Recall Carroll Fife

Demanding accountability for Oakland District 3. Public records show Carroll Fife’s pattern of self-dealing and failed leadership. Join the recall effort!

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

The People of Oakland vs. Carroll Fife and her Husband.

It’s time to recall her from the Oakland City Council.

Public records, state investigations, and her own voting record reveal a consistent pattern of SELF-DEALING, family enrichment, and policies that have damaged District 3. Here’s the full picture:

1. The $2.1 Million Self-Dealing Scandal

During her 2020 campaign, Fife was listed as President of Affect Real Change when her husband’s group submitted a bid for a massive security contract at Peralta Colleges. She resigned just 10 days before the board approved the $2,100,000 deal. One official contact number on the documents rang her personal cell phone. The organization had no required state security license and was later fined $5,000. The contract collapsed in embarrassment.

2. Family Enrichment at Public Expense

After she took office, her family-controlled non-profit saw revenue explode from roughly $100,000 to over $3,100,000 in a single year. In 2022 alone her husband received $147,000, her mother received $84,791, and a close associate received $105,361. The same non-profit received $400,000 from an anti-police group she has repeatedly supported with city policy.

3. She Helped Defund the Police

Fife was a primary architect of the 2021 budget move that stripped $17,400,000 from the Oakland Police Department. Mayor Schaaf warned this would cost 50 officers and delay emergency response times. She then cast the lone dissenting vote against $2,250,000 for automated license plate readers — tools proven to recover stolen vehicles and catch violent offenders. District 3 has suffered the consequences.

4. Radical Rejection of Property Rights

Through the Moms 4 Housing operation she orchestrated, Fife publicly defended the ILLEGAL occupation of private property and told the press “there’s nothing more American than taking over a property.” She framed private ownership as colonialism and systemic violence. This is not mainstream Oakland.

5. Loyalty to Recalled Failures

Fife was one of the loudest defenders of Mayor Sheng Thao and DA Pamela Price — both removed from office by decisive voter recalls in 2024. She dismissed the recalls as attacks by billionaires rather than legitimate public frustration with crime and dysfunction. She remains the highest-profile survivor of that FAILED coalition.

6. Pattern of Steering Contracts to Allies

A formal complaint to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission alleged she interfered in city operations and attempted to steer lucrative trash-capture contracts to her domestic partner. While dismissed on narrow jurisdictional grounds, the pattern mirrors the earlier Peralta scandal.

[Edward Escobar @_EdwardEscobar]

@RecallFife “The same woman who was one of the loudest voices for defunding the Oakland Police Department somehow funneled hundreds of thousands into “improving police relations” on federal tax forms.” Wtf 😂

[💥Susan Dyer Reynolds🗞️ @SusanDReynolds]

Fife needs to go

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE: https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

Follow if you’re done watching politicians use nonprofits as personal ATMs the second they win power. Repost this.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife’s nonprofit exploded the second she won office.

Affect Real Change (ARC) — the 501(c)(3) she ran as President — went from roughly $100,000 in annual revenue before her 2020 election to $3,110,000 in 2021. That’s a 30x jump in one year, right as she took her seat on the Oakland City Council!

Net assets ballooned to nearly $3,000,000. Expenses hit $2,820,000. This wasn’t organic growth. The timing lines up too perfectly with her new political power.

Even worse, the books are a mess.

Over $2,480,000 in spending was buried under vague, catch-all descriptions with almost no detail. Nearly $1,900,00 was listed as “Provide food, PPE, support, uplifting festivals and events for the community during the pandemic” — no vendor breakdowns, no receipts, just a giant slush fund.

Then there’s the $336,951 line item for “Worked with other community organizations to improve the relationship between the police and community members.”

The same woman who was one of the loudest voices for defunding the Oakland Police Department somehow funneled hundreds of thousands into “improving police relations” on federal tax forms. That money didn’t go to community policing. It went straight into the same anti-police activist ecosystem she was actively starving of public funds.

