Mission Statement

The Office of the City Administrator provides strategic leadership that supports the Mayor, City Council and City-wide Departments; the Office motivates and challenges the organization to deliver efficient and effective services toward equitable outcomes in the community.

Learn more about who we are and what we do here.

SERVICE IMPACTS & EQUITY CONSIDERATIONS

Enhancements

Housing Security & Homelessness Solutions

1. Adds 2.0 FTE Assistants to the City Administrator and deletes 1.0 FTE Deputy City Administrator. Two Assistants to the City Administrator can perform the required duties and provide the level of support needed in the Homelessness Administration Unit, and hiring at this job classification level will reduce staff costs in this Unit without negatively impacting the City’s homelessness administration or encampment services. The 2.0 FTE Assistants to the City Administrator will continue to advance the City’s efforts to address homelessness and provide services to unhoused residents, particularly to Black residents who are unhoused and who are disproportionately represented within the total population of unhoused residents in Oakland.
   • Equity Consideration: The Homelessness Administration Unit will get two additional staff to support the City’s work of addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crisis, which disproportionately impacts Black Oakland residents. An estimated 70% of people experiencing homelessness in Oakland identify as Black compared to 47% of the overall County’s population experiencing homelessness and 24% of the City’s population. These positions will support the City’s efforts in encampment services and exits out of homelessness for Oakland’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) unhoused residents.
2. Adds 1.0 FTE Project Manager III. This position will serve as the Housing Development Officer. This role would help lead the City’s housing development strategies and coordinate directly with the Mayor’s Office, departments, developers, and other government agencies to implement process improvements and/or policy changes to accelerate housing production, particularly housing designated for low, very low, and extremely low-income individuals. This position will also work closely with the newly created Citywide Permitting Ombudsperson to identify and implement enhancements to further streamline the City’s permitting processes.
   • Equity Consideration: The addition of this position will support Mayor Thao’s FY 2023-25 Budget Priority to streamline permitting processes and accelerate housing production. It will directly lead the City’s work of addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crisis, which disproportionately impacts Black Oakland residents. An estimated 70% of people experiencing homelessness in Oakland identify as Black compared to 47% of the overall County’s population experiencing homelessness and 24% of the City’s population. With this position added to give oversight to the City's housing development process, this will improve the City's affordable housing pipeline, which will directly benefit Oakland's low-income and unhoused BIPOC residents.

Community Safety, Prevention & Healing

1. Adds 1.0 FTE Assistant to the City Administrator and deletes 1.0 FTE Project Manager III. Replacing the vacant PM-III with an Assistant to the City Administrator position will support ongoing CAO operations at an appropriate classification level. The work this position will do includes supporting the Privacy Advisory Commission and supporting the Neighborhood Services Division’s NEST program’s work in areas of Oakland most impacted by crime and chronic disinvestment, particularly West and East Oakland. The Neighborhood Services Division currently has 5 Neighborhood Services Coordinator vacancies out of 10 positions total, which has significantly impacted the division’s capacity to support neighborhood councils and engage with neighborhoods/communities of greatest need. An Assistant to the City Administrator position can increase staff capacity and benefit the division’s operations by supporting data tracking and analysis, policy development, program evaluation and communication/outreach efforts.
   • Equity Consideration Through the creation of this position, the Neighborhood Services Division can improve data tracking and evaluation and thereby incorporate data more consistently when making programmatic or operational decisions. This has the potential to positively impact these groups by enabling Neighborhood Services Division to modify its operations and/or (re)allocate resources to serve residents in targeted areas more effectively based on findings and trends in the data and metrics.
2. Adds 1.0 FTE Project Manager II. This role will review prior Internal Affairs cases to mitigate risk and facilitate the civilization of Internal Affairs.
   • Equity Consideration: BIPOC people, particularly Black people, are likely to be victims of police misconduct. Additional review of these cases will help to ensure police misconduct will be addressed.

