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"content": "\u003cp>When Maximus Simmons cast his ballot in November, he could only fill it out for one election — his Oakland school board representative — because he was among the first 16- and 17-year-olds \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12012537/young-people-in-oakland-and-berkeley-are-casting-ballots-for-the-first-time-heres-what-it-looks-like\">allowed to vote in Oakland and Berkeley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay cities allowed teens to vote in school board elections for the first time last year, following years of youth advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Filling out the ballot is easy once you get it, but actually making sure to go and turn in your ballot, even I struggled with that a little bit,” said Simmons, who also serves as student director on the Oakland school board. “It was a matter of making time to drop it off and also figuring out how to drop it off because a lot of kids are on their parents’ schedule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simmons said the experience empowered him and his peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How was youth voter turnout?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nearly 1,500 youth voters were registered by Election Day in Berkeley and Oakland, with about a third casting ballots. The numbers are low compared to turnout among adults who voted in the same school board races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities run their school board elections differently. In Oakland, residents select candidates based on the district they live in and only half of the districts are up for an election at any given time. In Berkeley’s at-large system, the candidates with the most votes overall are elected to available seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Youth turnout in Oakland & Berkeley 2024 school board elections\" aria-label=\"Donut Chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-MJZF4\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MJZF4/7/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"570\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just under 600 young people exercised their right to vote in school board races. Those who did cast ballots had similar vote splits to the general population — except for one race in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Unified School District 5, which includes the diverse Fruitvale and Jingletown neighborhoods with a large Spanish-speaking population, saw different voting patterns. While adults elected Patrice Berry, youth voters preferred Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez. Both candidates advocated for diversity and equity efforts in the school district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the results in District 5 weren’t close enough to be affected by the youth vote, it was by far the tightest race: Just 885 votes separated Berry from Ritzie-Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lessons from 2024\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The historic youth vote was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002068/in-oakland-and-berkeley-16-and-17-year-olds-can-now-vote-for-school-board\">years in the making\u003c/a>. Berkeley passed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11921973/berkeley-and-oakland-passed-measures-to-let-16-and-17-year-olds-participate-in-school-board-elections-so-why-cant-they-vote-yet\">Measure Y1\u003c/a> in 2016, amending the city charter to allow teens to vote in school board races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years later, students formed the Oakland Youth Vote Coalition to attempt the same thing with help from the nonprofit Oakland Kids First, led by executive director Lukas Brekke-Miesner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029003\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029003\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lukas Brekke-Miesner, executive director of Oakland Kids First, at Willard Park in Berkeley, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. He helped launch youth voting in Oakland back in 2019. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It took another four years after Oakland’s 2020 measure for teens in both cities to vote, meaning most of the original student advocates had aged out of the youth voting category altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s always hard to know if something’s high or low when it’s the first time,” Brekke-Miesner said. “Generally, our feeling is overwhelmingly positive in the sense that every young person who voted was a young person who has never been able to vote before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12029001 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1020x679.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logistical issues with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters delayed the implementation of youth voting, Brekke-Miesner said. He didn’t learn until August 2024 that the systems were ready for the upcoming election, a timeline that significantly impacted turnout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Youth voters also do not appear on voter rolls because they are minors, Brekke-Miesner said, which meant that there was no way to track registration or follow up with potential voters ahead of the election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything about our ability to register voters, mobilize voters, educate voters, et cetera, was all condensed to a September, October timeline,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the work, he noted, was led by teens and teachers. At Oakland High School, Simmons said civics teachers would set aside class time to educate students about how to register and fill out a ballot, with a curriculum from the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville — a critical step to foster civic engagement early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029006\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12029006 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maximus Simmons, of Oakland, is a student director at Oakland Unified and was a first-time youth voter in the 2024 election. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Society is set up for young people to not care about voting,” said Simmons, a junior. “We don’t learn about it in school. We don’t learn about who our political party should be, what each political party means. We’re not taught why voting is important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students in Oakland hosted candidate forums at several high schools, which they have done for the past few elections they couldn’t even vote in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Berkeley High School, Zamahra Winta Clark went from classroom to classroom with a curriculum developed by a school librarian to educate her peers about the registration process. Clark is also a student director on Berkeley’s school board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If students were able to vote in the mayoral election, I feel like it would be a way higher percentage of voter turnout for students,” Clark, a senior, said. “The majority of them were confused on not only how the process works, but how this affects them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simmons added that the novelty of youth voting could play a role in limiting turnout since students aren’t familiar with the process yet. Simmons said he expects turnout to increase as it has in the few other cities in the U.S. that allow youth voting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nationwide momentum\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Outside of the Bay Area, cities on the East Coast states of Vermont, Maryland and New Jersey allow youth voting in local elections. More than a dozen states have active campaigns supported by Vote16USA, a national organization that provides resources to local youth vote advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see in places where we’ve lowered the voting age, 16- and 17-year-olds are voting at a much higher rate than those that are 18 and older,” said LaJuan Allen, the director of Vote16USA. “And not only that, but the voting turnout for folks that are 18 and older continued to increase every election cycle that 16- and 17-year-olds were able to vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Takoma Park, Maryland, was the first municipality to expand youth voting in 2013. Only 59 young people cast ballots, marking turnout at 44%. By 2020, turnout had risen to 69%, surpassing the general population rate of 54%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen said he expects a similar pattern in the Bay Area, especially as more cities in the region expand the right to vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Albany is next\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The latest Bay Area city to expand youth voting rights is in neighboring Albany — and it goes a step further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vote16USA helped launch Albany’s youth voting ballot measure last year, which voters passed in November. The measure allows young people to cast ballots in school board races and municipal elections — the broadest expansion of youth voting rights on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12029005 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lukas Brekke-Miesner, left, of Oakland, is the executive director of Oakland Kids First, which helped launch youth voting in Oakland back in 2019. Maximus Simmons, of Oakland, is a student director at Oakland Unified and was a first-time youth voter in the 2024 election. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alex Li, a freshman at Georgetown University, was a key organizer in the city’s campaign while attending Albany High School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is traditional, and I guess more politically intuitive, to go just for school board because there’s that direct connection,” Li said. “But at the same time, it’s not as if we’re not citizens of the city, and we’re not impacted by what happens in the policymaking through ballot measures or the city council.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s unclear how quickly Albany can implement youth voting, Li said Berkeley and Oakland cut through much of the bureaucratic red tape at the registrar’s office. Brennen Brown, Albany’s public information officer, said the city is coordinating with the county to get that done before the next election.[aside postID=news_12012537 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241009-OAKLAND-YOUTH-VOTE-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg']More Bay Area cities are expected to follow. Students at the Alameda Science and Technology Institute are putting together a campaign with the help of Vote16USA and the League of Women Voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all Bay Area cities are embracing a lower voting age. A San Francisco measure to allow 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in city elections was rejected by voters in 2016 and 2020 — both times, the margin of defeat was slim. Youth advocates began launching a third attempt in April, but nothing tangible came of that effort by the November election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates believe national politics could also play a role in expanding a lowered voting age. President Donald Trump’s second term is motivating many teens who feel democracy itself is at risk, according to Allen. He also noted that youth frustration with national politics is pushing many to look toward their own communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Young people are very excited about what their impact could be on the local level as it relates to a more inclusive democracy,” Allen said. “But I think I would be remiss if I didn’t say that young people are disappointed and are thinking about what the next four years are going to look like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only for them,” he added. “But for their communities and the people that they love and care about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Maximus Simmons cast his ballot in November, he could only fill it out for one election — his Oakland school board representative — because he was among the first 16- and 17-year-olds \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12012537/young-people-in-oakland-and-berkeley-are-casting-ballots-for-the-first-time-heres-what-it-looks-like\">allowed to vote in Oakland and Berkeley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay cities allowed teens to vote in school board elections for the first time last year, following years of youth advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Filling out the ballot is easy once you get it, but actually making sure to go and turn in your ballot, even I struggled with that a little bit,” said Simmons, who also serves as student director on the Oakland school board. “It was a matter of making time to drop it off and also figuring out how to drop it off because a lot of kids are on their parents’ schedule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simmons said the experience empowered him and his peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How was youth voter turnout?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nearly 1,500 youth voters were registered by Election Day in Berkeley and Oakland, with about a third casting ballots. The numbers are low compared to turnout among adults who voted in the same school board races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities run their school board elections differently. In Oakland, residents select candidates based on the district they live in and only half of the districts are up for an election at any given time. In Berkeley’s at-large system, the candidates with the most votes overall are elected to available seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Youth turnout in Oakland & Berkeley 2024 school board elections\" aria-label=\"Donut Chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-MJZF4\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MJZF4/7/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"570\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just under 600 young people exercised their right to vote in school board races. Those who did cast ballots had similar vote splits to the general population — except for one race in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Unified School District 5, which includes the diverse Fruitvale and Jingletown neighborhoods with a large Spanish-speaking population, saw different voting patterns. While adults elected Patrice Berry, youth voters preferred Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez. Both candidates advocated for diversity and equity efforts in the school district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the results in District 5 weren’t close enough to be affected by the youth vote, it was by far the tightest race: Just 885 votes separated Berry from Ritzie-Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lessons from 2024\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The historic youth vote was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002068/in-oakland-and-berkeley-16-and-17-year-olds-can-now-vote-for-school-board\">years in the making\u003c/a>. Berkeley passed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11921973/berkeley-and-oakland-passed-measures-to-let-16-and-17-year-olds-participate-in-school-board-elections-so-why-cant-they-vote-yet\">Measure Y1\u003c/a> in 2016, amending the city charter to allow teens to vote in school board races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years later, students formed the Oakland Youth Vote Coalition to attempt the same thing with help from the nonprofit Oakland Kids First, led by executive director Lukas Brekke-Miesner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029003\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029003\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00048-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lukas Brekke-Miesner, executive director of Oakland Kids First, at Willard Park in Berkeley, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. He helped launch youth voting in Oakland back in 2019. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It took another four years after Oakland’s 2020 measure for teens in both cities to vote, meaning most of the original student advocates had aged out of the youth voting category altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s always hard to know if something’s high or low when it’s the first time,” Brekke-Miesner said. “Generally, our feeling is overwhelmingly positive in the sense that every young person who voted was a young person who has never been able to vote before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logistical issues with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters delayed the implementation of youth voting, Brekke-Miesner said. He didn’t learn until August 2024 that the systems were ready for the upcoming election, a timeline that significantly impacted turnout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Youth voters also do not appear on voter rolls because they are minors, Brekke-Miesner said, which meant that there was no way to track registration or follow up with potential voters ahead of the election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything about our ability to register voters, mobilize voters, educate voters, et cetera, was all condensed to a September, October timeline,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the work, he noted, was led by teens and teachers. At Oakland High School, Simmons said civics teachers would set aside class time to educate students about how to register and fill out a ballot, with a curriculum from the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville — a critical step to foster civic engagement early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029006\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12029006 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00300-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maximus Simmons, of Oakland, is a student director at Oakland Unified and was a first-time youth voter in the 2024 election. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Society is set up for young people to not care about voting,” said Simmons, a junior. “We don’t learn about it in school. We don’t learn about who our political party should be, what each political party means. We’re not taught why voting is important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students in Oakland hosted candidate forums at several high schools, which they have done for the past few elections they couldn’t even vote in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Berkeley High School, Zamahra Winta Clark went from classroom to classroom with a curriculum developed by a school librarian to educate her peers about the registration process. Clark is also a student director on Berkeley’s school board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If students were able to vote in the mayoral election, I feel like it would be a way higher percentage of voter turnout for students,” Clark, a senior, said. “The majority of them were confused on not only how the process works, but how this affects them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simmons added that the novelty of youth voting could play a role in limiting turnout since students aren’t familiar with the process yet. Simmons said he expects turnout to increase as it has in the few other cities in the U.S. that allow youth voting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nationwide momentum\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Outside of the Bay Area, cities on the East Coast states of Vermont, Maryland and New Jersey allow youth voting in local elections. More than a dozen states have active campaigns supported by Vote16USA, a national organization that provides resources to local youth vote advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see in places where we’ve lowered the voting age, 16- and 17-year-olds are voting at a much higher rate than those that are 18 and older,” said LaJuan Allen, the director of Vote16USA. “And not only that, but the voting turnout for folks that are 18 and older continued to increase every election cycle that 16- and 17-year-olds were able to vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Takoma Park, Maryland, was the first municipality to expand youth voting in 2013. Only 59 young people cast ballots, marking turnout at 44%. By 2020, turnout had risen to 69%, surpassing the general population rate of 54%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen said he expects a similar pattern in the Bay Area, especially as more cities in the region expand the right to vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Albany is next\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The latest Bay Area city to expand youth voting rights is in neighboring Albany — and it goes a step further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vote16USA helped launch Albany’s youth voting ballot measure last year, which voters passed in November. The measure allows young people to cast ballots in school board races and municipal elections — the broadest expansion of youth voting rights on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12029005 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00185-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lukas Brekke-Miesner, left, of Oakland, is the executive director of Oakland Kids First, which helped launch youth voting in Oakland back in 2019. Maximus Simmons, of Oakland, is a student director at Oakland Unified and was a first-time youth voter in the 2024 election. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alex Li, a freshman at Georgetown University, was a key organizer in the city’s campaign while attending Albany High School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is traditional, and I guess more politically intuitive, to go just for school board because there’s that direct connection,” Li said. “But at the same time, it’s not as if we’re not citizens of the city, and we’re not impacted by what happens in the policymaking through ballot measures or the city council.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s unclear how quickly Albany can implement youth voting, Li said Berkeley and Oakland cut through much of the bureaucratic red tape at the registrar’s office. Brennen Brown, Albany’s public information officer, said the city is coordinating with the county to get that done before the next election.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More Bay Area cities are expected to follow. Students at the Alameda Science and Technology Institute are putting together a campaign with the help of Vote16USA and the League of Women Voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all Bay Area cities are embracing a lower voting age. A San Francisco measure to allow 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in city elections was rejected by voters in 2016 and 2020 — both times, the margin of defeat was slim. Youth advocates began launching a third attempt in April, but nothing tangible came of that effort by the November election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates believe national politics could also play a role in expanding a lowered voting age. President Donald Trump’s second term is motivating many teens who feel democracy itself is at risk, according to Allen. He also noted that youth frustration with national politics is pushing many to look toward their own communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Young people are very excited about what their impact could be on the local level as it relates to a more inclusive democracy,” Allen said. “But I think I would be remiss if I didn’t say that young people are disappointed and are thinking about what the next four years are going to look like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only for them,” he added. “But for their communities and the people that they love and care about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Oakland School Board Approves Wide Layoffs, a Day After Similar Vote in SF",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:50 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a day after massive staff cuts moved forward across the bay, Oakland’s school board has approved sending preliminary layoff notices to reduce the district’s workforce by more than 100 employees as it also grapples with a massive budget deficit and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023461/ousd-on-track-run-out-of-cash-after-avoiding-hard-decisions-scathing-letter-says\">looming threat of financial insolvency\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board voted 6–1 on Wednesday evening to eliminate hundreds of credentialed teaching positions and cut vacant positions as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> deals with a $95 million shortfall. While the total cuts are over 700, the net loss of employees is about 100 after taking into account new positions and others being added back with different funding sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is set to exit over 20 years of state receivership after paying off its loan in just 18 months, but it risks backsliding after certifying a negative budget in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew that we had a larger looming budget adjustment to close the hole projected in next year’s budget,” board member Mike Hutchinson said during the meeting. “It’s because we didn’t make enough of an adjustment last year. A lot of our COVID dollars are sunsetting. We’re still cleaning up the mismanagement of the past. And this is now the way that we project forward as a district.