League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Alameda County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Lynette (Gibson) McElhaney Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Oakland; Council District 3

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Oakland and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. (Foreclosure challenges) Many Oaklanders have lost their homes because of the economic recession; how can the city help homeowners, and how can the city help neighborhoods experiencing high rates of foreclosures and vacancies?

The City of Oakland must take a leadership role to address the foreclosure crisis because our economic stability is very much dependent upon keeping our residents housed.

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.

2. (Public Safety) Improving public safety is about more than just increasing the police force. What should be done for violence prevention?

Violence prevention requires a multi-pronged approach. I will work hard to evaluate the root causes of crime. I am committed to ensuring that Oaklanders see a return on the significant investment that we make - with our tax dollars - on public safety.

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.

3. (Bringing businesses and jobs) Oakland needs more neighborhood serving businesses. What can the City Council do to bring more businesses and jobs to the city?

I will foster the creation of 10,000 or more good-paying jobs in the City of Oakland. This involves supporting existing pipeline projects, removing regulatory barriers to business start-ups and working to strengthen our fledgling green-tech and high-tech sectors. Many business owners claim that bureaucracy from the City of Oakland has deterred them from doing business here. I will be a champion to recruit new business here to come to Oakland by reducing this bureaucracy. Our City particularly lacks retail and grocery stores. We need to bring those businesses to Oakland so that our residents can spend their money within Oakland and thus return their tax dollars to our community.

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.

4. (Your Council Legacy) In 20 years what do you want to look back on as having been your legacy in the City of Oakland?

In twenty years, I hope that I would be known for leading Oakland to economic prosperity and dramatically improving the quality of life of all residents.

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.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are presented as submitted. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 12, 2012 17:01
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