Letters to the Editor – November 1, 2025
Why do so many police chiefs leave Oakland? Would the city pay to defend Desley Brooks in court? Can OUSD stave off bankruptcy? City’s deal-breaking is heartbreaking; and more letters from our 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.
Why do so many police chiefs leave Oakland?
Re: Oakland Agenda Watch, October 12
There needs to be a serious look into why we have had ten police chiefs in ten years. Is it realistic to have so many layers of police oversight? I think that it would be important to analyze why Chief Mitchell resigned. We have had experienced police chiefs who have been fired or relieved of the position. Are the individuals in the various layers of oversight looking at facts or being excessively influenced by their personal feelings when making decisions?
Tom Love
Oakland
Would the city pay for Desley Brooks’ criminal defense?
Re: Oakland Agenda Watch, October 12
“Oakland City Council to vote on using taxpayer funds to defend city officials from criminal charges” – yes, what could go wrong?
Brings to mind this classic in which city council member Desley Brooks attacked a 72-year-old activist at a barbeque restaurant, resulting in millions of dollars in legal costs to the taxpayer. The SFGate story1 said the city paid the award, so not sure how the proposal changes past practices?
Tom G.
via Substack comment
Tom, thank you for your comment. The Desley Brooks case was a civil lawsuit brought by the injured party – the kind of lawsuit that could result in monetary damages but not prison sentences. (The district attorney declined to file criminal charges in that case.) Cities routinely defend against civil claims involving their employees – although many claims are settled out of court. The difference with the city attorney’s new proposal, which the city council authorized on October 21, is that the city now can use public funds to defend city politicians in criminal charges brought by prosecutors2 – the kind of charges that could send the accused politicians to prison. The city has not done that before.
School board will determine if OUSD goes bankrupt
Re: Oakland Agenda Watch, October 12
I’m loving this new content! An edition on the Oakland Unified School District board of education would be very timely. The district needs to make nearly $100 million in cuts to this school year’s budget for 2025-26, with another $100 million for 2026-27. The board and committee meetings over the next few months will determine whether OUSD goes into bankruptcy and state receivership again.
Regarding the city’s Education Partnerships Committee — it was just reconvened last month on September 22, with council member Brown presiding as chair.
Kim Ayers
Empower Oakland
Kim, thank you for your letter. Oakland Report has launched a new series of articles examining OUSD’s budget crisis. And you’re right about the city council’s education committee — it did reconvene in September, and we issued a correction.
History repeating itself at OUSD
Re: Oakland Unified School District must cut at least $115 million in the next two weeks to avoid state receivership, October 26
It’s like déjà vu all over again from the early 2000s, with parents and other stakeholders demanding they get their particular goodie with zero consideration of the finite whole: school occupations, resistance to closures and mergers – all served with a heaping platter of administration and board incompetence.
I once did gentle battle with OUSD for months after at least one principal chained shut all the schoolyard emergency exits, enduring panic if the building caught fire. Went all the way to the top on that one, and earned the undying resentment of the principal, part of the snake oil posse that arrived with spend-and-flee superintendent Antwon Wilson.
Ben Stiegler
Oakland
Per-pupil spending comparison is important metric
Re: Oakland Unified School District must cut at least $115 million in the next two weeks to avoid state receivership, October 26
Excellent work. Please add for context how much Oakland already spends per pupil compared to the other dozen-plus school districts in Alameda County. The last time I checked, OUSD was second to Berkeley. Providing this context is important because the progressives on Nextdoor blame OUSD’s problems on poverty and poor financial support.
Mike Henn
Piedmont
Mike, thank you for your comment. We are planning to take a closer look at per-pupil spending in Oakland compared to other school districts in a future installment of our series on OUSD’s budget crisis.
Not everyone who votes for taxes pays said taxes
Re: “Death and taxes” - Oakland City Council is the one who knocks, October 27
I lived and owned/managed businesses in Oakland for 35 years. But three years ago, I reached an age when I couldn’t handle the stress and risks of the business and of the Oakland City Council. I moved to Lafayette. But I still have family living in Oakland and many friends there, and I care deeply about the city. I also have many years of education in architecture, urban design, sociology, political science, and economics.
