City Government

City Considers Prompt Payment to Nonprofits

Published

12 years ago

October 24, 2014

The City Council is considering an amendment to its Prompt Payment Ordinance that would ensure nonprofit organizations that do business with the City of Oakland receive payments for the work they do in a timely manner.

The ordinance is scheduled for discussion and a vote at the city’s Finance and Management Committee meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 9:30 a.m., at City Hall.

Many agencies, especially smaller nonprofits, have frequently complained that they in effect have to float a loan to the city, as they wait for months or even over a year for the city to pay invoices of tens of thousands of dollars or more for work that has already been completed.

A few nonprofits even have had to curtail programs or even shut down as result of failure to receive payments from the city.

Sponsored by Councilmember Desley Brooks in 2008, a Prompt Payment Ordinance was passed requiring timely payments to city contactors – normally within one month.

However, the City Attorney ruled that the ordinance applied only to private businesses that do work for the city, not to grant-funded programs

“Nonprofits frequently would carry the burden of the city,” said Brooks. “We’re talking not just small sums of money. Sometimes, it would be in the six figures. Sometimes, they wait for over year to be paid.”

“They couldn’tan’t function when faced with that kind of uncertainty.”

The amendment, introduced by Councilmembers Brooks and Rebecca Kaplan, is intended to clarify and extend the ordinance to nonprofits that are grant recipients.

“We’re supporting this amendment that would go back to ordinance’s original intent, that everybody should be paid in a timely fashion,” said Brooks.

Oakland Private Industry Council CEO Gay Plair Cobb welcomed this clarification, stating, “The question is why would the city not want prompt payment requirements to apply to non-profits, which do such important work for Oakland citizens?”

Cobb has disputed previous rulings that the current ordinance excluded contractor that receive grant funds. “This made no logical sense whatsoever,” she added.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Related Topics:City of Oakland Gay Plair-Cobb non profits Oakland Oakland Private Industry Council Politics Prompt Payment Ordinance

Up Next

Mayoral Candidates Look at Plan to Promote Active Community Involvement

Don't Miss

Open Letter: Bryan Parker – A Mayor for All of Oakland

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

20 hours ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

1 week ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”