Kick-off Meeting Report

               Our first meeting was on Thursday, August 27. We had nearly 100 Oaklanders in attendance, with high levels of energy and interest in each of the subgroups. The comments we heard throughout the evening were generally positive. During and after the meeting we heard some constructive ideas about what we can do better / differently in the future, and we'll try to be mindful of these; we have lots to learn.

               Special thanks go out to St. Theresa's Church and Father Patrick Goodwin for use of the space, to Bakesale Betty's for the terrific ginger snaps, and to folks who came from neighborhoods across town. We'll be picking locations in as many different neighborhoods as possible for future meetings.

               The sections that follow will give brief summaries of what happened during each of the sub-group meetings, and then address what happens next. Presently, the ad hoc leadership of Make Oakland Better Now! consists of the sub-group leaders (Jim Blachman, Steve Shane, Lauren Doliva, Sara Wood-Kraft), Sheryle Bolton from the Communications Committee and Bruce Nye. That will likely change over time as Make Oakland Better Now! becomes more structured, but for the time being, the references to ÒweÓ below refer to that group.

Public Safety

               Public Safety spent much of its time collecting areas of concern, which seemed to naturally group into three major areas: (a) Department (Police, Fire, etc.) strategy, priorities, resources, budgets & practices; (b) Client service and community relations; and (c) People & organization (leadership, structure, recruiting, training, management and review).

We had a fair amount of discussion concerning the distinctions between where a citizen's group can or should have an impact (e.g., policy matters, end results and metrics) vs. areas where it cannot have an impact (e.g., areas where accountability is hampered by personnel/privacy laws, department micro-management, etc.). The group now needs to define the key issues in each area, take on the research process necessary to better understand potential positions in each area, and propose city government goals in each area.

Accountability / Budget

               While the subgroup has a long list of issues / areas of interest, they fall into three large areas:

(a)    To what extent does the city's budget document publicly and comprehensibly reveal how the city prioritizes its spending, and how can it do a better job?

(b)    Does the city's current budget process make sense, should the process be revised, and if so how; if not, how should it be revised (e.g., zero-based budgeting or other approaches)?

(c)    The group needs to have an overall understanding of the current budget in order to aid MOBN as a whole in making realistic recommendations.

Public Works/Infrastructure

The group identified a number of issues related to (a) maintenance and (b) development of the physical city's infrastructure. We are preparing and will circulate an on-line survey to go to MOBN membership and neighborhood group leadership to use in prioritizing these issues.

The group plans to educate ourselves regarding the top prioritized issues and then to develop a 'tool-kit' for discussion with candidates and elected officials, listing concerns, goals, and some proposed solutions, including possible funding sources.

What Happens Next?

               Membership: Make Oakland Better Now! currently has about 100 people on its e-mail list and more than 220 Facebook group members. There is obviously some overlap between those (we'll ultimately be getting some data base management help so we can identify the overlap), but if we consider all the folks who have either asked to be on the list or joined the Facebook group to be 'members,' our membership is in excess of 200 people. We now need to substantially increase our 'membership,' and we need to encourage members who couldn't make it last Thursday to affiliate themselves with at least one of the subgroups.

               Research: The three sub-groups are at somewhat different stages of issue identification, but all are headed in the same direction. We need to determine what and who are our best sources of information inside and outside city government. We then need to recruit sub-group members to pursue these sources – reading documents, interviewing sources, etc.. We are going to recruit at least one intern (and maybe as many as three) to participate in the process. And, taking a page from the Public Works sub-group's plan, we are going to survey our membership.

Although it will be a little more complicated than this, the survey will ask the following questions: (a) if we want to better understand issue X, what documents do you know of that we should be familiar with; (b) if we want to better understand issue X, who should we speak to (we already have a number of potential sources for each issue); and (c) when we talk to sources, what questions do you believe we should ask? We will also contact the staff of every city council member and give them the opportunity to answer the same questions.

We do not want to reinvent wheels. There are community activists, bloggers and others in our group who are way ahead of us on many of these issues, and we look to them for their knowledge and input. But we will also look to the group, and the larger community as a whole, for their input and fresh ideas.

What you can do now:

á        Please continue to invite friends, neighbors and others to join Make Oakland Better Now! either by e-mailing Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org or by joining the group on Facebook.

á        For those who were unable to attend the meeting last Thursday, please join a subgroup: Public Safety, Infrastructure, or Accountability/Transparency/Budget. At this point, the way to do that is to send an e-mail to Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org and – this is important – put one of the following words or phrases in the subject line: "Public Safety," or "Infrastructure" or "Accountability" (this will automatically direct your request to the right sub-group chair).

á        Respond to the surveys when you receive them, send them around to others; and

á        Get involved in the research effort. When the opportunity comes up (as it will soon), volunteer to dig in, read documents and participate in the interview process. With large numbers of participants, we shrink the tasks for everyone while becoming a powerful force in the City of Oakland.

