City Government

Disputes Continue Over Police Accountability, City Ballot Measures

Published

11 years ago

July 11, 2014

Community members continue to express anger and frustration toward the Oakland City Council as it moves forward with plans to put several measures on the November ballot though it is not considering a community-backed measure to create a police oversight commission.

“The (community) coalition is definitely not turning away. Instead of asking the City Council, we will opt for a petition drive to put the measure on the ballot in 2015 or 2016,” said Rashidah Grinage, a representative of the community coalition that wrote the police accountability measure.

“We’ve been talking to all the councilmembers and trying to work with the city (staff) since February. The council and the city’s attorney had plenty of time to

Rashidah Grinage

review this – they just didn’t do it,” she said.

The city found the time to support councilmembers’ pet issues,” she added. “There’s a clear double standard.”

“When (the issue) does anything that provokes a confrontation with the OPOA (Oakland Police Officers Association), the city balks. It stands down,” Grinage said. “The city has never found the wherewithal to stand up to this police union.”

Noel Gallo was the only councilmember who fought to put the police accountability measure on the ballot. Dan Kalb said he was willing to support it, and Lynette McElhaney said she would back it if it is not on the same ballot with the successor to Measure Y.

Wishing to set the record straight, Libby Schaaf said the measure as written was not ready for the ballot because it had not been analyzed and evaluated by city staff.

Pat Kernighan said there was no need for it since the police department is now making progress.

Councilmembers appear united in their desire to pass the new Measure Y, a tax that would generate $22 million a year to pay for 60 police officers and programs that support young people.

While opposition has not yet become public, a number of community members are raising concerns that the city wants more money for police but balks at supporting community demands for strengthened police accountability.

Criticisms are also being expressed that the measure generates millions of dollars

Dan Kalb

a year for a handful of nonprofits, but the city has done little to guarantee these programs produce results.

In addition, while the measure pays the salaries of officers who are supposed to be community policing Problem Solving Officers, the new measure leaves the final decision on how the money will be spent up to the police department.

The council is scheduled to vote next week on a measure to put a new Public Ethics Commission on the ballot. Sponsored by Councilmember Dan Kalb, the commission would have the authority and resources to enforce election campaign contribution limits and other campaign contributions; examine Sunshine Ordinance, public records and transparency complaints, handle conflict of interest issues; and protect employees who are whistleblowers.

The new commission with cost roughly $900,000 a year and have seven staff, compared with the existing body, which costs $300,000 and two staff.

Councilmember McElhaney has doubts whether there is the time to examine the measure, whether there is funding available, whether the proposal has had enough community input and whether that input has been sufficiently diverse. She also wants to know if the measure conflicts with anything in the City Charter.

Responding, Kalb said the public ethics commission measure “has had strong community input development” and diversity among the community members who worked on the proposal and who have served on the commission in the past.

“We’ve gone through very extensive analysis, both external and internal,” he said.

“Our nine member working group includes two African Americans, two Latinos and one Asian American,” he said. Besides consulting many individuals, he said, the group also talked to local organizations – Oakland Rising, Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) and Make Oakland Better Now.

The Post erroneously said last week that the Public Ethics measure and the Libby Schaaf’s redistricting measure skirted the city’s committee and staff review process. Both proposals went to the council’s Rules and Legislation Committee.

“Our office began consultation last year with both the City Attorney’s office and the City Administration, in order to thoroughly vet budget, legal and policy implications,” according to Councilmember Kalb’s office.

“This process began well before the measure was even drafted. We worked with the City Attorney’s office for months to craft the drafting. We also requested staff budget analysis of the proposal far in advance of consideration of the measure by committee,” said Kalb’s office.

Councilmember Schaaf has been working for about a year with community members on her redistricting measure. It would take redrawing of council

Libby Schaaf

districts out of the hands of the City Council and create an independent redistricting commission, mirroring the state’s commission.

“This is a good government reform that puts the power of voting rights into the hands of the voters and not in the politicians, who have an inherent conflict of interest,” Schaaf said. “It has to do with the preservation of voting rights.”

Under this proposal, the city would choose the members of the independent commission through a number of steps. First, the council would set criteria for outreach, and the city administrator would conduct the outreach.

The resulting pool would have to contain at least 40 applicants, including at least three people from each district, and reflect the racial, ethnic, geographic and economic diversity of the city.

Secondly, the pool would be reduced to 30 applicants reflecting the city’s diversity, chosen by a panel of three – a retired Oakland judge, a law or public policy graduate student and a representative of a good government organization, who would be selected by the City Administrator based on City Council criteria.

Third, a random drawing from among the 30 applicants would be conducted to pick six commissioners.

Finally, the six commissioners would appoint the remaining seven commissioners. These appointments must reflect the city’s diversity, and there must be at least one commissioner from each council district.

The process could be conducted every 10 years, as the population numbers of council districts shift.

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Activism

IN MEMORIAM: Nate Holden, State Senator and Longtime Los Angeles Councilmember, Dies at 95

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described Holden as “a lion” in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council.” Hahn added that she learned a lot working with Holden when she was a new councilmember.

Published

5 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Former Los Angeles Councilmember and California State Sen. Nate Holden. File photo.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Nathaniel “Nate” Holden, a prominent figure in the city’s politics, passed away at the age of 95, his family confirmed on May 7.

Holden, who represented South Los Angeles for 16 years on the City Council and served one term in the California State Senate, was widely regarded as a forceful advocate for his community.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described Holden as “a lion” in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council.”

Hahn added that she learned a lot working with Holden when she was a new councilmember.

Holden’s journey to political prominence began in the segregated South, where he was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1929. He often recalled the childhood moment when he first heard the governor of Georgia vowing to continue suppressing Black people.

“Doing the best you can for the people. Law and order. Make sure that people’s communities are safe. I did it all,” said Holden, reflecting on his legacy.

Holden is survived by his sons, including former California Assemblymember Chris Holden, who represented a district in Southern California that includes Pasadena and Altadena in Los Angeles County and cities in San Bernardino County.

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.