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The staff cuts are part of the district’s multi-year budget-balancing plan, part of which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">approved by the board in December\u003c/a> to allow staff to realign spending and revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said that declining enrollment, the end of COVID-19 relief dollars and rising costs for teacher salaries and other expenses are forcing districts across the state to make hard choices about how they’ll operate going forward. A day before the OUSD vote, San Francisco’s school board on Tuesday night approved \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028317/sf-schools-brace-hundreds-layoffs-including-teachers-librarians-counselors\">a plan to send preliminary layoff notices\u003c/a> to hundreds of employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017854\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017854\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1332\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students, families, educators and community members attend the Oakland Unified School District Board Meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We made investments, and now we have to figure out how to pay for it,” Johnson-Trammell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, OUSD \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949458/oakland-teachers-strike-ends-as-union-reaches-agreement-with-school-district\">teachers got a 10% raise\u003c/a> — sorely needed after years of minimal wage increases — that was partly paid for with one-time pandemic money. But the last of the district’s $300 million in relief funds has been gone since September, Johnson-Trammell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those additional funds also allowed the district to add permanent substitute teachers, known as STIP subs, at campuses where teachers were increasingly out sick. STIP subs are now among those that could receive layoff notices before the statewide deadline of March 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seemed like the most strategic thing to provide them to all the sites, and we had the money to do that,” Johnson-Trammell told the board. “We had the money to increase a lot of the site staff support. And in people’s contracts, it said the end date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12028446 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250226-UC-STRIKE-MD-02.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It didn’t feel like we had a deficit growing because we had all of that one-time money,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the plan passed Wednesday, OUSD could send pink slips to STIP subs, teachers on special English literacy assignments and community school managers, who liaise between parents and staff, among other roles. Some positions could also be moved from 11-month to 10-month roles to reduce costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One STIP substitute who spoke at Wednesday night’s meeting said that she had essentially become the primary teacher for a preschool class, providing stability after their teacher quit in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These educators also cover for teachers when they have individualized education plan meetings with families or need other coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under OUSD’s staff realignment plan, there will be dozens of centralized STIP subs who work at all of the schools when teachers are out. Some parents and teachers pointed out that not having them on the same campuses every day changes the role that they can play, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘“Why on earth would you think it’s a good idea to put STIP subs out of the central office? That just means they’re a sub,” Michael Shane, whose daughter attends Lincoln Elementary School, said during public comment. “What’s the difference?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017853\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017853\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naija Garg, 8, attends the Oakland Unified School District Board Meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. The School Board took public comment on a proposed merger of 10 different schools. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In addition to staffing changes, the district’s Re-envision, Redesign, and Restructure plan recommends centralizing contracts with community agencies and service providers, like those that provide photocopying services. Both have been up to school sites’ discretion in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board members said that as they continue to work on finding a new stable point for the district, they hope to increase community engagement and focus on cuts away from students, like in the district’s central office and contracts with outside consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t come on the board to lay people off,” board member Rachel Latta said. “We’re far enough in the process that I feel that I do have to vote on these, but I want to make it clear that I don’t plan to do this anymore. I’m committed to a process where we as a district look at what are the positions that are actually protecting our students, protecting their experience, protecting their achievement, and I don’t feel that we have done that as a district so far.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Oakland school district is grappling with a $95 million budget shortfall and a looming threat of financial insolvency, mirroring the issues San Francisco is also facing. \r\n",
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"title": "Oakland School Board Approves Wide Layoffs, a Day After Similar Vote in SF | KQED",
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"headline": "Oakland School Board Approves Wide Layoffs, a Day After Similar Vote in SF",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:50 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a day after massive staff cuts moved forward across the bay, Oakland’s school board has approved sending preliminary layoff notices to reduce the district’s workforce by more than 100 employees as it also grapples with a massive budget deficit and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023461/ousd-on-track-run-out-of-cash-after-avoiding-hard-decisions-scathing-letter-says\">looming threat of financial insolvency\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board voted 6–1 on Wednesday evening to eliminate hundreds of credentialed teaching positions and cut vacant positions as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> deals with a $95 million shortfall. While the total cuts are over 700, the net loss of employees is about 100 after taking into account new positions and others being added back with different funding sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is set to exit over 20 years of state receivership after paying off its loan in just 18 months, but it risks backsliding after certifying a negative budget in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew that we had a larger looming budget adjustment to close the hole projected in next year’s budget,” board member Mike Hutchinson said during the meeting. “It’s because we didn’t make enough of an adjustment last year. A lot of our COVID dollars are sunsetting. We’re still cleaning up the mismanagement of the past. And this is now the way that we project forward as a district.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The staff cuts are part of the district’s multi-year budget-balancing plan, part of which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">approved by the board in December\u003c/a> to allow staff to realign spending and revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said that declining enrollment, the end of COVID-19 relief dollars and rising costs for teacher salaries and other expenses are forcing districts across the state to make hard choices about how they’ll operate going forward. A day before the OUSD vote, San Francisco’s school board on Tuesday night approved \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028317/sf-schools-brace-hundreds-layoffs-including-teachers-librarians-counselors\">a plan to send preliminary layoff notices\u003c/a> to hundreds of employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017854\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017854\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1332\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-016-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students, families, educators and community members attend the Oakland Unified School District Board Meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We made investments, and now we have to figure out how to pay for it,” Johnson-Trammell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, OUSD \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949458/oakland-teachers-strike-ends-as-union-reaches-agreement-with-school-district\">teachers got a 10% raise\u003c/a> — sorely needed after years of minimal wage increases — that was partly paid for with one-time pandemic money. But the last of the district’s $300 million in relief funds has been gone since September, Johnson-Trammell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those additional funds also allowed the district to add permanent substitute teachers, known as STIP subs, at campuses where teachers were increasingly out sick. STIP subs are now among those that could receive layoff notices before the statewide deadline of March 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seemed like the most strategic thing to provide them to all the sites, and we had the money to do that,” Johnson-Trammell told the board. “We had the money to increase a lot of the site staff support. And in people’s contracts, it said the end date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It didn’t feel like we had a deficit growing because we had all of that one-time money,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the plan passed Wednesday, OUSD could send pink slips to STIP subs, teachers on special English literacy assignments and community school managers, who liaise between parents and staff, among other roles. Some positions could also be moved from 11-month to 10-month roles to reduce costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One STIP substitute who spoke at Wednesday night’s meeting said that she had essentially become the primary teacher for a preschool class, providing stability after their teacher quit in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These educators also cover for teachers when they have individualized education plan meetings with families or need other coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under OUSD’s staff realignment plan, there will be dozens of centralized STIP subs who work at all of the schools when teachers are out. Some parents and teachers pointed out that not having them on the same campuses every day changes the role that they can play, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘“Why on earth would you think it’s a good idea to put STIP subs out of the central office? That just means they’re a sub,” Michael Shane, whose daughter attends Lincoln Elementary School, said during public comment. “What’s the difference?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017853\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017853\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-029-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naija Garg, 8, attends the Oakland Unified School District Board Meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. The School Board took public comment on a proposed merger of 10 different schools. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In addition to staffing changes, the district’s Re-envision, Redesign, and Restructure plan recommends centralizing contracts with community agencies and service providers, like those that provide photocopying services. Both have been up to school sites’ discretion in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board members said that as they continue to work on finding a new stable point for the district, they hope to increase community engagement and focus on cuts away from students, like in the district’s central office and contracts with outside consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t come on the board to lay people off,” board member Rachel Latta said. “We’re far enough in the process that I feel that I do have to vote on these, but I want to make it clear that I don’t plan to do this anymore. I’m committed to a process where we as a district look at what are the positions that are actually protecting our students, protecting their experience, protecting their achievement, and I don’t feel that we have done that as a district so far.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "enrollment-freeze-signals-trouble-at-mills-college-childrens-school-parents-say",
"title": "Enrollment Freeze Signals Trouble at Mills College Children's School, Parents Say",
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"headTitle": "Enrollment Freeze Signals Trouble at Mills College Children’s School, Parents Say | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For almost 100 years, the Mills College Children’s School has been educating kids on the grounds of its leafy campus in East Oakland while also serving as a training ground for the next generation of educators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katrina Roundfield decided to send her 4- and 6-year-old boys to the private school last year because she saw it as an oasis in a neighborhood with slim choices for preschool. She appreciated that the school gave generous financial aid to ensure cultural and socioeconomic diversity among its nearly 90 preschool to fifth-grade students while also offering a low ratio of students per teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you walk into the school, you see all kinds of beautiful ways that they represent the embracing of many different cultures,” Roundfield said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school is on the campus of Mills College at Northeastern University, which gives the children access to the college’s lawns, trails and facilities, and allows them to participate in research projects led by professors and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And it’s a really wonderful thing to be able to bring your child to a setting that’s that stunning and, you know, just open their mind about what’s possible as a kid growing up in East Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lately, Roundfield and several other parents tell KQED they’re concerned about the school’s future after the school canceled tours in the middle of admissions season and stopped enrolling new students for the 2025–26 school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parents worry these two things — on top of observations that enrollment hardly grew this year — signal the potential dismantling of a beloved institution. They sought more information from university officials, but their request for a meeting has gone nowhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028576\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028576\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mills College campus, pictured on Feb. 21. Students at Mills College Children’s School get access to campus lawns, trails and facilities. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, Dean Beth Kochly told them by email that the college had no plans for closure in 2025 and would provide “a definitive plan” in the next few weeks after completing an analysis of the Children School’s current operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kochly and a spokeswoman for Boston-based Northeastern University, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11888178/mills-college-to-merge-with-northeastern-university-after-months-long-court-battle\">which merged with Mills College in 2022\u003c/a>, would not answer questions about what prompted the review. Debra Brown, the longtime head of the Children’s School, turned down a request for an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay Schaeffer, a teacher and one of the leaders of the campus staff union, said the administration’s lack of transparency had left her with an unsettling impression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m in a lot of meetings like bargaining for the contract, so a lot of information that does come out I’m pretty aware of,” she said. “And there’s just been nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said during a recent open house, she met multiple parents searching for a new school because a nearby charter school called Urban Montessori, which enrolls 300 students,\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2025/01/16/these-five-oakland-charter-schools-may-close-this-year/\"> is closing at the end of this year\u003c/a>. The closure presented an opportunity to grow enrollment at the Children’s School, Schaeffer said, which is why she was perplexed to learn the school stopped enrolling new students for next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='early-childhood-education-and-care']Schaeffer has a lot at stake: she earned her teaching credential and master’s degrees from Mills. After a stint teaching middle school for the Oakland Unified School District, she came back to teach at the Children’s School. This year, her daughter is a student in her combined fourth- and fifth-grade class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she hopes administrators take into consideration the Children’s School’s role as a cutting-edge laboratory where researchers, college students and young kids learn from each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, students in her class participated in a study that found their use of artificial intelligence in a debate project helped build their reasoning skills. The education professor who designed the study \u003ca href=\"https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/12/04/ai-in-education-chatgpt-for-kids/\">told Northeastern’s news site\u003c/a> that he wants to next investigate how working with an AI partner might boost those students’ literacy skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schaefer’s students are also experimenting with a video game designed by graduate students in Northeastern’s new game science and design program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the face of the uncertainty and fear that people have, myself included, around education in general right now, the last thing we need to do is close a place where kids can be creative, and adults can be creative, and we can teach to question and challenge things,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: This story has been updated to include the proper spelling of Lindsay Schaeffer’s name. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For almost 100 years, the Mills College Children’s School has been educating kids on the grounds of its leafy campus in East Oakland while also serving as a training ground for the next generation of educators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katrina Roundfield decided to send her 4- and 6-year-old boys to the private school last year because she saw it as an oasis in a neighborhood with slim choices for preschool. She appreciated that the school gave generous financial aid to ensure cultural and socioeconomic diversity among its nearly 90 preschool to fifth-grade students while also offering a low ratio of students per teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you walk into the school, you see all kinds of beautiful ways that they represent the embracing of many different cultures,” Roundfield said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school is on the campus of Mills College at Northeastern University, which gives the children access to the college’s lawns, trails and facilities, and allows them to participate in research projects led by professors and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And it’s a really wonderful thing to be able to bring your child to a setting that’s that stunning and, you know, just open their mind about what’s possible as a kid growing up in East Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lately, Roundfield and several other parents tell KQED they’re concerned about the school’s future after the school canceled tours in the middle of admissions season and stopped enrolling new students for the 2025–26 school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parents worry these two things — on top of observations that enrollment hardly grew this year — signal the potential dismantling of a beloved institution. They sought more information from university officials, but their request for a meeting has gone nowhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028576\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028576\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250221_Mills_DMB_00037-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mills College campus, pictured on Feb. 21. Students at Mills College Children’s School get access to campus lawns, trails and facilities. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, Dean Beth Kochly told them by email that the college had no plans for closure in 2025 and would provide “a definitive plan” in the next few weeks after completing an analysis of the Children School’s current operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kochly and a spokeswoman for Boston-based Northeastern University, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11888178/mills-college-to-merge-with-northeastern-university-after-months-long-court-battle\">which merged with Mills College in 2022\u003c/a>, would not answer questions about what prompted the review. Debra Brown, the longtime head of the Children’s School, turned down a request for an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindsay Schaeffer, a teacher and one of the leaders of the campus staff union, said the administration’s lack of transparency had left her with an unsettling impression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m in a lot of meetings like bargaining for the contract, so a lot of information that does come out I’m pretty aware of,” she said. “And there’s just been nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said during a recent open house, she met multiple parents searching for a new school because a nearby charter school called Urban Montessori, which enrolls 300 students,\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2025/01/16/these-five-oakland-charter-schools-may-close-this-year/\"> is closing at the end of this year\u003c/a>. The closure presented an opportunity to grow enrollment at the Children’s School, Schaeffer said, which is why she was perplexed to learn the school stopped enrolling new students for next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Schaeffer has a lot at stake: she earned her teaching credential and master’s degrees from Mills. After a stint teaching middle school for the Oakland Unified School District, she came back to teach at the Children’s School. This year, her daughter is a student in her combined fourth- and fifth-grade class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she hopes administrators take into consideration the Children’s School’s role as a cutting-edge laboratory where researchers, college students and young kids learn from each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, students in her class participated in a study that found their use of artificial intelligence in a debate project helped build their reasoning skills. The education professor who designed the study \u003ca href=\"https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/12/04/ai-in-education-chatgpt-for-kids/\">told Northeastern’s news site\u003c/a> that he wants to next investigate how working with an AI partner might boost those students’ literacy skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schaefer’s students are also experimenting with a video game designed by graduate students in Northeastern’s new game science and design program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the face of the uncertainty and fear that people have, myself included, around education in general right now, the last thing we need to do is close a place where kids can be creative, and adults can be creative, and we can teach to question and challenge things,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: This story has been updated to include the proper spelling of Lindsay Schaeffer’s name. