From: LSchaaf@oaklandnet.com

Hope you had wonderful holidays and are enjoying the new year! Ignacio has been trying to reach you today to see if you and your organization wants to sign on to a letter that several non-profits will be submitting to the Council and to the Oakland Tribune. The city is in a terrible crisis – funding for wonderful programs like yours are likely going to be cut. Groups like yours are asking the City Council to not spend another $1.5 million – money that isn’t even in the budget – to implement a new Ranked Choice Voting system. Please read the letter attached and below and let us know if you’d like to sign on. Thanks!! - Libby

Ranked Choice Voting – Right Idea, Wrong Time--An Open Letter to the Oakland City Council:
We represent a broad coalition of community organizations that provide vital services to citizens throughout Oakland. We write about the City’s unprecedented fiscal crisis that threatens to reduce vital services – services your citizens need now more than ever. For this reason, we urge you to reject the $1.5 million contract with Alameda County to implement Ranked Choice Voting (“RCV”) until the City can better afford it. Many of us still believe RCV is a good idea, but now is the wrong time.

Only weeks ago, the City Council held a special budget session to discuss cutting another $18.9 million shortfall from this year’s budget and $25.4 million from next year’s budget. The report warned that a cut this size “essentially means that General Purpose-Funded City services and departmental operations not outlined above [i.e., legally mandated,] would cease - an untenable proposition.”

When we supported Measure O in 2006 it was with the promise that it would “save hundreds of thousands of tax dollars each election year,” (Ballot Arguments for Measure O). The Measure’s Title stated this system would be used “without holding a prior June election.” But times have changed, now it looks like there won’t be any savings, since Oakland officials are planning to put revenue-generating measures on the June ballot. And unfortunately, due to the timing of tax collections, these measures can’t wait until a November election.

Now, not only will there be no savings, Alameda County is requiring Oakland to pay up to $1.5 million to implement this new voting system. This cost wasn’t included in the City’s current budget – the same budget that is already running a $18.9 million deficit. So, the RCV implementation costs will have to come out of vital city services – services that have already been cut to the bone and are at risk of being eliminated entirely. Clearly this means even more cuts to libraries, senior centers, parks, recreation programs, the arts, and vital services for seniors, youth and people in need.

Many of us who have signed below continue to support RCV as a best practice, but we urge you to delay its implementation to a year when we can better afford its costs. At least let’s wait until RCV is in the City’s budget, so we know what the trade-offs are.

[This paragraph will not be submitted to the newspaper as an op-ed, but will be included in version for Councilmembers]: Finally, should RCV be implemented, we are concerned about how voter education and outreach is conducted. Oakland’s Charter requires “The City shall conduct a voter education campaign to familiarize voters with ranked choice voting.” We believe you cannot and should not delegate this responsibility to Alameda County. While Alameda County has claimed to have worked with “community organizations” on an outreach plan, not one of our organizations has been contacted or consulted. However, some of us have been contacted by the Department of Justice, which is investigating claims that Alameda County has violated voting rights for non-English speaking voters in past elections. We urge the Council to take every precaution in voter outreach until this investigation is resolved. We urge the Oakland City Council to adopt an effective, accountable education and outreach plan that is responsive to our communities before adopting RCV.

Respectfully submitted,
Various Names
Libby Schaaf
Senior Policy Advisor
Community & Economic Development
Oakland City Council

1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 2nd Floor
Oakland, Ca 94612
(510) 238-7052

As soon as Oakland Local saw this, we contacted both Schaff and Allison (phone for Schaff, email for Allison) asking for more info, but as of 3 PM, neither had returned calls (OL will update when we speak to them.)

Meanwhile, Jessamyn Sabbag, field director of Oakland Rising, posted a note on facebook calling this letter Absolute BS. Sabbag offers her own letter to the Council members (remember today's campaign?), which goes as follows:

Here's Oakland Rising's appeal to the City Council members:

Dear Councilmembers-

Oakland Rising is a multi-racial, multi-lingual community-based organization composed of six groups, Urban Habitat, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Oakland ACORN, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Just Cause Oakland. We have come together to build a progressive city-wide electoral base that addresses the needs and issues of low-income communities of color in Oakland. We are supportive of ways to empower traditionally disenfranchised communities in the electoral process, and in that spirit we are supporters of instant runoff voting (IRV). IRV is now the law in Oakland, having been passed by 69% of Oakland voters in 2006. We believe IRV will empower low-income communities of color by getting rid of a low turnout June primary election during which most races in Oakland have been decided. By having the final, decisive election in November, when communities of color turn out to vote in much greater numbers, Oakland will take a dramatic step towards enfranchising these communities and improving our local democracy. IRV also will greatly decrease the cost of elections, and those cost savings can be better spent on budget priorities that are more important to the constituencies we represent.... See More

We are very much looking forward to using IRV for the first time in the November 2010 election. In preparation for doing so, community education and outreach is extremely important. We at Oakland Rising stand ready to roll up our sleeves and engage in grassroots outreach and education to our communities. Oakland Rising has played a significant role in the passage of important local ballot measures, mobilizing hundreds of volunteers, walking precincts, phone banking and identifying over 6000 Oaklanders to vote "yes on everything" in low-income communities of color. We look forward to bringing our expertise and hard work to a grassroots campaign for educating about IRV. We believe that private foundation money may be available to help fund such efforts.

I understand that your office is in the process of approving the memorandum of understanding between Oakland and Alameda County. We urge you to support the approval for the MOU so that we may begin our plans for voter education and outreach.

Thank you so much for assisting the overwhelming number of Oaklanders who voted in favor of IRV and now look forward to its benefits. Please do not hesitate to contact Oakland Rising, and I look forward to your leadership on this important issue.

We urge you to support Instant Runoff Voting on January 5th, 2010.