To the Community and Economic Development
Committee meeting of Tuesday, July 14th, 2026.
The time is now 1:30 p.m.
and this meeting may come to order.
Before taking roll, I will provide instructions
on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda.
If you're here with us in chamber, would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself
or clerk representative no later than ten minutes after the start of this meeting
or before the item is read in to record.
Whichever occurs first.
Registering to speak via zoom is now due 24 hours
prior to the start of this meeting,
and this meeting came to order at 1:30 p.m.
and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after making that time, 1:40 p.m.
we'll now proceed with taking roll.
Council members five present Ungar here one
as Ramachandran.
Oh, sorry. Ramachandran. Excuse me.
Transit excuse and chair.
Well, present.
Thank you. We have three members present.
One excused. Ramachandran and chair, before we begin,
do you have any announcements at this time? Yes.
So first off, just want to make the announcement
that this will be,
one of our last, CDD meetings until September the 21st.
I just want to thank all of the departments,
that have presented over the course of the last couple of months. HCD
planning and building.
And thank you all for all of your hard work.
I also did want to take a moment of,
personal, privilege to shout out, to, interns
in my office, since, as well as Mariana,
who also served on the,
the school board as the school board representative.
And then we'll be heading off to college in the fall.
But we're so proud to have you
in the office during the summer.
So, everyone, please feel free to go
introduce yourself
and learn all about, some of the
things that they're working on.
And then also, I would make the announcement,
just to ensure that we are staying on time
with the amount of, agenda items that we have, I will limit public comment to
one minute. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Chair. Noting the presence of Council Member Ramachandran at 1:32 p.m.
reading in item one approval of the draft minutes
from the committee meeting of June 23rd, 2026.
We have no speakers on this item, just need a motion.
Excellent. Thank you so much, colleagues.
Councilmember. Fine.
So moved.
Thank you. Excellent.
Thank you, thank you.
We have a motion made by Council Member five,
seconded by Council Member Ramachandran
to accept the draft minutes from the committee meeting of June 23rd, 2026.
Honorable Council Members five I Ravichandran
Unger I and Chair Brown, I thank you.
Item one passes with four eyes to accept the draft minutes
from the Committee meeting of June 23rd, 2026.
Item two determination of Schedule,
outstanding committee items.
And we do have a number of speakers
that signed up to speak on this item. Okay.
Thank you so much.
So to the, administration, any changes?
No changes at this time. Perfect.
Thank you.
We'll I'll go ahead and entertain a motion prior to hearing
the public speakers.
Council member Unger.
So moved.
Excellent. Second. Perfect.
Thank you so much. And then we can hear from the public speakers.
Okay. Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number two.
In no particular order, you can come up to the podium,
state your name before making your comment.
Or if you're on zoom, please
raise your hand to be easily identified.
Lawrence Cox.
Aaron.
Venues.
Deshaun taller.
Sorry.
Give me one moment.
Shinobi.
Howard.
Markel. Duncan,
Joyce. Moran, Margaret.
Grim. Alice.
Sarah. Amir and Nita b.
Again, in no particular order, you can come up
to the podium, state your name for the record,
and then noting the adjustment of the time to one minute.
I'm so going so.
Hi, my name is Margaret Clemens.
I'm a long term resident of Oakland, California, over 60 years.
I'm here to, suggest that an agenda item
be added to the committee meeting to discuss the street
vendor, enforcement plan,
or rather, develop an enforcement plan
or a compliance plan with the street vendors.
And to ensure that the city
is in compliance with state law, SB 946 and with the U.S.
Constitution, and that they are giving the vendors due process
and most importantly, that they engage the vendors in solutions
for whatever the issues are, or that the city is determining
the issues are with street vending.
Street vending vendors are a vital
and important and, necessary
component of community and, Oakland's authenticity
and destroying the street vendors
and their source of livelihood
in a city where it's so expensive.
My name is Nina B, and I've been a street vendor
in Oakland since I was 19 years old, and I'm 55 years old now.
When I started street vendors, there were no laws that existed.
So what I was doing was not illegal.
The first set of laws that were implemented that, impacted
my livelihood was six years ago and claimed
that what I was doing was now criminal.
The city should shift from its gatekeeping of street vendors
into working in partnership with street
vendors and include, longtime informal street vendors,
both permitted and permitted, not permitted.
The decision making to help us, to waive and subsidize part
participation costs for low income vendors design programs.
But in an equity and culture around street
vending hubs like Lake Merritt, Fruitvale and downtown,
advocate for a simpler, clear, streamlined, accessible
permit systems.
I know lots of vendors who try to get their permits is a runaround.
They get their permits, and they're still getting messed
with, that you didn't start treating.
Vendors are participants in not problems
that were leaders and culture keepers,
and the city has been destroying property.
Both permitted and unpermitted vendors and without warning,
without receipt, and with no way to get people's property back.
Hello, I'm Lisa Z.
I am a home owner.
Neighborhood is Cleveland Heights.
I live near the Cascade Steps.
I feel we need to keep these vendors here
by educating kids today.
Sorry to the speaker. Do you have a speaker card filled out for this item? Yes.
Can you repeat your name?
Lisa Z back.
I don't have one for you.
I'm sorry.
The rich and historic street vending culture neighborhood.
Please state your name for the record.
Julius Murali. Thank you.
Economic systems in the Oakland community
should not be criminalized or erased.
It is part of the Oakland identity
and should be protected and supported.
This is a quality of life for working
class and black and brown folks.
Now, because all of us have multiple jobs and side hustles to be able to exist in the city
we're born and raised in,
our culture and quality of life keeps getting negatively impacted in
by the people who are not from here
are can't figure out how to fit in.
There has been talk about the trash and our noise at the lake,
and we vendors all agree.
We asked our city workers to help support
us, as in getting us more trash bags so we can be able to hold each other accountable.
And our customers.
They are literally not enough trash cans anywhere in Oakland
and definitely not around the lake.
So the vendors have been organized
to clean up the lake every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and making
sure our customers pick up trash too.
We encourage each other
to turn off our music at the appropriate time.
In the ordinance, which is at 9 p.m.
when we have the funds, we have been able to put porta
potties for our cell.
Hello, my name is Shinobi.
I'm also a vendor at, on Lake Shore, a lake Shore Avenue.
So basically we just ask the city
and especially public works.
Can they help us with larger trash?
And we can put more trash away. And we need porta potties.
So we have porta potties for the vendors
and for also the for our customers.
You know, this is a cultural thing.
You know what I'm saying? We've been other vendor out there since 20, since 2018.
So I've been up there like about seven years now.
And I think it's
also we have some of the,
some of the city workers have been giving out fake tickets,
fake parking tickets, which we've put downtown.
They said these tickets are aren't even real.
So I think there's just something to distract
until people just don't come to the lake.
Yes. That's it.
Thank you.
Oh, nice to be back to
stay.
Hello, my name is Sarah Mir.
I am an Oakland resident, longtime Oakland ready student,
and also a teacher here at USD.
And I'm always concerned about how, the,
you know, the boards and the governments
here are actually working in collaboration
with the communities here.
So there's this, theory of practice
defined by Paulo Ferrari called Praxis, which is the continuous
and dynamic cycle of reflection and action.
You use theory to guide your action,
to guide your reflection. And it's continuous.
It's working towards a shared goal in collaboration
with community members
and the most vulnerable. Here
you have the most vulnerable standing here before you.
And nowhere do I see anything showing that you are working with them.
What about the attacks on the vendors is based on theory.
What type of reflection is taking place and how is this
committee actually protecting these community members?
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Erin,
yes, I live in the Fruitvale Dimond area,
another area with plenty of street vendors.
These are folks who are a crucial part of the area's,
economy and community.
They really want to serve their customers and neighbors
safely and in compliance
with all of the safety rules that would be needed.
And the county and city
is really punitive and possibly illegal.
Code enforcement actions against them
are making that impossible.
Like, I have talked to folks who are trying to help street
vendors in the Fruitvale area navigate the sort of the code
compliance process with the county.
And they are folks who have sometimes
been trying for years and years and years
to get their operations in compliance.
And they can't because the city and the county
are not supporting them, and the city and county
are often setting them back by destroying their property
without receipts, without any sort of like.
Hello, my name is DeShawn.
Once again I am a street vendor
that make clothes and so clothes for Lake Merritt.
I would like the city to not.
Traders treat us like criminals and traders and traders
like as a partnership. I know everybody's having it.
Well, the city's having meetings.
We would like to be involved.
So you can understand where we're coming from.
And we can meet halfway instead of
just going about your way and destroying the culture.
Because as us, as a community, that's what we are.
We are family. So let's treat it like one instead of just having it
be one sided.
So I would like to see that from the city of Oakland.
Thank you.
My name is Marco Duncan.
I'm a policy fellow at all of us.
A nun and legal services children and Oakland resident.
I see a lack of
empathy.
You know, you have people that are trying to do
the best they can to to make it honestly,
and it's a whole bunch of other stuff going on in this city,
trash all over the place and everything else.
And instead of doing the things
that people care about the most,
they messing around with the people
that are trying to do better.
And that's just not right.
It's not right.
No give, give people an opportunity to
to to make conditions better for themselves and their families.
And I understand that there's, you know,
laws that, that and,
you know, licensing and stuff like that,
that people must have to sell stuff.
But if that's the case,
then apply the laws and policies equally,
because it's only one group of people getting messed with.
