Taking on City Councilwoman Desley Brooks of Oakland
She’s dismissive during public meetings, peering through the eyeglasses propped on the bridge of her nose like a derisive schoolmarm.
She exudes contempt for people who dare offer an opinion that conflicts with her own.
She seems to speak only to her base supporters, those who agree with her messages no matter how unreasonable she sounds from her pulpit.
Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, some say, is the city’s version of Donald Trump.
She’s a bully who is known to people who work in City Hall for minacious shoulder bumps in hallways, a politician who bum-rushes incautiously crafted ordinances past diffident City Council colleagues.
In May 2016, she hijacked Oakland’s proposed cannabis law by tacking on an equity program that initially benefited only residents of her and ally Councilman Larry Reid’s districts. It took the council months to rewrite the legislation, and equity program participants are now left figuring out the new terrain without much help from the city.
Brooks repeatedly tossed up roadblocks to the city’s cannabis business permitting sys-
tem without explanation — or challenges from her colleagues on the council. One preposterous proposal would have required every cannabis business to fork over 25 percent of its profits and at least one seat on its board of directors to the city.
And earlier this month, my colleague Kimberly Veklerov reported that Brooks wanted to funnel public funds from voter-approved projects like street repairs and park improvements and give them to the Cypress Mandela Training Center, a community organization in her district.
Several people I talked with for this column didn’t want their identities revealed because they fear Brooks’ wrath.
“How can you be an elected official and have a reputation of being a bully?” said James Moore Jr., who ran unsuccessfully against Brooks for her District Six seat in 2014. “She is our local, female Donald Trump, if you will.
“If you’re a representative of the city, you can’t go around knocking people out or talking down to people.”
Moore was referring to the Brooks body check that sent Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther leader who was 72 at the time, tumbling over a table and chairs in 2015. Last month, an Alameda County jury handed down a $3.77 million verdict against the city and Brooks. This month, a jury ordered Brooks to pay Brown $550,000 in punitive damages.
Chronicle columnists Matier & Ross reported that the knockdown came during an argument at Everett and Jones BBQ, a Jack London Square barbecue spot, over city funding for a Brown-linked nonprofit’s housing and commercial development. Brooks threatened to kill the funding, reportedly telling Brown the project was “of no benefit to black people.”
The city is likely to appeal, but if the judgment stands, Oakland may have to raid its general fund to pay more than $3 million to Brown. Only $750,000 would be covered by the city’s liability insurance.
It’s impossible to justify supporting an elected leader whose bad behavior is costing nearly $4 million in public dollars. Nothing Brooks has done in her 16 years as a councilwoman outweighs the cost to Oakland.
Still, a recent editorial in the Oakland Post, an African American weekly newspaper, praised Brooks — without mentioning the incident or the verdict. Where’s the outrage for such disrespect of a pillar of Oakland’s black community? Paul Cobb, the publisher of the Oakland Post, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The public deserves better representation.
In 2013, Brooks faced censure for circumventing a bidding process in hiring a contractor and buying music equipment in opening the Rainbow Teen Center in her East Oakland district.
In 2015, Brooks called Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney a “hanky-head,” a racially insensitive insult delivered publicly.
In 2016, Brooks disrupted a Rules Committee session as her colleagues attempted to unravel absurd new marijuana business permit rules Brooks had pushed. Brooks’ histrionics, backed by supporters, forced the session to end early. Since when are council members elected to stall city business?
Brooks didn’t respond to my request for an interview.
District Six, where 59 percent of registered voters are black, needs a bridge builder, not a separatist, to address affordable housing, homelessness and the lack of career opportunities for many residents.
“Just because you black doesn’t mean you get my vote,” Moore, a District Six resident, told me. “I want this city to be represented in the best way possible by whoever it might be.”
Brooks has positioned herself as a gatekeeper for black and brown residents, and I don’t doubt her passion. The problem is that she’s better at talking about issues than engineering solutions.