Ranked Choice for Mayor, Tricks-by-Mail for Tax

Oakland mayor Jean Quan has two hands, so she plays two games. With her left hand she praises the ranked choice voting (RCV) that made her mayor because it promotes a larger voter turnout at November general elections. And RCV saves the cost of holding a runoff election as well as a primary. But with her right hand, mayor Quan insists on holding a mail ballot in July so she can push through her fifteenth new tax since she got elected to the school board, the city council, and now the mayor's office. A July election would cost about a million dollars.

Quan's $80 parcel tax is regressive. It is the wrong tax at this time. Before asking residents to pay more money for an even smaller police department, more potholes, and shorter library hours, mayor Quan should lay out a credible financial recovery plan for Oakland.

In defense of her two-handed hypocrisy, mayor Quan might say we cannot wait to solve the fiscal mess. However, Quan missed her own March 31 deadline to propose a budget. Instead, she started another flimflam game, asking the city councilmembers that each suggest services to cut. Quan knows what she wants to do; she just wastes time trying to make other officials take the fall for her problem.

Quan was on the council for the last eight years, and she was chair of the finance committee in 2008, when she accepted a budget from now-disgraced Deborah Edgerly, city administrator at the time. The Quan-Edgerly budget raided the City's reserve fund, which plummeted from $70 to $10 million. Instead of beginning prudent cuts, Quan spent to keep the pork rolling. She protected Chabot Observatory from the first round of cuts six months later, because she has a cozy relationship with the Observatory, which hosts her political and fundraising events. Now Quan wants Oakland homeowners to help her cover up her fiscal incompetence and arrogance.

A mail ballot in July is anti-democratic. Turnout is low. Mail balloting is open to more abuses than balloting in person on a designated election day, abuses that range from fast-talking canvassing at people's doors to lack of a credible audit trail for receiving and counting legitimate votes.

At the April 5 meeting of the city council, mayor Quan hit a bump in the road. She needed a super-majority vote to hold a mail-in ballot in July, so that the City could add the tax to the County property tax bill assuming the voters approved. Three councilmembers refused to go along with the rush. After all, Quan does not meet her own deadlines. And perhaps Quan's colleagues, after experiencing her wheedling, maneuvering, petty tricks, and tears on cue, would like a coherent response to a fiscal crisis that Quan did so much to enlarge over the years.

Mayor Quan, you have had two council terms to study Oakland finances. Lay out a credible plan, and if you need a vote, put your proposal on a real ballot at an election with a good turnout.