Good afternoon.
My name is Lawrence. I am the regional advocacy and organizing associate for
LPC, and all of us are known.
And briefly,
what I want to say is if community matters
and the power is with the community,
then when decisions are being made for the community,
I think the community should be involved.
We're looking at public safety,
which should be important to everyone up here.
The opportunities that we give those in our lower,
lower socioeconomic, demographics is important.
What we do for individuals
who are returning home and may find themselves
unable to be employed, but find that
they have some type of hustle where they can do something
legally, should not be discouraged
or sent the wrong message as if they are
still doing something criminal.
And I think when we when we fail to realize that
and create a conduit to where there's a two way street
and there's understanding,
we run the risk of jeopardizing our public safety.
Because when you're killing the culture and you're
killing economic opportunities for our communities,
under the guise of trying to make better, it doesn't work.
And it doesn't it doesn't make sense.
And I'll stop there. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, chair.
That concludes all speakers on this item.
Excellent. Thank you so much. Just want to, acknowledge and thank, all of the speakers
for coming out. I also saw the video that you that was posted online, about
just some of the activities that have been occurring.
And I do think it's very important
that our street vendors have a
seat at the table and are included
in the conversations that involve them.
And so, I look forward to, need to be and all of us
at leadership, at all of us or none.
I believe you all know how to get in contact with me.
And so I definitely welcome, having a discussion,
and seeing how we can move that forward.
So thank you so much for the for those comments.
Thank you. And we have a motion made by Council Member Unger,
seconded by Council Member Ramachandran,
to accept the determination of schedule,
all Standing Committee items as is on roll.
Council members five Ramachandran.
Unger I and Chair Brown.
Thank you. Item two passes with four eyes to accept the determination
of schedule. All standing committee items as is reading in.
Oh, sorry. Before reading in item S three.
This does require an urgency finding vote as this was added at the three day.
Okay. Thank you so much.
I'll move with the urgency vote.
Just need a second.
Okay.
Thank you. We have a motion made by council,
by Chair Brown, seconded by council member
five to accept the urgency finding on item S three on roll.
Council members five.
Ramachandran.
Unger I and Chair Brown I thank you urgency
finding passes with four eyes.
Sorry to accept the urgency and urgency finding on item S3.
Now reading in item S3,
adopt the following pieces
of legislation A resolution authorizing
the City Administrator to remove delinquent
City of Oakland code enforcement liens and unlink fees.
Cost assessment
and civil penalties on certain tax defaulted properties
for a period of four years.
To facilitate the development
of these properties into affordable
housing via Alameda County's Chapter eight tax sale program,
and limiting the aggregated amount of liens removed pursuant
to the authorization to a nominal well, you not to exceed
$10 million, and acknowledging the transmutation,
transmutation of the of these code enforcement
liens at all into prorated chapter eight sales
proceeding or sorry proceeds that proceeds that will be paid
to the city of Oakland and
a resolution authorizing the city Administrator
to remove delinquent City of Oakland vacant property.
Vacant property tax liens on certain
tax defaulted properties for a period of four years.
To facilitate the development of these properties
into affordable housing via Alameda County's Chapter eight
tax sale program, and acknowledging the transmutation.
Sorry, these vacant property tax liens into prorated chapter
eight sale proceeds
that will be paid into or paid to the city of Oakland,
and limiting the aggregated amount of liens removed pursuant to
this authorization to a nominal
to a nominal value, not to exceed $10 million.
And we have
one speaker the signed up for this item.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
We'll hear from staff
on this item and we'll do, eight minutes.
All right.
Good afternoon councilmembers.
My name is Kelly Smith. I'm a senior advisor in the city of Oakland's
Housing community development Department.
We have a brief presentation for this item.
Thank you.
So today's item, is related to
the county of Alameda is a desire
to move forward with chapter eight tax sale process.
For some lots here in Oakland.
So as we all know, there are a number of vacant
lots in Oakland.
A subset of these lots are effectively abandoned by their current owner
and have entered a tax defaulted status.
This means that they have failed to pay their property taxes
for over five years.
Normally when that happens,
the county will first try
to sell the property at auction
to try to repay the local governments
as much of those back taxes as possible.
However, what we see are that
some of them are unsuccessful in selling at that auction.
Sometimes the properties are undeveloped,
but they may have no road access.
There may be other site conditions
that make them difficult to develop.
In other cases, the value of the back taxes
is more than the value
of the properties themselves, which deters people
from buying the properties because under state law,
the minimum auction price
is the value of those back taxes and liens.
This puts these properties in limbo.
There's no one to pay these
back taxes and liens, so they're effectively uncollectible.
But the property remains vacant and without anyone
to move it forward.
There is a provision in state law
that can help with this situation.
The chapter eight tax sale process allows the county's
tax collector to negotiate a lower fair price to sell tax
defaulted properties to affordable
housing nonprofits, or to public agencies
or nonprofits for other public purposes.
The chapter eight tax sale process has the potential
to help address some blight concerns in Oakland,
as we know that a number of these vacant lots
are significant attractors of blight and nuisance activities.
Many of these activities ultimately have to be abated
by the city of Oakland at expense to the city of Oakland,
with no one to recover those costs from.
Now, in terms of the process here, this is very much
led by Alameda County's tax collectors office.
The city of Oakland is in a supporting role,
the Alameda County Tax Collectors Office,
because they it's their responsibility
to collect taxes and dispose of properties
where they cannot collect of the taxes
they identify the locations that are suitable
for sale under chapter eight tax sales.
They identify which parties to sell those to,
they identify the sales price,
and they complete the mechanics of the transaction itself.
The city of Oakland sprawls primarily later in the process,
after a property has been sold
to a potential affordable housing developer.
The city of Oakland has land
use authority through our zoning code,
and we also are oftentimes a funder of affordable housing.
Now, today's council action is fairly narrow.
We are primarily in the role
of removing a constraint on this process.
Most of the time when there's this tax sale,
whether that is an auction
or through this chapter, a tax sale process,
the outstanding taxes
are wiped out via the sale under state law,
based on guidance from our city Attorney's office,
as well as conversations
with the county council and Alameda County,
we've identified that there are some specific actions
the council would need to take to unblock
these kinds of transactions from moving forward,
primarily removing vacant property tax liens and code
enforcement liens to make sure that these historic liabilities
do not unduly burden the new owners of the property,
who we want to take control of these properties and then exercise
responsible ownership moving forward
and ultimately develop affordable housing on them.
This item has an upper
limit of four years, or $10 million in liens that we expect,
the actual amount of waived taxes and liens to be far lower.
The city will receive a prorated share of whatever the sale price is,
even if we're not able
to collect the full value of those back taxes.
If the city had 50% of the outstanding taxes on a property,
then whatever the sale price is, the city would expect
to receive about 50% of those proceeds.
Now, this is,
here is a list of properties that Alameda County
has identified as the ones they think are most suitable to development.
I'd like to emphasize that this is just Alameda
County's first pass at this.
There in our follow up conversations,
there may be additional properties that are identified,
whether that is properties that become tax defaulted,
that are not currently tax defaulted,
or whether there are properties
that are currently tax defaulted
but have barriers to development,
that in further conversation, we can help address.
So in terms of the next steps here,
that we've been coming towards this for a long time,
I know that council member five in particular has been,
seeking to use this as a lever opportunity to address
some of the issues with these tax defaulted,
blighted lots in Oakland for a number of years.
Really? And it's just a mechanically relatively complicated process,
which is required,
this sort of coordinated city county action.
Today, later today, we're expecting the county
Board of Supervisors to approve the first chapter eight tax sale, this decade,
for 8215 MacArthur Boulevard, to the Black Cultural Zone
Community Development Corporation.
After this item went to, print,
we heard that there's actually a second
affordable housing developer, which is interested
in a different, property here in Oakland.
We're still gathering more information about that.
We also are hoping to expand the range of properties
available to affordable housing developers in Oakland.
We know that
there are a lot of brownfield sites in Oakland
with environmental contamination,
which can deter developers from wishing
to move forward with this process.
Just last month, we got word that the city and county
had successfully won $1.5 million from the Environmental
Protection Agency
for a Brownfield Assessment grant,
which will help us understand which of these properties are
relatively clean and are able to move forward
into redevelopment into a productive,
affordable housing use quickly.
And which of them
need additional funding
to address historic pollution issues before they can receive a more permanent yes.
So we do expect a majority of that $1.5 million grant
to serve these, tax defaulted properties
in Oakland, as well as some other sites
that are going to be used for affordable housing.
So that is a brief overview of this item.
Now please take any questions.
Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much, Caleb, for a comprehensive presentation.
I don't have any questions on this item.
Colleagues.
Councilmember five
I can't state enough through the chair how elated
I am that there has been some movement on this, process.
I've been working on it for almost a decade.
And to see this type of, action
happen at the hands of HCD, I just.
My hat's off to you. This has been a Herculean task, for whatever reason, to get
the county to move forward.
And I know this is on the city side,
and we're working in partnership with them,
but I just wanted to thank you publicly for that.
And I wonder,
I'm looking at page six and the majority of these sites
that are currently listed are in district three.
Are they all zoned residential?
Through the chair to council member five
for the initial list of sites that the county's identified,
they are indeed all zoned residential.
There are a number of other tax
defaulted lots in Oakland which have nonresidential uses.
However, rezoning is a, complicated process at time.
