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Tom Wong
As an investigative reporter focusing on municipal governance and fiscal accountability in Hayward and the greater Bay Area, I delve into the stories that matter, holding officials accountable and shedding light on issues that impact our community. Candidate for Hayward Mayor in 2026.
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City Council Meeting – Emeryville, CA – April 15th, 2025
lanetary environment. The goal is to address inequities in energy access and prioritize the health of people and the environment. And now, therefore, it be resolved by the city council of the city of Emeryville that 04/22/2025 is hereby proclaimed as Earth Day in the city of Emeryville, and all residents, businesses, and institutions are urged to advocate for policy changes, adopt renewable energy solutions, and work towards a cleaner and more sustainable future for our planet as proclaimed by the mayor of the city council of the city of Emeryville at a regular meeting held Tuesday, 04/15/2025. We now have item 4.2, a presentation from the police department for the annual report. Chief Jennings. Alrighty. Good evening, vice mayor Carr, mayor Moore, and our former first mayor, Courtney Welch. So this is gonna be a brief, overview of our annual report. Normally, luckily, I have the 3 people who've been on my public safety committee who've seen this or a version of this before. Car just saw it a couple months ago. So, you know, what it normally looks like, but it's also for, community members who did not have an opportunity to see it. They can see it through on, the webpage or the large gallery we have here today. So, with that, you see our annual picture we got right here behind us. You see a very eclectic, happy group. Next slide. Basically, my message, and my message is always the same. I appreciate the fact that I have a council that has given us the tools and the support to do what we've done, and I definitely appreciate my officers who have gotten the job done, bringing more trust in, community engagement, with the city. So I can't I can't do it without the officers that we have. Next slide. This is my former command staff. Everyone here is gone besides acting Lieutenant Dauer and PSM, Buze, but they'll both be leaving shortly also, so that that'll be different next year. Next slide. You'll see my my main sergeants here. 3 of these people will be gone, in the next future. And, special thanks to Sergeant Pablo Roxas, who actually put the PowerPoint together and is our community engagement liaison, and also my, recruiting and training officer, which is critical to the growth of our organization. Next slide, please. Again, about staffing. You see some pictures, lovely folks, that we just hired. 1 of the highest, honors to bring new people into their organization. It's important to hire good folks. That's the beginning of having a good organization. At 1.1 glorious moment, we were totally staffed in October, but that has changed, with attrition and injuries and some people moved on. So you see the numbers right there. And at any point in time, feel free to ask me any questions. We can engage in this. We're gonna keep it going. But again, you've seen this before. Next slide, please. Another thing that I'm proud of in our organization is the demographics. You see, we're a very, diverse organization, by our numbers and by the photos that you saw. We definitely represent the community that we serve. 1 of the things I'm most proud of is the fact that I've made it intentional to hire, great qualified female officers. The national average for female officers is less than 10%. We're up to 19% and, we're on our way to get to 30%. That's the national 30 on 30, initiative that's been put on by the National Chiefs of Police. And, I'm informally a part of that. I'm going to, I'm going to get there. So we're going to get there. Next slide, please. Again, our female, statistics, demographics are sworn. Again, seem very diverse. Nice. Next slide, please. Again, so what we hear about, our primary focus is to thwart crime, drive down crime, driving down the fear of crime. We've done an excellent job of doing that, and this is a for how you wanna get into it, a very layered, nuanced way of driving down crime that, with me and my 34 years of experience and my officers with a lot of experience have focused on with a with a vision of making sure that we're integrated with the growth of the city and also the, the feeling of, togetherness in the city. So most of our crime is property crime. 85% of our crime is property crime. We have a rich, diverse, commercial, area. We have a lot of apartment complexes and most of our crimes are petty theft, based on opportunity to commit those thefts. Next slide, please. Or violent crime. Any crime of violence is also, you know, is a threat to our society, the fabric of our society. But our crime rate, again, is low, especially compared to our regional partners. 1 of the things also I pride myself on is I did a, longitudinal study of our crime from 2010 till now, where you'll see across the region that most people most agencies' crime is down 15% to 20%, if not higher. But a lot of those crimes are, are down from, a high point that they've had. We've never reached our high point in the last, 15 years. Our higher point of crime was 2019, and we've never gotten to that number back yet. So I'm pretty pleased with that number. The numbers went up during, went down during COVID, and then they shot up exponentially, 21, 22, 23. And we're seeing, we've, ours was going up, but we've kept it below that high point number, which is really pleasing for us. Next slide. Again, showing that a crime is down 20%. The number is up to right now. We're down another 10 to 15% on most crimes compared to last year. So, again, this is due to several factors in my opinion, 1 being a change in, public policy, that's going across our region. Another is the fact that we've gotten the flock camera system. Another factor is that we had a significant increase in our staffing. So instead of running overtime to run the day to day operations of the police department, we're using the overtime to thwart crime by using some of the graph, the grant money that you'll see there on that we've used to put those strategically in areas that were crime was occurring to actually drive down crime further. So multi layered and everyone buying in on my vision And, the new hires are very enthused. Next slide, please. Again, breaking down the crime numbers. Again, petty theft being the highest. Our our, our crimes of violence are being the lowest, which is great. But, you know, any crime. We're trying to get to a utopia where there is no scribe, and you don't need police officers. And then our breakdown by demographics, and their rest. Next slide. Our juvenile rest remain consistently low. We consistently return juveniles to their homes, 79, 80 percent. The 1 the juveniles that end up going to juvenile hall usually have a warrant for the arrest for some other, reason. Possession of a firearm is automatic, take to juvenile hall. Usually, the robberies are depending how the robbery was committed. Was it force or fear? Was there actual violence used? They they automatically go to juvenile hall. So those numbers remain low, which is good for us at the win. Next slide, please. To me, this is important. And it really would be more important for the members who have not been on the, public safety committee. But this really explains how our use of force is used. Try to give an explanation. So if if you were to arrest me and then, Mayor Moore put me in a twist lock and Vice Mayor Moore put me in another twist lock is 1 victim or 1 suspect, but 2 incidents. So the numbers can be skewed in that sense, but every use of force is counted in our, in our matrix, and you can see less than 0.4% of our, our calls for service involve force, which is different from what you see in the news, it's different from what you see, what you read in the paper. But that's how, California counts our, our incidents of uses of force. Vast majority of our, contacts are traffic and a lot of talking. Next slide, please. Usually, we use the forces that will come complaints. Those are definitions of our dispositions of uses of, complaints. Not really nuanced. Either you, you know, we have very you'll see the next we'll just go to the next slide. Unless you have any questions. So you'll see our numbers. Very part of our trans our transparency portal. All this is on our web page. You can find all this information. It's on there. You'll see that most of our sustainer for policy violations. And, essentially, every day, there's somebody who's doing a policy violation. It could be as as minor as not having your, your correct uniform on. So there's policy violations day to day. But every time that we do a, internal affairs complaint, we look at it from top to bottom. If we find policy violations, you see those are sustained, but you don't see any sustained for any, force, violence, rudeness. Well, there's some rudeness in the sustained policy violation. But the ones that really get us in trouble of, the ones we don't like, the mistake of the mind, where or the specific mistake of the heart. Whereas the heart where you're you're you're malicy by malice committing, you know, hurting someone, believing in someone, we don't have that in our organization. And those are born out in our internal affairs investigations, which are, which are low. Next slide. 1 of the reasons why I think that our crimes are down again, nuanced approach is the flock cameras. Thank you, council for approving that. Some of the numbers that come with that, 2,000,000 license plates are scanned monthly. Same license plate can run through the town 16 time. You count 16, 16 other times. But you'll see some of the things. And these are numbers are just from, October when the cameras were fully off automated to December. So this is a short, snapshot of how the cameras have affected us. But the most important number to me, besides the ones we've arrested, is the 3 96 to 1 vehicles alerted and the 20 felony vehicles alerted. When officers are alerted, they see it. They go. They drive the car out of town. That anecdotally would be the reason why crime could be done also. So there's several things that go involved with, fighting crime. This is a very good tool. City, manager Bellos just had me talk to our state senator regarding giving another federal grant, to maybe possibly or asking for, the rest of the cameras, to be paid for through a grant. So we'll see how that that goes. So, I talked to Luca for quite a bit. I sent her our our staff report. So we'll see what comes out of that. Next, slide, please. My staff, again, my my beautiful communication staff with part of my, parking enforcement staff, you see the amount of calls. A lot of calls for service. I'm very pleased that our 911 answers are 20 seconds or less, which is, integral to people feeling like they're gonna be served when they call us. We're a full full service organization. We have a we respond. And, I can't say that for for everybody. You see the amount of calls for service that we have, significant amount of calls, 38,000, and the amount of reports are generated, 4,000. Next slide. 1 person doing this property and evidence booking, almost 2,000 items booked in a year, over 2,000 other items purged. That's done with the group on overtime and 500,000,000 pounds of drugs purged. That's done by 1 person's, 1 person, Adrian Robinson, and she's also the 1 that does all the stats that you see. So I I know the public safety committee under understands that. Everyone's listening on the watching the television. 1 wonderful person does all that work. Next slide, please. Another 1 person does our records. With a little help from our, my, my public safety manager, Duchess Bouzet. So again, a lot of calls for requests. These things are not easy to do, redacting, finding them, mailing reports out, and sending subpoenas. So that was simply done by 1 or 2 people in my organization. Next slide, please. And she's also my chaplain. So a lot of people doing multiple things. Traffic enforcement. So this is 1 of the things that caused me concern last year when I saw the amount of traffic actions that we had. Back in the day, well, before any of us, there used to be 4 traffic enforcement officers. We're down to 1, Steve Hindergard. Everyone's responsible for doing traffic. Every officer is supposed to be doing some, but that number had significantly dropped after COVID. It was like hands off. So I, reenergized the folks into doing these things because we wanna drive down, injury accidents, accidents where people really get, who die. And also, it's proven that when you're having, proactive enforcement, that it drives down crime in your town. So you see that there's a 27 increase in traffic stops, 70% increase in moving violations. My emphasis to answer some of the, qualitative issues regarding our stops is to make sure you're moving doing moving violations opposed to mechanical violations. So we're looking at things that are gonna cause accidents, which is easier for me to defend if something goes wrong in doing that traffic stop. I'm not caring about expired, registration or your cracked windshield and this is so egregious that you're gonna imminently wreck. But I want you to do running red lights, running stop signs, you know, merging crazy. So those are why you see the 70% increase. We made an emphasis on that. Parking citations up 9%, which is amazing because those doom buggies that we have have been broken on and off. So they really again, the officers are doing some more park parking citations. So that's a significant, revenue maker. And also, it keeps the flow of traffic in our our commerce areas moving. And so that was a 9% increase. And that 1, Mike, is gone. It's only only 1 parking enforcement officer right now. So that's another vacancy that we're we're working to fix, because they pay for themselves. Next slide, please. Again, more of the traffic collision numbers. Next slide. 1 of the things that, again, I'm I'm pleased with that, you know, I had officers buy into doing these grants. There was no way that the command staff could do this on their own....
