12/15/09 Politics at Year’s End
on December 15, 2009
2009 is drawing to a close, but there’s still unfinished business in Oakland politics before year’s end.
Oakland North’s Richard Parks is investigating the city’s parking permit renewal system, which has come under scrutiny for inefficiency and excessive cost. The City Council has promised action. Look for a story later in the week.
The Oakland Unified School District may try to close its budget deficit by closing certain schools. If final decisions are made at OUSD’s meeting tomorrow, Oakland North’s Mario Furloni will have the list of closures on Thursday.
City Council member and mayoral candidate Jean Quan is holding a fundraiser Wednesday night with Oakland’s State Assembly representative Sandre Swanson. The scope of the race has changed now that California’s secretary of state has ruled that Alameda County can use instant runoff voting — likely meaning the mayoral vote will not happen until November 2010.
The Chronicle’s Chip Johnson looks at whether a plan to build a new A’s baseball stadium in Oakland will bolster Mayor Ron Dellums, who has not made an announcement about whether he intends to run for re-election.
Last but not least, Oaksterdam University’s Richard Lee says he has enough signatures to place the legalization of marijuana on the 2010 California ballot.
Stay tuned.
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Oakland North
Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
