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Small Local Contractor Asks: Where is Oakland’s Level Playing Field?
Len Turner
Phil Tagami
Top Grade CEO and President Bill Gates.
By Ken A. Epstein
From the point of view of Turner Group Construction –a local, small African-American owned firm – the company has experienced nothing but headaches since it has tried to work for the City of Oakland. The company has found out first-hand why many small contractors consider the city’s “level playing field “ to be anything but.
Most recently, the company demanded a retraction from City Auditor Courtney Ruby’s March Performance Audit that focused on allegations that two City Council members unethically attempted to direct business to the Turner Group.
According to the firm’s retraction demand, the report, which mentioned Turner Group 26 times, “implies that Turner engaged in unethical conduct, when in fact Turner was simply reacting, ethically and legally, to the highly unusual decision of city staff to improperly sole source contracts to a politically influential, out-of-town company.”
Ruby took only three days to dismiss the complaint. “We decline your request to alter the report,” she said in her April 12 reply.
“Please be advised that at no point…(did the report) conclude that Turner Group Construction engaged in unethical conduct. The ethics of Turner’s conduct was outside the scope of the audit.”
The twists and turns experienced by Turner Group in Oakland were the opposite of an open and transparent process. First, Turner Group was part of a consortium that was recommended to be part of the Army Base Project. Then the recommended award was withdrawn after contractor Phil Tagami complained, though he was not a party to the bidding process and had not yet received the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) on the project.
Next, city staff tried to give a sole source, no bid contact to do the Army base work to Top Grade Construction, part of the Tagami team. The size of the award more than doubled.
At that point, Top Grade offered Turner Group what it considered a menial “pass through” contract, a small slice of the deal to buy the firm’s silence. Turner Group refused the deal.
Councilmembers Desley Brooks and Larry Reid opposed the staff-approved no bid contract, saying it violated the city’s requirements for open bidding.
Ultimately on June 19, 2012 the City Council gave the award to the Downrite Corporation, the lowest bidder.
The final insult – from Turner Group’s point of view – was to have its reputation maligned by the City Auditor, who did not even seek to interview them in her report.
Going back to the beginning, the sun seemed to be shining on Turner Group Construction in August 2009 when the city conducted open bidding to award the Oakland Army Base demolition and remediation (Building 6) project, which was worth at least $2 million but would later go as high as $6 million between two contracts.
PARC Services was the lowest bidder. PARC was made up of a consortium of contactors that included Turner Group and other local contractors.
“The preliminary staff recommendation is to select PARC Services for the job,” according to an Oct. 9 email written by John Monetta, the city’s real estate manager.
Though small, Turner Group is well known and respected for its work in Oakland. The company has a reputation for going out its way to create opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.
Turner Group’s successful projects and their contract dollar amount include Alameda County, ($6 million), Oakland Unified School District ($17 million), Kaiser Hospital ($4 million) and San Francisco Boys and Girls Club ($3.5 million).
But almost immediately, the deal began to go south. Phil Tagami, who was negotiating at that time to become master developer of the Army Base project, told staff to withdraw the offer to PARC Services.
“(We) must insist that the bid solicitation be rejected and the process significantly revised with our direct involvement before being re-started,” Tagami wrote in an Oct. 15, 2009 email to Walter Cohen, then director to Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency.
Tagami wanted the contact to go a company that was part of what he called his team, Top Grade Construction, a large firm based in Livermore.
Without a word, city staff withdrew the award recommendation. A year and a half passed with no action on the demolition contact.
When the contact reappeared, staff was tying to hand the job to Top Grade, without sending the contact out to public bid.
At the same time, the amount of money on the table was increased. The staff in June 2011 wanted to give Top Grade two sole source contracts, one for $1,676,750 and another for $2 million, an open-ended contract that could rise as high as $4 million.
At this point, it looked like the award to Top Grade was clear sailing, The obstacles, however, were Councilmembers Desley Brooks and Larry Reid, who were demanding that staff follow the city’s open bidding rules.
Apparently certain the company had the contacts in the bag, Top Grade CEO and President Bill Gates in June 2011 sent emails to Turner Group, offering what he called a “mentoring program.”
The offer: Turner Group would “manage $362,240” on the project and receive $15,000 to install fencing and straw on the Army Base site and $31,567” in management fees,” according to an email sent by Gates to Len Turner, president of Turner Group on June 16, 2011.
The contactors who would do the bulk of the work would be companies picked by To Grade and paid with joint checks provided by Top Grade.
