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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: 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 conta

Video Commentary : MySpace , Metacafe , Blip.tv , Crackle , Stupid Videos , Sclipo , Viddler and Howcast John Burris is a well-known Oakland attorney representing the family of Oscar Grant in the wake of the shooting of Grant by Johannes Mehserle on New Year's Day. Burris attended the funeral last Friday, March 27th of the four Oakland Police Officers who were murdered by Lovell Mixon on Saturday March 21st in Oakland. I unfortunately did not attend the event as I was sick, but I did watch it on television. Burris brings up a point that I noticed but given the weight of the matter, put on the back-burner of my mind because I didn't want to think the unthinkable: that not only was the Mayor of Oakland not allowed to speak but Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who was in attendance, was not even acknoweldged by the presenters. That's a huge no-no. Congresswoman Lee is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Both are African American. All of the elected offici

For about two years there has been talk of the formation of a Sports Task Force. I first sent an email asking for such a group to the staff of Mayor Ron Dellums during the first two months of his administration but did not receive feedback. Then I twice talked to the Mayor about brieking him regarding what happened to Oakland's Super Bowl Bid and the Oakland Sports Commission I established in 1998. The Mayor said he would get back to me on the matter, er, have his secretary call me, but never did that, so I had lost any faith in his interest in solving Oakland's long-standing sports industry problems. Then I was approached by Steve Lowe and Chris DeBenadetti, both who have been active in Oakland politics and sports journalism respectively. We talked about such a task force with a member of the Mayor's Staff over a year ago. Then we waited, but to Lowe's credit he pushed for it constantly. Now it's formed. The first meeting was Thursday of two week

Chip Johnson SF Chron: - Loyalty or else in King Dellums' realm : “The city of Oakland no longer operates under a representative democracy - it's now a monarchy. And within the confines of that form of government, any criticism or disloyalty directed at the king - whether real or imagined - is dealt with. Her crime: She gave an affectionate hug to an elderly woman who spoke at a City Council meeting against a Dellums appointment to the city's housing authority commission in early October.” --- This is unfortunate but nothing new. It's what happens when you are in an arena where people are not compensated for creating wealth but for artificially giving loyalty just to get paid. Thus, the way to rise in such organizations is via the backstabbing Johnson points to. It's why we didn't get the 2005 Super Bowl. Forget the Raiders and the legal matters, it's this kind of rampant disfuction that is the reason. It's fair to say if you see a person of

As a preface to what I'm about to write, let me state that I'm generally one of the persons who's been very critical of Mayor Dellums' performance. Indeed, in the case of bringing in a new City Administrator, Dellums is dragging his feet beyond a reasonable degree of time. Thus, Oakland City Attorney John Russo's public charge last week that the Oakland City Charter is such that the Mayor may be violating it by not naming a City Administrator is shockingly sloppy in logic and approach. I'm frankly surprised Russo would take such a brazen road in trying to get the Mayor to act. It's the duty of the media to provide an informational check on these actions. And in this case, Russo's builying tactics cause me to wonder if it's overstepping the normal attorney-client relationship. Not that Dellums doesn't deserve it because it's obvious that he misread the City Charter. The Charter states: Section 502. Acting City Administrator. The

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson has had a field day -- or year -- going after Mayor Ron Dellums and pointing to his shortcomings, and today's no exception  : As he nears the halfway point in his four-year term, Dellums must decide whether to hire former City Manager Robert Bobb to his old position or continue with Dan Lindheim, a political appointment with little experience in city government. The national search to replace former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly, fired in July amidst a corruption scandal, has fizzled, leaving Lindheim to run day-to-day operations while Bobb, hired in July as a consultant, shows up twice a month and acts as the de-facto city administrator, City Hall sources say. The arrangement leaves Lindheim feeling undermined and Bobb in limbo, the sources say, while city residents are without leadership or clear direction. It's an uncomfortable situation that must be resolved. Well, Robert Bobb's certainly in limbo but fortunatel

I feel I'm more qualified than most to make this assertion: Mayor Ron Dellums YouTube page channel is a year late and lousy.  Why a year late?  Because I'm the person who told the Mayor's communications staff they needed a YouTube channel, among other things.  This came at a lunch I had last year with one of Dellums' communcations staffers who would regularly contact me.   I had considered writing a proposal for my company to be their new media consultant, but then thought better of it when I realized I may be giving up this blog's ability to write what it pleased unless I contractually asked for it.  Then I also pondered that writing such a proposal may just give them basic answers for free.  So I pulled back.   But over lunch, this YouTube page is one idea I said was basic.  But it's not enough to have one, and there's a lot of problems with the channel. For example the video on Dellums speaking at the Cathedral of Christ the Light has only 101 view