So at the moment the county has been
focusing on sites which do, under current zoning,
allow for residential use. Outstanding.
I know several of the lots I've, I've investigated
have, a need for potential rezoning,
and that adds to the complication.
So I'm happy that these are all residential.
And then what role would planning and building
play in potentially, working with HCD
to see if, like, tiny homes could be put on these lots?
Do you know if,
there would need to be a zoning change for, for tiny homes
or if there would need to be an existing
dwelling on the parcel in order to have additional,
dwelling units.
So the chair accessory.
I'm sorry. Through the chair to council member five.
I might have heard some of my colleagues
here from putting a building department on that.
I think it probably to the developable capacity of the lots
probably depends on a case by case basis.
Based on the current
zoning as well as the specific use intended.
I know that our, colleagues at the planning building
department are always happy to talk
with potential developers about different,
potential development approaches
and get a better sense of which might be suitable for current zoning or what
the options might be if,
additional zoning actions are required.
Okay.
I'm sorry, and I have a colleague here
from Planning Building to add further to that.
Good afternoon, committee chair.
And through the chair, Council member five
to answer your question, yes, I would my bureau
as well as the planning bureau would have to meet
and discuss how that would look for tiny homes on a parcel
and what approaches we might take
that would basically straddle both our permitting process
as well as the planning review process.
And, I'm just asking for the public
because through the chair, I've asked Director Gilchrist this question many times.
And there are a couple I see, back there.
I know Roots Clinic wants to put some tiny
homes on parcels in district three.
They primarily operate
in East Oakland. And so we've been
in conversation about utilizing some lots.
They're privately owned, but it's similar in nature.
So I just wanted to state that for the record,
this is exciting and I'm happy to make the motion.
I know we have a public speaker, but happy.
I cannot again express how happy I am
for this particular moment. Thank you both.
Thank you. Yeah.
Thank you. Remember Councilmember Ramachandran.
Thank you. Thank you for the report.
This is, This is great.
I wanted to know, per the chapter eight sale laws
from the county side, could it be used for
not only affordable housing, but like safe RV parking
and other and transitional housing as well?
Or is it limited to
a housing developer and a building going up?
Sure. Through the chair to Council Member Ramachandran.
I think that that's a question that may require
some further analysis.
With the county's attorneys.
The chapter eight tax sale law does allow for uses
beyond strictly affordable housing.
Public agencies are allowed to purchase properties.
And there may be other kinds of public use which is allowed.
I think that the county task
collector's office has given some early thought
to what additional categories of public use would be eligible here.
But I'm sure they would be happy to participate
in the conversation about additional opportunities, because some of these sites,
like the ones here, may be highly suitable
for permanent affordable housing development,
but there may be other sites that would be a better fit for other uses.
Okay. Thank you. Perfect.
And we can hear from the public speaker
calling in the name that signed up to speak on item number S3.
Miss Asada, Ola Bala.
So no more
tiny home projects until we can stop
the destruction that takes place.
When we put tiny homes
at Lake Merritt and West Oakland, we had to destroy
After the the use of them were, well finished.
This item says that the Alameda County Board of Supervisors
expected to approve the chapter
eight tax sales at their July 14 meeting.
So they're meeting today to approve the use of chapter
eight. Expected to the timeline is is that you would wait
until Alameda County Board of Supervisors approves this.
Just to say they expecting to do it.
You need to have them officially do it.
And why is this?
Is that the reason why this is rule 28.
And you have to do this by the end of July.
And that vacancy tax, another absurd tax where you have people
paying up to $6,000 annually.
Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes all speakers that signed up to speak. Perfect.
Thank you. I'll second, Council member five motion.
Thank you. We have a motion made by council member five second by Chair Brown
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the July 21st City Council agenda on roll.
Council members five I Ramachandran K, Unger
I and chair Brown I thank you motion passes with for
I support this item to the July 24th City Council agenda
and to the maker of the motion or on consent.
Thank you. On consent.
Before reading in item three.
This does require an urgency finding vote as this was added
at the three day.
Perfect. Thank you so much. So moved on the urgency finding a second that.
Thank you. On the urgency finding motion, we have a motion
made by Chair Brown, second by Councilmember Ungar,
to accept the urgency finding on item
four on roll Council members.
Sorry, Council members five I Ramachandran I,
Ungar I and chair Brown
I thank you motion passes with four eyes
to accept the urgency finding One moment.
We need to.
Once he sits down.
It's just a motion to adjourn into a special meeting.
So moved.
Thank you.
Do, we have a motion made by Councilmember
Ramachandran, seconded by Chair Brown.
Due to the presence of council members,
Council President Jenkins, to sorry to adjourn
the meeting and to reconvene as is city Council on roll.
Council members five Ramachandran.
Ungar. And chair Brown Thank you.
Motion passes with four eyes to adjourn that meeting.
Economic development Committee meeting
and to reconvene as a special city
council reading in item as S4.
Adopt the following pieces of legislation a resolution
authorizing the forgiveness of a city loan to Athena.
Empty, LLC of up to $2 million in outstanding principal,
plus all accrued and unpaid interest and fees.
And be a sorry a city revolving line of credit
to sub app Shah with a final
outstanding balance of $1,500,000
plus accrued and unpaid interest and fees for the Foothill
Seminary Point retail project, each contingent upon
sale of the transfer.
The sale or transfer of the project to a qualified purchaser
and making appropriate SQL findings and
to an ordinance authorizing the forgiveness of
of outstanding and future rent balances,
and an amount up to $40,000 for Seminary Point, LLC pursuant to the ground lease
with the city, contingent on the sale
or transfer of the leasehold interest
and the property at a, sorry property
to a qualified purchaser and making Sigma findings.
And we have two speakers that signed up to speak. Perfect.
Thank you so much. So for this item, we'll hear from the our director of
IWD as well as someone from the team as well.
Good afternoon, chair Brown, Council president KD Committee members.
My name is Ashley it, director
of economic and workforce development,
Seminary point was developed on city owned land to address
a long standing need for neighborhood
serving retail in the Foothill Seminary area.
And like many commercial centers, it was hit hard by the pandemic
and the departure of its anchor tenant created
additional challenges
and has contributed to decreased activity.
Today, the project is at risk of foreclosure.
The recommendation before you is a practical, forward
looking solution.
Staff is recommending the forgiveness
of the city's existing loan and line of credit,
but only if a qualified buyer acquires the leasehold
and takes over stewardship of the center.
This action removes a significant barrier to a sale,
improves the project's marketability,
and gives us the best opportunity to attract an experienced owner
who can stabilize the property
and preserve this important community asset.
Without this action, foreclosure becomes much more likely
and the city would likely lose its investment regardless.
Because our debt is subordinate to the senior lender,
this recommendation offers the strongest path towards
protecting neighborhood retail, supporting existing businesses
and positioning Seminary Point for long term success.
With that framing, I'm going to turn it over to Teresa Lopez,
manager of the public private development division within,
to move through some of the details.
Thank you.
We have a PowerPoint presentation.
And, good afternoon.
As it's mentioned, my name is Teresa Lopez.
I'm the development manager in the public
private development division.
And I'm going to give you provide
an overview of the Foothill Seminary retail center.
And, the history and to date, what has occurred.
So a new POI is located on Foothill Seminary.
It is made up of 1.69 acres,
with 29,950ft of commercial space with parking.
And the city developed the site in partnership
with Sunfield Development via a land, a lease disposition
development agreement and a 66 year ground lease.
As you can see here from the aerial,
an example of the tenants on the in the property,
it has provided services to the community.
There is a Bank of America ATM, a grocery that provides,
women and an infinite children's grocery services
and we, wireless, Verizon, MetroPCS.
And it's a great cafe and pizza.
A more recent tenant is the flower of Yemenis,
restaurant that will be opening soon.
There. We do have a vacancy where the old Walgreens was located
and was left in January 2025 as a part of a larger
local Walgreens closing in the Bay area.
So the history of this site is that the former Oakland Redevelopment
Agency acquired 11 parcels at the corner Foothill Seminary.
From 2027 to 2012,
the city worked on demolition of the buildings, cleaning up the property,
the soil,
and when that was completed, we released in 2012
a request for proposal to develop on the site.
The specific goal was to create a retail center
for the community to provide goods and services.
So we were able to to complete that process.
And in 2013, after release of the RFP,
some field development
was selected to construct and manage the property.
In 2015, as part of the closing
for construction, we provided,
well, we provided a $2
million C loan and a $1.5 million
line of credit to the developer to support the project.
After signing the Ltda and the ground lease,
completion of construction was in 2017.
And the property the center has been was doing
well until the pandemic.
Since the pandemic, the property has struggled,
to retain tenants and to pay
the debt on the senior loan, which was used for construction,
which is now at 6.2 million, and to pay the city's loan,
that $2 million loan and the 1.5 million line of credit
some feel has, we have been working with some fields
during this time to see if he could refinance alone
or sell the leasehold interest, because we are,
the owners of the property.
The he has not been able to because of the debt
on the property, with our loan and the line of credit
and the senior loan, it's over 8.5 million.
So it's it's
the value that puppy is less than the debt on the property.
So again, since 2023, we've been working with
some field real estate agents and its lenders to stabilize
the project and sell or refinance the lease interest.
And our efforts have not been successful
because of this debt.
So the problem that we have now is that if we do not take
any action, we have a very high risk of foreclosure.
We're going to lose the city loan and line of credit
because it will not be recoverable through foreclosure.
