Historic Coliseum Sale Agreement Executed: AASEG Signs Purchase and Sale Agreement with A’s Friday, City of Oakland on Saturday
AASEG announced on Friday that it has signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement to buy the A’s 50% share of the Oakland Coliseum property. Then on Saturday night, Mayor Sheng Thao announced via social media that AASEG signed its much anticipated purchase and sale agreement with the City of Oakland for its corresponding share. The announcements came late into the night on both Friday and Saturday. Sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations told the Oakland Observer that in both cases, the City, A's and AASEG were confident as early as August 23 that the sales would be executed, but the complexity of the process caused the timeline to extend beyond the projected target dates to close the sale.
In her statement, Thao celebrated the fact that the deal was completed ahead of the deadline and said that the unified the site ownership would produce a "much needed and deeply deserved development," that would be felt in East Oakland for "generations to come".
AASEG's executed agreements with the co-owners of the parcel ends months of grueling uncertainty over the potentially transformative deal. The signed agreement suggests that the City will be able to avoid Oakland’s budget contingency plan—which would brownout 5 Fire stations and reduce the OPD budget for officers to 610, among many other cuts, if the $63 MM from the first payments of the sale weren't available beginning in September.
If the agreement continues to reflect the plan published in the City/AASEG Term Sheet, would commit AASEG to a $5 MM down payment due on signing, with $10 MM by 9/1 [a Sunday]. The schedule of payments in the agreement would have AASEG paying $63 MM by January. The rest of the purchase price would be paid after the City “defeases” its debt on bonds it took out to pay for Coliseum redevelopment in previous years in 2026.
According to a statement made by Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, some payments were made "immediately" by AASEG.
Thao, Bas, and Council members Kevin Jenkins, Carroll Fife, Rebecca Kaplan and Dan Kalb all expressed confidence that the deal would be executed on time, leading the four Council members to back Thao's proposal to rely on the sale for budget revenue, and to create a contingency in case it failed during budget negotiations in June and July. During budget negotiations, Kalb expressed confidence in the sale happening as planned, "I believe that will happen based on everything I've heard from all the parties," Kalb said.
A more official statement will be heard by the Mayor early this week, per sources.
Fair Political Practices Commission Fines Dreyfuss Associated Recall Group
The Fair Political Practices Commission [FFPC] fined “Supporters of Recall Pamela Price” aka, Reviving the Bay Area, a finance committee started by Philip Dreyfuss, for campaign finance law violations, according to an FPPC Report. Dreyfuss was a founding partner in the SAFE campaign finance committee primarily focused on raising funds to recall ALCO DA Pamela Price—his partner principals in the effort were Brenda Grisham, Carl Chan, and the contracted campaign accountant Sonia Hidalgo of Dean and Company. Several months later, Dreyfuss' name disappeared from the SAFE paperwork, as he founded another finance committee, Reviving the Bay Area along with Isaac Abid and contracted accountant Stacey Owens of S.E. Owens. As the Treasurer of record, Owens bears legal responsibility for the actions and is thus named in the documentation. The total fine is $3,700.
The Oakland Observer reported that RBA was potentially seeking to avoid campaign finance requirements in February, 2024.
At the center of the Price Recall violation is the apparent attempt to conceal the intent of the RBA committee. Dreyfuss and Owens, according to the complaint, should have changed the name of the organization and its designation as soon as it became clear that the committee would be primarily focused on the Recall. Primarily focused recall committees must place the words “recall” and the office and name of the party in the title of the committee. This is apparently why later, after it had already run afoul of the rules, RBA changed its name to Supporters of Recall Pamela Price.
Primarily focused committees also have quarterly, rather than semi-annual, reporting requirements—another violation found that the misidentified committee should have filed its report at the same time as SAFE for this reason. Had RBA/Supporters followed the rules it's been sanctioned for violating, reports would have been made clear much sooner that one individual, Dreyfuss, was responsible for a large part of the funding of signature gathering for the recall through RBA/Supporters.
Dreyfuss was also revealed to be the primary funder of the Thao recall several weeks ago through a warren of entities and individuals that the Oakland Public Ethics Commission argues worked in tandem to hide the origin of the funds.
Recalls-Linked East Bay Rental Housing Association Backs Bauters and Logan
The recall-linked East Bay Rental Housing Association [EBRHA]—whose Board officer Chris Moore has become the most recognizable face at Thao and Price recall events—has given $1K to John Bauters for his ALCO Supervisor run against Bas. EBRHA board officer Fred Morse also contributed $5K to Bauters. EBRHA’s donations join with a $2.5K contribution from the Oakland Police Officers Association in confirming Bauters’ role as a center-conservative foil to Bas’ progressive run. Bauters emerges from a relatively obscure role in Emeryville's government, characterized by social media posts focused mainly on pedestrian and biking infrastructure than policy.
EBRHA are also linked to a lawsuit against Realpage, which is being sued by tenant advocacy orgs as well as the federal government, according to a recent East Bay Times article. The tenant lawsuit refers to EBRHA as a "conduit of the cartel" of landlord interests and component of the price-fixing scheme enabled by the software.
