Oakland Report Podcast

About Oakland Report Podcast

Oakland Report provides reasoned, evidence-based analyses and critiques of the policies, actions, and inactions of our city, county, and state governments. www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Oakland Report

Category

news · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Oct 2024

Latest episode

13 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

10 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Jun 2026

   'Our babies are drinking lead and we wonder why they’re fighting at First Friday'

   Oakland Recap provides summaries of public meeting proceedings that catch our attention. In this installment, we review the comments made by Oakland city council members at yesterday’s special budget meeting. Editor’s note City Council special budget meeting, June 12, 2026 (https://oakland.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1417796&GUID=AE056E70-9CFA-4A82-8769-C0B04B27175F&Options=info|&Search=). Yesterday the Oakland city council voted to declare a “severe and unanticipated financial event,” ten days after voters rejected Measure E. Measure E was a $34-million-per-year parcel tax that was initially conceived and designed by city council members. It then dropped off the council’s agenda, and later reappeared as a ‘citizen-sponsored’ initiative — written and funded by the city’s public employee unions — that only required a simple majority vote instead of the two-thirds required by state law for council-sponsored special taxes. Oakland voters rejected the tax, with 54% opposed as of the latest tally. Yesterday’s city council declaration of an “unanticipated financial event” suspended voter-approved protections on previous voter-approved tax measures in order to divert those promised tax funds to other purposes. Read this related article: The council also voted to make amendments to mayor Barbara Lee’s proposed budget and advance it to a final council vote for approval by June 30. Notably, the budget amendments council approved yesterday included $2.4 million to purchase fire trucks with money from the General Purpose Fund. The Yes on Measure E campaign previously claimed that the Measure E parcel tax was needed to fund the purchase of fire trucks. At various times during the Yes on E campaign, firefighters union representatives threatened that fire services would be decreased if the measure did not pass. Read this related article: Another point of contention among council members was a recommended $250,000 gift to Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to assist with lead abatement at schools where unsafe levels of lead were found in the drinking water. After a series of public comments demanding that the council give more funding to senior centers, council member Kevin Jenkins proposed giving $200,000 of the money to the senior centers instead. Also during the meeting, council member Zac Unger made clear that he intends to continue to pursue pay raises for city employees despite the city’s budget challenges, and falsely alluded that Oakland Report claimed that pay raises had already been given. Council member Noel Gallo later noted that the city was in the midst of union contract negotiations, “and it’s gonna cost us millions.” Read this related article: Gallo also reminded the council that the city has around 800 fully funded but vacant positions (valued at an estimated $136 million) with no clear plan to fill them. Gallo then stated that, “I just don’t want to make the mistakes that other cities do — they go bankrupt.” The video at the top of this article compiles the council members’ remarks that caught our attention. Transcripts of their remarks are provided below. Don’t miss a beat. Subscribe for free to Oakland Report. ‘Our babies are drinking lead and we wonder why they’re fighting at First Friday.’ CARROLL FIFE: […] I don’t know what is happening with OUSD, but it is unconscionable that our babies are drinking lead and we wonder why they’re fighting at First Friday. Right? And at the same time, we need to hold OUSD accountable for what they’re doing with their budget. Council member Gallo talks about it all the time. So while we’re in a budget crisis, I find it very difficult to support financially what other public agencies are doing if they’re if they’re mismanaging their budgets. I’m troubled by that. And, I know, I heard our seniors. I have two senior centers here. I am the elected representative of the downtown Oakland Senior Center and the West Oakland Senior Center. West Oakland [senior center] has not been opened. It’s so behind schedule, and they’re talking about not being able to feed seniors. I’m concerned about the senior food program and hopefully the program I’m putting together today, the pilot program will be able to help assist with getting food out to the seniors. It’s the fastest growing population in the city of Oakland, and we are not serving them. So even though $250,000, $200,000 is a drop in the bucket, it’s more than they anticipated getting today. And so, I want to see what we can do to support those seniors. And then we need to go back to the school board. We might need to be going to some school board meetings, and meeting with our counterparts for District 3 and District 7, about how our our babies are being served. […] ‘Absolutely embarrassed that our seniors have to come here and do the song and dance’ KEVIN JENKINS […] This is my fourth year on council. I’m [a] senior member of city council and just absolutely embarrassed that our seniors have to come here and do the song and dance every single year. It’s absolutely imperative that we find a long-term funding source so that we can support our seniors in their golden years. Council member Houston, I want to just absolutely applaud you for wanting to extend the hours every single year. They come here every single year, and we do this again, and again, and again. I think it’s time for us to put our heads together and figure out how we can support our seniors going forward. So with that, I want to change the allocation of the sugar-sweetened beverage [tax], from $250,000 to OUSD, to $50,000 going to OUSD and $200,000 going to support our seniors, and we need to continue to work to support our seniors. […] ‘I don’t want to make the mistake that other cities do — they go bankrupt’ NOEL GALLO: […] Remember, I have six unions we got to settle with, and it’s gonna cost us millions. Also, I have 800 and something vacancies that we approved last year, but we never filled them. I can’t get my streets cleaned, man. I can’t buy my trucks. I can’t take care of law enforcement to help me on the street. But we’re going to sit here and do a lot more talking. I need to have a management budget that’s clear before I start approving all these other things. I’m going to do this, do that over here. Then I wind up once again with the public, “Well, I can’t take care of your street because I don’t have the money.” I just don’t want to make the mistake that other cities do — they go bankrupt. We’re right now discussing making agreements, but you don’t know what you have in terms of money because we haven’t settled the biggest challenge, and that’s going to be settling our union contracts: fire department, police department and all the other unions that we got to settle. That’s not going to be, you know, a 25-cents deal that we got to come up with. We’re going to have to find out, what can I do additionally for a service, once I take care of my employees… [Jenkins interrupts: Call the question.] …and so anyways. […] ‘I love that new fire engine smell’ ZAC UNGER: […] I sat here a year ago and talked about the “nobody’s happy budget.” You know, today, I think I’m happy to sit here and say that our council amendments constitute the “nobody’s crazy budget.” Our amendments from the budget team are a model that is reasonable, accountable and sane. And, you know, I’m not going to belabor the details here because I think my colleagues have done a great job with highlighting all of the all of the council amendments. But a couple of things that I do want to focus on are the $2.5 million in safe parking and hotel vouchers for our our unhoused neighbors, which I think is an incredibly important thing. The $50 million in already approved bond money that we accelerated towards affordable housing production. And, of course, I also love that new fire engine smell. So adding two fire rigs is is crucial. But I think that the values that we lead with as a council budget team are key here. We’re doing things in a way that we haven’t always done in the past. We added no new employees to the general fund in our council amendments. We funded no recurring expenses out of one time revenues. We brought four voter approved measures out of fiscal emergency and into full compliance with voter mandates. And our single biggest line item expenditure in the council amendments was an investment in paying down our long term pension obligations. While I am hopeful that we can pass a budget here today, I want to emphasize that we are by no means done. Despite what you may have been told by some reports about Oakland, our non-sworn employees did not receive a raise last year. Zero percent. We are losing valuable, talented workers because of this. And speaking for myself here, I commit to working to make sure that we can offer a compensation package to all of our employees, both sworn and non-sworn, that like our council budget amendments, is reasonable, accountable and sane. So I thank you all for everybody’s work on this. I thank you for your participation. [END OF TRANSCRIPT] A video of the council members’ comments appears at the top of this article. A link to the full video of the city council special budget meeting is available in Endnote 1. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   2 Jun 2026

