Free Republic

If there's any good news coming out of Oakland's City Hall right now, we're having trouble finding it. The city faces a deficit that could exceed $50 million. Recently outsted city manager Deborah Edgerly is being investigated by the FBI for allegations of fraud and nepotism. City officials can't account for millions of dollars that have disappeared from the city's reserve funds. And as Oakland's already sky-high crime rates shift out of lower-income communities and into the city's restaurants and nail salons, city officials look not just negligent but downright clueless. (Which is something that those lower-income communities might have...

Oakland's finances appear to be far worse than suspected.Former City Manager Robert Bobb, who has parachuted into town at the request of Mayor Ron Dellums to try to sort out the fiscal mess, has discovered that Oakland's reserves have been drawn down by as much as $48 million in the past year, and accounting for most of the missing funds hasn't been easy.Just last year, Bobb said, the city reported a reserve of between $60 million and $70 million, but as of June, the account had dipped to $22 million. Bobb said that as far as he's been able to...

When bank robbery suspect Elmer Reyes crashed his getaway car on Interstate 880 in the East Bay, he told the officers who arrested him that the bad economy made him commit the crime. And when Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums responded to a spree of takeover robberies at restaurants in the city this month, he also blamed poor economic times as a motive for the crimes."The desperation of these crimes speaks to the broader issue of where we are in terms of this economy," the Quiet Mayor said. "When people become this desperate, they take desperate acts and we have to...

After being led by two consecutive celebrity-politicians as mayor, the people of Oakland might be better served with a citizen-mayor, one with his - or her - feet firmly on the ground and familiar with residents' desires, government's challenges and the city's top priorities. With the scandal at City Hall in the past month as a backdrop, it's becoming increasingly clear that Oakland residents need a mayor with a ground-level view, not a fly-over assessment. Running a city where some crimes are skyrocketing, public schools are treading water and many residents are eager for independent leaders - who aren't beholden...

While Oakland officials dig out from their latest crisis - a criminal probe into the actions of City Hall's ousted chief administrator - the city's well-known gun violence and killings are again surging. In a city beset with social and structural ills, from political cronyism to budget and leadership shortfalls, about the only thing that seems to be on the rise in Oakland is the homicide rate. Since January, there have been 71 homicides in Oakland, 13 of them since police rounded up more than 50 alleged members of a violent street gang on June 17 - putting the city...

Sometimes it pays to get fired. In addition to an estimated $148,000-a-year pension, freshly canned Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly is entitled to cash out her accrued and unused benefits totaling more than $90,000.The bennies include:-- Nine weeks of vacation.-- Two weeks of management leave.-- Three weeks of executive leave. -- Ten weeks of sick leave (paid out at 33 cents on the dollar).It's a grand total payment of $90,024, city officials confirmed.Mayor Ron Dellums fired Edgerly after she refused to go away quietly when she was accused of interfering in a police investigation that involved her nephew.Not that she'll...

San Francisco -- Saying enough is enough, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums fired embattled City Administrator Deborah Edgerly on Tuesday, four days after he put her on paid leave amid allegations that she may have interfered in a police investigation involving her nephew. Dellums sent out a letter informing the City Council of his decision and another letter via messenger to Edgerly's home. "Basically he just had enough of the situation," said one City Hall source close to the situation. "He felt that he has no other choice." The last straw was a letter Edgerly sent Monday to the mayor, informing...

He is incredibly compassionate.He is incredibly reticent when faced with making decisions. And as a result, his handling of the Deborah Edgerly affair was an incredible disaster.That's pretty much how Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' aides, past aides, city department heads, politicos and longtime friends explained his apparent inability to deal with Edgerly after it came to light that the city administrator had possibly injected herself into a police investigation of her nephew."You have to understand, he's never fired anyone - that's not his style," said one friend who has worked with Dellums since his days as a congressman. "He always...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums put embattled City Administrator Deborah Edgerly on paid leave Friday amid growing criticism that he allowed her to work in City Hall while she was the subject of a law enforcement investigation. Edgerly, 56, agreed Tuesday to retire July 31. But her refusal to relinquish her authority over the Police Department, which is investigating her possible interference in a crackdown on a violent Oakland street gang, prompted outrage from city leaders and residents. On Friday afternoon, Dellums decided that she had to go after at least three members of the City Council fired off angry letters...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has shown little in the way of leadership since taking office in 2007, but at least he could follow the advice of the experts he has surrounded himself with. He didn't even do that much this week when he ignored their recommendations to remove City Administrator Deborah Edgerly, who is under investigation for possibly intervening in a police probe of a violent street gang. Against the better wisdom of his own staff and legal advice from the city attorney's office, Dellums chose to allow Edgerly, 56, to work in City Hall for another month until her...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, nearly 18 months in office, still reacts like a rookie to the most important events that affect the lives of city residents. When major breaking news has occurred while he was away, Dellums' office has issued generic, one-paragraph statements that are not only vague but leave the impression that he doesn't understand the city and the impact that such events have on the people who live there. His dispatches from afar no doubt are intended to convey a sense that the mayor is on the case, but they have the opposite effect - highlighting his emotional,...

OAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS) -- Oakland police are worried that more and more people will take the law into their own hands, after two store owners shot two robbers in recent days. People have a right to protect themselves, but things can get out of hand quickly if everyone starts packing a weapon, said Deputy Police Chief Dave Kozicki. "That's a concern that law enforcement has all the time, that people will engage in vigilantism," said Kozicki. A 22-year-old Oakland man was shot at least three times and critically wounded when he tried to hold up a liquor store Saturday night....

Oakland -- The Oakland City Council on Tuesday delayed a plan pushed by Mayor Ron Dellums to increase the number of police officers on the streets by 70 officers this year. Dellums, under increasing pressure from residents clamoring for more officers to combat high crime, has pledged to bring Oakland to full police staffing levels by the end of 2008 and has directed Police Chief Wayne Tucker and city personnel officials to reach that goal. The department is now about 70 officers short of its authorized strength of 803 officers. Tucker presented a plan Tuesday to use $7.7 million to...

North Oakland shopkeeper Scott Silvera tried for months to get Mayor Ron Dellums' attention about the explosion of crime in his neighborhood. Finally, fed up, he vowed to stop paying sales taxes until he heard from the mayor's office. Silvera is still waiting. But he did get an official visit the other day - from a representative of the state Franchise Tax Board, who warned the storekeeper to pay up the taxes he owes.Or else.Silvera, who runs Scout Home Hardware at 5026 Telegraph Ave. in the Temescal neighborhood, says he intends to pay the $3,000. The funny thing is, he...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums may have thought his contribution to curbing the city's high crime and homicide rates would be to implement his trademark social programs, but now he needs a Plan B. Dellums' desire to hire qualified ex-felons for city jobs and to send intervention workers into the street to connect with parolees died soon after journalist Chauncey Bailey was killed by a shotgun blast on a downtown street in August. The execution-style slaying of a newspaper editor brought the city national attention it didn't want and raised the local conversation on crime a few notches overnight. The investigation...

Oakland residents are fed up with random crime - from assaults to burglaries to armed robberies - that is being carried out with seeming impunity on the city's streets. Whether the answer is more cops, a restructured department or something else, businesses and residents across the city want improvements in public safety - and sooner rather than later. In recent months, as I've repeatedly beaten the drum for Mayor Ron Dellums to step up the fight on crime, hundreds of residents have sent me e-mailed notes with their tales of horror. Many of the writers have been victims of crime,...

Making the transition from almost 30 years on Capitol Hill to the daily grind of an urban mayor has not been an easy one for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, who stepped into his new job in January. In his first eight months, Dellums' new role has compelled him to drop the hammer on union workers to end a garbage lockout and call in more police in an attempt to restore law and order after a crime wave claimed nine lives in the last two weeks. The mayor made the decisions reluctantly, said City Hall sources. That's not surprising, given that...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland found themselves in the unwelcome spotlight this week over the letters of support they wrote on behalf of the notorious Your Black Muslim Bakery, but they aren't the only politicos who have supported the group over the years. At the height of its power back in 1996, the splinter Muslim group - whose members were implicated in last week's slaying of newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey - got the city to approve an advance on a $1.2 million federal redevelopment loan to launch training program for health care jobs. Within three...

The assassination of a well-known journalist, the arrest of members of a local Muslim group - including a man who confessed to the shooting - and seven other shootings over the last few days have left Oakland residents reeling. The shooting death of Chauncey Bailey, the Oakland Post editor who was gunned down while walking to work Thursday morning near Alice and 14th streets, gained national attention because of the rarity in which journalists in this country are shot in the line of duty. That's something that happens in lawless or corrupt countries, not ours. Oakland police moved swiftly, raiding...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is thinking big -- a big $1 million-plus increase in his own office budget next year. Dellums is asking the City Council to give him seven new or redefined staff positions, including a $130,000 chief of staff, two $100,000-plus senior deputies and both a full-time bodyguard and a driver. (The 71-year-old former congressman doesn't drive, and hasn't for some time.) In all, Dellums' budget calls for 24 positions in the mayor's office, compared with the 17 positions his predecessor Jerry Brown had in his final year of office. Dellums' budget director, Dan Lindheim, said about half...