Oakland Report Podcast

Oakland Recap provides summaries of public meeting proceedings that catch our attention. In this installment, we review the comments made by Oakland city council members at yesterday’s special budget meeting. Editor’s note City Council special budget meeting, June 12, 2026 . Yesterday the Oakland city council voted to declare a “severe and unanticipated financial event,” ten days after voters reje...

Oakland Recap provides summaries of public meeting proceedings that catch our attention. In this installment, we review the comments made by members of city union International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21 at this morning’s city council special budget meeting. ‘I stood in a photo with you before I knocked doors for Measure E.’ City Council special budget meet...

Mayor Barbara Lee, city council president Kevin Jenkins, and firefighters union boss Seth Olyer held a rally today with public employee unions to gin up support for Measure E. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org

Oakland Recap provides summaries of public meetings that catch our attention. ‘It’s not about what we say, it’s about what we do’ Council public works and transportation committee, May 12, agenda item #5 . Yesterday the council public works and transportation committee voted to advance a proposed illegal dumping expenditures action (‘IDEA’) plan to the full city council on May 19. Two committee me...

Editor’s note: Our thanks and appreciation to news anchor Andre Senior and KTVU for having us on their Take 2 in the Morning show on April 17, 2026. Video courtesy of KTVU. Transcript KTVU - “Take 2 in the Morning” April 17, 2026 ANDRE SENIOR: We’ve all talked about it: Where is my tax money going? People drive around their towns. They know they pay taxes. They’re not necessarily opposed to it bec...

This six-minute video explainer is based on our parcel tax exposé, “44% of Oakland’s proposed $34 million tax increase would go to union payouts,” published on February 22. We invite you to check it out, and share your thoughts. A full transcript of the video is also provided below. Thank you. — Oakland Report editorial board You can read the full text and primary source evidence in our exposé her...

This is a podcast summary and discussion of our recent article: Podcast generated with Goggle Notebook LM and edited by Oakland Report for accuracy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.oaklandreport.org

This is a complete transcript and audio recording (12 minutes) of the presentation by Budget Administrator Bradley Johnson at yesterday’s special meeting of the Oakland City Council. Mr. Johnson summarized the state of the city’s finances and urgent actions required to address the fiscal crisis. He notes that $115M must be cut from spending this year, and $140M from next year’s (FY25-26) budget to...

An 8 minute podcast summary of our most recent post. You can also read the full article here , with more details on the numbers and sources. Podcast was generated by Google NotebookLM and reviewed by Oakland Report for accuracy. Mispronunciations are solely owned by Google. :) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...

Last month we published a deep dive on Oakland’s pension debt problems which are costing the city $450M a year. It’s a 30-60 minute read. And that’s a blocker for most folks with little free time. So we’re trying out a new format—one friendly to driving and dog walks. It’s a short podcast that distills the article’s key findings into a 12 minute conversation. Podcast generated by Google NotebookLM...