Officials From Alameda County Call Oakland’s Inaction on Lead a “Dereliction of Duty”

County officials urge Oakland to use lead settlement funds to remedy lead contamination in Oakland schools’ water.

Alameda County officials tasked with overseeing lead poisoning prevention once again urged Oakland city officials to use a multimillion-dollar lead settlement to help Oakland schools struggling with lead contamination in their water. 

In a letter sent to Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, members of the City Council, local public health officials and members of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) School Board on November 14, the county asked the city to tap into funds from a 2019 legal settlement. The letter was drafted by the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) Board of Directors, which oversees the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and includes representatives from Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville and unincorporated areas of the county. It was the topic of discussion at a Nov. 21 JPA meeting, the last that will take place this year.

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The letter is the latest move in a years-long debate over how settlement money from a lawsuit against paint companies should be used. The city of Oakland has faced increasing pressure over its inaction on lead while holding more than $4.8 million of the lead settlement money in its accounts since June 2022.

City officials have previously told El Tímpano that the funds cannot go toward water abatement at OUSD schools because the settlement was intended for lead paint abatement. 

For roughly three years, Oakland officials have considered using the lead settlement funds to develop a lead hazard abatement program, one that could equitably address approximately 80,000 rental homes that likely contain lead-based paint. Lead exposure in Oakland disproportionately affects low-income people of color, according to a 2021 Racial Equity Impact Analysis. All of the predominantly Latino census tracts in Oakland are considered high risk for lead exposure. Still, the city only recently hired a consultant who will have until mid-2025 to make recommendations for developing a program to address the toxin. 

City officials have said they will not use the remaining settlement funds until the consultant has presented his or her recommendations—but the JPA Board of Directors is urging the city to reconsider.

In August, Oaklandside reported that water in at least 30 schools had dangerously high lead levels. The news came years after a 2017 report found lead in water fixtures in Oakland schools.

This time, the JPA Board of Directors said that Oakland officials have a responsibility to step in and the money to do so.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that there’s even a question that the city of Oakland wouldn’t step up and support its shared constituents with OUSD,” JPA Board Director and Alameda Councilmember Malia Vella said in an interview after the Nov. 21 JPA meeting. The JPA Board letter, which was shared exclusively with El Tímpano, calls on the city of Oakland to use some of the settlement money it was allocated more than two years ago to repair infrastructure at schools where lead has been found in the water. 

The JPA has yet to receive a response from Oakland city officials, according to April Williamson, interim deputy director of the Alameda County Healthy Homes Department, the agency that oversees lead abatement programs in Alameda County.

“(It’s) been mind-boggling that you have a known hazard in your community, that it threatens the health and safety of children in particular, and that you haven’t developed or expended the funding in a way to protect the public’s health,” JPA Board Chair and Emeryville City Councilmember John Bauters said of Oakland’s slow action in a Nov. 19 interview. 

Oakland officials did not respond to El Tímpano’s request for comment on the letter. In a previous statement, emailed on Oct. 31 regarding news of the JPA Board of Directors' plans to send the letter, city officials said that the funds could not go toward water abatement at OUSD schools because the settlement was intended for lead paint abatement.

However, the JPA Board of Directors disagrees, with Bauters saying the city’s stance is “a very narrow interpretation” of the settlement. Bauters and Vella, both attorneys, said they have not seen language in the settlement that requires the funds to be used solely for lead paint abatement and called the city’s inaction a “dereliction of duty.” 

“For them to delay further or to say they’re going to spend the next year developing this plan, in short, is anything except equitable. It’s actually a deprivation of their public duty and service,” Bauters said during the Nov. 21 meeting. “Anything less than action by the city of Oakland immediately is a dereliction of their public duty to children.”

JPA Board Director and Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo said he plans to meet with Oakland’s city attorney in a closed session to discuss the issue further. Gallo said he is urging Oakland officials to give OUSD around $500,000 of the settlement funds—approximately the same amount the city’s largely untouched fund had accrued in interest as of August.

Ultimately, the decision will be left up to Oakland city officials.