Oakland District 2 council candidates have divergent views on public safety

A sleepy District 2 special election could turn on public safety; Oakland auditor says city wasted $1.6m in unauthorized overtime; Sidewalk vending ordinance coming to Alameda County

Threee of the six candidates for Oakland’s District 2 City Council special election: Kanitha Matoury, Kara Murray Badal, and Charlene Wang.

☕️MORNING BUZZ

Oakland’s other special election, the City Council race in District 2 has been a quiet affair. The six-candidate field has been mostly reticent about taking any positions that may distinguish them from the pack.

Two of the six candidates are battle-ready. Charlene Wang and Kanitha Matoury ran in the at-large city council race last fall.

Kara Murray Badal, a political newcomer, has appeared knowledgable, but green. She is backed by labor and Nikki Fortunato Bas, the former District 2 councilmember who now serves on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

But the monotony of this race was broken at a candidate forum on Tuesday when two of the frontrunners in the race expressed divergent stances on perhaps the biggest issue in the race—public safety.

Wang said she supports invoking regional mutual aid agreements, including asking the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office for more resources.

“The reason I care about clamping down on crime is because it’s actually affecting our working class and poor communities. It really has. I’m so sick from hearing from bus drivers, retail workers, people who are fast-food workers who have been subjected to crime,” Wang said, adding, “We don’t want over-policing, but we want adequate policing.”

Murray Badal sees it differently, acknowledging that fewer people want to be police officers and the city can’t simply hire away the problem.

“I don’t think it’s a particularly feasible situation for how to deal with public safety in the city. That we’re just going to keep hiring more and more. It’s going to be really hard to do that,” she said.

Instead, Murray Badal supports many of the directives the Oakland City Council has already deployed for civilianized solutions and greater support for mental health services outside of the police force.

—More inside:

• Campaign notes: Barbara Lee didn’t mess up; Loren Taylor wants a shot clock for the permitting process; and Renia Webb brings up her role in the demise of Sheng Thao.

• Oakland city auditor can’t determine why $1.6 million was overspent on overtime since 2018.

• Sutter Health is replacing Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital with a new facility in Emeryville. Sounds great. But few specifics were given.

• A battle is brewing in unincorporated Alameda County over sidewalk vending. A Castro Valley MAC member said the complaints against vendors are racist.

• New Alameda County DA is already cleaning house.

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