Good afternoon and welcome to the community and economic development committee meeting of Tuesday, April 21st, 2026.

Then the time is now 1.34 p.m.

and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker card 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 before uh no later than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is recorded read into record.

Online speakers were due 20 uh 24 hours prior to the start of this meeting.

This meeting came to order at 134 p.m.

and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after, making that time 144 p.m.

We'll now proceed with taking roll.

Councilmember Fife is absent right now.

Councilmember Ramachandran here.

Councilmember Unger here.

And Chair Brown.

Present.

Thank you.

We have three members present, one absent five.

And Chair, we before we begin, do you have any announcements at this time?

Uh no, it no announcements.

Thank you.

Okay, starting off with item one.

As this is a special meeting, there are no minutes to be approved.

Item two, determination of schedule about standing committee items, and we have one speaker that signed up.

Thank you so much.

Um so to the administration, do we have any changes for our pending list?

Um administrator Baker.

No.

All right, thank you so much.

We can hear from the public speaker.

Ms.

Sada Olabala.

Okay.

I'm gonna mention just one item, and it's uh your sanctuary city status and how being a sanctuary city is impacting the economics of our African American community.

And we don't have information sufficient enough to actually do a data-driven look into who is coming to this city via legally through uh work visas.

Who's coming through this city without any legal uh acquirement of documentation?

But they're getting jobs, and people say you against uh immigration, you're against people who are here trying to make a living.

I'm only against if if it's impacting my people.

In my contention, it is impacting because nobody has an unemployment across this country like African Americans.

And this city it's nine percent unemployment, and you don't give any uh data, it's hard to keep up with stuff because you you keep data hitting unemployment because people who are not here legally get jobs.

The highest representation of that is in the construction industry here in this city, as well as in the hotel uh tourist or restaurant business.

So when Barbara Jordan said in 1994 to President Clinton, we have to look at immigration status of how we're allowing people to come into this country because if it continues to be at the level it is now in 1994, African American males are not gonna have jobs, and that's just what's happening.

So if you don't weigh in on that issue, and I have gotten to the point where I know you're not gonna weigh in on it.

I know you're not gonna do anything about your sanctuary city status as far as having a discussion.

I see you got in your elevator anti-racist academy.

Why are you having that?

This could be considered racing.

Chair, that concludes all speakers on item two.

All right, thank you so much.

Um I did want to share with the body that um uh thank you, uh Mrs.

Sada for consistently bringing up um the need for us to bring an informational report from the Oakland Housing Authority.

And so I would like to know that that item will be coming towards the end of May.

Um, and so at this time I'll go ahead and uh make a motion to move the uh pending list and just need a second.

Second thank you.

We have a motion made by Chair Brown, seconded by Councilmember Unger to accept the determination of schedule about standing committee items as is on roll.

Council members five.

Aye, Rama Chandran.

Aye, Unger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number two passes with four eyes to accept the determination of schedule about standing committee items as is.

Reading in item three.

Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute a new exclusive negotiation agreement with the Museum of Jazz and Art for develop for development of a museum and art facility on city property located at 1310 Oak Street for an 18-month term condition on payment of a 10,500 500 exclusive negotiation payment with one additional six-month administrative extension condition on uh sorry, on payment of an additional $3,500 and two adopting California um environmental quality act findings, and we have four speakers that signed up to speak.

Excellent.

Um, thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

And so for this item, we'll be hearing from our EWD team, um, Brandon Woolenski.

Uh yeah, I had a slide deck prepared.

I'll just wait for it to perfect.

Uh good afternoon, City uh CED committee members.

I'm Brand Wolinski from Economic and Workforce Development Department.

Today I'm presenting a staff recommendation for a new exclusive negotiation agreement with the Museum of Jazz and Art for the city-owned fire alarm building at 1310 Oak Street.

There you go.

Uh the fire alarm building sits at the northwest corner of Oak Street and 13th Street in the Civic Center neighborhood, directly adjacent to Lake Merit.

The parcel is approximately 0.71 acres, and the existing building is around 4,500 square feet.

The site is zoned downtown district general commercial and carries a green loop combining zone designation under the downtown Oakland specific plan.

The building holds a BA1 plus rating under the Oakland's Cultural Heritage Survey indicating major historic importance.

About the project, the proposed project is an adaptive reuse of the historic fire alarm building to develop in an approximately 83,000 square foot museum facility.

MOGA's vision includes interactive exhibits on the history of jazz, a public garden along Lake Merit Boulevard, a flexible performance venue accommodating up to 400 seats, youth education programming, rehearsal spaces, and a rooftop restaurant with viewing deck.

The developer is the Museum of Jazz and Art, uh California nonprofit public benefit corporation established in 2013.

MOJA's CEO is David Allen, who's also principal of Allen Architectural Engineering and brings over 33 years of construction and design experience to this project.

