☕️MORNING BUZZ
Vol. VI, No. 1,299
—Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said he expects plea deals and additional targets to emerge from the federal corruption case surrounding former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, comparing the ongoing investigation to his own years-long encounter with the FBI that ultimately ended without charges.
Appearing on the latest episode of the East Bay Insiders Podcast, Perata said federal prosecutors often use plea agreements to build broader cases.
“Who knows what happens when they plea out, which I’m sure they’re going to do,” Perata said. “Usually what they do is squeeze and get more,” he said of the FBI. “That’s kind of par for the course.”
—Perata, one of the most influential figures in East Bay politics over the last half-century, said the corruption scandal has dealt another blow to a city already struggling with crime, budget deficits and political instability.
“The last thing Oakland needed is another shot in the head and that became it,” he said.
Perata’s comments carry particular weight.
In 2004, while serving in the Legislature, his home and office were raided as part of an FBI investigation into allegations that campaign contributions and consulting contracts involving associates amounted to bribery.
The investigation hung over Perata for more than five years and became one of the longest-running public corruption probes in California history.
Federal prosecutors never filed charges against Perata, who repeatedly maintained his innocence. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice formally closed the investigation.
—During the podcast, Perata also lamented what he described as the decline of Sacramento’s institutional knowledge since the adoption of legislative term limits, which pushed experienced staff members into lobbying and deprived lawmakers of veteran expertise.
Referring to Democratic state legislators of today struggling to govern despite clear majorities that Perata rarely enjoyed during his tenure in Sacramento, he said, “We got fat,” noting Democrats would have never take “woke legislation” to the edge if they needed Republicans to pass legislation.
—Perata also questioned why Oakland is debating a stronger mayoral system when, in his view, the city already adopted one under former Mayor Jerry Brown.
“It was a strong mayor,” he said. “Now they’re saying we have to have a strong mayor. I am confused why we need to do something that we already did years ago and, ironically, it really worked when Jerry was there.”
—The former legislator also renewed his longstanding criticism of Oakland’s ranked-choice voting system, arguing that voters remain confused by the process more than a decade after its implementation.
“I thought it was confusing that May didn’t go to Cal and get a degree,” Perata quipped.
Recalling conversations with voters while campaigning door-to-door, Perata added, “This was flat-out confusing and no one to this day is going to tell me it isn’t.”
Perata won the most first-place votes in Oakland’s 2010 mayoral elections, the city’s debut of ranked-choice voting, but lost the race to Jean Quan after several rounds of tabulations.
Throughout the interview, Perata mixed sharp observations with self-deprecating humor, reflecting on a career that included service on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, the California Assembly and Senate, and an unsuccessful bid for Oakland mayor in 2010.
📺EAST BAY INSIDERS TV
—‘I’M A GOOD CATHOLIC BOY’—State Senate Pro Tem Don Perata talking to reporters in 2007 after a budget impasse could not be broken with Republicans. At the time, the state Constitution required a two-thirds vote in both houses to pass a budget, meaning Democrats had to secure Republican votes.
—The 2007 impasse was among the last great showdowns of California’s two-thirds-budget era. Voters later approved Proposition 25 in 2010, allowing budgets to pass with a simple majority, ending the annual hostage-like budget fights but also eliminating the need for bipartisan deals.
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