BART officials reverse course, reinstates Board Director Lateefah Simon
Former San Leandro mayoral candidate, family, is starring in a new History Channel show
—BACK ON THE RAILS—BART Board Director Lateefah Simon is back on the job after transit officials admitted they lacked sole authority to remove her from the board two weeks ago. BART officials determined that Simon had moved out of her district to a location near the MacArthur BART station in Oakland that was just outside her jurisdiction. Simon said she consulted previously with BART officials about the move.
—Outside legal counsel with expertise in election law told BART that Simon could not be removed without a vote of the BART Board of Directors or through a court. Prior to such an action, Simon will return to the BART board dais, said Bob Powers, BART general manager.
—Powers apologized for the controversy involving Simon’s eligibility on the BART board. “We want to express our deepest apologies to Lateefah and all the stakeholders for how this has played out,” Powers said. BART will continue to consult with outside counsel over the issue of Simon’s residency outside of her district, he added.
—A similar situation involving a disputed vacancy occurred last year at the Hayward Unified School District Board of Trustees. However, in this case, the dispute was triggered by the school boardmember winning re-election to his seat, along with a seat on the Chabot-Las Positas Community Board of Trustees.
—The school boardmember was removed only after his colleagues determined his pair of elected offices were incompatible. If they had not acted, any member of the public could have sought standing from a court to sue for his removal. In contrast, what BART officials did with Simon was to act unilaterally in their efforts to remove her from the board.
—The entire ordeal continues to be a bad look for BART. There was clear miscommunication between Simon and BART officials leading up to her move. It remains unclear whether BART officials conveyed any signal to Simon that her new residence was inside or outside the district. BART officials now has been found to have acted hastily in declaring a vacancy on the board. The bottom line issue, however, still remains. Does Simon live in the district or not and will she be removed?
ELECTION 2022
OAKLAND MAYOR
—I WANT MY REID TV—Early in the 2008 presidential primary season, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews famously said following a speech by Barack Obama that he felt a “thrill going up my leg.” Well, we never knew what exactly Matthews meant, but it was clearly an exhilarating response. In the Oakland mayoral race, a similarly uplifting piece of media was released by Councilmember Treva Reid’s campaign. The one-minute campaign video features the quickening staccato of a spoken word poet that leads into a pulsing jazz beat interspersed with Kodachrome-bright images of Oakland and its residents. “They forgot us,” says the narrator. “Living, breathing humans with hearts that beat for the most basic of needs.” It ends with Reid, saying “They’ll finally be remembered.” The campaign video is hands down the best I have ever seen in my 12 years covering politics in the East Bay. Watch it HERE.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
—MONEYBALL—Alameda Forward, the committee in support of the school district’s $298 million bond measure on the June ballot, received a $9,900 contribution from Lathrop Construction Associates LLC of Alameda on Tuesday, according to a campaign finance report.
CITY & COUNTY NEWS
ALAMEDA COUNTY
—LABOR SHORTAGE—Alameda Health System (AHS), the county’s health care provider, is paying significantly more on labor, said its Chief Financial Officer Kimberley Miranda. The financial outlook for the often struggling county health care provider, however, is looking brighter.
—Improved cash flow, mostly derived from federal pandemic relief grants and better collections, is welcome news, especial to county supervisors who are keeping aclose tabs on AHS amid questions of whether the county should take it over.
—The “Great Resignation,” along burn out from the pandemic is making skilled health care workers hard to come by, Miranda told the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Health Committee last week. Efforts to reduce turnover, including better outreach with its employees are being made, Miranda said, but competition for a dwindling number of health care worker is proving costly. “It is difficult to compete with the Kaisers and the Sutters,” Miranda said. The inability to retain employees comes after a brutal few years of intense conflicts between labor unions and AHS management.
—AHS CEO James Jackson said efforts offering cost of living increases with some employee groups have been successful as the health care provider hopes to achieve market parity. The loss of employees is also occurring at the executive level. Over the past year, roughly one-quarter of the management team has left AHS, Jackson said.
—Meanwhile, 95 percent of AHS employees are vaccinated. Most of the remaining group are employees currently on leave, Jackson said. In addition, 87 percent of AHS employees have received a booster vaccine.
SAN LEANDRO
—DILLMAN’S REVENGE—When Dan Dillman, the owner of San Leandro’s Bal Theatre, ran for mayor four years ago he offered New Age rhetoric and once posted on social media a photo of what he ascertained was an UFO hovering over The ‘Dro. Dillman’s political career didn’t go far, but his interest in adventure is leading him and his family to a starring role on History Channel’s latest treasure hunting show, “Lost Gold of the Aztecs.”
—The show premieres Mar. 29 at 10 p.m. on History Channel and follows three family’s in search of Montezuma’s treasure. Dillman’s grandfather and uncles have searched the Utah desert for the treasure for generations. Dillman and his uncle previously appeared on an episode of History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” in search of the treasure.
OAKLAND/BERKELEY
—21—Fame is apparently hiding all over East Bay politics. Earlier this month, SFGate profiled JP Massar, a face known to many in Oakland and Berkeley politics for his activism on a number issues, including government surveillance and housing. Turns out Massar is a world champion blackjack player and card counter who, until now, was a main character in the acclaimed book, “Bringing Down the House,” and also featured, without his name, on a History Channel program.