Lucky number seven

As mentioned by Mike McMahon, you can still ask a question to incoming City Manager John Russo over on In Alameda, he’s our Officially Speaking guest for this week.

Zennie Abraham on his City Brights blog on SFGate has a 40 minute interview with John Russo that he posted the other day.   The first part is all about Oakland and why John Russo has decided to move on from Oakland which is interesting but not necessarily topical about Alameda.   The end there are some very specific Alameda-centric questions and answers that I think folks might find worth noting.  The links will jump to direct time codes in the video that I am referring to.

When asked by Zennie Abraham what the first thing on John Russo’s agenda was when he comes to Alameda, he responded that filling all the interim positions with permanent employees in order to stabilize the City.  He points out that since 2005 Alameda has had seven City Managers, which at first I was taken aback by the number because it seemed rather inflated, but he’s not wrong:

1. Jim Flint
2. Bill Norton (Acting)
3. Debra Kurita
4. David Brandt (Acting)
5. Ann Marie Gallant (Interim)
6. Lisa Goldman (Acting)
7. John Russo

He constantly refers back to the idea of stabilizing the City and indicates that he is going to “reconstruct” the Executive Management team (essentially hire a permanent Fire Chief, Police Chief and fill the Economic Development vacancy)

The second item on his agenda is to capitalize on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory opportunity and promises to “pursue it like no other city in the East Bay.”   To move Alameda Point forward he says that his plan is to re-engage the federal government and re-open discussion about kick-starting base re-use in general.

When asked about changing the culture in Alameda, John Russo responds that Alameda City government needs to adopt the three words: Accountability, Responsiveness, and Transparency.    He discusses how performance measures for City Staff are “input based” as opposed to “output based.”   He says that in the next year he will walk the City Council through a process of changing performance measures for staff.   He also says that he will change the perception that there is a lack of responsiveness from City Hall to the public.  And he says that he will boost transparency of the City.  One method he is proposing is that by September the Council will be on a two -week agenda schedule for public notice purposes.   But he is quick to caveat that that by promising to “open up” City Hall that does not mean that everything will be taken to a vote of the public — something that he also stated in his interviews with Eve Pearlman over at Alameda Patch.

And, here’s what some people may really be interested in.   Zennie Abraham asks him directly about the charges that he “bought” the City Manager position by donating to City Council members campaigns.  John Russo responds by pointing out the cities in which he has made other political contributions.   He clarifies his policy of political contributions and that he doesn’t give money to local candidates in the City that he does business in and pointed out that he stopped endorsing and giving contributions to Oakland candidates when he became Oakland’s City Attorney.   He goes on for quite a bit about this for those that are interested and has some pretty strong words for those that believe that a small political contribution is enough to “buy” a City Manager seat.

John Russo also discusses the issue of the SunCal lawsuits and expresses the need for a permanent City Attorney to begin really tackling these issues.   He actually refers to the Exclusive Negotiation Agreement as an “engagement period,” marriage being the Disposition and Development Agreement, which Alameda did not have a signed and negotiated agreement with SunCal.   John Russo made clear that these lawsuits and determining the best course will be in the hands of the future City Attorney and the City Council.