Clean, healthy, sustainable neighborhoods

1. Transfers the Summer Food Program from the Human Services Department (HSD) to the City Administrator’s Office (CAO), which includes 6.5 FTEs that cost approximately $600,000 to run the Summer Food program.
   • Equity Consideration: The federal Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) delivers free snacks and lunches during summer break. Approximately 33,000 children in the Oakland community depend on free and reduced-cost school meals during the school year. However, most families struggle to replace those meals for their children during the summer months. The City’s Summer Food Service Program bridges the meal gap by providing access to nutritious meals at convenient locations throughout Oakland while school is out of session. This program increase services to Oakland’s BlPOC communities that support their health and reduces health disparities.

Reductions

Good jobs and a vibrant economy

1. Continues to freeze vacant 1.0 FTE Assistant to the City Administrator. The position was designed to evolve the City’s performance management strategy, establish data standards and governance, and support City staff with data transparency, data storytelling, and analytics – with the overarching goal of supporting the City in closing equity gaps. Without an individual permanently in place to lead/guide the City’s efforts implementing comprehensive performance standards, each department will continue to face the same challenges in terms of lack of capacity or standards to consistently track data and make data-informed decisions. As a result, the City will be unable to accurately measure and fully understand the impacts of some programs and services over time on different groups throughout Oakland, which will make it more difficult to appropriately respond and address negative/harmful impacts.
   • Equity Consideration: This position was frozen during the FY 2022-2023 MidCycle Budget. As stated above, a dedicated centralized position is essential to building an ongoing culture of performance improvement throughout the organization and bridging the City’s siloed data efforts. Without a strong analytics program and standards in place Citywide, individual departments that do not already have systems, processes, or staff expertise to collect, track and apply data in decision-making are at risk of harming or adversely impacting Oakland’s low-income and disenfranchised BIPOC communities, because the department is unable to measure or track the impact of its programs and services in these communities. This may further exacerbate existing disparities in Oakland’s population based on race, geographic location, socio-economic status, and other factors. This position was intended to compliment the work of the Data Analyst III in the Department of Race and Equity which is also frozen in this budget.
2. Continues to freeze vacant 1.0 FTE Accountant III. This position was frozen in the FY 2022-23 MidCycle Budget. The City Administrator’s Office (CAO) has not had a designated Fiscal Manager since 2018, while the need for this support has increased as the CAO’s operations continue to expand and develop since that time. Continuing to freeze this position will impact CAO operations by requiring existing staff to dedicate significant time towards these processes and/or rely on other departments to provide this support on a part-time (sometimes inconsistent) basis. Without dedicated fiscal support and oversight, it is difficult for the CAO to implement and maintain department-wide budgetary strategies, priorities, or policies or consistently manage the department’s spending comprehensively across all units.
   • Equity Consideration: In the event of a budget-related issue, such as overspending, mistaken transfer or commitment of funds, or other error, significant staff time is often required to correct the issue, which can lead to interruptions in services or programming the CAO manages. As a result, BIPOC, low-income residents and other groups who access these services may be negatively impacted from these interruptions or delays in service.

Community Safety, Prevention & Healing

1. Freezes vacant 1.0 FTE Neighborhood Services Coordinator (NSC) and continues to freeze 1.0 FTE Neighborhood Services Coordinator from the FY 2022-23 MidCycle Budget. The Neighborhood Services Division currently has 5 Neighborhood Services Coordinator vacancies out of 10 positions total, which has significantly impacted the division’s capacity to support neighborhood councils and engage with neighborhoods/communities of greatest need. Services have been impacted from this division’s understaffing, and freezing these positions will not decrease current service levels as the division still can hire 3 additional NSCs to provide outreach to the community.
   • Equity Consideration: Understaffing of NSC positions impacts Neighborhood Services Division’s capacity to engage and support neighborhood councils and communities most impacted by violence, crime, and chronic disinvestment, which historically have been Oakland’s BIPOC communities.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGETARY CHANGES

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

POSITION INFORMATION