Surveillance is a theme this week at City Hall. At Council, CMs will take up OPD’s proposed contracts with Peregrine and Cellebrite, two companies with links to troubling political actors. Often, and especially with this council, procurement for the OPD goes to Consent and is rarely disputed. But given the troubling nature of these two contracts, CM Carroll Fife cast the lone no vote against the contracts at the Public Safety Committee two weeks ago, which sent them to non-consent. At Rules, Chair Jenkins asked Fife if she would allow the items to go to Consent instead, but she stuck to her guns and they're still on non-consent.
That means the Peregrine and Cellebrite contracts could be discussed at the meeting and potentially voted against, although that would be against type for a Council seemingly unable to say no to police spending. As Oakland Observer reported, Israeli-based Cellebrite has a disturbing reputation as the go to for public-suppression in autocracies, while Peregrine was founded by principals associated with Palantir—whose CEO has recently leaned the entire company full into fascist ideology and warmongering.
Meanwhile, at the Privacy Advisory Commission [PAC] on Thursday, OPD are quietly trying to expand the approved rationales police agencies can give to search Oakland’s Flock database. The new proposed list is so broad it includes “reckless driving” and "animal endangerment". The new Flock use policy may be an attempt to undermine a current lawsuit the City is facing for its unlawful use of Flock, making it ultimately moot, according to sources familiar with the legislation and issue.
As always, the following is a list of what the OO considers to be legislative items of significant interest to the public, a list that is not inclusive of everything on the agenda. You can see full agenda here. OO rarely notes items on their second reading, because that's largely ministerial in all but a handful of cases.
Privacy Advisory Commission, on Thursday, 5pm
The PAC will review the 2025 Flock ALPR report, which was the first full year of Flock use. The report has little tidbits like the fact that OPD has never turned on the stolen vehicle/plate feature for Flock, despite much of the hype on Flock being about just that crime. Regardless, Flock read an average of 50 million license plates per month in 2025, for a staggering total of over half a billion [638 million] license plates for the entire year.
But the PAC will also review the OPD's new proposed use policy which will greatly expand the rationales a policy agency or OPD can use to track your movements through the City of Oakland. The list would give a broad mandate to search for any license plate if the new use policy should be adopted. The new rationales include "welfare check", "reckless driving", "pornography", "drugs/narcotics", "threats". The list would remove all limits to the objectives of any agency searching for a plate, with a reasonable suspicion gateway that would allow almost any rationale to search the database.
Council Non-Consent
Protected Tree Ordinance Hearing
The Council deadlocked twice on a path forward on this now mildly famous tree hearing and instead voted to continue the item to this meeting. There’s little disagreement on the scope of the violations—38 tree removals appears to be a record in the city’s history of outlawing unrestrained tree-felling. But there is disagreement on how to determine the fine. Half of the Council, led by CM Janani Ramachandran want to apply the maximum penalty, about $1 MM. Other CMs, led by CM Fife, seek a fine of about half that, which is based on a more compassionate assessment of the dimensions of each tree removed.
Public Works, Equipment Services Division, Cooperative Purchase Agreements
During the deliberation on this cooperative purchase agreement legislation, a Public Works staffer noted that the department are currently locked into the agreement because of staffing vacancies and capacity on the City’s vehicle repair and procurement. The staffer said that procurement plans to transition back to regular procurement process in the near future. CM Ken Houston was the sole no vote on the legislation, which means it will be discussed to some level at Council. Cooperative Purchase Agreements have been noted in the disparity report as a vector for unfair bidding processes, but the major focus was on much smaller contract levels.
OPD Cellebrite and Peregrine Contracts
These are discussed a bit more here. For more on Peregrine there's this also.
Consent
City Of Oakland 2026 Homelessness Strategic Action Plan
It’s on Consent, so its possible there will be no discussion, but the HSAP had a big influence on the final EAP draft. It’s still very vague in terms of practical encampment engagement, though.
Consultant Contract Amendment For The Fire Station 29 Project
This 700K bump to the consultant contract is needed because the project to build a new fire station several blocks from the current 66th Avenue station is way behind schedule.
Fire Alarm Building/Museum Of Jazz And Art New Exclusive Negotiation Agreement
Several years after missing key deadlines in the previous ENA, which ended with no recommendation for negotiation with the Museum of Jazz and Art, the City says a new ENA is warranted as the applicant has completed the required initial planning metrics. An ENA is a very preliminary agreement with the City to pursue negotiation of a development, but has substantial metrics that need to be met to proceed to a contract. You can read a little more about it here.
Surplus Land Declaration And Disposition Of 4 City-Owned Parcels
Not much the City can do with these East Oakland parcels off Macarthur, and it seems unlikely any commercial entity is going to want them either, but the City will try to unload them after holding on to them for about thirty years in the hopes an entity would build affordable housing there.
$1.3 MM in Legal Settlements
Council will consider authorizing settlements worth a total of 1.3 MM. Two of the settlements recently made the news and represent the majority of the payout—one to the owner of Lake Merritt Lodge and another a cyclist who was severely injured after striking a pothole in Oakland’s right of way. A smaller settlement of $130K is a motorcycle/pothole accident for another party.
Recognizing Municipal Clerks Week
A lot is expected of Oakland’s municipal clerks and they handle frequent abuse from the public, so this plaudit is likely the most sensible thing on the agenda tomorrow.
Comments ()