Redistricting the bus lines
East Bay legislators support bill to decriminalize fare evaders, BART Board disagrees; What’s the chances DA Price can get a conviction for San Leandro cop?
COUNTY NEWS
AC TRANSIT BOARD OF DIRECTORS
—REDISTRICTING COMING—The threat of a lawsuit is leading the AC Transit Board of Directors to switch to an all-district board alignment, starting with the November 2024 election.
—AC Transit’s seven-member elected board is made up of five wards, or districts, and two at-large seats. A complaint sent to AC Transit asserted the inclusion of two at-large seats violates the state’s Voting Rights Act.
—The transit district, which includes Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County, said it disagrees with the complaint.
—Nonetheless, the cost of litigation and the possibility the district could lose the case, led the district’s counsel to recommend the change to all-district elections.
—The AC Transit board voted, 6-0, last week to make the change, along with direction to staff to begin the process of drawing the board’s seven new districts.
—The change includes pros and cons for the board’s two at-large members—Chris Peeples and Joel Young.
—The enormous size of the at-large seats typically requires significant financial resources for candidates to compete. This feature often dissuades many challenges to incumbents.
—Conversely, the smaller districts for at-large candidates will give incumbents an early advantage in campaign cash, but may also entice larger numbers of challengers.
BART BOARD OF DIRECTORS
—NO FREE RIDES—The BART Board of Directors voted last week to oppose state legislation that would decriminalize fare evasion by removing a misdemeanor for a third offense.
—The resolution opposing AB 819 was approved 5-3, with BART Board Director Lateefah Simon among those who voted against a resolution.
—The discussion comes as concerns over rising crime continues to grow, at the same time BART’s ridership continues to struggle to rebound from the pandemic.
—For Simon, who is viewed as the front runner in Oakland-Berkeley-Alameda 12th Congressional District race, her no vote probably won’t affect her chances in the March primary.
—This district typically backs candidates who support public intervention programs rather than incarceration for low-level offenses. After all, this is the same area that twice registered strong support for Pamela Price.
—So far, the East Bay’s legislative caucus has agreed. Other than state Sen. Steve Glazer and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, both of whom have not yet registered a vote on the bill, every other local legislator has supported it.
PORT OF OAKLAND
—TRADE MISSION—Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is leading a week-long East Bay trade mission to Vietnam. Thao is part of a delegation that includes the Port of Oakland. The group arrived in Vietnam on Friday and is scheduled to return on Aug. 8
—Vietnam is the Port of Oakland’s third-largest import market and fifth-highest export market.
—Ties between Vietnam and the Port have grown rapidly in recent years as American companies have pulled away from production in China during the Trump administration, and shifted to other Asian countries, like Vietnam and the Philippines.
—Alameda County Supervisor Lena Tam and San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo are also part of the trade mission to Vietnam.
ALAMEDA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
—MISDIRECTION, PART 2—Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price urged her supporters last week to show up in force at a public safety meeting in Montclair under the supposition that her opponents were going to amass and verbally attack her.
—Price’s supporters showed up. The gathering of her detractors, however, never materialized.
—Instead, Price supporters literally stole the show, repeatedly disrupting the meeting and changing the subject when the focus became too strong on Price’s policies.
—One of the oddest examples was not from an Oakland official or resident, but by an Emeryville elected official.
—First of all, Emeryville Councilmember Kalimah Priforce was helpful last Thursday. He helped fix a wonky Zoom call for the meeting.
—Attending a public meeting in another city as a spectator is somewhat normal for an elected official. Inserting yourself in a public meeting unrelated to your jurisdiction is very irregular.
—But he also grabbed the mic at one point and told the audience of Montclair residents, media, and Price supporters that perhaps, “10 percent of the questions” should rightly be directed to Price. Presumably, the other 90 percent belonged to the Oakland Police captain also on the panel.
—Priforce, with a long wooden walking stick in hand then stood resolutely behind Price near a door to her right. To Price’s left, stood a phalanx of five tall gentlemen who seemingly never showed any expression during the roughly two-hour meeting.
—When Dan Noyes, an ABC7 reporters who has been on Price’s heels for several months, appeared ready to pepper Price with questions at the end of the meeting, her security team encircled the DA, and blocked Noyes and others from following her out the door.
POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
—REASONABLE DOUBT—A rally for Steven Taylor, an African American man who was killed by San Leandro police officer Jason Fletcher at a Walmart in 2020, was held outside the courthouse in Oakland on Friday.
—Fletcher was charged with involuntary manslaughter by then-Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley. Fletcher was the first and only police officer charged for manslaughter during O’Malley’s decade in office.
—Taylor, who appeared to be having an mental health episode inside a San Leandro Walmart, was harassing customers and employees while also holding a bat when police were summoned.
—Inside the store, Fletcher approached Taylor and later shot him. The aftermath of the shooting led to months of angry testimony at San Leandro City Council meetings and the city creating a Community Police Review Board last year.
—But a filing on behalf of Fletcher by former Alameda County prosecutor Butch Ford raises questions about whether the DA’s office will be able to successfully argue for a prosecution.
—I’ve heard these questions for more than a year, albeit, most of the chatter has come from people connected to law enforcement in various East Bay cities. So, take it with a grain of salt.
—In the filing, Ford, who was placed on administrative leave in January by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, and dismissed in May, said nobody in the DA’s office had any desire to take up the case against Fletcher.
—The affidavit includes a conversation Ford said he had with Kwixuan Maloof, an assistant DA in Price’s office.
—“I informed him that he would first have to find an attorney in the office who actually believed they could get a conviction in the case,”Ford wrote.
—“I told Maloof that a prosecutor could not ethically go forward with trying a case that the did not believe they could win, which appeared to further confuse him.”
—Ford added, “you’re going to have a hard time assigning it.”
—If Ford’s characterization of doubts within the DA’s office for convicting Fletcher is correct, it would represent a big risk for Price, amid a recall campaign.
—Charging and convicting police officers who kill suspects was one of the main reasons voters elected Price last year.
—If Price doesn’t deliver here, it could diminish the enthusiasm among soft supporters of her administration—those sitting on the fence and generally ambivalent about her.
CITY NEWS
SAN LEANDRO
—MARINADE ON THIS—San Leandro City Manager Fran Robustelli dishes on what the city is doing on homelessness, an update on the city’s potentially transformative San Leandro Marina project, and how her experience of becoming a new city manager in the middle of the pandemic.
—I produce and co-host The Marinade with Lee Thomas. I’m the sous chef. So check it out!
—Next week: Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez sits down for some GrilleeQ barbecue with Lee.