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Oakland’s police contract could raise pay 14%. Other city unions got bigger annual raises in the last round.
City council is set to vote on a contract that would make police pay a portion of their health premiums but would not cap overtime.
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Police commission: How to overturn a vote you couldn’t cast
Police commissioner Omar Farmer used an ethics complaint to nullify a police armored vehicle decision he had spent years opposing
 • Rajni Mandal
I got 5: This week’s Newsstand headlines
Oakland police officers charged with fraud; councilman Kevin Jenkins requests “more bitches”; Oakland schools trustee VanCedric Williams gets paid by…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland’s police commission broke open-meeting laws. The commission still hasn’t fixed it.
The public ethics commission hasn’t ruled on the matter yet — ten months after the incident — and its enforcement chief admits that they have no way to…
 • Alex Montana
Oakland Unified’s general fund cash shrank by $100 million last year
OUSD still hasn’t identified $30 million in cuts it passed to balance its 2026-27 budget — and it’s now two months into the new fiscal year
 • Sean S. Reinhart

Charter Reform series

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Oakland is “high sensitivity” — Letters to the editor
Homeless industrial complex; pay raises for city council and unions; who’s actually in charge of the city; you get what you pay for — and more letters…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Hand-picked: the political and personal ties between mayor Barbara Lee and her Oakland "charter reform working group"
Mayor Barbara Lee’s eight-member panel consists of her transition advisers, her campaign’s institutional backers, a funder of its own process, and…
 • Alex Montana
Oakland city council pay raises: the charter reform provision no one is discussing
Oakland's charter reform could raise council pay up to 125%, pushing total compensation past $300,000 — yet the provision has been nearly absent from…
 • Alex Montana
Oakland’s charter reform process: the questions it was built not to ask
Mayor Barbara Lee’s charter reform ‘working group’ was hand-picked to diagnose Oakland’s dysfunction. But the group was set up to rule out the reforms…
 • Alex Montana
City council seeks a pay raise of up to 125% – which would be among the highest in the nation
Oakland city council is set to consider a charter amendment that would give city councilmembers substantial pay raises as part of a charter reform…
 • Alex Montana
Voter turnout and "strong mayor": equal voices or skewed by districts?
A dialog with an Oakland Report subscriber and the authors of our March 2 commentary, “Oakland voters should reject the inadequate ‘strong-mayor…
 • Oakland Report
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Commentary

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Oakland elections: No one wants to catch the “falling knife”
This year, the stakes are higher than ever in Oakland’s local elections — so why are so few candidates running?
 • Seneca Scott
Introducing Newsstand — a free public service for our readers
Oakland Report's Newsstand is a daily roundup of Oakland news and stories from across the spectrum — a one-stop destination for readers to keep abreast…
 • Oakland Report
Coming soon: Oakland Report is expanding
Oakland Report is growing — thanks to our readers’ generous support — and we’re launching a new service for our readers this weekend.
 • Oakland Report
Oakland’s Achilles heel — Letters to the editor
Wondering why a council member behaves like a nightclub act; who’s missing from the Sheng Thao witness list?; gross mismanagement at Oakland Unified …
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland did not dodge the budget crisis – it postponed the bill
Measure E’s backers warned of service cuts if voters didn’t approve it. Voters rejected the measure — yet the city avoided deep cuts after all, by using…
 • Oakland Report
Rough cut: Our video montage missed the mark
Our recent video compilation fell short. We did not meet our own standard of “no implicit bias”
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland Coliseum: An open letter to Oakland council member Janani Ramachandran
A District 4 constituent asks his council member to reconcile her vote for the Oakland Coliseum sale with the ‘culture of enforcement’ she has publicly…
 • Oakland Report
Oakland: trash is cash, garbage is gold
How Oakland built a problem it cannot clean up — and how to fix it.
 • Oakland Report
Oakland city whistleblower responds to Oaklandside ‘hit piece’
Transportation director Josh Rowan responds to media stories that named him as a whistleblower using records the city provided, which he alleges…
 • Oakland Report
Selective sourcing: Oaklandside's article on police overtime
Fact check and commentary on Oaklandside’s recent article, “Residents hope OPD’s rampant use of overtime will be addressed in new police union contract”
 • Rajni Mandal
Oakland Report is 70% toward our goal
We have raised $35,000 toward our $50,000 fundraising goal — our heartfelt thanks to all who have donated so far. Help us get the rest of the way…
 • Sean S. Reinhart and Oakland Report
Oakland is “high sensitivity” — Letters to the editor
Homeless industrial complex; pay raises for city council and unions; who’s actually in charge of the city; you get what you pay for — and more letters…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
The latest from
Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland’s police contract could raise pay 14%. Other city unions got bigger annual raises in the last round.
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Oakland Report
I got 5: This week’s Newsstand headlines
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Tim Gardner
Oakland is beautiful and we deserve better - Letters to the Editor
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Bob Borek
Oakland school board (OUSD) approves $102.5 million in budget cuts in 5-2 vote
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Podcasts
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Oakland Report Podcast
'Our babies are drinking lead and we wonder why they’re fighting at First Friday'

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Oakland elections: No one wants to catch the “falling knife”
This year, the stakes are higher than ever in Oakland’s local elections — so why are so few candidates running?
 • Seneca Scott
Oakland school board director VanCedric Williams was paid by California teachers union. He denied it, then voted to approve teachers union…
The California Teachers Association reported paying Williams in each of the last three years for which it has filed. His disclosure forms list no income…
 • Charlene Price
“More b*tches. Bring ‘em all here.” Oakland council member’s phone call with Sheng Thao co-defendant revealed
Read the eight-minute call in full: the recalls of mayor Sheng Thao and Pamela Price, a call with the mayor about buying modular housing units, an…
 • Oakland Report
I got 5: This week’s Newsstand headlines
Oakland city workers attend union “strike school”; Janani Ramachandran lures city job-seekers to her campaign website; the real reason Caltrans may open…
 • Oakland Report
Which violent crimes become news?
A review of one year of Oaklandside’s public safety coverage shows how a changing local news landscape can affect what readers see.
 • Rajni Mandal
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Oakland Report provides reasoned, evidence-based analyses and critiques of the policies, actions, and inactions of our city, county, and state governments.
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