East Oakland Residents Celebrate Coliseum Sale to Black-Owned Developer, While Questions Remain About Fast-Tracked Sale over Lease, CBA and Affordable Housing; & More from the Meeting

East Oakland Residents Celebrate Coliseum Sale to Black-Owned Development, While Questions Remain About Fast-Tracked Sale, CBA and Affordable Housing

Oakland’s City Council took the first steps in approving the terms and negotiating the sale of the City’s 50% interest in the Coliseum property last Tuesday. Public comment and even deliberation on the legislation often took on the feeling of a community organizing event in the packed chambers, with speakers from East Oakland and luminaries from Oakland’s Black community praising the move to sell the City’s interest in the property to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group [AASEG], an all Black development firm and Loop Capital, its financial backer, a Black-owned investment bank. The item was introduced by CM Rebecca Kaplan and directs the City Administrator to negotiate the deal with AASEG Land LLC—the combined LLC of AASEG and Loop Capital formed in 2021 to purchase the property. The legislation sets out the minimum parameters for a deal to be negotiated by the City Administrator, which include a deed restriction that requires 25% deeply affordable housing and a community benefits agreement to be negotiated by the City within 5 years of the sale. 

In his introduction of the legislation, the City’s Real Property Manager Brendan Moriarty acknowledged the fast-track the deal is on, but described the deed restrictions as the necessary counterweight to an expedited deal.

“The intent of the ordinance here is to create some assurance around a community benefits process, given that this transaction would precede the full negotiation of community benefits that we would otherwise do under the current ENA process,” Moriarty said. 

Moriarty also described the $105 MM negotiated price, somewhat lower than market value, as the product of a sale requiring deed restrictions. 

Evident Community Support

Several East Oakland residents praised the deal, including long-time East Oakland residents. Miss Cecilia Cunningham, a 60 year resident of East Oakland in an impassioned comment, told Council that such a project with an organization like AASEG was long overdue.

“Far East Oakland has suffered for a long, long time, and I'm sick of it. AASEG are trying to do something for our communities here in East Oakland, and we should work with them and not against them, because right now what developer is going to come in here in East Oakland to do anything to help Black and Brown people?” Cunningham said. 

Speakers in support included a list of Oakland’s Black leaders and luminaries, including, Stanley Cox [Mr. Fab], Geoffrey Pete, Doug Blackshear, Tanya Fuller Bryant, Carrolyn Johnson, Paul Cobb, John Jones the III as well as the directors of AASEG, Ray Bobbitt and Alan Dones and others. Organizations supporting included the Black Cultural Zone, Men of Valor and Oakland Private Industry Council.

Cobb, the publisher of Oakland’s Black owned newspaper, the Oakland Post, noted the historic character of the sale.

“Nobody thought that Blacks could amass enough capital to come to the table and say we want to buy it and own our own soul so that we can provide affordable housing and jobs to those who have been neglected,” Cobb said. 

Cobb also acknowledged some of the skepticism about the rushed sale. 

“Let's ask those who would who have questions and concerns to join with AASEG, because the fight is not over,” he added, suggesting that the A’s, which are in the final processes to outright acquire the County’s ownership, could exploit community divisions on the AASEG deal for their own ends.

Concerns About Rushed Sale, Community Benefits

Indeed, over a dozen members of Oakland United, a coalition of several community groups that includes EBASE and Communities for a Better Environment [CBE], came in the dozens to express their concerns about the move to lease over sale, the expedited pace of negotiations, the exclusion of a publicly open community process and the fact that a CBA would be negotiated after the sale closes.

Vanessa Riles, the Oakland Campaign Coordinator for EBASE, demanded that the City Council slow down the process to include input from East Oakland communities before a CBA is developed and the sale completed.

“The legislation should be amended to require that the purchase and sale agreement requires approval of the city council. The current legislation lacks specificity about many terms of the sale that could be crucial, and the city council should see and agree to those details before the city signs away our rights and ownership of this vital piece of public land.t is imperative that the redevelopment of the Coliseum site includes a robust, legally binding community benefits agreement with community oversight and enforcement,” Riles said. 

Marie, a legal fellow at CBE, recounted the City’s commitment to the lease of public lands, and frustration at the sale, which would remove the City’s ability to guide the development, arguing that the City is skirting the CEQA process. 

Council's Confidence in Bobbitt

Bobbitt, who was often mentioned as the singular force bringing the deal together, tried to assure critics that AASEG has the time to steward a fair, transparent and open community-benefitting process. 

“Let me just say this, we absolutely, 150% will address community benefits agreement. And I'm here to say that on the record today. This is what it is all about for us, because we are born and raised here. And the truth is, if we don't execute on that end, I mean, I have nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. This is my home. This is who we are. And so we're going to do the best job that we can to make sure our community is addressed. We know that this site will not transfer hands until the bonds defease. So there's a tremendous amount of time, and there's a tremendous amount of fail switches in between the time frame of this closing and completing a community benefits agreement,” Bobbit said.

