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Post Endorsements for City Council and Schools

Published

5 years ago

October 2, 2020

The Oakland Post has endorsed candidates for five seats on the City Council, looking for leaders who are dynamic and visionary, have a track record of compassion and solidarity with neighborhoods in need, and are capable of working collaboratively with all parts of the city.

Endorsed candidates were: At-Large – Rebecca Kaplan; District 1 – incumbent Dan Kalb; District 3 – Carroll Fife; District 5 – incumbent Noel Gallo; and District 7 — Treva Reid (first choice) and Aaron Clay (second choice);

Oakland Post panelists in the recent interviews were Clarence Thomas, former secretary-treasurer of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 (retired); Cathy Leonard, founder of Oakland Neighborhoods for Equity and steering committee member of the Coalition for Police Accountability; Zappa Montague, teacher and long-time activist; Walter Riley, civil rights attorney; Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, dean of the School of Education at Holy Names University; and Kitty Kelly Epstein, education professor and host of a show on Radio Station KPFA 94.1 FM.

Panelists directed their questions to several of the deep concerns of local residents that are covered regularly in the pages of the Oakland Post. One issue was whether the candidates support real estate developer John Fisher’s proposal to buy the Oakland Coliseum property in East Oakland and take over Port of Oakland public property in West Oakland to build high-end luxury condominiums, a mall and a baseball stadium.

Candidates were asked if they have a comprehensive plan for housing Oakland residents including the homeless and the housing insecure.

Finally, panelists wanted to know the candidates’ comprehensive plan to resolve the city’s decades-long policing crisis: excessive overtime and cost overruns, and inability to comply with federal court racial justice requirements.

Here are the Post endorsements.

Rebecca Kaplan

Councilmember at Lage: Rebecca Kaplan, has supported many of the issues that are of particular importance to the African American community and people of color throughout this city.

Her leadership has been crucial on housing and tenant rights, police reform and an end to racial profiling, to improved air quality and toxics cleanup.

Her efforts have earned her the respect of many and the hostility of a few.

Kaplan is accessible and responsive to input. Her opponent has no experience in public office and sometimes seems confused by the issues.

Dan Kalb

District 1: Dan Kalb has served on the City Council since 2013. He has worked hard to create a strong police commission to oversee the Oakland Police Department. He has also collaborated with fellow councilmembers to create policies for affordable housing and tenant protections.

People in his district have raised that they do not find Kalb accessible. We hope that is something he will change.

Carroll Fife

District 3: Carroll Fife is a candidate who represents real reform in city government and has programs and a track record of working for practical, systemic changes in housing, jobs, racial justice, health and public safety.

Though she has never held or run for public office before, she is well known for her work in the neighborhoods and at City Council by staff and elected officials for years of work on behalf of the community on many of the most important issues in Oakland.

She was a strong community advocate for the fight to create Oakland’s Department of Race and Equity. She has worked for jobs and training resources for unemployed and job-seeking West Oakland residents. She advocated for Moms for Housing, and she has fought foreclosures and evictions.

Fife has a plan for innovative strategies for housing local residents, to help those who are fighting to stay in Oakland and to bring home those who want to come back to the city.

She has a plan to rethink criminal justice: improve public safety while reducing police costs and overtime, utilizing mental health and other supportive resources.

District 3 is severely impacted by housing displacement and a tremendous increase in unhoused individuals. She has a plan to address this tragedy in West Oakland.

Noel Gallo

District 5: Noel Gallo

Noel Gallo has served on the council since 2013. He formerly served on the school board. For years, he has organized neighbors to hold trash and waste cleanups in District 5 every weekend.

He has raised critiques of the Howard Terminal stadium project and opposed selling the Oakland Coliseum property to a private developer. He has been a long-time advocate of utilizing public land for the public good.

Standing up to resistance, Gallo was one of the council members who worked tirelessly to help create a police commission to promote public oversight of the police department. He has a reputation for being very accessible to his constituents. While serving together on the Oakland School Board, Post publisher Cobb and Noel Gallo led the fight for funding for La Escuelita Elementary School.

Members of the Post endorsement panel appreciated a lot of ideas of District 5 challengers Richard Santos Raya and Zoe Lopez-Meraz and hope they will stay engaged in the public dialogue.

Treva Reid

District 7: Treva Reid (first choice endorsement) is a newcomer to elected office and appears to be very accessible and thoughtful.

A graduate of Hampton University, she has worked as a Senior Field Representative for then Assemblymember (now State Senator) Nancy Skinner, She advocated for housing policies, gun violence prevention, job training programs and legislation for incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated individuals.

She serves as an Associate for Assembly District 18 on the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee and is an Emerge California Alumna. She is also a ministry leader at Shiloh Church in Oakland. During the campaign, she has exhibited a grasp of the totality of issues affecting the city and which council members must confront. The Post publisher was impressed with her voluntarism and church community service activities.

Aaron Clay

Aaron Clay (second choice endorsement) has a strong understanding of the issues and is very forthright about the need to protect public land for the public good.

He is a graduate of Morehouse College and Loyola University of Chicago Law School. His mother worked for over 30 years as a librarian in Oakland schools.

He serves on the board of the nonprofit Youth UpRising in East Oakland.

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

Published

4 days ago

July 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.