With a segment of its residents fuming over a scathing civil grand jury finding that two Alameda elected officials violated the city charter, the Alameda City Council voted to accept its findings and recommendations. Jim Oddie and Malia, the councilmembers in question, each recused themselves from the agenda item.
Although the trio of councilmembers voted unanimously to agree with the grand jury's findings, Councilmember Tony Daysog said, "I don't believe the city of Alameda is ready to move on yet," at least, until reforms are made to the city charter. "No person is above the law," he said. "The law of the land is the Alameda city charter." Echoing a number of citizen's comments, Daysog urged for a discussion on a number of actions the council could take to officially rebuke Oddie and Vella, including censure or recall.
Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft called the episode a "regrettable chapter in our city's history." She opined that the scandal that engulfed City Hall over the past two years was, in some part, hastened by former Mayor Trish Herrera Spencer's lack of leadership as the controversy was unfolding. She made her comments prior to the council discussion about a civil grand jury's findings that two Alameda councilmembers violated the charter by allegedly pressuring the then-city manager to hire a candidate for the open fire chief position that was supported by the city's firefighters' union.
Ashcraft spoke off-the-cuff about Spencer's handling of the matter while mayor. "One of the points that the grand jury made in its report was that in some councils, a strong, capable mayor would have put a stop to what was going on, but that was not the case here," she said. "We have a different council now and I believe that we are going to take this matter into hand and do the right thing."
As Ashcraft was delivering the scathing indictment of Spencer's time as mayor, there were murmurs among the packed council chamber's audience. Spencer attended the meeting and was sitting in the second row when Ashcraft make her comments.
In an interview, Spencer slammed Ashcraft for personalizing the scandal for her own benefit. "It was challenging to work with her," the former mayor said of her successor. "I think she has a hard time focusing. It shows immaturity on her part. Not appropriate. And more importantly, it shows that she does not understand the complexity of this matter for our city. It's historical. Instead, she decided to make it about her being mayor."
In some ways Ashcraft's comments were a clap back at Spencer. Spencer's literal last words before ending her stint as mayor last December included a diatribe against what she believed were Ashcraft's dishonorable campaign tactics against her. Spencer did not name Ashcraft in the criticism.
July 24, 2019
East Bay Express
By Steven Tavares
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