Oaklanders are being asked to dramatically change how their municipal government works by approving a charter amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot that would increase the mayor’s responsibilities for running the city.
Measure EE would do away with Oakland’s current hybrid system and create a strong-mayor model of governance, in which the mayor would have more authority and control over the city administration.
“This hybrid structure has created confusion about who is in charge, who is accountable, and how decisions actually get implemented,” according to a news release from Mayor Barbara Lee’s office from January, when her “Charter Reform Working Group” released the recommendations that eventually became Measure EE.
In California, cities are typically run either as a “strong mayor” or “council-manager” system.
In strong mayor cities, the mayor is elected to be the chief executive, with responsibility to hire and fire top city officials, run day-to-day operations, propose budgets and wield veto power over legislation and budget decisions made by the city council.
In such a system, the city council serves as the legislative branch, primarily responsible for developing new ordinances, reviewing and modifying the mayor’s budget proposals and, ideally, acting as a check to the mayor’s power.
Under council-manager systems, the city council still holds legislative authority, but appoints a city manager who is responsible for running municipal operations, including hiring top department heads.
A question of authority
Currently, Oakland’s system is run by a mayor who is elected by a citywide vote but can’t hire or fire department heads, veto City Council decisions or, with the exception of acting as a tie-breaker, vote on items before the Council.
“Residents expect the Mayor to lead, but the Mayor lacks clear authority. Councilmembers are responsible for passing laws and budgets, but the current structure makes implementation and accountability unclear,” according to Lee’s January news release. “The result is frustration, inefficiency, and declining public trust.”
To correct this, Measure EE would allow Oakland’s mayor to appoint a city manager or administrator, subject to the approval of the City Council. The administrator would retain control over the finance and human resources departments but the mayor would be responsible for managing the other departments.
The council would have the power to conduct legislative hearings and issue subpoenas to compel witness testimony or the delivery of documents and could create an “Office of the Independent Budget and Legislative Analyst” to advise it on such matters.
“Residents expect the Mayor to lead, but the Mayor lacks clear authority. … The result is frustration, inefficiency, and declining public trust.”
Mayor Barbara Lee, in January news release
Measure EE would also require councilmembers to serve on a “full-time” capacity and prohibit them from holding a job or running a business that “interferes or conflicts” with their duties.
The measure would also remove a mayor’s ability to break a tie vote on the council but would grant them veto power over most legislation and budget line-items. The council could override vetoes with a 6-2 vote.
Measure EE requires a simple majority vote to pass and was placed on the ballot by the Oakland City Council in June, with a deciding vote from Lee.
Lee, who has championed the measure that would do away with this mayoral ability, cast a tie-breaking vote to get past “no” votes from councilmembers Zac Unger, Noel Gallo, Ken Houston and Janani Ramachandran. Councilmembers Rowena Brown, Carroll Fife, Kevin Jenkins and Charlene Wang voted in favor of placing the measure on the ballot.
“At its core, this is about letting the people of Oakland decide whether they want more accountability and a clearer system of governance,” Lee said at the time.
Concerns mayor would have too much power
Fife and Houston expressed concerns around the proposed line-item veto powers, suggesting that it gave the mayor too much power over decisions by the council.
Unger, Houston and Gallo said they’d prefer a strong council-city manager system.
The proposal was born out of a five-month process in 2025 that included Lee’s working group and that was led by the League of Women Voters and the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association.
Fifteen public meetings on the topic included residents, experts, community stakeholders and citizen survey responses. Review sessions were then conducted with every City Council member, according to the charter proposal.
An analysis by the Oakland city auditor estimates that it would cost between $2 million to $2.6 million to implement Measure EE.
Supporters include Lee, former mayor Libby Schaaf, former city attorney Barbara Parker and Ernestine Nettles, president of the League of Women Voters Oakland.
So far, campaign finance documents filed with the city show that the “Committee for A Strong, Accountable Oakland: Yes on EE” has raised $65,000 in contributions this year.
No financial disclosure documents have been filed by the opposition.
Opponents include Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, former Oakland city councilmember Loren Taylor and former chair of the Oakland Public Ethics Commission Ralph Kanz.
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