OAKLAND COMMITTEES/
Sept. 15, starts 9:30 a.m.
Cameras, radios, nobody watching truants
THERMAL IMAGE CAMERA POLICY Earlier this year the use of a thermal imaging camera attached to a Oakland PD helicopter was stymied because of a lack of a policy. The Public Safety Committee will receive a report Tuesday night, 6 p.m., establishing oversight of the unit known as a Forward Looking Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera System (FLIR). Privacy advocates worried about the use of the invasive camera for protests may be leery of the proposed policy. Under “special events” defined in the city municipal code, the FLIR could be deployed during protests, especially those at night, but only to gauge the size of the crowd and monitor its path through the city, not to identify certain protesters.
REGIONAL RADIO SYSTEM Oakland is slated to get three voting seats on the East Bay Regional Communications System Authority’s (EBRCSA) Joint Powers Authority. In the past, Oakland had chosen to go alone with its own emergency public safety radio system. In recent years, Oakland’s costly system led to a push by some council members to scrap the system and join the rest of the East Bay. Once approved by the Oakland City Council last year, operatability issues due to the transition arose, but have been since been remedied, says the staff report. In the meantime, though, how strong a voice Oakland officials would have on the EBRCSA JPA was still under negotiations. According to a staff report from the Oakland City Council Finance and Management Committee, the city will receive three seats, one each, from the Alameda County City Manager’s Association, Alameda County Fire Chiefs’ Association and Alameda County Mayor’s Conference.
TRUANCY REPORT At one time, a quarter of all Oakland students were truant. A report to be offered during a joint committee meeting, 4 p.m., consisting of members of the Oakland City Council and school board, finds the problem is still pervasive. The report details the Oakland Unified School District has nowhere for truants found by the Oakland PD to be placed. OPD does not make truancy sweeps nor does it have a strategy for chronic absenteeism enforcement, says the report. In addition, it also does not collect data on truancy or coordinate any efforts with the county.
HAYWARD/Sept. 15, 7 p.m.
New library construction RFP to be awarded
NEW LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION Hayward’s 21st Century Library and Community Learning Center is a $65 million project intended to boost the downtown corridor. On Tuesday, the City Council will discuss accepting a $49.2 million bid from Southern California company T.B. Penick and Sons. The low bid, however, faced a complaint from the next lowest bidder. Alten Construction, also of Southern California, alleging the rival bid did not list all litigation and claims against it. The Hayward City Attorney’s office, however, was satisfied with the T.B. Penick and Sons’ response to the protest, which it labeled “reasonable” and “no evidence that T.B. Penick & Sons sought to deliberately mislead the City such that they would be deemed untrustworthy, lacking in integrity and therefore not responsible,” says the staff report. In addition to the library, the bid includes restoring the Heritage Plaza Arboretum at the site. A vast majority of funding for the project, $54 million, comes from Hayward’s Measure C half-cent sales tax increase and $10 million from natural gas provider Calpine. Construction will begin in October, says the staff report, and the entire project is scheduled for completion in early 2018.
CHICKEN NUGGETS Hayward wants to tighten up its regulations on chickens and other fowl in residential areas. Tuesday’s work session will be followed by the item coming before the Planning Commission two days later on Sept. 17. City staff says ambiguity in the current regulations over what is small and large livestock might “be in excess of what is needed to ensure compatibility with nearby residences, and are certainly in excess of current industry standards,” says a staff report. The current process for permitting chickens, for instance, may be burdensome, as is the public noticing for chickens within 300 feet of a parcel. Through Aug. 31, the city has received 61 complaints regarding chickens. A majority says the staff report, were related to noise or odor issues.
BOARD/COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS Like many other cities, Hayward’s Planning Commission is often the minor leagues for future City Council members. Every member of the current council once toiled on the influential government commission. On Tuesday, two new members will be appointed. Julius Willis, Jr., who previously served on the Community Services Commission, will replace Rodney Loche, while Daniel Goldstein will take over for Mary Lavelle. Loche ran for the City Council in 2014 and is rumored again for 2016. Dianne McDermott, meanwhile will be reappointed to another four-year term. All three will serve through the Fall 2019. ENTIRE AGENDA HERE
ALCO BOARD OF SUPES/Sept. 15, 9:45 a.m.
ShotSpotter coming to three county rooftops in Oakland
SANTA RITA JAIL RENOVATION The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is asking the Board of Supervisors for approval to apply for up to $80 million in state funding to improve Dublin’s Santa Rita Jail. The county’s share of $500 million in state lease-revenue bonds for jail construction and improvements could be used for a 30,000 square foot, two-story addition to the jail to house mentally ill inmates, says a staff report.
