Fifteen months after being fired as Oakland police chief, LeRonne Armstrong announced Wednesday that he will run for a seat on the City Council in November.
The ex-chief, a 24-year veteran of the Oakland Police Department, will run for office in the city he is currently suing for wrongful termination — a lawsuit filed in February that also names Mayor Sheng Thao.
“Armstrong brings unmatched knowledge and experience to this Council race,” read a statement sent Wednesday morning by Sam Singer, a prominent public relations consultant who has worked over the past year to maintain the public profile of the former leader.
“He has successfully led the City’s largest department and is the only candidate who knows how to effectively prioritize the City’s valuable resources without sacrificing public safety,” Armstrong’s candidacy announcement continues.
Armstrong, who most recently worked as an assistant basketball coach at Bishop O’Dowd High, has sent out a steady stream of public statements commenting on Oakland politics in the year since Thao was fired for his response to a scandal of cover-up of misconduct within the OPD. officers.
Last fall, an independent arbitrator determined that Armstrong probably should not have been fired for his role in the scandal, which involved an officer’s hit-and-run with a parked car and efforts by his commanders to sugarcoat a subsequent internal affairs investigation.
But the mayor has long maintained that she fired Armstrong because of her comments to the public that she was heavily influenced by outside forces to discipline the chief instead of making her own decisions.
The ex-chief will be running for a council position that does not represent any district – a seat designated as “at-large.”
The seat is currently held by council member Rebecca Kaplan, who has not yet filed for re-election. Eight other candidates have filed initial forms signaling their intention to run for office.
This story will be updated.
California Daily Newspapers
