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Change is coming to Oakland – You ready? (Opinion)

Dan Cohen Thu, 27 Dec at 5:31pm
Oakland City Hall - Change is coming.

Oakland City Hall - Change is coming.

Since we live in a world where incumbents seem to win 110% of the time, it’s a huge deal when they don’t run. And once in a while, there’s a chance for seismic change when more than one decide not to run for re-election simultaneously.

That’s exactly the situation on the Oakland City Council. 

Two long-time incumbents aren’t running, while another long-timer is still weighing a decision. Putting three of the eight seats up for grabs presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for change. As one political insider told me… “No matter what, two more Libby Schaaf generation candidates are coming out of this.”

So the older is giving way to the younger. Experienced giving way to the up and coming. What this holds for us – hard to say. What this means for Oakland, hopefully a breath of fresh air and new energy to tackle our opportunities and challenges. Whether your passion is policing or dog parks, bike lanes or potholes, occupy or taxes, jobs or housing…or all of the above – with this kind of turnover, change is coming.

What is exciting for anyone who loves Oakland, like I do, is that most of these folks appear to be serious folks with serious resumes ready to use their experience and wisdom to benefit the city. But that doesn’t let us off the hook. 

We all have a job to do. 

Ranked choice voting, whether you like it or not, asks each of us to kick the tires on ALL of the candidates. We’ve got five months, so please take some time to hit a house party or your local farmer’s market and meet some of these folks.  I’ve also attached links below to candidates’ sites to make starting the process that much easier.

(And for what it’s worth, some seats are also up for grabs on the Oakland Unified School Board – but perhaps that’s a post for another day.)

Here’s what I know. If you know more, please enter it below

Councilmember Jane Brunner (District 1) is leaving her seat to pursue the City Attorney’s office. There she will face off with the capable City Attorney Barbara Parker. 

The race to replace Brunner will feature some familiar and not so familiar names. Here are the candidates I found so far. Environmental advocate Dan Kalb is running. So is California Forward’s Policy Director Richard Raya. Homeless Youth advocate Amy Lemley has also jumped in. Finally, Bob Franklin, a BART commissioner has declared his intent to run in various news stories, but I couldn’t find an online presence.

Longtime councilmember Nancy Nadel (District 3) is retiring. Three younger candidates are now seeking her spot. One who gave her a close race four years ago, Sean Sullivan, has stayed active and never really stopped running. Sean works with homeless and foster youth. Affordable housing and economic development advocate Lynette Gibson McElhaney has a Facebook page up if you’d like to learn more. Self-described entrepreneur and local activist Alex Miller-Cole is running. Finally, Dr. Nyeisha DeWitt is in. She serves as Program Director of a city-wide dropout prevention program.   

What Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente (District 5) will do remains unknown.  Thus far there is no easy-to-locate campaign website. The uncertainty hasn’t stopped challengers from raising their hand and stepping forward. Thus far, longtime Oakland Unified School District Board Member Noel Gallo is up and running and seems to be everywhere. So too is 2008 De La Fuente challenger Mario Juarez, a realtor and civic appointee.

The other two Council seats featuring Councilmembers Larry Reid (District 7) and Rebecca Kaplan (at-large) look to be without serious opposition.

So, where does that leave us? 

Seems like no matter your politics, now is the time to get engaged. And getting started early never hurt anyone. 

Loving this town means more than wearing a cool t-shirt. It’s about putting it in the best hands possible to improve it for the next generations.

Change is coming to Oakland.  What are you going to do about it?

(Are we missing anyone?  Drop their name below in the comments)

 

 

 

About Dan Cohen
Naomi Schiff commented on Wed, 6 Jun at 1:48pm:

Thank you for the reminder that local politics is a place where we can really have an effect.

