at 85.1% this incoming reporting year based on full trash capture device installations and continued implementation of other land control trash control measures.

We will need to make up 14.9% trash reduction credit by 2030.

There are many challenges to achieving and maintaining 100% trash reduction benchmark.

One challenge will be to maintain hundreds of trash capture devices two times per year in high and very high trash generating areas.

Another will be to be to maintaining the existing level of effort for online cleanup actions such as illegal dumping abatement and street sweeping.

Finally, the regional water board is working on the next iteration of the MRP provisions in this new permit could impose more costly requirements to track and prevent trash and stormwater.

If you want to learn more about trash reduction compliance programs or other actions the city is taking to meet the MRP, you can read through our MRP annual reports posted on our website.

These annual reports provide a comprehensive summary of how the city is doing in meeting its stormwater quality regulations.

Thank you.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

That's great.

I like the sound of 100% trash reduction.

Uh colleagues, questions?

Colleagues, questions.

Councilmember Gaia.

Yes, thank you for that information.

I tend to walk with my family at least once a week at Lake Merritt.

And known Lake Merritt for a lifetime, and certainly haven't seen it at this condition that it is today.

It was always the jewel of Oakland.

It was the cleanest, safest location that we can take our children and families to.

Walk around it day in, day out, the lighting and all that other.

And we um anyway, so what what is what is holding us?

I mean, the trash in the water as you walk around the lake is out of control around the whole lake.

And what what is it that we need to do to bring it back to a condition where it was clean on the regular basis?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councilmember Gaio.

Um for Lake Merit specifically, we prioritize the installation of additional small trash capture units throughout the city based on trash reduction credit we can receive.

We will be citing that'll be between three to five hundred and twenty-five additional trash capture units, some of which would be around Lake Merit.

Of course, those trash capture units only capture trash that's goes through the storm drain system.

As you know, around Lake Merritt, we have the walking path and the biking path, where sometimes trash is directly deposited in the lake.

Yeah.

We also have a um work with the Lake Merit Institute who helps to remove trash and through the volunteer network.

Um so hopefully over time we can you know work towards creating that um jewel that you speak of back to that condition.

You know, working with the volunteers is that on schedule because it used to be that you would see us on a boat on a regular basis cleaning it up, right?

Picking up uh the bottles, the trash all around Lake Merritt.

So I'd like to, you know, if you can share that with us, I'd like to go back and join that effort.

You know, that that you would have volunteers cleaning it up so it doesn't look as bad as it is today.

Anyways, thank you.

I look forward to working with you on that project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, Councilmember Wong.

Uh thank you.

Um by the way, this presentation was uh very well put together.

I think the visuals really help um illustrate what your uh intent is.

Uh I do have a question.

So in 2024, uh, since this is related to the EPA, the EPA fined us about 280,000 because we were uh dumping raw sewage into our waterways.

Has that been resolved?

Through the chair, it is Jimmy Mock acting assistant director.

I am uh my per permanent position is a principal civil engineer in charge of the sewer program.

Uh it was actually a 2014 sewer consent decree that we we started with uh with the EPA as well as the uh state water uh control board.

And um right now it's we're still in the middle of the consent decree.

It ends in 2036.

Uh we're currently fully come uh pretty much uh compliant with the annual goals that we have with maybe a little bit of a shortfall in rehabilitation of our sewer system, but um we're we're constantly uh working on replacing our pipes and reducing sanitary sewer overflows through the maintenance program.

Uh it's uh it's an annual uh report that we also provide.

Uh and and uh look out for an upcoming informational report about the consent decree progress.

Great.

Thank you.

I look forward to that presentation.

Um then the next uh question I just have is around um so I I have issues in my district.

I will say that large swaths of district two were in that red in that map that you showed.

Uh again, alarming but very helpful and informative.

Um but where the trash is actually accumulating over the storm drain, and so it's not actually even getting into the storm drain itself, and what it's causing is flooding.

Uh and I I get concerned because it is dangerous because you see cars have to you know drive out of the way.

It's it's this kind of um safety concern I have.

So what do you all have plans or how can we solve that type of trash that remains at the surface?

Yeah, so through our some of our online cleanup efforts, such as street sweeping that would get the trash from that curb and gutter area that could prevent some of that clogging.

Um, our drainage maintenance department does address you know the need to inspect every storm drain throughout the city once per year, and so hopefully over time um that could reduce flooding, as well as uh you know, when flooding does occur, you know, uh citizens should report it through our 311 system to make sure that we're aware of that.

