Edgerly Scandal Is Scandal for Mayor and Council

Oakland city administrator Deborah Edgerly allegedly interfered with a police roundup of drug dealers, killers, and robbers.

On June 7, 2008, police found a firearm inside a vehicle belonging to a William Lovan. They developed information that he discussed the firearm with a leader of the Acorn drug mob, Mark Antony Candler. City administrator Edgerly appeared on the Market Street scene as police prepared to tow the vehicle. Press reports do not explain how Edgerly knew what was going on.

Edgerly told the officers that Lovan, age 27, is her nephew. She threatened them that she was telephoning assistant police chief Howard Jordan and that she would bring internal affairs into the matter to investigate the officers.

Lovan has been on the City payroll since 2003 as a parking-meter repairman.

Edgerly previously used the weight of her office to get an unprecedented four attempts for her daughter to go through Oakland police academies and become a sworn officer of the law. She failed every time, but still got a non-officer job in the deparment.

Now Edgerly herself is being investigated for possibly compromising the undercover investigation that culminated in the June 18 roundup of Acorn housing project drug dealers, alleged killers, and robbers. The June 7 police stop of Lovan was part of the Acorn investigation. Lovan is a suspected gang member. He was arrested in the June 18 roundup, charged with two firearms counts, and released on $100,000 bail. (All Lovan incident details from reports by Oakland Tribune and KTVU)

Edgerly is paid $250,000 a year. In addition, according to a report by columnist Chip Johnson, "Between 2000 and 2006, Deborah Edgerly cashed in $183,000 in vacation, sick pay and management leave. Separately, she awarded herself an additional $60,000 in bonuses during that period." (San Francisco Chronicle, April 11, 2008)

The scandal around city adminstrator Edgerly cannot be isolated to her. Several observers of City Hall believe that months ago Dellums "asked" Edgerly to leave her job, she refused – and Dellums backed down. Only after this incident has Dellums told Edgerly she must go.

Dellums seems to have a lax attitude about some wrongdoers. He wrote a letter of commendation for Your Black Muslim Bakery when it was in bankruptcy proceedings, prior to the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey that brought the Bakery empire crashing to the ground. Unlike congress representative Barbara Lee, Dellums never offered even a half apology for his support of the Bakery, which years ago degenerated into a criminal mob.

Furthermore, are we to believe none of the councilmembers knew what was going on with Edgerly? The pressure on the police department for her daughter was common knowledge. In addition, her nephew Lovan was a city employee while he was a suspected gang member. A city administrator with these credentials almost surely has other violations of civil service ethical standards waiting to be brought to light.

Meanwhile, Oakland residents pay more and more taxes for less and less service. The city is short hundreds of police officers by any rational comparison with ordinary American cities. The council just rammed through a rigged vote increasing a parcel tax sold as funding for parks. Yet the City has fewer gardeners than it had in 1989, despite adding hundreds of other employees since then. There will be no increase in gardeners from the new tax.

So far, the only two persons mentioned to replace Dellums as mayor are state senator Don Perata and councilmember Jean Quan. Both have said publicly they want the office. Perata remains under federal investigation for corruption related to campaign contributions. Quan took the lead in arranging the rigged vote to increase the Landscape and Lighting tax. She also pushed a senior housing project on a site she knows has carcinogenic waste in the ground from decades of auto paint shop and gas station operations. Both Perata and Quan are compromised candidates when the need is for someone who will clean up City Hall.

Corruption not only stinks; it undermines the elementary functions of city government. Oakland needs a clean slate in City Hall. Ethically clean. And committed to basic services, especially an adequate police force.

Edgerly Pays No Penalty for Sabotaging Public Safety

Ignoring a series of acts by city administrator Deborah Edgerly amounting to sabotage of public safety in Oakland, Mayor Ron Dellums announced she will retire on July 31 with no stated penalty.

Dellums inherited Edgerly as city administrator from former mayor Jerry Brown. He did not relieve her from her post when he took office. At that time it was public knowledge that Edgerly had pressured the police department to change its standards for officer recruits so that her unqualified daughter could graduate from a police academy. In fact, the daughter got an unprecedented four admittances to police academies.

