Oakland Mayor’s Race: Former Congresswoman Barbara Lee on Why Leadership Matters
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From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. In a special election on April 15th, Oakland voters will choose a candidate to finish the term of recalled Mayor Sheng Tao. In the second of our interviews with the two frontrunners in the race, longtime East Bay Congresswoman Barbara Lee joins us to share her vision for the city and take your questions.

Lee says she's the only candidate in the Oakland mayor's race with the track record and relationships to unite the city and solve its toughest challenges. It's all coming up next right after this news.

Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Last week, when we first started talking about the Oakland mayor's race, we noted the different problems that the city faces. A busted budget, years of displacement attenuating the community, a downtown that's struggling to build and maintain critical mass. And yet we also know that Oakland is home to a dense patchwork of creative people and institutions.

Do the city's governance problems win out or does Oakland experience a resurgence? Both options seem possible right now. The next few years are going to require serious leadership in the city. And that makes this April 15th mayor's race to finish out the term of recalled Mayor Sheng Tao that much more important.

Last week, we talked with the other frontrunner in the race, Lauren Taylor, and this morning, we're joined by Barbara Lee. She served in Congress representing the East Bay from 1998 to 2024. Welcome. Nice being with you. Thanks for having us. So,

So you've had this illustrious career in Congress. You won huge electoral wins in the East Bay term after term. Why take on this local role at this point? You know, there's more work to do. And I think it's important, given the crossroads that Oakland is in, that Oakland have a leader who can, I say, bring opposing sides together because the divisiveness in Oakland has been pretty extreme. Mm-hmm.

And I have a history of bringing opposing points of views, opposing sectors together to get the job done and to solve problems. Also, at this point in Oakland's history, it's important that we have allies and have coalitions. And I'm very proud of the fact that the majority of the city council members have endorsed me, which means that I can hit the ground running because you have to have your colleagues and bring some form of consensus together.

to move the city forward. And the experience matters at this point in history, in Oakland's history. And we need a reset. And we need to take on these challenges.

And we also need, as you mentioned, to highlight and look at the opportunities. We need to steady the ship and recognize and support our opportunities. So it's a big job. But you have to have people coming together, organizations working together to get the job done. And I'm prepared to do that. Yeah.

You know, many people, longtime Oakland folks, when they heard that you were entering the race, the other name that came up was your longtime mentor, also a congressperson who held your same seat, longtime mentor, then came in as Oakland mayor as well.

I think it's fair to say he had a rocky time as Oakland mayor. Did that give you pause that this person who had held your seat before you and then and then come into Oakland mayor had the had the time they did make you think twice about doing it? No, no, it didn't. Because if for those who don't remember, Ron did not want to run for mayor.

I do. Big difference. Yeah. Big difference. Yeah. I hope people know who Barbara Lee is and what she has delivered and evaluate me and the work that I have done, bringing in billions of dollars, supporting local institutions and efforts and grassroots organizations, the city, the county for years. Yeah.

I mean, in Congress, I think you're one of the most prominent voices in the kind of progressive wing of the Democratic Party. You know, at this time in Bay Area politics, it seems like a lot of the mayors, at least, have moved away from sort of more progressive policy positions. You got Mayor Matt Mahan down in San Jose. You got Mayor Lurie here in San Francisco. To you, what does it mean to be a progressive mayor at this moment?

First, it's important that a mayor reflect Oakland's values. People in Oakland want a safe, clean city. That's a progressive value. People in Oakland want a budget that's balanced, that does not take away core constituent services. Is that a progressive value? People want our unsheltered populations.

sheltered and the services and the blight cleaned up in a way that makes sense for the communities as well as people who are unsheltered. I think that's an Oakland value. People want public safety. Every community in Oakland wants public safety. I'd say everyone is singing the same song, maybe a different tune. That's an Oakland value. Those are values which progressives, which myself, support.

With me, I think one of the big advantages is

of a Barbara Lee as mayor is that I bring a perspective of equity for the entire city. I want to work directly with our neighborhoods in terms of neighborhood empowerment and economic development. That's an Oakland value. And I want people to be engaged with their city. And I want the city to respond to people and be their advocate for resources and for investments where we have been missing in action. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. We're talking with Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee, of course, served in Congress representing the East Bay from 1998 to 2024. We want to invite you into this conversation. What questions do you have for Barbara Lee? What are your priorities for Oakland? You can give us a call. The number is 866-733-7333.

