2018 Oakland Mayoral And City Council Candidate Questionnaire by Zennie62Media
This 20-question questionnaire was designed to give Oaklanders a chance to evaluate, at once, the plans and philosophies of all of the participants in the Oakland Mayoral Race and the Oakland City Council Race for District 2, District 4, and District 6.
This is 2018 Oakland City Council District Six Candidate Marlo Rodriguez
1. Candidate’s Full Name and current occupation
Marlo Rodriguez
Registered Nurse Interventional Radiology Dept
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center
2. Why are you running for office in Oakland?
City Council District 6. I am running to
serve our community and bring resources and workforce/economic development to
our district. As a councilmember I will work collaboratively to focus on the city’s
most urgent and chronic problems such as the homeless crisis, affordable housing
shortage, budget allocations, and improving health and safety outcomes for our
youth and families. I want to create a more positive engagement with our city
government. Regular town-hall roving meetings in the precincts, newsletter, support
for small businesses, increasing public safety. And community input in the
developments in the district and hiring Oaklanders for jobs first. From the hills to the
flatlands, we need a representative that will give voice to all the diverse needs of
the community, so that Oakland is a city where all people are welcomed.
3. Have you held an elected position before? If so, please describe.
n/a
4. Have you ever served on a public board or commission? If so, please list assigments.
no
5. What endorsements have you received? If so, please list them.
East Bay for Everyone, Equality Californaia, Filipino American Coalition
Oakland Management Related Questions
6. What are your top six Oakland Budget priorities, and why?
One fiscal spending
and accounting, audits of each department to identify waste and fraud
Two trim each dept budget by 5%
Three hire grant writers to seek federal dollars for programs benefitting the city
Four focus on a plan to pay for un funded pension liabilities
Five come up with a ten year, twenty year and fifty year buget goals
Six have two community members have input in the strategic budget planning
7. There is a projected deficit for the City of Oakland through 2020. Residents want to close the budget gap via raising revenues. What would you do to raise more money for the City of Oakland?
Create a business environment that would attract business
to take root in Oakland, similar to what Emeryville has done, to create NEW
streams of income for the city.
8. How do you propose to solve the problem of the City of Oakland’s under-funded pension liability?
A municipal bank study was proposed. I would be in favor of this
to pay down the under-funded pensions. This would keep Oakland divested from
Wall Street, save potentially millions of dollars on interest paid to outside banks, in
which we could re-invest in paying the debt of pensions, re-invest back into our
community via spending on infra-structure or projects for community development
projects.
Oakland Police-Related Questions
9. Does Oakland need to hire more police officers or reduce the number we have – please explain your answer.
We need to maintain the police officers we have, and
look at a model to increase non- patrol officers such as officer to be dispatched to
issue tickets for cars blocking fire trucks for example. We need to hire more officers
that live in Oakland.
10. Do you support the work of the current Oakland Police Chief, or is a change needed? Please explain.
A change is needed because of the following: She trusted officers who had lied regarding the scandal involving an under-age prostitute and actually promoted some of the officers to higher positions further eroding community trust in our police department. She
cooperated with ICE regarding a raid, violating the city’s Sanctuary City Law. She
has failed to implement reforms and a plan to remove federal oversight. So the
hope that she would be the agent to reform our police department has yet to be
actualized.
11. Unreported “use-of-force” incidents are a major Oakland Police problem. How do you propose to solve it?
If there is not an anonymous reporting line, we should
have one. Or and online email to report abuses of police officers so we could see
patterns, correct or terminate officers that are not compliant with dept policies and
protocols
12. The Oakland Police Department is in its 13th year of federal oversight. What’s your plan to get OPD away from federal government watch?
Have the Chief come up with a dept plan to remove by a five year plan.
13. The Oakland Police Department disporportionately stops more people of color, than whites. What’s your plan to stop this problem?
More training, and hire more minorities
Homelessness, Affordable Housing, Quality of Life In Oakland
14. What’s your plan to stop or curb homelessness in Oakland?
Use impact fees for emergency rental assistance for 3-4 months, to those applying for un-employment. Expansion for workforce development and trades training.
15. What’s your plan to cause more affordable housing to be built in Oakland?
Utilize public land and funding from County Measure A-1, and Oakland measure KK, to
subsidize affordable/senior housing, give tax incentives/credits to developers,
mandate a minimum 5% of each project to include affordable units.
16. What’s your plan to stop or curb illegal dumping in Oakland?
Expand use of cameras in repeat offender areas. Increase fines for dumping, offer rewards for catching offenders. Educate public on current bulk waste community dates, and let them know each household has one free bulky pick up date. Place more trash bins
along business corridors. Expand drive up bulky dates for drop off. Hire more
sanitation workers to put more Oaklanders to work, and keep our streets clean.
Homeless residents could also be hired as day laborers for food/clothing vouchers/money.
Economic Development In Oakland
17. Share with us your economic development plan and policy for Oakland.
18. What industry should Oakland focus on developing, and why?
See response to prior question on industries to pursue in support of the economic development plan.
The Coliseum and The Sports Industry in Oakland.
(A special section because Oakland has a multi-billion-dollar facility called The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex.)
19. Where should the Oakland A’s new ballpark be: Coliseum or Howard Terminal?
Duh, COLISEUM. Yes, I am biased, but this makes the most sense as ease of transit
to the site will alleviate traffic and make more people want to visit the site. It would
maintain economic opportunities for an economically depressed/disadvantaged
community East Oakland
20. What should the future of the Oakland Coliseum be, and do you have a plan to share with Oaklanders?
I would like to see a Coliseum City developed, similar to the model Jean Quan proposed. This model could include a mix of Housing market-rate and affordable/senior housing, Retail, Manufacturing, Retail, Entertainment,bowling, movies, bars, restaurants, Sports all three teams Basketball, football,baseball, perhaps soccer and or hockey, and biotech or medical research labs,youth development center, teen events on Friday and Saturday evenings, drop in Senior day programs/activities, cultural center/theater performance stage.