Richard Raya on Crime, City Budget, Safeway: Oakland District 1 Council Candidates Speak on the Issues

Editor's Note: Rockridge Patch recently asked the seven candidates for the District 1 seat on the Oakland City Council the same three questions — about neighborhood safety, the city budget and the College Avenue Safeway. We also asked how long they have lived in District 1, which includes Rockridge, Upper Rockridge, Temescal, the North Oakland Hills, a portion of Montclair and other North Oakland neighborhoods. The District 1 seat is being vacated by long-time incumbent Jane Brunner, who is a candidate for Oakland City Attorney.

We are publishing the candidates' replies in the order received.

Today: Richard Raya (who was the first to respond). You may read his responses below. For more information on Raya and his positions on other issues, see his campaign website, www.rayaforoakland.com.

1. Public safety/neighborhood crime prevention: What, specifically, would you like to do to address District 1 residents' concerns about robberies, home burglaries and other public safety issues in Rockridge? Would this include increasing the number of Oakland police officers? If so, how would you pay for the increase?

Working with others on council, I will champion the implementation of CeaseFire in Oakland, a nationally recognized program that has dramatically reduced gun violence in cities across the country, including Boston, Cincinnati, part of Los Angeles, and Baltimore. CeaseFire is a relatively low-cost approach because it targets the small percentage of criminals committing most of the crimes, and leverages a vast array of existing resources by partnering with clergy, drug treatment providers, job trainers, probation, parole, district attorney, and even federal law enforcement. While focusing on the data and collaboration needed to fully implement CeaseFire — two skills I honed as budget director for the Alameda County Public Health Department — I will also work to increase the size of Oakland’s police force.

How will we pay for more police? I aim to unite Oakland leaders around an assertive, inclusive development plan that will create jobs, expand the tax base, and launch a new era of economic prosperity. Oakland is hot, and we need an environmentally sustainable development plan that reflects it.

Our city lies at the center of a thriving regional economy driven by a young workforce moving here from all over the country to join our knowledge and green tech sectors. We should build on the success of Uptown, and replicate the model of safe, walkable, mixed income, mixed use development in underinvested areas near downtown transit hubs. This plan should focus on four major public/private development projects, some of which are already in the pipeline: MacArthur Transit Village, Lake Merritt Station Area, Broadway transit corridor, and Telegraph Ave transit corridor between 19th Street BART and MacArthur BART. Some of these projects are farther along than others, but the bottom line is that, for investors, Oakland’s downtown transit hubs and corridors are a desirable place to be, and the city must bring community and labor together to take advantage of this window of opportunity.

As the only candidate with the support of business leaders, environmentalists, labor, and social justice groups, I am uniquely suited to bring Oaklanders together around a common vision for creating new jobs in our city. With smart budget management, Oakland can grow its way out of its problems in an environmentally sustainable way that respects our city’s historic character — but it needs the right leaders and the right plan to get there.

2. City budget: How would you address Oakland's city budget crisis? Would your plan include the possibility of lower pay and benefits for public safety employees? Are there specific city programs or services that you think could be cut or scaled back? Ones that you think should not be cut?

If elected, I will bring to the City Council a lifetime of experience balancing large government budgets and driving collaboration between local governments. These are the skills we need in Oakland to address our city’s budgetary challenges, and I am the only candidate in this race with this expertise.

I hope to bring to Oakland the same approach I used as budget director of the Alameda County Public Health Department, where I managed a $120 million budget and 600 employees. During the height of the Great Recession, my team found ways to save $6 million per year: When pressure mounted to cut vital programs like immunizations for children and counseling for young pregnant mothers, our careful planning allowed us to find solutions and maintain core services.

We did this not just by cutting — but through a balanced approach of minimizing expenditures and maximizing revenues. We minimized expenditures by freezing vacancies, and we maximized revenues by working with partners in state and federal agencies to identify sources of funding. Freezing vacancies is no small task, because it requires existing staff to figure out how to do more with less. But we found ways to do itby redesigning business processes, improving collaboration, and using new technology creatively.

Our success was built on simple recipe: Teamwork, communication, trust, and holding myself and others accountable to very clear goals. I hope to bring the same approach to Oakland’s City Council.

3. Safeway expansion: What's your position, if any, on the proposed expansion of the Safeway store at College and Claremont avenues?

I think it's vital that we continue to keep the community and Safeway involved in conversation about the College & Claremont project, especially because so many members of the community still don't support it in its current form.

This is the same approach I believe Oakland must take to all development: The historic character of a community should be valued and respected, and the community should play an active role in the development process. My job as a councilmember would be to make sure that the community is at the table for major projects so that developers and the city are responsive to community needs.

4. Biographical: How long have you lived in District 1? Feel free to mention any other specific activities/ties to Rockridge or the district as a whole.

My wife Marisa and I have lived in North Oakland for five years — and in Oakland for twenty years. As we have raised our four boys in a neighborhood near Rockridge, we’ve seen firsthand that North Oakland faces many of the same challenges as the rest of Oakland: Too much violent crime, not enough good jobs, and a school system that only graduates six out of every ten kids. Our city can — and must — do better.

Within a week of buying and moving into my North Oakland house, our home was burglarized. I immediately volunteered to be the Neighborhood Watch Block Captain, and became a regular attendee of our Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council. As a crime reduction and community building strategy, my neighbors and I adopted our local park, which the city had been neglecting. We hosted community clean-up days, coffee hours, and crop swaps for urban farmers. We built relationships between old residents and new residents, and helped to create a more vibrant, walkable neighborhood.

I love Oakland, and I'm proud to live in one of the most diverse, spirited cities in the world. That’s why I will not accept the status quo. Our city needs a relentless, collaborative effort to reduce crime, create jobs, and increase graduation rates. We also need a city government that is responsive to local business and accountable to residents.

I am the only candidate in this race with the experience and the vision to do this job right. My parents were farmworkers as children. I grew up on welfare, my family was homeless, and I dropped out of school. But thanks in part to California’s community college system, I got my life back on track: I went back to school and got into UC Berkeley, where I earned a B.A. in English and a Master’s in Public Policy.

Since graduating, I have devoted my career to making government work better so it can help others the way it helped me. I have more than 15 years of experience working in local government, managing large budgets and working as a bridge-builder with groups both in and out of government. Most recently, I served as budget director for the Alameda County Public Health Department’s, where I managed a $120 million budget and 600 employees — and found ways to save $6 million each year during hard economic times so Oakland could maintain vital services.

I have developed a plan to make our city safer and more prosperous, but none of these vital steps can happen without the right leaders in place. Oakland needs a City Council that can bring together community, business, labor, and police to address the city’s challenges. I remain the only candidate in this race with a track record of success doing just that.

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