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Oakland Has a Special Election Mess on Its Hands After Mayoral Recall. Here’s Why
Dec 4, 2024Tap to summarizeIt’s officially official: Oakland is going to need to figure out how to replace its mayor and City Council president after Alameda County’s final election results dropped Tuesday afternoon. Mayor Sheng Thao, who conceded on Nov. 8, was recalled by 60.62% of voters, and City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas — who would be first in line for the interim mayor role — squeaked out a narrow victory to claim a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Now, the complex process to fill their vacant offices, which has only been discussed as “ifs” and “could bes” for months, will begin. Here’s what you need to know about the shakeup in City Hall and another election — elections? — in the near future. Does Oakland have a mayor right now? Thao is still in office, at least for the time being. While Tuesday’s election results marked the last ballot drops and final vote tally, there are still some bureaucratic processes that’ll have to play out. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao speaks during a rally against her recall at Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland on Oct. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) On Thursday, Alameda County Registrar Tim Dupuis will certify the election results as required by state law. Then, they’ll go to the Oakland city clerk, who will review and certify them at the city level. According to a legal opinion issued by the Oakland city attorney last week, the City Council will then pass two resolutions, likely at its regular Dec. 17 meeting: one declaring the election results and a second declaring a vacancy in the mayor’s office. That is when Thao’s office will be vacated. The special election countdown begins … Because Thao had more than 100 days remaining in her term, which would have ended in January 2027, Oakland will have to hold a special election to replace her, according to the city charter. This has to take place within 120 days on a Tuesday, and the city attorney’s office expects that if the vacancy is declared at the Dec. 17 council meeting, that election will be scheduled for April 15. Then, a nominating period will begin. Anyone who chooses to run to serve the remainder of Thao’s term will have to declare candidacy between Dec. 23 and Jan. 17, adding to the list of California politicians who won’t get much of a holiday break this year. Who will run for mayor is kind of a wild card — even former NFL star and Oakland product Marshawn Lynch has floated the idea — but Loren Taylor, who lost to Thao by a slim margin in 2022, has already filed papers, The Oaklandside reported. In the meantime, the city will need an interim mayor This is where things could get messy. According to the charter, the City Council president assumes the role of interim mayor until the special election when the mayor’s office is vacant. During that time, the council president is considered “on leave,” which isn’t a vacancy but prevents them from performing any council duties. A “no” vote is cast on their behalf only to determine if there is a tie among council members, in which case they would break the tie as mayor. Oakland faces the task of replacing its mayor and City Council president following Tuesday’s final election results from Alameda County. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) As if that’s not confusing enough, the current City Council president is on her way out. Bas’ term as president goes through Jan. 6 — with her District 2 term set to expire two years later — but she just won a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors that she would be sworn into next month. Bas said Wednesday that she plans to step down from her seat on Dec. 17 so that the city can declare her office vacant and combine the District 2 special election with the spring mayoral special election. Had she kept her seat until January, the city attorney warned the timing of the two vacancies likely would have required Oakland to hold two separate special elections a month apart. Bas plans to submit a letter to the city clerk on Dec. 17 stating her resignation, “provided the election results are certified tomorrow and without subsequent challenge,” she said during a press conference on Wednesday. Her resignation won’t take effect until Jan. 6, and she will serve as interim mayor until then. Dan Kalb, the current council president pro tempore, will take over acting duties of the City Council president. But what about that challenge? As Bas hinted at, her resignation isn’t set in stone. It’s not improbable that someone could request a recount in her Board of Supervisors race, in which she eked out victory over John Bauters by just about 400 votes. Alameda County’s registrar allows anyone to request a recount within five days of the result’s certification. If a recount is requested, Bas said she won’t vacate her seat. That means if the votes are re-tallied, and she comes out on top again, there will need to be a second special election next year for her City Council seat. That’s a problem for a few reasons. First and foremost, the city can’t really afford it. Elections are expensive, and Oakland has a pretty big money problem. The registrar of voters estimates that an election costs between $19 and $21 a voter. It’s also just hard to get people to the polls so many times in one year. Special elections tend to have lower turnout, and two within one month would surely fire up the politically active but confuse the less informed. January’s first council meeting is set to be a weird one Who will run the city come January is a big question mark. The council will be tasked with selecting a new president, who will serve as interim mayor for four months, and a new pro tem, who will lead the council. The council can also pass a motion to appoint a District 2 council member to ensure continuity of representation for the residents in Bas’ district until the special election. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-11979139" src="https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240305-ELECTION-FILE-EB-KSM-20-KQED-1.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333" srcset="https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240305-ELECTION-FILE-EB-KSM-20-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240305-ELECTION-FILE-EB-KSM-20-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240305-ELECTION-FILE-EB-KSM-20-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240305-...
