OAKLAND — The previous chief of workers to ex-Mayor Sheng Thao, who had stayed in her function to assist information the turnover between town’s mayoral administrations, has been fired over a reference to Black folks that she wrote down final 12 months throughout a gathering about how Thao would struggle the recall.
Leigh Hanson, a central participant in Thao’s administration, got here underneath fireplace this previous week after the word was publicly launched amongst 1000’s of pages of Oakland metropolis paperwork seized by federal prosecutors forward of legal indictments in opposition to the ex-mayor and three others.
Till her firing Sunday, Hanson was the chief of workers to Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, who’s filling in as interim mayor earlier than Oakland voters on April 15 choose a everlasting substitute to Thao, who was recalled by voters final November.
“Effective Sunday, Leigh Hanson is no longer an employee of the City of Oakland,” Metropolis Administrator Jestin Johnson mentioned Sunday, in an announcement distributed by a metropolis spokesperson. “I thank Ms. Hanson for her service. Deputy Mayor Burt Jones will be serving as the Mayor’s Office chief of staff until further notice, and I thank him for stepping up to the role.”
Hanson declined to remark Sunday night.
She arrived in Oakland in 2016 after working within the mayor’s workplace in Pittsburgh, Pa. She was a strong-willed mainstay of Metropolis Corridor throughout Thao’s tenure and for a number of months afterward, taking the lead on important negotiations between town and main land patrons, such because the A’s baseball franchise and the group in search of to amass the Oakland Coliseum.
She seems to have written the explosive word that led to her firing throughout a gathering in March 2024, at a time when Thao and a circle of political advisors had been planning for a political struggle in opposition to an costly recall effort lodged in opposition to her.
Oakland voters accepted Thao’s elimination from workplace in November — a pair months earlier than the ex-mayor was indicted on felony fees of bribery and conspiracy.
The related excerpt of Hanson’s word, which reads “Use BP as tokens,” appears to check with Black folks within the context of being “tokenized” — a tactic typically attributed to folks or teams accused of cynically making the most of Black voices for political acquire.
A duplicate of a word Leigh Hanson wrote final 12 months that seems to check with Black folks as “tokens.” On the time, Hanson was chief of workers to Sheng Thao, who was dealing with a recall election. (metropolis of Oakland)
Within the full context of the word, Hanson outlines methods of the marketing campaign in opposition to Thao’s recall — election funds, political allies and public relations — on a bit of paper, itemizing a number of multicultural nonprofits underneath the heading “Black supporters.”
An apart to that part appears to notice Councilmember Carroll Fife — a longtime ally of the previous mayor — as a kind of supporters, and warns of Councilmember Treva Reid, a frequent Thao critic, as somebody to whom Thao’s camp should “pay attention.”
“CM Fife can outreach to NAACP,” Hanson writes, referring to the historic Black civil rights group whose Oakland chapter took a specific dislike of Thao throughout her fraught tenure as mayor.
Famous out by dashes beneath: “Use BP as tokens.”
Hanson, whose firing was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, has confronted swift backlash within the days because the doc grew to become public as a part of a trove of 1000’s of data that town final 12 months turned over to the feds. She didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The meant which means of Hanson’s word stays unclear. Tokenism is extensively believed to be frequent follow in politics, although the phrase is commonly a pejorative time period attributed by political teams to their opponents, doubling as an accusation of racism.
The paperwork launched this previous week have been instrumental in serving to piece collectively the interior workings of the Thao administration in 2023 and 2024, illustrating how the ex-mayor directed conversations between prime metropolis officers and the lads who are actually accused of bribing her in federal indictments.
This can be a growing story. Verify again for updates.
