Mayor's Executive Order Allows for Encampment Evictions on Short Timeline, w/out Shelter Availability for "Emergency" Situations
Mayor Sheng Thao announced an executive order this week on the heels of a large scale eviction of a nearly decade old encampment at the border of West Oakland. The order promises to “clarify” the City’s Encampment Management Policy [EMP], the City’s ostensible camp closure guidelines which determine “high sensitivity” and other encampment areas subject to city closure and cleaning. Since late 2020 when the guidelines were passed by the City Council, Covid, staffing issues, court rulings and shortages in shelter have all been factors in the City’s usage of the EMP—but the City’s closures have continued regardless. According to City data, the City undertook 500 closure operations since the EMP was enacted [see table at bottom of link]—nearly 100 of them in 2024.
Executive Order Adds Definitions, Protocols to EMP Guidelines
The EMP sets thresholds for City action on encampments and creates a rubric based on proximity to infrastructure, schools and playgrounds and ADA accessibility to identify encampments that, under the guidelines, should be closed. Thao’s Executive Order sets guidelines for the determination of “emergency” clearances of “dangerous” encampments in “high sensitivity areas” which according to the EMP do not necessarily require full advanced notice or offers of shelter—the EMP is vague about what would constitute an emergency situation.
The actions outlined in the Executive Order require the City to identify “emergency” or “health concern” situations at encampments either by regular inspection or alerts to the 311 public complaint system. While the EMP identifies “emergency” closures that would require less than 72 hours notice in cases of health or safety concerns, it does not identify a standard for determining those concerns, nor a timeline of notice. The Executive Order lists the types of concerns that constitute an emergency, such as active fires, an encampment attached to a building or a criminal investigation or damage to critical infrastructure—determined either by police or another city agency. Such encampments could be evicted with less than 12 hours notice. The order also lists the types of conditions that would allow a 24 to 72 hour timeline for eviction, including light pole wire splicing, blocking the sidewalk, hydrants or drains, “pervasive criminal activity”, nearby fires or propane tank storage.
Shortly before the EMP was passed in late 2020, Schaaf’s administration created a “Homelessness Administrator” for encampment related activities—but soon after the EMP was passed by Council, the first person appointed to that role resigned. Assistant City Administrator Latonda Simmons then held the interim role, before being replaced by another appointee who left the role quickly as well. The embattled position was eliminated under Thao and reconsolidated into City administration. Closures, though extensive, have in the past been ostensibly contingent on being able to offer shelter to all residents in an encampment.
Thao’s executive order implies that offering shelter will no longer necessarily be a requirement for encampment enclosures under certain situations, based, apparently, on the vague instruction in the EMP on shelter offers during emergency closures and the Grant’s Pass decision which has overturned long standing legal logic around homelessness policing region-wide. A recent opinion by the City Attorney's office notes that the City is legislatively bound by the EMP, regardless of court rulings. Thao's order seems to function in the grey areas of the EMP language.
Executive Order Follows MLK Encampment Closures
The order follows a series of significant encampment evictions at the border of downtown and West Oakland, an operation that took over a week and resulted in the arrest of a journalist using the City’s “safe work ordinance” which criminalizes presence in an area where city or public works activity is taking place after a warning by law enforcement. Information released to this publication by a city spokesperson left some doubt about whether everyone who’d been forced to move during that eviction from the encampment had been offered shelter—the EMP also allows residents to move out of a restricted zone to another location nearby.
As a response to requests from the Life Enrichment Committee, the traditional Council committee that discusses the City’s actions on homelessness, the Mayor’s office will present an oral report on the EO Tuesday.
PEC Enforcement Chief’s Resignation Follows Frustrated Schaaf Settlement, Conflict Over Minimum Staffing in Ballot Measure
Simon Russell, the Public Ethics Commission Enforcement Chief who made headlines earlier this month with an unprecedented settlement that carries with it an admission of wrong-doing by Libby Schaaf, the Oakland Police Officers Association, and members of the Port Commission, has resigned according to a Public Ethics Agenda document released this week. The Oaklandside originally reported on the disclosure.
In the letter, Russell states his departure follows what appears to be “deliberate” under-staffing of the department under successive administrations. Russell was an investigator in the department when former Enforcement Chief Kellie Johnson transitioned to Interim Executive Director after Whitney Barozoto, the former Executive Director, left the agency. Russell assumed the role of Interim Enforcement Chief, then became the permanent director. As the PEC’s sole enforcement investigator at the time, it took months to replace the investigator role, and even longer to get a second investigator. Since that time, Russell has sporadically been the only investigator in the department, although the two investigator roles are currently filled according to the City's website. In his letter, a frustrated Russell notes that he personally invested that level of work to combat "serious bribery, campaign finance exploitation and other corruption undermining the great people of Oakland's democratic rights."
