All I want to say now is THANK YOU to all the good people who have helped out with this campaign and who we have had the good fortune to meet on the way. 

We are holding a Greens Election Night Party, Nov 6th 2012 4506 Market Street (corner of Market & 45th),
at the campaign office of Theresa Anderson, who is running for At-Large City Council Member.
We will put on the food, drinks and snacks are pot luck.

I am Don Macleay of the Oakland Greens.

With your vote I can be your council member advocating fixes on our budget, our elections and our relationship with our police via charter amendments.

Oakland government is stuck in the mud. We need to fix HOW we work at City Hall, not just have new faces working the same old way that has failed us so badly. If you vote for me you are voting to make our youth a priority and to make the promises of Measure Y a reality. I will be a determined voice for reform of our budget and our money-soaked elections. 

• City government is what runs our police.
• City government is what decides what we can build and where.
• City government runs our schools, our port, our parks, libraries, development projects and more.
   
• In my view the city government is in the neighborhood business and I see three top priorities:

• First, prioritize the crisis facing our youth.
  It is a three-prong crisis of education, crime and employment.
  We need schools up, crime down and jobs in. 

• In this video I am interviewed for 5 mins about public safety
   
• Second, address the crisis that is our budget. We need to hold a budget convention and issue a new, comprehensive budget. On the one hand we need to deal with the pension entitlement problems and have a stable, reliable budget for basic operations from parks to police stations. On the other hand we need to incorporate all the measures, such as Measure Y (or BB) into the body of our budget and law.
   
• Third, we need to renew and modernize our democracy. Council districts should look like neighborhoods, (not gerrymandered districts that cut them up). We need the money out of our local election process. We need to formalize the relationship with our grass roots neighborhood groups devolving part of the city authority and budget to the local communities. Local government should be accessible to the average resident. What we have now is the same money/influence roadblocks, districts that manipulate the vote and entrenched incumbents.

• Personally I feel that I can bring a contribution to all of these things because:
   
• I am independent of the local political circles coming from a grass roots political background only.
   
• I have a life and work background that gives me insight into many of the issues of our day.  I was an industrial worker for 25 years and have worked in alternative energy allowing me to understand environmental issues very well.  I have worked much of my life overseas, speak fluent Spanish and have seen many of the different ways people have addressed the same problems we have here.  I am a union member and industrial worker by trade and currently run a small business in Oakland so I have seen the economy from a few different vantage points including renter and landlord.  I have also worked as a school teacher and have a child attending Public School. 
   
• I have worked on our local crime and school issues for a long time. My opinion has evolved and been informed by leading researchers in crime and education and community members from all over this city.  Because of what I have learned, I am committed to community policing and restorative justice. We have to break the vicious circle and stop putting our youth into this revolving door criminal justice system with no hope of reform. There are better ways. I want to make them City policy right now, without gimmicks or further delays.
   
• Nobody is going to give us a reformed Oakland; we need to make it ourselves. We do not need the campaign advertisements or the career politicians, all we need is to make up our minds and vote. If this attitude and these views make sense to you, then it would be an honor and a pleasure to be your member of council.
   

The success of the Richmond Progressive Alliance with their Green Party Mayor Gayle McLaughlin is an inspiration to me.  The city of Richmond CA has much in common with Oakland as a Bay Area city dealing with limited budgets, high crime, endangered schools, home foreclosures and high unemployment. There are no magic wand solutions to these problems, but Richmond has shown us that a determined city government can do a lot and make a big difference.

San Francisco, San Jose and other local California governments have successful programs that we in Oakland should be taking a closer look at.  Most of the ideas I propose have been “borrowed” from other places that seem to be doing a better job than we are.

I am very grateful to be endorsed by Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and even more grateful to her and other members of the Richmond Progressive Alliance for their advice. 

I am also endorsed by and advised by many active local residents and:
The Oakland Education Association, The Alameda Co. Green Party, the Alameda Co. Peace and Freedom Party, Former council member, mayoral candidate Wilson Riles.

           Macleay for Oakland City Council Dist 1 2012
Feel free to contact me with you ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns at any time
(510) 290-1200   -        don@oaklandgreens.org     -      http://oaklandgreens.org/don/
P.O. Box 20299 Oakland, CA, 94620 - FPPC # 1347517

Green Party
of Alameda Co.    

Oakland Greens

In 2010 I ran for Mayor of Oakland, the web site for that can be found here