Dawn of a brand-new day for Oakland City Council

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s arrival, Jean Quan’s departure and the swearing-in of two first-time City Council members will greatly change the dynamics and politics of Oakland City Hall.

It’s already begun.

Lynette Gibson-McElhaney was elected council president. She is a one-term council member who leapfrogged three council veterans with more seniority to take the leadership role. Gibson-McElhaney was elected by a 6-1 vote, with one abstention.

The council’s longest-serving members, Larry Reid, Rebecca Kaplan and Desley Brooks, were not tapped for the position.

Gibson-McElhaney’s election is an outward expression of the council majority’s desire to ditch the political theater and focus on the enormous policy, financing and growth challenges now facing the city.

In the past, some Oakland city leaders have drummed up red-herring political objections to halt or kill sound policy initiatives. And when those sideshows begin, the public policy debates end.

Gibson-McElhaney is no political whiz, but she is the undisputed peacemaker on the council, a nonconfrontational consensus-builder whose demeanor represents neutral ground. Her centrist role on the council is her strength, and she will play a pivotal role on the council because of it.

She credited Reid with helping her find her place in Oakland’s political structure.

“This is the way new succession works,” Gibson-McElhaney said. “It’s a healthy transition.”

Her council colleague Dan Kalb has carved out his own niche as a first-rate legislator who lobbied in Sacramento to pass legislation to include kill-switch features to discourage cell phone theft. The change was a necessity in Oakland, where 84 percent of all robberies in the first five months of 2014 included the theft of a cell phone. Kalb also authored ballot measure CC, approved by voters in November, to provide dedicated funding and give much-needed authority to Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission.

Noel Gallo is a hard-working councilman who doesn’t possess all the political skills but whose spirit and willingness to put his shoulder to the wheel inspires communities and volunteerism.

The council’s newest members, Abel Guillen in District Two and Anne Campbell-Washington in District Four, are both more policy wonks than career politicians — and should improve the council if they can remain independent of the unions that contributed heavily to their campaigns.

Guillen, the former board president of the Peralta Community College District, is a champion of public education, and his expertise in municipal financing will help the budget process and perhaps even the efforts to aid the improvement of the city’s public school system.

Campbell-Washington has served extensively in Oakland government. She was an assistant city administrator in the administration of former Mayor Ron Dellums. She was Quan’s chief of staff and was elected to the Oakland school board last year.

Both she and Guillen are graduates of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

The question that remains is where the city’s longest-serving incumbents fit in with the new configuration.

After Kaplan lost a mayor’s race she was favored to win, it’s unclear what role she will take among her colleagues, and her ability to lead, at this point is in question.

Other than repeatedly considering retirement and lobbying for his daughter to succeed him, Reid’s position as the dean of the council seems to be his for as long as he wants it.

Finally, there is Desley Brooks, a dissenting voice on the council for a decade. Historically, she has struggled to find support from her colleagues and her often idiosyncratic opinions and tactics have left her politically isolated.

Only time will tell how the newly minted Oakland City Council will perform, but whatever happens, the old pecking order has been turned on its head.

Chip Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns run Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: chjohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @chjohnson