City Government

Donna Powers – She’s Back and She Wants to Help Fix Richmond’s City Council

Published

12 years ago

June 5, 2014

Former City Councilmember Donna Powers is considering a return to Richmond’s City Council. Powers first joined the local political fray in 1991 with a run for city council.

Community members remember Powers as someone who shook things up on the Richmond City Council in the 1990s. She developed a reputation as a councilmember who got things done when other council members and administration seemed mired in bureaucratic complications and political stalemate.

Now she is back and gearing up to take on the tumultuous problems that have taken over city hall.

Donna is a street-smart woman and one heck of a hard worker,” says retired Berkeley professor and businessman Bob Goshay, who has lived in Richmond since 1977 and has known Powers for more than 20 years.

Powers was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Shortly after her father left for the war, Powers’ mother moved the family to Oakland, CA. Powers recalls that those were tough times; her parents got divorced and her mother changed jobs often to try her best to provide for everyone.

After graduating from high school, Powers found work at a bank in San Francisco and moved to Point Richmond where she met and married her husband. They raised a daughter here.

In the early 1990s, Powers became deeply involved in local politics when she found some shocking evidence of financial mismanagement and malfeasance in the budget.

She sued the Richmond City Council and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court of California (Powers v. City of Richmond), where she won.

She was then elected to office in 1991 and used the Powers decision to help put into place Richmond’s “sunshine” ordinance, which governs the city’s disclosure of its financial records to the public.

In 1993, Richmond suffered the fallout from a chemical spill emanating from the General Chemical plant in town. Powers saw an opportunity to take the reins and help Richmond recover to bring some good from a tragic occurrence.

She immediately organized an effort on the part of the city, Contra Costa County, and industry experts to put into place a first-of-its-kind chemical and disaster warning system. The system was considered so revolutionary at the time that Powers and her colleagues on the project received an award from the federal government for their work.

Another significant contribution Powers made was the creation of the Rosie the Riveter memorial site and the movement to get the City to fund the honoring of the women of Richmond that had worked in the Kaiser shipyards.

Powers convinced the National Park Service of the site’s historical merit and President Bill Clinton signed the certification for the Rosie the Riveter National Memorial and for other sites throughout Richmond just before he left office.

“She went from having nothing to work with, to having a full-fledged national park in place within five years,” recalls Phyllis Gould, a 92-year-old Richmond resident whom Powers involved in the project. “It was simply amazing.”

Shortly after, Powers was forced to leave her council position to care for older family members. She left behind her a city with a new iconic mascot, a hugely improved system for financial disclosures for its officials, and a warning system that remains to this day one of the most important safety measures ever implemented in an industrial area in the nation.

“I am like water,” Powers says. “I will find a way around any obstacle standing in the way of efforts for this city; I will go up and over, around, or under anything to get things done.”

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Oakland Post: Week of December 24 – 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

Published

1 day ago

December 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Oakland Council Expands Citywide Security Cameras Despite Major Opposition

In a 7-1 vote in favor of the contract, with only District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife voting no, the Council agreed to maintain its existing network of 291 cameras and add 40 new “pan-tilt-zoom cameras.”

Published

5 days ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Flock Safety introduces new public safety technology – Amplified Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to improve law enforcement investigations. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance network of hundreds of security cameras to track vehicles in the city.

In recent weeks hundreds of local residents have spoken against the camera system, raising concerns that data will be shared with immigration authorities and other federal agencies at a time when mass surveillance is growing across the country with little regard for individual rights.

The Flock network, supported by the Oakland Police Department, has the backing of residents and councilmembers who see it as an important tool to protect public safety.

“This system makes the Department more efficient as it allows for information related to disruptive/violent criminal activities to be captured … and allows for precise and focused enforcement,” OPD wrote in its proposal to City Council.

According to OPD, police made 232 arrests using data from Flock cameras between July 2024 and November of this year.

