Lobbying, tension abound as Oakland ditches company tied to presumed FBI informant

OAKLAND It is proving trickier than expected for Oakland to move on from its contracted private precaution company which last year revealed itself uncomfortably linked to a corruption embarrassment at City Hall that led to criminal charges against ex-Mayor Sheng Thao City leaders are torn between a pair of leading suitors that beyond their mutual interest in replacing the existing contractor have wildly different aspirations an immigrant-owned local business with strong political connections in Oakland versus a mega-corporation with hundreds of thousands of employees Tensions are rising around City Hall with days left to figure out a plan Private guard guards may not be particularly well-paid but their employers rake in lucrative profits from citizens dollars In this event Oakland is offering million over three years with options for a pair of one-year extensions to provide safety guards at city facilities The city s indecision is fleetly descending into a kind of politics that does not involve accusations of corruption but seems to reflect other familiar tropes of city regime aggressive lobbying messy political maneuvering and complaints of bias among city administrators There is no perfect system for this there can be none revealed Henry Gardner a former city manager who added We all need to model a certain behavior so there is not even the appearance of favoritism or undue influence Both firms are vying to replace ABC Assurance a company that has held the contract since and whose chief executive was closely tied to a central figure in the federal corruption episode filed in January against Thao her romantic partner and the businessmen accused of bribing the former mayor Ana Chretien the company s CEO had extensive business dealings with a likely co-conspirator in the bribery scheme Mario Juarez the two representing the same real-estate company and swapping several commercial properties between each other over the class of a scant years Chretien could not be reached for comment ABC Assurance Amenity guard Sabira Hussein screens visitors at City Hall in downtown Oakland Calif on Wednesday July Jane Tyska Bay Area News Group Last year Alameda County prosecutors accused ABC Safeguard of having a financial stake in Thao s electoral mastery part of a motion in a felony development involving Juarez that was later dismissed Neither Chretien nor ABC Measure was ever charged by county prosecutors and they were not mentioned in the federal indictments filed in January Months earlier the city had extended ABC Safety s deal though council members agreed at the time to begin a full search for its next contractor with then-Councilmember Treva Reid noting that population concerns had surfaced about the incumbent firm Now the city s efforts to find a new shield partner are hastily becoming strained leaving Oakland with the prospect of being stuck with ABC Measure on a month-to-month basis There has been a lot of lobbying from all sides Councilmember Zac Unger reported Allied Universal the world s largest private safety provider scored the highest in Oakland s vetting process while the second-place finisher Marina Defense Services has a CEO who has lived in the city for decades and donated widely in local political races ABC Measure finished last place among five applicants A few city executives appeared to view the process as relatively open-and-shut Allied and Marina scored equally in reviews of their written proposals but the larger vendor gained a critical edge in interviews with a selection panel of city staffers Both were prepared to partner in the contract with a local Black-owned small business Diligence Shield Group But when a committee of City Council members convened last week to discuss advancing Allied to the stage of a final decision three elected leaders Ken Houston Noel Gallo and Charlene Wang instead pushed through a vote for Marina Oakland city council member district seven Ken Houston speaks during the Inauguration Ceremony held at Oakland City Hall in Oakland Calif on Monday Jan Jose Carlos Fajardo Bay Area News Group A week later the tentative decision remains in limbo at the committee stage leaders have not yet scheduled it to be heard by the full council Houston who clearly appeared to prefer Marina grilled city functionaries at the meeting about their vetting process and whether Marina s established local presence had received sufficient weight Wang meanwhile pushed unsuccessfully for a full re-evaluation citing a long list of lawsuits and assertions of misconduct against Allied one of the U S s largest employers I want to ensure when we are about to award a major major contract that these controversies are surfaced declared Wang who later added the smaller companies that have more skin in the competition authentically perform higher-quality services It is not the first time Allied has received scrutiny A Time Magazine expos published in shared numerous alleged failings in how Allied hires pays and trains prevention guards as well as the company s widespread acquisition of smaller shield firms which has ballooned Allied s domain share Later that year the company agreed to pay million in back wages to hundreds of employees in response to a Labor Department violation according to Bloomberg Law With an office on Hegenberger Road in Oakland Allied provides precaution guards at over commercial sites in town Nearly of the guards are Black revealed Courtney White a representative who described Allied as a local employer that prioritizes society outreach Unger the council member who cast the lone vote against Marina at the committee meeting noted in an interview that safeguard companies get sued a lot and the larger companies perhaps get sued proportionally more than the smaller companies ABC Precaution Facility guard Sabira Hussein screens visitors at City Hall in downtown Oakland Calif on Wednesday July Jane Tyska Bay Area News Group Indeed Marina was similarly hit in May with a class-action lawsuit alleging the company failed to pay minimum wages or overtime or offer sufficient breaks to its workers among other alleged labor violations Attorneys for the lead plaintiff Jasmine Monroy Cortez did not respond to an interview request The company s workers unionized in joining the country s largest labor group for protection guards an SEIU chapter named United Amenity Workers West which also represents guards employed by Allied Marina appears to be having a rough summer Last month it lost out on a new contract worth nearly million annually with the Peralta Society College District ending a five-year relationship providing precaution to the district s four campuses The company s proposal finished in third place But its CEO Sam Tadesse commented the process lacked transparency fairness and equity namely because of a last-minute change to the contract expectations that Peralta personnel blamed on an earlier clerical error Peralta s head of operations Greg Nelson explained in an interview that one of the new terms Marina did not agree with was a penalty for unwarranted use of force In a comment to this news organization Tadesse did not clarify which terms his company took issue with Tadesse followed a similar line of argument against the city of Oakland s selection of a shield contractor saying there are still multiple unanswered questions surrounding the interview process that placed Allied in the lead for the million deal Later in his report Tadesse more directly accused the city staff of being biased because his company saw the greatest variance in scores awarded by different members of the selection panel Were they trying to amount Marina lower he solicited FILE The Peralta Neighborhood College District headquarters is viewed Sept in Oakland Calif Laney College one of the Peralta schools will be home to a new independent league baseball company called the Oakland Ballers set to begin play next spring and embrace the loyal A s fans who are heartbroken about their club s planned departure to Las Vegas AP Photo Ben Margot File An immigrant of Ethiopia who has lived in Oakland for nearly four decades Tadesse represents the kind of small-business success that city bureaucrats tout when praising Oakland s diversity Marina has precaution deals with the city and counties of San Francisco as well as at Los Angeles International Airport In turn Tadesse is closely allied with local politicians having donated over to candidates for various local elected offices since including to the campaign of first-term Councilmember Kevin Jenkins who previously sat on the Peralta board It remains to be seen if Oakland s leaders will ultimately buck from the advice of staff to push the contract toward Marina a process that because of a planned summer recess could sit in limbo until the end of September if the council does not act in the coming days The fraught process helps illuminate the ugly business behind city contracts although it is also nothing new Amid Oakland s search for a contractor in the city auditor flagged chosen suspicious campaign contributions to council members who would vote on the deal questioning the legality of the political spending The donors in question Chretian and her precaution firm ABC Protection plus Tadesse and his company Marina Protection Services Staff writer Jakob Rodgers contributed reporting Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland Call or text him at - - or email him at smukherjee bayareanewsgroup com