After killing a proposal to strengthen Oakland’s political watchdog, the City Council made a surprising about-face and brought it back to life.  

The council voted 5-2 last week to put a measure on the November ballot that would improve Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission. The commission is a volunteer board that enforces Oakland’s rules around campaign finance, government transparency, and lobbying. It also has a small professional staff who investigate complaints of corruption and unethical behavior in city politics and elections.

The measure marks the first significant updates proposed for the commission since 2014. Among several enhancements, the proposal would tighten the rules for gift-giving by lobbyists and add one new investigator to the commission’s minimum staffing starting in 2026, for a total of two. Voters will get to vote on the proposed changes on Nov. 5.

The council rejected this proposal on June 26, with several councilmembers raising concerns about its cost at a time when the city is facing a massive budget deficit. Shortly after, the council agreed to reconsider the ballot measure.

Councilmember Carroll Fife, who previously voted against the proposal, said she changed her mind after speaking with elders in her district and former city staff, including a city administrator. Fife said she still takes issue with the cost and felt torn about helping one department gain an additional staff member when other departments are struggling with a lack of staff.   

“I’m also very aware of the current political moment that we’re in, and the need for additional accountability,” Fife said. “I believe the PEC can offer us that support.”  

Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan also changed her vote to an “aye” but didn’t offer an explanation. Kaplan was fined by the ethics commission in 2022 for failing to disclose her ownership of a condo near a park she voted to expand. The commission has also investigated cases in which Kaplan was the target of political attacks that were allegedly orchestrated in ways that violated campaign finance rules.

The commission currently only has two investigators to handle roughly 140 cases, which include alleged wrongdoing ranging from councilmembers’ conflicts of interest to campaign finance violations and bribery. The staffing crunch has contributed to a serious backlog, with over half of pending cases on an indefinite hold.

Commission Chair Ryan Micik said the lack of resources to quickly investigate major violations “hurts our ability to hold violators accountable and costs our city money.”

The councilmembers who voted in favor of the ballot measure included Councilmembers Fife, Kaplan, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Dan Kalb, and Janani Ramachandran. Kevin Jenkins and Noel Gallo voted against it. Treva Reid, who previously voted against the measure, was absent.

Bas said on Tuesday that it’s important for Oakland to have an independent, well-resourced ethics commission, “especially given the lack of trust the public has in elected officials, not only in Oakland but across the board, especially with certain allegations and investigations that are happening in this city.”

The ethics commission has been heavily cited in recent news reports about the FBI raids that targeted Mayor Sheng Thao and the city’s recycling contractor, California Waste Solutions, and its owner, David Duong. In 2019, the commission initiated an investigation of Duong and his son Andy Duong for allegedly funneling tens of thousands of dollars to candidates in Oakland between 2016 and 2018. Ethics investigators claim Duong used “straw donors” to give money to political campaigns the Duongs were barred from contributing to directly.

Jenkins said the commission is an effective tool for rooting out political corruption, but he doesn’t believe the ballot measure will help it clear the backlog of cases.

“We need to do a better job of focusing them on what they’re supposed to be doing, as opposed to adding to their plate,” said Jenkins. “What the three letter agencies do, FBI, is completely different than what the ethics commission does. So I think we need to parse that out and not put them together.”

Kalb, who wrote the legislation that expanded the power of the ethics commission in 2014, pointed out that the current proposal doesn’t hand any new responsibilities to the ethics commission. He also said the City Council would have the ability to withhold funding for the new investigator position if the city is still in a state of fiscal crisis. 

Gallo cited several points in the ballot measure he couldn’t support. Council President Bas pointed out that Gallo was referencing an old version of the ballot measure, and that some of the language he objected to—such as giving the commission authority to set the mayor’s salary—is no longer in the proposal.