Margarita Lacabe

SLPD Shoot at Fleeing Suspects Twice in 3 Days

 SLPD Shoot at Fleeing Suspects Twice in 3 Days  City Hall, Civil Liberties, Police  1 Response »
Dec 082014
 

Police-ShootingOver the last three days, we’ve had two shootings of women  driving allegedly stolen cars by San Leandro Police Department officers.  One of them is in critical condition.   Police missed the other, a 16 year-old girl, though one bullet wheezed past a bystander and another hit a parked car a block away.  Fortunately, nobody was reportedly injured in that incident.  Shooting at a fleeing subject who is not a threat to the life of others is against the law.

There is no doubt that moral blame lies on the officers who did shoot. But the real culprits, the ones where most of the blame lies, are SLPD Chief Sandra Spagnoli and City Manager Chris Zapata.

While there are surely police officers who are itching to shoot someone, I believe most of them follow the protocols established by their chiefs of police. It would seem that SLPD’s protocols condone the shooting of fleeing vehicles.  The buck must thus stop with Chief of Police Sandra Spagnoli, who created such protocols.  But Spagnoli could only establish these protocols because City Manager Chris Zapata has disavowed any oversight of the police.  When I met with him a couple of months ago to discuss police misconduct, Zapata stated that the only time he has ever denied a request by the Police Chief was when she proposed that the City spend $60 million to build a new police department.  Zapata determined the City could not afford it.

Zapata did state that, contrary to the wishes of the Police Chief, he would disable the hidden microphones present in the surveillance cameras that were to be installed at City Hall.  But he admitted that he took that position after consulting with the City Attorney and learning that secret audio recording of private conversations, even in a public space, violates California’s wiretapping law.  Zapata stopped short of creating any audit requirements to ascertain that the microphones were, indeed, disabled.

 

Beyond these two situations, Zapata has given Spagnoli free reign.   The only “oversight” of the Chief there is, are weekly meetings with Assistant City manager Lianne Marshall, where, according to Marshall, the Chief informs her of the needs of the police department.

Mayor Pauline Cutter and the City Council have no direct oversight of the Chief, but they do of the City Manager. It’s time they demand accountability from him.

***

The City Council will hold their annual work session on the Police Department TONIGHT, Dec. 8, 2014, at 8 PM – after the swearing in of the new Mayor and City Council members.

On Thursday, Dec. 11th, the Police Department will hold an informational meeting on the police shootings. It will take place at the Senior Center (13909 E. 14th St.), from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

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Students, Parents to Hold Rally Opposing COPS

 Students, Parents to Hold Rally Opposing COPS  Community, Event, Schools  No Responses »
Dec 052014
 

ednotincStudents And Families for Education (SAFE), a newly-formed coalition of San Leandro parents, students and community members, will hold a rally on Tuesday, December 9th at 6pm, outside San Leandro City Hall. The rally will take place before the San Leandro School Board meeting at which the Board will vote on whether to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars from school classrooms towards paying police officers’ salaries. SAFE opposes the use of any school funds to pay for law enforcement. “San Leandro schools have been underfunded for years, class sizes have gone from 20 students to 28, and school counselors have been practically eliminated. The idea that we should be using limited resources to pay for police is simply outrageous” said Cynthia Chandler, a parent and co-founder of SAFE.

Earlier this year, the San Leandro Police Department applied for a $500,000 federal COPS grant to fund four police officers to be placed at San Leandro schools for four years. To the surprise of the community, the San Leandro police department asked the San Leandro Unified School District (SLUSD) to divert $1.7 million from its educational budget to “match” the funds from the grant. After negotiations with the City of San Leandro, the Superintendent brought to the Board a proposal that the City and School District split the cost of the grant, diverting $600,000 per year from the classroom.

“I am outraged that the school district is being asked to help fund police, and outraged that they would even consider providing this funding rather than funding the education of our children.” said Mitch Huitema, co-founder of a San Leandro volunteer-led math and science after school program and member of SAFE. “Members of our community have worked extremely hard to help our school district manage the incredible funding cuts that have occurred in recent years, from holding paper and pencil drives, to using Donors Choose to raise money for things like rugs and overhead projectors, to creating programs to help bolster projects. The school district is still not up to the funding levels it was at 10 years ago and we’re asking much more from our schools than we did then. There are so many ways this money could be used to prevent kids from the risk of getting into trouble in the first place – bringing back reasonable staffing of school counselors and restoring after school programs to the high school are just a few of the more obvious options.”

