Kind of begs the question "competence and action on behalf of who?"
You think he knows what side his bread is buttered on? John Russo was the
City Council member who in gave his famous "we ought to do all of it"speech-
- the City would pursue both the swap and amortization. The swap went
nowhere and amortization moved forward.
Then Russo won the City Attorney gig-- so he'd get to execute his own
legislation! So what started out as 185 billboards going down over 7 years
became 161 over 10 years. So Russo may think he's biting the hand that
feeds him, but he's really just giving that hand a manicure. Its a start. A verrry
slow start.
To get out of local politics and move to the state level, you gotta play
ball with the big boys. Just ask Don Perata, Oakland's state senator. He
got state law changed so mega-billboards could go up at the Coliseum. So
Oakland's "No New Billboards" law was circumvented in Sacramento by
Oakland's State Senator. Confused yet? Good -- they like it that way. Okay
so what to do? Let them all know you want amortization to move quicker and
cast as wide a net as it can. And let's get this. To prevent any lawsuits from
local landlords losing income, the City gives them 2 trees-- that's the "just
compensation" that will add value to a property more that any billboard ever
could. The billboard companies get a decade to make profits, the landlords
get trees, and everyone's happy.
You can email council members by clicking the district numbers to the left of
the billboard.

1)Jane Brunner (N.Oakland)
2)Danny Wan (Chinatown, Lakeshore)
3)Nancy Nadel (W. Oakland, Downtown)
4)Dick Spees (Montclair, Laurel, Dimond)
5)Ignacio de la Fuente (Fruitvale)
6)Moses Mayne (Skyline, Central E. Oakland)
7)Larry Reid (E. Oakland)
8)Henry Chang (at large)

To the right of the billboard, you can email the mayor. When Jerry was
Governor, he cut a deal with the billboard companies so that only residential
billboard could come down. He's the reason that only 10% of Oakland's 1500
billboards are amortizable. The City Manager, Robert Bobb, is in charge
of the City's anti-blight program, so he's good to contact. The City Attorney's
Open Government coordinator, Michelle Abney, is very responsive and acts
as the Attorney's web contact.