Len Turner rejected this offer, viewing it as a “pass through” deal, designed to buy his company’s silence and acceptance of Top Grade’s sole source agreement.
Turner did not look at the deal as a legitimate offer to manage a project but as a bit of “handyman work” putting up fence and installing straw.
“From our viewpoint, our portion is 10 percent to be a silent partner,” Turner wrote in an Aug. 22, 2011 email.
“We don’t interview our subs and/or help negotiate pricing. The subs are being passed over to Turner Group with joint checks being provided by Top Grade.”
“Turner group is being handicapped, and this is not the type of partnership Turner Group is looking for Turner Group has a lot to offer, and if this is the final offer, we respectfully decline the offer,” Turner wrote to Gates.
Ken Houston, senior vice president of Turner Group, was not impressed with what he considered Gate’s empty words about “future job opportunities at the Oakland Army Base…(for) training local minorities.”
This deal was promoted with city staff’s knowledge. According to Gates, copies of his emails to Turner Group were submitted to city staffers.
When Gate’s sole source contract failed to be approved by the City Council, staff ultimately conducted an open bidding process, which was won by Downrite Corporation, an Oakland-based firm, a victory for City Council members who had fought for the open process.
Few members of the public would have known the story behind this contract if it had not been for the City Auditor’s March 21 report, which dragged the facts of this case into the spotlight.
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NBA All-Star Damian Lillard Returns Home for 15th Annual Backpack Giveaway
OAKLAND POST — “I know what it is to grow up here and be here in Oakland,” shared Lillard. “I do feel like it’s my responsibility to be present and supportive and be a resource and be an example for the kids and right now as somebody from Oakland that’s well positioned, with a big platform, I’m always trying to find ways to use that platform and serve our youth and community.”
Music, food trucks, bouncers, and rock climbing turned Ira Jinkins Park into a neighborhood block party on Saturday, Sept. 5, as nine-time NBA All-Star Damian Lillard hosted his 15th annual back-to-school backpack giveaway in Deep East Oakland.
The Portland Trail Blazers point guard, an Oakland High School alum, returned to the recreation center where he trained as a kid and distributed backpacks stuffed with school supplies to nearly 400 children. Lillard was joined by family, friends, and former Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks in an event that has become a fixture of the neighborhood.
“I know what it is to grow up here and be here in Oakland,” shared Lillard. “I do feel like it’s my responsibility to be present and supportive and be a resource and be an example for the kids and right now as somebody from Oakland that’s well positioned, with a big platform, I’m always trying to find ways to use that platform and serve our youth and community.”
While watching children play inflatable basketball and roll a giant beach ball on the grass, Lillard took in the scene.
“Doing something positive makes me feel great,” said Lillard. “I remember attending cookouts like this as a child and it was always a lot of fun. It feels great to not only show youth a great time, but to be of service to them.”
Beyond the giveaway, Lillard is funding renovations to the Ira Jinkins Recreation Center, including major upgrades to its basketball courts, the same courts he once used daily before heading to play recreation league games across town. Last Christmas, he provided gifts to more than 400 local families.
Sports agent Aaron Goodwin, who has represented Lillard throughout his career, described the tradition as core to who Lillard is: someone who consistently looks for ways to give back, uses his platform to inspire youth, and treats events like this as more than a handout, but a chance to be a genuine resource and example for kids from his hometown.
“That’s who Damian is,” said Goodwin. “He always wants to give back. He does this every summer, and he also has an annual Christmas giveaway. He wants to inspire youth that they too can achieve.”
Lillard grew up traveling to the Ira Jinkins Center to train before playing at Rainbow Recreation Center, and he went on to star at Oakland High before his college and NBA career took off.
Lillard who has built a life legacy hosted the event within a center carrying its own historical weight.
The facility is named for Ira Jinkins, a civil rights organizer who helped lead West Coast marches honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and pushed for the creation of the MLK Regional Shoreline Park.
Its building sits within the William “Bill” Patterson Park complex, beside the East Oakland Sports Center that opened in 2011. Patterson was known for his civic impact and work with EBMUD East Bay Municipal Utility District, Merritt College, and the NAACP, among other organizations. A film on Patterson’s life debuted at the Oakland International Film Festival this week.
Last year, before the NBA All-Star Weekend in the Bay Area, the City of Oakland dedicated a court at the center in Lillard’s honor, and Lillard launched a $25,000-per-year scholarship with Portland State University for high school students across nine East Bay schools. He also sponsors camps and other programming throughout the nation.