That's 866-733-6786. You can email your comments, your questions for Barbara Lee to forum at kqed.org. You can find us on social media, Blue Sky, Instagram, et cetera. We're KQED Forum. Or, of course, there is always the Discord.

You mentioned the budget. It's a bit of a moving target, but it seems like the gap this year is about $90 million. Specifically, what can be done to get the city out of this kind of structural financial hole that it's in? And a lot of our budget difficulties are structural.

One of the issues that we have not addressed that the city's beginning to address, which I as mayor would work very hard to push forward, is increasing revenue. When you look at the fact that as a result of COVID, revenue was not collected, fines, permits, business tax license, etc.

You name it. Code enforcement. Only 11 percent of the code enforcement as it relates to cleaning the blight enforcement have been collected. So we have fees and collections to raise revenue. That's one thing I support. Yes, the sales tax initiative that's on the ballot.

Measure A. It's important because we have to have a balanced budget and it's got to be put together from different, you know, with a balanced approach where everything's on the table for myself, including cuts, but cuts in terms of services is the last resort. Right.

that I would want to make because people in Oakland deserve the best possible services that their city can provide. And so focusing on raising revenue is extremely important. And also when you look at how the structural imbalance has been put together that has led to this, I brought in millions of dollars for COVID relief to save lives and livelihoods.

Those millions of dollars aren't coming anymore. They haven't been coming anymore. And so I need to look at this budget and understand where the money is that is continuing to be budgeted for that's not coming in. So to balance a budget, you have to cut expenses and raise revenue. And so we have many structural issues that I want to deal with, and I want to conduct a forensic audit to find where there's waste and waste.

Abuse in our existing budget, in our existing departments. So a couple follow-ups here. You know, I think some people look at how labor is backing you and labor has gone very strongly for you in this election on campaign finance level and also just, you know, endorsements and other things.

Does that make it more difficult to make those cuts? Because the main source of cuts are people's jobs, right? And people's jobs mean services to city residents. Sure. Okay. But let me tell you, I'm very proud of the fact that labor has supported me. These are working men and women who provide the services and the services

efforts to make life better for people in Oakland. And also I'm proud of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce's support because we have to have business and economic development to create good paying jobs.

And as I said earlier, everything is on the table. But I would certainly talk to labor to see where we could negotiate. And that's the point that has to be recognized about my leadership. I could bring labor and business together to negotiate where we need to negotiate. If it's concessions, if it's cuts, if it's looking at raising revenue to help employees.

filled the gap. We need to do this together. And that's the point. And that's why I'm proud of the fact that I have people from landlords and tenants, the chamber and labor. We have people who supported the recall, opposed to the recall. And I think that's the way people need to understand. I think people need to understand that's how I would govern as mayor. That it wouldn't be like sort of an all or nothing win one direction or the other, but that you try and

create some sort of compromise between the different factions in the city? I've always done that. I've helped settle labor union strikes before many times. I understand what it takes to be a good negotiator and to come in and help resolve problems and

However, I want to mitigate against those problems. So that means having both labor and the business community at the table early on so that we can try to solve these problems before they come to a big challenge that everyone in the city would have to deal with. When we talk about kind of increasing revenue versus the sort of permitting and code enforcement issues,

There's a there. I think there's a widespread belief among small business business owners in Oakland that they end up having to deal with all kinds of these sort of the overhead of paying for the city, but also don't get city services sort of in in return. What would you say to small business owners who are like, you want to raise more revenue with our permitting when we are already kind of struggling in the city? Look, they have a very valid point. I'm former small business owner myself.

A couple of things. We need to support our small businesses in many ways. We need to first make sure that the permitting processes are expedited and streamlined. And I'm a resident and I've been a resident of Oakland, so I know what that's about. People get the runaround.

