OAKLAND — For far too long, Oakland has been too lax in allowing its streets to be used as dumping grounds, City Council members told chastened Public Works officials as they reviewed a report on illegal trash and plans to do something about it.

The city spends $5.5 million a year dealing with the problem, but over the course of the past five years, the number of calls to the Oakland Call Center to remove illegally dumped material has doubled, according to a report presented Jan. 24.

“The reason we have illegal dumping is because we allow it to happen,” Councilman Noel Gallo said.

“We make so many excuses, at the City Council level, at the city staff level,” he said. But in neighboring Alameda and San Leandro, he said, “They don’t tolerate it. They don’t accept it.”

Among the recommendations Public Works put on the table were installing surveillance cameras at illegal dumping hot spots and buying new compacting trucks.

Those are part of a three-prong strategy successful in other cities, the report says. The strategy’s three elements are eradication, enforcement and education, Office of Public Works Assistant Director Susan Kattchee told the council’s Public Works Committee at its Jan. 24 meeting.

“The problem, obviously, has been going on forever,” Kattchee said. “It’s devastating to the community.”

“We can’t just buy more and more garbage trucks. That’s not the answer,” Vice Mayor Annie Campbell Washington said.

In 2013, Oakland increased fines to $1,000 per day fine for material illegally dumped on the streets.

But only 10 percent of almost $700,000 in fines assessed in 225 cases since then have been collected. Almost $200,000 was waived in settlements. More than 40 cases and $141,000 in fines were dropped, with $165,000 sent to collections agents and only $64,798.57 paid.

In October, the city started rewarding illegal dumping whistle-blowers, offering them half the penalties assessed per violation. During a one-year trial program in 2015-16, reports of suspected dumpers went from 252 to 502, citations from 64 to 81 and warning letters from 131 to 231.

Yet despite the whistle-blower program, the problem has increased and enforcement decreased, Campbell-Washington said.

“2016 was one of our worst years; I was very surprised, when we’ve had this whole campaign urging people to report. We must be laser-focused on the enforcement,” she said.

The city spent $100,000 on four sets of stationary cameras that can be monitored from City Hall. The cameras fill in some details, for instance, by capturing license plate numbers, said Greg Minor, assistant to the city administrator. A pilot program using the cameras started in December.

“I need to know where those cameras are,” Councilman Larry Reid said. “I’d be interested to know if there’s one in my district. This pilot project should be a little bit much larger than what it is in terms of the placement of the cameras, because in Mr. Gallo’s district, you probably could put 15. In my district you could probably put 15 cameras, ’cause I know all the hot spots. It is extremely frustrating. I don’t know what the answer is, but there’s got to be one.”

The Keep Oakland Clean and Beautiful division of the Office of Public Works operates seven days a week. It dispatches 38 workers, four garbage compactor trucks, three flatbed trucks and an overhead loader.

In the past five years, its workload has more than doubled. In fiscal year 2011-12, the Oakland Call Center received 14,083 calls to remove illegally dumped material. By fiscal 2015-16, that number grew to 29,370 calls.

The city has increased its fleet of vehicles used to haul away dumped trash, and it is looking to hire five more crew members.

“We may need more vehicles to get the job done, but the issue is enforcement,” Gallo said.

One street in Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney’s West Oakland district was serviced more than 365 times last year, according to a city report. “No area below Highway 13 is free from illegal dumping, and many areas are constantly plagued,” the report states.

Sections of East Oakland and Fruitvale have more than their share of problems. Two East Oakland activists, Mary Forte and Sheryl Walton, spoke passionately about the problem in their neighborhood.

Forte laid much of the blame on trash pickup costs and policies and called for changes in the bulky waste program, such as including pickups on regular trash and recycling collection days.

“Somehow, we’ve got to figure this out,” Reid said.

“I’ve asked that we be proactive and not wait for residents to call us. I’m tired of us sitting back and waiting for residents to call,” he added.

It is important to get the word out to renters that they can call for a free bulk waste pickup, even in an apartment building, Campbell-Washington said.

“We just keep going in circles because the reality is some of us, not all of us in Oakland, are living deep in it. We get used to it, we just live with it,” Gallo said.

Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan asked Public Works to return with more pro-active campaign suggestions for the committee to vet before sending proposals to the full City Council in time to be included in the upcoming budget.

Contact Mark Hedin at 510-293-2452, 408-759-2132 or mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com.