Was a text message from then Oakland Mayor-Elect Sheng Thao (now Oakland Mayor Thao) to her then-Chief of Staff Renia Webb requesting the number of an “Asian Sheriff” part of a plan to replace Oakland Chief of Police Chief Armstrong with an Asian candidate? (Note: the information was shared with two other Bay Area journalists two weeks ago.)
As I write this, the Oakland NAACP is planning a City Hall rally in support of the hoped-for-retention of Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong that’s to start at 10 AM PST tomorrow, Monday, February 20th, 2023.
That’s in the wake of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s firing of the same Chief Armstrong that occurred on Wednesday, February 16th, 2023, and after she put the Chief on “paid leave”, allegedly for his handling of a very obsecure Oakland Police Officer misconduct case involving Sargeant Michael Chung – a case equal parts comical and serious given his actions of accidentally hitting a parked car and later accidentally shooting his gun off in an OPD Headquarters elevator on a Saturday night.
The Mayor’s comments during her press conference announcing Chief Armstrong’s firing – that she came to the decision only after his press conference the week before, rather than any smoking gun document, and that it was simply “The Mayor’s decision” as per City Charter to release him – made me reconsider a set of explosive text messages I received by none other than Thao’s now former Chief of Staff Renia Webb. Now, here’s what happened.
Renia Webb Wanted Sheng Thao Text Messages Made Public
On Wednesday, January 25th, 2023, at 3:03 PM EST, I received a text message that contained photos of texts. For a second, I thought it was from Seneca Scott, who was a 2022 Oakland Mayoral Election Candidate, but as the text exchange unfolded (and I called Seneca for good measure), it was clear they were from the other person marked as “RW” in the thread: Renia Webb, the Mayor’s now-and-then former Chief of Staff. Renia wanted the text messages made public.
Back on December 30th, 2022, I, as Zennie62Media CEO, broke the story that Renia Webb issued an email announcing she was resigning her post as Thao’s Chief of Staff effective the next day December 31st, 2022, New Year’s Eve. Webb described a sad tale where she claims Mayor Thao’s partner, Andre Jones, well, I’ll let the email content speak for itself:
Greetings All,
Hope this email finds you well.
Not sure what kind of games are being played – the fake letter you attached supposedly drafted on the 30th 1 Referencing the 27th.
I email Mayor a few days prior after she wanted me attend an event with her Partner Andre Jones after knowing he has physically & verbally cursed me on more than one occasion.
The afternoon of her swearing in Andre cursed her out in front of our City Clerks office for at least 15mins.
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.
Please find below:
Greetings Mayor Sheng,
I hope this email finds you & yours well.
For various reasons, I will be resigning effective immediately 1231, 2022 at 2:50pm.
I will submit information to collect my last paycheck along with any unused vacation time and will request that it be mailed to a post office box when that number is determined.
Thank you very much for the opportunity, and all we’ve learned from each other.
Wishing you the best in 2023!
I will continue to serve Oakland as I have my entire life, and the generations before me.
Blessings, Peace, Joy & Faith!
Well, Ms. Webb intended to send that to Ian Appleyard, the human resources representative for the City of Oakland, and a set of news organizations, but wound up sending it to every person in the City of Oakland’s email system, by accident. That is how I would up getting it, and breaking that story of her resignation and her stated reasons for it.
I talked to Renia after that initial story, but off the record. Ms. Webb, an obvious emotional mess from her experience as well as fear of an uncertain future, including what retaliation she believed Sheng might take against her, went back and forth about wanting to tell her story on camera, eventually, saying no, even though the emails were out in the public.
During my conversations with her, what I can report without going against her wishes, is her dislike for the alleged actions of two people beyond Mayor Thao: the forementioned Andre Jones, and Brandon Harami, Sheng’s City Council Office aide, who Ms. Webb accuses of “poisoning” her, a claim that LeAna Powell made and talked to me about in my interview with her.
Renia Webb Texts Send Triggered By Sheng Thao’s Hiring Of Brandon Harami
Rather than fire Harami as Ms. Webb and those who were the targets of his attacks using spam Twitter accounts wanted, Sheng brought him over to work for her in the Oakland Mayor’s Office. That announcement was made Monday, January 23rd; Renia Webb issued the photographed text messages you’re about to see that Wednesday January 25th.
Ms. Webb was quite – the word is “triggered” – by the press release announcement that Harami, her named tormenter other than Andre Jones , would be kept on staff to work for Sheng as Mayor of Oakland.
So she sent the texts to myself and Seneca Scott simultaneously.
The Text Messages Of Renia Webb and Sheng Thao
The order in which Ms. Webb sent the text message photos was out of order to the progression of time, so this is an attempt to properly align them with time-frame as a consideration. The first one is marked December 11th, 2022 and is from Sheng (in white text with dark-grey background), to Renia Webb using white text against a blue background – an order constant through the photos of the texts.
The December 11th, 2022 text, where Sheng tells Renia she’s a “badass —- Chief!!” is a real clue to the street level way that the Mayor communicates, using hastags like #ByFelicia and #TheyWishTheyWereUs, and saying they were the “#1 and #2 bitches in charge of the City”. That also affirming LeAna Powell’s comment to me that Sheng would begin to use the Mayor’s Office to punish her perceived enemies.
The second texts has Renia expressing her frustrations with Andre Jones, accusing Andre of “going off” on her regarding Sheng’s son, Ben because he thought she left him unattended – she did not. (Full disclosure, I have known Andre since his days as Rebecca Kaplan’s Chief of Staff and never thought he was capable of behavior close to Ms. Webb’s claims, but then that was 2010 and today brings different news.)
