Oakland officially has a new, temporary mayor in Nikki Fortunato Bas, who is taking over for ousted former mayor Sheng Thao, whose last day in office was Tuesday.
Bas moved from the City Council dais to the mayor’s office after councilmembers voted to accept the results of the Nov. 5 election, which featured a recall that Thao lost by roughly 21 percentage points.
Bas was appointed interim mayor for just the next few weeks because of her role as council president, which the city charter identifies as the person who fills the mayoral position in the event of a vacancy. Her last day in the mayor’s office will be Jan. 6.
The council also set April 15 as the date of a special election to replace Thao as well as Bas, who is moving on to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors after beating Emeryville City Councilmember John Bauters in the election to replace retiring Supervisor Keith Carson.
Because Bas’ City Council seat is now vacant, the council at its Jan. 6 meeting will swear in the three new, incoming councilmembers — to replace outgoing councilmembers Dan Kalb, Rebecca Kaplan and Treva Reid — and vote to appoint someone to temporarily take her place on the dais. Then a new interim mayor will be seated.
In her final remarks as a councilmember, Bas suggested that the City Council appoint Kaplan to replace her until the April election.
“As you know Councilmember Kaplan is retiring, she is willing to serve in this interim capacity, she is a resident of District 2 in Jack London, will not run for the seat in the special election and I believe that she is uniquely qualified to jump in and immediately help to serve our District 2 residents, as well as key projects moving forward, and of course helped lead the city’s biennial budget process,” Bas said.
Whoever wins the mayoral and District 2 elections in April will only serve until the current terms expire on Jan. 4, 2027, which means both seats will again be up for grabs in the next regularly scheduled election.