Ye Tian, Oakland North

Oakland City Attorney John Russo, shown in October, 2010, introducing the proposed Fruitvale gang injunction.

John Russo is getting ready to pack his bags on June 10, ending his 11-year term as Oakland city attorney to start his new position as Alameda city manager on June 13.

Russo, 52, served as an Oakland City Council member from 1994 to 2000 before becoming Oakland’s first elected city attorney in 2000. He served three terms, and he also ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly in 2006.

Now it’s up to the Oakland City Council to decide who will be the next city attorney. Council members have 60 days after the position becomes vacant to get five votes together for someone to finish out Russo’s term. If no one is selected by that time, the council will have to ask residents to vote for their new city attorney.

In this exclusive interview, Russo spoke with Oakland North about his final days as city attorney and reflected on his last 16 years as an elected official, the current situation with gang injunctions and what’s next for him as Alameda’s new city manager.

As a council member and city attorney, what kind of changes have you seen in Oakland?

As a councilmember, I’d seen a lot of good changes in the mid to late ‘90s … especially with the hiring of Robert Bobb, and a lot of talented people that he as city manager brought to Oakland. I thought we were making very good progress with making the city more responsive to residents’ and resident businesses’ concerns. Then it started going in the wrong direction in the middle of the last decade. But there were some good changes happening — I thought Oakland was making some good progress about 10 or 11 years ago, then it started going backward around 2003, 2004.

I think Oakland is in big trouble. Oakland is on a path where it is not going to be able to meet its obligations. And I don’t think there’s any doubt that there will be a cash crisis for this government in the next couple of years.

We’ve gone backwards in terms of customer service. We are stripped bare in terms of resources, and it didn’t have to be this way. A lot of the leadership in Oakland has been here, I think, for too long. They’re out of ideas and don’t know how to get us out of the crisis that is facing the city.

And what they are trying to do is point the finger elsewhere: “Oh it’s the bankers on Wall Street who did it.” The bankers on Wall Street didn’t tell Oakland to spend all this surplus we had six years ago. The bankers on Wall Street didn’t tell Oakland leadership to continue not to pay money into our pension funds. The bankers on Wall Street committed a lot of sins, but they’re not responsible for why the city of Oakland finds itself in the financial fiasco it’s in now.

Then what do you think Oakland leadership should prioritize?

I’ve said this two and half years ago when I was inaugurated into my third term as city attorney: Oakland has to decide not between what we want and what we need, Oakland has to decide between what we need and what is essential to our survival as a municipality. That’s roads, public safety, sewers, fire departments — very basic core services. This Oakland political leadership has been having a bogus argument among itself for three years now trying to define what’s a core service. And a core service right now in Oakland is defined by any group that can bring 50 angry people to an Oakland City Council meeting. That’s not how you exercise leadership. You exercise leadership by saying, "What are the things we have to do to keep this government going?" I just don’t see much hope that that’s going to happen under this administration.

Why are you leaving your post as Oakland city attorney?

I am leaving Oakland because I have fundamental legal disagreements and essential moral objections to the direction — or better put, lack of direction — demonstrated by this government, and I could no longer serve as the lawyer for this government in terms of my own consciousness under these circumstances.

When they first offered me the job [as Alameda city manager] and we started negotiating the contract, [there] was a lot of mixed feelings after being at Oakland City Hall for 16 and a half years. But at this time, I’ve processed it all, and I’m looking forward very much to taking over in Alameda.