Quan Says She's Trying To Raise Oakland's Profile

OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said Thursday that she has tried to "raise the profile of the city" in her first three months in office.

Quan, whose family immigrated to the Bay Area from China, said she has done interviews with Chinese newspapers and with the PBS' "News Hour with Jim Lehrer."

She's also traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with White House officials and attend meetings of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Quan said she will travel to three cities in China in May to meet with investment groups to encourage them to invest in projects in Oakland.

"People are taking a second look at Oakland," Quan said.

Quan defeated former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and eight other candidates in Oakland's mayoral race last year, which was the first time the city used a ranked-choice voting system. She spent eight years on Oakland's school board and eight years on the city council before being sworn in on Jan. 3 as Oakland's first female and Asian-American mayor.

Quan, who will mark 100 days in office next Tuesday, said one of her biggest disappointments is that "bureaucracies are hard to move."

She said she is also disappointed that she was not able to quickly hire a permanent city administrator, as the person she wanted to hire stayed in their current job because of a large raise.

Instead, Quan hired former Oakland Fire Chief Lamont Ewell to serve as interim city administrator while she continues her search for a permanent administrator.

After serving as Oakland's fire chief in the early 1990s, Ewell was its acting city manager from 1995 to 1997. Ewell has also served as city manager in San Diego, Santa Monica, Culver City and Durham, North Carolina.

City Council veterans Larry Reid and Ignacio De La Fuente both said in interviews that they admire Quan's energy in carrying out her duties, as she is constantly participating in community meetings and events.

Quan said she has " tried to be as visible as possible" and that she attends about 25 community events a week.

Reid, who was first elected to the council in 1996 and now serves as its president, said Quan "is like the energizer bunny and goes to any meeting that people ask her to attend."

De La Fuente, who was first elected in 1992, said Quan has been much more visible than former mayor Ron Dellums, who rarely was seen in public and avoided the news media.

De La Fuente said Quan "has worked very hard to make sure people know there's a mayor" in Oakland.

Reid said Quan got off to "a rocky start" with her former colleagues on the city council by not consulting them much.

But Reid said Quan "has started to do a better job" of working with council members by reaching out to them. "I hope she continues to do that," he said.

Reid said he thinks Quan has done a good job on important issues in the city, such as developing the former Oakland Army Base site, keeping the A's baseball team in Oakland and helping to close the city's $46 million budget shortfall.

"There's no dissension between the mayor's office and the city council," he said, adding that city officials must have "a unified front" to cope with Oakland's difficult budget situation.

But De La Fuente said he is concerned about Quan's leadership skills because he believes "she has a hard time making the very tough decisions we need to make" in balancing the city's budget and addressing other crucial matters.

De La Fuente said Quan "doesn't show the political will to make set priorities" and tries to please everyone.

As an example, he said that when she presented her proposed budget for the new fiscal year last week she gave the city council a list of options but didn't make any specific recommendations.

Quan bristled Thursday when told of De La Fuente's comments, saying they "are not very fair" because she's trying to work collaboratively with the council on the budget.

As for her leadership skills, Quan said, "If you're talking about political courage, I gave up my city council seat to run for mayor in a race that no one thought I would win."

She said, "I think I'm tough enough" to be mayor.

When a reporter asked about her leadership skills, Quan said, "Do you ask guys this question?"

Joseph Haraburda, the president and chief executive of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, said Quan "has been engaged in talking up the community" to promote Oakland to business people.

He said she "is off to a good start" in helping Oakland businesses export products around the world.

Haraburda said he likes Quan's suggestion that Oakland residents spend at least 25 percent of their disposable income at Oakland businesses.

That would result in "a significant increase" in sales taxes and bring more revenue to the city, he said.

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