Oakland city administrator fires high-ranking official

A number of sources reported this weekend that metropolis supervisor Jestin Johnson fired Latonda Simmons on Friday and marked the final shuffle within the city corridor in current months.

It’s unclear why Johnson dismissed Simmons, who has served as an assistant -city supervisor since 2020 and labored within the Oakland authorities for greater than twenty years. However the City Corridor is now in Flux with Barbara Lee who took workplace and town is getting ready to approve a brand new price range of two years.

Spokesperson for town of Sean Maher confirmed that the final day of Simmon was Friday. He instructed the Oaklandside that town won’t touch upon a workers determination, however famous that assistant metropolis supervisor is a place.

“The chief crew of the administration revives work portfolios to ensure management help for steady priorities and can provide well timed program updates,” Maher stated in an announcement.

Simmons refused to remark.

As certainly one of Johnson’s proper arms, Simmons was answerable for managing a number of the every day actions of the Oakland authorities. In 2023 she served as an interim supervisor of homelessness, and her subsequent duties portfolio as supervisor included numerous homelessness and housing issues, together with cleansing up camps and serving to to arrange it Annual point-in-time count From homeless residents.

Earlier than taking over this function, Simmons Served as a city clerk of Oaklandthe place she helped make conferences extra accessible to the general public by establishing 24-hour access to agenda -materials, laws and video -recordings of conferences. She additionally supervised the transition from town to a ranked alternative of voting system in 2010. She additionally helped town council coping with the unprecedented COVID-19 Pandemie by switching the council conferences of the council to an entire on-line format.

Simmons was born and raised in Oakland and went to Oakland Technical Excessive College.

It’s unclear whether or not the function of Simmons might be fulfilled by a brand new individual. In response to the mayor’s proposed price range, town within the upcoming price range cycle has decreased the variety of assistant metropolis managers from three to 2.

Simmons is the most recent in a collection of departure of the highest Echelon of the Oakland authorities. Up to now few weeks, monetary director Erin Roseman and Oakland’s fundamental officer Lonell Butler has entered their resignation letters. In April, Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins shot his workers chef and numerous remaining workers members of the Thao administration. A couple of months in the past the very best earnings officer of town, Sherry Denham-Jackson, was terminated.