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City Attorney of Oakland
By: Keith Dobkowski, Sports Law News Writer
On January 13, 2004, I sat down with Oakland City Attorney
John Russo to discuss sports in the East Bay. Our discussion
covered a wide range of topics from the lawsuits between the
city and Raiders, Russo’s possible candidacy for Mayor to Russo’s
thoughts on paying college athletes.
KD: Why did you choose law?
RUSSO: Oh God, why did I choose law? I’ve practicing for 18
years; well it will be 19 years this year. I started as a legal aid
attorney in St. Louis.
KD: Why did you want to be a lawyer?
RUSSO: I’ve been told since I was a kid that I should be a
lawyer. I wanted to help people and started out as a legal aid
attorney in St. Louis and went from there.
KD: How do you go from St. Louis to Oakland?
RUSSO: I got married and moved here in 1987 and worked in
private practice for several years.
KD: What sort of private practice?
RUSSO: All kinds of stuff. Plaintiff’s side work. Then defense. I
did professional malpractice defense. And insurance company
defense. Real basic corporate defense work. Honed my skills,
did trial work, arbitrations, all kinds of litigation work at that
time. Had my own firm for a couple years and in 1990 I ran for
city counsel here in Oakland. I lost the first time I ran. That is
not unusual. I thought I would probably not win the first time. I
ran again four years later and then I was on the city council for
just under six years. And when that was done, I went ahead
and decided it was time to try to be city attorney.
KD: And that was in 2000?
RUSSO: That was in 2000, I got elected City Attorney. And have
been here ever since.
KD: In the Sunday Chronicle (January 11, 2004) it said that you
would run to be the next mayor of Oakland?
RUSSO: Absolutely Not! I don’t know why they keep saying
that. I am not running for Mayor of Oakland. And I am not going
to change my mind. That is not like me. I’m not running today
and ask me again later. I am not running for mayor in 2006.
That is not going to happen. I am not taking that back. I am
not waiting to see what an exploratory committee will see. I am
not running for mayor in 2006. Consider that a Sherman. Not
Running, Not running, not running and I am not going to change
my mind.
KD: How long can you be city attorney for?
RUSSO: There are no term limits on city attorney. Without
saying never, it is probably 97 or 98% that this next term will be
last term. I am getting reelected in March cause I am running
unopposed so this next will be my last term. Two terms is
enough.
KD: What is your plan once you complete your next term?
RUSSO: I have no idea. In Politics, five months is a lifetime, let
alone five years. I just don’t know. I will look at the legislature
here in 2006; I will look at the assembly seat then. It is possible
that I would look at the Senate in 2008. It is possible that I
would do neither and go back to my private practice in January
2009.
KD: What college and law school did you attend?
RUSSO: I graduated from Yale College in 1982. I graduated New
York University, School of Law in 1985.
KD: Any desire to become a professor?
RUSSO: No, but thanks for asking. I guess it is possible that I
would want to teach. But as a fulltime teacher, a tenure track,
never. I did some teaching earlier in my career in the St. Louis
Community College teaching Paralegals. It is unlikely that I
would teach anytime soon.
KD: What gave you the motivation and desire to enter public
office?
RUSSO: I have been interested in government and public service
since I was a little kid. Even in grade school I was interested in
government. I started reading the papers when I was six or
seven years old. My family, pretty much every night, watched
the news together. Then my father would question us and push
us debate wise on different issues. I was walking door to door
for candidates when I was 12. My dad and mom were
volunteers on campaigns. They were not big shots. They
helped people in the community. My dad could read and write
English and most of the people from his hometown in Italy
couldn’t, so he would help them. Kids follow what they see, not
what their parents tell them, but what they see their parents
do. My parents were participants in the larger community. They
were interested in politics and participated in politics. It would
be very hard not to be part of the deal growing up in a family
like that.
KD: What profession did you parents participate in?
RUSSO: My mom was a dressmaker and my dad was
construction worker.
KD: Law school is becoming more and more for the richer and
richer?
RUSSO: There is no doubt; it is for the richer and richer. I was
lucky; I had a national merit scholarship that’s how I got to
Yale. I lucked out. Things worked out well for me. The same kid
as me comes along today and I am not sure the same
opportunities present themselves.
