Charlene Wang
Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – Oakland City Council At Large Candidate Charlene Wang was featured as part of a special post on the At Large candidates running in the 2024 Election in The Oaklandside. In order to better present Charlene separate from her challengers, this “breakout” post was created by Zennie62Media, Inc, at the request of the Charlene Wang Campaign. Zennie62Media, Inc. is Digital Marketing and Content Development Consultant to the Charlene Wang Campaign. Some changes to the text were made for search engine optimization purposes.
Charlene Wang works for the Environmental Protection Agency as a civil rights advisor. She previously worked as a Consumer Affairs Commissioner in Alameda County and was on the board of directors for the Oakland-based nonprofit Family Violence Law Center. Wang was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Department of Transportation where she helped launch a program to integrate communities split by highways. This includes two projects in Oakland, one of which aims to reconnect West Oakland to downtown.
“There are just a lot of opportunities that can be leveraged to bring not only better infrastructure, but better jobs and opportunities for Oaklanders,” Wang said.
Charlene Wang Believes Oakland Can Trim Its Budget By Reducing Overhead
She believes the city can reduce budget costs by removing overhead in different departments and finding smarter ways to deliver services. As an example, Wang said the city is behind schedule on paving streets, partly because the Department of Transportation lacks enough staff to oversee paving contracts. She said centralizing contracting would prevent delays due to understaffing. Wang also sees opportunities in potentially merging departments with similar missions, such as DOT and Public Works. Mayor Sheng Thao initiated a similar plan for several departments as part of her biannual budget in 2023. It’s unclear how much that has saved the city.
Like other candidates, Wang said the city needs an audit of its finances, specifically in departments and contracts. She said the city should develop metrics for evaluating outcomes, and if any program is not delivering, “we should look at it seriously for cutting.”
“Long-term, there just needs to be a lot of economic development that should generate tax revenue,” Wang said, adding that the city should also apply to more grant programs and find tax credits that can supplement revenue.
Ms. Wang Says Oakland’s Police Force Is Too Small
Like other candidates, Wang believes Oakland’s police force is too small compared to other cities, which she said has led to an “unacceptable level of service” when it comes to the time it takes for officers to respond to high-priority calls. Wang wants the city to hire more police from Oakland, and to take advantage of state legislation that permits California cities to hire undocumented immigrants as police officers.
“I think not only having DACA people enroll in the police department will make Oakland safer as a whole, it will also ensure undocumented communities in Oakland feel safe to call the police,” Wang said.
Wang would also advocate for stronger civilian oversight of OPD. Citing recent reports about internal affairs failing to hold police officials accountable for lapses in discipline, Wang said the city needs to civilianize this role. Currently, the Police Commission’s civilian investigators examine allegations of police misconduct, but they’re doing this alongside OPD’s internal affairs division.
Wang acknowledged that it will take time to hire officers, and that as a councilmember she would go to local schools and colleges to encourage young people to apply. The city should also make work easier for existing police employees by investing in tech tools like Flock cameras, speed cameras, GPS decoys, and other tools.
Oakland is already expanding the kinds of surveillance tools it deploys, including recently adding hundreds of license plate readers with help from the state.
Candidate Wang Wants To Reduce Oakland Police Officer Paperwork
Wang also wants to free officers from some of the reporting obligations they have under the negotiated settlement agreement, the reforms OPD agreed to in 2003 after a gang of West Oakland cops was fired and criminally charged for beating up people and planting drugs on them. She believes less paperwork would allow officers to spend more time in the community.
“It’s not that I don’t think we should do the documentation — we should absolutely comply with the NSA and meet those obligations so we can get out from under federal oversight,” Wang said. She said the city could employ transcription software to make it easier for officers to file reports.
Wang said Oakland has failed to build housing for working class and middle-income residents. She wants the city to explore creating an inclusionary zoning policy that, combined with upzoning, would make it easier for developers to build homes affordable to this demographic. Oakland’s current strategy uses impact fees — fees developers pay into a fund that can be used for affordable housing projects elsewhere in the city. Wang added that impact fees currently collected from developers remain useful for subsidizing affordable housing for low-income residents. Inclusionary zoning is something city staff have started exploring.
Charlene Wang Wants To Overhall Oakland’s Approach To Homelessness
Wang said she has issues with the existing system for homeless assistance in Oakland. She described the system as requiring people to sit on a waiting list for a long time before they qualify for housing, which puts them at greater risk of developing PTSD, substance use issues, and other problems. Instead, Wang believes it makes more sense to prioritize interventions to help people who are on the brink of living on the streets due to one-time economic events, such as losing a job or experiencing a significant rent increase.
“The whole point is to ensure they don’t become chronically homeless,” Wang said. “Link them up with jobs, for example, cleaning up trash in the city, clean up graffiti, plant trees, fill potholes, do some of the Public Works work we need anyway.”
For Oakland’s economy, Wang wants to focus on bringing manufacturing jobs back to Oakland, specifically in renewable energy and clean transportation. She pointed to Fremont, which she said has enjoyed a green manufacturing boom, and suggested the same could be done in East and West Oakland, where residents need good paying jobs. She would also pursue an initiative to give out tax credits to encourage entrepreneurs to set up shop in communities of color.
“We do want to pursue development of new businesses that can ultimately grow our tax revenue pie, and also make it easier for people to build wealth and seek the American dream,” Wang said.