February 22, 2023 Enforcement Committee Meeting

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call
3. Public Comments
   The Committee will hear public comments on matters that are not on the agenda. 
4. Approval of Draft Minutes from the January 25, 2023 , Enforcement Committee meeting (PDF)
5. Enforcement Report
   Staff will update the committee on the current status of the enforcement program’s activities.
   (Matthew Trujillo) [415/352-3633; matthew.trujillo@bcdc.ca.gov]
6. One-year Update on Actions to Address Shoreline Encampments, Abandoned and Derelict Vessels and Anchor-outs in the Oakland-Alameda Estuary, Alameda County.
   The Committee will receive a briefing on the actions to address shoreline encampments, abandoned and derelict vessels and anchor-outs in the Oakland-Alameda Estuary by BCDC staff and the Cities of Oakland and Alameda as a follow-up to the discussion and direction provided by the Enforcement Committee during its meetings on February 23, and March 23, 2022.
   (Adrienne Klein) [415/352-3609: adrienne.klein@bcdc.ca.gov]
   Staff Presentation
   Public Comment
7. Adjournment

Meeting Minutes (PDF)

Audio Recording

Audio Transcript

Marie Gilmore, Chair: My name is Marie Gilmour, and I am the chair of this committee.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So, Commissioners, please ensure that your video camera is always on, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: The first order of business is to call the role.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Matthew. Please call the role Commissioners. Please unmute yourselves while he does this to respond, and then mute yourselves After responding.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I can’t hear you, Matthew.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: can you hear me now? Yes, okay. I don’t see Commissioner Eisen on my screen, is she dropped off.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I don’t see her, either.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: Okay, i’m calling the old now starting with Commissioner Eisen

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: and Sherry Gilmore

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Here

Marie Gilmore, Chair: we have a quote quorum present, and are duly constituted to conduct business, and that brings us to item 3 0n our agenda, which is public comment.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So, in accordance with our usual practice, and as indicated on the agenda, we will now have general public comment on items that are not on today’s agenda.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Excuse me for members of the public if you would like to speak either during the check, general public comment period or during the public comment period, for an item on the agenda. Please raise your hand in the zoom application by clicking on the participants icon at the bottom of your screen

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and look in the box where your name is listed under attendees. Find the small palm icon on the left.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: If you click on that palm, icon, it will raise your hand.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: or if you are joining this meeting by phone, you must dial Star 9 to raise your hand and then dial star 6 0n your keypad to unmute your phone. When the host asks you. In order to make a comment.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: the meeting host will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order in which they were raised. After you are called on, you will be unmuted, so that you can share your comments.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Please announce yourself by first and last name for the record before making your comment. Commenters are limited t0 3Â min to speak.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Please keep your comments respectful and focused. We are here to listen to any individual who request to speak. but each speaker has the responsibility to act in a civil and courteous manner as determined by the chair.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: We will not tolerate hate, speech, direct threats, indirect threats, or abuse of language.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: We will mute anyone who fails to follow those guidelines. So, Margie, do we have any hands raised by the public.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: We do. Tanya, boys.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Miss Voice, you have 3Â min to speak.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, yes.

Tanya Boyce: great. Thank you so much.

Tanya Boyce: or allow me to speak. My name is Tony Boyce. I am a long time resident here in East Oakland. and I also am

a coach

Tanya Boyce: at Brooklyn strokes.

Tanya Boyce: I learned to row when I went to college at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, over the hill, from where I grew up, and I developed a great love of rowing.

Tanya Boyce: and after the upheaval of

the George Floyd incident and many other things that were happening in our country.

Tanya Boyce: Bookman strokes made the very bold move of opening up

Tanya Boyce: their club to

Tanya Boyce: black and brown, and disenfranchised people from around

Tanya Boyce: Oakland and throughout the greater bay area. So we’ve made great efforts to bring young people

Tanya Boyce: to the estuary

Tanya Boyce: as a safe place to be, and to engage them in a sport that can

Tanya Boyce: change their lives as it did my own. Unfortunately, the estuary has become a horribly

Tanya Boyce: dirty and contaminated place where our students are put in a lot of danger when they’re on the water and on the way to the water.

Tanya Boyce: Some of the students, in fact, i’ll be coaching this afternoon are coming to us from a rise High School, and they actually take the bus, and they have to walk

Tanya Boyce: down

Tanya Boyce: edge water to get t0 0r i’m Sorry tide what taiway. I’m sorry whatever that’s trees call. You know what I’m talking about to get t0 0ur boat house.

Tanya Boyce: but unfortunately, the lack of

Tanya Boyce: any kind of enforcement of any kind on the city’s behalf has made this

an incredibly

Marie Gilmore, Chair: dangerous walk with this voice. I just want to ask a question. We are discussing the efforts to clean up the estuary on Item 6, You’re discussing encampments. I’m discussing something a little different right now at open.

Tanya Boyce: I’m: i’m actually talking about the uses that are there that are doing aggregate and trucking, and the other things other than that I was going to speak on the count. But right now i’m speaking to a different matter. Is it not the appropriate time to speak to something? Not on the agenda?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: No, it is I. I thank you for clarifying your your intent. And, Margie, could you give her a little bit more time because of my my interruption? Thank you

Tanya Boyce: right.

Tanya Boyce: Not operating in accordance with the ordinances we have

Tanya Boyce: trucks that are parked on the public street, that I’ve broken the the

Tanya Boyce: the sewer lines, and when I left there last night there was a river of running water from

Tanya Boyce: the sewer that’s just broken and just running into the street. We have trucks that are backed up to take aggregate off that make it impossible for the kids to even approach the waterfront, much less the things that they’re going to see in the water and on the water edge when they get in the boats, which is

Tanya Boyce: part of what you’ll be talking about on your other item. But i’m telling you is that the city of Oakland is failing on multiple fronts, not just the encampment enforcement that makes the estuary a dangerous place to approach.

Tanya Boyce: and an unsafe place to recreate it. And we have to change that as soon as possible, and I’m here to encourage that, and I will be bringing my students next time, so that they can speak for themselves. Thank you very much.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much, Miss Boyce.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, thank you, Margie.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Oh, sorry about that.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next we have Benjamin.

Benjamin: Hello! Can you hear me.

Benjamin: Yes, you can. You have 3.

Benjamin: My name is Benjamin Yamanaka. I’m. The manager of the Oakland Yacht Club.

Benjamin: and I’m speaking today because I want the B. Cdc. Support and encourage him to take action to the derelict and abandoned boats that have become a substantial problem to the estuary.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I think you want to talk about. Item 6, because that is our our item that relates to abandoned and damage vessels on the estuary.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So can I ask you to hold your comments until we get to that point.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, Thank you so much.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, do we have any other public speakers?

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: None.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, thank you. Then we are on to item Number 4 approval of the draft minutes from our last meeting.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Commissioners. We have all been furnished with draft minutes from our last meeting, and I would appreciate a motion and a second to approve these minutes.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: So moved. Second.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, moved by Commissioner Eisen, second by Commissioner Vasquez and all in favor. Just raise your hands.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And i’m going to note for the recorder that the Volt was unanimous to approve the me, the meeting minutes.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay. So item 5, which is the Enforcement report

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and Enforcement policy manager. Matthew Trio will now provide the Enforcement report. Matthew.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: Thank you. Chair Gilmour.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: Today I have a very brief report only 2 items.

But first good morning to yourself. Chair Gil Warren. Good morning to the the committee.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: The first item is a case update since our last meeting on January 20, fifth, 2,023. I’m happy to report that in the past month we’ve received 5 new cases, and the good news is that we’ve resolved 11 cases. So, as of today there are 85 cases in the queue.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: The second is an update on our efforts to fill the current Cpa to vacancy. This has been open for some time. We have been able to upgrade the position to from a 6 month, as originally

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: advertised to it’s now a 12 month limited term position.

and so I hope this change will attract more applicants very soon.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: and that concludes my report, and i’d be happy to entertain any follow up questions or comments about the status of the Enforcement program from the committee.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you, Matthew. Do any committee members have any questions for Matthew.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: seeing none. Margie, do we have any members of the public who would like to comment on this item?

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Yes, I see.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Tanya voice.

Tanya Boyce: I understand that you have 85. You can’t g0 0ver all of them, but we’d be anxious to know what you’ve been successful in getting rectified. So thank you very much for your work.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much. That’s all we have to gamble.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you.

We will now move on to item number 6

Marie Gilmore, Chair: which is a one-year update on actions to address shoreline encampments abandoned and derelict vessels. Yes.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: yes, i’m sorry about that. We have a couple of more hands raised

Marie Gilmore, Chair: 0 0n on the and for the Enforcement report.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: I I believe. So

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Actually, no. They lowered it down.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay. Okay. So now we are on Item Number 6, which is the one year update on actions to address shoreline and campus encampments abandoned and derelict vessels, and anchor out in the Oakland Alameda estuary located in Alameda County.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and we are going to be briefed

Marie Gilmore, Chair: on this topic regarding abatement efforts by the cities, representatives from the cities of Alameda and Oakland.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And at this point in time I would like the representatives or representatives from the cities of Oakland and Alameda to please, identify themselves for the record.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And Margie, I can’t see any hands on my screen, so have they raised their hands.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: We have

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: okay, promoting them now. Sorry about that.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: It should be Deputy City administrator, Jim Debris, representing Alameda and Lieutenant, their class representing.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: i’m sorry, representing Oakland. And

Marie Gilmore, Chair: okay, could those individuals, Margie, could you please unmute them? And they can introduce themselves for the record, please.

if they’re here.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Good afternoon, Chair, person. Gilmore. This is Joe de Rees, a deputy city administrator with the city of Oakland. Can you hear me?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay, Good to see you again. Hope you’re well.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: you, too. Do you have anybody else with you today? Or is it just going to be you doing the presentation?

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: I do have others that can answer questions. If if, if if I can’t, we have outside Council. Actually, I can’t see your attendee column, so I don’t know who else from my staff is here. Let me take a quick look, but I believe I’ve got staff from Opd. And the City Attorney’s office as well.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, Great. That’s good to know. Thank you. And the representative from the city of Alameda.

Lt. Erik Klaus: Good morning, Lieutenant Eric costs in the city.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you. And and I thank both of you for coming and providing the briefing. Okay. So at this moment, in time. I’m going to invite Adrian Klein to give her introduction to this item. Adrian.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: Let’s see. Just get myself situated here.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: Okay.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: right?