Kick-off Meeting Report

               Our first meeting was on Thursday, August 27. We had nearly 100 Oaklanders in attendance, with high levels of energy and interest in each of the subgroups. The comments we heard throughout the evening were generally positive. During and after the meeting we heard some constructive ideas about what we can do better / differently in the future, and we'll try to be mindful of these; we have lots to learn.

               Special thanks go out to St. Theresa's Church and Father Patrick Goodwin for use of the space, to Bakesale Betty's for the terrific ginger snaps, and to folks who came from neighborhoods across town. We'll be picking locations in as many different neighborhoods as possible for future meetings.

               The sections that follow will give brief summaries of what happened during each of the sub-group meetings, and then address what happens next. Presently, the ad hoc leadership of Make Oakland Better Now! consists of the sub-group leaders (Jim Blachman, Steve Shane, Lauren Doliva, Sara Wood-Kraft), Sheryle Bolton from the Communications Committee and Bruce Nye. That will likely change over time as Make Oakland Better Now! becomes more structured, but for the time being, the references to ÒweÓ below refer to that group.

Public Safety

               Public Safety spent much of its time collecting areas of concern, which seemed to naturally group into three major areas: (a) Department (Police, Fire, etc.) strategy, priorities, resources, budgets & practices; (b) Client service and community relations; and (c) People & organization (leadership, structure, recruiting, training, management and review).

We had a fair amount of discussion concerning the distinctions between where a citizen's group can or should have an impact (e.g., policy matters, end results and metrics) vs. areas where it cannot have an impact (e.g., areas where accountability is hampered by personnel/privacy laws, department micro-management, etc.). The group now needs to define the key issues in each area, take on the research process necessary to better understand potential positions in each area, and propose city government goals in each area.

Accountability / Budget

               While the subgroup has a long list of issues / areas of interest, they fall into three large areas:

(a)    To what extent does the city's budget document publicly and comprehensibly reveal how the city prioritizes its spending, and how can it do a better job?

(b)    Does the city's current budget process make sense, should the process be revised, and if so how; if not, how should it be revised (e.g., zero-based budgeting or other approaches)?

(c)    The group needs to have an overall understanding of the current budget in order to aid MOBN as a whole in making realistic recommendations.

Public Works/Infrastructure

The group identified a number of issues related to (a) maintenance and (b) development of the physical city's infrastructure. We are preparing and will circulate an on-line survey to go to MOBN membership and neighborhood group leadership to use in prioritizing these issues.

The group plans to educate ourselves regarding the top prioritized issues and then to develop a 'tool-kit' for discussion with candidates and elected officials, listing concerns, goals, and some proposed solutions, including possible funding sources.

What Happens Next?

               Membership: Make Oakland Better Now! currently has about 100 people on its e-mail list and more than 220 Facebook group members. There is obviously some overlap between those (we'll ultimately be getting some data base management help so we can identify the overlap), but if we consider all the folks who have either asked to be on the list or joined the Facebook group to be 'members,' our membership is in excess of 200 people. We now need to substantially increase our 'membership,' and we need to encourage members who couldn't make it last Thursday to affiliate themselves with at least one of the subgroups.

               Research: The three sub-groups are at somewhat different stages of issue identification, but all are headed in the same direction. We need to determine what and who are our best sources of information inside and outside city government. We then need to recruit sub-group members to pursue these sources – reading documents, interviewing sources, etc.. We are going to recruit at least one intern (and maybe as many as three) to participate in the process. And, taking a page from the Public Works sub-group's plan, we are going to survey our membership.

Although it will be a little more complicated than this, the survey will ask the following questions: (a) if we want to better understand issue X, what documents do you know of that we should be familiar with; (b) if we want to better understand issue X, who should we speak to (we already have a number of potential sources for each issue); and (c) when we talk to sources, what questions do you believe we should ask? We will also contact the staff of every city council member and give them the opportunity to answer the same questions.

We do not want to reinvent wheels. There are community activists, bloggers and others in our group who are way ahead of us on many of these issues, and we look to them for their knowledge and input. But we will also look to the group, and the larger community as a whole, for their input and fresh ideas.

What you can do now:

á        Please continue to invite friends, neighbors and others to join Make Oakland Better Now! either by e-mailing Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org or by joining the group on Facebook.

á        For those who were unable to attend the meeting last Thursday, please join a subgroup: Public Safety, Infrastructure, or Accountability/Transparency/Budget. At this point, the way to do that is to send an e-mail to Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org and – this is important – put one of the following words or phrases in the subject line: "Public Safety," or "Infrastructure" or "Accountability" (this will automatically direct your request to the right sub-group chair).

á        Respond to the surveys when you receive them, send them around to others; and

á        Get involved in the research effort. When the opportunity comes up (as it will soon), volunteer to dig in, read documents and participate in the interview process. With large numbers of participants, we shrink the tasks for everyone while becoming a powerful force in the City of Oakland.