Free Republic

Until his enormous ego got in the way - again - Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was out of the woods, unencumbered of his mayoral responsibilities and free to look for his next professional challenge. With only six weeks remaining until Oakland swears in Mayor-elect Jean Quan, Dellums, a one-term mayor, was doing just that - exploring the job market and looking for ways to parlay a 27-year career as a crusading, liberal congressman into annual income that would help pay off the $252,000 in back taxes that he and his wife owe to the Internal Revenue Service. But instead of...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' wife, Cynthia, has been talking with city officials about the possibility that her husband will depart before his term ends Jan. 3, perhaps to take a lobbying job in Washington, D.C. Adding fuel to the gossip fire: This week the mayor canceled his farewell State of the City address, which had been scheduled for today, and decided to post it on the city's website instead.If Dellums were to step down, Mayor-elect Jean Quan would automatically replace him in her capacity as vice mayor on the City Council. Then she would be sworn in to her full...

In less than a 24-hour span, a motorist wearing body armor engaged in a gunbattle with police on Interstate 580 in Oakland, a Virginia man in the Bay Area for a job interview was slain downtown and a West Oakland sniper fired on police from a high-rise building. Here in paradise, nobody even blinked. With the layoffs of 80 police officers last week, and the threat of losing 120 more officers without a $50 million taxpayer bailout in November, Oakland residents don't really expect a whole lot. Our collective expectations have been downsized. So while the most recent 24-hour crime-filled...

The Oakland City Council voted Thursday to lay off 80 of the Police Department's 776 officers as it slashed at a $30.5 million budget deficit. The decision could be rescinded if the police union agrees to pension concessions. Council members would like the officers to contribute 9 percent of their salaries toward their CalPERS pension, the same as every other city union worker. Union leaders and city officials are set to negotiate Sunday and Monday, a move some interpreted as a sign the union was willing to change its position. "I'm confident that we can have an agreement by July...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' 11th-hour news conference to unveil his plan to lay off cops to help eliminate the city's $30.5 million deficit was a study in dysfunctional family values. "For weeks, we do all the heavy lifting to put together a budget - meeting with all sides and coming up with compromises without one word from him," City Councilwoman Pat Kernighan said. "Then he comes in the day before, takes 90 percent of what we recommended and holds a press conference."Council President Jane Brunner - who has been doing most of the work on balancing the budget for the...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums doesn't seem to do much on the job these days -- but he went into meltdown Monday when veteran KTVU political reporter Randy Shandobil had the temerity to ask why he's been missing in action as one of the most crime-challenged cities in the nation faces a devastating layoff of a quarter of its police force."Who the (blank) are you to decide what my role is?" a raging Dellums told Shandobil in a phone call Monday, after the Oakland-based reporter showed up at City Hall to ask why Dellums has been seen at high profile boxing...

Despite his pledge last year to join other Oakland elected officials in taking a 10 percent pay cut, Mayor Ron Dellums has continued to collect his full $183,000-a-year salary, a spokesman for the mayor confirms. The spokesman, Paul Rose, declined to say precisely why the mayor took the extra $18,300 in pay this past year -- but there is speculation that he needed the money to help deal with his troubled personal finances.

It's inappropriate for any elected official, and certainly a big-city mayor, to tell constituents that the way their tax dollars are spent is of no importance. But that's what Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums appeared to be saying last week when he told a Chronicle reporter that a state audit about how the city had handled $3 million in federal job training stimulus funds was "much ado about nothing, man." "It's an accounting matter," the mayor said. He went even further, criticizing the news media for highlighting field trips to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and a Concord water park that...

A $26,000 contribution to the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California appears to have cost a 96-year-old former Mormon temple president his seat on the board that oversees Oakland's historic Paramount Theatre.Amid rising criticism from the gay community, Mayor Ron Dellums said Tuesday that he was putting on hold the reappointment of Lorenzo Hoopes, most likely signaling an end to Hoopes' 30-plus years on the Paramount board."The community is asking us to reconsider, and that is what we are going to do," mayoral spokesman Paul Rose said.Hoopes, a past president of the Mormon temple in Oakland as well as...

Ron Dellums, who earns about $184,000 as Oakland mayor on top of a congressional pension, appears to owe the Internal Revenue Service at least $66,554. A lien has been placed against his property for failing to pay taxes for 2006. According to the East Bay Express, which broke the story, Mayor Dellums and his wife, who file jointly, may owe more than $239,000 in taxes, mostly for the years he worked as a lobbyist in Washington, DC.