This is what happens when an activist gets elected. Her nonprofit didn’t grow because it suddenly became more effective. It grew because her new title became a magnet for progressive money that would have been blocked by normal campaign finance rules.

She turned public office into a fundraising machine for her network.

[OaklandPowerGrab.com @OakPowerGrab]

The full breakdown — the exact provisions, the vote breakdown, the suppressed alternative, the pay math, and the corruption risks — is at

https://t.co/1bHMm0hwAI

Read it. Share it. This is the clearest self-dealing ballot measure Oakland has seen in decades. They’re not even hiding it anymore.

If you’re tired of being governed by people who treat your neighborhoods as afterthoughts and your tax dollars as their personal compensation fund, this is the line.

The measure goes down in November or Oakland loses what little local representation it still has.

[OaklandPowerGrab.com @OakPowerGrab]

On June 16, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee used her tie-breaking vote to force a ballot measure onto November’s ballot that does two things at once:

It gives her unilateral veto power over the budget and legislation.

And it quietly bribes City Councilmembers with massive pay raises in exchange for their support.

This wasn’t reform. It was a transaction.

The measure requires councilmembers to work full-time and bans outside employment. Then it hands the Public Ethics Commission the power to benchmark their salaries against “comparable” full-time cities like Los Angeles — where council pay already exceeds $245,000. That’s a potential 125% raise from the current ~$114k. Total compensation with benefits could push past $300k.

They wrote the rules so the only way councilmembers get the big paycheck is if they vote to hand the Mayor line-item veto power and turn themselves into a reactive oversight body with no real budget authority. If she keeps just three loyal votes on the council, she becomes a functional dictator over spending in every neighborhood.

This is the deal.

Her hand-picked Charter Reform Working Group — the same one that suppressed the cleaner, less corrupt Council-Manager alternative — delivered exactly what she wanted. Four councilmembers had the courage to vote against putting it on the ballot. She overrode them with her tie-breaker to ram through her own power expansion.

While Oakland voters were rejecting her $192 parcel tax Measure E in June because they no longer trust City Hall with money, she was engineering a permanent pay hike for politicians and a structural power grab that lets one person defund district projects at will.

This isn’t about fixing government. It’s about consolidating it.

Barbara Lee has spent months talking about “accountability.” What she actually delivered is a system where the Mayor writes the budget, vetoes legislation, and controls the administrative apparatus — while the people who are supposed to check her power get financially incentivized to look the other way.

The same Mayor whose private fundraising from contractors and interests doing business with the city already raises conflict questions now wants even more unchecked authority over those same contracts and budgets.

Oakland doesn’t have a structure problem. It has a leadership and trust problem. Voters just proved they won’t keep writing blank checks for failing services. So instead of fixing the services, City Hall rewrote the rules to give itself more power and more money.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE: https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

Follow if you’re done watching politicians use nonprofits as personal ATMs the second they win power. Repost this.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife’s nonprofit exploded the second she won office.

Affect Real Change (ARC) — the 501(c)(3) she ran as President — went from roughly $100,000 in annual revenue before her 2020 election to $3,110,000 in 2021. That’s a 30x jump in one year, right as she took her seat on the Oakland City Council!

Net assets ballooned to nearly $3,000,000. Expenses hit $2,820,000. This wasn’t organic growth. The timing lines up too perfectly with her new political power.

Even worse, the books are a mess.

Over $2,480,000 in spending was buried under vague, catch-all descriptions with almost no detail. Nearly $1,900,00 was listed as “Provide food, PPE, support, uplifting festivals and events for the community during the pandemic” — no vendor breakdowns, no receipts, just a giant slush fund.

Then there’s the $336,951 line item for “Worked with other community organizations to improve the relationship between the police and community members.”

The same woman who was one of the loudest voices for defunding the Oakland Police Department somehow funneled hundreds of thousands into “improving police relations” on federal tax forms. That money didn’t go to community policing. It went straight into the same anti-police activist ecosystem she was actively starving of public funds.

