Proposed deadline for county supervisor applicants is about two weeks away
The last supervisorial appointment in District 2 more than a decade ago was riveting and controversial
COUNTY NEWS
—Potential applicants for Alameda County Supervisor Richard Valle’s seat: Update your resumes.
—A proposed timeline for the late supervisor’s District 2 appointment envisions a Mar. 14 application deadline and approval of a new member as early as Mar. 30.
—The board will select between three and five candidates to be interviewed at a special public meeting, according to a draft appointment procedure. The four county supervisors will be allowed to vote for up to two applicants.
—The three highest vote-getters will advance to the next round and later be whittled down to two candidates.
—The county’s proposed timeline places this vote for Mar. 30, and swearing-in of the winning applicant on April 4.
—HISTORY LESSON—The proposed timeline and appointment process is similar to 2012 when Richard Valle was appointed to replace Nadia Lockyer in District 2.
—The 2012 appointment was riveting and resulted in several deadlocked votes before the Board of Supervisors selected Valle over then-Newark Councilmember Ana Apodaca. “Can we can put them in a small room and see who comes out?” Supervisor Scott Haggerty joked.
—But not before a messy affair that included rumors that labor unions twisted Supervisor Wilma Chan’s arm to support Valle, despite her a long-standing view that a woman should receive the appointment. Valle also explosively charged Apodaca with surreptitiously receiving the board’s interview questions via text messages.
—Four candidates were ultimately interviewed by the Board of Supervisors in 2012—Valle, Apodaca, former Union City Mayor Mark Green, and Sheryl Grant, a community organizer. Retired Alameda County Supervisor Gail Steele mulled the appointment, but later withdrew her name.
—The prevailing wisdom at the time was the eventually appointee would have to face embattled former Assemblymember Mary Hayashi in a November 2012 special election. This came to pass with Valle easily defeating Hayashi.
—An instructive point for applicants this time around is receiving the most nomination votes does not necessarily translate into winning the appointment. In 2012, Apodaca’s candidacy received early support from all four of the remaining supervisors.
—The series of 2-2 ties that followed placed Supervisors Keith Carson and Haggerty firmly in Apodaca’s corner, and Nate Miley and Chan strongly in Valle’s corner.
—There appeared to be no room for either camp to budge as the 60-day deadline to make the appointment was two weeks away.
—In the meantime, Valle went negative. Constituents in the Tri-Cities received an email of unknown providence alleging former Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata of Oakland was attempting to manipulate the board in favor of Apodaca.
—“Perata is calling Supervisors, cutting deals and making promises to place Ana Apodaca on the Board so he can have a puppet and gain more control in Alameda County,” according to the mystery email.
—“But we can Stop Don Perata by emailing our County Supervisor and saying “NO” to Ana Apodaca and Don Perata. We’re tired of Don Perata’s backroom deals and politics for profit!”
—In addition, Valle obliquely referenced inside information about Apodaca that he previously offered the board. Valle later said he believed the intel helped turn the tide of the vote in his favor.
—“There’s something else that is important that should come out at some point and my quotes are based on something that happened that I believe the supervisors needed to know and I think that made the difference and I’ll just leave it at that,” Valle said.
—Playfully known as “the secret,” Valle would reveal months later that he alerted the board about an allegation that Apodaca, through a campaign surrogate, had received the board’s interview questions and answers provided by Valle and the other applicants in real-time via text messages. Each applicant had been sequestered during the board’s public interview session.
—Apodaca strongly denied the allegation. When asked later about “the secret,” Supervisor Chan said, “I don’t want to comment on that, but there were many reasons why we chose Richard.”
—The Board of Supervisors, with a week to spare, unanimously selected Valle, 4-0.
—2023 SEQUEL?—Flash forward to today and some of the same questions discussed in 2012 may hover over the upcoming appointment process.
—There is clearly no clear front runner at the moment. This early field of potential applicants, however, is much larger than we saw in 2012.
—There’s again serious questions about whether some potential applicants will be able to execute a financially viable election in 2024. However, unlike 2012, there isn’t a big name lurking as a potential 2024 opponent.
—The pull of labor unions is again significant and pressure is high because Valle was such a staunch ally and the fate of strong renters protections in unincorporated Alameda County is on the line.