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: Alright, so my introduction is is brief. I’m merely providing some contacts today

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: by reviewing what happened at the initial briefing on this matter last year, which also took place in February.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and, as mentioned, the floor will then be turned over to the cities of Alameda and Oakland.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: who are doing the hard work to to sell the commitments that they made to

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: that they made last year, and to implement the direction that you, the Enforcement Committee provided to them at that February briefing.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: following each of the city’s presentations. As we are all aware, we have a number of public commenters.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and then, of course, there’ll be time for the committee, discussion and possible direction to the landowners and staff.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: So in 2,021 the Commission received a steady stream of complaints from members of the public regarding the number of vessels, many being occupied as residences that were anchored on public property in the Oakland. Alam to estuary

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and also Complaints regarding the number of encampments located along the shoreline of the Estuary in B. Cdc’s, 100 foot shoreline band jurisdiction, including in b Cdc. Required public access areas.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: These issues were occurring on this, on the property belonging to the cities of Oakland and Alameda, and als0 0n property owned by the port of Oakland and the East Bay Regional Park district.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: as well as on privately owned properties.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: Those are just a few slides from last year’s presentations identifying locations of the issues last year.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: In response to these public concerns, Staff scheduled an Enforcement committee briefing.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and the city’s presentations describe the the conditions they were facing at the time

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: the resources that were available, and lacking to enable them to address the encampment and Ankara issues on their properties.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: their plans t0 0vercome the constraints and the timeline to resolve the issues. At that time. You also heard from a number of State agencies, and one Federal agency listed

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: on the slide about the authority and resources they have to support resolution of these issues.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Excuse me, Adrian. Just so. You know the only slide that I see is your title page I don’t know.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: Thank you.

Well, thank you. Sorry about that. Let me unshare and reshare.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: So. Are you still seeing only the title slide?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: No, no, you’re fine now.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, we’re on. We’re on the slide. Now that I okay.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: thank you.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: This was the showing who presented last year from the local agencies, and then also from the State and Federal Government.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and I was just reviewing the

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: information that you received from the cities.

So these were the city of Oakland commitments which I think I was just about to review for you. So

let’s see here

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: so essentially

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: right. Both agencies have had some constraints, and and the the the the report from the our sister State agencies, the prior slide, were

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: included to ensure that we were all aware of the resources available to support the local governments in managing these these challenging issues.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: So the city of Oakland.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: at at the time of the presentation a year ago, had approximately 15 vessels in their waters and shoreline encampments along the bay trail. During that meeting they made a number of commitments

which was to clear the the most significant encampment between Dennis and Livingston streets.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: That is a typo, it should say, by March fifteenth 2023. My apologies

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: to develop and implement a comprehensive policy for dealing with the ankles both occupied and unoccupied, and both floating and sunken vessels.

and to include support from the district attorney to fall through on marine patrol citations.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: They were going to look into secure vessel storage to get both off the water, because oftentimes there is a lag between, let’s say, funding to destroy the boats, and there is obviously less impact if they can be taken off the water

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: as soon as possible, and held in a safe place until there is funding available.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and the city was going to explore additional funding for additional marine controls on the water through the port.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: So now the city of Alameda commitments were to establish an alternate location for unsheltered people, so that the shoreline encampments could be cleared

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: or relocated away from the water. They were going to use the division of voting and waterways.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: save funds, surrendered and abandoned vessel, exchange program funds to remove the

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: abandoned and derelict vessels in their waters at the time they were going to work with the local marinas to remove abandoned vessels

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: to prevent them from becoming anchor outs, and there was a vessel on private property, and they were going to work with that landowner to help remove it.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: At the time of the briefing last year in Alameda there were a few recurring vessel issues at Crowd Cove and incidental beach. and following the meeting, we received the report that there was a short encampment at the north end of Main Street.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: So the direction provided by the Enforcement Committee following the city’s presentations were to cause removal of the ancraft and accountants within a year. So by this or next month.

adopt the necessary policies to

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: promote prevention and legislate to address gaps. and then to provide ongoing direction to staff and the Enforcement Committee.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: It was a long meeting staff provided you with an update the following month in March to summarize some of the best practices that had been suggested during the presentations.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and we stated that we would urge the cities to consider adoption of some of these best practices. and also Chair Gilmore requested, in addition to these, that

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: the Alameda County Sheriff’s marine patrol be involved in these coordination meetings.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: So

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: we have met faithfully every month since last year, and I can attest that the local agencies are working hard to address these issues.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: The meetings have included the cities of Alameda and Oakland, as well as representatives from the East Bay Regional Park District, and the Court of Oakland. However, unfortunately, we are not able to

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: indicate that all the issues have been fully addressed. Conditions are improved, but but issues are not fully resolved.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: We. I believe we only provided you with one briefing during the year that was in September.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: and so we will go ahead. If you would like us to continue with present with briefings this year, we we will go ahead and schedule those ahead of time.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: These questions on the slide are for your consideration, following the public comments. And so with that I will now turn the

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: floor over. As this concludes my presentation, so up next would be Joe Debris, the Deputy City administrator, followed by Lieutenant Eric Klaus from Alameda’s Police department. Thank you, Thank you, Adrian.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Thank you. Adrian. I I appreciate the the introduction and Shareperson Gilmore. First. I want to apologize, and that I I don’t have a powerpoint. You may have heard the city was hit with a a pretty significant ransomware attack

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: a week ago, and many of us are still working from home trying to piece together our old documents. I think I might be back at City Hall tomorrow, so i’m a little compromised. But I am going to run through what we’ve done, what we’ve accomplished, and what’s about to take place. And actually, I want to also just state

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: from some of the comments I heard earlier from the public. We we recognize that this is not an acceptable circumstance. We do believe the estuary deserves the protection the debate plan offers. We do. We are not happy with the environmental degradation and the impact on people who are using the the

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: the estuary legitimately, like like our rolling clubs. And so all this is to is to to meet that.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: In short, when we met that we began drafting an opd policy regarding the removal of abandoned vessels last year, and I just want to remind people. Historically, this was brought on by a legal claim filed against the city for the removal of an abandoned both that ended

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: with a pretty significant settlement, and so for abandoned vessels, and I want to distinguish between abandoned

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: and illegal liver boards for abandoned vessels. The city has the authority to remove those those vessels, but felt strongly after that lawsuit that we needed to develop a more specific

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: opd policy regarding noticing time limits and and just basically a standard operating procedure before we could remove those vessels. Also, in in the summer we we brought on outside council

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: to help us develop our our our policy end up up upcoming ordinance because of their experience in Richardson Bay, and it’s also a little

began to post notices on these vessels.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: We actually began. I I know, Adrian had said, 15 vegetables, but we actually estimate closer t0 25 vessels in 2,022. They were out there. We’ve recently accounted for 18 it. It appears that the initial noticing that Opd. Did, allowed for 5 Vessels to leave to unknown destinations. So we had voluntary compliance from 5 0f those vessels. 2 vessels were toad or or removed from the water this winter, more would have been removed.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: but as as the Enforcement staff know, our boat sucked up to breed during one of those removals, and was put out a commission for a while.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: otherwise we would have been able to move more of the abandoned vessels

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: we have. We’ve been working with outside Council, and I think this is the most significant development to is to draft an Ordinance to give opd the authority to address nuisance vessels with people living aboard. And and again we working with outside council. Who’s here today? Gabriel Ross can can speak to this if necessary.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Our municipal code did not give us the authority to enforce on on liva boards, and so we’ve drafted an ordinance that will give opd that authority that ordinance is scheduled to go before the Public Safety Committee this coming Monday at 1 30. I I encourage anyone who’s interested in this topic to come to that meeting and to speak on on on the issue.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: If it does pass committee successfully, it will go to the full Council on March seventh.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Once it’s adopted in in regard to what implementation will look like. You know our our marine patrol will will train current auxiliary officers, and they’ll conduct targeted enforcement operations. First educate those living a board of the new policy, and to give them time to come up with a plan to leave

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: those who refuse to move the city will implement the new policy and relocate them, or remove their vegetables from the estuary following the new policy guidelines, and I I just

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: pause here to comment that this runs very close to the very controversial issues of of of around homelessness in Oakland. And so we’re. We’re very sensitive to how this could play out, and we’re familiar with what happened in in Richardson Bay and in Sals Alito, so I I don’t think it’ll be an easy lift, but it certainly will have the mechanism mechanism in place to do it.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Regarding the storage as as Adrian mentioned, we we were looking at a at a place to store

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: vessels that are removed from the water. We consider the former crier building site next to Union Plane Park, but instead have continued to use the Jack London Square Co. Aquatic Center Parking Lot, which works for Opd. The prior building site is now being considered to be used as a community garden operated by a women’s Recovery group as part of our efforts to bring more positive energy back to Union Plant Park, and

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: as this committee knows, Union Point Park is an issue that we’ve worked on together quite a bit. Today’s meeting is not about Union Point part, but we’ve made a lot of progress there in bringing we have a a a middle school that’s adopted the park. They’re doing regular clean ups. We’ve put in a lot of physical barriers to to prevent some of the unwanted activity, and so

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: creating a a community garden at the choir building, felt better as a plan than storing derelict boats. I also want to touch on another issue that Adrian didn’t spend a lot of time while but we really did focus on

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: encampments all along the waterfront. We do have a an encampment at lead drive. It’s primarily our V’s. And I. I want to note that while we’ve done regular cleanings, and we’ve tried to coordinate with the

We are opening a new safe, Rv. Parking facility at 66 Avenue right now. It’s actually already functioning with 29 parking spaces for rvs that number will grow t0 104, when we fully open the the facility by about mid-march

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: that will give the city rv parking spaces t0 0ffer people that are illegally encamped, and the waterfront, of course, being up a priority location, because it’s proximity to the water, we could see that that encampment actually being closed in the coming months.

One thing is, you know it with the removal of the boats. Now that we’re at the point where we can both remove, abandoned, and then, with the adoption of the ordinance, remove

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: live awards. We will be seeking about a $150,000, and grant money from the State to to to cover the cost. This is triple, the normal amount that the city asks for, and it will be a big lift. But I feel like our policy policies will be in place to really make a difference over the coming months. Now that we’ve done our our internal homework.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: and that’s that’s my report, and i’m happy to take questions or invite other staff to speak as you see fit. Thank you.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Your muted chair.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I’m sorry. Thank you very much. I think i’m inclined right now to hear from the city of Alameda before we get into the the question and comment period, unless there’s

Marie Gilmore, Chair: a committee member who has a burning question right now.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I don’t see that. So let’s go to the city of Alameda. Thank you.

