OAKLAND — Because the story goes, former Mayor Jerry Brown had a plaque on his desk throughout his first months in Oakland’s high political workplace that directed anybody stopping by to as an alternative converse to town supervisor, who dealt with the native authorities’s day by day operations.
The anecdote dovetails with one in every of Brown’s most vital strikes in his eight-year mayoral tenure: persuading voters in 1998 to vary Oakland’s legal guidelines in order that the mayor might skip Metropolis Council conferences and run the federal government individually.
The modification to town constitution additionally gave Brown, together with future mayors, the power to rent and hearth Metropolis Corridor’s high official, which right this moment is town administrator.
Almost three many years later, Mayor Barbara Lee — a political determine with comparable identify recognition — has begun a shortened time period by which she has promised to re-examine the mayor-council energy dynamic that controls a lot of how Oakland is ruled.
Voters as soon as once more would wish to resolve on Lee’s eventual proposal, which can be influenced by a citizen marketing campaign that has declared the present system of governance “broken,” because it provides mayors no legislative energy whereas separating them from the council.
The marketing campaign — the Oakland Constitution Reform Undertaking, led by former Metropolis Administrator Steve Falk — has now settled on a selected advice after months of learning the difficulty.
In a brand new report, they name for Oakland’s mayor to return to main council conferences and casting only a single vote like an everyday member of what’s presently an eight-person physique.
As well as, the council would collectively rent, and hearth, not simply town administrator but additionally town lawyer, which presently is an elected place.
Oakland mayoral candidate Jerry Brown interacts with native residents on the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oakland Saturday April 11, 1998. Brown spent the day speaking and listening to small teams of the voting inhabitants round Oakland. (Kendra Luck/Bay Space Information Group Archives) (Kendra Luck/Bay Space Information Group Archives)
“Oaklanders,” the group writes, would “benefit from the expertise of a dependable and professional city manager who is selected and supervised by the entire City Council, thus working for all of the people of Oakland.”
There’s no indication of whether or not Lee will take up the group’s recommendation, however the brand new mayor is anticipated to fulfill privately with Falk within the coming days to debate his group’s findings.
Most cities have some model of both a “strong mayor” who can suggest legal guidelines and veto council selections, or a “weak mayor” who is usually extra akin to what’s generally known as a council-manager.
San Francisco is the favored instance in California of a strong-mayor system, although New York Metropolis provides its mayor much more management over town’s numerous companies. It’s one motive why these big-city mayors come to resemble political celebrities.
San Jose has a council-manager setup, which some have argued creates extra long-term stability in a authorities by de-centering a single particular person in main selections.
“A city administrator would be a hard job if every few years you have a new mayor who wants to make sweeping changes and replace all the leadership,” stated Nick Kaspar, a former chief of workers to San Jose Metropolis Councilmember Maya Esparza, who served till 2022.
Newly elected Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee arrives at her swearing-in ceremony at Metropolis Corridor in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Might 19, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Space Information Group) Dai Sugano/Bay Space Information Group
He presently does the identical job for a council member in Lengthy Seaside, a metropolis whose robust mayor can veto the council’s selections, although the elected physique may also override a veto by two-thirds vote.
In its newest report, Falk’s group notes that Lengthy Seaside is one in every of six cities amongst California’s 17 largest that grant veto energy to their mayors.
The group doesn’t take a proper stance on whether or not Oakland ought to observe swimsuit, however there’s an apparent motive why Brown by no means pursued it for himself.
“Jerry Brown knew that putting veto power into the ballot proposal would probably sink it, because the public was not likely to support that,” stated former Metropolis Supervisor Henry Gardner, who famous that two earlier Oakland mayors had unsuccessfully sought to have voters amend town constitution.
Proper now, Oakland’s mayor alone controls the administrator and police chief’s job safety. However the mayor in any other case has no legislative energy besides to interrupt ties in deadlocked council votes.
The cut up governance appeared to create divisions between the final two mayoral administrations and the councils on the time. However officers from Brown’s mayoral tenure — which befell from 1999 to 2007 and between his two stints as California’s governor — nonetheless defend the transfer.
“At the end of the day, the buck has to stop somewhere,” Ignacio De La Fuente, who served because the council’s president when Brown was mayor, stated in an interview. “The mayor has got to be the person accountable.”
Oakland Metropolis administrator Jestin Johnson throughout a press convention on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Shomik Mukherjee/Bay Space Information Group) (Shomik Mukherjee/Bay Space Information Group)
In the meantime, Oakland is amongst a small handful of California governments to elect a metropolis lawyer. Falk’s group contends that Oakland’s twin powers of mayor and council usually battle with the pursuits of the lawyer’s workplace, which represents each events.
The political nature of the workplace got here into full show throughout final November’s election, by which profitable candidate Ryan Richardson went up towards an opponent who had brazenly backed and even previously led the motion to recall Sheng Thao, the ex-mayor ousted November.
The race grew to become a flashpoint of how poisonous Oakland’s politics can grow to be. Falk’s group believes that ought to change. And others attest to various types of presidency providing much more stability.
“It’s just a little bit less political in nature,” Kaspar stated of San Jose’s metropolis authorities. “A council can sustain waves of pressure a lot easier than if you’re a single person.”
Initially Revealed: June 6, 2025 at 5:02 PM PDT
