If you go to the City of Oakland web site, way down below-the-fold is Mayor Dellums' Final State of the City report.
And here's the video version, a slickly produced nine-minute homage to the mayor's leadership, with one particularly notable characteristic:
Ron Dellums does not appear in it.
The blog Oakland Seen put it this way today:
Have you ever heard of a State of the City address, where the mayor doesn’t show up? Where instead of a live public servant, a “virtual” audience is treated to a ten-minute online testimonial of his accomplishments, in which he doesn’t appear? And the video is only available on his “mayor page” on the City’s website?
Well, that is the situation in Oakland today. On Monday, a mere two days before the scheduled date of the speech at the 1,200-seat Oakland Marriott, which was then rescheduled at the less-than-300-seat Oakland City Council chambers, Mayor Ron Dellums’ office abruptly cancelled the event, supposedly due to a low RSVP count at either venue. Doesn’t anyone care?
Instead, the Mayor has released a video, produced at City expense, and a 56-page report outlining his accomplishments from 2007-2010...
Nowhere is the Mayor visible, except in a silent video montage at the opening...So we at OaklandSeen would like to offer a fun challenge to our readers. If you spot the Mayor anywhere in Oakland over the next few weeks, take a picture with your camera or cell phone. Then send the photo to us at editor@oaklandseen.com.
Perhaps related, perhaps not, this morning the Chronicle reported:
- Ron Dellums, facing IRS lien, explores early exit (SF Chronicle)
Or maybe he's already left...