Lt. Erik Klaus: Good morning. I appreciate the time today kind of a brief overall what the city of Alameda has been doing the last course of last year, and now

Lt. Erik Klaus: our marked 20 has been working diligently for the through. The

Lt. Erik Klaus: Our retail units usually out there twice a week

Lt. Erik Klaus: since very early 2021. It’s been approximately 12 0ver 200Â h on the on the both.

Since

Lt. Erik Klaus: late October early of February, 2020 0r January 2021 0ur rainfall is removed just over 17 vessels that were derelict.

Lt. Erik Klaus: and for that work through the tip we work with OP. The Us. Coast Guard and Parker dive to remove these vessels.

Lt. Erik Klaus: We currently have 8 vessels on our

waiting list in detail.

Lt. Erik Klaus: and and the list continues to grow daily. I get calls

Lt. Erik Klaus: almost daily on, You know, vessels throughout, not only out or through Oakland, but across the Bay San Francisco.

Lt. Erik Klaus: Some are from our marinas

Lt. Erik Klaus: as of today. We have spent about 50 $45000 of the $100,000 for this year’s Grant.

Lt. Erik Klaus: We’ll continue to move forward with that funding.

Lt. Erik Klaus: We continue to work with our communicate, communicate with our local marine as an Alimeda. We’ve established a communication list for all the Harvard masters. They can stay in on top of any complaints they may have.

Lt. Erik Klaus: You know, such as v-tip vessels that are in their marines that need to be taken care of.

Lt. Erik Klaus: We’ve also encouraged those harvard masters to communicate with one another. so they can work together to resolve the significant issues that they have

Lt. Erik Klaus: as we progress through the years. I’ve directed my memory full unit to work with our local harbor masters on a monthly basis, just to make sure things are progressing well in arenas.

Lt. Erik Klaus: They don’t have any vessels that are hazard to the the waterways, etc., or that they need to get rid of

Lt. Erik Klaus: as of yesterday. Only one Marina requested assistance with the V tech vessel they wanted to get rid of throughout all of our morning is in Alameda.

Lt. Erik Klaus: Our, As you all may know, our main street quarter, right across from the port of open was significantly impacted, or with you on house

Lt. Erik Klaus: individuals that had set up our these makeshift tents, etc., and it was completely packed. It didn’t even park in that parking lot.

Lt. Erik Klaus: Since then, through our efforts, using, you know, outreach programs such as building features see.

Lt. Erik Klaus: and our newly designed care team to the the fire department.

We’ve assisted the on housed population over there to build a path to their own self service.

Lt. Erik Klaus: We currently have 6 best vehicles that are parked there on the main street. They none of them are on the waterways. They are a long

Lt. Erik Klaus: roadway on Main Street, a away from the waterway. The parking lot is completely out.

Lt. Erik Klaus: and

Lt. Erik Klaus: I really

Lt. Erik Klaus: I I I think it’s important to know that. You know we’ve been working diligently to try to keep. You know the waterways

Lt. Erik Klaus: clear from hazards, etc., but we also want to. I know opd’s got a lot on their hands on their side, and anything that we can do the system out to to progress.

we will certainly welcome to do so.

Lt. Erik Klaus: It’s really all I have. You have any questions on?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you very much, both of you for taking the time to to be here this morning. Are there any questions from committee members?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Commissioner Eisen.

Thank you.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Thank you to Mr. Debris and Lieutenant Klaus. I’m wondering, You know, Adrian put up that very nice slide that said what the commitments were of the 2 cities

back a year ago.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: and I imagine that in your reports you’ve addressed those. But i’m wondering if we could go back to those slides and just get sort of a quick.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: quick summary of where we stand on the various items that we’re not to repeat anything you’ve said, but just to be sure that we’ve covered all the things that we’re in that slide. That’s one thing I would request, and the second is, I don’t have a good sense

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: of how many abandoned vessels and level boards we had a year ago, and how many we have now.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: So I I don’t know if that’s easily summarized numerically, but it would help me to see how much progress

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: has been made, because I I know from the Richardson Bay situation that it’s often a 2 steps forward, one step back.

kind of scenario. So those are the 2 questions I have of the of the cities

Lt. Erik Klaus: i’d be happy to to try to address as far as the advantage or derelict vessels we currently have none.

Lt. Erik Klaus: I don’t know the exact number that we had when we first began, but I want to say it was 4 0r 5.

No

Lt. Erik Klaus: little bit off on that number, but it was close to that. But I have since got rid of all of them.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Okay, and and liverboards.

Lt. Erik Klaus: None that were the the ones that we do have. Little boards are within the marine isn’t there, following those guidelines of the marines.

Lt. Erik Klaus: but they can

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: all right. Well, we have a Adrian city of Oakland commitment slide up. I’m wondering, Mr. Debris, if you would mine just running through those very quickly.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Sure, thank you through the chair. So the first one, the candidate between Dennison and Livingston, was cleared, and, I believe, is remained in pretty good shape. In fact, the community. There were some K. Rails put down on the street, and I think the community did a beautiful job painting them. So they actually had a lot of charm today

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: to the area as far as the comprehensive policy. Again, we now have a a policy for Opd. For abandoned boats.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: and our policy for illegal liver boards requires a new municipal code ordinance which is coming next week. I will be candid that on the the commitment to include support from the district attorney. I have not engaged the district attorney on. I don’t know if Officer Albino, who’s in the Attendee column has, if he if he wants to speak to that he could certainly raise his hand. We’ve certainly had a change in the administration there, and so

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: I doubt the new city. The new district attorney has gotten this on their radar yet, but certainly that’s something we need to work on. Still, again on the storage area. We we are using the jack on an aquatic square, parking a aquatic center, parking lot.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: not the prior building. And then this option of funding additional marine patrols, you know. This came up through some meetings, and I I, to be honest, I don’t.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: I think we’ve been able to quantify what

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: any additional marine patrol needs are, and I think that’s we’ve had a candid conversation with the port. You know the ports been clear that they they’re funding what they’re funding, and that if we feel that there’s, you know, a need for increased patrol. We we need to have a a separate meeting on that, as you probably know, Opd struggled desperately with some of the lowest staffing levels ever in 2000 22021We are making a rebound which is exciting. We, you know we’re over $700,

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: officers and and more academies on the way, but we’ve not fully vetted. The what the need for additional marine patrol is in regard to the number of boats. We actually identified 25 in 2,022

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: 18 0f which are left again we we removed 2 and 5 left voluntarily, but I think the bigger work we did in 2,022 was to prepare ourselves to have the pro policies and procedures in place, so that we can do a lot more removals in 2,023 now. But now that we’re at that point

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: and that’s the that’s the abandoned vessels right, not the liberal works that it’s a combination. Actually.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: thank you. And and i’ll be, and i’ll be frank. Yeah, there was one situation where 3 boats were moored together near Union Plane Park, my understanding Just recently one of them sunk, one of them half sunk, and as an anecdotal note.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: a lot of the one of the problems we were experiencing. Union Plant Park in the southern parking lot was

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: stolen, vehicles being dumped and stripped there, and I think it’s notable that those vehicles being dumped in strip, that the incidence of that has gone down to almost 0 since those boats that were moored out there sunk.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: and one of the people involved seems to have moved on to go somewhere else. And I think that’s a just a a cause and effect example of why this work is so important both on the water and on the land

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: and the 18 that remained. Do you have even a guesstimate? As to when that number will be down t0 0.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: We are seeking additional save grant funds that typically the funding cycle is in April. So we are not in a position to remove Vessels

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: likely until then, unless opd were to maybe partner with Alameda. If they have money left over, we could use some of that to remove some really really tricky ones, and I do want to give Officer Albino the opportunity to speak if you’d like him to, because he’s really the one on the water doing the heavy lifting. I’m just a guy that gets to show up at meetings and talk.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: and I don’t know if the city of Alameda commitments had any issues on it. That lieutenant class was yet to address. But can you pull that up quickly, Adrian?

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Hello.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Adrian.

Lt. Erik Klaus: I can. I’ve got the list in front. I can’t pull it up on the screen. But

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: oh, that would be great. Yeah. Established an alternate location for unsheltered people. So City, can you relocate

Lt. Erik Klaus: our main in camp? It was there, off of Main Street.

Lt. Erik Klaus: I said. There was 6 vehicles left. All of the other ones have been moved, and the UN sheltered individuals have been relocated or provided assistance.

using safe funds for move. 7 existing abandoned vessels, like I said, we have none left at this time

Lt. Erik Klaus: perfect marine is to take abandoned vessels if they are left. If there’s left over safe funding.

Lt. Erik Klaus: you are working with Marinas, there is one Marina that has one that’s a and then work with private landlords. Remove the sunken vessel. There was a vessel that was stuck sunken in the inner basin

that was handled a while back.

Lt. Erik Klaus: and there’s no longer there.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Great! That’s great. And and thank you for going through that exercise. And I just want to add, before

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: I stopped talking, that I really appreciate the the public and his voices. comments, and I am enormously

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: concerned and sympathetic with the situation she’s described. I mean. I live in Oakland. I also am a rower, and I the number of places that folks can have access to the water in Oakland is relatively small, given the size of the city.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: and to have any of them

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: challenged in the way that she described is a real hit to the city and to the its occupants and my neighbors, and I I I hope that we can make some real progress that will enable people to access the bay

from Oakland in a much more positive way.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you. Commissioner Vasquez. Did you have any questions or comments? Yeah, you know, Slide 6 if you put it back up.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: You know, Marie, we’ve heard this over the years about derelict sunk and abandoned vehicles. However, you want to categorize them.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: It it seems as if we. We just keep approaching at a piecemeal effort. you know. Cal Recycle sometimes has money, for every one of the 9 beer of county suffers with some kind of

John Vasquez, Commissioner: vessel or vehicles in the water, and it’s become a terrible, terrible issue, not environmentally, but just making the waterways passable

John Vasquez, Commissioner: along with a

John Vasquez, Commissioner: all the other things that go along with it, and it seems as if we’ve had these presentations in the past. I don’t know. Maybe it’s BC. DC. That calls for

John Vasquez, Commissioner: they will.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: The 9 counties that come together working with the Da, so have a more aggressive program in place, and calling on the State to say, find the funding for it.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: because you know, as we