It may create threats, threaten
the stability of the retail center and, the services there,
and it may create negative impact for the neighborhood.
When you don't have a property that's being managed
that cannot pay debt
issues that come up if it's in foreclosure,
the lender, will wait to get a buyer
or it may stay, unmanaged for some time.
So that's our concern as well.
So the action we're requesting again is to forgive the $2
million city loan.
Forgive the $1.5 million line of credit
and forgive the, the rent to a $40,000,
all contingent on finding a qualified buyer.
And the benefits of doing this, it would avoid foreclosure.
It would place the project in the hands of a qualified buyer.
It avoids retail vacancy blight, and it maintains sales
tax and local economic activity for the community.
It preserves our relationship with the ground lease,
and the purchaser and ensures
the center can continue to serve its Oakland residents.
So in conclusion, we,
would request your approval of the resolution
that's being recommended to forgive the $2 million
in the 1.5 million line of credit and the ordinance
to forgive the $40,000 in rent ground rent that is due.
Thank you. If you have any questions, I'm here. Perfect.
Thank you so much, Teresa.
Let's go ahead and,
turn it over to, our council president.
For his question, since this is in district six.
Oh, thank you so much, Chair Brown.
And thank you, Committee, for allowing me to join.
This is truly a crown jewel
in the neighborhood that absolutely needs some work.
I know, many residents use this place
to get coffee, pay their cell phone bills in the past.
Got a sweet fingers, a number of things.
And we're really happy that we have a new restaurant,
Yemeni restaurant in the facility.
And I'm happy that district three got sweet fingers.
And I know they will definitely be successful. But
this truly needs some help.
And I've talked with C.J.
from the black Cultural zone, and I'm really interested
in the black cultural zone running this facility.
But a barrier to
that is the city loan and the city line of credit.
And so we,
as a city, need to ensure
that we are uplifting East Oakland and doing everything we can to make sure
that the residents have the amenities that they need.
And I am in full support of staff.
And I know staff has been working diligently.
I've been working with staff to ensure that this
this parcel doesn't go to waste.
This, and the community has, access to coffee,
which might not mean much, but in East Oakland,
it has access to coffee, access
to restaurants, access to a police substation.
And so I ask that you guys approve this.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council president.
I also agree.
And, you know, I hope that,
you know, whoever takes over the property,
I know that there was,
a lot of feedback about the current, owner and,
just really making sure that we're able to attract,
an owner that can really pour into this space and attract,
you know, actual, businesses that the community needs, right?
Whether it is, no matter what that may be.
And then they can it could also be sustained.
Right. And avoid some of the things that you mentioned
in the PowerPoint around blight and different things.
And maybe, you know, welcome Walgreens back or something.
Right. I know, I know, so many community members
had reached out about, the Walgreens when it closed.
So, I am in support.
Thank you so much, council president, for your presence.
As well as supporting moving this item forward
for it as well.
Council Member Ungar.
Yeah. Thank you. So, you know, I support moving this item forward, but, you know, sort of pulling back
and looking at it from a larger perspective.
This is the third loan forgiveness we've voted on this year, over $16 million with the
about the item and one in district three.
And it just feels like we're always in a subordinate
loan position with no real ability
to drive these projects
forward, even in this case, when we own the land.
And I'm all for the city
taking risk and helping make important projects
like this happen. This is a key space that would that we need to, help.
But I just think we need to have a larger, serious conversation
about how we participate financially in real estate development.
And I also would love to have more of an analysis
in general from finance and maybe the auditor.
I don't think we've budgeted for receiving this money,
so it's not going to hit our in our general fund or anything.
But I just wonder,
you know, where where we are,
are we going to be for giving a lot more loans in the future?
Are we at sort of, are there other properties
or investments that we have that are likely to go bust?
Is this the end of the wave or just the beginning?
You know, and obviously I'm not asking that directly to you,
but I just think that, you know, we're in this space where
we're for giving a lot of loans and what that means for us
and how we start getting ourselves out of the subordinate position
and make ourselves more of the driver
when when these things go belly up.
I think you raise a really good question.
And I'm like, I'm almost curious exactly what you said.
Like, and I imagine that our team,
potentially has a list of,
we do of, some of these properties
and what may or may not be coming.
And so that may be something we may want to request,
like as an informational item,
just so that we can get the lay of the land.
So thank you for flagging that.
Councilmember Ungar.
Do we have public speakers?
Yes, we can hear from the public speakers
calling in the names. I signed up to speak on item number four, Mrs.
Sardo, Ola Butler, and Blair Beekman.
I want to respond to Mr.
Ungar comments.
You've done a lot of things related to forgiving loans
and helping, certain parts of the city
remain viable, but we haven't done a lot for
Councilmember Jenkins district,
where we look at the economic struggles of district
six and district seven, and we come up with a way
to deal with those struggles.
And so the balance here is not so much we got to look at.
We got to put this as a priority because this district
has many economic needs.
And this is one opportunity
for for the community to have access to services.
And so that's why I'm supporting it.
And we got to give more
economic opportunities for African-Americans
to have opportunities to be sustainable
and to be viable.
Thank you for your comments. Switching to zoom user Blair, you can unmute yourself
and begin your comment.
All right. Thank you. Thank you for the words of the previous, public comment.
This is, item is to be helping,
the future, communities of Oakland.
We need the color.
Real congratulations.
And I wanted to quickly comment that,
thank you for the previous item that you were able to,
work out, a nice effort with, Alameda County,
the kind of things that that previous item
can be working towards and addressing,
is in the good spirit of what,
working on the Oakland Coliseum, things are about.
And good luck bringing those sort of items up.
When the previous item up here, Oakland Coliseum things as
a way to develop dialog and,
good discussion.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes our speakers on this item. Excellent.
Thank you so much.
Councilmember five
yes, I just wanted to ask through the chair if,
there is not another entity that takes over the space
by April of 2027, then what are the next steps?
If there isn't, the lender
will foreclose
and then we we'd have to go through that process.
We may be able
to negotiate with the lender and see if we can extend it.
So that is an option.
But we're going to work diligently with them
and with, the developer to find another,
purchaser to take over the leasehold interest.
So that is something actively that needs doing and working
to find another. Yes. Use. Okay. Yes, yes, yes.
Thank you. Perfect. Thank you so much.
And I think maybe my last comment would be, just
as we are looking at a potential buyer,
just really ensuring that they have the track record,
in order to, really like,
live up these, retail spaces and attract,
you know, key businesses and to also be a very good,
I guess, landlord, because I'm sure you all maybe heard
some of the feedback that came from
some of the business owners
that were renting the spaces as well.
So those were some of the areas
of opportunity with the existing yes owner. Yes.
We we have the ground lease, so we will have the,
the say in the person or purchaser who's taking over.
And we have our criteria is the financial capacity history
and we're kind of similar,
area and
addressing issues of tenants.
Yeah. And then really having the ability to take the pulse of what the,
what the community needs in that space.
Awesome. Thank you so much. Was there a motion on this item?
Excellent and perfect.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have a motion made by council member five, second by Councilmember Ramachandran
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the July 21st City Council agenda on roll.
Council members five I Ramachandran I, Unger I
and chair Brown I thank you.
Item S4 passes with four eyes to pass this item
to the July 21st City Council agenda
and to the makers of the motion is that on consent?
On consent.
Thank you.
Reading in item five,
receive an informational report regarding the fiscal year
2025 to 26, quarter one and quarter two.
Update on the planning and Building
Department's Code enforcement activities.
And we have one speaker on this item.
Perfect. Thank you.
And so we can hear from staff on this item.
Good afternoon. Committee Chair Brown and members of the committee.
My name is CC Mueller, chief
billing official with planning and Building this afternoon,
principal supervisor for code enforcement,
Mariano Rajoy will be providing the bi annual report.
Mariano.
Thank you. Building official Mueller.
Good afternoon. Committee chair Brown and members of the committee
today, we are pleased to provide an update on the planning
and building Department code enforcement activities
for the first two quarters of th
Code enforcement plays an important role protecting
public health, safety and neighborhood quality
by ensuring compliance with Oakland's building,
housing, property, maintenance, and zoning regulations.
While today's report contains a significant amount of data,
I'd like to point out three key takeaways.
We are improving operational efficiencies.
We are reducing our backlog by closing more cases
than we open investments in staffing, technology,
partnerships and producing measurable
improvements and civil in service delivery.
Next slide. Oh, some of the things we're going to talk about
today is going to be quarterly complaint volume by category
enforcement actions issued and cases abated and closed.
Next slide.
This slide shows some of our top complaints by category.
It's important to note that some of these complaints
can be climatic in relation to summer or winter months,
where we experience unpermitted work taking place,
or heating and mold issues due to cold and rainy weather
and or blight resulting from overgrown vegetation
by grasses, trees, fruit trees, avocado trees, trimmings, etc..
Next slide
as shown here. We continue to receive high volume of complaints
each quarter.
However, a key takeaway is not the number
of complaints received,
but how effectively we're responding to them,
as shown in the reduction of cases from previous quarters.
Next slide
as shown in slides five and six, increased
staffing and technology
have allowed inspectors to spend more time in the field,
resulting nearly 11,000 inspections during the reporting period.
Next slide please.
These are enforcement tools.
We use only voluntary when we when we don't
or to gain voluntary compliance efforts have been exhausted.
And these are stop work orders compliance plans
and cleanup contracts.
