SUBSCRIBE

SEARCH:

OAKLAND, BERKELEY, AND EAST BAY NEWS, EVENTS, RESTAURANTS, MUSIC, & ARTS

HOME

NEWS & OPINION

ARTS & CULTURE

FOOD & DRINK

MOVIES

MUSIC

BLOGS

SPECIAL REPORTS
Log in / Create Account

NEWS & OPINION NEWS

OCTOBER 20, 2010

MOST POPULAR STORIES

The Gloves Are Off in San Leandro

Elections

VIEWED

Municipal finances dominate the city's mayor and council races.

By Steven Tavares
Email

Tweet

Share

submit

Print

click to flip through (8)

The former mayor of San Leandro summed

up Mayor Tony Santos' chances for re-

COMMENTED

VIDEOS

Black Lives Matter Now: Short Essays

by Express Readers on Racial
Injustice in America
We invited East Bay residents to share their
thoughts and words. Here's what they had to say.

Alameda Poised to Become Next

California County to Ban Fracking
While there is no immediate local threat, activists
view county ban as part of broad strategy leading
to statewide prohibition.

election with her typical straightforward style.

"Tony hasn't killed his wife and he hasn't
stolen any money," said Shelia Young.

Time for White Americans to be Part

of the Solution, Not the Problem

"There isn't a good reason for him not to

On Black Lives Matter and this country's 'Original

Sin.'

win." But four candidates, with varying

backgrounds and degrees of experience, see it
a different way.
In fact, since San Leandro began directly

SHARED

Tony Santos.

electing its mayor in 1962, an incumbent has

never lost. But in an election laced with high

Three Days in July: On Why Racial

Justice in America Shouldn't Require
Debate.
By dismissing Black Lives Matter and other
protest groups as leftist agitators, police undercut
their higher aspirations to truly serve and protect
all.

voter angst derived from a poor economy,

hard-knuckled political pugilism, and the
unfamiliarity of ranked-choice voting, San
Leandro is in the middle of one of its most
intense mayoral races in years.

An East Bay Pimp Trafficked Her

Daughter. And the Man that She
Turned to For Help Exploited Her For
Sex.
Oakland police, the Alameda County DA and his
employer, BAWAR, ignored her complaint.

Like most municipalities, San Leandro is

struggling to maintain basic services while showing few signs of
significant recovery. The general fund has been trimmed here and there,
including continued cuts to its city staff and police. Its reserve fund,
once overflowing five years ago at more than $20 million, has been
whittled down to just $1 million. This forced the city's former finance
director to sound the alarm this summer, saying that San Leandro could
have trouble meeting day-to-day expenses in the next year. Still, despite
the grave economic outlook, the city is more fiscally sound than many
nearby cities
Nevertheless, Santos' main challengers have made the city's economic

NEWS BLOGS
Legalization Nation - July 13, 11:40 am

Amoeba Records Pot Club

Plan Gets A Second Spin
Legalization Nation - July 12, 8:09 am

Drug War is Root Cause of

Police Shooting Epidemic,
says Libertarian Party
Presidential Nominee Gary
Johnson

future the hallmark of their campaigns. Both Councilwoman Joyce

Starosciak and former San Leandro School Trustee Stephen Cassidy
have hammered Santos' handling of the budget. "We need the right kind
of mayor," Starosciak recently said. "We need new leadership." But after
serving on the school board, Starosciak was elected to the city council in
2004 and over the years has typically voted with Santos on most
matters. "I absolutely agree with her," counters Cassidy. "She's part of
the old leadership and she's actually making the case for someone
outside of the council to be mayor."

Seven Days - July 12, 7:44 am

Town Business: Taxing

Short-Term Rentals, Uber,
and Revenue Wreckage
Seven Days - July 11, 12:51 pm

Oakland SRO Tenants Sue

Tech Housing Investors for
Harassment
Seven Days - July 11, 9:01 am

Express Wins Seven

National Awards at AAN
2016

The often visceral tone between Santos, Starosciak, and Cassidy in the
past month flies in the face of conventional wisdom suggesting that
ranked-choice voting, the new election system debuting in Oakland,

MORE FROM THE BLOGS

Berkeley, and San Leandro, inherently promotes friendly discourse

among candidates. Why partake in political mudslinging when secondplace votes from your opponent's supporters could ultimately decide the
race? Such utopian dreams, though, seem to have skipped over San
Leandro. In many instances the rancor has been stoked by Santos,
whose garrulous and sometimes condescending tone does not sit well
with some residents.
Santos has a long
Paid Advertisement

history in San
Leandro politics.
Before becoming
mayor in 2006, the
77-year-old mayor

SPECIAL REPORTS

served on the city

Summer Guide 2016

council from 1984 to

Your definitive guide to

summertime entertainment,
outings, eating, drinking, and
more.