Lillard sat out of the 2025-2026 NBA season due to an Achilles tendon injury incurred as a Milwaukee Buck. The year of healing will allow him to return to the Portland Trail Blazers.
“This is a great event,” said Shawn, watching his grandchild enjoying the activities. “I’ve been to every single one of them (backpack giveaways); I’ve been knowing Dame (Damian) since he was 8 years old. You don’t have many people that give back the way Damian does. There’s no better guy to do this. His whole family is awesome from the top down.”
For Lillard, the annual tradition, held in memory of his late grandfather, Albert Johnson, remains a way of reinvesting in the community that shaped him.
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Not Just a Southern Issue: Advocates Say SCOTUS Voting Rights Decision Has Already Started to Reshape Black Political Power
OAKLAND POST — Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, constitutional amendments expanded Black citizenship and voting rights across the South, leading to dramatic increases in Black political representation. But those gains were quickly met with violent backlash and the rise of Jim Crow laws designed to suppress Black voting through poll taxes, literacy tests, and other “race-neutral” restrictions.
By Edward Henderson, California Black Media
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) whose district spans parts of Los Angeles County, joined fellow CBC member U.S. Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA-2) for a May 21 briefing with Black media outlets in California.
The lawmakers highlighted what they describe as a mounting threat to Black political representation resulting from an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened key protections under the federal Voting Rights Act.
Kamlager-Dove and Carter warned that the decision, which narrowed the role of race in redistricting, is already reshaping congressional districts across the South and undermining Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice.
“While we are a super blue state, we have far to go when it comes to Black representation; we tend to take that for granted,” Kamlager-Dove said of California, noting that the Golden State has the fifth largest Black population in the country and only has three Black members of Congress.
“While I support building coalitions, we have to make sure that as a Black community we are not yielding our power,” she added.
Calling the fight “not unique to the South,” Carter urged Black communities nationwide to recognize the broader implications of the legal and political battles unfolding in Southern legislatures and courtrooms.
The Supreme Court ruling centers on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the portion of the law that prohibits voting systems or district maps that dilute the voting strength of racial minorities. For decades, Section 2 allowed civil rights groups to challenge district maps that weakened Black political representation even when lawmakers did not openly state discriminatory intent.
Now, advocates fear that standard has fundamentally changed.
“You have to have smoking gun evidence,” said Mitchell Brown, senior voting rights counsel at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, during a recent media briefing hosted by American Community Media on May 15. “Legislators are not going to say the quiet part out loud.”
The implications could stretch far beyond congressional elections, Brown said.
Section 2 protections have historically applied not only to U.S. House districts, but also to state legislatures, school boards, county commissions, judgeships, and local governing bodies. Voting rights advocates warn that weakening those protections could reshape political representation throughout the South, particularly in states with large Black populations.
“This is not just a Southern issue,” said Amir Badat, manager of Black Voters on the Rise and voting special counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Badat described the current moment as part of a much longer historical pattern.
Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, constitutional amendments expanded Black citizenship and voting rights across the South, leading to dramatic increases in Black political representation. But those gains were quickly met with violent backlash and the rise of Jim Crow laws designed to suppress Black voting through poll taxes, literacy tests, and other “race-neutral” restrictions.
“This is the same move,” Badat said.
Advocates also emphasized that the consequences of weakened voting protections extend into everyday life.
Local elected offices such as school boards, city councils, county commissions, and judgeships often determine funding priorities, public safety policy, education standards, and infrastructure investments.
“These are not abstract numbers,” Badat said. “These have real political consequences and policy consequences on people’s day-to-day lives.”
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Rest in Peace: A.M.E. Pastor and L.A Civil Rights Icon Cecil “Chip” Murray Passes
The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94. “Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).
The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94.
“Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).
Murray oversaw the growth of FAME’s congregation from 250 members to 18,000.
“My heart is with the First AME congregation and community today as we reflect on a legacy that changed this city forever,” Bass continued.
Murray served as Senior Minister at FAME, the oldest Black congregation in the city, for 27 years. During that time, various dignitaries visited and he built strong relationships with political and civic leaders in the city and across the state, as well as a number of Hollywood figures. Several national political leaders also visited with Murray and his congregation at FAME, including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Murray, a Florida native and U.S. Air Force vet, attended Florida A&M University, where he majored in history, worked on the school newspaper and pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He later attended Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles County, where he earned his doctorate in Divinity.
Murray is survived by his son Drew. His wife Bernadine, who was a committed member of the A.M.E. church and the daughter of his childhood pastor, died in 2013.
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