Brief overview of the project's history.

Moja first submitted an unsolicited proposal to the city in 2018.

And following completion of surplus land act noticing, the city council authorized an EA in 2020.

Over the course of that agreement, the project navigated several phases of delay.

Early extensions addressed impacts of COVID on pre-development activities.

In July 2022, Moja submitted a pre-application to planning, but the design required substantial revisions to conform with zoning and historic preservation standards.

Further extensions were granted through December 2024 to allow additional time to complete planning and environmental review milestones.

That redesign process extended into late 2024, and the prior ENA expired in December before Moja could satisfy all performance milestones.

MOJA has made revisions in order to comply with the DOSP requirements and resubmitted its planning application in January of this year.

That resubmission is the basis for staff's recommendation today for a new ENA to provide MOJA structured time to complete planning entitlements and negotiate disposition terms with the city.

MOJA's required milestones under this new ENA include obtaining zoning and sequel approvals, conducting community meetings and public stakeholder engagement, assessing the project's potential impact on the city's fiber optic network infrastructure, preparing a financial plan while securing financing uh letters of intent and negotiating ultimately the LDDA terms with the city.

On community on community engagement, the ENA specifically requires Moja to conduct outreach, the Oakland Heritage Alliance and neighboring stakeholders prior to planning approval.

When MOGA completes its ENA milestone, staff will return to the city council to seek authorization for the LDDA and long-term lease.

Therefore, staff recommends that the city council adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute a new ENA with Moja for the development of a Jazz and Art Museum at 1310 Oak Street.

Happy to answer any questions.

Members of Moja's development team are also in attendance, and I'm sure happy to answer any questions you have as well.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

So we can hear from the public speakers first.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number three in no particular order.

You can come up to the podium and state your name before making your rec uh stating your record.

Sorry, stating your comment.

David B.

Allen, Asado Olavala, Lee Cen, Grover Rudolph, Errol Andrew Gellner, Herman Adams, and that's it.

Hello, my name is David Allen.

I'm the CEO and board chairman of the Museum of Jazz and Art.

I'm so happy to be here today.

Can you speak into the mic?

You can move it up.

Thank you so much.

Sorry about that.

I'm so happy to be here today.

There's three words that are very, very important here: trust, confidence, and motivation.

Those three words incorporate everything about this project and everything about what the city needs.

No project of any value can be developed without these three.

I want to thank the mayor and their staff for supporting this project to help build trust into the marketplace.

Also want to I want to thank the council members and the city administrators for helping us implement this confidence that's very important in terms of the marketplace.

And I think what's very important here is that this project brings in two different types of economic values.

One is economic value, the other is social.

So in addition to 500 jobs, in addition to prevailing wages focusing on Oakland employment, uh, in addition to a positive contribution to the general funds, hundreds of thousands dollars over a 99-year lease.

That's a lot of money just for one project.

But the social benefits are even greater.

We're talking about strong education for our Oakland Unified School District kids.

We're talking continuous jobs.

We're talking the most important thing here is we're gonna build and connect culture using the music.

And so the Black Arts Movement Business District, I was part of the interviewing team, and in that team, the BAM is now certified as a state uh uh district.

So we are glad that we're moving forward, and we want to continue to build this trust, confidence, and motivation, and we thank you for your support and your vote.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Grover Rudolph from the real estate development manager for the Museum of Jazz and Art.

And again, I want to I'd also want to thank both uh Brandon and Teresa Lopez, been critical in assisting us in what we're doing, and just asked for your continued support.

Uh this project has been moving forward at all phases.

We have a timeline dating back to the beginning of the of the time when we got started.

So again, thank you for your support, and we look forward to continuing to build right here on Lake Merritt.

Hello, I'm Errol Gellner.

I'm the uh director of architecture for Moja.

Um, and I just had two quick things I wanted to to bring up.

One regarding the fire alarm building, which Brandon very capably uh gave us a summary on.

I've been an architect practicing over 40 years now.

I'm I'm sorry to say.

Um I was also a syndicated architecture columnist uh for many years, which gave me a lot of time to opine on uh historical architecture and write many articles about it.

Um I've also written three books on historical architecture.

I'm a member of Oakland Heritage Alliance.

Um and I tell you all this not to be pompous, but to make the point that we fully understand that Moja, the value, and we appreciate the value of historic architecture.

So the Fab is gonna be the crown jewel of the Moja development.

And the second thing, uh, much briefer.

David Allen, the CEO there, I've known him personally since he was in high school, and he was one of those incurably overachieving guys, and he's still the same.

He's still incurably overachieving, and I think that Mojo couldn't be in better hands, and so I'm proud to work with this team that he's assembled.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon.

Um council members.

My name is Leisei Chen.

Um I'm a founding uh uh board member of Museum of Jazz and Art.

