Dino Mangananza

Oakland Measure EE is Barbara Lee’s power grab. Measure EE rewrites the City Charter so one mayor can veto Council legislation, line-item veto the budget, and take control of city departments. Your district representative can fight for a street, a park, or a neighborhood project. Under EE, the mayor can zero it out. Stopping her takes six of eight votes. Three allies and the rest of the Council becomes what Zac Unger already called it: a punching bag. The same measure writes politicians a raise. Council pay is $114,678. Measure EE forces them full-time, then lets the Public Ethics Commission benchmark salaries against cities like Los Angeles at about $245,000. That is a path to a 125% pay hike. The City Auditor put the first-year cost at $2.0 to $2.6 million. Oakland is already staring at a $115 to $135 million annual shortfall through 2030. Lee’s working group designed the version that gives the mayor the most power. The Council tied 4-4. She broke the tie herself and put her own expansion of power on the same ballot where she is running to keep the job. She does not deserve more of it. Under this mayor, Oakland lost the last of its major sports teams and now gets Instagram posts about an ultimate frisbee squad. The airport keeps losing real airlines while City Hall celebrates Frontier. Institutions like Home of Chicken and Waffles close and she shows up for the photo. Crime hits parks and homes while proclamations go out for National Mai Tai Day. That is the record. Measure EE would lock more power into that office for every mayor after her. This is not reform. It is veto power plus a pay raise, sold as accountability. Vote NO on Measure EE.