And um, we also have our adopt a drain network where citizens can adopt a drain and essentially help to keep it clean to prevent flooding.

Okay, I do not know about these programs, and they basically adopt a drain to help maintain it and clean up the trash that accumulates over these drains.

Yeah, so both the trash and leaf and other debris that could clog the actual uh drop inlet structure and and develop flooding problems.

And it sounds like there's no existing technology that or infrastructure improvements that can help solve that that issue other than what you've just named.

Yeah.

Hello, uh, through the chair.

Thank you, Chair Unger.

Um, I'm Terry Fashingham, the division manager for the watershed and stormwater division.

Um we are working on a storm drainage master plan right now where we're really looking at the entire storm drainage system and identifying locations where the pipes are undersized and then recommending projects to increase capacity.

So sometimes we do it is a capacity issue, and then other times it could be a clogging issue, you know, and it really just depends on on where in this the system you are.

But we will be uh our plan is to complete that study, and we'll be presenting to the council on that.

We'll actually provide a bit of an update uh I think in June, but um then the full results of that of that plan and that study will be provided probably in early 2027.

Okay, gotcha.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Houston.

Yes, thank you.

Through the chair, is you guys did a trash collection on Carey Avenue and in D7, and it's right around the address of what six, five, nine carry with a C.

Um my question was like Supervisor Nate Miley always says that illegal dumping has no boundaries, and I always say that illegal dumping is a crime against my community.

And um, not like like you know, Lake Merritt and other areas that are further up, their illegal dumping is a little different than district five, six, and seven, right?

So um, I wanted to find out do you guys identify the items that are collected so we'll know uh contaminated and hazardous um items that are collected, and on that collection um that was on carry, was that the smaller one or the larger one through the chair?

Thank you for the question.

Um yeah, so on Carey Avenue, it was a large trash capture device that does capture um trash that goes through the storm drain system.

Um for illegal dumping materials.

We know some of that cannot get into the storm drain system.

Maybe it's um large mattresses or even refrigerators, other things.

And so when keep Oakland clean and beautiful, when they do uh pick up illegal dumping piles, they do do things to characterize that or to identify things that could be hazardous that the Oakland Fire Department might need to deal with.

So the trash capture device on Carrie Avenue is a large trash capture device, but it only captures trash that goes this through the storm drain system.

So through the chair, let me educate you just a little bit, not in a bad way, just in a good way.

The things that are dumped, the needles, the batteries, the best those, all these things go out.

I mean, I have data to back that up, right?

So I wanted to know all those things or small things that go in the drain.

I've cleaned them out, right?

I use the sweat process with the waddles and the and the strainers and things like that, and I know what's collected because it's going through the actual drain.

And when I pull out the the screen, you have needles, you have batteries, you have chip being uh bestal, so whatever, all these hazardous and contaminated.

So I wanted to know the things that do go through those drains, you know, the oils, the the it's so see, my district is totally different, like I said, no boundaries, they have no boundaries, right?

What they dump.

So I wanted to know those items that are collected and that the the small items are they identified on what is actually being dumped near the drains that are being collected, so we'll have that data because data is everything.

I've I worked with the county, and they made me do everything with data, right?

So is that data collected so we know what's being dumped and collected in my district, which is a crime against my community.

Through the chair, thank you for your question, Councilmember.

We don't characterize on an individual um cleanup event what types of trash are in that.

We do collect um information on the volume of material that's collected.

So it could be we collect in gallons, and so we do have that material, we do have that data.

In the past, through the municipal regional stormwater permit, that we did studies on the types of trash that we see on the street, whether it's plastic bags, cigarette butts, food um fast food containers, um things of that nature.

Um that was done on a region wide level, so the nine barrier counties that encompass the San Francisco Bay region.

Uh that has been done in the past, but we do not collect the information that you're speaking to on an individual cleanup event.

Um, what types of uh material that we're finding?

Okay, one last question through the chair.

When you say cleanup event, does that mean what's collected and gathered out of that that that unit through the chair, yes.

Okay, okay.

All right, thank you.

Okay, let's hear from our public speakers, please.

Ms.ada and Kevin Daly.

So uh when I was um volunteering at McCliman's picking up trash, there was a homeless person across the street with a camper, and he would use the drain as his bathroom waste disposal system.

And so his human waste was going in there, and at some point it created a stench that was horrible.

