Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums State of The City; Nadel not meeting with Schaaf? - Oakland Politics

The 2010 Political Season has no shortage of news, and that's true in Oakland, CA. Tonight, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums gives his State of The City address. And the behind-the-scenes-buzz is the rumor (not as of this writing denied) that Oakland Councilmember Nadel's not meeting with Oakland District Four City Council candidate Libby Schaaf.

First, some important news. The City of Oakland has redesigned its website! The Beta-stage Oaklandnet.com is up and operational. That deserves a cheer and not of the Bronx kind. The City of Oakland website had become a visual and navigational mess. The new design, while it still needs a ton of help in the social network area, is a massive improvement over the old 20th Century model, and an example of what Oakland can do when it gets its act together. Bravo!

Second, Mayor Ron Dellums. The good Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is set to give his 2010 State of The City Speech tonight at 5:30 PM at Oakland City Hall. The good news is that Mayor Dellums isn't giving the speech behind the cloud of controversy that was the Oscar Grant Murder. The Oscar Grant tragedy threatened to rip Oakland with seemingly constant days of rioting. It even impacted the Mayor's 2009 State of The City Address:



But this year, the Mayor will report to a drop in the overall crime rate in Oakland, and new restaurants and businesses to be proud of. Dellums should also note Oakland City Attorney John Russo's injunction sought to restrict gang activity. I seriously doubt Mayor Dellums will explain that he's going to stop choking Oakland's poorest citizens with the draconian parking enforcement process, but we'll see. One person who will be listening in attendance is Green Party Candidate for Oakland Mayor, Don MacLeay.

Don MacLeay says he will "go with an open mind" because Mayor Dellums has "been out there raising money for the City". MacLeay, who reports his campaign's gathering steam, says that his opponent, Oakland District Four Councilmember Jean Quan "has associated herself with everything from Haiti to the Lunar New Year, but when it comes to (The City of Oakland's) budget cuts, she refers to herself in the third person."

One Oakland politico who doesn't do that is Oakland District Three Councilmember Nancy Nadel, whom this blogger endorsed for reelection in 2008, apparently has made her decision regarding who to support in the District Four City Council Election this year. I'm told by three different people Nadel has refused to meet with Libby Schaaf, who I openly support for the council seat. (I do so hope there's a connection, there!)

In fairness to Nadel, who I think has represented West Oakland well (remember, the difference is that Nancy, for all of her complex ups and downs, cares about an area of Oakland that at times seems forgotten) I contacted her about this news. She was to follow up with me from her personal email, so I'm waiting for that (sort of). Nadel's not been in a rush to deny the claim.

Nancy Nadel 

If this is the case, and hopefully it's not, it's a very bad move for Nadel. Libby's a front runner in a crowded field of people; should she win, Councilmember Nadel will have to work with her. Let's hope all of this isn't true. (As a note, even though Libby's supported in this space it doesn't mean other political candidates will not be contacted or featured in a blog post.)

Oakland Mayoral Candidate Don Perata continues to be hit over the political head by people who've donated to his campaign then gotten into some kind of FBI trouble. Again, the East Bay Express comes to the rescue of the maintenance of the already healthy "Don Perata FBI" search results. (Even though they cite the Contra Costa County Times, the East Bay Express beats them in Google search results)

This time, reportedly it's the "Seeno family", under investigation by the FBI, IRS, and the Secret Service. What real connection Don Perata has to this family of developers and investors is they've known each other since 2000 and Perata's campaign got "at least" $131,400 from them.

Personally, I don't see where Don's got anything to do with this. The term "good friend" in California parlance means someone who does more than send an email or a Facebook message.

Stay tuned.

American Red Cross $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations - update

On the matter of the American Red Cross and the $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations, this update: there's still no word from the American Red Cross on how the $175 million in donations was handled. Initial attempts to gain an answer have been ignored as of this writing.

Meanwhile, the issue is gaining attention. This blogger was on a Fairfield, Iowa radio broadcast last Friday and more radio talk shows have expressed unsolicited interested in the matter of the American Red Cross and the $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations.

For background, it's simple: the American Red Cross reported it collected $225 million in donations over the first month of the Haiti Relief Effort. But of that, $80 million was spent or earmarked for Haiti. The American Red Cross does not explain what happened to $225 million minus $80 million, or $175 million?

On Friday, I was on KRUU, "The Voice of Fairfield" in Fairfield, Iowa, on James Moore's Planet Erstwild Show to talk about the American Red Cross donation problem. Here's the recording of that radio show: Zennie Abraham on KRUU.

This is the Zennie62 video on the issue:



Stay tuned.