Transcribe →Gavin Newsom Vows to ‘Leave No Region Behind’ on California Jobs
Nov 22, 2024Tap to summarizeCalifornia’s Central Valley will be left behind no more, its leaders and Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday as the region became the first in the state to meet with the governor to submit its 20-year economic development plan, which aims to boost its agricultural industry and prepare for a key role in the green economy. The event in West Fresno builds on the governor’s initiative, which he introduced in March, to invest in economic and workforce development with a focus on 13 regions as the state tries to help create more opportunities outside of its traditional jobs centers, such as the Bay Area and Los Angeles. “A thriving Sierra San Joaquin region is essential to California’s future,” said Ashley Swearengin, chief executive of the Central Valley Community Foundation, which helped bring together the counties in the region to create the 502-page plan, which was funded by the state. She handed a binder with the plan to Newsom during the press conference. Among other things, the counties of Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare are asking for $58 billion in public and private investments in the region over the next couple of decades, according to a draft of the plan from August. The region, which produces 25% of the nation’s food supply, has an annual output of $70 billion, the plan says. Despite its agricultural contributions and the major role it’s expected to play in helping generate the state’s renewable energy, 1 in 5 people in the region live below the poverty line, said Swearengin, a former Fresno mayor. “The challenges that confront this region’s families must always be present in our minds.” The governor said he expects to take the other regions’ plans and release a statewide blueprint in January. The state has set aside $182 million so far in grants to follow through on the plans. There’s optimism around the state’s focus on regions. Kate Gordon, CEO of California Forward, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the California economy and a former director of the governor’s Office of Planning and Research under Newsom, said “across California, stakeholders are getting together on a thoughtful approach” to creating high-quality jobs. Gordon added that some people “don’t feel themselves as part of the economy right now,” and that the regions working on their own strategies was “an incredibly inclusive process.” Newsom acknowledged what he called economic uneasiness among the state’s residents despite fairly low unemployment. Related Stories “This is about people feeling on edge,” the governor said, adding that he is “excited” to support grant applications from the region. “It’s not talking about macro conditions, but about micro lived reality.” A common takeaway from this year’s elections is that voters made their decisions partly because of their economic concerns, at least according to exit polls. Newsom, who is heading into his final two years as governor, says he’s responding to those concerns. Republicans continually criticize him for being out of touch with the daily struggles of many Californians. Even as his national stature has grown, the state’s voters are split on his performance as governor. The governor made Thursday’s announcement in Fresno County, where 51% of residents voted for Donald Trump and 46% voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, with all but 7,100 votes counted. Fresno County, which has a per capita income of about $50,000 a year, among the lowest in California, has also consistently had among the highest unemployment claims in the state, according to data from the Employment Development Department. California’s unemployment rate inched up in October, to 5.4% from 5.3% the previous month. That’s the second-highest jobless rate in the nation, behind Nevada, while the U.S. unemployment rate is 4.1%. This week, the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office noted in its fiscal outlook for the next year: “Outside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs in a year and a half.”
Transcribe →LA County’s New DA Explains How He Plans to Embrace the ‘Hard Middle’
Nov 22, 2024Tap to summarizeNathan Hochman will be sworn in as Los Angeles County’s new district attorney next month. He’s promised to roll back his predecessor’s progressive policies and return order to the sprawling county, but has also said he won’t restore the mass incarceration policies of the past. Marisa and Scott talk with Hochman about how he plans to strike that balance.
