Months after federal indictments, Oakland land deal for new recycling plant in limbo ...Middle East

OAKLAND — Less than two months after he was hit with federal bribery and conspiracy charges in a public corruption probe, the head of California Waste Solutions appears to be losing his grip on an $8.3 million land deal that played a supporting role in an alleged scheme to influence Oakland City Hall.

David Duong, the embattled CEO of California Waste Solutions, recently missed a key filing deadline for his company’s longstanding plans to buy 12 acres of the old Oakland Army Base for a massive new recycling plant, newly released documents show. He subsequently saw his request for one-year extension to complete the land deal go unanswered by City Hall, according to a city spokesman.

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Duong has since gone silent amid demands by Oakland’s city administrator to get back on schedule — leaving the company’s purchase of the land in limbo ahead of a critical April 21 deadline to close the deal.

The deal’s murky future adds another twist to the city’s yearslong saga to develop the last patch of bare land on the old Army base. Numerous delays have waylaid plans to relocate two West Oakland recycling plants to the base’s Northgate parcel, which has occasionally been floated as a place to house unsheltered people.

One of the chief proponents of using that land to tackle homelessness, District 3 City Councilmember Carroll Fife expressed a measure of restlessness Thursday at the continued delays.

“I’m just skeptical about their ability to move, and I’d like to see more evidence of that,” Fife said. “Because since I’ve been in office, I haven’t seen any movement forward toward breaking ground.” She also noted how moving CWS’ plant out of West Oakland to the Army base would be “a big deal for the residents who live in those neighborhoods, who experience emissions from those places.”

In a statement, a CWS spokesman said that the company “is fully committed to completing this deal.”

In mid-January, federal prosecutors indicted David Duong, along with his son, Andy Duong, in an alleged scheme to bribe then-Mayor Sheng Thao and her longtime romantic partner, Andre Jones. All face felony bribery and conspiracy charges and have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say the Duongs paid Jones thousands of dollars for a no-show job, while forking over money for campaign mailers attacking Thao’s political rivals ahead of the November 2022 election. In exchange, the heads of the recycling empire asked for millions of dollars in government contracts, along with a say in political appointments and hires at City Hall, the indictment filed January 16 claimed.

Among the alleged promises was a commitment to “get land deal at Army base done from Mayor staff,” according to a March 2023 text sent to Andy Duong from an unidentified co-conspirator, widely believed to be longtime political operative Mario Juarez.

Since it was proposed in 2012, the plan to move the Duong’s recycling plant from its current location at 10th and Pine streets has faced numerous delays. City leaders have seen value in relocating the plant, writing in city memos that it has “long been a priority” for neighbors in the Lower Bottoms neighborhood, who studies show suffer from higher levels of asthma and other respiratory diseases, to the 12-acre site on the ex-army base’s Northgate parcel.

Yet delays repeatedly hampered those plans. California Waste Solutions’ leaders sought multiple extensions on the $8.3 million land deal to own the land for the project, causing them to blow past plans to break ground in December 2022 or January 2023.

A trove of documents seized by federal investigators and made public last week showed Thao’s chief of staff, Leigh Hanson, took a personal interest in the property ahead of one such extension request in 2023. In an email exchange, Hanson discussed the North Gateway property with a city project manager for the Oakland Army Base, who asked if they could “coordinate a mayor and council staff briefing” on upcoming work at the site.

A year later, in February 2024, David Duong requested yet another extension from Thao while lamenting “unprecedented challenges certainly unforeseen” when CWS entered into a lease and development agreement with the city before the coronavirus pandemic. He argued that such an extension “would greatly assist us in ensuring a smooth and successful conveyance process.”

Records show he received that extension exactly two months before FBI agents raided his company’s headquarters, along with his home and the residences of Thao and Jones, and Andy Duong.

Throughout the subsequent indictments and the unprecedented recall of Thao in November, the Oakland Army Base land deal remained unresolved.

On March 14, David Duong penned a letter to Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins and the Oakland City Council asking for another one-year extension to close on the property. Much as he had in 2024, he cited “extraordinary and unprecedented challenges,” including rising material costs, high borrowing rates and the economic uncertainty brought about by “federal trade policies and tariffs.”

His request was contingent on the city waiving a key demand: That CWS begin construction on the project within 60 days of closing the deal. Such a change would be significant, given that the sale of the land is entirely contingent on the company building its new plant on it, while giving up its rights to operate in West Oakland.

In his letter, David Duong stressed his company’s commitment to building “a world-class and cutting-edge recycling facility,” highlighting how CWS had already spent $5.2 million to get the project this far.

“We are not seeking to delay for the sake of delay,” he wrote, calling his request a “pragmatic and cooperative solution” to the company’s problems. His letter made no mention of the indictments filed against him or his son, nor the FBI raids on either of their houses in June 2024 that presaged those charges.

In a written response on March 25, City Administrator Jestin Johnson took the company to task for having already been about a month late in submitting a host of documents demonstrating progress on the project, including evidence they had insurance and a construction contract. He ordered the company to hand over the materials within 60 days.

Johnson also said the company needed to pay the entire one-year extension cost — $425,000 — if it wished to have all 60 days to respond to his letter, given how CWS’ contract called for the land deal to close on April 21.

CWS has yet to respond to Johnson’s demands, city spokesman Sean Maher said. The city has not amended its agreement as CWS requested, though the company may still receive a one-year reprieve if it pays the nearly half-million dollar extension cost.

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