John Vasquez, Commissioner: even our audit, the audit of B. C. DC. Indicated that we’re not doing enough Well, nobody’s doing enough because it’s not coordinated, and we’re always looking for grants and money, because n0 0ne entity can do it by themselves.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: You know

John Vasquez, Commissioner: you go ahead.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I I I was just gonna say I I think that’s a very good point, and maybe that’s something that the committee needs to agendize.

so we can talk about it, and potentially bring it back

Marie Gilmore, Chair: to the full commission for discussion to kind of get the ball rolling.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: But but having said that, I don’t think

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So that’s that. Mutually exclusive from holding

Marie Gilmore, Chair: the the separate agencies to their commitments that they made to remove derelict and and vessels, and and anchor out. So I think, think what i’m saying is, we should get the ball rolling on the coordinated 9 Bay effort while we still kind of chug along with what we’ve been

John Vasquez, Commissioner: entity that you know it’s it’s staffing it’s cost. We’re working on it, you know

John Vasquez, Commissioner: I I don’t know why the legislation hasn’t changed so we can deal with these derelict and abandoned vehicles, vessels in in the waterways it

John Vasquez, Commissioner: much more easily. and then the whole thing of recycling them, or trying to get rid of them. I I know we do it small. Can we deal with them? Just? We just get a handful of those out of the water.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: and just the cost, because a lot of times they’re loaded with stuff that people don’t want oils and pesticides and everything else

John Vasquez, Commissioner: just dumped in the in the in the Delta or in the bay.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: It just seems that over the years we’ve heard this and heard this. And

John Vasquez, Commissioner: yeah, we all know it’s a problem. But you know, coming with a global solution global by the bay area and the Delta itself, it doesn’t run

John Vasquez, Commissioner: Delta County is running into the same problem.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So i’m based on your comments. I’m going to suggest to Staff that at a future date we agenda is this for discussion

Marie Gilmore, Chair: with with the I to presenting it

to the the full commission to get the ball rolling.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: What I would say about this particular

Marie Gilmore, Chair: scenario before us, and and I think Rebecca alluded to it. This reminds me very much of Ssalito and Richard since Bay.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and maybe we need to somewhat handle it in the same way.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So i’m a little bit distressed that we didn’t think about having an inventory a year ago

Marie Gilmore, Chair: of what exactly was in the estuary, because if you don’t.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: if you don’t measure it. It doesn’t get done right. So my suggestion at least going forward is, we have an inventory of exactly what’s there, and and sort of a list of what we’re working to to resolve. So that’s that’s one thing.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And then to the general comment that I think Mr. Degrees made about patrolling the estuary

Marie Gilmore, Chair: part of the problem that we have. So I think it was back in 2,013.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: There was a a multi agency, you know, State Federal attempt, and we cleaned up the estuary right, and it looked great for a while. But part of the problem is that there’s no there’s no vigilance.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and things are allowed to creep back in, and then we’re at the same stage that we are now.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And so what I so to to Mr. Dre’s point.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: One of the things you can ask the the folks at the port for is okay. This is why we need

Marie Gilmore, Chair: more patrols, because the more patrols we have out there. It’s a deterrence for people dumping stuff illegally, and also the sooner we find out about it

Marie Gilmore, Chair: the greater the potential for dealing with it in a timely fashion.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and also I’m. I think we’re all frustrated at at the fact that we make progress is, I think, somebody said, it’s 2 steps forward, one step back, and I think that’s an area where

Marie Gilmore, Chair: the patrols could could definitely help

Marie Gilmore, Chair: A. And I understand that you know there there are constraints. We were just sent a couple of pictures of

Marie Gilmore, Chair: abandoned vessels at at boat slips in public boat slips in Jack London Square.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and to me that’s really frustrating, because that seems to me that it would be sort of low hanging fruit. The the vessel is abandoned, and while it’s tied up there, people who are coming to, you know. Enjoy Jack London Square boat. Wise, you know, can’t tie up because there’s something there.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and that, to me seems like sort of the lowest hanging through, and and it’s the kind of thing that’s the kind of thing that makes. I think the public really really frustrated, and make them feel like there’s not a whole lot happening. And and and I agree, I I agree you guys have done.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and both cities have

Marie Gilmore, Chair: put in some substantial efforts, you know, over the last year, and you are to be commended.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: But then, like I said, you see the low hanging fruit. You kind of go. Well.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: why didn’t they take care of this?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So that that’s sort of one comment. And and I especially want to commend the city of Oakland? Because you saw the need to get your regulations and policies changed.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and you’re doing that, and that’s not easy. So I just, I, you know, want to give you guys a serious pad on the back for doing that.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: The one other question I have. And this goes back to patrolling. Did anybody check in with the sheriff’s department about their boat, and what their boats doing.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Well, n0 0ne’s talking so I will, you know I would. I would ask Officer Albino, I I I noticed you promoted him to panelists. I just that’s that’s I don’t have that detail, and i’m not sure if the lieutenant from Alameda does

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: but good good chance for off for Albino to say hello if he’s available to do so.

Ofc. K. Albino: Good morning, Good morning to the committee. Thank you for having me here in regards to Alameda County sheriff. They have been out there on the water. They’re also experiencing a big staffing shortage.

Ofc. K. Albino: and they don’t have a full time maritime, you know. Part of their maritime unit is through their bomb disposal unit.

so they’re caught up with that as far as their manning goes.

Ofc. K. Albino: and as far as the inventory goes, I’m.

Ofc. K. Albino: Maybe it was unclear before, but we started last year with 25 vessels. and ultimately we’re down t0 18 now. i’m going to apply for a $150,000 and grant funding in April

Ofc. K. Albino: i’m projecting that money to be released int0 0ur hands around July timeframe.

Ofc. K. Albino: and then i’m hoping to do a clean up in late summer, early fall, and i’m hoping that 18 turns into a 0 by the end of the year.

Ofc. K. Albino: So that’s my goal for those vessels there.

Ofc. K. Albino: and then a big way to mitigate these vessels from coming out and becoming illegally anchored, is sh them through the vessel, turn in program

Ofc. K. Albino: where owners will surrender their vote to the State. That’s where I can kind of catch these boats before they end up in the estuary, illegally anchor down. and as far as an additional maritime officer we’re not approved yet

Ofc. K. Albino: to have one full time. but we have about 10 auxiliary units

Ofc. K. Albino: to this with these operations on an overtime basis. So that’s kind of how we’re handling that right there.

Ofc. K. Albino: Any other questions for me at this time.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Actually, I I do have a question. You mentioned the vessel turn in.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: How aware is the voting community about that program? So I guess my question is, is it more incumbent on you to tell them, or is it something that they voluntarily say? Hey, you know my both on its last legs? I want to turn it in.

Ofc. K. Albino: Typically it goes through the harbor, master. If they’re

Ofc. K. Albino: boat is mechanically failing, or it’s sinking, they’ll go to the Harvard Master and the Harvard master. Usually we’ll give them some options on how

Ofc. K. Albino: to mitigate their vessel from becoming some

Ofc. K. Albino: part of that is, through the division of boating and waterways. I’m listed. My specific name and phone number are listed on the website.

Ofc. K. Albino: so you can go search, and I believe maybe Lieutenant Klaus or Alameda police is also

Ofc. K. Albino: on that site as well. So I received calls weekly and monthly, and I have a log

Ofc. K. Albino: of about 11 vessels right now on the waiting list to turn in their votes. So I know that the information is out there because I receive calls pretty frequently.

Ofc. K. Albino: and that’s one way for them to do it. And then for these boats that are anchored out. I also verbally tell them that’s an option for them is to surrender their both to the state of their

Ofc. K. Albino: in over their head. They’re both syncing something like that.

Okay.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: thank you.

Commissioner Isa.

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: Thank you. I I just wanted to add that I I really appreciate Commissioner V. As his comment about

seeking some kind of a regional approach, and and the chairs

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: comment that we should agendize this and maybe move it forward to the full commission. To me this whole question about the anchor out and the abandoned vessels and the access

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: it’s. It’s shot through with environmental justice issues, I think. and

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: you know some communities have much more ability to address those issues than others, and if we can work together as a region

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: to solve these problems for all of the communities around the bay. I think it would just be, you know, so much better for everyone. But

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: So I i’m really glad that we’re going to be doing what the chair suggested, because I think it really does have those issues in it, and we are committed to doing something about those issues, and we’ve recommitted to it recently. So i’m glad to see that

Rebecca Eisen, Commissioner: those thoughts Are there.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, any other Commissioner comments.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Don’t See any?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay? Well, now, we will take public comments on this item, which is item number 6 0n the agenda.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and I’m going to make a notation for the record that we have received 8 written comments on this item.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: S0 0nce again, if you’re a member of the public, and would like to provide comments. You will need to raise your hand by clicking on the participants, tab in zoom or by phone, dialing Star 9 to raise your hand and Star 6 to unmute yourself.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Margie will then announce you and invite you to comment.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Comments should be kept t0 3Â min, and Margie will be keeping track of time, and this is a request for comments on Item 6,

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and I know we have public comments. So, Margie, do you want to start us off with the first individual.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Yes, we have Rock the lap first on the list.

Brock de Lappe: Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Brock to Lap. To begin with, it is important to acknowledge the work that the city of Oakland has accomplished during the past 2 years to remove encampments from Union Point Park.

Brock de Lappe: The open and barked Arrow and the San Francisco Bay trail.

Brock de Lappe: This was a challenging undertaking, and it has resulted in a tremendous improvement to the embarked arrow Neighborhood

Brock de Lappe: Major Credit is due to Joe Debris, the tonda, Simmons open public works and the

Brock de Lappe: bravo. What this does show is that where there is a will there is a way.

Brock de Lappe: What remains an untouched and growing problem is the Oakland estuary waterfront. which has been severely impacted by a large number of anchor out and abandoned wrecks

Brock de Lappe: to be clear, it is illegal to anchor anywhere on the Oakland estuary.

Brock de Lappe: Nevertheless, a criminal element has been allowed to totally flaunt this prohibition. The consequences are severe threat to health and safety of the general public.

Brock de Lappe: This is a clear and present danger.

Brock de Lappe: Since late December many vessels have sunk or drifted loose unmanned, creating a serious threat to navigation.

Brock de Lappe: An anchor out off Union Point Park, recently caught fire and sank. And now the wreck is an unmarked hazard to navigation, only visible at low tide.

Brock de Lappe: Private docks and marinas have derelicts tied up without permission, and they have not been cited by the Opd. For trespass

Brock de Lappe: owners have no ability to deal with this unwanted intrusion.