Based on the data, police say they recovered 68 guns, and utilizing the countywide system, they have found 1,100 stolen vehicles.

However, Flock’s cameras cast a wide net. The company’s cameras in Oakland last month captured license plate numbers and other information from about 1.4 million vehicles.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Fife was critical of her colleagues for signing a contract with a company that has been in the national spotlight for sharing data with federal agencies.

Flock’s cameras – which are automated license plate readers – have been used in tracking people who have had abortions, monitoring protesters, and aiding in deportation roundups.

“I don’t know how we get up and have several press conferences talking about how we are supportive of a sanctuary city status but then use a vendor that has been shown to have a direct relationship with (the U.S.) Border Control,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Several councilmembers who voted in favor of the contract said they supported the deal as long as some safeguards were written into the Council’s resolution.

“We’re not aiming for perfection,” said District 1 Councilmember Zac Unger. “This is not Orwellian facial recognition technology — that’s prohibited in Oakland. The road forward here is to add as many amendments as we can.”

Amendments passed by the Council prohibit OPD from sharing camera data with any other agencies for the purpose of “criminalizing reproductive or gender affirming healthcare” or for federal immigration enforcement. California state law also prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with the federal government, and because Oakland’s sanctuary city status, OPD is not allowed to cooperate with immigration authorities.

A former member of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission has sued OPD, alleging that it has violated its own rules around data sharing.

So far, OPD has shared Flock data with 50 other law enforcement agencies.

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Black Arts Movement Business District Named New Cultural District in California

Located in the heart of District 3, the BAMBD is widely regarded as one of the nation’s most important centers of Black cultural production — a space where artists, entrepreneurs, organizers, and cultural workers have shaped generations of local and national identity. The state’s recognition affirms the district’s historic importance and its future promise.

Published

6 days ago

December 20, 2025

Oakland Post

Councilmember Carroll Fife celebrates major milestone for Black arts, culture, and economic power in Oakland. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

Oakland’s Black Arts Movement Business District (BAMBD) has been selected as one of California’s 10 new state-designated Cultural Districts, a distinction awarded by the California Arts Council (CAC), according to a media statement released by Councilmember Carroll Fife.

The BAMBD now joins 23 other districts across the state recognized for their deep cultural legacy, artistic excellence, and contributions to California’s creative economy.

“This designation is a testament to what Black Oakland has built — and what we continue to build when we insist on investing in our own cultural and economic power,” said Fife.

“For years, our community has fought for meaningful recognition and resources for the Black Arts Movement Business District,” she said. “This announcement validates that work and ensures that BAMBD receives the support it needs to grow, thrive, and continue shaping the cultural fabric of California.”

Since taking office, Fife has led and supported multiple initiatives that strengthened the groundwork for this achievement, including:

Restoring and protecting arts and cultural staffing within the City of Oakland.
Creating the West Oakland Community Fund to reinvest in historically excluded communities
Advancing a Black New Deal study to expand economic opportunity for Black Oakland
Ensuring racial equity impact analyses for development proposals, improving access for Black businesses and Black contractors
Introduced legislation and budget amendments that formalized, protected, and expanded the BAMBD

“These efforts weren’t abstract,” Fife said. “They were intentional, coordinated, and rooted in a belief that Black arts and Black businesses deserve deep, sustained public investment.”

As part of the Cultural District designation, BAMBD will receive:

$10,000 over two years
Dedicated technical assistance
Statewide marketing and branding support
Official designation from Jan. 1, 2026, through Dec. 31, 2030

This support will elevate the visibility of BAMBD’s artists, cultural organizations, small businesses, and legacy institutions, while helping attract new investment to the district.

“The BAMBD has always been more than a district,” Fife continued. “This recognition by the State of California gives us another tool in the fight to preserve Black culture, build Black economic power, and protect the families and institutions that make Oakland strong.”

For questions, contact Councilmember Carroll Fife at CFife@oaklandca.gov.