Deborah Cox

Deborah Cox is a homemaker and volunteer fundraiser. Currently she’s also working part time for Assemblymember Bill Quirk as a district aid on education issues.

Cox has chaired numerous school fundrasing ventures, from the San Leandro Education Foundation, to the campaigns to pass school bonds and a parcel tax, to PTAs. She is in the Human Services commission, has been chair of her homeowners association and has volunteered for other organizations.

She is currently running for City Council District 1. Her political involvement before the race was limited to speaking against medical marijuana dispensaries and in favor of selling the property downtown to developer David Irmer so he could develop “The Village” strip mall. She does not attend council or community meetings.

Progressives in San Leandro Should Vote for Jeromey Shafer for Mayor and Eva Arce and Victor Aguilar for City Council

Progressives in San Leandro Should Vote for Jeromey Shafer for Mayor and Eva Arce and Victor Aguilar for City Council City Hall, Politics No Responses »

Oct 092018

San Leandro, like many cities in the Bay Area, is in crisis. About half of our community members are renters and skyrocketing rents are pushing them out of their homes, either displacing them out of the Bay Area or putting them on the streets. This lack of community stability is affecting neighborhoods and schools, as the challenges of facing an ever-changing student population are significant. Yet the City Council has done nothing to address this situation. This is not surprising because the Rental Owners Association and landlords have poured money into the incumbents’ campaigns.

Lack of ethics and integrity is, indeed, a generalized problem in San Leandro city government. The former City Manager, fearing that accusations of sexual harassment by the head of a local nonprofit would become public, sent out a rambling and utterly unprofessional letter to the press, in which he detailed how he’d have business meetings with his accuser in the front seat of her car and play ping-pong with a local lobbyist. In the letter, he also discussed the contents of private conversations with Council members. Rather than fire him on the spot for unprofessional behavior, the Council put him on paid leave for months while he looked for a new job and and gave him a $350K parting gift.

What San Leandro needs is progressive and ethical leadership, thus our recommendations below. Note that San Leandro has ranked choice voting (RCV) for its Mayor and City Council races.

Jeromey Shafer

Mayor: #1 Jeromey Shafer, #2 Dan Dillman

Incumbent Pauline Cutter has been a disaster as Mayor of San Leandro. She seems to have approached her job as a money-making scheme. Early in her term, her daughter was hired by the City (with the approval of the City Manager) for a highly-paid position in the Parks and Recreation department – despite nepotism being explicitly forbidden by the Charter of the City of San Leandro. Cutter would later defend the City Manager against sex harassment accusations, resist efforts to ask for his resignation after he wrote an unprofessional and incoherent public letter, and later vote to give him a $300K farewell gift on his way out.

Cutter has spent much of her time traveling at tax-payer expense, but she can’t point to any concrete accomplishments from her tenure. The promise of San Leandro becoming a high tech center based on our fiberloop never materialized, and instead our industrial area is filled with warehouses that pay low wages. Moreover, Cutter has supported police militarization and despite her promise that the counter-attack armored vehicle she voted to buy for the police would not be used on demonstrations, it’s been deployed twice for such purposes. Cutter is a supporter of mass surveillance, including sharing this data with ICE.

Her opponent City Council member Benny Lee has basically the same record and positions. He demonstrated his lack of ethics by taking large campaign contributions from a garbage company that was bidding for a contract with the City of Oakland, and lobbied the neighboring City to award that contract to his contributor. The competitor was based on San Leandro, so his move could have cost San Leandro $2 million. Lee’s major “contribution” to San Leandro has been to propose honoring the genocidal Chinese government by flying its flag over City Council. As Tibetans burn themselves to bring attention to their plight and a million Ughyurs are imprisoned in China, Lee’s loyalty seems to be foremost with the Chinese government.

Fortunately, San Leandro has another choice: Jeromey Shafer. The co-founder of San Leandro for Bernie and leader of Our Revoution San Leandro, Shafer is intelligent, hard working, thoughtful and unapologetically progressive. He is committed to human rights and social justice. If elected, he will champion rent-control in San Leandro and will take an innovative approach to solving our other social ills. He will stop the militarization of our police forces and actually make the police department accountable to the city, not the other way around as it seems to be now. He is running a clean money campaign, rejecting all funds from corporations and developers and limiting contributions to $99. Shafer will also restore transparency and accountability and a sense of ethics to the office. Really, San Leandro can do no better than to support him.

Dan Dillman is our second choice because, whatever his faults, he cares about San Leandro.