“I have yet to hear any factual justification for putting more police officers in our schools, much less for paying for more. The School District has no data on the effectiveness of the current school resource officers and research shows that having school officers in schools does not make schools safer,” said Mike Katz-Lacabe, an outgoing School Board trustee and member of SAFE, citing a 2011 study entitled “Police Officers in Schools.”

San Leandro High School currently has two school resource officers paid for by the City. According to Cathy Pickard, a recently-retired resource officer, most of her time was spent counseling students. “There is general agreement in our community that San Leandro students need as much access to qualified counselors, nurses, social workers, and other district staff who can help them with academic problems, the effects of poverty and homelessness, family violence, social pressures, and many other obstacles to their potential for success in school and in life. Despite their good intentions, most police officers do not have the specialized training necessary to properly attend to these needs. School counselors and other staff, moreover, receive much lower pay than sworn officers. Approximately two counselors can be hired, trained, and compensated for the cost of one school resource officer,” said Mark Hamilton, a counselor at Bancroft Middle School and SAFE member.

Washington Elementary student Oscar Ivy asked the San Leandro School Boards to fund school supplies, not cops.

Washington Elementary student Oscar Ivy asked the San Leandro School Boards to fund school supplies, not cops.

“We invite parents, students and community members to join us on Tuesday to let the School Board know that we need to put education ahead of incarceration. We should be striving to educate, not criminalize our youth,” said Chandler.

Anyone opposed to the COPS grant is also encouraged to speak at the School Board meeting, which starts at 7 PM, and/or to e-mail the School Board.

The rally will take place in front of San Leandro City Hall, on Tuesday, December 9th at 6pm.

Note:  Students, Parents and Community Members are welcome to join SAFE. To subscribe to the googlegroup, please send an e-mail to:  sl-safe+subscribe@googlegroups.com

For more information, press inquiries, please contact Cynthia Chandler at  (510) 325-4127 or Mike Katz-Lacabe at 510-207-7165.

 

Election Predictions, How Did I Do?

 Election Predictions, How Did I Do?  ACDCC, Politics  No Responses »
Dec 052014
 

election2014At the annual Alameda County Democratic Central Committee (ACDCC) holiday party this week, a colleague asked me how accurate I was on my election predictions.  This post is meant to answer his question.

Truth is, I didn’t make many predictions.  This year, I endorsed candidates throughout Alameda County.  I thought some of them had a good chance of winning and I was less hopeful about others.  Voters, however, like to go with likely winners so I wasn’t about to suggest that my endorsed candidates were going to lose.

This is not to say that I avoided calling all races.   In San Leandro, there was absolutely no doubt that Pauline Cutter would be elected Mayor and that Lee Thomas would be elected to the City Council.   I said as much on both cases, while urging voters to take advantage of the ranked choice voting system by choosing protest candidates as their first and second choice.

In other races, I was equally certain of the results but I tried to avoid saying so publicly.  While I supported Mia Ousley for San Leandro City Council, it was clear from the start that Corina Lopez would win, and told both candidates as much.  Corina started with a huge advantage by virtue of being a member both of the School Board and the ACDCC and having greater personal financial resources; that advantage only grew during the campaign as she monopolized endorsements and campaign contributions.  Just as voters prefer to vote for likely winners, big time endorsers back those most likely to win in the hope of getting a return for their investment.

It was also equally clear to anyone with eyes that Leo Sheridan would be elected to the San Leandro School Board, as he was the only candidate who mounted a campaign.  There is a general rule in electoral politics: if you campaign and your opponent doesn’t, you win.  Incumbents can sometimes get away with not campaigning, though even then they usually do so covertly through their official functions.

Outside San Leandro, I generally assumed that the incumbents would win – a good rule of thumb when you don’t know much about an election -, so I was pleasantly surprised on several instances.

The main one, was seeing Trish Spencer beat incumbent Mary Gilmore as Mayor of Alameda.  Gilmore not only had the normal advantages of incumbency (rote voting by uninformed voters, greater name recognition), but she had the support of the Democratic party, labor and the powerful firefighters union.  She outspent Spencer almost 5 to 1.  Yet Spencer was able to put together a large grass root campaign, united with the goal of slowing down development, and narrowly defeat Gilmore.