   Oakland city union warns of a strike if city council does not approve pay raises, other demands

   Oakland Recap provides summaries of public meeting proceedings that catch our attention. In this installment, we review the comments made by members of city union International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21 at this morning’s city council special budget meeting. ‘I stood in a photo with you before I knocked doors for Measure E.’ City Council special budget meeting, June 1, 2026 (https://oakland.granicus.com/player/clip/7538?meta_id=648718). This morning, representatives from Oakland public employee union IFPTE Local 21 demanded that the city deliver promised pay raises, abandon proposed benefit changes, fill vacant positions (around 25 percent of IFPTE-represented positions are vacant), and extend work-from-home policies. The union members also demanded that the city convert sworn police positions to ‘civilianized’ roles that would be filled by IFPTE union members. Over a series of comments, IFPTE union members reminded the city council of their union’s support for Measure E. IFPTE has donated over $120,000 to the Yes on E campaign, and its members have assisted with campaign rallies and door-to-door canvassing efforts. “Mayor Lee, council member Wang, council member Ramachandran, I stood in a photo with you before I knocked doors for Measure E on Saturday. Will you stand in actual solidarity with us now, with your workforce? “To the other council members who have received support, endorsement from the city's unions, will you stand in solidarity with us? Your actions are what matter now.” — Elliot Goodrich, city transportation engineer and IFPTE Local 21 member, June 1, 2026 Don’t miss a beat. Subscribe for free to Oakland Report. “Labor organizations have worked really hard to help elect many of the people sitting around in this room.” IFTPE union members also reminded the mayor and council members of the union’s past political support for their election campaigns. “Many of you have described yourselves as labor-friendly leaders, and labor organizations have worked really hard to help elect many of the people sitting around in this room. “We're asking you to demonstrate that commitment by standing with the workers who keep this city functioning every single day. “I'm asking council to direct the city's bargaining team back to the table with a serious commitment to retaining workers and reaching a fair agreement.” — Noel Pond-Danchik, transportation planner and IFPTE chapter membership director “Whispers of the S-word: strike” One of the union members issued a warning that the union is so disgruntled about the city’s negotiations over the upcoming union contract renewal, that there are “whispers” of a union strike. “As of late last week, the city administration's bargaining team has requested that Oakland city workers not only receive no cost of living adjustment, as well as reduced health care, pension and other benefits. “They have rejected our telework proposal, which is a no-cost proposal. At the very least, they should be able to accept something that's no cost. “We were asked to work for less and with less. The administration has offered these takeaways to most bargaining units and people are so upset, all I've heard is whispers of the S-word, strike. “This is not a threat.” — Cody Meschinger, construction engineer and IFPTE chapter vice president, June 1, 2026 A video of the union members’ comments appears at the top of this article. A link to the full video of the city council special budget meeting is available in endnote 1. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   19 May 2026

   'We have a spending plan... that is a plan.' Mayor Barbara Lee, public unions hold a rally for Measure E

   Mayor Barbara Lee, city council president Kevin Jenkins, and firefighters union boss Seth Olyer held a rally today with public employee unions to gin up support for Measure E. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

4. 

