The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority plans to hold a “special meeting” on the proposed extension of the Oakland Raiders lease at the stadium. As to when that would happen, the answer this blogger received is “soon”, and that was from Scott McKibben, the Coliseum JPA Executive Director.
That news came after this blogger reported information from a source on the Coliseum JPA Board, who claimed that the meeting was cancelled that morning of Friday, June 15th. The result was that the much-talked about proposed Raiders Lease was not reviewed by the Coliseum JPA Board, because there was no quorum.
As to what a quorum is, the definition is “the minimum number of members of an assembly or society that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid,” according to Dictionary.com. In the case of the Coliseum JPA, the quorum is arrived it when a simple majority of board members is arrived at. From my source the news appeared to be that a simple majority of members was not in the room.
Now, Coliseum JPA Executive Director said to this blogger “We did not hold the meeting and then cancel, we knew a day earlier (Thursday) that we wouldn’t have a quorum and cancelled it that afternoon. No quorum so we cancelled and will call a special meeting very soon to take up the Raider lease.”
What’s not known to this blogger, and yet has been asked repeatedly, is why there was no quorum. But the news is, as McKibben explained, there’s going to be a special meeting on the Oakland Raiders Lease Extension at the Coliseum. The date of the special Coliseum JPA meeting is to be determined.
Once that Coliseum JPA meeting is held, the proposed Raiders lease extension will be evaluated, and then any changes desired would be communicated to the team. Then, if the team says “yes”, it goes back to the JPA for final vote. Right now, the version of the proposed lease Raiders extension has the team playing in Oakland through 2019, with an option for another extension for 2020, and in case the Las Vegas Stadium is not ready to be used by the Raiders.
What’s interesting is that the Raiders lease extension has not come to Oakland City Council. The implication to this point is that the Coliseum JPA alone can approve or reject the lease extenstion. But a memo dated December 27th, 2013, and from Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker to the Oakland City Council, tells a different story.
The Memo called for “Councilmembers, the Mayor and/ or City officials who represent the City on any board, agency, authority, joint powers authority, commission, etc., shall receive prior authorization from a majority of the City Council before they cast a vote on behalf of the City on any matter of particular controversy or that could have a significant economic or policy impact on the City.”
That means the Oakland City Council has to hold a meeting and give the Oakland Coliseum JPA the power to make the decision on the Raiders lease without the involvement of the Oakland City Council.
Stay tuned.