Measure OO Campaign Run Out of
City-Funded Office

The campaign to pass Measure OO is being run out of an office funded by $136,000 of City money per year. The funds come from the same Kids First account that the campaigners want voters to increase.

In 1996 voters agreed to a Kids First fund with a guaranteed percentage of the City budget. The City makes grants out of the fund to private programs through its Oakland Fund for Children and Youth (OFCY). One recipient of City funds is Oakland Kids First. This group and a bunch of other grantees now want voters to pass Measure OO, a reckless grab for twice as much guaranteed allocation every year.

The campaign organization for Measure OO is the Kids First 2 Coalition. According to its website, you can reach the coalition by sending email to staff at kidsfirstoakland.org – the email address of the City-funded program. Or you can call a phone in the office of Oakland Kids First.

In fact, the domain name for the campaign website is registered to Kim Miyoshi, executive director of Oakland Kids First – not at her own address and email, but at the City-funded office.

In addition, a campaign video floating around the Internet implies that it is a document from OFCY, the City agency, without actually attributing ownership and production to any source.

Campaign video presented as official City document

With all this blurring of the lines, it's a good bet that Ms. Miyoshi and other staff campaign for their measure while on work time, time paid by City funds. These folks might just as well move into City Hall.

A program that receives $136,000 of City funds annually should not use its resources to influence an election campaign to get even more funding.

Unfortunately, the program operators' corrupt use of public funds is hardly a surprise. Measure OO itself is a greedy demand that these programs have a privileged status. In a time of budget crisis, funding for senior programs, the libraries, street repair, and parks are subject to cuts. But Measure OO would even take money from City-run youth programs while increasing funds for Oakland Kids First and other operations funded through OFCY.

When program operators usurp public money to run a propaganda campaign for even more taxpayer funding, they give us another reason to vote

No on Measure OO!

Coalition Tries to Hide

The coalition, still run by the same program operators who receive City grants under the current Kids First funding, has changed its spots.

Formerly called the Kids First 2 Coalition, they renamed themselves Yes on Measure OO. They redirected their old website to a new one, called YesOnOO.com. The new website is registered to the same person as the old one, Kim Miyoshi, executive director of Oakland Kids First – an organization that receives City funds. The domain listing reports the contact person as Kim at kidsfirstoakland.org.

However, ordinary viewers of the website will not find this information. They must use a contact form, which hides the connection between the political campaign and the manager of a City-funded organization. The change merely tells us that Miyoshi and her political cronies were embarrassed by the open connection. They did not change the facts. They just hired a website developer to drape camouflage over their misuse of City funds.