Alameda County
Oakland Leadership Shuffles with New Interim Mayor and D2 Councilmember
The council selected Kevin Jenkins, who represents East Oakland in District 6, as the new council president and therefore interim mayor, succeeding former colleague Nikki Fortunato Bas who left to serve on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Jenkins will temporarily serve as Oakland Mayor until this spring when residents will choose a new leader to take over the rest of ousted Mayor Sheng Thao’s term after being recalled in late 2024.
By Magaly Muñoz
Oakland has officially begun its new leadership era as newly elected council members are introduced and incumbent members take on new roles following the fall recall election.
The council selected Kevin Jenkins, who represents East Oakland in District 6, as the new council president and therefore interim mayor, succeeding former colleague Nikki Fortunato Bas who left to serve on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Jenkins will temporarily serve as Oakland Mayor until this spring when residents will choose a new leader to take over the rest of ousted Mayor Sheng Thao’s term after being recalled in late 2024.
“There’s some serious issues in the city, but we’re only going to get past them if we work together. The residents of Oakland absolutely demand it,” Jenkins said.
The city recently gutted several programs and cut public safety department spending by millions in order to balance a $130 million budget deficit.
The largest cuts affected the police and fire, with the OPD facing a $25 million reduction in overtime expenses and two fire stations having been temporarily browned out.
Firefighters expressed their disapproval of these shutdowns at a rally outside of City Hall on Monday morning, calling this decision a “tragedy waiting to happen,” especially as more brownouts are being considered in the near future.
The council also appointed re-elected Fruitvale representative Noel Gallo as president pro-tempore, which bumps him up as the temporary council president while Jenkins serves as mayor.
“We have an emergency. We can do all the talking we want but we’ve got to take action,” Gallo said.
Gallo added that all departments in the city need to be dedicated to putting in the work to bring Oakland back to the city it used to be.
Now that Bas has left to join the county supervisors, the council also appointed Rebecca Kaplan, a recent at-large member, to represent District 2 until voters in that jurisdiction select a new council person.
Elections for D2 and mayor will take place during a special election on April 15.
Aside from the power shifts, newcomers Ken Houston, Rowena Brown, and Zac Unger were sworn into their new positions during the morning inauguration ceremony.
Houston, now representing District 7, refers to himself as the “son of Oakland,” having grown up in the city. He said he will “fight for Oakland” and promises an “oath of dignity and respect in every move he makes” while serving as a councilmember.
Brown, former legislative district director for Assembly Member Mia Bonta, takes over Kaplan’s position for the at-large seat. Meanwhile, Unger will replace Dan Kalb in District 1.
Unger said the city is facing a time of “truly terrifying scarcity” and tough decisions will have to be made in the weeks and months ahead. “There are no programs in the city of Oakland that were started by craven people with bad intentions,” he said about the cuts to public safety departments, libraries, senior centers and arts programs.
He believes there’s a way to rid the oppositional narratives: Oakland must save one aspect of city living while losing the other. “The only way to survive the next few months is by rejecting the dichotomies and zero-sum thinking that tears us apart,” Unger said.
