Noel Gallo's proposed Howard Terminal advisory ballot measure strikes out
CM Loren Taylor: 'The ballot question is stupid.'
—A’S WIN AGAIN—Oakland Councilmember Noel Gallo’s advisory ballot measure, a proposal that could have seriously hampered the Oakland Athletics’ proposed waterfront ballpark, fizzled badly late Tuesday night. Oakland councilmembers showed little interest in Gallo’s gambit for what city staff labeled a “very expensive survey.”
—Five of eight councilmembers voted against placing the measure on the November ballot. Gallo and Councilmember Carroll Fife voted yes. Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan abstained.
“I’m not prepared to bring, whatever this is, to a vote of the citizens,” Councilmember Dan Kalb said. However, he might support a special election sometime early next year if no “backstops” protecting Oakland taxpayers are included in the upcoming deal with the A’s. Councilmember Sheng Thao offered similar sentiment, as did Councilmember Treva Reid.
—Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor was far more blunt. “The ballot question is stupid,” dumbed-down and uninformative, he said in comments that Fife called disrespectful to Gallo. “It’s worded as a terrible question,” he added. Staff concurred with Taylor, saying the ballot measure is vaguely written and possibly undermines council’s previous staff direction to negotiate the framework of a deal that protects the city’s general fund.
—Periodically throughout the 11-hour (and still going) council meeting, supporters of Gallo’s ballot measure urged the council to put it before voters in the fall, arguing there was little downside for giving resident’s the ability to weigh-in on the ballpark project.
—Conversely, supporters of the project lashed out at the East Oakland Stadium Alliance, an Astroturf group backed by Schnitzer Steel, that is funding the campaign against the ballpark project, in addition, to having a hand in tonight’s proposed ballot measure.
—Tuesday night’s vote is the ballpark project’s second successful hurdle in the last week. Last Thursday, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission overwhelmingly voted to remove Howard Terminal from its port priority use designation, a determination that allows the A’s to begin the permitting process.
—Next up could be the long-awaited deal coming before the city council, possibly in late September. “It’s our hope and expectation that we’ll be back in the fall” with a deal to analyze, Oakland Assistant City Administrator Betsy Lake told the council on Tuesday night.