Jane Brunner for City Council

Improving Our City

Business and Jobs

 When Jerry Brown was Mayor, his 10K Program focused on bring 10,000 new residents to downtown Oakland.  That has been successful and Mayor Dellums has shifted to a different 10K Program, to bring 10,000 new jobs to Oakland. 

I strongly support this objective.  To accomplish it, I am working to implement three initiatives to encourage businesses that offer quality jobs to locate and grow in Oakland: 

1. Establishment of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify and keep track of all opportunity sites available for the location of businesses in order to assist in attracting businesses to Oakland. 

2. Creation of a one stop center in the City that is business-friendly and is one place that assists businesses to obtain business licenses, information on tax credits and other incentives, and permits. 

3. Constitution of a network of consultants with expertise in each business sector the City is focusing on so that the business has a high level person working with the CEO and the City.  For example, the CEOs of Green Tech businesses can work with a Green Tech expert to meet their needs, bringing in the Mayor, the City Council, City Staff, and other businesses as necessary.  The process will work similarly for the healthcare, transportation, food services and other business sectors.

Job Training

 I have been the leader on the City Council in relation to job training.  When I first got on the Council, no one knew how much money the City was spending on job training and here was no objective evaluation of the effectiveness of job training programs.  I led the successful effort to get a report card to evaluate job training programs and to provide funding based on the report card.  I also provided Council leadership to obtain a local apprenticeship program for construction jobs at the Port of Oakland. 

Affordable Housing

There is not enough affordable housing in Oakland.  I have taken the lead in the city of Oakland on Affordable housing.  I led the effort that got office linkage, a $40 million bond for affordable housing, and a change in the redevelopment set aside for housing from 20% to 25% for affordable housing.   I obtained passage of Office Linkage, whereby each new office development pays $4.00 per square foot into a fund that is used to produce more affordable housing.  I have also led the fight for inclusionary zoning on the City Council.  Any project should have 15% to 20% affordable housing.  Unfortunately there are not 5 votes yet for inclusionary zoning.

Infill Development

I strongly support infill development and smart growth, provided that it is balanced with neighborhood preservation.  I’ve been a major backer for the MacArthur BART Transit Village and for placing a priority on development at transit hubs and along transit corridors.  However the higher density developments on transit corridors need to be in scale with the surrounding neighborhoods.  As Chair of the City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee, I’ve made sure there is careful review and support for a large number infill real estate projects and I have negotiated agreements between the developers and neighborhood leaders to enable projects to proceed without being opposed by lawsuits.

Regional Governance

I strongly believe in the importance of participating in regional governance.  That is why I take the time to represent Oakland on the Executive Board of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and I serve as one of ABAG’s representatives on the Joint Policy Committee of ABAG, MTC, BCDC, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.  In those roles I was able to obtain additional funding for Oakland infrastructure in exchange for Oakland’s agreement to produce more housing. I also believe it is imperative that MTC, ABAG and local governments encourage development that has jobs and housing in proximity to each other.