Oakland chief ethics officer resigns

( KRON ) — Oakland’s Chief Ethics Officer Simon Rusell resigned, the city’s Public Ethics Commission confirmed to KRON4.

Russell told Oaklandside that his resignation was due in part to the city refusing to give his team more resources for staffing, even though he warned them about a staffing crisis. The ethics commission said that is accurate.

“I can only conclude that this failure is largely deliberate, even despite (or perhaps because of) the considerable public interest in our cases that have been brought partially to light,” Russell wrote to Oaklandside.

Russell joined the public ethics commission in 2016 after working with the Enforcement Division of the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), according to his bio on the city’s website.

According to Oaklandside, the ethics commission has investigated city officials for violations including conflict of interest and bribery.

The ethics commission most recently investigated the group attempting to recall Mayor Sheng Thao.

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