I'm getting a bunch of emails on the happenings in the Oakland Mayor's Office just days after my decision to expell the bad food that was in me: dealing with Oakland's mess of a sports politics situation, of which the Oakland Athletics - not Mayor Dellums - have created. The latest news is David K. Chai, Dellums Chief of Staff is on his way out and possibly but at this point not certain that Dellums' executive assistant Marisol Lopez would take the top spot.
One email described the situation like this:
I've told the chair of the task force again and again that he must be aggressive with Dellums staff because they were going to act as if we as a group didn't exist just by the way that office works. The email described David Chai as "unproductive" but from my conversations with him he sounded frustrated and that was from being stonewalled not by the Mayor so much as the staff in general, which is why to the outside person it looks like Chai's "unproductive".
I've seen this problem hurt many good people including by the now-departed Leslie Littleton, who was the Mayor's deputy chief of staff: that it's hard to get Dellums to take the normal actions a Mayor takes to solve a problem. I saw her impacted by this at Fruitvale BART after the murder of Oscar Grant and just hours before the first riot took place. I was asking why Dellums wasn't there, and she agreed he should be there but took the "boos" and insults - some terrible - from the crowd in his place, which totally wore on her.
In effect, Dellums' own personality is preventing his staffers from being effective, so frustration sets in, and departures result. A revolving door.
Now I'm going to temper that point of view by stating that some staffers try to exercize too much direction of the Mayor when it's least necessary, like a certain KTOP television staffer who I have a great deal of respect for. But the bottom line is no Mayor's staff group should be in this terrible turf war battle that is taking place down there. Since 2006 when Dellums took office, Dan Boggin, Michael Hunt, Leslie Littleton, and now David Chai and others have either departed or are on their way out. When I worked for Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, we had a core group of people that lasted longer than one or two years and in my case from 1995 to 1999. Chai joined in 2007; Littleton came to the office just last fall.
I like David Chai and I hope he's able to stick around. He means well and actually cares about the City of Oakland beyond the Mayor. But as I told him he's got to remember to be "more than his position."
What I mean is as I told Chai: no one cares about his title, they care about what he does, period. If he uses his title as a tool to lord over people and show power in the office he will lose under the weight of their displeasure; if he remembers to develop relationships that will last beyond his time in office, he will be rewarded for making the connections. When I worked for Mayor Harris I developed a long list of friends who continue to help me today and vice versa.
Chai listened to me lecture him - at first painfully, then attentively - on how to make the best of his time in office. Now, he's got to show he actually put my advice into practice.
One email described the situation like this:
his (Dellums') choices for COS (chief of staff) (wonderful at first with Dan Boggan, then unproductive with David Chai, and now completely disorienting with Marisol Lopez his most likely choice) are distancing him from even his own, most loyal supporters.The emails have also allowed me to see why our current Sports and Entertainment Task Force was being undermined by Dellums' dealings to create a new baseball task force: no consistent mayor's staff contact at the meetings. I noticed this from my second task force meeting when a Mayor's aide was present and taking notes, then we never saw her again. Without someone to directly brief the Mayor and using contemporary information, our task force was just spinning its wheels.
I've told the chair of the task force again and again that he must be aggressive with Dellums staff because they were going to act as if we as a group didn't exist just by the way that office works. The email described David Chai as "unproductive" but from my conversations with him he sounded frustrated and that was from being stonewalled not by the Mayor so much as the staff in general, which is why to the outside person it looks like Chai's "unproductive".
I've seen this problem hurt many good people including by the now-departed Leslie Littleton, who was the Mayor's deputy chief of staff: that it's hard to get Dellums to take the normal actions a Mayor takes to solve a problem. I saw her impacted by this at Fruitvale BART after the murder of Oscar Grant and just hours before the first riot took place. I was asking why Dellums wasn't there, and she agreed he should be there but took the "boos" and insults - some terrible - from the crowd in his place, which totally wore on her.
In effect, Dellums' own personality is preventing his staffers from being effective, so frustration sets in, and departures result. A revolving door.
Now I'm going to temper that point of view by stating that some staffers try to exercize too much direction of the Mayor when it's least necessary, like a certain KTOP television staffer who I have a great deal of respect for. But the bottom line is no Mayor's staff group should be in this terrible turf war battle that is taking place down there. Since 2006 when Dellums took office, Dan Boggin, Michael Hunt, Leslie Littleton, and now David Chai and others have either departed or are on their way out. When I worked for Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, we had a core group of people that lasted longer than one or two years and in my case from 1995 to 1999. Chai joined in 2007; Littleton came to the office just last fall.
I like David Chai and I hope he's able to stick around. He means well and actually cares about the City of Oakland beyond the Mayor. But as I told him he's got to remember to be "more than his position."
What I mean is as I told Chai: no one cares about his title, they care about what he does, period. If he uses his title as a tool to lord over people and show power in the office he will lose under the weight of their displeasure; if he remembers to develop relationships that will last beyond his time in office, he will be rewarded for making the connections. When I worked for Mayor Harris I developed a long list of friends who continue to help me today and vice versa.
Chai listened to me lecture him - at first painfully, then attentively - on how to make the best of his time in office. Now, he's got to show he actually put my advice into practice.
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