And also I'm a lifelong jazz artist.

Oops.

Um I'm here today to express my strong support for Moja and its mission.

Jazz is more than music, it's a living history of culture, identity, and resilience.

And Oakland holds a powerful place in that history through my late husband and musical partner, Michael White, an Oakland native, legendary jazz violinist, composer, and major uh recording artist who toured the world.

I came to understand how deep and important this legacy is and how much of it remains under recognized.

The museum of jazz and art creates an opportunity not only to preserve this history, but to teach it through a cultural lens, reaching artists, students, and communities around the world.

Jazz has always been a bridge between cultures evolving by embracing voices from across the globe.

Oakland can be one of its greatest meeting places.

Moja, we often say jazz is our music.

Thank you for your comments.

Good afternoon, Council.

Hi, my name is Herman Adams, and I'm here in support of Moja.

I'm excited to be a part of supporting this great opportunity to have the city of Oakland give something back to the community and the world.

Uh, there are a lot of things that this museum would actually uh capture encapsulate, meaning it would teach, uh, enhance, it was show create a show place for a variety of different things, the art, the music, the history.

Oakland has a fantastic history that is really not spoken of when when I'm originally from Memphis, so I'm the home of the blues.

There's Elvis Presley there.

There's a uh moving here, been here 30 years.

I've learned so much about the history of Oakland and how art and history and jazz has actually affected this city.

I'm actually wearing a t-shirt today of Prince, who's his tenth year of passing.

There's a wonderful history of people respecting music, and if we build this center, there will be an opportunity for people to travel from around the world to come to Oakland.

Wear t-shirts like this, represent Moja, Oakland, is an add to the culture that Oakland already has.

Not only for the music, the food, the history, the uh politics, there are so many different things that Oakland has to present and provide.

And this fantastic uh venue, this art center, Moja, that will be uh just down the street here, will be something that the city of Oakland can hang their head on.

People will come by t-shirts.

The uh tourism in industry will continue, and we can actually do something that's actually very positive and very informative, not only for our current generation, but the generations to follow.

And I want to make sure that Moja is actually a part of it.

I'm happy to be here today and ask for your support.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dimitri Thompson.

I am the strategic advisory of the board of the Marja.

I've been in part of the project 10 years.

Thank you, Brendan.

Thank you, Council members.

I came here to speak for support of this project.

Uh I was uh on a I'm on a board with various uh places in in Bay Area, Oakland residency 2004.

This project will bring uh approximately 400,000 visitors a year.

Uh it's a unique project that will preserve the culture of the history of jazz that Oakland has and will teach new uh develop the new musicians to learn and by visitation with the with our kids in schools that we learn more about the jazz.

Uh it's not only about the jobs and preservation of the culture, it's historically valuable as well as the tourism value for this project.

Um I would like to see if if you uh remember, but there's no similar project anywhere in the USA, and that's the reason why this project is very important to bring Oakland on a map historically for the jazz and for the tourism.

And I thank you for your support.

Thank you.

These are such nice people.

They come and they're so eloquent in speech.

I got a problem with this project.

So when you have a project, this is the fourth time we've had an ENA between 2022 and 2024.

Fourth time.

The last time I heard this project, it was an issue with the height.

The height was an issue in the design, and that was like two years ago, maybe.

Let's get this project moving.

This is an excellent project.

I'm from New Orleans, and jazz is has created a tourism moneymaker for the city.

If you could see the money that's made off of the uh New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, two weeks, three days.

You and right now, San Jose is having jazz festival in Maine, making big money.

But besides making money, that heritage, that culture that crosses all cultures.

I don't know, a culture that doesn't embrace jazz.

Oh, it's it's just a wonderful opportunity.

I'm not sure if we have concluded that we this is going to be a shared property because at one time you had that property uh being utilized by the main library, and uh some portions of that property still being used by the city.

Have we cleared this property for full usage of the jazz museum, or are we still holding that uh the main library will have access to some portions of the property as well.

Uh uh, I think that we have a struggle here that doesn't have to be.

Uh I think we need to put this on speed button, microwave it forward, and see what we can do to make sure that we move.

I think we're in a design stage.

Is that correct?

Okay, that's like McClimas.

We've been in a design stage for four years, and I don't want to call this a race issue, but it might be very similar to what we experiencing with the McClyman's, what we experiencing with the trees and everything else that comes up.

Um so please uh let's move this forward.

It's a good project, it's gonna benefit you for your comments.

Okay, baby.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

That concludes all speakers on this item.

Excellent.

Um thank you so much.

Um, first off, uh grateful for the detailed staff report outlining the history and what brings us to this moment.

Uh, this was actually my first time hearing about this project.

Um, and although the project has experienced some setbacks, um, I'm grateful to see some of the meaningful progress.

