Z IS FOR LAZY

Oakland Pols Still Haven't Implemented Last Year's Measure Z -- Are
They Stoned

One year ago, Oakland voters overwhelmingly passed Measure Z, a
ballot initiative that all but decriminalized marijuana use, making
the arrest of pot smokers local law enforcement's lowest priority. A
year later, it seems that Oakland city officials have made
implementing Measure Z their lowest priority.

There has yet to be a meeting of the eleven-member oversight
committee called for by the measure to oversee its implementation.
That's because neither Mayor Jerry Brown nor most city council
members -- each of whom gets to name one person to the committee --
has bothered to appoint anyone. These pols, in other words, have
displayed all the motivation of an unemployed stoner living in his
mom's basement. To date, only Councilwomen Desley Brooks, Jane
Brunner, and Nancy Nadel and auditor Roland Smith have made their
appointments, leaving the committee two short of the six-member
quorum required to convene a session.

Leaders of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, which sponsored
Measure Z, are now consulting attorneys to see if they can sue the
city to force officials to comply with the voters' mandate. Susan
Stephenson, a lobbyist for the group, says the main role of the
oversight committee would be to verify that Oakland police have cut
back on marijuana-related arrests.

Stephenson says she's met or had contact with all the council offices
since the measure passed, trying to nudge them into action. She has
been either stonewalled or unable to get a response, she says, from
City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and at-large
representative Henry Chang. "I don't know if it's just disregard for
the will of the voters or whether there's some kind of intentional
effort to undercut it," she says.

Here are some of the "explanations" Feeder got from the slow-moving
elected officials: Willie Yee, an aide to Chang, says his boss is
waiting for everyone else to make their appointments to make sure the
committee is, er, balanced. An aide to Councilwoman Jean Quan says
Quan actually interviewed a doctor for the position, but somehow
"lost contact" with the cannabis-committee candidate. Mayor Brown,
who is meditating upon becoming attorney general, said via spokesman
Gil Duran: "We are considering an appropriate response to this
unusual measure." (Memo to Jerry: Dude, don't know what you're
smokin', but judging from that quote it's something stronger than a
low-priority substance.)

Councilwoman Brooks, meanwhile, criticized her colleagues'
foot-dragging, saying, "It's an intentional thwarting of the will of
the electorate." Brooks points out that most of her colleagues
opposed Measure Z. Still, she says finding someone to serve shouldn't
be too hard -- they could even appoint a Measure Z opponent. The only
prerequisites are that committee members have a pulse, live in
Oakland, and, of course, don't bogart that joint.