They don't know who to go to. They don't know what department is responsible for what. So accountability and transparency is extremely important. As mayor, even though it's not necessarily a strong mayor form of government, but I'm going to make it a strong mayor within the charter. We'll return to that for sure. Yeah. You know, I'm going to meet with every single department head and the city administrator. And we're going to work through how we do this in terms of just streamlining things.

permitting processes, variances, whatever small businesses need. Secondly, it's all quite frankly related to a lot of the public safety issues that we are dealing with. And small businesses deserve to be protected from the crime rates, the crime that's taking place. And we need to strengthen our public safety strategy. And I support Measure NN and the North, I call it my North Star strategy.

for public safety by increasing boots on the ground and crime prevention for our small business. Talking with Oakland Mayor Candidate Barbara Lee, back with more right after the break.

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Welcome back to Forum. Alexis Madrigal here. We're talking with Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee, served in Congress representing the East Bay, of course. We're going to get to more of your calls and comments for the rest of the show. If you can't get through on the phone lines, you can try forum at kqed.org. You can find us on social media, Blue Sky, Instagram, etc., or on the Discord. We're KQED Forum in all of those places.

Before we go to the phones, in the last few months, I imagine you've been meeting with community members and kind of getting more into the nitty gritty of local government issues. Have any of your views or your priorities for this job changed since you declared your candidacy?

My priorities have not changed because my priorities are the priorities of the residents of the city of Oakland. Public safety, housing, our unsheltered populations, affordable housing. I've seen that we need more deeply affordable housing because so many people who are unsheltered are working. They're working poor.

Good governance, economic development and jobs. What also is clear to me is that neighborhoods want more of our economic development and jobs rather than citing them and focusing on downtown only. And so we need to, for example, I have brought in millions of dollars for the hundreds of millions to the port of Oakland and for greening the port. Right.

We need to develop a green industry in the port, on port property. We need, though, to include people in deep East Oakland, for example, in the development of this green industry at the port. And so one of the strategies as mayor that I would use is meeting with our neighborhood residents with their city council members so we can decentralize and make sure that all of what we do is

in City Hall speaks to the aspirations and the needs of neighborhoods in terms of jobs and economic development. And you want to create, right, as I understand it, like a different kind of neighborhood council that's more directly linked into City Hall, right? I don't know if we need to recreate that, but I think we need to reset it. Make sure that in each neighborhood, in each council district, the appropriate structure is there for feedback and for input to the mayor.

I can give you one example. As a member of Congress and then formally in the state legislature, the mayor's agenda would come to me. And of course, I would champion the mayor's agenda. Oftentimes, council members would come.

call me and say, wait a minute, where's my priority? I don't want that if I am mayor of Oakland. I want to have the mayor's agenda to be inclusive of every single neighborhood, every single council district. And I know how this works in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C. Let's bring in Susan in Oakland here. Welcome, Susan. Thank you, Congressman.

You talk about mismanagement and corruption, and I was wondering, like,

You have one of your very own endorsers, Rebecca Kaplan, who led the charge with California Waste Solutions. And it appears she settled for more, millions of dollars more in a closed-door meeting when the city could have settled for less. And your team is, I guess, right?

circulating a claim that Lauren Taylor did this? How do you respond to that? Yeah, do we have a question here? I guess it's about the... Well, I guess the question is about the Duongs and the contract for the city. Yeah, let me just speak to contracts for the city in general. I believe that we have to make sure that the residents of Oakland...

know what contracts have been negotiated, who negotiated them, for how much, what the scope of work is, are there cost overruns, and we need to strengthen our ethics commission and close the gaps. I will not tolerate any pay-to-play schemes, and I am confident that if we put contracts online and distribute that information to the public, we will...

begin that process of transparency and accountability in contracting. Many people don't know what contracts are in the city, what they're

what the amount is, what the scope of work is and who is doing that and how they were negotiated. That must become transparent so people will be able to know what the truth is about contracts and how contracts are and how taxpayer dollars are being used for the specific purpose that the contract was issued for.

Also, just kind of listening into that question, though, I do want to get what I think was kind of behind it, which is that, you know, obviously, former Mayor Sheng Tao, who, you know, was recalled, also indicted. Both you and Lauren Taylor have have been not wanting to be tied to her and one of the other person to be tied to her. We've seen it in mailers from from both of you.

