Idea is to reintegrate former prisoners into society; Dellums says he's working to set aside positions for ex-felons
By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:02/28/2007 06:33:57 AM PST
OAKLAND — For the first time since taking office, Mayor Ron Dellums met with community members and asked them to help turn Oakland into a model city.
Addressing a standing-room-only crowd Monday night at the annual meeting of the Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Association, Dellums began detailing his plans to fulfill his sweeping campaign promise to address the problems that have plagued Oakland for decades, such as poverty, crime and hopelessness.
Embracing a recommendation from the task force on the reintegration of incarcerated individuals, one of 41 task forces that met between September and October, Dellums said he was working to end the requirement that prospective city employees disclose whether they have been convicted of a felony by checking a box on the standard employment application.
"Where it makes sense, let's take that box away," Dellums said, noting that applicants for positions in the police department and those who work with children still would have to disclose their criminal histories.
Removal of that box will encourage ex-convicts to apply for well-paying jobs and avoid shuffling from one job to another, according to the task force recommendation.
In addition, Dellums said he was working to set aside a number of city jobs for ex-felons in an effort to set an example for private businesses.
"How can we ask private industry to do something we refuse to?" Dellums said. "Where is the integrity in that?"
Dellums also promised to expand the mayor's summer job programs to 500-600 positions,giving more youth an opportunity to stay out of trouble during the hottest months when violence spikes.
Calling Oakland's two-year budget of
$1 billion "chump change," Dellums said he had put out a call for nonprofit groups and philanthropies to lend their grant writers to the city for 60 to 90 days in an effort to increase the amount of federal money flowing into the city.
"Oakland's budget will not get us from here to where we need to be," Dellums said, reiterating one of his central campaign pledges to increase collaboration not only among governmental agencies but also between the public and private sectors.
Dellums said he also was looking to local foundations to help implement "the wonderful set of ideas" developed by the task forces, and urged the more than 200 people in the audience to join the second round of meetings, starting in the next several weeks.
At the end of his remarks, about half of the audience rose to give the mayor a standing ovation. Afterward, several people said they were pleased that the mayor offered specific proposals, as well as a stirring and eloquent overall vision for Oakland.
Although he lost to Dellums by nearly 17 percentage points in the June election, Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale) bested the mayor in many precincts in the hills.
However, others said they were frustrated that Dellums has yet to introduce a major policy initiative in the two months since he took office, but acknowledged that real change won't happen overnight.
"It sounded like a campaign speech," said Dewey Watson, a hills resident. "We're beyond that. I hope his plan evolves, but it sounds like he's going in the right direction."
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This story did not make my day yesterday,When I heard it, adding to the
depression of a bad night out,wild times and as if I didn't have another
reason to leave the City of Oakland. It's typical bad news and seems like
the general way things are going into this Country, State,
City....Backwards.
I mean Mr.Mayor, what do you propose to do to help citizens in this city
who haven't been involved with the criminal justice system, and who are
African-American? Shouldn't you be helping regular citizens to stay out of
the Criminal justice system in the first place?
I worked in the past years in this city on behalf of the brother and
sisters in this town. The only thing I mostly received back were derision,
and threats to myself and my immediate relatives. I feel some of the
people responsible are the same ones you are trying to help. Now the mayor
wants to reward Ex-cons with Municipal jobs! The headline would seem to
suggest that if you really want to get ahead in this town, you you gotta
do some time in San Quentin.
Mind you, The mayor, Ron Dellums, is trying to address a difficult
problem, what to do about the increasing numbers of former incarcerated
people moving back into regular society. If they can't get back to work
them they return to crime and end up in jail again. You can bet there is
alot of Ex-offenders in this town, and the general prison population in
California is overcrowded. But there are also alot of general jobs, (
modest wage jobs) that alot of hardworking, decent, immigrant people are
doing. If they want to work maybe the jobs are out there.
I don't think the Mayor's solution isn't going to help much, though a
summer job program might help some kids stay out of trouble, which he is
is trying to do. As other leaders have done before.
The Mayors proposals for helping Ex-cons might not help them much. They'll
still have to explain to a prospective employer their job history, and
lapses in employment. Some employers may not be to interested in hiring
Ex-cons.
If the mayor wants to help Ex-cons get jobs in the City of Oakland, First
how about creating jobs, and fixing situations to prevent people from
getting tied up with the criminal justice system in the first place!
The one major way of doing this is by keeping your citizenry educated (in
my opinion). You must keep the schools open, and education affordable.
This means keeping schools open so that youth in this city have a chance
to get educated and becoming productive citizens in this city,state and
country. Oakland has failed to do this, cause of its City officials,
unconcerned citizens as a couple of days ago it was announced that four
more schools in Oakland would be closing.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_5338872
Second, I think Oakland has a problem with NEPOTISM also. While hiring
your relatives and friends for employment might not be a bad thing, it
keeps qualified people out of jobs. The Mayor thinks that by giving jobs
to Ex-cons he is helping the problem? Its just means that he is going to
have a bunch of nepotistic criminals working in his city, has if this
wasn't already the case. In my case against Nepotism, I applied for a City
job, when I came back to Oakland after leaving the California Conservation
Corps, ( in 1982-1985) and returning from a trip to Africa.
Could I get a job in the public works department with the City of
Oakland....NO, even after applying THREE TIMES, passing there physical
agility test trice and meeting the oral examiners twice. They told me (
Carter Gilmore) , "Don't call us, we'll call you". So the mayor wants to
give Carte Blanche to some Ex-cons to get in City jobs.
Third, I think they need to do something about the Drug (Crack) problem. I
don't think illicit drug sales are a solution for what ills
African-American social economics, indeed surely as Alcohol helped destroy
the Native American population in America.. Crack is destroying the
African American population in America.
Hell maybe the mayor is right, some of these Ex-offenders are some pretty
clever, ingenious, devious individuals. Having them in the work force
might be a Plus, not a negative, but I think its the problem that got
these people in jail in the first place ,might return to haunt officials,
citizens and prospective employers of Oakland. Some of these
individuals/organizations might better suited for politics, indeed, maybe
Mayor Dellums should be offering internships for jobs in government,
because criminals are just about the only people who seem to run politic
in the U.S.
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