September 27, 2023 Enforcement Committee Meeting

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call
3. Public Comment
   The Committee will hear public comments on matters that are not on the agenda.
4. Approval of Draft Minutes from the August 23, 2023 , Enforcement Committee meeting
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. Briefing on Oakland Alameda Estuary and Encampment Issue.

   The Enforcement Committee will receive a briefing on actions taken 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.
   (John Creech) [415/352-3619; john.creech@bcdc.ca.gov
   Public Comment

7. Adjournment

Meeting Minutes

Audio Recording

Audio

She stated, it is 9 35, and this meeting of the Bcd. Enforcement Committee is hereby call to order. My name is Marie Gilmore, and I am chair of this committee.

And I’m just gonna ask, since I’m a little bit away from the microphone. Can everybody hear me?

Creston: Yes, yes, yes, thumbs up.

Creston: Okay, cool.

alright. For commissioners, including those who are attending at Beale Street. Please ensure that your video cameras are always on, and please mute yourselves when you are not speaking.

Creston: Our first order of business today is to call the role

Matthew. Please call the Roll Commissioners. Please unmute yourselves. While he does this to respond, and then mute yourselves after responding.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: Good morning. Let’s see. We’ll start with Commissioner Bielyn.

Letty Belin, Commissioner: Here.

Thank you. Commissioner Vasquez here.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: and chair. Gilmour.

Creston: here.

Creston: Okay, we have a corn present and are duly constituted to conduct business.

and that’s going to bring us to Item 3 on our agenda, which is public comment

Creston: 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.

We have received one general comment. and a copy has been linked to this agenda item on our website or members of the public attending online. If you would like to speak, either during the 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, and look in the box where your name is listed under attendees.

Find the small palm icon on the left. If you click on that palm, icon, it will raise your hand. or if you are joining this meeting by phone. you must dial Star 9 to raise your hand

and then Dial star 6 on your keypad to unmute your phone when the host asks you in order to make a comment.

Creston: The meeting host will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order that they were raised

after you were called on, you will be unmuted, so that you can share your comments. Please announce yourself first by first and last name for the record before making your comment.

or members of the public attending in person. Please queue up at the speaker’s podium

at your location, and wait to be called upon to speak.

Creston: Commenters are limited to 3 min to speak.

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

Creston: We will not tolerate hate, speech.

direct threats. indirect threats, or abusive language. We will mute anyone who fails to follow those guidelines.

Creston: Margie, do we have any commentators?

We have any comments?

Creston: Public comments?

No public comments. Share. Gilmore. Okay, Commissioner Vasquez, do we have any members of the public at your location that wish to make general comments?

John Vasquez, Commissioner: No, we don’t

Creston: thank you. And let the record reflect that Commissioner Ransott has joined us.

Welcome.

Creston: Okay, so next item of business is, item number 4, approval of the draft minutes for the last meeting.

We have all been furnished draft minutes from our last meeting committee members. I would appreciate a motion and a second to approve these.

Creston: I so moved to approve. Second.

okay, we have a motion to approve by Commissioner Bielin, and a second by Commissioner Vasquez. And I want to note for the record that I have reviewed the minutes of the

Creston: the the meeting, and I will be voting on this.

So let’s we have a motion in a second, and if there are any objections to approving the minutes, please speak out. Now.

Creston: hearing no objections, the minutes are approved unanimously.

I’m sorry.

Sorry.

Creston: Okay, that brings us to Item Number 5. The Enforcement Report

and Enforcement policy Manager Matthew Trujillo will now provide the Enforcement report. Good morning, Matthew.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: Good morning, chair good morning committee members. Only 2 items to report out today

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: in the first one being a case update as per usual since our last meeting on August 20, third in the last month we received 7 new cases and resolved 9 cases. And so that brings our total as of today to 79 unresolved cases, which is a net difference of negative 3 from last month.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: So small progress. But you know, just imagine what we can do with a fully staffed unit. Second, an update on the status of compliance with issued orders by the Commission. This is in response to a

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: request

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: that we regularly update this Committee on the the compliance status of commission issued orders. So

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: we did receive a complaint yesterday of new homeless accountants being established within Union Point Park, which, as you may recall most of you is under a compliance monitoring for Commission Order number Ccd 2021 dot 0 0.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: I went ahead and referred that complaint to the compliance team for follow up, and you will see it today as a general public comment that was submitted for this meeting.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: and at a future meeting we’ll update you on the compliance or legal actions that we may take

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: to to to get them back in compliance with their order

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: and

that concludes my report. So I’m available for any. Follow up questions you may have.

Creston: Thank you. Do any committee members have any questions for Matthew?

Creston: Hmm.

Do we have any members of the public located in this room who have any questions for Matthew.

Creston: John. Do you have anybody at your location who has any public comments for Matthew?

John Vasquez, Commissioner: No, and II don’t have anyone from the public, either. you know. That’s good to know. Thank you.

Creston: All right.

yes.

please go ahead on on this item.

Anon: Yes. Hi, I’m wondering why it’s not been enforcement on the encampments and Union Park. There is one near the corner of Denison and Coastguard Island, along the shore near the abandoned

Anon: vessels that are up on the rocks, the ones with graffiti on them. There’s an encampment that’s been there for

Anon: I don’t know over a year, and it’s gotten bigger. It’s very. It’s I’ve reported it several times, and nothing has happened.

Anon: I don’t know what else I can do. That’s what I had understood was my job as a

Anon: as a resident of this Marina was to report when things were showing up, and I was promised that things would be handled, and that one has not been handled.

Anon: I’m wondering why, thank you very much.

Creston: Next we have Joe de breeze.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Hi! I’m actually here to present along with Miss Simmons from the city of Oakland. But I’m in the

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: whatever spectator box. So I wanted to make sure you guys knew I was here. That’s why I have my hand raised.

Creston: Thank you very much. I’ll promote you.

Creston: Thank you. Are there any more comments on item number 5 before we move on to Item Number 6, which is a briefing on the Oakland Alameda estuary and encampment issue.

Seeing none. Okay.

Creston: excuse me, then we will move on to Item number 6.

This committee will now receive a briefing on actions taken to address abandoned and derelict vessels and anchor outs in the Oakland Alameda estuary by the cities of Alameda and Oakland

at this time. Will the representative or representative for the cities please identify themselves for the record, and we’ll start with the city of Alameda.

APD T. Siebert: Good morning. It’s Sergeant Siebert with the city of Alameda Police department.

Creston: Thank you. And welcome City of Oakland.

LaTonda Simmons: Oh, good morning. It’s

Creston: okay. Thank you. Everyone for attending, and welcome.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: II do. Wanna by my apologies. Chair, Gilmore, I do want to also acknowledge Officer Albino is raised to sanity is here to present as well.

Excellent. Okay. Now, I’m going to invite compliance. Analyst John Creech to give his introduction. John

J. Creech: Morning. Thank you very much chair. I’m John Creech. I’m on your

J. Creech: compliance team. I’ve been working closely with Adrian Klein, principal enforcement analyst to meet regularly with the cities of Oakland and Alameda.

J. Creech: we recognize that the this issue, that

J. Creech: the Oakland Alameda estuary issue is

J. Creech: has received a lot of attention and

J. Creech: We are very excited about the progress that has been made. So first, I would like to have

J. Creech: Sergeant Cybert, go ahead and present.

APD T. Siebert: Good morning. Thank you very much. As far as anchor outs on on our side of the estuary and Alameda, we currently do not have any boats that are that are anchored out

APD T. Siebert: we also currently do not have any encampments that are along the shoreline.

APD T. Siebert: I know our boat was out of service for about 2, 2 and a half months, just due to some maintenance issues and getting some some back, basically backlog and parts to get the motors back up to

APD T. Siebert: back, up to stuff and running properly to get the boat back in the water.

APD T. Siebert: We were just back out on the water. Sunday September 20, fourth, and just confirmed, and no anchor outs and no encampments along our along our shoreline.

