California Legislature

City Seeks To Remove Humanist Hall: Oakland Event Space Called Nuisance, Could Be COVID-19 Flashpoint

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Humanist Hall

David Oertel, The President of Humanist Hall located at 390 27th Street, Oakland, CA, is in trouble. But, from the looks of things, the man who owns the facility that was once the home of The Wellstone Democratic Club I was a member of, thinks he’s getting into what the late Representative John Lewis would … Read more

Oakland City Council Wants California To Give Affordable Housing Entities Priority to Purchase Homes

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Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

The Oakland City Council calls for State Legislation to Give Affordable Housing Entities Priority to Purchase Residential Homes Up For Tax Auction The Oakland City Council (unanimously) passed a resolution, introduced by Oakland Council member At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, that would support the California State Legislature enacting legislation that would support affordable housing by requiring that … Read more

Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan Calls For New Solutions To Speeding Problem

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Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Rebecca Kaplan Calls for New Solutions to Oakland’s Speeding Problems & Requests Support From the State Legislature at the October 6, 2020 Oakland City Council Meeting

Oakland, CA —It seems that every day there is a report of a fatal hit and run or reckless speeding that has resulted in serious injury on Oakland’s streets. It has become a precarious endeavor for anyone, but especially the elderly and children, to cross the street or even walk on the sidewalk. We need stronger action to make our streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and others.

The practice has been to rely exclusively on police officers for speeding enforcement, but this has not been working well. In a city the size of Oakland, it is not possible for the police to create a sufficient presence to catch speeding violations or be a deterrent that would discourage dangerous driving activity that has caused serious injury and fatalities. The discretionary, disparate treatment of African Americans, and the ways that traffic stops have sometimes resulted in people being killed by police during traffic stops, are also reasons that the more effective options of civilian and automated traffic enforcement is desirable.

Oakland Council President Rebecca Kaplan is proposing Oakland adopt a resolution requesting the State Legislature to enact legislation that would give municipalities the flexibility to adopt more effective methods for speeding enforcement, at the October 6th Oakland City Council meeting.

We need strategies that avoid racial disparities, prevent traffic stops from escalating into police shootings, while making speeding enforcement more effective and more broadly implemented. The answer is alternative traffic enforcement. Alternative traffic enforcement is the use of cameras and/or civilian personnel, such as Department of Transportation staff, to enforce traffic laws. This approach to traffic enforcement frees up the police to focus on serious crime, reduces likelihood of problematic police interactions, and improves reliability and fairness of enforcement. It also represents a potential savings for a city since it costs more for sworn officers to address these violations.

These systems can reduce racial disparities. “Driving While Black,” is the familiar term to describe the racial profiling used by law enforcement when an African American driver is stopped for little to no reason. The fear of a traffic stop escalated with no apparent reason is well-known in communities of color. With the use of cameras looking at license plates rather than individuals, automated systems, and local civilian staffing, communities of color could get a ticket for speeding, and it would no longer be a potentially life-threatening situation.

The City of Berkeley has already taken steps in this direction. In July, Berkeley approved the use of transportation personnel to conduct traffic stops. The City of San Francisco has also previously expressed interest in alternative methods of speeding enforcement. Oakland is also now working on strategies to provide for options beyond using an armed officer for these situations. But allowing cities flexibility for these solutions requires a change in State law in California.

The California Legislature needs to assist municipalities like Oakland and Berkeley and beyond with more flexibility to innovate as we address this danger on Oakland’s streets. Alternative traffic enforcement is one place where that assistance could begin. The Legislature needs to amend State laws, to allow cities the discretion to use methods for speeding enforcement that are fairer and more effective.

SFMTA efforts for an Automated Speed Enforcement Project:

https://www.sfmta.com/projects/automated-speed-enforcement

This resolution is scheduled to be heard at the October 6, 2020 Oakland City Council meeting at 1:30pm.