Similarly, I was surprised at how many incumbent school board members throughout Alameda County lost re-election.  Ty Alper in Berkeley, Janet Zamudio in San Lorenzo, Dot Theodore in Castro Valley, Donn Lee Merriam in Emeryville, Gary Lym in Alameda, Tom Huynh in Newark and Mark Miller in Pleasanton all defeated incumbents.  I didn’t support all of these candidates, but I wasn’t expecting any of them to win.   What I have learned from these races is that the general rule that incumbents get re-elected may not really apply to School Board races – and that candidates with children have an advantage over those without.

I was unpleasantly surprised that Raj Salwan did not win re-election to the Fremont City Council.  Again, I’d assumed he’d get elected on the strength of being an incumbent.  I was wrong.

In some cases, while I hadn’t expected a certain candidate to win, I thought they would do much better in the election.  That was the case with Mia Ousley in San Leandro, but also also with Mike Katz-Lacabe, my husband.  Mike didn’t campaign at all – at least beyond going to candidate fora and endorsement interviews -, but I thought that his name recognition and ballot designation would had given him more votes.  I haven’t quite figured out why I was wrong in that case; in particular, I wonder if his reputation as a strong civil libertarian actually hurt him with voters.

Alejandro Soto-Vigil in Berkeley is so energetic, and had such a solid grass root campaign behind him, that I thought he would do much better than he did.  I feel similarly about Dan Siegel‘s race.  Of course, in both of those situations I really wanted them to do well, and that desire might have colored my inner prediction.

Isobel Dvorsky won her race for re-election to the Chabot-Las Positas Community College Board, but I was surprised at how close her opponent got.

 

Alameda County Heads Right: Liberal Candidates Lose Countywide

 Alameda County Heads Right: Liberal Candidates Lose Countywide  Politics  No Responses »
Nov 132014
 

right_arrowIt’s time to face the facts.  Alameda County has ceased to be a home for liberals.  Perhaps we can trace this development to the replacement of the word “liberal” by the word “progressive,” perhaps to the broken promises of the Obama administration or even to 9/11.  Or perhaps the yuppy generation grew old, more afraid, more conservative.  In any case, policies throughout the county show that, by in large, liberal values have been abandoned.  We now welcome mass surveillance, the loss of fourth amendment rights and the militarization of police, under the fear or excuse of crime, even as crime has plummeted since the 1980’s.  We are willing to accept racial profiling by police almost as a fact of life.  We pass ordinances prohibiting the feeding of the homeless, the eviction of the poor and even attempt to criminalize people from sitting on the sidewalks.  And we elect conservative politicians.

Despite the claims of Democratic operatives and newspapers, this election has been terrible for liberals in Alameda County, at least as far as local governments goes.  In most local races, the more progressive candidates lost.  When they didn’t, it was because they were well-established incumbents, often facing token opposition, or as part of plurality elections, where multiple candidates split the vote.

Here is a brief analysis of how the City Council races turned out countywide.

Berkeley had three City Council seats up for election.  Incumbents Kriss Worthington and Linda Maio won. Worthington faced a more conservative challenger, while Maio was up against a more liberal one.  If anything, this was a wash.  As for District 8, the political distinctions among the candidates were minor.

In Oakland, Dan Siegel, the only actual liberal candidate for Mayor, did not win the election. Libby Schaaf moved to the left in the latest stages of her campaign, at the same time that she basked in the endorsements of  Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, who have long abandoned the pretense of being progressive.  Early in the year, however, Schaaf was supported the establishment of the Domain Awareness Center, an intelligence fusion center that would allow government officials to better track the movements of regular people.  At the start of the election, Schaaf was actually lumped with Joe Tuman and Brian Parker as the most conservative viable candidates in the race.

All the viable candidates for Oakland City Council District 2 were equally progressive, some stronger in one area while weaker in another.  In District 6, incumbent Desley Brooks barely beat out a staffer for Libby Schaaf, whom would have likely been more conservative than Brooks.  Only in District 4 we see a clear win by a progressive candidate over a conservative one.  If there is one bright light on this election, it’s Annie Campbell Washington’s win.

Unfortunately, I did not follow the Emeryville City Council race, so I can’t judge where the candidates fell in the political spectrum, though I can say the two winners had the Democratic endorsement.

Trish Spencer was elected Mayor of Alameda.  She is significantly more liberal than incumbent Mary Gilmore, who supported the acquisition of license plate scanners and of an armored personnel carrier for the police, but Spencer ran on an anti-development platform which attracted many conservative votes.  Similar issues played out in the City Council race, where just three candidates vied for two seats.  The loser was the incumbent member of the Council who had voted to expand development.

