City Government

Council May Address Racial Discrimination Highlighted in New Race and Gender Disparity Study

Emphasizing the importance of the work on the disparity study, Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas told the Oakland Post that the study will allow the City to figure out how to address the “systemic racial discrimination that exists” within the constraints of current laws limiting solutions to discrimination.

Published

4 years ago

January 22, 2021

Kiki

Loren Taylor

Nikki Fortunato Bas

Black people make up 25% of Oakland’s population. Women make up approximately 50%. That means that all of the statistics below should be 25% or above for Black businesses and 50% for women-owned businesses. Instead, this is what we see.

In construction prime contracts in the period from 2011 to 2016, African Americans earned a total of 2.07% of the contracts and a total of 1.13% of the money.
Women-owned businesses received 2.07% of the construction prime contracts and a total of 2.05% of the money.
African-American owned companies earned 1.43% of professional services prime contracts and 1.46% of the money.
Women-owned businesses received 10.36% of professional services prime contracts and 9.8% of the money.
For goods and commodities, African Americans received zero percent of the prime contracts and none of the money.
Women-owned business enterprises received 7.96% of the goods and commodities prime contracts and a total of 9.02% of the money.

As an administrative report to the City Council states, “The City of Oakland is a key player in the Oakland economy through its multi-million dollar purchasing and contracting activities, grants, and informal procurements” and plays a major role to reduce or enforce discrimination in the economic life of the city and its residents.

“The disparity study is incredibly important because it formally documents what many Oaklanders have known to be true – that Black-owned and women-owned businesses face significant structural and institutional barriers that keep them from accessing their “fair share” of City contracting opportunities,” said Councilmember Loren Taylor in an interview with the Oakland Post.

This study is also important because it creates concrete statistics so the city can go to court to defend race-conscious strategies to address these issues, he said.

Taylor continued:

“Discrimination by race and gender are embedded in the very fabric of how we operate as an institution, whether we acknowledge it or not. Government institutions in liberal Bay Area are not immune.”

He quoted Race and Equity Director Darlene Flynn, who says, “If your outcomes are racist, then the system that created those racist outcomes is racist as well.”

“Without a deliberate focus on eliminating race and gender inequity, we perpetuate the same disparities,” said Taylor,

While the discrimination may not be fully conscious or intentional, the effect is devastating.

“Black contractors missed out on tens of millions of dollars during the study period based on their relative availability to do the work,” said Taylor. “Those tens of millions of dollars equate to businesses that didn’t survive, jobs that didn’t get created, and Black and Latino communities that didn’t see the millions of additional dollars that would have otherwise cycled through Black and Brown communities.”

Taylor is proposing three ordinances that will be discussed and acted on by councilmembers in coming weeks.

Among the proposals are detailed changes so that minority trucking companies get city contracts, changing the rules so small businesses become more competitive with larger ones and making it harder for non-Oakland large businesses to call themselves “local businesses.”

She said she would like the City to hold a Zoom roundtable to involve a broad section of the Oakland community to raising the visibility of these issues and craft solutions.

The City hired Mason Tillman Associates in 2017 to complete the study for a total cost of $590,036.25. Required by the City Charter, this is the first study since 2008 examining all prime contracts between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2016. The consulting firm contacted all companies the city hired during this period to learn about the subcontracts they used to determine if they were awarded to minority-owned businesses. The 302-page study also examined the practices impacting who gets contracts and makes recommendations for the future.

For a copy of the disparity study go to Oakland Race and Equity Disparity Study

Kiki

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Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

Published

2 days ago

December 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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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

5 days 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

5 days 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.