This is what happens when an activist gets elected. Her nonprofit didn’t grow because it suddenly became more effective. It grew because her new title became a magnet for progressive money that would have been blocked by normal campaign finance rules.

She turned public office into a fundraising machine for her network.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife got caught trying to steer ANOTHER big city contract to her husband’s network.

In early 2024, she pushed lucrative “Trash Capture Projects” (including Mandela Parkway and Cary Avenue) through the Rules & Legislation Committee in a way that looked designed to bypass normal competitive bidding. The contracts were approved by the full Council just weeks later.

A formal complaint filed with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission (PEC Case #24-03) alleged she was steering these taxpayer-funded deals to benefit her domestic partner, Tur-Ha Ak.

The same complaint accused her of interfering with city staff on encampment issues and having private security tied to her involved in a violent altercation at a public event.

This is the exact same pattern as the $2,100,000 Peralta scandal.

Back then, her husband’s group got a massive security contract pushed through while she was still listed as President of the nonprofit. It collapsed after they got caught with no license.

Now she’s accused of doing the same thing again — using her position on the Rules Committee to fast-track contracts for people connected to her.

The PEC eventually dismissed the complaint on technical grounds. That’s not the same as clearing her. It just shows how hard it is to hold politicians accountable when they operate in these gray areas.

Fife has a documented habit of using City Hall to direct public money toward her inner circle. First it was security contracts. Then it was trash capture projects. The names change. The pattern doesn’t.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife got caught trying to steer ANOTHER big city contract to her husband’s network.

In early 2024, she pushed lucrative “Trash Capture Projects” (including Mandela Parkway and Cary Avenue) through the Rules & Legislation Committee in a way that looked designed to bypass normal competitive bidding. The contracts were approved by the full Council just weeks later.

A formal complaint filed with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission (PEC Case #24-03) alleged she was steering these taxpayer-funded deals to benefit her domestic partner, Tur-Ha Ak.

The same complaint accused her of interfering with city staff on encampment issues and having private security tied to her involved in a violent altercation at a public event.

This is the exact same pattern as the $2,100,000 Peralta scandal.

Back then, her husband’s group got a massive security contract pushed through while she was still listed as President of the nonprofit. It collapsed after they got caught with no license.

Now she’s accused of doing the same thing again — using her position on the Rules Committee to fast-track contracts for people connected to her.

The PEC eventually dismissed the complaint on technical grounds. That’s not the same as clearing her. It just shows how hard it is to hold politicians accountable when they operate in these gray areas.

Fife has a documented habit of using City Hall to direct public money toward her inner circle. First it was security contracts. Then it was trash capture projects. The names change. The pattern doesn’t.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition and demand accountability at https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife turned her non-profit into a family cash machine while she defunded the police.

Affect Real Change (ARC) was a tiny Louisiana shell with almost no revenue before her election. Right after she took office, it exploded to $3.1 MILLION in 1 year. That’s a 30x jump the exact moment she gained power to steer city contracts and budgets.

Her husband Earl Harper (aka Tur-Ha Ak) pulled $147,000. His mother Rosie Harper took $84,000. Close associate Che-Malik Bowe grabbed $105,000. All from the same non-profit she used to run and still controls through her family.

She pushes “defund the police” and diverts public safety money to groups like the Anti Police-Terror Project. Those groups then funnel hundreds of thousands straight back into ARC. It’s a closed loop of political money laundering dressed up as community work.

Even worse, ARC is still not registered with the California Attorney General despite operating heavily in Oakland and soliciting city grants. They’re sitting on an active “Enforcement Action Pending” status while hiding behind a Louisiana address to dodge real oversight.

She spent nearly $2.5 MILLION on vague line items like “food, PPE, support, uplifting festivals” with ZERO vendor breakdowns. Another $336,000 went to “improve the relationship between the police and community” while she was actively trying to dismantle the police.

This is grift. This is nepotism. This is betrayal of the very communities she claims to serve.

