Oakland will celebrate its 57th "Mother of the Year" award at the Morcom Rose Garden on May 8 as it presents well-known open-government activist Barbara Newcombe with the award. If you’ve ever needed to know anything about Oakland’s Sunshine Laws, you have met or had occasion to consult Barbara Newcombe.

Indeed, she wrote the book on it, Paper Trails: A Guide to Public Records in California (1991), which Newcombe penned after volunteering at the Center for Investigative Reporting. She was also active with the Oakland Chapter of the League of Women Voters and helped launch the Public Ethics Commission where she served for three years. She was recently named the honoree at the League’s annual “Making Democracy Work” luncheon.

You can check out articles she wrote in 2007 for the Grand Lake Guardian and learn about some of the issues she has championed in her work on open government.

Then, in 2004, this activist took on the restoration of the Cleveland Cascades, a barely remembered jewel of cascading water, gardens and public stairs that had been built near Lake Merritt in 1923. It had been filled in and planted over for years, but Newcombe ferreted out the history and magic of the place and led the effort to fund the restoration. Go to www.clevelandcascade.org to contribute or check for updates. 

At the age of 90, having raised a family, and then fostered democracy in her city, Newcombe remains a bright, energetic woman who makes being a model citizen (and knowing one) fun.

Anne Woodell, the 2009 Mother of the Year, was the first woman on the Oakland Parks and Recreation Commission and founded the non-profit Friends of the Oakland Parks and Recreation in 1979. We may think of California as a progressive state, but it took until 1974 before the prodigiously active Woodell, as the first woman, got appointed to that commission. 

Remember, Oakland still has not even had a woman mayor. The 2010 election may change that, but in 1954, when the Mother’s Walk (stone plaques which are installed in the path of the main garden) was founded, most women were not included in city government or other positions of power. Many women were very active in civic affairs but had not received the recognition their volunteerism deserved. 

Woodell says that “nurturing the community” has always been the number one contribution sought in honorees. Honorees must be nominated by organizations, not individuals or relatives. “It’s about women who have done extraordinary things for Oakland,” Woodell says.

In 1988, a new department head for the Parks and Rec Department suggested to the Commission that the city could no longer afford the ceremony. Woodell took it upon herself to organize it and keep the tradition alive while she was on the Commission.

Another part of the tradition was "The Proud Parents’ Stroll," sponsored by the merchants of the Grand Avenue Business Association, which has been cancelled for the last couple years as a result of the recession and empty storefronts. 

As a past president of that organization, I remember the year Jerry Brown showed up late, missing his chance to announce the winner, though he was ably supplanted by then Council Member John Russo. When Brown finally arrived, he turned to that year’s winner and said, “What did you do?”

It has always been expected that the mayor would give out the award and, for many years, they did. But out of eight years in office, Jerry showed only twice and Mayor Dellums has not even responded to repeated requests. 

Still the tradition carries on. My friend, Susan Rovetta, whose mother, Winnifred Rovetta was selected in 1978, continued joining the ceremonies with her mother until she grew too ill to attend. (Many previous winners make it a point to honor the newest honoree.)

Winniefred Rovetta was the mother of five children, a PTA leader, a Scout leader, and a Sunday school teacher at the Lakeshore Baptist Church. She is still remembered there for all her work with the children and the Oakland community. 

Rovetta, the younger, recently returned to the city after moving her family to Castro Valley to co-parent after a divorce. She now lives near the Rose Garden where she brings younger family members to view the plaque in her mother’s honor. 

When I told her that some of the selections over the last few years have not been parents, she was shocked. “That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Why not give another award for citizen of the year, but volunteering in your community while parenting takes a very special person. Doing even one (of those jobs) well is difficult enough.”

Naomi Schiff is a mom and an Oakland activist. She disagrees with my friend Susan and thinks that the idea of "Mother of the Year" might have become anachronistic if it had not been modernized by expanding the vision of the work. She points out that the roles of women have changed.

Schiff served in 2005 when she was president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance and a champion of “new uses for beautiful, old buildings,” along with maintaining affordable housing, as the city resolution of that year declares.

When asked if the title ever came in handy, Schiff remembered the boisterous gathering of Oakland parents, teachers and students during the tumultuous years of Randy Ward’s tenure as the first Oakland schools superintendent appointed by the state. 

State Schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell had come to Oakland Tech and was greeted with shouts and jeers by the Oakland community. Ward’s hand-picked emcee couldn’t handle the crowd so Schiff climbed up on stage and announced that, as Mother of the Year, she wanted everyone to listen to each other. As I recall, Ward had already stalked off the stage, but some folks wanted to hold a discussion without him. Naomi got a good laugh and the meeting went on.

If you go to the Rose Garden Saturday morning, you may not meet the mayor , but you will meet some great Oakland women who still move and shake this community with their activism and their love.

The ceremony will take place on May 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 700 Jean St. See more ways to celebrate Mother's Day this weekend in OL's resource guide.