CITY HALL §1 FRANK H. OGAWA PLAZA, 2 nd Floor § OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94612
Honorable Treva Reid
Councilmember, District 7
Date: March 16, 2023
To: Mayor Thao, Interim City Administrator Falk and City Councilmembers Re: District 7 Budget Priorities and Policy Directives Memorandum
510-238-7007
[email protected]
Dear Mayor Thao, Interim City Administrator Falk, and City Councilmembers,
As we develop the Fiscal Year 2023-2025 budget my number one priority is to deliver more for our most vulnerable community members, and for all Oaklanders to thrive with a just recovery.
Together, we can deliver a more equitable multi-billion-dollar budget and ensure our workforce is adequately staffed, equitably paid, and supported to deliver critical and essential services citywide.
Together, we can increase accountability, transparency, action, and results to get Oakland back on track and regain our financial footing as we come through this historic budget deficit.
It is imperative that we maintain strong fiscal stewardship with sound budgetary decisions informed by our adopted policies in the face of heightened structural short and long-term financial challenges.
We must lead out in a prudent manner managing the budget and ensuring sufficient unrestricted revenue and emergency reserves to tackle the rising expenses.
With that, I am submitting our budget priorities aligned with our community pillars and initial District 7 Budget Survey results with accompanying policy directives for your consideration.
FISCAL YEAR 2023-2025 BUDGET PRIORITIES
Keep Oakland Clean & Beautiful
• Dedicate a crew of Oakland Public Works and Human Services Department staff + equipment to provide "clean and clear" intervention operations, and address "re- encampment" activities ($833,000)
• Dedicate an Oakland Public Works Illegal Dumping Blitz Crew: Assign a 4 FTE person crew serving District 7 + equipment costs to provide regular and routine maintenance to beautify East Oakland business and commercial corridors ($833,000) • Dedicate an Oakland Public Works Median Maintenance Crew: Assign a 4 FTE person crew serving District 7 + equipment cost to provide regular and routine maintenance to the city's 120 medians ($833,000)
• Negotiate and finalize new terms in our Waste Management contract • Fund bi-monthly community bulky block parties and beautification events in each Council district
• Revitalize East Oakland parks through maintenance and infrastructure improvements • Support citywide community-based partners addressing illegal dumping and blight with an emphasis on hiring Oakland residents, including unhoused community members
Keep Oakland Safe & Protected
Public Safety and Violence Prevention:
• Double our violence prevention, intervention, gender-based, and healing/trauma care programs, including Ceasefire. Apply for grants, including from the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program, the U.S. Department’s Office of Justice Programs Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative and Violence Reduction Grant, and Community Policing Development Grant Programs. • Increase coordination with Alameda County and community-based organizations to build on the reimagining public safety task force recommendations, community healing, and restorative justice measures.
• Expand the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO) program to 24/7 citywide operations and implement a dedicated dispatch number • Budget sufficient police academies and build a pipeline of Oakland-grown sworn and civilian police department personnel (911 dispatchers, criminal investigators, community foot patrol, crime lab, beat officers…) Enhance recruitment partnerships with Merritt College and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)
• Dedicated foot patrol (resourced through the recently awarded U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Hiring Program grant, violence and burglary suppression units in East Oakland business corridors (Hegenberger Rd., MacArthur Blvd., International Blvd., Foothill Blvd., and Bancroft Ave.)
• Establish an annual gun buy-back program
• Invest more deeply into mental health services for violence interrupters, life coaches and other staff in the Department of Violence Prevention
Traffic Safety and Calming Measures:
• Sustain traffic enforcement unit
• Fund traffic safety solutions in District 7 locations, including:
• Holly St. between 96th Ave. and 98th Ave. – traffic calming measures for detouring vehicles taking side streets to avoid the AC Transit Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) traffic on International Blvd. ($30,000)
• 105th between San Leandro & International Blvd. – install 3 traffic circles ($750,000) • Plymouth St. & 106th Ave. – traffic calming and violence prevention measures to prevent speeding and sideshows Plymouth: 5 traffic circles; 106th: 10 traffic circles ($600,000)
• Mountain Blvd. between Keller Ave. and 98th Ave. – traffic calming solutions for this significant stretch of arterial roadway ($100,000)
• No Parking Signs and striped curbs along 105th & Edes Ave and Skyline Blvd. from Grass Valley Rd. to Keller Ave.
• Funding through Capital Improvement Project for the Oak Knoll Development Creekside Way traffic signal relocation
Wildfire Safety, Prevention, and Vegetation Management:
• Oakland Fire Department Wildfire Safety and Vegetation Management ($125,00 per year); sustain the current budget and agreement between Emergency Services Management and the Oakland Fire Safe Council Division (EMSD); allocate funding so that the City of Oakland can perform traffic studies on the evacuation routes within the city as part of Emergency Preparedness and Wildfire Safety.
• Funding to remove hazardous Eucalyptus trees along Golf Links Rd. in partnership with CAL FIRE (California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection)
School Safety:
• Double school safety funding by leveraging resources with OUSD to enhance campus safety, including but not limited to applying for no-match grant funding through the U.S.