You know, 60 percent of voters approve the recall. You did not support it. Obviously, she was indicted after the recall. Talk to me about like what what were your thoughts about the recall and why you didn't support it? Sure. I historically have just not supported recalls, period. The voters voted for the recall and I accept the will of the people and we're moving forward.

Now, having said that, I also did not endorse and have not endorsed any mayor running for the mayor's seat or council members. I specifically have stayed out of local races. So there was no way I endorsed Cheng Tao when she ran for mayor, nor as it relates to the recall. But I was against the recall. And I'm, again, very proud of the fact that those who

were for the recall have endorsed me many individuals and organizations and those who were against the recall. And that's an example of how we have to put

opposing points of views, opposing organizations together in order to move the city forward. Otherwise, we're stuck in fighting against each other. And I won't tolerate that. And I want this city to move forward. And everyone had a right to vote the way they decided they wanted to vote. And they won in terms of the recall. Let's let's bring in Tom on this topic. Tom in Oakland. Welcome.

Hi, thank you. This question is for the former congresswoman. I know in the past that Congresswoman Barbara Lee has praised the Minneapolis Minneapolis for defunding the police. And I guess I just wonder, is that still a position that she holds now?

No, I've never called for defunding the police. In Minneapolis, there were many police reforms that were necessary, not defunding the police. And that has never been my position. I do believe, though, that we have to have a comprehensive public safety strategy that includes putting resources into ceasefire and crime prevention efforts, as well as interventions, mental health intervention interventions by police.

by strengthening what is known as macro because it's not as strong and as effective as it should be. And I do believe we need to follow the voters' wishes as it related to Measure NN and get to at least 700 police officers in the police department in Oakland.

Also, in the past, if you look at my record, I have bought brought in millions of dollars for policing when it comes to the federal role in police officers. I've brought in over 15 police money for 15 police officers for community policing to strengthen our police department.

And so I believe we need accountability, of course, with the police department. And we need to understand why this federal monitor is still here in Oakland after 20 years, millions of dollars. And those accountability measures that have not been checked off yet need to be dealt with. And so that has been my position. It's got to be a comprehensive public safety approach. We need to invest in crime prevention as well as allowing people

police force to be freed up from administrative work to get out there and do the hard work of policing. Yeah. You know, I just want to remind callers, you know, when you talk to one of the screeners, tell us what you want to ask for real. You know, we're happy to put critical questions to Barbara Lee. She's happy to take them. But, you know, don't lie to the screeners. That kind of breaks the circle of trust that the show works on. OK. Thanks, everyone.

Let's give you a one of the comments here. This is something that obviously is a huge issue for Oakland voters. Brent writes, will Lee get Oakland's ruinous streets repaired? The potholes are cavernous, dangerous and blowing out tires. If she can commit to filling potholes, I can commit my vote to her.

I mean, this is, you know, bread and butter kind of local politics. Why is this so hard to get fixed? And do you think it's actually possible that a,

a mayor can improve the pothole situation in Oakland? You know, I think it's possible, and it's part of traffic safety. And we need to make sure our traffic safety plan includes fixing potholes, as well as barriers and infrastructure. So we have some major infrastructure needs for our streets in Oakland. And I would want to make sure that our traffic safety plan was inclusive of fixing potholes. And of course,

We have budget issues, but we also have a Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and I want to make sure that we are representatives and that we have a seat at the table and we're fighting for our share of the resources from the MTC. And potholes are part of traffic safety. So, yes, I will work very hard to make sure that we have a comprehensive approach to traffic safety. That includes fixing potholes. Let's bring in Noreen in Oakland. Welcome, Noreen.

Welcome. Hi. Hello, hello. Go ahead. Nice to hear you, Barbara. I am not here to ask or I'm not here to bitch. I'm actually here to sing and wanted to bring to your attention all this neat stuff going on around Lake Merritt, the Love Your Lake and the Keep Oakland Beautiful, which is including...

the library, the, sorry, I'm walking, the Chamber of Commerce, the Visit Oakland, the Oakland Woman's Rowers, Fairyland, the Lawn Bowlers, Lake Merritt Institute, and we're all rallying with the good news of Lake Merritt. We're getting together and creating events and

I think it's going to be good for business. I think it's going to be good for a lot of things. And I wanted you to be aware that we're working real hard down there. Thank you, Noreen. This is a really good question. I mean, because there are these different components of Oakland, right? I mean, there's the challenges that the city faces in the budget, public safety, et cetera, the things we've been talking about. But there's also these strengths of like a community that does have a ton of creative people, a ton of energy, right?

