Drivers on I-880 this week may have noticed a curious ad flashing at them from a billboard next to the highway. A black-and-white image depicts a muscular man in a tank top superimposed against the skyline of downtown Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSon of Oakland,\u201d the sign reads. \u201cFor the People, with the People.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Squinting, drivers may not be able to make out the face of the mystery man. But many will immediately recognize the distinctive tagline of District 7 Councilmember Ken Houston, who refers to himself as \u201cSon of Oakland.\u201d The image on the billboard is the same one that Houston uses as a cover photo<\/a> on Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not unprecedented for Oakland politicians to appear on billboards<\/a> during political campaigns. But Houston isn\u2019t up for reelection this year. When The Oaklandside asked him about the ad, Houston said this was a personal expenditure.\u00a0<\/p>\n The board we saw featuring Houston, stationed just off 7th Street near the Market Street exit of I-880, is owned by Becker Boards, a company with multiple double-sided digital billboards in Oakland. To operate the boards, Becker struck agreements to pay Oakland sizable fees, offer money to nonprofits, and free advertising to local chambers of commerce and community organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston said he reached out to the company a while ago to buy ad space. He said he made a partial payment in May and a second in June, paying for the ad out of pocket. He\u2019s glad it\u2019s finally up.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI forgot all about it,\u201d Houston said this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oaklandside sent Houston follow-up questions about how much he paid for the billboards and how long his ads will be up. Houston called the reporter, swore at him, and told him to lose his number.\u00a0<\/p>\n Becker\u2019s director of land development, Nema Link, provided a statement via text message but declined to speak further on the record. Link did not discuss the terms of Houston\u2019s ad buy. But he said that nonprofit organizations and the city have access to dedicated free advertising through his company\u2019s agreements with Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBillboards are also available at a daily, weekly, or monthly rate for anyone who wants to get their message out,\u201d Link wrote. \u201cAny ads on our signs are through one of these mechanisms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if any other councilmembers have paid for billboard spots with Becker Boards or other billboard companies operating in Oakland. The Oaklandside was unable to locate any on I-880 this week.<\/p>\n City Council recently amended one of Becker Board\u2019s deals. Houston was a key vote<\/p>\n Becker Boards has secured<\/a> two different relocation agreements<\/a> with the city in recent years that allow the company to remove existing boards and replace them with a smaller number of double-sided digital ones. Becker agreed to give the city upfront payments and contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars annually over several decades to Oakland\u2019s coffers. Becker also agreed to give free advertising to local community organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston, who took office last year, voted to approve<\/a> Becker\u2019s second deal in 2025. Last month, he joined some of his colleagues in approving a proposal<\/a> that amended Becker\u2019s first agreement with the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the 2023 deal, Becker agreed to pay the city $250,000 every year. The company also promised to give five nonprofit organizations $100,000 every year, plus free advertising to local chambers of commerce and community groups. This community benefits portion of the agreement was a major feature of Becker\u2019s proposal: at council meetings in 2023, dozens of Becker supporters showed up in matching green shirts<\/a> to urge the council to pass the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Alameda County Grand Jury later raised concerns<\/a> about the 2023 agreement. According to the grand jury\u2019s report, one of the councilmembers who backed the deal has a spouse who served on the board of directors of a local chamber of commerce that financially benefited from the contract, creating a potential conflict of interest. The San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> identified the councilmember as Noel Gallo. The City Council disagreed with the report\u2019s findings<\/a> and stated that there were no known conflicts of interest that would have required the councilmember to recuse himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n The revisions<\/a> approved by the council last month change how Becker will share money with the city and its nonprofit partners. Instead of paying a fixed rate, Becker will now set aside 20% of its advertising revenue collected from the signs covered by that agreement each year. Half of that sum will be paid to the city, and the remainder split equally among several nonprofit organizations. Oakland will get at least $250,000 every year, but the nonprofits are no longer guaranteed a set chunk of money. Gallo was the councilmember who sponsored this legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Citing \u201ceconomic forces in the Oakland Advertising Signs market,\u201d Becker requested the changes in payments to ensure the signs continue operating while still guaranteeing at least $250,000 annually to the city, according to legislation accompanying the proposal. The legislation also noted that city officials wanted to make the change to increase the portion of funds Oakland receives.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an unusual move, the council forwarded this item directly to a full council meeting for approval, without having it first heard by a subcommittee. The council also placed it on the consent agenda, which is generally used for legislation that has already been unanimously approved by a subcommittee. Three councilmembers \u2013 Zac Unger, Carroll Fife, and Kevin Jenkins \u2013 voted against<\/a> the proposal, which made Houston\u2019s vote critical for its passage.\u00a0<\/p>\n Residents showed up at the June meeting to support the revisions, saying that Becker\u2019s free advertising has been a massive boon for small businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, Becker Boards has become more than just a billboard program,\u201d said Stephanie Tran, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. \u201cIt has become a valuable asset and community resource that helps promote local businesses, public awareness campaigns, and neighborhood initiatives. And for many organizations and small businesses, this type of visibility would otherwise be financially out of reach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n During his initial call with The Oaklandside, Houston said he doesn\u2019t see a conflict in his dealings with Becker. He said he didn\u2019t speak with its representatives about the legislative proposal, and they didn\u2019t give him a discount on his ad.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t ask for one,\u201d Houston said, adding that when he worked as a contractor he would get frustrated with people trying to avoid paying full price. \u201cYou got to support the businesses in Oakland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drivers on I-880 this week may have noticed a curious ad flashing at them from a billboard next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[110471,9970,14795,143,5365,145,144],"class_list":["post-411283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-becker-boards","tag-interstate-880","tag-ken-houston","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-city-council","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}