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Oakland Black Contractors Demand Access to Contracts, Jobs for Oakland Residents

The press conference was led by the NAACP Oakland Chapter, representatives from the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Minority Contractors Northern California, BuildOUT California, Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce, Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, Bay Area Contract Compliance Officer’s Association, Asian, Inc. They were joined by Councilmembers Loren Taylor (District 6) and Treva Reid (District 7), (Sheng Thao, District 4,) who each addressed the importance of honoring the City’s commitment to distribute contracts in an equitable manner.

Published

3 years ago

January 24, 2022

Oakland Post

First Row left to right: John Baptiste, Black Contractor, Antoinette Clark, NAACP, Bendu Griffin, Professional Services Consultants, Cathy Adams, OAACC, Stanley Cooper, Chair of Labor and Industry , NAACP Oakland Branch & Cooper Construction and Engineering, Councilmember Loren Taylor, District 6; Second Row left to right: Mario Wagner, NAACP Oakland Branch, George Holland, Sr., President NAACP, Oakland Branch, Jumoke Hinton, NAACP, Oakland Branch; Upper row: Nick Colina Anco Iron & Construction, Inc. & NAMC , co-founder Build Out California, Joe Patida, President of the Latino Chamber of Commerce, Derrick Johnson, representing the LGBTQ Community Center, Baasim Khufu, NAMC, Black Contractor, Jonathan “Fitness” Jones, (Post Newspaper Group) and Clifton Cooper, Vice President, NAACP Oakland. Photo by Auintard Henderson.

By Post Staff

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, a coalition of community and business leaders held a press conference to call out the request by the City of Oakland’s Department of Transportation (DOT) to waive requirements that would ensure that small, local businesses get opportunities to bid for paving contracts worth up to $60 million.

The formal language to ‘Waive Further Advertising, Competitive Bidding, and The City’s Small-Very Small Local Business Enterprise Participation Requirement,’ essentially locks out minority contractors as well.

In blatant disregard for the City’s policy, the DOT requested that five contracts be awarded to Gallagher & Burk, McGuire & Hester and O.C. Jones & Sons, three non-minority contractors headquartered outside the City of Oakland.

Oakland NAACP Chapter President George Holland noted that this item was ironically scheduled a day after MLK Day. “It is a shame that we are still fighting for the same things that Dr. King fought for nearly five decades ago. We will not concede the progress we have made and understand we have a long way to go.”

Councilmember Taylor’s office released a statement. “If we were to approve this waiver without pushing for higher levels of participation from our local, small, and diverse contractors, it would undermine the work that we have been doing over the past year. That is why I proudly stand with the community members calling for us to have a more concerted effort to seek out diverse contractors and will not support the requested waivers.”

Although unable to attend the press conference, Ed Dillard of the NAACP LIC stated, “Black contractors are taxpayers in Oakland and deserve work on City of Oakland funded projects. These Black contractors provide jobs for Oakland Black residents.”

When reflecting on her work to address the City’s contracting issues, Cathy Adams, president of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce notes, “We are committed to ensuring Black businesses receive their fair share of City contracts.

“We were successful in our fight for the Disparity Study to be released. We were successful in establishing a better L/SLBE policy. We will be successful in our fight to eliminate current contracting disparities,” Adams said (L/SLBE refers to Oakland’s Local and Small Local Business Enterprise program).

Reid stated “It is an honor to stand with you all today and agree that we have to unite our power to deliver votes that delivers for us, our communities and our City to ensure we have an equitable outcome for all.” She also indicated that she would vote against the waiver.

Each organization echoed the sentiments expressed that the proposed waiver means a loss of opportunity, a loss of local businesses and a loss of jobs for Oaklanders.

District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife motioned that the awards be rejected and sent back out to bid. Councilmember Taylor seconded the motion with an amendment that the bidders be given until Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, to comply with the City’s L/SLBE requirements.

Council directed staff to work with the bidders to ensure that they comply with the City’s L/SLBE requirements in a unanimous vote with the motion as amended.

As Bendu Griffin from the Bay Area Contractor Compliance Officer’s Association stated, “it’s not a Black thing, it’s the right thing!”

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

Published

12 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

Published

6 days ago

July 20, 2024

Oakland Post

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Community Celebrates Historic Oakland Billboard Agreements

We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 13, 2024

Oakland Post

The Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition.

Grand Jury Report Incorrect – Council & Community Benefit

Unfortunately, a recent flawed Grand Jury report got it wrong, so we feel compelled to correct the record:

Regarding the claim that the decision was made hastily, the report itself belies that claim. The process was five years in the making, with two and a half years from the first City Council hearing to the final vote. Along the way, as the report describes, there were multiple Planning Commission hearings, public stakeholder outreach meetings, a Council Committee meeting, and then a vote by the full Council. Not only was this not hasty, it had far more scrutiny than any of the previous relocation agreements approved by the City with Clear Channel, all of which provide 1/23 of the benefits of the Becker/OFI agreements approved by the Council.
More importantly, the agreements will actually bring millions to the City and community, nearly $70M to be exact, 23 times the previous Clear Channel relocation agreements combined. They certainly will not cost the city money, especially since nothing would have been on the table at all if our Coalition had not been fighting for it. Right before the decisive City Council Committee hearing, in the final weeks before the full Council vote, there was a hastily submitted last-minute “proposal” by Clear Channel that was debunked as based on non-legal and non-economically viable sites, and relying entirely on the endorsement of a consultant that boasts Clear Channel as their biggest client and whose decisions map to Clear Channel’s monopolistic interests all over the country. Some City staff believed these unrealistic numbers based on false premises, and, since they only interviewed City staff, the Grand Jury report reiterated this misinformation, but it was just part of Clear Channel’s tried and true monopolistic practices of seeking to derail agreements that actually set the new standard for billboard community benefits. Furthermore, our proposals are not mutually exclusive – if Clear Channel’s proposal was real, why had they not brought it forward previously? Why have they not brought it forward since? Because it was not a real proposal – it was nothing but smoke and mirrors, as the Clear Channel’s former Vice President stated publicly at Council.

Speaking on behalf of the community health clinics that are the primary beneficiaries of the billboard funding, La Clinica de la Raza CEO Jane Garcia, states: “In this case, the City Council did the right thing – listening to the community that fought for five years to create this opportunity that is offering the City and community more than twenty times what previous billboard relocation agreements have offered.”

Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition

Native American Health Center	La Clínica de la Raza	West Oakland Health Center
Asian Health Services	Oakland LGBTQ Center	Roots Community Health Center
The Unity Council	Black Cultural Zone	Visit Oakland
Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce	Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce	Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce
Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce	Building Trades of Alameda County	(partial list)