A report released by the Oakland City Auditor this week found city employees and elected leaders wanting in their capacity to make ethical decisions.
Auditor Michael Houston’s report is based on the responses of 555 city employees to an “ethical climate” survey developed by the Institute for Local Government, a nonprofit that delivers consultancy services to local governments.
“Overall, survey respondents rated the City’s ethical climate a ‘medium’ score of 222 out of 300. This score indicates that the City has room for improvement,” the report stated.
The Auditor’s office started distributing the survey at the end of 2025, around a year after former Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled in 2024, and then indicted on charges of bribery, mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy.
Survey results showed that employees’ confidence in the ethics of frontline and management employees is higher than that of elected officials. In fact, 34% of the survey respondents checked the “do not know” box regarding elected officials’ ethics.
The report quotes an anonymous respondent as saying, “I think most people believe in making ethical decisions until that decision is difficult to make based on extenuating factors such as political expediency, convenience, or public perception as to what is important. Then, the higher they are [within the organization], or more politically motivated their work is, the harder it is for them to adhere to ethical standards.”
Newer employees rated the city’s ethical climate higher than employees who have been with the city for more than one year.
Organizational transparency and communication, supervisor accountability, and city council conduct and governance were among the main areas that respondents wanted improvement in.
Former staffer raises ethics concerns, alleges retaliation
Some comments in the survey contained allegations of sexual harassment, workplace discrimination, bullying, nepotism, and preferential hiring that the auditor’s office has flagged for further investigation, the report said.
In April, Leigh Hanson, a former staffer for Mayor Sheng Thao and interim mayors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Kevin Jenkins, sued the city, claiming that she was fired for raising concerns about possible ethics violations.
Hanson was fired last April after the public release of documents tied to a federal corruption investigation into Thao.
One of those documents was a handwritten note from Hanson in which she allegedly refers to a campaign strategy using Black people as “tokens” — although she has said it was referring to the opposition’s practice, not hers or Thao’s.
In her lawsuit, Hanson said she wasn’t fired for the note but rather in retaliation for calling out Jenkins’ alleged too-cozy relationship with political lobbyists and breaking city rules about hiring practices and travel expenses.