{"id":345646,"date":"2026-06-03T23:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345646\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:59:10","slug":"should-oaklands-mayor-become-far-more-powerful-voters-will-decide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345646\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Oakland’s mayor become far more powerful? Voters will decide."},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Voters here will decide in November whether to give Mayor Barbara Lee \u2014 and her successors \u2014 sweeping new powers over the city\u2019s government<\/a>, a bold proposal that Lee promises would reform Oakland\u2019s dysfunctional leadership structure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is the culmination of efforts by Lee, who took office a year ago, to overhaul how Oakland is governed, setting the stage for a political showdown this November that could establish a lasting precedent with far-reaching political consequences.<\/p>\n

Lee successfully lobbied the Oakland City Council to place her proposal on the fall election ballot, even making a rare appearance at the eight-member body\u2019s regular meeting this week to plead her case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buck always stops with the mayor,\u201d Lee told the council on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The mayor had spent the past month privately whipping up support from the council, which on Tuesday voted 5-3 in favor of the proposal.<\/p>\n

Several council members who supported it\u00a0admitted to feeling uneasy about ceding some of their own legislative power to the mayor\u2019s office, but opted to let Oakland\u2019s voters decide if that\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n

Under Lee\u2019s plan, the mayor would gain a crucial veto over the city council\u2019s policy decisions while continuing to not be required to attend meetings. She could reject legislation outright or even specific laws within an ordinance.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s daily operations are currently overseen by a professionally hired administrator, but the new plan would shift many of their responsibilities \u2014 including the ability to hire and fire most city department heads \u2014 to the mayor alone.<\/p>\n

To override a veto, the council would need to reach consensus of a two-thirds supermajority, requiring six out of eight members to vote together. Otherwise, the mayor would call the shots, though the legislation establishes a new independent office to analyze the city\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland City Councilmember Janani Ramachandran speaks about proposed budget amendments at a podium on the steps in front of City Hall, alongside fellow council members Zac Unger, right, Charlene Wang, far left, and Rowena Brown. (Shomik Mukherjee\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Effectively, Oakland would more closely resemble a \u201cstrong mayor\u201d style of governance, in the vein of San Francisco and Los Angeles, absorbing the vast majority of executive power. To advocates, this rids cities of bureaucracy and simplifies accountability to a single person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to empower a mayor to be a real change-maker,\u201d said Councilmember Charlene Wang, who openly supported Lee\u2019s plan, \u201cand to break through red tape and bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang asserted that certain city department heads, which she declined to name, have\u00a0become impossible to manage within Oakland\u2019s bureaucratic tangles, with the council powerless to hold those staff accountable even as they oversaw multi-million dollar budgets.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the strong-mayor system, though, worry that the wrong person in the mayor\u2019s seat could wreak havoc on a city in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

Locally, critics do not have to look far to make their point: Sheng Thao, who preceded Lee in office before voters recalled her, is expected to stand trial in the fall for bribery and corruption charges \u2014 right around the time Lee\u2019s proposal would go before voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in you!\u201d Councilmember Ken Houston enthusiastically told Lee. \u201cBut what about that next person?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy works,\u201d Lee quickly responded. \u201cPeople will vote for who they want as mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland Mayor Barbara Lee at City Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s plan would repeal a city law that allows a council member to potentially be charged with a misdemeanor if they directly interfere with how a city employee is delivering services. That amendment appeared to satisfy Houston, who has long described the restriction as a thorn in his side.<\/p>\n

Broadly, some policy experts and an ex-administrator have long called publicly for Oakland\u2019s governance structure to change. Often, though, they advised shifting to a more balanced power structure seen in most California cities, including San Jose.<\/p>\n

In those cities, the mayor is a voting member of the city council, which collectively oversees a city manager to handle the government\u2019s daily affairs. It involves tradeoffs: far more decisions are put to a democratic vote, but most accountability falls on the back of an unelected bureaucrat.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Zac Unger, an outright skeptic of strong-mayor politics, had quietly worked behind the scenes this past month to place on the November ballot a rival ballot measure proposing a shift to that power structure, known as a \u201ccouncil-manager\u201d form of governance.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Unger acknowledged he failed to whip the votes among his council colleagues needed to bring an alternative before voters. He voted against placing Lee\u2019s plan on the November ballot, alongside council members Janani Ramachandran and Noel Gallo.<\/p>\n

Under Lee\u2019s proposed setup, Unger argued, council members \u201cwould continue to be the face of futility\u2026 and we will essentially become shields for all of the failures of the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, voters will decide on perhaps the most impactful and aggressive policy change proposed by Lee, a former 25-year congresswoman who ran on a promise to stabilize Oakland amid the political turmoil of the Thao era.<\/p>\n

The mayor, courted by several council members to run in that special election, has strongly hinted she will seek re-election to her seat in November. But she has struck back angrily at suggestions that the proposed governance reform is akin to a power grab.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately,\u201d Lee said Tuesday, \u201cthis decision will not be made by one mayor or one city council. It will be made by the voters of Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at\u00a0shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Voters here will decide in November whether to give Mayor Barbara Lee \u2014 and her successors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1400,389,127495,184,7,409,332,82306,204,1533,181,23,205,100,143,145,406,144,182,13,385],"class_list":["post-345646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-2026-elections","tag-alameda-county","tag-alameda-county-elections","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-city-politics","tag-east-bay","tag-east-bay-elections","tag-election","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-mayor","tag-oakland-news","tag-pm-report","tag-politics","tag-regional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}