Sheng Thao was elected as the 51st mayor of Oakland, California, in 2023 and was touted as the first Hmong American mayor of a major U.S. city.
While she was elected based on her many promises to fight crime, in June 2024, the FBI raided Thao’s home, which she shared with her partner Andre Jones, as part of an ongoing investigation. Later that summer, Oakland’s police union called for her resignation.
Still, she persisted….and crime continued to explode, and businesses fled.
Thao was finally recalled last November, along with District Attorney Pamela Price, because of the crime and chaos erupting in and around her city.
Voters in Oakland, California, have ousted Mayor Sheng Thao just two years after she narrowly won office to lead the liberal San Francisco Bay Area city.The Associated Press called the race Monday.”Thank you for choosing me to serve as your Mayor. As the first Hmong American woman to become the mayor of a major American City, it has been the honor of my lifetime,” she said in a statement last week.She committed to ensuring a smooth transition.Thao must vacate the office as soon as election results are certified Dec. 5 and the Oakland City Council declares a vacancy at its next meeting, which would be Dec. 17, Nikki Fortunato Bas, City Council president, said in a statement.
I highlighted the above date as Thao bitterly clung to power and voted on important council issues after December 5th.
On December 17, 2024, Oakland City Council passed two contentious ordinances. Both were passed with a tie-breaking vote from former mayor Sheng Thao, who had been recalled 12 days earlier in the general election by 60.62% of voters. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters certified former mayor Thao’s recall on December 5, legally ending her term.However the city claimed she remained in office until December 17, allowing her to cast the tie-breaking votes. It is our position, based on a close reading of city and state law, that Thao was a private citizen on December 17, with no more authority to cast a tie-breaking vote than any other resident of the city.California Elections Code Section 11382 states that an elected official is removed from office as soon as a majority of voters vote yes to recall her.
The voters want those ordinances back on the ballot for an up-or-down vote, as the process was clearly contaminated by Thao’s input.
Meanwhile, Thao faces six federal charges related to corruption.
Ms. Thao is among four people being charged. The federal indictment also names Ms. Thao’s boyfriend, Andre Jones; the head of a local waste company, David Trung Duong; and Mr. Duong’s son, Andy Hung Duong.Patrick D. Robbins, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, said on Friday that Ms. Thao in October 2022 had agreed to extend a city contract with the waste company, California Waste Solutions, buy housing from the Duongs and use her influence to help them in exchange for a campaign mail effort and side payments that would benefit her and Mr. Jones.California Waste Solutions then spent $75,000 on an attack mailer that helped Ms. Thao’s campaign in the 2022 mayoral election, prosecutors said. After Ms. Thao took office, the company paid $95,000 to Mr. Jones for a “no-show” job and had promised additional payments to the couple in exchange for Ms. Thao’s influence at City Hall, according to the indictment.Prosecutors alleged that Ms. Thao followed through by taking steps to help companies owned by the Duongs and by appointing a high-level city official that they had selected.Ms. Thao faces six charges, including bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. Ms. Thao and the rest of the defendants pleaded not guilty at their arraignment hearings on Friday.
I can only hope the next mayor is better.
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