City of Oakland gives Rebecca Kaplan, former city council member a $149,000-per-year job
The Oakland city administrator’s office has given former city council member Rebecca Kaplan a full-time job on the city’s payroll as a “Project Manager (Illegal Dumping)”
The Oakland city administrator’s office has given former city council member Rebecca Kaplan a full-time job on the city’s payroll as a “Project Manager (Illegal Dumping).”
The job will pay Kaplan a salary of $12,451 per month, which comes out to $149,410 per year.
There appears to have been no public recruitment posted for the job.
Kaplan’s employment offer letter states that, “the salary range does not have defined steps,” meaning that the salary rate can be set or changed to any amount within a set range. According to city records, the job is an “Exempt Limited Duration Employee (ELDE)” classification that will have a duration of one year expiring September 25, 2026.
An “Exempt Limited Duration Employee Review Form” from the city’s human resources department outlines Kaplan’s scope of duties in her new city job:
Main duties in priority order (top five):
Prepare and coordinate illegal dumping program (25% of time weekly)
Community engagement to alleviate challenges for Technical Teams (25% of time weekly)
Collecting 3rd Party collection when city assets are damaged (25% of time weekly)
Analyze proposed and current illegal dumping and provide recommendations (25% of time weekly)
According to the offer letter, Kaplan will be working 37.5 hours per week, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday in the City Administrator’s Office at City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 3rd Floor.
Ms. Kaplan seems to have a perennial inside connection to Oakland’s treasury. After she lost the election to retain her council member-at-large seat, she was mysteriously asked by fellow council members to stay on after Sheng Tao’s indictment moved CM Jenkins to the mayoral role. That seemed irregular at the time. Now this non - posted job award smacks of cronyism or worse. Kaplan is decidedly brilliant, but has been part of crafting and advocating for policies that have brought Oakland to the brink. A deeper investigation into the legality and decision makers of the job award is warranted.
I would think Oakland would have had enough of Rebecca Kaplan. Handing her a job that never went through the normal hiring procedures is another example of Oakland corruption. Sadly it’s very much like something you would see from Trump