1992, followed by a
second stint starting in
2000. His patriarchal

By Luke Tsai, Sam

Lefebvre, Sarah
Burke, Nastia
Voynovskaya, Nick
Miller and Janelle
Bitker, Darwin
BondGraham, Sarah
Burke, Bert Johnson,
Sydney Johnson, Sam
Lefebvre, Joseph
Meehan, Nick Miller,
Luke Tsai, Nastia
Voynovskaya

attitude toward city

government and the
good old days has led
him to criticize Starosciak for stifling the collegial atmosphere of the
council by waging a campaign against a sitting mayor and repeatedly
calling Cassidy a "tea partier" for his consistent calls for pension reform.
The bad blood among the three has reached such a fevered pitch that it
is commonplace for the trio to ignore each other at public meetings and
social gatherings.

Sustainable Living 2016

The political backbiting may have hit its apex last month when

Everything you need to know

about saving water, energy
efficiency, sustainable farming
and eating, and more.

Starosciak accused Santos of violating the Brown Act at a committee

meeting overseeing the San Leandro Marina Shoreline. The e-mail to
her supporters angrily alleged that Santos attempted to appoint a

By David Downs,
Darwin BondGraham,
Sarah Burke, Nastia
Voynovskaya, Erin
Baldassari and Sarah
Elizabeth Adler

replacement for one of the committee's 32 seats without full council

consent. But one week later Starosciak reversed herself, denying that
Santos flouted the law. Santos called the accusation "vile" and later
questioned whether she was a "good Catholic," while attacking her
upbringing. "I've known Joyce since she was little girl," he said, "and
I'm disappointed in the woman she has become."

RECENT ISSUES

While Santos has lived up to his reputation as a rough-and-tumble

political veteran, Cassidy has attempted to make the race about the
issues and has been amazingly consistent in conveying his stance
regarding the city's finances and pushing for city employees to pay more

Jul 6, 2016

Jun 29, 2016

Jun 22, 2016

Jun 15, 2016

Jun 8, 2016

Jun 1, 2016

toward the cost of their pensions. "We don't have a mayor who takes
responsibility for what is going on in the city," said Cassidy, who also
believes the city is on the path to bankruptcy. But the issue of pension
reform has put Cassidy in a lonely spot. He is the only candidate for any
city office advocating such a plan, and is the sole opponent of Measure
Z, which would raise the city's sales tax to 10 percent and go a long way
MORE ISSUES

toward maintaining city services and at least five sworn police officers.
"If city employees paid more toward their pensions, the city would save
nearly $3 million," said Cassidy. "That's the same amount the city had

BEST OF THE EAST BAY

in deficits in the last fiscal year." Cassidy's rhetoric, though, has created

2015

OTHER YEARS

a divide among employee labor unions and led Sgt. Mike Sobek, the

Intro

2014

Readers' Poll Winners

2013

Arts & Culture

2012

Goods & Services

2011

president of the San Leandro Police Officers Association, to

unequivocally say, "We support anybody but Stephen Cassidy. He is not

a friend of the POA."

