SAFE Recall's Affluent Donor Base, ALCO Dems Pro-Palestine Resolution + Council Preview

SAFE Recall Committee Issues First Funding Report; but Majority of Recall Funds Hidden from Public Scrutiny Through Use of General Committee

The SAFE campaign finance committee this week met its legal obligations to produce a quarterly 460 report—which details donations and spending from July 1, to September 30. Recalls are treated for reporting purposes like ballot measures, and in an off-election year, are required to post quarterly reports about donations and expenditures. SAFE reported total funds of $212K, $48K of which was an in-kind donation by another committee, Reviving the Bay Area.

Of the $166K remaining cash donations, a majority of the cash value came from contributions over $5K, which accounted for over 50% the total cash. Most of the cash value in the report came from donations over $1K—some 70% of the total $166K came from donors giving $1K or more. Many of the donors are in the financial or real estate sectors, according to Oaklandside’s analysis—creating a visible profile of majority affluent backing for the recall.

One donor alone, Ryan Sutton-Gee, donated $49K, 30% of the SAFE funds reported from July to late September. Sutton-Gee is affiliated with Y-Combinator, an investment firm run by Garry Tan, a conservative facilitator of social media personalities and accounts, LLCs and other shell organizations pushing right wing and conservative ideologies in San Francisco. Sutton-Gee received funding and support from Y-Combinator, according to Forbes. The 460 report only covers donations and expenditures until 9/30. Donations of 100 dollars or less only accounted for about $24K in the report.

One of the principals and initial officers of SAFE when the committee was founded, Philip Dreyfus, apparently resigned from SAFE to start Reviving the Bay Area, which Dreyfus identifies as a different type of committee, despite its laser-like focus on the Recall. Where SAFE is held to certain standards as a measure-dedicated committee, Reviving is a general committee with few requirements in a non-election year. Reviving is only required to post semi-annual and annual reports every six months in an off-election year like 2023.

Reviving has thus far only posted reports when it contributes more than $1K to SAFE–Reviving has done so six times in October as of this writing, with donations that total around $350K, nearly double what SAFE raised in its quarterly report. There may be no information about who or what is funding Reviving until late January—by then either SAFE will have garnered all of the signatures required for a recall, or it will have failed to do so.

According to finance reports, SAFE has changed its fiscal oversight contractor since inception. Carl Chan is now also listed as the Treasurer, rather than assistant Treasurer.

ALCO BOS Continues Second Reading of Recall Ballot Measure Ordinance

The ALCO BOS continued its second reading of the ordinance placing a special charter-changing ballot measure on March’s ballot to November 14. You can read more about the measure here.

Alameda County Democratic Central Committee Calls for Gaza Ceasefire, End to US Israeli Funding, in Narrow Vote

On Wednesday, November 1, the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee [ACDCC] passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US funding of Israel. The resolution acknowledges the Hamas attack on Israeli military installations and civilians of October 7, but also states the ACDCC stands in solidarity with Palestinians and calls for a peace based on addressing the root causes in the conflict. The resolution calls for:

“Congressmembers to demand: an immediate ceasefire; the unrestricted entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza; the restoration of food, water, fuel and electricity to Gaza; the release of all hostages held by Hamas & Israel; an end to all U.S. military aid to Israel; the development of a lasting peace that addresses the root causes of the current conflict which lie in decades of institutionalized oppression and occupation.”

Most of the elected officials who serve on the ACDCC were absent for the vote, voted no, or abstained. Several key elected officials, however, voted for the resolution, including ALCO District Attorney Pamela Price, ALCO Supervisor Elisa Marquez and Assembly Member Alex Lee. The issue proved contentious and required two meetings to push the resolution through. Public engagement on the resolution was so rancorous at one point, according to a Facebook post addressing the public from Chair Igor Tregoub, the chat function of the Zoom participation was turned off after a swastika symbol was displayed by a non-committee member.

Of Note at Council this Week:

—OPD Staffing Study

The Office of the Inspector General has been tasked with overseeing a study on OPD’s staffing and calls for service. The ostensible goal of the study is to “establish a baseline for the number of officers and resources needed to properly respond to calls for service within each geographic area in Oakland”. A related report completed in 2022 on OPD calls for service showed that police trend toward spending time on non-criminal issues, and recommended more civilianization, but the study, OPD claimed, was flawed and Council never returned to the issues it revealed.

This report would be overseen by the OIG, and would be conducted by a PFM Financial Advisors. The legislation also waives competitive bidding and L/SLBE requirements, stating that no firm that is certified to perform the work responded to an initial query. The contract is for a maximum of $285K. The intended scope, per the City Administrator’s office.

