Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – To many Oaklanders the name “Larry Gallegos” is associated with the indictment of Recalled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and in a way that forms a kind of scarlett letter stamped on a description of his career. But to those who’ve worked with, or for, or covered the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority (like me) Larry Gallegos was the designated Coliseum Manager. In other words, he was the deal fixer, and that’s not intended to be an pejorative.
Larry was the man who vetted would-be developers for the original Coliseum City Project: a proposed mixed-use development that was to cause Oakland to have a new ballpark for the A’s, a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders, 4,000 residential units, offices, and retail. It was the forerunner of the development that the African American Sports and Entertainment Group won the right to build over the proposal issued by famed Oakland Athletics pitcher Dave Stewart. Larry’s time with Coliseum City spans a period from 2010 to 2024. In that entire time, he has managed to handle some of the most politically complicated situations with an even hand and a steady disposition.
It was that focus on the job, and not on the politics or the bellicose nature of one Floyd Kephart, that led to Larry Gallegos directly, and coldly stating that Mr. Kephart did not have enough money to afford to finance the development of Coliseum City in 2015. Understand that Floyd Kephart ran around town presenting his plans to such groups as the Oakland Rotary Club:
And getting good public relations messaging from media personalities like Frederick Jay Roggin aka Fred Roggin in Los Angeles. With all of that, and several Oakland elected officials, Larry had no problem calling Floyd’s situation as he saw it.
At the time Floyd managed to gain an exclusive negotiating agreement from the Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency for Coliseum City. The running around town and presentations were to gain a development agreement, a $400 million subsidy from the City (that’s what he wanted), and the approval of the Oakland Raiders. But it was that last part, the Raiders, that produced concern.
See, Floyd Kephart let it slip that he was going to buy a portion of the Oakland Raiders for $200 million. At the same time, Mr. Kephart claimed he needed s $400 million subsidy from the City of Oakland (which would come from tax increment financing but that was not part of the plan when Floyd started talking about it.). Anyway, the optics looked like the City of Oakland was really going to wind up giving Floyd public money to buy into the Raiders. Not a good look.
When word of Floyd’s plan hit the ears of then-Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, she hit the ceiling and said to this blogger “He’s got to go”. But rather than terminate Kephart for some reason based on anger, it was left to Larry to evaluate Floyd’s proposal and render an opinion. Larry’s view was that a letter of interest from CalPers did not guarantee that Floyd had the money in the bank he earlier claimed to have. And Floyd did not have any person or organization as a true partner in his Coliseum City Development Project, in the way that AASEG has Loop Capital as a named, recognized, financial partner.
It’s all too easy for a developer group to accuse Larry of favoritism for one proposal over the other, but in all of the years I have followed him and his work, any accusation was eventually taken back And there are examples to show that Larry’s job of evaluating which developer was right for a role was regarded as something he did well, in addition to handling the complexities of such matters as surplus land designation.
Take the “City of Oakland’s Surplus Land Disposition Documentation for the Property at 73rd Avenue and Foothill Boulevard” that Larry submitted in August of 2021, and the opinion of Megan Kirkeby
Deputy Director Housing Policy Development as stated below.
Thank you for submitting your surplus land documentation for review by the Department
of Housing and Community Development (HCD). We received your documentation on
July 26, 2021. This letter constitutes HCD’s initial written comments, pursuant to
Government Code section 54230.5(b)(2)(C) of the Surplus Land Act (SLA), for the
property located at 73rd Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in the City of Oakland (City). HCD
determines that you have met all the requirements under the SLA for the purposes of
disposing of the surplus land located at 73rd Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. The City is
permitted to proceed with the sale of the property.”
According to your letter and included documents, a Resolution declaring the property to be
surplus was issued on July 21, 2020 and a Notice of Availability (NOA) was sent to the
required agency and affordable housing entities on October 26, 2020. During the required
60-day period, four affordable housing entities expressed interest in purchasing the property.
Following the 90-day negotiation period, the City would like to proceed with sale of the property
to Black Cultural Zone in partnership with CAST and Curtis Development (BCZ).
You have included a draft affordability covenant to be filed when the property is sold.
According to your documents, of the four housing providers that expressed interest in
purchasing the surplus property for the purposes of developing affordable, for-sale
housing, only two submitted detailed proposals. Your documents further establish that,
City of Oakland Page 2
while both housing providers propose to build a development with 100% affordable units,
the City plans to sell the property to BCZ, which is not the developer offering the “deepest
average level of affordability.” If the City chooses not to sell to the entity offering the
deepest average level of affordability, they must provide a written explanation detailing
their decision to HCD per Section 400(b)(3) of the Surplus Land Act Guidelines:
If a local agency proposes to dispose of surplus land to an entity that does not
have first priority and/or priority pursuant to Government Code Section 54227,
the local agency is required to provide HCD an adequate written explanation.
In your cover letter dated July 26, 2021, you provide HCD with a rationale for selecting BZM’s
proposal rather than the alternative proposal. In this regard, you note that, although the other
proposal is proposing to build more units than BZM, due to BZM’s proposal to develop larger
units, BZM will actually house more individuals. HCD accepts this rationale as an adequate
written explanation.
Larry Gallegos Should Come Out And Explain His Side Of The Story
Right now, Larry Gallegos, who’s historically press-shy, should come out and explain his side of the story. It’s strange that a person long trusted with the City of Oakland;s most complex and politically-difficult engagements would suddenly run away as if something was wrong. The bottom line is Larry Gallegos was not charged with a crime. As it appears, he was simply doing what the Mayor of Oakland asked him to do, and that’s a fault of our strong-mayor system.
Stay tuned.