Dublin City Council Regular Meeting April 15, 2025
Call to order Pledge of Allegiance Presentations and proclamations Public comment Consent calendar Public Hearing Unfinished Business New Business City...
Berkeley Special City Council Meeting – April 22, 2025
It is 6.04. And we're gonna get this show on the road. Are we ready? Just about. Let's make sure...
Orchard Avenue Calming Project
The Orchard Avenue traffic calming pilot project is designed to enhance safety for all road users by reducing speeds and discouraging cut through traffic. Key features include a travel lane reduction in each direction, lowering speeds and eliminating aggressive passing, flexible delineators and bollards allowing for future adjustments, mini speed humps and refreshed striping at the Joyce Street roundabout to slow vehicles down. This cost effective pilot project was implemented quickly without asphalt or concrete work, keeping Orchard Avenue adaptable for future permanent improvements. A safer, calmer Orchard Avenue built for the community.
Hayward Planning Commission Meeting April 10, 2025
Transcript I think we're waiting for Nick. We're good to go. Recording in progress. Good evening, and welcome to the City of Hayward Planning Commission meeting for 04/10/2025. We We are holding a hybrid meeting with some participants in the council chambers and others who have joined virtually via Zoom. This meeting is being webcast on Comcast TV channel 15 and live streamed on the city's YouTube channel and on the city website. Per Assembly Bill 2 4 4 9 and pursuant to government code section 5 4 9 5 3, the meeting will include a teleconference location at Starbucks located at Box located at 400 East Ocean Avenue in Lompoc, California. Planning Commissioner member Goodbody will participate via teleconference. The agenda has been posted at the teleconference location, and the public will have an opportunity to address the planning commission. This meeting is called to order at 07:02PM. Can we please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? Miss Allen, would you please call roll? Good evening. Commissioner Franco Closson, absent. Commissioner Goodbody? Present. Commissioner Hammond? Present. Commissioner Lowe? Here. Commissioner Myers? Present. Chair Hardy? Present. So we will now open public comments on any non agenda items. The public comments section provides an opportunity to address the planning commission on items not listed on the agenda. The commission welcomes comments and requests that speakers present their remarks in a respectful manner within established time limits and focused on issues which directly affect the city or within this jurisdiction of the city. As the commission is prohibited by state law from discussing items not listed on the agenda, your item will be taken into consideration and may be referred to staff for further action. Speakers shall not use threatening, profane, or abusive language, which disrupts, disturbs, or other wise impedes the orderly conduct of a commission meeting. The city is committed to maintaining a workplace free of unlawful harassment and is mindful that city staff regularly attends commission meetings. There are no public commenters. Commissioner, There are no public commenters. Commissioner Goodbody, are there any members of the public who wish to make a comment at your location? There are none here. Thank you. I will now close public comments. So item number 1 tonight is an action item. For this item, the planning commission may make a recommendation to city council. Item 1 p h 2 5 0 1 5 is a public hearing for the recommended fiscal year 20 26 through fiscal year 20 35 capital improvement program. Does staff have a presentation for this item? Thank you, and good evening, madam chair and commissioners. I'm Alex Amiri, public works director for the city. Staff is pleased to be here this evening to present the city's FY26, FY35 '10 year capital improvement program. The development of the CIP has been a process involving many staff from various departments over the past several months. Public works and utilities team have been managed by senior management analyst, Ellie Lowe, and the process has been led by management analyst, Michael Wolney. As always, engineers, planners, and other staff in various divisions and departments have been involved and contributed to the process. Staff recommends that the commission finds that FY '20 '6 '30 '5 CIP is consistent with the city's 02/1940 general plan and recommend its approval to council. I now turn this over to Michael Worny to kick off the staff presentation. By the way, Michael is at City Hall, but stayed stayed in his office to make use of his multi screen, setup. Thank you. Michael? Good evening, everyone. Can everyone hear me and see the presentation? Yes. We can hear you. Great. And, do you see the presentation? Okay. Perfect. Yes. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, planning commission, members of the public, and city staff. My name is Michael Wolle, and I am the management analyst in the public works department. This is the fiscal year 2026 to 02/1935 recommended capital improvement program presentation on how projects within the CIP are consistent with the 02/1940 general plan. Just for reference, the photo that you see here in the background is the completed phase 1 of the STAC Center, which I'll mention again in some later slides. This is the fifth year that the CIP has been developed in the online OpenGov stories format. OpenGov stories is an online budget book development tool designed to increase the user friendliness and ease of navigation within a complex budget. It's also intended to help increase the depth with which community members, council members, and other stakeholders can explore a budget. I will now open up the online book to provide a quick tutorial on how to navigate it. 1 moment while I switch screens. Okay. Can everyone see the CIP web page on the city's website? Yes. Perfect. Okay. Scrolling down on the CIP web page, the public will see a blue bar, which will take the user to the online version of the CIP. This is the recommended viewing experience for the CIP because it includes a number of interactive tables and charts. If the public would like to view a printable version of the CIP, they can click the second blue bar here to view the entire CIP document in PDF format. There's also a section on the website which includes the fiscal year 20 25 CIP semi annual progress report where users can view status of current projects. Now I'm going to scroll back up and click the first link to take you to the OpenGov platform. Here, you'll see the home page. If you scroll down, you'll see 4 main sections of the CIP. First, the introduction introduction section includes more information about the city's elected officials and and organizational chart. Second, the strategic priorities includes an overview of the city's strategic priorities and some featured projects that support these priorities. Third, the explore the budget section is the heart of the CIP, where the public can get key budget insights, such as the total proposed budget amounts, as well as information on various projects within the CIP. Lastly, the table of contents page will allow users to navigate within the CIP, which I'll go over later. First, let's look at explore the budget. As you can see, this page summarizes the fiscal year 26 budget at a high level. The recommended fiscal year 26 budget is a hundred and $61,000,000 and the total 10 year budget is at 1,300,000,000.0. Below that section are other key insights such as the total fiscal year 26 general fund transfers to CIP funds, which amount to approximately $3,000,000. The total fiscal year 26 internal service fees are approximately $3,900,000. And the total identified but unfunded capital needs portion is approximately 709,000,000. If the public would like to see further details on the projects that comprise these 3 amounts, they can click the links to the right side that say click here to learn more. Scrolling down, the user can choose either to view the CIP by fund or by category. I'll start by clicking the fund link. Here, the public can see an overview of the city's fund portfolio. If they click down into the table into the, carrots on the left, the public can view the total recommended budget amounts for specific funds. If the user, keeps scrolling down the page, they'll see a description of each fund and every underlying text is a link to a new page that will show the various projects within each fund. For example, if I click on the fund 2 10 gas tax fund, I'll be taken to a separate page dedicated to fund 2 10 projects. As you can see, I can click on each caret, and, it will show a short list of featured projects with each having their own project number and project page. If I scroll down, beneath the table, there's also a short list of featured projects that have their own page. For example, if I click on the fiscal year 26 pavement rehabilitation project, I will see an image and description of the project along with an overview of revenue sources that contribute to this project, as well as the expense budget for this project. Now I'm gonna go back to the explore the budget, category page. And once again, the public, if I click on the total budget by category this time, the public will, again, will see a pie chart with the fiscal year 26 total budget, but this time broken down by category. Just like the fun page, the public will see a type table that populates a pie chart and allows the user to see the