Carroll Fife must go.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition and demand accountability at https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife turned her non-profit into a family cash machine while she defunded the police.

Affect Real Change (ARC) was a tiny Louisiana shell with almost no revenue before her election. Right after she took office, it exploded to $3.1 MILLION in 1 year. That’s a 30x jump the exact moment she gained power to steer city contracts and budgets.

Her husband Earl Harper (aka Tur-Ha Ak) pulled $147,000. His mother Rosie Harper took $84,000. Close associate Che-Malik Bowe grabbed $105,000. All from the same non-profit she used to run and still controls through her family.

She pushes “defund the police” and diverts public safety money to groups like the Anti Police-Terror Project. Those groups then funnel hundreds of thousands straight back into ARC. It’s a closed loop of political money laundering dressed up as community work.

Even worse, ARC is still not registered with the California Attorney General despite operating heavily in Oakland and soliciting city grants. They’re sitting on an active “Enforcement Action Pending” status while hiding behind a Louisiana address to dodge real oversight.

She spent nearly $2.5 MILLION on vague line items like “food, PPE, support, uplifting festivals” with ZERO vendor breakdowns. Another $336,000 went to “improve the relationship between the police and community” while she was actively trying to dismantle the police.

This is grift. This is nepotism. This is betrayal of the very communities she claims to serve.

Carroll Fife must go.

[Sam Singer @samsinger]

Oakland Councilwoman Carroll Fife and her husband/bodyguard Earl Harper (aka “Turah-Ak”) are among the most successful grifters in Oakland history. Some day it will catch up to them. The nonprofits she uses to abuse working class people will be fully exposed.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE: https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife didn’t just support Moms 4 Housing. She orchestrated it as calculated political theater.

In late 2019, under her direction, activists illegally occupied a vacant house on Magnolia Street in West Oakland. The target was deliberately chosen — a corporate-owned property from Wedgewood — to create a perfect David vs. Goliath media story.

The goal wasn’t just housing. It was to force a dramatic confrontation with law enforcement, generate national sympathy, and frame the enforcement of basic property rights as “systemic state violence.”

It worked. The national spectacle gave her the momentum to launch her City Council campaign.

But her words during the occupation revealed the real ideology:

She said there’s “nothing more American than taking over a property and land then our commandeering of that space.”

She argued the U.S. was founded by squatters and claimed private property ownership is fundamentally illegitimate — an extension of colonialism, white supremacy, and slavery.

She said advocates would fight evictions “by any means necessary.”
This isn’t about helping the homeless. This is a direct attack on the idea that regular people have a right to own property without it being “commandeered.”

While her base cheered, moderate homeowners, small business owners, and anyone who believes in basic property rights got the message loud and clear: Fife sees them as the enemy.

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Sign the petition to RECALL CARROLL FIFE: https://t.co/IQJSYWKl1c

[Recall Carroll Fife @RecallFife]

Carroll Fife didn’t just support Moms 4 Housing. She orchestrated it as calculated political theater.

In late 2019, under her direction, activists illegally occupied a vacant house on Magnolia Street in West Oakland. The target was deliberately chosen — a corporate-owned property from Wedgewood — to create a perfect David vs. Goliath media story.

The goal wasn’t just housing. It was to force a dramatic confrontation with law enforcement, generate national sympathy, and frame the enforcement of basic property rights as “systemic state violence.”

It worked. The national spectacle gave her the momentum to launch her City Council campaign.

But her words during the occupation revealed the real ideology:

She said there’s “nothing more American than taking over a property and land then our commandeering of that space.”

She argued the U.S. was founded by squatters and claimed private property ownership is fundamentally illegitimate — an extension of colonialism, white supremacy, and slavery.

She said advocates would fight evictions “by any means necessary.”
This isn’t about helping the homeless. This is a direct attack on the idea that regular people have a right to own property without it being “commandeered.”

While her base cheered, moderate homeowners, small business owners, and anyone who believes in basic property rights got the message loud and clear: Fife sees them as the enemy.