Oakland Coliseum executive resigns amid controversy

OAKLAND — The executive director and CEO of the public agency overseeing the Coliseum and Oracle Arena resigned Friday, amid questions over a stadium naming rights deal worth $3 million.

Scott McKibben, who has led the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority since 2015, stepped down following a closed-session meeting of the authority board. The San Francisco Chronicle on Friday cited anonymous sources who said there was a possible conflict of interest involved in the deal to rename the stadium the RingCentral Coliseum.

The issue was over a potential commission of $50,000 from the $1 million-a-year naming deal, the sources told the Chronicle.

Because the authority is a public agency — its board is comprised of Oakland council members and Alameda County supervisors — employees such as McKibben are subject to conflict of interest rules enforced by the Fair Political Practices Commission, a state political watchdog agency.

According to the Chronicle, McKibben denied receiving any fee but also believed he was exempt from FPPC rules because he acted as a private contractor while negotiating the contract.

McKibben declined to talk to this news organization on Saturday, saying, “After further advisement by an attorney I am not making any further comments at this time.” His attorney could not be reached because McKibben would not identify his legal counsel.

McKibben’s sudden departure came after a month of silence over multiple closed-session meetings. The meeting agendas described the discussion as “Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal Release.”

Before a July 11 meeting on the topic, McKibben said, “I really don’t know,” when asked if he was the subject of the discussion. Asked later if he attended the closed meeting, which he typically does, McKibben said it was a personnel matter and he had no comment. In a text message, he called the matter a “personnel issue that requires some background research.”

“It’s no show stopper,” he wrote.

Multiple Coliseum authority board members did not return calls for comment. In 2017, the authority board voted to extend McKibben’s contract through 2021. McKibben nearly left after receiving an offer to oversee the Levi’s Stadium Authority, but stayed after the board approved the three-year contract that increased his salary by $50,000 a year to $300,000. McKibben was tasked with guiding the Coliseum through a major transition, with the Warriors and Raiders leaving Oakland and the A’s planning to build at Howard Terminal.

At the time of the contract extension, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley said: “Scott is an enormous asset to our organization and the public we represent.  He is the best leader to help steer us through the next three years.”