ENLARGING OAKLAND'S AT-LARGE

Now that we've heard the announcement that the Chinese government is going to rent two giant pandas to the Oakland Zoo–and before City Councilmember Henry Chang comes up with another five or six year project to occupy his publicly-financed hours–perhaps the time has come for Oakland to rethink this whole idea of an at-large Councilmember.

For those with short memories, Mr. Chang–who once told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had been "dreaming about pandas for years"–made acquisition of the rare Chinese bears his major project during his three terms on Council, once leading a delegation of city officials to China to, among other things, "observe the panda." (The Oakland Panda Project website includes a picture of Mr. Chang, fellow Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid, and several other suited and dignified-looking people posing in front of a pagoda-type building and a statue over the caption "In search of Pandas." No actual pandas appear in the picture, so it is not certain whether any were found on that particular trip.)

Now that they apparently have been found, the pandas–when and if they actually come to Oakland–will not come cheap. The Chinese government does not sell or give their pandas away, but only offers to rent them out. For Oakland, that means a term of 10 years at a million dollars a year, which is not as expensive as a good-rebounding power forward, but is rather on the high end for creatures who do little else but sit and eat all day and balk at breeding. We are also told that it will cost between $5 million and $15 million to build a house for the bears–my, but home prices are skyrocketing in the Oakland hills these days–and an unknown additional amount to keep them in bamboo and other amenities during their stay.

Oakland taxpayers are being cautioned to rest our worries, since the money is going to come mainly from private donations, and Oakland is going to see it all back in tourists flocking up to Knowland Park. This is from the same city government that once told us the Coliseum would sell out for every Raider game, so forgive us if we remain a little skeptical.

Meanwhile, back to the At-Large Oakland City Councilmember thing.

Not certain how or why this whole position was conceived, but for many years the At-Large Oakland Council position was considered the "Asian seat" on Oakland City Council, first held by Frank Ogawa–after whom Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall is named–and then passed on to Mr. Chang, who was first appointed to the position in 1994 following Mr. Ogawa's death, mid-term.
In my mind, this was not a bad thing, the "Asian seat" thing. I am a firm believer in affirmative action, an absolutely dreadful system only made necessary because it works toward the elimination of an absolutely worse system-institutional racism.

But I'm also a firm believer that affirmative action should be eased out once it has been objectively demonstrated–Mr. Connerly and friends, please note the distinction–that the institutional racism conditions that caused it to come about are ending, and, therefore, the solution is no longer needed. Oakland voters having demonstrated in the cases of Councilmember Jean Quan and recently-former Councilmember Danny Wan that we are beginning to be mature enough to elect Asian-American officeholders on our own, without undue prodding, it would seem that we need to find other uses, now, for the At-Large Council seat.

Some suggestions, therefore.

One function of the At-Large Oakland Councilmember, we are told, is to act as a sort of a back-up for constituent service, helping city residents get through the maze of Oakland's bureaucracy and city regulations. But even if that occurred in fact, it would not be enough to justify the presence of an extra Councilmember. And it hasn't occurred in fact. Mr. Chang once described himself as being "invisible" by design, and during Mr. Chang's 2004 re-election campaign, the Oakland Tribune noted that "Councilmember Danny Wan, who is helping to orchestrate Chang's campaign, said his colleague … worries about stepping on the toes of the other council members, who are elected by district." Translate that to mean: since Mr. Chang doesn't actively tell Oaklanders that he's there to answer their constituent calls, Oaklanders don't know it, and therefore don't call.

Another function of the At-Large Oakland Councilmember is to act as a sort of "super Councilmember," looking at larger city issues crossing district lines that the rest of the Council-too often confined by the needs and demands of constituents in their own districts-either can't or won't see.

But the sort of "super Councilmember" role is what the city mayor is actually supposed to fill, even if the mayor no longer sits on City Council. Oaklanders have found that in recent years, at least, this relationship has been…umm….less than satisfactory, but we can hope that this will not always be the case, now that Mr. Brown is on his way out the door and other, more Oaklandcentric, politicians are lining up to take his place.

Further, given Mr. Chang's interpretation of grand visions is a six year quest to put bears in the hills, Oaklanders can be forgiven if we want to give a little bit more direction to the job before letting another At-Large Councilmember loose to wander our streets and spend our money.

Perhaps what is needed is an actual job description for the At-Large Council seat, putting a portfolio in the City Charter that outlines what an At-Large Councilmember ought to do for public pay.

One set of responsibilities, as one example, might be as the Council's liaison for development issues. There are some development zones-the downtown area, the Coliseum, the Hegenberger corridor out by the airport, or the port-that are so important to the city's economy that they supercede the interests of the district in which they are located (Oakland City Council normally ignores Councilmember Nancy Nadel's wishes as to what ought to happen in her downtown district, anyway, so this would not be so large a change from what presently occurs).

This does not mean that other Councilmembers would not have an interest in-or a vote on-these development zones. But giving the At-Large Oakland Councilmember a specific set of responsibilities would allow voters to look for a specific set of qualifications in prospective candidates, and would also give something by which to judge when re-election time rolls around.

Another alternative–if we're still looking–would be for Oaklanders to go the teats-on-a-boar-hog route, declaring the At-Large Councilmember post a useless appendage and lopping it off of the Oakland body politic. There is nothing in constitution or custom mandating that once the number of a City Council has been set, it has been set in granite, for all time. Last November, voters in the City of Richmond agreed by a 72 percent to 28 percent margin to drop two seats from their nine-member at large City Council as a cost-cutting measure. Richmond, we are sure, will survive the operation.

Whatever Oaklanders decide do about the At-Large City Councilmember position, the designation of Mr. Chang as the official Procurer of Pandas gives city residents a long-needed opportunity to rethink the position he holds. If we wait until the next election cycle, it will be way too late.