City Government

Local Jobs Policy Moves Forward in Oakland City Council

Published

9 years ago

September 23, 2016

Councilmembers passed a resolution guaranteeing local hiring for Oaklanders on city-funded projects at Thursday’s Rules and Legislation committee, forwarding the jobs policy resolution to next week’s Community and Economic Development Committee.

Community members are asking City Council to establish the jobs policy before the November election when local residents will vote on a city-wide infrastructure bond that will require $600 million of local tax money for infrastructure construction jobs but doesn’t assure local hiring.

“We’re asking that you pass this resolution before November when voters will decide whether to support a bond that will not hire African Americans for city jobs,” said Carroll Fife of the Post Salon Community Assembly, the Oakland Alliance and the Oakland Justice Coalition.

The resolution, introduced by the Post Salon Community Assembly last week and supported by Councilmembers Desley Brooks, Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan, would effectively address the city’s lack of employment by African Americans on construction projects that are city funded or subsidized.

Currently, while African Americans make up 28 percent of the city’s population, they obtain only 5 percent of the employment hours on most city-funded projects.

Provisions of the policy would require the hiring of workers in zip codes with the highest levels of joblessness and creates a preference for contractors who commit to meeting a 50 percent resident hiring goal and 15 percent apprentice hiring goal.

Community members are also requesting that a study on workforce diversity be conducted in order to point out which industries are discriminating the most against hiring local African American workers.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

2 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.