   13 May 2026

   ‘Oakland needs to get its act together’: city to spend another $1.1 million on illegal dumping

   Oakland Recap provides summaries of public meetings that catch our attention. ‘It’s not about what we say, it’s about what we do’ Council public works and transportation committee, May 12, agenda item #5 (https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7989762&GUID=3A7C0038-B049-42E0-8C1D-75FB01F98D57). Yesterday the council public works and transportation committee voted to advance a proposed illegal dumping expenditures action (‘IDEA’) plan to the full city council on May 19. Two committee members whose neighborhoods are heavily impacted by illegal dumping — Ken Houston (District 7) and Noel Gallo (District 5) — expressed their frustration with the proposal. Their remarks appeared to be directed at times to city staff, to committee chair Zac Unger seated to their right, and to former councilmember-turned-illegal dumping project manager Rebecca Kaplan, who was seated in the audience. Houston and Gallo’s remarks focused on what they described as yet another plan — and expense — that was long on policy talk, but short on practical solutions to the city’s chronic illegal dumping challenges. Help us reach our goal of 10,000 subscribers. Sign up for free to receive Oakland Report in your inbox. Committee member Charlene Wang (District 2) and council member Rowena Brown (at-large, not a committee member) focused their remarks on technocratic questions about the plan. Council member Carroll Fife (District 3) — who does not serve on the committee, but whose district is significantly impacted by illegal dumping — expressed thanks and commended Kaplan for her work. Committee chair Unger (District 1), who co-sponsored the Apr. 14 legislation with mayor Lee, offered no remarks. Editor’s note: See above for the video and below for a transcript of Houston’s remarks. See below for the video and a transcript of Gallo’s remarks. ‘Where is that money going?’: 20 years of spending, 20 years of ever-growing trash On April 23, Oakland City Auditor Michael C. Houston released a 56-page performance audit that found Oakland’s spending on illegal dumping has climbed nearly fivefold over two decades while the volume of dumped material has continued to rise. The audit issued 17 recommendations; only four were marked as “Complete.” As Oakland Report documented in our reporting on former council member Rebecca Kaplan’s long involvement in the city’s illegal dumping activities, the city administrator hired Kaplan shortly after she left elected office — without a public recruitment or hiring announcement — as an “illegal dumping project manager” paid $149,410 per year plus benefits. Read this related article: The $1.1 million ‘IDEA’ plan does not address the audit’s primary recommendation: renegotiating Oakland’s $1 billion Waste Management hauling contract, in which Kaplan played a key role negotiating and approving on the council. Waste Management’s $53.36 minimum residential trash pickup fee for its Oakland customers is 56% higher than the regional average for cities served by the same hauler. The ‘IDEA’ plan aims to operationalize the Apr. 14 legislative package from mayor Lee and council member Unger, which increased dumping fines to up to $5,000, criminalized using one’s vehicle to dump, and exempted encampment waste from the “illegal dumping” definition. Additionally, a proposed State Senate Bill 1218 (Arreguín), sponsored by the city of Oakland, would direct the DMV to block vehicle registration for unpaid dumping citations, if the bill is ultimately approved by the legislature and signed by the governor. Drones, equipment and no-bid contracts The auditor’s report highlighted Oakland’s poor track record on illegal dumping enforcement, which the ‘IDEA’ plan aims to improve. According to the audit, Oakland received over 25,000 calls (to 311) about dumping, and removed at least 15 million pounds of trash, yet issued only 273 citations and collected fines from only 25 of them. The audit also found that the city’s Environmental Enforcement Unit “lacks internal organization,” with no written policies, conflicting roles, insufficient training, and a five-month period in late 2024 when it patrolled only a 20-block stretch of East Oakland. In the ‘IDEA’ plan, four of the ten line items — $515,000 total — would be awarded as no-bid contracts, along with waivers of Oakland’s competitive bidding and local/small business contracting rules: * $190,000 to Big Truck Rental of Tampa, Florida for grapple-truck rentals. * $150,000 to San Francisco AI-drone startup Aerbits, Inc. for an aerial imagery (drone camera) pilot. * $100,000 to Verizon via California’s CALNET master agreement. * $75,000 to Security Lines U.S. for additional cameras. The Security Lines contract expansion would bring cumulative spending with that vendor to roughly $910,000 since 2022. The plan’s largest single line item expense is $300,000 in staff overtime. During the May 12 committee meeting, city staff confirmed that the city only has eight positions on its Environmental Enforcement Officers team — five of which are filled, two vacant, and one frozen. The plan also funds $95,000 in cleanup equipment and $90,000 to revive the “Bulky Block Parties” program the city shuttered in 2024. Read this related article: The ‘IDEA’ staff report does not fully address the relationship between dumping hot spots and Oakland’s homeless encampments. Oakland’s unsheltered population grew 10% from 2022 to 2024, even as Alameda County’s declined 3%. The auditor reported that the city’s encampment management team removed 5,428 tons of debris from encampments in 2025 — 50% more than the 3,617 tons collected citywide by illegal-dumping cleanup crews — after a ‘garbage-blitz’ effort diverted cleanups to encampment work. The ‘IDEA’ plan responds to some audit recommendations, such as expanding outreach, new citation software, and camera evaluation. But it bypasses several others: renegotiating the Waste Management contract; implementing low-income renter subsidies; imposing commercial special assessments