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A conservative parents group is targeting new enrichment programming for Black boys at two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-leandro\">San Leandro\u003c/a> schools, alleging in a civil rights complaint that the initiative discriminates against other students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education on Monday, Parents Defending Education said the race-based affinity programs, which it said are only open to Black students and teachers, violate equal rights protections under the Civil Rights Act and 14th Amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The programs come from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952712/kingmakers-of-oakland-black-history-month-film-festival-music-videos\">Kingmakers of Oakland\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that contracted with San Leandro’s Halkin Elementary School and John Muir Middle School at the start of this school year to roll out a curriculum taught by Black male teachers to Black boys that includes “Black history, cultural knowledge, positive self-identity, literacy and academic mentoring,” according to CEO Christopher Chatmon’s proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents Defending Education said that the specialized course and additional services, with a combined budget of nearly $75,000, “confer a benefit that is not accessible to the entire student and educator body.” The complaint alleges that the San Leandro Unified School District is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars racial discrimination in programs and activities that receive federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Kingmakers nor the San Leandro school district responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Travis Bristol, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Education, said the district’s curriculum geared toward Black boys helps equalize the education system, which has historically failed marginalized groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12016443\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12016443 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parents Defending Education has filed a civil rights complaint against a San Leandro school program that provides Black boys with cultural education and academic mentoring, arguing it discriminates against other students. \u003ccite>(Daisy Nguyen/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What these programs do is they identify the groups that have been the most marginalized based on how they perform in school, based on their experiences outside of school,” Bristol told KQED. “And they say, ‘How do we identify the groups who are at the margins? And how do we help school districts include them to bring them to the center so that they can pursue happiness?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The curriculum — and Kingmakers organization — grew from the Oakland Unified School District’s first-of-its-kind African American Male Achievement Program, which started in 2010. The program led to a significant reduction in the number of Black students who dropped out of high schools in Oakland, especially in ninth grade, according to \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2019/10/access-program-black-male-students-lowered-high-school-dropout-rates\">research by Stanford’s Center for Education Policy Analysis\u003c/a>. The graduation rate among Black boys in OUSD increased from 46% in 2010 to 69% in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Leandro, the contract with Kingmakers gives Halkin Elementary and John Muir Middle access to the classroom curriculum and funds a facilitator position to work with both schools, as well as some annual campus events and training for school staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the curriculum improved outcomes for Black boys, why wouldn’t you want Black boys to do better in school?” Bristol asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12028309 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/241023-SFUSDSuperintendent-12-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its complaint, Parents Defending Education calls itself “an interested third-party organization with members who are parents of school children throughout the country.” It is not clear whether any in the group have children in San Leandro schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group cited a 2015 decision by the Department of Education finding that a Black Lives Matter assembly hosted “for African American students only” in the suburbs of Chicago violated Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights decided in that case that the district did not assess whether there were “race-neutral alternatives” to the event, and the district agreed to host programming open to all students regardless of race in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bristol said that there probably are some components of the Kingmakers’ curriculum in San Leandro that should be taught to all students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that we owe it to white children to understand and not have a fairytale rendering of U.S. history that centers only white people and the accomplishments of white people,” he told KQED. “Such a fairytale rendering of history for white children does not set them up for success when they go to college, when they sit in my classroom at UC Berkeley, because such a rendering of history is inaccurate. And then when they [do] have to engage with an accurate telling of history, there becomes a great deal of cognitive dissonance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we see some of that playing out on the national stage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint comes as the Trump administration’s Department of Education has called on school districts to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027218/how-trumps-drastic-k-12-plans-will-and-wont-change-california-schools\">eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs\u003c/a> across the country. The department said it would begin assessing districts’ compliance with the demand on Feb. 28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said that DEI programs have discriminated against white and Asian students and “indoctrinated students” with a “false premise” of structural racism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Education has already dissolved two DEI-related councils, canceled trainings, placed employees in DEI roles on paid administrative leave and withdrawn an equity action plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rolling back these programs — at both the school district and federal levels — makes schools more, not less, unequal, according to Bristol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole purpose of a democracy is to ensure that everyone is included, that we have diverse perspectives, that everyone feels like they have an equitable and equal opportunity to participate and that they are included,” Bristol said. “That’s what diversity, equity, and inclusion is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Schools are broken, and they haven’t served the unique needs of Black boys, and in order to fix it, we have to spend special attention and target it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A conservative parents group is targeting new enrichment programming for Black boys at two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-leandro\">San Leandro\u003c/a> schools, alleging in a civil rights complaint that the initiative discriminates against other students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education on Monday, Parents Defending Education said the race-based affinity programs, which it said are only open to Black students and teachers, violate equal rights protections under the Civil Rights Act and 14th Amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The programs come from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952712/kingmakers-of-oakland-black-history-month-film-festival-music-videos\">Kingmakers of Oakland\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that contracted with San Leandro’s Halkin Elementary School and John Muir Middle School at the start of this school year to roll out a curriculum taught by Black male teachers to Black boys that includes “Black history, cultural knowledge, positive self-identity, literacy and academic mentoring,” according to CEO Christopher Chatmon’s proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents Defending Education said that the specialized course and additional services, with a combined budget of nearly $75,000, “confer a benefit that is not accessible to the entire student and educator body.” The complaint alleges that the San Leandro Unified School District is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars racial discrimination in programs and activities that receive federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Kingmakers nor the San Leandro school district responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Travis Bristol, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Education, said the district’s curriculum geared toward Black boys helps equalize the education system, which has historically failed marginalized groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12016443\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12016443 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/ClassroomSanctuarySpace-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parents Defending Education has filed a civil rights complaint against a San Leandro school program that provides Black boys with cultural education and academic mentoring, arguing it discriminates against other students. \u003ccite>(Daisy Nguyen/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What these programs do is they identify the groups that have been the most marginalized based on how they perform in school, based on their experiences outside of school,” Bristol told KQED. “And they say, ‘How do we identify the groups who are at the margins? And how do we help school districts include them to bring them to the center so that they can pursue happiness?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The curriculum — and Kingmakers organization — grew from the Oakland Unified School District’s first-of-its-kind African American Male Achievement Program, which started in 2010. The program led to a significant reduction in the number of Black students who dropped out of high schools in Oakland, especially in ninth grade, according to \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2019/10/access-program-black-male-students-lowered-high-school-dropout-rates\">research by Stanford’s Center for Education Policy Analysis\u003c/a>. The graduation rate among Black boys in OUSD increased from 46% in 2010 to 69% in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Leandro, the contract with Kingmakers gives Halkin Elementary and John Muir Middle access to the classroom curriculum and funds a facilitator position to work with both schools, as well as some annual campus events and training for school staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the curriculum improved outcomes for Black boys, why wouldn’t you want Black boys to do better in school?” Bristol asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its complaint, Parents Defending Education calls itself “an interested third-party organization with members who are parents of school children throughout the country.” It is not clear whether any in the group have children in San Leandro schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group cited a 2015 decision by the Department of Education finding that a Black Lives Matter assembly hosted “for African American students only” in the suburbs of Chicago violated Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights decided in that case that the district did not assess whether there were “race-neutral alternatives” to the event, and the district agreed to host programming open to all students regardless of race in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bristol said that there probably are some components of the Kingmakers’ curriculum in San Leandro that should be taught to all students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that we owe it to white children to understand and not have a fairytale rendering of U.S. history that centers only white people and the accomplishments of white people,” he told KQED. “Such a fairytale rendering of history for white children does not set them up for success when they go to college, when they sit in my classroom at UC Berkeley, because such a rendering of history is inaccurate. And then when they [do] have to engage with an accurate telling of history, there becomes a great deal of cognitive dissonance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we see some of that playing out on the national stage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint comes as the Trump administration’s Department of Education has called on school districts to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027218/how-trumps-drastic-k-12-plans-will-and-wont-change-california-schools\">eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs\u003c/a> across the country. The department said it would begin assessing districts’ compliance with the demand on Feb. 28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said that DEI programs have discriminated against white and Asian students and “indoctrinated students” with a “false premise” of structural racism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Education has already dissolved two DEI-related councils, canceled trainings, placed employees in DEI roles on paid administrative leave and withdrawn an equity action plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rolling back these programs — at both the school district and federal levels — makes schools more, not less, unequal, according to Bristol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole purpose of a democracy is to ensure that everyone is included, that we have diverse perspectives, that everyone feels like they have an equitable and equal opportunity to participate and that they are included,” Bristol said. “That’s what diversity, equity, and inclusion is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Schools are broken, and they haven’t served the unique needs of Black boys, and in order to fix it, we have to spend special attention and target it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:18 p.m. Friday \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> has been paying employees in two departments excessive overtime for years, according to an investigation by the city auditor’s office, which said its findings likely indicate a wider organizational problem — costing millions the city doesn’t have as it faces a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015103/oakland-is-at-risk-of-financial-insolvency-is-bankruptcy-on-the-table\">massive budget crisis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The auditor’s office found that workers in the Transportation and Public Works departments have been overcompensated by more than $1.6 million for overtime hours since 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland is required to meet the overtime rates set by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which has payroll formulas that calculate compensation for employees who work beyond standard hours. However, the audit, conducted based on a tip from an anonymous whistleblower, found that the city had coded its own formulas for overtime into its payroll system that exceeded the act’s requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is my job to call out waste of taxpayer dollars, especially during a time when the city administration is looking under couch cushions for spare coins,” city auditor Michael Houston said in a statement. “In that spirit, I hope the administration takes seriously our recommendations to develop, implement, and document overtime formulas in alignment with authoritative regulations and agreements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the city is allowed to set pay rates for employees that exceed the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimums, the investigation found that it doesn’t have a record authorizing different rates, meaning that taxpayers are incurring “significant costs” that weren’t approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Paying city employees more than what they are authorized to be paid may constitute a costly and unauthorized gift of public funds to individual employees from the City and Oakland taxpayers,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10816647\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall-.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10816647\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall-.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland City Hall\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall-.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Oakland City Hall in 2015. The Oakland city auditor’s office found that workers in the Transportation and Public Works departments have been overcompensated by more than $1.6 million for overtime hours since 2018. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/allaboutgeorge/14778203268/in/photolist-ovU9Y5-owBwrq-oLWSuq-oLWVsQ-owrHZn-oNTYxC-ovVc1E-oNngdU-ovPnco-oLghK9-oNz5eV-aA3eCx-pUZnkG-oktihE-51jN7q-oGzswn-oZ36sU-51jMRN-51jMHS-7Hy8ZS-dnVyBY-8yZJu2-az1drZ-oK9TeV-ee7XGz-mkhpS7-czBvg-6qCFLS-6qyuyp-6qytXH-6qytqP-6qCCWN-dP7jAZ-b9wpt2-bpPr5H-sz2e2U-ejpH4p-oqaMUf-8MEt5s-5BYJnF-3M61gv-8MB7ZZ-aB7uue-5f6qpp-8ME23h-8MB9k2-8MAPVv-8MAPD6-8MDUcN-8MAPeV\">George Kelly/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It says that the city was not able to explain why the codes it used to charge overtime were different from those in the Fair Labor Standards Act, or say when it began to use its current rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Houston said that the audit only looked into the two departments, but because the issue was found in the city’s payroll system, it could be citywide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It very likely is happening in other departments, and if so, we need to know,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Houston said that the audit’s first recommendation is for city administrator Jestin Johnson to launch a citywide payroll review to find out just how much money in unauthorized payments has been used and implement formulas that are in line with the Fair Labor Standards Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12027749 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230802-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-MHN-06-KQED.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland is looking to recover any funds it can to trim a $130 million budget deficit that has forced \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018688/oakland-broad-cuts-public-safety-city-agencies-amid-massive-deficit\">major service reductions\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027749/oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit\">layoffs\u003c/a> in recent months. Residents have been especially concerned about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022420/when-an-oakland-hills-home-caught-fire-near-closed-station-the-response-was-slow\">temporary closures of two fire stations\u003c/a> in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021911/oakland-hills-burned-before-la-fires-have-many-terrified-it-will-happen-again\">fire-prone Oakland Hills\u003c/a> and a plan to shutter four more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Council members have repeatedly implored the city administrator and budget team to find money to maintain services, especially to keep the firehouses open. Council members criticized the closures, but ultimately up to Johnson, who gained more control over Oakland’s spending last fall when the city had to enact a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997946/oakland-reaches-deal-on-105-million-coliseum-sale-to-stave-off-budget-cuts\">contingency budget\u003c/a> due to the stalled \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-coliseum\">Oakland Coliseum\u003c/a> sale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re browning out fire stations, employees have been laid off due to just a lack of resources, and now we find that for years, the city has been wasting money on unauthorized overtime,” Houston said. “And at this time, we just need to be making the best use of every penny that we have, so I hope the city administrator rectifies the issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, who voted against the contingency budget last summer, and two other council members have introduced legislation that could ward off additional fire cuts. The resolution, which would pay for the services with funding from the city’s transportation and self-liability fund and revenue from events held at the Coliseum, is set for a council vote next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026399\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, right, addresses a crowd in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. Ramachandran and two other council members introduced legislation to ward off additional cuts to the city’s firehouses. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The legislation also initially aimed to strip Johnson of his expanded fiscal power — which Ramachandran said at the time was supposed to be the power of the council — but that piece of the ordinance was removed during a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026938/oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures\">budget committee hearing\u003c/a> last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a lot of money that we can’t afford, and we should be looking throughout the city to see if we can identify similar inefficiencies that could lead us to have more money in our budget to fund basic services,” Ramachandran told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the audit, Houston also said staff should work with the city attorney’s office to address past overpayments, but he didn’t offer any insight into what recourse could be taken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every little penny counts,” Houston said. “So when you think of $1.7 million, that would be about half the size of the city auditor’s office, so that is a significant amount of money that needs to be put to good use and not be wasted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins didn’t specify what steps he would take Friday, but he said he plans to meet with the city auditor and city administrator to “see what the best path moving forward” is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes down to the $1.6 million, we have budgetary issues and any waste is a challenge for us as we are trying to get our budget together, as we are trying to do our statutory requirements as a city,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ahallhttps://www.kqed.org/author/ahall\">Alex Hall\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Oakland has been paying some employees excessive overtime for years, the city auditor said, adding that a wider problem could be costing millions the city doesn’t have in a budget crisis.",