Next slide.
These before and after photographs
demonstrate the tangible improvements
occurring in neighborhoods throughout Oakland.
Perhaps one of the most encouraging
trends is the improvement in case resolution times
blight response improved approximately 35%.
If there's one slide, I
encourage the committee to remember it's this one.
We opened 3905 cases
and closed 4709 cases, meaning we closed more cases
than we opened open cases decreased.
That shows a source of code enforcement teams.
Great work.
The slide summaries.
The slide summarizes the enforcement fees assessed
during the reporting period.
I'd like to emphasize that the fees are not intended to generate revenue.
They're primary purpose. Purpose is to recover the city's costs associated with
investigating violations, conducting inspections,
performing administrative work, and pursuing compliance.
When property owners fail to voluntarily correct violations,
property owners are first provided an opportunity
to voluntarily comply through courtesy notices,
notices of violation, and the appeal process.
Fees are only assessed when those compliance efforts
are unsuccessful
and additional enforcement actions become necessary.
The next slide shows how these assessed field fees are ultimately collected.
One encouraging trend we've seen is a, improvement in fee collections.
It's important to note that collections in any given quarter
are not necessarily tied to fees assessed during the same quarter.
Many enforcement cases have take months to resolve,
and payments often occur after liens have been recorded
or when property taxes are paid through the county.
During the reporting period, we saw an increased collection
because staff, I mean, I'm sorry, increased collections
because staff continued to improve
follow up on delinquent accounts and transferred
priority leads to the county for collection.
As those leads are paid through the property tax process,
the city recovers costs that were previously outstanding.
This is why you'll notice collections in quarter
two exceed the amount assessed during the same quarter.
Those revenues reflect payments on enforcement actions
from prior reporting periods, not just new cases.
That being said, one of our
goals is to maximize voluntary compliance whenever possible.
When that does not occur,
we have responsibility to recover the public resources
expended on prolonged enforcement efforts,
improve collections, reflect better
fiscal stewardship.
As I conclude today's presentation,
I'd like to highlight some initiatives
that are strengthening our code enforcement
program and positioning us for continued success.
First, we're continuing to leverage technology
through our Code Enforcement Inspector app,
which allows inspectors to document violations,
generate notices of violations directly from the field,
and spend more time serving the public
rather than completing administrative tasks.
The investment has contributed to improved
inspection capacity and faster case processing.
Second, we've made significant progress
in building our workforce
by bringing in our code enforcement staff
and support personnel.
As reflected throughout today's presentation.
Those staffing investments are producing measurable results
due to reduced response times, increased
inspections, and reduction in overall backlog.
Finally, none of this work happens in isolation.
Our success depends on strong collaboration with our partners
across the city, including the fire department,
housing and community development,
economic and workforce development, public works,
the encampment management team, the City Attorney's office and many others.
These partnerships allow us to address complex cases more efficiently
and provide coordinated solutions to our community.
In closing,
this report demonstrates that the Planning
and Building Department Code Enforcement
Division continues to make measurable progress
and improving service delivery, reducing our backlog,
increasing inspection capacity,
and strengthening compliance throughout Oakland.
While there is still an important work ahead,
the results presented today reflect the positive impact
of our investments in staffing, technology,
operational improvements and strategic partnerships.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
For the for the report.
And, you know, thank you to you and staff,
for bringing such a comprehensive report.
I want to say this is maybe the second time
that we've at least for myself, I've heard this item.
I am curious, as I'm looking at the slides, I think
is slide 26 and 27.
I would be curious if when we get this item again,
I guess in the next six months or before we.
Yeah, maybe in the next six months,
I would be interested in seeing the data presented.
I guess as a I know this is a quarterly report,
but I would be interested
in seeing it reflected like year over year
so that we could actually get a true understanding of like,
okay, these are, you know, these are all of the cases, these are the categories.
And so in 2025 we were able to close X amount.
And now in 2026 we have this many cases.
And this is how many we were able to close.
Just so that because as I'm looking at the numbers
there's this on page 28.
It says, you know, open cases at the end of Q4.
And then it immediately jumps to Q2.
And, you know, like I think I want
I want a better perspective of how well we're doing.
But when you're looking at these columns from left to right, as is presented,
it's it's,
and I'm looking at blight to be specific on the slide.
I'm not really. It just seems kind of stagnant, if I had to be honest.
But I would love to.
The opportunity to be able to see,
hey, this is the work that we've been doing in this year,
and then this is what's happening
in the next year as well.
Just a true like compare and contrast.
But all in all, thank you so much for
I think one of the key highlights
that I was really delighted to see was, it just showcase
the cross Departamento collaboration
in order to get all of this accomplished.
And that is something that,
you know, myself and my colleagues
were all on finance and we just had a report,
about the city's strategic plan plan.
And one of the key components there is around
cross departments collaboration.
And so I think that this is a clear example
of how that's happening.
So thank you so much.
And so I'll go to my colleagues,
So this is great.
You guys are crushing it. I love that you're closing more cases than are getting opened.
How's your staffing?
Through the chair.
Honorable council member Unger.
We're not currently fully staffed,
but we have an ongoing, recruitment.
And, in fact, we just have a first
round of recruitment that we're going to,
start the interview process.
Process shortly.
They've gone through the initial application process and then the vetting
and the testing, and we're just waiting for,
list to be given to us so we can start with just,
conducting the, the interviews.
But we're looking to get fully staffed as quickly as possible.
But that may take a while to get.
Yeah, I guess that's my question.
How's the process working for you?
Is it are there hiccups that we can help resolve or that
need to be resolved?
Through the chair?
Council member Unger yes, we have been working actually closer with a chart
to ensure that not only our job descriptions, but,
but the the type of work that we're looking for and
experience is clearly depicted so that we can allow
for more applicants.
I'm happy to report that this last go around
we did had about 65 applicants
for our principal supervisor position. That's great.
And that was just in a two week time frame.
So we were very excited to hear that.
So we are working closely with our HRT.
Very cool. Keep your foot on the gas I appreciate it.
Thank you. Perfect. Thank you.
We could hear from the public speakers calling in the name
that signed up to speak on item number five, Mrs.
Sarah Ola Bala.
The department's
that collaborate to work on blight housing,
building code maintenance, noise complaints and zoning.
But in order for you to deal with,
environmental health code enforcement,
which is air and water and food quality or safety,
that is the Alameda County Department
of Environmental Health, and you haven't specified
related to code enforcement around those areas of water,
air and food safety.
How you collaborate with the county.
And this is very important.
So right now we got this explosive diarrhea thing going
on. And they're saying it is very serious.
And it has to deal with raw vegetables,
raw fruit, meat not being cooked correctly.
This is a serious issue.
And so how do we have the enforcement without vendors or with any
food vendor?
Thank you for your comments.
Miss Ola Bala,
chair, that concludes our speakers on this item.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Council member five on that note,
I just wanted to say to the public, Cyclosporiasis
cook, you cook your vegetables and I will make a motion
to accept, wash them and cook them.
You know, wash them really well.
I'll make a second.
Thank you. We have a motion made by council member five, second by Chair Brown to receive this receiving file.
This informational report.
Honorable council members five
I Ramachandran I, Ungar I and chair Brown I thank you.
Item five passes with four eyes
to receive and file this informational report.
To staff is is to receive and file in committee or forward.
Does staff have,
preference on this item,
file and committee or
are forward to the full body?
Through the chair city administrators office,
receive our file.
Okay. Okay.
Thank you. This received file made sure through the
filing through the committee. Okay. Okay.
Thank you. Now, reading in item six,
adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to enter
into a professional services agreement with Burrito Co, LLC,
an Oakland certified small local business enterprise,
for signage and wayfinding graphic design services at 25.
Sorry. 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza for a one year
term with an option to extend for an additional one year
work contract amount not to exceed $300,000,
and waiving the competitive request
for proposal qualification requirements.
And we have one speaker on this item.
Okay. Thank you.
Oh, hey. Good to see you again.
Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Chair Brown and members of the city committee.
My name is Rose ripple.
I'm an assistant to the city administrator
with the city administrator's office.
The proposed resolution before you would authorize
the city administrator to enter
into a professional services agreement with Burrito Co, LLP,
an Oakland certified small local business enterprise,
for signage and wayfinding graphic design
services, at the Single Storefront
Permit Center in 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza for a one year
term, with the option to extend
for an additional one year for a total contract amount
not to exceed $300,000, and waive the competitive request
for proposals. Qualifications requirements.
The proposed Professional Services
Agreement was initiated under the ongoing OGC
Permit Citywide Permitting program,
led by the office of the City Administrator,
to develop and scale efficiency solutions across various customer journeys
from digital platforms available through the city's website
to in-person services offered
at the permit center at 250 Franco Gold Plaza.
Under the proposed project, the city is seeking
design services for an updated wayfinding signage deployment
at the permit center commensurate with other physical and operational upgrades.
The public service areas of the permit center occupy
the first and second levels of 250 Franco Gall Plaza,
where in-person
permitting and related services
are provided by city agencies including planning, building,
transportation, public works, fire prevention,
housing and community development, and business tax.
On March 17th of this year, city staff issued
an informal request for proposals to nine firms in total for the vendors
were identified from the city's business directory and the other five
were identified from the City of Oakland
Local Small Local Business Enterprise Certified Directory,
each with North American Industry Classification system
codes related to graphic design, services design, manufacturing
and or interior design services, and with experience
performing similar relevant work
as depicted on their business websites.