Um, as mentioned by the public speakers, uh, this project will do a lot to support our Oakland youth, um, as well as just overall education um around the rich history of jazz.

Um of course um I fully support um this EA.

I did have a couple questions uh to staff just to make sure we you know clear the air.

Um so there are some obstacles that cause the delay, I believe during the pandemic delays during the pandemic specifically.

Um what has shifted this time to ensure forward progress?

Um, and then um I believe the staff report um states the the existing use of the property as storage for um Oakland Public Works and Public uh Oakland Public Works and then uh the library as well.

Um just wanna clarify that.

Uh yes.

Uh so um the changes have been uh mostly related to revisions due to the uh downtown Oakland specific plan and its adoption.

Um the issue of the height that was raised earlier has been addressed, and that's one of the things that were uh revised in their plans that were recently resubmitted as for the current uses by uh city departments.

I think at a time OPL was interested in using that space.

Um, as far as I know, though that is no longer their um desire for that space, but it is still currently being used by certain staff of public works as well as still as being a hub for the city-county fiber optic network, which uh the fire alarm building is a hub for.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, colleagues, any questions on this item?

Uh council member Fife.

I don't have any questions about this item, and um I I do wanna support with one of the sp public speakers who said I don't want to make this about race.

I never ever want to make anything about race.

But in this country and in this city, we have to face the facts that black developers have a different pathway forward, and I don't want to rain on the parade of the beautiful comments that were made today, but sometimes there are obstacles for black developers that don't exist for anyone else, and I've seen it from everywhere from this project to Brooklyn Basin, uh, the differences and how the Kaiser project moved forward.

So I want to be honest about the difficulties that black developers have, what we're experiencing right now in my district, even through about communication, we can be in process for years.

I met Mr.

Allen in 2018.

We sat down at Pete's Coffee on um Telegraph to discuss this project and how I could help it move forward.

I will continue to do that.

So I do support this project.

I have from is as long as I've known about it, and I'm going to continue to help um look forward to working with you on outreach and incorporating this project into the black arts movement and business district.

And in fact, when I fought to get Oakland's first art designation in the state of California, the first that Oakland is has ever had, um this project was a part of that application to the state of California that we now have along with this the city of uh Los Angeles to acknowledge the history that is right here in our city.

So I I would like to uh make a motion to move this forward, and I also want to make a public commitment to you, Mr.

Allen, because we have a lot of private conversations, but I want to make this public commitment to you that I'm here with you in this fight for the duration until we build this so that our children have this in perpetuity as a resource for education for career advancement and um economic development for the city of Oakland.

So I appreciate your work and your dedication to this project because sometimes I was a little concerned that it would fall through.

So I wanted to make that motion.

And thank you, staff, to all your work and supporting this and and moving it forward.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you so much.

And I'll second that um motion.

Uh, Councilmember Ramachandran.

Thank you again, just a comment, not a question.

Um, Mr.

Allen, I've really appreciated getting to know you over the years and hearing your vision and passion.

Remain firm in the face of challenges.

Um, having been in four different jazz bands myself, I am partial to wanting to be able to have a space in Oakland, you know, on this gorgeous stretch of property.

I'm so excited that this is finally the space that that that is being moved moving forward with.

I'm excited that this is going to be a location for generations to come to celebrate the history of jazz in Oakland and beyond.

And I have to give a personal shout out.

Um I hope you I'm I'm sure your programming is going to be vast and intersectional in many ways, but as a classically trained carnate vocalist, the intersections between Karnatic music and jazz is the hottest thing in a lot of parts of the world right now.

And I'd love, and we have incredible scenes in both of those communities here in Oakland, and I can't wait for a space to be able to meld those worlds and showcase that along with the intersections of so many other cultures as well.

So very excited for this to move forward and thank you, staff for putting in a whole lot of work because I know this is not easy, and there's still a ways to go, but um, it's many many people on the inside that go unrecognized.

So thank you.

Thank you.

We have a mess thank you.

We have a motion made by Council Member Fife, seconded by Chair Brown to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the May 5th, 2026.

City Council agenda on role council members by Ramashandron.

Aye.

Anger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number three passes with four eyes.

Support this item to the May 5, 2026, City Council Agenda on Consent.

Reading in item four.

Adopt a resolution to declare four city owned parcels located at 2824 82nd Avenue and 8327 to two, sorry, to 8329 Gulf Link Road as surplus land pursuant to the California Surplus Act Land Act to authorize the issuance of a notice of availability under the surplus land act.

Three prioritize offers that provide affordable housing consistent with the Surplus Land Act and four make related California Environmental Quality Act findings.

And there is one speaker that signed up to speak.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And so we will hear from uh staff on this item.

Thank you.

Chrisha Katz Mulvey, strategic um housing initiatives manager with uh Oakland H C D.

And I have a PowerPoint ready to go.

Brief PowerPoint.

