City’s Inaction on Lead Paint Prompts Calls for Immediate Action on Lead in Schools

Frustrated county officials respond to Oakland’s years-long delay in addressing lead exposure following El Tímpano investigation.

Oakland’s inaction on lead contamination has prompted a call from Alameda County officials to immediately address the lead issues in the city’s schools by dipping into a $5 million settlement fund. 

Their call follows a recent El Tímpano investigation, "Toxic Inaction," which revealed that the city has left millions of dollars from a 2019 lead paint settlement untouched for years, despite high risks of lead exposure in housing, water and schools. The investigation was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. Fellowship.

The Joint Powers Authority (JPA) Board of Directors for the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, overseeing Alameda County’s lead abatement efforts, plans to urge Oakland’s city council to allocate some of these funds to the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to tackle lead-contaminated water in schools.

There are no safe levels of lead, according to health experts, and studies show that Oakland residents are exposed to lead risks at some of the highest levels in the state. Roughly 80,000 estimated rental homes in Oakland likely contain lead-based paint, and in August, Oaklandside reported that water in at least 30 schools had dangerously high levels of lead. 

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During an October 24th JPA meeting, where El Tímpano’s findings about Oakland’s lead settlement funds were discussed, the JPA Board of Directors unanimously approved sending a letter to Oakland and Alameda County officials that details the history of the settlement funds and provides a recommendation for the city to immediately allocate a portion of the funding to OUSD to address lead-contaminated water. 

“Also wanted to let the directors know there was an article titled Toxic Inaction,” said Alameda County Healthy Homes Interim Deputy Director April Williamson, referring to El Tímpano’s investigation. She added that the investigation highlighted the delays in using settlement funds and that there is ongoing coverage of the issue. 

While lead in schools at OUSD has spurred frustration among county officials and community members, Oakland officials say they cannot use funds allocated to lead paint abatement to fix the school district’s water issue. 

Plans for lead spending pushed to 2025

After a long history of delays, Oakland is poised to push plans for using the settlement funds into next year.

The funds came from Sherwin Williams and other paint companies, which settled a decades-long legal battle in 2019. They paid roughly $305 million to 10 jurisdictions, including Alameda County and Oakland, which received $24 million to split. 

Following years of negotiation, Oakland received $4.8 million in mid-2022 and Alameda County was allocated $9.6 million to use for efforts outside of Oakland. The city and county agreed that Alameda County would hold onto the remaining roughly $9.6 million to be used for the benefit of Oakland residents once the city develops a spending plan and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Oakland City Council approve it.

The city’s $4.8 million sat untouched for years, El Tímpano found through a public records request, growing to a fund of more than $5 million as of August. Negotiations to use the remaining $9.6 million for the city haven’t begun. Only recently did the city hire a consulting firm, the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, which will have until mid-2025 to analyze existing lead programs and develop an equitable lead hazard abatement program. 

Williamson said at the October JPA meeting that the city would likely resume talks with the county for the remainder of the funds allocated to Oakland once the consulting firm has concluded its work in mid-2025. The city hasn’t indicated that any lead settlement funds, except for hiring the consultant, will be used before then. 

Board urges city to spend funds on removing lead from school drinking water

Oakland City Council held a special meeting at the end of September to hear from OUSD officials about their work to address lead exposure in the schools. Several people who spoke during public comment asked directly about the settlement funds as a funding source to address the issue.

“We have the settlement money and we know about the problem,” said Alex Bledsoe, a public commenter at the September 30th meeting. “Why are our kids still being poisoned?”

In response, an Oakland official at the meeting said that the city could not give settlement funds to OUSD because the schools’ issues are related to water, not paint contamination. The settlement agreement states that the jurisdictions should “make reasonable efforts” to use the settlement funds on health hazards related to lead paint, including but not limited to lead paint remediation or abatement, providing services to children exposed to lead paint and educating the public about lead paint.

2019 Lead Settlement Agreement by cgaribay on Scribd

“The allowable, required uses of the lead paint settlement money are legally outlined in the terms of the settlement itself and in the MOU between the City of Oakland and Alameda County,” city officials said in an emailed statement on Oct. 31. “The City’s lead-based paint response program supported by the settlement will include an Equitable Lead Hazard Abatement Program and a Proactive Rental Inspection Program.” 

Despite this, some are urging the city to use at least a portion of the funds for schools as soon as possible.

Alameda County Healthy Homes, which oversees lead abatement efforts throughout the county, put pressure on the city to act following the news of lead contamination in Oakland’s schools. An August 23rd press release from the county says “The County will continue to partner with the City of Oakland, as needed, as they determine how to use Lead Settlement funds” and “encourage the City of Oakland to facilitate the swift allocation of lead settlement discretionary funds.”

District 5 Councilmember Noel Gallo, who sits on the JPA Board, also raised the issue at the October JPA Meeting. All board members agreed that the city should allocate some settlement funds to address lead contamination in schools immediately. 

The board members agreed to send a letter documenting the years-long discussion about addressing Oakland’s lead problem to the city council, OUSD superintendent and school board, Alameda County board of supervisors, and the Alameda County public health officer. The documentation is intended in part to address the turnover in Oakland city government, which has been cited by officials as a large reason for the delay in using the settlement funds, El Tímpano found. “I would hate to spend more time reinventing the wheel, just trying to get people up to speed,” JPA Board Director and Alameda Councilmember Malia Vella, who recommended a letter, said at the JPA meeting.

The letter would also urge action on the city’s part, but the Board of Directors has no say in whether Oakland will heed its recommendation. 

County official calls out the city’s dysfunction 

During the meeting, John Bauters, the JPA Board chair and mayor of Emeryville, criticized Oakland for not using the city’s initial $4.8 million in lead paint settlement funds sooner. According to Bauters, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao recently asked him what the JPA could do to help OUSD and when he informed her that Oakland has funding for lead abatement, she told him she didn’t know who was in charge of the settlement funding. This lack of clarity, however, is not unique to Thao—some members of the City Council previously told El Tímpano that there has been a lack of transparency. Thao did not immediately respond to a request to comment on this claim.

“The dysfunction in Oakland is so bad,” Bauters said at the October meeting.

Ultimately, Oakland’s City Administrator’s Office, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Planning and Building Department and the Race & Equity Department have all been a part of conversations about how the funds should be allocated.

“I’m concerned that the bureaucracy in that city is such that people are going to say, ‘Oh, no, we have to wait for the plan,'” Bauters said. “Which, on a personal level, as an elected official, is a ludicrous thing when you have a known hazard to the safety of children and you could immediately do something about it because you have money for it.” 

This article has been updated to reflect the full name of the Joint Powers Authority Board of Directors for the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.