Transcribe →House Passes Bill to Strip Tax-Exempt Status From Nonprofits That Support ‘Terrorism’
Nov 22, 2024Tap to summarizeThe U.S. House passed legislation on Thursday that would give the Treasury Department unilateral authority to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits it claims support terrorism, alarming civil liberties groups about how a second Trump presidency could invoke it to punish political opponents. The bill passed 219–184, with the majority of the support coming from Republicans who accused Democrats of reversing course in their support for the “common sense” proposal only after Donald Trump was elected to a second term earlier this month. Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote, Rep. Jason Smith, GOP chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said his colleagues across the aisle would still be supporting the bill if Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidential race. “And we, as members of Congress, have the duty to make sure that taxpayers are not subsidizing terrorism,” the Missouri lawmaker said. “It’s very, very simple.” However, the proposal has drawn concern from a range of nonprofits who say it could be used to target organizations, including news outlets, universities, and civil society groups, with which a future presidential administration disagrees. They say it does not offer groups enough due process. “This bill is an authoritarian play by Republicans to expand the sweeping powers of the executive branch, to go after political enemies and stifle political dissent,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on the House floor ahead of the vote. Critics also see it as redundant as it is already against U.S. law to support designated terrorist groups. The proposal, which now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate where its fate is uncertain, would also postpone tax filing deadlines for Americans held hostage or unlawfully detained abroad. The bill would create a new category of “terrorist supporting organizations,” according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service of a previous version of the legislation. This category is defined as any organization the Treasury Secretary designates as having provided material support to a terrorist organization in the past three years. “We think this legislation is an overreach,” said Jenn Holcomb, vice president of government affairs at the Council on Foundations. “It would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to designate a 501c nonprofit as a terrorist organization at their discretion. And our concern is it doesn’t have enough in there to really ensure that a nonprofit understands the reasoning that a secretary designated as such.” Nonprofit Coverage The bill would give a nonprofit designated as a “terror-supporting” 90 days to appeal that designation. Nonprofits like the American Civil Liberties Union have said that the bill does not require that the Secretary of Treasury disclose all the evidence that was used to make the designation. The bill text outlines how the Treasury must send “a description of such material support or resources to the extent consistent with national security and law enforcement interests.” In a joint statement with the Independent Sector, National Council of Nonprofits, and United Philanthropy Forum, the Council on Foundations also said the bill would shift the burden of proof to the nonprofit, and even if an organization was eventually cleared, the nonprofit would “risk irreparable damage to their operations and reputation.” If it were to become law, the bill could apply to a range of nonprofits, including membership organizations, unions and private foundations. A version of the bill was first introduced after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the House passed a previous version of the bill in April, including with the support of some Democrats. The bill was also brought up for a vote last week but failed to garner a two-thirds majority required under the suspension of the rules. Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American representative in Congress, said Thursday before the vote it would be her third time voting against the bill. “I don’t care who the president of the United States is,” she said. “This is a dangerous and unconstitutional bill that would allow unchecked power to target nonprofit organizations as political enemies and shut them down without due process.”
Transcribe →Embattled San Mateo County Sheriff Faces Mounting Calls to Resign
Nov 22, 2024Tap to summarizeSan Mateo County supervisors are renewing their calls for embattled Sheriff Christina Corpus to resign in the wake of an investigation that found abuses of power, intimidation, retaliation and favoritism have become commonplace during her short time in office. Supervisors Ray Mueller and Noelia Corzo said Thursday that Corpus, who was sworn in last year, and her only remaining undersheriff, Daniel Perea, must resign to allow trust to be restored to the department. “We are in an operational crisis in the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office that is without precedent,” Mueller said during a news conference. Corzo said this is the most pressing matter in the county. “She is not a sheriff we can trust, and she needs to resign immediately,” Corzo said. Days earlier, all five captains in the Sheriff’s Office sent Corpus a letter notifying her they had passed a vote of no confidence in her and Perea over the weekend and asked them both to resign. The leaders of the two unions representing sheriff’s deputies and sergeants in the county also previously called on Corpus to resign. Three assistant sheriffs or undersheriffs have left the office since complaints about Corpus began to surface, including one who officials said was fired in retaliation for speaking to an investigator looking into allegations against Corpus. The San Mateo County Hall of Justice in Redwood City on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) “Collectively, the leadership for all of the professional sworn law enforcement in the county, and the captains in the county, have called for Sheriff Corpus’ resignation, and Undersheriff Perea’s resignation,” Mueller said during the news conference. “The two are literally left standing alone in the Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff has lost the faith and trust of her team.” Thursday’s announcement builds on actions already taken by the county leaders. On Tuesday, the full Board of Supervisors advanced a plan to put a measure on the March ballot that would give it the power to fire an elected sheriff for cause. The board is expected to finalize its decision at a Dec. 3 meeting. If the measure is placed on the ballot and approved by voters, the new charter rules would set a four-vote threshold for the five-member Board of Supervisors