KD: We run a sports business website and wanted to ask
questions on the state of sports in the Oakland area. Ranging
from the Raiders trial to your fanship to where you believe we
are headed in the local area with each of the three teams
(Raiders, Warriors and Athletics). Lets look at it on a team-by-
team basis.
KD: Lets start with the Raiders because you seem to have the
greatest connection with the Raiders.
KD: Are you a fan of the Raiders?
RUSSO: Used to be. I still root for then. But it is very difficult to
root for an organization that I am constantly in an adversarial
posture with. An organization that doesn’t allow its players to
come to a party to celebrate its success that year, as happened
last year. It is a real slap in the face. That kind of stuff bothers
me a lot more than the lawsuit business. I can live with the idea
that Lawsuits are business. People are going to press their
advantages and I’m actually okay with that. But stiffing the fans
at the celebration after last years Super Bowl was worse than
rude. There is no reason to make the fans suffer because the
Raiders do not have a good relationship with the politicians. I
don’t have a good relationship with a lot of those politicians, so I
understand. But as a fan I don’t understand why the Raiders
would stiff and break the hearts of their fans. I don’t care for
that; so it is hard to root for them when treat their fans so
poorly.
I actually still root for the New York Giants. So both my teams
took big falls this year.
KD: You are moving forward, getting a new coach in New York
and a New Coach here?
RUSSO: I like Coughlin a lot.
KD: Should the Raiders draft a quarterback?
RUSSO: No.
KD: Should they draft Larry Fitzgerald?
RUSSO: Yeah. The Raiders should probably draft a wide
receiver. They clearly need more wide receivers. If it is not this
year, it is the year after. Rice and Brown can only play for so
long. It is a great tandem, but it’s an old tandem.
KD: Do you believe that Tim Brown has played his last game in a
Raiders Uniform?
RUSSO: I have no idea whether that is true or not, I hope it is
not.
KD: In the naming rights case concerning the Raiders Stadium,
can you go into the details of the case and UMAX?
RUSSO: That precedes my being city attorney. I can tell you
what I know. The government entities were in the process of
the doing the naming rights with UMAX and we needed the sign
off and cooperation of the Raiders. And at some time a letter
got sent by the Raiders to UMAX stating that they were not
going to cooperate in this UMAX deal and UMAX by the way you
are being hoodwinked because we, the Raiders, may not be
here [in Oakland]. Our lease may not be good and we may not
be here for the length of the naming rights deal. And it was that
letter that prompted the lawsuit. Such as it was I do not take
any responsibility because I was not the city attorney. I did not
have any calls to make on it. The lawsuit was not successful.
However, on the other hand the implicit threat that the Raiders
may duck out of their lease was litigated in that lawsuit and the
court said and the Raiders had no rights to break their lease.
KD: (The contract between the city of Oakland and the Raiders
contained a phrase stating that if the Raiders thought the name
of the stadium would cause “reasonable embarrassment” to the
Raiders, the Raiders could decline the name.) Did the lawsuit
turn on the language of the “reasonable embarrassment” as
stated in the contract with the city of Oakland?
RUSSO: I do not know that answer to that, sorry.
KD: Do you think the Raiders would be better served under new
Management?
RUSSO: I’ll leave that to the Raiders’ shareholders and to the
owners. I do not know the answer to that. I do think that the
appearance of the last month has been one of chaos. Again
maybe it isn’t.
KD: Let’s continue on with the two other sports organizations in
the East Bay. Lets move right on to the Warriors.
RUSSO: The Warriors made some good moves this year. It’s
troubling after they lost a tough game last night (the Warriors
lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in double overtime 115-113). Troy
Murphy gets injured again. I really like the deals they made this
year. I like offloading Antawn Jamison and his contract. I didn’t
think they could sign Gilbert Arenas. If you can’t sign Arenas
and you lose Jamison to pick up a top quality point guard like
Nick Van Exel, I like that deal a lot. I know that a lot of fans did
not like the deal because of Jamison’s scoring line (22.2 points
per game during the 2002/03 season). You also have to look at
what the guy playing opposite Jamison is putting up every
night. I was never impressed with Jamison’s D. He is a very
exciting player, but I am from the East Coast and I like players
who play defense. I am a Knicks’ fan, so I want defense. I didn’
t think Jamison played really good defense. I was sorry to see
Arenas go, but I understood that the Warriors couldn’t keep
Arenas and Richardson and Murphy. And Arenas came up first.