Okay, all right.

Great.

Um so just to summarize, um, these are four parcels that we're seeking to declare to how uh surplus land in Council District 6.

Our intent is to issue a notice of availability under the state surplus land act, and then evaluate and recommend responses either open to market rate or affordable housing with a priority for development of market of affordable housing consistent with the Oakland Municipal Code.

Um just a little bit of summary of the locations, the parcels are located just east of MacArthur Boulevard and 82nd Avenue.

Um two other nearby vacant parcels have already been teamed surplus land that are we're working closely with economic and workforce development staff on on MacArthur Boulevard, those are the red stars.

Um just a little bit of history, the parcels and several other parcels along Gulf Lynx Road were originally purchased by the city in the 1960s as part of a road widening project and then made available sometime in the late 1990s for development.

Oakland HCD went through several different rounds of seeking development proposals for the property that are outlined in the staff report.

Um about 15 years ago, a handful of the parcels were developed as affordable homeownership, but the rest have been kind of lingering since then.

Part of the reason for that is that the parcels are pretty small, they're regularly shaped, they're very sloped, and they have some challenging soil conditions that make development costly.

Um and so just going through again the little bit of the process of what we'll do in terms of declaring the land surplus, um, seeking proposals, if we don't get bids, we'll initiate a city RFP process.

Um, we'll be prioritizing affordable housing development.

Um, but in the event that we don't get uh proposals for affordable housing development, we would look at selling the parcels for market rate development, returning them to use and using the sales proceeds for affordable housing.

Um I just want to thank we've been working closely with economic and workforce staff on preparing for this, especially since they've got parcels around the corner, and also on doing some maintenance on the properties, including some fence repair in the last six months or so, um, as well as planning and building staff for assisting us with trying to figure out the development potential of the sites.

And we're available for any questions.

And I just want to also thank Nikki Dewsberg on our staff who helped write the staff report.

And this is one of her last staff reports first before she retires next month.

That is correct.

And so thank you, thank you.

Thank you both so much for the work on this item and special congratulations to Nikki on retirement.

As it relates to this specific item, we know I know that this is in district six, and so just want to note for my colleagues, um, council president Jenkins is also in the loop on this item.

Staff has met with him.

Um and then some of the questions that I had around this was how do we ensure uh especially the property that's at 2824 82nd, um a hundred percent impacted by a legal dumping, and um did you want to say just on the record um who is the who who uh city the city of Oakland has been partnering with to ensure that both the fencing and um just the area is maintained?

Certainly.

Um so we've been working on on the maintenance, um, both vegetation management and the illegal dumping with economic and workforce development who has a contract with men of valor for doing that cleanup for fencing.

We did have to go to an outside contractor because that was work that they couldn't do.

Excellent.

Um, thank you so much.

Um did we have um public comment?

Excellent.

We can hear from the public speakers.

Ms.

Sado Labala.

Um you read the report.

The question is, is it in the best interest of the city to sell these properties for development at Gulf Link Road?

And the reason why is because it re the uh property decline issues, and it says that the the the uh the cliff uh the challenge of irregular uh slope terrain, the challenge of the soil condition, the landscape, the seismic activity, the drainage challenge, uh bordering the property is bordering on uh sensitive habitat along creek and waterways.

Now, who wants to bill on that property?

And are we being good stewards to put that property out there for sale?

And you even say uh it's gonna be a challenge to sell a property.

I know that property because I pass it regularly, and it's nothing but a cliff as a decline.

Um and you have an alternative if you can't sell it as uh as housing project to offer it in some other form.

But my question is are we doing well to even consider to put this on the market?

Is it feasible to have housing on that property?

And I think not.

Uh, but if y'all want to pursue to spend the time, how much we're gonna have to invest financially to get this property to selling stage.

Do we have a financial fiscal commitment that has to be taken in order to sell this property?

And what is that?

Because I think it's gonna be very challenging to sell the other property that's on Oak, I'm sorry, 82nd Avenue.

I can see that, but that's gonna be challenged because that's a high safety issue, legal you say illegal dumping, and who wants to live bill?

I don't know.

But the effort is there.

Thank you for your hard work.

Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item.

All right, thank you.

Um any questions, colleagues on this item.

All right, and so then I would entertain a motion on this.

Oh, sorry, I had a question.

Oh, sorry, um, Councilmember Ramashandran.

Thank you.

Um what is there any are there any structures on the land right now?

Um so through the chair, um there maybe some old foundations from prior work, but there aren't there this the sites are vacant.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, and I'll second second.

Oh, council member five.

Yes, uh, through the chair to the staff.

Do you have any hi?

Do you have any idea how long it would take for this to potentially sell once on the market?

Through the chair, I'm gonna pull up my staff report.

Um I don't re I don't recall seeing that.

I can't okay.

So I think we've got a timeline for the the notice of availability, which is you know, probably three to six months.

