The top two contenders in Oakland’s mayoral race squared off in a live debate Tuesday night, covering numerous issues facing the troubled city. Thom Jensen reports.
Two candidates running to be Oakland's next mayor in April's special election went head-to-head on Tuesday in a debate about how they would address the city's most pressing issues.
Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor are vying in the April 15 election to replace former mayor Sheng Thao, who is currently facing federal corruption and bribery charges.
Thao was recalled in November for what her opponents perceived as a sequence of missteps: firing the city's former police chief, businesses leaving or closing over worries about crime, missing a deadline to receive grant money from the state for retail theft prevention, and using one-time money from the sale of the Oakland Coliseum to balance the city's budget.
"Sheng Thao's indictment laid bare what many people suspected in terms of the corruption and bribery that impacted the 2022 election," Taylor said during the debate.
Taylor previously ran for mayor against Thao in 2022 and narrowly lost the election to her by less than 700 votes after nine rounds of ranked choice voting.
"We would be in a different place had those alleged activities not taken place," Taylor said.
The debate, moderated by news anchor Dave Clark, was held inside a packed cafe at the Oakland Museum of California.
Clark asked Lee and Taylor questions on topics such as crime, homelessness and the city's budget deficit.
Taylor started the debate by acknowledging the stark realities Oakland is facing due to crime. Although violent crime rates declined last year, Oakland's reputation for being unsafe persists.
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He relayed real-life stories of crime victims that set a serious tone for the debate.
"We have to be honest with ourselves. Oakland is broken," Taylor said. "Oakland is failing its residents … residents like Marvin, who was sitting in his car doing paperwork when he was carjacked, pistol whipped, and ended up going to the hospital."
Lee and Taylor agreed that crime prevention should be prioritized in order to improve public safety.
"I would work hard to make sure we increase the budget for crime prevention, getting guns off the street, engaging more gun buybacks, and find these alternatives for our young people," Lee said. "Too many young people have nothing to do and that should be part of an overall public safety strategy."
"We have to address root causes," Taylor said. "We have to engage people directly in terms of creating alternative pathways and other options."
They also both think that increasing staffing in the Oakland Police Department to about 800 or more officers is imperative to making residents feel safe. As of July 2024, there were 709 officers in the department.
"Long-term, I believe we need about 850 officers," Lee said. "I know for a fact that our neighborhoods need more foot patrols and more community policing."
"I have a plan to get to 800 or more officers in three years," Taylor said. "With three academies per year, we will be able to not only beat attrition, but we will also be able to add to our ranks."
Oakland is also facing what is estimated to be a $129 million budget deficit this year with an additional $280 million deficit over the next two years.
Taylor emphasized the need for an outside audit, pension debt restructuring, slashing wasteful spending, and investing in public safety to attract more businesses to come to Oakland.
"We have to have an outside audit that gives us confidence of what's happening. We have been gaslit for too long in this city around our budget," Taylor said. "We have to look at the larger cost in our budget. We're paying more than $130 million in interest each year on our pension debt. We have to restructure that."
Lee wants to implement a forensic audit that reveals wasteful expenditures and potential fraud while also raising revenues in part through a sales tax increase.
"In order to come out of this hole that we're in we have to of course raise revenue and cut expenditures," Lee said. "We need an audit that's going to tell the taxpayers in this city where the waste, fraud and abuse is in our city."
Lee tried to throw Taylor under the bus by suggesting that his decisions as a councilmember could have played a role in the city's current budget deficit.
"I want to remind you that many of these decisions that were made that brought us to this crisis occurred by his votes while he was on the City Council," Lee said.
However, Taylor defended how he voted against two of the budgets while serving on the council from 2019 to 2023.
"I did not support either of the last two budgets that were passed while I was on the council," Taylor said. "When you're on the council, you are one of eight votes."
To address homelessness, both Lee and Taylor think that a multifaceted approach needs to be taken since each unhoused person has different needs.
"We need to get people off the streets through a combination of services like mental health, rehab, transitional housing, and job training," she said.
"It's not one size fits all," Taylor said. "Some need mental health services, and others simply need rent help for first month, last month and the security deposit and they can sustain themselves."
In addition, Taylor wants to continue enforcing a policy that sets standards within homeless encampments so they don't pose a threat to the community. He introduced the policy as a councilmember and was able to get a unanimous vote to pass it.
"It will help to ensure that we address the significant number of fires and 911 calls that are going toward encampments," Taylor said. "It will address the fact that we have encampments in front of our schools, in front of businesses, in major parks and along waterways."
Lee tried to differentiate herself from Taylor by touting her connections and relationships she has built with politicians at the state and federal levels, which she says will make it easier to advocate for policy decisions and funding that benefits Oakland.
"It's very important that residents in Oakland have the ability through their mayor, to be able to pick up the phone again and say, 'This is what we need. This is how we want this to work for Oakland,'" Lee said.
Lee also hit back at Taylor when he said that Oakland is "a drain on the state of California," referring to how Gov. Gavin Newsom sent the California Highway Patrol to help the city deal with crime last year.
"We're not a drain on the state of California," Lee asserted. "Come on, we pay taxes. They owe us. This is a campaign for mayor, not for a staffer … Oakland needs a mayor who's going to demand their seat at the table."
Lee and Taylor are just two of the nine candidates in a crowded field for mayor. They have raised hundreds of thousands more dollars than the rest of the candidates, according to campaign finance filings.
Several of the other candidates who were not invited to Tuesday's debate found it unfair and undemocratic to be left out.
"Pay to play is what's going on," said candidate Mindy Pechenuk in an interview. "They're trying to say that the only two people in this race is Loren and Barbara."
"I find it disrespectful to the other seven candidates," said Tyron Jordan in a statement. Jordan started his campaign for mayor but has since withdrawn and is supporting Lee.
"The fact that these folks are actively participating in the democratic process, instead of sitting on the sidelines, merits respect," Jordan said.
Although Lee and Taylor were the only candidates in Tuesday's debate, there will be multiple candidate forums in the next month leading up to the election where many of the other candidates intend to participate.
Ballots will be sent out in the mail to registered Oakland voters on Monday ahead of Election Day on Apr. 15.
