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Flock Returns as "Urgent" Impromptu Addition to Last Council Meeting of Year, Already Overloaded with Controversial Legislation

Council Rules Committee Accepts Slim Excuse for Last Minute Scheduling to an Agenda the Council President Had Already Labelled Too Impacted for Even One More Item Significant legislation affecting Oakland’s tax base, fire code, campaign finance rules and legislative process were already spilling over the top of Council’s

At Committees This Week, 12/09/2025

OO will be live reporting committees on Tuesday, these are the highlights, and most critical items the public should be aware of going into the meetings, but by no means exhaustive list. Community and Economic Development Committee —Fife’s Direction to Begin to Negotiate Terms for a Future ENA with

Reporter's Notebook: EAP Pulled as ICH Critiques Persist and $ Millions Remain at Risk, While Dozens of Opponents Stay to Condemn Policy[/] Plus, Attempt to Suspend Council Rules to Vote on Changes to Council Rules Lathers Irony On An Already Ironic Arc

EAP Pulled Again Tuesday As ICH Pans Confused High/Low Sensitivity Plan, But Dozens of Public Speakers Stay to Denounce It Anyway After months of on/off scheduling that often seemed designed to evade public scrutiny, a freshly amended EAP proposal was pulled at the start of Tuesday’s City

At Council Tuesday, 12/2/2025

Not a lot of time this week, but some highlights with links to OO reporting or more info from the legislative record. Expect this meeting to be very long: On Non Consent —Mayoral Tie Breaker on New Council Rules of Procedure When last we left this item several weeks ago,

Changes to Homeless Policy Urged by State Body Added to "EAP," But Prohibitions on Vehicular Encampments Remain

The new version of a proposed City of Oakland “Encampment Abatement Plan” [EAP] policy that will be introduced at December 2nd’s Council meeting shifts significantly from the zero-tolerance positioning of the original proposal introduced at the September 9 Public Safety Committee meeting. The changes reflect significant feedback from the

Reporter’s Notebook: Committee Failure Breaks Flock Momentum For Now--More on Oakland Arms Embargo and OPD's Bearcats

Flock Fails at Public Safety Committee Meeting A surprise stalemate at Oakland’s Public Safety Committee Tuesday sapped the trajectory of what many observers believed was an all but assured vote to institutionalize and expand OPD’s Flock surveillance program. OPD’s proposal that would see the department taking over

At Committees This Week: Showdown on Flock at Public Safety—Update: Hofer Files Suit to Ban OPD's ALPR

Public Safety Committee Update, 11/18/2025 8:05 am: Today, Brian Hofer and Secure Justice are filing suit against the City of Oakland, alleging that OPD has failed to follow state law governing ALPR use, as well as its own use policies, city laws and a previous settlement agreement.

Live Reporting: City Council Vote Ties Over Changes That Would Have Curtailed Evening Meetings

Live reporting yesterday's Council meeting often felt more like announcing an unhinged sports event than the typical council meeting. After Ramachandran stalled CM Fife's amendments to the Jenkins/Ramachandran Rules of Procedure update with an unheard of three substitute motions—the Council finally took a vote

At Council This Week, 11/4/2025

It's a 9 am meeting, with rationale that it's an election day and normal 3:30pm start time would conflict with voting. An 11am special meeting to introduce the "Encampment Abatement" proposal was cancelled last Thursday, rescheduled for an early December date. But ironically,

News Analysis: Public Participation–And Avoiding It–Becomes Major Theme at Oakland City Council

In October, public participation in legislative processes, and the lack of it, became an over-riding theme at the Oakland City Council's scheduling meetings. Three issues of significant importance to the public—a major institutionalization and expansion of Oakland's Flock surveillance, big changes to Oakland's

At Committees This Week, 10/28/2025

Despite an aborted effort to have an additional special city council meeting on Monday right before a full day of Committee, tomorrow’s meetings are full to the brim with important issues for Oakland residents. Probably too many for any one person or group to focus on. After an item

Week in Review [while Trump invaded Oakland, a lot of other stuff happened]

In this week’s review —Council Decision Leaves Oakland Police Commission with Bare Quorum, Body Unable to Meet on Thursday —EAP Would Have Come to Council in Special Meeting Monday, With One Business-Day Notice, But Brown, Ramachandran Intervene —Oakland Arms Embargo Demands Port Commission Ban Weapons Cargo Transits at Oakland

At Council This Week, 10/21/2025

Non-Consent Calendar There’s only one item on the Non-Consent this week, and it's the already delayed reappointments of Police Commission Chair Ricardo Garcia-Acosta and alternate Commissioner Omar Farmer. You can read more about it here. After weeks of delay and demand by CM Jenkins that the appointments

Reporter's Notebook: Committees Review, 10/14/2025; 10/16/2025

Reporter's Notebook Rules Committee, the committee that schedules all legislation to the Council's agendas, can be a pretty boring meeting. But this past Thursday's Rules Committee, October 16, was far more exciting [relatively] than usual from a news gathering standpoint. Two arcs that Oakland