projects within their total budgets or organized by category. If the user continues down the page, they will also see the page's, links for each category. For example, if I click on the livable neighborhoods link, I'll see a description of what the category is and then another table and the projects and budgets that are in this category. Similar to viewing by fund, the bottom of this page will also show all of the featured projects within this category. In this case, parks and buildings, traffic calming, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, etcetera. Now, I'm going to go back to the Explore the Budget page 1 more time. And I would like to point out 2 helpful resources. First, starting with Appendices. If the public is looking for a specific project budget, but aren't sure of how to find this budget, or excuse me, how to find this project, the user can click Appendix A for all project budgets by category. The Appendix A page will show an extended view of every project and its budget. The public can search for keywords using the control or command f function. For example, if I wanted to search for pavement, I can click control f, type in pavement, and then find all projects with the word pavement in the project title. On the other hand, if the user is looking for a specific project description and aren't sure where to start, the best source would be Appendix B. So going back to the Explore page, I'm going to click Appendix B. On this page, the search functionality is actually built within the table. Again, if we wanted to search for pavement related projects, I can type in pavement into the project title search bar, click Okay, and this table will bring up all projects with the word pavement in the title. The easiest way to reset your search is to refresh your browser, like so. If you are ever lost or want to start over, the bottom of every page should have a table of contacts link. When the public opens the table of contents, the user will see an overview of the structure of the CIP to links to every single page in the CIP. This is the best way to navigate to a particular section or page quickly. The 3 main sections featured on the homepage are also here: the Introduction, Strategic Priorities, and Explore the Budget. The other 2 subsections of the CIP, by Fund or by Project Category, are also here. This allows the user to view project budgets and descriptions by fund or category, like we just went over. The last section, for other, shows the appendices as well as the CIP PDF link. The semi annual report for fiscal year 26 will be linked later this year as projects make progress. That concludes our tour of the online CIP book. I will now return to the presentation. 1 moment while I switch screens. Okay. And just 1 more check. You can see the PowerPoint presentation? Yes. We can see it. Great. Thank you so much for confirming. Okay. So this slide provides a snapshot of the recommended CIP's budget breakdown by project category. As you can see here, the largest portion of the recommended fiscal year 26 budget has been programmed in the sewer system category in orange. This category comp, encompasses a wide range of projects which support the ongoing replacement and improvement of our utility infrastructure. Projects include our annual sewer line replacement and our phase 2 improvement project at the water resource recovery facility. The second largest category is the livable neighborhoods category in gray, which includes projects like La Vista Park, the South Hayward Youth and Family Center, median landscaping projects, traffic calming projects, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and sidewalk projects, among others. The amounts shown are the forecasted expenses that are planned for fiscal year 26. This slide slide shows a snapshot of a recommended budget broken down by fund as opposed to category. As you can see here, funds with the largest allocation of the recommended budget are the water and sewer system funds in blue and orange. And the fund with the third largest budget allocation is fund 4 0 5 for capital projects. Many projects will, will fall within deliverable neighborhoods categories such as La Vista Park and the STAC Center, which I previously mentioned. The rest of this evening's presentation will focus on demonstrating the proposed CIP's consistency with the Hayward 2040 General Plan. For any members of the public who are unfamiliar with the General Plan, it's a comprehensive document that contains the goals, policies, and implementation programs intended to guide the future development of Hayward. The full, plan can be found at the link shown at the bottom of this slide. The plan's goals and policies are organized, into various elements, which are listed in the web page. The proposed fiscal year 26 CIP includes a number of projects which support these elements. I'll be going into further detail about some of these CIP projects on the following slides. The following slides will also have the goal or policy number on the '20, from the 02/1940 general plan at the top of each slide under their respective element. Projects related to this element, goal, or policy number will be showcased on each slide. The Public Facilities and Services element establishes goals and policies to guide the overall provision of Hayward public facilities and services in Hayward. The South Hayward Youth and Family Center, which is a community center located on the corner of Tennyson And Roos Road, is a prime example of a CIP project that supports this element. The new public safety center will also fit under this goal as well. 2 additional examples include the water resource recovery facility, switchgear rehabilitation, and phase 2 improvement projects, which are critical to ensuring the continued operation of future growth of our wastewater treatment facilities and services. The mobility element of the general plan serves to improve the mobility of people and goods throughout the city. The Mission, Mission Boulevard phase 3 project is a key example of a CIP project that supports this element. It's the last phase of the 3 phase Mission Boulevard corridor improvement project. And will include traffic calming measures the addition of bicycle facilities the installation of landscaping monument sites and other improvements some other examples include the Campus Drive improvement project through which a series of traffic calming measures have been implemented in the stretch of Campus Drive between Second Street and Hayward Boulevard. Finally, the Main Street Complete Street Project and Safe Routes to School implementation are examples of a major CIP project in alignment with this element. These projects will improve pedestrian and bicycle facilities along Main Street and near Hayward Schools to create safe and friendly environment for multimodal travel in Hayward. Several other mobility projects worth noting include the pavement rehabilitation and new sidewalk projects, which are completed every year and are intended to improve the city's pavement condition index, as well as expand the city's sidewalk network. Staff has also in has also an internal policy to allocate at least 10% of the overall paving budget to roads with a pavement condition index of less than 30. The table shows the city's historical PCI for the last 10 years. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 means newly paved road. The natural resources element establishes goals and policies to protect and enhance the natural resources within Hayward. Our recycled water project supports this element by combining or by providing treated wastewater to customers for irrigation purposes, which saves drinking water and reduces the volume of wastewater discharged to the bay. The city officially began delivering recycled water to approximately 31 phase 1 customers in March 2022. And will begin developing a phase 2 facilities plant to prepare for the expansion of the system. La Vista Park is another major project aligned with this element. The project is a 39 acre planned destination park located a quarter mile east of the intersection of Tennyson Road and Mission Boulevard in South Hayward. The the design phase of the project is complete and bids for construction are currently in process. Additional examples include the 1.4 megawatt solar project at the water resource recoveries facility, through which the city is expanding its solar field. Efforts to transition the city's fleet to hybrid and EV models is another example as well as the citywide EV charging projects. These 3 items also directly align with the city's climate action plan, which have been adopted as part of the general plan. The committee safety element serves to enhance the programs and services of the Hayward Police and Fire Department. The new Public Safety Center project aims to develop the conceptual design of the new facility, including site assessment of 2 potential locations: the former California Air National Guard site and the former City Hall building on Foothill Boulevard. The scope of the work encompasses identifying space needs, conducting site analysis, design, and creating facility layout plans, and cost analysis. The land use element establishes goals and policies to enhance Hayward's neighborhoods and districts with an attractive mix of uses and amenities. 1 of the main goals within this element is the goal to create attractive corridors that serve people traveling through the city. Median landscaping improvements and the new public art crosswalk project are examples that meet this goal....