How does the city actually provide sort of material support? Like, do you have plans for providing material support to these different community groups, whether it's at the lake, whether it's in East Oakland, whether it's in Tempest Gull, wherever? You know, I'm really proud of the fact that I've been able to bring in millions of dollars to help with Lake Merritt, the restoration and all of the activities, fairyland and all of the great activities.

exciting activities around Lake Merritt. And actually, a couple of weeks ago, I went to the Friday night dance party. And it was great. And, you know, I've been talking to people about how is this done? Why can't we replicate this throughout the city? And a couple of lessons learned that we need to

realize that that is that the city has public spaces, many public spaces. Why can't the mayor and city council allow neighborhoods to use these public spaces with support to engage in fair use?

Cultural activities, musical activities, art shows, whatever children need. I think we underutilize our public spaces. And I would want to do exactly what is taking place at Lake Merritt. And also when we talked, when I talked to some of the people around the public safety issues, you know, this is really a force multiplier. The public safety around these activities is enhanced.

Unsheltered people work to help make sure that they're involved in a positive way. And it's a win-win. I believe the city needs to do more and the city needs to provide, whether it's ambassadors, foot patrols, whatever is necessary to utilize the neighborhoods and public spaces in a way that has not been done in the past. Yeah.

You know, we haven't talked about homelessness yet. You know, when I was looking at your, you know, your platform on your website, you know, calls for connecting unhoused individuals with housing addiction, mental health services and place on house people who transition to supportive housing with a job. And we've done a lot of shows on homelessness. And I think people...

sort of understand these are sort of the key priorities. But what are the sort of next sub points, the specific sub points underneath there that may be different from what has been done so far in Oakland? Yeah, you know, having 5,500 people living on the streets in Oakland, majority are black. Many are working. Many are children. It's a moral disgrace to

And we need to make sure, one, that we have a strategy that ensures that people have safe, decent housing with the mental health and drug rehab, transitional housing, permanent housing services. Case management has to be consistent. But secondly, the communities that are filled with encampments now. I've...

traveled the world and have seen refugee camps in Darfur and in Kenya and what I see in Oakland and in other cities I mean Oakland's not the only city is shameful and we need to do better so a couple of things we need to do we focus first of all on the back end people who've been unsheltered for the longest period of time which is fine we need to continue to do that but we're not focusing on those who are recently unsheltered those individuals after a few days actually that becomes home

And then more people come and that becomes family. More people come, then that becomes a community. And then it becomes more difficult. And so we need a strategy where immediately... And I know there was one man who was unsheltered on a block where there had never been unsheltered people. And so we called and said...

Make sure you come out and do some outreach and help this man because in a week you're going to have four more people. So we have to do that. Secondly, we must make sure that the case management is consistent and sustained. Oftentimes we find transitional supportive housing. That's it. So we also have to build more affordable and deeply affordable housing. But also one of the predictors of how to solve the homelessness crisis is

UCSF, I think it was UCSF or... The Benioff Report. Benioff Report. Okay, the Benioff Report, financial assistance was the main driver of the success of any homeless program. So I've looked around the country, and I've looked at new ways to approach this, and there are several cities, Houston, but Portland, Oregon is one, and I'll just...

give you a quick glimpse of that. What they do is they pay people

to clean up the blight, people who are unsheltered. And, of course, they have to do the services, the mental health, drug rehab, transitional housing, and sustain. But they have found, and it's called Glitter. You can look it up online. They found that 70% of the people who are working find permanent housing. So why can't we in Oakland get...

find resources for public-private partnerships, which I would want to do, and have a pilot. And I believe in pilot projects to see if it'll work in Oakland. May not be able to address all 5,500, but 4,500, that's major. So financial assistance, universal basic income is a key factor. And I would want, as mayor, to establish right away in my office an office of public-private partnership because we've been missing in action. And I want to go beat...

the bushes to try to find resources. Measure W is coming down the pipe in the county. Measure W was in litigation for a while in the courts, but we won. I want to be at, I want Oakland to get its fair share of Measure W for affordable and deeply affordable housing. And so we need to do this differently and creatively. 400 veterans on the streets of Oakland.

