Community Backlash at Ramachandran on Cultural Affairs Manager Freeze, Budget
Despite a hasty end to the biennial budget process earlier this month, and the subsequent cancellation of an already scheduled additional budget meeting that would have happened last week, the budget battle isn’t over yet. Members of the public who felt blind-sided by the quick passage of the budget in a morning meeting several weeks ago lined up during public comment Tuesday to have their say. There was no budget item on the agenda, nor one that addressed the most salient issue for speakers, the budget’s freezing of the Cultural Affairs Manager position. But dozens of residents took to the City Council podium to complain about the freeze and the rushed budget process.
Speakers especially zeroed-in on CM Janani Ramachandran who promoted the freezing of the Cultural Affairs Manager position as the elimination of an unnecessary position “making more than the Mayor” in her dais remarks and on social media. Reaction to Ramachandran’s role also in pushing past Brown’s last-minute attempt to save the position was notable.
Homegrown musical artist Kev Choice criticized Ramachandran’s dismissal of the role.
“It was said that the Cultural Affairs Commission manager makes more than a mayor, which is not true—[the manager] makes up to $170,000 per year,” Choice said, noting that the higher figure is the total funding package with benefits.
“The process was rushed. A lot of people didn't even know how to [speak out for] amendments. So please give us a fair process and bring that manager position back,” Choice added.
Cat Brooks, whose organization, APTP, helped organize the callout, addressed her comments to Ramachandran directly.
“There is nothing that I detest more than an elected official who thinks the people are stupid. And if you saw District 4 Janani Ramachandran’s video on Instagram, then you know that she thinks we are stupid, that we are too simple to read legislative language…restore the 300K to unfreeze the arts and cultural manager immediately, stop lying to the people. Move the OPD vehicle contract off consent and into public debate…and invest in culture. Cut the cops,” Brooks said.
Another speaker, in the tweet below, suggested that Ramachandran’s antagonism to the role began in an interpersonal conflict over a member of her staff trying to join the Cultural Affairs Commission.
Things got uncomfortable for Ramachandran yday, as one after another Oakland resident called her out for her work to freeze Cultural Affairs Dept [CAD]Mgr. A former Cultural Affairs staffer said Ramachandran cut the role as a vendetta against the former CAD mgr. pic.twitter.com/4hBCUAKMGG
— Jaime Omar Yassin (@hyphy_republic) June 18, 2025
Speakers also joined Brooks in criticizing the OPD rental car contract, which was approved by Council without discussion a little later.
“The top concerns of all small businesses is safety and holistic alternative strategies that don't call for more police. With the council's proposal to invest $4 million in undercover car rental and OPD, this is not what our workers, storefronts and neighbors need to feel safe. Unfreeze the arts and culture, move the OPD vehicle contract of consent into public debate and invest in culture, not cops,” Jesse of the Real People’s Organizing Collective said.
About 2 dozen speakers focused on the Council’s cultural affairs budget decision, but CM responses were spare—at least partially because there was no agendized item to discuss, leading to concerns about violating the Brown Act. CM Brown in particular struggled to address the Cultural Affairs issue after Council President Jenkins tried to shut down her comments, noting the Brown Act. But Brown still managed to commit to finding a solution to the Cultural Affairs Manager funding issue, noting that the position may already be funded until November, and could be extended.
“I am actively trying to ensure that this position is being funded,” she told attendees.
CM Carroll Fife picked up on the criticism of the rushed budget, noting she did not have the opportunity to participate for most of the discussion because her partner had been in a car accident.
“I also want to have a conversation about amending the budget…I was not able to participate in the budget process last week because my partner was in a car accident, and I will continuously work with the arts community to make sure, one way or another we get that item funded,” Fife told speakers.
Ramachandran, for her part, did not address any of the comments or issue.
Unusual Becker Boards Contract Passes at Council
A second contract with Becker Boards to build and maintain an additional 5 digital billboards along Oakland’s freeways was approved Tuesday. The contract differs from the previous Becker contract iteration passed by Council unanimously in 2023. The previous contract allowed Becker and a partner, Outfront, to build five signs each, with a promise of dismantling 50 signs across the City, all of them apparently owned by Outfront. The new contract passed Tuesday, would allow Becker to build another five signs, all of them destined for placement along Oakland's freeway areas, with an unusual promise to purchase and dismantle 11 existing billboards Becker currently does not own.
