City Government

Protesters Shut Down Oakland City Council Meeting, Call for Budget That Responds to Oakland’s Needs

Published

8 years ago

July 1, 2017

Oakland City Council meeting in June 26. Photo on Facebook by Cat Brooks.

In an act of civil disobedience, Oakland residents, city workers and community shut down the City Council budget meeting on Monday, preventing the council from approving the city’s 2017-2019 budget.
The vote was rescheduled for Thursday, June 29. By law, the council must adopt a new budget by Friday, June 30.

Before the meeting was disrupted, community members called on council members to postpone the vote to give the council more time to hear about the desperate conditions Oaklanders are facing: more affordable housing and tenant protections, help for the city’s rapidly growing homeless population to get off the street and access to higher wages and decent jobs for workers.

The protesters opposed the budget backed by Council President Larry Reid and Councilmembers Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Annie Campbell Washington and Abel Guillén, instead supporting the budget proposal submitted by Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Desley Brooks.

Cat Brooks, a community activist who was involved in Monday evening’s civil obedience, said council members who favored the council president’s proposal were trying to “pass … a ‘status quo’ budget giving money to the hills, developers and OPD (Oakland Police Department.”

“The people successfully interrupted the meeting and demanded a delay on the vote and that the only budget that gets passed (should) be the people’s budget,” said Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project.
She called for more money for youth jobs, less money for cops, more funds for arts and artists, more money for the unhoused and for housing protections.

City workers asked the council to recognize their needs.

“We have an opportunity to fix Oakland and make it a city that everyone can thrive in, not just real estate developers,” said Felipe Cuevas, a city public works employee and local labor union SEIU 1021 Oakland chapter president.

“Residents and workers deserve a city budget that prioritizes public services and puts people first,” he said.

Margaretta Lin, a former city staffer who helped spearhead Oakland’s Housing Equity Roadmap in 2015, said the amount of money being earmarked for the homeless is inadequate.

“The proposed budget (for homelessness and anti-displacement) increased by only $370,000 for the next two years. This is even less than what the City of Berkeley, one-fourth the size of Oakland, is funding for anti-displacement,” she said.

James Vann of the Oakland Tenants Union said in an interview with the Post that the council’s budget fails to recognize that Oakland is in the midst of an affordable housing and homelessness crisis.

“Last year the Public Works Department spent $210,000 cleaning up debris and closing homeless campsites, which just pop back up once they leave,” he said. “This is not a constructive use of funds or a solution to a growing epidemic.”

Because the city has not met the challenge, a group of residents called the Homeless Advocacy Working Group began to hold biweekly meetings in January and have come up with a comprehensive program that would address these crises in various ways, Vann said.

The group’s proposal allocates $3 million per year to respond to the city’ homelessness epidemic.

The money would pay for the construction of tiny homes and establishing supervised campsites on city property, which would provide counseling, sanitation, bathrooms and other needs.

Mayor Libby Schaaf told the Post her budget dedicated significant funding to deal with homelessness. “We are dedicating $120 million to improve our city’s infrastructure, thanks in large part to Measure KK, while also making an unprecedented investment of $185 million in city and county funds to tackle homelessness in the immediate and long term,” she said.

Responding, Vann said, “The mayor’s statement is very misleading. She is projecting getting money from the county, she’s projecting getting some grants. But that money is not in the budget. It’s a fantasy – it’s money she’s hoping to get.”

“What there is for the homeless is about $100,000 – it’s almost nothing.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Funding Awarded for UC Berkeley’s New Latino Center of Excellence

Don't Miss

Fouché Foundation Fund Announces Grant Opportunity in Vocational Education

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

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

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

IN MEMORIAM: Nate Holden, State Senator and Longtime Los Angeles Councilmember, Dies at 95

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described Holden as “a lion” in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council.” Hahn added that she learned a lot working with Holden when she was a new councilmember.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Former Los Angeles Councilmember and California State Sen. Nate Holden. File photo.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Nathaniel “Nate” Holden, a prominent figure in the city’s politics, passed away at the age of 95, his family confirmed on May 7.

Holden, who represented South Los Angeles for 16 years on the City Council and served one term in the California State Senate, was widely regarded as a forceful advocate for his community.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described Holden as “a lion” in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council.”

Hahn added that she learned a lot working with Holden when she was a new councilmember.

Holden’s journey to political prominence began in the segregated South, where he was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1929. He often recalled the childhood moment when he first heard the governor of Georgia vowing to continue suppressing Black people.

“Doing the best you can for the people. Law and order. Make sure that people’s communities are safe. I did it all,” said Holden, reflecting on his legacy.

Holden is survived by his sons, including former California Assemblymember Chris Holden, who represented a district in Southern California that includes Pasadena and Altadena in Los Angeles County and cities in San Bernardino County.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

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.