For several years I have worked long hours far beyond what is reported on my timecard, attempting to do almost single-handedly what other agencies employ entire teams of attorneys and investigators to accomplish. I persisted in this because I genuinely cared about doing whatever I could to combat the serious bribery, campaign finance exploitation, and other corruption that was undermining the great people of Oakland's democratic rights. No other office in the City does this crucial work, and our allied law enforcement and regulatory agencies view the Enforcement Unit as an important partner in their wider efforts, despite the considerable obstacles the PEC has faced in pursuing our cases.
Static at Council
The PEC, which is composed of a Commission that meets monthly to approve policy and enforcement actions and an agency that enforces city and state laws on public officials and employees of the City of Oakland, has struggled for years to maintain staffing in all departments. The City Council was initially split on a PEC-focused ballot measure earlier this year that would have guaranteed an additional ethics investigator [total of 2] as minimum staffing to the agency—CMs’ Kevin Jenkins, Carroll Fife, Noel Gallo, Treva Reid and Rebecca Kaplan voted no on the legislation. Jenkins led criticism of the agency during deliberation, and often seemed to veer into animosity towards the PEC, at one point saying that minimum staffing was a "gift" that Jenkins did not believe the PEC deserved over other agencies.
"All of the [city's agencies] are having challenges with staffing levels, being asked to do more with less...And so I think it's a gift, although it is only one staff member, it is a gift from council to give out minimum staffing levels. And then how do we determine what that line is? Who goes first? Who goes second, who goes third, who goes next and East Oakland? We get a lot of complaints about illegal dumping. I would love to give, Keep Oakland Clean and Beautiful [a DPW program] one more staffer," Jenkins said.
After the vote, CM Carroll Fife used Council procedures to bring the legislation back for a vote, citing input she’d received from stakeholders and constituents. On the second pass, the legislation passed, with Jenkins and Gallo continuing to oppose it, but several CMs reversing their vote. Even if voters approve the PEC ballot measure in November, an additional Enforcement staff member would not become a legal minimum until 2026.
Resignation Leaves at Least Two Major Finance Investigations in Limbo
The Chief's resignation comes during a complicated moment for the PEC. Russell’s departure may leave in limbo the Schaaf related settlements. According to the PEC document, Russell resigned on September 20, just four days after the meeting in which he urged the Commission to accept the settlements as they stood due to the difficulty in creating them with minimal staffing. During the meeting, Russell told Commissioners that the PEC’s Enforcement arm would have difficulty balancing the additional work with other duties. It was the second time the agency warned the Commission that their vote on a matter could engender a workload the PEC’s staff would not be able to handle during the same meeting. The PEC’s stalled investigation into the Mayoral recall financing would also face more hurdles. Meanwhile, the ostensible leader of the recall committee currently being investigated by the PEC is also running for the City Attorney elected position, which is the lawyer for the PEC.
At Council Tuesday:
Council Will Decide on Whether to Raise Campaign Spending Limits in Last Month of Election Period
After discussion at the PEC and at the Council's Rules Committee, the City will take up the decision Tuesday. At the Rules Committee that forwarded the legislation, several members appeared dubious at the intention and effect of the legislation so late into the cycle, and it's potential effects for the next. Read more here.
—Class Action Ransomware Settlement on Way to Council Vote
A class action settlement brought by several City employees will be brought before Council on Tuesday. The class action settlement will likely cover all current and past employees whose personal information was exposed in the ransomware attack of February 2023, and will likely cover any resident who likewise had personal data compromised. The settlement provides:
(1) three years of three-bureau credit monitoring with fraud insurance to all class
members
(2) up to $350 reimbursement for ordinary out-of-pocket expenses, and up to $10,000for extraordinary out-of-pocket expenses, with supporting documentation to all class members
(3) up to four hours at $25 per hour for lost time, with no documentation required to all class members
(4) payment of $175 to all past and current police officers whose data was exfiltrated, in recognition of the additional risks and harms associated with exposure of personally-identifiable information for police officers
—New Encroachment Rules Would Allow Bollards with Simple Planning Department Approval
A proposed change to Oakland ordinances would reclassify bollards, kiosks, electrical vehicle charging stations and other private property constructs that protrude into the public right of way as minor, rather than major, encroachments. A major encroachment requires a determination and scheduling to a City Council meeting where the Council must carry out a full vote to approve it. Minor encroachments can be permitted at the administrative level at OakDOT. The move follows suggestions by CM Kaplan during budget deliberations to fund bollards for businesses, a move that ultimately did not make it into the budget, but seems to have been paralleling a move to facilitate bollards already in motion at OakDOT and Planning and Building.
