"Thirteen months ago, we launched the Oakland Charter Reform Project by publishing an op-ed in this newspaper, Broken Oakland needs more than a new mayor. In that piece, we laid out the four fundamental flaws that contribute to so much of the dysfunction in City Hall: a powerless mayor, a disconnected City Council, a conflicted city attorney and a city administrator caught between the mayor and council. Mayor Barbara Lee subsequently made a commitment to modernize the city charter."
"Why is a strong-mayor system bad for Oakland? Because the city, as the recent Sheng Thao recall made clear, is not immune to the threat of corruption. The long-term damage that an unqualified, incompetent, compromised or immoral but superpowered mayor can inflict on the city is too great. The recall bar is too high, and four years is far too long to wait when change is urgently needed. Witness the current president of the United States."
Oakland’s government has four structural flaws: a powerless mayor, a disconnected City Council, a conflicted city attorney, and a city administrator caught between mayor and council. Mayor Barbara Lee committed to modernizing the city charter, but the hand-picked Charter Reform Working Group largely ignored these flaws and proposed a strong-mayor system. A strong-mayor structure risks empowering an unqualified or compromised mayor and increasing corruption vulnerability, with recalls difficult and four-year terms too long. The recommended alternative is the Model City Charter (National Civic League, 9th ed., 2021): a democratically elected council overseeing a professional city manager, while the citywide mayor runs council meetings, sets agendas, and assigns committees.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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