Oaklanders struggling with wage theft, unsafe housing conditions, and polluted neighborhoods will soon have a more powerful ally in their corner: the City Attorney.
On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to approve an ordinance expanding the City Attorney’s powers, enabling the office to enforce all of Oakland’s municipal laws. Oakland has over 164 ordinances, but the city does not have clear authority to enforce over half of them, according to Scott Hugo, a housing justice lawyer who works in the City Attorney’s Office. In other cases, the City Attorney can enforce municipal laws, but its options are limited.
The lack of clear authority to enforce some local laws has forced the City Attorney to sometimes rely on state laws to address wrongdoing. For example, in 2018 a construction and demolition debris company repeatedly violated state and local laws by storing waste in West Oakland’s Clawson neighborhood, a historically Black community already burdened by pollution. According to the City Attorney, Oakland was able to secure an injunction against the company, but it had to rely on a state public nuisance law instead of city laws.
“The city is potentially missing remedies that may be critical to protecting Oakland residents’ rights,” Hugo said last Tuesday during a Community and Economic Development Committee meeting. The committee unanimously approved the ordinance and moved it to the consent agenda for today’s council meeting, which is normally approved by the council...
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