League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Alameda County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Len Raphael Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Oakland; Council District 1

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?

Using the current code enforcement laws, the city should ensure that land owners such as banks maintain their properties. With the proper application of the building codes and blight laws, the city should apply pressure on the banks to sell foreclosed properties or negotiate with with current owners. But the abuse of the blight abatement powers by corrupt city inspectors and by a ravenous city government looking for more fines and penalties is intolerable. Many of the recommendations of the Grand Jury have been ignored. Several of the worst offenders in the Building Department are still on the job. The others were forced to retire to collect pensions that exceed 100,000 per year. Rough life being a corrupt blight inspector administrator.

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

Oakland needs a strategically planned, structured data driven program that is applied consistently for many years.

Translated into English, that means we have to keep comparing crime stats for areas to see if programs are working or not. We can't jump from one program to another like we have political adult deficit disorder.

But mostly we have to change our violence prevention programs from serving primarily as rewards for loyal political supporters to programs that work.

Dr Patricia Bennett, the consultant hired to evaluate Measure Y programs testified before the City Council Public Safety Committee in early June 2012. At first she read her prepared remarks city all the positive things Measure Y did for some individual participants. Then she stopped reading, looked at the audience, and stated "The elephant in the room is why violent crime here keeps going up if Measure Y is so effective?" The answer she said was that she was only paid to evaluate how MY helped participants, not how it helped reduce crime.....

She went on to state many cities have effective programs. Lots to chose from that work. But Oakland doesn't have any because of the haphazard way it implements programs and fails to monitor them for results.

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?

Get Oakland off the ten most violent city list and we'll see a surge of new businesses moving to Oakland because of it's supply of highly educated employees, great climate, cheaper rent than SF and Silicon Valley.

Improve our schools and we'll see another surge as employees of business chose to move and stay here.

Do not conflate mixed use residential real estate development with economic development. New residents, no matter how affluent, cost the city more in public services such as police, fire, schools, than they generate in property tax, business tax, and sales tax.

Restaurants are important for quality of life but don't provide the higher paying benefited jobs our residents need.

We're in no position to reject a viable business because it's not green enough. If anything, most green tech industries are not sustainable without government subsidies that are waning.

There are specific things we could do that would have greatly improve our attractiveness:

a. raise about 18Million from civic minded residents and developers to install super high speed internet "dark fiber" around the city. San Leandro, SF, Berkeley, SF have already done so or started. If we wait any longer it won't be an attraction but just a minimum requirement.

Start working on a municipal owned power utility. Some proponents of this want it so we can provide green but expensive power. I want it so we can provide cheap power to job creating business and avoid getting stuck with PGE's San Bruno gas line disaster costs by the PUC rate hike coming soon.

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?

To have brought some transparency, common sense, and long range planning to the Oakland budget process. For too many years, politicians gave pay raises and promised retirement benefits to our city employees that were based on dot-com and real estate bubble revenue projections.

I will try to bring OPD under civilian control by elected officials who don't consider cops to be a "necessary evil" as Chief Batts put it. i don't put cops on a pedestal, but right now the Police union runs the department in the absences of effective civilian control. That is not good.

As first step, we have to repeal at least the part of the charter provision of "binding arbitration" that makes it near impossible to fire bad cops. Dan Kalb and Don Macleay have joined with me on this goal. Ask your candidate to do the same.

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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 28, 2012 08:42
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