I was elected to restore normalcy to our beloved city. Accordingly, I am herewith instructing all city departments to cease to have any communications whatsoever with Mr. Robert Warshaw, the federal monitor who has overseen the Oakland Police Department for longer than many Oakland residents have been alive.
Among the city departments that are impacted are the Mayor’s office, the city Administrator, the city Treasurer, the City Council, the City Attorney, the City Administrator, and the Finance Department.
The City of Oakland from this moment forward will cease to pay Mr. Warshaw for anything connected with his role as monitor.
The City of Oakland no longer recognizes the validity of Mr. Warshaw in overseeing anything in Oakland, including our valued Police Department.
Should Mr. Warshaw choose to challenge my decision juridically, let me assure him that we will see him in Court.
Whatever validity Mr. Warshaw had fifteen or twenty years ago no longer exists. Mr. Warshaw has proven that he is interested in prolonging his overlordship for one reason only: not to improve the Oakland Police Department, not to reduce crime in Oakland or improve public safety, but to perpetuate his $1 million salary for as long as he can. This has been known to Oakland government officials, including many of my predecessors as Mayor, for a very long time. But none of them had the moral courage to stand up to this bully.
That has now changed. There’s a new mayor in town, and for the first time, the interests of the People of Oakland will be represented fiercely. Not the bureaucrats or the pettifogging ideologues at the U.S. Department of Justice who continue to abide by Mr. Warshaw’s antics, but the law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of Oakland.
I will remind Mr. Warshaw that the U.S. Department of Justice now has entirely new management. DOJ is no longer in the old defund-the-police “equity” racket. I do not expect my termination of Mr. Warshaw’s services to be challenged by DOJ; indeed, there are many within DOJ who will be glad to see Mr. Warshaw gone.
I also today issued an order for an independent commission to investigate each and every so-called “anti-violence” program in Oakland. We must and will determine how much waste, fraud and abuse exists in these programs, which in my opinion are useless and merely absorb money that could better be invested in our Police and Fire Departments.
I am also issuing a Directive instructing all city-funded activities to be race neutral going forward. There can be no rational reason for funding that is preferentially awarded to groups or organizations based on skin color. In fact, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that such funding violates the U.S. Constitution. Oakland is a rainbow coalition of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual preference and national background. We shall be a meritocracy. No longer will it be tolerable for government to prefer any particular group over all others.
Thank you, and may God bless Oakland!
Steve Heimoff