He made the right move...His fiscal management was not up to par irregardless of the financial meltdown. I'm sure his intentions were good but intentions and putting words into action are the qualities of a true leader. We wish him well and look forward to the next Mayor of Oakland Jean Quan.

Looking at Dellums' congressional years  thru rose colored glasses.

A couple of years into Dellums' term as mayor, I was complaining to a friend of mine who I knew to be a die hard Democrat,  a guy who votes the party ticket every time.

My buddy had served in both JFK and LBJ administrations in highly technical appointed positions.

His responded with a chuckle  to my questions as to  how could a smart effective congressman like Dellums turn out to be such a dud as a mayor.

He replied that Dellums was never the sharpest knife in the Congressional drawer. Dellums said the right things at the right time on the Vietman war and South Africa, but he never had much command of policy or depth of understanding of issues.

Which is to say he was a great politician, but not a great leader.

In a harbinger of personal financial troubles to come, in the early 1990's  he made the list of the most frequent check bouncers at the Congressional bank.

"lthough Dellums reportedly had more than 800 overdrafts from the House “Bank,” his popularity among his constituents, especially in the urban areas of Oakland and Berkeley, allowed him to escape the fate of several Members who lost their congressional seats after they were linked to the House “Bank” scandal in the 102nd Congress (1991–1993). The reapportionment that took effect in 1992 created a safer district for the incumbent; with the elimination of the outlying suburbs, Dellums captured more than 70 percent of the vote in his three remaining contests" which is from an otherwise lauditory review of Dellums' congressional record. (http://baic.house.gov/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=38)

If true, he also has the dubious distinction (this is an unconfirmed Wike posting) "In 1993, Dellums was Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Though he argued in favor of integration, Dellums was the sole sponsor of H.R. 2401, introduced on 14 June 1993^{[citation needed]}, adding language to the Defense Authorization Act of 1994 to ensure continued discrimination against gay servicemembers"

Most people who love or hate Dellums, credit him for responsibility (good or bad depending on your point of view) for California taking a hugely disportional number of military base closings. Closing them did nothing to slow military spending and succeeded in massive layoffs of civilian employees at decent wages at bases in Alameda and Oakland. Those jobs were never replaced with the private industry Dellums promised would come and have contributed to Oaklands' "structural" high unemployment.

Much has been written about what Dellums didn't do as Mayor.

He did select some very competent people. 

Lindheim is quite good, and not afraid to tell the city council members to their face that Oakland is headed over a financial cliff.  (so maybe  he's a piss poor labor negotiator. He shares that flaw with all of our city council members.)

He has a budget person, Marysheva-Martinez who is also very sharp.

Police Chief Batts is hecka better than I thought we'd get, but then Dellums has sabatoged him at every step by opposing gang injunctions, failing to negotiate a way out of the cop layoffs, doing wierd stuff before the Grant riots.

Not a whiff of typical corruption about the guy. Thats more than most cities can boast.

(no, i don't consider his credit card expenditures to be terrifble. petty stuff compared to the financial blunders made by prior mayors and the current and past city council members)

Maybe the worst part of his Oakland legacy, is that he lowered the bar of voter expectations ever further than they were when he was elected as our shining knight.

At this point, it would be easy for anyone to look better than Dellums.

-len raphael

temescal