The latest Edgerly outrage that brought on the current crisis occurred after she showed up on the scene as police were preparing to tow the vehicle of William Lovan, a felon convicted in 2000 for possession of assault weapons. Police had knowledge he was discussing firearms with the leader of the Acorn drug mob, believed by police to be responsible for 37 murders in the last three years. Edgerly said Lovan was her nephew and threatened police that she would begin internal affairs proceedings against them. Police towed the vehicle anyway and recovered a loaded firearm illegally in Lovan's possession.

Mark Candler, accused Acorn drug boss who allegedly received tipoff on police investigation from Edgerly and her nephew.

According to KTVU, police listened in on a phone call between Lovan and Acorn gang leader Marc Anthony Candler a day or two later. Lovan reportedly told Candler, "Get rid of all your mitts. I got this straight from the head." The call was a warning that the "mitts" (phones) were tapped. "Head" Edgerly knew about the wiretaps because as city administrator she would sign off on officer overtime to monitor wiretaps during Operation Nutcracker.

An unknown number of relatives and friends of Edgerly have been put on the City payroll and protected despite such offenses as identity theft, welfare fraud, and defiance of police orders to disperse from a mob scene at the Mingles club. When repeated incidents of shooting finally produced a hearing to shut down the club, Edgerly showed up at a license hearing in its defense. The club finally was compelled to close after a pregnant woman was shot dead.

At some point well before the latest incident, Dellums and councilmembers knew the magnitude of the Edgerly problem. But no councilmember had the courage to speak out, and the mayor did nothing.

Dellums, finally forced to act by the glare of publicity, has not fired Edgerly, nor even compelled her to resign. He allowed her to retire, saying that her retirement is "not a reaction" to the news of her interference with police work. Edgerly's pension would be almost $150,000 per year.

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In the same vein, one official tells a reporter that retirement for Edgerly "is a graceful way for everybody to end it." The official who made this morally blind statement did not put his name to it. (San Francisco Chronicle, June 25, 2008)

After Dellums and Edgerly announced her retirement, councilmember Kernighan said, "If the allegations about interfering in a criminal investigation are true, then (Edgerly) should not continue to be the city administrator. But the council doesn't know if that is true or not, because nobody is sharing that information with us." Despite years of transgressions by Edgerly (public, semi-public, and known in City Hall gossip), the councilmember still takes a passive, evasive stand.

At least Kernighan did not voice continued confidence in Edgerly like councilmember Reid, who said, "I do have faith in her being the city administrator until she retires." (Oakland Tribune, June 25, 2008)

Only city auditor Courtney Ruby, first elected in 2006, said something with backbone in it: "As Oakland's elected City Auditor, I am responsible for ensuring the City's assets are safeguarded and I have serious concerns that the administrator who is under investigation continues to have access to city assets."

In relation to the City budget, Edgerly's direct personal takings are small. The wider harm done by Edgerly lies in her example to City staff. No doubt most employees realized they had a duty to do their jobs properly no matter how selfish, derelict, and damaging to Oakland their top administrator was. Nonetheless, her behavior encouraged other managers to copy her and had a demoralizing effect on rank and file employees. Edgerly's methods and their ramifications have cost the City millions of dollars in unknown graft and inferior performance.

Dellums hopes to sweep all that under the rug. One reason is that he and some councilmembers are jostling over how to go to the voters this November and ask for yet another tax increase! Their promise will be more police, as if residents have not seen the total failure of implementing the Measure Y taxes passed in 2004. Rather late, councilmember Kernighan admitted, "It (the Edgerly scandal) really created this crisis of confidence in our city government." (San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2008)

Edgerly is gone, but the Edgerly atmosphere remains. Last Friday several dozen City employees, apparently on work time at 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon, gathered and milled around in a council hearing room, bubbling over with discontent that their gang leader was being exposed. Does this give any Oakland resident confidence that City officials are serious about public safety? Official tolerance for a thug culture of disrespect – on the streets and in City Hall – remains a fact in Oakland, rated the fourth most dangerous city in the U.S.

Residents Comment

I have to wonder how many people are left in Oakland with a moral compass to be broken. It makes me sick to my stomach because these are the same people we expect to create and/or implement policies to keep us safe.

– Margurite

I'm the first to admit that not really big on office work and filing. Can someone tell me where I should file this type of information: in my file labeled Oakland Government or the one labeled Oakland Crime?

– Loretta