2/6/25 – Library Commission Meeting
have the requirement for graduation. All of the PUSD schools do and possibly some of the private schools. We even use it for training as well. We put training videos online and we can yeah. Very extensive, awesome product that we like to use. I just have 1 question and might get into discussion. I'm just curious why the teen programs went so down. Like, it was 47 in 2022 and 23 in the in the data we got in the That's a great question. I think it came up we used this data for our prior presentation, and that same question came up. And I think it was how, and, Jeff, please correct me if I'm wrong. I have some recollection, and we can get you a more definitive answer. There was a change in the how we measured the the age groups. So what the library does is we report information to the state every year. So they give us categories, and we are trying to track all our stats based on the categories for the state report. It just makes it a lot easier. So I think there was something to do with that and possibly that we didn't measure teens in in that period in the same way. Is that Or did you measure them in all programs? Grama that We could have done that. They could have been but we can get you a a a more accurate answer on that. 1 of your slides described interactive programs for youth as something people wanted. What does that mean exactly? So I would consider that a program I would consider that a story time program, but I would also consider it, like, our robotics and coding programs for kids, any art and craft program, anything that they're participating in instead of just sitting and listening is how I would Okay. Like, not passive, I'm assuming. Even in the library world, I guess you could a a passive program could still be interactive and participatory. Passive would be more of, on your own versus a staff led grama, generally. And 1 of your slides mentioned community partnerships. Do we have any community partnerships with the library? We do through our, Value Humane Society with Paws to Read. It would be 1 of the biggest ones I can think of. School district. School district. Yes. Yes. That could definitely be a community partnership. I think we often refer to it as a district partnership, but it's it is still a community partnership. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Are we exploring the report further than or is this our discussion area? Oh, we are. Yes. I think we were trying to segment, we have, actually some questions we'd love for you to consider. Okay. You don't need to respond to them all, but just, you know, kind of to kick off the discussion, but you're, of course, welcome to discuss anything of interest. So I'll pass it back to Jeff for that. Excellent. So we're ready, moving on to our discussion. Using the perspective of your connections in the community and your personal experience, we would like you to input on the following. Do the planned program areas reflect the needs of our community? Are there emerging trends or community interests we should consider for future programming? And finally, what additional information would help you support outreach? And again, I'm more than happy to slide back to different slides here as needed. I guess 1 of the questions, and I'm not sure, you might have included it in the teen programs, but I know that in the past year or so, we had, the finance. We we sort of had a couple of presentations for teens or workshops for teens that had to do have the requirement for graduation. All of the PUSD schools do and possibly some of the private schools. We even use it for training as well. We put training videos online and we can yeah. Very extensive, awesome product that we like to use. I just have 1 question and might get into discussion. I'm just curious why the teen programs went so down. Like, it was 47 in 2022 and 23 in the in the data we got in the That's a great question. I think it came up we used this data for our prior presentation, and that same question came up. And I think it was how, and, Jeff, please correct me if I'm wrong. I have some recollection, and we can get you a more definitive answer. There was a change in the how we measured the the age groups. So what the library does is we report information to the state every year. So they give us categories, and we are trying to track all our stats based on the categories for the state report. It just makes it a lot easier. So I think there was something to do with that and possibly that we didn't measure teens in in that period in the same way. Is that Or did you measure them in all programs? Grama that We could have done that. They could have been but we can get you a a a more accurate answer on that. 1 of your slides described interactive programs for youth as something people wanted. What does that mean exactly? So I would consider that a program I would consider that a story time program, but I would also consider it, like, our robotics and coding programs for kids, any art and craft program, anything that they're participating in instead of just sitting and listening is how I would Okay. Like, not passive, I'm assuming. Even in the library world, I guess you could a a passive program could still be interactive and participatory. Passive would be more of, on your own versus a staff led grama, generally. And 1 of your slides mentioned community partnerships. Do we have any community partnerships with the library? We do through our, Value Humane Society with Paws to Read. It would be 1 of the biggest ones I can think of. School district. School district. Yes. Yes. That could definitely be a community partnership. I think we often refer to it as a district partnership, but it's it is still a community partnership. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Are we exploring the report further than or is this our discussion area? Oh, we are. Yes. I think we were trying to segment, we have, actually some questions we'd love for you to consider. Okay. You don't need to respond to them all, but just, you know, kind of to kick off the discussion, but you're, of course, welcome to discuss anything of interest. So I'll pass it back to Jeff for that. Excellent. So we're ready, moving on to our discussion. Using the perspective of your connections in the community and your personal experience, we would like you to input on the following. Do the planned program areas reflect the needs of our community? Are there emerging trends or community interests we should consider for future programming? And finally, what additional information would help you support outreach? And again, I'm more than happy to slide back to different slides here as needed. I guess 1 of the questions, and I'm not sure, you might have included it in the teen programs, but I know that in the past year or so, we had, the finance. We we sort of had a couple of presentations for teens or workshops for teens that had to do with budget and managing money and learning a little bit more. And I know that I I remember they were fairly popular. I mean, there's always been the the stock game, which is, you know, kind of interesting. It's certainly a learning opportunity, but it seems like there's a vast number of teens, a larger number of teens who could benefit from the the other, like, budget 1 0 1 workshop that I think that we did. And I I didn't I wasn't sure if that was still in here. I didn't see it called out. But it seems to me that increasingly, that's still an important factor. I mean, I hear more and more that that kids are coming out at coming out of college and just having absolutely no idea how to how to deal with their money. Yes. So, I know we have done programs in the past. We do also have digital resources. Our wife's financial ratings and reports has actually a lot of PDFs online that kind of talk about finance 1 0 1. But again, yeah, for a programming, perspective, yes, I think I think the future ultimate goal would be to to have those and to continue to have those. Yeah. Yeah. I think that having them as a group, I mean, it's it's great to have online resources, but we all have that. I mean, we all have that at home. But I think to have the the opportunity to have community among that age group is huge. And the fact that the ability to sort of see the fact that other people need to know the same thing. I mean, it's 1 thing if you're at home and you don't know and then you're kind of alone. But it's another thing if you're in a group, and you have some community and you all say, well, gee, I really don't know anything about this. You know, how can I get the help? I think there's a there's a hand holding element to that that's valuable. It's part of why we see so many teens in the library, like, after school and, you know, sharing about their homework and everything because it's community. So I I would encourage us to think about, you know, continuing to do that sort of, you know, that sort of, project. Is this the adulting? Was it, like, adulting? I think it was adulting 1 0 1. Yeah. I think it was something like that. Yes. We did have a, budget 1 0 1 type. I believe it may have even been an online, during it was sort of the Zoom era, but afterwards, we did the money out loud program. I wonder, could that be what you're thinking of? It was the guest speaker. The guest speaker. The office. Yeah. Ishmid actually was 1 of the panelists. She did great. I remember that you were involved in it. So Yeah. There was a lot of interest in that topic. Yeah. I I mean, I think it's good. I think parents actually would like their kids to learn it. And maybe at that point in their lives, the parents aren't the people that the kids are listening to. So it's kinda nice if there's another opportunity for that. Thank you. And I had 1 more thing. I may as well just go, and then I'm done. With regards to outreach, I was in I I was encouraged to see that we now have a listing of all the commissioners on the city website, although Ishmeet is missing. So so we need to we need to do that. But I also thought that when we send out, you know, the library newsletter that comes out, it might be worth occasionally, like, listing the commissioners and saying, hey. Do you know these people? These are people in your neighborhood. These are people I mean, I think when we sign up to be commissioners, 1 of the things that we sign up to be is public. I mean, that that we are a library commissioner. Not that we're giving out our personal information or anything, but but to say, do you know these people? You know, maybe these people are your friends. You could ask them about things that are going on at the library just so that our names are more out there, because I've talked to several of my neighbors who didn't know that I was a library commissioner. And, I mean, that's not a big deal or anything, but it's just sort of like they're like, oh, it's a surprise. Like, oh, you're a library commissioner. I have a question. But unless they know who we are, they they're not that conversation isn't gonna happen. So it's just a a thought that we might put that in the newsletter. Yeah. So we can definitely bring that forward. I think we have explored that. I think it would be done on a city level, you know, for consistency across commissions was sort of the feedback I got on that. I have some seen some cities do that with their commissions. And they've, you know, where they have I think Livermore's pushed out some bios. I know I have some colleagues now in Livermore, and I believe it is an opt in type situation where a commissioner who's gone through sort of a, you know, an academy, community academy, was profiled recently, profiled in a good way. Realized all that. And, really I thought it was really neat to see it. It was on social. And, you know, it talked about how they became a commissioner, you know, what their interest in supporting the community was, what their experience was. But my understanding, it was it was just it wasn't a consistent thing. It was just sort of a a, you know, a featured social post, that the commissioner had opted into. Yeah....