on the thousands of Oakland businesses without trash service; and working to make the English-only 311 call service multilingual. Don’t miss a beat. Donate to Oakland Report to support our nonprofit work: Learn more (https://www.citizensoakland.org/) Video and transcript of council member Noel Gallo’s remarks on the ‘IDEA’ plan It’s not about what we say, it’s about what we do, and sometimes we — some of us writing policy and recommendations, I never see you on the street picking anything up. I’ve been here for many years, but I never see people out. But they’re going to tell me how to do it, what to do, and when to do it. So those are realities. You can shake your head and growl, but the reality is, I have seen Oakland in many different ways, and one of the realities that we’re facing: we have a contract with a Waste Management company that can’t deliver the service to allow Noel to go dump at Waste Management, and not create a bulky pick-up where I won’t have all my workers doing overtime work, with dumpsters and trucks where I could go to Waste Management like other cities do. I go to Tucson, Arizona; I get to go. If I have a bill, I go straight to the dump yard [run by] Waste Management. And they only charge me $30, not $300. So I don’t have to go to the public works yard, and [then] the public works yard has got to go to the Waste Management yard. So I think that for those that wrote these policies, please come out and help me. We’re out there every day. We’ve been out there every day for ten years picking it up. I’m not sitting here just making more excuses. All right? So the reality is that we have to deal with Waste Management and what the city’s not doing — city employees are not doing administratively, sitting here at City Hall. Because there are many businesses in Oakland that don’t have a garbage license. So what they do is they come and leave it on the corner down the street so we can pick it up, and we’re not charging any fees. Certainly at one time, public works used to do that on a daily basis early in the morning: clean the streets up, pick it up and make it clean, not only dealing with graffiti, but dealing with, I mean, garbage, but dealing with the graffiti. You never saw graffiti throughout the city because we used to have cameras in certain places, and the police department would go with me at nighttime to capture those doing the graffiti and arrest them. And I still get people from the sheriff’s department that come volunteer with me because they illegally dump or they did graffiti, but they’re coming from the city of Fremont, Castro Valley. I don’t see any people in Oakland getting arrested or cited to come work off their tickets. And they’re coming from other cities in Alameda County. So what I’m asking the city administration, where is that franchise fee dollar doing that illegal — where like one or two cities in the state that ever did that because they went to court and sued the city because that was illegal, because the voters never paid for that or voted for that, but we’re still collecting $28 million — where is that money going? That’s supposed to be going back, keeping our streets clean. So if you need to report that not only that fee, but also the cannabis operations, because I still remember when I was here, when we started, that they used to bring their trucks and give us millions of dollars. But now we changed the process of where is that money going to a city administration to keep this city safe and clean? So for me, it’s, you know, we can do a lot of writing, a lot of talking, but I want to see those who wrote it and put it together, come on the street and help do it. So you know what the hell is going on in the neighborhood. You can see it yourself. Get your hands dirty. It’s easy for me to sit here all day long writing to do this and do that and over here and feel sorry. But the reality is we need to hire more people within public works. And if you go to public works today, right now, you’re going to see trucks — 50, 60 trucks that are not working because we don’t have the mechanics. We used to have ten mechanics, but I only have three, and the trucks are sitting because I drive city trucks every weekend and throughout the week. But most of the time they’re not working, and your people are not able to go and collect the trash and do what you’re saying we should be doing. So for me, Oakland needs to get its act together, and public works transportation. We need to have that cooperation, not just with Waste Management, but California Waste Solutions, because they used to bring the big trucks on Saturdays to volunteer and help me clean up. But now, they don’t do that anymore because, the city — well, somebody, something’s going on with negotiations. So for me it’s, whether you’re in West Oakland and East Oakland, I think what we need to do is improve the delivery of service. I don’t need more laws and more ordinances, I need to get the job done, as we’ve done in many years in the past. And so the only other recommendation I have for you: you want to do education? Well, we used to receive that information in our high schools. No, it’s not okay for you to throw your trash out the window as we’re doing today. And it’s not okay for your school to be like it is in the condition today, because the youngsters used to volunteer to keep it clean every day. And that’s my high school years. I used to, once a month, they’d make us all work around the school, inside the school, in the neighborhood, to make sure that neighbors saw us caring for the community. So I think that there are many ways to get this done, but at the end of the day, Waste Management has a dump yard that we can go and dump our trash like we do when we pick it up during the week, and it’s over: it’s clean. But Waste Management, California Waste Solutions, Civic Corps would be out on the streets daily unloading your trash cans, picking up whatever’s on the sidewalk and on the streets. And so we need to get back to the work attitude. And that’s one of the things that’s missing in all these policies that I’m creating and doing this and that — but