Yes, it is possible for Oakland to achieve its potential - Letters to the editor
Also: Former school board member predicts OUSD will be back under state control by the end of the year; Campaign contributions are enlightening; and more thoughts from Oakland Report readers.
Letters to the Editor is a curated selection of the thoughts, ideas, observations and questions we receive from Oakland Report readers. The selections are ones that we, the editors, find interesting, noteworthy, or otherwise worth elevating in a formal letters column.
The views expressed in the Letters column do not necessarily reflect the views of Oakland Report or its contributing authors. Letters may be edited for clarity, length, and conciseness.
Yes, it is possible for Oakland to achieve its potential
Re: Oakland’s culture of apathy is costing us all, Nov. 22.1
This line about the city of Oakland’s culture of apathy struck me: “The financial consequences are dire, yet avoidable.”
It recalls a famous line in the 1955 movie, Oh... Rosalinda!! about the world of trashed and occupied Vienna post-World War II: “Hopeless, yes. Impossible, no.”
Walking in the area north of the lake and Grand Avenue yesterday, in the warm sun and quiet, looking at all the newly built housing, Oakland still had the charm it had for me decades ago when I first arrived. Like Vienna, this city can still be great, even if its political leadership is garbage.
Robert Polevoi
Oakland
Robert, thank you for your comments, and for the great movie quote. Like Vienna, Oakland is a city of stunning natural beauty, phenomenal culture, extraordinary artistry, and deeply rooted civic pride. As you said, there are days when Oakland, California is magical beyond compare — despite its government.
We love Oakland dearly. It is our home — for some of us it is the only home we have ever known — and we just can’t abandon it to dysfunction, apathy and despair. Love and civic duty are why Oakland Report exists: to help Oakland achieve its potential to become a well-run, prosperous, welcoming, just, and truly great city for everyone who calls it home.
Oakland needs a strong city manager
Re: Oakland’s culture of apathy is costing us all, Nov. 22.
Thank you for your well-written and revealing assessment of the city of Oakland’s apathy toward its citizen commissions.
I have been a member of the Affordable Housing & Infrastructure Bonds Public Oversight Committee for the past couple of years. I joined the committee after retiring from a 24-year career with the city’s public works department. The committee has only met a few times in the past two years in part due to a lack of quorum as there are four vacancies, and the staff that supports the committee has changed a number of times.
I find the downward slide of the city’s management frustrating and sad. I began my career with the city under Mayor Elihu Harris, shortly before Jerry Brown became mayor. Brown helped get Measure X passed in 1998, which replaced an appointed city manager with the mayor as the city’s chief executive.
In my view, Oakland needs a strong city manager that is accountable for the implementation of policy through effective, efficient, financially responsible, management of the city’s operations and service delivery while the mayor leads the policy direction.
Ali Schwarz
Oakland
Ali, thank you for sharing your experience as a city commissioner and former city employee. At some point, Oakland Report may undertake a deeper analysis into the various forms of local government, in particular the distinctions between the “council-manager” and “strong mayor” forms of government, however, the topic has been covered quite extensively by others already. For now, here is a research starter on the subject that readers may find of interest.2
See this related article:
A time when commissions were fully functional
Re: Oakland’s culture of apathy is costing us all, Nov. 22.
As a former department head for the city, I served proudly under former City Manager Henry Gardner’s leadership during a time when there was effective leadership, accountability and true concern for the responsibility to provide Oakland residents with high quality city services. The erosion didn’t happen overnight. It’s been incremental and peaked first during the pandemic and then under former Mayor Sheng Thao.
And I also recall a time when commissions were fully functional and supported by professional staff. The prior comments about volunteers are respected. However, I disagree with the notion that any municipality should restrict the participation of volunteers to serve on commissions, as they bring a level of representation and insight into needs on the ground that paid professionals cannot. They also bring much needed expertise.
The solution in my view is reflective of what we’re seeing everywhere — a lack of accountability and a failure of citizens to demand better. Oakland is forever my home and in my heart. It deserves so much better.
Sandy Nathan
Oakland
Sandy, thank you for your comments and reflections. For readers: Henry Gardner was Oakland’s city administrator from 1981-1993. He then went into consulting for a number of years before serving as deputy executive director and executive director of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) from 2003-2010. Gardner headed former mayor Jean Quan’s transition team in 2010, and then returned as Oakland’s city administrator for a brief interim stint in 2014-15.
City finance director should be ashamed for mixing expenses
Re: City’s cash management report shows $192 million loss since June 30 - Oakland Agenda Watch, Nov. 18.3
As a corporate finance professional and CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charter-holder, I would be utterly ashamed and embarrassed to have my name connected to the word salad put out by city finance director Bradley Johnson, where he combines sales tax, operating expenditures and other vendor payments in the $142.9 million balance decrease as opposed to discussing their individual impact. It’s combined that way intentionally so as to leave the taxpayers uninformed and is thus not an acceptable disclosure.
PoliSportsGuy
via Substack comment
Campaign contributions are enlightening
Re: The city that sues itself: how the Privacy Advisory Commission enables conflicts of interest, Nov. 16.4
Thanks for this report. It is interesting to see Brian Hofer’s contributions to Oakland’s elected officials. Some of the worst of the worst in that group. It appears Hofer got a great return for his investment. Chump change for appointment to a commission that he was able to leverage for a grifting lawsuit against the very same city that appointed him. Thanks again for your hard work to bring this to light.