Brock de Lappe: The condition on the estuary has been allowed to reach a true code red status. I’m. Aware of the new nuisance vessel ordinance that has been created by the city of Oakland.

Brock de Lappe: It still requires the full approval of the city council.

Brock de Lappe: This is a necessary step in addressing this problem.

Brock de Lappe: What wasn’t clear from the text of the document is the source of funding necessary to conduct a cleanup that would remove all anchor outs sunken wrecks and shoreline debris.

Brock de Lappe: I have tremendous respect for the Oakland Police Department Marine patrol officers, and I know that if it was up to them conditions on the estuary would never have gotten so bad.

Brock de Lappe: It is absolutely imperative that the marine patrol unit be properly staffed with certified personnel, and that they have all the equipment and authorization to undertake the required cleanup and ongoing patrols to prevent a recurrence

Brock de Lappe: if the required funding is not available from the city or port of Oakland. Efforts should be made t0 0btain the necessary resources from Alameda County, State of California, or the Federal Government.

Brock de Lappe: The EPA provided 3.5 million dollars for the 2,013 cleanup. and the Department of Homeland Security has assisted the Oakland Police Department with a three-quarter 1 million dollar moose patrol vessel

Brock de Lappe: they could assist again to meet the need for on the water law enforcement, especially considering that the port of Oakland is the fourth largest port on the west coast.

Brock de Lappe: The continued lack of timely on the water law enforcement would be extremely irresponsible.

Brock de Lappe: I hope I hope, that we can move forward with this and that we won’t again, go through another year, and have the same situation exist as it has during this past year. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next up we have Steve Mcphessel.

Mr. Fessel, please state your name for the record.

SteveMeckfessel: My name is Steve Mcfast, so can you hear me?

SteveMeckfessel: Yes, yes, and I am the manager at Marina Bella Jot Harbor in Alameda.

SteveMeckfessel: First of all, I want to say this is one of the most encouraging public hearings I’ve ever attended or been to. I really support all of the comments made by

Chair Gilmour, as well as the Commissioners, as well as the speakers.

SteveMeckfessel: I don’t want to take a lot of your time. I also, by the way, want to thank being in Alameda, the great work that Lieutenant the lieutenant, has done, and his team has done.

SteveMeckfessel: I do want to just emphasize that I concur that this is a huge issue and problem, and the biggest threat to the estuary in bay that’s out there right now.

SteveMeckfessel: It seems like we all have people committed to do it, and I I love the idea of getting the 9 counties together on this and some sort of state fine funding. So I encourage you to all to do what you’re continuing to do. I thank you, and just one again emphasize that

SteveMeckfessel: this is really a threat from an environmental standpoint. It’s a threat from a safety standpoint. It’s that a threat to the health of the estuary in the bay. Thank you very much for your efforts.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next we have Tanya voice

definitely.

Tanya Boyce: Hello! Can you hear me.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Yes, we can.

Tanya Boyce: Okay, great. S0 0nce again I’m Tanya, Boyce. East Oakland Resident.

Tanya Boyce: I want to say that

Tanya Boyce: I do not think that the city of Oakland has done a great job. I’m grateful that my neighbor

Tanya Boyce: doesn’t have the encampments in his neighborhood anymore, but I want to let him and everyone know that they move from there over to lead where the cabinet has grown exp potentially, and I know that my very good friend, like Joe Devise, has acknowledged that leap.

Tanya Boyce: It has become an encampment of big problems. But what I don’t understand, I really can’t understand. Is that

Tanya Boyce: Why is it that the city has bathrooms there for for the people who are camping, but doesn’t

Tanya Boyce: provide dumpsters. so that

Tanya Boyce: all of their trash is going directly into the water elite every single day.

Tanya Boyce: and if I want to walk past there, I I can’t even have access to the walkway. That is completely unacceptable, and I don’t see why we would wait for anything

Tanya Boyce: to fix that situation. Furthermore, on Denison.

Tanya Boyce: so captors went from

Tanya Boyce: on top of the street to under the bridge. So when I’m.

Tanya Boyce: Rowing down the estuary. I can show you that there are still people living there, and that’s defecating and throwing things directly into the water. There is a gigantic dump

Tanya Boyce: under the bridge full of stuff that n0 0ne has cleaned up, and that my row was point that every time that we pass it like wow, that’s a whole another world down there.

Tanya Boyce: I myself fell into the estuary a few months ago, when I was trying to park my boat

Tanya Boyce: and became definitely ill, deathly ill I I was on death’s door for like

Tanya Boyce: 2 and a half weeks. only to find out that I had round worms.

Tanya Boyce: and so we are now exposing

Tanya Boyce: our children and our cells. The Third World diseases

Tanya Boyce: that were since eradicated in our country.

Tanya Boyce: because we are not dealing with homelessness in the way that we need to the lasting point that I want to say, and hopefully someone will hear me. Is we actually have a campsite

Tanya Boyce: East Bay Regional park runs a campsite.

Tanya Boyce: Why would they allow camping on their property on the waterfront, instead of moving people to a camp site where there are showers and places for them to burn things and places for people who want to live outside to be outside.

Tanya Boyce: Oaklands

Tanya Boyce: policies are like there of, have invited everybody from around the world to come here and do whatever they want, because there’s no enforcement of any kind of any rule

Tanya Boyce: anywhere, especially in.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much, Miss Boyce. Next we have Tomas0 0gia. Please stay there. Your name for the record. You have 3Â min.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Mr. Bogea.

Tommaso Boggia: Hi! My name is in the history for 12 years.

and i’m calling in mostly to caution everyone to speak

Tommaso Boggia: kindly of the people we’re referring to these people that you referred to as the legal are poor people, probably going through the hardest moments of their lives, and the a lot of the language used around here is a language of criminalization, of poverty.

Tommaso Boggia: Specifically, one of the most egregious uses of this is pictures of the guest Talk with both Spark there, and my boat is directly across from the guest talk. They’ve never been a problem. People cycle through here. There’s been one of the commissioners mentioned, both being abandoned there in the guest Talk, I guess Doc is is free right now.

Tommaso Boggia: It’s it’s been it’s free it it’s like people come in and come out, and often both keep pictures of votes

on the guest, Doc, or being used to make the point that these people are

Tommaso Boggia: taken advantage of the public re of the public realm. They’re not. They just come in and out another point I wanted to make around this issue of criminalizing poverty is there’s this a lot, this language on crisis.

Tommaso Boggia: It’s there’s definitely an environmental impact of people who do not have access to marina facilities. But if you look at any studies of the major sources of pollution in the bay. It’s not. We call anchor outs. It’s just that we we keep using these dramatic language around them, but even might just build millions of gallons of sewage into the bay.

Tommaso Boggia: Chevron refinery is constantly spilling oil, oil dripping from cars is what is the biggest non-source point pollution of the bay. So let’s let’s not pretend this is the biggest environmental problem in the in the estuary. Right now. There’s date on that. Look at that data.

Tommaso Boggia: Finally, as the previous commenter said, as a policy of criminalizing and evicting UN sheltered folks. That doesn’t provide solutions for where these people should

Tommaso Boggia: should go

Tommaso Boggia: is not a policy that works. There was one of the Commissioner pointed out that this is what’s at, what? What’s happening now is what happened in Ssolito. Yeah, you know why it’s happening here, because everybody was just cleared out of Saleido without a place to go. And so now they’re coming here. If we clear them out from here, where do you think they will go? They’ll go to the next place.

So we need to. Yes, a regional solution, but a regional solution

Tommaso Boggia: based on providing housing for people who need it.

We’re in the housing crisis, and this is just another manifestation of it. Stop criminalizing poverty, start providing public housing. Thank you

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much. Next we have Tom, when

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: yes, thank you, i’m unmuted. Now my name is Thank you, members of the committee. My name is Tom port, and I’m. The volunteer boat house manager at Jacqueline Aquatic Center. As you know, Jack Lennon is located at the south end of Jacklin and Square.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: and is, in addition t0 0ther boat houses along the estuary, such as the open strokes.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: It’s one of the most active public access areas to the estuary literally. There’s hundreds of hours of adult and youth activities that operate out of Jekyll out of J. Lack, including a rowing dragon voting.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: kayaking, paddle, boarding, and public launch and the public launch ramp.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: So, with such an active facility, we are most concerned about the public health and safety of our users, especially our youth users.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: and so well we appreciate many of the comments that we’ve heard this morning. We are very concerned about the impact of the anchor out on the estuary, both from a health and safety, environmental and a navigational standpoint.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: Morning and evening the our aquatic users have to navigate through the flotilla of vessels that are more at offshore.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: just offshore in the cove.

and also, as you’ve heard along the the the shallows of the estuary, there are numerous sunken vessels

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: that pose both the environmental and a navigational hazard. Over the last few months Only a couple of those vessels, including a sailboat, have been removed. So it’s been since 2019 years since any concerted activity to remove these vessels was accomplished

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: at J. Lack we participate in multiple shoreline cleanups throughout the year.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: where we literally removed tons of cast off garbage, including hypodermic needles from the shores and beaches along the estuary, and especially around the Jlac Cove.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: We’ve, also experienced evidence of human waste being released into the into the water. And while we acknowledged that that’s not the only source of pollution, the fact that the city of Oakland has closed the public restrooms at the public launch. Ramps really gives the anchor outs now where to go.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: so we do appreciate the recent efforts by the city of Oakland, and especially the the efforts by the Oakland Marine Division to get a handle on the situation. But I think the 3 things that we really need to continue to see happen is that the city live up to its commitment

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: to deal with the situation.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: and we are encouraged by the pending nuisance or ordinance. That’s good progress. But things are happening much too slowly, and it continues to let it. The current situation grow worse

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: that the comprehensive, cleanup be moved along quickly and again we we appreciate all Officer Albino saying that he’s planning to clean up the summer into the fall.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: and then, lastly, that illegal mooring and anchoring of boats be cited, and that there’d be regular enforcement on the estuary. And then, lastly, we are concerned to hear Mr. De. We say that the the J. Like parking lot, may be used as a temporary storage facility for boat removal. If you were to go down on any given Saturday he would see that the entire parking lot of jailac is full.

tom horton – East Bay Rowing: and that this would be a significant issue if that becomes a storage area. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next we have Libby Adelson.

Libby Edelson: Good morning. Can you hear me? Thank you. My name is Libby Adelson. I

Libby Edelson: was a long time resident of Oakland and I’m. A resident currently of Berkeley.