In San Leandro, Pauline Cutter, a moderate Democrat was elected Mayor against a more conservative opponent – but the more liberal candidate was left in the dust.  The three City Council races saw the most conservative candidates win, all endorsed by the police union.

Results were just as bad in Fremont, where even a moderate Democrat who had the endorsement of the Police, was defeated by two of the most conservative candidates.  One is an ex-police officer who openly supports the militarization of the police.

Union City saw its two Democratic incumbent Council members get re-elected, as well as their Republican colleague.  Meanwhile in Newark, the Democratic Mayor won re-election against a Democratic opponent, and the two empty City Council seats were split between a Democrat and a Republican

In Pleasanton, the Republican Mayor won re-election and the two City Council seats were filled by Republicans.  Dublin Mayor and Assembly candidate Tim Sbranti was replaced by a Republican, though the two Democratic incumbent council members won re-election.  Tim Sbranti, by the way, lost the Assembly race to a Republican, the seat had been previously filled by a Democrat.

No Democrats even ran for City Council in Livermore.

The results were much better at the School Board level, but only because the trend was to see parents of students in their respective school districts get elected over non-district parents, regardless of their political views.

Winners, Losers & Endorsements

 Winners, Losers & Endorsements  Politics  No Responses »
Nov 132014
 

The following is a list of the candidates that won competitive races in Alameda County, where either I or the Democratic party made an endorsement. I tried to endorse the most liberal candidate, except in the case of agencies where I went for technical competence as well. Neither I nor the Democratic party endorsed in every race. As you can see, we have not fared very well.

* I endorsed/recommended

Δ Democratic Party endorsed

[i] Incumbent

ALAMEDA

Mayor: * Trish Spencer (lost Δ Mary Gilmore [i])
City Council: Frank Matarrese & *Δ Jim Oddie (lost Δ Stewart Chen [i])
School Board: Δ Solana Henneberry & Gary Lym (lost: Δ Michael McMahon [i])
Healthcare District: Δ Tracy Jensen [i], Robert Deutsch [i] & Δ Jim Meyers (lost Lynn Mark Bratchett [i])

ALBANY

School Board: *Charles Blanchard, *Paul Black [i] & Ross Stapleton-Gray (lost: Eliott Chin)

BERKELEY

City Council District 1: Δ Linda Maio [i] (lost: *Alejandro Soto-Vigil & Merrilie Mitchell)
City Council District 7: *Kriss Worthington [i] (lost: Sean Barry)
City Council District 8: Δ Lori Droste (lost: * George Beier, Mike Alvarez Cohen & Jacquelyn McCormick)
School Board: *Ty Alper, *Δ Josh Daniels [i] & Δ Karen Hemphill [i] (lost: Δ Julie Sinai [i] & Norma JF Harrison)

CASTRO VALLEY

School Board: Δ Gary C. Howard [i] & *Dorothy Theodore (lost: Δ Janice Friesen [i])

DUBLIN

Mayor: David G. Haubert (lost: Kevin E. Hart, Δ Kasie Hildenbrand & Shawn Costello)
City Council: Δ Abe Gupta [i] & Δ Don Biddle [i] (lost: Sue Wakamoto-Lee)

EMERYVILLE

City Council: Δ Dianne Martinez & Δ Scott Donahue (lost: John J. Bauters & Ken Bukowski)
School Board: *Δ John Affeldt [i], Δ Christian Robin Patz [i] & Donn Lee Merriam (lost: Δ Miguel Dwin [i])

FREMONT

City Council: Lily Mei & Rick Jones (lost: *Δ Raj Salwan [i], Dirk R. Lorenz, *Δ David Paul Bonaccorsi, Rakesh Sharma, Nancy Liu, Marty Froomin & Syed Iqbal Ahmed)
School Board: Larry Sweeney [i] & Yang Shao (lost: Δ Moina Shaiq, *Δ Dax Choksi & Hiu Ng)

HAYWARD

School Board: Δ Lisa Brunner [i] & Δ William L. McGee [i] (lost: Marita Cheng)