APD T. Siebert: During our current. Save grant. That we currently have. We have a hundred $1,000 that was granted to us. For that. We have used that money, and removed 7 vessels from the water. Both turned in as well as sunken vessels, and we also assisted the city of Oakland by removing 5 vessels that they had at the aquatic center.

APD T. Siebert: We applied for save grants for the coming up cycle, and we have just gotten approval for $200,000 in the New Save Grant cycle, and again plan to

APD T. Siebert: help the city of Open with removing some of the vessels that they need help with.

APD T. Siebert: And I think that is right. Now.

Creston: Sorry we’re having some technical difficulties.

Creston: Can you hear me?

J. Creech: Yeah, people are not hips.

This might be picking up.

APD T. Siebert: Were you guys able to hear me?

J. Creech: Yes, online, we could.

Okay.

Creston: okay, I’m sorry, Mr. Devreeze, please.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Sure. Good morning. And actually, we when we met with Staff. We wanted to both cover shoreline encampments and anchor outs, and that’s why our assistant city administrators here, and we have a Powerpoint that Miss Simmons has, and she’s gonna start out to talk about encampments, and then I’ll talk about

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: what’s happening with the anchor outs, and then, of course, we have our officer of, you know. Here is the man on the ground or in the water. Who can answer some of the operational questions. And so if she can be given host access or

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: ability to share screen, that’d be great.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: Once I think you should be able to share. If you click the share screen button at the bottom of your window.

LaTonda Simmons: Good morning. I wanted to make sure that I had the Powerpoint set for presentation, which is also tricky in this environment. Good morning. And thank you

LaTonda Simmons: for allowing us to come and present some information in terms of city of open activities in terms of encampment management. So my greetings, the honorable members of the BC. DC. Will move through this presentation, at which I will start a portion of it, and Mr. Debris will

LaTonda Simmons: engage another portion of it. And so we ask your patience. See that there’s technical difficulties today. And I hope, the technical guides are gonna work with me. And some of the presentation overall intense to address Bcd Enforcement activities. And specifically those along the shorelines related to encampments. And obviously.

LaTonda Simmons: okay, that’s alright. The overview of this presentation will cover the encampment management policy. Specific encampment management operations, and of course, then move to the nuisance vessel policy and the nuisance. Special operations

LaTonda Simmons: just to quickly level set on the conditions in terms of homelessness. We wanted to make sure that the Commission the committee understood, if you will, the level of homelessness that the city of Oakland is grappling with. According to the most recent point in time, count of 2022. You see, there has been a substantial growth in homelessness, specifically unsheltered as well as sheltered homelessness

LaTonda Simmons: that modality breaks down across tents. Cars are these streets and abandoned buildings. Accordingly, seeing that there’s been a 31. Excuse me.

LaTonda Simmons: there’s been a 32% increase

LaTonda Simmons: impact in our tent encampment. But there has been a 31% increase in our vehicular encampment in terms of cars and bands. And of course, a 27% increase

LaTonda Simmons: in terms of Rb’s. We believe just to be very candid that these are under counted

LaTonda Simmons: wanna recognize that the 2022 point in time. Count was a makeup point in time. Count from the 2021 point to time count when it should happen during the pandemic we also see.

LaTonda Simmons: there’s been a slight reduction in street and

LaTonda Simmons: street, and outside encampment activity in terms of people lying sleeping and see sits line sleeping and sitting directly on our streets, and there is a 1% difference with respect to abandoned buildings.

LaTonda Simmons: So

LaTonda Simmons: we also wanted to highlight that

LaTonda Simmons: as it currently stands

LaTonda Simmons: the capacity of our shelter systems have a significant limitation in terms of the number of beds available. We cited, that there’s about 1,700 individuals that are in a that are homeless and and sheltered.

LaTonda Simmons: These numbers in terms of the number of beds here, reflect, if you will, a combination of resources from Alameda County, as well as those that the city has stood up itself. In terms of the city’s inventory. It’s probably just just north of 12,012, 1,200 beds that have been stood up.

LaTonda Simmons: The encampment management policy, as you all well know, of course, isn’t guide, is guided much of this work, however, there is a number of intersecting policies that have also had a significant impact on the operations. Of course Martin Voise stands at the top of the list, and that would be the component in terms of the Nice Circuit Course district decision that requires that there be an adequate offer of shelter

LaTonda Simmons: for every encampment that is closed. And you can imagine, just from the prior side slides of seeing approximately 1,700 bids seeing a number of individuals who are sheltered, and then seeing more than 3,000 individuals who are unsheltered, that this is pose to significant challenge for the city. In addition, the city is also whether it’s some litigation

LaTonda Simmons: which has also hyper extended some of the requirements to be able to close encampments providing longer terms of constructive notice, extended terms in terms of the

LaTonda Simmons: storage of personal belongings, and then some calculus, as it relates to the conditions under which we can perform encampment closures associated with the weather. For instance.

LaTonda Simmons: should we find that the weather reaches more than one inch of rain accumulated over an operation we may be required to shut down. These new factors absolutely have impacted the city’s ability to hyper, mobilize our response to encampments. Other other policies that help us would be the emergency shelter ordinance, that the city is adopted, and it expedites our ability to stand up intervention so that we can expand our shelter. Bad capacity, however, that is tethered to relevant

LaTonda Simmons: state, local and federal laws and resources. And to the extent that we have tapped our resources, we are capped at the numbers that we have, we are still pursuing additional

LaTonda Simmons: resources to be able to expand our capacity, and, of course, other operational policies, as it relates to public works, Osha requirements, their sops, other elements as it relates to dots, enforcement, authority, the police departments, enforcement, authority, all of those individuals will come together to be able to assist with the encampment management process, and I skipped over Cdc. Guidance. But it really begins to

LaTonda Simmons: elucidate or rather demystify the conditions associated with health and safety conditions. Should the Cdc make a determination about communicable diseases, it could have an impact

LaTonda Simmons: on our ability to close that encampment. Typically the Cdc will hold the position that you cannot disband an encampment if specific communicable diseases are within that encampment and other elements that provide us information, of course, most recently mentioned was the 2022 point time count. That shows us the census over all of our encampment community and our unhoused community

LaTonda Simmons: home together, which is a strategy to end homelessness. Proposals, if you will, and concepts centering equity and the design of homelessness systems. And of course, the Alameda County continuum of care and their policies that advance our ability.

LaTonda Simmons: Yeah, it’s with the resources that they provide.

LaTonda Simmons: You. All are very familiar with the encampment management policy. II know, of course. This. This Commission is, has had a number of issues with respect to the encampments along the shorelines, the policy was adopted to assist all open. This, of course, sheltered and on shelter, to be able to manage the adverse in first impact of encampments.

LaTonda Simmons: and it intended to balance the interest of our residents in terms of the unhous house businesses in the community, and even special districts and bodies such as yourself. The goal, of course, was to focus on mitigating and negative impacts in terms of health and safety. And this is continue to be the basis by which the

LaTonda Simmons: Emt is exercising their authority. To abating candidates. So I’ll move a little bit more quickly.

LaTonda Simmons: These 2 sensitivity areas just intend to give some detail in terms of the proximity, and how the city set forth, if you will, in order of magnitude, to focus on encampments and their removals, those in high sensitivity areas where health and safety impacts obviously would impact businesses.

LaTonda Simmons:  egress routes, emergency circumstances, rights of way.

LaTonda Simmons: I would say that that, of course, is where most of the BC. DC. Including other proximity elements. Encampments are in terms of along the wide waterways. Low sensitivity areas would be like your underpasses and things like that where imp. Perhaps some of your industrial areas where the encampments are not necessarily directly associated or more heavily associated with impacts to residences and businesses.

LaTonda Simmons: The details of the sensitivity areas have been sort of laid out pretty clearly. I just wanted to highlight obviously that the most essential component, as it relates to the BC. DC. In addition to these other elements, would be those within 50 feet of a protected waterway as established by any governing body. In addition, of course, just wanted to mention that the Public Works Department is also monitoring conditions in terms of

LaTonda Simmons: activities that would be contaminants to waterways areas, and their barrier is about one within 500 feet of protected waterways.

