City Government

Tagami’s $1.2 Billion Army Base Project Fails to Create West Oakland Jobs

Published

10 years ago

August 1, 2014

Community members are raising concerns about what has happened to the promise of jobs for Oakland residents at the $1.2 billion Oakland Army Base development project.

“Less than 10 percent of jobs are going to the people of West Oakland. They are giving some jobs in other places but not at the Army Base,” says Oakland resident Margaret Gordon, a member of OaklandWorks, who was involved in negotiating the project’s community benefits agreement.

Inflated promises of jobs, running from 1,500 to 8,000 or even higher, appear to have been overblown marketing hype meant to stampede Oaklanders into supporting the project.

While some people have been hired at construction jobs, the question remains: How many of these jobs are going to Oakland residents? How many are going to people who live in East Oakland and West Oakland?

How many are going to Black workers?

According to Phil Tagami’s California Capital & Investment Group (CCIG), a total of 425 jobs have been created so far on the project.

Lynette Gibson McElhaney

As of July 16, the project had hired 91 new Oakland workers, though even these are not necessarily Black or Latino workers, or any of the many residents who over the years have been unable to overcome the barriers to finding work in the relatively highly paid building trades.

“Staff is saying is they’ve exceeded the goals of local hire, mostly by percentages or hours worked,” Councilmember Lynette McElhaney said. However, they do not say if 2,000 hours were worked by Oakland residents represents 10 people or two people, she said.

Recent data indicates that the West Oakland Jobs Resource Center, the tool that was created to funnel West Oakland and other local residents into jobs at the project, has found 11 jobs for Oaklanders at the Army Base. They have found some jobs at other places.

“I had not heard that the numbers of people hired through the Jobs Resource Center were that low,” McElhaney said. “That’s shocking to me. It raises the question of whether Tagami and the subcontractors are serious about working with the center.”

In recent years, only 5 percent of journeymen hours on city-funded developments have gone to African Americans. Community members want to know what the racial breakdown is at this project.

Community members also want to know why the community benefits jobs policy, negotiated with community input over a period of several years, is turning out to be weaker than the city’s general jobs policy.

During the long negotiations over community benefits, it was agreed that there would be preference for hiring West Oakland residents, but that preference was eliminated from the final construction labor agreements, says Gordon.

Margaret Gordon

“They have not fulfilled that obligation,” Gordon continued.

There was supposedly a fairly ironclad agreement to hire 50 percent Oakland residents, which seemed to have been the case, at least up to a few months ago.

However, the city on May 22 sent a letter to Master Developer Phil Tagami, saying that under the army base agreement, contractors only have to make a good faith effort one time to hire local residents. If they are not able to find anyone, they are free from that point on to hire anyone they want.

A good faith effort constitutes contacting a city department and the Jobs Resource Center.

For Oakland’s other projects, “waivers” are issued for only 160 hours for work performed by a nonresident when no resident is available for immediate referral.

“The city needs to stop letting developers write these contracts. Each development project in the city is different; how it’s spelled out and how it’s going to be implemented,” said Gordon.

In addition, Gordon is asking why the city is not carrying out the agreement to provide the zip codes of the workers who are hired. She is asking the city to produce the zip codes.

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Related Topics:army base project California Capital & Investment Group City of Oakland jobs Lynette McElhaney Oakland Phil Tagami

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Bay Area

Glydways Breaking Ground on 14-Acre Demonstration Facility at Hilltop Mall

Glydways has been testing its technology at CCTA’s GoMentum Station in Concord for several years. The company plans to install an ambitious 28-mile Autonomous Transit Network in East Contra Costa County. The new Richmond facility will be strategically positioned near that project, according to Glydways.

Published

14 hours ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Image of planned Richmond facility courtesy of Glydways.

The Richmond Standard

Glydways, developer of microtransit systems using autonomous, small-scale vehicles, is breaking ground on a 14-acre Development and Demonstration Facility at the former Hilltop Mall property in Richmond, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) reported on social media.

Glydways, which released a statement announcing the project Monday, is using the site while the mall property undergoes a larger redevelopment.

“In the interim, Glydways will use a portion of the property to showcase its technology and conduct safety and reliability testing,” the company said.

The new Richmond development hub will include “over a mile of dedicated test track, enabling Glydways to refine its solutions in a controlled environment while simulating real-world conditions,” the company said.

Visitors to the facility will be able to experience on-demand travel, explore the control center and visit a showroom featuring virtual reality demonstrations of Glydways projects worldwide.

The hub will also house a 13,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility to service the growing fleet of Glydcars.

“With this new facility [at the former Hilltop Mall property], we’re giving the public a glimpse of the future, where people can experience ultra-quiet, on-demand transit—just like hailing a rideshare, but with the reliability and affordability of public transit,” said Tim Haile, executive director of CCTA.

