City Government

No Agreement for Army Base Companies as Eviction Day Approaches

Published

12 years ago

August 16, 2013

As eviction day approaches, the possibility of finding a temporary home for Oakland Maritime Support Services (OMSS) and the 18 small businesses that operate at OMSS remains mired in negotiations between city staff and the Port of Oakland.

A possible agreement, which was discussed after Mayor Jean Quan and new port Executive Director Chris Lytle spoke, seems to have fallen through. At this point, the city is exploring other options, which the port may or may not accept.

City staff is moving ahead to evict OMSS and all the small businesses and hundreds of independent truckers based at OMSS.

At the same time, however, the city is trying to move OMSS from its property to a site it has leased from the port – so work can begin Sept. 3 on the Army Base development project while still preserving truck services and parking that keep the big rigs out of West Oakland.

“I am getting caught in the crossfire between the port and the city,” said Bill Aboudi, OMSS’s owner. “City staff is working with me. They are doing their best, but I have my hands tied.”

The Port Commission recently passed an ordinance saying it will not approve the city sublease to OMSS, unless the company settles a $1 million lawsuit, which is now in federal court awaiting a hearing. That lawsuit, involving wages and hours of employees, is not against OMSS but another company that belongs to Aboudi.

The ordinance says, in part: “The proposed subleasee shall have satisfied all outstanding judgment (s) of any court of competent jurisdiction against the proposed subleasee or its related entities arising from the truck parking or trucking operations of the subleasee or its related entities.”

The port ordinance was passed in the wake of intense lobbying efforts to close down Aboudi’s businesses by the Teamsters Union as part of a campaign to unionize independent truckers at the port.

Last week, OMSS supporters were expressing confidence that the port’s new executive director might allow the city to sublease to OMSS, if the city clearly accepted all liability related to the sublease and stipulated that it believes OMSS can meet its financial obligations.

The letter was written, but no agreement was reached with the port. At this point, the city is considering giving OMSS a month-to-month contract. Bu such a fragile arrangement would make it difficult for OMSS to find financing to do more than $1 million in improvements necessary to operate on the temporary site.

Even if port land is not available, the city has an obligations under a longstanding agreement with San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission to provide 15 acres of truck parking and services so that trucks will not end up on the streets of Oakland communities, said Dexter Vizinau, a consultant who works with OMSS and other army base businesses.

“The city has a mandate to provide 15 acres of parking through this whole development process within the old Army Base,” said Vizinau.

“The city has 150 acres that it is going to develop. OMSS could be moved to somewhere else on the site, where no work is going on, and the project would not be slowed down at all,” he added.

Steven Lowe

“It shame that the city and the port working together have done this to Bill Aboudi, who runs a viable enterprise that has created jobs and has the support of the West Oakland community,” said Steve Lowe, vice president of the West Oakland Commerce Association. OMSS and other Army Base businesses over the years have “have been sliced and diced,” Lowe said. “We’ve lost a lot of West Oakland businesses in the process. It has not been pleasant to watch.”

The City Council and city staff are “now honoring their commitment to business retention,” he said, but for many years there has been a “ big demonstration of bad faith on the city’s part, and it has cost us dearly.”

“It has been a huge blow to Oakland’s industrial viability,” Lowe added.

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Activism

Richmond Community Leaders Advocate for Accountability and Equity in Chevron Settlement Funds

“Now is the time for our community to have funding to solve the many problems that have been created over time,” said community advocate Antwon Cloird. “We now have no time to see politicians and the system get paid, while our community, year after year gets played.”

Published

4 days ago

September 14, 2025

Oakland Post

25 Long Term Residents of Richmond Form Coalition led by Community Advocate Antwon Cloird at CoBiz in Richmond. Photo Courtesy of Antwon Cloird.

By Carla Thomas

Richmond’s historic $550 million settlement with Chevron is considered a major victory by local officials, environmental justice advocates, and union representatives to remedy the harm caused by the refinery’s long-term air pollution in the city.

However, still unresolved is how the money will be allocated to reach community members who need the most support.

Cloird says he has formed a new coalition of 25 long-term residents who are all professionals and contributors to the community. Along with his newly formed group, which held a meeting at CoBiz, he demands transparency, equity, and fairness in the distribution of the settlement funds.

Cloird says the city wants to hire a consultant for $1.5 million to assess the Black community’s needs.

But Cloird says Black communities in Richmond have undergone so many rounds of gentrification abuse that an assessment is wasted money and time on reparations that can be more clearly defined by community members.

Cloird is outraged by the City of Richmond’s history of harm toward its Black community. Since the 1980s, the community has suffered from racism, redlining, gentrification, and marginalization, he said, arguing that the manipulation of the city’s finances has sidelined the Black community for too long.

Cloird’s career and life experiences have led him to share how the Crack Epidemic, the prison to pipeline syndrome, and the many ways systemic racism has forced an outmigration of the City’s Black community to the more northern suburbs of Pittsburgh and Antioch, which are connected to the mismanagement of city funds and the marginalization of several Black neighborhoods in Richmond.

Mayor Eduardo Martinez has proposed plans to rectify city finances and expand public services. He says the money will be placed into the city’s general fund and be allocated through open budget meetings, with public participation.

Council members Claudia Jimenez, Doria Robinson, and Sue Wilson support using the settlement to transform the city’s finances and redirect millions in annual pension payments toward services like safety, road repairs, and staffing.

Local advocacy groups, including the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), had rallied for the now-rescinded “Make Polluters Pay” measure, but are now focusing on environmental justice and investment in community-led programs.

At present, residents and organizers remain cautious, wanting to ensure the funds are fairly allocated while Richmond faces a delicate balance of supporting those who have suffered most from the impacts of refinery pollution.

Cloird says he does not trust the proposed plans to direct the money into the general fund.

“There has been a pattern of money not reaching the communities that have suffered the most when money goes into the general fund. Our coalition will fight for our community, and I want ensure we will have a viable community moving forward.”

The $550 million settlement with Chevron Corporation ended a high-profile campaign to impose new taxes on the oil giant’s local refinery. Approved by the Richmond City Council in August 2024, the agreement provides the city with a decade of financial installments, starting in July 2025.

The settlement emerged after a grassroots campaign demanded stronger accountability from Chevron for decades of air pollution linked to increased health risks in Richmond. The 2900-acre Chevron refinery, which processes approximately 240,000 barrels of crude oil daily, has long faced criticism from residents for contributing to elevated rates of respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular disease.

In response, local advocates and city leaders moved forward with a proposed “Make Polluters Pay” ballot measure that would have set a new tax of $1 per barrel of oil refined in the facility. The measure aimed to raise funds directly from Chevron to address public health, infrastructure, and environmental concerns.

To avoid the proposed tax, Chevron agreed to a $550 million payout over the next decade. Chevron will deliver $50 million annually from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2030, and $60 million annually from July 1, 2030, through June 30, 2035.