Nobody Cares About Public Safety? Huh? (Opinion)

East Bay News Ser... Mon, 3 Oct at 6:58am
don't push the button by saikofish,http://www.flickr.com/photos/lou/6206934930/in/photostream/

don't push the button by saikofish,http://www.flickr.com/photos/lou/6206934930/in/photostream/

How many people will show up for the Oct. 4 Council meeting?  300 is the starting point. Could it top 500? Exceed a thousand? The largest turnout in modern history was about 700, in the early 1990s, when the Young Comrades commandeered a meeting to protest an anti-cruising ordinance.
 
A masterful engagement by then Mayor Elihu Harris in dialogue with some of the protestors saved the meeting from being adjourned for disruptive behavior. That was when speakers actually used to get three minutes apiece at Oakland Council meetings.
 
How will Larry Reid handle the turnout next Tuesday? Will he limit speakers to one minute apiece and enrage the crowd from the outset? Or will speakers be shown respect and allowed to actually make complete statements, instead of being reduced to one minute soundbites?
 
An even bigger question is how many attendees will actually submit a speaker card. At least eleven groups, and many more individuals, are burning up cyberspace beseeching Oaklanders to turn out en masse for the meeting.
 
The Oct. 4 meeting will have at least four interesting sidebars:
 
1.  The huge media turnout and attention. Will City Council give them the latest performance of what has become the best circus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans? Or will the Council and mayor set aside personal bickering and put on a professional performance?
 
2.  The future of the Port of Oakland. There do not appear to be five Council votes to confirm Jay Imani as a Port Commissioner. Will Imani and his supporters make another impassioned, hour-long plea for approval, as they did on Sept. 20? Will Quan horsetrade with some Council members to avoid an embarrasing public rejection of her nominee? Will either the business community or the huge legion of supporters for reappointing Port Commissioner Margaret Gordon organize and appear?
 
Four yes votes would enable Quan to cast the tie-breaking vote, but one of the Council members is likely to abstain, resulting in a 4-3 vote, The mayor gets to vote only when the Council  is deadlocked 4-4.
 
A minimum of five affirmative votes are required to pass a Council ordinance or resolution, regardless of how many or few of the eight members vote. Board and commission appointees are approved by resolution, meaning the matter is only heard once.
 
City Attorney Barbara Parker has dug in her heels to support the Council process, but there are so many procedural and illegal problems with Quan's Port nominee process that it will be tied up in litigation for years.
 
3.  Police presence: how many police officers will be in Chambers? The Sept. 20 meeting, with a comparatively light turnout and a very peaceful crowd, had at least ten officers. Most meetings have one or two. The very presence of the officers may incite some attendees.
 
4.  Will the proponents of increased policing show up in significant numbers? Undoubtedly, there are hundreds of such Oaklanders, most of whom confine their comments to listserv's or neighborhood groups. Can they turn out 300 or 400 supporters of increased policing resources?

About East Bay News Service (Sanjiv Handa)
Sanjiv Handa is Editor & Publisher, East Bay News Service, and a long-time observer of Oakland city government and politics.
Mike d Ocla commented Array ago

Sanjiv points out a very important fact about City Council meetings. They are circuses and are not only undemocratic, but are essentially anti-democratic. These circuses have been going on for a very long time and the proof is in the pudding: the Council makes, time and again, the poorest possible decisions and policy choices. The circuses are an important ingredient in this destructive process.

Giving concerned citizens and community groups only a minute or two to comment on proposed legislation which is often complex and confusing is anything but productive of free and rational debate. Councilmembers using public resources to round up their constituents to attend meetings to support ill-considered legislation is the exact opposite of democracy. It is identical to what took place in Stalin's USSR, Saddam Hussein's Iraq and in Ghaddfi's Libya. It is shameful.

Any Oakland resident who has not been to a City Council meeting should attend one and pay close attention to how business is (un) done on a daily basis in City Hall.