Hayward City Council Meeting April 15, 2025
I don't know why I bring this. I never look at it. Oh, I guess I need it for the Recording in progress. Progress. Good evening, everybody. Good evening, everybody. Wanna welcome and good evening to you too. I wanted to welcome everyone, to a special joint, meeting of the city council and Hayward redevelopment successor agency board. Today is 04/15/2025. I like to call a meeting to order. And if I could ask, council member Bonilla to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Absolutely. Please stand if you're able. Thank you. Madam city clerk, if you can please take the role. Yes. Thank you very much, mister mayor. Good evening. Council member Andrews? Present. Council member Bonilla junior? Present. Council member Goldstein? Present. Council member Roach? I understand she's running a few minutes late. Council member Syrup. Present. Council member Sir Menon. Present. Mayor Salinas. Present. Thank you. Moving on to we have a special presentation, this evening. This is annual National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. And, I know we have the police chief here. Do we have anyone else from the dispatch dispatcher? Dispatch is here. Thank you. Let's give our dispatcher a big round of applause, you know. Thank you. If I can have Councilmember Bonilla hold that up. And then, I'll read the proclamation and then we'll take a picture up here. And then, if you have a few a few words, you can always deliver those if you want. Okay. Proclamation. Whereas, emergencies that require police, fire, or emergency medical services can occur anytime. And whereas, when an emergency immediate response of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics is critical to the protection of life preservation life and preservation of property. And whereas the safety of our police officers and firefighters is dependent upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained from residents who telephone the 911 communication center. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are the first and most critical contacts our residents have with emergency services in times of distress. And whereas public safety telecommunicators provide information to and ensure the safety of our police officers and firefighters by monitoring their activities by radio. Whereas the members of the Hayward, where whereas the members of the Hayward 9 1 1 communication center have contributed substantially to the apprehension of criminals, suppression of fires, and treatment of patients. And whereas each dispatcher has exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their jobs. And whereas the, whereas the city of Hayward, OSE, you debt a gratitude to the dedicated men and women of the Hayward Police Department 9 1 1 communication center who dedicate their lives to answering calls from residents experiencing intense personal crises and during community wide disasters and who serve as the main points of contact for those persons seeking relief during an emergency. Now, therefore, I, Mark Salinas, mayor of the city of Hayward, do hereby proclaim the week of April 13 to the nineteenth 20 25 as National Public Safety Communications Week. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give our dispatchers a great big round of applause. This is where we, we we break Instagram right here. Yep. It's gonna turn fire. There you go. You hold it. Okay. Oh, yeah. She's coming. Yeah. There you go. Perfect. Perfect Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. If you wanted, you can say a few words. Mister mayor, council, thank you very much. This is an honor to be here. I just wanna recognize our emergency dispatch center. We have the best of the best. 247, our team is on duty here to help the citizens of Hayward when they have an emergency or a bridal, And I'm very proud of our team and, the amazing work that they do every single day, and you should all be proud too. So thank you very much for this honor. Thank you. Also, I wanted to, I wanted to acknowledge, a special student today. Her name is Giselle, Sanchez, who is an intern for the city clerk's office, and she's from the rising leaders program. Where's where's Giselle at? Is she here? Thank you very much, mister mayor. She's actually on her way here. Oh, she's Because she can't find parking. So Oh, she's parking. Okay. Good. That's you. Alright. Well, she comes from the rising leaders program. And, when, when she comes into the room I'll do this whole whole bit all over again to make sure she hears it. But she's, you know, she's a young student who's, trying to, get her way into local government. And so, it's always good to see students, starting young and, early. So good. Save your applause. We'll applause her when she gets in. Okay. Let's see. Next is public comment. Next is public comment, and this is reserved for people who would like to make a comment on something on the agenda or not on the agenda. I do have 1, 2, 3, 4. I have 6 comment cards, and let me see if there's anybody online. Okay. I will start with lehi me start with online. Is it Ariana Castellanos? Hi. Is this the time to comment on the consent or anything on the agenda? If if it is something on the consent calendar, I will, ask for public comment on on the consent calendar when that comes. So if you wanna wait, you can wait. I'm hoping to comment on something on the work session agenda. Should I wait or Yes. To comment now? Yes. Why don't you wait and then I'll, I'll I'll call back and I'll be Okay. No worries. Thanks. Just checking. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Next speaker is, Elizabeth Lisonbee. Welcome. Thank you. It's interesting being on this side. Good evening, mayor and council members and city manager Alvarez. I'm Elizabeth Blanton. As most of you know, I'm a senior planner here in the development services department. I wanted to come to public comment tonight to tell you that I've been with the city for almost 7 years now, and I've really enjoyed my time working here. A major reason for that is that I've always felt that the city has valued me not only for the services that I provide for our community, but also as a whole person with a life and responsibilities outside of my job. Specifically, this was demonstrated when following the COVID pandemic, when it was time for our temporary work, flexibility to end. The city progressively decided to establish a permanent hybrid work policy with options for remote work. In the development services department, where I work, many of us were able to benefit from this hybrid work schedule, and this has led to better work life balance. It's boosted our employee morale. And while still allowing us to fully cover our permit center, our general inquiry boxes, and our e permits portal, which is open 24 7. For me personally, I being able to work from home for part of the week has cut my commute time. I live in Richmond, so that's 10 plus hours a week if I was coming in every day, down to 4 to 6 depending on the week. It's also allowed me to use my lunch break to walk my dog or handle chores at home, things that would normally fall to a weekend activity. So then when I am here, I can be fully a weekend activity. So then when I am here, I can be fully rested, present, and able to serve our community. So as a as a result, I was disheartened to receive an email from the city manager yesterday directing all staff, to come back into the office full time. The decision was made without consulting staff. And from the email that was sent, it's unclear why this significant policy change is necessary, and moreover, why a 1 size fits all approach is appropriate. Hayward's decision to entirely eliminate remote work also goes beyond what many other Alameda County jurisdictions are doing and even what beyond what the state is requiring. So, doctor Alvarez, you've told us on numerous occasions that you are driven by data and that you welcome feedback and collaboration. Staff would be happy to provide you with data demonstrating our effectiveness in serving the community when working from home. We also would be happy to partner with you to identify areas where we could improve our service, and develop tailored strategies for doing so. But in order to do that, we need to be invited to the table. We all have a shared goal here to provide the Hayward community with the best service possible, and there's no reason why this needs to be at odds with the city allowing for work life balance for its employees. So thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Thank you. And and I have to apologize if I'm looking down, it's because I'm I'm taking notes. So, please. Next speaker is, Rick Rivera. Good evening, Mayor, city council, city manager Alvarez. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here this evening. First, I wanted to make a quick announcement that, beginning on May 12, the Hayward operated paratransit program will be doing a soft launch for our wheelchair accessible vehicle, service as well as our companion ride service for people who need help getting to and from their home. This is a service funded entirely by Measure BD, which was approved by Alameda County voters in 2014. So I would like to thank all of you, as well as the entire Hayward community for making it possible, to provide this service to our older adults and people with disabilities. My name is Rick Rivera. I am a analyst with the community services division. I would also like to take a moment to address data. This is what I do. I'm an analyst. I I analyze. Despite the ongoing debate regarding the end of hybrid and remote work, there is remarkably little hard data. Our very little does not mean none. In issue 630 of the peer reviewed journal Nature, published on 06/12/2024, Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Robing Han of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and James Liang of Peking University published the results of a 6 month randomized control trial of 1,612 employees at a firm with a market cap of 20,000,000,000. Randomized controlled trials, as you know, are the gold standard, of experimentation and very rare in the social sciences. I would like to share these results with the council. The experimental group, which was provided a hybrid work schedule, experienced the following. A 33% reduction in overall attrition, a 40% reduction in attrition for non management employees. The non management employees were a sample size of 1,217, by the way. A 52% reduction in quit rates for employees with a 45 minute or longer commute each way, a 54% reduction in attrition for female employees. And while I do not have hard data on this, having been at city hall for nearly 6 years, I can say that that does represent a significant portion of those of us who are here working. The data showed no significant difference in productivity between the control group and the experimental group. The data found a statistically significant improvement in manager perception of hybrid work, for a largely negative prior perception, to the experiment. Now, I did find 1 benefit to, all, work in office. In a survey of 1,500 CEOs, 20 5 percent did say that they would be utilizing that to reduce their overall, personnel costs, by motivating attrition. Thank you very much for your time, and have a good evening. Thank you. Next speaker is, and forgive me if I mispronounce this. Is it Cal, Kowalski? That was fine, Mr. Mayor. I only see you walking in on a City Hall. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, and my colleagues, up on the Fourth Floor Of City Hall. I've worked as a planner for various cities for my entire career. It's 25 years now, and I've never had to stand before a council in this type of situation before. It's unfortunate, but I felt strongly, I feel strongly enough about it that I felt like I needed to say a few things tonight. As civil servants, it's our job to provide our customers with the information they're looking for, to answer their questions, and to get them on their way. That's the most important thing, not making sure there's a **** in every chair, in every cubicle at city hall, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. I don't disagree that city hall should be open 5 days a week to the public, and that every department should have representatives there to assist customers who do take the time to come in. That's how a good government agency is supposed to operate. But it's simply not necessary to have every single employee be at city hall every day. We've proven that over the last 5 years. Let each department come up with its own plan to make sure it has some people here every day....