Responses were due to the city by April 10th,
and staff received one proposal from Burrito Co LLC.
A cross-departmental team
of staff from the city administrators, Office
Planning and Building department and Oakland
Public Works Facility Services Division
evaluated the proposal from Burrito Co, LLC and engage
the firm, and in a Q&A session and presentation
of the proposed scope of work and other contract terms.
The review team found the proposal
to be extremely thorough and well structured,
and the firm's portfolio of past work
to be aligned with the proposed outcomes of the project.
The proposed agreement with Burrito Co,
LLC will deliver a comprehensive catalog of signage
typologies and associated specifications,
as well as a style guide with colorways, typeface,
hierarchy and other details.
A resource the city does not currently possess
for existing signage and wayfinding assets.
In 2023, the original design documentation for the facility,
including signage design specifications,
were lost in the ransomware attack.
Staff had intended to provide these original specifications
to the selected vendor to update and revise for the new signage program,
but after learning, from Facility Services
Division staff that the files have been lost, staff determined
the scope would need to be expanded and the dollar amount
increased to allow the vendor to develop specifications
for existing assets at the permit center.
Additionally, increasing the proposed contract
amount will also enable staff to include
an optional fabrication, planning
and management component,
allowing the vendor to deliver the newly designed assets
to the city for installation at 250
Franco Gold Plaza, rather than separately contracting out this
portion of work.
The expanded currently proposed Professional Services Agreement
includes the reconstruction of lost design
assets and consistent deployment of customer
wayfinding in a key public facility.
Staff expect this project will have citywide benefits as we anticipate
the deliverables to be applicable at many,
if not all, city facilities.
In addition to the permit center at 250 Franco Gallo Plaza.
Additionally, all design layouts and location specifications
produced through this project shall comply
with current Americans with Disabilities
Act requirements under federal Ada Accessibility standards.
Title three, chapter seven.
Some of the existing assets in the Permit center
do not meet current standards,
and this project will prioritize replacing these fixtures.
As mentioned earlier, the proposed vendor, Burrito
Co, LLC, is a small, minority owned creative agency
that is certified by the City of Oakland
as a small local business enterprise
for graphic design services.
The firm has completed similar projects
for the University of California, Santa Cruz
and the Jack London Business
Improvement District, among others.
Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 2.04.040 stipulates that contracts
procured through an informal
advertising and bidding process cannot exceed $50,000.
While staff initially believed that the scope of work or staff
initially believed that the scope of work
could feasibly be performed for this amount,
and again, this was through by not including
a fabrication component in the scope,
and also by providing the original design
specifications for the building,
which we've since learned we're not able to provide.
In addition, through discussions
with the proposed vendor and internally,
we we developed a much clearer picture of the tasks and steps
required to meaningfully achieve the project's goal
to create a visually cohesive,
brand aligned and Ada compliant wayfinding system.
Wayfinding signage system for fabrication to enhance
orientation and visitor experience at the permit center.
The revised currently proposed Professional Services
Agreement reflects. This facilitates the reconstruction of the lost
design assets
and in and will ensure consistent deployment of customer
wayfinding and signage in a key public facility.
For the sake of time, I won't go into it now,
but I'm happy to provide more of a breakdown of the costs
for, each phase of the proposed expanded, expanded, contract.
If there are questions about this.
So, in conclusion, staff are recommending
that the city council waive the competitive request
for proposals, qualifications, requirements
and authorize the city administrator to enter
into professional services agreement with Barretto Co, LLC,
an Oakland certified small local business enterprise,
for signage and wayfinding, graphic design services, at 250
Frank Ogawa Plaza for one year term,
but the option to extend for an additional one year
for a total contract amount not to exceed $300,000.
Thank you and staff are available to answer questions.
Perfect. And while while we have you there, Rose,
can you actually highlight the cost breakdown?
Sure, sure.
So just noting that, we are still kind of finalizing
the contract details and, negoti
There we have currently
laid out five phases of this, of this project.
So phase one would be, approximately 50,000,
this would include at least one site visit by the vendor
and allow for the creation.
As I mentioned, of the, design specifications
for existing assets of the permit center,
which were lost previously in the ransomware attack phase two.
Is, about $50,000.
This includes graphic design, styling and refinements.
Phase three is 75,000.
This includes creation and delivery
of a comprehensive system style guide and layout production
recommendations for all signage types.
Phase four is 23,000
and includes the delivery of templates
for signage, typologies
and production of digital files for all, digital assets.
And then phase five is the, optional
$100,000 component, which would include
the fabrication of the site.
So construction of the actual signs
and associated material materials,
which would then be delivered to the city for installation.
And so in that, in that breakdown with the vendor, also be
actually doing the install,
we would I think that's still being somewhat determined,
but the idea would to have as much of that done in-house by facilities, services
staff, as possible, I see and this is,
this is my first time seeing, a contract of this,
amount for signage.
And so do we have,
some historical context
around, like, how much we've spent in the past?
I think so, I can start by saying that,
to our knowledge, a project of this type has not been undertaken by the city in
in quite a number of years.
And so through,
this process, through discussions
with the vendor and internally, there, there was
we really gained a stronger understanding of, of the tasks,
that would be required, to, to meaningfully achieve this.
Going to,
I don't know if.
Robin, do you have anything to add there?
I'm going to ask that my colleague Robin Abad.
Add to that as well.
Good afternoon, Chair Brown.
Council members Robin and Bob with the city administrator's office
working with Rose on this project.
You know, we basically lost all of our design documentation,
for the signage program at 250.
That's the entire facility that permit center is a key
facility for, conducting business and providing service
to, our constituents.
Currently, we have a very inconsistent strategy for ensuring that folks
can navigate the facility with clarity.
You know, with consistency
in language and with, graphics that are Ada compliant.
We've we've basically just been making,
new stuff ad hoc as we've we've gone along.
So one thing we'd like to
emphasize is that by creating,
recreating an asset that we lost,
which is basically design guidelines for 250,
this project is actually an investment in the building
that will pay forward for another decade.
Facility staff will be able to use this to update signage
not only in the public portions of the building,
but throughout the entire facility.
So we're really having to reinvest,
in something that was lost in the ransomware attack, I see.
And then in the selection of the said vendor,
would you happen to know offhand, what other
local projects they've they were able to complete?
I can share that.
They have done, as I mentioned,
a similar project for the Jack London Business
Improvement District. And I believe there are some other local examples
that I'd be happy to to share with you,
directly and follow up. Interesting.
And you know, specifically, what was it, a Jack London square,
I believe it was a similar sort of, signage type of,
development, a creation of a comprehensive
signage plan, for, for that entity.
Okay. Excellent.
Thank you so much. Rose.
And, Robin, Council member, Ungar.
Yeah. I mean, I
can't help but think that this seems like an enormous amount of money for signage,
and maybe I'm thinking about this wrong.
I mean, in my mind, this is like,
permit counter to the left,
pay your parking tickets to the right, and that's $300,000.
I mean, is there not a way to do this more cheaply?
That would also help people just find their way around the building?
Thank you. Council member Ungar.
It is a not to exceed.
So these are you know, the budget is built around a conservative element.
Important to note too, that fabrication is part of this.
So materials actually, you know, printing things,
fabricating things. That is a huge part of the, sort of, projected
cost of the project.
As you mentioned, we are wanting to rely on our internal facilities,
public works, to actually do install.
So my assumption is that if we were to go through,
for example, through a city contracting process
or that it's we're going to get
really high numbers when it comes to,
actually procuring materials, fabrication.
The production piece is really,
the largest share of this not to exceed budget amount.
And this is,
are we actually in a situation
where people are giving up on applying for permits
because they can't find the right office?
I mean, is this a genuine problem that, well,
that needs to be solved, or is it just like it would?
Is it just a nice to have?
I think that since we've, consolidated
more and more public services into building to 50,
this really that us wanting to create a dignified
and clear environment for our public to navigate is part of a general, program
we have at 250 to provide better service,
more efficiency, clarity, and continued consolidation.
So, part of the investment we're making here is developing
a scalable system and a standard that will
evolve with the building and the facility as we
consolidate more, you know, public facing services
into that facility as we're up staffing, the departments
that provide counter staff and creating more positions,
physically reconfiguring the permit center over time.
Right now,
we just don't have adequate guidelines to be able to provide the,
the, the wayfinding and the navigation that really our public deserves
when they come to visit. 250 and do you see this as a first step, as something
you're going to come back to us for, for more
signage later?
This is a big first investment for sure to create the system.
And so what we anticipate being able to accomplish with
this is a comprehensive,
implementation in the public portions
of the first and second floors of building 250.
So we do anticipate that this will cover that.
It's also important to note that this is funding that is not
coming out of the general fund.
These are this is fee revenue that's specifically collected
for fee related services
and facilities for the city.
So it is it's it's money that it's funding that we have
that's actually dedicated for us improving this,
the experience of our customers.
And my understanding is that those funds are more
in better shape than the general fund.
I would say for the moment,
thankfully they are council member.
I'm I'm a little bit,
relieved to hear that it's not coming from the general fund.
That that does help a little bit.
Thank you.
And I, just to piggyback off of what Councilmember Ungar
was bringing up,
you know, I, I really want to say out
loud that, I think it's not only 250,
that need some support in, you know, ensuring
that our community members know where to go,
when they just come to the plaza.