I believe your article misstated this in its premise: “Yet Oakland intends to ask voters to give even more.” Taxpayers are but a small subset of Oakland voters, and therein lies the problem. If they were the same folks, the voting would likely be more prudent in regard to taxes, as we see in many other cities and counties.
But for better or worse, a large percentage of Oakland voters do not pay property taxes, business taxes, and other taxes. So voting for these taxes for them is a ‘free kick’ and a chance to raise money from others for government programs they are told will benefit them.
I support everyone voting on sales tax because everyone pays it. But why do so many citizens get to vote on property taxes when they don’t have to pay them?
Rent control effectively insulates them from the effects of property tax increases on their apartment buildings. No, owners do NOT get to pass it along to renters.
Thank you for your reporting. Parts of Oakland are often called a ‘food desert,’ but much of Oakland is an ‘information desert.’ Your reporting is water in the desert.
RJ Phillips
Lafayette
RJ, thank you for your comments. We certainly can relate to the stress one experiences with respect to Oakland’s government.
Our “Death and Taxes” article took a closer look at council’s preliminary deliberations about new tax increases they intend to place on the ballot next year. The council members’ questions and staff’s responses offer insight into their deeper thought processes, which appear to include framing certain tax increases in ways that could appeal to subsets of voters who might be more inclined to approve tax increases that don’t apply to them.
Our Oakland Agenda Watch column from October 12 includes a brief review of the city’s annual rent control and evictions report, which noted that there are approximately 104,000 rental housing units citywide, and the city’s rent control ordinance applies to approximately 43,000 of them.
About those property tax exemptions
Re: “Death and taxes” - Oakland City Council is the one who knocks, October 27
Some elderly and/or low-income property owners may be eligible for exemptions from some OUSD and city property taxes. These exemptions are usually mentioned at the end of the measure descriptions in the election info booklets. They can add up to a bunch of bucks.
The city of Oakland’s program is called SPARE. Information about it can be found here. I’ve found the staff there very capable and responsive. OUSD’s exemption info can be found here. How well applications are processed depends on who’s doing them that year.
I’m an Oaklander from way, way back. I know the city and OUSD need the money, but so do we. And we won’t be pouring it down a gopher hole.
Claire Lomax
Oakland
City’s deal-breaking is heartbreaking
Re: Oakland could pay $674 million in damages in disastrous coal terminal lawsuit, October 29
Truly heartbreaking how city leadership defied the very agreement they had made and now the city will suffer (once again).
Timothy Birch
South San Francisco
Oakland Report helps understand why the city is a broken mess
I appreciate your writing style so much. As the television show “The Pitt” is to hospitals,3 your articles are to Oakland politics. As an Oakland resident, I had given up on understanding why the city is such a broken mess. You’ve made it clear and even exciting. Very glad you’re doing this!
Anna Runkle
Oakland
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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.
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Do you have a confidential tip with documentation or evidence about local governance in Oakland? Let us know at oaklandreport@citizensoakland.org. We adhere to ethical journalism best practices4 with respect to protecting our confidential sources.
Bob Egelko, “Ex-Black Panther awarded $3.75 million after clash with Oakland councilwoman.” SFGate, Dec. 22, 2017.https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ex-Black-Panther-awarded-3-5-million-Desley-Brooks-12451385.php
City of Oakland, Concurrent Meeting of the Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency and the City Council. “Meeting Minutes, October 21, 2025.” Adopt A Resolution Delegating Authority To The City Attorney Or Their Designee To Facilitate And Authorize The Legal Defense Of City Officers And Employees In Criminal Proceedings For Acts Or Omissions Within The Scope Of Their Official Duties Upon Making The Findings Required By Government Code Section 995.8. City of Oakland, California, October 21, 2025, p. 11, item S5.24. https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=M&ID=1339687&GUID=B3A274AA-C1C8-42C6-807C-31D17DF606A7
Wikipedia contributors. “The Pitt.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed Oct. 30, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pitt
New York Times contributors. “Protecting Confidential and Privileged Information.” Ethical Journalism: A Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Opinion Departments. New York Times, March 26, 2025, Chapter 2. https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethical-journalism.html#protectingconfidentialandprivilegedinformation