This is an archive of a past election. See http://www.smartvoter.org/ca/alm/ for current information. |
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Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of Oakland; Council District 3 | |||||
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The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Oakland and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
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Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
Answer from Alex Miller-Cole:
We must do a better job at protecting our residents when it come to foreclosures. I support a court-based mediation protocol. At the moment all we do is file notices with the county which are not properly reviewed and that give the banks the ability to move forward.
I see my role in this matter as the legislator who is to leverage all possible legal tools to protect our residents. I am very interested in exploring how eminent domain might be used as a tool to buy back foreclosed properties and then make them available again at a fair market value to those who lost them. A land trust could also be an excellent tool. We have done it before and we should do it again.
If we are serious about preventing gentrification and protecting our communities we must become doers and stop being just talkers. Home ownership is one of the strongest tools in preventing the displacement of our residents. It is up to us to make a difference. If this continues is only because we have not done our jobs.
While I am a landlord, I strongly support tenants' rights. I have been a property owner in Oakland for the past 16 years. My tenants are my neighbors and my friends. Some of my best endorsements come from our tenants. I feel that the main way to deal with foreclosures is to promote and grow a healthy economy.
Our City needs the introduction of economic development with a strong focus on workforce development. We can achieve this by ensuring that our training centers produce workers with high quality training and enough journeymen hours to be able to join Oakland's workforce. We can do this if we get the Oakland Port and the community to work together. We can do this through business retention and business attraction. I have done all of this. We just need to work together and be smart about how we connect the dots and achieve our common goals. Answer from Derrick H. Muhammad:
Answer from Larry Lionel Young, Jr.:
Answer from Lynette (Gibson) McElhaney:
As the CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services East Bay, I have dedicated my professional career to preventing foreclosures, helping families build credit, developing mixed-use properties, and providing low-income housing. I am a certified financial counselor. I know that we must change policy so that we can allow individuals to rebuild their credit in order to re-stabilize after foreclosure.
The City must prevent price gouging by property owners while families are resettling from foreclosure in rental properties. The City must also take leadership to hold banks accountable for re-sales of foreclosed properties and prevent developers from exploiting this crisis. We must promote first-time home ownership to qualified buyers and incentivize residents to put down roots in Oakland.
The City of Oakland must hold banks accountable for maintaining their properties so that our foreclosed properties do not become blighted or centers of dangerous activity in our neighborhoods.
Answer from Larry Lionel Young, Jr.:
Answer from Derrick H. Muhammad:
Answer from Alex Miller-Cole:
I serve as Commissioner of the Community Policing Advisory Advisory Board, the Co-Chair of my local Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), and the Chair of the San Pablo Corridor Coalition, on of the most active community groups dedicated to improving public safety through progressive strategies. My work as member of these groups, as well as my years of community activism around public safety issues, have given me a broader perspective on the public safety crisis we face today.
There is no question that for as long as the status quo is maintained, we will need more and more police. This is a vicious cycle; I believe there is a better way. We can create the positive change we need by using innovative, on the ground strategies and dealing with problems at the root. It doesn't matter how many times we incarcerate, criminalize, or punish someone if we are not able to offer them a viable alternative to live a better life.
In addition, as a City Councilmember, I will fight for funding to be allocated to support programs that will address the root of the issues and I will oppose measures that promote the cycle of brutality, dehumanization, and alienation that result from seeking quick fixes. I support Restorative Justice programs. I feel that the City's involvement should go hand-in-hand with the programs to create increased opportunities for healing and advancement. Answer from Lynette (Gibson) McElhaney:
Over the last three years, I have served as a partner in Richmond's for Ceasefire/Lifelines to Healing coalition. Ceasefire is an evidenced-based intervention model has been successful in drastic reductions in gun-related homicides and injuries. The success of this model requires breaking down the silos between community, police, faith leaders and service providers to hold each institution accountable for the unacceptably high rates of gun-related violence and homicides. This strategy, when properly implemented, not only serves to reduce shootings and homicides, it improves community/police and police/government relationships + both desperately needed in order to remove the stigma and costs associated with the Consent decree.
As your Councilmember, I will increase community policing and neighborhood watch programs so that our residents work together to promote safety and thus work collectively to strengthen our communities. I would improve infrastructure projects that would increase safety, such as more streetlights, and I would encourage residents to ensure that their properties are well protected through "defensive landscaping."
I believe that some crime is done out of economic disparity, thus I am committed to bringing jobs to Oakland and expanding workforce development programs. One example would be expanding our CiviCorps programs, which has been proven to successfully decrease crime by individuals reentering society in cities such as Oxnard, CA.
Our City's safety and economy suffers is suffering due to our dropout crisis. We must partner with our schools to improve academic performance, to renew workforce development, and to ensure that our young people have support systems and mentors who deter them from dropping out of high school. A lower dropout rate will lead to a decrease in crime and an increase in our economic stability.
Answer from Alex Miller-Cole:
I want to work with the rest of the City Council to bring banking, medical, food, and other basic businesses and services to Oakland's "flatlands." There is a tremendous sales and revenue leak that funnels potential growth out of our City on a daily basis. As the next Councilmember, I will personally reach out and welcome every single business venture that comes into our City and District 3. I will assist and help develop a business center dedicated to actually guiding entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses who want to do business in Oakland. Answer from Lynette (Gibson) McElhaney:
Beyond traditional W-2 employment, I am also committed to helping create an environment for entrepreneurship and worker-owned cooperatives as a means to significantly reducing the unacceptably high unemployment rate in District #3.
Jerry Brown's 10k program focused on housing starts which helped stimulate increased economic activity in the uptown and Jack London Districts. While narrow in scope, the plan helped revitalize a decaying urban core. My 10k2 plan seeks to build upon the real and perceived success of 10k by attracting capital investment and private sector participation in creating good-paying jobs and in this way, expand the positive economic impact among the City's workers.
I lead on the economy because I believe you have to have a robust economy in order to effectively deal with crime, improve schools, expand libraries and parks. We must lead with growing the economy as our #1 priority. Quality housing must be supported by an economic infrastructure that improves the quality of life for all. Answer from Larry Lionel Young, Jr.:
Answer from Derrick H. Muhammad:
Answer from Lynette (Gibson) McElhaney:
I want to lead our City to become highly regarded for its professionalism and civility. I want to work with the fellow councilmembers and our City staff to make Oakland as safe as cities like Walnut Creek who endure zero homicides per year. I want to be known for championing innovation and for recruiting high tech, green tech, and entrepreneurial development in Oakland.
I want to be known as a passionate advocate for our children, through my work to strengthen the eleven schools in my District. I will work to align resources between our schools and our City in order to maximize outcomes that improve the lives of our families and our kids.
I want to be known for "greening" our city so that our environmental and environmental health indicators drastically improve. I want to be known for working zealously to shrink the life expectancy and health gap between low and high-income residents. I want to be known as a City Councilmember who ensured investments in our essential services, such as parks and libraries, so that our beauty is restored and our access to resources is abundant. Answer from Alex Miller-Cole:
1. A significant increase in home ownership for low-to-middle income families in the district.
2. The creation of good jobs and economic opportunities such as the Oakland Army Base, and the Port of Oakland. A vibrant economy for all of Oakland.
3. A safer Oakland for our children through increased public safety. Answer from Larry Lionel Young, Jr.:
Answer from Derrick H. Muhammad:
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page. |