Unger inflicted Thao upon us

Firefighter President Zac Unger has been a long-time supporter of the council members who tried to defund OPD but who were prevented from doing so by Black and Latino council members. The wannbe defunders were Nikki Bas, Rebecca Kaplan, Caroll Fife, and Dan Kalb, and Sheng Thao.

Under his leadership, his union endorsed Sheng Thao for mayor, contributed tens of thousands of dollars, and provided volunteers for her campaign. He personally endorsed her also. At the Wellstone Democratic Club endorsement forum, he declared his opposition to both the recall of DA Price and of Mayor Thao. I collected signatures for both recalls and remain active in the Mayor’s recall to the point where I received a baseless subpoena from the City Public Ethics Commission which was thrown out once by the court, and I expect to be dismissed again.

I have supporters who object to all recalls. I respect their position however much I try to explain to them the Progressive Era direct democracy origyn of recalls and propositions.

1. 2022 Firefighters endorsement video of Sheng Thao:

2. Zac’s 2022 personal endorsement of Sheng Thao for Mayor:

From: Oakgrovepedestrians
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2022
Subject: [Oakgrovepedestrians] Why I'm voting for Sheng Thao

Dear Oak Grove friends,

Ballots are arriving this week and I wanted to take a minute to let you all know why I am enthusiastically backing District 4 Council member Sheng Thao for Mayor of Oakland. I have worked closely with all four of the leading candidates- Sheng, Treva, Ignacio, and Loren-observed them at countless meetings, and collaborated with them in both big public projects and behind-the-scenes wrangling. My support of Sheng comes from my real-world experience of watching her work and seeing how she grinds out tangible accomplishments.

In particular, her work in bringing together warring factions from big business, small business, labor unions, and community groups for a compromise between rival tax measure was a study in high-stakes negotiation and, frankly, political arm-twisting.

Her opponents are not bad people, and I have good relationships with all of them. Treva Reid will probably get one of my down-ballot votes. Ignacio de la Fuente has been around forever, but those of us who've been around as long as he has are shocked that he's trying to paint himself as the "public safety" candidate. I haven't forgotten when he laid off 80 police officers and 30 firefighters, while also closing a fire station and the fire boat. That was 20 years ago and neither department has recovered from that anti-safety bloodletting. Also, his campaign is almost entirely financed by the coal industry, so make of that what you will.
Sheng's strongest opponent is

Loren Taylor, Council member for District 6. Loren is a nice guy, very thoughtful and well-spoken, with a long family history in Oakland. He went to College Prep School, and, as he says in his commercial, "I'm sending my kids to the same schools I went to." Before becoming a Council member he was a management consultant, working with Big Pharma, telecoms, and healthcare conglomerates. He says that he aims to bring business and management consultant expertise to the project of running Oakland. I guess my big hesitation with Loren is that he seems to favor long process pathways rather than aettina thinas done.

The bottom line is that whoever gets this crappy mayor's job is in for a difficult couple of years. Oakland is in a tough spot right now and the problems are huge. I'm going with Sheng not because I have some illusion that she can fix everything but because she's smart, she's honest, she's experienced, and she knows how to get down to business. Please give her your first place vote in this ranked-choice election, or at least your #2 spot if you're leaning towards someone else.
Thanks for listening!

-Zac