When Mary Forte saw a trash bag dumped in her Oak Knoll Golf Links neighborhood in the East Oakland hills, she reported it to Oakland’s 311 hotline on July 23 and went about her day.
Five days later, the trash was still there at Golf Links Road and Blandon Road. More bags had accumulated by the telephone pole, but no one came to clean them up. Instead, someone decided to add a toilet to the pile.
“It’s just nasty,” Forte said. “It’s a quality of life issue that if you have to walk out your house or go to the store and you can’t walk past your sidewalk because of trash.”
Forte filed another complaint on July 28. For Forte, who has volunteered on illegal-dumping initiatives since 2016, the cycle of dumping, reporting, waiting, and eventual cleanup is familiar.
Piles of trash, mattresses, and furniture litter residential and commercial streets across Oakland.
Oakland spent nearly $12 million cleaning up illegal dumping in fiscal year 2024-25. But an April City Auditor’s performance audit Illegal Dumping found the city’s efforts to hold dumpers accountable have struggled.
Expenses supporting Oakland Public Works’ Environmental Enforcement Unit exceeded $2 million that year, while paid illegal dumping citations generated just over $16,000 in revenue, according to the audit.
OPW said vacancies limited the unit’s spending and enforcement capacity and that its officers perform other waste-enforcement and education duties.
Now, a $9.2 million grant from the Crankstart Foundation will fund additional staff, cameras, license-plate readers, and AI-assisted imaging.
Meanwhile, the city is working to address weaknesses identified by auditors in how it identifies dumpers, process citations, and collects penalties. The question is whether new technology and staff can improve an enforcement system where many citations haven’t resulted in rarely lead to collected penalties.
Dumpers fined, but penalties rarely paid
A June Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report found that Oakland collects about 20 million pounds of illegally dumped waste annually, about 47 pounds per resident.
In the January OPW Asset Management Report for EEU, officers logged 63 work orders and issued 26 illegal dumping citations, nine of which were from a camera. The January report recorded 26 illegal dumping citations ussed and just one citation payment.
“The burden of evidence is pretty high to catch somebody. We saw people illegally dumping and reported it to the police and nothing happened.”
City Auditor Michael Houston
The audit found 73% of citations received no response, meaning no payment, appeal, or request for community service.
“The burden of evidence is pretty high to catch somebody,” City Auditor Michael Houston said in an interview. “An example in our audit report is we saw people illegally dumping and reported it to the police and nothing happened.”
Limited staffing and coverage complicate enforcement
The audit found EEU officers’ proactive enforcement was concentrated within a 20-block area in Deep East Oakland between 80th and 100th avenues. Other neighborhoods received enforcement mainly in response to 311 reports classified as “urgent,” which the audit said were rare.
EEU officers and cleanup crews were also re-routed to help with homeless encampment services, the audit found.
Kristin Hathaway, assistant director for OPW, said they have a limited amount of staffing but are using it in a more strategic way.
“In the city council midsize amendment, they authorized $1 million for our crew to do overtime encampment work,” Hathaway said. “So, we can ensure that we are not re-routed often.”
Oakland organizes its illegal-dumping strategy across the “Three E’s”: Education, Eradication, and Enforcement. The grand jury found deficiencies in all three.
Citing “inadequate and abysmal” enforcement on illegal dumping, the grand jury called for Oakland to have a single leader to oversee the strategy across departments.
In a statement, Interim City Administrator Betsy Lake said the grand jury’s “recommendations align with the recommendations and actions from our own strategic process.”
Citations and appeals
The EEU issues citations for illegal dumping cases by mail.
People cited for illegal dumping have 15 business days to pay, file an appeal, or request community service. Appeals involving issues like stolen vehicles, disputed ownership of dumped materials, or identity fraud may require an independent hearing officer. The audit found that, in some cases, the cost of the hearing is higher than the fine itself, meaning the city can lose money even when it prevails.
Paula Kaltenbrunner, Oakland’s performance auditor, said they’ve discussed automating citations with OPW to make collections more efficient.
“It’s not cost effective, right?” Houston said. “We’re just the hamster on the wheel, not making any progress. All this energy and it’s showing that? $16,000…$2 million. You could say [the system is] broken.”
Auditors also point to disposal costs
The audit also identified the accessibility and affordability of legal waste disposal as factors contributing to illegal dumping. Oakland’s waste hauling rates are 23 to 40% higher than those in neighboring cities, according to the audit. These rates are governed by the City’s contract with Waste Management of Alameda County, Inc, which runs through 2030.
OPW revived its “Bulky Block Party” events July 25 after a two-year hiatus, offering residents a way to dispose of large items for free. Three more events are scheduled through April 2027.
Oakland’s $9.2 million plan targets enforcement gaps
Mayor Barbara Lee announced a $9.2 million grant from Crankstart Foundation on June 11 to support Oakland’s illegal dumping response. The three-year plan includes increasing cameras from 35 to 85, integrating license plate reader technology, and deploying AI-assisted imaging from Aerbits, Inc. to find trash piles.
The investment also includes additional EEU staffing, outreach, larger residential trash containers, and a third-party evaluation.
Several of the investments respond directly to problems identified by the audit, including limited staffing and challenges gathering evidence against dumpers.
“I don’t think we have the right strategies. Obviously what we’ve had is not working because it seems the more you clean up the more dumping there is.”
Mary Forte, volunteer since 2016
But Houston questioned whether additional technology alone will fix the city’s enforcement problems.
“The existing camera efforts have not been super successful,” Houston said. “I think drones sound cool, but it’s not a technological issue.”
OPW told Oakland Voices it is changing what happens after citations are issued by integrating its case‑management systems with the Finance Department and developing a new Cityworks module to track citations.
OPW staff told Oakland Voices it aims to increase the number of citations that result in successful collections from roughly 55 annually to about 500.
Separate from the Crankstart grant, the City Council’s expenditures plan includes an added $475,000 allocated for more cameras, EEU staffing, software, and hand-held citation devices.
Kaltenbrunner said that increasing capacity may not address the conditions that drive illegal dumping.
“A lot of capacity is needed to solve this problem,” Kaltenbrunner said. “It’s putting a Band-Aid on it versus actually eradicating it.”
The City Auditor plans to publish a follow-up report tracking the city’s implementation of recommendations. OPW plans to launch a public dashboard Sept. 8 tracking 311 requests, work-order completion times, enforcement staffing, citations, and fines issued and collected.
“The more you clean up, the more dumping there is”
Three days after Mary Forte’s second 311 report – and after she sent photos of the pile to Keep Oakland Clean and Beautiful supervisors – the trash was removed.
Keep Oakland Clean and Beautiful is an OPW division responsible for illegal dumping cleanup.
“What I find is, you pick it up, you bag it up, Public Works picks it up. Within a week or two it’s back again,” Forte said. “I saw in some locations they’ve put up those barriers so people can’t dump there, but I’m sure they’re dumping somewhere else.”
“I don’t think we have the right strategies,” Forte said. “Obviously what we’ve had is not working because it seems the more you clean up the more dumping there is.”
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