Council's Back In Session, Baby!
In Which: Council votes on new Commissioners to interview. The Weekes Branch gets money for near-term upgrades. And Unions win a 13% COLA and more in new contracts.
Commission And Task Force Appointments
It’s that time of year again: Commission and Task Force Appointment Season! This is where residents can dip their toes into the waters of Local Government by taking part in one of the following appointed bodies:
The Personnel Commission
The Library Commission
The Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force
The Community Services Commission
The Planning Commission
During Council’s half-hour session—which will be streamed on Zoom, but may not be recorded—they’ll vote on applicants to see who makes it to the interview next week. Due to some previous issues, the Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force and the Community Services Commission didn’t take applications this year. But the rest of them have at least one position open.
The most politically important one is the Planning Commission: it’s where future establishment Councilmembers get a feel for the dais—they’re the only body that uses the Council chambers. Of the new Councilmember cohort, 3/4 of them served on the Planning Commission immediately before joining Council—and Andrews did, too, in 2020.
The Staff Report also gives data on the bodies, including their racial/ethnic make-up. For example, Planning is 50% Black women while Black people make up 9% of Hayward, and Keep Hayward Clean and Green is almost half White people while White people are only 14% of Hayward. The data for the Planning Commission also grouped Hispanic and Pacific Islander into one category, which is unusual.
The neighborhood representation is also interesting, since districting is coming soon. There are some parts of the City that don’t have an official neighborhood designation, but Low-Density Residential and Medium-Density Residential are listed as neighborhoods. Council usually attempts to make the appointed bodies representative of the City population, though that isn’t always possible.
Each new applicant needs at least three City Councilmembers to vote for them to progress to the interviews next week. A lot of votes is no guarantee that they’ll do well, however—last year’s unanimously voted-for candidate for Planning didn’t even get to be an alternate after their interview. We’ll cover the interviews as best we can next week.
These Items Practice Consent
The things below likely aren’t going to be talked about during the Council meeting tonight because they’re considered “non-controversial.” But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth knowing about.
Hiring Bonus Extended to Call Takers
The City is expanding its hiring bonus program to include Dispatch Call Takers—a step below Communication Officers and the first people to answer a 911 call. Using some of the Police Department’s ~$3,000,000 per year in salary savings, new hires will receive a $5,000 hiring bonus in 4 phases. The City already offers a $10,000 hiring bonus to Communication Operators and Sworn Officers, but they’re extending it to Call Takers in an effort to bulk out the understaffed Dispatch department.
HPD is hoping to hire between 5-7 Call Takers a year to the tune of $25,000 in hiring bonuses per year—less than 1% of HPD’s annual salary savings.
Permanent Council Committee to Cover Housing Policy
In early July the Homelessness and Housing Task Force unanimously recommended that the task force be converted to a permanent committee. Staff recommended adjusting the role of the committee to focus on:
Reviewing non-time sensitive, impactful projects or policies to allow opportunity for community engagement and preliminary feedback from HHTF
Identifying and evaluate new projects/policies to determine if they should be proposed for inclusion in the Strategic Roadmap
Receiving an annual report related to implementation of the City’s housing policies, and members report the highlights to the City Council
Although the new Housing Policy and Resource Committee (HPRC) won’t cover homelessness policy and recommendations, that’s only because the Homelessness State of Emergency sends all homelessness items directly to the full Council. So although HHTF is permanent, its scope is a bit different and more focused.
It’s unclear whether or not this change will generate increased public engagement like Mayor Salinas wanted last Spring. Councilmember Goldstein suggested that the reason for lower engagement is because the Council is doing a good job. But as new housing policy is written to respond to historically high rents, things could get more heated.
HARD And The City Have An Accord On Parks
Two parks, Twin Bridges Park and Gordon E. Oliver Eden Shores Park, will be getting new playground infrastructure in the coming months. Although both parks are owned and maintained by the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD), an agreement between HARD and the City says that any durable infrastructure needs to be paid for by the City.
