Oakland News: Mayor Quan Mailer Recall Fears, Ethics Problem; A’s Blocked?

Is Oakland Mayor Jean Quan scared of being recalled?

Did you happen to open your mail on Friday or Saturday and get a nice love brochure about Oakland, courtesy of our Mayor Jean Quan? The one that’s titled “State Of The City.” The one in my photo, here?

It’s a six-page glossy color marketing document that looks as if it’s campaign ready: the kind of thing you’d expect to see during, say, a Mayor’s race. But the catch is we’re in the middle of Mayor Quan’s first quarter and second quarter of her second year in office, so why send this kind of thing now?

Because Mayor Quan’s afraid of being recalled, that’s why.

It’s hard to tell exactly how well the recall effort is going of late, but Quan’s document, paid for by a group called Stand With Oakland, which has this Facebook Page (but is not the North Oakland Group called The STAND alliance) indicates that at the very least, the process is scaring Quan and her supporters into action.

But here’s the problem with the document – at least one that I have with it.

The document is paid for by Stand With Oakland, but it has a tiny set of words at the bottom that asks you to go to the City of Oakland’s website at http://www2.oaklandnet.com, for more information on Oakland’s progress.

That smells weird, because it looks like you have a private election-style campaign co-mingled with a public city website instead of a separate, privately ran website on Quan’s State Of The City brochure. As Quan’s in the middle of what are election-conditions, she can’t afford to make mistakes like this. If she wants to be seen as doing a good job, she can do her job and use the City’s existing social media platforms to communicate what’s happening. But Quan’s mixing of private promotion efforts with City resources, like the City Of Oakland’s website just plain looks ethically bad.

Oh, and how was this paid for? Probably with money from Quan’s Holiday Party, which drew about 400 people, and yes, I signed up to go too, but didn’t because I was sick. That doesn’t mean I support the mailer idea.

Oakland A’s Not Going Anywhere

To me, the New York Daily News reporting that Major League Baseball may block the Oakland A’s attempt to leave Oakland for San Jose because of the San Francisco Giants’ ownership of the San Jose area as “territory” is no news. I’ve said that again, and again. There’s no way the Giants will allow the A’s to be in their marketing area, thus damaging ticket sales potential and franchise value. Plus there’s no way the other MLB Owners will open the door to having their own team’s franchise value threatened. The Oakland A’s and the City of Oakland have to work together, so the A’s must stop this silly game.

A Plug For Fenton’s Restaurant

Here’s a video blog plug for Fenton’s on Piedmont Avenue and Entrada:

Stay tuned.