Pat Kernighan to lead new Oakland City Council

The eight member Oakland City Council has three new faces and a new leader.  At a special meeting this morning Dan Kalb, Lynette Gibson-McElhaney and Noel Gallo were sworn in as the new Council Members for districts 1, 3 and 5 respectively.  Pat Kernighan who represents district 2 and is the third longest serving member of the Council replaces Larry Reid as President of the Council.

Also this morning, Larry Reid was selected as Vice Mayor and Rebecca Kaplan was picked as the new President Pro Tempore.

The Council next meets on Wednesday (January 9) at 10:30 am when committee assignments for the next two years will be announced. 

Inside Info for Tonight's At-Large City Council Debate

Candidates for Oakland City Council At Large Seat will Debate Tonight at the Kaiser Center

Four of the five candidates for Oakland’s City Council At Large Seat will debate tonight in an open forum at Kaiser Center, located on the shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland.  The debate, produced by the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Committee starts at 6:30pm and is free to attend. Doors open at 6pm, and questions will be solicited from the audience.

 

The role of the Oakland City Council is to be an elected governing body representing the City of Oakland. There are seven council districts in Oakland, and one at-large member for a total of eight seats. If needed, the Mayor serves as the tie breaking vote. Since 1998, Oakland has had a strong mayor form of government. The mayor is elected for a four-year term and council members serve staggered four-year terms. Oakland's Mayor is subject to a tenure limited to two terms. There are no term limits for the city council members. The At Large council seat has often been considered a more city-wide policy focused position, as the 8^th council member doesn’t have just one district of constituents to represent, and can instead have more flexibility to view issues with a city-wide scope.

The job of council member for the At-Large sear has been most recently held by Rebecca Kaplan. First elected to the Oakland City Council in 2008, the former AC Transit District board member has advocated for attracting retail, housing and job-producing businesses to Broadway's Auto Row and to the Oakland Army Base redevelopment site. A resident of the Temescal district, Kaplan is the first openly lesbian City Council member.  Currently, Councilmember Kaplan is a member of both the public works and life enrichment committees of the council and represents the City of Oakland on the Alameda County Transportation Commission Board.

Many political consultants consider this year unique for the Oakland City Council in that it will have at least three new council members after the November election, a turnover unseen for 16 years. The existing council is characterized as having “fractious dynamics” and even some seated council members themselves are excited for a chance to change the tone of the conversation.

This debate will likely cover (but won’t be limited to) several critical issues concerning Oakland as a whole, including economic development, public safety, jobs, pensions, and basic services. What do you think are the biggest issues facing the city in the next four years? Please attend and submit a question for the candidates. Or let us know your comments by following the event on Twitter tonight @oaklandchamber and using the tag #oakdebates.

Candidate Backgrounds (Alphabetical by First Name)

Carol Lee Tolbert

Carol Lee Tolbert is the President and Principal Consultant of Tolbert & Associates (a School Improvement Consulting Firm), she also has been the executive director of the North Oakland Parish, Seniors Care Service, and the Education Learning Center. Ms. Tolbert is a native of Oakland and is an alumna of Oakland Technical High School. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Development and Masters of Arts Degree in Public Administration from California State University, Hayward.   

Ignacio De La Fuente

Ignacio De La Fuente has been the city council member for Oakland’s District 5 since 1992. Mr. De La Fuente has served as the chair of the Council's Economic and Community Development Committee until January 1999. De La Fuente then became the first Council member to serve as Council President, and held the post of Vice Mayor from 2009-2011. Mr. De La Fuente is stepping down at this end of this term (Dec ember 2012) as the District 5 representative to concentrate on his campaign for the At-Large Council seat for Oakland.  Most recently, Councilmember De La Fuente has chaired the influential Finance & Management Committee of the council. De La Fuente also co-chairs the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority, overseeing the City’s Coliseum-Arena complex and three professional sports franchises. Mr. De La Fuente was born in Mexico City and came to Oakland to work as a machinist at age 21.

Mick Storm (not attending the debate tonight)

Mick Storm  has a campaign website at this address: http://mickstorm.com/.

