Mayor, City Staff Not Doing Enough to Save Base Businesses and Jobs, Says Reid
Aug 2, 2013
By Ken A. Epstein
As time runs out for businesses based at the Oakland Army Base, the small, local companies are expressing frustration, and at least one member of the City Council is angrily criticizing staff and the mayor for the glacial pace at which they are moving to find the companies temporary homes on Port of Oakland-owned land.
“Is this a priority for us to bring this to a conclusion in order for us to retain these businesses?” Asked Councilmember Larry Reid, speaking at the July 23 meeting of the city Community and Economic Development Committee, which he chairs.
“Or are we just saying things just to say things knowing that where we are with this (eviction) issue of following this legal process, is where we always wanted to be in the first place?” he asked.
Impact Transportation and PCC Logistics, which does customs inspection for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have received authorization from the port to begin preparing temporary sites, though the port has not given them leases. Oakland Maritime Support Services has not yet been approved by the port to prepare to move.
The city is taking all the necessary legal steps to evict the companies if they are not off city-owned Army Base property by Sept. 3.
“I don’t want to hear about the legal (eviction) stuff; because I´ve heard about it ever since I’ve chaired this committee,” said Reid, speaking to staff at the committee meeting. “I understand what you guys are trying to do. Whether you’re trying to do it for the best interests for this city and for these employers who are employing people, I’m starting to doubt it.”
Reid did not spare staff or the mayor from criticism.
“We are not getting things done. If we know the port has to sign the lease agreement, somebody should have been on the phone, called their executive director or whoever. Or (have) the mayor (make) a phone call and say, have you guys reviewed what you’re going to review and is it ready for signature?
“The mayor has appointed the majority of the port commissioners. And that’s a conversation the mayor should be having with (them).”
I want to be able to retain these businesses that are here. For me that’s a priority.”
Assistant City Administrator Fred Blackwell said he had just learned at the CED meeting that there was a problem with port issuing leases.
“We’ve been moving mountains to make this stuff happen. We’ve been in weekly meetings with the port on negotiating the (property) issues, in constant communication with port staff and at times even with the commissioners to get them to make the decisions to make this move happen.”
“There is nothing we’d like more than to have this be a seamless transition, “ he said, “(But) we’ve gotten to the point where we don’t have the luxury of waiting.
“It is important for us to do what we are doing now (process the evictions orders) in order to make sure that we’re able to implement the project. And not to have to have embarrassing conversations with the state about why we haven’t been able to spend the ($242 million grant).”
“The seamless transition is unfortunately not going to happen,” said John Monetta, property manager of the City of Oakland’s parcels of land on the Army Base site.
“Our expectation and what we’ve been trying to do and what we set up is a process that (was) not going to be adversarial. We have moved the date back as far as we can to give tenants the opportunity to move out without having to go through these next (eviction) steps,” he said.
“Aug. 1 is a date they don’t think they can make.”
Representatives of the affected business described their plight.
“All I have from the Port of Oakland is authorization to start tenant improvements. That is what we have started. We do not have a lease, and no moving has started,” said Ron Cancilla of Impact Transportation.
If the eviction proceeds, Cancilla said, the city would find it impossible to move everything that is stored on the site.
“There’s a lot of product in those facilities. I don’t think you guys understand the true magnitude of what you’re dealing with here.”
“I’m at loss for words at what to say because our destiny is not in our hands. We’ve been trying to move since last August. We’ve been assured that things would move at a proper pace, but they have not, “ said Bill Aboudi of OMSS.
“We’re three weeks into the tenant improvements – we’re still waiting for the port to give us a permanent lease,” said Abdel Zaharan of PCC Logistics, who added that the building could be ready in three weeks, but the company’s yard will take five to six weeks.
“I hear that the folks from PCC and from Impact are out there doing the work, and they don’t even have a signed lease agreement. They’re out there spending two hundred, three hundred thousand dollars, and they don’t know what the lease will say,” said Reid.
In response to questions to the mayor and Assistant City Administrator Blackwell, the Post received a written email statement from Blackwell.
“Under Mayor Quan’s administration we have worked hard to make these moves as easy as possible for the existing tenants at the Oakland Army Base,” Blackwell said.
“ We are working with the Port to secure new leases for these tenants. We have expedited the permit approval process so tenants could get their moves done more quickly. And we have extended the moving deadlines multiple times.
“Now we are at a point where we need to move this $400 million-plus project forward for the development of new infrastructure, a bulk marine terminal, and trading and logistics facilities, which combined will create thousands of new jobs for Oaklanders,” Blackwell said.