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"title": "Audit Finds Overtime ‘Waste’ in Oakland, Suggesting a Widespread Spending Problem | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:18 p.m. Friday \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> has been paying employees in two departments excessive overtime for years, according to an investigation by the city auditor’s office, which said its findings likely indicate a wider organizational problem — costing millions the city doesn’t have as it faces a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015103/oakland-is-at-risk-of-financial-insolvency-is-bankruptcy-on-the-table\">massive budget crisis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The auditor’s office found that workers in the Transportation and Public Works departments have been overcompensated by more than $1.6 million for overtime hours since 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland is required to meet the overtime rates set by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which has payroll formulas that calculate compensation for employees who work beyond standard hours. However, the audit, conducted based on a tip from an anonymous whistleblower, found that the city had coded its own formulas for overtime into its payroll system that exceeded the act’s requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is my job to call out waste of taxpayer dollars, especially during a time when the city administration is looking under couch cushions for spare coins,” city auditor Michael Houston said in a statement. “In that spirit, I hope the administration takes seriously our recommendations to develop, implement, and document overtime formulas in alignment with authoritative regulations and agreements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the city is allowed to set pay rates for employees that exceed the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimums, the investigation found that it doesn’t have a record authorizing different rates, meaning that taxpayers are incurring “significant costs” that weren’t approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Paying city employees more than what they are authorized to be paid may constitute a costly and unauthorized gift of public funds to individual employees from the City and Oakland taxpayers,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10816647\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall-.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10816647\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall-.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland City Hall\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall-.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/City-Hall--960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Oakland City Hall in 2015. The Oakland city auditor’s office found that workers in the Transportation and Public Works departments have been overcompensated by more than $1.6 million for overtime hours since 2018. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/allaboutgeorge/14778203268/in/photolist-ovU9Y5-owBwrq-oLWSuq-oLWVsQ-owrHZn-oNTYxC-ovVc1E-oNngdU-ovPnco-oLghK9-oNz5eV-aA3eCx-pUZnkG-oktihE-51jN7q-oGzswn-oZ36sU-51jMRN-51jMHS-7Hy8ZS-dnVyBY-8yZJu2-az1drZ-oK9TeV-ee7XGz-mkhpS7-czBvg-6qCFLS-6qyuyp-6qytXH-6qytqP-6qCCWN-dP7jAZ-b9wpt2-bpPr5H-sz2e2U-ejpH4p-oqaMUf-8MEt5s-5BYJnF-3M61gv-8MB7ZZ-aB7uue-5f6qpp-8ME23h-8MB9k2-8MAPVv-8MAPD6-8MDUcN-8MAPeV\">George Kelly/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It says that the city was not able to explain why the codes it used to charge overtime were different from those in the Fair Labor Standards Act, or say when it began to use its current rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Houston said that the audit only looked into the two departments, but because the issue was found in the city’s payroll system, it could be citywide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It very likely is happening in other departments, and if so, we need to know,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Houston said that the audit’s first recommendation is for city administrator Jestin Johnson to launch a citywide payroll review to find out just how much money in unauthorized payments has been used and implement formulas that are in line with the Fair Labor Standards Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland is looking to recover any funds it can to trim a $130 million budget deficit that has forced \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018688/oakland-broad-cuts-public-safety-city-agencies-amid-massive-deficit\">major service reductions\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027749/oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit\">layoffs\u003c/a> in recent months. Residents have been especially concerned about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022420/when-an-oakland-hills-home-caught-fire-near-closed-station-the-response-was-slow\">temporary closures of two fire stations\u003c/a> in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021911/oakland-hills-burned-before-la-fires-have-many-terrified-it-will-happen-again\">fire-prone Oakland Hills\u003c/a> and a plan to shutter four more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Council members have repeatedly implored the city administrator and budget team to find money to maintain services, especially to keep the firehouses open. Council members criticized the closures, but ultimately up to Johnson, who gained more control over Oakland’s spending last fall when the city had to enact a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997946/oakland-reaches-deal-on-105-million-coliseum-sale-to-stave-off-budget-cuts\">contingency budget\u003c/a> due to the stalled \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-coliseum\">Oakland Coliseum\u003c/a> sale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re browning out fire stations, employees have been laid off due to just a lack of resources, and now we find that for years, the city has been wasting money on unauthorized overtime,” Houston said. “And at this time, we just need to be making the best use of every penny that we have, so I hope the city administrator rectifies the issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, who voted against the contingency budget last summer, and two other council members have introduced legislation that could ward off additional fire cuts. The resolution, which would pay for the services with funding from the city’s transportation and self-liability fund and revenue from events held at the Coliseum, is set for a council vote next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026399\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, right, addresses a crowd in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. Ramachandran and two other council members introduced legislation to ward off additional cuts to the city’s firehouses. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The legislation also initially aimed to strip Johnson of his expanded fiscal power — which Ramachandran said at the time was supposed to be the power of the council — but that piece of the ordinance was removed during a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026938/oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures\">budget committee hearing\u003c/a> last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a lot of money that we can’t afford, and we should be looking throughout the city to see if we can identify similar inefficiencies that could lead us to have more money in our budget to fund basic services,” Ramachandran told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the audit, Houston also said staff should work with the city attorney’s office to address past overpayments, but he didn’t offer any insight into what recourse could be taken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every little penny counts,” Houston said. “So when you think of $1.7 million, that would be about half the size of the city auditor’s office, so that is a significant amount of money that needs to be put to good use and not be wasted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins didn’t specify what steps he would take Friday, but he said he plans to meet with the city auditor and city administrator to “see what the best path moving forward” is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes down to the $1.6 million, we have budgetary issues and any waste is a challenge for us as we are trying to get our budget together, as we are trying to do our statutory requirements as a city,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ahallhttps://www.kqed.org/author/ahall\">Alex Hall\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Organizers at over a dozen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> nonprofits are reeling as they face the impending loss of city funding, raising concerns that the cuts will hurt their ability to continue serving Oakland residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the deadline fast approaching, several of the organizations on the list are also worried that they still haven’t received the money the city owes them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland, which must \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027749/oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit\">close a $130 million budget shortfall\u003c/a>, announced in January that it will be terminating contracts with 13 community organizations at the end of this month. That amounts to $2.6 million in slashed funding for nonprofits that provide the city with important social services such as free meals for seniors and violence prevention programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going to find a way to keep showing up for them every day,” said Kim Olson, director of advocacy at the nonprofit SOS Meals on Wheels. “But in the long run, it means we’re really living in a state of uncertainty and having to decide how do we keep our programs going, how do we make sure that we can continue to serve at the same level we have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SOS Meals on Wheels provides free meals and wellness checks to over 1,000 senior citizens across Oakland and Alameda County each year. The organization is looking to expand its services, but those goals will be harder to reach with the termination of its two-year contract, Olson said, adding that the organization still hasn’t been paid the $150,000 it’s owed by the city for services rendered last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12009716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12009716\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Frazier, the founder of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), speaks at a press conference held at the trauma recovery center in Oakland on Wednesday, Oct. 16. 2024. \u003ccite>(Gilare Zada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to an email sent to Oakland officials by City Administrator Jestin Johnson on Jan. 28, the city will pay nonprofits for the work they’ve done up to the point of termination, but no other work is authorized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize these reductions will be difficult for their recipients and for the community members benefitting from the services they help fund,” Johnson said in the email. “Unfortunately, we do anticipate additional reductions remain necessary, including additional grant terminations and impacts on city contracts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson sent termination notices to 13 nonprofits, including Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Trybe Inc., Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, Centro Legal de la Raza and several others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite his reassurances that the organizations will still be paid for existing work, Olson said there’s been minimal communication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12027749 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230802-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-MHN-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, chair of the city’s finance committee, criticized the decision to end the contracts as one that was made unilaterally by Johnson. The council, however, gave him the authority to take such budget-cutting measures when it approved the city’s current budget and contingency plan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992883/oakland-city-council-passes-budget-amid-concerns-over-pending-coliseum-sale\">in July\u003c/a>; Ramachandran voted against the spending plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While city officials have been looking for ways to mitigate the deficit, Ramachandran said there have been no discussions about ending contracts early. She called it a decision that should not have been made without the input of other city officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been trying to demand answers but have not gotten any information, and it’s very frustrating,” Ramachandran said. “I’m not saying that the city of Oakland has unlimited money to continue funding every program that is important to our community, but ones that we’ve already promised and committed to doing, we should not have terminated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De’Morea Evans, an organizer with Trybe Inc., said at a Tuesday gathering of nonprofit leaders at the Fruitvale Transit Village that the funding nonprofits receive from the city goes directly to the people. After the termination of its contract, the nonprofit — which is dedicated to supporting families and young people through community events, mentorship programs and violence prevention initiatives — will see its budget slashed by $210,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12023542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Berlanga, Executive Director for Centro Legal de La Raza, speaks during a press conference with leaders from community groups throughout Alameda County in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland on Jan. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Community members are the ones who will feel the brunt of the loss if nonprofits are unable to fully function, Evans said. He urged city officials to consider how ending the contracts will affect Oakland, noting that many of the services that nonprofits provide are sorely needed by the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Rick Cohen, a spokesperson for the National Council of Nonprofits, the work that nonprofits do in their communities is more critical than ever despite both public and private funding streams continuing to dry up. Without them, government officials will need to find alternative ways to provide services that city community residents need, Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is the return on investment that governments get from working with nonprofits is so much more than the savings that you get from turning off certain programs,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Help us to be able to help them,” Evans said at Tuesday’s event. “We all stand for the same purpose — to help our community be better and to provide hope to people that are hopeless and opportunity to people who feel as if they don’t have a choice. I ask you, Oakland, do what’s right by your people so we can continue to do what’s right in our communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Over a dozen Oakland nonprofits are slated to lose their city contracts at the end of the month. At least one says it still hasn’t been paid for work it’s already done.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Organizers at over a dozen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> nonprofits are reeling as they face the impending loss of city funding, raising concerns that the cuts will hurt their ability to continue serving Oakland residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the deadline fast approaching, several of the organizations on the list are also worried that they still haven’t received the money the city owes them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland, which must \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027749/oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit\">close a $130 million budget shortfall\u003c/a>, announced in January that it will be terminating contracts with 13 community organizations at the end of this month. That amounts to $2.6 million in slashed funding for nonprofits that provide the city with important social services such as free meals for seniors and violence prevention programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going to find a way to keep showing up for them every day,” said Kim Olson, director of advocacy at the nonprofit SOS Meals on Wheels. “But in the long run, it means we’re really living in a state of uncertainty and having to decide how do we keep our programs going, how do we make sure that we can continue to serve at the same level we have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SOS Meals on Wheels provides free meals and wellness checks to over 1,000 senior citizens across Oakland and Alameda County each year. The organization is looking to expand its services, but those goals will be harder to reach with the termination of its two-year contract, Olson said, adding that the organization still hasn’t been paid the $150,000 it’s owed by the city for services rendered last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12009716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12009716\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/BOSS2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Frazier, the founder of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), speaks at a press conference held at the trauma recovery center in Oakland on Wednesday, Oct. 16. 2024. \u003ccite>(Gilare Zada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to an email sent to Oakland officials by City Administrator Jestin Johnson on Jan. 28, the city will pay nonprofits for the work they’ve done up to the point of termination, but no other work is authorized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize these reductions will be difficult for their recipients and for the community members benefitting from the services they help fund,” Johnson said in the email. “Unfortunately, we do anticipate additional reductions remain necessary, including additional grant terminations and impacts on city contracts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson sent termination notices to 13 nonprofits, including Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Trybe Inc., Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, Centro Legal de la Raza and several others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite his reassurances that the organizations will still be paid for existing work, Olson said there’s been minimal communication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, chair of the city’s finance committee, criticized the decision to end the contracts as one that was made unilaterally by Johnson. The council, however, gave him the authority to take such budget-cutting measures when it approved the city’s current budget and contingency plan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992883/oakland-city-council-passes-budget-amid-concerns-over-pending-coliseum-sale\">in July\u003c/a>; Ramachandran voted against the spending plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While city officials have been looking for ways to mitigate the deficit, Ramachandran said there have been no discussions about ending contracts early. She called it a decision that should not have been made without the input of other city officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been trying to demand answers but have not gotten any information, and it’s very frustrating,” Ramachandran said. “I’m not saying that the city of Oakland has unlimited money to continue funding every program that is important to our community, but ones that we’ve already promised and committed to doing, we should not have terminated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De’Morea Evans, an organizer with Trybe Inc., said at a Tuesday gathering of nonprofit leaders at the Fruitvale Transit Village that the funding nonprofits receive from the city goes directly to the people. After the termination of its contract, the nonprofit — which is dedicated to supporting families and young people through community events, mentorship programs and violence prevention initiatives — will see its budget slashed by $210,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12023542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Berlanga, Executive Director for Centro Legal de La Raza, speaks during a press conference with leaders from community groups throughout Alameda County in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland on Jan. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Community members are the ones who will feel the brunt of the loss if nonprofits are unable to fully function, Evans said. He urged city officials to consider how ending the contracts will affect Oakland, noting that many of the services that nonprofits provide are sorely needed by the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Rick Cohen, a spokesperson for the National Council of Nonprofits, the work that nonprofits do in their communities is more critical than ever despite both public and private funding streams continuing to dry up. Without them, government officials will need to find alternative ways to provide services that city community residents need, Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is the return on investment that governments get from working with nonprofits is so much more than the savings that you get from turning off certain programs,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Help us to be able to help them,” Evans said at Tuesday’s event. “We all stand for the same purpose — to help our community be better and to provide hope to people that are hopeless and opportunity to people who feel as if they don’t have a choice. I ask you, Oakland, do what’s right by your people so we can continue to do what’s right in our communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "oakland-candidates-mayor-city-council-speak-forum-ahead-april-special-election",
"title": "Oakland Candidates for Mayor, City Council Speak at Forum Ahead of April Special Election",
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"headTitle": "Oakland Candidates for Mayor, City Council Speak at Forum Ahead of April Special Election | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Candidates for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland’s\u003c/a> next mayor and an open City Council seat shared their visions for the city’s future at a forum in downtown Oakland on Tuesday night. The discussion focused on housing development, transit and public safety, with some sparring among mayoral candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The special election, set for April 15, became necessary after voters recalled former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Mayor Sheng Thao\u003c/a> and elected former District 2 Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the mayoral portion of the forum, three of the seven candidates — former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/barbara-lee\">Rep. Barbara Lee\u003c/a>, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor and former city staffer Renia Webb — gave their perspectives on the state of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about her plan for combatting homelessness and drug addiction, Lee said she would favor looking into piloting a universal basic income program for unsheltered residents needing jobs. She also expressed an interest in reviewing Oakland’s city charter, which outlines a hybrid government that critics say \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/12/20/opinion-broken-oakland-needs-more-than-a-new-mayor/\">strips the mayor\u003c/a> of the ability to enact any real agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The structural issues here in Oakland didn’t just start as it relates to the budget,” Lee said. “I believe we need to have a charter review. Oakland’s not a strong mayor form of government, nor a strong city administrator; we need the citizens, the residents, the voters of Oakland to decide — do they want a strong mayor or do they want another form of government?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12027698 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Rep. Barbara Lee addresses the room, as Loren Taylor (center) and Renia Webb observe, at a public forum hosted by Greenbelt Alliance, Housing Action Coalition and East Bay for Everyone, in downtown Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. All are running for mayor.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lee has previously said she would bring experience and unity to the city following more than 25 years in Congress. She reiterated that message to reporters ahead of the mayoral candidate panel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland needs somebody who can bring the city together, and I have been able to form coalitions and alliances and really have the ability to bring public and private partnerships to Oakland because that’s what we need,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his opening remarks, Taylor said unity without action doesn’t deliver the results Oakland needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland is broken,” Taylor, who narrowly lost to Thao in the 2022 mayoral election, said. “We have a lot of challenges here. A lot of complex challenges that have been around for decades. Doing the same old, same old, and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, and it is not going to get us where we need to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12025747 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00457-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Thao was indicted on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">federal bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges\u003c/a> in what federal prosecutors have described as an alleged corruption scheme involving her longtime boyfriend, Andre Jones; the CEO of Oakland’s curbside recycling provider, David Duong; and his son, Andy Duong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Webb, who was Thao’s chief of staff while she was on the city council and continued working for her during her transition to the mayor’s office in late 2022, has alleged she witnessed unethical behavior on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to have a complete overhaul,” Webb said. “We’ve been wasting millions, hundreds of millions of dollars these last couple of years. Faking. Putting bandaids. Time’s up on that game.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, Webb seized an opportunity to criticize Taylor’s involvement in a task force launched in 2020 that intended to reconstruct the city’s public safety system and brainstorm alternative responses to calls for service. A goal of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, which Taylor co-led with then-councilmember Bas, was to \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/oakland-launches-new-task-force-to-reimagine-public-safety-first-meeting-convenes-tonight-at-630-pm\">slash Oakland Police Department funding\u003c/a> by 50%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12027695 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loren Taylor is interviewed by the media at a public forum hosted by Greenbelt Alliance, Housing Action Coalition and East Bay for Everyone, in downtown Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You see the impacts that crime has on our city,” Webb said. “And it’s interesting that Mr. Loren Taylor would bring up Reimagining because part of that that he authored was to cut our police force by 50%. That’s not acceptable or OK. Public safety is on our mind, and we’re not going to play with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor did not address the criticism during the forum. In a follow-up interview, he called the allegation that he wanted to defund the police “completely false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did agree to co-chair a committee with Councilmember Bas. She was pushing for the 50%, and I agreed to it because I was able to insert the fact that we would protect public safety above all else,” Taylor said. “That’s why we didn’t actually get to a reduction goal, because of my fight to ensure that safety of residents was No. 1.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never agreed to that budget reduction. I agreed to allowing it to be a goal, among others,” Taylor added. “That was the compromise that we needed in order to move the entire city and dialogue forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027694\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left to right) Kara Murray-Badal, Charlene Wang and Kanitha Matoury discuss issues facing voters as they run for a vacant City Council seat at a public forum hosted by Greenbelt Alliance, Housing Action Coalition and East Bay for Everyone, in downtown Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Three of the candidates vying for Bas’ former seat, including downtown business owner Kanitha Matoury, EPA civil rights advisor Charlene Wang and housing policy director Kara Murray-Badal, answered questions about bike lanes, the possibility of a new BART station in the district and what they would do to ensure housing availability and make streets in Oakland feel safer. District 2 includes the Chinatown, Lakeshore and San Antonio neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I almost don’t recognize Oakland’s Chinatown today,” said Wang, who ran unsuccessfully for the at-large city council seat in last year’s election. “It is so different. There is not that sense of safety. It’s a ghost town. The businesses are boarded up at 3 p.m. And so that is a lot of what drives me is just how much Oakland and the whole district has changed in many ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12027749 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230802-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-MHN-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murray-Badal, the director of Housing Venture Lab, an accelerator that supports entrepreneurs with ideas for how to make housing more equitable, said the possibility of making San Antonio another transit hub was promising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, obviously, we have the Brooklyn Basin area, which is amazing, and building more housing there has been really exciting, but there is no good transit in and out of it, and so, we’ve lost the transit-oriented part of that,” Murray-Badal said. “And so I think there are so many opportunities across the district to do housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matoury, who owns Howden Market, an artisan grocery shop in downtown Oakland, said she thinks the city is at a critical point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need adults in the house,” Matoury said. “We don’t want a bunch of children with credit cards running around, charging things up. You want someone with a little life experience. The next couple years, I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be tough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three additional candidates for the seat — property manager Paula F.L. Thomas, Rev. Kenneth Anderson and Harold Lowe, a financial planner and consultant who ran for the seat in 2022 — did not attend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A representative of Greenbelt Alliance told KQED the group reached out to every candidate who had filed a statement of organization, known as Form 410, by Jan. 31 and had contact information on their website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A special election, prompted by the recall of former Mayor Sheng Thao and the election of former District 2 Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, is scheduled for April.",
