Tempers flared on Tuesday as the City Council grudgingly agreed to extend a contract with a security company that is linked to a figure in the FBI corruption investigation.
Five councilmembers voted to extend the city’s contract with ABC Security Services through mid 2026, enough time for staff to conduct a new search for a vendor. The city will also pay ABC Security $818,989 to cover outstanding invoices. All told, the firm stands to make up to approximately $6.75 million, placing the lifetime value of the contract at approximately $35.3 million. The council amended the proposal by shortening the extension by three months.
Councilmembers Zac Unger, Charlene Wang, Janani Ramachandran, Ken Houston, and Rowena Brown voted for the extension. Carroll Fife voted no, Noel Gallo was absent, and Kevin Jenkins abstained.
The process of awarding the new security services job has proved to be a major headache for city leaders. On Tuesday, several members of the council vented their frustration at having to pay more to a company whose contract was supposed to end in 2023.
“I don’t want to extend ABC’s contract, but we also can’t go without a security contractor,” Unger said. “I’ll vote yes for this time, but we should not be here.”
ABC Security has guarded City Hall and other city properties since 2018. Over the last three years, city officials have tried and failed to replace ABC with a new vendor, forcing Oakland to continue paying the firm.
Repeated extensions became more of an issue in 2024 when reports emerged that ABC Security has ties to Mario Juarez, a Fruitvale businessman connected to the federal corruption investigation into former Mayor Sheng Thao and others. According to public records, Juarez and the owner of ABC Security have done real estate deals together, and Juarez lobbied the city in 2022 when it looked like the firm was on the verge of losing its contract. Public records show that Thao may have intervened in 2023 to help ABC Security keep its business with the city.
Recent attempts to move forward with a new company have failed
In July, city staff recommended hiring Allied Universal Security Services to take over the job of guarding city properties. But several members of the council’s Public Works and Transportation committee — Wang, Houston, and Gallo — wanted to go with a different firm, Marina Security Services.
Josh Rowan, head of Public Works, complained that some councilmembers had made a “mess” of the process. Rowan recently filed an ethics complaint against Houston for allegedly interfering with contracts, including the security services award. Houston has denied wrongdoing.
In September, the city pulled the proposed contract for Allied shortly after reporting emerged that one of its subsidiaries works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a potential violation of Oakland’s sanctuary city rules.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Fife suggested that instead of doing a full request for new proposals, staff could go back and reevaluate the firms that submitted bids in the last round.
Other councilmembers appeared peeved at the idea of derailing the staff proposal. Unger, the lone councilmember from the Public Works and Transportation committee who voted against rejecting Allied, noted that city staff engage in a “dispassionate process without favoritism” to award contracts.
“It’s the core of an anti-corruption system to disburse public funds, and I respect that process, and I think it protects us,” Unger said. “Otherwise, we’re just making decisions on how we award tens of millions of dollars based on, like, I don’t know, vibes, or something worse.”
Ramachandran echoed this, saying efforts to award a new contract have been “convoluted.”
“I think that rather than councilmembers playing favorites with what company they want on our own, let the staff make from scratch a new request for proposal, and come to us with a proposal taking into consideration what community members and councilmembers have said about that process,” she said.
Fife bristled at these comments.
“I find it offensive to try to insinuate that any councilmembers are playing favorites when we know public policy from the local to the federal level has been steeped in racist activity,” Fife said.
During the July meeting of the Public Works committee, which Fife is not a member of, several councilmembers raised questions about how staff scored the different bids. Wang brought these concerns up again on Tuesday and said that the evaluators who interviewed the competing firms should turn over their notes.
Wang also suggested that in the future, Oakland should screen potential contractors by looking at lawsuits and labor violations, noting that Allied had a “shocking” number of controversies.
Wang said that in general, “We need to vet for that just going forward. This is part of an ethical investment approach.”
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