Oakland City Head Start Advisory Board December 19, 2024
Transcript Hi. I've never Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot. You can. It's it's good. It's good. Thank you. Yeah. Please. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the City of Oakland Head Start Advisory Board meeting. We're gonna go ahead and get started. The meeting is being, called to order on December 19, 2024 at 3:40, PM. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Really? I'll just speak loud. Kate Chopp will fix it. So what we'd like to ask is if, our translation support, International Connect I'm sorry, International Contact could, present the international contact, instructions for interpretation, with miss Lucia. Yes. Of course. Yes. Hello, everyone. This is Luciana from International Contact, your language host for today. We have Spanish and Cantonese interpreters for this meeting and interpretation channels have been created. 1 moment while we 1 moment while we provide instructions. So, Vanessa, can you go ahead? Yes. Okay. Now, Olive, can you provide instructions? Cantonese. Cantonese. Thank you. Alright. Alright. Now for English virtual participants, please go to the English channel. Go to the world icon in the lower part of your screen and select English or e n. If you are using a smartphone, click on the 3 dots and select English. This is very important if you want to hear the interpreted comments into English in the latter part of the meeting. Reminder for English speakers is to, please, speak slowly so interpreters can keep up with you. So please keep that in mind. Now, interpreters will be asked to come to the microphone to provide instructions there as well and after instructions are finished, we, the multilingual instructions will be concluded. So now Vanessa, Olive, please, go to the mic. Rita Ma from Zoom? Or do you want me to go up to the mic? Everyone can hear me. To the mic? E either either either place is fine, Vanessa. Okay. Okay. Thanks. So do you want me to repeat everything? Yes, please. Okay. Thank you. Olive, please. Thank you. Alright. So this concludes the multilingual instructions. Thank you. Thank you, international contact team. So I want to, at this moment, let the, members know that there will be 3 different opportunities to speak, in the meeting. 1 will be a call for public comment. You'll have 1 minute to ask a question or make a comment. The next will be during the meeting, where discussion might occur, comments can be made, questions asked before an agenda item is voted on. And then at the end of the meeting at, open forum, members of the public or members here in the room, can make, you know, make a statement or ask a question that is not on the agenda. Each opportunity will be about 1 minute. So at this moment, I'd like to call roll. Chair Molly Tafoya. Thank you. Chair vice chair Lisonbee Bondi. Excused. Member doctor Jave Ross. Here. Thank you. Member Kevin Bridal? Present. Thank you. And member doctor Mari Tomarath? Present. Thank you. Member doctor j j Watkins? Excused. Member me Christina Michaud? Here. Thank you. Member Julia Forte Bridal is So we do have quorum. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to ask, chair Tafoya if you have any announcements you'd like to make. Nope. Okay. Thank you. Then we can proceed with the business of the day. We do have call for public comment. Wanna make sure we do that. Are there any interest in making comments or asking questions here in the room? I see no hands raised, on on Zoom. So at this moment, no public comment. Great. Thank you. Thanks to everybody for joining. We have Quorum, and it's almost a holiday bridal. Home stretch. So thank you for being here. First up for agenda items, review and approval of today's agenda. Are there any additions or edits to this agenda? I do believe that there is an edit under the financial report, for the financial 23 sorry. The final 2324 reconciled report for children's initiative. Is that something that we wanted to, present in January? Okay. So that was the only, staff request. Great. I move to approve the revised, December 19th board meeting agenda. Can I get a second? Kevin, do I have a second? All those in favor, please say aye. Yes. Aye. Aye. Aye. Approved. Great. Review and approval of the board meeting minutes from November 21st. Just a reminder, you did not have to be in attendance to review and approve. So we have quorum to approve those. Are there any edits or comments on last month's board meeting? Just that you were missed. I'm sorry. That's all. Sick kiddo. It happens, as you know. Well, then I will not move. Don't let somebody else move to approve the board meeting minutes. I move to approve the November board meeting minutes. Christina. I second the approval of the November 21st minutes. All those in favor, say aye. Yes. Aye. Great. Thanks. And then review and approval of the special advisory board meeting minutes from November 14th. Any amendments, comments, edits? Thank you for your participation. Thank you to staff for convening that. I know that was extra, and we appreciate you. I'll move to approve the advisory the special advisory board meetings from November 14th. Can I get a second? Kevin Vermont, second. All those in favor? Yes. Aye. Aye. Great. Thanks. Next up. We're on to action items. Advisory board officer elections. And Divina, I think that's you. Do you wanna take this 1? So this agenda item is actually for you to decide, when you would like to do the officer elections. The parent policy council, voted to move their elections to January because they didn't have they had just about making quorum. And so what they chose to do at the meeting was to actually just review what the different officer positions are, look at who has been in them, and give an opportunity for those current officers to just speak to what those roles are. So we can either go into office elections now or you can, choose to follow that similar pattern that the policy council chose. But we need we need a vote either way about which way which way you wanna go. We do. So we are missing 2? We're missing 3. We're missing 3 folks. So how do how do folks feel about waiting until January if we have more of a robust quorum? Okay. And, do we feel like we need a review of the positions, or do we Do we have it in the packet, Tracy? Not in the packet there in the bylaws. Yeah. Though. I think the the positions we vote on are just the 2. It's just chair and vice chair. So, I don't know if folks feel like they need an updated overview. I I don't, but I've been here a minute. We can do it again in at the elections. Yeah. And there is room to add any other office positions that you'll see fit. Yeah. So if, for example, you wanted to add fiscal or anything else, you're welcome to do so as well. So I just put that out there for you all to consider for January as well. So then we'd just ask for a vote on that. I actually think it might be helpful to know for the January meeting if we've if this advisory board has had any other positions between besides chair and vice chair? I don't recall anything else....
