Council Committees and City Boards Roundup, 9/25/2023

Coming to Council Committees and City Boards and Commissions [and a Special Council Meeting], Week of September 25, 2023

*note, both Finance and Public Works Committees have been cancelled

Community and Economic Development Committee, Tuesday 1:30 pm

FY 2022-2023 Quarter 4 Update On Code Enforcement Activities
A mandated quarterly reporting requirement from Planning and Building. According to the report, open cases for Blight and Building Management are up over previous quarters this year–6 and 10% respectively. Complaints are up for both as well, over previous quarters. Only zoning complaints have decreased. Nearly 6,000 cases remain open for all three categories, with new cases opened every quarterly period. The Planning Department reports that an increase in enforcement duties due to new legislation and ongoing difficulties in filling vacancies remain challenges in investigating and closing cases.

$40 MM State Infill Infrastructure Catalytic Grant Approval
As announced earlier this month, the City of Oakland successfully applied in April for and received a $40 MM grant for affordable housing infrastructure costs from a $105 MM State of California grant pot–Oakland drew down nearly 38% of the available funds for the six “catalytic” projects applied for. The grant provides infrastructure and pre-construction funding for a large project or group of projects that together would have a “catalytic” impact on Oakland communities. The funds can be used to cover utility connections, streetscape improvements, parking construction, site preparation, and urban greening. Tuesday’s legislation is to accept the grant funding.

The six projects and the grant amounts for each:

Lake Merritt BART Senior Housing: $6.1 MM

285 12th Street: $4.4 MM

121 E. 12th: $4.92 MM

Liberation Park: $9.19 MM

West Oakland BART Transit Oriented Development: $7.9 MM

Villa Oakland: $6.25 MM

Villa Fruitvale $1.96 MM

Life Enrichment Committee, Tuesday 4pm

Oakland Head Start Children’s Initiative FY 2023-2024 Initial Funding
The reduction in Oakland’s Head Start funding is a long story that continues to have reverberations in budgeting and grant applications two years later. In 2021, Oakland lost a significant amount of federal Head Start funding, beat out in competition with a former Oakland contractor for the funds. With the loss of funding, several sites, including Arroyo Viejo, Franklin and Tassafaronga were slated to close putting at risk dozens of the City’s Head Start jobs, often held by BIPOC low-income residents. But through an initiative created by CM’s Carroll Fife, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Rebecca Kaplan and Sheng Thao, city funds were used to bridge the gap in the shorter term. This legislation will allow the City to use $6.5 MM in First 5 Alameda County funds to continue funding the sites and dozens of positions associated with them and to create a new Head Start program at MLK Jr. Elementary.

Various State Public Library Grants
Legislation to apply for state library grants and allocate the money to two existing libraries, and design costs for the proposed construction of the Hoover-Durant library. The Building Forward grants, if awarded, will allocate $3.9 MM to the Melrose Branch; and $4.2 MM to the Main Branch to cover improvements and repairs. The City is seeking $1.5 MM for design work on a potential Hoover Durant library. All three grants will require exact matching funds from the City–according to accompanying reports, these funds have already been reserved and budgeted from various other funds, including Measure KK and Measure U. A smaller grant for ebooks and audio books for $60k will also be deliberated.

Public Safety Committee, Tuesday 6 pm

Updates to OPD DNA Analysis Biometric Use Policy
Some updates from the Privacy Advisory Commission that prevent DNA data from being used for any use beyond the initial scope it is gathered for; impact and annual report also included.

Annual Reports for Shotspotter, DNA Biometrics and OPD’s drones, and Forensic Logic Coplink.

The reports, required per the city's surveillance ordinance, will be reviewed by Council. Some technologies that are required to have an annual report were initially sought, but never used by OPD, like the Starchaser tracker.

Informational Report on MACRO Program Operations
Recent Council direction requires the MACRO program to give a bi-monthly report to Council. The report is an overview of total program performance since MACRO began in May 2022: the program has had a little over 15,000 total contacts since that time, about 400 to about 600 per month. Most of the contacts are wellness checks.

