According to Chip Johnson, Don Perata would like to be your mayor and the first thing he would like to do is eliminate the Public Ethics Commission.

Who woulda thunk it?

The most ethically challenged guy this side of Tammany Hall figures one of Oakland’s biggest problems is the Ethics Commission. Do you remember that the other problem he thinks we have is the Citizen Police Review Board? Well, when your best friend is the head of the police union and the other is the head of the prison guards’ union, I guess payback should equal less review and less citizen involvement. 

Remember that police costs in this city are 50 percent of our budget so he thinks it would work better if we cut the oversight on what they do and how they do it. That could save us money unless anybody makes a mistake and we get sued for lack of oversight. Maybe nobody told him that that’s already cost us big in the past.

Chip’s column is a really fun read though. Most of us who have perused his columns for the last few years are clear on his biases and whom he supports, even promotes, but this column was an over-the-top endorsement piece. So that’s why reading the comment section was so entertaining.

Gems such as this one, “the man behind the collapse of California can turn Oakland around?” or “It seems a bit self-serving given Don Perata's past that he advocates for getting rid of the citizen-lead Public Ethics Commission and closing down the city's Public Ethic's Office.” This poster referred to the tiny amount of money these commissions cost us and the citizen involvement they foster.

The commentators pointed out that our commissioners serve for free whereas has-been politicians termed out of a state job usually get a seat on one of these (highly-paid) commissions as a retirement perk. Seems our Don has hopes of landing the mayor’s job as his retirement gig instead.

Another local pundit’s comment on SFGate says it all: “We've known what Chip Johnson was against (Dellums), but not what he's for. Well, apparently, he's "for" the same old-same old politics of Don Perata and the Developer Democrats - who would be Republicans if they could.”

I could not have said it better.

Previously:

How to read Chip Johnson’s columns (and about Lorenzo Hoppes) http://bit.ly/cBSKAf

How to Read Chip Johnson, Chapter 2 (Community Voices) http://bit.ly/9Upe9b

NOTE: Oakland local readers who wish to share their views on the election are welcome to post, as are local candidates; OL doesn not endorse any candidates or their positions.