\u201cEvery reorganization I know of in the city of Oakland has happened with the budget process, so you can dig in and get all those financial pieces lined up, \u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of moving parts here. I don\u2019t agree with this proposal, but it should be done with the budget process so you can actually see the dollars and cents on paper. What are the real costs?\u201c<\/p>\n
The public comments opposing the move occurred in the second half of the meeting, around 12:30 p.m., after city staff attempted to explain their plan, which was first announced in early October, to a surprised and angry staff<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seeking to \u2018streamline\u2019 citation collections <\/p>\n Bradley Johnson, the city\u2019s finance director; Jestin Johnson, the city administrator; and Deborah Edgerly, a former city administrator who now serves as a finance consultant<\/a> to the city, all spoke at the meeting in support of the change. They referenced a report<\/a> Johnson submitted to the council on January 28, written in response to a request for information about the reorganization from councilmembers Zac Unger and Rowena Brown. That report explained in broad terms why the finance team wants to take over parking operations, including to \u201cstreamline and improve the citations collection process\u201d and fix \u201cdelays or inaccurate data in citations.\u201d<\/p>\n Bradley Johnson focused his pitch on a promise: if his department took over collections of parking citations, they would become more \u201cefficient, fair, and speedy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That approach, he said, would include \u201cseamless access to our methods of payment\u201d as well as payment plans \u201cto ensure that we are able to rapidly collect on that revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTime is money in a very specific way,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving a very tight interior collection practice is super important to ensuring that we\u2019re maximizing our revenue\u201d from both citations and garages.<\/p>\n The finance director also said that while the OakDOT team has done \u201ca little bit better\u201d on collecting citations in the last year, they had not reached revenue targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n City Administrator Jestin Johnson said the finance team would pursue outstanding fare collections as \u201caggressively as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Edgerly, who joined the city as a consultant last year, 17 years after she was fired by then-Mayor Ron Dellums for allegedly interfering in a police investigation<\/a> amid other claims such as giving jobs<\/a> to her friends, joined yesterday\u2019s meeting by Zoom. She argued that the city\u2019s fiduciary responsibilities should be managed by the finance department \u201calone.\u201d She also said parking enforcement was successful under that department for many years in the 1990s and 2000s and that their staff already puts \u201cboots on the ground\u201d to collect revenue from scofflaws.\u00a0<\/p>\n The discussion on Tuesday was the first time the reorganization was publicly discussed by the council. City officials had previously hoped to fast-track the reorganization and implement it on Feb. 7; then, as city communications officer Jean Walsh told The Oaklandside last week, they moved the date to Feb. 21. At yesterday\u2019s meeting, the finance director did not say whether the public pushback and council review would force the city to move the reorganization data again. Joan Walsh, a city spokesperson, did not immediately respond to queries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Late last year, Ford, while he was still director of parking, asked Mayor Barbara Lee and the council to slow the process down to allow proper analysis of the proposal. Once they did, he said in his letter to the council, he suspected the city would find the reorg did not make sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the meeting yesterday, Unger, the District 1 councilmember, said he didn\u2019t care who ran parking as long as its staff ran things competently and were treated well.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI care about the functionality of the department and in the case of parking, have a few criteria: our revenues are strong and growing, our abandoned autos are being removed efficiently and quickly, is the public right of way being maintained clear and safe, and are workers themselves safe, experiencing high morale,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Skepticism over handing abandoned vehicle recovery to OPD<\/p>\n Unger expressed skepticism about one key part of the reorganization plan: giving abandoned auto recovery back to the Oakland Police Department, whose leaders have repeatedly said they don\u2019t have enough officers to do their regular police and investigative work.<\/p>\n Edgerly responded that she had spoken to the interim police chief and that he had assured her the department could handle the additional work. Finance director Johnson said in his presentation that \u201cprobably\u201d 70% of operations related to abandoned auto \u201care housed within the police department.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe hope for realigning abandoned auto functions is to ensure that there\u2019s a continued build capacity for ensuring that our right-of-ways are clear of vehicles that are not operable, that our neighborhoods are clean and secure, and that OPD has the functions by which to do that,\u201d Johnson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n An OPD press officer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Councilmember Noel Gallo and others at yesterday\u2019s meeting remained unconvinced that OPD could or should get back in the business of recovering abandoned vehicles.<\/p>\n The councilmember, who represents District 5, said that when he has referred abandoned autos to the police, including after a City Hall staffer had her car stolen, it took police officers a long time to get in touch. By comparison, he said, OakDOT parking division staff have responded quickly to pick up abandoned cars he reported. Councilmember Ken Houston, who represents District 7, concurred, saying he had recently worked with OakDOT to pick up 32 abandoned cars, and that OPD had been involved in only two of the recoveries.<\/p>\n \u201cI can call transportation, and they go immediately,\u201d Gallo said. \u201cThe police? Why, I gotta give out the reasons why I gotta have a police officer, and \u200a90% of the time, the police are too busy. And the only time that an officer would respond to me is if a vehicle is blocking a driver.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Frustration over lack of data<\/p>\n District 2 Councilmember Charlene Wang said Bradley Johnson\u2019s report recommending the reorganization lacked adequate detail and data.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aParking revenue generation, including before and after the reorg that happened in 2012, I\u2019d like to see a breakdown of how much was collected from meters,\u201d Wang said, \u201cand I\u2019ve been interested in seeing overlaying the sales tax revenue alongside that to see if there\u2019s an inverse relationship at all between parking revenue generation as well as sales tax.\u201d<\/p>\n During the public comment period, OakDOT parking planner Kerby Olsen, speaking as a member of his union, IFPTE Local 21, argued that the report\u2019s lack of detail failed to justify such a drastic move in the middle of the fiscal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHigh rates of delinquent citations and some unnamed customer service issues that justify the reorg, yet they offered no data or evidence to back this up,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, they provided no data or evidence at all. They\u2019re basically saying, \u2018Trust me, bro.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Olsen noted that dozens of OakDOT staff had signed a petition<\/a> opposing the move. He said that most other cities place parking management under their transportation departments, not under finance, a claim Ford made in a late-year analysis<\/a>, which found that peer comparisons of other California cities showed that most parking management fell under either transportation or police departments. Finance Director Johnson was asked by council members yesterday whether he had done a similar city comparison, and said he had not.\u00a0<\/p>\n Olsen also said the finance director may have underestimated the reorganization\u2019s cost.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure you have better ideas for what to do with $1.42 million per year than a Game of Thrones-style hostile takeover,\u201d he said to the council committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_4804-1-1600x1200.jpg\")
Bradley Johnson, who directs Oakland\u2019s finance department, argued that parking functions should fall under his purview. Credit: Jose Fermoso\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_4829-1-1600x1200.jpg\")
Michael Ford, who was until recently Oakland\u2019s director of parking, is strongly opposed to the proposed reorganization. Credit: Jose Fermoso\/ The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_4812-3-1600x1200.jpg\")
Councilmember Noel Gallo said he\u2019s found Oakland\u2019s transportation department far more responsive than police when he reports abandoned vehicles. Credit: Jose Fermoso\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/charlotte-niles-parking-technician-at-oakdot-1600x1200.jpg\")
Charlotte Niles, a city parking technician with over a decade of experience, also spoke out against the potential reorg on Tuesday. Credit: Jose Fermoso<\/p>\n