Oakland — Oakland’s Vice-Mayor Rebecca Kaplan is introducing a resolution designed to add support to the Building and Planning department at the March 2, 2021, City Council meeting.
Kaplan’s proposed resolution would promote the development and reopening of businesses, thus creating revenue and a healthier economic recovery for the City of Oakland. The City Council has received reports from the administration expressing concerns about the drop in tax revenue. In addition, community members and stakeholders have expressed difficulty about the slowness of accessing the city’s permit process, which is impeding the building of housing and the opening of businesses. Vice Mayor Kaplan has learned that many permit positions were mistakenly frozen — and the lack of adequate staffing in Development Services funded positions is impeding responsiveness to the public and impeding Oakland’s economic recovery.
In 2006, the Council created the Development Services Fund (Fund 2415) to account for the revenues and expenditures related to development and enforcement activities in the City of Oakland. Fund 2415 has a large unexpended fund balance. Kaplan seeks to utilize these funds for the purpose they were created – – to support the City’s development activities, by unfreezing the vacant positions and allowing for a faster permitting process.
Kaplan’s Resolution would provide a full time position in the Human Resources Department. This new Analyst would be responsible for expeditiously hiring the positions funded by Fund 2415, which include positions in the Planning and Building, and Transportation Departments, which are essential to perform the City’s development activities. These vacancies have contributed to the economic hardship to the public through reduction in jobs and business opportunities, as well as reduced tax revenue that is needed to fund vital public services. Therefore, Vice Mayor Kaplan is calling on her colleagues to aid the City of Oakland’s recovery by unfreezing these revenue generating positions to allow the community to continue to build and reopen.
Memo and Resolution: https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4774106&GUID=BCB40A62-ACE8-4352-A3CF-0B975D688551
March 2, 2021, Oakland City Council Meeting Information:
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84654683164
Webinar ID: 846 5468 3164
Meeting agenda: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=843309&GUID=83CD6848-D801-4A87-B20D-37AAD1795FB8
2/20 Vice Mayor Kaplan’s Tweet Regarding action to fix permit backlog and frozen positions: https://twitter.com/kaplan4oakland/status/1363203031622316033?s=21