Coming from legal counsel should protect the council members from say RICO or some such now, and since they were just allegations it would make sense to keep everything confidential.

But did even a single member of the council at the time council object to the appointment of Paulson to head up IA; or why now they all say “i do not recall.. receiving the memo(s)”.

What is it about oakland govt/politics that turns intelligent well intentioned people into ineffectual, dissembling dummies?

-len raphael
temescal

group wide open secrets like the entire council “forgetting” they had been briefed twice before Tucker arrived on Paulson allegations, are common in other organizations such as hospitals where say all t he staff might know a certain patient’s death was caused by a doctor’s screwup, but no one reports it to outsiders. but the peculiar situation here is that even elected politicians who supposedly depend on residents approval, get sucked into the group mentality of ‘what goes on inside Oakland govt, stays inside”

I’m guessing the causes are a combo of low civic interest in city govt; decline of mainstream media, but that’s common to other cities that don’t have our mass leadership denial or employee problems. somewhere the racial political history of oakland comes into play. no sure how or why. but in the transition from the old white boy govt of the pre 70′s to the late 70′s and beyond, something went awray. one theory is that oakland govt and staffing got balkinized along racial lines. unspoken deals/understandings were passed along where each group or fiefdom got a certain amount of resources but wouldn’t step out bounds by criticizing someone from one of the other groups. eventually evey groups performance declined.

how’s about some specific examples of open secrets that everyone in city hall seems to know but don’t talk to outsiders about. you gotta know quite a few from your time on the council. if you won’t snitch now, how can you expect current members and other officials to rock the boat?

past examples, probably Edgerly nepotism, budget deficits covered by fund borrowings.

Anyhooo, Oakland is definitely better now than when I was growing up. City Hall is a mess, but was it much different during Lionel Wilson’s time? The upside is Dellums will be gone in 2 years, and whoever will replace him will be better, that’s pretty much guaranteed. Of course a lot can happen in two years, so any suggestions on how to turn things around before then?

This is entirely off-topic to this entry though, so i’ll leave my comments at that.

I believe that an eyes-wide Oaklander community, one that understands and appreciates personal responsibility first, will think initially of what they can do for the City (or their neighbors), second of what the City can do for them.

I don’t think I run with a bad crowd, and of my friends, contemporaries and fellow small businesspeople, I can assure you that only a handful volunteer, donate or in any other way contribute to the community. Not that they’re selfish, clueless people, they’re just used to doing what most people do. What I’m suggesting is that, if Oakland is going to turn around, everybody each needs to do a little more.