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MR. PERATA SHOWS HIS TRUE INTERESTS, AGAIN
I’ve pretty much lost interest in the doings of Mr. Don Perata since he lost the 2010 election for mayor of the Oakland. But every so often, something comes across my desk about the former State Senator and Alameda County Supervisor that draws my attention, such as this recent item from the online NFL Blog Post concerning the Oakland Raiders’ search for a new stadium outside of the city of Oakland. “It might sound a bit absurd to turn a shutdown military base into a football stadium to most people but not to Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis and the mayor of Concord, Dan Helix,” the blog post reads. “The mayor confirmed that Davis had visited the decommissioned base on Friday accompanied by Don Perata, who is an ex state senator and current advisor to the Raiders. The deal will definitely benefit both parties as the Raiders owner gets his stadium and the town gets new land along with all the money and publicity a franchise stadium brings.” Okay, so let me get this straight. Mr. Perata was one of the chief architects of the 1995 deal that refurbished the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and brought the Raiders back to Oakland from Los Angeles. It turned out to be a pretty good deal for the Raiders, and I’m sure Mr. Perata got a little taste out of it for himself. He usually does. But it was a particularly bad deal for the citizens of Oakland and Alameda County, who got stuck with an unexpected bill for millions of dollars a year when the promised ticket sales didn’t come through. And now we see that Mr. Perata is back with another Raiders deal, this time advising the team—on a paid basis, presumably—on how to move out of the Coliseum and into Contra Costa County. If that happens, Oakland and Alameda County residents will not be let off the hook, but will continue to pay for the back-to-Oakland Raider deal Mr. Perata helped forge 18 years ago. One of the reasons I opposed Mr. Perata in the 2010 Oakland mayoral election is because during his years as an elected official, he had a history of putting his personal economic interests above the interests of the people he was supposed to be representing. Mr. Perata used to protest that this wasn’t so. Now he doesn’t appear to even be trying to hide his intentions, I suppose because he may no longer have any intention for running for public office again. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan appears to be a bit unpopular with the Oakland public these days. She’s done a thing or two I wasn’t particularly happy with. But all in all I’ve never regretted, not for one moment, that the voters of Oakland did not elect Mr. Perata as our mayor three years ago.
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