Right. And so, I would be interested in the future,
given the success of this very robust,
you know, wayfinding plan that you all have established,
what it would look like to expand that right to other coming into City Hall
or how to get up to the chamber, second floor, etc..
I think that that could be of great, great value
to the community as well.
And so Council member five, did you have your, hand raised
and then Council Member Ramachandran
yes, I wanted to just say through the chair
that I was actually happy to see 2415 listed in the actual,
packet to show where the funds were coming from.
It seemed a little high to me as well, so I definitely want to echo
what my colleagues have stated here.
But I also wanted to know, I know you stated
that you reached out to nine different vendors.
Is that the widest net
that could be cast for this type of quote,
or is that just what we had on hand
through our existing, partners, through the city's system?
In this case, and and being that,
you know, initially this was an in and through the chair,
this wasn't it, initially an informal process
and not subject to the same sort of advertising, you know,
noticing requirements that a, that a formal RFP would be,
we followed sort of the standard process,
for informal RFPs, whereby we, we went,
we went into those different resources and tried to identify
as many applicable firms as possible, to, to cast
that wide net, to the extent that we could,
I, personally heard back from a number of firms,
you know, responding that they
weren't able or don't typically do this sort of work and declining
to provide a proposal.
So, we did ultimately have to have the one
from burrito, but, but yes, that that's sort of
the background and process, that led us to those nine firms.
So to be clear, did you reach out to nine
firms and heard back from who you heard from,
or did you reach out to more than nine?
We we reached out to nine,
and that was based on the specific,
classification codes that I mentioned
to be able to do this sort of work.
And wanting to ensure, for primarily,
you know, a significant number of, of firms that we knew
to be certified as local small local business enterprises.
Okay. I'll talk more.
Yes. It just seems like, with signage
there would be more firms that could be responsive,
but maybe they're not in the system.
And if they're not in the system,
then we need to figure out
how to get more people, more small businesses
to be aware when these contracts come up.
Because for a small business,
a $300,000 contract could be significant.
Absolutely. Right.
So we want to make sure that I would like to see double digits, and and up
when we're reaching out to small businesses
for these types of contracts,
this is almost a half million dollars.
So through that, you know, that's understood.
Thank you, thank you.
Okay. Thank you so much for your your work on the ow.
Councilmember Ramachandran.
Thank you. How many signs are going to be
constructed total with this?
I don't see the chair. I don't know that we have a specific number yet.
I will note that it the scope sort of includes
not just development of of signs specifically, but also other fixtures.
There, for example, is a large, directory,
on the first floor of the building that has
at this point rather dated, and inaccurate information.
So this would include,
like those types of assets as well, beyond
just sort of directional signage or that kind of thing.
And see if Robin has anything to add or
if there's a range of the number of physical products.
Yeah.
We, we don't know for certain at this point.
I think, that's part of the scope
is for this contractor to come in, assess the building,
the various different ad hoc signs that we have.
Are they in the right place?
Are they duplicative?
Can we streamline and reduce the number of assets that are currently deployed?
Right now we have things made out of acrylic, out of aluminum, things that are printed on a photocopier
that are stuck up on the wall.
And so part of this is really to sort of
clean up and establish a, a more streamlined
number of fixtures.
We also have new digital wayfinding.
So, Rose has led a huge project at that building, 250 facility
for folks to be able to to sign up for appointments
or walk in for appointments and, you know, get get a ticket.
We have digital monitors
and displays that have, since the pandemic been installed throughout 250
that aren't graphically, aligned, nor potentially
sort of fully Ada accessible that we need to assess as well.
So part of the reason it was so difficult to.
Council member five question to get the right mix of skills
is because this is a highly specialized design project.
And, you know, sort of spatial space organizing project.
So we really need to,
needed to find a firm
that had the right profile that could do the design work,
that could do the spatial planning work,
and then also, you know, deliver on different kinds of access
assets, whether they were digital or, physical.
Okay. Thank you.
All right. Well, thank you so much. We can hear from the public speakers
calling in the name that signed up to speak on item six.
Mr. Sato.
So I was in the,
Let me see.
I was in the office of the, citation
parking citation office, and they had a sign
and a sign reference.
This office serves citizens.
And it also said if you act in a disrespectful
way, you'll be asked to leave.
So you're telling people you only,
dealing with citizens.
So y'all need to check that no signs will have citizens on it.
And then you say you have to leave,
but you got to pay the ticket
so you don't give no other instructions on
how they pay the tickets on the sign.
So the sign has to be complete.
If you're asked to leave, you will be
asked to pay the ticket through email or whatever.
Okay, so that's just one example.
Then I heard somebody say, we use the informal process.
How do you use an informal process in any way
having to deal with spending a public money?
Thank you for your comments, chair.
That concludes our speakers.
All right. Thank you so much.
I'll entertain a motion on this item.
I'll make the motion to move this item
to the full city council on consent.
I was going to make a motion with the definition
of what's the informal versus formal bid process?
Sure. If that if that could be answered by staff.
Okay.
These processes are outlined in the Oakland Municipal Code.
They have different requirements and procedures.
And also are associated with different
not to exceed dollar amount thresholds.
And I can so with the informal process
that is a not to exceed a $50,000, as I mentioned.
In order to execute contracts
above,
and I apologize, I'm remembering this off the top of my head.
But the,
contracts exceeding the $250,000 are outside of the city
administrator's authority and therefore
require council approval in order to proceed.
Yep. Thank you. Second.
Thank you, thank you.
We have a motion made by Chair Brown, seconded by Council Member five
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the July 21st City Council agenda on consent.
Honorable Council members by Ramachandran
Unger now and Chair Brown.
Thank you.
Motion passes with three eyes.
One no. Due due to the no vote.
This will have to go on on consent.
Okay. Thank you.
Hey. Sorry.
Reading in item number seven, adopt a resolution authorizing
the following actions in fiscal year 2026 to 2027 one.
Accept an appropriate workforce innovation and opportunity.
Title one formula funds for adult dislocated
worker and youth and rapid response services in an amount
up to $4,827,587 to accept
and appropriate California Volunteers Youth Service Corp.
funding in an amount not to exceed $1,993,914
from California Volunteers Youth Service.
So Service Corp's program for the Oakland Port Initiative
through December 31st, 2027, and three authorizing
the City Administrator to execute
grant agreement amendments
and related documents necessary to implement the programs
and for authorizing,
Sorry, authorize the City administrator
to apply for accept inappropriate grant funds
and contributions for workforce development service services.
Beyond the wire, a title one for formula funding
and other budgeted funding sources up to $250,000
per instance, with the approval of the Oakland Workforce Development Board
and we do have two speakers on this item.
Okay. Thank you.
We can hear from staff on this item.
Hello. Good afternoon.
Speaking to the mic, on Narada Lindsay, economic aid,
workforce development.
So staff is requesting an approval of a resolution
that will authorize the city to accept an appropriate.
It's approximately
6.8 million in federal and state workforce funding.
And this is for fiscal year 2627.
So the current fiscal year that we're at,
I also want to just start out by noting that this particular
item, it's not going to, approve any new service
providers, or create any new programing at this time.
The council already approved our, Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act, or what?
I'll refer to it now as we, our,
service provider contracts on June 2nd.
So that action already happened.
And so today, what we're, requesting is that,
this body does authorize the city to receive
the funding that's necessary to implement these services
that have already been approved.
So this funding package includes, two allocations, 4.8 million,
and we are fund eight, and then nearly 2 million.
So it's 1.9 million from the California Volunteers program.
And that is to continue our Oakland forward Youth service,
public Services Career Pathways program
for this program year.
These investments for Wioa are expected to serve
approximately 900 residents, Oakland residents.
It's not citizens,
Oakland residents
and, and the California Volunteers
funding will support approximately
45 youth and young adults in paid public service
positions through the Oakland Public Works Program.
And lastly, this item, has included
a request to authorize
the city administrator to accept and appropriate
future workforce.
Grant funding up to 250,000 per award
with approval of the Oakland Workforce Development Board.
And by doing so, this will allow the city,
to respond quickly to smaller grant opportunities
where we're able to remain competitive
for workforce funding, with out having to come back to council,
for a separate action for each individual award.
These funds are critical to
maintaining Oakland's workforce development system
and provide residents with access
to training, career pathways, and employment opportunities
while also supporting employers meet their workforce needs.
And also supporting the city's economic development goals.
Staff is respectfully requesting approval
of this resolution and I'm happy to answer questions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for the the report.
And I guess, just for clarity, is it routine that
the item comes two times?
This is not this is again it this is a separate.
Oh, let me add some clarity.
So in the first item that we had earlier,
this year, we were
you know, approving the recipients of the
we owe a dollars.
And so can you explain what is what is the.
So that was for the recipients.
And so in this moment, we are simply allocating
the funds that we are going to receive.
Is that correct? That's correct. Okay.
And then so my question has to do with the table on page
four when you were looking at, the last component.
So can you,
refresh my memory, who who receives the funds
that are slated for program rapid response?
Who is the awarding the the program?
Rapid response dollars go directly to the city who has,
oversight of the services, directly to the businesses.
There's some funding
that's utilized there that goes out to service providers through,
the supports that are provided around the rapid
response activities.
The largest buckets that go out to the service providers
through the regular funding are going to be the adult,
the dislocated worker and the youth dollars I see.