LaTonda Simmons: Low sensitivity compliance also includes many of the things that are actually associated with high sensitivity conditions in terms of health and safety factors. But just quickly wanted to highlight that. Obviously the debris and the dumping of gray and black water. As it affects our waterways and our storm drains, of course, is very essential to the conversation that we are having today

LaTonda Simmons: in terms of our operations. We wanted to show you that, based on the intersecting policies that were described earlier, that there’s a significant amount of work that goes into planning the closure of an encampment. First and foremost.

LaTonda Simmons: it is most certainly about the assembly of the teams, but more so

LaTonda Simmons: from intake to verification, verifying the conditions and assembling the teams proper to abate those specific conditions, but also the availability of those shelter beds. currently, the city of Oakland

LaTonda Simmons: obviously has less shelter beds available than we have on house on the streets, and I would say that the movement of individuals out of those shelter systems are a factor in terms of the vacancies there. Once we accumulate a number of beds, we are able to go out and closing encampment, and that has been challenging. Given the amount of homelessness that we see on the streets, and the low number of shelter beds that we have

LaTonda Simmons: just to give you a sample of what it is just a snapshot of the number of requests that we receive. And 2021 when undertaking this work we had approximately 2,400 requests. In year 2,022. That number grew to about 3,500 requests just south of it, and just counting through the end of June.

LaTonda Simmons: We are already at above a reasonable high mark of the prior year. At about 2,100 requests. It’s important to note that even this number is lower than what we can track. We had some issues with respect to the city of Oaklands.

LaTonda Simmons: Ransomware incident. And as a result of that, many systems that we were used to using to track reports of encampments. Of course, 311 was impacted, and there was some data lost in so this number, probably in actuality, in terms of the number of complaints that have been file are probably close to about 2,700.

LaTonda Simmons: Just to give you a sense of the reported number of encampments. In 2022, at the adoption of the policy. It was projected that there was, you know, just north of 140 encampments, possibly about 150. That was the assumed number. However, by the time that we got to the end of 2021 the number of reported encampments had increased to 635, and by 2022

LaTonda Simmons: to 1,006, and of course, just to date with well, just to June thirtieth, we see the reported number of encampments escalated to be at 1,381. I just wanted to include that in encampment is counted from the body of one, and that is because the Martin B. Voicey requirements require that if I close an encampment of one person I have to make a shelter offer, even if it is just simply one person, and so obviously

LaTonda Simmons: this this count provides a very significant picture of the impact of homelessness here in the city of Oakland.

LaTonda Simmons: And just to also underscore the high sensitivity and low sensitivity divide. You’ll see that approximately 90% of our encampments are rated at high sensitivity in terms of their location. And just just, you know, I’d say about 11%

LaTonda Simmons:  are, are, you know, a little bit over our low sensitivity areas. The reason that we share this slide with you is because the intent of the encampment management policy at the time that it had contemplated the lower number of you can be at about 150. You know, these criteria pieces intended to allow for a prioritization specifically for waterways, construction areas, parks.

LaTonda Simmons: specific areas in the rights of way and egress, pointing sidewalks, as you can see, based on the number of encampments and their sensitivity designations. The city is

LaTonda Simmons: struggling to keep up with the amount of encampment. The growth of encampments, the abatement of encampments, and it is struggling to apply this prioritization. Given the large number of encampments that we are seeing

LaTonda Simmons: just to be clear.

LaTonda Simmons: Since the 2021 implementation of this policy the city has completed up through June thirtieth, 725 operations. Those operations consist of closures and the cleanings. Cleanings intend to address circumstances where we cannot close to date. However, I can tell you that that number is probably at approximately 825 operations. The city, as an example in 2,020

LaTonda Simmons: based on the pandemic conditions could only execute approximately 64 operations. And so I just wanted to show you the intensity in which we’re pursuing this work

LaTonda Simmons: in terms of that breakout across districts. We thought it would be helpful for you to see that our service requests based on the demand, have been apportioned in terms of our response to be measured accordingly, a number of the districts in terms of

LaTonda Simmons: and

LaTonda Simmons: D 6 and d. 7 and and D 12 aren’t quite seeing, if you will, the proportionate share of support based on the number of complaints that we have, and that is because the metrics of the encampment management policy. Are more prominently in in terms of the spread of the health and safety conditions. And the demand which is a metrics component

LaTonda Simmons: is, is, is providing for a large amount of service in the district 3 area. The city has met with our equity department, and we intend to adjust our service.

LaTonda Simmons: response to be with more equitably support the departments. Excuse me. The the district that have high, that have higher needs than the amount of service that we are providing. And so you will see a redistribution of our activities across the district and certainly across the waterways nearest to the waterways. There is a high rate of occurrence. Reoccurrence and that is because

LaTonda Simmons: for every area that we clear, given the number of unhouse that we have on the streets

LaTonda Simmons: the new, the remaining members in the community will often see a cleared area as a prime opportunity to rein camp. Other factors also include that specific areas are much more difficult to maintain, such as our parks. Any area that’s sprawling and large.

LaTonda Simmons: and particularly attributed to open space very difficult to keep clear. You can see Mosswood Park has had a large number of operations. I’ll tell you to date. We’ve probably been back there 14 times.

LaTonda Simmons: in terms of the number of operations. And there’s has to be some consideration given to better fortification of these specific areas. As you know, this also aligns with the interest associated with Union Point Park, where the recent re encampment has come to our attention. We’re directing resources to that location to be able to remove the individuals that are there. And again, we regularly respond

LaTonda Simmons: very swiftly, typically with enforcement authority to remove encampments when they show up at Union Point Park. We do not wish to allow those conditions to restore themselves based on where they were. In March of 2021.

LaTonda Simmons: The obvious.

LaTonda Simmons: the obvious outcomes and challenges to the work is the city certainly next

LaTonda Simmons: sufficient shelter and housing for the unsheltered population which is necessary to comply with the Federal requirements of providing shelter before you close an encampment, and those low inventories of shelter have made made this work very challenging for the encampment management team, and it has directly impacted our ability to have seamless and continuous

LaTonda Simmons: and focus activity with respect to outreach to be able to perform the shelter offers, and to close certainly more encampments, which is the goal of the encampment management policy. The other thing is that I just wanted to underscore that

LaTonda Simmons: in addition to the

LaTonda Simmons: low inventories of shelter and housing, you know, it is also not being matched in terms of the investments, that growth of our bids, and our shelter is not growing at the same rate that our encampments, the reported number of encampments, are increasing at this point.

LaTonda Simmons: From the estimate of a hundred 50 we have increased by 9.2 times that value, reaching 1,381 as reference in an earlier slide. The other issue that you all are also probably well aware of is that our encampments are seeing higher levels of criminal activity.

LaTonda Simmons: which means that these conditions aren’t just dangerous, based on the general health and safety factors, but because drug dealing violence, shootings, stolen cars and chopped up vehicles are also being centered in our encampments as as activities as

LaTonda Simmons: these criminal elements see that these are prime spaces to use, to exploit the unhouse and to and they recognize that the city is challenged with closing encampments as fast as we would like to.

LaTonda Simmons: And obviously we talked about the recurrence patterns in terms of their increases, and I don’t have to underscore that. And the the obvious point is that you know encampment support in terms of resources has not been scaled to meet the increased number of homeless encampments.

LaTonda Simmons: And of course, in terms of its demographics, opens homelessness, continues to be disproportionately African, American, and unhoused residents. Those residents need additional supports to transition from encampments to shelter.

