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On the heels of my blog post on why I think Don Perata would lose if he ran for Mayor of Oakland, I had a great conversation with friends who disagreed with me and believed that Perata would win.  I introduced my logic, which is just that because it's not tied to any personal feelings about Perata -- I like him and always have going back to 1993 -- but a pure, cold look at the Oakland electorate.   I wrote that a "dark horse" candidate may emerge to beat Perata, and we talked about that person: Robert Bobb.    If the former and now some say "De Facto" Oakland City Manager threw his hat into the ring to run for Mayor, he would clobber Perata, and that's even if Perata got the endorsement of California Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, and most of the other members of the Ron Dellums / Sandre Swanson / Barbara Lee endorsement machine.  Bobb could beat that machine.  Bet on it.   Why? Well, let's take a hard look at this.  California Senator Perata would

This is listed under the file heading of "What was he thinking?"  I've learned using Huffington Post's "Fundrace" system that our own Robert Bobb, who's listed as a "consultant" with the adress P.O. Box 77556, Washington, D.C.,  gave $1,000 to Hillary Clinton's run for president, but nothing -- zip -- to Barack Obama! That's disappointing to learn for this Obama backer and volunteer. I got after Mayor Dellums for not backing now President-Elect Obama because doing so would send a message to young Black men in Oakland that he supports the future, but I would have guessed Mr. Bobb would have certainly backed Obama.   Now, that colors a lot of thoughts I had about Bobb and makes me reconsider past his actions when we were involved with The Super Bowl. I crossed-checked the Robert Bobb listed in Chicago and who did give to Barack's campaign and he's a lawyer in the windy city. But it says something not so good when older Af

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've not yet confirmed this with Robert Bobb himself, but two sources have explained to me today that former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb has resigned from his position as a consultant with  Public Financial Management Inc.  -- the assertion from one source is that he did so to become Oakland's next City Administrator, replacing former City Adminstrator Debra Edgerly, who was fired in July of this year.   Bobb has been going back and forth, in and out of Oakland as part of a consulting engagement that saw the public service veteran analyze various aspects of Oakland management and operations in an effort to determine why the government's not working as it should and why service delivery has been so poor.   The possibility of Bobb's return was a focus on a recent debate between the two At Large City Council candidates Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hamill.  Both were rather lukewarm to the idea of his possible return, with Hamill more along the commentary of "I

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

I want to be the first Oakland blogger to affirm Chip Johnson's article today charging favoritism in the City of Oakland. My response is that it doesn't start or stop at the CAO's office or with Deborah Edgerly herself, and a really complete look should go back 10 years, not just 2004. Look, I was treated so terribly by the City of Oakland when I was trying to bring the Super Bowl here , that my own mother -- who's still cancer-free by the way -- observed that "Between Blacks who are jealous of you and Whites who think someone White should be doing what you're doing, you're going through a terrible place." She was right. Oakland's government has a long history of hating well-educated Black men who don't follow the normal ethnic stereotypes. I remember 1998, when all of us from Elihu Harris' office -- I was economic advisor -- were being placed in various departments of the City of Oakland after Jerry Brown won a landslide victory to