In Memorial: Sanjiv Handa

Sanjiv Handa from his Emeryville days

We mourn the passing of Oakland city council antagonist and City Hall journalist muckraker Sanjiv Handa, who died unexpectedly last week after a short illness.
The bane of all elected officials, Mr Handa first cut his disparaging maligning teeth here in Emeryville, where he lived and where he learned to take on City Hall.  Mr Handa published a newspaper on the political doings in Emeryville called the 'Five Minute Report'.  He was a constant thorn in the side of council member Nora Davis and City Hall staff.
Emeryville old timers will remember the relief expressed publicly by Ms Davis when Mr Handa set off for Oakland in 1991.
We salute Mr Sanjiv Handa, a man who never accepted authority figures as having any true authority.  We need more like him to keep government honest.

Re-printed from the San Jose Mercury News:

Sanjiv Handa was an original Tammerlin Drummond Oakland Tribune Columnist Posted: 12/28/2011 05:41:08 PM PST Updated: 12/28/2011 11:43:03 PM PST In most cities, there is at least one citizen watchdog who makes it his  mission to keep tabs on City Hall. Yet one would be hard-pressed to find anyone as obsessive and  relentless about holding public officials' feet to the fire as Sanjiv Handa,  sole proprietor of the East Bay News Service. For two decades, Handa has been an ever-present fixture on the Oakland  political scene. The balding 55-year-old with a fondness for pullover  sweaters has attended just about every City Council and committee  meeting. His M.O. -- which drove many people who attended public  meetings to distraction -- was to hold forth during the open forum for  public comments. Without fail, Handa, who considered himself a  journalist, would give his two cents on just about every item. He  always used the maximum time allotment -- often not to address  any particular agenda item but to launch into long diatribes against  the City Council. Handa raged against public officials for everything from illegally parking to engaging in pay-to-play politics to violating the Brown Act, the state's open-meetings law. At the Dec. 20 council meeting, Handa was not his usual combative  self. He clearly was not well. Instead of sauntering up to the podium,  he stayed seated. It would be his last council meeting. On Tuesday, Handa was found dead in a house near Piedmont  Avenue. Police have not determined the cause of death and say that an  autopsy is planned. Handa's unexpected passing was a shock to those who follow Oakland politics. It is hard to imagine an Oakland City Council meeting without  him. There is a tendency when people die to canonize them. Within hours of reports of Handa's death, the accolades began  pouring in. Former Oakland City Attorney John Russo hailed  Handa as "transparency's champion in Oakland." One Twitter  user proclaimed that "if anyone deserves to have City Hall  Plaza named after them, it's Sanjiv." Yet to others -- city officials and residents alike -- Handa was  an annoying, grandstanding pest who wasted countless  hours at public meetings with pointless speechifying. So much so that the City Council passed rules restricting  speaker time to stop Handa from droning on and on until  anyone who was not paid to be there fled. I appreciated Handa's encyclopedic knowledge of Oakland  history and his dogged pursuit of public records. I also  recognize that as my colleague, Tribune reporter Cecily Burt,  says, "Sanjiv kept people on their toes." With Handa around, at least officials knew someone was  paying close attention to what was going on at City Hall.  Yet Handa's great shortcoming was that he was incapable  of separating the arcane from what was truly important. When he started to speak, people's eyes would glaze over  under the barrage of minutiae. Council members would walk  off the podium. Many people resented his holding the  chambers hostage, while an equal number appreciated his  efforts to hold city officials accountable. His never-ending  sniping at city officials took away from what he had to say --  which on occasion was of interest to the public. "He was a brilliant, driven guy who had no sense of limits and  no ability to pick battles and that eventually defeated him,"  said Handa's landlord, Chris Peeples, who had filed an  injunction against Handa for not paying rent. Handa may have been a "champion of transparency" but  only when it suited him. When this newspaper filed a public  records lawsuit against the Peralta Community College District,  Handa -- a supporter of then-Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris --  did something journalistically indefensible: He emailed Peralta  with legal arguments to aid the district's defense. Handa would occasionally break some juicy news. But a lot of  times, Handa's information was just plain wrong. Handa's supporters and defenders would probably agree with  the condolence statement released by Mayor Jean Quan: "He spent most of his life at City Hall," Quan said. "There will  never be another Sanjiv Handa." Tammerlin Drummond is a columnist for the Bay Area News  Group. Contact her attdrummond@bayareanewsgorup.com  or follow her at Twitter.com/Tammerlin