City of Alameda withdraws proposal to buy Teslas for police officers

City Council and staff have read your emails and withdrawn the "Recommendation to Authorize [...] Purchase of Two Tesla Y Police Sport Utility Vehicles":

Typically when agenda items are withdrawn, that means that staff will continue to refine the topic and may bring it back in a revised form to a future City Council meeting. Replacing aging vehicles from the city fleet is inline with city policy and budgets, so this item will certainly come back — just hopefully with a more reliable and less toxic vendor for the proposed electric vehicles.

My understanding is that multiple council members requested that this item be withdrawn. One of their responses was shared with me by a Morning Bun reader. Here are Councilmember Tracy Jensen's well-articulated comments in an email last Friday:

Thank you for sharing your opposition to the purchase of Tesla EVs for Alameda's vehicle fleet.

I will not support the purchase of vehicles manufactured by a company with a demonstrable record of discrimination.  According to Diaz v. Tesla, Inc.  a jury found Tesla guilty of permitting "severe and pervasive racial harassment" in the workplace at Tesla's Alameda County manufacturing plant.  Workplace discrimination was also the basis for a 2024 EEOC lawsuit against Tesla, an action which was pulled back with the election of President Trump.

In addition to employment violations, recent action by California DMV alleges that Tesla uses deceptive marketing practices to increase profits. City procurement policies must support Alameda values of transparency, diversity and equity - principles which are not demonstrated by Tesla's business practices.

I have shared my concerns with city staff and requested that the recommendation to purchase the Tesla vehicles be removed from the February 17 City Council Agenda.

Thank you to all of the members of City Council who requested staff put more time into investigating the wide variety of EV options available from vendors inline with City of Alameda's expectations and values.

And thank you also to city staff, many of whom worked a full day on Saturday supporting a City Council strategic planning workshop, and are now back in the office on Monday revising this agenda and doing everything else that keeps Alameda running smoothly.