That's not a lot. But with 400 veterans, the VA is responsible for housing those veterans. So I would go to the VA immediately and say, look, let's work together. So partnerships with other public and private entities is extremely important. And I know how to do that. And we'll do that as mayor.

We're talking with Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee, of course, served in Congress representing the East Bay from 1998 to 2024. We'll get some more of your calls and comments. Numbers 866-733-6786. Forum at KQED.org or all of the social media things. We'll be back with more right after the break.

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Friday, August 15th, Golden Gate Park. With Kings of Leon, Turnpike Troubadours, and Oveen Hoffman. Zach Bryan. Tickets are on sale now at goldengateparkconcerts.com. Brought to you by your friends at Another Planet Entertainment. Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We've got Barbara Lee. She, of course, is running for mayor in Oakland. Last week, we talked with the other frontrunner, Lauren Taylor. She's a former president of the United States.

Lee served in Congress from 1998 to 2024. And Stephanie's got a question about that. Welcome, Stephanie. Hi, thank you. I wanted to ask the congresswoman how she would use all of her years of experience, you know, negotiating and fighting for Oakland to now be in the position of mayor of Oakland, which is like very different than being a congressperson. But I'm wondering what skills she thinks transfers.

You know, the several skills transfer. And I think one one framework is that I've been fighting for Oakland all of these years and been successful in bringing billions of dollars into Oakland for local efforts and for the city's efforts on public safety, housing, climate change.

Economic development, job creation, violence prevention, you name it. So a couple of things that are very important just based on experience, being able to bring public-private partnerships to bear in Oakland, we've been missing in action. We do not have a strong foundation.

effort to go after grants, for example. I know for a fact where there are monies, resources, investments that Oakland should have applied for and did not. As mayor, I would use my leverage and my experience to direct the departments to go after resources and to start before they're even the RFP or they're even appropriated. Why?

watching what is taking place if we have a federal government left, of course, in Washington, in Sacramento, and with the private sector. And so we have to have an aggressive effort at finding grants and private investments coming to Oakland through an office of public and private partnerships. Secondly, core services are extremely important. I am a psychiatric social worker by profession.

I want to make sure that the services that the city provides are the services that the residents deserve. And I have historically, and everywhere I go, people are thanking me for bringing in money for their relatives, their families, being an advocate for getting... One woman told me I got her mother $150,000. Another woman said...

I saved her from staying on the streets, got her disability, SSI, $31,000. I share that because advocacy and core services for residents is extremely important. And so as mayor, that's a skill set that I have that I've always had as a social worker and as an advocate for people.

Also, being able to negotiate. I've negotiated with the private sector many, many times for investments in Oakland and for partnerships with nonprofits, for small businesses. And my knowledge of and working with outside entities are extremely important because we're not an island unto our own. Oakland needs support. I've been endorsed by our senators.

Senator Adam Schiff, of course, Congresswoman Latifah Simon. I've been endorsed by the chair of our Public Safety Committee in Sacramento, Senator Jesse Aragon, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, Assemblymember Buffy, the chair of the Health Committee, Assemblymember Mia Bonta. And that should say something about my experience and my contacts and being able to pick up the

phone and being able to ahead of time being competitive with our other cities for Oakland because Oakland deserves its fair share of resources. How much you mentioned private public partnerships a few times. How much do you think those can actually help? Like, can they help on the scale that Oakland needs help?

We have to start somewhere. No one said this is going to happen overnight. We can't reset the city overnight, but we need to start. We need to make sure that Oakland is safe. The crime rate is ticking down a bit, but no one knows it. No one feels it. So we have to make sure we have a strong resetting of our public safety approach. That's key to attracting private investment. Secondly,

They're companies that would love to invest in Oakland because of what we talked about, the vibrancy of the community, the opportunities. There are many opportunities in Oakland. And the workforce is a trained, skilled workforce. We have community groups. We have neighborhood organizations.