to remove a sheriff. Last week, the board passed a vote of no confidence in Corpus and demanded she resign. That came after the publication of a 408-page investigative report into Corpus that the county retained retired Superior Court Judge LaDoris H. Cordell to conduct. “Lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuse of authority are hallmarks of the Corpus administration,” Cordell wrote in an executive summary of her report. “Sheriff Corpus should resign, and Victor Aenlle’s employment with the Sheriff’s Office should be terminated immediately. Only new leadership can save this organization, which is mired in chaos and demoralization.” Following Cordell’s recommendation, the board also unanimously last week voted to eliminate the position of executive director in the sheriff’s office, which was held by Aenlle. Cordell wrote in her report that Aenlle has “a personal relationship beyond mere friendship” with Corpus. “Evidence suggests they have had an intimate relationship.” A group of state and federal lawmakers representing the peninsula and the South Bay — Reps. Anna Eshoo and Kevin Mullin, State Sen. Josh Becker, and Assemblymembers Marc Berman and Diane Papan — also joined the wave of officials calling for Corpus to resign in a joint statement on Monday. Corpus, in a previous statement, denounced Cordell’s report as “a hatchet job” and said it was “filled with lies.” She did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. Corpus has also been criticized for the arrest of Carlos Tapia, the president of the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, who has been a vocal critic of her. Tapia turned himself in and was arrested on multiple charges, including felony grand theft, just hours before the Cordell report was released. The charges are apparently connected to concerns about alleged irregularities with his time card. San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe said in a statement that the Tapia case is under review by his office “to determine whether criminal charges for time card fraud are warranted,” but added that no decision has been made. “We have requested additional investigation by the Sheriff’s Office. Our goal is to have the decision on charging made in advance of his arraignment date on Dec. 9,” Wagstaffe said. Mueller said on Thursday that he confirmed that a former captain under Corpus, Brian Philip, was ordered to arrest Tapia but chose to resign instead. “Litigation has commenced,” Mueller said, noting that Philip has brought a claim against the county. “San Mateo County taxpayers simply cannot afford the financial liability of a sheriff we cannot trust,” Mueller said. “We are calling on Sheriff Corpus again today to resign and to save the taxpayers of this county the cost it will take to remove her,” Mueller said. “Which, if she does not do, we will do.” KQED’s Brian Krans contributed to this report.
Transcribe →California Largely Shifted to the Right in the 2024 Presidential Election
Nov 22, 2024Tap to summarizeThe country largely shifted to the right in this presidential election from where it was four years ago. In 2020, President Biden won six of the seven most closely watched states, but this year, they all shifted toward President-elect Donald Trump. What’s more, Trump is on track to win the popular vote this time, when Biden won it by 7 million in 2020. Trump won the suburbs The suburbs have become increasingly diverse and populous. More than half of voters in 2024 were in suburban areas, according to exit polls. They have become swing areas, home to some of the most closely targeted House seats, and a good barometer of who will win the presidential election. The winner in the suburbs has won 11 of the last 12 presidential elections, dating back to 1980. And this year, that was Trump, 51%–47%, according to exit polls. Vice President Harris hoped she could turn out women in the suburbs in key swing states to get her across the finish line. But that didn’t happen. Trump, for example, won white suburban women by 7 points, as well as white suburban men — by 27. So there were some split kitchen tables, but not enough to help Harris win. In multiple swing states, there were significant shifts in Trump’s direction in the suburbs, based on nearly final vote totals. That includes a net swing of almost 60,000 votes in the four counties that make up the Philadelphia suburbs and the two major ones north of Detroit, more than 10,000 in the “WOW” counties around Milwaukee (Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington), and in the counties touching Fulton County, Georgia, where Atlanta is. In some of those Atlanta metro counties, though, Harris did better than Biden and her losses weren’t as bad in the Charlotte metro area as in the former Blue Wall states. That’s one reason Democrats have been more optimistic about the future in the Sun Belt than the industrial Midwest. Rural areas went even more for Trump Trump has done extremely well in rural areas, and in 2024, he won by a record margin. Since 1980, no candidate has done better. Trump won 64% of voters in rural areas this year, according to exit polls. The previous best was 61% — set by Trump in 2016. That helped him in all of the swing states but also in red states, like Texas, which boosted his total in the popular vote. He gained, for example, a net of more than 900,000 votes in Texas compared to 2020; and more than 1 million in Florida, a longtime competitive state that saw a dramatic swing in Trump’s direction. His improvement in those states also reflects the major shifts in his direction with Latino voters in South Florida and South Texas. Harris also underperformed in urban areas A lot of Democratic base voters live in big cities, and those urban areas are often key to a Democrat winning in the swing states. However, Harris got just 59% of voters in urban areas, lower than Biden, former President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. That underperformance is a large part of why she lost in key states. For example, in Maricopa County, Arizona, home to Phoenix, Harris got roughly 61,000 fewer votes than Biden in 2020. Trump, on the other hand, gained about 56,000, for a 117,000-vote shift in just one county. Related Coverage In Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit), Harris saw a decline of more than 60,000 votes, while Trump gained about 24,000. Black voters are key in Wayne County, but so are Arab Americans. About 100,000 Arab Americans, the largest population of Arab Americans in the country, live in Dearborn, and many were upset over the Biden administration’s policies toward the war in Gaza. It was a similar story in other key urban areas in the swing states, from Las Vegas to Philadelphia. And Harris saw declines in blue states, too, declining in New York, for example, by more than 800,000 from Biden’s total four years ago.
