There were previously two meetings scheduled for Tuesday—a Special Meeting for budget deliberation was cancelled after the City’s budget passed in record time on the day of introduction.
This second regular meeting at 3:30pm has only one non-consent item:
Becker Boards Agreement
Following a previously contentious process that awarded Becker Boards a contract to install 5 billboards adjacent to Oakland freeways, the City is proposing entering into a new contract for 5 more billboards. The contract and process are made complicated by an Oakland law that requires billboards to be removed if new ones are to be built, with the goal of diminishing the footprint of existing advertising visual noise and replacing with limited signage. A previous contract with Becker was shared with a competitor, Outfront Foster Interstate in 2023—in the process, Becker made deals with several non profit organizations to share revenue and provide free advertising. Those organizations came to support the Becker deal at Council. Becker and Outfront’s competitor during the process was Clear Channel, a company that currently owns billboards in Oakland. In a detailed report, City staff told Council that Clear Channel’s deal would have proved over twice as lucrative as Becker’s over the 41 year contract, but the majority of Council disregarded staff recommendations.
During the deliberation, the Council was visibly slanted toward the Becker proposal, allowing Becker’s representative Nema Link, to give a detailed presentation. To combat City staff's review of the proposals that favored Clear Channel after the CED meeting, City staff issued a new report that still rebutted many of Becker's claims ahead of a Council deliberation. But City Council ignored its own city staff report completely, and voted for it without discussion.
Later, an Alameda County Grand Jury report criticized the deal and the City’s obvious preference for Becker—and noted Noel Gallo's relationships with the organizations, including Noel Gallo’s spouse’s paid work for at least one, among other links. The City Council shrugged off the Grand Jury's findings and recommendations in its response.
In the new proposed 31 year deal coming to Council tomorrow, Becker would be able to build 5 signs along Oakland freeways, and would have to remove 11 existing ones. Becker currently does not own signs it can remove—a point made, ironically, by Outfront at the last CED committee meeting, which opposes the deal for its own ends. The contract requires Becker to purchase the billboards over a maximum period of 15 years to demolish them.
Becker would also have to acquire private property and meet Caltrans and City specifications to build the new ones—but the agreement appears to lock Becker into the payments if the legislation is accurate. And if Becker can’t acquire new billboards to remove, it will have to decommission its own previously agreed to in 2023. The City has already budgeted the first $1.5 MM and $750K advanced payments in 2025 and 2026, respectively. More on this at the Council meeting.
On Consent:
—Homelessness Prevention Pilot Program
In previous CED meetings, this item got stoppered up by CMs Janani Ramachandran and Rowena Brown, initially due to Brown’s contention that the budgetary deliberations had to happen first to see if the source funding from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund would be needed elsewhere. Ramachandran, however, questioned the efficacy of the program, despite a third party academic study that found it kept a largely Black renter population from homelessness. The funding for the program, rub by BACS, is now budgeted and is ready for passage.
—OPD Rental Car Contract
OPD contends it needs the rental agreement for flexibility for its unmarked and operation vehicles, especially for its Ceasefire operations. Although several CMs had questions OPD could not answer—like how the OPD keeps tabs on vehicles in the possession of officers over long periods—the item budgeting $800K per year for 5 years was forwarded to Council. As it's on consent, there will likely be few questions asked unless it's pulled to non-consent.
—Campaign Reform Act Amendments
These changes to tide over public financing until [if and when] Democracy Dollars is ever instituted was passed at the last Council meeting. At that meeting, some CMs expressed a desire to amend the legislation, but CM Jenkins, a co-author of the legislation and Council President, convinced CMs that amendments could take place after first reading–an unusual idea. The legislation is back for second reading, with no visible amendments or additional reports, however, and that’s worth noting here, given the claims on the public record.
—Speed Camera Contract
The long-awaited speed camera pilot is finally moving forward. But in procuring the equipment, the City is going with an Arizona-based contractor, Verra Mobility. The City has a decades-old ordinance to ban contracts with Arizona based on the state’s immigration policies—but the CAO says there’s no other qualified vendor. The legislation will waive the Arizona-ordinance requirements. Funding for the $4.8 MM, 5 year costs will come largely at first from transportation grants–but eventually the city will have to fund the ongoing costs from revenue from infraction fines.
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