it’s about work. It’s about cleaning Chinatown. I can write all the laws I want, but unless you get out and go clean it, it’s not going to change. So what I ask is that, you know, be able to report back in terms of: what is the condition of Oakland, of public works, what is their need to fix those vehicles? How many more employees do they have, because many are not here anymore? As an example, and I’ll leave you with: go to the public works yard and Coliseum Way. You’ve been there lately? In front of Oakland’s public works yard, it should be the cleanest area around, as a demonstration of cleanliness. It is dumped left and right. You come out with your truck, it’s the whole street. Even though I asked to put no parking at any time [signs], it is filled with garbage and trash and we allowed that in front of our property, and that’s a role model. We need to correct that. But go take a look, go take a look and then you can decide what to write and what to do. But at the end of the day, I need more individuals working with public works and make sure that their vehicles are repaired and are able to assist the workers that we do have. So anyway, thank you. I know, I don’t mean to express my frustration, but Oakland’s got to get its act together. And it’s not about how many laws and rules I have. We’ve got to go get it. Look at Lake Merritt. You used to help me with Lake Merritt. Look where it is today. Not like where it used to be, where you had Olympic trials, people wandering, the high school kids all rowing at Lake Merritt. But nowadays, well, I’m not going to go to Lake Merritt, I’ll go somewhere else. So anyways, thank you, but, and I do value that, and it’s more about than just $1 million. You got to remember that through Waste Management, they collect $36 million a year in my garbage bill on top of the garbage bill I have to pay on a monthly basis. Thank you. – Council member Noel Gallo, May 12, 2026. Transcript of council member Ken Houston’s remarks on the ‘IDEA’ plan You know how ridiculous this sounds? When we’re talking about illegal dumping —in other cities, when they’re talking about other issues? Why is that? Why is that? It’s because we’re just cleaning up, cleaning up instead of deterrence. Why are we spending all this time and resources, on what? Clean up. It’s called deterrence. The city of Oakland has the same equipment that Waste Management has. I don’t know other cities that have that. That’s ridiculous. Sitting on this council, I’m the only council member here that’s prosecuted a graffiti vandal and an illegal dumper. Through Nancy O’Malley with supervisor Nate Miley, we had stopped and slowed it down. Then after Nancy left, the prosecution stopped. Now that we have another district attorney — she’s willing to prosecute. She’s running for office right now. We have to deter this crime, council member Unger. It’s not called clean up, clean up, clean up, fine, fine, fine. That’s why I said the information that the EEO’s [Environmental Enforcement Officers] are very, very important to this system, because they’re the ones that are on the ground that need to be protected. They’re the ones that are on the ground that will collect and go through the indicia to find out the individuals that are committing this crime against our community. So if they have the information and the data that they can turn over in the proper way to the district attorney, we can prosecute these individuals that are committing crimes against our community: illegal dumpers and graffiti vandals, which is a visual cue of deterioration that attracts illegal dumping. Let me give you a story. Ten years ago, there was some huge, huge illegal dumping on San Leandro Boulevard. I went out, it was like 12:30, 1:00 at night. I saw this guy dump and I said, hey, you know, I want to, yeah, what makes you feel that you can dump here? You know what he said to me? He said if they can tag and do graffiti vandalism for 30 minutes, I can dump it in ten. Right? So my message is this: clean up is fine. We have to clean up and keep it clean. Because Noel’s been out there all the time, cleaning up, cleaning up, and spending his time just cleaning up our city. That’s unacceptable. He could be doing other things, right? We need to deter these individuals that are committing crimes against our community. I’m gonna say it one more time: in my priorities, it was real simple. There was three: public safety, homeless and housing. I addressed that with the EAP [Encampment Abatement Program] and public safety. We need to address it in a way that we can spend our time worrying about our seniors, worrying about our children, worrying about our homeless individuals that need housing, instead of talking about dumping — which people should know better to do it anyway, because I’m gonna tell you, much of the dumping in my community is coming from my community, from down the street with bags and stuff. I don’t know if it’s because of the size of the garbage bags, the garbage containers or not; we’re working on that also. So my main point right now is to get money — that money that was promised for the EEO’s to be safe for themselves, to be safe, and to be able to be trained to identify hazardous and contaminated materials so that information can be documented and turned over to the district attorney, so these individuals that are committing crimes against our community can be prosecuted. Because it is hurtful that I have to walk through this, my children, my seniors... it is sad. I yield the floor. – Council member Ken Houston, May 12, 2026. Oakland Report provides accurate, unflinching, data-driven reporting and analysis that you will find nowhere else. If you value our work, please donate. All contributions go directly to sustaining and growing our nonprofit work: Learn more (https://www.citizensoakland.org/) Note: This article has been updated from its original version to reflect the correct title for Environmental Enforcement Officers, the April 14 legislation sponsors, and the current public works and transportation committee membership. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