Transcribe →Back-to-Back Storms to Wallop California. Expect Heavy Rain and Flood Danger
Nov 21, 2024Tap to summarizeUpdated 3:35 p.m. Thursday The atmospheric river storm that has dumped heavy rainfall on Northern California for two straight days is expected to wrap up by early Friday when another storm will move into the region. Between Wednesday and Thursday, parts of the North Bay could receive 20 inches of rain, elevating the risk from the next round of rain, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said Thursday. The deluge is prompting major flood concerns in counties north of the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border. “If this atmospheric river were to intensify and stall, not just sort of wiggle around, but just sit in the same place for three days, we could see escalation from minor flooding to more significant moderate and even major flooding,” Swain said. “That appears to be what is happening because this atmospheric river truly has stalled out and will continue to be there for another 24 hours,” he added. The greatest flooding risk will be in the hardest hit areas from Marin County north “as the peak of this system moves through in the early to mid-morning hours,” Swain said. The two storms could break rainfall records and will likely move south over the Greater Bay Area midday Friday into the afternoon. A Category 5 atmospheric river brings heavy precipitation, high winds and power outages to the San Francisco Bay Area. The storm is expected to bring anywhere between 2 and 5 inches of rain to many parts of the area. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) “We’re lucky this isn’t coming on the heels of a very wet pattern, but in and of itself, it’s going to be enough to create significant and life-threatening flooding in some places,” Swain said. “How’s that for the first storm of the season with any significance?” But rain won’t immediately stop over the Bay Area this weekend. Instead, showers are expected into early next week. For now, the rain will continue over the North Bay. “The momentum of the whole system itself has slowed down; all that rain is just holding out on the North Bay right now,” said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office. We are starting to get more and more reports of flooded roads across Sonoma County. Do not drive across flooded roadways. Thank you to our partners at Sonoma Water for the picture. #TurnAroundDontDrown #CAwx https://t.co/T9u2f3bU3U pic.twitter.com/K708xQ4NoU — NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) November 21, 2024 Already this week, the North Bay has seen more than 16 inches of rain at the highest elevations of the coastal mountains and over 10 inches of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, the storm dropped several more inches over the Napa and Sonoma areas. “Rainfall totals are hitting those mountains, but luckily, it’s not happening within a short time,” Murdock said. “We’re even starting to see the prolonged effects, which are starting to add up, where we see some loosening of rocks around roads and some shallow landslides.” Cori Reed, public information officer for CalTrans District 1, covering the northernmost part of the state, said rivers are rising, and the threat of flooding could lead to potential highway closures. “We might get to flood stage by midnight tonight or 3 a.m. Friday morning,” she said. James White, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka, said Thursday that over the next 24 hours, the agency will be closely watching the Eel River, which is “expected to reach a major flood stage later tomorrow.” If the river floods and roads are closed, he said, it could be difficult for people to move around the northern part of the state, leading to a “dangerous situation,” especially if there are landslides or rockslides. “It’s not uncommon that Eureka and the North Coast gets cut off,” he said. “This is just kind of an extra long event, so folks just need to be prepared to lose power. Don’t travel around; just stay safe and hunker down.” Since the storm began, PG&E has restored power to about 130,000 customers, according to the utility. Its outage tracker showed thousands more without power on Thursday afternoon. The week’s second intense storm is expected to pick up Friday, when it will shift south and hit the rest of the Bay Area more directly. On Wednesday, the strong winds downed trees, which crushed at least one home and damaged power lines in Santa Rosa, said Paul Lowenthal, division chief fire marshal for the Santa Rosa Fire Department. “We had one tree come down that took out power lines, knocking out power to a couple of dozen individuals,” he said. “However, given the conditions, it could have been a lot worse.” As the rain ramps up Friday, the potential for damage from falling limbs and flooding will only grow, Lowenthal said. This week’s second storm system, moving south from the Gulf of Alaska, will veer toward the greater Bay Area on Friday and drop as much as 2 inches in San Francisco and 3 at higher elevations around San Francisco Bay. “Tomorrow’s looking to be a lot wetter than initially believed,” Lowenthal said. “A lot of those same trouble spots we are dealing with will likely back up again and lead to another round of flooding and ponding in roadways.” This Total Precipitable Water loop over the past 48 hours helps us visualize the atmospheric river impacting California. Note the plume of increased moisture stretching from the subtropics directed at the Golden State.