Oakland Agenda Watch

Spotlight on Oakland City Council agenda, October 7, 2025 — State of the City Address, $7M+ in lawsuit payouts for poor roads, and a $750K grant to Stanford.

The City of Oakland generates a staggering volume of official documentation and proceedings material. Who has time to even think about, much less wade through all this material?

Yet the proceedings at Oakland City Hall affect us greatly whether we stay abreast or not. Some of these official activities are harmless, theatrical, even frivolous. But just as often, they have deep and lasting impacts on our lives. Sometimes, they create profound ripple effects that wash ashore again, years or even decades later, in unforeseen ways.

This new column, called Oakland Agenda Watch, will provide short summaries of key items on upcoming public meeting agendas in Oakland. We aim to post once a week. This is by no means a comprehensive list as the volume of public meetings is more than we can presently cover. Here are highlights of what the city council will consider tomorrow, October 7:

• Mayor Barbara Lee will deliver an oral report on the “State of the City”. The presentation is the first major item of the October 7 meeting, which will take place at City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, 3rd floor. (There appears to be no written report or preview available in the agenda packet).

• Renewing local “state of emergency” declarations, along with the special powers and legal exemptions such declarations entail, related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, access to medical cannabis, and the homelessness crisis. These declarations are routinely renewed without review or discussion at every meeting, raising questions about what the city considers to be an “emergency” or not, and what is the intended purpose of an emergency declaration or ordinance.

• Appointing dozens of people to positions on various city boards and commissions including the Oakland Housing Authority and the Planning Commission. (The City of Oakland has thirty-nine boards and commissions. Some of these commissions, such as the Commission on Homelessness, have not met regularly, nor issued the legally required reports on expenditure of funds. In other cases, these commissions appear to perform redundant or conflicting duties. For example, there are four different commissions and bodies with authority over aspects of public safety – the Oakland Police Commission, the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission, the federal monitor for the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, and the new Oakland Public Safety Planning and Oversight Commission.)

• Approving millions of dollars in financial settlements for various lawsuits, including: a proposed $7 million settlement related to a dangerous traffic condition; a proposed $166,666 settlement related to a dangerous traffic condition; and a proposed $350,000 settlement related to property damage to infrastructure. Despite the cost of these road-related lawsuits, the city has fallen years behind its schedule for road repairs and did not issue the bonds needed to perform next year’s repair work. Funding is not the problem, the city continues to collect $850 million in Measure U taxes from Oakland residents to pay for such bonds.

• Awarding millions of dollars in government contracts, including: up to $420,000 to Fusion BI, Inc.; up to $1.35 million to Daupler, Inc.; up to $560,000 to Los Loza, Inc.; up to $450,000 to YES Construction Group; up to $2.74 million to Civicorps; up to $750,000 to Stanford Professor Jennifer Eberhardt DBA Eberhardt Consulting; up to $1 million to Greenlight Fund and Urban Peace Institute; up to $4 million to Martin Marinetta Materials, Inc.; and up to $4 million to Reed & Graham, Inc.

• Awarding millions of dollars in government grants, including: $18.53 million to various agencies related to the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth; $23.01 million to various providers related to the Homeless Response System; and increasing by $323,000 existing grants to various agencies related to the Department of Violence Prevention.

You can review the complete October 7, 2025 city council agenda of 56 items, including staff reports and proposed legislation here.

Do you have a tip about an Oakland agenda item that you think should get a closer look? We want to hear about it! Contact us at oaklandreport@substack.com.

Tags: Radar, City Council, Agenda Watch