5. 

   18 Apr 2026

   'Where is my tax money going?': KTVU 2 News interviews Oakland Report

   Editor’s note: Our thanks and appreciation to news anchor Andre Senior and KTVU for having us on their Take 2 in the Morning (https://www.ktvu.com/shows/mornings-on-2) show on April 17, 2026. Video courtesy of KTVU. Transcript KTVU - “Take 2 in the Morning” April 17, 2026 ANDRE SENIOR: We’ve all talked about it: Where is my tax money going? People drive around their towns. They know they pay taxes. They’re not necessarily opposed to it because that is how your local government operates. But in Oakland, one Oakland resident has been tracking how your tax dollars are being spent. In other words, people are being asked to approve these measures that come up on the ballots, and they vote for them to improve roads or do whatever the case is. But then it seems as though an audit was done and some of the tax money, the promises that were made, where this money was going to be spent, is not necessarily ending up doing the job that it’s doing in the time that people would like to see it. Sean Reinhart with Oakland Report, he joins me now. He is a resident of Oakland and, of course, a concerned citizen and a former city worker himself in another city. So, of course, he keeps track of all these things. Sean, thank you so much for joining us this morning. SEAN REINHART: Thank you for having me, Andre. ANDRE SENIOR: All right, so, Sean, we’re kind of getting to the bottom of this here. There’s some numbers that came out that looked at, hey, voters approved these measures to tax, to use that money to be spent on certain things. And a report came out that shows that there has been a shortfall. What did you find? SEAN REINHART: Yes, well, actually, this was the city’s own report. Back in February, the city administrator of Oakland issued a report called, “Multi-Year Plan to Meet Voter-Mandated Staffing and Service Levels.” And what that report basically confirmed was that the city of Oakland broke its promises in three out of the last four parcel tax measures, including the most recent one passed in 2024, Measure NN, which was passed on the promise of providing improved public safety, in particular police officers. Thank you for reading Oakland Report. Subscribe to receive new articles in your inbox. Measure NN required the city to maintain a minimum number of 700 sworn police officers. However, the city immediately violated that minimum. The city currently only budgets 678 police officers. Because of administrative leaves and other things, currently the city’s down to an active force of about 500 officers. So the city broke its promise there. And actually, there’s a history of that going back around 20 years, and this is all according to the city’s own reports. We have it all on our website for folks to have a look at, to be informed about what is really happening with these tax dollars. ANDRE SENIOR: We were just showing a description. You listed out one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of the measures that were approved by voters. I want to make it a little bit bigger so our viewers can see it. Measure NN, public safety measure approved by voters in 2024: minimum requirements, as you see right here, minimum requirements not met. The duration for this tax is nine years. It’s supposed to collect $47.4 million, and that would go to public safety. This is a list of all the other measures where the minimum requirements have not been met yet. So I guess the question is: Sean, do we know why those requirements have not been met yet? Now, granted, when you talk about Measure NN, the duration, it was only approved in 2024. The duration for it is nine years. The requirements are not met yet. So does the city have time to rectify this situation? What do the numbers show here? SEAN REINHART: Well, the requirement was for those minimums to be met at the time the tax measures were passed. And so it was known at the time that the measures were put on the ballot, and that the city and their supporters were campaigning for the taxes that these minimums would need to be met. So it really was effective right away. But the city routinely has evaded those requirements by proclaiming various states of extreme fiscal necessity, which are loopholes that are baked into those past measures that allow them to bypass those requirements. So whether the city has time to rectify that discrepancy, really, that’s on the city to take the steps to do that and fulfill the promises that were there. In particular because the city is now asking voters to approve another tax this June, which kind of promises the same thing that Measure NN in 2024 promised, which was public safety services. So, another approximately $38 million per year being asked of Oakland taxpayers for pretty much the same services. Now, I do want to emphasize that taxes are incredibly important, as you mentioned, Andre, to provide the services that people need and deserve. You know, that’s an important part of a functioning society. But it’s equally important for residents to hold the city accountable, because that helps the city serve people better. That helps city leaders to make more meaningful progress and to be better public servants. So, you know, it’s very important for folks to have this information. I’m a librarian by trade, 26 years in local government, a longtime Oakland resident, grew up in Hayward. So, you know, just making this information available for folks to have a look for themselves, and they can decide for themselves whether these taxes are worth it and whether to approve new taxes. DONATE TO OAKLAND REPORT Please help us continue out nonprofit work by making a tax-deductible donation today: Learn more (https://www.citizensoakland.org/) ANDRE SENIOR: But they should also be aware that we, that the voters, those same voters, are being asked to approve another measure that would cover the same thing that the previous measure, essentially the same things, right, that the previous measure had been asked. So, I mean, you know, looking from the outside in, this might look like a double tax to some people. SEAN REINHART: Yeah, by all appearances, that is what is being asked of voters here this June. And I think it’s important to understand that Oakland has the highest taxes per capita among similar cities in the state. In fact, special taxes in Oakland have increased 379% over the past 20 years. I just want to say that again: 379% increase in these special taxes over the last 20 years. Now, that’s six times faster and higher than the rate of inflation or the cost of living over that same period of time. Now, in the last fiscal year, 2025, the city of Oakland brought in $1.6 billion in revenue. That’s an all-time high. If the city of Oakland was a person, it would be a billionaire. And like billionaires, its income has increased far, far greater than those of everyday