Bureaucracy grinch steals Oakland decorations

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/20/9 | Chip Johnson

[SmithL]

Somewhere in the bureaucratic haze of Oakland city government, in a spacious office with views of Frank Ogawa Plaza, there is a holiday grinch who has actually succeeded in swiping a slice of Christmas spirit from city residents.

Now I already know what you're thinking, so let's get it out of the way.

It is not Mayor Ron Dellums. He has been out of town since Saturday attending to a death in the family, said Paul Rose, the mayor's overused, underinformed press secretary. On Monday, Oakland city officials informed Marco Li Mandri, executive director of two business community benefit districts in downtown Oakland, that it could not accept a volunteer offer to place holiday decorations on city-owned properties and streets.

The city could open itself up to potential legal risk if it allowed a volunteer effort to perform work that's supposed to be done by union labor, wrote Alizia Gallo, business services development manager for the Oakland Community and Economic Development Agency, in an e-mail declining the group's offer.

In her e-mail to Li Mandri, Gallo cited a union grievance lodged in March by a city worker threatened by the sight of a counterpart from the business district picking up litter in city-owned Snow Park on its first day of operations.

[BilLies]

I'll bet if the New Black Panthers were picking up trash to celebrate Kwanzaa the unions would find away to accommodate them.