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Independent Police Commission Wins – Mayor Schaaf’s Staff, Attorney Parker Overruled

Published

8 years ago

July 13, 2018

“(This) enabling legislation … assures that the staff and the legal adviser will operate under the supervision of the commission and not the city administration,” said Rashidah Grinage of the Coalition for Police Accountability, speaking at the City Council meeting.

The City Council gave final approval this week to an ordinance that will allow the newly formed Police Commission to function independently of the Oakland Police Department and City Hall administrators who work closely with OPD.

The “enabling” ordinance, which passed 6-1 at Tuesday’s council meeting, lays out guidelines for the commission that were not covered in Measure LL, an amendment to the City Charter approved by 83 percent of the voters in 2016.

Voting in favor of regulations that require commission staff to report to the commission and not to the City Administrator and the City Attorney were Councilmembers Larry Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Dan Kalb, Abel Guillén and Noel Gallo. Annie Campbell Washington voted no.

At its first reading at the last council meeting in June, the measure passed over the objection of the City Attorney’s office and a legal consultant hired by the City Attorney.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, the ordinance passed despite the City Administrator’s last-ditch attempt to defeat it.

City Administrator Sabrina Landreth, who had served as police chief for months as OPD tried to recover from the fallout over its notorious sex abuse scandal, told councilmembers that despite the passage of the Measure LL charter amendment, the commission cannot operate independently of her and City Attorney Barbara Parker.

“The ordinance contains provisions that violate the City Charter,” she said. “It is important that we reflect carefully on the impact of something that erodes the integrity of our City Charter, the equivalent of our city’s constitution.

The enabling ordinance violates the city charter “as it relates to administrative functions,” she said.

Councilmember Kaplan, a strong backer of community efforts to bring police accountability to Oakland, defended the enabling ordinance as written.

“I urge that we hold strong and adopt … police enabling legislation and respect the voters of this city, respect the (police) commissioners themselves who have requested items (in the ordinance) and respect the principle of independent oversight,” she said.

The police commissioners themselves have said they need staff who are “independent and who can be relied upon by the commission to be working for them and not be in the same chain of command as the police department,” she said.

Continuing, Kaplan said, “In law, there is always potential for dispute, and there are always gray areas. But as this was a voter-approved ballot measure, the will and intent of the voters is also important. And it was clearly the intent to have independent (police) oversight.”

“We need to have police accountability all the way to the top,” Kaplan continued. “This is a chain-of-command-based organization, and most of what is done is done because it is ordered to be done.

“The commission has to have independence from the full chain of command,” she said.

During OPD’s sexual misconduct scandal, “it was a decision at the very top of the chain of command to let the senior officials involved not be punished,” she said.

During the ICE raid in West Oakland, OPD participated, but it was because of a decision of individual officers,” said Kaplan. “They were assigned to go. There was a decision made above to engage in that behavior.”

Members of the Coalition for Police Accountability, who have been working on the Police Commission for more than two years, thanked the council for passing the ordinance.

“Despite the horrors that are going on in Washington, D.C., Oakland is really taking a step forward that the rest of the country will be watching and the rest of the country will hopefully emulate,” said Pamela Drake of the coalition.

John Jones III, who works for the Dellums Institute for Social Justice, connected police abuse to the runaway gentrification that is sweeping the city.

Mike Hutchinson

“There’s a reason why OPD is under federal review,” he said. “If we go back to 2003, when displacement first started in Oakland, there’s a clear connection between the housing crisis and law enforcement.”

Former Mayor Jerry Brown “wanted to bring 10,000 white affluent people into downtown Oakland (also called Brown’s 10K Plan). A mandate (was) given to get rid of Black people in order to make this city more attractive for developers.”

School activist Mike Hutchinson connected Oakland’s ongoing education crisis to Brown’s gentrification efforts.

“One other thing happened in 2003 that was a direct result of Jerry Brown being our mayor,” he said. “Our school district got taken over by the state. I would argue that the same person who came up with the 10K plan also came up with a version of that plan for education (opening) up our city to outsiders to come in and profit off our backs and destroy our communities. And we still haven’t recovered since.”

