Open Letter to the Mayor, Oakland City Council, City Attorney, and the Public Ethics Commission

Pamela Drake Wed, 29 Sep at 11:26am
Open Letter to the Mayor, Oakland City Council, City Attorney, and the Public Ethics Commission

Open Letter to the Mayor, Oakland City Council, City Attorney, and the Public Ethics Commission:

The Oakland Campaign Reform Act of 2008 was devised to promote good government and to protect Oaklandís electorate from the undue influence of money in the choice of our elected leaders.

Former Senator Don Perata has shown by his actions that he will not abide by those laws, even while he is running for the office of Mayor of Oakland, the position sacredly charged with guarding both the letter and the spirit of those laws.

Months before his TV ads were aired he had almost topped out on the spending limits he had agreed to stand by. Now his friends and employers (organizations that he consults for on an ongoing basis) have overshot the ìindependent expendituresî limits that were also established by the voters, thereby providing Mr. Perata with the excuse to spend even more money.

Out of the 9 other candidates for mayor, eight of them have pledged to continue following the law as Oaklanders intended it. Only Don Perata has thumbed his nose at his promise and at Oakland voters.

Thatís why the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club joins with other Democratic Clubs and good government organizations to demand that: 1) the City Council, along with the City Attorneyís office, immediately enact legislation that corrects the loophole which is now being used to break the spending limits agreed to by all candidates, and 2) demand that the Public Ethics Commission move quickly to enforce all applicable laws.

The Wellstone Club has watched with horror while services in our federal, state, and local governments have decreased while ever more obscene amounts of money are poured into federal, state, and even local campaigns.

The effect of those dollars is the opposite of democracy. As more and more voters perceive that elections are just auctions to the highest bidder, fewer and fewer people choose to vote.

Oaklanders made a statement with this legislation that they did not want their city put on the auction block, and they do not deserve to have their desires ignored and their choices thwarted even by Don Perata.

Sincerely,
Pamela Drake, Local Politics Chair, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club

About Pamela Drake
Pamela Drake has been an Oakland resident and community activist since 1973. She was one of the first women train operators at BART, the chief of staff to two East Oakland council members, and the Director of the Grand Lake Neighborhood Center where she lobbied for public power and advocated for community involvement in city planning. As a former small businesswoman, she presently works with merchants at the Lakeshore Business Improvement District and taught Government in Adult Education until the State cancelled the funding for this 160-year-old program. She is the single mother of Jennifer and Graham, both of whom graduated from Oakland Schools before attending and graduating from colleges in the Atlanta University System. You can read blog posts from Pamela in the former grandlakeguardian and in OaklandLocal.com
Pamela Drake commented Array ago

If you are concerned about the issue of money and illegal contributions in all Oakland campaigns, please come to the City Council's Rules Committee meeting tomorrow, Oct 1st at 10:45AM, in City Hall and let the Committee know that we would like the loophole closed by agendizing the item for next Tuesday's Council meeting. The loophole allows so-called "independent expenditures" committees to purposely overspend for their candidate so that their candidate can then go ahead and overspend for himself. Himself being Don Perata.

You can also call your Council Member or come to Tuesday night's meeting.

Jim Ratliff commented Array ago

What’s ironic, even perverse, is that this provision/loophole was meant to protect a candidate's ability to respond to a well-financed negative campaign by an adverse independent group. Here Perata is taking advantage of a pro-Perata group's spending to allow Perata's campaign to spend even more!