Oakland has raised the price of parking tickets, extended meter times to 8 p.m. in most parts of the city and is more aggressively enforcing parking violations, including in residential neighborhoods. The decision is driven by the city's budget woes, which deep cuts to city services alone did not solve. Falling sales and property, property transfer and hotel taxes have contributed to a $51 million decline in revenues. But the move to wring more money out of parking violations, one of the few legal tools the city has, is inspiring a revolt. A newly established parking enforcement crew that works...

The allegations in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly threatens to become a courtroom drama focusing on the Oakland mayor's office - and who's really in charge. To some Oakland residents, Edgerly may represent the antithesis of political reform. She was accused of interfering with a police investigation, she hired her friends and family, and she underestimated the 2008-09 budget deficit by millions of dollars. But she is also a veteran political insider who knows - and can allegedly prove - how things really work in the mayor's office. Ever since Mayor Ron Dellums...

An ad hoc group of Oakland community leaders and activists demanded on Tuesday that the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) police union apologize for its role in preventing Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums from speaking at the joint funeral of the four Oakland police officers killed in the March 21 MacArthur Boulevard shootings. “The exclusion of Oakland’s mayor was more than a disrespectful affront to the mayor himself, it was an act of insubordination to Oakland’s governing body, and a back-handed slap in the face to all of the citizens of Oakland who pay the generous salaries of the members of...

The shooting deaths of four Oakland police officers have touched Oakland and the entire nation, and have also exposed the growing disconnect Mayor Ron Dellums has with the city he is supposed to lead. Friday's public memorial service at Oracle Arena for Oakland police Sgts. Mark Dunakin, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai and Officer John Hege took on an unintended political tone when at least two families did not approve of Dellums' inclusion on a speakers list that included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Dellums' omission at an event...

The contradictions between Ron Dellums' storybook congressional career on Capitol Hill and his rocky performance as a big-city mayor are too stark to ignore. He left Washington after 27 years in office as the liberal lion in the House of Representatives, a staunch opponent of the war, a champion in the fight against AIDS and an architect for social change. But unless he can navigate a steep 180-degree turnaround in his final two years in the Oakland mayor's office, he will end his political career more like the little lamb that lost its way. Some of the findings in a...

Oakland -- Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums said Tuesday that the city's dire financial predicament will only get worse over the next few years, necessitating a combination of cost cutting and raising taxes. Cities around the Bay Area and the nation are facing deficits due to rising costs of public services, lax monitoring of spending, a downturn in tax revenues and overly optimistic revenue projections. Oakland is no exception.Dellums said the city's deficit, which was $42 million this year, could balloon by 2012 to nearly $113 million, with revenues that year projected to be $456 million and expenditures at $569 million....

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. Consider the case of Anne Campbell Washington, an assistant city administrator who resigned her position last week under unrelenting pressure from the mayor's office. 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. When word of...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums asked the state attorney general Tuesday to investigate the Police Department's handling of the August 2007 slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey, amid lingering questions about the relationship between the lead investigator and the head of the Black Muslim group at the heart of the case. "While I respect and appreciate" the efforts of the police, Dellums said at a City Hall news conference, "the residents of Oakland deserve to know that this investigation is being conducted with the utmost transparency, openness and integrity." Dellums also said the lead investigator into the killing, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, a...

Purple- and blue-shirted city workers crammed the council chamber Tuesday night to protest Mayor Ron Dellums' proposals to cut $42 million from Oakland's budget. The outcry came after Dellums addressed the council in the first string of meetings aimed at getting to the bottom of Oakland's fiscal mess and amid a national economic crisis that left city officials — including Dellums — concerned the problems would likely get worse before they get better. The council discussed, but took no action, on Dellums' proposed cuts. City employees represented by SEIU Local 1021 and the Professional and Technical Engineers Union Local 21...

From the day Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums took office nearly two years ago, residents have witnessed a steady decline in city government function as public confidence has withered. The city's administrative structure and finances are in deep distress. In the coming weeks, the city's elected officials must make significant cuts to balance a budget deficit that has grown to $50 million since the start of the fiscal year less than three months ago.There's also the question of who's in charge at City Hall after Dellums, under pressure, fired City Administrator Deborah Edgerly amid allegations that she tipped her nephew, a...