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Measure EE — Oakland Charter Amendment — November 3, 2026

Vote NO on
Measure EE

Measure EE is Barbara Lee's rewrite of Oakland's charter so one person controls the budget, can kill neighborhood projects with a line-item veto, and politicians get a legal pathway to nearly double their pay — sold as "reform." The City Auditor says it costs $2.0–$2.6 million in year one.

Vote NO on Measure EE —

Read the ballot language

On Your November Ballot

It's now called Measure EE. Don't let the letter hide the power grab.

Alameda County lettered Oakland's charter amendment on August 10, 2026. On the ballot it appears as Measure EE — City of Oakland Charter Amendment. It needs only a simple majority (50% + 1) to rewrite who runs this city — forever, for every future mayor, not just Barbara Lee.

Official ballot question

Shall the measure to amend Oakland's City Charter to, among other things, (1) make the Mayor the City's chief executive with a legislative veto, (2) empower the Council to override vetoes, confirm appointments of certain directors, and appoint an Independent Budget and Legislative Analyst, (3) affirm Councilmembers' right to acquire information from other City officials, (4) require Councilmembers to work full-time, and (5) empower the Public Ethics Commission to set salaries for all City elected officials using similar formulas, be adopted?

Year-one cost

$2.0–$2.6M

City Auditor's impartial analysis, July 8, 2026

To pass

50% + 1

A simple majority locks this into the Charter

Election Day

Nov 3

Ballots mail starting October 5, 2026

What Measure EE actually does

  1. Makes the Mayor Oakland's CEO — hiring and managing the City Administrator and directing departments, agencies, and appointed offices.
  2. Creates a legislative veto and a line-item budget veto. Council can override only with six of eight votes (two-thirds).
  3. Limits confirmation to four directors (Finance, Human Resources, Public Works, Transportation) — not the City Administrator, the official who actually runs the city.
  4. Creates a new Independent Budget and Legislative Analyst office the Auditor prices at $1.7–$1.8 million a year.
  5. Forces Council full-time with a ban on outside employment, then lets the Public Ethics Commission reset pay every two years starting in 2027.

Don't confuse it with Oakland's other local measure, Measure FF (real-property transfer tax on certain foreclosures). EE is the charter rewrite. A NO vote on EE leaves today's hybrid charter in place.

The Hidden Cost

The ballot language talks reform. The fine print opens the door to a massive pay raise — and they hoped you wouldn't notice.

Current Council Salary

$114,678

Per year, per councilmember

Up to 125%

Legal Pathway To

~$245,000

Benchmarked against "comparable full-time officials"

The pay jump — at a glance

Today $114,678
If this measure passes ~$245,000

+125% potential increase

Auditor: extra council cost

$288K–$867K

Salary and benefits citywide, year one

New analyst office

$1.7–$1.8M

Staffing and overhead, City Auditor estimate

Structural shortfall

$115–$135M

Annual deficit the finance department has forecast through 2030

Provisions 7 and 8 of Measure EE force City Council into full-time roles and hand the Public Ethics Commission a blank check to benchmark salaries against "comparable full-time officials" in other cities — opening the door to compensation nearly double what councilmembers earn today.

Provision 7 reclassifies City Council positions as full-time employment and bars outside jobs — locking members' livelihoods to re-election.

Provision 8 directs the Public Ethics Commission to set Mayor and Council salaries every two years beginning in 2027, benchmarking against full-time elected officials in "comparable" California cities and counties the Commission itself chooses. The working group that drafted Measure EE repeatedly cited Los Angeles (~$245,000) and San Diego (~$183,545) as models.

The Commission's members are appointed by the Mayor, City Attorney, City Auditor, and the Commission itself — the same ecosystem that benefits from the raise.

Oakland City Auditor Michael C. Houston's impartial analysis (July 8, 2026) estimates $36,000 to $108,000 more in salary and benefits per councilmember, or $288,000 to $867,000 for the whole Council in year one — plus $1.7–$1.8 million for the new analyst office. Total: $2.0–$2.6 million the first year, then inflation forever.

Voters already rejected Mayor Lee's June parcel tax, Measure E. City Council has declared a state of "extreme fiscal necessity" for a fourth straight year. Measure EE still asks you to fund a pay pipeline and a new bureaucracy with no cap and no tie to Oakland's budget condition.

City Hall wrote themselves a pay raise into the charter — and tried to slip it past voters inside a "government reform" measure.

Your Neighborhood

Measure EE turns your elected district representative into a powerless punching bag.

If the council loses primacy over budgeting and legislation, members are relegated to the status of a "punching bag to absorb bad vibes" with no actual power to deliver constituent services.

— Zac Unger, Oakland City Councilmember

The line-item veto — in plain English

Under Measure EE, the Mayor gains a line-item veto over the city budget. She can zero out funding for specific district projects — your potholes, your park, your public safety priorities — with a stroke of the pen.

