This is the last In the Details of the legislative cycle. There will be no Council meetings until mid September. OO will have direct reporting on several issues in the upcoming weeks, however, including a process at the Police Commission to create procedures for OPD's interaction with federal immigration enforcement and the public at events and during enforcement actions. That piece was left out of recent sanctuary city policy, and left to the OPC to deal with after months of lobbying to do so from the Coalition for Police Accountability [CPA]. OO will have reporting on that process next week.
1) Gallo Reverses on Coliseum Agreement on Second Reading as Arts Supporters Ask Council to Dedicate Arena Ticket Sales to Arts/Culture Funding
Dozens of residents urged Council to use the City’s share of ticket revenue from an upcoming Arena sale to support Oakland’s Arts and Culture during the second reading of the legislation on Tuesday. As an ordinance, the new amendment requires two readings at two separate Council meetings. The second reading was placed on the consent calendar for last Tuesday's meeting after an initial approval at a special Council meeting, a typical scheduling move for final approvals. During public comment for Consent, several members of the public, including members of Oakland’s Cultural Commission and its former Cultural Affairs Director, Roberto Bedoya, urged Council to pass the deal, and to ensure in a future set of actions to direct at least some of the 6% proposed revenue sharing monies to a dedicated budget for arts and culture programming.
John Jones III, and AASEG member, called out attempts to misinform the public about the deal, part of what he called a dedicated effort to smear Oakland.
You can see their comments in this live reporting thread from the meeting.
Quorum Issues Could Have Resulted in a Tie on Second Reading
Council had bare quorum at the meeting for the first half hour of the meeting, CMs Kevin Jenkins, Carrol Fife and Rowena Brown were absent. Assuming a continued no vote from Gallo, the Coliseum sale agreement legislation would have tied with the three absences counting as no votes. CM Brown, however, eventually joined the meeting remotely, using the Brown Act’s “just cause” measure. Brown did not broadcast video. It was later revealed that Brown had suffered a physical assault a day or so prior.
During the Consent vote, however, Gallo voted yes for the entire calendar without comment, rescinding the effect of his previous no vote on the legislation.
2) City Administrator Pulls Selection Panel Appointment Legislation, Claiming Selection Panel Should Have Reviewed Background Checks Before Submission
The City Administrator’s Office pulled legislation at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting for two Selection Panel appointments to the Police Commission, the latest in a strange tug of war between the body, the CAO and Council. On the appointment list was Ricardo Garcia Acosta, the current Chair of the body, who has been rejected by Council twice before.
In the last appointment process, Council again rejected Garcia-Acosta’s appointment, with some arguing that the Selection Panel had not carried out a robust recruiting process and had produced too small a roster for consideration. After the vote, the body’s liaison to the CAO was removed and replaced with a more recent CAO hire, with links to Council President Jenkins.
Now, the Selection Panel had four vacancies to fill, however, with two upcoming term expirations on top of those two then being proposed for appointment. After several months, the SP collected about 50 applications. Regardless, the body again chose Garcia Acosta, and Joey Harrison* as alternate and voted to submit the slate to Council several weeks ago.
During the deliberation, it was clear that the panelists did not consider the background checks for the candidates their role—those must be performed according to a rigorous rubric and through a certified third-party contractor on retainer by the City. And during that deliberation as well, the CAO’s liaison did not appear to comment on the background check process.
Sean Maher, responding for the CAO, told this publication that the Selection Panel is required to review in open session, the background check outcomes. But its not clear if this is a task the SP knew was required, or if the process has been followed in the past. Maher said that once the CAO realized that the SP had not itself reviewed the background checks, it pulled the item to conform with the charter. According to Maher, the SP will review the background checks at their next meeting. As of this writing, however, the SP website has no new meetings scheduled.
*Harrison will be assuming the alternate seat left unfilled after Garcia Acosta, who began his tenure on the OPC as an alternate, assumed the permanent seat of Jesse Hsieh when he departed the Commission in 2024. The Selection Panel has two more seats to fill that will become open in October, but are not part of this appointment process.
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