—Operating Funds for Oakland Convention Center
The City-owned Scotlan Convention Center has been treading water since Covid, necessitating increasingly complex aid packages to the Convention Center’s management company, Integrated Services Corporation [ISC] to keep it afloat. According to a report accompanying the legislation for the new arrangement, ISC received $360K in direct operating subsidies from the City between 2020 and 2022. In June, the mid-cycle budget authorized additional General Purpose Fund patch of $1.7 MM for the Center’s operating expense deficits in 2023 and early 2024.
But the bleeding has not stopped at Scotlan and the management company is forecasting another operating loss of $1.2 MM in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. This time, the City has plans for a less direct form of financing which it will present to the City Council Tuesday. The package includes:
—allowing ISC to use the Center’s Capital Reserve Fund to pay for operating expenses—around $150K. That would basically exhaust the capital reserve.
—waiving the requirement to redirect 6 to 8% of revenues to the capital reserve fund
—temporarily waiving the requirement to replenish the fund of $350K used in the past
—replenishing the Center’s capital reserve fund with City redevelopment funds. Those are restricted only to capital improvement uses and couldn’t become a future source of operating funding
—reallocating $750K advance rent payment from an anticipated telecommunications roof lease to cover the operating expenses
In its report, the City makes the case for patching the Center’s funding issues because the Center provides an aggregator and branching source of revenue to the City—by encouraging tourism, expenditures at local businesses, and paying Transient Occupancy Tax to the City. The report estimates that the Convention Center brought in $1.4 MM in the tax to the City in 2023. The report also estimates that events at the space bring in about $7.6 MM in visitor purchases from local businesses.
But the report also notes that it is not clear when Scotlan might return to its previous pre-Covid functioning and suggests that the current situation is not sustainable without structural changes at the Convention Center.
—New Mayoral Appointees to Police Commission Would Create New Freshman Commission
Mayor Sheng Thao has submitted two new appointments for Oakland Police Commission to Council that will, if passed, replace current OPC veterans at the heart of much of the disputes and crisis of the body over the past two years. The terms of Commission Chair Marsha Peterson and Regina Jackson, an alumnus of the inaugural Commission body of 2018, both end in October—both were appointed by former Mayor Libby Schaaf. Thao’s Commission appointee candidates are Shane Thomas Williams, an Alameda County Probation Department staffer who has helped run Camp Sweeney, a low-security juvenile center; and Shawana Booker a licensed clinical social worker.
The departure of Jackson and Peterson would mark a significant shift in the OPC. Both Commissioners were involved in a messy dispute with former Chair Tyfarah Milele and former Commissioner Brenda Harbin-Forte. The struggle moved to the public sphere where Peterson and Jackson joined other Commissioners in demanding that the Mayor remove Harbin-Forte, a Schaaf appointee, and Milele, a selection panel appointee, from the Commission. The removal of Harbin-Forte, whose term had ended regardless, did not satisfy Jackson and Peterson, who also engaged in a self-declared attempt to run out the remaining terms of Milele and other Commissioners they were involved in long-term disputes with in an ad-hoc attendance strike that denied quorum to the body for months.
After the end of the former leadership’s terms, Peterson was voted in as Chair—Peterson then appointed Jackson and another ally in the quorum-denying action, Karely Ordaz, to key positions. Under Peterson, the OPC included the resume of dismissed former Chief Leronne Armstrong into the hiring options for final decision-making of Thao—a move that delayed the hiring by several months because of the questionable resumes of the other two applicants, one of who was under administrative suspension at the San Leandro Police Department.
During a critical time which began with Peterson’s predecessor Milele, the OPC was also unable to make use of its powers to influence the discipline process surrounding Michael Chung, and the investigation around the propriety of IAD investigations into his malfeasance overseen by Armstrong. Again, the OPC was left out of the process under the leadership of Peterson when new wrong-doing involving the command staff under Armstrong in exonerating Phong Tran came to light. The Community Police and Review Agency [CPRA] undertook the investigation with the help of a city-commissioned contractor, but the OPC did not participate in the investigation. Peterson appears to have at one point scheduled direction to the Office of the Inspector General to review not only the OPD investigation of Tran, but the CPRA's investigation of the OPD process that resulted in findings for termination of command staff and suspension of former Police Chief Leronne Armstrong related to it. Peterson, however, pulled the item before it was heard by the OPC.
With the departure of Peterson and Jackson, the new iteration of the Commission would be the first in years that does not have a veteran of the first Commission class in its membership. Jackson, who was appointed by Schaaf in the first iteration of the Commission, held the role of Chair for several terms. Only one Commissioner—Angela Jackson-Castain who does not appear to reside in the US full-time—will have been on the Commission for longer than a year if the appointments are approved by Council. The Commission will also now be composed of Commissioners who were not responsible for the selection of Armstrong as chief nominee and were largely not involved in his tenure [except for Jackson-Castain]. While approvals for appointments are usually approved without much discussion, the Council can vote against the appointments.
Thao has still not appointed a legal expert/attorney to the vacant seat for that qualification.
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