—A 5-year trend analysis of budgeted positions vs. actuals
—Personnel and resource costs associated with each unit in the Department
—Overtime utilization
—Documentation of Dept drivers such as response times, clearance rates, public
initiated calls, and specialized units
—Review OPD’s current resource allocation compared to other similarly sized cities with
similar calls for service volume
—Assess gross patrol staffing and investigative requirements for the immediate future to
better service the City of Oakland

Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas has added a request to the agenda packet that the scope of work include further data on calls for service and a focus on civilianization of:

—calls for service types that OPD is responding to and their frequency
—identification of call types and categories that should be diverted to other responses or deprioritized

Bas notes in her memo that the additional scope will require an increase to the contract. The potential study was funded in the FY 23-25 budget in June.

FY 2023/2024 Surrendered And Abandoned Vessel Exchange Grant Program

City Council passed legislation in March of this year that allows the OPD to pursue removal of anchor-out boats in the Oakland estuary if they anchor in the same spot for longer than 12 hours in any 7 day period. This legislation would allow OPD to make use of a two year grant for $166K that would, according to an accompanying legislative report, allow OPD to complete the removal and disposal of 12 current abandoned and dispose of 5 surrendered vessels currently in Oakland’s possession. It’s not clear if the funds alone have been the limiting factor in enforcing the new Oakland law.

Parking Enforcement Changes

The City of Oakland will expand its metered parking with this legislation, along with necessary staff and new parking meter installations. There’s a list of the areas included in the legislation and you can read more here.

2023 Homekey Recommendations & Rapid Response Homeless Housing Program

The legislation would prepare for a new round of Homekey Funding, as well as prepare for a post-Homekey affordable housing environment. You can read more here.

Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District

Council member Kaplan introduces this legislation to create a LGBTQ cultural district in the Lakeshore neighborhood. You can read more here.

Ordinance Adding A Firearm Procurement Policy To The Oakland Municipal Code

CM Dan Kalb has brought this legislation with the advocacy of community groups. It would create requirements and standards for firearms and equipment providers to OPD in an effort to exclude companies that allow straw purchases of firearms. You can read more here.

Resolution Stating the A’s Belong in Oakland

A symbolic resolution likely meant to put pressure on Major League owners as they vote on whether to allow the A’s to relocate to Las Vegas potentially next week. The resolution was introduced and placed on the agenda at Rules last Thursday, after being introduced as an urgency legislation, with the argument that it could influence an upcoming vote by the Major League Baseball association to allow the A’s to move to Las Vegas. During the discussion of placing the last-minute resolution on Tuesday's agenda, CM Carroll Fife noted that she would not support a resolution that was solely focused on a potential ballpark at Howard Terminal. The resolution does not commit the City to building a ballpark at Howard Terminal should the A’s remain in Oakland. The resolution notes that a ballpark only deal—the kind Fisher now seeks in Las Vegas—is tenable at either Coliseum or Howard Terminal. Fife appeared to accept the parameters of the resolution last Thursday.

The resolution also inadvertently walks back claims made by the Thao administration in the Summer that the City was within tens of millions of closing the gap on off site infrastructure grants. The resolution states that the City raised $428 MM for Howard Terminal off site infrastructure grants—if true, that number is nearly 50 MM lower than what the Thao administration told media in August. Whether or not media misreported or were intentionally given inaccurate information, several outlets, such as the consistently unreliable source, ABC7, reported an additional $65 MM that was also reportedly in process. That would have brought the gap within tens of millions. But those grants apparently never materialized. If the number in the legislation is correct, the City was $148 MM from its estimate of $576 MM offsite infrastructure bill, not $36 MM. And that is if the estimates are correct.

Phase 1 of IKE Smart City Kiosk Placements

Pursuant to the franchise agreement the City Council passed last year with IKE Smart City, to place digital kiosks in Oakland’s rights of way, the City is now bringing legislation allowing for the placement of Phase 1 of the project. All of the kiosks in Phase 1 will be placed in a corridor extending from Uptown to Chinatown, but no kiosk is yet scheduled for anywhere east of Lake Merritt.

Appropriations Increasing Ballot Measure

The City needs to increase its appropriations limit to spend the money from its many tax-related ballot measures—the city can only levy and spend a certain amount in taxes and must periodically increase the limit by ballot measure to accommodate the taxing and spending related to Oakland’s many revenue generating tax measures. The last time the city did this was in a 2020 ballot measure, Measure S. S is sunsetting now, and the city perform the process again to keep using ballot measure tax funds.

Also:

—Business Improvement District Reports for Montclair and Rockridge

—$2.5 MM additional budgetary allotment for 911 response and staff hiring is finally being allocated to the budget in this resolution.

—Appointments to:

Children’s Fairyland Board
Community Policing Advisory Board
Privacy Advisory Commission
Public Art Advisory Committee
Public Safety And Services Violence Prevention Oversight Commission