https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn5TF3c0xmM
Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – On the day where Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee does her controversial-but-sold-out Inauguration Party in Jack London Square, the black woman who was called “Most Popular In Oakland City Hall” by Oakland Magazine in 2015, sits at home recovering from a broken ankle, and with her family, all trying to process why still-new Chief Administrator Jestin Johnson would terminate her as she’s recovering from the broken ankle he knows she has.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee could turn around this sad and not-needed event of firing LaTonda Simmons by firing Jestin Johnson and hiring her to replace him. Firing Jestin Johnson would clear out someone that previous Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao wanted to terminate because of their reported involvement in the actions that led up to the FBI’s indictment against Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and California Waste Solutions execs David Duong and his son Andy Duong.
A source tells Zennie62Media that as a part of his “process” toward getting hired to be Chief Administrative Officer, Jestin Johnson had to meet members of the Duong Family and get their blessing. Also, Zennie62Media learned that Sheng Thao offered the Chief Administrative Officer Job to LaTonda Simmons, then rescinded it, then hired Jestin Johnson and promoted G. Harold Duffy.
The Zennie62Media source says “Zennie, this is deeper than you can imagine”.
And that’s because many claim that LaTonda Simmons was not involved in “Sheng’s Game” as the FBI Indictment Story is called, and if she were CAO, she may have saved Oakland, and Sheng, from the embarrassing legal entanglement that unfolded. That observation of what LaTonda may have done as CAO points to why she was so popular in 2015: she proved she cared about Oakland and Oaklanders as a public servant.
In the Oakland Magazine article written by Steven Tavares (yes, the same blogger who this vlogger has been at odds with for a good set of reasons, but, hey, he wrote the story and, by the grace of God, I found it buried in the Wayback Machine so I’m gonna use it), LaTonda Simmons was called most popular because, well, I’ll refer to Tavares story here:
From Oakland Magazine “The Most Popular Person at Oakland City Hall? Oakland City Clerk LaTonda Simmons has made city government more accessible” March 3rd, 2015.
Her late father owned a glass company in Oakland that was contracted to replace broken windows at City Hall following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. “I’m connected to it a little more personally than anyone could ever imagine,” Simmons said. “It’s endearing for me to sit in City Hall everyday and look up at the windows and know my dad restored them.”
The job of city clerk is not glamorous. Essentially, its role is made up of three duties: record-keeping, compiling and maintaining council agendas, and performing elections every two years. The city clerk must also stay neutral. “I’m the person who has the duty to tell it like it is,” Simmons said. “It gets interesting, because the clerk gets to tell everybody no.”
More than a decade ago, government transparency in Oakland was nowhere near where it is today. Agenda reports were not available online, for instance, and requesting and receiving public information was often an onerous task. A self-described techie, Simmons said she looked for ways to improve transparency online. “That’s sort of been my entire theme since I’ve been here,” she said.
Simmons pushed to wean the city’s large bureaucracy off an almost insatiable taste for paper by moving documents online. “In the past, it was only a meeting if you had a binder and a bunch of papers,” she joked. A 24/7 clerk’s office, as Simmons puts it, followed. In fact, public access to information in Oakland is unrivaled among Alameda County cities and more improvements are coming, she said.
Was LaTonda Simmons Fired By Johnson Because She Has Something On Jestin Johnson?
Oakland CAO Jestin Johnson’s firing of LaTonda Simmons comes with two major questions: what does Ms. Simmons know about Johnson that would spook Mayor Lee if she found out, and is Johnson concerned that Mayor Lee would immediately pick LaTonda over him, once Barbara met her?
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee has not personally sat down and talked with LaTonda Simmons and did not do so during her campaign run. If Mayor Lee had talked to Ms. Simmons, she would learn about her glorious reputation – and also quite possibly about a rumored violation of the Oakland City Charter on the part of Mr. Johnson.
Yes. According to sources that wish to remain anonymous, one main reason they believe Jestin Johnson fired LaTonda Simmons was because she discovered he committed a violation of the Oakland City Charter.
Stay tuned.