Some Oakland City Council members remain more concerned about their personal political agendas than the long-term solvency of the city.

That must change. Voters should support Peggy Moore and Viola Gonzales over incumbents who have ignored the city’s humongous debt.

However, we recommend re-election of Dan Kalb, Larry Reid and, reluctantly, Lynette Gibson McElhaney because their opponents would be worse.

Related Articles East Bay Times election picks The city’s financial problems are serious. The last long-range forecast projects annual deficits of tens of millions of dollars, $1.5 billion of unmet capital needs and more than $2.1 billion of retirement debt.

To cover part of the shortfall, Mayor Libby Schaaf and the council are seeking voter approval for a $600 million bond program, Measure KK on the November ballot. It’s necessary.

But it raises taxes for property owners already paying some of the East Bay’s highest, including a costly hidden tax for pension debt. Measure KK reaches the limit of how much they should be asked to pay.

We were especially impressed by Gonzales, who had the courage to say, “You have to live within your means. You have to decide what kind of government you can afford.”

In many cities, that’s a given. In Oakland, it’s a novel concept. The current mindset must change.

Peggy Moore for the at-large seat: Moore is former California political director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and a senior adviser to Schaaf.

She is smart, willing to make tough decisions and concerned enough about Oakland’s future that she could make a difference on city finances once she strengthens her understanding of the details.

This five-way race could be decided through rank-choice voting. Our second pick is Bruce Quan, an Oakland native, Berkeley Law School graduate and retired attorney who worked in the public and private sectors and taught at UC Hastings College of Law.

He brings a history of social activism and civil rights advocacy combined with a healthy frustration with city leaders’ failure to address Oakland’s long-term debt.

Incumbent Rebecca Kaplan, whom we’ve previously endorsed, falls to our third pick. She understands the city’s budget challenges but she continues to put her political ambitions first. We had hoped for more.

Dan Kalb for District 1: The hard-working incumbent councilman understands the city’s financial challenges, although he has only timidly addressed them. His opponent, probate attorney Kevin Corbett, was surprisingly uninformed about city finances.

Lynette Gibson McElhaney for District 3: The incumbent and somewhat ethically challenged councilwoman only sort of recognizes there are financial challenges ahead. Her opponent, community activist Noni Session, doesn’t at all.

In our interview, Session launched a string of unsubstantiated allegations about Gibson McElhaney. That made what might have been a closer call an easy decision.

Viola Gonzales for District 5: Gonzales, a former Oakland school trustee and planning commissioner, has an MBA from Harvard and mixes social consciousness with a rational financial sense most of the candidates lack.

In contrast, incumbent Noel Gallo, after nearly a full four-year term on the council, remains unacceptably fuzzy about key city-finance details.

Larry Reid for District 7: Reid is seeking his sixth council term. While he insists, wrongly, that the city is in good financial shape, he also recognizes that there is more fiscal work to be done.

Nehanda Imara gets our second-place rank-choice vote even though she has no working knowledge of city finances. That’s only because the third candidate, Marcie Hodge, abused her district credit card when she was a Peralta Community College trustee; we certainly wouldn’t trust her with Oakland’s budget.