Rumor: Recall Dellums Petition Circulating Around Oakland

I just got wind of a new rumor that there's a petition going around to recall Mayor Ron Dellums. I personally don't want this, and prefer the rough-and-tumble of an election to sort things out, but it's out there I'm told.

I think Mayor Dellums is trying to do better; to be better. Perhaps this is just the thing that makes a mayor go from not-so-hot, to good.

This wasn't the first time someone floated such a recall effort. In fact, just last year in August, word was going around about a then-new website called "RecallDellums" that is not up now.

Stay tuned.

Judge Frank Roesch Upholds Oakland Measure Y Parcel Tax Collection

I got this from the City Attorney's Office. I'll post it, then comment.

Oakland, CA – For the second time, a Superior Court judge has issued a ruling upholding the city’s collection of the Measure Y parcel tax.

On Friday, Judge Frank Roesch ruled that the city can collect the tax approved by voters in the Violence Prevention and Public Safety Act of 2004 – as long as the City Council appropriates the money in accordance with the provisions of the ballot measure.

The ruling agrees with an impartial analysis provided by the City Attorney’s Office that was included in the ballot information given to every voter before the November 2004 election. The analysis said that the city could collect the tax so long as the money was an addition to the existing police budget.

Friday’s ruling settles one of the questions raised by a lawsuit challenging the implementation of Measure Y.

In an earlier case, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith also ruled that the City Attorney analysis given to voters was correct.

“The position of the City Attorney’s Office has been the same from the beginning,” City Attorney John Russo said. “Whether you agree with how Measure Y has been administered since its passage, the independent analysis our office gave to voters was unambiguous and correct.”

What this means is that the city can continue to collect property taxes associated with Measure Y, but it does not bring to an end the questions surrounding how Measure Y money has been used by the City of Oakland. Charlie Pine has been railing about this over at Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods.

Robert Bobb To Return To Oakland As Consultant To Fix Post-Edgerly Mess

It's not often I read that Chip Johnson's happy about something Mayor Ron Dellums has done -- come to think of it, that is true for me -- but in this case, he is. Former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb is returning to Oakland in the form of consultant to fix the managerial system he knows so well: Oakland's.

He comes representing The PFM Group, which is a company based around an existing set of public management consultancies in America. His title is "Senior Managing Consultant" and the website has this bio:

Robert Bobb is a Director with PFM in the Strategic Consulting practice. He has over 30 years of professional management experience in the private and public sectors at the chief executive level. He is nationally recognized for innovative leadership, with special achievements in public safety, finance, community development, employee development, and community empowerment programs.

Mr. Bobb is the former City Administrator and Deputy Mayor for Washington, D.C. and served as the District of Columbia's Homeland Security Advisor. He also served as the City Manager of Oakland, California and Executive Director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, and as City Manager of Richmond, Virginia, Santa Ana, California, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 2006, he was also elected city-wide as President of the Washington, DC Board of Education.

Mr. Bobb holds the distinction of having served on a continuous basis as the longest tenured African-American City Manager/City Administrator in the nation. He is an expert on the issues facing urban government in the realms of education, economic development, community and neighborhood development, municipal budgeting and finances, contract negotiations, public/private partnerships of sports franchises, libraries and recreation facilities, and social problems such as crime and grime.

His career earned him the prestigious International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) L. P. Cookingham Award for Career Development, and has been awarded four ICMA Innovation Awards. He also earned the National Forum for Black Public Administrator's (NFBPA) Marks of Excellence Award and is a former President of the NFBPA.

Mr. Bobb is a pro-active champion for civil rights, mentoring urban youth and young professionals. Under his direction, several successful outreach programs were designed and administered to foster urban youth in civic responsibility, educational achievement, and competitiveness in the employment market.

Mr. Bobb earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana and a Master of Science in Business from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also completed the certificate program for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a member of the Executive Alumni Council.

Mr. Bobb is a Fellow of the 2005 Broad Foundation Urban Schools Superintendents Academy, Founding President of the City of Oakland, California African American Chamber of Commerce, Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, member of the ICMA, Fellow of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William & Mary, and former member of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute.

Mr. Bobb is based in Washington D.C., and will provide a leadership role in PFM's Strategic Consulting practice advising state and local governments on management, budget, and performance improvement.

Bobb also ran and won the race for Washington DC School Board President, and has a pretty neat website about all of that at --- what else -- robertbobb.org . In perfect Bobb fashion the site reads:

From the Desk of Robert Bobb:

The crisis in the District of Columbia's education system is a major civil rights issue. As a candidate for President of the Board of Education, I believe we need to work together in partnership as a community to address the achievement gap among young people in the District. When elected, I will focus my energy on student achievement in the District of Columbia so that all our children have the opportunity to reach their full potential and have the necessary skills to prosper and succeed.

Bobb was fired by Jerry Brown because he wanted a different and more aggressive agenda for Oakland from a downtown Baseball stadium, to more than one Super Bowl. Bobb was the person who put me in charge of an effort no one gave a chance and we pretty much shocked everyone by getting to the place of one of three finalists for the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl.

After Oakland, Bobb moved to DC to become Chief Administrative Officer and finally got his chance to build a stadium-- the baseball stadium for the Washington Nationals. But I can't say Bobb is happy with the local and minority hiring process there:

"At the end of the day, all of those goals should have been met," said Robert C. Bobb, who drafted the agreement two years ago on behalf of then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). "I can't see that there should be a lot of celebration."

Perhaps after he's done here, he can fix that too.