Jaime Omar Yassin [TNH]

In the Details: happenings, findings, discoveries and observations of the past week at City Hall, (3) 1) Council Approves Local Citation/Administrative Fines for Sex Work Solicitation City Council unanimously approved new legislation last week that will create an “administrative” process akin to illegal dumping citations for “loitering” with intent to purchase sexual services on Oakland’s infamous, but ever-shifting, “Blade”. The new law will allow

Still time to read the Oakland Observer's "In the Details" before Bad Bunny's half-time show. In this week's ITD, OO notes the end/pause of most of recall-era "moderate" finance committees; Houston's EAP denied expedited scheduling at Rules, & more.

OPD & ACSO strategically gamed "piggyback" contracts with Flock, cornering jurisdictions into the "Flock is the only company that makes Flock" absurd logical paradigm. Tuesday, ALCO BOS will deliberate a direct contract with this logic with ACSO, an agency with no guardrails at all.

Somehow the report on Oakland's surprising positive budget performance in FY 24-25 did not make the news, but the fact that Finance is skipping publication of a useless FY 25-26 Q1 report that's far too early to make any predictions did. Weird.

There's a very visible through line between Oakland's right wing and San Francisco's, and it's called "moderate" candidates. But it's also not a new line.

CMs were not moved.

CM Ken Houston today attempted to reschedule his EAP to a 2/17 council mtg, but CMs declined and sent it to Life Enrichment, noting that's where it should go, and it's too important to rush into a full mtg [where at least 1 CM will be absent]. His response:

In the end, things like rights of the accused and a due, credible process aren't put in place because they are good, they are there because this is what happens when they aren't. The system itself falls apart and buckles from the inside

Not sure how or why, but Gallagher's influence, and his confidence in it it, has grown in the past year. Port of Oakland gave him a rent deferral on Scott's Seafood. And he had an op ed in the EBT just a couple of weeks ago trashing the org that just gave him free rent

but for immigrant children

SF Hated the Super Bowl in 2016. A Decade Later, What’s Changed? Ten years ago, protesters took to the streets to slam San Francisco’s Super Bowl City and call for an end to homeless sweeps. As the game returns to the Bay this week, why are things so quiet?

In 2016, the last time the Super Bowl came to the Bay Area, SF residents vandalized statues, threw a nationally-covered protest, and bemoaned the high cost to taxpayers. Why are things so quiet this year?
I break it down in @coyotemedia.org.

Raymond Ghallagher was a big donor to Armstrong's campaign & led a fight to kill City purchase of a JLS-adjacent hotel for homeless assisted living. Jenkins had a fundraiser at his biz Scott's Seafood. The Walnut Creek resident donated to both Jenkins & Wang under a business LLC

He hasn't left yet, he just beat this particular horse to death months ago.

An astroturf campaign finance committee run by a white man who lives in Piedmont is no more.

Normatively, the biggest impediment to Houston's EAP itself is the conflictual way Houston has kept trying to get it scheduled, with no amendments of his own to acknowledge criticism, and no time for other CMs to add them. It's back for scheduling tomorrow for 2/17 council

Warren Logan lobbied CM Brown to include Isaac Abid's "Northlake"-branded neighborhood in City's million $$ "entertainment zones". "Northlake" is listed as Logan's employer, but its astroturf for Abid's "Lakeside Group". Logan got $100s of K from Abid & allies in his council run.

Loren Taylor & his white big business friends formed a fake group that KTVU immediately started partnering with weeks after it was founded and visibly had no membership. Still doing it too. The Fox takeover of that station was the death knell of independent journalism in Oakland

125K isn't the largest by any stretch, but it is a fairly large payout, so injury was likely much more severe than this

A slight correction on here and it's been added to the text, the collision happened at the next intersection west of the intersection where Coyotl was killed, 69th.

*even without civilian layoffs

Bay area media's lack of public interest interest on Oakland's budget leads to some of its most permanently misinformatory reporting. FY 24-25 closed with a $16 MM surplus even civilian layoffs. Every dept underspent but OFD and OPD-the surplus would have been $41 MM otherwise.

A settlement for an OPD collision the same East Oakland intersection where Agustin Coyotl lost his life in a police pursuit. Coyotl was killed in the pursuit in October, 2022, this red-light run by an OPD officer happened six months earlier in April.

Wang has new legislation that relies on a new state law for administrative fines for loitering "johns". Wang says the fines will add resources to victims' services, but they're a tiny fraction of what's already budgeted in DVP; issues of racial profiling largely unexamined.

At Council This Week, 2/3/2026 On Non-Consent, Wang's Legislation on Commercial Sex Solicitation There’s only one item on the non-consent calendar this week, CM Charlene Wang’s legislation that would rewrite some of Oakland’s existing commercial sex work laws to align with a new state law. That law, AB 379, allows specific fines

At Council tomorrow, it's another short agenda, but with some serious issues, a short thread.

Basically us in this two party system at the end of capitalism and last sputtering farts of democracy.

In the Details: happenings, findings, discoveries and observations of the past week at City Hall, (4) 1) A Public Records Request Reveals Only 2 Complete Applications for Oakland Police Commission Since October Council Decision to Deny Appointments Two weeks ago, the Oakland City Council again voted to deny the appointments of Police Commission Chair Ricardo Garcia Acosta and Omar Farmer, after the Selection Panel met in

I've heard some of the criticisms, not all of you are politics geeks. I get it. OO is debuting a bit more accessible feature called In the Details this week. Hope it's of use.

Theres actually only two that were submitted after October. Council's entire rationale for again denying the appts was this

City Administrator's office told Council 13 people had applied to Selection Panel for Oakland Police Commission, but per my PRA there's only 6 applications from date of 1st rejection to 2nd. One is incomplete, another is Doug Wong's intended for Mayor. oaklandca.nextreques...

I confirmed results of this PRA. Despite claims that Flock contract would expire week of January 1, leaving City with no Flock service, the City of Oakland continues to have no executed contract with Flock after Council authorized executing one in Dec. oaklandca.nextreques...

No, this one allows non immigration related

Here's Mayor Lee's Executive Order signed today barring City Officials from aiding federal immigration authorities, or from allowing the use of City-owned sites for such activities www.oaklandca.gov/fi...