February 2014 Vol. 14, Issue 2
Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker 
News from the Oakland City Attorney's Office
In This Issue:
City Attorney reaches agreement with Piedmont Ave. bar to address crime & nuisance activity
Update on illegal dumping enforcement
City Attorney in the community
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Greetings!
      

In our monthly newsletter, we provide updates on important legal issues and matters that impact Oakland residents and businesses.

 
This month: addressing crime and other problems at a Piedmont Avenue bar; update on illegal dumping enforcement; City Attorney in the community; and as always, highlights of recent court cases involving the City of Oakland.
  

I look forward to your comments, thoughts and questions about how we are conducting the City's business.

 

Very truly yours,

 

Barbara J. Parker

Oakland City Attorney

City Attorney, OPD reach agreement with bar to prevent crime, nuisance activity 
Piedmont Avenue bar was source of neighborhood complaints about crime, including three shootings in 2013

My Office and the Oakland Police Department recently reached an agreement with the owners of a Piedmont Avenue bar to address complaints about noise, alleged drug activity and other crimes near the bar.

 

Last year, the Police Department responded to numerous complaints of nuisance activity and violence associated with Egbert Souse's bar, including three separate shootings in May, October and November of 2013 near the business.

 

Egbert Souse's owners met with the City Attorney and police officials in November 2013 after the most recent shooting on the corner of Piedmont Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard which involved patrons of the bar.

 

The agreement imposes strict operating conditions on the bar. Owners have agreed to hire licensed and uniformed security guards, prevent loitering outside the business and close no later than midnight every day of the week. In addition, the agreement requires that owners promptly remove graffiti from the building and make sure music is not audible outside the premises. The bar also agreed to permanently ban anybody caught using drugs, fighting or possessing a weapon.

 

"Last year, Oakland spent a disproportionate amount of police resources investigating and responding to crime associated with this business," Parker said. "Neighbors, police, my Office and the owners all recognized that violence and other problems at this bar constituted a public nuisance and had to stop."

 

The City and the bar reached agreement in late January and it became effective immediately. Violation of any of the conditions could result in revocation of the bar's "Deemed Approved" status, which allows it to operate and sell alcohol.

 

more info

 

Illegal Dumping Enforcement Update 

 

In late 2013, my Office initiated a crackdown on illegal dumping with the Public Works Agency and the City Administrator's Office.

 

Illegal dumping is one of the worst sources of civic blight in our city. Oakland citizens have had enough of this disrespect. 

 

An increasing number of people, many using camera phones, are taking photos and videos of illegal dumping incidents and reporting violators. With the help of photos sent in by members of the public, we are building cases against illegal dumpers and issuing major fines.

 

Results as of February:

  • 51 citations issued
  • Citations typically are in the range of $1,500 -- some have been for $6,000 or more
  • Many dumpers are paying the fines or settling, other citations are going to collections

The City Attorney's Office is partnering with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office to identify cases that are appropriate for criminal prosecution, such as repeat offenders or dumping of hazardous waste.

 

We will continue to apprise you of the progress of the initiative in this newsletter. Our goal is to recover the costs of removing the illegally dumped items and to provide a disincentive for people to trash Oakland.

 

To report incidents of illegal dumping, go to the Public Works Agency's on line service request page, or go to www.SeeClickFix.com/oakland.

 

Photos of the license plate numbers of vehicles used for illegal dumping are ideal. If a photo is not available, write down the license plate number, and please avoid confrontation when you document illegal dumping incidents. 
 
City Attorney in the Community
Panel on Human Trafficking at East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC)
                        
On February 15th, the East Oakland Youth Development Center partnered with Love Never Fails and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to host  "Love Don't Hurt." 
 
The deeply moving program included a panel discussion, a play and dance performances by EOYDC students to inform our community about and stop Bay Area sex trafficking (see photo below). 
 
I was honored to be on the panel with an Oakland Unified School District psychologist, two young people who are survivors of sex trafficking and a twelve year old who has made it his mission to stop this horrific industry.  Playwright and actress Regina Evans performed "52 Letters," a play depicting the pain, sorrow, brutality and resilience of victims of sex trafficking. It was a clarion call to all of us to support and save these children, all of whom are our children.
 
The panel discussed the meaning of human trafficking, why it occurs and how we can help to stop it. Two panelists who are sex trafficking survivors shared their experiences; one reminded us that sex trafficking occurs inside homes not just on the streets with children trafficked by their own families while they continue to attend school and appear to have a normal life. The other survivor, who was ensnared and trafficked at age 15, admonished us, plaintively stating that she was trafficked on International Blvd. and beaten publicly on a daily basis by her predator -- but no one stopped to intercede or seemed to take notice. Regina Jackson, President and CEO of EOYDC, announced that she has lost a few students to sex trafficking over the years. This event was painful, poignant, enlightening, sobering and inspiring.
 
Please click on the links below to find out how you can help:
 
 

EOYDC Panel

Black History Month 

Some thoughts about Black History Month 

 

Each year we dedicate February to focus on Black history, and highlight the struggles and triumphs and the many and extraordinary contributions African Americans have made to our country. 

 

Black Americans have a unique place in our history as we all know, as many of our ancestors were captured and brought to this country against their will and enslaved for centuries. Although the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and indentured servitude  "except as punishment for conviction of a crime," it was not until nearly a century later that in practice this nation began to remove the shackles of segregation and overt and sanctioned discrimination. 

 

We have made great strides, as evidenced by the election of President Obama, Attorney General Kamala Harris and many other examples of elected leaders, as well as high level posts that African Americans hold in the public and private sectors. But we still have a long way to go to provide a level playing field, justice and equal opportunity in this land.  Unfortunately, we continue to be uncomfortable with facing racial disparities and the legacy of slavery and discrimination. Until we acknowledge the history and atrocities that created today's reality, we will not be able to achieve our goal of a just and fair society.

 

This month I commend to you the PBS program "Freedom Riders" to provide a searing historical perspective on the state of America in the early 1960's, and "Slavery by Another Name" covering the forced labor that maintained slavery by another name for eighty years after the Emancipation Proclamation. These excellent PBS programs help us to understand what happened after the Emancipation Proclamation and how we got here. 

 

So, let's celebrate the achievements and the glory as we recommit ourselves to securing justice for all. None of us is free until we all are free.

 

City wins lawsuit over nuisance property

Blighted home owner files suit after City cleaned up trash and other debris at property

 

My Office recently won a lawsuit filed by a plaintiff who refused to clean up trash and other blight at a residential property in Oakland.

 

In 2011, the City received a complaint that the property was covered with household trash and other debris. The City alerted the owner about the trash, overgrown vegetation and other problems that violated Oakland's blight ordinance.

 

The owner refused to clean up the property, so the City hired a contractor to do so and billed the owner for the cost of inspection and clean-up. When all was said and done, the owner owed the City $5931.00 in code enforcement fees. 

 

The owner filed an administrative appeal to challenge the billing. The hearing officer ruled against the owner on all grounds and denied her appeal. The owner then filed a mandamus action seeking review of the administrative ruling. The Court denied the petition finding that the owner had been provided constitutionally adequate notice of the blighted condition of her property, and that the costs and fees assessed against her property were not arbitrary or excessive.