Mayor Dellums, Magic, and Walt Disney…
[October 30, 2008]

         We’re stuck in a quicksand of inaction.  The singular breath of fresh air is a promise that Robert Bobb is a man of action, a tyrant against mediocrity, and that he might maybe possibly stay as City Administrator.  The stirrings at OPD are similar to when Ron Dellums was soon to be appointed Mayor, almost two years ago.  The cops for months thought eagerly that things would change dramatically at OPD.  They hoped a new owner would want to replace their losing coach; their lackluster Chief of inaction and failing mediocrity surely couldn’t survive much longer.  Everyone wants to be on a winning team.  Bobb’s reputation is now again feeding hungry expectations at OPD. 

         The crises at OPD have torn its fabric and laid threadbare any remaining confidence.   Think and cry at the failures and distractions piling up.  Think of the Chauncy Bailey torment, the search warrant debacle, the recruiting/hiring fraud, the community policing shell game, the NSA artifice, the policy-maker bewilderment, the Area Command delusion, the Measure Y bankruptcy, the bulging Headquarters and the empty Beats, the de-policing, the overtime honey pot waste machine, and all the rest of our crumbling public safety house of cards. 

         Mayor Dellums has called himself the CEO of Oakland, likely because of general feelings we haven’t had one for so long.  Robert Bobb, or a personality like him, demanding and unforgiving, articulate and deliberate, specific and strategic, informative and action-able, is the type of person who can sit behind a CEO nameplate.  The magic that can become Oakland will then find Dellums much more effective as Oakland’s Chairman of the Board.  Walt Disney’s magic was realized, as can that of Dellums, when he became Chairman of the Board. The management of governance needs a CEO, but the inspiration and vision that can be Oakland will come with a Super-Mayor Chairman of the Board.   Ron Dellums has my support, especially when he can spread his wings.

ronoz