Oakland, S.F. mayors both want more power. They took opposite roads to get there. – Mission Local

Oakland, S.F. mayors both want more power. They took opposite roads to get there.  Mission Local

Oakland’s mayor put herself in the hot seat for questioning. San Francisco’s mayor spent $4.5 million on signature-gatherers. They were bound to be foils: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie presides over a center of global commerce, billionaires and tech elites. Across the bridge, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee leads a city of working class holdouts. Both leaders, however, want the same thing this year: They’re pitching voters on approving November ballot measures that would greatly expand their powers. Yet they have gone about their efforts in starkly different ways: Lurie’s campaign spent $4.5 million on signature-gatherers to put three charter amendments before voters in November, part of a nearly $14 million campaign funded by the mayor’s allies.

Lee, meanwhile, opted to bring her measure before a divided city council, which put it on the ballot. The campaign to pass the measure has raised just $37,000 this year. The Oakland measure also involved far more community engagement. Lee put herself in the hot seat for multiple rounds of live-streamed questions from city council members and residents during three hearings at City Hall. The Oakland mayor sat in the chambers for the duration, often taking the heat from dozens of speakers. Oakland council members were so divided in fact that Lee’s vote broke the 4-4 tie to approve the charter amendment for the