The organization also gave the City of Oakland's maximum to Warren Logan, who seeks to unseat Carroll Fife.
Judge Denies Love’s Suit on Candidacy, Acknowledges Short Time Frame, but Finds ROV Followed Process
On Thursday, Judge Michael Markman ruled against D7 candidate Tonya Love in her suit to compel the City Clerk and Registrar’s office to certify her candidacy for the November 5 ballot. In her petition, Love argued that three of the 17 signatures thrown out by the Registrar and Clerk were actually valid, with only technical errors. If Love’s claims had been accepted, the three additional signatures would have qualified the 50 signature nomination threshold required by the County and the Registrar of Voters would have been required to add Love to the ballot before its August 30 deadline.
Love contends she was given an appointment to collect the signature documents 48 hours before the deadline, and was thus not given time to amend the minor problems that would have made the three signatures valid. The signatures were from normally qualifying sponsors, but two posted D7 addresses that were different from their voter registration. Another printed, rather than signed, their signature. The County’s Counsel Donna Ziegler argued that the ROV had followed the rules, and that other issues, such as the short timeline to fix problems or add signatures, were not in their control to change.
Love had been running for the at-Large seat when Treva Reid made her last-minute announcement that she won't run for a second term. Reid's announced departure made the contest to represent the district a truly open race after nearly three decades of Reid control. That prompted Love, a D7 resident, to forgo the at-large race with its dozen candidates and opt for D7—at the time of Reid’s departure only two other confirmed candidates were in the running, Merika Goolsby and Marcie Hodge. Love and other entering candidates had only five days to qualify for the ballot there, however. Love details in her suit that despite the short timeline, the clerk did not give her an appointment to pick up the required nomination forms until 48 hours ahead of the deadline.
The clerk only certified 47 of Love’s 67 signatures, three fewer than the required number. Love argued that there would have been 50 complying signatures, but the clerk’s office improperly discounted three signers. All three are registered voters residing in D7.
In denying the petition, Markman acknowledged that the two day time frame made it impossible to correct the simple errors, but that the ROV applied rules equally and accurately.
"There was just not enough time for Petitioner to collect additional signatures. The short timeframe presents challenges, but is not a grounds for revisiting the signature verification process. The signature verification process is intended to be uniform under California’s election regulations, and departing from that uniformity could have serious negative consequences."
Love posted the following note about the decision to her social media after the ruling:
Unfortunately, the Alameda Court did not rule in favor of my writ petition and I will not be running for Oakland City Council District 7. While we are disappointed by the court's decision not to place us on the ballot in November, I remain undeterred in my commitment to serving Oakland and our communities.
I want to emphasize my heartfelt thanks to staff from the City Attorney and the City and County Clerk's office for their patience and support during my appeal. I do not believe the people who work in those offices are at fault. They work very hard and should be commended. I have an enormous amount of respect for them and the work that they do.
My dedication to our city does not begin nor end with a campaign. There are many ways to effect change and ensure our voices are heard. I will continue to work alongside each of you, advocating for public health, safety, and equitable development in Oakland.
Our work together is far from over; it simply takes on a new form. I am committed to finding other capacities in which I can serve our community and support the values we hold dear. Thank you for your unwavering support and belief in our mission. Let’s continue to make a difference together, always with the community at the heart of our efforts. I will always have love for Oakland, that will never change.
It’s worth noting that both candidates who did apply and qualify after Reid’s announcement have connections with Reid and her family. Ken Houston is a long-time Reid ally and family friend, and received direct grants from Larry Reid’s office as well as having a relationship with Reid’s son, Taj. Iris Merriouns, a current D4 Chief of Staff, was Larry Reid’s Chief of Staff for over a decade until he retired. Houston also endorsed Hodge when she ran for the same office in 2020, and recorded a campaign video with her.
OPD Attrition Rate Increases
Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell revealed at the Thao Administration's Clean and Safe Oakland Town Hall that the City's effective staffing will be 689 as of this week. The number, when put in context with the OPD staffing after the most recent academy graduation in May, reveals increased OPD attrition in recent months. Documents presented to the Police Commission on May 23 stated that the OPD’s sworn staffing level at that time was 714—the current number represents a loss of 25 officers since then. OPD’s attrition usually proceeds at a normal rate of 3 to 5 per month, according to past OPD statements. But the drop from May indicates that the rate is averaging higher, around 7 officers per month. The higher attrition means that OPD may reach the 678 officers budgeted in Thao’s 24-25 budget before the next academy graduation in December* [25 officers are projected to graduate in late December]. With staffing levels potentially below 675 when the next academy graduates, OPD's staffing may not break 700 in January. The next academy afterward would not graduate before April, 2025, leaving several months of attrition in the meantime.
*budgeted officer levels are what the City expects to have paid by the end of the year for police officers. This number can vary month to month, and can be decreased, as revealed by Bradley Johnson at recent budget meetings, by strictly budgeting officers on leave with reduced wages that accrue to on-leave officers. At the end of the year, with all these variables of attrition and academy graduation, and a fluctuating police staffing level, the cost is expected to be the equivalent of paying for 678 officers.
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