Oaklandside reported on Thursday that Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued a cease-and-desist order to “Neighbors Together Oakland”, the organization led by activist and former mayoral candidate Seneca Scott.
The state says the group has illegally solicited and received donations despite failing to register as a nonprofit with the state. As of Friday, May 17, a donate button still appeared on the group’s website.
In September 2023 former Alameda County supervisor candidate and Piedmont resident Chris Moore teamed up with Scott and Neighbors Together Oakland to display lawn signs around town in an effort to call attention to rising crime in the area. Moore and a group of other Piedmont residents subsequently went on to create Piedmont Neighbors Together, a mailing list focused on public safety that the group said had close to 500 subscribers by October. (The Piedmont group does not solicit donations nor does it clam 501c3 status.)
According to Oaklandside reporting:
Neighbors Together organizes against what it sees as the failure of city government to make Oakland safe and clean. Its mission statement criticizes politicians who’ve become “dominated by outside special interests, like our local Public Sector Unions and unaccountable nonprofits, that no longer answer to the needs of working neighbors.”
One of its first actions as an organization was suing Oakland, alleging the city had failed to enforce its encampment policy and close homeless camps. The case was later dismissed.
Neighbors Together says it intends to organize “the most powerful voting bloc in Oakland” in the 2024 election. Its founder Scott ran unsuccessfully for City Council District 3 in 2020, before his failed mayoral bid in 2022, and he’s now one of the leaders of a campaign to recall Mayor Sheng Thao. He frequently criticizes the mayor and her “woke cabal” on social media.
Scott got into a publicized altercation at a recent recall rally he organized to disrupt a press conference by the mayor. Last year, Scott publicly accused a mayoral staffer who’s gay of being a pedophile without any evidence, receiving condemnation from LGBTQ+ groups.
Read Oaklandside’s full reporting HERE.