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"title": "Oakland Candidates for Mayor, City Council Speak at Forum Ahead of April Special Election | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Candidates for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland’s\u003c/a> next mayor and an open City Council seat shared their visions for the city’s future at a forum in downtown Oakland on Tuesday night. The discussion focused on housing development, transit and public safety, with some sparring among mayoral candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The special election, set for April 15, became necessary after voters recalled former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Mayor Sheng Thao\u003c/a> and elected former District 2 Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the mayoral portion of the forum, three of the seven candidates — former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/barbara-lee\">Rep. Barbara Lee\u003c/a>, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor and former city staffer Renia Webb — gave their perspectives on the state of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about her plan for combatting homelessness and drug addiction, Lee said she would favor looking into piloting a universal basic income program for unsheltered residents needing jobs. She also expressed an interest in reviewing Oakland’s city charter, which outlines a hybrid government that critics say \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/12/20/opinion-broken-oakland-needs-more-than-a-new-mayor/\">strips the mayor\u003c/a> of the ability to enact any real agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The structural issues here in Oakland didn’t just start as it relates to the budget,” Lee said. “I believe we need to have a charter review. Oakland’s not a strong mayor form of government, nor a strong city administrator; we need the citizens, the residents, the voters of Oakland to decide — do they want a strong mayor or do they want another form of government?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12027698 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_02196-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Rep. Barbara Lee addresses the room, as Loren Taylor (center) and Renia Webb observe, at a public forum hosted by Greenbelt Alliance, Housing Action Coalition and East Bay for Everyone, in downtown Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. All are running for mayor.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lee has previously said she would bring experience and unity to the city following more than 25 years in Congress. She reiterated that message to reporters ahead of the mayoral candidate panel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland needs somebody who can bring the city together, and I have been able to form coalitions and alliances and really have the ability to bring public and private partnerships to Oakland because that’s what we need,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his opening remarks, Taylor said unity without action doesn’t deliver the results Oakland needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland is broken,” Taylor, who narrowly lost to Thao in the 2022 mayoral election, said. “We have a lot of challenges here. A lot of complex challenges that have been around for decades. Doing the same old, same old, and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, and it is not going to get us where we need to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Thao was indicted on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">federal bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges\u003c/a> in what federal prosecutors have described as an alleged corruption scheme involving her longtime boyfriend, Andre Jones; the CEO of Oakland’s curbside recycling provider, David Duong; and his son, Andy Duong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Webb, who was Thao’s chief of staff while she was on the city council and continued working for her during her transition to the mayor’s office in late 2022, has alleged she witnessed unethical behavior on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to have a complete overhaul,” Webb said. “We’ve been wasting millions, hundreds of millions of dollars these last couple of years. Faking. Putting bandaids. Time’s up on that game.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, Webb seized an opportunity to criticize Taylor’s involvement in a task force launched in 2020 that intended to reconstruct the city’s public safety system and brainstorm alternative responses to calls for service. A goal of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, which Taylor co-led with then-councilmember Bas, was to \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/oakland-launches-new-task-force-to-reimagine-public-safety-first-meeting-convenes-tonight-at-630-pm\">slash Oakland Police Department funding\u003c/a> by 50%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12027695 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00156-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loren Taylor is interviewed by the media at a public forum hosted by Greenbelt Alliance, Housing Action Coalition and East Bay for Everyone, in downtown Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You see the impacts that crime has on our city,” Webb said. “And it’s interesting that Mr. Loren Taylor would bring up Reimagining because part of that that he authored was to cut our police force by 50%. That’s not acceptable or OK. Public safety is on our mind, and we’re not going to play with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor did not address the criticism during the forum. In a follow-up interview, he called the allegation that he wanted to defund the police “completely false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did agree to co-chair a committee with Councilmember Bas. She was pushing for the 50%, and I agreed to it because I was able to insert the fact that we would protect public safety above all else,” Taylor said. “That’s why we didn’t actually get to a reduction goal, because of my fight to ensure that safety of residents was No. 1.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never agreed to that budget reduction. I agreed to allowing it to be a goal, among others,” Taylor added. “That was the compromise that we needed in order to move the entire city and dialogue forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027694\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250218_Oak-Mayoral_DMB_00029-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left to right) Kara Murray-Badal, Charlene Wang and Kanitha Matoury discuss issues facing voters as they run for a vacant City Council seat at a public forum hosted by Greenbelt Alliance, Housing Action Coalition and East Bay for Everyone, in downtown Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Three of the candidates vying for Bas’ former seat, including downtown business owner Kanitha Matoury, EPA civil rights advisor Charlene Wang and housing policy director Kara Murray-Badal, answered questions about bike lanes, the possibility of a new BART station in the district and what they would do to ensure housing availability and make streets in Oakland feel safer. District 2 includes the Chinatown, Lakeshore and San Antonio neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I almost don’t recognize Oakland’s Chinatown today,” said Wang, who ran unsuccessfully for the at-large city council seat in last year’s election. “It is so different. There is not that sense of safety. It’s a ghost town. The businesses are boarded up at 3 p.m. And so that is a lot of what drives me is just how much Oakland and the whole district has changed in many ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murray-Badal, the director of Housing Venture Lab, an accelerator that supports entrepreneurs with ideas for how to make housing more equitable, said the possibility of making San Antonio another transit hub was promising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, obviously, we have the Brooklyn Basin area, which is amazing, and building more housing there has been really exciting, but there is no good transit in and out of it, and so, we’ve lost the transit-oriented part of that,” Murray-Badal said. “And so I think there are so many opportunities across the district to do housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matoury, who owns Howden Market, an artisan grocery shop in downtown Oakland, said she thinks the city is at a critical point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need adults in the house,” Matoury said. “We don’t want a bunch of children with credit cards running around, charging things up. You want someone with a little life experience. The next couple years, I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be tough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three additional candidates for the seat — property manager Paula F.L. Thomas, Rev. Kenneth Anderson and Harold Lowe, a financial planner and consultant who ran for the seat in 2022 — did not attend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A representative of Greenbelt Alliance told KQED the group reached out to every candidate who had filed a statement of organization, known as Form 410, by Jan. 31 and had contact information on their website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is rescinding about a third of the pink slips it sent to city staffers last month as part of its plan to close a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015103/oakland-is-at-risk-of-financial-insolvency-is-bankruptcy-on-the-table\">massive budget gap\u003c/a> by the end of the fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty-four city workers who were issued layoff notices in January will now remain employed, City Administrator Jestin Johnson said this week, leaving 42 out of a job. Oakland plans to bump 34 other employees to different positions across its workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For all employees affected by these notices, I want you to know that you have my respect and appreciation,” Johnson said in an email to staff on Tuesday. “I know these layoffs will be difficult, and we will continue to provide support and resources to employees who are transitioning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The layoffs are the latest in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018688/oakland-broad-cuts-public-safety-city-agencies-amid-massive-deficit\">series of severe budget cuts\u003c/a> Oakland is making to cure a $130 million budget deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017244/oaklands-budget-crisis-forcing-police-fire-cuts-more-will-be-needed\">announced plans to lay off\u003c/a> more than 90 full-time equivalent employees to cut costs. At the time, Johnson said that Public Works, the Police Department and Human Services would be hit the hardest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just under 70 union employees received pink slips at the end of January, according to labor leaders. They pushed back, arguing that some of the cuts lacked thoughtfulness and respect for the unions’ collective bargaining agreements and employees who received less than a month’s notice of their terminations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12027507 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250218-AlCoDASwornIn-11-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The list of impacted employees contains many who have been with the city for decades, even when less senior staff are working in the same job,” the presidents of Oakland’s fire, electrical workers, engineers and public sector unions said in a letter to city staff earlier this month. “It also contains union members who are working alongside temporary staff and others where numerous vacant jobs exist in their classifications.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Johnson’s update on Tuesday, six vacant positions have been eliminated, and updated notices have been sent to affected permanent employees with a layoff date of March 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also said the budget team had finished its analysis for bumping permanent employees, some of whom will go back to previously held classifications, while others could be reassigned to different departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s structural shortfall isn’t new, but its money problems were worsened last fall when the sale of its stake in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-coliseum\">Oakland Coliseum\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022106/alameda-county-moves-closer-to-oakland-coliseum-sale-final-vote-expected-in-30-days\">stalled\u003c/a>. Former Mayor Sheng Thao’s budget \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992883/oakland-city-council-passes-budget-amid-concerns-over-pending-coliseum-sale\">relied heavily on the one-time revenue\u003c/a> to bridge this year’s funding gap — but now about $60 million in budgeted spending won’t be available until the sale is final, triggering a tight contingency plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts — which some City Council members have called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992752/oakland-budget-talks-drag-on-as-council-faces-huge-deficit-last-minute-changes\">draconian\u003c/a>” — include reduced police spending, brownouts of two fire stations and other program cuts across departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three council members have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026938/oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures\">introduced legislation\u003c/a> to reverse plans that would close four more firehouses through the end of the fiscal year, pulling revenue from the city’s self-liability and transportation funds, among other sources. While firefighters at the two stations shuttered last month have been reassigned, closing four more could mean layoffs and dire service interruptions, union president Seth Olyer previously told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council will vote on that plan on March 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is rescinding about a third of the pink slips it sent to city staffers last month as part of its plan to close a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015103/oakland-is-at-risk-of-financial-insolvency-is-bankruptcy-on-the-table\">massive budget gap\u003c/a> by the end of the fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty-four city workers who were issued layoff notices in January will now remain employed, City Administrator Jestin Johnson said this week, leaving 42 out of a job. Oakland plans to bump 34 other employees to different positions across its workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For all employees affected by these notices, I want you to know that you have my respect and appreciation,” Johnson said in an email to staff on Tuesday. “I know these layoffs will be difficult, and we will continue to provide support and resources to employees who are transitioning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The layoffs are the latest in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018688/oakland-broad-cuts-public-safety-city-agencies-amid-massive-deficit\">series of severe budget cuts\u003c/a> Oakland is making to cure a $130 million budget deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017244/oaklands-budget-crisis-forcing-police-fire-cuts-more-will-be-needed\">announced plans to lay off\u003c/a> more than 90 full-time equivalent employees to cut costs. At the time, Johnson said that Public Works, the Police Department and Human Services would be hit the hardest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just under 70 union employees received pink slips at the end of January, according to labor leaders. They pushed back, arguing that some of the cuts lacked thoughtfulness and respect for the unions’ collective bargaining agreements and employees who received less than a month’s notice of their terminations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The list of impacted employees contains many who have been with the city for decades, even when less senior staff are working in the same job,” the presidents of Oakland’s fire, electrical workers, engineers and public sector unions said in a letter to city staff earlier this month. “It also contains union members who are working alongside temporary staff and others where numerous vacant jobs exist in their classifications.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Johnson’s update on Tuesday, six vacant positions have been eliminated, and updated notices have been sent to affected permanent employees with a layoff date of March 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also said the budget team had finished its analysis for bumping permanent employees, some of whom will go back to previously held classifications, while others could be reassigned to different departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s structural shortfall isn’t new, but its money problems were worsened last fall when the sale of its stake in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-coliseum\">Oakland Coliseum\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022106/alameda-county-moves-closer-to-oakland-coliseum-sale-final-vote-expected-in-30-days\">stalled\u003c/a>. Former Mayor Sheng Thao’s budget \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992883/oakland-city-council-passes-budget-amid-concerns-over-pending-coliseum-sale\">relied heavily on the one-time revenue\u003c/a> to bridge this year’s funding gap — but now about $60 million in budgeted spending won’t be available until the sale is final, triggering a tight contingency plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts — which some City Council members have called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992752/oakland-budget-talks-drag-on-as-council-faces-huge-deficit-last-minute-changes\">draconian\u003c/a>” — include reduced police spending, brownouts of two fire stations and other program cuts across departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three council members have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026938/oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures\">introduced legislation\u003c/a> to reverse plans that would close four more firehouses through the end of the fiscal year, pulling revenue from the city’s self-liability and transportation funds, among other sources. While firefighters at the two stations shuttered last month have been reassigned, closing four more could mean layoffs and dire service interruptions, union president Seth Olyer previously told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council will vote on that plan on March 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "this-group-wants-private-university-police-in-east-oakland-its-stirred-controversy",
"title": "This Group Wants Private University Police in East Oakland. It’s Stirred Controversy",
