Now starting Public Safety, on agenda tonight of note, the OPD's annual surveillance technology report, and a 1.4 MM no bid contract for OPD that would at a minimum tow derelict boats, but may be for evicting anchor outs.

Apparently, the OPD surveillance annual report is being pulled from the agenda because its mistakenly agendized as an info item instead of a resolution, which is required by city law.

Houston asked if OPD can add "charges and convictions, not just arrests" from Flock. DC Ausmus agreed.

Okay, OO will be mostly covering the Lind Marine contract. We'll see if OPD can flesh out what its looking for out of this contract, which has conflated towing out derelict vessels and evicting anchor outs and towing away, and possibly destroying their vessels.

Oh, maybe they will reveal something about the fixed wing aircraft during the COPS grant item. I have a feeling no one will mention it, like some soviet era memory hole.

These are actually two years worth of COPS grants combined worth $1.4 MM. Much of it is administrative and crime lab, computer replacements and upgrade. About 550K of the funding is for helicopter repair and fuel.

Brown asks about what appears to be an unusually large grant in the first year, she says its usually about $600K

There's also 50K here for marketing for academies. Fife asks about other bay area cities that are offering bonuses in the tens of thousands.

Fife says that no one has answered this question, about how OPD competes when other police departments are all low on staff and competing for applicants.

OPD staffer notes that the helicopter contract is 850K...again, no one has mentioned the OPD commitment to buy a Fixed Wing Aircraft to avoid the yearly spending.

Devries brings up FWA: "it's got a 5 MM price tag..." so I guess they walked away from it due to cost and are just going to dump almost a million a year instead for helicopters the OPD themselves say are out of their prime and falling apart.

Wang has been asking why they don't spend the COPS grant to defray personnel spending, Devries says that one time fundings aren't a good spending use since it may not be available

OPD finally addressing the issue about FWA: "the fixed wing has been a topic of discussion for a few years now,...it does have a significant price tag up front, but there are significant cost saving...due to the age of our aircraft, both of them being in excess of 30 years old"

OPD: "at this point, helicopters do have an operating cost of roughly $1,000 an hour, whereas the airplane that we proposed at this point has a maintenance cost of about 300/hour"

Looks like we're having the yearly conversation about how expensive it is to pay for helicopter maintenance. I will say that the previous council pushed OPD on purchasing FWA, as a replacement that would save money over time. But this Council seems to have no clue.

They're having the same conversation all over again about FWA. FWA was a key convo of the past three years and at one point OPD sought PAC approval for the surveillance/visual system necessary for high altitude. Fife recalls that this FWA item was discussed "ad nauseum"

Here's my reporting on the OPD's use policy for the Fixed Wing Aircraft, which would add an actual whole nother surveillance system to OPD's arsenal, because, unlike ARGUS, FWAs fly too high for unaided visuals https://oakland-observer.ghost.io/price-recall-could-cost-20-mm-as-signature-gathering-triggers-legal-concerns-oakland-ceasefire-reso-spurs-right-wing-backlash-more/…

Ironic moment as CM Houston asked what a term used in a report, "toxic masculinity" means. Then asked DVP Chief Joshi to send him "something on that"

No matter how many times its explained in now dozens of reports, DVP's admins always have to explain that Ceasefire isn't meant to solve all homicides, but focused on a specific organized networks who may drive violence higher in cycles of violence and revenge.

Public comment will still be heard for the annual surveillance reports even though they were pulled.

Lots of issues with the $1.4 MM Lind Marine contract, including a not very well explained rationale for waiving competitive bidding, and a vague scope

OPD rep explaining...40 sunken boats scattered, 20-25 abandoned boats in estuary..."we are seeking to utilize federal and state grant funds and utilize Lind Marine to remove sunken and abandoned vessels..."

OPD: "this is a very specific kind of work and Lind offers the most environmentally friendly and timely"

OPD again mentioned the issues of BCDC potentially fining as the reason for urgency, that again has never happened, but no one questioned it. By the time I finished this tweet they forwarded it unanimously.

The OPD report definitely makes it seem like they intend to interdict anchor-outs, but no one asked about it and the rep didn't mention anchor outs. It could have just been brought over from the abandoned vessel text or something, I guess

That's it for the meeting and for Committee meetings for the calendar year. There's one more Council meeting before several weeks of winter break, and n ew meetings in January.