Um then yeah, looking at um, I think honestly, we're looking at something close to a year to two years.

Um, just to be reasonable at work and uh anybody from economic workforce development because we're gonna turn over.

Somebody trying to peek around the column to it's gonna be a few years.

Come on up, Brandon.

It's a 60-day obviously window follow by 90 day mandatory uh negotiation period if we get interest.

Okay.

Okay, so from the state process through the chair, thank you.

Um 60 day open period and then 90 day negotiation.

That's if we get proposals through the surplus land act process, and then we still would have to come back to council um with a disposition recommendation once we'd work through that.

And then if we don't, then we issue our go into our own RFP process.

I see.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks.

I did, yeah.

Thank you.

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

Council members five.

Aye.

Rama Chandran.

Aye.

Ungar.

Aye.

And Chair Brown, aye.

Thank you.

Item number four passes with four eyes to forward this item to the May 5th, 2026 City Council agenda on consent.

Reading in item five, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to execute a grant agreement with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation as fiscal sponsors for the East Oakland neighborhood initiative in an amount not to exceed $25,000 to disperse res uh I'm sorry, resilience hub grant funds previously awarded to the city of Oakland by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and we have three speakers that signed up to speak.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And so for this item, we'll be hearing from our city's uh sustainability team, um, Nick, and I don't want to pronounce your last name wrong, but good to see you.

Good afternoon.

Nick Kordesh from the Sustainability and Resilience Division of the City Administrator's Office.

Um this resolution would authorize payment of PGE resilience hub grant funding to Oakland Parks and Rec Foundation.

Oakland was awarded a feasibility grant under PGE's resilience hub program for 25,000 to fund an assessment of resilience hub needs.

Uh the definition of resilience hubs or physical spaces that support communities in the face of climate-driven extreme weather events like wildfires and smoke, as well as the day-to-day interruptions like power outages.

They typically provide access to power, shelter, and information.

And the purpose of this grant is to help the community build a network of local resilience hubs.

Uh these should be trusted spaces that can also be accessed year-round and build community connections.

Um, the Oakland's Equitable Climate Action Plan includes a commitment to build three resilience hubs, and the city needed input on features and desired locations in East Oakland.

Uh this grant provided that.

Uh we selected East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative to conduct the implementation.

The city's requirements were data on trusted locations for resilience hubs, including city-owned properties, data on community needs and features in the resilience hubs, uh, and a workshop that provided community benefits that we've been asked for repeatedly, including real-time translation, child care food, stipends and recording of community stories.

Um East Oakland neighborhood initiatives was selected uh for after their work on the Better Neighborhoods and Same Neighbors program and for their ongoing work on convening uh groups to work on resilience hubs in East Oakland.

Um the result of this engagement uh was a successful summit uh about a year ago, successful close out of the grant with PGE and uh we have members of East Oklahoma Neighborhood Initiative in the audience today.

Uh I wanted to recognize Kita Price and Ayanna Jeffers Fabro for doing a great job on the event.

Uh we collected valuable feedback that the city will use to apply for further funding and to inform our capital improvement program.

Uh thank you.

I'm open for questions here.

All right, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Do we have public speakers?

Let's see.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number five.

Aya Jeffers Favro, Kita Price, and Mrs.

Sado Olawala.

Well, so what everybody, how y'all doing on Nkeeter Price, also known as a HUD planner from East Oakland.

Um today I'm representing the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative as a project manager.

Um, as Nick said we worked with the city about a year ago to host um a resiliency summit for the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative.

First of all, who we are, we've been together for about five, six years now.

We came together to kind of fill the gap that three to the redevelopment dollars that used to be allocated from the state to actually fix neighborhoods outside of the block by block money.

There was no more money to kind of redevelop neighborhoods.

So instead of us waiting for the city, and the city had no plans.

I was an intern in the planning department, and I saw that the city literally had no plans for DP St Oakland.

So it motivated me and other folks to get out there and try to find money ourselves.

Long story short, we got a we got found money for a planning grant for 100K, put together a plan, 13 different groups which create the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative, Black and POC groups.

We work with the city as a lead applicant and was able to use that plan to attract 28 point million dollars and other different funding.

And so our initiative as the East Oakland neighborhood initiative is to really anger community planning and deep east Oakland.

And so whether the city came with the PGE funds or not, we were set to uh we were gonna do what we can to um address the not topic of resiliency, but again, I don't even like the word resilience because in my community, and just what we from, like I don't we part of the resil the summit was about defining what resiliency means to our community because for us we've been experiencing you know weather in the storm forever.

So um, so yeah, that was part of what the resiliency summit was all about, not just trying to identify for the city and check a box where where do you want to have the East Oakland resiliency hub?

It was also for us to do the work we already do and further understand from community again.

