City Administrator

The City Administrator position is very powerful in Oakland, which has had a "strong mayor" form of government since the passage of Measure X since 1999 (under Jerry Brown).¹

The current City Administrator is John Flores who is in an interim role while Mayor Libby Schaaf looked for a permanent City Admin. He will be replaced by Sabrina Landreth.

There were many City Admins under Jean Quan including, Fred Blackwell, who replaced Deanna Santana who left in early March 2014. However, on April 2, 2014 it was announced that he will be leaving the city administrator role to become CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. He was followed in rapid succession by some interim people then by Henry Gardner who came back to the position he once held in the 80s to finish out Quan's term.

Past City Administrators include:

• Deanna Santana, August 1, 2011 to March 3, 2014
• Lamont Ewell^3,4, March 28, 2011 to July 31, 2011 (Interim)
• Dan Lindheim², July 2008 to January 2009 (Interim); February 2009 to March 2011
• Deborah Edgerly

Official City of Oakland City Administrator Page:

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityAdministration/index.htm

On this page you can read about the position as well as see recent documents the City Administrator has presented to the City. You can also subscribe to the Administrator's newsletter which contains lots of important information.

References:

1. Allen-Taylor, J. Douglas. "Undercurrents: Oakland’s ‘Strong Mayor’ Charter Ambiguous As to Mayor’s Duties." Berkeley Daily Planet: February 11, 2010.
2. Heredia, Christopher. " Dellums fills 5 key city positions." San Francisco Chronicle:  January 30, 2009.
3. Burt, Cecily and Maher, Sean. "P. Lamont Ewell named Oakland's interim city administrator." Oakland Tribune: March 24, 2011
4. Torres, Bianca. "Quan names interim city administrator for Oakland." San Francisco Business Times: March 25, 2011.