And we need to make sure that Oakland is a place where organizations and businesses want to come. So we have to get our act together in essence. And also we need a strong communications PR advertising campaign because Oakland always is the downside that people hear, the challenges. And yes, we have a lot of challenges that we have to get through.

you know, put in place in terms of our strategies to balance the budget and to clean up the blight and all of the challenges we need to address. But outside organizations and businesses need to see that we are doing that and then look at the opportunities and present that in a strategy. Visit Oakland. This is a city which we want you to see and to come to, and we need a PR strategy to do that.

That may be true, but many people are also want to talk about. Well, here, this is Kevin's comment on sort of to this topic. One of the points of distinction between Congresswoman Lee and her primary opponent seems to be about Oakland being, quote, in crisis. Lee's phrase versus Oakland being broken. Taylor's phrase is.

What is, Lisey, is the distinction between those two phrases? It appears to many that her phrase positions Oakland's issues as more external rather than something that needs to be fixed within City Hall. Is that really her perspective? My perspective is that it's in crisis and we have many, many challenges.

It's important that we address this crisis and these challenges immediately. It's important that we look at how our city is working and

make sure that we have accountability and transparency and reset many of our departments. We need to make sure it's working for people and delivering the services that people deserve. It's a city that has the infrastructure that needs to be reset. We need to recognize it's a crisis and

And in a crisis, it's all hands on deck.

Everyone has to be part of solving our problems. And that's not going to be the mayor. It's not going to be the city council. It's going to be everyone in this city working together to address this crisis, this emergency, so that we can move forward. And we have to feel like we can do that. If we're broken, it's a problem. People don't feel that they have any power to help move the city forward. So I believe this is a crisis that

It requires all hands on deck and it requires a mayor that's going to hit the ground running with the city council members to put together the mayor's agenda and the council agenda that's going to solve our problems. And that's what we need is a problem solving strategy for all of the challenges and the crises that we're faced throughout the city. We've got Mercedes in Oakland. Welcome. Hi.

Oh, hi. Good morning. Hello, Senator Lee and Alexis. Thank you for this topic. I'm calling as a longtime resident of Oakland to express my huge concern that city leaders, including Ms. Lee, may not take the really strong steps that we apparently need to do with the budget, where the majority, as I understand it, of our residents,

budget weight and being so over budget is salaries and is pensions. And for people that are only concerned or largely concerned, it seems with keeping jobs, Chantal was so proud of when she, the last budget negotiations, she claimed, Oh, and we cut no jobs. Well,

I think some jobs need to be cut, it sounds like, for their budget to be coming in line to what we can actually afford. Currently, and this is, by the way, combined with an incredibly severe underdelivery of services for the money that we are already paying, for the overhead we're already paying, the buildings, the cars, the trucks of city officials.

and city workers, many of whom do a wonderful job. I'm an architect. I have to deal with the city planning and building department. They've been wonderful in the pre-pandemic years and since the pandemic when the labor negotiated an out-of-office situation. That is still happening to this day. They're not even going back until April of this year. It's ridiculous. You cannot reach people. You don't even need to just

Rely on me. Talk to any developer or architect working in the city of Oakland. Let me bring this to Barbara Lee here just so she can kind of answer for a couple of your questions there. I appreciate the frustration. I think, you know, we've heard it a lot on this show. We've heard a lot on previous Oakland shows. Barbara Lee, I guess one thing is...

Do you bring people back into the office for the city? That's sort of one concrete question, I think, out of what Mercedes was asking. Yeah. People are coming back into the office. And believe you me, we need a city that functions and also delivers the services for people. And we have a – there's a plan, basically.

to transition people back in. And it makes sense. After COVID, of course, we know what happened. And it's a new culture, a new world in which workers and businesses operate. And so we have to be cognizant of the transition back. But that is taking place.

And in fact, we need to make sure that the city functions and the city is open for residents to come to receive the type of service that they deserve. And also the other part of her question in terms of cutting jobs. Well, there's a relationship. And I said everything is on the table. So that's what I would live up to. Everything is on the table. That also includes cuts.

We have to remember, once you start cutting jobs, you are cutting services. And Oakland residents deserve the best possible services. And just listening to you and knowing what...