Kaplan also responded to the criticisms, noting that a development agreement will come back before Council for vote and deliberation. Kaplan echoed the City’s claims that the structure of the current ownership allows the City few choices in how to dispose of the land and concerns highlighted by Moriarty earlier, that after the end of the A’s lease of the Coliseum property, the City would become the caretaker of the land. Moriarty said upkeep of the property could cost between $10-15 million per year to maintain in service, or $7 MM a year to keep mothballed. 

“We could be stuck at a great loss,” Kaplan said. “This land does not automatically generate public good if we don’t make it generate public good, in fact it would generate public bad, at a cost of 15 million a year if we don’t take action.”

But Kaplan did not address one of the bigger bones of contention on the deal—that the CBA structure and negotiation is left until long after the sale is executed. Though a community benefits agreement is required as a deed restriction in the sale, the details of the CBA are, in the legislation, left to the City Administrator, with the parameters very generally defined.

Questions about the process to Kaplan sent by email and Twitter direct message by this publication were not responded to at the time of this writing. 

All Council members sounded approving notes, but their praise bolstered the appearance that the City and Council is staking the outcome on the reputation of Bobbit in the community.

CM Carrol Fife noted that Bobbitt’s organizing with community partners during the development of the vision of the Coliseum project had won her over to the deal after what she described as a negative experience with John Fisher and the A’s. 

“I understand the skepticism. I want to thank the nonprofit organizations, the community based organizations, who've raised their concerns about development and the displacement that comes when property values rise. I have not had the level of trust in a developer in my life that I have in Ray Bobbit, what I've seen you organize—this is a project I believe that can transform this part of the city and the entire city,” Fife said.  

CMs Kevin Jenkins and Treva Reid, who have been active in the community organizing around the development, praised AASEG and heralded the deal, suggesting that Bobbitt’s strong community outreach and linkages should assuage critics.

“Ray is going to make sure that everybody has a seat at the table. Ray is going to make sure that the community benefits agreement gets passed, and I have no doubt that it will happen. I asked Ray, maybe months ago, to go and see what my district wants, and Ray went to almost every neighborhood council and listened to the people in my district,” Jenkins said.

Reid suggested that the universally acknowledged community partnering and outreach of AASEG led by Bobbitt would guarantee a good community benefits process.

“And I want to say that AASEG, you have been showing up strong, you've been partnering with us, you've been supporting our neighbors. You've been mentoring youth. You've been a part of the Castlemont program…you've been engaging neighbors, you've been engaging business owners, you've been investing in East Oakland, and you've been partnering deeply with our office. There are no community benefits without community and remember that AASEG is the community. They are Oaklanders. They are representative of a group that the city has not engaged with nor contracted with forever,” Reid said, in a long impassioned comment that verged on a pulpit speech. Reid also noted the participation of the Rise East group, which she has helped get off the ground with a goal of providing millions of investment in East Oakland.

City Has not Managed CBA's Well in the Past

The evidence that the Council’s confidence in AASEG is well-founded will be in the details, but the City has found it difficult to manage developers in CBA negotiations in the past—with the A's Dave Kaval’s memorably disastrous CBA participation a recent example.

And developers are not the only constituency to manage in CBAs that cover several areas of activity, including labor and anti-displacement. One of the speakers who also praised Bobbitt was Andreas Cluver, the Secretary Treasurer of the Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council [Building Trades]. AASEG and the Trades, according to statements by both, have already been discussing MOUs on a project labor agreement [PLA]—labor and workforce development is a primary column of future community benefits noted by Council and City. 

But just a day earlier in the same chambers, Cluver was receiving critical scrutiny from community members and even the City’s own Race/Equity Director Darlene Flynn. At the CED committee, the Building Trades have been pressuring the City to adopt a PLA on all affordable housing projects above 80 units that receive Measure U funding. The idea is extremely unpopular with all stakeholders, from the developers to local minority owned business contractors. 

Flynn criticized the Trades for long-standing resistance to transparency in its Black worker hiring practices, and the visible absence of Black workers at construction sites.  

“There have been multiple opportunities framed up by the city, by the council, by previous city administrators, etc, to work out these issues of under-inclusion of Black workers, and every one of those conversations has ended in a stalemate because of the refusal to change the practices of the Building Trades. So if we are just now seeing them say that they're going to do something about the systemic racism in the Building Trades, it lands a little bit hard, given how many opportunities in the last eight years there have been for them to do that,” Flynn told the committee. 

The legislation was passed unanimously by Council. It requires a second reading which is currently scheduled to a June 26th meeting.

