I might be a little less up in arms if they were clear about what they were doing. It's possible that this whole process is just about getting a strong mayor proposal on the ballot, which I'm fine with. But the working group's mandate from Mayor Lee includes a *huge* range of potential changes to the fundamental governing structure of Oakland, and that makes me nervous.
I am currently frustrated by the way the process is being run. They started in August, and up until now I've been unable to find any information about when they're meeting or what ideas they're discussing.
I also think this whole thing is backwards: it should be regular Oaklanders deciding what proposals to make, with input from the experts and interest groups. Not the other way around.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfbLTDQtE1LY5yAeOz6Oc2E5_kUKazqfc8UvvqUA5_Xzy0ieQ/viewform
A working group of various bigwigs is currently deciding what changes should be made to Oakland's charter. The charter is Oakland's Constitution--it sets ground rules for the city, including which elected offices will exist and what their powers will be.
Their first "community conversation" is TONIGHT online. To get the link and/or sign up for future events, you can use the link above.
Join Mayor Barbara Lee’s Charter Reform Working Group & Oakland City Council Members for "Talk of the Town: A Community Conversation on Charter Reform," facilitated by the Oakland League of Women Voters & SPUR. Oakland’s charter is its guiding document, its constitution. Every so often it needs to be updated to reflect where Oakland is and where it’s going. Join us for an important conversation about the charter, what it does, and how it guides our city. We will brainstorm changes that can be made to create an Oakland that works better for everyone. This is your opportunity to help shape an accountable Oakland government that works for everyone. Please RSVP below.
I had wanted to be able to search through #alamtg meeting minutes for a while, and this was the kick in the pants I needed. In mid-August of 2022, I had a working system for fetching minutes from the #alamtg legistar, and using s3-ocr to put that into a sqlite database running under datasette.
Once I had this working, @MaggieFero immediately asked for #oakmtg, and luckily it was the same underlying system.
So one month into the project, we had 50k pages across two cities. Not bad!
2/n
"You can't fire me, I quit!" #oakmtg
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/05/01/oakland-finance-director-resigns-budget/
yar
Fighting for Democracy
phildini