So I'm saying all of that to say from that experience.

I'm assuming that it's a possibility that we have from our homeless community and maybe others, uh human waste going into those drains.

And is that a issue for concern health-wise, contamination of the waters wise?

I don't know.

Uh I think a little bit more work can be done because I did I was gonna offer that we need to create like Oakland Beautiful, you know, clean your drain.

But he's saying that it's uh a program.

I didn't know about it, but maybe we need to do a little bit more outreach to people.

Uh I have a drain outside my house, and whenever I go out, I look for trash and I look at the drain.

If there's something there, I pick it up.

That's automatic.

But we got to change the culture of responsibility of our people who live in this city.

You contribute to helping to keep this city clean and safe.

It's just not the city's responsibility.

And once you take on that responsibility, we're gonna have a whole lot more effectiveness.

What concern me in the report?

It says that SAS are confident that the compliance target will be met.

However, maintaining compliance targets will be challenging since there is not adequate or sustainable funds for ongoing maintenance of underground full trash capture.

So it looks like the report is saying we got a funding component that we need to deal with, and how will we deal with it?

All right, Kevin Dowley.

Appreciate the report.

In Glenview, some of the storm drains don't have grates, they just have horizontal bars that are many inches apart.

I think that's more likely to lead to trash going into the storm drain.

It's also risk to cyclists and pedestrians because you suddenly have a multi-inch drop on what looks like smooth asphalt.

I know that not only Glenview has those around East 38.

I've seen them in Rockridge as well, and I suspect quite a few other neighborhoods.

Are they going to be replaced as Oakland goes through this uh storm train improvement uh process?

Thanks.

Okay, I would like to move this item.

I second it.

Councilmember Guyo, would you have a comment?

Yes, I just want to share one more comment with the Jerry Brown was mayor of the city.

He hired me to be the parks manager for the city.

And but he said, Noel, I'm gonna locate you at Lake Merritt.

I want Lake Merritt to be the cleanest, safest spot in the city of Oakland.

But I'm gonna give you a pickup truck.

And every day you got to come back with your pickup truck loaded with stuff you picked up from Lake Merritt.

So I think we got to get into that attitude that if I'm there working at the lake, we gotta maintain it because even the park rangers used to help me keep the lake clean.

But uh, you know, it's um but getting back our personnel that's sitting there make sure that that lake is clean daily because the you know the people that I see walking when I'm out there walking, many some come from out of town, but most of them are with children and families, and and we gotta have a uh safe, clean lake uh to enjoy.

And I'll be happy to work with you on that.

Thank you.

Could we have a motion made by Councilmember Unger?

Chair Unger, excuse me, seconded by Councilmember Houston to receive and file this in the public works and transportation committee on roll.

Councilmember Gaio.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong.

Aye.

And Chair Unger.

Aye.

This motion passes with four ayes to receive and file this in the public works and transportation committee.

Moving to open the forum.

Mr.

Sada, Kevin Dowley, and Zach Thayer.

So let's go back to the tree issue that we're dealing with in May.

Some things I took notes on.

It was stated that the fire department, y'all know what I'm talking about, huh?

The trees that the guy's being charged in the $900,000 fine.

The trees were the owner was told that they had dead trees on the property, and the fire department told him he had to get rid of them.

The property has erosion issues because it has been neglected based on this issue, not being timely met with.

The issue of race.

This is property owned by two people, a black man and a white woman, but we keep alluding to the black man being at fault and not holding the white woman accountable for because she's owner of the property as well.

The property is identified as residential.

Okay.

The neighbors acted this, something is wrong because the owner wasn't accountable to them when they asked questions.

After uh 23 trees were cut, uh, no action was taken.

So we had trees cut that the public works department should have intervened, and we wouldn't have 30-something trees cut.

The notice of violation did not happen until of July of 2025 because the planning department identified that this issue had to be dealt with.

It didn't come from public works.

Planning department notified public works.

The property owner has been paying the vacancy tax because you wouldn't allow him to bill on it, but because his property is vacant and you made him pay the vacancy tax.

Okay.

Not clear if the property can be used for property development.

It's residential, but you're acting like you're gonna have to replace those trees as a part of the fine payment.

Uh the city did not have a measurement, direct measurement method.

You use an assessment method.

You didn't use the official method for coming up with the fine.

And you came up with three different lines.

That concludes your public speakers for open forum.

All right.

I believe we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.