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Zac Unger

Councilmember, Oakland City Council

Raised city budget and Measure E at four meetings.

10 of 20transcribed meetings with their voice identified
8questions at the City Council
21 of 22present at roll calls, from the clerk

Also sits on 4 committees

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Seven clips, newest first

City budget and Measure E“Councilmember— so this sort of, um, percentage-based budgeting strikes me as trying to meet a moving target because the amounts of revenues are, are changing year to year.”Zac UngerMember · Finance and Management Committee · Dec 9, 2025 · 18:35Play at 18:35
City budget and Measure E“My understanding is that with this report, we know where that stands. I’ve seen a lot of reporting out there, I should say faux reporting, saying that the raises have already been awarded, that they will already eat up some portion of Measure E should it pass.”Zac UngerMember · Finance and Management Committee · May 26, 2026 · 30:37Play at 30:37
Homelessness and encampments“I would summarize it as provide clarity on what Caltrans is willing to do and work with Caltrans on the homelessness encampment policy.”Zac UngerMember · Public Works and Transportation Committee · Feb 24, 2026 · 25:29Play at 25:29
“You guys are crushing it. I love that you’re closing more cases than are getting opened. Um, how’s your staffing?”Zac UngerMember · Community and Economic Development Committee · Jul 14, 2026 · 1:03:41Play at 1:03:41
“So, um, capital improvement projects and human services are a big chunk of our budget, but they’re by no means all of our budget. Um, are there other plans to do forensic audits on other parts of our budget? How did we select these 2 pieces?”Zac UngerMember · Finance and Management Committee · Jul 14, 2026 · 1:51:54Play at 1:51:54
“If we adopt my amendment, we would be able to take full advantage of the SB 79 development opportunities if we accept my amendment.”Zac UngerMember · Community and Economic Development Committee · Feb 24, 2026 · 1:10:13Play at 1:10:13
“It’s the boots-on-the-ground piece that I’m a little more concerned about, like whether you have the expertise and the ability to oversee that kind of sort of day-to-day ticketing and, and meter collection work.”Zac UngerMember · Public Works and Transportation Committee · Feb 10, 2026 · 32:46Play at 32:46

Officials only. Public speakers are counted, never named.

Issues Unger raised, by number of meetings

We count who raised an issue, not which side they took.

Every roll call, and Unger’s other bodies

Present at 21 of 22 roll calls at the City Council

From the clerk’s own record. We don’t compare members on it.

PresentExcusedAbsentOldest first, 1 square per roll call

Excused 1 · Absent 0. Nov 4, 2025 to Oct 20, 2026.

Official roll call, from the clerk →
What they talk about

Streets, traffic and parking took 18% of Unger’s speech with a checked topic

By the agenda item on the floor when they spoke, at the City Council and its committees (clerk’s agenda times). 76 of 111 minutes of their speech have a checked topic. How much they talk about it, not which side they take.

Streets, traffic and parking18%
Development and land use12%
Housing and tenants4.8%
Taxes and fees1.6%
Parks and recreation1.6%
Arts, culture and libraries0.2%
Questions

Unger asked eight questions at the 10 City Council meetings where we identified them

At least this many: direct questions only.

Of Unger’s 36 questions to city departments at the Finance and Management Committee, 20 went to administration, HR, contracts and facilities.

Who they question: 95 questions to a department, 4 bodies · Oct 24, 2025 – Oct 8, 2026.

Finance and Management Committee36 questions to city departments
Finance and Management Committee: questions by department
DepartmentShareQuestions
Administration, HR, contracts and facilities2056%
Budget, finance and controller1233%
Police38%
Auditors, inspectors general and ethics13%
Public Works and Transportation Committee28 questions to city departments
Public Works and Transportation Committee: questions by department
DepartmentShareQuestions
Budget, finance and controller1036%
Transportation and transit725%
Administration, HR, contracts and facilities518%
Auditors, inspectors general and ethics311%
Public works, streets and sanitation311%
Community and Economic Development Committee26 questions to city departments
Community and Economic Development Committee: questions by department
DepartmentShareQuestions
Planning and zoning1142%
Housing831%
Administration, HR, contracts and facilities312%
Building permits and inspection28%
Fire and EMS28%
City Council5 questions to city departments
City Council: questions by department
DepartmentShareQuestions
Budget, finance and controller360%
Economic development, business and licensing120%
Public works, streets and sanitation120%
Neighborhoods Unger named

3 places Unger named in meetings

Lines where Unger named the place, read by two AI readers that both agree it means that place. Each dot plays the newest one; brighter means named more often.

Oakland
  • Fruitvale 1 time
  • North Oakland 1 time
  • West Oakland 1 time

Places are drawn at the centre of their own boundary in the city’s neighborhoods (CEDA) file (City of Oakland Open Data Portal); a well-known area with no boundary of its own sits at its OpenStreetMap point. A dot says the place was named, not where Unger was or what was said about it.

Meetings

Every meeting where we identified Unger’s voice

52, newest first. The date opens the meeting; the time plays the video at Unger’s first remark.