If they had just lost Arenas that would have been bad and if
they had just lost Jamison and brought in Van Exel, that would
have been bad. But I think the combination was right. I think it
is a better team than it was last year. Now they are having
some rough patches. When nine or ten guys out of twelve have
never played together before, that is bound to happen. But I
think they should stick with this group for a couple of years. I
like this group.
KD: What is your thought of Warriors owner Chris Cohan?
RUSSO: Chris Cohan is a guy who is somewhat misunderstood.
Cohan has had some really bad breaks. He has shown a
willingness to spend money on the team. This is not the
problem you see with the A’s where it is a question as to
whether they have the commitment financially to make the team
happen. It is kind of the opposite. He has put the money down
but hasn’t gotten the results. People can speculate as to what
happened with [P.J.] Carlesimo or what happened before that
with [David] Twardzik. When Twardzik was running the show as
G.M. and [Rick] Adelman as the coach and what happened
there. There has certainly been a lot of turnover in the front
office but not for the last couple of years. I think that Chris
Cohan really wants to put a winning team on the floor and I had
a very good experience dealing with Chris Cohan in clearing the
decks of all the outstanding litigation that existed between the
Warriors and the City. When I came into city attorney there
were eight outstanding disputes between the Warriors and city
and now there are none. We cleared the decks. I think Chris is
in good faith and wants a good relationship with the city and
county. He wants a good relationship with the fans. And he
wants to put a championship caliber team on the court. He is
spending money to do it, so power to him. He has had some
really bad breaks. It is not every day that your best player tries
to choke the life out of the coach. That really set the franchise
back a long way and in lots of ways. I like Chris. I know that
some people have some problems with him. He has been
involved in different disputes, but I have found him to be a good
guy.
KD: The papers have placed Cohan and Davis in a similar pairing
as far as being so litigious.
RUSSO: No not at all. Not for us.
KD: Not for you?
RUSSO: Not as far as the relationship with us. I believe we have
a much better relationship with Cohan right now than we do
with the Raiders. No question.
KD: To switch to the A’s the biggest concern for local fans is a
new ballpark. And obviously with just looking across the bay at
what Pac Bell Park has done and that the San Francisco Giants
even with cutting payroll this year still pay out twice as much for
player salaries than that of the Oakland A’s. What are the
chances of a new ballpark being built in Oakland?
RUSSO: In Oakland, none.
KD: None?
RUSSO: Zero. As long as Jerry Brown is the mayor of Oakland
we are not building a new ballpark. He has made that clear.
You can talk to the mayor about that.
KD: Why is Mayor Brown so hesitant in building a ballpark?
RUSSO: [Mayor Brown] thinks professional sports aren’t worth
the while.
KD: Is there any animosity that I am hearing?
RUSSO: No. I just think he is wrong. I think cities can often get
ripped off in sports deals. But it is not necessarily the way is it
has to be. It depends on where you put your ballpark. It
depends on how you pay for it. It depends on what the split of
revenues are, the split of investment. All of those things
matter. To just cavalierly rule out professional sports as a
method to redevelop the downtown or to count it out as
something that could be an economic catalyst in some part of
the city, I think is simplistic. You need to drill down to the
second level of analysis and look at what the actual deal is that
is being proposed. I think that a downtown ballpark in Oakland
would have been a much better catalyst for growth and
governmental revenues and tax revenues and jobs, more than
anything else that is being proposed down there right now.
However that is my position and not the position of the city
government. And as the city attorney, whatever the city council
and the mayor determine is the policy, that direction becomes
my orders. That’s their role, that’s who the people put in charge
position to do and whatever they decide to do, I will do my level
best to make it happen. That’s my job. Ethically that what I
have to do and that’s what I’m going to do. You asked for my
personal opinion and I think that a downtown ballpark is a great
idea.
KD: Do you think it was a mistake for Oakland to invest so much
money in an ice skating rink when they could have invested in a
ballpark?
RUSSO: I think it turned out to be a mistake only because the ice
skating rink was supposed to be first in a series of investments
that the city was going to make at that time. If we had known,
those of us on the city council at the time, that it was just the ice
rink and it was not going to be anything else, I don’t think we
would have voted for it. We saw it as part of creating a number
of different entertainment and recreational destinations in the
downtown area in creating a critical mass. But I don’t think you
can say it is wrong purely based on the thought that the money
should have been used on a downtown ballpark. Because the
amount of money spent on the ice rink really is minimal in
comparison to a ballpark.
