Oakland Mayor Thao Pushing “We Were Close To A Deal” With The Oakland A’s Is Not True. Oakland Mayor Thao Pushing “We Were Close To A Deal” With The Oakland A’s Is Not True. Her Staff Has No Idea Mayor Thao’s Chief Of Staff Leigh Hanson is known for her great work at my Church Glide Memorial in San Francisco, but I can’t side with her in the case of the Oakland A’s and the deal formation. Sadly, Leigh just proved she doesn’t understand the whole issue when she made a blast about Oakland’s Budget Deficit , and not having $100 million. The fact is we were supposed to employ tax increment financing as far back as 2021, but the City of Oakland, by Mayor Schaaf’s admission to me July 20, 2021 on video said they didn’t have the staff with redevelopment experience - as she’s talking to a tax increment financing revenue forecast expert, me. The City of Oakland never even tried to do a tax increment financing zone and didn’t do the math correctly. The consultant Century Urban took $1 billion ...