The city of Oakland confirmed that the mayor's Chief of Staff Leigh Hanson is no longer working with the city as of Sunday.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported the story, Hanson was let go due to a handwritten note in which she appeared to refer to Black people as "tokens." NBC Bay Area has not confirmed the validity of the note.
“Effective Sunday, Leigh Hanson is no longer an employee of the City of Oakland. I thank Ms. Hanson for her service. Deputy Mayor Burt Jones will be serving as the Mayor’s Office chief of staff until further notice, and I thank him for stepping up to the role," Mayor Kevin Jenkins said in a statement.
Hanson has not confirmed she was fired but issued a statement before reports circulated that she had been.
"I regret that my short-hand note-taking has been taken out of context on social media and inadvertently harmed close friends, colleagues and members of my community who have been marginalized by our political system," Hanson said.
Hanson was also chief of staff under ousted Mayor Sheng Thao. She continued her duties under interim Mayor Jenkins to help assist in completing the city's portion of the Coliseum sale to private developers.
"These handwritten meeting notes record a group discussion that included proposed messaging points that the anti-recall campaign wanted to provide to potential surrogates," she said in her statement prior to reports circulating. "They are a specific reference to Seneca Scott, a paid African American political operative, who was hired by the wealthy white funders of the recall campaign to obscure the public's understanding of the recall's political origins. It was Mayor Thao and her political team's belief that this operative's paid involvement constituted tokenization by the recall's financier, and Oakland voters had a right to understand this connection."
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Jenkins said he wrote Hanson a letter on March 28 stating he was working on a transitional plan ahead of the next mayor.
"In anticipation of the upcoming mayoral election, I want to start transition planning. Please have all mayoral staff sign predated letters of resignation," he told Hanson in an email.
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During her time with the city, Hanson participated in negotiations for the A’s ballpark plans at Howard Terminal. Most recently, she worked to facilitate the city's agreement to sell its share of the Coliseum to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group. However, the sale is currently stalled as it awaits approval from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Hanson also focused on preparing the mayor’s biennial budget, which is scheduled for release in May. The City Council will vote on the budget by June 30.
