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At Council Tuesday, 1/6/2026

The first meeting of 2026 has new controversial rules that may diminish public participation. It's a light agenda, but there's a potentially weighty issue on the Consent Calendar

Police Commission Selection Panel Re-Submits Farmer/Acosta Reappointments at First Meeting After Council Rejected Them

On Thursday, the Oakland Police Commission Selection Panel* had its first meeting since the City Council rejected their latest appointments for the Oakland Police Commission and voted by a majority of seated panelists to re-submit the same appointments of Omar Farmer as alternate, and Chair Ricardo Garcia Acosta as full

Council Vote for Flock Took Center Stage, But Coupled with Houston’s Classroom Antics, Distracted from Significant Legislation That's Escaped Public Notice

In what appeared to almost be a parodic performance of untransparent governance, the City Council’s last meeting of the Calendar year passed a multitude of significant legislation—too much in one session for any meaningful public participation on all of them. A Flock contract expansion was rightfully the focus

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