Letters — October 18, 2025
Public safety tax oversight committee subs out to a consultant; Oakland Human Services department gaps are concerning; "This system is set up for failure"; thanks to Oakland Report for keeping watch.
Letters 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.
We recognize and love that Oakland is a complex city of nearly half a million people with so many unique 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.
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.
Public safety parcel tax oversight committee subs out to a consultant
Great article by Ranji Mandal! [Measure NN’s oversight commission wields unprecedented citywide power, October 7.] “We, the people” voted for specifics in Measure NN, yet they were immediately taken away from “we” and given to a private commission that is going to sub out to a consultant what they are incapable of doing.
—Karen Motlow
Gaps in Oakland Human Services department leadership, financials are concerning
Thank you for highlighting the gap in leadership in Oakland’s Human Services department. [Leadership Vacuum at Oakland’s Human Services Department Exposes Systemic Failures, June 12.] The Budget Advisory Commission (BAC) also pointed out the lack of leadership in the Human Services department as a concern in their recommendations. According to BAC, hundreds of thousands of dollars were found encumbered by the division for loosely-defined, unsigned contracts and grants with community-based organizations, some of whom were delivering services in good faith based on verbal assurances that a contract was forthcoming.
—Lenore Gunst
The system is set up for failure
One issue I’d love to hear more on is public safety and policing. We passed a ballot measure for police staffing yet have never met the approved numbers. We have more academies this year but it won’t be enough given turnover. We are very short on police who are actually on duty/active. Crime has gone down with CHP support, and crime has also gone down nationally. CHP has been scaled back. It seems we are allowing chase now, on par with the rest of the US. We are perhaps getting rid of the federal monitor. We have these overlapping commissions — Police, Privacy, Safety — staffed by appointed people. Now there’s the recommendation about getting rid of flock cameras.
It would be great to see a state of affairs report summarizing these various aspects and how they hamper the #1 issue of safety (the issue Barbara Lee and Loren Taylor both ran on). I’d like to see how Oakland compares to other cities — who has oversight, all of these commissions (why do they exist?) and what is the responsibility of the mayor, council, etc. I believe this system is set up for failure and management by a non-rep group of people.
I’d also like to see a breakdown of who is getting contracts and grants, and what key performance indicators exist. Who is connected to or even related to council members? This has been an issue in the past. What are the rules here?
—Barb Murrer
No one else is watching
On behalf of all honestly-interested-in-this-town Oaklanders, thank you for Agenda Watch. [Oakland Agenda Watch, October 12.] ‘Cause no-one else seems to be, well, watching.
—Roland De Wolk
Thanks, all, for your comments. Check out our latest articles on the Measure NN oversight commission and the Oakland Police Commission for closer looks at several of these concerns. We’re also working on an article that takes a deeper dive into the catastrophic state of Oakland’s public commissions, coming soon.
Do you have something to say about Oakland politics and governance? We want to hear from you! Write to us at letters@citizensoakland.org.
Agree