{"id":167027,"date":"2026-02-06T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167027\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:32:09","slug":"a-battle-over-who-runs-parking-in-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167027\/","title":{"rendered":"A battle over who runs parking in Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Oakland is seeking to quickly move most of its parking division staff from the Department of Transportation to the Finance Department, despite concern from business leaders, road safety advocates and city employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a report<\/a> released last Friday, Bradley Johnson, the city\u2019s new finance director, said the move would \u201cbetter align the parking operations of the City with revenue and collections processes housed in the Department of Finance, and abandoned automobile abatement functions housed in the Oakland Police Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[It will] streamline and improve the citations collection process,\u201d he said in the report. \u201cDelays or inaccurate data in citations result in high rates of delinquency and decreased collectability revenue.\u201d He also said the move would facilitate traffic ticket payment plans, improve customer service, and strengthen financial management.<\/p>\n

Even though Mayor Barbara Lee has said the police department is understaffed \u2014 and an Oaklandside investigation exposed the department\u2019s massive spending on overtime<\/a> \u2014 Johnson recommended that abandoned vehicle removal be moved over to OPD.<\/p>\n

According to Johnson, there will be a \u201cminimal\u201d increase in costs associated with the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finance Department personnel are expected to take over most parking enforcement duties, including meter collection, abandoned auto tagging, and processing. According to a communication sent by city employee relations officials to OakDOT staff, which the Oaklandside has reviewed, OakDOT will continue to manage bus shelters and city-owned garages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In December, OakDOT parking chief Michael Ford wrote a letter to Mayor Lee and members of the City Council arguing that the decision to move his department over to finance did not go through \u201cproper review\u201d and was not based on a thorough analysis of \u201cthe potential impacts of a reorg<\/a> on such things as grants and vendor relationships.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ford also noted that his workers, under OakDOT supervision, had increased citations despite being understaffed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reshuffle follows several other parking reorganizations. For a long time, the Finance Department ran parking. But in 2013, when the Oakland Redevelopment Agency shuttered, the city divided up parking functions among its Public Works department, OPD, and the Revenue Management Bureau, a department inside Finance. A few years later, in 2016, the city created its first Department of Transportation, and parking functions were slowly consolidated under OakDOT in an effort to make city parking administration better and more efficient<\/a> \u2014 and more integrated with road planning. Where parking spots and meters are located has far-reaching impacts on pedestrians, cyclists, and small business owners, and OakDOT can incorporate models of those impacts years in advance during the road-design planning process.<\/p>\n

The Oaklandside has reached out to Jean Walsh, a communications officer for the city, to request comment from the finance and transportation departments and from the city administrator, but did not immediately receive a response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The city\u2019s Department of Finance released its proposed new organizational chart of parking tasks, which cuts out the Department of Transportation and hands duties to an overstretched Police Department. Source: City of Oakland<\/p>\n

A city official with knowledge of the situation said that parking staff have been angered by the lack of a detailed explanation for the decision and the secrecy surrounding it.<\/p>\n

The source said the transportation department had been on a roll, finally getting new hires they\u2019ve wanted for years, including 20 new parking control technicians and 10 new staff in the vehicle enforcement unit charged with towing away abandoned autos. <\/p>\n

A separate source said that an employee relations official told staff the effective date of the reorganization was Feb. 7. That date lands before a scheduled meeting of the City Council\u2019s Public Works Committee, on Feb. 10, where the city is expected to explain its reasoning for the move to the public for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city official with knowledge of the internal conversations told The Oaklandside that the city has pushed back the restructure for at least a week. The source said the takeover of abandoned vehicles by the OPD may be delayed even longer, because conversations with law enforcement have only recently begun and the change would likely involve the reclassification of job titles, which would require union negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walsh has not yet responded to queries about whether the move has been pushed back to accommodate public comment on Feb. 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kevin Dalley, who co-chairs the Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission\u2019s Policy and Legislative Committee, spoke up about the decision at a meeting of the council\u2019s Finance Committee on Jan. 27, saying he was concerned about \u201cthe dismantling\u201d of one of OakDOT\u2019s core tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving parts of parking over to finance will affect the strategic plan, will no longer have the ability to fully control transportation decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cFinance does not have the expertise in parking that OakDOT has.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Dalley said he has attempted to initiate public discussions of this change with Finance Department leaders, including at a Jan. 26 BPAC meeting, but that officials backed out at the last minute. In a separate conversation with The Oaklandside, Dalley said he heard the city administrator \u201cplaced a gag order on employees,\u201d forbidding them from reporting on the decision at the BPAC meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city refused to show up to this,\u201d Dalley told the Finance Committee, sounding exasperated. \u201cThey refuse to reply. They refuse to provide information. This seems to be a violation of MTC 4108, which requires the city to provide administrative and technical support to BPAC, and if that\u2019s not provided, the MTC\u201d \u2014 Metropolitan Transportation Commission \u2014 \u201ccould pull funding from Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Spies, a volunteer from Traffic Violence Rapid Response, the road safety organization, said he wrote a letter to the City Council, which he shared with The Oaklandside, arguing that the city charter only allows the city council itself to make this type of structural change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, the structure of the Charter makes clear that Council has the preeminent power to organize the functions of government by ordinance, and that the City Administrator\u2019s power here is strictly subsidiary,\u201d Spies wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said that revenue should not be the primary objective of a city\u2019s parking policies, arguing that \u201cmanaging parking for the optimal operation of our many demands on our curbs and wider transportation systems\u201d was more important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reorganization moves Oakland in the wrong direction,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Oakland stakeholders are upset about the change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oakland Business Improvement District Alliance, which represents 3,000 businesses citywide, sent a letter<\/a> to Mayor Lee, the city administrator, the City Council, and the Financial Department on Jan. 23, criticizing the change. Some businesses owners have told The Oaklandside that they have seen improved parking decisions, such as those related to infrastructure development, since OakDOT took over parking functions from the OPD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would have significant implications on the utilization of our curbs and streets as key transportation and mobility infrastructure, the development of policy to support safety, turnover, and successful business operations, the improvement of street design and public spaces, and in maintaining public trust,\u201d the BID group wrote.<\/p>\n

The business organization also expressed frustration at the rapid nature of the change, which was made without a public explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOakland\u2019s curbs and streets are public assets that serve the entire community \u2014 not solely revenue-generating instruments \u2014 we believe this decision must be evaluated through an open and transparent process,\u201d the alliance wrote. \u201cWe respectfully but urgently request that the report be brought to a public forum to committee and council well in advance of the budget approval in June to allow stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Luke Thiebalt, the communications officer for the union representing many of the impacted OakDOT\u2019s staffers, IFPTE Local 21, some of their members will speak out against the move at next Tuesday\u2019s Public Works Committee meeting. That meeting, open to all Oakland residents, is scheduled for Feb. 10, 11:30 a.m., at City Hall.<\/p>\n

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