Much Ado About Jail
A GHAD meeting happens, The jail is scrutinized, and Interesting infrastructure projects are enumerated
GHAD-zooks
Not much exciting happened with the GHAD because, to be honest, it’s a fairly boring kind of item. That being said, it was interesting how many developments are offloading property onto the GHAD: Hideaway Homes and SoMi are going to send property to GHAD, too.
Mostly the GHAD seems to handle “open space monitoring for geologic hazards, preventative maintenance, and landowner duties” according to Staff. But if you’re really into it, you can either look at the GHAD website or stay tuned for a presentation that Councilmember George Syrop requested to sum up what the GHAD is all about.
Back To The Council
The City Council met as both the Hayward City Council and the Hayward Housing Authority. I’m not entirely certain why they needed to be the Housing Authority, though it’s likely because they were approving the Habitat for Humanity project on A Street.
Public Comment Mezcla
A person stepped up to complain about his experience with the Housing Authority regarding fees and attempting to evict someone living in their garage. It seemed like a pretty complicated situation and they brought a whole folder of paperwork, complicated even further by the live translation (it feels much smoother to conduct translation similarly to how the HUSD Board does it, where the person has their time to speak and then the translator reads back a fully translated message). They were directed to the City Manager.
Another person spoke up about speeding on Tennyson and a big accident that occurred near the intersection of Tennyson and Pacific. They pushed for a traffic signal at the intersection, though given the penchant for folks to run red lights these days, perhaps there should be more focus on road diets and eliminating excess lane width to combat the issue.
Finally, a person called in to push the City Council to draft a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Palestine. They cited the City of Richmond’s resolution and alleging that Hayward alone sends approximately $1,000,000 per year to the Israeli military which could be better spent on other local resources.
A Sprinkle of Consent Comments
Councilmember Syrop asked about the timeline on the proposed pedestrian improvements on Mission Blvd that will be coming in tandem with the East Bay Greenway project. Staff explained that it would happen at the same time as the rest of the project, so it will not have a separate timeline.
Rack of Lamb with Mint Jail-y
The City of Hayward Jail was the subject of most of the meeting. The City contracted with Jensen Hughes, which just so happens to be the same firm that Hayward Police Department (HPD) contracts with to investigate officer-involved shootings, to do an assessment of the City Jail. It’s likely the primary reason for this is that the Jail is currently attached to the main HPD office on Winton, and that building is almost certainly going to be replaced in the next few years.*
While we continue to decry the City’s over-reliance on consultants, making data-informed decisions is important for everything. The primary takeaways from the report are that they conducted 15 interviews (though the public was only involved in one of those interviews in any capacity and 9 were directly with Police officers of varying levels), and they came back with several findings. Acting Police Chief Matthews highlighted the following:
The Jail is currently bigger than needed
There is no physician identified for the Jail
Workstations are inadequate
What we also found interesting in the findings were:
Data collection was inadequate
There was a need to establish procedures for the Jail
The jail currently serves primarily as a temporary facility (rarely held more than 24 hours)
The website information is out of date and needs improvement
The community doesn’t want a focus on addressing crime with arrests and incarceration
We had an initial concern that so many of the findings were already being addressed at the time the report was released, and it turns out that HPD heard the feedback verbally and began acting to fix it right away instead of waiting on the report. This is commendable, to their credit.
It’s also notable that HPD is pushing to keep the jail as a Type 1 Jail, which means they can hold people for up to 96 hours (basically over a weekend). In practice, though, the report and HPD openly admit that they almost never use it for that long, with the vast majority of people being released within 24 hours.
*Editor’s Note: The extension of the Measure C bond, which the City will almost certainly be putting to the vote in 2024, will, in part, fund the construction of a new Police station to replace the building on Winton.
A Smattering of Concern
The Hayward Concerned Citizens* had a few members call in to support maintaining a Type 1 jail. They cited concerns about transport times, the cost of the report, concern about not having a jail (despite that not being a recommendation from anyone), and framed a jail as an “essential service” despite multiple municipalities in the area operating without one. Concerned Citizens also wondered why they weren’t consulted on the issue, stating that they “always [want] to support our wonderful Hayward Police.”
*Editor’s Note: The Hayward Concerned Citizens have been outspoken supporters of HPD. They were formed as a backlash against the Defund movement and the Hayward Community Coalition, and, according to rumor, may have active members in the low single digits despite having a large presence on the premier platform for overreacting neighbors, Nextdoor.
The Council Digs In
When Council gave their comments, the primary concerns focused around staffing and cost savings, the size of the jail, data collection, and the difference between a “Temporary Facility” and a “Type 1” jail.
Roast Savings and Bread Staffing
A popular way to save money is to inspect staffing costs. The report mentioned that Community Service Officers (CSO’s), which are unarmed civilians who undergo special training but aren’t sworn officers, are some of the primary people who staff the jail (because they aren’t sworn officers, they’re also paid less). Using CSO’s has the benefit of significant cost savings and being positions that are easier to fill than sworn officers (who frequently use Hayward as a springboard to other, more lucrative local jurisdictions). Councilmember Francisco Zermeño noticed that even with that, there were currently 2 CSO vacancies in the jail, but Acting Chief Matthews assured him that the vacancies have people in training who will be slotted into them shortly.
Councilmember Ray Bonilla Jr. asked about the cost of transporting people to Santa Rita (where people get held if they can’t be held at the local jail anymore) and wondered if CSO’s could cover those duties as opposed to sworn officers. He also asked about the cost difference between maintaining a Temporary Facility or a Type 1, and the cost is mostly in training, which is more extensive for those maintaining a Type 1.