And so to the T is the table with the table view,
the dollar amounts that are listed in the table,
are they also representative of the prior,
kind of funding that's going out of the that
is going out for those grantees that we awarded earlier.
It is inclusive of those dollars.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you for clarifying.
Any questions on this item, colleagues?
Okay. We can go to the public. Speaker
calling in the name of the sign up to speak on item number seven.
Mrs. Sardo Obama and Blair Beekman.
So the race equity statement says that she's going to provide
for the populations
that experienced the highest degree
of disproportionality of barriers to employment.
So that's going to be African-Americans, because we 10% of the unemployment that, in the city
the next group is Latinos, which is 4.7 unemployment.
Now, you are this is a department that has applied for a grant
from the state for non-citizen, support for small businesses.
So you serve non-citizens.
Of the 900 residents served, how many of citizens
are going to get that? How many non-citizens is that going to be equally done
halfway,
citizens halfway non-citizens?
How do you do it? How do you verify that a person is a non-citizen or a citizen?
You know, y'all just don't have these discussions at all.
But it's important
that that's
why South Africa is being torn up,
because the South African people,
black people in this city not addressing
this issue, you're not getting.
But you are not the party you got.
You guys, thank you for your comments.
If your name was called and you still
wish to speak on this item,
you can come up to the podium or raise your hand.
At this time, all names have been called perfect.
Thank you. Colleagues, is there a motion to move this item?
Councilmember Ungar so moved.
Second.
Thank you. We have a motion made by Councilmember Ungar,
seconded by Councilmember Ramachandran,
to approve the recommendations of staff
and to forward this item to the July 21st City Council Agenda on Roll.
Council members by Ramachandran I, Ungar I and chair Brown
I thank you motion passes with for
I support this item to the July
24th city Council agenda on consent.
Moving on to open forum
calling in the names that signed up to speak.
In no particular order.
You can come up to the podium,
state your name before making your comment.
If you're on zoom, please
raise your hand to be easily identified.
Shinobi Howard, asado.
Walla Walla, Blair Beekman,
Margaret. Margaret.
Grimsley, Sarah. Amir, Julius.
Morale, DeShawn. Taller.
Nita B.
Marco.
Duncan. Lisa.
Zebra. Jack
and Aaron.
Venus.
Hi. I'm Margaret Grimsley.
I spoke earlier on behalf of the street vendors who are here to talk about the,
problematic enforcement of,
supposedly laws and regulations around street vending.
I mentioned that I've lived in Oakland for over six years.
Street vendors have been a major part of the community here for me.
And, I also want to speak, to,
the fact that I walk Lake Merritt every day
and have never seen vendors bring anything but like, joy
and community and love and delicious food,
I don't see any of the problems that are being cited.
I also want to read talk from talking points provided by Nida
that the city should shift from gatekeeping to partnership,
include long term and informal vendors and decision making.
Waive or subsidize partition
participation costs for low income vendors.
Design programs rooted in equity and culture advocate
for simpler, simpler, clearer, streamlined, accessible
permitting systems and treat.
Joy as morality.
Instead of going out to the lake and talking
to us about these issues, the city had meetings
and text messages and emails.
I did include us and decided to smash instead of communicate.
So we are taking it upon ourselves to handle it ourselves
and let you know.
We read up on the concerns and don't agree
with your approach, and we'll handle it ourselves.
Since you don't want to work with us,
protect our culture and support real grassroots community
economic development,
and for the neighbors who can't stand us.
Have you ever had a conversation with us?
Have you tried our food or our sweets?
Have we sat in the sun and listened to the live music?
The open natives make and share out there?
Have you supported your local clothes
and jewelry marketers that work and make everything from hand?
Or do you sit on your balcony
and see a sea of black folks in our own home town
and don't like what you see because it's not your people?
From what we have seen over the past two and a half months,
the city needs to stop all raids.
My names need to be.
I'm a local street vendor.
I want to
just make sure folks understand that street vending
isn't just commerce, it's survival.
It's mutual aid. It's ingenuity.
It's how working class black, Latino, and Asian
and immigrant families have made ends meet in informal
economies have shut us out.
What the city is currently doing to street
vendors is not meaningful legislation.
It's violent gatekeeping.
The shift transforms meaning from community
survival economy into a managed experience
that squeezes every dime it can get at a street vendors
through permits, fees, and licenses.
When vending becomes overly curated, someone decides
who gets to bend, who doesn't get to vent,
what they can vent, and how they can show up,
and whether they even belong in street vending at all.
This kind of thinking and behavior can't be separate
from the broader forces of gentrification.
The issue is how street vending is allowed,
who benefits and who's being excluded.
The same for dollar tacos and overpriced street food
celebrating upscale food halls.
Food halls become become they become legal vending
and then while the illegal vending are the $2 tacos where the street.
Oh, she's giving me her time.
My name is DeShawn.
I'm giving you my time.
The issue is how to be vending is allowed.
The same entrepreneurial hustle praised by the middle class
startup culture becomes noncompliance
when practiced by the flatland families curbside.
This is nothing short of cultural displacement.
Our culture gets stigmatized, is regulated out of existence,
and then repackaged. And so back to sanitize and expensive
from what we've seen over the past two and a half months, the city needs to stop all raids on the vendors
and do a serious legal review of Oakley's enforcement policies
and practices. The vendors and their advocates have collected
enough factual support for investigating
whether Oakland exceeds legal authority,
and whether or not his deprive vendors of property without due process,
and this destruction of property,
has happened without warning, without receipt,
without any appeal process
or any opportunity to get property back.
Our legal representative has requested documents
twice already around citations,
around enforcement documents about any kind of writing,
around any kind of implementation.
He's been ignored and Friday filed a lawsuit against the city of Oakland,
in violation of the California public act.
Hello, I'm Lisa Zbornak.
I am a homeowner in the neighborhood of Cleveland
Heights.
By educating kids today, we will all have a better
tomorrow.
It's important that we keep the vendors.
One of my wellness tools is going to the lake
and dancing and talking to all the vendors.
I feel it's really important to keep,
especially the local Oakland women vendors,
like the ones that help educate kids and cook
ethnic foods that are helpful for the community,
that are therapists, the local artists and educators
that are now dear friends of mine
and are teaching me how to educate.
I was born in Berkeley.
I was raised in Oakland, California,
and we need the vendors here to educate the kids.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Virginia Davis. I'm here representing the Black cultural Zone.
I wanted to speak,
just very briefly about, the seminary, the speaker.
It's okay. Thank you.
Want to participate?
And we congratulate you on being able to move forward past some of the,
financial obstacles and this project.
So thank you very much.
And finance again, district five.
During this meeting, we saw the City council show
tremendous amounts of supportive ness and leniency
toward the developers of a multi-million dollar,
commercial real estate project, because the council recognized
that that project is important to the economic
fabric of the city and to the community around it.
We just want to see the city and the county show
that same kind of consideration to
street vendors who are smaller interests,
but are also just as crucial to the fabric of the community
and giving the rest of my time to Sarah,
to the member of the public.
Once you start your time, you cannot see
the rest of your time. So, Sarah, you'll have one minute.
That's okay.
All right.
Hi again. It's Sarah again.
Just coming back to just end it off.
Closed it off with some, thoughts on Praxis again.
Making sure that this committee is,
dedicated to, you know, finding the theory.
Why exactly is all of this happening?
And making sure that the actions you take,
are in line with what the community is saying.
How again, answering the questions of what exactly
about the tax on the vendors and is based on theory,
what type of reflection is taking place
and how this community is actual
I want to just close it off by saying the city should shift
from gatekeeping to partnership,
including longtime informal vendors
and decision making, waiving
or subsidizing participation costs for low income vendors,
designing programs rooted in equity and culture,
advocating for simple,
simpler, clearer, streamlined, accessible permitting systems,
and treating vendors not as participants in problems,
but as actual leaders and culture keepers.
Thank you.
Margo Duncan, policy fellow at Legal Services.
Prince with children. All of us are none.
You know, at first glance, sometimes
things can appear one way and be another way.
And I think I see as some of you guys
said, all of you guys had no empathy.
And I don't think that anymore.
I think a few of you guys
understand what's going on, and I think you mean, well.
And I also think that,
you know, openly don't look like
it used to look 40, 50 years when I was growing up.
It's different now.
But people that are coming into this space,
they still need to understand the history behind it.
You know, people, we have a right to be here
just like they do,
you know, and they may not like a lot of things,
but everything for everybody to like,
you know, and, and and just I would just ask
that they be mindful of that, you know,
I mean when they want people to turn music down and don't
drive this way and don't.
You get all upset when you talk about privacy.
These people are talking about
their private property
is being confiscated
by the Oakland police Department, Public Works
and Code Enforcement.
That is a violation of their human right.
You have no right to take their property.
They can be cited.
You can confiscate illegal alcohol and drugs,
but you cannot do this.
And somebody needs to investigate what's going on.
And somebody needs to file a lawsuit
because you cannot you cannot take it upon yourself to want to have that space
at Lake Merritt appropriate for them.
White folks,
at the expense of violating the rights
of these black people and other people that decide
they want to be on that lake that is public property.
It is not private property for.
Thank you for your comments. If your name was called and you still
wish to speak for open forum, you can come up to the podium
or raise your hand to be easily identified on zoom.
At this time all names have been called excellent.
All right. Well thank you everyone for coming to KD and to all the public commenters.
I'll have some additional conversations
and get more information on the street vending issue.
But until then, this meeting is adjourned.