Libby Edelson: I row at the East Bay Rowing Club

Libby Edelson: out of Jack London Aquatic Center, and I wanted to comment that

Libby Edelson: rowing has significantly changed my life, and being out on the water

Libby Edelson: and being able to see our beautiful cities, Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, and our ecosystem has inspired me to

Libby Edelson: give back to both, to work on behalf of our communities and on behalf of the environment. It’s been very life changing

Libby Edelson: my concern with anchor outs off the Cov. Of Jack London. Aquatic Center is the danger they present to us as rowers, especially our youth rowers, both Oakland Tech and Berkeley High Row out of Jackland and Aquatic Center.

Libby Edelson: For example, there is an anchor out there currently that has an underwater rope tied to another boat. This rope is not visible to rowers that presents a significant danger.

You can tangled in it

Libby Edelson: for the swamp, etc. I’ve also witnessed

Libby Edelson: people on live aboards come to sure in smaller boats and dump their trash in the Jack London Aquatic Center, parking lot

Libby Edelson: in class, etc. I am not interested in criminalizing poverty in any way. I think it is. It’s ingenuous, however, to state that the bigger concern is corporate pollution. Of course that’s a bigger concern. It does not mean

Libby Edelson: we can’t advocate for individual responsibility as well. So

Libby Edelson: I am just here to urge

Libby Edelson: a more timely attention to the matter of illegal anger out and

Libby Edelson: dangers. They present both to us as individuals, to the community, t0 0ur environment.

Libby Edelson: Thank you. So

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: thank you.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next we have Matt Briven.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Mr. Bloomin.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: You’re muted.

Matt Bliven: Good morning, Commissioners.

Matt Bliven: My name is Matt Blevin.

Matt Bliven: My wife and I reside on Marina. Drive in Alameda. and our home is on the waterfront of the Oakland title Canal. Between the High Street and the Fruit Bell Avenue or Miller Sweeney Bridge.

Matt Bliven: there has been a fair amount of attention placed on derelict and abandoned vessels in the estuary. but not much discussion or enforcement activity or action to the legal activity along the shoreline, including the San Francisco bay trail

Matt Bliven: across the estuary from our residents. Approximately 15 Rvs are illegally parked along Alameda Avenue. along with numerous abandoned vehicles and piles of trash effectively blocking the bike lanes and interference with traffic

Matt Bliven: on Alameda Avenue. All of this activity falls within 100 feet of the San Francisco Bay shoreline.

Matt Bliven: and I believe it is within BC. DC’s. Enforcement jurisdiction.

Matt Bliven: Additionally, on any given day.

Matt Bliven: There are 3 t0 5 transient or abandoned vehicles parked directly on the bay trail in this vicinity Some of them are up on cinder blocks. Some are leaking oil or hydraulic fluid, and some have people living in them.

Matt Bliven: Currently there is an abandoned Jersey barrier which obstructs the day trail near the foot of the Miller Sweeney Bridge. It’s been there for approximately 3 weeks.

Matt Bliven: There are also long-term unhouse people who are permitted to live beneath the elevated portion of the bay trail. In this location

Matt Bliven: one who has created a huge garbage mound in the tidal zone directly below the bay trail. including 15 shopping cards. Yes, 15 shopping cards.

Matt Bliven: The garbage mound and the shopping carts are immersed twice a day during the normal title cycle.

The city of Oakland has previously removed the rbs along Alameda Avenue most recently, about 3 years ag0 0nly for them to return again a few months later.

Matt Bliven: The city has also previously dispatched. We could weekly clean up crews along Alameda Avenue, but that practice is left as well. The San Francisco Bay trail used to be a pleasant place to bicycle, jog, or walk your dog, or with your family.

Matt Bliven: We called it our bridge to Bridge Walk. Now, however, it is unsafe, unsightly, and unpleasant to do any of these activities due to the illegal activity that has been allowed t0 0ccur.

Matt Bliven: Finally. I note that the city of Oakland’s fruitful, alive project is proceeding.

Matt Bliven: which includes pedestrian and bicycle enhancements along the fruit Bell corridor, and also connecting the bay trail between fruit bill avenue and the Jingle Town neighborhood. This project is long overdue, and an important enhancement for the San Francisco Bay trail, but its value is effectively diminished. If the problems I have just described are not addressed.

Matt Bliven: Thank you for your attention today, and the time and energy you devote to BC. DC. To resolve these issues.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much. Next up we have. Val.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Well go ahead.

Val: Hi!

Val: 1Â s.

Val: So my name is Val Hamill, and I am a rower with the East Bay rowing club out of Jailac, and I am also a live aboard at Union Point, Marina.

I

Val: I live and have for a long time been in very close contact with the situation

Val: all over the estuary, and particularly the anchor out situation near the Coast Guard Island Bridge.

Val: I want to speak to the history of this issue, which has been going on for many years.

Val: A a year ago in February

there were many presentations from the city of Oakland and Alameda and other State agencies

Val: about

Val: what was going on with the anchor outs, and there were many commitments made. The cities of Oakland and Alameda

Val: volunteered to give themselves the generous timeline of one year to complete a clean up of all anchor outs and vessels and sunken vessels

in the estuary.

Val: In the March meeting. I’m. Going to read. I’m. Going to quote from the Transcript.

Val: the city of Oakland committed to develop and implement a comprehensive policy for dealing with anchor outs occupied, unoccupied, floating, and sunken.

Val: It also also in the march in the march meeting.

Adrian Klein said that the direction recorded

Val: from the comments following these briefings was that the cities should cause removal of the anchor outs and dry lined encampments with the one year of the briefing, or by February 2,023.

Val: She also said that staff recommends that a formal and course enforcement proceeding

Val: be commenced If the anchor outs and encampments remain unaddressed as of that date February 2023. That is the date right now. I’m also going to quote to you from the September

Val: 2022 meeting, where the cities of Alameda and Oakland that had committed to give updates every 3 months.

and didn’t do so. This was the only update that was made by the cities was in September.

Val: 2,022.

Val: The city of Alameda reported that they had completely handled all the anchor outs and derelict vessels and every situation on their side of the estuary and the city of Oakland reported that it had gotten exactly nothing done.

Val: I quote again from that meeting you very much, Val.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next we have Mary Spicer.

mary spicer: Hi! My name is Mary Spicer, and I founded a

mary spicer: a story garbage, clean up organization called Iheart Oakland, Alameda estuary.com in 2,016.

mary spicer: It was initially out of Grand Street boat ramp in Alameda, and eventually we made ourself to the Jack London Aquatic Center.

where I am the adoptive spot Lead there at Jack, London Aquatic Center

mary spicer: we started to clean the Oakland Alameda estuary because of the amount of garbage in our frustration

mary spicer: I have to see and listening to the initial comments on it being piecemeal. I really do think that we need an overall structure and a whole bunch of agencies coming together to solve this issue.

I agree with Tanya. I do think that we clean up one area and another. and everyone else will just move all to t0 0ther areas.

mary spicer: I agree with Tomaso that I think the major garbage issue is the Storm Drain Star drain issues, and not so much the anchor out, but I do think that watching the boat sink over and over, and the the

oil and the gas consistently from the sun. Boats going into the water is extremely painful and tragic to nature.

mary spicer: I don’t think that the Jack London parking lot would be a great place to bring abandoned boats. I do think that the Jackland and Aquatic Center needs a lot more support.

I think 150 Grant funding and waiting for April to get that done doesn’t make sense. I think we need major funding to deal with this issue. Now, I would think that potentially the State of California must be able to give us some support to take care of this environmental issue as as soon as possible.

mary spicer: Once the boat hits the shores, at least on the beaches we clean. They usually stay there, and are eventually taken under and sunk by the high tide. It is extremely painful to watch the boats take on the water, knowing that they will leak fuel, oil, and that all kinds of corrosives, one to the water.

mary spicer: Much of the garbage that was on the boat finds its way t0 0ur bay. We pick up lots of restaurant corrosive, flammable liquid containers, cans of chemicals, a few propane tanks, needles, and even bags of human waste on the empty shores of the estuary, often near abandoned. Boats

mary spicer: having boat sink is tr tragic. It’s not fair t0 0ur nature that we allow this to happen t0 0ur harbor seals, bat race, fish, and shore birds. I do not understand why there is not efficient comprehensive plan to get boat boats off the water before they sink.

mary spicer: I know many people report the stranded and abandoned boats. Sometimes they are days and weeks before the boats truly sink. It seems like it’s a preventable disaster. Can’t we tow the boats away before they sink?

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much, Miss Vicer. Next we have Chris Leverage.

Kris Leverich: Good morning. My name is Chris Leverage. I am the port captain at a only and yacht club.

Kris Leverich: I also volunteer with the Sea Scouts in the East Bay, which includes growing as an activity as well as the Coast Guard rowing team at Base Alameto.

I want to first

Kris Leverich: make sure that we’re not discounting the the factor that Well, poverty absolutely is a major issue. The housing crisis is really crushing the most vulnerable people in the bay area that does not mean that there isn’t substantial criminal

Kris Leverich: activity, as well as a legal activity, or things that are in violation of law that are affecting everybody; and we all have agency in this situation, and with that, said

Kris Leverich: some of the enduring concerns, I have. You’ve noticed a substantial improvement in the engagement of the city of Alameda. But we have not seen the commensurate level

Kris Leverich: of enforcement and remediation is support

Kris Leverich: on the Oakland side of the estuary. and there certainly has been a noted spike of aggregated, unregistered vessels in a derelict condition.

Kris Leverich: Boats in that situation are not a housing solution. They’re in fact, the most dangerous possible situation to put anyone or allow anyone to stay in an Rv. Will not sink into the parking lot at 3 in the morning a boat will absolutely do that.

Kris Leverich: and if someone’s a board. There’s certainly a risk of life, and everything in that vessel, including the construction of the vessel itself, poses a hazard.

Kris Leverich: We’ve seen evidence of boats deliberately grounding to Korean, which is scraping the bottom paint right on to the bottom and waiting for the next tide to float, instead of properly hauling out

Kris Leverich: numerous instances. A boat dumping in Marinos spike of groundings and sinking, seeing tragic outcomes.

Kris Leverich: pollution wise with that absence of uniform enforcement and the waterways gives warned anchor outs the game space to balance around the estuary and evade any sort of enforcement outcome, meaningful enforcement outcome in a lot of cases

Kris Leverich: and a lot of another major concern we have is with a pending recession that hits discretional expenses for working in middle class people first.

