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Oakland Mayor Schaaf Takes Oath Of Office For Second Term

OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was sworn in to serve her second term as the city's mayor at City Hall, on Monday.

"We are ready to make even more dramatic changes over these next four years," she said in a speech to a crowd of supporters.

Schaaf named "holistic" public safety, jobs, housing, infrastructure and a trustworthy government as her top priorities.

The mayor highlighted Oakland's lowest recorded numbers of homicides in the last four years.

Outside Council Chambers, mothers held up pictures of their deceased sons lost to gun violence. They say the numbers aren't an indication of progress to them.

"For us mothers our homicides have not been solved," Annette Miller said.

Councilmember Lynette McElhaney echoed their concerns. She's pushing the administration to advance an organization called the Department of Violence Prevention created in 2017.

"Shootings are up, as are aggravated assaults. We've got folks walking off BART being beaten. I know my district's stats were up last year," said McElhaney.

Where the Mayor did score points and thunderous applause was her language near the end of her speech about protecting the immigrant community.

"If you come to destroy the lives of our immigrants living in peace we will resist you, if you come to spread fear and division we will stand up to you," Schaaf said.

She took a swipe at President Donald Trump, with whom she has quarreled over immigration and other issues.

"Despite the horrible example we find in our current president, I truly believe in the nobility of public service," she said.

Schaaf faced nine challengers in the Nov. 6 election. She won 56 percent of the vote.

Also sworn in Monday were three new City Council members: Nikki Fortunato Bas in District 2, which includes the Lake Merritt and Chinatown neighborhoods, Sheng Thao in District 4 and Loren Taylor in District 6 in East Oakland, who defeated 16-year incumbent Desley Brooks.

Bas is the first Filipina woman to be elected to the City Council.

Newly elected school board members Aimee Eng, Gary Yee and Shanthi Gonzales were also sworn in.

Schaaf apologized for not being able to stay for the duration of the gathering. She left right after her speech to attend the inaugural events in Sacramento for newly-elected Governor Gavin Newsom.

© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

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