FREE FRIDAY! Oakland wins fight against coal; Khanna on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight
Hayward's mayor wants local control back; Salwan says accusations untrue
CITY NEWS
OAKLAND
—COAL BANNED—There will be no coal traveling through West Oakland after City Attorney Barbara Parker announced on Wednesday the framework of a settlement between the city and the company led by brash Oakland developer Phil Tagami. “The fight against coal has been won!” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf declared. The long ago proposed Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT) ran into waves of protests after it was learned in 2015 that coal transported from Utah would pass through West Oakland before being shipped at the bulk terminal to Asia. Lawsuits in favor of both parties followed over the past six years, leading to the city’s announcement this week that an agreement prohibiting coal transported through the city-owned terminal is near, along with a deal to allow development of bulk commodity terminal to proceed. —Read my 2019 profile on Phil Tagami and the bulk coal terminal saga HERE.
HAYWARD
—NIMBYS—Hayward’s nascent discussion for increasing its density bonuses as a way to offer incentives for developers to build more low income and senior housing was met with skepticism from Mayor Barbara Halliday, who railed against state mandates on cities to build more housing. “A lot of what we’re dealing with is from laws coming down over the past few years that I know are well-intended. I know we need housing in this state. We definitely need it in this region,” Halliday said last Tuesday night. “These laws are being passed to take away the roles and responsibilities of the people on this meeting right now and create state standards that we can’t override. I do think that’s wrong and as local communities we should have more say in how things are done.”
—Halliday has long voiced the “local control” mantra when it comes to approving new housing. Hayward’s previous mayor, Michael Sweeney, also routinely expressed the same views. The response from housing advocates is obvious. Local control would not need to be taken by the state if cities had brushed back NIMBYs and approved sufficient housing over the past three decades.
—Of course, the other NIMBY battlefront following housing is parking. Hayward Councilmember Francisco Zermeno worried about more cars and the need for parking in the future. “We’re going to have to solve a car love affair that we have and that’s going to be the problem for us,” he said. “The minute we have duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, what are we going to do with those cars?” Zermeno said a neighbor parks a fleet of seven Cadillacs in his neighborhood.
ELECTION 2022
10TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT
—MEI’S LGBT PROBLEM GROWS—When several elected officials openly called 10th State Senate District candidate Lily Mei “homophobic” at this week’s Alameda County Democratic Central Committee meeting, it’s an extremely bad look for her campaign. As more people take notice of this race, one of the big questions is whether Mei’s LGBT problem becomes more widely known. So it wasn’t a good sign recently when the Sunnyvale Democratic Club sent SD10 candidates a questionnaire that included the “LGBT question.” Sunnyvale, along with the City of Santa Clara, represents the bulk of SD10’s new voter pool following state redistricting.
—Mei’s response was dismissive of the Alameda County central committee’s charges. “Clearly, this action affected me deeply. The two trumped up charges leveled by supporters of my opponent were patently false. When I pointed this out to them they said they did not care.” The Sunnyvale Democratic Club later voted to overwhelmingly endorse Mei’s opponent, Hayward Councilmember Aisha Wahab.
ALCO DEMS
—LETTER IN SUPPORT OF SALWAN—A letter in support of Fremont Councilmember Raj Salwan was referenced several times during Wednesday’s debate at the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee. The letter included some high profile local elected officials. Salwan was charged with violating the committee’s bylaws when he endorsed Mei, who was deemed to have disparaged the LGBT community in the past. The letter was signed by East Bay Reps. Ro Khanna and Eric Swalwell; State Controller Betty Yee; Assemblymembers Bill Quirk and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan; and Alameda County Supervisor Richard Valle.
—It also included two LGBT officials, Dublin Councilmember Shawn Kumagai and the newly appointed Chabot-Las Positas Community College Trustee Harris Mojadedi. Salwan avoided removal, in addition, to a move to censure. It remains to be seen if there is any blowback from opponents of Mei and Salwan against those who signed the letter in light of their defeat this week.
