Oakland Global Newsletter

Oakland Global News, March 2015

Dear Reader,

Oakland Global News is a monthly newsletter for readers interested in staying current as the Oakland Global Trade & Logistics Center (former Oakland Army Base) project evolves. We hope you enjoy our March 2015 update.

Oakland Global Dominates Local Hiring

A recent City of Oakland report shows that since breaking ground in late 2013, the Oakland Army Base project has generated more Oakland resident work hours than all 2013-2014 construction projects that received city funding. Combined.

The project, known as the Oakland Global Trade & Logistics Center, posted 97,315 Oakland hours and 38,217 apprentice hours. That’s 6,003 more Oakland resident hours and 6,675 more apprentice hours than the 71other projects that received at least a portion of their funding from the City of Oakland. A distant second was the California Hotel, a San Pablo Avenue housing renovation, which posted 12,599 Oakland resident hours.

The city generated the report after receiving an anonymous public records request in February 2015.

Job creation and local hiring has been a priority of the city, the community and the lead Oakland Global developer, California Capital & Investment Group (CCIG), since the public-private Oakland Global project was formalized in 2008. CCIG, unions, the city, community advocates and employers collaborated to create what local employment advocates have called a “landmark” jobs policy, which prioritizes the hiring of local and disadvantaged workers, including formerly incarcerated job seekers.

The project employment requirements are spelled out in a binding agreement with the City of Oakland and a community benefits agreement. The documents dictate that 50 percent of Oakland Global construction hours must be performed by Oakland residents.

For each construction trade, 20 percent of the work hours must be handled by apprentices and at least 25 percent of work hours performed by apprentices are to be completed by “disadvantaged workers,” which includes ex-offenders. The project continues to meet those aggressive goals.

The jobs agreements also include the creation of the West Oakland Job Resource Center and a community jobs oversight commission, an appointed body that monitors the project and features representatives from organized labor, the City of Oakland, the development team and community organizations, including the East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economies (EBASE).

EBASE, which helped craft the Oakland Global jobs policy as part of its “Revive Oakland” program, says the policy serves as a model for local-hire policies on large public-private construction projects.

“With development booming in Oakland, EBASE will build off of Revive Oakland’s success to further prove our model of community-driven economic development that brings real job opportunities and meaningful benefits to low income communities of color,” according to the EBASE website.

Kate O’Hara, EBASE Executive Director did not returns calls for comment for this article.

Alameda County transportation projects seeking to obtain funds generated by Measure BB — a $7.8 billion sales tax voters approved in November

2014 — will be submitting a first round of applications in May.

Tax proceeds will fund two broad categories of work over 30 years:  1) Capital projects, including everything from expanding BART to Oakland Global project infrastructure upgrades; and 2) Operations and maintenance investments, such as reinstating canceled bus service and maintaining streets.

The May submittals will be primarily for capital projects that need funding in order to clarify their project scope, said John Barna, a state transportation expert and consultant. Barna said that other capital projects are further along and are expected to apply for funding later in the summer of 2015. Barna praised the way the Alameda County Transportation Commission is handling the applications and processing the funding requests.

“The bottom line is that this is a very straightforward process designed to help project sponsors with completing plans and getting projects done,” Barna said. “ACTC going about it in a very smart way.”

Oakland Global infrastructure upgrades at the former Oakland Army Base, including roadway improvements and a bulk commodities terminal, are at a more advanced stage than others. They won’t need seed money to finalize their scope.

“Those kinds of projects are far along, but are waiting for funding to get to completion at a near-term end date,” Barna said. Other projects are not as clearly defined and may need more time to generate a final plan, he noted.

The Alameda County Transportation Commission has said that the billions in new transportation revenues derived from Measure BB are necessary given the county’s expected growth. The general public seemed to agree, supporting the measure with 70 percent of the vote.

“Over the term of this plan, Alameda County’s population will grow by almost 30 percent and the senior population will double,” according to a report released in January. “This means more demand on our streets, highways and transit.”

The City’s newly-hired transportation director, Matt Nichols stands to take a central role in advocating that Oakland get its fair share of Measure BB funds. Nichols came to Oakland after serving as Berkeley’s principal transportation planner for 13 years. In that role, he raised approximately $40 million for transportation projects and represented Berkeley agency staff to the Alameda County Transportation Commission.

As part of a Mayor’s Office press release announcing Nichols’ hiring, Mayor Libby Schaaf is quoted as saying that Nichols, “has a proven track record of leading projects from inception to delivery and crafting and implementing sustainable transportation policies in the Bay Area.”

For a project of its size and scope, the Oakland Global Trade & Logistics center has had a very strong worker safety record since the project began in the fall of 2013.

Statistics recently compiled show that after approximately 235,000 construction workforce hours, the project has had only 12 first aid cases and four events that needed to be recorded for the California Occupational Safety & Health Administration (Cal/OSHA).

An example of a first aid case from a March 25, 2015 project safety report was a water pipe bursting in a trench and a worker being grazed by an unidentified object causing abrasion to his knee. The employee returned to work the next day. An OSHA recordable event includes anything that results in any of the following: days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness or death.

According to Richard Bowles, the project’s site safety manager for the majority of the construction hours, a key to Oakland Global’s great safety record is that every work crew from every company on the project must complete a daily pre-task safety plan. The plans are submitted to Bowles and he reviews them while on site and in the field each day. In addition, on a periodic basis, each trade subcontractor must submit reports that substantiate their work safety practices.

“This project is challenging, but it is under control because we apply the science of safety and we work hard at it,” Bowles said.