{"slug": "will-oakland-council-members-cede-power-to-the-mayor-a-ballot-measure-hangs-in", "title": "Will Oakland council members cede power to the mayor? A ballot measure hangs in the balance.", "summary": "Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee secured a 5-3 City Council vote to advance a ballot measure that would grant her office veto power over legislation and control over hiring and firing department heads, significantly restructuring the city's governance. Some council members who supported the plan now express wariness about ceding their authority, with Councilmember Ken Houston threatening to campaign against the measure unless it undergoes heavy revisions before a final vote next week. The proposal, which would transform Oakland into a strong-mayor system similar to San Francisco's, could also complicate Lee's separate reelection bid by giving opponents ammunition to challenge her leadership.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...OAKLAND — City leaders here are already questioning the wisdom behind their recent decision to [advance a proposal by Mayor Barbara Lee](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/03/oakland-mayor-power-increase-election/) that would [strengthen the powers of her own office](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/02/10/oakland-strong-mayor-city/) and [transform how Oakland is run](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/06/06/oakland-barbara-lee-strong-mayor-government/).\n\nLee secured last week a 5-3 vote by the Oakland City Council in support of her plan. Following another possible vote next week, the council would place the sweeping changes to the city’s governance structure on the November ballot.\n\nEven some on the council who sided with Lee have expressed wariness about ceding much of their own power to the mayor.\n\nGrowing skepticism may shift loyalties ahead of what was supposed to be a procedural second vote next week, or possibly deprive Lee of crucial support needed to persuade voters in the fall election.\n\n“We’d just be babysitters under her plan, with no ability to do anything,” said Councilmember Ken Houston, who voted last week in favor of Lee’s proposed measure but now seeks heavy revisions ahead of the next vote.\n\nIf approved by voters, the proposal would grant Lee — and future mayors — the power to veto any city legislation, or even specific language in a city policy or budget plan. The mayor would have absolute legislative authority, despite not being required to attend public council meetings.\n\nLee, who is separately pursuing reelection in November, would also absorb many day-to-day responsibilities from the city administrator, gaining authority to hire and fire most of the city government’s department heads.\n\nIf the mayor does not fundamentally alter the plan, Houston warned, then “I might still vote for it, but I’ll definitely campaign against it before the election — and it won’t pass.”\n\nHouston’s desired revisions are so extensive that they may not be received positively by the mayor’s office, which declined an interview request.\n\nHe wants the mayor to sit on the dais with the rest of the council, bringing the top elected leader into regular view of the public. Houston also wants the council to hold direct authority over the city administrator, who is [hired by the mayor to run Oakland’s daily operations](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/17/oakland-jestin-johnson-resigns/) and oversee staff.\n\nUnder Lee’s proposal, the council could override a mayoral veto by a two-thirds decision, equivalent to six out of eight council votes. Houston wants that threshold lowered to five votes.\n\nWhat Houston seeks would bring Oakland closer to a traditional council-manager system, which exists in most California cities. Only very large cities, including San Francisco and New York, have strong-mayor models like the one Lee is pitching in Oakland.\n\nCouncilmember Zac Unger had sought to bring a competing council-manager proposal before voters, but failed to secure enough support from his colleagues. He dissented from last week’s vote, making clear his support for Lee as mayor while worrying aloud about the longer-term consequences.\n\nCouncilmember Carroll Fife, meanwhile, shares Houston’s rationale that voters should be allowed a say despite her own misgivings about centralizing power in a single individual.\n\nFife has another concern. The ballot measure, she said, could jeopardize Lee’s reelection bid, providing ample ammunition to her opponents in Oakland’s more fiscally moderate political ranks.\n\n“This is going to be another opportunity for (the mayor’s) opponents to spread misinformation about her being corrupt,” Fife suggested.\n\nLee already absorbed a political loss in this month’s election, when 55% of Oakland voters [rejected a parcel tax measure](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/05/oakland-tax-measure-e-fails/) for which the [mayor and her labor allies had campaigned aggressively](https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/05/15/oakland-mayor-barbara-lee-new-tax/). It was the first time that voters in this city shot down a new tax in 15 years.\n\nThe mayor has successfully built strong relationships with business executives and labor leaders alike, and so far no opponent has emerged as a credible threat to her reelection chances. But even some of her most ardent supporters appear silent on her proposed governance reforms.\n\nPamela Drake, a longtime activist in Oakland, called the mayor’s proposal to veto specific legislative line items the “most undemocratic process I’ve ever seen.”\n\n“Whether the mayor wants to or not, you’re supposed to seek a compromise,” said Drake, the politics chair of the Wellstone Club, a local progressive bastion. “With a line-item veto, you might as well throw up your hands and go home.”\n\nThe reform measure could not be more ironically timed.\n\nIn addition to running for reelection on the same ballot, Lee will also campaign to absorb more power a month after her immediate predecessor, former Mayor Sheng Thao, stands trial for charges of bribery and corruption.\n\nThao, who is accused by federal prosecutors of being bribed to handpick department heads in a scheme to funnel public money to a pair of businessmen, would likely have had an easier path to carrying out the plot were she a strong mayor.\n\nIn a concession to the council, Lee’s proposal would repeal a local law that disallows council members from superseding the administrator and giving orders to city staff. It is a restriction that Oakland’s elected leaders have long bemoaned.\n\nThis, along with Lee’s overall vision to have “the buck stop with the mayor” in Oakland, was enough to win a vote last week from Councilmember Charlene Wang, who offered a rare source of full-throated support for a strong-mayor system.\n\n“Everyone knows and has observed that the issues we have in this city are not legislative,” Wang said. “A lot of it falls on implementation. If the mayor is essentially the city administrator, she will feel that sense of urgency and accountability and dissatisfaction with city services.”\n\nLee has publicly chafed against the notion that her proposal amounts to a “power grab.” She has spoken adamantly about her intention to centralize accountability in a city where responsibilities are currently shared awkwardly between the mayor, council and administrator.\n\nOne former Oakland administrator, Steve Falk, had long called for Oakland to adopt the more traditional council-manager system. He briefly stood down last month and endorsed the council placing Lee’s measure on the election ballot so voters could decide on it.\n\nBut after gauging the reluctance among the council to support Lee’s plan, Falk is back to pushing in the opposite direction.\n\n“We’re urging the council at this point to go with their instinct, to vote with their conscience and to reject the strong-mayor system,” he said.\n\n*Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/will-oakland-council-members-cede-power-to-the-mayor-a-ballot-measure-hangs-in", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/11/oakland-strong-mayor-council-debate/", "published_at": "2026-06-11 22:28:06+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-11 22:58:31.310608+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Barbara Lee", "Oakland City Council", "Ken Houston"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/will-oakland-council-members-cede-power-to-the-mayor-a-ballot-measure-hangs-in", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/will-oakland-council-members-cede-power-to-the-mayor-a-ballot-measure-hangs-in.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/will-oakland-council-members-cede-power-to-the-mayor-a-ballot-measure-hangs-in.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/will-oakland-council-members-cede-power-to-the-mayor-a-ballot-measure-hangs-in.jsonld"}}