SHOTSPOTTER Three county-owned buildings in Oakland will be outfitted with ShotSpotter technology under a proposed five-year contract. The device, already used by the Oakland Police Department, is able to pinpoint where and when gun shots are fired in the city. The locations are rooftops at 500 6th Street; 1401 Lakeside Drive and 1111 Jackson Street, according to the staff report. The five-year lease will bring in nominal revenue of $1,800 in the first year.
ASSET FORFEITURE The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department has a balance of $1.4 million in federal asset forfeiture proceeds, according to a staff report. In addition, the Alameda County Attorney General’s office has more than $371,000 in similar assets. The use of forfeiture proceeds must be used only for law enforcement purposes. The annual certifications on Tuesday’s agenda shows funding ending June 30. ENTIRE AGENDA HERE
ALAMEDA/Sept. 15, 7 p.m.
Free waterway; hot-button council referrals
FREE TIDAL CANAL The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to convey a 1.8 mile long, 400 foot wide slice of the waterway between Alameda and Oakland to each city at no cost. The waterway known as the Oakland Inner Harbor Tidal Canal would be divvied up straight down the middle. But, in life nothing is truly free. If approved, says the staff report, the city would have to pay upfront costs of an estimated $350,000 in transaction fees later to be reimbursed to the city when parcels are sold in residential and commercial deals later. However, the city would be responsible for maintenance of their share of the waterway. City staff believes dredging costs will still remain with the U.S. Army Corps.
TRANSIT PLAN Councilmember Tony Daysog’s referral for the city to create a Citywide Transit and Transportation Demand Management Plan heads to the Request for Proposal stage Tuesday night. The study would take a look at growing traffic demands in Alameda and ways to limit the congestion.”The overarching goals of the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans,” says the report, “are to take a holistic and integrative Citywide approach: (1) to minimizing the total net of new single-occupant vehicle trips at the island crossings and; (2) to enhancing multimodal intra-city mobility. Special attention will be paid to the peak travel periods – morning northbound, which is leaving Alameda, and afternoon southbound, which is returning to Alameda.”
MORE COUNCIL REFERRALS Daysog has been busy. On Tuesday night (likely late based on this council’s recent propensity for lengthy meetings), the council will discuss raising the Transit Occupancy Tax from 10 percent to as high as 11.5 percent. In another proposal, Daysog wants the city to grab its share of occupancy taxes from units in Alameda using AirBnb. A hot button issue from two weeks ago, the mayor’s power to appoint board and commission members, is raised again with Councilmember Jim Oddie’s desire for city staff to review the process. The Alameda City Charter, though, gives the mayor clear authority to make the appointments. However, in the past, approval of the choices by the council have been perfunctory. Not this time with new Mayor Trish Spencer. ENTIRE AGENDA HERE
ebcitizen.com 
By MW:
In regard to the above posts relating to the estimates for building a new Hayward library.
If the original estimate was approx 60M but it ends up costing instead 65.8M or 70M+, or even slightly in excess of 90M, then, and based on the “standards” of major government projects, I would consider it to be great success.
More specifically, major government projects usually end up costing at least twice the estimates provided by the politicians and their “experts,” and in fact very often run at least five times the original estimates.
In fact, usually not even the politicians and nor their professional pathological liars, er, excuse me, I mean their “experts,” ever really believed the project could have possibly been completed for anything even slightly close to the original estimate. However since the politicians, and in their “wisdom,” “know” what is “best” for us, therefore they give us lot of garbage, in other words extremely low estimates, so that we will vote for and approve the project, in other words let it get rolling, and then later and gradually they hit us with the bad news, in other words the huge cost overruns.
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A 90 million dollar library & tree plaza? Hayward City Leaders are nuts. Playing tricks on the Taxpayer's and ripping them off.Fanatic, vengeful Friends of The Library are Sean's evil minions. Hope Hayward doesn't go broke building such grandiose buildings, like Stockton did.
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Pardonne-moi, but when all is said and done at least $90-million will have been spent.
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The new Hayward library started out as 60 million dollars and now it is up to 65.8 million dollars before construction has even started. I'm sure it will end up costing 70+ million when all is said and done. Quirky Bill Quirk supports the project, even though he complained about the construction cost of City Hall back when he was a community activist. The best way to tame an activist is to vote them into office so they can waste your tax dollars.
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What makes me laugh about Hayward City Council is that the old farts always preach fiscal responsibility to the public. Then they talk about their financial stewardship responsibilities but act like 5 million dollars over budget ion the library project is nothing because they figured in an extra 15 million for being over budget!! Oh and by the way, Council & Mayor Dingbat want to extend another tax that is going to sunset soon. One of them said “The people of Hayward are generous because they approved Measure C, LL, The Utilities tax, etc.” Vote those over spending, cash grabbers out in 2016. All they do is usher in taxes and spend our money on stupidities, like Fran David.
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