KD: Our website is directed towards a lot of students, both
graduate and undergrad, and obviously sports management
students, and I wanted to know whether or not you believe that
the path of public office is a proper route to get involved in
sports?
RUSSO: I don’t know if it is the proper route, but it is one route
to take. It tends to be adversarial to the teams. Certainly here
in the East Bay it has been almost nothing but adversarial. So I’
m not sure that if people want to get into sports ought to do it
through government. I would say they should do it through
sports. It is a huge business. There is agency, marketing, there
are the actual franchises, arena management. There are so
many ways one can enter the sports world and government may
not be the most direct line. Having said that, I know a lot more
about sports business now than I did seven or eight years ago
when I became a city council member due to all the different
events that have taken place here in Oakland between the city
and the county on one side and the various sport franchises on
the other forced me to learn more. But I don’t think this is the
most correct route.
KD: Seeing we have just about a minute left, I would like to ask
a few quick personal questions mostly directly towards the
students…
KD: How much time on a yearly basis do you spend in court
arguing in front of a judge?
RUSSO: Next to none. I am basically the senior partner of this
firm. If this were a civil firm, the city attorney’s office would be
the fifth biggest firm in the East Bay. So no, I’m the senior
partner. I only go to court on major settlement conferences.
When there’s a deal to be done, I’m brought in. That is maybe
three or four times since I have been city attorney on cases
worth tens of millions of dollars. Other than the high value
arbitration or high value civil rights case where there is a federal
magistrate involved, I don’t go to court anymore, others do that
for me.
KD: In twenty years of practice, what is the highest judicial body
you have practiced in front of?
RUSSO: For me the highest body I have practiced in front of is
the trial court. Although I am going to be in front of, sometime
this year I’ll be in front of the California Supreme Court on the
Predatory Lending Law that we passed here in Oakland and is
being challenged by some financial interests. You have nailed
something I see as a bit a gap here in my resume. I was
thinking that I needed to get in front of the Supreme Court. And
this is a case that is going in front of the Supreme Court. This is
a case that I care about a lot and know pretty well. I will
probably be one of the people arguing the case.
KD: After twenty years of practicing law, are you nervous to
argue in front of the Supreme Court?
RUSSO: It is going to be a thrill. Part of the reason I want to do
this is for the fun. Going up the chain, it is usually appellate
attorneys who do it. I was a litigator. So most of my work was
law and motion work, in courtrooms, trials, arbitrations and
depositions, probably did 400 or 500 depositions in my career,
deposition man. The nuts and bolts. The gritty foundation of
lawsuits is what I did. It helps now for when my lawyers come
in and tell me about where they are, I really can get into the
guts of the case with them if I want to. And that is to bring
some value to bear. Being an appellate attorney is a completely
different animal than being a trial attorney. They rarely cross
over.
KD: I ate at Max’s Opera Café the other day and wanted to
know if you ever eat your sandwich (Max’s offers the John Russo
City Attorney Sandwich as part of their menu)?
RUSSO: No, I don’t order my own sandwich. I usually order
something that’s meat and salad. Nothing with bread or
potatoes, kind of a modified Atkins.
KD: Looked down while ordering lunch and saw your name in
front of a sandwich.
RUSSO: Yeah, it’s pretty funny.
KD: Are you excited about Stephon Marbury joining the Knicks?
RUSSO: Yes, very excited about Marbury joining the Knicks. I am
more excited with Isiah [Thomas] becoming the chief guy over
there instead of [Scott] Layden. It has been four and a half
years lost for that franchise. At that time we have Sprewell and
Houston and we are going to offload Patrick Ewing. Query:
Why would you want to offload Patrick Ewing even though he
wasn’t what he was? Fine. Okay, so you offload Patrick Ewing,
so what do we need, oh I guess we need another swingman.
So lets bring in Glen Rice. We don’t have enough room for
Houston and Sprewell, so lets bring in Rice. Why? And then
they offload Rice and pick up Shandon Anderson, and that’s
another swingman. What is it with the swingman business
here? For a while it felt like Don Nelson was running the
franchise. Everybody was a tweener.
KD: That’s the Warriors. Everyone is a tweener for the past four
years.