LaTonda Simmons: And this is where I will hand it over to Joe, and you can

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: thank you system. City administrator Simmons is a tough act to follow, but I’ll give it my best shot. So on the vessel. policy and background. I just wanted to to kind of remind the Enforcement community where we are, you know, in 2,020 the City Hall to the removal of vessels due to a claim after Opd. Destroyed and abandoned both.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: and while I think a lot of us who knew the details of the case, felt some displeasure at settling based on the the mounting, you know, legal fees and the potential for liability. We not only settled that that claim. We we halted operations, which is what started to see some of that accumulation until we could rewrite the policy.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: you know, in 2022 we did hire outside council that had expertise from the conditions to assist us. And because they felt that, you know, no matter what internal policy Opd developed, we really needed authority at the local level through our municipal code so they helped us in drafting the new ordinance to present to the City Council. 22 was an election year and so we introduced the the

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: the the ordinance in 2,023 and you know, even though we’ve rewritten the the the internal opd policy, we really felt that we needed to bring a full ordinance to the council. Let’s hope that you can advance that

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: so at the end of 2,022 we identify 25 vessels that were either abandoned or illegally anchored in the estuary Opd. Did remove 2 vessels in late in 2,022 they were halted in that operation, due to damage to the marine unit. after early outreach after outreach and early 23 5 host did leave voluntarily

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: brought the number down to 18. But again. We knew we needed the ordinance just to fully roll out our our abatement program, which is about to happen next slide, please.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: So the nuisance vessel. Ordinance was adopted in March on the twenty-first it adds sections 8.7 to the municipal code it provides further procedures for the payment of abandoned vessels. Whether whether people live on them or or not, they’re declared nuisance vessels it establishes a distinct timeline time limits in terms of how long someone can use the public docs or be in the estuary of anchor. Oh.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: where was that? There we go! So the good news is we did apply for save grant funding. Yeah, to implement the ordinance in the spring opd, during the summer. Held internal training with our certified marine unit officers and and conducted targeted enforcement really to educate people to get them ready for what? What’s coming

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: and go to the next slide

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: so currently, we learned just last week. We’ve been awarded $166,000 and save Grant funding to remove vessels. We need to accept that those funds, and we’re trying to fast track that to the city Council in October so that Opd can get get down to business

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: first. Obedi will start with the cleanup of abandoned boats. That’ll commence in late October early November the same time noticing of le ill legal, livable board vessels will occur in November. The goal is to have all of them notice before Thanksgiving with the scheduled removal in December, and I know officer of, you know, can fill in a lot of details. But we are seeking additional staffing to be dedicated to a 90 Day

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Operations plan so we’ll be reaching out to to Opd leadership to see that they have that support. And I know that Opd is seeking and has been given an offer of assistance from Alameda, Pd. And the Us. Coast Guard. We really appreciate the partnership.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: I think that is that last slide. Okay. So oh, go ahead, Latana, you want to do the next steps.

LaTonda Simmons: Well, yes, and and thank you. Joe just wanted to underscore that. There are also some next steps with respect to encampment activities. Mari Collins, who has served as the deputy, homeless administrators currently this week, actually performing a deep cleaning of Alameda Avenue, lifting debris the goal would be to lift debris in anticipation of a deeper operation coming in October.

LaTonda Simmons: which would be the full closure of that encampment. We had to do a substantial amount of work to try to work on mitigation strategies in advance of the closure similar to the comments that I made under prior slides.

LaTonda Simmons: These are areas that are very difficult to keep clear. Because of its geo geographic kind of elements. In addition, we’re continuing to support Union Point Park to prevent re encampment by quickly taking down anything that we see. That we are made aware of in terms of having been stood up after we cleared it. We’re focused on some planning for lead drive, which is an area that is also deeply impacted by vehicular encampment. The city

LaTonda Simmons: and I just wanna give Joe debris kudos here, having worked to set up another intervention, but specifically for parking support for rbs, that

LaTonda Simmons: resource will be leveraged to be able to perform a closure at lead in Baldwin Court. Baldwin is listed because they tend to go between the 2 locations. If we close lead and they decline the services, they’ll go to Baldwin, and then, if we should take action at Baldwin Court. They’ll come back to lead, so the goal will be to address both locations. And also there’s planning under way for Park which is, you know, which is, has a water way

LaTonda Simmons: as well, but a significant impact.

LaTonda Simmons: Based on the number of individuals who can encamp under the breeze way very close to those waterways who we have sometimes had to tell to stop bathing in the water. In terms of the unhouse when we both encampments there. We’re gonna also do the reworking of the geomapping that we had begun to prepare

LaTonda Simmons: for encampments near the waterways and citywide the city had under to in terms of the encampment management team, the use of the 3, 1 one system and city works to be able to incorporate it as both the reporting medium, but also as a work management tool. The ransomware incident of February

LaTonda Simmons: knocked out about 8 months of really hard work to build that as a workflow. And the city is now redoing that work. It is within city works, and also 3, 1 one that Lin, Geo, mapping

LaTonda Simmons: elements in terms of the systems tools that we’re

LaTonda Simmons: and then, of course, we’re gonna continue our work, you know, despite the number of encampments that we are seeing in terms of recorded encampments and the amount of work that it takes. I would say that the encampment management team, you know, remains committed to keeping the areas clean and clear.

LaTonda Simmons: We’re working to identify more resources specifically for outreach, because we know that the sooner that we can get people out there to start those conversations, even before the team can mobilize to get here. It becomes important in terms of moving people along, and there were more slides. But what we wanted to do is respect the committee’s time. Because there are conversations being had about the expansion of bits with the county and the State.

LaTonda Simmons: There are meetings underway. Of course, those bids are essential to closing more encampments.

LaTonda Simmons: I’m gonna hand it back to you, Joe. Oh, just a slide to let you know who’s in the homelessness division.

LaTonda Simmons: and if there is a need to report encampments, the 311 systems are still back up. Please use the 311 system to report encampments.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: And really, just it’s it’s I don’t have a whole lot more to add. I think we’re again on the on the nuisance vessels. We are really poised

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: to to to operationalize things. And and we’re we’re excited about that. You know, and certainly again. Also, Albino is doing the line share the workout on the water, and with with his team. And yeah, happy to take any questions.

Creston: Thank you. This committee really wants to thank the representatives from the cities of Alameda and Oakland. For these very informative briefings today.

And right now, I’m going to ask if any members of the Enforcement Committee have questions for our guests.

Creston: Cause, I sure. Do.

Creston: Okay, Sanjay.

I was encouraged to hear. There, there is a grant that’s been received and is going to be made available. It sounds like in October, assuming the Council approves. Can you not hear, Adrienne?

Okay. is that better?

Creston: Okay, II was encouraged to hear that there’s a grant that’s been received, and should be made available sounds like the next month or so.

Assuming the Council approves. Is there a likelihood of further grant or other funding being received in the near term, say during Q. 4, at some point

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: a. As I understand it, we have the opportunity to apply for save grant funding every year, and I think that in the past I think Oakland has applied for funding based on our resources, our ability to execute. But we realize, with the the growth of the number of vessels that we needed to apply for more. So this is a large larger amount that we apply for, I imagine next spring depending on how things go this winter, we would apply for more.

Creston: Was that it, Sanjay

Creston: any other committee members?

Creston: Okay. So to follow up on the Save Grant. I believe you said it was $166,000.

How many vessels do you think that that amount of money would cover in terms of renewal. Can you give a ballpark?

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: I will ask Officer Albino to to speak on that, since he’s he’s the operations, Guy.

Kaleo Albino: Yes, I do want to say a quick thank you to Latonda and Joe for your really in-depth perspective of this whole

Kaleo Albino: issue that we’re tackling. But the $166,000 that I applied for. We’re specifically for approximately 21 vessels.

Kaleo Albino: and it will depend on exactly what is on those vessels as far as engines.

Kaleo Albino: hazardous materials that are costly to dispose of, so it will to be dependent upon the vessels button. I’m assuming that 95% of the vessels that are out there now will be removed from the estuary.

Creston: That’s excellent news, and I’m assuming that none of those vessels that are out there are in the navigable waters, because, other than if it were, then the Coast Guard would be involved. Is that correct?

Kaleo Albino: There can be a technicality on what is an avocable water way? But the majority of the waterways are clear for barges and cargo ships.

Kaleo Albino: but it is impacting recreational activities, such as rowing

Kaleo Albino: other rowing teams that we have out there, and the youth sailing teams as well.

Creston: Okay, well, that’s good to know.

