Climate Action And Housing Emergencies
Toney Chaplin officially resigns, Council discusses climate plan, and Hayward declares housing emergency
Toney Chaplin Officially Resigns
The City Council meeting started with the official resignation of now-former Chief of Police Toney Chaplin. He was hired from the San Francisco Police Department in 2019 and served until 2024—though he spent over a year on disability leave starting in August 2023.
During comments, current Chief Bryan Matthews reflected that Chaplin had led the Hayward Police Department through “one of, arguably, the toughest times in the profession,” referencing the 2020 Movement for Black Lives and uprising after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis PD. Having just been hired in 2019, the majority of Chaplin’s time at HPD was during and after the tragic events and subsequent social unrest in 2020.
During his own comments, Chaplin seemed to view the global pushback against an overly militarized and violent police state as a temporary storm that he and HPD weathered. “Things just kind of snowballed and got crazy,” he said, “we managed crazy and we dealt with crazy.” His comments continued to characterize organized resistance against state violence as mob behavior or a kind of temporary madness.
“The glue that held this thing [the City] together when chaos was all around us was the amazing people of the Hayward Police Department,” he said. “Council stood tall and backed us at times when it really wasn’t popular to do so.” According to the City website, there were six officer-involved shootings during Chaplin’s tenure as Police Chief, though the most recent murder of 37-year-old unhoused resident Antonio Lacunas-Escobar occurred while he was on disability leave.
Chaplin has doubtless retired at or near 100% of his highest salary, which is between $220,000 and $260,000 per year.
Commission Seat To Remain Vacant
During the Consent items, Councilmember Ray Bonilla Jr. took the time to thank former Planning Commissioner Aiden Ali-Sullivan for his work. They were appointed to the Planning Commission during the same year. Councilmember Bonilla Jr. also took the time to announce that “[Ali-Sullivan’s] seat will be filled during the annual appointment process in April or May.”
This came as a surprise to those keeping an eye on this, as the handbook is vague about this particular situation and no plan had been outlined publicly before then.
Mayor Mark Salinas also took time to thank Councilmember Angela Andrews for serving on so many committees for the City Council, saying that she is “the hardest working councilmember this side of the Mississippi.” Councilmember Andrews was appointed to seven committees, several of which involve technical aspects around water use, cleaning, and discharge.
It’s also possible that Mayor Salinas was attempting to pull Councilmember Andrews back into the fold after the contentious City Council vote last week, though both can be true at the same time.
Climate Action Plan
The Climate Action Plan moved from the Planning Commission into the full City Council. One of the most important implications which weren’t highlighted in previous reporting are that the plan calls for 223 actions and/or plans to be implemented by 2030 and 95 of those need to begin by the end of 2024. Also, in order to successfully fund the plans, the City will need to hire up to 8 more staff in the Transportation, Environmental Services, and Landscape and Maintenance Departments.
Costs
With so many projects and so much needed, the subject of cost was at the forefront of many councilmember’s minds. Councilmembers Andrews and Roche both expressed interest in getting help from other agencies to pay for the projects. Councilmember Andrews was especially concerned with the pollution from 880 and attempting to get CalTrans to help pay for some mitigation for residents living around it. Councilmember Roche focused on partnerships with AVA Energy to help pay for charging infrastructure and the transition of the City’s fleet to EVs. The fleet transition is a mandate from the State of California, so that will have to be handled in some way or another.
Councilmember Bonilla Jr.’s concerns about the financial feasibility of the projects is a valid one, as the City’s ability to raise funds has been drastically reduced since the introduction of Proposition 13. Because of that, getting outside funding to pay for projects like these is a large part of what City staff spends their time doing. The idea of getting CalTrans to pay for anything is an interesting one, if a long shot. Though the City has partnered with AVA energy on charging infrastructure in the past, as it benefits their bottom line to get more electric cars plugged into their grid.
Electric Vehicles and Road Emissions
Councilmembers Zermeño and Goldstein focused on the transition to EVs in an effort to tackle the largest portion of the City’s greenhouse gas emissions. Councilmember Goldstein pointed out that the upcoming state legislation banning the sale of internal combustion vehicles was only for new vehicles, so there are going to be a lot of regular cars on the road for some time.