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"content": "\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> continues to grapple with concerns about public safety, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026938/oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures\">a budget crisis\u003c/a> and a beleaguered police department, community organizers launched a campaign this week to revive the idea of creating an independent Northeastern University police force that would also patrol parts of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conflicting reports on the grassroots initiative, however, have led to widespread concern and confusion among students and community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>East Oakland Neighbors, an organization led by current and former city residents, is behind the latest campaign pushing for a police department that the private Northeastern University Oakland would operate. The organization said it did so after it was notified that the Oakland City Attorney’s Office rejected an original proposal from the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay Burch, the university’s regional security director and a former Oakland police captain, submitted that draft memorandum of understanding to the city last year to create an independent university police department that would function alongside but separate from the Oakland Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its officers would possess the same powers as those in city police departments, such as the ability to carry a weapon and to use lethal force when necessary, and the department would share jurisdiction with OPD over East Oakland neighborhoods outside of campus, according to the MOU, which was rejected in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011586\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011586\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Northeastern University campus in Oakland on Oct. 29, 2024, formerly Mills College. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For Oakland specifically, first and foremost, the campus and its surroundings must be safe and inviting,” Burch said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastoaklandneighbors.org/eon-blog-specialelection2025/clay-burch-letter-to-east-oaklanders\">“letter to East Oaklanders”\u003c/a> posted on the East Oakland Neighbors’ website last week. “This town needs a procedurally just, constitutional police force that not only enforces the law — actually enforces the law — but also incorporates robust community outreach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Burch is a Northeastern University employee and was cited as such in an \u003cem>Oaklandside\u003c/em> article that reported on the campaign on Monday, he told KQED that community members are leading the newest campaign, and a university spokesperson said that article “does not represent the facts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although much of the information was attributed to a Northeastern employee, none of it has been fact-checked with university leaders,” spokesperson Renata Nyul said in a statement. She did not specify what, if anything, was incorrect but said that the school has been in talks with the city about partnering in student safety initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burch said in a statement to KQED that he is not leading the campaign run by East Oakland Neighbors and that his involvement has been misrepresented. He did not give further comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Hayden, a Las Vegas resident who founded East Oakland Neighbors and used to live in Oakland, said the organization’s community outreach campaign will allow East Oakland residents to be a part of the conversation around new public safety ideas, with the goal of encouraging the city and Northeastern University to consider a revised version of the police proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12011539 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-17-BL-KQED.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no government involved in this, and Northeastern doesn’t have anything to do with us,” Hayden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northeastern University’s California-based campus is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011539/many-oakland-students-dont-go-to-college-this-new-scholarship-gives-some-a-chance\">located at the site of Mills College\u003c/a>, a former women’s liberal arts school in East Oakland. While the university itself is relatively secluded, rising crime rates in the area have led school officials to brainstorm ways of improving campus security and safety for the wider community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, several Oakland residents and students don’t believe that bringing in more officers will improve public safety and are worried that a police force operating outside of federal oversight and jurisdictional safeguards would pose a threat to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This lack of accountability is particularly alarming in a city like Oakland, where our police department \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">remains under federal oversight\u003c/a> after decades of violence, corruption and harm to our communities,” said Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project. “This new force would operate without those same checks, granting them even greater impunity to racially profile, assault and brutalize residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brooks added that if the university really wanted to support the Oakland community, it would invest in affordable housing, job training programs and mental health services for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential cost of a university police force has also spurred backlash from students since this week’s campaign was publicized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Michael Ford, a manager in the city’s Department of Transportation who volunteers with East Oakland Neighbors as a private citizen, Burch told him that the university would cover the total cost of the new police department, starting with $20 million for 20 officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11855899\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11855899\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021.jpg\" alt=\"Cat Brooks, co-founder of Anti Police-Terror Project, speaks before a Martin Luther King Day car caravan starting at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park near the Port of Oakland on Jan. 18, 2021.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cat Brooks, co-founder of Anti Police-Terror Project, speaks before a Martin Luther King Day car caravan leaves Middle Harbor Shoreline Park near the Port of Oakland on Jan. 18, 2021. \u003ccite>(BethLaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s not necessarily where I want to see my tuition go,” said William Holloway, a first-year student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several students are petitioning against the proposal after this week’s news was shared in a student and alumni group chat. One student who chose to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution from the university said many of them are concerned that an independent police department will further the strain between students and locals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A police force of this nature has no interest in improving East Oakland,” a petition addressed to Burch and Daniel Sachs, dean of Northeastern University’s Oakland campus, states. The petition specifically names Burch and East Oakland Neighbors as the driving forces behind the renewed push for the police department rather than the university itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More police isn’t always the answer to societal issues, and it largely fuels tensions between locals and governing bodies,” said Holloway, who is not involved in the petition. “The addition of more rather than a change of how is not something that’s necessarily going to fix things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some city officials support the idea of a Northeastern University police department. Councilmember Noel Gallo, who is interim City Council president, said he understands the school’s desire for improved safety, especially as the campus community grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12017244 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/04052023_downtownoaklandreactivation-181_qed.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland does not have enough police officers and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018688/oakland-broad-cuts-public-safety-city-agencies-amid-massive-deficit\">is facing a major budget crisis\u003c/a>, and the proposal is an opportunity to fix that, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Attorney Ryan Richardson, who helped review the original proposal by Burch, said a private university having its own peace officers is not unheard of. The University of the Pacific, the University of Southern California and Stanford University have done it before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of Northeastern University, however, the model Burch proposed isn’t authorized by California law, Richardson said, because it would create an independent, fully authorized police force outside of the local police department’s chain of command — which he called unprecedented in California. The city of Oakland would also be liable for everything the university police department does, according to the original MOU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One option for private universities is to employ fully fledged peace officers who are working in the local jurisdiction’s police department as reserve officers, Richardson said. The other option is to hire officers who are not considered California peace officers and are limited in their scope of powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be good to have some higher-level discussions about alternative pathways that we can all agree on and that will be upheld and are legal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Oakland community organizers launched a campaign to revive the idea of an independent Northeastern University police force that would also patrol much of East Oakland.",
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"title": "This Group Wants Private University Police in East Oakland. It’s Stirred Controversy | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> continues to grapple with concerns about public safety, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026938/oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures\">a budget crisis\u003c/a> and a beleaguered police department, community organizers launched a campaign this week to revive the idea of creating an independent Northeastern University police force that would also patrol parts of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conflicting reports on the grassroots initiative, however, have led to widespread concern and confusion among students and community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>East Oakland Neighbors, an organization led by current and former city residents, is behind the latest campaign pushing for a police department that the private Northeastern University Oakland would operate. The organization said it did so after it was notified that the Oakland City Attorney’s Office rejected an original proposal from the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay Burch, the university’s regional security director and a former Oakland police captain, submitted that draft memorandum of understanding to the city last year to create an independent university police department that would function alongside but separate from the Oakland Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its officers would possess the same powers as those in city police departments, such as the ability to carry a weapon and to use lethal force when necessary, and the department would share jurisdiction with OPD over East Oakland neighborhoods outside of campus, according to the MOU, which was rejected in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011586\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011586\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241029-OAKLANDSCHOLARSHIPSTUDENTS-01-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Northeastern University campus in Oakland on Oct. 29, 2024, formerly Mills College. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For Oakland specifically, first and foremost, the campus and its surroundings must be safe and inviting,” Burch said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastoaklandneighbors.org/eon-blog-specialelection2025/clay-burch-letter-to-east-oaklanders\">“letter to East Oaklanders”\u003c/a> posted on the East Oakland Neighbors’ website last week. “This town needs a procedurally just, constitutional police force that not only enforces the law — actually enforces the law — but also incorporates robust community outreach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Burch is a Northeastern University employee and was cited as such in an \u003cem>Oaklandside\u003c/em> article that reported on the campaign on Monday, he told KQED that community members are leading the newest campaign, and a university spokesperson said that article “does not represent the facts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although much of the information was attributed to a Northeastern employee, none of it has been fact-checked with university leaders,” spokesperson Renata Nyul said in a statement. She did not specify what, if anything, was incorrect but said that the school has been in talks with the city about partnering in student safety initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burch said in a statement to KQED that he is not leading the campaign run by East Oakland Neighbors and that his involvement has been misrepresented. He did not give further comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Hayden, a Las Vegas resident who founded East Oakland Neighbors and used to live in Oakland, said the organization’s community outreach campaign will allow East Oakland residents to be a part of the conversation around new public safety ideas, with the goal of encouraging the city and Northeastern University to consider a revised version of the police proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no government involved in this, and Northeastern doesn’t have anything to do with us,” Hayden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northeastern University’s California-based campus is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011539/many-oakland-students-dont-go-to-college-this-new-scholarship-gives-some-a-chance\">located at the site of Mills College\u003c/a>, a former women’s liberal arts school in East Oakland. While the university itself is relatively secluded, rising crime rates in the area have led school officials to brainstorm ways of improving campus security and safety for the wider community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, several Oakland residents and students don’t believe that bringing in more officers will improve public safety and are worried that a police force operating outside of federal oversight and jurisdictional safeguards would pose a threat to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This lack of accountability is particularly alarming in a city like Oakland, where our police department \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">remains under federal oversight\u003c/a> after decades of violence, corruption and harm to our communities,” said Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project. “This new force would operate without those same checks, granting them even greater impunity to racially profile, assault and brutalize residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brooks added that if the university really wanted to support the Oakland community, it would invest in affordable housing, job training programs and mental health services for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential cost of a university police force has also spurred backlash from students since this week’s campaign was publicized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Michael Ford, a manager in the city’s Department of Transportation who volunteers with East Oakland Neighbors as a private citizen, Burch told him that the university would cover the total cost of the new police department, starting with $20 million for 20 officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11855899\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11855899\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021.jpg\" alt=\"Cat Brooks, co-founder of Anti Police-Terror Project, speaks before a Martin Luther King Day car caravan starting at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park near the Port of Oakland on Jan. 18, 2021.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/018_Oakland_MLKCarCaravan_01182021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cat Brooks, co-founder of Anti Police-Terror Project, speaks before a Martin Luther King Day car caravan leaves Middle Harbor Shoreline Park near the Port of Oakland on Jan. 18, 2021. \u003ccite>(BethLaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s not necessarily where I want to see my tuition go,” said William Holloway, a first-year student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several students are petitioning against the proposal after this week’s news was shared in a student and alumni group chat. One student who chose to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution from the university said many of them are concerned that an independent police department will further the strain between students and locals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A police force of this nature has no interest in improving East Oakland,” a petition addressed to Burch and Daniel Sachs, dean of Northeastern University’s Oakland campus, states. The petition specifically names Burch and East Oakland Neighbors as the driving forces behind the renewed push for the police department rather than the university itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More police isn’t always the answer to societal issues, and it largely fuels tensions between locals and governing bodies,” said Holloway, who is not involved in the petition. “The addition of more rather than a change of how is not something that’s necessarily going to fix things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some city officials support the idea of a Northeastern University police department. Councilmember Noel Gallo, who is interim City Council president, said he understands the school’s desire for improved safety, especially as the campus community grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland does not have enough police officers and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018688/oakland-broad-cuts-public-safety-city-agencies-amid-massive-deficit\">is facing a major budget crisis\u003c/a>, and the proposal is an opportunity to fix that, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Attorney Ryan Richardson, who helped review the original proposal by Burch, said a private university having its own peace officers is not unheard of. The University of the Pacific, the University of Southern California and Stanford University have done it before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of Northeastern University, however, the model Burch proposed isn’t authorized by California law, Richardson said, because it would create an independent, fully authorized police force outside of the local police department’s chain of command — which he called unprecedented in California. The city of Oakland would also be liable for everything the university police department does, according to the original MOU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One option for private universities is to employ fully fledged peace officers who are working in the local jurisdiction’s police department as reserve officers, Richardson said. The other option is to hire officers who are not considered California peace officers and are limited in their scope of powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be good to have some higher-level discussions about alternative pathways that we can all agree on and that will be upheld and are legal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "oakland-leaders-propose-plan-reopen-fire-stations-budget-crisis-threatens-more-closures",
"title": "Oakland Leaders Propose Plan to Reopen Fire Stations as Budget Crisis Threatens More Closures",
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"headTitle": "Oakland Leaders Propose Plan to Reopen Fire Stations as Budget Crisis Threatens More Closures | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Oakland representatives promised to look under “every couch cushion” for firefighting funds after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020393/2-oakland-fire-stations-close-amid-budget-crisis-more-could-follow\">station closures last month\u003c/a>. Now, three say they’ve found the money and are proposing a plan to prevent more shutdowns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Oakland’s city administrator shuttered two firehouses to cut costs, warning that four more would follow this month without new funding. The city faces a $130 million budget deficit, worsened by the stalled Coliseum sale, a key piece of its budget plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Council members have asked finance in the past, help us find every last penny, but ultimately, it’s up to us to really do the digging and find every penny, which has been the case here,” said Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, who represents part of the fire-prone Oakland Hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramachandran, along with Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Zac Unger, are asking the whole council to redirect $8.75 million to the fire department. “That would be enough to prevent the closure of four stations and be able to hopefully reopen two more at some point before the end of the fiscal year,” said Ramachandran, noting that there wasn’t a timeline for reopening the stations in Grass Valley and Woodminster yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was one of the harshest critics of Oakland’s July budget, which included a controversial provision that would drastically slash spending and shift most fiscal powers to budget staff if the city’s deal to sell its 50% stake in the Coliseum didn’t go according to plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland councilmember, Janani Ramachandran, right, addresses a crowd, as Representative Barbara Lee looks on at the grand opening of of the Barbara Lee Campaign Headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the budget passed, the Coliseum deal quickly — and quietly — shifted. Initially, the local developers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, and former Mayor Sheng Thao revised the contract to delay payments and shorten the closing time. But last fall, AASEG fell behind on payments while negotiating a second deal with the Oakland A’s for its stake in the property. That agreement requires a complicated county approval process, which has been slow and unstable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The delay triggered the contingency budget, and Budget Administrator Bradley Johnson announced in November that without immediate and drastic changes, the city could run out of money. Since public safety accounts for the bulk of the city’s overspending, police and fire departments had to be part of the budget cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a significant pre-existing structural issue as an organization,” Johnson said at a council meeting. “To maintain our solvency, now is the time that we have to take action to solve it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11893199 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52109_6217605359_e609311dd5_o-qut-1020x670.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021911/oakland-hills-burned-before-la-fires-have-many-terrified-it-will-happen-again\">Residents in the Oakland Hills\u003c/a>, near the two shuttered stations, spent January watching the destructive Los Angeles blazes and worrying about their own city’s ability to respond if a fast-moving fire started in their neighborhoods, which have been ravaged by fire before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire union president Seth Olyer said that without the two stations operating, response times have been longer and resources spread thin. In January, a house fire near a closed station took crews more than 10 minutes to respond to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the loss of four more stations unsustainable and unprecedented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This would take us from a fire department that prides itself on being able to keep small incidents small and prevent the spread of fire to really almost being spectators as we do our absolute best to try and keep fires contained to the city block they originated,” Olyer told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am definitely singing the praises of Councilmembers Kaplan and Ramachandran for their efforts to try and come together and find these funds,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021175\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Fire Department Station No. 25 on Jan. 5, 2025, located on Butters Drive in the East Oakland Hills. It’s one of two stations scheduled to close until June. The closure is part of the city’s effort to confront its $129 million budget deficit. In 2023, Fire Station 25 responded to 834 calls. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He previously said that thanks to Kaplan, the city had identified revenue from events at the Oakland Arena and Coliseum to stave off the additional closures for another month. “But, again, the fact remains that there are still miles and miles of the Oakland Hills where Oaklanders are unprotected from fire and [emergency services] needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The councilmembers’ resolution would pull more than $2.5 million in unexpected revenue from events at the Coliseum and Oakland Arena and about the same amount from the city’s self-insurance liability fund. It also proposes using about $1 million in transportation dollars, and some revenue from increased parking enforcement and a toll contract, according to Ramachandran.[aside postID=news_12025747 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00457-1020x680.jpg']The resolution was approved by the Rules and Legislation committee on Thursday morning, though a key aspect — rescinding the city administrator’s expanded fiscal powers — was removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That power we’re expressly trying to take back to council because our powers are budget and legislation,” Ramachandran told KQED before the vote. Some of the staff’s budget decisions, especially around public safety, have been unpopular with public and council representatives. “What we’re seeing is a whole lot of cut, cut, cut to different programs and services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amended resolution, which Ramachandran feels confident will have strong support, is slated to go before the whole board on March 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it doesn’t pass, the four additional closures could take effect as soon as next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The number one thing that we have been hearing from the public every single day since the closure of these fire stations has been, ‘Save our stations, reopen and keep open some of the bread and butter of public safety,’” she told KQED. “It’s been an issue that’s united Oaklanders perhaps more than any other that I’ve seen during my time as a council member so far, and the message is extremely loud and clear that we cannot afford to lose homes, lose lives, lose businesses, lose anything due to fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Facing a $130 million budget deficit, Oakland officials want to redirect funds to prevent more fire station closures after the delayed Coliseum sale. ",