Oakland City Discipline Matrix Ad Hoc Committee (12/18/2024)
Transcript We're now live. Thank you for joining us today for our discipline matrix ad hoc committee meeting. The time is 6:0:2. We have our chair, Ricardo Garcia Costa, who is in transit. We have our captain Bridal Hubbard, and we have deacon Reginald Lyles. Let me see if there's anyone else in the audience that we should acknowledge. We have 1 participant from our from the public, miss Bridal. Welcome. And, we're going to get started. I'm gonna turn it over to captain Hubbard. Alright. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I we're gonna start with, like, we left off last week talking about custody of prisoners, and I'm sure that will take up most of our time this evening. But I do wanna go back to 38470. If you can see my screen here, subversive organizations. I made some changes to it. I'll read it again. No member employee shall knowingly join, affiliate with, or support any organization, group, or gang involved in illegal activities, or designated as subversive by a competent authority within the Oakland Police Department, including the chief of police, CPRA, or an authorized designee. Such groups include, but are not limited to, organizations that seek to undermine, disrupt, or overthrow any form of lawful authority, whether that authority be vested in federal, state, or municipal government, city councils, or or other recognized lows local governing bodies or laws and regulations legitimately established under the jurisdictions of California, the United States, or other lawfully constituted entities. Additionally, any organization engaging in illegal acts against public order and safety may be considered subversive. The designation of a subversive organization will be based on a preponderance of evidence demonstrating that the organization actively participates in activities intended to undermine, disrupt, or overthrow such lawful authority or commit illegal acts against the public welfare, Membership or affiliation for any purpose related to advancing lawful objectives is strictly prohibited, except when such involvement is essential for official duties supported by a lawful investigative purpose and authorized in writing by the chief of police or a designated official. A long 1 there. The main change here is right in the middle. It was requested last week that we expand on what lawful authority is. That 1 is subversive against and included federal, state, municipal, city, local laws, California, United States, etcetera. And, as I stated last week, California Post, you'll see it here on the side. They have government codes that govern them. It doesn't explicitly address affiliations with subversive organizations. But it does talk about being in good moral standing. So 1, assumably, would not be hired if they're part of a subversive organization because that would not be considered in good standing. Questions on that section? Excellent. I I definitely appreciate the the hack at this. This is pretty, pretty layered. The 1 thing that's kinda standing up to me is the area in the first paragraph at the end, the bolded area where it says designated as the the mercifully competent authority within the Oakland Police Department. Can we also the way it's written right there, I have no problem with that. But in terms of law enforcement, can we also expand it to, like, any other kind of, like, law enforcement, you know, folks that are not whether it be, like, an FBI or federal agent. I mean, there might be, like, a submersive gang that's in a database with the FBI that's been located, but maybe OPD doesn't have it on their radar yet or something. You know? Sure. Yeah. I mean, that that would be the only thing I would add on that, but that I like that. That that looks pretty good. But that probably won't be my final I'll write that better, other law enforcement IDs to include, maybe. Okay? Like, you know, DOJ, all that type of stuff, Ryan. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Well, if if an organization decided to to, to have a march and demonstrate against, let's say, the Oakland Police Department for what they thought was some unfair practice or some decision made by some court or whatever, and they marched in the streets. Let's say, like, it was the NAACP. That would be a legal act marching in the street. Could they be considered subversive? What is what are what is their I think if if it's not illegal against public order or safety, I would say no. Well, you know, every demonstration that happened in the past was an illegal act. Every 1 of them. Either they had them trespassing, or, they were didn't have a permit to march in the street or not. So what they were doing was illegal. There's no question about that. And, so, you know, I you know, some of us may be so young that we don't remember those days that we think we take for granted that, someone or a group exercising their, free speech and demonstrate it, I just don't want them to be considered as being subversive. See, I thought the Suburbs Act was not against overthrow of lawful authorities. I thought being subversive was was overthrowing governments in cities, municipalities. You know, you know, I think you ought to have a right to be able to demonstrate against the police. If the police have done anything, as long as it's peaceful, and you ought to be able to come out in the street and protest, for whatever reason you wanna protest. But if you're out protesting, then you then now we say, hey. You're a subversive organization. I thought subversive means overthrowing a government. And it seems like it's blended here in my reading of it is, you know, just, being disruptive against the lawful authority. Well, as a police officer, I'm a lawful authority, And and people have a right to demonstrate against, the the police. Or maybe you think they don't. So it appears that we're hung up on seek to undermine or disrupt, if it just says overthrow. Is that Yeah. I don't I don't see I don't I I think you ought to be able to disrupt. I think that's free speech. I think that's first amendment stuff. And, but I'm not trying to overthrow the government. I just think that the the police are acting in a way that I wish they did not act. But I don't wanna destroy the government. I'm not subversive. I'm I'm a citizen exercising my first amendment rights. I don't think there's a disagreement on the citizen side. I think this speaks to membership like the officers. So do we want officers doing that? And if I'm if I'm hearing correctly, I'm a say okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. No. No. No. You go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. I yeah. Gotcha. An officer, an Oakland police officer, right, who's off duty and demonstrated against a agency in Modesto that did something that was untoward. Can can we now say that this officer's, is subversive? I don't think he is. And I think he has a right to demonstrate if if he's protest protesting against, you know, against, you know, spilling of oil in the bay or, environmental issues or fresh air, are you saying that if an officer does any of those things, they're subversive? I don't think they're subversive. They I think they're demonstrating, and I think they have a right to do that under the first amendment. And, so I think disrupting is, is a little too goes a little too far. Yeah. So as long oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. That's my I'm I'm I'm done. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then and along those same lines, I also agree with you. Like, where does like, a slippery slope. Like, where do we draw the line, or where do you go from, like, exercising free speech or the right to gather legally, right, to now you're becoming submersive. Now you're disrupting public order. Right? I mean, what if you had a peaceful protest and now folks end up breaking property and disrupting the bridge and shutting down the street? Now they're doing illegal activity. Could that be interpreted as now you're being submersive to, like, government order and law? Right? I don't think you'd be I I think it's wrong I think you're right. To deem a police officer off duty exercising his first amendment rights. And and and for that person to be deemed subversive. I thought this this subversive would be being part of a group, you know, criminal enterprise, you know, some some gang that is making, you know, illegal activity or some group that wants to overthrow the government Yeah. Or overthrow law enforcement. I have a problem with that. Yeah. Like January 6th. Like January 6th. Thank you very much. That At what point at what point, captain Hubbard, just kind of on a side note, just I'm trying to just process stuff. If if a cop is just out exercising their free speech, you know, the example Dekelau said, like, let's say, like, an oil spill in the bay and there's, like, a group that's protesting a oil company or, you know, has nothing to do with, like, law enforcement issues or anything like that. Right? And they're out there exercising their speech. And then at some point, let's say and and, again, I'm not saying I'm not suggesting that this is subversive, but just on a side note, in terms of just, like, illegal behavior, like, let's say a group starts splintering off, breaking property, disrupting traffic, doing things that are basically, could be classified as, you know, you get cited for or arrested for. Right? At what point, not suggesting that it's subversive, but at what point is an officer like, okay. Maybe I need to walk away from this situation because if I get photographs next to a person breaking glass, they identify me as OPD. This could now be a negative reflection or bridal real repute to the organization. Like, is there a point now that you have responsibility as an officer that, like, there's laws being broken around you that you kind of, like, step away from that? So you so you so that there's not a perception that you're a part of that. How does that work? Just aside from the subversive issue, just just on a side note. How does that work? Yeah. I mean, we have an obedience to law section and and if you're the the evidence will have to support your involvement in this, but the the initial allegation would be obedience to laws where you're you are there, you are participating and can and what then turned into illegal behavior and the officer can be charged with that. If to take it further, that group is considered subversive by, let's say, a competent authority, but more of more over preponderance of evidence that they're trying to overthrow something, undermine it to where it collapses, if you will, then the added charge would be subversive organization. Sure. Gotcha. Okay. So there is a lower level of just being around legal behavior, and that's not necessarily with this clause. This right here, 3838471 is really around the immersive, like, the intent to over like, I would under I would I would think it's more around seeking or the intent to actually convert an established system or institution or government. You know? Yeah. That's what this is what it's speaking towards. Right? I just wanna make sure, to **** and Lyle's point, that we're not creating something that's meant for that, And then it ends up impacting people's free speech, you know, and and right to assemble and things like that. Well, again, here it says undermine or disrupt a lawful authority. And and I and and disagreeing with a police officer is not subversive. Or disagreeing with a police agency is not subversive. Overthrowing the city government is subversive. Planning dynamite, disrupting the the, the government process, you know, that could be deemed as subversive. But disagreeing with a police officer is not subversive. I don't have to disagree with agree with the lawful authority even when I'm wrong. I'm innocent to proven guilty. So III just think that the the the way a lot you know undermine disrupt overthrow any form of lawful authority. Now, you know police officers can be disagreed with. We can disagree with There's too much of a slippery slope is what I'm hearing. I'm sorry? There's too much of a slippery slope is what I'm hearing then. Because anything could get interpreted as I wanna be ******** on this. Police officers are not governments. They're not always right. They are agent of the government disagreeing with a police officer. You have a right to do that as a citizen. The the government, the citizens, the police and the the the the government has to prove me guilty. I'm innocent and I have a right to protest to say no, I'm innocent. You know, I have a right to do that. And so now if you have, it written in here, this could be interpreted that, well, I'm a lawful authority. You disagreeing, you're disrupting, a lawful authority. Well, we got enough laws on the books, to deal with that 148 and all of that. You know, you can use 148 P. C. You don't have to have this in your teaching folks that anybody who disagrees with you, you know, is subversive. They're not subversive. They're innocent until proven guilty. It just indicates to me how far we've come in this country, And it's scary to me. How far we've degraded from my political perspective. You know, police officers are are not absolute, you know, they're not governments. They're agents of the government, but they all lawful authorities, and I and and we can we can disagree with them....
