Bryan Parker Joins Mayoral Race
Aug 9, 2013
Posted in Community, Elections & Voting Rights
By Ken A. Epstein
Bryan Parker, a lawyer and port commissioner, has joined the growing field of candidates who are already running for or thinking about running for mayor of Oakland next year.
Mayor Jean Quan has already launched her reelection efforts, as has Joe Tuman, university professor and local television political analyst. District 7 Councilmember Larry Reid, who has served on the council since 1997, is considering entering the race.
Seeking to establish himself early as a serious contender, Parker announced recently that his campaign has already raised $98,975, about one-third more than the $66,458 raised by Quan.
Parker, 44, has served until recently as the head of the Oakland Workforce Investment Board (WIB) and is currently a member of the Port of Oakland Commission.
Oakland’s WIB has been plagued by allegations of failure to spend money for job programs in a timely way and allocating funding for youth jobs that ignored the needs of West Oakland and Spanish-speaking young people in Central East Oakland.
In an interview with the Post, he explained why he considers his two-and-a-half year tenure on the WIB a success.
“It was a very fractured board when I got there. There was lots of infighting, not good processes, things were not getting done on time,” he said. “I brought less rancor to the board – I brought us together around mission and value.”
Born in Chicago and raised in Stockton, Parker graduated from UC Berkeley and earned a law degree from New York University. He is licensed to practice law in New York and California.
He lives in North Oakland, District 1. He is unmarried and has no children.
Until recently, he was general manager of internal growth at Davita, a company that provides kidney dialysis services. “I ran a $700 million business for them,” Parker said.
Though he still does some healthcare consulting, Parker left the company in April in order to devote his time to the campaign.
A member of Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland, Social, he belongs to Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and is on the board of Holy Names University in Oakland.