Oakland Post “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
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57th Year, No. 36
Weekly Edition. Edition. Feb. 24-Mar. 2, 2021
Earned Over $600,000 Last Year Dellums was last mayor who fought to keep police overtime within budget By Ken Epstein
The city’s two top earning Malcolm Miller whose total time; and Timothy Dolan, who
Nicholas Williams (left) and councilman Noel Gallo (right) with kids at Manzanita Rec Center who received Dell Computers and free wi fi for a year from Comcast. Photo credit Christy Price.
Malcolm Miller’s total pay
Olympic Gold Medalist and Comcast Surprise Oakland Youth With 1,000 Free Laptops and Free Internet at Home for a Year
in overtime; another policeman, Timothy Dolan, earned
Vice mayor Rebecca Kaplan
Former late mayor Ron Dellums.
in overtime. At a time when Oakland is
ees who worked for the City of Oakland in 2019-2020, a total -
in this state.” Upholding these provisions,
employees earned salaries and
from public disclosure under the California Public Records Act.” The administration over the years has taken the position that nothing much can be done to reduce police overtime or to hold overtime expenditures within budgeted spending levels. But one recent mayor, the late Ron Dellums, was unafraid to go head-to-head with
By Post Staff
The ongoing health crisis has brought troubling consequences to communities of color. At the center of the most vulnerable groups are children who’ve been pushed into distance learning, in some cases without internet connectivity or the proper devices at home. For those with no internet access, education can be out of reach, adding to future inequities. This is why leaders across sectors are coming together to help close the digital divide. On Thursday, at a special
event at Manzanita Recreation Center in Oakland, U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Simone Manuel, Oakland Mayor Schaaf and the City of Oakland Parks & Recreation joined Comcast to announce plans to equip 20 Oakland community centers and parks and recreation facilities with free WiFi for the next three years. “The lack of internet access
in low-income homes adds unique challenges to families that are trying to manage distance learning. I’m pleased to partner with Comcast to bring awareness to this important issue and help close the digital divide,” said Manuel, the swimmer to win gold in an individual swimming event at Continued on Page 12
budget shortfall because of the pandemic and community demands to ‘defund’ the police, the cost of just two of the city’s allocates the taxpayers’ money. But they are not alone. Salary information taken from the website “Transparent Califor-
According to the CPRA, “the Legislature, mindful of the right of individuals to pri-
obtains employee salary data through the California Public Records Act (CPRA), reveals even more.
access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person
Faith Organizations Support Bas and Fife’s Call for Community Support for Asian Residents By Post Staff
Dalana Brand, vice president of People Experience and head of Inclusion and Diversity at Twitter.
More than 50 cars paraded in a caravan of support for Asian residents who have been recently targeted for violence last week. Left to right: Oakland City Council President Nikki Bas is shown with Michelle Myles Chambers, Director of the FAITHS Program of the San Francisco Foundation, Rev. Ken Chambers, President ICAC and Councilmember Carroll Fife who called for community support, Photo courtesy of staff of Nikki Bas.
Last Saturday, members of the Interfaith Council of Alameda County (ICAC) joined with Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife, who organized a broad-based community demonstration of support for the Asian residents that have recently suffered violent attacks since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the country. Besides the name-calling and other overt and subtle racism that have arisen with the encouragement of former Pres. Donald Trump, at least 20 attacks and robberies have occurred in Oakland’s Chinatown
Twitter Joins 25x25 Pledge Revisiting Black History on Diversity in Alabama Civil Rights Movement Leadership Positions Veterans Visit Bay Area By Kiki
On February 18, 2021, Twitter joined the Silicon Valley Leadership group by signing on to the 25x25 Pledge. The 25x25 Pledge challenges companies to increase their diversity in leadership positions in their companies of leadership positions with hires from underrepresented groups by 2025 or by making a pledge that leadership roles from underrepresented by the year 2025. State law requiring diversity on corporate boards of publicly traded companies groups” as someone who can American, Hispanic, LaNative American, Native Hawaiian or Alaska Native, lesbian, bisexual or transContinued on Page 12
since the New Year, mostly targeting women and elders. To support Oakland’s Asian businesses and residents, Fife and ICAC organized a caravan demonstration of support of about 50 vehicles. They started in DeFremery Park and wendand over Webster street to the heart of Chinatown at Ninth street where they were greeted informally by about 25 business owners who showered the demonstrators with tea and snacks. District 2 representative and City Council President spoke from the back of a pick-up joined by Fife. The caravan then continued, passing Laney College and then up International boulevard to China Hill by San Antonio Park, traveling through a section of Oakland’s Little Continued on Page 12
“that the names and salaries of public employees, including
Association (OPOA) and in 2010 reduced overtime expenditures, keeping them within the budget. When Dellums came into not have the power to scheding with OPOA. In practice, scheduled Monday through Friday during the day. If they were needed to work on Friday and Saturday nights, and other times when there were greater public safety needs, they had to be paid overtime. Earning the displeasure Dellums and his police chief, Wayne Tucker, took the OPOA to arbitration and won changes uled for duty. “They stood up to the OPOA,” said Kitty Kelly Epstein, a former staffer for Dellums. “Dellums and Tucker were determined to make a difference, and they did. This Continued on Page 12
Biden Scraps Trump’s Revised Citizenship Test By Bay City News
Pictured left to right: Brenda Knight, Founder of Ladies In Red, Joanne Bland, who marched on the Edmund Pettius Bridge on Bloody Sunday, in Selma, Alabama in 1965 Alabama, Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Post News Group who also marched on the 1965 Edmund Pettis Bridge for Voting Rights and Rev. Carolyn McKinstry, is a survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.
In August 2019, Ladies In Red took an unforgettable journey for a Civil Rights Tour to Alabama. The tour included Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. After hearing history makers from the Civil Rights movement, Ladies In Red invited them to come to California to join Paul Cobb for a MLK Luncheon for Black History Month, 2020.
Joanne Bland and Paul Cobb shared their experiences on the Edmund Pettis Bridge with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Bloody Sunday. Joanne Bland was a young girl and had been beaten and jailed. Paul Cobb was a young writer marching alongside of Dr. King as a reporter. Rev. Carolyn McKinstry
spoke on being a survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing where four of her friends were killed. The MLK Luncheon was held at a critical time for the 2020 election. The experiences shared provided motivation that resulted in the Ladies In Red doing a “Mama Said Vote” voter registration campaign.
A revised citizenship test planned by the Trump administration did not last long. In November 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that a new test would replace the citizenship exam that had been in use since 2008. The changes to the test were seen by immigration advocates as making the test On Monday, the same agency announced that it was reverting to the 2008 test for all application after March 1, 2021. Applicants who applied after Dec. 1, 2020 and before March 1 (and therefore may have already studied for the 2020 test) are given the option of taking either test. Citizenship applicants are generally required to pass a
President Joe Biden
written test to become citizens. They are given a pool of U.S. civics and history questions to study in advance. The actual test questions they must answer are drawn from questions in the pool. Applicants are only given two chances to pass. There are several principal Continued on Page 12