Creston: okay, the other question that I had, and it would be for

both of the officers in terms of your police boats. because we’ve had a lot of complaints from people who live along the estuary of

incidents that originate on the water, where people are coming down in boats and basically vandalizing or robbing the liver boards and the marinas. And so my question to both of you is, how frequently do you patrol? And are any of those patrols during the evening or early morning hours.

Kaleo Albino: I can answer for Oakland, Pd. First the approximate hours that we’re actually on the water. So I’m the only full-time maritime officer could you. Could you speak into the microphone a little bit closer, please. Yeah.

is that better?

Kaleo Albino: Okay.

Kaleo Albino: So, me being the only full time maritime officer, a lot of my job is administrative of trying to gather funding for boats, doing maintenance, doing trainings with other departments in the Coast Guard in the area.

Kaleo Albino: I’m able to get out on the water approximately 20 to 30 HA week. and then I also adjust my schedule around to try, and I give the perception that we are out there

Kaleo Albino: during all hours of the day. So I have been doing night patrols. I’m today. I’m doing an afternoon patrol.

Kaleo Albino: Yesterday was a morning patrol.

Kaleo Albino: and I’m trying to get eyes on during all hours of the day. Not just

Kaleo Albino: 6 A. M. To 4 PM.

Creston: Thank you.

Alameda.

APD T. Siebert: yeah, for the city of Alvamita. Our marine unit is an ancillary duty for for everybody involved.

APD T. Siebert: so we don’t have any full-time officers on the marine unit at this point in time, when we put our boat back in full time service starting next month.

APD T. Siebert: we are being allowed 60 personnel hours per month

APD T. Siebert: we staff our boat with a minimum of 2 persons at all times, so that it will allow us to put as of right now, will allow us to put our boat back in the water 3 days a month.

APD T. Siebert: And we do vary our patrols during the week on the weekends daytime as well as nighttime. We’ll stay out as late as about 2 45 in the morning.

Creston: Thank you.  So I want to be really sensitive to the challenges that the city of Oakland is facing in terms of the homeless crisis

and the homeless encampments, and how that spills out into people thinking that boats are a method of housing.

Clearly. the problem has vastly outstripped your current resources to deal with it.  that being said, I understand the frustration of the people who actually live on the water because it’s impacting them and their daily lives. And there’s this tendency. If something is excess, we are laser focused on it, whereas the city of Oakland has to focus on the entire city. Not just the waterfront.

 But having said all of that I’m wondering if there’s any way that the cities of Oakland and Alameda can partner together in terms of sharing resources, obtaining more resources. To put more patrols out on the water.

especially during the

Creston: the evening hours, where it seems like a lot of the vandalism and everything else tends to occur based on

the reports and the complaints that we’ve heard. So I’m sort of tossing that out there. And then the other thing I wanted some clarification on was the city of Oakland mentioned that they were looking for more resources.

both to help with the to help with the encampments and the homelessness issue. Could you? Is it possible to give us a brief synopsis? Of what kind of resources you’re looking at, and what the timeline might be for finding out whether or not you’re successful.

Kaleo Albino: Yeah. do a portion of that, too.

LaTonda Simmons: I was. But I was going to ask, did you want us to take those questions in the way that you actually laid them out. And so I was gonna let the officers speak first

LaTonda Simmons: about collaboration in terms between the jurisdictions for more enforcement and then speak to.

LaTonda Simmons: I would speak to the resources that we are seeking.

Creston: Yes, let’s have the officers speak first, and then we’ll talk about the more general homeless encampments. Thank you.

Kaleo Albino: So in regards to patrols and increasing

our footprint on the waterway.

Kaleo Albino: I’ve been training approximately 10

Kaleo Albino: maritime officers who are dedicated to another assignment. But the merit marine unit is an auxilary assignment for them.

Kaleo Albino: So I’m physically teaching them how to drive the boat, how to safely operate it on a waterway, how to approach an anchor it out vessel safely.

Kaleo Albino: and I’m what I’m hoping to do is have the boat available on a 24 7 basis based off of these officers spread out. Most of them are working patrol. so they’re able to take a break from patrol, go down to the boats.

Kaleo Albino: do a short patrol of the estuary, and we’re able to expand our footprint that way.

Kaleo Albino: We have already actually collaborated with the Alameda Police Department and the Coast Guard as well. The Alameda Police Department has graciously given us $30,000 in the last 6 months

Kaleo Albino: to help eradicate some of the anchored out vessels that have already been out there

Kaleo Albino: and then. Chief, the chief of Alameda police chief Joshi contacted me last week and offered

Kaleo Albino: part of their save Grant to help

Kaleo Albino:  combat all the vessels that we have on our side of the estuary, so I’m grateful for that funding as well. And then I think Commander Shoop is also listening in from the Coast Guard.

Kaleo Albino: She has reached out and is I think, just recently sent an email to collaborate with all law enforcement assets in the area to specifically handle these anchor out issues in a team effort.

Kaleo Albino: Approach to this. And then if Alameda please, if you guys want to speak to this as well.

APD T. Siebert: yeah, I think you covered off on everything. We always try to partner with Albino as much as we can as well as a Sergeant Matthews with the San Francisco

APD T. Siebert: marine unit. We do do training with them as as well.

APD T. Siebert: And then like Albino, said our chief offered some of our save grant this coming cycle as well as last cycle, to partner with them, to remove some of their sunken and abandoned vessels within the waterways.

APD T. Siebert: And then, like, I say, we are limited as far as personnel hours, and we are all ancillary as well on our marine unit.

APD T. Siebert: But any time that there’s a an operation that needs to take place. We can always get our boat out there and team up with open or the Coast Guard or San Francisco to get that job done.

Creston: Thank you. I’m I’m very gratified to hear about the close cooperation. Be between the law enforcement offices. I think that’s the kind of thing that we want to see.

It happened all across the board, and I also wanna make a comment that I’ve read. And I understand this is no different in Alameda, in Oakland that it has been very difficult to hire police officers for a variety of different reasons, particularly since everybody everywhere is looking for police officers. So it’s not just

an issue of finding the money. It’s also an issue of finding the personnel but II wanna once again commend you for your your joint efforts.

Thank you.

Creston: Ms. Simmons.

LaTonda Simmons: Yes, and thank you. With respect to the city. We’ll first start talking about the authorities and resources within our control.

LaTonda Simmons: In the Powerpoint deck, we I indicated that the encampment management team would be working with the units of

LaTonda Simmons: open public works dot and Opd.

LaTonda Simmons: With respect to public works, we are working with public works specifically, and with their cleaning teams and their watershed division to examine the code authorities that would allow for the closure of encampments under emergency conditions whereby we can

LaTonda Simmons: see and catch people in the active, performing specific things that would provide notification to the appropriate teams, and they would be able to mobilize more swiftly

LaTonda Simmons: to close those encampments. We see that is common in the areas about Avenue where I talked about and other waterways where we know as soon as people set up we would be able to use those emergency authorities particularly based on the protected codes for waterways to close those encampments more swiftly. That has also risen to the attention of the City Administrators Office

LaTonda Simmons: to the extent City administrator, working with our team to plan a second team

LaTonda Simmons: an expansion of the team to be able to mobilize. Given the number of the in canvas that we have, the current team’s capacity certainly limits their ability to respond to swiftly and to actually abate accountants more swiftly and to clean it more prestigiously.

LaTonda Simmons: We are also meeting with Alameda County, who has come to the table, recognizing that

LaTonda Simmons: with Oakland having more than 50% of the encampments in the entire county, that there is a need to change the disproportionate, the well, the proportionate share of resources.

LaTonda Simmons: would be for the counties to do not to not only provide additional health.

LaTonda Simmons: support, and and health services, but to avail additional resources that would mobilize outreach and the ability to close encampments just to be clear. And I talked about us having a much more comprehensive presentation. But, the open population in terms of the unhouse, 46% have issues of mental health and or severe emotional issues. Another 41. Have Ptsd, another 12

LaTonda Simmons: have a traumatic brain injury, and this means that when you are engaging the unhouse you have to be prepared for de-escalation, and really all the tools for trauma informed circumstances such as these. So those contributions from the county are going to be significant. Just to be clear.