Everyone is saying we need better services so we can have better services and cutting jobs at the same time. But what we can do is looking look at. And as I said earlier, the millions of dollars that have been brought in have jobs been created out of the millions of dollars for covid that should not be there. Are these jobs?

efficiencies in our departments that we need to address? I think so. And so we need to look at the structural issues in the budget and balance it based on that. But I certainly believe that everything must be on the table. We have to cut expenses and we have to increase revenue.

One listener writes, what do you say to people who argue that veteran politicians like yourself need to step aside to make room for the next generation of leaders?

I mentored them. They were part of my entire political world, and I intend to do that. There is a time that experience matters, though, when cities are in crisis, when any institution is in crisis. And believe you me, having the experience and the wisdom, the contacts and the ability to move the city forward is what Oakland needs right now.

I have always and will continue to have a bench and build a bench. Young people are involved in my campaign. We've worked together on so many efforts with young people in the city. I mean, this is their future. Climate change. Many young people have worked with me throughout the years on climate, the climate emergency. And so I think you're right. But there also is a time for intergenerational leadership and

I know all of the city council members. I can help bring consensus to the council so we can move the city forward. Experience and representation and the ability to have Oakland as a major world class city is something that an experienced mayor can do.

One listener over on the Discord says, how does Lee suggest addressing smash and grabs, car theft, sideshows, and the prostitution on International Boulevard by San Antonio Park? I want to ask you about that last piece because I did notice in your public safety plan you had a special call for working on human trafficking and prostitution. Do you want to talk a little bit about that piece of your public safety plan?

It's important. Excuse me. San Antonio neighborhood is ravaged in many respects with human trafficking and the crimes and the blight and the horror that results. Measure NN specifically provides for allowing the resources and the strategy to address human trafficking, specifically where it's the worst in the San Antonio area.

And I intend as mayor to make sure that the leadership is at the table helping us factor in how we address human trafficking as part of our public safety strategy. When you look at these young girls, many of them are coming from outside of Oakland. And many of the men are coming in and out, and the police don't have the authority to do anything outside.

It's outrageous. And so we're going to have to have a and there are organizations that I've met with that I know who have a roadmap. And as mayor, believe you me, that's a top priority. And we oftentimes forget that human trafficking is a public safety issue and that it will be incorporated in my overall public safety strategy.

Jesse writes, as residents, we pay high taxes, often feel like the services are lacking. Our libraries are not always open. Our roads need servicing. Our community engagement event's not well funded. Money is given to our police department, but that has not always translated to increased public safety. What will you do to increase public confidence in the city's decision making and Oakland's budget issues?

Public confidence and trust is extremely important. And again, you listed some of the dysfunctions that are taking place in the government right now. And that, in large part, has a lot to do with, yes, efficiencies and the lack of accountability and security.

not knowing who's responsible for what, but also many of the past cuts that have been made. And so we need to look at how we make sure that the city can function within our own budget. Also, public confidence, specifically with the police department. I've met with the heads of the police union. Police are understaffed.

Measure NN brings us to 700. They need to be freed up to do the hard policing, but also community policing. And I know that the public is very unhappy with the police response. And that's primarily because they don't have enough officers. And I would want as mayor to begin some community mayor's citysides.

city council member relations to try to begin to develop more confidence in the police department and also making sure that we fund through ceasefire our crime prevention efforts so that the public can begin to believe that we're working to try to prevent these crimes from taking place. And that requires a mayor to be in the neighborhood with the city council members and

the police and our ambassadors into, it's an all hands on deck because we have to raise public confidence. And Oakland's not any different from any other city, but we have to focus on the confidence in our government and bring government closer to, bring city government closer to people. And that requires a lot of outreach,

It requires a lot of trust building and it requires a mayor to be with the police in the community and be accountable and have the police. 70 percent of the general fund budget is police and fire and 30 percent is everything else. And so overtime, the overtime of the overtime, the accountability, that's extremely important.

We have been talking with Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee. She served in Congress representing the East Bay from 1999 to 2024. The special election is in two weeks. Everyone in Oakland, just so you know, April 15th is the election.

Barbara Lee, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Good to be with you. I hope everyone will vote for Barbara Lee for mayor. My website is barbaraleeformayor.org. Thank you again. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Stay tuned for another hour of Forum Ahead with Mina Kimmel.

Funds for the production of Forum are provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Generosity Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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