A revealing 40-page report by the city auditor has the city of Oakland dealing with unethical misuse of power from elected officials stretching back for years.

The Oakland City Auditor, Courtney Ruby said she was responding to multiple reports by anonymous calls into the city’s Fraud, Waste and Abuse Hotline, results from the Oakland 2010 – 2011 Ethical Climate Survey and allegations raised about a councilmember exercising their influence on the renovation of two Oakland Recreation Centers.  In April 2012, Ruby’s office initiated an audit of the entire Oakland City Council.

According to the Oakland City Charter, Section 218, elected officials are not allowed to interfere with day-to-day activities, such as hiring, appointing or firing of city employees.  Also, they are prohibited from giving orders to employees who are under the city administrator’s supervision.   An “interference violation” is considered a misdemeanor and could lead to an immediate forfeiture of office.

“For democracy to work, we must have functioning separation of powers and checks and balances. At the local level, this means city councils make policies and appropriate funds, while administrations run the day-to-day operations. Each branch of government has its function, and laws have been enacted to prohibit the overstepping of another’s authority,” states City Auditor Ruby in her blog.

In the auditor’s final report, which was released in March, 14 instances of interference from council members and their aides were detailed.  Section 2.1 of the report illustrated, “a culture of interference,” throughout many city departments and multiple council members.  The report found that staff members were unsure of council members’ roles and how they should interact with them. City staff routinely prioritized work assigned to them by council members to avoid any risk of retaliation. Council members and their aides used tactics such as yelling, threatening and bullying.

Yet, despite the overall culture of interference found in several council members and throughout the departments. Fingers point directly to Councilmember Brooks of District 6 and Councilmember Reid of District 7.  The evidence compiled from 40 employees, 27 hotline reports and thousands of emails and phone records from council members and their aides’  show the damning scope of aggressive interference mostly from Reid and Brooks.

One violation that initiated the audit proved Brooks unethically instructed city workers to hire vendors of her choice to work on the Rainbow Teen Center, an Oakland recreation facility.  Additionally, she negotiated all the contracts, payment arrangements and urged administrators to pay the vendors in an uncommonly rushed timeframe.

The audit also revealed Brooks and Reid using their influence to instigate city staff to hire a contractor of their choosing in the $2 million demolition and remediation of the Oakland Army Base.

In addition, Councilmember Reid’s aide instructed a staff member to “fix” the aide’s parking tickets.

In a statement provided to ABC 7 News, Mayor Jean Quan diplomatically explains that the audit is a way of showing people things are working the way they should and sends a clear message to vendors and contractors that there is a fair and competitive bidding process.  Furthermore, she said, it should remind staff members that they do not need to take orders from council members.

The audit report presented an array of recommendations and measures to prevent interference violations, but was not intended to make any legal determinations.  It will now be up to the City Attorney’s office whether they will prosecute or act on the findings of the audit.