San Leandro vice mayor selection turns ugly
Alameda may turn away license-plate reader expansion
—TALK OF THE TOWN—The role of vice mayor, at least is merely to represent the mayor’s office when the mayor is unavailable for events. Sort of an understudy in a Broadway musical, but without the singing and dancing. But when it comes to an election year, some elected officials, specifically, those with intentions to run for mayor, find enormous electoral advantages in having the hallow honorific attached to their name.
Because most residents don’t know the vice mayor has no defined role, the attempt by councilmember to be vice mayor is a terrible conceit based on presenting unsuspecting voters with resume puffery.
Nevertheless, the drive for any sort of electoral advantage sometimes replaces the meticulously-honed comity within elected governmental bodies with moments of madness. This dynamic was seen last Tuesday night at the San Leandro City Council when one member disparaged another over the selection of that city’s vice mayor for this year.
San Leandro Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter is termed out after this year. That presents a unique dynamic because at least two, possibly three sitting councilmembers are eyeing her seat this fall. Another in the running for mayor, Lee Thomas, is a former councilmember only two years removed from office.
Saying you’re the vice mayor, conceptually the second in command in the city, might look appealing to voters. An advantageous bit of gravitas.
But San Leandro, like many other cities in the East Bay, has unwritten rules about bestowing the vice mayor tag on sitting councilmembers ahead of runs for mayor in order to maintain a level playing field in November.
San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, who announced his campaign for mayor months ago, nevertheless, attempted to break tradition on Tuesday night after being nomination for vice mayor. Councilmember Pete Ballew was also nominated.
Prior to the vote on Azevedo’s nomination, Ballew hesitated to mention the council’s unwritten rule, before coming out and registering his disapproval with Azevedo’s perceived power-grab.
Before Ballew concluded his comment, Azevedo blurted out, “It’s just funny that people can be a hypocrite,” he told Ballew. “When you ran in 2020 for city council, you were vice mayor.”
When Cutter corrected Azevedo, adding Ballew ran for re-election to his council seat while serving as vice mayor in 2020 (ultimately running unopposed), Azevedo added, “Yeah, people can be hypocrites. I know. It’s their right.”
—Watch the exchange between Azevedo and Ballew here.
Mayor Cutter’s disbelief over Azevedo’s outburst was clearly evident. She punctuated her response with several exasperated wows before asking for a roll call vote. Azevedo lost the vote, while Ballew was appointed, 4-3.
—CUTTER’S WOWS—Mayor Cutter’s response to Azevedo’s unpleasantries is not surprising. Her and other councilmembers, including former elected officials, have watched the nascent progressive wing of the San Leandro City Council struggle to maintain collegial tone. Supporters of Councilmember Victor Aguilar, Jr., Fred Simon, and Azevedo have similarly brought a nasty tone to council proceedings rarely seen in the past. The trio, sometimes attracting support from Councilmember Corina Lopez, a likely candidate for mayor, are best described as progressive activists. Over the past year, they have failed to push through what could be deemed progressive legislation, other than an attempt to defund the San Leandro Police Department.
—SICK OF IT—During an episode of Lee Thomas’ The Marinade podcast last fall, Cutter hinted at her struggles with the current San Leandro City Council. But the shouting, name-calling, and lack of respect on the dais has affected other councilmembers. Deborah Cox, who represents District 1 in the Broadmoor area of San Leandro, was so displeased with her colleagues that she contemplated resigning last summer, more than a year before her final term is complete in December 2022. Cox reportedly asked the city attorney for guidance on the matter before changing her mind.
—LICENSE PLATE-READERS, PART III OR IV—Berkeley’s decision to look into installing surveillance cameras to combat crime may be giving less traditionally liberal city councils like Alameda and San Leandro cover to allow the surveillance state to creep back into Alameda County.
San Leandro’s mayor issued support for allowing surveillance cameras during a meeting prior to the holiday recess. There’s also a clamoring for them among in Alameda’s moderate and conservative minority and based on perceived rises in crime fueled by elevated television coverage of high-profile crimes and shootings.
Alameda’s recent brush with the surveillance state in several years came to the city council last month in the form of Automated License-Plate Readers (ALPRs). As some Alameda councilmembers noted, the push for the readers, previously installed on police cars, has gone back nearly seven years. A small-scale effort was approved a few years back, but the council later rebuffed expansion of the policy amid privacy concerns and the issue has been in a holding pattern since. Those concerns still persist for Councilmembers Malia Vella and John Knox White, who both unequivocally registered no support for ALPRs. Both labeled them vastly unproven when it comes to fighting crime.
However, the plan which could cost up $800,000, and possibly include not only readers on police cars, but also at fixed points in the city, perhaps near bridges, is not yet dead. Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft left the item open after asking for further details on the plan from city staff. One question followed a comment by Alameda’s police chief about readers recently identified at a significantly lower cost. Ashcraft, though, appeared leaning toward Vella and Knox White’s stance than those of the pair of council moderates, Tony Daysog and Trish Herrera Spencer. The item could return to the council later this month.
—JANUARY 6–Rep. Barbara Lee will commemorate(?) one of the worst days in modern American history this afternoon. The New York Times reported this week that House Democrats were urged by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make speeches and hold events to remember the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol.
“This time last year, I was hurrying down flights of stairs in the Capitol, thinking about how fortunate it was that I wore my tennis shoes, and praying that the angry mob of armed white supremacists didn’t know where we were going,” Lee said.
She will hold a Facebook Live discussion on the Jan. 6 anniversary today at 3:30 p.m. pacific standard time. Watch here.