Former council aide to Sheng Thao alleges she was fired for not working on Oakland mayoral campaign
Loren Taylor and Treva Reid join forces; San Leandro mayoral candidate has his case for greater public safety bolstered. Plus, daily campaign finance data
ELECTION 2022
Days until Election Day: 12.
OAKLAND MAYOR
—OCTOBER SURPRISE—An aide to Oakland Councilmember Sheng Thao said she was fired last June from her job at City Hall because she wasn’t spending enough time on Thao’s mayoral campaign.
The aide, LeAna Powell, who worked in Thao’s office for two months last spring, described the office as a toxic workplace environment, was promised wages and benefits that were later lowered, and alleged Thao directed Powell, who is Black, to attend campaign events, including last spring’s Juneteenth celebrations, while Thao tended to fundraising obligations.
The account, reported on Tuesday night by Oakland insider and vlogger Zennie Abraham, is a bombshell in a very tight mayoral race that is heading into the final stretch to Election Day.
—The allegation of splitting time between her public-facing job at City Hall and Sheng’s mayoral campaign is an explosive charge. The commingling of duties is a major violation of state election law. Thao did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
—Powell said she was actively recruited by Thao’s office earlier this year, and was convinced that she was well-suited for the position. Once she agreed to join Thao’s office, the promised annual wage was lower and the job position was changed. Powell believed she was recruited to be the chief of staff, not council aide.
—When Powell questioned the employment terms with an Oakland employee in Human Resources, the women told her, “‘Let me tell you something. Sheng Thao is going to be the next mayor. When she becomes the next mayor you’re going to get $40,000 more. You’ll get $100,000-plus when you move over to the mayor’s office. So you better sign it and shut up and if you tell anybody I said that, I’ll tell them you’re lying.’ That was my first day. I felt like I was inducted into the mob.”
—Powell said she rarely interacted with Thao or other staff members, was untrained, and was often left alone at the office at City Hall. Powell said she “never did one thing that they told me I was going to do.”
—“They told me on Wednesday’s we work on the campaign. This is from Day 1,” Powell said. “[Thao] wanted everybody on her team to manage the folks who worked on the campaign.” Powell was instructed to download Signal, an encrypted messaging app, create a separate email address, and told not to use Microsoft Office.
—Working on the mayoral campaign was a chance for extra money, they told her. But later Thao notified the staff that she didn’t have money to pay them, Powell said. “I felt they lured me in and they were going to bully me. I didn’t know anything. I was brand new,” Powell said. By joining the mayoral campaign, Powell would be able to spend time with Thao. “She told me that if I didn’t work on her campaign, I wouldn’t get to know her,” Powell said.
—When Powell spent a weekend visiting her sick uncle in Reno, she was strongly reprimanded. Powell said the campaign, which was essentially also the city council staff, were aware about her plans. Due to on-the-job stress from working at city hall, family obligations, and helping out with the mayoral campaign, Powell began having her own medical issues.
—Two days after her third trip to the Emergency Room, Powell said she was fired from Thao’s council office. “She was abusing her power,” Powell said. Powell believes she was fired in mid-June because she was not able to work for the campaign, which she understood was voluntary. “I didn’t have the capacity to work for her 24 hours a day,” Powell added. “It was literally nonstop.”
—“I never had a performance evaluation and was told I was doing a good job. I still don’t know how it wasn’t working out when people weren’t with me,” she said.
—In another shocking allegation, Powell said Thao instructed staff members to attend Juneteenth event in her place and “show a presence” so she could attend an out-of-state campaign fundraiser. “I need you to look like I was at the Juneteenth event,” Powell said Thao told the campaign staff.
—“She was celebrating Black people and asking me to work for free,” Powell said. “I was tossed away like I was nothing.” Powell never attended the Juneteenth events because she was fired from Thao council staff just days prior.
—TEAM PLAYERS—Oakland mayoral candidates and city councilmates Loren Taylor and Treva Reid held a press conference this morning to announce an electoral partnership. The duo asked their supporters to vote them 1-2 in next month’s ranked-choice voting mayoral election.
—Polling and the general assessment of Oakland politicos is the mayoral race is a two-candidate contest between Taylor and Sheng Thao with less than two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 8.
—On the steps of Oakland City Hall, Taylor said the impetus for the partnership with Reid is partly due to the fact very few votes have been cast in the mayoral race, as of Wednesday morning.
—“Our residents are still trying to figure it out. They want direction. We are giving direction today. To move Oakland forward you have to put Loren and Treva 1-2 on your ballot,” Taylor said.
—“This race has not been decided by the people,” Reid added. “One of us will win this race. One of us will make sure the work gets done.”
—THAO’S RESPONSE—Smack in the middle of Taylor and Reid’s announcement on Wednesday morning, Sheng Thao’s campaign sent out a press release in which Thao called her mayoral rivals “two status quo politicians who are endorsed by Mayor Libby Schaaf.” Thao also questioned the reasons why Taylor and Reid waited until less than two weeks before Election Day to make their announcement.
—“I don’t believe Oakland can afford to stand still. I believe we need to move our city forward. I’ve been challenging the status quo and making change my whole life. As Mayor, I’m going to bring the change Oakland needs, to build the safer, more affordable, more just city we know is possible."
—A reporter at Taylor and Reid’s press conference asked them about Thao’s comments, in particular, being labeled “status quo.” Both scoffed at the assertion, noting Thao has worked at City Hall far longer than either of them.
—OAKLAND’S RCV HISTORY—Building coalitions with your opponents is supposed to be one of ranked-choice voting’s strengths, according to its adherents. But its deployment in Oakland mayoral races since its first use in 2010 has been uneven.
—Asking voters to rank like-minded candidates, of course, worked famously in 2010. After Don Perata secured a large advantage in first-place votes, a well-cultivated partnership between Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan used ranked-choice voting to their advantage. Quan, with help from Kaplan’s second- and third-place votes, stunned Perata. But the Quan/Kaplan team had long instructed their supporters, like a mantra, to vote them 1-2.
—Conversely in 2014, a coalition of Joe Tuman, Bryan Parker, and Courtney Ruby, like Taylor and Reid, announced a late partnership in an effort to break one of them in the top tier of mayoral candidates, along with Libby Schaaf. It was probably too little, too late for the trio, and Schaaf ran away with a dominating victory.
—Most Oakland insiders long believed that Taylor and Reid were likely angling toward a 1-2 partnership. From very early in the campaign they both voiced a similar moderate (for Oakland) platform, which complimented each others efforts to edge out Thao, a perceived frontrunner.
—The question here is whether Taylor and Reid waited too long to make the marriage official. But, keep in mind, as Taylor noted on Wednesday, a very small percentage of voters in Oakland and across Alameda County, have actually returned their vote-by-mail ballots. Almost all the votes are still in play.
SAN LEANDRO MAYOR
—CRIME HITS HOME—San Leandro mayoral candidate Lee Thomas has spoke often during the campaign about a number of violent crimes that have occurred over the past year in his neighborhood. On Tuesday night, Thomas said up to three intruders attempted to break into his in-laws backyard two blocks from his own home.
—Thomas posted a doorbell camera video of the thieves on Twitter. He said on Tuesday night that the thieves ended their efforts after seeing his mother-in-law.
—During at least two candidate forums, Thomas said frightening incidents involving his Asian American neighbors, who are seniors, is the reason why he is running for mayor.
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