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"title": "Oakland Leaders Propose Plan to Reopen Fire Stations as Budget Crisis Threatens More Closures | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland representatives promised to look under “every couch cushion” for firefighting funds after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020393/2-oakland-fire-stations-close-amid-budget-crisis-more-could-follow\">station closures last month\u003c/a>. Now, three say they’ve found the money and are proposing a plan to prevent more shutdowns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Oakland’s city administrator shuttered two firehouses to cut costs, warning that four more would follow this month without new funding. The city faces a $130 million budget deficit, worsened by the stalled Coliseum sale, a key piece of its budget plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Council members have asked finance in the past, help us find every last penny, but ultimately, it’s up to us to really do the digging and find every penny, which has been the case here,” said Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, who represents part of the fire-prone Oakland Hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramachandran, along with Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Zac Unger, are asking the whole council to redirect $8.75 million to the fire department. “That would be enough to prevent the closure of four stations and be able to hopefully reopen two more at some point before the end of the fiscal year,” said Ramachandran, noting that there wasn’t a timeline for reopening the stations in Grass Valley and Woodminster yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was one of the harshest critics of Oakland’s July budget, which included a controversial provision that would drastically slash spending and shift most fiscal powers to budget staff if the city’s deal to sell its 50% stake in the Coliseum didn’t go according to plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00563-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland councilmember, Janani Ramachandran, right, addresses a crowd, as Representative Barbara Lee looks on at the grand opening of of the Barbara Lee Campaign Headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the budget passed, the Coliseum deal quickly — and quietly — shifted. Initially, the local developers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, and former Mayor Sheng Thao revised the contract to delay payments and shorten the closing time. But last fall, AASEG fell behind on payments while negotiating a second deal with the Oakland A’s for its stake in the property. That agreement requires a complicated county approval process, which has been slow and unstable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The delay triggered the contingency budget, and Budget Administrator Bradley Johnson announced in November that without immediate and drastic changes, the city could run out of money. Since public safety accounts for the bulk of the city’s overspending, police and fire departments had to be part of the budget cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a significant pre-existing structural issue as an organization,” Johnson said at a council meeting. “To maintain our solvency, now is the time that we have to take action to solve it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021911/oakland-hills-burned-before-la-fires-have-many-terrified-it-will-happen-again\">Residents in the Oakland Hills\u003c/a>, near the two shuttered stations, spent January watching the destructive Los Angeles blazes and worrying about their own city’s ability to respond if a fast-moving fire started in their neighborhoods, which have been ravaged by fire before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire union president Seth Olyer said that without the two stations operating, response times have been longer and resources spread thin. In January, a house fire near a closed station took crews more than 10 minutes to respond to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the loss of four more stations unsustainable and unprecedented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This would take us from a fire department that prides itself on being able to keep small incidents small and prevent the spread of fire to really almost being spectators as we do our absolute best to try and keep fires contained to the city block they originated,” Olyer told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am definitely singing the praises of Councilmembers Kaplan and Ramachandran for their efforts to try and come together and find these funds,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021175\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250105_OakFireClose_DMB_00056_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Fire Department Station No. 25 on Jan. 5, 2025, located on Butters Drive in the East Oakland Hills. It’s one of two stations scheduled to close until June. The closure is part of the city’s effort to confront its $129 million budget deficit. In 2023, Fire Station 25 responded to 834 calls. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He previously said that thanks to Kaplan, the city had identified revenue from events at the Oakland Arena and Coliseum to stave off the additional closures for another month. “But, again, the fact remains that there are still miles and miles of the Oakland Hills where Oaklanders are unprotected from fire and [emergency services] needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The councilmembers’ resolution would pull more than $2.5 million in unexpected revenue from events at the Coliseum and Oakland Arena and about the same amount from the city’s self-insurance liability fund. It also proposes using about $1 million in transportation dollars, and some revenue from increased parking enforcement and a toll contract, according to Ramachandran.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The resolution was approved by the Rules and Legislation committee on Thursday morning, though a key aspect — rescinding the city administrator’s expanded fiscal powers — was removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That power we’re expressly trying to take back to council because our powers are budget and legislation,” Ramachandran told KQED before the vote. Some of the staff’s budget decisions, especially around public safety, have been unpopular with public and council representatives. “What we’re seeing is a whole lot of cut, cut, cut to different programs and services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amended resolution, which Ramachandran feels confident will have strong support, is slated to go before the whole board on March 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it doesn’t pass, the four additional closures could take effect as soon as next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The number one thing that we have been hearing from the public every single day since the closure of these fire stations has been, ‘Save our stations, reopen and keep open some of the bread and butter of public safety,’” she told KQED. “It’s been an issue that’s united Oaklanders perhaps more than any other that I’ve seen during my time as a council member so far, and the message is extremely loud and clear that we cannot afford to lose homes, lose lives, lose businesses, lose anything due to fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "how-2-bay-area-artists-built-a-life-music-literature-love",
"title": "Against the Odds: How 2 Bay Area Artists Built a Life of Music, Literature and Love",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported for K Onda KQED, a monthly newsletter focused on the Bay Area’s Latinx community. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/k-onda\">\u003cem>Click here to subscribe.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I met children’s author Aida Salazar back in 2017 at an intensive, weeklong writing class. It was the type of class aspiring writers sign up for to receive feedback and encouragement to keep going, but few end up going pro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar landed a book deal. Since 2020, she has published four young adult novels, several anthologies, a handful of children’s books and translations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I recently caught up with Salazar in the lobby of Freight & Salvage, a live music venue in Berkeley, before her partner, acclaimed Latin jazz percussionist John Santos, took the stage with his sextet. The sold-out show marked the 40th anniversary of Machete Records, the label he founded, and the release of his latest album, “Horizontes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar was in charge of the merchandise table, a role she begrudgingly took when they started dating more than 25 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I moved in with him, I said, ‘I’m not going to be the one selling your CDs,’ and now I’m always the one selling his CDs because I know his collection so well,” she said, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That night, she set out copies of her books alongside the rows of CDs, turning the merch table into another symbol of their partnership. Making a living as an artist in the Bay Area is hard enough for one person, let alone two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The John Santos Sextet performs to a sold out crowd at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California, Feb. 1, 2025. The concert marked the release of a new album, Horizontes, along with the 40th anniversary of the launch of Santos’ label, Machete Records. The sextet features bassist Saul Sierra, drummer David Flores, flutist John Calloway, saxophonist Charlie Gurke, and pianist and trumpeter Marco Diaz. The band was joined by percussionist Javier Navarrette; pianist Marcel Joao, Santos’ 17-year-old son; vocalists Maria Cora, Christelle Durandy and Juan Luis Pérez; cuatro player Pedro Pastrana; violinist Anthony Blea; and timbales legend Orestes Vilató. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Artists are often credited with fueling the soul and character of a place, but in the Bay Area, artists are regularly forced to flee the high cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I sat down with Salazar and Santos in their home earlier this year to find out more about how they thrive as a couple — and as working artists in the Bay Area. Art, they said, brought them together as a spiritual practice, a creative practice and a vehicle for social justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar’s books, including \u003cem>The Moon Within\u003c/em>, \u003cem>A Seed in the Sun\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Ultraviolet\u003c/em>, focus on the experiences of young Latinos navigating everything from their menstrual cycles to immigration to toxic masculinity. Her children’s book, \u003cem>Jovita Wore Pants\u003c/em>, tells the story of her distant aunt who dressed as a man to fight in a civil war over religious rights in 1920s Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12021877 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241216-KOndaJanuary-JY-009-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos, 69, was born and raised in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. His mother’s family was originally from Puerto Rico, and his father’s from Cape Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa. He learned traditional Caribbean and African rhythms from the various professional musicians in his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They met in 2000 in Los Angeles, where Salazar grew up. At 27, she was an artist who made a living producing cultural events for nonprofits and arts organizations. At the time, she had a rule of not dating musicians or actors because they “didn’t know when to stop performing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John came in to do a performance at the museum where I was helping produce a concert series,” Salazar, now 52, continued. “He had an energy about him that was really awesome. I had to take him around to different gigs throughout the weekend, and he just made me laugh. He was so down-to-earth and so charismatic. He just didn’t feel like he was performing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also didn’t hurt that he was tall and good-looking, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I met Aida, she was a very beautiful young lady,” Santos said. “She’s very natural, very comfortable in her skin. And smart as a whip and communicative. She was very spunky. That was very attractive. And finding out about her work in the community and her background as an activist, I related to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12024525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12024525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Santos and Aida Salazar pose for a portrait in front of their home in Oakland, California, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They dated long-distance for about a year, exchanging many poetry-filled letters before Aida decided to move to the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The foundation of their life in Oakland is their house in the Fruitvale District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exterior is painted a deep blue with magenta accents. The inside is filled with photos, artwork and decor from Mexico and the Caribbean. A separate building in the back houses a recording studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos bought the house in 1997 because, like many San Francisco natives, he was priced out of his hometown. In retrospect, the purchase was fortuitous, given how much home values have risen in Oakland.[aside postID=news_12014006 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/Rogelio_Garcia_-_Convivir1-e1731360269373-1020x616.png']Santos’ focus on Latin jazz and Afro-Caribbean music could have pulled him to New York City, but he never had the desire to leave the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not interested in the commercial aspect of music. I’m not interested in winning a Grammy. I’m not interested in breaking records sales because I know that’s not realistic,” he said. “I’ve never felt limited being in the Bay Area. It’s kind of in my DNA. It’s more mellow here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar referred to the house as a blessing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We call it La Casa Florida because there’s flowers everywhere outside like the big bougainvillea that I just adore,” she said. “It’s been like a canvas to be able to grow all of these plants everywhere and really make this place our home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve focused on what Salazar calls “the ultimate creation,” their children. Their first child, Amaly Celeste, died a month after she was born — a loss they are still grappling with two decades later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The arts gave us something to express the grief we have and to dive into it and give us some solace,” Santos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have two children. A daughter, Avelina Claridad, 19, is an accomplished dancer. Their son, Marcel Joao, 17, studies music at the Oakland School for the Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We facilitated them to find their own artistic path, and they became artists not because we wanted them to, but just because we were able to expose them to a world of the arts,” Salazar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar plans to release \u003cem>Stream,\u003c/em> her fifth novel, next year. Santos hopes to perform at SF Jazz for his 70th birthday in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re lucky to be still doing what we’re doing,” Santos said. “I feel fortunate to have met Aida, who I respect greatly for being an artist. It’s [an] ideal situation because we are coming from the same place in terms of how we see art and the role of art in the community and how it’s such an important voice for sanity and for peace in the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported for K Onda KQED, a monthly newsletter focused on the Bay Area’s Latinx community. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/k-onda\">\u003cem>Click here to subscribe.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I met children’s author Aida Salazar back in 2017 at an intensive, weeklong writing class. It was the type of class aspiring writers sign up for to receive feedback and encouragement to keep going, but few end up going pro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar landed a book deal. Since 2020, she has published four young adult novels, several anthologies, a handful of children’s books and translations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I recently caught up with Salazar in the lobby of Freight & Salvage, a live music venue in Berkeley, before her partner, acclaimed Latin jazz percussionist John Santos, took the stage with his sextet. The sold-out show marked the 40th anniversary of Machete Records, the label he founded, and the release of his latest album, “Horizontes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar was in charge of the merchandise table, a role she begrudgingly took when they started dating more than 25 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I moved in with him, I said, ‘I’m not going to be the one selling your CDs,’ and now I’m always the one selling his CDs because I know his collection so well,” she said, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That night, she set out copies of her books alongside the rows of CDs, turning the merch table into another symbol of their partnership. Making a living as an artist in the Bay Area is hard enough for one person, let alone two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250201_K-Onda_DMB_04886-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The John Santos Sextet performs to a sold out crowd at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California, Feb. 1, 2025. The concert marked the release of a new album, Horizontes, along with the 40th anniversary of the launch of Santos’ label, Machete Records. The sextet features bassist Saul Sierra, drummer David Flores, flutist John Calloway, saxophonist Charlie Gurke, and pianist and trumpeter Marco Diaz. The band was joined by percussionist Javier Navarrette; pianist Marcel Joao, Santos’ 17-year-old son; vocalists Maria Cora, Christelle Durandy and Juan Luis Pérez; cuatro player Pedro Pastrana; violinist Anthony Blea; and timbales legend Orestes Vilató. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Artists are often credited with fueling the soul and character of a place, but in the Bay Area, artists are regularly forced to flee the high cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I sat down with Salazar and Santos in their home earlier this year to find out more about how they thrive as a couple — and as working artists in the Bay Area. Art, they said, brought them together as a spiritual practice, a creative practice and a vehicle for social justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar’s books, including \u003cem>The Moon Within\u003c/em>, \u003cem>A Seed in the Sun\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Ultraviolet\u003c/em>, focus on the experiences of young Latinos navigating everything from their menstrual cycles to immigration to toxic masculinity. Her children’s book, \u003cem>Jovita Wore Pants\u003c/em>, tells the story of her distant aunt who dressed as a man to fight in a civil war over religious rights in 1920s Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos, 69, was born and raised in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. His mother’s family was originally from Puerto Rico, and his father’s from Cape Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa. He learned traditional Caribbean and African rhythms from the various professional musicians in his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They met in 2000 in Los Angeles, where Salazar grew up. At 27, she was an artist who made a living producing cultural events for nonprofits and arts organizations. At the time, she had a rule of not dating musicians or actors because they “didn’t know when to stop performing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John came in to do a performance at the museum where I was helping produce a concert series,” Salazar, now 52, continued. “He had an energy about him that was really awesome. I had to take him around to different gigs throughout the weekend, and he just made me laugh. He was so down-to-earth and so charismatic. He just didn’t feel like he was performing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also didn’t hurt that he was tall and good-looking, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I met Aida, she was a very beautiful young lady,” Santos said. “She’s very natural, very comfortable in her skin. And smart as a whip and communicative. She was very spunky. That was very attractive. And finding out about her work in the community and her background as an activist, I related to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12024525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12024525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250127_K-Onda_DB_00109-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Santos and Aida Salazar pose for a portrait in front of their home in Oakland, California, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They dated long-distance for about a year, exchanging many poetry-filled letters before Aida decided to move to the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The foundation of their life in Oakland is their house in the Fruitvale District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exterior is painted a deep blue with magenta accents. The inside is filled with photos, artwork and decor from Mexico and the Caribbean. A separate building in the back houses a recording studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santos bought the house in 1997 because, like many San Francisco natives, he was priced out of his hometown. In retrospect, the purchase was fortuitous, given how much home values have risen in Oakland.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Santos’ focus on Latin jazz and Afro-Caribbean music could have pulled him to New York City, but he never had the desire to leave the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not interested in the commercial aspect of music. I’m not interested in winning a Grammy. I’m not interested in breaking records sales because I know that’s not realistic,” he said. “I’ve never felt limited being in the Bay Area. It’s kind of in my DNA. It’s more mellow here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar referred to the house as a blessing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We call it La Casa Florida because there’s flowers everywhere outside like the big bougainvillea that I just adore,” she said. “It’s been like a canvas to be able to grow all of these plants everywhere and really make this place our home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve focused on what Salazar calls “the ultimate creation,” their children. Their first child, Amaly Celeste, died a month after she was born — a loss they are still grappling with two decades later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The arts gave us something to express the grief we have and to dive into it and give us some solace,” Santos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have two children. A daughter, Avelina Claridad, 19, is an accomplished dancer. Their son, Marcel Joao, 17, studies music at the Oakland School for the Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We facilitated them to find their own artistic path, and they became artists not because we wanted them to, but just because we were able to expose them to a world of the arts,” Salazar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar plans to release \u003cem>Stream,\u003c/em> her fifth novel, next year. Santos hopes to perform at SF Jazz for his 70th birthday in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re lucky to be still doing what we’re doing,” Santos said. “I feel fortunate to have met Aida, who I respect greatly for being an artist. It’s [an] ideal situation because we are coming from the same place in terms of how we see art and the role of art in the community and how it’s such an important voice for sanity and for peace in the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Barbara Lee to Return $5,000 in Donations From Family Linked to Oakland Bribery Scandal",
