Government
At a youth town hall meeting Tuesday, Mayor Sheng Thao said she was interested in how the government can better support young people and the importance of transitional housing for 18-year-olds as they become adults. She also said that the FBI raid on her house was an attempt to stop her from creating meaningful change in Oakland. “I know I did nothing wrong, so I’m not even tripping,” Thao said. The mayor faces a recall on Election Day after less…
After several hours of debate, the Oakland City Council voted Tuesday to renew its contract with ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology system. The council renewed the $2.5 million contract for one year to start, instead of three, because of concerns about a lack of data and the city’s strained budget. But if the City Council does not make changes to the contract next year, it will automatically renew for the full three years. It was approved by a 7-1 vote,…
The Oakland City Council approved a proposal Tuesday to temporarily increase contribution limits for candidates in the upcoming election. The proposal, introduced by council members Janani Ramachandran and Kevin Jenkins, neither of whom is up for reelection this year, raises the maximum allowed contributions by $200 from individual donors and by $300 from political committees. “We want to let candidates control their own narrative without having to rely on expensive, independent expenditures that have already been … impacting these elections,”…
The Oakland City Council has given Oakland its own official cocktail — shaken, on ice. The Mai Tai. Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, who introduced the resolution at Tuesday’s meeting, said the council’s move honors the city’s history as a center of entertainment, culture, arts, food and drink. “Honoring and supporting our innovators helps expand our economy, jobs, opportunity, revenue, and uplifts the community,” Kaplan said. According to the resolution, the Mai Tai was invented by Victor J. “Trader Vic” Bergeron,…
Oakland has officially sold its stake in the Coliseum, setting aside concerns that the city’s adopted budget relied too heavily on a deal that had not yet gone through. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Sheng Thao, City Administrator Jestin Johnson and Ray Bobbitt, managing partner of African American Sports and Entertainment Group, signed an agreement that would finalize the $105 million sale. The deal, which was announced in May, will likely allow the city to scrap a contingency…
In the face of mounting political pressure, the Oakland City Council reversed course Tuesday and voted in favor of a November ballot measure that would beef up the Public Ethics Commission. Citing Oakland’s substantial budget shortfall, the council had previously turned down a proposal that includes a slate of reforms meant to modernize the city’s watchdog agency and give it more investigative muscle. Just under two weeks later, Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Rebecca Kaplan changed their minds. Fife, who called…
In the chaotic aftermath of last Wednesday’s mass shooting near Lake Merritt, the Oakland Police Department overcounted the number of gunshot victims associated with the incident. The reason, a separate and nearly simultaneous double shooting. Initial reports said there were 15 gunshot victims who were transported to the hospital from the Lake Merritt area. But police have since determined that one of those victims was wounded less than 30 minutes later in a double shooting in the Bella Vista neighborhood….
Facing mounting public pressure to address last week’s FBI raid of her home, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao took a defiant tone at a news conference Monday, saying she is not the target of the investigation and questioning its timing with the campaign to have her recalled. Reading from a prepared 10-minute statement at City Hall, Thao said in a voice shaking with emotion, “This wouldn’t have gone down the way it did if I was rich.” She said a handful…
The FBI’s San Francisco office raided embattled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home in the Oakland hills Thursday morning, carting off several bags and boxes. Hours later, the mayor — who will be up for recall in the November election — had yet to address the raid. No one answered the bell at her house on Maiden Lane. Her office referred questions to the FBI. It’s unclear what the FBI was searching for. The San Francisco office said only, “The FBI…