Oakland Sharing The Vision: Timeline of Recent Oakland City Administrators Since 1998
6/1998 – 6/2003 Robert Bobb 5 Years
2/2004 – 7/2008 Deborah Edgerly 4 Years, five months
7/2008 – 4/2011 Dan Lindheim 3 Years, 8 months
4/2011 – 7/2011 Lamont Ewell 0 Years, 3 months
7/2011 – 3/2014 Deanna Santana 3 Years, 8 months
3/2014 – 4/2014 Fred Blackwell 0 Years, 1 month
4/2014 – 1/2015 Henry Gardner 0 Years, 9 months
1/2015 – 6/2015 John Flores 0 Years, 5 months
6/2015 – 10/2017 Sabrina Landreth 3 Years, 4 months (current)
The avetrage tenture of an Oakland City Administrator is now up to 2.44 years – that’s an increase of 1.78 years, and due strickly to the fact that Ms. Sabrina Landreth has held her position for the last 3 years and four months.
The longest time an Oakland City Manager or City Administrator has been on the job is marked by Henry Gardner: Mr. Gardner was Oakland City Manager from 1981 to 1993, a total of 13 years. But that was before the change in the City Charger forced by the passage of Measure X in 1998. With the conversion to a “strong mayor” form of government, the City Manager title was dropped for “City Administrator” and that person served (and serves) at the pleasure of the Mayor.
By contrast, the City Manager had to be hired or fire with five Oakland City Council votes.
Still, we’re in election season, and while it’s still early, and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is running for re-election, Ms. Landreth has to keep an eye out for the possiblity that Mayor Schaaf may not win in November of 2018. Will she stick around to see the November 2018 election outcome, or depart early?
Stay tuned.