Eva Arce

District 1: #1 Eva Arce, #2 Ken Pon

Incumbent Deborah Cox is another white-moderate who supports police militarization and mass surveillance and opposes rent-control. She drew controversy for not returning the financial contribution of a politician who used the “N” word in a public meeting.

Eva Arce, a newcomer to politics, is a strong progressive who has seen her community fall apart by the Council’s regressive politics and wants to restore it. She is a big supporter of rent control, police accountability and fixing potholes. She is running a clean money campaign, rejecting all funds from corporations and developers and limiting contributions to $99. She is an intelligent woman, who does her homework and will tackle issues with a fresh, yet progressive perspective. She is just what we need in San Leandro.

Ken Pon is also a moderate, but to the left of Cox. He opposes the militarization of police and favored marijuana dispensaries when Cox was ranting against them at City Council meetings.

Victor Aguilar

District 3: Victor Aguilar

School Board member Victor Aguilar was a progressive back when people didn’t want to admit to being progressive (his opponent, incumbent Lee Thomas, has never claimed himself as one). He supports rent control, police accountability, clean money (he is not taking any corporate or developer money), and free speech. As a commissioner, he refused to agree to the City Council’s demand that he forgo his first amendment rights and agree to no disparage the City Manager.

Incumbent Lee Thomas takes money from landlords and opposes rent controls while supporting police militarization.

District 5: Maxine Oliver-Benson (with reservations)

Both candidates are problematic. Incumbent Corina Lopez supports police militarization and has done painfully little to bring accountability to the police and remained a supporter of the City Manager even after he showed himself to lack professionalism, but at least she may vote in favor of rent control if someone else brings it up to the table. She also was the impetus behind the sanctuary city declaration, but would not go a step further and make it an ordinance with some teeth – this allowed the Police Department to continue sharing data with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, which in turn shared it with ICE. Moreover, Lopez can be difficult to work with, she easily gets offended and needs to have her ego massaged lest she retaliate over perceived slights.

Her opponent, Maxine Oliver-Benson, is an African American woman who has spent her life in East Oakland as an activist. She is corporate free and has many strong progressive values – she favors rent control and police accountability, for example, and is rejecting all money from corporations, developers and other special interests (unlike Lopez). However, she supports increasing mass surveillance in San Leandro – which Lopez says she does not.

Find more progressive voter recommendations in Progressive California.

Former Council Member Uses “N” word; Cutter writes him off, Cox does not

Former Council Member Uses “N” word; Cutter writes him off, Cox does not Community, People, Politics No Responses »

Jan 052015

Laython “Judge” Landis

Update 2: Campaign finance reports show that Pauline Cutter returned Judge Landis’ contribution. Deborah Cox did not. Landis died in November 2015.

Update: Deborah Cox has given in to public pressure, this afternoon she spoke with Brian Copeland and said she’d return the contribution.

San Leandro has a long and tortuous history of racial segregation and discrimination. The city was almost exclusively white well into the 1990s and stories of police cars guarding the border with Oakland still linger in the memory of many African Americans. Writer and comedian Brian Copeland, who moved to San Leandro as a young child, turned his experiences growing up here into a powerful one-man show, which became the longest running solo play in San Francisco. The book based on his play, Not a Genuine Black Man: Or, How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs, has earned 5 stars on Amazon.com.

While San Leandro has changed greatly since then, and we are now one of the most diverse cities in California, too many of the long-term residents who remain have kept their racist and xenophobic attitudes which they express unchallenged. It was thus not in the least surprising to hear that Laython “Judge” Landis, a former San Leandro City Council and current director of the Oro Loma Sanitary District Board, made an outright racist remark during a board meeting (which he later repeated thrice during a TV interview). What was surprising is that someone actually called him on it and tried to hold him accountable for it.

Lands is well known in town for his racist and sexist commentaries; he once described President Obama as “just a monkey with ears” and has made indecent propositions to local female politicians. But he has been an elected official for over four decades, his name carries weight with the older and white San Leandro population and he can be generous with his financial contributions. This means that politicos keep inviting him to their events, using their names and taking his checks.

In the last election alone, Landis gave a $1,000 contribution to now Mayor Pauline Cutter and a $2,000 contribution to now Councilmember Deborah Cox. On his radio show and on Facebook, Brian Copeland called on Cutter and Cox to return such contributions. Cutter committed to doing so and has already taken Laython Landis off the list of the endorsers for her Mayoral run. Deborah Cox has not personally addressed Copeland’s request, but the response of Angela Ramirez-Holmes‘s, Cox’ campaign manager, response is telling: “I have no idea why giving him the money back is helpful. I don’t understand this call to action.”

