Cavala: Oakland’s Governance Resembles Marx Brothers Movie

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

“Cronyism” is one the charges made about virtually all elected officials. Unlike most work, political activity engenders opponents, those that would like you or your allies out of political office and replaced by themselves or their allies. To protect yourself from those opponents, politicians seek what others find in privacy in the company of people they trust. “Loyalty”, a political virtue, really means trustworthy under pressure.

So when picking subordinates or employees, those of us in the political world add “loyalty” to the list of attributes we look for – along with skills, intelligence, judgment that everyone looks for in employees.

Because “loyalty” is reciprocal, the subordinate has more job security than do employees in more normal work. And, because of this fact, “loyal” employees in politics can get away with egregious behavior at times.

Such appears to be the case in Oakland.

After a weekend where 6 murders again raised the profile of the Police Department, the City’s Administrator allegedly traveled to the scene of a gang arrest and browbeat the officers that were carting away her nephew’s car, threatening them with an internal affairs investigation. The nephew, a City employee, is back at work after posting $50,000 bail on an illegal weapon’s charge.

This same Administrator showed up at another arrest scene two years ago and intervened on behalf of the son of the Assistant City Administrator who was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Oakland’s finance and management division includes a dozen relatives of the Administrator and Assistant Administrator. Her daughter, a police recruit, benefited from a change in hiring policies according to Chronicle journalist, Chip Johnson.

Before his arrest last week, the leader of a purported gang bragged that he could get all the private information he wanted on the police. Upon his arrest, he called his mother. She turned out to be an employee in the Police Department’s personnel office.