Packed agenda for new mayor
Crime, housing among top issues for Oakland’s Thao
Sheng Thao, Oakland’s next mayor, said Monday that the city can finally start to make progress on its biggest challenges now that she and her allies on the City Council are in charge.
The win for progressives comes after Thao beat out moderate City Council Member Loren Taylor by fewer than 700 votes to become mayor after two weeks of ballot counting. Taylor was favored by outgoing Mayor Libby Schaaf, also a moderate who at times clashed with Thao and other progressives on the council.
“We have unity at City Hall now,” Thao told The Chronicle in an interview Monday. “That was always a huge barrier to success. I am very optimistic about getting the real work done.”
Once she takes office, Thao will be under pressure to address the city’s skyrocketing homeless population, its public safety challenges, economic uncertainty, a housing crisis and the threat of the Oakland A’s leaving the city.
Thao said Monday that she wants to “hit the ground running” and plans to start meeting with department heads and labor unions as soon as possible to come up with plans to improve city
services within the first six months of her term.
Those conversations will focus on plans to boost hiring within city government; reopen City Hall, which is currently closed to the public; and host town halls with council members in each district.
During her campaign, Thao said public safety was her No. 1 priority. On Monday, she praised Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong and said she’s planning an “in-depth” meeting with him to better understand his vision for keeping the city safe. Throughout the campaign, Thao seemed inclined to keep Armstrong in his position.
The department, which has struggled to retain and recruit, currently has 699 officers — short of the 726 officers budgeted. Thao said she wants to work with Armstrong to hammer out incentives to entice Oakland residents to become officers.
As a council member, Thao proposed $50,000 hiring bonuses for police officers. While that effort didn’t move forward, the council voted earlier this year to include other financial incentives to retain and recruit officers.
As part of her public safety strategy, Thao also wants to boost violence prevention efforts and add civilian ambassadors in business corridors and said she plans to work with the city’s finance department to set aside more money for those priorities. But finding that funding may prove difficult since Oakland will likely face a deficit once federal funding from COVID relief is used up.
Thao said one of her administration’s highest priorities will be to find a “pathway to keeping the A’s” in Oakland while also ensuring that the financial burden of the team’s $12 billion proposed waterfront ballpark and surrounding development doesn’t fall on Oakland taxpayers.
Thao said she hasn’t been part of the ongoing conversations between the A’s and the city over how to pay for the proposed project, but “is excited to be.” Thao secured support from major labor unions and building trades in Oakland that raised almost $1 million for her and support the A’s stadium.
Thao, who campaigned on leading the city in a different direction than Schaaf, said she plans to meet with the current mayor several times before taking over the office.
Schaaf has promised a “smooth and robust transition.”
“Now is the time for us to come together as one city because the mayor needs and deserves everyone’s support no matter whose side you took during this election,” Schaaf said.
Schaaf said it’s now on residents to ensure Thao “is hearing what people want.”
“Right now, people want more public safety,” Schaaf said. “That is something I hear every day.”
That’s backed up by an Oakland Chamber of Commerce poll released last month showing that 97% of the respondents said homelessness and gun violence were the top issues affecting Oakland. The number of respondents who said they feel Oakland is less safe is at an all-time high at 70%.
In addition to public safety, Thao will have to address the staggering rise in homelessness, which rose 24% in Oakland over the past three years to about 5,000 people in 2022.
The overwhelming majority of the chamber poll’s respondents — 89% — said homeless encampments were an extremely or very serious problem.
Three in five respondents said they oppose allowing people to camp in parks and public places.
Thao said she supports Council Member Carroll Fife’s plan to open a portion of the city’s former Army base for temporary housing and wraparound services for unsheltered residents. City staff have said it would cost more than $20 million a year to house residents at the site, which they said is unsafe for housing because it’s contaminated with lead, arsenic, kerosene and other toxic substances.
City staff also said it could take up to two years to get state approvals to open up the site. Thao said Monday she needs to be further briefed on the situation, but that she would pursue grant opportunities to make the site viable to reopen.
“We must have a more dignified way for them to transition into permanent housing,” Thao said.
She said she would also review all of the nonprofits the city works with to see if “we need to change organizations” after a recent audit raised questions about the effectiveness of the city’s programs for the unhoused.
One advantage for Thao is that voters passed Measure U, an $850 million bond measure for affordable housing preservation and upgrading the city’s infrastructure.
Shola Olatoye, the city’s former housing director, said Measure U is a game-changer for Oakland and the next mayor must act urgently to deploy those funds.
“Let’s get the money out,” Olatoye said. “Let’s not spend a year studying how the money should get out. We know how the money should be spent. We have data that tells us which residents are disproportionately affected by the unaffordable rent in our city.”
Jim Ross, an Oakland resident and political consultant who did not work on any mayoral campaigns, but supported Thao, said she will also have to decide whether to keep the current city administrator, Ed Reiskin, who is charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations of all city departments. Reiskin, who took on the role in 2020, has often clashed with the City Council.
Thao declined to say whether she would keep Reiskin as city administrator. She said Monday she planned to meet with Reiskin later that day and is looking for someone who shares her vision of putting Oakland first.
“I only want the best for our city and I believe our city deserves the best,” Thao said.