Department of Justice Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Grant Program
• Fund traffic safety risks assessments and safety measures for District 7 schools to deter reckless driving and illicit behavior
• Maintain funding for crossing guards at established OUSD school sites
City Facilities and Infrastructure Resilience:
• Strengthen IT (Information Technology) network, with ongoing cybersecurity monitoring, software, and data systems upgrades, along with dedicated staff • Expand OakWifi to the East Oakland Senior Center
• Complete the deferred maintenance at the East Oakland Senior Center • Install storm drains from Ettrick St. to Golf Links Rd. • Repair potholes, sidewalks, and streets on high-injury network locations in East Oakland
Keep Oakland Housed
Preserve, Protect, and Produce:
• Human Services Department Home Preservation Program for Seniors – ($200,000) fund a 2- year data-driven pilot project with the goal of creating a pipeline to physical improvements focused on accessibility and health for seniors that can include renters, owners, single-family and multi-unit dwellings
• Support the Black Housing Advisory Taskforce (BLACK HAT), joining in to request a one‐ time $1.5 billion state investment in this year’s state budget to launch the Bay Area Regional Black Housing Fund
• Enhance measures to protect renters, mom-and-pop / low-income small property owners • Strengthen the Rent Adjustment Program (RAP) and Emergency Rental Assistance Program Application (ERAP) programs
• Increase rental and mortgage assistance, down payment, and affordable home-buying programs to help keep families, seniors, and legacy homeowners in their homes • Fully implement the Safe RV parking lot program at 66th Ave. • Support the expansion of the Teachers Rooted in Oakland (TRIO) Housing program, teacher stipend, and workforce housing model with developments in East Oakland • Utilize public/city-owned land and hotels for the development of deeply affordable, family, transitional age youth (TAY), veteran, and senior housing for temporary and permanent housing solutions – prioritize development in transit corridors and partnerships with government agencies, faith, health, and community-based organizations • Fund the development of mixed-income social housing on vacant or surplus parcels as made possible through AB 2053 (Lee) and AB 2011 (Wicks)
• Explore options to purchase or lease three hotels for temporary housing in District 7, located on Airport Blvd., Hegenberger Rd., and MacArthur Blvd.
Planning/Building Permitting:
• Improve and streamline the City’s permit process to expedite more permanent housing options, including modular and accessory dwelling units and deeply affordable housing • Reform zoning and regulatory barriers (e.g., lowering minimum home and lot-size requirements, permitting duplexes and triplexes, minimizing discretionary review processes) that limit housing production inadvertently increasing housing cost
Keep Oakland Open & Working
• Fund neighborhood messengers, community safety, and environmental ambassadors in East Oakland ($1,000,000)
• Economic Workforce Development Department (EWD) ($442,573) Program Analyst III:
fund a temporary Program Analyst III for two years to support expanded program design for youth workforce services, summer youth program coordination, including marketing and outreach to engage and recruit more youth to City employment programs. • Restructure the Youth Summer Jobs program into a fully funded year-round model • Replenish funding to the Facade and Tenant Improvement Program and expand the criteria for uses of these funds to support small businesses with a priority focus on underinvested corridors. Target support to small and disadvantaged businesses through multilingual technical assistance in flatlands neighborhoods below I-580. • Increase investment through the Transformative Community Climate grant to revitalize East Oakland business and commercial corridors
• Fund local small business policies and contractor development assistance, especially those focused on overcoming inequities with Black and women-owned businesses • Advance an East Oakland Jobs strategy in collaboration with philanthropic and workforce development partners by hosting neighborhood hiring and workforce readiness initiatives to fill vacancies from underrepresented communities with disproportionate unemployment rates
Keep East Oakland Served, Connected & Prioritized
• Funding for capital improvements to the East Oakland Sports Center pool ($250,000) • Funding for supplement food support for the East Oakland Senior Center ($60,000) • Community grants, including for the 85th Ave. Boys and Girls Club and Homies Empowerment FREEdom Farm as community resource hubs
• Establish a bi-monthly citywide Day of Action event, as I launched in East Oakland, in partnership with community-based organizations, county, and state partners to serve residents in the most impacted areas of Oakland with resources and services within their neighborhood corridors
• Support Alameda County’s effort to establish resiliency hubs in East and West Oakland • Sustain funding for City of Oakland Head Start programs, including staff recruitment and hiring for vacant positions, professional development support for childcare workers, and maintaining the number of available program slots
• Sustain ongoing funding of the Service Opportunity for Seniors (SOS) Meals on Wheels to support healthy and nutritious food delivery to senior residents • Sustain funding for the Cultural Affairs Division, including current grant and artist assistance programs
FISCAL YEAR 2023-2025 POLICY DIRECTIVES
1. Investigate the development of a ballot measure to support additional revenue generation for the Oakland Parks and Recreation & Youth Development. This department has yet to have a ballot measure put forth to the voters for consideration for ongoing support
2. Investigate a “no-fee” model that would allow low-income residents, particularly youth, the ability to attend Oakland Recreation Programs at no cost and what would be needed to implement that program
3. Investigate making the Summer Foods Program more accessible for all Oakland children.
Identify opportunities to expand the meal service to eligible and diverse community-based partners
4. Investigate multiple places to serve as warming and cooling locations for the health and safety of those who lack adequate shelter accommodations including considering faith-based organizations
5. Conduct a feasibility study of the END HARM (Emerald New Deal Healing and Restitutions Measure) charter amendment. This reparative legislation would funnel up to $160 million over 20 years from Oakland’s Cannabis Business Tax revenue back into communities that were disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs
I respectfully submit my budget priorities and policy directives for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Treva Reid
Councilmember, District 7
CC: Erin Roseman, Finance Director
Bradley Johnson, Budget Administrator
#OAKLANDLOVELIFE