people. ANDRE SENIOR: Sean, let’s look at Measure Q passed back in 2020. It was passed, a resolution in June of 2023 to suspend the park’s maintenance requirements, effectively voiding the baseline level of service promised to voters when the Measure Q tax was approved. In addition, the city failed to carry out the promised work in a timely manner. Measure Q had accumulated nearly $22 million in unspent funds by 2023, and homelessness carry forward funds exceeded allowable amounts due to the city’s lack of progress on performing the work. Can you break down what that means here? We’re talking about Measure Q here. SEAN REINHART: Yeah, and so that was the city auditor who had that finding, that the city had underspent by $22 million. So basically not doing the work that was promised and that voters gave up more taxes to provide with Measure Q. So three years later in 2023, the city council again declared an extreme fiscal, unanticipated event in order to evade the requirements, to basically suspend the requirement to do that parks maintenance. You know, I love Oakland’s parks. Oakland’s parks are amazing, but i think a lot of Oaklanders, if you go around parks, will agree that they need that TLC. So it’s pretty unfortunate that the money that voters put up to maintain those parks wasn’t spent in a timely manner. See this related article: ANDRE SENIOR: Okay so what’s happening here, the city has this money. Because the voters approved it they’re required to spend it on this particular thing, but in a certain declaration or under a certain declaration, the city doesn’t have to spend the money on that particular thing that the voters approved it for, is that what viewers should know? SEAN REINHART: Yes, it’s very important to look at the fine print of these tax measures because in the measures we’ve just talked about, these loopholes are built in where, if the city can declare that there was an extreme unanticipated fiscal event, then all bets are off and the money can be used for essentially anything that the city council decides to redirect them to. A lot of voters, I don’t think they realize that that’s part of the measure. It’s certainly not part of the campaign materials that support these measures. So it basically enables a loophole that, you know, the city can break the promise pretty much at will. And just a moment to talk about an unanticipated fiscal event. Just to be very clear, the city does have a lot of effort in planning budgets, in setting budgets, in forecasting budgets years ahead. So the city’s financial condition is very much known at the time that these tax measures are put out there. So, you know, barring some extreme event like, say, the pandemic was certainly an unanticipated fiscal event. But, you know, there hasn’t been that level of unanticipated fiscal change in recent years. See this related article: ANDRE SENIOR: Okay, so if you’re watching this and we see now that, you know, if budgets are planned for ahead of time, we all know this, companies do this, governments do this, the budgets are planned for ahead of time. Barring anything unanticipated like COVID-19 or something crazy, we should already know this. So are you looking for where that shortfall is coming from the city in which they’re declaring this emergency? If they’re declaring this emergency, they can use the money for other things. Are we looking at that as a whole here? Are you looking out for what comes out of the city manager’s office about where that cash is going? And why, if it’s going to another part of the city, why did they run out of money? SEAN REINHART: Yeah, you know, like I said earlier, it’s very important for citizens of Oakland to hold their city accountable by just paying attention to what they’re doing, because that makes the whole system work stronger. And so that’s why we started Oakland Report at oaklandreport.org, just to keep track of those things over time and give Oakland residents the opportunity to see what the city is doing. You know, I’ll say as far as the expenses — I myself have been in local government for 26 years, recently retired. It’s a service organization. The number one thing that the money goes toward is to pay people, which is incredibly important. City workers, they work very hard. We thank them for their service. Ultimately, they do work for us. They are public servants. The city of Oakland does pay its workers well, which is appropriate. City workers have health benefits and retirement plans, which again is very appropriate. Unfortunately, many Oakland residents do not have that same level of health benefits and retirement benefits. Everybody should have those things. Don’t get me wrong. I really think everyone who works hard their entire life should have health benefits and retirement plans. But the reality is most Oaklanders don’t have that. Yet the city, in order to increase that pay and benefits for their employees, is asking residents to give more of their money to increase those benefits, which they themselves don’t have. See this related article: So again, it’s fair to compensate employees. But when the the amount of increase in that compensation far exceeds the rate of inflation, the rate of cost of living, the compensation that the people being taxed themselves receive, you have to kind of start to ask, at what point, where does the breaking point arrive? Looking at the cost of living and how much inflation has really made it difficult for folks to survive here in Oakland, and again, a 379% increase in taxes over the past 20 years, you do have to ask, have we reached that point or not? That’s really something that we just want to put the information out there so Oakland voters can decide for themselves. ANDRE SENIOR: And that’s what this is all about here. The work of oaklandreport.org is to just get the information in front of them. You may not realize some of the things that are baked into what you vote for. Sean, we’ve run out of time today, but I’m hoping we can check in with you again next week because you dive into some other subjects as well, as you continue to track what goes on in the city of Oakland, and this is just good information for every Oakland voter to hear. Tracking government is not easy, but oaklandreport.org definitely tries to make it a little bit easier for you to understand. Sean, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. SEAN REINHART: Thank you, Andre. ANDRE SENIOR: We’ll be right back here on Take 2 this Morning. SUPPORT OAKLAND REPORT We rely on financial support from readers like you. We are a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization based in beautiful Oakland, California. Our mission is to make truth more accessible to all Oakland residents. Your donation in any amount helps us to continue our nonprofit work. Learn more (https://www.citizensoakland.org/) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