Starosciak, herself, has also gotten into hot water with the police union.
After she won their backing in September, the union went to the
extraordinary measure of splitting its endorsement with Santos after
numerous public statements made by Starosciak angered union brass.
Privately, members say they've become fed up with comments
contradicting a pledge during the interview process to protect police
pensions.
Some have taken notice of Cassidy's interesting gambit catering to the
anger-driven segment of the electorate typically associated with the
right this election season. Such a maneuver is risky in Democraticdominated San Leandro, but Cassidy denies such a strategy is being
deployed. "I'm courting everyone," he said. "I'm not focusing on any
group."
Rapper-turned-community activist Sara Mestas joined the race in
May without any political experience aside from her tireless work to
help reinstate school crossing guards to the city budget over the past two
years. But her campaign has languished without hardly any funding,
although she has lately become quite an ally to Santos in procuring
first- and second-place votes. John Palau, on the other hand, is the
sideshow. During a National Night-Out block party a week before the
filing period ended, neighbors encouraged him to run. That is just about
all the city has seen of Palau other than quipping during a forum last
month that he would favor clearing the entire city and bringing back
native cherry trees. We think he was joking.
In the two contested city council races, school trustee Pauline Cutter
is facing San Leandro businesswoman Corina Lopez in District 5,
which represents the north side surrounding city hall. This race to
replace termed-out Councilman Bill Stephens is likely San Leandro's
most contested battle. By most observations the laconic Cutter has
served competently over the past eight years, if not with great visibility.
Despite serving on the school board, her support of the deposed and
controversial former superintendent has sullied support from the
teachers' union leading them to endorse her opponent. Lopez has
impressed many during two strong performances at well-attended
candidate forums. In a highly diverse city where Latinos make up
nearly a quarter of the population, this growing demographic
nonetheless lacks a foothold on the city council or school board. Both
candidates say reinvigorating the city's depressed downtown with
restaurants and retail spots is a priority. "We need to make our
downtown a destination," Cutter said last month.
San Leandro's patron saint of good health and urban walkability is
undoubtedly Councilman Michael Gregory, who faces former
Oakland School Trustee David Anderson. The District 1 representative
clearly abides by his support of San Leandro's noted Transit-Oriented
Development strategy. It is not uncommon to see Gregory, clad in
business suit and helmet, riding his bicycle on city streets. Gregory has
not shied away from running on the current administration's record,
including the rebuilding of its downtown and the new Kaiser
Permanente slated to open in 2013. Anderson has become increasingly
critical of two of Gregory's pet projects in District 1: saving San
Leandro Hospital from closing, and searching for dollars to run the
recently constructed, but unused, Senior Community Center. The
facility for seniors has become a white elephant of sorts and source of
local consternation. "It is appalling to build a $15 million senior center
without a budget to run it," Anderson said last month.

People & Places

2010

Restaurants & Bars

2009

Sports & Leisure

2008

Categories We Didn't
Think Of

2007

Readers Say The

Darndest Things

2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

Despite the contentious nature of this fall's election, little stands to

change. Without a return of steady streams of revenue and economic
growth, San Leandro, like many cities, is bracing for tough times ahead
no matter who wins this November.
Contact the author of this piece, send a letter to the editor, like us on Facebook,
or follow us on Twitter.
More News
Tags: News, Elections 2010, Tony Santos, Shelia Young, Sara Mestas, Michael Gregory,
San Leandro Hospital
Old Conflicts Die Hard in Dist

Mark Twain Motherlode Festival

COMMENTS

Subscribe to this thread:

By Email

With RSS

Add a comment

Anonymous and pseudonymous comments will be removed.

Subscribe to this thread
Post Comment

READERS ALSO LIKED

AUTHOR ARCHIVES

The Fight For Safer Surgeries at

Highland Hospital
A group of anesthesiologists say the
public hospital has failed to address major
patient safety problems and has
retaliated against doctors for speaking up.
by Sam Levin

The Race for State Senate District 9 Is

Leaning Left

The race for state Senate District 9 pits

liberal against liberal.
by Steven Tavares
Plainclothes Cops Monitor Renters at
Alameda Council Meeting

City officials cited public safety concerns

for their unusual decision to assign
plainclothes officers to keep tabs on
Alameda Poised to Become Next California
renters, but activists say the move could
County to Ban Fracking
have a chilling effect on speech.
While there is no immediate local threat,
activists view county ban as part of broad by Steven Tavares
strategy leading to statewide prohibition.
More
LATEST IN NEWS

by Jean Tepperman
East Bay Environmentalists at Odds Over
Future of Eucalyptus Trees

Two often likeminded, eco-friendly

contingents debate whether to cut or
preserve forests.
by Alex Barreira
Thousands of Black Lives Matter Activists
Shut Down Oakland Freeway, Vandalize
Police Headquarters

Activists promise additional protests

despite police killings in Dallas.
by Nick Miller
More

About Us | Advertise | National Advertising | Jobs | Newsletters & eLerts | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Report a Problem | RSS | Contact Us | Site Map |
Your Profile | Check Out Food, Music and Arts in Other Cities
2016 East Bay Express All Rights Reserved
Powered by Foundation