️ #CAwx #CArain Images courtesy of @UWCIMSS. pic.twitter.com/IluqZcHaep — NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) November 21, 2024 Since soils are now more saturated than they were two days ago, the likelihood of flooding is much higher when the storm ramps up later Friday, said Rachel Kennedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office. She said the weather service is paying close attention to rivers and streams nearing flood stages in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Windsor and Forestville. “When the soil is saturated, it can absorb less water, which would lead to increased runoff, which could lead to faster rises in creeks and rivers, as well as ponding on roadways and nuisance flooding,” she said. Water managers in the North Bay are gearing up for the second round of extreme rain but aren’t too worried about major waterways, like the Russian River, overwhelming their banks because reservoirs are way below capacity this early in the rainy season. “We’ll take this early rainfall and knock on wood to continue this rainfall pattern into the winter,” said Brad Sherwood, assistant general manager for Sonoma Water. “We want this storm door to remain open.” Sherwood said the early rain could be a sign of a wet year, but “with the weather whiplash” California is known for, water managers are well aware that just a few years ago, the state was in a four-year drought. “Getting [a massive] atmospheric river this early in the season is fairly rare,” he said. “So we’re always cognitive of climate change and extreme weather patterns. That’s why, as water managers, we have to save and preserve and efficiently use our water.” KQED’s Sukey Lewis...
Transcribe →Who Will Be Oakland’s Interim Mayor? This Tight Race Could Scramble the Plan
Nov 21, 2024Tap to summarizeNear-final ballot returns show Oakland’s City Council president slightly ahead in her bid for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, setting her up for a win that would throw into question who will lead the city after Mayor Sheng Thao’s recall. As council president, Nikki Fortunato Bas is set to become interim mayor once Thao’s recall is certified next month. But if she wins a seat on the Board of Supervisors, she would be sworn in just weeks later. Bas stopped short of declaring victory over Emeryville Councilmember John Bauters on Wednesday night after the latest ballot returns, posting on X that it “appears” voters have selected her as their next supervisor. “One year ago, I answered the call from community-based advocates and Labor leaders to advance a vision of an equitable, prosperous and healthy future for every Alameda County family,” Bas wrote. “I will bring an unflagging commitment and engage the community to serve every resident.” She currently leads the District 5 race by 415 votes, and Alameda County Registrar Tim Dupuis estimates that about 4,800 ballots are outstanding across the entire county. Those ballots all have signature errors — like mismatching signatures or lack of a signature at all — that must be cured before they can be counted, Dupuis said, and those that are won’t be added to the online tally until Dec. 3. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao listens to City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas speak in front of city hall during a city-led “Welcome Back Wednesday” event to promote the recovery of the city’s downtown area on April 5, 2023. (Kori Suzuki/KQED) “We don’t know how many of these 4,836 votes are within that district, and we also don’t know how those folks ended up voting,” he told KQED. “We’ll just have to see what comes in by Dec. 3. That’s just how this works, every vote counts.” Until then, Oakland elected officials will be waiting with bated breath to see if they’ll have to select a new interim leader to inherit a serious budget crisis, weather political fracturing and lead a fairly novice council. Oakland’s city charter said that when a mayor vacates the office, the council president will serve until the city holds a special election, which will take place mid-April. But if Bas vacates her seat, the council will have to select a new president from its ranks in January. As council president, that person would step in as interim mayor to lead the city until voters choose a representative to serve out Thao’s term, which ends in 2026. The stakes for choosing a new council president and president pro tempore will be high. Without Bas, the council would be under entirely new leadership since current President Pro Tem Dan Kalb and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan both chose not to run for another term. And Oakland has big decisions to make before the spring, most notably getting the city back on a fiscally responsible path. City officials raised a red flag this week, telling the council that Oakland is at risk of financial insolvency if there aren’t major budget reductions by the end of the calendar year. Spending at its current rate, the city is set to add $93 million to its already significant deficit. The interim mayor will also have to take over Thao’s role in orchestrating the stalled sale of the Oakland Coliseum to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, which the city’s year-end budget is significantly reliant on. Whether the outstanding votes in Alameda County are enough to swing Bas’ race, leaving her on the City Council, is unknown. Dupuis said the ballots span the county’s five districts, and it isn’t clear how many are District 5 residents. There’s also a chance some people won’t cure their ballots before the Dec. 3 deadline. The elections office reaches out to voters whose ballots have errors via phone, email and paper mail, urging them to submit signature verification statements by the deadline. Sometimes, “people are very interested in having their vote counted for a particular race, and sometimes they may feel that the election is over, and they don’t get around to doing it,” Dupuis told KQED. Though the race’s margin remains close, Alameda County has no threshold for triggering an automatic recount. Instead, anyone can request a recount — as long as they pay for it. If that’s the case, Dupuis said the person would have to reach out to the registrar within five days of election certification. Then, his office would meet with the requester to discuss whether they want a hand or machine count and how they plan to fund it. In 2022, a requested recount in the Oakland mayoral election that narrowly put Thao into office was called off after its supporters couldn’t foot the bill. No matter what, Dupuis said, the county will post final unofficial results on the evening of Dec. 3, and he will certify elections on Dec. 5.
