Oakland Tribune questionnaire for Mayor Candidates:
Please provide your name, age, occupation, address, phone number(s), e-mail and the address for any relevant campaign website. Also please provide the contact information for your campaign manager, if any. Keep your answers as brief as possible.
My name is Donald L Macleay, I am 52 years old and currently work as the manager of East Bay Computer Services, a small computer networking company that I hold the majority share in.
I live and work at 4004 Opal Street, near 40th and Broadway in a building I own.
All the other biographical information is at http://macleay4mayor.org/biography.html and campaign contact information, including the campaign manager is at the bottom of any page on our website, including that one.
- What in your opinion is the most serious issue facing Oakland? What would you do about it?
I do not think that there is ONE serious problem facing Oakland, there are 3 big ones and they are public safety, our schools and the economy and there are several structural problems with our local government. The three big ones of those are the budget, city management and regional government (or the lack thereof).
There are many valid efforts under way working to fix all of these key issues. If there is anything common to how I would deal with them it would be reliance on the grass roots organizations with good track records to provide civic leadership.
If I had to pick one problem, it would be the crime. The first place a Mayor could start would be with the serious failure of our parole system. The city has to find an immediate way to integrate our parolee population and needs to get as many of our people out of the criminal justice revolving door as we can.
2. Please list your top three priorities after taking office.
Quickly put in place a management team and fill all appointments.
Call a convention for an overhaul of our budget
Engage with City Council and regional government bodies, especially ABAG and the MTC.
3. How would you solve Oakland’s budget problems, given that more than 75 percent of General Purpose Fund revenues are earmarked for police, fire, debt service and voter-mandated programs such as Kids First! And other services. Be specific.
We need a new budget and a new budget process. As I said above, a top priority will be to call a budget convection. Kids First! Measure Y and other mandates need to become policies and laws, not handcuffs, and we need a pay-as-we-go method of funding. In that convention I will push for a budget would have a plan for both the upswings and the downsides of the business cycles. The most important thing that a budget convention needs to produce is a budget and budget process that will earn the trust and support of the public.
Once we have this new budget and a new budget process we will need to take it to the voters in order to have it fully replace the mixed up mess we have now and give the city a mandate to implement it.
4. Do you think Oakland needs more police officers? If so, how would you pay for them? Do you think a new $360 parcel tax is necessary?
I do not believe in any of the “magic numbers” people are throwing around for police offices. We need more, that is sure, but how many is not so sure. First we need to work out some other things. The two most important ones are 1 How much police support work and social work can be done by civilians? And 2 How much money do we have once we stop overtime staffing?
The parcel tax is a bad idea that I think we should vote for. We need a new budget, we need to have our house more in order, but we do not need to burn that house down while we are repairing it. If you do not trust the current council and mayor to do the right job, vote them out, but do not make it impossible for anyone to govern. I am running to be a responsible administrator of the public’s property and do not want to see it lost or damaged.
5. Do/did your children attend Oakland public schools?
I have one son in Oakland public school. My other son attended Berkeley public schools.
I have been a volunteer in both districts.
6. Do you support inclusionary zoning to provide affordable housing? Why or why not?
Yes I support it as one of several things we need to do to support working class housing.
My first reason is that I see housing as a right. I also see being able to live where you were born and raised as being a healthy society. In order to have working class housing be viable, it really needs to be profitable to provide that housing. Oakland can provide the environment to make that possible.
Not to protect affordable housing is to support gentrification, which I oppose.
7. Do you think it’s important to keep the A’s in Oakland? How would you accomplish that?
For what they are asking for, I think it would be reasonable to consider buying the team.
8. What are Oakland’s best assets?
Too many to count.
I live here, my sons were born and raised here, my business and home are here all because I have found a rewarding life here, as have so many others.
9. How would you describe your city to someone who is thinking of visiting for the first time?
Because I am something of an immigrant myself, I get to do this all the time.
Oakland is everything you would like about California and it is the real deal.
From the music, to Chinatown to the Redwoods, the Hells Angels or the Black Panthers, Art Murmur and the gourmet ghetto, this is one of the most interesting places in the Bay Area.
I have never seen anyone leave unimpressed.
Please return your responses no later than Sept. 17 to Cecily Burt, via email: cburt@bayareanewsgroup.com, regular mail: c/o Oakland Tribune, suite 950, 7677 Oakport St., Oakland, CA 94621; or fax: 208-6477.
Cecily Burt
Oakland Tribune
cburt@bayareanewsgroup.com
510 208-6441
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