Mid-Cycle Budget Amendments: CMs Want to Salvage Civilian Public Safety Roles, Cutting Shotspotter Floated; Ramachandran Uses Unusual Ceremonial Item to Advocate for Ambassadors 

The Council took its first tentative steps in considering amendments to Mayor Sheng Thao’s mid-cycle budget amendments last Tuesday. Council President Bas, who has yet to introduce her budget team’s amendments, prefaced the item by noting the difficulties Council members would face in making fiscally responsible budget amendments to the Mayor’s baseline. 

“So we have been scouring this budget for funds to allocate for amendments, and there is very little room here for amendments, because we've already frozen and deleted many, many positions. We've already reduced operating expenses. We've eliminated carry forwards to balance this current year's budget, and really focus on core, critical services for a safe and clean city,” Bas said, noting that her team was taking additional time to be careful to create balanced proposed expenditures and revenue sources, but noted they were specifically looking for ways to replace funding for ambassador, fire and civilian police investigator positions that is currently allocated elsewhere in the Thao mid-cycle amendments. 

Several other CMs, however, have already submitted amendments. CMs Janani Ramachandran, Treva Reid and [nominally] Noel Gallo submitted proposed amendments that would restore safety ambassadors to east Oakland districts, including the Laurel area, in D4, which borders on what’s commonly recognized as East Oakland. 

Ramachandran began the night with an agendized honorific for the Laurel on its 125th anniversary. Normally these ceremonial items bring out recipients to recount with pride their achievements or a life's work.

But nearly all of Ramachandran’s honored guests were Laurel business owners who complained about crime instead of lauding the Laurel in what appeared to be an extended performative request from Council for ambassadors. 

It also became clear that the ambassador issue was not an important one for Gallo, despite having co-sponsored the legislation. Following Ramachandran's introduction, Gallo demanded explanations about police staffing but did not mention ambassadors. Reid noted that the ambassadors in her district’s Hegenberger corridor were having an impact, and should be continued. 

The discussion was complicated by the fact that the City usually provides only the funding for third party ambassador programs, making it difficult to know which ambassador programs are city funded, and which neighborhoods have ambassadors that are funded alternately, or when a third party ambassador program that was previously city funded is subsisting on philanthropy. Bas, for example, noted that the City’s original ambassador pilot, which began during Covid as a response to AAPI hate incidents, was eventually taken over by Family Bridges, which was now continuing a geographically expanded program after winning a state grant facilitated by the City. 

Kaplan also provided amendments for street infrastructure, abandoned vehicle mitigation and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design [CPTED], using a transportation tax revenue fund, Measure BB. None of Kaplan’s amendments require that GPF funding be shuffled because they replace roles that are usually funded by the GPF with Measure BB funding where the outlines of the expenditure fit the BB transportation-oriented funding parameters. 

But not all of Kaplan’s amendments will be viable, according to city staff, specifically, a proposed restoration of parking enforcement and the funding of bollards to protect storefronts. Ramachandran ran into some similar issues with some of the amendments she spoke about—but has not yet presented—attempting to restore fire positions.

Ramachandran may have misunderstood how a majority of 10 fire inspector positions she sought to save from deletion are funded. Only the City’s wildfire and vegetation management is funded by the GPF, the positions that are scheduled for deletion, according to Bradley Johnson, the City's Budget Director. Ramachandran assumed the inspectors bring in revenue [fines and fees] but they do not, and the inspectors that do that work are funded through the development services fund, which usually has surpluses. 

Ramachandran says she will also seek to restore Fire Captain positions, currently deleted, which received positive reaction from OFD staff. Ramachandran will also seek to restore police records and criminalist positions. Kalb also inquired about some of those positions and was informed that they have been vacant for over a year and slated to be deleted as a function of city policy. 

Kalb also mentioned his intention of at least broaching the possibility of allowing the City’s Shotspotter to lapse when the current contract terminates at the end of June.

"I've heard mixed reviews of how how effective [shotspotter] is, and how much more information are we getting that we're not already going to get from other sources, like 911. Are there certain parts of town that need it, that need ShotSpotter more than other parts of town? Is there some savings to be found there? That's a valid question that I'd like to get some thoughtful answers to, given that we have to choose. I mean, we could save some money in narrowing the scope of ShotSpotter maybe. Maybe that allows us to restore a couple sworn positions...and maybe it allows us to just restore a couple of those civilians doing investigations," Kalb said.

The Privacy Advisory Commission recently recommended that the City let its Shotspotter contract lapse, and use the funds for alternate police funding. Some community organizations are also demanding the City consider letting Shotspotter expire. The Oakland Observer is the only publication that reported the PAC’s vote to recommend Council let Shotspotter expire after a majority of the Commissioners found it was not an effective allocation of police funding. 

For now, its still too early to know what will be proposed as amendments to Thao's mid-cycle budget amendments. The amendments won't be deliberated until January 26, just a little less than a week before they must be passed by Council.