1 STAFF REPORT Oakland Technology Audit Prepared for City Council consideration To: Oakland City Council From: Mayor Barbara Lee Subject: Technology Audit Grant Funding Date: July 1, 2026 —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RECOMMENDATION: Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution To Accept And Appropriate Grant Funds From The Oakland Fund In An Amount Not To Exceed Two Hundred and Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($202,500) For A Comprehensive Independent Audit Of The City Of Oakland's Technology Systems.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Approval of this resolution will allow the City to accept and appropriate a grant from The Oakland Fund in an amount not to exceed $202,500 to fund a comprehensive independent audit of the City's technology systems. The audit will first focus on the technology chains supporting two processes where integration gaps have documented operational impact: recruiting and hiring, and contracting and procurement. The grant will fund the consulting services contract and associated project costs. BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY Oakland operates a number of technology systems across its departments. Many of these systems were procured at different times by different departments and are not consistently integrated with one another. As a result, Oakland does not have a complete inventory of the technology currently in use across its operations.
2 There have been numerous technology barriers identified in the City's recruiting and hiring processes, including disconnected systems that require manual processing and paper-based workflows between departments. The City's contracting and procurement process faces comparable challenges, with manual workflows spanning requisition, solicitation, vendor selection, contract execution, compliance monitoring, and payment. The City does not currently have the baseline information needed to plan and sequence technology remediation. An independent audit will establish that baseline. The audit will be conducted by an independent consulting firm whose primary business is technology assessment and advisory services. The firm will be selected through the City's standard competitive Request for Proposal process. To preserve the independence of the audit's findings and cost estimates, the selected firm will not be eligible to bid on implementation work arising from the audit's recommendations. The engagement will be structured in two phases: Phase 1: Technology Inventory and Assessment. This phase will assess the full technology chain for two processes: recruiting and hiring, and contracting and procurement. It will also produce an inventory of all software and technology systems used across City departments, to include systems that departments have procured on their own. It will record what each system does, which departments use it, how it connects to other City systems, and other relevant details. Phase 1 will also map how the inventoried systems connect to each other, as well as assess data governance and disaster recovery. Phase 2: Decision Matrix. For each issue identified, the audit will assess what needs work, how important it is to fix, how easy or hard it would be to fix, and estimated cost ranges to fix. Findings will be presented in a prioritized decision matrix usable by Oakland leadership. The audit will give Oakland the information needed to inform remediation steps and provide Council with a transparent baseline of the City's technology condition. The proposed resolution authorizes acceptance and appropriation of a grant in the amount of $202,500. It is anticipated that the funding will be distributed as outlined in Table 1. Table 1: Technology Audit Funding: How it will be used Audit Costs Amount Consulting services contract (not to exceed) $202,500 Total $202,500
3 Funding will be appropriated to Fund 2999, Org. 01111, Project 1008512 - Oakland Technology Audit, and Program IP01.
COORDINATION This report and the accompanying resolution were prepared in coordination with the Office of the City Administrator and the Office of the City Attorney.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution To Accept And Appropriate Grant Funds From The Oakland Fund In An Amount Not To Exceed Two Hundred and Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($202,500) For A Comprehensive Independent Audit Of The City Of Oakland's Technology Systems. For questions regarding this report, please contact Erica Astrella, Director of Data and Technology Transformation, [email protected].