—SALWAN RESPONDS—Accusations this week that Salwan threatened to spend $1 million to help Mei win the SD10 race, if the committee voted to remove him are untrue, Salwan said. He also denied personally bullying members.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS
(Campaign finance totals for the Alameda County District Attorney race were erroneously published in Thursday’s newsletter. The figures for Pamela Price, Terry Wiley, and Seth Steward were correct, but the numbers for Jimmie Wilson were merely placeholders while I waited for his report to become available. Below is an analysis of the reports and a full set of the correct numbers.)
—CASH BAIL—Year-end campaign finance reports in the high-profile Alameda County District Attorney race favor the two county prosecutors. Terry Wiley and Jimmie Wilson, both currently employed in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, lead the four-person race to replace the retiring DA Nancy O’Malley. But Wiley has the clear upper hand. He raised $344,266 last year, through Dec. 31. Wilson raised $218,109 last year, narrowly outraising civil rights attorney Pamela Price’s $215,123. Oakland city council chief of staff Seth Steward raised $108,678 during the same period.
—With six months before the June primary. Wiley’s campaign is fueled by two donors who also spent heavily on Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern’s re-election campaign. Inder Dosanjh, through his East Bay car dealerships, gave upwards of $65,500 to Ahern’s campaign last year, according to finance records. Inder and Jessie Dosanjh are also Wiley’s top donors. Inder Dosanjh contributed $30,000 to Wiley’s campaign; Jessie Dosanjh gave $10,000. County races, excluding the Board of Supervisors, have a $40,000 campaign contribution limit.
ALCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY
TERRY WILEY: 2021 Y/E—Cash on Hand $265,314; Cash IN $344,266; Cash OUT $90,421; Debt $11,469.
—JULY 1-DEC. 31—Cash IN 294,668; Cash OUT $89,055.
Top 3 Donors: Inder Dosanjh $30,000; Jessie Dosanjh $10,000; American Hospice and Home Health Care Services $10,000; Albert Comes $10,000; Gurprit Bains $10,000.
JIMMIE WILSON: 2021 Y/E—Cash on Hand $183,545; Cash IN $218,109; Cash OUT $37,154; Debt $8,008.
—JULY 1-DEC. 31—Cash IN $103,462; Cash OUT $32,525.
Top 3 Donors: Joseph Saunders $20,000; Michael Stephens $5,250; Camilla Aluli $5,000; and three other $5,000 donors.
SETH STEWARD: 2021 Y/E—Cash on Hand $106,0111; Cash IN $108,678; Cash OUT $5,117; Debt $2,096.
Top 3 Donors: Seth Steward $25,315; Chitra Akileswaran $10,000; Betty Smith $3,800.
PAMELA PRICE: 2021 Y/E—Cash on Hand $104,229 Cash IN $215,123; Cash OUT $136,028; Debt $28,147.
—JULY 1-DEC. 31—Cash IN $82,733; Cash OUT $98,627.
Top 3 Donors: Eloise Middleton $2,750; Vinnie Bacon $1,815; Howard Egerman $1,500; George Brown $1,500.
D.C. DISH
—RO’S BOOK TOUR—Rep. Ro Khanna will appear on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher tonight to promote his new book, Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us. This is not Khanna’s first time on the talk show. He’s appeared as a panelist in the past. But tonight, he’s scheduled to open the show with the higher profile one-on-one interview with Maher. Show starts at 10 p.m.
DATEBOOK
—LEGISLATIVE UPDATE—Assemblymember Bill Quirk joins the Muslim Democrats & Friends Club to discuss his legislative priorities for 2022 on Friday, Feb. 4, 6 p.m. For more information HERE.
—SCHOOLING DEMS—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond will virtually visit the City of Alameda Democratic Club on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. Register for the meeting HERE.