City Government

Will City-funded Jobs Go to Oakland’s Black Residents?

Published

9 years ago

October 14, 2016

The City Council will vote Tuesday on a resolution to guarantee jobs for unemployed and underemployed African American and women workers who have long been left out of opportunities to work on city-funded construction projects.

The Oakland Post Salon last month voted unanimously to call on the City Council to strengthen its local job policies, raising concerns about whether the mayor’s $600 million infrastructure bond on the November ballot would create jobs for Oakland’s most impoverished residents.

Among the council members who are working with the community to advance the enhanced jobs proposals are Larry Reid, Rebecca Kaplan and Desley Brooks.

The resolution contains a set of proposals that would strengthen the city’s jobs policies and repair loopholes in existing policies – which have led to many jobs for Oakland residents – but not for African Americans or women.

Although African Americans make up 28 percent of the city’s population, they receive only 9 percent of the work hours on city-funded construction projects, according to city data.

The resolution would enact specific proposals to enhance local job opportunities.

First, the resolution would set hiring goals first by zip code, then citywide, within the city’s 50 percent Local Employment Program and 15 percent for the Oakland Apprentice Program.

In other words, half the jobs would go to people who live in the poorest, most impacted neighborhoods, mostly in East Oakland and West Oakland – people who have long been long left out of the economy.

“In specific districts of Oakland, the demographics are that of a Third World Country with high unemployment rates, dumping, blight, high crime rates, high school dropout rates, low birth rates and serious health conditions due to poor air quality, poor housing and stress tantamount to post traumatic stress syndrome,” the Sept. 27 city staff report said.

Second, the resolution would eliminate the “core employee” loophole, which has allowed building contractors to bring their own employees to a construction project, thus undermining the 50 percent local hiring commitment.

Third, the resolution would “mandate the immediate placement” of the city’s local hiring procedures and policies in all Project Labor Agreements, which promise that all jobs on city projects go to labor unions.

“The long-term concern is that ever present nature of exclusivity of Project Labor Agreements … tends to leave behind a significant portion of underemployed Oakland residents,” the report said.

“This request is to include the expectation of monitoring, enforcing and reporting in the name of Oakland residents first,” according to the report.

The report underscored the difficulty of changing the hiring patterns in construction.

“The construction industry… stops short in a level playing field for all ethnic groups,” the report said.

Finally, the resolution would apply the 50 percent local job program and 15 percent Oakland apprenticeship program to include professional service occupations and industries, including data entry, customer service, auto mechanics, warehouse workers and manufacturing.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

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January 2, 2026

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

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Alameda County

Oakland Council Expands Citywide Security Cameras Despite Major Opposition

In a 7-1 vote in favor of the contract, with only District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife voting no, the Council agreed to maintain its existing network of 291 cameras and add 40 new “pan-tilt-zoom cameras.”

Published

2 weeks ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Flock Safety introduces new public safety technology – Amplified Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to improve law enforcement investigations. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance network of hundreds of security cameras to track vehicles in the city.

In recent weeks hundreds of local residents have spoken against the camera system, raising concerns that data will be shared with immigration authorities and other federal agencies at a time when mass surveillance is growing across the country with little regard for individual rights.

The Flock network, supported by the Oakland Police Department, has the backing of residents and councilmembers who see it as an important tool to protect public safety.

“This system makes the Department more efficient as it allows for information related to disruptive/violent criminal activities to be captured … and allows for precise and focused enforcement,” OPD wrote in its proposal to City Council.

According to OPD, police made 232 arrests using data from Flock cameras between July 2024 and November of this year.

Based on the data, police say they recovered 68 guns, and utilizing the countywide system, they have found 1,100 stolen vehicles.

However, Flock’s cameras cast a wide net. The company’s cameras in Oakland last month captured license plate numbers and other information from about 1.4 million vehicles.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Fife was critical of her colleagues for signing a contract with a company that has been in the national spotlight for sharing data with federal agencies.

Flock’s cameras – which are automated license plate readers – have been used in tracking people who have had abortions, monitoring protesters, and aiding in deportation roundups.

“I don’t know how we get up and have several press conferences talking about how we are supportive of a sanctuary city status but then use a vendor that has been shown to have a direct relationship with (the U.S.) Border Control,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Several councilmembers who voted in favor of the contract said they supported the deal as long as some safeguards were written into the Council’s resolution.

“We’re not aiming for perfection,” said District 1 Councilmember Zac Unger. “This is not Orwellian facial recognition technology — that’s prohibited in Oakland. The road forward here is to add as many amendments as we can.”

Amendments passed by the Council prohibit OPD from sharing camera data with any other agencies for the purpose of “criminalizing reproductive or gender affirming healthcare” or for federal immigration enforcement. California state law also prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with the federal government, and because Oakland’s sanctuary city status, OPD is not allowed to cooperate with immigration authorities.

A former member of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission has sued OPD, alleging that it has violated its own rules around data sharing.

So far, OPD has shared Flock data with 50 other law enforcement agencies.