Greg Harland Interview - Oakland Mayor's Race

On Monday, Greg Harland, a candidate in the Oakland Mayor's Race, was kind enough to open his Oakland Hills home to talk about why he's running for Mayor of Oakland and his view of how Oakland needs to be changed. The full 23 minute interview is on video above; what's presented are some highlights of our discussion. Again, the style of this blogger is to give a candidate a platform, not to attack them.

Greg Harland is a mild, smooth, white, bespectacled business man who grew up in Oakland, California for most of his life, since 7 years of age. Harland graduated from Oakland High School, class of 1964. He lost his father, a pilot on the USS Yorktown, in a crash at Alameda Naval Air Station when he was a boy. Harland grew up from hard times that he's reluctant to openly talk about, to, with the help of friends, the business entrepreneur he is today.

Why run for Mayor of Oakland?

Harland got the idea to run for Mayor of Oakland while sitting at the dining room table talking to a friend. He said "I wish I could run for Mayor of Oakland," and the idea grew from there. Eventually, his wife, who resisted the idea, slowly came around to supporting his desire to run.

Harland mentioned that Don Perata being the front runner in the Mayor's Race at first scared him into the idea of not running, then after some sleep that night, he woke up and changed his mind.

Harland wants to change Oakland

"From the time that I first came here, Oakland really hasn't changed a lot. Three things remain constant: there's always been high unemployment, high crime, and we've never had a full staffed police force. Those are three things that I really want to change."

Harland says Oakland has to start with a balanced budget, which he believes can be done by decreasing "police and fire compensation." Harland wants to renegotiate contracts with police and fire down to a level that's "healthy" for the sustainable future. Harland, who lives not far from California Governor Candidate Jerry Brown, says Oakland pays its police officers at rates higher than cities like Los Angeles.

Hardland says decreasing the unemployment rate can be done by "bringing jobs to Oakland" and points to the Enterprize Zone program as a "valuable tool" to do that.

The Enterprize Zone is a program established 20 years ago in Oakland and has various tax reduction programs designed to encourage manufacturers to build facilities in Oakland. It's a program that goes back to the time I was an intern with the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, and another Oakland Economic Development staffer, Heather Hensley, worked on the establishment of Oakland's Enterprize zone.

Greg Harland says Oakland can draw solar energy business to Oakland using the Enterprize Zone and claims Oakland lost 5,000 jobs to "companies that wanted to come here" but were not sold on Oakland using programs like the Enterprise Zone.

Harland paints a picture of people who have "chronically" used Oakland's resources without paying back in tax revenue. Harland says this has been a problem, or "these people" since he has lived in Oakland. Harland thinks bringing more jobs to Oakland that they can do is a way to solve that problem.

What Harland has learned about Oakland

A person running for any office in Oakland learns something about the City they didn't know before. In Harland's case he says it was how "dysfunctional" Oakland's City Hall was. "It just seems crazy. I don't know what they are doing or what they are thinking about."

"I think the citizens are ready for a change," Harland says. His campaign slogan? "Restoring the city to the people."

Greg Harland's website is at Harland4Mayor.com