Janet Galvez, vice president and investment officer at Prologis, owner of the Hilltop Mall property, said her company is “thrilled” to provide space for Glydways and is continuing to work with the city on future redevelopment plans for the broader mall property.

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl added that Glydways’ presence “will not only help test new transit solutions but also activate the former Mall site while preparation and finalization of the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan is underway.

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Alameda County

Last City Council Meeting of the Year Ends on Sour Note with Big Budget Cuts

In a five to one vote, with Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran excused, the council passed a plan aimed at balancing the $130 million deficit the city is facing. Noel Gallo voted against the plan, previously citing concerns over public safety cuts, while Nikki Fortunato-Bas, Treva Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Kevin Jenkins, and Dan Kalb voted in agreement with the plan.

Published

14 hours ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland City Council voted on a plan to balance the $130 million deficit at their last regular meeting of 2024. The plan reduces police spending by $25 million, temporarily closes two fire stations, and guts the cultural arts programs. iStock photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

In the last lengthy Tuesday meeting of the Oakland City Council for 2024, residents expressed strong opposition to the much needed budget cuts before a change in leadership was finalized with the certification of election results.

Oakland police and fire departments, the ambassador program, and city arts and culture will all see significant cuts over the course of two phases.

Phase 1 will eliminate two police academies, brown out two fire stations, eliminate the ambassador program, and reduce police overtime by nearly $25 million. These, with several other cuts across departments, aim to save the city $60 million. In addition, the council simultaneously approved to transfer restricted funds into its general purpose fund, amounting to over $40 million.

Phase 2 includes additional fire station brownouts and the elimination of 91 jobs, aiming to recover almost $16 million in order to balance the rest of the budget.

Several organizations and residents spoke out at the meeting in hopes of swaying the council to not make cuts to their programs.

East Oakland Senior Center volunteers and members, and homeless advocates, filled the plaza just outside of City Hall with rallies to show their disapproval of the new budget plan. Senior residents told the council to “remember that you’ll get old too” and that disturbing their resources will only bring problems for an already struggling community.

While city staff announced that there would not be complete cuts to senior center facilities, there would be significant reductions to staff and possibly inter-program services down the line.

Exiting council member and interim mayor Bas told the public that she is still hopeful that the one-time $125 million Coliseum sale deal will proceed in the near future so that the city would not have to continue with drastic cuts. The deal was intended to save the city for fiscal year 2024-25, but a hold up at the county level has paused any progress and therefore millions of dollars in funds Oakland desperately needs.

The Coliseum sale has been a contentious one. Residents and city leaders were originally against using the deal as a way to balance the budget, citing doubts about the sellers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group’s (AASEG), ability to complete the deal. Council members Reid, Ramachandran, and Gallo have called several emergency meetings to understand where the first installments of the sale are, with little to no answers.

Bas added that as the new Alameda County Supervisor for D5, a position she starts in a few weeks, she will do everything in her power to push the Coliseum sale along.

The city is also considering a sales tax measure to put on the special election ballot on April 15, 2025, which will also serve as an election to fill the now vacant D2 and mayor positions. The tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually for Oakland, allowing the city to gain much-needed revenue for the next two-year budget.

The council will discuss the possible sales tax measure on January 9.

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Activism

Protesters Gather in Oakland, Other City Halls, to Halt Encampment Sweeps

The coordinated protests on Tuesday in San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Fresno, Los Angeles and Seattle, were hosted by Poor Magazine and Wood Street Commons, calling on cities to halt the sweeps and focus instead on building more housing.

Published

14 hours ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The California Poor People’s Campaign’s Victoria King erected encampments for unhoused Oaklanders. Victoria King and her committee erected these emergency tents to symbolize the needs of unhoused Oaklanders. Photos by Post Staff.

By Post Staff

Houseless rights advocates gathered in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other city halls across California and Washington state this week protesting increased sweeps that followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision over the summer.

“What we’re dealing with right now is a way to criminalize people who are dealing with poverty, who are not able to afford rent,” said rights advocate Junebug Kealoh, outside San Francisco City Hall.

“When someone is constantly swept, they are just shuffled and things get taken — it’s hard to stay on top of anything,” said Kealoh.

Local houseless advocates include Victoria King, who is a member of the coordinating committee of the California Poor People’s Campaign. She and Dr. Monica Cross co-chair the Laney Poor People’s Campaign.

The demonstrations came after a June Supreme Court ruling expanded local governments’ authority to fine and jail people for sleeping outside, even if no shelter is available. Gov. Gavin Newsom in California followed up with an order directing state agencies to crack down on encampments and urging local governments to do the same.

Fresno, Berkeley and a host of other cities implemented new rules, making it easier for local governments to clear sidewalk camps. In other cities, such as San Francisco, officials more aggressively enforced anti-camping laws already on the books.