To override her veto, Council needs a two-thirds supermajority. On an 8-member council, that's 6 votes. The Mayor only needs 3 allies to block anything. Your councilmember's vote becomes nearly meaningless.

What you lose

  • Fighting for potholes in your neighborhood
  • Directing police resources to your district
  • Protecting local parks and community grants
  • A councilmember who can actually deliver for you

Before — Current Hybrid System

CM

City Council

Sets budget & policy with your district rep at the table

M

Mayor

Executes policy, shares power with Council

Checks and balances intact

After — Measure EE Strong Mayor

M

Mayor

Controls budget, line-item veto, dominates legislation

CM

City Council

"Punching bag" — absorbs blame, delivers nothing

Your neighborhood voice silenced

How It Got Here

They forced Measure EE onto the ballot by breaking their own rules.

The 4–4 tie — and the Mayor broke it for herself

When City Council voted on placing Measure EE on the ballot, the vote deadlocked 4 to 4. Four councilmembers voted NO:

Zac Unger
Janani Ramachandran
Noel Gallo
Ken Houston

Jenkins, Charlene Wang, Carroll Fife, and Rowena Brown voted to put it in front of voters. Mayor Barbara Lee then cast the tie-breaking vote — to give her own office a veto. That's not reform. That's a power grab, decided by the person who benefits most.

If EE passes, the Mayor loses that rare tie-break and gains something far more dangerous: the power to kill legislation and budget line items unless six of eight councilmembers override. Whoever wins the November mayor's race — Lee, Brenda Grisham, Mindy Pechenuk, or Julius Robinson — inherits that veto. Former Mayor Sheng Thao is facing federal bribery charges. As Councilmember Fife put it before voting to let voters decide: Oakland does not have "the trust right now to invest in a single leader."

The Suppressed Third Option

The Mayor's hand-picked working group blocked the Council-Manager alternative — a professional city manager accountable to the full elected Council, the model former City Administrator Steven Falk and many governance experts preferred. Ken Houston tried to amend EE so Council would confirm and could not be locked out of removing the City Administrator. That amendment failed. Weeks earlier, Mayor Lee had investigated then–City Administrator Jestin Johnson, who resigned.

Voters weren't given a real choice. They were handed a false binary: keep the broken status quo, or hand one politician near-total control. The option that actually reforms government without concentrating power was taken off the table.

Public perception is one of a "pure power grab."

— Carroll Fife, Oakland City Councilmember

Under a Council-Manager system, a professionally trained city manager runs day-to-day operations and is accountable to the entire elected Council — not a single politician.

Power stays distributed. Your district councilmember retains real leverage over the budget and services. The Mayor doesn't get unilateral veto authority over your neighborhood's priorities.

That option was systematically excluded from the ballot. Ask yourself why.

The Warning

We've seen exactly where this road leads.

San Francisco's strong-mayor system consolidated contracting and budget authority in one office. The result wasn't efficiency — it was federal corruption convictions for pay-to-play schemes involving top city officials.

Public Works

Mohammed Nuru

Director — federal corruption conviction

Public Utilities Commission

Harlan Kelly

General Manager — federal corruption conviction

Consolidating contracting and budget power in one office removes the checks that prevent backroom deals. Oakland cannot afford to do the same.

Oakland Today

  • → Shared budget authority between Mayor and Council
  • → District reps with real legislative power
  • → Multiple checks on contracting decisions

Measure EE Path

  • → One office controls budget and contracts
  • → Council reduced to symbolic opposition
  • → Fewer eyes on backroom deals — SF proved the cost

Endorsements

Voting NO on Measure EE

Oakland officials and community leaders voting NO.

  • Oakland NAACP NO

    Oakland NAACP

    Civil Rights Organization

  • Zac Unger NO

    Zac Unger

    Oakland Councilmember

  • Janani Ramachandran NO

    Janani Ramachandran

    Oakland Councilmember

  • Noel Gallo NO

    Noel Gallo

    Oakland Councilmember

  • Ken Houston NO

    Ken Houston

    Oakland Councilmember

  • Loren Taylor NO

    Loren Taylor

    Former Oakland Councilmember

  • Nancy Nadel NO

    Nancy Nadel

    Former Oakland Councilmember

  • Nate Miley NO

    Nate Miley

    Alameda County Supervisor

  • Seneca Scott NO

    Seneca Scott

    Political Activist

  • Edward Escobar NO

    Edward Escobar

    Political Consultant

  • Jackson Peterson NO

    Jackson Peterson

    Political Consultant

  • Carl Chan NO

    Carl Chan

    Oakland Chinatown Chamber President

~ Partial List ~

The Bottom Line

This isn't reform.
It's Measure EE — Barbara Lee's Power Grab.

One politician gets control of the budget, the power to kill your neighborhood's priorities, a $2.0–$2.6 million first-year bill, and a legal pathway to nearly double council pay — all packaged as reform. Oakland deserves real accountability, not concentrated power with a pay raise hidden in the fine print.

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