Posts Tagged ‘Jane Brunner’

DMV officials opened up the Claremont Avenue office on a Sunday afternoon yesterday to meet with local residents who were angry about the agency’s decision to cut down trees in a city easement last August. Officials and community members discussed plans for new planting and park construction on the property.

A coalition of Oakland residents is pushing for an initiative that would impose term limits on the city council. Under the proposal, councilmembers could serve up to three four-year terms and then would be forced to step down, which proponents say would help add new voices to the city council and thus improve policy making on crime, budget deficit and other pressing issues in the city.

One after another, Oakland residents approached the City Council podium Tuesday night to share their horror stories in dealing with the Building Services Department, part of the city’s Community and Economic Development Agency.

The Oakland City Council finance committee considered several options for implementing a proposed municipal ID card system Tuesday, but ultimately decided not to forward with the proposal until an ongoing examination of costs and feasibility is completed.

On Tuesday night the Oakland City Council once again postponed a vote to adopt a biennial budget, pushing the decision back until this Thursday, hours before the new fiscal year begins on July 1. With the divergence between councilmembers on the each others’ budget proposals, the timely adoption of a budget resolution remains uncertain.

Just a few days before Oakland limps into the new fiscal year, the city now has six budget proposals. Last Friday, three budget scenarios, in addition to the three previously issued by Mayor Jean Quan in April, were introduced by three factions of the city council.

Equipped with whistles, banners and plastic noisemakers, hundreds of people crammed into the City Council Chambers on Thursday evening to voice their concerns about the city’s proposed budget cuts at a special hearing held by the city officials. The crowd was so large that many had to be relocated to another hearing room for safety reasons.

A giant excavator was parked in the yard of a motel near the MacArthur BART station on Monday afternoon, where dozens of people were taking pictures with the machine that may soon start tearing down the motel rooms. The MacArthur Transit Village project will eventually transform a 7.76-acre site near the MacArthur BART station into a mixed-use area with new housing units and retail shops, along with restaurants and possibly a day care center.

Two public safety debates dominated the Oakland City Council meeting on Tuesday: local merchants pleaded for increased policing and other neighbors turned out to oppose the planned Fruitvale gang injunction. The two discussions bookended a lengthy examination of plans to remodel the Telegraph Avenue McDonald’s.

During a contentious meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Oakland City Council’s Committee on Community and Economic Development debated whether or not to expand the boundaries where food trucks can do business throughout the city, as well as loosen some of the restrictions that govern where food trucks can park.

The City of Oakland kicked off its annual month-long pothole overhaul on Tuesday. Workers in florescent-orange jackets set down cones on Telegraph Avenue at 56th Street in North Oakland, then sprayed a sticky black substance called asphalt emulsion to delineate the culprit area, which contained several wide, shallow potholes.

Limited staffing and budget constraints hamper Oakland’s recently reinstated problem-solving officers, Deputy Chief Eric Breshears said in a report presented to the City Council Tuesday. Breshears said the police department is optimistic about the program but has faced challenges in implementation since its reinstatement in January.

With key city planning issues up for public comment, Tuesday’s city council meeting offered heated debate over public transportation, zoning, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Oakland City Council’s finance and management committee met Tuesday to discuss several city budget and finance issues, the most contentious of which was how to pay for the Police and Fire Retirement System.

On Saturday, Oakland City Councilmember Jane Brunner, whose district covers a large portion of North Oakland, held a town hall meeting to discuss violence prevention. The meeting, held at Peralta Elementary School, drew roughly 60 people from Oakland and Berkeley, many of whom came prepared with questions.