$745,000 is going to GameTime (MRC) to pay for new playgrounds at both Twin Bridges and Gordon E. Oliver Eden Shores Parks. Thankfully, that money only comes from the people in the Landscape and Lighting Assessment District (LLAD) who pay extra into the district to fund projects like this.
City To Receive $6,000,000 to Fund Active Transportation
The City will receive a grant of over $6,000,000 to fund Safe Routes and Active Transportation for Schools projects. The majority of the money will go to the Safe Routes projects, each tied to a local school with concept maps. We’ve discussed the limitations of these projects before—most of them focus on small enhancements to the streets immediately adjacent to the school, likely to limited benefit.
But ~$500,000 of the grant will be split between 3 local nonprofits and HUSD to fund different active transportation projects. Teach Earth Action, a nonprofit started by Chabot College faculty, will get $73,750 to do outreach and engagement, presumably at Chabot College. Bike East Bay will receive $145,585 to engage with HUSD schools, students, and student families. TransForm will get $221,000 to host educational classes and events for students and the community. And HUSD will receive $80,000 to install bike parking and partner with TransForm and the City on community engagement.
While noble and important, this engagement strategy fails to address the experience of biking in Hayward, which can be uncomfortable or dangerous. Mayor Salinas, in his role on the Alameda County Transportation Commission, has floated the idea of buying bicycles for all students in Hayward. But this would also not address the safety of cyclists in a built environment that caters almost exclusively to automobile traffic.
Weekes Branch To Get Upgraded
The City is set to allocate almost $900,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds—from the Federal Government—to renovate the Weekes Branch Library. The money will fund a repainted interior, new carpeting, and new molding throughout the building. A new HVAC system will be extended into the data room, and new lighting will be installed inside and outside. New bookshelves will also be installed for library materials. The Library is hoping to spend $458,000 on new furniture, as well.
These upgrades will also come as the City is pursuing an extension of Measure C, some of the funding from which may be used to either further renovate Weekes or, as some have suggested, build an entirely new building. It’s unclear if the new custom furniture and upgrades will be incorporated into those plans.
Concerningly, the upgrades were primarily justified by crime statistics. “Crime rates in Hayward are comparatively high, with the FBI reporting a total of 3,653 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2021,” the Staff Report states, “This figure is 55% higher than the national average of 2,346 and 41% above the State’s average, which stands at 2,581.” Calls for security, up to and including erecting barriers around the library to deter homeless residents, have been taken up by multiple Councilmembers, including Councilmembers Andrews and Zermeño.
However, improving the infrastructure won’t solve the underlying problems until the poverty and systemic disinvestment in South Hayward is addressed. Funding shelter programs, workforce programs, and mental health and addition programs—perhaps with a few million from the police budget—would directly improve the lives of local residents. But Weekes Park—directly adjacent to the Weeks Branch Library—has been experiencing these problems for over 50 years, so big change won’t come overnight.
Staff Unions Win New Contracts
SEIU, HAME, and IFPTE have been in contract negotiations with the City of Hayward for over 4 months. Tonight, the contracts will finally get approved by the City Council. The most prominent change is a 13% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) over the next 3 years of the Contract for all 3 bargaining groups, as well as a Continuous Service Pay increase of 2.5% at 15, 20, and 25 years.
Amid historic inflation and shrinking budgets, this is a victory for the City’s workers. Other additions include adding federally mandated holidays, reproductive loss leave, and equity adjustments for some workers who are paid below the area median. This will be good news for both the represented workers and local residents who rely on their work every day.
“I’m proud of what the Bargaining Team and I were able to accomplish,” Evelyn Olivera, the SEIU Clerical Chapter President said, “However, we’re not done. We will continue to advocate for our colleagues on any unresolved issues not settled at the table.” The contracts also include a standard no-strike clause, which lasts through the contract’s three-year term. The additional cost to the City over the next 3 years will be just under $4,000,000—a small price to pay to maintain our valuable City workforce.