Oakland Inauguration Day 2023 Opens Dark Chapter Marked By Voting Controversy

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Today is Oakland Inauguration Day 2023, and where the event starts at 3 PM PST at the Paramount Theatre to swear in Sheng Thao as Mayor, Courtney Ruby as City Auditor, as well as the new members of the Oakland City Council and Oakland Board of Education. You can watch it here on the City of Oakland’s YouTube Page.

So, congratulations to the following:

Mayor Sheng Thao
City Auditor Courtney Ruby
City Councilmember District 2, Nikki Fortunato Bas
City Councilmember District 4, Janani Ramachandran
City Councilmember District 6, Kevin Jenkins
Board of Education Member District 2, Jennifer Brouhard
Board of Education Member District 4, Nick Resnick
Board of Education Member District 6, Valarie Bachelor

And now, say hello to what already is the most controversial era, ever, in Oakland Politics. Consider that this ceremony is done under a giant cloud of voting controversy. Mayor-Elect Thao comes in having won over challenger Loren Taylor by just 677 votes – the closest margin in Oakland’s history. Then consider that this blogger found a problem in the outcome of the ranked choice voting process that pointed to the use of a machine and not hand-counting. Alameda County Registrar Tim Dupuis agreed that I found an anomaly but then worked with Sean Dugar to craft an alternative corrective approach based on a misalignment of the vote count that no one ever actually saw. Indeed, before my discovery, Sean Dugar expressed support for the way the process was done and even said he “trusts Dominion software”.

But, in the “Post-What-Zennie-Found” environment, Sean worked with Tim Dupuis to come up with a plan that focused only on one race: the Oakland School Board District Four Race. There, Nick Resnick was marked as the official winner, but Sean’s “misalignment” claim and Tim’s adjustment of that race only using what are called “overvotes” caused Mike Hutchinson to be declared the winner – but not officially. Now, he has to lawyer-up to get the Registrar to make him official.

When the Alameda County Board of Supervisors took up the problem last week, the verdict was that the entire effort has to be put to a recount: that includes all of the City Council races and the race for Mayor of Oakland.

So, here we are about to watch an Inauguration that may be made invalid in days if, indeed, a recount is authorized and started. And even without that, we have already gotten a glimpse of what four years with Sheng Thao will look like: a period of constant investigations. Already, Mayor-Elect Thao is the focus of three active Oakland Public Ethics Commission cases, one at the investigation level and the other two in what is called the “review” process. And on top of that, her Chief of Staff Renia Webb resigned, and then said her reason was due to physical and verbal assault from Sheng Thao’s partner and aide Andre Jones. Moreover, Renia Webb put that out on a mass email picked up by every City of Oakland employee! She wrote:

The environment I was working in became abusive, radical, threatening among other things. I will be filing an official complaint as well as suing for damages, pain & suffering etc etc. 

I resigned from Mayor Shengs office due to unfair practices in her office. I sent my resignation on the 31st of December at 2:50pm via email. 

Regardless of the outcome, Webb is gone, and it’s not hard to figure out that she’s been replaced by someone else. But it continues a problem of dysfunction in Sheng’s office, and that’s even more complicated by the fact that, right now, Oakland does not have a Chief Administrative Officer.

Yep, Ed Reiskin has already departed Oakland for his new job as Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations and Administration and Chief Financial Officer at UC Santa Cruz. He will start in early February 2023. So, who’s the new Chief Administrative Officer? The Mayor has not only not named one, but what happens if she has to go through a vote recount and lose?

We can only buckle up and wait and watch this play out, even as our lives are impacted by it as Oaklanders.

Sheng could solve all of this by taking action ASAP, then let the chips fall where they may. Will she do that remains to be seen.

Stay tuned.

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