RUSSO: Yeah, everyone’s a tweener. I don’t understand what
the theory was, what the Knicks were trying to achieve. I am
still not sure what they are trying to achieve. But lets face it, to
go from Howard Eisley and Charlie Ward to Marbury and Penny
Hardaway is a dramatic upgrade in the backcourt. Yeah,
Mcdyess if healthy is a good player. Is he ever going to be
healthy again? What did you lose for Mcdyess, you lost Camby,
same problem so nothing lost there. Maybe they will be in a
position if they can upgrade their frontcourt a little more. They
don’t have a championship frontcourt right now. They are one
or two pieces away from being a really good team, maybe one
piece away. That’s a big change. I like the idea of trading a
Ward and Eisley for Marbury much better than trading Sprewell
for freaking Keith Van Horn. Its’ like Keith Van Horn has all over
his face its “I’m the second coming of Danny Ferry. I am never
going to be better than Danny Ferry as a pro.” Why you would
want to get Keith Van Horn, I can’t understand for the life of
me.
KD: For the past few months I have been working on a research
paper looking into the links between crime in the NBA and
underclassmen entering the NBA. (At this point, I handed Russo
a copy of Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant’s and Jason Kidd’s mug
shots from their various arrests). As far as rates go, American
born underclassmen drafted in the first round get arrested at
nearly a 50% rate, as opposed college graduates who are
arrested at approximately 12% rate. Do you think that the NBA
should prohibit underclassmen from entering the NBA?
RUSSO: Yes, absolutely.
KD: In a job search no one would hire me without a Bachelor’s
degree, should it be same in professional sports?
RUSSO: It is not because it is better for professional sports.
Professional sports has become such a huge enterprise that I
believe we have bastardized the higher education system, in the
service of being farm teams for these professional leagues,
specifically the NFL and NBA. I think it should be very simple.
You don’t have to finish four years; you need to have a degree.
If you don’t have a degree, you are not playing in the NFL. If
you don’t have a degree, you are not playing in the NBA. Not to
protect the NFL or the NBA or their reputations. Hell with them,
they’re businesses and they’re going to do what they need to
do. It is there to protect the higher education system. Cause a
lot of resources are being devoted to sports in higher
education. If those resources are to work, to really redeem the
promise that big time college sports bring money and attention
to higher education and that is good for higher education, great
-- then lets protect higher education sports by making it that the
players who are there are there for several years. Lets protect
higher educations investment in their players and call it what it
is, it is an investment in the players. Lets pay the players.
KD: So you would support a law that would pay college athletes?
RUSSO: I think it is clear that the institutions are making a
boatload of money off these kids. And to say that “oh my god,
he accepted a Chevy Cavalier,” is hypocrisy. Just pay them. You
pay the guys who clean the dishes in the cafeteria. These are
the guys who put the fannies in the seats. Just pay them
something.
KD: Would you support college athletes getting a percentage of
their uniform sales?
RUSSO: I have no clue how you would do it. I just think they
should get paid something reasonable. It doesn’t have to be
market, just something reasonable. They should be given every
opportunity, both incentives and disincentives to get their
degrees. That way the younger kids coming up in junior high
and high school know that there is no way to get to the NBA
without getting a bachelors degree. So I’ve got to start focusing
on getting good grades in high school so I can get into school
and get the bachelor’s degree. Then you police the hell out of it
to make sure that they don’t degrade the value of the bachelor’s
degree.
KD: Does that shut off European Players from coming over here?
RUSSO: No. They have to get a bachelor’s degree or the
equivalent of. This is not for the NBA. It is for all the kids who
have these dreams that the odds are against them. They
should be able to pursue those dreams. But they shouldn’t be
at 12 or 13 years old making decisions based upon some one in
a million shot that forces them to spend their time in such a way
that 999,999 outcomes damages their dreams.
I enjoyed meeting John Russo and found him to be a very
engaging person who truly cares about the city of Oakland. In
his eyes, in his demeanor and in his words, it is clear that Russo
loves this city unconditionally and will do whatever is in his
power to help the city of Oakland. I have often heard politicians
and public official make claims of their love for city, state and
country. Yet often, these very politicians lean heavy on the
quotes and light on the sentiment. For Russo, his sentiment is
honest and heartfelt and I believe that the city of Oakland will
remain in good hands so long as Russo is a part of it.
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