Friday, October 22, 2010
Perata Spending Closes in on $1 Million; Marcie Hodge Fails to Disclose Donors
Politics / People / Law Enforcement & Crime Robert Gammon — Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 2:53 PM
Campaigns attempting to elect Don Perata mayor of Oakland have spent a record $965,000, newly filed campaign finance reports show. Perata’s own mayoral campaign had spent at least $669,000 through October 16, and two other committees backing his candidacy spent at least $296,000 trying to put him in the mayor’s office. The totals easily shatter previous Oakland mayoral campaign spending records.
The two other committees spending large sums on Perata’s behalf are a Sacramento group with close ties to him, Coalition for a Safer California, and an Oakland committee, Oakland Jobs PAC, that also has links to the ex-senator. Coalition for a Safer California has spent $141,000 in support of Perata, while Oakland Jobs PAC reported spending $155,000 so far.
Both groups eclipsed Oakland’s $95,000 threshold for spending by independent committees. And Perata has nearly doubled the city’s spending cap of $379,000. Perata found a loophole in Oakland law that allows him to exceed the cap once other groups have done so — even if they're spending money on his behalf. The city's cap rule was designed to help candidates who are attacked by outside groups who spend lots of money — but the loophole also allows candidates like Perata to benefit from groups overspending in support of him.
The Perata totals also dwarf those of his three major competitors in the race. Councilwoman Jean Quan reported spending a total of $275,000, while Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan has spent $157,000. College professor/news analyst Joe Tuman has raised a total of $74,000 so far. One group, Oakland Rising Committee, reported spending a total of $5,404 on behalf of Quan and Kaplan — $2,752 each. No committees reported spending on behalf of Tuman’s campaign other than his own.
Coalition for a Safer California, the Perata-linked Sacramento committee, also has been working to defeat San Francisco’s public-employee pension reform measure, Proposition B. That measure is fiercely opposed by public-employee unions throughout the state. Coalition for a Safer California is financed by some of Perata’s best donors, along with police and firefighter unions, and the state prison guard’s union — Perata’s primary employer. It’s also run by his longtime friend, Paul Kinney.
Oakland Jobs PAC is headed by another friend of Perata, Gregory McConnell, and is financed by several of the ex-senator’s longtime contributors. The group also spent $50,000 backing the 2008 city council bid of Perata’s former chief of staff, Kerry Hamill, who lost to Kaplan. Oakland Jobs PAC also recently paid $10,000 to the same fund-raiser used by Coalition for Safer California, Stephanie Shakofsky. She is the ex-wife of Oakland City Attorney John Russo, and according to two knowledgeable sources, was once romantically involved with Perata.
Finally, it should be noted that mayoral candidate Marcie Hodge has yet to file a campaign finance report as required by law during the election. Hodge has spent significant sums on billboards, mailers, radio spots, and now TV ads. Several black leaders in Oakland believe that Perata supporters are bankrolling her campaign in an effort to siphon votes from Kaplan and Quan. Hodge has denied getting help from the ex-senator and said she loaned herself a large donation, but it’s unclear where she got the money, because she reported having no job, no income, and no investments on her official financial disclosures in August.
Records show that Hodge also has a history of not filing campaign finance reports disclosing her donors until several months after the election is over — a blatant violation of state and local law.
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My friend who lives in Rickridge received the email below from someone on his block yahoo group, and I was able to get permission from the writer to re-post on the Blog.
I am sorry to send a second political email to the group. But I feel this is an extremely important matter.
I know that many of us on the block remember the chaos, panic, and anger we experienced when some of us got the false, or in some cases actual but unwarranted, blight citations issued by CEDA and/or Public Works (part of the same umbrella organization) as a result of blank forms being given to a private citizen or a Building Services inspector colluding with a neighbor when the citations were unwarranted.
As a result of that experience, I’ve become very involved in helping to uncover and expose massive corruption within CEDA. Some of you have been informed about this through choosing to stay on my mailing list. But I am now writing to the block as a whole to inform you that Michael Kilian, candidate for City auditor, has been instrumental in helping with routing out the CEDA corruption. By contrast, our current auditor, Courtney Ruby, has not only missed the corruption but failed to act on it when it was reported to her.
In fact, CEDA abated one whistleblower’s house a “substandard public nuisance” and scheduled it for demolition – without ever having set foot in it – as a result of her reports to Ruby. All of this went ignored by Ruby, who has an obligation to protect whistleblowers.
The corruption going on within CEDA – which is detailed on the site linked to below – is in my opinion the worst to occur in our city, or even arguably any city, in a long time. A citizen lawsuit has been filed against the city administrator and other high City and CEDA officials for violation of the state constitution and other state and local laws, alleging that CEDA has inflated its fees and ramped up its lien process in order to balance the Oakland budget on the backs of blameless homeowners, some of whom it has forced into foreclosure. CEDA also now stands accused of damaging nepotism, kickbacks, and more. Its head of Building Services recently resigned in the face of these accusations.
