OAKLAND — The shake up in new Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s administration has begun: A month shy of her taking office, the city’s top staff member announced Wednesday he is leaving after his employment agreement ends in January, raising questions about who will lead the ship over the next four years.
Ed Reiskin, Oakland’s powerful city administrator since 2020, said in a statement it had “not been an easy decision” to leave his position, which oversees all the city’s departments and advises the City Council on major policy decisions.
“But the timeline of my agreement necessitated that I plan forward, while at the same time providing the new Mayor an opportunity to engage in her own process to select a new leader for the organization over which she will preside,” Reiskin said in the statement.
Reiskin, 56, had taken the job in Mayor Libby Schaaf’s administration after serving for nine years as director of San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency, at first under late Mayor Ed Lee, and more recently for Mayor London Breed.
But Reiskin got his start in Bay Area government 22 years ago as an assistant city director in Oakland under former Mayor Jerry Brown. He has also spent time serving as deputy mayor of Washington, D.C.
Reiskin could not be reached Thursday to discuss his next career move.
“Ed Reiskin served Oakland residents with remarkable intellect, compassion, and integrity,” Schaaf said in a statement. “He took over at the start of the pandemic unaware of the historic challenges before our city and met them with a clear vision for Oakland’s best future.”
It is unclear whom Thao will select as Reskin’s successor. She has not returned multiple requests for an interview.
Under Oakland’s strong mayor form of government, the mayor selects the city administrator, who is then in charge of overseeing city departments, city policies, often finalizing policy language for the City Council’s review.
The past three years have been challenging as the COVID-19 pandemic closed City Hall and moved city services online. Businesses suffered, crime went up and the number of unhoused people and the camps they live in, grew exponentially.
As the face of the administration, Reiskin often faced tough questions from the public and councilmembers, and criticism came with the territory.
During the pandemic, Reiskin played a role in determining COVID masking and vaccination policies for hundreds of thousands of residents.
In February, the city joined others in the Bay Area by introducing a requirement for restaurants and bars to check patrons for proof of vaccination — a policy that Alameda County did not adopt, but Berkeley already had. The policy was later dropped in May.
And in recent months, Oakland officials ran into problems relocating hundreds of residents at the city’s largest homeless encampment in West Oakland after Caltrans moved to evict them.
In his letter to the city staff, Reiskin praised Schaaf for her dedication to Oakland and for her leadership. And in a letter to city staff, he reminded them how important they are to residents’ lives.
“I salute you and know Oakland will continue to be in good hands with all of you on the job,” Reiskin wrote. “Though I will be leaving this position come February, my heart will always be here, and I will always be rooting for Oakland’s continued success.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com