Oakland's deranged mayor bears watching

Fitch Ratings, one of the three major credit agencies for public and corporate debt, downgraded $649 million of Oakland bonds on June 9, 2011.

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Oakland mayor Jean Quan never presented a budget to the council as the city charter requires. Instead, she submitted three "scenarios." None of them could be adopted as an official budget document, and all are designed solely for a political purpose

Good grief:

Quan previously led the Oakland school district into a $100 million bankruptcy when she was president of the school board, ignoring clear warnings in staff documents and from a state auditing agency.

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In 2008 when Quan chaired the finance committee of the city council, she approved now-disgraced city administrator Deborah Edgerly's raid on the reserve fund. The budget adopted that Spring maintained spending beyond the City's means, taking reserves from $70 million to $10 million with the sweep of a pen.ORPN