What Happens Now That Oakland’s Mayor Has Been Recalled? It Could Get Messy

Last week, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao became the first mayor in the city’s history to be recalled from office, with more than 60% of voters in favor of her removal.

Now, understandably, Oaklanders have some questions about what comes next.

First, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters must certify the election results. It has 30 days to do so, i.e., by Dec. 5. Although the county has been blasted in recent days for its slow vote count, elections officials said their focus is on meeting that certification deadline rather than delivering fast early results.

Then, the City Council has to officially declare the results of the election at its next meeting, which would likely be Dec. 17. Once it’s done so, the mayor’s seat is officially vacant, with the council president serving as interim mayor, according to the city charter.

The question is who that interim mayor will be, given that current council president Nikki Fortunato Bas is still in the running for a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, a race that has yet to be called.

Bas is currently trailing her opponent, Emeryville City Council member John J. Bauters, by a few thousand votes in District 5, though the registrar of voters said Wednesday morning that it still has nearly 200,000 votes left to count countywide.

If Bas loses that race, she will serve as interim Oakland mayor. But if she wins, she could theoretically serve as interim mayor for a couple of weeks before being sworn in as a county supervisor, at which point another Oakland City Council member would need to step in to fill the interim mayor role.

On top of all that, the City Council is expected to reorganize in January once all the election results have been finalized, and it could appoint another president at that point.

It’s also worth noting that, throughout this time, the city administrator will continue to handle the day-to-day operational tasks, so nothing will drastically change during the transition. The mayor’s job, according to the city charter, is largely to elect other city officers and serve as the ceremonial head of the city.

Whether it’s Bas or another council member, the interim mayor is only expected to fill in for a few months at most — the charter requires a special election to determine who will take over the position permanently within 120 days of the vacancy.

Who will run in that special election is still up in the air. So far, Marshawn Lynch, a former NFL player who grew up in Oakland, has hinted at a possible run for mayor on a podcast he co-hosts with his agent and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In an interview with KQED, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor also said he would run.

“Oaklanders have spoken with a very strong voice regarding what they need from city leadership, and they clearly have not been getting it from the current administration,” said Taylor, who finished second to Thao two years ago. “The same commitment I have to the city I’m from that drove me to run in 2022 is what’s compelling me to step up in the special election once the results are certified.”

Whoever it is, Oaklanders are already spelling out what they want to see in their next leader.

“The basic stuff for us right now is safety, safety, safety,” said Nigel Jones, who owns Calabash, an Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican restaurant in Oakland. “We definitely need the streets also to be clean and to lower the cost of how we do business.”

Jones said he hopes the next mayor will address parking concerns in downtown Oakland by creating parking lots with subsidized rates so patrons feel safer parking at night.

Homelessness is also a top issue for some residents.

“There is not any place I’ve gone, from the hills to the flatlands, from the bay to deep East Oakland, that I haven’t seen homeless people,” said Dorothy Lazard, the former head librarian of the Oakland History Center. “I would really like to see City Hall make some kind of effective, sustainable creative solution to attack that problem because it has become, unfortunately, a part of our identity in Oakland.”

The city’s next mayor will also help decide the fate of the Oakland Coliseum, the former home of the A’s, which is now the focus of tense negotiations between the city, the county Board of Supervisors and the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, which hopes to buy the 112-acre site.

“The whole city should be focused on what’s happening at the Coliseum site,” said Allison Brooks, executive director of the Bay Area Regional Collaborative. “That should be a priority, 127 acres of prime land that could transform Deep East Oakland in a positive way.”

Funds from the Coliseum sale are badly needed for Oakland, which is facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. During her two years in office, Thao faced a lot of criticism for her handling of the budget and her attempts to balance it. The city’s next mayor will be faced with the same challenge.

“The next mayor has to be certifiable to really want to be mayor because balancing the budget next year is going to be virtually impossible,” said Dan Lindheim, former Oakland city administrator.

Two-thirds of Oakland’s funding goes to the police and fire departments, which means those departments will likely face cuts under the next administration.

“It’s going to be, let’s just say, a very difficult situation to try to do that,” Lindheim said.

KQED’s Alex Hall and the Forum team contributed to this story.