Oakland’s Top Ethics Investigator Is Resigning, Citing a Chronic Lack of Resources

The chief investigator for Oakland’s public watchdog has announced his resignation, citing a “long-term” failure to provide the independent panel with necessary resources even as it probes a number of high-profile ethics allegations.

Simon Russell, who has worked on Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission for eight years, including two as its chief enforcement officer, told commission leaders in a letter last week that he will resign in late October.

His resignation is due to both personal and “structural” circumstances, the primary being a lack of staffing resources that he believes is “largely deliberate,” according to the letter, first obtained by Oaklandside and viewed by KQED.

“For several years, I have worked long hours far beyond what is reported on my timecard, attempting to do almost single-handedly what other agencies employ entire teams of attorneys and investigators to accomplish,” Russell wrote in the letter. “I persisted in this because I genuinely cared about doing whatever I could to combat the serious bribery, campaign finance exploitation, and other corruption that was undermining the great people of Oakland’s democratic rights.”

The PEC’s enforcement department is just two people, and as of its September report, the commission had 140 open complaints, according to executive director Nicolas Heidorn.

“Chief Russell’s service to the Commission and people of Oakland was exceptional,” Heidorn said in an email. “This is a big loss for the Commission and underscores the urgent need for additional enforcement resources for the Commission.”

Russell said in his letter that the city has “continually failed to allocate any meaningful additional resources” to the enforcement division despite his repeated attempts to highlight the understaffing issues.

“I can only conclude that this failure is largely deliberate, even despite (or perhaps because of) the considerable public interest in our cases that have been brought partially to light,” he wrote.

In recent months, the PEC has been involved in multiple high-profile probes, including the investigation into an alleged campaign contribution laundering scheme linked to members of the Duong family, the politically connected owners of California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s curbside recycling provider. Attention to the case was reinvigorated in June after the FBI raided a location associated with California Waste Solutions, along with the homes of the company’s founder, David Duong, and his son, Andy Duong, as well as Mayor Sheng Thao.

In a declaration filed in a case the PEC brought against one of the alleged straw donors in 2020, Russell alleged that multiple people told him they had received cash from Andy Duong in exchange for checks to political campaigns.

Together, members of the Duong family and its company have faced accusations that they funneled tens of thousands of dollars through straw donors to various campaigns, including nearly $10,000 to Thao’s 2018 City Council run.

In May, the PEC opened an investigation into Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao, or OUST, the campaign to recall Oakland’s mayor.

Russell filed a complaint alleging that OUST was using a recently formed nonprofit and political action committee, Foundational Oakland Unites, as a pass-through to obscure the source of some donations in violation of campaign finance reporting laws.

Russell’s last day with the PEC will be Oct. 25. The commission aims to hire a new enforcement chief as soon as possible, Heidorn said, adding that the ability to allocate additional funds to the enforcement division lies with the mayor.

In November, Oakland residents will vote on Measure OO, which, if passed, would increase the commission’s staffing requirements to include an additional ethics investigator by July 2026 amid other reforms.