Bay Area

Opinion: City and State Auditors Warn of Oakland’s Financial Peril and Mismanagement

Published

5 years ago

April 30, 2020

The City of Oakland is teetering on the precipice of financial ruin, according to a report issued by the Oakland City Auditor earlier this month, confirmed by numerous independent sources, including a report issued by the State of California Auditor, Elaine Howle, identifying Oakland amongst the most financially imperiled cities in the state.

The problems run deep and include unfunded pension liabilities, unmet infrastructure needs and myriad lawsuits that promise to deliver a dearth of financial pain to the city. And now, the city must figure out how to foot the enormous cost of an unforeseen and unanticipated pandemic that has tremendously increased public need while it has devastated city revenues.

It is for these reasons, and more, that the Oakland Legal Defense Fund (OLDF) launched the Good Government Project. We must act now. The consequences of continued inaction will lead Oakland down the road to insolvency, and a place from which it will be very difficult to recover.

OLDF, in coordination with the Jobs and Housing Coalition (JHC) and numerous private plaintiffs, sued the City of Oakland on February 1, 2019 over the city council’s vote to declare that Measure AA, the Oakland Children’s Initiative, passed despite not receiving the two-thirds vote that the City Attorney said the parcel tax measure required for passage.

Despite a scathing superior court ruling that the city council’s actions violated constitutional provisions that require a two-thirds vote to levy parcel taxes and the rare admonishment that the city council’s actions constituted “a fraud on the voters.” the city council voted to appeal the decision. Some say this was a face-saving gesture. We believe it was a foolish attempt to resurrect a failed and wrongminded decision.

Voters, many of whom originally voted for Measure AA, were stunned at the betrayal by their city’s government. The League of Women Voters and hundreds of citizens have joined us to encourage the city council to drop the appeal. They have yet to do so, but we keep hope alive that the council will do the right thing.

Oakland voters have a history of generosity when it comes to voting to tax themselves for improvements to the city in which they live, but despite collecting the money, most of the promised improvements have not materialized.

In 2016, voters passed Measure KK which earmarked millions of dollars to fix potholes, repave roads, and fix other aspects of the city’s rapidly deteriorating infrastructure. Yet conditions remain largely the same.

In 2016, voters approved a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to launch a far-reaching educational program on the evils of sugar. Yet, today, there is no evidence of such an educational campaign and the funds from this measure have been sprinkled throughout the city budget to shore up the gaping deficits in various department’s budgets, unrelated to education on the evils of sugar-sweetened beverages.

In 2017, the city council voted to impose affordable housing impact fees on new market-rate development projects. Most of these funds are unaccounted for. The council has asked city staff two simple questions: how much did the city collect and how much did it spend on affordable housing? Staff could not answer and said they had to hire an outside auditor to answer those questions. Along with affordable housing advocates, developers and the public are still waiting for answers.

We are concerned that many residents don’t know what is really going on, and those that do, don’t know what to do about it. This is why we are creating the Good Government Project. We will shine a light on bad government practices. We will monitor whether the City spends money as promised. And, we will sue, if necessary, to prevent future fraud on the voters of Oakland!

We all want the same thing. Residents and the businesses who live and operate in Oakland, love the city and want to see it prosper and live up to its full potential. We are here to help make that happen.

Greg McConnell is President of Oakland Legal Defense Fund/Good Government Project.

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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

4 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

2 weeks 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.