The 2023 contract with Becker and Outfront was heavily criticized by the ALCO Grand Jury in its 2023-24 report. The Grand Jury described an untransparent, biased process that favored Becker. During the lead up to the 2023 contract from 2020 on, Becker had lobbied Council members, the City Administration, Mayor and Planning Commissioners to change Oakland’s billboard ordinance to allow billboards to be constructed without tearing old ones down in 2020 and 2021—Becker had no billboards in Oakland and thus couldn’t get into the market. CMs apparently helped with that effort, but it failed. Becker continued to vigorously lobby Council members and latched on to a new strategy partnering with Outfront and offering to subsidize key local non profit organizations—several of which had relationships with at least one City Council member—as part of a community benefits promise should the Becker contract be approved.
The deal allowed Becker and Outfront to build 5 new signs each, with the commitment of removing 50 existing ones, all of which were apparently owned by Outfront. The promise of subsidizing well known non-profit organizations with significant relationships to the City—often go-to City service providers—was clearly a pivotal selling point for the deal. Representatives of those organizations, which also receive free advertising on the billboards, were out again to continue supporting Becker on Tuesday.
Along the way in 2023, Council members rejected another contract with Clear Channel that Economic and Workforce Development [EWD] staffers demonstrated would have been far more lucrative for the City over the four decade span of the terms—staff argued that the difference in revenue would be sufficient to contribute the same level of funding to the organizations as promised by Becker, with significant cash left over. Staff also rebutted the Becker presentation's main claims about the viability of the Clear Channel proposal, but the Council never discussed those findings before awarding the contract to Becker and Outfront.
ALCO Grand Jury criticized the process as untransparent, and noted Noel Gallo, one of the primary movers of the legislation, had family ties to organizations that would receive funding from Becker. The City dismissed most of the recommendations and findings in a required response last year.
Becker’s new contract passed on Tuesday lacks the partnership of Outfront, which has returned to being a Becker competitor for the new contract. But the fact remains that Outfront and Clear Channel currently own the majority of billboards in Oakland and Becker owns only the five it placed through the 2023 contract.
The new contract has other novel elements. The first year profit of a little over 2 million dollars is already written into the second year of Oakland’s biennial budget. But since Becker hasn’t yet acquired the land to build those signs, and CalTrans and City of Oakland must approve them, the structures may not go into operation by September 2026, the deadline for inclusion in the 26-27 budget revenues.
The contract also allows Becker 15 years to acquire and dismantle the 11 exchange billboards—which means that for a decade and a half, Oakland could have more billboards instead of fewer, the antithesis of Oakland’s laws meant to reduce billboard proliferation. If Becker can’t acquire and dismantle eleven billboards, it will have to dismantle those built through the 2023 agreement—but only after 15 years have passed.
Council discussion on the deal was again spare. CM Charlene Wang and Ramachandran asked several questions about light pollution and legal liability for distracted driving, respectively, but not on the deal itself. They were told that special louvres cut sideways emitting light, and that the contract indemnifies the City from liability.
CM Fife continued expressing concerns in light of the Grand Jury report, and says she has concerns about the participation of the CED committee and the budget creation.
“I'm asking us, as we were dinged and chastised by the Alameda County grand jury already on this very issue, to slow down the process. We just heard from dozens of residents of the city who asked us to slow the process for the budget that was rushed…I have serious concerns about having to potentially re-debate this issue, as well as the potential for another grand jury investigation,” Fife said.
Fife and Jenkins both voted no on the item—a surprise since Jenkins is an ally of Link and Becker’s lobbyist, Isaac Kos-Read—but the item still passed.
Campaign Reform Act Lacks Any Amendments, Despite Claims by Jenkins That Accompanied Rush to Pass Legislation
Council President Jenkins claimed there would be a process to amend legislation he co-authored with Janani Ramachandran to update campaign financing rules as he rushed through his co-authored legislation public financing legislation. But notably, Tuesday's second reading of the legislation contained no amendments and no CM pulled it for further discussion.
Despite requests by Fife and Wang to add amendments to legislation, Council President Jenkins rushed through and called the vote, saying he preferred to have an offline amendment process.
"There's some follow up language that I need to work on with this piece, and then the three of us will work together to amend it," Jenkins said. It's unclear when the clean up and amendments would occur, but the legislation was introduced as is on the second reading.
CM Carroll Fife logged a second vote as nay after previously supporting the legislation, explaining the office fund limit had changed her mind about the legislation.
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