Oakland council members may face off

Rebecca Kaplan, candidate for mayor of Oakland, met with the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010. Rebecca Kaplan, candidate for mayor of Oakland, met with the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010. Photo: Ali Thanawalla Photo: Ali Thanawalla Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Oakland council members may face off 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente plans to ditch the Fruitvale district seat he's held for the last 20 years and will instead challenge Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan for her at-large seat in November.

"I'll be making the announcement Thursday," De La Fuente said Tuesday, declining further comment.

Those close to De La Fuente say he started talking a year ago about leaving City Hall altogether and even agreed to back school board member Noel Gallo as his replacement.

They also tell us De La Fuente has been looking to move out of his crime-riddled neighborhood.

Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata thinks his old buddy will have a tough time knocking off Kaplan, the council's lone openly gay member. Perata should know - Kaplan and Jean Quan tag-teamed him in the mayoral election two years ago, giving Quan the win once the ranked-choice votes were counted.

Kaplan is "formidable," Perata said. "Her favorables are probably 4-1."

On the other hand, Perata said, "you would be hard pressed to point to much that she has done other than the marijuana legalization stuff."

Kaplan did not return calls for comment, but her aide Jason Overman said that "regardless of who may or may not run," Kaplan is in the race.

Overload: President Obama's arrival in the Bay Area a day ahead of schedule - along with Republican Mitt Romney's simultaneous fundraising swing - was quite a logistics headache for law enforcement.

San Francisco police were so stretched that, at one point, they had to peel off a portion of Romney's motorcycle escort to help with Obama's even bigger motorcade.

Over in Oakland, the city had to bring in 75 Alameda County sheriff's deputies - at a cost to the city of about $75,000.

Departmental domestic: The San Francisco Sheriff's Department has itself another case of alleged domestic violence involving a politically active higher up.

Sheriff's Lt. Vincent Calvarese, 48, a Castro resident and unsuccessful candidate last month for the Democratic County Central Committee, was arrested late Thursday at Gold's Gym on Market Street for an alleged misdemeanor battery against an unidentified male acquaintance, according to police.

One law enforcement source described the pair as being in a "dating relationship" and said Calvarese had punched the man in a locker room.

The off-duty lieutenant - who was featured in a 2009 documentary about gay culture called "The Butch Factor"- was booked into jail at the Hall of Justice in the wee hours Friday, and freed within 45 minutes after posting $10,000 bail.

Law enforcement officials tell us the complaint against Calvarese has since been amended to include misdemeanor assault and false imprisonment charges. He's due to be arraigned in Superior Court on Wednesday.

It was just three months ago that Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a false imprisonment charge stemming from a New Year's Eve altercation with his wife, Eliana Lopez, prompting Mayor Ed Lee to suspend him and seek his removal.

The Sheriff's Department would say only that a veteran of the force had been stripped of his weapon and placed on paid administrative duty pending the outcome of a criminal case.

"After the judicial process plays out, the sheriff would start the disciplinary process," said sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Fahey.

Calvarese's attorney, Judy Odbert, said Tuesday she hadn't seen the charging documents but that her client's "character is going to be shown to be that of an honest, nonviolent person full of integrity."

In recent years, Calvarese has worked on a number of political campaigns, most recently playing a prominent role in fellow sheriff's Lt. Paul Miyamoto's race against Mirkarimi for sheriff last year, as well as former Supervisor Bevan Dufty's mayoral campaign.

Port push back: Looks like Oakland Mayor Jean Quan will get her five votes after all to put her personal picks on the Port Commission.

A special City Council meeting has been called for Thursday to reconsider an earlier vote that failed to muster the five "yes" votes needed to replace commissioners President Pamela Calloway and Margaret Gordon with Byran Parker and Ces Butner, respectively.

Switching two black men for two black women isn't going over well with council President Larry Reid, who sees it as a move to divide the African American community by making it pick sides.

There are also rumblings that the mayor's Port Commission picks would give her the votes she needs to help developer and City Hall insider Phil Tagami win the full development rights to old Oakland Army Base - a deal the current Port Commission has blocked.

We're told that council members Jane Brunner and Ignacio De La Fuente are prepared to flip their votes in favor of the mayor's picks, partly because Quan has promised to appoint Gordon to the committee overseeing the Army base redevelopment.

Quan said through a spokesman that she was confident the deal will go forward thanks to the "unprecedented joint support of business and labor."