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State of Preschool Yearbook Provides an Annual Snapshot of State-Funded Preschool

By National Institute for Early Education Research Georgia’s state-funded pre-k program for 4-year-olds was recognized as the largest state-funded preschool program in the nation to meet all 10 quality benchmarks, and the first universal program to do so. Georgia’s recognition is the top finding in the National Institute for Early Education Research’s new 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook. The yearbook provides an annual snapshot of state-funded preschool across the country. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia fund preschool programs. “Georgia is proud to be a leader in quality early childhood education as we work to ensure all Georgians have the opportunity to succeed, including our youngest learners,” said Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Having strategically invested in our Pre-K classrooms, we are both meeting all 10 NIEER benchmarks of excellence and giving Georgia students a […]

Published

3 days ago

April 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Institute for Early Education Research

Georgia’s state-funded pre-k program for 4-year-olds was recognized as the largest state-funded preschool program in the nation to meet all 10 quality benchmarks, and the first universal program to do so. Georgia’s recognition is the top finding in the National Institute for Early Education Research’s new 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook. The yearbook provides an annual snapshot of state-funded preschool across the country. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia fund preschool programs.

“Georgia is proud to be a leader in quality early childhood education as we work to ensure all Georgians have the opportunity to succeed, including our youngest learners,” said Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Having strategically invested in our Pre-K classrooms, we are both meeting all 10 NIEER benchmarks of excellence and giving Georgia students a strong start on the path of lifelong learning.”

Only five additional states meet all 10 of NIEER’s research-based benchmarks for quality —Alabama, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island—in this year’s report. None of those programs has the reach of Georgia Pre-K. NIEER’s benchmarks measure essential preschool quality indicators, including teacher qualifications, class sizes, early learning standards, and program assessments.

“Other states should take note: Georgia proves that state-funded preschool with well-qualified teachers, pay parity with K-12, small classes, and strong continuous improvement systems can be scaled as a universal program,” said NIEER director Steve Barnett. “With new initiatives to support quality, Georgia can expect increased enrollment, but leaders should also actively promote increased enrollment.”

Nationally, state support for preschool education hit record highs in enrollment and funding in 2024-2025. The pace of growth slowed, however, compared to the prior year, and many states continue to lag behind pre-pandemic enrollment levels.

Preschool enrollment increased by 44,000 children nationally, reaching almost 1.8 million, including 37% of U.S. four-year-olds and 9% of three-year-olds. California, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri contributed the most to increased enrollment, adding more than 52,000 new seats.

States spent nearly $14.4 billion on preschool in 2024-2025. Including federal and local dollars, total spending was almost $17.7 billion. Three states each spent more than $1 billion last year: California ($4.1 billion), New Jersey ($1.2 billion), and New York ($1 billion). Together, these three states account for45% of all state preschool spending. Texas adds almost another $1 billion.

Spending increased by $434 million, or 3%, adjusted for inflation. Twenty-eight states increased preschool funding, including Michigan and New Jersey, which each added more than $100 million.

“Not only does preschool access vary by which state a child happens to live in, but so does the quality of that preschool experience,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, lead author of the report. “Only high-quality early care and education programs support children’s development enough to result in lasting academic and other gains that ultimately deliver savings for taxpayers.”

A record six states met all 10 of NIEER’s recommended quality standards, with Alabama doing so for the 20th consecutive year.

Georgia joined this list this year after improving its teacher-to-child ratio from 1:11 to 1:10 and lowering maximum class sizes to 20. Several states met 9 of 10 benchmarks, including New Mexico, which is working toward universal access for both three- and four-year-olds. Once New Mexico requires all lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, it will be on par with Georgia in terms of both quality and quantity.

Not all states moved forward. Twenty states enrolled fewer preschoolers in 2024-2025 than the prior year, with enrollment dropping by more than 1,000 children in Arizona, Florida, NewYork, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. Seventeen states spent less on preschool than the prior year, adjusted for inflation, with Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas seeing the largest percentage declines.

Additional information about the State of Preschool Yearbook, including individual state profiles and maps, graphs, and state rankings, can be found at www.nieer.org.

The 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook was supported with funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

The National Institute for Early Education Research at theRutgers Graduate School of Education, New Brunswick, NJ, supports early childhood education policy and practice through independent, objective research and the translation of research to policy and practice

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Which features on the 2026 Volkswagen Golf GTI Autobahn are actually worth having?

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