{"id":413888,"date":"2026-07-27T14:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413888\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:44:16","slug":"councilmember-houston-helps-deter-trend-to-award-contracts-to-suburban-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413888\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilmember Houston Helps Deter Trend to Award Contracts to Suburban Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pushes for Oakland-based Firms to Provide Repair for City-Operated Vehicles<\/p>\n

Part 1<\/p>\n

Concerned about how Oakland-based and\/or minority firms have been \u201csystematically omitted from bidding on millions of dollars of city work through the \u2018waiver process\u2019 and through neglect,\u201d Oakland City Councilmember Ken Houston challenged an agenda item at Tuesday\u2019s council meeting that would have awarded more than $6 million to suburban contractors for body and fender work on City vehicles.\n<\/p>\n

Houston said, \u201cI was concerned that, of the contracts presented, only one was awarded to a small, homegrown Oakland business \u2014 Quality Body & Fender located on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The remaining contracts\u2014with the exception of one additional contract added\u2014were awarded to vendors located outside of the City of Oakland (Dixon, Concord and San Leandro), leaving out certified Oakland businesses, some of whom have been here for over 30 years.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs both a City Councilmember and someone who was born and raised in Oakland, I believe we have a responsibility to invest in the businesses that invest in our community. When qualified local companies have the expertise and capacity to perform the work, they deserve a fair opportunity to compete for City contracts.<\/p>\n

TrendingPatriots Bar Darrelle Revis\u2019 Mom from Super Bowl Ring Party<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud to see Oakland\u2019s Quality Body & Fender receive a $1.05 million City contract. This award recognizes a longstanding Oakland business and reflects the values that local companies bring to our community. Supporting qualified local vendors helps strengthen our local economy, creates opportunities for Oakland jobs and businesses, and keeps public investment circulating within our city,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s comments bring to mind the recent disparity study by Mason Tillman Associates for Oakland, which concluded that African American and women-owned businesses did not receive contracts comparable to their populations, but moreover nearly 65% of the city\u2019s prime contracts were awarded to non-Oakland businesses.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting local businesses means investing in our own economy,\u201d Houston said. \u201cWhen we keep Oakland City dollars local, we strengthen small businesses, create jobs, and build long-term economic prosperity for our community.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

A procurement process that values Local and Small Business Enterprise (L\/SBE) participation should recognize the broader economic benefits of awarding contracts to qualified Oakland businesses, he said.\n<\/p>\n

Houston introduced Enoch Shin, operator of an automobile repair company at 1722 International Blvd., as an example of a business owner who is losing money, employees, and opportunities to generate revenues for Oakland.\n<\/p>\n

Shin said he has lost $6 million in the last two years and laid off 19 employees, a workforce that consisted of African Americans, Asians, Indians, and many others.\n<\/p>\n

Houston noted that the issue will come up for further consideration this fall before the full City Council.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI will continue advocating for a procurement process that gives qualified, local vendors meaningful opportunities to compete while recognizing the long-term value of keeping Oakland\u2019s investments in Oakland.\n<\/p>\n

Houston encouraged all Oaklanders to participate in the upcoming City Council hearing. \u201cYour voice matters, and together we can ensure our city\u2019s investments benefit the people and businesses that call our community home,\u201d Houston said.\n<\/p>\n

He also announced that he will accept an invitation to join a citywide town hall with the Post Impact Foundation, inviting the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to lead the Oakland business community and the Port of Oakland to join with other business advocates from the Black, Asian and Hispanic communities. \u201cA lot of these decisions to exclude Oakland-based businesses are being made by city staff who don\u2019\u2019 live here,\u201d Houston said.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pushes for Oakland-based Firms to Provide Repair for City-Operated Vehicles Part 1 Concerned about how Oakland-based and\/or minority…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[165626,387,67553,179,383,165627,93,405,14795,119403,165628,165629,165630,84083,974,143,145,144,165631,13,6827,165632,165633],"class_list":["post-413888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-automobile-repair","tag-business","tag-city-contracts","tag-community","tag-economy","tag-enoch-shin","tag-featured","tag-government","tag-ken-houston","tag-local-vendors","tag-local-business-contracts","tag-mason-tillman-associates","tag-metropolitan-chamber-of-commerce","tag-minority-owned-businesses","tag-national","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-economy","tag-politics","tag-port-of-oakland","tag-post-impact-foundation","tag-quality-body-fender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413888","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=413888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}