OAKLAND — As the story goes, former Mayor Jerry Brown had a plaque on his desk during his first months in Oakland’s top political office that directed anyone stopping by to instead speak to the city manager, who handled the local government’s daily operations.

The anecdote dovetails with one of Brown’s most important moves in his eight-year mayoral tenure : persuading voters in 1998 to change Oakland’s laws so that the mayor could skip City Council meetings and run the government separately.

The amendment to the city charter also gave Brown, along with future mayors, the ability to hire and fire City Hall’s top official, which today is the city administrator.

Nearly three decades later, Mayor Barbara Lee — a political figure with similar name recognition — has begun a shortened term i

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