Kris Leverich: and the recreational boating is top of the cuts we will be

Kris Leverich: as after the global financial crisis, there’ll be a flood of quote, UN, quote dollar boats coming into the market that are unsailable except for minimal expense, going to folks who may not have the means to sustain those boats which are probably already have a lot of deferred maintenance.

Kris Leverich: and find their way into the estuary. You may see many more soon.

Kris Leverich: So here’s the ask. Alameda must have partners in Alameda County Government. The o

Kris Leverich: the same degree of commitment, and to act. Now, Federal partners are not resourced.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next up we have collect Lucas Conwell.

Colette Lucas-Conwell: Hi, everyone! Thank you for your time. My name is Collette Lucas Conwell. I’m. A board member at East Bay Rowing Club and a Coxon with the Us. Wrong National team, which trains out of the T. Gary Rogers Rowing center in Oakland. I’ll keep my comments and questions quick.

Colette Lucas-Conwell: First, I really loved hearing more from the

Colette Lucas-Conwell: Alameda Marine Patrol unit about the monthly meetings that they have with stakeholders. I would encourage them to either invite Oakland, Pd. And those marinas and stakeholders to them, or for officer i’ll be you know, to set up his own, so that we can kind of share all this information and

Colette Lucas-Conwell: be up to date on what everybody is doing.

Colette Lucas-Conwell: Second, I was concerned by the Assistant City Administrator’s comments that they hadn’t been able to quantify what additional needs the opd Marine Patrol has, I think, it’s imperative that they come back to this committee with that information about

Colette Lucas-Conwell: how many more offices they need, how much more funding is needed. It’s really concerning that they Haven’t

Colette Lucas-Conwell: really broach this topic, yet with the Opda Marine Patrol unit.

Colette Lucas-Conwell: and then third is for the city of Oakland to also take a look at the measure Dd. Funds, which was a bond passed back in 2,002, whose purpose was to improve water quality, Provide recreational facilities.

Colette Lucas-Conwell: Restore Oakland’s creeks, waterfronts estuary.

Colette Lucas-Conwell: you know. There may be some left over funds there, or projects that haven’t been undertaking yet that could be looked at, and it would be interesting for the City administrator to come back with information on measured Dd. Funds as well. Thank you.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much. Next we have Damon Taylor.

Damon Taylor: Hello!

Damon Taylor: Can you hear me? Yes.

Damon Taylor: yes, I am a current agent at the the Jack London Aquatic Center. I just wanted to speak on a few points. I also want to thank everyone that’s putting this together. And now everyone that’s commented so far that’s putting their input to this

Damon Taylor: as far as the the aquatic center.

Damon Taylor: I can say that at least in the last month or 2, that I I personally have tried to sustain some kind of self-pleasing amongst the inkrelats there.

Damon Taylor: and that there is an asserted effort among the people the few people that are left there. We’ve asked some people to leave because of their dangers to the rowers and whatnot, and they they have left.

Damon Taylor: and we’ll continue to do such things as of now as of today. Right, now there should be a there’s a a clear lane, all the boats that are anchored out, which I believe is only 3

Damon Taylor: or you about, so should be 4, all of which are in working order that can all be started up and moved what needed to be.

Damon Taylor: And and so, anyway. we’re all making an effort to communicate with with each other to help each other out if we do have any problems, and also join together to not only get rid of the

Damon Taylor: of unwanted or unsafe elements there. This last weekend I gathered 5 0ther people that were liberal boards there, and we went to round and cleaned up the parking lot, the aquatic center, and the and the shoreline, which was already believe it or not, relatively clean.

Damon Taylor: and myself Personally, I’ve I’ve helped, I believe, 4 0r 5

Damon Taylor: boats that we’re running around there, get off the shore, and and have the both removed. I i’m constantly advising anyone that has a boat that, or does not have the skill set to be on the water to get the heck off the water, so that you know that. So we’re we’re not, and we’re also trying to keep any kind of criminal element which which does exist.

Damon Taylor: you know, away from at least the the Jacqueline aquatic center, because it’s a smaller area, and it’s it’s a it’s what we know small enough that amongst a few people we can, we can sell police it Also, if I didn’t want to come in. There was something about them having

Damon Taylor: the Jack London, a product center parking lot. Be a temporary place for for the

Damon Taylor: to take both out of the water that that parking lot is not only full on weekends, but also quite a bit

Damon Taylor: on weekday nights. It’s just. This would be a horrible place to have staging for anything. There’s very little room there when there is a a rowers, and there’s a a lot of young children around and whatnot, and also. I just, you know, as far as the Aquax, and I just wanted to spell a lot of the

Damon Taylor: criminalization and bombs and villains and criminals all that kind of aspect of people there that we are trying My name’s Damon Taylor. I drive a Blue Bo and W. That sometimes park in the parking lot. I have the red boat. Anyone that misinterested it’s free to come. Talk to me personally to address any issues. Anyone that works at the Aquatic Center for the rowers that has a concern.

Damon Taylor: I’ll be more than happy to address it and handle it for you, because we want the rollers to be safe as well, and we want to be able to share. You know we’re we’re in a position that we have to be. We want anyone else to, and be able to enjoy what they do there. Thank you.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much. John Timothy. Europe

Damon Taylor: that

okay? Hi! Can you hear me?

John Timothy: Yes, we can

John Timothy: just about homelessness, and

John Timothy: I I am sympathetic to homeless people, and I it’s a difficult problem. I don’t want to criminalize them. But, on the other hand.

John Timothy: being homeless, does not entitle you to put the health and welfare of other residents at risk. And so i’m just going to

tell you that in the last couple of weeks

John Timothy: a couple of things that happened. One of those anchor outs caught fire in at about 8 30 in the in the evening, and it the Oakland Fire department was out there in force. I think that finally was put out 45Â min later by a fireboat. But in the meantime there was

John Timothy: the and and of course the boat burned down to the whole.

John Timothy: And then the second thing that happened just about a week ago was that one of those anchor outs, lost its maureen and was blown over and impacted. One of the

boats on. The Marina crashed into it.

John Timothy: and then got. We got moved over

John Timothy: a few spaces down to an empty birth, and was there for a few for a few nights. But those

John Timothy: sorts of incidents are are really dangerous to the health and safety and welfare of the people around the Marina, and not to mention property.

John Timothy: So the the last thing i’m gonna just notice is that there is right in the same area. There is a boat that is halfway in and halfway out of the water and get semi submerged every time the tide gets high. That that boat has been there for for weeks.

John Timothy: so I

John Timothy: I just don’t understand these are vehicles, and I don’t understand why they can’t be treated like motor vehicles are treated, which is, if there’s something that’s parked illegally, you put a tag on it. The the police department puts a tag on it 72Â h to to move, and if it’s not moved, it is towed away

John Timothy: and I think that rather than having a

John Timothy: the storage place on land. Why don’t, we just

John Timothy: find a place to buoy off an area and just toe the boats over there. Leave them there, and if they owners Don’t claim, and then

John Timothy: put them up for sale.

John Timothy: So that’s my idea. Thank you for listening. I appreciate everybody’s hard work on this. I know it’s a very a difficult problem.

John Timothy: Thanks.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you. Next we have Hannah Sacrament.

Hannah Zucherman: Good morning. My name is Hannah Zuckerman. I am also a rower with the East, with East Bay Rowing Club, and I’m, also a resident of Jack London Square.

Hannah Zucherman: I want to echo everything that my teammates have said, and also want to say that you know I am able to walk to the aquatic center from where I live, but often do not in the morning, because it doesn’t feel safe.

Hannah Zucherman: and you know I’m. I’m agree with the Thomas, who who discussion about criminalizing homelessness. But you know I want to be able to, you know. be able to walk to and from practice not have to drive.

Hannah Zucherman: And also, you know, I want to also echo that the aquatic center parking lot is not. It’s even too small for our needs, and to

Hannah Zucherman: have boats there would be difficult for us to access practice as well as access boats. We use the parking lot often to maneuver our long 8 boats, so we need that space to be able to do that.

Hannah Zucherman: I also want to mention that you know there’s been a few times that the anchor outs have caught fire during the day, and we’ve seen that so like the previous commenter, said there was a boat that was right near the the dock that the generator caught fire, and s0 0ur coach had to, you know, g0 0ut there to see

Hannah Zucherman: if there was someone on board and what was going on, and that’s, you know, really something that we shouldn’t have to feel responsible, you know, not only responsible to do, but you know that’s not necessarily something that

Hannah Zucherman: falls under our coaches description or ours as rowers. And so again, you know, I love being on the on the water as a rower. I love being seeing the water as a resident, and so these are very important discussions. Thank you, and thank you to all my teammates who have also brought up comments. Thank you.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you. Last we have David Smith.

david schmidt: Hello.

david schmidt: Yeah. But everyone has some very good points and what not I’m just gonna for you one of my experiments being on that in that area for so many years

david schmidt: the the

david schmidt: exactly when but it was. could be 20 year ago t0 2 years ago there was a fight on the anchor outboats argument between me. Most people on shore and homeless people on the boats

david schmidt: and the homeless people on shore road out there about a dozen of them.

david schmidt: and with a giant like an 8 foot long metal bar, and went to beat up the guy out on the anchor out. There was about a dozen of us in the Marina witnessing this

david schmidt: we called the police. We’re immediately put on hold.

david schmidt: stayed on hold for about 5 0r 10Â min. Eventually I had to hang up on the police because my phone on my camera would not work. Well, it was. The phone was like overloaded. So I started video shipping the fight just after a gunshot was fired.

david schmidt: Just after this guy with the 8 foot pole was swinging it on the guy with the in the boat, and the guy in the boat came out. I mean they’re all dressed like pirates, anyways, but it was kind of

david schmidt: interesting, but they got comes out literally with a World War Ii dress. So we didn’t start swinging a sword around on the other dozen people.

and then jumps back in his boat. One guy shoots the gun into the boat.

david schmidt: and then the guy on the boat just goes quiet.

david schmidt: So they roll away. I get on video tape. I’ve got all of the

david schmidt: and assailants. and

david schmidt: we show this to the police When they finally do show up. And they say, well, because

david schmidt: you know the actual gunshots we’re not on video tape. There’s nothing we can do.

david schmidt: And I was like, Well, there’s a dozen people here that and all the people, all the homeless people they knew nothing was going to be done. They were just hanging around the shoreline leaning on the handrail.

david schmidt: watching the police talk to us. And

david schmidt: we’ve said that that’s them right there. We can all identify them, and several of us were willing to testify.

david schmidt: And they’re on this video taped, and we’re all willing to. You know. We’re willing to testify.

david schmidt: And the police said, Well, there’s just nothing we can do about it.

david schmidt: So that’s one example. Another example is this World War Ii.

david schmidt: 60 0r 70 foot boat that sank

david schmidt: about a few weeks before it sank. It was drifting and almost hitting boats in the Marina. I called the Coast Guard with pictures. and they said that, due to the they wouldn’t do anything, and I I persisted and went higher and higher to the highest level that I could speak to in the Coast Guard.

david schmidt: and he finally told me, I said, Tell me honestly what’s happening, he said honestly. The situation in open. The political situation in the Oakland

makes it such that we can do nothing about this, and that boat was

david schmidt: blocking. A navigable channel was drifting down towards the parson bridge, almost hit the parks through bridge, drifted back and almost hit a bunch of goats in the green. It was nothing that Coast Guard could do

david schmidt: because of the political situation in Oakland.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Next we have East Bay.