The report notes that 911 referrals from OPD have increased–seeming OPD reluctance to hand off appropriate MACRO calls has been a source of community complaints but appears to be improving slightly. According to the report, the number of on-view interactions has decreased as this number has increased. The report also has some demographic information: two thirds of MACRO responses are to Black Oakland residents. That’s nearly three times Oakland’s Black population. Nearly two-thirds of those who were given aid by MACRO lack any kind of health insurance, even Medicaid or Medical.

OPD Staffing Report
The staffing report was continued from last meeting. It’s already way out of date, and absent any additional information is not very useful at this point. You can read some of the notes from the previous coverage here. One addition as a short summary as required from direction given at the last meeting: OPD has added data about the number of officers currently on leave. Of a total of 70 officers, 49 are on medical leave, and 19 are on administrative [discipline-related] leave. Two were on military leave. The actual numbers of the force when the additional absent officers are factored in is about 644. That would put the OPD at well below the mandated Measure Z levels if the legislation required on-duty, as opposed to budgeted, staffing.

Special Council Meeting Tuesday, 11:30am

Continued Deliberation and Potential Vote on General Plan EIR
The EIR and General Plan was forwarded from CED to full Council meeting last week, but due to a packed and controversial agenda was not heard until nearly 1am. CMs made the decision to continue the item to the Tuesday slot left open after the cancellation of Public Works this week. It’s a special council meeting, however, and a binding vote could be taken.

Oakland Police Commission, Thursday, 5:30pm

Town Hall on Reinstatement of Former Chief Leronne Armstrong

A puzzling agenda addition for Thursday’s Oakland Police Commission [OPC] meeting is described as a “town hall" with the central issue posing the question of whether former OPD Chief Leronne Armstrong should be "reinstated". The item was likely placed by the outgoing Chair, Tyfahra Milele.

The placement follows on dais musing at last Monday's meeting by outgoing Vice Chair David Jordan about the potential for rehiring Armstrong; and a memo by Milele shortly before the meeting that vowed to formally discuss the potential “reinstatement” or placement of Armstrong into the list of potential candidates to fill the position.

Some fact-checking. The planned discussion no doubt stems from Armstrong's leak of a report by neutral arbitrator [and former judge] Maria Rivera, on the dismissal of Armstrong. The recommendations suggest Armstrong should not have been disciplined at all, and that his firing is questionable. But the report is not binding, and it's caveated by the author, with the additional context that the arbitration did not follow typical hearing rules–no witnesses were interviewed and no application of evidentiary rules occurred, it’s just one legal professional’s opinion. Ordinarily, the report would not have been made public, but Armstrong himself leaked the report to the press, which for the first 24 hours of the story, was not available to the general public.

If Armstrong sues the City, the report will likely increase his chances of success, but the report itself does not get his old job back. The arbitration is not the typical kind an Oakland police officer could access. That kind of binding arbitration happens before the final recommended discipline is implemented–and can reverse it. An officer in arbitration stays in their job, usually on leave, while the process is completed. That’s not what happened here, and Armstrong can't be simply reinstated by fiat. Armstrong is no longer employed by the City of Oakland and would have to go through the hiring process anew.

The OPC’s decision to even pose these questions in an official forum could complicate the City’s hiring process for the Chief. By charter mandate, the OPC is required to send a slate of at least 3 recommended hires to the Mayor; the Mayor can choose one candidate, or reject the entire slate and send the OPC back to the drawing board. If the charter-mandated process is in the mix, it’s not clear how an OPC recommendation to “reinstate” Armstrong would proceed parallel to the hiring process.

Barring that route, it's also unclear if Armstrong has submitted required application paper-work, or if he intends to, before the September 30 due date for the application package. And if Armstrong did so, it's not clear what that would mean for other candidates for the job given the obvious publicity and preference the OPC would be giving only one candidate.

The agenda notes that if the body fails to achieve quorum, the meeting will continue as an ad hoc, with Zoom participation. The body has had issues maintaining quorum since the selection process was completed this summer, and last Monday's meeting was called after the previous Thursday's meeting failed to achieve quorum.