LaTonda Simmons: the county’s declaration of a local emergency expands their ability to release more resources and to get support from Federal agencies, and most recently you may have heard that the county did issue that declaration of a local emergency last week. So we’re anticipating hearing more from them in terms of the timeline and the strategy by which they would deploy. Resources. And we’ll report back, perhaps, what that would look like.

LaTonda Simmons: The other thing that the county has been able to do and it’s similar to what Open has done.

LaTonda Simmons: obviously, it takes more bits and more housing to be able to close encampments based on the Federal requirements. The city earlier this year actually committed to afford commitment of measure. You dollars to focus on the development of affordable housing units that would fall within the spectrum of the needs of the unhouse

LaTonda Simmons: those units would be at about.

LaTonda Simmons: you know, 30% of the area Median income and below, because the in house community typically is not

LaTonda Simmons: it does not have high income streams, and it’s most certainly a challenge. In terms of affordability.  Alameda County is also advancing a housing bond.

LaTonda Simmons: The significance of Alamo County advancing a housing bond is that it would raise capital to be able to capitalize more projects, and that would be a contribution to city of Oakland projects. That means we would increase the amount of affordable housing development as a target. So we’re excited about that as well.

LaTonda Simmons: The city is also meeting directly with the governor’s office. For those of you that are that are municipal and government sort of

LaTonda Simmons: pundits and walks if you will. The loss of the redevelopment agency funding for cities across the State has been significant.

LaTonda Simmons: The city of Oakland, and I had another job as the clerk. So I have a lot of detail here.

LaTonda Simmons: the city of Oakland at the time that the redevelopment agencies were dissolved, lost approximately 700. Excuse me, 376 million dollars as an annual allocation of redevelopment agency funds. We are now in year 11,

LaTonda Simmons: of not having 376 million dollars, or what would be the calculus each year that divestment has had a correlating impact to the ability to afford to advance affordable housing development. And we also see that there’s a correlation in the increase of homelessness since redevelopment agency dollars went away. And so that intends to anchor that the city of Oakland is working directly with the Governor’s office. We are not the only city

LaTonda Simmons: to restore ongoing funding for housing as well as ongoing, funding for homelessness. We’re not going to be able to address these situations

LaTonda Simmons: robustly. With what we are using as competitive services. Yes.

LaTonda Simmons: rather competitive sources. Yes, there’s home key. Yes, there’s half dollars, but those are competitive dollars, and so we don’t get an ongoing stream. And some of those sources are being questioned.

LaTonda Simmons: in terms of their ability to continue for the next few years, based on deficits that the State is facing. And so structurally, we have to address this in terms of funding. It has to be more

LaTonda Simmons: a greater commitment from State and Federal resources. And to that end we’re also looking at the Federal, all in plan which proposed a reduction in homelessness by 2025. What we see is the secretary of Housing

LaTonda Simmons: and is is also issuing tranches of dollars. They are competitive, but it’s more money than we’ve seen in a long time coming from Federal Government. We are seeking some direct allocations. Recognizing that some of the prominent

LaTonda Simmons: political figures in the White House come from the Bay Area. We hope to leverage our relationships there to figure out what we can do, and then I’ll stop there.

Creston: Thank you very much. Speaking of the demise of of redevelopment, it has certainly had

shall we say? Many unintended consequences? So thank you very much.

Creston: cities of Alameda and Oakland for your presentations today I thought it was very informative and very well done, and before I go to public comment, are there any members of the committee who have questions

or comments?

Okay, seeing none. We will now take public comments on this item. And I believe we have received one written public comment on this item. Margie, has anything else come in?

Creston: Cheryl Gomor, correction. We received for public comment for item 6.

Oh, okay. okay, thank you. Okay. Once again, if we have any online attendees, if you would like to provide comments at this time, you will need to raise your hand by clicking on the participants. Tab in zoom or by phone, by dialing star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute yourself.

Margie will then announce you and invite you to comment. Comments are limited to 3 min, and Margie will be keeping track of time, and this is a request for comments only on this item and chairs. Prerogative, we’re going to start with people who are in the room.

Yes.

Creston: go ahead and make a

form, a line.

Creston: Each of you will have 3 min. Please state your name for the record.

Creston: Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Brock. The lab

a decade ago, in 2013 there was a near 8 million dollars multi-agency cleanup of all illegal anchor outs on the Oakland estuary. The Bcdc. Was an important partner in this project.

When it was over. all of the participating agencies that provided funding said that it wouldn’t be repeated if the estuary was to remain clean. it would be dependent upon diligent monitoring and enforcement.

This did not occur.

Creston: The consequences of this failure are clear. To see.

The open shoreline of the estuary is littered with sunken wrecks and derelict end of life vessels. Crime has risen to truly intolerable levels.

Creston: Multiple vessels have been stolen and ransacked.

victims have had to resort to personally confronting the criminals to recover their property without the benefit of police support

Creston: this, and is this an appropriate activity for a 79 year old senior.

Creston: The Oakland estuary is populated by marinas with over 3,000 slips.

All of these boat owners pay annual property taxes to Alameda county. The shoreline also has several new multimillion, and in one case multibillion dollar residential developments.

One can only imagine the tax revenue that these produce. and yet what law enforcement services are provided to the estuary.

Creston: The Alameda County sheriff’s department has disbanded

the county’s marine patrol unit.

Creston: The Oakland Police Department has only one dedicated Marine Patrol officer.

The port of Oakland, at the mouth of the estuary, is the fourth largest port on the west coast.

Creston: Is it reasonable that there was only one law enforcement officer to provide on the water protection

for this critical regional resource.

Creston: It is unfortunate that has required international press coverage to generate a focus on this problem.

I have asked Bcd. C. If there is any other issue that currently proposes poses a greater threat to San Francisco Bay. then what is occurring in the estuary.

I was told. No. this is the top problem that Bcd faces. So my final question is

Creston: given the current conditions that, given that the current conditions did not occur overnight, but rather have grown over many years.

Is the BC. DC. Doing all that it can to protect this precious resource on San Francisco Bay. and my concern is is, if we have another repeat Cleanup.

which I am very optimistically hopeful that that will occur if there is no follow up with ongoing enforcement, we’ll repeat this cycle endlessly. And II would also emphasize that housing unhoused people in derelict end of life vessels is a threat to them.

It’s a threat to the environment. and it’s a threat to the general public, and it should not be allowed. Thank you very much.

Good morning. My name is Cammy Richards. I’m with Alameda community sailing center, and I have a couple of points. and I guess one of the things that I learned today is that a homeless encampment is apparently defined as just one person

sleeping in a sleeping bag.

Creston:  That seems like a a bad use of the term encampment, and we were on a delightful late afternoon sail in the Oakland estuary yesterday on a little 20 foot sailboat, and we sailed by

Estuary Park, Jack, London Square, where Jlac is. and I can’t imagine what would be required to remove

all those people

Creston: if one person is there. It’s a homeless encampment.

Our business pineapple sales used to be at 1 23 s Street in Oakland. We would go down there for lunch in the shade of beautiful sycamore trees. Nice park.

clean tables.

Creston: I can’t imagine taking my granddaughter there.

The whole place is just invested. and I have great sadness for people who don’t have housing. But I have 0 respect for people who just make a complete mess of things.

Okay, Alameda, community salient center is a organization for teaching young kids how to sale. We have

Creston: a group of 8 safety boats which are required. We have one safety boat for every 6 sailboats that are on the water.

so if we don’t have enough safety boats, we can’t put enough kids on the water. We in one night we had 4 of those boats stolen out of the water over at Belina Isle.

and that’s half of our fleet. We basically had an all hands on deck. Call to go and retrieve this stuff. We

Creston: it took 36 h to get a police report

number from the Alameda Police Department. called them right after the thing, they said, well, wait. We’ll send an officer. Well, okay, it’s dinner time. Still, no officer. Well, maybe later tonight it was lunchtime the next day to get a report filed.

and the police said, You know we really can’t help you. Our best advice is, if you find your boats don’t approach the perpetrators. The boats cost 25 to $35,000 apiece.