San Leandro deserves better.

New City Council Set to Start Year by Violating the Brown Act

New City Council Set to Start Year by Violating the Brown Act City Hall No Responses »

Jan 032015

City Manager evaluation, new “Hostage Negotiation” vehicle & new Vice Mayor also on agenda

Update: I have heard back from City Attorney Richard Pio Roda. He says that the City does not believe that the potential plaintiffs in the case that will be discussed in closed session are aware of the facts and circumstances that will enable their lawsuit. He confirmed that the case in question did not involve “an accident, disaster, incident, or transaction”, for example, a police shooting, where the potential plaintiff is aware that they have been harmed.

—

The first City Council meeting of the year will be this Monday, January 5th. It will include new Mayor Pauline Cutter and new Councilmembers Deborah Cox (Dist 1), Lee Thomas (Dist 3) and Corina Lopez (Dist 5). Councilmembers Ursula Reed (Dist 2) and Jim Prola (Dist 6) have two more years to go before being termed out while Councilmember Benny Lee (Dist 4) is two years into his first term.

The Council Agenda for this Monday is very light and includes 2 closed session items (those that are discussed without the public being present). It also includes this Council’s first Brown Act violation.

The Brown Act allows a City Council to discuss very few issues in closed session. One of those is pending litigation against the City (CA Gov code 54956.9), including situations where “based on existing facts and circumstances, there is a significant exposure to litigation against the [City]” (54956.9(d)(2)). However, the Brown Act also requires that if the “facts and circumstances … that might result in litigation against the [City] … are known to a potential plaintiff … [these] shall be publicly stated on the agenda or announced“ (54956.9(e)(2)). Under former Mayor Stephen Cassidy, the Council almost invariably broke this section of the law, and the pattern seems to be set to continue under Mayor Pauline Cutter. However, she’s been advised of the potential violation and she could choose to cure the situation by announcing the facts and circumstances of the potential litigation during Monday’s meeting.

The law does not require that the City announce such “facts and circumstances” if these are not known to the plaintiff, but such situations are rare. For example, the family of the woman who was shot to death by the San Leandro Police Department less than a month ago, is not only aware of the fact that she was killed, but they have retained an attorney. If the City Council will be discussing this case in closed session – and if they are not, they definitely should be -, there is no legal reason whatsoever for them to not disclose such fact.
According to the Agenda, the City Council will also meet in closed session to conduct the City Manager‘s evaluation, though given that three of the seven members of the Council have never worked with the City Manager before, it’s difficult to see how they’d be able to conduct and independent evaluation of his performance.

Open session items of interest include:

– The vote for a new Vice-Mayor

– Allocation of $71K (up from $60K) for the SLPD to get a new “hostage negotiation” vehicle. This is in addition to the paramilitary armored vehicle that the SLPD wants the City to acquire.

– Presentation from Safe Alternatives to Violent Environments, a Fremont-based organization that works with victims of domestic violence.

A Quick Primer on San Leandro Candidates’ Attitudes Towards Civil Liberties

A Quick Primer on San Leandro Candidates’ Attitudes Towards Civil Liberties Civil Liberties, Politics No Responses »

Oct 312014

The positions below are based on candidates’ answers to questionnaires and to questions asked at candidate fora and on other public statements from the candidates.

* While the candidate currently holds that position, s/he might consider voting differently.

? The candidate has not indicated their position on this issue.

Mayoral Candidates

Is in Favor of:	Diana Souza	Pauline Cutter	Dan Dillman	Gregg Daly (write in)
Red Light Cameras	Y	N	N	N
Surveillance Cameras	Y	Y	N	N
Long Term Retention & Sharing of License Plate Reader Data	Y	Y*	N	N
SLPD Armored Personnel Carrier	Y	Y*	N	N
SLPD searching private property without a warrant	Y	Y*	N	N
Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries	Y	N	N	N
Making School District Pay for SLPD resource officers	Y	N	N	N
Flying the People’s Republic of China’s Flag Over City Hall	Y	N	N	N

City Council District 1 Candidates

In Favor of:	Deborah Cox	David Anderson	Ken Pon	Mike Katz-Lacabe
Red Light Cameras	?	?	?	N
Surveillance Cameras	Y	Y	Y	N
Long Term Retention & Sharing of License Plate Reader Data	?	?	?	N
SLPD Armored Personnel Carrier	Y	N*	N*	N
SLPD searching private property without a warrant	?	?	?	N
Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries	Y	N	N	N
Making School District Pay for SLPD resource officers	?	Y	?	N
Flying the People’s Republic of China’s Flag Over City Hall	N	N	N*	N
Attends City Council Meetings & Speaks Out on Issues	N	N	N	Y/Y