  1. Sep 22, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee3.5 min26:06
  2. Sep 22, 2026Finance and Management Committee0.6 min1:08:48
  3. Sep 22, 2026Community and Economic Development CommitteeDevelopment and land use1.0 min19:19
  4. Jul 21, 2026City Council0.7 min29:00
  5. Jul 14, 2026Public Works and Transportation CommitteePublic transit4.0 min30:35
  6. Jul 14, 2026Finance and Management CommitteeBudget and spending0.9 min21:19
  7. Jul 14, 2026Community and Economic Development CommitteeBusiness and economic development2.5 min46:30
  8. Jul 13, 2026City CouncilDevelopment and land use0.6 min45:38
  9. Jun 23, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee0.2 min6:58
  10. Jun 23, 2026Finance and Management Committee0.7 min18:51
Show all 52Show fewer
  1. Jun 23, 2026Community and Economic Development CommitteeHousing and tenants1.1 min1:59:46
  2. Jun 16, 2026City Council0.2 min43:50
  3. Jun 9, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee1.3 min9:36
  4. Jun 9, 2026Community and Economic Development CommitteeHousing and tenants0.8 min1:27:51
  5. Jun 2, 2026City Council4.2 min56:17
  6. May 26, 2026Public Works and Transportation CommitteeParks and recreation3.2 min25:06
  7. May 26, 2026Finance and Management CommitteeBudget and spending1.4 min30:15
  8. May 26, 2026Community and Economic Development Committee0.0 min1:33:55
  9. May 12, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee1.3 min4:52
  10. May 12, 2026Finance and Management Committee2.9 min58:28
  11. May 12, 2026Community and Economic Development CommitteeDevelopment and land use · Business and economic development3.8 min1:19:23
  12. Apr 21, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee1.4 min2:52
  13. Apr 14, 2026City CouncilCity workforce and labor4.0 min7:12
  14. Mar 24, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee8.4 min6:50
  15. Mar 24, 2026Finance and Management CommitteeCity workforce and labor3.1 min56:16
  16. Mar 24, 2026Community and Economic Development Committee0.4 min27:52
  17. Mar 10, 2026Public Works and Transportation CommitteePublic transit5.0 min7:48
  18. Mar 10, 2026Finance and Management CommitteePolicing and public safety · Budget and spending2.4 min35:48
  19. Feb 24, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee1.6 min1:10
  20. Feb 24, 2026Finance and Management Committee0.3 min33:48
  21. Feb 24, 2026Community and Economic Development CommitteeDevelopment and land use4.5 min46:22
  22. Feb 10, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee9.4 min5:23
  23. Feb 10, 2026Finance and Management CommitteeBudget and spending · City workforce and labor3.0 min37:56
  24. Feb 10, 2026Community and Economic Development Committee0.4 min11:13
  25. Feb 3, 2026City Council0.1 min25:08
  26. Jan 27, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee2.9 min18:30
  27. Jan 27, 2026Finance and Management Committee0.9 min1:10:01
  28. Jan 13, 2026Public Works and Transportation Committee1.5 min2:48
  29. Jan 6, 2026City Council2.6 min7:38
  30. Dec 16, 2025City Council1.0 min5:13:45
  31. Dec 9, 2025Public Works and Transportation Committee1.5 min5:29
  32. Dec 9, 2025Finance and Management CommitteeCity workforce and labor2.0 min18:34
  33. Dec 9, 2025Community and Economic Development CommitteeFire and emergency services · Development and land use2.2 min46:26
  34. Dec 4, 2025Rules and Legislation Committee6.2 min1:03:05
  35. Dec 2, 2025City CouncilBusiness and economic development0.6 min2:05:31
  36. Nov 18, 2025Public Works and Transportation Committee1.2 min2:46
  37. Nov 18, 2025Finance and Management Committee0.1 min35:49
  38. Nov 18, 2025Community and Economic Development CommitteeHousing and tenants1.8 min2:43:59
  39. Nov 4, 2025City Council2.4 min2:15:30
  40. Oct 28, 2025Public Works and Transportation Committee2.8 min12:23
  41. Oct 28, 2025Finance and Management CommitteeCity workforce and labor1.8 min37:46
  42. Oct 28, 2025Community and Economic Development CommitteeDevelopment and land use1.4 min49:50
How we identify who is speaking · blind check, pooled across five cities: of 410 council lines drawn, 352 right, 0 wrong, 1 unclear, 57 couldn’t be judged

We identified Unger’s voice at 52 meetings across five bodies. A meeting missing here means we couldn’t attribute the voice, not that Unger was absent. Claude and Gemini each read every transcript with that day’s roster. A voice gets Zac Unger’s name only when both agree and a code check finds the name said on, or just before, their turn. Voices our transcripts merge with someone else’s are never attributed, so every count here undercounts what Unger said. For councils and their committees, of 410 lines drawn, 352 were right, 0 wrong and 1 unclear, and the checkers couldn’t judge 57. We have since removed the voices behind 110 of those lines (0 wrong, 1 unclear, the rest we had already held for other reasons). Of the 300 lines we still publish, the checkers could judge 268: all 268 right (90% lower bound 0.99). They couldn’t judge the other 32. The check is one sample pooled across the five cities, not of Unger or of Oakland alone.