Two other candidates:

District 1-- another candidate is Don Link  www.linkforoakland.org

District 3--another candidate is Derrick Muhammad

http://www.muhammadforoakland.org/

Deborah Acosta commented on Wed, 6 Jun at 5:33pm:

A great way to get started in finding out about the candidates running for Council District 3 is to attend the upcoming Adam's Point Action Council District 3 Debate:

  • When: next Tuesday June 12th at 6:30 p.m.
  • Where: at the Bellevue Club, 525 Bellevue Ave.
Peggy Simmons commented on Wed, 6 Jun at 6:06pm:

The Oakland Green Party is running council candidates in districts 1 and 7 and at-large (so far). http://www.oaklandgreens.org/

Dan Cohen commented on Wed, 6 Jun at 8:06pm:

Great stuff.  Thanks!

Dan Cohen commented on Wed, 6 Jun at 9:21pm:

Email updates from a political buddy:

"Some of this is curiously out of date I think.  Bob Franklin has withdrawn all interest in running in D1.  Ignacio has endorsed Gallo.  Joe Tuman has announced for the at-large seat against Kaplan."

Crowdsourcing the candidates!  Thank you. 

 

 

Sergio Agramont-V... commented on Thu, 7 Jun at 7:14pm:

Shelly Garza, is also in the race for City Council Seat District 5 www.shellygarzaforcouncil.com

 

She is uniquely qualified to get the job done. As she has the most complete experience: working with the community, within government and as a business owner. Once elected she will be able to work with her then, colleagues to obrtain the votes necessary to get the job done.

Len Raphael commented on Fri, 8 Jun at 12:08pm:

An improvement over the incumbents is not automatic simply because the candidates have endorsements by other incumbents, impressive educational credentials, or many years of community service, or are just fresh or young.

The incumbents started out that way too but quickly got molded into the dysfunctional patterns of our city council where council members devote most of their time to runnning mini mayoral local services and their time in council making deals and tacking between other members to get their own districts more city funding.

One consequence is that the city's governance has drifted for the past four decades into more of a game of thrones than that of leadership making the most of our city's many strengths.

Part of the problem could be structural: what was once a progressive reform of making most council seats district elected instead of city wide, has focused council members on very narrow concerns instead of the big picture policy issues.

And Jerry Brown's supposed strong mayor charter amendment, replaced a strong city manager with only a semi-strong mayor position.

RCV is another well intentioned reform but has had the unintended effect of discouraging candidating from criticizing each other so each candidate can maximize the chance of getting picked a second choice by the other candidates.

It's much easier to learn about candidates when they point out the policy flaws of other candidates.

The voters and the media will have to insist that candidates provide  platforms with both overall policy goals and specific, concrete proposals for what they would try to do differently.  Otherwise we'll make our usual choices based on personality, best smile, who looks most like us, and do we recognize the endorsement names.

And not much will change.

Len Raphael, Temescal

 

 

 

 

Dan Cohen commented on Sun, 10 Jun at 8:11pm:

thx sergio for the heads up & len for the wisdom.

Scott Pearson commented on Wed, 13 Jun at 1:39pm:

Damon Eaves is also running in District 3.  Eaves serves as the Director of Alameda County’s Oakland & Alameda Children’s Services. These programs provide therapy and psychiatric services to Oakland Unified and Alameda Unified students and families and children in Oakland and Alameda.  Eaves is also a member of the City of Oakland Budget Advisory Committee.

Damon is the father of 2 OUSD students.

http://damoneaves.com/

 

Susan Mernit commented on Thu, 14 Jun at 10:46am:

Thanks for the update, Scott.

Pamela Drake commented on Thu, 14 Jun at 10:53am:

I'm glad we've finally gotten most of the folks who are running included, but I don't think that it is a good idea at this stage of the game to tell us that the opposition in D7 is not serious. Sheryl Walton is running a strong campaign. Check her out at Walton2012.org.

 

dan turner commented on Wed, 13 Mar at 5:31pm:

I agree with susan. its great to see authors update their readers and keep them up to date. always good to get more information as well and i thank you for that scott. 

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