Thread: CA-Time to probe corruption in Oakland City Hall

Time to probe corruption in Oakland City Hall

Chip Johnson

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Whether Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly leaves office quietly or fights tooth and nail to keep her job, it's time for a higher authority to take a look at operations inside Oakland City Hall during her term in office.

A police investigation dubbed Operation Nutcracker, which resulted in the arrests of 56 suspected gang members last week, also raised suspicions about Edgerly's intervention on behalf of her nephew, William Lovan, who was among those arrested.

[Related story: Edgerly at work in Oakland with no authority]

In cracking open the activities of a violent street gang, the police investigation has opened up a Pandora's box in City Hall.

The two stories converged on June 7 when Edgerly showed up at a West Oakland liquor store as police questioned Lovan, and intervened on his behalf, police say. According to a police report, Edgerly bullied officers and threatened an internal Police Department probe - presumably aimed at their actions.

This wasn't the first time that Edgerly has intervened on behalf of a co-worker, friend or family member, police sources say:

-- Two years ago, Edgerly and Assistant City Administrator Cheryl Thompson showed up and made similar threats when police arrested Thompson's son, also a city employee, for disorderly conduct outside a bar in downtown Oakland. He remains a city employee.

-- Last year, Debra Taylor-Johnson, a civilian police employee, was called into an administrative hearing by Police Department officials for vouching for a recently hired employee. The employee she endorsed was hired under an alias and had arrest warrants issued for identity theft and welfare fraud, authorities confirmed. But when officials recommended Taylor-Johnson's dismissal, Edgerly stepped in, overturned the decision and approved the expenditure to keep her friend employed.

-- Two years ago, nothing was done when allegations of illegal kickbacks were raised against District Six City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, another of Edgerly's allies, after police investigators linked bank deposits made by the mother of one of Brooks' employees to several personal checks for $1,200 written to Brooks (exactly half the employee's paycheck).

On Friday, Taylor-Johnson was among a handful of Edgerly supporters demonstrating inside Oakland City Hall after news reports that Mayor Ron Dellums had given Edgerly an ultimatum to retire, resign or be fired in the wake of her alleged actions in the gang investigation.

Brooks, too, came to Edgerly's defense Friday, notifying Dellums' office by e-mail that the mayor had no authority to take control of city agencies - if you can believe that.

Through all the smoke and mirrors surrounding the latest debacle, it's obvious to the average Oakland resident - like me - that there is something terribly wrong with the way business is conducted in Oakland City Hall.

Since former Mayor Jerry Brown appointed Edgerly four years ago, she has changed hiring policies in the Police Department to the benefit of her daughter, a then-struggling police recruit. And last year, Edgerly ordered a change in the annual Fire Department recruiting call, with disastrous results. Some candidates were hand-picked by friends in the department while solid recruits, some of whom waited in line for days, were overlooked. The city had to toss out the process and start over.

The city's finance and management division includes nearly a dozen relatives of Edgerly and Thompson. One of Edgerly's sons works for the city's Office of Information Technology.

And if you're waiting for the Oakland City Council to stand up and be heard, don't hold your breath. There hasn't been one peep from anyone on the council on this matter. Nothing. It's as if it doesn't exist. I don't know if the council's inaction is driven by apathy, fear or complacency, but they provide us with no alternatives.

This goes way beyond coincidence, and it's clear that the office of Brown, who is now California's attorney general, needs to get involved. It would also be appropriate given Brown's decision to hire Edgerly in 2004.

There are so many errors in Oakland's hiring practices that it's a wonder the bad guys haven't ended up with access to the personal information of our police officers. Before his arrest last week, Mark Candler, the purported leader of the Acorn street gang, the target of the police raids, boasted to police that he could get all the information he needed about them anytime he wanted.

And when he was arrested in a raid at a house in the 1000 block of Filbert Street in Oakland last year, he proved it. He called his mother upon his arrest and when she arrived, police were shocked to see a woman they recognized: Candler's mother was a civilian employee assigned to the department's personnel files on the building's fifth floor. She was dismissed.

Dellums clearly doesn't have the resolve to act. Edgerly was in her office Monday and it was business as usual, and the city administrator attended a staff meeting led by Dellums as if nothing was happening. The dysfunction and corruption in City Hall has spread beyond local government's ability to address it.

Oakland desperately needs some help - and quickly.


Chip Johnson's column appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays. E-mail him at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/johnson/

Edgerly's nephew alerted gang members to impending police raid

Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Up until now, the story of what got Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly into hot water when her nephew was swept up in a gang bust has been shrouded in mist.