Councilmember Syrop asked clarifying questions around how the CSO’s currently do their work, since there was a concern that they spent a lot of time running from task to task across the building. He hoped that in the future there could be some specialization, so that there would be less time spent going back-and-forth. Councilmember Bonilla also pressed on inefficiencies and hopes that the CSO program can expand in the future to both save costs and free up sworn officers for other duties.
Councilmember Angela Andrews also had questions about CSO’s that focused around HEART, and hoped that CSO’s could potentially expand into that program. Her concern arose from the rumor that unhoused people were attempting to get arrested on purpose to get food and shelter. Perhaps rather than pumping additional funding into training CSO’s, we could perhaps give more money to the Community Services Commission to fund the food and shelter programs that our unhoused neighbors rely upon.
A Sprinkle of Data To Make It Just Right
However, the biggest cost savings going forward would likely come from a smaller jail overall. Currently the capacity is 76 people, and during questions from Councilmember Julie Roche, Acting Chief Matthews expressed that in his 25 years at HPD, the busiest he’s ever seen it is at 25 to 30 people. With a reduction of 2/3rds, that would significantly cut down the needed staff.
There was general support for a smaller facility in the future, given the data. And data gathering and data-informed decision making was also a highlight for the Council. Mayor Mark Salinas’ only real comment was highlighting how glad he was that data was actually being collected to allow good decision making.
A Tasting Flight of Jails
Most of the questioning focused around the different types of jail. There are two that were on the table:
Temporary Facility: People can only be held for up to 24 hours
Type 1: People can be held for up to 96 hours
A detail that isn’t immediately obvious, however, is that in practicality, a temporary facility is essentially a place to process people before shipping them to Santa Rita as soon as possible. This not only has the additional costs of transporting them, but also, Santa Rita is… problematic, to say the least. Councilmember Zermeño was in support of a Type 1, though that was before this detail was unveiled. No other councilmember spoke specifically on the issue, beyond asking clarifying questions. Councilmember Dan Goldstein spoke glowingly about HPD and other local law enforcement agencies, so there’s reason to believe he’ll go that direction, as well.
This was a work session item, so no vote was taken, but keep an eye out for a vote in the future.
Infrastructure Smorgasbord
There was an informational item that wasn’t discussed much at all, that outlines some of the infrastructure projects that are currently underway. Councilmember Andrews highlighted some that piqued her interest: a Downtown Parking Program (on hold), Mural art for underpasses (in planning), a potential fund for street lights by the Stack center, and Bridge Structure maintenance (expected Q3).
Ones that jumped out to us were:
Alameda County Aerial Photography (funding provided to the County)
Campus drive improvements (Complete, but sidewalk may be coming)
Citywide EV Charging Strategy (Coming to the Council Sustainability Committee in January)
Community Planning (Density Bonus update coming) - Hype
EV Compact Bike Lane Sweeper (Purchase Order Issued)
GIS Data Development and Conversion (In planning) - Love that dashboard
Green Hayward PAYS Program (Abandoned) - No idea what this is
Hayward Blvd. Safety Improvement Feasibility Study (Did not proceed further based on community feedback)
Hesperian Blvd and West A St. Protected Intersections (Complete) - Still looks a mess
Intersection Improvement Project (Ongoing)
Jackson Corridor Median Improvement, incl. Monument at Jackson/Silva (Monument in planning/preliminary survey/engineering, docs prepared by Jan/Feb) - Pet project of Andrews and Roche
La Vista Park (In design phase, rebid by end of year)
Main Street Complete Street Project (Ongoing Design) - Eyes out for that
Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program (Ongoing. Granted Hazel Garden funding for tree removal)
Noise Monitoring (as needed) - No explanation for what this is
Patrick/Gading Complete Street Project (Gading to be completed by end of FY 24) - What a pain that turned into
Property Acquisition Managemenet (City Center Deconstruction complete. Ongoing. Procuring consultant for this work.)
Safe Routes to Schools - Palma Ceia (Design phase)
Signal Modification At Huntwood/Industrial & Huntwood/Sandoval (In construction, but needs more $$ for signal replacement)
STACK Center (Breaking ground January 2024)
Sulphur Creek 10-Year Environmental Monitoring (monitoring being performed)
Water Heater Replacement Program (Start before end of year)
and a LOT of projects at the Wastewater Treatment Facility (17 in total)
So there’s a lot of infrastructure projects going on in the City! It can be horrible during construction, but it almost always gets better in the end (looking at you, Hesperian and West A Street intersection).
Announcement Digestifs
This section of the meeting is when Councilmembers make announcements about other things that don’t really fit anywhere else on the agenda and don’t need discussion.
Councilmember Syrop took the time to relay a story about how, near his home, a car crashed into a fire hydrant and into a liquor store. He called the Police and received a response in a very timely manner. He applauded the response time and said “I’m hopeful that everybody who’s able to call our emergency services is able to get a similar response.”
Councilmember Angela Andrews celebrated that the EPA is developing a roadmap to deal with PFAS (though who knows how long it will take or how effective it will be, since they can still be produced). She also celebrated the inclusion in nature-based solutions for wastewater treatment, which sounds like an amazing win-win given where our wastewater treatment plant is. And lastly, she celebrate the People’s Budget projects, with a hat tip to Councilmember Syrop*.
Mayor Salinas uplifted the Ruby Bridges Walk conducted by Burbank Elementary (van Aguilas) this past Tuesday. He also talked about the invite-only Mayor’s Conference he hosted, which included all 14 Mayors and City Managers of Alameda County and discussed the intersections of schools and local municipal governments, covering topics like “development, housing, economic development” and other areas. The Education City push continues.
*Councilmember Syrop, before he was elected and as a part of the Hayward Community Coalition, advocated heavily for the People’s Budget in 2020 as a way to redirect funds away from the carceral state and toward community programs and development.