They are rigid fiberglass holes with a tube around the outside, so you can go up and connect to the little kids and talk to them face to face. And we cannot imagine a way where we can just be handing off $35,000 boats to thieves and doing nothing about it.

We call the Oakland Police. Oakland police said. Well, if the boats were stolen from Alameda. It’s Alameda problem, the Alameda police say, well, if the boat is in Oakland we were at Union Point, looking at our boats tied up to derelict boats

Creston: 200 yards away.

Coast Guard Island. not their problem either. So it becomes our problem. And we we eventually just simply got out in other motor boats went around and we collected all 4 of our stolen boats.

and we collect them by confronting the people who said, well, that is my boat, because I found it adrift. Well, yeah, of course you did. We collected a boat that belonged to. Am I over? I’m sorry.

Thank you very much.

Next.

Ramona Cota: sir. Could you identify yourself? Please?

Creston: Sorry. My name is Cammie Richards.

Alameda Community Sailing Center.

Ramona Cota: Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Steven Norris. I’m harbor master over at Marina Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond. My name is Steven Oris. I’m harbor master at Marita Bay Yacht Harbor, in Richmond. so I’ve been following this situation with, you know, great concern.

and I would like to emphasize that I think it would be critical, when, as the Commission works with their partners on solutions that they consider this on a region wide basis. And it’s not just an estuary problem. Just as it was not just to Richardson Bay problem that we don’t want. Situation where.

you know, we just move it from one part of the bay to the other, and so forth, and then on industry wide, that keep in mind that this has the potential to become a growing issue as

boats get older. There could be one, you know. one or 2 economic downturns away to be a flood of abandoned derelict boats. So the solution becomes a, you know, a greater issue of working with state and other partners in order to find appropriate disposal aspects for end of life vessels.

Thank you.

Creston: Thank you very much.

Thank you, Margie. Do we have any other public commenters? We have about 4 public comments online.

Creston: First, up, we have

Tracy regalman.

Tracy Reigelman: Exactly. Hello! Can you hear me?

Creston: Yes, we can please state your name for the record, and you have 3 min.

Tracy Reigelman: Thank you. My name is Tracy Regalman. I am a resident of Alameda, specifically Marina Village. I work in Marina Village, and I am the rear commodore at Oakland Yacht Club.

Tracy Reigelman: Before I get into my comments I would like to thank Officer Albino, Officer Siebert and Miss Simonds for their work and efforts in a very challenging and difficult situation.

Tracy Reigelman: It’s it’s appreciated to hear your hear the efforts that you’re putting in. I would like to clarify some comments that I heard at the start of the meeting

Tracy Reigelman: the issue of the anchor outs and the boats is a very, very large part of this issue. It’s probably about 50% of the problem

Tracy Reigelman: the encampments are a large part of the problem as well.

Tracy Reigelman: However, there is also some work going on through the county of Alameda to provide support

Tracy Reigelman: for unhoused individuals in facilities that are not permitted for that use, and that are not up to current building codes and compliance. And those

Tracy Reigelman: people in the situation that they’re in right now are at risk of losing their lives. And they are creating problems with the public.

Tracy Reigelman: so the fears are not just the live aboard. The fears are the residents, businesses, users of the Bay trail, and the residents of Eddie’s place, which people are put there to try to help.

Tracy Reigelman: There are encampments in Alameda. If you drive along Main Street and look along Main Street. There’s encampments along there. There’s encampments in the mainstream street Ferry terminal, and there are also encampments in front of the Alameda Community sailing center at the end.

Tracy Reigelman: All of this needs to be addressed and looked at, and it is unfathomable to me that that lack of maintenance and the destruction of the shore. Side facilities and infrastructure would be left to the point where a lawless and wild West environment could occur.

Tracy Reigelman: People are at risk of hurting themselves.

Tracy Reigelman: People are at risk of confrontation.

Tracy Reigelman: The police departments are unstaffed, but we need more help and more support.

Tracy Reigelman: The overall Oakland and Alameda estuary is ignored.

Tracy Reigelman: and that ignorance is creating a a hazard to the public. And II do appreciate the efforts, the limited efforts of Apd and Opd. It needs to be more.

Tracy Reigelman: Thank you very much.

Tracy Reigelman: Thank you.

Next we have Anan

Creston: and please state your name for the record, and you have 3 min.

Anon: I I’m sorry. I would like to testify anonymously, because I live here at Union Point and the anchor outs know who I am. They know my name. They know my car. I have fear of retaliation.

Anon: Can I do that?

Yes.

Anon: okay. So

Anon: I really appreciate the presentations. My Ms, Simmons and Mr. Devaries. Today we all understand that the problem is enormous.

Anon: II also say, I live here on the estuary. I also row in the estuary daily, and I gotta say I see them. I’ll meet a marine patrol unit out here often. I see it several times a week.

Anon: but I never see the Opd. Ever see the Oakland Police

Anon: Marine Patrol unit ever I have personally given up calling the Oakland police about harassment and fights on the water and

Anon:  incursions into the Marina. I have filed at least 2 dozen reports, and never had anything be done. If they come out here, they say. Well, it’s out on the water. There’s nothing we can do.

Anon: I live with

Anon: I live with generators going at all hours of the day of the night I live with a raw sewage floating past my vessel. Several times a month I have called around and tried to report the raw sewage. I remember one time I called

Anon: the coastguard, reported the Ross sewage. Sorry I called the Oakland Police Department. They told me to call the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard gave me 2 numbers. One of them I left a message and never heard back, and the other one said, Thank you very much for reporting this. We’re going to call the Coast Guard.

Anon: I wanna tell you about an instance when late at night in the pitch black, I hear faint calls coming from the estuary. If somebody’s yelling.

Anon: you know, help me, please, please. Anybody help me! And I go out there, and Mike Kayak, with a headlamp, and there is a

Anon: there’s a sailboat drifting down the estuary, and with my kayak I towed it to shore. There was a panicked and terrified young man on that boat who told me

Anon: that he’d had a

Anon: horrible fight and been yelled at and abused by one of the other anchor outs, who then cut his line? If there had been any wind at the time I wouldn’t have been able to go out there and rescue this young man who had no motor and no ability to sail that boat.

Anon:  I have at least a dozen times had boats pull their anchors and crash into me.

Anon: During storms. Winter is coming again. Last winter resulted in

Anon: so many sunken and stranded vessels, each one of which is an enormous cost, and does enormous environmental damage. People’s lives are at risk, who are living out there on the boats in these winter storms. I beg the city of Oakland to handle this completely before the winter storms return.

Anon:  thank you very much. Your time is up. Thank you.

Creston: Next we have Deborah Lun.

Creston: Deborah, please state your name for the record, and you have 3 min.

deborah.lunn: Thank you. My name is Deborah Lun. I’m the property director here at Altastar Harbor, which is is a new complex that opened up a re, an adaptive reuse of the old Del Monte Canyon.

Did we lose her. Deborah?

deborah.lunn: I’m sorry. Can you hear me now. There, you are sorry.

deborah.lunn: Sorry. My name is Deborah Lun. I’m the property director here at Altestar Harbor, which is the old Del Monte Canning Warehouse.

deborah.lunn: and I just wanted to state that the the issues are not just on the water. But now they’re on land and they’re impacting the businesses up and down the estuary. We opened our doors here on December nineteenth of 2,022, with our first move Ins.

deborah.lunn: And as of August sixth, starting August sixth, we have had stolen 3 trucks, 3 cars, one U-haul and 4 bicycles within our facility.

deborah.lunn: So one of these trucks actually was found at a chop house in the High Street encampment area in Oakland.

deborah.lunn: So I just wanna say a lot of our residents move here from Oakland and from San Francisco because of safety issues. They think, you know, it’s quiet here. It’s safe here, and we want them to keep feeling that way. And we we don’t. Wanna. We don’t wanna be able. You know, we we obviously pay a lot of tax dollars and just want our residents to feel safe here.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Deborah.

Next we have Brad Gras

Creston: Brad.

