City Government

Oakland Wants to Spend $200,000 in Youth Jobs Funds to Hire One City Administrator

Published

13 years ago

October 13, 2013

A proposal to redirect $200,000 in federal youth job funding to hire a single city administrator, who would serve as the city’s youth employment coordinator, was met with resounding opposition this week from community members and members of the Youth Council, a committee of the Oakland Workforce Investment Board.

< p>< p>“This is the first time that I’ve seen this. I thought in the (WIB’s) approved budget this was described as the mayor’s summer jobs program. It was presented that this was money to be put on the streets for summer jobs,” said Kathy Chao Rothberg, member of the Youth Council and executive director of Lao Family Community Development.

“What’s being presented here is $200,000 for a coordinator’s position. I ‘m not comfortable with this,” she said.

“Why does it take $200,000 to hire one person?” Asked Gay

Gay Plair Cobb, CEO of Oakland Private Industry Council

Plair Cobb, Youth Council member and executive director of the Private Industry Council, speaking at the Wednesday afternoon meeting at City Hall.

“This is the only source of revenue for local service providers to run summer jobs programs,” added Cobb, pointing out that the WIB has said it has no funding for agencies in the Fruitvale District serving Latino youth and no funding for young people in West Oakland for the fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Created by a work group of the Youth Council in a nonpublic meeting, the proposal was presented as a memorandum to the Mayor’s Office. It said the Youth Employment Coordinator will work with community partners to develop and leverage federal funds and other resources to increase programs for youth.

Some people at City Hall were speculating that the proposal had originated in the Mayor’s Office. Mayor Jean Quan was contacted but did not reply to the Post’s questions. If the money were used for $1,000 stipends for youth interns, it would put 200 young people to work. Among the community members opposing the new position was Marlon McWilson, member of the Alameda County Board of Education.

“You cannot say you are advocates for youth and then go take $200,000 from kids,” said McWilson. “If we’re talking about reallocation of funds, we should reallocate the funds to organizations serving West Oakland and Latino students.”

While the city wants to spend money for an administrator, West Oakland is not getting job resources for young people, said Ron Muhammad, a West Oakland community activist.

“We should not be coming … to meeting after meeting talking about West Oakland. We’re just asking for equity,” said Muhammad.

Marilyn Washington Harris of the Khadafy Foundation for Non-Violence urged members of the Youth Council to consider the needs of all the young people in Oakland who are to risk of dying by violence.

“It’s not my fault, and it’s not your fault. It’s all of our faults collectively, because we’re not doing our job,” she said. “People of color… are the people who are dying. Those are the people who do not get the funding.”

The motion to fund the position was tabled to a future meeting because the meeting no longer had a quorum.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

3 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”