6. 

   28 Feb 2026

   Oakland's surplus mirage sets the stage for a $34 million tax increase

   This six-minute video explainer is based on our parcel tax exposé, “44% of Oakland’s proposed $34 million tax increase would go to union payouts,” published on February 22. We invite you to check it out, and share your thoughts. A full transcript of the video is also provided below. Thank you. — Oakland Report editorial board You can read the full text and primary source evidence in our exposé here: Video transcript Welcome to the explainer. Today we are digging into a really puzzling situation unfolding in Oakland, California. It’s a story about a city surplus that, well, might not be what it appears to be, and it involves a new tax that could hit every single homeowner. All right, let’s just jump right into the heart of the matter, because this is the paradox we need to unpack. How on earth can the city of Oakland be telling its residents two completely opposite stories about its finances at the exact same time? It just doesn’t add up. So on one side, you have this big announcement back in February of a $73.6 million surplus. Sounds great right? But on the other side, the city is still operating under an official declaration of “extreme fiscal necessity.” A surplus and a state of emergency at the same time? You have to ask yourself what is actually going on with the city’s money? To really get this, we’ve got to go back a bit to the union contracts that were signed in September of 2025. This right here is where the whole thing kicks off. So right out of the gate, those contracts handed out over $10 million in cash bonuses to union employees. And that money, it came directly from taxpayers. But believe me, that was just the start. Now, here is the real kicker. An even more substantial amount of money. We’re talking almost $15 million in raises was also put on the table, but this one had a catch. This payout was contingent. It would only get triggered if and only if the city officially declared a budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year on June 30th. And that brings us right back to our big question: The city’s been forecasting deficits. So how did they suddenly conjure up a surplus just in time to maybe trigger these raises? Well, the evidence in the public records suggests it’s not because the economy is booming. It’s because of some very clever financial engineering. So take a look at this breakdown because it’s pretty revealing. This surplus wasn’t built on things like growing tax revenue. No, a full 60% of it came from one time cash infusions and another 31%? That came from raiding restricted funds, something the city is only allowed to do because it’s declared that state of “extreme fiscal necessity.” You see, the emergency itself is what lets them move money around to create this surplus on paper. This timeline really lays it all out, doesn’t it? You can see the dominoes falling one by one: The contracts in September create the need for a surplus. The ongoing emergency gives them the tool to create it. Then boom! A new parcel tax campaign launches. And if that passes in June, it basically locks in the surplus and pulls the trigger on that $14.9 million in raises. So that leads to a pretty obvious question, right? If the city needs more tax money, why are public employee unions spending their own money to get this tax measure on the ballot? Why wouldn’t the city just run the campaign itself? Well, the answer seems to be a very handy loophole in California law. See, if the City Council puts a special tax on the ballot. It needs a two-thirds supermajority to pass. That’s a really high hurdle. But if it’s run as a “citizen-sponsored” initiative, it only needs a simple majority: 50% plus one vote. That is a much, much easier target to hit. Okay, let’s do what you’re supposed to do in these situations: Let’s follow the money. We’ll start with who’s paying for all this, and then we’ll see who stands to profit. First up, who is funding this “citizen-sponsored” tax campaign? The campaign finance records are crystal clear. Public employee unions have already poured over $400,000 into this thing. And who’s the biggest donor? SEIU Local 1021, which wrote a check for $200,000. Now have a look at this. This chart shows who gets the money if that surplus trigger is pulled. And would you look at that? SEIU Local 1021, the top donor to the tax campaign is also set to get the biggest pay raises, by far: $12.5 million in raises for its members. You see the same pattern with the other major donors. The campaign is also being pretty slick with its wording to sell this to voters. The ballot measure literally claims it will result in lower taxes for most homeowners. But text of the measure suggests a disingenuous rhetorical sleight of hand because even though it fiddles with an existing tax, the bottom line is still a major new property tax for homeowners. So let’s cut to the chase. What’s the real cost here? If this whole thing passes in June, what’s the final price tag for the taxpayers in Oakland? And here it is. This is the bottom line: of the $34 million this new tax would bring in every year, almost half of it — we’re talking 44 cents of every single new tax dollar — would go straight to paying for those triggered union raises. For the unions funding this campaign, I mean, it’s an absolutely incredible deal. They put up a bit over $400,000 to help get the tax passed and in return, their members get nearly 15 million in raises in just the first year. That’s a 3,600% return on their investment. So all of this leaves us with one last question to think about when a city’s surplus actually depends on a state of emergency to exist, and it can only be maintained by a new tax hike, which is bankrolled by the very people who stand to gain millions from it. Is that really a sign of a city in good financial health? Or is it a masterful piece of financial engineering? WE RELY ON YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT Oakland Report is a charitable nonprofit organization based in beautiful Oakland, California. Our mission is to make truth more accessible to all Oakland residents. We rely on our readers’ financial support to continue our work. Sign up to be a supporting member today, and help us continue our work to shine a light on the decisions that affect our lives. Thank you. Learn more (https://www.citizensoakland.org/) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org (https://www.oaklandreport.org?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

7. 

   1 Dec 2024

   PODCAST: Oakland leaders perpetuate misinformation to justify public safety cuts

   Oakland Report Editor-in-Chief reveals how local leaders spread misinformation to justify public safety cuts, undermining trust in the community.

8. 

   20 Nov 2024

   “If we do not change course, we will be roughly $115 million negative. We have already breached into our emergency reserve.”

   Oakland City Budget Administrator Bradley Johnson delivers a dire financial forecast, warning of a $115 million negative balance and urgent need for expenditure cuts to avoid insolvency.

9. 

   20 Oct 2024

   PODCAST: We can balance Oakland’s budget without selling the future

   Oakland Report's budget expert reveals how to balance Oakland's budget without sacrificing the city's future through data-driven solutions.

10. 

    6 Oct 2024

    Podcast: Oakland's Pension Debt Problem

    Oakland Report's Emily Lee and David DeBolt break down Oakland's crippling $450M pension debt problem and explore the city's financial future.

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