Transcribe →Attendance in California Schools Is Slowly Rebounding, New Data Shows
Nov 21, 2024Tap to summarizeCalifornia’s public school students are continuing to rebound from the pandemic, with more showing up for class, more graduating and fewer misbehaving at school, according to new data released on Thursday. The California School Dashboard, a color-coded snapshot of how students and schools are faring, showed improvements in many categories during the 2023–24 school year — a relief for schools trying to help students recover academically and social-emotionally after the 2020 campus closures. The most notable improvement was in attendance. The percentage of students who were chronically absent, missing more than 10% of school days in a year, dropped to about 20%, a significant decline from when it peaked at 30% three years ago. Prior to the pandemic, about 12% of students were chronically absent. “This is good news,” said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that advocates for school attendance. “I’m pleasantly surprised. … To benefit from all the services that schools are offering, kids have to show up.” Since the pandemic, schools across the state have been doubling down on efforts to lure students back to school. Many used their federal and state COVID-19 relief money to hire outreach workers, add bus routes, host pizza parties and otherwise make it easier and more enticing to come to school. Some districts had social workers connect directly with parents to solve transportation and other obstacles. Those efforts paid off, Chang said. While the pizza parties helped, she pointed to many schools’ focus on improving campus climate overall. That includes counseling, social-emotional learning, stronger relationships between school staff and families, and health and wellness services. Pandemic relief grants expired this year, so some districts will be scrambling to maintain these programs going forward. But the state’s recent investments in community schools, arts education, transitional kindergarten and other services will help, Chang said. Recognition for long-term English learners Another noteworthy item in the dashboard is the inclusion of a new student group: long-term English learners or students who were not fluent in English after seven years. The reasons for these students’ delays vary, but in general, they’re not receiving adequate help learning English and, as a result, lag far behind their peers academically. About 10% of students who were ever classified as English learners were considered long-term English learners last year, according to state data. Those students had some of the lowest math and English language arts scores of any of California’s 13 other student groups. “We’re celebrating this significant milestone, that long-term English learners get the spotlight they deserve and they are no longer invisible,” said Martha Hernandez, director of Californians Together, which advocates for students who are English learners. “But now the work begins to ensure their needs are met.” Schools need to do a better job helping families who are recent immigrants by finding translators, providing counseling to students, boosting bilingual education and bringing in tutors to help with English and academic skills, said Lindsay Tornatore, director of systems improvement and student success at California County Superintendents, which represents county office of education superintendents. “We should be mindful this is a student group that’s in the greatest need of support,” Tornatore said. ‘Not good enough’ Elsewhere on the dashboard, the graduation rate was 86.4%, up a bit from the previous year and higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 84.2%. However, a related item on the dashboard raised alarm bells with researchers. The number of students meeting the requirements for admission to California’s public universities was up only slightly — an increase of just 3,700 students among a graduating class of 438,000. Close to half of high school graduates are ineligible for the University of California or California State University. “That’s just not good enough,” said Alix Gallagher, interim managing director at the nonpartisan think tank Policy Analysis for California Education. “It means the recovery has been anemic, and that’s a problem. We need a different approach, starting at the state level.” She pointed to some districts’ policies of placing students on math tracks that don’t allow them to meet the college admission requirements by their senior year. While not all students should be expected to enroll in four-year colleges, they should at least have the option available, she said. The Department of Education hailed a drop in the suspension rate among all student groups. Student misbehavior increased after schools reopened, and schools struggled to maintain a positive atmosphere for staff and other students. The rate dropped from 3.6% to 3.3% last year. No major changes to format The dashboard itself has been under fire recently. The data is too hard for parents to navigate, and the color coding can be misleading, according to a report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University. For example, a school might earn an orange color, the second-from-lowest designation, for showing slight improvements, but its scores might actually be lower than schools that earned a red, the lowest ranking. The state said it would consider making some changes but hadn’t made any major alterations to this year’s version. The dashboard was released a few weeks earlier than it was last year. By 2026, the dashboard’s release will coincide with the Smarter Balanced test score announcement in mid-October. CalMatters data reporter Erica Yee contributed to this reporting.
