Deputy mayor walks Oakland, talks O'Connor line

Deputy mayor walks Oakland, talks O'Connor line And while the boyish Mr. Zober may have lacked the mayor's distinctive white hair and his natural exuberance, he flashed the same let's-get-it-done attitude, telling public works and building inspection officials to cite property owners or landlords where he found overflowing garbage, broken sidewalks or other code violations.

Why in the world does the Deputy Mayor need to tell anyone to tell public works employees and city building inspectors to cite property owners with overlowing garbage?????

These duties is part of their regular jobs that should be done on their own without the need of a 'green light' from the mayor's administration.

Does the manager of a fast food joint tell the guy on the grill when it is okay to flip each of the burgers that are to be cooked? What if a spill happens -- is there a chain of command to get the floor behind the counter 'redded up?'

No.

You just do it.

Zober should be there -- taking notes -- and giving termination papers to employees that have not done their jobs.

But, our city workers are conditioned to act only on orders from the Mayor's office.

The mayor wants the credit. The mayor wants the power. When people call the mayor -- the mayor wants to see that the work gets done so the mayor gets a friend and a re-election supporter.

That's crap. That's why we have crap that flows up and down our streets -- especially in Oakland where there are a lot of people who don't vote.

Don't give Oakland the services that it needs or be quick with the citations -- because you'll not win friends and nobody that matters cares anyway.

This is just another flavor in the corruption elements.

Great management and a great mayor would be able to empower the employees to do their jobs in an ethical and ambitious way -- without fear, without backlashes, without the need of decisions as to whos garbage can sit for another five days and whos garbage must get hauled away right away.

I'm glad Zober is walking the streets. I'm glad he is out and about. Please, don't rush to fix things with band-aids. Rather, fix the roots of the problems.