John BC
via Substack comment
John, thank you for your question about campaign contributions. People are free to donate to political campaigns as they see fit, provided that they comply with campaign contribution laws. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. But it can be enlightening to know where and with whom those financial connections exist.
Campaign contributions are subject to public disclosure. However, the disclosures are not particularly easy for an everyday citizen to find — assuming one even has the time to hunt them down.
According to the Open Disclosure Oakland website, Hofer appears to have donated to at least ten Oakland political campaigns on at least 22 occasions between 2014 and 2022:
Sheng Thao - $550
Rebecca Kaplan - $526
Dan Kalb - $250
Nikki Bas - $250
Janani Ramachandran - $300
Carroll Fife - $30
Cat Brooks - $50
Desley Brooks - $80
Hofer also donated a total $100 to the Coalition for Police Accountability Yes on LL campaign between 2016 and 2020.
https://www.opendisclosure.io/search/
Economic reality is absent from city’s housing policies
Re: City set to forgive $8 million loan to affordable housing landlord, Dec. 1.5
There is an underlying absence of economic reality behind the housing policies and decisions of Oakland’s political leadership over the past several decades. Activists have been driving the bus in almost total darkness, ignoring the basic economics of housing. This story of the city forgiving an $8 million loan to an affordable housing landlord should surprise nobody.
Housing is expensive to operate and maintain, especially older buildings with tenants with challenges. Limiting rents removes a property from market signals and realities, creating a fantasy set of budget and operating numbers. Eventually, reality comes knocking and the same politicians either retire, hide, rationalize, or distract with blame of others.
We are likely to see this same story play out over and over again as more and more Oakland housing ‘disappears’ and no new housing replaces it. Economic reality is difficult, often painful, but ultimately unavoidable, despite attractive ideology to the contrary.
RJ Phillips
via Substack comment
Former school board member predicts OUSD will be back under state control by the end of the year
Re: Oakland schools budgeting 101: how OUSD spends money, Dec. 2.6
I served on the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) board representing District 2 and have been involved in a range of Oakland school support nonprofit boards ever since. This article must be one of the most comprehensive, clear, and non-partisan summaries of OUSD’s budget and performance I have ever seen. Congratulations!
Given current board leadership, I would anticipate that OUSD will be back under state control by the end of the calendar year, with a trustee appointed by the County Superintendent.
OUSD staff have done excellent analysis looking at projections of student-age population and school locations to develop scenarios for consolidations (merging schools sharing the same site) and closures. OUSD seems unable to articulate a vision for its schools that would (1) help parents of closed schools see the benefits, and (2) attract back the parents of private and charter school students.
By the way, the share of Oakland students in private schools has remained remarkably constant over the past decades, ranging from 11 to 15%. It’s the share in charter schools that has increased significantly, from 0% around the year 2000 to about 30% now. I do support charters as a reasonable alternative to traditional schools, but would prefer if OUSD included them in its facility planning rather than ignoring their impact.
Robert Spencer
Oakland
Robert, thank you for your comments and for sharing your experience as a former board of education member. Oakland Report is planning to take a closer look at Oakland’s public/ charter/ private school landscape in a future article, and we would welcome your thoughts and contributions to it.
Editors’ note
We recognize and love that Oakland is a complex city of nearly half a million people with so many unique lived experiences and perspectives. It’s what makes Oakland so beautiful. In that spirit, we don’t need to agree with every viewpoint we share in Letters. However, we also don’t have the time, space, or inclination to publish letters that are not helpful or that don’t meet our standards.
We appreciate readers’ comments on the topics we cover in Oakland Report, and observations about Oakland politics and governance in general. We welcome letters that are grounded in reason and evidence that can be rationally examined. We may respond to some letters. We may reject some letters. We may fact-check some letters. Other letters we may let speak for themselves. Write to us at letters@citizensoakland.org.
If you like our work, please consider donating. We are a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization based in beautiful Oakland, California. Our mission is to make truth more accessible to all Oakland residents through deep investigative reporting and evidence-based analysis of local issues.
Your donation of any amount helps us continue our work to produce articles like the ones our readers wrote about in this column.
Thank you.
Everhart, Sean. “Oakland’s culture of apathy is costing us all.” Oakland Report, Nov. 22, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/20251122-oaklands-culture-of-apathy-is-costing
Bisconti, Tyler. “Mayoralty in the United States” EBSCO, 2025. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/political-science/mayoralty-united-states
Reinhart, Sean S. “City’s cash management report shows $192 million loss since June 30.’ Oakland Report, Nov. 18, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/i/178269039/citys-cash-management-report-shows-million-loss-since-june
Montana, Alex. “The city that sues itself: how the Privacy Advisory Commission enables conflicts of interest.” Oakland Report, Nov. 16, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/the-city-that-sues-itself-how-the
Reinhart, Sean S. City set to forgive $8 million loan to affordable housing landlord.” Oakland Report, Dec. 1, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/20251201-city-to-forgive-8-million-loan-ebaldc
Borek, Bob. “Oakland schools budgeting 101: how OUSD spends money.” Oakland Report, Dec. 2, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/oakland-schools-budgeting-101-how-d33