Bay Area

Oakland: Homelessness, Housing, Public Safety Top City Council Budget Priorities

Aside from the council, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf identified her priorities for the 2021-23 budget, which she defined as holistic community safety, a responsive, trustworthy government and among other things, housing, economic and cultural security.

Published

4 years ago

April 2, 2021

Mia Lane

Homelessness, housing, and public safety are Oakland city councilmembers’ top priorities for the 2021-23 budget, the topic of a council retreat Tuesday.
       Those priorities are at least partially consistent with what Oakland residents see as the city’s most pressing needs, based on a recent survey by FM3 Research, an opinion research and strategy firm.
       But the mayor and City Council face an expected deficit in the 2021-23 budget even with $192 million coming from the federal American Rescue Plan. Despite that, council President Nikki Fortunato Bas hopes to position Oakland to thrive, not just survive.
       “It’s not enough to go back to where we were,” Bas said, referring to pre-pandemic times when even then many in Oakland were hurting.
       She thinks the council can position the city for a strong economic recovery and she has at least one idea to help do that.
       Bas’s idea is a progressive business tax, which could raise tens of millions of dollars by applying a higher tax rate on larger businesses.
       Currently, Oakland’s business tax rate is flat, which means mom-and-pop businesses pay the same tax rate as Whole Foods Market, which is owned by online retail giant Amazon. Under a progressive tax, Whole Foods would pay more tax on each dollar of sales than smaller stores would.
       The progressive tax legislation went before the council last year and fell one vote short of passing. She hopes it will get through the council this time and make it on the 2022 ballot.
       “I think it will make a huge difference in terms of providing a stronger revenue base,” she said.
Council members didn’t discuss what services, if any, may be cut because of the deficit. But adding revenue may alleviate the need to cut services.
       Councilmembers are also looking at how they might reallocate money from police to other services, Bas said.
       Of the $192 million expected from the American Rescue Plan, $44 million will be used to cover a current budget shortfall with the balance going to the 2021-23 budget.
       The process to create a balanced 2021-23 budget started Tuesday and must be approved in June.
       Aside from the council, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf identified her priorities for the 2021-23 budget, which she defined as holistic community safety, a responsive, trustworthy government, and among other things, housing, economic and cultural security.
       The mayor did not get more specific in the document she provided to the Oakland Finance Department.
       In the survey by FM3 Research, 50% of Oakland residents said housing and homelessness are the top issues they would like elected officials to address in the upcoming budget.
       Thirty-six percent said cutting the police budget should be the first or second step to easing the city’s budget deficit, while 58% said someone other than police should respond to mental health crises that are not violent.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.