East Bay: Hi! My name is Denise Martini. I am the president of the Board of East Bay Rowing Club, and you’ve heard from a number of folks so far.

East Bay: I’m. I’m not going to pile on the same comments. But we do have a good size club of 150 0r so adult rowers.

East Bay: and among our club, Berkeley High, an Artemis rowing, another several 100 youth rowers.

East Bay: and the adults row in the morning in the dark.

East Bay: and the youth row in the evening in the dark.

East Bay: Everything that we’re talking about here is dangerous to the adults and the children. because you can’t see a lot of these things as well in the dark.

East Bay: the issue of unhoused people near Jacqueline and aquatic center Again, it’s scarier in the dark.

So I really encourage for safety that we work on all of these issues.

East Bay: We’re trying to encourage more children from around Oakland. Our rowing club is open to any Oakland unified school District High School student anywhere in Oakland. We’re trying to get as many

East Bay: kids from around the city down to the boat house to row.

East Bay: and there are a lot of parents that look and say, not sure. I want my kids to be there after dark. It’s a little bit scary, so I encourage the city of Oakland, and everybody else to do what they can to

East Bay: deal with the unsafe boats in the cove on the estuary, occasionally tied up at our boat dock overnight

East Bay: such that we can have a safe and efficient rowing program. Thanks very much.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much.

Next we have Michael.

Michael Fanfa: Hi, i’m Michael.

Michael Fanfa: So about 20 years ago I was in the Saliando Marina.

Michael Fanfa: and what they used to do with a lot of their boats that they couldn’t get rid of is, they would haul them up the boat, launch and move them into their gated area. That was for storage. They bring a big wrecking dump truck

Michael Fanfa: and a dozer.

Michael Fanfa: and they would crush these boats and put them in the dump truck.

Michael Fanfa: and

Michael Fanfa: what they did after that I don’t know, because there’s motors and so much good stuff that scrapped, I would have assumed that they would have disassembled some of the stuff as best they could, and then the engines that are inside. They could pick up with

Michael Fanfa: the end of a backhole and take out of the wreckage after everything is smashed, so that they could get the metal out.

Michael Fanfa: That being said here in the estuary, in my opinion, the best place to take boats out is the old boat yards ramps on the Alameda Island

Michael Fanfa: that that are still not being used for anything. You slide the boats up, and then you can fit a dozer in there

Michael Fanfa: and do the same thing.

Michael Fanfa: That’s just my thought on up a place to get rid of these these posts that you can finally legally access and and get rid of. Thank you.

Okay.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you.

Next we have

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Marjorie. Such call.

Marjorie Setchko: Sorry I was having trouble unmeting.

Marjorie Setchko: Yes, i’m a rowing coach on the estuary, and I don’t operate out of Jack, London or Oakland strokes. I operate out of

Marjorie Setchko: a small club behind Coast Guard Island. and it’s all young people at this club and right alongside of the Coast Guard Island Bridge are frequently a great number of these illegal anger outs.

Marjorie Setchko: They don’t have any lights on them. They

Marjorie Setchko: do not more their boats properly, so that the anchor lines are

Marjorie Setchko: very long and they’re invisible.

Marjorie Setchko: So we have these kids out there as a space people have said.

Marjorie Setchko: But our situation is a little different in that. We have to go by these people.

Marjorie Setchko: We have to to get in and out of our club.

Marjorie Setchko: and I have had kids

Marjorie Setchko: get hung up on those anchor lines and flip in the dark in the estuary, because there’s no light there. There’s there’s no way to see these people.

Marjorie Setchko: We’ve asked them. We’ve asked them. Can you move to the side so that we can at least go through some arch of the bridge. They just scream at us and laugh at us.

There’s you know.

Marjorie Setchko: I understand, that there is a large problem with

Marjorie Setchko: housing.

Marjorie Setchko: but if you know we can. We’re willing to work together? They are clearly not so.

Marjorie Setchko: you know. I know that there are issues with liability for these things. We’ve talked to the police about calling abandoned vessels out. Nobody wants to to have to deal with it.

Marjorie Setchko: I know that there was a woman who sued the city of Oakland, and that’s why the city of Oakland is wanting to be super. Hands off with dealing with the anchor outs, but something has to be done.

Marjorie Setchko: You know it’s it’s an accessibility issue. If If we’re supposed to be able to enjoy the waterways.

Marjorie Setchko: protect the waterways, n0 0ne’s doing anything to enforce all of these wonderful ideas, and it’s time somebody does something

Marjorie Setchko: that’s all I have to say about it.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Thank you very much.

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: Chair Gilmore. That’s all we have.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you, Margie and I just want to say thank you to all the members of the public

Marie Gilmore, Chair: who took the time out of their busy day to come down and speak to us. The committee is very, very appreciative. We do realize this is a big problem, and so we value your input

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I think I speak for all of us. When I say we always learn from members of the public who are our eyes and ears out there. S0 0nce again we are deeply appreciative

Marie Gilmore, Chair: of on the time and the effort that you took today.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Having said that, Adrian, can you put up that last slide with

Marie Gilmore, Chair: all the questions for the committee. Thank you.

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: May I orally, at one question, that I neglected to include.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Sure

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: I should have noted here also that the Enforcement Committee may wish to consider

whether there’s a role for its new compliance staff in

Adrienne Klein, BCDC Staff: addressing this map.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, thank you. So

Marie Gilmore, Chair: i’m gonna lead off with kind of my thoughts about all of this in in no particular order, and i’d like to hear feedback from the committee members.

I I think

Marie Gilmore, Chair: we’ve all commented on the

Marie Gilmore, Chair: the similarity that this has to Ssalito and the be our our.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And so, while I acknowledge the fact that both cities, particularly the city of Alameda, have made. You know, some strides. I think we need to maybe restructure how we’re dealing with this.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: And so I was actually thinking about sending this to the Compliance staff

Marie Gilmore, Chair: to sort of help guide the cities and and kind of keep them on track.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I

Marie Gilmore, Chair: personally think that being updated on a monthly basis is probably a little bit too much given. How long some of these actions tend to take?

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I’m leaning towards quarterly reports. Because.

yeah.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: i’m hoping that’s enough time to get things done and to spot potential problems before

Marie Gilmore, Chair: things get you know, out of hand.

And so that’s kind of where

Marie Gilmore, Chair: i’m thinking this goes, and I would leave it up to the Compliance staff

Marie Gilmore, Chair: to determine a working schedule with the cities. Once they sort of get their feet wet and and get up to speed.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So i’m curious to hear what other members of the committee think about this.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and I can’t see any hands, because the

Marie Gilmore, Chair: the the slide is up.

John Vasquez, Commissioner: Marie. This is John. I would agree with you.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, Thank you. Anything else

John Vasquez, Commissioner: for me. No.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: okay, thank you, Rebecca.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Yes, Larry wants to speak. 0 0kay.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: go ahead, Larry.

Larry Goldzband: Sorry about that. A couple of things I, Frank, is out of the country this week.

Larry Goldzband: and so I thought I would step in as a senior staffer to say that I tend to agree with Chair Gilmore, to move this over to

Larry Goldzband: compliance. I would add a couple of things, though

Larry Goldzband: I think that you ought to ask Grab. and we’ll ask Greg to make sure that the Compliance staff comes back to you in 3 months, which is

in June

Larry Goldzband: with a report back.

Larry Goldzband: I would also

Larry Goldzband: that I would also suggest that

the city of Oakland, in the city of Alameda

Larry Goldzband: most definitely has taken notes, and I would imagine they know what they need to provide you in 3 months in terms of an inventory and the like.

Larry Goldzband: But I would suggest, and i’ll be talking with Greg about this. I’m sure Greg will be talking to his compliance staff about this that you schedule them for June.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: So Larry, is a point of clarification.

Are you asking in June that just the Compliance staff give a report.

Larry Goldzband: or we bringing the cities back? At the same time, I think you leave that up to. I think you leave that up t0 0ur General Council, who has both enforcement and compliance underneath him, to work that through

Marie Gilmore, Chair: perfect. Thank you.

Larry Goldzband: Happy to answer any questions from Commissioner Basket as well.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Thank you. Any other committee members want to weigh in

Margie Malan, BCDC HOST: none.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay. so just just a general question for Staff.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: We’ve outlined where we think this should go and have provided direction. Do you have any questions of the committee before we we sign off.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: I I don’t have any questions, but I think I would like to for clarity just parrot back what I think I’ve heard in terms of next steps.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Great.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: Okay. So i’m hearing that

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: we’re Now, i’m reading into this essentially, but we’re continuing to

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: receive updates from the city, but that a. A and and and monitor their progress that will be transferred if I I think effective immediately over to Compliance Staff.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: and then

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: in June you will receive another update based on you know that continuing, working together with the city from the Compliance staff and possibly the cities

on on the Progress.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Correct? Okay.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: and I,

Marie Gilmore, Chair: and related.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: but not directly related, is, I want to remind Staff to agendize that discussion on the the 9 Bay Counties, and and dealing with this problem in a holistic basis.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: so we can have that discussion and and maybe forward it. Pass it on to the the full commission.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Policy Manager: Yes, we will definitely do that.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay. Any other comments for the good of the order before I look for a a motion to adjourn.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, seeing none.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: I’m: going to move adjournment.

Marie Gilmore, Chair: Okay, and I have 1131. Thank you, everybody, for your time and attention today, and we really appreciate it. We are now adjourned.

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