City Council District 3 Candidates

In Favor of:	Lee Thomas	Allen Schoenfeld	Victor Aguilar
Red Light Cameras	N	N	N
Surveillance Cameras	?	N	N
Long Term Retention & Sharing of License Plate Reader Dataa	?	N	N
SLPD Armored Personnel Carrier	Y*	N	N
SLPD searching private property without a warrant	N	?	N
Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries	Y	N	N
Making School District Pay for SLPD resource officers	Y	N	N
Flying the People’s Republic of China’s Flag Over City Hall	N	N	N
Attends City Council Meetings & Speaks Out on Issues	Y/N	Y/N	N

City Council District 5 Candidates

In Favor of:	Leah Hall	Corina Lopez	Mia Ousley
Red Light Cameras	?	?	N
Surveillance Cameras	?	N	N
Long Term Retention & Sharing of License Plate Reader Data	?	?	N
SLPD Armored Personnel Carrier	N	Y	N
SLPD searching private property without a warrant	?	?	N
Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries	Y	N	N
Making School District Pay for SLPD resource officers	?	N	N
Flying the People’s Republic of China’s Flag Over City Hall	N	N	N
Attends City Council Meetings & Speaks Out on Issues	N	N	Y/Y

Sierra Club to Candidates: Not in Our Name

Sierra Club to Candidates: Not in Our Name Politics No Responses »

Oct 312014

City Council candidates in Oakland and San Leandro try to usurp the Sierra Club endorsement

The Sierra Club is not happy. In particular, the Northern Alameda County Group of the Sierra Club seems quite angry. Political candidates are usurping its good name and in return weakening its political power.

It started with Oakland City Council District 4 candidate Jill Broadhurst. Broadhurst, the Executive Director of the East Bay Rental Housing Association did not get the Sierra Club endorsement. Indeed, it was her opponent, Annie Campbell Washington, who got it. Campbell is a pro-environment progressive. Broadhurst is not.

If you look at political candidate mailers, you will probably notice that many of them depict the logos of the organizations that have endorsed such candidate. Indeed, on one of her mailers Broadhurst included the logo for the Oakland Chamber of Commerce PAC above the caption “Proudly endorsed by the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.” Right next to it, she placed the Sierra Club logo. The caption, written in smaller print, reads “Proud supporting member of the Sierra Club.” Another mailer contained the phrase “For Jill” in large print next to the logo of the Sierra Club. Again, the caption saying that she is a member was written in very small print. The intent is pretty clear: to suggest to voters that Broadhurst has been endorsed by the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club was not amused. It sent Broadhurst a cease and desist letter, stating that Broadhurst’s use of their logo infringed the Club’s trademark and that it falsely implied that she had been endorsed by them. It threatened to sue her.

Broadhurst said she wouldn’t do it again but, of course, the damage had already been done.

Deborah Cox, who is running for San Leandro City Council District 1, was more brazen. Rather than use the Sierra Club logo on her own literature, she spent $1,000 to buy space in the “Californians Vote Green” slate mailer and outright claimed that she had been “[e]ndorsed by Sierra Club.”

The “Californians Vote Green” mailer is a commercial enterprise not associated to any environmental organizations. However, it’s name and the fact that it lists candidates as endorsed by the Sierra Club, misleads voters into thinking it’s an actual Sierra Club endorsement list. When Cox’s false claim came to the attention of the Sierra Club, it may have been the proverbial stroke that broke the camel’s back.

I don’t know if Cox got a letter from the Sierra Club admonishing her, but the Chair of the Sierra Club’s Northern Alameda County Group wrote a letter to the San Leandro Times clarifying that Pauline Cutter and Corina Lopez were the only endorsed candidates in San Leandro. The Club can hope that voters who pay attention to slate mailers, also read the local newspaper. To make sure voters did get the message that Cox was not endorsed by the Sierra Club, the Club also sent out their own mailer with its logo and the heading “OFFICIAL VOTER GUIDE,” listing the candidates it actually endorsed.

This is an important matter for the Sierra Club. It wants to make sure that its name is not associated with politicians that push anti-environmental policies, as this would tarnish their own reputation with the community. But it also wants to reward with its endorsement candidates that commit to support sound environmental practice , thus encouraging more candidates to make such commitments.

The Sierra Club can only hope that Broadhust’s and Cox’s actions will not encourage candidates in future races to also rip off its name. How successful Broadhurst and Cox are in the election, may very well determine how likely that is.

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