Transcribe →Tentless Amid Encampment Crackdown, Unhoused San Franciscans Brace for Storms
Nov 21, 2024Tap to summarizeUpdated 1:45 p.m. Thursday As storms continue to pummel Northern California, unhoused San Franciscans and their advocates fear the city’s aggressive removal of tents and structures in recent months leaves people especially vulnerable to the elements. Although officials say they won’t do full sweeps in the storms, the city has already removed 2,465 tents and structures between Aug. 1 and Nov. 17, according to the Department of Emergency Management. But advocates and residents say that hasn’t necessarily translated into fewer people living on the streets. Instead, people experiencing homelessness have dispersed, moving to less visible corners of the city with fewer belongings. “Homeless community members are having their survival gear ripped from them, ensuring that those folks are staying wet,” said Lukas Illa, an organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness. The Healthy Streets Operations Center (HSOC), which coordinates clearing encampments, has conducted more than 240 sweeps since July 1. During the storms, that team will focus on removing “soiled materials” and making sure sidewalks aren’t blocked, said a spokesperson for the Department of Emergency Management. A makeshift shelter sits on the sidewalk in San Francisco’s Mission District on Nov. 19, 2024, before San Francisco Public Works employees remove the structure. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) While that is underway, the city’s Homeless Outreach Team will hand out emergency blankets and ponchos and check unhoused residents for signs of hypothermia, according to a memo the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Services (HSH) distributed to providers this week. The city is also opening four temporary drop-in shelters through Friday. Christin Evans, vice chair of the city’s Homelessness Oversight Commission, said the response seemed contradictory. “There are some wet weather protocols in place to try to address people’s safety needs, but you can see the lack of cohesiveness in the city response,” she said, “that one department would be taking away people’s survival gear and the other would be trying to stand up limited emergency options for people to try to stay dry.” Jorge Luis Sanchez waits with his belongings near a makeshift shelter he built to be taken to a temporary shelter in San Francisco on Nov. 19, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) During a sweep on Tuesday, before the storm moved in, Jorge Luis Sanchez, 42, took an outreach worker up on his offer of shelter. He had grown tired of being forced to move and build new shelters every few days. “The street’s no good,” Sanchez said in Spanish. “It’s really cold, too.” He took a few belongings from the home made of pallets and tarps he was sharing with a friend before heading to the nearby Division Circle Navigation Center, where he was promised a bed. However, most of the people outreach workers approached during Tuesday’s sweeps turned down similar offers. One man said his mental health condition made it untenable for him to sleep near others in a group shelter; another said he’d rather brave the weather than follow shelter rules. David Nakanishi, HSOC manager, said this scenario is becoming increasingly common. As the city has gotten more aggressive in its crackdown on tent encampments, Nakanishi said people with substance use disorders and serious mental health issues are the ones who most often refuse to come inside. “It’s the people who don’t want to go in who are left back out here,” he said. Since Aug. 1, police have cited or arrested 417 people for lodging without permission. HSOC teams made 478 shelter placements in that time, while 1,482 offers were declined. Illa, the Coalition on Homelessness organizer, said those who remain outside also have fewer tarps, jackets and other gear to help them weather the storms, adding that people pushed to the fringes will have a harder time making their way to the city’s storm resources. The Interfaith Winter Shelter program isn’t set to open until Nov. 25, but the city’s drop-in shelters this week are Next Door, open to walk-ins from 1:30 p.m. to midnight; the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, which is offering warm meals between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.; MSC-South, open 1 p.m. to midnight; and Sanctuary, open 1:30 p.m. to midnight.
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