Jean Quan, Oakland’s new mayor, gets car booted!

Jean Quan
Quan's Prius wracking up tickets by city hall.
Andy Ross / The Chronicle

This is posted here until we get JeanQuanSucks.com setup! She’s not even sworn in, and yet, she is already  embarassing herself and the city of Oakland!  To bad you lost out on that coin toss Jean!
-ed

Source: SFGate.com

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Oakland Mayor-elect Jean Quan got her car booted outside City Hall on Tuesday for failing to pay more than $1,000 in parking tickets.

Quan, who remains the District Four councilwoman until her January swearing-in ceremony, had parked the 2009 Toyota Prius in her official City Hall spot. Around 9:30 a.m., a police technician ran a check on the car and discovered it had more than 10 outstanding tickets, according to police. The tech ordered the car, which is registered to Quan’s husband, Floyd Huen, immobilized with the boot.

We visited Quan’s office to ask about the situation. Her assistant, Maisha Everhart, took the message to the councilwoman, who was sequestered in her office. The staffer returned and said the mayor-elect would be tied up in meetings all afternoon and was unavailable for comment.

But Quan must have taken care of the outstanding tickets, because within hours the boot had been removed.

Quan and fellow council members set off a firestorm in the summer of 2009 when they increased metered parking rates in the downtown area to $2 an hour and extended meter enforcement until 8 p.m.

And Quan made parking news herself earlier that year when she got into a tug of war with fellow Councilwoman Desley Brooks over who should get the City Hall space they both wanted.

The battle became the subject of a five-page legal opinion from the city attorney.

Quan eventually lost the spot to Brooks in a coin toss.

Read more…

Ron Dellums’ ego prevents a graceful exit

Dellums, ,
Bye bye Dellums!
Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Source: SFGate.com

Chip Johnson

Until his enormous ego got in the way – again – Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was out of the woods, unencumbered of his mayoral responsibilities and free to look for his next professional challenge.

With only six weeks remaining until Oakland swears in Mayor-elect Jean Quan, Dellums, a one-term mayor, was doing just that – exploring the job market and looking for ways to parlay a 27-year career as a crusading, liberal congressman into annual income that would help pay off the $252,000 in back taxes that he and his wife owe to the Internal Revenue Service.

But instead of just fading away, the Quiet Mayor’s irrepressible ego got the better of him. This is the same ego that compels him to wear designer suits, ride in chauffeur-driven limousines and encourage people to feel his abdominal muscles at every opportunity.

It’s the same ego that has both overshadowed and largely defined his term in office.

Read more:

Ron Dellums, facing IRS lien, explores early exit

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Source: SFGate.com

Matier & Ross

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums’ wife, Cynthia, has been talking with city officials about the possibility that her husband will depart before his term ends Jan. 3, perhaps to take a lobbying job in Washington, D.C.

Adding fuel to the gossip fire: This week the mayor canceled his farewell State of the City address, which had been scheduled for today, and decided to post it on the city’s website instead.

If Dellums were to step down, Mayor-elect Jean Quan would automatically replace him in her capacity as vice mayor on the City Council. Then she would be sworn in to her full four-year term as scheduled.

Dellums, who turns 75 next week, is under pressure to give the Internal Revenue Service a sizable check to clear up his $252,000 tax lien by the end of the year.

We’re told Dellums has been exploring erasing the lien with an advance on speaking engagements as well as a possible signing bonus from a new lobbying job. He has also looked at how quickly he can access his city pension.

Dellums earns $183,000 a year as mayor. Under city law, he can’t accept outside work and has restrictions on outside income as long as he remains in office. Hence the early resignation talk.

“Almost everything at this point seems to be related to how to get him back on financial track,” said one source with inside knowledge, who asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for Dellums.

On the other side of the ledger: Confidants inside and outside City Hall are telling Dellums and his wife that it will be yet “another bad story” for the outgoing mayor if he goes out prematurely.

Read more…

Mayor Dellums a no-show for “State of the City” address

Dellums,

Source: SFGate.com

By OaklandSeen Managing Editor Pamela Mays McDonald

Have you ever heard of a major political address where the politician doesn’t show up? Where, instead of a live public servant, a “virtual” audience is treated to a ten-minute online testimonial of his accomplishments, by a video in which he doesn’t even appear? And the video is only available on his “mayor page” on the City’s website?

Well, that was the situation in Oakland yesterday. On Monday, a mere two days before the scheduled date of the speech at the 1,200-seat Oakland Marriott, which was then rescheduled at the less-than-300-seat Oakland City Council chambers, Mayor Ron Dellums’ office abruptly cancelled the event, supposedly due to a low RSVP count at either venue. Doesn’t anyone care about the state of our city?

Instead, the Mayor has released a video, produced at City expense, and a 68-page report outlining his accomplishments from 2007-2010. At the time of this writing, the pdf seems to have been removed from the website, but OaklandSeen has posted the report as a Google document here.

As we stated, the nine minute, twenty-eight second video does not include Mayor Dellums speaking in any of the scenes. Instead, speaking on his behalf are: Dorothy Duggan, BART Board Member (who oversaw the official BART response to the Oscar Grant shooting), Margaret Lin, Deputy City Administrator (an employee), Michelle Bryson, Program Assistant, Workforce Development Collaborative, Angel Fabian, Supervisor of HIV Education, La Clinica de la Raza, Deborah Wafer, Board member, AIDS Project East Bay, James Freeman, CEO of Blue Bottle Company, Carl Chan, Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, and others in the community.

