Charlie Pine of "Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods", who was recently interviewed at TagamiVision, and who unsucessfully ran for the at-large seat in the 2008 Oakland City Council race, posted this web article which features the actions of activist David Mix:
But what's interesting is that Pine points a finger at Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan:
Pine claims that District One Councilmember Jean Quan (who seems to be on Pine's "bad official" list), former Economic Development head and now Interim CAO Dan Lindheim, and Francisco & Associates, a firm that was hired to count the votes, were the persons at fault for these actions.
In the wake of the Edgerly scandal, this matter's bound to heat up quickly. Pine's got a bone to pick with City Hall, and takes aim with his website as often as possible. It seems, in his scatter shot way, he may be on to something. As a side note, few City Hall insiders like the work of Dan Lindheim. Dan Lindheim should take heed as the vultures are already circling around him.
City Tampered with LLAD Tax Vote
The City of Oakland gave a privileged property owner – the Port of Oakland – extra votes in the recent mail ballot on a proposed increase of the Landscape and Lighting Assessment (LLAD) tax.
ORPN previously reported how the City rigged the LLAD vote with outlandish determinations of how much "benefit" one property or another receives from park maintenance, tree trimming, and street lighting. Although a flagrant violation of any democratic standard, it is not automatically illegal.
However, citizen activist David E. Mix has uncovered outright vote tampering. The votes of homeowners, apartments, and other properties were weighted by the proposed increase in their LLAD assessments – but the Port of Oakland's vote was given extra weight at its total proposed assessment. Port votes were simply manufactured out of thin air.
Instead of votes reflecting approximately a proposed half million dollar tax increase, the Port cast nearly three times as many votes: 1.4 million. Meanwhile, each homeowner vote was typically weighted at 67 or 72, the amount of their proposed increase, not their total proposed assessment of 169 or more.
With the City's vote tampering, the LLAD "passed" by 400,000 votes. The Port was given about 850,000 illegal extra votes, all dutifully cast for the tax increase. Without the tampering, the LLAD increase was defeated.
But what's interesting is that Pine points a finger at Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan:
Kernighan and Rest of Council Refused to Listen
David Mix raised the vote-tampering issue at the June 17, 2008 meeting of the city council. Councilmember Pat Kernighan replied with contempt, "Recognizing that Mr. Mix opposes every single bond issue that's ever happened, and has sued us many times, and I have many reasons to doubt what he says, I do think it would be good for the public to hear our attorneys or staff talk about why this vote was proper and accurate and legal." In fact, the tally was improper, inaccurate, and illegal.
Pine claims that District One Councilmember Jean Quan (who seems to be on Pine's "bad official" list), former Economic Development head and now Interim CAO Dan Lindheim, and Francisco & Associates, a firm that was hired to count the votes, were the persons at fault for these actions.
In the wake of the Edgerly scandal, this matter's bound to heat up quickly. Pine's got a bone to pick with City Hall, and takes aim with his website as often as possible. It seems, in his scatter shot way, he may be on to something. As a side note, few City Hall insiders like the work of Dan Lindheim. Dan Lindheim should take heed as the vultures are already circling around him.
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