district pulls back on security plan
The Peralta Community College District is hitting the brakes on two of the four security firms it recently hired as part of its new, $ 6.2 million communitybased security plan.
“Concerns have been raised about qualifications for two of the vendors, Community Ready Corps and Zulu ( Community) Protection Services, which have won preliminary contracts with the district to provide safety patrols,” the district said in a Jan. 7 release.
The district has also hired a consultant to evaluate the two companies’ readiness to do the job — they were scheduled to start patrolling the district’s campuses on Jan. 1.
CRC and Zulu came under scrutiny when Peralta’s student newspaper, the Citizen, ran a series of reports questioning the two companies’ credentials.
Judging from the district’s release, the student reporters were right.
“PCCD ( Peralta Community College District) is evaluating concerns and issues raised about these two providers and have hired a respected security consultant, Knowledge Saves Lives, to evaluate and review the two ( companies’) qualifications, experience, regulatory compliance, structure and make a recommenPeralta
dation to the district,” the release stated.
One concern raised by the student newspaper was that neither CRC nor Zulu had a state Private Patrol Operator license.
District spokesman Mark Johnson said both CRC and Zulu are working on obtaining the PPO license, “which is the main requirement for patrolling.”
“The credentialing process is now under way. We will evaluate the CRC and Zulu bids after the district has more background information to review,” Johnson said.
He said the cost of the outside evaluation has yet to be finalized.
The contract for Community Ready Corps is for $ 2.1 million for the year. The contract for Zulu is for $ 2.6 million for the year. Neither company is being paid.
Security for the district’s four campuses in Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda and the administration complex in Oakland will be handled by Marina Security Services and A1 Protective Services, which are already under contract.
The new security plan was at the center of the debate over how to reimagine campus policing. The goal is to prevent potential conflicts by replacing Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies with unarmed patrols.
The new $ 6.2 million plan is $ 2.4 million more than the former contract with the Sheriff’s Department.
Despite concerns raised by the student newspaper, the board of trustees voted to approve the contracts for CRC and Zulu.
Board President Cindy NapoliAbella Reiss, however, recused herself from the vote on the CRC contract because she donated money to Affect Real Change, the nonprofit that operates the security service, and to the campaign of its former CEO, Carroll Fife, who was recently elected to the Oakland City Council.
Super sites spin:
The San Francisco 49ers have offered Levi’s Stadium and its parking lot to Santa Clara officials as a possible vaccination site. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority is considering offering its parking lot to local hospitals.
“Given the urgent
need to vaccinate as many people as possible as soon as possible, I would recommend that we act proactively with medical providers,” Coliseum Executive Director Henry L. Gardner said.
San Francisco is looking at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and other publicly controlled locations as vaccination sites.
The San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park is also under consideration.
But for all the attention on the proposed super sites, officials say finding space to administer the vaccines is the easiest part of what has become an increasingly complex problem of how to get the vaccine into people’s arms.
For starters, sometimes the state, counties and large health care providers who administer the vaccines don’t know how much vaccine, or what kind of vaccine, they will be receiving from the federal
government until the day before it arrives.
The next challenge will be setting up vaccination sites and the data systems that can track thousands of vaccinations a day.
The system will need to log the type of vaccine being administered and followup appointments for second shots, then share the information among a number of state, county and private health care providers’ software programs.
Giving the shots is also complicated. People are not going to just drive up, roll up their sleeve, get a shot and drive off. Those being inoculated need to be observed for 15 minutes to make sure they don’t have a negative reaction to the shot.
As San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Tuesday, it’s going to take “all hands on deck” to set up sites and at the same time get the vaccine to underserved communities.
In the meantime, counties are under a lot of pressure to show that they are doing something, even if it’s just announcing the big vaccination sites.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel — and there is a light — but it’s going to take a lot of sacrifice to get there,” Breed said during an online news conference.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGOTV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7: 50 a. m. and 5: 50 p. m. Got a tip? Call 4157778815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier