Oakland Tribune Outtakes

According to that Tramutola poll most Oakland voters support limiting council members and the city attorney to just three terms. But according to Councilmember Jane Brunner’s recent op-ed in the Chron, most of her colleagues feel otherwise and would vote against her proposal to bring the issue to voters in November.

Brunner has spent most of her 16 years in office in the anti-term limits camp, but had a change of heart this year while watching candidates jockey to replace her as she sets her sights the city attorney job. The state’s open meeting law is supposed to prevent Brunner canvassing a majority of her colleagues, but in this case the math is pretty clear.

She needs five votes to get term limits on ballot, and of the eight council members Larry Reid and Desley Brooks are publicly opposed and Nancy Nadel is a long-standing term limits opponent. That means Brunner needs the backing of every other council member, and she’s done enough homework to know she doesn’t have it.