What does resiliency mean to you and also how do you want to weather the different storms that's coming from heat island effect and other things?

And so, yeah, again, we've completed this about a year ago on a completely other side note.

While this was a very good event and stuff, I only got three seconds left.

You want to talk or say two?

Well, um, Kita.

Kita, is there more that you would like to say?

She'll see our time.

You can you can go ahead.

You can keep speaking.

It's fine.

Sorry.

Um I'm I'm speaking really fast right now.

Okay, it's yeah, I'm speaking fast.

One from time and just two.

Um I just got a lot on my mind right now.

And in terms when it comes to the city and these processes, just like Kira Fife said, I've been to the city council in a minute.

I've been since I first met you in city council here as a student on the cannabis issue.

I haven't really been back when once I start getting my foot again and stuff because I've been out in the trenches.

It's hard to be in both places at once.

And so again, just long story short, this is like one of like three or four projects that I'm personally a part of that the city processes are dragging their feet ass on, and it's like really becoming an issue.

And we'll come more formally to like really lay out what those four projects are and like what are the actual itch issues and barriers of the community literally going out finding dollars, and we are having issues with the staff, like just meeting us halfway to get us the funds to to complete to get the license agreement so we can work on the tiny Android Creek.

It's just so much beautiful things that's going on, and I don't even have time to share it, talk about it or enjoy it because I'm just I'm tired.

Um I know some of y'all tired and stuff too, and it's it's all kind of stuff going on out here, but I just have to express that like I'm trying to be cool and diplomatic, but honestly, like the city got us fucked up right now in DP East Oakland, like because we've been doing what we need to do to meet y'all have and it's like where y'all at urban.

I'm not talking about Ken, he just got here withnot, and we did meet with Ken Houston, Eoni after the last item didn't pass because we want to keep get him up to date on what we've been doing so we can work together and have a working relationship where it makes sense.

But it's just like, yeah, like I said, I can be doing anything as a 30-something-year-old person in East Oakland, but um instead of going to being corporate and something like that, I'm out here working in my community as a Fort outside of EOK.

I'm a four-profit poor for-profit consultant and working as a community-centric consultant because we don't have those people looking for our best interest in the community.

So I just wanted to put that out there that it's just it's been a year, a year or whatnot, and it's only 25k.

The work has been done, the residents have been paid, and Yoni, uh, we don't have no money.

My mother's not to say it like that, but our funds are getting exhausted, and like we're in financial crisis.

And so yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, it's all right, it's all right.

Thank you so much.

Uh I met with the um can I can I pause?

Can I pause you, Councilmember Houston?

Because we need to adjourn into a special meeting, and it's also public comment.

So if you can hold your comment for the the next speaker, then we can have you speak.

Thank you.

Um, so I'll make a motion to enjoy adjourn into a special uh meeting of the city council.

Thank you.

Due to the presence of council member Houston, a quorum of the city council was noted and a motion made by Chair Brown, seconded by Councilmember Unger to adjourn the community and economic development committee meeting and to convene as a special meeting of the full council at 223 p.m.

on roll.

Council members five.

I Rama Chandrin.

Aye.

Unger.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes with four eyes to convene into a full council meeting.

Okay.

And at this time, um, if you if you submitted your name for public comment, please come up.

Thank you, Mr.

London.

Lower that down.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Aya Jefferson Fabro, and I'm here along with my sister, Keita Price, as a co-project manager for the East Oakland Neighborhoods Initiative, otherwise known as Eoni.

Um, just building off of what my sis said as Eoni continues to advance our projects and plans from our community plan created in 2018.

At the root of our work, we're anchored in the vision for creating better neighborhoods while keeping the same neighbors.

Building off of Kita's remarks, bringing a resilience hub to the deep is an alignment with both ECAP and the Eoni Community Plan.

And again, the summit happened last year.

It was a success.

It was a beautiful event full of storytelling, education, there was laughter, there was tears.

It was multi-generational, and it was a place where our resident residents and stakeholders could bring their visions into fruition.

Working with our collaborative partners, Nick and the Climate Action Fellows, we held a successful event where we were offered able to offer child care interpretation, food and stipends as Eoni Centers of Culture of Care, Culture of Care for our community.

Going forward, we're taking the data gathered from this event to do neighborhood-scaled pop-ups led by our resident leaders in the three engaged neighborhoods: the Brandy Park, Brookfield Village, and Columbia Gardens.

And working with the local architects for feasibility and design, and we'll continue to collab with the city and council member Houston's office as we co-build our next steps.

This reimbursement is critical for carrying this good work forward.

Happy to answer any questions, and thank you for your time.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Thank you all so much.

Um Councilmember Houston, did you want to share some comments?

Yes, I wanted to share a couple of things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I met with Keda, and she had mentioned we were online and she had mentioned that she hadn't been paid in a year.

