.Thursday Must Reads: Blackwell Sought to Leave Oakland Last Fall; Oakland Council Bumps Warshaw’s Pay By $165,000

Stories you shouldn’t miss:

1. Oakland City Administrator Fred Blackwell, who is leaving this June to take over as CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, applied for the job last fall when he still was an assistant city administrator, the Chron and Trib$ report. Blackwell said he didn’t tell Mayor Jean Quan that he had applied for the other position when she promoted him to become Oakland city’s administrator a month ago, because he said he didn’t think he would get the San Francisco job. However, the San Francisco Foundation said it began to actively pursue Blackwell in January — before he accepted the city administrator’s position in Oakland. Quan, meanwhile, confirmed that she is appointing former Oakland City Manager Henry Gardner to take over on an interim basis from Blackwell in June.

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Robert Warshaw.
  • Robert Warshaw.
2. The Oakland City Council voted to give a pay raise of $165,000 to Independent Court Monitor Robert Warshaw — at the request of federal Judge Thelton Henderson, the Trib$ reports. The extra money is to compensate Warshaw for his expanded role of also acting as the Oakland Police Department’s compliance director. The city is now paying Warshaw and his team about $1.08 million a year.

3. The Richmond City Council voted unanimously to rescind its earlier decision to immediately evacuate a roach- and mold-infested public housing complex because it would cost about $700,000 to do so, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. Instead, the city plans to ask the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for funding to relocate the 130 residents of the housing complex.

4. Labor unions have pumped $335,000 into efforts to elect Dublin Mayor Tim Sbranti to the state Assembly — and to block Orinda Councilman Steve Glazer from winning the post, the Chron reports. Last year, Glazer pushed to ban transit strikes during the BART dispute.

5. Lowe’s hardware and garden stores were ordered to pay $18 million in penalties for illegally dumping hazardous and toxic materials in landfills throughout California, the Bay Area News Group$ reports.

6. And California prison officials have signed another contract with a private prison company, the LA Times$ reports. The new $9 million deal will house 260 female inmates at a private facility north of Bakersfield. About one-tenth of all state inmates are now in private prisons.

$ = news stories that may require payment to read.

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