Councilmembers Zermeño and Roche both asked questions about charging infrastructure and the financial and space costs of adding more. It is difficult to add charging to existing multi-family housing, so Staff said that more public charging will have to be added to nearby parking. And many on Council expressed concerns that EVs will be out of reach for many middle and low-income residents for some time, despite the rebates available.
This highlights even more starkly the need for more dense and walkable neighborhoods that don’t require vehicles of any kind. Councilmember George Syrop expressed a desire to “remove cars from the road, which is the larger goal we want to achieve here.” He highlighted the particulate pollution from EV tires as still being a big problem. Walking is also remarkably affordable and has many other benefits, too. Hopefully zoning and planning are a part of the environmental discussion in the coming months.
Hayward Municipal Airport
It came to light during discussions that emissions from the Hayward Municipal Airport weren’t counted in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions inventory presented by Staff. This was confused, many times, with the information on this map.
The above map is the CalEnviroScreen map, which includes many factors like emissions and income. The GHG Emissions Inventory was a separate pie chart. However, not including the airport in the GHG emissions is a massive oversight, especially considering most aircraft still use leaded gasoline. However, Councilmember Zermeño pointed out that the Hayward Executive Airport recently added facilities so that plane owners could purchase unleaded gasoline.
The result of this discussion around the airport was that City staff will bring an analysis of airport emissions to the Sustainability Committee for review as soon as they can. The committee will then bring a recommendation to the full council, possibly including an amendment to this plan to include the new information.
A Bold Plan Approved
“This plan is bold,” Councilmember Bonilla Jr. said, “These goals are aggressive but I totally support stretch goals.” And the plan is very bold. Needing to add 8 completely new positions is a big deal for City finances, though there’s a lot of FTEs in unfilled Police Officer positions.
But Mayor Salinas highlighted some of the difficult environmental wins the City has had in the recent past. “We were one of the first cities in the area that banned plastic bags,” he said. He also highlighted the Styrofoam ban and controls on takeout container materials. “We have had the courage to really see these policies through.” And I hope that the City is able to continue doing so, with all of the financial resources they can possibly bring to bear.
Declaring a Housing Emergency
The City of Hayward declared a Housing Emergency, following the declaration from Alameda County earlier this year. The main outcome of this emergency declaration are to make zoning laws more flexible so that existing shelters and service providers can increase capacity. There will still be minimums in place that the City will monitor, but it will hopefully result in more people getting the help they need.
It has the added benefit of easing partnerships with Alameda County, who holds a lot of housing and homelessness services funding, and hopefully making it easier to partner with and secure other sources of funding, too. Staff was also keen to note that the State of Emergency will only last until the end of March when the same measures will be incorporated into the Housing Element, effectively making them permanent without an emergency declaration.
Making Things Work Better
Councilmember Andrews asked how this would help both existing projects and any that are in the pipeline. The main way would be to speed up procurement from the County, essentially cutting paperwork and getting things more quickly to people who need them.
Councilmember Roche asked if we could help streamline the processes in place already and try to get them to work better. Staff explained that there are already processes in place to iterate and make things better, but they’ll keep doing that. A major issue with getting care can be navigating the multitude of NGO’s that provide care and NGO’s that help navigate the system are often needed, adding yet another layer.
Cooperating Across Borders
The City of Hayward wants to coordinate with Alameda County because they have a lot of money for these services. But because of the many layers and players involved, a lot of coordination is needed. “Our cities aren’t islands,” said Councilmember Roche, stressing the need for more coordination between cities and with the county.
Mayor Salinas highlighted a plan that the Council of Mayors has in the works to build a kind of East Bay-wide structure that will make it easier to coordinate resources and work together to combat homelessness. Councilmember Bonilla Jr., who also serves on the County Continuum of Care committee, highlighted the work they’re doing with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the EveryOne Home Project, which focuses on coordinated entry.
It Is An Emergency
One thing every person on City Council could agree on was that homelessness is an emergency. It’s an urgent crisis that needs to be addressed like one. “I’m glad we’re meeting the issue with the intensity it deserves,” said Councilmember Bonilla Jr. “Housing is a basic human right.”
While the way to solve the homelessness crisis is easy—put people in a home—the political and financial limitations make the problem much more complicated. While this declaration of emergency doesn’t immediately solve many of the issues around homelessness and housing, it does make it possible to do more. This is a step in the right direction, but the emergency won’t end when the declaration does.