Questions
Your answers to the following questions will allow OakPAC to make an informed judgment about your candidacy. This questionnaire is a first interview and will assist OakPAC in making the fully informed decisions and make our interview process efficient.
- What best describes your motivation for running for office?
A strong desire to see the office of Mayor play a more positive role in our city.
- How does your prior experience prepare you for elected office?
My background is that of a trade school graduate, general machinist (19 years), trade school teacher and on the job training instructor. Since 1998 I have worked in computer network administration, starting as an employee, becoming self employed and currently a small business owner with 4 employees.
My qualifications for leadership in Oakland comes from 4 parts of my background.
I am a long time Oakland resident and civic volunteer. My sons are both born here and one is currently enrolled in Oakland public school. My business and my home are both located in a building I own here. Having come here 20 years ago, my life is fully committed to this community
As a world citizen I know much of the communities that make up our multicultural city. I speak both Spanish and Mandarin as well as four other languages. I have lived and worked in many other countries and have been exposed to a wide spectrum of what it is possible for us to do with out city. I have seen other possibilities and so have most of our immigrant residents.
As a working class person who has been able to return to school and obtain a college degree, start my own business and become a landlord I am part of how our economy works. My perspective of it is much more varied than probably anyone else running in this race. My knowledge of environmental issues, technical issues, engineering, recycling, construction, as well as service and retail allows me to understand the transit, development and industrial projects Oakland has involved itself in from the implementation side.
I bring to Oakland a life time of working for social justice and the environment. I have been project director of a small scale hydro project, I have worked in the environmental movement and I have been a community activist in Oakland for the past 10 years. This is not what a main stream political office holder calls being a politician, but it is the kind of politician that I have been. From that perspective I have a wide grasp of city issues as viewed from the resident point of view. That includes our crime problems, our school problems and our budget.
- What do you consider the three biggest challenges facing Oakland? What will you do to address these during your term in office?
Crime, schools and budget.
On crime I am an advocate of the community policing and restorative justice model that has already been started.
On the schools I believe that the city should support the schools as a complement of their activities and STAY out of school district business. The schools need help with social problems, especially families in crisis and truancy, and they need infrastructure support. For infrastructure I am a supporter of the civic center model and duel use of the school grounds together with the libraries, parks and recs, etc.
The budget and the budget process need a global reform. If elected I will call a budget convention designed to replace our Byzantine budget with a new global budget. 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.
- What do you consider the largest impediments to attracting, growing and starting a business in Oakland and how will you eliminate or minimize these impediments?
These are very different problems and only a few policies will help them all.
Attracting an existing business to either move to Oakland or expand into Oakland is one of the things that the city can play a lead role in, especially with our enterprise zones.
Growing existing business requires an overall healthy economy and that is beyond the scope of what can be discussed in one of these questionnaires. Much depends on the area the business is in, and if it involves real estate, then it involves when that real estate was purchased and what the cost of mortgage and property taxes are. There is much the city can do for the overall business environment if we keep in mind that Prop 13 has created a situation where different businesses doing exactly the same thing have wildly different costs.
Starting a business in Oakland brings the city in on permitting, zoning and code.
This is another large subject where the city needs to improve its services and practices. I think the Business Assistance Center is a good start. We will need to have a model where the city’s middle managers are in contact with the business community and have the authority to fix snags in the permitting and licensing process.
- What businesses and industries do you view as Oakland’s greatest current economic assets and how would you stimulate their continued growth and success in Oakland?
Oakland has a good diversified portfolio of employment and businesses.
We have a big government sector and a big non-profit sector that we should cultivate.
Oakland, like most of the USA, has a large small business base crossing all kinds of sectors of the economy. Collectively small businesses are our largest employer. Even if this not a “high growth potential” part of the economy, moderate grown in small business can produce more jobs and local investment than many other plans.
The small business area in Oakland is the one hurt most by the bureaucratic delays in the permitting and licensing process. Wanting a 4 digit fee just to APPLY for a beer and wine license, or causing a 6 month wait to install a pizza oven is typical of dealing with the city. Changing that would be a big priority for me.
In all these things what I think the business community needs most from its mayor is the constituent advocacy and service. When one business owner is having a problem, it may be best to take that problem to a city council member, but when a pattern of a problem becomes apparent, the Mayor should step in on behalf of the lager community.
I see this as part of the Mayor’s job to back the business community and the rest of the community in this kind of constituent service mode.
- What businesses and industries do you believe Oakland should work to attract to the city and what specific efforts would you undertake during your term in office to effectively compete with other cities for these jobs and economic development?
I think the city should listen more to the market, focus more on the overall infrastructure and environment and get out of the business of speculative investments. I will focus on lower crime, better schools, better transit, and better government and then reach out to the businesses that are interested. We have a lot to offer and we are the hub of the bay area. We need to make this a place anyone would be happy to work in, send their children to schools in and live and make sure we work to make all our businesses a success.
