Oakland Agenda Watch - November 4, 2025
Police lab’s DNA backlog; Privacy Advisory Commission appointment; Business improvement district (BID) levy increases; Allowing big rigs on I-580 and “re-connecting” I-980.
Oakland Agenda Watch provides short summaries of notable items on upcoming public meeting agendas that catch our attention. This week, we’re taking a look at the Oakland City Council special meeting on Tuesday, November 4.
Clearing the police crime lab’s DNA backlog
Oakland City Council special meeting, Nov. 4, 2025, agenda item #5.8
The city council is set to accept a federal grant to help clear the city’s backlog of DNA evidence awaiting analysis in its crime lab.
Oakland has received this “DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program” grant almost every year for the last 19 years. The grant is determined by a formula set by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the current year’s award to the city amounts to approximately $304,000.
According to the staff report, the funding will be used to hire various contracted services to help analyze “a minimum of one-hundred ninety four (194) backlogged case requests” in the city’s crime lab, including DNA evidence from “homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, assaults, and property crime cases.”
Oakland City Council wants to allow controversial council votes to take place during daytime work hours
Oakland City Council special meeting, Nov. 4, 2025, agenda item #9
As we reported on October 12, the city council is set to amend the Council’s Rules of Procedure for meetings, most notably by allowing non-consent agenda items to start earlier than 5:00 p.m.
The city’s stated intent for this change is to make the council meetings more “orderly and efficient,” presumably because numerous public comments, combined with the extended rhetoric of council members and staff often can stretch council meetings late into the night.
However, it also would allow the council to take votes on issues or decisions that are controversial, or that require in-depth discussion, or that may attract significant public interest during standard daytime work hours when it is more difficult for working people to attend and participate in the meetings.
$91.5 million for permanent supportive housing projects
Oakland City Council meeting, Nov. 4, 2025, agenda item #5.21, subsections (1) (2) (3) and (4)
City council is set to amend four previously authorized resolutions to include a new “gap funding pathway” for Homekey+ program grants from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The grants would provide the city a combined $91.5 million toward four housing projects:
$35 million to the Mark Twain Homes affordable housing project at 3525-3539 Lyon Ave.
$35 million to the 34th and San Pablo affordable housing project at 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.
$8.5 million to the Maya affordable housing project at 4715 Telegraph Ave.
$13 million to the 3135 San Pablo affordable housing project at 3135 San Pablo Ave. and 967 32nd St.
According to the staff report, the Homekey+ program “finances the acquisition and rehabilitation of hotels, motels, and other structures to provide permanent supportive housing (PSH) for individuals or households with an individual who is homeless, chronically homeless, or at risk of being homeless and who also live with a behavioral health challenge.”
The report notes that the city has won nine such grant awards in the past, totaling $104 million. The city says it applied that funding toward projects that “transformed motels, college dorms, and single-family homes into approximately 468 units of PSH serving homeless seniors, veterans, transition-age youth, and formerly incarcerated individuals.” (A chart later in the report appears to show a slightly different total of 476 units.) The report does not list or quantify the other sources of funding that also were contributed to those past projects, and the per-unit cost of the projects cannot be calculated based solely on the information provided in the report.
However, the report does provide estimated total development costs for each of the four projects toward which the combined $91.5 million in new Homekey+ grants would be applied, and the numbers of units to be created by each:
Mark Twain Homes. The total development costs for this project (acquisition, rehabilitation and new construction) are estimated at $46 million for 109 units, a per-unit cost of approximately $422,000.
34th and San Pablo. This project’s total development costs (new construction) are estimated at $64.3 million for 60 units, a per-unit cost of approximately $1.1 million.
The Maya. The estimated $12.5 million in total costs (acquisition and rehabilitation) for 22 units equates to approximately $568,000 per unit.
3135 San Pablo. The total development costs (new construction) for this project are estimated at $78.6 million for 73 units, a per-unit cost of approximately $1.1 million.
The above does not include the ongoing costs of maintaining and operating the projects once completed, which are not mentioned in the report. At a combined $91.5 million, the Homekey+ grants would comprise approximately 45% of the four projects’ combined estimated $201.4 million development costs, for a combined 264 units at an average cost of $762,878 per unit.
Other notable agenda items on November 4
Allowing big rigs on I-580 and “re-connecting” I-980. An informational report from Caltrans about two studies that appear to be considering lifting the ban on tractor-trailers on a portion of Interstate 580, and “re-connecting” Interstate 980 by converting it to surface streets and new development. Agenda item #3.1
Appointment to the Privacy Advisory Commission. City council will vote on appointing Byron White, a four-year Oakland resident and “partnerships manager” at Google, to the city’s Privacy Advisory Commission. Agenda item #5.13
Business improvement district (BID) levy increases and annual reports. City Council is set to approve increases to levy assessments on the Rockridge Business Improvement District (3% increase) and the Montclair Business Improvement District (5% increase). Agenda items #5.4 and #5.5
City council to respond to Grand Jury report on the city’s fiscal mismanagement. Oakland Report took a deeper dive into the grand jury’s report in this article published yesterday. Agenda item #10
Oakland Report is by no means comprehensive in our coverage of public meetings in Oakland. The scope and frequency of public meetings are far more than we can presently cover. You can review the full agenda and all 37 items on deck for the November 4 city council special meeting on the city’s meeting calendar.
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