Agenda: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=806460&GUID=1D9852E1-3E39-4E7F-9489-25AE58173ABB

Memo: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=8811254&GUID=E64BE5E4-85BE-43BF-92F6-3639585AE48F

Legislation: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=8811255&GUID=2B7C7DBD-01BB-476F-9959-683E70408B9A

Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan is an honors graduate from MIT, and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Kaplan was elected in 2008 to serve as Oakland’s citywide Councilmember, she was re-elected in 2016.

Rebecca Kaplan Wants New Solutions To Oakland’s Speeding Problems, Wants State Legislature Support

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Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Oakland — It seems that every day there is a report of a fatal hit and run or reckless speeding that has resulted in serious injury on Oakland’s streets. It has become a precarious endeavor for anyone, but especially the elderly and children, to cross the street or even walk on the sidewalk. We need stronger action to make our streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and others.

The practice has been to rely exclusively on police officers for speeding enforcement, but this has not been working well. In a city the size of Oakland, it is not possible for the police to create a sufficient presence to catch speeding violations or be a deterrent that would discourage dangerous driving activity that has caused serious injury and fatalities. The discretionary, disparate treatment of African Americans, and the ways that traffic stops have sometimes resulted in people being killed by police during traffic stops, are also reasons that the more effective options of civilian and automated traffic enforcement is desirable.

Oakland Council President Rebecca Kaplan is proposing Oakland adopt a resolution requesting the State Legislature to enact legislation that would give municipalities the flexibility to adopt more effective methods for speeding enforcement.

We need strategies that avoid racial disparities, prevent traffic stops from escalating into police shootings, while making speeding enforcement more effective and more broadly implemented. The answer is alternative traffic enforcement. Alternative traffic enforcement is the use of cameras and/or civilian personnel, such as Department of Transportation staff, to enforce traffic laws. This approach to traffic enforcement frees up the police to focus on serious crime, reduces likelihood of problematic police interactions, and improves reliability and fairness of enforcement. It also represents a potential savings for a city since it costs more for sworn officers to address these violations.

These systems can reduce racial disparities. “Driving While Black,” is the familiar term to describe the racial profiling used by law enforcement when an African American driver is stopped for little to no reason. The fear of a traffic stop escalated with no apparent reason is well-known in communities of color. With the use of cameras looking at license plates rather than individuals, automated systems, and local civilian staffing, communities of color could get a ticket for speeding, and it would no longer be a potentially life-threatening situation.

The City of Berkeley has already taken steps in this direction. In July, Berkeley approved the use of transportation personnel to conduct traffic stops. The City of San Francisco has also previously expressed interest in alternative methods of speeding enforcement. Oakland is also now working on strategies to provide for options beyond using an armed officer for these situations. But allowing cities flexibility for these solutions requires a change in State law in California.

The California Legislature needs to assist municipalities like Oakland and Berkeley and beyond with more flexibility to innovate as we address this danger on Oakland’s streets. Alternative traffic enforcement is one place where that assistance could begin. The Legislature needs to amend State laws, to allow cities the discretion to use methods for speeding enforcement that are fairer and more effective.

SFMTA efforts for an Automated Speed Enforcement Project:

https://www.sfmta.com/projects/automated-speed-enforcement

This item is to be heard for scheduling by the Rules & Legislation Committee on September 24, 2020.

Scheduling Request: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9391c3de-52c5-4156-ba13-5932682d7163

Oakland City Council 2020 Race: Union Committee To Replace Lynette Gibson McElhaney With Carroll Fife, Kaplan, Formed

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Oakland District Three Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney

The 2020 Oakland City Council race gets stranger and stranger as documents show (it’s always “documents show”, huh) that the Alameda Labor Council and the AFL-CIO have formed a committee called “Oakland 2020 Committee to Replace Lynette Gibson McElhaney And Elect Carroll Fife and Rebecca Kaplan to the Oakland City Council, sponsored by Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO”. (For those of you who need a map, Lynette Gibson McElhaney is the currrent Oakland District Three Councilmember and Rebecca Kaplan is the current At Large Councilmember and President Of The Oakland City Council.)