Rebecca Kaplan

Rebecca Kaplan has the City of Oakland At Large councilmember since 2008. Prior to her service on the Oakland City Council, Ms. Kaplan served as At-Large Director on the AC Transit Board of Directors from 2002 to 2008. Councilmember Kaplan’s work experience includes serving as an aide for the California State Legislature in the 16th Assembly District and as an attorney. Ms. Kaplan earned a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Phi Beta Kappa) and also holds a Master of Arts in Urban & Environmental Policy from Tufts University and a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School.

Theresa Anderson-Downs

Theresa Anderson-Downs is currently the CEO at Dandell Entertainment and is running for the At-Large seat on the Green Party Ticket. Ms. Anderson-Downs is holds a degree in business law from Heald's Business College.

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Chamber Support

The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (OMCC) public policy committee does not endorse political candidates, but there is a separate political action committee OakPAC that does.  For more information on OakPAC, please contact Paul Junge, OakPAC Executive Director at pjunge@oaklandchamber.com 

Full Debate Schedule

Tonight’s At-Large debate is the fifth of six debates in this series. The full schedule is posted below; all debates are FREE and begin at 6:30pm.  All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

 

Update on the ACTC Measure B Reauthorization:

Recall the November 2011 Economic Development Forum where the committee heard from the Alameda County Transportation Commission on the process to put the Measure B authorization on the ballot in the fall of 2012. With extensive outreach, the final Transportation Expenditure Plan (TEP) was recently approved by the City of Oakland. See below for more. Also, Oakland Local has the full story here.

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From City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan's office:

The Oakland City Council joined several other East Bay cities and the Alameda County Transportation Commission this week in moving forward a $7.7 billion transportation investment plan that could create unprecedented enhancements to area infrastructure, public transit and road quality.

The ATC finalized the plan in late January, which outlines how Measure B funding will be spent if re-authorized in November. Since the commission’s passage, cities including Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro – and now Oakland – also have signed on.

“This plan represents a generation’s worth of job creation, major improvements to the way we get around and a profound improvement to both our infrastructure and our environment,” Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who represents Oakland on the county transportation commission, said. “Thanks to hard work from many leaders and organizations in our community, we’ll be able to fix potholes, support BART and AC Transit, significantly improve bicycle and pedestrian safety and create transit-oriented development projects of the future.”

Kaplan said she thanks the many community members, organizations and other officials across the county for a major victory of collaboration between community advocacy groups and elected officials. She noted that the plan’s development, improvement and passage at the commission was the result of more than 40 meetings with community members and organizations who helped craft and improve the plan to ensure response to community needs, fiscal responsibility and improvement to quality of life and mobility in our communities – including environmental, labor, business, neighborhood organizations, advocates for seniors, youth, bicyclists, pedestrians and more.

The plan includes funding for:

• Public Transit - $3.7 billion / 48 percent (BART, AC Transit, regional rail, etc.)
• Local Road Repair - $2.3 billion / 30 percent (Paving, Pothole Repair, Seismic Retrofits)
• Freeway Repair and Enhancements - $677 million / 9 percent
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Improvements  - $651 million / 8 percent
• Transit-Oriented Development Projects - $300 million / 4 percent
• Technology and Innovation - $77 million / 1 percent

Funding for AC Transit, for example, would increase from $18.6 million per year to $40 million initially and again to $63 million by 2023. Enhancements to rail would receive $355 million. Key bridges and roads in need of repair and maintenance also will receive vital support.

The plan includes funding for innovative programs like the Broadway “Streetcar” project, a program to fund free youth bus passes, and a significant increase in support for transit-oriented development – funding that Kaplan noted could significantly mitigate the loss of city redevelopment funding by supporting key projects at the Coliseum BART station, the area surrounding the Lake Merritt BART station and more.

Oakland City Council President Larry Reid, who represents Dist. 7 and serves as Oakland’s other voting representative, also hailed the plan.

“This will create a profound investment to public infrastructure that will create jobs and keep people moving,” Reid said.  “Building a coalition to approve this much-needed funding was a dynamic process – and I’m really appreciative of being able to work with Councilmember Kaplan in negotiating on Oakland’s behalf.”

Measure B, first passed in 1986, created a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation and was re-authorized in 2000 with more than 81 percent of the vote. If passed by a two-thirds vote in November, it would re-authorize the tax and extend it to one cent to provide full funding for the plan.

The plan includes comprehensive accountability measures, including the creation of an independent watchdog and requires the commission to regularly review expenditures.

Review the report yourself at the link below:

2012 Final Alameda County TEP