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On the eve of the final campaign weekend, the city of Oakland issued a press release misleadingly claiming dramatic improvement in the condition of its roads and hyping a city infrastructure tax on Tuesday’s ballot.
Voters should not be swayed by this calculated deception. They should reject Measure U, an ill-planned program that would irresponsibly saddle property owners with more than $1 billion of tax debt over the next four decades.
In the release, issued at 4 p.m. Friday, Mayor Libby Schaaf walks right up to the legal line for use of taxpayer funds for political purposes. And the numbers cited, designed to support her claim that voters should approve another costly infrastructure bond, are taken out of context and hide the city’s failure over the past six years to make significant progress repairing Oakland streets.
Oakland’s road improvement program is funded by Measure KK, a 2016 voter-approved infrastructure bond and tax plan. Schaaf and other city officials argue that they need more money from a second bond, the one on Tuesday’s ballot, to continue the program.
“Measure U’s passage will enable Oakland to continue this accelerated paving schedule,” Schaaf says in the release, stopping just short of explicitly saying that Oakland residents should vote for the measure. Use of public funds or resources for direct election advocacy is illegal.
The press release is pegged to a Metropolitan Transportation Commission report issued Monday that shows Oakland with the Bay Area’s second-best improvement from 2020 to 2021 in its road condition index.
What the press release fails to mention is that in the prior two years, despite funding from Measure KK, Oakland was tied with three other cities for the third-worst deterioration of its roads. And that the city’s road condition rating of 57 in 2021 was barely better than the 55 in 2016, when voters passed Measure KK, which had $350 million for road improvements.
The 100-point road condition index is a metric used by public works officials that evaluates the overall condition of city streets. Below 50 is considered poor. From 50-70 is considered fair. From 70-100 is considered good or very good.
From 2016-21, the yearly index scores for Oakland were 55, 52, 55, 52, 49 and 57, according to MTC data. The data collected by MTC is self-reported by the cities.
The MTC report was released on Monday. Schaaf and Oakland officials could have issued the press release anytime during the week and they could have provided honest context. They chose not to. Instead, they dropped the press release right before the final weekend of campaigning, apparently hoping that it would get picked up by media outlets but not scrutinized.
Scrutiny would show that, after promising six years ago to repair most city streets with Measure KK funds, they have made little progress. And now city officials are looking for another bond measure that would recklessly saddle future generations with debt.
Voters should not let a misleading press release divert their attention from the big picture. They should reject Measure U.
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