The next text messages shows the degree to which Renia Webb was literally a devoted follower of Sheng Thao, her “bff” who was becoming the Mayor of Oakland. It was also clear this was the period of transition, where Webb and Thao were interviewing candidates for positions in her Mayor’s Office.
The Text Message About “The
Asian Sheriff” Where Sheng Asks What’s His Name?
And now we come to the most provocative text message of all, with respect to Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong’s current situation. Here, Sheng asks Renia to give her the number of “the Asian Sheriff” and wanted to know what his name was. That was in the middle of Thao’s staff interviewing people for different positions. It’s clear that none of the newly hired staff member’s in Thao’s office, today, meets the description of the Asian Sheriff. For example, Mayor Thao’s special assistant “Jimmy” Nang Hoang does not have a background in that role as “sheriff”. So, why did Sheng want to reach out to the “Asian Sheriff”.
The next series of text messages shows how Sheng’s relationship with Renia took a fast nose-dive after Renia’s communication about the indicent with Andre Jones (where he was reported to have yelled at Sheng out loud in Oakland City Hall and with others present and over her refusal to allow him to bring his ex-signicant-other to Sheng’s swearing in) to Oakland District Three Councilmember Carroll Fife.
The next one after the text message photo below shows Andre Jones reportedly walking down 14th Street with his so-called-ex-signicant-other Natasha “as a family”, after he attended then-Mayor-Elect Thao’s swearing in ceremony and managed to yell at Sheng in front of the public, all because he brought another woman to the event, and Sheng and Renia didn’t like it, and told him so. As Renia Webb wrote in the text “Straight disrespect in front of your office after causing an unnecessary scene.”
Why Did Sheng Thao Call For The “Asian Sheriff”?
So, that’s the range of text messages, but now they should give more insight into what Thao’s plans were that eventually cost Oakland Police Chief Armstrong his job (as it looks). Again, why did Thao want to get in touch with the “Asian Sheriff”, and why was his ethicity so important? One City Hall veteran told me back in December of 2022, and before her swearing in, that Sheng was going to make up a scandal to terminate Armstrong and hire Angelica Mendoza, the Deputy Police Chief who’s really at the center of the Armstrong scandal. It was Angelica Mendoza who had several positions in the Oakland Police Department that would put her in direct contact with the Federal Monitor, including the newish Oakland Police Department Division of Risk Management.
Whatever the case, several things are clear: Sheng Thao ran a family-like, rather than a professional office as Oakland City Councilmember, and that, alone, has caused a series of relationship problems between staffers.
For example, in this update, Renia Webb also send a photo of an email she wrote to Mayor Elect Thao stating her problems and concerns with how Thao’s partner Mr. Jones was treating her. As you will see, Ms. Webb not only complained about Andre Jones cursing at him “at City Hall” while she was working as Chief of Staff, but she also claims Andre “pushed me at the Campaign HQ the day of Pastor Billy’s Press Conference.” Here’s the photo:
It seems like that style has produced several Oakland Public Ethics Commission cases – all of them still open (to date), though only one is at the level of being investigated (as of this writing that involves LeAna Powell).
In the text messages, to myself and Mr. Scott, Webb said that “I will be suing the City of Oakland for my horrible treatment, the retailation, the poisoning, the lies and abuse that still persists as they won’t return my personal belongings.”
Other Text Messages From Renia Webb Show An Overall Situation That Was Emotionally Abusive And Threatening In Sheng’s Time As City Councilwoman
Ms. Webb shared more text messages during our time of communicating. After withholding them, I can now release them. The photo below is from a text message Ms. Webb sent to me last winter and after her resignation from the Sheng Thao Mayor’s Office. She claimed that Sheng’s partner Andre was abusing her in a non-physical way and that Rev Demi met with then-Chief Armstrong and Mayor Thao to make up a false story about her and so they could keep their jobs, and cover up how Sheng herself was being abused, and then Webb alleged “criminal activity.” She wrote that Sheng was being abused again and “literally has no power at the moment”.
Webb also texted that “Andre & Libby’s circle is running Sheng, hence who paid for her inauguration celebration. The Vietnamese Chamber was supposed to sponsor instead it was the owner of Scott’s (Seafood at Jack London Square) and Libby’s developer group. (Webb did not elaborate who that was.) “Ray Gallagher“, is the founder of Scott’s.
The John Fisher Connection According To Renia Webb Via Text
Under the new circumstances of the move of the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas, the next text has some new value. In it, after saying “Happy Sunday Zennie”, Webb then claims that “Sheng is acting by direction from the old Libby guards including her own partner Andre who I discovered is very close with the Fisher family way back to growing up in Detroit & boarding school. They all played Sheng and are using her to do their bidding.”
The reference to “Andre” is Andre Jones, who was once Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan’s chief-of-staff and is now Assistant Chief, External & Intergovernmental Affairs at State of California (and candidly, I have to say, he was a good staffer for Rebecca). I will again add that I’ve not talked to Andre in some time, so the image of him reported is not consistent with what I want to think. My experience with him has been that of a good person. I would be lying if I left that out.
Does Andre Jones Have A Pipeline To John Fisher?
If Andre has the kind of relationship with Oakland A’s Owner John Fisher that Renia’s text would imply, then one has to ask why he didn’t manage to convince John to have Dave Kaval work with Sheng. I am only speculating, but it’s clear the A’s saw they were on a path to nowhere with the constant negotiations over off-site infrastructure costs that the A’s were originally assured would be covered by tax increment financing, only to see that never implemented by Oakland. Since the A’s undoubtedly believed they could not count on the City of Oakland, they took the escape hatch Las Vegas provided them.
Stay tuned for updates in this wild story.
Still an awful occurrence for Ms. Webb!