Michael Kilian, who is not yet our auditor, is doing something about this. Courtney Ruby on the other hand, who holds the office, not only has done nothing but has ignored the information and evidence after being handed it.
Please vote for Michael Kilian for auditor.
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Michael Kilian Files Nepotism Complaint Against CEDA Top-Dog Antoinette Holloway-Renwick
Michael Kilian, candidate for city auditor, reported to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission that Building Services Inspection Services Manager Antoinette Holloway-Renwick failed to report a close familial relationship with Arthur Young, who owns Arthur Young Debris Removal Service, the City's number one blight abatement contractor.
Kilian's complaint alleges that this relationship costs the City millions of dollars a year because of the preferential treatment Young receives from Holloway-Renwick. Building Services records, as well as a deposition of Holloway-Renwick in an unrelated lawsuit, reveal that Holloway-Renwick was directly responsible for both contract and invoice approval for Arthur Young Debris Removal Service. The amount of those contracts exceeds $4 million since 2007.
A 2007 audit of Public Works contract bidding process showed that Arthur Young Debris Removal Service was the number one Public Works contractor at that time.
Courtney Ruby's hiring-practices audit, dated October 21, 2009, does not include Holloway-Renwick's relationship with Arthur Young.
Holloway-Renwick retired several days after Kilian filed his complaint.
http://www.auditoaklandceda.com/index.php?…
Courtney Ruby fails to report preferential treatment given to a supporter and misses nepotism within CEDA
Building Services records obtained yesterday show that in 2008 Ruby supporter Carlos Plazola, former Chief of Staff of Ignacio Delafuente, president of Terra Linda Development, and founder of the Oakland Builders' Alliance, had a $10,000 fence erected at the City's expense and paid for by Building Services from Fund 2415. The fence was erected by Arthur Young Debris Removal Service, the City's #1 blight abatement contractor and, according to a complaint filed by Michael Kilian, a relation of former Buiding Services Inspection Services Manager Antoinette Holloway-Renwick.
Building Services records reveal that Holloway-Renwick was directly responsible for both contract and invoice approval for Arthur Young Debris Removal Service.
A 2007 audit of Public Works contract bidding process also showed that Arthur Young was the #1 Public Works contractor at that time.
Courtney Ruby's nepotism audit does not appear to have either detected or corrected the Renwick/Young nepotism.
Renwick held the title of Inspection Services Manager from 2002 until October 15, when she appears to have retired five days after Kilian's complaint was received by City staff.
http://www.auditoaklandceda.com/index.php?…
Perata pledged to keep within the spending limits. He went back on his word. No other candidate has outspent him nor broke the cap. So there was no need for Perata to spend more than the $379,000 limit.
In previous newspaper articles, it was reported that Perata was fined $4000 in 1998 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for campaign spending violations in his statewide race. It has also been reported that he has currently violated the law by lending his mayoral campaign $50,000 from his company when the limit is $700.00. The loan should have come from him as an individual not his company.
In addition to the problems listed above, Perata started the Hope2010 statewide ballot initiative. This is to get $1.00 tax per pack of cigarettes on the statewide ballot and the money goes to cancer research. Since 2006 Hope2010 has raised approx. $12,000,000. They have spent over $2MM to support the statewide ballots in 2006, Prop 1A, Prop 1B, Prop 1C, Prop 1D and Prop 1E. These were for transportation, education, emergency shelter and disaster preparedness. Worthy causes but not connected to cancer research. Here is another list which is a sample of where some of the money has gone:
$110,000 was spent to try and recall Jeff Denham (District 19):
$50,000 to Avalon Village, a nonprofit to help senior citizens live at home independently;
$25,000 to Literacy Program (OPLP);
$25,000 to Ignacio De La Fuente, campaign consultant;
$150,000 went to the democratic party, central committee;
$1,900,000 went to Don Perata’s legal defense fund
$7500 went to the One Dream Foundation
$5000 went to the Unity Council
$3500 Alameda County Meals on Wheels
$2500 to the Oakland Police Emergency Network
$2500 St. Vincent’s Day Home
$1000 to the Richmond Police Activities League
Probably very worth while organizations, but again where is the relevancy to cancer research? Only $500,000 has gone to large nonprofits for cancer research (American Heart Assoc., American Lung Assoc., American Cancer Society).
I would like to see Mr. Gammon interview people like Jane Brunner, who I have voted for previously, about how she could possibly endorse someone who is violating Oakland's clear desires on campaign finance. I will be taking the Perata-relationship into consideration when deciding my future votes!!
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