Letter of the law
The Oakland City Council appears to need a lesson about the letter of the law.
Councilwoman Desley Brooks has proposed diverting millions of dollars in public funds for capital improvement projects like street repairs and park upgrades to a fund for jobtraining organizations, including one in her district.
Brooks’ legislation was scheduled to be heard by a council committee Tuesday, even though it lacked the required report new measures must have.
Oh, and even though the proposal may constitute an illegal gift of public funds.
Brooks’ proposal is outrageous, but that didn’t stop two of Oakland’s City Council members from cosponsoring it, either.
City officials pulled the draft ordinance from the agenda only after The Chronicle started asking questions.
As drafted, the ordinance would give 5 percent of the cost of the next two years’ worth of capital improvement projects — a whopping $6 million — to the job-training organization fund, with the bulk of that money going to one organization: the Cypress Mandela Training Center.
In an email, Brooks said, “This legislation is and continues to be in draft form, has been completely transparent and follows the city of Oakland’s public legislative process.”
She also said that San Francisco supports City Build, a similar job-training program.
Brooks is right about San Francisco’s support of City Build. However, City Build is part of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Its funding is part of a public budget process — not a diversion from previously chosen priorities.
Our argument is not with the Cypress Mandela Training Center. The organization has a good success record of training people in the skills they need for jobs in construction, plumbing and other trades.
But Oakland has a responsibility to offer a competitive process for all of the organizations in its community that may also be worthy of support, via grants or a public budget process.
It also has a responsibility to use public funds for their intended purposes.