Uncategorized

Brooks Wins Council Support to Bring Army Base Contracts to Local Businesses

Published

13 years ago

April 25, 2013

Oakland Post

Desley Brooks

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Oakland City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee modified a proposal this week to help local and minority contractors win construction contract bids with the city after learning the program as staff was implementing it may have been guilty of the same problem it was supposed to solve.
District 6 Councilmember Desley Brooks’ proposed Revolving Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) would allow the city set up a multiple-contractor insurance program specifically designed to be affordable for small local contractors and subcontractors bidding on large City of Oakland projects such as the Army Base Development.
Small contractors can normally be shut out of such large projects because they aren’t able to afford the insurance needed to bid on single jobs in a large project.
Council is looking to create the OCIP program in time for small local firms to utilizing it in bidding for Oakland Army Base Development contracts this summer.
But Brooks came to the meeting of the CED Committee this week to complain that contrary to her original proposal, which called for an open bid to select the administrator of Oakland’s proposed OCIP, city staff had already moved forward with modifications to the proposal that favored the selection of insurance giant Alliant Insurance Services of Newport Beach as the project administrator, potentially freezing out small local firms from competing for the job.
Brooks complained that city staff members were working with Alliant under an existing city insurance contract through a consortium of California counties to develop the OCIP while allowing Alliant to turn around and bid for the contract to administer the very program it was designing, a point that was taken up by District 3 Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney.
“I would somehow want to place firewalls between their role in some kind of [program development] capacity versus their ability to compete for the work,” McElhaney said.
“In some ways, if somebody is scoping the work, they can write it so that it benefits them, and not really be truly open to the qualifications of competing firms.”
But Brooks’ main point was to ensure the program did not end up being exclusionary in its administration.
“The whole purpose of an OCIP program is to be inclusionary,” Brooks said. “But the very firm that we are working with to develop this inclusionary program—from its board of directors down through its top management—doesn’t look like it has a lot of inclusion.
“When you look at their management team, it is all white males with the exception of one female. When you look at their Board of Directors it is all white males. And so here we’re talking about an inclusionary program and we’re not even looking at the organization we’re using to design this program to ensure that they have the cultural competency to deal in our community.”
With District 4 Councilmember Libby Schaaf abstaining, committee members voted to direct staff to put the development of the OCIP program up to bid rather than leaving it in Alliant’s hands to create.
The matter goes to the full City Council next Tuesday for consideration

Oakland Post

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Uncategorized

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.