APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY
________________________
CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL
RESOLUTION NO. ______________ C.M.S.
INTRODUCED BY COUNCILMEMBER KAPLAN
RESOLUTION HONORING SAMEENA USMAN FOR MORE THAN
17 YEARS OF ADVOCACY ON BEHALF OF ALL OAKLANDERS;
RECOGNIZING THE PROFOUND IMPACT SAMEENA USMAN HAS
HAD FIGHTING FOR GREATER CIVIL, RACIAL, AND ECONOMIC
RIGHTS FOR ALL OAKLANDERS; RECOGNIZING SAMEENA
USMAN AS A CHAMPION FOR THE PEOPLE OF OAKLAND; AND
DECLARING MAY 16, 2023, AS SAMEENA USMAN DAY
WHEREAS, Sameena Usman has advocated for greater civil, racial, and economic justice for all Oaklanders during her seventeen-year career as the Senior Government Relations Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area; and
WHEREAS, regardless of race, faith, political ideology, gender, or immigration status, Sameena Usman has stood in solidarity with hundreds of Oakland organizations and thousands of individuals during her career, advocating for greater equality and justice under the law; and
WHEREAS, in 2015, Sameena Usman worked with the City of Oakland and the State of California to advocate for the Racial Identity and Profiling Act to better support the civil rights of African Americans and other targeted populations; and WHEREAS, in election years 2016, 2018, and 2020, Sameena Usman hosted voter education and candidate forums in Oakland for Mayoral and City Council candidates running for office, led numerous voter registration drives encouraging Oaklanders to register and participate in the elections, and she drafted over a dozen local and state voter guides analyzing hundreds of votes by state and federal elected officials that were circulated to tens of thousands of people each election; and
WHEREAS, in 2018, Sameena Usman helped lead a large coalition which successfully convinced the City Council by unanimous vote to create a first-in-the-country Privacy Advisory Commission, and best-in-class Surveillance Technology Ordinance to better defend the privacy rights and civil liberties of all Oaklanders; and
2 WHEREAS, in 2018, Sameena Usman received a call from Ali Hassan, father of a 2- year old boy on life support at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital. The boy’s mother was repeatedly denied entrance to the United States by the Trump Administration's Muslim Ban.
As a result of a coalition effort, including lobbying of federal officials, the boy’s mother was able to visit her son and say goodbye one last time; and WHEREAS, in 2019, Sameena Usman helped lead the Deport ICE Coalition, which first collaborated with the Privacy Advisory Commission and later the City Council in support of Council Member Kaplan’s Sanctuary Contracting Ordinance, prohibiting the award of taxpayer funds to vendors supporting ICE’s deportation efforts; and WHEREAS, in 2019, Sameena Usman helped lead a large coalition supporting the Privacy Advisory Commission’s recommendation that the City of Oakland prohibit the use of face surveillance technology due to its privacy invasiveness, civil liberties harm, and disparate impact against African Americans, which ultimately led to Council Member Kaplan’s unanimously enacted ordinance prohibiting such use; and WHEREAS, in 2020, Sameena Usman helped lead a large coalition supporting the Privacy Advisory Commission’s recommendation that the City of Oakland terminate its relationship with a problematic federal task force, due to its egregious human and civil rights abuses locally and across the country targeting Muslims and African-American activists, which the City Council ultimately did by unanimous vote; and WHEREAS, in 2021, Sameena Usman worked with and supported the Police Commission’s crafting of a military technology ordinance, and later helped lead a large coalition supporting Council Members Kaplan, Gallo, and Kalb’s sponsoring of the ordinance, which was unanimously adopted by the City Council; and WHEREAS, in July 2021, Sameena Usman helped lead a large coalition that collaborated with the Privacy Advisory Commission on a first-in-the-nation predictive policing analytics and all biometrics ban due to the racial and civil rights harm from use of such technologies, and she later advocated for the ordinance’s adoption by the City Council which unanimously approved it; and
WHEREAS, in her ongoing capacity with Oakland’s Support Life Foundation, Sameena Usman has helped distribute millions of pounds of food and other assistance to Oaklanders in need; and
WHEREAS, Sameena Usman has helped Support Life Foundation establish vaccine micro-clinics during the Covid pandemic, where she also volunteered her time distributing no-cost doses to thousands of Oaklanders; and
WHEREAS, Sameena Usman has for many years conducted outreach to Oakland’s many mosques and Muslim residents informing them of their rights, and educating them on how to better engage with the City of Oakland and their elected representatives such as by gathering hundreds of signatures for petitions, speaking at council hearings, and direct advocacy meetings; and
3 WHEREAS, Sameena Usman has educated and inspired countless activists who will carry on her legacy for generations to come; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED: That the City Council and the entire City of Oakland honor and express our deep gratitude for Sameena Usman’s more than seventeen years of tenacious and effective advocacy for greater civil, racial, and economic rights for all Oaklanders without exception; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City of Oakland recognizes that Sameena Usman has profoundly and immeasurably improved the lives of Oakland’s residents through her years of selfless activism; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City of Oakland further recognizes Sameena Usman as a champion for the people of Oakland; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City of Oakland declares May 16, 2023, Sameena Usman Day.
IN COUNCIL, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA,
PASSED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:
AYES - FIFE, GALLO, JENKINS, KALB, KAPLAN, RAMACHANDRAN, REID, AND
PRESIDENT FORTUNATO BAS
NOES –
ABSENT –
ABSTENTION –
ATTEST:
ASHA REED
City Clerk and Clerk of the Council of the
City of Oakland, California
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