Friday, October 17, in Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee and other City administrators announced a major expansion of efforts to combat illegal dumping.

Mayor Lee said, during the conference, “As Mayor, I want us all to to build an Oakland where our streets reflect the dignity, the pride and the resilience of our community. We know that too often Oaklanders see trash on the streets. It’s a disgrace. It is an issue that should never be seen in any city, especially a beautiful city like Oakland. It’s all hands on deck. We’re all working hard to address it. Oakland Public Works has expanded weekend staffing for our illegal dumping crews. This means more coverage across more neighborhoods and faster responses when residents report illegal dumping.”

“We are doing this without spending additional taxpayer dollars. This expansion is funded through labor savings from vacancies in our Public Works budget. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

She highlighted that more than 30 tons of waste have been hauled away, with more than 50 miles of streets cleaned across Oakland. Chapter President Antoinette Blue praised the administration for adopting new procedures, including proposals from SEIU 1021 workers who, as the experts who do their jobs every day, often have great insights into how to work better and more effectively. “Our focus as a chapter has always been helping our members and helping our community to make a difference. We would not have been able to come up with this without [city workers] Gabe [Macias] and Amaka [Watson] helping us. They’re the boots on the ground, the ones picking up the garbage and doing the investigations.”

Macias took the microphone to chants of “Big Gabe!” from his co-workers and spoke about his fifteen-year career with the City, starting as a part-timer and working his way up to Street Maintenance Leader and Vice President in his chapter. “My job here is to serve the community where I live. I’m very excited to push this forward!” 

Amaka Watson wrapped it all up by highlighting the “vested interest in enforcement” she and her fellow environmental enforcement officers have in keeping Oakland beautiful. “On our days off, we will sit at a hot spot just to see if we can catch someone coming into our city to trash our city. That is the dedication of the city of Oakland workers. We are excited to be in this partnership and we hope it can continue — and we hope we can catch the people who come into our city and trash it!”