Candidate for
Council Member; City of Oakland; District 2

PAMELA DRAKE FOR OAKLAND Statement on Issues

COMMUNITY POLICING

We must find a long term solution to Oakland's crime problem. The answer does not lie in gimmicks such as curfews. We have the right ingredients for a successful community policing program, it's just a matter of how we go about it. Here's what Pamela will do:

• Fully implement Measure Y, bringing up the staffing so that the 59 community officers and four homicide investigators can be hired, including monitoring the level of funding for violence prevention, no cuts in existing programs. Incorporate violence prevention, cultural sensitivity, and LGBT training for officers. Beef up Domestic Violence units.

• Work with diverse communities, encourage broader participation in NCPCs to include more renters, youth, seniors and ex-offender groups. Guarantee non-English speaking communities representation.

• Fully implement the 1994 Community Policing Ordinance and create permanent funding sources for Neighborhood Service Coordinators.

• Stop arrests for marijuana possession and work for a statewide tax & regulate policy-providing more money to fully fund community policing and violence prevention programs.

As a result of the state takeover, our schools are closing at a dizzying rate and many more are being privatized. The District is not negotiating with the Unions in good faith, and teachers are being threatened with a return to large class sizes. If the state administrator won't work with parents, teachers and neighbors, Pamela will make sure City Hall does. As a teacher, Pamela knows the struggle of inadequate funding, large class sizes, and cuts in support staff. With the help of Alameda County School Board Member, Dennis Chaconas, and many of her fellow teachers, Pamela will continue to fight against closures and work to bring control back to the community.

Oakland cannot succeed without good schools. Here's what Pamela will do:

• Work with and organize communities around their neighborhood schools. Bring pressure on the current school administration to operate within all Oakland laws, including sunshine laws, design processes for principal selection, coordinate City Parks and Recreation programs with neighborhood schools.

• Support teachers and classified workers in their efforts for good working conditions which will also benefit students (small class sizes, clean classrooms), bring them together with parents in their school community.

• Monitor Measure E and make sure it is spent on what the taxpayers were promised.

• Advocate for a return of local control with a recovery plan in place.

• Lobby State representatives for a return of funding levels and forgiveness of the debt as has been done in some other school districts.

• Study the effect of Redevelopment Districts on school funding in order to find school monies being used on projects with little public benefit.

• Organize local communities to elect new State Representatives if the current ones are not responsive to our children's needs.

Oakland's most valuable resource is its neighborhoods. Pamela will institute a process in which neighborhood guidelines can be established before a developer wastes any money on a project that may be rejected by that process. As the director of the Lake Shore Business Improvement District, Pamela have been endorsed by many local merchants who point out that our city government is quick to approve and promote development that does not pay for itself. Our City Council must commit to development that supports our neighborhoods, not development that threatens them.

• No public land or money for projects that have not gone through a rigorous community benefits agreement process.

• Maintenance of public open space insisting on easy public access, including working with transit agencies to secure access for all residents.

• Secure inclusionary zoning on all public projects, including family housing and various affordability projects such as limited equity co-ops and shared housing.

• Encourage and give preference to diverse, local contractors who abide by the Hire Oakland Ordinance. Encourage the growth of small, local retail business in new projects.

• Support work closely, and give preference to plans started by local artists and entrepreneurs, particularly in economically underserved areas.

• Promote affordable public art projects by local artists.

• Monitor and sanction nuisance businesses that break or skirt local and state laws.

• Monitor and prevent use of eminent domain laws to strip local businesses of their property for out-of-town developers, particularly when redevelopment programs are used to give tax money to these developers. No guaranteed return without a guarantee to local taxpayers.

• Strengthen the Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization unit, supporting merchant organizations in the Main Street model which includes resident input.

• Strengthen Sunshine Laws to include Mayor and all agencies while doing any City business. Sanction any officials in any City Department not abiding by Sunshine.

• Monitor closed session hearings for information that the public should have.

• Meet regularly with all press representatives.