COVID-19 - A Solemn Milestone

 Confirmed U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 eclipse 200,000 people, a solemn reminder that the pandemic continues.

  

Keeping Up with Local Election: Alameda City Council Race

On Sept 19.2020, The East Bay Times published some of its 2020 endorsements, among them, endorsement of  Amos White, my choice for Council.

The following can be accessed using this link.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/09/19/editorial-elect-white-and-codiga-for-alameda-city-council-integrity/

“As Alameda struggles with serious financial challenges, the island city needs ethical City Council members who put the good of residents ahead of their political loyalties to the powerful firefighter’s union.

Voters in the Nov. 3 election should shore up the integrity of the council by electing Amos White, an environmental nonprofit executive and marketing consultant, and Gig Codiga, a former Alameda schools trustee and business strategist with an MBA.

Voters should oust misfit incumbents Malia Vella and Jim Oddie, whom the grand jury said committed malfeasance and violated the city charter by improperly pressuring the city manager to hire a union-backed applicant for fire chief.

Fiscal troubles

This is a critical time for Alameda. The city faces tough fiscal challenges exacerbated by the coronavirus economic downturn. City officials expect a 10% drop in general fund revenues this fiscal year compared with last and significant drops in tax funding for capital projects.

This in a city that even before the pandemic had huge shortfalls for its badly underfunded employee pension and retiree health programs. The debt, at last count, totals a whopping $379 million, roughly the equivalent of nearly four years of general fund revenues. Sixty percent of that debt is attributable to benefits for the city’s firefighters and police.

Now, more than ever, Alameda needs ethical leaders who are willing to stand up for professionalism, transparency and the fiscal health of the city.

That’s White and Codiga, who understand and promise to address the city’s serious financial challenges, are outraged by the two incumbents’ behavior and promise to restore integrity to the City Council.

That’s not Trish Spencer, the fifth candidate on the ballot who had her own history of meddling during her disastrous term as mayor and now wants to return to the City Council. And that’s certainly not Vella and Oddie, who ran roughshod over the city charter.

 

Oddie, Vella fiasco

Their fiasco cost the city well over $1 million, resulted in the loss of multiple talented and hard-to-replace senior staff, and severely damaged the reputation of the municipal organization.

Adding insult to taxpayer injury, Oddie collected about $15,000 from the city to help cover his legal bills resulting from his own improper behavior. And Vella has collected $22,500 from the city for her legal bills. While Oddie has dropped his claim for more money from the city, as of last week, Vella continued to preserve the option of court action to force taxpayers to cover the rest of her $115,000 claim.

Neither Oddie nor Vella would have needed their high-priced lawyers if they had obeyed the city charter, which forbids council members from interfering with the city manager’s hiring authority. Since they were caught, neither has acknowledged wrongdoing.

The improper meddling was first reported here in October 2017. Subsequent inquiries by a city-commissioned investigator, District Attorney Nancy O’Malley and then the grand jury all recounted the same events.

 

Then-City Manager Jill Keimach was trying to recruit the best-qualified candidate, the city firefighters’ union was heavily lobbying for a fire captain and former union president who was underqualified for the top job.

Oddie wrote a letter of support for the union’s candidate on city stationery and told the police chief that Keimach’s job was on the line if she didn’t make the right selection.

Then, Oddie and Vella met with Keimach to discuss the hiring — a meeting the city manager legitimately recorded. “While the councilmembers were careful not to make any direct threats, their message was clear,” the grand jury concluded. “They supported the labor-backed candidate and pressed the city manager on that point.”

 

Oddie redux

Many Alamedans are probably wondering what Oddie is still doing on the City Council after they voted him out of office just two years ago.

Indeed, he lost his re-election bid in 2018. But, under the city charter, because he was the election runner-up, he automatically filled the remaining two years of the term of Councilwoman Marilyn Ashcraft, who was elected mayor in the same election. That’s why he’s on the ballot yet again — and why voters need to oust him again.

The last thing Alameda needs is four more years of Oddie or Vella, neither of whom would participate in our endorsement interview process. For candidates with integrity, elect White and Codiga.