The Oakland City Council has suddenly declared that Mayor Libby Schaaf’s “Children’s Initiative” passed in last month’s election even though it failed to receive the required two-thirds voter approval.
The seemingly unprecedented decision to effectively move the election goal posts closer after the ballots were counted constitutes a stunning breach of trust with the voters.
This decision is headed to court, where it should be stopped. Voters were told by the city attorney before the election that Measure AA required two-thirds approval. It fell short with 62.5 percent support. Suddenly, the council says it only needed majority backing. The time to make that argument was before the campaigning began.