Stop a Rigged Vote Count! No Outsourcing!

Despite national concern over rigged election tallies, Oakland councilmembers propose to outsource the counting of mail-in ballots on a landscape and lighting assessment (LLAD) tax increase. The council's partner in denial of democracy is a pair of "consulting engineers" whose firm would go into their private office in San Ramon and emerge with an alleged result.

The firm is Francisco & Associates, operated by Joseph A. Francisco and Jennifer White. Francisco has enjoyed an insider relationship with the City for years. The firm received contracts for preparing tax rolls and counting votes on a host of parcel taxes and assessments. A partial search turned up council approval of contracts on Feb. 1, 2005; Nov. 16, 2004; July 29, 2003; and Feb. 27, 2001 – with a total value of $573,000. Francisco prepared the preliminary propaganda for the current proposed LLAD tax hike, too, and no doubt they want the council to award them many more contracts in the years to come.

The council is desperate to have property owners approve a 42 percent increase in the LLAD for next year plus automatic increases forever after. Since voting is weighted, all it takes to tip the outcome is the convenient failure to count a few key ballots.

A NO vote? We can't have that!

The councilmembers have already mocked democracy.

In January, everyone's garbage bill envelope was stuffed with a piece of propaganda for the LLAD. To our knowledge, no councilmember has admitted publicly who paid for printing and mailing the insert.

In April, insider developer Phil Tagami held a fundraiser for a campaign to pass the tax increase. Suggested donations were $600 to $5,000. Why would anyone write a check for hundreds or thousands of dollars unless he expected to get a cut of the money freed up by the tax increase?

In May, the ballot package arrived with a color brochure, printed and mailed at City expense. It all but advocated a vote in favor of a tax increase. According to the California attorney general and the Fair Political Practices Commission, the standards for "informational materials" in these situations say it is not enough to stop short of advocating a vote, and it is not enough to make sure the materials make no false statements. Rather, the standard is that "the materials present a balanced description of the favorable and unfavorable impacts of the measure." (See http://ag.ca.gov/ethics/accessible/misuse.htm. Our thanks to the Oakland resident who guided us to this source.)

You only need to compare the City brochure with the information on this website to see that the ballot materials are a one-sided, not balanced, description. The council's action was not accidental, since councilmembers ignored an early request to include the whole truth, not just the convenient points.
 

At its June 20, 2006 session, the council is set to approve a resolution saying in part, "An impartial person, the firm of Francisco & Associates, who does not have a vested interest in the outcome, has tabulated the assessment ballots submitted and not withdrawn." (The resolution will become final in July, hence the past tense.)

What Orwellian language! This is blatant privatizing and outsourcing of democracy. We demand:

1. The City Clerk, not a private firm, should count the LLAD ballots.
   
2. The ballots must be counted at a public place in Oakland, not in a private office in San Ramon. Time and place must be announced in advance.
   
3. Oakland residents must be allowed to observe the counting.`
   
4. In the absence of precincts for breakdown and analysis of the vote, the tally must report results by weight of vote (so-called EDUs, or equivalent dwelling units) and by LLAD tax zone.
   

Councilmembers, how can you deny basic principles of democracy?