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Bay City News
The Alameda County Taxpayers Association filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that the city of Oakland improperly coordinated with union leaders in an effort to place a new parcel tax on the June ballot and is withholding public records related to the alleged scheme.
The lawsuit alleges the city is using its largest municipal union, SEIU 1021, as a shell organization to skirt elections law and has violated the California Public Records Act to cover its tracks.
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“This case concerns a coordinated and deeply troubling effort by the City of Oakland to evade California’s constitutional and statutory requirements governing both public records access as well as the enactment of parcel taxes by what appears to be outsourcing what is inherently a governmental function — the drafting, framing, and qualification of a tax measure — to a public employee union,” according to the suit, filed by Oakland-based attorney Marleen Sacks.
At issue is Measure E, a proposed $192 annual parcel tax increase that would raise $34 million a year for nine years to support the city’s 911 system, police and fire services, homelessness solutions and anti-illegal dumping efforts.
Despite being a tax proposal, however, Measure E only requires a simple majority vote to pass since it was placed on the ballot by a privately financed “citizen” signature gathering effort, rather than by the Oakland City Council.
The council, however, telegraphed the need for the funds when it passed a two-year budget in 2025 that closed an enormous $265 million deficit by, in part, anticipating tens of millions of dollars in new income.
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At the time, councilmembers said they were anticipating that some of that income would come from a new bond measure or parcel tax. In February, the city’s unions delivered by successfully completing a signature gathering drive to put Measure E on the ballot.
The lawsuit alleges that the city worked with union officials to have SEIU 1021 spearhead the petition drive that placed Measure E on the ballot, which allows the city to duck the more difficult two-thirds voter approval threshold that would have been required if the City Council placed it on the ballot itself.
“The city is basically conspiring with the union to have the union do the leg work to avoid the two-thirds vote,” Sacks said.
“The city stopped working on the parcel tax at the exact same time that the union picked up work on the parcel tax,” she said. “It really does look like something shady is going on behind the scenes.”
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The suit alleges the city then compounded its wrongdoing by illegally withholding public records related to the scheme in order to deliberately hide evidence of potential illegality.
The city said no such records exist, provided extremely limited information or failed to respond at all when Sacks made multiple requests for communications between city officials and SEIU 1021 regarding polling data and records relating to the drafting and promotion of the parcel tax, the suit alleges.
“We have previously sued the city of Oakland for previous violations and just last year we secured a settlement under which the city agreed to some changes to improve compliance with the Public Records Act,” Sacks said. “Instead of things getting better, things actually seem to be getting worse.”
The suit also says Measure E “falsely and misleadingly claims” it would replace an expiring property assessment with a lower one that reduces taxes even though the city has failed to produce records that verify that claim, Sacks said.
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Sacks said she hopes the city will comply with the Public Records Act and its own sunshine ordinance without the need for a court order and that it will fix its chronic PRA recalcitrance.
“Once we see the documents, we can evaluate what that means for the purposes of the parcel tax,” she said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it but we will definitely make an issue about it one way or another.
Representatives from the union and the city didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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One man died and two other people were injured early Thursday morning when a wrong-way-driver collided with two cars on Interstate Highway 580 in Oakland.
At about 2:30 a.m., a man driving a Chrysler sedan was driving east in the westbound slow lane just east of State Highway 13, according to the CHP.
He collided with a silver Honda Civic and then a gray Honda Civic and was pronounced dead at the scene, the CHP said.
The silver Honda’s driver wasn’t hurt and the gray Honda’s driver was taken to Highland Hospital with moderate injuries.
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Alcohol impairment might have been a factor in the crash, according to the CHP.
Westbound I-580 was closed following the crash for a couple of hours and drivers were diverted to the Seminary Avenue offramp.
A bicyclist who was severely injured in a hit-and-run collision Monday evening in East Oakland has died, police reported Thursday.
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At about 7:30 p.m., officers were sent to the intersection of 23rd Avenue and East 22nd Street where they found a man in his 30s who had been hit by a vehicle.
The man, whose name hasn’t been released, was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Police said he died Wednesday at about 11 a.m.
Investigators believe the bicyclist was headed west on East 22nd Street and then turned north onto 23rd Avenue when he was hit by a vehicle going south on 23rd Avenue.
The driver continued south on 23rd Avenue and left the area after the collision.
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Investigators do not know if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the collision, police said. No arrest has been announced in the case.
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors this week proclaimed a local emergency about the invasive golden mussel and its impacts on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The board at its meeting Tuesday made the declaration, which called on county staff to coordinate with local, state and federal partners to pursue funding, technical assistance and other resources to address the problem.
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Golden mussels, which originated in Asia, have quickly spread through the state since first being identified in the Delta in 2024. The mussel is a freshwater species that inhabits shallow waters and hard surfaces, impeding water flow, clogging pipes and damaging equipment while also affecting native species.
California has emphasized a “Clean, Drain, Dry” campaign for local boaters to try to stop the spread of mussels or other invasive species, but county officials said additional action is needed.
Deputies in Marin County arrested a suspected drug dealer after an undercover sting, the Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
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The investigation began in February when undercover deputies allegedly bought narcotics from Sacramento resident Shaquille Hewitt, 32. Within Marin County, Hewitt allegedly sold deputies cocaine, MDMA and psilocybin mushrooms on three separate occasions.
Throughout the course of the investigation, detectives were able to obtain search warrants for Hewitt’s residence in Sacramento, and a storage unit belonging to Hewitt in Roseville.
On Wednesday, Hewitt was arrested at his home in Sacramento and the search warrants were carried out. The Sheriff’s Office alleges investigators seized over 1.5 pounds of cocaine, 1.2 pounds of MDMA, and 15 suspected fentanyl pills, plus other illegal drugs. Also allegedly seized were six guns, including one made fully automatic with a suppressor, illegal high-capacity magazines and about $197,000 in cash.
Hewitt was taken to Marin County Jail and booked on suspicion of multiple counts of possession of narcotics for sale, transporting and selling narcotics, and making/importing/lending/selling an illegal high-capacity magazine. He is being held on $130,000 bail, according to jail records.
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A morning kitchen fire displaced three people in the Bayview area of San Francisco on Thursday, according to the city’s Fire Department.
The one-alarm fire was reported in the 1100 block of Bayshore Boulevard. Crews arrived and found a fire in the kitchen on the ground level near the garage, the department said.
The blaze was contained to one house and no injuries were reported, but three people were displaced.
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The exact cause of the fire is under investigation.
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