Nowhere is the Mayor visible, except in a musical video montage at the opening. OaklandSeen has made the video available on YouTube.

Read More…

This story was originally published on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 in .

Oakland Squanders Stimulus Funds for Jobs

Dellums, ,
Cynthia Dellums
Cynthia Dellums Doing Ron's Job - Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Source: SFGate

Matthai Kuruvila,Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers

When Ron Dellums isn’t hiding behind his wife’s skirt, he has her doing his job! – ed

Oakland’s job creation efforts are embroiled in a power struggle over how to dole out millions of dollars in federal job training funds, a fight that comes five months after a state auditor found a number of problems with how the city was using some of the money.

How the issue is ultimately decided could have wide-ranging effects on how the valuable funds are spent in a city where unemployment is an astounding 17.7 percent – nearly double the nationwide rate. It could also be a major challenge for whoever becomes Oakland’s next mayor.

History shows that the city has been slow to act on problems with its federally funded jobs program. For years the city repeatedly ignored state recommendations on how to manage the programs, a Chronicle review of state documents found.

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Dellums: In like a lion, out like a whimpering lamb

Dellums
Dellums - Out like a lamb.
Chad Ziemendorf / The Chronicle

Source: SFGate

Chip Johnson

If you follow the complete article, it’s funny how Dellums hides behind his wife’s skirt and won’t answer reporters questions. -ed

The way outgoing Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums’ revealed Wednesday that he is leaving public life this year is a textbook example of his actions for most of his term.

He announced his decision not to seek re-election at an exclusive, invitation-only affair held for city department heads and a few selected supporters. It was staged to affirm Dellums’ worldview – and to block the disquieting reality swirling around him.

Dellums’ closest and few remaining supporters filmed his teary goodbye. The only people allowed inside, beyond the key city staffers whom the mayor required to attend, were the people who drank the Kool-Aid long ago.

Read more…

Oakland Mayor Dellums won’t run for re-election

Uncategorized
Dellums quitting
Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle

Source: SFGate

OAKLAND — Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums announced Wednesday that he would not run for re-election, marking a quiet end to a mayoral term that began with great promise but eventually led to criticism that he was often an absentee leader.

The announcement, made in writing, sharply contrasted with his declaration for candidacy five years ago, when he gave an hourlong public speech at a community college, was cheered on by hundreds of supporters and instantly grabbed the spotlight in Oakland.

The vacancy sets the stage for a mayoral race in which there is no clear front-runner among eight candidates, including Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan and former state Sen. Don Perata.

Read more…

Dellums running for re-election would help Oakland?

Dellums, Oakland, ,
Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Source: SFGate

Chip Johnson

Run, Ron, run.

That’s right. It is my hope that on Friday, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums will announce he’s seeking re-election.

I know what you’re thinking. You think I want Dellums to receive the electoral thrashing that many Oakland residents believes he so richly deserves. But revenge is not my motivation.

I favor a Dellums re-election run for purely democratic reasons: His entry into the Oakland mayor’s race virtually assures a high voter turnout.

There are citizens who might not care whether the Oakland Athletics leave town and others who prefer the monthly Art Murmur in downtown Oakland to a Raiders home game, but hardly anyone in this city is apathetic about Dellums’ performance as mayor.

Read more…

Bracing for the worse in the Mehserle verdict

Dellums, Oakland

Notice how there has been not a peep out of Mayor Dellums concerning this issue? The city is about to receive some serious damage. This might be a good time for Dellums to step up and try to find a peaceful alternative. I guess his reputation as a ‘peaceful civil rights advocate’ is a fabricated sham and undeserved.

Predictably, Dellums will either be out of town if theres trouble in Oakland or he’ll be hiding out in his Oakland Hills mansion.-ed.

Source SFGate.com

Chip Johnson

Oakland not villain [excerpt]

For scores of people in the Bay Area, the videotaped beating of Grant is the Bay Area equivalent of the 1991 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. To them, the Grant video is the latest in a pattern of African American residents being abused by government authorities who are sworn to protect them.

Still, while there will almost surely be some public reaction to the Mehserle verdict on the streets of Oakland, about the only thing more discouraging to some than absolving the former officer of blame and responsibility would be to vent that anger at the struggling city of Oakland and its residents.

Read more

Teenage Girl Killed During Vigil – Where’s Dellum’s Leadership?

Dellums, Oakland,

Source: KTVU

OAKLAND, Calif. — Gunmen opened fire on a group of mourners at a candlelight vigil for a shooting victim late Tuesday night, killing a teenage girl and wounding five others.

The woman, Rachael Green, was fatally shot just after midnight in the 1100 block of Eighth Street, police Officer Jeff Thomason said.

Green was with a group of about 20 to 30 people who had set up a makeshift memorial for Damon Williams, 17, who was shot to death Monday evening in the parking lot of the Eastmont Mall in the 2600 block of 73rd Avenue, Thomason said.

Two armed suspects approached the group and opened fire. Thomason said a patrol officer had conducted a security check of the area where the vigil was happening just minutes before the shooting.

See the video…

You think a real leader would show up and have at least some kind of comment about this horrible, violet incident. A real leader would step-up and speak to the community about this serious situation. Could be a long, hot and violent summer in Oakland.