Posted on 09/23/2008 7:45:36 AM PDT by SmithL
From the day Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums took office nearly two years ago, residents have witnessed a steady decline in city government function as public confidence has withered.
The city's administrative structure and finances are in deep distress. In the coming weeks, the city's elected officials must make significant cuts to balance a budget deficit that has grown to $50 million since the start of the fiscal year less than three months ago.
There's also the question of who's in charge at City Hall after Dellums, under pressure, fired City Administrator Deborah Edgerly amid allegations that she tipped her nephew, a city employee who repaired parking meters, to a police investigation of a violent street gang.
Facing those and other problems, Dellums rarely seems to work a full week. Last week, Oakland developer Phil Tagami made light of that on television station KTVU, calling on the mayor, who earns nearly $200,000 a year, to fill out a weekly time card to show his dedication to get something done.
Citizens have waited for their mayor to lead. Instead, many say he's let them down. Now the private conversations at cocktail parties and neighborhood block parties are getting more public - with the subject of a mayoral recall coming up more frequently.
Resident Joshua McEwen launched an unofficial recall petition online a few weeks ago to test support for a real recall of the mayor. Nearly 500 residents have signed it, and several of them posted their opinions of how the mayor has failed.
Other politicians have paid the price for failing to deliver. California voters revolted to oust Gov. Gray Davis in a recall election five years ago after he got the state into an energy and fiscal crisis and raised vehicle license fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hmm...I find it hard to believe that anyone would miss Willie Brown running anything...but there it is...
Uh, Willie Brown was Mayor of San Francisco. Did you mean Jerry Brown? I wish he was still in Oakland instead of using the California Attorney General’s office to conduct his Crusades.
There you go, from what I had read, Oakland had become relatively nice when Browne/Brown was running the place.
Dellums is the poster child for what is wrong with Kalifornia Democratic politicians, IMO.
By and large, Jerry Brown did a pretty good job in Oakland. However, he was way too tolerant of the criminal activities conducted by the Nation of Islam, operating out of Your Black Muslim Bakery.
Doesn’t matter. Look what mayors have done in places like Detroit (Kwame Kilpatrick) or Washington (Marion Barry) or other big cities. The mayors and councils run these cities into the dirt and keep getting elected because they’re good at blaming “the man” for their problems, when the Mayor IS “the man” that caused the problems.
}:-)4
From what my brother told me, Jerry brown did a good job for Oakland. This is a shame. When I visit the bay area now, I steer clear from Oakland.
I was there for the 4th of July in Jack London Square several years ago. I was so impressed about how beautiful Oakland looked. Even the people there wore pride openly. I hope a decent Mayor gets into Oakland.
For a city like Oakland Moonbeam Brown is probably the best one could hope for. He really bucked the system when he fought for a charter school on the old Naval facilities that would be run by ex-servicemen and install discipline in the students. When he was fighting for this he made a lot of appearances on the conservative Lee Rogers/Melanie Morgan morning show on KSFO.
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