- What do you think should be done to help Oakland businesses attract and retain a qualified workforce?
Schools for the skills, schools for the workers children and better public safety.
- What have you done in your career to advance a healthy business climate or promote sustainable economic development?
I have been a community volunteer and activist for most of the 21 years I have lived either in Oakland or in the nearby bay area.
The OMCC knows me as an advocate of the chamber itself and as a strong advocate of small business. I have also been there when we were searching for solutions to problems such as with the parking problems last year, even if those kinds of problems are not what I am most focused on or affected by.
- Will you make a public pledge in your campaign to “Promote Oakland Jobs and Businesses” if elected? Will you make a pledge to oppose the appointment of nominees for any City Board or Commission that are opposed to job and business growth in Oakland?
Of course I will promote Oakland jobs and businesses. How could any Mayor not do so?
There will be some very different ideas of what that means and what we expect from each member of our community as we resolve our serious problems around the budget. As a business owner myself, I know that business can do a lot, as long as it can stay healthy and in business. As a resident, I also will ask those who are benefiting most to contribute the most. To get there will require serious engagement and leadership towards all the communities that make up this city.
- How do you think public safety can be improved?
HOW I propose to deal with public safety and crime:
With broad based public support
We need to do the hard work of bridging the divisions, disdain and distrust in our community.
Since we agree that there should be enforcement, prevention and community policing, then we should focus on that and spend our time on outreach to all sectors of the community. Volunteer community groups across the city and across our society are working hard on social outreach, violence and crime prevention and neighborhood law enforcement. City government can reach out to all of them and bring disparate groups together, but it is going to be a long, difficult campaign and each and every one of us will need to be willing to LISTEN to the other views.
Some actions, such as the recent gang injunction, provoke more disagreement and distrust dividing the community.
Using law enforcement as a way to collect more taxes cheapens the reputation of the city and the police in the eyes of the residents. The same can be said for the recent blame game of political posturing, photo opportunities, endorsements, budget deadline pressure tactics, robo-calls and fear mongering. Vote against it.
With credibility
The public has a right to know that our crime prevention and enforcement policies are based on solid research and proven methods based on real, full information including a study of unreported crime.
We have to face the fact that the California justice system is a failure from trial to parole and we in Oakland will have to deal with the consequences. To say otherwise is to ignore the global problem.
No resident should ever feel that they are on their own without police protection, yet many do. We need to make plans that include extending the circle of protection to everyone, not just those who complain most or have the most money.
With accountability
The police force, like all of city government, needs to be held accountable to civilian oversight.
Measure Y funding and all other programs need transparency, managerial review and inspection.
Every public official should be accountable and not present any conflicts of interest.
With stability
The current hand to mouth budget process is a large part of our general security problem. To get a good program up and running can take years of work and canceling it for a few months at a time is a major setback. A more modest, but reliable funding plan would be more effective than constantly coming up short and changing the plan. We need to get away from complicated, inflexible plans like measure Y and have fair, progressive taxes that the public can support. City government must gain the public trust in how the money is spent and stop reorganizing every couple of years.
What I suggest we do about crime:
Prevent
One of 4 factors is part of most of our city’s crime: Substance abuse, homelessness, truancy, and recidivism.
When we work on crime prevention programs we need to know that we are always staying focused on at least one or more of these four social problems. These four are the priority.
The best crime prevention plan we could come up with is a better economy. Less poverty, better housing, better health care, more jobs, and more educational opportunities can only help and should be part of every decision a mayor makes.
Restore
Our goal should always be to repair the damage. It is fair to ask those who have done damage to make amends and restitution to those who have been hurt. It is also fair, to lend support to the families of offenders and potential offenders. If a youth is acting out, they should be expected to stop, but if the reason they act out is that their parents are in crisis, we all should be expected to help.
The District Attorney’s Office, local judges and local civil society groups have started to break the vicious circle of punishment, incarceration and separation from the community that needs the city’s whole hearted support. Community sentencing involving the perpetrators, victims, families and the general community provide an alternative. This is called Restorative Justice and it has been proven to work as well as or better than incarceration.
Enforce
The Mayor’s job is also to lead a high moral, ethical, honorable and successful police force.
I support giving the police the flexibility to concentrate their resources, to take the initiative and bring the enforcement to the crime. The element of surprise should always be in law enforcement’s favor.
Crimes of intimidation and retaliation against residents who have asked for police protection need priority status
Our police need to be protected and supported when they takes risks.
Work conditions should be healthy for the officers and their families and supportive of long term service.
They need to be supported in better relations with the community including foreign language training.
And we should ALWAYS fulfill our commitment to community policing keeping those positions staffed first.
Candidate agreement
I hereby apply for OakPAC’s consideration of and support for my candidacy for public office. I have read the terms above and agree to them. I certify that I have answered truthfully and completely to each of the questions asked in this application.
Signed: Don Macleay Date: Sept 17th 2010
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