Over 50 Minority Truckers will be filing a petition in support of a law-suit filed by Steven Fajardo, a retired Hispanic police officer, who has filed a taxpayer lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department (“OPD”) and City of Oakland. Steven Fajardo is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the expenditure and waste of public funds in the unauthorized process used by the OPD which favors a single, large trucking partner of the Port of Oakland known as Dreisbach Enterprises. The OPD allegedly issued Dreisbach secret, non-compliant permits needed for the operation of heavy weight trucks on the streets of West Oakland and within the Port. The lawsuit, filed in the Alameda Superior Court, is before Judge James Reilly in Case No. RG 20061840.
According to the lawsuit, a former OPD police officer (who is Caucasian) violated City ordinances when he unilaterally changed critical “Trailer Safety Requirements” from four tires per axle to only two tires per axle even though neither the current Chief of Police nor any predecessor had formally established any new or additional safety and equipment criteria for use in determining whether an operator’s overweight truck satisfies the safety requirements mandated by law. Neither the public nor any independent truck driver was ever notified of this potential or actual change nor was it posted on the Port’s website until four years later.
This secret change only occurred after the Port entered into a lucrative arrangement for the construction of a cold storage facility at the Port with a joint venture between Dreisbach and conglomerate Lineage Logistics. These changes, made without critical public hearings and comment, allegedly allowed Dreisbach alone to receive special permits from the OPD to utilize special chassis which give Dreisbach a huge, disproportionate economic advantage over African American, Mexican American and other racial minority truckers at the Port.
Former Oakland City Council member and trucking industry expert Ignacio De La Fuente summed up the concerns of more than 50 independent minority truckers supporting the lawsuit as follows: “As if local law enforcement agencies have not done enough damage to the African American, Mexican American and minority communities, the OPD has clandestinely and unfairly rigged the system in favor of the City’s partner (Dreisbach) at the expense of small, minority, independent truckers trying to get by in this already economically challenging time.”
Mr. Fajardo is represented by Eduardo G. Roy, a prominent Bay Area, African American and Hispanic attorney, who cautioned: “It is time for the Oakland City Mayor and Acting Police Chief to immediately put the brakes on the Dreisbach’s illegal special permits and the improper favoritism, and investigate the systemic unfairness and disproportionate impact these illegal and unsafe policies and practices are having on our African American, Mexican American, and minority communities. We have uncovered much evidence to show the City before any further changes or policies are considered by the Acting Police Chief.” Mr. Roy is also representing Dreisbach competitor PCC Logistics and Pacific Transload Systems in a separate lawsuit against Dreisbach that has been pending since December of 2018 and is set for trial in February of next year in the Alameda Superior Court, Case No. RG18931876.
