First Quarter Update on Three-Year Illegal Dumping Strategy

Published on October 13, 2026

FY 2026–27 First Quarter Update on Oakland’s Three-Year Strategy to Reduce Illegal Dumping

MEMORANDUM 

TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council  

SUBJECT: FY 2026–27 First Quarter Update on Oakland’s Three-Year Strategy to Reduce Illegal Dumping  

FROM: Liam Garland Director, Public Works 

DATE: October 12, 2026  

City Administrator Approval:   Date: October 12, 2026  

INFORMATION 

This memorandum provides a quarterly update on the three-year illegal dumping strategy for the City of Oakland (City), first published in an information memorandum dated September 4, 2026.  This update covers the first quarter (Q1) of Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-27, from July 1 through September 30, 2026. Funding to implement the strategy became available on July 1, 2026. 

BACKGROUND AND STRATEGY 

Through a series of actions between April and June 2026, the Mayor and City Council set a new course for addressing illegal dumping by adopting and funding a new three-year strategy. These actions were further supported by the $9.275 million investment from the Crankstart Foundation to help the City break the cycle of illegal dumping in Oakland. The City aims to reduce the amount of illegally dumped material that reaches the public right-of way, reduce the number of chronic illegal dumping hotspots across Oakland, and quickly remove the illegally dumped material that remains. This strategy seeks to create cleaner, healthier neighborhoods by aligning the City’s policies and resources, community stewardship, and philanthropic support around coordinated, measurable actions. The strategy is organized around the Three E’s: Enforcement, Education, and Eradication. 

UPDATES 

Enforcement 

Goal: To deter illegal dumping, the City seeks to significantly increase enforcement activity. Specifically, the goal is to increase citations from approximately 300 in FY 2025-26 to 750 in FY 2026-27 and then double that number to 1,500 in FY 2027-28. At the same time, the City will increase the number of citations successfully collected from approximately 55 collected last FY to 500 by FY 2027-28. 

Actions Underway 

  • Expanding enforcement capacity by hiring three additional Environmental Enforcement Officers (EEOs), who began work in August 2026 and are now deployed in the field. The current EEO unit has 8 budgeted full time positions, with one vacancy and, after accounting for a leave of absence, there are 6 EEOs actively issuing citations.  
  • Expanding the City’s illegal dumping camera network by installing more than 50 new cameras for a total of 80 or more cameras by the end of December. The City currently has 38 cameras deployed, up from approximately 30 in June, with the next camera order arriving in October. 
  • Increasing citation issuance and collections by moving away from a cumbersome, manual citation process. EEOs are now equipped with and testing handheld citation devices, and the City is reprogramming its back-office system to make it easier to issue citations, create complete citation records, then pursue collections.  
  • Strengthening collaboration with the Oakland Police Department (OPD) by making regular referrals of cases involving commercial quantities of illegally dumped material and/or hazardous waste for potential criminal investigation and enforcement.  
  • Planning for implementation of newly enacted SB 1218, which, beginning January 1, 2026, will provide the City with an additional enforcement tool by allowing vehicles associated with multiple unpaid illegal dumping citations to be booted. 

Q1 Results and Performance 

Early results indicate that these investments are increasing enforcement activity. In September, the first full month after the three new EEOs were hired and onboarded, EEOs issued 100 citations—more than three times the citations issued in July (33) and August (31). 

Overall, EEOs issued 164 citations in Q1, an 80% increase over the 91 citations issued during the same quarter last year. Twenty-eight of these citations were generated through camera enforcement. At this pace, the City will meet or exceed its goal of 750 citations this fiscal year. 

Citation collections remain an area requiring improvement. The City collected $3,359 in Q1. Staff expect future reports to show improvement as the new handheld devices, back-office system improvements, and other collection efforts are fully implemented over the coming months. 

Education 

Goal: To reduce the amount of dumped material, ensure Oaklanders use various legal disposal options. Specifically, the goal is to increase bulky waste pickup utilization by 20% for multi-family properties in highly dumped neighborhoods. 

Actions Underway 

  • Evaluating three proposals for a 12-month public education campaign launching in 2027. Once a team is selected, it will develop a multilingual campaign focused on enforcement updates, incentives to report illegal dumping, and targeted outreach and partnerships to engage hard-to-reach communities. 
  • Updating public education materials to increase use of bulky services. The City has gathered feedback from 130 property managers to better understand barriers to using bulky services at apartment buildings and is updating outreach materials based on those findings. Revised messages will be tested in November and December to identify the most effective approaches for increasing bulky service utilization in apartment buildings. 
  • Resumed Bulky Block Parties (BBP) on July 25 and expanding to six events annually, providing residents with convenient opportunities to legally dispose of bulky waste at no cost. Developed outreach materials in English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, and Arabic. Surveyed 385 participants at the first event to assess awareness of no-cost legal disposal options and help inform future outreach efforts. More information is available at the Bulky Block Party webpage. 

Q1 Results and Performance 

Q1 efforts have been primarily focused on researching message effectiveness with property managers and renters intended to increase the use of free bulky pickups and drop-offs by 20%. Baseline data in FY2025-26 shows the total number of multifamily bulky-item appointments was 6,560.  This reflects 5,844 completed bulky pickup appointments at 7.9% utilization and 716 used bulky drop-off appointments at .01% utilization. As new research is completed and the education campaign is implemented, future quarterly reports will measure changes in utilization against these baselines. 

Eradication 

Goal: OPW strives to remove the illegally dumped material that remains after the effects of our enforcement and education efforts as quickly as possible. Specifically, our goal is to remove 10,000 tons of illegally dumped material annually, with that target decreasing over time as enforcement and education efforts reduce the amount of material dumped on Oakland’s streets and sidewalks in the first place. 

Actions Underway 

  • Expanding cleanup capacity using new FY 2026–27 budget allocations to fund additional illegal dumping crews working overtime on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. 
  • Adding two rented lightning loaders in mid-August to increase field capacity, particularly for removing large piles. 
  • Rolling out iPads to field crews to improve verification and accuracy of completed work. 
  • Using grant funding to provide additional eradication resources focused on persistent illegal dumping hotspots and priority corridors. 
  • Deploying aerial imagery to identify and document illegal dumping locations, with initial flights completed and work orders generated.  
  • Resumed Bulky Block Parties and expanded to six events annually. The July 24 event served 385 residents and resulted in the collection and disposal of more than 30 tons of bulky waste.  

Q1 Results and Performance 

Data from Q1 show a substantial increase in the City’s removal of illegally dumped material. In August and September, KOCB removed 1,701 tons of illegally dumped material, a 46% increase over the same period in the prior year. This increase was driven by additional cleanup resources made available through the new budget and new lightning loaders entering service in mid-August. 

Other operational measures reinforce this progress and indicate that KOCB is reducing the illegal dumping backlog. KOCB closed 8,865 service requests—2,778 more than the 6,087 opened during the quarter—and completed 12,010 work orders—4,312 more than the 7,698 opened. Because these measures do not by themselves establish the size of the overall illegal dumping backlog, future reports will provide more precise information on the backlog and progress toward reducing it.  

CONCLUSION 

The City will continue implementing the actions in the adopted strategy and tracking progress toward the goals established under each of the Three E’s. The next quarterly update, planned for January 2027, will report on second-quarter implementation, provide updated performance data, and identify additional actions underway to reduce illegal dumping across Oakland. 

For questions, please contact Amanda Montez, Assistant to the Director, Oakland Public Works, at amontez@oaklandca.gov. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Liam Garland, Director

 

 

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