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"headTitle": "Barbara Lee to Return $5,000 in Donations From Family Linked to Oakland Bribery Scandal | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Campaign finance records show former East Bay Rep. and Oakland mayoral candidate \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/barbara-lee\">Barbara Lee\u003c/a> received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations during her years in Congress from a family whose members stand accused in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">federal indictment of bribing Oakland’s former mayor\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, were charged on Jan. 9 in \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/media/1385311/dl?inline\">an eight-count indictment\u003c/a> with bribery, conspiracy and honest services mail and wire fraud in an alleged pay-to-play scheme between the Duongs, former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Mayor Sheng Thao\u003c/a>, who was recalled in last year’s election, and her boyfriend, Andre Jones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Duong is the CEO of California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s curbside recycling provider. The company has a contract with the city of Oakland through 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee, who is running to be mayor of Oakland in an April 15 special election, served in Congress for more than 25 years before retiring and announcing her candidacy last month. A spokesperson for Lee, who opened her campaign headquarters in downtown Oakland on Saturday, said she planned to donate the most recent contributions from David Duong to Meals on Wheels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Barbara Lee has zero tolerance for any pay to play or special interest influence, has denounced these disturbing allegations, and has never been involved in any City vendor selection or contract issuance — and she fully supports strengthening City ethics practices,” Bilen Mesfin, a spokesperson for Lee’s mayoral campaign, told KQED Feb. 6. “As her final congressional term has reached its natural conclusion, her previous congressional accounts are now closed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12026401 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Repr. Barbara Lee speaks to the crowd as Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, right, addresses the room at the grand opening of her campaign headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the past two decades, the Duongs have been prolific donors to political campaigns and elected officials at the local, state and federal levels. Some politicians have returned those donations as an FBI investigation involving the Duongs has come into focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal campaign finance data show that since 1998, David Duong, Andy Duong and other members of the Duong family have contributed at least $66,250 to Lee. Most recently, David Duong contributed $5,000 to Lee’s unsuccessful run for Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As for the $5000 donated to her senate campaign in 2023, Barbara Lee is donating that to Meals on Wheels,” Mesfin said in a follow-up email on Feb. 7, hours before Lee’s campaign launch in downtown Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a room full of supporters at her new campaign headquarters on Saturday, Lee spoke of regaining public trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got to make sure that all of the issues around ethics and transparency, the gaps are closed in this city. Because we have to restore trust and confidence with our residents,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11991432\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11991432\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. postal inspectors check documents at a home tied to David Duong, one of the multiple properties searched by law enforcement that included residences to members of a politically connected family who run the citys contracted recycling company, California Waste Solutions, in Oakland on June 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Campaign finance records released so far do not show Lee has received donations from the Duongs during her run for mayor, and the past donations themselves are not an indication of wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say that the Duongs are long-standing donors to Lee, often giving at the maximum allowed,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glavin reviewed campaign finance data for Barbara Lee’s political campaigns since 1998 at KQED’s request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal election finance documents show that Lee’s congressional campaign committee was \u003ca href=\"https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/389/202411050300227389/202411050300227389.pdf\">terminated as of November\u003c/a>. However, a committee for Lee’s Senate run, which remains open, had $48,791.98 cash on hand and $91,035.13 in debts as of Dec. 31, according to the most recent data available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors allege that David and Andy Duong financed negative political mailers targeting Thao’s opponents in the 2022 mayoral election and that following the election, the Duongs and a person identified as “co-conspirator 1” paid $95,000 to Jones for a no-show job. The unnamed co-conspirator appears to be local businessman and political operative Mario Juarez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022840\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12022840\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andre Jones, longtime partner of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, leaves the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In exchange, Thao allegedly promised to extend the Duongs’ recycling company’s contract with the city, give the Duongs and the co-conspirator influence over city appointments and use public money to purchase housing units from another company owned by the Duongs and the co-conspirator, according to the indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/lorenmtaylor/status/1887565988570513462\">post on social media platform X on Thursday\u003c/a>, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor, one of Lee’s opponents in the mayor’s race, said the scandal had caused the public to lose trust in Oakland city government and pressed Lee to return the donations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m calling on all East Bay officials — including my opponent in the upcoming special election, Former Congresswoman Barbara Lee — who have received money from the Duong family to donate those funds to charity,” Taylor said. “We must demonstrate to residents that we have learned from these events and that the public can trust us to lead Oakland during the difficult time that lies ahead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to campaign finance records, the Duongs have donated to politicians at almost every level of government for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State campaign finance data show members of the family have contributed often to big-name Democrats like Rob and Mia Bonta, Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris, while David Duong has donated to both Democrats and Republicans at the federal level, including $250,000 to a committee called Trump Victory in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026374\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026374\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Rep. Barbara Lee, center right, receives a welcome hug from Oakland District 4 Councilmember Janani Ramachandran at the grand opening of the Barbara Lee Campaign Headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2021, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission produced a report in support of a finding of probable cause alleging that Andy Duong, between at least 2016 and 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991426/oakland-fbi-raids-also-targeted-this-powerful-family-heres-what-we-know\">orchestrated an elaborate campaign contribution laundering scheme\u003c/a> for the benefit of California Waste Solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report describes how Duong allegedly sought out people to write campaign contribution checks and then reimbursed them with cash to bypass campaign donation limits while CWS had ongoing business with Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the report, Duong allegedly provided committees and candidates with checks at campaign fundraisers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While Duong and CWS concealed the true source of the contributions, Duong ensured the targeted candidates were aware of his commitment to raise money for their campaign by attending candidate fundraisers, bringing individuals to campaign fundraisers, and at times hosting campaign fundraisers,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case is still open and under investigation, a spokesperson for FPPC said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026396\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campaign door hangers are on display at the grand opening of the headquarters for the Barbara Lee campaign headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was opened as a joint investigation with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, which the FBI credited at a January press conference for the initial information that led to the agency’s multiyear investigation of Thao, Jones and the Duongs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, after the FBI raided Thao’s home and three addresses associated with the Duongs and their business, several elected officials returned donations they received from the Duongs, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta returned $155,100 “out of an abundance of caution,” according to then-spokesperson Nathan Click.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South Bay Congressman Ro Khanna donated $5,800 in contributions from the Duongs to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, Maitri and Community Seva, a spokesperson for the congressman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12022900 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00001-1020x681.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for then-Senate candidate Adam Schiff’s campaign \u003ca href=\"https://sanjosespotlight.com/silicon-valley-san-jose-politicians-give-back-donations-following-fbi-raids-david-duong-california-waste-solutions/\">told the \u003cem>San José Spotlight\u003c/em>\u003c/a> last year that “following public news reports, the campaign will be giving $26,000 — the total contributions received from Mr. Duong and his family — to a local nonprofit helping address housing and homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s review of campaign finance records at the city, state and federal level did not uncover documentation of other candidates in the current Oakland mayors’ race receiving donations from the Duongs in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say that almost anyone else in local politics who wants to reassure their constituents that they are clean and above board should consider doing the same thing,” said Dan Schnur, professor of political communication at USC and UC Berkeley and the former chair of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. “It sounds like the Lee campaign decided that avoiding unnecessary bad publicity is more valuable than the $5,000. That is a wise decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numerous photos posted to Andy Duong’s Instagram account show him posing with major Democratic politicians at the state and federal level, including Hillary Clinton, Rob Bonta, Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Taylor and Lee also appear in photos posted to the account. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BsXKPmcAvGN/?img_index=3\">Jan. 7, 2019 post\u003c/a>, Thao, Taylor and former Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas, now an Alameda County supervisor, appear in selfies with Andy Duong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was when the three of us — Nikki Bas, myself and Sheng Thao — were inaugurated. That was when we were first sworn into office as new council members,” Taylor said. “So there was a lot of photos being taken with a lot of people that I didn’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor said that after Bonta returned donations from the Duongs, his staff reviewed their campaign financial records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As far as I know, I have never received any financial contributions from the Duong family,” Taylor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Lee’s campaign did not respond to questions about the extent and nature of her relationship with members of the Duong family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BVvmt3Zgf3f/?hl=en\">June 24, 2017\u003c/a> photo, Andy Duong appears next to Lee at her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six days later, campaign finance records show, he contributed $2,700 to Lee’s reelection campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Lee, who represented the East Bay in Congress for 25 years, opened her mayoral campaign headquarters in downtown Oakland on Saturday. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Campaign finance records show former East Bay Rep. and Oakland mayoral candidate \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/barbara-lee\">Barbara Lee\u003c/a> received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations during her years in Congress from a family whose members stand accused in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">federal indictment of bribing Oakland’s former mayor\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, were charged on Jan. 9 in \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/media/1385311/dl?inline\">an eight-count indictment\u003c/a> with bribery, conspiracy and honest services mail and wire fraud in an alleged pay-to-play scheme between the Duongs, former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Mayor Sheng Thao\u003c/a>, who was recalled in last year’s election, and her boyfriend, Andre Jones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Duong is the CEO of California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s curbside recycling provider. The company has a contract with the city of Oakland through 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee, who is running to be mayor of Oakland in an April 15 special election, served in Congress for more than 25 years before retiring and announcing her candidacy last month. A spokesperson for Lee, who opened her campaign headquarters in downtown Oakland on Saturday, said she planned to donate the most recent contributions from David Duong to Meals on Wheels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Barbara Lee has zero tolerance for any pay to play or special interest influence, has denounced these disturbing allegations, and has never been involved in any City vendor selection or contract issuance — and she fully supports strengthening City ethics practices,” Bilen Mesfin, a spokesperson for Lee’s mayoral campaign, told KQED Feb. 6. “As her final congressional term has reached its natural conclusion, her previous congressional accounts are now closed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12026401 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00494-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Repr. Barbara Lee speaks to the crowd as Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, right, addresses the room at the grand opening of her campaign headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the past two decades, the Duongs have been prolific donors to political campaigns and elected officials at the local, state and federal levels. Some politicians have returned those donations as an FBI investigation involving the Duongs has come into focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal campaign finance data show that since 1998, David Duong, Andy Duong and other members of the Duong family have contributed at least $66,250 to Lee. Most recently, David Duong contributed $5,000 to Lee’s unsuccessful run for Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As for the $5000 donated to her senate campaign in 2023, Barbara Lee is donating that to Meals on Wheels,” Mesfin said in a follow-up email on Feb. 7, hours before Lee’s campaign launch in downtown Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a room full of supporters at her new campaign headquarters on Saturday, Lee spoke of regaining public trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got to make sure that all of the issues around ethics and transparency, the gaps are closed in this city. Because we have to restore trust and confidence with our residents,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11991432\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11991432\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/GETTYIMAGES-2158502017-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. postal inspectors check documents at a home tied to David Duong, one of the multiple properties searched by law enforcement that included residences to members of a politically connected family who run the citys contracted recycling company, California Waste Solutions, in Oakland on June 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Campaign finance records released so far do not show Lee has received donations from the Duongs during her run for mayor, and the past donations themselves are not an indication of wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say that the Duongs are long-standing donors to Lee, often giving at the maximum allowed,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glavin reviewed campaign finance data for Barbara Lee’s political campaigns since 1998 at KQED’s request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal election finance documents show that Lee’s congressional campaign committee was \u003ca href=\"https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/389/202411050300227389/202411050300227389.pdf\">terminated as of November\u003c/a>. However, a committee for Lee’s Senate run, which remains open, had $48,791.98 cash on hand and $91,035.13 in debts as of Dec. 31, according to the most recent data available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors allege that David and Andy Duong financed negative political mailers targeting Thao’s opponents in the 2022 mayoral election and that following the election, the Duongs and a person identified as “co-conspirator 1” paid $95,000 to Jones for a no-show job. The unnamed co-conspirator appears to be local businessman and political operative Mario Juarez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022840\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12022840\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Thao-Recall_BL_00009-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andre Jones, longtime partner of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, leaves the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In exchange, Thao allegedly promised to extend the Duongs’ recycling company’s contract with the city, give the Duongs and the co-conspirator influence over city appointments and use public money to purchase housing units from another company owned by the Duongs and the co-conspirator, according to the indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/lorenmtaylor/status/1887565988570513462\">post on social media platform X on Thursday\u003c/a>, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor, one of Lee’s opponents in the mayor’s race, said the scandal had caused the public to lose trust in Oakland city government and pressed Lee to return the donations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m calling on all East Bay officials — including my opponent in the upcoming special election, Former Congresswoman Barbara Lee — who have received money from the Duong family to donate those funds to charity,” Taylor said. “We must demonstrate to residents that we have learned from these events and that the public can trust us to lead Oakland during the difficult time that lies ahead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to campaign finance records, the Duongs have donated to politicians at almost every level of government for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State campaign finance data show members of the family have contributed often to big-name Democrats like Rob and Mia Bonta, Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris, while David Duong has donated to both Democrats and Republicans at the federal level, including $250,000 to a committee called Trump Victory in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026374\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026374\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00434-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Rep. Barbara Lee, center right, receives a welcome hug from Oakland District 4 Councilmember Janani Ramachandran at the grand opening of the Barbara Lee Campaign Headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2021, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission produced a report in support of a finding of probable cause alleging that Andy Duong, between at least 2016 and 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991426/oakland-fbi-raids-also-targeted-this-powerful-family-heres-what-we-know\">orchestrated an elaborate campaign contribution laundering scheme\u003c/a> for the benefit of California Waste Solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report describes how Duong allegedly sought out people to write campaign contribution checks and then reimbursed them with cash to bypass campaign donation limits while CWS had ongoing business with Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the report, Duong allegedly provided committees and candidates with checks at campaign fundraisers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While Duong and CWS concealed the true source of the contributions, Duong ensured the targeted candidates were aware of his commitment to raise money for their campaign by attending candidate fundraisers, bringing individuals to campaign fundraisers, and at times hosting campaign fundraisers,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case is still open and under investigation, a spokesperson for FPPC said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12026396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12026396\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250208_Barbara-Lee_DMB_00076-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campaign door hangers are on display at the grand opening of the headquarters for the Barbara Lee campaign headquarters on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was opened as a joint investigation with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, which the FBI credited at a January press conference for the initial information that led to the agency’s multiyear investigation of Thao, Jones and the Duongs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, after the FBI raided Thao’s home and three addresses associated with the Duongs and their business, several elected officials returned donations they received from the Duongs, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta returned $155,100 “out of an abundance of caution,” according to then-spokesperson Nathan Click.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>South Bay Congressman Ro Khanna donated $5,800 in contributions from the Duongs to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, Maitri and Community Seva, a spokesperson for the congressman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for then-Senate candidate Adam Schiff’s campaign \u003ca href=\"https://sanjosespotlight.com/silicon-valley-san-jose-politicians-give-back-donations-following-fbi-raids-david-duong-california-waste-solutions/\">told the \u003cem>San José Spotlight\u003c/em>\u003c/a> last year that “following public news reports, the campaign will be giving $26,000 — the total contributions received from Mr. Duong and his family — to a local nonprofit helping address housing and homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s review of campaign finance records at the city, state and federal level did not uncover documentation of other candidates in the current Oakland mayors’ race receiving donations from the Duongs in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say that almost anyone else in local politics who wants to reassure their constituents that they are clean and above board should consider doing the same thing,” said Dan Schnur, professor of political communication at USC and UC Berkeley and the former chair of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. “It sounds like the Lee campaign decided that avoiding unnecessary bad publicity is more valuable than the $5,000. That is a wise decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numerous photos posted to Andy Duong’s Instagram account show him posing with major Democratic politicians at the state and federal level, including Hillary Clinton, Rob Bonta, Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Taylor and Lee also appear in photos posted to the account. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BsXKPmcAvGN/?img_index=3\">Jan. 7, 2019 post\u003c/a>, Thao, Taylor and former Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas, now an Alameda County supervisor, appear in selfies with Andy Duong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was when the three of us — Nikki Bas, myself and Sheng Thao — were inaugurated. That was when we were first sworn into office as new council members,” Taylor said. “So there was a lot of photos being taken with a lot of people that I didn’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor said that after Bonta returned donations from the Duongs, his staff reviewed their campaign financial records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As far as I know, I have never received any financial contributions from the Duong family,” Taylor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Lee’s campaign did not respond to questions about the extent and nature of her relationship with members of the Duong family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BVvmt3Zgf3f/?hl=en\">June 24, 2017\u003c/a> photo, Andy Duong appears next to Lee at her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six days later, campaign finance records show, he contributed $2,700 to Lee’s reelection campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"order": 9
},
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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