Oakland City Planning Commission December 18, 2024
Transcript Good afternoon to our 1 guest in the room, but in addition, we do always have a TV audience. I will note that you can see we have a quorum of planning commissioners. We are waiting for our chair. It is 3 o'clock as soon as the chair is here and ready to start. This will be the December 18, 2024 Planning Commission. And if the 1 member of the audience would like to speak on any item you're welcome to fill out a, card. It looks like you already have. And if you parked, and this is for the commission as well, if you parked in the garage at 250 Franco Gowa Plaza, you may use the promotion that the city offers for free parking, which is posted next to Hanifa. Thank you. Thank you, Catherine. All right. It is what? 302 and I will call the December 18th planning commission meeting to order. Let's do a roll call. Alright. Commissioner Maurice Robb. Here. Commissioner Shahar Shirazi. Here. Commissioner Josie Aarons. Here. Commissioner Alex Randolph. Here. Vice chair Natalie Sandoval. Here. Each chair, Jennifer Rank. Here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Okay. So let's go right to commission business. Is there any agenda discussion? No agenda discussion. Is there a director's report? No director's report. Any informational report? Oh, I sorry. I'm I thought that bylaws would be under information report. No information report. It's actually further down on the agenda. Oh yeah. Gotcha. Okay. All right. So no committee reports. I don't think any committees have. No committee has met since your last meeting. So that takes us to commission matters. Number 1, the, commission bylaws. Right. And, apologies. Yes. So we put this as number 1, so it's identifiable on our webpage with, staff reports, etcetera, although it's not specifically a public hearing. This is the, proposal which you've already seen once, the proposal to adopt new planning commission bylaws. And a reminder that first of all we'd like to thank Aaron Lemur who brought the draft bylaws to this body, quite a while ago. Aaron, I will note on the side, Aaron is actually not in the Bureau of Planning. He helped us out tremendously when we were significantly understaffed by taking on this project. He was also our, our Landmarks Board Secretary at that time. And so he while we have been working on staffing, Aaron held onto this project, which is to draft and work with you, the planning commission, to adopt bylaws, and the reason we had this as an important item over the past year you have bylaws but they're pretty old and they do not allow for hybrid meetings. And the state has noted to all municipalities that in order to have hybrid meetings, we need every board and commission who would benefit from that. They must have bylaws that allow hybrid meetings. This was an opportunity to, look at our bylaws overall and improve them, make them more efficient, responsive to our times and how we actually operate. And Aaron brought the proposal to you again. I can't I can't exactly remember when May 15th May. And he heard your questions and he worked with the city attorney to revise the proposal and he's bringing back a staff report with responses to your questions today on those proposed bylaws and our hope is that you will be willing to consider making a motion and approving those bylaws today. And with that, I know that Aaron Lehmer does have a presentation for you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Catherine. If we could get this slide up. Thank you so much. Yeah. And, good afternoon, chair rank and, commissioners. This is again the second reading of the proposed bylaws, for the planning commission and, just wanted to do a quick, recap of what they intend to do. Basically, they want to establish, you know, an updated framework for you all to conduct your business, and to conduct decision making. They wanna they wanna clarify roles and responsibilities, for both you as commissioners, and support staff, and they also clarify processes and procedures, for hosting hybrid meetings. And, lastly, they, help to clarify, processes that must be followed for remote or hybrid meetings. Going on, I'd like to, respond, to the, requests and some of the issues that were raised at the May 15th meeting, at the first reading of these bylaws. The first issue concerns the role of, the commission around reports. I believe it was, chair Shirazi, raised these, issue that there could be greater clarity around that particular point. And so, in the, article 2 duties of commission 4th bullet item, what we've done is, proposed to modify that language, basically to say that the commission shall also provide recommendations to be included in staff reports on subjects requested by the city administrator or the city council. So just to clarify that we are talking about staff reports, and that you would be making recommendations around those. So that's the first, proposed, revision. Second, the issue around, when planning commissions may begin, hosting hybrid meetings here in Oakland. That, was raised by commissioner Sandoval noting that, hybrid meetings have also been, you know, underway at city council and that there have been, you know, staffing, done provisions made for those particular meetings. However, we wanted to kind of further clarify, I think, where we're at with the planning commission, namely that in terms of readiness, we think that we need to meet at least, 3 key conditions. Number 1, having the appropriate technologies ready, installed, here at at city hall, which thanks to the great work of, KTOPS has already been done. Secondly, as Catherine was mentioning, we wanna make sure that the actual bylaws, which codify those processes are adopted by the commission. So that's something you can, do here today. And thirdly, that there is, sufficient, city resources that are allocated to, fund support staff for the hosting of those hybrid meetings, particularly to make sure that, remote attendees can participate in an equal manner with respect to, in person participants during the course of those meetings. And so that would mean, you know, there would need to be the support staff that would be assigned, trained in those processes, and available during the course of regularly scheduled planning commission meetings using, Zoom or whatever comparable platform we have available. The 3rd issue that was, raised at the May 15th meeting, concerned the accessibility for persons with disabilities. And we think that there's a natural place for, for including that within the bylaws under Article 3, meetings of the commission on page 3, paragraph 2, by adding the following language. All regular and special meetings of the Planning Commission should be open to the public and will be accessible to all persons in accordance with local, state and federal law. And lastly, we wanted to, I think, address a question that, commissioner Randolph had, posed around, you know, what commissioners can do to request to participate in remote meetings. And, staff just wanted to note that, you know, once the planning commission begins hosting hybrid meetings, then commissioners can check with the secretary or support staff, for further instructions on that process. And we just really wanted to note that, you know, there are there are only special circumstances under which those are allowed and those are, outlined in the city attorney's frequently asked questions document that we included as attachment D in a supplement to the staff report. So, with that, again, I'll just echo, I think, Catherine's, urging that to move forward here with all of these processes, we really do need to have codified approved laws from you as the planning commission. And, if there are any questions concerning these and or the issues raised, please let us know. Thank you. Thanks, Aaron. Appreciate that. Are there any questions? No? All right. I will go ahead and open public comment. There's no public comment for this item. I will close the public hearing and bring it back up for discussion. Is everyone, I'm guessing those that commented in May are satisfied. So so, does someone want to make a motion? We might, beat our record of the- at the last hearing. I can make a motion to approve, adopt the bylaws as revised. Motion by vice chair Sandoval. I'll second the motion. And a second by, I was about to say chair, but commissioner Shirazi. Commissioner Robb. Yes. Commissioner Shirazi. Yes. Commissioner Arons. Yes. Commissioner Randolph. Yes. Vice chair Sandoval. Yes. Chair rank. Yes. Motion passes unanimously and these will be posted in a number of places on our planning commission web page. We will plaster it all over the website where appropriate. And we'll keep them in our city files for use into the future. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Erin. Okay. Do we have a city attorney's report? No city attorney's report. Okay. Open forum. I'm guessing there are no speaker cards. Yes. We have 1 speaker. Okay. Yes. And it's Christian Rock, Bach, I mean. Christian Bach. You may come up. Please state your full name for the record, and you have 2 minutes. Over here. Oh, right here. You should be able to simply speak into the mic. Is it working? Yes. It's working. Because not everyone brought their hearing aid. Okay. So hi, guys. My name is Christian Bok. I am just a regular citizen. Currently, we live in San Diego, and we bought, land in the Oakland Hills, property that has been vacant, or empty since the fire of 91. And I'm here because I'm trying to find access or just an open door for someone to help me out with my issues with, the planning and building department. We are trying to get the building permit for a new residential home, and currently, we are supposed to work with someone, who when she first introduced to us, when we submitted the paperwork, said that she was probably not going to be the 1, who was working on the on the case because she didn't have experience. And then later on, once we started submitting, she is actually the person who is, working our, building application. And currently, we have issues, where the planning department announces that the time frame for, the permit would take 12 to 14 months. And currently, she's requesting the lady that we're working with is requesting a creek permit or a creek protection permit. And my understanding is that, creek protection permit is only required once per property. And in order to prove to her that this has already been done in the prior, building application from a previous owner, she wants us to submit again an application. So, like, those are the issues we're facing here. And, apart from the fact that I think we're living in a digital age, for me, it's very difficult to talk to people in the planning department when there is no 1 to talk to. The, in person meetings that you have on Sorry. Your time is up. You may complete your last statement. Okay. So, regarding what what you guys are doing here for for Zoom meetings, etcetera, When we are trying to talk to people from the city, sometimes we have well, not some we don't have an an opportunity to talk to them in person, so they scheduled Zoom meetings. And during the Zoom meetings, they don't even turn the camera on. So sometimes you feel like you're you're not in a Zoom meeting, but you basically have a conference phone call. And I don't know if that's something that you guys I mean, it's what you're doing is is fine, and I don't think that's an issue here for you guys. But overall, I think should be important to notice that, like, if you're having a meeting with someone over a Zoom meeting, that they should be present and visible. But that's just what we have. So I'm really just here to see if maybe after the meeting, someone can approach me and tell me if there is an open door or a way for me to start communicating with someone regarding that matter. Because we feel, if we're investing here, I don't know, this house is probably gonna be, like, 1,600,000. That's money that's going into the local area since we're building here. And I think that should be an important issue for the city also that people that are willing to invest in Oakland, you know, should, you know, try to get some help. And so my name is Christian Bok, but that's that's all I have to say. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Catherine, is there a way that we can try to facilitate something for him to in terms of someone to talk to, or how do we handle that? Yes. So my email address is on the web page. It's probably how you found out about this meeting, and it's probably listed on the agenda too. I'm not looking at the agenda....
