By Shomik Mukherjee
The Mercury News bulletin news online news
(The Mercury News) — The atmosphere was heavy in the room at City Hall where Mayor Sheng Thao first addressed the public following FBI raids at her home last week.
As the mayor fought back tears and compared her experience to those of other Oaklanders who’ve had negative brushes with law enforcement, two staffers in the room appeared to become teary-eyed themselves.
Not present was Francis Zamora, the mayor’s spokesperson, who resigned later in the day — a sign that the office is feeling the weight of the mayor’s tumultuous week.
The home in Oakland where Thao lives with her family was one of four addresses raided by the FBI without apparent warning last Thursday. The other three are homes and a business tied to the Duong family, which owns the city’s contracted recycling company, California Waste Solutions, and with its money has influenced politics in Oakland and the rest of the state for decades.
In the wake of the raids, the mayor hired and then parted ways with a personal attorney, Tony Brass, who gave numerous interviews Monday suggesting Thao gave Monday’s public address without first notifying him.
Thao’s representatives have said the mayor actually parted ways with Brass over the weekend before Monday’s prepared remarks, in which Thao suggested — without evidence — that the FBI could be in collusion with the ongoing recall campaign against her, along with local media outlets.
Her now-former attorney hasn’t been shy about his disagreement with the messaging in Monday’s speech, saying the mayor’s statements about the FBI were “inconsistent” with his view of how the case was being handled.
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Zamora’s departure signals possible rapid turnover among those on Thao’s payroll — a crucial stronghold of support at a moment when few other elected officials in California have stepped up to defend her. Other city leaders, such as Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, were not present at Monday’s address.
“I thank my colleagues for their professionalism and dedication,” Zamora said in a statement issued Tuesday. “It was an honor to serve the City of Oakland beside them.”
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Pati Navalta, a city spokesperson who has stepped in to help the mayor’s communications team while a permanent replacement is hired, could not immediately be reached for comment. Navalta briefly served as the mayor’s spokesperson last summer before Zamora was hired.
Thao now finds herself on the clock to fix a full-blown legal and public-relations crisis with the recall election just months away in November.
She attempted in Monday’s address to position herself as the target of radical right-wing forces — the recall campaign’s leader has denied being politically conservative — and made reference to billionaire rivals, alluding to the wealthy tech investor Ron Conway, who has donated to the recall.
As she has done throughout her tenure, Thao also appeared to draw a comparison between herself and predecessor Libby Schaaf, who is under an ethics investigation involving campaign finances, according to reports by the Oaklandside.
And at large, Thao described herself as a “fighter,” promising she will emerge unscathed as she wavered between declaring she wasn’t under federal investigation and insinuating that the authorities are unfairly targeting her.
“I’m not going down like that — we’re not going down like that,” Thao, wiping away tears, said Monday to the Oakland public.
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