Brad Gross: Yes, thank you. I’m sorry I was looking for the unmute button. This is Brad Gross, executive director with a regional agency. And I wanna commend everybody for their presentations today and their their comments.

Brad Gross: What I have to say is, is, basically, I guess it would be a stream of consciousness based on on what I heard, and

Brad Gross: oh.

Brad Gross: and what I’ve heard from it, especially from Mr. Dilap. I want to thank him for putting this out into the public and and actually into the industry, so that we can address these issues

Brad Gross: and as presentations indicate. It seems that all areas in the Oakland Alamo area seems to be suffering from the same homeless problems, whether it be land, side

Brad Gross: or waterside. And

Brad Gross: I want to encourage everybody that they they treat their illegal Liverpool same as error. I need to treat these landside encampment encampments heard comment about the save Grant. But I don’t believe, save Grant is the panacea that you believe. It may be

Brad Gross: because I haven’t heard anything as far as housing programs

Brad Gross: working side by side with addressing these illegal out anchor outs.

Brad Gross: The the Grant program is wonderful for removing abandoned vessels and debris you may find on the shore side, but you still have people illegally living and anchoring on their vessels in the anchor in the estuary. I’m also concerned that the 90 day enforcement.

Brad Gross: An abatement program that was discussed will simply shift the Oakland Alvina problems to other jurisdictions. Specifically, Richardson Bay.

Brad Gross:  Finally, I do want to offer to those who are working on the best one to reabate men. If Rb. Assistants or they believe we may be help be helpful. We’re always willing to

Brad Gross: land what we have learned over the years with programs like this.

Brad Gross: And with that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Brad. Next we have Mary Spicer.

mary spicer: Mary. Yeah. Hi, you might want to reset the clock.

mary spicer: I think. Anyways, look Miss Simmons and our marine patrol. I really wanna say, thank you. My name’s Mary Spicer.

mary spicer: I am the one of the founders of. I heard Oakland Alameda estuary. We’ve been cleaning the Oakland Alameda estuary since 2,017. We started on kayaks and stand up paddle boards going to the shorelines that are deeply impacted by extreme garbage and getting that garbage via partnerships with California canoe in kayaks

mary spicer: and East Bay Row Club. We’re a large community. We have participants from both sides of Oakland and Alameda, and people really come out to clean and really care about the estuary.

mary spicer: Last year at Towel Coastal, we and 2 and a half hours, cleared 3,000 pounds of garbage in 2 and a half hours with our community, and that is only a fraction of the amount of garbage that’s along the estuary. We also clean Jack Linden, aquatic center and Estuary Park, and unfortunately canceled the cleanup this year because of safety concerns at one of the unhoused community. One of the encampment sites at Jlac. There’s been some violent incidences in there.

mary spicer: and unfortunately I don’t feel comfortable bringing children to the site until those are addressed by the city of Oakland. I’m currently talking to people about that via the city. So that’s good.

mary spicer: I’m asking for holistic solutions, because besides just the crime and the the sun votes and the the

mary spicer: the unhoused issues which mo usually during our clean ups, the unhouse joiner clean ups we, you know, we we really wanna open up our space for that.

mary spicer: but our shorelines are paying the price. Via the storms. Last February a lot of the boats the the boats got smashed into the shorelines. And then all of that debris literally ends up on the shore, and I feel like everyone’s so busy worrying about the sun boats and the crime. Nobody’s really even paying attention to the amount of garbage and marine debris on the shores of the Oakland estuary.

mary spicer: I’ve been working with some people at the port, some people at the city to find out. Who do I call? If I can’t go and clean some of the shorelines. Who do I call to actually get this shoreline garbage enforced. I really would love to have an answer for that. And then there is the Noah marine debris grants just recently released. They’re huge. I took the

mary spicer: the cal representative for Noah out, and she said that she thinks Oakland is a great candidate for some of these huge 1 million dollar grants, so I really hope that we would that the city might consider going for those.

Creston: Thank you, Mary.

that’s all we have here. Go more.

Creston: Thank you. Do any other committee members have any comments.

Creston: Anybody.

Commissioner Rancho.

I just wanted to thank the members of the public who came here today, and you also took their time to submit public comments via zoom would appreciate you sharing your

experiences, which are concerning and disturbing, and clearly continue to reflect to to me at least an unacceptable situation that needs additional resources from

local governments. And so to the extent that that our committee can support any of those efforts. II think we are. We are ready to

appreciate suggestions for how we can do more within our jurisdiction.

Cheeky Gilmore, we have Georgia. Vice would like to speak. Okay, very quickly, please.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: Thank you. Chair Gilmore. I just wanted to lift up the comments of that last public speaker and ask that she reach out to me directly via email about that grant opportunity, because our sustainability team could look at it. You know this that team oversees our our climate change, our climate mitigation work. And we have some great grant writers. And so II would love to have that. And I just wanna thank her for noting the importance of a holistic approach.

Joe DeVries, City of Oakland: I am meeting with a with a a club that’s looking at potentially using our old crier building site to try to create some positive activity there, which is just way, negative activity. And I do think that that’s part of this process, not just an enforcement app opportunity, but the more positive energy and activities we bring to the shoreline. The more we can push out that negative work. So I I’d like to pursue that from that last speaker.

Thank you. Any other commissioners. I thought I saw a hand up online. Maybe that was just Joe. I definitely wanna heartily concur with Commissioner Ranshod comments and sentiments, and I do have a quick question for staff.

We’ve had complaints and incidences about sewage and other undesirable things being put into the bay. Is is that an issue for the Water Board? Who should people be calling when they see something like that? Do we know?

Yes, the Water Board does have

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: jurisdiction for that. I forget where, in our law or policy or regulations that that specified.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: but it is specified

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: documents, and I could follow up with you with the specific

citation.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: We should, of course, be aware of

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: any reports that they make, so they should continue to submit reports to us. But definitely loop in the water port when it comes to water quality issues.

Okay, is there a way to? I don’t know. Publicize either an email or or a phone number, some sort of contact information where members of the public, if they see something, they can say something to the relevant authority. I mean, it’s great that they contact us. And you know we pass it on, but

you know I think it would be just as effective, if not more effective, if they could contact the waterboard. Whoever’s responsible for this directly.

Creston: So maybe that’s something that that we need to look into.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: Yeah, we can look into, maybe putting if it’s not already, there links on the website. We certainly do make those recommendations to reporters when they call in I take a look at every report.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: and if it maybe implicates another jurisdiction overlapping jurisdiction, or maybe is better suited towards.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: say, the locals, Oakland, Dd. Or Water Board. II will certainly mention that to the reporter, and as well as make a report myself.

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: Oftentimes

Matthew Trujillo, Enforcement Manager: we can look at doing a better date.

Great! Thank you. Thank you so much. And if there are no other comments from members of the committee or the public, I’m going to conclude this item.

And so now, committee members, I will entertain a motion and a second to adjourn our meeting.

Sanjay Ranchod, Commissioner: I’m going to adjourn that second.

Oh, wow!  Did did I see a hand from a staff member.

Creston: Adrian, are you nodding your head? Yes.

before we adjourn? Okay, so we have a motion by Commissioner Bellin, and a second by Commissioner Ranchod. But before we vote on it Miss Klein has a comment.

Adrienne Klein: Well, I just wanted to forecast what Staff had plan for next steps which was to come back

Adrienne Klein: with come back to you. At your first December meeting, which would be the fourteenth I believe that’s a Thursday. Assuming that we can obtain a quorum

Adrienne Klein: to hear an update from the city status of the effort on the water and also to the cities both addressed to today, but

Adrienne Klein: plans for

Adrienne Klein: long term management, and prevention going forward as the cities are able to resolve these issues just wanted to conclude with that parting comment. Thank you, and apologies to delay the conclusion of the meeting.

Creston: No, thank you. I actually should have asked when our next update was gonna be so thank you for providing that information.

Creston: Okay, so we have a motion, and a second on the floor to adjourn. Do I hear any objections to that?

Creston: Hearing? None. This meeting is adjourned at 1108.

Thank you. Everybody presenters and guests. And thank you very much for attending today.

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