Here's the story:

[Related story: Edgerly will retire in July]

On the night of June 7, Edgerly - whose duties included overseeing the Police Department - showed up at a West Oakland liquor store just as her nephew's car was being towed by police as part of an operation against the Acorn gang.

The nephew, 27-year-old William Lovan - who works for the city as a parking meter repairman - had left the car running and locked the keys inside, along with a gun.

Edgerly asked why the car was being towed and the police, in their fashion, said, "Because it's polluting the air."

Two sources familiar with the case tell us that Edgerly pulled out her cell phone and punched up Assistant Chief Howard Jordan's number to complain.

Jordan said he'd check it out and call her back.

And he did a few minutes later, telling her that the towing job was part of a bigger police operation.

Upon hearing the news, the sources say, Edgerly calmed down.

That might well have been the end of the story - except that according to our sources, police think Edgerly may have made a call to her nephew, warning him to stay away from these "bad people" because the authorities knew what they were up to. Authorities say the gang was linked to several homicides and a series of restaurant takeover robberies as well as carjackings, drug and weapons trafficking.

What we do know is that police, who had several suspects' phones tapped, say they have the nephew on tape calling the gang's alleged leader and telling him that he had word "from the top" that the cops were on the way.

"Either we were fast and lucky or they were just too slow and dumb," said one source close to the case, because police still managed to pull off the bust. Fifty-six people were arrested on drugs and gun charges.

Edgerly herself does not show up on any wiretaps, our sources say, but when the police pulled in Lovan, he allegedly admitted - on videotape - that his aunt had called him.

He said he felt bad about the situation and knew he was probably getting Edgerly in trouble, the sources say. Lovan, who posted a $50,000 bail after being arraigned on illegal weapons charges, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Edgerly's attorney, Doron Weinberg, said he was unaware of any conversations the police might have taped or monitored, but that "if that's what the facts are, the hullabaloo is about nothing."

"It sounds to me like an aunt saying to her nephew, 'You're hanging with the wrong crowd, and you'd better straighten up,' " Weinberg said.

At any rate, we're told that despite Mayor Ron Dellums' very public ultimatum last week that she step aside immediately, Edgerly was determined to leave on her own terms - something she made perfectly clear when she showed up for work Monday as if nothing had happened.

By Tuesday's supposed showdown meeting with Edgerly and her lawyer, Dellums had undergone a change - apparently seeing her as the underdog who was being attacked, our sources tell us.

As a result, Edgerly will stay on as city administrator until the end of July - when she had already been planning to retire from her $254,000-a-year job.

She will not, however, be dealing with the Police Department - which instead will answer directly to the mayor.

Edgerly, however, may have to deal with the FBI - which is also looking into the matter.

Drill down: In what may be his final appearance in San Francisco before the November election, presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain is slated to headline a big Republican fundraiser and reception next month at the Fairmont Hotel.

We hope the appearance will go a bit more smoothly than his trip to Santa Barbara this week. When word of the visit leaked, some Republicans said it was a brilliant move for the candidate to go to "the belly of the beast," the site of a devastating 1969 oil spill, and talk about how technology and safeguards have changed so that offshore drilling is now safe.

But then Democrats started hammering McCain on his call to lift the 30-year-old federal oil-drilling moratorium that he once supported.

And Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a high-profile McCain backer, reiterated his opposition to offshore drilling.

On Monday in Fresno, McCain was asked about his continued opposition to drilling in what he called the "pristine" Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Asked later by The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci if that meant California's coast was less pristine, McCain said that he envisioned drilling here being "further offshore."

Democrats quickly turned McCain's comments into more ammo, with Sen. Barbara Boxer getting on the phone to reporters almost before McCain finished his Fresno event to decry his stance.

And when Schwarzenegger decided to appear with McCain on Tuesday in Santa Barbara, that sealed it - the "d" word was off the table.

In fact, McCain's speech, while focusing on energy policy, never mentioned drilling - offshore or any other kind.

Size matters: Big dedication ceremony the other day for the new family housing complex at Broadway and Battery Street in San Francisco:

-- Former Mayor Willie Brown got the community room named after him.

-- Chinatown powerhouse Rose Pak got the big courtyard named after her.

-- And Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin got his name attached to a little courtyard - which Pak promptly tagged "Pesky Park."

EXTRA! Catch our Web page at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.

Play the Sen. Nancy Pelosi, George Bush and George Shultz dirt-shoveling caption contest. Tell us what bias will most affect the presidential race.


Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Phil can be seen on CBS-5 morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call them at (415) 777-8815 or drop them an e-mail at matierandross@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 11EEG2.DTL

Sickening dirty poltics. Corruption at it's best in CA.