Oakland Report’s Newsstand is a daily roundup of Oakland news from across the spectrum — a one-stop destination for readers to keep abreast of what’s happening in The Town. “I got 5” features the top five headlines we found interesting or notable this week.
1. Oakland’s 911 system was completely offline for nearly 36 hours
The city’s 911 system went offline since 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, according to mayor Barbara Lee and police. The city’s backup systems also were offline. Reports show large fiber optic and copper cables sliced away by an apparent “bad actor,” according to police chief James Beere.
The police department’s 911 call center was re-routed to the county’s system. The fire department’s call center was unaffected. During the outage, police said they were answering the phone and there were “no delays,” but added that they were only responding to “Priority One” calls.
The city’s 311 system also went down. During the outage, city officials encouraged people to send their 311 reports by email.
The system was offline until repairs were completed Friday morning. Read more
2. City council could get raises of up to $108,000 more per year (Measure EE)
An analysis of Oakland council member compensation found that Oakland already pays its council more per resident than other big cities. Measure EE, the “strong mayor” charter amendment on the November 3 ballot, could increase city council compensation by an estimated $36,000 to $108,000 more per member — with no upper limit.
The analysis found that Oakland already pays its council members the most per resident among other large cities — about 26 cents per resident, higher than San Francisco (21¢), Sacramento (19¢), San Diego (13¢), and Los Angeles (6¢).
Measure EE sets no specific dollar amount and no upper limit on council member pay. It would direct the city’s Public Ethics Commission (PEC) to reset council pay every two years to match “comparable” full-time California councils — but attaches no dollar amount, and no limit.
The analysis also found that neither mayor Barbara Lee’s “chater reform working group” that developed the measure, nor the Yes on EE campaign have mentioned that the measure would also give city council substantial raises. The mayor’s working group praised “market-appropriate” council pay, but offered no specific dollar amounts. The Yes on EE website, FAQ, and ballot argument don’t mention the potential pay increase at all, instead focusing on council working “full-time.” Read more
3. Oakland Education Association teachers union is a special interest — and its parent union has over half a billion dollars in net assets.
Oakland Education Association have been leaning into campaign claims that “billionaires” are opposing OEA-backed school board candidates, incumbents Jennifer Brouhard and Valarie Bachelor. An Oakland Report analysis found that OEA and its school board candidates are backed by deep-pocketed organizations of their own: public sector unions. OEA runs on $1.2 million a year — and its parent union, California Teachers Association holds $574 million in net assets.
OEA’s political action committee has outspent every other committee in school board races since 2020. Four of the seven current Oakland school board members have deep ties to the union.
OEA’s money has bought a school board majority friendly to OEA’s interests, citing a “student-centered” platform. The result: only 34% of Oakland Unified’s students met the state English standard and only 27% met the math standard in 2024–25, compared to 49% and 37% statewide. And, OUSD’s Black and Hispanic students trail their statewide peers in these key academic achievement markers by 12 to 17 points. Read more
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4. Harold Duffey, former Oakland exec ensnared in texting scandal, resigns as Brentwood’s city manager.
Duffey had been under fire in the wake of a text messaging scandal from his time as Oakland’s assistant city administrator. Duffey and his then-boss, Oakland city administrator Jestin Johnson, exchanged text messages that appeared to demean and sexualize their female colleagues; Johnson resigned in May after the messages came to light.
Brentwood’s city council put Duffey on paid administrative leave in June, after employee unions in that city expressed concerns about “gender-based discrimination” under Duffey’s watch. Duffey resigned from Brentwood on October 16, less than a year after taking the city manager job; he reportedly will receive $124,000 severance and accrued leave on his way out the door.
Duffey also is a witness in the federal trial of former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao, who is facing eight counts of bribery, corruption mail and wire fraud. Read more
5. Disgraced former mayor Sheng Thao was corrupt even before taking office, feds say
A sweeping FBI investigation began only two months into the former Oakland mayor’s term, according to trial testimony. A federal agent revealed that the FBI began investigating Thao in February 2023; Thao is now on trial for bribery and corruption in federal court. The FBI got involved after a tip from Oakland’s public ethics commission about political hit mailers that targeted Thao’s opponents in the 2022 mayoral campaign.
Other testimony revealed that Thao discussed closed-session deliberations about overcharges to waste pickup customers with co-defendant Andy Duong, an executive at the city’s recycling contractor, years before the alleged conspiracy. Text messages shown in court also reveal that Thao was having personal financial trouble, with difficulty paying rent, mounting utility bills and an electricity shut-off.
Other testimony featured photos, videos, text and email messages that feds say document an alleged pay-to-pay scheme in which the recycling contractor, California Waste Solutions, would help Thao win election as mayor and compensate her through her partner, Andre Jones, in exchange for favorable treatment with lucrative city contracts for recycling and a modular home business venture. Read more
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Thursday morning, I found out that the rear plate of my car was stolen so I called the non-emergency line. "INVALID NUMBER" was the response - I re-dialed and got the same response. I tried the other non-emergency line (for cell phones) and received the same response.
Because you cant report stolen plates online, I decided to try 911 since I wanted OPD to be aware of the stolen plates asap. I was very surprised that the call was picked up in less than 1 minute!
In late afternoon, I learned that the AT&T cables were cut so 911 calls had to be routed to the county. This explains the prompt response for my 911 call and I found it very sad and frightening that our city is not functional in so many aspects.
For once, the criminals did a favor for Oaklanders.
Thanks Oakland Report. Great 5 choices for this week. Mindy Pechenuk for Oakland Mayor 2026