NEWARK

Mayor: Δ Alan L. Nagy [i] (lost: Ray J. Rodriguez)
City Council: Mike Hannon & Δ Mike Bucci (lost: Δ Francisco Preciado Jr., Elisabeth Reid-Gonzalez, Mark Gonzales, Jack Dane & David Rogowski)
School Board: Δ Nancy Thomas [i] & Tom Huynh (lost: Δ Christopher Wecks [i] & Elizabeth Brazil)

OAKLAND

Mayor: Libby Schaaf (lost: Jean Quan [i], Rebecca Kaplan, *Dan Siegel, Joe Tuman, Bryan Parker, Courtney Ruby et al)
City Council District 2: Δ Abel Guillen lost: Dana King, Andrew Park et al)
City Council District 4: *Δ Annie Campbell Washington (lost: Jill Broadhurst & Paul Lim)
City Council District 6: *Desley Brooks [i] (lost: Shereda F. Nosakhare, Michael V. Johnson et al)
School Board District 2: *Aimee Eng (lost: William ”Bo” Ghirardelli)
School Board District 4: Nina Senn (lost: *Δ Karl Debro, Saleem Shakir-Gilmore & Cheri Spigner)
School Board District 6: *Δ Shanthi Gonzales (lost: Renato Almanzor)
Auditor: Δ Brenda Roberts (lost: *Len Raphael)

PLEASANTON

Mayor: Jerry Thorne [i] (lost: *Matt Morrison)
City Council: Kathy Narum [i] & Arne Olson (lost: *Δ Olivia Sanwong & George Bowen)
School Board: Δ Joan Laursen [i] & *Mark R. Miller (lost: Paige Wright & Δ Jeff Bowser [i])

SAN LEANDRO

Mayor: ΔPauline Russo Cutter (lost: Diana Souza, Dan Dillman & *Gregg Daly)
City Council District 1: Deborah Cox (lost: *Mike Katz-Lacabe, Ken Pon, David Anderson)
City Council District 3: Lee Thomas (lost: *Δ Victor Aguilar, Allen Schoenfeld)
City Council District 5: Δ Corina Lopez (lost: Leah Hall, *Mia Ousley)
School Board At-Large: *Δ Evelyn Gonzalez (lost: Jean Kinkella, Peter Oshinski, Monique Tate)
School Board Area 4: Δ Leo Sheridan (lost: Chike Udemezue, *Latrina Dumas)

SAN LORENZO

School Board: Helen T. Randall [i] & *Δ Janet Zamudio (lost: *Δ Steven Kirk, Isabel Polvorosa [i] et al)

UNION CITY

City Council: Δ Emily Duncan [i], Δ Pat D. Gacoscos [i] & Lorrin Ellis [i] (lost: Kashmir Singh Shahi, Amit Salwan)
New Haven School Board: Linda Canlas [i] & Δ Sarabjit Kaur Cheema [i] (lost: Gwen Estes & Δ Lance Nishihira)

EDUCATION

Alameda County Superintendent of Schools: Δ Karen Monroe (lost: Helen Foster)

Chabot-Las Positas District: *Δ Isobel Dvorsky [i] (lost: Gene Judson)
Ohlone Area 2: Garrett Yee [i] & Δ Jan Giovannini-Hill [i] (lost: Joe Lonsdale)
Peralta, Area 5: ΔWilliam Riley [i] (lost: *David Ralston)
Peralta, Area 7: Julina Bonilla (lost: *Richard Fuentes)

TRANSIT

AC Transit At-Large: Joel B. Young [i] (lost: *Dollene C. Jones & Adrienne C. Andrews)
AC Transit Ward 4: Δ Mark Williams [i] (lost: *Murphy McCalley)
AC Transit Ward 5: *Jeff Davis [i] (lost: Δ Kewal Singh)
Bart District 4: Robert Raburn [i] (lost: Δ Lena Tam & Larry Lionel Young Jr.)

OTHER AGENCIES

Alameda County Water District:  *Δ Paul Sethy [i] & Judy C. Huang [i] (lost: Eric Tsai)
EBMUD Ward 3: *Δ Marguerite Young (lost: Katy Foulkes [i])
Castro Valley Sanitary Board: Melody Appleton [i] & Ralph Johnson [i] (lost: Kunio Okui, Δ John Maher & Marc Crawford)
Oro Loma Sanitary District: Howard W. Kerr [i], Timothy P. Becker [i] & Δ Shelia Young (lost: *Dan Walters & Chike C. Udemezue)
East Bay Regional Park Ward 5: Δ Ayn Wieskamp (lost: Dev Gandhi)

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