And I said, How can you function without getting paid?

How much was it?

She said 25,000.

I said, she needed her money.

And she'll tell you, I said, get get your money so you can continue to do what you're doing, right?

At the same time, this was happening before I was council member.

So I've been getting some emails about their scope of work.

So what I would like to do is put their scope of work in the report so people know so they can't be questioned on what work they did and what work they performed, right?

So when somebody wants to find out what they did, they can look it up, look at the report, scope of work, things, data, things like that.

So let's get them their money.

It's been a year.

I mean, whatever it takes to get it to them so they can keep up the work that they're doing.

Excellent.

Okay, all right, cool.

All right, thank thank you so much.

And and thank you, um Kita and the East Oakland neighborhood initiative.

I know that you all have been doing work on behalf of Oakland uh for for quite some time, and so you know, know that you know I genuinely value all of the work that you're doing, and you know, we go back to our days at community college.

Um, and so um, if there's anything that you need, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Um, I but I guess I do have a larger question of like what contributed to the delay in them getting paid.

Yeah, I can I can I can speak to that.

So it it has been a series of uh learning the city's processes uh together, and I'd say the one delay was uh with the previous fiscal sponsor, there was an issue with the contract, so we've really had to go back through the entire process uh and going as fast as we can, but that takes a number of weeks.

Um we're close.

I think I think we can get the payment out uh very soon.

Okay, excellent.

So I I'm hopeful that my colleagues will approve uh this authorization.

I'll I'll make a motion to do so so that we can move this forward to the full council.

Um council member five.

I I just wanted to say um to Marquita, I I listen, I remember when you was an intern.

I was here.

I I mean the the work that we did.

I want to I make want to make it clear to the public that we're not questioning the work of Eoni or the validity of the work that's been done.

My questions are more uh concerned about why this is a consistent issue for small organizations throughout the city where this keeps happening persistently.

We have a prompt payment policy that's consistently violated.

Uh, and if there's something that needs to happen legislatively for this to um be the to be minimized, then we need to make that happen.

Eoni is uh an amazing organization.

We've worked in collaboration and coalition when I was at Ace when I was a director.

We did a lot with communities for a better environment about cleaning up um East Oakland and a lot of my members lived in that area.

Uh, and it's an area that is consistently disregarded, like many places in my districts, and small what what seems like a small grant to many of us, 25,000, can mean a lot for a small organization.

I want this to never happen again.

And if there's something again that needs to happen legislatively that we need to pass as a body to make it easier for these these smaller organizations to get funding uh more immediately, then I want staff to let us know what that is.

Because listen, I don't I was over there before I was over here, and I understand the challenges of what it takes to make things happen in visible communities.

Keita, thank you for continuously doing this work.

I know I have not forgotten that meeting we was at around at the black culture zone, so we need to have some conversations, but at the same time, I recognize that the self-determination and what you fight for, and I have your back, and don't let this go for another year.

Don't let it happen where you don't come and communicate to elected officials about the challenges that you're having, so we can do what we need to do on this side of the dais so you can continue to fight for your community.

You hear me?

Okay.

I um second the motion if it has not been seconded already.

Yeah.

Um administrator Baker.

Uh, through the chair.

Um, could could we just articulate um what the specific issue is for the public um with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, the fiscal sponsor, what what specifically was the issue?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'd like to clarify the issue was not with Oakland Parks and Record Foundation, they're they're the current fiscal sponsor that we are paying through.

Um this was we initially had attempted to pay this through Eoni's agreement under the TCC grant with higher ground, and the and that contractor was suspended before the payment kicked out.

Um thank you.

We have a motion made by Chair Brown, seconded by Councilmember Pipe to approve the recommendations of stop and to forward this item to the May 5th, 2026.

Uh City Council agenda on role, Council members five.

Aye, Ramachandran.

Aye.

Unger?

Aye, and Chair Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number five passes with four eyes to forward this item to the May 5th 2026.

City Council agenda on consent.

Uh moving on to open forum.

We have one speaker that signed up, Missado Olawala.

Open forum, right?

Let me get my book.

We have time.

Um I believe it's extremely important that particularly African Americans find out what your capacity is.

And as it relates to economics, we have had a history of tremendous capacity.

I remember I recommend every African American who is engaged in an economic arena to read this book.

You have this book.

It demonstrates chronologically, year by year, how we have successfully participated in development of business and economic initiatives.

It shows you, like I've given this to my grandson.

It shows you we are capable, because the misinformation is going around, the brainwashing that has been successfully achieved, that we are underachievers, and we are not.

And your children and you people have to have to do that because we come here like that young lady, and you see that elevation we get to?

It gets there because we have been so push back, unheard, disrespected, and black one.

Thank you, Chair.

That concludes all speakers on open forum.

All right.

Um, thank you all so much.

This meeting is adjourned.