According to the page I found on the Open Disclosure Oakland website, the organization has raised $293,000 to date. The contributors are all, strangely, union:

Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 95814 $90000 2020-09-10
Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 95814 $82000 2020-09-10
Unity PAC a Sponsored Committee of the Alameda Labor Council AFL-CIO Committee — — 94621 $50000 2020-09-16
Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 95814 $30000 2020-09-01
Unity PAC a Sponsored Committee of the Alameda Labor Council AFL-CIO Committee — — 94621 $25000 2020-08-20
Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 104 Political Committee Committee — — 94583 $5000 2020-09-07
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS LOCAL 595 PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 94568 $5000 2020-09-03
Steamfitters Local 342 Political Action Committee Committee — — 94518 $5000 2020-08-27
ESC Local 20 IFPTE Lou Lucivero Legislative Education & Action Program (LEAP) Sponsored by Engineers & Scientists of California Local 20 Committee — — 94607 $1000 2020-09-07

I write “strangely, union” because there’s no other contributor listed.

Conversation With Carroll Fife – Progressive For Oakland City Council, District 3
Conversation With Carroll Fife – Progressive For Oakland City Council, District 3

The Alameda Labor Council’s slate card shows, with respect to Oakland and the City Council races, the following choices:

Dan Kalb for District One
Carroll Fife (with no rank-choice #2, which normally would include the incumbent) for District Three
Noel Gallo for District Five
Treva Reid and Marchon Tatmon – Dual Endorsement for District 7
Rebecca Kaplan for At Large

For the Oakland School Board, the union group picked Sam Davis, VanCedric Williams, Michael Hutchinson, Ben Tapscott, and Measure QQ and Measure Y.

What’s Really Up With The Alameda Labor Council / AFL-CIO Union’s Decision To Back Carroll Fife Over Lynette Gibson McElhaney?

Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson Mcelhaney
Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson Mcelhaney

But the decision to back Carroll Fife over Councilmember McElhaney is the focus of talk around town. While others have a point of view that reflects the sour taste of last year’s California State Democratic Convention outcome and the idea that the unions are trying to “take out” black women (an interesting view considering the backing of Fife and also Jovanka Beckles), I think it has more to do with Bernie Sanders.

Carroll Fife and a number of members of the Alameda Labor Council were big time Bernie Sanders backers, whereas Lynette’s a supporter of Joe Biden for President (and Fife has not come out in open support of Biden, even as he’s the Democratic Party leader and former SF District Attorney Kamela Harris is his running mate). And the Alameda Labor Council’s office space was used to help Fife during the Moms 4 Housing effort.

Still, the ties between the 2019 California Democratic Party election where Los Angeles labor leader Rusty Hicks won the party chair position, and held off a powerful drive from Richmond activist Kimberly Ellis, and the current Oakland City Council race, are not to be denied. There’s a lot of state-wide bad blood between a number of black female elected officials and the largely white AFL-CIO in the wake of Ellis’ loss. Last year, Both Lynette and Kimberly served on the board of Black Elected Officials Of The East Bay, with McElhaney, as Special Advisor to the Board according to The Oakland Post. (Note, Ellis texted me via Facebook “I was hired as a consultant to the org, I never served on its board.” A point of information not reflected in the year-old Oakland Post entry which served as reference.)

Carroll Fife should be careful who she partners with in this race. Her approach thus far is to discriminate in seeking political partnerships rather than cast a big tent and sell herself, explaining why she’s the best candidate, and to everyone, of every stripe. That strategy does not serve any elected official well when it comes to deal-making in office. Just consider how some in the Oakland City Council reacted to the allegedly immature behavior of one newcomer when that person did not get their way after a vote. That person’s efforts were largely marginalized during the last session.

Plus, Carroll could wind up being looked at as against any black woman who’s not exactly aligned with her agenda. At a time when a number of black women in California politics feel like they’re under attack, that’s not a good position for Ms. Fife to be in, and could be used against her in a big way. It is also a bad look for the Alameda Labor Council to have: the appearance of picking and choosing black female candidates in the wake of the Hicks / Ellis vote of last year. Indeed, it’s a problem that extends even to Kamala Harris herself.

The Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate is a part of the SF Bay Area Political Family, and so is very well known. I first met her in 2007, and even met up at Harry’s Bar on Fillmore for an early dinner. But, as her political career grew, it took on a pattern that many black women in the SF Bay Area Political Family don’t see as beneficial to them. Famed local lawyer Pamela Price put it this way in her blog:

In California politics, with very few exceptions, Kamala has not supported progressive Black women running for office. In 2017 and again, in 2019, we fought to elect Kimberly Ellis as the Chairwoman of the California Democratic Party. Kamala did not support Kimberly Ellis in 2017 or 2019.

In 2018, 2 Black women ran for Oakland Mayor. Kamala did not support either one of us. In the 2018 race for Assembly District 15 to represent Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and West Contra Costa County, there were 3 Black women running for State Assembly. Kamala did not support any of them. As a result, today, there are no Black representatives from the Bay Area in the California Legislature.

In three local races in 2018, Oakland Mayor, Assembly District 15 and Alameda County District Attorney, Kamala provided major support for all of the white women who won.

The Lesson: Make Friends With Everyone, And Not Just A Small Group Of People You Like

Oakland’s real problem is that too many so-called progressive and democratic socialist candidates are also too eager to make enemies where they really don’t exist. I am calculating the over-under on when this post of mine will be mischaracterized for political gain. One will say it’s anti-Lynette and the other anti-Carroll, and someone else will come up with some other crap. All will be wrong. Note: it’s a trap!

Word of warning: you’re elected to serve all of the people of your district, not just the ones you like.

UPDATE:

Oakland District Three Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney posted this entry on Facebook, tagging myself and this post:

Stay tuned.

As Raiders Open Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, Oakland Preps A’s Billion-Dollar Subsidy Ballpark

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Raiders Allegiant Stadium Las Vegas

In Las Vegas, the once-Oakland Raiders did everything it could do to make the unofficial soft-opening of the still-under construction Allegiant Stadium a special event. And why not? Allegiant Stadium is a brand new symbol of what many (including me) hope Las Vegas can be, yet again, post-Pandemic: a tourist mecca for the World.

The Raiders rolled out a super-fancy season ticket box for passes that, sadly, will go unused for this wild NFL 2020 Season.

And in introducing Raiders Players to the facility, Mark Davis, Raiders Manager of the General Partner, said this (according to the Las Vegas Sun):

“Welcome to the Death Star, where our opponents’ dreams come to die. My father always said that the greatness of the Raiders is in its future. Well today that future really starts. This magnificent stadium was built on the backs of thousands of players, coaches, administrators and fans, who for the past 60 years have proudly worn the Silver and Black.”

Oakland-Athletics-release-updated-renderings-of-new-stadium
Oakland-Athletics-release-updated-renderings-of-new-stadium

And while Mark Davis and Jon Gruden and Raiders players enjoy the new Las Vegas Stadium, the Oakland A’s plan a $2 billion ballpark facility for Howard Terminal in Oakland’s Jack London Square. In a still-ongoing march to a planned 2023 opening, Oakland A’s President David Kaval is proving the Raiders wrong: that the City of Oakland was, indeed, able to cause the formation of a public subsidy program worth roughly double that of the $750 million the Raiders got (with the help of Las Vegas Sands Founder Sheldon Adelson) from the Nevada Legislature.

In a turn of events that proves the mainstream media does not know how read or how to do math, the planned infrastructure redevelopment zone law that was approved by the California Legislature and signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom last October, will result in the formation of a zone that assumes a small $2 billion base-year assessed value to serve as the foundation for a TIF bond with a 40-year-payback schedule.

In fact, Kaval agreed this was the case in our interview, even as he reminded us that the ballpark itself (the main frame) would be privately financed. At just an annual 4 percent rate of growth in assessed value, and 1 percent tax rate, the revenue total will be $1.4 billion by year 40.

The Oakland A’s ballpark legislation, if one bothers to read it, will allow for everything from financing assistance for affordable housing, street lighting, bridges, transportation, and it can be spread city-wide.

Of course, those who hate reading will go on chortling that Oakland’s broke and can’t afford this or that. Meanwhile, the A’s will emerge with the ballpark that will reform Oakland into an international destination.

Stay tuned.